Slow Stitching and Fast Prepping

I took today to spend in my quilt room. Actually, this is also my office but my focus was on quilting. Kat at Next Step Designs a Canadian quilt shop in Calgary, is revamping the 150 Canadian Women BOW and I have decided to join in. 

This was a year-long quilt-a-long back in 2017 to commemorate Canada's 150 Birthday. I started it about halfway through but did not get too far. It turns out that she was using more than just 2 colours. I had quickly cut out lots of bits using my GO cutter but ran out of steam. 

So, today I cut a lot more bits from several different Canada themed fabrics and started to layout a whole bunch of blocks. I prepped about 20 blocks to stitch up another day. 

I have been plugging away at this Ella applique block. It is a bit fiddly the way I am doing it. I started with back-basting then changed it twice before doing a variety of techniques that make it fiddly. The petals overlap and I was challenged to find thread the right colour then find it again when I tidied up and could not find it. Twice. 

And, I am having trouble threading a needle these days. Okay. The thread I am using for that coral colour is quilting thread. But it matches. Just does not thread so nicely into my #10 milliners's needles. Good thing I got some more Bohin needles. They are my favourite. I will finish this up tomorrow while watching schurch online. 

I know I am supposed to be writing, but writing up a blog post IS writing too. 

Blessings,

Chris

linking with: slow-sunday-stitching  desgn-wall-monday-  boms-away

Friday Night Sew-In on Sat Morning

 

I will be stitching along with some new friends today and tomorrow. They are like 16 hours ahead of us here in my part of Canada, but we all stitch at the same time where we live and touch base through our blogs afterward. Tomorrow I will be face to face with some of my friends here on Facebook as we quilt or make masks or mend jeans, for that is what some of us have been doing. 

So I have not been playing any computer games this week, It is not killing me. Actually, it has been okay and I have so much more time. Imagine that? I have been writing. Yup. One whole page so far. 430 more words than the last time I wrote. 

Our daughter and her family moved in this week and they are organizing themselves and the stuff they brought here with them. They rented a storage unit in town for the bulk of their household furniture and stuff. They are now snuggled in the trailer and the September temperatures are right on schedule as they dip down to 4-5C at night and a glorious 20 something during the day. We have bright sunny skies right now. A touch of frost the other morning will start the trees changing colour. I can hardly wait. We are called Maplehurst Farm for a reason. We are surrounded by majestic maples and towering pine trees. 

I started a new mentoring group last week. We met outside behind this old farmhouse. One girl said she did not see the trailer or the bus sitting in the yard because she was so mesmerized by the beauty we have surrounding us here. I am so used to driving in and out that I usually criticize something. Silly me. I know we live in an amazingly beautiful setting here with the trees and fields and cows. We will continue meeting outside and sitting 6 feet apart as we discuss lots of things. There are 8 girls and me so we are within the approved limit of humans in one place. Girls. lol. Most of us have grandkids. We will be meeting every other week. Next week we will focus on journaling and the 7 stages of grief since I am writing about the grief stage of my journey.

The 150 Cdn Rerun QAL has opened up a facebook group and I joined yesterday just minutes after the notification popped up. They wanted a picture of my patterns and what I have sewn up so far to admit me. I like that. Only those actually making it will be part of the group. I found everything I need and even a little bit of time since I stopped playing games. I have all this laid out on the big table to see what I have and where I am going. Tomorrow I will pull out the GO cutter and crank through a whole bunch of fabrics so I can proceed. I realized that I need to be using several colours not just red and white. I might get one of the little girls to crank for me. 

Have I mentioned that  I stopped playing computer games? It's been 4 whole days. I belong to 2 accountability groups now and need to account for how I use my time and accomplish the goals I set each week. My goal this week is to write every day. And I have, just not on my book. 

Blessings,

Chris

150 Canadian Women Rerun and Goal Setting

Quilt-A-Long

Next step quilt designs will be doing another quilt-a-long with the 150 Canadian Women project. You must have your own patterns to take part. I got all the patterns when they were free a few years ago when we celebrated Canada's150th Birthday. Since I had collected most of the patterns before I started it, I saw many of the blocks and decided to do a blitz cut out of many of the pieces with my GO cutter. However, I forgot that many of the blocks called for several colours. I had spent so much time making the tiny Dear Jane blocks in only one colour on a background, I forgot that some quilters use more than one colour in the same block. So that can be a goal for me to pull out the bin of fabrics and cut a bunch more pieces. I like the leader/enders, but have to realize that I need to be using the same colour thread for both projects. I am using a cream colour for this but white for the 3030 Quilt. Hmm. Too many decisions to be making this late at night.

It is 10 pm on a school night and most of the grandchildren are already in bed but not the eldest who is now in grade eight and wants 11 hours of sleep tonight as well as improving her math skills. The little boys moved into the trailer last night with their mom and cats. Dad will be arriving tomorrow after the movers move all their household stuff into storage until they figure out the next step. 

In the meantime, it is time to decide on my 90 Day One Big Thing Goal for my writing group. And since I started a new mentoring group this week, I have decided to have the same goal for both groups. I am mentoring a group of Christian women and goal setting is our focus this week. I set goals all the time, but do I attain them? I have accountability and since I am the leader here, I probably should set a good example and meet my goals. In order to accomplish my goals for this fall, I really need to let go of some things to free up how I use my time. That was the object lesson using a jar to fill up with the things I am doing. So, I plan to give up computer games. Remember I spent at least 100 of those hours playing them last month? 

