It Just Occurred to Me

Do you know what I don't have? I don't have a pink scrap basket! I know, right? I never had enough pink scraps to make a basket. Well that has changed (drastically) in the past few weeks. I have MORE than enough pink scraps to make a basket. Let's sew this.  

Aren't those Lemurs fun? Yes, it came from the big bag. 

Because I wanted to keep the "Paris Flea Market" selvage of the roses print (on the right), I simply sew it on top of the light pink. Unfortunately, when one sews after a long day at work... 

blooper happens! I sewed the other edge to the roses print. 😒 Easy fix. 

So, this is what I have so far. Not much but it's a start. 

Another thing I started was the Table Scrap Challenge and that one is now finished. Yay! 

Table Scrap Challenge is hosted by The Joyful Quilter and the January theme was "hot beverage" or Pink. Well, a hot beverage, for a Canadian, is a Timmy's! 

I didn't know what I was doing so I just winged it. Sewn some reds together, trying to make it look like a cylinder with shades and highlights. The cup is sparsely "fused" to the background. Then I tried to zigzag the edges. I glued the lid on top and free-hand machine sewed the lines on the lid. Not perfect but so am I. 

Yes, I know, the lid has no hole because I didn't want to spill my coffee on my brand new mug rug. Lol. 

I just sewed the letters on. It will fray but that's fine by me. For a first try, I'm very happy with the result. 

I don't Double-Double which, I have recently learned, is a typical Canadian saying. It means 2 sugar, 2 cream coffee. No other country says "a double-double, please" when ordering coffee. It has also been accepted by the Webster Dictionary as a word. Wow! I didn't know that either. My favourite Tim coffee is a medium with 1 sugar and 2 milk or a half French (Vanilla) half coffee. Yummm! 

The back is full of cups (in case I feel like a Peppermint Tea, or a Sun Kissed Ginger Tea.) and bound with red scraps. Ta-dah! 

Thanks, Joy, for the fun challenge. 

Come see the other takes on this month's challenge, right here: Table Scrap Challenge. 

;^)

P.S. This is the spool on the floor,

and this is the bobbin in the machine.

Which one will be done first? HAAaaaaa! The suspense is killing me!! Lol.

I will visit these talented ladies over the weekend. Hope to catch you there. 

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

Catch 22?

I work and work, but I'm getting nowhere. Ever got that feeling? 


There were, in the past two weeks, a good number of job postings up my alley. Out of all the applications I sent, only one turned into an interview. None of the applications came to fruition. I have another interview on Monday morning. I know I will get this job just because it isn't a job I want. It will help to pay the bills while I keep searching though. The quilting group and I are going up to the cottage at the end of February for a weekend of quilting. I don't want hubby to pay for MY vacation. Hence, the (desperate) need to find a job. Fingers crossed. 

Anywho! What happened this week besides the boring stuff? 

The Hole in the Barn Door had its white border sewn. That poor quilt's been lingering on the rocking chair for so long. The last I worked on this quilt was in October 2021. I've worked on the last border on and off, but the quilt itself became my Sleeping Beauty. (My cat must love this one because there's cat hair all over it, lol.) 

Now, here's the Catch 22! I would like to add another scrappy border to it. 

Something like this. 

What do you think? 

Too much? 

One last picture. I definitely need to fix that wavy white border. 

Now if I add the scrappy border, it will mean that this quilt is still NOT ready for quilting. Sigh! 

On another note: green! 

Between the house cleaning, the job searching and the blue Snowflake, the greens were neglected somewhat. I managed to do a few 9 Patch. What else is new? 

Umh! 

These blocks?

It is inspired by Frog Quilter.  The quilt was in her header for a long time and I promised I would make one every time I visited her blog. Now that she has removed it from her header, I'm missing it. It's time to make my own. It's called Stained Glass String blocks. 

I know, I know. 

I said I wouldn't start an RSC block this year and concentrate on finishing UFOs but ... I lied. 

This one appeared on my design wall. It came to me through another blogger's post. Could you, please, stop making beautiful quilts? I'm trying to finish a few of my own, you know. 😂😂😂😂

Then, Angela did an awesome Antique Tile block! Oh! No! Not temptation again! Did I mention Catch 22? 

Yesterday, Friday, I remembered that the Artisanat's challenge for our next meeting is hearts. (Again? It was heart last February!) I only have one heart quilt so I had to make something else, right?

My heart quilt in Log Cabin blocks was presented last year at the Artisanat meeting.

 Our next meeting is this coming Tuesday. I better get a-moving! 

