Star quilt progress

Life is hectic these days and sometimes I don't know whether I am coming or going.  I looked at the calendar this morning and was stunned when I noted it is the last day in April....OMG....where has the time gone!!!  Where are the breaks?  I need the time to slow down some.  I hope that Spring and Summer don't disappear as well...  Note to self to fine time and make the best of it.

On Wednesday, I had many appointments, but when I got home I declared that I quit for the day from any further adulting...lol....my daughter made diner for everyone and I greatly appreciated it.  

There I stood in my quilting studio.  It had been a while since I had the time, and when I got there, I didn't know what to do.  So I decided to pick up some strings that live beside my machine and sew them together, at least until something inspired me.

These are the neutral, low volume stings made into 4" squares.  There size leans well to using up smaller scraps.  I plan to make another NICU heart quilt with these as the background.  This is what I call mindless sewing.  Just run them through the machine one after the next.

Then today I had some more time and this time I knew what I wanted to do.  I decided that I was going to pick up where I left off and finish the borders of the star quilt that I posted about, on April 18th called Inspirational Star quilt (QW).

I think it turned out really nice.  These fabrics were all given to me in a little baggy.  It is quite surprising what can fit in a little baggy.  I still have a bunch of HSTs and a couple of small strips of orange to figure out what to do with.  Now I need to find a backing and quilt this.

It felt so good to finally have some sewing time today.

Take care everyone.

Dinosaurs

This will be a very short post today.  I didn't get a chance to do any quilting.  As my daughter would put it, I had to do some adulting....lol.  Household things can really take up a lot of your time, and today, as my son is starting a new job soon, I had to teach him how to iron his shirts and I now have five pairs of pants that I have to hem.  I am sure you all know how much a quilter enjoys mending.....NOT!!  But it does need to be done, so I got the first part done, which is fitting them and marking the hems.

Dinner is now on the go.  I have a few things left to do around here and then maybe I can relax some.

In the meantime I pulled this picture out of the vault from way back in May/2023.  This was a customer quilt.  It is so cute!!  I like dinosaurs.  Each one of them is using different shades of green and a grey.  I believe it was about 45" square.

Hope everyone had a great weekend.  Take care everyone.

Inspirational Star quilt (QW)

This is my inspiration and I know what I am going to do for a Project Linus quilt.  This quilt picture was from Pinterest, so I don't know the maker or the pattern name.  This quilt looks large, but I am going to customize it for the size I need for a NICU quilt for Project Linus.

The picture above as my inspiration and the off cuts from someone else's project, seen below, was all I needed to get started.  A new project is started.....lol.....with very little effort....lol!

The pile contains paired colour fabric with a white background fabric.  These soon became a whole bunch of half square triangles (HST), then into this star.  I like it!  Different colourway from the inspiration above, but just as nice, I think.  This star is a 6 1/2" square.

I took some more HSTs and assembled them into stars....then there were four.....lol.  By the end of today, I got this far.  The centre is done.  It measures 14" square including seam allowance.

I am going to add a white border, just like the inspirational quilt, and after that I am going to use the remaining HSTs to make a sawtooth border, all the way around.  Finally, I will add another wider white border to finish it off.  In the end I am estimating the whole quilt will measure 25 1/2" square.  Exactly what I need!

Take care everyone.

Thimble Blossoms wool applique quilt

I purchased a pattern called Thimble Blossoms by Buttermilk Basin Design Co., at the 2025 Quilt Canada show, back in June/2025.  This pattern was designed as a BOM (Block of the Month), as indicated at the bottom of the pattern page.  The finished size is 56" x 68".  Nice large size wall hanging.

I did try to hold myself back from starting this quilt......well.......I held myself off from starting this quilt......for a month, before I started this first block, but felt guilty all the while doing it, with all the other stuff I had on the go.  So I put it away and thought, ok that's good I got my fix.

Then eight months later on Mar 29/2026, after the ladies left from a Saturday sew day, I was going to pull out my wool appliqué again and work on it.  I've been dreaming of getting that one moving along.  But I stopped myself and rationalized that my required appliqué block for March was due in just three days.

