OMG That's What Friends Are For

Encouraging.  Supporting.  Listening.  Sharing.  Reminding....

As of starting this post I have 7 hours left to get in my OMG for September.  I know that thanks to reading Preeti's and Tish's posts within the past half hour.  Without further ado or sidetracking, I would like to get my Mini Round Robin quilted by month's end.  It may not be bound by then, but quilted it shall be.

Make mine a mini on the wall...

I received my mini quilt yesterday from Cindy of Stitchin at Home, and I am just IN LOVE!! What she did just pulls the centre to the last round and snuggles the middle two rounds together...like friends, right?  I like that Tish and I are hanging out, even if that is vicariously, through our quilt tops, and even if that means that, yes, I haven't mailed hers yet...

We were a bit busy on Labour Day Monday, buzzin' around, as I'd mentioned in Monday's post.  It amazes me how many Americans don't realize their northern neighbours, and in my case, their southern neighbours, since Detroit is north of us, also celebrate Labour Day (I spell it with a 'u' but probably 50% of Canadians spell it without; both are accepted) on the same weekend.

Lake Erie...my favourite colour in all her glorious hues

WHAT a spectacular day, much-needed 'ahh', and soul massage, and all is okay with our world that was.

Tuesday brought with it my mini and some lovely surprise mail.

Cindy knows how I love blue, and included this glorious butterfly print with my mini.  Like I want to chomp it.  Frame it maybe, make a shirt like I saw Kate wearing as a dress? on a magazine today in the store, okay make it the centrepiece to a quilt methinks.  She also sent the rich grey that sometimes reads dusky purple fabric, so cool with the line-drawn squares inside of which is a dot. Kind of like rolling a '1' on a die.  She is a wonderful and thoughtful friend.

Below it are two fat quarters and a button with a quote to live by from Lisa at Sunlight in Winter Quilts.  No reason, she just wrote me a note that said here's the fabric you commented that you loved so much.  She's using it in her Snowflake Shimmer QAL.  Like WHAT a darling!  Both these sweet ladies live in southern Ontario too, makes me want to arrange a get-together somehow... (and that might be happening with one of them in the very near future, right Cindy?!)

Here's a peak at what has been keeping me well and truly 'back to business' as mentioned in my last post.  I think I can, I think I can, I know I can! See the light at the end of the tunnel on this quilt, and I am SO excited.

Everything is done as of this post but for finishing quilting the final border, which may involve pretty fancy feathers, and echoes and fillers.  (highly doubtful I'll have a Friday finish; my name isn't Judy LOL).  Here you see some Judi Madsen, some Leah Day and some Kathleen Riggins inspired FMQ.

All right a bit more secret sewing to do tonight, so TTFN, that's ta-ta for now, and wish me luck on the OMG; I don't have a good track record, both in remembering to link up and in completing my goals, gulp....
Linking up with
Sew Fresh Quilts
Red Letter Quilts

Books, Baskets and Back to Business

Baskets

You know how I love figures of speech, alliteration one of my favourites, well to add to the B's we are going out on the boat today, but I am getting a quick post up beforehand!  I mentioned that I will be doing a celebration to mark blowing by 250 followers on Bloglovin'... As well as that milestone, I've been asked to be part of a bloghop this Fall sponsored by Paintbrush Studio, and I plan to have a giveaway or two during that!  Do you spy the rich red fabric box in the middle?  That red is from Windfall, the collection I'll be working with, and it is BEE-you-tee-fullll. Want a closer look?

These adorable Button Baskets (the b's abound, don't they?!) are a tutorial from Seaside Stitches.  I won one made my Jennifer at The Inquiring Quilter, when I took part in her Stepping Stones quilt along.  They hold a fair amount of little bits and bats...

as you see!  I did my corners with French seams, trying them with seams in and seams out.  I think I prefer the seams out look.  These were fun and quick to make. Stay tuned for when they are being given away.

