April Binding Challenge

Well, no-blog Mary and I did it again!  We each completed our April challenge quilt!

This is Mary's quilt:

This is my quilt and there will be more on this quilt in an upcoming post.  I have it drying on a rack in our T.V. room.  For my quilts, they are sometimes dried completely in the dryer; sometimes they are put in the dryer for a few minutes and then dried on this clothes rack.  It depends on the batting and who the recipient is.  My quilts are always washed after the binding goes on.  Always.  

Ask me how many colour catchers were used and what colour they came out of the wash!  Any guesses?  Lots and reddish/pink and all of the red fabric used were pre-washed!  Was I surprised?  Not at all.

Mary made me chuckle on how she chooses her quilts to bind each month.  She just puts her hand in the big bag of quilts and whatever comes out is the one she binds.  Sometimes they are small, other times they are large ones.  Now for me, I pick and choose which one to do each month.

We will be doing this challenge for a while as we each have enough quilts for probably another year .... at least.

We have already chosen our May quilts. 

This is Mary's quilt and it is a huge one:

These two quilts .... yes, two ..... are mine:

So, why two quilts?  Each are being gifted, so ..... time to get them done and gifted so that the young gals can enjoy them!

We have inspired another blogger to get on the binding bandwagon.  Chookyblue (http://chookyblue.blogspot.com/) has joined in and is starting to get quilts finished too! 

Chooky sent a photo (permission given to use her photos) of a pile of bindings for four quilts!  She is doing her bindings in groups and sewing them onto her quilts.  When she feels like hand sewing, she can then grab a quilt and sit and sew down the binding.  That is a clever way of getting the tedious part out of the way beforehand.   Whatever works for each person .... be it as one quilt at a time or as a group of quilts .... is a win-win!

This is one of her four quilts that she has the binding sewn in place.  This will be such a pretty quilt once it is finished.

See what happens when a challenge is issued!  Anyone else want to join the fun?

Cherish your day, cherish your life!

Getting stuff moving along!

There are only have a few more days left this month to get the binding done on my April challenge quilt!  This is the home stretch.  After this, there will be a sleeve and a label to add to complete the challenge.

Much progress has been made on my "Dilly Flower".

Everything right of the zig-zag line is completed.  All the flowers that have the pink paper on them means that the background hexie has been prepped but not sewn together.  A bit more cutting and basting on the other flowers are still to be done, but I'm so pleased on how well this project has come along.

I'm still aiming to get this UFO completed before month end.  Better get cracking on that!  There truly is not much work to do to complete this top.  All I have to do is concentrate on those two star blocks in the border.  The rest of the blocks in the border have already been done.

I foresee some tie-dying in my future.  A grand niece wants tie-dyed bed sheets and since there is a kit in my stash ..... fun time ahead.  I've never done tie-dying before, so this will be an adventure for sure.

On the Covid issue ..... I did not get it from my niece.  My sister and her family are all doing ok now.   My grand niece's Covid fingers are slowly improving.   But ..... I may have been exposed again to my quilting garage friend who has tested positive.  So, I'm in the wait and see and isolate mode.

Cherish your day, cherish your life!

Busy, busy!

I've been busy lately.  A few projects got borders on and are now at the LAer.  I'll be getting them back in a few weeks.

First up .... this "I Spy" top.  It was in strips for quite some time and after a few days of concentration, viola a completed top.

Then, my "Xmas Stars" finally got the last two borders on.  It is not really what I wanted, but I'm happy with my decision.  This top is also with the LAer as well.

It feels good to get a few more projects off the shelf.

So far, Covid has not visited me.  Today is day 12 and still no symptoms and when tested, it came back negative.

My sister was not so lucky.  She says it is like a very bad cold.  Hopefully, the antibodies from the two vaccinations she received will help her.

Soon, it will be the start of cottage season.  There is still too much snow on our property to venture in.  A neighbour did the trek, got stuck in one place and took photos and sent them to my brother.  Yep, way too much snow there.  Whereas, where I live, the snow has mostly melted except where there is a lot of shade.  Tulips are starting to venture out of the ground and soon, I will put down some dryer sheets where my tulips are growing so that the deer don't come by and munch on them.  The deer do not like the dryer sheets and they have worked for me for a few years now since I first read about that tip.

