Neutrals, what was I thinking??!!

I don't know if it's being of a certain age, but one of my favourite things is going out for lunch with friends, family....whoever!

Today I'll be meeting my sister-in-law for lunch at a restaurant I've never been to, Ferrera's in Simcoe. I'm quite looking forward to it...I don't know much about it except to hear a friend say that this restaurant has the best breakfast around.

Yesterday I worked on a quilt that was designed and made by my friend, Debra Allan. It's such a sweet quilt. She named the pattern Beary Love and Butterflies....and you can see why.....

A couple of years ago I was part of a block exchange that we called the Shoebox quilt. Everyone in the group ( I think twelve of us ) picked our own theme, made the first block, then passed the blocks around for a year 'til we ended up with our own Shoebox again. During that year we couldn't see what others were contributing to our own Shoeboxes. Every month we would have a month to construct a block ( or two ) for other participant's quilts.

We have finally set a date in July to try to get our blocks made into quilt tops, if not completely done!

There were a lot of fun themes....snowmen, trees, houses, fairy garden to name a few. My theme was neutrals. I've always been intrigued with the challenge involved in the making of a neutral quilt. 

Yesterday I figured I'd better at least get the blocks on the design wall. I really had it in my head that as I put them up they would magically fall into place into a pleasing arrangement!

Bwahahahahaha!!! Not so much!

I am totally stymied on what to do with my blocks! I'm going to rely on a old, faithful technique....leave them up there for a while until they talk to me and give me the answer!

I do have a kind of radical idea, but I don't think I have quite the courage :( 

Monday evening I went to a guild meeting. So many people showed their centre medallions of the 365QuiltChallenge block-of-the-day. I will have to take a bit of time out of my day to do mine after being inspired by every else's blocks. 

The beauty of being a bit behind is hearing everyone's advice on the piecing of the medallion....thanks, guys!!!

I did piece a block this week that was quite challenging. It's part of a BOM called Happy Days by Sarah Fielke. This is going to be a stunning quilt. I especially like that it will be challenging and using techniques that I'd never come across. 

Here is this month's block...

The middle bit is almost perfect but some of the dots in the fabric really make it look way off! Oh well, it's done and I like it! I also like that the tigers in the corner fabric all came out standing up by happy accident. 

I am linking up with Quilt Story for their Fabric Tuesday to see what others are working on today!

Have a great almost-Spring day!

Stitching on a Sunday

Well, not much time for slow stitching today. I am such an early riser but there's the odd time that I actually sleep in!

 Not the best day for that as we are heading down to have lunch with some of the family at a wonderful restaurant called Johnny Rocco's. It's one of my favourite restaurants and I especially love it when it's a first it's a first time visit for someone....today that person is my daughter. I hope she likes it!

This morning's applique was just one little heart for my Quilty365/Day in My Life...

This was a heart for yesterday, commemorating working on a lovely scrappy quilt made by a friend of mine for her granddaughter's first big-girl bed. The heart is a wee scrap I stole from the leftover scrappy backing of my friend's quilt. The piggy background used because my friend always seems to incorporate a pig fabric in her quilts...

The quilt turned out great, it is one of the prettiest I've ever seen...

Usually working on my Quilty365 I try to pick fabrics that reflect the day, but it's not always easy. This week, though, it seemed I had a few good ones!

On Tuesday I heard a wonderful speaker from Ottawa, Elaine Quehl. She is a prolific dyer of fabrics, saying she does about 5000 yards of dying per year!

 Here is my heart for that day....using a hand-dyed fabric out of a stash I've been coveting since 2007 and the heart is one done by me in my short experimenting with dying many years ago...

I quite enjoyed dabbling in dye. I don't know why I didn't continue.

And here is my heart for Leap Day. I was hoping to have a bit of frog fabric, but all I could come up with was a couple of little bunnies...

I've been successful in keeping up with The Splendid Sampler so far. I quite like Thursday's block. It went together nicely. I'm not quite sure of my fabric choices, but I did want to define the pieces. I didn't want to lose the design. In the end, I'm sure it will play nicely with the other 99 blocks!!

I'd better get started for my outing....but will share a picture of little Miss Minnie basking in front of the almost-done fireplace. I'm positive she thinks we installed it just for her....if it's running you can be sure she's stretched out in front of it!

I'll be linking up with Kathy's Quilts to see what others are stitching today.

Have a good one!

Day in My Life

Isn't Mother Nature funny! We had a bit of an ice storm last night and today is bright and sunny and not much wind. It seems to often be like that. 

I had to go out this morning and was a bit nervous of the roads.....there was some ice, but not too bad. On my way home it was totally fine. 

I thought I'd do a quick blogpost as I have an extra coffee for today in an attempt to stay awake. It was one of those mornings when you wake up at 3 and lay there for an hour before admitting that more sleep is just not going to happen!

I did get some nice applique done. I stitched down this little flower in my FlowerGarden quilt and I just had to take a picture. For some reason this little flower really pleases me! Funny, eh?

I am linking up with Quilty Folk for Audrey's monthly tally on our Quilty365...or as I'm calling mine, my Day in My Life.  

Here are 7 rows of 15 blocks....105 blocks! I have two more sewn and a few to catch up on. 

I'm very happy with the progress. I'm also very happy with the way the "scrappiness" is playing out since I'm doing this without any real plan to co-ordinate the blocks in any way. 

I once heard that if you make a scrap quilt out of your stash you are bound to love it since it is made up of all the fabrics that you originally bought for the very fact that you liked them! Makes sense to me!

I also want to share a blogpost by "Quilting is more fun than housework" which you can see HERE.

I've followed Cynthia for a short time, but I'm so surprised that I've never caught a glimpse of her Quilty365! I love it! I think if I had seen this in the beginning I definitely would have been "inspired" by Cynthia (meaning copied her, I suppose?). 

