Rose Marie-Winter is Done

Hello ...... well, gosh darn it ....... Winters of My Life is finally finished. Hop on over to my blog for an explanation of the blocks. I have to warn you, it is a lengthy post (3 separate parts).

Part 1: http://appliqueandpatches.blogspot.com/2008/05/winter-is-not-over-part-1.html
Part 2: http://appliqueandpatches.blogspot.com/2008/05/winter-is-not-over-part-2.html
Part 3: http://appliqueandpatches.blogspot.com/2008/05/winter-is-not-over.html

Once again, many thanks to Tonya for issuing this challenge and for inspiring me to finally make a word quilt. A challenge it was at first; but once I started doing the freeform work, it became fun to make and I love my quilt! :o)

This quilt is being folded up and stored until next winter ..... but what a beauty I have waiting to be displayed.

Have a great day!

Just snowballing along ....

Well ..... here I am a couple of weeks later and my quilt is not finished; but I do have something to show you.

I have to admit ..... I really do like the free form fans using just a marker and no stencil. The fans were drawn randomly and some had to be touched up a bit. Sure makes life a lot easier and the effect for this frozen lake gives the illusion of snow drifts and ridges.

My quilt has the combination of hand quilting and machine quilting. I'm in love with stipple machine quilting and it is being used throughout.

Haven't decided on a name yet for my quilt. Tonya wondered if it might be 'squeaky snow'. :o) Heard a lot of that lately and each time the noise made me smile. I'm open to suggestions for a name; but you might want to wait until you see the rest of the quilt.

Have a great weekend!

Rose Marie-starting to quilt

I'm anxious to get this quilt done and up on my entry wall so that we can enjoy it while winter is still here! :o) This section was first started with hand quilting, but was not happy with the look. Ripped it out and started doing machine stipple quilting and am much happier with it. So, all the words will have the stipple effect all around them.
The snowflake blocks (or as I see them, as figure skaters spinning) are being handquilted with beading in the centers.

It's a start ..... but at least it's being worked on! :o)

Have a great weekend!

Rose Marie-Top is done!

Could have titled this post ..... Winter is done! But, who would we be kidding? Today, it's -6C with light snowflurries.

The top is finished and will have to be put aside for now so that some Xmas gifts can be finished. This piece measures 53" wide x 55" long.

So many thanks to all of you that left comments on my posts about my project. Your kind comments and encouragement kept my interest going so that I could finish this piece instead of just giving up and putting it aside for something else.

Thank you, Tonya, for the great tutorials and for offering this class. It has been a blast for me to do something without ... gasp .... templates and has opened up a new area of quilting for me! :o) I have been wanting to try something free form and this opportunity just jumped out at me to grab onto and do it!

For quilting this piece, I think both machine and hand quilting will be combined as there are a lot of layers to go through and stitch stabbing will just be tedious. Also, by combining the two, this piece will get finished faster and I do want to hang this quilt up this winter (heck, officially winter hasn't even arrived yet).

It has been fun to scroll through the various posts to see what everyone else has been doing. I think our class is so creative with such a vast variety of ideas coming along.

Have a great day and have fun quilting!

Rose Marie-Winter again

I’m getting closer to assembling my Winter quilt. Just a bit more on the bottom section and then the sides can be sewn together.

For the q ..... I made a bit bigger tail and am happy with the way it looks now.

When I first started this quilt, the colour choice became evident after going through all my winter fabrics. There was a lot of blues with snowflakes on them. I’m amazed how over the years, I seem to have accumulated a lot of this colour fabric and how perfect they are for this quilt. Snowflakes are the theme, and even the red fabric in the house has some printed on it.

The bottom section will be put together using up all the scraps from making the trees. Waste not! Putting these pieces together is like making a crumb or crazy quilt. Looking at the photo, it is interesting how they pick up shadows and dips and valleys in the landscape.

There are some blank areas which will have embroidery later.

Yes ..... I’m very happy with the way this quilt has evolved.
Have a good day!

Rose Marie-need opinion

My letters are coming along .... slowly, but surely! Do you see the work 'squeaky snow' on the left? Does the q look like a q? My DH is teasing me about that and if you gals think it looks odd, I'll change it. This is my second go round fussing with the q. There will be a strip of white fabric sewn to the top and bottom of each word, so the bit below the tail on the q will not be there.

There is just one more tree and word to make and then my letters are done!

I bought a couple packages of snowflake buttons and will sew them on throughout the quilt later on. Some have just been pinned on for me to see the effect.

Tonya, hope you are safe in Paris these days! Stay safe!

Have a good evening!

Rose Marie-Winter is Here!

No, seriously .... winter has arrived here in Toronto. We had our first major storm of the new winter season and so glad that DH and I didn't have to drive anywhere yesterday as road traffic was a nightmare (with a capital N)!

This is what I've accomplished this week. Would have done more ..... but wanted you gals to catch up to me! :o)

My letters are a tad too straight and formal and I really need a lemon martini to shake things up a bit.

So .... will plow away and see what there will be to show you all next week!

Have a great weekend!

Rose Marie from Canada

Hello to all …. I’m late introducing myself here! First off, married 30 yrs., am retired, mid-50’s and home is in a suburb of Toronto. Craft wise for my career, I worked in craft heaven (store similar to Michael’s) as a purchaser/inventory control manager. So …. I am used to having everything under control …. that is until now! :o)

My theme is winter and this is what I’ve done so far. Blue and white will be my predominant colours. Those letters are hard! The first letter I started with was the W. What was I thinking? Should have started with the I first. Anyway, my first W ended up in the garbage after parts were removed to add to the R. Waste not.

There will be snow people and they will be appliquéd on using a buttonhole stitch. Felt is being used and I am stuffing them to give a 3-D effect. And, since I’m from Canada, there will be an igloo. There will be letters running along the remaining three borders and more trees.

This may be all the photos for a while as it looks like my camera just went on the fritz. Here is hoping that it is just the camera card that is the problem.

I have tried to leave comments on your blogs, but keep getting an error message from Blogger. Is anyone else having the same problem?

Have a great day, eh!