Life got in the way...

First off I can't believe it's nearly February, secondly I can't believe I haven't posted or done anything in my sewing room since September. Life just zipped by and it seems I forgot to look up.

Lots been happening here. Laptop died in the fall, but Santa brought me 12' Samsung tablet for Christmas. I love it! This post will be the first using the tablet and testing out the camera. My sister got engaged at thanksgiving and married Boxing day. A second marriage for both so it was small and lovely. We are all so happy for them. Work has been more hectic than normal, lots of changes in staff so we 've been scrambling. They are interviewing to fill the positions so hopefully help will arrive soon. Kids are teens so lots of driving here and there. The oldest started his co-op job for college, co-op goes until next term starts in September then finishes off another term in class then graduation.

I think my sewing dry spell is officially over. Everyday I itch more and more to go into my sewing area and just do something. I miss my sewing machine, being productive with my hands, the cutting, laying out the pattern, the sense of accomplishment when I complete a block - I even miss the ironing. I miss everything about it!

A little hexie work watching tv last night and today I'm picking up where I left off in the sewing room. We got Netflix and have been eyeing Downtown Abbey and Homeland. Just need to find a way to watch it on the big screen in my sewing area

Just a quick check in

Not much happening on the sewing front. Since my last post we've had a cold hit everyone in the house with the exception of my son. Lucky boy!

Fall has officially arrived and the trees are turning. Its such a pretty time of year but I can't believe Thanksgiving is only a few weeks away!

Hopefully I'll have something to show after this weekend - I can guarantee there will be no finishes but some progress would be nice!

Have a great week!

M &R's quilt progress

I've been putting off posting this hoping I'd have something to show but I've been a bit slack (understatement of the year) getting any progress done on M & R's quilts or anything for that matter.

I was on vacation the last week of Aug and first of Sept and as usual best made plans went in a totally different direction. Truthfully 2 weeks aren't nearly enough. I had anticipated getting tons of sewing in and do a major Fall cleaning including painting the house top to bottom but other than some usual cleaning that didn't happen. But we bought his and hers cars the very first day of vacation. His the Red Fiat 500 Pop. Mine is the Grey Fiat 500 Lounge. We love them and they are so economical. The second week was back to school and all the first week hecticness that comes with it. I did have breakfast out with my parents on the last Wednesday which was really nice. I also got to visit with my oldest friend for tea. It was a really great visit.

R's Kansas troubles has changed again. Looking at blogs one night last month I stumbled on this Reanna Lily designs tutorial Serger Strip Quilt. R saw it and said that would really look nice in her fabric, she is right it would look good. Looking at the requirements (1 jelly roll + 8 more strips will make a lap quilt) I knew I'd need another Jelly roll to make a quilt large enough to fit on her double bed. All the online Canadian stores were out so Fat quarter shop comes to the rescue again. They have a straight fee for shipping to Canada so I went looking and found they also had a fat eighth bundle of Plum Sweet so I bought that as well.

Why more Plum Sweet? With the fat eight and a 10' charm I can make bigger blocks then the charm and jelly roll. Here's one block done.

Hope to get more done this weekend.

3 finished tops

Just to be clear the finished tops weren't done by me. Long story short, these were given to my sister who has passed them over to me. I was told I could do what I want with them. There is no way I could cut these up, I will finish them as they came to me. The weather has been gloomy and wet and I wanted to get some outside pictures so I tried to run out during the few minutes of sun over my lunch today. All of the quilts are folded - they were just to big for my little clothesline to handle.

The log cabin is the favourite by everyone who sees it - it really has the wow factor (the pictures really don't do it justice). This quilt is MASSIVE - folding it length ways then again in half I could make 4 extra large lap quilts. The binding has already been attached to the front of the quilt which threw me off slightly and along with the quilt is fabric which I believe was intended as the backing. I would love to do a fun swirl quilting on this. I'm pretty sure this was done by machine.

The second and third quilts are appliquéd by hand. Having made a Dresden plate block I know how much work went into the that top. I'm not big on green but the more I look at it the more I like it.

