I'm Back....

It's good to be back to my regular self.  Three weeks ago I got the pneumonia vaccine and it took two weeks to recover from it.  The ads on TV say one of the side effects may be that motion is restricted.  Well ... they neglected to say that the restricted motion also means pain, the inability to dress or perform regular daily functions that involve moving your arm.  At any rate, it was a very uncomfortable two weeks but I'm finally back at my machine and doing a little sewing.

I pieced my boxy stars quilt

I just realized that I didn't take a final photo with the borders sewn on.  This one just shows the final audition. 

I am almost finished with the borders on the RSC sew along.  Just one final round to go in the border.  I did try it out on my bed to see how it would look.

 

None of the quilts I had fit my new mattress but I think this one will.  I always wondered why they called some of the duvets "queen/double".  Well it turns out the new mattresses are so tall that even though it's only a double bed size, you need a queen size comforter, blanket, quilt, etc.  to get the width and length to cover the extra pillow on the mattress. 

I belong to a small group of quilters trying their hand at being a little more creative.  The November challenge was to select 5 interesting fabrics and a collection of items that could be used as embellishments and put them into a brown paper bag.  We then selected a bag and had a month to create a mini quilt which would be gifted  to the owner of the bag.  Earlier this week we met for a Christmas get together and revealed the finished minis.  There were a few members who were out of country and couldn't be there to share so a few pieces are missing.

 

 

To get back into the swing of things again, I started a little sew along with Sheryl at Temecula Quilt Co..  Here are the four little blocks I've made so far.

They are so cute - finishing at 2.5". 
Now I think I'll hop over to soscrappy and see what other scrappy quilters have been doing.

 

Last block in green

It's Saturday and time to check in with Angela at soscrappy.  All year I've been making the blocks for a scrappy saw tooth star quilt and the final block has been stitched.

Swamp Angel forms the centre of the star. 

I made the Swamp Angel star block when I was first attempting some quilting and turned it into a pillow.  Of all the pillows I made at the time this was my least favourite.  (Can you figure when that was by the fabric and colour choices?)

You can see in my first attempt I didn't make the square in a square centre pop by using different colours.  I wanted to make the star the focus so made the square the same colour.   But in Angela's version I did make the distinction.   I thought I would like the block better in the smaller 6.5" format and done in a monochromatic colour scheme but .... no, Swamp Angel is not one of my favourite blocks.  Is it the colours I selected or the placement of those colours?  I don't know.  It just doesn't appeal to me.

I finished only one other small item in green.  This folded star technique made up into a cute little pincushion.  The second fabric I selected had a very rhythmic circles motif and when the rectangles were folded I didn't get a uniform colour distribution.  This fabric was to be the dark punch for the second round of star points but I have a mix of light green, white and dark green.  Had the motif been more random I  may have been able to manipulate it some.  Oh, well,  it's done and any finish is a good finish.

Going Green

A few days ago, before the big rain and strong winds arrived, I noticed the leaves on the neighbour's linden tree as it turned from green to a beautiful multi-coloured splendour.  There were deep burgundies and russets, dark greens and yellowy greens, orange and gold: an incredible palette.  And I thought how appropriate that we be working with the lighter, brighter greens this month. The linden had so much of it that one morning.  Enough musing,  we are so close to having the RSC quilt designed by Angela finished - only one block left to go (and I see that Angela has it posted - Swamp Angel).  Here's the Ohio Star in the centre block:

Can you see that I've already got it attached to it's place of honour in the yellow/green row?  So, so close to a finish!

Speaking of finish, I made the green boxy star too.

Angela hasn't chosen a colour for December so I'll have to choose one once I lay out all the blocks and see what colour should be added to balance the Boxy Star Quilt .  It's been two years in the making and wants to be finished.

What green have the RSC quilters completed this past week?  Stop by and see.

Found

We moved 8 years ago and some bins got tucked away in a closet and forgotten about - forgotten about until I went in search of patterns for pillows that just had to be in that closet because they weren't where they should be.  Now I don't know about you but when I pull a bin out I just have to see what treasures are tucked away in it.  And look what I found.  This is my first attempt at needle turn applique.  All I can say is, "You've come a long way baby!"  It's always great to look back and examine some of our earliest work.  I can't believe the colours I chose!  Now in my mind this was always a brown quilt but when I photographed it, it looks so red!  I have to embroider the legs on the chicken and give it an eye and I really should finish it.  This may be a good quilt to practice my machine quilting on.  Would you believe I even had the backing folded up beside it? 

