What we are working on

 We didn’t get a lot of sewing done yesterday, other than making backs for quilts. But, we did get 6 quilts layered and ready for quilting. Three of them came home with me. I don’t think I’ll get all three done before next week, but there is one that needs to be mostly done by Sunday, so that will be my focus for the next couple of days. And somewhere in the next day or two I need to process a whole lot of rhubarb, probably into canned pie filling. There are a few things I can show, though. Marg finished the animal panel  with the Friendship Stars. And here at home I finished up another UFO to add to our quilt pile. That makes 12 out of 16 on my list finished. Woohoo!!  It got a fun back since I really wanted to use up all the leftover triangles in order to prevent tham becoming yet another UFO. We’ve also started making some placemats that we are hoping might work for some fund raising. We found a really cute animal panel to cut up and turn into placemats. And then there are some strip pieced mats as well. We’ve cut these out from four or five different sets of fabrics and made up kits with them to work on over time. I’ll link up to Finished, or not, Friday

Slow Sunday Stitching

I’m almost out of 2 inch squares for Connections. A couple of friends are coming up to our area at the end of June, so I’ve put it into quilty time out until then. In the meantime I pulled out a project I started back in 2019, according to this blog. It originally was intended to be a rainbow colour challenge project, but it ended up in the started, never to be seen again, bin, up until this past week. I’m trying to decide what to do with it. I have quite a few yellow/gold/purple bits done, but I’m not sure I like the look. But I’m also not sure what else to do with it, which is how it ended up  in a bin. Although, looking at the photo, it is kinda growing on me. I think I’ll keep going.

I’ll link up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching and then maybe see where this will take me.

What We’re Working on

 I only have 2 pictures to show today. We worked on other things yesterday, but I didn’t manage to get my nose in to what they were working on to get pictures. Next week we have a bunch to layer, so I should be able to get pictures then. In the meantime,  I have pictures of the UFO’s I’ve been working on. Hopscotch Butterscotch is a finished top. And then I dug through the Prayers and Squares cupboard and unearthed an older one I started there a couple of years ago. For some reason, I wasn’t happy then with how the squares were playing together, so I put it into quilty time out. Sometimes all it takes is looking at something with fresh eyes and a little playing in Electric Quilt computer program. Here is where it sits at the moment, with the red decided on for borders.                                                                             Here is what I am aiming for. There will be leftover triangles, which I have decided will get pieced into the backing, preventing the formation of yet another UFO. When this one is done it will mean 12 out of 16 on my UFO list finished, or at least to the finished top stage. I think there is one more that I can get done and then reward myself with a new start, or 2.

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

An old UFO done

 Way back in 2012 I joined in on 2 different challenges. I love doing challenges. One was New York Beauty blocks and the other was a colour challenge. I combined the 2 and did the New York Beauty blocks in the colours for the challenge of the month. I got lots of the New York Beauty blocks done, and then for some unknown reason, it sat and aged. Fast forward to 2020 when I decided it was time to finish it. The piecing was done and the long arming was done and then, once more it sat in quilt limbo. I think moving and getting settled and renovations and more renovations may have had something to do with it. Plus it is a small square quilt, maybe 54 x 54 and I wasn’t quite sure what to do with it. So, lets do another fast forward to a couple of weeks ago when one of the ladies from the Prayers and Squares group posted a gorgeous picture of a New York Beauty quilt and she asked if I was up to doing something like it. I replied that I already had done one, which inspired me to go searching through the piles of quilts to find it and pick out a binding and get it finished. So here we are today, 13 1/2 years after it was started, finally finished. I think it is going to get used as a table topper of our kitchen table. Here’s a close up of the binding, my signature striped binding,  and four of the blocks . I started this year with a list of 16 UFOs. This finish means I have knocked 11 off that list.

Slow Sunday Stitching

 As has been the case for the past several months now, I’m continuing to work on my Connections quilt. I have units made for the next row. I need to sew them together and then add them to the main body. Here’s a close up of one of them. I haven’t a whole lot else to say, so I’ll go ahead and link up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching.

