Wood Barn Block

I had a fabulous time today at Annie's Quilt Shop, up in Orono which is near Clarington, on the way up to Peterborough.  I spent the night at a friend's place in Peterborough, so that I wouldn't have far to go to get to the workshop that she and I did today.  Nice shop and friendly mother and daughter duo running the shop.

The workshop was about painting wood barn blocks.  It started at 9:00 am and went all the way to 4:00 pm.  I just barely made it....lol!!!  The block pattern that I chose to do and the multiple colours, was a bit more on the time consuming side, especially when you factor in all the taping that is involved with each colour.  This is my colourful, but subdued barn block.   

The blocks are 24" square, so there was a lot to paint by hand, and the colours I chose required three coats!!  Except the raspberry colour.....that one required a base coat of the purple and four coats of raspberry to get good coverage.  I am loving my block!

One of the other ladies did the same block as me, except she did hers more neutral with blue, greys and a white background.  Same block, but they look completely different.  Hers looks sophisticated, whereas mine looks more playful.  All of the blocks there were pretty and the owner made so many others.  They were all different and all gorgeous.  There are 12" blocks too, if you don't what to commit to such a large block. 

Then there was the one that my friend made.  This one I remember the name of.  It is called Carpenter's Star block.  My friend gravitates to the warmer colours.  She is also a longarmer and she plans to put this up on the front porch, so that people will see it from the road.  Her customers won't doubt that they are at the right address....lol.

The fourth person there did this next block.  Unfortunately, you don't see the true effect of this block.  The colours are off a bit.  The perimeter colour is actually a pale taupe, which brings out the warmth of the warm grey parts.  The centre star is full on white.  In person the two colours have more contrast and the white stands out more with a pop.

All in all, we all had a very nice time.  The class was small and quaint, and the conversation was never ending....lol.

This was a really nice start to my holiday week.  I am so relaxed and content.  I am going to try to keep that mood/feeling going.  Note to self....no stressing, keep calm and take time to relax and enjoy the time off work!!

Take care everyone.

A little bit more

Yesterday, after my morning routine, I started the morning with some quiet time doing some slow stitching.  I worked on the Distelfink appliqué bird.  I attached the last feather of the tail and most of the bird body.  The head part of the body has to wait until I do the two feathers and beak, that insert beneath the head.  As I sew them on, I can then close off the head.  

As you can see, the body is an odd shape.  Basically, when doing appliqué, to avoid bulk, you only have to extend the first layer a 1/4" underneath the next layer that finishes the whole shape.  In this case it is the wing.  The wing that you see on the right hand side will fit right into that empty space.  It will overlap the bird body by the 1/4" and closing off the end of the stem as well.

Just in case you are wondering about the white patches on the background.  Those are the pattern of the ironing board beneath the appliqué piece.

I am sitting here admiring the progress that is being made, yet I am debating those two leaves......I am wondering if I should change them for something a bit darker.....they seem to be blending into the background a bit more then I would like.....hmmm.....I'll have to think about it.  In person they stand out a bit more then what you see in the picture.

Tonight, after work, I am off to Peterborough to stay with a friend, as we are both going to take a workshop to make a large painted barn block.  I am so excited to have some down time with a friend and participating in the workshop.  It will be fun!!  It's a full day workshop and by end of day, I should have a pretty painted wood barn block.

Take care everyone.  For those in Canada, enjoy your long weekend, as we celebrate Victoria Day.

Distelfink appliqué bird

Yesterday was a good day!  I finally got some relaxation time in, away from appointments and deadlines.  So I started out slowly, enjoying my morning of Tai Chi and then tea.  It set the tone for the rest of the day.  After breakfast, I made my way down to the studio to see what I could accomplish.

There were three small NICU quilts waiting for me on my sewing table, so I decided to start there.  Cut out the binding for each of them, and managed to attach two bindings, before a friend dropped by.  

When she left, I figured I had a large chunk of time left of the afternoon, so I decided to load a large quilt onto the longarm to quilt.  It took four hours to finish that quilt.  By this time, it was time to go back upstairs to start dinner.  

