Getting into the Swing

1st leader and ender

 I have been away from the sewing room for too long and I am having a hard time getting back into the swing of sewing at a machine. The "want to" is there but I keep falling into the hexie project black hole!!

Last week I wanted to work on a scrappy project but decided I couldn't just work on it. It was a leader and ender project so I needed another project to sew so I could continue with the leader and ender!?! What is a quilter to do!! Only my fellow quilters would understand I am sure!!

So now I have two projects sitting waiting to be worked on and it looks like today is the day. I will finish this blog post and get to it after having wasted my time in the city doing time consuming errands this morning.

2nd project started

I am a day late but there was many stitches put into my hexie project yesterday but I only read

Kathy's post today. I know I am not a very good blog stalker, that's what Kathy would say!! Wishing you all a great week ahead! Happy sewing/quilting!!

And just like that...Spring!!

colder day of sap

last day

So as I always do I checked and  my last post was March 24. Not so long ago but feels like forever since I blogged or did anything quilting related. I have been collecting sap and making maple syrup. A small operation to make the sweet stuff. Lots of hard work and hours of watching sap boil. Unfortunately being in the sugar shack is not conducive to doing any stitching so I got a few books read instead. But this weekend was the end for me and now I can turn my interests to other things. Not quite time for gardening although we have had temperatures in the mid 20's (Celsius) and the snow is melting and the grass is starting to turn green. A few of those April showers would help greatly. I live beside a creek and it is flowing pretty well. The rush of the water is a wonderful thing to listen to with the windows open now. It has been an interesting Spring. Snow, rain, freezing rain and now summer temperatures!

freezing rain beauty

crazy weather day

 

getting closer to finished

Mostly I have been working on the quilting frame in the evenings or the odd day off(waiting for sap to drip) but I have also put a great dent in my hexie quilt. It is getting nearer and nearer to being finished, well closer to adding a border of hexies!! I am sure you will be as happy as I will be when this one is done. It has been in the works I figure for almost 12 years or more!!!

I am having a relaxing day with just a bit of laundry. I have had time to check in with Kathy and do plan more hexie slow stitching this afternoon! Check with her blog and all those who join her each Sunday for some relaxing slow stitching! This video is just for Kathy. Looking forward to our Piranha weekend!

Enjoy your week ahead! I hear rain is in the forecast for us...so those Spring flowers will get their showers!!

Just waiting!

 As I am waiting for warmer temperatures so the sap will run, I find myself tidying up loose ends. I read my last post which was a while ago and realized I needed to do an update.

quilt from other leftovers

for a friend

I have finished a few quilts lately. Some by myself and a couple with the help of my friend and her long arm machine. Two quilts were from bags of scraps I found while doing a stash dive for another quilt. The first one was creams, beiges and browns, the second was leftovers  from another quilt and they will both become charity quilts. You can read about their beginnings here and here. I also finished this very Spring feeling quilt to gift to a friend. It was Bonnie Hunter's mystery from this year. Probably the quickest finish of one of those mysteries for me!

scrappy charity quilt

thousands of hst

I have dug out a project "Jack's Chain" and am trying to complete it. It was a leader and ender and I still want it to be so I needed another project to sew. Crazy I know but the small nine patches are boring to sew one after another! I found a scrap quilt on facebook and loved the look of it. It is called "Pirouette". So as I sew up many thousands of  hst(seems like millions) I will use each project to help finish the other.

almost ready for a border

An update on my hexie quilt is I am getting to the point of being done with the center of it. I finally filled in alot of areas on it and decided I needed to make it one row longer so it would be symmetrical. I am sewing up the last of the diamonds while watching the year end curling championships.  It measures about 75 x 86. Then it will be onto borders. Not that that will be easy, the borders are more hexies!!!

 

Feels like Spring outside

 What a beautiful day outside so I took full advantage of it to run the trails in preparation for sap season. I know colder and snowy days are still coming. I also trimmed branches and made sure the trails were clear to make life easier for me once the sap starts running!

Whenever I spend that much time outside, the inside of my house suffers. So today was also catch up day...laundry, vacuuming and bathing the dog. She went on an adventure in the bush and came out so full of snowballs hanging off her. I had to put her inside so they would melt and since she was already wet, bath time ensued much to her chagrin!!

So this post is going up a little late but with still lots of time to get something done today.

Joining Kathy and her followers for slow stitching Sunday. I will be slow stitching later on my hexie quilt.   Yes I am still working on it and it is coming along.  I am hoping one day soon it will be ready for the hand quilting frame!

