Bargello quilts.

It has been a busy week, a letter parcel arrived from my friend Kate. She had some Shwe-shwe scraps and asked if I would like them? Absolutely! I needed more of these colours for a quilt for next year, it will be part of my RSC23.

The bargello quilt for my youngest sister has all the strips sewn into the lenght they all need to be. Next the rows get ironed and all the odd rows are iron towards the bottom of the strip and the even rows towards the top of each strip. This makes assembly of the strip sets a breeze, as all the seams nest.

They get pinned at the top of each row and all of these are sewn from the top down.

These sets are then joined to create strip sets of two pairs each, however they are sewn from the bottom to the top. By alternating the direction of the sewing of the rows together vertically, one remove the one crucial issue: no wonky shape, it helps to create the shape required. In this case a rectangle, if making a trip around the world it would create a square. The first twelve rows are sewn together making it a quarter sewn.

Blackforest cake for my birthday, knowing how precious time is we celebrate all the special moments with loved ones. The best part about this past weekend, I got to chat to both my sisters!

A Groundhog Day.

Jeopardy quilting from last week. Yesterday was a can you help me find these two items, as they are required for a meeting in the afternoon? We both looked for these items, looking in the same places a few times. The stylus for a drawing tablet, created a similar groundhog search last year. Due to that search, I remembered clearly it was in a Parker pen box. Where would I find it after hours looking through countless boxes and drawers? Next to the bed in hubby's bedside cabinet drawers. Once he had checked after I had told him it was in said box with "Parker" on the outside. The other item was found in his study after dinner when I collected the recycle for rubbish day. Opening the cupboard door on my eyelevel, the piece was tucked in right at the back of that shelf.

So no sewing happened yesterday. These are all the bargello strips pinned to be sewn to create the rows for the quilt. After the news from my eldest sister, all 43 rows are now cut, pinned, checked and can be assembled.

A few mistakes was made when the strips got pinned and those were corrected as my mind was distracted at the time. With the way yesterday went, total sewing was shelved. Instead escaping into the kitchen to make chicken and leek pies for dinner with homemade pastry. warm pudding also happened.

Happy Thanksgiving to our neighbours, wishing you a peaceful and kind holiday!

Pajama day.

A busy week, with unexpected news. In the summer, early fall both quilts for my two sisters started. Tahoe has half the diamond sets pieced. Lightning strikes have all the strip sets sewn, the cross cutting started. I was going to work on these two quilts for the next couple of months, when a phone call changed all of that. This bargello needs to be sewn at lightning speed as my sister is not well, battling a disease yet again that shall not be named. It is way past the time to find the cure for it!

The colours was chosen by her and I want her to be able to wrap herself in this quilt to hug her with love and warmth, she lives back home and somehow it will get to her. The last time we saw her was in March 2020, just the thought of not seeing her again is just too much.

So while the snowflakes fly outside, I will be standing on my kitchen mat in my pj's sending her healing love and hugs while I work on her quilt.

Jeopardy quilting for this week helped to keep my hands busy and helped with calming effect of thoughts racing through the mind. We said goodbye to both our parents and we are not ready to say goodbye to a sister or a brother yet. We know we will have to deal with it, with seven of us we may never be ready to do so.

Snowy start.

We woke up to snow on the ground, about four inches of light snow. It needed to be cleared so the guys went out and shovelled it. The snow is still coming down and it looks like it will continue for the most part today. Jeopardy quilting is now on the last round, quilting around the applique shapes and in the ditch.

The back garden, after clearing the bird feeders and adding some peanuts for the bluejays on the table.

The quilting on the wholecloth quilt is back on the rotation, doing a bit everyday.

Changed the thread, it is working a lot better.

Snowflakes are here.

We woke up to a dusting on the roof, as I am drinking my cup of coffee snowflakes are just falling down from the sky. The quiet and stillness is the one thing it arrived with. Bluejays are in the tree looking for us and asking for peanuts. The cat has crawled under the blankets on the bed, she must be cold. It is the only time she cuddles in this manner.

