Jaclyn Quilts

do. Good Stitches – May

It’s my turn to host do. Good Stitches Joy group this month and after last month’s doozy of a block I decided to stick with something really simple but fun!

When I’m in a bee I like to harness the power of the collaborative approach and make something that is even better when multiple people contribute, I tend to shy away from blocks that will all turn out the same.

I decided to do this modified bento from Film in the Fridge. I want it to be bright and cheerful so asked my bee mates to use pink, purple, green and yellow, a mixture of prints and solids.

Here are the two blocks I did up as a starting point:

I can’t wait to slice and recombine these bright blocks.

Tags: do. Good Stitches

Comments 2 Comments
Categories Charity, Quilting Bee

For My Baby Girl

28 Apr

It seems like just yesterday we were taking these photos with our baby girl:

Before she was born we were in the middle of major renovations and although she wasn’t exceptionally early we were expecting her to wait another two weeks or so. Her quilt was all planned and organized, just like I had done for all the babies in my life, but, unlike all those other babies, hers didn’t get completed before she was born. And then it sat, always at the bottom of my priority list. I decided I wanted to have it done for her first birthday so I started focusing on it whenever I could.

And then our little girl turned one…still without a quilt.

The longer it took me the more I started to reflect on our first year. When I got to the quilting stage I was tempted to rush through it and just put a few lines around the seams, but I wanted it to be something I would be proud of. It’s certainly not perfect, but it truly came from my heart. I found it near impossible to work on without tearing up and thinking about how lucky I am to have such a bright and happy daughter.

So here are some photos of Addie’s quilt, the first of many I am sure.

I fell in love with the fabric on the back before she was born. I love the sweet animals and the pop of colour on the mushrooms.

The quilting is 1/4” apart (approx) in all the white areas. I didn’t measure, I just followed the lines roughly. I didn’t want it to be too fussy.

I love how the quilting gave it such delicious texture.

And here is a photo of the quilt in her room.

Comments 7 Comments
Categories Finished Projects

Block Catch Up

25 Apr

Well…April kind of got away from me. I guess starting a new job and transitioning a baby to full time daycare will do that to a person.

I hate dragging out bee block commitments to the bitter end, but here I am posting about my blocks on the 25th of the month. At least they were mailed today and both within Canada so they should arrive by the end of the month.

For do. Good Stitches Joy group we did an interlocking block design from Parfait Cafe called Interlocking Seasons. We were asked to use fabric in pinks, purples and peaches with a solid white background. The construction is a little tricky and I struggled with the center square (as did many of my group-mates) – hopefully the bubbles will come out with quilting and washing.

For the Simply Solids Bee we were asked to make a Butterfly block that was actually designed by this month’s host. The pattern can be found here. I decided to do a dark purple background and use the turquoise inspiration fabric provided to build a little ombre (with a pop of course).

This weekend a group of us from the Saskatoon Modern Quilt Guild are headed to the Moose Jaw Quilt show, and then we have our meeting on Sunday. I’m hoping I have time to finish the binding on Addie’s quilt somewhere in there so I can finally share it here.

Tags: do. Good Stitches, Simply Solids Bee

Comments 3 Comments
Categories Quilting Bee

WIP Progress–March 2013

31 Mar

March was a very busy month for us. My daughter started daycare, I solidified my work plans (I start working full time April 15), I did some contract work and we had a first birthday to celebrate (more on that to come). So between all the personal stuff and the Saskatoon Modern Quilt Guild business this month I didn’t get as much done as I would have liked.

Previous WIP update for reference.

1. Skill Builder BOM at Pile O’ Fabric

Not started. I’m actually still really sad about this because I keep pushing it to the bottom of the pile but then I see all the finished blocks and wish I was making progress. I’m going to dedicate at least 2 nights this month to this project. Hopefully more, but at least 2.

2. Lucky Stars BOM at Don’t Call me Betsy

Still have not done the March block and April comes out tomorrow. I’ll spend an evening this month getting both finished. No change from last month.

3. Zig Zag Quilt for Addie

I was SO close to getting this done first her birthday. Once I decided what kind of quilting I wanted I realized that it was going to take some time. I could have done less and finished it but I decided to do it right. The result is about 4 more hours of quilting to go and then binding. I also still need to decide if I’ll do the binding light pink or light grey. Thoughts?

