Red and White Side By Side

 Each year I design a piece for Valentine's Day, usually the standard red and white with hearts. Sometimes I throw in a cupid, just for good measure.  A couple of weeks ago I started casting my mind around for what I would stitch this year.  On January 10, I saw this post from Charlie Angus on Face Book; it looked very much like a Valentine to me. In case that link doesn't work, here is the entire URL:

 https://www.facebook.com/charlieangus.the.resistance/posts/pfbid02UQpULVag6kLBeHNDhupWy3Ja2aBnRjkoJ7GbRtaXjr1y29pr6Lw6KgQAgoavrvnfl

I wanted the only obvious colours in my Valentine to be red and white so decided the background should be monochromatic.  I knew immediately I had a scrap in my stash that would be perfect for the background...but didn't realize how perfect until I hauled it out;  the selvedge revealed it was made by Stof of Denmark.  

The print was news clips from around the world and the text is in French.

I needed to tie together the elements of red and white and hearts so I made them into heart-shaped balloons:

The balloons are tiny and stitching took care.  The hardest was all those points on the maple leaf, as it measures less than 1-3/4" tall.

The flags are raw edge applique, and they were trapuntoed with an extra layer of batting so they would pop out on the background. 

For the main batting, I used a thin layer of Hobbs Thermore, which is lovely for a wall hanging.  The quilting is nothing fancy, as I didn't want it to show.  

Once the piece was quilted, a white cord was couched using white Aurifil 50 weight thread for the strings.

  I had just enough left of the black/grey used in the silhouette to make the binding.  The backing is a red and white stripe.

I photographed it this morning on a fresh bed of snow, a perfect backdrop for our countries.  I particularly like this photo as even though the white balance is off, it gives a blue cast to the snow in parts, making it look like a cloudy sky.

And that's my Valentine for 2026.

More Rhythmic

I had some good news a while back I have been slow to share, but here's an excerpt from the press release:

Paducah, Kentucky, USA – Amherst area quilter has been selected as a semi‐finalist for the 2015
AQS QuiltWeek® – Paducah, Kentucky, April 22‐25, 2015, at the Paducah Expo Center in Paducah,
Kentucky.
Karen Neary has been chosen to display the quilt, RHYTHMIC, along with 404 others in the annual
contest, now in its 31st year. Three quilting authorities will judge this elite group in Paducah,
awarding first‐, second‐, and third‐place prizes in 16 categories, along with nine overall awards.
Winners will be announced at the 31st AQS Awards Presentation, which takes place at the Carson
Four Rivers Center in Paducah at 5:30 p.m. on Tuesday, April 21. Cash awards totaling $125,000
will be granted, including $20,000 for the Janome Best of Show; $12,000 for the BERNINA Machine
Workmanship; $12,000 for the AQS Hand Workmanship; $12,000 for the APQS Longarm
Workmanship; and $5,000 for the Moda Best Wall Quilt. Regardless of how RHYTHMIC places in the final judging, all semi‐finalists’ quilts will be displayed at the show, which is expected to draw more than 30,000 people.

Rhythmic has had a very good year, and the pattern has been extremely well received.  I am thrilled to have this quilt as part of the AQS Paducah show.

The Power Of Purple

Remember my Rhythmic quilt?

The pattern has been selling like hotcakes and most of the quilts I've seen made from it have used the same colourway as the original. I have to tell you that my jaw dropped when I saw Elaine's version on her blog. Scroll down and prepare to be wowed!    

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Gor-geous!

Not only is her colour choice spectacular, her quilting is fabulous too.

Elaine writes this: "I am a music major from college so was intrigued by the name and I love circles and doing feather quilting.   Win! Win!   It was so striking I had intended to do it in red even though red is probably my least favorite color.   But.....since purple is my favorite color, I tried some different fabric swatches and decided the purple was gorgeous too."

 Look at the tiny grid quilting in the intersection of the blocks.  Patience!

I confess that this is one of my all time favourite designs and seeing it so well done is music to my heart.  The pattern for Rhythmic is widely available: it is distributed by Trend Tex Fabrics to quilt shops across Canada, including Mrs. Pugsley's Emporium  in Amherst. It is also available by snail mail from my website  or as an instant pdf download through Craftsy.  If you have made your own version of Rhythmic, I'd love a picture to show here on the blog.  A sincere thank you Elaine;  you really made my day!

