March UFO is Finished

What great fun it was to quilt one of my favourite Rainbow Scrap Challenge projects!

I quilted curves (or half melon shapes) in all the plain alternate grey blocks, and that was really fun.

And for the pieced blocks I quilted a wavy line through the centres.

There was absolutely no stress at all when quilting this one! It was pure enjoyment and I think that might have something to do with no straight line quilting which is harder for me and takes longer to complete.

In the border I quilted wavy lines for a ribbon effect using 2 colours of grey. This photo shows me stitching along with the second line, making it up as I go along (no pre-marking) and quilting around pins when I'm stitching too fast to remove them!

I like the effect of this easy border quilting design and it's a perfect fit with the swirly  background fabric.

This sampler quilt is from the 2018 RSC challenge called "Squared Away" hosted by Mari and Angela.  My blocks are 5" and I set them on point to make the quilt bigger.

Finished size: 46.5" x 53.5"

I love this little owl block that was not part of the original sampler project, but is a block designed by Sally at The Objects of Design. She (the owl, not Sally!) flew onto the sampler quilt and insisted on staying :)

Proudly linking up to One Monthly Goal and the Rainbow Scrap Challenge

Unboxing Video #2

I treated myself to another Fat Quarter Shop treat! I ordered the 2022 Cupid box and it took a little longer to be shipped and to arrive at my house. It was worth the wait!

Spoiler alert....here are all the treasures inside!

I love that they include all the fabric to make the project, which in this box is a pattern called "It Takes Two". I really like this pattern and the fabric that is included. Also in the box was cherry lip balm, and a pink key chain. 

And my favourite item in the box is a special edition pink Doug Leko simple folded corners ruler. I'm excited to try this out!

Click here to watch my Cupid Unboxing video. I didn't have my daughter here to help me like I did with the Christmas unboxing, so the recording quality is not as good as my first video, but it was fun nonetheless!

I love these gift boxes and am hoping there will be an Easter box to purchase!

Design Wall Monday

It's a blue wall of blocks today. I am participating in Bonnie Hunter's Hearts of Hope Sew-Along. Part 1 was posted on Friday and I have started 12 blocks.

(On the left are two scrappy strips for fun, and my first Moda Blockheads 4 attempt)

String piecing blocks on phone book papers is a fairly new adventure for me and I'm not sure if I like it or not. There is something pleasing about it - some kind of tactile enjoyment and perhaps a sense of accomplishment looking in the waste bin.

I do enjoy the mess of sewing with strings and scraps! All of these pieces were pulled out of a scrap bag from my friend Marg. There must be enough fabric for 2 quilts here!

Sewing on the phone book pages, I did find that my fingers got dirty and so did the machine bed. After sewing my blocks I wiped the corner to see how dirty it was. To the left of the seam ripper is cleaned. The photo doesn't really capture how dirty my machine became. I don't love that about this technique.

I'm looking forward to Friday's step of how to complete these heart blocks!

Linking up to Design Wall Monday over at Judy's

Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to the weekly linkup that celebrates the art of hand stitching! We are all about pure relaxation, and taking one s l o w stitch at a time. 

Spring has finally sprung here! It has been a very long winter and I'm focused on enjoying my happy sunny projects. 

I have been hand quilting my version of the March Into Spring mystery quilt by Stacy West from Buttermilk Basin. I just had to quilt with a buttery yellow Americana quilting thread 🌞

The centre block is quilted and now I'm deciding on how to quilt the rest of the blocks. At this stage I remind myself "there is no right answer"! Do what makes you happy!

What is making you happy today? Link up your blog or instagram post below and share your Slow Sunday Stitching happiness with us!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Scrappy Saturday

Some yellow stitching has been going on in the quilt studio this week. I cut all these little pieces to make a 6" sewing machine block. I used the free Fat Quarter Shop pattern. I love my Alphabitties which help me to keep all these pieces organized.

Here is my yellow sewing machine. But wait. I cut one of the pieces incorrectly and it really bugged me. Do you see how the fabric print is wrong where the arrow is pointing.  I tried so hard to have all the pieces oriented the same way. Seam ripper time!

