The Coldest Month of the Year is Over! Yippeee!

Because this is the last day of January I would like to tie up some loose ends. First of all I have to mention the award Carolyn, from The Vegetarian Hunter, bestowed on me. It's the Liebsters Award. I have no idea who started this one, but 'Liebe' means 'love' in German so I guess it's a Quilt Lovers or Blog Lovers award. Normally I don't accept awards. They are too involved and work oriented. But this one is just an award to bring bloggers together. I can now play it forward and nominate 3-5 more bloggers for this award, but they must have fewer than 300 followers.

I therefore nominate Nynke, from the Dutch Purple Rabbit. She is so sweet and generous and she has a couple of really cute cats!

I also nominate Vicki, from Felines and Fiber Arts. She has given me lots of scraps and some really nice fabrics too. Her quilting is amazing. You have to see it in real life, but since you can't you''ll just have to take my word for it.

Third is Saskia, from Dutch Girl Quilting. She does a lot of hexagon flowers and stitcheries that I love. Her whole family is creative! Go on over and take a look. There is always something interesting going on over there.

I can nominate two more bloggers who have less than 300 followers, but I will leave that up to you. If you qualify, give yourself this award. And then nominate 3-5 other bloggers who have blogs with less than 300 followers.

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Now on with my quilting! January was a busy month, but I did manage to make another quilt for charity. This one was very easy. The kit was missing a piece of fabric for the back, but I used one that I had on hand and I think it turned out pretty good.

I have not been able to sleep well the last few weeks. I seem to be up at all hours of the night and during the day I feel listless and want to nap all the time. This morning I woke up 1:30am and could not get back to sleep. So I got up and started sewing some scraps together. Here are a few of them. There were too many to show them all to you.

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Now I have to get my bread maker out and mix a batch of pizza dough. My daughter is coming over after work to pick it up. She wants to make pizzas tomorrow, but I told her to come over today because we are expecting a huge storm tomorrow - about 30cm of snow and I thought she should go straight home tomorrow. It is also going to be very cold. So... January is over, but look out, February is on it's way in.

Flowers on Wednesday, But No Hexies!

I have some flowers to show you, but they are not hexagon flowers. Those are still at the planning stage and I haven't quite figured out how to fit the next section in. I have some thinking to do.

But I do have some wonderful flowers. This is my yellow, almost green, orchid. I have had this one for several years and it never lets me down when it comes to flowering time.

This one is a pink orchid. It has also been here for several years. Only one flower this year, but there are still a few buds that I hope will open soon.
We have shivered through an extremely cold weekend. On Saturday we went to do our weekly grocery shopping. It was snowing. And it was frigid. But these tulips caught my eye. I couldn't help but think of spring, so I bought them. They are a lovely peachy colour.
A couple of weeks ago I was 'talking' to Saskia of Dutch Girl Quilting about the horrible illnesses that can strike anyone, including family members and friends. It came to me that a positive attitude is necessary to recover from them. We need the four F's, faith, family, friends and fortitude. Now I am adding another F, flowers. They brighten our lives. They give up hope.

I finished the comfort quilt I made for my friend, Linda, who is going through radiation therapy at the moment. I used all my bright flowery fabrics. I had hoped to have it done sooner, but things always take longer than I imagine.

Felix has given it his approval. He is a good tester for my quilts.

It's a nice quilt, isn't it Felix.

"Meow! It's wonderful! And now you can add a couple of more Fs. Meow!"

What do you mean?

"I'm Felix, right? That's one F and I am a feline. so that is another F! Please don't make me get off. I love this thing! Meow!"

I hadn't thought of that. Felines named Felix are definitely a wonderful commodity when it comes to curing what ails you. So that is seven Fs - faith, family, friends, fortitude, flowers, felines and Felix. Thanks boy. Just don't leave any fur balls on that quilt. Okay?

First Finish for the Year!

I have a finish! This quilt is destined to go to a vet in a nursing home. I have no idea who or where. It is a Quilts from the Heart quilt. Our guild members will know what to do with it. I'm just glad I got it finished in time for our meeting next Monday evening. A lot of scraps and pieces from my stash were used to make this Bento Box pattern.


I also pieced the back. I wanted to use up some more of my stash so that I can go shopping! The purple fabric in the centre is not really purple. It is very dark, almost a brown colour. But it has little patches of glittering gold so I guess that is why it tricked my camera into producing a purple colour.

We have some lovely sunshine today. The temperature is only -13C and with the wind it feels even colder, but a pair of mourning doves were enjoying the rays on the bird feeder this morning. Can you see blue sky? Isn't that beautiful? Don't get used to it though. We are going to get clouds and more snow for this evening and into tomorrow morning. It is nice while it lasts though!

Now to get to work on my friend's quilt. I want to mail it out to her on Saturday.

One Flower Wednesday and Other Stuff

I have been busy with my hexagon quilt. Last Friday I showed you the inside of this block. This is all I got done this week. Once the piece gets bigger, it takes longer to go around. Six more hexies are needed for each round. This is where I am at now. Still lots more to go.

