Progress on Muskoka wall hanging

Sunday, after finishing the borders of the Scrap Attack quilt, I decided to load it on the longarm and quilt it.  I haven't had a finish, of any of my older UFOs all year, so it was a very happy to finish this.  

Then, after dinner I decided to jumped right into my next older UFO.  I am really wanting to make a dent on my UFO list.  But that won't happen if I don't seriously concentrate on them, and stop starting new quilts...lol...the last part is hard for me!!

I started this next project, my Muskoka wall hanging, back in Sept/2024 with my mom.  This was while I was off work and spent most of my time recovering/mending, which is why it wasn't until Aug/2025, that we finished making our panels.

I guess I was inspired to pull this one out again, as we are heading into the cottage season, the theme of the panels.  I bought the pattern that contained this first panel, and my mom bought a pattern that contained numerous other panels.  The following two pictures are from her pattern, that I thought I would incorporate into my wall hanging.

 

These panels are a faux stained glass technique using batik fabrics to give you the illusion of a back lite stain glass window.  It's a simple technique where you use fusible webbing and black fabric for the background.  Then you top stitch the batik fabrics on, to form the scenes.

The loon above and the tent with the northern lights below, are part of my mom's pattern.  If you want to see her wall hanging, type in the blog search bar, Muskoka, and the post I wrote about her wall hanger will be there.  Hers has several other panels too.  Check it out.  It turned out great!!

My mom's wall hanging was a very nice composition of scenes associated with cottage life.  When I saw her quilt complete, I felt that mine with just the one scene, would be lacking.  That and the fact that it would be too small for where I planned on putting it.  That's why I took two of her scenes and will add it to make my wall hanging.

I've had to design my own wall hanging with these three panels.  I hope it turns out nice.  Stay tuned for the finished product.  It shouldn't be long, as I have already finished the added pieces that I will use to make all of my panels fit together into a unique piece.

Take care everyone.

Scrap Attack quilt almost done

Yesterday, I has some time between visitors to work on my own thing.  What I chose to do was the Scrap Attack quilt.  I've written about it in numerous posts.  Just type in the name, Scrap Attack, in the blog search bar and they will all come up for you.  All the details will be in those post.

I left off with four more blocks to make and blend, to finish the centre of the quilt.  This first picture here is of the bottom right hand corner.  The way I know it's the corner is that all of the corners are blue.  The idea here was something I saw on a quilt that my mom made.  It was called Fractured Diamonds.  In that pattern the perimeter blocks created a faux scalloped border.  I am doing the same thing for this quilt.

All but the top right hand corner blocks were made by someone in the guild.  I just finished making the top right hand block .  Whenever I had to make a block to fill in the empty spaces, I tried to make them blend in to their neighbors.  Perimeter blocks were a bit easier due to the blue diamond/scalloped edges.  I thing the block I made looks like it fits in.  What do you think?

By the time I took this next picture, I had the first border on.  This picture is of the top left hand corner of the quilt.  With the blue borders on, it's easier to see the scalloped border forming.  What do you think now?

Rather than tease you and wait until the full quilt is done....lol....here is the centre of the quilt complete.  It still looks like a bit of a jumble, but once I put the blue border on, things just seemed to come together and mesh a bit better.  I'll have it quilted soon, then I'll share it with all of you.

If you read any of the previous post about this quilt, you will know that this was a combined effort from the guild members.  They made a bunch of blocks.  I made some others to make the quilt a decent lap size quilt.  The blocks are paper piece.  The only instructions they got, was to think of me and make it scrappy and bright....lol....it is definitely scrappy and bright!!!

Stay tuned for the finished quilt....coming soon.

Take care everyone.

Miniature farm field scene

During the last sew day here at my home, a friend was finishing off her miniature farm field scene.  This one here will represent the season of spring/summer.  She only had the binding left to do, so she did that while she was here.

Then she started and finished the same farm field scene, except this time she made it to represent the winter season.  Isn't it cute!!