What We’re Working On

 We were very busy quilters yesterday and got lots done to the point where photo taking was possible and necessary. Pat has been working on this fun quilt in an attempt to decrease the amount of 3 1/2 inch strips in the bin. Somehow it didn’t even seem to make a dent, isn’t that always the way. It still needs a good pressing. Marg finished binding a bunch of quilts, most of which have already had their time in the spotlight, so she grabbed a kit for another wildlife quilt. These are so popular. It will get five more friendship stars around the opposite corner and then long borders to fill the space. Yes, we noticed that one of the blocks has an oops in it. I’ve been working on this Moonlight Stroll quilt on Thursdays for about a month now. It needs its finish borders and then will be ready for quilting. We are thinking this one is going to be added to our fund raising pile. And then lastly, there is a Bonnie Hunter quilt that has been in progress here at home as a leader/ender for a long time. It is finally time to the move it up to finish it stage. I think it is called Hopscotch Butterscotch. It has final border of piano keys still to go on. I’m hoping to have it done by next Thursday so we can get it layered. I’ll link up to Finish, or not, Friday

Slow Sunday Stitching

 It is a glorious spring day out there. Warm and sunny and so far no bugs biting. I suspect that will change before this time next week and I’ll be bleeping the nasty critters known as black flies. But for today, I will enjoy it. I took my 2 pieces of Connections outside to get a photo and yahoo, I’m officially 3/4 of the way to being finished. This is what I will be doing for the rest of the day, sitting outside and stitching. I’ll link up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching

What we are working on

 We had another productive day at Prayers and Squares yesterday. We did some talking and planning around our fund raising for the summer and I think we now have a workable plan. There is one quilt for sure that we are going to be taking donations on and will offer tickets in return for the donations. It is the Aurora Ridge quilt , designed by McKenna Ryan, that I finished earlier this spring. It is currently hanging at the church and can travel to the events that we have planned to enter. We finished bindings on a number of quilts yesterday, and we figures out a pricing formula and we hope to sell some of these in the coming months. We think the animal ones will go quickly, or at least that’s our hope. The moose quilt got its binding, a lovely dark blue to set off the centre. I’ve been working on a Great Granny Square quilt here at home for the past few months. This past week I got it all together, quilt as you go style. It got a binding yesterday. The back is interesting too. There was a panel with the large spiral prints on it that would have been difficult to work into a quilt but made perfect backing for some of the blocks. And then, Janet did the quilting on this scrappy quilt. We have a couple more quilts left in the pile to be bound and also a couple in the to be layered pile. All in all, we are being very productive. I’ll link up to Finished, or not, Friday

Slow Sunday Stitching

 I’m slowly stitching away on my Connections quilt. Once again, thank you to all who sent me 2 inch squares. Unbelievably, I have gone through almost all of them! When they first arrived I thought there would be more than enough to finish this, but no. I’m going to go scrounging through my stash here and at the church and cut bits off things to get more. I’m almost halfway through the second half of this quilt. Hopefully when the other half of this half is finished,  it will declare itself done.

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

What we’re working on

 We had 2 quilt top finishes yesterday at Prayers and Squares. Marg finished this one, using the animals from the Moonlight Stroll series. And Janet finished this scrappy one. Here at home I've been working on another Pat Speth sampler. It is well over halfway finished. I am hoping that a couple of hours on it this afternoon will finish it. Then it can go onto the pile waiting to be bound. This will make four in that waiting list. I’ll link up to Finish, or not, Friday and then get into my sewing room to finish this one. 

What we’re working on

 We didn’t have a lot of new things to show in the past couple of weeks. We’ve been working on finishes, getting bindings done and labels and things like that. Also doing layering on five or 6 more quilts. But this week, we started a couple of new projects, both using the Moonlight Stroll small wildlife panels. Marg started a new design to use them in. She got all of this done in one afternoon, but then had to stop because we don’t have anything in our stash that works for sashing. We will have to go shopping. And then I have started another Step Into Moonlight quilt pattern. The first one was given away, so I hope to have this second one as a fund raiser. And then here at home I’m slowly working on getting things finished. I’ve been working on this sampler for quite a while, but it got put into time out in order to finish some other things that had deadlines. However, it will be in time out again for a while. I need to do the quilting on these 2 quilts, also hopefully to be used in fund raising. We go through a lot of fabric and batting in the course of a year. We still have lots of scraps and leftover strips to use for quilt tops. It is the backings that we run out of frequently. We have given out 12 quilts so far this year. If we assume 3 1/2 yards per top and binding and another 3 yards for backings, that adds up to 78 yards of fabric used in just the first 4 months of this year. Rather mind boggling. Anyhow, I’ll link up to Finish, or not, Friday and then get to work on the quilting. I’m hoping to finish one of them this afternoon.

