September UFO finished and Some Slow Stitching

Last week, I mentioned that I was doing a UFO challenge with a group of friends starting in October.  Since I have way more than 12 UFO's, I decided this week to get one done for the month of September! I quilted the Barn wall hanging earlier in the week and did the binding and hanging sleeve as well before changing the calendar to October!

 Here is a picture of the finished wall hanging with part of it covered...I'm not revealing who this is for just yet. The barn is quilted with vertical lines and the roof has horizontal lines.  

I played bobbin chicken while quilting and binding this quilt and won!  Not much thread left on the bobbin by the time I was done!

I found some leftovers from the zigzag quilt in a drawer this week and used them to make three more placemats for Meals on Wheels recipients.  I still have a bit more binding to hand sew down on the last one. The backing fabric is the same on all three.  The placemats are reversible. 

My knitting is to the point where I had to stuff the bottom part of the snow person.  Yikes...now my mistakes are a little more obvious!!!  It is what it is...I am learning.  I just have to do the head and then a hat, scarf and face. 

I pieced the backing for the charm square quilt I showed in last week's post.  This quilt is my October UFO --I hope to have it pin basted tomorrow and start the machine quilting with my walking foot. I am sticking with my goal to use only fabric I have on hand and not buy anything.  I had one yard of the flower fabric and used the yellow to make the back big enough. This picture only shows part of the back. 

Like many quilters, I am not a big fan of mending.  A while ago, Finn the grand-dog smelled something good in my daughter's coat pocket (it was not food!) and decided the best way to get to it was through the lining of her coat.  He also chewed a hole in her pocket.  The pocket was fixed by machine, but the lining holes were patched by hand.  A friend had a piece of black lining fabric that was big enough to cover the holes and was kind enough to give it to me.  There is no fabric store in the town where I live.  Thanks, Pam!

When I finished the patch on the lining, I noticed the seam in the armhole had come apart, so I fixed that too. 

A friend and I walk every morning at a local park and we often see birds, squirrels, chipmunks and rabbits. Sometimes, there are deer and one time there were coyotes. This week, we saw a groundhog.  

It's a beautiful place to walk.  Some of the trees have started to change colour, but not very many. 

Finn, as you all know, loves a nap and a snuggle.  

My daughter has been working on her cross stitch picture of Dubrovnik...only a few more colours to go. The white areas will all be filled in with stitches by the time she is done. 

 

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

Charm Pack Quilt Top Done and some Knitting Progress

 It's been a busy week here--we are having our three bedrooms painted this coming week and then new carpeting will be installed in mid October.  This means that everything must be moved out of all of the bedrooms and closets.  This has resulted in lots of purging and trips to the thrift store to donate items we no longer need. Lots of work, but all of our efforts will pay off in the end.  I did take a few sewing breaks this week and managed to finish off the charm square quilt top.  I made this quilt by the "design as you go" method, letting the quilt tell me what to add next.  If you look closely, you can see that I had to add narrow strips around the centre stars to get the four patches on point to fit properly. 

I had just enough green fabric to do this with just a few bits leftover for the scrap bin. 

I toyed with the idea of adding a 2.5" brown border around the outside of the quilt. 

I used up every single charm square in the two packages on this quilt and had to get creative to finish off the top and bottom borders as you can see below. 

In the end, I achieved my goal of using up the two charm packs and using only fabric in my stash to make the quilt.  I went hunting for backing fabric and found a couple of pieces that I will creatively piece to make the backing.  There is just enough brown fabric to make the binding.

I added some more rows of knitting to the snow person.  I noticed my dinner plate has a knitter on it too! The pattern is called "Naif" by Villeroy and Bosch.  She looks like a much more experienced knitter than me... Her yarn bowl holds a lot of wool!

My daughter's Dubrovnik cross stitch looks like it will soon be done!

Finn says sunbeams are the best place for a nap. 
 

A friend is organizing a UFO challenge and several friends have added their names to the list of participants.  I made a list of my UFO's--22!  There may be more lurking somewhere, but this will do for now.  We are going to finish one UFO per month for the next year.  I am hoping I can whittle down my list to a more reasonable number!  The first one up is the charm square quilt at the top of this post.  I hope to have it quilted, bound and labelled in the next couple of weeks. 

I will link up with Kathy and the slow Sunday Stitchers in the morning. I hope to do some more knitting tomorrow. It would be nice to have the snow person done before the snow flies!

Maple Syrup Quilt Done, Progress on other fronts.

I meant to post pictures of my finished neutral swap quilt last week, but forgot, so here it is this week.  The  reddish background fabric is more of a rust colour in real life. The quilting adds lovely texture. This quilt is now on its way to its new owner. 

 I made more progress on my second charm pack quilt this week. I have the side borders sewn together but still need to piece the top and bottom borders and then sew everything to the centre.  I am definitely running out of green fabric so will have to get creative for the next border.  I have lots of charm squares left as I had two packs of the same charm set. I may have to do a bit of fudging to make the borders fit properly but I have a plan on how to do this. 

The Snow person knitting is coming along, albeit, slowly! I am decreasing for the neck on the next round. 

