Quarantine Along #1

Hello!

Today I am participating in Gudrun Erla's Quarantine Along #2, so I scheduled this post to show you what I did for the first one on March 22, 2020.  She named this one Elvira.  It was so fun!  She posted every 2 hours with instructions for the next step. Her Mr. Producer (hubby) made a Spotify play list that we downloaded and listed to while sewing.  She gave tips and shared her positivity.  So needed at the beginning when we were all scared of what's to come.  You can purchase the pattern for this easy quilt at her website and join the 16,000 or so of us who played along on this day.  I made mine with Mickey/Minnie fabric.

Blocks cut and sewn

Checking out an online video while eating the lunch MY hubby brought down for me.

Basic layout before joining

Back from my fabulous long arm quilter, Shawna! It's for my hubby's birthday and is called Elvira Meets Mickey and Minnie.  Even got a mickey pantograph to quilt it with!

Check back in the next few weeks for this one I'm working on today!
It's called Hope.
Hugs!
Cindy

Time to work

Hello all!

With this Covid19 or Corona Virus causing a shutdown, it has been hard.  Really hard.  The only thing that keeps me going is that I know I am helping to keep other people safe and helping our medical professionals (a bit) by not adding to the chaos at the hospital.  Like many others in the world, I am making masks, reading and crafting.  Some days I break down and just pout, or space out with games on my phone.  Some days I create.

Today I will show you a design wall I put together in minutes....
I quilt.  When you make blocks to go together, most of the time you cannot just join them together willy nilly. You need to lay them out to make sure they look ok.  So I had on black display board, but today I ordered two more.  I went online for curb side pick up at Michaels.  Just got back from getting the supplies.

Then I assemble!  The bottom two panels are one board cut in half lengthwise.  I had to trim a bit off the right side boards, but I'm happy with it!   I can pin up my rows, and when I need to rearrange blocks, I'll pin some batting to this and then my blocks will stay put as I rearrange the patterns...

The curtain rod above was my first attempt at putting up rows with pant hangers.  OK, but not as versatile.

All I can say is keep busy.  Keep trying.  You may have a bad day, and that's ok, but the next day, try again....  I will try to keep track of the days and post each week, like before....
Hugs!
Cindy

Keeping Busy

Hello!

Well this world wide pandemic is sure interesting, isn't it?
People going nuts hording items, ignoring the stay at home if you travelled somewhere and trying to keep entertained at home.

I have a variety of hobbies that I can do here at home, just some days I do not have the concentration to do them.  I thank good ness for those who organise a way to connect remotely.  I recently participated in the Online Quilt Along organised by Gudrun Erla and will hopefully post my finished top next week.  I think we set a record for greatest number of people quilting at once!  I hope she did anyway.

In between, I, like many others, have been tackling our unfinished projects.  Here are a few of mine.

I've had these saw blades for over 10 years, meaning to make them into a clock for my craft room.  The first attempt was a failure.  But I finally got it done!  Word of experience: Do not use too much Goop.  You will stop the clock workings....

Our local hospital put out a call for fabric masks to wear over their regulation ones to make them more efficient longer.  So we got a pattern approved and we started sewing! Here are some of the ones I created for them.

Hope you're keeping busy!
Stay home and be safe!
Hugs!
Cindy

Kona Green Challange

Hello!

Now that the voting has been done and I do not have to worry about publishing too early, I can show you what I completed in early January.

The Canadian Quilt Association puts out a few challenges each year and this year I joined my Quilt Guild sisters in doing something with a Kona green fabric that also followed the theme of 'Gateway to Adventure'.

I have always been a bookworm and definitely get lost in my books.  It's like I'm right there with story, watching it happen!  So I made a book shelf of SOME of my favourite books going into a leafy background to explore.... The highlight is my favourite: Alice in Wonderland cover that I got permission to print and place in my quilt.

 The artist Jill Howarth pointed me to Scholastic who had the copyright on this image.  After a few emails, I received permission to use the image.  You see, I was entering this quilt in a competition for our guild to pick their favourite, which would then be sent to Quilt Canada in Edmonton this year.  If this was to happen, I would have needed permission.  I didn't win though, so no worries!  Now I can share it and keep it for my living room wall! (well, after it comes back from the local art gallery where I also entered it for 'Memories' challenge

This was the first time using a light box to trace the fonts with paint and marker onto fabric.  Some books have a distinctive font, like Martine, Asterix, Disney and Harry Potter.  Yes, I am bilingual and still have a warm space in my heart for those childhood favourites.

This is only the 3rd or 4th quilt I quilted myself, but I got brave and tried to stitch some words in the background....  

Total size is 16 x 20"

Hugs!
Cindy

UFOs

Hey!

I am trying to get this project done, but other projects keep calling to me....

I started this a year ago at a class I took with Sally Manke in Michigan.  What a great teacher!  Supportive, creative, and lots of encouragement to achieve my very own bicycle!  Others in the class have finished, but not me!  Oh well, it is my UFO challenge for this month.  I have 2 weeks left to sew everything down and then quilt it and bind it.

I'll keep trucking along!
Cindy

Permission to Start Over

Hi!

During a 10 day challenge I participated over Christmas, I considered something I really should have before....

I hate to waste things.  I recycle when possible and reuse what I can.  So when a project is not gong the way I like, I tend to ignore it.  And it becomes an unfinished item.

Last year I discovered temperature quilts.  I liked the idea of doing a row of yarn on a project dependent on the local weather temperature.  You pick a high or low temperature of the day and crochet a row.

My pallet is this.  I chose a different colour for every 5 degree temperature range.  (Celsius, as we are in Canada)

The pattern was hexies, cause I LOVE hexies.  And each hexie is one week of temperatures.

The hexies were ok, but when connecting them, it became messy, the colour stuck out and I didn't like it.  I got 10 weeks done, then never continued it.

Then this challenge topic was introduced.  If you really don't like it, take it appart, and make something else, or just throw it out.  I was given permission to do so.  Funny how we need someone else to say this so we feel better about it.  We were talking about quilting, but this applies to everything creative we might do!

So I took it apart and started over.  I still had the yarn.  I still liked the idea, so I did a simpler idea.  Just rows.  I am alternating a row of double crochet and a row of single crochet each day.  So my finished throw will be 366 or so

rows long, with a row of white in between each month.  Here is January!  We've been hovering around the 0 mark lately with only a couple days going to -15.

Have a great week!

Cindy

We Now Return to Our Regular...

Hello!

Two weeks ago  received a call of a cancellation in the surgery schedule.
I immediately went in for pre-op check in for getting some kidney stones removed.
Last week I had the surgery.
I am only NOW getting more mobile and I am grateful.  I know there are others in worse shape than me.  I just did not think this would land me on my butt and unable to act normally for over a week.

So now we return to our regular scheduled posts...

Just before I got sent for surgery, I was reading about the fires in Australia and wishing I could help somehow.  Then posts for quilt blocks to make quilts for those who lost their homes came up.  I sat down and sewed these just before my surgery.  It's a small thing, but I hope it will let those who lost everything that there are those who care, and they can rebuild....

The group organizing this is the Wollongong Modern Quilt Quild.  They have set up a facebook page for this undertaking should you wish to participate. #bushfireblocks