con fuoco

Like writing blog posts, naming quilts can sometimes be quite a process for this girl.  There are times, however, when a post magically almost writes itself as I type, as do some quilts magically name themselves.  This one's name took a bit to birth, but when it did present itself, on a walk (but of course, that meditative frame of mind when so many many good ideas and thoughts come to mind), it was magical, another warm tingly (no not the precursor to a hotflash) moment for me.  Just a note, there are a hundred photos here!

Note the presence of our purple iris!

Pattern & Fabric Giveaway Winners and No-Reply Bloggers

First of all, thank you SO MUCH to all the lovely comments about my pattern and the quilting!  Pshaw.  I truly appreciate your kind words.  So, without making you read to the end to find out, the Custom Random Number Generator picked the following three winners of the 84 comments that were there at 9 am this morning when I picked.  All three winners have been emailed.

The first pick was fabric and it went to Leanne Parsons at Devoted Quilter:

The second and third picks were for copies of my pattern Blue Skies & Sunny Days, and it has been emailed off to:

and

Congrats all three of you!

RSC and OMG

Angela said think forest when you think of the colours for May: green and a bit of brown.  Earlier this week I had that in mind when I pulled fabric and hauled my findings upstairs where I now work while Rocco heals.

This second of my two RSC 2016 projects requires six blocks which run from lights to darks.  So not only am I playing with colour, I am also playing with value.  It's been a good opportunity to experiment and learn.  The next morning I ended up at this point:

Sigh. She HAS to test out any new projects and new to her fabric, and get into a photo, any photo.  Try again:

Pay attention to the browns there for later.

A little later that morning on my pibble-less (sniff) walk, I walked along the Chrysler Canada Greenway, which is a part of the Trans Canada Trail.

 I love this trail that cuts right through my town.

You can't get any sense of the depth here at Mill Creek; it really is quite a drop down there to that massive log.  I hear John Denver's "Cool and Green and Shady" in my head when I look at this photo.  THAT was my fabric pull!  That would most likely be similar to what Angela had envisioned.

Got home and between a few (read huge) events on Thursday and Friday, mainly on Friday, (see this post for details), I sewed these:

Oh yes, Bella messed them up.  More than once.  It was only when I put my medium mint chocolate blocks beside the light ones that I immediately noticed the browns.  Do you see?  The brown in the lightest value are actually darker value than those in the medium value!  I do love the pops of kelly green in the brown of the medium blocks and I don't know that they'd have glowed as much had they been with the lightest greens.  Also the browns in relation to the medium greens could appear darker if put with the light greens...yikes did you follow that?  I did when I typed it!  Regardless, I'm learning by doing and playing with colour and value.

Wanna see them all so far?

I'm liking it!  Technically the purple should be above the orange, but I wasn't about to move everything down (none of the blocks are sewn together) in order to do that. I still have to do the January blue with a bit of purple row and the February brown with a pop of pink row.  This second project sort of happened in Florida in March...another DREAMI moment.  Drop Everything And Make It.  Do you get those?

I'm looking forward to working with June's colours: blue leaning toward aqua with a pop of lime green.

One of the huge events I referred to is that I'm also working with some very specific fabrics in June on another project, which leads nicely into my OMG goal for June.  This is going to come completely out of left field, and it is totally a DREAMI event.  If you missed yesterday's post, you won't know that EEEEEEP!!! There is a new button on my sidebar...I got chosen to be the June designer for Henry Glass Fabrics Desire to Inspire challenge!!  I am just so über-excited I can hardly stand it!  There should be some lake-themed yardage arriving shortly for me to delve into and create some fabulous stuff by the end of June.

Photo from Henry Glass Fabrics; used with permission

So I will be creating at LEAST a couple of items by the end of June; did I mention my brain is fizzing with ideas?   Don't worry; I've written them down, as we all know how on vay-cay my menopausal melon is these days...just wait, you will DIE when you hear what I did when I packaged up my Uncle Frank's and my Auntie Joyce's quilts to send to England...

