Time off

Just leaving a quick note to say that I have been sick (no not covid), these past few days and so I am going to continue to try and get better.  I will touch base again after Christmas.

Wishing everyone a save and joyous holiday!

Busy last couple of days (mostly none quilting related)

Starting with Saturday, which started at a rude 6:00 am, when my body decided we had a lot to do, so it's time to get up.....I hate when that happens, but fighting it gets me nowhere.  Up I get.  Take a shower, get something to eat and chat with my daughter, who as it happens was experiencing the same thing this Saturday morning.

This is the last weekend before Christmas to start my Christmas shopping, as I would never go on the 23rd/24th weekend.  First I have a dentist appointment at 9:30 am, and pick up my mom to head to Costco. I was lucky and found a few gift there, but primarily I went to get all the hors d' oeuvres for New Years Eve.  We were very lucky as it was not overly busy, so we were in and out, sort of speak.  

On to the mall to do some real Christmas shopping with a long list to get for.  I had my son, daughter, her boyfriend, and six young nieces and nephews, plus my daughter's friend to get for.  Things were moving along great!  I don't remember having it so easy.  By 7:00 pm I am arriving home, grab a bit to eat and start tackling the wrapping business.  That though, took me a while.  Now this is what the Christmas tree looks like all decorated and presents under the tree.

Note how the dog decided to get into the picture. Possibly hoping to get a treat....lol.  I do love those sacks that I got for my son and daughter, to contain all the gifts together.  They like them too.  They just settle down with their sacks and we all enjoy taking turns opening gifts.  Anyways, it wasn't until just past midnight when I was finally able to get to bed, after cleaning up all the wrapping paper mess.

The next day, today/Sunday, started off lovely with my husband serving me tea in bed.  Always love that!   While having my tea, I am planning my day.  Trying to figure out all that has to be done and wondering what else I can fit in.

I decided to load a quilt on the longarm first thing, as I had a customer pick up scheduled for 11:00 am.  It took me a while, but I got that quilt quilted by 3:00 pm, with only a quick lunch break, and on to the second one.  This second one is a gift to my brother.  All the while, I am standing there taking care of the quilts quilting, I am thinking of rearranging some things in my space.  Pictures will follow, once the gift has been given. 

Once all of that was done, I moved furniture.....lol.  Nothing like the presence.  My large armoire got moved to the other room to store all my samples, the puzzle table had to be relocated for the armoire to take it's place, the treadle moved over to another room, where I will have better access to it, to learn how to sew on it.  The usual that happens when moving furniture....all putting stuff back in there places, washing things up and vacuuming.

Very productive two days.  I am feeling really good with everything that got done, especially the Christmas gifts!  I can say I am DONE!  Now I can take it easy this week and anticipate Christmas Eve, when we do the first round of opening up the gifts, with just our immediate family.

Hope everyone had a great weekend.  Take care and especially at this time of year, don't forget to take some time for yourself, to rest and recharge.

Sue's African fabric quilt

Today I am sharing a quilt made by Sue.  This was designed to use up her African fabric.  The quilt is a bit larger than lap size.  All the fabrics are of African women, pottery and scenes.  It turned out really nice with the accent colours to highlight the blocks.  The layout incorporates three different size blocks with different sashing colours and sizes, all set on point.

The border is a line up of African women in there attire and carrying stuff on their heads.  Quite a nice affect for the border.  If you enlarge the picture a bit, you can see up close the different fabrics used in the blocks and the marching women.

The quilting pattern used on this quilt was African Samba from Urban Elementz.  It adds a lovely texture to the quilt and mimics some of the symbols in the pottery.

Deb sharing one of her quilts

Believe it or not, though this picture comes to you from Oct/2021, when our family joined the whole Jenkins clan for a Thanksgiving weekend at the cottage, for a family reunion, the maker and owner of the cottage, my sister-in-law Deb, made this quilt many years before.  This was the time/era of floral fabrics that were used to do a shaded effect when making whatever design you chose for your quilt.

The picture does not do the quilt justice.  The merging of the fabric shades and colours up close is so much better.  This was her foray into quilt making.  She made another quilt in this technique, in the form of a heart, if I understand correctly, that went to her daughter.  Everything got set aside as life continued onward.  She did a fabulous job of this quilt and mastering the technique.

