Surprise! I'm Here

I didn't think I had something to write about but I do.

In the last post, I showed the two Flying Home blocks I did in orange. I thought I had one already done. Surprise! 

I had two already done! The latest blocks are at the bottom.  

Then, I brought them all out and set them together.

With the addition of purple and maybe more yellow blocks, it will be ready to become a top, I think. 

Also assembled these blocks. The 9-Patch Path on the left and Bonus Point on the right. It gave me a sense of accomplishment. 

On other evenings, I'm so tired that I just stand in front of the cutting table and admire some cats, lol. 

The President of the Artisanat called me on Thursday evening. We had a long and productive chat. She was happy to tell me that the Artisanat will supply all the batting I need to move the baby quilts along. I'm so thrilled. She also found 3 more ladies that want to join my group. We are now 14. Then, she said that I don't have to do all that by myself. "Let me know when you are available and I'll book the room for you and the girls. You'll be able to use the long tables to cut the fabric or the batting ... " What else can I say but "thank you from the bottom of my heart"? This project of making quilt kits is just exploding. I am blessed. 

Two April Fool blocks were assembled. In orange, of course. 

More big orange pieces are on the ironing board, all pressed, waiting for me to cut them up and turn them into April Fool blocks this weekend. 

Caught Mr. Robin having a fight with his own image. 

The windows on the upper deck are covered with a mirror film so that the nosey neighbour stop staring at us. But the birds think that there's another male on their territories. There's always something, isn't there? Haha. 

Hope your week is wonderful and it lets you sew, sew, sew. 

Enjoy! ;^) 

 

Visiting my stitching sisters for more inspiration. 

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

Did You Say Orange?

My life took a left turn. My suggestion to the Artisanat committee to make baby quilt kits was accepted and I now have a second full time job, lol.

After three hours of putting one kit together, ONE KIT, it was still not done. I was about to give up . . . unfortunately, I'm no quitter. So, I took a step back, licked my paw for a bit while my brain was grinding. Got another cup of coffee and boom . . . it became clear. My sewing room is not set up to make kits. Ok, problem identified. The solution is? 

Reorganize the sewing room in function of size instead of colours. 😵

This lovely print was the start of the first kit

When the pattern calls for 3.5", let's say, I have to go through all the colours to find the right scraps. That's nonsense. Having all the 3.5" in one spot will be more productive. 

Kit #1: 9-Patch blocks with alternate block of Humming bird. MIA: flannel backing.
Pattern is written.

It looks like my summer will be happening in the sewing room. Cut, cut, and cut some more trying to move all the scrap that comes in every week. Your prayers are welcomed. Lol. 

I need some time to sew too because my shoulders can't handle the cutting anymore today. 

Flying Home in orange. Only two as my tester block was made in orange, of course! 😎

Sewing little squares as leader-enders. As I snapped the picture, Mr. 9-Patch decided to walk away, haha. 

I thought of having a few different patterns for the kits with different levels of difficulty so we wouldn't be doing the same old easy pattern all the time. 

I'm down to 24. . . and I'm probably not done. So many inspiration out there. 

Last weekend, we had a little visit from the one we call Rascal. 

On the slim side but otherwise he looked healthy. And so friendly, he loves to be pet but don't try to pick him up. He's a feral cat after all. 

That's all I have for now. Hope all is well with you and that you can enjoy some fabric therapy. 

;^)

P.S. I will reply to your comments. It's Real Estate Season at the office and I come home too tired to open the computer. But I will do it this weekend. 💖

Visiting my stitching sisters for more inspiration. 

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

Here Comes Orange!

(Sorry for another long post. My last one. I promise.)

What a fun and busy week this was. Am I Following My Weekly Resolution? Not at all, lol. And why is that? Too much work! I was mostly alone at work this week as Olivia had other priorities in her life to deal with. So, I got home too tired to do much. 

But! I did attend our final reunion of Artisanat for the year 24-25 on Tuesday. The theme was Old McDonald's Farm. 

I found a new friend. It was so soft that I almost trade it for Raven. Nnnnaaahhh! Lol. (If you enlarge the photo you will see that I was the scarecrow made out of straw. Like drinking straw. No, I'm not drunk, just a little crazy on one side.) 

Of course, I came home with a bunch of scrap bags. 

During the week someone came to my house to deliver more boxes from her old aunt. 

