Hearts to applique

I have so many projects that I could work on and I don't need to start something else - but I did. Appliquing a heart a week. The blocks I am using are 6.5 unfinished. I gave the link to the site in my previous post in case anyone else wants to sew along.

These are the first two weeks of this sew along.

I noticed that the pdf that is provided isn't always true to size so a little bit of fiddling around with scale is needed. It's not a big thing and I saw that not everyone used the heart that was provided. It's all personal choice but it is a small thing to make each week. A new heart is posted every Friday. These were just some fabrics that were in my sewing room that I picked up randomly. I am hoping to sew one each week and keep up with all the others.

Just a little sewing

 These are quilt blocks that I put together for one of the guilds I belong to. I requested 4 kits thinking I had time during the summer to get them done. The first one was a challenge. Those triangles (the sky) on either side of the roof had to be sewn in one way only. If they were switched, the sides were not straight. I think I unsewed them twice at least if not 3 times. As you can see, the top piece (the sky) is a tad longer. 

The block is supposed to measure 5" by 8.5" and the instructions said to use a scant 1/4" seam for all seams except the roof part which could be sewn with a full 1/4 inch. Well, try as I might, it was not to be. The 5 inches was fine but even with scant seam allowances, it only measures 8.25". I have to say that I did not cut the pieces out. The kits were pre-cut and you just had to sew them together.

The templates were all in the kit too and as you can see, the template for the roof does not match the piece of fabric that was cut for the roof. However, the piece that was cut was the correct size.

After sewing all four kits/blocks together, I finally figured out why they were not finishing to 8.5". As you can see, the sky fabric is 1/4" too long.

The 1/4" extra should have been added to the height of the piece, not the length. That is why all of my 4 blocks finish at 8.25" instead of 8.5". Apparently, no one has mentioned a problem with their kits. I don't know how many of these small house blocks were taken by the guild members because there were log cabin blocks and bigger house blocks to put together too.

While I was in England, my daughter requested a new cover for the nursing pillow that I had made her a few years before. It was made with that rainbow coloured flannel. She wanted a plain cotton on top because she felt that the flannel would be too warm for the summer. Well, I didn't buy any fabric but my son-in-law was getting rid of some brand new shirts that had logos on them. They seemed to be wide enough.

I put the nursing pillow on top of the shirt and used a pencil to draw around the pillow making sure to add seam allowances. It was all sewn by hand (back stitch for strength) since my daughter had sold the little sewing machine that I had used previously. Here, you can see that I left an opening in the outer edge so that I could slip the pillow in. I made sure to clip the curves.

All done. Not perfect but where there's a will, there's a way.

Day nine

This was the second set of trees that I was asked to test.

I sent the six blocks to the Wollongong Modern Quilt Guild in Australia. They were collecting tree blocks to be put into quilts for those people who lost everything and were displaced during the horrendous fires late last year - before Covid 19 struck.

Day eight

I sometimes am a pattern tester for a couple of quilt designers. Cindy of Quilt Doodle Designs approached me earlier this year to see if I could test her instructions for a couple of different tree blocks. Even though I had a lot of other things to do, I said yes and found that her instructions were very clear and the measurements accurate. 

This was one set of trees.

Quilt Block Tiles

My youngest daughter, Ayla, lives in England and I have visited her several times. She and her husband purchased a house shortly after their little son was born and set about fixing it up to suit themselves. Walls went down, new floors and carpeting were installed and all the walls got a new coat of paint. There is a two piece washroom on the first floor that got re-made and updated. Ayla's husband, David, did much of the work himself, if he was able.

One whole wall got done in these wonderful tiles.

They are all gray and white and look so very much like quilt blocks.

The floor also got redone with tiles. I think it's wonderful.

Getting caught up

I have kept up with the Canadian Quilters Association sew along of 6 inch quilt blocks. 52 Blocks in 52 weeks is coming to an end soon.

I was about 3 weeks behind in making the blocks.

 I printed off the blocks each week.

The blocks are easy and they don't take long to make.

It was fun looking for light medium and dark purples for this set of blocks.

Here they are all together.

Another update

These are all the blue segments to the 52 Blocks in 52 Weeks and I'm now on to purple.

Quilt blocks

In between doing some knitting and quilting and sewing (not to mention repair jobs,) I have been trying to keep up with the weekly sew-a-long, 52 Blocks in 52 Weeks, hosted by the Canadian Quilters Association.

Continuing on with 52 Blocks in 52 Weeks

We have just finished week 18 of the 52 Blocks in 52 Weeks.

This is the block for the 18th week.

The 17th block and the first of the yellow blocks. I didn't mean to use the same fabrics in both this and the next block. It just happened.

This is the 16th block and the end of my orange blocks.

The 15th block.

The 14th block.

And here they are, all of my orange blocks.


It's a long weekend here and today is one of my little granddaughter's birthday party. Darcy turned two on Friday. Little Teemu turns four on Tuesday and his sister, Esme, turned two on the 3rd of May so it's been a busy, hectic month so far. Victoria Day long weekend always has fireworks and last night I heard firecrackers. There's always someone who gets a kick out of the noise. Today it's supposed to be a high of 26C and tomorrow is a trip to the zoo but it's supposed to only get to 15C or 17C depending on which weather network you're looking at. The tulips, hyacinths and daffodils are out and the leaves are starting to show up in the trees so I guess spring is slowly showing itself. It's about time.

