Checkerboard Quilt Done!

 I finished hand stitching the binding on my checkerboard quilt earlier in the week and then today, my quilt holder did his part for the photoshoot.  It was windy outside today, so we picked a sheltered spot on the back patio.  Finn watched from the back door--he really wanted to come out to participate in the photo shoot!  This quilt was started last year as part of Debbie Brown's Colour Block Challenge on Facebook--I had a lot of black and white scraps to use up and made 25 sixteen patches for this quilt.  Yes--I still have more black and white scraps, but this one put a good dent in the scrap bin.  Even in the sheltered spot, the wind still made the quilt move around a bit--you will have to take my word for it that the edges are straight!

You can see Finn peeking out the window in this picture. 

I spent quite a bit of time this week sorting some of my selvages in to bags by colour. This is no easy task as I have been accumulating this large collection of selvages for a long time.  Most of these came from my own fabric but some have been gifted to me over the years. 

I'm hoping they will be easier to use in my projects if they are more organized!  As you know, one of my Rainbow Scrap Challenge projects this year uses selvages.  April's colour is pink and this is not a colour I use a lot in my quilts.  I originally started digging in the bin to find more pink selvages so I could make my blocks but one thing led to another, and soon I was sorting great fistfuls of selvages into bags.  I even threw some out --mostly because they were too narrow to be useful.  I cut my selvages 1 1/4 to 1 1/2 inches wide so that some of the fabric shows along with the selvage. I should be ready now to complete the rest of my selvage blocks each month.  I have not sorted all the selvages yet and hope to continue to do this until I get to the bottom of the bin.   Here are my pink selvage blocks for the RSC: 

I hope to do some more hand appliqué on my house borders of Coming Home this week.  The goal is to finish the doors and windows by the end of the month.  In May, I might be able to get working on the corner blocks for this border--birds, vines and leaves.  I will link up with Kathy and the Slow Sunday Stitchers on Easter Morning. 

My spring flowers are just starting to show some colour this week.  I have some crocuses in bloom and my daffodils are going to burst open any day now. 

Finn noticed a few flowers in the woods when we were out for a walk this week. 

Happy Easter Weekend to everyone who celebrates!

Lots of Slow Stitching Projects Underway!

 I have been working on several slow Sunday stitching projects this week.  I added more windows and doors to the houses in the Coming Home quilt...I still have a few more to stitch down and one complete "street" to cut out and sew.  Some of my houses have extra "personality" with slightly slanted doors and windows...

I put the pompom on my new hat earlier today so it is all ready to wear.  There are still a few days here and there when I will need a hat for my morning walk.  The pattern picture showed the hat with no "turn up" at the bottom edge.  It looks better this way on me. 

I finished quilting my black and white checkerboard quilt and added some black and white striped binding by machine earlier today.  I hope to do some hand stitching on the binding tomorrow...I really enjoy doing this, although some don't. You can see that my assistant is always ready for a photo op. 

I did a bit of embroidery last week but did not blog about it.  I will add more stitches this week, I hope. 

You probably noticed that Finn had a haircut this week...

Before and After:

One final picture of Finn because he's so cute. 

I will link up with Kathy and the Slow Sunday Stitching crew in the morning. 

My Helper

I made a few more batik blocks this week for my Quilt for a Residential School Survivor.  I only have two more blocks to make.  I am contemplating ideas...  Finn likes to "help" while I am sewing, or should I say, trying to sew... 

I am going to make 12 blocks for this quilt--3 of each type.  Here are my three log cabin variation blocks.  I made the bottom one today and the one on the right with the green border earlier in the week. 

I added the orange churn dash block to the collection today.  I just have one star block and one pinwheel block to make and then I can put them together.  I will likely use a solid for sashing and borders. 

I finished knitting my hat this week, after borrowing some double pointed needles from my friend.  I'm working on the pompom. I like the way the top of the hat looks!

I managed to quilt 1/4 of the checkerboard quilt.  I brought it up to the kitchen to get a picture of the quilting so far and my helper arrived to pose for a picture. This quilt is about as big as I will quilt with my walking foot.  Anything bigger can go to a long armer. 

This coming week is looking really busy but I hope to get some time to do some more quilting...maybe even to finish it by next weekend. 

I belong to the book club at our local library. We will be discussing "The Dictionary of Lost Words" by Pip Williams in early April.  Finn is a very good leg warmer while I read, or try to read!  I highly recommend this historical fiction book if you are looking for something good to read.  

For my slow stitching this week, I have dug out my embroidery that I started a while ago and never finished.  I should have some time here and there this week to add some more stitches to this project.  

I will link up with Kathy and the Slow Sunday Stitchers in the morning. I can't believe it will be time to change the calendar to April at the end of this week.  If I could just convince the warmer weather to come and stay...it snowed today.  As far as I am concerned, SNOW is a bad four letter word this time of year!

We Have a Visitor!

Finn is here!  Our daughter is quite busy at work for the next few weeks so we have Finn here to keep us company.  He loves to sit on the back of the couch and keep an eye on the comings and goings outside, as well as watch my husband and I.  Finn likes to keep track of his people.  He's staring at me as I type this blogpost on the computer...obviously, I need supervision!

Finn is not allowed in my sewing room so I have a baby gate up at the doorway so he can still see me but can't get into things in there.  I managed to do some walking foot quilting on my black and white checkerboard quilt after I worked out how to quilt it and marked the beginning of the design on the quilt with a Hera marker.  Now that the first few lines of stitching are done, it will be easy from here on out. I am using fuchsia thread that matches the sashing and border. 

