FOMO....Fear Of Missing Out
Start-itis...a term I discovered at some point on Kathy's blog at Kathy's Quilts.
I'm trying to diagnose which of the two I am plagued with. I think I have to come to terms with the fact that it may be both!
I've been tempted lately with a new sewalong offered on Instagram called the Scrap Bag Sampler.
You can see all about it using the hashtag #scrapbagsampler. There will be a small block released every Friday and in the end we will incorporate all the blocks into a bag pattern that we will be given.
There are a few quilters involved in the designing of the blocks. I am choosing to follow @justsewsue. To read all about it you can have a look at her introductory post on her blog, which you can find HERE. Then you can check out the first two weeks' blocks...the second of which was released today.
Here is my block for Week 2...
I am going to use mostly Alison Glass scraps...and once I picked my fabrics it literally took about 10 minutes to complete.
I will do Week 1 sometime today or tomorrow...it is a small strip of flying geese done by paper-piecing. Again, should be quick and painless!
Please, join me, won't you? lol....it would make me feel so much better!!
I can't remember if I came across this one on my own, or if my friend (SS) pointed me in the direction....I just hope to lure her in with this post!
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I mentioned in my New Year's post that I was finally, after a few years, beginning my Halo quilt, designed by Jen Kingwell.
I was pretty nervous about this one, but I've finished two blocks and I'm going to love it!
Here is the first block...
The blocks are 9" and my goal will be to complete 2 per week.
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I finally finished quilting my Queen's Garden quilt...now just to sew down the binding.
The feathered border was a whole lot of fun to do. I'll try to get a shot of the complete top for a future post.
Life is just starting to feel like normal. We had guests all last week from Alberta....and had a big Christmas meal on Saturday since we finally had the whole family together.
Luckily I got a couple of decent pictures of all the grandchildren together. I don't think they've ever all been in the same place at the same time!
Have a great day!...I'll be trying to get a few things done before our forecasted snowstorm tomorrow.
I am linking up with Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Can I Get a Whoop Whoop?.
This week it seemed like all I did stitching-wise was miles and miles of binding!....and I'm not one to especially like to do it like some of you are. I just regard it as something that needs doing in order to have a completed quilt.
I don't have show-and-tell for all of my labours as they were not my own quilts....but it was especially nice to help an old friend by doing this for her.
Now...back to my Queen's Garden quilt.
I was ready to get all the components sewn together when I realised that I hadn't finished the embroidery. Well, that is now completed.
So happy... I can now get it together and get the borders on.
But, hold on a minute...nothing is ever that easy, is it?
On the original pattern, the designer had appliqued small circles where the orange peels meet. I had decided early on not to do the circles as the fabric that I am working with is fairly thick.
Most of my orange peels "kiss" nicely, but then there are a few like the one above that I just don't think I can live with.
Sometimes you just have to make the decision to fix things. What does it for me is the thought that so much work has gone into this quilt already...do I really want to cheap out just because it will take a little longer to do it right? That makes the decision so much easier.
I auditioned a couple of different sizes of circles, using my Karen Kay Buckley Perfect Circles. By doing this, I can see that it will be the right choice to add the circles....
Here are a few circles sewn on. I think it's a lot more pleasing now...
I guess the designer knew what she was doing! Although, I did have the thought that the circles were added to maybe cover her own orange peels not meeting properly??? lol...maybe!
Now I'll share my current Leaders and Enders project. I had hesitated to show anyone yet as there is not a lot of contrast in the blocks and it wouldn't be everyone's cup of tea, but I'm starting to love it so here goes!
I am making little log cabins out of 1" strips, with 1-1/2" orange centres.
Here are the containers I keep by my sewing machine, full of "logs" ready to sew...
....and here is a pile of log cabins in various states of construction...
I am keeping the scraps somewhat bright and modern.
Here are a few up on the design wall...
They aren't all sewn together yet, but I'm getting a feeling on how it will look.
For me, it will be true quilt in every sense of what a quilt is meant to be...something that uses up every scrap...a riot of colour....and, as a bonus, it will be made of what could be argued as the most traditional of blocks, the Log Cabin.
I only hope it keeps my interest long enough to grown into a full-sized quilt!!
As always on Sundays, I am linking up with Kathy for Slow Sunday Stitching to see what other slow stitchers are working on today.
Early morning still...but I've been up for a long while now. That just means I've been able to get a bit of extra slow-stitching done, right?
This week I hung my Queen's Garden up on the design wall. I am overwhelmed lately at the number of UFO's that I have, so I'm determined to have a "finish" by the end of the year. Then plan is to get this one sewn together and quilt it over my Christmas break.
