What we are working on

 Our Prayers and Squares group are so close to a couple of finishes. The Scrappy Stripes quilt now has its binding sewn to the front. It just needs the hand sewing to the back to declare it finished.

 The Woodland Panels quilt has all its borders on and quilted now. The binding is made and ready to sew on. 

The purples and pinks with aqua accents is coming along and almost ready to sew together.

And we started a new project. It’s a Maple Leaf quilt done with Toronto Maple Leafs fabric. It has a recipient already selected who is a large Maple Leaf hockey fan.

And then there is the Atlanta Garden sampler quilt that I’ve been working on at home. Four rows are completely sewn together and quilted. The fifth row is all sewn together but it still needs its sashing pieces quilted before I can add it to the main body. I have a small amount of baking to do today but I’m hoping to get the quilt finished in between the timer on the oven.

I’ll link up to Mid Week Makers

What We’re Working on

 We finished another quilt this past week, other than the hand stitching on the binding. And I’m making good progress on the Atlanta Garden Sampler, where the blocks are available on Barbara Brackman’s Civil War blog and also here on her Etsy shop. I’ve gone a little rogue on this one. I didn’t like November’s block and December’s is going to have curved pieced Drunkard’s Path type blocks which I didn’t want to do. So I substituted a couple from the Electric Quilt libraries. I've started on the quilt as you go process, using pieced sashing between the blocks to carry over the turquoise found in the centre of each block. As usual, the quilting process is slow going, but so much easier on the neck and shoulders and back than doing the quilting all at once on a big quilt. This one is going to measure 62 x 62 inches square when done. I was hoping to get more done on this one today, but there was a snow squall warning out for our area so school was cancelled. The original alternate plan because of the snow day was for Abbie and I to do some baking of muffins. But somehow the "Abbie and I" ended up just “I" as she decided playing with Papa was more fun. She may have been right. I did up 3 different muffin recipes.... Pumpkin Chocolate Chip and Blueberry Oatmeal both of which got baked up. Then I mixed up a batch of Six Week Raisin Bran muffins to go in the fridge to bake up in the next few weeks. And now I’m all tuckered out. 

I’ll link up to Mid Week Makers.

What We’re Working on

 We made great progress last week in our Prayers and Squares projects. The woodland theme row quilt is ready for trimming and its side borders. There is a quilt using various shades of pinks and purples accented with aqua in the works. The sampler quilt got its binding finished and is now on its way to be a blessing to someone. And the Flying X quilt that I’ve been working on here at home is ready to have the hand work done on the backing strips to finish off the quilt as you go. Here’s the full layout of it, before the sashing strips were added. And how it looks with one row all together with one of the long sashing strips added . I think this has become my favourite way to do quilting now. Today I am going to work on finishing the blocks for a BOM sampler I started back in January sponsored by Barbara Brackman called Atlanta Garden. I took a picture of it last week and am hoping to get all the blocks for the earth tone version at least, finished today.

What we are working on

 Progress on our Prayers and Squares projects has definitely been one step forward, two steps back this past week. We had all the rows of the woodland creatures quilt sewn together last week. We laid it out on the floor to get pictures only to find that one set of rows was sewn on upside down. That was a very definite grrrrrrr  moment. So no pictures of that this week. Our scrappy strippy piece is ready for borders to go on the top and bottom and then it can get its binding on and be declared done. And the quilt I am working on at home has all of the blocks finished and the quilting started on the individual blocks. This isn’t its final layout. It will have 1 1/2 inch sashing and cornerstones in between the blocks. And that’s where the next steps backward happened. The front looks great. The back, not so much, This is the second time today I’ve made this mistake which is why I decided to take a break and write a blog post. Time to get out the seam ripper. Right after I link up with Mid week Makers.

What we’re working on

 Once again there wasn't enough progress made in our group projects for photos. There is still hand sewing happening on the backs of the quilt as you go projects. And another one needed some repairs done on a panel that was too short. The quilt as you go process is a fairly new one to all of us so we are learning as we go. There should be some good progress made tomorrow which should result in some pictures of near finishes. Three of us did a road trip down to the quilt shop in Minden yesterday called Remember
Me Quilts and More. Their prices are really good and they have a good sized clearance section that makes for great prices for backings for all these quilts. 

