The End of 2024

What have I done in 2024 beside finding a job?

Well, it all started with 2 cups of good intentions. Add to this 7 baskets of Colourful Fabrics and 4.5 bags of Neutral Fabrics. Follow these with 2 new Rotary Blades. You can add Thread by feet or meter, it's up to you but add enough to make the job enjoyable. Once all is neatly attached together, add a good dollop of sewing/quilting machine shenanigans. 

That sums up my year 😄 and it's not even over yet! 

For a few years now, I chose some quilts and tag each one to a colour. When Angela calls a certain colour that's the quilt I'm to work on but ... 

These were the quilts for 2024: 

Hole in the Barn Door - green

Spinner - yellow 

Framed 9 Patch - orange - Flimsy

Dreaming in Dutch - pink 

Shoreline - red - more blocks done

Broken Dish Swap - purple 

Westering Woman - blue 

Star Bloom - aqua 

Crumb Quilt in flannel - dark blue 

HST something for whatever colour I didn't already mention 

I totally fell off that wagon. 😞 Only two quilts got some attention this year. 

Table Scrap Challenge: Snowflake. Thanks, Joy! This was fun!

I also did the Heart and the Bird Challenges. It is my intention to participate again in 2025, but good intentions without a plan will go nowhere. So, follow The Joyful Quilter for the new plans. 

Hole in the Barn Door got a white border and part of the pieced border. Still a UFO. Sigh! 

At the end of each month, I enjoyed comparing the scrap bags pictures. Sometimes the difference was easy to see; other times, not so much. 

 

I sold the "I Spy Stars" quilt to a lawyer. First sale. WhooHoo! Very slowly working on another "I Spy" quilt. 

Double Halo was a RSC2024 project. Started in January and it turned into a flimsy the same year. Wow! That's a rare occurrence around here. A large piece of flannelette was set aside for its backing. Only need to find the time to quilt it. 

Framed 9-Patch started back in October 2016 is now a flimsy too. Yay! How many years will it take me to quilt it? Haha!

I learned how to do Pergamano or Parchment Paper Craft. It's not the same as the baking parchment. This one is thicker than poster board. 

Did a lot of mending, as always. This is Raven's blanket. It was in desperate need of some repairs. I was just PURR-crastinating.

Two baby quilts in flannelette started at the October retreat and finished in December. Francine is organizing another retreat in February or March. My name is on the list as I love sewing with this group of ladies. 

My second RSC2024 project: Stained Glass. It will continue in 2025 as more blocks are needed. Lately, I've been sewing up scrappy white/neutral triangles to finish off the blocks. 

Friends' Favourite got neglected for a while. I have sketched a layout and it will now be easier to move it forward. 

Also done: 

9 Patch blocks: 139 blocks were added to the collection. The grand total is now 470 blocks!

Knitted 5 dishcloths 

Started : Shallow Pond (Bonnie's County Clare) 10 blocks 

Added 46 more blocks to Shoreline. 

(Eight more on December 24th along with ... 

a good six inches of fresh snow. I shoveled some in the morning and during the day the sun melted the little bit that was left behind by the shovel.)

For now, I am cutting, cutting away some scraps, in a futile attempt to turn the mess into order. 

 

This picture showing the mess that was supposed to be "tamed" by year end. Well, it has changed but not exactly the way I had planned. 

The year started well enough with lots of decluttering thanks to The Joyful Quilter. She was my inspiration and my reminder. I kind of fell off the wagon since then. 

On the other hand, I received more scrap bags then ever before. I tried hard to dwindle the scraps every month in their respective colour, but my friends brought me more scrap bags to "fluff" up the lessened bags. It felt like shoveling during a snow storm. I will continue to search for a system that works for me. 

I have just noticed that this is my 600th post. Wow! I had no idea I would go this far. I who is usually shy talking about me, my quirky self, and I. I want to thank all of you for making the journey enjoyable with your comments, suggestions, feedbacks, solutions, and most of all, your friendship. 💖💙💚💛💖

Have you noticed that the new year starts with WTF? 

Let's not forget that it is followed by a "S"!! 🤨

No matter what the new year pretends to be saying, I wish 2025 exceeds your expectations. All the best to you and yours. May your cutting table stays clean and your rotary cutter stays sharp! 

Enjoy!

;^)

xox

Planning on joining these talented ladies this week;

Angela at So Scrappy

Frédérique at Patchwork and Quilts

Cynthia for Oh Scrap

Alycia for Finished or NOT Finished Friday

Nina Marie at Creations - Quilts, Art, Whatever

It's Glitter Season!

 

The office is all decorated for the Holidays. It is my first year with this company and I find it funny that their Christmas tree sports the logo's colours. White, black and lime green. 

This one stands in the lunchroom and 

this one is in the employees space. I forgot to take a picture of the one at the front desk where I work. Next time. 

