Kindred Spirits

Kindred spirits, the name of my Sewcial Bee Sampler is done! This is a Quilt Along designed and hosted by Sharon Holland and Maureen Cracknell that started in the summer of 2017. I started the blocks about six months later when my friend Tish @tishnwonderland asked if I'd like to make them with her and her husband We made the first blocks on January 1, 2018.

I never realized until after I was cropping this photo, how perfect the bed of orange leaves are under the quilt!

 

We made a few over the next few months, sewing 'together' sometimes texting as we sewed, sometimes FaceTiming. Tish lives in West Virginia, and I am in Ontario. We first met in a New Quilt Bloggers group back in 2015, but we have met up in real life a few times. She's most definitely a kindred spirit: love of quilting, love of free-motion quilting especially, love of pibbles (at the time she had two pitties, brothers, and I had one, Rocco), a love of nature, and reading, and more.

I took these two photos in a favourite place near my house, Kennedy Woods. This first area by the parking lot is called The Sugar Bush because of these massive sugar maples throughout it.

Gratitude and Glimmers #101

Welcome to my post of glimmers (of joy and wonder) and gratitude for the month of November. You can find links to more posts like this one at LeeAnna's blog, Not Afraid of Color.

I would maintain that thanks are the highest form of thought, and that gratitude is happiness doubled by wonder.

—Gilbert Keith Chesterton

English author, philosopher

Creator of the character Father Brown

1. The sky a couple of days ago at sunset caught my eye and never mind gave me a glimmer; it set my heart on fire! This is without any kind of filter, and it still does not do it justice how jaw-dropping vibrant the colours were. If only I had taken my phone out with me when I first stepped onto the back deck to look up--a big flock of Canada geese were flying over at that very moment , silhouetted against this fiery backdrop. By the time I ran back into the kitchen to grab my phone, they were over the next street away.

I posted it to Instagram the next day, and an even better shot was sent to me by my friend Mieke who lives right on Lake Erie's shore. We live about ten houses up. Look at this:

Looking southwest over the lake; used with permission.

I asked her if these magical sunsets are because the sun is lower at this time of year, and she said she thinks that's part of it but also because of the evaporation from the lake, there are a lot more clouds. This reminded me of a comment from the caption of the catamaran we were on in Key West years ago, a sunset cruise. When clouds were building up and everyone was starting to get disappointed, he said that sunsets are actually better when there is cloud because the light bounces off them. I think a quilt shot might have to happen here, and Mieke has said to walk on over anytime!

A Bag Lady That’s Me

I’ve been a bit quiet this month but my sewing machine has not. My two best customers, now two people whom I consider friends since we've been texting back and forth over the past several months (Lana) and couple of months (Audrey) have made sure of that!

Knitting Project Bag

Lana put in two more requests for when we'd returned from our Maritimes trip. One was a cat bag for a good friend of hers, small size (the usual makeup bags I've been selling for many years), and the other was a surprise bag for herself. I had free rein to choose fabrics and colours, knowing now what she likes; the only stipulation was the size, the 'tall small bag', sizing phrase as determined by her! Instead of my usual SandraJaneQuilts label, I sewed onto the bag side a piece of the selvage from this fabric, most fitting for a bag that will hold beautiful knitted projects.

I'm Screaming!

I actually dropped my phone on Monday morning when I saw who ordered a mug cosy from me on Sunday night. An author. A Canadian author who is "renowned as one of the trailblazers of the modern fantasy genre" (from his site). One of my absolute favourite fantasy authors whose books I've read and loved and owned since 1995. None other than Charles de Lint!!

So ya, I was screaming, and I still am. He ordered this mug cosy:

Made in February

My first thought was, Maybe there's another Charles de Lint. Checked the address. Ottawa. Nope. Second thought, He cannot pay; I'll refund him, but then I thought well, I do have to mail it, and my time is worth something, and I have bought his books because I believe in supporting artists of all mediums. So I had the idea to make him a matching coaster! Did I still have any of the butterfly fabric left? It had only been a fat quarter... I did: a 5" square coaster would work!

