Gratitude #77 Glimmers

Welcome to another month's list of things I notice pretty much on a daily basis, for which I am grateful. If you would like to write your own post, or read more of these uplifting posts, pop over to LeeAnna's blog Not Afraid of Color.

Yesterday I learned a new word for these moments I note each month thanks to Mx. Domestic who reposted it from Tiny Buddha Official on Instagram.

1. I'm grateful for my library; I've loved loved LOVED libraries my entire life. The quiet, the smell, the knowledge-keeping, the worlds contained in the thousands of books, ahhh. I was in one day quite a few months ago, and Elaine, who is also a quilter, and in charge of the Artist of the Month display, asked me if I'd like to be the artist for September. I told her absolutely, and that that was fitting timing as I had a quilt coming out in Love of Quilting in the September/October issue! Well, here is the display that has been in the library all month.

RainbowScraps at Work

I started the year with just one rainbow project. And I’m happy to report that all the blocks are complete; in fact, now that the turquoise ones are done, I have one extra!

It evolved, as they often do, too, aiming to make a gradation in shades of each color. So you can see these three go from light to dark turquoise. I now have 26 blocks, enough for a 50” square quilt with the extra block going on the back. My original plan was to make 30 but I decided this past week that 25 is fine.

Gratitude #76

Since taking the month of July off, it's gotten a lot harder to make myself write a post. I've been sewing a little bit, but not much really and not anything so far I can show. I've still kept track of things I like, and things that make me full of gratitude. If you would like to write your own post, or read more of these uplifting posts, pop over to LeeAnna's blog Not Afraid of Color.

1. I'm grateful for trees. I've been a tree lover pretty much all my life, but a trip to Tofino, Vancouver Island in 1994 took my love to a profound level, one of awe and respect. I read Greenwood by Michael Christie, in July, one of the Canada Reads books, and what a book. Highly recommend. It sent me to the internet again and again, looking up various ancient trees of the Douglas fir variety for one. I found Lonely Doug, which you can read about and see in this brief article and also this short article. Tell me if you don't feel a deep sadness when you see this massive sentinel. And once again synchronicity strikes: a few days after learning and reading about him, this article,  BC big tree hunter documents grandest old-growth tree he's ever seen, showed up on my CBC homepage. It is worth a quick click on that link to view this indescribably humongous Western red cedar somewhere on Flores Island in Clayoquot Sound. The photos are locked.

Point Pelee National Park near me

Fir tree and Sky by Emily Carr in 1935-36

This painting hangs in the  National Gallery of Canada  which we recently visited on our trip to Ottawa.

Tinker Toys in Love of Quilting Magazine

Way back in January I alluded to two of my submitted designs having been accepted for publication. Today is finally the day I can share the first one. Love of Quilting hits the newsstands today! My quilt, Tinker Toys, is on page 62.

Photo courtesy of Golden Peak Media

This baby quilt goes together super-fast. The design has the illusion of being on point but it's just nine blocks with some clever colouring and borders.

Rainbow Scrap Challenge Update

I have three projects ongoing this year, one of which has all the blocks done, and two nearing completion. Here's where they all are at present! Then read on to find out who won a copy of Cheryl's new book, Just Two Charm Packs Quilts.

Project 1

Makes me think of ketchup and mustard! I plan to make four more blocks in aqua (I'm thinking that will be the September colour) for a total of 30, set five by six. This will make a nice-sized throw as they are 10" blocks. This will most likely be a comfort quilt.

I'm Back With Diamond Hashtag and a Giveaway

Hello everyone! I had a lovely month off with plenty of my favourite things: reading, sewing, relaxing in the back yard and in the pool, and generally enjoying the beautiful month of July. You've seen on Instagram some in-progress shots of my 150 Canadian Women quilt, but I also worked on one of Cheryl Brickey's designs in her newest book, Just Two Charm Pack Quilts. Her website is Meadow Mist Designs, and her blog is Meadow Mist Designs where you can follow the hop of fabulous quilts from her book.

Cheryl has a page right here dedicated to this hop with all of the participants listed and links to their quilts. If you ever have lost your quilt mojo, check out a few of the links there, and I guarantee you will find it in a hurry!

