Wow!!  I can hardly believe that I’ve been blogging for a year now!  There has been 110 published posts.  I’m surprised that I wrote that much!  Especially since I don’t even think about the blog while I’m away.

Away and back again

I was away for just over a week.  Went up into the interior of BC.  There are over 120 wildfires burning in the province and I had to take detours in order to get there and back home.  The detours added between 2 and 4 hours to the 12 hour trip – one way.  Mostly because with the longer drives, I need to stop more often.

There is a total of 591,210 hectares burning right now.  To bring it into perspective: that’s bigger than the province of Prince Edward Island, one and a half times the size of Rhode Island and almost the size of the state of Delaware. That’s a lot of land!

This picture was taken in the Cariboo, north of Williams Lake.  It’s usually a beautiful view looking down the valley, but all you can see is smoke, smoke, smoke.

Quilting

I’m busy quilting another wedding gift or at least trying to!  

My machine needed to go to the doctor – it was skipping stitches and apparently the timing was out.  It seems to happen quite often with my Janome 8900.  Sigh!  Hopefully now, it will work perfectly as I have a pile of quilts that need quilting.

And I’ve almost finished a smaller machine mat. I need to buy a pair of scissors and find the button so I can attach the thread catcher.  All the sewing is done.  And yes, it’s the same material as the larger one, except I used purple instead of yellow on the flange binding.

Stash Report

Fabric Used this Week:      2 yards  
Fabric Used year to Date:  95.30 yards
Fabric Added this Week:    0  yards 
Fabric Added Year to Date:   45.5 yards
Net Fabric used for 2017:    51.8 yards  

UFO tally

I started the year with 47 UFO’s.  No UFO’s finished yet this month.

2017   Completed
Jan:           2
Feb:           0
Mar:          0
Apr:          0
May:          2
June:          4
July:          0
Aug:          0

39 UFO’s left to complete

Linking to:

• Sunday Stash @ quiltpaintcreate
• Oh Scrap @ Quilting is more fun than Housework
• Monday Making @ Love, Laugh, Quilt
• Design Wall Monday @ Small Quilts and Doll Quilts
• Moving it Forward Monday @ Em’s Scrapbag
• Main Crush Monday @ Cooking up Quilts 

Happy Quilting
Gail

Here is a picture of the sewing machine mat with the thread catcher attached with a loop and a button.

I wrote a tutorial.  Click on the PDF file below.

Sewing Machine Mat.pdf

If you make this mat, I’d love to see pictures of it!

Linking to: Let’s be Social  Go and see the CUTEST giraffe quilt!

Happy Quilting
Gail

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Not a lot to report.  No fabric shopping.  I did finish the large sewing machine mat.  I have a smaller one in progress.  Using almost the same fabrics.  Am thinking about using purple instead of yellow for the binding.

I have also made a small thread catcher to go on it.  I’ll show a picture when it’s completed. The large mat used 2 yards of fabric.

Stash Report

Fabric Used this Week:      2 yards  
Fabric Used year to Date:  93.30 yards
Fabric Added this Week:    0  yards 
Fabric Added Year to Date:   45.5 yards
Net Fabric used for 2017:    49.8 yards  

UFO tally

No change in my UFO tally.

2017   Completed
Jan:           2
Feb:           0
Mar:          0
Apr:          0
May:          2
June:          4
July:          0

39 UFO’s left to complete

Linking to:

• Sunday Stash @ quiltpaintcreate
• Oh Scrap @ Quilting is more fun than Housework
• Monday Making @ Love, Laugh, Quilt
• Design Wall Monday @ Small Quilts and Doll Quilts
• Moving it Forward Monday @ Em’s Scrapbag
• Main Crush Monday @ Cooking up Quilts 

Happy Quilting
Gail

I love having a sewing machine mat under my featherweight.  I needed one for under my “big” machine when I go to retreats … I also needed a project to highlight binding by machine – so I put the two together and voila!  Here it is:

Link-ups

To see what others in the quilty world are working on wander over to these blogs:

• Can I get a Whoop Whoop? @ Confessions of a Fabric Addict
• Amanda Jean @ Crazy Mom Quilts
• Finished or Not @ Busy Hands Quilts
• Let’s Bee Social @ Sew Fresh Quilts  
• Happy Needle  and Thread @ My Quilt Infatuation

Happy Quilting
Gail

I was nominated for the Liebster Award, 2017 by Kathleen who blogs here.

