More pink strings

While working on my guild's 40th Anniversary challenge quilt (can't show, must keep a secret from the judges), I have making up pink strings. It seems I have a LOT of pink strings that need sewing up. And I love the analogous run of yellow to orange to pink together.

And I have completed the Squared Away blocks in pink, Baton Rouge. They are so fun and I love the movement in these blocks.

To see other pink scrappy happiness, head on over to SoScrappy or Quilting is More Fun than Housework

love and hugs to you all, and happy Mother's Day.
Kathy

One Pink String

It is a beautiful Sunday morning as I write this. I love morning light. And this morning it was especially ethereal and was enough to make up for any other dreary day...EVER!

I have been steadily working away at purging and disposing of 'stuff', and yesterday was a big shred day. I only opened one file cabinet drawer and pulled out files that were last opened in 1999. Time to go! Not the least of which was the health file for Miss Kitty, who crossed the rainbow bridge 10 years ago.

I have put the binding on my Good Samaritan quilt. Lady, pattern by Villa Rosa Design, shown here in flimsy to finished. I love the backing fabric and was able to salvage enough and piece it together for the binding, with just a scrap strip leftover that has gone into the yellow scrap strings bin.

I have got my RSC2018 pink and rose scrap strings reduction started and made this one happy scrappy string block.

If you wish to catch up on other pink scrappy happiness, please check out SoScrappy and Quilting is more fun than Housework.

love and hugs
Kathy

Playing with colour...

I may be thinking ahead to the month of May and the colour pink (colour of the month over at SoScrappy), while I sew and count up the final numbers of yellow string blocks. I think the final numbers for April are 35. (plus a few more that aren't pictured) This makes a fabulous addition to the string inventory, and when the mood strikes to make a string quilt, then I am ready, no matter the time of day or night.

It was a privilege to attend Wanda Cracknell's colour class II this past Friday at Spools:The Workshop, in Leduc. It was also so much fun to shop after class with my friend Heather. She wants to do a true colour wheel quilt based on the principles we learned in class. Here are the pieces that she acquired at Quincy's (also in Leduc).

 luscious luscious! Everyone in the store just wanted to pet these fabrics. She will use a black on black for her background, as a lesson learned from examples shown earlier in our class.

This week is off to a rocking good start.
Love and hugs
Kathy

Dust off the Homeplate

There has been so much going on this month. But isn't spring just like that? Winter is in the rear view mirror and people are out and about. There are wrap up events and others just starting...ball diamonds are dusting off the home plates. Though I am not participating in any ball games myself, I know  and hear that is the satisfying sound of a leather ball on hickory. Play ball...but in the meantime...

I have completed my Humboldt Strong quilt, LAQ by Kim Caskey. This Take-5 block is set on point with white/yellow sashings and star cornerstones. My wish for this quilt is that it will help to bring some comfort for lives lost and families that are forever changed by the tragedy near Nipiwan Saskatchewan on April 6, 2018.

Kim has beautifully quilted this with a Maple Leaf pattern. This quilt has been prayed over and been provided with blessings for whomever receives this quilt.

Between rounds of these Take-5 blocks and events involving grandchildren I have been using up the yellow strings. (27 to date)

I have had overnight chick guests with my youngest granddaughter.

I had volunteered to facilitate at my grandson's 4-H multi club judging day.

I have now celebrated my 67th birthday with a lovely round of family events.

To check out other yellow scrappy happiness, please check out SoScrappy.
love and hugs
Kathy

Yellow Week II

Scrap sewing this week has been all about yellows and golds. Such a favourite to brighten my day. I have completed my three Squared Away blocks for the RSC2018 quilt.

It has also been a week of great sorrow. Sixteen people, players, coaches and support staff, were killed in northeast Saskatchewan, when their Humboldt Broncos hockey team bus collided with a semi-trailer truck. It has brought out nation to our knees in solidarity and support. The call went out for comfort quilts, using the Take 5 pattern, and their team colours...green and gold. Following the #homboldtstrong tag, there has been ever iteration of that pattern submitted. Mine is not exception.

The completed quilt top will be graciously long arm quilted by Kim Caskey Custom Quilting. I will post pictures, perhaps when it is done next week.

On Friday I attended a very exciting class, Colour Class 1, taught by the brilliant colourist Wanda Cracknell. So many mind stretching exercises using our 3 in 1 Color Tool and Joen Wolfrom's Color Play.

This week I put the call out to my "Friends in White Satin" for scraps for a special project. My youngest daughter is getting married in August and has asked for a jeweled bridal bouquet. (there are 100s of images on the web if you want to check what others might look like) Because it has to built on a styrofoam ball, I want to cover it completely with white satin, yo-yos in particular. To this I will be adding costume jewelry: rhinestones and faux pearls to achieve a lustrous arrangement. I will post pictures as we move to completion.

To catch up with all of the other yellow scrappy happiness, please check out SoScrappy.

with love and hugs
Kathy

Hello Yellow

Though it is snowing (again) outside, the new colour the SoScrappy has selected to celebrate and work with for the month of April is yellows and golds. The happy coincidence is that in the month of March I finished off the following three yellow and gold quilts.

"Poppyright" which was inspired by a commercial painting found in a local restaurant.

"You are my sunshine" (Cross Roads Quilt) which was inspired by a fun and dainty pink and yellow cotton fabric.

