Pondering and Planning

It is time to think about the new year. Looking at my projects, I realized that many will cross over to the new year as only one got finished. Sigh! What was done and was is left? Let's see.


I tried to push a few quilts forward this year and will continue my focus next year. A few quilts saw progress but nothing major, well, except for Field of Poppies. 

Framed 9-Patch got assembled but then I decided to add a border made of light-coloured Framed 9-Patch blocks, so it is still a WIP (Work In Progress). 

This variant of Buckeye Beauty isn't assembled. Does it need more blocks? I hope the answer comes to me next year.  

Scrap Jar Star definitely needs more blocks and I have a plan for this one. I'm looking forward to it as I love making this block. 

The Crumb block quilt "Chaser" needs a few more blocks too. I have enough of the grey border fabric to do the missing blocks and only those. It will finish on the small size but that's okay. Look at all the little bits of fabric that didn't end up in the trash. Yay! 

Jericho Wall is being assembled this month. Will it be a top before the end of the year? 

Star Bloom will continue next year as it doesn't have enough blocks to be a quilt. I'm still debating if I should make the block with one colour or have a mix of colours in each block. What would you do? 

Since Field of Poppies (aka Good Fortune) is finished, I pinned another one to quilt on my DSM. This is Jacob's Summer (aka Jacob's Ladder). 

Unfortunately, I ran out of pins. Where are all my pins? Someone needs to go shopping, or else, clean up the sewing room. Talking about that ... 

The reorganization of the sewing room is also important. With all the scrap bags I receive from friends, I need to stay on top of the game, or drown! 

Remember this "contribution" to my stash? 

I'm still amazed by it and I also remember this mess. Sigh! 

The group Artisanat de Ste-Félicité did a sewing bee. We made 84 adult bibs for our local residences. What a great day that was. Thank you girls for welcoming me into your group. You are wonderful!💓

One friend got me a Go cutter and another friend gave me some dies. I'm blessed. What more can I say? 

I'm slowly learning curve sewing. Perfection is still far away, lol, but I'm willing to try again. 

The year 2022 saw me playing with my paintbrush again. This little bird was made for my MIL who is living in a residence. I wish you good health and lots of laughter in the new year, sweet MIL. 

Raven got a rough year. He had to visit the vet a few times before he got better. Now that he's neutered, he doesn't fight other cats anymore and he's so much better for it. He put on quite a bit of weight too. Those eyes! His gaze is always so intense! 

If you made it this far, I'm grateful for that. I wish you all good health and peace in the New Year. May you be safe and happy always. I appreciate each and every one of you. 💟 and quilt on! 

;^)

P.S. I'll talk about my projects for 2023 in the next post. 

Spending time with 

Angela at So Scrappy

Frédérique at Patchwork and Quilts

Cynthia for Oh Scrap! 

Peaceful Holidays

Frosty grew to 23" before the sun melted him down. 

With everything wrong in this world, I wish you all a peaceful Christmas, or a peaceful whatever you're celebrating.

A storm is passing through my town. It started with some hot weather on Friday, like +5C and rain, then it came down to normal temperature for this time of year with strong winds and snow. Everything is frozen. The visibility was barely 200 feet when I drove home, but I got home okay. I wish that all your family members arrive safe and sound. The wind is hurling tonight but I have a warm house. I wish everyone had a warm house. I had to run to the store because we ran out of milk. I wish everyone had a full belly and more than just the bare necessities. I am blessed with a good family, lots of friends, and a job. May everyone be as blessed as I am. 

Raven sitting on the bird seeds, waiting for them to show up. 

A little bit of leader-ender while assembling Jericho Wall. 

Hopefully, there will be more sewing time next week. 

Take care everyone. 💗

;^)

Joining

Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia for Oh Scrap!

Sarah for Can I Get a Whoop Whoop? 

Winter's Here!

Just like that, you wake up one day and it's winter! I should have taken a picture yesterday to show how green the grass was.