Owls On A Date

I spent the afternoon at Mrs. Pugsley's Emporium.  It's been awhile since I've been in as life has been incredibly busy of late. I had a ball checking out all the new fabric collections, including this one from Stof called "Owls On A Date."  Having no previous knowledge of owl courting rituals, it was interesting to see their approach captured in fabric.  What a hoot!

I love how Mrs. P's does her Fat Quarters up in star bundles tied with personalized ribbon.  That's such a nice touch.  

Hmmm...if you are a young night owl, I wonder how late you are allowed to stay out?

Taylor And Her Quilt

Here's an update on Taylor's quilt;  I really appreciate that her Mom and great-grandmother allowed me to share this photo.  First off, look at this sweet baby who is only a little over a month old - it's amazing how bright and active she is!

That aside, from my perspective there are a lot of things I like about this picture.  For starters, not only is the quilt being used, it's on the floor.  I love that. Think about it:  when you put a quilt on top of a baby to sleep, do they ever get to see it?  Taylor can play on this and when she rolls over - as she will do soon enough - will be able to look at lots of bright colours, and her name.  The quilt can be machine washed and dried, no problem, so when it needs to go back on her bed it's all good.  I could not be happier it is being used as intended.
Secondly...there's a very content looking cat in the photo :)  Mia is only a couple of months older than Taylor and has been welcomed in to the same family.  It's all good!
Thank you Jacklyn and Nancy for sharing the picture.

A Scattered Week

The wind is blowing a gale outside and with two cats in the house, I knew that even before I opened my eyelids this morning.  Gram always said the cats go crazy when there is wind and Polly is a wild woman today... she`s been into everything. 

Perhaps the wind scattered my week as well as it's certainly been off in many directions.  I had a great time at Mrs Pugsley's Emporium on Wednesday;  it was her first drop-in sewing day and it was a roaring success. I expect that will become a regular event as everyone had a very fun time.  (Linda S., thank you for the reminder to take my camera;  I did...but do you think I remembered to take any pictures?!) Yesterday I spent way too much time tracking down the perfect box in which to ship quilts and patterns...but I found it!  I am beyond delighted to say that my Quilt Of Learning and Rhythmic are both headed to Spring Quilt Market in Pittsburgh.  Both were made using Stof fabrics and they will be displayed in the Stof booth at Market. These are the two quilts:

It`s no small honour to have my quilts go and I am really pleased that there was opportunity to show both of them first here in Amherst, Nova Scotia.  They've been on display for the past month at Mrs. Pugsley`s Emporium.

I am home today waiting for UPS to come pick up the box.

While I wait, I will stitch on the latest design.  This will be the last I can show of it for awhile as I am pleased to say it will appear in the fall issue of Quilter`s Connection magazine, Canada`s premier quilting publication.

Look at Polly:  ears up, eyes intently focused, killer instinct engaged.. Be careful Maddie, I think she`s ready for another round!

Taylor's Quilt

The second of the baby quilts has been lovingly delivered and gleefully received.

I used the same selection of pre-cuts of Stof fabrics as in The Quilt Of Learning (Peppered Shadow Brights Maple Roll (2-1/2" strips). To get a random placement of colours in the blocks, I cut the strips into several shorter sections and shuffled them around a bit.The short strips were sewn together in pairs and then cut into 2-1/2" sections. This is much easier and faster than working with individual squares.

These 2-1/2"sections were sewn into 4 patch blocks which finish to 4".

  

The blocks were laid out 9 across and 8 down to give an unfinished measurement of 36-1/2" wide x 24-1/2" long. 

Stof Quilter's Shadow fabrics in yellow and red were used for the trim;  a yellow 6-1/2" x 36-1/2" was sandwiched between 2 red 3-1/2" x 36-1/2" strips.  Another 3-1/2" x 36-1/2"red strip was added across the bottom of the quilt. Letters from the Quilt Of Learning pattern spelled Taylor's name in red and purple.

Machine blanket stitch was worked in black thread around the letters.

