A finish, a fail, and a cool dog pic!

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!

Down the Rabbit Hole....almost a real quilt!

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. 

Slow stitching...

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!

One Monthly Goal - April

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

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.

Happy Easter!

Part 1

Lately I have been saying goodbye to UFO's that have been hanging around way too long.

I've asked myself, "will I ever get back to that one....really??". I try to be honest with myself and if the answer is "no", then out it goes.

It actually feels pretty good, like a weight being lifted off my shoulders.

One of these was a beginning to a Gypsy Wife quilt. I hadn't got much done, only a portion of the quilt measuring about 19x27.

It has hung on the design wall for at least two years. Why?....because I realised I had made a big design flaw and didn't know how to go about carrying on. I'd still like to do the quilt, but I'd rather start over at some point.

Part 2

At our upcoming quilt show there will be a "penny sale" and the guild would like members to donate small quilted items. 

I had planned on making up one of my UFO's and donating it. Here are the wee blocks...so sweet....

Well, wouldn't you know, I can't find them anywhere!!

Fast forward to this week....

I decided to take the partial Gypsy Wife off the wall and admit that I wasn't going to finish this one. As I was taking it down, I realised that it was just a good size donate to the Penny Sale.

I also thought it would be a good opportunity to use a new-to-me quilting design. When I got this one in the mail I was disappointed. It seemed such a dense design that I thought no one would ever want this on their quilt.

Here's the finished piece....

I kinda like it....a lot!...and I really like the quilting design and it was a fun one to do. Go figure!!

I left it on the table this morning because it looked nice and I had someone dropping by to bring me her quilt top.

Well, didn't she exclaim about the little quilt....and she picked that quilting design to be quilted onto her quilt! Ha!

Both my husband and I like the quilt. So do I keep it....or donate it and buy a bunch of tickets on it and try to win it back??? I have to have a think on it.



Happy Easter, everyone!....and who remembers dressing up for Easter like this.....

I am linking up with Confessions of A Fabric Addict for Can I Get a Whoop Whoop?.

One Monthly Goal, among other things

It feels like I haven't done much in the way of posting on my blog lately....the days just seem to fly by sometimes.

I'm still plugging away on my Down the Rabbit Hole during my morning coffee-time. I've been determined that it will be done in time for our quilt show at the beginning of May. Yesterday I almost put it aside...but soon realised that I've finished maybe 85-90%, so I should keep at it!

I have completed my One Monthly Goal for March. My goal was to finish the quilt that I started at a workshop in February.

I did like the pattern we learned about in this workshop, was just not thrilled with my fabric choices. You can read a bit about it HERE. 

I was actually going to ditch the project into the garbage (that's how much I didn't like it!) when my husband remarked on the blocks that were on the design wall. I ended up making this quilt my monthly goal as there wasn't going to be too much work involved and figured, in the end, it could at least be used as a picnic quilt or something to that effect.

A couple of blocks...

Almost done...

Top finished, and made the decision that this would be it, no borders...

I chose some fun modern quilting...

The binding is done, now it just needs the handsewing...

In the end, I've warmed up to it a bit, lol! I think I'll try selling it in the boutique at our Quilt Show to make a bit of spending money for when I go to the East Coast this Summer.

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I took part in a Fabric Postcard exchange lately. Now that the recipient has received her postcard I can share the details.

The exchange was arranged by Elm Street Quilts. The postcard I made was destined for a quilter in Texas....her desired theme was "bright".

I've never made a fabric postcard and was a bit nervous but the process was fun and quick. There are plenty of tutorials out there on You Tube.

The theme for the postcard I received was "houses" and came from a quilter in Texas....

I love it and love all the detail she put into this postcard. I still have it on display!

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I've finished this month's step in the BOM from the PEI Modern Quilt Guild Mystery Quilt...

These blocks are pretty sweet and I can't wait to see how this all goes together in the end!

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I'll finish up with two things I've learned lately....one good and one bad.

I've recently worked on clients' quilts that have a wonderful 1/4" inner border. What a great way to add interest without doing a "flange"...

There is a trick to this and I will be doing this on one of my own quilts this Summer. 

The "bad" is when I used a Chaco-liner to mark a bit of quilting lines on my Down the Rabbit Hole this month and the marks are not disappearing. 

I'm pretty bummed about it. The fortunate thing is that I didn't use this marking chalk elsewhere on the quilt.

One more picture....of me at the end of the 5k portion of the Around the Bay Road Race this past weekend in Hamilton....

It was a lot of fun and I look forward to doing it again next year as a 3-man relay for the 30k. 

The funny thing is that at the beginning of the race it was like it is every time. My legs are tight and I wonder what the heck I think I'm doing....me? a runner?....then around the 2k mark things seem a bit better and I'm in the groove.

In April, our running club in Port Dover starts the new season of Learn to Run. I encourage anyone to give this a try....you just might surprise yourself....I know I did!!!.....and you'll make some new friends as a bonus.

Well, this has certainly turned out to be a lengthy post! Hope you've lasted this long to see that I'm linking up with .....

Elm Street Quilts for One Monthly Goal Finish linky,

PEI MQG clue 7,

Quilt Fabrication for Midweek Makers, and

Sew Fresh Quilts for Let's Bee Social