Salsa Nights 3

Paper piecing allows for clean details

 Now all the blocks from Salsa Nights are added to the design wall.  The main blocks are 12", and you can see the row above and below which is the row made up of the paper pieced block joined with the cornerstones. between each of the blocks is also a block made up from the paper pieced blocks.  Now to sew all the rows together to create the quilt top.

On the Design Wal

6 blocks

Salsa Nights part 2

 As I mentioned in the previous post there were various techniques that were learned during this process.  The big learning in this was learning how to paper piece.  This technique has you lining up each piece of fabric with a paper pattern and sewing on the lines.  The purpose of this is to give you great points on your triangles without having to attempting to have the seams line up.  Sound like it should be an easy way to sew if you are sewing on lines - right?  Well in the end it does make it easier, but the process was very challenging for me.  It does help to take a class and practice the technique a bit to get the hang of it.  For good instructions on how to paper piece here is a link: bellaonline,

perfect points

I really liked the colours that were used in this quilt.  When I chose this quilt I had my oldest son in mind for the quilt knowing he would enjoy the colours used in it, had I known that the finishing kit for this included paper piecing I may not have so eagerly ventured on.  As I work outside the home time is not in abundance for quilting, thus this quilt has taken me quite a long time to complete.  After I had completed the 12 blocks over the year I then launched into the finishing kit.  The first few instructions included Block A - Cornerstone - make 20.  Triangle Sashing - Unit A - make 31 (seven step process), Unit B - make 31 (six step process).  Ooops, this will take awhile, stay tuned...

Block of the Month - Salsa Nights

I've done several quilts using Block of the Month - through a store that has provided an efficient and economical method.  This isn't true of all Block of the Month programs, many are quite expensive.

Block of the Month is a measured way to complete a quilt.  There are many offerings available from quilt shops and internet shops.  As the name indicates you complete one block of a quilt each month.  Several years ago I started the program with Along Came Quilting in Calgary.  On the third Saturday of each month many of us would pickup our block kit containing the instructions and fabric to be completed for that month.  On the third Saturday of the following month we would return with the completed block to show that we were keeping up with the program, then pick up the next block kit.  At the end of the year we had 12 blocks that we could put together to create the quilt.  An earlier blog post entitled My Second Quilt features my first quilt titled Tropical Breeze was completed this way.

Another year I worked on Salsa Nights, there are a few blog posts that will feature some techniques I learned to complete (or almost complete) this one.

Christmas Quilt from fabric panel

Since I began to quilt I have wanted to incorporate embroidery into my projects.  Last year I was fortunate enough to finally save up enough money to buy myself an embroidery machine.  After practicing for some time I felt adequate enough to bring quilting and embroidery together.

A snowflake embroidered on the quilt

A beautiful cardinal and the emboridery

The project I chose was a lap quilt using a wintry print and adding snowflake embroidery.  My Mom loves Cardinals (Fred: "the birds not the catholics") and the material had a lovely cardinal as part of the pattern.  This came from a panel of material.  This is a very creative way of taking a piece of material using it productively for a great end product.

I actually started this during the summer when we were camping - I take my sewing machine away with us and work on some of my projects in our trailer.  You can read about some of our camping trips here.  It was wonderfully satisfying to see this come together nicely.

Christmas gift 2010

The quilt

Embroidery on the edge