I hadn't realised that I still had some embroidery to complete on this quilt :(
I may have left it, but there was just too much still to do so I will finish that up this week....starting this morning...
These Japanese taupe fabrics are sometimes difficult to draw a line on with my regular marking tools....but the Hera marker does a brilliant job!....
I really like working with the Perle cotton.
Earlier this week I hung my Temperature Quilt on the wall to get a look at how it's coming along.
That is it complete from January 1 to the end of October. I wish I'd had more contrast in my "hot" colours...lesson learned for next time! I won't do one next year, but I most likely will in 2021 since I'm enjoying this so much.
I'm almost finished my Haphazard quilt.
I love the texture of the quilting...
....and I love that I'm using a fabric from my stash for the backing...
This is just a small quilt...36" square, but it will be the perfect size for my lap when I'm sitting in the morning with my coffee and hand-stitching!
I've decided to apply a facing on the quilt instead of a binding. I actually thought I'd be doing the hand-stitching on the facing today but it's not quite ready.
A great tutorial on facing a quilt can be found HERE at the blog of The Silly BooDilly. I reference her tutorial any time that I do a facing.
I guess I'd better get on with my day....we are going on a day-trip since it looks like such a beautiful day for it.
I am linking up with Kathy for Slow Sunday Stitching. Hopefully you have time to visit with her and check out what other slow-stitchers are working on today!
It seems like the perfect morning to spend a little extra time with some hand-stitching.
It's a bit grey outside and I've had a lovely couple of days away and feel relaxed, refreshed and peaceful.
On Monday evening I will be presenting the next section of our BOM, Queen's Garden, and I'm almost finished the embroidery part of the blocks...
I was having a bit of trouble marking the lines for the embroidery on this type of fabric, when I thought of my Hera marker, which did an excellent job. Can you see the marks on the lower leaf?...
Here is the quilt so far...
There's still some embroidery to add. I'll try to catch up on that over the Summer.
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Friday and Saturday we went on a little road-trip to Rochester, NY.
My husband had come across a big quilt show there put on by the Genessee Valley Quilt Club and suggested we go down...I guess he's a keeper, after-all :)
It was quite the event, held in the Rochester Institute of Technology, a venue that was 70,000 square feet. I think it may have been the best quilt show I've been to.
Here is the picture I took of the event on the first day...
I didn't realise until the next day that past the furthest bit of the picture was another half of the show! There were 700 quilts and 60 vendors. I was surprised at the amount of quilts that were somewhat new to me....and that a lot of the vendors were selling items that I'd never seen before.
Since this is Slow Stitching Sunday, I'll stick to showing you mostly handwork that I saw at the show.
A lot of quilts had this "hand" attached to it...
I thought it meant "keep your hands off the quilts"...but it was to indicate a hand-quilted item.
There were more than usual that were hand-quilted. The most fantastic and my favourite was this one...
Here is the Best in Show, also hand-quilted...
This one is not done by hand, but I love that the applique is done on a background that has been pieced of diamond shapes...
Then there is this fantastic quilt. All of the letters on the quilt spell out the words to the song, Morning Has Broken. Truly fantastic.
I was lucky to see someone selling some of the same type of fabric that I'm using in my Queen's Garden, so I picked up a bundle to add more interest to my quilt...
I made a couple of other purchases that I'll save for another post....but I will show you one more.
There was a woman at the show who is a silversmith and she had a booth filled with the most beautiful thimbles and chatelaine's. I was positively drooling over the thimbles....but made myself walk away and think about it so I wouldn't make an impulsive purchase (yay, me!)...as the thimbles were a little on the expensive side.
I thought it over until the next day when we were returning to the show and convinced myself that I did indeed deserve such a beautiful thimble. After-all, it's like a piece jewelry and art...and something I would use each and every day, right????
I was looking at the thimbles that were open on the back and had lovely filigree work over the fingernail area. It wasn't until I was almost ready to make a purchase that the silversmith had me try it out on a bit of quilting. Well!....it turns out I use a part of my finger that was more toward the fingernail to do the pushing....not protected at all by these beauties! Even the silversmith was surprised. I'm glad she had something to test on before I bought one and returned to Canada. (Although, they come with a lifetime guarantee, so I could have switched it out later)
I ended up with a fully enclosed thimble, which I quite enjoyed breaking-in this morning with my applique...
When my eldest grandson was about 4 years old, he would ask permission to try on my "silver finger"....and proceed to walk around the room carefully balancing my thimble on his tiny finger.
