Fireburst Mystery Update.

     I don't know about you but I get tired of working on the same project forever and ever. This could explain why it takes me forever to get things done.  Anyhow it is no surprise that after making two additional blocks for the Quilters Planner sampler quilt I took a break to work on something else.

     I'm all caught up with the Fireburst Mystery quilt along.  When I first learned to make flying geese I learned the four at a time method which is very popular with many quilters.  Now that I have made them using the traditional method in both this quilt and the QP sampler I can say that I much prefer this traditional way of making them as the results are more accurate.

     I've had to cut back a bit on my sewing.  I spent two days in a row babysitting the boys and my back has been complaining.  I'm hoping to get in with an osteopath but they all seem to be booked up. So I'll just have to get by with my stretches I guess.  

     I'm still hoping to get the QP quilt top finished by the end of the month, although I am sneaking in a day to visit my daughter in the big city of Toronto on Saturday.  

     Please hold Toronto in your thoughts as there was a mass shooting there on Sunday night.  This happened in the neighbourhood where my sister and her daughter and partner just bought a house. Emma and Cam had been at a patio on the street where the shooting occurred and left to go home 15 minutes before the gunman arrived.  These things are just so hard to process and knowing that the two people who died where just 18 and 10 years old is heartbreaking.  

     I don't want to leave you on that sad note so I'll share with you that Eli is walking!  Just a couple of steps at a time but he thinks he is all that and then some.  He is also learning some words, all the important B words like ball and block and book and bubble along with the important people words like mommy and daddy and nana and grandaddy and grandmommy.  Juice and shoes are in the vocabulary as well.  

     I'm off to link up with Let's Bee Social and
Main Crush Monday ( even though it's Tuesday)
and for the first time with the Chameleon's Colour Party

A Group Finish for TGIFF

    

      Last year Sandra at MMMQuilts held her first quilt along, using her own pattern Free Fall.  I didn't  feel  I had the time to complete the quilt on my own, so I convinced my friends Cyndy and Wendy to work along with me to complete one quilt. We managed to get our flimsy done for the final link up. My friend Wendy has finished the quilting and as she has no blog I'm sharing the finish with you, on behalf of the three of us. 

     We purchased the background fabric and the fabric for the shadow leaf and we used fabrics from our collective stashes for the smaller leaves.  We extended the length of the quilt a bit and continued adding leaves in a kind of swirling pattern.

    The background of the quilt was quilted with slightly curved lines with a walking foot.  I loaned my hip curve ruler to Wendy for marking the lines.  She continued the quilting using  a free motion meander in the shadow leaf and  she quilted veins in some of the smaller leaves.  She did an awesome job, don't you think?

     We used a light dotted fabric for the quilt back, and Wendy chose a nice light green for the binding. Both the backing and the binding complement the front quite nicely.  I think it's a really beautiful quilt.

     We are donating this quilt to our local guild to be used for fundraising, along with another lap sized quilt and a whole load of mini quilts all made by guild members.  This will happen at our Quilt Show in September.  Somebody will be lucky enough to go home with it.  Thanks to Sandra for her great quilt design and for hosting a fun quilt along .  I'm linking the post up with Thank Goodness I's Finished Friday which is hosted this week by Andree at Quilting and Learning, What a Combo.  I'll be away from home babysitting my favourite boys on Friday ,so I'll check out the other finishes in the evening or on the weekend.

Sampler Update

     Ah summer in Southern Ontario, it's kind of like being in a steam room.  It's perfect for hanging around doing nothing but not so perfect for getting things done.  I've been doing my fair share of nothing, sitting on a chair in the shade in my backyard contemplating trees and bird song, but I have deadlines so I have been sewing as well.

     Here are the latest two blocks for my Quilters Planner Sampler Quilt.  They are fraternal twins. It's fun to see two different versions of the same block. There are quite a number of fraternal twins in the larger version of the quilt and I have to say that I have had fun figuring out what fabrics to use to try and differentiate the blocks.

     I took this photo last night of all the blocks I've completed so far.  Placement at the moment is random and only the one block has sashing so far, but you get the idea.  There are four blocks left followed by the sashing and the triangles to fill in the space.

     Sampler quilts take a bit more time to put together than quilts with one or two repetitive blocks. The cutting gets done block by block and it's difficult to chain piece.  Some of the blocks have come together quite easily but some have been a bit of a challenge.  I welcome the challenging blocks because they are skill builders.

       The 2018 Quilters Planner quilt is designed by Cheryl Brickey of Meadowmist Designs.  The quilting god's have decided to align my quilting life with Cheryl's as I won two of her patterns in the Mid Year Review link up held by Yvonne of Quilting Jet Girl!  Lucky Me!  Now I just need to retire so I can work my way through all my patterns.  Oh the quilty bucket list just builds and builds.

    And while I am on the topic of the Quilter's Planner I will give a shout out to two Canadian Sources that I know carry the planner.  They would be Mad About Patchwork and Clinton Modern Creative.  Both have pre book specials on right now.  

I'll be linking up with Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilts for Let's Bee Social.

     
     

Third Quarter Goals for the 2018 Finish Along

     It's time to link up the third quarter goals and I am happy to say that I managed three finishes last quarter and I'm feeling optimistic.  My local guild is having a non juried quilt show in the fall and I've have three quilts that I am hoping to finish up to enter into the show. Technically I've already entered them but if they aren't done I can pull them.  So I'm hoping to finish these first three quilts in order to get them into the show.

1.  The Quilters Planner quilt along quilt.  These are the latest three blocks I have made for this quilt.  I'm making the on point version.  There are 17 blocks in total and I have 11 completed which leaves 6 more blocks, sashing and setting triangles.  This one is booked in with Mary to be quilted on her long arm at the end of the month so that deadline should spur me along.

