Almost Off Course Already

I posted my Q2FAL list in my last post, and two days later, I'm admitting I've already had a DrEAMi!

It's a necessary DrEAMi! (the next linkup is May 3) and here's why:

I quite literally dropped everything that was in the queue and made six of these fast and easy blocks for the Humboldt Broncos hockey team. I'll be sending them off to Saskatchewan tomorrow where they will be made into quilts for the many many people affected directly by this horrific tragedy. I'm so glad people now think of first responders when they think of how they can help and who needs it. Our good friend John, Brandy the pibble's dad, is a volunteer firefighter and he says some of the accidents he has had to go to have left him sleepless for many a night. You can see it in his face when he talks (rarely, like twice) about it.

I put the first four blocks on Instagram Friday night, and added two more this afternoon. All six have a Benartex 'Wheat' fabric I've had for some time, supposed to go into a deep teal and golds quilt. When they said gold as one of the colours, and I started going through my yellows/golds, I spied this, and knew in my heart it was perfect. Saskatchewan, for those who may not know, is one of the three prairie provinces of Canada, with Alberta (my home province where I used to live) and Manitoba, the other two. Alberta and Saskatchewan's vast flat southern parts, as well as more than half way across Manitoba's southern lands, is perfect for growing wheat. I tried for a more masculine flavour to the fabrics as well.

When I came across this gold in amongst my plastic baggie of small yellow and gold scraps, another poignant, but oh-so-perfect moment happened: I'd include this piece of Laurel Burch's Mythical Horses fabric line with its selvage attached.

No explanation necessary as to why that's significant

This weekend was slated to catch up on some serious stitching, but taking an hour or so out to do these, is fine by me. If you want to help, you can go to the Saskatoon Modern Quilt Guild, who is helping the Humboldt Quilters organize this on social media. There is also a GoFundMe campaign which, at the time of writing this Sunday evening, is closing on $12 million. Takes my breath away.

I did work more in my yellow/gold scraps for my RSC2018 blocks, and I'm happy to keep keeping up with this project this year. Bright yellows and rich golds are this month's colours.

And yes, there is a scrap of wheat in my blocks now. A reminder of what was happening around me when I made these blocks. I love my yellow taxi scraps that worked into these two blocks, mementos from my 2007 trip to NYC.

LOOK what happened with the making of these two blocks!

I used every last 2.5" square in my 2.5" squares tray! I was as surprised as anyone; I thought they multiplied at night because I have not emptied any of the colours yet.

Don't worry; I have a Rubbermaid plastic container of smallish (under a fat quarter size) white/off-white etc scraps from which I was able to cut more, as well as several 3" squares to make the HSTs. (Gotta point out that arrow😁 I made that on my iPhone in Markup. Cool!)

The other serious stitching that happened resulted in a FFF!--not the FFFtt! that a cat hisses, but a finally finished flimsy!

Sorry for an inside shot, but it is pouring down and blowing, well blowing a bit less than the past 48 hours, but the rain hasn't lessened one bit, and we are under all kinds of flood warnings...but OH! how I love this top! Oh, how glad am I that I have finally made the first-ever-I-downloaded pattern from Craftsy, before these Postcard from Sweden QALs were a thing. Now to quilt this puppy and get it done for the linky that happens on April 18 right here on the blog. I'm thinking wavy organic lines, but I may veer off the perceived plan of action a wee bit, you know me... Pressure is good though to make me follow the KISS rule.

I ended up with several extra HSTs, which is to be expected when you cut squares and then cut them in half and you use an odd number. However, I do have four triangles left from Lake...as well as some other colours whose names escape me. A cushion cover or pillow shams might be in order methinks. I made the smaller size, by accident, menopausal brain short-circuiting again on anything math or numbers-related. I hate that! nvm I will take it to yoga as well for my students to ogle...bringing quilts to sit upon has brought out the several quilters in our yogi midst! I've told them more than once, I'm going to make quilters out of 'em all eventually...ha!

When I pulled out my Bright Pink to cut another square, that I believe was my own fault... that, or the wee ghosties that muck around in my sewing loft have hidden it because the right number are cut from the 1/2 yard I had... Anyhow, this happened:

Kona cat!

She has to perch on any and all fabric piles. Put her stamp of approval on, so to speak!

Hope you will check back in tomorrow, Monday, for the start of the New Quilt Bloggers Blog Hop! Eight new bloggers will be introducing themselves and their blogs to you, and I hope you'll pay them a visit. There are lots of great prizes to be won each week of the hop as well. Say a prayer to the Rafflecopter gods that I've set it up right...

My hive made some really fabulous buttons! It was a hard decision which one to pick, but they voted, and here it is:

All four of us co-hosts have made landing pages (here is mine) for the hop which will be updated throughout the hop as posts go live. See you tomorrow!

