Helping my daughter start another embroidery scene

Yesturday morning I had some time to myself while my husband went to help my daughter and her boyfriend's family empty a storage unit and transport two pickup loads of wood back here.  That gave me quite a bit of time to make some progress on my quilting on my hexagon quilt.  So I took advantage of it and made some headway.  I was able to get one complete 16" pass the full width of the quilt and advance the quilt, before they arrived back here.

I took a break to direct the unloading, clean up some outdoor furniture, swipe off the deck and stack some furniture to prepare to be covered for the winter.  I can't believe it is already that time of year.

My daughter stayed behind as she goes into work from here on the days that she goes "into" the office.  So to save them a trip back here again on Monday, she decided to stay.  I invited her down to my studio to check out the hexagon quilt and what I was doing with it.  After a bit, we got to chatting and the conversation veered toward handwork.  She was thinking of starting up with embroidering her basket blocks, but then we ended up looking at a few of her other patterns that she picked up over the years.

In the end, she settled on this pattern: 

It was a toss up between this one, Snow Days and another pattern by Crabapple Hill called Snow Flurries.  Snow Days won, but there is much discussions about changing the overall quilt.  We are not really liking the brown and beige colours of the blocks, so we will continue to think about it and make decisions closer to the time that she has all the embroidery blocks complete.

We (as in I) cut out all the background fabric.  My daughter fears the rotary cutter, so I don't force the issue, as I would prefer to avoid any accidents.  She does all the rest.  She started with ironing all the blocks and took out the light for tracing the designs.  While she was working on what she needed to do, I continued on with quilting and I again was able to get one complete 16" pass the full width of the quilt and advance the quilt.  That made me quite happy!!!

 

My daughter made some good progress too.  She traced this first scene, which is part of the left hand side border.  It has a tractor in the barn, a house, some trees and the cutest part is the kid in the tub going down the hill...lol.  Wait until you see the other part of this scene...

This next one my daughter traced is cute too.  It is what I would call a filler block.  It is at the bottom of the hill with a tree, a berry bush with a bird in it, and a cute little bunny with his/her foot prints in the snow.  So cute! 

The last scene she managed to trace before we called it quits, to go make some dinner, was the middle scene between the two above.  This is the continuation of the kid in the tub going down the hill.  There is a toboggin with a couple of kids going down the hill, with a snowman off to the side, and another kid walking back up the hill dragging his/her toboggin behind them.  All of these are so cute!

After dinner, we went back down to the studio.  My daughter basted the blocks with the second layer of background fabric, to give the top layer more stability when she makes her stitches, and it also hides the threads in the back of the work.  Now she can take them anywhere to work on them and they are secure.  She already started one block by stitching up one little line.  

She is very excited to start on this.  This quilt is going to be so cute!!!  I can't wait to see what we come up with later, for the rest of the pieced blocks.

Take care everyone.  Hope you all had a great weekend!

Saturday sewing with the ladies

Yesturday was so nice, spending time with our sewing group.  Everyone working on their own thing.  Chatting away and making progress.  It is always nice getting together.  

I was working on a few different things.  First I finished the binding on the penguin snack mat and I've already used it too....lol.  I wouldn't have thought to make one, but as I had the pieces and the pattern, I thought, why not...  It's useful, as my sewing table is wood, so the mat will protect it if I have a snack and a drink.

Secondly, I worked on finishing the last three larger leaves on this appliqué block.  I showed you the progress on this one in yesturday's post.  Now I can call this one done and cross off the required October block.  I like the simplicity of this block.

Then lastly, I started working on this next block, which is the one I am doing for the required November block.  In the picture the top half is the paper pattern, with the leaves that I have to prep, to appliqué onto the white background fabric, which is the bottom half of the picture.  Before I started this block today, I already had the heart shaped vine sewn to the background.  

Today I prepped the berries and pinned them to the background, using the Perfect Circles that makes...."perfect" circles....lol.  They couldn't have chosen a better name for the product.....you could say it is perfect!!  LOL....ok, you probably saw that one coming, but I couldn't resist....lol.

I also prepared the first two leaves and appliquéd them onto the back ground and then added the first berry at the base of the two leaves.  I am so happy seeing this come together!  With each piece that I add, I like it even more.  I am going to wait to attach the rest of the berries, until I start adding in the leaves.  It helps me get them placed better and more evenly spread out.

As this is my November block, I have one more week to get this one done.  Wish me luck!

Take care everyone.

A little bit of appliqué

I came home from my mom's place last night with a strong desire to pick up my appliqué.  Earlier that day before heading out, I asked my son to bring down my rolling cart that I have all my appliqué  supplies and tools on.  I have plans of working on the berries today when the ladies come to sew.

When I got home, I took the time to straighten up a bit in the studio and pass the vacuum once more.  Then I decided that I had an hour left before heading to bed, so I sat at my table and figured, why wait until tomorrow, just do a couple and get my fix in.  Well, one lead to another and then another......  I managed to get all four berries on, plus the last small leaf.  By then an hour and a half went by!!  Lost track of time...lol. 

