It's been a long time since I've been here. What started out as computer issues, followed by tendonitis which made it hard to cut fabric, followed by the pandemic has gotten me out of the habit of posting here although I do post on instagram. Now we are into summer and gardening so we will see.
I am here today to share my completed top for the Push Pull Quilt Along hosted by Yvonne of quiltingjetgirl. I made the lap sized version of this very striking pattern and I really love the yellows used in this combination of fabrics. I completed the top a while ago but I held off on posting because I was thinking I might quilt it before the end of June. I have made a start but it will be a long while until I am finished. Because we are advised to not spend time indoors with others I have no access to the shared sitdown longarm so I am using my domestic machine. It's going well, but it will be slower.
I'm linking this short post up with thepushpull linkup . I hope you are all keeping well.
This month the linkup at Sarah Goer Quilts is show me something with triangles and I have something to share.
I participated in the instagram sew along held by Nicholas Ball of @quiltsintheattic. Here's my finished quilt top.
This sew along was a lot of fun and I was able to use up several scraps and left over chunks of fabric as well as learning a couple of new improv techniques. This week our task is to quilt and bind our quilt and I think I can manage that sticking to walking foot quilting.
I chose to do a scrappy version with low volume background but many people (maybe most) did colour blocking which is also very interesting and something I may play around with in future.
I have had a set back with my tendonitis, which I think is because I did a fair bit of cutting for the Push Pull quilt along. I'm sad to say that I think I am going to have to set aside the rotary cutter for a few weeks to see if things can clear up. This has put me in a bit of a slump along with the fact that it is February.
I am going to have to find a new way to amuse myself and use my creative juices. There is only so much reading I can do and going for walks and going to the gym only take up so much time.
One thing I can do sewing wise, is garment sewing as the scissors don't seem to be as much of a problem. As a matter of fact I am going to Wendy's this afternoon to finish dress number 2 from 100 Acts of Sewing and to cut out a second one. In my case they are tunics. Usually when I go to Wendy's I work on the sit down long arm but my wrist/hand has me avoiding that at the moment as well.
I get to babysit my grandkids on Friday and on Saturday we are having Christmas in February with my sister and her children and grandchildren. There are two new babies to meet! There is lots to look forward to. Linking with the Show Me Something with Triangles linkup.
Hello there. We were having computer issues again and I am reluctant to say they are all fixed (don't want to jinx anything here)...but I am hoping so. So I missed the link up for the January goal. My goal had been to get half the rows sewn together for the City Harbour quilt. I exceeded the goal well before the end of the month and here are some quick picks I took today of the completed quilt top.
Cheri House designed this quilt with the goal of using several colours which are similar in colour and value. It's two alternating vertical rows. To avoid having the quilt top curve I sewed the two rows in pairs sewing from teal to bright blue and then sewed those units together sewing from bright blue towards teal.
I am really happy that I chose this goal for January and that the got the quilt top finished as the kit for this quilt has been in my stash for years and years. It feels good to be using some of my stash and not just buying new things for each project that I do.
But on to February. My piecing goal will be to catch up with the Push Pull Quilt Along hosted by Yvonne of Quilting Jetgirl and finish piecing one by the end of the month. Due to the computer issue I have not been able to access the cutting instructions so here is a picture of my lovely uncut fabric.
Doesn't all that yellow just make you happy! This will be my one monthly goal for February. I will continue to work on my quilting of the stacked coins quilt if I am able to and I am going to make myself a purple tunic. I'm hoping to get it done this weekend when I have a weekend away with my friends.
I am not sure how much blogging I will be able to do as I have an inflamed tendon in my right hand and typing is not the best. Linking up with Patty of Elm Street Quilts for the February OMG linkup.
I have been sewing quite a bit lately but I'm working on so many things at once that I haven't gotten things to a point where I have much to share. So I thought I would share some progress.
One of my goals this year is to play more and it is my intention to spend some time each Wednesday playing with fabric and exploring something for myself.
I have been wanting to play around with log cabins for a while and I made this piece improvisationally, meaning I figured out what I was doing as I went along. I chose to work with my purple scraps so I could share my work with Sarah Goer's new link up Show Me Something....which for this month is Show Me Something Purple. I'll see if I get the project a little farther along before I link it up.
Showing up for Creative Play on Wednesdays has been an interesting and insightful process. When I work with improvisation I work really slowly, thinking about each piece as I cut and place it. It puts me in a different zone and I really love it. You would think that I would jump at the chance to do this. But no I have to push my self to start and then I love it. There is a part of me that just wants to finish up those other routine projects that are waiting in the wings.
I also have to make sure that I take that time for me and that I don't give it up. One week I gave up the time to get some housework done before my husbands cousin came to stay with us. I told myself I would have plenty of time to work the creative play into the weekend, but things came up and it didn't happen.
I have also been working on the Mosaic Mystery and here are the blocks slapped up on the design wall. I just wanted to share a glimpse here. I still have a couple of blocks to do before I put the top together.
And this lovely pile represents my progress on my One Monthly Goal . I've actually exceeded the goal and I think I can get the whole quilt top done before the end of the month.
