Well, Look Who's Here !

Yes, I'm still alive ... and sewing.

I mostly worked on kits for the baby quilts the ladies at my group are sewing.

The yellow roses fabric was cut in long stripes when gifted to me a while back. I added a bunch of green fabric to the bag and told the girl to surprise me with a top. I so love what she did.

I'll publish a separate post with just the baby quilts once they are quilted and done. 😉


I did a lot of hand-quilting on Ohio Star Shadow.

Last block to quilt. Yay! 

Sewing down the binding.

And I can now call it a finish! It only took 29 years. All it needs is a label and I can't decide what I want. You'd think I had the time to think about that during those 29 years, lol.


In October, I went to our usual quilting retreat with my girls. So much fun!! So much food! 

Mini 4-Patch in blue got all the blocks made and assembled.

Then, it got more blocks with a darker blue and a border.

The border is so wavy that it looks like a ruffle, lol. I'll have fun quilting this one but I'll manage. It's my monster after all!


The container of triangles was overflowing so I brought it along to do something about that. Some blocks were assembled.

These two were in separate plastic bags so they were easy to put together. The HSTs finish at 1 inch. So many more triangles were sewn into HSTs and squared up but didn't make it into a block yet. I was just having fun sewing HSTs with no quilt, pattern, or layout in mind. And, I got the container into some kind of order with the bigger triangles at the bottom, etc. 

Got one in pink to assemble. 

 

I did walk too, a lot, because it was so beautiful but mostly because it's what I needed. 

The last time I was in Blogland, I was overworked with Real Estate Season, Canada Post were on strike which added to my work load, there were renovation going on to add 16 

View from my sewing machine. Can you see the lake? 

workstations that added to my work load and I had a major baby quilt project to work on. The cherry on top was that Saturday morning, August 30th, the phone call telling me my dear friend lost her battle against cancer. I had to step back. 

Wish I could sit on that chair for a while . . .
but it's a private entrance.

I am better now but not taking any sh*t from anyone, not even from myself. I've slow down the rhythm of the drums I walk to and it suits me just fine. 

Bejeweled golden leaf

Controlling ourselves is harder than it looks; I can't resist chocolate, coffee and fabric. Others things, I make myself believe that I can control them until everything is out of control. For now, I'm taking care of me and my son. I eat a better diet and soak up the sun most days and that's enough. 

I hope you are all doing well too. 

Keep smiling! It looks so good on you. ;^)

Catch up with these girls: 

Angela at So Scrappy

Frédérique at Patchwork and Quilts

Kathy at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching

Cynthia for Oh Scrap!

I Can't Keep Up

Another week went by with nothing pushed under the needle. Sigh! No aqua sewn. 

But I did sew a bit last weekend. Let's see what got done. 

From the 120 blue squares, 100 of them were joined to little 4 Patch blocks. 

They grew into Double 4 Patch units 

They were joined to more Double 4 Patch units and then ... 

They were 8 blue squares per units. The middle row is sewn with 17 blue squares. This means a single blue squares unit can be added to the beginning of the row, the middle or the end, depending where the same colour is too close together. That's where the 20 spare blocks will come in to play. I might, MIGHT, add some little 4 Patch paired with a darker blue square all around as a "border". I'll see what the quilt says once it is all assembled. 

and some boring Rail Fence units. That's all.

Someone from my past showed up at the office this week. He was good to me and I liked him a lot. Due to mental illness, he had to close his business and didn't hear from him again. So, of course, I took the time to chat with him a bit and I was happy to see how well he is now. I heard myself say to him "If you don't take care of yourself, then who will?"

Friday, August 29, I went to bed at 8pm and woke up Saturday morning, at 7:30am. I think I need to listen to my own words and take care of myself, because if I don't, who will? 

I'll take a break from Blogland for a while. This is not Goodbye, but a simple See you later, my friends. I hope you will all still be in Blogland when I come back. 

Take care, stay safe. I love you all.  🧡💛💚💙💜💖

You can still find me with these ladies this week.  

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

What's Up in Aqua

Not much got done this week (read nothing got done this week). The little bit of sewing I did last weekend can all fit in one photo. Ain't that a shame?

One Flying Home block. I'm having difficulty finding the right aqua for this one. It's either the fabric is not big enough for the cuts I need or they don't play well together. Sigh! 

One 18 Bars block made with whatever aqua, turquoise, teal, and blue-green. And only one 9-Patch. 

However I did sort out the red fabrics. It started here ... 

and ended like this.

The basket and the bag are much lighter! Beside the plastic bag are some fabric that can go in kits already set up, just to add more variety. Maybe they'll be used and won't come back. 

On the step, behind the scrap basket, (from left to right) batik (which are usually stored separately), solid red (again stored separately), the pile of red I can cut in 3.5" square for the kit I'm working on and the last pile are scraps big enough to be cut at 6.5" also for kits. I'm very happy with the result. 

Now what I forgot to show in this picture is the bag of little scraps, big enough for crumb blocks. Oops! Also, some of these selected fabric might return to the scrap basket. Once I reached the number of squares I need for the kit, I might stop cutting ... or not. 

