Catching up to the Pack

It is about sweet time I got back to recording the coming and goings on in this Studio at 106B. I have changed the pre-wound bobbins many times recently.




I recently bought the grandchildren new pillows and made fresh spring pillowcases, and for a 12 year old boy...his first shaving kit using Janelle MacKay's fabulous Emmalline 'Retreat Bag'. What a great pattern. Of course though when you are 12, your first shaving kit should be made with Angry Bird fabric! I am hoping when he is 30 his "wife" will be bugging him to get rid of it...."but my Grandma made it for me", will be his reply.




Over at SoScrappy there is always encouragement for getting to the bottom of those scrap bins. She provides a pattern if you don't know what to do yourself. When last year I create this beauty...which I just love so much!

That one was so much fun I was making one in marked time beside it, except the centre for the Sawtooth Stars were 16 patches.

That first one was also so much fun, my LQS sought permission from Angela to run the same quilt challenge through the store. So I am doing it all over again, though this time with a scrappy gray background. More pictures to follow on that one.




I have also joined the Citizen's Police Academy. A volunteer education program about the Edmonton Police Service (EPS) and a brief look into all of its program. We have had a visit from Traffic Division, 911 Communications Centre, Community Police Liaison and of course everyone's favourite...K9 Unit. So far it has been highly educational and entertaining.


Love and hugs
Kathy

Thankfull for a warm and overflowing studio...in brown

This is Canadian Thanksgiving weekend and as I look around I have so much to be thankful for. A warm home for my family, full studio, time to create, dear friends, good health...the list goes on and on.

Time to create this week has been focused tidying the studio, working on some chocolate and mocha string blocks. These are so rich and lovely and I do look forward to using them in a quilt, as yet of a design unknown!

The 16-Patch-in-a-Sawtooth blocks (well more like mocha and caramel).

And some decluttering of the storage room...long overdue.

I am linking up to all of those celebrating the colour brown over at SoScrappy.

Love and hugs to you all
Kathy

Catching up is hard to do

Hello Again
I seems like a long time since I checked in added what's been happening in my studio and life. In August I was consumed by the making of these fancy pants four patches...you know that will be the end name of this quilt. My dilemma here is what to use for the sashing, while the objective is to sew up my stash...I am leaning to red and not either the grey (too wimpy) and the Barcelona border Jenny Beyers is too...old.

While I was playing with 4 patches, I was neglecting my Indigo RSC15 blocks, but I am happy to report now that they are done!

The background material for all three of these blocks was a indigo shibori class sample that my friend Lou Punko had in her estate sale. The bright blue shibori used in the Road to California block was a cotton hankie my friend Gerda DeVries brought back from her bicycle tour/visit to Japan in 2014.

The Sawtooth Star points of the Bull's Eye block was a another gift. This one from Marilyn Shinyei, started as a shibori place mat, another gift from Japan while she had been visiting her daughter there. The dark indigo of the Bull's Eye block is a scrap of raw silk from a kimono that was in my collection...gathered from where I do not recall.












Mr. Roosevelt's Bow Tie  and Sawtooth Star points were made of another indigo shibori scrap that came from Lou as well. I really love how this block turned out.

In August I also took Kim Caskey's Bird of Wisdom (JOY) class at  Earthly Goods. The technique learned here was lino cutting. I chose to use for my background a ''charity shop" embroidered table scarf. I used the same indigo silk kimono scrap here as my colour base. I loved the way this little technique's quilt turned out.

I made a few 16 patch centres which are for THAT other quilt that is being made simultaneously to the RSC15.

I did make the three ORANGE 16 patch in a Sawtooth Star. I love these orange beauties.

I have started a stack of orange string blocks as well, as there appear to be a lot of orange strings & strips etc that are calling to be dealt with.

I will get as caught up as possible before I head off to Scotland on Sept 21 with Celtic Quilt Tours. There shall be 12 days of making merry and mayhem in bonny Scotland. We will visit castles, patchwork shops, hunt for the Loch Ness Monster, take a quilt class from Ann Hill, visit a distillery and sew on and sew on. Their itinerary for Ireland 2016 is also posted on their website. You should come too.

