Beginning of April!

WHAT?

I know I often see other’s writing on their blogs and saying “Where did the month go to?”   And, I’ve often thought, “really? It went by one day at a time!”  YUP – one day at a time and each day FLEW by this month.  So fast!  So very fast, I’m wondering, “Where did the month go to?”

Design Wall

Piecing

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This is Week 4: Unit C of the Daisy Chain Mystery. The blocks on the lower left are all trimmed, I still need to trim about half of them.  This step is a little time consuming, but not too bad!  And easy to do.  The directions are very clear and easy to follow.  It’s still not too late to join in the mystery. Continue reading

A first quilt!

IMG_3339Quilting Tangent wrote to me and told me that she had used the same block as my “Stars on Ice Quilt” (see more HERE. )

An amazing Quilter!

When I was astounded that was a block she used for her FIRST quilt – she sent me pictures and this is what she said, “Yes, my first quilt was hand pieced, queen size and reversible.  I got a machine, figured out how to use it and did the quilting with a vine stitch the machine had.  Took forever!  Now I’m trying to learn to piece on the machine, a lot different then hand sewing..” Continue reading

Travelling to a quilt show and quilting at home

We had a fun bus trip to Monroe Washington to see all the quilts on display.  Wow oh, WOW!!!  There were over 500 quilts … tons of eye candy … I took a picture of only a fraction of them.  Click on the slideshow below to see what I took pictures of.  Of course, I took pictures of every single Bonnie Hunter design I could find!  🙂   I also included the description of each quilt … usually following the quilt, but some of them came before the quilt …  I’m sure you’ll figure it out!

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A Few Secrets

sewing machine pic

There are secret things happening here. Slow progress is being made on each of these.  There are challenge quilts for the upcoming guild show in May as well as Island Batik challenges for the next few months.

Of course – once I am able, I will show you ALL of the secret projects … just not yet. Continue reading

A little of this, a little of that

I haven’t had a lot of time to sew in the last few days … but I’ve done a bit!

Design Wall

img_2943Quilting

The March Island Batik project is sandwiched!  The theme for this month is “Vintage Reimagined.”  It is a fun theme to work with!   I used these fabrics on the right!!!  Oh – what a joy it is to use this beautiful fabric!!!  I’ll show you more when it’s quilted.

Piecing

Good Fortune Mystery Quilt: IMG_3149

  • Border #1 is on.
  • Border #2 (purple triangles) is in progress.
  • Border # 3 is ready to sew on
  • Border #4 is being pieced together.

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A Super Fun Class

It was super fun, mostly because I came home with a FINISHED project!!!

We had homework to do before the class … the homework took a LOT of time … like hours and hours and hours …  We had all bought the pattern prior to the class, sew we knew what to do for homework … the pattern is “Jelly Roll Rug Pattern” by Roma Lamson for R.J. Designs …

I already showed you my pile of 2 ½” strips and the start of the rope we had to make.  Our teacher, Dawn,  had 2 beautiful rugs done and now that I’m home, I realized that I forgot to take pictures of them!!!  groan!!!

 

 

My strips were cut from my stash of mostly Kansas Troubles fabric.   I told one lady that I have STABLE.  She looked at me weird … then I explained it meant STash Accumulation Beyond Life Expectancy!  Then she laughed!   And the batting was all Hobbs 80/20 leftovers from the sides of quilts that I have made.  Dawn suggested cutting them 2 ¼” wide … which made it WAY easier than the strips that were 2 ½” wide!  (Hmmm, maybe, just maybe, I had a whole wack of strips that were cut at 2 ½” and I didn’t take the time to cut them down to 2 ¼” …)

Here is my finished Jelly Roll Rug.

Jelly Roll Rug Continue reading

My Progress Report – Feb 17

Design Wall

Piecing:

  1.  Block 5 of CQA’s #52blocks52weeks block is NOT done … not cut out … I should do that soon, before I have 20 blocks that I need to catch up on.
  2. Good Fortune:  Starting to web the centre of the quilt. The purple HST for one of the pieced borders is in progress

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Not much to show!

