Mary's Australian fabrics quilt

Today was good.....didn't get much in the way of quilting done, but it was still good.  I couldn't go outside and finish planting the pots of plants and a bush, because it was raining and all wet, so instead I thought I would go downstairs and get some quilting done.  Well, you already know that didn't happen.

What I ended up doing instead, was a major reorganization of my back storage room and some of the longarm area.  It was getting to the point were I was finding if difficult to find anything and there was no rhyme or reason to all the stuff.  It ended up being the dumping ground.  Not anymore.

I pulled everything out off the shelves and off the floor, under the table and started sorting.  It felt good to finally get around to this.  I have everything in order and everything in it's place.  Now I even have floor space and nothing under the table, so I can walk in right to the back wall and even put my legs under the table while using my computer...lol.  Small things, but when you can't do them, it is irritating.

I did later manage to trim 5 quilts and attach binding to two of them.  I also cut down the trimmings and was able to close off another case to make a doggie bed.  So that was something....

As I don't have photos for you, I will leave you with these photos from back in time to Nov 30/2019:

This quilt is Mary's quilt using Australian fabrics.  I can't quite remember, but I think it is her daughter that is in Australia and sent her some fabric.  Mary did a wonky style log cabin type block and sashed it in yellow with cornerstones.  I forgot to take pictures of this quilt, but when I was delivering it to her place and saw how pretty the quilt looked with the light reflecting through the window and casting shadows, emphasizing the quilting design, I quickly grabbed for my phone and took the few pictures. 

I thought the fabric was unique.  All the fabrics contain dots in their design.  Some were black background with coloured dots to make the design, others used the dots as the outline of the motif.  Almost all the Australian fabric had dots of some sort.  Mary indicated that this was their signature of sorts.  The colours of the fabrics were also unique.  Not sure how to describe it, but they just had a different feel to them.

As the fabrics were unique, I thought I would use a unique quilting design for it.  The picture above is the best photo to see the quilting.   I dropped off the quilt to Mary who had to bind it quickly, as someone was going back to Australian and the quilt was to travel with them.

Tomorrow I am hoping to at least get a chance to plant the pots, before it gets too cold for them to establish, before winter sets in.  We shall see...

Enjoy what is left of  your evening.

Teresa's curved log cabin quilt and her beach house wall hanging

Today was the first meeting of the Halton Hills Quilters Guild for 2022-2003 year.  At the moment things are still on zoom.  Hoping to be able to start meeting in person, but that will depend on the outcome of the survey that will be conducted in Nov/Dec.  We had a great speaker today, that won numerous awards at quilt con.  He is a modern quilter, and his work is breathtaking.  I personally think I am a traditional quilter, but I was blown away by all of the quilts he shared during our meeting.  The amount of inspiration was quite frankly overwhelming.  I hope the members can take a bit of this and that to inspire them to add some creativity to there next piece/quilt. I know I was captivated by his work.

This here is a quilt from one of my customers.  She made this gorgeous curved log cabin quilt.  I thought the teal was striking against the bright scraps that is a signature of her quilting style. This was a large quilt with many pieces.  The one side of the log cabin is all done in the one teal coloured fabric, which makes the overall affect of curves with using only straight lines.

Here is a close up of the quilting she chose to do on this quilt.  You also get a great sample of the variety of her scraps used for the other halve of the block.
 

This quilt was entered into the 2022 Milton Fall Fair, and as you can see by the picture below, it won 1st price in one of the categories.  Great job Teresa!!

Teresa also made this beach house quilt, with waves, palm trees and cabanas...lol...plus a pretty sun on the top left hand corner.  Looks great!  This quilt was mostly paper piece. The overall vibe just screams the scene of being down at the beach.

Here is a close up of the cabanas and the palm trees.  I love the palm trees...lol....very different from our deciduous trees and evergreen trees here in Canada.  Teresa decided to have this one quilted with the pattern Seafoam from Urban Elementz.

