Scrap-a-Palooza Progress

I had an idea to do the Scrappy Ripple Quilt #2 of Cynthia's Scrap-a-Palooza on Quilting is More Fun Than Housework in Christmas scraps.  Here's what I pulled:

I was thinking of doing a red round and a green round, maybe a blue round, (although I have very little of it) and trying to incorporate the cute snowmen blocks.

So after yesterday and tonight's cutting-a-palooza, this is what I have:

The snowmen worked out at 4 1/2"!!  Yay!  I think I will use the silver/gold on ivory as the sashing/background, but I'm keeping the neutral snowman print as a possiblity.  I sliced up a few 2 1/2" squares, either to grow into 4-patches or maybe be dotted here and there in the sashing.  I still might put the blue in as the centre ripple. . .   The red and gold bells on the cedar fabric is an "I'm not sure if it works" couple of squares.  I'll try them but if they pop or distract the eye, I won't use them.  I cut 70 squares of each of the greens and reds!

And I started this week's homework for Scrap Quilt #5.  I sorted my plastic bin of blue scraps into light, medium and blue.  LOOK how many strips I had in there!! (left side of pic below)  I think I might have Scrap Quilt #3 nearly ready to go and I haven't cut a thing!  I had a prairie point test strip in there too!  The few pieces between the prairie points and the medium blue pile are hard to categorize, so I'm not using them in this quilt.
I'm going with light blue and dark blue for the 2 1/2" squares.

I pulled this speckled ivory for the background, and added a few pieces of dark blue from my stash of bigger pieces of leftover fabric.  I was surprised that I had so few scraps of dark blue.

I think I'm definitely learning about how I should better store my scraps.  I'm going to try from now on to cut my leftovers of a project into strips or squares as I finish cutting the quilt!

Thankful Thursdays

That idea came to me this morning on my walk with Rocco, who, although his breed is hated, maligned, and banned by the authorities in this province, still gets, on a daily basis, oohs and ahs over his colouring, his beauty, and often his eyes... "What kind of dog IS that?" is always the question.  Now that we're back in Ontario, my standard answer is, "A mix" or "a purebred goofball".  "What an unusual colour, just gorgeous!" is usually the next comment, usually followed by, "He's so friendly!"  All are true, except the part about him being a mix.  I am so thankful for this beloved boy of mine; even if you've only read the last few posts, you probably already know!

Gratitude is often touted as being über-important.  And it is.  And I am.  So I thought I'd start a theme on Thursdays with this topic in mind.  I am thankful for so many things, the majority of which are simple, but priceless.  Here are a few on my mind today.

I am thankful for my legs that allow me to walk daily, 5 km, aka 3 miles is what I aim for, sometimes it's a little more, sometimes a little less.  I am so thankful to be able to walk a different route every day, which seems kind of "duh" for those who live in towns or cities, but we have spent 24 of the past 26 years in the country on small 1-3.5 acre lots.  Great running room for the dogs, but only one loop of a road in the subdivision.

Previous house in Alberta, Sept. 2011

Another Link-up...

...that I hope will ensure I get some more old projects out of storage and onto beds or walls!  It was really motivating just to blog about those I took with me to Florida, and watch the real progress I made getting through eleven of the 26!

I was on Quilting is More Fun Than Housework last night, and Cynthia led me to Sew BitterSweet Designs where I found this cool "A Lovely Year of Finishes".  Great idea.  So, I am going to join in and continue slogging sailing through more of my UFOs.

Here is mine for May:

I am embarrassed to contemplate how old this runner is.  Sigh.  I designed the runner (I just realized that right now!) using three different star blocks.  I LOVE stars to this day.  Yep, (choke) it was supposed to go on our wooden coffee table in the house we lived in pre-1999.  Egad.  I lost interest in handquilting once I took a free-motion quilting class at my then LQS, Lori's Country Cottage.

This is the shop that started me on my quilting journey, way back in 1994.  Hey! And they were featured in Better Homes and Gardens' Quilt Sampler in May 2012!!  Pretty cool.  Also cool is the look of my stitching!  It isn't teeny-tiny, but it still looks nice.  I did work on it a fair bit this past winter, but did not finish it.  The border needs to be quilted, as do some of the background squares in the star blocks, because I think they are too poofy and the quilting lines too far apart.  I was thinking of doing a square inside the square I've already quilted and some radiating lines  in the triangles, similar to what Joanne is doing in the red triangles on her gorgeous quilt.

