Show and Tell

Although I have done nothing quilty this week, I still have something to show you. This lady worked hard on the baby quilts and she did a great job!

 

Front - I Spy with black and white

Flannel backing 

Done by Yvonne (a lady at the Artisanat group) with her own fabric. The second one is very inspiring. Check it out. 

The backing and binding of the first quilt comes from my stash (my way of de-stashing) but the second one is entirely hers. I'm in love with it. She contacted me yesterday because she has done the 2 others I brought her and would like to have some more. "More than 2" she said. Gosh! This girl is a machine, lol. So, I'll get the ones she has finished and I'll try to post them before leaving for my retreat next week. 

What else happened this week? Oh, yes, I splurged. 

I got a pre-paid credit card from my boss at Christmas and decided to spend some of it on sewing notions. 

I got a wool-felt mat for ironing. (I'm not sure why I got that because I have no space for it. I'm blaming impulse purchase because of the great price; $3) Also purchased a 12.5" square ruler, some needle threader shaped like little umbrellas, a bag of little clips in a rainbow of colours and 10 spools of variegated thread. 

Aren't the colours pretty? 

That's all I have for today. Hope you are well and can find time to sew. Enjoy! ;^)

Check these ladies' linky-party for more inspirations

Angela at So Scrappy

Frédérique at Patchwork and Quilts

Alycia for Finished or Not Friday

Cynthia for Oh Scrap!

A Revelation

(Wouldn't that be a great fabric print?)

I'm still rethinking my sewing room. I got more milk crates so the board is now as high as my elbow. It is a little too high, but I'm managing. (I put bundles on it to hid the horrible brown stains. Yuk!) 

For the last 2 weeks, I've been finishing work later due to my co-worker being on vacation. One night, I came home and DH had a surprise for me. 

A wooden box! The board is now higher than when it had legs but lower than with the milk crates. It's at the perfect height for me. What a sweet man. 💓

As I was working on the sewing room reorganization, I had a brain fart. 

Call it a "New Year's resolution", call it a "sewing room rule", call it "Darn, why didn't I think of that?" but I decided to declare 

the ironing board for ironing ONLY!

Flabbergasting, isn't it?

The rule is "If something does NOT need to be ironed, it can NOT "rest" or "sit" on the ironing board." No more piles of fabric for a future projects, or fabric that needs to be cut, or put away, or boxes of PhD, etc. I have to be firm with myself and diligent. It's so nice to have a clean board that I think I can pull this one through the entire year. 🤞

You can see some of the binding on the ironing board's photos above and here's more that are done. The smallest binding is 175" long; the biggest ones will be cut to the needed size. Three need folding and ironing. 

I'm also sewing some Hollow 9 as leader-ender while doing the bindings. 

Oh, look! I almost have a double 9-Patch in this picture. 😊 I got my 2" square tub on the kitchen counter so I can "kit" some little Hollow 9 while the soup boils over simmers. 

All those little piles on the right of the tub are blue Hollow 9 but I'm sure I can find more green ones in there. 

That's all I have, friends. Hope all is well with you. Have a great week, everyone. ;^)

Join me at these ladies' places for more inspirations

Angela at So Scrappy

Frédérique at Patchwork and Quilts

Alycia for Finished or Not Friday

Cynthia for Oh Scrap!

Work in Progress (WIP)

These three words can apply to so many things and even situation. Like my sewing room. Hahaha.

Hollow Nine as leader/ender. Red, blue, purple, aqua. 

I started last year to (again) organize my sewing space. I talked about it with the girls at the Artisanat group and was relieve to hear that I am not alone with this "task". One even said that she sews at the kitchen table because there's no space in her sewing room. (So, she does have a room specifically for sewing but …) okay. In a weird way, it made me feel good because, at least, I still sew in my sewing room. 👌 

Regardless, a reorganization was needed. (See this post for the beginning of the journey)

More milk crates added 

Then, DH removed the legs on the ironing board which I always deemed a waste of space.

 

So much better now. I need more crates as the board is too low for me but it works for now. 

BUT am I sewing? 

Not much to show besides the Hollow Nines. I'm mostly sewing backings and bindings. 