Slow Sunday Stitching

 Happy Easter to everyone who celebrates it, the best, most excellent day of the Christian year! He is risen!! We are off to church to celebrate in a few minutes. I’ve just time enough to write and post this. It won’t be a long post. I’ve made progress on Connections. I have two rows and a spacer row all stitched together and a partial spacer row in place. I’ve removed a bunch of the papers as I’ve been sewing so I have more pieces to glue baste again. 

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

Slow Sunday Stitching

 My Connections quilt is growing, although not all that fast. But that’s OK, it is, after all, slow stitching. It now measures about 30 x 46 inches. I would like it to be a lap sized quilt that I can use next winter. I’m aiming for somewhere around 48 x 60. So I will keep going and add rows as I get them finished. I have a row and a bit of another one ready to add. But I think I might work in smaller sections before adding them to the main piece It is getting a bit cumbersome to handle. I’ll have to do some measuring of the sections to figure out how many rows to do before adding them. Actually, I don’t need to do that. All I need is another piece the same size as what I’ve already done. The hexagons, triangles and squares are all 1 1/4 inch finished sides. Once again, thank you to all who sent squares so that I could continue with the quilt. 

I’ll link up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching and then maybe go do some measuring and figuring.

What we are working on

 We had multiple projects come to a finish yesterday. We have found over the past few years that the quilts we have a hard time keeping up with are those that are needed by men, especially men who are/were very outdoors orientated. So we try to keep some outdoors themed quilts on hand. Most of the time, as soon as we have one of them done, it is gifted out. So our focus lately has been to get more of them done. We also have found that they are the ones that do well for selling as fund raisers. We finished 2 tops and their backings yesterday that will fit either of those uses.  We’ll get them layered next week. We have a couple more of these beautiful animal panels to do. The Star Trek quilt is fully finished, with a fun star themed binding. And then Janet found a partially finished baby quilt in our to-be-worked-on pile and added a couple of borders and then did the quilting to finish it. The borders took it from “meh” to wonderful.

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

Slow Sunday Stitching

 My evenings this past week have been taken up with stitching on Connections. Thank you to those who sent me some of their 2 inch scrap squares. You have increased the connections found in this quilt and enabled me to keep going with it. I’m sure I have enough now to be able to finish it to a reasonable usable size, most likely a lap quilt to perhaps use next winter. It currently measures about 29 inches long by about 42 inches wide. I’m working now on adding the single row to join these 2 sections. After that I’ll likely start a new section and perhaps make the next ones longer. Although, thinking about it again, 60 inches long is a good lap quilt length. I have lots of time before needing to make that decision. For now, it is just fun. 

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

What we’re working on

 This is going to be a very quick post. I only have one photo, of the finished Star Trek top. we didn’t get a lot of sewing done yesterday. Almost as soon as w got to the church at about 1 pm yesterday, the power went out. Marg had a thermos of hot water and some tea brought from her house just down the street and we had a relaxing and fun tea time. When the power wasn’t back on by just before 3, we decided to call it quits and go home. And of course, that’s when the power came back on. In the time between 3 pm and 5:30 pm we layered 7 quilts. The backings all needed to be pressed which is why we couldn’t do them while the power was out.  Anyhow, here’s the Star Trek quilt.  It is one that was layered yesterday. I’ve brought it home and will get it quilted sometime this week. I’ll link up to Finished, or not, Friday

What we are working on

 I have 1 quilt top finish and 2 progress photos to share today. There are quite a few more that are so close. I hope to have photos of those next week. We are hoping to do a mammoth layering session next week. But for today there is this lovely piece that Janet finished on Thursday. The colours in the body of the quilt were chosen based on the colours in the border. And then I have a progress photo of the Star Trek quilt. It is one of those that I hope will be finished by Thursday. It just needs a few more borders added.

Over 10 years ago I started the McKenna Ryan quilt called Aurora Ridge. I pulled it out a couple of months ago and started back in on it. It is now all quilted, free motion on my domestic machine in a quilt as I go style, one block at a time. It is all sewn together now. There is a cover strip left to hand stitch down along the long crosswise seam on the back. And then it will get some borders. This is going to be used as a fund raiser for our Prayers and Squares group. 

