Winterruption Recap

This year Winterruption took place from Feb. 13th to Feb. 18th.  Since Feb. 13th is GALENTINES Day, I made us all tiaras.  These girls are such a fun bunch, we wore them every night. 💓

These pics are actually from the 14th, which we spent running around having a fun time in Brantford.  We went to:

• Rose Hill Liquidators
• Value Village
• Zanders Restaurant
• Michaels
• Just Like New (which actually has a different name, but still a vintage shop)
• Butcher & Restaurant Equipment & Supplies

Lunch at Zanders was quite late because I had a heck of a time getting these girls out of Value Village!  I have to say, it's a nice large store and Karen & I both scored big with Tupperware.  That night we had an easy charcuterie board supper, along with soup.  If you can see the glass plates we're using, those were my mom's which she probably received as a wedding gift in 1944.  They are such a throwback - they're partitioned, and one of the sections is an ashtray.

They forced me to eat cake (which let's face it - was not much of a struggle!) since my birthday is at the end of this month.

Saturday was our day "in" when we mostly sewed.  This is the quilt I pieced during the SuperBowl, using three charm paks that came from Missouri Star Quilt Company a few years ago.  I needed to add 16 squares from my stash.  I still have two more charm paks from that trip, in soft baby colours...who knows how long it will take me to use those.  Oh yeah, AND two layer cakes, AND a cutting template.

I finished the top (at this point it's been cut diagonally twice, then had borders added).  I really like the bright, bold colours in this.

After the girls left on Sunday I loaded it on Pretty Boy Floyd (my longarm) and quilted it.

Fun variegated thread on top.

Bright yellow backing shows off deep teal thread.

Hopefully this afternoon I'll get the binding cut and applied, then I can call 'er done!

Deb & I see each other at a monthly guild meeting, and Karen & Diane see each other for random outings, but the FIVE of us won't be together again until the SOLO meeting in mid-April.  We always breathe a big sigh of relief when Mother Nature accommodates the driving dates for Winterruption with decent weather.

...until April!

Two More Off The List, Superbowl Prep, and the 2020 Pet Peeve

Every year I make a list of projects that I want to complete.  I call it my DO-IT CHALLENGE.  The first week of January my new list for 2020 included "complete 3 UFO's".  Well, by golly, here it is just past the first month end and I've knocked that one out of the park already.   

APPLE CORE  The pieces were cut using JAWS, and I used a pattern from the Accuquilt web site.  I increased the size of the quilt by quite a bit - it's plenty big enough for DH to take a nap under.

This is for the living room, to replace a quilt that has seen better days.  My plan for the OLD quilt is to cut it up into smaller bits and donate the little quilts to the SPCA.  I need to contact them to see what size they'd prefer.

I really like this pantograph, it has a nice modern feel to it.

STRIPPY HEXAGONS  Using the 2-1/2" strip die for JAWS made this quilt a lot easier than you'd think.  I pulled out leftover bits of cool fabrics, along with yellows & cream/whites.  Sew three strips together, then use a 60⁰ ruler to cut triangles. This gets you two blocks from each strip.

The colours make me think of Easter.

Pretty, leafy pantograph.

Along with the star quilt UFO from my last post, there's my three UFO's done. 

As a little reward for myself, being so GOOD about my challenge list, I granted permission to me to start a new quilt tomorrow.  Tomorrow is the Superbowl.  I will stitch during the game, but watch during the commercials and the entertainment bits.  I know some people might think that's a little backwards.  They're probably the same people who think cutting up perfectly good fabric is weird.  What do they know.  Hmm?
The traveling sewing machine is upstairs by the tv, along with a prepped project and the necessary supplies.  DH still has to fetch the card table for me.   The quilt is very simple, using charm squares that I bought at Missouri Star Quilt Company a couple years ago, on one of Diane's bus trips.

Supper will be a frozen lasagne popped in the oven, and if I get really ambitious I'll make a salad.

THE 2020 PET PEEVE

Geez Louise.  Longarm is ONE WORD.  Long arm is an adjective and a noun.  I do not have a long arm, I am actually rather short.  Longarm is a noun or a verb, depending on it's use in a sentence.  I use a longarm quilting machine to perform longarm quilting (or "to longarm").
This is seriously driving me crazy, people.  I know that all of our "devices" change it to two words but if you persist, your device will eventually accept the new word.  Take back control - don't let the devices rule the world.