Books

I haven't mentioned much about books lately, mainly because I've not been reading as much as I usually do!  Our librarians have been on strike for 3 months I believe now. :-(  But that has made me go to my shelves and pull out some I've bought but still not read (kind of like fabric buying y'know) A few good recent ones worth mentioning though are:
Harry Potter and the Cursed Child by J.K. Rowling
This is written in play format as it is the script for the play that was presented on stage in London's Palace Theatre earlier this summer.  It was really good, not quite as good as the original seven books, but still, what amazes me about J. K. Rowling is her genius.  Without giving anything away, she sets things up early in the book, or in this case, play, that you don't see until much later, providing a means out of a sticky situation.
A Trail of Fire by Diana Gabaldon
I got this on Amazon, but it ships from the UK. I believe it has only been released in the UK at this point.  It has four novellas that fill in blanks in "the Big Enormous Books (BEBs)," Diana's term for her Outlander novels.  Worth a read as you find out what really happened to Roger's parents, a little more about Lord John, (fascinating true stuff about electric eel parties of that time period, as well as his part in the Battle of the Plains of Abraham--yep, you read that right, and I knew how crazy cool it is/was what the British army did, but to read it 'firsthand', with a feeling that the author had actually been there, a style at which she is so adept), and a little more about another Murray, as well as the Comte St. Germain. Diana amazes me with her intelligence, her vast knowledge of history and science, plants and social niceties (and some not so niceties lol), and on and on.
The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag by Alan Bradley
More very intelligent fiction. This series features Flavia de Luce (isn't that a terrific name?), precocious 11-year-old obsessed with all things chemical and poison, who often finds herself having to solve crimes of the murderous nature. Set in 1950 in southern England, they are excellent mysteries, with humour and that unique way Bradley has of not taking away from Flavia's youth, yet you, as the adult reader sometimes see things that go over her head.  However, having said that, a LOT of what Flavia talks about wrt chemistry, and a lot of what she observes go right over our heads! Well mine for sure. I read the third one out of order so I'm back reading this second book.  The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie is the first.

Back to Business

I caught up on the August cutting instructions, and plan to start the September sewing later today for Cheryl's Meadow Mystery.

I thought I'd share a tip, which I've mentioned before, as to how I cut when I have several strips the same width, as this does, for example, four 3" wide ones and multiples of other widths.  Below you see me cutting these 3" ones.  I've already squared off the left side of the fabric.  Then, using my 8 1/2" X 24" ruler, along with my 6X12" one, I line the 1/2" mark of the 12" on the cut edge, butting up the 8 1/2" one against it. This gives me 9", so will give me 3 strips. I also align the markings along the fold to ensure straight strips.

Why not just cut 4 strips separately?
Well, the longer you have of a 90-degree angle with two straight sides, the cut edge and the fold being the two straight sides, the more accurate you will be, and the less often you have to keep truing up the cut edge to avoid the 'V' shape that occurs at the fold if you don't keep checking that squared-off edge.

Cut.  Then move your ruler backwards, or to the left, to the 6" line. Cut again. Repeat at the 3" line.

You can cut the 3" blocks in this same manner.  Below I've used my 12" ruler at the 12" mark, so I'll get 4 squares.

And again moving the ruler backward in 3" increments.  Doing the math this method requires is good, especially so for me.  ;-)

The longer you can get a line along the bottom edge, the truer your cuts will be!
Now I'm off to buzz around on Lake Erie for a bit.

While I'm out there, remember you've still got a few hours left to pick up a class at Craftsy for $19.99!  Here is my review of some from my all-time favourite quilt teacher, Angela Walters.

Mini Round Robin - Round 3 and Final Reveal

Along with the summer speeding on by, our Mini Round Robin has come to an end and I can hardly believe it!  Of course there will be the final reveal of the quilted mini at the beginning of October.  The original centre, called The Attraction Block, is Tish's.  Julie added the first round.  Here is what I received from Cindy.

I knew two things, well three if you count the fact that I LOVED what Cindy did on her round!!  Okay, first I knew I had to do angles, not angels, angles, although I needed some angel guidance as August neared its end...45-degree angles are in each round as well as in the centre.  Second, I knew it needed pretty much all black and red as it was reading pretty white.

But what to do...

