Another Thing off my bucket list for this month....

Been catching up with the Cozy Holiday Sampler QAL by Apples and Beavers. I bought this last year and only had time to do 5 of them.  So I gave up.  Now I'm back on track, doing one a week with email prompts from Apples and Beaver.   Sometimes even 2nd one for the week. There are 20 paper piece blocks.  I had 7 of them done before this, so now I have 10.  I wanted to do 4 of the following this month and I marked which ones I have completed.:

• Teddy Bear
• Snowflake - done
• Ms. Santa Claus - done
• Female elf
• Male elf
• Sock wasn't on my list but I got it done.

Sock in blue.

Star with two colors white, one is shiny.

I had fun with this one and the eye glasses were so cute.

I also am in a challenge of the week for water coloring that I found online.  So I completed the following as a practice of a YouTube video I found online.  Below is mine and after is the YouTube video:

Then I purchased some acrylic tubes on Facebook (6 of them but one was bad so I threw it away) and she also gave me some huge canvases for free.  Right away I wanted to use the colors so I painted this:

You can see the sun set better with a light shining on it.  There's also birds in the top left corner.  It was about 30" wide and 46" length.  It really was gorgeous but I didn't have room for it, and my husband said no....   You have to understand I have tons of pictures all over the place, mine in acrylic, mine in watercolor, and my mom's in both watercolor and acrylic (she was a professional artist - she did portraits and landscapes of the prairies.) so I have no room.  I circulate my pictures (take some down and put up new ones).  It's funny how many I have.

So I offered it to three people and all said no.  It's the size.....  Finally I told my husband "Hey listen all I wanted to do is try this out, and I learned something about it, so it's OK, lets give it to a second hand store as a donation".  So off I go to do this and while in the elevator of our condo another person steps in, says she likes it and my husband says "you want it?  It's yours" and she says yes that its a beautiful painting, I say thank you and she's impressed that she knows the artist.  So that seals the deal, she takes it.  Funny hun???

But in the end when I offered the painting to one friend she said no it's too big but she really likes this other one in my place, and I end up giving her that one.  I have way too many pictures, so one less is enough.  But it wasn't enough apparently because I finished another item on my goals list.  This ended up on a wall that my husband said "No pictures are going up here, I want one wall clean, nothing on it".  Not any more:

This was the 2nd part of my challenge of the month to finish a quilt, but really I always wanted to make it, but was always scared to do so,  It had so many little details to add, and then to embroider.  But in the end it's done, and in my own style.  I didn't make it exactly like the pattern, but I still like it and so does my husband.

The 1st part of my challenge of the month to finish was the Cat in the Hat quilt, which I completed a week ago.  You can read about it here at this link but I've included a picture of the quilt below.  Really, it turned out great for a gift for a brand new mother.  She'll love it.  And I'm gifting it with a couple of Dr. Seuss books that I bought at a used book store.  It's perfect!!!  All flannel.

I also did one more as a surprise to my hubby, a quilt he's been asking to get for the past 2 years, his LA quilt.  Here it is.

He's a huge LA Kings and LA Dodger fan, so this just made it for him.  Finally done, 16" by 30 inces and on the wall in the hallway.  He's happy!!!

That's it for quilts.  I'm following Crystal Coast Quilting Guild for the numbers of the quilts to do for the american Quilting Society UFO challenge.  I'm sure I covered 2 of them, and the Summer BOM was an extra that I started this month and completed this month.  That's a first in a long time lol.

I'm also hooking up to Stories from the Sewing Room One Monthly Goal for completing so much and also for starting a new one and finishing it in the month....  Can't believe I did that   Here's my goal stating blog post.  On to the next month.....  and back to school subbing.  Have a great week.

This month I joined the Summer Block Party 2025.  It was a free BOM with some really cool blocks that were 18" big.  The blocks were  so cute I could not resist (and I should of because I was going to add another UFO to the list!!!!).  But instead of a quilt I wanted to make a bed runner, and that's exactly what I did.

There were 9 blocks in total by a great group of people.  I was following A Bright Corner for her links and getting emails from all the girls who were putting this on.  It's over with but I did complete the quilt.  I quilted it, and did all the blocks in a month.  I AM SO PROUD of myself.

Love the bathing suit, but it turned out to be bigger than the other blocks so I had to cut it down a bit.  The hardest block to do was the umbrella with the chairs, something that I really wanted to complete but I made a mistake.  Can you see it?  I want to do that block again so next time I'll do it right, hopefully.

