February 2021 OMG Goal

 I always find it a challenge to settle in on just one OMG goal. What will it be?  

What about Bright Jane? I made 5 pink blocks for RSC to add to the 7 I already had made. 

Feb's color is yellow. My quilt needs 11 blocks for that colour. 

I have been sitting here hovering near the girls doing their school work. Ellyse is so much like me Totally distractable.

Ellyse joined me and Chooky and the girls Monday night on zoom. We cut out a whole lot of green and white pieces for The Curves. It was hard work and I let her do the cranking. 

She had a paper cut on her finger and "had to" change the band-aid every 4 hours (a bit OCD maybe). She was asking if she still needed yet another new bandaid but I said no, the cut was healing up very nicely. Then I reached down into a box on the floor to pull out some papers and what do you know? I came back up with a very big bloody paper cut on the ring finger of my right hand. You know, my-push-the-needle-through-the-applique finger. Ouch. So. she put a bandaid on it. It is healing very nicely. I only changed it once when it fell off washing dishes. 

I continue to do my 15-Minutes of Stitching daily. So far I am 100%. 

This Ella block was a bit daunting. I started with back-basting the yellow centers in each corner. Then I added the red petals on either side. 

 

I forgot to take a picture of only one of the brown curlycues that frame each flower. I am doing these in 4 separate applications. I probably could have done it as one piece, but I wanted to do it the way the original maker switched hers. 

This will be my hand stitching for the next few days. 

There will yet be a cluster of flower petals at the end of each of those brown stems. 

My OMG goal for Feb has to be The Curves.  I must have all 64 units done so I can put together the required 16 blocks and complete the rest of the things by the end of the month. I plan to get Ellyse to help cut out more pieces. 

Blessings,

Chris

linking with: off-wall-friday.

wendysquiltsandmore  confessionsofafabricaddict. alyciaquilts. 

 link-party-patchwork-quilts-   tishnwonderland. 

fortheloveofgeese.

quiltingismorefunthanhousework.

sugarlane-designs 

 slow-sunday-stitching  kate-life-in-pieces.  whatahootquilts.

lovelaughquilt. 

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design-wall-monday-  needleandthreadnetwork.

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 wednesday-wait-loss-  woofap-january-party.

The Storyteller

I did the High5 Quiz online recently and it tells me I am a Storyteller. You think?  That's part of why being a writer is so exciting. I get to tell stories. Here on the blog, I tell stories about quilt blocks I make or the process of making them. I tell stories about my grandchildren. To be challenged to tell a story without words, is, for me, well, a challenge. I could post pictures but always want to be explaining things.

This is as far as I have gotten with the January RSC pinks for Bright Jane. I still have a week so I might get more made. 

The craziest thing here on the new Blogger. All my photos came up in reverse order. No problem. I will just change how I write up my story, even though I have been writing bits and pieces throughout the week. 

This is the back of one block with the back-basting. I used a regular pencil this time. I figure it will be hidden on the back under the appliques. That fabric is white, really. 

When doing the back-basting thing, you stitch the bits in layers. This is the first layer of this block. I stitched down the top part of each petal and cut a tiny notch for the curve but realized it was perfect for transitioning from the stitched part to the flat part that will be under the next petals. You will have to wait until next time to see the progress. 

I made this block a while ago but finally finished the Broderie Perse applique. Devan is claiming this block for her name. I had to convince her to wait until the quilt was done, as she was already looking for a Sharpie. You can read that story here.

Wait until you see what this block will look like. I hope my process works. I like process. That is part of why I like blogging so much of my quilting journey. I can document the process of making the blocks. I make a lot of blocks.  

And, I did get in at least 15 minutes stitching every day. Sometimes 3-4 hours.

I prepped 6 applique blocks for my 50th Aniversary Quilt aka Ella. One of the other girls in the group tucked in a scene in one of the blocks. I will see if I can find one for this center. Otherwise, there will be more 8 petal flowers inside, inside a square inside a circle with skinny petals in the corners.

I just realized that I am doing a lot of hand stitching these days. Why? Because my hands do not hurt quite as much as they were. Stopping eating so much sugar cannot possibly be the reason.

