One Monthly Goal - September Finish (thankfully!)

I feel like I'm squeaking this month's One Monthly Goal in just in time! 

For some reason I did not enjoy catching up with my Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks. I never should have let myself fall behind, I guess.

In my rush to get them done, I messed up a couple of times and had to do one over, and un-sew and re-sew another!

Here they are...

So....the block in the upper left corner is the block to be sewn for September. I kept making mistakes....I don't know why....so by the time the block was done I couldn't like it, even one little bit. So, instead of making two more of them, I made two blocks using patterns from previous months. Hey, it's my quilt, am I right?

And then there was this unfortunate beast...

Actually, in the photo it doesn't look soooo bad....but in real life it's a muddled mess....what was I thinking!? This one will go directly to the trash.

What can I say?....I am quite happy to be done with this month's goal!!!

I do like this block...

....mainly because I forgot I ever had the wee bird fabric and I love it. Once I found it in the blue fabric bin I just had to use it.

I look forward to October's block, which I think will be the last block. It will be fun to see how all of these blocks will go together.

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This morning I thought I would be finished block 3 of my Tomato Soup, The Sequel quilt. I got to the point of adding the last two leaves and didn't like my fabric choice.

Here is one pinned on in the middle of the block...

...hmm....why can't I ever seem to take a picture that isn't skewed?...

Once I hung the block up I had an idea of which fabric to use and I'll get on that at some point today.

The blocks in this quilt are a whopping 24"! A little difficult to manage at times, but not too bad.

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There is still time to join in the fun at the Online Quilters' Meet and Greet over at Benita Skinner's Creative Space blog, which you can find HERE. 

We have until the end of the month to visit the different quilting blogs and enter for a chance to win a wonderful quilty prize.

You can read my post for the Meet and Greet HERE. 

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I am linking up with Elm Street Quilts for One Monthly Goal - September Finish, and with Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Can I Get a Whoop Whoop?. I am also linking with Busy Hands Quilts for Finished or Not Friday, and with So Scrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday

RSC...and One Monthly Goal!

I had such a nice start to keeping up with Squared Away, the pattern offered for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge this year.

Then Summer happened!

My goal for September is to catch up on my Squared Away blocks....which, I think, including the block offered for September, means I have three months worth of blocks to do. 

I am making three blocks each month,  it shouldn't be too difficult to catch up.

Seeing them up on the design wall, I'm glad to be doing this sewalong....I like it!....and I'm shopping the stash for this one which is even better!

I am linking up with Elm Street Quilts for One Monthly Goal - September, and with So Scrappy for Scrap Happy Saturday.

Have a lovely Labour Day weekend!

Let's Be Friends - a new sew-along!

There is a new sew-along starting July 1st from Border Creek Station called Let's Be Friends. There will be two blocks issued per week....you can read more about it HERE. 

My LQS will be offering a weekly support group, or Show and Tea as she puts it. Sounds like fun....I'm in!

There are kits available for this sew-along, but I'm going to shop the stash. I have just the right amount of background fabric that was rejected from a previous project, which you can see HERE.

For my other fabrics, I will use 30's reproduction prints. I think it will work....I'll find out after the first two blocks this week!

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I've been trying to play catch-up this week when I've had a spare moment or two.

I'm a bit behind on my Rainbow Scrap Challenge. I think I have three sets of bird blocks to do.....and I had a couple of months worth of Squared Away to piece. 

I'm almost ready for the July colour when it's revealed, I just need one more pink block. Here is what I've accomplished this week....

I am doing three blocks per colour and the blocks finish at 7".

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I was happy (and surprised) to come across these little blocks...

I had looked all over the place for them in April when I intended on making a small mat out of them to donate to the draw at our Quilt Show in May. Of  course, they were tucked away in the proverbial "safe place"!

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I couldn't resist starting a new block for my Simple Folk quilt...one of Sarah Fielke's current BOM's.

I've had a couple of other applique pieces on the go, but I also think I was stalling on this one because a few of these blocks will include a bit of "pieced applique" bits, which I found a bit intimidating.

It turns out that the process was easy-peasy and I like it!.....

Here are all my blocks, so far, on the design wall....

I'm quite pleased with it. There are two things I had wondered about changing, but decided to let be.

Then, when my husband came in to look at the blocks up on the wall, he pointed out one of my doubtful bits on his own! I think that decides the issue for me....I'll have to correct it. Most of the fabrics really pop, but in the top block the purple "teardrop" shapes really blend in a little too much. I think I'll be much happier in the end if I fix them.

I tend to not overthink my quilts too much, just go with the flow. But, when the need arises, I have no problem going back to tweak things just a little.

