Some Pretty Spring Inspiration and Retreat Quilts

This was quilted last month, when I R.E.A.L.L.Y. needed something pretty.  It's Rainbow Trip from the book Garden Fresh Quilts.

The maker chose a lovely panto featuring feathers and flowers which suited the quilt perfectly.  I'm always so impressed by quilters who can tackle a challenging project like this and keep all their pieces where they belong.

RETREAT QUILTS
Every year the Binbrook guild goes on a three day retreat to Crieff Hills in Puslinch.  It's less than an hour away from home so it's a really easy trip to take.  The retreat center feeds us three meals a day and we take care of our own snacks and (ahem) adult beverages.  I also buy a one litre jar of honey there every year.  There's a local apiarist who sells product at the center.  The last several years we've run these as UFO retreats, instead of having a class.  I have so many UFO's I think I only did the class one year, so there has not been much change for me.  We also have Sew Little Time come on Saturday and set up her shop.  I showed excellent restraint this year and did not buy a single bit of fabric.

I promised myself I would not start any new projects in 2019 until I got some of my own sh*t finished, AND got rid of some yardage.  Last month you saw that I finished up two little panel quilts, and here I've done two more.  Yay me!!  These will go in the donation pile for either the Women's Shelter, Children's Aid Society, or ...I also plan to talk to the local food bank.  They put together Christmas hampers and might want gifts for families. These were assembled from my own stash.

Still about the Binbrook guild, one of our very important members passed away last fall.  Her mission over the last several years had been piecing small quilts for St. Joseph's Hospital, for the kids who are in there for some kind of treatment.  The newspaper wrote a story about her when she was up to 600 quilts.  By the time she passed away someone said she'd hit the 1000 mark.  Apparently her sewing room was still FULL of fabric.  A few of our gals helped the family with a rescue mission (so to speak) and the guild members are working through the remaining fabric.

I took two kits:  they'd been prepped with pre-sewn rail fence blocks, and a hunk of fabric already cut for a border.  I pieced the blocks together, added the border and brought the tops home.  Last weekend I got them quilted and bound.  They have a cozy flannel backing which makes them super snuggle-worthy.

STASH
So far this year I've managed:

• use up 32 m. 
• deduct the 8 m. of fabric added 
• net -24 m. of fabric in projects that are COMPLETE.  

That's my rule - if it's not COMPLETE I can't mark it off my stash report.  I have a list of  projects I want to complete this year, which in all honesty is the same list for the third year in a row.  Note to self:  stop watching so much tv.

Challenges, Stash Report, & Laundry (idiot)

I belong to two quilt guilds and they both ran challenges this past year.  In the spirit of killing two birds with one stone, I combined the projects into one.

• Caledonia was a paint chip challenge, where I drew the orange, lavender and turquoise.  Then I added black and white.  Sadly, at the June meeting I did not win a viewers choice prize.
• Binbrook was a border challenge with a hot mess of weird instructions every month.  The voting on this challenge will happen at the September meeting.

I'm honestly not crazy about the QUILT, but I had fun with the quilting.  That argyle design took f.o.r.e.v.e.r.

I'm really not very good at those wee circles.

I had fun with the back, too!  I used up some smaller pieces that were travel gifts to me from my DB and SIL (who b.t.w. are currently in England celebrating their 40th wedding anniversary, and witnessing the financially devastating Brexit vote.)

The past couple of weeks we have been entertained by COCO Paving who first tore up our road, and are now PAVING our road.  I knew they were paving this morning because all the racket woke me up. Clearly, those guys don't realize just how much beauty sleep I need.
I like to think that I stay on top of my housework with a scheduled list of chores.  I stripped the bed and decided it was a good day to put the summer quilt on the bed.  So, I washed the non-summer quilt and hung it on the solar dryer to dry.  Then I realized that all I could smell in the air was liquid tar.  Sigh,  When I get that quilt out of the cupboard in September I will probably have fond, aromatic memories of road paving.  Idiot.

