Monkey wrench quilt

When I moved here and started unpacking the boxes, in August/2021, I told myself I needed to finish things.  I've had a crazy, mixed up 2 1/2 years of major renovating two homes, on the tail end of renovating my mom's home for the previous 2 1/2 yrs of weekends as well, with only bits and pieces of quilting when I could fit it in between working full time and my longarm quilting business.  I want to finally get things in order.   I didn't want to just put things away for an eventual day to work on it.  I am determined to get things done.  I wanted to be ruthless and was determined that, when I unpacked it, I was going to deal with it and finish it, instead of storing it away.  This is why you will be seeing many finishes from the past few months, that I will be posting in the next few days.  I am not saying that I followed this determination 100%, but I made a good dent with my UFOs and I will continue to do more.

This is a quilt that I had a lot of fun making.  These blocks are called monkey wrench, amongst other names, and I love making them, especially with the funky fabrics from scraps given to me by friends along the way.   I will, down the road, make another larger one for myself.  It was that much fun.  Stretching the limits with fabric pairings.  Different genres, colours, some new stuff and some older.

I started this quilt some time in mid 2017, as my leader/ender blocks.  I just kept making them between my other projects.  I had no plan for the layout or how many I was going to make.  My only goal was to not use duplicate fabrics, similar to what I did for my Spools quilt.

Somewhere along the way I had a crazy idea to make the block in miniature.  The main blocks that make up the quilt, finish at 5" and this block below finishes at 2 1/2".  Lol...yes, I know...crazy.

Well I made four of them before I stopped myself...lol.  I have to admit though that they are very cute.

Here are the two sizes together in a picture so that you can see the difference.  Unfortunately, I didn't get any pictures of the funky fabrics, but let me tell you, some of them were wild.

I am glad that I made this quilt and it went to Project Linus, but I am also longing for the monkey wrench blocks.  Don't be surprised if I start another one, again as a leader/ender.  This one will have to be king size now, as when we moved here we had the room for the king.  Lol...at 5" finished blocks...that makes for A LOT of monkey wrenches...lol.  And I may be crazy enough to add in a few half sized blocks too...lol.

I have been procrastinating with the work I have planned for today...  Now that I have this post done, I have no more excuses.  Enjoy this beautiful day.  Get out and catch some sun.

Celebrating with Party Hats

Now that our last guild meeting of the year has past and the quilt has been revealed, I can share this with you.  Hope you like it.

The Halton Hills Quilter's Guild celebrated our 30th anniversary just as covid hit, so we weren't able to gather together to celebrate in person.  It is quite a milestone and we didn't want to just let it go by without doing something to mark the date.  

One of the executive members, Susan, suggested that we make these party hats as a group and make a quilt with them.  I thought it was a great idea and agreed, as did several others.  I did the mistake of saying, oh, that is great and I know just the right pattern to set the blocks...which was followed by Susan saying great so you can make the quilt and present it to the guild at the June meeting...lol...I guess I just walked right into that one...lol.  Anyways, I was good with it.  I enjoy do what I can to help.

Here is one of my blocks that I made using the paper piece pattern that went out with our newsletter in October.  We asked all the members if they could make a hat or two to help us celebrate out 30th anniversary.

From this, I added a 3" white strip at the peak of the hats, added a puff/pompom/tassel or whatever you call those things, to help the hat look a bit more festive.  As the members made them and sent them to one of four drop off locations, which were delivered to me, I worked on the finishing touches to the hats.

When I had enough, I started to assemble the quilt in vertical rows separated by a 2" sashing.  My mom also belongs to the guild, so for her hats, I asked her to add large pieces of white fabric to the sides of the hates (untrimmed).  This way I could cut the blocks on an angle.  Can you find the three misfits in the quilt?  Ok...lol...so I got a bit carried away with that part.....I was having so much fun and thought it was a cute touch.

There is not one hat alike, everyone used their own stash to create their party hat.  I think they turned out lovely.  Can you see one of the three tilted hats below?  I quilted this quilt using Becker's Whirligigs from Urban Elementz.  It reminded me of those festive twirly things or those sparklers that the kids enjoy during fireworks, that get lite and the kids twirl them around.  My mom tacked down the binding.

