Sunday, December 30, 2018

This Winter's day needs a bit of colour!

It's so true that the holidays makes you lose track of the days. All day yesterday it felt like Sunday to me. Now that it's actually Sunday, I feel like I have a bonus day to the weekend :)

....and I needed the extra day....to complete my One Monthly Goal.

I dragged my feet on this one, it seems. I don't know that I'm terribly happy with my fabric choices....but I'm happy that it's done!

My goal was to finish Block #4 in my Queen's Garden....



It seems to be a bit dark and boring to me...but it looks fine hidden amongst the rest of the flowers in the garden, I think...



Yesterday, as I was getting caught up on my Border Creek Mystery, I realised that I was just aching to work with some COLOUR!!!

This was as I was doing the tedious job of trimming-up. (Which I usually avoid by utilizing other methods, but this quilt is a mystery so I followed directions.)



....a lovely, messy pile of colour!

This had me digging into a box containing a project destined for the future....but I had to play with just one block to get my colour-fix in!



There's always something so special about the very beginning of a quilt, don't you think???

I was able to get a few stitches into the colourful fabrics and it made me feel much better. Funny, isn't it, how that works?




I'm supposed to meet my friend for a nice, long run in Port Dover this morning.....but I did not expect to wake up to a snowy morning! Oh well, I'll get ready and see how it is in a bit.

Sometimes it's difficult to push myself out on these grey Winter days but one thing I do know....once I get out and do it, I never regret it!

I am linking up with Kathy for some Slow Sunday Stitching, and with Elm Street Quilts for One Monthly Goal - December finish.

My goals for today....get a run in, do a bit more stitching, watch last night's episode of Outlander (which should be amazing!!!).

Friday, December 28, 2018

Mulling things over a bit....

I hadn't planned on a post this morning, but it's turned into a lazy one so I may as well share some quilty-stuff while I sit with an extra cup of coffee :)

I have been stitching away at block 4 for my Queen's Garden quilt. I have to say, it's not my favourite and will be glad to get on with the next one.


Ha!....couldn't even seem to take a decent picture of it! I decided to get all the blocks up to see if this one will "fit" in...


I guess it'll blend in. I'm finding it challenging working with the neutrals, but I think it will result in a pretty quilt.

With the end of the year comes the thoughts of which quilt projects will be undertaken in 2019. I know I have too many on my mind so I think I'd better cull the herd right from the get-go. 



I'm still looking forward to doing my temperature quilt....I can hardly wait to get started! You can read about it in my post HERE.

Anina from Twiddletails is heading up the Temperature Quilt sewalong and has a good post today on getting organised. You can see her post HERE.



I've been wavering on taking part in Lorna's Harry Potter Quilt-along over at Sew Fresh Quilts. I had kinda talked myself out of it, but I'm in! You can read about it HERE.

I just have to do the Harry Potter quilt.....In our family of six, the Harry Potter novels were something that we all enjoyed...which is something, in my books! (pun intended!) I have such fond memories of all of us waiting our turn in the family line-up to read each book. 

Lorna is offering this in two sizes...10" blocks and 20" blocks. I will do the smaller version. I've taken advantage of Boxing Week sales and ordered a background fabric, but will try to do the rest of it from stash.



I wonder if it helps to write a list of projects that will take priority in 2019? Anyone have an opinion on this? Then the other UFO's could just take a back seat and be out of mind for the time being?



I do think I will participate in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge again. I hadn't even thought about it until just now, so I don't even have an idea in mind for it. I'll think on that one for the next couple of days and come up with something.


Today I am linking up with Busy Hands Quilts for Finished or Not Friday, and with Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Can I Get a Whoop Whoop?.



Sunday, December 16, 2018

Sunday Stitching

My goodness, December is just racing by!

Hopefully you can take some time during this hectic season to have some down-time and enjoy the moments that are special.

I didn't have too much stitching to do this morning as I need to take time to get some serious prep-work done, but I did have a couple of leaves to stitch to my Queen's Garden applique...



I hope to prep the next block this afternoon, as it is my monthly goal to complete said block!

As of this past Friday I am officially on Christmas break, which means I finally got the tree decorated. For some reason, Minnie thinks the new tree skirt was made as a new bed for her...she loves it...



Today I am linking up with Kathy for Slow Sunday Stitching. I am also inviting you to read my post from the other day so I can tempt you with the idea of joining me in doing a temperature quilt in 2019. You can read about it HERE.

Have a great day!

Friday, December 14, 2018

Here I go again......

Why, oh why, is it so hard to resist a sewalong????

Actually, I had been mulling over the idea for a couple of weeks of trying to work on a temperature quilt for 2019...so not a new idea here. 

....but, imagine my delight when I stumbled across a new-to-me blogger who is actually starting a "Temperature Quilt Along"!