2.  Postcard from Sweden.  I have the top done and I'm planning to quilt this one myself with my walking foot.   I hope the snow in this picture cools you down.

3.  Mango Smoothie.  This is my Wayward Transparency quilt top.  To be honest this one is stressing me out a little.  I love this quilt top and I'm hoping I don't screw it up when I quilt it with my walking foot.  I also think it would look awesome hanging in a show.  Look more snow to cool us down.  Is it as hot where you are?

     These are the projects I know I will be working on, but I always like to toss in a bunch more possibilities as maybes if I have the time.  So here goes.

4.  The Quilters Planner bag.  Honestly I should just get this one done so I can take it off the list.  Are you getting sick of seeing it yet?

5.  There's the Celestial Plus baby quilt that might draw me to practice some free motion qulting on it.

6.  And there's a challenge for my Modern Guild using Swhe swhe fabric.  I can't show you anything for this one as it has to be top secret so I'll show you some other Swhe Swhe fabric for fun.

Well that's quite the list, but I am ever hopeful.  I'm linking this list up to the 3rd Quarter Finish Along link up and also to the Let's Bee Social link up.

Mid Year Review

 

   It's time to get real.  It's half way through 2018 and time to look back at the goals for the year and see how things are going.  

     So let's have a look at those goals.

Quilting Goals

1.  Continue playing with colour and fabric and quilting techniques like improv and maybe some bias strips. Step one for this goal will to be to set aside a time each week to focus on this kind of play.  I've got some ideas I'd like to play with and I love this type of work so it needs space.   (I have not made the space for this goal at all. But I did check some art type books out from the library last week so there is always hope.)

2.   Continue to work on free motion and walking foot quilting techniques.  I'm planning on joining Jess of Quilty Habit in her FMQ QAL.  I'm not sure if I'll do a quilt as you go, or just work on the assignments. ( at first glance I thought I was failing miserably here but then I realized  I have been practicing these skills as I finish quilts, just not with the quilt along.)

3.  Complete at least three of my Craftsy Classes.  Since most of these are quilting classes, this will help me to work on goal number 2. as well. (Not getting a lot done here either, but I am excited to say that I will be in one of Christina Camelli's classes at Quilt Con so I am motivated now.)

4.  Complete at least 6 quilts. I've got two baby quilts to finish and I will be making a wedding quilt as well.  ( O.K.   Here's where I am rocking it!  I've finished four quilts so far this year so I am ahead on this goal!)

Blogging Goals

1.  Continue to aim for 2 posts a week.  This is a big goal given that I didn't manage even one a week last year. But my life circumstances have changed somewhat so it might be do able.  ( Honestly I set this goal at two a week hoping I can get one a week done, and I'm doing o.k. here)
2.  Share more of the community outreach work on the blog. That should help with the goal 1 for this section. ( Yes I've been doing this)

Personal Goals
1.  Spend time with my sister doing fun things. (Well we did go to the spa once.)
2.  Go to the Art Gallery in Toronto more often ( Nope)
3.  Figure out some better cooking, cleaning and eating strategies.(Nope)
4.  Get back to daily goal setting and reflection. (Daily is not going to happen.)

     As I look to my goal setting for the rest of the year I have a confession to make.  I am a procrastinator. If you are one as well and you feel shame around this I want you to go here and listen to this interview.   I've heard it twice on CBC radio and it is very insightful.  My main take away, is that I'm deadline driven not task driven.  That is why when I saw that Christina Camelli would be teaching at quilt con I went to one of my Craftsy classes and started to work on it again.  Now that I have gotten in to one of her classes I am motivated to keep on with it.  I've got to get those skills up before the class.  ( Yes I managed to get into a Christina Camelli class and I am super excited!)

     I'm thinking I need deadlines for my future goal setting and I'm going to give it a whirl here.  My goals for the next 6 months.

Quilting Goals:

1.  Set one play day for July and one play day for August.  Evaluate after that and see how it goes moving forward.

2.  Complete the two Christina Camelli Craftsy classes by the end of the year.

3.  Continue to work on quilting skills as I finish my own quilts.

4.  Continue working on quilt completion and surprise myself with how many I complete above 6.

I'll leave the blogging goals as they stand.

Personal Goals:  This one is so hard.

1.  Spending time with my sister is a bit hard because it is also dependant upon her and her life is still in flux.  So I'll make a goal to see her once in the summer and see where things go in the Fall after my nephew gets married.

2.  Go to the Art Gallery once each month in the summer.

3.  Develop the habit of doing the 5 minute pickup each day.
Work towards bringing my lunch to work each day. Come up with a reward for reaching these goals.

4.  Set goals for the week. Move daily reflection to the evening.

     Well I'm ready to move ahead and we will see how things go for the rest of the year.  I'm linking up with Yvonne for the Mid Year Review link up.   







     


     

     

     

Happy Canada Day and July OMG goal.

     Happy Canada Day everyone!  As we are in the middle of a heat and humidity wave Dwight and I are planning to spend most of the day inside.  Our daughter was home for the last two days which was great.  She is such an easy person to spend time with and she worked on a couple of plant projects that I haven't managed to get around to: trimming and staking the cherry tomato plant she gave me and major surgery on an orchid.

     June turned out to be a much busier month than I had anticipated and I did not manage to meet my OMG goal.  I did find time in the last few days of the month to get 1/2 of the goal done and added these three blocks to the mix.  I have decided to continue with this quilt for July and complete the entire top by July's end.  This may seem crazy as I didn't get too far in June, but I will be making this quilt be my priority and I've made a date with a long armer for the end of the month, so there is some added incentive.  So I'm linking this post up to the OMG linkup for July and we'll see in a months time if I was successful.