Rainbow Neighbourhood - My Quilt

When I finally put my 2017 Rainbow Scrap Challenge house blocks together into the throw, I knew that was my second choice for a quilt layout using my rainbow houses blocks. I knew I wanted to create a happy neighbourhood (Do you hear Fred Rogers? I know I do.) It took some time, but I knew if I let it sit and percolate on the back burner of my brain, it would be good. And it is.

I looked back in my graph book of design ideas and I see several iterations and possibilities of a quilt using the blocks. Exactly how I came up with the one that is the twin, I honestly am not sure, but I do know I didn't want a traditional setting; I wanted the houses to be not in rows, and I wanted neighbourhood elements such as a picket fence (which did not come to pass in the end).

A huge thank you to Island Batik for sending me the navy marble blender yardage for background, and for the 'Broken Glass' line of fabrics as well as several other Basics and Blenders fabrics.

Rainbow Neighbourhood Final Parade

It’s here and I am late to post this! (Smacks self in forehead) I remembered… and then promptly forgot. My own quilt is not completely finished but the linkup for flimsies and finishes that I have on the June 15 post and also here below was originally open until midnight July 1. I may just extend it through the weekend though; what do you think? Canada Day is an auspicious day to end the celebration of the ‘Famous Canadian’ 😉 upon whose birthday this QAL usually ends, but I think he’d be just fine with a wee extension. 

I actually have stuck to the decision to do an all-over design. Well mostly!

Gratitude #76

Welcome to my monthly gratitude post. There is a group of us who write these, so feel free to join in anytime you like and let LeeAnna at Not Afraid of Color know. You can hop over there and see more  uplifting posts.

I just love Calla lilies and am I happy that we have the perfect spot for this group of five. This is their third summer! They are in a south facing bed close to the house, so I think this is why they continue to survive the winter.

DrEAMi #74

Welcome to another month of Drop Everything And Make it celebrations. I apologize for this getting out quite late, but I've been on a road trip, keeping Dayna company and helping with the precious cargo of my grand-cat, Harper on the way down to Tennessee where they've relocated. She was an absolute angel of a traveller!

Waiting in a bedroom for those noisy movers to finish

No chipmunks for Harper to keep her eye on in the south, but I am sure she will find something else to interest her at her glass front storm door, once her parents install one! Here she is at Dayna’s new bedroom window, intent on something, probably a bunny, outside. 

Perfectly Pieced Quilt Backs

First of all I want to acknowledge Canada's National Indigenous Peoples Day by stating that I acknowledge that I live on traditional, ancestral, and unceded territory. This territory belongs to the Anishinabewaki, Attiwonderonk and Myaamia Indigenous peoples.  I live on the north shore of erielhonan, the Iroquoian name for Lake Erie which means 'long tail'. I continue to learn and am always grateful for this beautiful piece of Turtle Island.

Well, Kelly Young of My Quilt Infatuation has done it once again. She has published her third book, and this is one I guarantee you will want to have on your shelf. How many of you have leftover chunks of fabric after the top is complete? Yeah, I thought so: 100% of you. Have you used them right away, or, are they languishing in your stash, or maybe even still together (guilty) because they looked so terrific in that quilt that they could probably make a pillow, or bag or some placemats even... How about it you make them into a pleasing quilt back? Well that is exactly what Kelly's book is all about, 30 yes THIRTY quilt back design ideas. I made two from her book.

Rainbow Neighbourhood Quilt Top and Link Up

First of all a happy birthday to that most famous Canadian, my dear Dad.😍🥳

He was born on this day, in 1926, in the little town of Legal, (it’s French, so it's le and gal as in girl, emphasis on gal) Alberta. He always gave us kids a chuckle because each year he’d write on the wall calendar ‘the birthday of a famous Canadian’ much to our mum’s annoyance, though we knew it was feigned annoyance. Well, mostly feigned! My annual QAL has evolved into starting on my birthday, and ending on my dad’s.

Without further ado here is my twin-size flimsy! I'm so pleased with how it turned out.

