February and March Binding Challenge

The end of February cheated us of a few days when we are used to either 30 or 31 days in a month .... but I got my quilt finished just in the nick of time!

No-blog Mary was ahead of me this month.  My quilt didn't have it's binding on yet and with only two days to go ..... whew got there in the end.

This is Mary's quilt for February:

and this is my quilt (another post to follow on this quilt):

Now, for March, Mary put her hand in the garbage bag and out came this quilt.  She never knows what she will pull out .... always a surprise.  I had to ask her about this quilt.  She thinks it was a Super Bowl mystery but can't remember when she made it; but she had to concentrate a lot while doing it.  The size is a queen.  Yikes, that will keep her busy!

My March quilts to bind will, hopefully, be these two.  I want to get them done and to the lady that is organizing a May drop-off to the women's shelter.  At least one will get done and the second quilt will be a BONUS!

You know how some birthdays just come and go without much fuss?  Well, I just had my 16th blog birthday on the 22nd of this month!  Sixteen years of blogging!!!  OMG.  The thing is, I forgot all about it!  What a time this has been.  Oh my, I remember my first post and wondered if anyone would be interested to even read my blog and, yes,  you are still reading me.  Thank you for your support!  Sixteen years ago, there were so many quilting blogs and I do miss quite a few of my favourite blogs that are no more.  How many more years will this blog be still running?  As long as there is something up on my design wall and my fingers can still work their magic, then there is something to write about.  Time will tell.  

It is snowing here again this morning.  We have at least 2' of packed snow in our backyard.  It will take a while before that snow melts once the warmer weather arrives.  Will March come in like a lion or a lamb?  It is supposed to be nice and sunny tomorrow with temp around zero.  If so, then end of March will see a blizzard or another snowstorm.

As far as snow goes, we haven't had as much this year.  It has been a crazy winter so far.  We've had a good share of snow, but also days of rain which has packed down the snow a lot.  There has also been balmy days resulting in a good melt of snow during those days.  Spring is around the corner .... just what corner?  LOL

Cherish your day, cherish your life!

Going round in circles

My circles top has made much progress.  It will be a wall hanging, so .... it shouldn't take too long to complete this ..... so says the woman who gets distracted by squirrels!  LOL

What I'm doing is a nine-patch block of circles (no sashing).  The dark red fabric with the lighter circle is the center of the nine-patch.  My layout will be 4 blocks wide x 6 blocks long.  On the wall right now, the far right column is almost complete.

Yesterday, we got another dumping of snow, but didn't get the freezing rain that southern Ontario received.  Lucky for us!  I did have to go out for babysitting .... but once home, it was nice to sit by the fire and have a nice cup of tea and browse the computer for a bit.

Cherish your day, cherish your life!

Quilts for Kids

Another Winding Trails top using the pattern by Karen Griska Quilts.  I'm on a roll making kids quilts.  This will be a donation quilt for a women's shelter in a neighbouring town.  Personally, I think it is ugly .... but a child will love it.  I'm anxious to see this quilted up because a quilt changes once quilted.  My LAer has just finished quilting it and it just needs to be picked up.

Now, this top I love.  Berry Smoothie by Villa Rosa Designs and it also will be going to the same place.  This top used up a chunk of fabric for each block and I will be using this pattern again and again.

While making this top, a second set of blocks were made and all that needs to be done is sew those blocks together to make another top ... and that is what will be done to get those blocks into a top and to the LAer and then to the shelter.

Both of these tops were squirrels ...... LOL.  It's a good thing when those squirrels get completed.

Love it when I'm on a roll ....

Cherish your day, cherish your life!

... and another squirrel!

Yes, I did it ..... started another project.  You would think that squirrels hibernate during winter ..... but no, they do not and they stopped by and had a few chats with me!  LOL

It all started with cleaning out some piles of fabrics and papers and that is when I saw this pattern and knew that it just had to be made.

