Falling Apart

Remember this one.

Fields of Poppies (a.k.a. Good Fortune by Bonnie K. Hunter) was done in May and ... 

... fell apart in July. I sew it up real quick because I wanted it done before a certain date and ... it was a mess. It did manage to look good on the photos but in real life it wasn't that good looking.

It stalled me and I couldn't get my mojo going because I was disappointed in myself.

Then, in June, we had a wedding.

DH's nephew got married ... in the rain. We were all crowded inside, it was muggy, humid, stuffy ... a miserable evening. I felt sad for them. All the planning, preparations, attention to details, spending, hoping, wishing and it rains! But them, they were still happy to be together and I think a little oblivious of the weather.

We also had an uncle who decided to have the upper hand on cancer and went for an assisted death. It was very odd to know when he will pass away before it occurred. Counting the days, then the hours before his suffering ends. I just couldn't deal with this and it messed up my mind. On his funeral day, I couldn't cry. I loved him and I understand and respect his choice, it's just that I ... can't find the words to express this new feeling. On his funeral day, it was my birthday and I couldn't smile when people gave me their good wishes for a long and beautiful life. It was so at odds with what I was going through inside.

It took a long time before my life resume its "normal" rhythm. I realize that there are some things you can't change and need to accept no matter how much you don't want to. There are other things that you can change or have to change no matter how much you don't feel like it. I knew that I couldn't accept Good Fortune the way it was so I had to change it.

So I sat at my favorite spot, by my lonesome and ripped. Listening to the birds, talking to my uncle and my dad ...

it all came falling apart until ...

... it was all done and stacked.     

All the block B (blue/green block) need to be redone. 

Slowly, as I get back up, Fields of Poppies will mend too. 

;^)

Whatever Wednesday (on Thursday)

Whatever happened to me? I know I was gone a long time. Sorry.

I said I would show you the sensory blankets I did with my group at the Artisanat but then I disappeared. So finally, I have the pictures all prepped to show you what we did. Let's get started.

We had a ball making these blankets. Now I just can't remember how many we made but I can say it was a lot.

Many members showed up on a cool Saturday morning. Sewing stations, ironing stations, cutting stations, every one had a job. In this picture, you can see on the first table two sensory blanket are set up and ready to be pieced together. On the bottom right, the white blob is an old tablecloth. It was so lovely and yet she put the scissors to it because it had a very nice texture.

When we were done with one project, a lady would bring us more pieces, setting it down so it was easy to assemble it. The blankets either had 16 patches of 6 inches or 9 patches of 8.5 inches. We added things to most of the patches; pompoms, stuffed gloves, piece of a silk tie, lace, crochet flowers, etc.
(In the first picture, the blanket on the far left sports a huge white pompom. So cute!)

There even was a table for the finishing. These ladies sew by hand the binding down. A lot of times, they were asked to unpicked something though. They were just as glad to do it for us so we could continue to sew. Gosh! I wish I could keep one of them at home, lol. AND there was a lot of talking, laughing and a good time all around.

This is part of the textured fabric, flannel, fur, lace, ribbons, etc that the ladies brought to be used in the making of the blankets. Click on picture to see larger.  There was enough on those tables to keep us busy for 3 or 4 days. The generosity of this group is just AWEsome!! We will do this again.


I don't have any close up of a finished blanket (what a great photographer I am. No, not quitting my day-job, lol.)

I do have two examples of what was assembled. Click on picture to see it larger.

I sew from 9 am to 2 pm non-stop. It was fun. I would have gone longer but my back had enough of the hard plastic chair, lol. Can't wait for next year.


;^)

Good Fortune and Orange Twist

I've been working on a quilt that wasn't on my to-do list. What's the point of keeping a to-do list if I prefer to work on quilts that aren't listed? I don't know! I'm asking you.

Picture taken from Bonnie K. Hunter website

Good Fortune just captivated me at its reveal. Since January, I've been slowly patching units together to produce blocks to finally get my very own Good Fortune.




It's not completed but completed enough for me to present it to you.

Here is "Field of Poppies".

What I first saw in Bonnie K. Hunter's design were the flowers. Big orange flowers in a field and I decided to make the centres of my flowers black as I wanted poppies. I also switched the red for orange and the orange for red.

I love it! I'll try to make the flowers more apparent, visible with the quilting but for now, I have to decided on the borders.

