Almost there

This project is nearing the end.  I'm still only using scraps and have now dipped into a huge bin to see what is in there for a bit of variety.

This will be the final layout for the row of flowers in between the panels.  I just loved making those tiny hexies.

 This is the huge bin of scraps that needs to be dumped and sorted.   It is a tad overflowing right now!

I foresee more scrappy quilts coming up in the future.  Crazy blocks, braid blocks ..... the ideas are coming so fast and furious in my brain that I can't keep up.  LOL

It will be so nice to clean up my studio.  It truly is a mess right now, but soon things will get sorted when the last hexie is made and then a mess will happen again with the next new project, but that will have to wait for a while as I do want to get another ufo pulled out and finished.

Cherish your day, cherish your life!

Where is spring?

This is what greeted us this morning!  A couple inches of snow and it is still snowing as I write this.  Lordy, but when will we get nice spring weather?  This will be a good day to stay inside .... oh wait ..... we're staying inside anyway!

So, down to my happy place I go and work on more hexies.  It is coming along very nicely and in a few weeks, my mess of scraps can be tidied up and stored away for another rainy/snowy/Covid day.  My hexies are just pinned onto my design wall.  There will be a lot of work later as they are sewn together.  This will become my on-the-go project

In between those panels will be a row of these flower sprigs.  "My Corona Flowers"  I just love them!  The bottom flower sprig will be the final layout.

 

It truly is fun to sit and be creative.

Cherish your day, cherish your life!

A bit of ice shove!

I've been busy making hexies.  Lots and lots of hexies.  More bags of scrap fabric was found.  OMG .... I'm drowning in scraps.  Aagh!  Not to worry, I will work on making more quilts out of those scraps.  LOL  I do have lots of EPP patterns to choose from. 

This is where I'm at with this project so far.

On the virus front .... another 20 masks were made.  Some for local use, some for in another city.  No photo was taken as they are already gone.  I'll be making more and more and more masks.  Money has been offered to pay for them.  No, no, no.  Everyone is going through hard times and safety is more precious than money to me.

Hubby and I took a walk down by the waterfront to see the ice shove.  This doesn't happen every year.  This week, the wind was blowing hard and in the right direction.  The ice was ready to break up and that started the ice to shove.

This sight greeted us before we even got out of the car in the parking lot.

 The ice hit the breakwall (protecting the marina) and rose up and toppled over it.

The backside of the breakwall.

You can see how a layer of ice is advancing over the layer in the front.  That layer will creep along until it hits the pile in front of the rocks and then pile up as more ice is shoved from behind.   There is lots of ice out there.

 The towers of ice here must be about 12' high.

 A bit of open water will soon be filled with ice being blown in to fill the gap.

 The ice towers can only get so high before toppling over.

  Beautiful to see.

Now, back to making hexies and sorting the scraps.

Cherish your day, cherish your life!

Sew much .... oops .... squirrel!

Sew much is getting done these days, I can't stand it!   No, I lie .... my ufo's are getting dealt with and that makes me very happy.  My sister asked me if I was bored.  I laughed.  Me bored?  Not a chance.  It is just the getting out and shopping that disturbs me but we have to do it smartly and just stay at home.

So, I work away.  In my happy place. 

My apple cores are done and inner borders are on.  Just pondering the outside borders.  The top border will have applique.

Then, a squirrel came along!  There are so many corona virus sew-alongs going on, but I didn't want to make any.  Oh, I so resisted! 

I got thinking about my scraps.  There are just too many to leave them in bins.  After pulling out my bins and bags of scraps, I decided to do something with them.  They were dumped into this huge under-the-bed tray that was bought from IKEA many years ago.  It keeps the scraps under control while rooting through them.  Why not make a hexie quilt?  Sure, why not!  LOL

There will be three panels of hexagons with applique borders between the sections.  A great way to use up those scraps.  It will be interesting to see how many scrap bins there will be after doing this quilt.  "My Corona Flowers". 

Every piece of scrap will be used, even if they have to be pieced together.  These are my odd hexagon shapes.

They fit in quite nicely and add a touch of interest.

