last day of May

I still do not have a finished quilt to show you but hopefully by this time next week, you will be awed by what I have accomplished?
I have my pink/rose rail fence blocks made for this months Oh Scrap challenge.

And the foundation strip blocks were done earlier in the month.

I had 6 rows of village houses completed and stitched together in rows last week.

And now my last row is ready to be stitched into a long row and the others are done, ready and waiting for final assembly.

The preemie quilt got quilted, the binding is stitched on but waiting for me to finish the handstitching and add the label.

And my favourite, go to fat quarter quilt is quilted and waiting for the binding to be hand stitched down.  That will happen as soon as possible as I really need to have some finished quilts by June.  All this stitching, piecing and playing has to result in something to show off?

Tomorrow I am heading into the city for the Canadian Quilters Quilt show and am quite ready to be inspired though not so sure I need any more new ideas for projects.
Still have two quilts layered and waiting for quilting and really want to get the houses into a finished village this week as well.

Have I been productive?

I feel like I haven't finished anything but I have been really busy, sewing and tidying and organizing.   Today I worked in my underground basement, my 'bunker' and got things tidied and organized.  It tends to be a 'dumping ground'.

Believe it or not, everything is labelled and fairly organized!   And, I spray basted two quilts  and they are ready for quilting and binding.

And I pulled out some containers of fabrics for a sewing day on Wednesday.  I have invited some of my Wednesday quilt divas for a day to work on blocks for some Quilts of Valour. 

We have been working on a guild challenge to create a quilt as a group and so far these are my blocks that I have made.

And I have a backing ready to serge the long edges together to make it large enough for the quilt that is on the table in the first picture above. 

And I stitched up a quilt from the guild We care program that I picked up last Tuesday as a kit. But I didn't like the sashings so cut some of my own to go around the blocks.

And here it is all spray basted and ready for quilting.

I also managed to get my May Quilter's planner block completed and, even better, the June block is done as well!  These blocks get a sashing with two alternating  colours and I have a darker gray for the odd blocks but want to get my blocks done before I figure out an arrangement so I don't have the mainly orange and red blocks in one corner but have them spread out a little.

There is one extra block in there because I made two of the flying geese in February.  Will see which one looks better in the final layout.

I have a lovely stack of blocks to mail off to Canada Stitches.  They are a group that make quilts for first responders across Canada and I am choosing to keep my focus on those that attend a camp (Can Praxis) at Rocky Mountain house along with members of the military suffering from PTSD. These blocks are from both my guild and my Wed Quilting Divas. They will get packaged and mailed this week. 

And of course, I had to play with a block made from 2 charm squares plus background fabric that I saw on a blog this week.  It is called a cracker block and the first one I made, I messed up totally. However, I made a second one and it is perfect!  The one on the left is too small and not square.

Last Thursday, I picked up 4 blocks from my 'other' guild and these are for community quilts.  I had forgotten at the April meeting so thought I better get on with it so they are ready to hand in at the June meeting.

I finally got myself a trolley.  This is something that I was sure would help me to stay more organized when I am using two sewing machines. Love it!

And last but not least, my houses are being created and my village is growing.  I think I have my first five rows ready to stitch together and only six rows left to finish.  I have lots of houses but ran out of sky background and so had to shop for some light blue background.  Not so easy to find what I wanted.  Of course, I did find some today when I was tidying my fabrics and containers!  So, another 36 houses (approx) to make and I will be done!  So much for making 8 blocks per week.  They are too addictive to put them away and stop stitching. 

So, no finished quilts to show you.  I have quilts waiting for the binding, waiting for the labels and waiting to be quilted.  I have blocks that are made and waiting to be assembled into tops.  And I still have over 20 tops waiting for backing, backing and quilting.  One day at a time.  Making houses is too much fun and they are all from scraps! 

Langley Quilt Show

I took time 'off' from my regular routine and schedule and visited Langley quilt show yesterday.  I met so many 'old' friends and had fun visiting as well as looking at the fabulous quilts.  A great mix of traditional and modern quilts.  I took a few pictures of my favourites or quilts that I thought "I can make that!". 

At guild this week, I won!  I had a choice of half the money collected or this stack of fat quarters... the fabric came home with me.

And, I have started creating my village.  This was a sew along, stitching 8 houses at a time, in January... am a little late to the party but working away on them.  They are fun to make and use two charm squares or 5" squares and I am going through my scrap bins, one colour at a time.

The tulip festival below our house is finished this weekend which means less traffic on the interchange at the highway but, also means no more glorious colour to look at daily.

A busy week with two guild meetings, tennis, taking neighbours to the cruise ship dock and a quilt show.  Have stitched lots of houses, 39 of them and finished my stargazer blocks.  But my current list of projects is:
- play with cracker blocks
- make some 10" blocks for a quilt of valour that my quilt Diva is making for our guild challenge
- finish a preemie quilt that I picked up a kit for on Tuesday
- layer and quilt 3 more tops from winter sewing
- get the binding finished on the two Quilts of Valour I have finally quilted from last fall
- make my May blocks: strippy and rail fences in pink and roses
- stitch my quilter's planner block for May
And then work on whatever else catches my wandering brain.  Too many ideas, not enough time!