Playing Hooky

I have signed up for a few challenges ; Spring to Finish 2010, and Myra's PHD Challenge. I took a bit of time yesterday to go through my list of what I had to do before the end of May and June and then promptly played hooky.

I took out my Disappearing 9 patch red/aqua swap that I had done with Jane last year. Technically, I guess it is part of the PHD Challenge, since it is a PHD but definitely not a priority. I saw someone who had done the blocks so that the middle looked a bit like a pinwheel. I had made a similar quilt for my nephew years ago when he was a baby. I like the look of it but I find it a bit busy. I think I will use some sashing to separate the blocks.

After playing hooky, I did get Part 1 of my secret project done and organized some sewing I have to do for my guild by Wednesday. We had a challenge this year, and now I have 8 blocks with which to play around with and make something. The finished product(s) will be shown at our dinner meeting on Wednesday.

Progressing nicely

Just finished a nice long weekend here in Canada. Gorgeous, hot weather and lots of family to see. It has been a couple of weeks since I had to chance to quilt, so I took a bit of time here and there to get some things finished.

Here is Block 6 for the Jelly Roll Sampler Quilt Along.  I am halfway done now, and getting excited. It is going to be a beautiful quilt for me.

Here is my finally finished block for my Sew Modern Bee. It took me a while to figure out what I wanted to make with it. This block is called Peppermint Spinners from Quilter's Cache.

I finally figured out what to do with my Mystery Quilt that I talked about in this post. All of these individual strips were suppose to be scrappy. Part of my problem with the quilt was that I would have to sew all of the squares, cut them up into little scraps and then try to reorganize them back into a square. For me, I find this harder to do with the little bits of time I have. I saw a quilt a few days ago that had this organized scrappy look, and I decided to try it out. I really like it. Now, I can sew a couple of squares at a time and not have to work about losing the little strips.

I also got some more work done on my snowman quilt. I might actually have a winter quilt this year. To celebrate all I got done, I started on a new secret project that I can't show you right now (I have always wanted to say that), but will in a couple of weeks.

I hope you are all doing well. I have not had much time to check out Amy's Blogger Quilt Festival but I hope to see more this week.

Blogger's Quilt Festival

Here is my quilt for the Blogger's Quilt Festival. I call it Summer's Day. I made it for a family member, who had a baby last year. I had gotten a charm pack of Summer Fun for my 9 patch quilt along, and I decided to use it for this. The mom, at one time had been a professional water skier, so Summer Fun seemed like a good choice. I looked for charm pack patterns because I only had the one charm pack.  I found the Pinwheel Baby Quilt and decided to make that, which I know this quilt does not look like. Some of the charm pack had white squares, and I did not think it would go well, against my busy white background. I did not want to buy more fabric, so I decided to change the design and added the sashing instead. I love the pop of white and red.

I did end up buying material for the back. I had gone away for a weekend with my husband and I find this cute fabric that I could not resist. It has sun, birds and watermelons on it, perfect for a Summer's Day. I had it quilted by my friend Tammy. I really enjoyed making this because I had made so many quilt with squares and rectangles and I had decided I really wanted to focus on some quilts with half square triangles. It is another quilt that I don't want to give away! Go check out the other amazing quilters at the Blogger's Quilt Festival.

Love is ...

Love is an amazing, incredible, friend such as Darlene. I have been reading her blog for a long time now, and I am a big fan. I am a Darlene wanna-be. Every quilt she shows I want to make. She also does incredible redwork. I have seen lots of other people doing redwork and I have been wanting to try it for a long time. Before I quilted, I cross-stitched, knitted and crocheted and I miss the hand work. I started asking Darlene questions about doing redwork and she made me an offer that took my breath away. She offered to organize a starter kit for me and I could even choose what pattern I wanted to do. I said yes, right away. The package came yesterday, and I was amazed.The pattern I chose is Love Is by Paula Stoddard.

 Darlene included all the block instructions that have been put up, in colour.

She provided me with all the muslin to make the blocks and drew out the blocks that have been posted so far onto the muslin. She gave me the thread, needles and her favourite kind of hoop. I was so excited that I started right away.

That little bit was enough for me to know that I am hooked. I would have loved to do more but I had some kids needing my attention. Maybe I will just sign them up for every sport possible this summer, so I can sit there and work on this! ;-) They do start swimming soon, so this will be great for that.What I love about this, as opposed to cross-stitch is that I don't have to go back and forth looking at the pattern. It is already there for me and I can just focus on the stitching.

In other news, my giveaway is over. Thank you so much for all of the watching suggestions. I have already ordered some of them from the library. The winner of the patterns is Katie Bishop.

Giveaway Day!

Hi Everyone,

I am participating in the Sew Mama Sew Giveaway Day. Here is what I am giving away.

To have a chance to win these patterns, I have a question that needs to be answered. I enjoy watching TV shows on DVD while I quilt. So far, I have watched House and am now working through Lost. What I need from you is a recommendation for my next series to watch, and it does not have to be a show still on TV. I will keep my giveaway open until 4:00 pm EST on Thursday May 20th, and will be drawing the winner randomly. I will contact the winner and international entries are welcome, as well as my fellow Canadians! Good luck with mine and all the other giveaways!

Scrappy-Doo

I would not say I am a scrappy person. The amount of time, and cost has prohibited me from scrappy quilts. It is one of the reasons why I love jelly rolls etc. so much. This week I have been spending time thinking about a quilt for my nephew. He has asked for red and orange. Well, I started looking and the possibilites are endless. As always, there are too many ideas. I have been playing with my EQ6 too, which I get so little time to do. For him, I would like to make it scrappier. He was the one (okay he was a newborn) to get off my butt and start focusing on quilting, so I figure he can be the one to help me make scrappier quilts.

Thinking about scrappier quilts, made me think about I started in February. You are all amazing quilters, and I felt some peer pressure (okay rather envy) with all of the wonderful Valentine's quilts being made. I had gotten out a book from my guild, and was getting ready to return it for the February meeting. I flipped through it and found this fabulous pattern.

I started working on it because I do have a lot of reds and pinks but then came to a halt. This is the thing I don't like about scrappy quilts. You have to ensure that one scrap does not touch the same scrap. My kids do these puzzles on the computer where you have to paint a picture, or fill in some diagram but you can't have the same colours touch each other. It is always harder than it looks. I was not sure if I had enough red and pink, so I ended up buying some scrap bags of them so I could have more. It will come in handy with my nephew's quilt anyhow.

I have also been working on binding a quilt for Amy's Blogger's Quilt Festival. You must join. It is amazing to read all the stories and see how the quilts came about.

So much inspiration, so little time!

Spring to Finish Halfway Point

1. Remove wallpaper from my hallway. DONE
2. Decorate my dining room.
3. Get rid of some toys and books.
4. Organize my children's clothing. HALF DONE
5. Get a label on my friend's quilt and give it to her.
6. Pick a pattern for my sister's quilt. DONE
7. Finish my mom's quilt top. DONE
8. Finish my zig zag quilt top.
9. Put together my guild blocks into a table runner.
10. Quilt my tulip table runner.

It is the halfway point for the Spring to Finish challenge and I have 3 1/2 things done. I am hoping to get a few more done this week, so hopefully I will have a good finish.

I managed to get my Jelly Roll Sampler Block done in the nick of time. I like how it turned out but I had a few mistakes with the cutting. I have also finally figured out what I want to do for my Sew Modern Bee. It involves pinwheels, my new favourite thing. I should have it done in the next couple of days.