Here is the back.

While working on it over the winter in Florida, I rediscovered my love for handquilting, and really, handwork of most kinds. (not so much appliqué, snort)  Hope to have this done and bound for the end of May link-up!

Random pics:  (sorry they're from my iPhone)
This is what is left of that green fabric!  Killed it!  And this will get cut up into two 11" strips for another one of Cynthia's Scrap-a-Palooza quilts.  Love it.

Cat's IN the bag

Funny thing is that is my Laurel Burch cat fabric bag!  Rocco didn't know what to make of her sitting in there like a princess. WHY do all cats love to curl up in bags?  Or on top of a shelf of t-shirts or sweaters in a closet, and then several hours later, when you freak because you haven't seen her in some time, you hear a faint "mew" and the hunt begins... which drawer?  cupboard? closet?

I am just making it by the deadline (May 1-7) for my first link-up with Melissa's A Lovely Year of Finishes!  And I'm heading out for supper with in-laws, but afterwards I am stopping in at Chapters to pick up the May 2014 issue of Quilt Sampler with my gift card!  :-)

Dogwood Picnic

Finished Scrap-a-Palooza quilt #4.  This is the second scrap-a-palooza quilt for me.  I am loving the series!

I finished it last night, but wanted to wait until this morning to post, as I was struck with a great idea as to where to take an outside picture.

So this morning, just after 8:00, I walked across the street to Southgate Residence, a senior citizens' assisted living residence.  This is one of the many pink magnolias in our town.

I loved Cynthia's picture of her Two-Color Woven Quilt, and with the pinks and greens in this second dogwood inspired quilt, I knew I wanted to lay it on a lawn too.  Her picture also inspired the final name for my quilt.

I copied her, too, with the straight line quilting in the coloured squares to emphasize the woven effect.  I did 4 passes, two 1/4" from the seams and two roughly centred.  I had a hard time figuring out how to continuously quilt this to avoid too many stops and starts.  I didn't want to travel stitch across a bar.  In the end, I mostly travelled across the 1/4" line of stitching, not always being successful with hitting it.  I just tried to not stress about it too much, hoping the overall effect would take over from the imperfections.  "Close enough is good enough" is what Angela Walters repeatedly said through the Dot to Dot Quilting class on Craftsy, and I tried very hard, fighting my perfectionist nature, to do just that.  After all, it's not a show quilt, and it's only my 8th quilt on the Avanté.

In the white squares, I knew I wanted a filler.  In the first row, I did a different one in each square, thinking it would be a perfect place to practise FMQ, much like I did on my Perky Purse quilt.

I opted out of this decision after I did that first row for two reasons: 1) I felt the thread, an ivory Madiera Polyneon, looked almost dirty on the white fabric, and 2) your eye would perhaps go more to all the busy quilting in the white squares and not see the weave.  So I quilted all the straight line quilting with the polyneon, and then went back in and quilted an open meander, Leah's "Wandering Clover" with a white Sulky rayon.  After washing, both threads sunk into the quilt top quite nicely, but I do think having the one unifying meander in the white squares was the right design decision.

Close-up of Wired Feather and Growing Sprouts

However, I DO love the looks of all those designs in that top row!  I tried out one of Leah's latest FMQ designs, "Growing Sprouts", as well as an older one, "Wired Feather".  I also like the looked of "Modern Art".  These last two I got from her two books; they are so handy to just flip through and see what grabs my fancy.  I read the written instructions, and then if I want to see her do the design in action, I go to her website. 

The back.  Ancient fabric from a sale at (choke) WalMart.  My husband and I have boycotted them for more than 10 years now, however, (so that tells you how old this fabric is!!!!) due to their business practices.  I had a stack 'n whack quilt in mind for this and I have enough left still that I might still do one...that or use it to start another scrap quilt, like Paula's Triangle Quilt Along at The Sassy Quilter.

The label, pieced again as an integral part of the backing.  Sorry the lighting seems too bright here to read properly.  You get the idea.

Rolled up!  Mmmm.

It was a perfect morning.  And I cannot get enough of magnolias.

Ever.

