Ignoring my new 'age' and trying hard to stay younger!

 For some reason, this is the first time I remember feeling "my age" and for sure, am slowing down and not nearly as productive as in past summers.  I am also tempted with doing a lot more reading than in past summers which is ok but not much to show for my time. 

The weather has been hot (for us) and constant heat is a bit annoying.  It is much harder to go outside and work in the garden or even sit outside to read.  However, last weekend, we had rain and a cooling off so this week has been so much nicer!We have had a few days without using the a/c which means the house is quieter with more fresh air enjoying open doors and windows. 

I settled into a good routine with the day of rain and decided to get all my leftover bindings out and start joining without much thought other than pink for girls and no pink or fuschia for boys. 

Once that task was completed, I went full steam ahead with binding of 14 preemie quilts and 1 youth quilt.  I did a few a day and worked as steadily as time allowed.  After 3 days, my quilts were bound. 

 Two of the quilts were kits from the guild that I picked up in June and they are now finished in time for the September meeting.  Ahead of schedule.

It was time to work on my Patterns by Jen blocks for July and the color was Purple.  As mentioned previously, I am making two blocks with the colours reversed which gives me 24 by the end of the year and 20 makes a good size quilt when sashings are added. 

Then my Rainbow scrap challenge using reds for July got made.  Strange how my container of red strips is still just as full?

And, my plus blocks got made using reds.  I realized that with a few more blocks, I would have enough for a quilt top.

I had a very good friend come for an overnight visit.  We are best of friends and have known each other for about 65 years.  She lives in California but we chat daily because we play online Scrabble at take at least one turn if not two per day and always add in some personal tidbits about our day, activities, family etc. 

It was perfect weather to sit outside with some wine and watermelon... actually wine for me and BC Apple Cider for her!  One of her favourite beverages that is Canadian and not available in the U.S. 

I worked on my Aunt Gracies and made two tops but 15 blocks extra!  So with another 5 blocks made, I will have a third top.  I cut the pieces, tidied up the fabric bins and set aside to work on at our next Modern Guild Saturday sew in. 

Then time for something completely different!  Our garage floor was looking awful and it was leaking into the basement below last winter so we decided it needed some TLC.  We ordered special paint for garage floors that are driven on.  Apparently the heat from your car tires when you park is tough on the paint which makes sense.  So, garage got emptied but thankfully, we had done a good clean up last fall and moved things out there that could be stored elsewhere, given away or trashed.  

We are quite pleased with ourselves... it looks really good even though it was a bit of work although my fitbit gave me credit for using the elliptical machine for two hours each day!  My husband was able to start off the painting and then it was too much for him so I finished and then did a second coat.  Now I have to be patient to wait 5 days before I can park my car inside. 
We are also happy that our local tennis courts are finally painted and have the next up and gate unlocked... ready for us to play there. 

My other accomplishment this month was to package up 12 finished quilts and mail to New Brunswick to the Quilts of Valour rep there for distribution.  Apparently, they are really lacking in donated quilts in the maritime provinces so doing my small part to help out.

I also packaged up all of quilt tops that were waiting to be quilted and bound (8)and mailed them them off to Newfoundland to a rep there and she will distribute them to long arm quilters for finishing which means I have only tops for Quilts for Survivors on hand to be quilted or mailed off without quilting - still trying to decide.  My hangers are quite empty!  

Quilts of Valour will be next on my list since there are none on hangers and the Heartstrings group chose 1 yard pieces as their precut for August so time to dig out my books making 3 yard quilts and kit some projects to work on over the next month.  

We are enjoying another day or two of cooler weather.... will only get to 80º this afternoon so I spent time this morning weeding in the garden.  Now, this afternoon, time to dig out fabric for the three yard quilts. 

July... a busy twelve days so far this month.

 I had/have a purpose and have been motivated by having a birthday and realizing that the years go by and eventually, life as I know it, will come to an end.  

It all started with two kits that I picked up at a guild meeting to make preemie quilts for local NICU.  That has always been near and dear to my heart having been through the experience of having grandsons born at 25 weeks gestation and only one surviving.  He spent 3 months in the NICU and I know that quilts serve a number of purposes.  They keep the baby in the dark which is good for the development of their eyes and they add colour to the nursery as well as helping parents to quickly identify the location of their baby's isolette.  They move the babies as they grow and develop with the most in danger preemies at one end of the room and as they improve, they get moved to the next row and so on until they are mature and healthy enough to go into a small cot.  

