School Starts Tomorrow but Not in Person

I'm going to slow down next week.  Yes you're probably laughing right now but that's the truth.  Will start getting my students online so they can continue to work until we're all back together again to continue to learn.

So before that happens I want to show what I've finished since the last time.  Here it is:

One of my painting.  Called Life and Sunshine.

Now the big quilt that took me about a week and some....  It's an amazing quilt.  Individual flowers from different fabrics, all cut out and glued to the base fabric.

 Then it's stitched on, to hold it down, that's right each and every flower stitched down.  Then you put it on the a backing, and you stitch it down again.  Finally you quilt it.  And you can quilt around a couple of flowers just so it highlights areas that you want.  It's a sewing dummy.

The bottom wiring is stitched actually, there is no material there, just the thread.  And let me tell you that took some time.

I love the final effects.

Yes some people are going to ask me what pattern it is.  It's a collage pattern from Laura Heine.  She does wonderful work, and this was one of the UFOs off my AQ listing.  I have two more of her quilts.  One of an old truck in the forest, and the other one is a cow with little tiny strips of fabric.  This one is the practice one for the old truck pattern.  But it's completed and it's my UFO for March.  So on I go...  onto the next one.

I covered my calendar book because I hated the cover (a bird), but it was on sale, a regular $36 and I got it for $10.  Here's what it looks like now:

 The outside quilted.  And the inside is also very colorful as well as very "Happy" looking.  I am happy with the new look.

I also cut out two more Quilt as You Go patterns.  So I'm extremely happy with this weekend's productive day.  On to the next ones.

Staying Home Continues....

Hello all:

I read my last post - just the very first two lines, and what do I see?  The words "Thank goodness the virus is not so bad here....".  Wish I could take that comment back.....  We have the most cases in Canada at this point.

The trick is to stay positive.  It's rather hard some days then others, but there are a lot of other people out there that are in more dire states than I so we should be thankful for that.  When I'm stressed I get more hyper.  When I'm hyper I can't just sit around, and truthfully, trying to stay home when you're hyper is a tough thing.  My saving grace is crafting.  I've been quilting up a storm, trying to finish a number of my UFOs so I can clean my sewing room.  There are so many of them.

Here's another painting that I just finished.

 Loved how this sunset on Manitoba Lake looked, but loved it more with the wild grain in it.  

Completed.

Been working on a couple of UFOs.  Not the one that was scheduled for this month.  That one I didn't even start yet, but this quilt which had the material cut wrong (some pieces), had to find the pattern again, bought more material, and finally finished it.

Yes there is two colors of yellow, but not as noticeable in person. 

This will be someone's Christmas gift.  To finish a quilt UFO that was 7 years old is a great feeling of accomplishment.  And the fact that it turned out decent, even better.

I joined another BOM (yes I know I said I would not do that).  But this one is really cool.  You make all these HST's, the size you want (there is a list of sizes for the blocks as well as the size of the quilt).  You can make all the HSTs ahead of time and then just place them when you get the pattern.   So all I have to say about that is....   cool!  It should be a queen when I'm done. 

My next quilt was this when I found it...

 It's a charm pack, with 8 of them done, all the little blocks that you use to snowball the 5" square cut out, and all in that bag.  I found it under a pile of fabric as I was cleaning out some of my stash.  It was quick and easy to do and I only had one place mat in this house, so I thought why not two?  Here is what I looked like when completed.  It's about 20" across and 15" down.  They're big, but that only makes them great.  The colors are antique looking so it goes great on my dark wood table, by the antique buffet.  But this didn't use all of the charms, so I had enough left over material (there was some white 1/4 meter stash) to make a round table topper as well.  I was thinking of giving this to someone for Christmas but I love the look, and I really need another set of placements for my husband and I.

Here's the table topper.

I love the colors of the material.  It all came together so I was luck.

What's next?  One of the quilts on the American Quilter's Society's UFO listing.  Been working on it for 3 days, but won't show it just yet.  All that's left is to quilt it.  It's amazing!

Staying Home and Sewing.

