Back to real life

I cannot believe it's Friday already! 

Full trunk for quilt adventure

The big adventure to visit my Northern blog stalker is now history, and the work week is finally coming to an end. I haven't even had time to unpack yet. Look at the trunk here ... 3 sewing machines, 5 projects bags, and oh yah a suitcase for clothes and shoes. It turned out that Elsie (1951 - black box) had issues that I couldn't fix, so she's going in for repairs. The sewing work for the entire weekend was done by Lucy (1953 - no box) and Jayne (1964 - green box in the back).
I haven't sewn a single stitch since returning, but have been admiring the purchases made while on the road trip home.

A New Halloween project and some neutrals

A stop at the Thimbles & Things quilt shop was required as it's about the half way point on the drive and the perfect place to stretch your legs. It was fun to chat with Sue and see all the beautiful quilt samples in the store. 

I accidentally started a new UFO while I was at the quilt store! 
Do you ever do that - see some fabrics that inspire you to start something that you had no intention of making, and know that you don't have time to make it?!? 
And then you buy it anyway! I have big plans for the Riley Blake panels and fabrics that hopped into my arms. And I have less than 2 months to get it done. UGH!



And speaking of UFO's, not a single bit of progress was made on my August UFO.
Total disgrace.
It will be the same goal for September - to add a border, pin baste, machine quilt and bind Scrap Dance Tango. I'll link up to One Monthly Goal and hope that September brings more success in completing projects than starting them!

Happy Little Things Block #2

I am still out of town for the labour day weekend, and due to too much relaxation and celebrations, I forgot to post my second Happy Little Things BOM by Jacquelynne Steves! hop over to Jacquelynne's blog for more information on how to get your free pattern.

I pieced block #2 on my favourite white Singer featherweight 221K sewing machine. Here it is sewing the modified hourglass blocks. It is 55 years old and still sews like a dream!

Here is my block #2 mostly made from the Strawberry Jam line of fabric plus some greys. The centre of my block is hand embroidered according to Jacquelynne's pattern. I'm so happy with how it turned out and think it goes together well with block #1.


There is another fantastic giveaway this month which is an Aurifil thread box! To enter your name in the draw to win the thread all you have to so is leave a comment below. Do you use Aurifil thread? And if so, which is your favourite?

My favourite is the 50 weight thread for machine piecing and quilting. I usually buy the neutral thread in large cones, but the 1300 metre size is easier to use as it fits on all machines without needing a thread stand.

Giveaway will end on Sunday, September 8, 2019 night. Prize draw has been made and the winner is commenter #39. 
Congratulations to Nanette!

 Chopin - A Passionate Quilter said...

I have been using Aurifil thread since 2003 for applique, then I started usin it for my machines! At that time there was only 1 Distributor and she was a jewel.

Kathy I love your blocks for Happy... BOM! Doing a great job on keeping up with your projects!

Remember to visit the other featured bloggers and enter to win their thread draw too. You can only win once per month, but if you visit all the blogs listed below, you have at least 8 chances to win:

A Quilting Life  https://www.aquiltinglife.com/

Podunk Pretties http://podunkpretties.blogspot.com/ 

The Crafty Quilter   https://thecraftyquilter.com/

Flamingo Toes   https://flamingotoes.com/

Allie-Oops Sweet Happy Life   http://allie-oopssweethappylife.blogspot.com/

Happy Quilting Melissa http://www.happyquiltingmelissa.com/

The Quilting Nook https://thequiltingnook.wordpress.com/

Kathy's Quilts  https://kathysquilts.blogspot.com/ (that's me!)

While I have been away my friend Barb taught me how to use my Instagram account, so you can hop over to see another photo of my block posted on Instagram.

Design Wall Monday

I am visiting my quilting friend Deanna and in between playing in the creek, and walking in the woods, lots of quilting progress has been made. The awesome weather made it hard to stay indoors but I have been determined to get sewing Kevin's Simply Sensational Summer Scrap quilt.

The big reveal on August 22 was a medallion style layout and here is the beginning of my version. This was easy sewing of 4 patch blocks and an extra row on the side and the bottom.


