A new project!

 

I've done a few projects during my absence. I'm definitely not as prolific as I used to be, quilting and sewing every weekend and in every stolen moment in the evenings. I did complete a couple of little quilts at the end of 2020. This one, pictured above, was made for my cousin who had a baby. I'm ashamed to say the baby was born in July but the quilt wasn't delivered until January. The circular pattern was a challenge - I had to tweak the seams a few times to get it to lie flat - but I love how it turned out. I made a little drawstring bag with some leftover fabric and filled it with board books (my favourite gift to give a new baby).

Another baby, born in May, received her quilt in September. This is a charm quilt, so every square is different. I included a list of items to search for so it also became an I Spy quilt. It was simple, but I think it's very sweet.

And, yes, you might remember this quilt. I can't even recall when I started this Dresden Plate - years ago! I finished it last May. I was really happy with the way it turned out; maybe it was worth the wait. I have another quilt top - a red and grey bowtie - that needs to be sandwiched and quilted but I picked up some batting for a new project yesterday and it was $103 for a twin-sized Warm and Natural at the fabric store so I had to stop at one. 

Yes, you read that right. $103. Plus tax. I renewed my lapsed membership for $25 to get a discount and still ended up paying over $80. I'm pretty sure the last time I bought batting, it was in the $40 range.

That brings us up to the present. I'm starting a new project. It's a gift for a friend who has cancer. She loves bright colours, particularly pinks and oranges, so I chose this set of Kaffe Fassett fat quarters which will be "bricks" (I need a quick project) set with a creamy white sashing.

I'll keep you updated on my progress. And let's hope this doesn't take years and years like the yellow and grey Dresden!

I want to say thank you to those who commented on my last post. I'm so happy there are still people out there quilting away. And I'm so glad you let me know you read the post - it's what brought me back tonight.

I'm going to spend what's left of my Friday night slicing fabric and pretending there's a whole community of quilters and sewists creating right along with me this evening.

Until next time xoxo

Eight Years Later...

Oh wow!

It's been over 8 years since I updated this blog. I'm actually surprised it still exists. Are you still out there? Will you read this?

I moved most of my activity to Instagram over the past few years, although I'm not very active there either. I do miss the blogging community. I've re-read some of my posts and the comments I received. We were supportive and friendly, weren't we? Do we still have that connection?

I'll update you a bit:

• I went back to teaching.
• Then I took a vice principal job.
• Then I went back to teaching (during Covid, no less).
• And now I'm looking to get out of teaching again.
• AbbyDog and DerbyDog have both passed on - Abby in 2017 at the age of 18, and Derby just last March.
• We got another cat in 2017. His name is ClaudeCat. He's beautiful.
• We brought home two puppies last spring - Rosie and Poppy. They are sweet and wonderful and hilarious, and we needed them!
• TheOnlyChild finished university, moved out, and then moved back home again when she returned to uni for her second degree (in journalism). She needs to start her adult life soon. Really soon.
• I have been doing very little quilting lately. Very little of anything except work and dance, to be honest.
• I started a new style of dance. It's Fat Chance Belly Dance Style (formerly known as American Tribal Style). Look it up on YouTube. It's amazing.
• I learned how to play the ukulele.
• We bought back our house on PEI. Or did that happen before I went AWOL? Either way, it's a great story. We sold the house in 2008. Very sad. One day at work, Mr. P was cruising the real estate sites and saw our house for sale again. He emailed me, "Our PEI house is for sale. Can we buy it back?" I replied, "Yes." That's it - "Yes." And so we did. We really missed going there last summer. It might be the only place in the world I can relax.
• I reconnected with my family in England and have been over to visit 4 times since 2013.

I need to figure out how to blog again - how to add pictures and videos, etc. It can't be that hard. I've mastered Google Classroom, Google Meet, Zoom, and other necessary technologies over the past few years. I'm on it. 

I might even have worthwhile information to share with you at some point. Ha ha.

Let me know if you're still around. I am slowly making my way down my blog list. I see that many of the blogs I followed have not been updated in years (I guess I'm not the only one), but some of you are still going strong. 

Let's get reacquainted!

Finishes

Hello...I didn't mean to let a whole week pass between posts. I have things to show you!

First of all, I finished the Scallop quilt last Sunday. I did some easy echo-quilting around the curves, just like in the original project on Stitched in Color.

I feel like I should have done something more ambitious with the wide open area but if I had to decide what to do, this little quilt would never get done.

I'm going to send it off to my friend Bethany. She had a baby boy a few months ago and I'm very behind in sending her a gift. This will be perfect.

 

My next project for Curves Class was an Orange Peel block. Man, this took ages! I mean, seriously, hours! Every piece was cut by hand and all those curves had to be meticulously pinned. I cannot imagine making a whole quilt out of this block. That being said, I'd definitely do it again. I love how it looks!

 

Instead of making another pillow, which was the project, I decided to sew mine up into a mini quilt. It's 16" square - the right size for a table mat or a little wallhanging.

