Very productive month.

Well we went from this:

To this:

This one was stitched in the ditch.  I added the bottom piano keys so that it would extend it more.  I always wanted to make a medallion style quilt and I think this qualifies.  Gave it away to a very special lady would already had one but when her mother took it (the mother is sick and can't stand properly alone), she let her have it.  So I promised I would make her one just for herself.  She really is a very caring and special lady.  

I also finished two pillows.  One was for a surprise for my husband when he came back from Arizona.  He loves snakes.  The pattern is "Oh My Cacti" by Pen & Paper.  the snake was a bonus block.  Now I have to make the cacti one.  The material from the snake is from Watermarks "Makingfun".  I think he likes it.  And so do I.  

And here's the other which is very old one.  I forgot where the pattern is but I had the  same material that was at least 4 years old.  Started spiral then wavy. 

Well that's about it for this month.  Next month, I'm going back to working on the hand sewing quilt. 

I also started a new BOM from Apples and Beavers.  It's paper pieced, just like the snake.

I love the look of it, and some of the samples of the squares.  The snowman was one of them.  It's so cute.  There are plenty more.  This quilt along should take three months so that makes it just in time for Christmas.  it will be fun.  Click here  to go to the link with more info about this fun event.

I'm also working on an old Block of the Month from Moda Fabrics.  It's called "Be My Neighbor" and the link is here.  I've already have 6 blocks completed, and want to to the rest.  It's a good size.  See a sample that someone else made below.  I have the first row completed and am working on the 3rd block of the 2nd row.

I always wanted to complete this quilt and I'm excited to get it done by the end of September.  This one is for me.

That's three of them, think this is enough for me.  Wish me luck.

Got it Done!

Got my goal for August completed.  The idea was I was going to finish a pillow, well I did a different one. I found some material that was perfect for a pillow case for my husband.  See it below, American material, of little flags, with a star stash at the end.  It covers our pillow on our front entrance bench, I like it.  It doesn't match anything but that's OK.  It goes on the bed at the end of the day, lol.

The next goal I had was to complete the binding for all of the mats I was making for my book club group.  Most you'll see are the same, but the one below is a pattern by  .  I really must make a full quilt of these ones, it would look great.  

Look at the quilting of these ones, I practiced with my rules.  I took a close up on one of the mats with the quilting.

Finally, I had a row by row already completed.  I just needed to put binding on it.  I don't really like this one, it's a pattern from    for the row by row 2015.  But then I remembered someone who would like it, so off it's going.  Funny thing is I was through with the row by rows for a while but at least I saw the end of them, but now a couple of days ago I found a container with at least 30 of them.  I really need to take a break from them,......

And that's it, my goals for August completed.  Now just to finish my July goal, it's almost completed, next blog entry.  

Take care.
 

On to a new Month

 Well, like many other people I didn't get as much sewing and painting as I wanted to, but that's Ok because I did do some.  It seems this month I have a bit more time on my hands but the heat is killing me in my small little sewing room, with the big windows in my condo, so I'm doing small projects.  Lets get to them right away shall we.

Four goals this month, and I'm not entering it into anyone's blogs, just doing it on my own.

1. I wanted to get my scrap box down a bit so I'm making 7 - 12 inch blocks for mug rugs for my book club, one each.  There's the tea cup and the books under.  I have fine acrylic pens so that they can  write the book names on the books.  I have made one for the testing (top right) and three others,  four more to go.  They need to be done by the 25th for the next meeting.

Look at the quilting on this.  Love it.

2.  Some scrap trees to make a pillow for my chair.  It's using duo sided interfacing, so it should be a quick one.  Thus the idea of doing two different projects this week and getting down my mess in my sewing room.

3.  I have a Block of the month that I want to do .  It's called "Be my Neighbor" by Moda.  It was a free block of the month in 2015  that's still available and so adorable, that I always wanted to do it.  I started it as a UFO, and now I'm saying I'm going to do 3 a month.  I already have one row.  See the picture below that is someone else's completed.  The blocks are very large, and there are four blocks a row.  First row is all done, and I like how it looks.  Oversized twin.  For the free pattern click HERE on this link to get all the patterns.

