February is a quick month.

 Hello all and welcome to the new site.  If you recall I started to subdivide my websites because my interests are expanding.  I wanted to keep track of my book reading, my watercolors and my acrylic painting as well as my quilting.  I talk about them all here but in the different pages I go into them a bit more so you can see where I got the idea and where I am learning from.  But for now lets get going:

Quilting

I finally finished my quilt from SewFresh.  I just found out this week that she's closing her Etsy store and only selling on her website which is https://sewfreshquilts.com/  This site has a shop, a blog, tutorials, and many free patterns which you would really like.  I just finished a baby quilt using one of her free patterns, with Tigger.  It's from the Winnie the Poo and Friends quilt she made.  I just made one of the guys, but there are four of them to check out including Piglet, Eeyore, and Winnie the Poo of course.  The link is at the end of the blog posting above.  The writing around the Tigger are the words Tiger.  I got this scrap material from Fabricland (made for them only) for about $5.00 a meter, a great sale that just sat there for about 5 years.  Now was the perfect time.  I gave that away to a friend who just found out she's pregnant, and she loved it.

I had extra material even with this one so I cute out another Tiger to add to this one and I have a bit of the yellow left to go around it then I have some red to go around that.  That one I'll donate.  It ahs to be 35" by 35".  It's been a long time since I donated so I'm happy to do that.  

But the  other three characters from the free patter are so cute, I wouldn't mind doing them one day.  We'll have to see.  Go to SewFresh and on her tutorials you'll find the pattern as well as patterns for Earnie and Burt from Sesame Street and a really cute one of the Grouch

   
Have fun trying these ones out.

And here's the big review of another one of SewFresh's quilts, the Skeleton.  It's with rectangles, all of it.  There's a great map showing where the whites go, the blacks, and the grays.  The rest of the colors are your choices.  Because she loves Halloween I thought I would do oranges and fall colors.  I made a queen size quilt so that she can have it on her bed.  Her birthday was Monday, but it will take time to ship, so when it arrives, it arrives.

This is the back, a haunted house.

It's huge.

It's size on a queen size bed.

I love her patterns so much that I bought another one to make for my husband's shower curtain.  The theme is beachie and below is the next one, called gulls and crabs...   so cute.

Look at it when it is completed in fabric.....   gorgeous

Another one that I promised myself I would complete by the end of March when we leave on a trip is a Scrappy one.  The pattern is by Meadow Mist, "The Looking Glass".  It's made to use your 5" squares.  I've been cutting out many from scraps.  

It's part of the 2026 Stash Busting Quilt Along, the one and only group I've joined this year because I want to get my other BOM and Quilt alongs done (I have soooooo many on my UFO list).  You could choose between 4 different patterns that are all created to use your scraps so it's really good.  Also I have a choice of what size I want to make.  I'm making a lap quilt, but you have the option of a queen and a king.....  The pattern is that easy you can just keep going and going.  Not going there to a queen or a king after the last quilt I just finished.  At least not for a while.  With all of my scraps cut up I thought OK, I'll be able to get rid of some.  This really made me happy.  And it's looking good.  Although I am a month behind, I am catching up, everything is cut, half the blocks have been created, two rows are done, and half of the half (another quarter lol) is completed.  I also used scraps for the white backgrounds to get rid of some of that.  I'm not giving it away to anyone at this point of time.  May even give it as a donation, depending how it turns out.  So stay tuned for that one to be compelted.

I do have a flimsy completed with some other scraps I found.  I promised a councilor at my old school to make her new baby a quilt, never got it to her, and 6 years later, maybe this will be the one.  Take a look at the right.  That's right, 5" squares of all these different colors, so I put it in color order and just kept on and on and on.  But I think it's still too small length  wise so I'm going to add some strips off color on the top and on the bottom, then use black as the binding.  That will look lovely for both a girl and a boy.  But it's for an old colleague for sure.

So it's on my list to get this quilted with a white meandering quilt design.  That will look gorgeous.