Linking up
with Angela at soscrappy

Q2 FAL My List

When someone said somewhere on social media that 2018 was one quarter done, my eyeballs popped open and my heart rate sped up! What? Wait! oh...yikes.

How did I do on Q1's List? I completed 5 of the 7 on the list, so I am pretty happy with that. The two incomplete will move onto this quarter's list, and I've moved them #2 and #11 on this list.

Here is the list of what I would like to have finished by the beginning of July!

1.  Postcard from Sweden

The deadline is April 18! It's further along than this photo, but not quite a flimsy yet.

2. One H2H quilt, to be made using some or all of the Canada fabrics on the left:

3. And I hope to use up the last bits of the Dot Crazy fabric, which is on the right in that photo, for a second H2H quilt. I used this fabric for the Plus Playtime quilt for the ezine Modern by the Yard, which also is the one we will be making in my second annual QAL! Head over to either of those links to download your free copy of the ezine which contains not only my pattern, but a few others, all free! For the first post and to see what fabric I'm using, click here. Next week is the main introductory post.


4. The IB challenge for April is a vintage design made with a modern flair. I plan to use these fabrics, and I'm super-excited to make what's been floating around in my head for the past week or two.

5. Here are the fabrics for the new Plus Playtime quilt I will be making, with an adult vibe, for my QAL.

6. I need to make two cat mats using these fabulous cat fabrics I used in Cat-Eye-doscope and I also want to make two cat mats for either the Windsor Humane Society, or the cat rescue I've heard about in Leamington. The second two might be out of these fabrics, maybe out of others.

7. I'd really like to finish my knitted selvedges rug, but that is dependent on how many selvedges I generate over the next three months!

8.  A cushion using some of these Island Batik beauties. I am not sure which ones yet, so this and #9 fabrics will possibly change a little, partly because I can't show you just yet some of the one set of fabrics we received.😉 I'll update this post once we're allowed to!

9. A crib size quilt also using some of these Island Batik beauties!

10. I need to finish the quilt for my niece, Fawn. I just have two more family quilts to make: hers and her brother's, and then all the nieces and nephews will have an Auntie Sandra quilt; well, Fawn and Dray will actually have two, as they each got crib quilts when they were babes.

11. Poor beloved beautiful migrating geese! This is one of my three RSC 2017 projects and I'd love to get it done this quarter since it got neglected last quarter, although I did get the backing assembled.

This should keep me more than busy I suspect!

Linking up
Busy Hands Quilts (certainly these are "Finished or Not!")
Confessions of a Fabric Addict (because I'm whooping about a new list and possibilities!)
Dizzy Quilter (for the FAL)
Tish 'n Wonderland (because #2, 10 and 11, well and now, ha, #1 are UFOs)

Adult Plus Playtime QAL

How's THAT for a catchy title? Betcha all kinds of thoughts went through your head right?! I just learned about Bake Alongs, I knew about Quilt Alongs, Sew Alongs, Knit Alongs...Love the #wtf (what the fade) knit along that was on IG not long ago...

Any-who.

First of all, if you've come here to link up your Postcard from Sweden finished quilt, you may have missed the announcement here on the blog and on my IG feed, that the finish parade has been extended one week, and will occur next Wednesday, April 18.

One QAL finishing, and another is beginning! I am pleased as punch to promote--well, announce, but I liked the alliteration--my second annual (well, it seems to be a thing; may as well put a name to it) Quilt Along! Secondly, it also seems to be a thing that I'm becoming, or have become, a Shadow Woman (thanks to Kathleen for the nomenclature). Thirdly, it also seems to be a thing that my annual QAL is going to be another shadow quilt!! I've hinted that we are going to do another, and I've hinted at what quilt we are going to do...

January edition of Modern by the Yard

I used Benartex's Dot Crazy by Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr, which you can find in quilt shops now. It has a definite fun, kid-oriented feel to it, hence, the name Plus Playtime. It's so interesting to see interpretations of my designs; when I first designed this, in the #30quiltdesignschallenge2017 I co-hosted last year on Instagram, I had all the good works of the Red Cross in mind, and so my cross or plus was red, the background white, and a rainbow of pluses twirling across to symbolize that the Red Cross organization is worldwide and they help without discrimination. Lisa, the editor of the ezine, wanted me to use Dot Crazy, and it took on a different feel.

Now for the QAL, I'm doing the new quilt with an adult vibe, using another Benartex line I had the privilege to work with in the Wonderlust Blog Hop,  Paula Nadelstern's Wonderlust.

Aren't those fabrics so rich that you just have to touch or pet them?! My large plus will be the Electric Slide kaleidoscope fabric and the background will be the black marbella. These fabrics are in quilt shops now too!