Linking up with soscrappy for the RSC 2016 and with Red Letter Quilts for OMG.

Blue Skies & Sunny Days Pattern Release & A Giveaway

I am doing a happy dance extraordinaire in my corner of QBL:  today is the release of my first 'for sale' pattern!

Available for purchase on Craftsy

The Quilts

You may recall Blue Skies...

which was made from strips cut from a 10-yard fabric bundle of Michael Miller fabrics from Craftsy which I bought back in December.  Blue is my favourite colour, so the turquoises and royal blues in the bundle really attracted me.  As did the price, not gonna lie.  By now, you know how much I love good deals!  Don't we all?

In February I made the flimsy for the Craftsy Sweetens Up My Quilting Life blog hop, as I wanted to showcase the bundles available; prior to this purchase, I had had no idea you could get yardage, and fantastic deals on said yardage.  I finished it in April.  It is the first quilt for sale in my Etsy shop.

Then I made Sunny Days.

I wanted to add a row to have a rectangular quilt, and I knew I could eliminate some of the seams.  I love saving thread, fabric and time as much as I love deals, LOL.  I also loved the pink and yellow combination in another Michael Miller bundle from Craftsy, this one a fat quarter bundle, from which I made a second rendition of their Three Quarter Patch Tote.

Sunny Days is also for sale in my Etsy shop.

I seem to have developed a thing for quilts in trees...

The Pattern Tester

I was blown away the weekend that I posted the Sunny Days finish:  Tish of Tish's Adventures in Wonderland, was dead serious when she sent me a message saying that her husband, David, wanted to make my pattern.  I had, at first, thought she was joking.  Nope.  She had shown him a photo of the quilts and he really liked the design.  Thought he could maybe make it.  And wow, did he!!

David's "Hawaiian Stepping Stones" in a tree just for me!

You can read about David's first quilt, his FIRST QUILT, right here.  There is no stopping this man; before he had even got to the flimsy stage, he was planning another quilt, thinking in colours on the way to work...Tish and I are just so proud of what he has done, our little, er large, manly protégé quilt-builder!  I am pleased that my pattern is beginner-friendly!

I am just so very thankful and grateful and truly amazed at all the help Tish has given me this past month. She it is who did the block and layout diagrams in EQ7 for me from my drawings.  She even redid the layout for the background cutting in Sunny Days, not once but oh three times!!! Never one "Nope, can't do it right now, sorry," always a "Let me know if there is anything else you need."  Hugs big ones, and a 'mwah!' to you my darling friend.

This week I asked Cheryl of Meadow Mist Designs if she'd be able to give the pattern the once-over with her expert eye.  I am so very very grateful for all the improvements that resulted from her wise suggestions!  It means so much that a designer at her level would do this for little ol' me and do it pronto!  Thank you Cheryl!

The backs

The Pattern

And now, to make the circle complete, you can purchase your own copy of the pattern in my Craftsy pattern store!  For the first week, that is until June 10, it will be on sale for $5.  After that it will be $7.  I've included instructions to make both sizes of quilts, as well as two methods of construction for the quilts, one with jelly roll strips and the other with strips and yardage.  But wait, there is a giveaway....

The Henry Glass Fabrics Desire to Inspire Challenge

Well I must say June 2 has been one Red Letter Day, the day that I made the final tweaks to my pattern, ready for release, and then... received an email in the later afternoon telling me that they, the Henry Glass Fabrics peeps, had chosen me, moi! to be the designer for the month of June!!  I am hap-hap-hap-HAPPY DANCING indeedy-do I AM!!!  When I saw the lake-themed fabric, I was like, PUH-LEEZE pick me, pick me, pick me...I live on Lake Erie; I see her every day....and well, they did pick me!  I hope to make them proud.  Want to throw your hat into the ring for a challenge?  Follow their blog and watch for the announcement for the July challenge, usually on the blog the 1st of the month.
Here is their announcement Friday morning about moi.