I did enjoy myself though.  This one is almost done!!  I only have three more leaves to do.  These ones are the larger leaves.  They are the same as the middle leaf in the picture on the bottom right hand side.  On a side note, a flash back in time.....when I wrote that last sentence....one of the skits from Sesame Street popped in my head.....one of these thing is not like the other......LOL.....I am probably dating myself....lol....but oh well.  Funny how these things pop up out of the blue.  

Back to the original conversation....I am so glad I have started back on these blocks.  I just need to try and find a bit more time to sit and relax to do some hand work.  Once you get the technique down pat, it's relaxing to sit and hand stitch.

I was reading someone's blog the other day and they spoke about "slow stitching".  There is a group that sits and stitches, and they call it Sunday Slow Stitching, or something very similar.  I thought that was a good idea.  Setting aside a designated time to do handwork.  I'll have to think about it.  Not sure I could commit to every Sunday at a particular time, but maybe I can keep it in the back of my mind to try and do some, at some point, a little more regularly.

As I mentioned above, the ladies are coming to sew today, so I have to get ready.  I'm thinking that I am going to continue this appliqué and then if it goes well, move on to the berries of the next one.  The next one is also partially completed, so I am off and running....lol.  I'll share pictures of that one tomorrow maybe.

Take care everyone.  Enjoy your weekend.

We have more stars

Yesturday after work, I finally got my sewing fix in.  I was able to spend some time in my studio.  It felt really good!  I started out to clean off some table space, by sorting through the one pile of fabrics that needed to be washed and put in a load, then to clear off some more, I moved all the fabrics I cut out for my Christmas quilt off the cutting table, so that I could finally trim my French General log cabin quilt.  My tables are looking so much lighter....lol.  It's amazing how much mess is made, while being creative!

It felt good just to take care of those things.  Now I able to sit down and sew with a bit more breathing room.  When deciding what to sew, it was a toss up between the Crazy colour blocks and the NICU Star quilts.  As you can tell from the title of this post, the stars won out.  These sew up pretty easily and look so cute!  It's like sewing up one big oversized block.  These measure 24" square.

Above I have the light blue star top completed and below I have the dark blue star top completed.  I have two more of these NICU star quilts cut out and ready to be sewn.  Those will be done soon.

I currently have my hexagon quilt on the longarm in the process of being quilted free hand, so that will take some time still, but when that is done then these two, plus the initial star with the green background will be loaded and quilted.  I am a bit behind on my goal for getting quilts done before the end of the year, but I am doing what I can.  These will make three when I quilt them, so that's cool.  Not going to stress out about it though, as there is no deadline, only my own self imposed goals.  For these Project Linus quilts, I have plenty of time.  The next drop off is usually the tail end of March or April.

Take care everyone.

Introduction to the Christmas quilt I am making

Do you know that feeling when all you want to do is escape to your sewing room and fondle the fabric?  Well that is exactly what I wanted to do, however life and "adulting" got in the way with work, meetings, appointments, then making dinner and all the other stuff that has to be done.....I'm not complaining, just feeling a bit melodramatic, and cranky with the lack of getting some good amount of time, in my studio.  

Yesturday especially.  I only got 45 minutes before bedtime.  That's it!!  So making the best of my time, I picked up the fabrics I had laying out and started cutting the pieces for my Christmas quilt.  I realized recently that I didn't share what I was doing for my Christmas quilt.  So let me do that now.

This is the inspiration for my Christmas quilt.  I don't know if it is an official pattern, as we didn't get any of the details, just the picture.  This picture was from one of the Bonnie Hunter's retreat participants.  I love the double grid affect that is going on here.  The white scrappy background gives the red and green some room to breath.  I like the fact that it feels light (not heavy) with the extra white.

These are standard blocks.  One is a four patch and the other I don't remember the name of it, but it is essentially a square with two opposite corners snowballed.  Then you add sashing and cornerstones to finish the centre.  I don't know if this person was going to add borders, but I am going to.  I shared the border fabric a few posts ago, from when I went on the shop hop with my mom and some friends.

These are the fabrics for my quilt.  I am making mine king size for my bed.  As of yesturday when I did my 45 minutes of cutting, I have all the large red squares cut out, the red cornerstones, now all the green squares and cornerstones are cut, and some more of the white sashing and squares for the stitch and flip corners, plus four patches.  Good progress for a quilt I am not really supposed to be working on.....lol.  I just couldn't resist!!

I have over 800 more white squares and over 175 white sashing pieces to cut, before I can say that the cutting is all complete.  Maybe later after work, I can get back to this.  I would like to clear everything away before the ladies come on Saturday to sew.  Maybe I can start in on sewing this one......  We'll see.....

Take care everyone.

Flower Farm Sampler quilt

A friend and I decided to start this quilt together, as a block of the month (BOM)....however not until August/2026.....lol.....can you tell I am excited to start this quilt....lol.  I keep getting more excited every time I am watching a "short" on YouTube from Fat Quarter Shop.  They are also doing this pattern in a BOM fashion.  Fat Quarter Shop is doing their version using Americana fabric by Lori Holt.  It's going to look gorgeous!

