Found it!

It took a while but I found the perfect fabric for the back border of the Parrot quilt. It's perfect - a sort of splotchy blue colour. I just have to get the borders on and basted now. Problem there as I toasted my last good rotary blade on a pin last night.

And the Christmas lights center is finished. I just need to put the borders on and that quilt top is done as well.

It's slow, but it's progress.

And I have 15 of the hand pieced grandmother's flower garden patches done.

Week away progress

Well the week away allowed me to finish the blind stitching on the parrot quilt. I just need to add the borders and quilt them and it's done. I'm hoping to work on it this weekend.

I found some really nice fabric - butterflies in purples and blues. It's a large print and very pretty. It was 4 dollars a meter on sale so I picked up several meters - I'm looking forward to doing something with it at a later date.

Updates

It's been a while.

I haven't gotten any further on the Christmas Lights other than 2 rows stitched together. I went on the local shop hop and found border fabrics. Sadly, one of my favourite quilt shops was closing that weekend. The owner had passed away. I will miss that little store. That's two of my favourite shops gone now.

The parrot quilt is moving forward. I have the blocks in rows. I just need to do the blind stitching so the rows can be put together. I may get two rows done before I head to Toronto next week. It's definitely something I can do in the hotel room at nights. I am still dithering about adding a border. Now I'm wondering about not adding a border at all, but I think the back needs something to pull the blues together. I'll be on the lookout for a fabric for the back border.

I have 11 GFG blocks together now. Slow and steady - I get the odd one done here and there. I'm going to mark the stitching lines in a bunch and take them to work on in the evenings as well.

Quick update

I finally made it to a guild meeting - it's been since April as my schedule often conspires to keep me from going to meetings. Part of the problem is that it's close to an hour's drive. Once the weather gets bad, I won't make it at all.

I am sometimes still very angry about what the bitches in my village did when I miss getting out to go quilting. The way "lady jane" walked in, took over the group I started, and then behind my back rescheduled it so I could no longer attend.....I get mad just thinking about it. Sad thing is, I knew she would do just that but being a nice person I invited her to join anyways. Looking back, I never should have invited her, but that would have made me like her and her little disciples in the group.

It was a work meeting - people had ufos there were working on or cutting out cuddle quilts.

I took that last qayg parrot block and worked on it. It is almost done.

I also got the opportunity to ask some advice on putting an on point (Christmas Lights) quilt together. I'm not a fan of quilts on point, and needed some help. I hope to start assembling that quilt next week.

Post-IPM update

First - the IPM quilt show was nice - the plastic shielding the quilts was a visual distraction and I suspect it muted the colours significantly. I didn't get a lot of time to look, but I did like several of the quilts.

I bought a Halloween quilt kit with a cat and moon on it called "Meowing at the Moon". It is so cute. I can't wait for a good chance to work on it. Maybe Thanksgiving weekend.

I didn't take the last qayg Parrot with me. I still have half of the last block to finish. I've been making GFG blocks. I did 2 1/2 on the train to the plowing match - was too tired to piece on the way home.

Onward ever onward

It's starting to get cold at night so I'll soon start lap quilting a larger project so I have something to snuggle up in. I have a magic tile quilt that has 3 of the 12 tile blocks quilted, but was set aside when the weather got hot. I'll start working on that at home once I get the last Parrot block quilted and until I get the border for the Parrot figured out.

I figure (if all goes as planned) I'll have the last of the parrot blocks quilted this week. That will leave me without a take-along project for when I go to IPM in Earlton next weekend. I'll have to figure something out for in the hotel at night and during the train ride.

I do have the Birthday blocks that need to be sorted and pulled into a quilt. I just haven't figured out how I want to set them so that I can deal with the varieties in size. I don't really want to do the same as the Parrot quilt. I was thinking an Attic Window's approach, but then there is the problem of varieties in size - how do I make them match up? and also what colours do I use for the windows? And the backing? I'm not exactly ready to tackle that one yet, although I would like to get it done.

The guild is doing the block exchange with focus fabric again. This time I've decided not to participate - my attendance is not exactly regular due to work and the resulting set of blocks is a pain in the ass to deal with as they are all different sizes and fabrics (polycottons = yuck!), not the 12 " finished and 100% cotton like they are supposed to be.

The light at the end of the tunnel....

I'm seeing the light at the end of the tunnel with the parrot quilt. I started quilting the final block QAYG today.

Unfortunately I am wondering if there is a train attached. I haven't quite figured out how to handle the border part. That could be interesting or nasty. I haven't decided which. I also haven't decided quite what Iam going to do for the border yet either. Decisions, decisions.

not much happening...

I'm halfway through block 11 of the Parrot quilt - haven't had a lot of time to quilt.

