Working on too many projects.

I keep seeing great ideas on blogs and Missouri star and figured I should try them before I forget and see if I like the idea for a block or quilt.

Playing with a large Ohio block from Missouri star... interesting way to use 10" squares.

And also playing with batik strips creating half square triangles. 

And also playing with more batik strips using a Villa Rosa pattern. 

Still working on my plus blocks as well.  Also making 16 patch blocks from scraps for a Quilt of Valour for my local guild. 

So, sewing, pressing, and cutting... and nothing finished. 

Some finishes and some new starts

 This is my plus quilt that I have started working on.  Fun way to use cake squares.

My Glorious and Free which will hang in an IPSC center in Chilliwack.  Darn it though... found two mistakes when I took the picture. There are two half square triangles in there that are oriented in the wrong direction and yes, I will fix them!

Pillowcase for Quilts of Valour... great fabric from Countryfolk in Chilliwack!

A Villa Rosa pattern.  Pandemonium.  Love working with these patterns.

This quilt was made by Carole Ann Thomas and she died two years ago.  It was quilted by Bev Nylen and I bound it and it will now be donated to the new hospice unit in Abbotsford in Carole Ann's memory.
The rest of these pictures were taken last Friday in Langley at the quilt show.  Some of these are great inspiration for scrap quilts or patterns that I have on hand.  The first pictures are a great idea of how to label quilts made for donation and it shows how many places the Langley guild donates to.

A yellow brick road made from (I think) 6 fabrics but quite large so the maker would have used two fat quarters of each (or more?). 

A modern variation on a plus quilt.  I try to remember to take a picture of the maker and name of the quilt as well as the pattern but need to get closer! 

Love this idea for scrap squares.  Very effective. 

 This was made by Jean Jones.  She began working on this at a Modern guild sew in. It is a modern split 9 patch with lots of neutrals in the blocks.  Very effective!

 I think this is called love letters and looks neat in blacks, grays and white.

 A great way to use HST's in a quilt. 

 These circles are fun and love the light on dark and then dark on light.

 A row by row from 2015.  I really should get to work on mine!

 I have this pattern and love the way it looks in batik fabrics.

 And, I also have this pattern and have made it a few years ago but was a good reminder that it is a great kid's quilt.

 How about these maple leaf placemats? 

 And this I absolutely LOVE!!!  It was part of a block of the month but she changed it to make it Canadian.  Perfect!

Two days in a row!

Amazing that I am posting two days in a row but it means I am getting some projects finished and some started.

First, there is always one row left over when I make the 16 patches if using Canadian fat quarters so I have been taking those apart and making 4 patches from the leftover strip.  Am adding in a plain square of fabric to create some sort of  donation quilt that is using up stash fabric plus the four patches.  So far, so good, IF you like purple. 

I have my second Yellow Brick road quilt finished.  It is large enough to donate to either New Beginnings (mom's who go back to school after giving birth to a child) or Peardonville House which is a home for mom's who are undergoing rehab from drug use and we like to give their children a small quilt to cuddle.

Last December I read somewhere (a place long forgotten) about making a 9 patch a day in 2016.  I started making the 9 patches and accumulated quite a few.  I added some teal borders to each block while still in Arizona and brought the blocks home. There were lots of blocks but only worked with enough to make a quilt a good size for Quilts of Valour and there is still a bag of blocks waiting for me this autumn when I return.  I got the blocks joined, quilted and the binding is done.  One more completed quilt from my stash.  How come my fabric stash doesn't look any less than a year ago?  Some of these teal fabrics are really old and my quilting friends recognized a number of them from early days of quilting.

And now, back to getting more accomplished.  I try for an hour of bonding with my machine daily plus, I use my tv watching time to my advantage and work on binding while being entertained by my favourite shows.

May, a new beginning

May always feels like it is a beginning.  A beginning of warm weather, lovely, summer like days, flowers blooming and evenings where it is lighter, later.  The air is still clean with little of the summer pollution and generally everything is growing and looking happy.

My sewing space is feeling a little happier because it is sunny, I have organized, somewhat and am accomplishing a few things.

First I made this little threadcatcher for a new member of Wednesday Quilting group.  She doesn't have one and she does a lot of embroidery while we are chatting.

On Saturday I attended a 'sew-in' with the Modern quilt guild gals and most were working on quilts for Syrian refugees but I stitched on pillowcases.  Some are for Quilts of Valour and some are for kids that attend Burn Camp in the summer.  One of the members has a close connection to these camps and last year we provided each child (of various ages) a pillowcase and want to do the same thing again this year.

And I have one of my Yellow Brick Road quilts finished.  It is a preemie size, perfect for the newborns that have to live in an isolette (incubator) for the first weeks of their lives.  Bright and happy.

Another YBR quilt is under the needle of my sewing machine getting the blocks stitched together.  It will be a little larger for donating to either Peardonville House or New Beginnings.  And behind that is a pattern and some pieces cut to play with a plus quilt design, perfect for a layer cake and I have a Patrick Lose bundle that will good in this design, (I hope). 

I have my green strip twist ready to spray baste so I can quilt it.  Waiting for the B-line quilting system I share with my buddy but until it arrives, am quite happy to quilt some of these tops with one of my two machines either doing a simple free motion or stitch in the ditch.

One quilt has been finished this week.  It is my rail fence Quilt of Valour made from strip sets.   A great pattern for using up fabric on hand.  A complete stash quilt, nothing was purchased recently to make this.  I had a container of fabrics with a Canadiana theme in Mesa, so went through and stitched them with a contrasting fabric, sliced, stitched again and now, it is complete with binding and a label.

I have more quilts that are quilted and waiting for binding which I do when I watch tv.

For some reason my pile of quilts to be quilted doesn't seem to be diminishing but that is because I keep finding more tops tucked away.  I have a pile of backings to match up with the tops and am working slowly but diligently to get these layered and quilted.

One day at a time.  With sunshine comes weeds and weed whacking and my windows are looking nasty in this weather and my upstairs patio is calling my name to have the green grunge from winter scrubbed off.  And nice weather means tennis in the mornings.  Good to be fit and get exercise but I don't much done in the mornings and then have my afternoons for basics like housework and grocery shopping and when time allows, sitting at my machine or cutting fabric or just generally getting organized.