I've decided that I am going to make this quilt all from stash, or at least the majority from stash.  I had a brainstorm one night while trying to fall asleep.  I was trying to figure out what I might have on hand to work with.  Then it came to me.  I had intentions of making an applique quilt called Aunt Millie's Garden, but it is intense and all hand work.  With my hands the way they are at the moment, I decided that I would dismantle these fabrics that I collected for that quilt.  The fabrics I had for that one was all the grey fabrics you see in the second column.  Fourteen different greys that are similar in colour with different patterns on them.  They are going to be my background.

Then I remembered that I had started to collect some bright colours for another applique quilt I wanted to do.  I decided that I may still do that one, but not for a while and if I do it, it may be using wool instead, as wool is easier on the hands to applique.  The bright fabrics from that project bin, are the ones on the top left hand corner, including the greens that are on the grey fabrics.  

That was a good jumping off point for me.  I just opened up my fat quarter drawers and searched for other bright clear colours.  Those are the ones that you see in the last two columns on the right hand side in the picture above.  Then I thought to myself that I do need some light with less colour to break up the blocks a bit and allow the bright colours to shine.  Those are the ones on the lift hand side just below the yellow fabrics.

I'm going to start there and see where that takes me.  I'll kind of work with it like I did the Heartfelt quilt, where I do one block at a time and determine what I want to do for the colours.  I think I'll keep the layout and blocks that are in the above pattern, so that I can sort out where the different colours will go.  My colour options though will be completely different.

I am sooooooo excited.....I don't know how I am going to hold myself back from starting this one, but I will have to do it!!!

My friend is going to be using a beautiful warm colour palette.  This is her bundle.  The picture is off a bit, as the colours a bit more vibrant, but still warm at the same time.  She will supplement some other fabrics as well.  I really love her bundle.  I almost bought it myself, it was just so pretty!    

I can't wait to see how these quilts will turn out.  We have two examples already of what they can look like and we are both each doing our own colourway.  

Just remember that I am sharing this with you now, but it will not get started until August/2026 and then every month after that.  I believe there are 18 different blocks/months to do, but I'll have to confirm that later.

Take care everyone.

Still working on my required blocks

Today after work I wanted to work on the blocks I'm working on to make progress on a few quilts.  My list is of three different pieced blocks, one applique block and one column for finishing quilts.  Last week was so busy that I didn't get much done from this list, but Sunday I did manage to get the Smith Mountain Morning blocks done, plus four additional blocks to cover this weeks requirement.

Today I worked on the paper piece Sea Swept quilt blocks.  For this one I have to do three per week.  I finished the three I needed for last week and after dinner I finish the three I needed for this week. Yeay!!

Next, I'm going to need to get the strings out and work on the blocks I need to make for the Low Volume Chevron quilt.  That one is getting really close to being complete!!

I forgot to mention that yesturday, I also completed sorting out the pieces for the courthouse step variation, of the Smith Mountain Morning quilt.  The centre squares are sewn, the blue logs each have a muslin square attached to each side and the kits are pinned together ready and waiting to be sewn.

It's been busy here with quilty stuff, as well as trying to get back into work and still looking after my health and household.  A lot of things to juggle and still take time to relax and have some fun.  My daughter calls it "adulting"......lol.  I like that term.  Most of the time though, when things get hairy, she uses it as a negative, as in "adulting s--ks"......I'll let you file in the word.....lol.  As for myself, I'll just say that I was doing a LOT of adulting....lol.

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

A snack mat

Just a small post today.  After work and taking care of household stuff, plus getting my daily walk in, I made my way downstairs to my studio and decided I would take care of a small project.  When we went on the shop hop Saturday, one of the stores gave us a small kit to make a snack mat.  They provided the small 2 1/2" squares and the backing.  

This was a great little project to relax and get some sewing time in.  I love the penguins!

The snack mat is assembled and quilted.  I was done in no time at all.  Love these quick finishes and I will use it too.  Now I just have to find some coordinating binding fabric.

Take care everyone.

I got some progress done

Today was a day for taking it easy.  Starting with sleeping in!!  That rarely happens!  But by the time I rolled around to look at the clock it was just after 9:00 am.  I don't remember the last time I slept in this late, but I must have needed it.  So I figured I'd take that queue and consider taking it easy the rest of the day.  It didn't mean I did nothing, I just didn't rush about trying to do everything.

I started by enjoying what most people like to do, and sat relaxing with me tea, then made a nice weekend breakfast to nourish my body and then slowly moseyed on down to my quilting studio.  When I got down there, I decided to keep the relaxation theme going.  I just picked up the first thing I lay my hands on and considered what needed to be done with it, and did it.  No thoughts, no plans, no worries.....in the end everything needs to be done, but today was going to be at a more casual pace.

First thing that was done was the binding for the Monkey Bar quilt.  That has been sitting around patiently waiting to be done.  Today it got done!  Then, as I already had the brown thread in the machine, and the pieces were right there beside me, I decided to assemble some star blocks for my Smith Mountain Morning quilt.  My recent goal was to make four of these blocks each week.  We are Sunday today, ending this week and I have yet to start them.

