Bye Bye 2019

It hasn't been an easy year for me and my family. The health issues, hubby losing his job, the continuous moving from one place to another at work, the news of being transfer to another centre, a sick child at home, the new staff to train, yep, it was a rough. But of course there's always the flip side where things shine bright like ...

 ... the day I made Port-a-cath pillows with the lovely ladies at the Artisanat Club.

... my first I Spy quilt got finished. My only finish of the year. 

... Les paniers de Cécile got to the flimsy stage. It's was a sew-along from 2018.

2019 also saw me working on a Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt and getting it all together this time, lol. It was first "done" in May. Unsatisfied with the quality of my piecing, I decided to take it apart in August.

By mid-September it was back together. It is not exactly finished since I am working on the borders ... still.

Anywho ...

... sensory blankets were also made in 2019 by the Artisanat group. We had a lot of fun again. A very beautiful group of ladies that I am very lucky and so happy to be part of.

And of course, in 2019, there was the Blues.

There was a lot of blues. Every other week or so, the blues were there. I posted about the 365 Challenge quilt 32 times in 2019 which is GARGANTUAN when you think I wrote only 38 posts this year. (No wonder you are tired of seeing the blues, sorry!)


So ... care to see some more? ...



Hmmm?



😁




It's starts with a Starry Path

32 pieces. Sorry but all I can see are broken dishes units.  No stars.



Mrs Lloyd's Favourite on December 23 is also my favourite.

It has 37 pieces. RSC2020 contender? Yes! (oh! Look at that! I have one corner turned the wrong way. Oh the sneaky one, lol.)

Dec 24 - Bethlehem Star - 41 pieces

and then the Star of Bethlelem on Dec 25 - 57 pieces

which is also known as Swoon. I so wanted to make a Swoon quilt when they were the trend on the web. Now I do have a little Swoon. Yay!

Good Cheer on December 26 with 53 pieces.

A.K.A. Eggnog Overdose (but just for me. Ha!)


Lightning in the Hill - 57 pieces

December 28 was Jacob's Ladder - 54 pieces

Oh! talking of ladders. Have I told you that during my holidays, we decided to finish painting the house? I started this project in July 2019 and got the entrance done. Now it was time for the hallway, staircase to the basement and the living room to get a new color. Bye bye burnt orange living room. Hello Sand!

So much fun! Hilarious! (not!) Between the paint and the sewing, I had to go to work too.


The evening found me at the sewing machine to finish Dec 29, Range's Pride with 20 pieces.

It's now December 31st and I finished work at noon. So drove home and ran downstairs to finish Dec 30 with One More Block - 48 pieces

Can you believe it! There's only one more block to go!! AWHHHHhhhhh!

The fun I have!!

I spread out the centre and all the 6 inches blocks made to see if the last one needed to be dark blue or light blue. 

Well, what do you know! 

I don't need to do the last one. 

I have enough block to do the last round!

I am giddy with joy!! 

I am DONE!!! WhooHoo!!

Then I spotted this one. 

:^(     :^(    :^(

I really don't like it. It is the worst mess of the entire 2019.

So, okay, I'll make the last block and remove this ugliness from my beautiful quilt.  :^D 

I looked up the last block and ... 

Hopes and Wishes 

... Ha! hahahahaha! No WAY! 

NO WAY! 

Not even with eggnog will I attempt to do this one! 

So, I snooped around ... 

... and found November 24 had a bonus block. 

Yay! It's an easier one. (anything would be easier really!) 

Ta-Dah! December 31 is Turkey Tracks in my quilt! 

and I am 

really 

done!  

Now, the first meeting of the Artisanat Club is January 7, 2020.

Can I have the top all together for the first Show and Tell of the Year???

AWWWHHHHhhhhhh! 



The suspense is killing me. hahaha!



;^)


I wish you all a blessed New Year with good health and loved one near. All the rest is icing on the cake (but we still shouldn't take it for granted).

I know I am complaining sometimes on my blog but know that I truly appreciate each moment I have with my family and friends, with you all and with my sewing machines. (I couldn't help myself; I just had to include them there. lol)

I hope we will all be together again in 2020 for a wonderful year of joy, inspirations, tutorials, sew-a-long, challenges, for scrap busting, for finishes' cheers, for empty bobbins and wait, what? new projects and UFOs alike, for the frustrations, the bloopers, orphan blocks, surgeries' recoveries (ours and the sewing machines), quilt shows and ribbons, for new and repro fabrics, best tool finds, tears and laughter, pat on the back and congratulations. Oh and the seam ripper. 😒 All in all, the best is yet to come. 😁

Hugs,

Chantal 

Are You Ready?

2019 is slowly leaving us. Are you ready for the new one?

I'm not. I am still stuck in 2019 with the 365 Challenge quilt. Except for the week of no sewing, it is the only thing I've been working on. 

Let's see how it rolled out.


I was making these blocks at a decent pace, then I got an accident. I hit December 10! In my last post, I said it was a doozy and yep, it staled  smashed me.

It's call Twenty T's and measures 6 1/2 inches.

It has 185 pieces!


At first, I didn't care, I was confident it was easy.
Small, yes, but easy.

Did I fell off my rockets!!


I started with one T, for practice. Photographed with a quarter.

Instead of working like I usually do, see last post, I used "a floor plan" type of template.

The decisions of which blue goes where is easier this way, when I can see what the end result will be. (I can read this mess better than I can read GPS!)

All the HSTs are now there. Notice the five stacks at the top of the picture? That's my BLOOPER!! It takes 5 HSTs to make one T. Since HSTs come in twos, there's one left behind. I was so stuck with the number 5 that at one point I started to cut 5 squares which make 10 HSTs. Hahaha! I hadn't done this one before so that's something I can now cross off my to-do bloopers list for 2019. :^D

Anywho!

