A little Christmas Sewing

Quilting on the Square had a free paper pieced block of the month program on their website - I don't think the patterns are available anymore. They were all compass blocks but I thought they would look pretty with Christmas fabric. So I made this for our foster grandmother.

I pieced this one but haven't quilted it yet.

I feel like they look like stars and work for Christmas.

Happy 2014!

Here's to a year of designing, creating, sewing, and finishing (fingers crossed)!

Life got in the way in 2013. And I'm sure that isn't going to change in 2014 - but I going to try to find a way to keep sewing even through the demands of life.

My 2013 To Do list is now my 2014 To Do List!

Have a great year everybody! 

Eastern Sunrise - Free Paper Piecing Pattern!!!

I've had a lot of requests for the pattern for my Eastern Sunrise Quilt and I thought what better time to release it than during Blogathon Canada! So if you're hopping here from one of the  lovely Ontario host bloggers Welcome! I'm Carol. I live in Toronto and have been quilting and blogging for close to 4 years now. 

I walked onto the train I was taking to work one day and a young girl's jacket caught my eye. I loved the lines and colors on it so I took out my little inspiration notebook that I always keep with me and sketched a little quilt block. I got home later and worked out this this paper piecing pattern. I started making the blocks and piecing them together and I got a lot of requests for the pattern. So here it is! 

You can download it for free here : Eastern Sunrise Quilt Block.

The block measures 7.5 inches finished and each copy of the pattern will give you one 7.5 inch block. Make some up and play with the placement. You can create different looks with this block. 

Here's the layout I chose. There's 4 in this one. 

And 20 here!
I make them and keep adding to my columns of bright rays!
You can have them go vertical.

Eastern Sunrise Quilt Top in Progress

 Or Horizontal.

Eastern Sunrise Quilt in Progress

If you make your own Eastern Sunrise I'd love to see it. 

Thanks for stopping by from Blogathon Canada!

Some Selvage Fun!

When I have my walking foot on my machine I try to get in a quick quilt-as-you-go project done before I have to change back to my presser foot.

Played around with selvages this time. 

Was not sure if I wanted to make a quilt out of it or just use this as a mug rug. So I didn't bind. We'll see. 

What's your method for Flying Geese?

I've was working on a few more blocks for my Whirl quilt the other day and I was getting a little frustrated with my Flying Geese! I don't know if it's because I cut some of the this fabric a while ago, or I didn't trim right, or if the bias is throwing me off ... a lot of them had to be let go. And I hate not being able to use something I've sewn up already.

What do you do when you make Flying Geese? How do you get them to be the same size and how do you make your points match?

Help!