This quilt is still in my system and I am having more difficulty holding myself off, as time goes on.  What are the bets as to when I will breakdown and start really doing it?  LOL  Don't worry about insulting me....I know you gals are thinking it!!  I'm not offended.  It's just the way I am and until I get it out of my system, there is no telling when you will open up the next post and find that I broke down and did it....lol!

I'll tell you all more about this quilt when I really do start getting into it.

Take care everyone.

Simple and pretty quilt to do, using 10" layer cakes (QW)

I found this quilt in my pictures from back in March/2024.  I quilted this in an edge to edge design.  This quilt is a pretty quilt that uses 10" layer cake squares.  This one went to Project Linus and is approximately 42" square.  Pretty pastel Easter egg colours with white sashing.  

I have also marked this in the title, as (QW) = Quilt Want-to-be, for something that I want to make in the future.  The (QW) is what I use for my search engine, when I want to go back to see what I may want to make, when I am ready to start something new.

I don't have the name of the pattern or the actual sizes, but I can see myself pulling out a bunch of darker fat quarters, that have a fall theme to them and making it larger for an adult.  Out of a fat quarter, you can start with cutting 8" squares.  You would get four from each fat quarter.

I would then cut the 8" square in half and take one half and cut it too in half.  Then you can either use your background fabric or any accent fabric using 1" strips to sew between the two cuts that you made to the square.  

In the above example they used the same fabrics for the whole block, but you could mix and match them too.  Open your mind to the possibilities and have fun, is my moto!!  LOL!

Take care everyone.

Bitcoin quilt, another Quilt for Survivors and inspiration (QW)

Back in May/2023 I finished making a quilt with Bonnie Hunter's pattern called Bitcoin.  It's not for the faint of heart with all those tiny pieces, but it used up all of the miscellaneous lengths of strips in my 1 1/2" pre-cut strips drawer.  And as they were small pieces, you could get away with using stuff that just doesn't seem to go with anything in a quilt.  This is a quilt for anything but the kitchen sink....lol.

It does take a while to make, but I have a whole stack of "didn't know what to do with" trips used up!!  Up close and personal, this quilt is a bit more bright than in the picture above.  Still on the pastel side, but more vibrant.  I used everything and anything in here, but you could also choose to make it more coordinated and cohesive with a controlled colourway. 

I also quilted this quilt for Quilts for Survivors.  I don't have any details on the pattern, as I only did the quilting.  It doesn't look too difficult to figure out and you can use the sizes that would fit best for your own stash.

Lastly, I wanted to share this quilt image.  I can't tell you where this one comes from.  I believe it was on Pinterest, so if anyone knows the designer and/or pattern name please let me know.  

This is a simple design using one quarter of a log cabin block, which is rotated up and down, with blocks laid on a diagonal.  It's cute how the corner squares bop up and down along the horizontal rows.  This maker did the same corner colour, the same white background for the middle two strips and then a shade of pink for the last two strips of the block.  But you can choose whatever colours you prefer.

This is a nice simple block that goes together quickly but looks more complicated when it is laid out and assembled.  I have this marked in the title, as (QW) = Quilt Want-to-be, for something that I want to make in the future.  The (QW) is what I use for my search engine, when I want to go back to see what I may want to make, when I am ready to start something new.

Take care everyone.

Saturday workshop

A friend and I hosted a hand appliqué workshop for the HHQG members.  There were eight people in attendance and six if us doing appliqué.  The others were sewing other projects on their machines.

During the class, we all made an acetate plastic template of the full block, to help with placement.  We taught them how to do vines with a bias bar to get a very smooth stem. Then we moved on to showing them how to do regular appliqué and reverse applique on the heart.  We covered placing the stem and heart using the acetate template.  They learned how to overlap the stem to cover the end beneath the heart and also how to then trim back the background fabric prior to finishing off the outside of the heart.  

The heart used two different colours, but you only had to appliqué the one shape.  In my case above, the pink was my background fabric for the heart and I only appliquéd the red portion, both the perimeter (regular appliqué) and the inner heart (reverse appliqué).  This also took care of learning outside curves, inside curves, outside points and inside point...twice...lol!  