My sewing machine is now in the dining room for the duration of Finn's visit.  This way, I can do a bit of sewing when he is napping.  It feels like having a two year old in the house --I have to keep an eye on what he is getting into all the time and sew during nap time!  I managed to make three more blocks for my Quilt for a Survivor of a Residential School, which several members of the Toronto Modern Guild are making. As a group, we have committed to making 30 quilts for this worthwhile cause.  I am aiming for 12 blocks and will add sashing and a border when the blocks are complete.  A couple of the blocks will be made from four small blocks as you can see in the second row.  I'm using brightly coloured batiks for this quilt--all from my stash. 

I made one more pinwheel block after the group shot above.  

I started making blocks for this quilt in an Improv class with Cheryl Arkison a few weeks ago. We learned different ways to make variations on four different traditional blocks--churn dash, pinwheel, log cabin and sawtooth star.  She encouraged us to just play, which is what I am doing. 

My knitting project, a hat for myself, is stalled until I can borrow some double pointed needles from a friend this week so I can finish off the decreases at the crown.  I have some yarn already for the pompom so I will need to make that this week too. 

I made some additions to my thread collection this past week. The turquoise and orange spools were purchased to replace some that were just about gone--the rest are colours that I did not have before.  

I received a fabric store gift card for my birthday so did a bit of stash enhancement!  --3 yards total.  I still aim to only buy backings and background fabrics for this year, besides this small birthday indulgence! 

More of the Witch Hazel flowers came out this week with the warmer weather.  

I will link up with Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitchers in the morning. Happy International Quilting Day!  I hope everyone had a chance to do a bit of quilting today!

Two Quilt Backs and Some Knitting.

I tackled one of my least favourite parts of making a quilt this past week, not once but twice!  Some people don't like hand stitching the binding but for me the worst task is piecing the backing.  My lupin quilt used 8 yards of fabric for the backing and wrestling all of that fabric through the machine while trying to keep it all from falling on the floor is not fun. BUT, it's done now and ready to take to the long arm quilter's house.  Phew!

A group of friends is participating in our own little UFO challenge.  Getting my lupin quilt ready for the long armer was my February project.  For March, I am hoping to get this quilt to the finish line.  I make the backing this week from fabric that was in my stash. I had to insert a chunk of pink fabric leftover from the front into the backing to make it big enough. There's only three yards of fabric in this backing so it was not such a chore to get the backing made. I made the quilt top last year as part of the Colour Blocks challenge with Debby Brown on Facebook. I pin basted the quilt today on the kitchen floor so it is ready for walking foot quilting this week when the mood strikes.  I have several ideas for quilting floating around in my head and need to settle on one before I get started.  

My Shweshwe HST quilt top is done and I am in search of a suitable backing fabric, preferably from the stash.  I have already decided how this one will be quilted so hopefully, the backing fabric will appear from the depths soon. 

I made a mistake in my hat that I am knitting and could not figure out how to fix it so I ended up ripping all of it out and starting again.  I have made good progress and hope to finish the hat this coming week. I should be able to wear it this year as we still have some days that are cold enough for a hat when I go walking every morning, especially if it is a bit windy. I have a few hats that each work well in different temperature ranges to keep me warm. 

Our daughter sat on the couch to do some work this week so Finn snuggled up with his head on her shoulder to supervise.  He is an excellent neck warmer. 

The first sign of Spring in our garden:  the witch hazel is in bloom, even though it was snowing the day I took this picture. 

I will link up with Kathy and the slow Sunday stitchers in the morning. 

Retreat Report

 Last weekend, I attended a quilting retreat, my first in two years.  Everyone in attendance was double vaccinated and our tables were spaced apart.  I brought along 4 projects plus some mending to work on over the three days of the retreat.  My husband gave me a nifty folding cart for my birthday in February 2020 and this was my first chance to use it since I got it.  With the cart, I was able to bring in all my sewing stuff in one trip as well as my overnight bag. 

My first project was my Buffalo Check Modern Snowflake quilt top.  By the end of the first day, the top was together!  I have already purchased a flannel backing for this quilt so I will be able to take it for long arm quilting soon. 

Next up, I worked on my black and white colour block quilt top.  I made these blocks a few months ago and they got put aside for some reason--it was time to get them made into a top!  I chose to make the sashing and outer border with a fuchsia cross-stitch print.  I like the way the black and white blocks look like a checkerboard. There are all kinds of interesting prints in the little squares that make up each block.  I have chosen a backing for this quilt from my stash, and will quilt this one myself, after Christmas gifts are made. 

I took a break from quilting and shortened two pairs of pants for myself next.  A friend pinned them for me.  I used the extra fabric that I cut off the bottom to repair a hole in a pair of jeans that my niece ripped while climbing a fence.  

Back to quilting!  I brought along some Christmas prints that I bought a couple of years ago.  I had started a project with them at the last retreat I attended and then they never saw the light of day again until last weekend.  I managed to finish off a wall hanging and then did the quilting and binding when I got home.  Here is a sneak peek at this project which will be a Christmas present so I can't show the whole thing. 

I made a pompom for the hat I showed last week, and started a new knitting project this week, another gift. I got started this morning on this gift while I was attending an online seminar on Zoom. The knitted snow person also saw some progress this week. 

I spent the remaining time at the retreat cutting and organizing the blocks and sashing pieces for my lupin quilt.  You may remember me showing my lupin blocks months ago--I got stalled on this quilt when I stopped to make a bunch of gifts.  I would like to have this top put together and to the quilter before Christmas.  I made 4 more lupin blocks at the retreat:

My husband and I crossed an item off our bucket list this week--we got to ride in a combine at a family member's farm while he was harvesting corn. It was a beautiful day and lots of pictures were taken. 

We went hiking at a local conservation area on Tuesday morning and enjoyed a colourful walk in the woods. 

I will link up with Kathy and the Slow Sunday Stitchers in the morning.  I hope to do some more knitting tomorrow. Have a great week.   Finn says hello!