This Golden Lady is for our guild's charity project, the Good Samaritan's Seniors Home. The kit of fabrics was put together by our 2nd VP, Community Support. This is my vision of Lady, by Villa Rosa Designs.

I am playing catch up with the yellow greens and working away on the XPlus blocks and I am loving how graphic this big quilt is looking (110" x 110")

And did I tell you about meeting Tula Pink!!! One of her 3 Canadian stops was in Edmonton, lucky lucky me and the others attending this full house presentation. Shown here is our mutual friend and "natural born quilter" aka Brett.

For fast and ready yellow and gold users, you will find that fun over at SoScrappy.
love and hugs to all
Kathy

Love Yellow Greens

I do love yellow greens, so much so that I want to make an entire quilt with this X-Plus Quilt with these used as the primary focus. I have drawn out a pattern using purple X-Plus blocks in the four corners and a sprinkling of aqua blues. I will throw them all up on the design wall before I commit to this pattern.

So far I have made: yellow green = 60/72, purple = 10/12, and aqua = 11/37. But I love what I am seeing.

I was recently called into g'ma duty when both of Diana's daughters had a PD day. It was a wonderful opportunity to work with my granddaughter on sorting out some salvages in preparing them to make a crocheted rug. This little 9 year old cracker jack caught on with the snip-slip-tug-knot connection that I use.

My heart is filled to over flowing when I look at this picture of her and I preparing the strings.

I have completed 3 yellow-green Red Cross blocks for the Squared Away Sampler. This is going to be such a fun quilt.

I have also been helping our Edmonton based Quilts of Valour, Canada representative by putting on a few bindings. Many hands make light and enjoyable work. This photo was taken the first day of spring 2018!

for more end of this March Madness, please head over to SoScrappy
all for now, love and hugs
Kathy

Love these apple greens

I love these apple greens that I have selected to work with my RSC2018 blocks. They lend themselves so well to refreshing my outlook and spirits. To get me started, I went through most of the stack of yellow greens and cut a 2.5" strip.

From these I sub-cut them into 5" pieces for another crayon quilt. A crayon quilt is a fantastic use for a multitude of cheery prints.

I also cut a 6.5" x 2.5" for my newest RSC obsession...X Plus Block. I found this @purplepoppyquilts on Instagram. This is cleaning out a lot of my charm squares, or at least seriously cutting down the charm square bin. My charm square bin is anything from 6.5" - 4" square.. For this quilt I have just grabbed anything from the top of the stack and trimmed to 4.5". These blocks are 10.5" unfinished. So, doing the math, I will make 100 blocks (four charms squares per block) for a 100 square inch quilt. Perfect. That will make a small dent in the bin (-400!). This means I have also got 800 2.5" neutral corners to use up. And isn't that what all this fabric is really for??

I further choose some others of my cutting campaign for a new Geese Migration block. I may have to make another of these, as I am totally smitten with this in spring green. Thank you Cynthia Brunz, of Quilting is more fun than Housework.

Of course, I did not neglect my RSC2018 Squared Away contributions. First one of three complete.

I have a lot of desk work in the week ahead, but will be taking an occasional breather to sew up what is already cut. To see what other fresh green happy madness is out there, click on this link, to get over to SoScrappy.

love and hugs
Kathy

Catching up: Playing w Purple

For the month of February over at SoScrappy has been the colour of the month: Lavender/Purple.

I had to choose new RSC2018 blocks or projects and I have chosen two. The very talented Cynthia Brunz and her loyal followers shared this Migrating Geese technique all over Instagram and I just had to try it. Two of the first ones complete in purple and a second in red-violet. I now need to make these in blue!

At some point in the month of January I received an on-look inside the cover of Judy Gauthier book and fell into an trance as I watched these "circles" form in my mind. I had to execute at least two to get the flavor of the block. And while I could have proceeded with 'stealing' the pattern on line, I hope some karma will be on my side when I say that I actually bought the book from my LQS. While the author uses 4.5" pieces I chose to dial it back and use 2.5" pieces from my own scrap user system and my easy angle ruler rather than the "draw a line diagonally across the back of one square". I LOVE these blocks and think they will be an excellent RCS2018 block. As time permits I will go back to do some blues.

To see what other scrap-inclined-quilters might be up to this week, check out the linky-party over here at SoScrappy.


love and hugs
Kathy

Purple Wishing Rings

Let me just say this, I LOVE these purple Wishing Rings. What an effective use of simple piecing to create a great block. Thank you to Mari (The Academic Quilter) and Angela (So Scrappy) for providing the instructions and inspiration for a new sampler quilt: Squared Away.

this happy stick person fabric was painted by Cathy Tomm

It never hurts to put a batik in for full staturated colour

While this fabric looked purple in the stack, it is looking very brown in this light.

All six to date, 10.5" blocks and I have updated my RSC2018 spreadsheet. 

Now back to my regularly scheduled program. 

Today I am headed to the University of Alberta Design Lab to attend a colour and embroider class put on my our guild, Edmonton and District Quilters Guild. Our guest instructor is Jeltje van Essen of Devanter Netherlands. She owns 100 Roses Quilt Shoppe in Devanter and has the rights to use the artwork of Anton Pieck as the basis for her teaching and quilt making. I will have more to show next weekend, but for now, my supplies are packed and I am out the door as soon as this posts.

Head on over to SoScrappy see other wonderful purple happenings from quilters around this globe.
hugs
Kathy