Sunday Stretch for Sewists #11...Something's Fishy

...because it is not Sunday today! I totally forgot to do the last Sunday of the month stretch post, and well, we were gone all day Sunday anyhow.

I volunteered to test one of Lorna's patterns, and picked Kissy Fishy, thinking most people would go for the animals...bzzzt! Lorna said this was the most popular pattern! It was fun.

In the pattern, her orange fish is the thinner one, and her blue fish the chunkier one; I reversed it (setting myself up for a 'leedle' confusion in this already fog-brain of mine? Sigh...) It all worked out.  Rather splendidly, IMHO.  I wanted to do scrappy fish: hot pink and orange and turquoise and green.  All fabrics are scraps, outside of the clamshell Michael Miller print that was in a fat quarter bundle I bought from Craftsy.  The results were very pleasing. An unplanned pleasant surprise was the polka dot lower fin picking up on some dots in that coral print I used for the face. I did hope the orange Kaffe fabric left over from my Three Quarter Patch Tote would have a good eye effect, and it did.  Not sure, but think I may make these into a cushion cover, or two wallhangings, maybe for Florida.

Mini Round Robin - Round 2

I think all four of us would agree that this month was the hardest round to do.  I know mine was on my design wall the entire time, puzzling me.  Cindy had put a wonderful spin on Julie's centre block, literally, and I wanted to keep that feeling.  I knew I wanted to tilt it somehow. Putting it on point didn't look right, most likely because those angles conflicted with the HRTs.  So I knew I wanted to incorporate half-rectangle triangles, aka HRTs. 

FaceTiming with Tish tonight made me realize that I should've put a before photo in, so you see what I started with.  Here is the block I received from Cindy.

I used strips of white Moda Grunge left over from Aidan's quilt, Radiance, to put a box frame around it, and then used random strips laying around to mark off the possible angles I had in mind.  I could see a white square floating behind the coloured fabrics in Cindy's round; was there a way I could play off that?

Enter math.  And Mini Round Robin rules that we'd set out at the beginning, one of which was only being allowed to add a maxium of 6" finished to a round.  So these HRTs had to be mighty skinny.

I pulled various fabrics in keeping with Julie's oranges, purples, one pink, and yellow-greens, although there are some almost-mint greens in as well, and that rich brownish-berry checkered start to her offset improv log cabin.  Improv!  That was when I knew I needed to add improv to this round and stripes.  Yikes.  That worried me a bit.  Improv I've done, but not a lot.

The rick rack fabric was just to mimic a stripe; at this point I hadn't made all four of the improv striped rectangles.

I still really like the above idea I had going, to have the HRTs made out of striped rectangles.  So I sewed my four strips, and figured I could have a skinny white frame before adding the stripes...but that would leave bias edges on all four sides...Tish would probably not be too appreciative of that!  Or ...I could add a second outside frame after I angled off the stripes...

Hmmm... I was losing a fair bit of the fabrics doing the HRTs this way too and creating a fair bit of bulk at the corners....

Back to thinking.  Drawing.

Yep, using that Quilter's Planner Tish sent me to the max:-)

The idea of angling of the Grunge as the HRT and then adding the stripes was the one that really did appeal to me in the end.  (drawn in pink) Which was this morning, btw...a busy weekend with time out of the house meant I didn't have the sewing time I needed when it came down to the wire.

I put cornerstones in the four corners instead of carrying the stripe to the edges.  I originally had thought to do all four a green to echo Cindy's squares that tumble, but couldn't find a good one, or not enough OF a good one.  So I did four different ones, and matched them to the colours in Cindy's HRTs!

Each one has meaning:

A long-hoarded Nancy Halvorsen print, only about a fat eighth left

This one, left over from a good friend's baby quilt I made, says swans on the selvage, but I always think geese.  As in Canada.

The other purple corner is a chunk of Moda Marble Ombre Dots from Dayna's grad quilt.  I was with Julie last summer when I found the perfect purple to use in the final border of Dayna's quilt; I chose not to use a piece of it here because I wanted a richer purple to pull in the Grunge purple from her centre.

The fourth corner, the brilliant orange, is another chunk left over from Aidan's quilt, fittingly called Concrete...Rock Solid.  Let's just say Julie's family knows their concrete!