Markers I Love.... Aha! Moment Tip #10

My sister, Linda, gave me the idea for this post.  Thank you, Linda!  She has been a huge part of my blog, faithfully commenting on every single post, usually making fun of my vacationing brain, or the fact that I'm older than she, but most often being so positive.  Between her and my daughter, Dayna, they have nurtured my feelings of worth as I send my thoughts and pictures out into the hinterland of cyberspace.  Just as Linda is my self-appointed #1 comment-maker, Dayna is my #1 cheerleader for comment numbers, and new comment-makers!  They both make my heart swell a little bit each time they send me their love in this way.

But this post is about MARKERS!  I can muse about encouragement another time!  Back on track, Sandra. . .

A few people commented about the handwriting on "Tribute to Flowering Dogwood".  How it flowed and how it was balanced.  Here's my secret:
1.  I've always, since day #1, handwritten with FMQ, particulary my name.  Handwriting is natural, so transfers quite easily to quilting, and I love the flow feeling.  So practise handwriting, especially if you are new to FMQ.

2. I use this marker, usually the purple end, to write on the border first before I quilt it.  This way I can see how much space it will take up and adjust accordingly.  I use it as a placement guide, not stressing about hitting the letters exactly, just ball-parking it.  It helps get the muscle-memory in my body if I actually write on the quilt first.  It has a pretty fine tip.  Best of all, it disappears when I'm done!  The blue end is just as good, and sometimes better, for those times when you do NOT want your ink to disappear in ten minutes.  You just spritz it with water.  I keep a Kleenex handy to soak up any extra water droplets.

I Love All Things Leah Day!

In October 2013, in my 14th post, I wrote my first "'Ode' to Leah" post, and here I am, just over 6 months later, writing another.
Why?
1.   Well, I just now grabbed Leah's FMQ button! And this is important because I JUST figured out within the past week and a half how to add other bloggers' buttons to show what I'm participating in.  Her button is very important to me. . .

2.   She was the first person whose website helped me to learn to quilt on my secondhand Avanté that I purchased last February.

3.  She not only helped me with practice on my Avanté, trying out SO MANY new designs, but also with doing new FMQ designs on my Bernina when I quilt on it from time to time.

4.  I LOVE this book so much, which has helped me in so many ways:

5.  that I bought this year the second one!

 I think she should be voted Teacher of the Year, if there is such a thing in the online world.  Her continued generosity in sharing her designs, her honesty in sharing personal stuff, and her gift of her time to make and post all the how-to videos (all free!) put her, in my opinion, at the top of the list.  She's even got her husband learning to FMQ, so that she can deal firsthand with a beginner, and learn how to be a better teacher through teaching and watching him learn to free-motion quilt.  Wow.

I really hope one day to meet her in person.

I was going to write a post on favourite marking tools, but after catching up with Leah's blog, especially after her post, "Bent Knees Are Okay Here", I was just so inspired to sing her praises once again.

And here is "Tribute to Flowering Dogwood" on our bed!  My husband made our bed this morning (gotta love that) and he spread it out.  I'd just had it folded at the foot.  I like the way it looks! Who said anything about maybe selling it?!

The quilt underneath? FMQ'ed on my Bernina in 2007

And OMG!  I just realized seeing it here that all of the greens in the star quilt found their way into the dogwood one.  That's 7-year-old scraps!!  (as bad as my fridge and cupboards, my family would say, lol!)  Sigh.  Better than having them sitting in plastic bags, and Rubbermaid containers and drawers, right?!

Dogwood Revisited

Ha ha, as I typed that title, which was supposed to be "Dogwood Two", but this one popped from my head to my fingers in a blink, I thought of "Brideshead Revisited", and THAT dates me...not that I was old enough to watch it.  I'm grabbing at straws here, I know.

Update:  The no-reply blogger issue is still at the frustrating-I'm-so-tired-of-it-eating-this-much-of-my-sewing-time-UGH level.

Carole from "From My Carolina Home" sent me this link:  (Thanks, Carole!)
http://www.sewsnbows.com/why-im-a-no-reply-blogger/
and this one
http://piecemealquilts.com/2011/09/08/no-reply-no-kidding/

I emailed "Blogger", which went to Google(!) regarding this issue.  I've started typing my email into the body of my comment if it's to a new blog.  However, to avoid spam, Carole said type  "at" gmail "dot" com.  Which I failed to do...sigh.

Onwards.

On January 6, I wrote a tutorial about my "Book It!" method I use to assemble a lot of my quilt tops.  I thought I'd revisit it here so you can see it in action on a regular-sized quilt.  I use this method a LOT.

Bella was NOT amused last night that I was playing with scraps rather than with her