Welcome Blogathon visitors!

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Hi! I’m Andrea! Feel free to poke around, leave comments, have a party.

I live in fredericton NB and just bought a house in Keswick, so if you are in either area and a quilter, PLEASE leave a link to your blog so I can stalk you.. er, I mean so we can be new quilting Best Friends!

I really love modern quilting so if there’s anything in the area for that, I’d love to know!

There’s 3 quilt guilds around here I have yet to visit, but that is on my list for the new year. If you see me there, I’ll be the one with the colorful hair. Usually it’s pink, right now it’s purple. At least, so far this week!

For more on me and creativity, I recently did an interview with a long time online friend, so go visit her podcast here Episode 6 : Me Being Crafty

Also stop by the Christmas Crab quiltery – our local quilt store. I do tech support for them, if you’ve seen me around. Yep, that’s me!

Oversize log cabin

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I made this oversize single log cabin block quilt way back in May of 2012.

boy log cabin

I just pulled pieces of kid prints from my stash and went to town, building up a block until it was a decent size. I did very little cutting of fabric.

This summer, I finally got around to quilting it. I backed it in a cheery dinosaur print and did an allover stipple. It was fast. Then I bound it in this great lime green solid.

You can buy this quilt in my Etsy shop too.

Two Runners

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I finished two table runners this summer, as well. Both use fabrics from the same christmas line – Jingle All the Way and some Bernartex basics that co-ordinated.

Both runners were from the same pattern, Little Charmers 2. I love her patterns, I want them all.

I separated the dark greens, blues and the yellows for the starry runner. In the background I quilted spirals and in the stars I did straight line, somewhat dot to dot quilting.

For the blocks runner, I used the reds, lighter greens and beiges to build up the design. I messed up the color placement but anyone I showed it to couldn’t tell the difference. I quilted a leafy design following the blocks. Since it is both Christmassy and summery I called it Christmas in Australia.

Both of these runners are available in my Etsy shop.

Rainbow Northern Lights mini

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I used the Hex n More ruler and the Northern Lights pattern to make a rainbow wall hanging. I followed the pattern but used the smallest size on the ruler.

It took a while because of the small pieces and I kept putting it down to work on other things. But, once the top was completely done, I did straight line quilting to match the zig zag effect, bound it in black and sent it off as a gift.

I sent it to the head office of the company I work for, so they had more bright art on the walls. They loved it!

I will probably make this again.

As always, click images for bigger.

Quilting the Jitterbug Quilt

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Ages ago (March 2011) I started the Jitterbug quilt that is on the cover of Layer Cake, Jelly Roll & Charm Quilts. I even bought 1930’s reproduction prints off eBay. Got a deal on those, still using some of them up.

I had piecing issues and pressing issues with this quilt. I know it’s my technique, not the pattern and I’ve learned a bunch since then even. Like maybe not do 2.5″ HSTs. At least not without tons of starch.

The top was done for quite a while and was stuck with the rest waiting for batting. I finally basted it this summer. The only other issue I had was what to quilt. The pieces really were too small to do much custom fancy quilting, so I just stitched in the ditch.

At least it worked. Even if the entire process of this quilt was frustrating.

I bound the edges in scraps of the 30’s prints as well. The backing is just plain white. It’s a good old fashioned quilt and I probably should label it. Ron likes it and we keep it on the spare bed.

The Mariner’s Compass quilt

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I got super inspired for this quilt basically when I saw the starry fabric. I dug out navy and yellow scraps and made some borders for the large piece of starry fabric, then used mostly yellows with a strips of blues for the back. So the front could be night and the back day. When I started this back in 2009 (!) I actually called it Night and Day.

I knew I wanted a large focal point that was quilted much like a wholecloth quilt is. I then decided it would be a mariner’s compass design. I looked up a bunch of tutorials on how to draw this mariner’s compass, including making a compass from a pencil and a piece of string. I used chalk to draw the lines on my quilt.

For the straight lines, I used a walking foot and navy thread. This also helped stabilize the quilt. To form the dark and light effect, I quilted with yellow thread on one side of each point and navy on the opposite side. The quilting technique I used is called McTavishing. Love it! I got pretty good at it by the end.

For the background of the compass in the sky, I did a regular stipple, in navy thread. I wanted the central focal point to stand out and the background to fade away.

In the narrow yellow border, I did a rope design – much like a ship would have. The wider blue border I had no ideas for so I’ve left them empty. I can always go back and fill them in. The binding is more scraps of blue and yellow.

You see, I did this quilt for two reasons: my grandfather and my granddaughter. My grandfather was a ship builder. Our home town is by the sea and the ocean is in our blood. On a clear night, I will look up to the sky and find Orion to orient myself.

My granddaughter love space. She insists I help her look up space videos on youTube and find out what the Mars Rover is doing. She talks about spaceships and maybe when she’s bigger she can go to space and visit other planets. In her lifetime this may be possible.

So – from ships on the sea to space ships in the sky, the stars will guide them home.

This quilt is just for me – not for sale, not for any reason but to pay homage to the travellers in our family and the stars in the sky.