Phires Compass, a finished quilt

Hello Everyone,

It's starting to feel a bit like Fall these past few days. Cool and cloudy. Lots of rain in the mtns, so hopefully it has helped to put out some fires.

I've been working on this Phires Compass quilt for the past month or so. I've finally finished it. I started it here, a bit over a year ago.

This is a modified version of the pattern Phires Radiance, designed by Jessica J.E Smith. I am not sure where you can find the Phires Compass pattern, she designed it for Northcott fabrics and I can't find a pattern for it, as it was made back in 2009.  But they are just a little bit different, so if you like this pattern, get the Phires Radiance pattern and have fun with it.

I found a busy backing for it, the colors are fairly matchy, so I think it works well. And I bound it with the same yellow. (Doesn't the picture above make it look like the slice of an orange or grapefruit?)

This is the third one that I've made, but the only one I've quilted!! LOL

My boys were helping me out, and the youngest decided he had to peak over the top and be in the picture :)

Hope you all have a great week!

Some quilty progress

Hello Everyone,

I hope your Summer (winter) is going well. It's been beautiful here. Highs haven't gotten out of the 80s! Which is just soooo nice, as usually we are roasting by now. I see that our temps are going to go up this week though, so I guess our hot summer has begun.

I've been working on getting my Phires Compass top quilted up. I tell myself every year "this is the year to get lots of quilting done" and it just doesn't happen. This is my second quilt this year that I am quilting, but I have 3 more in progress of being made, and I have added at least 2 more tops to my 'to quilt' pile. I'll never see the end of that pile at this rate ;)  

Looking at the link for this quilt, I realized I never showed you a finished top...hmm, I'll make sure to take pictures once the top is quilted :) But here you can see the progress I am making on quilting it.

I'm doing lots of flowers, leaves, swirls and loops. I have done a few new-to-me loopy designs that I got from Lori Kennedy. I have her first book, and I really like it. I follower her blog too and have learned many different quilting motifs. I'm practicing lots on this quilt, which is the best way to practice for me. on a quilt top ;)

I have these two lovely piles of scrappy goodness, waiting to be put into a  quilt top. These are the Irish stars and chain blocks.

I'll be putting these together soon.

Have a great day! Stay cool... or warm...

Phire's Compass

Hello All,

Friday was one of those days that I just needed to grab a pattern, some pretty fabrics and start cutting. One of those times where I didn't want to think, just to cut and sew.... Unfortantley I could not do anything about it until Sat.

So on Sat I pulled out my Phires Compass pattern. That I was so thrilled to test!! It is a pattern that Jessica J.E. Smith designed for Northcott fabrics back in 2010. I looked on the Northcott site and found it in the archived patterns. I don't know if you can still buy it anywhere. This is the one I made back then.

BUT, Jess changed it a bit and made it into a mystery quilt. You CAN find that pattern, here under Phires Radiance. It has the same middle, but different borders.

SO, anyways, I pulled fabrics... I have enough of the red and green for the middle, but will have to buy similar fabics to do the border.

I love to play with pretty fabrics :) 

     You have to be very careful when you play with diamond shapes, as like triangles, they are very  stretchy and can easily be taken out of shape. You PRESS, never iron, the sawing motion will distort   them.

I'll show you more soon! I'm excited about using these fabrics in this pattern. It's such a cool pattern!

Mystery quilts

Hello out there in blog land!

As most of you know, I am a member of the Quilt and Needle Forum. And if you don't know how wonderful Jess's (owner of the Q&N) mystery quilts are,  then take a gander at some of her previous mysteries.

Phires Compass, mystery quilt 2099 by Jessica Smith

Misty Irish Morning, by Jessica Smith, mystery quilt Summer 2009

A Star in Storm, by Jessica Smith, mystery quilt 2008

I am LUCKY enough to test for Ms Jess. And I just love all her patterns. These are a few of the ones I made, while testing. Mystery weekends are lots of fun!

And the reason I am pointing this out to you, is because March 19th and 20th is the NEXT mystery weekend. WOOHOO! It's also the annual quilters retreat (you can read about it here). I've never been able to make it, but they have lots of fun. And Jess always has a mystery quilt for us all to make, whether we are there or not.

We would love for you to come and join us on the forum.

Thanks for stopping by, Dorian