Now on to today.....  I did get a little bit of time to do some of my own quilty stuff.  Not much, but enough to get my fix......lol.  I started on the next word for my Heartfelt BOM quilt....YOU.  I got the Y started, there were some distractions, conversations with my daughter and husband.  My husband brought home a complimentary bottle of red wine from an acquaintance, as a holiday gift.  On to dinner and a sampling of the wine.

By the time I came back down to get these pictures, I thought, yuck!  I don't mind doing paper piece blocks, but they look like a mess when you are making them.  Everything all over the place......

But......once you trim them.....oh, what a difference!  So pretty.  Like I said earlier, I didn't get much time to sew until the interruptions happened, but I am not complaining.  The interruptions are all part of life.  I enjoy them and work around them.  Who knows what life will bring in the future....so you have to embrace them for what they are now.

Don't they look so much better once they are trimmed.  When you compare the before and after, the Y looks like I did a new block, but I didn't.

Tomorrow, I am at my mom's place for dinner, Saturday I HAVE to get out and do some Christmas shopping!!  I do not want to leave it to the last weekend before Christmas, because that will be just crazy!   This year due to my daughter and her boyfriend having arrangements with family on his side, we are doing Christmas on Christmas Eve.....  Not a problem really, but I am having to change my ways....lol.  I am usually found on Christmas Eve watching the original version of the Scrooge doing all my Christmas gift wrapping....nothing like leaving to the last minute......lol.  I am getting to bed in the wee hours of the morning, just a few hours before the kids get up with excitement of Santa and all the gifts under the tree.....  I know, I do it to myself....again....not complaining, just stating how it is....

Take care everyone and don't forget to take some time for yourself.  You're worth it!! 

Sandi's turquoise star quilt

Still no sewing today, so I went digging deep into my photos to get this one.  This one is coming to you from Jan 28/2023.  Just shy of a year.....lol.  

This quilt was made by Sandi and was going to be a gift to her niece.  Pretty colours in a bluey almost heading toward a greenish turquoise.  I like the simplicity of this quilt.  It would be easy enough to make as a charity quilt, with only 9 blocks to make.  Here she made star blocks, but you could easily change it to any of your favourite blocks.  The rest of the quilt is made with 2 1/2" strips.  You could use a jelly roll to make it even faster, or start slicing some of your own fabrics to start using up your stash.

The quilting on this one is called Ebb and Flow from Urban Elementz.  It's a nice one to go with the watery colourway and it catches pretty much all the seams along the way.  Here is a close up.  If you enlarge the picture, you should be able to make out the quilting pattern.  Subtle and effective.

Take care everyone.  Have a great evening.

My mini log cabin blocks quilt

Just back from my walk with our dog/Maddie.  It's a brisk one out there tonight.  This evening was for running around getting things done.  I finished the Christmas decorating and putting up the tree.  We only have the decorating of the tree to do and for that I wanted to wait until my daughter got back, so some time this week we will tackle that.  

Am I the only one that feels the need to do spring cleaning while I decorate?  I washed windows, walls, floors, furniture and all.  That is why I didn't get any quilty stuff done, aside from Sunday when I quilted a quilt for a customer.  Tomorrow I have to see about trimming the quilt and maybe getting a picture or two.

In the meantime, let me take you back to Sept 12/2023:  That was when I finished my mini log cabin quilt.  I call it my mini log cabin quilt, not because it is small, but because the blocks are small.  The blocks finish at 3 1/2" square.  I set 4 blocks by 4 blocks to make a larger block of 14" square.  Easier to manage and put the quilt together.  This picture was taken in my back yard, a couple of days before I entered it into the Acton Fall Fair.  I won first prize in it's category.

I started making this quilt, as I wanted to use up my smallest of small pieces.  The smallest piece, is the red 1" square in the center.  Sewn in a block it finishes at 1/2" and all the rest of the "logs" go up in increments of 1/2" with each log only 1/2" thick.  You can use up a lot of scraps with pieces this small, but funny thing is, you can be sewing and sewing and never seem to be reducing your scraps.....lol.

Above is a picture of the bottom left hand corner to get a better view of the border.  I did a traditional log cabin layout.  Different than my usual layout of straight farrow, but just as pretty.  