I can now report that I have finished my required blocks (self-imposed "required").  I was enjoying myself.  Taking it easy, listening to some YouTube in the background while I sewed.  It was going so well that I decided to get ahead and sew the four I needed for this coming week.  Four check marks on my list you see in the above picture for this week, and four check marks on my list for this coming week!!!  That makes me feel really good.  I still have the other required blocks to do, but I am not going to stress about them.  I can work on them this coming week....

In my quest to get healthy, the one thing that has been lagging, has been exercising. I think I'm one of those people who is allergic to exercise......lol.  I really need to make an effort to move my body, so after I made such good progress on these stars I took the dog for a long walk.  It's time that I start thinking more seriously about taking my daily walks.  I know it's good for me!

It may not sound like I did much today, but holding myself back, to think about slowing down and mindfulness, takes time.  I took more breaks to sit with a tea or hot beverage.  I sat to just think and reflect.  We all need to take the time to look after ourselves and we need to make a conscious effort to make sure it happens.  In the end, as I sit here writing this post, I can say that I am still relaxed and I'm glad that I took the day to just be.

Take care everyone.  Don't forget to take some time for yourself.  Your health depends on it!!

My shop hop goodies

Today, my mom, and a few friends, and I went on a shop hop.  Such a pleasant time.  It is always nice getting out with friend.  The chatter and laughter is so soothing for the soul.  I think everyone had fun!!  And everyone did some spending....lol.  Let me share with you what I got. 

The first stop on our adventure was, Kindred Spirits Quilt Co., at 211 Martindale Road, St. Catharines ON.  This place is heading toward Niagara Falls.  At this store I picked up a 6 1/2" square ruler, as mine was starting to wear out and the corners are starting to round.  I had it for years!!  I got two pieces of white Christmas fabric for the quilt I've been working on recently.  Something that was not on my radar, was border fabric for the Christmas quilt.  

At the last shop hop we went to, I started the Christmas fabric collection, as I mentioned in another earlier post and in that fabric collection, I purchased a layer cake.  The fabric in the layer cake was the bouncing off point for the rest of the quilt.  And so when I saw some yardage of the same line of fabric, I thought, OH!, do I need this?,....and my answer came to me.  Yes, I did need this, as I hadn't even thought about borders for the Christmas quilt yet.  So I took the remaining bolt, which was almost 4 meters.  

The picture below doesn't do the fabric justice.  The background is a dark green and the design has red poinsettia with white roses, lighter green leaves, a set of light blue leaves and pink berries.  The white fabric designs are Christmas trees and the second one, snowmen with the words, let it snow. 

The store shop hop gift was the turquoise tin shown above, with the tin opened in the picture below.  They gave out what appears to be a keychain with several quilting/sewing charm items, the blue flower is a needle threader, a seam ripper and an item that I am guessing is a tool for pushing out your corners, when turning an object outside in.  This will be great for traveling.  You can put a few other things in there to go on retreats or sewing days.  I thought this was a thoughtful and useful gift.

The second stop on our adventure was, Cherished Pieces, at 142 Broadway St., Tillsonburg, ON.  This place is heading toward London.  At this store I picked up some backing fabric for the Smith Mountain Morning quilt I am working on.  I got 3 1/4" meters of a 108" backing fabric in a cream background with dark beige splotches.  I think it will go well with the blue and brown quilt.  I got another two white pieces of Christmas fabric to hopefully finish the remaining pieces that I need for the Christmas quilt.  The first one has a bunch of candy canes and the second one has penguins with candy canes between them.  They look so cute!!!  The first two white fabrics do too!

 

The store shop hop gift was the purple bag of goodies that you see above, and the contents are in the picture below.  They gave us a spool of thread, some candy, a label that reads Made with Love, a small emery board, plus some fabric to make a snack mat with pattern included.  This will be fun to make!!  The fabric squares have penguins, stars, Christmas trees and a knitted design.  This will be a nice quick finish project, that will be pretty and useful.  Just in time for Winter.

I got what I needed and nothing more.  I am glad that I was able to use some restraint today.  It is so easy to overspend in these stores, as there is always, so much eye candy!!!

Take care everyone.  Hope you all had a great day!  Don't forget to take some time for yourself.

Tumelo Trail quilt finished

Yesturday, I went back down to work on cutting the fabric for my Christmas quilt.  I managed to cut a 2" strip from every green and then started cutting the white for the sashings.  There is not much new that I can share from doing that task.  I'm sure you don't want to just see another stack of cut fabric....lol.   

So instead, let me share with you another quilt finish.  I started this quilt way back in Nov/2016, and even earlier if you count the time it took me to collect all of the men's shirts.  The majority of the fabrics in this quilt are from men's shirts, and specifically from the men in my life.  I have shirts from my husband, my son, my nephew, my brother, even some lady's shirts and so on.  I think you get the point.  I am going to say that about 90% of the fabrics are shirts, with a few light background fabrics needed to finish the quilt.