I hope you like it.  I had fun making this one.  It was with little effort considering all the blocks were made.  Thank you to everyone who participated.  The quilt will be given to our Outreach, to be giving to some charitable organization or cause.

My quilting rhythm

A few days ago, I told you a bit about myself.  Yesterday you learned that I love most things scrappy, and today I wanted to share just a bit more about me and my quilting rhythm.  This is more from the same post that I wrote about a few days ago.  

If you are reading this post, I would guess that you are into quilting and so you would know that the process of making a quilt can take a long time, depending on the pattern and size that you are making.  I am usually all over the place with my many quilts on the go.  I rarely work on one quilt from start to finish, all in one go.  There are times that I work on many things at once, because I need variety in my quilting, just as we do in life.  Other times I have the concentration to do the one project for a long time.  It changes all the time.  The reason I say this is so that you won't be surprised when I show you different parts of  various quilts at different stages of completion, from one day to the next.   I tend to go with the flow and whatever the mood dictates, unless I have deadlines that is.  It helps me get more done.  Nothing worst than doing something you don't like or don't want to do.  

So there you have it.  Me and all my quilting quarks...lol.  I know that I am not alone.  I think it comes with a creative brain, that never stops wondering what if...

Today I am back at the kitchen backsplash tiles.  Likely no quilting for me today, but soon.  I am really looking forward to the upcoming Shop Hop starting on Saturday.  I will be working hard all week and come Saturday, I will take time to play and fondle fabric...lol. 

Back in time to Sept 3rd/2019:

This is when I was practicing my free motion quilting on a Bonnie Hunter pattern called Carolina Chain.  This was done completely scrappy, and to be honest, a bit too scrappy even for my taste.  I quilted twirls in all the chain squares, ribbon candy in the sashing and lines using rulers for the rest.

I enjoyed making the blocks and using all the funky fabrics.  I think I may make this one again, but next time I'll tame it down with a consistent sashing.

Back to work for me.  Take care and enjoy your day.

Halton Hills Quilter's Guild Spiderweb quilt workshop

Today was very productive with my renos, installing the marble tile backsplash in the kitchen, in a herringbone pattern.  It was so labour intensive, because every single sheet had to be cut, either on the sides or top and bottom and often both.  In the kitchen there are lots of outlets, counters and cupboards to work around.  I got only about 2/3 done today.  I had to stop by 6:30 pm for the guild zoom meeting. Tomorrow I want to finish it.  There will still be some major cutting to do, with only one row of tile sheets from ceiling to floor that will not have to be cut, aside from the first and the last sheet, but it is looking good so far.

Not to bore you anymore with my renos, let's get right to the back in time to Nov 2nd/2019:

Back in Nov 2nd 2019, I co-hosted a paper piece spiderweb workshop for the Halton Hills Quilters Guild with the Outreach coordinator Vivian.  During one of our executive meetings, we were talking about combining a workshop with people volunteering to help make a quilt for the Outreach program.

I suggested the Spiderweb paper piece pattern because it lends itself very well to being scrappy and when many hands are involved in making blocks, paper piece usually gives you better success with the sizes of the blocks coming out the same.  

In August, I was given a bin from the guild, of men's fabrics to go through, to see what I could come up with.  Being a scrap enthusiast, I had no problems taking out many different fabrics, because really, the more the merrier, when it comes to a spiderweb quilt.

Here are some precut pieces with a mixture of fabrics ranging from blue, green, burgundy, browns and beiges.  You name it it was in there, and there were definitely some unlikely matches.  The only consistent was the light beige wedge.

I roughly cut out enough pieces and parts, to make a complete quilt top.  I packaged them with the paper piece pattern, as seen below.

All ready to take to the workshop scheduled for Nov 2nd/2019.

I had to laugh when the women opened up their package and gasped.  The look on their faces was priceless...and the comments...lol...I can't sew this together with this...or can I get another package, this one doesn't do it for me...lol.  The faces were hilarious and I laughed out loud, told them that they know I am a scrappy quilter and they saw the spiderweb quilts that I brought in to show for this workshop and that they just had to trust me on this.  

