I spent the morning at the Oakville Quilt Show and saw some amazing quilts. There is a lot of talent in that guild. A few names kept popping up time and again: Karen Power and Irene Brayne for some very creative long arm quilting, and Carol Stanley for being a very prolific quilter, she could hold her own show! Check out Oakville Quilt Guild on Instagram to see or better yet the show is open till Sat afternoon. I was especially pleased to see a quilt that resulted from my Heartfelt Pattern. I had seen a picture, but seeing it in person was a real treat. Sharon used one color family for the hea ..read more

I decided to take advantage of the snow last weekend and take pictures of all my string snowball quilts in the fresh new snow. My idea was to make movies of all the quilts and do some sort of video called Snowballs in the Snow – catchy right?…… but I need to brush up on all my editing skills first. I will show you my two latest String Snowball versions. I started to blog about them last fall as I was struggling to decide how to arrange and quilt them. Part One , Part two , Part Three. They are finally bound and ready to share. I know you have to look twice to see that they are different quilts ..read more

Greetings from Quilt Con! I am having fun with my friend Valerie down in Raleigh, North Carolina. She is here for a book signing and I am tagging along, enjoying the show and the “shopping”. As much as preach about shopping your stash, I broke all my rules yesterday. I recieved a few pictures of quilts resulting from my Heartfelt Pattern that I have been waiting to share. This was sent to me from Sharyn, she was one of my first Etsy customers. She began sewing this in her RV while on vacation. She didn’t make it full size and she arranged the background fabrics in rounds surrounding the heart ..read more

I have another quick post to share. I am squeezing this one in ahead of some others because every block has been changed to a heart block. Janice, from the Etobicoke quilt guild sent me a pic of her finished quilt top in time to share for Valentines Day. I will use the note she included with her email. Hi Sandy Many thanks for the inspiration.  I am not very good at following patterns but I did have fun using my aqua/teal + navy scraps to make a variety of hearts.  I think the Grinch may have been an influence as the heart grew and grew.   At 102” long I decided not to add ..read more

I will make this a very quick post. I have the finished results of 3 more Heartfelt Projects to share with you. It is amazing these are all from the maker’s stash and all are personalized. This is the first. From the moment Mona saw my heart quilt, she was intent on getting the pattern. I easily convinced her into becoming the BOM co-ordinator for the Etobicoke Quilt Guild. We had 50 quilters sign up for this project. My chances of 50 quilters finishing it are slim – but I am encouraged by the buzz. Mona is doing a great job sending the monthy emails with the pattern, then holding a zoom meeti ..read more

I wanted to share a little story with you. After all my knee trouble I got a cleaning lady, getting down on my hands and knees to clean under beds etc. was too painful. Along came Tanya from the Ukraine, she is. lovely lady just a bit older than me. We communicate via goggle translate and sometimes a lot of sign language. She is a crafter like me and was very impressed with the quilts that are going thru my studio. I started her on her first quilt which we finished just before Christmas. A friend and fellow Majong always gives me her leftovers and stash when she clears out her studio. I usuall ..read more

Happy New Year! I am on a short vacation getting lots beach walks and playing lots of pickleball, I am thinking about what is in store for my stash in the coming year. I really enjoy and get a sense of pride thinking of new ways to use it up. Like many of you, I am starting to think I wil never use it up! Just before Christmas, I challenged myself to make a smaller version of my Heartfelt Quilt entirely from these two containers of scraps plus some strips selected from my small bundles of colour. As you can see I do not have a sophisticated method of organization. I dug into my low volume sta ..read more

Last spring the Etobicoke Quilt Guild hosted Timna Tarr for a zoom meeting. I love her work and have pinned many of her creations in my pinterest account. I encouraged the guild members to join a Timna Tarr fan club, the idea being that we would get together and encourage each other in our projects, and of course trade fabrics. There are a few interesting quilts being made! This is my project. If you follow my blog you will know that I have twin grandaughters, years ago their other Grandmother sent me this beautiful photo. I knew right away that I wanted to do something with it and that is whe ..read more

I am so proud of my friend and fellow quilter Valerie Prideaux. Over the years I have mentioned her name on my blog many times. She is my go to techie person and I am her longarm quilter. We have shared/borrowed fabrics, discussed many ideas for our crafty projects, helped each other with our EQ8 frustrations and worked on QuiltTalk. Basically, we have been cheering each other on for years! I have not been able to post photos of her work for the last few years because she has been busy writing a book. It is finally available from C&T publishing and all the usual places, better yet ask your ..read more

Can you smell the smoke? All joking aside, you will now truly see that I am not techie, but I hope you appreciate the effort. I have been thinking about other sayings and thoughts that could be used in the Heartfelt Quilt to personalize it for your needs. Of course I went to Google for help. I know that many quilts are gifted and this design could be used to celebrate different life events, graduations and weddings or a special birthday. LIve Simply, Dream Big, Give Love, Laugh Lots! Love, Honour, Chreish, Name and Date Dream it, Believe in yourself, and make it happen! The best things – in ..read more