I quickly put this one together. A dark pink thread in the heart and white for the background. Today, I will deal with the end threads and binding. It's only 8 inches.

A cute pink paisley piece for the back. I guess this is my official switch to red. 

Have a great week, everyone! 

;^)

And now, it's time to show what you were up to this week. Come and join us. 

Cynthia for Oh Scrap 

Angela at So Scrappy

Frédérique at Patchwork and Quilts 

Alycia for Finished or NOT Finished Friday

Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

NinaMarie at Creations - Quilts, Art, Whatever 

Still in the Green

How many Irish Star blocks do I need for a quilt? The answer is 55 stars and 55 alternative blocks for a 10 X 11 layout. Oh, it'll be so nice.

Seven blocks time 7 colours make 49 blocks. So 6 colours will be repeated 8 times. I already have 7 blue stars and 4 pinks. These 2 green ones will join the 2 previous ones. Only 40 more stars to do.
Nine alternate blocks are made, including the two from the picture.

More greens were used in the center of Friends' Favourite Blocks. I really love making this one too. 

and whatever for the 9-patch blocks. 

Are you wondering what happened to the cute little green HSTs from before the last post? They have turned into a pretty little mug rug.

 

Still hand-sewing down the binding.  It measures 5 X 7~ish inches. Only two HSTs weren't used as they weren't 1.75". Now that I'm thinking about it I should have added them to the back. Oh well. They are with the other little parts and might be used for something one day. 

Freezing rain was the mess we had to deal with on Wednesday. 

Can't see the forest behind my house anymore

The power was out for 14 hours at my place, not so bad considering the major part of Ontario was without power. 

Thanks to the guys (and girls) that worked all night so we could wake up to a "normal" morning, and coffee. SOOOOO appreciated. 

Purple is coming right up ... in the next post. 

Take care everyone. 

;^)

Joining my quilty friends 

Angela at So Scrappy 

Frédérique at Patchwork and Quilts 

Cynthia for Oh Scrap! 

Sarah for Can I Get A Whoop Whoop? 

Looking For Purple

July is the month to sew our purple scraps, says Angela. I don't have a lot of purples compared to other colours but I'm sure I can manage some purplish sewing.

Let's see what happened this week.

Looking at the pictures I took this week, there aren't many with purple. I've mostly played with blue still. 

Two crumb blocks got finished. In the block on the right, the triangle, along with the pieces above and below, were reclaimed from the placemat I made the week before. There's a place for everything in these blocks. 

Trimmed block and not trimmed block

While putting the blue fabrics away, I came across this lovely piece. 

It was fussy cut by someone than gifted to me. I have nothing against fussy cutting but talk about going beyond the call of duty. Look at those deep brake marks. Every square taken out of this piece had deep laceration like this. Instead of putting it away like this, I slashed it down by following the "cutting lines". The pieces were easier to fold and store. 

I kept a few bits, grabbed a few more blues from the cutting table (there's always some) a little batting, and sandwiched it with a larger piece of the tortured fabric, and voilà! All done. Front and ... 

... back. Some simple straight quilting (not following the sewing lines) got the job done. On the left side, I don't know what I did with the binding (where the beginning gets connected to the tail), but it is the worst job ever! Oh well, it's just a little mug rug (7.5 X 5.75) for the office. 

Something strange happened this week. It was a beautifully blue-clouded sky with some pink from the sunset, but if you look closely to the right of the photo, where the tree is the tallest, there's a pink ... tail (?) coming down from the pink cloud. This picture doesn't do it justice, of course, I'm not a very good photographer, but in person, it looked like a rainbow with only pink and orange. Weird! We have a mix-match of weather lately, and now, even the rainbows don't know how to rainbow anymore. Hahaha! 

A session on trimming HSTs was also endured scheduled. A new ID card holder is needed as this is what the back of my beautiful cardinal one looks like. Dirty, used, and tired looking. 

On Tuesday morning, I had a brand new holder with shiny transparent vinyl. Yay! 

Finally, this morning (Saturday), I started to play with purple! I pulled some fabrics out to pair them up for Jericho Wall blocks. It went pretty fast this time. My first picks were these two. 

They play so well together. It is so beautiful in this photo but the colour is way off. 

This picture shows the colour better. It is more periwinkle than a true purple. It is dark, but it will do. It will balance out the dark blue one I made last month, and everything will be good in the end. I've paired more purples, so more Jericho Wall blocks to show next time. 

Meanwhile, happy sewing. 