So that's three for the end of February and start of March.  Should be able to do that.  The quilting prompt for February is something that makes you smile and all of them certainly do that.

Painting.

There is no prompt for painting but I'm using the same one for quilting, something that makes you smile.  And that's what this one did.  I decided to do one of the challenges from my course for watercolor painting from Emily Olson.  As the founder of Watercolor Mastery she sets out to prove that  by moving away from step by step and into "action-by-action" you can get pass the overwhelming and self0doub feelings, to just loving how to paint.  She has a You Tube channel with free guides, and some free lessons online on her web site.  But I purchased access to her online  blog.  But it also leads to her Watercolor Mastery classes that have tutorials every day, as well as lessons galore.  Take a look at it and tell me what you think.  Today I'm doing yesterday's challenge.  My goal is to do 6 more challenges.  You'll just have to wait and see how it turns out.  It's a frog in water.  So cute, with a big old eye staring out from the water.  I'm enjoying it and they say that you should practice at least 25 minutes a day.  Hope to make that goal.  Wait for the next one.

Acrylic Painting

For Valentines day I painted the picture to the right, for my husband.  I wasn't thinking of doing it but I

 was suppose to be away to Winnipeg to see my Aunt before I had to get dental surgery, lost my front tooth, broke right off, so they had to pull it and are not putting in an implant.  It's painful, and along came a fungus infection that I don't know what it came from.  Now I need to see the doctor to find out.  The blood test I took showed the fungus infection is in my blood.  Life's ups and downs.  This is one of them.  So I'm back to painting as well.  Want to do a three part series on beaches for my husband's remake of his bathroom.  Looking at a beach scene then doing a fish, a starfish, and a palm tree sunset.  Will show when it's done but that means a full day of painting...  This may be going on until after march.  One step at a time.

Also did my favorite raven.  Love how the feathers got to look so real with the sun shining on it. Wish I did the tail longer, but you live and learn.  That's it for him, need to move on into something new. This is the second time I tried a solo and I want to do another solo soon, so I made about three or four different copies or preps for my solos.  That's the idea, do some practices so I'm ready for the big 30" by 30" that I want to do.  Not going to say anything about it but one thing, it does go with the quilt that I plan to make to put up on the wall.

That's it for today, have a great day and a great week.  I'm taking it a bit easy these next few days to get rid of this stupid infection.

Bye....

Continuing on with prompts.

 I love  joining things, blocks of the month, reading clubs, cleaning clubs, painting clubs, oh my!!  But I just found a real cute one at Gnome Angels  It’s reading and quilting together.  

HOW DOES IT WORK?

Every month I’m provided with 2 reading prompts + 3 patchwork prompts.

I choose: 1-2 Reading prompts and 1-3 patchwork prompts.

For example, I can choose 1 reading prompt + 2 patchwork prompts. 

I can choose to do as much or as little as I want. It’s completely up to me – no pressure.

I can customize the prompts to suit my situation and the readings or quilts I am already doing.  According to this group there’s no right or wrong way to use the prompts. It’s reading and patchwork my way.

WHAT ARE THE PROMPTS?

The prompts are below.   On the site you get an explanation for each prompt and if you sign up for the newsletter you can get a pdf of all this. I’m behind on this so I got to catch up.

MONTH	READING PROMPT	FABRIC PROMPT	TECHNIQUE PROMPT	COLOUR PROMPT
JANUARY	First book in a series OR Summer Loving	Nautical / Aquatic	Traditional Piecing	Pink
February	Contains romance  OR Read with a friend	Makes You Smile	Fussy Cutting	Red
March	Contains animals OR Set prior to 1900s	Oldest Fabric in Stash	Strip Piecing	Green
APRIL	Autumnal vibes OR Has humour or pun in the title	Seasonal Theme	Stitch & Flip	Aqua / Teal
MAY	Mother(s) OR Botanical theme	Favourite Fabric Designer	Foundation Paper Piecing (FPP)	Grey
JUNE	A cozy read OR An “overdone” trope	Floral / Botanical	Over 12″	Black
JULY	Set in space OR Colourful cover	All in a Collection	Seamless Pattern Matching	Blue
AUGUST	Part of a trilogy OR Winter / snow / arctic setting	Low Volume	Improv Fabric Slab	White
SEPTEMBER	A “classic” or retelling OR Set in the future	Most Hoarded	Square-in-Square	Brown
OCTOBER	Thriller, mystery or horror genre OR Adapted into a movie	Selvedge	Selvedge FPP	Orange
NOVEMBER	Contains a hobby OR A genre blend	Stripes	Triangles	Purple
DECEMBER	Vacation read OR Holiday-themed book	Gifted Fabrics	Under 6″	Yellow

