This and that and a bit of progress

Favorite from my garden

Last Canada Day holiday I started on Dick and Jane quilt and had the top done and basted before going out to see the fireworks. Quilted, bound and handed off to mom by end of the month. This year Canada Day fell on a Wednesday so I took the Thursday and Friday to make super long weekend. I was hoping to get a lot of sewing time in and make dents on the girls quilts. It didn't happen. As usual, life got in the way. I knew there was no way I'd finish their tops by the end of the weekend but I would've loved to see a significant progress. I've been procrastinating on these long enough!

To say I got nothing done wouldn't be accurate -I just didn't get nearly as much accomplished as I was hoping. As you can see there are a few more Donuts done on R's quilt. They are taking alot longer than I expected. The blocks themselves aren't difficult. I think the issue is I'm trying to give variety as I go but really only need to get the blocks done then go back and layout as last steps. I think I need to find a better method. While working in the sewing area Chris and I watched The Honourable Woman. We weren't sure after ther first episode but we're both glad we continued on watching. What an incredible yet complex series.

Earlier in the week Chris made a template cut out of an old cutting mat for the flowers for M's. Using heatNbond these are coming together nicely.  Sizing looks off, but the flower blocks have a thin border that goes around each block that still needs to be added. My main singer with zig zag stitch is still having tension issues so Chris suggested pulling out his green Elna. Once I have all the flower blocks done I'll figure out which centers to use for each, then get that set up so I can go around all the edges.

Thats about it for sewing, but I have to tell you about our Cherry tree. Each year we are getting more and more cherries. It was so loaded with cherries this year the branches were bent under the weight. So far a full 4 Litre basket for my sister and 3 huge bowl fulls for my parents and we still have oodles more to pick.

Yesterday afternoon I took a quick trip to drop off the third bowl with the girls. Mom is making cherry pies and freezing them. While the girls were chatting with my dad, mom and I took a walk through her garden. She really has a way with flowers. I don't know if it's because it was my childhood home or mom's (and dad's) influence but the house and yard are so calming. I've added a few pictures of my favorite flowers from her garden below.

On a personal note, I haven't booked any summer holidays this year. I get tons of personal time off (6 weeks a year which is for sick and holidays) but I've been using it up on things like Dr's appointments,  migraines, etc. I have took a week in Jan and another in May to keep my batteries recharged. Lots going on at work over the summer with coworkers holidays, systems upgrades so I'm thinking of taking a week in October around Canadian Thanksgiving. Next year I'm hoping to be able to save them up and take a 3 week holiday over the summer.

Hope everyone has a lovely week.

No progress but new goodies

As I mentioned a few weeks ago Chris and his dad did a whirlwind trip to visit his brother in Edmonton. Before he left I had him set up an instagram so he could take pictures as he went. I'll be honest I suck with social media. I rarely check Facebook,  never tweet even though I have an account, I'm slightly better with instagram but haven't figured out the #. I see people hash tagging everything and wonder how do you know what to hash tag?? So I asked my daughter apparently everything & anything is a valid hash tag...

Chris is already back home and i have no progress to show. I should have worked on my girls quilts but once I was done work each evening I gravitated upstairs and didn't go back down again til the next morning. I really need to keep working on these. Over a year since I bought the fabric and the girls just want them done. The extra Bali pops Parrot fabric for Mineral Springs came in weeks ago. I could have gone back to that -only a few rows for a completed top but felt it was important to keep concentrating on the girls quilts. I would love to have these done by end of summer at the latest.

While away Chris dragged his dad, brother and sister in law to a local quilt shop Earthly Goods Quilting. The ladies were all really helpful and sweet. They showed them how the long arm worked and kept them interested. He bought me a layer cake Zen Chic Reel Time and The Adventures of the Amazing Alphabet book by Pam Holland (Pictured are a few of my favorite blocks). We are going to work on this together. The funny thing about the fabric is I already have a layer cake and jelly roll of this line but was kicking myself for not getting more so I could make a decent sized quilt. The minute I saw this fabric a few months back I immediately new this would be a quilt for my son M (who is 6 foot something and celebrated his champagne birthday yesterday 22 on the 22nd). For now it's waiting in the ever growing line



#balipops #quilting #reeltime

slow going

It's been slow going on the girls quilts, I've been working on both simultaneously. They aren't complicated I just keep changing my mind on the best way to go. I don't have as much variety in the gold color for R's quilt as I do the others so I'm using the two different gold that I originally bought for the back. It didn't start off that way so I do have more blocks than shown - perfect for pillow cases. The batting is queen size which is bigger than I anticipated. I've got it pinned up so it isn't dragging on the floor/getting stepped on. It looks bad but is practical for my current purposes.

