Who likes chaos?

I have been happily sewing more scraps into vortex blocks but my sewing room is a total disaster. I'm going to have to stop soon because the mess is getting to me, and you know "it's bad when"....
In the photo I showed on Monday, I just have all the different sized blocks stuck to the design wall, and now I have to figure out how to sew them all together somehow.
I reread Amanda Jean's week #5 lesson about vortex layouts and construction, but it all seems a bit overwhelming at the moment.
I am wondering about how to bring structure and organization to the scrappy chaos.
Should I sew it together in rows? Add sashing?  Make all the blocks up to the same size and frame them? Or join them?
Or just let it be chaos?

Design Wall Monday Vortex

The Vortex is back!

Being in the vortex is addictive I tell you! The whole process is fun. I like digging in my scrap bags, wondering where the fabric came from and piecing together little bits that don't really go together in a perfect quilting project.

And then something wonderful happens... like you suddenly find Popeye! Where on earth did he come from? And then you start singing the song, and googling the lyrics that you can't remember. And you try to recall the characters names, and wonder what years you might have been watching the cartoon on TV. 
You're deep in a rabbit hole in the vortex!
I'm having too much fun to stop yet, and heaven knows I have enough scraps to make a few of these ;)
To see more design walls, hop over to Patchwork Times.

8 Things That Make You Happier (aka attend a TOGA event!)

On Saturday I attended my first TOGA event. No, we didn't wear any togas, although it was so hot it might have been a good idea to keep cool.  This was a gathering of people who have a passion for vintage human powered sewing machines.
We did all the things that research indicates will make you a happier person - click here to read the list from  Time.com website. 
If the research is accurate, we should all be deliriously happy this week!

Here's the top 8 things:

1. Thank someone. 
A big thank you to Harry and Sharon who hosted the event in their home. We were treated to a viewing of an incredible collection of vintage and people powered sewing machines. Thank you to the people who provided yummy food, and who organized and participated in the raffle and block swap. Thank you to everyone who generously shared their knowledge of and experience with vintage machine maintenance and repairs. And thanks to Marge for the mementos she made for everyone.

2. Spend money on someone else. 
Oh boy did we spend money! On machine parts, and books, and new/old machines, and we bought raffle tickets to support the cost of the event. Technically I guess we spent money on ourselves and funding our fun, but that's okay too :)

3. Give 5 hugs. Done!
There were so many wonderful people to meet. This is Sharon (our hostess), me, and Carol (our organizer). It was fun to put faces to the names of the people from the Treadle On yahoo groups.

4. Do stuff you're good at. 
Well I'm good at it now, since I have gained the knowledge and experience that the experts shared with me.
Ears up. 
Don't give up - when you're just about ready to quit, it will work!
Grease on gears.
All important tidbits!

5. Do 5 nice things for others. 
Mostly others were doing nice things for me, but I was nice also! LOL!
How many hands does it take to mount a hand crank? These were just a couple of the hands that worked on this one - many people also gave suggestions.

6. Create something to look forward to. 
Note to self - attend next year's event!

7. Spend time with friends.

Common interests and values sure make fast friends. I finally met Cheryl, whose blog I have been following for a long time. She came from Illinois to attend the event. Here she is learning how to thread her new/old Betsy Ross miniature hand crank. And it made a perfect chain stitch!


8. Before bed, write down 3 good things that happened today. 
*safely travelled to Michigan and back, with only a couple of "detours"/being lost!
*met amazing and talented sewing machine experts, and learned some new skills that I've always been interested in!
*saw some of the most beautiful and rare sewing machines on the planet!

I left home with one machine needing repair, and came home with three machines needing repairs. 

How did that happen?!? LOL

That's a whole other story for another day.

Slow Sunday Stitching

"Hmm.... what's this... A CAT?"

It's slow sunday stitching time!
I am doing everything a little more slowly today due to all the excitement I have had this month so far! 
Last week while visiting fellow slow stitcher Deanna in North Bay, I finished another block for my Life is Beautiful project. 

"Who's cuter? Dogs or cats?"

My work was checked by Belle the canine inspector. She was not amused that it was a cat. She tried to show me how cute she was, and asked if there was a dog block also? Of course there is, and I reassured her that no one was cuter than her. She is adorable!

Life is Beautiful block #13

And here is the finished block - "Life is what you make it to be". I am living that out this month with so many weekend adventures that I can hardly keep up with myself. But I am hand stitching everywhere I go, and having a blast! 
How's your summer going?
Tell us about your hand stitching project, and link up your blog post below.