While you think about that you should check out the other orange scrappy happiness at SoScrappy.

Love and hugs
Kathy

Half Way (plus 18 days) there!

Besides being the middle of the week, July 8, is also the middle of this year. And just as importantly, it is also the middle of the RSC15. So six months and 18 days later, what have I done, or accomplished?

January was blue...and I have this great slab quilt to present to a grandson at Christmas...now that's sewing ahead Grandma! (Click on any of the photos for a closer look.)

 The February was pink, and I got to work on my RRCB. This will also be a Christmas present for a granddaughter.  It is presently in the lineup with the LA.

Also going along, I have made string blocks

The yellow, red and green will find themselves in a special Remembrance Day project. But these other ones will find a home somewhere, if not this year, then next.

The RSC15 Sampler-Centred-Sawtooth-Star are looking fabulous. There will be lots of time to get the connector X's made as I go along...she says! (Click on the photos to get a closer view)

I have also created a set of 16 patch-Centred-Sawtooth-Stars...just because.

To check out what others have accomplished at this point mid-year (& last weekend on July), please click here to be taken to a link up with SoScrappy. AND the next colour is to announced very soon for August...fingers crossed for orange. Just because it is also Sunday, I am linking up at Oh Scrap!

Love and hugs
Kathy

July = Red

July moves us to RED, the Happiest of Canada Day colours. Angela over at SoScrappy dished out the first suggested block...a Lantern. This will be a strong block to anchor the bottom row of the quilt.

Also, because at some point I thought it would also be a good idea (?) to do a simultaneous quilt of Sawtooth Star blocks with a16 patch centre. It certainly is using up my supply of never-gonna-make-another-colourwash-quilt 2" squares.

To see the happy scrappy progress of others participating in this challenge, head on over to SoScrappy here.


I am also having a ball having three of precious grandchildren in the city for almost two weeks. Could a grandma be any happier? Here posing after blasting off - then finding - a rocket to help celebrate Canada Day at the Telus World of Science Centre.

love and hugs to you all

Kathy

Grass is Greener

Grass is getting Greener everyday. And so are the scraps on my cutting table. Angela at SoScrappy, and leader of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2015, has posted instructions for a 6.5" Sawtooth Star within a 12.5" Sawtooth Star...and I love it! And it gave me a chance to make a tiny 3.5" string star centre, though I was sorely tempted to make a tiny tiny Sawtooth Star. I am sure someone out there has taken on the challenge.

I was delighted this past week to receive an email from Angela at SoScrappy advising me that I had won the April's Purple Hand Dyed fabrics, donated by the very generous Vicki Welsh. I am on pins and needles waiting for that package to arrive. I am feeling so blessed.


To add to the greenness of my surrounding there are also two green 16 patch-in-a-Sawtooth-Stars for the alternate quilt, ready and waiting.

We (the Edmonton and District Quilter's Guild Endowment Committee) have had two generous studio clean-out donations to deal with this month. Happiness is helping someone else downsize their studios as they move onto smaller homes and really focus their energies into doing and making the exact types of quilting they enjoy. I really should take a clue from this and clean out my own studio to have just those supplies for the kinds of quilting I now like to do...large patchwork bed quilts.


There has been great opportunities to watch my granddaughter enjoy her dance competitions.  To see her blossom with skill and confidence. Can a grandmother's heart hold that much love?

 

I linking up at SoScrappy to share the many shades of green.
Love and hugs
Kathy

April = Purple

April = Purple. Think of crocus and pasque flowers. Somewhere in the world there is a warm south facing hillside where they are blooming, alas not in my garden. However, there are other sources for this wonderful colour to show up in the studio. So in the meantime, bring on the 2 gallon bag of purple scraps.
By scrounging through this bag of purple scraps and cutting 16 x 2" squares = 16 patch set in Sawtooth Star.

 I had a little game of catch up with the 2" pink = February, that I needed to get set into it's Sawtooth Star. Now I am caught up on the Sawtooth Stars with 16 patch centres.