Tish had talked about her colour choices of red, black and white as classic, so I knew the final round should be in that theme.  I thought of a fancy appliqué, and I kept thinking 'classy' and classy ladies, and black tie affair, and tuxedo, and tuxedo cats (one of which chose Tish as his human), black cats, which Tish told me often find their way to her, and I, too, have a soft spot for black cats...

My darling cat, Raffi, had her from age 4 weeks (bottlefed her for two weeks) to the ripe old age of 17 1/2 years. Her whiskers and even her paw pads were black, AND she was a polydactyl.  She had 'thumbs'.

So a frame was added.  I had just the fabric, bought a piece when it first arrived in my LQS, Moda's Black Tie Affair by Basic Grey.  Thus ensued the math devils...my angels deserted me...

This is the second frame I added; the first had to be ripped off as I'd done the math wrong for calculating the width.  The block was 16 3/4", a most unusual size, so I knew I needed to bring it up to 18 1/2".

I remembered a mini log cabin pattern I had that had 3 1/2" (I thought) log cabin blocks. Log cabin is a classic block, my second favourite block after stars.  I'd made several of the runners over the years.  Did I still have that pattern?  A little digging, and yep.  Sadly, the blocks finished at 3 1/2", so they wouldn't divide into 18".  Still, I loved the idea and knew I could do something with it.  What about offset log cabins? They can produce some wonderful curves.  (You're thinking, 'Wait, Sandra, thought you were doing angles?' and...bada-bing! Welcome to my muddled menopausal melon.)

I pulled out three fabrics from the stash and scraps to make a few test blocks to see what size they'd end up.  Math had already gotten the best of me, so best to make some rather than trust my calculations...

Nope. Sadly these ended up at 4 1/2" unfinished, so 4" finished which did not divide into 18.  Should I pull off the frame and add a thicker one to make the starting block 20"?  That would mean the mini would finish at 28 1/2" not 24 1/2" as we were supposed to...still it was under 30" and somewhere along the way I thought we'd determined we could go that big if we wanted to add more to it when we got our own back...but that would mean more ripping...nooooo. There had to be a way.

The offset log cabin blocks didn't really curve the way I wanted anyhow with only two rounds and with only half a set of four, so I thought I'd go back to the log cabin runner pattern.

White centre squares.  I did 1/3 of them in an embossed white that looks like the exact same fabric in Tish's centre, that 'box' around her red centre.  But I noticed she also used black on white, and so did Cindy, so I looked through my thin stash of that, and came up with two, one with flowers on it (I remembered Tish sending me a photo of her newly planted flowerbed in early May) and another with sketched cat faces on it:

Perfect.  The grumpy ones are Bella and Princess Caroline LOL

Red and black for the logs.  The blacks in this block weren't solid, so I found one I'd bought last winter at a quilt show with a large line-drawn floral pattern, and then... in my MacGyver's flaming skulls quilt (yet to be made) stash I found a black with white pawprints on it fabric.  Tish and I both love animals; especially our pibbles, but we have all dogs' and cats' pawprints on our hearts, so I knew I had to do one round using this fabric.

Right.  The math was still worrying me, but I figured I'd start adding rounds as it was uh, August 28; time was a-ticking.

As you sew, you think.  It's very meditative.  Somewhere along round two, I thought of doing two sides with the red logs in and two with the black logs in.  Placing the red logs borders where Julie's black frame was, and the black logs where her red half-frame was.  Keeping the 'attraction' theme.

Yep I think that will work...Bella was helping as per usual...now this pesky math...

I'd somehow only made 20 blocks, not 24, 6 per side...don't ask me what I was thinking as I don't even know. Five a side??
Made four more blocks.  The logs finish at 1/2".  Just sayin'.  They're pretty small.  Sewed 6 together per side.  What to do in the corners... All black?  HSTs of red and black?  What a minute...

Tish's centre is two right triangles sewn together on the 45.  Julie picked up on that by mitering the black/red seams in her round.  So I followed that theme, placing a solid black square in one corner where the two mainly black log cabin borders meet, and a solid red in the opposite.  For the corners where the black meets the red I did an HST.

After all the ripping and hair-pulling it took with the math issues I am pretty pleased.  I also noticed that my tiny white square centres echo Tish's red centre, and Cindy's black squares on white fabric!  That wasn't planned but I'll take it!

