A week of total focus on quilting and binding.

 My March goals are almost completely finished!  I still have one more quilt to load and quilt and bind plus 4 others that need binding, but still today and tomorrow.  If I get the last one quilted, it won't bother me to have bindings to do in the first days of April.  My goals was to quilt as many as possible out of the 19 projects that were on hangers, waiting.  

Thursday will be about April, Easter, income tax, cleaning windows and vacuuming out the winter 'crap' from my car as well as a trip to the thrift shop.  And, I will get back to piecing some of the projects that I have started as well as those that I have floating around in my head, will get either started or completed. 

So, what I have finished? Happy blocks quilt #2 using a red Canadian flag panel from our 150th anniversary.  Some of the blocks are made by Penny after I handed her a stack of 6.5" centers. 

Penny made this quilt top from my leftovers after cutting hug blocks kits.  In the beginning, QOVC was making and selling 'hugs in a mug' with mugs filled with the right amount of fabric to make a block using the Oh Canada Northcott line (and the reps were buying fabric, mugs and printing off the patterns plus bags to put them in).  Then we switched to just selling the kits in a baggie.  Then QOVC, in their wisdom, decided that reps needed to buy the fabrics from them to cut the kits and send the proceeds back to them, leaving me, a rep, with a huge amount of yardage of the fabrics on hand.  I kept cutting kits and selling them to try and reduce the amount of investment I had in the fabrics and I still had a load of leftovers from the kit cutting.  Penny took the container and made a quilt from 'some' of the fabrics and returned the leftovers to me along with this quilt top.  I still have a box of hug blocks that are cut and packaged with the patterns.

This churn dash is made with a variety of red fabrics plus the centers are cut from leftover backings.  I decided to alternate white and red blocks for a bit of variety.

Penny made a quilt for Quilts of Valour from her stash.  I quilted and bound it and it is now ready for the donation pile.

My tumbler quilt from the January Heartstrings is now finished and ready for donation 

Town Square which is a 3 yard quilt pattern is ready for Quilts of Valour.  I used some leftover Canadian prints for the centers plus a flag panel that I had on hand.  The quilt that follows is Happy Blocks #3 using another of the panels of Canadian cities plus some blocks from Penny.

I made this quilt top in early February as a demonstration of using fat quarters and cutting them in a way that leaves very little waste and ending up with a 15" block.  The tutorial is on the blog in early February.  I used a variety of aging leaf prints for this quilt so fabric used up and a donation quilt finished.

So, that makes 10 quilts  (and one table runner)finished this month and I have 3 more quilts that are quilted and waiting for binding. And the final one that I want to get done by tomorrow is ready for me to load on the B-line quilting system.   

This jigsaw puzzle is NOT going to get finished.  We are really frustrated and not enjoying a puzzle that has the same size pieces so that they might fit perfectly in a spot but it isn't the right piece.  It took me ages to get the border done on the left hand side and thought that would help but it hasn't.  So, it is going back in the box for someone who enjoys a challenge that is far too difficult for my brain. I have no idea why the picture is upside down but doesn't matter... hard to do from any direction!

Our Christmas cactus is extremely happy, blooming again in March!  So pretty and colourful.

So, a non tennis morning since the courts were soaking wet due to a surprise rain shower and it is end the month so a few desk chores to tackle, plus the dreaded income tax paperwork and it is time to celebrate Easter and remain at home, staying safe and healthy. We did get our vaccinations last week so 2 more weeks until we are little more protected.  Sadly, in Canada, the second doses of the Pfizer vaccines won't be available to us until July so we wait... not so patiently, but I can distract myself with quilting and be content with one jab at this time.

The best laid plans don't seem to work for me.

 I have great intentions to blog once a week at minimum and realize that if I did that, it would be quicker with less to catch up on but, alas, I can't get myself that organized. 

St. Patrick's day was celebrated here with a little bit of new decor items: placemats, table toppers, mug rug and wallhanging... simple as they are, it was enough for a one day event. Thought of my father who loved to celebrate and died last year on March 18 so this year was the first one without me singing with him on the phone. 

My PBJ block for March got done.  I made two as the first one didn't show much contrast.  The theme was yams.

A time out from sewing/quilting to clean up after hedge trimming.  Our awesome (younger) neighbour was kind enough to do the work for us on the cedars that run between our houses.

A fabulous double rainbow last week that was stunning!

Our modern guild is having a challenge to make an Easter basket so I pulled out some fabrics from the Easter container and got busy.  Simple but done.

