What am I Doing?

 Lots being happening in my life but not much in the sewing room, so I skipped blogging for awhile to spare you the boring part of my life. 

Ever so slowly, the Quilt of the Century is progressing. 

The left side border went on so nicely (it still had the pieces of paper in the hexagons) that I had a mind to restart the right one. Because on the right border (the hexagons didn't have the pieces of paper as a support), I find the line of the border not as straight as the left side. I'll see how much it bothers me when I get the top and bottom borders on. 

As I was removing the paper pieces, I was wondering "do I have to remove the basting threads too?"  Would love to have your feedback on this one, please. 

I did another pajama for DS3 in flannel while I finish assembling his flannel quilt. This is only the center of the top. 

Also did a placemat top, finally. Just one! Like I said not much went down in the sewing room. :^D

I manage to get the purples out. Need to cut the second purple block (selvage on top of picture). I should have went with a scrappy background for this project as it is getting hard to find pieces of neutral fabric big enough to cut the 8.5" pieces. 

I will leave you with this poster found on the Internet. I hope all of you are well. 

;^)

Joining:

Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia at Quilting is More Fun than Housework

Kathy at Kathy's Quilts

Frédérique for Patchwork and Quilts

Nicole at The Needle and Thread Network

Friday Finish

Just a quick post to show you my finishes.  (Yes, I know it is Saturday morning but I was too tired last night. :(   Sorry.)

"Specks of colours" (an old leader/ender project) is finished in red bindings. All machine quilted. I had fun doing this one. It still has a few threads that need to be tucked in. It finishes at 68 X 51.

front

back

Fall table runner is also finished. Also machine quilted in the ditch, I used the same brown fabric from the blocks to bind it. I love the back and would like to use it on that side too so I am hesitant to add a label.  Maybe later. (yeah, we all know what THAT means right? ) Since I always do my bindings by hand, I did a lot of hand sewing during the evenings this past week.

Ok enough of Friday! Onto Saturday now ... :) I would like to finish one or two more projects before I start something new but I am really itching for some new stitching. AAaaaarrrrrggghhhh!  All the beautiful fabric I've bought while visiting my friend haven't been cut up yet, believe it or not!!

Hope you enjoy some fabric fondling today.

Enjoy!

EDITED : I am linking to Nicky's Scraptastic Tuesday

Do you label a table runner?

Hellooooo!

Yes, I'm still here and I still sew ... kind of. I had an episode with some intense back/shoulder pain which kept me away, for the better part of the week, from my sewing room.  I did sew, (a few minutes at a time than on bed rest for the rest of the day) but had nothing worth showing ... until now.

First, I did the Marcus Designer Sew Along from last week.

This is NOT a block I would have tried on my own. So I am glad someone asked me to push my comfort zone up a notch and give it a try.  I am happy with the result but not happy enough to add it to the quilt. This one too will become a mug rug.   :^)
I am not in love with the blue and green 4 patch even though it does look good when looking at the fabric side by side, it is a different story when sewn into a 4 patch. I find it makes the corners too dark. Second, if you look at the bottom leg of the plus, it is not aligned. Don't like that. BUT I am happy with the exterior points of the PLUS.  Yes, I definitively have to redo this one; lighter green or lighter blue?

Because bending over my sewing machine or my quilting frame was torture, I sat in front of Pinterest and Blogland instead. Bad move. So much inspiration!! And fall is slowly coming, and orange is everywhere, and I ♥♥love orange♥♥, and ... well... I couldn't resist starting something new! I've never done a table runner before and Nicky had a sweet TRELLIS on her blog.  I was in love. So since July, I've been waiting for the right time to make this table runner. Sometime last week, I decided it was the right time ... of the year for a fall table runner.   ;^)

Chose some fall fabrics. Okay that's easy. Chose a colour for the "trellis".

Okay, that looks good.

... maybe not with all the fabrics I have picked.  Not in love with the bottom blocks but they'll have to do.

This morning, I am up since 6:00 am, I finished assembling it.  All done. It is sitting on a chair on a VERY windy Saturday morning.

Now, I have three, yes THREE projects to machine quilt.  The fall table runner, of course.

The "Speck of Colours" quilt and ...

have to finish "Where I come from" scrap quilt.  Only the borders need quilting. The middle was done a month or so ago and  I should have finished it before removing the walking foot from the sewing machine.  That was a bad decision on my part. Oh well, it will be done soon.  No more new projects Chantal, you hear?  Yes, yes!
Let's get back to the table runner please. I do have the fabric for the backing and the thin batting but should I make a label?

I will try to take a  better picture of it on a sunny day

Until next time... ssssSMiLE ... 

not every day is good but there is good in every day! 

Friday Flimsy

It is Friday. Yeah!

And I have a flimsy. Double Yeah!

This is ...  was an on-again, off-again leader/ender project that I was able to finish this afternoon.

It turned out better than I expected. This evening I might piece a backing and maybe even sandwich it.

I will change the foot on the sewing machine and will stitch in the ditch again this weekend.

But first, I have to go to Nancy Ring Design and check out the new Marcus Sew along block. That's a triple Yeah!

Until next time ... sssSMiLE ... for all to enjoy.

Blame the French Accent

I had nice comments on my last post. (I am not implying that usually I have bad comments, I just mean ... oh brother!!) Misunderstanding is what I mean.  Uh! Um! Let's start again.

