Slow Sunday Stitching

 I have reached a milestone this week. All of the quilting in the bird blocks for My Tweets is now finished. A few nights more work on the sashing and bottom border and it will be ready for trimming and binding. It could very well be finished and up on the wall by the end of March, which has been my goal since I picked this back up. And of course, there is no getting close to finishing one project without thoughts turning to “what’s next?”. I am seriously thinking of getting back and picking up some much neglected English Paper piecing projects that have been packed away in a box that I’ve recently found for years. I’ve gone so far as to order some more papers so that I can get them to a finish. 

I’ll link up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching

Stay at Home Round Robin prompt 6

 I’ve been slow this week working on my SAHRR. Unfortunately a virus of some sort got me at the end of last week and I’ve been feeling punk and unwell. No energy for even any hand stitching, let alone sitting at the sewing machine or doing any cutting. It seems to be easing off now, so I was able to get some work done on this project today. The prompt this week was “kites” or something beginning with the initial “K”. Well that was easy. I’d already done some Kites Tails, a pattern found in the Quilter’s Cache site,  in my quilt in a previous round. So I thought do the same, but in a bigger size. And because I wanted this quilt to end up rectangular, I’m just adding them to the top and bottom. I have one row of them almost done. But I’ve hit a bit of an energy wall, so will have to call it quits for today. I’m hoping to have it all put together in time for the reveal link party. In the meantime, I’ll link up to The Darling Dogwood who is hosting the link party this week.

What We’re Working on

 There were only 3 of us at our little group yesterday, so our progress was slower and there is less to show. But there is still stuff being done. We are working on ideas for fundraising, a necessity for supporting the number of quilts we do each year. We have a number of lovely wildlife panels that will work well. This one is ready for its borders. They are all animals found here is Muskoka.  The Great Granny Squares only need 2 more blocks and then it is ready to put together. The sampler in blues and greens that I’ve been working on here at home is finished, except for binding. And I’ve started another, also in blues and greens with the addition of a gold in the blocks. 

These are fun to do and a great way to gradually build quilts in between working on others. Susan has finally made her way through sorting all of our odds and ends of fabrics. She’s sorted it all according to sizes and colours and it makes it so much easier to see what we have and hopefully use it. I may end up starting another of these samplers using purples, as we seem to have a lot of that as well.  I brought a bag of purples home with me so we’ll see what it becomes.

I’ll link up to Finished, or not, Friday

 

Stay at Home Round Robin, prompt 5

 This week’s prompt for the round robin was “Quarter Log Cabins”. A block I love to sew and which works really well with what I have so far. I need 20 of them for the idea I have. The finial decision though, will depend on next week’s prompt. I’ve only managed to get 10 of the quarter log cabin blocks made. I ran out of the dark blue fabric, which was cut offs from some backings. But I know there is more of it on a bolt at the church, so I’ll pick it up tomorrow at our Prayers and Squares sewing day. In the meantime, here’s how it looks so far. Final decisions and add ons will happen next week which will be the last prompt. As it is now, it measures 54x54 inches. I would like it to end up longer than it is wide, but that too will need to wait until next week. I’ll link up to Brenda at Songbird Designs who is hosting this week’s SAHRR link up.

Slow Sunday Stitching

 We are currently in the middle of yet another winter storm. The second in a week and it is dumping a fair amount of snow on us. I have no idea how much, but I must say that I am more than ready to be done with winter. In the meantime, there is plenty to do indoors. A few weeks ago I estimated that it would be taking me 2 weeks to do the hand quilting per square of My Tweets. That was a huge overestimate. I’ve actually been doing 2 squares per week. At this rate the hand quilting just might be done by the end of this month. It will certainly be done before the end of winter, which has been my goal. I am really enjoying revisiting each of these blocks as they are quilted, remembering the fun I had choosing the colours, especially for the tails. And also enjoying the feeling of having spring in my lap, if not outside in reality. I’ve been indulging myself in a little more spring dreaming by going through a seed catalogue, getting ready to order my seeds, especially those that need to be started early. But until then, I’ll enjoy the spring flowers and birds in this quilt. I’ll link up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching

