Scrappy Saturday - yellow

Just checking in to report on my progress with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge for February.

My RSC21 challenge is to move along on my Chapman Coverlet. This is a do-able challenge for me as the blocks finish at just 2".

My goal is to do at least 10 of the little blocks if not more....and it almost always results in more because they are quick and easy.

 

This will be a real scrappy quilt in the end and I know I'm going to love it! Maybe I'll carve out some time this weekend to sew some of the blocks into four-sies. 

Here's a reminder of how these blocks will go together...

You can see on some of the blocks that I do think it's fun to fussy-cut when possible on quilts like this!

I've been taking part in a Boho Heart sewalong. This weekend I'd like to get week 2 completed. Here are the blocks from week 1...

I have no particular theme for the Boho Heart quilt, except for the fact that it is to be bright and cheerful.

One of the things I love about sewalongs through Facebook is the motivation...but more than that I like seeing all the different takes on a particular quilt from all around the world.

That's all for now...time to head up to the sewing room! I am linking up with So Scrappy's post for Scrap Happy Saturdays where we can see what others are working on in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

Rainbow Scrap Challenge for January....complete!

 I'm off to a good start with my January blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. This month the colour is pink.

I'd decided to make at least ten blocks per month for my Chapman Coverlet to help move this quilt along a bit. Usually this is an excellent take-along project....but with a "stay at home" order now in effect there is nowhere to take this along to! 

The blocks are only 2" finished, so they whip up in no time. Afterwards they will be sewn into "four-sies".

Below is  a picture of what I have accomplished so far. Some of the top ones have been sewn together.

 

I had a nice comment on Instagram from a quilter who has completed her Chapman Coverlet. I took a look at hers and she says it took 1400 blocks! I don't know if she meant the individual blocks or 1400 of the sewn-together ones. I'll be able to do the math, as she also told me how big her quilt is. 

I had the thought to calculate how big I want my quilt to be so I would know how many blocks I need....but I don't think I want to know just yet....sounds too scary, lol.

It's a pretty laid-back day today. I'm using some of the day to do some applique prep-work for my Curious Journey quilt. 

This BOM is a mystery quilt. Maybe after I complete a few more of the small blocks I'll put everything up on the design wall to get an idea of how this may go together. I know some people can't handle the though of doing a mystery quilt...but I love them!....and, of course, I'm a sucker for a sewalong.

It's a beautiful, sunny day outside...we've been having such extremely dreary days lately. Maybe I'll put on some real clothes later and go for a walk to soak up some Vitamin D. 

I am linking up with SoScrappy for the RSC21 (Rainbow Scrap Challenge '21). 

Goodbye 2020

 Well, we've made it to the end of what has probably been one of the most difficult year's most of us have ever been through. 

I do want to reflect a bit today on what good I want to take from this pandemic time into my future....things like slowing down the pace a bit, and enjoying life's little pleasures.

I don't usually make New Year's resolutions, but I do have one in mind inspired by my friend Terry. 2021 will be the year of tackling UFO's!!! Really, I mean it this time!!!

I also want to continue the Intermittent Fasting lifestyle that I've enjoyed for over two years now. I can't see any reason that I would stop since I feel much healthier and younger for it.

Yesterday I pulled out the first UFO that I had in mind to tackle...my Geometric Fun quilt...

This is three of the 20 blocks in the quilt. I have to say, it is not a user-friendly pattern...which is why I walked away from it in May 2019. But, I've always intended to get back to it.

Looking at it on the design wall I just felt a bit of dread. So, I've let this one go...no longer a UFO, but a ______ (we have to think of an acronym for a quilt that we decide to never finish). Quilting is something I do for fun...this quilt is not fun and there is still much to complete. I do feel a sense of relief making the decision to not continue....so it must be the right choice.

So many choices of what to work on. I've decided on returning to my Midnight at the Oasis, a Jen Kingwell design...

I'll say this one is 4yrs old....I know I was hand-piecing the triangles on the centre medallion on an airplane in December of 2016. There are a number of small churn-dash blocks on one of the following rounds and that stopped me from continuing. I am glad to return to this quilt...what a difference from when I had the previous quilt up on the design wall!

You'll notice that I've added a new "button" over in the right-hand margin for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2021. I think I may join in on it this year (crap, did I just break my resolution before 2021 even started????). It's a way of busting the stash a bit....it's worth a look if you want to consider joining in. Just click on the button and it will take you over to SoScrappy's blog, the host of the RSC. The colour for January is pink. 

I've finally had time during my Christmas break to do a bit of sewing. I think I'll try to incorporate a bit of sewing in each of my days....I really do seem to get a lot more done by hand than machine!

Here is what I've been working on this week, my Spice Market quilt...