Giveaway

And now to celebrate the pattern release, I am going to give away 3 (my favourite number) prizes: 2 copies of the pattern, and a 13-strip set of 2.5" fabrics that I used in Blue Skies.  Sadly, due to the cost of postage, I will only be able to mail the strips within Canada and the US, but the pattern giveaway is open internationally.  Just leave me a comment that says in what colour or colour combination you'd make my quilt!  Followers can have a second entry, just tell me how you follow me.  New followers are always welcome!

**Please check if you are a no-reply blogger (Look below the comments! There's a great, simple fix right there.) and leave your email address in your comment so I can find you.  If you don't, I will have to draw another winner.

I will draw on Sunday evening and winners will be notified by email and on my post, Monday, June 6.  I hope you understand that due to the volume of comments I won't be responding to them on this post.  I faithfully do otherwise, as that is the way I have met such wonderful souls in QBL.  :-)

Winners have no been chosen and notified by email. Thanks so much for the lovely comments everyone!  :-)
 
Linking up with
Confessions of a Fabric Addict
Crazy Mom Quilts
TGIFF this week at Devoted Quilter

May Wrap-Up

I did a little more shopping, Indie style over the past week.  This was in support of some wonderful designers who, like those I already purchased from in a previous post, give a lot of free stuff to QBL in the form of tips and tutorials, patterns, quilt-alongs, and so on.

May is for Makers is the initiative of Lindsey of LRStitched. You can read her post there, where she talks about the philosophy behind her mandate.

The pattern I purchased first in the last week of May is by a lovely Canadian quilter, who lives about 3.5 hours north of me: Lorna of Sew Fresh Quilts.  Lorna hosts one of my favourite linky parties each Wednesday, Let's Bee Social.  It's a great place to find some new blogs, maybe make some new friends and oh, you betcha, find some new distractions, er, inspirations!

I plan to make her free QAL Doggone Cute quilt yet, just couldn't stuff it into the projects list when it was going on, but oh did it look fun.  And IMHO, the 'poster dog' for the quilt is a pibble!  Um yeah?!  After much thought (she has some fabulous designs), I decided to buy her Black Birds Quilt pattern.  I have a lovely neighbour down the street who is an avid bird guy, raises them, and has forgotten more about birds than I will ever know.  He knows a ton about trees and plants around here too, has taught this Alberta-girl much about the Carolinian forest where I now reside.  So this quilt will eventually go to him.

I also (finally) ordered some "mmm! quilts" labels to sew into my quilts that I list for sale on Etsy.  I followed Lorna's link on her blog to Ikaprint so she should get a little commission off my order.  More than one way to support a blogger/designer. ;-)

Second on the purchase list was from Cindy of Stitchin' At Home, also another Canadian quilter and now good friend of mine.  She lives even closer to me than Lorna does, just 'up the lake' a ways, maybe a couple hours?  For Buzzin Bumble Lara's Crafted Appliqué blog hop, Cindy designed her own pattern and did such a sweet little quilt.  Then she decided to offer her design for sale on her Craftsy pattern store!  This is her first 'for bucks' pattern. And uh, it's just over one buck you guys!

Love her fabric choices - used with permission

Third is my friend Beth, at Cooking Up Quilts, who is, like my good friend Tish, a West Virginia gal.  We met during the New Bloggers Group last summer, and got to know each other better through a mutual friend, Julie at Pink Doxies.  We got to know each other even better through the Craftsy blog hop that Julie and I hosted in February, as well as through some email conversations that occurred following her wonderful linky, Main Crush Monday.  See how linking up, or joining in a hop can bring you new friendships?  Love that.  Beth has some lovely patterns.  It was a hard decision!  I chose Floating.