And last but not least the tulip appliqué, while this is not something I would make myself at this point how can I not give it it's due, clean and feminine just makes a really pretty top.

My big fear - my binding and quilting not being up to the standard to do these justice. It's one thing to be less than stellar on my own but I don't want to mess up these tops.

Fun with Dick and Jane - Finished!

 My Fun with Dick and Jane is finished. I started this quilt June 30th and had the top done and sandwiched July 1st. I finally stopped avoiding it and quilted, bound and washed it yesterday. Took the youngest with me this morning and handed it over to mom.  ;)

It feels so good to have this done. I've discovered that after piecing my next favorite part is binding. Who knew! I get a real sense of accomplishment putting the binding on. Pictures turned out a bit dark for outside pictures. I was trying to take them when the sun peaked out from behind the clouds - we're expecting thundershowers all day. That's my youngest hiding behind the quilt in front of a small section of my parents back garden. I really need to start looking at labeling my quilts. I have to say this quilt turned out very light. Much lighter than my Puppy Love which surprised me. I wonder now if I should have doubled the batting. Either way I LOVE how it turned out (the pictures really don't do it justice)! It is so soft especially with the flannel backing.

 

Next to start are my daughters quilts. I want to try the Buzzsaw again (see my last post if you want to read about the troubles I had with that) before I start . If I still can't get it consistently I'm going to go with the Crazy quilt pattern. Another decision to make is whether or not I'm going to work on both simultaneously, or do one then begin the other. I know M's Carpenter Star is much more is more time consuming per block than R's no matter if I go Buzzsaw or Crazy quilt. They both have double (or full sized) beds but I think I'm going to make the quilts Queen sized.

I still have all the body pillows waiting for me to get started on and I bought some Christmas in July kits that were on sale, 2 are smaller full kits and a third is a block of the month. I hope to get the 2 smaller wall hangings done in time to put them up with our tree at the beginning of December. There is no way I'll have the block of the month done this year seeing it's one block for 10 months but I don't see why I can't have it done in time for Christmas 2015. They should be arriving any day - I can't wait!

Things are moving and shaking

I have been doing a bit of hexie work the past week - I know I never show it here but I want to get a full section together before the big reveal. Truthfully, I'm second guessing my fabric choices. In theory the surrounding colors compliment the colors in fabric but am finding it a bit dull muted looking. I'm hoping the layout will make all the difference. My Dick and Jane quilt has been sitting waiting for me to come to terms with the fact that I am eventually going to give in to my current FMQ limitations and do straight line quilting. (pictured Dick and Jane on another fantastic online find- $10 for that quilt stand and was less than 5 minutes down the road)

So on to my too many purchases this past week. The cheapest purchase I made (sigh) were easy thread needles (hoping this will make thread burying easier). I picked up more minky (purple and beige), some body pillows that will need cases, a few meters of muslin, 4 other meters of different fabric, pliers & snaps/eyelets, a much needed second overhead light for my sewing room and a toaster oven.

I actually bought the body pillows and two super king size pillows (for our bed) with the plan to make cases to go on every bed in the house. The girls pillows will be made with whatever fabric is left over from their quilts, my sons using the fabric I bought.

Ours and my sons is a bit more complicated. I don't know what I'll be making for us yet. While I think a jean rag quilt would be best for our bed (the dogs are pretty rough on our comforter/blankets) I dream of sleeping under something pretty and delicate. I bought the fabric pictured with the muslin for him, these are the colors he prefers (greens and browns) and will hopefully match what ever fabric I eventually buy for his quilt.

The beige minky cause it spoke to me, the purple cause I loved the texture and can see it turning into something fun. The muslin is to use for piecing my youngest's crazy quilt - yes you read that right. There is no way the buzzsaw is going to happen. Lets just say I will try to work it out when my mind is a little less all over the place. I did the first section in under 10 minutes. 6 trys later I gave up on the 2nd section of the 4 that make one block. I don't know why I just couldn't wrap my brain around it. Thankfully my daughter loves the crazy quilt pattern after I made a throw pillow for her.