I’ve been sick … but I won’t gross you out with the details.

Today I saw a robin!!!  YAY!!! Spring is on the way!  Sorry, no picture,  I wasn’t fast enough before it flew away!

Stash Report

Nothing is finished, so nothing taken away …  no shopping / no fabric buying!

* Fabric Used this week: 0 yards
* Fabric Used this year: 0 yards
* Fabric Added this Week:   0 yards
* Fabric Added this Year: 4.5 yards
* Net Fabric Used for 2019: 3.4 yards
* Husband’s purchases 5 yards

Design Wall

I thought I was making great progress on Bonnie Hunter mystery,  Good Fortune … as I said in my last post, Ithought I had all the grey sides added on,  … I did but I had to unsew about 10 of them as I didn’t have the white making the X.  All I’ve done is finished the ripping, but haven’t sewn them back together.

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I was Away

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Yes, I was away in Hawaii for 10 days!  I loved every minute!  Here is a picture of the view from our Airbnb on the east coast of Oahu.

Can you imagine listening to the waves all night and waking up to this view?   I loved the warm weather (it wasn’t HOT).  It was pretty great … and is now a wonderful memory.

 

 

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Slow Stitchin’

Design Wall

Well, when you don’t keep up with all the parts of Bonnie Hunter’s Mystery … it takes a LOT of time to catch up … On Friday, I sewed with friends … I was hoping to at least get one of each block done – that didn’t happen!

img_2794Then I asked for opinions … for my gray – for the blocks with the teal 4 patches. I had 5 different grays … only one of them was big enough (the one on the left) to make the rectangles that went with the 4 patches … It was voted down … too dark … the others were too light,  or just right … but none of that mattered since there was not enough of the “just right” one to do the trick.  My friend’s solution was “quit being lazy and strip them together like the pattern suggests.” img_2795HA! HA!  And THEY are the ones that tease me endlessly about sewing with small pieces!  (Don’t I have awesome friends?) SEW, I’ve been sewing strips of grey fabric together for my rectangles.  One strip is made. No blocks are made yet! But I’m liking the strips.

I am no where near the reveal … On Monday, I’ll be linking to Good Fortune Linky Party.  There is bound to be some who have the top completed.  And, there’s probably a few that have not slept since Friday and have it quilted.   Me? I’m enjoying the slow stitchin’.

Stash Report

Yes, I bought fabric this week.  I needed binding for Purple Shells.  And YES, I’m going to keep track of my husband’s purchases – separate from mine!  If I use them, then I’ll subtract what I use from HIS purchase.  (GRIN!)Purple Shells

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PHD in 2019:  Quilting UFOs and Finishing New Projects

If you want to join us to decrease your UFOs and finish your new projects – you have until Jan. 20, 2019 … more information is HERE.

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Summary:  I finished Purple Shells … I counted it as a Start in 2019 even though it was started in late December. (Mostly because I didn’t want to add to my UFO list!

There are no UFOs finished, I’m just slow stitchin’ on Good Fortune.

Happy Quilting!
Gail

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Linking to:

 

 

Christmas Contest

IMG_2432There is a Janome club meeting 4 times a year where I work.  In September, attendees are able to choose one of 2 fabrics (or both).  They can make whatever they choose and may add whatever fabrics they wish.  When they return in November, they hand in the project they made. These projects are placed up on the walls around the store. Customers are encouraged to vote for the one they like best.  The winner will get a prize from the store.  All participants get to keep their projects.  If you live in the area, pop into Langley Vacuum and Sewing and vote for your favourite one! (The ones without numbers were made by employees of the store.)  I hope you enjoy the small slideshow!  Which one would you vote for?

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Moving through the UFOs …

This “Irish Snails” quilt was a kit … I’m not sure I like buying kits … I loved the sea-shell fabric – that’s what sold me on this kit.  However, there was not enough brown in the kit to make the pattern with the borders as instructed.  Luckily, I was able to get the exact brown fabric locally.  The pattern is by Peggy Gelbrich of Yellow House Quilter and is available HERE.  It’s an easy pattern to follow!