Tomorrow, I'm going to try to finish my sock monkey postage stamp quilt top. I finally received the fabric I need to get it done and I have absolutely no obligations tomorrow (except to finish the laundry and clean the bathroom). 

Having no marking on the weekends is heaven! Getting home from work at 5:00 pm kind of sucks - I had been leaving school by 3:15 pm at the other job. But usually, I had a bag of stuff to do and now when I'm done, I'm done. It's a bit of an adjustment - and talk to me in the summer when I don't get July and August off - but so far I'm liking the new job. I miss my students and some of my colleagues, but I don't miss the marking or the staff politics, or the bullshit. I think I made a good trade.

And look what my yoga card said today:

 

How perfect is that!

I couldn't wait to show you

I finished a quilt top today!

It took a bit longer than I thought it would (due to some unexpected, but very necessary, unpicking) but it's done. It is the Scallop Quilt for my Curves Class.

 

I'm hoping to quilt it tomorrow...but I couldn't wait to show it to you now. 

p.s. My Clamshell Pillow project was featured on QuiltStory's Fabric Tuesday this past week! What fun!

More curves projects

I'm really enjoying the Curves Class I'm taking online with Stitched in Color. I know I keep saying that, but the projects are awesome. I only wish they were spaced out a bit farther apart. I missed a project last week because I ran out of time, and this week has been even crazier - I've been out (at least for a bit) every single evening.

So here are a couple of projects from the past few days:

 

This is my polka dot Rainbow Road table runner. It's very Spring-y looking (unlike the view outside my window). I will probably put it away until Easter, but for now it is helping to display the lovely roses Mr. P bought me for my birthday.

This week's first project was a Drunkard's Path potholder. Mine will be more like a mug rug or mini quilt because I didn't have any insulbrite. I think it's pretty cute - but it was the first project of the week (out of three) and I just finished it on Thursday. Sigh.

 

One side

 

Other side

 

Oh well, I should have lots of time to get the other two projects done since I have no marking to do this weekend...or maybe never again. Today was my last day at school. I start my new job tomorrow. It was a tough morning and I got teary once or twice then composed myself. I went out for lunch with some of my colleagues and the principal allowed me to skip the afternoon staff meeting so I went for coffee with one of my favourite people (the teacher-librarian at my school, who doesn't work Thursday afternoons).

Then I went to the fabric store. Nothing cheers you up better than a trip to the fabric store.

 

This lovely stack of solids is for my next Curves Class project. Stay tuned...

First Completed WIP of 2013

I made it! I finished my Christmas Strings WIP before the end of the month, thus granting myself permission to start something new.

 

I used a quick and easy meandering stitch to free-motion quilt this project. I didn't want the quilting to interfere with all the lines of the "strings" so I kept it flowing.

This one is lap-sized, 48" x 60" - perfect for snuggling under on a cold winter day. If it wasn't so Christmassy, I'd have it out now. It's been really cold here - -27 degrees Celsius (-17 F), and -40 C or so with the windchill. BRRRR!

I also have a couple of projects from my Curves Class with Stitched in Color. One is in the dryer right now so I'll post about them later.

Now...what shall I choose for my new project?

Clamshell

The best laid plans of mice and men...

I had planned to head home from work right away on Friday and get to sewing my Clamshell Pillow.

But...

Marks are due today at 9:00 am for my grade 12 class so I had to finish marking a ton of tests. Then I had to enter all those marks into the computer. Then I had to finalize all marks in the computer. Then there was paperwork to do for a couple of kids who dropped the course earlier in the semester. Then I had to print out mark spreadsheets. It was 5:20 by the time I left work and, because of a silly accident, 6:00 pm when I finally arrived home.

Then the OnlyChild pleaded with me to take her to the mall. Oh, you know, my favourite place. She did well - a dress, two sweaters, a top and I think something else for $70 - all on sale - and she *forgot* her bank card so guess who paid...? Sigh.

Saturday morning included cleaning, then dance class.

Ahhhh...Saturday afternoon was mine.

 

So, the story behind the Clamshell Pillow (there is always a story):

You can see in the top left that I had the shells all laid out and ready to go. Well, somewhere in there, I managed to turn around the base fabric (which was marked for placement) and ended up sewing the shells down the wrong way. Of course, I didn't notice this until after the first row had been fused and sewn. So I had to add a couple of extra rows to fill in all the white space. No big problem. I still love it. And it looks so good with my Swoon quilt because I used some leftover Ruby fabric to make it.

This was my third project for the Curves Class by Stitched in Color. I'm really enjoying this.

Yesterday I had planned to work on the Christmas Strings quilt. Becky from Sarcastic Quilter sent me some Christmas fabric that was perfect for the backing.

 

I made a backing from the two heart fabrics and got it all basted and ready to quilt yesterday. Then I remembered that I had a function to attend and had to leave around 5:00 pm. That meant I had to abandon all thoughts of quilting and make myself presentable. I guess quilting Christmas Strings will have to wait. My goal is to get it done before the end of the month! 

If I do that, I can start something new...