Last week of April and look what I have accomplished!

 I really like to make preemie quilts and have mentioned before that we had twin grandsons born into our family on May 25 2001 and one will be celebrating his twentieth birthday this year while Isaac was only with us for 72 hours. The twins were born at 25 weeks and both were tiny at 1.25 lb and 1.50 lb.  Nolan spent the next 3 months in the NICU and I saw how quilts and blankets on isolettes really made the room brighter and much easier to identify where your baby was located.  

So, in memory of Isaac and Nolan's time in the NICU, I have made 15 small quilts for our local hospital.  All are quilted, bound, and labelled and ready to be delivered. The stack is in front of the last baby quilt I will make and that is a UFO or work in progress from a couple of years ago... so my total will be 16 when it is finished.

 

 

I was pleased that I managed to make the battings for each of these quilts with leftover pieces that I put together.  I still have a large stack of leftover batting pieces. 

It has been 10 days of beautiful weather with morning tennis daily but my afternoons were spent piecing and then quilting.  Having lighter evenings also makes it easier for me to head downstairs after dinner and work on a project for an hour. 

So, my goal was to make a few preemie quilts and I accomplished that.  Nothing else but the month isn't over yet! 

Mid April 2021

 Sometimes, it feels like time is standing still and nothing is changing or happening and that is probably a result of the pandemic?  Other times, the days and weeks spin by and I wonder where time goes?  Maybe this is all age related and as we get older, time does fly by and yet, we are still living in the same place, doing the same things and having good days and bad days.  

I feel like the last two weeks has passed me by but then I look at my list that I had at the end of my last blog and I don't feel so bad. 

1. Quilt the next 5 quilt tops  NOT DONE

2. Make a jelly roll quilt for the Heartstrings April challenge  TOP IS COMPLETED

3. Work on cutting some 3/5 yard quilts, also a challenge from my Heartstrings group but have until June to accomplish stitching them into quilts.  I ordered a couple of the books with the patterns and they just arrived so will start pulling fabrics and cutting some kits for myself.  I    HAVE 5 PREEMIE TOPS READY FOR QUILTING

4. Make a pattern from Mary's website - one more challenge from the Heartstrings group.  They figured out that if you made one of her patterns per month, you would be busy for 9 years!  I am cutting the hearts using my accuquilt and will make her wonky heart log cabins from them.NOTHING ACCOMPLISHED WITH THIS GOAL

5. Would love to work on my t-shirt quilt.  The bin of t-shirts is constantly being moved and it is becoming annoying.  I AM LAUGHING - THE CONTAINER HASN'T MOVED OR CHANGED

6. Start making some preemie quilts for the local NICU at our hospital. SEE #3

7. Polka dot quilt using fabrics set aside SEE #3

8. finish the 'field day' that I started at retreat in early March NOPE

So, I started off with this quilt - preemie size - 30" x 36"  . My inspiration was from Modern Views by Donna Robertson of Fabric Cafe. The  pattern name is Illusions.  However, I modified the size of the block to be 6" finished because that makes an easy way to get the quilt to the right size and uses 30 blocks.  I started off with the polka dot fabric and had pulled a variety of fabrics to go with it.  The first one I made used red and orange fabrics.

I made a second one using blues and green fabrics.

And because I was just flying blind making these blocks and wanted to use up as much fabric as possible, I took the leftover blocks from the first two quilts and made a few more blocks to end up with quilt top #3.  I have none of the blue, orange or polka dot fabric left.  A great way to use the fabrics and love this block pattern.

That motivated me to dig out some yardage from a bin of kid's fabrics and try to use some of that fabric in another quilt.  Pink monkeys and flowers. 

And a fifth quilt top got put together using some funky blues and yellows. 

In the midst of working on the 3 yard quilts, I finally made a decision on the Heartstrings jelly roll challenge for April and chose a pattern.  I knew I wanted to use the 5" black Canada fabric and figured out that the jelly roll twist pattern from the Fat Quarter shop would be a logical choice and I went ahead and put this top together. 