Gratitude and Glimmers #100

Holy moly! One hundred gratitude posts (brain emoji). My first one is here, written on May 8, 2014. This was before it was a 'thing', and it was an idea I'd had all on my own. I like, no I love that I have done this for so long. I keep thinking that each year I should print the twelve posts I write and put them into a booklet... There, I've put it in writing, so I will investigate!

A grateful heart

is a magnet for miracles.

--Unkown

Welcome to my post of glimmers (of joy and wonder) and gratitude for the month of October. You can find links to more posts like this one at LeeAnna's blog, Not Afraid of Color.

1a. I've been often in the "I hate humans" mode because of Gaza, of world leaders' NOT doing their job, of the rampant destruction of our planet, because of greed, and of the pervasive negativity... However, our recent Maritimes trip had me several times thinking how much I love humans, and how no matter what province we are from, we have common ground on many levels.

Cavendish Beach PE

At one charging station in Quebec, we couldn't get our Chargepoint user card to work in the Circuit Éléctrique charger. These Quebec chargers do not accept credit cards either, something that we think needs to change, as other networks do this as well. A gentleman came up to us and asked, "Y a-ti-il un problème?" to which I responded, "Notre carte ne marche pas; la machine ne l'accepte pas." and then he continued in English and when he couldn't get it to accept our card, he said, "I can do something else..." He did something on his phone, held it to the card reader, and voilà! Charging started. When we realized he had prepaid for a charge, I said I had cash and turned to the car to get it but he stopped me, saying no it's just fine, not to worry, and off he went! It got us to 75%. MacGyver figured out that the balance on the Chargepoint card, which is a prepaid system, had gone below $5 and he hadn't realized it to reload it. All went well after that learning moment. But what a kind human.

Groovy Ghosties

I’ve got a cute wallhanging finish today. 

This is from Michelle Lander Cain’s new book Not Your Typical Jellyroll Quilts. She has been hosting a quilt along on her blog From Bolt to Beauty using the Five Little Ghosts table runner from her book. You can make the runner or an entire quilt (she has a free PDF for how to extend the pattern). I thought the little ghosts in the quilt on pastels was so cute that I couldn’t resist making just one block. 

Cheerio!

I have a finish on a Friday! Here is Cheerio!, a collaborative effort between my friend Cathy and me. 

Hot off the ... sewing machine last night!

Isn’t it just so bright and cheery? Cheerio! was the original name of this design which I did for Island Batik quite a few years ago. When I released the pattern, I renamed it Sunset Strip, because the batiks I used evoked colours of the sunset. This quilt now, it’s definitely got a Cheerio! vibe: a common salutation in England, an ‘o’ shaped cereal, and of course, this cheery quilt. The pattern is available in my Etsy Shop. It has two sizes, this baby quilt size and a throw.

Sewcial Bee Sampler Blocks

Like an itch you just have to scratch, I continued making the rest of the 25 blocks for the 2017 Sewcial Bee Sampler. I knew that if I started focusing on the next pattern I plan to release, the stack of blocks might get put back in the cupboard and I really didn’t want that. Here are the last nine blocks I made since I pulled this UFO project out last week. The first two were in a previous post, and all been shown on Instagram.

Top row: Block 17 Spools and Block 18 Square Peg; Bottom: Block 19 Circle of Friends and Block 20 Irish Chain Variation

This quilt along was hosted by Sharon Holland and Maureen Cracknell, both designers for Art Gallery Fabrics. It was the first one they did. 

Tropical Twist

May I present my first finish of October. Tropical Twist is done and ready to be listed in my Etsy shop.

A bit of a tropical setting sets off the vibrant colours of the batik fabrics in this quilt. It feels so good to get a pretty stack of batik fat quarters off the shelf and into a quilt. 

Back in my Sewing Room

Do you find that after you've been away for a week or two, it's hard to get back into the swing of sewing unless you've left mid-project? I had everything tied up before we left other than quilting the Tropical Puzzle quilt. That entailed sewing the backing yardage, so that is the first thing I did. I have the perfect backing, a Wilmington Fabrics piece I'd picked up in the clearance section of Sew Sisters about... eight years ago, knowing it would be a great back somewhere.

