PQ 16.1 - Cradled

I always look forward to the start of Project Quilting. It helps make January less unbearable. January has long been a hard month for me: spring and summer seem so far away and it is dark and cold. Letting my creativity bloom is a balm for my winter-weary soul. And let's just pause for a moment because seriously, winter in this furthest south part of Canada, Sandra, is pretty mild really. For example, I was looking for a photo last week and came across one of a wild crocus I'd taken on February 26 last year, so that's only six weeks away. I told the trees that same week on Lake Erie's shore at the end of the common path for lake access in my cul-de-sac to hold on, just six more weeks.

When Tricia of @quiltchicken put out the first prompt, Mythical Creatures, I was immediately excited. I have loved magic and witches my entire life, and fantasy is a genre I still love. I let that prompt percolate in my brain for Sunday and Monday, since I was deep into mountains and aurora borealis on my cousin's quilt, and found it difficult to just drop that train of thought/stitching.

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.

Balloon Ride - Scrappy Improv Quilting Book Release Hop

I am super-duper-excited to have been asked by Kelly of My Quilt Infatuation to participate in her second quilt book release blog hop, and to be posting my project on the first day of the hop!

If, (lol, let me change that):  Because you have oodles of scraps, you need, yup, need this book. It will help decrease them, I promise; though, if you're like me, you won't notice the decrease, ha. 

So. Many. Gorgeous. Mini quilts. It was hard, but I finally decided upon the hot air balloon mini, which I've called 'Balloon Ride'. 

Up, Up, and Away!

Eye Candy

When I posted an in-quilting progress pic on Instagram, someone wrote  'eye candy' and although I wasn't planning on naming this little quilt, that idea stuck, so Eye Candy it is. This mini is made of the the pile of cut away HSTs I had when I made Rainbow Way for RSC 2019. You can read about that quilt by clicking the link. That arrows quilt also is for sale in my Etsy shop. 

The little triangles had at least got sewn up into 3" unfinished square-in-a-squares, but then they sat in a stack. I did add them to my PHD list for this year, and because of three major commitments this month, I planned to make this mini. I am so glad to make something pretty from what could have ended up in a landfill. Truth? I could probably make a set of oh a dozen of these with the various triangles I've saved...

Be Mine

I finished this mini quilt a few days ago. It started off as a DrEAMi, for those that are regular readers. The fabric is month 2 of a 3-month fabric stash enhancer subscription that Dayna got me for Christmas. The fabric line this month was 'Be Mine' by Stacy Iest Hsu for Moda Fabrics. In December I'd bought the pattern, 'Strippy Improv' from Lisa at Love to Color My World which is actually for Christmas blocks. I recently had the idea to do a heart with this improv reverse appliqué technique. Lisa has done one too!

Project Quilting 12.1 I Am Divine Light

This is the second year I've participated in Project Quilting hosted by Kim at Persimon Dreams, with Trish of Quilt Chicken, the dreamer-upper of challenges. It is right up my alley: a challenge, pushing your creativity, with a deadline!

This week we were to create a quilt using predominantly the two Pantone colours of 2021: yellow, aka Illuminating, and grey, aka Ultimate Grey. I immediately thought of a line I love from Bruce Cockburn's "Lovers in a Dangerous World", 

Got to kick at the darkness 'til it bleeds daylight

and somewhere between that thought and I don't even know the exact moment when, the idea for my mini appeared, fully formed, deep in my brain, in the grey recesses where fissures appear and out comes the light of creativity.

A Couple Of Requests

A few months ago both Brianne and Brady made some quilty requests. Of course Mum/Nana will acquiesce! Brady requested a plain grey, (man-style) toiletries pouch for things he might need when he starts Junior High in September, like deoderant. He wanted sections, as I did in his iPod and charger pouch. I felt like trying a new pouch pattern, so I looked in my hard drive and bookmarks and decided upon the Open Wide Pouch by Noodlehead.

It's a great tutorial.

Project Quilting 11.1 Notably Numeric

I did it! I finally joined in. Each year for the past hmm, three or four, since my friend Pat wrote to me, asking if I'd heard of this, and saying she thought I should do it, I've meant to? Unfortunately, I just never have, though I've watched it each year.