Congratulations on your first prize for the first quilt and your other prizes you received for your other entries!!  Well done!

Progress on my hexagon quilt

I have been making progress on my hexagon quilt.  Every morning while having my tea, I am starting the day relaxing and doing some handwork.  I have found this to be peaceful and calming, so I will continue to carve out some time for me in the morning, while the house is quiet.

On Saturday, I finished this piece, which goes along the top of the second half of the quilt centre.  It goes in the 3rd position, which is about the middle of the quilt.  The tip of the diamond is on the top half of the quilt centre.

I am getting ready to start a full diamond, which will slid in to the left of where it is at on the floor.  The piece above is in the picture on the top right hand side.  I'm not sure why I went sideways, when I had intended to do each diagonal row and than attach them as they are completed.  For the bottom half of the center section, each diagonal row consist of a diamond with the missing tip, three full diamonds and a triangular piece to end the row.  I have all the triangular pieces done and the two right hand side partial diamonds, plus the above two diamonds with the missing tips.  If I counted correctly I have three diamonds with the missing tip and fifteen full diamonds left to make.

It's really coming along.  Everyday I do a bit more and it gets me more and more excited to see this through to completion.  This has been an on and off, long time project, that I started back in Nov 18/2014 (click this link if you wish to read more Start of Hexagon quilt).  After this centre section, I work on the borders.  The great part about the borders is that they are already almost done. Whoo hoo!!  I have only a portion of the multi coloured bottom border to do and maybe half of the right hand side borders left to do.

Hope everyone had a great weekend, even if it rained some.  The gardens certainly needed it. Have a great night.

Mary's elephant quilt

Yesturday I had some running around to do.  I had to go to the bank to get some US cash for my mom who will be traveling to the states.  That ought to be nice to get away for a little while.  Wishing her a fun and safe trip.  I also headed down to Milton to pick up a Laura Berry print that I bought at an antique dealer in Aberfoyle a couple of weekends ago.  I had the print reframed to suit the print better.  I am not much into plain oak.  

Later I went to the Milton Fall Fair.  A few of my customers won prizes in the fair and I wanted to go check it out.  I'll share those photos in another post.  Come to think of it, I still haven't shared the photos of the Acton Fall Fair either.  Later...  After the fair, I headed over to one of my customers to deliver her quilt, since I was in the area.  She loved it.  Lastly for Milton, I had to do a return and finally purchased a hand railing with hardware to install at the bottom of the stairs that change direction, going down to my quilting area.

By the time I got home is was 2pm, so I still had time to do some gardening.  I really have to get my pots in the ground, otherwise the plants will not survive much longer.  But in order to do this, I had to finish removing the two large roots of a stump we took out, remove five plants from where they were in the middle of my soon to be path, and relocate them elsewhere in the garden.  After this, I was able to move the three large rocks I had to border the path and garden area and remove all the excess dirt to smooth out the path.  This took me to about 5:30pm.  I had to stop there as it started to rain a bit.  I cleaned up the mess I made and heading in.

I wasn't upset that it started to rain.  I wouldn't have physically been able to do much more anyways.  Those rocks and removing the large stumps was hard on my back.  So the rain was not only welcome for the plants, but also for me....lol.  Now I was able to spend some time in my sewing room....guilt free...lol.  I did put in a full day of work and errands, so I deserved the time now to play a bit.

In my sewing room I got to put the borders onto the blue star NICU quilt and finish assembling the houses quilt, so that was nice.  I'll share pictures of those when they are done.  So in the meantime, let me take you back to Oct 27/2019:

This is Mary's quilt.  She made this quilt for her daughter's soon to be born baby (at the time, baby is now 3yrs old).  Mary saw this pattern in a magazine and had to make it.  It is cute and a bit on the modern side, in a minimal sort of way.  I thought the prairie points in the quilt and the marching elephants on the backing also added to the cuteness.  