You can see the other finished flimsies below:
Cindy at Stitchin' at Home (she did the final round on my centre and I just LOVE it!!)
Tish at Tish's Adventures in Wonderland
Julie at Pink Doxies

Linking up with
My Quilt Infatuation
Crazy Mom Quilts (Yay! Amanda Jean's back!)
Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Jeez Louise I only posted 6 times in August.  I reached (bashful face) rather a milestone in my bloggy life a week or so ago, over 250 followers now on bloglovin'.  WHOA Nelly.  (see? Louise and Nelly both got in this post) Should make a quilt and call it that...there will be some celebrating in my future. Which is looking rather busy for the month of September...but I hope to post more than six times sheesh!

Update: My bad, but I went to link to the Friday parties this morning, and I see I have an email from Brittany at Craftsy (I am an affiliate):  I guess all their classes are $199.99 ...oops! LOL had to leave that for a giggle.  Make that $19.99 (under $20 just so we're clear) from right now through Monday, Sept 5 11:59 pm MDT (that's because their classes can be bought and downloaded worldwide.  I will be reviewing one coming up that isn't even live yet, so watch for that. Previous reviews can be found here, and you KNOW how much I rave about any and all of Angela Walters' classes, worth every cent.  Did you HEAR?????? She has another book coming out with Tula Pink!!!  17 quilts that Tula designed and you guessed it, Angela shows how she quilted them. Cue the choir of angels already! I haven't even finished reading through her Shape By Shape 2 Collection 2 yet!! (no affiliation)

Okay I got sidetracked by Angela news (that girl can sidetrack me anytime, I do not mind)  Anyhow might be a plan to check out a class you have had on your wishlist for a while; that's what I do; I never pay full price (shh)... Speaking of 'under the radar' stuff, did you know that there are still amazing deals to be had on fabric at Craftsy? You do not have to wait for their sales.  I came across some screaming good deals on 4-yard cuts (think backing fabric right?) for $8CA a yard, like $6US.

Here is a Bonnie and Camille Hello Darling one, and here is a Kate Spain Canyon one. There are LOTS more.  I've bought these before, 1 yard cuts and a 5-yard cut of RJR Handspray in black.  Just like for clothes, you can never have too much black.  I see several of the Handspray precuts are on 35-40% off too.  Might be a time to investigate a little stash enhancement. ;-)

Sunday Stretch for Sewists #12 - Swan

Swan pose works strongly into one hip socket in one way, and fairly strongly into the other but in a different way.  Therefore be sure to do both sides. :-)

To get into the pose in the easiest way, come onto all fours.  Slide your right knee up behind your right wrist.  Start to swivel the right foot up towards the left wrist, still supporting yourself on your hands. See how the knee feels.  If there is pain here, then do not do this pose; stay tuned for September when I show you Eye of the Needle.

If your knee is okay, then start to creep your left leg back, looking back to ensure it is straight behind you, and coming to rest on the top of your foot.  If your bum is not in contact with the mat, sit that butt cheek on a block (or a couple of quilt books!) so that your hips are level.

Place your hands as shown, or rest both in front of your shin.  Try to think about bringing that shin parallel to the top edge of your mat, sending the knee to the side of your hip.  Flex that right foot gently to protect the knee joint.  Don't sit on your foot; that is pigeon pose, which doesn't have the outward rotation we are looking for in the hip joint. It is not necessary to have your shin parallel; especially in the beginning it is more difficult, so work towards that, but never forcing.  Alternatively, if the block is too high, you may use a folded up quilt under your butt cheek:

note the dog foot, Naala, photo-bombing me! Didn't have the heart to crop it out.

If your butt cheek rests comfortably on your mat and your hips are level, then stay there and breathe.

Hold for 1 minute, maybe working up to 2 over time, breathing slowly in and out through your nose.  You can place your hands further back, as you see in the above photo, which will increase the arch in your low back.  This is a bit of a back bend.

Next, on an exhale, slowly come down to Sleeping Swan.  Take your time getting to the floor...

maybe resting at first on your forearms as shown.  Notice the legs haven't moved.

