O Canada Placemats

Another item on my long list of USOs (UnStarted Objects) is a set of placemats. I am happy to report that I finished them up yesterday!

Why it’s taken me this long to make these I do not know…shame on me.

Rainbow Scrap Challenge Quilt Finish

I am happy to present my first RSC quilt, now finished and ready for a new home. Every year since 2015 I’ve participated in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge with Angela at So Scrappy. I’ve made one, two or sometimes even three projects with scraps, a few I’ve kept, but most I’ve given away as comfort quilts. This one will be donated somewhere I think. 

Rainbow Scrappy Churn Dash

This quilt, you may recall, is another where I built small slabs with crumbs and then cut them into HSTs or rectangles. 

Gratitude and Glimmers #98

The world is full of magic things, patiently waiting for our sense to grow sharper.

--W. B. Yeats

Welcome to my post of glimmers (of joy and wonder) and gratitude for the month of August. It is a week late, partly due to Brady being here for nine days, and partly due to a commission of four project bags. You can find links to more posts like this one at LeeAnna's blog, Not Afraid of Color.

1. If you follow me on Instagram, you will know that caterpillars and butterflies have captivated me this month. Last year we intentionally bought several perennials and annuals that are good for pollinators, and boy have we been rewarded. I've had monarchs, pipevine swallowtails (the black one with iridescent blue and orange and white markings), gigantic yellow swallowtails, a hummingbird moth and Mason wasps, to name the prettiest ones.

You can see several little videoclips on my Instagram, @mmmquilts.

Rainbow Scrap Challenge Quilt 1

After I posted my turquoise block on Instagram on the weekend, and then a photo of the layout on my design wall of all eight blocks, it started an itch that had to be scratched.

Annoyingly, the HSTs do not have their strips oriented all the same way, because I forgot to pay attention to which diagonal I needed to cut on, but then I remembered something Angela Walters said in a course I took with her, "If you make a mistake, repeat it, and it becomes a design element!" So I'm calling this and its yellow friend a design element.😇

This is the third unicorn centre. I love them. It’s a Benartex Fabrics print by Ann Lauer that I used during my Follow Your Own Path quilt along in 2021 to make ‘Be A Unicorn’.

Suburbia

I am pleased to present another finish, one that's been on the stack of USOs for quite some time! USOs are what I call Un-Started Objects, those kits or chunks or bundles of fabrics one gathers with pattern for a quilt you intend to make almost right away...except that 'right away' doesn't happen because other projects, be they must-do's or squirrels or quilt alongs or guild activities, or quilt courses and so on and so forth, get in the way. I have rather a few USOs, ahem. This, however, is no longer one of them!

This was a bundle of fat quarters with accompanying pattern from I believe bluprint, who took over from Craftsy. 

A Flimsy, a Fun Fabrication and a Flag

First of all the flimsy. This is a fat quarter bundle I picked up years ago from Bluprint or perhaps still Craftsy when I bought this. It came with the pattern which is called Suburbia by Cozy Quilts. Gorgeous fabrics and a design that showcases them so well. 

It’s big: 58.5" x 60". I took my time and used my design wall throughout the entire process, working across the quilt with the 17 fabrics to evenly distribute colours and lights and darks. I just need to settle on a backing and then get it loaded and quilted. I'm thinking large meander as I want the fabrics to take centre stage. I have two, make that three, (I just remembered the Gravity kit--why have I waited so long on that?) other Craftsy/Bluprint quilt kits and one tote bag kit to check off my UFO, or rather, USO, list. That's not counting various other USOs and a couple of UFOs, so don't think I only have four items!

Tinker Toys Pattern Release

Yay! Finally, after two long years, I can publish my Tinker Toys design that was in the August 2023 issue of Love of Quilting. I honestly do think that is an exorbitant amount of time to not own the rights to my own design, but, sniff! and hmph! I have not submitted another to them since! You may recall that last fall I did get permission to publish a throw size of the quilt, with my own instructions (they changed them slightly in the magazine) and in a completely different colour scheme. Well, now the baby quilt, throw, and even a cushion cover are all in one pattern. And oh yes, it's on sale all August long weekend!

This perfect spot for a photo, or even a sit😊, which many people do, is the front of The Grove Hotel on Main Street in Kingsville. It's a beautiful old hotel, totally renovated, built in 1854. I think they should have a couple of quilts on those rocking chairs! Might have to approach them...