A Little of This and A Little of That

Regular readers of my blog may remember that I took an introductory class in rug hooking last summer.  The hooking has all been done for a while and I finally finished off my project last weekend.  A friend who describes herself as a "hooker" and "addicted to fibre" showed me how to do the outer edge of my sheep project.  I hope to hang this little rug on the wall in my sewing room.  I would be quite willing to try another rug hooking project. 

For the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, this week I used up some tiny scraps to make these four 6.5" square slabs.  I am not sure how they will go into an actual quilt yet, but each month I will make some in the colour of the month and will decide later what to do with them. 

Speaking of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, I completed one of my 2022 tops --the scrappy Drunkard's Path blocks are now put together.  This top is now in the "to be quilted" pile. 

I finished appliquéing the last house's window and door for my Coming Home Quilt this week.  Next up are lot of leaves (80 of them!), some vines and four birds.  I have lots of cutting out to do before this next step!

Finn would like you to know that my daughter has started another counted cross stitch city.  She did not tell me what city it is so your guess is as good as mine. 

Finn also wants you to know that the snow where he lives is deeper than him!

We have a bit of snow here finally--it has been a mostly snow free winter until this past week.  It looks pretty on the tree branches in the park where I walk each day. 

I pin basted and started quilting a wedding gift this week. The top was made at a retreat in November and I've got a deadline of two weeks to have this quilted and bound so I can give it to the newlyweds. I'm using 28 wt thread for the quilting. I like how the turquoise contrasts with the gray background fabric.  The lines are about an inch apart.  I have a different quilting plan for the turquoise part of the quilt.  Stay tuned. 

I made some more comfort quilt blocks for the Elgin Piecemakers Guild this week. I have them all done (except for two--waiting for the instructions) for the year. 

Navy, lime green and white:

Nautical theme using the colours in the sail fabric. 

Gray, yellow and white:

 I feel like I got a lot done this past week.  Let's hope that this coming week is just as productive!  I will link up the the Slow Sunday Stitchers and the Rainbow Scrap Challenge folks in the morning. 

Back to the Sewing Machine

I spent some quality time with my sewing machine this week.  The Elgin Piecemakers Guild makes comfort quilts for adult chemo patients at our local hospital so each month, we each have to make a block in a certain colour scheme.  I have my first four blocks for 2023 made.  Here they are:

January:  Blue and white.

February: Red, white and blue

March:  Purple, pink and white

April: Blue and purple churn dash. 

I worked on the last three houses for my Coming Home Quilt.  I did not have any light turquoise thread with me at the sewing day this week so I will do the door and window on the magenta house next week. 

I finished my MIL's wall hanging on our way to visit her last week.  She loves it and wanted to hang it up right away!

I finally got around to working on a blue block for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge this month.  I have two panels of printed pineapple blocks for foundation piecing and decided to use one of them for the RSC each month.  The gray background fabric is a relatively new addition to my stash.  It should look good with all the colours each month.  I have two more ideas in mind for the RSC for a total of three projects this year.  I hope to get my drunkard's path project from last year put together next week.  I already know how I want to quilt it!

Finn just loves this Statue of Liberty ball and was running up and down the hall at my daughter's apartment with it this week.  

Beautiful sunset when we were on our way home one evening this week.  

I will link up with the RSC folks on Saturday morning and the slow Sunday stitchers on Sunday morning. 

Slow Appliqué and a Quick Baby Quilt Top

I managed to get one more house completed on my Coming Home quilt this week...this is very slow progress indeed.  I guess that's why they call it slow stitching!  I hope to get the last house on this street outfitted with a door and windows by this time next week. 

I showed these tiny HST's a few weeks ago and this week, finally laid then out on the design wall.  They will be 1" when sewn into the block.  I am not sure what to do in the middle yet.  I'm not in love with the orange HST's.  Maybe I will try to fussy cut something to put there.  I will continue to ponder. 

I belong to a sewing group at church.  We sew items for the church Christmas Bazaar and in the past have made reusable menstruation kits for young women in Africa so that they can attend school.  We have not met in over two years and are slowly getting back to planning for this year's bazaar.  We went through all of the fabric in our stash of donated fabrics last week.  I brought home a couple of pieces of flannel that I thought I could use to make a baby quilt for the bazaar.  I used my Go Cutter to cut out the wedge shapes and the top went together pretty quickly after that.  I have a piece of donated minke for the back and some red fabric for the binding from my own stash.  I will quilt it myself. Here is the finished top. The white fabric has little racing cars on it. I will trim the sides before I quilt it. 

I continue to try to use up my scraps.  This week, I made two more scrappy 36 patch blocks for my rainbow scrap challenge project.  One is gray and the other is brown--these colours are not usually chosen for the challenge but I wanted to include them in my quilt.  I will have to see what colour is chosen for May so I can get working on those blocks this week. 

We celebrated my husband's birthday this week with a hike at Pinery Provincial Park.  His sister came along and Finn enjoyed exploring the trails too. It was a beautiful day.  Leaves are just starting to come out on the bushes. 

 

We saw lots of turtles basking in the sunshine but they were too far away to get a good picture of them.  Finn fell asleep quickly after supper!

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

Take care and have a good week. 

How I Store My Scraps

 This was not a very productive week in my sewing room.  I managed to hand appliqué a few more doors and windows on a couple of houses on my Coming Home quilt, but that's about it.  

There may have been some bribing involved in the taking of this next photo---Finn is showing you have have two more houses to do on this row.  The dark blue house will have a yellow door and windows.  The magenta house just needs the windows sewn down. This will be my project for slow Sunday stitching tomorrow. I will link up with Kathy in the morning. 

I have had a few comments on my slightly large collection of selvages.  I am still in the midst of organizing them by colour.  They are the only part of my stash that is not organized by colour.  I spent a lot of time a few years ago, getting all of my fat quarters washed, sorted by colour and organized in to plastic drawers. I then tackled the scraps.  I bought lots of clear plastic shoe boxes and went through all of my scraps and sorted them.  They now live in these labeled bins in my sewing room.  It is easy to find the colour of the month for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge or if I am looking for some fabrics to use in a comfort quilt block for one of my guilds.   I have a small basket on my sewing desk--all scraps go into it as I am sewing and cutting.  When it is full, I spend a few minutes sorting them and putting them away in the appropriate bin. 

I also have bins for fat quarters and larger solid fabrics.  There is a bin of batik scraps and a bin for cool and warm coloured solid scraps. 

For pink month, I dug into my pink scraps below as well as my bin of 2 1/2" squares.  I made several quilts from these squares last year and I'm still working on using them up!

We have had an up and down week with the weather this past week.  On Monday, it snowed. A lot.  Finn liked it.  My husband and I, not so much. 

By Thursday, my friend and I did not need jackets on our walk and the buds on the trees at the park were bursting open.  I'm not sure what type of tree this is but it sure is pretty!

Today, my husband and I were out in our shorts, cleaning up the garden and putting out the patio furniture.  My gardens are waking up and lots of flowers are blooming. Other plants, such as this Columbine are unfurling their leaves. I saw lots of ladybugs today too.

I can't remember what this flower is called...can anyone help me?

Tomorrow, it is supposed to be 25 degrees!  This coming week, there may be flurries one evening.  This is April in my neck of the woods. 

Take care and see you next week.