end of July, new month tomorrow

Time goes by quickly when you are either having fun or getting lots done.  This was a good month for me.
First, I need to thank Marcia from Quilter in Motion blog.  She drew my name for a package of rotary cutting blades that she was giving away.  These are new to me and have just put one into my rotary cutter and will see how I like them.  They are supposed to last longer than other blades.

I have a good list of projects for this month that I have either got the tops made or have quilted and some that are completely finished.  The heat helped because I hide in my basement when it is too hot to be upstairs.  Even with our a/c, the upstairs get that southern exposure sunshine all day long and the house gets fairly warm.  Good excuse to hide in the basement!

Tops finished and waiting for quilting:
- floating squares pattern from Missouri Star
- Good Company using Origins cake plate
- SPCA table runner that needs appliqué stitched down and then quilting
- Summer kinderbell which got quilted and binding is ready to stitch down but flowers need to be made and attached as well as the watermelon rind which is made from a strip of ruched fabric
- Hospice 16 patch floral blocks made by Wed quilting group is put together and loaded onto the quilting frame, waiting patiently

Finished projects.  These are the best kind!
Sugar Almonds using the strips from a jelly roll of Origins fabric.

A Wednesday Hospice quilt... the first of many that use up some of our floral fabrics.

Turquoise and Purple 16 patch started last fall and finally finished.

Brown summer in the park that I began working on last December while at my winter home.  This used a lot of my brown strips cut from 'older' fabric. It was pieced by me and quilted by Myrna in Princeton for Quilts of Valour.

And my brown split 9 patch for Quilts of Valour, also quilted by Myrna is labelled and ready to be donated.  I started this one last December as well.

Love this batik double hourglass.  The pattern is a Villa Rosa pattern and it was a great way to use my scrappy strips of batiks.  I liked it so much and it made such a good dent in my strips that I spent a day cutting more strips of batiks from fabrics that I have had on hand for ages.

I put together 3 preemie quilts from leftover blocks from the Yellow Brick Road demonstration that I did for my Wednesday Diva group.  They all made quilts and gave me their leftover blocks. These are two of them but three are quilted and waiting for binding.

A Wednesday Diva group 16 patch made for Quilts of Valour is quilted and bound.

This quilt was made by dearly departed Carole Ann Thomas.  I have had the top for two years and it was quilted by Myrna in Princeton and bound and is now ready for donation to Quilts of Valour.

I have these Canadian Quilts of Valour tote bags which are a fundraiser.  They are available for $3 as is or, if you prefer, for $5 you can get the bag plus a small kit of cut fabric to make a hug block.

And of course, I can't have an empty design wall so I am still working on using floral 10" squares to make another hospice quilt.

And thus, July is ending and time to write my list of goals and projects for August.

The usual, lots of starts and in progress and a few finishes

I have managed to quilt a couple of quilts.  I have a 16 patch floral quilt put together from blocks made by my Wednesday Diva group.  We decided that using up some floral fabrics in the 16 patch blocks would be a good use of older fabric.  The binding is made and has since been stitched onto the quilt and it is waiting for the handstitching.  This will be donated to Hospice.

And talking about floral fabrics, thanks to Penny who is in my Wednesday Quilting Diva group, she suggested cutting 10 squares from my fabrics.  And then cutting 5" neutral squares and stitching a square on the opposite corners of the block.  I put a second row of stitching inside the first row, leaving enough room between them to cut apart and so have a nice stack of hst's happening.

I have another floral 16 patch on my design wall, same group making the blocks and same place for donation, Hospice.

And the runner for the SPCA auction is waiting for me to get it quilted and the appliqué stitched down. 

When I made my sugar almonds quilt from a jelly roll, the kit I originally bought had a stack of 10" squares in it.  The fabric is called Origins and I didn't want to make the pattern that was included.  It was a real bargain on Thrifty Thursday from Hamel's.  So, the cake plates were cut up and this is what is happening on my design wall.  Cool water from Villa Rosa. Kind of retro colours?

I have two quilts finished and bound and labelled but forgot to take pictures so maybe I will have to blog sooner rather than later to get those pictures included in my finishes for July.

Past the mid point of July

I belong to a yahoo group called Heartstrings and they have a challenge for July to quilt UFO's and get them ready for binding.  I have risen to the challenge as well as working on a few other projects. I have been hoping for some hot weather here in the Pacific Northwest as it is quite lovely and cool in my 'bunker'... high ceilings and underground.

This batik floating half square triangle quilt is finished - even the binding is done.  Labelled and ready to go either quilts of valour or the new hospice though I don't think it is long enough even though it is happy and bright.  And this is a new venture for me.  I am using batiks for donation quilts.  Big step!! This is a Missouri Star tutorial.

And I also pieced a quilt called Sugar Almonds, found on Samelia's mom website.  Great way to use a jelly roll plus a matching fabric for the edges.  Makes a nice sized quilt and my only issue was that my design wall wasn't quilt long enough to have all the strips visible so had to resort to laying it out on the floor.

My floating squares from Missouri Star continues to grow as I use the pieced blocks as leaders and enders.

 I need to get it ready to start stitching blocks together because I have a project waiting for the design wall space. Another project underway is my summer Kinderbell runner. Supposed to be a bench pillow but a runner works better in my window well space.

At Modern Guild this week, we had a mug rug swap.  Silly me didn't take a picture of mine.  I made it from strips of selvedges overlapped and stitched across the diagonal.
This is the one I got in return from Kate of http://www.sewfabulous.ca and she played with machine quilting using the backing as her design.  She followed the circles in the backing to create a funky design on the front.  And notice her perfect points where the triangles meet in the center!  Impressive! Thank you Kate.

One more project has the blocks pieced, they need pressing and trimming and then I need my design wall.  And I have a stack of 16 patch blocks from my Wednesday Diva quilting group waiting to be put together plus a 16 patch waiting to be loaded onto the B-line for quilting.  Never a dull, boring or finished moment. 

July 6th... already!!

Oh my goodness... time just keeps whizzing by when you are busy doing anything but bonding with your machine!  I had a great few weeks in June and accomplished lots but then my poor husband had to have surgery on the cancer that just below his lip.  He had one surgery by a specialist and they didn't get it all so he got sent to the 'big' boys in the city and there we spent an entire day in the Mohs micrographic clinic where they slice the flesh and freeze it on slides, graphing where the flesh came from and examine it by a pathologist and repeat the procedure throughout the day until the last slide of flesh is cancer free and then that is followed by reconstructive surgery which means they try to repair the layers of flesh to repair the damage to the nerves.  Today we got the all clear and stitches were removed and now another week of being very careful with the stitches area and then a year of healing!  And that is my excuse for not having a very successful July! 

In June I finished up my Cantik Maple leaf and it was done in time to hang for Canada Day.  Am very happy with the results.

And I finished a 4 patch that was made from leftovers from a previous 16 patch plus some squares of ancient purple/teal fabric that was at the bottom of the stack in my fabric closet.  Good use of leftovers!  And thanks to Connie E for stitching the blocks together at a guild workshop in May.

Was reading the Heartstrings blog and they are challenging the members to quilt in July and move from quilt tops to finished quilts.  So far, I have none done but I do have one loaded on the B-line and close to finishing it so it will be bound and added to the stack of finished quilts in the next few days.

And of course, another top started but am not jumping into this right away. 

Plus, a summer Kinderbell project that is ready for the background piecing when I have a top quilted.  One project at a time! 

And so goes July!