To give you some perspective, each square in the nine patches measures 1" finished.  This quilt measures about 90" x 100".  The pattern is from Bonnie Hunter, called Tumelo Trail.  I was really drawn to this pattern, specifically to the grid/lattice that is created by the blocks when you alternating them, one to the right and the other to the left.  The quilt looks more complicated then it actually is.  When you break it down, you are just making what feels like a gazillion nine patches and a bunch of half square triangles (HST).

When I say "what feels like a gazillion nine patches", I'm not stretching the truth.....lol.  For this quilt there are a total of 72 full blocks.  Each block has 5 nine patches that measure only 3" square finished.  That is 9 individual 1" finished squares that make up the nine patch.....can I emphasize that just a bit more....1" square finished!!!!!......lol.  So that makes 360 3" finished nine patches for a grand total of 3,240 1" squares.......again 3,240!!!!  Wow!  If I had counted them prior to starting this quilt, I'm not sure I would have proceeded to make it.....but then again, I look at what I have on the go now and I think, I probably would have continued to make it anyways.....lol.

Here is a close up of the individual blocks and the shirting fabrics.  An interesting point.  The cornerstones were all made from my brother's uniform office work shirt and the sashings were made from my brother's brother-in-law's uniform shirts.  The brother-in-law used to get several new shirts every year and he didn't wear them out as fast as he got them, so many were in really good shape.  

I had enough of his shirts to do all of the inner sashings to match, but when I got to outer sashing, I was short.  Not short with his shirts, but short of the matching shirts, because at one point the company updated the fashion and went with a larger pinstripe.  In the end, I just took the larger pinstripes and placed them on the outer edge.  I looks good and it looks intentional, so don't tell anyone and no one will know....lol.

Do you see all the stripes and plaids in there?  This is really a memory quilt for me.  I can see all of my loved ones at various times or occasions, wearing the different shirts.  This was a long, ongoing project for me and I finally finished it in January/2025.  The last time I posted about this quilt was back on Nov 10/2023, when I wrote about the progress on this quilt, after working on it at a retreat I attended.  You can read more about it there if you wish.

Tomorrow, my mother, some friends and I are heading out for a shop hop.  Looking forward to that!!  Hope you all have a great weekend!

Take care everyone.

Two days of playing in fabric

I started on Tuesday after work.  Needed to do something simple as my hands were hurting like crazy.  Couldn't do much but take it easy, so I decided to go through the different colours of scraps.  I started this some time last month....or was it the month before....not sure, but it's been a bit.  I started pulling out my file folders sorted out into colours.  Went through them to remove all the small stuff that just got shoved in while rushing around trying to clean up before people come...lol...you know how it is...

This first picture is of the piles in colour families, that are larger chunks, but not as big as a fat quarter.  They are now ready to be filed away.  I am just waiting for my hanging file folders, that I ordered from Amazon.  You'll have to excuse the shadows on the piles at the top.  These piles are on my longarm and I currently have a quilt loaded on it, so it is casting shadows on the back row of fabrics.

The front piles are, from left to right, the corals, light pink, dark pink, reds and lastly white with prints (mainly red prints).  I think I have another red and white quilt in my future...lol...so I'll keep them together and separate from my other stash, until I decide.  The back row is brown, grey, green and black.  The blue and purple has already been done, while I was doing my crazy colour blocks.

Then I gathered up all the scraps that I recently washed & ironed and started sorting them into colour families.  Most of them were small scraps.  The stuff that other people throw away, but that I use, so instead they keep them for me.  The smallest I keep is usually 1 1/2" square once it is washed and ironed, though lately I have been keeping all the triangles too, for making my ocean wave pieces.  

These scraps are not getting put away just yet, as I am still working on cutting my solid colours for the crazy colour blocks.  But they are all now sorted and shall I say "contained"....if there is such a thing with scraps.....lol.  I love scraps!!!

I'm happy to say that shuffling fabric all evening was good relaxation for my hands.  They are feeling much better now with giving them a rest and forcing as much of my fresh ginger concoction down my throat (It helps with inflammation, which irritates the arthritis).  I enjoy relaxing like this while I listen to my tablet in the background.  I have a few sewing/quilting people that I subscribe to on YouTube.  Since I found a new person and she does quilt-a-longs, I had a lot to listen to!

I didn't get anything done yesturday, as I was making a special dinner by request, which takes a long time to prepare and cook.  By the time I was done that, I was done for the night.  But back at it today!!

Today, I had to take inventory of what I have.  I'm going on a shop hop this Saturday with some friends and I don't go without a plan.  So I am in the process of gathering fabrics to make a red, green and white Christmas quilt.  

On my last shop hop back in September, I picked up a bunch of fat quarters and a layer cake of Christmas fabrics.  I came home and put those in the wash, then went fishing in my Christmas fabric stash to see if I had anything that I could use.  Unfortunately, that stash is dwindling.  I used a bunch of it for the Welcome to the North Pole applique quilt, so it has gone to good use.  Then last Friday I raided some of my mom's Christmas stash.....lol.....we do share equally both ways.... She had a few pieces.