Now the next watercolor challenge:  to paint sea life so this is what I want to attempt:

As for the next quilt, who knows but it will definitely be a new one and one that I started and need to  finish, like the girl with the red blocks all around it (the blocks are from RB and the applique was a piece I found in a 2nd hand store.  It's a quilt I want to make for our bed with no batting, so it's nice and light, especially after this heat wave in BC we're having.  We are in the north, and here Lipton BB was in the 40 degree mark, breaking another record.  What the heck.

Good luck to everyone finishing their UFOs.  Take care.

Got her done!!! And a lot more

 Got that baby quilt all completed!!!  I don't even know where I got this but it was with Kaffe material that was made for Christmas at least 4 years before Covid and I picked it up in a sale section, that I do remember.  I didn't try it for years because the instructions was one page, and not very clear at all.  Truthfully, I looked at the picture and figured it out.  All the material including the backing was $48 American years ago, and look how big it is.  It's for a friend who announced that she was pregnant.  Her baby shower is in October and it's been so long since I've been to one that I thought I would go with this and a couple of books from Dr. Seuss.  It's so cute.

I even remember a couple of the books that are pictured here.  The picture below is a better one, you can see it clearer and what books are listed.  And of course there's the book "The Cat in the Hat".  I remember my mom reading these books to us and later us reading them ourselves.

I even had time to do last weeks challenge, a store front, but I did a bar front from London England.  It's up on the wall and giving us both memories, which are good.  The problem is I'm starting to run out of places to hang pictures...  lol 

Then I did something really bad.....  I've been collecting the Mystery Up on the Rooftop Fat Quarter Shop Exclusive, it's cute as the devil but you'll have to go there and see if for yourself, because I haven't even started this one.  But after seeing how to put the blocks together, I WANT IT!

It's been a really hot couple of days here in BC, and this place gets up to 32 degrees (89 on the gage today).  Last night it didn't even cool down and then heated up again.  We have a loft, with 28 ft. ceilings so it's impossible to cool down with an air conditioner, and truthfully who would of thought it 7 years ago when we bought this place that BC would get so hot.  But tomorrow it's suppose to cool down so I've been prepping....

I've cut out 3 Summer Block Party patterns (they were get them for a week and then after that pay).  Well it's been more than a week, and I've been seeing them on Facebook, they're soooooo cute that I just had to start mine.  So I have 3 of them cut out, not on my list of things to do, but what the heck...  So my table is a mess with the cuttings, but I should have those 3 sewn today and I'll show them.  They're a great way of getting rid of your scraps.

Speaking of scraps, that medallion quilt I made all out of scraps, guess who's loving it!!!  It's on our bed now, but someone loves to cuddle in it.

When the time is right I'm going to hook up to the finished section of the UFO challenge.  But I still have about 3 more things to do, so off I go.

One of them is the quilt of LA (where my husband is at right now) before he comes back tomorrow.  Wish me luck to get it done!!

Love Making Lists. Goals for August.

 And quilting is no exception.  I'm on a list making push and here it is in order of importance:

• Welcome to Hollywood table runner for my husband - that one you have to wait and see.  It's applique, using two sided interface.  It is so old, I don't remember where I got the free pattern from, I have to find out.  But it's a 9 x 20 size so it would be perfect on a wall in the kitchen.
• 4 more paper pieces for the Cozy Holiday Sampler QAL by Apples and Beavers. I bought this last year and only had time to do about 5 of them.  So I gave up.  Now I'm back on track, doing one a week with email prompts from Apples and Beaver.   You can see a sample of one below.   There are 20 paper piece blocks.  Already have 7 of them done so now I want to do 4 of the following this month:
• Teddy Bear
• Snowflake
• Ms. Santa Claus
• Female elf
• Male elf

This is their sampler.

• 3 more cacti from the Cacti quilt.

• Baby quilt that is due to give away at the start of September.  I've had this one for close to 10 years, just sitting in a package, so it's time to get it done.
• 2 blocks from the Summer  Block Party that I never even started but I do have scraps to complete it all.  I've seen a number of other people trying to finish it so I'm starting because I want it on my barn door....  It looks so cute for the summer.  Lets see what happens.  The link is here for what it was all about....
• Cut out Bear-Wildered by Art East Quilting Co.  Just bought it, couldn't resist.  Want to hang it on my wall in the living room.  It's my one start (not a UFO but a kit that I just purchased so I want it done before it becomes a UFO).  I want to cut it all out this month, and sew it the next month.  My hubby is going on vacation with his friend, he's gone for 4 days, so it's 4 days of complete sewing.