My backyard was also in glitter this morning but it doesn't show well in the photo. 

In the sewing room ... no glitters but some finishes. Yay! 

Back in October, during a quilting retreat, I assembled two little baby quilts from flannelette scraps. 

The first one is sunny, happy and Spring calling... and done! 

Stitch in the ditch in both direction. The backing is another piece of flannelette that has the same print as one of the patch on the front. I found this cute orange floral on yellow for the binding. Just what this quilt needed; more flowers. Finish at 28 X 34

The second one was quite small and needed a larger border. 

This one is 5" wide. I decided to use up all of the red fabric. Unfortunately, I didn't have enough to make 4 9-patch blocks so I did this. It stayed on the design wall for a few evenings before I was convinced that, yep, I hate it. So I changed it. 

Much happier with this. It's not because you have little bits left, it means you have to find a place for them in this quilt. They can got in the next one. So, now, it is quilted. I don't have any red flannelette that looked good with the snowflake one. Dark blue would have been nice but not one of those on hands played well with this quilt. I have two huge bins (and then some) of flannelette and I can't find a suitable binding for this quilt. Really? Hmm. Go look again. 

What I found is not exactly flannelette. It's more of a brush cotton but not the bottom weight kind. 

Hey, it works so go for it. I like stripes for bindings. It measures 28.5" square. 

In this picture, you can see the soft blue print on the large border. The backing is an old flannelette piece left over from a pajamas I did when DS1 was 2yo. When I finished sewing the binding, I noticed that my machine had a heartburn and just spit all over the corner. Argh!! 

It just came back from a spa day! What else does it want? A Christmas present? Sheesh!! Sigh! 

I have one more little flannel quilt to finish. Last week, I received a large bag of scraps .. and some more flannel. There might be another baby quilt in there. These are fun to do and fast too. Eventually, this blog will be back to its regular programming. 

That's all for this week. 

Stay warm, drive safely. 

Take care, everyone. 

;^)

Planning on joining these talented ladies this week;

Angela at So Scrappy

Frédérique at Patchwork and Quilts

Cynthia for Oh Scrap

Alycia for Finished or NOT Finished Friday

Nina Marie at Creations - Quilts, Art, Whatever

County Clare on a Slow Week

Bonnie's County Clare leader-ender project is my L-E too. I called mine Shallow Pond. I got questions regarding how to spin those pieces so the unit lays flat. Not saying this is THE way to do it (as Bonnie does it differently) but it is how I do it.

Like Bonnie, I keep the "long" white piece vertical and sew a green piece on top. I sew the green piece first, on top, when I sew it to the middle part of that unit. For each side. 

The seams of the middle part (white green white) are folded towards the green bit. 

Twist the two seams.

I didn't take a picture of the blue section by itself but you can see here that the seams are also folded towards the dark (blue). When the two section join, the seam in the middle can easily twist. 

The same goes for the last seam. The three seams spin easily and the block is flat. The picture is not on its side. It's just the photographer inability to take a straight photo, haha. 

Ta-Dah! 

My sewing machine had a rendezvous with the Doctor this week. I busy myself with other things. 

Stained Glass blocks await their white triangles. I needed more white bits. 

This drawer is full of "neutral" strings. The pile on top of the drawer was in the drawer too. Yes, it was very squished. I removed only the strips that were approved to join the Stained Glass blocks. After a good 30 minutes, the drawer's load had diminished considerably. 

The white strings on the right side were set apart. They are very long and will be used as the middle strips in a string quilt I want to do. Eventually! (Don't we all know that song?) Now, the table is full of white bits and no machine to sew them, lol. 

Ohio Star Shadow got some attention too. One block is quilted and started the next one on the left. Slow and steady, it is moving along. 

The machine came back home(finally!). It sounds like a brand new one! I'm so happy. I will quilt those little baby quilts in an effort to get some projects out of here. I might sew all through the night. Lol. 

In case you are wondering, the answer is no. I am not doing Bonnie's mystery quilt but I sure am keeping the instructions. You know, in case someday I run out of quilts to do. 🤣 

Enjoy your week. 

;^)

Planning on joining these talented ladies this week;

Angela at So Scrappy

Frédérique at Patchwork and Quilts

Cynthia for Oh Scrap

Alycia for Finished or NOT Finished Friday

NinaMarie at Creations - Quilts, Art, Whatever

You Won't Believe This One

Most of us, Blogger users, had a problem with our readers comments not coming into our email's inbox. Well, the comments do reach your email's but not the inbox. I found lots of the comments in my trash box! Yes, the trash!

Believe me, it is the last place I would put your precious comments to me. So, if you can't find the comments, go check the trash.

All the comments come in as no-reply; even those that I know were never set as no-reply before. Shit-tuation continues. 

On this, I wish you all a very lovely and productive week.