Wow!  Time does fly by.  I'm not complaining, just stating a fact.  I thoroughly enjoyed the quiet pace of the day.  Just going with the flow.  I need more days like this!  After dinner I wanted to continue with the slow pace theme and pulled out my bird appliqué block.  This was put away for a bit, while I took care of things in the garden and with my mom's place.  

The last time I wrote about this block was back on Apr 12th, called Saturday workshop.  If you want to read more about it.  Last night, I added the 3D rose bud, as seen in the picture below.

By the end of the evening, I also had two of the three tail feathers appliquéd to the background.

Appliqué is very much a slow stitching process.  No possibility of rushing.  It does some take patience.  Especially when in this day and age how everything is go, go, go as fast as you can, to get everything done.

As I said above at the start, yesterday was a good day.  I enjoyed a slower pace, relaxing my mind and body.  Just what I needed!

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

Fruit Loops quilt

Guess what?  I'll give you a hint.....you don't have to think about it too much.....what is the one thing that I am notorious for.....any guesses?  You likely all know what is coming next....lol.

I started another quilt!!!  These pieces are cut off corners, from a friend's quilt, while she was making blocks.  Similar to the cut off triangles you get when you are doing a snowball corner or flying geese corners, except these are elongated rectangles.

I posted about my friends quilt back on March 10th called Yummy colours.  In my mind, I called her quilt citrus quilt, as her quilt had all the colours of citrus fruits, from lemons, limes, oranges, tangerines, and even pink grapefruit!!  I've decided to calling this new quilt Fruit Loops....lol.  

While I was sorting all the coloured pieces, it just reminded me of the colours of Fruit Loops and to solidify this the white pieces have circles, the shape of Fruit Loops...lol.  It may not be imaginative or profound, but it will work for me to know what quilt I am talking about.

While making her blocks, my friend ended up with a set of lefthand side and a set of righthand side cut off corners.  So today, I sorted out the large pile of pieces into white right sides and white left sides.  Then coloured right sides and coloured left sides.

I started this quilt late in the day.  Managed to sort out the piles and sew a handful of rectangular squares.....is that even possible......a rectangle being a square?  I don't feel right calling it that, but I don't feel that it qualifies as being a block either.....  A block to me is considered many pieces made up into a block......hmmm......I'll have to think about that one.  If anyone knows the correct term, just let me know in the comments.

Here are some of the pieces I sewed together all trimmed up.  Not all the fabric pieces are exactly the same size, so some will have to end up being a smaller size at 3 1/2" x 2" finishing at 3" x 1 1/2".  Then there will be the majority that will be 4" x 2 1/2" which will finish at 3 1/2" x 2".

For now, I plan to keep these beside my machine and use them as leader/enders, between working on other quilts.  There is no rush for this one, as I haven't really planned a quilt for them yet.  I'll just keep making them until they are done and see if something comes to me.

Take care everyone.

April's paper piece temperature wheel

Saturday sew day went by so fast.  I enjoyed the time spent with friends.  Each of us working on our own things.   I decided the night before to work on my temperature quilt.  I pulled everything out and took stock of where I was at.  I realize that we were already in May and I hadn't done my April block, so I set myself to do it!

Above is the paper piece foundation that I finished sewing the pieces to.  Then completed the last seam to complete the circle.  It took me the whole day while the ladies were here to get this far, but you know how it goes when you get together and chat about this, that and everything......lol.  Some work does get done, but to no schedule.....lol.

After the ladies left, I decided to keep going.  I removed all the paper and pinned the temperature wheel to the background.  I did this for the March and December temperature wheels as well.  I had finished the paper piece foundation for those back in March.

After dinner, I though why stop now and proceeded to appliqué the wheel to the background.  What a transformation.  It is amazing the difference the background fabric can have on the mood of the block.

As you may have noticed, if you recall the previous blocks, the colours in this block is starting to get warmer with the lighter greens, some pinks and a yellow.  I am liking how each month's block is looking.  

A thought just came to me....  These temperature wheels are Mother Nature's design.  She gets all the credit for the colour distribution.  I'm just capturing her handy work....lol.  Just a reminder that these temperatures that I am using, for this quilt, are for 2024.

Take care everyone.

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.