What Happened?

I didn't mean to disappear like this but life got rough and I needed a break. A break from everything, office work included. I am slowly getting back on course. 

I did some sewing. 

Little 3.5" 9-Patch because they're fun to make.

Back in 2014, I followed Judy Laquidara's BOM. Then Judy disappeared from Blogger and the BOM stopped. In April of 2021, it was tagged to the colour Angela called for that month, prompting me to assemble it. I decided to make more Spool blocks and got these blocks into the flimsy stage. Goal achieved. Then it went back in time out because I didn't know if it needed a border or not. 

Well, it does not need a border! It got pin-basted, quilted and bound at the beginning of October. There! DONE! 

It's roughly 35 X 45. 

I used an old (but cute) piece of fabric for the back with a dark green gingham for the binding. No flannel for this one. 

With this finish, I was curious about how many UFOs were left. I was shocked! There are seventeen flimsies waiting to be quilted and thirty-nine unfinished projects. Yep. 39! Grand total of 56 projects to finish. Sigh! On the bright side, I have 63 finished. Yay! Lol. Friends' Favourite is counted with the flimsies. I'll remove it from the list when it is bound.  

Friends' Favourite hand quilting was going very well until it came to a halt. On October 4th, Row 10 was done. The needle hasn't moved since then. Only 6 more rows to go. I'll get back at it eventually. 

During October, I usually go to a retreat with 9 other ladies. A retreat! This is what I needed. So, I got the food ready, packed up clothing, projects and sewing machine. Got to the AirBnB late Friday afternoon, unpacked everything and settled down for four days of sewing and fun with the girls. 

Photo taken on Saturday morning. Just so beautiful. 

That's exactly when I found out that the pump broke during the night and there's no water in the house. 😲

Francine and I went down to the lake with pails to gather some water so we could at least flush the toilets. Needless to say, we packed back up and left. We were all so disappointed and annoyed but that's life. 

Even though our retreat was cut very short, I still came back home with a lot of goodies. 

Yes, these 2 bags are full of fabric. Some I had already shared with others by the time I took this picture, lol. 

 

One of the projects I had brought along was these blocks made by Anne. She gave me these a long time ago, when she moved to the States. That was before Covid. Time to turn these blocks into something. I might not be at the retreat but I can still finish this one. Since the blocks aren't exactly the same size some kind of sashing was needed. 

Then I decided to make the block dance. 

This is the top I named "Dancing Anne". It is counted in the list of flimsies. It's not big but that's all I have. I bought the peach fabric especially for this quilt. I might add a border to make it a little bit wider. It's only 31.5 inches wide by 46 long. The photo is sideways. 

After that, my world stopped. 

This week I was able to sew a little bit and worked on the crumb stars. I would like to give this quilt to Quilts for Survivors, here in Timmins, Ont. 

I'm only making yellow, red and aqua stars. After making these, there are 6 of each colour. I need 48, so 10 more blocks needed from each colour. Knowing that each stars need 8 HSTs time 10 blocks means that I need 80 HSTs in each colour. This quick calculation prompt me to put the pedal to the metal. 

Aqua scraps came out, were ironed and cut. Sixty HSTs sewed, pressed and trimmed. Twenty more are waiting by the sewing machine for the next sewing session. I got a few red chunks out to be pressed and cut. It feels good to have a goal. 

But what happened to me? 

If you follow my blog, you might remember that I had a rough year. And this bit broke the camel's back. 

My beautiful cat Raven, is the reason my world has stopped and I can't sew or hand quilt at the moment. Hand-quilting is very quiet and peaceful activity but only dark thoughts come to my mind lately because Raven is no longer with us. 

He was attacked by something and was wounded. He had a deep cut on his neck, among others. We brought him to the vet but, even with meds, it got infected, it didn't closed, it didn't healed. After 2 weeks of nursing him the best I could, I went back to the vet with the very tough decision to put him to sleep. I couldn't handle seeing him suffer any longer. Tears are running down my cheeks as I'm writing this. I miss him. 💔

Let me finish this post on a happier note. Here's my friend Lucie with her gorgeous butterfly quilt. She's a retired teacher who loves butterfly. 
 

Hope all is well in your corner of the world and that you can find some time to sew. 

;^) 

Will catch up with these talented ladies' link-party at some point. See you there.
Angela at So Scrappy
Frédérique at Patchwork and Quilts
Alycia for Finished or Not Friday

Cynthia for Oh Scrap!

Almost Threw In the Towel

I'm at my tipping point with Blogger. I had more than enough of its sh*tnanigans but I've been patient. This time though I almost quit. What happened you ask. None of the posts from the hundred of blogs I follow showed up in my reading list. Not one!! Well, what kind of crappy monster is that ??

