What Begins At The Cottage...

...is finished at the cottage.

Betty finished binding her spectacular Five Dollar Quilt this weekend and the whole thing is just a masterpiece. This is the one that she started last summer with blocks that she picked up for five bucks at a garage sale.

The binding is just perfect - a deep navy and white stripe that show off the rest of the colours throughout the quilt.

And the meandering lines of quilting just soften everything making it look like this quilt has been around forever.

There are so many different blocks to this one, each inviting your eye to stop for a little visit before moving on...

Of course no quilt is complete unless it passes Baylea's snooze test...seems to be working...

So, to celebrate, we enjoyed the first rhubarb of the season with what's become a bit of a 24th of May tradition, our favourite Rhubarb Torte (yes, I'm a leftie). How sweet it is!...M

It's Spring, and Time for the Bloggers Quilt Festival

It's that's time again...time to check out all the fabulous eye candy that gets submitted to the Bloggers Quilt Festival. It never disappoints and I find myself going back to the entries over and over again for a good look - stop by the site and see who is participating in Amy's festival this season. A 5-year old tradition, it just looks to be getting larger each year and this time around you can view the entries by category, Baby Quilt, Bee Quilt, etc.

I've entered a Throw Quilt that I made about 15 years ago. It's a sampler of sorts and I don't even know what the name of the pattern is but it is one that is dear to my heart. I saw a tiny little photo on a subscription card for a craft book-of-the-month club, or something to that effect, and went from there.

I love the fabrics in this one, and every time I see it it makes me happy. The colours just work for me - I love the rich, burnt oranges, plums and reds, and the deep greens & navy. The tiny star print for the quilt blocks was a real favourite when I made this one. It has a really autumnal feel to it so lets call this one Harvest Sampler.

There's a certain sentimentality to it as well. The block on the right is made with fabric from my grandmother and it was hand quilted by mom.

She incorporated a heart vine pattern into the smaller border that softens the sharpness of the blocks nicely.

I bound and backed it with the same red that I used for the inset triangles.

It's not overly large - 59 x 72" - just the right size to nap under, which is part of the reason that it is hung over the back of the sofa downstairs.

Here's a shot that will give you a sense of the entire layout, including the corners.

Have fun browsing the other Festival entries....M

My Learner's Permit

I think I mentioned a few posts back that Pinterest is now my online drug of choice, and that it is totally addictive. Well, nothing has changed on that front except that it did lead me down the path of trying something new - a quilt-as-you-go project. So out came the scraps.

I'm wanting to make several items for the folks who run the gift shop at Madonna House, but am looking for the right combination of effort and result.  I recently pinned a few tutorial quilt-as-you-go tutorials and curiosity got the better of me, so I started to play around. 

One thing lead to another and before you know it I was making a cushion top. I referred to a couple of tutorials but followed Rachel's most of all. The first step was just to start somewhere, so I did.

She stitched direction onto the batting with no backing but I've stitched everything onto a foundation piece. For some odd reason I had visions of batting getting gummed up in my bobbin mechanism. This way it doesn't get hung up in the feed dogs either.

There's been lots of testing of fabric positions, and lots of changing my mind, which has slowed things down a bit, but I think I'll get better at that with time. Adding the directional rows of stitching really changes the look and feel of everything.

The pillow form that I have is 20", so it's a good size, and I'm thinking that I might make it completely reversible.

To say that I enjoy it is an understatement. I just LOVE the texture. I do think though that it's taking me longer than it needs to decide which colours to lay down next....M