If you take a wander through Kathleen’s blog, you will find many interesting things.  She did a maple-leaf QAL that is absolutely gorgeous!  There is a neat trick to hemming long seams (using a manila folder)  Believe it or not, her first quilt was made totally by hand and took her 15 years to complete.  She has come a long way in her quilting skills!

You can find the official rules of the Liebster Award Here.   If you read through the rules, you’ll find that I did not follow them to the letter.  It was difficult to find other quilting bloggers that have less than 200 followers.  And I wanted to pass on the award to someone who’s blog I enjoy!

One of the official rules for this blog is to answer some questions.  Here goes:

1.  What is my favourite blog?  Quiltville’s Quips and Snips … you can find it HERE.  This is Bonnie Hunter’s blog.  The queen of scrappy quilts!  I love her mystery quilts that she offers every fall.  I have been following her blog for almost a decade.  She certainly is an encouragement to scrappy quilters around the world.
2. If you could meet one Quilt Personality, who would it be?  Well, I have already met Bonnie Hunter and was enthralled to take a workshop with her.  Next on my list would likely be Eleanor Burns.  Her sense of humour is an absolute riot!
3. What is my preference when quilting?  It varies.  I love sewing with my quilting buddies!  I love silence! and I love listening to audio books.
4. Do I have a favourite snack while quilting?  Nope … don’t want to get food on my quilts.
5. Do I look for quilts while watching a movie? Of course!
6. What comes first when you make a quilt:  buying stash then look for a pattern or buy the pattern first and then the fabric?  I have enough stash to last for years and years – most of my patterns are either self-designed or in a Bonnie Hunter book or free on the internet …
7. What is your favorite quilt/sewn project/craft? My favourite quilt is usually the one I’m currently sewing on.  My current favourite is on my last blog post. (Click HERE).
8. Hand Quilt or Machine Quilt?  When I first started quilting (in the 80’s) I hand quilted.  When I re-started quilting in 2005, I started machine quilting.  Most of my machine quilting is done on my Janome 8900.
9. Favorite Color?  Blue!
10. Favorite Quilting/Crafting Item? My feather weight sewing machine!  It (or an antique hand crank) travels with me and I do most of my piecing on them.
11. Do you work on one project or many?  This is a silly question … will all of my UFO’s isn’t it obvious that I work on many projects at the same time?

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A finish!

Quilt #14 of Grandma’s fabrics is done!  And I LOVE it!  It has a flannel back and is oh, so cosy!  If it hadn’t been made for “C”,  I’d be keeping it.  But it was made for “C” and it will be in the mail to her very shortly!

Here’s a close-up of the quilting of one of the centre blocks:

Stash Report

Fabric Used this Week:      10 yards  
Fabric Used year to Date:  91.30 yards
Fabric Added this Week:    0  yards 
Fabric Added Year to Date:   45.5 yards
Net Fabric used for 2017:    47.8 yards  

UFO tally

I started the year with 47 UFO’s.  Quilt #14 was not a UFO, so my UFO count does not change.