Little things

I am trying to keep up with the 52 Blocks in 52 Weeks and so far, I have managed.

Block 12. Still working my way through the oranges.

Week 13's instructions actually yielded two identical blocks. If you are on facebook and happen to look up this group, you will see how very ingenious and original some people were with this block (and others.)

Hole in the Barn Door is block 14.

I also managed to put these together for Quilts of Valor.

Once I have taken more photos of the projects in progress, I shall post them.

A finish and continuing on

I finished quilting this last year in August but had to put it away because I went to B.C. in September. Then, when I came home, I forgot about it. October came and went and then little Luc and his mom came for a visit. After they left, I had to get ready for Christmas. I finally stumbled upon it and realized that it was not finished. So now, it is totally complete. The binding got sewn on and there is a label on the back. It was a freebie online pattern called Juniper Hollow from McCall's Magazine several years ago.

I'm slowly working on making a few more doll quilts (I'll show them when they are done) and I'm also adding to my 16 patch quilt.

 I love all the different colours. I'm just going to plug away at this and make two at a time when I feel I need an infusion of colour. I'm also going to be working on a new baby quilt. I have to hustle with that one.

My weekend is going to be a busy one and I hope yours will be creative and fun.

Smaller and Bigger

Smaller: There's been a few turns taken and now I think I'll work on this side just so I can quilt something besides trees and rectangles with Xs in them.

I mark my quilting lines with a pencil crayon. It usually fades during the quilting process. I made a boo boo on one side border a couple of days ago and I knew I didn't have a really good eraser so I went to Staples to see what they had. I could have gone to my local art store which is just around the corner but I didn't think of it.

I did buy a Pentel product also but decided to try this one first. It comes in a two pack and it worked extremely well. Not much eraser residue either. I must remember to let my quilting buddies know. We have used a couple of different erasers and they did an OK job but this one got every mark out.

Bigger: I needed a break from quilting. It's dark here because it's raining and I needed a colour infusion so I sewed up a couple more blocks. The dark green is scraps left over from cutting up the border for the quilt above. The squares sat around for a while because I had the light green in my mind for the other squares but it wasn't handy at the time. I have some red to cut up and some dusty pink. I like making these because they don't take long to do at all and I get to pair up fabrics. I love using up small pieces too. The red block above has one square that's different because I ran out of the other fabric.

Have a great and safe weekend whatever you're doing.

Wednesday update

When I have some time I am putting fabrics together (scraps, really) and cutting 2.5" squares for these 16-patch blocks. I really liked the one that was at the outdoor quilt show. There is another scrap quilt that I liked too but that one will have to wait. 

I'm also adding borders on a quilt that I plan to put on the frame shortly but I will take a photo of it once the top is done.

A blogging friend, Hetty, was kind enough to send me some wonderful floral fabrics so I can...

make my bow tie quilt bigger. Pop on over for a visit. she has some lovely hexagon blocks completed.

Since it's Wednesday, I am linking up with

The Needle and Thread Network

and with

Esther's blog.

Slow, steady projects

Linda of Stitch Lines blog did a little fall cross stitch for her daughter last year and asked if anyone was interested in the chart once she finished with it. I was the only one that expressed an interest and so she sent it to me. It called for 32 count Belfast linen but I went with 16 count Aida - which I had to purchase. Most the Aida cloth I have is 14 count and one is 18 count. I couldn't believe how hard it was to find cross stitch fabrics in the city - especially 16 count. I finally let my fingers do the walking and found a place east of me that was a needlework and wool store. The lady had been at the same location for 47 years. It was a wonderful store and I will go back since she also had knitting yarns and needlepoint supplies.

 I am not following the colours exactly as they are numbered on the chart. I have a lot of embroidery floss (many of which no longer have their little paper holders with the colour numbers) and so I just chose the ones that I thought would look nice. Once it's done I will show you the whole thing. There are some buttons that get sewn on too. I have purchased some of the buttons but I couldn't find an acorn. I have to look for leaf buttons too. The Aida cloth is an off white and the lettering is actually brownish even though it doesn't look like it in the photo. The actual finished size is 2" X 10.75".

 This is the beginning of a long term project that I want to make (and saying that, it seems like I have several.) It's going to be an alphabet quilt. I am hoping that I have enough of the dark gray so that all the letters will be the same. I have nothing drawn on paper, I have no idea of what the finished quilt will be in look nor in size nor do I know how long it will take me to make. I have a lot of off white fabrics so the backgrounds will be different. The sizes of the blocks will vary too depending on my whim. All hand applique. I did order some alphabet fabric that was on sale from a quilt store just north of me but when the other things arrived in the mail today, that item was crossed off. I guess it was all gone. Too bad since it was letters on a darkish red background and I thought it would be a great starting point. I now have to find something else. Perhaps different fabrics with words written on them. The true size of this block currently is 5.5" X 6.5".