Working with Red

I finished the Moda block in red and guess what?

I didn't run out of white but ran out of the red. Life is funny sometimes. So, one of these quarts doesn't have the same red as the others. Can you spot which one? 

I'll have to study how to properly press all those seams. At the moment, it is a hot mess. 

My personal Rainbow-UFO Challenge for February is Shoreline (see this post for a picture of the blocks together). I counted the blocks made so far and the total is way more than I thought; 38 blocks. I don't think I will be able to double that (my initial intention), but I sure will give it a try. 

Have you ever thought you had more fabric of one colour than what's in your stash and when you pull out a UFO project you realize where all that colour went? I have! When I pulled out Shoreline, I found a lot of my reds hiding in there. 

This quilt demands a lot of cutting. A. LOT. Of. Cutting! I keep running out of varieties. (Thank you to all who sent me black scraps.)

You have to keep the different sizes separated. I use Mr. Christie's plastic cookie trays. Some use baking muffin trays. Whatever works for you. 

I started by making one black (left) and one red block (right). I didn't like it. I remembered that it is easier to do two of the same blocks at once. The black has 16 pieces and the red has 22 pieces so they aren't compatible with the leader-ender technique that I love so much.  

Two by two, they are slowly getting done. 

The next one is prepped and waiting patiently. 

I managed to squeeze in a Stained Glass red block. 

And now, a picture of my big fluffy cat, since he hasn't been on a post in a while.

He was sleeping on my bed but heard me walk into the room. He doesn't like the camera's lens so it is hard to have him looking up at it. He turned 3 years old last month. 

Miracle! As I was taking pictures of the blocks on the kitchen floor, Raven came by to check things out, flopped himself down and ... fantastique! ... he looked up at me. 

It looks like he has another cat's sleeveless fur coat on, but all that is his. He's winter-proof, lol. 

That's all for now. Have fun stitching! 

;^) 

Will be joining these talented ladies. See you there.  

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

Up To No Good ... Again

What have I done this week? 

I'm almost ashamed to say not much once again. I did play with fabric but it didn't amount to much. Let's see. 

I got more bags of scrap. 

I opened the box first and was having fun when I thought: "Oh! Photos!" so I just threw everything back into the box. 

Then I sorted the scraps by colour. 

This is my living room floor every single day this week, and I am still not done. That's a lot of scraps. 

On Wednesday, I went to see the girls quilting. I used to belong to this group but I was working and had to use a vacation day every time I participated. So I quit. Now that I am not working, I could join but I don't have money to pay for it. Vicious cycle! 

Would you like to see what the girls are working on? I didn't take a picture of everyone's work because some were still just blocks. 

This is Carole's top. She sewed the last seam while I was there. 

Anne-Marie did some koala bears in grey and brown. Aren't they cute? 

He's cuter in person. 

Back home, I got some of my smallest scraps out to make the last border on the Hole in the Barn Door quilt. 

I probably have enough for another Hole in the Barn Door quilt with two borders. (Thanks, Joy for your generous offer but I think I'm good for now, lol.) Yellow and black are underneath the bags. Green is still on my cutting table. Not done playing with green ... 

... but I did work with red ... a little bit. 

Yes, I started another block. 😔 Sigh! I am hopeless! 

I saw this on the Moda free pattern page and I just had to try it out. 

Don't worry about the points, it isn't sewn yet. I'm just having fun on the computer. 

And then, I added more, of course. 

Ugh! Nope! Sashing? 

I love this! In every colour! 

It's not exactly a good contender for RSC though. It demands some very big scrap pieces. I know I will run out of the white fabric before the block is done.

How about yellow? Pouf! Like magic, it is now yellow! 

Do not adjust your monitors. I used a different white for the yellow HSTs. 

Here's a "behind the scenes" photo.  This is how I can make a 12" block in 3 minutes. 

Not so magical, right? With pieces finishing at 1.5", the entire block will measure 12". I will tweak my way of cutting to shorten the cutting time. You might see this block (whatever its name is) again. 

I forgot to mention in my last post that my personal Rainbow-UFO Challenge is Shoreline. These blocks are made with really small pieces. Oh, the fun I will have!  