I don’t know how this will go but I’m going to try to have fun with it.  Go to Gnome Angels and sign up.

Where has the month gone?

 For a retired teacher I worked too much this last month.  I did a week at a school, went off to Anaheim California (Christmas gift from my husband) and then right back to work for a week, during the end of the term in January at a high school (same school before I left).  I'm working way too much and my husband finally told me he wants me home more (that was after a heated discussion).  And I have to admit I'm enjoying staying home tremendously. 

I'm having trouble calming down but that's been going on for months now, with this on again and off again working, not working, etc.  I don't know if I'm coming or going.  But I'm believing that I'm at the end of this part of my life.  I promised my husband that I would spend two weeks with him, and he said I can take requests only.  I pointed out to him that this was all I was doing for the past two years, but now he understands that we can't have it both ways.  So it's stop with all the extra money from subbing, or continue on.  He wants me with him, so that's the way it's going to go.  I'll try to cut down to one a week or at least 2 a month for supporting my my craft habits:  quilting, acrylic painting, water coloring, and the courses that I'm taking.

This leaves me time for more of the hobbies and retirement now.  This is the trip to Anaheim:

Shark that someone hauled up while fishing at a pier.  We got a great look at him.  My goodness it was surprising.  It's called an angle shark and it wasn't far from the beach.  We also swam at Huntington Beach and there were 54 people stung that day because the sting rays are coming closer to the shore.

we saw two hockey games - one in LA in a suite we were invited to and the other in the Duck Pond in Anaheim.

Went to 6 beaches in 5 days, and at one we saw a castle on the beach.  That's my hubby in the picture.  It goes up to the top so the people on top of the cliff can come down to this private beach.  We had to come down about 60 stairs on the side of the cliff to get here.

That's the cliffs at the wild beaches.  We sat for about an hour at this one.

This is another beach and a picture of the stairs to get down at this one.  It was easy and pretty, and really built up for people to walk in a huge park.  Loved it.

This was the walk at the bottom of the stairs, it was about 2 miles long but on a cement walkway.

Another wild beach and the dunes around it which are falling into the ocean.  That's why the fence.

Huntington Beach.  Love the reflection of the water.

Of course we went to Disneyland with our friend Kara.

And this time we explored Disney hotel.

We also went to a town where houses fell down the cliffs (no one was hurt) and it had a lighthouse.

 We got a tour of it, and went all the way to the top of it.

Now I talk about my paintings  I continue to paint with Allie Kay online lessons at FreshPaint.  Her lessons are easy to follow and she had a class on 25 minutes of painting a day.  Did 4 our of the 5 paintings on very small 5 x 8" blocks.  

These are a few extra when I had time, just practicing.

The one below is one that I did as a solor.

This was just this week, one of Allie's lessons.

I am doing some watercolors as well but I have to do more practicing.

That was this month's work.  But I'm not done.  I also did two quilts:

One for a friend who just learned that she is pregnant.  Below is the back of the quilt....  

And below is the quilt itself.  I loved it.  It's free from SewFresh.  Tiger from Disneyland.

Here's another one that I made this week as well. It's a lap quilt but I'm thinking of making it larger.  Adding piano keys all around it.  What do you think?

And that was what January is like, busy busy busy, with 10  days of subbing.  I got to take a break.  Going to finish my quilt for my cousin in Win nipeg and I'm leaving for Winnipeg in a couple of weeks that's the next one needed on the list.