Appliqué is a slow process and requires patience.  The workshop was from 9:00 am to 3:00 pm and in that time, most of us got to this stage.  Just these few steps though, shown in different techniques, will be sufficient to proceed to finish the block.

I did send everyone additional instructions in an email, just to go over the overlapping part a little more in depth, as the bird requires many pieces to fit underneath the bird body and letting them know that the body is not whole under the wing and that there is only the 1/4" seam that goes under the wing.  

There were also some additional tips and tricks showing different methods on how to address appliqué in different ways.  The outcome is the same, but the execution is sometime different.  We went through lots and lots of information.  Hopefully they were not overwhelmed.

After I got home and spent some time cleaning up the yard (it was such a beautiful day), I went down to my quilting studio to put away all the stuff I brought to the workshop, which was way more than I needed...lol.  I still had some energy so decided to cut out all the pieces for the appliqué, before putting the fabrics away.

This is the pattern we went with.  This is a version of the Distelfink bird.  According to Google it is a prominent bird in Pennsylvania Germen (Dutch) folk art, representing happiness and good fortune.  These stylized birds symbolize joy and harmony within German-American cultural traditions.

I am making mine all bright and colourful.  All the others have chosen many different colourways.  They will all be nice and reflect the maker's personality.  When I finish my block, I will be making it into a NICU quilt, with some additional pieced blocks and borders surrounding it.

Take care everyone.

A couple of updates/progress

Guess what finally made it's way onto the longarm?  It took a while!!  I had this quilt top done before Christmas.  It didn't get quilted right away as I got frustrated that the backing was not big enough and had to unload the whole thing to make the backing bigger.

But.....I can now call it quilted!!!  Yesterday it took me the best part of the day and I didn't finish it until after 9:30 pm.  It's looking great though and I am really glad to have this king size quilt done!

I also stated working on this wool penny wall hanging again, while I was standing there keeping an eye on the quilting.  I previous wrote about this back on Oct 13th & 14th/2025, if you want to read all the details about it.  

I am now sewing these penny circles to the background fabric.  So far I have nine sewn on.  I have enough circles complete to finish one quarter of this wall hanging, so I will work on it as I can.  This is a good hand work piece to do while I still pay attention to the quilting.

I am liking how the colours are popping when they are sewn to the black background.

Take care everyone.

Medallion quilt inspiration (QW)

To start off with, if anyone knows the name of this pattern or where I can get the instructions, name or maker, please let me know in the comments.  I really want to make this!!

Update:  Pattern is called Timeless by Lynn of Sew'n Wild Oaks Quilting Blog and fabrics are called Timeless Stitches by Marcus Fabrics.  More details regarding this quilt can be seen though this address:  https://sewnwildoaks.blogspot.com/  

I fell in love with this quilt the minutes I saw it.  There are not many medallion quilts that I can say I love all aspects of.  I wouldn't change a thing.  I like the soft background fabrics that showcase all the various blocks and the colours are so Spring!!  

I contacted the maker of this quilt to inquire if there is a pattern coming soon.  Hopefully there will be.  In the meantime, I am lurking on her blog and checking out all the other lovely things she has been making.  She also has many other beautiful patterns for quilts to inspire you.  Take a look.  You won't be disappointed!!

Take care everyone.

Pooh Bear blocks

Today I have the day off work.  I am working hard on learning to take it easy.  To relax and go slow.  That has always come hard for me, as I seem to always want to be doing something to get ahead.  To try this and that.  Basically, to do it all!  But I am learning that it is not good for my health. 

There are many other things that we as humans do, that are not good for our health.  Gradually I am trying to remedy all the aspects of my life. to contribute to a healthier lifestyle.  It's been a long journey so far and I've got a lot more to do, but one step at a time, making new habits and changing the composition of my mind and body.

I'm telling you all this, to explain why my posts have been more sporadic these days.  I still love my quilting and posting about all that I and others do, but all the things that I have to concentrate on to better my health takes time and focus.  So, I've had to cut back on some things to make everything work.

