My 2013 Christmas Quilt

I did it! I finished my 2013 Christmas Quilt in time to link up for Another Lovely Year of Finishes.

The blocks were all designed by different people since this is the 2010 Fat Quarter Shop Mystery Designer BOM. The fabric is 12 Days of Christmas by Kate Spain... So gorgeous. I love the colours and the prints are so cute.

I quilted in the ditch along the sashing and outlined each pieced block. I then added some filler designs in the background - a different for each block. This mitten block has some pebbling...

The cute hat is surrounded by swirls.

The stocking has some paisleys.

And the borders have feathers... I have to say the feathers got better with each border. :-)

I am very pleased with this finish and will enjoy cuddling with it this holiday season.

Will be linking up at ALYOF and Finish It Up Friday.

Happy Thanksgiving to all my American readers and to the rest of you - have a fabulous weekend!

Izzy

 

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WIP Wednesday - Busy, Busy!

Time for another progress report on the WIPs!

I've been busy this week; it feels really good to finally be productive in the sewing room.

First, I finished the panels for those curtains I was working on last week. And now that they are done, I'm kinda liking them. :-)

Please ignore the somewhat bizarre view in the background and the fact that the panels are in desperate need of some pressing. Each panel measures about 24" wide by 72" high. I just need to find the backing fabric, sew them together and I'm done.

Next up is a new project - Modern Crosses.

I'm following Elizabeth Hartman's pattern from her Craftsy class (which I love!). I'm using fat quarters in blues and greens with a Kona Snow background. So far, I'm really enjoying making these blocks.

And finally, I finished quilting my Christmas quilt this weekend - full reveal later this week - so I got started on the quilting on Canasta.

Little colourful baskets surrounded by swirls.

I will be linking up at Lee's for WIP Wednesday - why don't you do the same? :-)

Thanks for stopping by!

Izzy

 

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Blogathon Canada Winner!

I had the most wonderful weekend reading all the sweet and sometimes really funny comments everyone left on my Blogathon Canada post. Thank you to all of my visitors and new followers! I hope you enjoy your future visits to my little blog.

So without further ado... The winner of the red, white and blue Kona solids bundle of 10 fat quarters is...

Congratulations! I have sent you an email to get your postal address.

Thanks again to Sew Sisters for putting on such a fun event!

I thought I would leave you with a picture of my view from the sewing room at the cottage...

Our first snowfall of the year! :-). Pretty!

Hope you had a wonderful weekend.

Izzy

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Blogathon Canada Day 5!

Hello and if you're visiting my little corner of the web for the first time - welcome to Dizzy Quilts! I am super excited to be hosting today and be able to represent Quebec. Don't forget to visit Danielle at A Geekie Crafty Life who is also featured today and who represents the Territories.

I'm supposed to tell you a little bit about myself and my quilting journey so here we go...

About 4 years ago, I went to JoAnn's with a friend and found a cute little quilt kit. It was a simple patchwork quilt, but I immediately fell in love with the process and with the results. I started learning more about quilting through the wonderful online community and before I knew it, I had a whole sewing room set up for myself!

Over the years, I tried many different styles and techniques and have really enjoyed making quilts for the people I love.

In April 2013, I found the Montreal Modern Quilt Guild and attended my very first guild meeting. Oh my! Meeting other quilters in person and being able to talk about my obsession with people who were just as obsessed as I am was amazing.

Here are a few of the quilts I finished recently:

This is my Star Surround quilt. The pattern was designed by Melissa Corry of Happy Quilting.
I used Kona solids and some Art Gallery fabrics for this quilt. I quilted it on my domestic machine.

This is my favourite quilt... ever! :-) This is Two Percent. The pattern was designed by Carrie Nelson of Miss Rosie Quilt Co. and I used the Veranda fabric collection by Amanda Murphy. This quilt is huge and it took me 18 months to make it. Two Percent is currently the quilt I sleep under at night and every time I go to bed and see it there, I smile.

This is the pillow cover I made for the Montreal Modern Quilt Guild Challenge over the summer. We had to make a quilt with traditional blocks and give it a modern twist. So I took my favourite block - the Churn Dash - and super-sized it.

But enough about me! The whole point of Blogathon Canada is to get to meet and get inspired by Canadian quilters and bloggers. Make sure you visit these wonderfully talented quilters from Quebec:

Living with Purpose

The Charming Needle

The Quilting Geek

Deux Petites Souris

Accroquilt

Before you go and pay them all a visit, how about some prizes?