I'm also not fussy on my fabric choice for the swans. I'll let that one go a little longer and see how I feel later.

In my neighbourhood we are bracing for an extreme heat wave over the next several days. At some point I need to cut the grass out front, but other than that I think I'll be spending a bit of time in the sewing room....sounds like a plan!

I am linking up with Confessions of A Fabric Addict for Can I Get a Whoop Whoop?. Have a visit and see what others are working on today :)

Have a lovely day and stay cool!

It's been a while!

Well, I knew a while ago that May was going to be a very busy month....but I didn't know that I wouldn't even have a few moments to do a blog post!

The jam-packed calendar continues until mid-June.

Here are a few highlights of the month so far, beginning with our quilt show at the beginning of May.

I was able to see my Down the Rabbit Hole hanging. This was the quilt that was completed just in time! 

Part of the fun was strolling around looking at the quilts with Gail of The Cozy Quilter and Kathy of Kathy's Quilts. 

And I was only able to visit with one of the vendors (due to a series of events brought on by the terrific wind storm that weekend), so was only able to make one purchase...

I wish I could make time to do some prep-work on this before heading to Nova Scotia, as it would make a perfect travel project, but I don't know if there is time for that!

The quilt show was followed by a quilting retreat. Why is it that it feels so relaxing while on retreat, but you come home exhausted???

Here is our hostess, Lana of Quilt Junction...

Here is our set-up for the three days, in the ballroom at the Elm Hurst Inn ....

....and the beautiful view from my room...

I managed to work on a few projects, such as my RSC18, Squared Away...

...and some of my Simple Folk pieced blocks...

It was also fun to see what others were working on!...

....and I even had to get a picture as proof that I am no longer a salmon virgin...

...that's a big piece of salmon! I figured if I was ever going to try salmon, doing it at a 5-star Inn may be the place to do it!

I did manage to get all the blocks completed for our BOM we've been doing at the Haldimand Guild this past year....

I am going to like this quilt once it is done. The irony is that despite the simple blocks, there were many errors in the pattern which made it frustrating. The further irony?....it wasn't until I had all the blocks on the design wall that I saw that I had made a huge design error in the planning of this! So funny! Oh well, keeps one humble, I guess!!  I'll elaborate at a future time.


Right on the heels of the quilt show, and the retreat....race weekend!

I had three races that weekend....not sure I'll do that again, but I did have a lot of fun!

.....and managed to have a wee visit with my daughter at the Optometrist where she works....obviously we have good taste in sunglasses....

This past week was more of the same...so busy with visitors from Alberta. Somehow I still managed to get a bit of applique accomplished. 

Here is the first block of Tomato Soup, The Sequel (almost)(finally!!) done...

Today I am linking up with Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilts for Let's Bee Social, and with Susan at Quilt Fabrication for Midweek Makers.

Have a lovely day!

Rainbow Birds

Well, March has certainly flown by!

I've (almost) managed to get my blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge completed just in time.

The colour for the month was light greens. Here are my three little birds for the month...

....and here is a group shot of my flock of birds...

The block of the month for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge is this one...

It's quite a pretty block and my goal is to do three of the monthly block, but I just have this one. I hope to rectify that and have three by the end of the weekend.

The colour for April is yellow and gold...that should make for some pretty little birds!

I had a nice sewing afternoon yesterday. I haven't sewn garments in many years and I have never even touched a serger in my life! Three of us were making the same tunic but in three different fabrics. 

Here is mine...

Hmmm, not a great picture, but you can see how pretty the top is. It's a bit "gappy" at the back of the neck, not sure why but maybe a good pressing will help. I just have to hem one sleeve and do the bottom hem....so hopefully a half an hour today will take care of that.

I must say, trying to sew with a 5/8" seam allowance when you haven't done it in years is a bit difficult! That seam allowance seemed positively huge!!!

I am linking up with So Scrappy today so we can have a peek at what others have accomplished this month on their RSC18.

Rainbow Scrap Challenge AND One Monthly Goal - Complete!

Just a quick post today as we have house-guests for the weekend.

I wanted to show my blocks for February's Rainbow Scrap Challenge.

Here are my purple blocks for Squared Away, I am making the 7.5" size...

......and here are my purple birds for my Rainbow Birds....

The cutting of all the background fabric for Rainbow Birds, as well as the leg/background piecing, was my February goal for OMG-One Monthly Goal.

Even though it's been a crazy busy month, I was able to sneak my goal in and got it completed...

Not the best picture, but I am glad this got done...it will make the piecing of my Rainbow Birds much quicker every month.

That's all for now! My step-son and his baby are here for the weekend from Alberta. He has just finished his 7-month deployment in Latvia and has a bit of down-time now that he's back. 