I'm hoping that once things become habit and I am where I want to be, that I can then again concentrate on my quilting passion.  Until then.....things will be a little bit less intense.  I think that if I commit to posting on the weekends and Wednesdays, I should be able to manage it.  If you get a little in between, then that will just be a bonus!!

Enough of all that.  Let me show you what I have taken the time to do recently.  I was given some Winnie the Pooh Bear blocks.  I showed you the one previously of Eeyore.  Now I am showing you what I've done so far with the next three blocks in the panel.

Here is Winnie the Pooh himself!  I didn't like the simplicity of the soft grey shades.  The background is a soft bluish grey, Pooh bear's shirt was a dark grey textured pattern and the honey pot was dark grey wood grain.  So one day, I borrowed my mom's wax crayons.  She keeps them on hand for the grandchildren that may pop by and want to colour.  I decided I wanted to colour these block to make them more appealing to me.  

Then we have Tigger.  The original block, only had Tigers main body shaded in a with a light grey tone.  I coloured him per his true self, all in orange, pink nose and yellow belly and face.  Much more cheerful!!!  More spunky, as is Tigger.  Or maybe that should read bouncy....

The last block I decided to colour in, was one of my favourite characters from this book/movie.  Piglet!!  Piglet was originally shaded in a medium grey for her body, ears and nose.  Again, I coloured her per her true self, dark pink and light pink.  Isn't she cute!!

  

Now I need to get the parchment paper out to iron the blocks and set the crayon.  When you set the crayon, it melts and really bonds with the fabric, making it permanent.  Then I am going to come up with some ideas for blocks and borders to enlarge these small panels.

I think I mentioned this before in a previous post, but just in case you didn't see it,,,,  To entertain kids of all ages, you can use colouring books and trace the designs on plain white fabric, held taught by a piece of parchment paper.  Then put out the crayons and let everyone go to town on colouring them all in.  It makes for a couple of fun hours and colouring is very relaxing for the adults. 

Take care everyone.

Scrap Attack quilt

I've been working on the scrap attack blocks.  These are a bunch of blocks that the HHQG members made for me, as I parting gift for being president.  The picture below shows four blocks and in this case they were all made by the same maker.  The only instructions they were given was to think of me and make it bright and scrappy......lol......I am known for making scrap quilts.....lol.

I got about 40-45 blocks from the members.  The blocks were all different.  Very different!!  It is my job now to make some bridging blocks to, one, make the quilt a bit bigger than the initial blocks would allow and two, to try and blend all the various blocks of various colours and styles.  That last one is the hardest.

Some people went all bright, some went medium.  Others did coordinated and the majority of the others did completely scrappy.  What a mélange of blocks!!  Was I up for the task?  At first I was frozen.  I just didn't know if I was going to be able to make all the blocks turn out cohesive in a quilt.  

I thought I would show you an example of a small corner section that I just recently pulled together.  Above is the main section that was done.  Below you will see another set of four blocks that someone else put together.  This maker made each corner a specific colour.  Beside this second block, is another set of blocks that was made primarily with beige and brown, which is why I put it beside the gold/orange, to help these blocks blend.  

The first block has some blues in the right hand side to blend it into it's neighboring block and the dark pink blends a bit with the red of the block beside it.  I know what you are all thinking.....it looks like a mess of scraps, but you'll have to wait for the overall appearance of the quilt when it's done.  Something magic happens when you move back and look at the whole.

So now it was my job to take some of the other blocks I was given and try to coordinate them with what I had started on the design board.  My intention to help blend everything, is to have the perimeter diamond shapes be all in blue.  In the picture below I zoomed out.  The two blocks from the above picture are in the top right hand side.

So I then found a single, all blue block which was great for the bottom left hand corner.  Then I found a single block that had all blue on the left so I was able to form that blue diamond, on the right of the corner block.  That is how I did it for all the blocks I had been given.  Kept moving, swapping, rearranging.....lol. 

Then I had to make the two left hand side blocks to finish this corner.  Can you see how I used purple for the dart facing down toward the other purple dart of someone else's block.  I used all blue in the left diamond and I started to find similar colours to match the other block's diamond to make it look like a continuous multi colour diamond.  Sorry if that doesn't quite make sense.....  There are lots of darts and diamonds....lol.

