Last week of April and look what I have accomplished!

 I really like to make preemie quilts and have mentioned before that we had twin grandsons born into our family on May 25 2001 and one will be celebrating his twentieth birthday this year while Isaac was only with us for 72 hours. The twins were born at 25 weeks and both were tiny at 1.25 lb and 1.50 lb.  Nolan spent the next 3 months in the NICU and I saw how quilts and blankets on isolettes really made the room brighter and much easier to identify where your baby was located.  

So, in memory of Isaac and Nolan's time in the NICU, I have made 15 small quilts for our local hospital.  All are quilted, bound, and labelled and ready to be delivered. The stack is in front of the last baby quilt I will make and that is a UFO or work in progress from a couple of years ago... so my total will be 16 when it is finished.

 

 

I was pleased that I managed to make the battings for each of these quilts with leftover pieces that I put together.  I still have a large stack of leftover batting pieces. 

It has been 10 days of beautiful weather with morning tennis daily but my afternoons were spent piecing and then quilting.  Having lighter evenings also makes it easier for me to head downstairs after dinner and work on a project for an hour. 

So, my goal was to make a few preemie quilts and I accomplished that.  Nothing else but the month isn't over yet! 

Mid April 2021

 Sometimes, it feels like time is standing still and nothing is changing or happening and that is probably a result of the pandemic?  Other times, the days and weeks spin by and I wonder where time goes?  Maybe this is all age related and as we get older, time does fly by and yet, we are still living in the same place, doing the same things and having good days and bad days.  

I feel like the last two weeks has passed me by but then I look at my list that I had at the end of my last blog and I don't feel so bad. 

1. Quilt the next 5 quilt tops  NOT DONE

2. Make a jelly roll quilt for the Heartstrings April challenge  TOP IS COMPLETED

3. Work on cutting some 3/5 yard quilts, also a challenge from my Heartstrings group but have until June to accomplish stitching them into quilts.  I ordered a couple of the books with the patterns and they just arrived so will start pulling fabrics and cutting some kits for myself.  I    HAVE 5 PREEMIE TOPS READY FOR QUILTING

4. Make a pattern from Mary's website - one more challenge from the Heartstrings group.  They figured out that if you made one of her patterns per month, you would be busy for 9 years!  I am cutting the hearts using my accuquilt and will make her wonky heart log cabins from them.NOTHING ACCOMPLISHED WITH THIS GOAL

5. Would love to work on my t-shirt quilt.  The bin of t-shirts is constantly being moved and it is becoming annoying.  I AM LAUGHING - THE CONTAINER HASN'T MOVED OR CHANGED

6. Start making some preemie quilts for the local NICU at our hospital. SEE #3

7. Polka dot quilt using fabrics set aside SEE #3

8. finish the 'field day' that I started at retreat in early March NOPE

So, I started off with this quilt - preemie size - 30" x 36"  . My inspiration was from Modern Views by Donna Robertson of Fabric Cafe. The  pattern name is Illusions.  However, I modified the size of the block to be 6" finished because that makes an easy way to get the quilt to the right size and uses 30 blocks.  I started off with the polka dot fabric and had pulled a variety of fabrics to go with it.  The first one I made used red and orange fabrics.

I made a second one using blues and green fabrics.

And because I was just flying blind making these blocks and wanted to use up as much fabric as possible, I took the leftover blocks from the first two quilts and made a few more blocks to end up with quilt top #3.  I have none of the blue, orange or polka dot fabric left.  A great way to use the fabrics and love this block pattern.

That motivated me to dig out some yardage from a bin of kid's fabrics and try to use some of that fabric in another quilt.  Pink monkeys and flowers. 

And a fifth quilt top got put together using some funky blues and yellows. 

In the midst of working on the 3 yard quilts, I finally made a decision on the Heartstrings jelly roll challenge for April and chose a pattern.  I knew I wanted to use the 5" black Canada fabric and figured out that the jelly roll twist pattern from the Fat Quarter shop would be a logical choice and I went ahead and put this top together. 

So 5 preemie and 1 quilt of valour tops are made and waiting to be quilted and bound.  Not too bad for a week of cutting and stitching.  

In the meantime, I also had to stop and wind bobbins and clean my machine.  Plus, after all of this effort, I managed to vacuum my entire sewing area and do a little dusting, wipe down my cutting mats and went into my bunker and put away some EMPTY baskets and containers.  

The 5 preemies are spray basted with batting and backing and now I will spend my next few days getting them quilted and off to the local NICU. 

Easter has come and gone and once again, I feel like I am not getting much done.