I have the third baggie of scraps to dig into this afternoon. It is leftovers from a quilt I made my brother in law. I am sure I can make a lap size for a donation quilt or at least that is my intention.

Stay tuned and see what becomes of this pile of scraps...might have to do some stash diving to find enough fabric to finish the top!!

Enjoy your week ahead and Happy Valentine's Day! 💗

Week day post

 It is a rare occasion, for sure to post during the week. I just finished a quilt top and wanted to share it. I was going through some boxes last week and found these baggies of pieces. I laid them out on my ironing board and played with them for a couple of days and found there wasn't quite enough. I found another basket with pieces that were in the same colour family. I settled on  some design ideas and then got down to putting it together. It is always fun trying to use the pieces you have without adding too many more larger pieces from my stash. The only large yardage I used was the dark brown(in the borders and binding) but it was set aside in the basket to be used with those pieces. This quilt finishes at 59x 69 a nice lap quilt that I can donate to Quilts of Valor. 

Jack the ripper got a workout this morning as I was sewing on the last border. I didn't lay out the border blocks and thought it was straight forward sewing. Boy was I wrong. I absently turned a few blocks and the checkerboard pattern wasn't working. It was time for a coffee and some unsewing!! All back together by lunch.

If I get to it, it might get quilted in the next couple of days. That would be a quick turn around!! Probably I will go onto another project for a change of pace.

I see my friend Kathy is also working with scrap blocks and trying to make things fit. Hope she has better sewing luck than I did today!!

Looking more wintery outside

I seem to have spent more time outside this week than in the sewing room. But to that end, My snow blower is fixed with the help of my nephew and it is running like new again! So this morning I put it to the test and it passed with flying colours and I am one happy girl. I also know more about a snow blower and how to fix it! Good knowledge for next time!!

stuffie quilts

Snowy weather means after shovelling, I get to have some sewing time.  This week I dug out my hexie project again. I went sewing with some friends and had nothing ready to take with me so this is my fall back project. I have been working on it in the evening too. Unfortunately that means my knitting has been laid aside!

Last week I told you about getting a baggie of triangles from some sewing we did at guild see here. Well those got turned into 3 little quilts that will find a home with a stuffed animal and be donated to charity.

loving my snowmen

Yesterday I was suppose to join some friends and listen to the band that my late hubby use to be a member of. They haven't played for awhile due to Covid and other things. The weather here was snowy with squalls all morning so I didn't get to go. So I treated myself to a new project. The panel has been sitting on my table and so I decided I would work on it. It is going to be the perfect colour for my bathroom. Yes I put a wall hanging in the bathroom!  The photo shows blue but actually the backing is light blue and the front is more teal/green blue. I am hand quilting a bit to bring out some of the features on the snowmen, lines in the snow and to define the trees a bit. 

Slow  stitching with Kathy today will be working on this and hopefully getting the binding on it. I will also be sewing down the binding on those 3 little quilts.

Hope the week ahead is a good one. I will be hosting a sewing day at my house and I will remember to take pictures this time. I will show them next Sunday at this time. Happy sewing!!

Moving forward one step at a time

Toddler quilt ready for gifting

 Whether large steps or baby steps, you will get there just keeping taking those steps! This week I pulled a finished top out of the drawer, sandwiched it, pinned it and did some machine quilting on it. It needed more quilting but I wanted to do some hand quilting. So that got finished and the binding was added and sewn down yesterday

I quilted and finished quilt of valor

I had a top here from our Quilt of Valor group. I had planned to quilt the top over the holidays but that didn't happen. We had a sew day at guild this week for quilts of valor, so instead of sewing I thread basted the quilt at guild and came home that night and did some meandering on it. The binding was added the next day and binding completed yesterday along with the other quilt I finished.

So what to do next, keep  moving forward....our block of the month from guild. I had fallen behind over the holidays so it was time for catching up. I cut out all the pieces I need and plan to sew them together today. I didn't really like the block for December so I will wait till the end and maybe see if I need it or maybe remake one of the blocks I already made to replace it. The quilt pattern is a bit on the modern side so I am having a little trouble with the making of the blocks. It is sort of free form with not much direction. I am more of a traditional quilter, with directions and instructions needed/wanted!

triangle cutoffs

This week while the sewing day was going on at guild, they were making blocks that required snowballing two corners and trimming. I came home with some of the trimmed off corners in a baggie...stay tuned to see what becomes of those!

2 of the blocks of the month

And today is sunday, so it is time to join my friend Kathy for some slow stitching time. Relax with a beevie and put needle and thread to work. I will be working on this one applique block of circles. That should keep me busy today!

Enjoy your week and keep taking those steps forward!