Here, all the HSTs are trimmed and ONLY the ones needed for the block. Ha!

In the assembly line, it started to look crooked, points were disappearing, etc. It took me the best of Sunday, December 15, to get an unacceptable block. It took me til Tuesday to get the stamina to rip it apart once again and start half of it over.

Yet, it looks so simple and innocent, the brat! (Sorry for the dark pictures.)

This is December 11 and what an easy one this was. Cute too! RSC contender? Maybe! (It's a 9-Patch framed with triangles. So easy. Just saying.) It has 28 pieces and it is called Bowl of Fruit.


Fanny got involved into this with Fanny's Favourite. Not a very popular name anymore and yet we do have a sweet girl named Fanny at work. Wonder if it's her favourite too?

37 pieces for this one.

Hither and Yon has 39 pieces. Very representative of the holiday's craziness.

Mother's Favourite has 37 pieces. It is very beautiful. I love it. Note that the blue frame is not made with Y-seams as per the pattern. Ha! Contender for RSC2020? Too many pieces for my liking but if I had more time, yes it would be.

Now, where are we? December 15 it is.

Broken Star with 37 pieces also.

Followed by Cheyenne with 21 pieces. Needless to say those two are very easy blocks.

Followed by Four Squares with 21 pieces also. Note that the corners are not mitered as per the pattern. Ha! again.


The Centre of 365 Challenge is all assembled. I took it out because I am looking forward to get all these blocks together. (Awh! I can't wait!!) I noticed that the blocks in the first row of the round-robin are much lighter than what I am doing now. In order to have something cohesive, I have to tone down the next blocks.

So ...

December 18 showed up like this. Peaceful, right?  It's called Creole Puzzle and has 36 pieces.

Have you notice something?

Most of the last blocks have the same middle; square in a square. Hmm.

Moving right along, here comes December 19 with ...

Oh wait! I have to show you something first.

Someone commented that I should take pictures with a quarter for proportions. So here's one that's mind boggling. The squares of the mat are not at one inch as we usually see. But because our mind is so use to see one inch grid, it makes this 2 inches unfinished block look HUGE.

Yet, when the seams are touching each other, you know the piece is small.

And here it is. It's called Lady of the Lake and has 52 pieces. I've never seen this block before and I didn't know there was another Lady of the Lake girl. Anywho!

On we go to see some more T's
9-Patch T's showed up on December 20 with its 25 pieces.

Very easy to do but too boring to be a RSC2020 contender.

Next is Winter Solstice and guess what? It's already done. Hahahaha! All this time I was counting how many blocks left to go and there was one lesser than what I thought. What a lovely surprise. My Gosh! It's my Christmas gift from past me to present me. Hahaha! I am so spoiled!

I explained everything back in November 2016 why I did both blocks then. see here

So, ten more blocks to go. I still have to go to work on December 30 and 31. Will I be able to finish the ten blocks?

My little box is overflowing with the 365 Challenge blocks. I am sooo itching to play with them. Awwwhhhhhhh!

The end is soooooooo near! Whoohoo!


;^D

Denise at For the Love of Geese
Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict
Angela for the last RSC of 2019
Cynthia at Quilting is More Fun than Housework

Alleluia !

Phew! I survived another week. Thank you Lord for the weekends.

What happen since the last weekend? Well, I managed to sew. It has become a necessity in my life lately. It's okay because there are worst addictions than that, lol.

Okay, who wants to see some quilt blocks? Yeah, that's what I thought. Let's go!

Dec 6 was Mosaic #18.

It is so pretty it should have a better name than that. Com' on.  24 pieces.



The blocks are 6.5 inches unfinished and they are my leader-ender while I work on the last corner of the 365 Challenge quilt. So while I made Mosaic #18, I also created this little "cactus", lol.

Dec 6 was Crossroads with 32 pieces.

But it was very easy. Not in love with my choice of neutral in the middle but it's "good enough".



Then I produced my blooper of the week. This one was a very easy fix.

Dec 8 is for Frayed Sawtooth Star

Personally, I like this one. 44 pieces.


Some of this was also created while I sew a lots of HSTs

Lots of tiny little HSTs.

Let me pause here and show you how I organize the blocks.
I use a Styrofoam plate because it's easy to pin the pieces onto it.

I have a little piece of paper for each letter of the pattern. Here I have from A to N. The fabric cuts can't get lost in the mess on my sewing table and I know who's who easily.



Okay, back to the Christmas Iris block with this piece. Don't know why but it looks like I didn't take a picture of its twin facing the other way. Oh well. Just close you eyes and imagine it. Okay? You got it? Okay, let's move on.

Eventually, with all the little HSTs, I managed to finish this one called


The Christmas Tree.

This is Dec 9 and it has 75 pieces inside the 6.5 inches block.  And with this one as my leader-ender  I was able to finish ...



... drum roll please, ...





Christmas Iris

Oops! Let me fast forward here.

Ta-dah!

and the basket that I didn't photograph while sewing it because I was too much in a rush to finish the block.

And all together! Phew! All of 182 pieces fit together beautifully.
it's 12.5 inches unfinished.

The bottom of the basket looks crocked but I'm pretty sure it was straight when I ironed it. I'll have to check that out and make the necessary adjustment if needed.

Then,  I'll attack Dec 10 which is a doozy! I mean, OUCH!

Have fun sewing !

;^)

Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict
Wendy at Wendy's Quilts and More
Denise for Put Your Foot Down
Angela at So Scrappy
Cynthia at Quilting is More Fun Than Housework