Well, this year the stars lined up, I did a DrEAMi! (Dropped Everything And Made it!) and joined in.

This is the Sanskrit symbol for 'om', also known as 'aum'.  It is said to be the sound of The Universe, and that all living, organic beings, whether human, beast or plant, emit this beautiful hum. Isn't the coaster subtle? Although I'd not originally planned to do such subdued colours when I had the intention to make coasters for a yoga student or two of mine, it evolved for a reason.

Greta the Gobbler

And, just like that, I have a second project done for the October challenge for Island Batik! I need to thank Wendy of Pieceful Thoughts for this 'squir-key'. I saw her turkey, and, in keeping with a good squirrel project, had to go right out and find the Quilts 'n More magazine it was in, buy it, and then not rest (well I did because I had two other big quilts to make, and one runner) until it was a finished quilt!

Magnificent Minis Challenge

Our first challenge for the 2019 year of the Island Batik Ambassadors is to make a mini quilt, any technique, 24" or less per side. We could use any fabrics in Box #1 except the wrapped 'surprise' fabrics. This is #8 on my Q1 FAL goals list.

I chose to work with the 5" stash builder rolls we got, ten of the beauties, four WOF (width of fabric) strips in each pack:

This was one of the two packs I received. All the fabrics were provided by Island Batik, and the batting by Hobbs Batting, the white thread for piecing by Aurifil. I used the white batik we had been given as background fabric.

Postcard Swap Blog Hop

Welcome to my stop on Patty's (Elm Street Quilts) Postcard Swap Blog Hop! There are 14 of us in the hop, so I hope you will make a little time this weekend to sit back with maybe an extra cup of coffee or tea and visit some of the fanTABulous postcards that were created.

The postcards were to be 4X6" and were to be mailed by March 17, no extras in them, keep it simple. What I didn't realize was that we weren't partnered up. I was given a name to make for, but she made for someone else, and my postcard came from a third person in the swap! Kind of like a Secret Santa exchange.  We got one word as a jumping-off point.  I gave 'water' as mine. It seems kind of odd, me being a Fire sign, Aries, but I have loved water, being in it, on it, by it, listening to it, gazing at it, my entire life, be it a river, a pond, a northern crystal lake, or the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico, or the almost terrifying infinity of the Pacific or Atlantic. I know all those bodies of water well. Jen @hwksgirl who lives in Chicago, (just 4 hours' drive from me!) got my name. She made me this!

Postcard Swap Finish

Welcome to TGIFF!

A little over a month ago, Patty of Elm Street Quilts decided to host a Postcard Swap. I decided to join in, because, well I wasn't very busy in the month of March....snort.😂 I quite like mini quilts, and wanted to push myself a little in the creativity department. I like challenges. You got one word from your partner, and you gave one word as a clue to what you'd like.

I won't tell you the word I got for my partner, nor who she is, because it just got mailed off today. Was it a fun project to do! I did a little detective work on her blog to get a feel for her personality and quilting style. We are similar in several ways, and although I'm not familiar with her blog, I will be following her from now on.😁

Here is my postcard!

Again, I wish the camera could capture the glint of light on the Sulky Holoshimmer thread I used on the ocean section.

What is amazing to me is that the scene I chose I drove right by in the summer of 2007, and I may have stopped for a photo surprisingly close to this breathtaking spot. These huge rocks rise up out of the Pacific all along the coast, so unusual. It took a little bit of digging, but in about 10 minutes, I located the photo album (pre-iPhone photos and all digital) of that trip! MacGyver's anonymity is preserved with some chunks of beach glass, LOL. (Yeah, I have yet another beach glass bowl in the works.)

August 2007

I used an image off Google as a starting point, and took a little artistic license with it, adding in the shorebirds and the evergreen tree on the side, typical of this region of North America which has stunning ocean scenery in front of you and forest vistas immediately behind. I am no artist, but if I have an image to look at, I can usually produce a fairly reasonable copy.

I used my drawing to make the pieces for the appliqué by tracing what I'd drawn.

I made the base by piecing the sky to the ocean and then doing a gentle improv cut and sewn curved seam to add the sand.

From there it was Crafted Appliqué for the rest, oh how I love this method. You can still get Lara's book on Amazon. I save my appliqué-ready scraps between wax paper and place them in a ziploc bag for future use...and I have actually used pieces in new projects, like this one!

