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!

Another Week; Another Bag.

I've returned to work this week so not as much sewing as I would have liked but still a few things got done.


I challenged myself again this week. I'm starting to like this kicking-my-own-butt-into-action attitude, lol. Let's have a look. 

Crumb stars were quickly done because the centres were already assembled. One aqua and the other is whatever-came-out-of-the-bag. 

A yellow 18 Brick block was also assembled with little 1.5 X 2.5 " bits. As I looked around for the yellow rectangles for it, I found quite a few of yellow with pink, so 

Challenge #1 was to make another block with only yellow and pink print. 

Ta-dah!  I know some are more red than pink but I worked with what I had. The batik one doesn't show up very well in the picture but it's yellow and pink. Then, when all was sewn and pressed, I found some more pink on yellow bits, lol. It never fails! 

Last weekend when I visited her, Pink gave me a bag of scraps. This week, I went through it to put the scraps away as my new morning routine permits to. 

There were many fabric in the bag. 

Challenge #2: empty Pink's bag. 

After putting all the bigger pieces away, this is all that was left. 

Look! Pink on yellow, lol. These were cut in useable sizes and put away too. 

This purple one is so beautiful and there was enough to make a Buckeye Beauty block so, in the kit bag it went. 

Okay, so, that wasn't much of a challenge. How about another bag? My right brain said : yes please. 

Out came another bag of gifted scraps for Challenge #3. Nann asked me how many bags do I have. More than fingers and toes. Lol. 

I grabbed this one. It doesn't look like much but I had some big surprises out of that one. Let's see. 

First thing I saw was a little bag of rectangles about 2 X 3.5". Set them aside to measure them properly later. 

Then this beautiful purple came out. I had this print in so many colourways but it's my first in lilac. Love it. Set it down in the purple scrap box. Also two brown HSTs came out to play. Sent those to the HST box. 

More brown pieces followed. They joined the others in the brown scrap basket. The strings close to the rotary cutter went in the string bags I sorted two weeks ago. 

Next, what I thought were strings of lovely prints turned out to be blocks.  Lots of blocks. 

Then some more . . . 

. . . and some more . . . 

They are obviously from different projects so, what am I to do with these?? (The brown geese are prettier in person. Just saying.)

For now, they are sitting on the bench. Something will come up, I'm sure. 

But wait, the bag is not empty yet. These were the next ones to come out. 

I believe they are part of *Disappearing 4 Patch* or maybe 9 Patch? I'm not very good at figuring which block becomes what when you cut them over and over. Anywho! These are all the blocks I have and no scraps from the bag matched this batik. They too shall become something . . . someday. 

At the end, the bag surrendered and gave up the last of its treasures. 

A 2.5" strip in leafy green, a strip of 2" in dark blue, 70" of blue binding and pink strings. The red and the little pile of scraps on the right were cut to useable sizes. 

Well, this bag is finally empty. Such a generous one. I believe it was from Françoise. The same lady who bind some of the baby quilts for me. 

On Wednesday, I went to Lucie's place again for some garage sewing. I went directly to her house from work to deliver an office chair with wheels. She could use one more in her garage she said and we had one we didn't use, so, win-win. I took some pictures but that will be for another post. This one is long enough as it is. 

Although I didn't take a picture, Friends' Favourite is slowly progressing. 

As always, I hope you can find some time to sew. 

Have an AMAzing weekend. ;^)

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
Cynthia for Oh Scrap!

More Fun Time

In Canada, we had a long weekend (August 3rd). Yeah for some time off. And then, my supervisor surprised me with the rest of the week off. What??? Believe me I ran out that door before she could change her mind. WhoopWhoop! Vacation time!!

I decided to drive south. South as in Cornwall, Ontario. My friend Pink lives there and we haven't seen each other in WAYYYY TOO LOOOONNNGGG. What joy she is! A balm on my overstressed system. A reboot was what the Doctor prescribed and she is the best one to help me accomplished that.

And we went shopping! Oh no! Yes, I did bought a *few* things. Haha. 

I'm sorry but in my excitement of being in a fabric store I forgot to take pictures. :^( 

We went to Auntie Em's Quilting. My sewing friends go there but it was my first time. A lovely little store. 

The purchases: I bought a Mystery bag of 10 fat quarters. I thought it would enhance my stash (like it needs enhancement??!!) to finish some projects. To my surprise, the bag contained this: 

Ten matching fat quarters. This is a quilt in itself. So I guess I just *accidentally* added another project on my to-do list, lol. 

This Sewing Tote kit came home too. It has the hardware and the zipper included. I'm sure I can find some fabric in my stash for this. I will have to purchase the foam stabilizer and fusible batting it requires. 

Then, Pink gave me some fabric too. Oh MY!! 

Lots of fat quarters here too. So generous!! Thank you so much sweet friend. 💗

What else have I done? Hand quilting. It is so pleasant. 

You can see that I'm now on the third row. Whoop Whoop! So much time to sew when one is on vacation. 

I switch the chair to the other side of the frame. Since I'm left-handed having the window on my left side caused me to work in my shadow. Now it is so much brighter. 

My friend Lucie opens her garage during the summer for her quilty friends to gather and enjoy some SEWcializing. We were 7 quilters in her garage on Wednesday. I'm planning to go again as she does this every Wednesday. 

I had so much fun there too. Of course, I bragged about my Parking Spot plate that Pink gave me on Saturday. (Yes, another gift from Pink. 💕) 

Lots of jokes and comments were said about that one, lol. 

Lucie assembled her batik quilt. It was a kit she bought a few months earlier. Planning the borders now. 

Michelle worked on her Delectable Mountains using 1.25 inch strips. 

Françoise did the binding on another baby quilt for my drive. Isn't it a gorgeous one? 

And these are the other baby quilts that were ready for me to pick up. 

I didn't bring my sewing machine but worked on an old project turned UFO. Lori from Humble Quilts did this quilt-along back in 2023. It's Parsonfield. 

I did a heart in the centre and some straight lines on the diagonal. I was there for the social part of the gathering much more than for the quilting part, lol. I brought everything I needed except for my scissors. Sigh! How can a quilter forget the scissors?? Lucie lent me hers. 

They have a little heart for the tip so they don't pierce her sewing bag. It's so cute! 

Some photos from my *Bucket Garden*. 

Mint and radishes. This is the second batch as the first batch of radishes drowned. It's so wet here. 

The beans took hold of the patio table's leg and won't let go, lol. I'm not expecting a big harvest from that one. 

Bucket full of carrots. 

The sweet peas are not liking the wet summer we're having this year. Or is it my poor gardening skills that is killing this plant? 

Cucumbers. I might harvest some of that. Fingers crossed. Well, at least I tried. And yes, I will try again next year. I believe it's time I weed out this garden bed. Lol. (it's a hose, not a snake.) 

Raven is very happy to have me home all day. It's funny how he sleeps exactly in the same position that I do. 

I'm heading back to the office on Monday, but my intentions are to enjoy this weekend to the fullest. What about you? 

Okay, just one more picture because it is so cute! 

I will visit these talented ladies' link-party this week. See you there.

Angela at So Scrappy
Frédérique at Patchwork and Quilts
Alycia for Finished or Not Friday
Kathy for Slow Sunday Stitching
Cynthia for Oh Scrap!