I was looking at my 50 Goals for 2021. One of them is celebrating our son-in-law's 50th birthday. We had plans and a little boy sleepover and something other than pizza with the cake, but we are in a stay-at-home lockdown this month so will have to wait until another time. You only turn 50 once. We had pizza anyway.

This the other block I completed this week. I was liking the softer colours - the creams and butter and coral and chocolate and aqua. My Sweet husband of nearly 50 years thought it was rather underwhelming. But when I put the egg yolk and cranberry together with a touch of chocolate, that the thing started looking exciting. 

My OMG goal for January was to complete 16 units for the QAL The Curves! I found the fabrics I needed and pulled out the GO cutter and the 7inch Drunkards Path die. Oops. The way the die is designed, I will be wasting a lot of fabric cutting the way I want. 

We shall see. I still have a lot more cutting to do. I did make my OMG goal for January.

 

In the meantime, the little girls decided they wanted to do some quilting. Sigh. I am so lazy sometimes. I have kept putting them off saying it was too cluttered to work here and with them and their school work, it is even more so. But Devan would not let me get away with that. So, they both started a new quilt. Five-inch quilt as you go hexagons. They are learning to use the rotary cutters. But we still have to make a bit more room for them both to work, because they have to do it at the same time. These both are Devan's blocks. Then she decided to make some pillows for her stuffies, but I would not let her use the machine because I have it set up with my sewing, so she pulled out the biggest needle in the pincushion and started stitching by hand. 

Ellyse put her's into a project box. Just like Gramma. 

Blessings,

Chris

linking with:

offwallfriday. wendysquiltsandmore  confessionsofafabricaddict. alyciaquilts. 

 link-party-patchwork-quilts-   tishnwonderland. 

quiltingismorefunthanhousework.

sugarlane-designs 

 slow-sunday-stitching  kate-life-in-pieces.  whatahootquilts.

lovelaughquilt. 

katiemaequilts.boms-away-  

design-wall-monday-  needleandthreadnetwork.

midweek-makers  myquiltinfatuation.

 wednesday-wait-loss-  woofap-january-party.

A Week in Mid January

 

For the life of me, I cannot remember what I did last Friday. There were no children here, so it was not hovering over schoolwork. I love having them here and they do know what to do, so it is no hardship for me, other than they use my computer. But, alas, they each came home with a brand new iPad from school so they will work on those now. 

Saturday I met with some friends on Facebook messenger and I did some back-basting prep work on 3 Ella blocks so I had some hand applique to pick up through the week.

Sunday was David's birthday, He is now 5 years old. All he asked for his birthday was a Kinder Egg. He got 6. And he shared with his brother and cousins. They came over and we had pizza and chocolate cake. Best birthday menu ever. 

But the iPads did not work. At least we could not figure out how to log in to their classrooms. So, back to my desktop and Daddy's laptop.  All was good until one of them accidentally unplugged the router while fiddling with the power bar under her table. Oops. Note to self. Move the table. And I was on the phone with the internet company twice for a hour each time and they turned off the internet to tweak it. Poor little girls trying to do their school work.

Now I recall Friday. I got up around 9:30 because I was up reading and writing my blog post until past 2. Then I had a massage and groceries. After that, a nap. Little girls filled the rest of the evening. Only the 2 small ones came home and it was delightful listening to them play and interact without the "help" of their now teenager sister. But now we desperately need her "help" with the iPad thing. 

I did some stitching every day. Some days for barely 15 minutes. Other days for 2-3 hours. And prep work counts for my 15 minutes. Okay. Monday I stitched on and off for about 5 hours. 

Eventually, we got one of the iPads linking up with the school, so Devan was able to move around to do her work. On the treadmill for gym. On a chair in the back kitchen for math. Then I found her here. I guess she wanted to be first in line to get ice cream for the afternoon nutrition break. 

The weather this week has been typical mid-January winter weather. Sort of cold but not too cold. Some sun. Some clouds. Can't complain. Well, until the freezing rain caught us off guard and everything iced over. And, we are now in a tighter lockdown. 