In the meantime I’ve done some more sewing on the blocks that I am working on here at home. I have 12 done now. These will also be done quilt as you go style. I have 8 more blocks to do. They are an Electric quilt block called Flying X. They are simple to do and go together quite quickly. I won’t get a chance to get back to it before Friday though. I’m heading out today to a friend’s place to make a couple of batches of tomato sauce out of the tomatoes that came from the summer garden and also that I bought in 25 pound boxes from the grocery store. They have been stored since then in the freezer, but we need the freezer space emptied, so it’s time to get it made up. 

I’ll link up to Mid Week Makers and then I’d best get busy and get together all the stuff I need for that tomato sauce marathon.

What we are working on

 At our Prayers and Squares group we are continuing to work on getting a couple of projects to the finish point. I don’t have a new picture of the woodland quilt since there was hand work to be done on the backing before it could progress any further. The scrappy stripes is getting closer to being done and might get finished this week. It has two rows left to add and the top and bottom border. Because it is quilt as you go, there are seams to be finished by hand on the back. 

As well as working on these projects during our Thursday afternoons, I’ve been doing a sampler independently at home. I love making samplers. It is finished, except for the hand stitching on the back and the binding. It will go off to one of the other ladies for this stage of its being. 

And then, just because I got new fabrics in the mail, I had to start another one that will also go to the Prayers and Squares ministry. It is a very simple block from the Electric Quilt libraries called "Flying X" made from 3 1/2 inch strips. The blocks go together very quickly and let the fabrics shine. They are from a collection called “Backyard”. I very rarely ever buy fabrics that are all from one collection. But this one really called to me and I couldn’t resist.

I will link up to Mid Week Makers, finish my second cup of coffee and then get back to more sewing. We got our first snowfall of the season overnight, at least a couple of inches, so it is a good day to stay indoors and play with fabrics and needles and thread.

What we are working on

 I remembered last week at our Prayers and Squares group to stop shortly after 4 pm and take some pictures. It’s a good thing I remembered because, even though I set my phone to go off at about 4:10, I forgot to push the save button, so it didn’t go off. We are working on 2 different quilt as you go projects at the church along with the sampler I am working on at home.

On one of our shopping trips to a little quilt shop in Minden called Remember Me Quilts and More we found a beautiful border print showing forests and animals similar to what happens here in Muskoka. We have paired the border prints with some friendship stars and some wonderful bright blue fabric.

 Here’s a close up.  It’s almost finished. 

We are also working on a scrappy quilt using 2 1/2 inch strips and squares. It still has quit a way to go yet before it is finished. 

The sampler quilt I am doing at home is making good progress. All the blocks are done and quilted. All the sashing units are finished and I’ve started putting it all together. A few more days should see it finished and ready for hand stitching and binding.

I’m linking up to Mid week makers.

What we are working on

 It’s been a while since I did a “working on” post. Our Prayers and Squares group has been meeting and working on stuff all summer. Mostly it was on just one quilt.... an Economy Block wedding quilt. It is finally finished and I think it has been delivered to the newly weds. I am having trouble consistently getting pictures of what we are working on. We have so much fun every Thursday afternoon that time flies very quickly and before we know it the time to pack up comes around, not leaving time to lay things out for pictures. Maybe I should set my alarm for 4 pm on Thursday to remind me to get pictures.... good idea. I’ll try it this week.  However, with the cold weather coming around creating more time to spend indoors, I have been working on quilt blocks at home again. I had thought I wouldn’t be able to do that because I had taken all my quilting fabrics over to the church where our Prayers and Squares group meets. Imagine my delight when I remembered a tote of fabric that I had stored under the bed and then discovered another smaller tote tucked away on a shelf. Between those two fabric sources was enough to do a sampler. Perhaps even more than one.  I love doing samplers. Making one block at a time, using a colour theme and doing more challenging blocks that take some time and thought. I have 11 out of 12 blocks done. Hopefully today will see the 12th block done and then I will start on making the pieced sashing and cornerstones. 

I will link up to Mid Week Makers.

What we’re working on

 Our prayers and squares group are working on an Economy Block quilt for a wedding gift. We are doing it as a quilt as you go, assembling the blocks into rows and then quilting the row before sewing the rows together. It is turning out to be quite striking. I love the secondary design of the stars that is starting to show up now that we have a few more rows laid out. We were able to get all 11 rows of blocks sewn together yesterday. So now we are working on finishing quilting the rows and then sewing them together and getting the seams on the back covered with the cover strips. A few more weeks should see this one finished.