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.

Been busy again

 As part of cleaning my storage and my office I realized that I had to make room for the kits in storage to my home.  But my goodness I already have so much.  So I’m finishing off some of some easy UFOs.  Here they are:

Table runner

Cat matt

Another row for the row by row quilt.

These are looking great.

Couldn’t wait for the pullover hoodie

 I couldn’t wait for the Riley Blake quilt a long for a pull over hoodie you make out of a quilt.  You get the template here, then pin the pattern they send you when you sign up onto your quilt, cut, and start sewing.  But I didn’t want to cut up one of my quilts so instead I used my left over blocks to make it.

I cut out on quilting cotton the pattern, then spray glued it to some batting, cut the batting around the cotton pattern, and then used Quilt-as-you-go with my extra blocks.

Sorry about the bad picture.  Below are two pieces that I did using that style.  

The quilt as you go style.  Below the top of the neck part is not done, that’s the batting.  I just kept on adding squares and blocks.

I did a solid piece for the front pocket.  You can see some hsts that I sewed together to make a bigger block then added.

The pattern is lovely and easy to do.  I wasn’t sure if there was a hem built into it so I made a big size.  It was simple to make just a little hard with the hoodie to cross and so many layers.  I recommend you use polyester thread for that.   I quilted the back then the front pieces, and the hoodie, and left the arms and cuffs for another day (the next day to be precise, I loved doing this).

The arms went in easily.  Find the center of the sleeve and mark it to match the seam of the front and back piece.  Do yourself a favor and do the bias around the hoodie right away before you attach it and the sleeves, before sewing the sleeve closed.  I biased all the seams so that reinforced my stitches and will make it easier to wash.  It is after all a quilt and will get softer with use and washing. 😃. Make sure you stitch around the front square of your hoodie to reinforce that as well.  It’s thick.

Loved the cuffs.  It helps for people like me who have very large arms.  

The sleeves look great.  Did the blocks in the center then a solid for around it, cuffs ere 2 1/2 “ squares.

And the final results I love.  It’s a little big on me but that’s ok.  It’s so comfy.

Love it!

Cleaning and sewing progressing

 Another day and it’s slowly progressing.  Like they say “slow and steady wins the race”.  I discovered some more row by rows, some from 2015 water theme and some from 2016 while was a home them.  Did two this week already for home theme.  They seem to be bigger or rather longer.  But I still have so many water ones.  I started with 52, made two quilts, one a queen.  This next one will be a lap again.  The other will be table runners.

Like that tractor one. So many…  haven’t done the row by row since.  By the way, they’re sitting on a ladybug quilted tabletop.  Gave it to my mom, and in the last move, she gave it back.

Room is still messy but it’s getting there.

I just gave away the pie plate antique table.  Haven’t used it in two years.  It even has a label but now a days people don’t want antiques anymore and I love them. My sewing machine is under the “sew” quilt cover to the left.  On my chair is the three already done.  By the chair is a fabric box of binders with patterns in it.  Those smaller boxes are kits I made with everything on it.  I have my walking metals on the door and my camera on the knob.  Behind the pie crust table is a three tier rolling shelves that have my paints (water and acrylic) and pencil/drawing sets.  Can you find the canvases?  I feel like Where’s Waldo.

These are my scrapbook kits with kits in them that are started or ready to go.  Yes I know you’re saying are you ever bad Nicole.

So now you know where I’m at.  And I have four projects going on right now:

1.  Pillow cases 3 sets

2.  Campfire quilt - queen size large square

3.  Row by rows 5 of them

4.  A quilted pull over jacket that I just started with a quilt along from Riley Blake’s Come join us.  The template/pattern is free and it looks gorgeous.  All sizes to a couple of extra large for me!  Lol

Promised myself I wouldn’t join anymore but that didn’t work.  This one is great.  Want one!  It’s for 3 months so it’s short.  I’ll try.

Oh, and the fifth is cleaning that room which means getting some of those quilt project down.  

And that’s it, you’re caught up.  Wish me luck 😃😀