Scrappy Saturday

These are the newest Alamo star blocks that have been sewn as a real leader-ender project, while I was sewing my tumblers as a fake leader-ender project! It's really hard to resist when a project takes over your sewing brain, which is what happened with my mini tumble.

To see more red scrap projects being sewn this month, hop over to SoScrappy.
Today I am in Michigan learning about the maintenance and restoration of human powered vintage sewing machines. It sounds very "geek like" when I say this out loud to someone who is "normal", but this stuff just "turns my crank"... LOL! That's a funny joke for quilters who love hand crank machines :)

I'm also doing a hand quilting demo with Cheryl, so I'm taking my Mini Tumble to quilt. Cheryl is a 'stabber' and I'm a 'rocker' (hmmm.... now that's a sentence you don't hear every day!) so we'll be a good combination to demo these techniques. 

Good news Friday!

From CQA

I have some great news that I can share today... I was accepted as an instructor at Quilt Canada 2016! The announcement was made on the CQA facebook page so now the cat is out of the bag! I will be teaching "Intuitive Beading on Quilts" and am so excited that I don't know how I will ever wait until next June!
Start saving your pennies (well, we don't have pennies anymore in Canada, so save your nickels) and mark your calendars for June 15 to 18 next year. It's in Toronto and I promise you it will be a great quilting event to attend!

Are you tired of hearing about (but not seeing) my scrap squad quilt? The big reveal is next week, so only a couple more days to wait.

I have been machine quilting this week, using a large stipple design. It's going to be a sofa quilt, and will be well used, so I'm not doing anything fancy for the quilting. Almost done.

Another exciting thing happening today is that I am on my way to Michigan to learn how to convert an electric sewing machine to a people powered sewing machine. This is something I have wanted to learn for so long, and now I have the opportunity to do it! Carpe Diem, right? 
This is my 1920's Federation treadle head machine that I am converting to a hand crank machine. I am also taking another machine to convert. The "how to" instructions are here, but are a little hard for me to understand, so now is my chance to learn from the Treadle On experts in person.
Stay tuned for a report when I get back from this whirlwind trip...

Good Friends

Belle is saying "Kathryn step away from the tumblers"!

When I became obsessed with my tiny tumblers that I showed yesterday, I was really supposed to be finishing my next scrap squad quilt. Even Miss Belle was trying to be helpful. She sat under my sewing table with her paw near the foot pedal, ready to assist at any time.



The problem was that I got totally sidetracked with the mini tumblers. They were so cute and the rows went together so easily that I just couldn't put them down. 
My friends tried to be so helpful in encouraging me to get to work. They offered me treats - just look at this delicious dessert, which I may or may not have had a few pieces of. 
See the quilt top in a pile there behind the dessert?!? And one little Alamo star piece, which is really truly a leader-ender project, under the needle.

When the dessert and encouragement didn't work, they offered me money. This is not a good photo of me, but I'm posting it anyway because it makes me smile.
You know you have good friends when they bribe you with cash so you can meet your publishing deadline! They dangled the money from the Ott light over my tumblers and said if I finished piecing the scrap squad quilt top by lunch time, I could have the $20. This photo is just so funny... they have the webbed quilt top hanging behind me (which I blocked out since I'm not supposed to reveal it until the publish date on the Quiltmaker site)  and the cash dangling right in front of me, but I was so obsessed with the tumblers that I was not seeing anything around me.
FYI - I did finish the tumblers and the scrap squad quilt top, thanks to my friends. However, I forgot about that money and accidentally left the $20 hanging from the light!!

Tiny Tumble - Leader/Ender???

I had a fabulous time at "Quilt Camp North" on the weekend.  Deanna and I are the biggest Bonnie Hunter fans, and Bonnie's leader-ender project this year is a tumbler quilt. 

Of course we wanted to start one, but a) we both have gazillions of UFOs and shouldn't start a new project, and b) neither one of us had a tumbler ruler. We talked about how we don't like to purchase a ruler only to use it for one project. Deanna searched around in her sewing room, and found a ruler we could use to cut tumblers. It's called a "squedge" ruler. I cut some 1.5" strips and this ruler worked perfectly to cut out the tumbler shapes. 

The pieces were sooooo cute that I decided to make a "mini tumble".
It was irresistible!
I sewed a couple of tumblers as a leader/ender, and then ditched my main projects, and only worked on the tumbler until it was finished. 

Here is the finished top with 108 tumblers!

Cozy Afternoon

Block #3 of Cozy Afternoon is on the design wall today.
The butterfly and the flower in the stitchery make it a perfect block to sew in the middle of the summer! 
It's not too late to sign up for this free BOM if you haven't yet - click here. When you sign up, you will get all of the previous blocks, and it won't take you long to catch up.