December 16, 2022

My flaky friend showed up this morning. :^)

It was still dark out when he showed up. I had to feed the birds and had turned the porch lights on. He hopped onto the patio table with a big grin. He was happy to see me again, even with my morning hairdo! He's even not 6" tall but I'm sure he will grow some more. 

I did some deconstruction. 

The fabrics to make the adult bibs were sewn together (two of cotton with one flannel) around the edges to make drawing the pattern easier. We cut them out after the pattern was sewn. Then the bibs were flipped inside out. Anywho, it made a lot of leftover fabric to unpick. Can you see the big bag in front of me? I'm having fun. Just a little bit more left to do. I decided to separate the pieces by the colour of the flannel. 

Sitting on the floor, watching TV and deconstructing: the pile on the left 

The pile on the right

These little bits will become HSTs in no time. Fun! 

Still more to sew too. The white fabric on top of the pictures is the sashing for Hole in the Barn Door. 

Slowly building Jericho Wall in quadrants.

These are attached together. 

These are still rows. 

I decided to make the sashing scrappy. 

It's hard to photograph white as it reflects the light a lot. Hopefully, you can see the beginning of this sashing has numbers and the end has flowers. I have so many skinny strips that are not long enough for the sashing that I decided to make do. 

Oh! Got to go. Someone's knocking at the door. 

He didn't like the snow last year but now, he doesn't mind it at all. 

Yeah, I know, I'm a mess ... but I'm bright!

Take care, everyone, and stay warm. 

;^)

P.S. We have over 10" and the snow is still coming. These pictures were taken early morning on Dec 17, 2022.

The BBQ doing his best Arnold Schwarzenegger impression, adding inches on both sides, lol. 

The pines are so beautiful. I'll take another picture once the sun brings back colours to the world.  

It is the nice kind of snow, you know the one that sticks together to make snowmen and forts. It sticks to bare branches too. And to the cat's fur. The poor thing could barely walk into the house this morning. 

And this is Frosty. Yep, my little snow friend grew another 3" or so ... and lost its face, haha. I'll have to dig him out of there and give the birds more seeds too. 

Joining 

Angela at So Scrappy

Frédérique at Patchwork and Quilts

Cynthia for Oh Scrap! 

Sarah for Can I Get a Whoop Whoop? 

Some Sewing Got Done

How about a Scrap Jar Star in green?

Yep! Did that.

I have figured out the layout for the Jericho Wall quilt so I started on the sashing. I seem to have forgotten how to sew the sashing though. The pressing was not right on this one but it stays. I'll try to do better with the third block. I also noticed (too late) that the sashing is of the same fabric as a piece in the first block. It stays anyway. 

Also tried some more Drunkard's Path blocks. I got some good advice in my last post about this block and I'm putting them to use. Thanks again, everyone. Only 8 blocks made so far so I'm still learning how this works. Regardless, I'm happy with these.

Have a great week.

;^)

Joining some quilty friends

Angela at So Scrappy 

Frédérique at Patchwork and Quilts 

Cynthia for Oh Scrap! 

Sarah for Can I Get a Whoop Whoop? 

A Sewing Bee

I participated in a sewing bee back in November and didn't post about it. Yeah, I know, I am bad sometimes.

Each year, the City Council gives money for a project that would benefit a group of residents, whether it's the pre-schoolers, the elders, the immigrants, etc. The Artisanat Club said they would do bibs for the nursing homes if the City would pay for the fabrics. They accepted. 

Seventeen ladies showed up to tackle 60 adult bibs on a rainy Saturday morning. 

Each station had a specific job to do. We had more than one pressing station but I only took a photo of Aline. 

Lots of lovely fabrics to play with. Of course, the first picture shows my favourite one of the day. I started the day by sewing together the two pieces of cotton with a flannel piece in the middle. Then, the girls who were cutting the sewed bibs out were lagging behind, so I helped them cut for a while. After, I stay stitched all around the bib and then another round a quarter inch on the inside. I turned a few bibs inside out too, but I mainly sewed. 