Thank You cards created with tiny purple 'sweaters' ready to give to travelers that will be traveling with us to Ireland in June 2015. Us = Celtic Quilt Tours.

And there was some time to get started on the next round of string blocks

1st purple string block

It is now time to get the border units sewn onto my RRCB. This comfy quilt will be ready for filmsy reveal very very soon.

For a ringside seat on what promises to be some very lovely purple entries please check out SoScrappy. I will also post to Oh Scrap! (there is some overlap - but all celebrating working with scraps).

Wishing you all a very Happy Easter.
Love and hugs
Kathy

Bye Bye Blue - Hello Pinky-ness

This is the last week of concentrating on blue scraps from the blue bin!! True confessions, I have a whole year of blue still in that bin. Although, now that they have been sorted, it will be easier to dip in there is I do get a case of the blues throughout the year. But in the meantime I have made the two sampler-in-blue blocks for the RSC15 feature challenge quilt.

I have made a few 16 patch for a second RSC15 challenge quilt (and clearly sewed ahead - my bad). There is another idea brewing here.

I have made a Blue Slab Quilt that is ready for quilting. There should be a picture of that completed happy quilt in a few weeks.

Over this past week I needed to concentrate on the skinny strings and odd bits in the blue bin and create a few (!) string blocks. These are 6.5", but if I set them in a Sawtooth Star Block as well, and played along with the colour of the month then I would have another RSC15 Challenge Quilt. This time making the Sawtooth Star block in corresponding colours, ie: light blues for backgrounds for blue strings and light green backgrounds for green string etc etc...????? I should have a sample ready for next week...so many ideas so little time. Oh, and look it appears that pink is already playing along, and ummm another yellow block snuck in.

I mean it not like I am going to run out of fabric, and this is what we call working in a series.
However, now it is time to turn our thoughts to using up the pinks. Such a lovely colour to be bringing into the mix. I have long loved Bonnie Hunter's Roll Roll Cotton Boll, and jumped right in and made all of the neutral string blocks, er...a few years ago.

And made 250 of the required 600 2" hst's. So that is what got me going on it again. As I am making my hst's blue instead of her red. And now mercifully the colour pink is required in 120 hst's for the center medallion of each block. Out come the pinks in earnest.

The start of another rug. As I prepare my fabrics I trim off the selvedges and roll them into a ball awaiting the take along project time and crochet another rug.

I had made one complete block and set it in it's corner presentation. I am loving this quilt.

3 1/2" strips of pink ready to meet their brown other-half in the production line of 120 hst's.

To see what other lovely blue to pink scrap happiness is going on at SoScrappy, check this out. Warning, it is getting more exciting each week...just sayin'.

Happiest in my studio

Love and hugs
Kathy

It's a 16 Patch Throwdown.

I have had so much fun this week. Simple things...take a pile of blue scraps and divide it up into blue and 'not really blue". From these I have made more slabs, 17 in total. I will need 36 slabs to make a decent sized quilt for one of my little boys.

and more 16 patch/Sawtooth blocks.

I have also used the scraps from cleaning up the table after my Grand Illusion finish and have 'sewed-ahead'. Will show those blocks when the time and colours are right. But they are finished blocks in the bin and ready for their great reveal when that month comes.

I have a cutting plan for the alternate blocks with the Sawtooth Stars and have started to cache my 2.5" colour squares into the RSC15 bin.

It doesn't matter how many times I count my "Farm Girl At Heart" Blocks I come up with a different number. 1, 2, skip a few, 3, 4.... Ah well, how about sewing up a few more with some blue scraps. I started the one on the left with 1 3/4" squares...nope...ended up with a 7" unfinished block. Okay do it again with 1 1/2" squares...nope, this one is a perfect 5 1/2" square. When really all I want is a 6 1/2" unfinished square. These two will go into the orphan block bag!! Can anyone out there provide the math?

Next up for the Grand Illusion is to have it quilted in time for Christmas gift presentation 2015, until then it can go on the shelf for a few months.

See what else is happening with the colour Blue at SoScrappy.
Happiest in the studio
Love and Hugs
Kathy