Yellow and Gray Churn Dash, Pineapples, etc.

Despite some sewing machine challenges (it's in for repair now), I managed to finish the yellow and gray scrappy churn dash quilt this past week. I love this colour combination!  The backing is a Libs Elliott print which I had in my stash---but only one yard so I had to add a yellow strip to make it big enough for the backing.  The binding is a yellow Kona solid. The quilting was done with bright yellow Aurifil 50wt thread. 

 At a Zoom sew-in on Tuesday, I made a block for the September Comfort quilt for the Elgin Piecemakers.  The block is called "Folded Corners" and uses a light, a medium and dark fabric in one colour. I found three appropriate fabrics in my pink drawer.

After finishing the block, I pulled out my pineapple blocks and worked on making each block bigger, skinny strip by skinny strip...  As you can see, I am getting closer to having all 12 of my blocks done.  This is how I am going to arrange the blocks. I will be focusing on getting these blocks done and put together this coming week. 

I started a new knitting project this week.  This is the first time I have knitted something with double pointed needles so getting started was a bit of a challenge.  I am getting the hang of it now.  There are cables in this project which is why I was practicing them earlier this year. 

I added lots of dark green stitches to Love Birds this week.  There are still a few more dark green leaves to do and then some lighter green as well. 

My daughter also did some stitching on her butterfly picture. She has started another city scape as well but no pictures to share yet. 

Finn has been sporting his very fashionable doggy bandana this week. 

Our garden seems to have a lot of purple and white blooms this week.   This first one is lavender, backlit by the sun. 

Black Lace Elderberry Bush

Salvia

Japanese Lilac Tree

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

Purple Scraps and Love Birds

 The Rainbow Scrap Challenge colour for June is Purple so I made two purple blocks for my project this week...one is purple (violet) and the other is magenta (red-violet).  Some of these fabrics have been in my stash for a long time and others are more recent acquisitions. 

Here are the 8 blocks I have made for this project so far. I will keep making one or two blocks a month until the end of the year and then put the top together.  I really like building a quilt this way--just a little sewing and cutting each month and in a year, you have a quilt!

I have started quilting my yellow and gray Colour Blocks Quilt--I have been having some intermittent machine problems while working on this quilt so it is going a bit slower than I anticipated.  Hopefully, the sewing machine co-operates and I can finish quilting it soon.

The Toronto Modern Guild has organized a round robin --I am in a group of 6 people and we are each making blocks or borders for each other's quilts. I made the sewing machine block and the spool border was made by the next person who mailed the borders to me. My group is made up of people who do not live in Toronto so we are just emailing pictures and the size of our quilts to the next person each month.  I wonder what the next person will make for my quilt?  I am still thinking about what I might do for round robin partner this month. 

I managed to get quite a bit of work done on Love Birds this week.  Thankfully, when I joined the circle at the bottom of the wreath, the stitches ended up right where they were supposed to be!  There are some leaves in two colours left to do as well as the Bride bird.  The end is in sight!

My husband and I went bike riding at a provincial park about an hour from where we live on Monday.  It was a beautiful day and we enjoyed a picnic lunch before riding all afternoon.  The next time we go back to Rondeau Provincial Park, we are going to leave our bikes at home and go hiking on some of the trails instead. 

My daughter's stitching on the butterfly embroidery is looking fantastic.  The butterfly looks like it is going to fly right off the fabric!

I have a new plant in my garden which is currently in flower.  The flowers are very tiny on this ice plant but up close, the colours are spectacular. Great colour inspiration for a future quilt, I think!

Finn is feeling fine again and is back to his usual helpful self this week.  He will be going for a haircut soon! We can't see his eyes!

I will link up with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge folks in the morning and with the Slow Sunday Stitchers on Sunday morning.   Have a good weekend. It's going to be hot here!

Two Finishes and some BOM Blocks

It has been a while since I have had a finished project to share on my blog (besides placemats), and this week, I have two!  This blue colour block quilt is made from 2.5" squares from my blue scrap bin.  I found some really fun crayon fabric for the backing and even added a label already, even though I have not written on it yet.  This quilt will be set aside for a future baby gift. Most of the fabrics repeat in the quilt so lots of fun to be had for some little one trying to find the matching squares. 

The blocks for this next quilt were leftovers from another colour block quilt--this one is gray and yellow.  The large project is not quilted yet but as of this week, it is pin basted and ready to be quilted next.  This is my second small project from the leftovers of the main project...  The backing was in my stash.  The quilting was done with the walking foot on my DSM. I hand stitched the binding today. 

