What a feeling to have this quilt completed to the "flimsy" stage. I am very happy.
I will be hand-quilting this quilt and am really looking forward to it. I love the fact that I can baste quilts on the longarm. Something this size used to take me a full afternoon to hand-baste. That was back in the days when I had carpeting in the living room and I would pin the backing to the carpet and lay the batting and top on. Then an afternoon of crawling around the floor basting the quilt. My "grumpy knees" surely can't take the abuse anymore. Thanks to Gayle at Mangofeet for the phrase "grumpy knees", it's perfect!
This was my January goal for OMG - One Monthly Goal at Elm Street Quilts, and I'm very please to have completed it.
I'm actually finishing this Sarah Fielke BOM just as the one for 2018 is starting up, literally! This year's is called Simple Folk and there is still lots of time to join in. You can read about it HERE. With the BOM you get the pattern every month as well as a wonderful video tutorial every month.
In the foreground of the picture above, is my Sarah Fielke BOM from 2016, Happy Days, currently being worked on on the longarm.
I'm custom-quilting it, but not overly so. I am having fun with a new-to-me cross-hatching method. It's fairly quick and I think it will unify the blocks in the end.
Hopefully, by this time next week I will have started putting some stitches into Down the Rabbit Hole.
I am linking up today with Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilts for Let's Bee Social and with Susan at Quilt Fabrication for Midweek Makers.
It looks to be a dreary end to January. A perfect time to get some sewing done and visit some quilty blogs to get inspired.
Have a lovely day!
For the past month or so I've had the idea that after I finish the applique on my Auntie Green's Garden quilt I would consider donating my old stash to the "free tables" at the two guilds I belong to.
I think I've mentioned it before....I think I've gone thru' the "fabric change of life"....all of my old favourites are not of interest to me at all anymore. I'm loving newer, fresher looking fabrics. I'm even finding it difficult to get back to my Auntie Green's even though I still love the look of it.
The quilt still needs a upper and lower border, then comes a final "not so intense" applique border. I guess I could leave off the final border and just find a nice print for a simpler outer border...we'll see.
So.......how timely is it that at guild yesterday we had Sandy Lindal as our guest speaker!
Sandy told of her journey as a quilter. Many of her quilts were foundation-pieced onto flannel, which sounds intriguing to me. She had many beautiful quilts that were completely scrappy, which I love!
The cool thing was, that at this time of me wanting to clean out my stash she showed scrappy quilts using old stash that were paired with white and grey fabrics....which basically brought them into a more modern feel. Brilliant!!!
One of her quilts was a spiderweb quilt....wish I had asked to take a picture. This is a quilt I've wanted to do for years. Sandy's was stunning, set with both white and grey in the "kite" background pieces.
You can visit Sandy at her blog, Scrappy Gal Quilt Company.
As I sat with my morning coffee I stitched away at one of my blocks for the Happy Day BOM offered by Sarah Fielke...
I am loving this block. I'm so glad to be part of this online BOM. Each month we get two or three blocks to finish along with a great video tutorial showing some of Sarah's methods, which may be new and different to what one is used to.
I'm not one to be caught up in the hexie craze...but I love how Sarah showed how to do it her way! There may be hope for me yet!
Sarah will be offering a new BOM starting in the New Year and I recommend it for those of you who enjoy doing BOM's that are also a bit of a mystery.
On a personal note, I am in Week 5 of my Learn to Run class. If you had told me two months ago that I would be out running the streets of Port Dover I would have thought you were bonkers! The surprise is not only am I doing it, but that I'm enjoying it!!!....as well as the new friends I am making in the class.
Every morning after a class my knees are asking me, "What the heck???", but I just tell them that they are going to be painful if I stay at home and do nothing, so they may as well be painful trying to be a healthier person.
It's still hard for me to believe that at the end of the class in three weeks we will be running a 5K. How surreal!!!
I am linking up with Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilts for Let's Bee Social.
P.S.
I've just been reading Cynthia's post today at Quilting is More Fun Than Housework and I think she has the perfect solution to bust my stash!!! Woohoo!