The quilting was fun - lines and squiggles and curves.  I can picture giggles when she sees her quilt smiling back at her in the letter O.

 The squares were simply quilted in a continuous curve over the body of the quilt.

Choosing a thread colour made me pause for a moment, but I finally decided on a soft yellow 50 weight cotton (good and sturdy).

On the back I used a super soft flannel with little yellow ducks, and finished it off with a red binding.  I am told that month-old Taylor's favourite colour is red.
(If you are wondering about the strange watermark on the bottom of the photos...well so am I! Photoshop appears to be speaking Greek today!)

Unfortunately I didn't have this finished when Taylor came to visit us last week, but her Papa and GG have it now;  it will remain with them as a special quilt for Taylor for when she visits her great-grandparents.

  

The Quilt Of Learning

Yay- my new quilt is ready to share on International Quilt Day!  I've been challenging myself to see what I could make with pre-cuts of Stof fabrics from Trend-Tex.  Using one Maple Roll (2-1/2" strips), one Maple Cake (10" squares) and one metre of fabric here's what I came up with:

Every colour of the rainbow is included in the "Brights" selection of pre-cuts and it was a snap to put together this very simple quilt.  The extra large size (54" x 62") allows the quilt to grow with the child, and is a great size for a lap quilt, or a nap quilt to take to Nana's.  If you added a border, the quilt could easily be made to fit a twin bed.  The pattern includes all the letters and numbers full sized and already reversed for tracing directly onto the fusible web.It couldn't be easier!

There was fabric enough to make this matching big-block pillow, which is shown here on an antique wicker rocker from the 1920's.  It belonged to my Mom.  I chose letters to spell BABY but it could easily be personalized with your child's name or initials.

The pillow itself would make a fun baby gift.

I named this piece The Quilt Of Learning because that's what it's all about.  

Your child will learn:

• the alphabet
• numbers
• colours

I learned:

• working with pre-cuts is totally painless (brainless!) and a big time saver.
• the Maple Roll strips are a perfect width for French-fold double binding - so nice to have the binding all cut and ready to sew.  
• The strips from Trend-Tex are laser cut with smooth edges, not pinked, so they are not linty like some of the other pre-cuts on the market.  That's important for those of us who have issues with cotton allergies...It also meant my machine was not clogged with fibres.
• that I have a huge thread stash including many bright colours ...except yellow.   My only yellow on hand was a pale, straw colour (which actually looked fine on the block). I will be shopping for yellow threads!

I used my favourite wool batting and did a continuous curve around each letter, then feathered the curve.  This makes for a nice puffy, cuddly quilt.  I outlined each letter using a machine blanket stitch and black thread to make them stand out. 

Leftover strips were joined end to end to make the rainbow binding.

Maddie was quite taken with the quilt...but I am not sure what he learned from it.

Surprisingly, the bear didn't interest him at all.

I am grateful to Cheryl Coville for her help in editing and checking the instructions. The pattern is available in print form from my website  or as an instant pdf download .  I am also pleased to say that the pattern will be distributed by Trend-Tex Fabrics and available at quilt shops across the country. Please ask at your local quilt store.  Patterns and fabrics are already in stock and ready to go at Mrs. Pugsley's Emporium where the quilt is on display.  I am off there now to check out her yellow thread...

Happy quilting to all!

Almost There!

Here's a sneak peek at the quilt I am making from the Maple Rolls and Maple Cakes.  There are a few loose (thread) ends to tie up yet and then I'll show the complete set.  What a pleasure to work with such bright, happy colours!

AFK

This week we were away to the big city (Halifax) for a few days as hubby was presented with a long service award from the N.S. government.  It was a lovely service, and very cool to meet our premier Stephen McNeil.  We decided to stay on for a couple of days enjoying the bright lights and delights of the metro area. We dined, shopped, visited friends, and went skating one evening on the Emera Oval.  (Look out Rideau Canal, you're next on the list *-)

Despite the temperature being in the -20's (plus a windchill to make it worse!) it was very enjoyable.  A funny thing took place here while we were gone which I will tell you about as soon as I get myself caught up a bit (it's a cat story of course!)  The past two weeks have been wonderful but have put me way off schedule with work.  I am finishing up the Quilt Of Learning and hope to show that to you soon.