Saturday, 15 March 2025

Looking For Yellow

My back is somewhat better (thank you for all your good wishes), so I was able to sew a little this week. But first ....


What's in the bag? Last week, Carole brought me two more scrap bags. I wanted to see if there was some yellow in there. Want to see? 

I pulled out many bags from the first bag. The second one is the "A" bag. The H&M bag is full of small scraps. 

This is the loot from the purple bag. Lots of pink on the right. It will surely topped my pink scrap basket. The batting in the middle is not the kind I'm use to. It feels like it's for stuffing pillows or something. 

Just a little bit of yellow was found. I flipped the pink bag so you can see the other side. You're welcome. 

This piece is sewn. They used to do this when the manufacturers got at the end of the huge roll. They sewn the edges flat together and just kept rolling it in bolt. This was done a very long time ago so this fabric must be vintage. 

The "A" bag had lots of scraps, I mean lots of scraps but I also got a very good chunk of purple cotton and a yellow and grey fabric out of it. The pink one is textured and not made of cotton. It will go to the thrift store. 

It also had the leftover of a farmer theme quilt. It will probably go to the thrift store too. 

But my favourite are these pieces. Meow! 



Yellow, Yellow on the wall,
Tell me if I've accomplished anything at all.


I worked with the gold scraps and a little bit with yellow.  

Oh! My! Burning toasts! What happened to the geese? They are flying in all direction. They must have seen a squirrel or two coming out of those bags. 😄 Or the cat! 

They were reunited with their flock the next evening. 😊


Three blocks for the April Fool quilt were also made. Seven more to go. 


At the retreat, Mary did a little needle book for each one of us. Isn't it pretty. I'm using it daily and yet forgot to mention it here. So, here it is. Thanks again, Mary. 💗




We had some warm weather lately. We know it won't last but it is still nice to have a "Spring feeling" at this time of the year. 
That's all I have for now. Have a great week everyone. 

Enjoy! 
;^)


I will visit these talented ladies over the weekend. Hope to catch you there. 
Angela at So Scrappy
Frédérique at Patchwork and Quilts
Cynthia for Oh Scrap!
Alycia for Finished or NOT Finished Friday
Nina Marie at Creations - Quilts, Art, Whatever







Saturday, 8 March 2025

Not Very Productive

Does un-stitching count as productivity? I did more of that than sewing itself. My back is acting up this week and I did what I could instead of what I wanted. 😑

Helene gave me lots of flannelette (see this post) along with receiving blankets she had made by zigzagging the folded edges of the fabric …




… I decided to undo one. I want to use it for the backing of this top. 


It's not a perfect match but it is much better than what I could come up with from my stash. Bonus, it is big enough so no pieced-backing for this one. So, un-stitching happened. 


While I put my things from the retreat back in the sewing room, I found a mysterious (read forgot I had) box. Old string blocks were hiding in there. 

They were made with my mother's white sheets instead of paper. It makes the seams very thick. Not gonna do that again, so no blocks will be added. It's 24 X 37 inches. 


Oops! Let's try again. 

Ta-dah! It is now a top and one box is in the recycling bin. Whoop Whoop for decluttering. Thanks, Joy, for putting me back on track. 😊


March is called Yellow this year. These are my yellow bags. 

One bag is yellow with lively colours, one I call "gold", and the regular yellow is the biggest one. That's all. No scrap basket for this colour ... yet. Two FQs were found in a gifted bag. I added these to the "big" yellow scraps pile. 

Carole will come by today with 2 more bags of fabric. I'll try to hunt the yellow out of them. Will see how that goes. 

Like I said, not very productive but some forward motion was accomplished. So, YAY for that. 

Hope you are well and sew happily. 

Have a great week. Enjoy! 
;^)



I will visit these talented ladies over the weekend. Hope to catch you there. 
Angela at So Scrappy
Frédérique at Patchwork and Quilts
Cynthia for Oh Scrap!






Saturday, 1 March 2025

Let Us Sew, Let Us Sew, Let Us Sew - Part 2

What did I do at the retreat? I slept! We, Lucie and I, got there on Friday around 5p.m. We said hello to everyone, had a quick bite, unpack our personal things in our respective bedrooms and set up our machines. Then came Saturday morning, it was sewing time. By 7p.m. on Saturday, I was a walking zombie. So, I went and laid down for a short nap. I woke up at 5a.m. Sunday morning. Still fully dressed. Slept for 10 hours straight. I needed this so much. But, sew, I did.


Blue RSC block named Flying Home. 

Do you like the white geese all going in the same direction? 

Or as in this picture where the blue blocks have the smallest geese touching? The girls had very different reasons for picking one or the other. Now I would like to know yours, please. 


Blue RSC blocks named April Fool.

One more blue block is required for this quilt. The orange one is the fabric I bought. I like how this layout forms a "wave" with the white "V". Like a zig zag or chevron. 



I brought Spinner along to sew it into a top. It didn't happen because one block still has the stains. I was sure these were all fixed. I took the time to layout the blocks and sew them two by two. Some un-sewing will happen this weekend. 

Remember this little block I did due to a SHIB

Well, it isn't alone anymore. Five more blocks needed for a little baby quilt. I didn't have enough of the medium blue polka-dot so the centre is a dark blue polka-dot. It happens. 


Blue crumb blocks were assembled 

some are not completed or trimmed. 

More crumb blocks were made with white fabric for the Stained Glass quilt. 
I have enough to finish 6 blocks with these not-trimmed triangles. 

Here's the new project I've been cutting, cutting and cutting for 2 weeks prior to the retreat. 

