OPAM & Improv(E)

I had 2 finishes for the One Project a Month Challenge.

My placemat which I called from From Blue into Green and

my zigzag quilt called From Apple to Zigzag. 




I have also joined another challenge on Thursday put on Jacquie from Tallgrass Prairie Studio. It is called Improv(E) your Butt and mixes in physical activity with improvisational quilting. So far, I have walked 7.5 km and how much you exercise affects how many pieces of fabric you get to use to make an improv quilt. I am hoping it will help me focus more on exercise and spreading my quilting wings.

From Apple to ZigZag

I got this quilt done last week and gave it to my friend. I worked on it during the Friday Night Sew-Ins. I love the zigzag and will definitely be making one for myself sometime. My daughter saw pictures of the baby with the quilt and told me how sweet and nice I was to have made it!

She also did some counting yesterday and realized that her dad only has 1 quilt. Unbeknownest to her, I have started gathering fabric to make him a 2nd quilt. We were at a quilt show last month and he showed me a quilt he liked.

I got all excited because I recognized the bow-ties and I had won a giveaway which included a magazine that had a bow-tie pattern in it. However when I showed him the pattern, he did not like it because the bow-ties were joined together. He prefers them to be separated. My LQS was having a sale on FQ and I needed a few more for my Elizabeth quilt. While I was there I picked up these for him.

I am going to have fun making it whenever I get the time to do so. Maybe I will make it a leader and ender's project.

One Thing, One Week Challenge Completed!

I was able to complete my One Thing, One Week Challenge hosted by Amy. I wanted to get my Bee Blocks for July done.

These are for Natalie in my Bee Beautiful group. The spiderwebs bring back memories of my summer last year working on spiderwebs for the Halloween block swap. I also finished my Sew Modern Bee block for Nicole. She wanted circles and gave us some inspirational photos to look at. She wants it to be a surprise in the mail for her, so I cannot show a photo right now.

My husband is very happy because it means I am actually going to have time to spend with him tomorrow for our anniversary! Amy is linking up to others who have met the challenge. Enjoy and take a peek!

Quilting Everywhere!

I must say I love how every trip can be come a quilting one! I had some errands to run this weekend and here is what I came up with.


A trip to the Dollar Store:

A cute package of clothes pin. Someone on a blog mentioned that they keep their rows in order by attaching a numbered clothes pin to them. I thought this was a great tip.

Some dowels which can be used for mini quilts.

  
I also bought a picture frame to go with this amazing art work that my daughter made for me. It is going to be hung in my quilting room.

 
I had some books to return to the library. Just as I was leaving I walked past the book section and this book caught my eye. It is a fabulous book with graphs for all of the different tile patterns. I really want to make a quilt from one of them.

Friday Night Sew-In

I got my 11th block done for the Jelly Roll Sampler Quilt Along. I was looking at the quilt this morning. It will fit nicely in my living room and I think it is going to be come an all round year quilt.

Jane has been a great blogging friend for a long time now. She is the one who got me into blogging with her addictive swaps. Mel I have gotten to know as well through swapping and blogging. Jane is looking for 4-patches for Lissa, Mel's sister-in-law who has been in the ICU for 7 months now. To learn more about the quilt, go to Jane's post.

Sweet Sixteen!

No, not me fortunately! I have 16 blocks now completed in my 2 quilt alongs.

My Jelly Roll Sampler Quilt Along. Only 2 blocks to go. I will be excited when this is finished.

My Summer Star Sampler Quilt Along. I already have half of the smaller blocks done now. It has been a lot of fun figuring out what fabrics to use where.

I will be participating in the Friday Night Sew-In tonight. Not sure yet what I will be working on. It may be my Bee Blocks since I have also joined Amy's One Thing One Week Challenge. I have committed to making my Bee Blocks by Tuesday.

Yesterday, I spent some time with my nephew teaching him how to quilt. He made a small rail fence top. It was neat to watch him pick out the fabrics he wanted to use. I sort my fabrics by colour, and also keep projects together. When he opened up my closet to pick out fabrics he looked at me and said "Where are the boy fabrics?" It was so hard for me not to laugh. He ended up choosing blue, yellow and green and it turned out really well.

Christmas in July

I got so excited yesterday about my charm squares quilt that with all those good vibes I ended up re-organizing my quilting room. I cleared out a bunch of stuff and made room for more important things, like fabric.