Perhaps eventually resting your forehead on your stacked hands or on your forearms.  Finally maybe extending your arms in front, palms down, forehead on the floor:

or placing the palms together in prayer if you like.

Stay here for a total of 3 minutes (use that timer on your phone!) starting from the time you start to lie down, breathing in and out through your nose maybe to the count of 3 or 4, relaxing everything as your 'marinate' your hips in this pose.

To come out, inhale slowly back up, remove the prop under the butt cheek so you can lean to that side and swing your back leg around to the front. Set both foot soles on the floor and enjoy the 'spearmint' feeling of warm/cool/buzzing/tingling feeling you get when you release out of a long-held pose.  Maybe do some slow windshield wipers movements back and forth with your bent legs.  Then do the other side!

The more we can rotate our hips in their sockets, the better health our hips will have, and the less chance of needing hip replacements down the line.  Hip and knee replacements are off the charts in the West compared to the East, because we do not live on the floor.  As I tell my yoga students from time to time, spend 5 minutes a day watching the news or your favourite show, sitting cross-legged, working up to 2.5 minutes or more per side, alternating one leg in front of the other.  Your hips will thank you!

I did finish two more cow blocks.

They are so cute!  These are more of the RSC 2015, last year's colours.  I have one more to make and then a bull. Finishing this quilt is one of my Q3FAL goals.

Now that several pretty strong thunderstorms have left our area, I can get back to work on this final round of our Mini Round Robin, as well as quilting Dayna's grad quilt.  Here is the Mini Round Robin, Tish's centre:

I will let you know that I have ripped more than I have sewed...my menopausal melon is malfunctioning in the math department...clearly it isn't in the alliteration department!  If you are interested in seeing the other rounds, you can click the links below to see the other 3 ongoing minis that will each be finished...uh...within 3 days! Watch for the next post to see what I did!
Round 1 - my block
Round 2 - my work on Cindy's centre
Round 3 - my work on Julie's centre

Remember to vote in the Pets On Quilts at Lilypad Quilting which closes in a few days!  You can click here to be taken to the voting page, where you leave a comment with the pets' numbers who are your faves.  Bella is tapping my arm to tell you that she is #30, and that our post is here.  You can see all the pets if you click here.  You can even win something if you didn't enter a pet, so hippety-hop on over there!

Sunday Stash - A Missouri Virgin No More

Yep, lost my virginity.  Of the fabric store kind.  It's Preeti's fault.  I signed up for updates from Missouri Star Quilt Company.  Broke the seal of no purchases from them within a few days of updates.  And I'd been doing so good on the fabric diet.  Here's what I bought:

The daily deal that day was the Windham Basic Bright Charm Square pack.  They have a $5 flat rate shipping so to quote a phrase from Tish, 'it just looked lonely all by itself' so I had a leedle look around... which is when I spied the Mystery Charm Pack deal for $4.95.  That's pretty decent so throw one of those babies in. Besides I love surprises.  I got this lush flannel Fossil Fern pack!  I've loved Fossil Fern from way back; I used some dusty rose in my mum's 70th birthday quilt, and that is going back 10 years.

They sell Kona cotton for $5.95/yard, and now that I know how I am adding to Radiance, I know I do not have enough of the Cheddar I used, so I bought a yard of that. 

Balanced the Windham pack on its end so you can get an idea of the happy brights therein

Finally, one more item somehow popped into my cart, didn't even know I was looking for labels, but you know how anal I am about labelling all my quilts properly...

They're a little out there.  I like that.  This is one side of the two-sided panel, so you get two of everything.

Pretty good haul I'd say for $21.40, which included the $5 shipping!  I am not an affiliate; just thought I show you Craftsy is not the only one with some screaming good deals.  Be sure to check out both places if you're like me and saving money while feeding the fabric beast is your thang! Craftsy's sale ends tonight...I might have spent a leedle more than $20 there... btw I am an affiliate for them. ;-)

Linking up with Molli Sparkles.

Pets On Quilts - Bella

Bella is making another appearance in the Pets On Quilts party at Lilypad Quilting.  She is in the Cats on Quilts category.  If you like what you see/read about in this post, click the link to 'like' Bella (she is #30).  There are lots of fabulous prizes to be won, four more days to enter your own fur kid, at which time voting will begin!  This is, as I said in yesterday's post, probably my absolute favourite linky party going.  My three fur kids are a major part of my life. Period. Of the three, Bella has probably the biggest influence in my quilting/sewing life.