2017   Completed
Jan:           2
Feb:           0
Mar:          0
Apr:          0
May:          2
June:          4
July:          0

39 UFO’s left to complete

Linking to:

• Sunday Stash @ quiltpaintcreate
• Oh Scrap @ Quilting is more fun than Housework
• Monday Making @ Love, Laugh, Quilt
• Design Wall Monday @ Small Quilts and Doll Quilts
• Moving it Forward Monday @ Em’s Scrapbag
• Main Crush Monday @ Cooking up Quilts 

Happy Quilting
Gail

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The top is finished, borders are added and the quilting has started.  I decided to do feather wreaths in the negative space.  I’m liking it – a LOT.  And since I love doing feathers – it’s a lot of fun to quilt!  I still have most of the outside partial wreaths to do and the small segments that you can see in the bottom corner and upper right.  Hopefully it will get done this weekend!

Link-ups

To see what others in the quilty world are working on wander over to these blogs:

• Can I get a Whoop Whoop? @ Confessions of a Fabric Addict
• Amanda Jean @ Crazy Mom Quilts
• Finished or Not @ Busy Hands Quilts
• Check out the cute fox quilt @ Let’s Bee Social @ Sew Fresh Quilts  
• Happy Needle  and Thread @ My Quilt Infatuation

Check out the 12 Days of Christmas Blog Hop Here 

Happy Quilting
Gail

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Thank you to all who commented on Sarah’s quilt.  She wrote, “super excited about everyones reaction! I will send pictures of my other quilts and hopefully new ones that i will make.”  You can see here quilt HERE.

Design Wall

This is Quilt #14 made from my Grandma’s fabrics.  I need to add a few borders and quilt it.  It’s an “Uneven 9 Patch.”  I know that I was getting really low on Grandma’s fabrics, but when I did my clean-up, I found this piece of yardage that I had been given years and years ago.  I know that it’s a true vintage fabric, not from just when I received it, but because it is only 35″ wide!

A Feline Finish

This quilt showcases “cats”.  I started it earlier this year.  It will soon be on it’s way to an aunt that LOVES cats and needs some quilty love.

Stash Report

Fabric Used this Week:      9 yards  
Fabric Used year to Date:  81.30 yards
Fabric Added this Week:    0  yards 
Fabric Added Year to Date:   45.5 yards
Net Fabric used for 2017:    37.8 yards  

UFO tally

I started the year with 47 UFO’s.

2017   Completed
Jan:           2
Feb:           0
Mar:          0
Apr:          0
May:          2
June:          4
July:          0

39 UFO’s left to complete

Linking to:

• Sunday Stash @ quiltpaintcreate
• Oh Scrap @ Quilting is more fun than Housework
• Monday Making @ Love, Laugh, Quilt
• Design Wall Monday @ Small Quilts and Doll Quilts
• Moving it Forward Monday @ Em’s Scrapbag
• Main Crush Monday @ Cooking up Quilts 

Happy Quilting
Gail

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Cleaning

What starting my cleaning frenzy?  My daughter gave me a book, “The Life Changing Magic of Tidying” by Marie Kondo.  I could hardly walk in my sewing room, so I felt some-what inspired – to do SOMETHING.  Not totally though, because obviously the author is not a quilter and does not know the value of a fabric stash!

The Ugly

The ugly fabric – mostly poor quality quilting cottons, polyester fabric – it went.  A few flimsy scrappy tops that definitely did not give me joy & the thought of finishing them gave me dreaded horror thoughts.  Some garment fabric, some old patterns and 2 boxes of polyester stuffing and batting have disappeared from my sewing area and my house!

Bad

In sorting through all of my sewing stuff, I found more STUFF.  Actually UFO’s!.  I found 9, yes NINE, more that were not on my list … they have been added to my current list.  GROAN!!!  For most of them, I have no idea when they were started.

The Good

One of the first things that the author (Tidying) suggests is that for each category – you gather everything, yes everything, into one spot.  So, I gathered all my fabric together.  The next thing you do is ask yourself “does this item give me pleasure?”  Well, for most of my quilting fabric, the answer was a firm “YES!”   I took 4 bags and 2 boxes to the guild meeting.  I came home with 2 boxes (the odd fabric stuffed into one box).  YES!!! YES!!!  I’m so happy that most of it found new homes!