Lots of not-quilt-worthy fabric. They are strips of thick fabric for ...  cut from mattresses? blinds?

I don't know what but I have a whole box of it. 

And a box of SHIBs (Squirrel Hiding in Boxes, Bags) 

These are garment SHIBs. The red ones are wool and the strips are jersey. I see relaxed-fit midi summer dresses in those. Oh, I wish I had more time on my hands. 

I don't know how to knit but right now I wish I did. 

31 magazines of knitting patterns and home craft of all kinds and for everyone in the family. Dated from 1920 to 1937. 

16 magazines with crochet patterns. The oldest one is 1912! So precious. 

The aunt had a notebook forgotten with the magazines. I remember those kind of notebook with a paper cover of a Holy picture (as if Jesus was that white) and the time table on the back. But I never seen one with this serious security tips about electricity. It must had been when the electricity was a new thing. Imagine that! Electricity is a new thing! and people did not know not to touch it. Wow!  

The aunt also did Petit Point needlework. She finished this one. Some are halfway done. 

Two frames came with the tapestries. 
I did do some Petit Point a long time ago. I want to start doing it again now. 

But then! 

BUT then!! 

I said to a few of you already that I was thinking of recruiting because of the amount of fabric that comes into my place every week. Well, I did AND they responded. 

It went like this. Brought my idea to the president of Artisanat. The committee agreed to my idea. So, I exposed my idea to the group during our last reunion, that maybe some people would like to sew but don't have the room for a lot of fabric. I would make kits for baby quilts, nothing too big, and at the reunion, they can take one or two kits home and assemble them at their own speed. The instruction, picture and fabric would all be in the kit. 

10 people signed up. TEN!! I'm floored. I'm excited and scared at the same time. Okay, since we don't meet until September, I will try and kit as many quilts as I can during the summer. I got one pattern done, with 20 more patterns to go. I'll make several kits of the same pattern. All the ladies who signed up already know how to make quilts. FANtastic!! 

But did I sew? 

Yes! Just a wee bit. 

All 10 blocks for April Fool were done but I couldn't resist this one. So 11 green ones. 

Same for Flying Home blocks. Three blocks is usually what I do each month but ... 

this green-ish teal (that looks more blue against the green) just twisted my arm. So, one more for the month. 

Itsy bitsy sewing done. 

Only one green crumb block and 9-Patch, of course. There was a little bit of that gorgeous print in the new bags and I just had to get rid of that SHIB! One orange 9-Patch and the brown one was another SHIB. I did way more Rail Fence then those but it will be more fun to show them once they are assembled. Hopefully next week I'll have a few blocks to present to you. 

I thought the pile of green scraps wasn't diminishing much when I realized ... 

it's not fabric. It's Raven! He seems to like green. I caught him a few times sleeping there but he never did that with the other colours. Funny cat. 

Care to see my green garden? 

Yep, that's all. I believe a little chipmunk ate the seeds. All that's growing are a few cucumbers. No flowers. I'll plant more seeds this weekend AND store the pots elsewhere. Sigh!  

Now the end of the month comparison photos of green scraps. 

The green scraps at the beginning of May looked like this. . . 

. . . this big pile was added (from gifted bags). The piece at the front went in the stash. 

The end of the green month looks like this . . . 

Three regular-sized Ziploc bags plus a tall plastic bag and the scrap basket overflowing. I did not moved forward with this one, lol. I was looking for that pear and apple fabric when sewing the Flying Home blocks. It never showed up in time. Whatever, it will be used in an I Spy quilt. 

June is my birth month and Angela called my favourite colour: Orange. I'm so happy! 

This is all I have to play with. :^(  There might be more in the gifted bags but I'm not very hopeful as my friends are not "Orange" people. Haha. 

Phew! That was a lot. I hope life treats you well. 

Enjoy! ;^)

Good friends never let you go crazy by yourself. Love this girl! 

 

Come visit my stitching sisters for more inspiration. 

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

Taraxacum

Another week gone by. I was sick most of it with flu. This one is a real stalker that won't leave me alone. Sigh! 

Nevertheless, I sewed. With green. 

This is Ladies Wreath. I did a test block back in 2023. Now that I have the cutting measurements on my design wall, it's easy to spot fabric that would work for each project. Maybe I didn't do such a good job at picking out the fabric for this block. 