They did proceed to sew the blocks together as we went through the tips and tricks of doing paper piecing.  It is a good technique to know.  It started to become somewhat of a joke on who has the ugliest combination, and I reassured them that they were all pretty much completely a mish mash of fabrics.

But do you know what happened when they started to place the completed blocks down on the design floor...I heard many gasps from many of them, but this time they were different gasps.  They were surprised and shocked how it was coming together, they couldn't get over how the blocks, as a whole, were turning out to be something, not half bad...lol.  The remarks later were more along the lines of, I am definitely going to do this pattern again...lol.  

I took the blocks home and put them together, added the two borders, also fabric from the guild bin, and quilted it the following weekend.  I think it turned out pretty good for a bunch of misfit donation fabrics, that were just sitting around.  What do you think?  Was it a success?

Here are all the wonderful ladies that came out to the workshop, or most of them.  I believe a couple of them had to leave earlier.  We had 20 in attendance, which is good considering we are not a large guild.  I really enjoyed this workshop, and I am sure many of them did too.  They are all a bunch of great women.  The comradery that day still sticks in my head today.  Thank you so much ladies for all the laughs!!!  I am hoping that some day soon we can do another workshop together.

Enjoy what is left of your day, I am turning in to rest for yet another busy day tomorrow.

You know you're a quilter when...

You know you're a quilter when you are always drawn to patterns that resemble quilts...lol.  As mentioned yesterday, this week is my vacation from my full time job, and the goal this week is to finish my kitchen renos.  So I split up all the tasks I have to do, per day, to make that happen.  I took it easy yesterday figuring I would work up to the tedious stuff.  My only task was to find my backsplash tiles and pick up all the materials I will need to do the work.

At one point, I was thinking to do the large white subway tiles, however the larger the tile the more accurate your wall needs to be, and parts of my kitchen walls are older and imperfect.  I though I could go with the smaller white tiles, but I was holding out until now, because something was telling me subconsciously that I wanting something more.  I love the marble tiles that Sarah Richardson used in her kitchen on the island home, but thought maybe that was a bit too busy for my place.  

I took my daughter with me and we went tile shopping.  We automatically landed in the marble section...fate...I don't know, but it is exactly where we saw these tiles and I knew right away that this was it.  I didn't need to look any further.  It's a herringbone pattern.  Can you see the quilt...lol

My job today is to get the small stuff done in preparation for the tiling that will be happening tomorrow (Monday).  I have a window to trim and frame out, stove wiring to relocate and baseboards to do.

But enough about the work I have to do, enjoy the back in time to Aug 7/2019:

This is a small NICU quilt my mom made that I quilted for her.  Somewhere, possibly on the Guild's free table, my mom picked up the left over pieces of someone's finished quilt.  She took those pieces and made this cute little NICU quilt.  NICU quilts usually measure 26" square.  They go on top of the incubators to protect the newborns from the harsh hospital lighting.  My mom and I make a lot of these smaller quilts and give them to the Project Linus group in our area.  They distribute them to the hospitals.

Here is the profile of the quilting.  I quilted this in Painted Daisies from Urban Elementz.

You'll have to stay tuned for my post tomorrow, where I talk about a spiderweb quilt that we collectively made at the Guild workshop.  I bring that up here, because as I was going through the bin of fabric looking for suitable scraps for that quilt, I came across some 6 1/2" blocks of a toil fabric, seen below.  Someone was going to make something with them, or maybe they were the leftovers, but as they were just sitting there in the Guild bin, I couldn't just leave them there...so this is what I made with them.  Measurements approx. 58" x 70".

At the bottom of the bin, there was a piece of solid red fabric that I used to make the alternating nine patches with some cream fabric I had in my stash.  I also found in my stash the medium red fabric for the inner border, followed by the solid red fabric from the bin.  And there you have it, a quilt was born.  The pattern I used in making this quilt is called a single Irish chain.  I didn't quilt this quilt until later when I was given some batting and backing, but I guess I forgot to take pictures of the finished quilt.