Then the power went out. About 11 Thursday morning. For a couple of hours. My Sweetie had a nap and I could not focus on anything. So I sorted through some patterns and enjoyed the quiet. However, nothing is simple on the farm. When the power came back on, the sand in the water from last week's broken water pipe flood, decided to shoot through the pipes and no less than 3 waterbowls decided to overflow causing more flooding and had to call in the electrician to fix the heated water bowl in the dry cow barn. Good thing. They found some compromised wires and now they are all good.  

Good thing the girls were at their mom's.

Blessings,

Chris

linking with: 

offwallfriday. wendysquiltsandmore  confessionsofafabricaddict. alyciaquilts. 

quiltingismorefunthanhousework. link-party-patchwork-quilts-

tishnwonderland. sugarlane-designs 

 slow-sunday-stitching  kate-life-in-pieces.  whatahootquilts.

lovelaughquilt. 

katiemaequilts.boms-away-  

design-wall-monday-  needleandthreadnetwork.

midweek-makers  myquiltinfatuation.

 wednesday-wait-loss-

A Day at the Farm

I have had a blast writing up blogs to post every day for December and beyond. But it is time to refocus my writing time on academics and authorship. Post-Christmas life here on the farm in wintery Canada is a bit different than other years at this time. We are in lockdown again, but this time the schools are closed for at least 3 weeks. This means the grandchildren are doing home learning. With the joint custody thing, I get the privilege of overseeing them 2-3 days a week on this. We got through this week. Sort of. I got a new internet provider that finally kicked in New Year's Eve at supper time, but the promised higher speed forgot the memo. So, Wed morning, while the 3 girls were all on with their teachers, I called and was on hold for most of an hour with them tweaking the connection and increasing the download speed, which means they turned off the signal not once, but twice, while the poor little girls were trying to do interactive, live schooling with their classes. Oops. But all is good now. The whole purpose of getting a new provider was to get faster internet for the schooling thing. 

One girl was on Daddy's laptop in the living room. One was in the quilt room on her cell phone and laptop, and one was on my desktop. So where was Grampa supposed to watch his Good Morning Foot Ball show? Not in the living room nor have his after-morning-chores nap on the living room couch. So, upstairs he had to go. Speaking of Grampa, we gave each of the grandchildren an Amaryllis bulb to plant and have been enjoying the flowers. Each bulb came up different. 

And where was Gramma supposed to do her stitching and reading and "other stuff"? At the kitchen table of course. Those wooden chairs are hard when you have to sit in them for up to 6 hours. 

But all is good. the girls have scheduled nutrition breaks (they no longer have lunch and recess) twice each day. They had smoothies with dad at 6:30 and a bit of tv but breakfast wasn't ready in time for them to log in at 9 so they had their bacon and eggs for the first nutrition break at 10:40. As it turns out, Gramma has to get out of bed before 9 am in order to have them ready. They had to wear real clothes, not pajamas. 

So I will be posting only once a week for now and try to get everything in. FNWF is happening right now (I think). It is 1:10 AM Friday, Jan 8 here in Canada. I did hand stitching for a couple of hours today as I was listening to lectures from my writing coach. Great insights into why I am struggling with my writing.  So, I get to log in with 15 Minutes to Stitch with a perfect score for this week, even though they report on Sundays. This brings me to Sunday Slow Stitching. I will continue working on these hand appliqued blocks for the 50th Anniversary Quilt aka Ella.  

Now, did I miss anything? 

Blessings,

Chris

linking with: off-wall-friday. 

wendysquiltsandmore  quiltingismorefunthanhousework. 

 tishnwonderland. sugarlane-designs wednesday-wait-loss-

katiemaequilts.boms-away-  design-wall-monday-  midweek-makers  myquiltinfatuation.

Watercolour by Linda

Linda and I met at a small two-room school in 1962. It was the year I turned 10. She was 11. She had just moved into our rural farming community and they closed all the one-room schools and started busing us to bigger schools. Then we went through high school together. We actually were in the same class for every subject for the whole four years I went there. She went on to do grade 13 to prepare for nursing school. I could not get out of there fast enough and left after grade 12 and went to college to get away from home. I married my Sweet Farmer a year later and this year we will be celebrating 50 years of being married to each other for all those years. Quite an accomplishment these days. 