How did your month go?

The end of the Year

 As the title states, it's the end of the year with 2 more days left before New years Eve.  Many things have happened and many realizations as well.  So here's the realizations, because to me they're big:

• I'm a workaholic.  No seriously, I am.  I'm semi-retired and subbing every once in a while, but the subbing has turned into 10 - 15 days a month, that's almost half time.  So where is the retirement?  I still love teaching but the hubby is saying, how about spending time with me?  So we agreed to only requests, but the requests have turned into 10 - 15 times a month.  So what to do?  Take more trips....
• I love to paint.  yes, I knew that before, but this Christmas I did all my Christmas cards  in watercolor.  Some of you have received some cards.  Unfortunately I didn't take any pictures of them, because I couldn't post them.  As a gift to myself I joined a painting group.  Watercolor Mastery with Emily Olson.  At present I'm doing 30 days of Watercolor to learn the basics which I know but some of the vocabulary is good to know so I'm on day 27.  It's about 15 - 20 minutes a day and it's not bad.  Notice all the categories, as well as daily challenges that are lessons to learn something.  You also join Facebook to be a part of the encouraging group there.   But I must tell you, these people are absolutely talented and make me feel a little inadequate, so for now I'm lurking and going slow.  But I am enjoying it and it's great for when you only have about an hour or less to do something, so you paint.

I did do one watercolor and gave it to my aunt for Christmas.  This course helped a bit.  

Her grandchild looks perfect, but her face is a little off.  it's the wrinkles, she didn't like them in the picture.  most people don't like their portrait, but it's very close.  And I really liked it.  Maybe next time in acrylic.

• But this is not my first online course that I joined.  I saw something on Facebook, with Ali Kay.  She's got a style of her own, using broad lose strokes in arylic.  It's called Fresh Paint and there's also a Facebook group that's so encouraging, helpful, and motivating.  There are tons of projects to complete, a number of first time projects, and here's a few:

                                  

• I have found a number of things to remember:   smaller is better for less wall space used, it's faster because you follow along with Ali live or you can look at the video that appears later on and stop and start it when you need it.  That's what I do.  The pictures above are start at the bottom to more recent practices on top.  I've already gifted 4 of these pictures for Christmas so it worked out really great.  Here's another one that I gifted to my uncle in Utah.  This one took 3 hours to complete on a 8 x 8 board.  I framed it and sent it to the states.

  
• Here's where you really see the growth for me.  It's this month's and next month's weekly challenges.    They're 16" by 20"
  

See the style????  The board loose strokes?  Yeah, I know, really painting up a storm.

On to what this blog is about.  The quilting I've done this past two months.  It includes a pillow for this quilt:

Yes the Christmas quilt paper piece was completed just in time.  It's two years old so it's best that I completed it.  Used Wandering quilting for finishing it and the borders are with the same material so the stars float, which I really like.  There was suppose to be another 4 blocks to add but I wanted it square so I could hang it up on my wall.  I already have 4 other Christmas quilts to hang, and drape, and use around the house so I think that's it for Christmas  lol.  I used an extra piece piece block to make the pillow cover.  Did that today, cleaning out my sewing room.

While cleaning out my sewing room I also discovered some flannel material that's over 7 years old.  It's been collecting, and I purchased some green flannel thinking I'll make this really cool quilt with the flowers and green, but in the end it was "I want another flannel quilt, it's really cold lately" and that was it.  Just a slice and stitch together quilt, mixing and sewing back together the fabric.  Very modern, easy to do.  The blocks turned out to be 15 inches big at the end, and then borders of 2 1/2 inches to put together.  But then I ran out of the green, and had some more flower flannel, then started piecing, then just playing and in the end it's the Lost Garden.  And it's warm.  65" by 65".  Big enough to cover the toes and wrap around.  I like it.

I also got out a queen quilt that I made two years ago, but never used because it's so hot.  Hopefully it will be perfect for tonight.  Here's a shot.  It's my scape quilt.  Yeah, you got it, all scraps and extra fabric.  No batting inside, just flannel on the back to keep it together.  Yeah, that's crumbing in the center.