The tree and one of the monoliths came from a scrap from testing blocks for a Canada's 150th birthday quilt for Cindy of Stitchin at Home, and the birds from scraps from the walleye potholder I made for my husband. I prepared some black pieces for the other monoliths.

I layered the piece with one layer of Thermore by Hobbs (great thin batting for mini quilts) stitched around the appliqué shapes and then FMQ-ed the entire piece. Those birds were TINY! Cindy knows I start to twitch when I have to appliqué tiny pieces. But it was worth it. I free-motion embroidered their feet, and, as the fabric was only 2-3 threads thick at the bills, I added free-motion embroidery there too, to stabilize and define them.

Here are the threads I used, lovely beautiful Sulky rayons, all 40 weight but one 30 weight, and one Holoshimmer.

I can't show you the back, because I wrote her a message, but it's a piece of plain white. There's a layer of stiff fusible batting between the Thermore and the white fabric, making a total of four layers. I statin-stitched around all four edges with the beautiful variegated turquoise rayon, once loosely to hold everything together, and then two more rounds at 0.5. My mmm! quilts label is on the postcard back.

So that's my second finish this week! My first was the Cat-eye-doscope Plus quilt for Cheryl and Paige's book release blog hop. This is SUCH a great hop, such a great book, two terrific quilter/authors.

Update Friday March 16:

I spoke with Preeti (by iMessage) yesterday and she asked me to do her a favour in memory of her sweet precious friend, Angel, who, so very sadly, passed away yesterday. In my haste to get the TGIFF post up before I went to bed on Thursday night, I forgot to do her small request, that has the power to become huge, much like Bernie's doll quilts...

First, please read Preeti's post from yesterday. I hope you will also read the link to Angel's quilt, either by clicking there or from Preeti's yesterday post. It is strange how The Universe puts things in our path... Preeti had reached out to Amy of AmyScrapSpot, wondering how her multiple-disabilities 3-month-old baby boy, Axel, was doing, but hadn't heard in some time. Yesterday, yes, yesterday, the very day Angel died, Amy emailed Preeti back about Axel. Are you seeing a triple A-team here?  Preeti's profound sadness over the loss of Angel has now been channelled into doing something good: helping Amy with Axel's medical expenses. Amy's sister started a Go Fund Me page, (I know how DEEPLY appreciated these pages are, where people donate, anonymously or not, whatever they feel appropriate, since one was set up for my own grandson after his too-young father died last June), and Preeti is asking if you would take a moment, read her post, read Amy's about little Axel, and donate a small amount. As she says, "If 300 people gave $10 each, we'd meet out goal." I know quilters have humongous hearts, and I know that my post will see a lot of traffic this weekend, since I'm not only hosting TGIFF (and leaving it open a wee bit longer, sorry guys, made an executive decision; don't fire me) but I'm linking up my postcard finish with the other big Friday finish parties. THANK YOU for keeping my belief that there is inherent good in this world that gets my spirit so down a lot of the time.

What have you finished this week? You may link up your blog post, Flickr or Instagram post using the link up below. Remember to visit a few blogs and spread some quilty love and encouragement. Please include a link to this blog post and/or the TGIFF button, so your followers can come here to view all the great finishes! You never know, you may have your quilter ADD kick in, and have to go DRop Everything And Make It, aka DREAMi! (Come back for that link up on the last Saturday of March; see sidebar for the button which will take you to the explanation post.)



Linking up to the Friday Finish parties in QBL:
Crazy Mom Quilts
Confessions of a Fabric Addict
Busy Hands Quilts

An InLinkz Link-up

Once In A Blue Moon

I am often late. There, I said it. However, work-wise, I am on time, and I am also known for keeping to deadlines, the very important ones, that is. Thus, it is with a red face and downward cast of eye that I admit that I missed the important deadline for posting my mini quilt challenge which should have been done in February.

Note that I was provided the fabric by Island Batik, the batting by Hobbs, and one of the navy threads by Aurifil. Without further ado, here is my mini, 'Once In A Blue Moon'!