I am doing what I can to try and blend everything together.  This corner has a lot of reds, blue and purples, moving out to some greens and golds.  I have another section of the quilt closer to the top that I've already posted about.  Something a bit more coordinated.  If you want to see the progression of this quilt from the start, I posted about it:  Aug 27/2025 called Scrap Attack blocks gifted by Guild members, a little on Dec 29/2025 called An extra Saturday sewing day on a Monday, and Jan 28/2026 called Scrap Attack quilt progress.

We will see how it all comes together in the end.  Wish me luck in managing it!!

Take care everyone.

The next Gathering Flowers appliqué quilt block

On Sunday, I pulled out the next block that I am going to work on for the Gathering Flowers appliqué quilt.  This one has four modernish hearts in the corners with four leaves and four berries separating them.  

The block was started way back when, where I appliquéd the leaves and berries to the background.  I did make an attempt to appliqué the hearts, but at the time, I don't think I had enough skills to pull it off.  I felt my curves were not curvy enough and I had points or concaves in the curves that I just did not like.  So in my frustration, I put it away for a while.

Now this block is back out again.  I picked off the heart pieces that were done and I am debating cutting out the shapes again, so that I won't have to fuss with these misshaped hearts.  I am ok with the slightly imperfect leaves, so they will stay.

I am not sure if you can see the block at the bottom of the picture enough to see the heart shapes stitched to the background.  These stitches act as a guideline for where the hearts are to be placed.  This was a new technique for me, which I think was a little too advance for me at the time.  Plus, as it turned out, I don't like this technique at all.  I reverted back to a few other methods of appliqué that I choose from, depending on what shapes and sizes that I am working with.  

I am going to bring this example to the next HHQG workshop, that is coming up on April 11th, which will be teaching hand appliqué.  Two of us will be teaching the class, which will be great, as we sometimes use different techniques to achieve the same results.  The more examples we can show the students the better.  Then they can pick and choose what method or methods they prefer after they try them all.

Take care everyone.

Dragonfly panel

As it turned out, we had a lot going on this past Saturday, at our sew day.  Here is yet another post of things that went on.....lol.  This is good, as I have not been able to do so much in quilting in the last little while.  

We had one of the ladies bring some show and share.  This will be a gift for her daughter.  She started with a dragonfly panel.  Apparently these panels came in purple as well. 

This time she did the low volume grey and beige version.  This is really pretty and the colours are so calming.  I like dragonflies.  They are unique.  This person added a couple of additional borders with two sides one colour and the opposite corners a different colour.  In this case a lighter grey and a tan/beige.  When she added the two borders, she did a mitered corner, where the two different colours meet.  That's a nice touch.  Then she did the second border the same, just in reverse.  Really pretty.

I was so caught up in the moment and admiring the quilt and quilting, that I forgot to take close up pictures.  So the maker was nice enough to take some photos and send them to me.  To be honest, that day I forgot a lot of opportunities to take a bunch more pictures of quilting candy/inspiration.  This person had several mini quilts that I thought were cute and I forgot to take pics of those too.  I don't know where my head was....lol.

Anyways, this here is a close up picture so you can see the centre, the panel, a bit better.  If you enlarge the picture some, you can check out how she quilted the borders.  She did two vines all the way around and added leaves to them.  It was well done!

She sent me this picture too, which is of the back.  Here you can see better all the quilting she did on the dragonfly.  So detailed that this side makes me think of a whole cloth.  It's like she did an outline of all the sections of the dragonfly wings!  It looks real life.  I love it!

I am sure that her daughter is going to love it!!  It is just the perfect size for a larger wall hanging or a small lap size quilt.

Take care everyone.  Wishing everyone a good Easter for those who celebrate it.

A pineapple quilt in the making

More productivity happened at our Saturday sew day, when this person was working on her pineapple blocks.  These really take a long time to do with all those individual pieces.  She was also working on other stuff, so by the time she took this one out, she still managed to finish two blocks.

