Victoria Day, May long weekend and guess what showed up? SUNSHINE!!

 Absolutely lovely weather here for this holiday weekend.  Not hot but perfect for wearing capris, working outside to clean up and tidy the yard and upstairs patio.

I worked on the patio on Friday and got it scrubbed.  Sadly, the surface is wearing out so time to replace it.  

And the grass got cut, gardens sort of weeded... but weeds will grow quickly in these temperatures so it will be a daily task for the next week or two.  My husband is really low in his hemoglobin count but our awesome specialist has him schedule for an iron infusion tomorrow so that is a good thing as he really wants to be outside and working in his garden.  

Carrying on from my last post and working on May projects: 

8. Red, gray bricks using pattern from Mary's Quilts pattern page.  She calls hers forest bricks.  Great way to use up some leftover chunks of fabric. This is now quilted and in the pile waiting for binding and a Quilt of Valour label (hopefully, on their way to me). 

9. Illusions 3 yard quilt but I used more than a yard of each fabric and I added in a fourth fabric to create a larger quilt.  This was quilted for Quilts of Valour by Dianne's Longarm Quilting Service in Chilliwack, B.C. 

10. This is a Quilt of Valour Bento box that was started in 2019 during my winter months in the Valley of the Sun.  Dianne also quilted this one for me and it is finished and ready for donation.  A huge thank you to Dianne for volunteering to quilt these.

A close up of Dianne's quilting.

11.  More Bento box blocks.  I made these from some scrap fabrics and they will get mailed to Canada Stitches to be included in quilts made for Can Praxis - a horse camp providing help for those first responders suffering from PTSD 

12.  I finally started on my Rainbow scrap challenge for 2022.  January's colour was red and this is a pattern called Splash of Color. 

13.  Scrap strip sets in red for the RSC 2022.  I am keeping my blocks simple this year because I still have blocks from 2021 to get put together into quilt tops.

I have a Dot/Dash 3 yard quilt ready and waiting for me to load and quilt it and that is the last one of the pile I organized 2 weeks ago.

This Bento box quilt is made from some blocks donated to Quilts of Valour last fall and I now have them assembled into a quilt top. This chair is loaded with quilt tops that are waiting to be quilted and need backings prepared and batting cut.

The bento box quilt top is waiting patiently to be pressed.  I like to wait for a phone chat and do the boring job with my speaker phone on. 

This morning, I vacuumed the floor thoroughly and then laid out my roll of batting and cut for each of the tops that are waiting.  The backings are with the tops as well.  The top batting is for the Bento box quilt after it gets pressed.  So five more quilts to get quilted and added to the binding pile. 

14. I also worked on the Rainbow Scrap Challenge for February - teal.  The scrappy strip blocks are done and the Splash of color blocks are being worked on.  These blocks are shown with white on black and black on white prints.  I had to really search my stash for these fabrics. 

A friend in one of my local guilds sent me a fabulous box of fabrics for Quilts of Valour.  Many are Northcott Oh Canada fabrics which are perfect for 'hug' blocks.  The others were of larger amounts and the white one is now ready to use with the Bento box quilt that is waiting to be pressed.  A huge thank you to Arlene! 

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15. These are my blocks for May for Patterns by Jen.  Blue basil was the theme for this month.  Done!

This quilt top is made from the extra demonstration I did when I taught a class for the guild.  I showed another method of using 'what was I thinking?" fat quarters by making the St. Louis 16 patch block.  I have mine completed and it is ready for quilting and binding.  The second picture is the completed top from the class using Carolyn's block and I used a stack of 20 fat quarters that were Canadian in theme but they were an odd assortment and I threw in a few tone on tone fabrics to add a bit of calm to the top.  Again, waiting for quilting and binding.  I am determined to get these two finished by the June guild meeting for show and tell.

