TGIF!

My friend Deanna sent me this card... she knows me well!

Very exciting lives we quilters lead!

Have a great Friday, and I hope you get some quilting done today before you fall asleep!

Two tips for boredom prevention

I have started machine quilting "Easy Street" - which is not at all easy due to the size of it. The hardest part is quilting in the centre, which is where I always start.

These are some of the threads I am starting with. I like to use different colours of threads, especially when the quilting design is boring. And because I am stitching-in-the-ditch (which really means somewhere near the ditch) I am frequently bored. 
Tip #1 -  change the thread colour whenever you start to feel bored with the quilting. The thread sits in (or near) the ditch/seam line so you can barely see it anyway, so why not use up those almost empty thread spools.

Tip #2 - as you are quilting, visit with the fabrics as you pass by. 
I like to remember when and where I bought special fabrics, and who was with me at the time. Not all fabrics have a memory for me. Some were given to me in scrap bags or were purchased here and there on days that have no lasting significance.
But some are very special...

See that fabric to the left of the needle? It says "www.hancocks-paducah".
Guess where I bought that?!? It was purchased during my first big trip to the USA to see a quilt show in 2009. Click here for some blog memories.

And see that green fabric to the left of the needle? This was purchased at a stop on the way to my second trip to a USA quilt show in 2011....
I bought it at Keepsake Quilting in New Hampshire. 
It's one of my favourite fabrics of all time... blah, blah, blah. I have it in green, and in black on white, and it always makes me smile.



See that purple fabric to the left of the needle? That was one of the guild challenge fabrics around 2006 or so.

And that green fabric with the leaves, and the teal one to the left of it with the same pattern? I bought that at Stedman's in Haliburton on a girl's weekend away in 2010. I have no idea why we stopped there... it had something to do with a Halloween costume I think! Anyway... who knew Stedman's sells fabric! 

See how fun this is?!? You get some quilting done, and remind yourself of fun adventures from the past. It's a win-win and a definite antidote to boredom!

UFO of the month (again!)

Time to fess up... in spite of the pep talk I gave myself at the beginning of September, I didn't come anywhere close to finishing that UFO.  I still hope to finish this mystery quilt from 2012 in time for Bonnie's new mystery which starts in November. 

A plain border is sewn on, and the pin basting has been started. I decided to just stitch-in-the-ditch on all the diagonal seams for the quilting. It will be a boring process of quilting about 80+ straight lines, while shoving that big 90" quilt through the throat of my poor old domestic sewing machine over and over. I make it sound so appealing, don't I? It'll be a good upper body workout for sure.

To see more goals for finished quilts, hop over to A Lovely Year of Finishes. Also linking up to Val's UFO party and Jo's Bonnie Hunter UFO Challenge. Surely with all this public accountability I will be able to finish this quilt!

Design Wall Monday - Country Roads

I have my Country Roads mystery top together. My friend Sandy came over to sew on Friday night and we got to see each other's quilt tops. They couldn't be more different!

Isn't that amazing!??

After auditioning more than 25 fabrics for my setting pieces, I finally found this grey fabric that I was happy with. Although I don't usually try grey, this one works for me. It fades into the background and allows my high contrast blocks to shine. And Sandy's version is opposite... her blocks are a lower contrast and the setting fabric jumps up and shines.

We had a great time sewing together and were amazed by how different our quilts turned out. We discussed quilting and finishing ideas, and of course we discussed our next mystery projects. It's so fun to have a quilty friend who loves everything I do and is as crazy as I am... I always feel "normal" when I'm with her!!

To see more design wall postings, hop over to Patchwork Times.

Slow Sunday Stitching

Earlier in the week there was a warm and sunny day while summer was trying to linger on.  I had to go to the beach one more time to top up my Vitamin D. I took along my hand stitching bag and started the next block for my Life Is Beautiful quilt. 
As you can see, the beach was deserted. It was the perfect respite - calm and peaceful. 
The very next day the weather took a turn, the temperature dropped and the cool fall air blew in. Time to get the furnace prepared for a long winter ahead and get the winter clothes out of storage.

It's also the perfect weather for snuggling under your favourite quilt and reading a good book, or putting a few more stitches in your project. 
Why not make a cup of tea and treat yourself to visiting some of the links below. You will be inspired by some wonderful hand stitching projects.

