Design Wall Monday

Progress is continuing on my Churn Dash/Nine Patch project. I decided it might be fun to sew this quilt top together by sewing the blocks into sets of 4, instead of joining long rows. Here are the first 9 blocks on the design wall. Will I have the courage to sew them together randomly? Or will I need to lay them out on the design wall to balance the colours? I'm thinking about throwing caution to the wind, putting these blocks in a brown paper bag, pulling them out and sewing them together... eeeekkks! 
What would you do?!?
To see more design walls, hop over to Small Quilts.

Happy Earth Day

Welcome to the weekly hand stitching link up! 

Since it's April 22nd, the theme for today's party is "earth day". Although we should be taking care of our earth every day, today is set aside to focus on reducing environmental protection and the theme this year is "end plastic pollution". I have had my eye on a couple of polluted areas of town that I plan to clean up today... after a little bit of slow stitching and blog visiting of course!

Around here it has been cold and miserable for longer than usual. This is how the daffodils looked in my parent's snow covered garden on Friday. But the sun came out yesterday and melted much of it, and we are wondering if the daffodils will be able to recover from the deep freeze.

It'll be too cold to have any outdoor flowers for a couple of months yet, but if you're longing for some flowers, you can stitch as many flowers as you want. Stitched flowers are still pretty, but unscented, which might be a good thing for those stitchers with allergies! Today I'll be working on some hand embroidered flowers from Gail Pan's BOM. 
What are you hand stitching today? Link up your blog post below and share your project with us. Are you stitching flowers today and wishing for spring weather to bring us real flowers!?!

   

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Orillia Visit

I've had computer problems this week so haven't had a chance to post about my wonderful day in Orillia on Wednesday. My photo program had to be reloaded, and the operating system needed an overhaul, and in my nonexistent spare time I've been chatting with "AppleCare" staff in other parts of the world to figure all of this out. Computers can be so great and also so stressful. I will try to post some photos and will be amazed if they appear!
I wanted to take a photo of my "Scrap Rescue 911" quilt in the snow. When I finished it in February, there was no snow. And here it is the middle of April and now we have snow! Such weird spring weather this year. 
I went for a walk by Lake Couchiching looking for a spot to photograph this quilt, and found this perfect rock. You can't tell in this photo, but it was really windy, so this was the one lucky shot where the quilt wasn't blowing away.


I also like this photo. I was laughing to myself as I positioned the quilt because I wasn't sure what I was walking on here at the water's edge here and was hoping the ground was solid under the snow! I envisioned myself showing up to the guild meeting soaking wet!


Anyway, I was able to enjoy a brisk walk, took some fun photos, and arrived to the right places and the right times. The guild members were very attentive and encouraging, and we had wonderful conversation. Here is the afternoon guild members starting to assemble.

And this is the location for the evening guild meeting - Thimbles and Things. What a fun store! If I lived around here, I'd be spending a lot of time and money here! There is so much to see ... and look who I found?!? 

This is my quilty friend Christine from Cookstown, who randomly appears at quilting events and it's so fun to see her when I least expect it. We last met at Quilt Canada 2016 and have taken several classes together over the years... unplanned and synchronistically! 
I am so thankful that the driving was good and the roads were clear for this trip since the last week was horrendous weather. And now I'm home safe and sound, and in much need of some sewing time!

Mid month UFO report

Since the weather outside has been fierce and wintery, with ice storms and high winds, I have been "sewing up a storm" inside too. I just finished up a huge cone of neutral Aurifil thread. That's a lot of thread put into fabric in my sewing projects! 



When another empty spool is added to my collection jar, it feels like there should be a celebration of accomplishment, especially when it's a cone (5,900 metres) vs. a spool (1,300 metres)!

16 of the last 18 Ringo blocks

Although lots of sewing is going on, the April UFO goal is not anywhere near completion. All the blocks have been sewn for my version of On Ringo Lake. I have a total of 48 blocks sewn, for a layout of 6 blocks across and 8 blocks down. 30 of these blocks are sewn together, so now I will be attaching the last 18 blocks. And then there is the border to work on. That's okay, I still have a week and a half to the end of the month.