 

4.  The final and most important.  I am doing a round robin quilt with a box of fabric I found.  I've put them together, and I need one more row.  It was last month's goal, and not completed, so just one more and it goes off to my friend Corinne.  

Now something new (something old, something borrowed, etc...).  I decided to join Meadow Mist's BOM mystery called Marble Mystery.  Link is here  She's fantastic in her new plans, instructions are excellent, and if you can't stand the mystery (but that's half the fun), you can get a sneak peak.  This will be my third one.  Excited and I'm looking at one day a month just doing my blocks of the month. 

Want to see what I painted this week?  It's a book marker since I read so much.  I was using my acrylic paint pens.  Excellent for small details. There was two of them but I gave one away.

So that's enough for this month, even though most the projects are small, I think this is doable.  Take care

What a day of cleaning!!!

 What a day!!!  I finally got down to it.  There is a heat wave here in BC, it is 24 but it feels like 32, that sort of thing, which makes it really hard to sew inside.  I do not have central air, but I do have an air conditioner in an apartment loft.  So it is hot, but I am trying to handle it.

That is White Rock, right by the ocean.  The tide was really out and it was 30 by the ocean.  Oh yeah, we are really getting it.  That was Tuesday.

Wednesday was going for a major walk in the forest to get some cooling down, and although the entire scene looks very very cool, it was hot.

This picture is Derby Reach, by the Fraser.  I had been walking the last couple of hikes with sandals because both of my runners were worn out and I threw them out.  All I had left were sandals that did not hurt my feet from the blisters I got trying to walk before hand.  LOL, I cannot win.  

So today I decided to stay in, give my feet a rest.  I bought new runners (from a foot store) to help me, been wearing them all day to me staying in today to see if they help, and the good news is that they do.  They support my feet better, and resting them today has really helped me as well.   

I also decided to do something that has been bothering me for ages, I cleaned up my sewing room.  Most of you sewers with a lot of UFOs (Unfinished objects or projects) know that when your sewing room gets overcrowded you cannot be creative in the room.  Well it came to that with me.  There are three really big passions in my life right now, painting, sewing and reading.  The  reading (actually the books) were beginning to take over my closet so I bought one of those revolving bookcases that are not suppose to take a lot of room and they revolve 360 degrees.  Take a look at my addition in my office.  It cleared out my entire closet and gave me back walk in space in my closet.

The bookcase comes with the dolly on the top, and it is short enough so that I can put things on top of it and reach it.  That is my drawing set on top.  The matt to the right is the cat matt where the cat can cool off. but putting the case there made the room smaller again, with everything else in it, so I started to move things around and put things away.  The room is now cleaner, but it is still crowded.  the back boxes are kits that I put together that I need to get done.  To the left of the door is my table that folds down (IKEA) and my chair.  On the chair is what I am currently working on.  There is still a lot of stuff in the room, but its getting there and now I do not mind going into the room and sewing again.

Next is the stuff on the right (which I am too embarrassed to show you.).  That is a fold up bed for visitors.  Thank goodness we do not have any at this time.  It will get there.  It is a small room.

Just wanted to share.  Maybe more cleaning tomorrow.  Oh, and in case you did not know that closet is full of my husbands sports stuff, not my sewing stuff.  So I cannot use it.  Take care and stay cool.

July’s Challenge an OMG

This month is a busy month of small trips.  Retired life seems to be busier than working life, but in a different way.  There’s plenty to do.  I retired at the end of February and in a week went off to a trip to Palm Springs to see my uncle for a week.

In March I saw tons of friends all wanting lunches to wish me happy retirement.  Don’t get me wrong, that’s a great thing, but boy was I exhausted after it.  

In April it was off to Scottsdale Arizona for two weeks.  There was also some financial paperwork to complete for the retirement.  That was relaxing and stressful together.

In May, more small trips, some nesting (repairs to condo), paying off the mortgage (yeah!) and from April to end of June a lot of subbing in the schools.  At least 2 times a week,  In all of this there was three cancer scares, and in June the surgery for one of them  That’s why the subbing, to get my mind off it all.  But all is ok now, I’ve changed in all of this worry and stress, and now my husband and I just want to be happy, and live life in comfort, and at our own pace.  We are happy.  Painting and sewing make me very happy.