This is not photo-shopped; her eyes are that blue; she's sporting a bandana made just for her by a sweet friend

She is a part of every quilt, from birth to final finish.  This year the two of us have been pretty busy creating quilts.

Planning

She often tries to steer my pencil as I sketch out a possible design, be it block, layout or FMQ.

Choosing Fabric

 Cutting

Measuring

When I question whether I have block sections sewn to the correct size, she willingly lies her furry body down to help measure.  On the left, she is measuring the hypotenuse of one of the Triangle Transparency by Quilting Jet Girl blocks for Radiance, and on the right, making sure the flying geese unit will fit the centre square from a Henry Glass 'Better at the Lake' fabric.  We were chosen as the June designer of the month.

Appliquéing

She parks her butt on freshly appliquéd blocks, helping to secure the layers.

Much to her exasperation, she was removed (more than once) from said appliquéd block

Piecing

Bird's eye (or cat's eye?!) view

Checking that 1/4" seam

Chain-piecing

Even FaceTiming!

Tish on the iPad

Looking after you:

Stretching

Balancing

Back in May, the early days after Rocco's knee surgery

We both firmly believe in the importance of exercising and stretching to ease those stiff joints and aching muscles, and to work out knots from long hours sewing, or sitting too long at the computer writing up a post!  Check out the Sunday Stretch for Sewists tab up top for lots more moves to keep your body limber!

Bananasana....it's a real Yin Yoga pose!

Make sure you bend to both left and right!

Labelling

Writing is blurred out for privacy

Basting and Quilting

and let us not forget...

Cleaning

Machine Maintenance with Bella

And finally, 

Enjoying

On her very own cat quilt

This past year saw her work with wool, both knitting and appliqué

She quite liked it!  Thanks to Sue's comment below, here is the link to the kit I bought, on sale right now for $11CA.  The pattern only is available here.  And, if you prefer to crochet, Kalurah has the same cowl kit for crochet, also on sale.

And of course she helps out with...

Writing posts 

this very one, as a matter of fact!

She knows how to get my attention, tapping me if I'm spending too much time on the iPhone or on the laptop

Pattern Writing!

We did it this year!  And she helped...

This is Sunny Days; you also get the pattern for Blue Skies, both on sale for $5 right now in my Craftsy store. Both quilts are for sale in my Etsy shop.

Calling me

to leave my sewing when it's time to eat

And it's time to go now!  Tea and treats time!

Treats?!

Be sure to take advantage of Craftsy's Early Black Friday (like seriously...I know...eye-roll)...but there really are some terrific deals again, and if you're like me, you wait for your faves to go on sale.  Did you know they carry quilt batting and it's 30-40% off right now?  Um, can you believe there are some quilt kits for CA$27 or US$21??  Check out several from Timeless Treasures like this Tonga Treats "Next Move" one I particularly love. Apologies for poor quality images (snagged them off Craftsy) but you get the idea.

and I believe I just have to give one of the Blueberry Park fat quarter stacks a home.  At CA$57,  US$44, (50% off), that is a pretty sweet treat.  There are many many more, but don't be like me, and put them in your cart and 'think about it' (aka forget)....only to find they disappear because they are no longer available, waaah, or you remember about them on Monday and the sale is over...waaaah again. Might have personal experience there.

As always I thank you SO MUCH if you click through to Craftsy on my links in this post or on the sidebar.  I do get a small commission on sales and on classes; if you are interested in how to become an affiliate yourself, shoot me an email.  And always remember, if you don't buy through me, that is fine, but please choose a favourite blogger to buy through since we are the ones who help spread the word.  I would not endorse anything I haven't used or bought and I have been very very pleased with every single thing I have got, supplies and fabric and classes-wise from them.  They also have excellent customer service.  :-)

Remember you have 4 more days to enter into Pets On Quilts. Voting begins August 25!

Linking up with
Confessions of a Fabric Addict
Lilypad Quilting