September Binding Challenge

"Churn Dash-Dash".  A funny title, isn't it?

Still, this quilt is done and can be added to the pile of finished quilts and can be used now at any time .... and I'm so thrilled with it!  It will be going on my bed soon as the nights are chilling down.

My hubby helped me display the quilt over the railing.  As you can see .... leaves are on the ground.  Autumn is definitely here and trees have been displaying their colours for quite a few weeks now.  Some trees started to turn colour back in August.

A close-up of the quilting.  This quilting design (Baptist Fan Curl) has been used in quite a few of my quilts and I will continue to pick it

I just love the backing fabric.  It has been in my stash for many years.

Thanks to https://chookyblue.blogspot.com/and her challenge, this quilt was pulled off the shelf and worked on.  A number of us bloggers zoom with Chooky and we were admiring her Churn Dash quilt.  Chooky issued a challenge along with instructions for the block and quite a few of us took up her challenge.  Initially, my plan was to do her block ..... but what about my Churn Dash UFO that has been sitting on the shelf for years?  Out came that bin and that was worked on instead.  

The sashing was not my original plan, but this worked out much better than first thought.  Dots and dashes sort of reminds me of the Morse Code.  That is where the title of "Churn Dash-Dash" comes from.

If you want to read more about this quilt, see the label at the bottom of this post called "churn dash block" and "Treasured Memories".  Click onto those labels and you can see more of this quilt in the process of being worked on.

Quilt Details:

Source:  My original design

Block Size:  10" and 5" (cornerstones)

Started:  December 2008

Top Finished:  October 2022

Quilt Finished:  September 2023

Quilt Size:  100-1/2" x 101-3/4" (size before quilting, washing and drying:  102" x 102-1/2")

Batting:  Hobbs poly

Machine quilted by:  Kathy Wareham using Baptist Fan Curl (this came with her computerized quilting machine).

My October quilt for the binding challenge has been pulled .... and how happy I will be to start working on this beauty!  

No-blog Mary has pulled a quilt for October and I'm so happy that she is able to resume the binding challenge with me.  First, though, she has to add in some big stitch quilting and then do the binding.  She informed me that she has two of these quilts.  Will she finish just one or two this month?

Cherish your day, cherish your life!

I'm Done with the Pyramids .... or Trees?

Are these pyramids or trees?  My hubby says 'trees'.  Anyway, the top is currently at the LAer and I will get it back in a few weeks.  I can't say this was a fun EPP project to do as it did give me some issues that I was able to overcome.  So glad this one is done and I can move onto something else.

My churn dash quilt is back from the LAer.  This has been added to the pile of quilts to bind next year.

Cherish your day, cherish your life!

Tick Off Another!

This is a long awaited ufo that has finally been ticked off the list!  Thanks to Chooky (http://chookyblue.blogspot.com/) and her Churn Dash Challenge ..... this was pulled off the shelf and the top is done and will be going to my favourite LAer, Kathy, next week.  It was so nice to show off this top when I zoomed with Chooky last week.  Oh, happy, happy days!

This past weekend and this week, we have been having glorious weather with the temps going up to mid-twenties Celsius.  So nice, that my sister and I and our brother and SIL made a trip out to the cottage for a few days.  There was still some outdoor painting that needed to be done and that was achieved.  Yeah!

Here are some views of our lake.  Leaves have fallen and trees are bare now.

When we sat outside beside the fire one night, there was a lone wolf calling on the other side of the lake.  Just one howl that it kept repeating until in the far distance another wolf answered the call.

Chooky asked to see photos of our cottage.  So here they are but are closed up for the winter.  My sister and I share the cottage closest in this photo.  The green cottage is the bunkie for family and guests.  The far cottage is my brother's and SIL.  They are nothing fancy, but these are now over 50 yrs. since being built.

Status on the squirrel and it's abundance of cedar seeds .... they are still on the deck and on the ground.  We have seen signs that it is eating the seeds, but it doesn't seem compelled to store them away someplace.  Oh well ....

On our way home from the cottage, I said to my sister that it wouldn't surprise me if we didn't get stopped by the Ministry of Natural Resources.  It is moose hunting season now and there are a lot of hunters and sadly, poachers, around our cottage area.  Yep, we did get stopped and was asked if we had firearms.  Nope, we don't and off we went.

Now that work at the cottage has been completed for this year, I'm home more now and decided to pull another ufo off the shelf and get borders on it.  This top has two sides with first round of borders and then for some reason .... probably a squirrel came by ..... I stopped and binned this project.  Let's see if I can get the remaining borders on for next Tuesday to bring it also to the Kathy.

When I dropped off two tops with her a few weeks ago, Kathy mentioned to me that someone had started a rumour that her machine quilting business had stopped.  Now, why would someone do that?  Competition or just plain mean spirited?  So, anyone in my area reading my blog and wanting a top quilted, Kathy is still in business.  I'm in the North Bay, Ontario, Canada region and Kathy can be contacted at:  kitkat.harris17@gmail.com.