I'm sure you all noticed the addition to this one!  I love how she used a piece of fabric with cows and added it to the bottom of the scene.  This makes it more personal.  The fabric couldn't be better.  The scale looks right for the foreground and it even shows the barbwire fencing and wood post.  So cute!

When I asked her, she said that she is considering doing a fall scene as well.  That will be nice.

Take care everyone.

Progress on my side quest...or two...lol

Last Friday, after work, I went to my mom's place for the day.  We made a large batch of coleslaw to share, that keeps in the fridge for up to six weeks.  We also made red cabbage and beet sauerkraut (seen below).  This sauerkraut is relatively easy and only take 5-7 days to ferment.  So, by Wednesday I checked the ph levels and it was ready to stop the process and refrigerate.  Good thing I left all that space at the top of the jars....the ferment almost reached the top...

After we finished all the food prep, we sat down and I picked up my yarn and needles to start making those socks that I posted about in the last post.  At my mom's place I managed to get started, though there were a few failed attempts, it seems to be going more smoothly now.  Here is what I did at my mom's place.

Then fast forward to Sunday, when I decided I have been going non-stop all week, during my vacations, that I needed a break.  I sat down and worked on the socks again.  I am not new to knitting, though it takes me a bit longer then most, as I rarely do it.  By the end of the day, I managed to get to the body of the sock about 2" before the heal.  It's looking pretty good!  I am liking the pattern that is forming by the variegated yarn.  I haven't had any time this week to even touch the socks.

To keep this post quilt related, while I was at my mom's place, I checked out what she had on her design wall.  She is really making some headway on her second blue string quilt.  This one is a lap size quilt for her den.  She is using all the strings from the first blue string quilt and she cut up some more.  This pattern is called a coin quilt.

At this point, she needed to make one more vertical row to finish the centre.  The first six rows are all sewn together.  The next two are ready to be sewn to the first part and then she only has to attach her border.  Looking good so far!!

Take care everyone.

A side quest...

If you are only interested in quilt related content, then you need not read any further.  This post is about my side quest.....lol.  Doesn't that term evoke mischief?  LOL.  Picture me with a mischievous grin and a wink....lol...it's not me starting another quilt...lol.....BUT.... I am starting something new.

For the fun of it and just to make sure I was using the right term, I googled it.  Here is what is says about the phrase side quest.  It is an optional task, secondary pursuit, or distraction taken on alongside your main goal or daily routine.  LOL, I definitely have the right term!!!  All of the above definition applies here.

For about a year now, I have been desperately wanting to learn how to knit socks.  Yes, you heard that correctly.  Socks!!  I am not sure where that comes from, but there you have it.  I have done some knitting in the past, but nothing like socks.  Socks you need to use five needles to form the tube shape that form the sox and use a different technique to turn the heel and then shape the toe section.  It will be interesting.....  Here is the back of the book I purchased for different patterns/styles of socks. 

 

The book is called Knit Socks for those you love.  It has 11 family friendly designs in a variety of sizes.  The book is published by Leisure Arts, authored by Edi Eckman.

I haven't decided which pair of socks I plan to make out of the book yet.  I bought two different colours of yarn to make two different pairs.  The first pair I am going to make, is a simple pattern from Patons, called The Basic Knit Socks.  This pattern was recommended to me by an instructor at Mary Max.  She uses this pattern when she runs classes.  It shows in detail, with pictures, all the steps to making socks.

   

As you can see above, I have my pattern, my needles and space keeper for marking your place when you need to keep track of changes in stitches or directions.  Below are the two colours I chose to go with.  Oh my goodness, the choses were numerous!!  Rows upon rows of different colours and yarn content.  It was really hard to choose!  In the end, I went with something a bit flashy and something a bit more subdued.  The flashy pink/orange combo was a recommendation from the instructor.  She said she made a pair of socks using it and really liked the outcome.

I am really looking forward to spending some time learning to make socks.  I am heading to my mom's place today to make some sauerkraut and coleslaw.  After those are done, we will have the rest of the day to tackle these socks.  I am going to read the directions and attempt to make them per the directions, but it will be nice to have my mom there with me, as she is a pro at kniting.