Because of the prairie points, this quilt had to be custom quilted.  Mary liked the way the pattern in the magazine was quilted and I thought it was very affective, that we did the same/similar thing.  I outlined all the elephants on the top, stitched in the ditch of the individual blocks, and did random lines with changing directions for the different coloured background blocks.  Here is a picture of the back.  Didn't I tell you it was cute....  It's so cute you could even use it as a reversable two sided quilt.

Sometimes it is hard to show the quilting off well, so I took a few different angles in hopes that I captured it all.  Mary's piecing was so precise that I didn't have to use a ruler for the quilting.  I was able to even do the ditch work using the channel lock feature on my longarm. 

These next two pictures are close ups of the quilting.  I don't normally take pictures this close, however there is a feature of the quilting that you cannot see in the overall pictures.  You don't notice this feature until you get up close and personal with the quilt.  The theme colours of the quilt are basically mint green, aqua light blue, and a peachy orange.  What I did sporadically throughout the quilt, is strategically insert lines of those colours, to add interest to the all grey background.  It really does make a difference.  You don't see it well in the pictures when you look at the whole quilt, but in person, you do see a bit of something and it draws you in to have a closer look. 

I hope you enjoyed this quilt.  I enjoyed working on it.  It took me outside of the usual stuff.  Though it is modern and not everyone's taste, I think there is enough interest going on to keep your attention.

Today, it is currently all wet out there, as it rained through the night, so I can't go finish planting the pots.  Instead I will be downstairs, quilting customer quilts.  Enjoy your day!!

Daybreak workshop quilts

I held a zoom workshop for the Halton Hills Quilters Guild back in May/2020.  The pattern that we did was Daybreak by Cozy Quilt Designs.  I ordered the patterns well in advance, which was good, because due to covid, everything was delayed.  I was hand delivering (from my hand to the individual mailboxes) all the patterns just days before the actual workshop.

This first picture was my sample that I did, at the in person workshop, that we had in October the previous year.  We had many in attendance, and when they saw me making this one, they were all excited and ready to sign up on the spot....lol.....talk about advertising......lol.  They also saw how quick it was going.  This is a baby size quilt.  At this point in time, my own sewing room and fabrics were mostly packed up, so I went to my mom's place to raid some of her stash.

This next picture is a lap size quilt made by Susan P, one of the workshop participants. I think this was made with a line of fabric called Jack and Jill, but I am not quite sure.  In her version, the red stars are taking front and centre stage, instead of the larger star.  This would be due to changing the placement of the blocks.  Either way looks great.  Love how different it looks in different fabrics.

We also have another baby size quilt made by Teresa.  Teresa made this one for a baby on the way.

This next one was my version.  The top picture was the sample, but during the workshop I had to make some blocks to show people what to do, so I decided to buy a jelly roll of colours and one of soft white.  This is the throw size quilt.  This is the first quilt in all of the years that I have been quilting, that I made with just the one line of fabric.  I find that fact shocking.  I have been quilting for at least 18 yrs by the time I was making this (2yrs ago), now two years later in Apr/2022, I finally finish it.  This quilt was so delayed due to renovations and moving.

Do you see how different each of them are?  I know there were some more pictures from others, but at the moment I cannot find them.  Will share them when I come across them.  The colour combinations and possibilities are endless.  This is a nice pattern to make and the instructions are good.  I do think that sometime down the road, I may make this one again.

Enjoy your sunny Saturday everyone!!

QOV quilts (QW)

Last month I was given a couple of quilts to quilt for Quilt of Valour (QOV).  This first one is made up of half square triangles (HST) 8" square with the one side a plain light yellow and the other side is strips from a jelly roll, sewn together. The ladies of QOV received a bunch of these HST squares already made, and they only had to come up with the layout.  There were many different layouts, this was merely one of them.

The main fabric/the border is a floral, so I quilted a pattern called picnic, which has flowers and butterflies in the design.  You can see the design in the light yellow sections of the quilt in the close up picture below.  One of the ladies for the QOV group will be doing the binding. 