I was also able to organize my latest purchases (of the past 5 or so years) into appropriate containers.  Theoretically, I should be able to find what I’m looking for very quickly!  Please note: I did say “theoretically”! 

Design Wall

No progress on this:

Have started quilting this:

Stash Report

No fabrics bought this week.  I did get rid of some quilting fabric (panels and a few other odd items), but I did not measure them and as I don’t have a total of all the fabric I possess, I’m not going to worry about the numbers.  Besides, I got rid of it – I didn’t use it!

Fabric Used this Week:      4.8 yards  
Fabric Used year to Date:  72.30 yards
Fabric Added this Week:    5  yards 
Fabric Added Year to Date:   45.5 yards
Net Fabric used for 2017:    26.8 yards   Still doing a happy dance!

UFO Tally

I thought I started out the year with 38 UFO’s.  But with the discovery of 9 more, I actually started out with 47!!!  Oh me, oh my!  

I have given away 3 UFO’s … lowering my final number left to complete!  But my end tally is more UFO’s than I started the year with!  Oh well – perhaps it’ll be more inspiration to complete them!

2017 Completed
Jan: 2
Feb: 0
Mar: 0
Apr: 0
May: 2
June: 1 + 3

39  UFOs left to complete

Linking to:

• Sunday Stash @ quiltpaintcreate
• Oh Scrap @ Quilting is more fun than Housework
• Monday Making @ Love, Laugh, Quilt
• Design Wall Monday @ Small Quilts and Doll Quilts
• Moving it Forward Monday @ Em’s Scrapbag
• Main Crush Monday @ Cooking up Quilts 

Happy Quilting
Gail

Friday’s finish

I’ve been working on sorting through all of my fabric.  I don’t have a ‘before’ picture, but I do have ‘middle’ picture.  It went from this: 

to this:

You can even see some of the floor!  I actually amazed myself that I was able to organize things as well as I did!   It did take a lot of time and I haven’t done a stitch of sewing.

And yes, there is other fabric stored in the closet and containers in this room.

I will write more about my clean-up next week.

Link-ups

To see what others in the quilty world are working on wander over to these blogs:

• Can I get a Whoop Whoop? @ Confessions of a Fabric Addict
• Amanda Jean @ Crazy Mom Quilts 
• Finished or Not @ Busy Hands Quilts
• Let’s Bee Social @ Sew Fresh Quilts
• Happy Needle  and Thread @ My Quilt Infatuation

Happy Quilting
Gail

We were away on an Alaskan cruise.  We had wonderful weather.  Rain was forecasted for most of the cruise … but it only rained when we were not outside!  

I did not take a sewing machine with me on the cruise!  I did not take any hand quilting or sewing.  So there is nothing new for my design wall.

Six of the quilts made with Grandma’s fabrics are on their way to Ontario. (See Grandma’s Fabrics).  The only ones I have left are #1 (for me) and #4 (for my sister).  Two of my cousins came on the cruise with us and they are kindly taking the quilts home and will ensure that they are distributed at Christmas.   We draw names at Christmas and I have it all arranged to have various cousin’s names until 2026.  However, since the quilts are done, I figure they might as well enjoy them.  There’s no sense in me storing them for the next several years.

Stash Report:

I did purchase some fabric in Alaska … 5 yards in total … I’ll show a picture of it when it’s unpacked!   I’m really starting to think that I need to start a stash report for my husband:  2 of the fabrics were his choice of what I “must have.”  

Before the cruise, I did make 7 gift bags out of Christmas fabric.  That used 4.8 yards of fabric.  It was a quick finish since it took about 1 ½ hours to dig out the fabric, and ribbon, set up the serger, serge the bags and then iron them.

Fabric Used this Week:      4.8 yards  
Fabric Used year to Date:  72.30 yards
Fabric Added this Week:    5  yards 
Fabric Added Year to Date:   45.5 yards
Net Fabric used for 2017:    26.8 yards   Still doing a happy dance!