She has a bunch of them already made.  This was a HHQG Workshop of May 13/2023, where we demonstrated paper piecing.  I asked her if she would lay them out, so that I could take a picture of them for this blog.  These are really looking great!!  

This person opted to swap the position of the light and the dark strips for some of her blocks.  Many people did the dark for the diagonal small pieces and light on the larger vertical and horizontal pieces, and others did the reverse.  Each version took on a different look.  

This person chose to do some of each.  She also chose to do her background in the same bright white throughout all the blocks.  Doing it this way makes it look so fresh and crisp.  The blocks have a Spring vibe to them.  I really like this lighter version.  So pretty!

I'm not sure if you caught the subtle difference between the three centre rows and the border blocks.  Can you see that she did the border blocks in reverse?  The centre blocks are going to be like most of the others were doing them, with the dark on the diagonal small pieces and light on the larger vertical and horizontal pieces.  It will make the border blocks just a bit darker, so that it will frame the centre blocks.

This maker said, she has a gazillion more blocks to make.....lol.  The placement of the bottom border above, is just there so you can see the difference the border will make against the lighter blocks.

Another aspect of this quilt, are the corners of all of the blocks.  Instead of taking her dark colour strips all the way to the edge of the block, this person decided to use the same blue or green fabric in the largest diagonal strips, just before the half square on the outer corner.  That one is white instead of a colour.  If you look at the picture above, you'll see what I mean.  When the corners of the blocks meet, they will match each other to form a blue or a green square. 

Above we have a sample of a light block.  See all those pretty Spring colours?  So cheerful!!  

Below is a sample of the alternate position with the light on the diagonal small pieces and dark on the larger vertical and horizontal pieces.  More cheerful Spring colours!!  It didn't escape my notice that amongst all the "Spring" colours, there is a snowman!!  Can you see it?  Is it Olaf....lol?

So cute!!  This is going to take a while to complete, which is to be expected with all the small pieces, but is it going to be well worth the effort.  I can't wait to see this one complete.

Hope you all enjoyed that one.  If you are looking for an attractive way to use up your scraps, a pineapple quilt like this would certainly help to make a dent in them.  

Take care everyone.

Some blocks were being made

Even though I didn't get much done on Saturday during our sew day, there were others that did get some blocks made....lol.  This first block is the Smith Mountain Morning star block for the quilt that is being called Bird Brain.  You can read more about that quilt on the Dec 9/2025 post, called Bird Brain....lol.

I like this block variation with the half square triangles (HST) in the centre.  I also like how she placed the top right hand corner HST to match the top blue point of the star and the bottom left hand corner that matches the bottom blue point.  It extends the blue and make the block look different.  This block is, I believe, going on the back of the quilt.  Gorgeous!

Then we had my mom who was also there at our Saturday sew day.  She managed to make the last twenty nine patch blocks that she needed for her blue string quilt.  Here is a sampling of nine of them.

The blue nine patch blocks are for her version of the Burgundy String quilt that I spoke about in an earlier post.  Here is the EQ design I made and printed up.  This is the same quilt that I am making, though mine is going to be done in burgundy.  This is also the same quilt that the person who is making the Bird Brain quilt is making, but hers will be blue, like my mom's.  

My mom is making her quilt for her bed, as the one she is currently using was made a long time ago and is starting to show signs of wear.  I am making mine for Quilts of Valor.

Take care everyone.  Have a great day!!

Making blocks

I did some more of the required blocks on my list.  I am happy to say that the blue stars from the Smith Mountain Morning quilt are done.  Now I have only about 32 chimney blocks left to do.  I'm getting there!!

I did get some more of the sea swept blocks done too.  I have four more blocks to do, to catch up, and I still have three days left of March....lol.  Will I do it....

I was reviewing my list of required blocks and overall I am doing well.  I am ahead and actually done two of the columns for two different quilts!  So I'll try to put those together soon and get them completely done.  

The only one so far that is falling behind is the Welcome to the North Pole appliqué quilt blocks.  But I am ok with that.  That one has a bit more intense appliqué to do.  I didn't really think I would pull it off, but figured if I got some of them done, that would be nice.