This year the top is due on June 15, but there is a difference for the final parade. Since both quilts, but especially the twin, were more involved than in previous years, I've set the final parade for finished quilts and tops for June 30. 

Rainbow Neighbourhood House Block #10 and Pinwheels

Twin quilt makers, this is your final assignment! This week we are making house block #10 and the pinwheels that spin across the quilt.

I have seen a few tops done, or nearly done this past week and I am swooning over how wonderful they are. This post will also discuss the sashing pieces needed to fit both the throw and the twin together. I will also be showing you some other quilts and projects I've done using this wonderful house block pattern. As lots of you have learned, it can be quite addictive!

More DrEAMi Makeup Bags

Two Drop Everything And Make it! moments happened to me this past week, both the fault of my stock person in my Etsy shop sandrajanequilts. Wow, you may be thinking, you have a stock person? I sure do–ME! Don’t worry, I’ve talked to ME about it and hopefully the issue won’t happen again, though in reality it is a very good issue to have!

This one was DrEAMi #2. I added a pretty green fancy bead zipper pull after I took the photo for the customer. It was well after supper, so I took it outside to the front of the house which faces west and has our rhodo in all her stunning glory at present as a supreme backdrop.   

Rainbow Neighbourhood House Block #9 and Some Hearts

My sincere apologies for being a day late with this post; life has been rather busy and full lately, all good, but I don't work well when I have a lot of interruptions throughout the day even if they are good ones like reading (such a good, captivating book I'm in), Netflix, eating outside, gardening, errands... Anyhow, let's go!

This week we are making our ninth house! If you are doing the throw, this is your last block, and you get next week off.😚 If you are making the twin, you will have one more house to make along with the heart blocks.

Global Garden - Hands2Help Comfort Quilt

Here is my second H2H quilt for this year, the first being my SAHRR which you can see here. Hands2Help, in case you don't know, is an annual comfort quilt drive hosted by Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict. I named it Global Garden as a nod to the Trip Around the World corner blocks, the floral fabrics, and the centre garden-themed appliquéd block.

After I rummaged through my drawer of lonely blocks aka orphan blocks to choose one for my SAHRR, it hit me that I really should make an effort to work more of them into a couple of quilts. In the drawer were these five blocks, the centre appliqués one and four Trip Around the World ones. I ‘won’ them in a bidding activity we did in the local guild I belonged to at that time. That was more than six years ago! Out they came and I let them percolate a bit on the design wall until I ‘saw’ the idea of using big, 15” finished, QSTs to frame and pull them together. 

A note about my Rainbow Neighbourhood QAL: that post will be out this afternoon.

DrEAMi #73

 

Welcome to another month of Drop Everything And Make it celebrations. Isn’t the squirrel photo adorable? You can watch the whole few-seconds-long video here. Marty had it in her Instagram stories and I guarantee it will make you smile. I like to think that the dandelion seeds floating around the squirrels head, or like those tantalizing projects that we just have to make. This is where we celebrate those distractions because we know that it is just so good for our creative souls.

My First Quilt

Happy Friday! I had hoped to have a finish but life has intervened, as has a good book, and general poky-ness, so maybe this weekend... In the meantime, I'm popping in to let you know that I was asked by Leanne of Devoted Quilter if I would like to be interviewed about the first quilt I ever made for a new series she's doing on her blog and Instagram. 

In case you missed any of the posts, which come out at the end of each month, (I didn't catch Leanne's, so I will be heading over to read it asap!) 

you can read about Leanne's own first quilt here, 

Laura's, Slice of Pi, first quilt here, 

and about Michelle's, From Bolt to Beauty, first quilt here.

I am honoured to be the featured 'First Quilt' interviewee today. You can hop over to Leanne's blog, to read all about my first little quilt.

That's a recent photo, taken in February to use in an upcoming magazine publication - eeek.

Gratitude #75

Welcome to my monthly Gratitude post. All month long I note little things that make me smile, that me feel gratitude, things that I like or love. Several of us write these posts; you can read more at LeeAnna‘s blog Not Afraid of Color.