STASH REPORT
Used this month 8.2 m
Used YTD         37.74 m
Added this month 2.5 m
Added YTD      73.3 m
NET YTD:       +35.56 m

When I was at Quilt Canada last week I attended a lecture/trunk show by Julie Plotniko.  She had lots of ideas for easy, scrappy quilts and got me a bit motivated!  At Scrappy Club on Monday I started a new lap-size-ish quilt for donation.  If I stay motivated maybe the stash report will get down to a red bottom line soon.

Plantation Garden Quilt & month end stash report

Quilt name:  Plantation Garden.  Oh my gosh, so pretty.

As you should know by now, I love sampler quilts.  For this one I 'themed' the quilting around daisies & feathers.  The braided cable in the borders turned out fabulously, don't you think?

A cute little daisy vine in the ribbon border.

Daisies were repeated in most of the blocks.  Feathers were placed in the repeated setting blocks - you can just see a couple of corners in the photo below.

More daisies and feathers.

Continuous curves and straight lines were used to add unity throughout.

STASH REPORT
Ooh, the stash report is not looking too good this month.
Used this month:  0 m. Yup - ZERO.

Used YTD:  29.54 m.

Added this month:  .5 m (I went to a quilt show, and as you can see I was really living it up!!)

Added YTD:  70.8 m

NET 2016:  + 41.26 m.

However, you just stay tuned for next month.  I have finished piecing a baby quilt and that will be done before the end of June.  And I have the paint chip/border challenge quilt on the frame right now being quilted.  So that will also be coming off the report.  Granted - these are both small quilts but they will still probably add up to about 10 m.  I hope.

Interesting Quilt Backs, Stash Report, a GREAT Shade Plant

There are many quilts that will tell you they need a solid, clean, matching back.  Especially if the top has a lot of WHITE, you need to exercise caution to ensure there is no ghosting of a dark print to the quilt top.
But many, many quilts are pieced in darker colours and have such a lot of activity going on, why not use up your leftovers on the back? These look so much more interesting.

The pantograph I used on this quilt looks really good with the large scale print in the middle of this back.

I love the slightly off-kilter wonkyness (ha ha - Google doesn't like that word) of those log cabin blocks on this back.

Really, I love my job.  If I live to be one hundred I will never have the time to play around with all these design ideas.  As a longarm quilter at least I can enjoy them vicariously.

BLOODROOT
I was gifted with some pots of Bloodroot and Trillium last spring from a friend.  I have learned over the years that I should plant things in more than one location, because you can never tell where a plant is going to be happy.  Here is the bloodroot happily blooming away near the back door of the house.  It gets sunshine IN THE SPRING for several hours, but soon this will be completely (and I MEAN completely) filled with hostas.  The other clump was planted waaayyy over on the side of the yard in the treeline, and they look pretty happy too.  This little flowerbed at the house is well taken care of and gets regular watering.  Over in the treeline the plants have to be very self-determined to survive because they don't get nuthin' except sometimes eaten by Peter Rabbit.  (on a side note - my darling dog Sadie finished off one of the Peter Rabbits and left it as a gift on the back patio.  At least this one was whole, as opposed to the last one that was only maybe a quarter of a rabbit.  ick.) It will be interesting to follow these two sets over the years to see how they compare.

Be cautious when handling Bloodroot.  It will cause lesions and scabbing of the skin.

It's a little bit early to do a monthly stash report, but I have no expectation that I'll get anything finished enough to report a usage number.  See what happens when you go away for a week?  And go to a fabric warehouse while you're gone?  Note to self:  Really?... adding almost 61 m. in one month.  Was that necessary?
STASH REPORT
Used this month       0.00  Hmm.  So sad.
Used YTD                29.54
Added this month     60.8
Added YTD              70.3
Net 2016                 +40.76

SNAPSHOTS quilt by Fat Quarter Shop, and month end STASH report

Quilts don't get much cuter than this.  I love working on this gal's quilts because she is a Very.Accurate.Piecer.

