Quilt U Be Mine Reveal

Happy Valentine’s Day!!  I hope someone gives you a chocolate heart and that you give one to someone else today!  I have to buy a card and some chocolate for DH tomorrow.  Today I was super busy at work and feel lousy.  I think the stomach flu is not entirely finished and I haven’t been getting enough sleep.

But February 14th is the reveal day for the Quilt U Be Mine round robin.  I LOVE my round robin piece.  I really liked some of the others that I worked on but this piece suits me to a T.

Here is the centre block that I sent out. A fun little dancing heart.

Bea added the first border – geese, hearts and simple strips on the sides.  I love how the swirling fabric creates so much motion.

Edy added a scrappy border all around.  And you know I love scrappy.  Look at all the hearts she added!

And then Lisa added paper piecing and the finishing border.  LOVE IT!!Here’s what the whole thing looks like.  (Hmm – there’s some blur in all these pictures?! What’s that about??)

SO SO PRETTY!  Thank you to my three awesome round robin partners!

I had big plans to finish it before today as a wall hanging or table runner, but really, when did I think I was going to do that???

I’m off to bed.  Please check out Michele's blog to have a peak at all of the beautiful Quilt U Be Mine quilts.

Janet

The Year of the Finished Project February update

Lynne has posed these questions…

How did you go in January?

Well not so great…. I only put one thing on my January list and that was to finish the top of Easy Street.  This is how it looks today…

I haven’t finished any of the steps, although the four patch blocks are almost all sewn.  I have been doing them as leaders and enders, but otherwise I haven’t done a thing on Easy Street since I last posted about it on January 7th.

What did I do instead???  Well I worked on my swap items

Six inch quilt block swap – done but for some reason I never posted a photo

 

Bee Balm block swap – starts in February I haven’t got the fabric or instructions yet…

Block swap adventure – Overdue block for November done and January block done as well!

Inchy hexagon swap – Overdue December hexies done and January hexies done as well

MMM Round Robin – made my centre block and sent it off only a couple of days late (February 4th)

Quilt You Be Mine  Round Robin – I got both of my round robin additions finished and mailed and they have arrived IN TIME for the February 14th reveal

Simply Solids block swap – I received the instructions and the fabric but haven’t made it yet… It isn’t due until the end of February though so I’m okay.

And I started a baby quilt for the nursing station… here it is so far…

It is hard to see but it has a narrow white border.  I have to add one more border, then quilt and bind it.

And I started the cardinal…I am supposed to be attending class number 2 tonight…

What plans do you have for your UFOs/WiPs in February?
My swap items…

1. Six inch quilt block swap – 2 per month – to be mailed by the 15th

2. Bee Balm block swap – starts in February – my month is November

3. Block swap adventure – 1 - 12.5 in block – mail by the 25th

4. Inchy hexagon swap – 2 hexies per month

5. MMM Round Robin – starts in February & runs for six months

6. Simply Solids block swap – starts in February but we have our instructions already.  My month is September.

And can you believe I’ve joined a couple more…

7. Mystery Muse – two items – don’t have to be sewn, can be any genre – by the end of February reflecting the prompt “excitement”

8. Get your Hex On bee – Starts in March - a hand made hexie block of the person’s choosing.  My month is August.

As well I am going to:

Get my cardinal done

Finish the baby quilt

And dare I say that I will get at least the different pieces for Easy Street cut and pieced…

Today is my 60th birthday.  I’ve had calls from my three daughters, two grandchildren, a friend who is on holiday in Ontario and my sister in Nova Scotia.  My sister in Australia and I have e-mailed and will hopefully get to Skype tomorrow.  A ton of people have contacted me on Facebook, including my brother and sister-in-law and one son-in-law, and lots of friends.  DH bought me flowers, wine and some ski wax and is making me steak, potatoes, Swiss chard and turnips for supper. 