Quilter's Laundry Day Blog Hop

Welcome to my stop on Jen and Jan's Mini QAL!  It's no secret that Tish of Tish's Adventures in Wonderland and I are great friends, and that we get each other into trouble, like all the time... This one is on her. 😃  She showed me the beginnings of her version of Quilter's Laundry Day, and it was just SO adorable...  I could NOT.  Well, it's a mini....maybe?  All right, I'm in.  So, with hours to spare to the sign-up deadline, I committed, and came through!

Haven't had a finished quilt in a tree for a few weeks!  This is Jen's of A Dream and A Stitch, and Jan's of Color Creating and Quilting, second mini quilt along.  I wanted to be a part of their first one but timing was just not good.  I'm so glad I got in on this one!  There are lots of us participating; you will find the list of the two days of bloggers at the end of this post.

Quilt Kisses

Yesterday I mentioned all the secret sewing that has been going on over here, and today I can show you one of the projects because it arrived at its new owner's house!  It is one of two DrEAMi! projects that took my focus away from what I should have been doing this month.

This is Quilt Kisses.  You might think, hey, wait a minute, isn't there a blog in QBL by that name?  Yup.  And that is exactly where this mug rug went, to Jasmine, of Quilt Kisses.

Jingle

So did you know that Henry Glass + Kate Spain = baby! Of the ornament kind that is. 😉

Guess I'm still not quite done with Christmas.  This is due in part to procrastination as well as to the win from Henry Glass Fabrics right before Christmas.  You can see the fabrics here.  Funny, one of the little Kleenex pack covers I made and showed in that post is going to the same person as this ornament is!

This is a paper-pieced little pattern from Lori's Country Cottage I got, oh about a century ago. Ha! Maybe about 1/5 of a century ago? Yee-ikes!  How it ended up in with my stuff to take to Florida i have NO clue, but it did, and it grew up from paper to finished quilted ornament. Magic!

Here is the flimsy. At 3.5" square with 3 sections, it gave me a full-quilt-size of trouble.  Trying to line up the angles of the green and the side seams...let's just say I did a whole lotta rippin'.  I settled for this in the end.  Along with Kate Spain's 'Jingle' fabric scraps, I used a scrap of lime from Paintbrush Studio's 2015 new block bloghop fabric. My block is in the very first Quilter's Planner, Nov. 21 week. The stocking cuff is a scrap from a little pillow, Bundle Up!, I made with fabric from a quilt shop I visited while at the Sisters Quilt Show in Oregon!

I quilted it with Sulky Holoshimmer in gold. Wonderful thread for wonderful fabrics.  The back is another print in the Shelly Comiskey "Kringle Krossing" line.

Couldn't get much more perfect a backing!

Here is a closeup, trying to catch the elusive shimmer and sparkle.

Quilt Stats:
Pattern:  Paper pieced single block freebie from Lori's Country Cottage
Size: 3.5" square
Fabric:  scraps and leftovers, except for the stockings Henry Glass Fabrics "Kringle Krossing"
Batting: Pellon Nature's Touch 100% cotton scrap
Quilted: on my Bernina
Threads:  pieced with Gütermann; quilted with Essential from Connecting Threads and Sulky Holoshimmer in gold 145-6003

I finished my homework for the 150 Canadian Women from Next Step Quilt Designs

From top left, #22 Kate Rice, pioneering prospector, miner and a most notable woman geologist, this gal was not afraid to be alone in the wilderness for extended periods of time, think entire northern Canadian winter?? She ended up living on an island named after her, out in a lake, which is why I used a red with bits of blue in it; #23 Marie-Anne (née Gaboury) Lagemodière - so cool because the Faculté St-Jean, U of Alberta, where I did a major chunk of my schooling is on the Rue Marie-Anne Gaboury in Edmonton. She was the mother of the first legitimate white child, a daughter, born in the Canadian West, she was also the grandmother of Louis Riel; #24 Elsie Knott, another 'kickass' Canadian woman, she drove a school bus along with several other menial jobs including sewing quilts, to support her family. At age 30, she became Chief Elsie Knott of the Ojibway, a respected leader.

I chose that coral pink for Chief Elsie Knott because upon spying it, I thought of Indian beads and dreamcatchers.  For Marie-Anne, grandmother of the famous and infamous Louis Riel, I had to use the maple leaves fabric scraps in the Windfall line.  Can you tell I am enjoying this quilt along?!

