Catching My Breath

It was a crazy week but I survived and today, I plan to sew.

I took Tuesday afternoon off from work to go help a vaccine site (30 minutes drive one way) because there was no one available to go. The vaccine bottles got to the site frozen! (Which is normal, as they are always frozen but someone forgot to get them out early.) It took 45 minutes to thaw, so we were backlogged all day. I got back home at 9 pm. Exhausted but happy. That was followed by three days of zoom meetings and formation on the new platform we will be using at the office next month. Since I am in the "Super Users" group, I had to be present. We need to know the back doors of this program so we can answer all questions. 

Now, on to quilty things, please. I need a "fix" of fabric and coffee, haha. 

Last weekend, I continued the quilting on Smile and 

Ta-Dah! 

The pinwheels and the black and white sections are all quilted. The borders and the strip with the M&M gang are next. I'll do those with a black thread. 

I used plain white thread to the B/W sections. You can see here that the dark green block (which was MIA in the last post) looks much better than its pattern does with the dark green thread.  

You can see that the border is very wavy and Kathy talked about that just last week. My top was not taut enough when I pinned it. That's what happens when you rush into things like I do. Haha! 

I said I would show you the blue HSTs for my second HST quilt. 

Here they are with my little rascal, Raven. 

Raven: "Mama, you should have stacked the piles straighter for the picture."

Me: "May I remind you that they were all pretty BEFORE you decided to run into them."

Raven: "I would never do such a thing, Mama!" (staying put just long enough for a photo before darting off again.)

For the second HST quilt, I need a gazillion of 4-Patches made with 2" HSTs. And that it. Easy peasy, right? I'll have two wonderful HST quilts in no time. Bwahahahaha! 

The good thing about Zoom meetings and formation is that no one knows what your hands are doing. 

So, I did this. 

  

I finished sewing all the leaves for Cecile & Corinne's Challenge "Curves".  It has to be finished (completely finished) for next month. I really need to work on this one. (The background still looks blue but it is white.)

That's all folks. 

Have a pleasant weekend. 

;^)

Joining 

So Scrappy 

Patchwork and Quilts

Kathy's Quilts

Quilting is More Fun than Housework

Confessions of a Fabric Addict

April RSC Challenge

I haven't talked about my personal RSC Challenge for April because it took me a while to locate it. Haha! It's hiding since 2014! Time to do something about it. But what?

It is a BOM (Block of the Month) that Judy Laquidara at Patchwork Times did (I think it was her first BOM). I was so excited about it because it was my first BOM too. Then, something happened and Judy had to quit before the BOM was finished. So I made enough Spool blocks to assemble the blocks into a 44 X 35.5" baby quilt. 

Not the best colours for a baby quilt but it was supposed to be a much larger quilt. Anywho!! This is the quilt I have to work on in April. So, do I add borders? What colour? Or do I just call it done and quilt it? 

It has been folded for a long time. 

Meanwhile, we had a four-day weekend and some sewing time was well spent. Look at my Smile quilt! 

It stalled at this point back in February. 

And now ... 

Yellow blocks quilted! 

Blue blocks quilted! 

Sorry, Aqua but you got quilted with blue thread too and I have to say you look pretty good.  

Green blocks quilted! 

The dark green thread looks better on the dark green block which seems to be MIA. I'll redo this block whenever I get a lighter green thread. (Yeah! Right! 🙄)

Purple block ... 

got fixed! Funny how I just skipped around the black section of the last part of quilting. I'm funny that way! 😁

Rainbow block quilted! I used white thread for this one. 

And that's it!! All the coloured blocks are quilted. Isn't that wonderful? I am so happy for the progress done on this one. It feels so good to have my quilting mojo back. 

The black and white sections will sport a loose meander design. 

I also did a pillow for my lovely little black panther-cat. 

It was cat-approved right away. 

Yes, there is a cat in there, sleeping with his little snowman. 

He was purring so loud. He loves the "house" my sons did for him and now, it's a 5 Stars Penthouse! haha! 

I did some masks for my sister's boyfriend.  

Got some blues in there. Her masks are coming up shortly. I played thread chicken and I won. (see the bobbin to the right of the masks? It was close.) 

Did all the large HST for HST quilt #2. Yes, I did the dark blue too because I was on a roll. All the large HSTs for this quilt are done. I'll make the 4-Patch HST unit as leader-enders. Pictures in the next post, I promise. 

Phew! That's a lot of sewing. Wish I could have another long weekend because it was fun! 

Take care! 

;^)

Joining friends at 

So Scrappy 

Patchwork and Quilts

Quilting is More Fun than Housework

Life in a Scrapatch

Confessions of a Fabric Addict

From Green to Blue

There was still a few days left of March after the last Saturday, so I continued to sew some green.