I got my blocks for the Rainbow scrap challenge for March done.  The colour is green. 

This is my current project area.  Tshirts have been waiting forever to get cut up and made into a quilt.  The rest is quite tidy and organized and I know what is there.

I layered my table runner and started quilting it because my name is going to come up quickly in the Queen of UFO's group that I belong to and this is from 2018

I have a stack of quilts that I have quilted and are waiting for me bind.  It was a good week and I managed to get 6 quilted in 7 days!  Impressive but of course, it means that nothing else got done. 

Backings are becoming a bit of a challenge for me.  It is so hard to spend your time and money making the quilt tops and then add in the cost of the batting and then I need a minimum of 3.5m of backing fabric plus the binding.  I used to be able to find decent backing for a good price and was happy paying $6 metre but now, it seems that $12 is the cheapest available.  So, I pulled out all my pieces of leftover batting from the last few years and was amazed that I managed to make 5 backings!  Wow... big savings.

This is the first of the quilts made from happy blocks plus a Canadian panel that is now quilted and bound and ready to donation to Quilts of Valour.

And the second quilt is done that used a panel of Canadian cities plus happy blocks.  My friend Penny pieced some blocks for me after I gave her the centers to work around.  It made for loads of blocks.

This is the panel of Canada used in the first quilt. 

The table runner is finished.  Yahoo, can cross a UFO off the list

And, I have my stack of quilts ready for quilting and going to aim to keep up with my one a day for as long as I can.

And a stack of quilts that are waiting for their labels and binding and then they are done!

So, I am busy and actually finishing some of the projects I have been working on in 2021. 

Eek - March 9 and I realized my last post was Feb 21.

 It has been a busy few weeks.  The weather has improved greatly so that means tennis at 1pm.  I will be happy when we resume our club hours and begin to play at 9 or 10am mid month.  Playing in the afternoon seems to mess up my days with mornings busy doing household chores, afternoon tennis and then when do I get time in my sewing room?  Of course, we have also had some intense jig saw puzzle time as well. 

This past weekend, I attended a mini retreat with my closest quilting friends and our fearless leader managed to get us designated as a care group needing mental health. Sounds about right to me!  We were half the usual number which had some benefits and we could overlook the negatives.  But, I was set up by 11am Saturday and stitched constantly until Monday at 4pm.  

Most of the things I took with me are now put where they should be although all my projects that I didn't work on or are part of a larger project need to be sorted and put away properly. 

I have 17 tops for quilting.  That will be my focus starting mid March.  There are a few other things I want to get done or finished first plus, with sunny weather, my garden is calling me to come and get rid of weeds!  The first two pictures are of the retreat center where we stitch like crazy!  And talk, laugh and share quilting ideas and finished projects.

Two placemats for St. Patrick's day got made and ready to use.

Before I left home for the retreat, I was tidying and organizing and found this wall decal that I thought would be better on the wall than being moved from here to there.  I put it above my door that leads down into my 'bunker'.

These small wall hangings are really ancient.  They are from my textile art classes that I taught and these were samples of making yo-yos and landscapes.  I have been retired for 19 years and am guessing these are probably close to 25 years old?  How time flies. I will quilt them a bit, stitch down the applique and bind them and then not sure where they go from there.

Two table toppers for St. Patrick's day that are made but not layered, quilted or bound.  My project for the next couple of days.

And a quick wall hanging that I will finish.  I added the borders while at retreat but didn't take batting or backing so couldn't go any further on it.

A UFO from 2019... only 2 years ago but was tucked in with a few other projects.  This will get finished this week as well with simple stitch in the ditch quilting.

Don't laugh at this picture but my husband was using twist ties to keep his cardigan closed.  I went through my button jar and found odd ones that were the right size and sewed them on. He probably didn't want to tell me the buttons needed replacing because he would have to admit he didn't keep the buttons when they fell off.  Plus, one more St. Patrick's day project.  I need to get the table toppers finished so I can do my stairwell display.

This is my Meadowland mystery that needed a couple of borders and those got added at retreat.

Rainbow scrap challenge #2 from 2020 put together and waiting for quilting.

This charm quilt was also from my Rainbow scrap challenge 2020 - Falling charms and every month blocks were made from that month's colour. This came out square because I couldn't quite figure out how to get it rectangular when sewing blocks diagonally.

And another happy block quilt made from the blocks Penny and I both made plus a small panel.  This is Canadian themed fabrics and will be a quilt of valour.

These are a couple of our jig saw puzzles that we put together.  Our dining room is now known as the puzzle room.