So as you can see above, the red is all cut out.  Some of it was started a couple of weeks ago.  With the fabric I did have, I was surprised that I did have enough to cut all the 3 1/2" squares for the blocks (288) and the 2" squares for the corner stones of the sashing (85).  A couple of weeks ago, I even started cutting out the white 6 1/2" x 2" sashing pieces and some of the white 2" squares for the four patches and stitch & flip corners (seen in the picture above in the left hand corner).

Today, I decided to start in on the greens.  For the greens, I am going to need 660 2" squares for the four patches that are part of a larger square.  So far there are 220 cut and 440 left to do.  Had to take a break to make dinner, but once I post this, I'll be going down to finish this big pile of greens.

There are 22 different greens in the pile above and so I need to trim a 2" strip off of each one, by the full width of fabric.  This way I will get 20 blocks each and have just enough to finish cutting the greens.  I definitely have more variety in the greens.  I'm using more shades of green, whereas the reds I wanted it to be mostly close to bright Christmas red.

I just realized that I didn't share with you all, the pattern that I am using to make this Christmas quilt.  That will have to be another day, as this post is already quite long.  Oh, and I figured out that what I will need to gather during the shop hop, is the white fabric for the sashing and four patches.

Take care everyone.  Don't forget to take some time for yourself!!

Making some progress on my Smith Mountain Morning quilt

Last Sunday, I was all over the place in my studio.  Working on this and that and making a bigger mess, before finally getting things back in order.  I was getting a bit claustrophobic in my space with things everywhere.  It's been building up for a while and I just grabbed one thing and started rearranging.  I didn't think about it, just did it!

I rearranged, got rid of stuff that I forgot I had and didn't need.  Moved a large cubby that always looked like a mess and replaced it with a smaller table, that in future I will refinish.  Went though all the contents of the cubby and relocated stuff that I seldom use somewhere else and found another spot for the cubby to clean up my back storage space.  All in all, it felt good to lessen the visual clutter and take stock of what I have and what I want to review again.

After all of that, I was energized to clean up some more.  But this time it was in the area of quilting up one of my quilt tops that I was delaying.  It is a large top and I wanted a particular continuous design, that would quilt the quilt very densely.  Something that I needed to be able to start and stop, as often as it took to finish it.  Now was the time!  I finished one full frame and rolled up the quilt to start in on the second frame section.  I had to give it a break at that point.  It's been a very long time since I've done any free motion quilting.  I'm a bit rusty....lol.

Throughout the time I was quilting, when taking breaks, I was also cutting up the remaining brown logs for my Smith Mountain Morning.  Those are now done and waiting to be assembled.

Then to finish off my day, after dinner I came back down to work on sewing the corner stones onto the blue logs for the courthouse steps variation block.  The largest logs are complete.

It was a productive day but also relaxing, as I worked away at various things around the studio.  Truth be told....there is still a lot to be done, but I am trying to see this process as the glass is half full....lol.

Today is another day and I am hoping to make some headway on the scrap situation.  I have various piles of washed scraps that need to be ironed and sorted into sub categories.  I like playing with colour, so that should be fun!!

Take care everyone.

Christmas charms quilt

Back before Dec/2023, I started this Christmas 2 charm packs quilt (as you can see from my design wall below, it was before I had my mom over here to help me finish the surface with batting, flannel and the trims to close it all in).  I threw in some other Christmas fabrics and a background to make it the size I wanted.

This is an old pattern which is easy to make and I like how it looks continuous when it is assembled.  Basically you use one charm for the centre and then you cut the second charm of the same fabric into four 2 1/2" squares.  There is no waste on this quilt.  You use the whole charm.  

The way you lay this pattern out, is you take the charms that are not cut and you lay them out like an alternating block design.  One charm then a space, another charm then another space and so on.  Keep those four cut squares with the complete charm so you don't lose them.

Once you have your layout set, then you can start making the nine patches for that alternating square.  Whether you start off with a nine patch as I did or with a solid square is completely up to you.  You'll need to cut your background fabric into 2 1/2" squares and you will need five of them per nine patch.

The tricky part is to keep all the small squares with their matching charm as you construct the nine patch, so for this I decided to just work on one at a time.  As I was making this quilt on and off, between other things, if I only worked on one nine patch at a time, I always knew where I was.  

Each nine patch will have four different coloured fabric that will match each charm that it sits beside.  In the picture above, in the top left hand corner, you can start to see the squares taking shape.  When it is all together, it blends in so well that it is difficult to see where the blocks start and end.  Until you get up close.  

I donated this top to the Halton Hills Quilters Guild.  They matched it up with a Christmas backing and some red binding and asked someone to quilt it, at a resent guild meeting.  I decided to take it back and quilt it.  This is the finished quilt, that I only just quilted a couple of weeks ago. 

Here is a close up of some of the fabrics used to make the blocks.  For the background fabric, I chose to use a dark cream fabric with leaves and berries.

So the timing couldn't be better.  This Christmas quilt is now complete, just in time for Christmas!!

Take care everyone.