This quilt is it. Here is the first little bit. I saw a cool pantograph in an older quilting magazine on a Christmas quilt that I quite liked and thought I could probably free-motion. It doesn't look too much like the panto, other than big swirls, in continuous S shapes, but I'm liking it and I think it's perfect with the tropical theme: swirling winds through palm trees. I'm using Hobbs 100% wool with Connecting Threads 50 wt cotton in Sky, love.

A Maritimes AdvEVenture Part 5

The last leg of our trip was spending two days in Halifax. 

Fishermen's Cove Dartmouth

Fishermen’s Cove is an adorable little spot near the mouth of the Halifax Harbour, a beautifully restored fishing village. Unfortunately MacGyver and I did not communicate properly and he took us there first thing on Sunday morning when they weren’t open until noon (autumn hours). He is Mr. Efficient when it comes to planning a route, which I totally appreciate, because I am the same. However, checking business hours for shopping is not high up on his list of priorities. Still, there was a silver lining to my disappointment at not finding something unique and handmade to take home: the lack of people meant that I got a couple of pretty sweet photos of a quilt that’s going into Make Modern next spring!

A Maritimes AdvEVenture Part 4

From Ingonish we headed on to Chéticamp on the Cabot Trail, hoping to do the world famous Skyline Trail that day, but if not, then the following morning. The parking lot fills up fast, and when it does, they close the trail, and the fines are very substantial if you park on the road and walk in. Once 30 or so vehicles depart, then they will reopen the lot. However, this first window for us happened to be a pretty cool day (high of 13-15) within a cluster of gorgeous warm (low 20s) days, so when we arrived at around 11:30, there was plenty of parking to be had! Before we arrived we made a few stops.

Green Cove

Colour and texture, bracing wind and powerful pulsing surf, a mesmerizing cocktail.

A Maritimes AdvEVenture Part 3

When planning the Cape Breton section of our Maritimes trip, MacGyver confessed he was a little anxious about the charging infrastructure as it's pretty remote. Never did we think we'd be more concerned with the charging of the human body infrastructure!

Now if a human could live on the non-stop feast that was before our eyes over the past two and a half days, then we'd each have been stuffed to the gills. My heart was aching almost 24/7 with the utter splendour.

Ocean view at the top of the 23-storey high Freshwater Lake Look-off Hike

A Maritimes AdvEVenture Part 2

We love to go a bit off the beaten track, so to speak, when we travel, opting for secondary highways as opposed to major ones. This gets us more in touch with the real landscape as opposed to the manicured, everything-looks-the-same landscape of highways/motorways/interstates. These lower speed limits are where EVs really shine. Because we are going at speeds around 80-90 kph as opposed to 110 on the major highway, the car goes through less energy. It’s also in the automatic mode where it’s learning the driving habits so it maximizes energy use in that way too. Remember in one of my W-EVnesday posts where I wrote that my husband said it’s basically a smart phone on wheels? A great analogy. 

The colours of fall continue to mesmerize me

This is Highway 6 in Nova Scotia, a little bit west of Pictou. 

A Maritimes AdvEVnture

Other than my Gratitude and Glimmers posts, I haven’t really mused much of late. I never wanted this blog to be only about quilting, but have it be a place to share bits of my life and thoughts in my brain. I started this blog 12 years ago this month so it seems fitting I should post a little bit about goings-on which, as you can see by the title, is currently a trip.

Yes, that is Three Pines, and yes, that is Knowlton, hometown of Louise Penny, and yes, we stayed the first night just outside of Knowlton in Lac Brôme Hotel (highly recommend).

Three Pines is really a state of mind. It’s where we live when we choose to be kind.”

Gratitude and Glimmers #99

Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life. It turns what we have into enough, and more. It turns denial into acceptance, chaos to order, confusion to clarity. It can turn a meal into a feast, a house into a home, a stranger into a friend.

—Melody Beattie

Welcome to my post of glimmers (of joy and wonder) and gratitude for the month of September. You can find links to more posts like this one at LeeAnna's blog, Not Afraid of Color.

