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. 

A Tragedy...with a Silver Lining

Little did I know that when I finally sat down, a year after the fact, to write about this tragic event, the Fort McMurray forest fire of 2016, nicknamed "The Beast", inside of which is a feel-good quilt story, that I'd have experienced a tragic loss in my own life.  My dear friend, Linda, who faithfully reads my blog even though she does not sew a stitch, sent me this story several months ago.  She read it in a publication she gets called "Our Canada".  I kept meaning to write about it, but never did.  Now it's time. Interspersed with the words are the few blocks I've picked away at, more inspiration and awe from strong Canadian women, and Cows.

As I write this, forest fires are again raging, 155 right now in British Columbia, Canada's westernmost province.  It shares a border with the state of Washington, in the USA.  Fires are also now crossing into Alberta, province of my birth, where the bulk of our family lives.  This year the fires are mid-province, right now in Kootenay National Park, west of Calgary.  Last year they were in northern Alberta, forcing one of the largest evacuations in Canadian history, the entire city of Fort McMurray, approximately 88 000 people.  Many people returned to find nothing left; many people have not returned and do not plan to.  This link takes you to a timeline of the events.

Another way to heal: enjoying the peace, serenity and greenery of our very private back yard. Thank you to so many for your kind and caring words on my previous post; if I haven't responded it's because you are a no-reply blogger, and I have no email address for you; please know I thank you from my heart.

I Like/Love #2

Ten Things
1. I really do love Craftsy.  Yes, I'm an affiliate, but I wouldn't promote anything I didn't buy, or really like myself.  I love Angela Walters, no secret there, and her latest video is once again, terrific.  This time she's paper-piecing! And it's her own design.  Here's the video:

I've already downloaded the pattern for Angela's quilt!  I already purchased some Boundless batiks, and can't wait to work with them....I think I know where they may be, hmm...

It's a Mystery

There are a few mysteries in my life of late.  The most recent is unpacking my sewing stuff a few days ago now that we are ensconced in our Florida abode, and pulling out this:

Two stacks of rectangles, one in golds with some oranges and one in reds with some golds.  One was wrapped in the Laurel Burch kitty fabric you see, the other not.  I was looking for the churn dash block pieces I'd cut in early November, and thought these were them, but nope, I cut mainly floral fabrics for those.  And then it hit me, the gradated rectangles inside rectangles I'm doing as project #2 for the RSC 2016!  Still wondering why I don't have a very dark red on black fabric with the red stack, but I do have a few red small pieces in my stash I brought down which could work...

Mystery solved.  Mostly.

The second mystery is just where said churn dash block pieces have gone...

They will be going into the cows quilt which was my RSC 2015 project.  I did find this random stack of floral fabrics, one of which is a hay-type looking one, which leads me to think maybe these are some I'd figured on incorporating...but where are those that I'd already cut??  Back to the RSC 2016 projects, and you can see I've cut the strips and pieces to make the gold whirling star blocks for RSC project #1.  Good thing I'd placed them on top of the red block, between it and project #2 or I'd still be wondering what those skinny strips and low-volume squares were for!  You might also notice that I have since placed a potential dark red with the former mystery rectangles as a possible fit.  Sometimes being super-organized is a big PITA.  I guess having done this 3 weeks ago and not labelling things, plus experiencing a few other 'interesting' life events adds to the confusion, sigh.

Mystery of the missing churn dash block pieces remains unsolved.

You may have gotten a giggle out of seeing Miss Bella's 'moosa-moosa' toy in that photo that Tish sent her last spring, and if you're observant, you'll see a nylabone by the cow blocks...the fur kids are so happy to be back in their southern sewing room.  Their northern one got sold a couple of months ago, and they don't have a new one in place yet, so it's been good to leave that stress and nonsense behind in their opinion.  (might be in mine as well)

This helped assuage some of the stresses we've all been experiencing over the past oh, 4-5 months:

Large bodies of water, like the Gulf, or Lake Erie, soothe my soul in short order

I put the photo below on Instagram the other day; it made me smile to see these sweeties, tree frogs, moved from their ledge last year, on the top of the front entry overhang, to the narrow ledges right on the front door!

Florida welcoming committee!