AND... one of the prizes will be a bundle of several of these beauties. 😁

Here are two shots of the entire quilt:

You can still download the ezine at Benartex's blog, Sew in Love With Fabric, (look on their sidebar at the top) where you will find the instructions (and if you don't QAL very well, but you're an eager beaver, no names mentioned, but a certain Caribbean-area quilter knows who I mean ha), then you can dive (pun intended, Louise) right in!

The ezine is free, and not only contains my Plus Playtime quilt, but also patterns for a few others, and some interesting worthy-of-reading articles. If you haven't downloaded it, hop on over there and get your free copy right now. I bet you might find another project or two you just have to make!

I hope you'll consider joining in; the pace will be slow as it was last year, but this quilt is much easier to construct. All you have to do for now, is download the ezine, and come back on April 24 for the introductory post. Just to give you an idea of the time frame, the final parade of finished quilts will be July 17, with a 5-week gap between finished top which will be June12, the week of my dad's birthday, as a nod to him and to my first QAL which finished ON his birthday.

That's it! See you April 18, next Wednesday, for Postcard from Sweden parade of finished quilts, and then Tuesday April 24 for the first installment of the Plus Playtime QAL!

Wait. I promised you a photo of the sweet pibble fostered by my friend with whom I met up on a recent not-quite-planned extra trip south, the oh-so-sweet-I-can-hardly-stand-it, Lester.

Those eyes!!  Patient and calm, while we talked and went through fabric. Friendly without being boisterous. A little old man, in that he had a soft comfy bed made up for him to ride shotgun in style and safety. Altogether a sweet sweet boy who is living with her temporarily while she tries to find him a forever home. Believe me, it was so so hard not to take him with or instead of some fabric!

Linking up
Sew Fresh Quilts
Quilt Fabrication

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!

She said when she thinks of water, she dreams of a tropical location. Oh she knows me well! When I say water, I think tropical or summer too. The detail she stitched in is just exquisite. I especially love the fancy machine-stitch she did by the hand-embroidered grass tufts! Just wow.  I also love the 3D effect of the palm tree, one of my favourite trees, 😎 and the pop of red from the cute button against the aqua. She packaged it with such care that it arrived in perfect condition. It's always a bit scary when you send something that you've made off into the post office's care... I've had three not-so-happy incidents over the past 2.5 months. Things come in threes, so I believe I am done, and can go back to all-is-well-and-arrives-safely post office encounters. Proof of this is that my aunt's quilt, Sunshine on my Shoulders, arrived safely at her house this past week.

Sadly, the postcard I made for my partner who lives in Oregon, is one of the three not-so-happy post office incidents.  I wrote about it here when I hosted TGIFF, on March 15, which was the day I mailed it off to the other side of my continent. About two weeks later I got it back....incorrect postage. I don't know why the post office worker did not catch it; I had a small parcel to send at the same time, which is the third not-so-happy post office incident, so I personally gave her the postcard in its envelope with the other parcel I was mailing. Said parcel was sent off to Chicago (not to Jen, ha) taking three weeks to get there, what should have arrived in two days according to my receipt. (insert small scream) The first of the not-so-happy incidents? Helen's, of Midget Gem Quilts, Kona fat quarters and eighths that she and I traded for our Postcard from Sweden hop took six or was it eight weeks to get from Ontario to Ireland. About a week is the usual.

But back to the topic at hand, my postcard.  My partner told me 'beach' for her word. Like Jen, I immediately thought tropical, and was scheming up possible beach scenes to create. And then, a little lightbulb went on in my head: maybe you should check out her blog to get a feel for the kind of beach she likes?  So I did.  And found she lives only a half hour from the mighty Pacific Ocean, and wonder of wonders not far at all from this very beach, Cannon Beach, a place, on a camping trip along the west coast in 2007 where we stopped to marvel, and someone else offered to take our picture against these incredible monoliths that rise up out of the ocean. (You can see that picture in my other post.)

I love sandpipers and other shorebirds, so I made three and appliquéd them on. One got rather hidden beneath the satin-stitching. I used Lara Buccella's Crafted Appliqué method, which is just so wonderful a method, especially for fine and/or tiny pieces. I'm glad I have a little stash of landscape-looking fabrics. I was so pumped when I saw the ocean water fabric! No clue where I picked that little fat quarter up, but it was perfect.

I sewed the ocean to the sky with a straight seam for the horizon, and the ocean to the sand with a gentle curve. From there I drew the appliqués and stitched around them.

Next was layering with some Thermore batting. I pulled out several threads, all Sulky rayons and one metallic Holoshimmer, and had some fun!

My mmm!quilts label is on the back with a personal message for her. I do hope it arrives in short order; it's been more than a week since I mailed it off for the second time... I know it has to go first to Windsor, and then up to Toronto, and then probably cross into the US back at the Windsor/Detroit border(!) and from there make its way across the continent.