So why mention the toaster oven? Well our kettle and 4 slice toaster were side by side on the counter. Oldest daughter was making jello and long story short the toaster ended up full of lime Jello. There was just no recovering from that. The stainless toaster oven was cheaper than the cheapest toaster and with Chris busy in the kitchen making Dill pickles and 3 types of preserves I decided we really needed a way to make toast..

He made Strawberry, Strawberry with peppercorn and balsamic vinegar and Cherry. The mini cucumbers and strawberries were from the local farmers market (only place we've been able to find the unwaxed cucumbers), the sour cherries are from our tree in the back yard. The cherries on their own are very tart, but after boiling it down with the sugar and real lemon it turns out really nice. (top front is the Cherry, bottom right Strawberry and bottom left is the Strawberry & well the pickles are at the back of course)

Chris if off shift today so we did a second round of picking today over my lunch (benefits of working from home) in less than 30 minutes we had three large bowls full. This is our 3rd year since planting the tree and it's hard to believe that we had already filled that metal bowl last weekend (I think we may have got the red bowl worth in total last year). He's already busy making more - trying out using Certo this batch to see the difference. On the list for tomorrow are bread and butter pickles. He learned from last year to make lots! Pickles were eaten up before Christmas and the last jar of the preserves was opened shortly after that..

Pictured below is one of the shortcakes we made with the foam from the top of the jam. Topped with some cool whip and what a combination of sweet, tart and creamy all in one forkful. My man is one of many talents!

My trusty singer machine is currently in the garage and things are moving around in my sewing room again. Chris found a cheap sewing table online for next to nothing, its 3.5 feet by 3.75 feet. I had to come up with a plan to make it fit in my space. There is something about rearranging and cleaning/organizing an area that always makes me feel content. I don't know why but it's like when I come up with a new placement for furniture everything feels like a fresh start. The opening on the table was a smidge too small (1.5 inches off) and there was no way to mount my machine so he's built an adjustable shelf (to accommodate the different machines) to sit on. Just a few more polishing touches (have I ever mentioned he's a bit of a perfectionist??) and it will be ready to be moved to its new home.  The new light will go in the back section where my cutting table has moved. I can't wait!! Hopefully will have a picture or two in my next post.

Have an incredible weekend!

A finished mini

.

I took advantage of Canada Day being Tuesday and took Monday off as well and enjoyed an extra long weekend. I did my running around on Saturday getting my oldest daughter ready for Prom. Late night waiting up for the call to pick her up and finally crawled into bed after 4 AM. The past week was hot and muggy, perfect weather to stay indoors with the air conditioner cranked. Sunday afternoon I picked up my Superman Mini Tumbling blocks. I didn't love the way I was quilting it - the blocks weren't popping, so I went back to square one and did what had been bouncing around in my head for a few weeks and made a thick border around each block. I finished off the quilting on Monday morning and had it bound, washed and photo ready by mid afternoon! I really like the way it turned out. Chris's childhood chair is a bit worn, but he decided to leave it as is instead of refinishing.

With that done I felt free to start working on something else. Mom's quilts that were for supposed to be for Mother's day have been nagging at me... I picked up the Dick and Jane and just started cutting, coming up with a layout as I went. It was pretty small so I needed to find a way to use the mini blocks as their own blocks. I played around and found what I think is the perfect layout and maximizing what I had to work with. There is a little oops in the very middle block (which was the most complicated and paper pieced) but I'm really impressed with how it turned out. I have it all together basted with pins waiting for me to start quilting. I have no clue what to do. I'm worried that if I stray from my straight line quilting I'm going to make an absolute mess of it. Let's see how adventurous I feel when I get started ... after all when it comes to stitch ripping I'm an an expert so that option is always open. ;)  I'm off to the fabric store after work to find a binding to try to match the blue. I'm really hoping to get this finished and in my mom's hands before my dad's birthday in a few weeks.

Centre Pieced Block

Wishing all my American friends a safe and happy Independence day!