I'm reading a great book, The Camel Bookmobile by Masha Hamilton right now.  My mum got it for me a few birthdays ago, knowing how much I depended on, and loved our Strathcona County Library Bookmobile for the nearly 25 years we lived on acreages in rural Alberta.  It kind of puts in perspective my own stress (fabric mysteries, hard life for sure there, Sandra) reading about a bookmobile that brings books to nomadic tribes in Kenya, run by an American female librarian alongside an African male librarian.  It takes 3 hours each way, atop a camel to get to Mididima where the nomads have settled for the time being.  I'm getting to know the inhabitants, and see their stresses, rather a tad worse than mine, although not having a permanent home is a tad unsettling, I'll admit right now, ha.  Still, it is showing me what I have known and believed in my heart forever: we are all united in our wish to be in meaningful relationships with each other, to belong, to learn, and to be happy.  It doesn't matter really and truly what our souls, our inner beings are clothed in, and by that I mean skin/hair/eye colour, skeletal or body shape, body shape, social status and so on.

Cheryl's Midnight Mystery from last year is nearing completion.  Bella is helping as usual!

I hope to catch up on Cheryl's Meadow Mystery piecing this weekend, between watching my latest class on Craftsy, Free-Motion Motifs for Classic Blocks, which I hope to review in short order for you.  So far it's excellent, and I've already put into use one of Natalia's early-on tips.

Craftsy is the final mystery, but with a good ending, in this post.  Like many affiliates, I was surprised, and pretty annoyed, when they changed, and not for the better, the commission schedule, like why would you do that to those who help sell your product? It's a mystery, well not much of one: greenbacks, not green tree frogs are the answer here.  You may have noticed I haven't written a lot about current deals or goings-on with them.  However, they listened to their affiliates!  They've reneged on the cutbacks, something I'm, for obvious reasons, pretty impressed with, and happy about.  Another mystery with them is how to find out how many of my patterns have been downloaded; I was hoping to have a celebration of sorts as I had surpassed 2500 downloads on my free pattern, Pocketful of Sunshine.  It is still being downloaded at least once a day, but I no longer get emails when someone 'buys' it.  Weird.

Mystery unsolved.

You've probably by now got the email in your inbox about their Black Friday sale that started yesterday and lasts until Monday, at midnight MST.  (Like wow, that's an extended time, right?!)  This is the lowest price I've seen on classes since I bought my first one in 2013!  All classes $17.99!!  You can check out some of my class reviews here.  Pretty much anything taught by Angela Walters is totally worth it.  I've watched and rewatched them many many times.

As for kits and supplies there is up to 70% off quilting and sewing projects, again the highest reduction I've seen.  Remember I made the Three-Quarter Patch tote earlier this year? 55% off right now.

I use it as my yoga teacher bag 4 times a week and just love it.
This one caught my eye too, and it's 60% off:

Fast and a great price IMHO.
Or what about an entire quilt for about $5 more?! (under $25CA)

These are 52% off and use Tonga Treats batiks.

If you want to treat yourself, then look at this deal on an Alison Glass sun prints quilt! 50% off this beauty:

Oh how I love that quilt!  You get...wait for it...just shy of 18 yards of fabric in this kit!! 17.75 to be exact.  Be still my heart!

All right, off to munch on pizza and watch/listen to/take notes on Natalia's class. :-)  Thanks so much for reading my blog, and for your purchases, if you click through any of the Craftsy links.  I do get a commission on classes AND (yay) kits and supplies. ;-)

Linking up with
Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Pets On Quilts - Bella

Bella is making another appearance in the Pets On Quilts party at Lilypad Quilting.  She is in the Cats on Quilts category.  If you like what you see/read about in this post, click the link to 'like' Bella (she is #30).  There are lots of fabulous prizes to be won, four more days to enter your own fur kid, at which time voting will begin!  This is, as I said in yesterday's post, probably my absolute favourite linky party going.  My three fur kids are a major part of my life. Period. Of the three, Bella has probably the biggest influence in my quilting/sewing life.

This is not photo-shopped; her eyes are that blue; she's sporting a bandana made just for her by a sweet friend

She is a part of every quilt, from birth to final finish.  This year the two of us have been pretty busy creating quilts.

Planning

She often tries to steer my pencil as I sketch out a possible design, be it block, layout or FMQ.

