Sunday 26 July 2015

AwH Oops! I Missed Saturday

I didn't get a chance to post Saturday because I wasn't home.


We packed the entire family in the van and we took the ferry to cross to Quebec. We drove all the way to this beautiful lake ...


where we have some wonderful friends waiting for us. They are so lucky to live at the lake year round. (Sending you big hugs and kisses, my sweet friends. It was so good to see you all again.) We spend the day catching up on so many things. It was just lovely.

So now I am late posting my progress on my RSC2015 project. In case you are still interested in seeing my work, here are my red blocks for the month of July.


I still need to do some aqua blocks to replace the light blue of June and then I'll be all caught up. This coming Saturday, Angela will reveal a new colour for the month of August AND I get my first lesson on how to use my new sewing machine.  :^D  YEAH! It will be a FUN Saturday.

Linking up with Angela at So Scrappy for the round up of reds.  Since we are Sunday, I will also link up with Cynthia at Quilting is more fun than Housework for Oh Scraps fun.


Until next time ....

;^)








Wednesday 22 July 2015

Whatever Wednesday

I did another project that is not a quilt BUT it is fabric.

My DS1 has a ... nope, let me start again.

My DS1 HAD a favorite t-shirt which was so uuuused and tireddd, full of holes with fraying neckline ribbing. I told him I was trowing it out. He has many nice t-shirts in his closet. "Yes, but I like THIS one!" he said. Too bad!! Out to the trash goes the t-shirt.

I should have taken a picture of the t-shirt before hand but you all know what a worn out t-shirt looks like so ... against my best judgement I decided not to throw away the t-shirt but to give it a second life.

The playroom sports many pillows and, of course, a few are favorites and one of them was very ... loved and needed a new cover. You know where I am going with this, right? hehehe!


I pulled out some old fabric, the really heavy cotton so stiff and tightly woven, the likes we made men's working pants with back when I was a kid. How could we walked with those pants??  Anywho. With the help of the sewing machine, I appliqued the skateboard that used to adorn his favorite t-shirt onto the canvas-like fabric.

It did such a wonderful job. This is my FIRST time at machine applique and it was so much fun. I was expecting puckers and tucks but none occurred. I am so proud of myself. Maybe it is just beginner's luck but still ... I am so proud of myself! Yeah!


Ta-dAH!! New pillow with old t-shirt.
I have enjoyed this so much that when I was done with the pillow, I looked around the sewing room to see what else could I applique. :^D. Yes, you will see more things like this from me. It's FUN!!

Until next time ...

;^)


P.S. yes, the boys love it too!!


I am joining Sarah from Confessions of a Fabric Addict for "Can I Get a Whoop Whoop" kind of fun.






Monday 20 July 2015

Monday ?

Yep, it is Monday again. Time sure flies when one has fun. And fun I had!!

My blue Shakespeare in the Park Quilt is coming along, slowly but nicely.


It is now larger than my design wall. It goes all the way to the door lol.
So off the wall it came.  I brought it upstairs and laid out only the Snail Trail blocks on the floor.  I want to see if some fabrics are repeated too often. Have to keep things balanced you know.

Here are the 12 large Snail Trail blocks. I have done 25 of these but 13 are still missing round 4 and 5 and ...

they look like this ...


Set up like that, they look like a cute doll quilt but don't let them fool you. They will grow up to be 12 inches too... if I could only find some more sewing time.
(Shhh ... maybe I'll sneak in the sewing room for 30 minutes before bedtime tonight.)   :^D

Until next time ...


;^)

I am linking with Patchwork Times and Cooking up Quilts for more Monday Design Wall fun.

Also linking with Angie at A Quilting Reader's Garden for WIP's be Gone.





Sunday 19 July 2015

Hexies Pixies


I had fun this past week. Every time I said Hexies Pixies, a hexie diamond would appear.

Just like that!! Hexies Pixies ...

A witch would say Hocus Pocus because that's HER thing. Since I am a quilter MY thing is Hexies Pixies ...

This is so much fun ... Hexies Pixies ...


Ooops!  Maybe I didn't say it loud enough! Let's try that one again. Hexies PIXIES.


Ah better !!  All 9 diamonds are finished and that means another row is completed. YEAH !!

Now the chore pain headache fun of choosing the fabric for the next row. All the fabrics for the diamonds have all been picked out already. I only need to find the colour for the middle.

So, let's see!! Hmmm ...

I like this 

ok ... I guess

Good Lord, what was I thinking ?? 

Ohhh! 

Ummm... 

Yep, this will be it. I love this fabric so much I should have bought the bolt!!

When the weather is this hot, 26oC (feels like 37 oC with the humidity), it is very easy to take things slow and to relax. My project today is to attach all those Hexies Pixies to the quilt ... sitting in my cool basement.

Later, I'll grab a glass of icy lemonade and check out all the links to wonderful projects slowly progressing on Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching. How about you? How do you cope with a heat wave??

Also joining Angie at A Quilting Reader's Garden for WIP's Be Gone

Until next time ....

;^)






Wednesday 15 July 2015

Whatever Wednesday

Today, I thought of showing you the first thing I sew with my new sewing machine. It's not a quilt ...  

BUT it's still fabric! 

Close enough you say? Then, cue the pictures! 



My dear friend had this fabric in her stash and she didn't like it. Well, being the good friend that I am, I couldn't leave her in such a predicament so, I took the fabric away from her eyes and brought it home. :^D  

Sometimes, I am so precious to her LOL!! 


The moment I saw it, I knew it would become a tote. I love tote bags. All I had to do was to find some "matching" fabrics.