With our glorious sunshine, we finally got to see Mt. Baker.  It still isn't overly 'hot' but we are happy to have got to 20ºC (70ºF).  We are watching the farmers frantically working to get a crop of silage off their fields and to get the plowing and planting done.  We stay light until 9pm and you can see the tractors working away until late at night.  A long weekend here for us and we are quite happy to be staying home.  For many years, we were one of the thousands of families leaving the valley to go somewhere fun to visit family or camp (and inevitably, it rained... ugh).  Now we watch the bumper to bumper line of traffic heading out of town but this weekend, weather is perfect for them.

May 8th, moments of brilliance but still waiting for spring sunshine and temperatures.

 It has been awhile since posting and I keep thinking that I should just post what I have done every week but then my brain says ... "just get this finished so you can post it".  And one day leads into another with the weeks following. 

We play tennis whenever weather allows and sometimes we tell Momma Nature to go away while we play tennis in the drizzle with wet tennis balls.  The weather has had moments of potential sunshine and warmth and then Momma says to us... "nope" not yet!  My gardens are very slow with lots of promise of poppies and peonies.  The Rose of Sharon looks dead but am assured it will suddenly come to life.  One good thing about this weather is that the tulips have lasted for a very long time and more are still waiting to bloom.  

I have been working my way through all the quilt tops that are waiting on hangers.  So far this spring I have done the following:

March: 

1. Sew Easy Quilts of Valour

2. Town Square: Quilts of Valour

3. Stepping Up: Quilts of Valour

4. Wonky Hearts by Mary: Quilts of Valour

5. Tumblers: Quilts of Valour

6. Preemies for local NICU - x8 

April: 

1. Wallhanging Sunflower for Ukraine - done and in my window

2. Field Day: 9 patches for Quilt of Valour

 

3. Thomas the Train toddler quilts - x3  

4. Butterfly Rail fences preemie size x2

5. Red and Beige quilt top donated by Janet to Quilts of Valour, quilted and bound by me.

6. Carolyn Block using red, gray and black fat quarters for Quilts of Valour

7. Carolyn's block from knitting themed fat quarters made for a good friend who is struggling with health issues.

8. Puzzle Me This in yellows and Golds: a 3 yard quilt

 9. Blocks for Patterns by Jen: Spice is the theme and this is for Nigella - black

May

1. Red and Beige strips started last November from a jelly roll.  Donated to Quilts of Valour

2. Illusions with red and gray fabrics.  Another 3 yard quilt.

3. Roman Holiday - a 3 yard quilt donated to Quilts of Valour

4. Picture Perfect - 3 yard quilt, donated to Quilts of Valour

I have a lovely stack of quilts ready for quilting.  The batting is either cut or made from a 'frankenbat' and the backings are made.

Three quilts are quilted and waiting for binding - I am out of Quilt of Valour labels so waiting for those to arrive to finish these up.

A quilt top made by Penny.  I added borders to get it a little larger and it is now quilted.

A variation on the 3 yard quilt theme but this one is from Connecting Threads and uses 5 - 1yard pieces of fabric

Topsy Turvy using 3 yards of fabric although I made it larger and didn't have enough of one of the fabrics so substituted some grays for some of the blocks.

A stack of twenty quilts went to Vancouver Island and delivered to Lynn,  Quilts of Valour rep there who took them to the Transition Center at the Esquimalt Base. 

I am currently making some samples for a workshop on Tuesday with my local guild on using fat quarters in Carolyn's block and have a surprise extra for them with a demonstration on the St. Louis 16 patch block.  More pictures to come once I get those underway.

In the meantime, at guild last month, Carola came from Carola's Quilts and did a demonstration on using squares to make blocks.  I had this crazy layer cake and didn't know what to do with it so thought I would play.  I added in gray to tone the prints down a little and this is what is happening.
   

There you have a roundup of what I have been doing for the last 3 weeks.  Add in a little bit of gardening and some tennis and the inevitable laundry, housework and making dinner nightly and my days are full and busy.