Are You Tired of the Blues?

I hope not because here come some more.

Aunt Dinah - 29 pieces - September 4, 2016

Necktie - 6 pieces - Sept 5

Gentleman's Fancy - 25 pieces - Sept 6

Four Corners -  32 pieces - Sept 7

Indian - 21 pieces - Sept 8. This one needs a new name, more politically correct. Can we call it First Nation?

Flagstone - 44 pieces - Sept 9. Now, those are very small pieces.

Belle's Favorite - 14 pieces - Sept 10.   I like this one. It's not as hard as it looks as there are no Y-seams.
It took 171 pieces to make these 7 blocks. :^)


I received a comment on my last post that got me thinking. Swooze said I had 122 more blocks to go. Now that really spur me on, in the sense of : how many 3.5"? how many dark? how many light? It bugged my brain so much so that I sat down and calculated it.

Here's the stats:

September has 1 corner of 12", (done),
                         2 X 6"dark and
                         27 X 3" dark of which 9 are made already.
October has 1 corner of 12",
                        2 X 6" dark and
                        28 X 3" dark.
November has 1 corner of 12",
                        14 X 6" light and
                        15 X 3" dark.
December has 1 corner of 12" and
                       30 X 6" light.

Does it look overwhelming? Not for me. I used to gather stats at the office and I can see in my mind, that the pie chart has 65 dark blocks and 47 light blocks. So the percentage is still darker but the dark side is slowly receding. I can't wait to be in the light. I'm starting to have enough of playing with dark blues. Would it be okay if I were to make a few light blocks?

I am tempted to assemble the October corner called Chrysanthemum. Parts of the pieces are cut already because I know it will take me days to make this one as it has half a gazillion pieces and September is going by so quickly. So ... maybe? ... or not? ...

That's all for now. Maybe there'll be some yellow in my next post ... at least, I hope so.


Try to stay warm ... or dry.

;^)

I am joining

Angela at So Scrappy
Cynthia at Quilting is More Fun than Housework
Wendy at Wendy's Quilts and More
Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Distractions

I don't have a lot to show you this weekend because I was very distracted.

Last Saturday, I had fun, with the ladies from my group, sewing up Port-a-cath pillows. I asked the ladies to cut more fabric for me to bring home. I got busy with them this week.

On the stand by, I have some pillows waiting to be closed up and, under the old scissors (needed to cut Velcros), there's some pillows waiting to be assembled ...

... more are waiting to be flipped, while others need to be filled (usually done in the evening in front of TV) ...

before and after

... and some are completed.

Yes, I did some orange ones as they were lacking from the first batch. I will also add yellow, purple, hearts, rainbow squares, football, whatever else I fancy.


To know more about Port-a-cath, see this website

https://nurse.org/articles/what-is-a-port-a-cath/

or if you just want the pattern (we did modified it a bit), please visit Create to Donate at

http://createtodonate.org/how-to-make-a-chemo-port-pillow/

It's a good way to use up some scraps and help someone else at the same time.

I will continue with this project until I run out of Velcros. Since the velcros is very harsh on the needle, I haven't sewn much else. My needle is about as dull as a darning needle. Lol.

Before this distraction knocked on my door, I did finish two little blue devils for the 365 Challenge Sampler.

Counter-Change Cross - 16 pieces             Chevrons - 11 pieces -

Chevrons needs a good trim but I'll wait because it has so many subcuts.  Those are from September 2 and 3.


Have a great weekend everyone.

;^)

Joining Angela at So Scrappy
Cynthia at Quilting is More Fun than Housework
Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

The Month is Done

I have finished the month of August ... uh uhm 2016, in the 365 Challenge quilt.

So happppppppppyyyyyyy! Like a good movie or book, which has a sequel, August finished with a twist. Let's have a look.

Last weekend, I picked fabrics for a few blocks at a time. It makes the task of cutting so much easier when you have little sewing time.

Prepped units for August 25th block.

They are all the same size, 1.5 inches
And here is Garden Square in all its glory with 29 pieces.

4 H with 20 pieces

English Ivy  27 pieces

August 28 Stoch Plaid with 28 pieces, some were cut at 7/8 of an inch.

Aunt Addie's Album with 25 pieces

It reminds me of Mangofeet's Centennial Star for some reasons. Sorry for the blurry pictures.


Then came Anvil with 17 pieces. Here is where I thought that the end of the month was a breeze. It was a very easy block to assemble.

And last, but obviously not least, August 31 with a twist!!
It's called Mosaic #15. Someone was running out of imagination at naming blocks. I thought it was an easy one as it look pretty innocent. Ha!

The problem was those units with the lightest blue. They needed to be trimmed at 1  9/16 inches. You also have to keep the points in the point of the block. All was good so far when I trimmed them. They I sew it all up. A breeze, I thought!  When I opened it up to press it, not two of the units were the same size.  (#$%#$^%$@#$) I spent some quality time with the seam ripper, way more than my patience could tolerate. Not easy to sew an exact quarter inch when the road is bumpy. It is still not perfect but it is good enough for me.

167 pieces were used in these 7 blocks.

With this, the month of August is done. It took 815 pieces to make the entire month.  Only four more months. The first of September is already done since it is corner number one, which I had to try a while back. You can see it here and here.


On with the reds.
Last week, I showed you this picture and asked what was I doing.

Yes, I just started on Good Fortune. I love this design by Bonnie K. Hunter. I've change the orange for red though. Just to have a different quilt. 

I've also changed the way to do these string blocks. I did try with the paper but I didn't like it. I usually sew my little crumb blocks without papers so why bother when I'm sewing much bigger blocks. I did kept the bigger size and sub-cut them down. If you look closely, you will notice that I've kept true to myself and have some strings that are made of two, three and even four different fabrics. :^D

So, now all the reds for this project are done. I won't wait for next month's colors to continue on this project but will just move on to another color.


