I have mentioned it before but I really function best on a schedule for myself and am thankful to Stephanie for explaining her method to me - it works and I love it. First week of the month is binding and organizing projects and themes I want to work with for the next 3 weeks.
For some crazy reason, the first 5 months of 2025 have not felt good with my quilting activities but am now caught up and back in the groove. I have lots to share with you... where to start?
June was "Aunt Gracie" month and hopefully you know what those fabrics are? I had a container full of mine and then collected more from our legacy fabrics that were on tables at two different guild meetings. I couldn't help myself from grabbing more because, they were colour coordinated!! The quilter who died obviously loved creating order in her fabrics the same way I do. So, I had 3 containers of these fabrics. I am still working with them and have cut fabrics to take to Saturday sew ins with modern guild.
My containers of fabrics. I cut some into 10" squares and since there was a stack of 5" squares, I decided to cut more. So many ideas of what I could make but where to start? My first thought was to make preemie quilts for the local NICU and they like them 30" x 36" so are easy to make, simple to quilt and quick giving a nice feeling of accomplishment.
I also needed to make "Gator", the pattern of the month by Villa Rosa/Running Doe so cut some of the rectangles I needed for that project.
I played around with split 9 patch with my 5" squares.
I also decided that if I cut some strips, I could make L blocks which are mindless stitching.
4 Patches seemed like a simple and easy pattern to make.
For the split 9 patches, I laid out my neutrals first and then added in the other 5" squares to complete the block. I did not fuss or take a lot of time... literally took the squares as they came from the container.
Gator got pieced which was a very simple pattern and fun to make.
I then decided on some happy blocks for the charm squares that were multiplying in my container.
These were the split 9 patches and I made two quilts that are slightly larger than preemie size but our guild donates to a variety of places that have children in need of a quilted hug.
And look!! down to 2 containers. One has fat quarters or smaller pieces and the other has larger pieces of fabric. So neat and tidy!
Three of the preemies are finished and two of the split 9 patch are waiting for the quilting and binding to be done (end of July in quilting week).
The traditional guild I belong to has asked for fabric bowls to be donated and will be used for a fund raiser at an event that they will have a booth set up for promoting the guild. I cut out a large number of them using my GO cutter and also used up a lot of my vegetable and food themed fabrics. My Wednesday group took one each to use as inspiration if they wanted to cut some of their own and stitched the ones I handed out. I finished the rest and they are off to the sale table.
We had a dear quilting friend lose her fight with cancer and a friend of hers is slowly emptying her sewing room. A few of us offered to help out and our Wednesday group has been going through the fabrics and projects as they come to us. We are each taking a few to finish up in her memory. These were maple leaf blocks with the red fused to fusible backing and I cut them out and added them to some backgrounds and have already used two in a Quilt of Valour. Thank you Ingrid.
Jumping back to the Aunt Gracie's... these are the happy blocks I am making and starting with 10" square and slicing off two 2.5" strips and from the remaining, 2.5 strips in the other direction leaving a 5" square. I cut two at the same time and mix up the centers. More simple and easy stitching.
This is another of Ingrid's quilt tops that were in a set of blocks and a Wednesday Diva put the them together and handed to me for quilting along with backing, batting and binding. Another project for the last week of July.
Onto June's finished projects. I worked daily with my B-line home quilting system to get the tops on hangers quilted and finished, ready for donation. This first one is Oopsie - A Bonnie Hunter 2024 leader and ender challenge. I did make some every month last year using the Rainbow scrap colour choice for every month. I made a lot!
Gator is finished. A cute quilt.
A finish using one of Ingrid's tops that she had pieced. I quilted and bound it and it will go back to her family for them to decide the final destination.
A row by row. If you scroll back to Feb or March in my blog, this lived on my design wall for 3 months while I dithered about putting the rows together. These rows are from 2015 (maybe 2014?) and were patterns handed out by quilt shops all over North America and each shop also had small kits available to make the row as it was pictured on the cover. I shudder to think how much I spent on those kits and there are still many left for me to work on. The traditional guild I belong to handed out patterns for row by rows and some with the fabric kits to members last December. They had been donated by someone like myself who has hung onto them for far too long. I offered to take any rows members completed and didn't have a use for because I thought they would be great for a Quilt of Valour. The theme of this particular year was water and that worked perfectly for us here on the West Coast. I made some of these rows and some were contributed by Abbotsford guild members. But, the best part - it is completed. The worst part... I still have lots of kits that need to be made.
This is Oopsie number 2 and I used up most of the blocks. I had a few leftover that I messed up on and added the corner pieces to the wrong corners of the blocks. Annoying, but oh well.
This final quilt is another of Ingrid's that I finished for her family. It is stunning and fun.
And of course, because it was Canada Day earlier this week, I had to pull out my Canadian themed runners and table toppers.
I have the next row by row ready to quilt and I used two of Ingrid's maple leaves in this one. More water themed rows.
These are some fun water themed rows that I have decided will make a quilt for a child. I have pulled fabrics to border each one and it is in my bag ready to take to Modern quilt Saturday sew in.
I am feeling good and have ideas for July. There are the rest of the Aunt Gracie blocks to complete and I will also get the row by rows bordered and put into a smaller top for quilting. I am determined to make one or two rows monthly which means I might be finished by this time next year? I have some fleece fabrics to stitch around the edges for donation to Modern guild and there are assorted projects calling my name along with more of Ingrid's to finish.
I joined Running Doe's quilt along AGAIN... this is the third time and they run for 6 months but it challenges me to make quilt tops from patterns I probably wouldn't look at if they weren't sent to me to make. My Rainbow scrap challenge blocks from the last few years are waiting for me to finish them up as well. But, I do see more empty containers than I used to have and shopping for fabric, other than backings, isn't something I do very often so fabric going out is definitely more than fabric coming in.
Happy belated Canada Day to my friends here at home and Happy Fourth of July to my friends living south of the border from here.
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