Curling, rocks, brooms and houses!

Yes curling has taken over my house this week. Watching the Brier Canadian men's tournament and getting some sewing and hand quilting done at the same time. For years I would always have a quilt set up on my frame and I spent many hours stitching and watching sliding rocks. I also skipped a team at my local club this week for ladies day. We had lots of fun and enjoyed the day but sadly finished last! 

After being busy and not home much this week, I was looking forward to Friday. Sewing was planned but only hand quilting stitches were put in place. It took till Saturday when my friend Natalie was dropped off by her daughter for a "play date"! I find some times lately I need a kick in the butt and today was the day. We got batting sewn together and a backing made. That quilt will be quilted later this week at Natalie's. Then we started cutting up strip sets for a quilt for guild later this Spring.

Today I was sewing these triangles together. Fairly easy sewing but I know it is going to be tougher when I join the rows and all the seams I have to match. One row done and 18 more to go!

I will be checking in with Kathy and see what everyone is slow stitching today. I watched her floss tube video yesterday and she has so many projects on the go. How do you keep them all straight Kathy?? 

It has been a busy weekend with International Women's day and turning the clocks  ahead, I am wishing all the ladies in my life many thanks for all you do for everyone. I hope losing an hour isn't too exhausting.

Hocus Pocus...Focus

With a little magic and a lot of focus on my part....I finally can say the bear is done. I was making a bear for a friend and it has been over a year since she gave me the fabric. She is very patient!
There has been much procrastinating on my part.

 

quilt from 2020

Honestly as I sit here looking around my quilting room, I have not accomplished very much at all this week. Of course to get anything done at home...you must stay home! Last week I taught a class at guild, new kitchen counter top installed, curled in a bonspiel on the weekend and this week has been more curling, sewing with friends, a day of shovelling snow, fixed a sewing machine for someone and finally Friday supper out at a friend's house. That is quite the list, guess I was busy after all.

machine fixed and ready

The top of the to-do list is to get my hexie quilt on the hand quilting frame, after that I have strip sets all ready for the next quilt I am teaching in the Spring and should start putting that together. I have a small quilt from 2020 that needs a backing and also some batting pieces sewn together for it. The next in line would be a quilt for a friend that needs a binding to finish it. I may have to do some finessing to the sandwich in order to accomplish that. So many things to do and seeming not enough time to do it. More hocus pocus required.

hand stitched quilt top

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                         I also rescued this hand stitched log cabin quilt. A guild member's mom pieced it and now it needs some TLC to complete it. Of course with it being hand stitched it deserves to be hand quilted!

My apologies for the weird spacing, still learning how to place the pictures without moving my words all around! Have a great week!

A little late this week!

 This week got away from me and now it is Thursday and I am just getting around to posting. I am challenging myself to post at least once a week if not more. So here we go with this week's happenings.

Sunday evening while watching the curling final, I accidently spilled very hot tea on me. Needless to say OUCH!! I have a pretty red tummy and one bad scar. You get the good, bad and the TMI on this blog. So it has been light weight shirts and sitting up very straight to keep it from hurting. Today it is finally itching so must be healing. Looks like a really bad sunburn.

guild quilt to finish

sneak peek of baby quilt backing

In the quilting department it has been a week of bindings. The quilt I had machine quilted last week is bound and finished. I believe it was a Bonnie Hunter mystery 2023. No need to rush to finish these quilts!!haha  Today I put the bindings on a quilt for our guild and binding on a baby quilt that I am making for a cousin to gift to her friend. It needs finishing and soon as that baby could make an appearance any day. I am going to keep a pic of it and share later once it has been gifted.

As promised here is an after pic of my sewing room. I moved all the furniture and cleaned. It doesn't look much different but my table is bigger and I have a side table for tools. Most everything else is the same. It hardly looks cleaner but I have been productive this week.

I found many things while I cleaned. Some I knew were there and some that I had totally forgotten about. Ohhhh more projects. 

Next on my to-do list is a memory bear. I am planning to work on it this weekend.

On a good note I got to help out a budding quilter. She is just taking a beginners class and asked if I had some scraps....do I have scraps!! I also collected a cutting board, cutter and a ruler. Wishing her good luck and hoping I have found yet another quilting buddy!!

January in Ontario

my pup & snow

 The snowy month of the year is staying true to its reputation. At my house yesterday it was -39! I stayed home warm and snug in the house cleaning. I have been cleaning and purging stuff with lots of encouragement from my sister. She braved the cold to walk the short distance to my house to help out. I forgot to take a before pic of my kitchen but will definitely take a couple shots after the renos are finished. Today I was in my sewing room clearing and cleaning. Moved everything and oh my the dust bunnies!! It doesn't matter how many times your vacuum or dust. I found many UFOs, projects I would like to do, some cross stitch projects I had forgotten about and lots of scraps!! Will show the after pic once everything is back in place...stay tuned!

before cleaning

next month's quilt project

pine burr

This week was guild meeting. I showed the quilt that we will be working on next month. I worked on it in September when I was in the Bruce peninsula with some friends. Pics were so perfect with Lake Huron as the backdrop. This quilt looks difficult but actually is pretty easy to construct and put together. At the meeting the group was given a kit of precut fabric for a block called pine burr. It was a challenge for most but I think everyone enjoyed trying something that they would normally not do.

