Not a finish to be seen!

There hasn't been a finished quilt in this messy quilt studio since March! I did recently finish TWO rainbow scrap quilt tops though - Bitcoin and Easy Breezy and that was a huge accompishment.

Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately?!?) I have succumbed to a case of Startitis! I usually get a bad case of it and start many projects in January, but I am now exhibiting increased symptoms of severe Startitis. 

Instead of finishing projects, I find myself gathering fabrics for the Edyta Sitar summer mystery that starts in June. I really enjoyed last year's summer mystery which was like a big jigsaw puzzle with traditionally pieced blocks. 

And is that mystery a finished quilt you ask? 

NO! It's in the UFO waiting closet. It's simmering in creative juices, waiting for the perfect time to be quilted.

If you might feel a case of Startitis coming on and need to start something new, why not join in on the summer mystery quilt June?

And if you aren't a mystery quilt fan, you can join in on Pretti and Bernie's second annual positivity quiltalong.

So many fun projects to enjoy!

Machine Quilting Started

I'm so chuffed to be machine quilting my April and May UFO - finally!  This quilt is so large that I used ALL the pins I owned to pin baste it.

One of my favourite tasks is picking the threads. I found these colours to start with in the centre, and I wound 3 bobbins to start. Isn't that a pretty colour (#2880) to match the backing fabric?!?

Then I pooled the quilt on the machine bed around the needle area. Working in the centre of a big quilt is the hardest part of quilting on a domestic sewing machine.

I was so proud that I had worked out in my mind a continuous line of quilting for the cranberry fabrics. And then the thread started shredding! What should have been quick and fun became  frustrating and slow. I should have known better because my machine prefers Aurifil thread. This was not Aurifil, but it was the best colour. Lesson learned. Again.

I persevered with several starts and stops, and was able to finish the centre. It will be easier quilting now as I will quilt each successive border moving toward the outer edges of the quilt and use only Aurifil thread (no afflilation, just a very happy customer).

May's UFO on the Design Wall

Canadians are celebrating Victoria Day today, which is a federal holiday to mark the birthday of the reigning queen when Canada became a country in 1867. Most people get this as a paid holiday from work, and in the past we used to go camping on this 3 day weekend. But we didn't go this year as the weather has been so unpredictable.

I plan to spend the day in my quilt studio and be a goat today!

My idea came from  this photo on Lavender Quilts and decided that was the perfect inspiration for Victoria Day! LOL 

I was able to get my Unity quilt top together this weekend and here it is on the design wall! Unity was a mystery quilt along with Bonnie Hunter at the beginning of the pandemic. I love this quilt! 

Today's task is to get the quilt pin basted and ready for quilting. I'm using a eucalyptus batting in this quilt and have fluffed it up in the dryer to get the dust out of it. 

What are you doing to celebrate Victoria Day?!?

Linking up to Design Wall Monday at Judy's

Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to the weekly celebration of hand stitching! It's the one time a week when we make sure to set aside some special moments for playing with needles and thread/yarn. We hope you will join us!

I have been doing a lot of waiting recently, and I always have my hand stitching bag close by. I got a kick out of stitching in the Tim Horton's line, while I waited 15 minutes for a coffee. It was ridiculously slow, but I enjoyed the serenity of a stitching break, and I almost finished the word "cannot". I accept that I cannot change the slowness of Tim Hortons! LOL Over the pandemic we lost 2 coffee shops in town, and now that people are out and about more, there are longer line ups.

A bit more progress has been made since the Tim Horton's visit, and more stitching will be done today. I look forward to seeing the progress you have made on your projects this week.

I thank you for participating in the Slow Sunday Stitching community!  I just love reading the blog posts on our weekly link up!  Last week I read so many interesting stories - about collection of walnut shells (for filling our pincushions), how to alter skating costumes, and how to hand quilt on a 3 roller frame. Although I don't often get to visit all the links, I do visit as many at time allows.

Below is the link to enter your blog post and share your hand stitching projects with us.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Bitcoin Quilt Top

I am so excited to share my RSC version of Bitcoin! This is a Bonnie Hunter pattern released last summer.

I started sewing the scraps together in June last year and each month I sewed more ladders together. That was so fun and I'm sure I will make another random scrappy version of this pattern.

Then came the day when all the colours I wanted in the quilt were sewn, and it was time to put the ladders together in their colour sections. That was the hard part. But I stuck with it and now it's done!

There are 1,380 scraps in this quilt top, cut and sewn a few at a time in the colour of the month. And now they have become a quilt top! This is my favourite way to make a quilt and I'm thankful to Angela for the weekly RSC linkup that has encouraged me to make scrappy quilts that I love one month/colour at a time!

Do you have any quilting suggestions for me?!

Linking up to this week's RSC party

Mystery step #2

The next step was posted for the "Oh say can you sew" mystery quilt. We are making bazillions of quarter square triangle blocks, which some folks call hourglass blocks. 

I'm so pleased with my decision to make this project from stash scraps (and a charm pack!) because the variety of fabrics helps me to maintain my interest in making repetitive blocks.

I added in all the reproduction colours I had, including this delicious collection of purple FQs.

The challenge of this step was all the trimming of the blocks to the correct size. I do love my BlocLoc ruler for this type of job! These rulers are a bit pricey but worth every single cent!

These blocks were my leader-ender project for the first two weeks of May.

I tossed one under the needle at the end of each seam I sewed for other projects. It was easy, mindless (and seemingly endless at times) sewing. But here are my blocks ready for the next step in June. 

To get the free instructions for Step #2 before the end of the month - click here.

Easy Breezy Quilt Top

I am so thrilled to share that my Easy Breezy quilt top is on the design wall! The layout is 12 blocks by 15 blocks for a total of 180 blocks. 

Easy Breezy was the July 2020 Quiltville leader-ender challenge and I loved every minute of making these blocks through covid times. Click here to see Bonnie Hunter's finished version of Easy Breezy. Her layout is gorgeous with neutral sashing and scrappy cornerstones.

My blocks were cut and sewn following the Rainbow Scrap Challenge colour of the month and the top was built bit by scrappy bit for a total of 2,160 pieces of fabric in this quilt. 

The blocks were delightful to sew and I enjoyed every minute of piecing this project. The colour work was also fun, figuring out how many more blocks to make in each colour to make the final quilt top kind of look like a scrappy rainbow.

Now the big question... does it need a border?

Linking up to Design Wall Monday at Judy's