End of August and a new September beginning

 September is always a reason to celebrate as a retired teacher.  All of my life until retirement, September meant back to school/university/ school again as a teacher.  Happy to say that I have retired 23 years ago and I still celebrate the first day of school, thinking of teachers and students back in a regular scheduled life that is run by the sound of bells or buzzers as well as clock watching. 

I am doing a happy dance because, end of August and I have my tops for the month quilted and bound!  I overheard someone snickering when I mentioned that the last week of the month is quilting week.  Once again, this system works so well for me.  A few years ago, I was feel overwhelmed by all my ideas (thanks to Pinterest), patterns on hand, show and tell inspirations as guild and I was surrounded by loads of fabric.  Yes, my fabric is organized but I felt at loose ends.  For the last few years I have participated in sew-alongs, mystery quilts, and the rainbow scrap challenge blocks and again, so many blocks, ideas and projects to make.  My saviour has been Stephanie, an Australian quilter who explained her method to me and I adopted it.  I feel so much more in control of what I am doing and get more satisfaction from finished projects. 

The system I am using is to spend the first week of the month binding the quilts from the last week of the previous month.  That includes labeling and sending the quilts off to their destinations.  I also have time in the first week to figure out my plan for the month.  In June and July, I worked on using my Aunt Gracie fabrics and made a bundle of quilts for the preemies in NICU at our local hospital.  All those fabrics are now nicely reduced and put away neatly.  The second week is working on new ideas, sew alongs, monthly mystery patterns and 'work in progress'.  The third week is generally spent getting blocks put together into quilt tops, sorting out backings and battings and getting ready for the final week of the month which is quilting.  

I have been trying to work on Row by row quilts which were popular ten years ago and shops would publish a free pattern and of course, a kit for purchase will all the needed fabrics.  I have finished most of them from 2015 but still have 2016 to work on.  I also have blocks from Rainbow scrap challenges and a few UFO's including a t-shirt quilt with the interfacing on the trimmed logos.  

Every month, I try to choose a topic or theme to keep me on track.  August was dealing with scrappy strips from the RSC plus, working on finishing quilts from Ingrid's legacy.  Ingrid was a quilting friend who died from brain cancer and our Wednesday Diva quilting group ended up with quite a few loads of her supplies that filled a van each time it arrived.  A good friend who lives close by has come to my house and we have sorted and organized fabrics so they will be easy to take to our guild free table without a mess being created.  This is the last of the containers that I happily passed onto the next person to go through. All the rest has been sorted by colour and put into bags for those wanting extra fabric or some of Ingrid's legacy can get over the next few guild meetings.  Our Wednesday group divided up many of the projects/quilts that were started but not finished and we are happy to do it for her family.  (Maybe a lesson for us quilters - always leave the pattern and plan plus necessary fabric if not scrappy with blocks that are in progress).  

 

These are two more of Ingrid's quilts that were finished.  The one with the hearts was begun a few years ago for a graduation quilt and has signatures with messages on many of the blocks.  The quilt top was together and spray basted with a backing of extra blocks. We found more extra blocks and they were put together into a baby quilt with both being delivered to the recipient at her baby shower last weekend.  

We also found some scrappy strip blocks with yellow centers.  There were some that were finished but there was also a lot of yellow squares waiting to be used.  Another member of our Wednesday Divas took on the task of finishing the blocks.  This block is made by drawing two lines, corner to corner, equidistant from each other.... 2" apart.  Those lines become the seam line of the first strips either side of center and from there, you keep adding until the yellow is covered.  And a second member took the blocks and added the black sashing and completed the top.  I quilted and bound it.  A group effort!

  

These other quilts were posted previously as we finished them for Ingrid's family.  

I also managed to get my monthly Running Doe stitch along quilt completed.  This is Phyllis, a Villa Rosa pattern by Running Doe designs. This one will be donated to Quilts of Valour.  

 

This is the first of rainbow scrap strips blocks that were leftover from the last few years. The next pictures is what I am doing with the next set of blocks from previous years.  I need 72 blocks so this will be some good stitching to do during the US Open this week. And I just noticed a block that is "wrong".... I need to fix that!  

I only need 10 more blocks for the Bonnie Hunter leader and ender challenge for this year.  I have them cut and sitting by the sewing machine.  

After tidying and organizing Ingrid's legacy, it made me realize how much 'stuff' I have in my sewing equipment stash.  I taught quilting at school and at quilt shops, and loved going to retreats (when my husband was healthier) so I have (had) a lot of duplicates.  I spent time last weekend, doing some of my own tidying and organizing.  The big bonus of that effort was that I knew where to find the glo tape for my ruler when I was trimming the strippy blocks.  The block measures 11.5" unfinished so I put the tape on the ruler and so much faster to line up the blocks and get them trimmed to size.  

 I finished this quilt that was from a kit that was in a Mystery box from Dragonfly quilting.  I didn't like the pattern that they chose so went in my own direction and had sewn these blocks at a sew in last fall but needed to put them on the wall to see how they worked and if I had enough fabric left for borders.  

A bonus harvest of zucchini and tomatoes last week

And an awesome bowl of plums from my good friend.  

Getting my binding done before the end of the first week of September gives me a few extra days to play with what I want to finish up next.  I have the rainbow strips to finish, plus the leader/ender bento boxes and I want to complete at least one row x row and there are still the ideas from earlier this year making half square triangles and Running Doe will be sending us another new pattern tomorrow for September.  

So, even though my friends roll their eyes at my 'system', it makes me happy.  I have NO quilt tops waiting for me to get quilted and when I do, they are done by the end of month they were created.  Guild starts again and I have a lovely stack of quilts to donate and that feels good.  I do need to stitch an apple block for our modern guild meeting in 10 days so that is going to be moved up the list of importance. I would love to tackle my two boxes of strips that are assorted and divided into a container of darks and one of lights.  Sounds like a perfect way to make some log cabins?  I can't get the lid on the container of darks... referred to as a muffin top.  

Enjoy our September weather.  It is getting dark far too early for me but, Mother Nature is in charge.  If anyone reading is under wildfire watch or evacuation, you have my prayers and wishes for rain to bombard the fires and help those fighting the battle to conquer the raging infernos.  And, if you are waiting for rain because you are so dry, it will come.. eventually.  If you are suffering from hot temperatures, I really hope you have a/c or a cool basement.  Again, we are at the mercy of Mother Nature and she appears to be a little cranky at the moment.