Swan Lake Surprise

 

One time when I took a road trip (I can' t remember why) I decided to stop in at my last work site on my way home. I had a great visit with my former colleagues, and discovered that one of them (the one who took my position) was pregnant with her third child. As I was off on mental health leave when she had her first two (was I really off work that long? Or maybe she had been on her first maternity leave when I went on mental health leave). Anyway, I had not given her anything for either of her other children, but I determined to give her a quilt for the third one.
That visit happened before my vacation to Ontario, and then there was the fair and getting projects finished for it, so I was kept busy with other projects. I was rather hoping that she would have a boy as I still have Work Zone and Blast Off that haven't found recipients yet. But in case she didn't, I decided to start working on a gender neutral quilt. More about that one in another post. 
However, as her due date neared, I decided I might as well wait and see what the baby's gender was. I still had the rest of the Lily's Pond layer cake that I used for La Petite Princesse, plus more backing fabric in that line, that I could use for a girl's quilt, if necessary. And, as it turned out, she did have a girl.
However, I decided that I didn't really want to use the Quick and Easy Baby Quilt idea again. I didn't want it to be too similar to La Petite Princesse, and might have used a different background fabric like a bright pink, if I had it, but my only other background option was black - definitely not for a baby girl! I pondered different options, rummaged in my stash a little, and finally decided to do another Baby Alter Ego.
Bad choice! When I put the blocks up on my design wall, I didn't like it at all. The fabric in this line is all so pale that there wasn't enough contrast to give it any visual interest. It looked washed out and boring. And I didn't know what to do to make it better. 
There is some brown in this fabric collection, and I did have some dark brown solid in my stash. It wasn't a perfect match and I was afraid that it might overwhelm the pale colours. So, I decided to experiment with some narrow sashing between the blocks. And I liked it!. So I sashed the whole quilt top, and added a pale pink solid border. And in case you're wondering why I didn't use the pale pink as contrast/background with the Lily's Pond layer cake, I felt that it was just too pale and the whole quilt would look washed out. But it looks great in the border. I don't know if I've mentioned it before, but I often find myself singing something that, however loosely, coordinates with what I'm working on. So this time it was "Swans on the Lake". If you've ever used the John Thompson Grade 1 piano book, then you might remember it. You can find the words here. 
On to the quilting design. Depression and anxiety can make one very indecisive, and I have been finding that I am often challenged when it comes to picking a quilt design for the quilt. When I first purchased the fabric, I also purchased a pantograph called Pond Lily to go with it. Unfortunately, Lily's Pond - the fabric - features swans, whereas Pond Lily - the pantograph - features frogs. I chose not to use Pond Lily when I made La Petite Princesse, choosing Crowns-n-Diamonds instead to go with the princess theme and the fact that some of the swans were wearing crowns. But I didn't want to use that one again. As I've mentioned previously, I'm trying to go through my stash of pantographs and use every one at least once. But which one to use? I considered several and, on Facebook, jokingly suggested quilting spiders on a little girl's quilt. And then I thought, why not frogs? It's funny and cute and a little surprising. And the pantograph does feature lilies as well, as does the fabric. Besides, there once was a frog that turned into a handsome prince (although not in the same fairy tale as the swan). So that's what I did. And then the song going through my head was, "Frog, He Would a-Wooing Go".

Not everything has to be exactly as we expect. And hence why I called the quilt, "Swan Lake Surprise". I haven't shared a link to the pantograph because it was a Willow Leaf pantograph. While Urban Elementz does have one by the same name and by the same designer, the design has been changed and I like mine better.
Meanwhile, I played batting chicken when I short-changed myself in cutting the batting. 

I'm not sure how that happened, but thank God, I won. 
I also decided to do a vertical seam on the backing. Directional prints can be challenging when making a quilt backing, because they're usually running in the wrong direction. Sometimes, like with La Petite Princesse, I don't let it bother me and just make the quilt with the print running sideways. But this time, I decided against it, which meant I had to piece the backing differently, having to use smaller pieces at the bottom to make all of the print run in the correct direction. And since I've had the fabric in my stash for several years, not to mention the fact that the new Craftsy no longer sells fabric, it's not like I could buy any more. 

But it's done, and thank the Lord, it arrived at it's destination shortly before the latest postal strike started. 
I thank God that He inspired me with the idea of the brown sashing. In my opinion, it vastly improved what would have otherwise been an incredibly blah quilt. You may not agree with me, but I believe God is the original author of all good ideas. And that brings to mind one of my favourite Bible verses. 

"For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."
Jeremiah 29:11 NIV

GOD'S PLANS ARE ALWAYS BEST
I'm not talking about quilts here. Whether I had gone with the brown sashing or some other idea is really insignificant in the eternal scheme of things. But He does have a plan for each one of our lives. And His plans are always best. We may think we know best, and things may appear to be going better when following our own plans. But ultimately, if our plans do not agree with HIs, we will eventually meet with loss by following our own ideas, if not in this life, then in eternity. 
However, I will admit that it isn't always easy to discover God's plan for us. While He is trying to teach us valuable lessons, we are often too impatient to wait and proceed without His guidance. And then what? When we find ourselves down the "wrong road", is there any hope?
GOD ALWAYS HAS A PLAN 'B'
It's been my experience that even when I take a wrong turn, God is still patiently waiting for me to ask for His help. He may have to take me through an unpleasant detour because I've gotten so far off the track, but He can and will get me back, as long as I am willing to continue to follow Him. The verses following the one quoted above have this to say: 

"Then you will call on Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back..."
Jeremiah 29:12-14a NIV

Never fear to return to Him, even when you think you are too far gone. As the apostle Paul said, 

This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief.
1 Timothy 1:15 KJV

Tea Party

One time I was visiting the quilt shop in the "next town over", and found the sample for this table runner and placemat set and fell "in love" with the fabric. 