Anything else is a bonus....  I'll be happy to get the Hollywood quilt done for the hubby.  He leaves in one week.  He'll have fun and I want the fun to continue when he sees the quilt he's been asking about for the past 4 years.   I think it's time   ;)

That's it, that's my goals, #1 the Hollywood one and the baby quilt which will be due for September.  I need a couple of small ones for this month considering the last month.  Lets hope it goes well.  I'm hooking up to the OMG group at Stories from the Sewing Room.

Good luck to all.

One Monthly Goal Completed for June

 Well, I got it done, the giant Medallion Quilt.  It's made of scrap white/off white background and a number of fat quarter Kaffe fabric bundles I bought from Dinkydoo (a quilting store in Maple Ridge).  Yes it's bright and gorgeous, "YELLING" look at me!!!!  I started it with the Medallion challenge rom --------------- and I did all my rows.  It was a generous lap top then (65" by 65") but now it's 98" by 98".  OMG!!!    It was part of the Stay at Home Round Robin that was on online.  I found it at Kathleen's site, and the link up is at Quilting Gail's site (click on the link here to see the finals)  if you want to see all the finishes.  They're amazing.

It's a king.  I added another row of 15" blocks of more flowers.  The pattern is from the Block Head series, free.   Stacy Iest Hsu made this block in a 12" size and it is just the cutest, but I made all the flowers face the same way, and I put a 1 1/2" divider between, with a 1 1/2" section either on top or at the bottom, to alternate them in placement so they were not all in a row.  You can get the flower pattern here.  It's part of the Block Heads 3 Block 46 rose alternative.

And every garden needs a cat.  I put a heart in it.

After the 14th flower, I was getting tired.  So I decided to add the bee and the bee hive.  This pattern was on sale at one point from Heather Valentine of the Sewing Loft.  She made a very cute group of blocks (size 6 or 12") of the bee hive, the bee and some flowers that I did not use.  You can see them better on her site at this link.  It's so easy to make and I just loved these bee patterns.  

So I made two of the bees to add on the size of 6" and the bee hive at 12".  Then I wanted to try another quilt block free from the Moda Bake Shop, a block that is part of the Summer in the Garden, another quilt on my list of quilts to do.  I just love this coneflower.  It's by Jen Daly.  It comes in 6" or 12" block and of course I made the 12" one.  You can find this free block on this link.   It's at the bottom of the page.   I put two coneflowers, one on each side.  You can't see the pictures well here, but there are two reds in this one) a different red in the middle, and it just pops.  I GOT to make a quilt of all these flower blocks!!

So that's the additions I made to enlarge this quilt.  Really it looks wonder.  The flowers pop with everything else I added.  I added another wheel for the top, then a line of divider that I used around each row.  The first line of flowers was where I ended it, and the addition you can see at the bottom

At the end of the bed quilt I added another row of log cabins with scraps, and then I added the ribbon, just to add some spice (and quite frankly, I was really tired of this quilt).  I used quilt as you go on all of these additions, because I was using my domestic.  Yeah, you got it my little domestic.  I used the border at the end of each row to add the new row.



And in case you forgot the original center piece, this one takes the cake, the colors that just go crazy.  That's it, that's my finish.

Will be hooking up the UFO challenge finish with Sewing from the Sewing Room.

As for the extras I said I would do, I did catch up with the Christmas quilt from Apples and Beavers.  It's all paper piece as you can see.  There are a number of designs, all 12 1/2 by 12 1/2 unflinished.  The skill level goes from beginner to confident in a building skills level.  I love their patterns, all fantasy, and most paper piece.  Some are stitch and flip.  But see for yourself at this link.  Look for the dragon one, that's a pattern I already purchased and can't wait to try.  There are also free patterns here!!!  Look for the sunflower pattern.

In the end it is suppose to look like the below:

Hope mine looks so good.  

I also did what I said I would do, I sewed up three Cacti from the pattern "Oh My Cacti" by Paper and Pen below.  

It's difficult, with small little pieces as well as I'm doing four different colors, so you need to cut out the right amount for each cacti, then make sure they're all together, and you can find them.  Also there are so many pieces, so it's hard to find the pieces, you need a lot of space to place them all out somewhere to find the pieces.  This  one will really really take a lot of time.  If I do three a month, I'll be happy.  It will be an extra thing to complete each month.  I can only do no more than 2 in a sitting, the pattern gives me a headache.  I love love her patterns, but this one is hard.  We'll see.