Choosing Fabric

 Cutting

Measuring

When I question whether I have block sections sewn to the correct size, she willingly lies her furry body down to help measure.  On the left, she is measuring the hypotenuse of one of the Triangle Transparency by Quilting Jet Girl blocks for Radiance, and on the right, making sure the flying geese unit will fit the centre square from a Henry Glass 'Better at the Lake' fabric.  We were chosen as the June designer of the month.

Appliquéing

She parks her butt on freshly appliquéd blocks, helping to secure the layers.

Much to her exasperation, she was removed (more than once) from said appliquéd block

Piecing

Bird's eye (or cat's eye?!) view

Checking that 1/4" seam

Chain-piecing

Even FaceTiming!

Tish on the iPad

Looking after you:

Stretching

Balancing

Back in May, the early days after Rocco's knee surgery

We both firmly believe in the importance of exercising and stretching to ease those stiff joints and aching muscles, and to work out knots from long hours sewing, or sitting too long at the computer writing up a post!  Check out the Sunday Stretch for Sewists tab up top for lots more moves to keep your body limber!

Bananasana....it's a real Yin Yoga pose!

Make sure you bend to both left and right!

Labelling

Writing is blurred out for privacy

Basting and Quilting

and let us not forget...

Cleaning

Machine Maintenance with Bella

And finally, 

Enjoying

On her very own cat quilt

This past year saw her work with wool, both knitting and appliqué

She quite liked it!

And of course she helps out with...

Writing posts 

this very one, as a matter of fact!

She knows how to get my attention, tapping me if I'm spending too much time on the iPhone or on the laptop

Pattern Writing!

We did it this year!  And she helped...

This is Sunny Days; you also get the pattern for Blue Skies, both on sale for $5 right now in my Craftsy store. Both quilts are for sale in my Etsy shop.

Calling me

to leave my sewing when it's time to eat

And it's time to go now!  Tea and treats time!

Treats?!

I believe I just have to give one of the Blueberry Park fat quarter stacks a home.  At CA$57,  US$44, (50% off), that is a pretty sweet treat.  There are many many more, but don't be like me, and put them in your cart and 'think about it' (aka forget)....only to find they disappear because they are no longer available, waaah, or you remember about them on Monday and the sale is over...waaaah again. Might have personal experience there.

As always I thank you SO MUCH if you click through to Craftsy on my links in this post or on the sidebar.  I do get a small commission on sales and on classes; if you are interested in how to become an affiliate yourself, shoot me an email.  And always remember, if you don't buy through me, that is fine, but please choose a favourite blogger to buy through since we are the ones who help spread the word.  I would not endorse anything I haven't used or bought and I have been very very pleased with every single thing I have got, supplies and fabric and classes-wise from them.  They also have excellent customer service.  :-)

Remember you have 4 more days to enter into Pets On Quilts. Voting begins August 25!

Linking up with
Confessions of a Fabric Addict
Lilypad Quilting

Craftsy Baby Tote Bag

I really enjoyed making and reviewing the Three-Quarter Patch Tote for Craftsy last month.  That post is here.  Add that to wanting to make a gift for my preggers yoga teacher here in Sarasota, and I knew that that would be a great gift.  Add that to one of the fabulous fat quarter bundles Craftsy puts together at terrific prices, and I had a perfect gift.

Somehow I must have known Liana was going to have a baby girl.  I picked up this bundle of Michael Miller Sweet Baby pinks and yellows at a steal of a deal in early January from Craftsy.  I knew it would grow up into a quilt; little did I know it would actually grow up into a bag first!

We All Love Deals

I do especially.  I love saving money.  I love getting new fabric.  Happy dance when those three come together!  However, I am thinking it may be time to do an intervention on me...  Well, maybe after this weekend.  Craftsy is having a huge Winter Clearance Sale on their project kits and supplies.  So good, (an extra 20% off existing clearance prices!!) that I am interrupting my WIP, which I'd hoped to have finished for today but fabric shopping has put a dent in my sewing time! Drat. ;-)

Swoon Mini

This is my OMG (One Monthly Goal) if you didn't recall, so I am under the gun to get it done in time.  However.