Thank goodness the virus is not extreme here in BC.  Yes we're in the 60's for the count of infected but with the number of people here in the Lower Mainland, that's a small number, unlike the other unfortunate countries out there.  But we've been asked to social distance ourselves and to some that means saying home.  To others that means no hugging, shaking hands, and to keep a meter distance between you and others (many people don't know the meaning of that one!!!!)

So what have I been doing?  I've been sewing of course (and doing a lot of spring cleaning).  Here's some of my UFO list completed....  which is good....  My room is still very messy, but it is getting down.

Called Pink Lemonade and it's a free pattern. 7 years old and I finally finished it but I realize why I put it away.  I'm short material, and the pieces are cut incorrectly, so I really had to work on placement.  But it doesn't look bad, just smaller.  Need to find a border that does something for this plain quilt.  Something that's busy with pink and yellow flowers.

Sew Fresh Pattern.  Love the look of it but the pieces were sooooo small, an inch for the corners of the paint dripping.  The pattern for this quilt is a baby quilt and a lap quilt.  I used three of the rows from the baby quilt to make the table top covers.  I did a squiggly link to make it look like paint.  I also used white on the dark color paint and a dark blue on the yellow one.

Then after all of this (the ones above where all partly done, I was just working on finishing these UFOs.) I also started to work on the next UFOs.  Here's what they look like:

This quilt start was just blocks that were 6 1/2 inches each.  It was the first block party that Pat Sloan was doing.  There's been a second one since, but I joined the first one (I believe there was a hundred blocks) to help me practice different styles.  There was paper piecing, applique, full applique, and block pieces.  I really enjoyed these blocks and making them, but not all turned into 6 1/2 inches.

So I put an inch and a half solid black or purple around each block, and I altered the blocks around each one.  This gives an effect around each block and gives it cohesiveness.   I'm doing 6 blocks across (48 inches across) and 8 down.  Then I'll add another 3 feet around these.  That will make a total of  54 feet wide and 70 inches down.  .  But that means I need 48 squares.  I have 47 squares and I made two more just in case.

So it will be a nice, and very very colorful quilt.  This quilt is over 7 years old, I just got tired and making all these blocks was a never ending project.  Some of the blocks were extremely difficult.  But I do like the effect of the purple and black.

This will be my next UFO to finish for the American Quilt Society and next month's UFO.

So one completed, another almost done but I need an edging to it, to make it a little bit bigger.  And a third one with the blocks completed, just have to put the purple or the black around it, and make another three rows on them.

That means that I'me almost completed three UFOs from my pile of cut ones in containers.  I've thrown out one of the containers.  So although it's massive, my two do list, it is getting down thanks to the OMG group and now with the AQS group.  It's doing great.

On my to-do list:

1. Another month for the applique from the Two Sisters quilting company.
2. a flower project where you use duo side sticky stuff to stick it to the backing.
3. applique flower pattern on a pillow case that is 9 years old.

That's a lot for only two weeks.  Wish me luck.

Continuing to Blog

Sorry for the lateness of this post, but I've been attacked by chocolate....  Yeah you heard me but it's not what you think.  I've had two full blown allergy attacks which mean that I headed to the hospital or could not function.  I've been off for about a week and a half.  But I'm feeling better.  Still really tired (not a good thing to say with what's happening medically) and need to take a nap most days, but feeling better.  Am I getting old?  Yeah, I'll admit that.......

Well, here I am, after a number of days and a couple of things to show. Didn't do much, but here it is.  These are quilts that I made for pre-mature babies, something that my quilting guild sponsors.  I promised myself that I would make at least 10 of them this years.  So far this would make 2, 3, and 4.  All with left over material, or material from a stash, or material that was given to me by a friend from her aunt that just passed away.  Here they are

 #2

 #3

 #4 above and below.  It's a panel.

Trying to get more done, and I have a list of things to do so here's the list:

1. Anna's magazine/mystery book block #2
2. Anna's magazine/mystery book block #3
3. Get applique ready for Manitoba - owl and next block section.
4. Finish Painting table runner.  All sewn, needs to be ironed and quilted.  For the art teacher in my school.
5. lemonade quilt that is my UFO quilt (Not #7 but an easier one to complete before the ened of the month).

That's enough for two days.  Wish me luck.