Monthly report from Rosyquilter for November.

 Life throws you curves and you can try to catch the curve, avoid it or just duck and keep on with daily living.  We are still in the land of winter weather and no chance of being in our sunny, happy place for another month or two.  My husband had carotid surgery at the end of October and was in hospital for a few days before heading home for recovery time.  He needs the second one done and so we wait... impatiently.  He has healed nicely but for the first few weeks he needed me to drive him everywhere.  The crummy weather arrived which meant daily walks at the park were cold and wet so we joined our local rec center and discovered we are super seniors and it is free to go there and walk, use exercise equipment and any other activities that might interest us.  

The sun decided to shine on us for the last two weeks so lots of outdoor tennis.. cold and windy some days so we dress warm which makes it hard to move quickly on the courts!

Sewing slowed down when I was visiting the hospital daily both in September and at the end of October and for some reason, making quilt tops was all that appealed to me.  However, I did piece these blocks for the Modern guild November meeting.  One was curves and I wasn't happy with the first one so did a second trying to get perfectly matched seams.  It wasn't mean to be but they looked ok when they were put up on the wall at guild.  The small block was the monthly challenge to make a square using complementary colours on the colour wheel. 

This is the beginning of quilt top made from the pattern by Paul Legere in the Canadian quilter's magazine that was recently issued.  It has a variety of ways to put your blocks together and is intended as a Quilt of Valour freebie.  The pattern and a kit of fabric is available on Quiltsofvalour.ca if you are interested in making this.

Simplicity II by Cozy quilt designs is now put together and waiting for quilting. 

I keep all my finished quilt tops on hangers so this one joins the others.

The QOV top is finished and also waiting patiently for quilting.

We did have fun on Halloween, decorating our yard and the weather was good for the kids to trick or treat. 

I managed to spray baste a stack of quilt tops.  These are smaller tops and are from a de-stash that the Modern guild had in 2020... I need to get them quilted and handed in to the community quilt group!

I also quilted a UFO from last year.  This is my Patterns by Jen block of the month and my name is close to being Queen (or maybe I am already?) of my Queen of UFO group.  Not a title you aspire to but if you don't finish a UFO while you are in reign, you owe fat quarters to the others.  Binding is made, just waiting for that step to happen.

Of course, I got sidetracked by another 3 yard quilt.  This pattern is called Roman Holiday and I made enough of the framed blocks to make a second quilt. 

The monthly block for patterns by Jen is finished and I made two, reversing the lights and darks.  The colour theme was cloves.

A stack of frankenbatts.  I discovered a bin I had forgotten about that contained leftover batting strips so sorted them by width and then did some joining so I have 5 battings made out of  pieces. 

This is the second Roman Holiday quilt pattern and another top for a hanger.

A 3 yard quilt called Stepping Up by Fabric Cafe is also put together and hanging on the rod waiting for quilting.  I have a variety of Canadian themed fabrics that I am incorporating into these quilts. 

A free pattern published by Fabric Cafe called Courage has been made.  Some of the fabrics in this quilt top were donated to Quilts of Valour by Doris and a big thank you to her.

Working on these quilt tops from the modern guild de-stash.  I have quilted the first, the train quilt. The binding is cut and waiting for this next step.

The Roman Holiday on my design wall is now put together and waiting for quilting.  More Canadian themed fabric has been used up. 

A rail fence of various fabrics has been quilted.  This came to me as a top with batting and backing.  One more for the binding pile!

A donation quilt from the modern quilt guild that needed quilting and is now done and ready for binding.  I hope to all these quilts finished and ready for the December meeting.  That will feel so good to have them all finished and handed over to the community quilts coordinator.

Bindings!  Waiting to be stitched together and then onto the quilts that I have shown above.

It is always so lovely to see a picture of a donation quilt being used by the intended recipients.  These twins are in the local NICU and covered in one of my quilts.  A feel good picture. 

My Christmas cactus, which is actually a Thanksgiving (U.S.) cactus is thriving in the sunshine we had recently.  Loads of blooms.

The quilt I am currently working on called Favorite things by Fabric Cafe and more Canadian themed fabrics being "used up".  A few of these fabrics were also donated by local quilters in my guild. 

Christmas cakes got made on Grey cup Sunday!  One nice thing about being home here in Canada.  And, making these cakes, reminds me of mum.  She made these every year and it is her recipe.

Outside lights got put up with help from next door neighbour.  She had her house done and ready for hosting an open house this coming weekend to support our local food bank.  So, it made sense to get our lights up while the weather was dry and to help out with making our street look festive for her event.

The lights led me to put away Autumn.  If I was in my other home, fall decor would have remained until this coming weekend, until after Thanksgiving.  But, I have de-decorated my house in preparation for decorating for Christmas so I have pulled out the containers from under the stairs, ready for me. 

Enjoy your quilting time and preparations for the Christmas season.

Mid October and some finished projects!

 One previous finished quilt that I forgot to take a picture of. I had made two survivor quilts and the other had a 16 patch in each corner.  The first one I posted was in my last blog.  