Now I am happy to truly have a real silver thimble and I will use it with great pleasure.
I could show you a lot more to inspire you from this wonderful quilt show, but I'll save some for another day.
This show is held every two years, the first weekend of June. I'm sure we will go back again!
I am linking up with Kathy for Slow Sunday Stitching. I think I'll sit with an extra cup of coffee and see what everyone has been up to this week!
It seems that Spring is finally here in Southern Ontario....hope I'm not jinxing it! It feels so good to be out in the sunshine and a bit of warmth.
I have a bit of sewing that needs doing today, but hopefully the rest of the day will be spent outside enjoying the weather.
I started my day as usual, with a bit of hand-sewing. I'm working on the next segment of my Queen's Garden so I can present it at the next guild meeting. I've been leading this as a BOM, with permission from the designer.
This month we are working on two of these blocks.....
There will be a bit off embroidery going on and then these two blocks will actually be sliced in half diagonally to create four setting triangles.
Here is some of what has been completed so far...
It feels like this one is getting closer to being a real quilt top!
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A new sewalong this month is the Jen Kingwell "Dear Jen".
I think there will be 75 blocks in all...and we are given 6 block patterns per month.
I was a little frustrated with myself as I worked on the first block. I made many mistakes....just due to my own inattention, but I finally got it done. This one was done using hand-piecing. The blocks will all be 6" finished.
And, of course, it wasn't until it was done that I figured it could have used a bit more contrast between the background and the green fabric....but too bad, I'm calling this one done!!!
The next block went together much more easily. I decided to construct this one with English Paper Piecing. It still came out a bit bubbly, who knows why??!!!.....but it's not bad....
The background fabric is one that I won in a fabric bundle at Retreat a couple of weeks ago. Who took shorthand in high school??....I did, although it was the other sort....maybe known as Faulkner? I did enjoy shorthand, but did I ever use it in the work-place?....nope!....but I still will use a bit if I'm jotting down a quick note to myself.
I am linking up with Kathy for Slow Sunday Stitching. Hopefully you get a few moments to put in a couple of stitches on whatever you are working on and also get outside to soak up some Vitamin D.
What a fast week it's been!
It surprises me, as February always seems to drag out for me even though it is the shortest month.
We have to go out this afternoon down Niagara-way to check out my daughter and her girlfriend's new house that they are buying. It's not supposed to be nice weather at all today, but you wouldn't know it by looking out the window right now....still and sunny!
I hope the weather holds off. After we are finished looking at the house I want to visit my favourite winery and favourite Mexican restaurant while in the area.
I haven't had much time to sew this week, but hand-stitching always seems to get accomplished :)
This morning I worked on a couple of my Chapman Coverlet blocks....these literally take moments to complete as they are so tiny...
.....and a couple more from the other day, so you can get more of an idea of the scale of the blocks...
Hmm, maybe we will get the windstorm, after all....as I'm sitting writing this post it's as if a curtain has been drawn, it's got so dark all of a sudden.....and the wind is picking up right away!
I did get my block completed this week for the Hand Pieced QAL...
....I love this block!....although I know I was daydreaming as I stitched, and had to un-sew a couple of times when I sewed things together incorrectly. There will be nine blocks for this sewalong, here are my blocks, so far...
This morning I did the applique on this little Dear Jane block...
I am so pleased with this little block and can picture a whole scrappy quilt made of it. (Uh oh, sounds like another "squirrel" moment)
Today was the first time trying out the Clover Black Gold needles. I was lucky enough to find them at my local quilt shop during a class yesterday. I've been curious about them since hearing Kathy from Kathy's Quilts recommend them.
I did enjoy using this needle....hard to explain why, but it did feel good in my hand.
My only complaint...I'm not one to like a package of different-sized needles, I'd much rather buy a whole package of the size I prefer. Maybe they do come packaged that way, I'll have to keep an eye out.
I also worked a bit on this month's block for my Queen's Garden quilt...
I've enjoyed this block, as it's a bit easier than the first four....but funnily enough, I'm finding it a bit boring and may try to dress it up with a bit more embroidery with the perle cotton.
It seems like I've accomplished a lot of slow-stitching this morning....but, really, each project was just a little bit of work. Nice to see progress, though!!
Well, now it's looking a bit brighter outside again. I hope we get to stick to the plan today. I'm so looking forward to that chimichanga!!
Today I am linking up with Kathy for Slow Sunday Stitching, and with Elm Street Quilts for the Hand Pieced QAL.
Have a lovely day, that hopefully includes some quilty time.