Oh, the things we do to amuse us.  It is better to keep my hands busy, otherwise, I would be eating everything in sight.  LOL

Spring quilts have been put out for display around the house.  It is tulip time.  A couple tulip quilts.   It just feels good to make a change to our lives.  Any change is good.

We did have 1" of snow on the ground yesterday, but it didn't stay.  Tulips are starting to sprout from the ground.  It will be a while before the blooms show up.  Guess this would be a good time to put out dryer sheets around on our hill to stop the deer from munching on those tulips.  Last year was the first time we tried it and it worked.  No plants were harmed by the deer.

Cherish your day!  Cherish your life!

Been busy!

It seems that everyone that can sew are making masks these days.  I've jumped in and made 36 for our local hospital to wear over their N95 masks to keep them from getting soiled.  The community made enough that they won't have to worry about masks for a wee while.  These ones have ties.

Next up, masks for family members.

After that, masks for a local nursing home and they requested elastics. 

I will do whatever I can to help out.  We have to, no question about it!

It is so sad to watch the news and see the death toll creeping up and up and up each day.  When will it stop?  No one knows the answer to that.

When a break is needed from masks and the news, back I go to working on some of my projects.

Cassandra's Circle.  Here are my blocks so far.

 Additional pieces were added to the huge center block.  Veins for the leaves and circles.

This is the before.

After.  Big difference, eh!

 This month's block and I didn't follow the layout.  Prepped but not sewn down yet.

My apple cores are all joined together.  Borders are being appliqued onto the sides.  So much progress!  How happy am I?  LOL

It is so tempting to be swayed into doing a couple of quilt-a-longs, but, I'm staying strong and committed to working on just my ufos.  For now.  LOL

Cherish your day, cherish your life.

Apple Cores!

This project is speeding along!  Mind you, this will be a wall hanging instead of my usual huge bed quilts.

The centre core measures 43" x 43".  Fabric is being auditioned for borders and there may be a border of applique at the top.

Cherish you day!  Cherish your life!

Batting time!

How am I amusing myself during our virus shutdown?

Do you remember seeing this photo in a July 2019 post when my young great niece was visiting and after coming back from using the bathroom and the look on her face said it all?  Well, since then, more batting pieces were added and the shower stall was bulging almost to the top and bags kept falling out of the opening.  Time to deal with them!

For now, just the 80/20 cotton/poly batting pieces are being used.  The 100% poly batting pieces will be dealt with later.

Not all batting are the same.  These two batting pieces can't be used in the same quilt as the one piece on the left is a tad too thin.  So, they will be split into separate groups and the bags will be labelled accordingly.  One day they will get used up.  There are not enough batting pieces to work for this size top, so I will just cut a piece off my roll of batting and then another project will be going to the LAer.

There are enough of these pieces to make a full batting size needed for this top.  Zig zagging the pieces together is how these will be sewn.  I butt the seams together and zig zag across to close the seam sides.  When finished, the batting piece will look awful, but it will be inside the quilt and until the front or back starts to fall apart, no one will ever know.  I refuse to throw these small pieces into the garbage ..... so wasteful to me.  So, I will take the time to make a batting.

I do have a large bag of small batting scraps.  These will be used for a wall hanging or a tote bag or a table runner or placemats.  Use them all up and keep them out of the landfill!

Backings are being made also.  There are 11 tops waiting to be machine quilted and they will be dealt with.  With the recent death of my aunt, my frail cousin will follow soon and now this pandemic .... why am I holding onto tops?  Waiting for what?  Time to get them quilted so that they can be enjoyed.  Life is just too short.

These apple cores are also keeping me busy.  I'm in the process of adding the dark cores.

Viola, another row added!  Yeah!

There are so many quilt alongs happening right now .... but I will try (no squirrels allowed here) to resist and will work instead on my 34 ufo's.  That is how I ended up with so many ufo's ..... squirrels kept appearing.  LOL

During this time in history, hubby and I are staying at home.  We each have more than enough to keep us amused for a few more weeks or months, depending on the virus curve.  Hope it flattens out soon so that the world can slowly get back to normal.  A niece will be picking us some food items for us this week, thus eliminating the need to venture to a grocery store.

Crazy times ..... sad times ..... fearful times!

Cherish your day .... cherish your life!