This next quilt is a popular one for using up scraps.  The block itself is large and you only need eight in total to make up the quilt.  You choose eight different fabrics (in this case florals), and from each fabric you cut out one of each of the pieces that make up this block.  This way there is one type of fabric in each position, spread out amongst each block.  When you have the blocks assembled, you rotate the blocks to make up the quilt.

This last one I made up a pattern for it, for out guild if anyone would like to have a quick and simple design to make.  These QOV quilts are at least 54" x 78".  They make a nice lap size quilt.

NICU quilt for Project Linus and a couple of postcards I made

This is a recent finish for Project Linus.  It's a NICU quilt for the little babies in incubators at the hospital.  This a one of the hexagon stars my daughter made, a while back.  She was going to make a large quilt with them, but decided she didn't like the way it was going.  The colours were too bright and kind of clashed with each other.  

When I was unpacking I asked her if she was planning to do anything with them, for which she replied, do what you want with them, for which my reply was a huge grin on my face and my brain started planning.  There were six stars all together and some miscellaneous parts.  There was an orange star, a pink one, two greens and two blues. The pink and orange NICU quilts are done and were shown in an earlier post.  One of the green stars is also done and will come in another post.

Today I wanted to show you this blue star NICU quilt.  For each quilt, I am trying to be different with each of the borders.  The pink has pink strings, the orange has a simple border with a fabric that had all the colours found on the stars and first border, and this one I decided to do three rows of squares to bring it up to the size needed for the quilt.  This one has a lot of aqua in it.  I like the variety of the blue squares.  I was practicing my free motion quilting on this one.  My mom did the binding for me.  My mom does all the binding on my charity/giveaway quilts. 

Something else I want to share with you from back in time to Dec 26/2019:

These are a couple of postcards that I made for the HHQG postcard exchange back in Sept/2019-June/2020.  In my group we had seven participants, so each of us had to make six postcards.  I am trying to track down a picture of them all, but only succeeded in getting these two.  I'll keep trying.  

In the meantime, this first one is an embroidered snow flake that I copied from my daughter's A to Zzzz snowman pattern.  I traced the pattern on a white on white snowflake background.  My daughter did the tiny little stitches and I embellished the snowflake with beads and knots.  When that was done, I trimmed it square, added three strips to the one side, in a dark to light order and followed that with a double binding.

As you can see, I added the ruler at the bottom so you can see the proportions.  The next picture is a close up of the snowflake.  There are three small beads sewn together on the end of the large tips and a tube bead on the short tips.  I added a sequence bead to the middle, topped with a larger round bead, surrounded by more lighter coloured tube beads.  I think it turn out nice.  All the intricate work is so eye catching and it shimmers when the light hits it just the right way.

This next postcard is very different than the first one.  This one is paper piece flying geese all done with my solid scraps and a grey for the background.  I enjoyed doing this one with all those tiny little pieces....I know, I am crazy....lol...but I did like making it.  Each one of these geese are 1/2" tall by just under 1" wide.  I forgot to get a picture of the back of the postcard, which looks so cute.  I drew out the line down the middle, the lines for the address section, even the little square for the postage stamp, just like you would see on a postcard.  It was cute!

Interesting facts: Back at this time on Dec 26/2019, during the time of making these postcards, it is just after Christmas.  I have the week off, and there is now a sense of urgency,  this is when I start the big push to pack and get a move on the renos.  Now on this date Sept/2022, I am still doing renos, but now in my new home....At least now, a year and four months later (after we take possession of the house), I am seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.  I figure, outside of the ensuite, I am about 95% done the main floor, and outside of the basement bathroom about 90% done the basement.  Getting there.....

Enjoy what is left of your evening everyone.

Amity quilt for Quilts for Survivors

I wanted to share this quilt with everyone.  I call this quilt Amity (meaning a friendly relationship).  This is a quilt that I designed and made for Quilts for Survivors.  The inspiration came from a Jordan Fabric pattern called Line Dance Version 2 (shown in the second photo).  Their version is jelly roll friendly and has more piecing.  Mine is larger pieces to help make the assembly quicker.  I adjusted the sizes of the pieces, the number of rows, the orientation and the size of the quilt, to meet with the requirements of Venessa, the coordinator/founder of Quilts for Survivors.