Am I to go in my list of blogs I follow and open them one by one to check if you've published a new post?? Like I have nothing to do all day?!! Although, I did see that many haven't post in a very long time. :^(


ANYWHO!! 

I turned on Blogger every other day or so, to check if they'd fixed the problem. I was thinking of publising just one last post with the news that I am moving to Instagram and am cancelling my blogger account when Blogger finally populated my reading list with the latest posts. I was this close. THIS close!! 

Which makes me very sad because I've met so many lovely people and I was missing them these past weeks. 

Moving on. 

This MIA baby quilt was found.
It was safely in a bag with the other
baby quilts but under a different number. Yay! 

You can now see the quilts made for the baby quilt drive in the tab ^Baby Quilt Drive^ on top of this page. I stopped adding the photos when Blogger shunned my reading list. Hopefully, I'll be able to add the others this weekend. I need to take care (or empty) my garden in containers too. The nights are very cold lately. Sigh! It's that time. 

Slow Stitching

The red dye from the chicken fabric started to bleed onto the neutral piece next to it. That's very weird because the quilt hasn't been in water yet. So, why did it start to bleed? Why is the blue-lined piece not affected by it?  

Since we are talking about Friends' Favourite let's check the stats. 

Friends' Favourite Stats: 

If I quilt one block a day, it will be done by March 18, 2027.

Monday, August 24th: required blocks 47 

                                    blocks done 64 - 4 rows finished 

Monday, September 7th: required blocks 61 

                                    blocks done 96 - 6 rows finished 

Monday, September 21th: required blocks 75 

                                    blocks done 128 - 8 rows finished 

The half point has been reached. Yay! Yes, I am doing one row per week so far. I have the firm intention of finishing row 9 this weekend. If I can keep this up the quilt will be done before Christmas. I'm in shock. I didn't thought I could find so much time to quilt. Working only 4 hours per day at the office really helps me accomplish this though. 

On the Crumb Front

Crumb blocks trimmed at 4.5 inches. 

Crumb blocks trimmed at 6.5 inches. 

Picture of the bobs and bits bag taken in June. 

Picture of the same bobs and bits bag this morning. It has the Mary Popping's bag ability of refilling itself, lol. I started yet another bag of bob and bits so I'll stop adding to this one and finally see it diminish. 

I'm thinking of doing a crumb sashing for the crumb star quilt. I keep the end of the rolls of the thermal paper from the payment machine from the office to sew the bits on it. I did one. I won't do a second one. I don't like this technic of sewing on paper. So, this container is now empty and the crumb sashing will be sewn like any other crumb blocks. 

What else have I done? Oh yes. 

Remember these squares I received from Françoise? They were sewn back to back, ready to become a rag quilt. I unstitched them.

There are 44 pairs of these. 

I now have 88 squares and a little hill of used thread. They will become a pieced backing for a baby quilt (or two) at some point. 

The Sewing Room Saga

The reorganization of the sewing room continues. I got this little white shelf cabinet and stuffed it with what needs to be cut to useable sizes. On top and under the ironing board are the containers of the useable sizes I use. On the far right, there's a box of whites and under that some all prepped bindings. 

You might not remember my rainbow shelf so here's an old photo of it. These shelves are next to my computer. Not the best of place for scraps, so . . . 

. . .  the shelves now hold my sewing projects. Well, some of them. 

The milk crates are holding the rainbow scrap baskets and bags. This wall is behind me when I'm at my sewing machine so it's more convenient this way.

It's not perfect but I'm getting there. In the crates on the right, top and middle one, are fabric I either have to cut or add to the bobs and bits bag. Again! Lol. The bottom crate tries to hold the brown scraps. 

In a previous post, I showed photos of our Wednesday Sewing Club in Lucie's garage. Some of you asked about the garage "window" in the photo. Here's another photo of it. 

Her husband made some panels/sections with 1 X 1 inch sticks and covered with screens. They get screwed together every summer and set in the garage door opening. No bugs can sneak in. Such a cool idea.  

This is what the ladies were working on when I was there last. 

I didn't get a photo of what Lucie was working on. Also missed Claire, Sonia, Michelle's projects. Sorry. I'm a bad photographer when I talk. Haha. The garage is now closed for winter. :^(

That's it for now. I wish you all some happy sewing time and good health. 

;^)

(I hope my post gets in your reading list.)

I'll try to catch these talented ladies' link-party. See you there.