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

Stay at Home Round Robin

 Today is the day when those of us who participated in the Stay at Home Round Robin post our finished quilt tops. I had hoped to have the quilting finished as well, but that didn’t happen. Too many other projects got in the way, along with weather preventing getting to the church and a bout of illness too. There are a bunch of quilts that are going to need layering soon, so we will probably do a marathon layering day. But in the meantime, the top is done. I am so happy with it. What a great way to spend the long winter weeks, planning and executing and then looking forward to the next prompt. I hope to be able to participate in this yearly, God willing. The centre block was an old orphan project. All of the fabrics came from my stash or the stash from our Prayers and Squares group. This will end up as a donated quilt to that group. 

I’m linking up to the finished SAHRR parade. There are so many unique quilts there, all based on the same prompts, each one so very different. I have a strong affinity to symmetry, as my quilt very definitely shows. But I am very drawn to the ones in the parade that are asymmetrical. Somehow, I don’t seem to be able to do it, but I do like looking at them. Maybe that will be next year’s challenge to myself, go way outside my comfort zone and do asymmetrical. 

Slow Sunday Stitching

 I’m continuing to work on my two current EPP projects. I have others that are UFOs buried in a bin. At least I know where they are. I’ll likely get back to them at some point, even if it is to combine them with something else. I spent some time earlier this week adding some flattened hexagons to my six point stars for the Willyne Hammerstein pattern Flower Power. And then, because I got responses from my call for 2 inch squares, I’ve spent the rest of the week basting those squares to their papers and stitching more Connections units. Thank you to all of you who responded.It is so much fun to play with someone else’s fabrics. I haven’t touched my cross stitch lately. I’m thinking of picking it back up once the weather warms up and I’m able to stitch outside. Of course being outside actually means inside of a screened tent shelter to provide protection from those nasty biting black fly critters, the one and only down side to living in Muskoka.

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

What We’re Working On

 We had the full complement of our Prayers and Squares ladies present yesterday, so it was a good time to finally do our demonstration of Foundation Paper Piecing. Janet, Barbara and Marg participated. And by the end of the day they had the letters for the Star Trek quilt finished. Pat worked on another quilt which isn’t far enough along for pictures. And Susan worked on the last of the fabric organizing. Sharon was there as well and also worked on a quilt, but no pictures of that one either. So far the finished pieces of the Star Trek quilt look like this. There is one more of the Alpha symbols to finish and then the whole thing can be put together. All of the paper pieced components of this quilt came from the website Fandom in Stitches. I’m hoping to have the top finished by next week so we can then get it layered and ready for quilting. Although thinking of it now, I’m not sure if we have anything that will work for backing. How sad..... We’ll need to go shopping... LOL. Something with stars on it seems like it would be good for it. 

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

Slow Sunday Stitching

 It was such a lovely day on Friday that my husband and I went on a drive to Minden, about 90 minutes from home to do a bit of fabric refreshing. There is a quilt shop there called Remember Me Quilts and More. It is owned by the loveliest, friendliest lady. I needed border fabrics for the McKenna Ryan Aurora Ridge quilt that is hopefully on the fast track to being finished. And then I wanted some bright and happy fabric that I could semi-fussy cut for a new EPP project. I seem to have renewed my obsession with EPP. It’s a Willyne Hammerstein design from her third book called Flower Power. I’ve gotten a start on the centre stars. I’ve cut them stack and whack style rather than true fussy cutting. I didn’t want any more fabric swiss cheese and I think this will work. There is lots of motion in these, which is what I was hoping for. 

I’ve had to put my Connections project into time out. I’ve run out of 2 inch squares. Originally, the squares came from some of my friends at the London Friendship Quilters Guild, which led to the name Connections. Would any of you reading this be willing to send me a small envelope of 2 inch squares so I can continue this project? Nothing big, perhaps just enough to fit into a regular envelope that can go in the regular mail. That would be so much fun. If so, contact me at caleeshepherd at gmail.com and I’ll send you my address. Don’t leave it in the comments as I likely won’t be able to respond. So many comments now come through as no-reply. Thank you in advance, so much. 

The really big news for here though, for the slow stitching, is that I’ve finished My Tweets. It  is trimmed and waiting on binding. I took it with me to the church on Thursday to spread it out on the big tables to trim it and then laid it out on the floor for a picture. I’m going to bind it in the same fabric as the sashing/border so it won’t look too much different than this when it is done.

Anyhow, it is time to get this day fully started. So I’ll link up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching and then get to it.