My timeline for this month got messed up just like last month. Twenty three completed quilts headed to Comox on Vancouver Island for Quilts of Valour. Some were made by me, others by Vernon and Fraser Valley quilters. Hopefully, in the next few weeks, many of the requests for wrapping an injured Canadian forces member will be fulfilled and these deserving military will be wrapped in a fabric hug.
One of my presenters in Kamloops is in need of more quilts ... and the cupboard was empty. However, my quilting friends came through and I finished up a few of the tops they gave me and I found some suitable quilts in my stash so I will have 8 quilts for delivery.
So... the entire month so far has been stitching, quilting, labeling and binding for Quilts of Valour along with some other projects destined for a church bazaar that a good quilting friend is working with. This Christmas quilt was given to me as a top a few years ago and I decided to finish it and donate it to the church bazaar. If it doesn't sell, then it will be given to a family that the church members feel is in need of a quilted hug.
Another friend gave me these blocks she made at her recent quilt retreat and I put them together. I have since quilted and bound it and picture to follow later.
This quilt was my nemesis The blocks were given to me, each in a kit form from a special QOV provincial plan by QOV. These blocks came from Alberta shops and someone donated to our guild and the We Care committee donated them to me. For the last couple of years, I have been handing them out to my various quilting friends (thank you Carol and Wednesday Quilt Divas) to make and they all got finished. I kept staring at it trying to figure out how to assemble and I finally did it with a little bad language and some seam ripping.
I pulled out ALL my Christmas fabric and I had so much!! The decision was made to make some Christmas pillowcases because they use 27" of fabric and I went through and pulled out all that was width of fabric and good for the body, the accent strip and the cuff. In the end, all of my fabric from various storage places now fits into one container.
I was stitching down the accent strip and was happy to realized that machine has an open arm when I remove the table. That made it a lot easier!
I ended up with 14 pillowcases finished. My intention was to give some to a guild Christmas table at a local bazaar but they decided to not do that so they have gone to the friend for her church bazaar. If there are leftover pillowcases, I think that they would be perfect for Canuck Place... hospice for sick kids.
Sadly, we have a problem in our front yard. The raccoons are digging up the grass looking for the grubs laid by the Chafer beetle (an European invasive species) and they make a mess. We tidied it as best as we could and after researching, found out that nothing can be done until spring when nematodes or chemicals can be used (or, beetle resistant grass planted) so we live with an ugly looking lawn. I did sprinkle hot chili peppers (ground up) all over which worked for a few weeks and then they returned to the smorgasbord of treats.
Halloween was fun for decorating the front porch but sadly only 3 trick or treaters. I guess the little kids have all grown up! At least it wasn't a rainy evening for those out knocking on doors.
Christmas cake production got underway with lining the cake pans, soaking the fruit in brandy and then making the cakes.
They went into the oven with me writing down the times that each one would be finished. This is a Christmas task that I do every few years. Some of the cakes will end up in the freezer for next year and possibly the year after.
In the meantime, they are well soaked in brandy and wrapped tightly in saran wrap and aluminum foil and then in ziploc bags. My mum would have put them into her various size cake tins but I have donated mine to the local thrift store.
Remembrance Day on November 11 had me getting a picture of my Uncle Harold, my dad's older brother, and I remember growing up with this picture at my Grandparent's house. He never came home from the war and so none of us ever met him. But he certainly was never forgotten in our family. There are only two of us left... my sister and I, and we do take time every year to think of him.
The quilts that I have finished so far this month are the following. A scrappy block made by Marge and I quilted and bound it. She included the binding to finish it off nicely.
A panel made by Janet that I added another border to and then quilted and bound so it is ready for a presentation
This is the various blocks I assembled, put together, quilted and bound and also ready for presentation to an injured Canadian military member. Love that moose block!!
I was asked to finish a Legacy quilt. This quilt was started with hand quilting by a woman who sadly died and the quilt needed finishing. We didn't have the option of hand quilting as we wanted to give this to her husband who so generously donated her entire sewing room to three different guilds and there was a lot of fabric. I showed the unfinished quilt to my Wednesday group and it was decided that I should do a simple stipple in the green border and part of the red to finish it and support the hand quilting, not detract from it. She had made the backing large enough for self binding and the entire quilt and binding was basted thoroughly with super fine thread. So, I stitched down the binding on the machine as my hands won't let me do that much hand stitching.
The plan it to deliver it to her husband after a label is attached and he will have it in plenty of time to have on his bed at Christmas.
A fun time at our Saturday sew in. We celebrated the 80th birthday of one of our guild members so a nice group showed up to sing Happy Birthday. I took a lot of kits that I had cut with me and came home with the first step done in each of them. They are now pressed and subcut and ready for the next step at December's sew in.
And guess who came back for another grub party? More lawn torn up. What a mucky mess.
I was showing our traditional guild how I store my scraps of fabric. I always sort by colour where possible and have fabric buckets made for storing them. Easy to grab and use and then shove them all back in and put on the shelf. Any of the larger pieces, fat quarter size, or width of fabric, go into Art bins or into clear shoe boxes with lids so it is easy to see what is inside. Some are so full, I can barely close them!
Now, third week of the month, time to resume my regularly scheduled plan for what to accomplish. I have my QOV presenter coming this week to pick up quilts and I have them ready for him! And, I have done a good cleaning and organizing of my space, just in time to make it messy again.
