Some Sewing, Some Snowing

We are sieged by flakes. Lots and lots of snowflakes.

Pictures to the patio door

 

I understand why there's more snow on the knobs but I don't understand why there's a "wave" on the handle? 

Shoveled a foot of snow and fed the birds. They were very happy to finally have something easily accessible to eat. 

In the sewing room, I am sieged by Aqua.  

I don't know the name of this block. Anyone knows? 

Jericho Wall 

Scrap Jar Star 

Star Bloom 

Lots and lots of fun ... 

And HSTs too 

Oh, and this one too. Another one I don't know the name of. 

Haha! No, no, I haven't started another project. This one is to be "kitted". I was looking for something to use up the multicoloured scraps and darker fabrics that I have so much of. I believe this one fits the bill. As I cut for the RSC every month, I'll cut pieces for this one too. The navy 9-patch is the constant. I think it will work. 

Ever seen a black cat trying to hide in the snow to chase birds? He's so much fun to watch. 

That's all for now. 

In Canada, we have a long weekend, so to my fellow Canadians, enjoy the extra day off.

Edited: I've learned that my friends below in the U.S also have a long weekend. Enjoy it, gang! 

Have a great one, everyone. 

;^) 

Joining 

Angela for Rainbow Scrap Challenge 

Frédérique for Patchwork and Quilts

Cynthia for Oh Scraps

 

Rainbow UFO Challenge: Red to Teal

On the second Saturday of each month, I will (try to) publish a post to show what I accomplished on the Rainbow UFO Challenge the previous month, and what I will be working on during the current month.

January was assigned the colour red and I had tagged "to start a new project". If I had known it was to be called first, I would have tagged something else, but it's all good. Since I used the word project, it didn't necessarily have to be a quilt, right? 

So, here's the story. 

I was gifted some curtains a long time ago.

They are made of very nice, sturdy linen. Love the colour, love the checkered, cute wooden buttons, so I accepted the two panels for my living room. I hung them up and took them down in less than 15 minutes flat. You see, the checkered didn't align from one panel to the other. (Ugh!) Being a quilter, I'm sure you understand that it bugged me to no ends. In the closet, they went. I didn't know what to do with them. 

Fast forward to January 2022. I took the panels out and started to take them apart. You know me, I love to do that. So much more potential comes to the fabric when it isn't attached to something. (Unless your name is Cynthia Brunz. She teaches me so many new tricks.)

It was easy enough to turn the panels into tablecloths. Looks good too. 

What to do with the ties? 

My idea was to make a grocery bag with some jeans scraps I have and decorate it with the ties, with or without the buttons. 

The colours are more accurate in this picture. 

January went by so quickly that I didn't get a chance to work on that. It's only a postponement as I would really like to have the bag I have in mind. Stay tuned. 

February's colour is Teal/Turquoise and all the between blue and green colours. I selected Spinners for this month because it has more blue and green than any other colour. 

This is where I'm at. 

I'm missing one block and I removed one that looked too much the same green as another one. So, two more spinners to do and a gazillion of little HSTs. That sounds like fun! 

It may or may not be the final layout. 

We'll see next month how far along I was able to bring this quilt. 

We should have called this cat Enigma ...

... because his tail is forever in the shape of a question mark! Haha. (Only teasing, Raven. I love your fluffy tail, straight or not. 🐾😻) 

Have a great week everyone. 

;^)

Joining 

Angela for Rainbow Scrap Challenge 

Frédérique for Patchwork and Quilts

Cynthia for Oh Scraps

My Personal Rainbow Scrap Challenge

In July, I was to work on my Stars in Blue quilt. Nine blocks were made and abandoned in 2016. I played with a few ideas most of the month to finish this quilt. Someone commented that I should add stars in my sashing. (thanks for the inspiration, Gayle. Always helpful. 🧡) So I played with more stars. 

I made two testers, took some pictures and played on the computer. 

I came up with these options.

option 1

option 2

option 3

I didn't bother to photograph all 9 blocks, so it will look different when done but it gives me an idea of what to expect. I'm not too keen on option 3. One Ohio Star block is missing to make this pattern. It will be done this weekend. So, what do you say? 

Last week, I show you this picture. 

When I took it down from the design wall, I realized it isn't flying the right way. 

