Works in progress.

The fabric pouches for the dried blossoms of the lavender is ready for filling. Made a total of 42.

These were the leftover little piles after these nine patch blocks got sewn.

That was yesterday.

Twenty six nine patch blocks after today's afternoon sewing. Springcleaning of the house is in fullswing for most part of the day, sewing happens after this is done for the moment.

It is easier to get the blocks done, with everything sorted and just waiting for a half an hour here or there. We woke up to snow and some flurries during the day, we have had our fill of cold weather. Come on summer...

The knitting happens in the evening, we have been watching Jeopardy.

Dried Lavender.

Yesterday the weather was beautiful and we took down the Christmas lights, finished up the chores that had to wait for good weather. Two large bags of lavender got taken out of the garage and thrashed in small bundles in an old pillow case. A few hours later, the flowers and the stems where seperated. The dried stems make great fire starters, the flowers go in sachets made with cotton scrap fabrics. They help with sleep, especially for those with Autism. It worked very well on me, so much so I had a hard time staying awake until bedtime last night...

Sorted the leftover bargello scraps according to size and pulled out all the one and half inch squares, they will be used to make nine patch blocks for this pattern from 2006

Funny how we see a pattern in a magazine and then we keep it for years? Glad I found it, it is now going to happen. Scrappy as can be.

More pink.

The shoo-fly block stack has grown. April produced a lot more blocks, as many blocks had pink in the middle.

The spring quilt got some more quilting in the hoop, the pink borders got started and the center block got quilting as well.

This is a practice quilt for the new machine, so if things are not perfect it is okay.

The little dress is finished,the leftover yarn was weighed on the scale. It was 99g, the dress weighed in at 94g. So ball of this yarn will make two 18-24 month dresses.

The back of the dress, with a band with buttons and buttonholes. The leftover yarn is being used for a hat, using the darker green from the middle of the ball of yarn.

These pink yarns are two different shades, so they are now on seperate knitting needles being used. Unpacking boxes and sorting projects continued this past week, all the almost finished projects is in two piles. One for quilt tops, another for small items, bags and itty bitty items.

The next Bargello is sorted too, found three more fabrics for it. Then played with the fabrics and have the colours in order now. The garden is calling and seeds have been planted in the veggie garden, it is now watering and waiting for the seeds to sprout.

Taking time.

The last couple of weeks has been busy with family, Easter and just relaxing. Sometimes we need to be kind to ourselves and just rest, recharge and move forward. Things that need to be done, got done in small pockets of time and steps.

The spring quilt is now getting machine quilting in the form of machine embroidery in the hoop designs.(Quilting outline designs, which are done using a digitized quilt design on an embroidery unit on a regular sewing/embroidery machine).

The new machine is now the one I am using. It is sewing like a dream. The embroidery area with the machine is so much bigger. (The trade ins being offered at the moment for a new machine is amazing!) Over the years, I have been blessed to have machines from different makes and manufacturers. Along the way there have been favourites, my first machine was a Necchi? it cost the grand price of 20 bucks and it was bought second hand. It was all metal and weighed a ton. Modern machines are made with more plastic and less metal.

Before stitching the design on the quilt, a sample is stitched on some stabilizer, in this case a paper tearaway. It allows me to audition the design over the space it will be stitched on the quilt. This is very useful, once a sample is made : it can be used over and over again. It is then placed with all the other stitched templates in a binder. This saves time and makes quilting in the hoop a fun process.

The square 8 inch hoop came with additional quilt and embroidery designs, which is a great size and fit for the square blocks. The hoop was on back order, it was absolutely worth the wait. In today's world, many shops have closed. The new machine is a Husqvarna, the shop is still local and worth the drive. It takes about a half an hours drive to get there. The owners John and Monique is an amazing couple, a phone call away. They know their product well. We can recommend them highly, so if you need a new machine check out what they have on offer at : Brampton Sew N Serge. (www.shopsewnserge.com)

The little dress is done, it still needs a placket at the back with buttonholes and buttons. The pattern had crochet loops for button holes, not what I want to do. This is what I worked on the last while, easy to do while watching movies, chatting and relaxing.

This was monday afternoon, we had snow on tuesday. It has all melted and we are very glad it is gone now.

Pink’s.

Last year when the scraps was cut, it was according to what size was in the box. The pinks was too small for the triangle squares, big enough for center squares.

Quite a few and for this reason the pink blocks, have pink in the middle.

Have been busy outside with a few good weather days outdoors. Took the Christmas lights off the seventeen foot high blue spruce, we were going to leave the lights up until we discovered the windstorm blew a lot of the light bulbs off. We found too many under the tree. Springcleaning has started and the last two packed boxes have been unpacked after almost eight years in our current house. Found some yarn and a pattern which was bought in Almonte at Kelly's shop, Textile Traditions. Linking to Super Scrappy.

Magic binding.

For years I have known how to make Magic binding, just never sewn it on right. What a gamechanger it was to discover how to sew it on correctly. Vintage moments, aka the spring quilt has rounded corners.

The fabric for the binding was not enough, it got misplaced and a part was used for another project. I found some similar green fabric at retreat a few years back. Decided to measure the binding made from the binding fabric that came with the kit. It was one and a half inches wide, this was when the penny dropped. Magic binding was the solution.

Using a walking foot and needle down made it easier to sew the binding down. It is sewn on the back and folded to the front of the quilt.

Leaving a ten inch tail, it was sewn on the back. Sewing around the corners was an unknown.

When the fabric is sewn on the back, one iron it away from the quilt top.

It is amazing how easy it made the round corners, the iron could be run on the inside curve with ease.

The binding is folded to the front of the quilt and sewn in the ditch where the little flange is.

This was the first time sewing the binding down by machine. Here is the link for the The link seems to not be working: Aunt Marti's 52 Quilts: Susie's Magic Binding Tutorial on You-Tube is the video to watch.