Omygosh.

Over the course of three years, each month I worked on the blocks in the called for colour. Scraps was cut, sewn, ironed and the blocks assembled. The stack of little blocks grew, until I had enough blocks to sew the top together. This happened and border fabrics was added. The top with the binding went into the rubbermaid for to be quilted pile and sat in there for almost two years. Over the summer I learnt how to longarm quilt and I got to quilt this one myself. The binding is on and the quilt got washed and is now dry. The irony of it was suppose to use all the scraps, reduce the scraps of fabrics so that the scrap pile would be gone, did not work. After sorting out the sewing room, instead I now have a rubbermaid filled with scraps from all the leftover fabric from completed projects over the years. The plan this fall? to sort these into shape groups and start sewing those together each month with RSC26.

The front and back of the quilt.

RSC has taken stalled projects, to finished projects. Thank you, Angela for hosting SoScrappy!

Summer.

This post is about this summer past, learning another part element of how to quilt. It has been fun, a lot of hard work and journey in how to work smarter not harder. Having the opportunity to learn to do this and the tools to do this, has freed hours of time for me. It allowed me to quilt a whole rubbermaid filled with quilt tops, panels that has been waiting for a while. I am so thankful it is now empty, in the process it all came in very handy. As one of our neighbours lost their home in our neighbourhood to a house fire, they escaped the house just in time and are alive. Things can be replaced, people not.

Two of these quilts was gifted to the children, both boys. The same fabrics was used in these two tops, just in different places.

A quilt for the parents is almost finished and will be going to them very soon.

I got to practice on various quilts and my own stuff, it included quilts for Survivors, babies, wedding and just quilts for at home or at the cottage.

The backs on all the quilts range from regular cotton, flannel, minky and fireside.

Baby quilts for two twin boys.

Playmat quilts.

A wedding quilt and the dragon fly quilt.

Red, The spledour sampler, Red work blocks gifted to me by a friend from retreat. Her stitching is absolutely beautiful! (French General fabrics in reds).

Some more quilts, this is just a part of the quilts I had a chance to work on and quilt. I continue to practice and learn. My apprentice internship is almost complete, as summer draws to a close. I am thankful to give my hands more time to enjoy some quiet stitching and applique time as I grow older. Hand quilting is one of my pleasures, as we age we have the choice to be kind to ourselves as well, to find the right balance for us in life.

Stitching.

A few kits which has been on my list, one for a while now. This one was pointed out to me on many times over the course of the past year. I finally got the kit, made a start on it.

It is very well put together and thought out kit. One can start right away when you open the box. It is easy to pop everything back into the box, until you want to stitch again.

Another one, much smaller.

It is a Christmas decoration in the form of a bell.

Started this one too! Both kits are from The Sewing Cafe, Georgetown Ontario.

Omygosh.

One of the many reasons so many years ago, when I join RSC yearly colour challenge was to get some of the blocks done for this quilt. I was hoping to use up most of my scraps of fabric? Did it work? Nope, the scrap bin is still filled to almost the top. Pineapple blocks use a lot of fabric, maybe that will be my next challenge blocks for RSC?

It is not finished yet, it needs trimming and binding. Thank you to RSC colour challenge this quilt became a reality and are scraps no more. A fellow quilter who saw it, thought I was crazy to make it in the first place. Was this an insanity project? Many years ago I saw on at the Quilt Show in Ottawa, which inspired me to want to make one too one day.

All this was possible because it was done with no stress. Make a couple of blocks in the called for colour each month, then put them away in a box. This happened over the course of three years, then it was all laid out and sewn row by row. Those border fabrics did not want to play nice and was unpicked a few times. It is now quilted, one of the projects I got to practiced on the longarm machine. August has been a busy learning curve month, for which I will be grateful for a long time to come.

Michigan, a mystery quilt along with Laundry BasketQuilts a few years back and made with Da Gama quilting cottons from South Africa also got quilted. It has aqua and blues in it too! The binding is on and it is a finished quilt.

The hummingbirds keepcoming to the feeder and they chase each other, as they do not want to share the feeder.

We went for a picnic yesterday not far from where we live.

Dragon fly.

A finish, it includes so many shades of blues and some aqua as well. This pattern is Indigo Way mystery from Bonnie Hunter a few years ago. Just after I started this one, my friend told me about her nephew whom had just had surgery to remove tumours from his spine and that this 21 year old was diagnosed with cancer. I knew then this would be his quilt.

Michael has been fighting hard and the chemo was not working, recently he started radiation therapy which he is responding to positively to!

I teach classes occasionally at my local quilt shop. A few months back the owner asked if any of us wanted to learn how to longarm quilting, two of us raised our hands. I am currently learning this skill and it is exhilarating and terrifying at the same time, but a lot of fun. It is all about the practice, training the brain. Quilt number six was one of my own, what to quilt on this one? When it is one of your own the descision of how to quilt it, is so much more difficult.

All over waves to represent water and to anchor the base for quilting a giant dragon fly ontop of the waves, a dragon fly flying over the water. Dragonflies also represent transformation, hoping that it will help this young man to beat this disease. Last weekend he received his quilt, he loves it and it is now on his bed. In going about our days, please take a moment to say a prayer for Michael and all others who are in need of healing. Our prayers are powerful!

Precuts, we all have some.

Have you ever bought a precut of fabric? The charm squares, a jelly roll or a fat quarter bundle. They have all those pretty fabrics and you get home, with no project in mind. Then you wonder what to make with it? Now what? It sits in the cupboard, or on a shelf with no plan in sight.

A few years go by and you have an aha moment, it then gets used. Prices have increased over the years, so how far can you stretch a fat quarter bundle? A challenge for sure, some you can use all the fabric with no waste if you make a trip around the world. What if you want to use it for applique? A conundrum for sure, unless you want to make that project bag, a baby quilt and maybe something extra?

Adding some background fabrics can stretch one fat quarter bundle to make quite a few projects, be it to keep or to gift. Lets begin, first is a project bag, then a birthday quilt, a baby quilt and a chandelier quilt. Not bad and how much is still leftover?

Yes they can seem expensive, it is all about how creative you decide to be and to utilize the fabrics to create more than just one item.