It's July and It's Stinking Hot

It will be another humid, sticky, stinky 35 to 40 Celsius here (again) today. Enough, please!  

On to fun things. 

To make an April Fool block, you need a large piece of scrap. Since my purple scrap doesn't amount to much, I had to get some bigger pieces from the local quilting store (read my stash)! 

I wish I could use and finish this purple one from 2009 but, nope, too small.  

Six more were done over the weekend, three on each day. 

Then the last 2 were done during the week. Yay! All the purple blocks are made for that project. 

The pieces pulled from the stash are now part of the scraps, so instead of decreasing the scraps, I added to it. (Sounds familiar, Diann?) 

Today, I'll look for pieces for Flying Home blocks. 

Of course, I did the usual 9-Patch blocks instead of the Rail Fence that need to be done.

Nine Patch are cuter than Rail Fence in my book. Bottom left is a block for the Bonus Point quilt, all purple and orange. Mmmm! So pretty. 

I had to go to Walmart for some personal items and walked to the craft corner for some white threat. 

WELL!  Can you guess what happened? 

Oh, yep! 

These jumped into my arms. I really don't know how that happened. LOL

The black one is for the baby quilt kit "I Spy with black and white squares". So, that one is needed. The others wanted to be adopted. Sigh! What can I say? I have a sensitive heart. 

I did a new Puss in the Corner block in purple. The block used up all the diagonal purple print I had. 

The blue one has been pinned to the design wall for a while now. It's hard to read on the photo but above the sewing machine it's written: You're Sew Amazing. Awwwhhh! It came in a gifted bag. My friends give the best scrap ever. 

Anywho! It's still on the design wall because I can't find something that matches or compliments it. 

The adopted fat quarters were so happy to be rescued that they went to work right away. 

Ta-dah! 

Also did 2 Rail Fence blocks as leader-ender because I felt bad for ignoring it. 

Tonight, we are celebrating my MIL 85th birthday. It's a BBQ. Outside. I wonder how she will enjoy it in this humidity and heat, poor MIL. 

That's all from me. Have a great week. Stay cool. 

;^)

Want more inspiration? Check these ladies' blogs. 

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

Long Weekend Sewing Report

EDITED - 

It was so wonderful! Can I have another one please? Even the thunderstorms didn't bother me. 

This is a treasure I found in the gifted bags. It's only 28.5" so borders or something will be added at some point. But not now. I'm having too much fun elsewhere. 

Free binding was also found in the bags. The blue one is 154" long and the solid caramel one is 175". Wow!  

This is what the living room corner looks like still. I kind of lost steam at one point. DH asked me when will all of this disappear from the room. That's a good hint that he's losing patience. It's my top priority this weekend. 

But did I sew? Yes, I did. So many goodies came out of those bags. Let's see. 

One more green Stained Glass block and ... 

another one in the work. The prints are obviously from a collection (except for the first on the left) and they were cut on the bias. I decided to sew them together before they go wonky on me. 

Now with the black all around. I'm not impressed. I didn't trim it yet as I think they won't play well with the others. What do you see? The colours are truer in the first picture. 

I also worked on these little blocks. 

Shallow Pond (a.k.a. County Clare by Bonnie K. Hunter) has been a nice interruption in my regular program. 

I like it. It's a cute block, it's blue and green which I love, but (you knew a but was coming, right?) I don't need another leader-ender in this busy sewing room. 

I finished the last blocks needed to reach 25. Over the long weekend this happened. 

Shallow Pond is a baby quilt. I'm moving on with other projects that can easily become my leader-ender, like the crumb triangles for Stained Glass, or the rail fence blocks for 9 Patch Path, or Bonus Points, or ... you get the picture. 

It is 30.5" squares at the moment. Border? Yes because it looks very plain like this. I'm thinking birds. Yes, birds. Ponds always have birds, right?  

A little oops! Two blocks of the same fabric side by side but I'm not changing it. 

Since Shallow Pond is "done", I can start another project, right? 

Remember Puss in the Corner? So many fabric are lining up for this project, it's overwhelming. But this one came together. 

What can I say? It's green, okay, granted there are snowmen too but on GREEN. The red snowflake was in the same gifted bag so, what's a girl to do? 

This one is gorgeous in my eyes but it's a tough one to please. 

The centre print and the solid rust were together. I love it. I can't match the dusty baby blue from the centre and I'm auditioning dozens of fabric from all range of colours. This one is more seafoam then blue but it might work. 

Next. 

There's little yellow/gold flowers in the print and this gold fabric pulls them out ... I think. Or is it overbearing? 

I even tried some browns. I like this one. It's not demanding at all. What do you think? Maybe I should continue searching? 

They are so much fun. I have more centres sitting on the sideline. 

EDITED: The search is over. 

All the blue fabric were removed from the bags. I dug into the pile in the hope that she had something that matches. She did! I love it! Next, please. 

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".  

Mine started with the tree print. More on that in another post. There's plenty of time for you to join us. 

My official leader-ender this month is 18 Bars and Bonus Points blocks. 

The red one needs a few more stitches. They are made with little bit of 1.5 X 2.5". 

New Sewing Room Resolution! 

With all the fabric coming into my world, I had some long discussion with myself, lots of brainstorming, this past week. A plan to reach accomplishment is needed. I came up with this.  

 

First, I put up my cutting instruction on the clothesline. Literally. 

In an attempt to be more productive, I want to see what I need for each project when I am cutting fabric. I start a lot of projects; I also kit some that are stored. I keep forgetting about the kits, like Crossroad to Jericho, and Ladies Wreath, and Jewel Box. Anywho! Having the measurements front and centre on my design wall will help ... I hope.  

Second, I've detailed my week. 

I want to do this, and finish that, and that WIP, and organize this corner; so many other things demand my time I just end up all over the place (so easy for an ADHD person). So, I thought if I know what I'm going to do (during the week nights) I might not waste 20 minutes pondering what I want to do or what needs to be done. 

Here goes: 

Monday, I will cut fabric (check the clothesline) AND clean the cutting table. 

Tuesday, I will take care of people, friends, (meetings are usually on this day). If it's a week with no meeting, organize things for the next meeting. 

Wednesday, I will sew or quilt (or pin for quilting) (need to fix the problem with the Janome) or organize backs or/and binding. 

Thursday, I will hand quilt (because I seem to never find the time to do this anymore). 

Friday, I will blog and sew (RSC blocks first and whatever after. Do not start another one). 

The weekends are all about cutting and sewing, and shopping, and cooking, and cleaning, and all the boring stuff like that, lol. 

Even if I work for only 30 minutes/evening, I might be able to accomplish more this way. Will it work? Time will tell. 

Okay, now, enough of this blah blah. Let's get to work ... I mean sew. 

Hope you have a fun weekend. It looks like we might have a little bit of sunshine today. Yay! 

Enjoy! 

;^)

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