Angela at So Scrappy
Frédérique at Patchwork and Quilts
Alycia for Finished or Not Friday

Kathy Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching 
Cynthia for Oh Scrap!

And We Had Fun, Fun, Fun

 ♪ ♫ 'Til her Daddy took the T-Ford away. ♫ ♪ ♪ (Beach Boys)

Or in my case, "Til I come home and realize what I've done! 😲

First Tuesday of the month sees us gathering at the church for our crafters meeting. (I forgot to bring the camera. 😔) It was SO nice to see everyone after a 2-month hiatus. Some had wonderful news to share, some not so good, but all were happy to be there and enjoyed the evening. 😊

I brought things to give away and I brought back more! Lol. And the cycle continues. 

The ladies were happy to continue the baby quilt drive with me. Some of the kits I brought were happily taken home to be assembled. I'm happy. 😊

Then some ladies did some cleaning during the summer and I came home with their stash, lol. I grabbed all the cross-stitch patterns from the take-away table and brought them to Nicole at the office. She's a young lady who loves to do needle point. So, I feed her, lol. 

I also grabbed the quilting magazines. I'm going through these today and will pass them along as soon as possible. 

Now, let's see what's in the bag. 

Françoise brought me this huge bag full of flannelettes. 

All of it cut at 9 inches. Some piles are over 3.5" tall even when I squished it as best I can! That's a lot of squares. 

Some are sewn together and the rest of the squares are laid one solid with one print, ready to be sewn. 

Others are sewn with a big X. 

To make a rag quilt? There's nothing in between the 2 layers. 

I'm thinking of using these for baby quilts' backings. 

I'm thinking of undoing these stitches. 😁

She brought me more than just one bag. Here's the second one. 

So many goodies. 

And the third bag holds, as best as it can, 

many HSTs, 

some scraps and some yardage.  These are more bags that I will eventually go through and cut to manageable sizes. Françoise is keeping me busy and out of trouble for sure, lol. 

Then Lucie brought me this. 

She said it was on the take-away table at her guild. Such a beautiful picture. We said, in unison, "I want to sit there!" Lol. It makes me think of our retreat place, by the lake . . . 

which, btw, is in October. Getting close. So, I started to get some things ready for the retreat. 

One thing we do every time is a FQ Potluck. Each one has to bring 2 FQs and the theme this time is 

So, I went shopping!

 

Got the dots. 

So, here's the thing. Fabricland does not have pre-cut Fat Quarters (or very little whenever they do) so I had to buy half a meter of the green one (to be cut in half). I took all of the grey one since there was only 80 cm left on the bolt. The black one is for an I Spy (not sure which one yet, but for an I Spy quilt for sure) so, I got a whole meter. 

Then I "spotted" (hehe) this panel. 

Well, my son LOVES train! The colours are weird in this panel (even in person) like it's very purple-ish and pinkish. Not sure how I'll make it look more masculine but I'll figure it out.

So, I got 2. One for the centre of the quilt and the other one to cut up and add all around. Or something like that. They were on sale for $3.50 each. At that price, how can I go wrong? 

And by the way, what's with this store to have a sale whenever I walk in??!!! 

Anywho! 

Flannelette was on sale too. 

Well . . . 

I got these (2 meters each) for the backing of the baby quilts. Dots! Again! Lol

At the cash, the lady told me that the Polka-Dot fabric were at 50% off today. Oh my! Should have gotten 2 meters of the black one. 

So, I turned around and grabbed these. 

Note that they were also on sale. When I first saw them I thought, "nah, I don't need it". After the conversation with the cashier, I was like "yep, I need these!" A polypropylene bag and a blank card depicting a quilt. Do these blocks have names? I don't recognize any of these, do you? 

With all this, have I sewn something? I did. 

I fixed this quilt. Some how the lady who sewed this kit added a row too many and missed out on a column making the quilt too long and narrow. So, I took the bottom row out and added one column on the right. Now, it is at a good baby quilt size. . . and it's MIA. 

Yep! Worked on it, took pictures and then . . . I can't find it. 😕 Nothing is lost in the universe, they say. So, I say; it's somewhere on this planet! 👀

I do have a few more picture of the baby quilts but since this post is long enough as it is, I'll save it for another day.  

Hope all is well in your neck of the wood and that some happy sewing is happening. 

(BTW, Blogger won't let me comment on your blogs this morning. Sigh! Okay, not going there. This day is too beautiful for this shit. 😏)

See you all soon. 

;^)

Will catch up with these talented ladies' link-party at some point. See you there.
Angela at So Scrappy
Frédérique at Patchwork and Quilts
Alycia for Finished or Not Friday

Cynthia for Oh Scrap!