The next step was the addition of the light 4 patch blocks all around with dark 4 patches the corners. It was a little bit wavy on the sides at this point, but I was hoping it would be okay. I decided those light green blocks could stay in those light block... it gave it a bit of sparkle.

Next was the construction of 4 large triangle pieces to add to the sides. It was a little tricky, and I was nervous about adding them to the growing quilt above. But I was motivated to keep sewing by the promise of a lovely place for a photo op. And so I persevered and used a ton of pins, and it turned out okay. 

I got the sides added to the quilt before the sun went down, and then Deanna and I went on an ATV trip to the forest. So fun! Then we walked for a long time to find this remote lake. This is how the quilt looks today. I love it so far! The next step is to trim off those triangle edges and add several more borders. But for now, I'm just going to enjoy how it looks today!
To see more design walls, hop over to Small Quilts.

Slow Sunday Stitching

Hello stitcher! 
Welcome to the weekly hand stitching party where we hope you will get lots of inspiration and encouragement to help you on your stitching journey.

This weekend I am visiting my friend Deanna who is a regular contributor to Slow Sunday Stitching. Today we will be celebrating hand stitching in her gazebo while we listen to the creek that runs along her property. I will report about what we get up to in next week's Sunday post, but I can show you what we worked on today. This quilt is a wedding gift and although you can't see the design in the photos, Deanna is quilting 4 hearts in those open blue spaces.

Do you notice how she moves the thimble to different fingers? In the photo above the thimble is on the middle finger and she is quilting towards herself. In the photo on the right, she has quickly moved the thimble to her thumb in order to quilt away from herself. I have never quilted with my thumb before and it never even occurred to me to do so! It happens so effortlessly you have to watch carefully  to see how Deanna moves that thimble around. What fun to be able to watch a slow stitcher doing her thing in real life!

What am I working on today? This is the next embroidery block for the Happy Little Things BOM that will be revealed very soon. I will also be doing some hand quilting on the Friendship Album because how can I not work on that with I'm with my friends!?!

Here is Deanna's dog Belle supervising slow stitching at the creek. She is such a sweet dog and is keeping watch for bears and other creatures while we hand stitch outside. The only creature we've seen so far is a chipmunk, so there was no need for her assistance!

What are you hand stitching today? Link up your blog post below and share your project with us so we can encourage you to keep going!

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

End of the Summer

I am so lucky to be spending the weekend at Ted and Deanna's in the Great White North. Deanna calls herself my Northern Blog Stalker! It's the perfect way to recover from the busyness of the summer.

I have a few blues ready to sew another little log cabin loony block. But I'm distracted by the reveal of Kevin's mystery quilt and want to get sewing those blocks.

We have enjoyed relaxing walks in the forest, and playing in the creek. Now it's time to get to work in the sewing room. I've already sewn the V blocks for the last step of the mystery and took a photo of them by the creek. It was a little breezy but none of them fell into the water!

This week I needed to add the "verify that you are a human" step for commenting on my blog, which I don't like to have to do myself when I'm visiting blogs, but the spam is out of control, and sometimes adding another step is enough to discourage a spammer. Sorry about that but hopefully it will be time limited.
What are you sewing on the last day of August?

Design Wall Monday

Did you think you'd be seeing some of Kevin's summer mystery pieces on the design wall today?!? Did you see the reveal last Thursday? It's a really great quilt layout that is nothing like I thought it would be, and made from the humble square shape. But surprisingly, it's quite complex and a little overwhelming. So I've packed away all the pieces and put it in a project bag to take when I visit my friend Deanna who lives in the great white north! Hopefully it won't be white and snowy there when I visit, but you just never know :)
Today the design wall has some tree blocks and a star block for my Christmas Stars pattern by Kim Diehl. The trees were such fun to sew, that the unruly stars took me by surprise!  I'm tired of these star blocks and the seam struggles. Some seams have very thick sections with so many layers that will not lay flat. I just have to push on and be done with them so I can get to sewing the layout.

 To see more design walls, hop over to Small Quilts.

Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to the weekly hand stitching party! I don't have much of a stitching update to show, since I'm still slowly hand quilting my Friendship Album sampler.

But I wanted to share some hand made glass treasures that I found on a recent trip to Montreal.