I'm looking forward to lime green for November and a finished flimsy for the RSC.  Linking up with Angela and checking to see what mocha latte goodness is going on.

A Bit of Brown and Workshop Fun

I don't know how I manage it but somehow my days get filled up with "stuff" and some days very little quilting gets done. This is the second year I've been working on Boxy Stars and this year's brown has a bit of animal in it. 

I think those are leopard spots and some zebra in the background.  Aren't they just a little bit wild?

I also participated in Lori's quilt along.  I'm not happy with the background colour I have and may just change it out.

During the summer when I was shop hopping I picked up a cute little pack of 2.5" charm squares and thought another little table runner was in order.

I like the diagonal movement in this one.  I haven't figured how to quilt it yet but I'll have to do something to play up that movement.

But the best thing I did this week was a little workshop that a quilting buddy put on for a small group of us.  Mary got our twitch muscles going!

We made circles - mine are like a string of e's, made mini trees, then put them on a hill,

Then we used the little pine trees we made to make a larger tree - doesn't this look like one Charlie Brown would have picked?
And then we zeroed right in and made a solitary tree branch.

Mary provided us with a background fabric and then we had to recreate the solitary branch on it.

I didn't have the right green threads with me so the needles aren't too visible on the branch but believe me they're there - lots of them.  Now look at that little chickadee!  Isn't he just the cutest little thing?  I wish I could say I thread painted him but truth be told Mary gifted everyone in the group.  I don't have him attached yet.  I was thinking I'd check my stash and see if I have a different background fabric and then practice my lesson again.  Sounds like a great Saturday/Sunday project.  I'll be checking in with Angela and the other rainbow scrap quilters.  What have they been up to this week?

Catching Up

Where has the time gone?  I can't believe this is my first post for October!  There was a flurry of activity around here from the end of September until just after Thanksgiving Day but, I finally had some time this week to finish off September and get to work on the October RSC blocks.

Here are September's blocks.  I like the way the orange plays with the red and pink alternate blocks.

The first brown block turned out pretty well as did the second one.

It was so nice to put the rows together.  I am anticipating November and the last two blocks. 

Can you tell I'm anxious to get this one done? The star points are all ready for the last centre blocks and the alternate blocks are all stitched up and joined to the yellow stars. 

It's hard to get a good picture of the quilt to date - too big for the design wall and  I just can't get the whole thing in the picture when it's on the floor. Angela's done a great job designing this one. 

I'll be linking up with Angela at soscrappy and checking to see what brown scrappy goodness everyone has come up with this week.

A neighbouring guild held their Quilt Show this weekend.  Here are a few interesting pictures:

You really had to step away from the quilt to appreciate this original design.  Can you see the cat looking back at you?  Jennifer Johnston did a great job on this one.

Evidently this little block with the white ribbon has 292 pieces in it.  The block is about 5 inches square.  The quilter, Kathryn Caie, called the quilt Nearly Insane.  It took her 5 years to complete.

Here's a block from a quilt called Insanity.  I've seen this template used to make a mini quilt but the quilter, Susan Butler, made a full bed size quilt.  I can't imagine cutting and stitching all these mini bits again and again.  Think I would be insane when finished. ;-)

This wall hanging was spectacular  - my favourite in the show.  The quilter, Judy Pearce, was inspired by the old spirograph (Do you remember that child's toy?) .   She quilted the design and then appliqued doilies and embellished with crystals.  The photo just can't capture all of that and do it justice.  When I first saw the quilt I thought it was machine embroidery but then I read the label and wow!  Exquisite quilting.

Scant Orange

This was a week with more handwork completed than sewing blocks. But I did finish two more of the blocks from Tula Pink's book.  I'm still working with strips to use up some of the smaller pieces of orange.
Block #64

and #65

were the only two bits of orange made this week.  Some weeks are like that.