M's quilt changed somewhat. I originally made blocks with no white,  but decided it would look better with white in the mix. I completed blocks and stacks of 4 ready to go that I ended up taking apart to add the white between the blocks. These are just a small portion that I've managed to get back together. I'm not sure how big these quilts are going to end up, I'm going to keep plugging away and see how far I get.

I also started making hexie flowers with 3 Sisters Favorites. I seem to go through spurts of hexies. I really should be working on my table runner though. I don't know what it is about making hexies in solid white that I find uninspiring, this feeling is what helped determine that the flowers would be joined as is instead of surrounding them by a solid colour.

Looking at other blogs I keep seeing Elizabeth Hartman's Fancy Fox. It's really grown on me and I may add it to my wish list. We'll just have to see where my head is when I get the girls quilts off my plate.

On a personal note, Chris is driving up to Edmonton to vist his brother and sister in law with his dad later this week. They are going up with a trailer to drop off some furniture and is going to be a long drive for them both. It's going to be a strange few weeks with him gone - I'm usually the one leaving for a work thing. It'll be good for him to see them, Doug is older by a year and 13 days, they've always been really close but we've only seen them once since they moved 4 years ago. I wish I could go nut I just don't have the time banked at work and next week is exam week at the high schools. I can't believe how fast this year is flying. Next week we will be halfway through June already!

Getting started on the girls quilts

I have put Mineral Springs on hold. I was able to get everything on my design wall joined with the exception on that last section but it's really short. I can easily add another 8 rows (there is about 3 times the amount of batting space at the top as shown at bottom). Would I be happy  the size it is? No, so I ordered another jelly roll of Parrot from Hamels so it will be about 2 weeks until I receive the order.

What to do next... enjoyed the backyard looking through the magazine Chris brought home the latest Better Homes and Gardens Quilts for Every Occasion. I saw this pattern and thought wow R's fabric would be stunning like this, showed the girls and M said Do my quilt that way and R responded Flowers? Really Mom?  I pointed out the centers didn't have to be flowers could be stars, hearts... skulls.... whatever she wanted. Seeing she has finally started wearing pink in small doses again And while she'll never admit at the ripe old age of 17, Pink is her favorite color but has refused to wear it other than as a hair color after someone made a comment that was the only color she wore (this was in kindergarten). I thought maybe she'd want something a bit more feminine but it was a no go.

Pulling out other quilt magazines looking for she'd go for something, she focused in on this. She really liked this one out of Fons & Porter Quilting Quickly May/June 2015 issue

Final decisions?
M Petal Patchwork in Blackbird Fabrics - Plum Sweet
R Mini Donuts in Kansas Troubles - Token of Friendship.

Lessons learned this weekend:
One jelly roll isn't enough for Mineral Springs
Nothing is ever set in stone

Where I sit now, 3 Sisters - Favorites is free for whatever I want, back to the drawing board for Farmer's wife. Hmmm, maybe I should go with Farm girl vintage - After all, it's a womans perogative to change her mind ;) lol my girl's don't fall from the indecision tree.

Planting is done and one more day of the weekend. I love long weekends! Tomorrow is the day to get started on both quilts so there is no more mind changing.

binding blues and finally a finish

Cherry blossoms 

Nice weather has arrived and we've been taking advantage of each beautiful day and evening. I haven't been in the sewing room much. This past weekend Mothers day was the start of our monthly family barbeques at my parents. We all get together at least once each month from May through October. I really look forward to those afternoons. As you can see our cherry tree is thriving, we should be able to make lots of jam again this year.