;^)

Joining 

Angela at So Scrappy 

Frédérique at Patchwork and Quilts 

Cynthia for Oh Scrap! 

Family Gathering and Quilting

A simple little post for those who are alone and wish to see some quilty stuff and some fabrics. Like Rebecca, it will be just us with the boys today. A simple family gathering to enjoy. 

In my previous post, I mentioned a bag of cream, grey, and poinsettias print triangles that I sewed and trimmed. They grew into little HSTs and I played with them until I was happy with the layout. 

It was fun playing with these little Broken Dish blocks at 2.5 inches. 

I should have taken more pictures as I was constructing this one. The gold fabric is not cotton and was ... (let me find a nice word) ... umm ... "unpleasant" to cut and sew. It was just a little piece that was given to me and I really liked it but not anymore! I thought it would bring out the gold highlights in the poinsettias fabric. I should have made that border slimmer but it doesn't bother me enough to change it. 

Let's try another picture to capture its real colour. 

Somewhat better. 

The last border is also a given fabric so nothing in this little mat (12.75 X 10.5) is from my stash but all were saved from the trash. The backing will be as the border fabric. It will go to the quilting pile which I need to do something with. 

While sewing the mat, I made 9-Patch blocks as my leader-ender. Here they are in order of completion. As I took the picture I realized that I am easy to influence. The more I worked on the mat, the more I picked the same colours. 

Stars in Blue is at the ready for quilting but I am not. I need to practice before I tackle that one. I feel rusty. I will practice on a placemat or something before I do anything on this one. Hopefully, a practice session or two will happen this weekend. 

Hope you enjoy this day any which way you can. Be it with family, friends, or fabric. 

;^)

Joining Angela at So Scrappy 

Cynthia at Quilting is More Fun than Housework

Sew Much

There's so much of everything lately. So much rain, so much sickening news, so many changes, so many masks, so many holes, so much fabric, ... oh, I like that one. Let's dwell on that one. 😉

In my first layout plan for the tulip quilt, I hadn't considered Aqua as a colour to do but now that we are in the Aqua month, I'm thinking I should add it in. 

I found some remnants in the gifted bags and sewed one up. What do you think? 

I have very little aqua fabric but found these. They are either dark or light. Some kind of go together but it is a long shot. Oh well, it will have to do. 

The August Personal Rainbow UFO Challenge got together. 

I have found a back for it too. On with the pinning. Do I have the time to quilt it? 

So much fabric. The cleaning continues.

The blue basket is all done and half-filled. It holds dark blue of course and all the blue batiks. 

The neutrals were next. The container is a 40 cup Rubbermaid bin. 

I separated the white scraps from the beige ones and ended up with this. 

White and ivory in the bag, beige in the container, and the pile next to the container are all scraps with colours on them. Not sure where I should add them.  I haven't removed all the tiny little bits to make a basket from the neutrals because I am second-guessing myself on this one. Do I want one or two baskets? Or should I make another basket for neutral with colours? If I make a white basket, there won't be much left in the basket. Should I do just one neutral basket? 🤔

So many fabrics. Carole, my sweet friend, brought me more bags of scraps. Yay! Amongst other things, she brought me a gazillion of triangles. 🤣 

Each little Ziplock bag has one quilt worth of triangles except for the 1930's reproductions. It looks like 2, even 3 quilts worth of triangles. Whoohoo! 

I'll be making HSTs for the rest of my life. 🤣🤣

Talking about HSTs, I did one block in light blue...

... and one (almost done) in beige. 

I've just noticed it is spinning the wrong way ... again. Blooper averted! 😀

Let's go back at the beginning for a second and dwell a little bit on "so many holes". 

I did something that I should have done a long, long time ago. Procrastination is such a dead stop! Eventually, a time comes when you just can't ignore the problem any longer. 

There were so many holes. Then, some holes turned into a giant one. 

I saw on the Net a rapid way to make a new ironing board cover. You cut the ribbon or folded fabric that holds the twine to attach the cover, and you sew it to the new one. It didn't take 30 minutes and all was done. 

I'm so happy with the new one. The iron doesn't get stuck in the holes anymore! Should have done that a long time ago. I cut my fabric too big. I didn't take into account the amount of fabric added by the twine section. Lesson learned for next one. 😉 

Monday will find me at work in the office. I am going back full-time. I need to make more masks so I can change during the day. My days of working from home are done. No more sewing during lunch break! Gosh! I'm gonna miss that. 

Him too, I will miss. 

Have a great weekend. 

;^)

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