Jacqueline's instructions for this block have you making the corner blocks in a really creative way that was fun to sew. Here's the outdoor photo shoot of my block ... so pretty!
The colours on both of these photos aren't great, but you get the idea, right?

Here is the list of blogs to visit to gather inspiration for your blocks:

A Quilt and a Prayer
http://aquiltandaprayer.blogspot.com/
Lily Pad Quilting  
http://lilypadquilting.blogspot.com/
Red Letter Quilts
http://redletterquilts.blogspot.com/
The Crafty Quilter

http://thecraftyquilter.com/

44th Street Fabric
http://44thstreetfabric.blogspot.com/ 

  

And look at this July giveaway from Jacquelynne! To win a copy of these patterns, just leave a comment on my blog and tell me your favourite summer beverage. The giveaway will be open until July 19th - good luck!

Slow Sunday Stitching

Here is the next finished embroidery block for my Life is Beautiful project.

Life Is Beautiful Block #12

Notice a few things that are not quite right about this one? This is the block where I switched up the graphics and text between two blocks (click here to read about that). You can see I didn't do a great job of centering the design, but that's not fixable at this point. C'est la vie! The words are a little wobbly too. Oh well. 
But the one thing that is fixable, is the seaweed on the right of the fish. Somehow when I traced the lines, I didn't connect the seaweed with the bottom curve.Ugh... that was bugging me. 

So I put it on the wall for a day or two to see if I could live with it and nope... I can't. 
Must have closure!
I reminded myself of Sheldon (from Big Bang Theory) and his need for "compulsive closure".  Click here for the video clip.
See how I fixed it? Ahhhh... so much better now! It's not my favourite block in any way, but you can't love 'em all!

What are you hand stitching today? Are you working on "closure"?!?  And speaking of closure, if you missed my post on Thursday, I finally finished my hand quilted wallhanging "Always Home".
Here in North Bay, we are sitting in the gazebo enjoying some hand stitching. I'll post more about that next week.
Link up your blog post below... we'd love to see what you are hand stitching today.

Scrappy Saturday - Red

I am up to my elbows in scraps today, and having a great quilty time at Deanna's. The colour of the month for the Rainbow Scrap Quilters is red. I have been cutting and sewing small scraps into 1" squares or strips to use in my Omigosh blocks. Here is the only red block that got finished this week so far. Just look at all those tiny .5" bits of red scraps in there!



This is what my sewing table looked like when I was sorting my red bits. Some strips are sewn and red to crosscut into pieces for the 9 patch blocks. Isn't that tractor fabric so fun? 



This week Angela hosted a link up for a mid year review of our rainbow scrap projects, but I didn't have time this week to participate. Let's just say I have "a lot", in various stages of non-completion, and that's how I like it! 
You can see some of the projects I've been working on this year here. This is a photo of 56 of my double 9 patch Omigosh blocks on the design wall. More blocks have been made since then, and today I'll be adding to the red pile.
To see what other projects are being made with red scraps today, hop over to SoScrappy.

Off to the great white north...

Did you hang out with Bonnie at QuiltCam last night? It was a relaxing and renewing time of sewing with like-minded creatives around the world.  I put a lot of hand embroidery stitches into my next Cozy Afternoon block. Look for this block on Monday's design wall post (hopefully!).

Today I am off on an adventure to visit fellow quilt blogger Deanna, who lives near North Bay. This is the creek which passes right by Deanna's sewing room, and the sound of the water is soul soothing.  This is our second (hopefully annual!) quilt camp and we are looking forward to sewing and talking til we drop. Last year her wonderful husband Ted made meals and fetched drinks for us, so we will try to get away with that again this time!

I will be doing more of this... sorting, cutting, and sewing scraps for vortex blocks. I hope to be "turning a sow's ear into a silk purse" - now that's a funny saying!  Did you see Gail's vortex made from her scrap bag? She did a great job with her scraps.
I will post to my blog over the weekend if my old laptop can get along with Deanna's internet connection. Maybe we'll be able to host Slow Sunday Stitching from her gazebo!?!
Have a great weekend!

A Finished Quilt!

"Always Home" is a finished quilt!
I started this quilt with the hand embroidered strips in December 2012.  The piecing of the houses was challenging since the pieces are 1" finished, but it was fun for me. The only change I made to the pattern was to make some of the windows light instead of all dark. It measures 18" x 44" so it hangs on the wall at the end of a hallway.
The hand quilting began in January 2014. The project then had a brief 'time out' while I was deciding how to quilt the background space, but I am happy with how the free hand designs turned out. 
This quilt took about 2.5 years to complete. It travelled a lot while being quilted, as all my hand quilting projects do. It was at the beach, went camping, visited my cousin's farm, attended QuiltCam (which is on tonight BTW), saw two Masters golf tournaments (on TV), was one of my projects at Quilt Camp North last summer, and was shown on many Slow Sunday Stitching posts.