Here's what else I completed, while cleaning that room.  I'm going to a baby shower in January.  I was invited by a good friend for her daughter's baby.  So I bought a few things, found this material for the mother from Montana and you will understand why I made this.  It's a cover up for the baby seat, when moving the child from car to house.  Horses, little cowboy hats, saddles, etc.  Perfect for a family on a farm.  It's reversable.

Front above and back below.  All flannel.

It's 32" by 38"

Finally, what I'm working on right now.  It's still the quilt for my cousin in Manitoba but I've changed patterns.  I painted her the skull you saw at the start of this blog, and this is the pattern I am now doing.

There are 21 rows.  I am trying to do at least 5 a week.  I'm on row 12, and decided to place all the pieces together.  That's when I noticed that I am short both the gray and the white.  The white material has gold dots on it.  That will cause trouble.  But that's ok because I think white in random places won't be noticed, and I need 2 more small pieces of gray, which I'll put around the nose, so that may work.  It is what it is.  It's twin size, very large, so this will be very interesting.  Looking at making it a queen, and I have the backing for it as well as for another edge around it.  Used brown and oranges for around the skull, so it looks like fall.  That girl is into Halloween in a big way so she'll love this.

Well, coming to the end of this posting.  Need to make one more comment.  Rejoined the Fraser Valley Quilt Guild and joined their UFO club.  You list some quilts you want to finish by June, and you pay $2 per quilt.  I put in 6.

1. Flamingo quilt for the barn door.
2. Cacti quilt that I absolutely hate making.  It's really hard to fit, and the instructions are hard to follow.  You'll see another time why I'm saying this.
3. Hand Stitched Farm Yard.  I'm down to two big blocks to complete.  I promised myself I'll do three threads of hand sewing every morning.  Been doing it for a week, and keeping up.  Hopefully will be done by June.  But at least I'm really making progress now.
4. A bear quilt to go with a bear painting I'm planning on making that will be 20" by 30" for the living room.  The bear quilt will hang on the wall.  I have all the bear cut out, just need to do the background now.
5. From the same designer Canadian Animals - I've had this kit for the past 5 years.  Really needs to get done.
6. A Tin box club thing that was from the guild 4 years ago.  Was making one block - need at least 30 of them.  Block size is 8".  The material is really old fashion so I'm excited about this one.  But I'll probably give it to someone when done.  We'll see.

As for other plans for this coming year let me tell you.  Here's a picture of my room after a visit from the fire department and me worried about them saying get rid of my kits.  It also contains my paintings, some of the 1/2 done projects that are now done, my books for my reading clubs, and many of my paintings that are practice. Knocked it down to the ones I want to complete this year.:

1. Canadian Animals which I have been sitting on for the past 7 years.  I have so many scraps now, I need to use them on this quilt.  Love the designs.
2. Paper piece of a woman in a hat.  It's 2 years old.  Material collected twice.
3. 2 1/2 inch squares of green to make a garden with purple flowers in it.  It's 10 years of collecting green scraps.
4. A Scottish Cow, paper pieced.
5. a jelly roll quilt - the jelly roll is 6 years old.
6. a quilted jacket from my scraps which are many
7. Cat using the SewKindofWonderful curved ruler. It's 5 years old.
8. An applique woman with blocks all around it.  All blocks done, the woman done, just need to put it together and quilt it.  (2 years old)
9. A small runner of a sofa, chairs and quilts on both.  Really cute and 3 years old
10. I found out that the Wedding Quilt I made for my nephew, I made another kit of it, not realizing it.  So I'm going to make it and gift it to someone lese.  It's in that pile.

and so much more!!!!  All ready for me now.  Just need to get going.  But those 6 at the top are my key ones and really bucking to get them done.  Priority, the Skull for February visit to my aunt in Winnipeg.

That's it.  Say goodbye to 2025, hello to 2026, and Merry Christmas to all.  Take care.