Hopefully, it will blend in when more blocks join the party.   

I also had fun with this gorgeous print. I wish there was more in the bag but nope. That's all I got to play with. 

Some fabric were permitted to audition for the Puss in the Corner block. In green, of course. 

No. 1

No. 2

No. 3

Which one is my favourite? See the end of this post for the answer. :^D 

Table Scrap Challenge, hosted by the lovely Joy, was design and started. It will have many greens as the theme for this month is "Fresh Cut Grass".

It all started with the tree fabric. (I don't know why the photo has a discoloration in the middle like that. The fabric does not.)

I added the sky. 

Then the field and my backyard, and finally the cut grass. 

Granted I could have used a better fabric to represent the flower row but, good enough! 

See. It looks like my backyard with "Fresh cut grass". And the next day, what happens? 

This happens! Every time we mow the lawn, Taraxacum show right back up. 

Taraxacum! Better known as dandelions! (I've learned that this "weed" grows all over the world, except Antarctica.) I cut a few circles for the flower and sew them on top of the mini quilt. I was aiming for a rag quilt effect so I cut the "petals". I "roughen up" the petals and realized that this fabric does not unravel. Lol. Oh well. I still like it. 

You can reach Joy here for more "Fresh Cut Grass" version. 

Decluttering: following Joy's lead in this endeavor, from The Joyful Quilter.

This bin is a time capsule. We had to "depersonalized" our home when we put it up for sale. This bin hasn't been opened since 2013. It holds my jewelry box and pictures but I don't remember what else. Do I still need the "what else"? 

It's such a beautiful day that I decided to open it outside. It turned out to be a very good idea. 

I had a little collection of little perfume bottles. (Forgot about those) I am now allergic to perfume so these are leaving. Pee-yew, it sticks. A mandala astray? Nope. A little bottle of rocks? A souvenir from somewhere. Nope. Not keeping any of this. 

Matryoshka Babushka is also leaving. She used to guard my watches. 

Before working with children, I had quite a collection of watches. I'm keeping these two. The crystal bird was a gift to my foster mother. They gave it back to me when she passed away. I'm thinking of getting rid of it. The frosted glass box, bought on a trip, is a keeper. The silhouette of a cat is clear on the etched glass.

When we got married, I told my DH I would buy him a Ferrari one day. 

I kept my promise, lol. You can see the cat on the glass box better in this picture. Okay, so those are keepers along with the children's photos and the jewelry box gifted to me by my to-be-father-in-law on my first Christmas with my DH's family. okay, enough of walking down memory lane. Let's declutter and not much is happening here but I regained a large bin. 

Now, let's see here. One pair of very tired oven mitts, an old burned frying pan, cake decorating thingamajigs, 2 pens, another pair of shoes, two very used bath towels and a purse. Yay! Also a fancy cardboard box. 

Many Christmases ago, (you can see how faded it is under the lid) it held fancy soaps and lotions, and whatever not. It sat on the self in the laundry room, catching whatever was found at the bottom of the laundry machine after washing pants (mostly screws, nails and electric things). Well, no more. Thrift store, here I come.

Thanks, Joy for reminding us to part with things we don't use anymore. 

Back to our regular programming. 

I finished Shallow Pond ... AGAIN! While cleaning the cutting table, I found more blocks components for Shallow Pond. 

Well, since the pieces cut for this quilt are out and close by, I decided to add a row and get the quilt a little bigger. 

Sew up more blocks. Then I realized that the discovered blocks were some of the first I did and they were not assembled in the "right" direction. In the top left block, see how the green pieces are going in the wrong direction? Some unstitching happened. 

Then I attached the new row of blocks to the quilt. And I'm done, right? Rrrriiiiight! 

I don't understand why some projects become real "b*tches" when you are almost done. 

This is the last row. Yep! A rat nest on the back and not just a little bit ... 

All the way. 

I walked away at this point because I would have murdered that quilt! 

It did get fixed ... eventually. 

While working on it, I separated the two blocks that were side by side with the same fabric. Now, here's Shallow Pond as a top... for the second time. Not sure I want a border of birds anymore. We'll see. 

So what happened with Puss in the Corner? 

Was it your choice too? 

Have a wonderful weekend everyone. I know I will! 

;^) 

Come visit my stitching sisters for more inspiration. 

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