HST stars quilt (QW)

Yesturday I trimmed down this quilt that I quilted for Quilt of Valour.  I didn't make it, they just asked me to quilt it for them.  This is the second of the two they gave me this time around.  

I thought it was a simple and pretty quilt to use up scrappy larger half square triangles.  Pair it with a background fabric like they did here or use scrappy backgrounds.  Either way I think it would be attractive.  I liked it so much that I drafted up the pattern in EQ, so that I would have the measurements and be able to make one down the road with my own scraps.

Yesturday, I finally loaded my log cabin quilt on the longarm and quilted it!!  That felt good.  I couldn't believe that it took me 6 1/2 hours to quilt it.  I'd forgotten just how long a king size quilt took to quilt.  Pictures of that one will follow some other time.  I also loaded up another quilt to quilt.  

Today, I am doing a bit of straightening up around here first, but then hoping to get started on free motion quilting my hexagon quilt. 

Take care everyone.

Star NICU quilt

Yesturday, I had an appointment in the morning and then I was off to my mom's place to make some sauerkraut and stay to have dinner.  So I only had a couple of hours in the morning to myself and decided to make this star.  I cut out five in total.  All of them are different fabrics.  This one is going to get a good press and then quilted.

I also made this strip filler piece for the backing of my king sized log cabin blocks quilt.  So today I am hoping to concentrate on getting this strip attached to the backing and loaded up on the longarm to be quilted.  I'm so excited to get this one done and on my bed!!  I haven't finished a quilt for me in a very, very long time.  It's time!!  In fact, over the last year, I've been taking some time, between everything else, to actually work on some of my own quilts.  There are two more to follow, that just need quilting.

So I best get off the computer and get going, as it won't get done just by looking at it....lol.

Have a great day everyone!!! Enjoy your weekend and take care.

Popcorn block quilt

A did a deep dive into my pictures and came across this quilt that has never been shown.  I started this quilt back on Jan 14/2023.......yes, you read that correctly over 2 1/2 years ago....lol....and I am just now posting about it.  

This block is called a Popcorn block.  Very easy to make and uses up all kinds of scraps in whatever sizes of scraps you want to use.  The only thing to remember is that the starting block piece is double the length of it's width.  For example, I have a lot of 2" strips, which when sewn will finish at 1 1/2", so I cut my pieces into 2" width by 3 1/2" lengths.  Two 2" strips sewn together side by side, will make a 3 1/2" square and when completely finished in a block will be 3".  

For this pieces, you will want an equal amount of darks and lights, and you can stretch the boundaries of light and dark by adding in some medium colours for interest.

Sew two light strips together side by side.  This will form the centre of you final unit, before it is sewn together to form a block.  Add one dark strip piece to the seam end of this unit, and then another dark strip to the other seam end of the unit.  Now take a light plus a dark piece and sew them end to end (opposite of side to side).  Do this last step twice.  

You are going to take these two strips you just made and add them to the first rectangular unit you made earlier.  Follow the diagram above.  One complete unit is one quarter of the full block.  You know you have this unit correct if the dark colours make a corner on both opposite side of the unit.  These darks will form the middle shape once you start putting the blocks together and then all the rows.

I worked on making these units on and off as my leader/ender between my other projects.  Using up my scraps, but not really making much of a dent in them....lol....isn't that always the case....lol.  I think we generally make them as fast as we use them, if not faster....lol.

I finished this quilt in Aug/2023 and took this picture.  I like the fact that, the light from the window on an overcast day, makes the darks and lights stand out in this pictures.  In person, up close, you have a little less contract.  It's more like the block above, where the orange and purple of the top left corner blends in a bit more with the light colours.  Overall it still makes the affect I was looking for and looks good, even with the in and out of the medium colours.  I also like the fact that this quilt does not have a border.  Not all quilts need one.

I do think I will make another one of these quilts.....someday.  Maybe in a controlled scrappy colourway....  There's no shortage of options.  This quilt would look good using anything!!  Give it a try.

Take care everyone.

Colour Crazy quilt

I feel like I have a bit more control these days with my quilting progress.  I'm not getting too many completed, however I am keeping up with my required amount of blocks per week.  So that makes me happy.  As of today, I am done with those blocks on my list.

Since I was done the required blocks, I decided to take some time to play with my Colour Crazy quilt.  Yesturday I did these following purple blocks:

Today, since I finished all the remaining required blocks, I had some more fun and made these five purple blocks.  Other than two purple blocks that I don't have enough scraps in the same colour family, I have completed all the purple.  Now I can move back to doing the blues or start cutting some of the other colours.  We'll see....

I thought I'd throw this picture in as well, to show you the design wall, with all the blocks I have done so far.  It's going faster then I thought it would, which is great!!

With all the different colours that I have lined up to do, I may have to separate some of these blocks to make two quilts.  Maybe I'll do a blue, green and red quilt, then a purple, pink and orange quilt....  I'm not sure at the moment, so I'll decide that later.  Right now I am just going to continue through the colours and enjoy the process along the way.

Take care everyone.