I will be making a pattern to offer free to anyone who would like to make this version for yourself or for the cause.  The pattern will be free.  I just ask that if you can, to contribute to the cause.  Vanessa is collecting 16 1/2" blocks, tops, finished quilts and of course money to get quilts out to the survivors and anyone affected/suffering due to what happened from the residential schools.  

With True & Reconciliation day coming on Sept 30th, I thought this would be a good way for me to support the cause and get the word out.  I hope you enjoy it.

Following picture is the first page of the pattern by Jordan Fabrics.  This pattern is free directly from their online site.  Just google Jordan Fabrics and you will see the link.  This will also take you to all their free patterns. They have many, so go see and enjoy all they have to offer.

Mom's bird wall hanging in yellow

It's been a busy weekend with little quilty stuff going on that I can show you at the moment.  I have to wait for a good day for photos, to show you some of the quilts I entered into the fair and I still have to trim a customers quilt that I did.  So in the meantime I will take you back in time.

Back in time to Oct 25/2019:

This is one piece of a panel that my mom purchased.  There were four sections of fence with different birds and different flowers for each of them.  Panels are a great way to play with thread and have some fun.  They allow you to be abstract or add texture to create the detail of the actual scene.  

My mom used the other three in a wall hanging that I will try and get photos of, to show you at another time. This one was on it's own.  So my mom decided to just add borders for a smaller wall hanging.

Below, I took a profile view in hopes to capture the flowers and how only outlining them made them look embossed.  They almost look 3D.  In person it shows better.  It made me smile when one of my niece's son, was enthralled by the wall hanging that he had to gently run his hand over the flowers and fencing to see if it was real, if it was dimensional.  His eyes did a little pop of surprise....lol.  I feel that was answer enough to letting me know I did a good job....lol.

 

When I did this back in 2019, I was just learning/practicing the swirls used in the background, so they are far from perfect, but they don't look too bad for a beginner.  I did this on my domestic machine.  I outlined the birds and their eyes, but otherwise left them alone to pop out, I did the swirls very close, to essentially smash down the background, helping the birds pop even more.  After that I did my version of wood grain on the fence for additional texture and also to smash it down, so that the bird and the flowers would pop and become the stars of the show.

This last picture is a bit closer, so you can see the overall texture of the fence, with the flowers looking like they are unquilted.  They seem to float to the forefront.  I did a simple loop design side by side in the small border and did lines side by side going along the final border about 1/2" apart.

I really had fun doing this one and the 2nd wall hanging with the three different birds, made into one wall hanging.  If you ever get a change to pick up a panel, do it.  It allows you to play with thread, technique, different designs, and just have fun.  On a panel there is no reason to sweat it.  You have the  freedom to go wherever your imagination takes you.  They are usually small enough that one, it does not cost a lot (not a big investment in cash), two they are quick enough to do (not a big investment in time), and three you can have so much fun while you practice free motion quilting.

Sandi's Amongst the stars quilt

Last weekend one of my customers came to pick up this lovely quilt.  This quilt pattern is called Oh, my stars. It was a class offered through The Hobby Horse quilt shop in Georgetown.  Sandi made this for her daughter, who requested an all grey/black quilt.  I think she did a great job.  I believe that the black border was part of her own design.  I think it sets it off nicely and turned out great.  This is essentially a grey quilt with just a touch of smoky blue to give it a bit of interest and stop it form looking flat.  Like I said, it's lovely.

Here is a close up of a corner showing a few stars and some of the border.  There is a fair amount of negative space as well, where the quilting shows up nicely.  Sandi chose to have this quilt quilted with Whisper, a pretty pattern from Urban Elementz.  

