Washing my Baltimore. Yikes!

Posted in Uncategorized by Simple Bird Applique

Last weekend was Thanksgiving in Canada and, like most people we had a super busy long weekend. We had the family over…just 26 of us! I cooked a huge turkey and all the fixins! Hubby bought himself a new camera, so we headed north to Meaford and Thornbury to take some awesome photos and to get some apples. Is it my imagination or are the leaves really spectacular this year?

I also had a few spare hours, so I decided it was time to bite the bullet and toss my Friends of Baltimore into the washing machine. Let me explain why I did this.

I am not sure if you remember this, but when I washed one of the borders, some of the fabrics ran (red and dark blue) which shocked and upset me. I was shocked, because I am very careful about pre-washing all of my fabrics. Since I used all the same fabrics in the blocks as in the borders and this was the first time any of the fabrics had run, I was really puzzled. I was upset because my quilt had very distinct red and blue splotches on the background. I finished the top and had it quilted, knowing that one day I was going to have to deal with those darn splotches. Well…that day had come!

I talked to Colleen from Elite Quilting who knows everything there is to know about bleeding fabric and how to fix it. Imagine the look of sheer horror on my face when she nonchalantly suggested I wash the entire quilt in the washing machine with Synthrapol. It took more than a little coaxing on Colleen’s part to assure me that all of the bleed marks would come out and my quilt would not be ruined.

So I gathered my quilt up, added a whole bottle of Synthrapol, put it in the washing machine using the hottest water possible, crossed my fingers and prayed to the Quilt Gods. I stood there for 40 minutes and watched the quilt go round and round. I called Colleen for some support…twice! This is a picture I took of the quilt spinning around. You can see that Bruin is as concerned as I am!!

I am not sure why I felt compelled to stand there and watch. I stopped the washing machine and opened the door just to check up on it a few times. I was very thankful that all looked good!

Once the washing machine stopped, I gathered the quilt up in a clear bag, and whisked it over to my husband’s shop where we laid it out flat on some tables to air dry. I was so very thrilled to see that all of the marks had completely vanished and, more importantly, my quilt had not fallen apart!! Yes, so much to be thankful for!

I am also working away on a scrappy quilt designed by Edyta Sitar of Laundry Basket Quilts called Trail Mix. It is a great stash-buster. Here are the strip pieced diamonds, which I am now going to go and stitch together!

Tile next time…

Kerry

10Oct2015

Wait til you see this!!

Posted in Uncategorized by Simple Bird Applique

When I (finally) finished the applique on “To Everything There Is A Season”, I handed it over to Rose from Fancy Feathers with my usual set of instruction. My instructions were: “Do whatever you want. Surprise me.” I am that kind of quilter!

So when Rose called Thursday to say the quilt was ready, I could not wait more than a day before I went to get it. To say Rose did a spectacular job is putting it mildly…extremely mildly!!

I love everything about the way Rose quilted it. I especially love how the feather borders inside each block do not go all the way around the block, and have a random feel to them. Love it!! This pattern was designed by Marilyn at MT Designs. Marilyn has not seen the finished quilt yet, but she will see it tomorrow at Thanksgiving dinner! The individual patterns for each of the blocks are available on my website Simple Bird Studio as paper patterns for digital patterns.

So….here you go!

The centre medallion will take your breath away. I wish you could see this quilt in person!

Spectacular…right?

Till next time….

Kerry

1Oct2015

Bed of Roses – Block 5

Posted in Bed of Roses, Bed of Roses BOM, Uncategorized by Simple Bird Applique

My goodness! I must say the 1st of the month seems to sneak up on me! I am just putting the finishing stitches on the fifth block of Sue Garman’s “Bed of Roses”, a BOM I started back in April. I love this quilt because the blocks are actually easy (oh yes they are!) but the blocks don’t look easy. I hope that makes sense!

Ok, so first I traced the block onto the background with a Clover water soluble marker. Notice, I don’t trace what is inside the shapes, for example, the big flower. The reason I don’t do this is because once the prepped piece has been glued in place, it covers up all the inside markings and then you can’t see them.

Next, I added all the bias strips. I use a Clover 1/4″ bias maker to do all of my stems. I glued them in place and then I stitched them before I added any more pieces.

Next, I prepped the three pink flowers in the usual way. I iron my freezer paper templates to the wrong side of the fabric and press the seam allowance over the templates with liquid starch and a mini-iron. (Note to self…maybe its time to replace the fabric on my pressing board with something less grungy.)

Once the piece is prepped, I take the freezer paper template out…

…and then I place the template shiny side up on the prepped piece and mark any remaining seam allowances. It makes lining up multiple pieces soooo easy. Trust me!

Next, I prepped the big flower that sits right in the middle of the block.

Notice the marked seam allowances? Now I know exactly where the next pieces go. Easy Peasy!

I prepped a bunch of the yellow doo-dads and glued them in place. I even marked the seam allowances on them!

Now I placed the green pieces in place. See what I mean about being an easy block?

So, now I added the tiny leaves and four smaller posies.

Now it’s time to add some circles….

Lots and lots of circles!

And, to top it all off, a sparkly little vase. I am giddy with excitement!

Here are all 5 blocks so far. All these blocks are available on my website Simple Bird Studio.

Last weekend was the quilt show at the Simcoe County Museum. Ruth, from Stitiching Impressions, kindly displayed my “Friends of Baltimore” quilt at her booth.

My friend Kathy and I go to the show every year. Not only do we love to see the awesome quilts, we love to have a piece of Sugar Pie! Of course, we did a bit of shopping at the Merchant Mall. New fabric and pie….does it get any better?

What else am I working on? Oddly enough, I am enjoying sitting at my sewing machine working on a scrappy quilt called Trail Mix, designed by Edyta Sitar of Laundry Basket Quilts. So much fun!