In the spring of 2020, our Modern guild community quilt coordinators decided to retire from their position and wanted all the donated fabric out of their guest rooms.  They held a huge 'come and take' party in the front yard of one of our members who lives central to most of the membership.  I ended up taking a few 'bags' of projects that had been put together with no plan in mind other than the fabrics went together.  These pink fabrics are from one of the bags and I need to decide what I am going to make with them.

 

These next two quilt tops were made from one bag of fabric that contained all the stripes put together in a strip set. I decided to cut each of the strip sets in half and then made new sets with green added to one and blue added to the other.  These two tops are now waiting for quilting and binding.  It feels good to work on something that has been waiting for me for 2 years!

 Another bag of fabrics had some yardage of the train fabrics and the red.  There was a blue but I really didn't like it for going with the train so chose a blue and a green out of my stash and made happy blocks.  There was enough train fabric to add borders top and bottom and once those are added, I will have more quilts waiting to be quilted and bound and donated back to the guild for Victim Services.

These two blocks are my October choice for using the Patterns by Jen and her choice of sage.  I have been making two each month and alternating the light and the dark colours.

Simplicity II is coming along and I am halfway done making blocks.  These are up on the wall to encourage me to keep stitching.  Each of these blocks has a matching partner because one strip set of two fabrics makes two blocks. 

One day last week I was totally lacking in motivation but, at the same time, was trying to tidy and organize.  I had a large pile of leftover batting pieces and I spent the afternoon matching them up for width and attaching them to each other.  I also measured them!  So now, I have 5 battings ready for the quilts waiting on hangers to be layered, ready for quilting. 

A finished quilt for Survivors of Residential schools.  This was made using an assortment of fat quarters and since there is a request for us to include orange fabric, I was able to pull out and use some that I had on hand.  This is now quilted and bound and need to connect with Vanessa to get the names and addresses of recipients.

The Jelly Roll Saturday quilt is finished and has been donated to my guild.  The fabric was all sheep and farm scenes and the jelly roll was one that had been sitting around for too long. 

Floating triangles is also finished and donated to my guild so it can taken to the NICU at our local hospital.  I liked this so much, I think it will be one of my 'go to' patterns for charm squares.

I had two projects in bags that were remnants of fabrics put together by one of our guild members and ziploc bags were sealed so you couldn't peek too much.  The bags were tossed to us at the September meeting and I decided that they would not become UFO's and sit around waiting to they are both completed, labeled and handed in for community quilts. 

Two more preemie quilts for the NICU and started these because charms were the choice of fabric for my Heartstrings group for October.  I made a mistake on one and without thinking, cut my strips for the 4 patch at 2.5".  Well, that didn't work out because they made 4.5" squares, too small to match up with the 5" charms.  So, I cut down the charms to fit the 4 patches and carried on.  However, I figured I should make one the correct size (note to self, use 2.75" strips to end up with 5" four patches.  Both of these are now in the hands of the We Care coordinator for distribution to a wee premature baby.

Step three of the Meadowland mystery was handed out on Oct 6th and I got busy right away and made my blocks.  Done and put away until the first Thursday of November.

The modern guild that I belong to is doing a different block of the month idea.  We are using the colour wheel and following instructions as to which kind of colour scheme we are working with.  Starting with a triangle, as per instructions, I chose red and the complementary colour was green but we were to use the adjacent colours so, blue greens and yellow greens in my case. 

I am hoping I will have some larger, finished quilts to show you soon.  My piecing that is waiting for me is adding the borders to the train quilt and finish making my Simplicity II blocks but, otherwise, am trying to not start anything new until I have made an effort to start loading and quilting tops and get a few of those completed.  We are stuck inside our house because the smoke in our valley is thick and horrible.  You can smell it and really wants to give you a headache.  Even though, not really needed, we are running our a/c with a good filter in the furnace, to clean the air in the house.  Quite a few appointments this coming week but some I welcome because I really do need new orthotics and I actually love getting my teeth cleaned (well, I love the feeling of clean teeth, not the actual cleaning).  

As long as this dry weather continues (breaking records here for high temperatures and days without rain), there will be morning tennis daily with the senior's group. We have fun and get in our steps which is good as we age, somewhat gracefully! 

99 Day challenge

 The goal is to accomplish one task per day for 99 days. 

Here we go:

1. Kid's happy blocks quilt top for Jelly Roll Saturday                                       Sept 17

2. Kimberley #2 quilt top finished, waiting patiently on a hanger for quilting

3. Modern Guild zip loc challenge #1

4. Decorate house for Autumn

5. Repot plants in desperate need of some TLC

6. Triangle block for Modern guild September challenge

7. Joined batting pieces to make a Frankenbatt                                                    Sept 23

8. Clean up spare bedroom and closet 

9. Finish my 9 binders plus my journal of inspiration patterns and pictures

10. Month end desk clean up and tidy, paperwork sorted and dealt with

11. Modern guild ziploc challenge #2

12. Heartstrings challenge charms: falling triangles

13. Heartstrings challenge charms :4 patch 4.5" squares

14. Heartstrings challenge charms: 4 patch 5" squares                                         Sept 30

15. Plants planted in front garden: Rose of Sharon

16. Mailed Thanksgiving cards, birthday cards and gifts to friends and family

17. Vacuumed my sewing spaces thoroughly and put away Aunt Gracie's plus mask making supplies

18. Layered 7 quilts ready for quilting including making Frankenbatts for each of them

19. Allegiant air, changed flight dates

20. Started Simplicty II pattern and made 2 test blocks, dug out container of batik strips

21. Cleaned my sewing machine, changed needle and filled 8 bobbins.     Oct 7 

 