Back in time to Oct 23/2019:  

I was practicing my free motion quilting on this small NICU quilt.  The centre of the quilt was a printed fabric that had all these stripes. No piecing required.  In the dark navy blue stripe there, it has small flowers in red and yellow and it measured only about 1/2", so I just quilted a line on each side to anchor it down.  On the other rows, I practiced doing some ribbon candy quilting.  It is a simple design, but cute.  For the navy border I did a swirl marching around the edges.  If you enlarge the picture you can see the details a bit better.  

Interesting facts:  Also happening at this time back in Oct 23/2019 - This was about the time that we decided we were going to move closer to my mom's place here in Acton and wow, what a ride it has been from this date until now!!

Today, we are going to the 109th Acton Fall Fair.  We're going to check out what is happening.  The fair started yesturday and runs until Sunday.  They are having all sorts of events throughout the weekend.  There is something for everyone.  My daughter and her boyfriend, with some friends, are going for the rides, or should I say her boyfriend is....lol.  She will likely keep her feet firmly planted on the ground.  My husband is just going to see what there is there, and my mother and I are going inside to check out all the quilts, crafts and baked goods.  

If you are looking for something to do this weekend, come check it out.  It looks like it is going to be a great day out there, weather wise.  Enjoy it while you can!

Mom's string lattice quilt & a sample of the HHQG BOM row quilt.

About a month ago, my mom was giving this quilt to Quilt of Valour (QOV).  She made it a little while ago, but folded it up and forgot about it.  I think she had to clean up for company and had to put it away.  When I told her I was going to meet up with the person from QOV, she remembered this quilt that she wasn't intending to keep.  So I when to her house to take this picture and pick it up.  The lighting wasn't the best, but you can still see it well enough.

This is a string quilt.  My mom made string blocks about 8" x 9", and cut them into sections 3 1/2" x 8 1/2" to make the grid sections.  She used a light blue for the cornerstones, a light peach for the background and set is on a diagonal.  It turn out nice.  This is one good way of using up your strings.  You can make this type of quilt in any colourway.  You can do it completely scrappy strings like this one, or choose a singular colour in all different shades of the colour.  Every component that you do will change the look of the overall quilt.  There truly would not be any one alike.  I am thinking of making one myself soon, to try and tame the strings that seem to be multiplying overnight....lol.

 

Back in time to Mar 7/2019:

This sample is what the Halton Hills Quilters Guild (HHQG) did for their Block of the Month (BOM) for the guild year of Sept/2018-June/2019.  This was run by Mary and Marion, as they were in charge of the BOM at that time.  There were quite a few that made this quilt.  It was nice and a step away from the usual singular blocks.  

This one had piecing, appliqué (you pick your own technique), and I think paper piece too.  When it was time for the reveal and the women brought there tops or finished quilts in, it was amazing to see all the variations.  You were encouraged to make this your own quilt by using the monthly pattern and putting your own twist on it.  The layout was given, but again you were encouraged to change it to suit yourself.

This top was brought to the workshop that I co-ran back in May/2019 with Vivian, our Outreach coordinator at the time.  This workshop was the spiderweb quilt that I spoke of in an earlier post.  Just search the word spiderweb and it will come up, if you want to hear about it.

Interesting facts: In renos - Today is Friday and my goal after work, is to put the final coat of paint on the main bathroom including the baseboards and trims, and wash down the tiles to get ready to caulk the tub.  Other happenings - Today is the start of the 109th Acton Fall Fair.  I entered 8 quilts.  We are going to go to the fair likely tomorrow if weather is good.

Entering quilts into the 109th Acton Fall Fair and a QOV quilt

Today my mom called me during lunch time, to ask me to go with her, after work, to enter her quilts into the 109th Acton Fall Fair.  My mom has lived here in Acton for 6yrs now, and this was her first time entering anything into the fair.  Registration opened at 7pm and there was a line up just after they opened. I was surprised.  

