Sylvia's Bridal Sampler (Elm Creek Quilts) REVEAL

Is it Christmas yet??  I can't wait cause all this self induced "busyiness" will stop then!!!! I seem to have this bad habit of delaying things until the last minute and Christmas seems to be my deadline. Why I do that I have no idea, but I think I am in better shape than last year. I am afraid to go back and check last year's blog at this time and see what mess I was in!

Let's just say that there are NO MORE (sewing and class) days at my house for this year. Not that that was stressful since it is a cinch to get the studio ready, but it just means a day when I am NOT working on the things that need to be done. I have one more class at Cockadoodle this Saturday. Normally I don't do classes this close to Christmas, but you know that Christmas Club - they are fierce and wouldn't back down!!!!

Yesterday was the reveal for Sylvia's Bridal Sampler of Elm Creek fame. Wow - what a show n tell. There are 140 blocks in total. Technically the group should have 90 blocks sewn by now and then given another 10 yesterday. Then 10 more in each of January, February, March and April. We then have TWO months left to figure out how to sew them together. In June, the last reveal will take place and then I do NOT want to ever hear about Sylvia's Bridal Sampler again. Let me clarify that - I will be happy to look at FINISHED quilts, but no more discussion on how to sew those blocks!!!!

Let's get to the show n tell................................

Ruth with a pretty palette of blues, yellows and greens  (70 blocks complete) AWESOME job Ruth!!!!!!

Tish with her classic blue and white combination.  Spectacular!!!!!  (48 blocks done). Her sewing time has been severely restricted due to something called "work". 

Susan  with a beautiful soft palette. (96 blocks done) Yes - Susan was working on this project a bit before the group started. Very pretty!!!!!

Celia with a beautiful palette of golds and greens.  (79 blocks done) 

Celia is also thinking ahead to her sashing and wants to put the blocks on point. Yes - there are a LOT of blocks to put all of them on point. I think lots of people will be doing more than one quilt.   I LOVE the green sashing - it makes the blocks pop. It is VERY hard to see the true colours in these pictures. 

Mary Jane who has a LOT more blocks at the cottage.   Lots of blues, browns and purple in this combo. It looks awesome - can't wait to see all the blocks together.   I think she needs a BOX to hold ALL her blocks together!!!!   I just hope she finds them all!!!  

Pat is working in blues, greens and pinks. She has been busy with work and a couple of priority quilts so no time to keep up to date with these blocks, but her other commitments are DONE so she can get focused again. She has more blocks done at home. 

Dug this out of the archives - more blocks by Pat from May. 

Judy with a pink/blue/white theme going. She is NOT doing any more pink ones and we offered lots of advice in how to organize them. (74 blocks) and since she is only going to make 99 (for a double bed), she is not far from finishing!!!!!!

Janice is using civil war fabrics to make her blocks and it is gorgeous. Hmmm - note that she has a "neutral" background - not a shirting - I will have to think about that for my Dear Jane. (55 blocks)

Joanne has a pink/green/yellow theme happening. It is very pretty. Don't worry - we all nixed the purple block (6th row - second block). Although someone suggested she ditch all the other blocks and use just that one. HA HA!!!   Anyway - I love it and think it looks amazing!!!!   (71 blocks)

My blocks - and I am BEHIND - just like everyone else. My palette is orange/green and yellow. It is hard to know if you are going to like it when you see all those blocks on their own, but on the wall  - it looks not bad. (74 blocks).  I have the missing 16 cut out and ready to sew. They are now sitting by my sewing machine with the intention of getting one or two or more done each day. I really want to be done by the end of this year. 

Jeanette has her two quilts quilted!!!!!!    Well done Jeanette!!!    This is quilt one

And here is the second quilt. Awesome job!!!!!!

A few people were missing yesterday and just to refresh your memory - here is the colour palettes of those quilts................

This is Lois' show n tell from last month at Ruti's. A beautiful gold and brown combination

More blocks - she did a great job catching up and I think she is pretty much up to date - well as up to date as the rest of us. 

Marianne is taking a completely different route and using Christmas fabric for her quilt. One month she uses RED

And the next month she uses green (OK - so this has red and green), but you know what I mean. It is going to be interesting to see the end result. Going to need a calm sashing for sure!!!   I do love the colours!!!!

Let's go back - WAY BACK into the picture archive to find pictures for Carol and Vicki.............   I'll be right back....................

Hmmmmmmm - This is ONE block by Vicki. I have one more picture with FOUR blocks in it of hers. I will have to have  a chat with her!!!!! Vicki - where are the rest of your blocks???????  