I'm sending it off to Tish tomorrow for her to do her magic on the final round.  This has been SO MUCH fun and even though it was such hard work and lots of agonizing this month, it is good to push oneself and to build on others' work; thus we grow.  Of course doing this with such good friends makes it that much better.

Here are the links to the others' posts for Round 3:
Cindy
Tish
Julie

Linking up with
Cooking Up Quilts
Blossom Heart Quilts 
Freemotion by the River 
Sew Fresh Quilts

Rainbow Kitty Rows

When I saw Ruth's Rainbow Rose QAL that she was doing at Modern Quilters Ireland, I immediately loved it.  It is such a happy quilt and functional too, as a colourwheel.

Washed and crinkly in the morning sunshine

This is one of the projects on my Q3FAL List which you can find here.

The original quilt has a final 4.5" white border.  It seemed like too much white space to me (ha! really, that sounds odd, since I rather love filling white space with quilting!)  So, I only added a 2.5" border.  It has sat like that since July 5 while I contemplated how to quilt it, and dug through my stash for a suitable backing and binding...

When I found the Laurel Burch backing, a chunk of fabric I have hoarded for oh, about a decade, but did use some on my Merry Cat-mas and Dayna's stocking, more angst set in because I wanted to put some of it on the front.  To border or not to border?  As you can see, the kitties won.  They just had to leap and fly in their rows of 3 around the rainbow rose.  Doing that meant I didn't have enough to cover the entire backing, but the purple cats print by Henry Glass worked perfectly.

I did Angela Walters dot to dot designs with white Isacord polyester in the white triangles around the centre star.  In the centre star I used a Judi Madsen design, one I've also used on Dayna's grad quilt that is fun to do.  For this I used Aurifil variegated in rainbow colours.

Hot off the frame in the remaining light of the day in the front entry

I did a random wavy line through the carpenter's wheel sections of the quilt using that same Aurifil thread.

I am continually amazed at the difference in appearance from inside with natural light on a quilt, to outside in shade, to outside in fairly bright sunlight.
Below you see it in the shade before heading to the washing machine:

The Legacy polyester batting I used is to die for.  Quilts like butter, gives good definition and is light and airy.  I first used this last summer in the guild wheelchair charity quilts.  The charity quilt committee had been given a roll of it.  I loved it.  When I was in Alma Sue's Quilts in Sarasota this past winter, she had some quilt batting remnants and I scored two long and narrow pieces of it, one 17" the other 25" but by something like 84", for $2.50 for the two.  Yes!  So the batting in this quilt cost less than $2.50!  There is a join about 2/3 over from one side.  With this much quilting in the quilt I have no fear of it separating.

In the kitties border I did a Christina Cameli design that I've now used at least three times, and I just love it: waves with three "e's" every so often.  The binding I've had for quite some time. When I see a good stripe, I grab at least a half metre/yard since I love stripes as binding.

In the white background around the wheel, you can see I did three different quilted border designs.  Kathleen does this on lots of the quilts she quilts and I love the effects.  I love the idea of the quilting going behind the piecing.  So I did skinny figure 8's, ghost geese, and figure 8's again.  The white is not Kona Snow!  It's Maywood Studio's Whisper Whites from Charlotte Sewing Studio.  I've used this twice now, and it is a terrific fabric, doesn't fray as easily as the Kona either.

Ahh, love that texture. Yep it feels as good as you think it does when I pet it.  :-)

Here is the label:

Yes, I did my binding by machine again; it's just so much faster, and I am improving.  Only had to go back in on 3 spots this time!  Applying it to the front, folding it to the back, and stitching it down from the front in the ditch is my preferred method, and nicest final appearance IMHO.

