Trying to stay on the brighter side.

       I've been little miss cranky pants lately which is because I have come down with my second cold this fall.  I am trying to look on the brighter side however, which is kind of hard to do when your tea tastes like swill and the wi fi doesn't work in the bedroom and the neighbours have chosen today to fix the fence.  Hey wait the neighbours are fixing the fence.  That's a good thing.  I won't have to look at it sagging into my yard anymore, and what's even better is that Dwight came home for lunch and decided to help them repair the fence which can only be a good thing because he is a carpenter.
     There brighter already.  

      My sewing room is filled with orange brightness.  I have Anja of Anja Quilts to thank for this.  I agreed to exchange a mini mini with her and her favourite colour is orange.  I had a lot of fun playing around with scraps, working in an improvisational way. I've temporarily abandoned my last improv project so it was good to work this way again.( Note to self do more of this it makes you happy.)

     Another bright thing is that I have finished my  12 blocks  for my Dog Gone Cute quilt.   I am not going to show you the last 6 puppies I sewed for the dog gone quilt along ....yet.  I am saving those for the November link up when hopefully you will see my completed quilt.  I will share my completed pick up sticks block.  I'm half way through the fifth.  I'm not sure how many more I am going to have to make.  I know there are at least 7 more coming my way and I need a total of 20 to make the quilt.  They are very fun to make.

   In other news I thought about pattern testing for Mollie Sparkles who is one of my favourite bloggers, but in the end I decided against it because I don't have the time.  But I will be super excited if I get into the Stash Bee block exchange.  I'm confident I can get at least one block done per month.  I loved the sense of community that came along with the New Bloggers Blog Hop and I'm eager to continue that on a smaller scale.
     And speaking of the New Bloggers Blog Hop and the Fabri Quilt Block Challenge that came along with it, my block has been chosen for inclusion in the 2016 Quilters Planner.  This is a wonderful planner put together by Stephanie of the Late Night Quilter which you can read about here, and order here.

     I'm waiting with anticipation to get my copy.  Not that I think it will solve all my organizational problems but maybe some of them.  It will be great to have a resource always on hand to jot down quilting ideas and practice doodling free motion patterns, but what I'm really excited about is that so many of the Fabri Quilt challenge blocks will be in one place for future reference.  

     I know I only talked about improv a little bit in this post but I'm going to link it up to the Ad Hoc Improv  Quilters Linky at Kaja's blog Sew Slowly, anyways.

A Runner for Leanne

     In September my co worker Leanne left the Health Food Store and our city to study Massage Therapy.  Leanne was my co worker for eight years and added a really lovely presence to the store.  I decided to make her a table runner.

     This is the first cross quilt that I have made.  I started with the green fabric with the roses, which is an older Anne Marie Horner fabric.  This fabric had been in my stash for quite some time and to be honest it was one of those fabrics that I was not sure I would ever use.

     This fabric did remind me of Leanne however and some of the clothing that she wears.  I added the orange fabric, also an Anne Marie Horner and then decided to use various shades of neutrals for the rest of the fabrics.

     Leanne loves retro table linens and is a very dedicated to recycling and upcycling.  She would really love the fact that I used a fabric that had been sitting around in my stash for a while.  Many of the neutral fabrics were scraps and that would also appeal to her.  The whitest fabric is a text print.  The words on the fabric reminded me of her spirituality and positivity, with it's messages like dream big and enjoy the little things, life is better with you in it.

     For the back of the runner I used another fabric that had been in the stash for years. Ditto for the orange binding fabric.  I used my walking foot to echo quilt inside each of the crosses.

     I took this fall like runner out to the back porch to take photo's in the early evening just before the rains came.
Soon I will put it in the mail and send it to my friend.

     This is my first finish for the 4th Quarter Finish Along.  My original post is here.  I'm linking up today with TGIFF  which is hosted this week by Shelley at the Carpenters Daughter Who Quilts, and Friday Finishes at Crazy Mom Quilts.

Sunday Stash.

     Yesterday I was in my p.j.s until about 3:00pm.  This is because after I drank tea and read the papers I started quilting Leanne's table runner.  The day went like this:  quilt a bit...check emails...quilt a bit...do laundry...quilt a bit make lunch...quilt a bit.

     You might ask why I bothered to get dressed at 3:30pm but the thing is, it was such a nice day that I thought I should get out and enjoy it.  So I went for a walk which of course took me by my local quilt shop Greenwood Quiltery.  I was scoping out some fabric to use as a background for a quilt tutorial that Cynthia posted on her blog  Quilting is more fun than housework. I saw three possibilities .

     I didn't pick up anything this trip but I was there on Wednesday when I picked up these beauties.  (The quilt store is a 10 minute walk from my house.)

     These are the new Tula Pink mosaic fabrics and I love the gradation of colours in each fat quarter.  I also picked up this book by Gwen Marston.