It's Plaid-ish. I need to pay attention to the values as some are not quite as "medium" as they need to be. It will be interesting to sew all these blocks together with the skinny strip matching up with the next one. Oh boy! 😳


I want to share this with you. I don't remember seeing this before. I got this strip of fabric from someone. It was sewn together to make it longer. I wanted to use it for the binding of the pink scrap basket. When I turned the strip over to cut it . . . 


I had a surprise. Haha! Same print, different company, I guess. Now, we know. If you go back up, you might notice that the white swirls on the right strip are thicker than the left one. You didn't notice it the first time did you? Me either. 


Scrap shelves. 😁



Now drum roll, please. How did I do with the blue scraps in February? 
The before pictures: 



The end of the month pictures: 


I am surprised by the result. I did refold the fabric in the basket on the right but I thought I had added much more to the darker basket. Of course, I used a lot too. The plastic bags were emptied into a bigger bag to bring to the retreat and I came back with some more but still . . . I'm happy! 


Raven is sticking to me like a flea to a dog. His back is much better. He can finally jump on the couch by himself. Depending on the day/weather, climbing the stairs can be tricky for him still. Too many steps I guess, as the couch, it's only one jump. Here, he's pretending to be asleep on my red chair in the sewing room. 


Angela called Yellow for March. I'll gather the bags up and show you what I have to work with next weekend. 
Have a great one. 
;^)


I will visit these talented ladies over the weekend. Hope to catch you there. 
Angela at So Scrappy
Frédérique at Patchwork and Quilts
Cynthia for Oh Scrap



♫ ♪ Let Us Sew, Let Us Sew, Let Us Sew ♪ ♫

I'm back from the retreat and what a fun one it was. As always!

Saturday morning photo. How can I get tired of looking at this? I can't. 

This cute little mat is made by Claire. She doesn't come to this retreat but she participates in a different group. She did one for all the girls in her group and two of them are in my group, so I got the chance to see this cutie. 


Josee brought Izzy along. He's also an artist of the paint and brush kind. 


His brush, palette and canvas are stored in his bag. So small. Check the ruler on my machine for scale. 


Then he walked away. My table is too much of a mess for this fancy feline artistic taste. (FYI, Josee doesn't knit. She did a quilt or repair a quilt for someone and this was a thank you gift. He has his name on a little tag on his back. Josee wants to change it but haven't settled on one yet. Yes, you can remove his shoes too! ) I love him. 


Lucie got a panel that says: What happens at a quilt retreat … stays at a quilt retreat. Well, not if I come along with my camera, lol. Sylvie cut the squares and added the sashing, and before the retreat was over it was all done. Quilted and all! So we started to sign in the white squares. We are 10 and there's only 8 squares. We wrote more than just our names. If you look on the right side, the green square (because I am not a flower girl, lol) you can see mine. It says: Let us sew, let us sew, let us sew. 🧵🧵🧵 The banner will go up every time we are here. 



Lucie finished the top of the snowman she worked on at our last retreat. I love this one with the chickadees. She went back to the store to get me one but they were all gone. What a sweetheart to think of me this way. 

She also worked on a bunch of rectangle she received in a bag. The lady added the pattern to do the Mason Jar Quilt. Lucie doesn't care about that one and did a Shadow Box instead. She was not in love with it but kept sewing. Then she placed the blocks on the design wall and … magic! 
She was warming up to it. She said she will give it to me to add to the box of donations for the Quilt for Survivors. I told her to keep it until I'm ready to send the box. I know she loves bugs so, maybe she will change her mind and keep this one for herself. 


Mary also brought back a quilt she was working on at our last retreat. She got it all pinned on the big tables. It's so much easier at the retreat. Many hands make light work. 

Helene brought this beauty for her bed. It is hand-pieced and hand-quilted. Isn't it gorgeous? (Helene is on the left in pink and Lucie is holding the other end.)




Bravo, Helene! I love it! 

Helene did a lot of cleaning in her home and sewing room since she has retired. She brought 3 big boxes of things to give. Patterns, fabric, yarn, abandoned projects, you name it, it was there. 
I took these home. 
Flannelette galore! 

The pink and green is a baby top. The red pile on the left side are all receiving blankets ready to be donate. They will be donate next Tuesday at the Artisanat's meeting. On top of the red pile are diamond shaped pieces. On the left, there are more flannelette with some cotton under the hockey print. The bag holds long strings. 

This pattern also came home with me. I've never done anything like this but I drooled over it when it was in Connecting Thread's catalog. Now, it is mine. Yay! 

The girls did many, many other things but I didn't take pictures. (kicking myself). 
We had a new player to replace one that moved away. Sonia is her name and she worked with NEON fabric and did this. 
(Yes, Joy, I thought of your February NEON challenge, lol.) She is very sweet and fit right in with the group. Someone told her that I accept scraps because the first day we met, she handed me a bag of scraps. 
Sonia, you are definitively in. Hahaha. 

Needless to say that I come back with more than when I had left. 

Now every frozen lake in Canada has a hockey rink. Here's the proof. Haha. 

This morning, March 1st, the plow came down my street. 

I guess they are running out of trucks. Let me know if the video doesn't work. Thanks. 

Okay, so this is my third cup of coffee, the laundry isn't done, well, nothing got done as I've been sitting here for the last 3 hours. I need to move and get some solid food. I'll show you in another post what I worked on. Catch you in a bit. ;^)


I will visit these talented ladies over the weekend. Hope to catch you there. 
Angela at So Scrappy
Frédérique at Patchwork and Quilts
Cynthia for Oh Scrap