The really hot days of the summer are diminishing and we are now hovering around 26ºC mid afternoon and all of the rain experienced by the west coast of BC and Washington State missed us completely. So, we are dry! The leaves on the trees are turning orange/yellow/brown really quickly because they are so dry.
My life continues as usual with tennis 2 - 3 mornings a week along with the appointments that my husband needs to deal with his skin cancer eruptions including immunotherapy (which also means blood tests and oncologist appointments). In my quilting life I took out all of my bins of kid's/children's fabrics and went crazy making happy blocks and then another week spent making quilt tops. My heartstrings group chose 5" squares/charm packs for August and I found a container full of squares of a variety of sizes but lot of the charm size. Lots of fabric cutting including some 10" squares since I have a stack of kid's prints in that size.
This is what I am doing with the "happy" blocks - framed 5" squares. This is the first one made and ready to quilt. But, why stop there? Keep reading to find out how many I made.
I also made blocks for a falling charms quilt.
Lots of squares and frames ready to go.
Of course, I have two Quilts of Valour that I am working on but, they got pushed to the side. And in the picture below... what a mess with fabric everywhere.
The final result of three weeks of making small quilts - I have one empty container and the rest are labeled and organized and back on the shelf.
I completed 5 preemie sized quilt tops from my framed blocks.
There are six larger quilts for kids ready to be quilted. That means a day of dealing with cutting batting and backings. All of these quilts will have flannelette on the back of them.
In the meantime, I also am working on L blocks and some 10" squares cut up into this other block.
A quilter in my modern guild asked for pictures of our sewing spaces. It is hard to get a good picture of where I quilt but these are taken from where I am sitting at my computer desk. There is a small kitchen unit which is perfect with a coffee maker, electric kettle and microwave. The back wall is covered in the fabric used for making nightgowns - a knit fabric and it is stapled to the wall. I like using a stapler because it makes really tiny holes. I have two sewing machines - my Brother 1500 which I use for piecing and a Janome Continental M7 used for applique, stitching that isn't straight stitch, all the bindings I do for the Mill Lake Quilters at Leon's and doing the quilting on smaller quilts. I took a second picture to give you a bit of a different angle. I love the thread rack because when I do bindings, it is easy to match the thread to the binding and the backing. There is a cutting table which is a bit difficult to see but it is against the wall. I have a white board on the wall which I use to keep track of quilts I am currently working on, quilts that need quilting, and another list of "one day" projects that I would love to eventually make.
This last picture is taken from another angle... it looks like a disaster zone because I am in the midst of working on the QOV that I mentioned last blog (4 patches) and now have the kid's quilts to get ready for quilting and of course, a couple more ideas of small quilts to make. If I waited until this was clean and tidy to take a picture, you would have wait quite a long time.
I am NEVER bored but, if I wish to take a time out from quilting, I have a sofa and television as well as a bookshelf with lots of unread books on it.
I have not shown my fabric storage... maybe next blog I will have taken some pictures of my storage and organization for fabric that is patiently waiting to be cut and stitched.
I need to prepare for two guild meetings this week and get these quilt tops ready for quilting.