Well, off to enjoy my coffee and call my applique mentor. Always good conversation with her. The only problem is is that out of these recent conversations comes a niggling feeling that we will be starting a new applique project. Oh brother, what is wrong with this picture????

Have a lovely day!

Circles, circles and more circles!

What a lovely Sunday morning. The sun is shining and it feels quite mild already. 

I started my day, as usual, with a bit of applique. I seem to have been stitching small circles on my FlowerGarden forever, and now that I've hung it on the design wall to take a picture I can see I have a long way to go! I don't know whether to persevere to get this border done, or pick up another project for a couple of weeks.

I also embroidered the stems on Block #4 of the Splendid Sampler this morning. I wanted to get it done so I'll be ready for the release of the next block today.

This is a pretty sweet project so far, and still not too late to join in!

We made good progress on the fireplace on Saturday. I think I just have a bit of tweaking to do with the caulking gun and a dab of paint here and there. I have a sneaky suspicion that this is going to develop into a full-on paint job of the living room. I can tell it must be getting close to Spring.....I love to paint a room and this year it will be the Dining Room and upper hallway. Nevermind watching out for robins as a sign of  Spring...just look for me at the hardware store in the paint department!!!

Of course, being Sunday, I'll be linking up with Kathy's Quilts to see what others are working on today. 

Kathy's post today makes me a little envious as she is showing progress on her Life is Beautiful quilt. This is also a quilt I've been working on, but I really am not ready to get to the step that she is....I'll probably wait 'til at least this Fall. I do think I'll prep a block so I can take it to Guild this week for some take-along stitching.

Have a beautiful Sunday!

Something splendid!

I'm enjoying the Splendid Sampler. The fourth block was released yesterday and I had to get right at it this morning with my morning coffee. Here are my first four blocks so far...

The fourth one isn't quite done, but almost. They are all so cute!

I'm finally catching up on my Quilty365/Day in My Life since being ill last week. All the hearts are at least prepared if not sewn down...

The heart with the little Japanese girls was as close as I could get to represent going to the Mandarin on Sunday for lunch. I know, wrong country, but I love that fabric and wanted to get it in there!

I find I'm venturing into backgrounds that aren't always neutral. Hmm, that's ok!

Another splendid....our progress on our new fireplace. I have snuck in some painting here and there this week...it's coming along!

Could there be yet another "splendid"?, you ask. Why, yes, yes there is!

I received an email yesterday congratulating me for my quilt being accepted into the National Juried Show this year at Quilt Canada! What a feeling, to be recognised at what one is passionate about. How exciting!

The quilt is my Circle quilt, which you can see in the banner of this blogpost, as well as here... 

The sun is shining after a couple of rainy, grey days....makes me feel like just getting out and soaking up some Vitamin D.

Have a great day!

Something new.....for me anyway!

It's still early on a Sunday and I'm happy because I've learned something new already!

I hadn't set out to learn this stitch, it came about quite by accident while looking at today's post on Kathy's Quilts. Today is her link-up day so we can see what others are slow stitching on. 

I came across a blog called The Crafty Creek which you can see HERE. She is working on The Splendid Sampler, also, and uses an embroidery stitch I have never seen or heard of before called the bullion stitch.

She has used it for the body of her butterflies. 

Through the magic of YouTube, I found how to go about this stitch and after three tries finally got one that worked! It may not be the prettiest but I was thrilled to learn this stitch. The one stitch makes up the entire butterfly body. (I must see if my friend, Donna, knows this stitch...she's doing a lot of embroidery this year!)

So, instead of my slow stitching on a Sunday being working on my Flower Garden as intended, I did some embroidery to complete the Wings block for The Splendid Sampler!

Have a visit with Kathy over at Kathy's Quilts to see what others are working on today!

Happy Scrappy Saturday

What a very long week it's been. 

We've both been knocked flat by some sort of illness this week, but today I'm starting to feel like I may survive after-all! 

Yesterday I was feeling good at the longarm again....even better working on such a jolly quilt. It really made me feel good just looking at it...nice one, PT!.......

I've received a free package of Wonder Clips by Clover this week. 

I know that people use them for binding their quilts, I also know that I won't use them for that. Any other ideas of what people like to use them for? They are cute and surprisingly strong....hope I can find a good use for them!

I've wondered lately why I am being taken up by so many new projects this last few months. It's becoming a bit overwhelming to say the least!

 I've finally come up with a theory. It's this...since I've taken to writing this blog I come across so many other great bloggers out there that I'd never heard of before, and they all take part in wonderful projects, sew alongs, etc. 

Even while ill this week I've stumbled across yet another fun project! 

It's called The Splendid Sampler and is hosted by Pat Sloan and 
 Jane Davidson....you can check out the website HERE.

Many designers are involved in this one and will provide a 6" block twice a week for the next year. It's just started this past week, so a perfect time to join in!

Here are my first two blocks...

The second block is supposed to be 5 little butterflies flitting about...they will look better once they have their antennae!

I am probably a week behind in my Quilty365/Day in My Life hearts. My weekend goal will be to get them prepared and ready to be caught up.

I did manage some easy sewing once I was feeling a bit better. This was February's goal for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge Sampler. The colour for February is brown with an accent of pink. I really like how this turned out....now I just have to complete more of the blue January blocks!

Have a visit with SoScrappy to see what others are creating for their Rainbow Scrap Challenge!

Something I learned this week....when you are so chilled that your teeth are actually chattering and it doesn't seem to help that you are covered in two quilts, two pups and near a fireplace and you've tried tea, soup, etc., a shot of Southern Comfort does the trick!

Hope you're all well and can enjoy this sunny, mild day!