Cherish your day, cherish your life!

Lazy days of summer!

Not much quilting is going on in my life right now.  This is cottage time and my sister and I have been busy doing a bit of redo ...... painting and flooring.  It never ends, but we enjoy our work done so far.  I even cut down a wee tree by hand.  It took about half an hour of sawing, but it got down.  This little cedar tree was blocking my sister's view of part of the lake and she asked if 'we' could cut it down.  I knew what the 'we' entailed ..... me!  LOL

A few weeks ago, I attended a guild meeting and the project that night was making a quilt barn block.  This is my version .... a churn dash block!  How timely this project was as I'm in the middle of a challenge making a quilt with this block!

My real churn dash quilt has stalled.  Border fabrics have been purchased and I'm ready to go ..... just need time at home to do those borders.

A bit of binding on my August challenge has been done.  Just need another strip of binding to be sewn on and this can be completed before the end of this month.

Recently, we had a girl family outing to another city for shopping and I sat beside my young great-niece.  She was bundled up in this quilt that I gave her back in 2018.  As we rode along, I kept glancing at the fabrics used in her quilt.

This is the quilt that I made her.  Looking at it now, it wasn't my best design but she is using her quilt and that is all that matters.

Now, I need to chat about squirrels.  No,no,no .... not the quilting kind .... the real four-legged kind out in the wild.  LOL

At our cottage, we've noticed a lot of cedar seeds out on part of the lawn and on the deck and picnic table in front of our bunkie.  What is going on?  Then we figured out that a squirrel is drying up the seeds before storing them away for the winter. 

We haven't had much rain lately, and this part of the property is somewhat protected and gets lots of sun.  A perfect place to dry seeds.  There is another area out back on our road, there are seeds drying there too.  The thing is, this is the first time that we have seen this happen.  I wonder what the signs are for our upcoming winter?

A few nights ago (around 10:00 p.m.), my sister and I were sitting in our cottage reading ..... when suddenly out of the corner of my eye ..... a mouse quietly went past my legs and under the sofa.  Oh crap!  It had to go outside fast!  As a team, we got brooms and pounded on the sofa and finally got the mouse out onto the screened-in porch.   The door to the cottage got quickly slammed shut.  Now what?   We pounded on the door and then very quickly ran out into the porch and slammed the door again.  It was not going back inside!   Again, as a team we systematically pounded with the brooms and finally got the mouse out of the porch.  Phew .... that was a good deed done!  I wonder what the neighbours thought of the noise and the yelling?  At night, it is so quiet out there, but no one came knocking to see if we were ok.

Last week, we lost a BIL to Covid.  He was 92 and in poor health.  So, for those of you who think Covid is over ..... think again.  We still wear our masks and wash our hands.

So, that is what's happening in my life right now.

Cherish your day, cherish your life!

Great Progress + Garden

After we got our 4th Covid vaccination, we had a couple hours of chills ..... but that is all.  We were supposed to feel tired for a few days ..... but so far .... nope.  We are good to go.

So, instead of just sitting in my chair while watching T.V., or playing games on my ipad, I got busy pinning the last two rows onto my Churn Dash Challenge top and had a marathon of sewing, pinning, sewing.  It is a large queen, so those rows seemed to take forever to pin.

Then once that center was done, my Stash Buster Challenge top was up next.   There had to be a bit of unsewing with Jack the Ripper ..... then once that problem was done, another marathon of pinning, sewing, pinning, sewing and that center got done.

How happy am I?  Once borders are on, then each top will be shown separately.  

Our garden on the hill at this time of year.

Cherish your day, cherish your life!

Churn Dash Challenge, Garden

Going to our cottage has been great for working on the sashings on my Churn Dash quilt.  Get chores done and out of the way and sit on the porch, applique and watch the hummingbirds fight at the feeder.

Our summer, so far, has seen a few hot and then cool days.  No heat wave for any length of time this year.  Unusual?  Yes.  This could change and we will see.

This is where I'm at with this challenge.  Great progress has been made.  At this point, only two more diagonal rows (diagonally in the center) need to have six more sashings appliqued and then the top can be finished.  The two sections on the top left and bottom right have been sewn together, so, I'm way ahead of myself now.  I can hardly wait to have this finished as there is another churn dash project waiting in the wings .... perhaps two ....

This is our garden this year.  We are almost at the peak of the season and then the garden will just rest until next year.  There were lots of perennial autumn plants but slowly, year after year, they died during our frigid winters.  No point in replacing them just to disappear again.  So, it is what it is and we are enjoying what blooms for us.

Good news, the deer did not get at our hostas and there are quite a few ready to burst into bloom!

Cherish your day, cherish your life!

Churn Dash update for June

Much, much progress has been made on the Churn Dash Challenge that Chookyblue (http://chookyblue.blogspot.com/) is hosting.  So far, I've met my challenge for the month of June.  Win-win-win! 

All my large 10" and 5" blocks for the challenge are done .... so don't have to worry about meeting those goals anymore.