 

I'll be checking in with Angela and other scrappy quilters to see what scrappy orange progress has been made this week.  Who knows, maybe there's an orange block waiting for us to stitch up.





Round One in Orange

September means cooler nights, shorter days and a lot of foggy mornings.  It also means we get to play with all of our orange scraps. I pulled out my scraps and sorted out the ones I thought would be good for the 6" orange blocks and saw tooth star points for the orange row. 

I thought these would give me a fair range but then I stopped by a neighbouring community Quilt Shop and found these:

Don't you just love the orange and pink fabrics.  I couldn't resist and had to buy a fat quarter of each to use for the RSC blocks.  I think these will transition beautifully into the red/pink row.  I know we're to use scraps up but well, once I saw it, I had to have some!

I stitched up my Boxy star block and managed to use up almost all of the batik with the squares.  Just a 26" x 1" strip and three 2.5" squares left.

Looking forward to seeing how you started off your orange month and waiting for an orange block post from one of my favourite scrappy quilters, Angela. 

On another note,  I was taking some pictures in my garden last week and I got this incredible photo:

That little humming bird was just aiming to get at the Rose of Sharon.  My camera isn't the fastest so I was amazed that I got the bird before it darted away.

Last Saturday for Indigo

Absolutely no quilting done by me this week.  But my good friend down the street did finish quilting my Tumbling Stars quilt that I made as my RSC project 2 years ago.  Yes, 2 years ago.  I finally stitched the backing together and picked up some batting so Mary could do the long arm quilting. 

I think she did a great job with the quilting and I am hoping the red will work for a binding  with both sides of the quilt.

So what did I do this week?  Cooking.  Lots of cooking for a church festival and some preserving at home.  I have never made preserves before.  And I must admit, I enjoyed it.  Now I didn't go crazy as this was my first foray into preserving but I went to the local Farmer's Market and somehow we got out wires crossed and in doing the divide and conquer shopping we bought more peaches than we could eat.  I froze some, made a peach cobbler and still had a basket full left.  We had bought some peach chutney at the Peach Festival one year and I really enjoyed it with soft cheeses so off I went to my trusty cookbook and found a recipe that sounded not too hard. 

What a lot of work for two not quite full jars of chutney. 

 I had also picked up a basket of concord grapes and decided to try my hand at some jelly.  Yummy!  There was just about an 1/8 of a cup that didn't fit into the jars so I gave it the taste test and even warm it tasted so good!

Now all of this work meant a shopping trip before hand.  A new canning pot, some new calipers for removing the jars from the hot water bath, a magnet for picking the lids out of the bath and that miracle additive - pectin to get everything to just the right consistency.
The weather was quite cool last week and it was time to clear the garden.  The zucchini was prolific but we didn't have too much success with much else.  One of the farmers at the farmer's market told us he suspected our problem was an air born blight that hit the cucumbers and no one seemed to have much luck with beets this year. 

Our first small patch for veggies is now clear except for the fennel.

We left the herbs and marigolds in the second veggie patch.  We've been drying herbs all summer so should have enough to take us through the winter.
As you can see our garden plots are small but it's amazing how much time they took to maintain and keep weed free! 

Hopefully there will be more time for quilting next week.  I'm looking forward to hearing what the new colour will be.  Green?  Orange?  Brown?  I'm hoping for green or brown so I can finish off another row.

Checking in with Angela to see what others have been up to last week.

More Cool Indigo

My local branch library has a wonderful collection of quilting books.  On my last visit I took out Tula Pink's City Sampler 100 Modern Quilt Blocks.  She has blocks arranged by style.  Blocks 56 - 70 deal with stripes.  So I tackled 8 of them to share today.

Block 56

Block 57

Block 58

Block 59

Block 60

Block 61

Block 62

 

and Block 63.



The blocks were fun, easy and quick to put together.   I think it'd be great fun to make all 100 for a modern scrappy quilt. Another someday project.  I'll hopefully find a few minutes to make a few more blocks during the week (but not more stripes) and then dream up some little project that I can make using the blocks. 

I'm late blogging today but the Farmer's Market beckoned and that was number one on my agenda.  Now I'll check in over at soscrappy and see what indigo projects have been worked on last week.