Starting the week out well

I'm starting the week out well with getting the two snail's trail blocks and two of the Rhododendron blocks done as part of my required blocks for the week.  It doesn't seem like much, but the paper piece blocks take quite a while to sew, fold back paper, trim seam allowance, place the next piece and sew some more.  I'm happy to say, that I am further along with the Rhododendron blocks, than I thought I was.  I counted and I only have ten more blocks to do!  Whoohooo!!!

After I decided to quit for the evening, I went upstairs to relax some.  That's when I saw the temperature block sitting there, pinned and ready to appliqué.  Just to keep this real and to explain the situation with the less then perfect picture.  I don't have a bunch of fancy equipment.  I take the pictures where I am, at the time of day it happens to be, and with no staging.   The block below is on a banana pillow, that I put on my lap to support my wrist, while I do hand appliqué.  

This is why the block looks all wavy....lol....and to add to this, if I want to do appliqué in the evening in my chair, I have to turn on the floor lamp, which is the yellow tone of light on the right hand side and the extra Ottlite daytime table lamp, which is the white tone of light on the left.....lol.  Then if I need to write up my evening post on my computer and the battery runs low, I need to unplug one of the lights to plug in the computer....lol.  Oh, boy...confession time or what!  I didn't realize how ridiculous/pathetic I have it set up, until now....lol.  Going to have to do something about my set up.

If anyone has any suggestions for lighting and how you store or put aside your work until you want to work on it again later, please share your best practices (pictures would be nice too).  At the moment the side of my chair looks like an unkept mess of various handwork items that I am working on.  They're all laying on my footstool.  Looks like an accident waiting to happen....lol.  There must be a better system.....  Let me know!

Take care everyone.

February's temperature block

As my daughter would say, I did all the adulting things....lol....so with all that stuff done, I decided to take some time to play.  There are a few required blocks for January still not done, but oh well.  I can catch up on those pretty easily some time this week.  

I got a late start yesturday, but I am still happy with what I got done.  By the time I went upstairs to make dinner, I had about half of February's block pieced.  I made this paper template that I shared with you a couple of days ago.  Today, I thought I would share with you a bit of the process.  All the wedges are roughly cut into a rectangle, until I determine the position of the seam, at which time, I then trim the one angle and sew it to the paper on the wrong side.

Because this is a circle I made a slit along the 1st and the blank 30th date, so that I can fold back the paper more easily and work with the wedges.  Above is the picture of the good side, or what will be the finished side.  When all the wedges are done, I will then fold the paper along the slit and sew the last wedge to the first one.  Then the circle will be complete.

This next picture is the back side of the completed circle.  I almost took all the paper off, before I thought that maybe some would like to see the process.  The middle seams are ironed up or down, alternating with each wedge, which helps if the position of the seams are the same when they are side by side.  In that case they would then nest easily together.

It was a bit late when I got this circle done.  I still have a few tucks to make here and there, but the circle is pretty much ready to be appliquéd to the background now.  It looks a bit odd at this stage.  Especially when there is a blank space, up toward the top, which represents the 30th day of the month.  Being that the block is for February, means there is no 30th day.  Hence the blank.  I did insert a wedge there, though you can't tell as it is the same colour as the background.

I have all month to get this appliquéd, however as I am excited to be back working on this quilt, I expect to have this done within a few days, baring having to do the adulting things....lol.  I just love that term.  It's a way of making fun of things that can sometimes seem like drudgery.  A positive spin on it....lol.

Take care everyone.  Have a great week.

Striking colourful tree branches (QW)

I'm still working on the pieces for the temperature quilt.  Yesturday I managed to sew each days high and low fabric together, for each month.  They are all in baggies ready to go.  Now I have all the fabric cleaned up and put away until I need them.  I kept February's block pieces out, as today is already February.....where did the time go!

Anyways, rather than bore you with another picture of just pieces, I went onto the achieves and came up with this beautiful quilt.  This quilt was made by a friend, way back in February/2024!  I've been holding on to these two photos since then.  

This friend really likes using batik fabrics.  This was a really nice use of the fabrics.  I love the meshing of colours at random and I really love the organic style tree branches.  The individual blocks are all different, as the pattern uses a rectangle to start off with, but then slices them up randomly for each one.  

The blocks are slices down the middle or there abouts.  Then you treat each side individually.  You can slice the one half twice or just one time, making a steep angle or a smaller angle.  It is completely up to you.  Then you insert a 1" strip to form the branch.  Once you're done both sides, you then attach both sides back together with a 1" strip.  Once your done, you would trim the blocks to a common size.

Here is a close up of the blocks.  All sorts of fabrics were used in here.  Enlarge the photo and you will see the variety that went in here.  The pictures do not do this quilt justice.  You'll have to trust me when I say that it was gorgeous!!  Up close, my eyes kept feasting on the assortment of combinations.  Fabrics that you wouldn't think to put together mingled quite nicely.

I would like to make one of these quilts, but using my scraps.  The largest piece of fabric needed would be the rectangles and I have plenty of strings that can be cut into 1" strips.  I'll have to add this one to my bucket list.  Mine would likely be a bit more tame, as I don't have all of these gorgeous bright batiks like my friend has, but I still think it could be affective.  I think I will like doing the improve piecing.

Take care everyone.

Star appliqué block complete

I've been working on a lot of things lately.  Mainly trying to get all of my required blocks done for each week.  That has been my priority.  This star appliqué block was the last block to be done for the month and just in the nick of time.....lol.  This is part of the Welcome to the North Pole quilt.  You'll notice that the stars are a bit organic....I don't know how else to describe it.  The shapes are not intended to be perfect.  The whole quilt is a bit on the organic side....lol.  Something I am going to have to get used to.