Below is a close up of the blocks prior to quilting.  Can you see that I used any and every scrap colour I picked out of my scrap bin.  Up close, you may thing, what a hodge podge of fabrics.....all together though and they make a gorgeous quilt.  The more variety the better.  

I have every colour in the rainbow and every style/genre of fabrics in here.  You name it and it is likely represented in here.  I love it that way.  The trick to making a really scrappy quilt is not to look at the individual fabrics going together.  So long as the same fabric is not up next to the same fabric all is good.  I also made sure that within each block there are no repeat fabrics.  Another trick to making a scrap quilt work is to add in different saturation of colours.  I have some dark darks, medium darks and some light darks that sometime appear to be just a bit on the too light side.  I did the same for the lights.  So long as there is contrast between the lights and darks next to each other, it will all work out.

I hope you like this quilt.  Just a word of warning.  This is not for the faint at heart.......lol.  It took me quite a long time to do this quilt (years).  The reason being, is that each block has very small pieces and many of them.  You can do a few in a sitting, until you have to put it aside.  I started this as a block-a-day.  But, as always happens, life in general gives you distractions.....lol.  So long as you don't make a deadline, it will be ok.  

I laughingly call this quilt my insanity quilt....lol.  I am glad I persevered and made this.  This is one that I am keeping for myself.  Every time I look at it, I go down memory lane. 

Winter and maple syrup

I've been working overtime all week and haven't been able to do any sewing or much of anything really.  Tomorrow I am planning on setting up the house for Christmas, but still hoping to have a bit of time to do something in my sewing room.

In the meantime, I thought I would share a couple of unrelated to quilting thoughts.  The first one is from a week and a half ago, when we had the snowfall followed by some rain.  As the temperatures were still below freezing the snow basically turned to ice.  It was quite treacherous to drive or walk in.  I had to wear slip on cleats over my boots to walk the dog.......lol

I have to say though, that it was a beautiful scenic walk.  It is so pretty when the tree branches are shimmering with the icicles.  The picture does not capture the whole mystical scene that I experienced during my evening walk.

The second thing, is in the picture below.  I was completely shocked when I saw it in with the Christmas decorations.  Now, it may not be an unusual thing to see cans of Pure Maple Syrup, as we do live in Canada, however this is not what you may think it is......  Did you know that you can get maple syrup scented candles!  Candles!!  Only in Canada.....  Like many others, I may love the smell of warmed up maple syrup pour over a stack of pancakes of waffles, with a bit of butter, but candles?  I don't know......I think someone has gone a bit overboard......I mean, really?    To each his/her own I guess.

I saw these candles while I was out getting nylons for a wedding I went to.  While I was there, I also picked up advent calendars for my mom and my children.  I can't believe a week has already past in December.  Time is just flying by.

Tomorrow I plan on putting up the Christmas decorations.  What do you plan for the weekend?  Have you finished your Christmas shopping?

The starting of a Sea Swept quilt

I have committed to making a Sea Swept quilt pattern for my sister-in-law Deb.  It is a pattern that was on my bucket list for a long time, but I couldn't justify starting it while I had so much already on my list to do.  Well, I didn't need much encouragement......lol.  As soon as I found out Deb liked the quilt pattern......well, that was all I needed to add it to my list.  

I've been collecting the fabric here and there since Oct/2022, though not seriously.  But during July/Aug/2023 through the quilt shop hop, I stepped it up and started looking for variety.  I was wanting some medium dark blues, medium blues, teals, aqua blue, and sea foam heading toward greenish.  Variety is going to be key in this quilt.  I also got the light blue background fabric that I need to make sure there is enough contrast with the rest of the colours I chose.

I am doing this quilt as paper piece and I've already rough cut all the pieces I need to make this quilt.  I did one block of all three different blocks required to make the quilt.  I like to do this, as this is when you confirm if there is enough contrast between all the parts.

This is a picture of the cornerstone block.  As I was afraid I was going to run out of the background fabric, I decided to use a slightly darker square for the consistent centre piece.  The centre piece and the outer triangles were going to be in the same colour, but as you can see in the picture below, there is not quite enough contrast to see the light versus dark thing going on.  