While we were at Mary Max, I also bought 8 skeins of wool for her to remake my sweater.  She made a sweater for me approximately fifteen years ago, and just recently it started to break.  The end of the sleaves are unraveling and the elbows now have holes.  My mom offered to make me another one and as this sweater was one of my favorites, that was wore all the time, why would I not say YES!!! 

I'll share pictures of my progress in the next post.  

Take care everyone.

A bit of quilt related house cleaning

This week I am on vacation, or should I say a staycation....lol.  Still not used to that term...lol....vacation means to vacate/vacant.  Which to me is still appropriate, no matter where you spend it, as you are not at your employment working (you are vacant), but that is just my opinion....lol.  To each, his/her own.

We are already in the evening of Thursday, which means my vacation is almost over.  Where has the time gone?  For this week, I have been trying to allot time for various things that I want to do or need to be done.  It has been busy with lots of different things.  Today is the first day I had available to do my own thing in my quilting studio.

A lot of the stuff I did today though was not really worthy of pictures.  I did a bunch of quilting house cleaning.  Finishing off loose ends and cleaning up the space.  I finally finished attaching the binding to the three NICU quilts that I made recently.  The stars quilt, strings quilt and Eeyore are now in the done pile.  They are ready to go to Project Linus who will deliver them to a hospital. 

I also made and attached the binding to my own King size Christmas quilt and it is now ready to be tacked down on the back by hand.  Lots of time for that....lol....Christmas is not for another seven months...lol.  I also ironed a good amount of fabrics that I received and washed.  Getting it ready to use in other charity quilts.  My sewing table and surrounding areas are finally starting to look clean again.  Clear surfaces makes me happy!!

The one thing that I am excited about....  I finished the Distelfink appliqué bird block.  Yeay!!!

All of the fabrics I used for the appliqué are from my scraps.  This block will eventually get some borders, to bring the size up to 25" square.  This is the approx. size that I make them for a NICU quilt.  I think it's cute and I think it turned out nice!  

This block was part of a workshop that a friend and I hosted for the members of the guild.  It's nice to have this done.  Several of the other participants have already brought their block in to show for show and share at out last guild meeting.

Tomorrow I am off to my mom's place, so no quilting tomorrow........but wait until you see what I will be doing tomorrow.  I'll share it with you then.  I have a side quest....

Take care everyone.  Enjoy the beautiful weather we are having.

Disappearing Hour Glass block (QW)

When I was in Peterborough on Friday visiting a friend, she took me down to her quilting studio and showed me what she was working on.  Recently she participated in a guild workshop.  They did a technique where you make a block and cut it up to make different sample blocks depending on how you moved and rotate the individually cut pieces.  

One of the blocks was this disappearing hour glass block.  This is so similar to a block that I have listed as a (QW), that I decided to take a picture to compare.  It looked the same or similar, but different and I couldn't figure out why.  I took a picture of the instructions as well, for when I am ready to make them.

When I got home from the workshop, I searched through my posts, with the "(QW)" in the search bar of my blog and found the block that I had saved to make in future.  The post is called Finished quilting the HHQG quilt from Mar 18/2019.

After examining the two blocks, I realized the difference between them is just the rotation of the centre four patch.  The one I want to do rotates it to get a slightly different centre star.

The one good thing that came about by seeing this block, was that now I have the instructions and I now know what the finished size would be, if I use 5" charm squares.  The blocks would finish at 7" in a quilt.  So my conclusion is that I can use my two identical charm packs to make this, however I likely won't.  The blocks would be too small and fussy with those tiny little triangles in the corner.  

If I were to make this one, I think I would start off by using some chunks of scraps and cut them into 8" squares.  At 8" squares you could even use fat quarters and get four squares out of each.  Hhmmm...that is something to ponder....  Using up lesser liked fat quarters and cutting them down to make this block may work.  They would be then again, cut up smaller while making this block....  Things to think about.

Take care everyone.