One last very exciting announcement!!! Drum ROLLLL!  I have a sponsor for

(and I made a button!) Next I have to remember how to turn it into one for my sidebar...

Presenting...

Melody has had The Red Hen Shop on Etsy since 2013.  She stocks a wide variety of fabric, which includes some older ones you might not find anywhere else.  Click the link or the image to check out her shop!  We are doing four bi-weekly draws for prizes, and besides Lisa and my offerings, there will be a $15 gift certificate for a lucky winner.  And then there is the grand prize for all who complete 30 designs by March 15, a $50 gift certificate!

Although I won't be posting every one of my 30 designs here on the blog, here is #2.  Had a little issues with colouring order...made good use of my eraser!  All good.

Push 'n Pull or Aurora

I've been fascinated with 60° triangles, since my first Stack 'n Whack quilts.  When I first played with this idea, I saw it as either scrappy strings or improv slabs cut into 60° triangles.  When I played with shading, I thought I could try to bring out the hexagons formed by 6 triangles... I included a third colourway of blues, and then realized I needed to separate them so coloured in the solid greys.  Still not sure it works; maybe need the white strip across the bottom side of each triangle?  When I saw the thumbnail of that photo, I was struck by a similarity to the Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights, something I dearly miss from when we lived just outside of Edmonton, Alberta. I do feel very privileged to have seen them so many many times, dancing across the northerly heavens with their spiderwebs of greenish/goldish/blueish effervescence.

Now I'm taking my effervescent little person off to plan for a couple more exciting announcements coming up very shortly on the blog!
Linking up with
Sew Fresh Quilts
(looks like I'm not the only one still playing with Christmas fabric, check out Lorna's new QAL!!)
My Quilt Infatuation
Crazy Mom Quilts
Confessions of a Fabric Addict
and with
Mrs Sew and Sow for Scraptastic Tuesday

Walter 2

Always a favourite fish to eat when we were in our camping/fishing days as a family, a favourite to catch (they fight hard!) and a favourite to look at, marvel over...those EYES, this fish ranks #1 in my MacGyver's mind.  This was another goal on my Q3 FAL list.

So of course I had to make him one.  We have Walter #1, who measures just over 25" long, weighed between 8-9 pounds, and whom we got mounted many years ago.  He lived in Jackson Lake in northern central Alberta when my husband caught him.  He is a big fish for an Alberta lake.

I made this mainly using Henry Glass fabrics from the Desire to Inspire Challenge I did in June.

This was another idea I'd had to do using the fabrics, make a hotpad/potholder but I ran out of time.  The backing which you see above is one of the squares in the panel I received.

I used a double layer of Warm 'n Natural batting because I didn't have any Insul-Bright left.  The water fabric is an old one out of my stash that I do not know whose it is; only a "Y" and the colour circles are left on the selvage.  That fabulous black I used for binding (of which I had a 3" strip left, that's all) is a Michael Miller.

I cannot for the life of me recall where I used this fabric, something that is not like me; I can usually place every piece!

Walter 2 is not exactly true to colour, but pretty darn close. That dark green Henry Glass fabric for his main body is really perfect for walleye skin/scales.  Love the random placement of a gold star near his tail.  Speaking of his tail, MacGyver it was who told me I had to make that white 'chunk' on the lower fin.  I didn't know they had that!  The gold Henry Glass fabric worked well for his fins.  For the fish shape/outline, I used a line drawing I got off a free online colouring book.

You know me with my quilts in trees pics so just had to do one, trying to get the lake in the far background.  It blends into the sky though.  I see our clematis is trying to climb up the Nootka Cypress! Better get it back on track on its trellis.

This potholder that could actually double as a mini, was all done with Lara's Crafted Appliqué method.  Love it for no fraying crisp edges.  For those that like to zoom in on photos, you may notice a teensy bit of fraying on one of the brown reeds I freehand cut.  Guess I missed getting the fabric treated right up to the edge, doh!

For quilting I just followed random lines in the water fabric and outlined all the fish parts as well as stitched in some gills detail.  Most of it was stitched with Exquisite thread in green with the white and grey stitched in Madeira Polyneon in silver.  Both of these threads have a lovely glint to them when the light catches them.