Scrappy Saturday - Still Orange

Over at the Rainbow Scrap Challenge we are switching from September's orange to October's brown. I had a few orange pumpkin seeds to finish up. 16 seeds were sewn into 4 blocks to add to the collection. I think it's time to give some serious thought to a layout for these blocks.

My main project for brown month is going to be to machine quilt my brown block sampler from a few years ago. A few blocks each week ought to get it done in a month.

I also finished 2 orange blocks for my scrappy sprouts project (pattern here).





This is the sprout stalk so far, a total of 6 blocks. It has a long way to grow!

To see more RSC projects, hop over to So Scrappy.

September Binding Blitz

I have been keeping track of the number of inches stitched on quilt bindings this year. It's maybe a strange thing to do (one of many oddities I enjoy!) but it's kind of fun to know.

Ever wonder what a pile of 300" of prepared binding looks like?!?
Now you know!

This is the binding for the Confluence quilt, and it used up pieces leftover from the quilt front and the backing.






So let's see what the numbers are...
at the end of July, my total was 2,286".
I didn't do a binding update in August, but I did finish an old UFO which adds 258" to the tally.
And this month I finished my scrap squad quilt, adding another 288". 

So the 2015 tally so far is....
2832"!

Auditioning for Country Roads

How do you know if you like something if you haven't tried it?!? It always amazes me when I am putting a quilt together that the fabrics I think I will like... when it comes right down to the cutting stage, aren't always the ones I thought I would like.
I am auditioning fabrics for the setting squares for Lori's Country Roads mystery quiltalong.
The more fabrics I audition, the more unsure I become. Is that because I haven't found the right one yet?
What do you think?

LIght/Neutral

Snails

Light Red

Dark

Stripe

Red and White Stripe

Check on point

Design Wall Monday - Country Roads

Did you get to see the lunar eclipse last night? We were totally denied. We had complete cloud cover, so now we have to wait until 2033 to see the next one. 
I was able to get some sewing time and got caught up with Lori's Quiltalong called Country Roads. These cute little 5" blocks are the end result of part #2. 

My colours vary slightly from the recommended list because I am using up the scraps from my scrap squad quilt. My blue is light teal, and I don't know yet what I will use instead of the cheddar fabric suggested. Once I see the next step revealed, I will start searching for the right fabric.
I have made other terrific quilts in quiltalongs with Lori, so I know I will like this one too. Here are a few of them: Mountain Trail, Abundance, Pink Lemonade/Cosmopolitan, and Cascadia. 
Thanks again to Lori for another fun mystery quiltalong!
To see more design wall postings, hop over to Patchwork Times.

Slow Sunday Stitching

Life Is Beautiful block #16

Another embroidery block is finished for my Life Is Beautiful project. This is block #16 and it is a quote by Victor Hugo. I have been pondering the meaning and I think it might mean something like...
love is the sweetest creation that a beautiful life can produce. 


Here are more of Victor's interesting quotes to ponder:

*Laughter is the sun that drives winter from the human face.
*When a woman is talking to you, listen to what she says with her eyes.
*Initiative is doing the right thing without being told.
*Music expresses that which cannot remain silent and that which cannot be put into words.


I won't have much time for slow stitching today, but hope to have time to get a few more embroidery blocks prepared.

Moon rising at dusk last night

And of course tonight is the "super harvest blood moon" event, so there won't be time for stitching then. It's a harvest moon (first full moon near the autumn equinox) and it's fixing to be the biggest, closest and brightest moon of the year. As if that is not cool enough, there will also be a total eclipse of the moon. You can read more about it here. The last time this happened was in 1988 and the next time won't be until 2033. So this is our big chance to see an amazing and rare lunar eclipse during evening hours. My parents are moon freaks, and I remember once when we were young, they woke up all us kids in the middle of the night to go outside on the balcony to watch a lunar eclipse! 
Will you be watching the moon tonight?  
What are you sewing today? Link up your blog post below and share your hand stitching project with the slow stitchers.

