Another day, another month!

 I have been at my sewing machine a lot in the last few months but was working on so many various projects, I wasn't really getting many finished.  That has changed!  This is a sewing machine cover that I made from an improvisational piece that I made in a class with Krista Hennebury in  2015... how to piece with improv techniques.  I had no idea what to do with it.  Not my favourite colours but I have a sewing machine that could use a cover so here it is! 

 And there was a container of tumbler blocks and strips.  Lots of them were pieced and just needed to be put together and then layered, quilted and bound.  Well, ended up with three preemie quilts for the local NICU at the hospital in town.  These are girlie quilts.  I quilted each one a little differently.  The best part is that I have very few tumbler blocks left in the container.  I had used the tumblers as leaders and ender last summer while I was piecing other projects.  So another 3 UFO's bite the dust!

 Not too sure if it was fall of 2015 or 2014 that I pieced this Turning Twenty quilt top.  I sent it off to a long arm quilter who offered to quilt it for me and I waited.  This is for Quilts of Valour and the long arm quilter does fabulous work and she provided the backing and the batting and she bound it.  But more than that, she added the maple leaf borders to give the quilt more pizzazz.  It was worth the wait for her to finish off the quilt so beautifully.  Well done Barbara Bettles.  and Thank you.  So one more UFO is finished and off to an injured military member. 

 I was asked a question after my last blog post about the B-line.  Karen wanted to know what I was talking about.  It is a home quilting system and there is a Brother 1500 on the frame.  These were made locally for a number of years and then the company disappeared after health issues in the family. This is well used and have had it for at least 15 years.  It is shared with my best buddy and it spends summers at my house and winters at her house.

See the picture on the wall?  That is a very old hexie wall hanging that I made in a class where we studied colour.  The teacher was awesome, Jane Norquay and we made many projects.  This is a colour wheel and I totally forgot last week when Modern guild had a celebration of our 6th anniversary to take this for the hexie show and tell.  I did make a few hexies for my contribution to the door prize table.

One of my finished in the last few weeks was this table table runner for the SPCA.  I dislike working with this designers patterns but the table runner turned out ok despite issues with the cutting instructions.  I found out later that Hamel's actually puts in a correction sheet with the pattern to help those making the runner to avoid the pitfalls of poor cutting directions. I donated this and it will be in their auction and hopefully it helps to raise some funds to go towards the local shelter.

Glorious and Free.  I finished this a few months ago and it was quilted by Connie Elsdon who had a busy summer and she returned it to me at guild meeting this week.  It is ready to be donated to the Integrated Personnel Support Unit at Jericho Garrison in Vancouver BC later this month. It will hang there to remind them that Quilts of Valour is supporting the injured military by wrapping them in quilted hugs.

I didn't go back to my last posting to see if I had posted a picture of my Floating squares quilt by Missouri Star.  Another video that distracted me from what I had been planning to do and just happened to have a charm pack of pastels, added in some solids from my own stash and made this a little bit modern! If I showed this already, you get to see it again.

 And I have a layer cake lattice quilt, pattern from the Fat Quarter shop.  Used 10" squares and is another quilt finished in the last few weeks.

I had fun making a sewing themed quilt. It started with a charm pack and a jelly roll that was called something like Mary Jo's or Mary Jane's sewing room.  They were a few years old and when I started making the blocks, it turned out that there was only enough for 20 blocks.  So, I dug through my container of old sewing themed fabrics, found some newer modern fabrics with the same theme and kept adding until it was large enough for ME.  I used bamboo batting in this quilt and it has plaid flannel on the back.  Will be nice as the overnight temperatures get cooler.  And fun fabrics, old meets new!

Quilts of Valour has an ongoing project where quilters are encouraged to make 9" finished blocks from Northcott's Oh Canada fabrics and the blocks get sent to Edmonton where they are sorted by province and sets of 30 are put together representing the provinces and territories across the nation.  I opted to make a quilt out of a set of blocks and this is my final project which will go to a deserving military member through Quilts of Valour.  If you participated in the mug hug project of the past few years, maybe you have a block in this quilt?

And finally, I won a charm pack!  From Dinkydoo fabrics in Maple Ridge.  I entered a contest online and surprise!  My name got chosen to be the recipient and this arrived in mailbox yesterday.  Yippee and thanks to Dinkydoo.  AWESOME.  

Wow, I am always behind in my posting but today's should provide you with a decent 'catch up'.  

Welcome September and autumnal weather

I was reading a blog this morning that a friend of mine from Mesa writes... Tu-Na quilts and she linked up to another blog that was sharing pictures of sewing spaces/studios.  I had planned to tidy up and organize since it is first of September and back to school and weather has turned drastically cooler and wetter.  So, it seemed fitting to spend the day tidying but it ended up being mostly cleaning.  The dust was thick in places.  But some things just needed to be put away and lists written for projects I want to complete in the next few weeks.
Then I logged onto my computer and saw a post by the Crafty Quilter... Julie Cefalu and she was working on cleaning up her sewing space and I thought wow... must be the thing to do! 

So here is the finished result.  I look at the pictures and it still looks cluttered but it really is organized!  I know where everything is and compared to before I started, it is absolutely awesome!

This is what I see from my sewing space and this is where I spent too much time.  If I spent less time in this chair and more time in the chair at my sewing machine, I would be more productive!  To my left is my television in case I have to watch something important while I am sewing.  I sew in the 'quiet' mostly.  Probably because of my years teaching Home Ec where I was surrounded by noise all day long.

 I have a Quilt of Valour project sitting on my sewing machine waiting to be stitched and on the other machine a project that is a UFO and is almost done.  Just waiting for the binding to be stitched on.

 I have a white board on the wall that I write my current projects on so I can feel good when I can cross them off the list.

Looking from my computer chair towards the rest of the room.  This is a walk out basement with loads of windows and a sliding glass door so it is bright with a view of Mt. Baker. This is really unusual for my design wall to be empty!   I have two machines set up and I have two cutting areas.  I like baskets for my projects.  The basket under the ironing board has 'to do' projects and the other basket has fabric that needs to be put away, back with the fabric stack it matches.  I have sink and my kettle and always a pot of tea that has been brewed plus a microwave to heat up my tea when it has cooled off.  And lots of sticky things on the cupboards that hold notes... more ideas and things to remember.

This is my 'bunker'.  My underground sewing storage space that also houses the B-line for the summer months.  I have all my various projects and fabrics organized in labelled containers and can usually find what I am looking for fairly quickly.  I cannot stand having to look for things that I know I have somewhere!

And this is my fabric storage closet that has fabrics that are categorized by colour.  In my bunker, fabric is organized by type: batiks, quilts of valour, landscapes, kids, flannel, backings but this closet has stacks of neatly folded fabric in stacks of matching colours.  On the bottom is a container of 'sewing themed' fabrics and a container of black prints.  Even though I use up fabric, the stacks never seem to lessen in height. 
I just realized that I didn't take a picture of my storage of my wall hangings and my finished quilts... will do that another day.  My camera memory card is full and I really need to go through and do some deleting! 
So this is where I hide most afternoons.  I am either sitting at my computer, at a sewing machine or am using the B-line or cutting out my next project.  I didn't show you those either!  Lots of new projects!