Jelly Roll Heart Quilt & New Year's Happenings (1 UFO down...)

This is a lovely, modern Jelly Roll quilt.

I really like the way the pantograph echoes the heart shape.

On New Years Day I stuck with my traditional activity - a friend came over, we stitched the afternoon away, then had Chinese Food for supper.
I started the year off by putting these UFO blocks together - this was a Block of the Month project at the Caledonia guild in 2016/2017.  After I completed the blocks I decided I was tired of the colours - I think I have too much red/yellow/blue in my house these days.

I completed the quilting and the binding the first week of the year - a UFO knocked off the list and the start of a new box of Donation Quilts.

I am currently practicing Cathedral Windows blocks.  This is going to be a hands-on lesson for the Binbrook Guild on January 27th and I really don't want to make an ass of myself.  Today during the blizzard (which has now turned to rain, on top of the several inches of snow...tomorrow should be a doozy of a driving day!) I finished up the instructions.  I also washed and ironed the couple meters of white fabric for the kits.  Hands-on demos take a lot of work!

Here are two blocks stitched together with the additional two print squares added.  This is a good project if you like to do hand work - this whole thing is hand sewn.  The idea, if you want to make a large-ish project, is to make these four-sie units, which are nice and small and easy to maneuver.  Pile them up and eventually start stitching them together into larger units.  As you join these together, the additional print squares are added. 

NEW YEARS COMMITMENTS

Notice that I didn't say "resolutions"?  Not that it makes any difference. 
Anyhow, the story goes:
I'm part of an online forum with two groups.  One for weight loss and the other for exercise committments.  Foolishly, I stuck my nose into BOTH forums - I have committed to losing 10 pounds this year. Weigh-in day is Friday morning(s) and you have to report your weight change from one week to the next. What I like about that system is you know what you were eating for the past week, so you can tell very quickly if you are doing something stupid. Week 1 - up 0.8 (included the NY Chinese - bad!), week 2 - down 2.8 (lots of veggie soup & salads & few starches), week 3 up 1.6 (oh, way too much bad stuff).  This is looking like a roller coaster to me and I sure HOPE the trend goes downward.
In the exercise group I committed to doing three x 20-minute Youtube videos every week.  So far I've done yoga, Qui Gong, Over-50 Exercise, Classical Stretch Essentrics, a weird Asian (fun!) aerobics class, and African Dance.  The African Dance is my favorite so far.  Although the Over-50 Exercise is surprisingly strenuous, and I've had to pause it to go change from a t-shirt into a tank top. 
This past year I've been noticing that I often don't have the strength I used to have, so I'm trying to fight the clock and hang on to whatever pitiful bit of youth I have.  I can still do sit-ups, push-ups, and planks.  And I want to keep it that way.

Prairie Points & Mug/Rug Swap

This is another one of those quilts where I hoped the maker would not come and pick it up after quilting.  Sadly, that didn't happen and it has gone back home.  The name of the block is Granny's Stars.

Prairie Points are definitely a challenge.  Once it's loaded on the longarm, flip the points OUT, baste one inch inside the base of the points, and leave the basting in.  Don't quilt anything beyond that - the maker will be turning the backing under and needs that space to work in.

The yoyo's added another bit of a challenge.  I outlined around the applique and the yoyo's, then modified the pantograph pattern which I used in the body of the quilt, and added freemotion quilting to fill the background.

Fresh, springy, and girly.

So pretty.

At one of my guilds the December meeting included a Mug and Rug swap.  It was done on a "make one, take one" basis, so if you didn't want to participate you didn't have to.  Here's my contribution.

And here's what I brought home.

I've been on vacation (or whatever it's called when you stay home and do chores?) for two weeks.  Sadie got clipped so she looks like a dog again, instead of a Wookiee.  All the upstairs windows (23 panes) and screens (11) have been scrubbed & shined.  My workroom has been defuzzed (you'll never find someone with MORE dust than me) and several hours has been spent on bookkeeping.  The house has been vacuumed and dusted.  I finished a UFO and quilted TWO of my own quilts - one needs hand stitching on the binding, but the other one is destined for the donation pile so it got machine binding.  I'll post pics of those later, but it makes my TFUQ list and UFO list look a little better. 😁  However, unfortunately while I was cleaning and defuzzing the workroom, I found ANOTHER UFO in a bag.  The blocks are all made and squared up, since 2008.  Geez Louise.
Now, I think I need a vacation from my vacation.