What got me started on this squirrel was a need for a couple more small wall quilts to go with my February red/neutral quilts.  My bins of red fabrics and my neutral/red fabrics were a tad overflowing and viola .... this project got started.  This is my project so far.  If one block a day gets done, then this project should be ready for sashings and borders by the end of this month.  Only nine blocks to go.  So, we shall see ....

In the meantime, this quilt .... which I really love .... has been bugging me.  Why?  I want to make another circle quilt and why not do the same quilt but in red and neutrals?  So, that is what is being done.

This is my progress so far.  Not much to see, but in time there will be more blocks.

There have been two more squirrels that got made into tops this month.  They will be shown on another post.  It has been a productive month so far!

There may be another new squirrel or two, but nothing has been done with those yet!

Oh squirrels .... just go and stay away and leave me alone!  LOL  Can't really complain as it does help with clearing out stash and helps to keep the creative juices flowing!

Our winter has been up and down lately.  Bitter, bitter cold and warm balmy days around 0C.  Our winter has been too warm lately because bears have been coming out of hibernation.  This week, there was a report of a bear around a few schools in the east end of our city and the schools had to go into lockdown.  There is no food for bears right now and a child would be just a tad too tempting to pass up for a meal.

This week, we had freezing rain followed by snow and it left our backyard looking like a wonderland.  For those of you enduring very hot temps ..... here is some ice and snow for you to drool over!

Cherish your day, cherish your life!

Gingham Swirls

Oh my, how I enjoyed designing and making this quilt.  After doodling around on EQ7, that wavy border just had to be made and something EPP would make this a perfect take-along project.

So, the project got started and slowly but surely, this quilt came to be.

This project was supposed to be for our day guild celebration of Canada's 150th birthday.  The stipulation was that only red and white fabrics could be used.  We could use tone-on-tone reds, red with white and white tone-on-tone and white with red fabrics.  Well, try and find all fabrics with just red and white in them .... no cream, no off-white.  I had lots of red fabrics but very little with red/white prints and I wanted a variety of those fabrics in the blades.  So, the quest to get this quilt done in 2017 got shelved and this quilt was completed years later.  

Here are a few of my blocks with my selection of fabrics:

Quilt Details:

Pattern Source:  This information will only be helpful to those that have EQ and Blockbase software.

#3342 for the blocks (blades).  Make four of this unit to form a block.   

Block size:  6" x 6" finished quarter blocks that resulted in a 12" x 12" finished block.

For the borders, I used "Curved Path Border" and "Curved Path Corner"

Border size:  6" x 8" finished blocks

A tutorial was done to show how the borders were made here.  At the bottom of this post is the label "Gingham Swirl" and you can read all the posts showing my progress.

Started:  September 2016

Top Finished:  November 2021

Finished:  January 2022

Batting:  Hobbs cotton/poly (80/20)

Machine quilted by:  Kathy Wareham using "Maidenhair Fern" quilting design by Urban Elementz.

This quilt is now on display along with my other red/neutral quilts for February.

It has been very cold here lately (-37C with a windchill of -47C) and now it is hovering close to 0C, but I'm keeping warm by the fire!   The snow is starting to pile up and I'm keeping a close watch on our roof in case we need to bring in people to shovel the snow off of it.  

Oh, look ..... a squirrel!  LOL

Cherish your day, cherish your life!

January & February Binding Challenge

Well, no-blog Mary and I got 2023 off to a good start ..... but I had to do a bit of prodding to get Mary working on finishing her binding.  Our weather was dull and dreary last month and Mary was affected by the lack of sunshine ..... but she got there in the end and we can close out the month of January with a finished quilt.  Yeah us!

This is Mary's January quilt:

This is my January quilt and there will be more about this quilt on another post:

For February, Mary is doing a basket quilt:

and this will be my quilt to bind.  

It is very cold here today .... -27C and even colder with the windchill .... a good day to stay inside and sew.  All I can say is thank heavens for heated car seats and a garage to park our car in!  Our gas fireplaces are on and keeping us toasty warm.

Cherish your day, cherish your life!