Catchup - Oct 8th-10th

Oct 8th

Well here's what I played with this morning!  

Then off to Rosenort for Cam's (nephew by marriage) funeral service - so sad - before returning to the retreat in time for supper and lovely fall foilage!

Then onto sewing up this From This to That NICU coverlet top Susan Cote introduced me to. And finally an UFO finish from February 2023, my Scrappy Times quilt!

And here is Pat's UFO finish!!! Pretty!!!

Well I've finally finished my kinda scrappy SUPPOSED TO BE NICU quilt BUT it's way too large at 52" square. So need to follow the pattern for 5" cut squares not my 6.5" cut squares I wanted to use up. No fear I'll add either windmill blocks or piano keys for top and bottom borders then the purple blue border to make it rectangular. 

And Sylvia's working on a lattice type quilt top.

Oct 9th

OOOOHHHHH I forgot to post the I Spy blocks sewn up at the last Assiniboine Circle Quilters gathering. I still have more to sew together before I start assembling quilt tops.

Then what a very productive day it was along with some lovely warm temperatures again! First off Sylvia finished off her Simply Serene quilt top, Edna is working on her turtles tote, Pat on her version of a mini quilt pattern that was giving her grief and I finished off my mini quilt Four Crazy Patches plus a kit placemat pattern with some of my fabrics to go with the print in the kit. Yep a productive day for sure!

Oct 10th

It's late but I'm just home from our quilting retreat, unloaded but not unpacked, relaxing with my feet up!!! Here's the first of two Assiniboine Circle Quilters placemat kits I was able to finish off today! 

AND Pat requested a group picture before we left! LOVE IT!!!

Catchup - Sep 16th-17th

Sept 16th

Hey, I forgot to post the ACQ Sept 7th sewing day results. Lately I've been playing with my 9" square I Spy blocks for MPQ ABC quilts. That day I sewed up 17 blocks. Today while at Edna's I sewed up another 12 blocks and forgot all about the leftover 9 sets pinned ready to sew from ACQ sewing day! AND wonder how many more blocks from the tray I've yet to sort out???

Edna finished off her last year's, I think it's called twisted ribbons, just in time to maybe quilt it at the retreat this year. It was a pattern that Adina had sewn up and passed onto Edna.

Walking to my car I noticed the Sturgeon Creek Portage Ave lights are out so guess that affected her Shaw TV and power flickered off a couple times while eating supper. Also look at the sky!!! 

Sept 17th

Here is Lori's write up on my 52 Scrappy Triangles quilt she custom quilted. It's naturey, simple and more me than the feathers I first thought of, so I'm pleased with her quilting. Thank you! This was also part of the $100 virtual retreat prize I won last year from MPQ to go towards any quilt shop or service!  

I just ❤️❤️❤️❤️ it and now to finalize my label and bind it! MY QUILT!!!!!

Rose Anne brought this lovely quilt in for some custom quilting. A few members of my local quilt guild got inspired to do some paper piecing and followed The Year of Scrappy Triangles blog post by Leila Gardunia. I saw some photos of this quilt as Rose Anne was working on it and had thought her chosen background was black, but it is actually a beautiful deep green! It is a lovely compliment to all the batiks she found in her stash.

Initially I thought feathers would be the perfect suggestion for the green strips, but I just could not get them flowing nicely to the inner green border. Everything I tried looked really awkward at some point. When I suggested the echo curve design for the outer border and the center strips, Rose Anne loved the idea and the rest of the design fell into place quickly after that.

The gold border received large curls, the inner green border an oak leaf and curl, and the paper pieced triangles received some branching curls. I always try to repeat motifs somewhere in the custom quilting so that the quilt feels cohesive at the end.

I used an olive green thread for everything but the oakleaf border. There I switched to more of a rusty gold thread to make it stand out a little bit more and add a bit of interest.

OMGG!!!!! Hope all are safe around there! 🙏

Today I started off lazily then kicked into motivation gear and successfully tatted and embroidered the rest of the evening! So I've some tatted butterflies and completed my PFA swap postcard top, now to work on the back and sandwich it together. 