Here is my sewing machine block collection on the design wall, including the freshly repaired yellow machine. Oh now I notice that the green machine has the same problem... UGH!

Note to self: Do not pick directional fabric for sewing machine blocks!

Linking up to the Rainbow Scrap Challenge party

Yet Another?

Guess what?!? I am starting another block project - Moda Blockheads #4. 

I participated in Blockheads #1 and Blockheads #2, but forbid myself to start #3 until the first two were completed quilts. Well, I'm sad to say they are still unfinished quilts AND I missed out on Blockheads #3. But this time my dear quilting friend Diane "needs" me to sew along with her, so I'm doing it to help her. Any excuse will do to start a new project! 😄 

I that they are offering patterns for each block in 2 sizes, and of course the miniature block 4.5" is my favourite. This time I am not starting out with a coordinated group of fabrics. I'm just sewing from scraps and plan to make blocks for fun. They might end up in a placemat, or a mug mat, or a scrappy lap quilt. I might only make the first block or make all the blocks. I'm giving myself permission to play and have fun - thank you Cheryl Arkison!

Here is the link to block #1 if you'd like to try it.

Design Wall Monday

Happy Spring!
Buttermilk Basin hosted a mini mystery this weekend called March into Spring.  It was an unexpected pleasure for my weekend. Step #1 was sewing these sunny flower blocks. I found 5 different yellows in the scrap box.

Step #2 put one of the flowers inside a sawtooth star block. I used some scraps of green instead of blue which the pattern suggested.

Step #3 was a larger sawtooth block with the 4 flowers as corner blocks. So fun!

I really enjoyed sewing this serendipitous little project and plan to hand quilt it this week.

Linking up to Judy's Design Wall Monday 

Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to the weekly hand stitching party!

I encourage all of my Slow Sunday Stitching friends to really enjoy stitching today - with no distractions, interruptions, or multitasking. None. Turn off all the devices and intrusiveness of the world, and just enjoy the sound of your stitching. Wouldn't it be great to enjoy some peaceful stitching, even if only for a few minutes? Let it be just you and your stitching, your threads and needles, and your creative thoughts.

I finished my little Retreat Round Robin quilt this week and enjoyed hand stitching the binding and the label. I love the Paducah backing fabric!

I put this little Bee Brave embroidery from Gail Pan into a block pattern from Pat Sloan (which was a fundraiser for Ukraine). I'll be getting this basted to begin hand quilting today.

What are you hand stitching today? We love to see your projects and hope you will link up your instagram or blog post below.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Happy International Quilting Day!

Today I am attending an online guild event to celebrate quilting. There will be classes, keynote speaker Meg Cox, door prizes, vendors showcase, and a quilt show. And I'm participating from the comfort of my own sewing room! This is certainly something we never dreamed of prior to covid, and now it is a reality. 

I'll also be sewing some yellow scraps for my Rainbow Scrap Challenge projects as time permits. I started a new mystery project this week simply because it started with yellow flowers! It is part of the March into Spring event hosted by Buttermilk Basin.

The first step was to make these 5 flower blocks. The second step has already been posted, so I am hoping to get that done today.

I also made some progress this week sewing yellow ladders for my Bitcoin quilt. Next week I hope to show you that my yellow ladders are completed and sewn to the navy/purple/aqua/green section of the growing quilt top.

Linking up to the Rainbow Scrap Challenge

Round Robin Finish

I participated in a round robin last year with some quilting friends and we had so much fun. While we were living through several covid lockdowns, we  occasionally met outdoors to exchange our projects and have a socially distanced visit. 

Round Robin Bags

In the winter, those visits were brief, and in fact I even missed one meeting due to a snowstorm! You can see the bags ready to exchange and on this day there was only a light dusting of snow.

Round Robin Start

This was my starting package: a 9 patch block made from leftover scraps, some acid green prints, and some black on white prints.

Here is the machine quilting in process. It is very simply quilted with mostly straight lines. This little tiny 1/4" flange is so cute.

On each outside border I free motion machine quilted "Quilt Diva". It's far from perfect but I love it!

Finished size is 17" square

This is the perfect finish in anticipation of International Quilting Day tomorrow. I look forward to celebrating online with friends - you are most welcome join us!