Front of wall hanging 

I really expected to have published a post announcing a finish a few weeks ago... I did get my quilting done and started the binding on my wall hanging over 2 weeks ago. I finished attaching the binding on the one side, and went to turn it over and pin. That's when I noticed my 1/4 seam varied in areas. Could I have made it work - probably but I wasn't happy with it so started the ripping. Got all that re-attached and started on the other side only to have missed stitches and breaking threads. More ripping to clean up my mess. Chris has been working on my machine but every time we think he's got it I jump back on and I lose all tension on the top thread again.  It's starting to look like my machine hates me. Hand bound my wall hanging which didn't take as long as I expected it would.

backing looks yellow but is actually a nice green

I really wanted this wall hanging done so I could get moving on other projects like M & R's quilts. Before that happens, Mineral Springs is still on the wall and I need want this one in the finished pile before I start on theirs. I tried multiple centers on the blocks and we found plain old white made the blocks pop. I don't know if using a solid with batik is flaunting some unwritten (or written) rule but I like it and that's what counts. I still need to fill in the some holes. I'm going to use this quilt as practice for consistency on 1/4 inch seams.  If I can get this nailed down I'm hoping the girls quilts will turn out beautifully (or at least not so unplanned wonky).

I set up one of the old singers, so Chris has time and isn't feeling pressured to work on my machine. I forgot how these old machines sew like a dream. I'm about a third way through piecing, I'm going to continue using this one for this quilt.

I didn't take pictures of the table runner as I'm sure you are sick of seeing it. I did find an oops on one of the panels. I have 6 section when 2 are attached make one of three panels. I attached one hexie side lower when joining two sections so I'm going to have to change it a bit to connect the panels to make them line up. BUMMER!

Work has been nuts lately (more so than ever), but the Victoria day long weekend (which also happens to be our wedding anniversary weekend) is finally here. I'm looking forward to the much needed downtime.

  

Changing directions ... again!

Table runner 

It's been a slow few weeks for me sewing wise.  I did get some work done on the quilting of my wall hanging during lunch hours and more progress on my table runner. I find both are slow going and while the finish line is in sight for both I can't seem to get there.

Wall hanging

I really like the look of this wall hanging and I just love everything about this pattern. M took one look at the wall hanging and asked me if I could make her one just like it but bigger instead of what we initially chose. I'm not surprised, the colours are more in line with her preferences over the years.  So it looks like I will need to use something else as my next hexie project. 3 Sisters favorites jelly rolls have officially been repurposed.

While I haven't been making tons of progress, my head was whirling with possibilities. I had been thinking about how I should start back up on my Farmers Wife but with a mishmash of fabric choices and no reoccurring color theme, it feels very disjointed. If there is way for scrappy to be done wrong this would be a perfect example of it. I was eyeing different lines thinking it would be so nice to start over with consistency. I'd managed to reign myself in though and stuck to my self imposed fabric buying detox. I have tons of Plum Sweet if I'm switching M's quilt and it won't cost a dime. Works for me!

While I'm feeling energized to get to work on M's quilt R's is still uninspiring. It's a simple pattern but I just don't love anything about it when you mix in the fabric, it's just dark and drab (picture to the left was brightened). I feel really guilty saying that - I want to love everything about this quilt. So I've been reevaluating her quilt the past couple of weeks. Checked out what l've got left of the Token of Friendship fabric that hasn't been used already making the strip sets for the original pattern. I still have quite a bit (who knew my over estimation when ordering would be a blessing in disguise) I'm hoping to come up with something more exciting. Probably something with stars - I really enjoy making them and the look of them in completed blocks.

This week's plan:
Finish wall hanging
Decide on final layout of mineral springs (still on the design wall)
Complete white border on 1 of 3 of the blocks of the table runner

Backyard cleanup complete, another month before we can start planting but my irises are breaking through in the front garden. Hoping my clothes line gets put back up soon.

wall hanging progress

I came across katies-quilt-pattern from the Missouri Star Quilt Co a few weekends ago while looking for a nice pattern for my wall hanging. It wasn't until I started putting it together that I realized its very similar to my Puppy Love quilt, only combinations of 4 patches instead of solid blocks and a bigger scale. (center block is 8.5, puppy love was 5.5) Apparently, there is something about the blocks and stars that appeals to me over and over.

I was struggling with bobbin issues that caused tension problems and continuous thread breaking.  We've got it fixed now. Some of the blocks on the top row turned out wonky - not sure what I did or didn't do (probably has to do with my lack of patience the past few weeks). Sometimes I wonder if I try for wonky if the blocks will be less so... I have been productive though, picking away at the wall hanging a bit each day. I'm about a quarter way through quilting. Hope to have it done by this weekend.

I've begun laying out mineral springs using Bali pops -Parrot and really like how it's looking so far. I haven't been ignoring my hexies, there has been some progress on my table runner. I love how it's turning out but it's slow going.

Back to work today after a lovely 4 day weekend.