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.

Those two things were what my goals were when I hooked up with  Stories from the Sewing Room One Monthly Goal for completing so much and also for starting a new one (that's the one that I mention below)  and finishing that new one in one month....  Can't believe I did that   Here's my goal stating blog post from the start of the month.  On to planning Septembers goals but I start subbing again and school starts, so I have to make it small.  

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.

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. 

Now the next month's challenges:

my watercolor challenge:  to paint sea life so this is what I want to attempt.  The video I'm looking at is below:

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 the town of Lipton  was in the 40 degree mark, breaking another record.  What the heck.

Good luck to everyone finishing their UFOs.  Take care.  Have a great September.

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.  

Going great on the Strippy Spools Quilt Sewalong.

I'm loving this!!!!  Fat Quarter Shop put on a sewalong with a pattern by ItsSewEmma.com.  It's cute and quick to make with a jelly roll, but I have to tell you, measure, measure, measure (which is in the pattern instructions) to get the right sizes. The Strippy Spools quilt is a fun quilt project for confident beginners and seasoned quilters alike. The pattern offers two size options:

• Lap Size: 53.5″ x 66.5″
• Twin Size: 70.5″ x 82.5″

You can find the Strippy Spools Quilt Pattern at Fat Quarter Shop.

Each Monday, Fat Quarter Shop shared a new part of the pattern, and people following along are encouraged to share their progress using the hashtag #FQSStrippySpoolsQuilt and tag @fatquartershop on social media. 

I went on a trip before hand so I purchased the pattern and started early.  It came together quickly, and although I talked about making it larger, I decided the laptop was good for me.  The finished large spoon was 8 1/2 x 14 1/2 in size, so to make it bigger you're going longer and only 8 1/2 inches wider.  The spools are 6 1/2 by 14 1/2.  I added a border of close to matching fabric so it made it slightly larger.  

The pattern uses a jelly roll.  The fabric is Boundless Fabrics by Craftsy, something I picked up ages ago when Craftsy was selling everything at ridiculously low prices years and years ago.  It's beautiful, but although so rich, I don't think it's the right colors for this pattern.  It would of been better in brighter colors or the background should not be white, it should of been maybe yellow.  But I still like it. The backing is Magnificent Blooms by Jackie Robinson of Animas for Bernartex.  I used a wandering quilting stitch with veragrated colors of pink, blue, yellow and green.  That brightened the entire quilt up.  I used 2 different kinds of threads giving it color.  I love the effects.

Here's the finished item. It's on the back of my couch now.

The backing

the full quilt.  It pops in this picture.  I like a border around the entire thing.  The pattern doesn't have this.  I just added one.

the quilting and thread colors.  That's what really made it pop.  The thread is from Aurifill, their silk line.  Wow, it makes a difference.

I'm hooking up to TGIFF (thank goodness it's finished Friday) on Katheen McMusing's site.  I worked hard to complete this for showing it off  :) 

and to I'm linking up to A Quilting Girl 

As for the Medallion quilt, I also managed to make another 8 flowers this month to add to the quilt and another 1/2 driesdon block for the top.  I figure I'll have that one done by next month along with a surprise quilt that my husband has been asking to get for the last two months.  

As for any additives (yes there's always more to do!!!) I've joined the following:

• Aurifill's BOM Coffee Break 

There's wool or paper piecing (I'm doing the paper piecing) .  You can catch up with the ones already out here....  at this link.  

• Signed up for the Summer Fun Block Party..  You've missed three blocks already but there's more coming so start soon.  

The Summer Block Party is a free sew along hosted by your favorite pattern designers! For the second summer in a row, we will be sharing the cutest Summer-Inspired quilt blocks for you to sew along with, along with a quilt finishing layout to put all the blocks together. These blocks will be free until August 15 so make sure to save the patterns each day! Here is the schedule and list of designers: 

•  Block 1 - June 23 • Jen Belnap - Jen Belnap Design House - @jenbelnapdesignhouse 
•  Block 2 - June 25 • Amanda Castor - Material Girl Quilts - @materialgirlquilts 
•  Block 3 - June 27 • Amy Chappell - Ameroonie Designs - @amerooniedesigns 
•  Block 4 - June 30 • Andy Knowlton - A Bright Corner - @abrightcorner 
•  Block 5 - July 2 • Gracey Larson - Burlap and Blossom Patterns - @burlapandblossompatterns 
•  Block 6 - July 4 • Jennifer Long - Sew A Story - @sewastory_jenniferlong 
•  Block 7 - July 7 • Beverly McCullough - Flamingo Toes - @flamingotoes 
•  Block 8 - July 9 • Melissa Mortenson - Polkadot Chair - @polkadotchair 
•  Block 9 - July 11 • Amanda Niederhauser - Jedi Craft Girl - @jedicraftgirl 
•  Finishing Instructions - July 14 • Quilt size in finishing instructions is 69” x 69

That's a great size quilt and the first 3 blocks are amazing, a bathing suit, sun glasses and chairs on the beach.  Well done Amy Chappell!!!!  Love that one.  There are nine designers joining in but you only need to sign up once with one designer, to get the blocks. Signing up will subscribe you to all of the designers newsletters, which are free - you can unsubscribe easily anytime.  Come on and try it.

That's it, that's what I've been doing for two weeks this month.  I'm proud of what I have accomplished.  Will add the new BOMs to the list I do every month.  Take care, and happy Canada Day or 4th of July!!