A while ago (maybe two years?) a group of us started what we were to call our Shoebox exchange.
Everyone was to choose their own themes and make a block to start. We put our blocks in a shoebox (or something like it) and it was passed through the group once a month. Everyone added to your quilt and after a year (since there were twelve of us in the group) we were presented with our own shoeboxes, full of blocks everyone had contributed.
In that year, we had not seen what was being added. At the end of the year we had a Reveal Day get-together where we finally saw our blocks. It's been a while now, but we set today as a day to try to have our blocks assembled into a quilt top!
To remind you of my Shoebox quilt, you can look back to post here.
Here is a picture of the finished quilt, Moonlight Thru' the Trees....
I had hoped to host today's Reveal outside with a bit of a Garden Party feel. Well, Mother Nature has other plans with heat and humidity to feel like the upper 30's! I have a feeling we'll end up in the house with the lovely A/C!
I've always liked to bake, but sometimes success doesn't happen when it counts....for company!
Today I have prepared a treat from Pinterest, Berry Pie Bars. Luckily it has turned out delicious and looks just like the pictures on Pinterest!
Of course, we had to do quality control....yum!....
I'll take pictures today during the gathering and hopefully the ladies will agree that I can share the pics later in my next blog post.
It will be so fun to see what everyone has done with their blocks. We had so many themes....snowmen, an I Spy quilt, trees, baskets, fairy gardens, etc.!
I have to show a picture of how my border of FlowerGarden is doing. I'm loving the big beautiful flowers. The one at the top measures 8 or 9" across.
Puppy update
Today the pups are five weeks old. I can't believe how fast the days go!
We have set the pups up in the living room in a small wading pool to keep them contained when we don't want them wandering about. Now they are getting big enough that we've had two escapees already.
We've had a challenge starting them on kibble, but now we've found an answer and they are taking to it...
So much cuteness around here this summer!
I am linking up to Sew Fresh Quilts for Let's Bee Social to see what others are up to today.
Have a great Summer's Day!
So much going on in our little part of the world lately!
On Tuesday we welcomed the newest addition to the family, my grandson, Lachlan!
Everyone is happy and healthy! But how can time have flown so fast? This seems like only yesterday!.....
Of course, I have made a quilt for Lachlan...it just need quilting. I think I've put it off because I'm not happy with it. Oh well, he'll receive plenty of quilts in the future!
We have another wee one due in November. I know I want to try something a bit more modern, inspired by my visit to Quilt Canada last week.
As luck would have it, I've come across a Quilt-along that starts this week and the quilt is done in many sizes so I will join along and have a baby quilt in the end. I think I'll do mine in Kona Solids.
The quilt is called Summer Solstice and you can see it here at Happy Quilting. Maybe you'll even want to join along!
I also have a "button" over to the right of the post to take you there.
I've been making progress on the right border of my FlowerGarden. I have the leaves appliqued and the long stem basted on. I'm so happy to be back to this quilt.
Hmm, I said long stem, but it doesn't look like it in the picture! This is a short segment, the rest of the vine is about 60" long!
I have to say, lately I've been having more and more qualms about using the Frixion pens for my applique. They are soooo nice to use but I am on the look-out for the next best thing. Any recommendations would by greatly appreciated!
I love how the perennial garden changes from week to week. Two weeks ago everything was purple. The colour of the week this week is white.
Included in the white flowers is this invasive weed...
Usually I yank this out as it tends to choke the intended plants in the garden, but I'll leave them a few days because they are kind of pretty. I guess it's a matter of perspective....because I didn't plant this, it is considered a weed....if I had purposely bought it as a groundcover I'd be so happy with the results!!!
Puppy update
Today the pups are three weeks old. On these nice warm days, we've been taking them outside a bit so they can stretch their legs.
I took Minnie to the vet yesterday. One thing I was told was to maybe buy some puppy milk to give to the pups as a bit of a reprieve for Minnie.
Here they are trying it for the first time. Well, to honest, this is a picture of them falling asleep on the edge of the dish after they had taken a few sips...
Adorable!
I am linking up with Sew Fresh Quilts for her linky party, "Let's Bee Social".
Have a great day!