Love me a good folded up quilt, but there is definitely an art to it, to get that rolled look...I opted for the folded look as you can see

Hot as Hades here as it seems to be in the east, with little to no rain in our area.  We did get a lovely quiet thunderstorm (oxymoron, but it was quiet as in not violent) with quite the downpour that went on more than 5 minutes!  The lawns are so brown, and I noticed the massive Catalpa tree down the street has many yellow leaves... Our hydrangea paniculata, aka PeeGee Hydrangea trees are glorious, so I had to get a shot of Rainbow Kitty Rows under one of them:

Quilt Stats:
Pattern:  Rainbow Rose by Ruth Bourke
Size: 38 X 38 3/8"  (like how?  must shrink more one way than the other? It was square before quilting and washing...)
Fabric: scraps from my stash; backing is Holiday Collection by Laurel Burch for Clothworks, binding is from David Textiles (other info is cut off)
Batting: Legacy polyester scraps
Quilted: on Avril the Avanté; 96, 138 stitches
Threads: pieced with Gütermann; quilted with Isacord 0015 40 wt and Aurifil variegated Marrakesh 3817 50 wt; So Fine in the bobbin

Linking up with
Modern Quilters Ireland
Crazy Mom Quilts
Confessions of a Fabric Addict
TGIFF at What a Hoot Quilts (hey! Lynette is where I first heard of the Henry Glass Desire to Inspire Challenge!)

and also with Leanne at She Can Quilt for the Q3FAL.

Friends

I have the very BEST friends, and I shake my head literally and figuratively when I contemplate how they enrich my life, and make me feel loved.

You all know that Rocco had to have surgery May 10 for a torn ACL.  We have been housebound for much of the time since that surgery, one of us with him 24/7 up until a couple of weeks ago.  Because Rocco has not ever liked his crate, associating it with being left alone, something over which he goes to pieces, crating him to prevent movement for the first 6 weeks was not an option.  We tried.  I stayed right beside him for more than two hours the second time we tried it, moving his crate in the main living area of the house as opposed to the bedroom, doing my yoga practice for one of the two hours, reading/computer stuff after that.  He panted and trembled the entire time until about the 2-hour mark, whereupon, probably because he was so exhausted, he lay down and stopped panting and trembling.  That is no way to heal, we decided.

So my husband, aka MacGyver, being the repair and inventive type guy that he is, figured out a way to contain him using the rug under the coffee table as the 'crate' boundaries.  That did require one of us being with him in the room at all times, which is what precipitated me moving my sewing room to the dining table.  No dates or dinners out; we turned down or postponed suppers out with friends because we couldn't leave him alone.

When I mentioned this to one of our friends, and that going out for dinner consisted of me picking up subs at Subway on the way home from teaching yoga, she decided to give us "dinner out".  She showed up for one of my Friday Yin classes in May, and after class said she had something for me in her car.  Opening up her trunk, she pulled out a large box inside of which was this:

Appetizer: homemade bruschetta with baguette slices; a salad with homemade salad dressing, a bag of feta cheese to sprinkle over it, and the pièce de résistance, homemade vegetarian lasagne, toasty warm.  I was blown away by this thoughtfulness and care.  We enjoyed it all so much.  We didn't get just one meal, we got three!  MacGyver and I both agreed it was the best veggie lasagne we'd ever tasted.  I still have to get the recipe as well as the one for her dressing, yum.  We 'fought' over the last of it, LOL.

That same month I received this letter from my friend Linda.

used with permission :-)

I just love the explanation Linda writes as to why she took the time to write me this lovely long letter.  Linda and I worked together for 15 years.  We share a lot of common loves and interests.  Being of nearly the exact same age, we have shared many a laugh at ourselves, as well as the angst of going through this 'interesting' stage of life called menopause. She has a wicked sense of humour, as you can see in her 'So what's happening in my "Oh so exciting I can hardly stand it" life?' line.  The fact that she took all the time to hand write the letter to me (something which is harder to do these days when nearly all of our writing takes places on a computer keyboard) meant even more, and the timing was terrific what with feeling like a shut-in at that time.

MacGyver was out in Alberta for 2 1/2 weeks near the beginning of July, (he's back home now) which is why I haven't been as active in QBL of late; all the dog stuff, house inside and out, meanwhile teaching and doing yoga, was in my hands.  No big deal really, but with the worry of Rocco doing something to aggravate his healing leg or damage the good back one (40% of dogs tear the other ACL apparently), has meant not as much free time.  He and Brady had a blast the entire time.

