2023 Wrap Up

Despite my fervent wishes that this year my work life would be better, it has gone downhill fast.  I'm considering early retirement in the new future. It has taken the wind out of my crafty sails and needless to say, I haven't accomplished much in 2023.

I have been working a couple of ufos, which I posted about earlier and finally finished the binding and both quilts have now been received by their recipients.

My version of Bonnie Hunter's Rhododendron Trail was finished with flanged purple binding and sent to my oldest friend - we've been friends for 44 years - just in time for her birthday! 

Not the best lighting, but it was a dreary November day and I needed to get it in the mail. I modified it from Bonnie's on-point version and eliminated the aqua micro-sashing that she used. I love how it turned out! And yes, I do have a turned block that I didn't notice until I saw this picture after I had already mailed it.

I had the quilting done by Maple Leaf Quilting Company in Cochrane, AB who offer a wonderful service with all-in-one pricing that includes shipping to and from them, thread and even batting. They also sell backings at a reasonable price, so they make it very easy to get my quilting done.

I choose a panto with butterflies to emulate the purple "butterflies" on the front. The backing colour is closer to the photos below.

I did a two-tone flange binding (my favourite way to bind when I'm in a hurry, and added a label with a piece of ribbon from a Fat Quarter Shop bundle.

Then I finished up On Ringo Lake with an aqua flanged binding and sent it to my aunt and uncle for their 60th anniversary. I love these two so much, and they have set such a wonderful example of love and companionship, something I could only dream of having. 

I forgot to take pictures before sending it off, but luckily Maple Leaf posted pictures on their Facebook page so I was able to scoop these.

I choose a panto called River, in keeping with the name of the pattern by Bonnie Hunter.

There was one more finish this year. I had been procastinating but on December 22nd I finally got down to making a small bag for my grandson's girlfriend. I made them come with me one day as I was doing running around (can't leave teenagers alone!), and when we were in the quilt shop, Tess found a fat quarter that was the same design as a baby blanket she had. So of course I had to buy it, and at Christmas I surprised with this:

The inside has her yellow fat quarter. I made both the cross-body strap and wrist/key chain strap so she can swap it out if she wants.

And that was it for finishes this year. I'm hoping that the new year brings some much needed changes, rest and more fun in my sewing room.

 

Sunday Stash Report, Week 7

Nothing in this week (but I am expecting a box from Hillbilly Tonya any time now), but some good numbers out.

 

 On Super Bowl Sunday, Quiltbug.com posted a mystery quilt that should have been done in a day, but it took my friend Kim and I two Sundays to make two 50"x50" flimsies (I guess we should have taken more time to do the precutting!)

 

I donated the fabric to the cause, I've had this from one of the Thangles kit I've had for about 5 years old, and I'll never use it for what it was intended for.  I also gave Kim enough to do the backing as well, for a total of 7 metres out of my stash. (I still have tons left!) I'll count my backing once it's done, and I plan on gifting this to a friend who just bought a new home.  

The mystery quilt pattern included a flange - it looks a lot like the faux piping on my last finish and this next one!

Tetris is completely finished!  

I am in love with this faux-piped binding! (Check this post here for links to the tutorial)  I used varying shades of turquoise in an ombre effect.  Binding doesn't use a lot of fabric, but it's still 0.3 metres out.

 

I also made a couple of gifts - a Lazy Gal Wallet for a good friend:

 

Of course, with a little something in it!

And I had the kidlets overnight to give the mommies and daddies a night off.  I made them "Hugs" for Valentine's Day.

These are wheat bags, about 7" in height and weight, perfect for the times when Gramma can't be there and they need a hug.

And a little piece of my heart inside!  I made the bag itself from remnants of a table protector, vinyl-side out (for easy cleaning) with a minkee cover that has an envelope closure for easy removal and washing.  The kids loved them!  0.4 metres out for all the little gifts.

This is what my living room looked like this morning - they had to make a gorilla nest after watching National Geographic!

Of course, the chief inspector had to make sure they didn't leave any goodies behind!

I've managed to draft one of the panels for a Sochi-styled patchwork.  

Due to the number of partial seams required, I leaning towards foundation-piecing.  Wish me luck!

Added this Week: 0 metres

 Added Year to Date: 27.5 metres 

Destashed this Week: 7.7 metres

 Destashed year to Date: 17.05 metres

 Added for 2014: 10.45 metres

Total spent  YTD $35 = $1.27 cents/metre

I can't rely on my memory anymore!

