Star appliqué block complete

I've been working on a lot of things lately.  Mainly trying to get all of my required blocks done for each week.  That has been my priority.  This star appliqué block was the last block to be done for the month and just in the nick of time.....lol.  This is part of the Welcome to the North Pole quilt.  You'll notice that the stars are a bit organic....I don't know how else to describe it.  The shapes are not intended to be perfect.  The whole quilt is a bit on the organic side....lol.  Something I am going to have to get used to.

My next block for February is called Slick's Sleds.  Here is a sneak peek of the colours and pieces.  I've already rough cut all of the pieces for the block.  I have my overlay and I am ready to get started!

As the theme of this post started with stars, I thought I would throw this quilt in here too.  This was part of the show and share from one of the ladies in our monthly Saturday sew day.  She made stars.  This quilt is a gift to her friend who is retiring.  The quilt is lap size.  The maker knew that her friend liked things that are more on the feminine side, which is how she selected the fabrics.  I don't think there was an actual pattern for this quilt, or I wasn't told what it was, if there was one.  

It's interesting how it has the background pattern that creates radiating diamonds from the centre star block all the way out to the perimeter of the quilt.  It adds movement.  The play of light and medium fabric colours to make this subtle effect.  Then the maker added in a burgundy flange before adding the last two borders.  Very pretty.

Take care everyone.

Short update

Just a short update.  Yesterday I finished cutting all the fabric wedges I need to complete all the months for the temperature quilt.  It was interesting cutting them all at the same time and seeing the mesh of colours change throughout each block.  The picture below shows the warmer months.  The top page is July.  As I was cutting, I noticed that the hottest day of the year was in June, but the hottest month of the year was July.  Interesting....  I am sure there will be other things that stand out, as I actually put it all together.

Just for fun, I decided to take another picture of January's block that is already finished.  What a contrast to the months you see in the picture above!

I am happy that I am finished all the cutting for now.  The only cutting left to do will be for the months that have 31 days in them, as I will need to cut two circles to go in the centre.

Today after work, I am off to my mom's place for dinner, so the sewing of the highs and lows pieces will have to wait until the weekend.  I have some quilting to do as well, but when I need to take a break, I'll definitely work on these blocks.  I am enjoying preparing them.  This will also make it faster to assemble each month....I'm all for that!!!  lol

Take care everyone.  Have a great Friday!!  

Moving along with my temperature quilt

I started tracking the daily temperatures for 2024 in Jan/2024 and continued for the first few months.  I did a detailed post about making the first block for January, back on Dec 13/2025 called Started a temperature quilt for the days of 2024, in case you want to read more about it.

I mentioned on Jan 4th's post, that this is a paper piece block that is then appliquéd to the background fabric.  I was going to start this back up in February, as a BOM, as I have January's block already complete, however as you can see, I am getting a head start on it.

In the picture below, the top sheet of paper shows all of my colours to represent the temperatures.  The bottom sheet is the paper template I made for the month of October.  Over the past few days, I've been working on finishing off the paper templates for the whole year.  I had most of the outlines done from before, and all I needed to do was draw the lines in each date, to show where my highs and lows were going to be positioned in the wedge.  Those are now all done for each month.

Now I am starting to cut the coloured fabrics.  Yesterday I started and finished all the days in December.  Today I did the same for October.  If you want to get an idea of what these blocks will look like, check out the post of Dec 13/2025, where I posted the finished block of January.

This next picture is the top half of the wedges that will represent the temperature for each day.  The first day starting at the top of the circle.  As this is paper piece the colours are currently in reverse.  They are laying on the sewing side and when sewn will be on the other side of the paper.

This circle look quite different than January.  This one is where the temperature is starting to cool off in October, with some nice days in there too.  The above picture is of all the highs in October and the picture below is where I have introduced the lows in October.  This is where you really see that the temperatures are getting cooler.

What I've done with these fabric pieces, to keep things organized is taken, in reverse, each day and sewn the seam for the high and the low, to keep them together.  I didn't break thread, just kept sewing them, day by day, until I finished all of them.  I folded them, stacking them on top of each other.  The little packet in the picture at the very top, is how I am storing each month.  This way if I have them all cut, I can put all the fabrics away and only have to handle the packet when I need to work on it.

I'm hoping to make the packets for all the months in the next few days, so that I can find my sewing room again....lol.  I really do know how to make a "creative" mess....lol.  At least that is what I am calling it...lol.  I'm enjoying this process.  Taking my time to put everything together.  After this part is done, I can then make February's block.  It will be so much easier to do each block with all the prep work done.