Hopefully my newly serviced Janome will cooperate with the satin stitched edging! Jo do you recognize my source of inspiration for a couple of my seams? Yes I use it for some help! ❤️

Catchup. - July 1st-4th

July 1st

Nifty and crafty!!!

July 2nd

Well I'm not venturing out in this dampness so I finished prepping my Scrappy Triangles quilt top. It took ages to trim off straggling threads, a final press of all seams and then rolled onto my pool noodle. So I'm ready for drop off whenever Lori says our ABC quilt is ready for pickup, an exchange so to speak. 😉

Kinda a chores catch-up type of day except for meeting Darlene, fellow co-worker, at Santa Lucia for a late lunch. As we sat near the windows I saw those horrendous blue black clouds rolling in, the lightning flashes and rolling thunder too. Then it poured at least an hour and even though we were finished our waitress so kindly said we could sit and visit to wait it out. We did but as soon as it eased up we left! If I hadn't had my brand new sandals on I'd have run through it but decided not to risk falling!

July 3rd

It sure looked ominous when I was at Santa Lucia! WOW!!!

July 4th

A very very lovely morning so far! Even if the Crew wanted inside near 11ish. I'm staying in the shade with the light breeze and mosquito lamp, seems to be working!

Then a quick drive into Oakbank for a few items as I totally forgot to stop in the city beforehand. WOW first time here and also first time I've seen a well stocked liquor store in the middle of the grocery store, Family Foods. A nice town and pretty too?

Then on the way back I spotted this yard with a zillion wild daisies that reminded me of the ditches on my way to my sister's place when they lived in Perrault Falls ON.

Ohhh my there was a maintenance worker in the yard and all !$%& broke loose with the dogs for 5-10 minutes! I can sure tell you I'd not try venturing inside this house from the volume and tones of their barking!!!

I'm lazy today but enjoying the deck as long as possible!

Ohhhh yeah I forgot to mention I had to play grease monkey today too! See Urban Garage Ltd. has been closed for awhile for river bank reinforcement and might be another 2-3 weeks till reopening. My car reminded me I've 15% oil life nearly two weeks ago and now at 10% so found my 5-20 oil litre and put half in and it's now above the lowest marker. Hopefully that'll keep her happy, I'll keep checking and add the rest if needed before I can get in for an oil change.  

The garage knows I need one, but dang it reminds me of the "old" days when I used to check and top up most fluids even tire pressure and topping up, before a long drive, even changed wipers and some kind of electronic box on my '73 Charger, had to crawl onto the side of the car to reach it. Even changed a tire on the highway once, but had to climb into the trunk to get it out then chase it into the muddy water logged ditch while others just honked and drove by! It was pouring so I don't blame them for not stopping to help. All I can remember is when I got to Dauphin my Dad was very mad I tried that and drove from Portage la Prairie on it, not properly tightened, by his standards. He went out and tried to loosen the nuts but no give, came in and resumed whatever not saying a thing, Mom and I just laughed. That was before having a cell phone and I was scared the tire would fall off so I jumped on the tire wrench just to make sure!!! My then mechanic laughed when he heard.

I can sure tell you I'm glad I haven't had to do such these latter years. Thank you Urban Garage for servicing my Honda!!!

To my American friends!!!

Catchup - June 8th-17th

June 8th

Today I worked on the two inner borders on my HSTs blocks quilt top. I can tell you I was very uncertain of the gold print that I totally loved when I saw and bought at Marshall's on sale!!! While sewing it on I thought it clashed badly but continued and after picture taking I've decided I LOVE it! It's lots better in person. It's on and tomorrow I'll do the last 6" green and the top will be complete!!! Then off to Night Owl Quilting, and using my $100 MPQ retreat prize towards the interesting quilting Lori will do.

