My New Projects and Knitting

I started these blocks at a recent guild retreat after mulling over the design for a couple of months.  I made two at the retreat and one more today.  I have more colours pulled to make nine blocks for this wall hanging. Here is the pink block. 

And here are the three blocks I have made so far. 

The centres are a cute print that I have had in my stash for a few years.  I have the green and blue blocks in line to do next. 

I have been knitting most days this past week and my scarf is now 41.5" long.  I finished off the first ball of wool and have started on the second one now. 

I took an online class with Cheryl Arkison a couple of weeks ago and here is my first block--an improv tree.  In her Scandi Village class, she taught us how she made the trees and houses on her quilt which you can see here.  The background material is leftover from backing of the teal and brown potato chip quilt that I made for my cousin. I am using solid scraps for the trees and houses.  When the background material is gone, I will put the blocks together.  Each tree and house will be a different size depending on the size of the scraps that I use.  It will be a bit of a puzzle to put it all together but I like doing that!  I hope to make some more trees this week. 

I also put a quilt top together that I started at the retreat.  It's a gift so no pictures.  I have to buy a backing for it before I can quilt it.  I don't have anything suitable in my stash. 

We have had some warmer weather this past week.  All of the snow is gone and there are signs of spring in the garden...daffodils are up and the Columbine is showing some life too. 

In the late afternoon, the sun streams in our front windows and Finn found the perfect spot to lie to catch a few rays. 

I am one of those people who like Daylight Savings Time--I love to take a walk in the evening after supper this time of year.  Finn also likes our evening walks. 

He also likes to supervise me in the morning while I dry my hair.  

My daughter has been busy at work so she doesn't have a lot of time to read or crochet these days.  The border on her Christmas blanket did get a bit of attention and is nearing completion.  She still has lots of ends to weave in. There is one more border after the light green one. 

I will link up with Kathy and Frederique as usual.   

A Finished Quilt

 Most of my sewing this past week was by hand.  I finished quilting the Quilt for a Survivor of a Residential School on Monday and added the binding by machine on Tuesday, leaving the hand sewing of the binding for several car trips we made on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.  It's been hot here so having a quilt on my lap was a bit warm but I directed the A/C vents towards me and managed to finish the hand sewing without melting!  First, a few close ups of the quilting.  I used navy thread top and bottom and my walking foot. 

The blocks for this quilt were started in an online class with Cheryl Arkison--Traditional Variations. The backing was pieced using batiks from my stash and some extra 6" blocks which did not end up on the front of the quilt. 

This picture was taken before the last two sides of the binding were completed.  you will have to take my word for it that the quilt is totally done now. 

I have a pot on my front porch were I planted several varieties of coleus this year.  Within days of planting them, the squirrels came along and chewed up the plants, dug out the roots and flung the plant parts and lots of dirt all over the porch.  I was not happy with them!!!  I ended up putting a small hosta plant in the pot and they left it alone, thankfully. It bloomed this week!  So pretty!  

I noticed a small bee on one of my Black Eyed Susan flowers today.  

Finn has been his usual cute self this week.  He loves to sit outside.  

This is a bit of a weird pose, Finn!  He does like to sit on a soft pillow. 

Our daughter bought him some doggy frozen yoghurt--peanut butter banana--he loved it!

I will link up with Kathy's Slow Stitching Crew in the morning.  I hope to get my purple blocks done this coming week and maybe get started with quilting another quilt.  I also have a wedding gift quilt to make...too many projects, sew little time...

I Need to Do Some Quilting...

Back in February, I took a Zoom class with Cheryl Arkison called Traditional Variations.  The idea was to take a traditional block and change it up in some way.  I made blocks based on four traditional blocks:  churn dash, pinwheel, log cabin and sawtooth star.  This week, I finished my last three blocks and put the top together, except for the final border which is cut but not sewn on yet.  This quilt will be donated to the Toronto Modern Quilt Guild outreach project--Quilts for Survivors of Residential Schools. My husband and I participated in a Healing Walk this morning, wearing our orange "Every Child Matters" shirts. It was very moving to hear from survivors and their descendants during the ceremony before the walk. 

I used my batik fabrics for the blocks.  This block is a variation on a pinwheel. 

Variation on a log cabin. 

For this one, I made a liberated sawtooth star block, and then cut it up and added some strips in between the four corners. 

Here is a not very good picture of my top before the final borders are added. The sashing is a navy blue Kona solid.  I will get a better picture when this quilt is done.  I hope to quilt it this week. 

 I also want to get the back pieced for my hearts quilt and get it quilted this week.  You can see why I named this post "I need to do some quilting...!"

I dug into my purple selvages this week and found that I did not have enough to make purple ones to make my Rainbow Scrap Challenge squares.  I did, however, have enough for two red-violet (magenta) squares. I do not buy a lot of purple fabric and whatever selvages I had have obviously been used!

A couple of weeks ago, I mentioned that I had made all of the 36 patches I needed for that rainbow scrap challenge.  This week, I put the blocks up on the design wall and got them sewn together...yet another top waiting for quilting. 