Oh - here are the other four blocks by Vicki!!!

And these blocks are Carol's. 

Wasn't that exciting???   The group is doing an amazing job and I am really happy to see how many people are keeping up.

We had an amazing pot luck lunch as well after our show n tell. (we missed you Carol, Marianne and Lois!!!)

Pot luck lunch. It seemed that everyone with red had to sit on the left and everyone in neutral (greys, blacks and whites) were on the right. Ruthie was the only one out of sorts!!!!  

Cool lemon/cranberry cake shaped like a house. 

 Now the big problem will be how to stay motivated to get these blocks done. As you all know - it is very easy to set it aside and work on something else. I decided to put the quilt right in front of me. Since I do not need the design wall for anything else at the moment - I put up the blocks in the order they appear in the original quilt.

My blocks so far according to the original quilt. All I can say - I have a  LOT of work to do. 

 Holy cow - looks like there are more to do than I have done. Going to be a busy holiday season!!!!!   Looked so much better when they were all bunched together.

 Well I have THREE BIG quilting days ahead of me - I had better get started.



Have a great day!!



Ciao!!!!!!

Jackpot!

Hm - sometimes a title for the blog comes without much thought. Other times, it takes a while. I thought of this morning's title yesterday - oh yes, I don't just sit down and write. Sometimes, I actually put some thought into the posts! Then this morning I couldn't remember the title, but after a few attempts at writing something else, the title popped back into my head.

You'll see why this title in a bit.

Yesterday was Monday and it was Monday sewing. I know I say this every Tuesday, but Monday really is the best day of the week. It's PERMANENTLY reserved for the sewing group, nothing gets scheduled on a Monday unless I'm on vacation or something really, really important. It's just a great group of people, we chat about everything (poop now seems to be a weekly topic!) And seriously if they had quilters rule the world? Well, we'd solve everything in a heartbeat so we could get back to quilting.

I'm super pleased with my progress - let's check it out.

OH - I got a license plate from Jan. She was traveling recently and she bought this plate for me. Love it! The plates sure are not as popular as they used to be. But that's OK - getting a few here and there is loads of fun. At some point, I'll get to the Row by Row stuff but there are other more important things on my plate at the moment.

Row by Row license plate from Wisconsin

I used up a lot of my enders/leaders yesterday and found some more red fabric so I can cut more squares. I didn't get a chance to cut yesterday, but at least the fabric is waiting.

Red fabric to cut

 I don't need much as the pile on the left is getting smaller. That's awesome. And then it'll be onto the next step of that project.

Back to the Farmer's Wife quilt. I managed to get six blocks done yesterday. Some of the blocks are very fiddly and some are not. I'm going in the order of the book now and will take the good with the bad.

Two of the ones I did yesterday had to be paper pieced - the middle one in each row. There are five more really fiddly ones to go. Can't wait until they are done!

The Farmer's Wife blocks for the week

 Then I had a quick count of what's left. There are 111 blocks in the book. I have 30 left. That means 5 weeks with six blocks per week. Yeah!!!  As much as I "hate" doing those blocks because they are super slow, this is a great way to get them done.

Now the issue will be - what's next? Do I take a break from this kind of project? I have three more small block projects that need to be worked on. One of them has 365 blocks - do you remember that Block a Day project from a couple of years ago? I have the blocks completed for January and 19 from February, but that still leaves a lot of blocks to make. Then I have Sylvia's Bridal Sampler (Elm Creek). Not sure what state that one is in and the third one also has 365 blocks, but I don't think I'll be able to do it at Monday - not the way that I want to do it so that one isn't on the immediate project list at the moment.

A quick check - found Sylvia's Bridal Sampler (that was easy) and there are quite a few blocks made. There are 140 blocks in the book. I might be slightly over half done. And it looks like a lot are cut and prepped. I think I'll just move to that one next. But I must start sewing the blocks of these projects together as well -not just getting the blocks done. I also found another quilt - the Hobo Quilt - that was also 6" blocks and there are 55 in there. OK - so I'll probably be working on small block projects for the rest of this year and all of next year and then I'll be done!!!!

Then there are a "few" other blocks of the month projects, but nothing with these fiddly small blocks. The blocks are probably just as fiddly, just bigger and thankfully less of them to make. And there are a lot of applique options. Hmm - decisions, decisions!!!

Remember how I had decided to work on a border project each week, but no time to get it organized for yesterday? Well, I already had a border project in my bag. I had finished the center of this project the week before and the borders were cut and ready to sew on. So I got all three borders attached yesterday. YEAH!!!!  I really like this wall hanging, love the design, love the fabric.

