I've almost forgotten to post my "finish" for One Monthly Goal this month!
It's busy times lately....at least I can say, as of this morning, my quilts are ready for the upcoming quilt show this week. I attached the sleeve on the final quilt as I sat with my morning coffee today....yay!! At least, I think that's it....I'd better do a final check this afternoon.
Here is the info on the quilt show....hopefully you can join us to take in the 240 quilts that will be on display!
My goal for April was to have Down the Rabbit Hole completed and it did get done. It does feel a bit strange to be finished....but nice to be back to some other applique that was put on the back-burner the last couple of months.
May will be an extremely busy month and I think I will be a bit ambitious thinking that I can set a goal and get it finished....but here goes....
I've signed up for Sarah Fielke's Simple Folk BOM for 2018. I'm really liking it and hope to get the pieced blocks completed this month.
First I need to get all the little nine-patches sewn together....
.....and then it would be so awesome if I could get them sewn into these blocks (I think there are 12 or 13 of them)....
I do not intend on getting the little applique bit in the centre of the blocks done, though. That can come later.
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I've had a bit of a "fail" lately, which I decided to correct before going any further.
I joined an applique project hosted by my LQS, Quilt Junction.
Here is the first block...it's large, about 24" square, I think.....
....hmmm, a bit of a fuzzy picture...sorry!
Anyway, in real life the greens really blend in with the background a bit too much, but I carried on. Then when I attached the purple leaf and it really got lost I knew I had to come to an executive opinion before investing anymore time in this quilt.
So, I went with my first instinct and switched up the background. I'll save the blue background fabrics for something in the future.
I am so much happier with the contrast of the fabrics against the red background that I've chosen...
I have to share a couple of photos of my running life this past week. I've had quite the adventures.
I've signed up for a trail race at the end of May and I have to admit that I've felt a bit nervous...even contemplated selling my spot in the race.
One of my coaches from Learn to Run offered to take me out to sample the route that will be the race next month....now instead of being nervous, I can't wait to go back!
It was absolutely beautiful. I think I may be a trail runner at heart!
We did encounter a bit of mud as you can see by our shoes. I don't think I've ever run through the mud on purpose in my life!
We came across a group that were taking this awesome picture of their dogs on a log. If we had been five minutes later we would have missed seeing them posing.
My fitness tracker indicated that this run had the equivalent of 47 flights of stairs! Despite this, since I have trouble with hills, I still had a fantastic day.
Yesterday, my friend and I did a 10k run...which we have done a couple of times before...but we found it more impressive to think that we ran from one town to another on the trail. Here we are running from Simcoe to Port Dover....
It was a bit tough....I think because I've put more kilometres that usual in in the last nine days....and because I was way overdressed. I did start to feel over-heated. Every run is a good run, though, and in this one I learned a couple of valuable lessons.
That's all for now....it looks like Spring is finally coming this week, hopefully I can be outdoors a bit and enjoy it!
I am linking up with Elm Street Quilts for April's One Monthly Goal Finish.
.....and, because of time constraints, this post will also be linked to the May - One Monthly Goal at Elm Street Quilts!
Well, it's certainly been a good weekend so far to do some extra quilting and have some extra time in the sewing room.
The tulips have been on hold at 2" tall for over a week now waiting for Spring to really make an appearance.
This should be my last slow Sunday stitching on my Down the Rabbit Hole. Woohoo! It will be done in time for the quilt show, after-all!!!
If I knew how much I would dislike the quilting of the house row, would I have put the houses in or not? Probably. They are cute but they sure have been a pain (literally and figuratively) to hand-quilt....many seams and a lot of them pressed open to reduce bulk.
I'd been truly stymied on how to quilt the "sky" portion of this row. I could have just left it blank, but I felt it needed something.
I posted the problem on the Down the Rabbit Hole Facebook page and got a couple of suggestions. One of the suggestions was just right. A quilter had used this fabric herself in a quilt and quilted it free-form, just following the lines in the design. Perfect!
I'm quite happy with the effect!
There is more quilting I would like to do on this quilt, but that's not going to happen right now. I may do a bit more quilting on it during the Summer.
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One of the services I offer as a longarm quilter is to baste quilts for hand-quilters. My friend, Sherill, is one of these quilters.
I asked her if I could show the quilt that was basted this week. I'm sharing it here as I'm sure she may be doing some slow-stitching on her quilt today......and because she was inspired to make this quilt from a post from Kathy's blog, so I thought Kathy may like to see the picture! :)
The quilt is a beauty....it just looks a bit mooshy because of the basting and the lovely wool batting.
I am linking up with Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching. Today Kathy talks about resting. She is within range of the same ice storm this weekend that we are experiencing around here, so is housebound also.
It does feel a bit strange to take the time to rest. I noticed it yesterday and am sure I will again today, but it is nice to have a reason to not be rushing about. I am glad to have a hobby that is perfect for this kind of situation :)
Have a safe weekend....hopefully you can stay indoors and take it easy.
So, it's another "winter wonderland" out my window this morning. I wonder if we will skip Spring all-together and go right into Summer weather?
I've been stitching away at my Down the Rabbit Hole. Another couple of days should see this border completed....
I was glad to have the applique class going on on Saturday at Quilt Junction because this happened...
Luckily my friend, Lana, had one more spool of the colour I needed in the shop! I'm using YLI Quilting Thread...it has always been my favourite.
It was nice to spend some time appliqueing with the ladies on Saturday, as hand-quilting has been a priority at home for the last while.
Here is the block I'm working on at the class...
Not much to see yet, but I'll get more done soon. The blocks in this quilt are huge, I think 24"? This is from the book Fresh Picked by Blackbird Designs.
There are a lot of vines in the pattern. What I like to do is to get them all placed on the block, then baste them with a high-contrast thread (so I don't forget to remove the basting later!). This way I'm not having to worry about a lot of pinning.
I did take three days "off" of hand-quilting this week as my underneath thumb was a bit tender after being stabbed by the needle a couple of times. I took the couple of days to get a couple of sleeves sewn onto two quilts that need to be ready for the quilt show.
These are the quilts waiting to be prepped for the show...
I'm not sure what's going on with Minnie this week.....she really seems to be in a nesting, cuddly mood. She's been asking to sit with me during my stitching time, so I finally gave in for the last couple of days....
.....and I found her one morning nestled under a couple of quilts in the quilt cabinet....can you see her?....
Somehow she got behind and under the top quilt.
I hope to have another hour to do some hand-quilting today. I'd really like this border completed soon. My goal was to have the quilting done in 65 days....today is Day 56.
I've just discovered the world of podcasts and have listened to a couple the last two mornings of quilting-time. If anyone can recommend some good ones, I'd appreciate it.
I am linking up with Kathy for Slow Sunday Stitching. Hopefully you can visit with her and see what others are stitching at today!
My goal for April was an easy one to pick.
Our quilt show is at the beginning of May, so that means all my quilts that I've entered need to be ready!
So here's my list....
1. Finish quilting Down the Rabbit Hole, bind it, and attach a sleeve.
2. Bind a quilt that I want done for the quilt show Boutique.
3. Get sleeves done for the remaining quilts that I have scheduled to be in the show. I think that means four of them, other than Down the Rabbit Hole.
I am linking up with Elm Street Quilts for One Monthly Goal