I told someone who asked that he wouldn’t spoil me but actually he got up early to take our granddaughter in to school and didn’t wake me up.  She was out here last night attending Qristina and Quinn Bachand's fantastic house concert with me.  And DH left me a thermos of tea on the counter too. 

So I am somewhat spoiled.  UNFORTUNATELY, he has also passed on his stomach flu and I am feeling very lousy today.  So much so that I’m not going to my 2nd cardinal class which is tonight.  I will be going to class # 3 on Monday though, whether I feel better or not!

Right now I’m going to lie down and have a nap or maybe watch a movie…

Janet

An Award

 

Kathryn from Blue Heron Quilts has nominated me for a Leibster award.

Never mind that I don’t really qualify for a Liebster Award because you’re supposed to have less than 200 followers, and much to my amazement I have more than that….  But I’m going to accept it anyway, because it’s fun and I like being introspective about myself.

The rules:

1. You must post 11 random things about yourself.
2. Answer the questions that the nominator set for you
3. Create 11 questions for the people you nominate
4. Choose 11 blogs with less than 200 followers and link them in your post.

ELEVEN RANDOM THINGS:

Random eh….

1. It was my 35th anniversary last week and is my 60th birthday next week.  We had a nice middle of the celebrations party with some friends.  My three daughters were all there…

DD # 1 gave us 35 memories.  Things like:

“Do you remember that we kept a butcher knife on the wall of the tent above the beds so we could get out if there was a fire?”

“Do you remember that you made me walk home from school for lunch?  Laina remembers one time that I was late getting home.  I arrived to announce proudly, and had to show you the tracks to prove it, that I had walked all the way home backwards.”

DD # 2 came home from Newfoundland for a five day visit.  So nice to see her.

And DD # 3 made me a wheat free birthday cake – hazelnut and Frangelico flavoured.  It was delicious.

2. When I did college upgrading to complete the high school that I never finished I got 100% in my physics class.

3. I am an introvert.

4. Housework is low on my priority list.

5. I love winter.  Here I am just returning from a 45 minute snowshoe at –28 C (-18 F).

6. I’ve travelled in most of north and south America, but have only been overseas once, to Germany.

7. My triple great grandfather (I think) was from Austria.

8. I have worn my hair long since I was about 10 years old.

9. I seldom wear dresses.

10. I am fascinated by cop and whodunit shows and stories, real or imagined.  In another life I would like to be a police detective who works on a huge murder investigation.

11. My honeymoon, 35 years ago in January, was at a small cabin in the bush.

ELEVEN QUESTIONS FOR MY NOMINEES:
1. Favorite author(s):

This is difficult.  I have different authors that I love and read everything of and then I move on.  Some I remember are: Mary Stewart (the Crystal Cave etc.), Mordecai Richler (stories of life in Montreal and rural Quebec), Margaret Laurence (I read all her books), John Krakauer (such interesting books about the outdoors).  And here is one author who wrote fascinating books on many different subjects – Robert Harris.  I have read all his books.  My favourite was Pompei, but the others all kept me riveted.

On this note, I have read three books this month. 

Dead Cold by Louise Penny.  This is a light mystery story but I enjoyed it because it is set in the cantons de l’est of Quebec, where I spent much of my youth, in a town that I saw often on Christmas cards.  Lots of snow, children sledding, carollers on the street, horse drawn sleds crossing bridges over the river and a beautiful tree trimmed in the town centre.

Bachelor Brothers Bed and Breakfast by Bill Richardson.  He could actually go on my list of favourites.  This book is about a fictional B&B run by twin brothers in an unnamed town on Vancouver Island.  Mr. Richardson has a vivid imagination and writes very intelligently, while making you laugh.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society by Mary Ann Shaffe and Annie Barrow.  At first I wasn’t sure about this book as it is written all in letters, but it didn’t take long for me to be hooked.  If you like anything by the Bronte sisters you will like this book.  Very rich and interesting.