1. J’adore la belle province de Québec. Nous sommes à Lac Brôme ce matin, tout près de Knowlton…some of you know the significance of this sweet village in this jaw-dropping beautiful part of Québec which is about an hour south of Montréal. More on what exactly I’m doing here in a few subsequent posts, but know it’s a big trip! Ahhh, j’adore l’automne.

Tropical Puzzle and More Project Bags

This is or was one of my USOs—UnStarted Objects, a set of fat quarters with the pattern included, that I picked up for a great price at Craftsy several years back. They sure had some amazing deals didn’t they? Between making a few more project bags for my returning bag-obsessed customer (I’m totally okay with this--love her--as I’ve now made one for the shop and have plans to make one for myself)  I have the flimsy finished. 

Spot the Rottie body photo-bombing! I could’ve cropped it, but he’s too cute. 

I don’t have a destination for this yet but I do have a backing fabric. Therefore it will get quilted shortly so it doesn’t become a UFO. I tend not to have a ‘waiting to be quilted’ pile.

Cool Cascade

My second of two RSC projects is done!

It lives up to its name there, cascading down the front step in the evening sun! Note: new porch railings and columns. MacGyver has outdone himself, and yes, I'll show before and after once it's complete.

A Project Bag Commission

You may recall the custom project bag I made for one of my repeat Etsy customers back at the beginning of August. Well, she emailed me asking if I would make a set of four custom bags for her! They hold her ongoing knitting and crocheting projects, and I may just have to make a couple of these since our collaboration!

O Canada Placemats

Another item on my long list of USOs (UnStarted Objects) is a set of placemats. I am happy to report that I finished them up yesterday!

Why it’s taken me this long to make these I do not know…shame on me.

Rainbow Scrap Challenge Quilt Finish

I am happy to present my first RSC quilt, now finished and ready for a new home. Every year since 2015 I’ve participated in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge with Angela at So Scrappy. I’ve made one, two or sometimes even three projects with scraps, a few I’ve kept, but most I’ve given away as comfort quilts. This one will be donated somewhere I think. 

Rainbow Scrappy Churn Dash

This quilt, you may recall, is another where I built small slabs with crumbs and then cut them into HSTs or rectangles. 

Gratitude and Glimmers #98

The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our sense to grow sharper.

--W. B. Yeats

Welcome to my post of glimmers (of joy and wonder) and gratitude for the month of August. It is a week late, partly due to Brady being here for nine days, and partly due to a commission of four project bags. You can find links to more posts like this one at LeeAnna's blog, Not Afraid of Color.

1. If you follow me on Instagram, you will know that caterpillars and butterflies have captivated me this month. Last year we intentionally bought several perennials and annuals that are good for pollinators, and boy have we been rewarded. I've had monarchs, pipevine swallowtails (the black one with iridescent blue and orange and white markings), gigantic yellow swallowtails, a hummingbird moth and Mason wasps, to name the prettiest ones.

You can see several little videoclips on my Instagram, @mmmquilts.

Rainbow Scrap Challenge Quilt 1

After I posted my turquoise block on Instagram on the weekend, and then a photo of the layout on my design wall of all eight blocks, it started an itch that had to be scratched.

Annoyingly, the HSTs do not have their strips oriented all the same way, because I forgot to pay attention to which diagonal I needed to cut on, but then I remembered something Angela Walters said in a course I took with her, "If you make a mistake, repeat it, and it becomes a design element!" So I'm calling this and its yellow friend a design element.😇

This is the third unicorn centre. I love them. It’s a Benartex Fabrics print by Ann Lauer that I used during my Follow Your Own Path quilt along in 2021 to make ‘Be A Unicorn’.

Suburbia

I am pleased to present another finish, one that's been on the stack of USOs for quite some time! USOs are what I call Un-Started Objects, those kits or chunks or bundles of fabrics one gathers with pattern for a quilt you intend to make almost right away...except that 'right away' doesn't happen because other projects, be they must-do's or squirrels or quilt alongs or guild activities, or quilt courses and so on and so forth, get in the way. I have rather a few USOs, ahem. This, however, is no longer one of them!

This was a bundle of fat quarters with accompanying pattern from I believe bluprint, who took over from Craftsy. 