It features plates and teacups, and I asked if she (the shop owner) had any of the fabric in stock. No, but she did still have one of the kits left. So, I bought it, one of the few occasions that I bought a kit and also one of the few occasions that I bought fabric at full price. And ouch! It definitely wasn't cheap! But it did include the backing, so I was at least saved that expense. 
With the fair coming up, I wanted items to enter in the table runner and placemat classes, and I had little time left. Unfortunately, the placemats I'd made recently were only in sets of 3 (Cat Chow and Starlight), as I made them primarily for my main company: my daughter and grandson, plus me, of course. And I needed four to enter them in the placemat class. As this kit had 4 placemats and a table runner, plus the construction was fairly straightforward and could be completed relatively quickly, I decided to make this set. 
Disappointingly, I was not as thrilled with it as I had been in the store. I'm not sure if she had made them with the yellow fabric on the front instead of the back. 

But somehow, it just didn't thrill me like it had before. And there wasn't enough of the blue fabric to do the backing, so I couldn't switch it up. 

I quilted the set on the longarm, using the High Tea pantograph, which features teapots, teacups and cupcakes. 
It's pretty, but I still think I would have preferred the yellow on the front instead of the blue. The placemats won a second place ribbon at the fair and the table runner a third. Next year, I will have to wow the judges with a more elaborate design than this relatively simple set. If I choose to enter at all. Entering fairs can be a lot of work. 



 

A Couple of Projects from a "New" Book

 

I never know what treasures I might find in thrift stores. This book came from my local thrift store and it does have some unique and interesting gift ideas. In addition to patterns/instructions for the gifts, it also has patterns and templates for a number of 10" blocks. Unfortunately, the templates do not have seam allowance included, which I found rather frustrating. But I made a note in the block section of the book to remind me of this. 
My grandson was with me when I bought the book, and as I was perusing it once we got home, we discussed making the quilted shawl for my daughter. She had complained about the office at work being too cold and she was planning on knitting or crocheting a shawl to keep her warm when she's there. Knowing that she was trying to get her career on track and that she likely wouldn't get one done that quickly, I figured I could make this one for her and give it to her for her birthday. 

From the block "library" in the book, I selected the budding rose quilt block, as it looks good on point, something necessary for this project. So, I called the project the Budding Roses Shawl.

The block was a little bit challenging as it involved some "interesting" seams.

I'm not sure what you would call this: a double Y-seam? Or just 2 Y-seams quite close together. 

I edited this photo to show how I did it, lining up the orange seam first, followed by the fuschia and the lime green seams. 
With Damian's help, I chose the colours. Sophia's favourite colour is orange, so I decided on the peach colour for the background. She also likes colours in the teal/aqua family, so that is what I chose for the flowers. And I decided to do the flowers in solid fabrics as it would make choosing gradients of the same colour easier. 
I don't generally like the blocks in my projects to come right to the edges, as the binding often overlaps too much of the block and partially obscures it. So, I opted to add a 1" border with the background fabric. 

I've probably mentioned before that I am trying to use the many quilting pantographs I own that I haven't used before. So for most of my latest projects, that is what I have been doing. However, I couldn't find an unused pantograph that I felt suited this shawl, and opted for Tea Rose, a relatively simple but still very pretty design. Because the shawl has a minky backing, I didn't want to use a denser pantograph like Abstract Rose, which is probably my favourite floral pantograph. 
I'm not entirely thrilled with my block choice in this shawl, but overall, I still think it looks good.
I entered the shawl in the quilted clothing class in my local fair, where it won a first place ribbon. (I'm sure it helped that it didn't have any competition). And my daughter loves her shawl. 
As I was flipping through the pages of the book, I came across a pattern/idea for this Yuletide Stocking. As I knew that there was a Christmas stocking class in the bench show at the local fair, I decided to make one. 

The one in the book wasn't actually quilted, but I opted to do quilt as you go with my stocking. It was a good project to use some of the lace I have in my stash, most of which came from my mother's stash. And I have plenty of Christmas fabric in my stash as well. 

As the back of the stocking was not pieced, I just did diagonal lines for the quilting. Both the front and back were quilted on my domestic machine. 
Again, I was not entirely thrilled with the finished project. Because I added quilt batting, and a muslin faux backing for the quilting, which gave more bulk in the seams, it ended up narrower than I would have liked for a Christmas stocking. And the front didn't end up as pretty as I would have liked. It did, however, win a second place ribbon in the local fair (where it did have competition).  

Weather Alert

 

You've seen this quilt, partially finished, when I did my book review of Quilter's Scrap Pantry. Well, it's done now, and I'm so happy with it that I put a hanging sleeve on it and hung it on a wall. 
Weather Alert may seem like an odd name for a quilt, but when I started working on it in the summer of 2024, we were getting so many weather alerts and advisories that I was just hunkering down in my basement studio, working on this quilt. And so that's what I decided to call it. 
All of the fabrics used in this quilt top have been used in previous quilts, though don't ask me to remember what each of them are. I can recall some of them, but not all. I will say that the flying geese border is mostly made of scraps from the Family quilts I made. I wanted to include them all in the same border. 
And even the binding is scrappy. I have amassed quite a collection of binding scraps over the years, and I was glad to be able to use some of them here. 

For the quilting, I chose a variegated thread and a pantograph called Jungle Party. 
As I said, this one I'm keeping.