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!

So, You Made a Scrappy Quilt

and you THINK you've mixed all the scraps up so that the colours are well balanced across the whole quilt. You've looked at it and looked at it again and again, from every angle, and you've removed certain prints to add more variety or you've moved them around several times to see WHERE was the best place for this or that pattern. You made all the decisions yourself to make sure everything was perfect. 

Riiiiigghhtt!!!! 

And you are so proud of this beautiful scrappy quilt that you decide to hand quilt it. 

The brain is such a wonderful piece of art. Since the beginning of time, humans have sorted and stored things. Innocently, it started with grains and seeds to grow them again the next year, making sure not to mix the seeds, etc., and things evolved and we started sorting and storing bigger things by groups and categories, and labelling everything, etc. 

I believe this process is now in my brain's DNA. Look at a close-up of the image above. What do you see? 

Circles,  

Circles, 

Circles!! 

These 3 prints are one above the other one, meaning in different rows but same column. My brain told me the colours were evenly spread. I forgot to ask my brain if the PATTERNS were repetitive! 

Now, if we look at the left of these circles, we will see a fox (and circles)

Look up at the print above this one and you will find 

a fox ! 

I am NOT kidding you. Go back up to the second image and look at it again. You'll see. It's all there. 

Did you see the green dot to the left of the fox? Guess what? 

Yep! 

Dots, dots, dots!! 

I have one of the craziest brain. Even when I don't want to overthink something and have it all sorted out, I do it anyway! I'm SO good. 😇😂 

I've been doing very well with the quilting on this quilt - Friends' Favourite. 

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

Meaning on Monday, August 17, I should have 40 blocks done. Instead, I had 48 blocks done, INCLUDING the sashing. Three rows were done. Yay me!! 

The hardest part is the first and last block of each row. As you can see the quilt is so big that it's very close to the frame. It is very awkward and cumbersome to sew the end blocks. It takes me longer than the rest of the row. 

 

Some crumbs got together

There are 16 blocks per row. So, I was thinking:  if I quilt 2 blocks a day there would be 14 blocks done at the end of the week. So, if I were to quilt 2 blocks and a bit, I could finish  one row every week. 😲

More crumbs

I know I shouldn't push myself like this because I don't want it to become a chore. It is a relaxing exercise and I want to keep it that way but GOSH! it's tempting. 

Just one more crumb block, I promise

With September sitting on my doorstep, the winter routine will start soon. Actually, September first is my group first meeting, so I wouldn't be able to quilt that evening. Then, the baby quilt drive will take center stage once again, not to mention a retreat in October. This means many evenings with no quilting time. As life gets busier, it will become harder to keep that fast pace of 2 blocks and a bit per day.

Did a crumb star instead, lol. 

So, on Monday, August 24, I had the fourth row finished. WHHAAATT!!?? Yes, because I though I might as well make the most of it while I can because soon I'll be too busy. There are days when I don't really feel like quilting and then I hear myself say "get the sucker done and move on" and I just do it. Lol. (Blocks required : 47 - Done : 64) 

Now that my fingers and wrist are stronger compared to the first few days of quilting, I can quilt longer. The issue now is my back. It's started to complain. It doesn't like the long sitting session, bent over the quilt. It will be another thing to take into consideration in my 2 blocks and a bit per day shenanigans. 

This one, I did do on purpose.
They aren't the same print as the little piece
is not perfectly arched like the square one is but they are so cute. 
Maybe this is where my brain thought it was okay to do associations? 

While I sewed some pieced-backings for the baby quilts, I managed to get a few crumbs blocks together. And a star. (Shown in the photos today)

Hope all is well with you and you get to sew a little bit every day. 

;^)


And 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!