My daughter added some more stitches to Dubrovnik this week, purple and orange. 

My husband and I went for a hike on Thursday and saw this unusual fungus growing on a log. So pretty!

The trees are just starting to change colour in the park where I walk every morning.  The trees there always put on a great show!

Finn likes to be comfortable and use all the pillows when he has a nap!

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

Using up the Charm Packs

At one time, I would purchase precuts when I liked a certain fabric line or sometimes people gave them to me as gifts, and I may have won one or two in a door prize draw at a guild meeting.  I have been working over the last few years to use these precuts up so I don't have any left in my stash.  I have had a farm themed charm pack on my sewing table for a few months now so I could look at it and decide what to make with it.  This past week, while talking to Christine on FaceTime, I started sewing and by the end of the day, I had a baby quilt top finished.  I started with a 25 patch and then added borders with white fabric from my stash as well as the rest of the squares, cut in half. 

I wanted the quilt to be more rectangular than square so the top and bottom borders are wider than the side borders.  I used all but 4 of the charm squares.  The leftovers have been cut into 2.5" squares and added to my bin of squares.  I found some turquoise dotty fabric to use for the back and the binding.  This quilt has been added to the "to be quilted" pile. 

When I was in my sewing storage area this week, I found two charm packs of the same fabric--I must have bought them for a specific purpose but I'm not sure what it was now.  I looked in my solids stash for co-ordinating fabric and found some green that is a bit darker than the green squares in the charm pack.  

Perfect, but I only have a yard of it...  so I found some brown as well.   I started by cutting out the parts for 6 star blocks made with the larger scale prints in the centres. Soon, I was sewing the stars together. 

I added some brown sashing and green cornerstones. 

I did not have enough of the sashing fabric to do the outer border so I used a slightly darker solid brown instead. 

I am pondering how I will make the next border--I am leaning towards four patches on point with green backgrounds.  

I am aiming for a lap sized quilt and want to use only what I already have in my stash for the front and back of the quilt.  I wonder how far my one yard of green fabric will stretch?  We will see!

Today, I got together with some quilting friends to work on our projects outside.  There were two of us knitting, one hand piecing, one crocheting, two cutting fabric for upcoming quilts and one doing needle felting.  I did not get pictures of everyone's projects but this is Pat's felted gnome. 

Diane made a few hand pieced hexagons. This is a long term project--it will be a bed sized quilt someday. 

I concentrated on my knitting and added several rows to my snow person. The sharp eyed knitters among you may notice a mistake here but I am ignoring it and moving on.  This part will be covered by a scarf. 

My daughter has been cross stitching on Dubrovnik this week.  

Finn slept through some online training that my daughter did for work this week.  Obviously, it was not that interesting to him!

Seen by the side of the trail where a friend and I walk each day:

This photo was taken at our local St. Thomas Elevated Park as the sun went behind a cloud.  This is a favourite walking spot.

Here is what the elevated park looks like from below:

I hope to do some embroidery tomorrow for my Slow Sunday Stitching with Kathy.  I will link up in the morning. 

Knitting and Stitching!

Last week, I showed you the block I made for one of the TMQG members for a round robin of sorts.  That block was supposed to be done and mailed by the end of July, but I was obviously late!  In an attempt to be caught up by the end of August, I made these 4 blocks for D.  She had requested black and white with a pop of colour and some words that reflected the times we are in on her block.  I found some fabric in my stash with French words on it--Bonjour and Merci were the words I wanted to share with her.  (hello and thank you in French)  Bonjour--because I have been actively saying hello to the people I meet when out on my walks each day and Merci--because I am thankful for the health care and essential workers who have kept us all going during the pandemic. 

I left the blocks whole but they could be cut up into quarters and reconfigured or into HST's or QST's.  I will leave that up to the recipient. 

I did some knitting in the car this past week.  Thankfully, I did not drop anything between the seats in the car this time!  I have added another repeat of the cables on my project. I might be the world's slowest knitter!  

Several of you have asked what I am making.  The plan is to make all three snow-people but the one I am currently working on is the snow-person on the left in the picture below.  This is a free Mary Maxim pattern which you can download here. 

I picked up my rust and brown swap blocks quilt from the long arm quilter this week and the binding has been applied by machine.  I am in the process of hand sewing it down on the back of the quilt.  I will finish this tomorrow and do some more knitting for my Slow Sunday Stitching with Kathy. 

The pantograph is called Maple Syrup and features swirls and maple leaves.  The centre square in the centre block of the quilt has jugs of maple syrup on it.  I had just enough of the rust coloured fabric to make the binding.  There is a little bit left which will go into my scrap bins.

My husband and I celebrated our 32nd wedding anniversary this past Thursday with a field trip day planned by my husband.  We had lunch on a patio at a winery followed by stops at a lavender farm/winery,  a quilting store in Waterford, a garden walk and then supper on another patio in the evening.  It was a fun day.  I had no idea where we were going when we headed out in the morning. I bought 4 one yard pieces of fabric...the white fabric with the circles on it will be the backing for my pineapple log cabin quilt. 

Have a good long weekend!  Finn says hello!