A Flimsy, a Fun Fabrication and a Flag

First of all the flimsy. This is a fat quarter bundle I picked up years ago from Bluprint or perhaps still Craftsy when I bought this. It came with the pattern which is called Suburbia by Cozy Quilts. Gorgeous fabrics and a design that showcases them so well. 

It’s big: 58.5" x 60". I took my time and used my design wall throughout the entire process, working across the quilt with the 17 fabrics to evenly distribute colours and lights and darks. I just need to settle on a backing and then get it loaded and quilted. I'm thinking large meander as I want the fabrics to take centre stage. I have two, make that three, (I just remembered the Gravity kit--why have I waited so long on that?) other Craftsy/Bluprint quilt kits and one tote bag kit to check off my UFO, or rather, USO, list. That's not counting various other USOs and a couple of UFOs, so don't think I only have four items!

Tinker Toys Pattern Release

Yay! Finally, after two long years, I can publish my Tinker Toys design that was in the August 2023 issue of Love of Quilting. I honestly do think that is an exorbitant amount of time to not own the rights to my own design, but, sniff! and hmph! I have not submitted another to them since! You may recall that last fall I did get permission to publish a throw size of the quilt, with my own instructions (they changed them slightly in the magazine) and in a completely different colour scheme. Well, now the baby quilt, throw, and even a cushion cover are all in one pattern. And oh yes, it's on sale all August long weekend!

This perfect spot for a photo, or even a sit😊, which many people do, is the front of The Grove Hotel on Main Street in Kingsville. It's a beautiful old hotel, totally renovated, built in 1854. I think they should have a couple of quilts on those rocking chairs! Might have to approach them...

Gratitude and Glimmers #97

Welcome to my post for the month of all things I like and for which I am grateful. You can find links to more posts like this one at LeeAnna's blog, Not Afraid of Color.

July has been a slow month for stitching and blogging. I have taken it off the past few years and, although I didn’t make it official this year, I did tend to step back a bit. Here we are though, the last Thursday in the month, so I thought I’d pop in with a few little glimmers that have brightened my day over the past month.

1. July 1, Canada Day, saw MacGyver and me at Seacliff amphitheatre for the first of the summer free concerts lineup put on by the town of Leamington and sponsored by a few businesses. This was Forever Seger, a Canadian tribute band out of Toronto who absolutely nailed the Bob Seger band’s sound; MacGyver commented that the female sax player was better than Bob’s! We saw the real Bob in Detroit a few years ago. 

Since that night we’ve seen another Canadian tribute band, Brass Transit, a tribute to the band Chicago. Excellent again. And the Windsor Symphony Orchestra gave an excellent concert this past weekend, playing so many of my favourites. What a venue. I love live music but getting this setting and this quality for free is incredible.

A Little Pick-me-up or Lay-me-down Cushion

This cushion is going to a dear friend who is going through a rough time this summer. Homemade cushions, in my humble opinion, are just the best: quick and satisfying makes, filled with meaning, simply trying out a cool block, and practical. This one ticked all the boxes.

It felt so good to dig through the two piles of Island Batik fabrics in my IKEA Kallax cabinet. Gosh, they were so generous, (I still have lots and lots of leftovers) and wow, their fabrics so divine!

Kismet

After I'd finished my Winter Blues quilt for Project Quilting 16.2. I always wondered if it would work with a jellyroll…and it sure did! It's taken me no less than five quilts (yep, this is number 5!) made in this pattern to finally answer that question! Here is Kismet, and she has quite the story to tell.

Yes, just one jellyroll, well, actually, half of one jellyroll!

Gratitude & Glimmers #96

The more you praise and celebrate your life, the more there is in life to celebrate.

--Oprah Winfrey

Welcome to my post for the month of all things I like and for which I am grateful. You can find links to more posts like this one at LeeAnna's blog, Not Afraid of Color. Glimmers are the little things that give me a frisson, if you will, of joy or happiness or excitement, or all three.