Preeti called me about a month ago, a wonderful surprise, chatting about this and that.  In a care package I received from her in the spring was this Mysore Sandal Soap from India, and I have been alternating it with my bodywash.  I again told her that I cannot get over how the smell gives me such a strong memory and sense of well-being.  Maybe a yoga studio I used to attend burned sandalwood incense?  I was Indian in a past life?  Anyhow, Preeti said she can't get over how much mileage in the form of thanks from me she's got from one bar of soap!

And then a couple of weeks ago I received this care package from Tish, who you know has become a very close friend:

Now I knew she was sending me the DVD of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" because neither of us have seen it, yet we each want to.  She came across it while shopping and told me she had picked it up to send me.  We had planned to watch it 'together' while MacGyver was out West, but Tish's MacGyver, Dave the Quilt Engineer, decided to be at home on opportune weekend watching evenings, so we have to reschedule.  I like how she staved off the loneliness on the part of the DVD by including a few fat quarters!

Another very close friend, Judy, sent me a care package that arrived the morning MacGyver left.  What impeccable timing, that I should get to drink coffee out of a mug from her!  This is MacGyver's (Yes! She got him one too, knows him very well...her own MacGyver might have this particular trait too...) 

The pretty pink Gerbera daisy is added by moi so no one will er, be offended

I think he smiles (even if it is just inside) each time he has used it for his morning coffee.  Now THAT just does not happen; not only is MacGyver not a people person, he is not a morning person.  Back.  Off.  Don't.  Talk.  I'll let you wonder what appropriate saying is on my mug, wink.

One thing I love about QBL is the support we give to each other.  I decided to support Ruth of Charly and Ben's Crafty Corner by joining her Rainbow Rose Quilt Along.  It has been fun, and the final linkup deadline is this weekend.  I just might have finished mine!  Come back tomorrow and I'll show you.  For now here is a photo of it earlier this week:

Seem to have a thing about ghost geese lately...

I got to thinking about all these wonderful friends (and there are many many more, like Pat, who reads and comments on every post, and told me last week she'd missed me), how they are like the pillow I made Tish earlier this year:  I was disappointed that after having had to wash it, it had crinkled up more than I'd anticipated, and then sending it to her put even more wrinkles in it, but Tish had said not to worry; it was fine.  And yes, like that wrinkled pillow cover, good friends really don't care if the other sees their 'wrinkles'; they see the soul, and that is all that matters.

Next on the agenda is an ongoing project with some more friends!  The Mini Round Robin.  I have oh, 3 days to get Round 2 complete and in the mail to Tish...

Linking up with
Sew Fresh Quilts

RSC and MM

I've not been in QBL much this past week, but I have got two other ongoing projects up to speed, well one is a bit behind still.  That would be Cheryl's Meadow Mystery.  I was going to shop my stash but then Sew Sisters Quilt Shop sent me an email with "New in Clearance" in the subject line and of course THAT grabbed my attention.  Northcott.  Mmmm, lovely soft hand to their fabrics.  Wow!  My colours!  I spent a little (too much) time deciding, got Tish's opinion, went back the next day (Saturday) to order and two of the fabrics I'd saved in my cart were no longer available! Waaaahhh.  Early bird and all that, yes...so, a little (too much) time farting around, re-figuring, and this is what I have:

From left to right, in ABCDE order as per Cheryl's Fabric Selection guide, they are Artisan Spirit Painter's Passion by Amy Sia Blue Planet Abstract Circles in green and the second one is the same line Abstract Floral Dark Blue, third is Leafy Sprigs by R.E.D. Fabrics from my stash, fourth is Tranquil Tides by Deborah Edwards in aqua, and Kona Snow from my stash.  Let it be known that of the handful of mystery quilts I have done, this is the first time I have purchased fabric specifically for one.  Also the turquoise you see across the bottom? An extra metre threw itself into my cart...I am building my turquoise and aqua stash, and I might use this as the flange for the binding.  Sale fabric is sold in 1 metre increments, so what's a gal to do... better buy a metre or two of fabric than pay the shipping is my motto.  The cutting instructions are out, and so I will now have to catch up on that step.  One other point to note: I ordered on Saturday afternoon and the fabrics were in my hands on Tuesday late morning!!  Love fast shipping.

I finished quilting the quilt flag I made for the Henry Glass Desire to Inspire Challenge from June.  You thought it was done, right? Nope. I just was running out of time, so it looked done...could've been done....

