Gratitude #65

Hello and welcome to my June gratitude post. I'll be linking up with LeeAnna at Not Afraid of Color where you can get the links to others who post. In these unstable alarming times, it is good for my mental health to remember to note things for which I am grateful.

1. I am eternally grateful for our back yard. Having a calm, green, quiet and private or mostly private place in which to have morning coffee, afternoon tea, or to float in my pool chair reading or sky-gazing is important for my overall well-being. We spent five summers on the other side of Kingsville, where we had a beautiful back garden and lake view, not really a yard there, but neighbours with whom we literally shared a patio (it was a duplex) and well, it just got too close and claustrophobic for us. Prior to that we'd lived on 3.5 acres so it was a bit too much of a drastic change!

Mug cosy on to keep the tea warm and bugs out. Current book: One Two Three a recommendation from Bernie at Needle & Foot, (just excellent, highly recommend!). This is my 20th book for the year.

This month I also read Go Tell the Bees That I Am Gone by Diana Gabaldon, which I loved, lived and dreamed in the entire almost 900 pages. Ahhh. However, I had thought this was the last one in the epic series! Hope we don't have to wait seven long years for the next one. Another great read this past month, one of the Canada Reads nominations, was Five Little Indians by Michelle Good. And the fourth one for the month was The Glass Hotel by Emily St. John Mandel, one of Barack Obama's Top 20 for 2021. It was different, and once I kind of sorted out the various points of view, pretty gripping, about a Ponzi scheme that collapses.

DrEAMi! #64

Welcome to the June DrEAMi party where we celebrate those 'squirrels' that divert our attention from what we are supposed to be sewing...

This is Ms Bonita from a site I recently learned about from my friend @we10mom Pat in Maryland: @thedailyjames In these beyond-troubling times, these posts have helped to lift my spirits. Check out the turkey vulture posts as well as the squirrel ones, a beautiful hummingbird taking a bath video, gorgeous nature shots...

Pop Star Quilt Along - Prize Winners!

This is the second best part for me: giving out the prizes.

The first best part? Seeing the parade, and what a parade it was! Eighteen (counting my throw, newly made for the QAL) quilts linked up. I happen to know of two more that are cut out, and one more that is a flimsy that did not get a separate link in the parade, though Susan, the maker, showed it in with her completely finished quilt.

There were quilters from six countries who quilted along: Canada, US, England, Scotland, Australia and New Zealand! I am just thrilled!

I've Got the Blues and I'm Happy About it!

Bright blue is this month's colour for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge with Angela at soscrappy, and that is just fine, because blue is my favourite colour and it makes me happy! I've finished both of my ongoing  RSC projects for this month. The first one is my hot air balloons.

Aren't they just the best? I didn't make a forest green one for May because I want a bright and lime green one since this quilt is likely headed to a toddler I happen to know.

Crystal Constellations

I am really pleased to share my finished throw, which I made during this year's Pop Star Quilt Along. From the title of this post, you know I named it Crystal Constellations.

A beautiful evening by the Leamington Marina for a glamour photo

The fabric line I used, supplied by Benartex Designer Fabrics, is Amanda Murphy's newest, out in stores this month, 'Holiday & Winter Jewels'. That's a link to the lookbook. The fabric has a little bit of bling in the form of silver sparkle throughout. Subtle, just how I like it.

Pop Star QAL The Final Parade!

Welcome everyone to another year of celebrating the end of my annual QAL, on the auspicious birthday of that famous Canadian, my Dad. 😍🥳

It never fails! June 15 seems so far off when the final steps to put the flimsy together are posted. Then suddenly it's here and it seems it was only a week ago, not a month, that that post happened. Such is the way of things though. My own quilt has been done for a few days. I had planned to post my quilt on June 14, giving it its own well-deserving post. I got some good early morning shots on June 14 as I'd had to wait a day while it dried on the design wall for blocking purposes. Then the evening turned out to be picture postcard perfect, so a trip to my happy place, Seacliff Beach and Leamington Marina walk was in order for a few glamour shots. I will link up the post here. Here is a sneak peek!

The light was perfect. More photos to come. Blue was my dad's favourite colour. I think he'd have loved this quilt.

A Roll of the Dice - Baby Quilt Beauties

It's the final day of the pattern launch for A Roll of the Dice and today you get to see no less than five baby quilts. Today is the last day to grab the pattern for 30% off. That means for just CA$7.70 you can have a pattern with instructions for three projects: a baby quilt, a bed runner and a cushion/pillow. Without further ado, here is my baby quilt, done in warm tones.

It's on my design wall, being blocked. I plan to take a few more glamour shots tomorrow. The colours are pretty true here. Four of the five dice blocks, from two to five, are inside Evening Star blocks, with dice block one in the centre of a Rolling Stone block (get the rolling connection?) which is, in turn, the centre of the large Ohio Star. I think we all know how much I love layers in quilts!

A Roll of the Dice Pattern Launch: Rockin' Runners

Are you ready to see some rockin', radiant runners today? Here is the original one I made back in August 2018 using Amanda Murphy's gorgeous line 'Free Motion Fantasy'.

The background fabric is just fabulous, filled with swirls and McTavishing, so on two blocks I traced it with my FMQ, and on the alternate two blocks I did straight lines 1/2" apart. This runner, like the pillow, appears to have borders, but it doesn't! You make them as part of the blocks, sew the four blocks together and ta-da! Runner complete. Let's see what Michelle and Susan did with the pattern.

You Say Pillow...I Say Cushion...Let's Call the Whole Thing Off

Well no, but gosh, that's a good title, isn't it?! Welcome to the first day of the Projects Parade for A Roll of the Dice. It's Comfy Cushions Day and you are in for a treat! Whether you say cushion or pillow, this is a simple, quick-to-make project that will use up some scraps, or some saved (hoarded) precious pieces from a favourite line. Here is the original cushion I made.

Very simple piecing, slightly elaborate quilting, but guess what? I just followed the design in Amanda Murphy's background fabric! The fabric line is Free Motion Fantasy, from 3.5 years ago.

I have two terrific projects to share with you today, made by two talented ladies, so read on to see what they came up with!

A Roll of the Dice Pattern Launch

I am really excited to try something new: a pattern launch! I actually had sent Yvonne at Quilting Jet Girl, my trusty tech editor, two patterns, Pop Star and this one, within a couple of weeks of each other. This one has had to wait because it took a bit to get the fabric to make the cover quilt, and I was also busy with the Pop Star Quilt Along, which wraps up next week.

So I had the idea to do a pattern launch since there are three different projects within this particular pattern. I asked several friends if they would be interested in making one of the three projects I designed, and was I rewarded! They were more excited than I about the design, and almost every one said yes. One couldn't because her sewing machine went kerflooey, and the other has a ton of grandmother stuff in her lap and so couldn't take part. Without further ado, here is the pattern cover.

You'll notice that the baby quilt is digital, not a quilt. Yet. The quilt top is done, but you won't see the finished quilt until Friday, when the other baby quilts will be on parade. So! Let's see what the launch is all about, shall we? Oh yes, the pattern is on sale all week!