 

1. I love dogs. When I was in Alberta at the beginning of May, visiting Brianne and Brady, one of the things Brady requested we do is meet up with my niece, Brianne's cousin, Sheila. She has three little dogs, cute little characters, who love going to the off-leash dog park in Edmonton's River Valley. It is a massage for the soul and spirit there: dogs of all sizes, shapes and ages, running around, just being dogs. Some chase balls, others chase each other, still others just amble or race along behind or in front of their owners. There is a huge field where they can run around, there are trails through forest and bush, and there is the river where they can swim. It's a paradise, and always leaves all four of us, well all seven, counting the three fur mops, just so content and at peace.

Rainbow Neighbourhood House Block #8

First of all Happy Victoria Day! I hope, if you get the holiday, that you get to spend some or all of it doing something you absolutely love. I started my day off with some quiet sewing, finishing up my eighth house, in my favourite colour, blue, while listening to the busy birds, singing, calling and chirping. Ahhh.

If you are making the throw, you will have just one house left to make after this week! If you are making the twin, you have two left along with two heart blocks and some pinwheels.

Rainbow Neighbourhood House Block #7

What fun it was to see all the gorgeous house blocks linked up last week! I am thrilled to see all the creativity just bursting forth in your houses. I love hearing how much fun you are having choosing fabrics, fussy-cutting, even purchasing a bit of special fabrics or colours to incorporate.

I was away all last week visiting Brianne and Brady and friends and family in Alberta, so I did not sew one single stitch. It was a wonderful week! Last week was the halfway point with a linkup and two prizes on offer.

Rainbow Neighbourhood Mid-Point Link Up

Welcome to the halfway point of this year's Quilt Along! It is such a joy to see all the pretty, interesting, unique, themed houses popping up everywhere! By now everyone should have five houses made. If you are making the twin, you also have four large tree blocks made.

Did I mention that there will be a prize chosen for those who link up their five houses? Don't stress if you don't have all five done yet; the linky will be open all week, until midnight Saturday, so you've got time, my friend. Breathe.

Slab Star Quilt Free Pattern

As you know, I’ve inadvertently started a third RSC project this year. This is a great block to use up strips and scraps. In an effort to use up my crumbs and make a dent in my strips (don’t ask how the strips dent is going), I hit upon this lovely large 16” finished Evening Star block. Here is my orange one complete.

I do love looking at these each time I finish one, thinking that I saved all of those bits from the landfill, and I will help keep someone snuggly and warm under the forthcoming quilt.

How do I make these? Let me show you!

Rainbow Neighbourhood House Block #5

We are at the halfway point of making house blocks!

For those of you making the throw, once you have House #5 done, you are more than half way because there are only nine houses to make. For those of you making the twin, you have ten houses to make. This week we aren't making any extra parts for our neighbourhood, so it's an easy week!

From Dawn to Dusk

It is with great pleasure that I present to you, not one but two finished quilts! These qualify for my PHD, Projects Half Done challenge, and this means that every one of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilts I have made since joining in 2015 are complete! 

I made these blocks during the RSC2016 year, using a pattern in Kim Schaefer's Cozy Modern Quilts. It's a great book, and I need to make some more quilts from it!

DrEAMi! #72

Welcome to this month's DrEAMi party, where we celebrate diversions!

My friend Pat @irishsparksareflying sent me this and it is PERFECT to describe a DrEAMi incident!

Gratitude #74

Welcome to another monthly gratitude post. All month long I note little things that make me smile, that me feel gratitude, things that I like or love. Several of us write these posts; you can read more at LeeAnna‘s blog Not Afraid of Color.

1. I love weeping willow trees. They are the last to lose their leaves in fall and one of the early trees to green up.

I love the vast array of flowering trees in this southernmost area of Canada. We are in the Carolinian forest, so trees like magnolias, redbuds, osage orange, hickory, walnut and oak, and many many more, abound.

Rainbow Neighbourhood Quilt Along - House Block 4

Welcome to week 4 of the Quilt Along!