My Omigosh quilt variation

I've had this quilt on my Quilt Progress List (previously called my UFO List) since January/2016.  I can't believe that I've never written a post about it!!  It was only when I was talking to a friend, who was here sewing on the weekend, that it came to mind and I mentioned this quilt.  This quilt has really only come out when I was going to retreats.  I started some of it back in 2016, then put it away for a while.  Then when I went on retreats, I would work on all sorts of stuff and this one only came out when I finished everything else.

I call this my Omigosh variation, as I have altered the size of the blocks.  The original quilt pattern is gorgeous, however I know I would not be able to finish a large quilt with the nine patches only measuring 1 1/2" finished.  I know I didn't have it in me, as it would require a LOT of patience.  Even this one, which I doubled the size of the pieces has taken me a long time to work on.

The pattern consist of two types of blocks.  The one in the picture on the left and the double nine patch block on the right.  So far, I have all the blocks on the left complete.....I think....  It's been a couple of years since this one has been taken out to play....lol.  I believe I was cutting a bunch of strips to make more of the nine patches to try and get the second blocks done.  That's where I left off since the last retreat.  Life got in the way and I haven't been to a retreat since.

I'll have to take this one out again and examine exactly where I am with it.  I don't think I will be too far off from what I said above.  I'm thinking the reason this one does not come out to play, is because it doesn't have a home.  I loved the original pattern and wanted to make it, but not necessarily for me to keep for myself.

The majority of the fabrics are reproduction 30s-40s fabrics.  I'll have to see if I know anyone in the family that may be interested in it.  If it has a destination, I know I would make more of an effort to finish it.  At this point, I have only one nephew and two nieces left to make quilts for.  I'll have to see if any of them would be interested.

Otherwise, you will likely not be seeing this one out again for a long while.....like maybe the next retreat....lol.....whenever that will be.

Take care everyone.  Hope you all had a great weekend.  I know I did.

Still working on the French General log cabin quilt

I last wrote about this quilt back on Aug 7th, in a post called The history of a simple traditional log cabin quilt...., in case you want to go back and read more about it.  In that post I closed off with comments about this log cabin getting it's borders.  It did, get it's borders.  I took this picture the following day.

At some point from then until now....I'm thinking sometime in September, I went to a local quilt shop to purchase some backing.  Unfortunately, it is almost impossible to get a king size backing.  So, I knew I would need to add some to increase the size on the sides.  When I washed it to get it ready, I noted that it shrank quite a bit.  Luckily, I can add an extension to the top, so I can clamp it onto the longarm and still have enough by the time I quilt down to the bottom.

It's the width that is the main problem.  It's about 18" too short.  I have this one piece the full length of the quilt as a starting point.  I also have six wider pieces of the dark brown inner border, that I can sew together end to end to go on either side of this first strip.  However, after that, I will still be about 6 1/2" short.  What to do, what to do.....  I am leaving that dilemma for another day....  My brain is taxed at the moment, so I think I need to go make myself a cup of tea and stew on it.  Tomorrow is another day!!!

Take care everyone.

Yesturday was so much fun

Yesturday I had the Heartfelt group of ladies here to sew all day.  It was so nice to get together to sit and chat, share some snacks/tea, ideas and sew.  Since the Heartfelt quilt is done and gone a while ago, I am going to stop referring to them as the Heartfelt ladies.  Instead we have a chat group name called Sewing Sisters, so I am going to go with that.  It seems more appropriate.  It's interesting how, when people get together, even with different personalities, how they come together to create and come to form a bond.  I think it's the respect for each other that is key to making it all work.       

We have a great little group, who now come together to work on our own things and sometimes work on another project were more then one person wants to join in (like the Smith Mountain Morning quilt).  When we get together we cheer each other on and that is so uplifting.  Two of the ladies were working on their Smith Mountain quilts, one was doing a row by row quilt and I was working on my Low Volume Chevron quilt.

I did four blocks while everyone was here, and after they left, I was still on a high, that I continued to sew and made another four more blocks.  That's fantastic!!!  I've never made that many in one go before!  Just amazing.  Now I have only sixteen more to make to start putting this quilt together.  I can't wait!!

Today I have to do some machine quilting, then we'll see what I can work on after that.

Take care everyone.

Monkey Bar quilt

I've just decided to change the name of this quilt from Sock Monkey quilt to Monkey Bar quilt.  A play on words....lol...I like those.  I last posted about this quilt on Oct 15/2025, called Sock monkey quilt progress, if you want to go read more about it. 

Yesturday I had the day off to relax.  What I chose to do to relax was finish this quilt.  I started with adding the two sets of borders, then I loaded it up on the longarm and quilted it.  This here is one of two monkey quilts that I am making.  The second one is assembled in rows, so it is almost done too.

Here is a close up of the fabrics and quilting.  I think it turned out nice and it all came from my dwindling stash.  I am surprised I can still find coordinating fabrics to go with things, though the second one, I had to make some adjustments as I ran out of the brown with red polka dot fabric and the red border fabric.  I'll show you that one when it's done.

Today I have the ladies here to sew.  I am so looking forward to it.  We have such a nice time!!  Fun and peaceful all at the same time.

Take care everyone.  Have a great weekend!!