I am looking at the last picture above and I like the play of the colours that make up the circle.  I can't wait to see how the other months turn out!!

Take care everyone.

Scrap Attack quilt progress

I received these blocks as a gift from the Guild members, as a thank you for my work as president.  I posted about it back on Aug 27/2025 if you want to read more about this quilt.  

During the Christmas break when I had the week between Christmas and New Years off, I pulled out the blocks for this quilt and put them back up on my design wall.  I am making this my main, primary project, after I complete the blocks from my list of required blocks.

I wanted to make the quilt just a bit bigger then I would have had with the gifted blocks, so I am making some along the way to fill in the areas to complete the quilt.  Since I put these quilt blocks back on the design board, I made four more blocks and was able to then assemble the bottom two rows of what you see on the wall.  It's coming together!  There are now five rows put together.

Here is a sample of a single block.  The members only instructions were to think of me and make it bright....lol.  I'd say this person succeeded.  This particular block is going along the perimeter, as I am trying to make a secondary design that merges into the first border.  

If you look at the first picture above, in the top left hand corner, you will get a glimpse of what I mean.  All the perimeter block's strings, that run along the border are going to be blue, and they will mesh with the first small blue border.

There is no rush for this quilt, so I am enjoying doing it at my leisure.  A block here, a block there.  No stress, no deadlines.  I want to start doing more quilts where I can slow down and just enjoying the process.  It's much more relaxing.

Take care everyone.

Screw This quilt

At our sew day on Saturday, one of the ladies brought this quilt top to work on.  She had assembled most of it and was working on finishing the borders.  This is cute.  The quilt is called Screw This.  Obviously, per the name, there are different types of screwdrivers and screw heads that make up the design.  The middle border also show the profile of screws.  So playful.  Did you notice that the screw driver has the corresponding screw head at it's tip.  There's a flat head, a phillips, and a cross screw.  

I like the bright, but not overly bright colours of the fabrics used to make this quilt and I love the dark background that make the pieces pop!  The maker used some of her own hand dyed fabrics to make this quilt for someone special to her.  I am pretty sure he will love it!!  

Below is a close up of one screw head and a profile of a screw.  So cute!  The handle looks just like a screwdriver that I own....lol.

I took a picture of the pattern in case anyone would like to make one.  The information about this design is below.  You can enlarge it to get all the details at the top and the bottom.

Take care everyone.

Red String quilt

During our Saturday Sewing day, I was working on my Red Strings quilt.  I've posted about these in a few other post already.  I had all of the units made for these nine patch corner blocks and they were sitting patiently waiting to be sewn into a block.  On Saturday I managed to sew 15 blocks!!  That is the most I have ever sewn during our sew day......lol.  

There is always so much chatter, show and share, and some sewing, that I get distracted from the task at hand....lol.  But I am not complaining.  I love it all!!

Now that I am finished all of the 18 blocks above, I can start working on the units for this next block.  This is my sample block.  I need a total of 17 of these ones.

So far, I have all of the centre hourglass units done.  I have the sand coloured star points all cut out.  Now I have all the red string units to make.  The diagonal red string corners and the middle of the star points.  I have two little bundles pinned together to make two blocks.  I am seeing a lot of red in my future.......lol.  Though they shouldn't take too long to sew up.

After I get my required blocks done, I can get back to these red string blocks.

Take care everyone.

Assembling the Omigosh quilt!!

On January 17th, I posted about finishing all the nine patch blocks that were on my weekly required blocks list.  I had all the other alternate blocks done for quite some time.  I used to take this quilt to retreat and work on this, after I did the other stuff that I wanted to get done first.  So this has been in the making for a while.

Well, I am finally starting to put this quilt together.  After the ladies went home, I was energized and felt like doing some more sewing.  My son made dinner, which gave me plenty of time after, to lay out these blocks.

I didn't want to give up for the day yet, so I started sewing some of the rows together.  I managed to get the first three rows assembled.  I am now considered one third of the way done.  Whoohoo!!

It's not looking bad at all.  I am liking the overall soft colour palate.  In person, they are just a bit more vivid, but not by much.  For reference, the block on the top righthand side is a soft red coloured block.

I'm hoping to get the top, minus the borders, done today.  Then I'll have to fold this up and put it away, until I can get out to shop for some border fabric.

Take care everyone.