Winter is here, the weather report says we will see sunshine after nine am this morning?

Diamond set number 13 is done, it was worked on here and there this past week. Instead of sewing, we got outdoors and did lots of nature walks.

Jeopardy had us sitting on the edges of our seats, watching contestants battle it out for a spot in the finals.

This round got finished, it is just quilted in the ditch and around most of the shapes. Yesterday I stopped to get greenery and the shop next door to it, sells sewing machines, notions and thread. They had Mettler quilting thread, so it is a back up just incase the YLI thread runs out before the quilting is done on this one. Cross-hatching still needs doing after the outlines and in the ditch quilting.

Mystery quilts.

The cat is sleeping, snoring and no waking her up after her nighttime adventures which we missed entirely last night. Yesterday the car had to go for a service, it is now time to replace it. Finding a replacement will keep us busy, as the choices are a lot less than normal.

The bag filled with fabrics was sorted into colour groups and bundles. Quiltville Bonnie, has her mystery quilt starting on the twenty fifth of November this year. It has purple, orange, aqua and neutrals in it.

These fabrics in the bag did not yield those colours, but it has enough fabrics in it to do the mystery, just in other colours?

Will get all the pieces ironed and ready for cutting, so it can be turned into a quilt top. Besides Jeopardy, we have watched Beauty and the Baker (lots of laughter). The Empress and Enola Holmes 2. We also played a new board game, " Isle of Kitty". With the cold weather the indoor activities are back on our regular rotation. The cat just loves the fireplace, she is happy when it turns on and she can get as warm an toasty as she can be...

Kitty wake-up call.

Our cat decided to wake me up yesterday to see the eclipse. Her plan, otherwise I would have slept until it was wake-up time. She was a cat with a plan. In the last blog post was a photo of what the backgarden looked like eight years ago, as neat as it may appear many of the aspects was not done to code and had to be taken apart and be totally demolished. The hat above went to a very dear friend, knitting is not my strong point. She is special and when I found this pattern, I knew it was perfect for her. She knits the most amazing patterns with beads and intricate lace, it truly is a gift!

This tool was a gift from hubby. It is to help get those thread jams out, when they happen on a Singer Featherweight Sewing machine. Both machines have been serviced, one is working well. The other needs a bit more attention, will be redoing the one part. The machine sewed before, so it is hopefully a minor adjustment which is required.

Bag of cotton fabric which needs to sorted and unpacked, want to get to it this week.

Tahoe has twelve sets of eight diamonds done, another twelve sets remain to be done. No rushing this one, making one set of diamonds at a time. It is hands down the most difficult pattern I have ever pieced by machine.

Jeopardy quilting continues, going around the shapes on this round. We have had a few warm days, with frost at night time. our backyard feeders has seen increased activity. We are officially feeding a multitute of animals and birds. The lastest addition is a Nuthatch.

A burst of warm weather

It was sunny and warm yesterday, very unexpected.The Singer featherweight was placed on the patio table outside and the cleaning commenced. This is the second one. Both hubby and me have our own machines. I wanted to get both on the same page with the cleaning, so the rest of the services can happen on both. To this end with this great weather, no breeze I could sit at the patio table to do this. Will carry on with this today. Getting both machines back to sewing again after years of no being in use.

Jeopardy has been exciting to watch and the quilting has now started on the fourth round of the quilt. At this rate this quilt could be finished before the end of the month, provided the YLI hand quilting thread does not run out. Stopped at the quilt shop yesterday and they are expecting some thread, date to be confirmed yet as they have not had any in stock for a number of years.

The next set of diamonds are finished, slow progress. For the month of November the diamond sets will be worked on, as Omygosh top was finished recently. Worked on a secret project, which was sent off yesterday.