February Binding Challenge

January was so good for no-blog Mary and myself that we have selected what quilt we will bind for February.

This is my quilt:

Binding has been cut, but not sewn together yet.

This is Mary's quilt.

Anyone else want to join us?  Do you have a few too many quilts that need binding and you need a push?  Join in the fun and complete a quilt for February!

The other thing that I've been working on is getting borders onto this UFO.  It is time.  I was hung up about the borders.  Should there be applique on them or not?  Enough indecision .... too much time has been wasted.  Simple borders will be fine.

Two more blog books have been received.  There are still a number of years to go.  For these two books, two years were combined together in one book as there weren't a lot of posts per year once I started to look at the total.  I'm happier with the look and feel of the thicker books.

Cherish your day, cherish your life!

Oh dear, borders!

I seem to always get stuck on borders.  Nothing seems to satisfy me these days.

Take this top for example.  The centre is all together.  I love it!

Then, the 'what if' game started.  What if those stars get extended into the borders?  Yes, that works for me.   Now, what to do with the rest of the border fabric?  There is not much fabric left of the blue strips, so that can't be used.  There is lots of the neutral fabric that was used in making the stars and lots of navy blue.  It's ok ..... but ..... all that neutral fabric in the borders is not working for me.  It is just too 'blah'.

Again, the 'what if' came out to play!  What if some of the rust squares get added in those neutral squares?  It brings out the squares in the stars and the corner stones.  They add that certain something, something that was needed.  Yes, this works for me.  Finally!

Now, I can get this top going again.  Not that it has been around for very long, but I just want to get it done.

Hubby and I had our first Pfizer covid-19 vaccine yesterday.  Arm is a bit sore, but that is all.  The whole process was very well organized.  Our 2nd vaccine will be in August. 

If you are one of my followers that receive emails every time I post, then come July, that process will end.  Some blogs are talking about using Bloglovin, but I don't know anything about it.   So, just be aware that come July you will not receive anymore email posts from my blog.

Cherish your day, cherish your life!

Getting borders on!

The centre of this top is now complete .... time for the borders!

There will be red gingham inner border and then blocks of different dark red fabrics for the outer border.

Then, you are probably wondering what is going on with this dark beige piece in the side setting triangles?    I wanted to continue the look of the dark beige seams into the setting triangles.  These will be appliqued in place.  But why?  I did consider cutting smaller triangles and squares and sewing strips but nixed that idea because I did not want to see white seams in those triangles.  That meant that the seams had to be ironed to the inside but so are the seams in the joining areas above and below that piece and that would have been so difficult to keep it smooth and flat.  How to get around that problem?   Applique is my solution.  I so love it when a solution is at hand for making something impossible ..... possible!

On Wednesday, my sister and I drove out to see our brother to help celebrate his 71st birthday.  All of us sat in their living room, distanced apart and we all wore our masks.  We decided not to have cake and refreshments as that would have meant taking our masks off.  Keep it safe and that is what we did!

Yesterday, more elastic was purchased to make more masks because despite having more and more humans vaccinated, those variants are floating around and we will still need to keep wearing masks even after vaccination.  Hubby and I are waiting for our age groups to come up so that we can then register to get ours.

Along with the elastic, some red fabrics for borders were also purchased.  Already, plans are underway for my next UFO to be removed off the shelf.  Cottage season is fast approaching and that project will be my handwork over the next few months.  More about this later.

Cherish your day, cherish your life!

Diamond Star

The last time this project was worked on was April 2011.  A long time ago!  It was probably pinned on the wall for me to think about the borders and what to do and then promptly shelved.  

Fast forward to February 2021 and out came the bin.  It was time!  Up on the design wall it went.  What to do with borders?

When it was pinned onto the design wall last week, I could see there were a few areas on the outside sides that needed completion before working on borders.  So, rummaging through my scraps, fabric was found and before you knew it, all those places were done.  A few half hexagons and diamonds and full hexagons.  That is all that was needed to be done with the centre section.  Now, onto the borders.

My original plan was to do a vine with leaves all around on the borders.  A lot of leaves were cut out and prepped.  I hemmed and hawwed about leaves or no leaves.  That is why it got shelved ten years ago.  No more.  A decision had to be made.  Still, it would look so nice with all these leaves!

Nope, that idea was nixed.  Don't worry, those leaves will be used elsewhere.

Just plain borders will do, thank you.  I want this top done and done now.

Finally, this top is DONE!  Whew .... it only took a week to finish up.  What took so long ...... eh!  LOL  This top is so lovely to look at on this winter deary afternoon.  The sun is trying to peek through the clouds.  No to worry, I have my sunshine on my design wall!

Anyway, another top will be going to my lovely LAer.  Best start working on backings and battings as I want this top and my Wheels top out of here soon.

