First week of October- binding done!

 Binding done and working on a major clean up!

This is finished Strip Twist made in June 2023 so, a UFO!  I didn't know where to donate this quilt but decided on Quilts of Valour.  

I used a panel on the back that is a map of Canada thinking that it made the quilt more Canadian?

I had a stack of brown rail fences that were aging in a box and I also had a pattern called Honor from years ago which gave measurements for cutting off the two opposite corners of the blocks and adding fabric to create a bit of a star.  In order to make this one more Canadian, another panel was used on the back.  Kudos to Stephanie of Heartstrings for the suggestion to use panels on the backs of quilts.  Brilliant idea and all my panels are now gathered together and ready to use!

The September quilt-a-long with Running Doe (Villa Rosa) was a pattern called Buttons.  I struggled with which fabrics to use but took out a kit from a mystery box from 2023 and used the set of batiks.  I added in a couple from my own stash and because I didn't want a really large quilt, I made two.  One has 20 blocks and the smaller one used 12.  

Confetti is another quilt that I made using a bundle of fabrics from the same mystery box from 2023.  I am trying hard to use up and make the quilts and other projects that arrive in my home and I do love these boxes but not always thrilled with the patterns they include.  A fun quilt and was inspired by a triangle quilt being made at a sew in with the modern guild in August.  Thanks Debbie for the idea.

I am still working on making these double hourglass blocks.  The heartstrings group chose jelly rolls as the September challenge and I did make Honor with rail fences but, I wanted to use an actual jelly roll and found this Hoffman dots package tucked away in the UFO container.  I need to add some of my own fabrics to get the quilt to a finished size that I like but it is my leader and ender project at the moment and is perfect for stitching during Friday night zoom session with modern guild friends. 

A quilt top came from Susan G in New Brunswick last October and I have quilted the other tops earlier this year and the final one is done.  Such a pretty quilt and I think it will awesome for a wheel chair quilt or for someone sitting in their recliner.  Done and labeled.

All of the quilts I finished this month used "frankenbatts'  which means batting pieced together from leftover strips.  The bindings and backings came from my stash and the best part is - only one quilt waiting on a hanger and now that I know where I want to donate it, it will get finished and I may not wait for the end of the month. 

Lots of idea but am concentrating on using fabrics that are in bundles and still have a few from the mystery boxes but am determined to move them from waiting to be used into a quilt top. The main list of project is similar to other months.

- Rainbow scrap challenge (color choice is up to us)

- Patterns by Jen and block is in black/gray

- Double hour glass blocks finished

- Cut and create kits from bundles on hand

- quilt the top that has been on a hanger for a few years. 

- stitch a block for the modern guild block swap this month

- Heartstrings: fat quarter is the monthly choice of precut

So far, the list is not too long but, I will be adding to it as I create kits for mindless stitching. 

October - time to put September behind us and move forward

 My husband's radiation is finished and now he is healing from the ordeal and spending a lot of time sleeping.  For me, time for the caregiver to attend some of her appointments for her well being - today the optometrist, next week the dentist and ongoing C-pap phone appointments to keep me on track.  We are back to playing indoor tennis which is a bonus on a rainy or wet day.  

September was fairly productive.  My heartstrings group chose jelly rolls or 2.5" strips and I pulled out a set of aging blocks, found a pattern from years ago called Honor and it meant adding some triangle corners.  After finishing the quilt top, I realized that I should have use a darker or brighter corner fabric, but the top is done! It is labeled and quilted and waiting for binding.  I used panel on the back which makes it more suitable as a Quilt of Valour. 

While digging around in my bin of projects patiently waiting, I found a really old Bali pops jelly roll and decided that it would be a great time to use it.  My choice of pattern was a Villa Rosa double hourglass.

I won't have enough blocks with using just the package so am adding in more blocks made from strips from my stash of batiks, trying to find ones that have dots.  There isn't a lot of choice but I will intersperse them among the ones that are true dot pops. 

 

The last week of the month is is quilting time and I knew I didn't have a huge number of quilt tops on hangers so was a bit slow in getting started.  Our garden is still producing crazy amounts of zucchini and tomatoes so some picking time was needed.  I also needed to get the grass cut during nice weather when rain was in the forecast.  But, I did get started and now have a stack of them quilted and they are waiting for binding.

This triangle quilt that I worked on during the last modern guild sew in was put together and is one of the finished projects.

I also finished up the brown scrappy strips that I pieced for my monthly rainbow scrap challenge.

These are my brown leaders and enders that was inspired by Bonnie Hunter called oopsie daisy blocks. 

Running Doe chose Buttons as their pattern for the month of September and I was hesitant to get started because I wasn't inspired.  I went through my container of bundles of fabrics, (same one where I found the Hoffman strips) and there was a kit of yellow/pinkish batiks that came in a mystery box and I didn't like the pattern with it so, I decided it was a great way to complete the challenge. 

I did add in a few other batiks and ended up with two tops.  One is slightly smaller than the other but I think they are bright and cheery and need to figure out where to donate them. 

My bruises are fading after my fall but now I have a C-pap machine to contend with.  I would love to say I am leaping out of bed in the morning and my sleep is awesome.  But, I can't.  It is taking some getting used to as I am NOT a back sleeper and love to be on my stomach which doesn't work... so attempting some sleeping on my side and trying to make that work but, I feel like most of the night, I am awake.  The data however, shows that I am sleeping much better and having very few apnea episodes so... time will tell.  

First week of the month.  Binding week and I had great plans to start yesterday and ended up outside in the garden.  Today, I had great plans but, after morning tennis, a noon eye appointment, and starting to write my blog update, the power went out.  The best laid plans went awry.  Oh well... I did search out my lanterns for power outages, plugged a battery operated light into my power bank and just as it was getting a little bit dark (and just when I thought dinner would be a can of soup on my gas range), the power came back on.  

So, working on this blog after dinner, while a chocolate zucchini cake bakes and I will attempt to get one quilt bound before my 8pm sewing curfew.  (self imposed but nice to spend some with my husband before he goes to bed).  

Mid September and feeling organized

 It is a bit of a strange month for us because my husband is having daily radiation and I drive him to and from and lend moral support for the process.  The appointment times are all over the place with no consistent time other than they seem to all be before or shortly after noon.  So, my days are very messed up with little tennis being played and hard to plan any other appointments or activities.  But, we are on the last few days and will be finished on Monday (hopefully).  

Once I had the bindings and labels on the quilts after the first week of September, I worked on my rainbow scrap challenge blocks using browns.  Heartstrings challenge is jelly rolls or 2.5" strips.  I dug out all my containers of brown fabrics and I have a lot because I use that colour for backings of a lot of Quilts of Valour.  It was overwhelming but I pushed on.

I had a set of quilt blocks, rail fences using 4 strips and wanted to turn them into a quilt top.  I made more blocks and then added a corner at a bit of a different angle to two opposite corners.  This idea was taken from a very old pattern called Honor.  On the design wall and then put together and pressed. 

It seems a bit blah?  But, I am going to use another panel for the backing and maybe the recipient will like it better?  A two sided quilt. 

I went ahead and made most of my blocks for the rainbow scrap challenge... a lot of cutting and stitching and creation of a total disaster zone. Triple rail fence blocks and the pile of garlic knots. 

The L blocks, the small corner triangles, the 8 pointed stars... and hiding at the bottom is the Patterns by Jen block, which was also a brown choice.  I only made one block because if made a second with the light and dark switched out, it would look the same? 

I finished up with making string blocks using brown strips.  The Pattern by Jen is more visible in this picture. 

After tidying up, the brown strips fit back into my strip bucket nicely although it is very full. 

We had a Saturday sew in with the modern guild and I had these fat quarters from a mystery box and didn't like the pattern that came with them so chose to make Confetti.  I cannot remember the book that this pattern is from but super simple from 9" squares. 

There always has to be one block stitched incorrectly.  I am not perfect!

The blocks are on the wall and now put together into a kid's quilt.  A strange grouping of prints but ends up being bright and happy. 

I stopped and cleaned, tidied, vacuumed and generally did a massive organization job and everything looks so much better and my tables, ironing board and cutting mats are all clear!  Temporarily. 

A bit of a time out because of a massive fall while heading up the stairs with my hands full and missed the top step somehow and landed in the windowsill head first.  My eye is healing, my forehead still hurts badly and won't show you the bruises on my hip and butt!  

The garden is producing so  many tomatoes!  See that lip on the stair?  I think that is what my foot caught when going up, late in the evening, with my hands full and not using the railing.  Lesson learned. 

I did spend a day outside using the lawn mower and weed wacker to tidy up our three levels of garden in the back of the house.  A wetter than usual August has everything green and growing, including the weeds.  The roses are very happy and the geraniums are loving the late summer sunshine.   I am hoping next year to scatter wildflower seeds in the empty vegetable boxes and add more colour to the lower levels. 

Off to plan my next project which is button box by Running Doe (Villa Rosa) and maybe use up another pack of fabric that came in one of the mystery boxes.  Time to deal with all these aging kits and fabric bundles that are sitting and growing old. 

First week of September and caught up on August projects.

 The quilting was done in August but the bindings and labels were the project for the first week of the month.  I have adopted this schedule for quilting: week 1: labels and binding, week 2: cutting kits, sewing up projects, pulling out UFO's etc to work on week 3: Rainbow scrap challenge and other monthly blocks of the month or steps in a mystery and week 4: quilting.

This plan really works with the way my mind likes to work.  I have some friends that think I am crazy, silly, and too schedule oriented but, as long as I am happy with it, I am following it. 

First we have the sew a long with Running Doe (Villa Rosa) and this is the pattern she chose for August. The pattern name is Crossroads and am sure this is the third pattern designer using this name.  The quilt is made from browns that were mainly leftover backing scraps and the reds are from my scrap bin.  