Put the hand-pieced irish chain crib quilt in the fair, along with the hand pieced scotty dog stuffed toy and a bulky knit sweater. I'll find out saturday how they did.

OK - so much for not starting anything new. I did a small table topper/centerpiece. It's 5 16-patch blocks with setting triangles. The 16-patches are yellows, pinks, greens and blues mostly. I'm using pink as binding. I finished piecing it yesterday, and for a change, basted and machine quilted it. It's rare that I machine quilt anything.

This morning I sewed the binding on. I just have the hand-stitching of the binding to finish and it's done.

It's a new project, but it's been very satisfying to whip something together - a great feeling of accomplishment. I found some beautiful fall FQ yesterday and will make another of these toppers in fall colours at some point in the near future.

I basted another parrot block yesterday. The 10th one is almost finished quilting - just a little bit around the border and it's done. I hope to finish it at lunch time.

I'm going camping for the long weekend. I'll take the 11th parrot block and the table topper to hand-stitch the binding on.

I'm back

Having spent the better part of the last two weeks in the city and working, I am now back. I have worked 4o hours overtime in the last two weeks. So when I finally got home/slowed down I have not gotten much done.

While away, I did finish the quilting on 2 of the qayg Parrot blocks. I am working on yet another and have 2 more to baste and then the blocks for that quilt is done.

My leaders/enders 9-patch has been pulled together into a crib-sized flimsy.

And on a whim, I pulled a bunch of 2" squares together to make a quick (maybe) table topper.

Still exist!

Back again - I can't believe Ihaven't updated this blog since April. But then, there has been a definite lack of quilting going on.

I did finish the patchwork Scottie dog, and a embroidered puzzle ball. Other finishes to date are the hand pieced irish chain crib quilt. I finally figured out a way to fix the 3 corner tear on the one alternate patch. It's barely noticeable now - I used a patch of the same fabric - put wonder under on it, and put it into the quilt behind the hole and then fused it. I hope I never have to make a repair like this again.

My progress on the Double delight quilt has stalled. Boredom with all the SNS patches set in. I'm hoping to get back to it soon.

I started (bad girl! no cookie!) the Christmas Lights mystery from quiltmaker magazine. I finished clue #1 this weekend. The next issue with Clue #2 is not yet available where I am. I'm hoping to get a hold of it sometime this week.

I have been resisting the urge to start new projects. It has been very, very hard. I've got leftovers from Christmas Lights that I could see as a pillow or a table topper, but have so far resisted the urge to start something.

In the leaders/enders project, I've got 40 postage-stamp 16 patches done. And I have just about exhausted my supply of 1 1/2" squares. I think I have enough for 5 more blocks, so I have to decide whether I am going to cut more (I have lots and lots and lots of scraps in bins) or just put a quilt together and call it done. I'm leaning towards cutting as I have 4 large rubbermaid tubs that can be cut up into strips and used - it would be nice to get the scraps all organized into bins.

And the scrappy 9-patch I have sets sorted out for another 16 patches, so I may do that as leaders/enders for a while until I am ready to go with the postage stamps again. I figure when I get the postage stamp quilt done, I'll use alternate patches of some colour and tie it. I may add a small border to put the binding on, otherwise I'll lose a good chunk of the postage stamps in the 16-patches as I like to use half inch binding. I'm starting to seriously lean towards red for the alternate blocks - that or a blue and red for the binding.

And I did make some progress on the parrot quilt. 7 of the blocks are complete - quilted. I have one block in the quilting process and another 4 that are sashed and ready to be basted. I am still debating how I'm going to put it together. The border is going to be the area where I may have problems - it's where the black and white QAYG is stalled. Hopefully I'll have a good time with this one and that will push me towards finishing the B&W.

No new projects is my current mantra. Finish UFOs!

New Blog

I've created a new blog in order to record my quilting/sewing activities.

I'm have been quilting for about 10 years. I love handquilting and hand piecing. I am attempting to learn how to applique properly by hand. I do machine-piece but am not fond of machine quilting.

It's just my opinion, but machine quilting just loses something. I know it's work to put a quilt, especially a large one through a sewing machine, but there is just something not there about a machine-pieced quilt.

My local fabric shop says I'm a Traditionalist like it's a bad thing.

One project I am working on at the moment is a Parrot quilt. It is being made from blocks in a quild swap. Unfortunately, the blocks do not all square up to 12 1/2", which has made putting the quilt together a challenge. I finally decided to sash each block so that it squares up to 15" unfinished. And since each block is being sashed individually, I am going to quilt each block as I go an assemble the full quilt later. That way I have a project to take along with me. I have the first block half quilted and the second one sashed, marked and basted. I have 10 swap blocks and will need to make 2 to complete the quilt.