UFO Tally

I started the year with 38 UFO’s. No quilts finished in June – yet!

2017   Completed
Jan:           2
Feb:           0
Mar:          0
Apr:          0
May:          2                         34  UFOs left to complete!

Linking to:

• Sunday Stash @ quiltpaintcreate
• Oh Scrap @ Quilting is more fun than Housework
• Monday Making @ Love, Laugh, Quilt
• Design Wall Monday @ Small Quilts and Doll Quilts
• Moving it Forward Monday @ Em’s Scrapbag
• Main Crush Monday @ Cooking up Quilts

Happy Quilting
Gail

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Look at that middle star!  I have absolutely NO idea how that happened!  It’s the correct colours, but in the wrong position.

I have some frogging to do!!  And since I’ve already done some anchor quilting – it’ll be a hand stitching job … groan ….

Later:  Once I had the block out, I measured the pieces.  They were all weird numbers, like 2 3/16th square.  What??  I would have remembered something THAT strange!  This is one problem with UFOs: You forget what you did!  So, I pulled out the pattern and then it all made sense.  I needed to make a 1/4 square triangle.  When I had originally made it, I had put the stitch and flip dark brown triangles on the wrong corners.  So, the misbehaving block has been removed and the  1/4 square triangle is made, tucked into place and slip stitched in. Now, I just need to quilt it!

Link-ups

To see what others in the quilty world are working on wander over to these blogs:

• Can I get a Whoop Whoop? @ Confessions of a Fabric Addict
• Amanda Jean @ Crazy Mom Quilts 

Happy Quilting
Gail

I’ve been away for most of the past week and have not done any quilting. For the first time in a LONG time, I did not take a machine with me – so absolutely NO quilting got done.

However, I did promise that I’d show you the challenge quilt that I did for our quilt show.  The challenge was “Beach Babies” and it had to be a baby quilt size.  Below is a picture of the quilt I made.  It was a lot of fun – which really surprised me because I generally dislike appliqué.  In fact, I usually call it “crap-lique”.  The fish and star-fish are trapunto’d with 2 layers of warm & natural.  

Stash Report:

The blog that I generally link my stash report to is no longer hosting a Linky Party for stash reports.    However, I still want to be accountable for my stash & UFO’s – so I’m going to start including them in my Monday posts.  I have not purchased any fabric since my last report – nor have I finished any quilts (I’m close with one of them!)

Fabric Used this Week:      0  yards  (nothing finished!)
Fabric Used year to Date:  44.50 yards
Fabric Added this Week:    0  yards 
Fabric Added Year to Date:   40. 5 yards
Net Fabric used for 2017:    3.6 yards   

UFO tally

I started the year with 38 UFO’s. There is no change from last 2 weeks.

2017   Completed
Jan:           2
Feb:           0
Mar:          0
Apr:          0
May:          1                         35  UFOs left to complete!

Linking to:

To see what others in the quilty world are working on wander over to these blogs:

• Monday Making @ Love, Laugh, Quilt
• Design Wall Monday @ Small Quilts and Doll Quilts
• Moving it Forward Monday @ Em’s Scrapbag
• Main Crush Monday @ Cooking up Quilts
• Oh Scrap @ Quilting is more fun than Housework

Happy Quilting
Gail

Design Wall

This week I’m still quilting my Shakespeare in the Park.  I have the border done.   Just need to finish some large swirls and do the binding and it’ll be called ‘done’!  Also, I’m working on these snail-trail blocks for a donation quilt.  Just need to finish the blocks and decide on which layout (middle or right?) to use.

Linking to:

To see what others in the quilty world are working on wander over to these blogs:

• Monday Making @ Love, Laugh, Quilt
• Moving it Forward Monday @ Em’s Scrapbag
• Main Crush Monday @ Cooking up Quilts

Happy Quilting
Gail