Then it turned into this ...


Ta - daH ... TOTe bag!

A remnant of pale beige roses decorate the inside. The pocket is from the same fabric as the top and handles. 


I really love it. 


Can't wait to show her my new tote bag and see if she still think it's an ugly fabric, lol!! 

Until next time .... 

;^)




Sunday 12 July 2015

They have fallen

Yesterday, we cut down the pines standing between our house and the neighbor's. Today, we remove the stumps.

Planted ten years ago, they were getting pretty big. About 5 years ago, the neighbor planted a cedar edge really close to the pines. Last year, we thought the pines were in a bad shape. The lower branches lost their needles and so we decided to cut them down this year.

The boys stripped the branches away and stacked them up.

Those piles kept growing and growing and there's pine cones everywhere.

Some pine cones are blue!! The trees were black spruce so I guess I should say the cones are black.
To me, this picture is very sad. My little private trail is gone. Notice how his edge is dying too. I think the trees were too close and were killing each other.

Before cutting them down, we made sure there was no nest in them. The birds were circling overhead, flying low sometimes as if to say, "hey what have you done? I use this tree you know?!!" I find it very sad. I feel like throwing a quilt on this mess ...

 
Yes, much better lol.


Today, for slow Sunday stitching, I will add some diamonds to the hexie quilt.


This is a picture of last June and


this is now. By last June, I don't mean last month but really LAST June like 2014 last June. Yep!! Did seven and a half rows in one year. Boy, I sure didn't work much on it this past winter. Whatever!! There's no deadline on this one. I think it needs about 10 to 15 more rows before I call it quit. We'll see.

I am joining Kathy for Slow Sunday Stitching and hope you will too.


Until next time...

;^)




Wednesday 8 July 2015

Do you see the rainbow?


Angela from So Scrappy, asked those who are participating in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge "to admire your accomplishments and share your progress" so far this year. So this is my progress on making this block which I don't know the name (another one of those lol!).

At first there was

January blues, followed by


February pinks,


March yellows,

April purples ...


That's it?


At this point, I kind of fell off the wagon. At work, I was transferred to another department with a very heavy workload and I was just to tired to sew in the evening. Next thing I know, we are at the end of June and I've missed a few colours.

Yesterday, I had a day off and I tried to catch up a little bit. Here's where I'm at now.
Some greens ... two more still to do

But did two reds to compensate !  :^D

And a blooper ... well of course I had to produce one of those lol !!


That's it?


NO light blue?



Nope! I haven't done any yet and I think I won't. Why? Because I think I will go with teal and aqua instead. I have enough of light blue and dark blue on my Design Wall at the moment lol.


So all together NOW ...
Ta-DA!!



It is definitively not the final layout as there's waaaaaayyyyy to many pinks in the bottom right corner.   Hmmmm... I seem to be missing some blues. There are 7 in the first picture and only 4 in the group picture. Oh!  what are the pesky boys up to now? Smoking the boys' room again? LOL.

Do take a few minutes to check out more Rainbow quilt progress on Angela's blog,  right here. After all the rain we had, it is nice to see a rainbow or two!  :^)

Don't forget to check out Scraptastic Tuesday with Nicky, right here!  There's always a lot of interesting things going on at her place too.

Until next time ...

;^)



Monday 6 July 2015

Helloooooooo!!



Yep! Still here. Been busy with life, family, volunteer works and some fun too. It can't all be work right? :D


Not enough time to blog but did have I had time to sew? Well no and YES!


Google was so happy to spit it out to my face point out that




my birthday is in June, a child of the Moon is what I am (as is Eleanor Burns, quilt in a day guru). Funny how the number I feel like never changes in my mind but keeps going up on my driver's licence lol.

Anywho! Unknown to me, I decided to buy myself a birthday gift. :D  It was really a fast and furious love affair right then and there, IN the store!


I spend my BD with my BFF and we went shopping. She needed a new sewing machine. We looked over the ones she thought of buying and I informed her of the good, the bad and the ugly points of them. When we got at the back of the store we saw the deal of the day!!! There was only three left. At 50% off, I suddenly found myself in need of a newer sewing machine too. So we each got one. A good friend never lets her friend have fun alone right? Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight!!

So if I hadn't blog much lately, blame her.


She is a Brother INNOV-IS NX 450. Not exactly a new machine since she is two years old (the reason why they were at the back of the store: they are the classroom's machines, all refurbished and comes with a warranty too!) but she is new to me and that means I have some learning to do. She is such a techie and automatic little thing that she kind of intimidated me at first. I spent most of my free time with her and now we are having so much fun.  Yes, of course I will show you what we've concocted but not just yet.  I am learning her language and my project aren't so ... shall I say, nice? LOL.


She has many accessories in her luggage, including a free motion foot. I am having fun trying them out and making a mess of it all lol. With the deal comes two days of free class time where they will show us how to use all of its options to the max but I can't wait. I have wasted invested an entire bobbin of thread already in my apprenticeship. Free motion quilting is fun but just like learning how to ride a bicycle, you do fall every now and again lol.

DH had fun too over the weekend, driving this little baby around  ...

and took this one for a spin too 


But what I wanted to drive was in my sewing room lol.

Last week was very intense with a lot of things on the "Commitment List" of things to-do, so today I have a day off. Yeah!! More time to sew up some simple blocks so I can FMQ them. Oh! Shot!! Just remembered I need to clean too. Darn!!!

Hope you have a chance to enjoy some sewing too.

Until next time ... ssssssSMiLE ... all the way to the sewing machine!

;^)