22/77.Cut bindings, PBJ Oct sage block

23/76. Meadowland mystery step 3 completed, Quilted #5 Survivor cj blocks

24/75. Quilted # 6 FVMQG Ziploc challenge #1

25/74. Quilted # 7 FVMQG Ziploc challenge #2 Worked on binding for 7 quilts

26/73 Made pumpkin pies (2), Orange yams, cranberry sauce, organized for guild tomorrow

27/72  Made Thanksgiving dinner, Finished binding 7 quilts

28/71 Took Gary to lab, hospital for scan, turned in 4 quilts to guild We care, made Frankenbatts, Started train happy blocks                                        Week four/Oct 14

29/70. Made happy block with train fabric and cut jelly roll strip sets to size, cut fabric to insert, knee injections, cardiologist appointment

30/69. Modern guild: turned in Ziploc challenge quilts, door prize, updated inspiration binders. Worked on VOS and emailed team members, sent out schedule and paid fees

31/68. Housework, tidied cutting table, cut and added outside borders for jelly roll strips

32/67. Worked on train happy blocks, simplicity II blocks, updated my lists

33/66. Made cinn buns in crockpot, laundry, watering front gardens, changed batteries in Halloween decorations, uploaded pictures for blog 

34/65. Applique pink hearts for FVMQG pink quilt

35/64. Pink strippie quilt put together Week Five

36/63. Dentist appointment, Fabricland, covered GJ pillows

37/62. Elastic on Gary’s facemasks

38/61. Covid and flu vaccinations

39/60. Quilt show, garage clean up, sold lawnmower

40/59. Housework, tortilla soup

41/58. Hospital meeting re surgery Blood work for Gary, Shopping for Gary

42/57. Change Gary’s sheets, prep for surgery  Week Six

43/56. Gary’s surgery, shopping, housework, Dee’s, haircut

44/55. Visiting Gary, laundry, read a book

45/54. Visiting Gary, picked up prescription, post office, read a book, wine with Susan

46/53.  Picked Gary up from hospital, home and put away all his stuff, laundry

47/52.  Worked on Simplicity blocks made colour challenge FVMQG

48/51.  Cancelled travel insurance, Allegiant flight

49/50.  Cleaned desk, paid month end bills /Week seven

50/49. Worked on circle blocks for FVMQG challenge

51/48.  Picked up fabric from Doris, Finished Simplicity II

52/47. Book blood work appointments, orthotics appointment

53/46. Wrote article for newspaper for QOV, pressed Simplicity top

54/45,  Cut out Paul Legere pattern from CQA

55/44. Stitched blocks and put top together Paul Legere pattern

56/43 VOS lineup for tennis, made endodontist appointment Week Eight

57/42. Cut fabrics for Courage, free 3 yd quilt  organized for guild de-stash

58/41. Modern guild de-stash, packaged a door prize , Doctor’s appointment Gary

59/40. Worked on Courage quilt blocks

60/39. Worked on strip quilts for FVMQG – added blue to one, green to one

61/38. Worked on train quilt happy blocks FVMQG

62/37. Called AZDOT trying to figure out golf cart license Kintec to pickup orthotics

63/36.  Dr. appointment for Gary,Greenshield insurance paperwork orthotics week 9

64/35. Loaded a quilt PBJ 2021 on Bline, Line up for VOS, Cleaned out fridge

65/34. Called Shaw about channel to watch Yellowstone, sympathy cards for Phil/Stan

66/33. Quilted PBJ 2021  Root canal

67/32. Amazon order, Christmas cake ingredients, Xmas light hooks for outside

68/31. Bought a snow shovel, quilted pink quilt Picked up overseas

69/30. Quilted blue strip and green strip quilts, Baked Christmas cakes

70/29. Lights up in front of house, Quilted train quilt FVMQG Made bindings week 10

71/28.  Quilted Turquoise rails FVMQG,  Thrift shop drop,Xmas lights up on deck

72/27. Autumn away, quilted brown quilt, garden clean up and lawn chairs put away

73/26. Made bindings for 7 quilts, quilted Brown strippie Put together Favorite blocks

74/25. picked up repaired orthotics from Kintec, tidied desk, laundry, groceries, costco

75/24.  Bound quilt number one and two (turquoise, brown quilts) baked butter tarts. quil

76/23. Bound quilts: pink, blue, green and quilted 16 patch, loaded next quilt

77/22. Cut up 6.5” squares from QOV scraps,  quilted second 16 patch, Week 11

78/21. Cut battings and backings for 7 QOV for Dianne to quilt, organized paperwork