 

I found a cute fabric at a local fabric chain store, and thought it would be fun to make up some 'ort' catchers for a few friends. 

 

 

UBI (useless bit of information): An Ort is the little snippet of thread left over or tiny fabric scraps, according to Wikipedia and Dictionary.com.  I had no idea these were called Orts until I went surfing for these triangular thread catchers.  For more information, there is a great article here.

 

I found the tutorial I was looking for at Needling Things blog, by Edna, another fellow Canadian. I read through it and quickly determined I could get at least 4 from 2 pieces of 10" wide fabric - no problem, I remember that part when I bought the fabric.

 

I followed the directions and cut out 4 - 10" squares of each fabric, and cut out the triangles.  And then I went to bed.

 

Yesterday, I made the triangles and topstiched them.  And then my memory failed me:

 

 

This is one heck of a big thread catcher! And how come I can only get one when I was supposed to get four?

 

That should teach me not to rely on my memory and re-read the instructions.  It took me a few minutes to figure them out (I'm not sure why I was slow), but one triangle makes one threadcatcher - duh!

 

Now all I have to do is sew on the buttons.  Tonight I have these two little cuties so I'll be able to get it done after the baby is in bed!

 

 

 

 

 

 



Bowls with Borders Blog Hop!

Today is my day to show you the bowls that I made for the Bowls With Borders Blog Hop.

(The dates for this hop are August 13 through August 28.)

Regina Grewe of Textile Landscapes makes fabulous paper piecing patterns and was kind enough to share her Bowls with Borders pattern for free to anyone who was willing to make something for the blog hop. Of course, you still make something by buying her pattern or one of her many others.

Thanks to Madame Samm from Sew WE Quilt

 and Carol from Just Let Me Quilt for organizing this wonderful blog hop.  My fellow contributors today are:

Gabi S.

Monique H.

Home Ala Mode

Quilt-N-Queen

Crazy 'bout Quilts

Rita, Crooked Quilter
Geema's Wonderings
Piece Peace

I Piece 2-Mary

 And here is mine!

I started with the idea of making a wall hanging, when I realized I need a new tea tray liner.  First I resized the pattern by photocopying it at 200%.   I had scraps leftover from this quilt:

and this bench pad:

(and can you believe I still had enough left over to make a baby quilt - my next post!) I've pretty much used up all my Pure fabric, what is left will be fed into my Scrap-Users System.

I was kind of making it up as I went along - so I trimmed it to be an exact fit for the tray, planning on using ric-rac then a traditional binding.  Much to my dismay, what I remembered as being brown ric-rac turned out to be brown piping - so I used that and the liner is a wee bit small (but not enough to notice!).  Here's some closeups of my finish!

I still have to hand-sew the binding down on the back side, but I'm really happy with how it turned out.

Thanks for visiting!  I'm sorry I don't have a giveaway this time, I just got back from holidays and have not had time to sort one out.  I have a blogiversary coming up, so watch for one in a few weeks!

Sunday Stash Report, Week 8

It's that time of the week again, and I am so glad that I started keeping track of my purchases and my finishes.  It gives me the accountability I need, both to not buy what I don't need right away, and to use what I have. Of course it hasn't stopped me from starting new projects!  More on that later. 

In the meantime, I stopped by my LSS this week for a very good reason!  I took my Orca Bay quilt to a long-arm quilter recommened by my LSS.  Linda of Quilted Cats Hideaway does most of Hamels quilting and going to do a nice, simple meander on this quilt that has so many seams and fabrics in it.  Of course, the backing I brought was 10" too short (I was going to use muslin, but have stolen some strips off the end of it which made it too short).  I went to Hamels and they had beautiful wide-backing flannels on sale so I got a beautiful red with a black swirl. It's in the washer right now, so I can't show it to you, but trust me it is perfect for this quilt.  I had to buy 90", which translated to 2.3 metres.  Of course, it's 110" wide so it was a screaming deal at $15.97/metre for quilt-shop quality flannel.  I'm going to have to take another look at some of the wide backings for yardage.  I also picked up 4 fat eigths to add to my scrap bins, which some are looking a little empty since doing Orca Bay! 

Used this Week: 0 metres

Used year to Date: 30.5 metres

Added this Week: 2.8 metres

Added Year to Date: 14.4 metres
Net Used for 2012: -16.1 metres

No finishes this week, my sewing machine is lost somewhere - apparently the servicing was finished on Wednesday, but they don't have a tracking system to figure out where exactly it is.  So...hopefully it shows up tomorrow, or on the next delivery Thursday.  If not, I'll be doing the freak-out dance all over somebody Thursday night!