This is not the final layout for Spice Market, it's just all the blocks completed so far, hung willy-nilly. The next step is many, many appliqued circle blocks. I find the solid fabrics very unforgiving when doing needleturn applique....I will have to some fancy quilting later on to disguise that fact!

I've just thought of something to work on for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge!....and I won't be breaking my "no new project" resolution!  I have been working sporadically on my Chapman Coverlet....well, not quite sporadically, make that rarely. So I will make 10 blocks per month....they are quick and so easy, they just measure 2.5" unfinished. Easy peasy.

I will be very happy to get back to my Chapman Coverlet. It will be a glorious quilt, I'm sure....if you like scrappy, and I do.

 Has anyone watched Bridgerton on Netflix? I finished it yesterday, and I find myself reading this post in the narrator's voice, who happens to be Julie Andrews. 

Well, I'd better go and get something accomplished...or not. It may be a lazy day today. I've actually dressed up a bit to usher out the old year in style....so maybe I'll relax with an extra cup of coffee and my book. 

I am linking up with Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Can I Get A Whoop, Whoop?

Happy New Year everyone!

RSC...and One Monthly Goal!

I had such a nice start to keeping up with Squared Away, the pattern offered for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge this year.

Then Summer happened!

My goal for September is to catch up on my Squared Away blocks....which, I think, including the block offered for September, means I have three months worth of blocks to do. 

I am making three blocks each month,  it shouldn't be too difficult to catch up.

Seeing them up on the design wall, I'm glad to be doing this sewalong....I like it!....and I'm shopping the stash for this one which is even better!

I am linking up with Elm Street Quilts for One Monthly Goal - September, and with So Scrappy for Scrap Happy Saturday.

Have a lovely Labour Day weekend!

Let's Be Friends - a new sew-along!

There is a new sew-along starting July 1st from Border Creek Station called Let's Be Friends. There will be two blocks issued per week....you can read more about it HERE. 

My LQS will be offering a weekly support group, or Show and Tea as she puts it. Sounds like fun....I'm in!

There are kits available for this sew-along, but I'm going to shop the stash. I have just the right amount of background fabric that was rejected from a previous project, which you can see HERE.

For my other fabrics, I will use 30's reproduction prints. I think it will work....I'll find out after the first two blocks this week!

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I've been trying to play catch-up this week when I've had a spare moment or two.

I'm a bit behind on my Rainbow Scrap Challenge. I think I have three sets of bird blocks to do.....and I had a couple of months worth of Squared Away to piece. 

I'm almost ready for the July colour when it's revealed, I just need one more pink block. Here is what I've accomplished this week....

I am doing three blocks per colour and the blocks finish at 7".

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I was happy (and surprised) to come across these little blocks...

I had looked all over the place for them in April when I intended on making a small mat out of them to donate to the draw at our Quilt Show in May. Of  course, they were tucked away in the proverbial "safe place"!

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I couldn't resist starting a new block for my Simple Folk quilt...one of Sarah Fielke's current BOM's.

I've had a couple of other applique pieces on the go, but I also think I was stalling on this one because a few of these blocks will include a bit of "pieced applique" bits, which I found a bit intimidating.

It turns out that the process was easy-peasy and I like it!.....

Here are all my blocks, so far, on the design wall....

I'm quite pleased with it. There are two things I had wondered about changing, but decided to let be.

Then, when my husband came in to look at the blocks up on the wall, he pointed out one of my doubtful bits on his own! I think that decides the issue for me....I'll have to correct it. Most of the fabrics really pop, but in the top block the purple "teardrop" shapes really blend in a little too much. I think I'll be much happier in the end if I fix them.

I tend to not overthink my quilts too much, just go with the flow. But, when the need arises, I have no problem going back to tweak things just a little.

I'm also not fussy on my fabric choice for the swans. I'll let that one go a little longer and see how I feel later.

In my neighbourhood we are bracing for an extreme heat wave over the next several days. At some point I need to cut the grass out front, but other than that I think I'll be spending a bit of time in the sewing room....sounds like a plan!

I am linking up with Confessions of A Fabric Addict for Can I Get a Whoop Whoop?. Have a visit and see what others are working on today :)

Have a lovely day and stay cool!

It's been a while!

Well, I knew a while ago that May was going to be a very busy month....but I didn't know that I wouldn't even have a few moments to do a blog post!

The jam-packed calendar continues until mid-June.

Here are a few highlights of the month so far, beginning with our quilt show at the beginning of May.

I was able to see my Down the Rabbit Hole hanging. This was the quilt that was completed just in time! 

Part of the fun was strolling around looking at the quilts with Gail of The Cozy Quilter and Kathy of Kathy's Quilts. 

And I was only able to visit with one of the vendors (due to a series of events brought on by the terrific wind storm that weekend), so was only able to make one purchase...