On Saturday, Jan 17th, we (five ladies and myself) gathered to cut the batting for 42 baby quilts. I should had taken pictures but forgot, sorry. 

This is what I brought home. 

Each bundle consist of a top, batting and backing (in one piece or in pieces). I have 34 quilts with me. Two of the ladies wanted to bring some home to finish right away. 

One of the ladies had strips of flannelette that she generously gave for the cause. I'm sewing these strips together for the backing. She had some gorgeous prints. 

I'm in love! 😍

Anywho! I'm cutting and sewing binding too but that makes boring photos. 

While reading Sara's blog, I was reminded to check my fabric purchases for 2025. I keep everything on spreadsheets. (I love spreadsheets!) I was surprised to read a total of $185.33 was spend on fabric. It doesn't include the $25 spent on bonding interfacing (steam-a-seam) for the Table Scrap Challenge with Elvis. In 2024, I did real well spending only $56.39. I'll try to do better this year. 

This big boy celebrated his fifth birthday. I was finally able to take a decent picture of him. Raven is usually camera shy but seems to be okay with a phone picture. 😊

We had snow, then snow, then snow, then a "heatwave" of +6 Celsius, then we had snow, and snow, and then . . . frigid cold at - 40 Celsius this morning. (There are no typos in the previous sentence.) This year promises some wacky surprises. Better buckle my seat belt! Lol. 

Join me at these ladies' place for more inspirations

Angela at So Scrappy

Frédérique at Patchwork and Quilts

Alycia for Finished or Not Friday

Cynthia for Oh Scrap!

Have a great week, everyone. ;^)

2026 is Here

As I'm sitting at my computer, staring at a blank screen, I can't imagine what the new year will be, or more accurately, want do I want it to be. I would love an uncomplicated year but that is probably beyond my control. 

Itsy bitty sewing while assembling backing for the baby quilts. 
One inch HSTs for Broken Dish and parts for 18 Bricks blocks

I don't make resolutions for the simple reason that I don't keep them. Ha! But this year, I will set a few goals. No, I will not say "to finish everything started in 2025", lol. 

First: Better sleep - do a few stretching before bedtime. Nothing much, just getting the kinks of the day off my shoulders and some legs stretching, then put the mask on and goodnight. 

I bought an eye mask and it changed my life. I sleep with my eyes opened, well not wide opened but enough for the light in the hallway to interrupt my sleep (when the boys come up to bed, one by one, at different time of the night). The first night with this mask was pure bliss. If you are a light sleeper, consider getting one. 

Or make yourself one. I did mine with a cat print (aren't you surprised it's not orange, lol). The store-bought one is silky and nice except when I'm hot. Then, I get sweaty and the mask just cling to my face. I don't like that feeling. So I did one with flannelette inside. It's wonderful.

Second: Be as nice to me as I am to others. I criticize myself too much. It's like I'm back living with my mother. I can't let that happen, lol. 

Third and last: To remember this one. 

 

And sewing of course. I'll continue to work on the baby quilt kits and 

sew flannelette pieces for the backing.

Cathy showed us her Streak of Lightning blocks and I told her I was doing some too. I lied! 😲 I lied to Cathy!! Mine are Potato Chips blocks not Streak of Lightning. Sorry, Cathy. 😞

Bonnie got me working on her mystery quilt. Here's what I have so far. 

The Half Rectangle Triangles (HRT) demand a big chunk of a scrap. I don't have lots of those so I might just made them scrappy instead of using the same fabric for each set of 8. Only 2 sets made so far. 

Then, I had to redo all the HSTs because I did them the wrong size. The bottom right one looks very pink next to the orange but is orange when next to pink. It might go ... or not. 

I also did the geese units but they flew away. That is to be expected whenever I clean the sewing room, things get lost, a lot!  Not showing pictures of the room yet as I'm still working on it. 

Some sewing (Hollow Nine blocks) done as leader/ender. 

That's all for this week. My holidays were fantastic and I am sorry I have to go back to work. It was fun being at home all the time. 🥰

Have an awesome week. ;^)

Joining these talented ladies this week. 

Angela at So Scrappy

Frédérique at Patchwork and Quilts

Cynthia for Oh Scrap!