It looks like everyone is finding the house blocks pretty quick to put together and having fun with all the choices to personalize them. Be sure to check out the hashtag pool #RainbowNeighborhoodQAL as well as #RainbowNeighborhoodQuilt to see everyone’s progress. Be sure to use those hashtags when you post your blocks on Instagram and tag me @mmmquilts. 

Rainbow Neighbourhood QAL - House Block 3

Hello, and welcome to week 3 of the Rainbow Neighbourhood QAL. First things first: I have a little surprise for you: last week I invited everyone to link up their first house block, and eight people did. I know there are more people quilting along, and I'm hoping that those who have bought the pattern (five this past week!) will join in too. Well, I recently won 50 fat quarters from The Fabric Nook, and so I am sending one off to Kathleen in Maine! More sharing to come!

All right, let's talk about making a third house.

Purple Projects Post

Purple is the colour for April in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge with Angela at soscrappy. I got my three projects caught up on Thursday and Friday this week.

My first project, and I was only going to do one (best laid plans) is the one from a Quick Quilts magazine. I'm making three blocks in the colour of the month, four for a few months to total 30 blocks for a five by six layout.

I think two of the biggest reasons I love making scrap quilts is for all for the memories the pieces evoke as well as the depth you get with the variety of shades and tones and textures. Within these three blocks I see two QALs: my first, Freefall, and Follow Your Own Path, a Mariner's Compass quilt I made for Dayna, two quilts I designed for a couple of blog hops for Benartex, my time as an Island Batik ambassador, a quilt I made for my mum's 80th...and that doesn't include the history of the black fabrics!

Rainbow Neighbourhood QAL: House Block #2

It's almost like Christmas morning the day this post goes live and I start to see the house blocks being linked up. I'm thrilled by those I've seen so far on Instagram and blogs. It is such a thrill when I turn a design I sketched out on graph paper into real live fabric, but when I see others make my design, it is even more of a thrill. As I noted last week, the pattern has virtually endless possibilities for making it your own unique quilt, and already I've seen 'outside the box/block' thinking! Andrée added a sidewalk to her first block, breaking up the lawn, and Rose has decided to not do various stars on all of her houses...but you may have to wait for a bit to see what she's been up to, that rebel.

Kool Kats Kwilt Finish

It feels so good to have the quilt done, packaged up and on its way to Indiana. It feels even better knowing how excited my customer is to receive it!

You can read how the commission came about here. I dodged rain and wind (the horrible storm that came up from Texas and ransacked eastern Ontario and east into Quebec was just lots of rain and high winds down here. We had our terrible ice storm at the end of February, very very scary when the weight of the ice fells ancient, metre-thick branches and crushes cars.

Rainbow Neighbourhood QAL Official Kick-Off!

And....(drum roll)....welcome!!🎉🎉🎉 to my seventh, yes seventh(!) annual Quilt Along here at mmmquilts. Thank you so much for being here and for those of you participating, a huge virtual hug of gratitude for your time and enthusiasm. As per usual, the QAL starts on a special day, April 3, with the flimsy due on another even more auspicious day, June 15. What's with these special days, you may ask yourself? You've never heard of them? Well, long-time participants well know, and probably mark their calendars as my dad did, for the June 15 date for sure. However, if you are new, allow me to explain before I give you your homework for the week!

Kool Kats Quilt and RSC Update

A few weeks ago I had a message through my Etsy shop telling me she was interested in the cats quilt I had for sale but would I be able to make a throw, and in softer colours? We chatted back and forth, and I got the go-ahead for this commission. I was such fun to paw through (see what I did there) my bountiful collection of fabrics to give her lots (in retrospect, too many, but I wanted her to be completely happy) of choices for her cats. She was pretty specific in her colours and motifs, and probably as strong and vocally so in her intense dislike of anything remotely teal or turquoise, as my mother was with blue. I am happy to share the finished top!

Gratitude #73

Hello, and welcome to my monthly post of things I've noticed the past month for which I'm grateful. I also note simple things I just like or love. You can find more of these uplifting posts at LeeAnna's blog, Not Afraid of Color.