I had comments on my last post and, as I was reading them, it dawn on me that I had mislead my readers. I apologize for that.  :- (

In my post, I said that I will add a white sashing and my sweet commentators were agreeing that it look good with the white sashing but, to me, the sashing was not on yet. So what were the nice people talking about? Then, the light came on in my head. Oh brother! I've mislead my readers with my blocks. True, the blocks do have a white sashing but, for me, that one is part of the block and not a "true" sashing. (Am I making sense?)

Blame it on my French accent please. I should have wrote; I will add a second white sashing because this is what I meant.

and add some corner blocks too ... or should I say corner stones? Funny how differently we can interpret one's writing. I've read my post again and again and now that I see it, I don't understand how come I couldn't see it before. I'll try to be more explicit from now on. I can be such a blabbermouth that I try to keep my posting short (not to bore you to tears).  But I left out an important little word; second. Thanks for all the nice comments, hope there is no hard feelings for my lack of ability at translating my ideas. Sorry to whom my reply was confusing. I had another vision of my quilt in my head then you did and I guess my reply didn't always made a lot of sense. (No, I was not drunk).  
BTW, yes, the blocks are crooked. I didn't pay much attention when sewing these little bits together and now, I am regretting it.

Hope you find some time to put some fabric to a needle.  Ha! ha! ha! (It does make sense in French!)

Until next time ... SMiLE ... it's international language.

Monday's Options

I finally have a few minutes to sit at my sewing machine. Yeah!!

Yesterday, I've pulled out the finished blocks of my on again/off again leader /ender project. I've been sewing little 1.5 squares together for so long I think I've started this in 2012 but not sure. And now I am tired of this project so... I will finish it.

I have 8 blocks done. I will do 4 more and add white sashing to calm it down a notch. The inner square has 100 pieces of almost every cotton I have. Not paying much attention to how I am sewing this so it is very colourful and ♫ ssscrappy ♪ . It will go to charity when done.

So this will be my work for this week (and the next). What about you? Hope you find some time to put some stitches on a fabric.

Linking up with Patchwork Times, for even more fun check out what some quilters are stitching together. 

Until next time ... SMiLE ... show your colours. 

The UFO has landed

I started this quilt in 2006 with a tired, cheap sewing machine and very little knowledge about quilts.  If I didn't had the right tools back then, I had the right book ; "Patchwork Quilting and Appliqué - The complete guide to all the essentilal techniques by Jenny Dobson".  Learned so much from this one. 

When I started this quilt, I didn't have enough fabrics of different shades and prints to finish it.  I did manage to do 33 blocks out of the 81 needed.  Out of these 33 blocks, some were eliminated which left 28 acceptable blocks.  I had a little bit of stars to assemble.

new blocks

old blocks

Now that my stash is bigger and more diversify, I was able to whip up all the missing blocks in order to accomplish this:

Ohio Star Shadow.  Since they are calling for rain for the next 7 days, I hurried up and took a quick picture on this very windy Monday evening.  Some blocks are what I call "misfits" meaning blocks with two colours or tones that are so close to each other that the pattern is almost lost. To have an attractive scrappy quilt, I've heard you need to have 20% of misfits. Although they sure are shining bright in this picture, there's definitively some misfits included in here like the one in the middle.  (Maybe I should have eliminated the reds !!)  You can see the inspiration for this quilt on the cover of the book.  It is the one at the bottom right.

So, YEAH!   I have a UFO finished ... well,  almost.  I do have a backing ready for it but I think I'll need to stitch some pieces of batting together ... or go shopping.  Hmmmmm!!  : ^D  and then, I can start quilting!!   YEAH !  : ^D 

While I was sewing the rows together, I started needed a new project as a leader/ender which is now my primary project.  It's a new quilt for my DS1.  Glimpse of the fabric.

Until next time ... don't be shy ! ... SM ;^)LE

Chantal

an old UFO has resurfaced ... to stay

Last Monday was Easter Monday and I had the day off.  It was a dull, overcast Monday with a little bit of rain. My car was at the garage for a pedicure (new brakes) so, I was stuck at home ... which I don't mind.  So I started to look into bins were put away in the anticipation of moving, bins that contain all kind of things, photos, fabrics, etc.  Not looking for a new project, ... just looking, ... reminiscing, you know?  I came across some old stars I had put together a while back. Back when I had the other sewing machine, the very cheap one that stitched up frustration faster than blocks!!! :(   Anyway, beside remembering that I also revisited a lot of old fabric and I decided to do something with these stars.  Some needed to be re-stitched and some were eliminated from the game on the first round.

This used to be a very ugly shirt bought at a
second hand store ... ages ago.  The grey fabric has tiny little stars in the lighter grey section.  It was a favorite of mine back then. I kept that one.
I numbered all the blocks and repositionned them  many, many times.

Of course, some new ones were called in to play along.

Some Ohio Stars are split between the light side and the dark side.

And some are even worst ... to sew.

This one needed an alignment .. but was a keeper.

Did a lot of shifting ... and kneeling ... and standing ... and kneeling ... and shifting... well we all know that dance, right ?!!  I found the book where this beautiful quilt originated and nested between the pages were my own schemes.  So I continued to fill in the blanks on paper too.

Any ideas what I am doing with the Ohio Star's blocks?

Today, I am assembling all the rows together.  Sometimes this week, I will reveal a flimsy quilt. Stay tuned.

Until then ...  SM ;^) LE ... because you just can't wear it out !

Chantal