I love the picnic block because, um, lemme think... it includes a glass of bubbly!!

Sunbonnet Sue is taking the dog to the beach.

Pinwheels are flying out of the basket on the bike.

Who doesn't like cake???

You probably wouldn't be reading this blog if you didn't love sewing (or someone who sews???)

Even the backing has a camera block!

The piecer made a mockup of the quilt where she had doodled quilting ideas, and brought it along with the quilt.  That is a GREAT thing to bring to your quilter when you have a 'special' quilt and your own ideas.  You may not get exactly what you drew, but it is a great jumping off point for the longarmer.
The patterns are available on the Fat Quarter Shop blog... here.  As they have requested, you should make a charitable donation to express your appreciation.

STASH REPORT
Used this month  6.65 m
Used YTD         29.54 m
Added this month  9.5 m
Added YTD          9.5 m
NET 2016       (-20.04 m)

I was doing really well for the first two months of the year.  Then Sew Little Time came to retreat with fabric, and then Red Hat day took us to two quilt shops. 

Here is a pic of some of the March fabric used.  So cute!  It almost makes me wish I was four years old again.  And then it occurs to me that if I WAS four years old people would frown on my martini consumption.

Stash Report & UFO Challenge

UFO Challenge for Jan/Feb - status complete! I'm up to eight blocks complete now.  I will get this bugger finished in this century.

UFO Challenge for March/Apr - these Dresden Plate blocks were brought in to the Binbrook Guild a couple of years ago.  She had lots of them in bundles of 12, so I took one bundle.  They are a little bit full in the center, so I need to...

• Tweak the seam allowances. 
• Turn under and baste the outside edges.
• Find a background fabric.
• Applique these to the background.
• Make and apply center circles.

Sassy Stars using the Quick Curve Ruler - DONE and OFF THE UFO LIST.

Another little cutie, finished and ready for donation to the Hospice.

STASH REPORT
It seems I neglected to file a stash report in January.  Bad me.

	30-Jan	28-Feb
Used this month	13.15	9.74
Used YTD	13.15	22.89
Added this month		0
Added YTD	0	0
Net 2016	-13.15	-22.89

I am adding a sidebar to the blog with an indicator of my current quilt booking schedule.  If you know you need a quilt by ________ (insert appropriate date) make sure you call me and get on the schedule.

Year end stash report & New Years Day sewing

Hey... Happy New Year!!
I think I'm over the jet lag from my Calgary trip.  I was up at 5:30 this morning.  Apparently, just because.  My brother was posting facebook pics of their new years hike and it looks beautiful and sunny in Calgary.  Here it was gloomy, cold, windy & damp.  Even though Alberta is much colder it doesn't feel like it because it's so DRY there.  Taking Sadie for a walk yesterday was downright painful.

Enough about the weather.  New Years Day was spent sewing with a friend.  She completed two of these cute little pot mitts.  These are the foldy type that you either love or you hate.  I may have to make a few of these.

While she was working on her mitts, I was assembling the blocks I put together in July when I traveled to Maine.  The fabrics are batiks my Singapore Niece gave me for Christmas a couple years ago.  Right now this measures about 45 x 60.  At some point I will be adding a border, and eventually it will become a tablecloth for the dining room.

These are the fabrics that followed me home from Calgary.  The black boot print on the far left was a gift, but the rest of it is my own damned fault.  Honestly, the shop owner from Rumpled Quilt Skins in Okotoks, Alberta is a total fiend.  Yes, a fiend.  I kept saying "NO!!" when she offered to bring the fabrics that matched so nicely with the geometric, but she ran and got them anyways.  Then I made the mistake of mentioning that I collect 'word' fabric, so she brought over the last 2.5 meters of the postcard fabric.  I was up 13.5 m. after that little visit.  Sheesh.

STASH REPORT
Year End 2015 - down 30.25 m.