Priorities
As my friend Pat pointed out, I am being an enabler.  As a bona fide enablee (that is a term, I am sure, lol) I feel it is my duty and my privilege to invite others to join me in my pursuit of fabric.  Bahaha.   This week in my life:
JoAnn's (no affiliation) had a 60% off coupon, which I took advantage of yesterday on Warm 'n White batting.  Happy dance!!  Fat Quarter Shop (again, no affiliation) had a terrific deal on one of their 24-Hour Flash Sales this past week.  Pink Castle Fabrics Monthly Club (my Christmas present from MacGyver, no affiliation) sent the second of my 3-month installments and I whooped for joy when I opened my bundle of Avant Garde!!!!  See? I spread my love around.  This weekend, however, my love (read moola) is headed full tilt boogie over to Craftsy.

I might have already loaded a few items into my cart.

Below you see some of the great bundles I've bought in the fairly recent past on Craftsy.  These often work out to $1-2-ish per fat quarter Canadian dollars.  I figure $7-8/yard CA is pretty awesome; $5-6US about the same.

The top two are both Windham Fabrics bundles, and the bottom is Robert Kaufman

You may recall the ten 1-yard cuts bundle I bought and made into a lap quilt using a 2.5" strip off each fabric plus some Kona Snow:

You can read more about this quilt and other Craftsy goodies here

There are excellent deals such as these and more to be had, quilt kits and totes among them.  Take a look:

Many of us quilters also do other hand work.  I knit.  Here is just one of the kits on sale:

Linea shawl

I haven't had a knitting project on the go in some time, so I'll be snagging something that's for sure.  You all know by now how much I love and have talked about Craftsy, from before I was an affiliate even.  This post does contain affiliate links, so I do get some commission on any purchases made through them. As always, thank you in advance. :-)

Once I'm done placing my order, and if I can just keep Bella off my Swoon mini,

as well as from running from one end of the house to nearly the other trailing the thread I'm using to quilt it, I may just accomplish my One Monthly Goal.  There are a few of us in on this Swoon Mini quilt along; you can check out Tish's finish here.

Linking up with Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

And the Winners Are...

We heard from Melissa of Craftsy this morning. Drum roll please!  Congratulations to the following three lucky winners:
A free class of her choice:  tahoe34523559

A free class of her choice:   dmac5958

The winner of the fantabulous grand prize, all this yummy loot:  bmichelbr8489760

What's that? You'd like to get your hands on some of those rich colours from Boundless? Click the photo or click here.  They're on for 20% off right now.

Again, thank you to those of you who read the reviews, who popped over to Craftsy and took advantage of the half-price classes available, and most of all thank you to our fabulous group of 10 bloggers who agreed to write review posts for the first hop that Julie and I hosted.  I've included a link to their home page, so you can see what they're up to since the hop. Talent abounds below:
Judy at Quilt Paradigm
Helen at Midget Gem Quilts
Cindy at Stitchin At Home
Vicki at Vicki's Crafts and Quilting
Zenia at A Quilted Passion
Jayne at Twiggy and Opal
Tish at Tish's Adventures in Wonderland
Anja at Anja Quilts
Beth at Cooking Up Quilts
Preeti at Sew Preeti Quilts
It was a great time, and I know I myself learned a few new things!  If you missed anything or everything, but want to read some great reviews of classes, fabrics and patterns, click the heart on my sidebar and you will be taken to the schedule where you can visit each blog.  Personal endorsement of a product speaks volumes, right?

Now, speaking of Boundless solids, and fabulous fabrics, I spied this delicious collection, Home Sweet Home, on the weekend (and no! I actually did not buy it):

I thought, what is it about this fabric that really grabs me?  Realizing it might be the colour range, I decided to plug in the picture to Palette Builder 2.1

These are the matching Moda Bella Solids.  Wow, who'd've thunk it, right? Don't think I'd have put those together if I'd been starting from scratch.  But I do like them!  There is a nice range from very light to fairly dark.


Here are the Robert Kaufman Kona matches:

Just another fun thing to play with.  Because, you know, you're probably like me, with tons of free time to play on the computer.  And tons of money to go right on out and buy a chunk of each of these colours, right?

Speaking of money...with working part-time now, I like to save wherever I can, and I'm willing to wait for a sale.  There is going to be a good 'un at Craftsy this coming weekend: Winter Clearance.  There will be an extra 20% off clearance.  That just gives me a shiver of excitement typing that!  Might be a good time now to peruse their wares, calculate the savings, make a list of potential scores (you know how I love my lists)...

and ignore your Year of the Stash manifesto, ha ha!

Please note that there are affiliate links in this post and if you click through to Craftsy on them and make a purchase, I do receive a small commission.  Thank you for your support.  :-)