I picked up my Lupins quilt from the longarm quilter tonight and will be making binding to finish this one off soon. I have some of the purple backing fabric leftover to use for binding.  Here is a sneak peak at the beautiful quilting by Julie. 

I worked on some rug hooking while talking to a friend on FaceTime one evening this week.  She was working on a cross stitch project while I hooked.  I'm working on the blue sky. 

While out for a walk this week, I noticed that the milkweed was in bloom. 

In our backyard, the Japanese Lilac tree is showing off with its creamy white blooms. 

This shamrock plant belonged to my husband's great aunt who died in 1977.  It lived on my MIL's porch for many years before she gave it to us a few years ago.  It seems to like it here!

Finn is scheduled for a doggy spa day early this coming week.  He's quite fluffy at the moment!

I will link up with Angela and her Rainbow Scrap Challenge Crew on Saturday morning and with Kathy and the people who like to stitch slowly on Sunday morning. Hopefully, I will have some finished quilts to show next week.  Happy Canada Day! 

This Week's Sewing Adventures

It's been a busy week in the sewing room at my house!  The log blocks really did nothing to enhance my Oxford Quilter's Guild VP day challenge quilt so I removed them and made a few more HST's. I rearranged the HST's to my liking and then started sewing the rows together.  Most of the rows are sewn and the top two are sewn to each other.  I will likely finish this top this week. I love the Shweshwe fabrics I have used for this project!

I finished the embroidery on my Lupine quilt label this week and now just have to piece the back and get it off to the long arm quilter's house.  I like to have my label quilted into the quilt--it won't fall off that way!

On Wednesday, I attended a Traditional Variations class with Cheryl Arkison on Zoom.  We made variations of four different traditional blocks.  Cheryl encouraged us to play and have fun trying new things.  I decided ahead of time to use some batik fabrics that were in my stash, picking out some red, orange, green and blue pieces.  I will be using my blocks to make a Quilt for a Residential School survivor--a project that has been taken on by members of the Toronto Modern Guild.  

I made a 6" church dash block in the traditional way and then made a 12" block with "curved triangles" in the corners. 

My 6" pinwheel was made in the traditional way and the bigger block was made with half rectangle triangles.

I also made one liberated wonky star block and a couple of log cabin variations.  I used the leftover curved  bits from the churn dash to make a curved pinwheel block.  I still have lots of ideas and fabric left so more blocks will be put together over the next while until I have enough for a lap sized quilt.  I decided to stick with 6" and 12" blocks so it goes together easily.  

I finished hand stitching the binding on this quilt--the top was made by Maureen H. and she gave it to me to donate to a worthy cause.  Julie from the Elgin Piecemakers quilted it and it will go to the local women's shelter.  

When I showed all of my comfort quilt blocks a couple of weeks ago, someone asked me to show all the blocks that were made by members of the Elgin Piecemakers for each month.  Here are all the red and gray blocks for February.  One of our members will make a quilt top with sashing and cornerstones, and then one of our long armers will quilt it.  Another member will do the binding and then it will be ready to donate. 

Finn took my daughter's mitten outside this week while he did his business and then brought it back inside when he was done.  Silly boy!

I wound a ball of wool earlier today during a zoom meeting.  I am going to make myself a hat!  I have made hats for many others but have never made one for myself.  I hope to start knitting tomorrow for my Slow Sunday Stitching project.  I will link up with Kathy in the morning. 

Until next time, enjoy your stitching!

Improv with Intent: Workshop with Cheryl Arkison

 

I spent a glorious day at a Cheryl Arkison "Improv with Intent" workshop in St. Mary's, Ontario just over a week ago.  We started out with a playing with fabric exercise. Each table group had a pile of Cheryl's scraps on it and we were told to grab two pieces and sew them together.  Then, pass it to the person on our left.  Then, we added another piece...etc. 

 

 

We ended up with several improv blocks that Cheryl displayed on a design wall. Cheryl encouraged all of us to play with fabric on a regular basis and not to always work from a pattern.  Personally, I would rather play than follow a pattern...

 



We were to bring an idea, or a picture or something that would inspire our improv project for the workshop.  I brought a picture of Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater.  My husband and I took an in depth tour of Fallingwater near Ohiopyle, PA earlier this year.  We have toured several of FLW's buildings including Kentuck Knob near Ohiopyle, PA, Talliesen in Spring Green, WI, the Darwin Martin House in Buffalo, NY and Greycliffe in Derby, NY, as well as his studio in Oak Park, IL.  All of his buildings and the stories that go with them are fascinating.

I started by making a couple of architectural features of the house that stood out for me.

This column of windows is sandwiched between the two chimneys of the house. The chimney fabric actually has a brick pattern on it.

Next, I worked on the stairway that goes down from the living room of the house down to the water.

Here is everything I had on the design wall by the end of the day.

Everyone had a chance at the end of the day to explain their projects and talk about what they were going to do next.  I did not want to go home...I just wanted to keep sewing.

Here is Christine and her blocks that she had done by the end of the day.

Thanks, Cheryl!  I had a wonderful time and can't wait to get working on my project again!