Take care everyone.

Appliqué block for March update

Yesterday was a very nice day.  I had some friends over for a sew day!  Always a lot of inspiration with show and share, chatting and laughing.  I get so distracted that I usually don't get much done...lol.  But I am ok with that.  It's just nice having people over sharing the day and our passion for quilting.

While the ladies were here, I got three more leaves done.  During the week leading up to Saturday, I managed to get all the leaves on the left hand side, plus the two berries.   By this point it is starting to take shape.

Then, after the ladies left, I was going to pull out my wool appliqué that I picked up at the 2025 Quilt Canada show called Thimble Blossoms.  I've been dreaming of getting that one moving along.  But I stopped myself and rationalized that this required block for March is due in just three days.....  

So, I push through the urge to start working on something else and continued to do this Gathering Flowers appliqué block.  I am glad I did!!  It feels good to get blocks done.

I added this block to my pile of completed blocks and ticked off the box to say that this March block is done......whoohoo!  I even pulled out the next block that I am going to work on.  More about that one in another post.

While I was reviewing the blocks that I have left to do for this quilt, I noticed I have more of it done then I thought, which is always nice.  According to the list, I have only eight more blocks out of twenty to do.

Take care everyone.

Appliqué block for March

Yesterday afternoon, after I brewed my cup of tea, I gathered my appliqué block for March.  I've been wanting to get this one started for a couple of weeks now, but time just would not allow it.  I decided that now is the time.  I sat and had my tea and admired the vine parts of the appliqué that were already done.  I did that part years ago.  I did the vine parts on most of the blocks years ago...lol.  

Sometimes that's just how it goes.  Appliqué is an on and off thing for me.  I like handwork, a lot, but finding the time, literally hours, to sit and do it is hard....or at least it is for me.  Especially went there are so many other things that I also want to do!!

I forgot to take the before picture.  So above is when I remembered to take a picture.  I just finished sewing on that bud and pinned the two leaves.  The block is laying on top of the pattern paper that I have all the pieces pinned to.  The paper is face down, so you just see the pencil marks, of the shapes and where they go, in the background.

Below is how much I was able to do in the time I had.  I stitched the two leaves and added the green part of the bud, and later the two berries.  

Now, just to keep things real and give you a gauge as to how long this handwork stuff takes, from the time I started, it took me 2 1/2 hours to sew on the full bud and both leaves.  Then after dinner and taking the dog out for a walk, I gave it another go and worked on the two berries.  The berries, starting from scratch, took me about 45 minutes using the perfect circle method.  That's where you gather the fabric around the perfect circle shape with a basting stitch, then starch and iron to set your shape.

All aspects of appliqué take time, but that's what's nice about it too.  You sit quietly working away with no rush or hurry.  You, the fabric pieces, thread, needle and your thoughts, turning out a pretty block that's special, because of the amount of dedication you give to it.  I really do enjoy the process of it.

As I was getting ready to shut down for the evening, I thought maybe you might want to see how I set things up to do my appliqué blocks.  I have this ironing board that I made with a piece of 3/4" thick wood and an ironing pad that I cut down to fit.  The board measures about 16" x 24", give of take.  The padding is thick enough to stick pins in it and they stay upright.  

My plastic template pieces have holes that I've punched through them, and I use pins through the holes to hold the templates on the board, on the right hand side.  I also stick pins in the pad standing upright, to hold the small spools of thread, so when I travel with my board to another room, everything stays put.  There's plenty of room for my paper pattern with the pieces to sit flat on the left side. 

Then finally, I use this tube shaped pillow to support my arms, just below my wrist, while I am appliquéing the pieces to the background.  I find the pillow puts the handwork at the right height to see the stitches without having to be hunched over too much.  Overall I feel it helps keep a better posture and relieves any stress on the upper body and your hands. 

I might try to do some more of this later today, but for now I need to head to the kitchen to make some breakfast and take care of a few things.  Have a great day!!

Take care everyone.

A Spring quilt made by many hands

I am not sure why it's taken me so long to post about this quilt.  I quilted this quilt back in April 16/2023 for a customer, who then donated it to the HHQG.  I guess it kept getting pushed down, as new pictures were being taken.....and got lost as time moved on!