I like going for a walk at the marina in Leamington. This year they have put these life-like rubber statues at a few points. We aren't sure why unless it's a deterrent to the Canada geese, whose poop is, uh, rather large and prolific! Rufus was intrigued. I missed the original encounter where he went nose to nose to investigate this strange dog!

Glowing Hearts - Winners!

Wow! Seventeen quilts made this year, and what absolute beauties. I am truly grateful that each of you took time out to make this quilt. I love seeing all the various spins you put on it as well. To me, a quilt pattern can be made as is, or can be a jumping-off point for your own personal touch.

I am also truly grateful that once again, I have generous sponsors who offer some pretty sweet prizes. Let's see who won!

Garden-Themed Totebag

Last week I mentioned that I'd had another commissioned totebag. Well, it has now been delivered to a very happy customer. She gave me a bit of an idea of what colours based on two makeup bags she'd seen on my Instagram feed, the navy one that was a gift and the black and white one in my shop. So here is where we ended up:

Quite the departure! 

Glowing Hearts QAL - The Parade!

Welcome to the ninth annual Parade of Quilts for my Quilt Along! First of all, I want to pause, as I always do, and think of you, Dad, on this day. You always thought it extra-special when your birthday happened to fall on Father's Day. I miss you still. I know you would love that my Quilt Alongs always end with a parade on your birthday.

I am so excited, as always, to see the lineup! It's such a thrill, and it never gets old, seeing what people do with a design of mine.

Simple Satisfying Sewing

Maybe it's because my heart is aching so for the Palestinians, maybe it's because my throat feels utterly constricted with rage, maybe it's because this world seems so wilfully angry and ignorant, but I've been doing just what the title for this post says: sewing simple, quick, easy, satisfying little makes. You saw the collection of makeup bags in the previous post. Well, I made my orange churn dash block for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge colour of the month,

I'm having fun finding appropriate 5" centres in the colour of each month!

Eight Makeup Bags!

From time to time I seem to go through spurts of making makeup bags. When I recently, as in over the past month, sold five, this was one of those spurts.

Some of these grew out of a need to make room in my 2.5” squares tray, others from a need for a gift, and still others because of sewing leader/enders, or finding a fun zipper I just had to use. 

Gratitude & Glimmers #95

The moments of happiness we enjoy take us by surprise. It is not that we seize them, but that they seize us.

-Ashley Montagu

That was one of the quotes this past week on the Mindfulness Calendar that Dayna gave me a couple of Christmases ago. I think it’s another perfect description of a glimmer, those moments of joy and happiness that surprise and delight us.

Welcome to my post for the month of all things I like and for which I am grateful. You can find links to more posts like this one at LeeAnna's blog, Not Afraid of Color. Glimmers are the little things that give me a frisson if you will, of joy or happiness or excitement or all three.

One was getting this Canada t-shirt (on sale!) from Black Maple Trading, a Canadian company based in Montreal. They have a lot of wonderful designs and I will be back when I can decide which one I want next! I don't mind paying a little more if it is designed and made in Canada.

Rainbow Scrap Challenge Update: Green

Green is the colour for May and oh, how I do love green: the feel of green, the smell of green, how lovely it looks with blue😊, how it is the colour of magic, and how it fills my sewing room windows that look east. My Project #1 is a churn dash block made with crumbs and strips. Each block has a centre 'feature' block, either one image or a special fabric in that month's colour.

I love that green owl fabric. I won it, along with a few other scraps in that line, from Michelle at From Bolt to Beauty in a giveaway she had a couple of years ago. Speaking of Michelle, have you seen that she is now a published author? She’s just released her first book and it sure looks like a good one, Not-Your-Typical Jelly Roll Quilts. 

Glowing Hearts

The last several days have been absolutely dismal so I was able to get my Glowing Hearts quilt finished.

I am so pleased with it!

Glowing Hearts QAL - Quilt Top Assembly

As always, when I first start my Quilt Along, getting to the quilt top assembly stage seems awfully far off. Yet here we are. I have been thoroughly enjoying seeing the variety of glowing strippy heart blocks!

It's time to put our nine blocks together.

