Bearly Done

 I have been feeling ill for a week.  I thought at first it was connected to my Meniere's disease but as a friend in Alberta has the same symptoms, I accepted that it is a bug of some sort.  Just in case that you have also been unwell, here are the symptoms:  dizziness, nausea, headache.  I have also had a weird feeling in my upper chest that I thought was my blood pressure dropping too far.  A test showed that it was normal but it sure felt odd.

I have finished a baby quilt and am pleased with how it turned out.  I did a lot of infilling quilting as you can see in the second photo.  All those little circles take time but I like the way they look.  Now this quilt and my customer one is finished I am going to reload the one I removed so I could do the other projects.  I have never reloaded a quilt before so am going to have to take extra care that I get it straight.  

While working on that quilt, I have a rather large job I want to do.  I am going to take all my fabric from the shelves, lay them on the table (a few at a time) and take photos.  I will then be able to see what I have without rummaging though everything.  Of course, I will have to add and delete as time goes on but I think this will be a help.

Monday is Canada Day.  I am having a few quilting friends over for tea and cookies and to show off the camper we got for my sister.  She and her family will be able to use it when they visit from England and it will be available to our Canadian relatives as well.  We are really pleased with it and are having fun adding bedding etc.  Of course, I will have to leave something for my sister to do as it is her until but, in the meantime, we are playing house.

Happy July 4th on Thursday to my American readers.

Blessings,

I am Creative, not Messy.

 It is really hot here.  It would be worse if not for the 80 foot plus  trees that surround us.  Also, our home is very well insulated and we have an AC.  I try not to grumble (not always successfully) as we are much more fortunate than many.  I also have the choice of doing nothing if I choose.  As a contrast, I have friends in the western provinces that have had to worry about frost.  Canada where the weather is never boring.

I have been getting ready for the Burk's Falls Art and Crafts Centre's first sale of the year.  I have a good supply of quilts and, I discovered, some smaller items that I forgot.  I am not making anything else.  I was going to do a crib quilt and, in fact, am working on it but I decided not to push it.  There will be another sale later.

Now that everything that was pressing is done, I am back to my least favourite but necessary task.  The studio is piled high with fabric that was pulled out to model for a project.  Of course, I never put anything back until I am finished which means the pile of material gets higher and mixed in with cut fabric.  I have given up trying to clean as I go as apparently that isn't my nature.  I have a little mug mat by my computer that says I don't get messy, I get creative.

I am very creative!!!!

blessings, 

Preparing for a Sale

 The day is moving on and I want to get a bit more quilting done but, first, the latest news here in the backwoods.

  If you have been working on the scrappy pattern quilt, there is one more step.  After you have cut the corners from each block you are going to have two nice sized triangles.  Sew them together along the longest side and you will have a block that can be used as an outside border.

My customer quilt is finished and sent to its new home.  The customer was very pleased which is always gratifying.  It was a challenge to make but that kept me interested.

Later this month, the Burk's Falls Art and Crafts Club will be holding it's first sale of the year.  I have been finishing up some of my UFO's to enter.  This photo is one of them.  I finished it some time ago but always felt it needed something else.  Yesterday I added the cats and I think that makes it a lot more appealing.  I now have a crib quilt on the long arm and am working on another.

We had a tornado warning for much of Ontario yesterday.  We didn't get anything more than a few gusts of wind and a little thunder but it was enough to frighten the cat.  It must have been terrifying for her to be living outdoors for seven years without any comfort or shelter.  She is getting lots of love and care now.

Blessings.

Last Steps.

 My long arm is working and I finished quilting my tonal customer quilt.  I now just have the binding to do.  It is so nice to have my Gracie working again.  I changed the thread once more and also the needle.  This time, I used one of the ones that came with the machine.  It was a size 18 and I had a 16 in the machine.  When all that was finished, I tried sewing once again.  And it sewed without any thread breakage!  I guess my machine appreciates a larger needle so it will get its wish from now on.

On Monday, I had the  privilege to teach my quilt pattern to our local quilt group.  Everyone picked it up quickly and created some lovely work.

Here are the last steps. The first 2 photos show the two squares, how to mark, place together and cut.

The last photo is how to join the blocks.  This is the tricky part.  You may have to print this photo or the one from the previous blog to use as a guide.  The basic steps are:  place one square with white corner pointing  to the upper left, next is lower right and repeat.

Fabric right sides together, marked side on top.  Stitch to right of line keeping as close as possible.

                      Cut lower right corner 1/4 inch from stitched line.  Repeat for all squares.

                                               Sew squares together following instructions.

Blessings,