Picture from 2021

My intention is not to finish this big quilt but to move it forward. I'll count how many blocks are made and I'll try to double it. 

That's all for now. 

Have a great weekend. ;^)

Joining these talented ladies. See you there.  

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

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 

Table Scrap Challenge ... Finally Done!

It took a long time to do this challenge because I had some lessons to learn along the way.

This was the preview of my work for the Table Scrap Challenge as shown in my January 12th post. It looks pretty straight to me. 

It was still straight when it was done. I'm so in love with it. 

So, on with the quilting ... and things started to go sideways ... a lot. 

Maybe, because I hadn't pinned it enough, or because I quilted one side always from top to bottom and the other side of the middle from bottom to top, the fabric got dragged and things started to look crooked. Oh! Dear! 

So I ripped all the stitches. (next time, remember to iron the piece once again, before re-quilting it.) 

I finished quilting it late Saturday night. It didn't make much of a difference. 

See what I mean by the fabric being dragged? 

Sunday morning, I sew the binding on. I used the leftover white strips for the binding. BIG mistake! The strips were cut at 1.5", too narrow for a good binding. I couldn't sew the binding to the back. So, again, ripped all the stitches. 

The faster I go, the behind-er I get! 

Haste makes waste! 

K, K, I got it!  

Anywho! It is finally finished with all the imperfections lessons learned from a quick quilt. 😇

This is my FIRST finish of the year and my FIRST entry in the Table Scrap Challenge hosted by The Joyful Quilter. Thanks, Joy! 

The Snowflake in Blue is backed with a lovely snowy scenery with cardinals, cottages and pines. Just Winter scenes. 

I had a good chuckle when I saw Joy's TSC post. Yeah! Great minds do think alike! This is what's been on my doodle pad for the TS Challenge since the beginning of January. The first snowflake was too much work with all its HSTs, so I went with my second choice. 😄 Check what she did here. 

Back to my regular program next weekend. 

Have a great one! 

;^)

Joining:

Joy at The Joyful Quilter

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

Not Much

I didn't sew much this week. I couldn't focus on anything and ended up all over the place. I blame the storms. We got our fair share of the 10 inches of snow they were predicting. (No snowman this time.) The storm system sent me into a frenzy of cleaning. (Seriously! Cleaning?  What was that all about?) All I could think of was cleaning the house. That was weird!

Anywho! Some tidying-up found the white borders for the Hole in the Barn Door quilt. 

Hole in the Barn Door scrappy quilt

Yay! It isn't sewn because it needs a good ironing session. It was somehow put back with the white scraps! What's with me?

If only I could stay focused when I'm putting things away, this would never happen. Cleaning is such a boring job that my mind wanders all over while my hands work. If my hands could talk I would never have to search for things. Right? Right! 

Slow stitching was dishcloth knitting this week, and the week before too because I couldn't have knitted three dishcloths in one week. I'm not that fast! But it was fun. All different sizes because I don't count how many stitches I cast on. They are big enough for my hands. 

The pillowcase is done. I followed this video by Crafty Gemini. Because the cat fabric was too short, I had to improvise by adding another flannel fabric (I picked the snowflake one, of course!) and didn't follow all of her instructions. 

Pillowcase in the snow 

It isn't perfect, but it's my first one. Flannel has a tendency to stick together. It would be easier with simple cotton fabric. I'll make more using this video though; it is simple and very well explained.  

While I searched for a flannel that matches the cat fabric, I found this baby print. 

 

It is perfect for the backing of Rainbows on Sidewalk. It is a soft mint green. Very gender neutral. 

Rainbows on the Sidewalk

Should I quilt it with white thread or black, or even a coloured one? Let me know what you would do, please. Thanks. 

And that's all for me. 

Have a great week, everyone.

;^) 

I'm joining these talented ladies to see some lovely creations. 

Angela at So Scrappy

Frédérique at Patchwork and Quilts 

Cynthia for Oh Scrap! 

Kathy for Slow Sunday Stitching

Alycia for Finished or NOT Finished Friday

Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict