Almost May and missed March and April

My last post was March 1st and then I somehow had a viral infection in my ear... vestibular neuritis which  had me living in a world with brutal spinning and it wouldn't stop.  After a week of being unable to move much and going through some brutal episodes, I did call our nurses' hot line and she connected me with a doctor who urged me to head to the ER.  That was a good decision and I was there for a few days while they ran many tests to rule out heart attack, a stroke, anything affecting my brain and the final test was the worst with a neuro surgeon having me do things with my eyes and head that had me vomiting and begging him to stop but he assured me it was necessary for an accurate diagnosis.  Apparently, prednisone was the solution  with massive doses for the first few days and then a gradual tapering off along with anti nausea medication.  

I still have moments of dizziness but they pass quickly though I always have Gravol (better than no name brand) and my other meds handy.  I am doing balance exercises through physio which I assume are helping though doing anything with  my eyes closed causes great wobbling.  

Since beginning of March, my lists got ignored for what I wanted to accomplish in my world of quilting... but, I am my own 'boss' so was free to change what I was working on. I did get Stashbuster annual challenge block done with green fabrics but still two months of colours waiting to be made. 

I kept working on my churn dash blocks using gray and red with Canadian themed fabric in the center.  The blocks didn't look great when I put them all together so added in sashing on two sides with a small corner block of red.  

This was the final preemie quilt I made using the leftover blocks from the small quilts made in February.  Totally orphan blocks but very pink and will hopefully brighten up the NICU.  

I managed to get a few March decor items out after getting home from hospital.  

Our dear, darling great granddaughter came with her mum and dad for a visit.  That is my grandson and it is amazing how much she looks like her daddy when he was her age.   
 

One project I did complete was my bunny runner bought from Quilt Nut Creations... a lovely small shop in a cute cottage behind their home in Chilliwack, BC.  

Our Wednesday group is going to make some happy blocks using cat/dog fabrics so we can donate to the SPCA. We aren't sure of what they can use but hoping to make some quilts they can raffle or use as door prizes.  I had a lot of fun fabrics when I dug them out.  

In Vancouver BC, the trees were glorious during blossom time.  Our weather cooperated and the trees were stunning. 

I am listing some furniture on Facebook marketplace because after my vertigo, it would have been nice to have a sofa bed in this location so I could be in bed, quiet and calm, without having to deal with stairs.  It would also be better for my husband who was trekking up and down to check on me.  Good news is that it sold... now onto more furniture.  As I approach 80, it feels important to reduce what we have and enjoy life with fewer possessions. 

I have also been pampering our front yard this spring and I did get it sprayed to prevent chafer beetles from laying eggs which grow grubs that attract the raccoons.  

Our hedges got trimmed thanks to our neighbour and my husband, after a blood transfusion and an iron infusion at the beginning of April, has been getting gardens ready for planting some vegetables.  Another good friend and her husband delivered us a load of manure which is being places in all his 'growing' holes.  

Great Nana with her adorable wee baby.  

While I was digging out cat and dog fabric for some SPCA projects, I also found bug, critter, frog fabrics... even some snakes and spiders.  I have a niece and a grandson who would have been thrilled with these fabrics.  I totally missed the Running Doe quilt challenge for March. The pattern is called Lindy but I decided that I would just make a lot of blocks and then start making quilt tops with them.  

The blocks are 12" wide and 7" deep so I played with arrangements and came up with this idea.  So far have 3 tops made.  

Another piece of furniture, a sideboard from our farmhouse, moved here 16 years ago and never used upstairs... it is living in the basement and really hope someone would love to give it a new home. 

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This was one of the quilts I sold at our quilt show earlier this month.  

I also sold this one as well... one of my favorite patterns  - Kimberly by GE designs 

At the quilt show I bought 3 projects... but told myself that if I buy, I need to make asap.  So this cute little zip pouch got made.  

I also made the kit for the tote bag purchased at the show. 

 This fabric book was the third kit I purchased and it is stitched up into a silly book for great granddaughter to enjoy. 

One more picture of my great grand.  

I spent some time yesterday tidying up a couple of drawers and also treated my mats to some cleaning and scrubbing.  I like to use vinegar water sprayed on them and then let them dry after I have scrubbed.  All neat and tidy and read to tackle making more cat/dog blocks and April's Running Doe Turnkey. 

Catching up on some other projects.  I had finished this village table topper in February but decided I needed to quilt it some more... so stippled in all the gray areas.  This was a project from Missouri Star advent box in 2024.

I made this red/brown quilt using my Triple log cabin block and fabrics came from a bag tossed in my direction at a quilt meeting plus some from my stash.  It is for quilts of Valour.  

This is the back of the quilt which adds a bit of a Canadian theme to the finished project. 

This was the quilts of Valour display at our quilt show.  A huge thank you to Carla who set it up for me since climbing on ladders is not something I can do while still having a possible attack of vertigo.  She did a great job.  

This is the finished churn dash and glad I added the black sashings to it.  

I missed the session at the March guild meeting where they made these cute buckets so am determined to get one made... they were created using orphan blocks as the inspiration.  

This last picture is an ongoing project.  I made yellow brick road blocks for a friend but am waiting for her to play with the layout before I stitch the blocks together into a quilt top.  Really cute fabrics but she had less fabrics to play with so there are multiples of the fat quarters and I seem to get dizzy every time I start playing with them.  

So, ending April with some finished and a new month begins in a few days.  I have all my critter blocks into tops that now need to be layered, quilted and bound which might happen though this is the week for blood test, oncologist appointment and immunotherapy infusion for my husband so my time is limited in my studio.  

Welcome to March, Spring, St. Patricks Day and warmer weather.

 I have been busy puttering since my last post.  I did finish up the preemie quilts, (one is a guild challenge) and one is a kit I picked up at guild.

 I also completed two larger quilts.  One was from some fabric tossed out in a plastic bag at a modern guild meeting and the other is the sew-along with Running Doe 

I used some of my reds and browns to go with what was in the bag and stitched some blocks I refer to as Carolyn blocks.  I have never found the source where I saw a picture of this block, many years ago and always hoping someone will identify it so I can give credit. 

I added a panel to the backing to make the quilt a little more Canadian and it will be donated to Quilts of Valour.

 When we sold our home in Mesa (we had spent 18 Valentine's days there), my friends cleaned out my quilts and handed them out to a variety of good friends that I had known for years.  This Valentine's day, here in our home in the Pacific Northwest, I realized that I had table runners and toppers but no quilts so, when Running Doe posted the Love Ya quilt for February, it was a perfect solution.  I have a quilt for me for next year, all completed.  This was made from a huge variety of scraps.  The pinks were leftover from looking for fabrics for the preemie quilts.  

These were the Valentine's mug rugs that I made and gave away to friends for the special heart day. 

Aqua strip piecing from scraps.

Onto making blue scrappy strip blocks

And then, some green scrappy strips.

The churn dash blocks are growing as I am making them as leaders and enders while working on my other projects.  These blocks are not appealing to me for a quilt top and am thinking of adding in another plain block to alternate between these.  The bonus would be enough blocks for two quilts! 

After making the Love Ya quilt, I had a lot of leftover half square triangles so am now stitching some together and will see where this goes. 

My advent box from Missouri star in 2024 had a panel of front doors to cut out and a pattern to make this table topper.  I have stitched in the ditch but think it needs more quilting?  When I took it to my Wednesday quilting group, they agreed that stippling in the background would make the houses pop a little more.  I should have taken a close up of the front doors... some are so darn cute!  After I eventually get the stippling done, will take more pictures, close up so you can see the details.  

Today is a lovely day and much too nice to be indoors working on income tax.  I did a bit of pruning, weeding and cut the grass.  The calendar says it is winter for 19 more days but Mother Nature is teasing us with spring weather today.  

I have another list of goals for March but today seems to be a no-sew day.  I am still completing bindings for the modern guild and finished up two last week. I don't make these quilts, I labeland bind them.  This is such a simple idea for using up scraps.  

The same block but a different colour way. 

 Another week of tennis, appointments for my husband and knee injections (synvisc) for me.  Off to work on my March list of what I would love to accomplish this month in my studio.

Nine days into February.

 The month started off slowly... time to make some meals, do some decor for Valentine's day and a bit of sewing and suddenly,  the month is one third gone.  

I took yesterday off from working on lists and tasks calling my name.  I wanted to make some Valentine's mug rugs and pulled out all of my heart themed fabrics.  Some are truly vintage and been around for a long time.  

 I had a few mug rugs in the container that I started working on last year and would like to have some for a few gifts and a door prize for guild so I got busy.  I did not do anything fancy and let the fabric speak for itself. 

I pulled out some strips and scraps to use for binding and have that made and today I will get busy and bind them.  Now, I think it should be quick but am slowly figuring out that what I might have accomplished in a couple of hours a few years ago, will now take me far longer.  Everything takes longer - cooking dinner, housework, addressing Valentine's cards to my grandkids... obviously, am becoming a slow, old woman.  

In the meantime, the first week of month had me complete the binding on the quilts quilted in January, rewriting lists, (adding more than I ever subtract) and also working on some new projects.  The first one is a block I figured out and copied from a quilt that was given to me as a donation to Quilts of Valour.  I pulled out lots of Canadian themed prints plus some black fabric and started stitching.  I began this in December, finished in January.  
 

A close up of the block and fabrics. 

January's Running Doe sew along  - Lazy Goose is complete and I used a background that is a Canadian themed print with Parliament buildings.  The reds and browns were fat quarters.  These blocks are huge and I downsized them from 18" squares to 15".  

My economy blocks are complete.  I started making these blocks when we were living in Arizona for the winter.  At the end of the season, when getting ready to head north, there is a lot of things to take care of in and around the house including washing all the bedding, shampooing carpets, spraying for bugs and making sure all food is sealed up to keep bugs out. I also did a lot in my sewing room including bagging threads and putting as much as possible down low... remembering that the a/c would be set at 88ºF for all those months of mega heat.  When all was done, there was still some time left before we actually left and instead of starting a new project, I pulled out scraps and started making blocks.  Every year I did that.  However, I never really wrote down the sizes and when all these blocks appeared here in September, they were a variety of sizes???  I carried on, now using scraps from my sewing room here.  I got it to a good size and determined that I had made enough blocks.  It was interesting that the blocks from Arizona all had a lot of yellow in them.  The blocks from here, no yellows.  

I did intend to layer and quilt my house block table topper but it is still waiting because I got distracted by another idea.  I started playing with hourglass blocks made from charm squares.  Our guild has a quilt show coming up in April and the challenge is to make a quilt for our local NICU and I love making preemie quilts since I had two preemie grandsons born 27 years ago.  One survived and sadly, Isaac didn't but, I learned a lot about NICU and quilts on the isolettes really brighten up the unit as well as help parents/visitors to identify their baby. The challenge for the guild has a few rules... black, white and a colour.  So, I started playing with pink fabrics since I had a container of pink still out from making a quilt for my great granddaughter.  I played with a variety of ideas and ended up with 3 quilt tops.  

 I continued to make churn dash blocks as leaders and enders.  I finally got my Carolyn's blocks quilt stitched and pressed and ready for quilting at the end of the month.  

Two blocks made for the guild 12" block lottery.  

My cactus is happy... very happy. 

Blocks made for the quilt of Valour sew day - The larger block is the new block for 2026 for Quilts of Valour.  The two smaller blocks are hug blocks ... the one on the left is in memory of Lezley Zwall, founder of QOVC who died last year.  The other heart is also a different option.

Growing churn dashes. 

 These quilts are ones made by Leon's quilting group that I have done the binding for.  Always great inspiration. 

Sewing, piecing and watching the Olympics.  Getting ready to submit quilts for our quilt show.  Always more task on my list - never dull or boring moments.