Maritime Beauty...

and what a beauty this pattern is.....by designer.. Karen Neary from Nova Scotia. I had this project on my to-do list since October last year. I bought it at the workshop I had attended by Karen and looked at it, I can almost bet, every month, wanting to get to it. You know when you have a bit of anxiety when faced with a new procedure in a quilt project? Well I admit that was the reason I kept putting it off. Then one day, I was visiting Karen's site and I saw the Maritime Beauty made by Linda . I left her a comment and she e-mailed me back saying how much fun she had making it. So with that inspiration the fear left me and here is my first Maritime Beauty I made it into a runner for a specific table.
and I used the last of my Birchwood lane fabric! ( I really don't know what I was thinking when I purchased all that fabric. There just didn't seem to be an end to it)

I love my table runner and I am looking at ways to quilt it. I will post it again when I have it all done! The pattern is so easy to follow and fun to make. Every time I have made a paper piecing project I have really enjoyed it yet I go through that element of anxiety before attempting it.

Speaking of quilting...the CGQC theme for the next two months is

I have very limited experience with this topic as I have my faithful friend, Agnes, who looks after all the hand quilting on my big projects. I am so grateful to her for all the wonderful work she does on my quilts and it is inspiring me to do some hand quilting. I have made this a goal ..."to learn how to hand quilt properly". ..more experienced quilters tell me ... 9 stitches to the inch?..

I am reading books...
and enjoying all the designs one can make on a quilt..wow!

I especially like to visit the Amish Quilt site and look at the stitching close up.. wow!

I am also venturing into machine quilting although I am not into long arm quilting, just standard machine quilting.. I enjoy doing the stippling but again the element of fear has stopped me from going further into the free motion quilting. That is why I signed up for the

So that is where I am at with the quilting and my hope is that I will one day do all the quilting on my projects........

Yesterday being a holiday .. I picked up a new project
I choose the "Buggy Barn".... "Folk Art" Fabric...

and cut all my pieces...

then as the evening wore off I relaxed with a good "new"book


and what a book it is.. and another Canadian designer ....Cheryl Wall....

My goal is to make each and everyone of the quilts in this book. I was inspired to do this by our friend CG Darlene who made all the projects in the Schnibbles Times Two and since she challenged herself to do that I have been waiting for a book that would let me set that exact same goal. I found it!!!

When I told hubby about my goal he said, "So that would be, what, a two year project?" My answer, "no deadline just one project at a time"!