4. Simply Solids: a modern {bee} at Sew at Home Mommy

I am up to date with blocks for others. I just received my fabric for the April block on Thursday so I will get it done this week.

I am STILL waiting on one block for mine so I might just charge ahead without it.

5. Small Private Bee

I received fabric to make two blocks for another bee mate, they will be garden fence blocks. I hope to get them done this week.

6. Postage Stamp Quilt for my nephew – No progress

7. Handstiched Camp Quilt – No progress

8. Waiting for Spring Block-a-palooza – No progress

9. Patchwork Squared Modern Solids Quilt-a-long – No progress

10. Name tag for the Saskatoon Modern Quilt Guild – No Progress

11. do. Good Stitches Charity Bee

I am up to date on this as well!

Here are my March blocks:

We just received instructions for the April blocks. Also May is my month to quilt so I will need to come up with my idea by the end of the month.

12. Quilt for baby V – No Progress. Still waiting to hear on some colour direction.

13. Saskatoon Modern Quilt Guild Colour Challenge

I pulled my fabric. Now to get started! I have until the 28th to get it done.

New Additions:

14. Charity quilt for the Saskatoon Modern Quilt Guild

One of our lovely members donated a FQ stack of fabric, so we all got 5 fat eights to make two 12.5” blocks for a charity project. Here is my fabric:

All things considered not a terrible month. I also finished the blanket for Ava which wasn’t even on my WIP list, made a trading card for my sewing buddy, and spent a bunch of time working in my sewing room putting the finishing touches on my organization.

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Categories Charity, Finished Projects, Quilt along, Quilting Bee, SaskatoonMQG, WIP

A Little Something for a Little Miss

25 Mar

My wonderful friend Lindsay, the talent behind the Saskatoon Modern Quilt Guild logo, proposed we trade services a few months ago. I was looking for a new website header/logo (errr make that a website header/logo), and she wanted a blanket for her daughter and was in love with a specific fabric. Naturally the best thing to do was to trade talents.

Lindsay wanted the front to be Dan Stiles Safari Soiree, specifically the cheater print, and wanted her daughters name on it somehow. She choose a nice orange for the back. This isn’t so much a quilt as a blanket so it came together pretty quickly.

Here is the front:

And the back:

I chose turquoise for the lettering and used Elizabeth Hartman of Oh Fransson’s Refrigerator Magnet Pattern, the 5” size. I was very happy I was spelling Ava and not Stephanie…

In retrospect I should have made the letters larger by printing the pattern at 150% of so, I also wish they had less of a center placement. I was going for offset but the are almost centered. The problem came when I was squaring up the top. The cheater print itself was not square which caused me no end of misery. Live and learn! Next time I would put a border around the front and do adjustments within it so that it wouldn’t be as obvious to the eye.

I hope Ava enjoys snuggling with her new blanket.

Tags: Gift

Comments 2 Comments
Categories Gifts

Meet: My Machine! The Janome Horizon 7700 QCP

18 Mar

Today is my turn in the “Meet: My Machine!” blog hop hosted by Sew at Home Mummy and The Tilted Quilt.

The Tilted Quilt meet My Machine Linky Party

If you’re joining me from a hop link welcome to my blog, it’s really nice to have you here! My name is Jaclyn and I’ve spent the last 12 months at home with my daughter (thank you Canada for 1 year maternity leave). My sewing took a bit of a back seat to baby care but I’ve recently increased my sewing a lot in an effort to carve out more time for myself. Life is about to change again as I prepare to head back to my other life as an accountant during the day and transition Addie to full time daycare. I’m also co-chair of the Saskatoon Modern Quilt Guild which keeps me very busy.

Here is me and my girl just before Christmas (yep, we’re a little crazy!):

And here she is again approaching her first birthday (which is on the 25th of March):

So I bet you want to learn more about my sewing machine?

This is not the first time I have written about my machine, the Janome Horizon 7700 QCP. I wrote a blog post shortly after I got it two years ago. A lot has changed since then so I thought it would be fun to participate in this blog hop and update my thoughts on my machine. Janome Horizon 7700 is still the #1 search term that lands people on my blog.

