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

Final week of Green

Another week of Green and what have I done...barely anything. A few string blocks: greens and purples, because I have lots of purple scraps and need more purple string blocks. I have made green string blocks, because there are green scraps and want green string blocks.

I have also been given the most wonderful sets of pewter buttons from my friend Bonnie Taylor. Bonnie is an accomplished bag piper and proud collector of all things Celtic and Scottish. So when she gave me these particular buttons, I can barely describe how privileged I feel to have received these. The claddagh buttons are right on the green theme.

 as I plan to be in Ireland on Wednesday. This is my third trip to Ireland in as many years. My co-hosts and I will be hosting an International Gathering of the Guilds on Saturday June 6 in Killarney, Co Kerry, then off on a Celtic Shop Hop Tour of northwest Ireland. The Scottish thistle buttons will be used to celebrate our first quilt tour of Scotland, beginning September 22, 2015.

In the meantime I have got to get caught up on the green RSC15 blocks (still have the spinning pinwheel to do), pack, clean up at work, pick up some Euros...

Celebrating Green Churn Dash

To catch up on all those that have kept up with their green scrappiness at SoScrappy, click here.

Love and hugs
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

A Passion for Purple

This new purple Carrie Nation block is going to be just stunning in our Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilts. And to think there are still 8 months/colours to go! Thanks to Angela at SoScrappy for her leadership with these.

Remember January = Blue? One of the projects that I took on was blue slabs and the creation of a slab quilt, so named by Cheryl Arkison, author of Sunday Morning Quilts. My friend Kerri saw my completed top and just knew that she wanted to use it to practice her LA ruler work. How could I turn down such an offer? Well, I don't think she needs much more practice. This quilt is now phenomenal (click on the photo for a closer view). Binding will be sewing on tonight.

I am sooooo close to having my RRCB completed. I showed it last night at my bee group and my good friends asked so innocently..."do you want to know if you have a piece in backwards"? Are you kidding me. So un-sew I did, and now I believe I have it. Not ready to show in the wider audience yet...but one day soon.

To catch up on other passionate purples, head on over to SoScrappy here.

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

Yellow = Sunshine = Happiness

I have so enjoyed working with my yellow string blocks (as leaders and enders) this week as I move toward the finish line with RRCB.

This Roll Roll Cotton Boll is so close to being a quilt top. You have to love a pattern whose first call to action is to make 600 hst's. These are now sewn into the surround for each of the 30 center blocks. 

And all of the string blocks are made, and setting triangles (this pattern is set on point) also set aside.

Sunday I will be having a Sew-What-Ever day with my bee-group. It could be a quilt top by 5 pm.

But all the whilst I was doing that I would nip in and out of my yellow scraps to complete the two RSC15 scrap blocks, Air Castle and Monkey Wrench. I realize that the Monkey Wrench/Sawtooth Points are made with the luscious Michael Miller Dots...which I have had a complete collection of in every colour for how many years...and what was I planning to do with this whole bin of loveliness? So it is not exactly a scrap, but it is time to cut it up and get into quilts that my family and I can enjoy.

As well as my two RSC15 blocks, there are also the two 16 patch/Sawtooth Stars ready and waiting.

I have linked up with other yellow happiness over at SoScrappy.

Love and hugs
Kathy

Wrap that Pink up in a bow and call it done

Roll Roll Cotton Boll...that has been the focus this week. I am leaving no rock unturned in my efforts to round up enough light neutrals to complete the 600 2" hst's. This will be the UFO that I take along to the UFO day planned today by my guild. Twelve hours of sewing, chatting, laughing, eating, snacking and some more sewing. This is the state at which it sits right now...at 505! I have great expectations for myself to get a lot of this sewn together. I will take along the rest of the strips I have put together, get the cutting and piecing done. Next UFO to become a flimsy will be my RRCB.

I am very pleased with the pink-progress to date. I have a nice stack of pink-string-alongs.

and my pink-16-patch-throw-down (one more to do), and my two pink Block-in-a-Block Sawtooth Stars.

and some pink blossoms on a "Spring Showers Bouquet" quilted postcard for my friend Mary Holdgrafer.

Pink, aka February, has been a delightful month and I extend many many thanks to all of the other quilters that have shared their pink-bin-creativeness over at SoScrappy.
Love and hugs
Kathy

String along with me

How much fun can one possibly have with pink string blocks? I love sewing them together and then opening up and pressing. Each one is a tiny gift. And just to keep it even more interesting, I have done a few yellow string blocks. True confessions working with yellow is my favourite of all colours.

What is my plan for using these? Not a clue at this point. Slice them in half diagonally and treating them like these Roll Roll Cotton Boll alternate blocks? I am open to suggestions...Or perhaps it is just to early to tell?

Roll Roll Cotton Boll string blocks

And I do love the these 16 patch centred Sawtooth Stars. It was fun to gather up the 2" pink squares and get them into this exciting block. These are really coming together quite beautifully...LOVE THEM.

16 Patch Sawtooth Stars

And this new RSC15 block is sew pretty. I made the choice to make 4.5" string block centre, and I so glad that I did.

To catch up on other pink loveliness from around the planet, check out the SoScrappy pinky-linky party.
love and hugs
Kathy

I See Slabs of Blue

Opening a scrap bin is a bit like opening a present. Peeling back the layers to see what shall be revealed. That is what it has felt like for me this week and I have taken a good hard look at my scraps, some that were gifted by Wanda.

First off I made a couple of wonderful 16 patch, only put the Sawtooth Star around one so far. And I made the card trick, the tricky part was it gobbled up my points on one side!

I have the centre of my Grand Illusions quilt done and will continue on with the borders this weekend. Looking for a finish before I go back to work on Monday.

Also in the bag of blues were a lot of strips, in varying shades of blue: torquoise, baby blues, and dark blues. With these I created Slab Blocks, so named by Cheryl Arkison of Calgary and co-author of Sunday Morning Quilts. She advises us to use up the strips to make a 12 inch monochromatic block, with one slice of white. However, since I was on a roll and since I have a 15 inch square ruler...that is what mine have grown to be.

As I press and trim up and get close to the 15 inch size, I mark with a pin the side that still requires an additions...gets a bit confusing as they start to all come to the magic size, and this helps eliminate having to un-sew a side.

Also while I am going through the stacks, shelves and bags I am trimming off selvedges, because I love to crochet scatter rugs. Durable, colourful and keeping one more thing out of the landfill.


To stay caught up on other RSC15 Blue Scrappiness click here.
Love and hugs
Kathy