This project is City Harbour and it is from the book City Quilts,by Cheri House.
I have no photos to share but I have been working on free motion quilting the stacked Coins Quilt and making slow but steady progress. Although at the rate I am going it will take me forever to get it done so I may need to work out some extra time on Sweet 16 into my schedule. I have been practising using the ruler for straight lines and going over several repeating motifs in the coins. I'll try to remember to bring something I can take a good picture with when I go to Wendy's next Tuesday.
So that's my progress for now. I hope to have at least some completed quilt tops to share for next week.
Lisa
It's time for me to choose a goal for January and I have decided to borrow something Rebecca Grace is doing on her blog Cheeky Cognoscenti. She gives herself one piecing goal, one quilting goal and one garment making goal. I am going to give myself a goal in each of these areas as well, but I will choose one to be my OMG.
My quilting goal will be to make headway on my stacked coins quilt. My garment making goal is to cut out the pattern pieces for the Emerson Pants and my piecing goal which will be my OMG for January is to cut out the pieces for the City Harbour Quilt and sew 1/2 the rows.
This may not seem like a big goal but there are several other projects keeping me busy this month as well and I am scheduled to work one Saturday which eats up one whole day of sewing.
One reason for choosing this project for my goal is that I am trying to use up more of my stash. As I just ordered fabric for Yvonne's Push Pull Quilt Along and for the Quilters Planner Quilt Along, I decided I better jump into making something from the stash. I want to set up good habits early in the year. Making up this quilt seems like a good start and I think it will come together quickly.
This past weekend I put together two quilt backs entirely from stash and I am using some fabric from my stash for the Planner quilt but the fabric buying is higher than the fabric used so far.
Speaking of habits, I am also using my planner to pencil in times during my week for doing specific things. I can see how spending most of my Tuesday afternoons working on the sit down long arm has improved my quilting skills and confidence so I am planning creative play time on Wednesday mornings and a time on Friday mornings to make myself healthy snacks. Time will tell If I can stick to these plans or if I need to work out something else.
I'm linking my post to the January OMG linkup over at Patty's blog.
We have entered that time of the year in southern Ontario where it is getting hard to get decent photos of our quilts and this year it is even harder as our usual snow covering has been replaced with rain and dampness. But I am excited to share this finish with you because it has been a long time in the making.
This is my version on the Penny Patch quilt. I started it in 2013 ( I think) in a quilt along with Rachel Houser of Stitched in Color. This was the first quilt along I joined in and it is pre blog. Rachel shared really good tips on choosing colours and getting balance in the quilt. I learned a lot about colour from participating and I think those lessons have done me well. I'm looking forward to purchasing Rachels book The Quilters Field Guide to Color in the near future.
I finished the quilt top in May of 2015 and it sat in the to be quilted pile until October when I quilted it on the Sweet 16.
It's lightly quilted with the dogwood pattern that Rachel used on her original quilt. I used a 50 weight light pink Aurifil thread and a Hobbs 80/20 batting.
There are so many things I love about this quilt. I love the balance of colours and I love that the background is a mixture of low volume neutrals, white, cream and grey. I also love that my quilting is improving and that my enjoyment of the quilting process has moved from fear to confidence.
I'll be linking this finish up to Brag about your Beauties, to TGIFF which is hosted at Devoted Quilter this week, and I think it qualifies for the 4th quarter FAL so I'll link up with Sarah Goer Quilts as well. But if it doesn't, no worries. The original post is here.
It's time to pick my top five for Cheryl's end of the year linkup. It's a bit of a difficult task for me this year as I didn't manage as many finishes this year. Cheryl leaves it up to us to pick what we want to share. So here goes.
1. Katrina's quilt.
I made this quilt quickly for my friend and previous co worker Katrina when I got back from Quilt Con. I heard that she had pancreatic cancer and I wanted to quickly wrap her in a quilty hug. Katrina loved her quilt and I managed to visit with her twice before she passed away taking a couple of my co workers with me. I feel blessed that I was able to share this quilt with her to give her some comfort in her last days and I hope that it is giving comfort to one of her relatives now.
2. Minimalist Friendship Star
I designed this minimalist star myself and I am happy that I managed to find the time in a busy year to do something for myself, by taking the time to design something and make it.
3. I really like the process in making this Charlie Harper Runner for my boss. It's simple but I put it together slowly and improvisationally....my favourite method.
4. Last year my two friends and I bought a sit down long arm ( or midarm depending on who you are) and I have been having a blast working through some of my backlog of quilts.
This is the first of my personal quilts ( not the guilds) that I quilted on the machine. It's a quilt that I really love and it is on the bed in the spare room. The pattern is Grande Scrappy Tiles by Cheryl Brickey.
5. I really really love the Modern Rice Pouch designed by KZStevens and I had a lot of fun making the two that I made. I did have to google how to attach a square base into a tube but it wasn't that hard in the end.
I hope to make a few more in the new year along with the Modern Boro zipper pouch and the project bag. It was fun using up items in the stash and learning a few new tricks.
I am linking up with Cheryl for the Best of 2019 linky and I am wishing us all lots of fun and sewing success in the New Year.