Saturday Sew Along Day

It's Scrappy Saturday and I'll be sewing up some orange scraps as leader-ender blocks along with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilters. These are my most recently finished Alamo Star blocks that will be add to my collection. I like the variety of low, medium and high contrast blocks.

I would like to announce the winner of the draw for the free patterns from Jacquelynne Steves. There were 48 comments on the giveaway blog post, and the random number generator picked # 27, who was Laura. Congratulations Laura and I hope you enjoying trying the quilt and the needlepunch patterns.

Today I'll be working on my Cozy Afternoon quilt with the Sew Along hosted by Jacquelynn. All my blocks are made and I'm working on the layout decisions for the quilt. Jacquelynne's pattern makes a quilt about 66" square and I wanted a smaller version. So I am changing the layout using only the embroidery blocks and some outside setting triangles. 
I also need to make some fabric decisions since I don't have enough of any one fabric to make all the setting triangles. This is a terrible photo, but it does show some of the fabrics I am auditioning. By the end of the day, it will all be decided.  Come join us over at the sew long if you have some sewing time on your schedule today.

Finished Quilt - Long Post

My fourth Scrap Squad quilt is finished! For this assignment I made a pattern called "Blue Bayou" by Kate Colleran. It is from the September/October issue of Quiltmaker magazine.

Deciding on the layout was the highlight of making this quilt. There are so many possible options in setting these blocks together. Of course I tried out all of the layouts in Quiltmaker magazine on my design wall to see what would happen when each block was twisted, turned, and set differently beside it's neighbour.

Option 1 - love what the darker teal/blue is doing but didn't like the light/blah 16 patch blocks that emerged.

Option 2 - a little frenetic for my liking

Option 3 - I like what the red pinwheels are doing in this layout

Option 4 - This is a variation on option #1 and again I don't like the light/blah 16 patch blocks.

Option 5 - This is fun...I just noticed that the top left corner block isn't turned properly!

Option 6 - I really like this layout and it was my second choice.

Option 7 - Fun zigzag layout.

After all the block play, I loaded the photos on my computer and after viewing them several times, finally decided that I really liked option #1 the best. And if I pulled the third and fourth columns down one block, it got rid of the light/blah 16 patch block that I didn't like, and gave it a zigzag look that I loved. Perfect!

Option 8 - my favourite!

Confluence at the confluence

I call this quilt "Confluence" which according to Mr. Webster means "a coming or flowing together, meeting, or gathering at one point". The design is a confluence of two of the possible layouts, and of course I had to do a photo shoot at the confluence of the two rivers in my town.

While trying to get a good photo of the quilt, the clouds started to clear away, and the sun came streaming through which made my camera very unhappy. Makes for interesting photos though :)

And then when Mr Max (the granddog) came to visit, I had to try a photo shoot with him. He had forgotten all his posing skills that I had taught him previously. But just look at this cheeky fur baby - does he look guilty or what?!? And his left eye changed colours to match the quilt... that's kind of wierd!

One last photo - the back of the quilt is just chunks of leftover fabric sewn together to use it up. You can maybe see here that I have adopted 

Martha Schellingerhoud's idea of using the same colour of thread in the bobbin as you are quilting with. I like how it makes the back of the quilt more interesting.

Trauma Recovery

Great news! My blog photos from the last 5 years have re-emerged from the ether!
My son and I worked on my computer yesterday for 2 hours, and we (and by "we", I mean "he"!) installed new hard drives and downloaded stuff like a new web browser and blah, blah, blah, I'm not sure what! 

The dusty guts of my trusty old computer

It was like doing CPR on my old computer. Never once did he suggest "putting it down" which bodes well for me in the future, eh?!?! LOL
He did almost give up at one point. We were unable to locate my photos in Picasa, which is where my blog photos have been stored for the past 9 years. This past week I discovered that I had a new Google Plus account, which I didn't ever sign up for because I don't like it and I didn't want it. And somehow the photos were stored on that Google Plus thing, and disappeared when I tried to get rid of it. 
No can do! You cannot unsubscribe from Google Plus. But you can lose a lot of photos in the process.