Enjoy! ;^)

Some of This and None of That

Some sewing done and none of that snow came here. Yet! Fingers crossed that we don't get any for a little longer as the roofers aren't done redoing our roof. Hopefully, they will be able to finish it on Monday. 

My leader-ender project became somewhat the leader-ender to my other leader-ender project. 

Nine-patch were done while sewing Shallow Pond. That's one way of getting things done. Lol. 

Units 

blocks

Last week, I showed you some masks made out of jeans scraps. Here are this week masks made with jelly rolls of gorgeous fabric. 

In my usual way, I had a mind to undo them and use the scraps. Unfortunately, that won't leave much scraps because they are cut for masks, with a curve on top, or worst they were cut at an angle! leaving only the middle strip as useful.

Instead of undoing them, how about sewing them up ... like ... like an apple core pattern ... type of pattern ... like maybe? 

After a few attempts at making something out of them, I decided that the best thing (for now) is to put them back in the bag. I might, yes, might, applique them as they are. It could become a commemorative Mask Quilt of the year no one wants to talk about. 

Unless, you have a better idea which I would truly appreciate you sharing it with me. Thank you. 

I satisfied my urge, need, desire to get rid of some flannelette pre-cut scraps. Another baby quilt is assembled. Here's #3 with rockets.

Not quite completed though. All these colours were put together in a project bag. I thought they played well together. My fingers were itching to see it complete, so, I got it out and started searching for a design and a layout. I'm tempted to add something at the top and bottom before adding a final border all around. Presently, it is only 22.5" which is not big enough even for a baby quilt.   

Almost the entire bag was used. All the orange ones are used. A lighter orange was called on board to finish it off. The argyle print is the same ochre as the solid one but it didn't play well with the others. It got benched for this one but it will find another project where it can shine, I'm sure. 

This weekend, I'll dive into the flannelette bins to hire a suitable border. 

That's all I have. Hope you have a lovely weekend and a productive week. 

;^) 

Also planning on joining these talented ladies; 

Angela at So Scrappy

Frédérique at Patchwork and Quilts

Cynthia for Oh Scrap

Alycia for Finished or NOT Finished Friday

NinaMarie at Creations - Quilts, Art, Whatever

Cutting, Cutting and Mending

Not much sewing done. Got a few mending done (read boring stuff). Fix the cat "bedspread" which is an old piece of terry cloth. I wash it regularly and the holes get bigger with every wash. It was time to do something. (Yes, I agree, it was ready for a fixing a long time ago, lol.)

At the top of this photo, you can see the size of the holes (ashamed). On the bottom, I quickly stitched some batting to replace the missing cloth. Then, I took whatever fabric to cover it. A simple straight stitch over the folded edges was all that was done. Nothing fancy. 

I know that he will claw at it again whenever he feels it's time to make "biscuits", producing more holes but for now it's somewhat decent.  

Side A and 

Side B. The pink and blue fabrics are flannelette; the brown and yellow are cotton. You can see the sewing around the blue patch is beyond the patch. Those stitches are from the yellow piece on side A. I didn't measure; just winged it. He's happy to have his blanket back on his bed. And that's all that matters to him. 

 

I received some bags of scrap along with 12 masks made of jeans. Yes, jeans as in denim. 

First, aren't we all fed up of making masks? Second, who can breath through all this thickness? So, in my usual way, I'm taking them apart, cutting out the inside because ... 

I want to use those little bits of cotton. The jeans pieces are thrown out. Sorry, but I have no intention of unsewing these awful stitches.

There were lots of wonderful fabrics in those bags. I'm slowly cutting them in usable pieces. 

I want to show you this Winter Cactus because it's blooming. A beautiful, vibrant coral colour. I'm in love with it. 

I'm happy about this because this is MY plant! And it's blooming! I'm a serial plant killer so this is like AMAZING news! I bought it last June, or was it May, anywho, at a garage sale. It was just a tiny little thing. I transferred it in a bigger pot and it survived ... and it's blooming!

Also these Mums from last year that I kept inside all winter long. It came out of the house last Spring and it tried to survive the heat of the summer. Now that the weather is cooler, it's blooming too. 

Granted, it's not the prettiest plant ever but it's blooming. I'm sock! 

They are calling for a glorious unseasonably warm weekend. I plan to enjoy it to its fullest by sitting outside with a hand sewing project. Yep! I'm taking Ohio Star Shadow out of its summer hibernating state and get it moving forward while I watch the clothes dry on the clothesline. 

The last time I worked on this was on April 12, 2024. Let's finish it. 

That sounds like the perfect weekend to me. How about you? any plans? 

Enjoy! 

;^)

Also planning on joining these talented ladies; 

Angela at So Scrappy

Frédérique at Patchwork and Quilts

Cynthia for Oh Scrap

Kathy for Slow Sunday Stitching

Alycia for Finished or NOT Finished Friday

NinaMarie at Creations - Quilts, Art, Whatever