Toque Block Swap

Have you heard about the Toque Block Swap?

It’s a fun, playful swap that came out of the Quilters’ Playcation Adventure Sewalong. I made a toque block one week and by the end of our weekly live I had committed to organizing a swap!

Anyone can sign up. You can make 1 block or you can make 20, it’s up to you. Mail your blocks to me, I will swap your blocks for the same number made by other participants and send them back to you. The tutorial to make the block is here, but feel free to individualize things however you like.

Sign up now, deadline for mailing blocks is January 10, so I hopefully receive them all by January 20, 2023. (So you can get through the holiday season without any sewing stress from this, and maybe even relieve some stress by playing.) Then my plan is to get all swapped blocks mailed out by the end of the month.

Sign up here.

Scandi Village Update

It isn’t so much that there are quilts just for winter in this house (although, there are a few), it is more that there are quilts I want to play with making during winter. This Scandi Village is one of them. I put it away after last winter and couldn’t resist pulling it out when the snow came recently.

Of course, the upcoming Scandi Village Party has a little something to do with that.

For this year I’ve designed an additional block - the A Frame cabin - to add to the village. I love it so much that I will definitely be doing a little surgery to add blocks in to what I’ve already sewn.

At some point I will have to stop making blocks for this quilt but I am not quite there yet. The blocks are just too damn cute and so easy to make. And you can make them any size you want. Hmm… if I do ever finish the top I could make some large blocks for the back.

In the meantime, I would love it if you want to join me at the upcoming Party. I am sharing my favourite snack cake recipe, we’ll be making blocks, and generally having a good time.

November 17 6-9 PM Mountain

For Sarah Golden

Sarah Gold Mini

16” x 20”

It was a few years ago, in the middle of another lockdown, that I became truly entranced with the work of Sarah Golden. Something about her shapes and colour use, not to mention that we are birthday twins, just got to me. One day she posted some paper collages she was making. It was instant inspiration and I wanted to turn it into a quilt. With her permission I explored the handmade and the shapes of her work but in fabric and thread.

Here is the inspiration image:

To make the mini I dug through my stash for the right colours to reference her original piece. Some of my finds meant that I did not have to piece all the sections, but let the fabric talk. In the end, the components of my quilt collage were a combination of improv piecing, appliqué, and single fabrics. Then I used embroidery and hand quilting for additional details. I even matted my details like she did, with a ground of white.

Not entirely sure why it took me so long to finish this quilt. It’s just a mini! Yes, there is a lot of work in this small space, but that isn’t it. I just went in fits and starts on it. But it is finished now. Bound in a fabric to look like a wood frame. Sent to Sarah as a thank you for the inspiration.

Fleur - Paint by Numbers Inspired Quilt

Fluer

16” x 20”

A sweet mini inspired by that hummingbird paint by numbers. It is clear I am much better at quilts than paint by numbers!

In June of 2021 my kids bought me the paint by numbers for a new Morning Make activity. Each day I patiently worked my way through the numbers. It was the right kind of meditative play for me for Morning Make, but when I finished halfway through the month I declined the offer to start a new one. Just not my thing. Then a friend suggested I make a quilt inspired by the painting.

Once finished, it, like many other quilt tops of mine, sat. And sat. A few weeks ago I was in the mood to play with some free motion quilting. Having a mini on hand was fortuitous. It’s an easy baste and in 20 minutes I was stitching. Once I completed the leaves to the flowers (in a perfect olive green from Aurifil) I decided the hand stitch in the centers of the flowers and leave the rest unquilted. Simple, yet graphic.

So now they are both done. Will they hang together? Probably not. For one, I did a pretty crap job on the painting. And two, we have a no quilts on the wall rule. That’s okay, I’ll just bring her out every now and then when I need a little pick me up.