Now, the sashings are a different story.  For this large quilt, 64 sashings are needed.  When divided by the 4 month challenge, 16 sashings per month are to be appliqued.  For the month of June, my goal of 16 has been met plus an additional 4 sashings for a total of 20!  Win!

See the arrows in  the top left hand corner and just below the big dark blue block in the middle of the second row?  Those are all the 20 sashings that are done.

So, I'm off to a running start and the sashings will be perfect as a take along project to our cottage outings.

When I posted about all the churn dash quilts (see May 23, 2022 post) that I have made so far, this quilt (below) brought up a question of the source of the pattern.  This is my design that was inspired from a photo of the block on Pinterest.  So .... there is no pattern ..... I just saw the scrappy churn dash block and then went from there.  If ever I make another one of this quilt (it has since been gifted), I might do a tutorial on how to make this quilt.  This is a great way to use up scraps and strings ..... and Lordy knows, there are a lot of each in my stash!  LOL

Cherish your day, cherish your life!

Churn Dash and beyond

Well ..... I'm very pleased with myself ..... am making great progress on the Churn Dash Challenge that Chookyblue (http://chookyblue.blogspot.com/) has tempted many bloggers to take up.  It all started with the binding challenge that I issued.  While we were zooming she worked on bindings and her Churn Dash quilt was one of them.  Many of us were hooked after seeing her quilt and there was a lot of chatter about doing a sew-along ..... a challenge was issued and viola ....

 

Back in 2008, I had started a Churn Dash quilt but it got shelved.  It was the sashing that bothered me then and after pulling it off the shelf last month, it still bothered me.  So .... plan B came to play and I'm very happy with the new look.

For the next four months we are to make 1/4 of the blocks required.  For the big blocks, 7 blocks are to be made for the month of June.  So far, there are 13 blocks made ...... guess I'm ahead of schedule!  LOL   For me, all the blocks will continue to be made sooner rather than following the plan for each month.  I just want all the blocks and cornerstones finished.  It is the sashings that will take longer to finish up as they all need to be appliqued.  For them, 16 sashings per month need to be completed to make my goal.  Right now, all the pieces are just pinned in place.  Once all the blocks are done, then there will be some switching around of the circles until just the right look comes into play.

At the end of May, it was at this point:

Then, five more large blocks and four more cornerstones were cut out and viola good progress made!  I try to make the blocks in small groups as it goes quicker in the assembly bit. 

These are the fabrics for the next round of large blocks.  

Three more cornerstone blocks ready for trimming and then assembly.  

These are almost the rest of the circles needed for the sashings.  I usually wait until almost the end and then choose what fabric colour is missing and then add them into the mix.

Oh yes, I'm very pleased with this new/old project!  When it has been 14 yrs. since first starting this and then taking it off the shelf this past month, it feels like a brand new project.  See, there is a reason for my UFO's after all!  LOL

A few readers wanted to see photos of our garden.  

This grouping is just outside our patio door.  A hummingbird feeder, a fuchsia and some coleus.

We have so many iris blooming right now.  A lot of them were purchased from a home owner who was clearing out his collection of irises.   Some came with our house when we purchased it.   After these photos were taken, a peach iris and two yellow iris bloomed.  How wonderful they are.  I will try to get a photo in the morning before we get our scheduled heavy rain.  

Those of you wondering how steep our hill is and it goes up about another 24' to our property line.   All those stones and bricks were hauled up the hill by my husband.  He put in a LOT of work and we can now sit back and enjoy the view.  There were semi terraces already established when we bought this house.  He just made them safer and wider to work in.  Before, we were sort of sliding downhill a bit if our foot went in the wrong place.  Dangerous for us older folks.

 

Stop, admire and smell the flowers blooming around you.

Cherish your day, cherish your life!  

Churn Dash Challenge

As I'm working on my new squirrel project that I chatted about on my last post, an oldie UFO is being released from the shelf!

Chookyblue (http://chookyblue.blogspot.com/) is having a sew-along of a churn dash quilt.  She wanted to know who else would be interested.  Well, me of course as I so love that block.  

But ..... something was bugging me.  I was sure that I had made a churn dash quilt before.  Well, yes I did with this quilt, which is one of my favourite scrappy quilts made so far.  This has been gifted and I really need to make another.  This is a good quilt for using up strings and scraps of odd shaped pieces and a good quilt to have on hand for a sudden gifting.

Then, the churn dash block was used to make this wall hanging.

But, these were not the quilts that kept bugging me.  Finally, the light bulb went on and ding, ding, ding ..... there was a UFO that got started and abandoned.  As in way back in 2014 as per the date on my photo.

So, instead of starting a new project, I will just continue working on this one instead.  So far, there are 10 of the smaller corner stone blocks already made and that is where this project was abandoned.  Ten small blocks and packaged up and stored on a shelf.  Why, why, why?  Probably because the squirrels came out and off I went on something else.  This is my design that was drawn up on my EQ software program and will be a large queen size.

Thank you Chooky for the push to get me going again on this old UFO!

Cherish your day, cherish your life!