I wish I could make time to do some prep-work on this before heading to Nova Scotia, as it would make a perfect travel project, but I don't know if there is time for that!

The quilt show was followed by a quilting retreat. Why is it that it feels so relaxing while on retreat, but you come home exhausted???

Here is our hostess, Lana of Quilt Junction...

Here is our set-up for the three days, in the ballroom at the Elm Hurst Inn ....

....and the beautiful view from my room...

I managed to work on a few projects, such as my RSC18, Squared Away...

...and some of my Simple Folk pieced blocks...

It was also fun to see what others were working on!...

....and I even had to get a picture as proof that I am no longer a salmon virgin...

...that's a big piece of salmon! I figured if I was ever going to try salmon, doing it at a 5-star Inn may be the place to do it!

I did manage to get all the blocks completed for our BOM we've been doing at the Haldimand Guild this past year....

I am going to like this quilt once it is done. The irony is that despite the simple blocks, there were many errors in the pattern which made it frustrating. The further irony?....it wasn't until I had all the blocks on the design wall that I saw that I had made a huge design error in the planning of this! So funny! Oh well, keeps one humble, I guess!!  I'll elaborate at a future time.


Right on the heels of the quilt show, and the retreat....race weekend!

I had three races that weekend....not sure I'll do that again, but I did have a lot of fun!

.....and managed to have a wee visit with my daughter at the Optometrist where she works....obviously we have good taste in sunglasses....

This past week was more of the same...so busy with visitors from Alberta. Somehow I still managed to get a bit of applique accomplished. 

Here is the first block of Tomato Soup, The Sequel (almost)(finally!!) done...

Today I am linking up with Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilts for Let's Bee Social, and with Susan at Quilt Fabrication for Midweek Makers.

Have a lovely day!

Rainbow Birds

Well, March has certainly flown by!

I've (almost) managed to get my blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge completed just in time.

The colour for the month was light greens. Here are my three little birds for the month...

....and here is a group shot of my flock of birds...

The block of the month for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge is this one...

It's quite a pretty block and my goal is to do three of the monthly block, but I just have this one. I hope to rectify that and have three by the end of the weekend.

The colour for April is yellow and gold...that should make for some pretty little birds!

I had a nice sewing afternoon yesterday. I haven't sewn garments in many years and I have never even touched a serger in my life! Three of us were making the same tunic but in three different fabrics. 

Here is mine...

Hmmm, not a great picture, but you can see how pretty the top is. It's a bit "gappy" at the back of the neck, not sure why but maybe a good pressing will help. I just have to hem one sleeve and do the bottom hem....so hopefully a half an hour today will take care of that.

I must say, trying to sew with a 5/8" seam allowance when you haven't done it in years is a bit difficult! That seam allowance seemed positively huge!!!

I am linking up with So Scrappy today so we can have a peek at what others have accomplished this month on their RSC18.

Rainbow Scrap Challenge AND One Monthly Goal - Complete!

Just a quick post today as we have house-guests for the weekend.

I wanted to show my blocks for February's Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

Here are my purple blocks for Squared Away, I am making the 7.5" size...

......and here are my purple birds for my Rainbow Birds....

The cutting of all the background fabric for Rainbow Birds, as well as the leg/background piecing, was my February goal for OMG-One Monthly Goal.

Even though it's been a crazy busy month, I was able to sneak my goal in and got it completed...

Not the best picture, but I am glad this got done...it will make the piecing of my Rainbow Birds much quicker every month.

That's all for now! My step-son and his baby are here for the weekend from Alberta. He has just finished his 7-month deployment in Latvia and has a bit of down-time now that he's back. 

This means a big family dinner tonight and a couple of outings before they go home on Monday.

Wow, this has been such a busy week!

I am linking up with So Scrappy for Scraphappy Saturday. I'm looking forward to what the colour for March will be. 

And I'm linking up with Elm Street Quilts for OMG- One Monthly Goal.

Have a wonderful weekend!

February - One Monthly Goal

Here we are in February already....Spring can't be far off, can it???

I don't know why, but for me, even though February is the shortest month, it feels like the longest :(

February is my least favourite month. I hope to keep busy and beat off the Winter blahs.

Maybe it's fate that for my least favourite month I am choosing a somewhat boring goal, lol....but one that needs doing and I'll happy that I did it.

My goal for February is to cut all the background pieces for my bird quilt that I am doing for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge and complete the legs for all the birds.

 I need to think of a name for this quilt, as the pattern is one of Lorna's from Sew Fresh Quilts called Black Birds...

...hmmm...maybe Rainbow Birds??? I like that name, for now. I don't like getting political, in life or in my blog, but perhaps this quilt will represent inclusiveness to me....so now I like the name Rainbow Birds even better :)



I am linking up with Pomegranate and Chintz today so I can take part in the linky party for the 6 & 6 in 2018. 