2 GB of old memory in my hand

Once my son figured out where the photos had gone, he was able to learn from his internet research how to retrieve them. And he did! Although he tried to convince me that everything about computers is logical and based on algorithms, I experienced the whole traumatic event as illogical and mysterious.
Wow... this was another huge lesson for me. I am way too attached to my blog everything. My son said "Nothing is permanent Mom." 
Gulp.
Amazingly the photos have reappeared, I am recovering from the trauma, and I have discovered that my son is actually a wise old magician!
This event was the push I needed to get my blog published in a more permanent form, such as a book. That will be my goal for the weekend - to research options for printing. And then Mr. Google Plus won't be able to take all that history away randomly. 
My wise son also texted me: "Technology is like a shovel. You can use it to plant a garden or you can hit yourself over the head with it!" 
How did he get so smart? 

I can now be found in my sewing room, trying to recover from the trauma of hitting myself over the head with this technological shovel! I am sewing little pieces together for Lori's Country Roads mystery quiltalong. Here are the parts for 9 blocks.
And if the computer is indeed fixed, and stays fixed, tomorrow will be the big reveal of my next Scrap Squad quilt!

Now you see it, now you don't!

For some unknown reason my blog lost a lot of photos today. Perhaps it was just a random computer gremlin? I started reloading some photos that I still have on my computer for the posts from the past couple of weeks, including the photo on the blog header that just evaporated. But then I realized that my blog is actually missing most of the photos going back about three years.
Yep... about 5 YEARS of photos are GONE.
That is way worse (for me) than fabric being gone.
Is this another "let it go" lesson for me? 
I have no idea what to do about this and am open to suggestions.

Did you ever wonder what more than 70" of a quilt shoved into the harp of a domestic sewing machine looks like.
Now you know!
It has been a real workout!
This is a test to see if the photo will actually show up on the blog. 
Yes... I see it.
Now, will it still be there tomorrow? We shall see.
I won't hold my breath!

Design Wall Monday

What's on my design wall today?
Absolutely nothing but threads :)
I've been busy with my next Scrap Squad quilt. 

This is one of the fabrics in the quilt backing. I really love it, and have been saving hoarding it. I looked at it again this week and knew it was perfect to put in the backing, but hesitated. 
I knew I couldn't cut it up to sew in the pieced quilt top, but why couldn't I put it in the backing as a whole piece??
Answer: because then it would be gone, and not in my fabric collection any more.
In my brief moments of sanity I know that this is just ridiculous. But I also know that you fabric collectors out there in blog land understand this dilemma. Coin collectors don't spend their collection, and stamp collectors don't use their prize stamps (do people even have those hobbies anymore?!?)
Sometimes it's hard to actually use your favourite fabrics. 
But really the fabric is not "gone". 
It is in a quilt. 
Duh. 
I guess it's another "let it go" lesson that I wrote about yesterday. So I got over myself, and sewed it into the backing. 
And on to the quilting...

I picked out these 3 thread thread colours for the machine quilting.
How many bobbins do you wind when you start machine quilting a big quilt on a domestic sewing machine? I wound 5 bobbins to start this time for a 70"+ quilt.
If you want to see some real design wall posts, hop over to Patchwork Times and see what quilters are creating on their design walls this week.

Slow Sunday Stitching - Abscission

Fall is my favourite season and I like to be outside as much as possible to soak up the sensory pleasures of the season. I love the sound of the rustling leaves that crunch when you walk on them, the sight of the beautiful gold, orange and red fall colours, and the smell of the decaying leaves in the forest. 
If you like to collect fun words, here's a good one for you - abscission. This is the process by which trees let go of their leaves. That's right... they just let them drop off. 

It's a good reminder to us to do the same - to discard that which no longer serves us. 
Just let it go. Loosen that grip, and stop clinging to what we think we need.

Of course, it's easier said than done!


Have you ever tried a butterfly release? I just happened to get a butterfly that was reluctant to let go. It just clung on to my finger. 
We bonded. We talked... mostly it was me doing the talking ;)
I briefly considered stuffing that beautiful creature in my pocket and taking it home. But I didn't. I waited patiently, explaining about the wonderful adventure waiting just beyond those trees.
And then, just like that, it let go and flew away.
Mission accomplished.

Today I will be slow stitching outside, enjoying the beautiful fall weather while I put a few more stitches in this embroidery block. I will be thinking about abscission and what needs to fall away.   

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