June 9th

First off thank you again Kathy for posting this “Year of Scrappy 52 Triangle Foundation” project and Liz's encouragement to finish it for a possible group showing, my top at least is DONE!!!

https://www.leilagardunia.com/blog/year-of-scrappy-triangles

I've plans now for a twin bed sized quilt for myself for future retreats! So I’d caught up on my one-a-day paper pieced 52 Scrappy Triangles blocks started late, February 1st, 2023! I’m not sure I like my selected colours but I’m using my scraps, not going into my stash! Here are the 52 blocks, plus the bonus block, plus an additional varied designs 10 blocks finished off with Kona Evergreen bought with my virtual retreat gift card for KTR!

Now initially I decided on a finished 6" outer border but might come down to 4.75" to kinda match the width of the inside green paths plus binding. This quilt was full of delimmas, but glad I persevered and now I just want it quilted by Night Owl Quilting & Dye Works and onto other UFOs!!!

After finishing my last border on my scrappy triangles quilt, I decided I needed some exercise! So off to Edna's for a walk along her beautiful balcony view of Sturgeon Creek pathway but she wanted to check a side path. I agreed but dang there were no benches and my hip/leg was giving me major grief until we came upon Superstore on Portage Ave and a bus stop bench. Once I'd rested I was good for the last little bit back to her new apartment and my car!!! I'm not taking that route again!!!

I hadn't set my tracker but it still counted the steps and time which was 3,154 steps in 33 minutes, a short walk but still good!!!

June 10th

GO OILERS GO!!!!! 🏒🏒🏒

Photo credit to Karen Balak.

Lovely overcast day for photos! I know I should have taken the tulip ones earlier BUT even now they still are beautiful!!!

June 11th

Yeah!!! I've finally picked up my tatting again! Now to figure out where to join with clear beads??? I also need to be more uniform in my picots of four different sizes in this pattern.

June 12th

That's the closest I've seen them before they skitter away to the rock cave. Obviously enjoying the sunshine to.

Now I joined Aida and her friend for a walk to the Forks and back. Beautiful day!!!

Then supper out with Sylvia meeting Florence and her friend from Dauphin.

Ohhhh that's exactly what I'm dealing with now but it's selvedges I'm sorting by lengths. Hopefully finished soo and ones not interesting are going to doggie bed usage! 😉

June 14th

What a busy couple days, running errands, sewing. My baby gift was unusual, thinking it was for a boy so I chose brown (not impressed) but actually too dark I think. And today the Assiniboine Circle Quilters end of year gathering and block of the month reveal. The group potluck was awesome. The reveal was great with 16 on display, flimsies to quilted. I don't have pictures as I was in that lineup too. Show n tell was also lovely too.

June 15th

HOLY CRAPPOLA!!!! Oilers 8-Panthers 1???

I think it was Florida's letting Edmonton win in the beginning to get next game and cup back in Florida. But it backfired - and now adrenaline for Oilers to hopefully regain the drive to win again and back to Edmonton!!!  

GO OILERS GO!!!

June 16th

For all those AV lovers!!!

June 17th

What a great idea!!!!

What a LOVELY day Sylvia and I had!!! Awesome weather and our checking furniture stores for chairs for both of us was rewarding, yep a great day!!! So first stop was J&S discount but zippo, then next door to Leon's where I've found my recliner but was told to wait till Thursday or Friday for 20% off sale!!! Then over to Dufresne, no recliners in small size for us, BUT my March found accent chair was now reduced like $400 and discontinued, so I bought it and will pick a new one up on Wednesday from the warehouse. I feel awesome!!! Then over to LazyBoy and there Sylvia found a floor model rocker/recliner on sale too and hopefully we'll pick up soon.

Leons Grayson recliner

Dufresne Bethany accent chair

Then over to Olive Garden for our yummy soup, salad and breadsticks, totally worth it after the shopping!!! Oh and McDs ice cream cone for dessert!!!

Now to get my 2 year old reclining loveseat out of here before fall when I get my recliner delivered!!!

Then over to the goldfishes home to return their keys and what a nice surprise to receive one of her kiln turned treasures to remind me of those pond visits. WOW, thank you Heather!