Happy Dance... Cactus Rose is a finished top!!

 I'm in celebration mode! Can you hear me cheering?!?!... this quilt is finally finished. I have been working on this pattern, called Cactus Rose, a design from Judy Neimeyer, for at least five years. I first wrote about it on the blog here, back in February of 2010. I would work on it for a while, get overwhelmed and call for the men in the white coats to come and get me, and then put it away for a while. It was on my finish it list for last year, and didn't get touched. I was determined that this was going to be the year, and here it is! Yippee!! Woohoo!! Whoop whoop!!

 Here's a closer view of one of the corners. This whole thing, as in all Judy Neimeyer designs, was paper pieced, and then hand appliqued. The background was done using four of the very light shades of the Fossil Ferns fabrics. I think the original used a batik.







And here's a close up of one of the center blocks.
There has been so much nail biting, smothered bad words, and all kinds of stressful wondering why on earth I ever thought I could do this moments while working on this quilt. And it was all worth it! This one is moving to the very top of my to-be-quilted-next pile. I'm going to link up to some celebratory linky parties with this one. Finish it Friday, Can I Get a Whoop Whoop and Link a Finish Friday. I'll also link up this post to  Lovely Year of Finishes at the end of the month. The next time I write about this quilt will be when the quilting is started on the long arm.. I'm so HAPPY!!

Sneak peak

I brought my computer up to the studio today with the thought of posting shorter posts, but more often. Alas, the internet connection up here is worse than downstairs. So, I'll have to make do with iPhone posts. I loaded one of my own quilts, the Pieceful Kwilter BOM I did four or five years ago. I am going to try out a bunch of new things in this one, starting with the curved ruler, piano keys and filler in the border. The textured fabric makes it kinda hard to see what I'm doing, but it will also hide any goofs I make while on this learning curve. 

Customer Quilts 2014

I'm sitting here at my computer with my second cup of coffee. That means I have some clarity of thought. Enough to have decided that I really have to come up with a way not to procrastinate things I want to write about here. It seems that, once I am up and truly moving, after finishing said second cup of coffee, I get so busy that, although I think about sitting down to write, I don't actually do it. So, I'm going to try and do some posts at this time of day, and see what happens. The other thing that's been going on preventing posting to the blog has been atrocious internet service lately. It takes forever to load stuff, or the signal is dropped right in the middle of what we are trying to do. Uploading pictures takes what seems like forever. DSIL is going to call the provider and see if they can't come up with a solution for fixing the high speed internet that isn't high speed by anyone's definition of the word. There, that's my complaint for the day.

 This is one of Charlene's quilts. It's an Edyta Sitar pattern from one of her books, although I don't know which one. I love the colours and fabrics Charlene chose for this quilt. The floral is lovely, and the greys work beautifully to highlight all the colours in the baskets. The greys she used in the basket blocks makes them look like they are casting a shadow, and give the piece a lot of depth.

 The top part of the baskets got continuous curves, and the baskets themselves got a curvy cross hatch to give the impression of a woven basket. The grey background setting areas got a swirly type feather. I love doing feathers of all shapes and descriptions.

The swirls continued out into the narrow red border. I couldn't get a picture to show up the quilting in the floral border or the floral setting triangles, but it was more of the swirly type feathers. This was a fun quilt to do, from start to finish. Thanks Charlene.

Sunday Stash and Stitching Report, week 15, 2014

 Well, I fell off the no buying wagon big time this past week. But It's all for a very good cause. These two fabrics here, to the right, are for Avery's third birthday that is coming up next month. He is a huge Thomas the tank engine fan. So, I'm going to make him some pillow cases and some pajamas, and maybe a valance type thing to cover the workings of the roller blind in his room. The stripe is for the pillow cases and valance, and the scattered trains are for the pajamas.

 Then this gorgeous diagonal stripe is for bindings. I love me a diagonally striped binding.

 And then, while blog surfing last week, I came across this post by Teresa and decided that I just have to do some of those blocks, which led to the beginning of collecting black and white prints. I won't be starting it for a while yet. I need to get more of this type of fabrics, and I still have a couple of finishes to take care of.

And that brings me to today's slow stitching. I have a little bit of stitching to do on the green stem of this flower on Cactus Rose, And I can declare the hand work part of this quilt done. And, better yet, most of the paper piecing for the rest of the borders is done as well. Another evening should finish that part of it. I just might make that goal of getting this quilt done by the end of this month. So very, very exciting!!

Anyway, back to the stash report, since it appears my delaying tactics didn't work.

Used this week:                                       .9 yards
Used this year:                                     33.7 yards
Added this week:                                   10 yards
Added this year:                                   35 yards
Balance:                                                1.3 more yards in than out.
That ends the first stretch of using more than I've bought since I started keeping track of my numbers. I'd better get busy making some new quilts, since the stuff in the UFO's has already been counted. Hey, that's a great reason to start something new............... must..... remain.....strong......finish.......UFOS......
I'm linking up to Judy's Stash Report and Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching.

Purple Triple four patches

 These purple strips from last week,

became triple four patches this week. I really enjoy working with this colour. I think it's one of my favourites. Although, thinking about it now, I don't wear much purple. I wonder why that is, when I like the colour so much? I just might have to do something about that, sometime. I'm halfway through getting the squares I need for this particular quilt. I'm doing an 8x10 layout for it, requiring 8 blocks in 10 different colours. I have lots of single four patch blocks, as well as double four patches that will go into borders for this quilt. It is fun working on this particular quilt for this rainbow scrap challenge. There are lots of other people working on fun projects at Scraphappy Saturday

On my needles.

How on earth did it get to be Friday already? I could swear that I just wrote a post about this yesterday. Today was one of the first days when I could actually get outside for pictures. It is a glorious day, sunny and warm. The snow is all gone from our back patio. All that we need is our chairs and table set out, and we're good to go for some outdoor enjoyment. Although, putting them out now might be pushing it, just a bit.

 Our neighbour's crocuses are up, and looking so very happy, and looking at them makes me smile.

And here's my knitting project, still the Pinery sweater. I'm down to the ribbing at the bottom now. Not much further to go, and I can start the sleeves. I'm linking up to Judy's on the needles.

Stash Report, week 14, 2014

Ok, before I do anything else here, I really have to do the proud mama thing, and share a link to our son Noel's art work. He will be having some space in an art gallery in Post Stanley, Ontario. I am just so thrilled for him!! There, that's done, although I still have the proud mama grin on my face.  :-) Now I can get on to the business of a stash report.

Used this week:                             2.1 yards
Used this year:                         32.8 yards
Added this week:                         0 yards
Added this year:                        25 yards
Balance:                                   7.8 more yards out than in.

I don't have any of this week's purple blocks done yet, unfortunately, so I can't count that as used yet. I'll try and get some of them done today, and then the rest next week. I guess this is why I decided on three projects for the colour challenge. It gives me a spare weekend for those times when life gets in the way of the fun stuff. I'm linking up to Judy's Stash Report