She entered a quilt and a wall hanging into the show.  We were having a nice chat with the lady that was in charge of taking in the quilts.  Due to covid they didn't have a show last year.  This year there are not too many entries so far.  I told her maybe next year.  I didn't have much time this year to see about entering.  When she found out I had quilts, she really encouraged me to bring them.  She said that you have tomorrow too to bring them in.  She sounded desperate for quilts.

So on my way home, I thought about it...didn't take me long...I decided to go for it.  I looked over the fair book, and filled out the entry form.  I took stock of what I had and what categories I could enter.  From large quilts to small ones, and wall hangings.  All tole, I entered eight.  How crazy is that!  We went back to my mom's place and we gathered up two more of hers to entre.

The lady taking in the quilts was happy to see us again.  She had a big smile on her face.  She asked me if I quilted my own quilts (a requirement for the show) and I replied yes, as I have a longarm.  She said she was looking for someone to quilt one of her quilts, so I gave her my card and told her she could check out the quilt that I just entered for my workmanship. She laughed and said she has already been admiring them....lol.  My quilts turned out to be my calling card or advertisement.  That's cool.

Since I don't have anything I've been working on today, I will leave you with this Quilt of Valour (QOV) that I quilted.  Back to time to Oct 1st/2019:

A red and white log cabin quilt.  These blocks have become a standard block for QOV, though they accept any design of quilt.  Someone made the blocks, someone else assembled the top, and I quilted it with maple leaves.  Pretty quilt.

Have a great night everyone and wish me luck at the fair!!

First meeting of the year for Erin Village Quilters group yesturday and my house/village quilt

As it was the first meeting of the year for Erin Village Quilters group yesturday, I didn't get a chance to do much outside of working.  I had to account for 30 minutes of commute to get there, as I didn't know for sure where it was.  This is the second year I have been a member, but due to covid, last year it was on zoom.  

It was nice to meet the members there.  I already knew a hand full of the ladies, as they also belong to the Halton Hills Quilter's Guild.  This meeting was hosted by Kay Hannah.  It was a meeting to bring back the completed kits, that the ladies would have received from Kay Hannah during games or through purchase at the June meeting, also hosted by her, that was held at her home the year before.  There were a lot of finished items and many flimsies too.  Very inspiring!!

As for me, on Saturday between taking in quilts and quilt pick ups, I was sewing some on my houses.  I made all the trees, some more houses and got to get a few complete rows done too.  It felt good to work on some of my own stuff.  Take a look below.  Do you see the fussy cut animals....lol.  Can you tell I had fun cutting these out...lol.

I even have a circus fabric that I was able to cut out a clown...lol!!  Love that one!

This is one of the ten quilts I am trying to get done before I start on any new quilts.  Well...I did well on my goal.  I wanted to not start any quilts in August, until I had more quilts done.  I only started the one, and that was for a special situation, so I gave myself some slack on that one.  For September, so far, I have only started one, and this one too is for a special situation.  Both I will share with you at another time, as the reveal has not taken place yet.

So far I have six of the ten done, so that is something....hurray!!!  I am still insistent that I want to finish the ten before I start any new quilts.  I have borders to put on three of the quilts, and this one to piece, before I can quilt them all and call them done.  Not bad.  Just need to find the time to do it.

Have a great evening everyone.

Another Christmas disappearing nine patch block quilt & cute bird blocks

Tomorrow I am heading out with my Sister and Mom to do some antiquing at Aberfoyle.  This is a very large outdoor antique place that I usually enjoy going to.  So I am posting my tomorrow's post today. 

Today, I had customers coming and going with quilts throughout the day. So I decided to take a break from quilting and do some sewing of my own instead.  I started off cleaning up all the piles of messes left all over the place over the past week and a half.  Sometimes when I get creative, it gets a bit messy.  I wanted to enjoy my sewing with less clutter everywhere, so I took about half an hour to put everything away and vacuuming the floors. 

I was able to cut binding and put it on a quilt that I designed and made for Quilts for Survivors (picture and pattern will follow once I have them all together).  I cut up some light squares for my Christmas quilt, finished a house for the house quilt and various other small things to get the place in order.  What I really wanted to do was sew this square. 

