What Happened?

I didn't mean to disappear like this but life got rough and I needed a break. A break from everything, office work included. I am slowly getting back on course. 

I did some sewing. 

Little 3.5" 9-Patch because they're fun to make.

Back in 2014, I followed Judy Laquidara's BOM. Then Judy disappeared from Blogger and the BOM stopped. In April of 2021, it was tagged to the colour Angela called for that month, prompting me to assemble it. I decided to make more Spool blocks and got these blocks into the flimsy stage. Goal achieved. Then it went back in time out because I didn't know if it needed a border or not. 

Well, it does not need a border! It got pin-basted, quilted and bound at the beginning of October. There! DONE! 

It's roughly 35 X 45. 

I used an old (but cute) piece of fabric for the back with a dark green gingham for the binding. No flannel for this one. 

With this finish, I was curious about how many UFOs were left. I was shocked! There are seventeen flimsies waiting to be quilted and thirty-nine unfinished projects. Yep. 39! Grand total of 56 projects to finish. Sigh! On the bright side, I have 63 finished. Yay! Lol. Friends' Favourite is counted with the flimsies. I'll remove it from the list when it is bound.  

Friends' Favourite hand quilting was going very well until it came to a halt. On October 4th, Row 10 was done. The needle hasn't moved since then. Only 6 more rows to go. I'll get back at it eventually. 

During October, I usually go to a retreat with 9 other ladies. A retreat! This is what I needed. So, I get the food ready, packed up clothing, projects and sewing machine. Get to the AirBnB late Friday afternoon, unpacked everything and settled down for four days of sewing and fun with the girls. 

Photo taken on Saturday morning. Just so beautiful. 

That's exactly when I found out that the pump broke during the night and there's no water in the house. 😲

Francine and I went down to the lake with pails to gather some water so we could at least flush the toilets. Needless to say, we packed back up and left. We were all so disappointed and annoyed but that's life. 

Even though our retreat was cut very short, I still came back home with a lot of goodies. 

 Yes, these 2 bags are full of fabric. Some I had already shared with others by the time I took this picture, lol. 

 

One of the project I had brought along was these blocks made by Anne. She gave these to me a long time ago, when she moved to the States. That was before Covid. Time to turn these blocks into something. I might not be at the retreat but I can still finish this one. Since the blocks aren't exactly the same size some kind of sashing was needed. 

Then I decided to make the block dance. 

This is the top I named "Dancing Anne". It is counted in the list of flimsies. It's not big but that's all I have. I bought the peach fabric especially for this quilt. I might add a border to make it a little bit wider. It's only 31.5 inches wide by 46 long. The photo is sideways. 

After that, my world stopped. 

This week I was able to sew a little bit and worked on the crumb stars. I would like to give this quilt to Quilts for Survivors, here in Timmins, Ont. 

I'm only making yellow, red and aqua stars. After making these, there are 6 of each colour. I need 48, so 10 more blocks needed from each colour. Knowing that each stars need 8 HSTs time 10 blocks I need 80 HSTs more in each colour. This quick calculation prompt me to put the pedal to the metal. 

Aqua scraps came out, were ironed and cut. Sixty HSTs sewed, pressed and trimmed. Twenty more are waiting by the sewing machine for the next sewing session. I got a few red chunks out to be pressed and cut. It feels good to have a goal. 

But what happened to me? 

If you follow my blog, you might remember that I had a rough year. And this bit broke the camel's back. 

My beautiful cat Raven, is the reason my world has stopped and I can't sew or hand quilt at the moment. Hand-quilting is very quiet and peaceful activity but only dark thoughts come to my mind lately because Raven is no longer with us. 

He was attacked by something and was wounded. He had a deep cut on his neck, among others. We brought him to the vet but, even with meds, it got infected, it didn't closed, it didn't healed. After 2 weeks of nursing him the best I could, I went back to the vet with the very tough decision to put him to sleep. I couldn't handle seeing him suffer any longer. Tears are running down my cheeks as I'm writing this. I miss him. 💔

Let me finish this post on a happier note. Here's my friend Lucie with her gorgeous butterfly quilt. She's a retired teacher who loves butterfly. 
 

Hope all is well in your corner of the world and that you can find some time to sew. 

;^) 

Will catch up with these talented ladies' link-party at some point. See you there.
Angela at So Scrappy
Frédérique at Patchwork and Quilts
Alycia for Finished or Not Friday

Cynthia for Oh Scrap!