Anyhow, this quilt is in the process of being quilted.  IMG_2589 Continue reading

Keeping Track

One person asked why I bother to keep track of UFOs, this years’ starts and fabric bought or used.  Well, it’s my way of cutting down on UFOs and attempting to use up the fabric that I already have!

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Summary: All Starts in 2018 are completed.  One UFO is almost done (see Design Wall).  That leaves 2 and a bit UFOs to complete for my PHD in 2018.

Design Wall

IMG_2568The scrappy red/pink/brown/green version of Ivan’s Diamonds is being quilted … Just have the outside border to quilt … then add the binding.  The label is already done and will be completely sewn down as the border is quilted. You can see the whole of this quilt HERE.

Bonnie Hunter Mystery

You can check out the mystery at Quiltville.com  Good Fortune Mystery.  Bonnie has called for primary colours for this mystery quilt.  Unfortunately, I’m not a fan … but, it would be just like me to choose my own colours for the mystery … just like I’ve done with the quite a few of the past mysteries.  I’m still debating …

Stash Report

IMG_2565This baby quilt was completed and used 3.75 yards of fabric. You can see details of the quilt HERE.

I HAD to go to a fabric store the other day.  I had a gift certificate that was crying to be used.  Sew, I ventured across the river, into Burnaby, to visit “The Needle & I“.  A wonderful quilt store!  She has a lot of fabric and a great variety.  And as the saying goes, ….Screen Shot 2018-11-17 at 1.57.28 PM.png

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The fabric at the front of the basket is the 8 fat quarter yardage I bought at the retreat.  (It doesn’t count this week).  The yellow is what I needed to coordinate with the fat quarters … and the other 3 at the back of the basket … well, um, uh … well … they were on sale and I’m sure I’ll use them sometime, somewhere in something.  🙂  The total damage 6.75 ….

  • Fabric Used this week:  14.25 yards
  • Fabric Used this year:   252.6 yards
  • Fabric Added this Week:    6.75 
  • Fabric Added this Year:   88.3 yards
  • Net Fabric Used for 2018:  164.3 yards

Happy Quilting!
Gail

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Retreat … FUN!!!

Remembrance

If you haven’t done so,

before you read my blog

take a moment to be thankful …

 

The Retreat

Oh … what fun!  Here’s a slideshow of some of the creations … Enjoy! Unfortunately, I didn’t get pictures of what everyone was working on … but here’s a few …

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Retreat? Oh yes!!!

I’m getting ready to head off to a retreat!  Oh – how I love retreats!  At this retreat – we don’t have to cook!  Bonus!  And I won’t have my lovely husband asking, “what’s for dinner tonight?”  And, I won’t have to answer with, “I don’t know!”  It’s amazing how often we have “I don’t know” for supper!
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Anyhow … since I had my embroidery machine up and running, I did up a few labels (one for the scrappy blue quilt – below – that I’m hoping to get quilted at the retreat)   Now, you don’t need to email me and tell me that a couple of the labels have 2019 on them!  I did that on purpose.  See the top label with 2019? Well, when I pulled out the bin with the UFO that the label will go on, I discovered a label that I made for this quilt that said, “2015!!!”  I often joke that the quilt is not necessarily finished in the year that the label is made.  However, I figured that 3 or 4 years beyond the date is a little too long.  And, 2 of the quilts belonging to 2 of the labels are not in my plan to be finished by the end of the year. (That is, unless I change my mind – which could happen!)

Sew, as I was cutting the batting to length to sandwich the 4 quilts that the labels will go with, I noticed that 3 of the quilts were EXACTLY the same pattern.  Yes, it’s a pattern that I wrote and I remember making each quilt, but I sort of find it ironic that they are all getting sandwiched on the same day! Two are scrappy and one is a 2 fabric quilt.

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