Second green tulip and ...
 

... tiny little 3.5 Shoo-fly blocks were done.

I need one more green Tulip block and can't decide which fabric to choose. What would you pick, high contrast or celery? 

Then I switched my attention to blue fabrics. I pulled these out for the next Tulip blocks

and while I'm at it, might as well get a darker one too. 

Well, surprise! With the glorious sun this morning, my fabrics don't look so dark but they are ... darker than the others anyway. 

During March, I did 25 and 1/2 hours of volunteer work at different immunizing locations. It was fun to finally see some "real" people (haha) and to feel needed and helping out. Yes, I was tired. Yes, it was long hours at a time (sometimes after my day job). Yes, I will do some more in April. The Eastern Ontario Health Unit is so well organized that I love my time with them. Each volunteer has a job to do. Sometimes I worked as one of the greeters, other times, I served as a "watcher", making sure people felt fine after their shot and staying the mandatory 15 minutes. Every chair gets disinfected after each client. The elders (75 yo and up) are so grateful for the help the volunteers bring. They expect long line-ups and filling out papers they don't understand, and then, we (volunteers) show up and help them with it all. There are chairs available (six feet apart) at every step of the way and even a few wheelchairs.  One lady said to me as she sat down for her 15 min time-out "I got in line at 4:00 p.m. and was immunized at 4:04 p.m. That's not what I expected." (I think I will remember this phrase for the rest of my life. None of the volunteers or nurses knew we were being timed.) 

Take care. Stay safe. We are NOT out of the woods yet. 

;^)

Seeing my friends at :

Confessions of a Fabric Addict

So Scrappy

Patchwork and Quilts 

Quilting is More Fun than Housework

Life in a Scrapatch 

For the Love of Geese

Calling Spring

Here's my green for March. Didn't do much but I tried.

If I made tiny little Green Shoo-fly blocks, chances are I've made a Tulip block. 

I made some big Green HSTs too. I finished the one I cut last week and added a new lighter green. There are now 7 green blocks to sew for the second HST quilt. 

What about the first HST quilt? 

It's coming along too. Plenty of greens in there. 

Oh yes, the Tulip block! Here it is! 

... with my green-eyed monster. 

Doesn't this block look like spring?  

Have a great one! 

;^) 

Angela at So Scrappy

Frédérique at Patchwork and Quilts

Cynthia at Quilting is More Fun Than Housework

Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Denise for Put Your Foot Down

  

Today, it's Officially Spring ...

... and International Quilting Day! What better way to celebrate these two than stitching up some green?

I did some green HST. Are you surprised? Five done and one ready for my next sewing session. 

I got surprise bags this week with some unbelievable goodies. 

As usual, I got lots of gorgeous pieces of fabrics and a good selection of magazines too. 

A lady sent me her entire collection of Thimbleberries blocks! 

All twelve blocks' instructions are there with the fabric. Block 13 is the border and she used some of the fabrics to make something else, but I don't care. I consider myself SO lucky to have all the blocks. I'll have a Safe Haven quilt soon. 😍 Thank you, madam. 

Another lady made some blocks to share with a group of quilters. She sent me all of her 36 blocks. Can you believe that?!!

They are purple but I always have difficulty taking a nice picture of purple. Just believe me, it's very nice fabrics! 

Hand applique Whirly Gig.

 

Each lady wrote her name on the blocks. Some I can't read because it's too dark on dark. I know none of these ladies. 🙁 But I am grateful to all of them. 😊 Thank you, ladies. 

 

I also worked on my HST quilt but this happened. 

Darn! Should have gotten some pictures of the layout before letting the cat in. I will learn. Haha! 

This little black fur ball with eyes of Emeralds is called Raven. He's been with us a week now and we found out that he's a little thief. Yes, he is! He stole our hearts, 💝 all of them. The boys who had the "Ugh! Not a cat!" attitude, got on their knees to play with him and they built him a "house" to sleep in. 😸 

We are such good slaves! 😇

He sneaked in every corner of this big house and found my sewing mojo. 😁 Thank you to my friend Pink for finding him for me. He's the perfect cat! Love you, Pink! 

He's not a very good quilting buddy yet, he's only 3 months old and this is his first quilting experience. I'm sure he'll learn quickly as he is very smart. Little ferret! 

"Okay, human, enough of this nonsense and play with me. You hear!?" 

;^)

Joining 

Angela at So Scrappy

Cynthia at Quilting is More Fun than Housework

Frédérique at Patchwork and Quilts

Sara at Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Pat at Life in the Scrapatch