It has been snowing every few days since the beginning of the year. My backyard is covered in snow. I took these shots from the doorway. It is too icy today for me to walk outside. I am too afraid of falling. It's dark and gloomy. The snow just keeps on falling - tiny flakes that are almost invisible.

I started a new BOM. I know that I promised myself I wouldn't do that, but I just couldn't resist this cute block. I am going to do it all in black and white.

And speaking of black and white... Here is Oscar. He kept putting his nose into my camera lens until I finally relented and took his photo. Now he is purring! He's so vain.

My internet provider is acting up lately. If it seems that I have not been visiting your blog or not leaving any comments, it is because I only have a few short moments when it works. If this doesn't get better soon I guess I will have to phone the cable company and find out what is going on.

Flowers on Friday?

Heck, why not?

I thought you might like to see some of my Christmas Cactus. They have been flowering since November and still have lots of buds. This is the red one.

And here is the pink one. This one fell over last fall and a lot of the branches broke off, but it doesn't seem to have had any effect on the flowers.

And finally, here is part of my hexagon quilt. It is getting so large that I have to work on it in sections. The prepared hexies were supposed to be last night's sewing-while-watching television, but my hands were too sore. I finished knitting a scarf instead.

Snack Time

I was inspired by Wanda of Exuberant Color to make a journal quilt. I don't know if I am going to join a group doing this. It seems like a lot of work to do each week of the year. Then I have to wonder what I will do with all those little quilts. So I decided to make a mug rug out of my first journal. It seemed fitting to use the wonky log cabin blocks with the elephant block for week 1 and 2 of this year. It measures 8inches by 15inches. I think that is a little large for a mug rug, but it's only my first one and I am still experimenting.

Here is the fabric I used for the back.

So it's snack time. Coffee for me and peanuts for this Ellie.

Ellie the Elephant

Here is my elephant block for week 2 of this year's Friday Block Party. Just click on the party icon on my sidebar and it will take you there. The instructions for this block were very clear, yet I still paper pieced mine. I can't help it. I paper piece everything if it can be done that way. It's a 10-inch block and I think I am going to make a baby quilt with the 10-inch blocks this year.

I have been sitting in my solarium today, enjoying the snow, the intermittent sunshine, the squirrels and Mimi. We had about 8cm of snow last night. Not enough to even bring the snowplows out. But it made for a nice white backyard. The squirrels have been running around through the snow on the fence and roof, driving Mimi almost insane! As soon as she saw my camera, she jumped down and hid under my bed. What's all that about? She probably thought she was doing something bad because those squirrels really were a tease.

A Gaggle of Geese and Some Wild Ducks

When I showed you the projects I hoped to work on this month, I had completely forgotten about the Row Robin which I have been involved with for the past year. My last row commitment was due at the end of December and I thought I had already done it, but when I looked, I only found the rows that others had done and none of mine. Since there was already so much applique work in this RR, I decided to do a pieced row. The theme of this RR was birds and anything to do with birds. So, I chose 'Wild Ducks'. This block was featured on the Friday Block Party for week 43 of 2010.



As I was working on these three blocks, I kept having the strangest feeling that I had already done a row for this RR. When I was about 3/4 of the way through my third block I remembered! I looked in one of my UFO bins and found it right on top! A lovely strip of flying geese!

I finished the wild ducks anyway and have decided to send them all. Just a senior moment folks!







Here are the other rows in this quilt. I did not have enough room to lay them all out with mine included. So you will just have to use your imagination.

I also have some hexies to show you, but it is getting too dark out. I will take a photo tomorrow and show you then.

New Year UFOs! A Sort of Resolution

I want to be more organized this year. I want to finish some quilts that I started not too long ago and some that I started years ago. I figure the best way to stay on track is to list my projects for each month at the beginning of that month. That way I will have to stay on top of things and finish them. So here goes. These are the ones for January...

The first is the 'Healing Quilt' for my friend, Linda. Only a couple of blocks to go then it will have to be sandwiched and quilted. I figure that will only take a few days, maybe a week. I want her to have it as soon as possible.

My next project is the Bento Box quilt I started to make for Quilts from the Heart. It is all pieced and ready to be sandwiched and quilted. I want to have it done by the fourth Monday of this month. That's when our guild meets again.

I also want to finish this lap quilt. I used a bunch of blocks from a quilt along which I joined a long time ago. I think it was called 'Geese in the Forest' or something like that. I made the first 27 blocks, but then decided that I would never finish it. So I brought out those little flying geese units just before Christmas and sewed the geese blocks alternately with Christmas fabrics. It didn't get done before Christmas. I would like to finish it this month so as not to have so many UFOs hanging around.

And then of course, there is my hexagon wannabe quilt. Those little hexies are a lot of work now that I have moved to the outside of the quilt. This is not a 'to be finished' quilt. I only mention it here because I will continue to work on it in the evenings, while watching television. It is a work in progress.

Finished Quilts for 2010

These are the quilts and wall hangings that I finished in 2010.

Finished in 2010

My finished charity quilts for 2010. My goal was to make one per month. These are the only ones I got done. Hopefully 2011 will be more prolific.