That's better!  Note, if one should decide to go back in on an already-bound quilt, and add more quilting that takes one to the binding attachment edge, one should probably undo the stitched down binding.  Parts of my swirls, even though they only go to that ditch of the binding seam, actually cross over and onto the black binding on the back.  Kind of detracts from the back of the quilt.  A bit.  Did I rip once I discovered this was happening?  Nope.  The front of this quilt is more important than the lake sayings on the back, and I very rarely will rip out FMQ.  Way too much of a PITA.

Now it is done and hangs daily in the garden  in the afternoon, when that part is in shade

RSC at soscrappy progress is totally up to date for both of my projects!  Here is my Pop Rocks planning (where I spend the vast majority of my time, digging and scrounging around in my stash, most therapeutic really and most alarming how much TIME this part takes!) and then the row for June, aqua with lime accents:

I do the square ring in each block in the accent colour of the month

The row:

From dark rich aqua to light

For July the colours are hot pink with lime green accents:

Finding light hot pinks was a bit of a challenge

Interesting two photos in that both are taken in the exact same part of the front entryway, but obviously different times of day for the natural light that comes through the glass in the front door.  The pink row is more intense than you see here; the aqua row slightly less intense.  I love both of these rows.  Who am I kidding I love each row!

Since I was on a roll with making these blocks, what's another 6 to add to the 18 I just made:

February colours, when I had not started either of my two ongoing projects for the RSC 2016, were brown with pink accents

This brings me to why I absolutely ADORE scrap quilts: memories.  Colour is a big part of my attraction for them too, but memory is #1.  The teddies?  First quilt I made for Dayna.  The cows, pig butt, and sheep (love that as Angela has a sheep for the February inspirational photo) in those same light brown two blocks?  Runners made for my dad's siblings, an aunt and an uncle, both farmers.  That fabric is Hen-Pecked Heifer Dairy by Andrea Fehr (a Canadian!) for Moda.  The square ring of pink in the medium brown blocks? Scrap from a quilt I made for my mum's 70th birthday that has been on her bed every day since...and that was 10 years ago this Fall.  The pink ring in the dark brown blocks?  Chair pads I made for solid oak chairs, of which I was so proud and then so sad when I had to sell them when we moved, that I bought with some money from my grandma.  They had a grey house appliquéd onto them and ruffles all around, ties as well.  Those are just a few of the memories of that one row.

Here are all the Pop Rocks blocks so far for the year:

Right after the edge of a storm blew on through, without any respite from the steamy heat and humidity but I am just fine with that!

In furry news, Rocco is now up to two walks around the circle, one in the morning and one in late afternoon or after supper.  We've bumped it to walking a bit through the field where future houses will go, across the street in front of the white house you see in the photo and back onto our lane.  There are driveway entrances at all three entry points so no curbs to negotiate with his healing knee.

Happy beautiful boy

In case you haven't heard/seen Craftsy is running a Christmas in July weekend sale on Kits and Supplies.  Don't do as I did, and put stuff in your cart and come back in a couple of days to buy it...other quilters are actually buying those great deals too, zut! as they say en français.  As of today you will find fabrics and kits from 20% to 60% off.  60%?? A Tula Pink pillows kit anyone?  Yup, 60% off.  If you click on the text link or the button in my sidebar, those are both affiliate links and I will get a commission on your purchase.  Thank you!  :-)

Note that I learned last night: if you put stuff in your cart and leave it there for more than a week, then go back to buy it, the "cookie" that gives the credit to the affiliate you clicked through, say, for example, me, won't get any credit, as that cookie only lasts for 7 days.  Just something to remember.  How to avoid that if you are like me and like to stick items in your cart for later?  Before going to Craftsy, just click through the affiliate blog link on who you want to credit to ensure the cookie is updated.

Linking up with
Confessions of a Fabric Addict  (such a great Christmas QAL Sarah is doing)
soscrappy

Flashing Geese Mini Mini

You may recall the minimini I entered into Make Modern's Challenge back in June:

I can tell you more about it now that it has arrived in Ireland, which was really quick btw!  Flashing Geese is now living in Helen's house.  Helen of Midget Gem Quilts.  Ha, just realized a minimini is an appropriately sized quilt for a midget gem of a blog no?!