So for my second version, I left the centre piece the same, but switched to the lighter blue background fabric for the outer sections.  I was lucky enough to get my hands on some more, so I will not run out.  This second block looks so much better.  When you put it up against the sashing pieces, you will further see the contrast, which is important in this pattern.

Have a great day everyone and take care.

Quilts for Survivors shipped

From the generosity of many quilters  I have been quilting numerous quilts for Quilts for Survivors.  Here are another two quilts that were quilted and shipped back in Jan/2023.  The first one is using a panel that was designed to honour the lost children and keep them in our thoughts.

This next quilt was also a donated top, to Quilts for Survivors and was also shipped in Jan/2023.

I pieced together to backing for this one with fabric I had on hand.  In the bottom corner you can see the label that goes on each quilt when it is shipped.

I continue to quilt quilts for Quilts for Survivors, as a way to show my support.  If you have any left over blocks that you don't know what to do with or a UFO that you are thinking of abandoning, maybe you could donate it to Quilts for Survivors.  I know that Vanesa is always taking in donations, and many hands help her to assemble or quilt, or whatever is required to get these to the people who need a bit of comfort.

Take care everyone.

A little more progress on the words

The wedding I went to yesturday, for my niece and her long time friend, now husband was really nice.  They had a lovely ceremony and the reception was great.  Good food and lots of dancing.  They, as in the bride and groom, plus the bride's father/my brother, and the groom's mother, also put on three small dancing skits.  It was a unique spin on the father/daughter dance and the groom/mother dance.  It was cute and entertaining.  I wish them all the happiness and love for their future together.

Today, I slept in some.  When I got up, I was motivated to do stuff around the house, for the house.  I ended up plastering the walls going down the stairs, the wall in the hallway at the bottom of the stairs and the ceiling in the dinning room area.  I finally got around to putting away all the stuff we used for jarring up the marinara sauce and vacuumed throughout.

In between all this, I had lunch, a tea break and dinner.  By that time, it was getting late so, I put everything else on hold, to do some quilting.  I decided to continue with the letters of the Heartfelt quilt.  What a fitting word for the beginning topic of my post.  LOVE!  Now I have the words, I LOVE.  Many more to go, but this is good.  

As I was busy today, doing some productive renos and household cleaning, during my tea break I decided to reward myself with this.....

A puzzle.  A Christmas themed puzzle!  It usually happens around this time of year where we get the itch to set up a puzzle, that any of us and all of us usually work on together.  There is just something relaxing about sitting around the table doing a puzzle.  I got the perimeter completed and some of the pieces sorted.  It was hard to walk away once my break was over.....lol.....you know that, "Oh, just one more piece".......which turns into many, before you realize how long you've been sitting there....lol.

Take care everyone and don't forget to take some time for yourself.

A couple more Quilts for Survivor quilts shipped

Friday!!  Yeah!  I am so glad it is Friday.  Not sure exactly why, but it felt like such a long week.  No time in my quilting room makes me cranky and I haven't been in my sewing room all week.   I did get a bit of hand sewing done in the morning before work, while having my tea.  I finished another hexagon diamond today and started the last of four more left to be done.  Picture is what it is, as it was an overcast morning with a bit of snow falling.   

Four more to go!!  Whoo hoo!  I can't believe how close I am to finishing this quilt.  Four more diamonds to go, four more florets to go and only two thirds of the bottom outer border left to go.  Yes, still many hours of handwork, but really, this is nothing compared to where I started.

I know this alone may be boring to some, so I pulled out a couple of pictures of quilts I quilted for Quilts for Survivors from Jan 28/2023:

This first one is simple squares, however their brightness and being set on a diagonal makes them look good!  The fabrics are all batiks.  This was a donated top that I quilted and shipped out to a survivor.

There was this one.  Also a donation.  Not sure if you recall, but on November 21st, I posted about a similar quilt, all done in green with the pinwheels.  This is the one I spoke of, in that post, that is all in blue.  Even though it is all in blue, the multi tones of blues really add texture and makes it look like a quilt of many colours.  Simple yet effective.  Both quilts measure approx. 48" x 60".

I am off to a wedding tomorrow, so that will likely run late into the night.  So, there won't be a post tomorrow.  I am hoping to get to some customer quilts on Sunday and maybe have some time to play in my fabric a bit after that.  Will post what I was up to later.

Take care everyone, and don't forget to take some time for yourself.