What's happening here!

 Oh Ridley .... he is such a lap cat!  When I try to do some handwork, he is right there to help me!

When a niece came to visit with us, she had to do her homework.  Ridley made sure she did her homework by anchoring her on her Mom's lap.  LOL

When he is not on my lap or looking outside, he is guarding my fabric.

Anyway, some progress has been made on my "Rail Fence Delight".  Lots of stars and circles have been made for the outer border.

The second strip of applique has been marked up and is now ready for me to work on it.

We've had more snow and it has melted.  Some spring flowers are starting to sprout up out of the ground.  Spring is sort of here.

Cherish your day, cherish your life!

April quilts on display

Here are my quilts that can be selected for display for the month of April.  My goodness, but when I look at the photos, quite a few of the quilts are EPP.  Wow, how did that happen?  Enjoy!

Cherish your day, cherish your life!

Scrappy Bargello

This is now a top!  Yea!  Got something finished.  With Ridley being part of the family now, I devised a plan in order to give me some sewing time.  We have playtime early in the morning and tire him out so that he sleeps for most of the morning and that is my sew time.  Yes, I'm smart!  LOL 

This pattern came from Bonnie Hunter in her "free pattern" tab section.  Scrappy Bargello is the name of this pattern.

I did it slightly different than her instructions.  First off, I didn't cut all the strips she recommended.  Looking at the photo, all the downward sections are the same fabrics placed in different locations.  All the upward sections are also the same fabrics.  This is a lap size top and instead of 128 strips, I only only cut out 64 strips.  I had to just make sure that the length was long enough to make two strips each.

Backing has been selected and this top is ready for the LAer.

I'm happy with the look and would make this pattern again and again.

Cherish your day, cherish your life!

March Chookshed Stitchers Challenge update

March was a bit of a dud for me ...... my quilting mojo went to sleep and not as much got done.

Why?  Well ..... we have a new member of our family.  Meet Ridley.  He came to our back door and after posting on local FB pages to see if someone owned him and even after bringing him to SPCA for microchip scanning, no one has come forward and we have decided to keep him.  He is so friendly and loving and used to people and kids.

He captured hubby's heart and that was it .... he is ours now.  I did go through the listing for poisonous plants and quite a few house plants got culled to keep him safe.

He even helped me to bind a quilt but mostly got in the way.  I can see a lot of  him photobombing in my future!  LOL

I did eventually get binding on my quilt ..... more on that later.

The bargello strips all got sewn together and it just needs two outer borders and this top will be done.

Three tops went to the LAer and came back a week later.  Yea .... more quilts to bind!

Seven pillowcases got made:

More batting pieces got frankenpieced for an ongoing project .... and that is such a good thing!

So, that's it for March.  Now, what about April?  #9 was pulled and this is what I will be working on.  It has been years since working on this UFO.  How lovely it will be to finish my "Rail Fence Delight".

Upcoming posts will be to show my newest finished quilt and also what quilts are on display for April.  Stay tuned!

Cherish your day, cherish your life!

Linking to:  Chookshed Stitchers 2024 Challenge

Raindrops

This was my February binding challenge and so glad it is done and hanging up this month.   It is so bright and cheery and brightens up the corner by the door to our garage.

This quilt started out as a paper bag challenge with our night guild.  There was a fat quarter in the bag and we had to make a quilt from it along with other fabrics from our stash or bought fabric.  Patterns were available each month and the designer had the patterns set for beginner, intermediate and expert.  I can't remember what level I took for each block, but am happy with the result.

This was the fabric in the bag.   Not much left!  When I look at the fabric pattern ..... I see raindrops or balloons ..... but decided that Raindrops was a nice name for my quilt.

I used the fabric to make all the pinwheels and wherever else that I could.

Eventually, I was able to find a matching fabric (darker colour) in a quilt store.   The rest of the fabrics came from my stash.

The darker version was used in all the cornerstones.

This quilt was shown at this month's night guild meeting and the designer happened to be there that night.  She was happy to see what I did with her patterns.

Quilt Details: 

Designer:  Janice Stewart from Northern Lights Quilt Guild

Block size:  12"

Started:  October 2015

Top Finished:  April 2023

Quilt Finished:  February 2024

Quilt Size:  49-1/2" x 70-1/2" (top size before quilting, washing & drying:  53" x 73"

Batting:  Hobbs 80/20

Machine Quilted by:  Kathy Wareham using Aspden Leaf design by Deb Geissier

So, Raindrops is the name of my quilt and that is what we have been experiencing for most of our winter this year.  Then, in the last few days, we have had snow.  Not a lot, but down it came.

Here is a montage of photos from the last few days:

The deer have been busy visiting our front yard and have eaten all the leaves off my euonymus shrub.  The leaves are evergreen and the deer love them.  See the arrow?  Nothing now but sticks sticking through the snow.

Then, this morning, we woke up to this amount of freshly fallen snow.

The thing is .... under all this snow are two more huge euonymus shrubs that the deer ate last winter.  The leaves grew back and are ready for the tasting.  The deer haven't touched these shrubs this year.

Again, this morning, the deer came back but there is nothing to munch on.  Off to the neighbours they went.

Now that hubby is finding it hard to do the snow blowing, I've taken over the task.  We have a small electric snowblower that I can handle and I've been enjoying the chore.  It is like quilting ..... sewing or blowing one row at a time.  Perfect for me!  We do have a monster snowblower sitting in our garage, but it is too powerful for me to handle.  

Cherish your day, cherish your life!

Quilts on display for March!

I'm so happy with my monthly collections and my dream of having different collections has finally come true.  This is what I had planned on doing many, many years ago and as each quilt got made,  I was getting closer and closer to that dream becoming reality.  Each month, the quilts are all changed out and it gives hubby and I something to look at and talk about.  

So, for March, these are the quilts that are on display.  The predominant colours are blue and green.  So, sit back and enjoy!

Cherish your day, cherish your life!

February and March Binding Challenge

Another month and another quilt done for both no-blog Mary and myself.

This is Mary's (before on the left and after with the binding) February quilt:

This is my quilt (more on this in another post):

For March, we have chosen our quilts.

These are Mary's.  Aren't those penguins adorable?   She is going to do these three small mini quilts for her challenge. 

This will be my quilt:

Mary mentioned to me that she is still pulling quilts from her closet and she still has bins in the basement with quilts to bind.  Holy Moly ..... just how many quilts does she have?????  She won't tell me and I'm kinda thinking she is too scared to start counting!  LOL  At least with this challenge, she is getting quilts finished, which is such a good thing for both of us!

Cherish your day, cherish your life!