My favourite colour combination - used with permission

I've bought patterns over the years from independent designers; I am a firm believer in supporting them.  However, having this gentle reminder and encouraging others to remember to support designers and bloggers was a terrific idea.  Buying something through a blogger's Craftsy affiliate link is another way to show someone a little love....which brings me to this:  can I ask each of you a favour?  Because I've had more than a couple of orders from friends and even a family member NOT get credited or tracked to me, can you shoot me an email if you do order through my Craftsy link?  I don't need specifics, just an order # and then I can be sure that it went through me.  This has been going on now for nearly 6 months, so I'm concerned, since these are only the orders I know about; how many will I never know about?

Speaking of Craftsy, who I do love, despite this glitch, which I hope will be figured out asap, the pattern for Blue Skies & Sunny Days is about to launch through my Pattern Store!  You can bet I will have it on sale for the launch, and you can also bet there will be a giveaway or three.  Should be this Friday.  Eeep!

Linking up with Let's Bee Social.

Mini Round Robin

It's all Cindy's fault.  She writes at Stitchin' At Home; we met in last summer's New Quilt Bloggers Group.  Cindy asked Julie of Pink Doxies fame if she'd like to do a swap over the summer with a few friends.  Julie ran that thought by me, and I said cool, but how would we swap in a group...hmmm, we had a think...and then I asked, what about a round robin idea?  Make it small so it's quick.  Easy and fun.  Went back to Cindy.  Thumbs up.  So I asked Tish, of Tish's Adventures in Wonderland, if she wanted in, and she immediately said, "Cool!"  And thus we had our group of four, already good friends thanks to several hops and activities and emails and iMessages and FaceTime.  Oof-da!!  :-)

I don't believe anyone in QBL has done a Mini Round Robin!

So what are our guidelines?  We determined that in order for it to be a Mini, it should have a finished perimeter of approximately 24" a side.  With four of us in the group, that meant each round should total about 6" finished.

This 1/3 yard fabric was hanging on my sewing chair, not sure why or when I pulled it out, but last night it told me it wanted to be the centre; all I have on the selvage is (Ro) Gregg for Northcott

The centre block would be a maximum of 6" finished, but it could be less than that, and it didn't have to be square.  You could have a 5" finished block, or a rectangle, or a triangle, hexagon.... Each round would total 6" maximum finished, so 3" finished if doing a round on all four sides, or 6" if only adding to two sides, or 7" if the centre was only 5"...and the endless creative possibilities begin!

We have to have our first block in the mail on May 31, shuffle to be determined by good old MacGyver.  The first round has to be done and posted about at the end of June, in the mail June 30, Round 2 by July 31, Round 3 by August 31, and finished quilting and final post Show 'n Tell in early October.

Final decision:  Northcott quilt shops, Nana's Abstractions by ?, Julie's gorgeous hand-dyed batik, and Good Neighbors by Connecting Threads, a fitting background

How hard can it be to whip up a 6" block?  I had a couple of ideas, but let them percolate over this past rather eventful month on the quilting and on the personal fronts.  One of the events was my mum requesting a quilt to take to my aunt in England.  Another was Lara's blog hop, (that'll take you to the schedule) for her first book, Crafted Appliqué, (no affiliation) which resumes tomorrow and culminates in some AHH-mazing giveaway prizes June 4!!  And then I decided I couldn't send my Auntie Joyce a quilt without sending one for her husband, my Uncle Frank, who is my mum's brother.  The quilting is finished on it; I had a BLAST quilting...

Third pass of wavy line FMQ motifs along some of them.  My Muse and I, along with Avril, were in such sweet harmony (ha, pun not originally intended). I think I may have created an original FMQ motif with the music notes under Christina Cameli's 'Leafy' motif.  Eeep!

and might have not torn myself away from it until it was completely done last night, which is why I got a rather late start to actually making my 6" block.  I might have also changed my plan...

Pat Sloan's Row 1 block in American Patchwork & Quilting, appealed to me as a great way to showcase the quilt shop fabric. Also, traditional meets modern with both older and new fabrics, all in a 'new' block!