 I think my marathon quilting session in March must have burned me out because so far, 10 days into April, I seem to accomplished very little.  Although, I will admit, that I have been tidying and organizing and spending far too much reading blogs and going down the Pinterest rabbit hole.  That of course means that I have far more ideas than time left in my life to accomplish what looks like a fun or great use of fabric. 

So, what has been accomplished? Morning tennis whenever we have dry or almost dry courts and many days have been lucky although still having wear lots of layers because it isn't very warm.  

I made this mug rug for Easter... cute little bunny.

This is a cat quilt made for a couple of cat lovers in my life.  I used as many cat fabrics as I had in my stash and it looks a bit busy, but I wanted to get them all in there.

A close up of some of the fabrics.

After my quilting marathon in March, I ONLY have 5 tops waiting on hangers. 

This top was pieced by Penny and I quilted it.  A great way to use up a Canadian flag panel. This is for Quilts of Valour.

This is a "yippee" quilt.  It was this past season's mystery quilt and it was pointed out to me that it is very retro with harvest green and golds in there.  I really like Meadowland mysteries.  She does a great job in her instructions and her blocks are easy to make every month.

So far in April, I have my RSC blue blocks.  I know we were supposed to use only dark and bright blues, but I dug into both my light and dark containers and I might skip the month of light blues?

This is my PBJ block for April: cherries.   Notice that I have an oops in the bottom edge with too much of the selvedge showing and it won't all get caught in the seam allowance. 

Fixed!  I used a red fabric felt pen and coloured the selvedge so it will not be noticeable when the block gets pieced into a quilt. 

I did cut a few hug blocks for my local guild members if they want to make a few blocks and contribute to the hug block campaign by Quilts of Valour.  It is really hard to find these fabrics in BC quilt shops but I am searching and having a bit of success.  I usually order from a shop in NL - Clothesline quilts and have really good service from her.  I also cut up some of my fabric into fat eighths and some sixteenths as well if someone wants a bit of fabric to use in their blocks or quilts.  And, I have the moose, trees and bears with fusible on the back if anyone local wants some of those for their blocks.  Easy to peel off the paper and fuse on with your iron. 

And that is all for the first 10 days of the month but I have a long list of what I would like to get done in the next 3 weeks. 

1. Quilt the next 5 quilt tops 

2. Make a jelly roll quilt for the Heartstrings April challenge

3. Work on cutting some 3/5 yard quilts, also a challenge from my Heartstrings group but have until June to accomplish stitching them into quilts.  I ordered a couple of the books with the patterns and they just arrived so will start pulling fabrics and cutting some kits for myself. 

4. Make a pattern from Mary's website - one more challenge from the Heartstrings group.  They figured out that if you made one of her patterns per month, you would be busy for 9 years!  I am cutting the hearts using my accuquilt and will make her wonky heart log cabins from them.  

5. Would love to work on my t-shirt quilt.  The bin of t-shirts is constantly being moved and it is becoming annoying.  

6. Start making some preemie quilts for the local NICU at our hospital. 

7. Polka dot quilt using fabrics set aside

8. finish the 'field day' that I started at retreat in early March 

A short list but not sure how much will get done between now and the end of the month.  I keep getting sidetracked by new ideas and projects. 

A week of total focus on quilting and binding.

 My March goals are almost completely finished!  I still have one more quilt to load and quilt and bind plus 4 others that need binding, but still today and tomorrow.  If I get the last one quilted, it won't bother me to have bindings to do in the first days of April.  My goals was to quilt as many as possible out of the 19 projects that were on hangers, waiting.  

Thursday will be about April, Easter, income tax, cleaning windows and vacuuming out the winter 'crap' from my car as well as a trip to the thrift shop.  And, I will get back to piecing some of the projects that I have started as well as those that I have floating around in my head, will get either started or completed. 

So, what I have finished? Happy blocks quilt #2 using a red Canadian flag panel from our 150th anniversary.  Some of the blocks are made by Penny after I handed her a stack of 6.5" centers. 

Penny made this quilt top from my leftovers after cutting hug blocks kits.  In the beginning, QOVC was making and selling 'hugs in a mug' with mugs filled with the right amount of fabric to make a block using the Oh Canada Northcott line (and the reps were buying fabric, mugs and printing off the patterns plus bags to put them in).  Then we switched to just selling the kits in a baggie.  Then QOVC, in their wisdom, decided that reps needed to buy the fabrics from them to cut the kits and send the proceeds back to them, leaving me, a rep, with a huge amount of yardage of the fabrics on hand.  I kept cutting kits and selling them to try and reduce the amount of investment I had in the fabrics and I still had a load of leftovers from the kit cutting.  Penny took the container and made a quilt from 'some' of the fabrics and returned the leftovers to me along with this quilt top.  I still have a box of hug blocks that are cut and packaged with the patterns.