2. If you won the lottery, the first thing you would do:  Try and persuade my husband to be happy – he would not like to be a rich man.  Then I would start to give the money away…

3. Share a childhood memory:  Lying on the grass on the front lawn looking at the sky, the clouds going by, and feeling the world turning underneath me.

4. Live concert you would like to attend:  I like small concerts.  I’m taking my granddaughter to a house concert this week; Don’t they look young!

5. Dream vacation:  I have two places on my bucket list – Ireland and North Carolina. 

6. Where would you like to live:  If not where I am then on Canada’s east coast – in Newfoundland or Nova Scotia.

7. Favorite pet:  I love animals.  I love my dog, Zeke.  I have had cats most of my life and love them but developed an allergy late in life…

8. Favorite ice cream:  Pralines and cream.  But I’m lactose intolerant so only eat ice cream on very special occasions.

9. What famous person/fictional character would you like to get to know?  I used to love Joan Baez, then I read her autobiography and discovered she is – or was – very narcissistic.  It put me off of celebrities.  I would love to meet Dolly Parton though.  She seems to be quite genuine.

10. What would you like your autobiographer to say about you?  That I was witty, intelligent, kind and generous.  But they would have to make a lot of that up. 

11. What was your first car?  I won a Metropolitan Nash convertible when I was five.  My Dad was in the Lions Club and they had a raffle.  He bought a bunch of tickets for 25 cents each, and put the family members names on them.  We got to go to the ice cream place where I was given the prize and we all got to have ice cream.  A rare treat when I was young.  I gave the car to my mother for her birthday which was a week or so away.  She had it until I was about fourteen, then sold it.  I never got to drive it.  I don’t remember it looking like this – more like a Volkswagon – but it was yellow and white.

Now I am supposed to nominate 11 blogs….

Evalina Maria from This and That

Lynne de Bouts Choisis

Dahn from the Wilderness City Quilter

Lynne from Never too Hot to Stitch

Janet from the Threaded Moose

Diane from The Cheshire Quilter

Leonie from Strandkorbtraum

Jean from All Points of the Compass

Peg from Pieces on my Mind

Jan from Isisjem

Julie from My Quilt Diary

Janet

Friday Night with Friends

I sewed a little bit on Thursday (Friday in Australia) and a little bit on Friday.  I didn’t get a whole lot done, but then every little bit counts….

I finished the second Quilt You Be Mine mystery round robin block I worked on this month.  I can’t show either of these blocks – they’ll be on exhibit on reveal day, February 14th I believe.  But I can tell you they involved some of this…

And I finished my January hexies for my swap partner Judith, a newbie in the Inchy Hexagon Flower Swap, and sent them off in the mail.  I put the sneak photo on the IHFS blog, but I’m going to risk putting the real photo on here….

I hope everyone had a happy and productive Friday Night with Friends.

Janet

Friday Night Sew In

My FNSI was spent at a class taught by my friend Dahn at the quilt store…. and we did no sewing!  This is a three part class in which we are making a cardinal wall hanging.  The first class was about painting the picture.  Then we will thread paint and embellish it.   So far it is looking good…

We traced the drawing using a projector.  This is a photo taken by someone whose name I can’t remember.  I’ll get it at the next class. 

Updated to add – I got the name from Dahn’s blog – Travis Lowe took the original photograph.

Here are a couple of other versions… that’s Dahn on the right trying to steal Karen’s bird…

And here she has made her escape with the bird.  I don’t know what that weird sign she is making towards Louise’s bird is supposed to mean, but originally she was holding it higher and it looked like she was sucking her thumb …

Lynn, stop now if you don’t want to see the preview of your block…

 

 

Earlier in the day I did make my Adventure Block for Lynn and sent it off in the mail. 

Janet

Lots of lovely mail

Some wonderful winnings and swaps have been arriving in the mail….

I won this fat quarter bundle of the Coral Salt Water line by Tula Pink from Caitlin during the Sew Mama Sew giveaway.  So far I’ve just patted it and admired it.