In the meantime, I improved my setup of my baby machine this crammed corner between my ironing table and me and my scrapbooking stuff to my right:

to the spot formerly occupied by my regular machine:

Doesn't she look tiny?  I've put a USB drive and my scissors beside her for scale.

At least, I got a few more scrap blocks done and started 3 more tiny houses.  By time I finish these three, I might be able to dump those scraps.  Not bad for stuff I would have thrown out hoarded forever.  I'm going to start filling a pillow for my dog, as she has taken over a piece of fleece and made a nest under the cutting table.

These little blocks all measure 3 1/2 " and will finish at 3".  I'm not sure if they will appear in the same quilt yet, but it's a possibility.

Orca Bay, Part 5 of ....?

It's on to the next step of Orca Bay, and I've decided to keep the name since I live on the West Coast of Canada, less than 100 km where orca pods J, K & L live year-round. I realize I am very fortunate in having seen these whales in their native environment many times. Once I find a picture I'll have to post it, but since I've had to restore my computer twice in the last month.

I tackled Step 5 in a small way, just a few to get the feel for cutting out the tiny triangles and adding them to my HSTs.

I'm rapidly running out of black, so I've dipped into my blue, brown and green drawers to find the very darkest shades to add - as long as it reads "dark", anything will work in my quilt! After doing about a dozen, I decided I better go back and finish Step One before I did any more on Steps 3 & 5.

Here are 310 QTS's (and a few to spare) ready for sewing on my mini design boards.  I might have shown these before - I got the tutorial from Lori Holt's website "Bee in my Bonnet", and have put them to good use!

Chain-piecing went fast, and a few leader/enders got sewn up as well!

Then the inevitable pressing began.  Thanks to one of the links on Bonnie's Monday linky-thingy, I learned to press them before cutting them apart - what a time-saver that is.

Next, pair them up so no two fabrics are the same and 155 pairs were laid out ready to sew.

But I had to take a break - my kids invited me to go to the Christmas Tree Farm with them - how could I turn down the opportunity to participate in my grandchildrens' first trip!  It turned out to be a decent day - mild and a peak of sunshine, with only a sprinkle of rain as we were about to leave.  Since Alex is going to New Zealand on Christmas Day with his parents to visit his paternal grandparents, he didn't get a tree but he helped Uncle Rob-Rob carry their tree to the truck!

Uncle Rob-Rob got his name a couple of years ago, when Alex was first learning to talk.  My daughters' friend's husband's name is Rob as well, and we quite often refer to the 'boys' as Rob, Rob and Ray (my other daughter's husband).  Alex starting calling each of the Robs Uncle Rob-Rob, and the name(s) have stuck!

Whoops, I forgot to turn this one!  After I got back to the house, I made up this panel apron and bonus potholders so I can bake cookies with Alex later this week. 

I finally got over my fear of free motion quilting and decided I couldn`t wreck these too badly, so I tackled it!  It was a lot easier than I thought, and I will definitely practice more. 

Then I got back to Orca Bay!

I`ve cut out 160 pairs for Step 3, only 160 to go, then 700 more triangles for the wings.  I also got the 224 quarter triangle squares sewn tonight, just need to press them and measure/trim and Step 1 will be done. 

Good thing I have a 4-day weekend coming up - 2 whole days after Christmas with no obligations so I plan on sewing and getting caught up!



Have a good week sewing - to see what every else has done with Orca Bay so far, check out Bonnie's linky-thingy (her technical term ;o) at http://www.quiltville.blogspot.com/2011/12/mystery-monday-link-up-part-5.html.



What to do?

I want to make a quilt featuring these beautiful Sunkissed fabrics:

and have searching all month for just the right design,

and still have come up with nothing :o(

I think I'd like to have a pinwheel version

and have an idea in my mind - I might have to design my own!

In the meantime, I have been busy making a table topper:

with a flanged border,

finishing Block 1 of Vignette Magazine's mystery quilt (with liberal changes),

Finished 2 Block 4s of Thangles 4, my LQS buck-a-block program (here they are all together)

(they don't have enough contrast for my liking, but I'm persevering).

And I dug out my original Thangles I project, in the hopes of getting it finished this year!

And I'm still practicing free-motion quilting and finishing the quilting on my soon-to-be-born granddaughter's quilt!  She's due Wednesday, so I better get it done.