Working on different things

We are almost at the end of August.  Whew, that month flew by quickly!

August and September mean renovations and fixing things up around the house.  Well, the renovations are all done, just a bit of fixing things up to do.

First, though, this quilt is being machine quilted by me.  It is twin size and that I can manage.  This quilt is for a wee niece who is turning 3 soon and has moved to a big girl bed.  More on this quilt later.

Last week DH and I redid this office chair.  It turned out mighty fine!  I'm trying to clean out my upholstery stash and whatever can't be used will be donated to a lady who makes bags.

Next up is this fabric for this footstool.  I've been wanting to recover this stool for years and finally bought the fabric yesterday.  Nothing in my stash worked, so I bought a metre to do the job.

 If I'm careful with the fabric, there might be enough leftover to do this little stool.

 Then, this quilt ladder will get three coats of Varethane to prevent any transfer of wood resin.

September also means spray painting time for me.  There are a few pieces that need to get done.  September usually offers days of less humidity which is perfect for spray painting.  So, I do need to get my butt into gear because cooler days will be coming soon.

The next few photos are Decorating with Quilts.  My bookcase is starting to fill up very nicely but I will run out of space soonish.  There are still 19 tops to be quilted.  Some of those tops will be donated or gifted, but the majority will stay with me. 

The second shelf from the top has most of my EPP quilts, wall hangings and tops.  Yes, EPP.  One day, I will have to do a show of all my EPP projects.   There are still six EPP projects in different stages.  Most of them just need borders and they will get done soon.   In case anyone is wondering, there are two coats of primer and three coats of Varethane on the bookcase shelves to stop any wood resin from coming through.

What's on my bed?  EPP quilt, of course!  There is also an EPP on the ladder.  My ladder also has primer, paint and three coats of Varethane.  Got to protect my quilts!  I will be making sleeves out of leftover batting to cover the rungs on both ladders.   Maybe a bit overkill, but protection, protection is the name of the game.

Soon, my September quilts will get changed on the beds and walls.  Autumn is coming.  There are already some leaves changing colour.  After our summer drought, I'm not sure what the display will be like this year.

On another note, this feline would really love to become our cat.  She tried last year after our dear Miss Ashes passed on and she is trying again this year.  When she sees us, she comes running and meowing to greet us.  As you can imagine, she gets much attention from us.  Problem is ..... she belongs to the neighbours next door.  They have a young child plus a dog and I can only imagine how busy and noisy it can be for this feline.  Our place is very quiet.  Oh dear, it is going to get rough as the weather gets colder and she will want to be inside our place.  Maybe we should keep the extra  container of litter after all?

Have a great day!
Linking to: http://estheraliu.blogspot.com/ and http://needleandthreadnetwork.blogspot.com/

Snowballs, anyone?

Well, this top is finally finished and I'm happy with it.

More vine had to be made and added to finish the last 10".  That got done fairly quickly.

Auditioning fabrics for the larger circles happened next.  This was not the final selection, but it was a start.

Then, all the sewing was complete.   I would do the border again, but do it differently.  My brain is already whirling with plans.

 Oh, so lovely!

Now, I can move on to another project.

Have a great day!

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

Well ... that was an oopsie!

My sister and I have been at the cottage for the last five days.  It was hot, hot, hot.  Not much in the way of stitching got done.  The nights were cool and that gave us a bit of a reprieve.  Book reading took over. 

Still, I did some work on my snowball top.  Sitting on the front porch soaking in whatever cool breeze came off the lake.

My sister pulled out her knitting bag and I snickered and asked about the shawl that she has started and tore out numerous times because of mistakes.  I snickered again as she hesitatingly told me that she has it with her and she thinks it is ok.  She has been working on that shawl for the last three years at least.

While we were talking, about 20" of vine was appliqued onto the border.  Oh, so lovely.

Then, horror of horrors ..... it was discovered that I appliqued two borders together!  How in the world did that happen?  This is the backside.  Actually, the words out of my mouth were ..... wtf!  No, I'm not going to translate this in case you are wondering what that stands for. 

So, to make the story longer ..... my sister hears me moaning and groaning and says to me ...... karma is a bitch, eh!  She is laughing at me at this point and yes karma is a ...... as we each sat and looked at each other and started to laugh like crazy.

The ripping out commenced.  Good thing only a bit was done and not the whole border.  I'm still puzzled that the thickness didn't clue me in in the first place.  I'm blaming this on the heat!

With the hot temperatures, it was hard to have anything on my lap to sew.  My thinking cap went on my head and I quickly looked around for ideas.  I grabbed a small stool and placed it over my lap.

Then, when I lifted my legs onto the another footstool, the stool was raised high enough for me to have my top on the stool and that is how I was able to do some stitching,  The stool had air space underneath to keep me cool and the bulk of the top was on the top of the stool.  Perfect.  As I stitched away, I could hear me sister sucking in her breath as she almost make another mistake on her knitting.  Every time she did that, I kept my mouth shut (no snickering) and quickly looked under my stitching to make sure that I did not have two thickness of fabric.  Karma kept me quiet!  🐱🐱

So, after this wee drawback, I did get my second set of vines on the borders.   Another strip of vine needs to be made to complete the bottom border and that will get done in the next few days.  This is the layout that I've decided to go with.  It looks neater and simpler.  I'm happy with that. 

Today is another hot day, but at least we have a/c at home and that is where you will find me.

Have a great day!

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

Three at work

There are three projects being worked on in my studio and at the cottage.

Hand quilting the applique on the borders is still on going.  The binding is done and it won't take me too long to finish this job.

Stitch by stitch, this hanging is slowing coming to life.  More embroidery thread was purchased so I won't be running out any time soon.