Couldn't resist popping in this photo once again, geese on the ... hmmm...crane.  Whatever, birds of a feather, as I said before!

I had offered a little while ago to purchase and send some fabric to Helen if she wanted to take advantage of some of the awesome sales that occur from time to time at Fat Quarter Shop, and Craftsy.  Well she took me up on that offer.  How could I just merrily pop the little package in the mail to her when it arrived at my house without adding a little personal touch?  I couldn't.   This was also a way to test a paper-piecing pattern for another idea I had in the Henry Glass Fabrics Desire to Inspire Challenge.

Some of the symbolism in the minimini:
The name:  Flashing because you may recall Helen recently finished a gorgeous quilt called Mrs. Hot Hot using bee blocks from last year.  She and I are within a few months of the same age, so we occasionally get hot flashes... Geese because Canada Geese are even found in Ireland!   I am Canadian.

The binding:  First of all I love black and pink (to be honest, I love black with any colour) but I knew I wanted to frame this in a black and white print.  At the time I was binding it, Helen was "parlez-vous français-ing" around France, and when I spotted the Michael Miller Eiffel Tower print in my stash, well, cue the choir.  If you look closely at the binding, those longer 'strips' of white you see beside the tiny flower?  That's a part of La Tour Eiffel.

The quilting:
As I said to someone on the post where I showed you my Make Modern minimini entry, I guess it's micro-matchstick quilting!  I hadn't set out to do that but wanted to flatten the background around the coloured geese as well as the ghost geese, and the back and forth gave the sense of direction of zooming geese flying north or south, take your pick, with the swirls indicating wind currents.

The back: (a picture is worth a thousand words, as they say)

Quilt Stats:
Pattern:  based on a Carol Doak paper-piecing pattern
Size: 4.25" square
Fabric: scraps from my stash; backing is a charm square from a Northcott Fabrics Oh Canada and Stonehenge pack from Sew Sisters; binding is Michael Miller
Batting: Warm 'n Natural scrap
Quilted: on my Bernina
Threads: pieced and quilted with Gütermann; quilted with white Isacord 50 wt.

Linking up with
Crazy Mom Quilts

Q3FAL - My List

Here is my list for the third quarter of 2016. How can it be into the second half already, and HOW can it be 16 years into the millenium???  All right then, here is what I hope to have done and dusted by the end of September.

1.  Dayna's quilt

I don't normally "double-dip" as in put the same project on both OMG and my Quarter FAL, but this one is over a year overdue, has been on both lists, ahem, more than once, so I am bound and determined to get this one done, public shaming and all that.

2. Rainbow Rose

3. Half Hexies

4. Walleye potholder.  Not much left of the Better at the Lake fabric from the Henry Glass Desire to Inspire Challenge, but I have the pattern drawn up and the fabric prepped using Crafted Appliqué of course!  That is the last block from the fabric panel HG sent.

5.  Cows quilt - these were the most recent blocks from ahem, several months ago...  I followed Angela's at soscrappy RSC 2015 colours:

6.  Radiance (a long shot)

7.  A QAL with Judy at Quilt Paradigm, based on Soulful by Hideaway Girl.

8.  Midnight Mystery 2015

9.  A quilt for Brady.  He gets one every year when he comes for his September visit.  Of course he does.  He LOVES quilts.

I have two possibilities: either Allison Harris's Touchdown quilt.  I already have pattern and the Minky backing for it (bought it last summer with the other piece of lovely Minky when I visited Julie).  Here's a quick fabric pull (man, I love shopping in my stash!) for the football quilt.  Brady's favourite player is J.J. Watt, so I would put red and blue for the Houston Texans with the footballs. Red is Brady's favourite colour too!

OR I might make him Tish's Dandelion quilt.  So here's a quick pull for the Dandelion quilt; Brady loves dandelions.

Wow, both those pulls have me excited!

I love lists; I use them every day to help me focus.  It works.  Uh, mostly.  I hope this will help focus me for the next 2.5 months.  :-) 

Linking up with
Leanne at She Can Quilt

Looks like I am #152 in this worldwide Finish Along! Wish me luck.