Sew Sisters had generously provided this lovely stack of solids for me to giveaway to one of you!

I wanted a prize that represented me well. Besides being a quilter, I'm also a huge hockey fan and my favourite team is of course the Montreal Canadiens. This bundle is red, white and blue - my team's colours! :-)

All you have to do for a chance to win is leave a comment on this blog post. International entries are welcome, but please make sure to leave me your email address if you're a no-reply blogger. I must re-draw if I cannot contact you. I will choose a winner on Sunday and contact them by email.

IMPORTANT:  This giveaway is now closed.

You can also win a wonderful prize sponsored by Northcott over at Sew Sisters.

Tomorrow, Blogathon Canada continues with a visit to Ontario! Click the Blogathon Canada button in my sidebar for the full schedule - there are prizes to win at every stop!

Before I sign-off, I wanted to say THANK YOU to Sew Sisters. I am so happy to have been asked to take part in this great blog hop.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Izzy

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WIP Wednesday... Bored!

I haven't done a WIP post in a little while so I thought I'd share what's going on in my sewing room this week.

But before I do that, I need to give you a little background... A few months ago, my sweetie mentioned that he would really like me to make new curtains for the living room at the cottage. Now, I am not a big fan of sewing anything but quilty things. So I decided to make quilt tops, back them with a solid fabric and sew them together to make my curtains.

This is a country cottage, decorated in mostly earth tones - browns, beiges, greens. And my sweetie wanted something dark so that people couldn't see inside when the curtains were closed.

So I went through my stash of "traditional" fabric, picked a few I sort of liked still and got started.

And this is where I am now...

A stack of 20 15" Card Trick blocks ready to assemble into two panels.

But all that brown bored me to death so I needed to cut into something a little more lively. I took out the Riley Blake challenge fabric bundle and cut a bunch of 3" squares. Here they are... All piled neatly waiting for assembly.

I'm going to have a little bit of sewing time tomorrow night... I need to decide whether I want to continue with the curtains or start sewing my Riley Blake Challenge quilt. Decisions, decisions... :-)

I will be linking up at Lee's for WIP Wednesday this week - check it out by clicking the button in my sidebar.

Oh and don't forget to come back here on Friday for Blogathon Canada! There will be prizes...

See you then!

Izzy

 

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Feathers... Sort of!

This weekend, I finished quilting the sampler squares on my Christmas quilt. The last thing to tackle before calling this quilt done was the borders. I'd been thinking about doing long feathers along each border and then some kind of filler around the feathers and the stars in each corner.

I spent a little bit of time practicing feathers on paper and when I thought I could do a pretty decent feather, I brought the quilt to the machine and jumped right in.

Well... Doodling feathers on paper is a little bit different than actually moving this huge quilt under the needle. And so my first feather didn't turn out as nice as I had hoped.

Not all bad, but I obviously need to review Angela's Craftsy class before moving onto the remaining borders!

And what have you been up to this weekend?

Izzy

 

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Craftsy Flash Sale

Just dropping in real quick to let you know Craftsy is having a flash sale this Friday & Saturday on Yarn and Fabric products at up to 80% off! You can check out each sale here:

Craftsy yarn sale! Save up to 80% on yarn for 48 hours, November 15 & 16.

Craftsy fabric sale! Save up to 65% on fabric for 48 hours, November 15 & 16.

The sale only lasts 48 hours and products will sell out fast, head over to Craftsy today and check some items off your crafting wish list!

Have a fabulous weekend!

Izzy

 

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ALYOF Goal for November

I love linking up at Fiber of All Sorts and Sew Bittersweet Designs every month for A Lovely Year of Finishes. It really helps to keep me motivated and focused on finishing something big every single month.

Last month, I finished my Star Surround quilt and in November, I plan on finishing my 2010 Fat Quarter Shop Mystery Designer BOM... Yes, you read that right... 2010!

I prepared the backing, basted it and started the quilting over the weekend.

I'm stitching in the ditch around each block, along the sashing. Then I'm stitching around each design within the blocks. I'm also adding filler designs to the background of the blocks... A different one for each block.

I've completed 3 blocks so far. I think this is my favourite:

You can see pictures of the whole quilt top, which I finished piecing about a year ago, by clicking here.

Thanks for stopping by!

Izzy

 

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