Wall hanging top - completed

I found some backing for it when I got home. The binding was partially made and now it's completed and has been moved to the "to be quilted" pile. It's called Signs of Autumn by Studio 180 and uses Deb Tucker's rulers. They also have a bigger version of this quilt, done in red and white and it's stunning. I have the pattern for that one (probably didn't need it) and I'd like to make it. But NOT on the radar at this moment.

Another project moved to the "to be quilted" pile

I was thinking about what to prep for next week for the border project. Then I thought of a quilt that is on the UFO list and it just needs borders to sewn on. I think the last two borders need to be worked on. That project is on the cutting table so it can be prepped for next week. I'll sew the borders on before the room gets crowded. I love having a plan.

A quilt that needs borders waiting to be prepped for next Monday

I'm madly sewing to get a quilt top off the design wall. You'll see it later this week. And of course, I'm thinking what can go back on the wall. I hate to have it empty. I still have a lot of work to do before the Halloween one takes center stage.  I was reviewing the UFO list and there's a quilt on that list. The blocks are made - it just needs to be sewn together. So that one got pulled out this morning and hopefully, by the end of today, it'll be on the wall.

Blocks are made and need to be sewn together

I picked up the mail when I got home and there's the missing pattern. Well - a copy of the missing pattern. Shh! Now I have to get working on the fall mini quilt (all paper pieced) so I can keep my Mom happy. From the look of it, the winter one which I've already done seemed to have the largest number of small pieces, but then - they all have small pieces since these wall hangings are about 15" square.

Paper pieced pattern - next project up???

Going to have to have a paper piecing marathon. When's the first day of fall? Not that I'm trying to rush summer - oh no. I just need a deadline. I have to say that the days are getting shorter and it's becoming pretty noticeable. It's getting dark in the morning when I arrive in the kitchen at 6 AM to make breakfast. I actually had to turn on a light this morning. That's sad!

Not only did I get something exciting in the mail, but I got something exciting on my doorstep. There was a bag and in the bag were three sample books of men's suitings and some strips which will make a perfect binding. I wonder if that's what she had in mind? The samples are from 2008-2009. There's a very urgent deadline for this (perhaps that will go on the design wall before those other blocks). I had a good chuckle yesterday because this picture was sent to me.

Hey - who are you and what do you want at our house?

These are my watch dogs! They are so cute looking out the window. They love to see what's happening on the street and I'm sure many people walking by just shake their heads when they see the two of them staring back.

Now if the door were open, they'd invite you in, but only if you opened the closet where the cookies are stored!

Speaking of Lexi and Murphy, they have a story to tell this morning.

And let's not forget that it's my week for QUILTsocial. It's a totally crazy week. If you think this blog is exhausting, you better not read that one. OH - go ahead and read it. There are loads of great tips.

QUILTsocial - Monday

QUILTsocial - Tuesday


Have a super day!!!!

Ciao!!!

Travel Day - Part Three

I hope that last part makes sense, I couldn’t go back and edit it and I know something was messed up when I tried to change one word. This damn APPLE product. I’ll call them again and see if I can figure out what is going on. I suppose I could use the laptop I’ve brought with me but I’m good with the iPad.

After hitting the three bookstores, I decide to check out Bourbon street. I walk along to the very end of the “entertainment” district and then I turned back and walked down the street. It’s closed to traffic but traffic does cross it so one must be on their toes. There were people on bikes, small motor bikes, and vespas.

The sights, the sounds, the smells - it’s a total body experience. I’m not sure I can even describe it. Here’s one way to visualize some of the people on the street - if any of you read Janet Evanovich and know the character Lulu. Let’s just say that there were MANY of her on the street. It’s an eye opener to say the least. There are shops for voodoo - no photos in the shop please and that’s the only reason I went in - to take photos. DRAT!!!  There are vans selling weed and other goodies right on the street, people are drinking their beers as they walk along the street, the smell of weed permeates the air (something we can look forward to back home in a couple of weeks), cigar smoking is huge, beaded necklaces are huge, staff throwing beads and t-shirts off the balconies into the eager hands below, music blaring from every establishment, and a HUGE section of the street is under construction so the walk was crowded onto the sidewalk.

Let’s see - there were physics who would read your cards or whatever they were doing, one lady had live canaries that she was selling. Sure - I’ll get one of those please - in yellow!  Oh let’s not forget the street performers. Various ages and acts, but the best one is the group (actually there were several groups) of young boys drumming on empty five gallon plastic jugs. It was amazing to see this young boy - he must have been 5 if that and he was counting up a huge roll of bills and putting them in his pocket. It was a HUGE wad and this kid is 5!!!!!