So here we go!

My Current Machine: As I said I replaced my 1980s Kenmore with the Janome Horizon 7700 QCP about 2 years ago. After a year of sewing I had proven to myself that it was a hobby I was going to stick with, so I wanted a dedicated quilting machine. There isn’t much to say about why I chose the Horizon, I had heard many great things and it had all the features I wanted (large throat, auto needle down, auto thread cutter and table extension to name a few), so eventually my husband relented and let me buy it.

My Favourite Accessory: Hard to say! I love that this machine comes with a ton of feet including a built in walking foot. I love the extension table for working on large projects, and I love the knee lifter (lifts the presser foot hands free!). In terms of things I bought that did not come with the machine I’d say my favourite is my Queen Supreme Slider, it makes FMQ so much easier (and I am a total FMQ beginner).

Personalization: I am a type A purist. I don’t like mucking things up so I have no stickers or anything on my machine, she’s as clean and perfect as the day I bought her. And she doesn’t have a name either.

Favourite Features: There is some overlap here with accessories. I love the free arm for the little bit of clothing construction I do. Needle down is a MUST in my opinion if you do any quilting, I use it all the time, and can’t imagine not having it. The auto thread cutter is a great feature and saves tons of time and thread. I also love the single hole needle plate. For any straight stitching it really helps stabilize the fabric and keeps things moving smoothly, I use it all the time.

What could be better: Well, a few things actually. For one I am still having problems with the auto thread cutter. I have tried everything to get it to stop bunching and for now I am still running a leader through most of the time (kind of negates the feature I love so much). I have had many people tell me how to fix it, or that I am doing something wrong, but after having multiple people try it I know it is a problem with the machine. I’ve recently been put in contact with a repair guru who should be able to fix it (he agrees it’s a problem with the setting that holds the thread under the needle plate after it’s been cut) – and so I hope when I don’t need my machine for a week or so I can get it fixed. Another small annoyance is that the machine resets to default settings every time it is turned off, I wish it would stay on the setting that I last used so that I can pick up where I left off without a bunch of button pushing.

Sewing Space: I have some updates to come! You can see a preview on the first photo in this post. Regular readers will know my room is a bit of a work in progress and so I hope to share a full update in the coming weeks.

Thanks for stopping by to learn a little more about my machine.

Visit the other hoppers or join the link-up party at The Tilted Quilt!

SUNDAY, MARCH 17

Erin @ Sew at Home Mummy

Angela @ Heart of Charnwood

Shannon @ Crafty Turtle

Amy @ Stitchery Dickory Dock

MONDAY, MARCH 18

Ebony @ Love Bug Studios

Jaclyn @ Jaclyn Quilts

Amy @ Diary of a Quilter

TUESDAY, MARCH 19

Kara@ Me and Elna

Beth @ Plum and June

Nerissa @ Nissa Made

Elizabeth @ Don’t Call Me Betsy

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 20

Carly @ Citric Sugar

Celine @ Espritpatch

Patti @ A Yankee in Queen Liz’s Court

THURSDAY, MARCH 21

Stacey @ The Tilted Quilt

The Jolly Jabber Staff (Chelsey, Kimberly, Debbie)

Rachel @ Sew Happily Ever After!

FRIDAY, MARCH 22

Erika @ Sews it All

Lisa @ Vintage Modern Quilts

Adrianne @ On the Windy Side

Tags: Janome Horizon 7700, Meet: My Machine!

Comments 42 Comments
Categories Blog Hop, Sewing Machine, Sewing Space

Coming next Monday

12 Mar

Next week I’m participating in the Meet: My Machine! Blog Hop. Hosted by the lovely Erin of Sew at Home Mummy and Stacey of The Tilted Quilt. I’ll be sharing pictures of my sewing space, myself and my family all while I talk a little bit about my sewing machine, the Janome Horizon 7700.

The line-up is a mix of skill levels and machines and it promises to be a lot of fun (my Saskatoon Modern Quilt Guild co-conspirator Carly of Citric Sugar is participating too!). I encourage you to check out the other hoppers throughout next week.

Here is a list of what you can expect, my post will be up on Monday.