Well, Look Who's Here !

Yes, I'm still alive ... and sewing.

I mostly worked on kits for the baby quilts the ladies at my group are sewing.

The yellow roses fabric was cut in long stripes when gifted to me a while back. I added a bunch of green fabric to the bag and told the girl to surprise me with a top. I so love what she did.

I'll publish a separate post with just the baby quilts once they are quilted and done. 😉


I did a lot of hand-quilting on Ohio Star Shadow.

Last block to quilt. Yay! 

Sewing down the binding.

And I can now call it a finish! It only took 29 years. All it needs is a label and I can't decide what I want. You'd think I had the time to think about that during those 29 years, lol.


In October, I went to our usual quilting retreat with my girls. So much fun!! So much food! 

Mini 4-Patch in blue got all the blocks made and assembled.

Then, it got more blocks with a darker blue and a border.

The border is so wavy that it looks like a ruffle, lol. I'll have fun quilting this one but I'll manage. It's my monster after all!


The container of triangles was overflowing so I brought it along to do something about that. Some blocks were assembled.

These two were in separate plastic bags so they were easy to put together. The HSTs finish at 1 inch. So many more triangles were sewn into HSTs and squared up but didn't make it into a block yet. I was just having fun sewing HSTs with no quilt, pattern, or layout in mind. And, I got the container into some kind of order with the bigger triangles at the bottom, etc. 

Got one in pink to assemble. 

 

I did walk too, a lot, because it was so beautiful but mostly because it's what I needed. 

The last time I was in Blogland, I was overworked with Real Estate Season, Canada Post were on strike which added to my work load, there were renovation going on to add 16 

View from my sewing machine. Can you see the lake? 

workstations that added to my work load and I had a major baby quilt project to work on. The cherry on top was that Saturday morning, August 30th, the phone call telling me my dear friend lost her battle against cancer. I had to step back. 

Wish I could sit on that chair for a while . . .
but it's a private entrance.

I am better now but not taking any sh*t from anyone, not even from myself. I've slow down the rhythm of the drums I walk to and it suits me just fine. 

Bejeweled golden leaf

Controlling ourselves is harder than it looks; I can't resist chocolate, coffee and fabric. Others things, I make myself believe that I can control them until everything is out of control. For now, I'm taking care of me and my son. I eat a better diet and soak up the sun most days and that's enough. 

I hope you are all doing well too. 

Keep smiling! It looks so good on you. ;^)

Catch up with these girls: 

Angela at So Scrappy

Frédérique at Patchwork and Quilts

Kathy at Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching

Cynthia for Oh Scrap!

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? 

Following the Curve

I am the lucky recipient of a quilter's generosity. I feel so blessed to know such wonderful people as you all. Some of you know that my friend Pink found an Accuquilt Go in a second-hand store. All the dies (knives) were missing so in a note on my blog I asked if anyone had some they would be willing to sell. Cathy raised to the occasion and sent me not one, not two, but THREE dies! How generous is that?

I am trying my hands at sewing curves with the Drunkard's Path die.

Setting the two simple pieces straight.

Pins

and the sewing is not that good. Some puckering occurred. Try again.

 
More pins.

 Ugh! 

I am sewing so slowly that the machine stalls every now and again. It reminds me of the first time I sat behind the wheel of my boyfriend's car. I said, "Hey, look. I got this. This is easy," as the car was slowly rolling down the street. He looked at me with a funny face and said, "You have to press down on the gas pedal. This is idle speed!!" Haha. I married that guy. :^D

Anywho! Here are the others. 

Okay, so I'm getting better. By next Saturday, I'll be able to sew these without pins. Haha! I'm such a joker! 

The other dies are the Diamond to make Tumbling Blocks and this one. 

I'll keep practicing with one curve before tackling three curves. This is my challenge for 2023. 

Thanks again, Cathy, I just can't say this enough. May blessings fall upon you too. 

I manage to make some wee sewing as leader-enders. 

Last week, we had our Artisanat meeting. I came home with some gifted scrap bags. Someone sewed triangles of the same fabric together. I am slowly taking them apart to turn them into something else. I do this during my lunch break at work. 

Done and pressed 

Waiting to be press

Still plenty for my lunches next week

There are a lot of two colours HSTs also. Of all sizes, it seems. 

I received another panel sewn to a piece of cheap batting. I used the first one as the backing for Stars in Blue. I guess the person liked what I did with her panel and decided to give me the pink one too. Shall I make a Stars in Pink? 

Today I am sewing with the Artisanat ladies. We were commissioned to make adult bibs for some residences. 60 bibs were called. More about this in my next post. 

Have a lovely day. 

;^) 

Joining 

Angela at So Scrappy 

Frédérique at Patchwork and Quilts 

Cynthia for Oh Scrap! 

Sarah for Can I Get a Whoop Whoop? 

I've Got Your Back

It is so important to feel supported when we do something we are unfamiliar with. At work, my new team is wonderful. It's been a month already that I switched departments. They got my back and it feels good.

It is the same thing for quilts; a back is very important. 

(Can you tell I've been playing with backs these past weeks?)

I have this lovely fabric for Jacob's Summer backing. I thought it was very relevant since it is all about summer sports. 

Turns out the piece is just not big enough. I was sour about that as I really wanted to use this one. I didn't feel like adding long strips on each side. Angela came to my rescue. She inspired me to make one like this. 

I love it! Thanks, Angela. (Photograph sideways as it is sooo long and the grass was wet.) 

Eight Miles of Moon Beam has been sitting on the frame for the last 5 years. Well, almost 6 at this point. I can't seem to quilt this one. I didn't like the quilting pattern and now, I don't like the back I chose. 

I found this bedsheet ...

and I think it suits Eight Miles better. So, let's switch!  

The Eight Miles' old backing will be used for Field of Poppies. 

I think it is befitting to have stars on the back to represent all these fallen heroes, wouldn't you say? 

Now, if I could just quilt these three quilts and get the UFO list shorter it would be wonderful.  You will hear how well I did (or didn't do) in a few weeks. Am I on the Nice or on the Naughty list? 😁

I bought a "From me to Me" kind of gift. 

Of course, it's fabric. Just a few fat quarters. I got some grey fabric in case I have to start Bonnie's Mystery Quilt. I also got a few others, in case I need them for something ... you know ... 😏for something. 

That's it for now. I got a gazillion more HSTs done ...

and the leftovers from the backing are already included.  Always in need of more. 

There's also a tulip trying to sprout on my design wall but that's for another post. 

Take care everyone. 

;^)

Joining my friends 

Denise at For the Love of Geese  (Denise has a great Sugar Cookies Recipe on her post. Just saying!)

Sarah at Confession of a Fabric Addict

Angela at So Scrappy

Frédérique at Patchwork and Quilts

Cynthia at Quilting is More Fun than Housework