I made one of the kits and while making the second realized that it was cut strangely and I messed up so needed some pink girlie fabric to fix it. I dug out my bin of girlie baby fabrics.  Once the top was made, I thought I would dedicate the month of July to making more quilts for the NICU.  I pulled out another container of baby fabrics.  Then a third, fourth and so it goes.  Once I had them all out, I thought it would be a good time organize.  UGH. 

I stopped and thought about how to organize and what I would use so that meant looking at the most common patterns I use for these small quilts.  Most of them are made with happy blocks which need a center square and a frame.  It seems that I really like 3.5" centers and 5" centers.  I did find some blocks made using 10" squares and then there was a stack of 6.5" and 6" squares already cut.  

From there, I figured out that I would first go through and pull out all the larger pieces of fabric that were a meter/yard or longer and put them into a container.  They will be good for borders or making strippie quilts.  Next, I sorted fabrics and pulled out all the fat quarters and filled a container with those.  They will be good for either Yellow Brick Road pattern or Carolyn's blocks.   

After that, anything that was chunky or smaller or a long quarter of fabric, got cut up. I cut into 6", 5" and 3.5"  with a few 4" squares and all got stacked nicely.  I detest cutting squares but I was motivated by Crazy Quilter on a Bike and saw her cutting up a bin of brown fabrics.  If she could do it, so could I! 

Then, any fabric that would work as frames got cut into 2" strips.  Back in February, our Wednesday quilt Diva group had done a big push to make a bunch of 5" surrounded blocks and then quilt tops for preemies, youth and Residential school survivors and I had a nice stack of the leftover blocks for kids.  I kept cutting and then cut the strips into the size needed to surround 3.5" centers. 

Then it was time to start sewing and I worked for a few days making the framed 3.5" blocks, called Happy Blocks by the Heartstrings group I belong to.  I got six quilt tops made.  

This is one of the first ones I put up on the design wall. The blocks measure 6" finished so there are 30 blocks in a quilt. Six quilts made so 180 blocks with a few leftover to get me started next time I have an idea that I should make more of these blocks.  I do have a nice stack of the centers left as well for the next go round.

After these were made, I switched to working with the 5" centers and got 7 quilt tops made with those.  Some of the blocks were leftover from the February block making spree and then I carried on with what I had spent my time cutting. The first one I made, I used alternating frames but the rest were made using a variety of fabrics. 

All seven tops are finished.

So that gives me a total of 15 preemies waiting for me to spend a few afternoons cutting flannelette backing and batting, layering the top, batting and bottom and then I need to get busy doing some quilting.  After that, I need to dig out fabrics for binding and see what is in my stash of striped fabrics as they all seem to work well with scrap quilts.   My goal is to be finished by the end of the month. Besides having 15 tops ready for the NICU, I feel so good about my children's fabric organization. All neatly labelled and stacked so I can see what I have at a glance.  The top bin that the lid doesn't fit on is all fabric that I think will make pillowcases for toddler, children, and older kids and can be used for making the cases for the kids going to burn camp in 2024. 

Even better!!!  Empty bins!  Yippeee.  That feels so good.

I had a great surprise today at our Wednesday Diva group.  One of my friends made me something special.  I love to read for a bit in bed at night and I tuck an extra pillow behind my head and then usually drop my book on the floor when I turn out the light. I love it!  A huge thank you to Marge. 

I have tidied up all my mess from the last twelve days and will vacuum thoroughly, empty scrap baskets etc and am ready for the next step in finishing these quilts.  I felt a bit like I was in a factory, chain piecing block after block, but all done and am happy. 

This is quilted for a dear friend who has passed away and had started a quilt for her grandson.  Between a few of us in the guild, some stitching was undone that didn't look good, and I quilted it.  Waiting for label information and then I will bind it and a special boy will get a wonderful hug from his departed Grandma. 

Sympathy for those having horrible summer weather while others are melting under extreme heat.  Mother Nature is cranky these days. 

One day left... in June and in my 75th year

 It feels good to have accomplished what I set out to do in early June with finishing some quilt tops and also completing the quilting and binding of some of the tops that were patiently waiting on hangers.  

In the meantime, I have also pieced more tops and the hanging section of my stairwell is full again.  That is a good thing because it means I have accomplished some projects that were waiting but now, time to think about another quilting marathon. 

At the moment, I have a quilt that I am quilting for a dear friend, Rose, that died earlier this year with a quilt for one of her grandsons not quite finished.  That will be done in the next day or two and a label will get added along with the binding.  