This means a big family dinner tonight and a couple of outings before they go home on Monday.

Wow, this has been such a busy week!

I am linking up with So Scrappy for Scraphappy Saturday. I'm looking forward to what the colour for March will be. 

And I'm linking up with Elm Street Quilts for OMG- One Monthly Goal.

Have a wonderful weekend!

RSC18 and PEQ MQG

This month the colour for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge is light and medium blue.

As an added bonus, we are offered a quilty project, Squared Away, to do.  

There are sixteen half-square triangles used in this month's block. I happened to come across my stash of Thangles and thought this would be a good opportunity to use them...

I plan on making three blocks each month, and have two done so far...

I like them! Although, I'm not sure I'll continue to use the Thangles. They are a good method, but I can get the same result with the Easy Angle ruler. By using the ruler I skip the step of removing the papers from the Thangles. I'll have a think about it.

Of course, my other project for the RSC18 is to construct three birds per month from the Black Birds pattern designed by Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilts that I wrote about HERE. 

Adorable....I think I'll try to get another done this weekend.

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I've also completed Clue #5 for the PEI MQG Mystery quilt....

This step used a nifty trick on trimming the rectangles so that are cut just right...see how the seam doesn't run directly corner-to-corner? There was a suggested video to watch to learn the technique which was a huge help!

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I think I've been holed up too long in the house because of all the crazy weather lately....I feel like an outing today. 

The Ice Wine Festival in Niagara started this week, so we may plan on a nice drive down to our favourite winery, Kacaba Vineyards and Winery, and sample the food/wine pairing. 

It's too easy for me to become a hermit in the Winter.....at least I can take solace in the fact that we'll be looking forward to Spring in two months, right?

I am linking up with SoScrappy for ScrapHappy Saturday and linking this post to the PEI Mystery Quilt-along post. Also, for the first time, I am linking with Sew Can She for Show Off Saturday.

Have a great weekend and stay warm!

A good day to sew!

Woohoo!...looks like Blogger has fixed the problem regarding photos being able to be posted....I'm so glad the problem wasn't something on my end. Evidently this affected quite a few bloggers in the last 24 hours or so!

Yesterday I mentioned that I would be taking part in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge offered by Angela at SoScrappy. The challenge this year is called Squared Away and you can read more about it HERE.

I think I will make my blocks at the 7.5" size and today I will try to get started. 

It's another frigid day here, -23celcius at the moment, so a perfect day to dabble in my blue fabric bin to get started on this one.

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I seem to have a lot of block-of-the-month type quilts on the go. One is this year's BOM offered by one of my guilds. Here are my blocks so far...

The blocks are large...I think 15"... and fairly quick and easy. I really have no explanation, then, why the block in the lower right of the pic took me three tries!!! 

This is an original quilt designed by TKHarrison from BOMquilts.com.

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I think I have broken my old record on how soon I've purchased fabric in a new year. I went out this week to find the final fabrics that I would need for Down the Rabbit Hole. I fully intended on using Shott (sp?) cottons, but ended up buying Grunge, which is a surprise to me as Grunge fabrics are not my favourite!

......and here's a preview of how this border will look...

To take surprising myself even further....just before Christmas I bought the background for the upcoming BOM offered by Sarah Fielke for 2018, Simple Folk. It's another fabric from the Grunge line!...

....so weird!!!  I'm pretty sure that I'll be going with these fun prints for the applique, but I'm kind of tempted to use Liberty-like prints. We'll see.

I am linking up with Angela at SoScrappy for this year's first edition of RSC18.

Please, stay warm and safe!

A new project....already!

Earlier this week I talked about joining in on 6 & 6 in 2018, which you can read about HERE.

Well, I didn't suppose I'd be announcing my first new project of the year yet, but here I go!

There is a blog called So Scrappy that I've read for a couple of years now. She hosts a sewalong of sorts through the year called the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, which I'm sure a lot of you have heard of before. 

I did try the Rainbow Scrap Challenge maybe two years ago, but that project fell off the rails.

This year it sounds fun, and not a lot of work...well, about as much work as you would like to choose to do. 

This year's RSC is called Squared Away and you can read about it HERE or use the "Squared Away" button over in the right margin.

This month's colour is light blues. The block will be released on the first Saturday of the month. It seems like she'd like us to make three of each block....and it can be done in a number of different sizes, you choose.

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I've had more to share, including some pictures of my first fabric purchase of the year, but for some reason "blogger" is sending me a message that it can't copy pictures to my blog. I've never seen this message before and I hope it will fix itself.

I probably won't write another post before I get this figured out, so good-bye for a bit and keep warm!