Anyway, Linda and I had not seen each other for many years until our high school reunion back in 2017. A bunch of us got together for dinner and got caught up with 40 years of memories. It was great. Linda and I and another girl (we are all in our late 60s) started meeting monthly for breakfast until the whole world shut down. But Linda wanted to make face masks for some tiny family members and her sewing machine did not work, so she came to my house to use one of mine. We met with Barb, another high school friend, on Facebook messenger a few times back in the summer. It was great.

Anyway, Linda dropped in a few days before Christmas to bring me a gift. She had taken a picture of my house from Facebook and did a watercolour painting. Isn't it great? The lights and windows are a reflection off the glass in the frame in my quilt room. Can you see the geraniums inside the lower right window? I never realized that watercolour paintings are covered in glass to protect the water paints from running in humidity. Fancy that.

Blessings,

Chris

15 Minutes to Stitch

I have considered joining this 15 Minutes to Stitch a number of times and always waver at committing to following through. That is one of my weaknesses. Following through. Thinking about it and talking about it and making plans about it do not actually get the job done. 

I do track how often I stitch. Sometimes it is only 2 or 3 times a month. This was actual thread in fabric stitching. When I made the Cherries Quilt, I just stitched whenever I felt like it, or when I was on a trip or babysitting. Some of those times were 2-3 hour sessions and I eventually got the thing to a flimsy in just under 6 years. 

But I have a 50th Anniversary Quilt I want to complete by June and the only way I am going to meet my goal is to do some stitching every single day. I am only making 50 of these nine-inch blocks. Some are machine pieced but most are hand appliqued. 

So my 15 minutes to stitch will include hand stitching, machine stitching, prepping applique, cutting fabric, tearing out papers, as well as sorting and choosing fabrics. Twelve done and only 38 to go with 9 of those half done. I can do this. 

Blessings,

Chris

linking with: needleandthreadnetwork.

First Slow Sunday Stitching 2021

It is a new year and time to get busy accomplishing some of the 50 goals I have set for 2021. Today I will do some hand stitching on yet another 50th Anniversary Quilt aka Ella block.  

I had prepped quite a few in the fall that are not yet complete and there are a few new ones I haven't yet considered how to approach them. 

I could take the easy route (no surprise) and work on this one. 

Or this one.

So far I have 12 blocks complete, 9 appliques on the go, leaving another 29 blocks not yet started. The deadline is Aug 7. Well, the anniversary is Aug 7, but I should get this thing complete and quilted before then, 

assuming that we can gather in groups of more than 50 by then.

This is the block I competed New Year's Eve while stitching along with Chooky and friends. I also spend a couple of hours tearing off the foundation papers from 10 blocks I sewed up earlier in the week. Not my favourite job but done for now. 

Linking with Kathy at Slow Sunday Stitching. and boms-away.

Blessings,

Chris

Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2021

Angela at Soscrappy has chosen pink to be the colour of the month for January. It is a good time to join the fun if you have never taken part. I am bringing my Bright Jane blocks out of hibernation and plan to make at least 13 pink ones. There are 5 Saturdays in January so that gives me time to keep up. 

 

Blessings,

Chris

linking with: quiltingismorefunthanhousework.

My First 2021 Project

will be to participate in the QAL 2021 The Curves!  Curves! I am looking forward to this. The rules state that we cannot begin making the quilt until January 1, 2021. It has to be a completely new project. 

I saw this antique quilt hanging on the wall in Mary's Quilt Shop in Bedford Pennsylvania in April 2014. I looked at it long and hard and figured out the underlying pattern. I bought some black and green reproduction fabric for another project then went back the next day and bought the rest of the bolt. I wanted to make sure I had enough. Later that day I bought 11 yards of Kona Snow for the first time for the Cherries quilt. I have bought the Kona Snow several times since then. A lot of it. 

Then a few years later I bought a GO die to cut it all out. I wanted to make this thing fast. But what was the hurry? I needed a reason to make it. Now I have one. A challenge! A competition! With prizes! Do I want to win a prize? That is always nice. But I do not need more stuff, now do I?

 

My January 2021 OMG goal will be to have the first 16 block units of The Curves! made. 

Blessings,

Chris

linking with: wendysquiltsandmore. 

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