Heartstrings had panels as their challenge of the month and someone suggested using a panel as a backing.  I have a few of these panels so they will become backs for Quilts of Valour projects.  A super simple way to use a panel. 

This is kind of funny... Another Crossroads pattern but, this one is a 3 yard quilt by Fabric Cafe.  I had made one a few months ago and had some squares left for another quilt so I copied what I had done in the past.  Simple way to set off Canadian themed fabrics. This will be a donation to Quilts of Valour.

A sew along with JQS summer quilt along.  This was a group on Facebook and the variety of quilts made using these blocks is amazing.  Some used a light sashing, others rearranged the blocks to create such different looking finished quilts.  These blocks are all available for free on the Quilts of Valour website under resources.  Remember Valour with a 'u' and it is a .ca webpage.

In the February Quilts of Valour sew day, Lisa Compton designed this block as a connector.  The blocks finishes at 13" and I had squares of fabric that size leftover from the first time I made this and I also had some connector blocks leftover along with extra fabric so I made more blocks and ended up with another quilt for Quilts of Valour.  This is all good because my cupboards of quilts for this cause is empty after sending my collection to Victoria so that the new rep can catch up on presentations requested a few years ago. 

Carolyn's block - made from fat quarters with very little waste.  Super simple project.  I wrote down the cutting directions for this block from something I saw on the internet 5 or 6 years ago and still have the hand drawn diagram.  In my stash of kits and fat quarter collections, I had these fabrics which I decided should go from being hidden away to being made into a finished quilt.  I am not sure where this will go for donation but I like to have a few quilts on hand, just in case. 

In August, I also tackled working with rainbow scrap challenge blocks from previous years.  I always stack them in piles of colours as I finish the blocks each month.  These are true strip scraps that get used up but the containers are still overflowing?  I was trying different settings last month and this month to see which layout I prefer for the rest of the blocks. 

I did not make this last quilt.  It was donated last summer by Debbie from my local guild when I was collecting quilt tops to send to New Brunswick and Labrador so they could be finished there and used for presentations as they had very low inventories of quilts in those provinces.  After I sent one box they let me know that they wanted to deal with the first group before more got mailed and since they haven't shown a need since then, I have been slowly finished the tops so graciously donated to Quilts of Valour.  Thanks to Debbie for the quilt top and it is now finished and in my stack of quilts on hand for presentation to an injured Canadian armed forces member. 

I have since tidied up, dealt with all the backing and batting trimmings from these quilts and have put away fabrics I pulled out for using for bindings.  Everything neat and looking lovely and I almost hate to disturb the perfectly clean space... but many projects calling my name and the race is on to finish up as much as possible before age overtakes me. 

In the meantime, radiation for my husband continues daily and that actually has given me more quilting time because his appointments are random which interferes with being able to schedule morning tennis games and far too hot here to play after 11am.  It also allows me take over his watering duties as our zucchini and tomatoes are still growing like crazy though cucumbers plants are looking sad at the end of their life.  

Back to school but not for me!  Am thankful however, for the benefits I reap monthly and though I cursed when we were young and poor, I now see that the money taken away from every pay cheque is helping us to enjoy our retirement.

Back to school tomorrow but not for me!

 It is the first week of September and even though it has been 22 years since I retired, the first week of school brings back memories - the good and the bad.  I do not miss making lots of meals for the freezer because of the misery of being back at work along with all the meetings, meeting parents, then meeting my kid's teachers, sports for both my kids and my husband who coached and played and harvest time on the farm... a really hectic and crazy month and I don't miss having to get the kids up in the morning, hustling them along to be out the door on time (and did it for my grandsons as well) and then getting myself out the door so I could sit in traffic for an hour to get to work.  Yippee... memories, not my reality.

My reality is different this month.  My husband is having daily radiation on his face for a skin cancer that went too deep for the surgeon to get it all.  It is throwing my schedule out of wack but allowing me lots of reading and quilting time since my tennis schedule is affected by his treatments.  

So, first week means binding the quilts that were finished this past week and am ready for that. The heartstrings group chose panels as the August challenge and I used panel with added fabrics for the backing on a quilt.  I will do this again with some of the panels I have on hand.  A great way to utilize them.

I did finish 32 pillowcases, my goal for the month.  I worked on 3 at a time pinning, then stitching and then pressing and do the final serging of the edges plus stitching down the accent strips.  I used up a lot of fabric! 

Right now, at this very moment, my cutting tables, ironing board and design walls are empty!  Totally tidied and cleaned up... that feels good but strange and ready for me make a mess again. 

This is my stack of quilts with bindings made, ready to attach.  The labels are all attached to each quilt and am ready to go!  Seven quilts which will hopefully be done in 3 days?  I have tennis to watch and that will entertain me while I do the final task to finish these off.

Our cucumbers and zucchini are still producing like crazy but with this cool today, hot tomorrow weather, they seem to be thriving.  The small tomatoes are ripening faster than I can pick but the larger tomatoes are slowly turning red.  I predict bacon and tomato sandwiches for some upcoming meals.

A short posting but am working on my list for September and have a variety of projects that I want to work on.