Christmas Quilts

Most years I show you my same three Christmas quilts - one for the King bed, one for the Queen bed, and one for the living room.  THIS year I'm showing you some customer quilts.

This is a gorgeous selection of Cardinal fabrics.  It's not exactly a Christmas quilt, but the birds always evoke winter.

This one's really cute - just squares of Christmas fabrics stitched into a throw.

There's a ton of work in this one - Round the Twist or Garden Trellis quilt.  This version used a lot of half-square triangles.

And a very Canadian hockey quilt.

Since I'm officially on vacation until Jan. 6th, this TFUQ is getting booted off the list.  The blocks were cut using JAWS (the Accuquilt die cutter).  I dragged this around as a UFO for quite a while, and finished it earlier this year.  With the curved Apple Core piecing I need to do some extra-careful perimeter measuring for the binding.  And the binding must be bias to maneuver around the curves.  For curvy edges I also like to cut the binding just a wee bit narrower - usually I cut 2 1/2", but for this I'll cut 2 1/4".  And I'm not foolish enough to try attaching this binding with the longarm.

I have a big to-do list that I really hope to complete.  I have a bad habit of writing things down, and feeling pretty virtuous because I wrote them down.  Note to self... that doesn't actually get anything DONE.  So far all I've crossed off is the quilting for one Quilt of Valour.  That still needs the binding, but I'm waiting for some QOV labels to arrive in the mail, since I ran out of them.  Bookkeeping is also on the list.  I've managed to tick off an hour per day three days in a row (fell down on day four, but getting back on that horse today!).

Hong Kong Nights Quilt & Donation Quilts (2019 personal challenge)

This quilt is realllly big.  I had to tip the tablet cattywampus to get a pic.

The maker used a beautiful collection of Asian prints for the blocks.

And I absolutely love the corner triangle she added.  That provides such an interesting touch.

Oddly enough, those print blocks are all cut on the bias.  I was really impressed that they were not stretched out of square when the 3-d flange was added to them, and then additional sashing too.  She's a really, really good piecer. ⭐
The setting triangles were a design challenge for me.  When you actually LOOK at them, they're not triangles, they have a square block inserted at the top.

Backs are so lovely...

2019 PERSONAL CHALLENGE
Last December, I set a personal challenge for myself to complete at least five quilts for donation.  I had such a collection of panels - that was where I started. 
When the contents of my Donation Box were counted up and there were SEVEN ...pretty darned pleased with myself. 👍

AND, the gal who pieced the Hong Kong Nights quilt above, brought along five small quilts that she wanted to donate.  She was happy to have me add them to my collection.

On Thursday last week I delivered all twelve quilts to the Caledonia & District Food Bank for inclusion in their Christmas hampers, then I treated myself to an afternoon out and lunch with a friend. 

First Ladies Quilt

Lordy, I'm behind with my pretty-quilts-pictures.  I finished this at the end of October.  In general, I don't post pics until after the customer has picked up the quilt, just in case, and this gal was unable to get here for a while because her own life was pretty hectic at the time.

First Ladies Quilt

This is a very large quilt, and it was beautifully pieced.

There was lots of negative space for some pretty quilting.

The blocks were all quilted individually.

In order to keep some continuity between the blocks, I restricted the quilting to straight lines and gentle curves, with a bowknot motif inside the larger center squares.

I'm not sure why, but this was definitely my favorite block.

On the Social Life front, I've been to see the Cherrywood Exhibit in Seaforth.  This was a tribute to Bob Ross, the guy from PBS with the big afro, who would teach you how to paint.  I'm surprised at how many people have never heard of him.

There were over 400 entries in the competition, and this travelling exhibit included 120 of them.

This was my favorite - you may have to enlarge it to see what's going on, but all the little forest creatures are painting.  This reminds me of those paint parties which are often held at restaurants.  So stinkin' cute!

I also managed to get out to the theatre to see a production of Mamma Mia.  That was fun - I was singing to myself all night long.  Ear worms, you know?

Since then, I've been nose-to-the-grindstone, trying to catch up the quilting backlog.  There is finally light at the end of the tunnel - I should be back working on the currently scheduled quilts before the end of the week.