Here are two close up pictures of the toil fabric.  They were all pretty, romantic scenes, of men and women with their grand dresses, hats and men's tailcoats from days gone by.

Hope you enjoyed the quilts.  I am off to get started on my renos.  Take some time to enjoy your Sunday.

About me and admiring some lovely batik fabrics

I had to laugh while reading one of my older posts from April/2014.  I was thinking of re-introducing myself and updating details to fit my current life situation.  The thing is, as I read the post, I was thinking it sounds like I could have written it now instead of back in time.  Not much has changed...  

Background about me:  Quilting is still right in the middle of everything I do...I admit to being obsessed with quilting, but there are many other things I do as well.  I am a wife and mother of three, a daughter, a son and an adult stepson, who has given us two grandchildren (a boy and a girl).  I have an aging parent (my father passed away about 6yrs ago) and siblings who have children of their own (now all adults and having children of their own).  I still work full time and now I do a lot more quilting for others on the side (now with a longarm).  I just recently, a year ago this past May, purchased a home in Acton.  I am in the process of renovating it, planting trees and other landscaping.  The renovations are probably about 90% done and I am really only getting started with the landscaping.  For my quilting I make many quilts that I donate and shortly after joining the Halton Hills Quilter's Guild I became an executive member.  First doing the workshop coordinator, and now this past year, the President.

So as you see and as my post of 2014 stated, it can get pretty hectic around here.  Through it all my family is still very supportive of my need to include quilting in my life.  When I need some down time to sew a few stitches, they understand. Otherwise, I consider us to be your typical Canadian family with a whole lot of ups and some downs.

I hope that helps you get to know me a bit and helps you understand, maybe, where I am coming from when I write my posts.  There may be times, like this week, where I am busy doing other things in my life that have to be done, but even if I don't have time to physically quilt, you can bet that I am thinking and dreaming of quilting...lol

So...to give you a bit of eye candy and add some quilt related content, here is a back in time to July 26/2019: 

This is a quilt made by a friend Mary.  I absolutely love her variety of batik fabrics.  Some of them are so unique.  Close up of the fabrics.  I like that light floral batik fabric at the bottom right hand side and that fern border.....nice.

This next picture is a close up of the quilting.  This quilt is quilted with Whisper from Urban Elementz.

Here is the completed quilt, only needing the binding.  Lovely, isn't it?  Nice lap size quilt.

Now to get going on starting my renos.  Enjoy your weekend everyone!  Keep safe and have fun.

More show and share at the Guild meeting

Today!  Yeah, it's Friday!  And for me it's a Friday of the start of my week long vacation!  Wooohooo!!  I just finished work, I'm going to write this post, go to see about dinner. take the dog for a walk and take it easy the rest of the night, as this weekend I start on the renos.  This week I am aiming to completely finish the kitchen, with tile backsplash, hood fan installation, baseboards, some plaster and finally painting the ceiling, walls, doors and baseboards.  

It will be a busy week and likely little time for quilting.  BUT, to reward myself, my mom and I are going to join in on the local Quilt store's Shop Hop that is going on all the month of July.  I've divided up the amount of stores and the Saturdays in the month and aim to hit them all.  If I don't make it, it is not due to the lack of trying...lol.  It has been so long since we've been driving around the back roads visiting quilt stores or antique malls...covid has put a damper on that sort of thing.

Since there has been no quilty things going on today, unless you count cleaning up my sewing room work areas, enjoy the back in time to June 24th/2019:

A continuation from yesterday's post...from the Halton Hills Quilter's Guild meeting.  

Another friend Susan P. made this lovely quilt.  It's in the form of a bar quilt with lots of 9-patches and half-square triangles.  My apologies for the quality of the picture.  The lighting in the basement of this church is not great.  The fabrics are beautiful and bright Kaffe Fassett.

Here is the third quilt from Maryann.  This one used up some scrappy 2 1/2" squares with a soft creamy background.

Back at this time I was fairly busy with trying to get my gardens in order, planting a couple trees and lots of customer quilting going on, that I didn't get much of my own work finished.  I did get a good amount of progress on some of my quilts (works in progress - WIPs), but no finishes.