It will need a session with the seam ripper. Haha! Blooper! 

The cleaning of the sewing room continues. I discovered where the bonus HSTs from the first tulip blocks were hiding. I quickly turned them into shoo-fly! 

With all the cleaning and cutting I didn't get to play with Shoreline. Depending on August's colour for the RSC, I might continue to work on it. 

That's all I have for now. Take care everyone and have a great one! 

;^) 

Joining
Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict
Angela at So Scrappy
Frédérique at Patchwork and Quilts
Cynthia at Quilting is More Fun than Housework
Denise at For the Love of Geese
Pat at Life in a Scrapatch

Rotary Cutter Workout

Obviously, with a title like that, you probably deduced that I didn't sew much this week and you are right.

Friends give me bags of scraps every now and again. I don't always have time to put all the scraps away. They end up in corners or on any flat surfaces including the floor. It's time to get rid of all those bags. 

I made such a mess!

So I ironed and cut, and ironed and cut most of the week. I did empty a few bags already but there's still more to do. It's tedious but I know after it will be so much easier to use those scraps. 🙄

😶

😏   Actually, the real reason I'm going through bags of scraps is that I am hunting for black fabrics. 😝 I want to work on Shoreline some more. All I have found so far is solid black and a little piece of black leaf. Cute but not enough. 

Also found some lovely reds that I can use in Shoreline. Absolutely love the one on the left. 

I found the bonus HSTs from the car seat mat I made for a friend. Since my kitchen is grey and yellow, maybe I could do something with these for the table. 

Anywho! This isn't the black I need, so I went shopping. 

Also bought some neutral because I always run out of those and they were on sale. I got half yards of some white and cream too. On my way back home, I had to stop at the thrift store. 

I mean what's a trip in town if you don't stop at the thrift store? 

And I got the best thing EVER! Look! 

A one-thousand pieces puzzle of lovely quilts made by the one and only Bonnie K. Hunter. AWEsome!! It was dirt-cheap too. Yay me! 

Anywho! I did make some masks this week, and more are to come.  We are slowly going back to "normal" and back to the office in late August, so I will need more masks as I don't want to have the same one all day long. 

This morning, I did manage to finish the navy blue block for RSC. 

Yep! Still sewing HSTs. Haha! 

Have a great day everyone! 

;^)

Joining
Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict
Angela at So Scrappy
Frédérique at Patchwork and Quilts
Cynthia at Quilting is More Fun than Housework
Denise at For the Love of Geese
Pat at Life in a Scrapatch

I Can Work with Black Again.

Angela announced the colour for July to be blue, as well as dark neutral, grey, and black. I am so happy! I get to play with black again. Ever since I received a squishy envelope, I've been itching to play with Shoreline again. But first, let's see how I did during this bad week. 

I continued working on the Framed 9-Patch quilt and did four more. They were my personal RSC / UFO challenge for June.  

Seafoam Green was helpful once again. Yay! Also did blue, grey, and darks for this month's RSC before I knew what the colour of July was. Awesome! 

I celebrated my birthday (yep, they said that a Covid lockdown was not an excuse not to get older) and I went shopping with my youngest son. Stores are slowly opening here and I enjoyed a few hours in thrift stores. I adore thrift stores! I found these flannels, in MY favourite colours! They couldn't have screamed my name better than that. There's a yard in both. 

Then, my sewing sessions were interrupted. You see, we have a urinal and it broke. It kept gushing water when my youngest flushed it. Needless to say, there was water everywhere, seeping through the floor down to the basement by the time we got this thing under control again. Guess which room is under the bathroom? Yes, my sewing room! There was a lot of fabric soaked. It kept me busy.   

The next day, it did it again. With my youngest one, again! The poor boy doesn't want to come close to it anymore, haha. We were better prepared so the damages were minimal this time. DH will dismantle it and ship it to the dump. I don't want this thing in my house anymore. 

Anywho! It got me looking at my sewing room and realize that I have a lot of projects on my sewing table, so much so that I am running out of tables. It's time to Spring clean my workplace. 

I have the habit of throwing little bits of scraps in bins when I cut fabrics. It was time to sort them out. 

First container, done. 

Second container, done. 