I like this quilt.  It's a bit of a sampler quilt.  This was a joint effort, made by many hands.  I believe they called it a tinner's quilt.  The way it went was, that there were a bunch of people that decided they wanted to make a quilt.  They each put some fabric in a "tin" and these tins would go around to each person, who would then make some blocks, to make a row or round, that the owner of the tin would then put together.  Depending on what they ended up with, would direct the design of the quilt.

The tin would make it's way around to each person to add in their interpretation of the theme, that was chosen by the owner of the tin and fabrics.  The theme of this quilt, if you haven't guessed it already, was Spring.  You may have to enlarge the next picture to see the words, but it says Spring.

This was another section of the quilt that I thought was pretty.  The pretty paper piece tulips and above them is a block of different bird houses.  This one had some embroidery done to it, for the vines that are growing up the poles.  Do you see the bird perched on the top of one of the bird houses?  So cute!

Maybe it's wishful thinking, but here is hoping that Spring makes an appearance some time soon.....  I am so over all the snow we've been getting.  I want some beautiful sunshine and time outdoors in the garden.  Bring it on!!!

Take care everyone.

A cheerful, whimsical quilt

I thought this quilt was cute.  It's cheerful and whimsical in pretty fabrics.  I'll apologize for the quality of the photo now.  The top half is a better representation of the colours than the bottom half.  I almost forgot to take a picture of it all together and so felt rushed to do it before this quilt left the house.

The majority of the fabrics were Tula Pink, her more feminine style fabrics.  No skulls or wild animals in these fabrics.  I like the cheerful pinks, yellows and greens.

Here is a close up of one block section.  This is the gazebo with some trees and a bird perched on a tree.  It's pretty how the blue sky background is seen through the openings in the gazebo.

Tomorrow, after making the Project Linus drop off in the morning, I am hoping to finally have some time down in my studio.  Not sure what I'll do, but since I've already taken care of the straightening up part, I should have more time to enjoy myself.  Then maybe have more to post about.... .hopefully.  

Take care everyone.

A couple more quilts I had the pleasure of quilting for Quilts for Survivors

Way back in Feb/2024, I was helping out Quilts for Survivors.  I had the pleasures of quilting these two donated tops.  This first one was a very detailed paper pieced turtle.  The centre block was approximately 20" tall and just a bit less wide.  I love how the background fabric picks up all the colours in the centre block.  Up close the turtle looks great!  I'm sorry that I forgot to get a close up.

Then there's this one.  Someone obviously had some sampler blocks and decided to make this top.  I'm going to say that they were more of a random assortment of blocks as the fabrics were different in each block, with only a few that were similar.  But I'd say it still works as there are some common colours in each block.

These were both sent out shortly after I quilted them and my mom helped to attach the binding.  Two more quilts providing some comfort to the recipients.  I've lost count how many I've quilted for Quilts for Survivors.  My hope is to help them out again soon, as I try to get thing here back in order.  

It's a good cause, so if you have any extra blocks sticking around that you don't want or a quilt top, think of them.  They will take them and finish them up.  They have been given the use of a warehouse to get together and assemble the tops and they have a longarm to do the quilting.  Various other longarmers across Canada also help out to get more done.

Take care everyone.

December's paper piece temperature wheel

Sunday, after finishing the March temperature wheel, I was still in the mood to continue.  Instead of moving on to April though, as I still want to follow the months with these blocks, I decided to go all the way to December and work backwards for any times that I can get more done.

This is December's temperature wheel completed.  What a contrast to the March temperature wheel that I just finished earlier.  I put the March block below so that you could compare them.

December above, obviously has more colder days of purples, teals and dark blue.  Then we have March that still has some cold days, but the more colder days are heading into the warmer temperatures with an increase in the greens and heading into the pinks.  Pretty cool watching the change.

I really like seeing these wheels come together.  No moving things around to suit your taste.  This is mother nature doing her thing, every day and me recording it accordingly....lol....she is doing a fine job of it....lol....

Take care everyone.