The Patterns by Jen was a gray block and I made two, as usual, with lights and darks reversed.  They ae the two in the center of the picture.  The colour for the Rainbow scrap challenge was a repeat and I thought that it would be a good idea to reduce the gray scraps by making my strip pieced and plus blocks the same and hopefully, reduce the gray bin?  

I also got busy and made blocks for Canada Stitches.  That group makes quilts from blocks mailed in and the completed projects are presented to first responders who attend Can Praxis at Rocky Mountain house to get support for their PTSD.  Spouses and significant others are invited to attend and there is a presentation at the end which shows them wrapped in their quilts.  I hadn't sent in any blocks for a year so time to change that.  I made a selection of Churn dash blocks.

There was room left in the box so made some Jelly Roll Ripple blocks, pattern from Fat Quarter Shop and I dug out browns and beiges with a few reds and stitched them up.  The box is full with my contributions as well as some from another guild member who makes blocks for this cause. 

Next on the list was making pillowcases for adolescents heading to burn camp run by our local firefighters.  The wife of one of the organizers is a member of a guild I belong to and for the last few years, she has collected pillowcases to hand out the kids as they arrive and it is a big hit.  I had been collecting fabric that might work for teenage kids, especially boys, and once I got going, made far more cases than I had intended BUT, the bin of fabric is now less than half full!   I think there are seventeen and quite a variety.  She lets the kids choose their case from what she has on hand so nice for her to have a variety.

This quilt top got stitched together after being cut earlier in the year.  I saw a picture (probably on Pinterest?) and it was easy to copy and figure out.  I used 6.5" centers and 3.5" strips.  I ran out of the red so had to add in some brown.  This will be finished (eventually) and become a Quilt of Valour.

Another quilt top completed.  I was worried at first that the red/green combination might look like Christmas but, it worked with the maple leaf print fabric.  It is Square Dance by Fabric Cafe and is a 3 yard quilt although I always use more than that amount of fabric.

One more Fabric Cafe 3 yard quilt is Strip Happy and I included a close up of the Canadian themed fabric that I used. 

So, these are now folded and hanging on the rod, waiting for the next step.  Since I have added quite a few tops to my hanging section, it might be time to quilt a few?  I finished quilting my wall hanging and this was a recent purchase in May at a local quilt show.  Easy and fun! 

One more day in this month and I will have to get my brain to accept that I have a new number when asked for my age.  The good thing about having to renew my driver's license is that seniors get it for a good price and I had the realization that I have been driving for 60 years.  

I have one book left in my Patrick Taylor, Irish Doctor series and am reading the last book in the Virgin River series.  Now it will be time to catch up on reading an assortment of books that I have collected recently.  I can't wait to read the next Gil McNeill book because I love her British sense of humour.  Having been raised by a mum that was British, I identify with so many of the terms that she uses in her stories.  And, another book by Kate Quinn - the Diamond Eye and this is another author that writes about Britain during WWII which again I relate to since my mum was a war bride.  Louise Penny and her newest book is also waiting for me to busy reading.  

Reading, tennis, quilting and taking my husband to appointments seems to be my daily routine?  Happy Summer to everyone and hopefully y'all get time to do what you enjoy. 

More June finishes!

 I have been pushing myself to get some of the tops off of hangers and have some finished projects.  So far so good.  Less computer time, less time on my phone and no time at my sewing machine for piecing!  Two Illusion quilts got made... one is for donation to my traditional guild and one to the modern guild.  I decided against one large quilt as the colours were very bright and I wasn't sure about a recipient.

This is Amalie super sized, a pattern by GE Designs.  I used some older batiks for this one.

Two Bento box quilts made from one jelly roll using Kat Potter's directions for making the blocks.  Very bright quilts and again, decided to make two for donation rather than one really big quilt. These look the same but are different.

Meadowland mystery from last year is quilted and bound. 

Hip to Be Square is a rainbow scrap challenge from 2022... this turned out way larger than I had intended and is a bit out of my normal colour choices... using blacks and white is not normal for me.

And some new starts!  A heartstrings challenge for June using fat quarters.

A quick 3 yard quilt is on the design wall.

This is the patterns from Fabric Cafe. 

And strip twist blocks are finished and joined so another top joins the hanger brigade!

I feel good with so many tops turned into finished quilts and now back to piecing before the next quilting and binding marathon.