Happy with what I've completed this month.  Lets see if I can keep it up.

Hot as blazes but cool stretch coming up.

 

Vancouver wasn’t made for heat.  We don’t have triple pane glass windows and most condos don’t have air conditioning, including ours.  We’re a two story condo with a loft and a 28 foot window in the front that lets in beautiful sunshine but tons of heat.  Because of the openness of our loft and the two story setup an air conditioner doesn’t exactly work.  Thankfully, it's cooled down this coming week, so I can survive.

I’m at the age where I have trouble sleeping at night and especially in the heat, so I haven’t slept well for 4 days now.  But the heat wave has broken and hopefully no more sewing in the heat.  I’ve made progress on my medallion quilt, 3 sides done and attached (using the quilt as you go method) and one more to go. Those flowers are so picky, with 1 1/2 inch squares for snowballing, you get really tired quickly doing the same thing over and over again. 4 squares for petals to snowball all corners, for 10 flowers.  Do the math, 160 snowballs to complete.  Then the leaves have two corners snowballed, so that 2 leaves times 2 snowballs times 10 flowers for one side…. Add another 40 to the last total…..  no wonder I started thinking of other blocks….   I added two bee blocks and a beehive to the flower collection on this final side to change things up a bit  You’ll see when I’m finish and I’ll share the free block patterns that I’ve found.  

But to change things a bit, and use up my scraps I made a new table runner signifying this heat wave..  it’s a free pattern from   And all scraps.

I've caught up with the Christmas quilt from Apples and Beavers.  It's all paper piece as you can see.  There are a number of designs, all 12 1/2 by 12 1/2 unflinshed.  The skill level goes from beginner to confident in a building skills level.  I love their patterns, all fantasy, and most paper piece.  Some are stitch and flip.  But see for yourself at this link.  Look for the dragon one, that's a pattern I already purchased and can't wait to try.  There are also free patterns here!!!  Look for the sunflower pattern...

And I’ve been continuing my water color painting.  This past weeks challenge was the desert....

This next week's challenge is dessert....  Yes it's not a typo.  Need to consider that one. 

Still working on that big quilt.  Should finish that one this week in time for the weekend.  I promised to finish the other two quilts I said I would do, but it won't happen, lol.  I'll be lucky if I finish two of the cacti.  That's the MODIFIED goal.  I can cut out two more birds from the quilt pattern below by  Fresh, one of my favorite pattern designers.

I 

and instead of cutting out two more cacti I plan on sewing the three that are already cut from my Oh My Cacti by Pan and Paper Patterns.  

Those are the extras.  Along with one my husband has been demanding that I do.  It has something to do with LA.  So you'll have to wait to see.  Truthfully, I have to wait and see as well.  

Have a great day/night. 

July's Goals for the Month.

 Well, I have a quilt that was completed for a Medallion BOM, the only thing missing (it's all quilted) was the binding.  But my husband liked it so much he asked for it to be made into a queen size quilt for our bed.  And I liked the idea. 

Quilt Stats:

• Size: 65" - 65"
• Fabric:
  • Kaffe Fabric, an assortment of different types.
  • Unknown from an older collection
• Hobbs Batting:  Heirloom 90/10
• Aurifil Thread: 50 weight
  • Piecing & Quilting: #2600 (Dove Grey)
• Silly Moon Rulers:  Aztec
• Schmetz Needles: Universal 80/12

I plan on adding another divider like the ones in the picture above.  The bottom row will have two more cabin style blocks.  Then the sides will have a flower garden.  The top has another fan block,  with just white for the rest, so everything stands out.  That's the goal for July's month.

As for extras, I need to catch up on the summer bloc party.

I have three to complete, a bathing suit, sunglasses, and beach chairs in the sand.  Loving the look of it.  Can't wait to see it done.  You can join anytime.  Instructions on how to join are in my previous post.  You've missed 3 but you can still keep on going with the others.  

I'm looking at cutting out two more birds from the quilt pattern below but I want to place it like the picture below by SewFresh, one of my favorite pattern designers.

I 

 I want to cut out two more cacti but I have already cut out 3 so I plan on sewing those from my Oh My Cacti by Pan and Paper Patterns.  

Those are the extras.  Along with one my husband has been demanding that I do.  It has something to do with LA.  So you'll have to wait to see.

Linking up to Stories from the Sewing Room for One Monthly Goal for the medallion quilt..  Wish me luck and good luck to others.