So 5 preemie and 1 quilt of valour tops are made and waiting to be quilted and bound.  Not too bad for a week of cutting and stitching.  

In the meantime, I also had to stop and wind bobbins and clean my machine.  Plus, after all of this effort, I managed to vacuum my entire sewing area and do a little dusting, wipe down my cutting mats and went into my bunker and put away some EMPTY baskets and containers.  

The 5 preemies are spray basted with batting and backing and now I will spend my next few days getting them quilted and off to the local NICU. 

Easter has come and gone and once again, I feel like I am not getting much done.

 I think my marathon quilting session in March must have burned me out because so far, 10 days into April, I seem to accomplished very little.  Although, I will admit, that I have been tidying and organizing and spending far too much reading blogs and going down the Pinterest rabbit hole.  That of course means that I have far more ideas than time left in my life to accomplish what looks like a fun or great use of fabric. 

So, what has been accomplished? Morning tennis whenever we have dry or almost dry courts and many days have been lucky although still having wear lots of layers because it isn't very warm.  

I made this mug rug for Easter... cute little bunny.

This is a cat quilt made for a couple of cat lovers in my life.  I used as many cat fabrics as I had in my stash and it looks a bit busy, but I wanted to get them all in there.

A close up of some of the fabrics.

After my quilting marathon in March, I ONLY have 5 tops waiting on hangers. 

This top was pieced by Penny and I quilted it.  A great way to use up a Canadian flag panel. This is for Quilts of Valour.

This is a "yippee" quilt.  It was this past season's mystery quilt and it was pointed out to me that it is very retro with harvest green and golds in there.  I really like Meadowland mysteries.  She does a great job in her instructions and her blocks are easy to make every month.

So far in April, I have my RSC blue blocks.  I know we were supposed to use only dark and bright blues, but I dug into both my light and dark containers and I might skip the month of light blues?

This is my PBJ block for April: cherries.   Notice that I have an oops in the bottom edge with too much of the selvedge showing and it won't all get caught in the seam allowance. 

Fixed!  I used a red fabric felt pen and coloured the selvedge so it will not be noticeable when the block gets pieced into a quilt. 

I did cut a few hug blocks for my local guild members if they want to make a few blocks and contribute to the hug block campaign by Quilts of Valour.  It is really hard to find these fabrics in BC quilt shops but I am searching and having a bit of success.  I usually order from a shop in NL - Clothesline quilts and have really good service from her.  I also cut up some of my fabric into fat eighths and some sixteenths as well if someone wants a bit of fabric to use in their blocks or quilts.  And, I have the moose, trees and bears with fusible on the back if anyone local wants some of those for their blocks.  Easy to peel off the paper and fuse on with your iron. 

And that is all for the first 10 days of the month but I have a long list of what I would like to get done in the next 3 weeks. 

1. Quilt the next 5 quilt tops 

2. Make a jelly roll quilt for the Heartstrings April challenge

3. Work on cutting some 3/5 yard quilts, also a challenge from my Heartstrings group but have until June to accomplish stitching them into quilts.  I ordered a couple of the books with the patterns and they just arrived so will start pulling fabrics and cutting some kits for myself. 

4. Make a pattern from Mary's website - one more challenge from the Heartstrings group.  They figured out that if you made one of her patterns per month, you would be busy for 9 years!  I am cutting the hearts using my accuquilt and will make her wonky heart log cabins from them.  

5. Would love to work on my t-shirt quilt.  The bin of t-shirts is constantly being moved and it is becoming annoying.  

6. Start making some preemie quilts for the local NICU at our hospital. 

7. Polka dot quilt using fabrics set aside

8. finish the 'field day' that I started at retreat in early March 

A short list but not sure how much will get done between now and the end of the month.  I keep getting sidetracked by new ideas and projects.