The Club wanted labels to sew on the bibs, so people would know who we are. Someone printed out labels with the Club's name and then said it was free of charge. That was so nice of him. 

Aren't they cute? 

Because the labels cost us nothing, and the girls found some really good deals at the fabric store, 60 bibs turned into 84. Yes, 84 bibs were made in a matter of 6 hours! 

The bin was full and we were all happy. The blue/green bag is a big grocery bag for scale. 

Bravo, ladies! You rock my world!! (Don't look for me, I'm holding the camera!) The tall girl at the back with a pink bib is Sylvie. She has organized all this. Thank you again, girls. It was a wonderful, fun day. 

Moving forward. This week saw our regular Artisanat meeting and Sylvie, that same Sylvie, gave me the leftover fabrics from the bibs. I am so lucky! I can pet my favourite orange fabric again. :^D 

Have a great day everyone! 

;^)

Joining 

Sarah for Can I Get a Whoop Whoop? 

What Am I Not Doing?

I haven't posted lately because, lately, I haven't been sewing. Not because I've run out of projects (never in a million years!), not because I've run out of fabrics (that will happen about the same year as the projects), but because I ran out of steam. I'm all out of "umph!". I end up with lots of attempts but no achievements. 

Back in October, the plan was to add a light green (more like lime) Scrap Jar Star to the group. 

Well, it's not done but it is cut. That counts for something right? 

I cut more scraps to kit another project. Don't know the name (I call it Quarter Star for now) but I'm in love with it. 

I believe I have enough for a large quilt or maybe even two small quilts in here ... and I'm not done. I haven't looked into the red scrap basket or the orange one yet.

This is the block ...

and this is the result. 

I blame Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict (scroll down a little) for my sudden obsession. Hahaha! I had to look at some videos on how to cut the Half Rectangles Triangles unit. You have to know the trick of the trade to do this one. Funny unit but I'm hooked. I'm even thinking of making one with flannel. 

This search for scraps for the Quarter Star prompted me to declutter the sewing room a bit. 

This is what's at the bottom of the design wall. :^(  Shame. 

After a few days, there was an improvement. 

I still have to deal with the two white plastic tubs and the basket holding all the grey fabrics. The projects are in their own boxes or containers and are labeled (far left). I even have a box named "Mini Vibes". It holds projects that are almost done and that just need a little bit more love to be finished, like sewing the binding on mug rugs and stuff like that.  

I did sew the label onto Field of Poppies (Good Fortune). There are still lots of thread ends to be dealt with but other than that it is done! 

I haven't jumped on the wagon of Chilhowie that Bonnie is so generously giving as a Mystery Quilt because I am not sewing. I am keeping all the directions though. I'll see in January if I need a Chilhowie or not. 

So, what's the reason I am not sewing? First reason: I finished Field of Poppies! I need to baste another quilt to quilt but I don't know which one. I'm stuck! Next week, I have two days off. Hopefully, I'll get my act together and get something done. 

Second reason: I am training two new employees, yes, two at the same time. It's draining my energy but at the same time, it is a relief because they'll be doing my job. We were three Team Assistants doing the work of five. Soon (hopefully), there will be five of us again. Yay! They are fast learners and they are doing very well so far. To train them, I have to work from the head office, which is a 45-minute drive one way. When I get home, I'm brain-dead but happy. All this has been accompanied by an increase in my salary ... but a decrease in my sewing time and energy. Oh well, it's temporary. :^) 

This is not much blog-post-worthy but I wanted to come in and say hi. 

Hope you all have a great week. 

See ya! 

;^)

Joining 

Angela at So Scrappy

Frédérique at Patchwork and Quilts

Cynthia for Oh Scrap 

and 

Sarah for Can I Get a Whoop Whoop?