The label says it's done!

 It may have taken 2+ years, but my "Healing Waters of Reconciliation" is DONE! 

 This was a guild mystery quilt from 2018-2019 and I finished it on Mother's Day.  How appropriate!  The yellow fabric is called "Healing Waters" and was designed by a Canadian First Nations artist for Northcott Fabrics.  It is the lifecycle of a loon - the very essence of motherhood - and utilizing the image of a loon, which is one of my favourite birds on the water where I live.

This quilt was also a challenge for me - it is done with stitch in the ditch quilting, followed by a ruler quilting border of continuous loops, and finished with some free motion quilting, including outlining those loons.  This is also the first quilt I've done that's for me.  I think this is such a special quilt and I can't believe how proud I am of this journey and what I've learned.  2021 is definitely the year I am stretching myself as far as quilting goes.

The final step - the label - is complete and I have one less UFO in the pile.  What is something you've done that pushed you but you were so happy to accomplish?

The free-motion quilting water is fine! Jump on in!

 How to learn something new?  You can watch others until the proverbial cows come home but at some point, you must jump in and try it for yourself.  Then, like any skill, you need to plan on practice, practice, practice.

This was a guild mystery quilt that I had already done stitch-in-the-ditch quilting on.  Fate must have wanted to give me a nudge as my mother gave me a present of the perfectly coloured thread to use to highlight the fabric already there.

The time had come to jump in the free-motion quilting waters!

I started with a continuous loop border using the ruler quilting techniques I had learned from the Continuum project.  I then went truly free-motion with outlining all the looks and adding in some filler motifs in the larger solid-coloured portions.

I'm over halfway done quilting and it is wonky, and inconsistent and threads everywhere, and I think I love it.  It's far from perfect, but I'm so proud of myself for jumping in and trying it.  That is a piece of advice I would offer any quilter hesitant about free-motion quilting.  Take a project you don't love or one that you feel comfortable sacrificing to the practice heavens, and go for it.  I can already see the progress over the course of the quilt.  I don't think I'll ever do a simple stitch in the ditch quilt again.

I'm a Quilting Magpie!

 Confession time.  I see new quilt projects like a magpie in fictional tales sees shiny objects.  In a year when I have more than enough projects in hand to keep me busy, I now find myself with two more - one in hand now and one on the horizon.

The first is a decision to participate in Angela Walter's Free Motion Quilting Challenge (Flora & Foliage Free Motion Challenge).  While the challenge and videos are free, I decided to splurge and purchase her panel fabric, borders, backing, and thread package.  I've never quilted a panel before, so it represents a first for me.  I've also never done a free motion class before, so again, more skill improvement is the rationale for undertaking another project.

The second is an upcoming workshop in June with Krista Moser to learn to do her "Summer Swag" quilt design.  I'll save that picture for a later post.

So, now I have to think about magpies, and I'm going to embrace an alternate description of the magpie, According to Wikipedia, "In East Asian culture, the magpie is a very popular bird. It is a symbol of good luck and good fortune."  Yes, that is what quilting does for me!

If at first you don't succeed...

Perseverance is a quality I fully expect many quilters to embrace and I am no exception.  I have, however, noticed a change in my approach.  There was a time when I would slap something together and call it good enough.  Now, I find that I am challenging myself a little more to redo what I'm not happy with and only if the fabric is on the verge of disintegrating, do I call it good enough.

This has led to a couple of items that I wanted to update you on.  First is a guild mystery that you saw in the last blog post.  This time, we've assembled two blocks and added an edge to them.  The blocks and edges were upwards of four times before I was satisfied with what I created.

Now that this month's clue is done, I turn back to the machine quilting I've been procrastinating on.   I'm determined to not only finish the stitch-in-the-ditch work I'm doing on the Loon quilt, but I'm linking up with Elm Street Quilts to try again this month to finish quilting this prior year mystery.

I received a bundle of thread for Christmas so I plan on embellishing the quilt with additional ruler quilting and free motion quilting.   I could certainly use the practice for both, and I'm inspired to give it a real effort.

As if that isn't enough on my plate, I have just signed up for two additional quilting adventures.  I'm going to be taking a class with Krista Moster (www.kristamoser.com) that I am really looking forward to, AND, I'm joining in on Angela Walter's upcoming Free Motion Flora and Fauna challenge!  More on that in the posts to come.

I'm ramping up my quilting and my blogging, so it should be a fun season to follow along.

A bias about bias

In working on the latest clue from my guild mystery quilt project, I was faced with one of my nemesis - bias piecing!

This quilt is the colour theory quilt challenge I'm undertaking.  I have been excited to work with this fabric.  This block is done by cutting everything on the bias.  Can you say "STRETCH"?

It was very delicate work to avoid manipulating the fabric and deforming it. The challenge was to cut and assemble these blocks without using paper piecing as a stabilizer.   The use of my iron seemed to help.  That being said, I think I constructed and ripped and re-assembled every block at least twice, if not three times. 

I am so happy with the results and I'm ready to move on to the next month's clue.  Do you have an experience with bias and piecing that you care to share.

A COVID Quilt Retreat

 When someone hears "Quilt Retreat," they may think of a very old-fashioned group of people, usually women, sitting around a frame, working as a team on a single quilt.  While that can still happen, and I've even participated in a marathon version of that as a fundraiser for Breast Cancer Support, my experience with the modern version of a Quilt Retreat is typically a location that is away from home, and not usually the traditional place a quilting guild or other quilting group will meet, but a special location, where people gather to work on projects, share inspiration, have a lot of fun, and strengthen the fellowship that is part of the quilting community.

The guild I belong to typically does a weekend retreat, where we go to a hall we've rented, with meals prepared for us - simple fare, but filling, and when you don't have to cook it or clean it up, it tastes even more delicious!  We each bring projects of our own to work on and we share tips and fun together.  You may arrive as a relative stranger, but you leave feeling you've just gained a whole group of friends.

This past weekend, I helped organize our guild retreat, but with COVID-19, we made it a virtual retreat.  Several people were hesitant to join in, but we made the most of it and ended up having a wonderful time.  We're finding small blessings in a global pandemic.  We normally have to restrict our retreats to 24 people, given the size of the hall we have access to.  With Zoom, we were able to have over 30 people join in.   We used the break-out room function of Zoom to allow small groups to chat and get to know each other, while we had mini-demos and workshops that people could join in on.  Throw in a quick game, some door prizes, and a fun show and tell, and you had the closest thing to a retreat as we could ask for.

What small blessings do you find in these times of COVID?  This is in no way to minimize the hardship and suffering many have endured, but to focus on the silver lining for a moment, instead of the ominous black cloud.  I hope you find a silver lining too.

UFO Focus for February

 I'm leveraging the Elm Street Quilts UFO monthly challenge to help me finish more quilts than I start in 2021.  I completed the ruler quilt last month, so this month I will be focusing on completing the quilt I call "Reconciliation through Healing Waters".  It is a guild mystery quilt that I pieced, sandwiched, but have to quilt and bind it to complete it.

I actually had no intentions of doing this mystery, as I have many, many UFO's that I should be focused on first.   Then, at a guild retreat, we went to visit the local quilt shop and I spotted this fabric.  The yellow fabric is a line called "Healing Waters" and was designed by a Canadian Indigenous artist by the name of Mark Anthony Jacobson, who resides in British Columbia.  Here is another fabric in this collection that will give you a better appreciation of this amazing fabric collection:

If you want to see the full fabric collection, please feel free to check this link out:  Northcott - Healing Waters

Looking forward to finishing this quilt as it is the first lap size quilt I've made for myself!  Everything beforehand has been gifted to others.