This morning, bright and early, I went sewing with the Artisanat Club. We made port-a-cath pillows, 65 of them actually.

Here are the twelve members who made it in, on a very cold morning (-24C), to sew for those who battle cancer. Some ladies were cutting, some were (me) sewing and some were stuffing the little pillows. I had so much fun that I forgot to drink my coffee. Lol!

I've asked the ladies to cut some more to bring home to sew. You will see these little pillows on my blog again. Hopefully soon. I have to find Velcros as we ran out.

I've also made another Ohio Star variation block. It has a basket of apples and a pumpkin as the center. I picked a heart print for the background as I love Fall. The center is not pieced; just a very interesting print.

And that's all for this week.
Wish you all a wonderful week.

;^)

Joining Angela at So Scrappy 
Joining Cynthia at Quilting is More Fun than Housework.
Joining Em's Scrapbag
Joining Beth at Love, Laugh, Quilt
Joining Sarah at Confession of a Fabric Addict

A Little Bit of Blues, A Little Bit of Red

You saw these next two blocks in my last post as they were waiting to go under the needle. Here they are in all their glories.

Hit and Miss: 15 pieces; 15 colours.

On the right is Flying X with 24 pieces.

Next is August 20 with a 6.5" block - Fair and Square which is square but not fair as it has some Y-seam that I loath, fear, am reluctant to do. I managed through it somehow.

I don't know what I am doing wrong but it is obviously not right. 

I did only five corners and I am impressed by that. They all needed to be ripped and sew again and again, and only one ended being such a hot mess that I had to cut a fifth one. Not an expert but a pat on the back nevertheless. (I still hate it!)

28 pieces.


Best of All is next. It has 49 pieces. It is a 6.5 inches block but still it makes for small stitching.

August 22 - Vines in the Window with 24 pieces. Back to 3.5" block.

At this stage, it measures 2 5/8 inches and has 20 pieces. 

I truly admire Kathrine who came up with all these blocks. It's easy for me as I have the instruction to follow. What did she had? A headache! She must be a math professor in an university somewhere because this block ... mind boggling.
The centre of this block measures 1-15/16 inches. Since we make units a little bigger, the centre needed some trimming. How do you trim a block to a 15/16 of an inch and keep the X of the hourglass in the middle? You have to trim it down to 2 inches and then trim it again 1/32 of an inch all around. Whhhhaaaaattt????

Kathrine had to figure that by herself. Trials and errors must have abound at her place. Wow!

Here it is, with its last border, measuring 3.5 inches.

Anywho! I manage to survive August 22 and went straight to the 23 which looked easier. It's called Flow Meter.

Somehow I ended up with a bigger pinwheel blade on one side. Will I retouch it? Not sure yet.

Oh! and it has 32 pieces.

Aircraft was easier. Phew! It has 17 pieces and only two colors so it didn't took too long to chose the fabric either.

total 189 pieces for 7 blocks. Now the weekend is here, I'll be able to sew some more little blue blocks. Yay!

My leader/ender with all these blues were some red strings.

Guess what I'm working on? 

Cheers  \_/

;^)

P.S. I want to share one more thing. I picked it up from a friend's blog. It is so true. Thanks, Fiona.

Joining Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict
Angela at So Scrappy
Cynthia at Quilting is More Fun than Housework

I Found a Rainbow

They say you can never catch a rainbow, right? Well I caught one!

After a very busy morning at the Centre where I work with young children and educators, I found a rainbow hiding in the dishwasher. It made me smile. I took a picture to share with you so you'll smile too.

(Yes, I do draw pleasure from the simplest of things. :^D)

With Angela's help, I want to slowly transfer this rainbow into my sewing room, month by month.

I know Angela picked RED for January but I'm more in the winter blues ... and I will be for a long time to come. Last week, I crossed out the middle of August, 2016. Let's have a look.



Aug 13: Morning Glory with 13 pieces

One of the petals and the background are too close in color but I still love this one. Notice that all my blocks look crooked; it is due to poor pinning on the design wall. Sorry, I was in a rush to take the pictures. :^}

Greek Cross: 17 pieces an easy 9-Patch

Forward and Back : 24 pieces but also an easy one.

Next comes August 16 - Rising Star with more pieces cut at 7/8 of an inch. It's madness, I'm telling you.  33 pieces for this one.

It makes such a cute block that I forgive its petite challenge.

Catch Me If You Can was much easier to assemble. Only 24 pieces and they were biggies with their 1 1/4 inches. Ha!

I kind of forgot I am working on the dark border when I picked the fabric for this one. Oh well. It'll add something interesting to the quilt I guess.

That brings us to a total of 111 pieces for 5 blocks.


Next comes August 18 - Hit and Miss, which is by the machine waiting for me to sit and stitch.

And to finish this week, here is August 19 with Flying X, also prepped and waiting its turn.

I have to pin the pieces to the plate otherwise they fly all over the place when I move the plate. They are that small.

Don't get me wrong, I love playing with little pieces and I am still in love with this quilt. Every time I finish one, I am amazing that I was able to pull it off. Dear Jane is starting to look like a possibility for me. :^D

A few more regular 9-Patch were made as leader / enders while working on the 365 Challenge.

Lots of orange and purple in this bunch. Fun!

Oh yes! The red one!

Made another Ohio variation star. I so love this background fabric. It has red, blue and grey dots. Simple, right? Yet, it does something to me. Ain't I funny?


All in all, it was great fun.

Cheers!

;^)

Joining Angela at So Scrappy
Joining Cynthia at Quilting is More Fun than Housework