This ufo was pulled out and the applique borders can continue.  Except for the vine, what you see here is just pinned onto my design wall.  So far, I'm not totally crazy about this design, but it will do.   Those leaves are throwing me off, so they just might get changed. 

The last two projects will come with me to the cottage so that I have something to work on.  When it is too hot to work on them, then a good book gets my attention instead.

We have had some rain here and the fires around our neck of the woods are under control.  The rain has helped and the air quality is much better these days.   At least our windows can be opened to let in cool night air.  Now when we walk on the grass there is only a slight crunching sound.  A couple more days of rain is still needed.

August is going by much too quickly and there is so much that I want to get done this month!  Oh dear me .....

Have a great day!

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

Oh Wonderful ...

The full name of this quilt is 'Oh Wonderful, Summer's Here'.  How lovely it turned out to be.

Below is a behind-the-scene photo of my friend Debra (from Toronto) and I getting ready to move the quilt up the hill so that my hubby could get a photo of the quilt.  Little did we know that he snapped photos of us telling each other what to do to get ready.  It was early morning and the photo had to be taken before we got ready to go back to Toronto.  Everyone was still in their pj's.  LOL

A little bit of peek-a-boo before the serious photo taking could take place!  We did this session quickly because the air quality (forest fire smoke) was pretty bad that morning.

Quilt details:

The centre is all English Paper Piecing.  It took a long time but my scrap bins sure got a good cleaning out during the process.  Every kind of fabric was used.  Civil War, Asian, Repro, modern .... whatever looked good was used.

Pattern source:  BlockBase software and No. D046 is the block name.  It is also known as Puzzle Tile.  I kept talking about my quilt as D046 again and again and mentioned on a post that a better name was needed.    Help from my followers came and the name was changed to 'Oh Wonderful, Summer's Here'.  How delightful that name is!  🐱🐱

Size:  97" x 97-1/2" (99-1/2" x 99-1/2" before being quilted and washed/dried).

Batting:  80/20 cotton/poly

Started:  Apr. 7, 2011
Top Finished:  Sept. 3, 2014
Quilt Finished:  July 19, 2018

This was machine quilted by my LAer friend, Tella in Scarborough.

My friend, Debra drove up from Toronto on Thursday to drop off a trundle bed for our cottage and to pick me up and drive us back to Toronto for a weekend visit.  We shopped and shopped and shopped and went to our favourite quilt show at Black Creek Village.  While I loved the show, it was a tad disappointing.  There were a lot of miniature quilts that was done for a challenge and a  long,low fence had lots of portrait quilts hanging on it.  I'm not really into either and that is why the show wasn't as interesting to me. 

Back home, the air quality is quite bad here again today.  We can't open our windows or doors again.  The little rain we had is helping, but fires are still burning and the smoke is drifting to our city.  Oh no, that means I HAVE to stay indoors!  Let's see what can be worked on ...... 😉

Have a great day!

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

Old ufo

I've been busy getting a top and backing ready for the LAer whom I will be visiting soon when I'm down in Toronto.  I'll be going to Toronto this coming weekend for my favourite quilt show at Black Creek Village.  My friend Debra is coming up with a trundle bed that she doesn't want anymore.  It is for our cottage.  In exchange, she got a lazy-boy chair from me last year.  A win-win for everyone.

This is the top!  I'm so much happier with this border now.

It has been a busy few weeks for me.  The fire situation at our cottage is over.  We've had a bit of rain and that is helping.  There are still fires out-of-control but they are not close to our cottage.   There was even an air quality advisory in effect for one day and we couldn't open our windows or patio doors to let in cooler air.  The smell was awful.

Where else have I done?  My sister and I did a weekend trip to Ottawa to visit an elderly aunt and elderly cousin.  While there, my aunt gave me a ring and my niece also received a ring.  She is passing on her jewellery now while she is still alive to tell us who owned the items.

Decades before, my aunt had given this ring to my Mom (her sister) which she wore (it was her birthstone) and when she died my aunt wanted it back.  So, now it has come full circle back to me.  This ring has to be over 100 yrs. old and it belonged to a great aunt and the ring fits my finger perfectly.  No resizing needed here.  It is so old-fashioned and it suits my personality to a T.  On the outside of the ring are tiny seed pearls.  One is missing.  Should I try to get a new one added or leave it as is?

While in Ottawa/Gatineau we visited this park:  https://www.quebecoriginal.com/en/listing/events/festivals-and-special-events/mosaiculture-gatineau-2018-377066123 for an interesting walk along sculptures.  We went early before it got too hot.

This is one of my favourite sculptures.  It was hard to choose from as there were so many.  Can you see the boat ... the whale ... the waves?

Now .... back to those ufo's.  This one got pulled off the shelf.  This project was last touched in 2012.  Time to work on this one again.  I used leftover hexagons from another quilt long ago finished.  It was my intention to make up my own embroidery design, but I came across something else that made my life easier.

This book by Deborah Kemball has a huge sheet of a gorgeous design already done for me, so I used that instead.  My top was placed on top of the design and a whole lot of tracing took place.  An old-fashioned blue was found for the embroidery.  Five skeins of DMC thread was purchased, but more will be needed .... for sure.  I'm just curious to see how much can get done using just one skein.

What else got worked on?  This top.  Just need outer borders.  This piece is stunning .... IMO!  It could also be a tad busy depending how you look at it.  This has been an absolute joy to work on.  More about this top later as there is some explaining to do about how this design came to be.

What else?  This quilt is now finished.  Photos will come soonish.

What else?  Oh, another root canal yesterday.  Normal for me. ☹️

So that is my update on happenings here.

Have a great day!

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