Speaking of getting back on track, the quarterly Finish Alongs really do help me, cough, try to stay focussed.  I have Dayna's quilt to blog about yet this week for another from that list!

Quilt Stats:
Pattern:  Original Design
Size: 10.25" square
Fabric: scraps and stash
Batting: Warm 'n Natural 100% cotton
Quilted: on my Bernina 180 Artista
Threads: appliquéd with Exquisite 100% polyester in olive green, and Madeira Polyneon in silver.

Linking up with
Connie at Free Motion by the River
Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilts
Leanne at She Can Quilt for the Q3FAL
Nicky at Mrs. Sew & Sow for Scraptastic Tuesday

Quilter's Retreat

As the upcoming Bloggers' Retreat approaches, it is rather fitting that I have my Mini Round Robin finished this week!  This was my OMG for September, and sadly, I missed another deadline, finishing it less than 24 hours after said deadline.  All four of us who participated in this summer-long project had planned to be together at the retreat, and unveil our finishes in person, but unfortunately, one of us is unable to.  :-(

At the time I made the centre block, I had no idea that I would, in fact, be heading to Ohio for a Quilt Bloggers' Retreat in October!  Funny how the Universe lines things up, isn't it? So many times in my life I experience this.

Mini Round Robin - Round 3 and Final Reveal

Along with the summer speeding on by, our Mini Round Robin has come to an end and I can hardly believe it!  Of course there will be the final reveal of the quilted mini at the beginning of October.  The original centre, called The Attraction Block, is Tish's.  Julie added the first round.  Here is what I received from Cindy.

I knew two things, well three if you count the fact that I LOVED what Cindy did on her round!!  Okay, first I knew I had to do angles, not angels, angles, although I needed some angel guidance as August neared its end...45-degree angles are in each round as well as in the centre.  Second, I knew it needed pretty much all black and red as it was reading pretty white.

But what to do...

Tish had talked about her colour choices of red, black and white as classic, so I knew the final round should be in that theme.  I thought of a fancy appliqué, and I kept thinking 'classy' and classy ladies, and black tie affair, and tuxedo, and tuxedo cats (one of which chose Tish as his human), black cats, which Tish told me often find their way to her, and I, too, have a soft spot for black cats...

My darling cat, Raffi, had her from age 4 weeks (bottlefed her for two weeks) to the ripe old age of 17 1/2 years. Her whiskers and even her paw pads were black, AND she was a polydactyl.  She had 'thumbs'.

So a frame was added.  I had just the fabric, bought a piece when it first arrived in my LQS, Moda's Black Tie Affair by Basic Grey.  Thus ensued the math devils...my angels deserted me...

This is the second frame I added; the first had to be ripped off as I'd done the math wrong for calculating the width.  The block was 16 3/4", a most unusual size, so I knew I needed to bring it up to 18 1/2".

I remembered a mini log cabin pattern I had that had 3 1/2" (I thought) log cabin blocks. Log cabin is a classic block, my second favourite block after stars.  I'd made several of the runners over the years.  Did I still have that pattern?  A little digging, and yep.  Sadly, the blocks finished at 3 1/2", so they wouldn't divide into 18".  Still, I loved the idea and knew I could do something with it.  What about offset log cabins? They can produce some wonderful curves.  (You're thinking, 'Wait, Sandra, thought you were doing angles?' and...bada-bing! Welcome to my muddled menopausal melon.)

I pulled out three fabrics from the stash and scraps to make a few test blocks to see what size they'd end up.  Math had already gotten the best of me, so best to make some rather than trust my calculations...

Nope. Sadly these ended up at 4 1/2" unfinished, so 4" finished which did not divide into 18.  Should I pull off the frame and add a thicker one to make the starting block 20"?  That would mean the mini would finish at 28 1/2" not 24 1/2" as we were supposed to...still it was under 30" and somewhere along the way I thought we'd determined we could go that big if we wanted to add more to it when we got our own back...but that would mean more ripping...nooooo. There had to be a way.

The offset log cabin blocks didn't really curve the way I wanted anyhow with only two rounds and with only half a set of four, so I thought I'd go back to the log cabin runner pattern.