I hope you will visit these other creative bloggers!

Denise @ DottieDoodle

Isis @ Creation d'Isis 

Karen @ Run Sew Fun

Lynette @ What A Hoot Quilts

Laura @ LC's Cottage

Lisa @ Sunlight in Winter Quilts

Marsha @ Quilter in Motion

Michelle @ Creative Blonde

Paige @ Quilted Blooms

Patty @ Elm Street Quilts

Sandra @ mmm! quilts

Susan @ California Fiber and Music

Valerie @ Val's Quilting Studio

Dione @ Clever Chameleon

This one is Dione's!

OMG for April

Sneaking this puppy in just under the deadline...

I hope to finish a top by the end of April for Hands2Help at Confessions of a Fabric Addict. I plan to make two again for Sarah's wonderful charity quilt drive, one of which has to be out of some wonderful Canada fabric. Here are just a few of the Canada-themed prints I have amassed over the past year:

My second goal is to complete an entire quilt, minimum 36" square, by the end of April, because that is our Island Batik challenge this month, to remake a vintage quilt block/pattern with a modern vibe. My quilt is in my head, and I so hope that what I envision comes into fabric! I plan to use this line plus whatever else I may need from the 'tickle trunk' of supplies they sent us.

I just love these challenges! Yes, there's the pressure, but I work well under pressure, always have. I think it's may be because it forces me to put on the blinders and ignore the squirrels and social media world and SEW!

A few items to note:

1. I hope you come back tomorrow for my postcard swap hop post. You've seen the one I made, but you'll get to see it again as well as the one I received and hear about the quilters behind them. I'll also have the list of several other hoppers.😉

2. The New Quilt Bloggers Blog Hop begins April 16! That seemed quite far away when we were back in the planning stages in January and February, and now it's just 10 days away! You will get to visit eight new bloggers each week, and did I mention that there are MANY fabulous prizes?.

3. I have been fairly quiet on the affiliate links front of late. I think it's worth noting in this post, however, that Craftsy (affiliate link) has a couple of great deals on right now. The first is a 7-day free trial of their Unlimited Classes platform:

And the second is 50-60% of hundreds of classes on this weekend, April 6-8...

4. Connecting Threads (affiliate link) has a great deal on this weekend only, an extra amount off your purchase, and that purchase can include some, or all, sale merchandise!

Remember they have batting, aka wadding, 30% off all this month too, a great time to stock up, which is something I usually do during their sales or Craftsy's. I have been using more Hobbs batting, partly because we got some in our IB goodies, but also because I got it at Michael's with a coupon and I really am liking both the 80/20 cotton/poly as well as I'm in LOVE with the Tuscany 100% poly. The Thermore is pretty amazing too for minis, gotta say! What is also amazing is CT's free shipping policy(to US, Canada, UK, and Australia), so if you do nothing else, at least check that out.

Okay off to finish the postcard post and link this up with Patty at Elm Street Quilts!

Throwback Thursday #4 Bear's Paw

I've wanted to tell this quilt's story for a long time, but the quilt doesn't live with me anymore, and I needed fresh photos. I took these in November 2016, but TBT had already stopped, so there the photos sat... Welcome to Throwback Thursday, where we blog about a quilt we made before our blogging days!
This particular quilt is extra-extra special, because it is the quilt.

Photo of a photo. Brianne on the left, Dayna on the right, quilt holders  back in 1996

The Bear's Paw block was the first quilt block I made after making Grandmother's Fan. Ha! When I think of that fan block I made circa 1990...cotton/poly broadcloth, viyella, (which is a wool/cotton twill weave), pink and burgundy scraps from clothes I'd made, templates drawn on corrugated cardboard, cut out, drawn around onto fabric and then cut with scissors again...yikes. A good friend taught me that block. I wish I still had the pillow I made, as I loved it, but it's long gone. Funny, I just now realize that the first two quilt blocks I made were from scraps. Yep the love/craze for scrappy quilts runs deep.

DrEAMi! #14

Late Saturday evening, I got a ping! in the conscious part of my brain from the subconscious. "Today is (was) DREAMi!" Oh no...

So here I am on Sunday morning to open the linky to see what had your regular projects go off the rails in March! I, again, did not, unless you do count the postcard I made over the course of a straight, focused day and a half of sewing. However, it wasn't something out of left field...

Again multiple deadlines and then an extended Easter long weekend trip have ensured I stay on track. I'm part of the parade of postcards on Elm Street Quilts this coming week, so be sure to visit Patty for the links to all these fun postcards that have been zipping around the world... some back and forth, like mine, which came back to me...waaaahh. But never fear, I resent it on its way across this continent.

How did you do? Did you stay focused? Or did your best laid plans go off the rails.... but the end result was sew worth it!

An InLinkz Link-up