                                                      From my painting class.

This month’s challenges to complete will be two quilts as usual.  One is the Campfire by Suzy Quilts.  Easy 2 1/2 strips to get rid of some of my scraps l  it will also be a large one for a queen.   Picture is what it’s supposed to look like.

The second one is a scrap box full of cut blocks of matching fabric but no pattern so I’m making my own design.  It’s from 2013.  I love the colors and material.  Promised a friend a new quilt when her mother fell in love with the quilt I gave her and took it to her bedroom.   Let’s see what  I can do.

Look at those colors.  

This is my UFOs for the month.  Wish me luck.

Joining the OMG at Stories from the Sewing Room.

Love and Peace

 Decided to join a new group with the inquiring quilter called Wednesday’s Weight loss.  It’s a motivational thing to get your quilt load down, and boy do I have many.  I set a goal of doing 2 quilts a month and since I’m now retired I’m hoping to do it.  I have so many UFOs it’s overwhelming me.  So here’s my first post and my second finish this month of June, although I officially finished it July 1st.

  The quilt is the Love and Peace quilt from Sherri Noel, really easy to make, big blocks so it came together rather fast once I concentrated on it.  She did a free quilt along for donations for the Ukraine of the quilt or just cash 2 years ago.  I did the cash donation.  But you can still buy her quilt at the same location.

It could be a king.  It was a twin that I was going to give to a friend but husband loved it and wanted to keep it because it was the LA Chargers colors, so then I had to make it larger.  Thus the ribs at the bottoms.

2 1/2 inch strips sewn together to make the extension, quilt as you go style.  16” long,  

Used a ribbon to tie the corners at the bottom together.  Binding was the same material as how I attached the piece to the main quilt.

Love the colors.  And the dark lines of fabric used to attach the pieces really set the quilt off.

Quilted with heart patterns on a domestic sewing machine.  Was happy with the entire effect. And nice and light for the summer.  Any questions?  On to the next one then.

June's UFO is completed... On to the next.

 This month I wanted to finish my row by row quilt.  I needed to do two more rows (one to make it wider) and so I edited one of the rows, added the whale for the California row, and finally it's completed.  Its a quilt of a vacation that my husband and I took.  Each row was from one of the towns I was at.  The top  part has some license plate sections showing the towns.  Lets see if I can remember them.  Top one California.  Next one I forgot, the next one was from the Oregon area from route 66.  The next with the trees is from Flagstaff.  And the final one was from Washington.  I used quilt-as-you-go.  The last one I'm unsure of but it's also from the coastal area of Washington, off of Seattle.

I love the whale one.  It was so easy to do.  And because I had extra time that day, I found a blouse that was cut out so I finished it.

It was made from a reused table cloth of cotton that I had found at a second hand store.  Loved the material so I made the blouse.  The next which is loose has a ribbon in it to pull it tight.  The sleeves have elastics at the end.  Love the ease of it.

The final thing I did was to clean up my sewing/painting room a bit more.  Now that I'm retired I can get a bit more done, which means that I can start of sew a bit more and get some of it under control.  I counted how many projects I have and it's over 30 so that scares me a bit.  I mean, I'm retired, but I'm not chained to the sewing machine.  So I'm trying to get a few that are really old (Like the 2015 row by row) down, and then work on more resent.  

I made a promise to myself, do two UFOs a month and I'm allowed to start a new quilt.  I have one that is blue, with all these different blocks, a bird, a fence, and big enough for a queen which is the idea.

So the 2nd quilt for the month will be the embroidery quilt that has a woman in a large dress, holding some flowers.  I made some of the blocks from the Riley Blake web site (this is their link) web site (this is their link) and I'm putting them around the embroidery section.  I'm surrounding each block with red and also adding some light red/white flower pattern material around it all to extend the quilt to a queen.  This quilt will be very light for the summer.  I'm excited to complete this one as this quilt is 11 years old, and I don't know how old the embroidery section is.  It was made as a duvet cover, so I took off the back and I am adding the squares to spruce it up a bit.  Can't wait to see if it makes it better.

That's the plan, wish me luck.