 

Also from the Sew Mama Sew giveaway I won the sweet little stars from Leonie.  These just arrived the other day which means they took almost a month to travel from Germany.  Since they are too late to hang on my Christmas tree I am looking around for another spot to display them.  I thought they might go on my “whatever it is you call this thing”, but then I realized it would be too hot.

And my third win was from the Quilters Blog Hop party.  Sandi sent me her interesting book which features a new and different way of piecing blocks.  I haven’t tried her method out yet but I am definitely going to. 

And Sew Sisters Quilt Shop sent me a lovely thank-you gift for participating in their hop and giveaway.  A Sew Sisters t-shirt and a Sew Sisters shop pin, a charm pack of Everlastings by Sandy Gervais and a “Tasty” runner pattern from Julie of Jaybird Quilts.

Such a lot of nice gifts!  Thank you all. 

I’ve got swap receipts to show as well but I think they will have to wait for my next post as it is my bedtime  

Janet

This is why I never get anything done!

I’ve had a hiatus from Easy Street for the last week or so.  I have had all the fabric sitting out waiting for me to finish cutting all the pieces, but other things clamoured louder for attention.  Like some overdue swap items…

Aileen was my partner for the November Adventure Block swap.  She kindly told me not to worry about getting the block done on time as I was on holiday.  The only problem is that I am the kind of person who does everything at the last minute.  So if someone tells me to take my time and get it done when I have time…. well I might never have time!  Aileen wanted a wonky house block in bright, crazy colours.  I hope this fits the bill.  I figured that the rain drops that are rising instead of dropping add to the wonkiness.

And then when I told Joanne that I was going to be late with her December hexies, she said not to worry about doing them at all if I was too busy.  Talk about letting me off the hook!  But I try to be a good swapper and complete my commitments, even though sometimes they are late.  So I made these hexies for Joanne this week.

Then the local craft club decided that we need to do a round of baby quilts to donate to the nursing station.  And I had been looking at Persimon Dreams Project Quilting challenge and I was excited about the square in a square block.  And I received a bag of scraps with around 150 blocks in yellow/orange, hot pink and a flower print.  Pair these with a light blue and here is the baby quilt I’m working on!  My only placement rules were alternating square in squares and solids and that no outside colour could go beside itself.

I thought I’d get all the blocks and rows sewn together this week after work but …..

And then I read a someone’s post for the Year of the Finished Project and they said the rules are that you have to finish a project before you start a new one.  Whoops!  Blew that.  (But I reread the rules and each person actually makes their own rules for themselves.  So all I have to do is finish the Easy Street top in January.  Yikes!)

I will try and get back tomorrow with some recent mail that I need to show off  

Oh and my e-mail wasn’t working from the 9th to the 15th – if you sent me an e-mail during that time and haven’t heard back….. I didn’t receive it.

Janet

Another take on Easy Street

I decided that before I went any further with making decisions about what fabrics to use where and cutting up a bunch of pieces, that I needed to set up two more blocks so I could really get an idea of the design.  Am I ever glad I did that! 

I now understand which way the four patches are supposed to turn and I see that changing out the greens that I was thinking of just won’t do because it interrupts the chain. 

Here is what it looks like with the dark grey and the greens…

I did conjecture that if I want to tone down the green a bit, the way to do that would be to change out the four patch greens in the top and bottom block.  They would have to be changed to blue because there is already a lot of purple going on there.  This is what it looks like with that change…

What do you think?  I’m thinking that the blue makes it too dark.

I was going to try it with the light greys as well, getting rid of the medium grey that I incorporated in the mix altogether.

But I would have had to unpick, cut and sew and I had enough for this evening.  I may try that tomorrow.

Janet

And another design consideration…

I went out for supper and when I came home I realized that there is something I don’t quite like about the layout I have up on the design wall.  There is a bit too much green and it is overwhelming.  So I switched out some of the green squares for purple squares.  What do you think? 