1. I like no, I love animal sanctuaries. They do so much good. One that I particularly enjoy is @totes.the.goat on Instagram. They are Black Goat Farm Sanctuary in the Hamilton, Ontario area. The photos of little blind lamb Paisley’s "first adventure outside" enjoying the warm spring sun was a much-needed boost to my heart today.

Rainbow Neighbourhood Quilt Along: Schedule and Sponsors

Welcome to the seventh annual quilt along here at mmmquilts! I am so glad you are here, and I do hope you will join in with us for yet another year of fun sewing and prizes galore! If you are new to the blog, welcome! I hope you'll peruse the tabs up top, check out some of the activities and makes of mine. Be sure to follow me (see the follow it buttons for the blog and Instagram on my sidebar) to be notified of new posts over the next few months of the quilt along.

This is the main page where you will find the schedule and sponsors of the QAL. If you are participating, be sure to grab the graphic below and paste it on your sidebar or in your Instagram feed, on Pinterest, wherever you are on social media! I thank you for spreading the word.

Here is the html code:

<div style="width:100%;text-align:center;"><span style='margin:5px;padding:5px;border-radius: 5px;border:1px solid lightgrey;display:inline-block;'><a  rel=_nofollow href='https://www.mmmquilts.com/2023/03/rainbow-neighbourhood-quilt-along.html'>           <img style='border: 1px solid gray;width:200px;height:200px;' src='https://www.homesewnbyus.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/03/Rainbow_Neighbourhood_QAL.png' alt='mmmQuilts'></a></span></div>

Just copy and paste that code into your sidebar on your blog and when others see it, they'll be bounced here where all the information is! Thank you so much Roseanne of Home Sewn by Us for offering to code the graphic for me. The way I used to do it doesn't work...

What quilt are we making this year?

Rainbow Neighbourhood!

You have two options, a throw that uses just the houses, and a twin. This one is the twin size made by my lovely and soooo very much appreciated pattern tester, Michelle in Scotland. This is option number one, ten houses with some setting blocks of trees, flowers and hearts.

DrEAMi #71

Welcome to another Drop Everything And Make it! post, where we celebrate those projects that distract us from our 'supposed-to-be-making' projects, aka as squirrels. We've all been bitten/smitten with a project we see somewhere, be it online, at a guild meeting, in a magazine, and we stop sewing our current project because we 

just

have

to make

this thing

right

NOW!

I don't know about you, but these things usually hit me at the worst of times. I'm making a quilt for a reason, a person, and wham! out of left field comes this attractive bauble. Quilter ADD I also call it.

Project Quilting 14.6 Conquer a Fear

After quilting for some 25 years, there isn't anything in quilting that I fear. Avoid/hesitate? Yes. As in life, there are certain things we love to do, and certain things we ... do not! Over the course of the first couple of days following the release of the challenge, an idea was forming, to symbolize fear in a mini quilt, from the debilitating 'darkness' of feeling fear to the release, the blossoming and lightness that happens when you work through it and have such a sense of accomplishment. I wish I'd had more time. I had another deadline, the SAHRR, and so I devoted the majority of my week to that, since Cuba had 'robbed me' 😉 of a week's work on it. In the end, I pulled this together in a few hours. I do love it, and have used it every day since Sunday!

This is my new favourite mug rug.

Wild and Wonderful SAHRR Quilt

It's been some time since I wrote a post; I really didn't intend to take more than three weeks off blogging. Hope you check in on me on Instagram because I do post fairly regularly there. If you don't, I'll catch you up with Rounds 5 and 6 for the SAHRR, as well as what I was up to during one of the weeks:

Looks fake doesn’t it, but I assure you it is real, taken with my iPhone, and not photoshopped or colour enhanced.

Ahh, as on our previous two trips to the idyllic island of Cuba, I found several sources of inspiration for colour and design. It felt good to do something normal as well, though I did and will always wear an N95 mask on an airplane. All was well, and we've returned healthy and didn't catch anything, but that is thanks to masking on the airplane and in close quarters in the airports, as well as lots of outdoor time, even eating en plein air, which I love any day!

DrEAMi #70

Well typing that number, 70, gave me a bit of a pause. Wow. So I looked back to see just when I started this linky party where we celebrate everything squirrel and shiny and distracting...