Used since last report:    2 m
Used YTD:                     87 m
Added since last report:   15.5 m
Added YTD:                56.75 m
NET YTD:             (-30.25 m) 

This is how I used up the 2 m. in December.  I made a couple of aprons for Sadie's dog sitter and her mom.  Best neighbours, ever.

Shakin' the Dust Off For the Sale (and the stash report and the UFO report)

This is how I spent my day.  So far I've let Mother Nature 'dust' over 30 quilts.  There are at least another 10 to go, but I hit my daily limit of trips up and down the stairs.  It's not like I pretend to be even quasi-fit.

Yes, I have too many quilts and I'm having a sale.  If you happen to be in town for the Christmas House Tour which is run by Grace United Church, I will be across the street in the Kinsmen Hall.  Stop in for cookies!  Bring your credit card!

You will find quilts and pillowcases, made by moi.  Shaker Roads is bringing blanket boxes, cutting boards, step stools, and foot stools.  Vignettes Decorum will be bringing some of her refurbished furniture.  DH will be selling steel quilt racks, steel Christmas Trees, and perhaps one or two pieces of garden art.  Even if you don't find anything you simply must take home with you, you can at least have some refreshments and a free quilt show.

STASH REPORT
I was updating my stash report today, and discovered that I have not even looked at it since August.  What the hell????  Note to self:  smarten up!
Used since last report:    27 m (this is ALL pillowcases)
Used YTD:                     85 m
Added since last report:   6 m
Added YTD:             41.25 m
NET YTD:             (-43.75 m)  Hah!  Such a good girl!

UFO CHALLENGE
If you've been following along, you would have seen the ONE ROW I added to the Double Wedding Ring quilt at the Tobermory retreat in October.  So, I met that quilt challenge for the September/October period.  Now, for November/December I need to complete one block on the Piece 'O Cake applique quilt.  Lord willing and the creek don't rise, I will get a block marked and pieces cut before Friday.  Then as I'm sitting in the Kinsmen Hall this weekend I'll have something to work on.  What's that saying.... "idle hands are the devil's workshop".

Where the quilt got left, Zucchini Report, and Stash Report

This is kind of where the 'vacation project' got left.  Although there are actually 50 of these blocks, not 16 like in the photo.

Jean and I had a great trip home, staying overnight in Troy, NY.  Troy has some beautiful (!) architecture.  Some of the houses are being lovingly maintained/renovated, while many others are in a complete state of disrepair and boarded up windows.  That makes the whole city a little bit scary, if you are just passing through.  We kept reminding each other to lock the doors.

It took me two days to get my laundry under control, helped by the quantity of cross-border shopping that I did.  Amazingly, the whole garden was not dead when I returned - DH did a good job of keeping things (mostly) watered.  I had a bit of trouble explaining to him one night where he could find the Russian Sage that was recently planted and needed a drink.
Me:  "Can you water the Russian Sage for me?"
DH:  "The what?"
Me:  "Russian Sage.  It has blue flowers and it's over in the hillside garden."
DH:  "Where?"
Me:  "The hillside garden.  It's kind of hard to explain - near-ish to the road."
DH:  "What does it look like?"
Me:  "Blue flowers."
DH:  "Where is it?"
sigh...  Thank the Lord for cheap long distance rates.
Some upkeep on Monday and Tuesday filled two wheelbarrow loads of dead foliage from the perennial geraniums and shasta daisies.  More needs to be done, but at least the front garden looks better.

ZUCCHINI REPORT
Picked 7/19 to 8/1:  25
Picked YTD:           68

I've already picked 9 since Sunday so you can expect another prolific report next week.

STASH REPORT
Used this month       0 - lots of things in the works, but nothing complete.
Used YTD               58 m
Added this month       .25 m  - all I bought on vacation was a fat quarter of lobster fabric.
Added YTD            35.25 m
Net 2015                 (-22.75)

Bow Tie Quilt and UFO & Stash Reports

It's 2:30 in the morning - I seem to be having one of those nights when I cannot sleep.  That is a good opportunity to draft a blog post, which quite possibly will make no sense. But at least there are pictures. ☺
The UFO challenge for May/June was my Bow Tie quilt. 