The Sun

First is a blown glass sculpture called The Sun at the Museum of Fine Art in Montreal. It has over 1,500 pieces and weighs over 2,000 kgs! And when they put it away for the winter, all the components go into 134 boxes! And then in the spring, they take out all the boxes and reconstruct the sculpture. Can you even imagine the magnitude of that hand work?!?!

The second type of hand work that captured my interest was mosaic tiles on cemetery headstones. One of my friends is very interested in old headstones so we spent time at the Notre Dame des Neiges cemetery. It was so lovely and peaceful, with bike and walking paths. 


I thought I would spend time hand stitching but I became captured by the amazing tile work I found. Imagine these artists picking up every little piece of tile (like we do scraps of fabric or bits of wool or beads) and placing it into the mosaic in just the right place to create the image. It fascinated me.

Just look at this one. In the background alone were multiple intricate images created with tiny pieces of glass and stone tiles. And the gold work was also unbelievable in this piece. I just couldn't stop looking at this and wish I had the time and resources to fully research these amazing works of art... that have NO NAMES on them! Don't you wonder who made these amazing works of art?

And now it's back to reality and my own hand work project. There will be no glass work for me, just my needles and thread!
So what are you hand stitching today?
Link up your blog post or your instagram below and share what you are working on.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Scrappy Saturday

The sewing room has been a whirlwind mess, with too many projects on the go, and fall fair season is upon us with entries to prepare, and fairs to judge. And also there is too much negative energy in the sewing room from recent unhappy sewing with seam matching struggles.

So I got out the blue scraps and starting organizing which pieces might be good for which project. 1" pieces are for Loonie Log Cabins and Omigosh, 1.5" are for Economy Paths, Shoo Fly Shoo and Wishing Rings, and 2.5 is for scrappy sprouts, and larger pieces are for Arrowheads.


Here is a handful of goodness! 
All 112 pieces cut to make four 3" Economy Path blocks. It doesn't look like much, but it was a couple of hours of work sorting and organizing scraps, and then cutting them into small pieces.

The sewing part is the most fun for me, but as with all fun things in life, it went way too quickly and before you know it, the blocks were done and more cutting was required.
Here are the blue blocks for August and they will join the collection which you can see here.
Hop over to visit the RSC weekly linkup here.

Seam Struggles

This week I have been working on my Christmas tree skirt... or table topper, whichever it wants to become. I really wanted it to be finished in time for Christmas, but at this speed it will be Christmas of 2020. It's a lot of piecing, which usually is enjoyable for me, but I am having a terrible time with sewing these star blocks. 
There are 8 places where the points need to line up correctly and they are not. Most of the seams I have sewn 2 or 3 times to get it to an "I can tolerate that" stage. 
I prefer a "that looks great" stage, but that is not happening with these blocks. 
See where the seam ripper is pointing? That particular section of the seam has been sewn twice and still I can't stand it. Rip it out, and try again.
Pin, pin, pin, sew, rip, rip, rip - repeat.

Here is the first block finished. You wouldn't know it to look at it, but it was absolutely hours of work and it's only tolerable! I think I've decided it needs to be a tree skirt so that lots of presents can sit on top of all the terrible seam joins!
4 more blocks still to finish!
Pin, pin, pin, sew, rip, rip, rip - repeat.

Mosaic Mystery Quilt

Cheryl at Meadow Mist Designs has started another mystery quilt and of course I have to play along. I really enjoyed making her Magnolia Mystery and can't wait to get started on another one of her wonderful designs.

**resistance is futile when you have no will power**

You only need 4 fabrics for this quilt, so it's easy to pull them from your stash. I scavenged some of my fabrics from a kit I had bought to make a paper pieced tablerunner. I love the fabrics, but wasn't loving the pattern, and this new mystery project works well with these fabrics plus a few FQ additions from the general stash.
Because I get bored easily sewing with yardage, I'm doing a slightly scrappy version. When the instructions say you need 1 yard of Fabric B, I'm using 4 fat quarters of the colour instead of yardage.

Here are my pieces cut and ready to sew. Of course I ran out of the cute background so will try to obtain more.

If you want to join us, fabric requirements are here, and the first link up to see the fabrics people are using is here. There are already over 80 quilters linked up sharing their fabric photos. I enjoyed seeing all the resourceful systems that quilters have developed to keep their quilt pieces organized using clips, stickers, pins, baggies, and baskets.