From Queen of Your Own Life

And today I'm off on a road trip to Orillia to speak to two groups of wonderful women.... the Orillia Quilters Guild in the afternoon and in the evening... the Evening Threads Quilt Guild! It will be an interesting and perhaps challenging trip depending on the weather and whether there are road closures (notice the clever use of homonyms in that sentence!) 

Donation Quilts

Every year my local quilt guild donates many quilts to worthy causes in our community. Just as with all acts of kindness, we never really know how sending symbols of love into the universe will evolve and unfold. 



My daughter emailed me a copy of this facebook note regarding the gift of a quilt that was received by a brave soul, who was willing to publicly thank the anonymous quilt maker from our community.
This is her post with the identifiers removed.
This is precisely the reason why we make these quilts. It's why we invest our own money and time to create symbols of comfort and safety... because it helps to heal the wounds of others.


This reminder motivated me to get working on some quilt blocks for the guild collection. We have a very hard working committee that takes fabric donations and organizes them into block kits for guild members to sew. I picked up 4 packages this month and each baggie has a pattern and all the fabric needed to sew the block. 

This block pattern had a lot of HST blocks but it went together well and will make a great quilt.

If you are looking for a place where you can a donate quilt or quilt blocks, hop over to Sarah's Hands2Help Charity Quilt Challenge for ideas and inspiration.

Design Wall Monday - Churn Dash and 9 Patch

Here are some of the blocks for my current project on the design wall. These are the churn dashes from Barb's block swap and the 9 patch blocks I've been sewing. I'm loving how they look together! There is a circular element that develops when these blocks are side by side, and as I continue to sew more blocks and put them on the design wall, I'll be thinking about how to emphasize that circular movement when it's time for quilting. 



But first... let's not get ahead of ourselves! There is still a lot of sewing and pressing to finish before the quilt top construction can begin.

And giving credit where credit is due... this layout design idea came from a photo I saw on the internet while googling "churn dash blocks" and I was able to trace it back to a quilt by Mary Manson called Colorways.

Hop over to Small Quilts to see more design wall postings.

Slow Sunday Resting

Welcome to the weekly hand stitching party! 

It has been a weekend of freezing rain and ice in my neck of the woods. That means staying at home since driving is unsafe. I realized how rare it is that I stay home for a whole day! Which made me think of when Sunday used to be a whole day of rest for everyone. Except for going to church, everyone stayed home to rest. Does anyone remember those days?!? You weren't allowed to do any work (well, except the women who still cooked and served food, and then cleaned up and washed the dishes) and mostly you spent time visiting with family and friends, resting, and enjoying good conversation.
Fast forward to 2018, where we feel guilty if we sit down to rest for a few minutes! 

Yesterday I rested much of the day and did a lot of hand embroidery. I know that if the weather was not terrible, it would have been "business as usual" and I would have been out and about, running errands, getting groceries, etc.
But instead I felt relaxed and finished 2 more blocks of the "I Stitch" club by Gail Pan.... a heart and a butterfly. Today I will be tracing out the next block, putting in a few more stitches, and continuing to rest.

From Simplicity Relished

Resting is NOT clicking around on a computer/iPad, or scrolling  through Facebook messages, or watching TV. It means to really disconnect yourself from any devices and screens (after you finish reading this of course!) and just... R E S T.  Try doing nothing and give your brain some time to power down. Stare out the window, go for a walk (if it's not icy!), breathe deeply, pick up your hand stitching project, put in a few stitches, and repeat. 

I love this line from Daisy at Simpicity Relished:

"Resting takes courage. Resting says, “I am okay with what I’m missing. I’m okay with what I can’t do. I recognize my limits. I submit to my own needs.”

WOW! Can you do that? How about for 15 minutes? 
And to fill up your spirit, hop over to Rosie's Arty Stuff to see her beautiful "Rest, Restore and Renew" inspiration. Make it as big as you can on your screen as there is so much to see in her work.

What are you hand stitching today? We love to see the slow progress you are making with your projects. Your stitches inspire all of us!

   

    An InLinkz Link-up