This started several (!) years ago during a lesson at the Binbrook Quilt guild, when we learned how to make these cute 3-d bow tie blocks.
I really love the white with summer-beach-house-blues.  It has been custom quilted, using the IQ.

Now there is just the hand stitching of the binding to be done.

Here is my Singapore cutie-pie. (translation of cutie-pie:  great-niece)  Modelling the two outfits made by moi. Her head is lopped off in the photos as her parents like to keep strict control of her social media pics.

She is a total freak about FROZEN (the Disney movie) so this goes along with the pillow & bag from THIS post.  I  love making clothes for little girls.  They can be FUN and BRIGHT.

STASH REPORT
Used since last report  11.4 m
Used YTD                   58 m
Added since last report  0 - zero - zippo - yay
Added YTD                 35 m
Net YTD                     (-23 m)

Fancy Lone Star & Stash Report

I am sure there is a better name than Fancy Lone Star for this quilt,  but I have no idea what it might be.  :-)

Those three outer borders were treated like one and got a border design.
The setting squares were s.i.d. along the outside, and the inside (which outlined the star).

The small inner star was also s.i.d. then quilted with a motif to match the border.  As you can clearly see, straight line quilting finishes off the star.

Cross hatching in the green background talks nicely with the straight line quilting in the star.

Ooh,  Pretty back.

STASH REPORT
Good heavens.  Once again I have a 'not my fault' report.  I was the discussion leader at the last SOLO meeting (Southern Ontario Longarm Operators) where the topic was Modern Quilting.  I was given a thankyou gift of 8 m. worth of batik fabrics. I'm not sure what to do with it.  Make a quilt??  ha ha ha...
The other two meters was fabric I purchased at Keepsake Quilting.  We'll call that a souvenir, shall we?

Added this month 10 m.
Added y.t.d.           35 m
Used this month     0.  yup.  big.fat.zero.
Used y.t.d.             48.9 m
Net 2015              -13.9 m  So, I'm still down yardage, which is the important thing, right?

On the GARDENING front, my radishes have popped through the ground, and the volunteer lettuces are visible.  The peas should be out tomorrow - there is a wee bit of green showing but not enough to consider them sprouted.  Now that I've said that the darned birds will eat them all before morning.  (pea sprouts are much tastier than bean sprouts, in case you have never tried them)
And today's big news - I harvested TWO spears of asparagus.  Yay me.  :-)

Strippy Quilt, Pi Day, Stash Report

I hope y'all enjoyed Pi day yesterday!  We celebrated by having pie.  One of the six thousand dozen apple pies I made and stashed in the freezer.

Here is a gorgeous strippy quilt. Can you tell this will be a wedding gift? The layout is similar to the Cobblestones pattern from Open A Can Of Worms.

The placement of dark gold fabrics along the outer edges of the strips accentuates the design.  Mmm.  Love.  Quilted with a pretty-but-not-stuffy feather design.

I know you've seen this a few times, now, but I am really happy with my Urban Runner.  Two meters off the stash report.

This was pieced at the retreat last weekend, and quilted this week.  The pattern, which I slightly modified by only making twelve blocks, is here. Another 7.9 meters off the stash.  Yay!!

Light custom quilting - s.i.d. around the blocks and sashing.  A feather/curl motif dropped in the blocks with a curlicue motif in the sashing.  Just a wee 'x' quilted through the cornerstones. 

Mmm - yummy flannel backing.

STASH REPORT
Used this report:  9.9 m
Used YTD:         48.9 m
Added this report:  0.  zero.  nada.  zip.  Can you see the halo over my head?
Added YTD:      25 m
NET YTD:        (-23.9) m

Men vs. Women
You see MY photos all the time.  Pretty quilts, pretty flowers, healthy vegetables, cute dog.  This is the kind of photo that DH likes to take.  I just thought I'd share that with you.  :-)