White centre squares.  I did 1/3 of them in an embossed white that looks like the exact same fabric in Tish's centre, that 'box' around her red centre.  But I noticed she also used black on white, and so did Cindy, so I looked through my thin stash of that, and came up with two, one with flowers on it (I remembered Tish sending me a photo of her newly planted flowerbed in early May) and another with sketched cat faces on it:

Perfect.  The grumpy ones are Bella and Princess Caroline LOL

Red and black for the logs.  The blacks in this block weren't solid, so I found one I'd bought last winter at a quilt show with a large line-drawn floral pattern, and then... in my MacGyver's flaming skulls quilt (yet to be made) stash I found a black with white pawprints on it fabric.  Tish and I both love animals; especially our pibbles, but we have all dogs' and cats' pawprints on our hearts, so I knew I had to do one round using this fabric.

Right.  The math was still worrying me, but I figured I'd start adding rounds as it was uh, August 28; time was a-ticking.

As you sew, you think.  It's very meditative.  Somewhere along round two, I thought of doing two sides with the red logs in and two with the black logs in.  Placing the red logs borders where Julie's black frame was, and the black logs where her red half-frame was.  Keeping the 'attraction' theme.

Yep I think that will work...Bella was helping as per usual...now this pesky math...

I'd somehow only made 20 blocks, not 24, 6 per side...don't ask me what I was thinking as I don't even know. Five a side??
Made four more blocks.  The logs finish at 1/2".  Just sayin'.  They're pretty small.  Sewed 6 together per side.  What to do in the corners... All black?  HSTs of red and black?  What a minute...

Tish's centre is two right triangles sewn together on the 45.  Julie picked up on that by mitering the black/red seams in her round.  So I followed that theme, placing a solid black square in one corner where the two mainly black log cabin borders meet, and a solid red in the opposite.  For the corners where the black meets the red I did an HST.

After all the ripping and hair-pulling it took with the math issues I am pretty pleased.  I also noticed that my tiny white square centres echo Tish's red centre, and Cindy's black squares on white fabric!  That wasn't planned but I'll take it!

You can see the other finished flimsies below:
Cindy at Stitchin' at Home (she did the final round on my centre and I just LOVE it!!)
Tish at Tish's Adventures in Wonderland
Julie at Pink Doxies

Linking up with
My Quilt Infatuation
Crazy Mom Quilts (Yay! Amanda Jean's back!)
Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Jeez Louise I only posted 6 times in August.  I reached (bashful face) rather a milestone in my bloggy life a week or so ago, over 250 followers now on bloglovin'.  WHOA Nelly.  (see? Louise and Nelly both got in this post) Should make a quilt and call it that...there will be some celebrating in my future. Which is looking rather busy for the month of September...but I hope to post more than six times sheesh!

Update: My bad, but I went to link to the Friday parties this morning, and I see I have an email from Brittany at Craftsy (I am an affiliate):  I guess all their classes are $199.99 ...oops! LOL had to leave that for a giggle.  Make that $19.99 (under $20 just so we're clear) from right now through Monday, Sept 5 11:59 pm MDT (that's because their classes can be bought and downloaded worldwide.  I will be reviewing one coming up that isn't even live yet, so watch for that. Previous reviews can be found here, and you KNOW how much I rave about any and all of Angela Walters' classes, worth every cent.  Did you HEAR?????? She has another book coming out with Tula Pink!!!  17 quilts that Tula designed and you guessed it, Angela shows how she quilted them. Cue the choir of angels already! I haven't even finished reading through her Shape By Shape 2 Collection 2 yet!! (no affiliation)

Okay I got sidetracked by Angela news (that girl can sidetrack me anytime, I do not mind)  Anyhow might be a plan to check out a class you have had on your wishlist for a while; that's what I do; I never pay full price (shh)... Speaking of 'under the radar' stuff, did you know that there are still amazing deals to be had on fabric at Craftsy? You do not have to wait for their sales.  I came across some screaming good deals on 4-yard cuts (think backing fabric right?) for $8CA a yard, like $6US.