What We’re Working on

 I haven’t got a lot of pictures of projects this week. We had to cancel our sewing day yesterday due to the storm that came through over night. Laneways had to be plowed out, especially those along highways where the hard working snowplow people left 3 foot high piles along the edges of roads. Not their fault, it’s the hazard of country living. And then, the parking lot of the church hadn’t been plowed out either, making getting in and out a challenge not worth taking. So we all stayed home. No problem, most of us have stuff at home to work on. I spent some time putting my current sampler of blocks from Pat Speth together. The rows are all done. I have to make some more sashing units before I can put the rows together. These are a fast and easy way to get a lovely quilt, making one block at a time. I quite enjoy the process. We had a light green solid in our stash that I’ve used to back the blocks. It shows the quilting quite nicely. It’s ben paired with a print that has the same colour as the solid in it. The print hides the folded under edge that is top stitched necessary for the quilt as you go process.  The other thing I’ve been working on at home, off and on over the last couple of months, is a Great Granny Square quilt. I have 15 out of 20 blocks done. The fabrics for the rest of the blocks are all ready to go together. It’s quite fun and bright and happy This will get set together in the quilt as I go style with 2 inch sashing and cornerstones. There are quite a few fun large scale floral and geometric prints that I can use for the backing. And that’s all from my little corner of the quilting world. I’ll link up to Finished, or not, Friday

Stay at Home Round Robin Prompt 4

 This week’s prompt was a sliced square. When I first read it and saw it I wasn’t sure what to do. It didn’t match up with what I had in mind to go with the stars from the previous prompt. But once I got thinking about it I decided it could work. I took the fabrics that I used in the stars, there was barely enough of the yellow, and cut them into 1 1/2 inch widths and sewed them together and then decided on a 5 1/2 inch square to slice. I trimmed one end of the strip set to a 45 degree angle just to give a consistent starting place for sewing it together. And in no time at all I had 12 sliced squares. With just a sliver of trimming they came to the 6 1/2 inch size I was going for. I am actually happier with the final result than I was with my original idea. The quilt now measures 42 inches square. That was fun and did indeed force me to think outside the box, which is the whole idea behind these SAHRR challenges. I’ll link up to Pieceful Thoughts who is the host for this week’s prompt.

 

Slow Sunday Stitching

 I am continuing on with my push to get the quilting on My Tweets finished. Last week I mentioned that I was guessing it would take a couple of weeks per block. Well, I seem to be going much faster than that. I got 2 blocks finished  and the top border quilted in one week. I just may be able to meet that goal of getting this quilt done this winter. I’m currently halfway through another block which will take it to 6 out of 12 done. I’m doing the sashings and the borders as I go so there won’t be that large job left at the end. Slowly and steadily will get it completed. 

I’ll link up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching

What We’re Working on

 We had quite a few finishes yesterday at our Prayers and Squares Meeting. Lots of quilts got their bindings and a few more were either started or made progress on. Janet has been working on this quilt for a few weeks now. She took it home last week to get the binding finished. Once that was done she started another using 5 inch squares.  It is very bright and cheerful. It will have white sashing between the rows and then a very bright and happy border around it. Pat has been working on this lovely quilt at home. She brought it in to get some opinions on size and a sashing colour. She found a purple in our stash that worked really well with it. Marg worked on these next 2 quilts, both of which are quilted and in line for binding.

                                                            

And then these 2 quilts got their binding on. They are now ready to be gifted when the need arrives. 

                                                                  

We are starting to build up a bit of an inventory, which is great, although Susan came in yesterday with requests for 4 different people, which will deplete that inventory somewhat. We’ll keep going though, and keep making quilts.  I’ll link up to Finished or not Friday.

Stay at Home Round Robin

 The new prompt to the stay at home round robin was announced on Monday. We are to do stars. It took me a while to come up with an idea and then even longer to decide on colours, based on what I had here at home. I finally decided to do 6 inch Variable Stars, 3 per side of the quilt. I have plans/hopes for what will be on the corners, based on further possible prompts. This quilt will eventually go into the Prayers and Squares mission pile so I don’t want it to end up really big. So the hopes are to combine the prompts into a border. I’ll Link up to Quilting Gail for this rounds link party.