All the green blocks Bonnie intended there to be

 

 

 

 

Some of the green blocks switched out for purples.

 

 

 

 

And some of them switched out for blues.

 

 

 

 

(You may notice as well that I turned the four corner four patches on the left hand block.  I’m not sure yet which way they look best.)

Janet

Looking for feedback

When I made the first step for Easy Street they were supposed to be in grey and white/blacks with more white than black.  Since I had very few white/blacks I decided to use a yellow/orange instead as I had lots of it in my stash.

Then in step two Bonnie announced that we wouldn’t be using any more grey in the quilt.  Well I had a huge piece of grey – four metres to start with – and probably about two metres all together of the yellow oranges so I thought I would just continue with the grey as a substitute for the white/blacks in the quilt.  I e-mailed Bonnie and asked her if she thought that would work and she said yes.

Then we got to step six where she wanted us to cut two white/black blocks and sew them together.  I started thinking that if I used my grey for that block the quilt would be too dark.  So I got the bright idea of finding some lighter greys to use for those blocks and for one other small block that adjoins the grey and purple flying geese. 

So today I have one of each block laid out, once using the lighter greys in those two spots above and once using the original dark grey.

  light greys in the eight two-patch squares in the left hand block and in the four flying goose and grey squares in the right had block.  All other grey using the dark grey.

 

 

 

  dark grey in all parts of the quilt where Bonnie used white/blacks

 

 

 

 

What do you think?  I kind of think it is a no-brainer now that I see it, but I’d like your opinion.  These blocks are not sewn together so it isn’t a huge deal to go either way.

Janet

What I did today…

I am linking up with two blogs -

Lynne at Never Too Hot to Stitch is hosting the Year of the Finished Project.  On the first Thursday of the month you post what projects you plan to finish that month.

And Cheryl at Gone Stitchin' is hosting Friday Night with Friends on the first Friday of the month.

Okay I know it isn’t Thursday and that it is Saturday in Australia where Cheryl lives, but this is what is working for me.  It is Friday night here and I’m a day late posting for The Year of the Finished Project….

This evening I worked on Easy Street.  I got the pieces cut for Step 4 and Step 5 and the purple blocks from Step 7.  I have seen at least one person who commented that these steps were so easy that it only took her about two hours to complete them.  Well it took me about four hours just to cut the pieces and I haven’t sewn any together!  I guess I’m slow. 

For the month of January my goal is to finish the top of Easy Street.  I think I should be able to get this done.  I have four more sets of blocks to cut, but they are fairly simple.  And then I have to sew, sew, sew.  I am going to put one of each block together tomorrow just to make sure I like my solution to my fabric conundrum. 

The other thing I plan to get caught up with and stay on top of in January is my swap blocks (I’m behind on two swap items).  I’ve gone and signed up for many swaps again.  Sheesh – I can’t seem to help myself.  They just look so interesting.  These are my current swaps:

1. Six inch quilt block swap – 2 per month – to be mailed by the 15th

2. Bee Balm block swap – starts in February – my month is November

3. Block swap adventure – 1 - 12.5 in block – mail by the 25th

4. Inchy hexagon swap – 2 hexies per month

5. MMM Round Robin – starts in February & runs for six months

6. Quilt You Be Mine  Round Robin – only four people in a group & it will be done the end of February but my December block isn’t here yet so I will have two to complete this month.

7. Simply Solids block swap – starts in February but we have our instructions already.  My month is September.

There is one more I want to sign up for – the strip block swap on Flickr – but I’ve lost the link.  If anyone knows it please let me know (or maybe don’t – I might be slightly crazy to sign up for one more!)

And I also agreed to coordinate the Inchy hexagon swap this year…

So there are my goals for January.  I didn’t do very well with completing my Resolved to Sew goals from last year.  I completed one DD’s quilt top and my colours quilt top.  So I think one goal a month is a better fit for me this year.

Happy New Year to all!

Janet