I spent Friday with my friend Natalie and her long arm machine. The guild made blocks in the Fall and the blocks were sewn together to make charity quilts. We made 3 for charity and the fourth one is the one we were quilting on Friday. So I have yet to put binding on it.

One more thing that I have forgot to post about. My annual dump of spools that I have emptied over the year. Not so many this year due to the time I took away from sewing all summer. Hope that my little bucket will be much fuller next year.

I am on a roll

And when I say I am on a roll it definitely isn't in the sewing room. This is my second blog post and I am pretty proud of myself.

This week there has been lots purging and cleaning of my house rather  than sewing. It is time for me to do this but I am doing it only when I feel like it or if my sister comes over and eggs me on. No pressure. One car load of clothes, coats and other household things has already left and I feel lighter already.

I wish I felt that lightness in my sewing world. I have a few deadlines that are fast approaching. It is my own fault of course. I will get to them all.  Guild meeting is Tuesday and it is my turn to show a project that I will be teaching the following month. With all that comes fabric requirements, step outs and necessary steps to complete the quilt. I think it will be fun. I will show a pic of the quilt in my next post. A little sneak peek, this is what we will be working on at guild. So much fun to put together. I am attempting a feathered star tonight, wish me luck!

It has been like a snowy crystal ball here today with the snow falling . I spent the morning outside cleaning up the snow from last night. My dog loves the snow but loves walks with mom more.
Happy shoveling to my southern friends. Up here in Northern Ontario the snow is still pretty to me as long as the snowblower keeps working!

The beginning of a New Year

 Happy New Year and I hope that everyone had a wonderful holiday.

I feel like I need to introduce myself and tell  a little about myself as I have been absent for far too long. I couldn't believe, when I looked, that it has been 1 1/2 years. Much too long! Maybe that should have been a clue for me. 

As most of you know I lost my hubby in February of 2021. Life goes on  and and it did and so did I or so I thought. After 4 years it all caught up to me and life stopped for a couple months this Spring. Grief isn't something you go through but something that is with you for the rest of your life. I am learning to allow the grief in because where there is grief there was a great love. I truly believe that and hope sharing my story will help someone else.

So with that all said it took me a long time to get back into sewing. I did do embroidery when I finally felt like doing something. That lead to hand quilting and slowly I am getting back to my hobbies. There are days when I just want to sit and do nothing and other days when hand quilting gets me going and I don't want to stop.

 I have a few deadlines of projects that I have to get done. Nothing like a deadline to get you moving. First up is a baby quilt made from a great grandfather's shirts. A little hard as I don't know if it is a boy or girl. After that memory bear, finishing a quilt for a friend that her mother started and repairing 2 quilts that my grandmother made. Add to that some work for my guild, I am part of the program committee and samples have to be made.

I am trying to make this year a positive one and year of small changes that will move me forward. Not with leaps and bounds but baby steps. So come along for the ride with me and see what is going to happen!

Getting it done!

3quilt from gift box

not enough binding

 

This week has been a week of designing, my favourite thing I think! I was "gifted" two boxes of a quilter's sewing room. They were filled with some books, rulers and lots of fabric. Not all the fabric was 100 percent cotton but it does make nice quilts regardless. Polycotton is where I started on my quilting journey and it makes you very thankful for real cotton when doing projects. Seasoned quilters will know what I mean! There were also some blocks already made so I decided to create two quilts. They will go to my niece's two girls whose great grandmother made them(she was also where the boxes came from). I also made a smaller quilt for the NICU at my local hospital. I just couldn't let that little poodle panel go! My niece also asked if I could make a baby quilt for a little girl. It will also come from the gifted box of fabric. There was a panel I found that I will add blocks to but I haven't got that one done yet. It is still in the designing stage. I also included a pic of some binding, I didn't have quite enough by 1/2"...argggh!! Luckily I had more fabric and just had to add in a bit!

birthday gift

My other finishes include a quilt for my brother-in-law for his 70th birthday! He is a hunter so this was very appropriate. And OMG my hexie quilt top is finished. It seems like I have been working on this one forever. I have been blogging since 2013 and I had already started it then by a couple of years. You can read about that here. Although I didn't work on it full time, in the last three years I have put the push on to get it done. It will be going on the quilting frame soon.

The summer is continuing and I have a couple projects that I have to work on and get done before September. A friend and I put together a mystery quilt for our guild to do over the summer and the final reveal will be in September. So I want to have my first sample finished and have the second sample at least put together!

OMG so excited to start handquilting

                                                                                                                         

I visited my friend Kathy  and she is stitching up a storm.  I always feel like I am not doing enough when I see all that she is up to. Today is slow stitching day, so put some thread to fabric and relax!