 

     

     I'm on a bit of a Gwen Marston kick right now having just read my way through her book on Minimalism.  I've had a quick flip through this book and I've found my inspiration for using some of the bright solids I picked up in the spring.
I'm linking up with Sunday Stash on Molli's blog then I'm off to my sister in laws farm for Thanksgiving dinner.  Nothing says Thanksgiving more than a trip to the farm. Don't you think.

Fourth Quarter List

     I didn't post a third quarter list as I knew I wouldn't get a lot finished over the summer. I was pretty busy with blog hops and with projects for the comfort quilt program at my local guild.  
      I am however posting a 4th quarter list and I'm hopeful that I'll manage to finish everything on this list. First up is a table runner for my friend Leanne.  Here's a sneak peek.

     The second project is also a table runner but it's quite different.  It's the row by row project from Hyggelit Fabrics .  I couldn't resist this fun fabric, and I put it together with no one in mind.  I'll be practising my free motion quilting on this one.

          Third on the list is a group project that the Modern small group of my local guild is working on. It's a grey pick up sticks quilt  which will be donated to the comfort quilt program (you can read about that by clicking of the tab at the top of the page).   We've made enough blocks for two quilts and I'll be putting one of them together.   Here's a close up of one of my blocks.

    The fourth and final project on the list is my puppy quilt for the dog gone quilt along. This quilt along has been a lot of fun.  I'm planning to make a quilt with I'm thinking 12 blocks in total. Here's the gang so far!

      I'll be happy if I get these four things done...anything else will be a bonus.  I'm linking up with the 4th Quarter Finish Along hosted by Adrienne on the Windy Side and I'm also linking up to Lets Bee Social at Sew Fresh Quilts.

Pups Three and Four.

     This will be a quick post.  I'm pretty tired as I'm fighting off a cold after all my time away from home.  So I'm behind with the dog gone quilt along and I'm hoping to catch up this weekend.
     Here's pup three.

     And here is pup four.

     Here they are together.

     But wait.  One of these pups is not like the others.   I haven't decided yet if I'll take it apart and fix it.  I've been thinking this quilt will be good for counting and learning about colours...so maybe it will be o.k. to have a pup that's a little different.  I'll see how I feel about it when I get to the end.
Linking up with Lorna at Let's Bee Social

Playing With Improv

     Kaja of Sew Slowly and Ann of Fret Not Yourself are sharing a series of blog posts on improv quilting and today they are having a link up.  A couple of weeks ago Kaja shared this technique on her post Why Don't You Try This.  The gist of it was take a shape, make a nine patch with multiples of that shape, see where it takes you.

I decided to play along.  I went into my aqua scrap bin and found this piece of Anne Marie Horner fabric.

     I cut nine free hand (i.e.no ruler) squares , played around somewhat with the arrangement and settled on this.

     There is a silk pin on the left hand edge of the photo which gives you an idea of the size.  Then I started added things.  Sometimes switching the size and shape of the patch and sometimes switching the arrangement.

   Here's where I'm at so far.

     All but about two of the additional pieces have come from my aqua scrap bin.  Even the black stripe, as it is part of an unused block.  I've been working on this piece sporadically around other projects, adding a strip here and there as it tickles my fancy.  I love working like this.  It's very intuitive and freeing. Because there is no bigger plan and I'm using scraps I can play without stressing over the outcome.

     I've been using the back end of my rather large sewing table as a design surface.  It's the first thing I see when I go into the sewing room.  However it's also the first place the cat jumps up on the table. No worries.  He adds to the design process as he shuffles them around and knocks them on to the floor.  I'm linking up to AdHoc Improv Quilters (AHIQ)at Kaja's blog.

September Catch Up

     I've been doing quite a bit of sewing lately but it's been hard to find the time to write about it.  Here's a little catch up on some of what I've been doing.

    Eileen of Eileen in Stitches put out the call for blocks for a quilt she is making for her grandfather. She asked for blue and neutral blocks with stars as a theme and various possible sizes.  I made this eight pointed star block that finishes at 12 1/2".  I'll be putting it in the post tomorrow.  I hope it works well with the other blocks in your quilt Eileen.

     I've also been participating in the Meadow Mist Designs Midnight Mystery Quilt Along.  This month we are making square in a square blocks.  

     There are a couple of finished but untrimmed ones in the photo below along with last months flying geese blocks.

     At this point I'm thinking that this quilt is going to look like a big wedding cake, with white and pink icing.  We'll see how it progresses.  I'm glad that Cheryl is taking this quilt along slowly.  I'm not happy as a production quilter so I like to be able to work slowly on this around the other projects I am  working on.
     I'll be linking up late to Let's Bee Social when I return from my business meetings.  Life should settle down a little after that and I hope to share more sewing adventures moving in to the fall.