I am happy with this quilt, although the right hand border curves out half way down the quilt for some unknown reason. I'm saying it's part of it's plaid charm!
Woohoo for a finished quilt full of curves and charm!

Putzing Along

I have almost recovered from the past camping weekend, just in time to prepare for "Quilt Camp North" this coming weekend. 
It's a long drive to the "great white  north" (hopefully not white at this time of year!)  but I am looking forward to a relaxing time of sewing and visiting. I haven't seen my friend Deanna since this time last year, so believe me, there will be lots of catching up to do. We plan to sit in her gazebo and do nothing but stitch... YES!
My sewing room is a busy place since I am organizing which projects get to come to quilt camp, and which ones have to stay home. Of course I always take enough sewing along to keep me busy for a year!

I've also been busy cutting, sewing, and making block components for my next scrap squad quilt. This photo of my work station makes me very happy - see how organized everything is?!? Aren't those the cutest clips to keep my blocks together in groups of 10 or 20. I can see at a glance how many blocks I have finished, and there are no pins to deal with.

Nothing on the design wall!

You know those times in life when you're so bone weary, that even a solid night of sleep can't make a difference??! That's what's up here. After a busy weekend camping with my family, I am exhausted. This morning I was thinking that perhaps I am too old to camp. 

Grandparents and Grandchildren

All 10 of the grandchildren in our family were able to attend our annual camping trip. This is quite amazing since almost all of them now have summer jobs. Even my nephew who lives in BC was able to attend, and he hasn't been able to come for several years! And some of them brought boy/girlfriends, so that made 18 people to feed at meal times.

Bean dip ingredients

I spent most of the time preparing and cooking food, and trying to enlist help with the cooking and clean up chores. I made bean dip which is always a crowd favourite, and it was eaten within minutes of being prepared! It seemed I just couldn't keep up with the hunger of these young campers. 

It wasn't all work though. There were wonderful conversations, hours of game playing ("Werewolf" was their favourite this year), and soccer on the beach were some of the highlights. My favourite memory is listening to the sounds of their laughter as I fell asleep each night. Long gone are the days when the adults stay up late to visit with each other. Now we are the first ones to bed!
And all of this to say, nothing is on my design wall, and I'm even too tired to quilt! Sad but true!

Slow Sunday Stitching

I have great slow stitching news to share today - I have finished the hand quilting on my "Always Home" wallhanging! I only had the straight line quilting left to finish on the bottom border, and now it's done and done.

The binding was ready to apply, and today I will have the great enjoyment of hand stitching it to the back of the quilt. I also have the hanging sleeve and the label ready to stitch down - very efficient if I do say so myself!

What are you stitching today? Link up your blog post below and share your hand stitching project with us.

Happy July 4th

Happy July 4th to my American blog readers! I hope you enjoy fireworks, picnics, parades and lots of family fun as we did here in Canada on July 1st.
And it's a special day for the Rainbow Scrap Quilters. We have a new colour to work with for the month of July - red.  I love pure red, not so much the orangey reds, so I dug out the red scraps that I really like, and made a couple of red sprout blocks for my new RSQ project (free block pattern is here).
Hop over to Angela's and see what the other quilters are sewing with their red scraps. 

Scrap Squad Project

I haven't done a lot of blog posting this week, but I sure have done a lot of sewing. I am working on my next Scrap Squad project for Quiltmaker magazine, which will be posted mid month assuming said quilt is actually finished! 
Somehow I am going to turn this collection of bits and pieces into a finished quilt by then.
Stop laughing... it could happen!
Mostly I am really bored with my colour choices. I wanted to clear out my Kansas Troubles scraps, and am not loving the dullness. If you check out my other two scrap squad projects, you will notice that this one is really not like the others!  But I know it will magically turn into a lovely quilt.
Has anyone seen my magic wand...

Happy Canada Day!

Happy Canada Day!
How can it be that June is over? We haven't had one bit of summer weather yet! Today is rainy and about 20 degrees - not exactly what we hope for at the beginning of July!

But more importantly, I haven't finished my June UFO yet! And the month is already over and done.
I did make some progress. I added triangles into the bottom of the braids, which was easier said than done. The top and bottom are now figured out. Next I just need to add borders to the sides and trim the braids.
And then quilt it, of course.
But it feels like the hardest part of this UFO is behind me, and now I'm looking forward to finishing this in July. 
July is a longer month, so there will be no excuses, right!?!?