Let’s not forget the heat and the humidity. The streets are old, the buildings are old and every building I went into smelled of mole and mildew or dampness - however you want to put it. I’m not sure that I could live here. It would drive me crazy. Even the large room in the hotel where we’re going to eat - it smells damp. The water doesn’t drain properly on the old streets so there is dirty standing water everywhere. And there are the unsavory characters on Bourbon street. Some are street people, some are just drunk or stoned. There appeared to be lots of parties going on - could be a bridal shower, or a stag or a birthday - it was sometimes hard to tell. The white veil on a girl did give away the bridal shower groups.

Sit n Sew day

By far, my favorite days are the Sit n Sew days (and Monday sewing). They are just good all around. I get loads done (most sew days) and the conversations are amazing! We talk about everything and anything at the sew days and that's so neat. It's nice to know that we're not alone in our struggles - be that with changes in the family structure, our wins and losses, our hopes and dreams and so much more. I would be totally lost without the sit n sew days. I can't wait until the next one - OH WAIT - that's on Sunday!

It wasn't just myself who was super productive yesterday. Claudette sewed up her 3rd jelly roll rug!!! She comes with the "rope" already made and then just whips it up! I'd say she's got the technique down!

Claudette's jelly roll rug

I think she has one more rug to make and then Diane wants the space to make a few rugs. It's a good space to work in. I have the sewing machine set up in a drop-down cabinet and with two tables - one beside and one behind, the rug is completely supported as it's made. Super easy and FAST.

Ruth made progress in leaps and bounds yesterday. She's been working on this quilt - Sylvia's Bridal Sampler for a while. She made 99 of the 140 blocks. She got the main part of the top done yesterday!! It does need a good pressing and then the borders added. That's amazing - she just sat in her chair and sewed and sewed and by the end of the day, everything was sewn together. That's totally awesome. Way to go Ruth!! And nice to see Ruth as we haven't seen her in a while.

Sylvia's Bridal Sampler quilt

Helen Anne was hard at work on the borders of the Common Bride quilt by Laundry Basket Quilts. The borders are DONE. That's a whole lot of piecing and look at how nicely those seams are twirled! A huge pile of work. I believe the corners are still being worked on and then she can put this one to bed soon!!!

The borders for the Common Bride quilt

Speaking of laundry baskets, two baskets went home with Ruth. She needed a couple and I happened to have a couple of empty ones. Yeah - that was a win-win. Now Ruth is supposed to be tossing her old ones! And we totally trust her to do that.

Laundry baskets out the door

What did I do?? I trimmed two customer quilts. I was going to work on the backing for Tonga Rhapsody, but the cutting table was quite busy yesterday so I decided to work on my Lilla quilt. I finished off four blocks from our class last week. I sorted the blocks. There are 25 different blocks and I've made 4 of each for a total of 100. But I don't want one huge quilt, so I decided to make 12 more blocks so I would end up with two quilts that are 63 by 72 each. I threw the blocks on the design wall. We made a few changes and this is what we ended up with. 

A lap-sized version of Lilla

I knew there would be things that I didn't like after reviewing it, but I'm OK with that. It's a wee bit heavy on the bottom with that one color and holy - I used that blue/purple a LOT. Honestly, I'm not going to sweat it. It's a very jumbly quilt and I doubt that moving a few blocks around were going to make a huge difference. I do wish that I had rotated a few of the blocks but it is what it is. I'll spend a bit more time on the next one. I have four more blocks to make for the next quilt. I'm saving those for our final class in October. Then I can piece that top together.

Then I was really ambitious and I made the backing for this quilt and I made the binding for both of the quilts. 

The backing, binding, and the quilt top

So that one is getting moved to the "to be quilted" pile.

Next up was to load a giant customer quilt and it got finished last night. I hope to get that trimmed this morning so the customer can pick it up.

Customer quilt - DONE

My quilting schedule is going well. I hope to get a few more of mine done in the next few weeks, but my goal right now is to get completely caught up with customer quilts.

I snuck out for a wee bit to go to the book sale! I was going to go at 5 PM when it opened, but then figured it would be totally crazy busy. So I went for 7 PM instead. Although there were lots of people, it didn't seem to be busy, but there were people with grocery carts filled with books! Book dealers and teachers! I found two things on my list and two things that were not on my list.

It's quite the task to search through those open boxes of books. I should have taken a picture. I might go back as I realized as I was driving home that I missed the hardcover section completely! I don't think there were as many books as in previous years as I wasn't seeing a lot of books under the tables. It's loads of fun to scour the titles, but I would love if the volunteers would put the books in the SAME orientation within each box. They just shove them in and it's hard to see when some books are turned.