Look at all the scraps I regained! (I did this while working from home, waiting for work to come in through emails. It was a slow week. My laptop is in the upper right corner.) 

Then, Canada had a birthday too. Happy Canada Day! Hope you had a great one! 🍁

Anywho! I won't bore you with every single container of scraps that I cleaned suffice to say there are six fewer containers on flat surfaces. Ha! 

I found some treasures in there, like these cute fabrics. It is a rich brown paired with green and light baby blue. 

They were a project's squared-off end I'm sure, as they were sewn side by side. I unpicked and sewn them on top of the other to make this little mug rug. I had the checked one in the middle then decided against it. 

Sewn the three pieces left of this fabric living on my worktable to make the backing. It's blue and brown-ish. It'll work fine. 

It is now ready for quilting. Quick project and fewer scraps. 

Then, another container is slowly getting emptied as I worked on finishing this tiny little one. 

You think you have seen this SuperNova Star before? Yes and no, as this one has HSTs of only 1 inch finished. The first one finished at 1.25 inches. Such a BIG difference, haha. 

While working on the Supernova, my leader-ender were some more HSTs (surprised?) and I got one block done. This is HST Quilt #2. The green block is my visual reminder on how to sew the block.  

I did a blue one because Angela had announced the colour for July by that time. 

Another one is well underway. Picture was taken in the early morning light as it was too dark last night when I closed the sewing shop. 

As soon as I'm done with SuperNova, I'm heading back to Shoreline, a Judy Martin design, because I received a squishy envelope, remember?

My friend at Amity Quilter has sent me some black scraps. I received her envelope a while back but couldn't work with it as I wanted to finish working on the Framed 9-Patch first. They aren't finished but Angela said black so ... I can work with black again! These fabrics are just what I needed for Shoreline. 

Some will go into other projects as they are too lively for Shoreline, but aren't they gorgeous? Love them all!! The tablecloth is orange so these pictures are washed out. Sorry. BTW the tablecloth is another little treasure I found at the thrift store. It's great linen, as the good old stuff kind of linen. Yeah! 

These scraps are just perfect. I'll be able to make many blocks with these beauties. Thanks again, Pat! I am so grateful and I am so in love with your scraps. 🥰

I have more to show (a tool review, personal RS Challenge for July, tulips) but it will wait for another post as this one is turning into a documentary length. Haha. 

Take care. Enjoy life! 

;^) 

Joining
Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict
Angela at So Scrappy
Frédérique at Patchwork and Quilts
Cynthia at Quilting is More Fun than Housework
Denise at For the Love of Geese
Pat at Life in a Scrapatch

My Red May

Even though I got this project out on the 17th of the month, I managed to do 21 more units. I'm happy but I can't stop. I caught the bug of sewing little pieces again and I just want to continue. 

I need 192 units (I think) 96 of block A and 96 of block B. Only 160 units missing. I'm almost done. LOL!

Although they are their own leader-ender most of the time, I did assemble some HSTs too. (For the rest of my life.) They are parts of the HSTs Quilt #2. 

I also tried to work a little bit on HSTs Quilt #1. Not done, but progress is good. 

Then, I took a break and spent some time on the Internet. I went to bed and ... this block kept running around in circles in my mind. I didn't pay much attention when I first saw it. I mean it was a nice quilt but not particularly an I-need-to-make-this-now. 

It obviously had another thought for me as it kept coming back. It's nagging me. 

I don't really recall it ... well not clearly. I remember the 5 whites squares, like a nine-patch and bigger squares ... but the image is not clear. 

Of course, I can't remember WHERE I saw this quilt or block. Pinterest? Blogger? If you know, please tell me so I can have a look at it again. 

If you know the name of the block, I would appreciate that information too. Thanks. 

Meanwhile, I'm playing with  ... 

Nope 

Nope

Getting warmer ... 

... but something is wrong. Will I ever get it right? What if I try ... 

I've signed up for some volunteering work again. It really cuts on my sewing time but it is so good for the soul. 

There are still a few more days left in May. I can probably get some more Shoreline blocks done. 

Enjoy! 

;^)

Joining
Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict
Angela at So Scrappy
Frédérique at Patchwork and Quilts
Cynthia at Quilting is More Fun than Housework
Denise at For the Love of Geese
Pat at Life in a Scrapatch