My next block for February is called Slick's Sleds.  Here is a sneak peek of the colours and pieces.  I've already rough cut all of the pieces for the block.  I have my overlay and I am ready to get started!

As the theme of this post started with stars, I thought I would throw this quilt in here too.  This was part of the show and share from one of the ladies in our monthly Saturday sew day.  She made stars.  This quilt is a gift to her friend who is retiring.  The quilt is lap size.  The maker knew that her friend liked things that are more on the feminine side, which is how she selected the fabrics.  I don't think there was an actual pattern for this quilt, or I wasn't told what it was, if there was one.  

It's interesting how it has the background pattern that creates radiating diamonds from the centre star block all the way out to the perimeter of the quilt.  It adds movement.  The play of light and medium fabric colours to make this subtle effect.  Then the maker added in a burgundy flange before adding the last two borders.  Very pretty.

Take care everyone.

Short update

Just a short update.  Yesturday I finished cutting all the fabric wedges I need to complete all the months for the temperature quilt.  It was interesting cutting them all at the same time and seeing the mesh of colours change throughout each block.  The picture below shows the warmer months.  The top page is July.  As I was cutting, I noticed that the hottest day of the year was in June, but the hottest month of the year was July.  Interesting....  I am sure there will be other things that stand out, as I actually put it all together.

Just for fun, I decided to take another picture of January's block that is already finished.  What a contrast to the months you see in the picture above!

I am happy that I am finished all the cutting for now.  The only cutting left to do will be for the months that have 31 days in them, as I will need to cut two circles to go in the centre.

Today after work, I am off to my mom's place for dinner, so the sewing of the highs and lows pieces will have to wait until the weekend.  I have some quilting to do as well, but when I need to take a break, I'll definitely work on these blocks.  I am enjoying preparing them.  This will also make it faster to assemble each month....I'm all for that!!!  lol

Take care everyone.  Have a great Friday!!  

Moving along with my temperature quilt

I started tracking the daily temperatures for 2024 in Jan/2024 and continued for the first few months.  I did a detailed post about making the first block for January, back on Dec 13/2025 called Started a temperature quilt for the days of 2024, in case you want to read more about it.

I mentioned on Jan 4th's post, that this is a paper piece block that is then appliquéd to the background fabric.  I was going to start this back up in February, as a BOM, as I have January's block already complete, however as you can see, I am getting a head start on it.

In the picture below, the top sheet of paper shows all of my colours to represent the temperatures.  The bottom sheet is the paper template I made for the month of October.  Over the past few days, I've been working on finishing off the paper templates for the whole year.  I had most of the outlines done from before, and all I needed to do was draw the lines in each date, to show where my highs and lows were going to be positioned in the wedge.  Those are now all done for each month.

Now I am starting to cut the coloured fabrics.  Yesturday I started and finished all the days in December.  Today I did the same for October.  If you want to get an idea of what these blocks will look like, check out the post of Dec 13/2025, where I posted the finished block of January.

This next picture is the top half of the wedges that will represent the temperature for each day.  The first day starting at the top of the circle.  As this is paper piece the colours are currently in reverse.  They are laying on the sewing side and when sewn will be on the other side of the paper.

This circle look quite different than January.  This one is where the temperature is starting to cool off in October, with some nice days in there too.  The above picture is of all the highs in October and the picture below is where I have introduced the lows in October.  This is where you really see that the temperatures are getting cooler.

What I've done with these fabric pieces, to keep things organized is taken, in reverse, each day and sewn the seam for the high and the low, to keep them together.  I didn't break thread, just kept sewing them, day by day, until I finished all of them.  I folded them, stacking them on top of each other.  The little packet in the picture at the very top, is how I am storing each month.  This way if I have them all cut, I can put all the fabrics away and only have to handle the packet when I need to work on it.

I'm hoping to make the packets for all the months in the next few days, so that I can find my sewing room again....lol.  I really do know how to make a "creative" mess....lol.  At least that is what I am calling it...lol.  I'm enjoying this process.  Taking my time to put everything together.  After this part is done, I can then make February's block.  It will be so much easier to do each block with all the prep work done.

I am looking at the last picture above and I like the play of the colours that make up the circle.  I can't wait to see how the other months turn out!!

Take care everyone.

Scrap Attack quilt progress

I received these blocks as a gift from the Guild members, as a thank you for my work as president.  I posted about it back on Aug 27/2025 if you want to read more about this quilt.  

During the Christmas break when I had the week between Christmas and New Years off, I pulled out the blocks for this quilt and put them back up on my design wall.  I am making this my main, primary project, after I complete the blocks from my list of required blocks.

I wanted to make the quilt just a bit bigger then I would have had with the gifted blocks, so I am making some along the way to fill in the areas to complete the quilt.  Since I put these quilt blocks back on the design board, I made four more blocks and was able to then assemble the bottom two rows of what you see on the wall.  It's coming together!  There are now five rows put together.

Here is a sample of a single block.  The members only instructions were to think of me and make it bright....lol.  I'd say this person succeeded.  This particular block is going along the perimeter, as I am trying to make a secondary design that merges into the first border.  

If you look at the first picture above, in the top left hand corner, you will get a glimpse of what I mean.  All the perimeter block's strings, that run along the border are going to be blue, and they will mesh with the first small blue border.

There is no rush for this quilt, so I am enjoying doing it at my leisure.  A block here, a block there.  No stress, no deadlines.  I want to start doing more quilts where I can slow down and just enjoying the process.  It's much more relaxing.

Take care everyone.