This churn dash is made with a variety of red fabrics plus the centers are cut from leftover backings.  I decided to alternate white and red blocks for a bit of variety.

Penny made a quilt for Quilts of Valour from her stash.  I quilted and bound it and it is now ready for the donation pile.

My tumbler quilt from the January Heartstrings is now finished and ready for donation 

Town Square which is a 3 yard quilt pattern is ready for Quilts of Valour.  I used some leftover Canadian prints for the centers plus a flag panel that I had on hand.  The quilt that follows is Happy Blocks #3 using another of the panels of Canadian cities plus some blocks from Penny.

I made this quilt top in early February as a demonstration of using fat quarters and cutting them in a way that leaves very little waste and ending up with a 15" block.  The tutorial is on the blog in early February.  I used a variety of aging leaf prints for this quilt so fabric used up and a donation quilt finished.

So, that makes 10 quilts  (and one table runner)finished this month and I have 3 more quilts that are quilted and waiting for binding. And the final one that I want to get done by tomorrow is ready for me to load on the B-line quilting system.   

This jigsaw puzzle is NOT going to get finished.  We are really frustrated and not enjoying a puzzle that has the same size pieces so that they might fit perfectly in a spot but it isn't the right piece.  It took me ages to get the border done on the left hand side and thought that would help but it hasn't.  So, it is going back in the box for someone who enjoys a challenge that is far too difficult for my brain. I have no idea why the picture is upside down but doesn't matter... hard to do from any direction!

Our Christmas cactus is extremely happy, blooming again in March!  So pretty and colourful.

So, a non tennis morning since the courts were soaking wet due to a surprise rain shower and it is end the month so a few desk chores to tackle, plus the dreaded income tax paperwork and it is time to celebrate Easter and remain at home, staying safe and healthy. We did get our vaccinations last week so 2 more weeks until we are little more protected.  Sadly, in Canada, the second doses of the Pfizer vaccines won't be available to us until July so we wait... not so patiently, but I can distract myself with quilting and be content with one jab at this time.

The best laid plans don't seem to work for me.

 I have great intentions to blog once a week at minimum and realize that if I did that, it would be quicker with less to catch up on but, alas, I can't get myself that organized. 

St. Patrick's day was celebrated here with a little bit of new decor items: placemats, table toppers, mug rug and wallhanging... simple as they are, it was enough for a one day event. Thought of my father who loved to celebrate and died last year on March 18 so this year was the first one without me singing with him on the phone. 

My PBJ block for March got done.  I made two as the first one didn't show much contrast.  The theme was yams.

A time out from sewing/quilting to clean up after hedge trimming.  Our awesome (younger) neighbour was kind enough to do the work for us on the cedars that run between our houses.

A fabulous double rainbow last week that was stunning!

Our modern guild is having a challenge to make an Easter basket so I pulled out some fabrics from the Easter container and got busy.  Simple but done.

I got my blocks for the Rainbow scrap challenge for March done.  The colour is green. 

This is my current project area.  Tshirts have been waiting forever to get cut up and made into a quilt.  The rest is quite tidy and organized and I know what is there.

I layered my table runner and started quilting it because my name is going to come up quickly in the Queen of UFO's group that I belong to and this is from 2018

I have a stack of quilts that I have quilted and are waiting for me bind.  It was a good week and I managed to get 6 quilted in 7 days!  Impressive but of course, it means that nothing else got done. 

Backings are becoming a bit of a challenge for me.  It is so hard to spend your time and money making the quilt tops and then add in the cost of the batting and then I need a minimum of 3.5m of backing fabric plus the binding.  I used to be able to find decent backing for a good price and was happy paying $6 metre but now, it seems that $12 is the cheapest available.  So, I pulled out all my pieces of leftover batting from the last few years and was amazed that I managed to make 5 backings!  Wow... big savings.

This is the first of the quilts made from happy blocks plus a Canadian panel that is now quilted and bound and ready to donation to Quilts of Valour.

And the second quilt is done that used a panel of Canadian cities plus happy blocks.  My friend Penny pieced some blocks for me after I gave her the centers to work around.  It made for loads of blocks.

This is the panel of Canada used in the first quilt. 

The table runner is finished.  Yahoo, can cross a UFO off the list

And, I have my stack of quilts ready for quilting and going to aim to keep up with my one a day for as long as I can.

And a stack of quilts that are waiting for their labels and binding and then they are done!

So, I am busy and actually finishing some of the projects I have been working on in 2021.