Trippy Totes

How's that for a catchy title with a double entendre?! I've taken the tote bags I've made (three from this pattern so far!) with me as a carry-on on the plane, and I use them to hold my yoga stuff for classes I teach. They'd make great grocery or shopping of any kind bags too. Very versatile, with the interlocking plus blocks, and two completely different sides... trippy

Once in a while, well, no, actually rather often, a certain fabric has me all excited with the colour combo, and I use it to curate a bundle from my stash. I did this with these two several months ago, the one above a little over a year ago when I made a baby quilt for one of last year's Project Quilting challenges.

Glowing Hearts QAL - Make Four Hearts on Light Background

Wow, are there some gorgeous heart blocks out there! I know of several more that are in percolating stages, and do not worry, I will show them in a post once they're emailed to me, or tagged at me. And, it just hit me: I will extend the linkup for another week. I have the power, ha, and why not?! Know that we've got lots of time yet before the parade on June 15, so please don't stress.

As always, I am just thrilled to see what you are doing with the quilt design! Some are doing all one background as opposed to two, others are making twelve instead of nine blocks, and still others are adding wider borders... I look at patterns once I've bought them as my jumping off point. Some I sew just as they are designed, while others I change them up to suit my tastes or needs. You do you! We do us!

Love in a Mist

Finishes fast and furious this past week! 😊 Today I have the throw in my newest pattern Winter Blues to show you. It is yet another spin on this (if I may say so myself) wonderful pattern!

The light pink and dark pink magnolias close to the lake are at their finest right now, just jaw-dropping magical. When I walked by this old girl on my morning walk on Thursday I knew it would be a great spot for a glamour shot.

Glowing Hearts QAL - Make Five Heart Blocks

I am happy that the method to make the bottom half of the heart has been so well-received! This week we are going to make the five heart blocks that are on the dark background.

I also think that we should show off our first heart blocks, don't you? There will be a linkup at the end of this post to show one heart block on your dark background (or whatever colour of background you are using). I admit this is also because I am so curious to see the fabrics you've chosen! Two of my yoga students are joining in with this quilt along and I got to see a photo of one block, and wow, I love it as well as what she's doing with the entire quilt!

SAHRR #2 - Aquamarine

The name of this quilt just popped into my head when I was writing down details in my longarm notebook. Upon checking that I did indeed have the colour link correct, I learned that the colours of this gem vary from lighter blue to deeper blue-green, but they all evoke the colours of the sea and sky, which is right up my alley or should I say beach! It's the birthstone for March, and the gemstone brings calmness, clarity, and serenity. It belongs to the mineral beryl. (Note to self for a good name for another blue and green quilt!)

The border is a perfect match; you’d think I planned the colours in the quilt from it! It’s actually a piece I bought many years ago in Alberta for a quilt back when my aunt took me to a quilt shop near Barrhead, which I just found out today is still there, and which my cousin‘s partner frequents! I had about 1.5 metre left, most of which was only half the width of the fabric but I was able to get four 1.5" borders and three of the 4.5 strips I needed for the binding. A few extra joins of half-width of fabric strips easily made enough for the binding with about a fat quarter now left. 

Gratitude and Glimmers #94

Welcome to my post for the month of all things I like and for which I am grateful.  This is out one day after the Thursday usual post time because I didn't want to interfere with this week's instructions for my annual Quilt Along. You can find links to more posts like this one at LeeAnna's blog, Not Afraid of Color. Glimmers are the little things that give me a frisson if you will, of joy or happiness or excitement or all three.

This first one was a definite glimmer when I read it on Instagram.

Glowing Hearts - Tutorial for Lower Heart Section

Are you ready to begin piecing some hearts? I bet you are. If you are like me, you rarely make it through cutting out an entire quilt before you have to pause and “just sew up one block”.😄 However, this week is just half of the heart, the bottom half. It uses a pretty unique way of making it. Remember you can pick up the pattern at SandraJaneQuilts if you want to sew ahead or make the throw. 

*Note that my Gratitude post will be out tomorrow so as not to interfere with the QAL.

Here are the pieces I cut out last Friday for my Glowing Hearts version. The maple leaf is rough cut for now about an eighth of an inch all the way around. I’m using the Crafted Appliqué™️ method for this.