The UFO Saga

Many of you post about your accomplishments done during 2025, which I love to see and read about. I applaud you all. My year didn't go so well. 

Since my list of finishes is quite short, and the unfinished is much longer, I thought of starting with those. They are listed here in an attempt to kick-start my finish-it mojo. Haha.

For me, a new year is always filled with good intentions, new projects and plenty of new energy. The year 2025 started just like all the others.  

 
What got started this year
Too many things were started, like . . .  

Flying Home as a RSC block 

April Fool as a second RSC block. I'm undecided about the layout of this one. 

On point, all the same direction ~ option 1 

Circles and Squares ~ option 2

On point, rotating direction ~ option 3

Shallow Pond (aka County Clare) 

It is in the pile of baby quilts for donation so it not exactly a UFO. 

Bonus Points 

Not meant as a RSC block but somehow it came to be 

SHIBs (Squirrel Hiding in Bags) from all those gifted scrap bags. (Received 34 bags of scrap and 5 boxes. Not counting these two bags of filling stuff pictured here.)

Gold and black table runner. 

Blue Shoo. 

Four blocks in pink. 

Petit Point. 

None of which are done. There was probably other items but I forgot which ones. 

Plaidish 

Started at the retreat in February, never to be touched after.  

18 Bricks 

Puss in the Corner 

Hollow 9 

And . . . whatever this is. 

Now the biggest started project of them all: cutting and bagging baby quilt kits for others to sew. Twenty-five tops are done so far and counting. Carole and I are making backing for these. Only 9 are still waiting for a backing. Other ladies are cutting some of my fabric to make the bindings. The batting is to be cut on January 17th. More on that later. 

I tried a few things to reorganize my sewing workplace. I've set days for cutting, sewing and family time. Do you remember my list? I didn't until I looked up my own blog. Haha. 

Monday, I will cut fabric (check the clothesline) AND clean the cutting table. 

Tuesday, I will take care of people, friends, (meetings are usually on this day). If it's a week with no meeting, organize things for the next meeting. 

Wednesday, I will sew or quilt (or pin for quilting) (need to fix the problem with the Janome) or organize backs or/and binding. 

Thursday, I will hand quilt (because I seem to never find the time to do this anymore). 

Friday, I will blog and sew (RSC blocks first and whatever after. Do not start another one). 

The weekends are all about cutting and sewing, and shopping, and cooking, and cleaning, and all the boring stuff like that, lol. 

Even having the cutting instructions on a clothesline for ease of access to what needs to be cut when a specific fabric was out. 

Nothing worked because the problem is ME. 

I tried to do too many things, accepted too many scrap bags, the office work load got beyond my capacity with the Real estate department blooming this year (like it never had before, they said), and the construction for the expansion of the office. All I could do after a day at work was eat and sleep. I had to hit the brakes. 

What got finished this year

Back in January, I named 4 quilts to finish this year. Only one managed to cross the finish line. 

Ohio Star Shadow that I affectionately call "8 Miles of Moon Beam". Started 29 years ago, it is my greatest accomplishment of 2025. Hand-quilted and bind.

A little baby quilt was also finished. 

The Joyful Quilter's Table Scrap Challenge saw 3 entries from me this year. 

Warm Beverage : my favourite coffee 

Song Title: my favourite guy

Fresh Cut Grass: the pest in my yard

I also did a PINK scrap basket. I didn't see this one coming but it was done (like most things around here) as a SHIB when I received enough pink scrap to make one. 

My little bags of pink scrap all fit in the basket.

We (I) almost adopted another cat this year. Rascal is more and more at our back door. I call different places but all the shelters are at full capacity. So, we are kind-of-taking-care of a feral cat. Rascal is getting used to us and he understands the routine now. 

"He is an uninvited guest and he's overstaying" says Raven. 

Now, what 2026 looks like? 

I don't know about 2026, but I wish you all the best with plenty of good times, health, friends and fabric through out the new year. May your bobbins stay full and blade stays sharp. 

Cheers!

;^)

Join me at these ladies' place for more inspirations

Angela at So Scrappy

Frédérique at Patchwork and Quilts

Cynthia for Oh Scrap!