We have had decent April weather - you expect rain and we have had it but have also had warm temperatures and one afternoon, I wore my sandals! I haven't worn capris other than for indoor tennis but the grass has been cut twice - very positive sign of warmer weather.
I am following the "Stephanie plan" and have been doing so for almost a month and it is working for me. All these years of wandering from project to project, piecing lots of blocks for rainbow scrap challenge, cutting kits etc and I was always feeling frustrated that I didn't seem to actually finish anything.
The last week of the month is coming up and that is 'quilting' week. I have so many tops to quilt but I know that I will do what I can and in May, will do more. I may never catch up but quilts are getting finished.
The first week is 'finishing' week which I didn't think I needed but I expanded it to finishing and planning. Bindings got done on the quilts that were quilted in March, and I figured out my Rainbow scrap fabrics and I tidied up and dealt with that always increasing pile of papers, patterns and ideas.
The second week is Rainbow scrap challenge and I am making far too many different types of blocks and too many of each them. Oh well. These are the L blocks.
Strip scrappy blocks.
These are four more types of blocks I am making. Crazy and I don't need that many blocks of the larger size.
The leader and ender "oopsie daisy' from Bonnie Hunter got made as well... notice the bottom block? Even though I talk to myself while adding the corner squares, I mess up... I need to listen to me when I talk to myself.
More orphan blocks got finished... I keep finding blocks in places that I didn't think to look. These are packaged and ready to deliver our guild meeting and will be delivered to Quilt Canada by one of our guild members who is heading there in June.
When I dug out my rainbow scrap challenge container from last year, these were at the bottom. This was a stashbuster pattern that I started off making in January 2023 and decided I didn't want to make these blocks every month. They were 9" so added a border around them to get them to 12"
These house blocks are also for Quilts for Survivors - they asked for anyone who has volunteered with them to make a block and add your name, location and year we started contributing. My Wed Diva quilting group has been involved from the beginning when I read about Vanessa and her plans for quilts for those who survived residential schools across Canada.
My Patterns by Jen blocks in blue were made... two blocks with reversed backgrounds.
The end of the second and beginning of the third week of the month, I pulled out the bags tossed at me during a modern guild meeting which contained a panel. I dug into my children's fabrics and dug out more panel fabric plus I had some yardage of duck fabric which I had plans for many years ago that didn't happen. I also grabbed some small, unfinished quilt tops from an older friend who is no longer quilting and decided to finish them up as well. I have been piecing some flannel backings for these quilts and cut the batting so they will get quilted starting this week - last week of the month!
I had two of these funky cat panels and my quilting friend suggested I make pillowcases as there were 8 cats per panel which didn't really work for cutting them up and laying them out and I had no fabric that went with them. So, 2 pillowcases made.
While I had my fabrics out of my bins, I pulled out some fabrics to go with the ducky fabric and I cut some kits. These are handy to have for sew-ins with the modern guild, one Saturday a month. A grab and go project and mindless stitching while we laugh and chat.
I have four of these quilts spray basted and ready to go for quilting week. The others are still waiting for backing to be pieced (today's project) and the layered for the next step.
Of course,
I had to get to work on my list of 'want to get done' projects. Last year I made a huge number of "plus" blocks for RSC - one colour per month. Note to self- think about the final project and how many blocks to made each month. So far, I have put 3 quilts together and still have one more on the design wall.
I laid out the first one and stitched the blocks together and was concerned that it was a bit boring in just rows?
So, I staggered the blocks on the next two... yes two more! So many blocks. Here are three tops pressed and now waiting for quilting. In hindsight and after looking at the pictures, the straight set wasn't so bad once they were stitched together.
A new project got started... Strips and Salsa by GE Designs. She is doing a sew along so thought I would jump in and grabbed some Canadian themed batiks that were in a package waiting to be used. I need to get 80 blocks made plus the four that are done. These will be leaders and enders while I work on other projects.
My sister called me ( I love speaker phone) so it was a great opportunity to get my quilt tops pressed that I had assembled this week while we chatted away. The third week of the month has been very productive. The 16 patch is put together and these are made using ? fat quarters... what else to do with them? Pair them up with a solid or tone on tone and create these blocks.
And, one more started as I finish a few more blocks as leaders and enders.
I am very happy to have these blocks put together. I started the hourglass blocks from a kit at a sew in. The pattern is Time Machine by Fabric cafe.
These blocks were made in February while in Arizona and they got assembled - very simple and quick and is Sew Easy by Fabric Cafe.
Yippee - another finish from a plastic bag tossed in my direction at a modern guild meeting. There were a lot of batik samples of fabric in pinks and peaches. There were also some fat quarters and a variety of other colours so I dug into my batik stash to come with a few more and created this top. This is a Villa Rosa pattern called Take Out and I put the blocks together incorrectly. I was using the back of the pattern card which was in black/white and didn't realize that once I cut my blocks after the first step, they were supposed to be all mixed up but I matched them with their partner? Oh well... what is done will stay done.
These are the quilt tops from this week, pressed and waiting for quilting. I ran out of hangers so they couldn't get added to the others that are ahead of them in the line-up.
This is the last quilt I am making from these plus blocks... it will be number four and that is plenty. There are still some blocks left and since they are 12.5", I will add them to my stack of orphan blocks.
This is the picture of the Strips and Salsa that I am making with my red, black and white blocks.
This is one more wall of orphan blocks that had to be added to or trimmed to get them to the correct size.
Monday is the end of the third week of the month so I will finish getting the kid's quilts ready for quilting and I will finish up more of the 16 patches plus my strips and salsa blocks and will then pull out backings and batting for 5 of my quilt tops on hangers waiting patiently for the last week of the month. I will be happy to get the kid's quilts plus 5 more done on my B-line. It won't make much of dint in my flimsies on hangers (and the clothes rack) but it create a stack of finished quilts and I will be ready and organized for the first week of May.
Hopefully, there will also be lots of outdoor tennis and some gardening with weeds and grass growing quickly with all the rain, sunshine and slightly warmer temperatures.
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