Another UFO will be pulled off the shelf.  I wonder which one it will be?

Cherish your day, cherish your life ..... wear a mask, wash your hands and keep your distance!

Another top .... another UFO

When my sister is feeling better after her chemo IV treatment, we go to the cottage. Fresh air, no stress, limited connection to the outside world .... what better place to be than at the cottage during our hot sunny days, especially when there is a lovely breeze off the lake!  That is where I've been a lot lately. Total bliss. 

Since we are in the middle of nowhere with no urban lighting, the stars at night are unbelievable.  We got to see the 2020 Perseid meteor shower two nights.  That was awesome!  Some of the meteors were quite short in length, but some were quite streaky.  Fast moving.  Blink and you missed them.

During the day, we found a new entertainment out there. Watching the hummingbirds fight over the feeder we put up. We haven't had one up in years, but last week one hummingbird hovered on the other side of the screen on our front porch and looked at both of us just sitting there looking back at it. Did it see the red hexies I was working on? We will never know.  Since I knew the formula for feeding them, a batch of sugar water was made and up went the feeder. What joy that has been! 

Baby birds.  Above our back door, a bird has had a nest there for years and has raised umpteen number of baby birds despite our coming and going through that door.  Sadly, this time when we arrived I looked up to see if there were still some baby birds in the nest.  Out of four eggs, there were two baby birds left, but they were dead.  What happened?   I removed the nest and wiped the top of the door frame of mud and straw and twigs.  Next year, the mama bird will start all over again.

On another note, one side of our old shed out back got wet and was showing off it's beautiful colours of wood. My sister took photos of the wood, but I had to set up one of my quilts for a photo.  Look at that tin roof and the colours of the wood.  What a great spot for taking photos of my quilts!  Soon, I will set up a pole to hang my quilts.  There is grass so my quilts will not sit on any soil/mud.  Another perfect spot!  Yeah!

It's funny, but we have never noticed the colours of the wood like this before.  It is usually the worn grey that you see at the bottom of the shed.  Could it be due to wasps that have a nest inside the shed and they have been removing some of the outer layers of the wood to build their nest?

Once back home, this ufo finally got addressed.  Gone are the pieced blocks and in their place is just a plain blue border.  It only took 14 years to figure this one out!  LOL  Now to get the backing done and another top will be on it's way to my lovely LAer.

Cherish your day!  Cherish your life!

Snowballs

No, we are not in winter here .... not yet.  But, snowballs?  That is the name of my latest quilt finish!  It was made during a quilt-along by Temecula Company and I absolutely loved making this quilt.  The border design is my own and I would do it again in a flash!

After the binding got finished, it was late at night and I just had to snap this photo taken in the lamp light at the cottage.

Here is the other side of the bridge on our cottage road.

The bridge is a one vehicle lane only and has great appeal for taking quilt photos.  The flies are still bad.

Then back at home, this is on our hill looking down.

Over a swing on our patio.

Yep, love this one too!

Quilt details:
Block size:  4" finished
Started:  December 2017
Top finished:  August 2018
Quilt finished:  July 2019
Quilt size:  67-1/2" x 83" (before quilting, washing and drying:  69-1/2" x 85")
Batting:  Hobbs polyester
Machine quilted by:  Kat's Quilts

For the quilt-along we needed to make 16 blocks each week.  Eight dark blocks and eight light blocks.  Each Wednesday, we were reminded about our blocks.  I actually kept with the program and then got ahead of the process and finished the blocks before the end of their quilt-along.  The border kept me busy for a while but it was so worth the wait.

Have a great stitching day!

Linking to:
http://www.esthersquiltblog.com/
https://needleandthreadnetwork.blogspot.com/

Getting somewhere!

Progress has been made on the borders.  Oh happy days!  I love the look of this border applique.  Only 12 more leaf units and this top will be finished ...

My husband and I have been busy again making a wood box for my niece's apartment.  She wanted a nice looking box for her garbage and recycle bins.  So, we obliged.

Her kitchen is very small and this box will help her a lot with storage.

Snow is melting very nicely up here.  Dare I even think about getting out some spring tulip quilts out for display?

Like these two and my basket quilt .....

A vase of tulip flowers would be lovely right about now!  It has been a very long winter.

Have a great day!

Linking to:
http://www.esthersquiltblog.com/
http://needleandthreadnetwork.blogspot.com/

Borders on .... FINALLY!

Procrastination ..... I think that should be added to the numbers of things that I do very well!  🐱🐱

Remember this photo?  I was on a roll to get the borders on these five tops.  This first photo was taken June 22, 2017 as the motivation to just get them done ..... darn it!

 On July 21, 2017 .... two tops done!  Oh my, this gave me inspiration.