I am making a Christmas quilt for the Halton Hills Quilter's Guild (HHQG).  There is a possibility that we may have some sort of raffle, but not sure just yet. If not, it can be given to someone as part of our Outreach program.  For this quilt I am using 4 Christmas charm packs and some of my light fabrics that I cut earlier in the day.  These will make a total of 49 blocks, for a 52" square lap quilt. Above is the finished block.

To get the finished block shown above, I start by making a large four patch block (shown below).  From all the charm packs, I selected two of the same prints for the darks and coordinated them with two matching light fabrics.  After the block is sewn, as seen below, I will cut a strip measuring from the center out at 1 1/4" and do the same for the remaining three sides, and start swapping the pieces to get a block that looks like the finished block above.

By the end of the day, I now have one finished block and 48 four patch blocks complete.  Not bad for a full day of interruptions (in a good way).  This quilt is going to look cute with the smaller pieces.

Back in time to Sept 3/2019 (roughly this same time, 3 yrs ago):

This was when the president of the HHQG was retiring from being president.  As a retiring gift, we (as guild members), got together to make a bunch of bird blocks.  The pattern was given to everyone and people were asked to make them with whatever colour combinations you wanted.  There was a lot of variety when they all came in.  They were gorgeous!

The block above was the one made by my mom.  Hers looks like a Cardinal.  The two below, were made by me.  The first one a Blue Bird and the second one made to resemble a Robin.  I thought the second one was so cute!!

Hope you enjoyed this beautiful Saturday with all the sun.  Have a great day tomorrow.  Enjoy your day.  Take some time for you!

Progress on my handwork Hexagon quilt Sept 1-3/2019 Appliqué block

My computer issues seem to be fixed for the past week or so.  I've just found it hard to find the time to write up any posts.  In this past week and a half, on top of working my full time job, I've finished doing the tiling for the main bathroom, just have the caulking to do.  I've installed the subfloor to the stair landing and tiled that too.  Sent my son off to his 2nd year of university and held the first HHQG executive meeting of this calendar year.  Between all of that, I still quilted for customers and arranged for drop offs or pickups.  So, to say the least, it has been kind of crazy around here.  Thank goodness I had some help from my family, when they could.

Today is going to be another busy one, but I am taking a few minutes to write up this post, while having my tea.  I'm hoping things will start settling down around here, so that I can get back into writing posts more regularly.  If it continues at this crazy speed, I may only get the weekends to post.....we'll see.

In all this craziness, the one thing that I have not given up, is my handwork time with my morning tea, just before I have to start work.  That half hour or so is about the only thing that helps me find my center and keep going.  I call it my little bit of sanity time...lol.  This left hand side section below, that gets attached to the bottom border, is where I am at as of Aug 16th.  Slow but steady.  I have additional bits and pieces made up since, but I will wait until I have a complete diagonal row to attach before pulling this out again.  I really am still enjoying these little bits of fabrics and making these hexagons.

Back in time to Sept 3/2019 (3yrs ago):

At around this time in 2019, I finished up one of my appliqué blocks, which is part of my version of the Baltimore Album quilt.  This is one of 20 blocks that I am making for this quilt.  This handwork is on hold at the moment.  Though I know it, but didn't want to admit it, I can only do one handwork at a time, beings that I only have two hands.....lol.  I currently have 4 handwork projects going at the moment and I am only coming to realize now that I can only do one at a time...go figure...lol.  I just want to do it all.

You may not be able to see it in the picture below, so I will point out that the buds in the block are pleated fabric for a 3D bud.  The entire bud is probable about 1 1/2" in size.

I sometimes feel like taking this one out again to work on, but shortly after I reason with myself that I already have handwork that I am doing, so I put those thoughts away for a bit longer.  Soon....

Now I need to go get my day started.  Sending out wishes to everyone that they have a great weekend and soak up what may be the last of the summer sun.  Enjoy!!