It was 12" finished, but how hard could it be to make it 6"?  Cut everything in half, right?

Block on the left is the correct size; block on the right will grow up into a ... 'nother mini?! That or a pincushion!

BZZZ!  Nope!  It was soon apparent that we had a problem, Houston.

You do cut the finished measurement of each section in half, and from there add back on the 1/2" for the seam allowances.  After 9 pm, my brain doesn't fire on all cylinders at the best of times, but add in the menopausal brain farts I am plagued with, and the plan goes awry.  I went to bed.  5:30 comes early...

I was stressing about going to yoga this morning when I should be re-doing my block and taking photos and writing the post, and then I thought, 'Sandra!  It's a blog!  You aren't going to be docked pay!' And so I did what yoga teaches: live in the moment.

It's a beautiful thing, doing yoga, making that 45-minute drive back home, which is when the lightbulb first went on, grabbing a coffee at home, and going straight to work... and it WORKED!!

1.25" squares on 1.5 X 3.5" rectangles; direction matters!

The trickiest part was those little squares.  MacGyver and I talked this morning (after all he is a math guy):
Me: So I think I need to do a ratio to figure out the size of the little squares.  2 is to 2.5 as what is to 1.5?
MacGyver: Well you're talking 80%.
Me: 80%...oh! 20 out of 25! (translate it to teaching...ergo test scores...and I am up to speed)
MacGyver: Yeah.  So the second number would be 1.2.
Me: Like 12 out of 15!  Hmmm...1.2 isn't going to happen...I'll have to do 1.25 and hope for the best.

I did a happy dance that it worked:

Woo hoo!  Wait...it's not square, and I knew it wouldn't be, because Pat Sloan has you add a 2.5X12.5 strip to one side of her block.  Hers are symmetrical; mine is not.  Direction mattered in the placement of the squares with the green triangles, and in the subsequent placement of the rectangles with green triangles.  Drat.  Well, I could leave it as a rectangle; our guidelines had determined that.  Did I want to do that to the next person after the math crap I'd just gone through?  Uh, no.

It would not do to have the house off to one side by adding a strip as per Pat's plan.  Could I split the strip and sew half to each side?  We determined that using the 'X' background fabric would make it look like there was a mistake.  Tried the green (how I adore this hand-dyed by Julie fabric!!) hmmm, not quite right; what about trying the blue? Yep, we both liked the blue.  And so it is!  6.5" square, ready to be sent off.

MacGyver did his shuffle work this morning, so my block is now going to be mailed to Tish.  You can check out the other blocks here:
Tish's
Julie's
Cindy's

And! Tish made us a not only a button (see sidebar), but also a #miniroundrobin hashtag!  She's SO computer savvy, that girl.  You may recall she has made me some block and layout diagrams for my Blue Skies & Sunny Days pattern which David, her husband, should be finished testing this Memorial Day Monday!  If you're on Instagram, he's posted a few in-construction photos.  Might have a release of the pattern very shortly...

If you would like to join in on our Mini Round Robin, please do!  All you need to do is form your own group of four.  Follow our guidelines, or make up your own.  Post your progress at the end of each month.  I will set up a linky for us to share, and perhaps see about some prizes of some kind, depending on interest.  New groups of four will be one month behind us, but that is okay!

Linking up with Cooking Up Quilts!

And Free Motion By the River

Sunday Stretch for Sewists #9

Wow, it is already the end of May and time for another yoga pose to help those aching muscles.  Today I'll show you a pose that is not only good for your low back, but excellent for those of you who maybe have a herniated or slipped disc, as it gently helps realign the discs with the vertebrae.

As with any of these poses, listen to your body: if there is any pain, come out.  You want a steady tugging or tension feeling, the kind that makes you want to groan.  Also remember that this is a Yin style of doing this pose, so do not force or push; you want to relax into it.

Sphinx pose

This is an extension pose for your spine; in other words, a backbend.  Stage 1 is called Baby Cobra.