Cherish your day, cherish your life!

Dilly Flower

 I haven't shown you this new project that I may have started!  LOL  May have started?  I would say definitely started!  Some kind of applique will be added to the top and bottom to give it more of a look.  Right now, it is kinda boring .... to me anyway.  

This pattern has come from a Facebook site called "English Paper Piecing Society".  I saw the pattern and just knew that I had to do it.

Yep .... another squirrel came to play ....

My goal for April is to finish this UFO.

Covid-19 has finally hit our family.  It has taken over two years to visit, but visit it did.  One neice and her entire family came down with it.  One of the grand nieces has Covid fingers.  All the pads on her fingers have shedded their skin and her fingers have been stinging for over two weeks now.  Her fingers are improving slowly.

Then, this week, another niece came down with it and her new born baby.  Hopefully, he absorbed some of the antibodies produced from the two vaccines she received during her pregnancy and he won't be too sick.

Now, my sister and I are waiting to see if we have it as we were in close contact with this niece while she was at her most contagious period.

So, we'll see what happens.

Cherish your day, cherish your life!

April Binding Challenge

Am I fooling with you today?  Nope, not me!  LOL

No blog-Mary and I have selected our quilts to bind for April.  

This is Mary's quilt.  Gorgeous!

This is my quilt.  

Each quilt is bigger than the previous three challenges, so it might take us the whole month to bind.  

All it takes is just one foot of binding at a time and viola, done!

Cherish your day, cherish your life!

Dutch Apples

What started as a garbage can save ended up in this lovely wall hanging.  The lady that started them (hi Cathy) threw them out and a visiting friend saw them and grabbed them with intentions of doing something with them (hi Karin).  Karin brought the apple cores to the garage and told us the story of the rescue.  Another day in the garage and Karin gifted them to me as she didn't want to work with the apple cores but she knew that I could do something with them.  Then Cathy found more apple cores and mailed them to either me or Karin (I can't remember).  Anyway, I now had another apple core project to work on even though I was done working with cores.

Before starting anything, the rescued cores had to be disassembled and washed to remove the permanent markings and once dry, the cores were resized because some of the markings just didn't want to wash out.  So my cores are a bit smaller than the original.  New templates were made and then  the EPP process got started and then it became this quilt.  A few more apple cores were added from my stash to round out the rows.  

For the applique, an image was found on the internet and then it changed once I started playing around with curves and circles until it became my own version.  Notice how the star in the centre of the applique lives on yet another quilt.  That star is my trademark now.

A few years later, here is my quilt.  "Dutch Apples".  Well, apple cores and the applique looks Dutch inspired.  That's my thinking and I'm sticking with it.  LOL  I'm very pleased with my quilt!

  

Quilt Details:

Pattern Source:  my design

Top Started:  Aug. 2019

Top Finished:  Feb. 2021

Quilt Finished:  March 2022

Quilt Size:  57-1/4" x 64" (top size before quilting, washing and drying:  60-7/8" x 67-1/4")

Batting:  Hobbs poly

Machine Quilted by:  Kathy Wareham

It will be a fine addition to my apple core quilts!

Cherish your day, cherish your life!

March Binding Challenge

So, month three and no-blog Mary and I have each completed our challenge!  That is three quilts times two (3 x 2) = six quilts done .... except I did one extra, but we won't count that as the challenge is to do one per month!  Bravo to each of us.

This is Mary's quilt.

During the binding of my quilt, I played binding chicken and lost.  Oh, so close!

After doing a frantic search through my solids bins, the remaining (and I do say remaining) piece of matching fabric was found and another strip cut off.  There is only enough left over to do one more strip, but I'm good to go now.

My quilt is now finished.  Sleeve and label on?  Tick and tick!   More about this quilt on my next post.

So, our March challenge quilts are done and 10 days before the end of the month.  No sense in waiting until then to post about it.  We are both pleased to show them off now.

Will each of us have nine more quilts to complete the year challenge?  Oh yes, on both sides.

Cherish your day, cherish your life!