The reason I wasn't very productive last week is because of a book. Have you read The Girl on the Train by Paula Hawkins? If not, don't. Do NOT get that book. It will mess up your life. I just can't put the darn book down. One evening, I read until 11pm. Waking up at 6am was tough. I'm almost done. Hopefully my routine will return to normal after I'm done. 

Okay, I have to get back to it. Only 90-something pages to go. 

Have fun everyone! ;^)

Want more inspiration? Check these ladies' blogs. 

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

Cool Aqua During a Heat Wave

This week the temperature was like 3 degrees to cremation. Some companies closed their services in the early afternoon because of the heat. The humidity was so intense!

Some of us (like my cat, Raven) aren't bothered much by the heat. I wish I could sleep through this wave too. 

Let's leave that behind and dive into some cool aqua fabric.

I ironed this aqua forest for my April Fool block. Then I saw "it". Whoah! There's something looking back at me in the forest. Lol. How "cool" is that? (It's an abominable Yeti waving.)

Two light aqua blocks were assembled last weekend and a dark one this week. I'm not sure about the teal. Will it play nice with the others? If I remember correctly most of the blocks are light to medium. Is it the only dark one? I need to check this out. I've to search for more aqua fabric too. 

Baby Quilts Kits

I cut more fabric this week for the kits. Since I have a lot of dark blue, I'll make a kit with blue instead of black for the "I Spy with B/W" kit. 

Got the dark blue scrap basket out and from this 

I got this. (I don't know why the photo is so blue. Too hot for the camera to function properly?)  Anywho! 

The basket holds what is not right or not the right size for the kits. The plastic bag has the little bits for crumb blocks. On the left of it is the pile of the "good" dark blue for the kits, to the left of that, Surprise!, some teal was hiding in there as well. On the top step, there's a binding piece and some too-light-to-be-there blue. 

I'm so happy with this progress of scrap sorting that I got the red basket out. I can kit a red and white "I Spy" quilt, right? It would be different. We'll see what comes out of there. 

Same steps as in the previous photo. My deck is not blue. 

Then, I got bored one evening. Fed up of the heat. Too hot to cook or bake. Too hot to clean. Too hot to sleep. Too hot! Too hot! Too hot! I just didn't know what to do with myself. 

In other words, I felt like a teenager looking for trouble. 

Well, trouble was found, lol, in the form of 2.5" squares 

and some strips. Maybe sashing? Nah! 

Got the box of 1.5" squares out and started sewing. 

Still have a long way to go (boy, there's a lot of squares in that little bag), this is what they'll be. The pile of square is close to 2" high still and I got quite a few done.  Will there be enough for a baby quilt? Hopefully! If not, borders will be added. I'm having so much fun with this, instead of working on what I'm supposed to. 😝

EDITED: there are 120 blue squares. How did she packed them all in the little bag is amazing. Anywho, I have 60 done. The count-down is on! 😊

I also did these. No, I'm not starting a new project. Well, indirectly. 

The Hollow 9 blocks are examples to use when we gather for the "Build Some Kits" day at the Artisanat. Some girls in the group might not know what a Hollow 9 block looks like. I'll also bring the  Potato Chip block.

And finally, the usual little 9-Patch blocks made with whatever I get my hands on. 

Hope your weekend is amazing and cool. 

Happy sewing. 

;^)

Want more inspiration? Check these ladies' blogs. 

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

Aqua Month

What is aqua? I have lots of blue fabric, navy blue, sky blue, denim blue, light blue, but aqua? It's a rare one.

This is all I could gather of aqua and light blue. Not one piece sewn yet! Sigh! 

On the left, a regular Ziploc bag full of blue for size. 

I was busy cutting. Cutting!! 

Remember this poor Multi-coloured Scrap basket? 

And now! 

I fold the rim a bit so you can see the dark fabric on top. Almost half of it is gone. Cut, cut, and cut. In front of the basket are 99 pieces of 6.5" scraps. Two sets of 3 same (or almost) fabric are missing to have 3 kits of 35 pieces each. Not all of the squares came out of this basket, but it sure gave its fair share. 

When the pieces were smaller than 6.5", they were added to these containers. 

Running out of containers so I'm using some envelope boxes from the office. Squares and strips are together because the boxes holding the squares are full. (Note: need to find better containers.) The 2" box also has the 2" strips and the 4" strips. Ditto for the 2.5" box with strips and 5" squares. Three inches are in the plastic containers. There's also a container for the 4.5'', the 5.5", and the 6". 

Some scrap gifted bags were emptied too; many more to go. All this preparation is for the "Building Kits Day" that I would like to do with the girls at our group. I have a plan and hope it works. 

This lone Bonus Point block was finished when I pushed some red fabric under the needle. 

That's all I got for you this week. 

This weekend, my intentions are to sit and sew some aqua blocks. I hope you get a chance to do it too. 

Enjoy! ;^)

Want more inspiration? Check these ladies' blogs. 

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