Another fabric grouping I have had for some time is Have a Very Sheri Berry Christmas. Alright it is been a year too. I got it last year when we went to a quilt show for my birthday. My daughter told me that she just had to have it. When I told her that a few days okay, she did not remember it at all. She is really focused on the Halloween quilt that is going to be hers. The fat quarter bundle I got did not have any of the "novelty" ( I not sure if that is the right word) fabrics. When I went to buy a backing I ended up buying some of the extra fabrics.

I was not as wish-washy with this quilt. I knew I want stars. I did find a couple of patterns I like but I decided I wanted the stars to be different. Other projects got started and I set this one aside. Then along comes Bradie. She was having a Summer Star Sampler Quilt Along. When I looked at the fabric she had used in her tutorials I realized it was a bit similar to my colours. They are quite bright and bold and had been nervous about putting them together. I purposely had not given myself any projects this summer other than my bees and it was nice to be realize I had the time to do this. I have the first 4 squares done.

 Blocks #1 and 2

Blocks #3 and 4

I love how this is turning out. I might keep this quilt for me and not give it to my daughter. We'll see. I love having my children as my muses. They keep my imagination going.

KISS

I am changing this acronym to Keep it Simple, Sewer. I have been driving myself crazy for a long time now. I am scared to say how long. At some point, alright a year ago I saw Amanda Jean's Christmas charm quilt and fell in love with it. I loved the look of the simple square quilt. I ended up buying myself 5 charm packs of Fresh by Deb Strain. I love tulips and all the fabrics are so bright and cheerful. The intention was to make myself a charm square quilt. I think there is a saying for intentions too, isn't there! ;-)

Well instead of making the quilt, I ended up playing around with them. Somehow I gave myself the impression that squares were too simple, that I needed to stretch my wings. I played around with all different ideas and concepts. I thought about pinwheels and so many other possibilities. I even thought of new ones when I attended a quilt show last weekend.

Finally yesterday I decided that it was time to go back to my 1st decision and make the charm square quilt. After I made the decision I decided to read a few blogs and Ashley from Film in the Fridge had just blogged about charm square quilts. It is was Em calls a Godwink. I sat at my sewing machine, and sewed through my first charm pack while watching Lost. I am so happy with it. I should have done it a long time ago.

So far this summer I have not worked on anything I thought I would. I am still in my PHD phase. I have some cute blocks to show you tomorrow.

B is for ..

1. Plan B

Well, I was making my School's out quilt I had shown it to a friend who really liked it. When I had to go to my Plan B for the quilt. I had a lot of blocks left over so I decided to make him a placemat. I gave it to him yesterday and he was very pleased with it.

I got inspired by Penny's quilt as you go tutorials so I decided to try it out with the placemat. I really liked it. I did do a bit of quilting after the block was put together as well.

2. Butterfly Blooms

I ended up giving myself half a day off last Thursday before I started on a new project.

This is a kit that I bought from Crazy4Quilts that I have had for a couple of years. I got the cutting all done for it and am looking forward to putting it together. It is going to be for my niece.


3. Birthday

Today is my son's birthday. I love him so much and I am so proud of him. He has taught me so much.

Bee - ELated

I am bee-lated, and bee- elated. It has been a hectic time for me this past 6 weeks. I have been getting so much done and meeting deadlines but my Bee Beautiful group has suffered a bit. It is so important to me that I do a good job on other people's blocks and I wanted to make sure I devoted my full attention to them. I am now caught up in my Bee Beautiful group.

Here is my May Block

My blocks for June

To see more about all the blocks check out the Bee Beautiful blog. They are an amazing group of women!

I also got my 9th block done for the Jelly Roll Sampler Quilt Along. It will be fun at the end of the summer to put it all together.

I hope you are all having a wonderful summer!

School's out for summer

Here is my quilt that I finished last week for my friend. She was thrilled and surprised to get it.

This was my surprise project. Here is the sneak peek I gave of it.

This was also my Plan B project.  The pattern is called Angler's Choice by Gudrun Erla. The borders were meant to fill in the rest of the pattern. I miscut some of the white squares, so it was not going to fit properly. I decided instead to take the backing fabric and use it as the border. That's how I chose the name of the quilt. It was an easy pattern to make. I am happy that it is going to be well used and loved. I did end up starting a new one on Canada Day. The cutting is done and now I am ready to sew.

Happy Canada Day!

Happy Canada Day to all of my fellow Canadians! I have yet to start on my red and white quilt, so I thought instead I would show you some of my redwork.

The first two were done by Darlene and the rest I have done. I am enjoying the redwork so much. I still have the PHD bug and started organizing some other PHD last night. I have four new quilts that I would like to make by Christmas, so I am going to have start soon.