The books are sorted by genre, but that's it!

Look what I found! A quilt puzzle. Look - there's a copy of Quilter's Newsletter magazine in the background. That was $1. I added it to my jigsaw puzzle collection.

A quilt puzzle

Here are two books that have been on my list. So happy to have found the one on the left. I've been searching for that one for a long time.

Two novels that I found at the book sale

And for a lark, I bought this. Look who made the book. My fellow educators will get a kick out of this since some of them have been around for a long time and probably contributed to the book.

Serger Technique book by Husqvarna White!

As I've been writing this blog, I've been downloading all the pictures from my phone. That's in preparation of getting the new one! There were 4,500 photos. I know - many of those should be deleted and that will be a job once I get the paperwork under control.

I managed to pick up my parcel from the post office but that'll have to wait for another day. I have a bit of work to do this morning before I head off to my presentations at Brampton Sew n Serge this afternoon.

Photos are transferred - I just hit delete to delete them from my phone! ACK! I always hate delete!

On that note, I'm out of here. I've got a busy day! OK - why do I even say that when every day is a busy day!

Have a super day - enjoy the gorgeous weather if you're in my neck of the woods.

Ciao!!!

BOO!!!!!!!

Halloween seems to be the theme around here lately.

Ronda came over on Sunday and we sewed the entire day. Very productive!!!!!!!!!!
I was working on one of her Halloween quilts. She wanted minky on the back of her quilts. Oh boy - the minky is barely the same width as the quilt. I thought I would be so smart and load it - I am GOOD - I don't need to put anything extra on it. After I loaded it, I thought "I am NOT THAT GOOD", so I took the back off and added extensions to the quilt.

The quilt is the lime green on top and the blue/green on the bottom is the extension that I added to the backing. The THIN black line in the middle is the EXCESS backing. 

Same deal - other side. There is NOT a lot of extra backing 

 Now why do you need that extra backing?????

Because you need to have something to place the clamps on from the long arm. This helps to stabilize the backing and prevent wrinkles. And if the clamps are too close to the quilt top, the machine will catch on them and STOP and potentially make nasty looking patterns at the edge of the quilt. OK - so it was MUCH easier to quilt after the extensions went on. 

Ronda's Halloween quilt - QUILTED

Here is the back - doesn't that look fun!!!!   This one has plush on the back since the store didn't have enough minky for two. 

See - there was BARELY room for the quilt on that backing. 

The quilt got trimmed and the binding sewn on. She took it home with her!!!!

TWO DONE - seven to go!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I got ambitious (OK - so I was supposed to be doing other things), but I wanted to get this done.

Linda's Halloween quilt - DONE

Trimmed and bound - waiting to be picked up!!!!

THREE DONE - Six to go...............

And look what colour thread I got to use on the back!!!!!!!!!!!!!    Still using invisible thread on the front. Actually turning out quite nice. The tension is just PERFECT - that is why I wanted to do as many as I could at once. 

Traced this and cut it out at Monday Motivators. A small wall hanging (supposed to be a pillow). Was in the latest Quilts and More magazine. Just needs to be stitched and finished.  Maybe in time for next Halloween

Finished the embroidery on this small wall hanging. Supposed to be framed, but I will make a little wall hanging. 

One more border, bindings and backing project DONE - finished quilt top

The backing and binding also DONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

And then I had a moment and started to work on Sylvia's Bridal Sampler (Elm Creek). I know - who would have thought??????????   I have 41 blocks to finish. So here is the first.

Block done for Sylvia's Bridal Sampler

I also made good progress on several others and hopefully can sneak 10 in by the end of the week. I KNOW - FOCUS FOCUS FOCUS. There is so much and I am starting to skip from one to another. Need to FOCUS.


Despite the floor being mopped MANY times, it is still icky, although not nearly as icky as it was on Friday night. Here is my kid attempting to mop the floor. And since she works at McDonald's, she KNOWS how to mop floors. Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm - a little more elbow grease would have helped it.

M mopping the floor. 

And remember that orange dish????   I found a GREAT use for it!!!!!!!!!!   Just don't tell the dentist!!!!!

M wants to go into a fashion program once she finishes high school. Oh boy - that is going to be a lot of work. They have to submit a portfolio and for someone who doesn't have much drawing experience - this could be a problem. Well she has taken some fashion illustration classes and has been practicing drawing, she is doing pretty well.


Shoot -I can't find the pictures she sent me - well have to post them another day.


Have a great day!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Ciao!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!