I am almost all caught up on my Modern Block of the Month (BOM) blocks.  I made three more blocks this week. 

I have the pattern for one more block which I hope to make this week.  Next, I will have to figure out how to set them into a quilt top...

 Love Birds moved along at a snail's pace this week.  I spent more time at the sewing machine this week than with my hand stitching. I am getting closer to finishing the wreath of flowers with each stitch. 

Finn lodged a complaint after I posted last week's blogpost.  He did not make an appearance!!!  He has been sporting a donut collar this past week as he has another infection around his mouth, caused by the cone that he had to wear for two weeks due to the previous infection.  More antibiotics and special wipes for the infected areas and he is on the mend, thankfully.  We all hope this is the end of vet visits for a while! To make up for his absence in last week's post, here are two pictures of Finn.  In the first picture, he is supervising my daughter as she organizes her embroidery floss collection.  In the second, he is modelling his "Zen Collar", but not all that happy about wearing it.  He's getting quite fluffy and is in need of a haircut.  

My daughter has finished her Munich cityscape and has been working on a new embroidery picture, a butterfly with flowers. 

The garden has been producing more blooms every day, even though we have a risk of frost tonight!  Last week, our air conditioning was on because is was so hot, and now the heat is back on to take the chill off.  The patio and porch pots of annuals and herbs have all been placed undercover to keep them from being damaged by the frost. 

Wegelia Bush

Blue Jay Columbine

Bachelor Button

Deutzia Bush

We are still mostly locked down here and will slowly reopen based on the percentage of the population that is vaccinated.  My daughter gets her first vaccine this week--Yahoo!  I will link up with Kathy and the Slow stitchers in the morning.  

A Whole Lot of Binding!

This was my week for hand stitching binding, among other projects.  I finished hand stitching the binding on these three placemats for Meals on Wheels last weekend.  I now have 12 made for the Elgin Piecemakers donation and three for the Oxford Guild donation.    

Next up, this quilt was pieced by a member of the Elgin Piecemakers who sadly passed away.  It was given to the guild by her family and we decided at a recent meeting that it would be quilted by one of our long arm quilter members and then bound by me before donating it to the local Women's Shelter.  It is queen sized.  The three placemats above were made with some of the leftover fabrics from this quilt. I think R would be very pleased with how it turned out. 

I plan on doing some more binding tomorrow on a baby quilt which I quilted today.  While cleaning up my sewing room this week, I found that I had 9 quilt tops (baby/lap sized and a couple of wall hangings) waiting to be quilted.  Some were even pin basted already!  Yikes!  I need to get these to the finish line! Today, I picked the easiest one, my blue colour block quilt, to do first.  I had already decided on a quilting design and the backing fabric was all ready to go.  

 I am using a navy blue solid for the binding. I just have to do the hand stitching now.  Maybe I will get another couple of quilt tops quilted this week...

I took a Maria Shell class on Zoom this past Wednesday--the reason for the cleaning up of the sewing room.  The class was titled "Riffing on a Block".  Maria had all of us cutting our fabric without using rulers, something I have done before, but not it quite the same way.  We each had to make a sample of our chosen block and then make several more blocks based on the sample. Here is my sample block, made without rulers. 

And here is my first block, based on the hashtag sample block. The wonkiness is intentional. I did not originally add the dark green strips on the sides of my pieced sections, but decided to add them to make them pop a bit.  I love the result!  I have more ideas percolating in my head for more blocks. 

I am participating in a round robin with the Toronto Modern Guild and made these three 6" blocks to mail to the next person this week.  Unfortunately, I messed up when reading the chart of who I was supposed to mail them to and sent them to the wrong person!  It has been sorted out now and they will be sent to the correct person this week, thankfully! 

Love Birds had some stitches added this week when we were in the car. I've started on the next large cream coloured flower. 

Munich is just a few stitches shy of being finished by my daughter.  She hopes to finish it tomorrow. 

Our patio and porch pots are all planted and growing nicely.  The perennial gardens are looking good too.  We finally had a bit of rain today which should help bring the flowers on.  Clematis, Columbine and Thrift:

This daffodil is a new one I planted last fall. 

My husband and I went for a couple of hikes this week.  This was my favourite picture from our hike on Monday...Trilliums in full bloom. 

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