I want to show my finished Down the Rabbit Hole quilt top...

.....and my new "start". This is the beginning of the first block of Sarah Fielke's BOM, Simple Folk...

My background fabric is an indigo-coloured Grunge fabric with purple running through it. I think it will show off the brightly-coloured applique beautifully!


Today I will do the final longarm quilting on my Happy Days quilt. I can't wait to take it off the frame and see how it looks! 

I'll have to do a bit of repair on the quilt....right at the top, when I first began quilting, didn't I notice a small blood stain! How could I have not seen that when I was doing the applique! I tried the old hand-quilters' trick of using my own saliva on the stain, but it didn't work this time....I think you have to catch it right away. 

I will fix it, though, because if I choose to enter this quilt in the Fall Fair this year the judges would disqualify it for being stained.

I am linking up with Elm Street Quilts for One Monthly Goal, and with Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Can I Get a Whoop Whoop!.

Happy Groundhog's Day!!

RSC18 and PEQ MQG

This month the colour for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge is light and medium blue.

As an added bonus, we are offered a quilty project, Squared Away, to do.  

There are sixteen half-square triangles used in this month's block. I happened to come across my stash of Thangles and thought this would be a good opportunity to use them...

I plan on making three blocks each month, and have two done so far...

I like them! Although, I'm not sure I'll continue to use the Thangles. They are a good method, but I can get the same result with the Easy Angle ruler. By using the ruler I skip the step of removing the papers from the Thangles. I'll have a think about it.

Of course, my other project for the RSC18 is to construct three birds per month from the Black Birds pattern designed by Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilts that I wrote about HERE. 

Adorable....I think I'll try to get another done this weekend.

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I've also completed Clue #5 for the PEI MQG Mystery quilt....

This step used a nifty trick on trimming the rectangles so that are cut just right...see how the seam doesn't run directly corner-to-corner? There was a suggested video to watch to learn the technique which was a huge help!

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I think I've been holed up too long in the house because of all the crazy weather lately....I feel like an outing today. 

The Ice Wine Festival in Niagara started this week, so we may plan on a nice drive down to our favourite winery, Kacaba Vineyards and Winery, and sample the food/wine pairing. 

It's too easy for me to become a hermit in the Winter.....at least I can take solace in the fact that we'll be looking forward to Spring in two months, right?

I am linking up with SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday and linking this post to the PEI Mystery Quilt-along post. Also, for the first time, I am linking with Sew Can She for Show Off Saturday.

Have a great weekend and stay warm!

Oops...poor little bird!

Sometime in the last year or so I saw Lorna from Sew Fresh Quilts speak at Norfolk County Quilters' Guild. She was a lot of fun and her quilts were wonderful to see in person.

I bought three of her patterns that day.

Lately, as part of the PEIMQG Mystery BOM, I won two more of her patterns!

Have I started any?...nope....until this week. 

We've had quite the spell of frigid weather here since Christmas, it's just now warming up a bit now. On the weekend I had a lovely sew day and as part of it I thought I'd try a block from Lorna's Black Birds quilt that you can see HERE. 

I don't know if it's one of the pitfalls of being a seasoned quilter, but I think I tend to gloss over instructions and kind of wing it (pun intended).

So here is my first attempt at a wee birdie...

I didn't clue in right away that the piece on the right should have been sewn on first :/ (although, if I'd paid attention and read the instructions I wouldn't have made this mistake!).

Here is a new and improved version...

....much better and soooo cute!!! He will get his legs at a later date. I will follow the pattern (this time) and do all the legs for all the birds in one step with strip-piecing.

Lorna advises in the pattern to press seams open...which isn't how us seasoned (there's that word again, do I mean old-school?) quilters have been taught to do things....but, boy, doesn't the piece lay nice and flat and show off the points beautifully.....such as where the tail and body meet.

It takes a bit of extra time, but, for this type of piecing, will be worth it in the end.

On Saturday, I decided to take part in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, including the suggested pattern Squared Away. 

But then I read a blog post by Linda at the Pieceful Kingdom. What she is doing for RSC18 is blocks from one of Lorna's patterns, Dog Gone Cute, in the suggested colour of the month. You can read about it HERE.

So that is what I'll be doing with my birds this year. I will try to do three per month in the colour of the month :)


I've also been stitching away on lots of leaves on Down the Rabbit Hole...

....so, as of now on January 10th, I'm in pretty good shape to get this done by the end of the month. I can hardly wait to see the whole quilt all sewn together!


I am linking up with Lorna today from Sew Fresh Quilts for Let's Bee Social, and with Susan at Quilt Fabrication for Midweek Makers.