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!

Hexie is a top

I know, I know ..... I've been missing from my blog.

I've been busy helping my sister, who is going through cancer treatments right now and I have been too busy to do much posting.

Handwork has been coming with me when I do go out and a few stitches here and there have been done.

My hexie panel project is finally a top.   A backing is in the works so this beauty can go to my lovely LAer.

A new hexie project did get started ..... Lordy, but I just couldn't resist.

Here is a closeup of some of the blocks.  The redwork pieces were from a cheater panel that got cut into squares.  They look like they are embroidered but are printed and that is how they will stay.

My sister and I did enjoy a few days out at the cottage last week.  It was hot, but a nice constant breeze from the lake kept us comfortable.

We were enjoying a pleasant evening on the porch.  The lake was calm and silent.  The moon was just starting to shine.  Suddenly .... on the other side of the lake came howling.  A pack of wolves!  Oooooh ..... too close!

Cherish your day ..... cherish your life!

Seeing the light!

"My Corona Flowers" is getting closer and closer to finishing .... just the top floral section to finish appliqueing and the outer borders to be decided.  The bottom three sections have already been sewn together.

Oh decisions, decisions about borders!  I'll try some blue fabrics next.

I would like to have this top ready for sending out to the LAer next week.  Guess what I'll be working on today?  LOL

Cherish your day, cherish your life!

First finish of the year!

Finally, I have a finish.

This is a quilt that I designed called "Spring Ahead".  This quilt was designed to teach applique to guild ladies.  Each month, we worked through the different blocks using a different method of applique.  What is good for me may not be good for another person.  They were taught that you could use different methods on the same project.  They were also taught to change the pattern if they were not happy with it.  Heck, I do that all the time!  At the end of the guild year, they were asked what was their favourite method.  Needle turn applique.  I'm just so happy that the ladies learned how to tackle applique and not to be afraid of it.

Now, let's look at the blocks.

Here is one corner.  They could do this border or they could just have straight strips of borders.  A few actually did this border.  Bravo to them!

I loved designing this block.  Simple, but effective.  Circles were interesting to teach.

This was fun to design also with a bit of embroidery.  Heck, all the blocks were fun to design.

Stars were interesting.  They were shown how to round out the inward points to make it easier to applique.

The circle with the loops .... they could embroider the loops instead of appliqueing bias strips.  This one was a bit tricky for newbies.  For the star, they could make just a regular star or be adventurous and follow my design.  A few did.

Just something a bit different for this flower.

More fun blocks!

Now, call me quirky but I do a bit of machine quilting after I get my quilt back from the LAer.  The main blocks have been stitched in the ditch around the perimeter of the background blocks.    Also, all my applique pieces have been hand quilted around the outside of each piece.  I do like my applique to look grounded.  See next photo.

  

Can you see what I mean in this photo?  So, a tad quirky, am I!  LOL

What in the world in that string doing hanging from the end?  My quilt was doing the wave at the bottom and by stringing a piece of knitting yarn through the binding, it helped to straighten out the wave and it is now nice and even.  That bit of black was just snipped carefully away and viola, no more wave!

Some outdoor photos.

So, now my quilt is finally done and now I can enjoy it even more.

Quilt details:

Top designed and made by:  Rose Marie Castonguay (me!)

Machine quilted by:  Kathy at Kat's Quilts using Gothic Vine quilting design

Quilt started:  September 2016

Quilt finished:  June 2020

Quilt size:  56-1/2" x 71-1/4" (size before quilting, washing and drying:  58-1/2" x 74")

Batting:  Hobbs 80/20 cotton/poly

With all the doom and gloom news about Covid-19, I thought you would enjoy a bit of eye candy.

Cherish your day, cherish your life!

Happy Canada Day!

Different celebrations this year ...... but if you are reading this ..... yeah, you are alive and not a victim to covid.

Seeing all these quilts together has prompted me to look at my other red/white ufo's.  There are a few and it is time to bring them out in the open.

This one, I'm not sure about and it may be open for discarding into the scrap bin (the keep scraps, not toss bin).

This was a project started to celebrate Canada's 150th birthday.  It got shelved not too long after starting.  

A few years ago, I took a course and started on this quilt.  Time to bring it out and finish it.

I may be starting a new project!  LOL

These printed blocks have been hiding from me for a very long time, but I finally found them.  My plan is to applique them to hexagons.  Stay tuned for a post on them.

Looking over my stash of reds ..... there are a lot of them ..... and it is time to think about whittling down those bins into quilts.  Oh goody, more projects, more quilts!  

Cherish your day, cherish your life!

Background

Not for blocks or quilts .... for video conference calls.

While watching T.V. news networks, I've been looking at the backgrounds that commentators use during their presentations.  Some show very interesting artwork, lots shows bookcases, one person showed a gorgeous stone carved fireplace somewhere in France but none have shown any quilts.

My sister was telling me the other night that she uses this quilt as her background during her calls and she gets interesting comments and they wonder if she made the quilt.  No, she says her extremely (I put that word in her mouth) creative sister made it!  LOL  It's my blog, I can do what I want! LOL

No wonder my ears have been buzzing lately!

This quilt was gifted to my sister in exchange for a needlework that our Mom did years ago.  She was very quick to jump at the suggested exchange.

She has asked me if I would make another one for myself.  Who knows, maybe one day.

If you want to read more about the making of this quilt, look for all the posts under "My Fantasy Garden".

Cherish your day, cherish your life!

Back to UFO's

I've been playing with hexies and had a lot of fun, but that project is winding down (applique being sewn) and it was time to dig out an oldie ufo.

This one is old .... started way back in 2006.  This is how it looked then on the rug in our basement.  This was before I had a design wall and before we had the cats because they would have posed on the top.  So long ago .....

Anyway, I got stalled on the pieced border.  One side fit perfectly but when I tried putting another side on ..... nope too long.  I don't know why and it hurt my brain to try and figure the problem.  So it got balled up and put away.

Fast forward to fourteen years later and up on my design wall it went and after trying to figure out the pieced border issue ..... nope it will just not happen.  

Should it have part pieced border with the blue on the outer edges?  Nope, it doesn't look right.

So, I will instead put a blue border and an outer green border and call it a day.   I just want this top done and move on to something else.  This top no longer excites me but maybe after quilting, perhaps I will love it again.  

The more I look at the change in border, the better I like it.  Perhaps this is what should have been done in the first place?  Simpler = better?

Cherish your day, cherish your life!