I love Bonnie's borders as they lighten the hot/cold centre. I think they are too much for me to tackle though. I know me. I'll end up with one side two inches too long and the other side 3/4 inch too short. Should I give it a try? These borders take a long time to do I'm sure. None of the fabrics for the borders are cut so I can do whatever I want. I know I want more green but not sure what.

I hope the quilt will let me know shortly.

This morning, I went sewing with the Artisanat. We did some sensory blankets for people with Alzheimer. More on that next time.

;^)

Joining Angela at SoScrappy.
Joining Cynthia at Quilting is More Fun than Housework.
Joining Beth at Love Laugh Quilt

Keeping busy

My sewing room's been out of whack lately. I'm trying to make sense with what's going on around me and my conclusion is ... I have too many projects in progress. Or should I say projects not progressing?

This is still not happening. I'm stuck at the same place because the thread keeps breaking. After a cleaning,  twice, I'm now suspecting the quilt as the culprit. Maybe this junction is too thick and that's why the thread breaks. Would that make sense? I need to try quilting another spot and see how it goes. 

Good Fortune is taking shape ... kind of. Only 23 more blocks to assemble! :^)

My brother who came by last month, sent me some pictures of Mother's quilts that he has. It left me very nostalgic. Reminiscing a lot too. Would you like to see the quilts? Don't expect much and you won't be disappointed because he has no idea how to take good pictures of a quilt. So please, forgive him. 

Here goes. 

Made with cremplene. This will last forever. 

This one is crib size and made by my brother who owns it. I like this one a lot. 

The next three quilts were made with stencils and fabric paint. It was called Cameo and I'm not sure if it still exist. 

Mother did a lot of quilts with this pattern. She loved it so much. Not sure about this one, but most of the quilts with this pattern had scalloped edges. She hand quilted all her quilts. 

I remember painting these faces with my sister. It was fun. It's hard to tell in the picture but this crib size quilt has a prairie point finish. Mother loved that kind of finish on smaller quilts.

Back to the present. 

I tried to move 365 Challenge along and did three more. 

October first is the second corner block which I started back in February when I had enough of working with dark blue. It's still on my design wall and all the pieces are cut, so ... what am I waiting for? 

October 2 is Square within Square with 9 pieces. 

Then Road to Berlin with originally 9 pieces also.

Haha! No I didn't do the Y-seams version. It's easy to see that my block requires more than just 9 pieces.  It needs 17 pieces.  I'll try the Y-seams again when the pieces are bigger than an inch. 

Next we have the simple yet beautiful Split 9-Patch with 15 pieces.  

At the beginning of the month, I've received a huge bag of scraps and there was a big pile of tiny triangles. They've been very nasty and been nagging me. So I set them up by the machine and they are bothering me no more. 

Like a child, sitting on the floor, watching TV, trimming little blocks to 1.5 inches. I am far from being done as I have 181 HSTs to trim. That should keep be busy for a bit. I know what they will be but don't know the pattern I'll use yet. More to come. 

;^)

Joining Angela at So Scrappy

Joining Cynthia at Quilting is More Fun than Housework

Blue it is!

I didn't sew a thing this week. Good thing that last Monday was holiday. I was able to get most of these blocks done then. I did the last three today. Yep, it took me all day to make 3 blocks! Phew! September is done. 

Let's have a look. 

Sept 23 - Woven Ribbons - 12 pieces

Sept 24 - Ladies Wreath - 28 pieces

Sept 25 - Double X - 37 pieces The HSTs are one inch unfinished.

Sept 26 - Garrett Windows - 28 pieces

Sept 27 - Log Cabin Album - 23 pieces

Sept 28 - Stepping Stone - 41 pieces  This one is really as messy as it looks. It has nothing to do with the pins. I've lost many points, so much so that I didn't finished trimming it. I might start it over. Those geese are 1.25 inch by 7/8 inch. It is a hard one to sew regardless of how simple it looks. Arrrgh!

Sept 29 - Carol's Scraptime - 37 pieces  Another one with one inch unfinished HSTs.

Sept 30 - Toad in a Puddle - 33 pieces  I find my medium a little too dark in this one but it'll stay. Looking at this picture, I just noticed that some of the geese aren't flying in the right direction. Sigh! More ripping.

Total for the week - 239 pieces. Total for September:  909 pieces


The more I do, the less there will be of these tiny little 3.5 inches blocks. There is now only 92 blocks to go. Whoop hoop!

;^)

Joining Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict