Canada Day is coming up fast

There are only 6 days left before Canada Day on July 1st!  My plan was to get my sesquicentennial quilt finished by then.  Guess what I have been focusing on this week? I am making progress, but I predict some late night hand sewing to get the binding stitched down on Friday night!

Here's what I have done so far.

 

I stitched in the ditch around the large leaf, the sides of the leaf strips, and the border. Next I quilted concentric circles in the background.  If you're curious about how I kept the circle consistent where it ducks under the leaf and where it pops up again, I used the same technique as when I quilted my red and green Sparkling Trail.  I described my method in a post here.

Next I quilted "150" and "1867-2017" in the large leaf. I printed the text out in the font and size I wanted, traced it onto tissue paper, pinned the paper to the quilt, quilted the outline through the paper then tore away the paper.

I'm still not sure about this.  It didn't photograph well, and the dates are a bit more visible than the photo suggests. I used a matching thread because I wanted things to be subtle, and because I lacked confidence in my free motion skills.  Matching thread is very forgiving of wobbles and uneven stitch length.   My stitching looks good in just the right light, but at other angles it disappears altogether, so I may go back and stitch it again in contrasting thread.  Then again, I did want subtle!  Maybe I should have used a larger font...The scale seems a little off, but I really don't want to pick out all the straight line stitching I did next!

I still need to quilt something around and/or in all the cream colored leaves and in the border.  At that point I may reassess the large leaf.  As I look at these pictures, I am becoming more convinced that I need to make the 150 and the dates larger...

Perhaps the best course of action is to finish as I have started, bind the quilt, enjoy Canada Day and reassess later!

I still plan to have a linky party for Canada Day so you can all link up any Canada Day related projects.  If you don't have a blog, send me a picture, or links to other social media where you are sharing and I can add those to the July 1st post.

Finally, if you want this "150" pattern, please note that it is available free through July 1st at www.payhip.com/CanuckQuilterDesigns.  After that date it will be available for purchase, on the same site.

Quilt backs

When customers come into the shop and ask me how much fabric they need for their quilt back, my first question is whether the dimensions they are giving me are the size of the quilt top or the desired size of the top.  Usually it's the top and I ask how much extra they or their longarm quilter likes to add to each side on the back.  I do my math from there. Did I do this for my own quilt?  Of course not! Grumble.

I can't believe I used the quilt top dimensions and forgot to add extra.  That's why I was slow getting the bird quilt quilted.  I was put out with myself and the quilt, as though it was the quilt's fault!  However, it's also why I have this pretty pieced back, which a friend thought I had planned on purpose as an added element.  I should have let her think so!

I really like the way it turned out and it started me thinking about other quilts I have made that ended up with pieced backs.  There are not many and all but one got their extra decorative touch because I goofed.

First up, Don't Panic.  I bought the fabric for the backing when I bought the fabric for the top, but I changed my plan in the end and ended up with a larger quilt.  I inserted strips of scraps from the top to make up the difference.

Next is Love's Quilt.  This is the only one that had a pieced back on purpose.  It was a group effort for a blogging friend.  I received extra blocks that I wanted to include, so I planned the back around those.  It's like a whole other quilt.

My first Canada Quilt also suffered from buying the backing before the top was finished.  I don't have a picture of the finished back, and it isn't easy to photograph right now, so I'll just share this picture of the top and extra blocks on the design wall.  The column of blocks on the right became a strip down the back of the quilt, tucked between lengths of the intended backing fabric.

I do like the way it turned out, though I didn't enjoy hand quilting areas with extra thickness from the extra seams on the back.  This, of course, is why I added extra seams to the next quilt I hand quilted!  The back does not match the front of the Kaleidoscope quilt at all, but I hadn't bought enough black for the back.  My son likes hockey and I had some hockey puck fabric and plain red and blue for lines...

Tonight, I took out the fabric for the back of my Canada 150 quilt.  Guess what?  I did it again.  Time to start planning what to insert into this back to bring it up to size.  Time's ticking - Canada Day is July 1st!

Tell me about your pieced backs.  Do you make them that way on purpose as a decorative element?  Do youpiece backs to use up leftover fabric?  Do you only make them when you've shorted yourself on backing fabric?  Or do you avoid them like the plague and take care to do your math right every time?

Butterfly garden

May was busy with multiple end of year concerts for both kids (choir, band, band and choir combined, another choir performance...), high school graduation party and actual graduation ceremony on different weekends, a lovely visit with my parents, and trying to get the garden into shape for summer after a very wet and cold spring.  It didn't leave much time and dare I say it, energy, for quilting.  

I eased myself back into the sewing room on a rainy day last weekend by catching up on my Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks. The green one for May was not made in May, but it's done!

Green RSC butterfly block (May)

In the middle of the week I tackled a quilt backing that should have been quick to make but wasn't. and I'll write about that whole debacle another time. Today I made the yellow one for June and the creative juices are starting to flow again.  Yay!

Yellow RS butterfly block (June)

Thanks to Sandra of mmm!quilts for the inspiration for the photo shoot.  I was feeling rather blah about my blocks shot on the design wall when I saw her recent Instagram post of three quilt blocks draped over a flowering basket.  It's a gorgeous day outside, the garden is looking half decent, though not quite in full bloom yet, and I had a helper available to stand just so as needed to shade the blocks so the sun wouldn't wash them out.  That poor little yellow butterfly isn't washed out by the sun.  It turned out most of my yellow scraps were rather soft yellows.  I may make another before I put the quilt together at the end of the year.  I'll wait and see how everything looks together.

While I was at it, I snapped new pictures of the previous blocks too.

Red RSC butterfly block (March)

Those tipsy pots are just starting to fill up a bit.  I'll have to take another butterfly picture once those impatiens grow more and fill the pots with white blooms.

Aqua RSC butterfly block (February)

Purple RSC butterfly block (January)

Now that I've been playing with color again, I have lots of ideas percolating. However, the bird quilt and the Canada quilt both need to be quilted first.  It will be very hot this weekend, so maybe I'll hunker down in the cool sewing room and make progress on those.  I really want to get to those other ideas!  There is a Grunge rainbow and some Tula Pink in my sewing future (though not together!)

Now I'll leave you with one last picture, because 1) I'm a proud mom and 2) he asked if I have bragged yet.  Here's my bragging:  he has graduated, heads off to university in the fall with a scholarship, just started his first paying job, earned his Eagle Scout rank...My baby's all grown up!  Beam!

Linking up with

Scrap Happy Saturday at So Scrappy