Then, September 14, 2017 .... three tops are done.  Yes, yes, yes.

A slight pause, but by February 25, 2018 four tops are done.  Then, my feet kinda dragged a bit.

Still, finally by today's post, all five of these tops are officially DONE.  Borders on all of them.

Do you realize that it has taken me over a year to get those borders on?  Yes, procrastination reigns supreme with me!  Must be in my genes.  🐱🐱  Should I do this again?  Take another photo of five more tops that need borders?  With my record .... hummm .... no, it didn't work out as well as I thought it would!  Still, that is five projects out of bins and three of them have been quilted to date.

So, the story continues for the final top.  My lovely split apple core.  Loved working on this EPP project.  Here the inner borders are added.  Then off to the cottage for a few days leaving this top on my design wall and a mess in my studio.

Back home from the cottage and the desire to get the outer borders on.  As you can see, I have the proper work space for getting borders on.  Table perfect height and length.  No excuse, really.

Ah ... FINALLY, borders are on!  How happy am I?  Glorious happy!  This top is big.  101" wide and 95" tall.

My DH asked if this was one for the LAer.  No, not this one.  I have had visions of machine quilting this one in a simple grid pattern and no other design will do.  You can see how the design has been marked up on this photo below.  So simple.

To see what all those folded up tops look like .... well, here you go!   Two of them are completely done.  The one on the upper left and the one on the bottom right.  The quilt on the upper right is quilted but has no binding on it yet.  You know, when I think about it, it was a good idea after all.

While the iron is still hot ..... maybe I should as well get borders on this top too!  Another EPP project.

To round out my quilting for this week, the binding is getting sewn down on this quilt.   It really feels odd to me to not have any borders on this quilt.  Different for me.  Light bulb moment ... this top and quilt got done a lot quicker than usual .... no borders!  Hey, perhaps that is how I should do my tops from now on!  LOL

What else have I been up to?  Getting ready for trunk shows.  Two this month and one next month.  More on them later.

Have a great day!

Linking to: http://estheraliu.blogspot.com/ and http://needleandthreadnetwork.blogspot.com/

Different things

Lately, I've been busy tidying up my studio and that means tidying up projects that were so-so.

Take this top, for example.  I was never happy with the outer border.  This finished top has been sitting on the shelf since 2009.  Why?  The fabric has a definitive large pattern in it and when it was cut, I didn't pay attention to that issue and my borders turned out yucky.  Some may be happy with it, but not me.

Finding a replacement fabric took time.  Over the years, fabric was purchased BUT not the right one.  That time has come and now the ripping out borders has begun.  A beautiful teal fabric that doesn't have a noticeable pattern and brown borders were found.  Perfect now.  I can see my lovely brown striped fabric that I recently bought more of for the binding.  How happy am I now?  Very happy!  

This quilt is getting that lovely striped brown fabric for binding.   Can you see my hands clapping in glee?

While I'm at it, this shelving unit has not had any of the ufo's worked on in years.  Time to remedy that.  It has been a while, my friends.  There are so many lovely projects there!

Have a great day!

Doing a bit of applique.

I'm moving forward on the borders for my hexie top.

The left hand side is done.  Making progress.  It feels so good to get this far so quickly.

I do like this filigree border look ..... actually quite a lot.  This is something that I will be playing with in future quilts.  Yum, yum!

Have a great day!

Thinking ....

Oh my .... so many thoughts are flitting through my brain.  Border designs.  For my hexie top, I wanted something airy and different.  Hmmm ..... yes, this works!   What you see is a paper mock-up, but I do have enough of the navy inner border fabric to do the applique.

Only one more flower to do and then I can start stitching the bottom section to the main section.  Then, I need to get serious about these borders.  A good start!

Have a great day!

Two down ....

.... and three to go!

It really didn't take that long to get borders on these tops.  Like seriously .... not long at all.

So, Rosie .... why not buckle down and tackle those remaining three?  It won't take long, you know.

Have a great day!

Applique quilt

As well as working on other UFO's, I've been working on the appliqué quilt that I designed for my day guild.

The last time I posted about this quilt (back in October 2015), it was at this stage:

Over the past few weeks, a lot of sewing got done.  This is the final layout of the centre.  Can you see the blocks that have pieces of paper pinned to them? Those are the months that the blocks will be presented to the guild.  A lot of work has gone into the planning and designing and I'm so happy with the way it turned out.

February's blocks will be these two (not the heart block as that one has already been presented):

So, I was sitting in my chair and looking at the top on my design wall and wondering what to do with the borders.  I could have gone simple and called it done.  But noooooo .... that would not do for me.  So, I played and thought and played some more.  This is the result.  I'm wondering if this type of border has been done before?  Anyway, I LOVE it!

Have a great day!