Slow Sunday Stitching

 All my slow stitching this past week has been focused on the hand quilting for My Tweets. I managed to finish 2 blocks. I really want to get this done this winter. If it isn’t finished this winter, I suspect it will go into time out again until next winter and I really don’t want it to linger that much longer. In theory, I can get a block quilted in about 1 1/2 to 2 weeks. There are 9 blocks left, plus the outer border. So it just might be do-able.

I’ll link up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching and then perhaps put in an hour of hand quilting before heading to my sewing room to do some doll clothes for our Granddaughter.

What We’re Working on

 We have ourselves a couple of finishes. The Pat Speth sampler I did towards the end of last year is now bound. And the Pat Speth pattern called Balancing Act is also bound and finished. There seems to be a focus on Pat Speth designs lately. I really enjoy her style and the fact that she puts out a new block at least once a week, if not more often. It’s a wonderful source for sampler quilts, which I also really enjoy doing. I have 8 blocks done towards the next sampler of 12. I am doing them quilt as I go, which is a great way to enable detailed quilting on the individual blocks which wouldn’t be possible without a long arm machine. I sold mine before we moved up to Muskoka. Sometimes I wish I still had it, but where we are living now there would have been no place to put it. And anyhow, I’m past being able to stand at it for long periods. But still there are days when it would have come in handy. I guess it’s a way to force me to learn new ways of doing things, like the quilt as I go techniques. Here’s the front of a block, and the back. I quite like the way it looks. My last Pat Speth design, for now, is Cross Creek, a quilt along that she hosted on her Facebook page, which is also where she posts all the new blocks. The quilting is finished and it is just waiting to have the binding sewn on. Marg at the Prayers and Squares group has been doing all the bindings. She says she’ll do this one next Thursday. Back in the summer we purchased some animal scene panels to use for giving away and also, hopefully, for some fund-raising this summer when the cottage and camping people return to our area. These will eventually turn into a pattern called Step Into Moonlight. It has a way to go yet. 

And finally, the starship enterprise is finished. One of our ladies is away on vacation. When she returns we are going to do some lessons in paper piecing and hopefully get the rest of this quilt under way. The patterns for this quilt will all come from the Fandom in Stitches Star Trek page.

I’ll link up to Finished, or not, Friday

Stay At Home Round Robin, prompt 2

 The second prompt for the Stay At Home Round Robin came out on Monday. This week’s prompt was “triangles”. I like it when the prompts lead for lots of possibilities. There are so many blocks with triangles. I thought, oh good, the possibilities are endless. Well, it turns out, not so much. As in the previous round, much of what I tried ended up overpowering the centre section of the quilt. So I stayed simple, a round of sawtooth triangles. It was fairly quick to do because I used these 12 at once triangle papers. Not having to draw all the lines saves buckets of time. I had to add a 1 inch finished border to get it up to size for the triangles. It now measures 26x26 inches.

I’ll link up to Anja Quilts. There are some really fun and interesting quilts to see there. 

 

Slow Sunday Stitching

 Last winter, or maybe it was the spring, anyway sometime last year I decided it was beyond time to get the quilt called My Tweets finished. Because I no longer have my long arm quilting machine and because I can’t afford to pay someone to custom quilt it, I decided to hand quilt it. I started it back last year sometime and then stalled out. Actually, I just looked back at a picture taken of the beginning of the quilting and it is dated March 13, 2024, so that answers that particular question. There’s no way I would have worked on it during the spring and summer. I have picked it back up in the last couple of weeks and am making good progress on it. I would love to have it finished before the warm weather and outdoor activities return. The centre of the quilt is finished and I’ve moved on to the first of the 12 blocks around the outside. I had originally thought that I would continue the straight line background quilting into the outer squares. But the more I look at it and the more I work on it, I realize that they don’t need it. The appliqué on those squares is so dense that the straight lines would get lost. I’m outlining the appliqués and that will be it. I can only work on this for a limited time each evening and then the finger on the back side of the quilt starts to get sore from feeling the needle come through, so then I pick up my cross stitch. The Jackrabbit from A Year In The Woods is slowly growing. I had hoped to continue with my one critter a month finishing on this, but the hand quilting has taken over and that’s ok. It has been a true Muskoka winter this year, very cold and a fair amount of snow, although nothing like the 4 feet of snow that was dumped about 45 minutes south of us. It still makes for a good time to be staying indoors where it is warm and cozy and play with fabrics and thread. I’ll link up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching

What We Are Working on

 We didn't get a whole lot of sewing done in our Prayers and Squares group yesterday. We did get 6 quilts layered though, several of which needed backings sewn. I’ve shown pictures already of the quilts we layered, except for this latest top finish. It is called Cross Creek, a design by Pat Speth. I’ve done 2 more sampler blocks, also designs by Pat Speth. I have a total of six now, almost enough to start on the quilt as I go process on them. Our group has also received a request for a Star Trek themed quilt. I recently discovered this website, called Fandom in Stitches which has all kinds of mostly paper pieced themed designs, including one for the original series Enterprise. I have the back end of the ship finished, which will take the ship to halfway done. There will be lots of other elements added to the quilt before it is finished and ready for gifting. I’ll play with this some more tomorrow and hopefully get the ship finished. I brought 3 of the layered quilts home with me and will begin the quilting process today using my domestic machine and walking foot. 

I’ll link up to Finish, or not, Friday

Stay at Home Round Robin.

 A few years ago I participated in a fun Stay At Home Round Robin, also known as a SAHRR. I had a good time doing it and each week there was a new challenge to add to the quilt. Life over the last few years got really crazy and I didn’t have the time or energy to do another. Until this year, when I decided to join in the fun. For my centre block I’ve chosen an old orphan block which is a very strange size, 14 1/2 inches finished. Part of the fun of the SAHRR is the built in challenges, so why not start off right. This is my centre block. 

Prompt: Make a King’s Crown block/s for your first round OR make blocks that begin with your first initial or my initial (K)! 

So I didn’t want to do a King’s Crown block. I tried it in my Electric quilt software and the blocks overwhelmed the centre. So then I went looking for blocks beginning with my first initial, C, but everything I looked at did the same thing, overwhelmed the centre block. Then I read on someone else’s blog that they went searching on Quilters Cache for ideas. That web site has blocks listed alphabetically by name. How perfect is that? However, nothing under the initial C caught my eye. But when I looked under the initial K, I hit the jackpot. It isn’t a block but a method for making Kites Tail, using any size starting square. I went digging into my 2 1/2 inch squares and found all the blues I could and proceeded to make some kites tail borders. I made the borders first and then figured out what size of strips I needed to add to my centre block to make them fit, and it worked. I love the way it looks. It needs another border beside the Kites Tails, but I think I will wait to do that until I find out what the next prompt is. That way I can adjust to get the size I need. Right now it is the very odd size of 23 inches. The link party for the first round is here.

What We Are Working on

 Today is Thursday again, that seems to come around so fast. We will get together this afternoon to work on more Prayers and Squares quilts. I’ll post pictures of those when I get home. In the meantime, I’ve been working on some here at home too. I have never been a work on just one quilt at a time until it is finished type quilter. I love having options and being able to go from one quilt to another depending on mood and which colours I feel like using. Also, if I run out of something for one quilt, I always have a backup to keep me going. I’ve started a new sampler from  blocks put out by Pat Speth on her Facebook group. I make them as they are posted, this time in blues and greens. So far this year there have been 4. This one will grow slowly as new blocks are released. It will be done quilt as you go with a sashing style as yet to be fully decided. I’m also working on a Great Granny square quilt. This one will have 20 blocks when it is finished, also with sashing and finished quilt as you go style. I’ve a couple of other projects on the go here at home, but I don’t have recent pictures of them. Perhaps next week.

This afternoon we managed a couple of finishes to 2 different scrap quilts. The first is one called Balancing Act, another of Pat Speth’s designs found here. And then Janet finished this one. Barbara has been working on a design of her own. She wanted to feature the landscape fabric in the centre and work with the same colour families doing an outdoorsy type theme. I think she is planning a two inch border in the dark blue to finish it off. That’s it for this week. Next week will be a layering day for sure. Then I can bring some of them home to get quilted.

I’ll link up to Finish, or Not, Friday.