January 28, 2017

Six years ago! Somehow it seems longer than that. Not only was it the first DrEAMi, but apparently it was the first time I hosted a linkup! Here is a graphic I used in that post that I just love.

The DrEAMi I talked about in that first post was none other than my house pattern, (see sidebar) which became a cushion cover. If you want to take a little peek back at that post, click here.

Gratitude #72

As I write this, I am grateful for my snug house. It is blowing and raining something fierce, and has been nasty almost all day. We had freezing rain and then tiny snow pellets, then more freezing rain mixed with regular rain. The trees looked like something out of Frozen, encased in ice. The power has been flickering and a fire engine made its way down the lane behind us, lights flashing but no sirens. We think maybe a tree or a large branch fell on a power line. Again, I ask myself, why when they upgrade the power poles, which they have been doing over the past several years, do they not just use that money for the new poles, and bury the damn lines. It's not like it's hard digging here; it's sand. We used to be an ocean bed.

Yay for hardy, early spring flowers, like winter aconite that has been blooming for a week now. I am also grateful for the snowdrops I spied at the beginning of this week. They really give a person's spirits a lift.

PQ 14.4 A Novel Project

The past week's challenge was to make a quilt inspired by a book. Those of you who are regular followers know that I am an avid and a lifelong reader; I was an English as well as French teacher as well for 30 years. So it was too hard to choose one book; like Trish I could ream off 50 favourites, some of those favourites read within the past year, like The Dictionary of Lost Words, or Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, or The Golem and the Jinni finished just three days ago. So I based my project on a series, the Outlander books, though as you'll see, it's really so much more than these beloved books by Diana Gabaldon, every one of which I have, including The Outlandish Companion!

The Calanais Standing Stones are in the Outer Hebrides on the Isle of Lewis. My mini is based on a photograph from Historic Environment Scotland. Calanais Standing Stones is another very informative site with more photos of these magical 5000-year-old stones.

SAHRR Round 3

This week's directive for the round was hourglass blocks. I like making them: make two HSTs, put them back together with opposite values touching, sew either side of the diagonal once again, cut apart, press and voilà! two QSTs aka hourglass blocks. Once again, however, I just didn't know how to incorporate them around my quilt. I first thought of doing them tipsy, to keep on with the whimsical theme, by adding half of a rectangle to either side. Somehow it didn't gel. So I did my RSC homework instead and let my back-brain stew. I'm not sure what inspired me to come up with a double-fade: fade in size and value, that is, but by Saturday afternoon (finally - three days of sewing, okay and real life too, later) I had it together.

Rainbow Scraps Challenge Progress

It's going to be one of those years. By that I mean, a year where unplanned projects keep insisting they get attention. I started out with one RSC project, and as of about a week or so ago, I find myself with three. I am keeping up with each one in a timely manner. So far.

This is the first one, from Quick Quilts magazine. Last month I made four in dark and bright blue. I’m planning to have 30 blocks set 5 x 6 for a 50” x 60” quilt. It will be a donation quilt. Some months will have three blocks, some will have four in the colour of the month. 

SAHRR Round 2 and PHD Update

So far this year, every one of the three Project Quilting challenges have been a snap, as in I know exactly what I'm going to do, and I actually stick to it, and they are all done in time. Not so with the Stay At Home Round Robin! It has been a challenge, but in a good way giving my brain some robust exercise, both in the creativity as well as the calculations departments. However, as of Saturday night, her is my round 2 complete. 

I actually did take a couple of in-progress photos so you can see how I arrived here. Thanks to Gail of QuiltingGail, for hosting this as well as the PHD programme.

Project Quilting 14.3 54-40 or Fight

I liked this third challenge, and, true to form this year (so weird), I knew right away that I would make the block fairly large, maybe even just one giant one, to make a baby quilt. I've called it 'Las Flores' thanks to the name of the green floral.

Thanks to Trish @quiltchicken for dreaming up the challenges, and to Kim of kimlapacek.com for hosting and organizing etc. This has been such a good jumpstart to my creativity each year!