This makes the idea even more fun!!!

You can meet Anina and read about the sewalong HERE at her blog, entitled Twiddletails.

I hope some of you will join in.

If so, you need to figure out which block you will use. Then you will allot a range of fabrics representing different temperatures through the year.

There are many examples of temperature quilts on Pinterest.

You can do just a square, or hexie, etc., to represent the high temperature of each day of the year. Something else to consider is choosing a 2-colour block.....the two colours will represent the high and low temperatures of each day. 

I think one of the reasons this appeals to me is that it reminds me a bit of my "A Day In My Life" quilt, for which I did a block per day for a year, each block representing the mood of the day. You can see that quilt HERE, which just happens to be a year ago.


This is the block I have chosen, half of the blocks will look like this and half will have the opposite corner snowballed....



These measure at 2.5"x 5.5". The large fabric will represent the high forecast of the day, the snowball will be the low. 

I will save the bonus HST to maybe use in the border.

...and here is my layout.....



Each horizontal row will represent one month. For the months that don't have 31 days, I will fill-in with blocks made with a neutral tone, most likely greys.

Starting this project makes it easier to turn away from a couple of others in the new year that have been tempting me. I really will try to keep new "starts" to a minimum. (bwahahaha!) No, I mean it this time!

My fabrics for this quilt will be based on this jellyroll...



... using a jellyroll was a wonderful suggestion by Karen at Quilt Junction. (thanks, Karen!) I will try to add some variety from my stash.

Here is a colour chart that I scooped off of Pinterest, showing the fabric colours that will represent the different degrees of temperature...I was happy to find one in Celcius!...



I'll have to add a few more colours for the Summer, as we've had many days over 25degrees the past few years!


In my last post, I showed my progress on my I Am Enough quilt. Since then I have finished my clamshell border and I just love it!!!



If anyone wants to "borrow" my idea of using different coloured clams, go for it!

Have a wonderful Autumn day!....lol, I was reminded this morning on the News that Winter starts next Friday, which kind of startled me as it's felt like Winter for a little while already!

I am linking up with Sarah for Can I Get a Whoop, Whoop!.

Sunday, December 9, 2018

# I am enough

Good morning, slow stitchers!

It looks like a bleak morning out my window this morning. 

I did start to feel a bit of Christmas as we walked through a mall on Saturday. I even saw Santa dining at Swiss Chalet as we enjoyed our yearly quarter-chicken dinner!

I've enjoyed working on my #IAmEnough quilt this week.

I chose to use the back-basting method of applique for my monogram block (seeing a quilty-friend, KH, this past week gave me the idea, as she is using this method in her current applique project!). 





I thoroughly endorse the use of a small pair of scissors with a curved tip for snipping the fabrics without fear of snipping the wrong fabric! Also perfect for cutting out the background fabric behind a piece of applique. These are the Karen Kay Buckley ones that I have...





I chose to use the "McD" for the monogram to honour my second marriage, even though I kept my surname when we got married.

I like this idea, as I used my wedding gloves from my first marriage in a previous block...




I also began this week's section of #IAmEnough. This is what I've been stitching this weekend, the clamshell border...



It's working up fairly quickly, and I'm loving it!...


Now, as I'm finishing up here, the sun has decided to show itself and it looks like we'll have a beautiful day, after-all.

I am linking up with Kathy for Slow Sunday Stitching.




Wednesday, December 5, 2018

One Monthly Goal - December

Well, today shall be a day of recovery! 

I belong to two guilds.... at our guild meeting on Monday evening we had a wonderful catered turkey dinner where I definitely ate too much food. Yesterday, at the day guild, we had our Christmas potluck lunch...I can't say I over-ate too much, but more food than I would normally eat....and such a wide variety.

I woke up today wondering why my joints are so sore...but realised that I ate a lot of sugar the last two days, when I normally don't each much at all in my regular diet.

So today it's back to work and eating a bit more normal! Luckily, I don't have many holiday events for the rest of the month. 

It's time to figure out what my monthly goal for December will be. I had a couple of candidates and decided it will be Block 4 in my Queen's Garden quilt. This one takes precedence as I am leading this quilt as a BOM in the evening guild, so it needs to be done by the January meeting!

Here is my quilt, so far...




I'm quite happy with working with the neutral Japanese taupes. It takes some thought, and trial and error, for me to choose the neutrals for each block, and I'm loving the nubby texture of these fabrics.

Today I am linking up with Susan at Quilt Fabrication for Midweek Makers, Lorna for Let's Bee Social, and with Elm Street Quilts for One Monthly Goal

Soon,  I'll need to figure out what I will do for my Temperature Quilt. Are you going to play along? I will write a post on the subject soon, to tempt you!