Here is a Bonnie and Camille Hello Darling one, and here is a Kate Spain Canyon one. There are LOTS more.  I've bought these before, 1 yard cuts and a 5-yard cut of RJR Handspray in black.  Just like for clothes, you can never have too much black.  I see several of the Handspray precuts are on 35-40% off too.  Might be a time to investigate a little stash enhancement. ;-)

Sunday Stretch for Sewists #12 - Swan

Swan pose works strongly into one hip socket in one way, and fairly strongly into the other but in a different way.  Therefore be sure to do both sides. :-)

To get into the pose in the easiest way, come onto all fours.  Slide your right knee up behind your right wrist.  Start to swivel the right foot up towards the left wrist, still supporting yourself on your hands. See how the knee feels.  If there is pain here, then do not do this pose; stay tuned for September when I show you Eye of the Needle.

If your knee is okay, then start to creep your left leg back, looking back to ensure it is straight behind you, and coming to rest on the top of your foot.  If your bum is not in contact with the mat, sit that butt cheek on a block (or a couple of quilt books!) so that your hips are level.

Place your hands as shown, or rest both in front of your shin.  Try to think about bringing that shin parallel to the top edge of your mat, sending the knee to the side of your hip.  Flex that right foot gently to protect the knee joint.  Don't sit on your foot; that is pigeon pose, which doesn't have the outward rotation we are looking for in the hip joint. It is not necessary to have your shin parallel; especially in the beginning it is more difficult, so work towards that, but never forcing.  Alternatively, if the block is too high, you may use a folded up quilt under your butt cheek:

note the dog foot, Naala, photo-bombing me! Didn't have the heart to crop it out.

If your butt cheek rests comfortably on your mat and your hips are level, then stay there and breathe.

Hold for 1 minute, maybe working up to 2 over time, breathing slowly in and out through your nose.  You can place your hands further back, as you see in the above photo, which will increase the arch in your low back.  This is a bit of a back bend.

Next, on an exhale, slowly come down to Sleeping Swan.  Take your time getting to the floor...

maybe resting at first on your forearms as shown.  Notice the legs haven't moved.

Perhaps eventually resting your forehead on your stacked hands or on your forearms.  Finally maybe extending your arms in front, palms down, forehead on the floor:

or placing the palms together in prayer if you like.

Stay here for a total of 3 minutes (use that timer on your phone!) starting from the time you start to lie down, breathing in and out through your nose maybe to the count of 3 or 4, relaxing everything as your 'marinate' your hips in this pose.

To come out, inhale slowly back up, remove the prop under the butt cheek so you can lean to that side and swing your back leg around to the front. Set both foot soles on the floor and enjoy the 'spearmint' feeling of warm/cool/buzzing/tingling feeling you get when you release out of a long-held pose.  Maybe do some slow windshield wipers movements back and forth with your bent legs.  Then do the other side!

The more we can rotate our hips in their sockets, the better health our hips will have, and the less chance of needing hip replacements down the line.  Hip and knee replacements are off the charts in the West compared to the East, because we do not live on the floor.  As I tell my yoga students from time to time, spend 5 minutes a day watching the news or your favourite show, sitting cross-legged, working up to 2.5 minutes or more per side, alternating one leg in front of the other.  Your hips will thank you!

I did finish two more cow blocks.

They are so cute!  These are more of the RSC 2015, last year's colours.  I have one more to make and then a bull. Finishing this quilt is one of my Q3FAL goals.

Now that several pretty strong thunderstorms have left our area, I can get back to work on this final round of our Mini Round Robin, as well as quilting Dayna's grad quilt.  Here is the Mini Round Robin, Tish's centre:

I will let you know that I have ripped more than I have sewed...my menopausal melon is malfunctioning in the math department...clearly it isn't in the alliteration department!  If you are interested in seeing the other rounds, you can click the links below to see the other 3 ongoing minis that will each be finished...uh...within 3 days! Watch for the next post to see what I did!
Round 1 - my block
Round 2 - my work on Cindy's centre
Round 3 - my work on Julie's centre

Remember to vote in the Pets On Quilts at Lilypad Quilting which closes in a few days!  You can click here to be taken to the voting page, where you leave a comment with the pets' numbers who are your faves.  Bella is tapping my arm to tell you that she is #30, and that our post is here.  You can see all the pets if you click here.  You can even win something if you didn't enter a pet, so hippety-hop on over there!