So 100 hours per month for 3 months frees up 300 hours. And I was thinking that if I write for 1 hour a day (I was really thinking one page a day) then I should easily have a first draft by the middle of December. That is my logic. But the reality is, I do things in fits and starts, feast or famine, all or nothing. I have done way too much nothing for way too long. Now is as good a time as any to change. I have just been waiting for the school year to begin and life going back to some normal routines. 

Now I am the one needing to improve my math. One hundred hours a month is more like 3 hours per day. That's like getting an almost full-time job.

Maybe I am the one who should go to bed. 

Blessings,

Chris

linking with: katiemaequilts. and boms-away-  needleandthreadnetwork.  friday-night-with-friends.

Blogging Anniversary

 My goodness!! How did this sneak up on me? I started blogging exactly 7 years ago today. I have published 525 blog posts. I have met countless quilters around the world. I have chronicled pretty much all the quilts I have ever started and those I have finished. I started a lot more than I finished. What a journey!

I am taking part, once again, on Friday Night With Friends. We each do our quilty thing at home and post about it then visit all the other quilters out there in blog land. I am continuing the hand applique on a few Ella blocks. My sister left for her home in Pakistan last night and I plan to reorganize my quilt room and tables and stuff to prepare for my daughter and her family moving in here next week. I have quilty ideas. We started a quilt together using my GO dies about 8 years ago. That has been sitting in a box for far too long. I think I will pull it out and put it up on the big design all and see where our inspiration will take us. 

Blessings,

Chris

September OMG Goal

I am starting a new mentoring group later this month and we will start off talking about goal setting. What do I know about setting goals? I set goals all the time. Do I follow through on them to completion? Sometimes. Not always. I could learn a few things. 

I usually set quilting goals for Patty's OMG. But quilting is not the only thing I do. Sometimes, but not often, I do housework or pay bills or clean out the car. Most bills are set to be paid automatically on our credit card or on-line banking and my Sweetie writes the checks for the rest. I just make sure there are lots of checks and envelopes and stamps.  One of my goals this past week was to buy more stamps. I bought envelopes last month. Probably should order more checks soon. I bought new pens this week. I ordered some notebooks on Amazon and then they offered me my favourite all-time pens at half price so I bought 4 packs of them. I tried to get more but that was the limit. I tried on another order but they were on to me. Okay. Where was I? Goals. Right. I usually set quilting goals every month. Sometimes they are reasonable and other times they are a fantasy. 

I have been limiting my quilting to the 3030 Quilt and Ella.  The Ella blocks for this month are a few more doozy applique ones.  Not sure that I will make all of them since I plan to only make 50 altogether and not all 85 like the original. 

My September OMG will be to complete a few Ella blocks. Not promising any more than that. Non-quilting goals will be to complete one more of my courses.

blessings,

Chris 

linking with: slow-sunday-stitching.  design-wall-monday- link-party-patchwork-quilts-  one-monthly-goal-september-link-up.

needleandthreadnetwork. midweek-makers-  wednesday-wait-loss  myquiltinfatuation.  wendysquiltsandmore.

August OMG Completion

 I love doing the monthly OMG. It is one thing I try to accomplish each month. I do not always succeed, but that is usually because I stop trying to meet it. Let's face it, we all have 744 hours in this month of August to do what we do. I often spend at least 100 of those hours playing games and at least 90 hours napping. And there is eating. I do a lot of that. And sleeping. I usually get at least 200 hours a month. Then there is talking. The number of times someone walks into my quilt room/office and engages me in conversation. Hours each day.  One time I had stopped playing games for several months and turned off the computer for part of the day. I got a lot of stitching done that month. A lot. I have been working on a couple of courses this past month. I am trying to get the course work complete before the end of the year. However, family has been taking up much of my time. We are having a Christmas dinner here this weekend. Some of the family will be here for the fresh turkey on Sat. Others will come for leftovers on Sunday. 

I am taking part in a Virtual Wrirtring retreat this weekend also. Well, today. There is a turkey to cook up tomorrow after I remember to thaw it and chop up the celery and bread. I will have help for that part. I think we will be eating outside. There are thunderstorms in the forecast for the morning. But if not, I will have to find room for 17 people in here. 

My goal for August was to complete 3 blocks and possibly more. I did complete one and stitched on a few others. So without further ado, here are my completed blocks for August:

Blessings,

Chris

linking with midweek-makers-  wednesday-wait-loss-

Emily's Quilt

My sister Emily has been here since Easter. She lives and works in Pakistan as a teacher and has been sheltering or in lockdown or whatever you want to call that she could not go home. She taught her grade two kids on zoom here at midnight for a couple of months and now she is gearing up to teach her grade one class for five hours a day on zoom. What did we ever do before computers and zoom? She found a pattern then she rummaged through my fabric until she found colours she liked. Finding enough was a bit of a challenge, but she did that. She decided on the scale she wanted the proceeded to cut out about 2000 two-inch squares. Eventually, I put a new blade in the cutter for her. 

She started out on the small design wall, but that was not going to be big enough.

so she moved it all over to the big design wall. She had a bit of help from the girls. 

Then she started to sew up units. Two opposite corners. Then the center.

It became a bit of a challenge to make all the units fit together,  

but she did it.

Then auditioning borders.

And the quilting. It is crazy timing, but the girl that did my longarm quilting last winter just happened to send me an email the day we were talking about her and wondering where her contact info was. 

She did an amazing job and quickly. And, she also did the binding. 

So Emily had the daily progress visible as the backdrop for her class zoom meetings involving her class. Now she is using leftover squares to make cushions that each of my grandkids designed. I wonder what she will do when she comes back to visit next year? 

Blessings,

Chris

linking with: midweek-makers-  needle-and-thread-thursday-  wendysquiltsandmore.

frombolttobeauty.