International Quilting Day is coming!

What are you doing on International Quilting Day? It's on Saturday and if you would like to celebrate this special day with a bunch of great quilters, why not join our virtual celebration of all things quilty!? 

This year’s IQD includes an outstanding speaker lineup including keynote speaker Meg Cox, 12 classes (all of which look interesting to me!), exciting door prizes, a vendor showcase (several  of whom are offering discounts to attendees) and a knock-your-socks-off virtual quilt show. 

If you are interested you can review all the details here and for only $20 you register to attend here.

We'd love to have you join us!

Design Wall Monday

Today my design wall holds a collection of pieces. A yellow ladder for Bitcoin, an embroidery project, yellow  blocks for fish school, plus a weirdo fabric that a friend has chosen for a challenge. It's a challenge for sure! I have no idea what to make with this and have it on the design wall hoping that inspiration will emerge. 

bee brave, bee strong, bee together

The embroidery block is called "Bee Brave" and is a free design by Gail Pan. It was a wonderful hand stitching project this winter. I put it in the centre of the "Stand for Ukraine" block that Pat Sloan posted.  I look forward to hand quilting this little quilt.

Linking up to Design Wall Monday at Small Quilts

Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to the weekly hand stitching party!

Last night we turned our clocks ahead for daylight savings time. And for some reason, the research indicates that the time change results in an increase in heart attacks and car accidents. Which is all the more reason to do things s-l-o-w-l-y today!

I have been making slow progress on my new knitted dishcloth. These are such great little projects and I'm so happy that Gail introduced this hand work to me. Some rows are tricky, but when I complete a hard row, I feel like I have run a marathon and won! All this happens by just sitting in my chair, winding yarn, moving the needles and counting correctly ! LOL

I had a problem with my hand quilting project this week. I finished quilting one direction of the crosshatch and when I drew the lines for the other direction, I made a measuring error. Instead of 3/4" spacing, I made one measurement 1". I didn't realize it until I was at that line. Uh oh! Do you see it?

I was really mad at myself for a couple of days until I remembered that one of the benefits of using the blue marking pen is that you can (hopefully) make it disappear! 

I used a damp cloth to remove the blue marks and most of the lines disappeared easily. Then I redrew the remaining lines with the consistent 3/4"  measurement. This error really took the wind out of my sails for this project but I am ready to begin quilting again. 

What are your hands creating this week? We'd love to see your slow progress and cheer you on!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Scrappy Saturday

It's yellow month at the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. I have a few projects that need yellow additions, and I'm starting with organizing the scraps. These are the strips cut and ready to sew for Bitcoin ladders. Yellow is the last colour needed to put my Bitcoin quilt top together! I'm looking forward to sewing these this afternoon.

Another yellow event we are looking forward to is the blooming of daffodils, which always signals the end of winter. There are still many snowstorms for these feisty guys to survive, but at least they are on their way!

Linking up to the RSC party

Baggie Challenge

Block construction

Well I am way past the deadline for this project, but I wanted to blog about it anyway. Last year Rogue Quilter Janet issued a scrap baggie challenge and I got started on mine in October - see my starting point here.

Then the blocks were ignored over Christmas, and they resurfaced again last month.

I started with 1" squares and strips from my friend Jackie, and made these sweet blocks. Would you call this a quarter log cabin block?

I made 9 blocks and they were supposed to be 3". Some of them needed trimming which means my 1/4" seam allowance was not consistent. UGH. A difference of 1/8" - 1/4" is a big problem when working with miniature quilt blocks and I should have checked/measured more frequently during construction, but I was having too much fun.

I set the blocks with a 1" sashing and black cornerstones. It was fiddly work getting the rows together and having the seams match up, and I often had to say "close enough".

Here is the finished quilt appropriately called "Jackie's Scraps". It measures 10" square.

You can read more about the bloggers who met the deadline here.

Even though I made a hanging sleeve and sewed it into the  binding at the top of the quilt, for some unknown reason, I am currently enjoying hanging it this way!

I love the scrappy neutrals!

Thanks for the challenge Janet and I'm sorry I missed the deadline :)