Slow Sunday Stitching

Welcome to the weekly link up that celebrates all types of hand stitching! 

Do you enjoy applique, hand quilting, knitting, embroidery, EPP, crochet, rug making or beading? If so, we are your tribe! Come join us! We hope you will visit the links below and sprinkle encouraging comments everywhere you go. And of course we hope you will link up your current hand stitching progress to share with us.

All of my hand stitching time this week was spent finishing an embroidered pillow that a friend of mine made for a gift and asked me to finish for her. The deadline for gift giving was yesterday, and it took way longer than you could ever imagine. I was getting a bit panicky that I wouldn't be able to finish it in time. It was NOT relaxing sewing!

adding piping

wrong foot to join pillow sides

I have made a few pillows over the years, but don't consider myself experienced in this task. 
Also I don't have the correct sewing machine foot, and couldn't get the piping attached properly using the walking foot or the free motion foot.

correctly attached piping 

incorrectly attached piping 

After several frustrating attempts, I gave up on the machine and started doing everything by hand. 
SO much better.

I tried "self threading needles" that I bought at Fabricland thinking this might be a really great thing for my old eyes. 
Nope it wasn't.
I could not figure out how to make it thread itself. I thought of making a video of my attempts because it was quite comical, but I didn't since it might make me look ridiculous if there was something obvious I was missing about this process! 

Even though they aren't "self threading", these needles were strong and did a good job of finishing this pillow.

I hand stitched the side opening. This loose weave Monks cloth was so hard to deal with, and frayed every time I looked at it!


Finally it was finished! 
My hands were aching and my nerves (and the cloth!) were frayed by the end. 
What a relief to be done with a couple of hours to spare!

Today I'll be relaxing with  some easy hand quilting on my Friendship Album quilt.

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

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

Click here to enter

Scrappy Saturday

I got completely distracted this week with the multi-year Omigosh project. It started with just sewing a few 1" pieces into this double 9 patch block which was one of the RSC Tiny Tuesday blocks this week. Cute! 

So I kept making more blocks with the scraps on the cutting table, and ended up finishing these 4 blocks to add to the project.
Then I went in search of the other blocks. They are stored in the refrigerator - the fabric one, not the food one!


I decided it was time to take stock of this project and see where it's at. 

Omigosh project in the freezer

The double 9 patch blocks are on the left. I have enough of those and really should stop making any more! 
The small pile of alternate blocks on the right is another story. The piles should be the same size. They are not as much fun to make as the double 9 patch and require more coordination, but I need to focus my efforts and make lots more of those. 

I got out all the alternate blocks and put them on the design wall for the first time with the double 9 patches of the same colours. Here is what it is looking like. Omigosh!

Wow! That is awesome! There are some colours that are over-represented and some that are MIA, so that will have to be sorted out by the project manager LOL! I counted all the colours and will try to be more purposeful about filling in the gaps now. No more willy-nilly making random blocks when I feel like it for this project. Focus is required!
So see more RSC projects hop over to the weekly linkup.

Mystery Update

Are you sewing along with Kevin's Simply Sensational Summer Scrap mystery project?? 
This quilt involves a lot of cutting and sewing scraps. Did I mention A LOT?
I'm not going to say exactly how much work it was, but we are talking about hundreds of pieces to make this quilt!

I shouldn't complain because I am very happy about all the old batik scraps I am clearing out of the stash. I had many 2.5" pre-cut strips, so I cut all my squares 2.5" but you can use any measurement you prefer for this amazing mystery. 

Mystery neutral blocks 

Cutting the squares left several smaller pieces from the ends of strips, so I sewed those into blocks as well. I liked the neutral blocks so much I put them on the design wall to admire. They really could become their own quilt. I'm not loving that green fabric in the top left of the photo, but in real life I don't think it's really that dark. When I look at it again, it better appear to be lighter or it's not going to make the final cut to be included in the quilt :)

I'm very proud to be caught up and finished step #2. 
You put me through my paces Kevin! 
Here are all the pieces in a storage container ready for the next step to be posted at the end of the month. I can't wait!