A Finish and Earth Hour

I finished my first quilt for this year.  There should be more to follow.  My sewing machine seems to be fixed, because I had no trouble quilting this one.  It's a small charity quilt for Quilts from the Heart and it will likely go to a women's shelter.

Just a reminder.  Are you joining in on Earth Hour this evening?  Turn your electrical gadgets off at 8:30pm (Daylight Savings Time) for one hour until 9:30pm.  Light some candles, chat with friends and family and enjoy the peacefulness of an hour without electricity.

We had a bit of a head start on Earth Hour last night.  The power snapped and crackled and I heard an explosion not far away.  Then our power went out.  It was about a quarter to six and I was busy preparing dinner.  Needless to say, dinner did not get cooked.  So we went out to Swiss Chalet.  We'll eat last night's dinner tonight.

Happy Earth Hour!  

Harry Potter is Finished

I have finished a charity quilt!  My first finish for this year.  Yippeeeee! 

It was a kit from our guild, since this quilt will go to our Quilts from the Heart progrram.  30, 8.5inch blocks featuring a Harry Potter fabric.  Looks easy, right  - just sew the patches together and quilt it.  Not!  The patches were all different sizes, so I had to cut them down to 8.25inches.  Then, as I was sewing them together, I discovered a yellow patch that was only 8 x 6 inches.  I put everything away for a while so that I could think about this dilemma.  That yellow fabric looked familiar.  So I searched and searched through my stash and then my scraps.   And eventually I found a small piece!  I said a little prayer, ironed it and was able to cut an 8.25in. block from it.  I am glad it is finished.

Polar Bears for Quilts from the Heart

Brrr!  It's cold outside!  -5C yesterday and freezing rain last night.  It feels like polar bear weather!  Nothing like a Polar Bear Quilt to keep me warm.  I enjoyed sewing the binding down by hand with it draped over my body.  But this one is not for me.  This is a charity quilt, going to 'Quilts from the Heart' at our guild.  It's a disappearing nine patch.  And I got it finished in time to take it to our next meeting on Monday evening.

A Finish for July!

I finished another Disappearing Nine Patch quilt.  I used left overs from other charity quilts as well as some of my own scraps.  This one will be donated to Quilts from the Heart when our guild starts up again in September.

I thought some of you might like to see this.  It's the first flower on my 'mystery' vine.  A beautiful colour, but impossible to tell what kind of plant, since all flowers on squash, cucumbers and pumpkins look similar.

One More Done!

Another charity quilt done.  Gosh, I'm really on a roll! 

This was also a kit from my guild.  I think I got lucky this month.  The fabrics they gave me are all nice.  Sometimes you don't know what you're going to get.

And speaking of what I am going to get... I have this 'thing' growing in one of my raised beds.  No idea what it is.  It's a volunteer.  Maybe a pumpkin?  It is taking over my garden!  The curious child in me wants to let it grow and see what it becomes.  But the adult in me wonders if I should pull it out.  I hope it isn't anything from 'Little Shop of Horrors' fame!

Another Charity Quilt is Finished

I finished another charity quilt last night.   It's a Disappearing Nine Patch and it came as a kit from our guild.  I love these colours  I think this one is going to a veterans' centre - probably to one of the many women who fought to give us our freedom

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Wednesday Stuff and Give Away

Summer has arrived - finally!  It seems like we only have two seasons, winter and summer.  We had record setting temperatures yesterday.  The humidex went up to 39C.  I kept busy watering my garden.   It was too hot to sleep.  I had the air conditioner on, but it didn't seem to be working.  It turned out that someone had turned the A/C off at the furnace.  Once my DH turned it back on the air became cooler and I was able to get a couple of hours of sleep.  Today it is a lot cooler, but the winds are strong and everything in the garden is dried out again.  Guess I will have to go and water again.  Here is a lovely, colourful basket.

On Monday evening we had our last quilt meeting for this year.  It seemed hard to believe that another year has gone by.  We are now off until September, but that won't stop me from working on a few more charity quilts over the summer.  Here is the top of one I made on Monday night, after our meeting.  I couldn't sleep anyway so I figured I'd use the time productively.  It's a DNP.

And today was the day I promised to pick a winner in my give away. 

The winner is Nynke from the Dutch Purple Rabbit.

Here is your mini quilt!

Please send me your snail mail address, Nynke and I will mail it out as soon as possible.

We are expecting a mail strike starting at 11:59pm on Thursday.  If they reach an agreement before that I will mail it out on Friday.  If they go on strike I will hold onto it until the strike is over.

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.

Quilts, Cookies and Graffiti

If you stopped by to see the first charity quilt I made for the very worthy cause of 100 Quilts for Christmas. Go here. That way you don't have to sift through all my ramblings of the past few days.

Did I say sift? I think the cookies are getting to me. I am still baking.

I still have a few to make.



In the meantime I am working on my second charity quilt for 100 Quilts for Christmas. Here it is on my design floor. I caught Mimi messing up my blocks. She ran away when I saw her, but it really doesn't matter. This is not the final layout. I was just checking to see if I have enough of the background fabric. It looks like if might have to piece the final block. Yikes! That's cutting it close!

Someone sent me a Facebook invitation the other day. I have always told myself not to get involved with Facebook. I don't want to be tied down to my computer. But, guess what? I joined. It's like being a kid again. "Someone wants to be your friend". Yeah, well, only if they come over here and help me bake cookies! "Someone has written on your wall." How dare they? I don't want graffiti all over my walls!

I still have a lot of stuff to figure out on this site. So far I have not posted much. And I probably won't any time soon. Maybe after the New Year. But then, if the writing is on the wall.........

Christmas Bear is Finished!

My charity quilt is finished! He will be going to a women's shelter for Christmas. Hopefully he will bring some happiness to a child. This is also my first entry for the 100 Quilts for Christmas that Aunt Spicy and Swim, Bike, Quilt are hosting. I enjoyed making this one. The bear pattern is my own. I hope he doesn't look to hokey.

It's Beginning to....Christmas

Oh, heck! Who am I kidding? Of course Christmas is coming. There are signs of the holiday season everywhere. The Santa Claus parade is scheduled for this afternoon. We even had a bit of snow earlier today. It is gone now - just a little reminder by Mother Nature of what is in store for us! The radio is playing Christmas tunes and I worked on the charity quilt. I had originally thought that I would applique a snowman here, but then changed my mind and came up with this little bear. I still have to quilt this cutie, but I have to wait for the batting to relax before I can sandwich it. I'll do that tomorrow.

We are going out for a family dinner at our fishing club this evening. The club is about an hour's drive through rolling, hilly countryside. The fields will likely be covered in snow. It really feels like we are getting together for a Christmas dinner. I wonder why that is?

A Flimsy Finish and a Call for Christmas Charity Quilts

Just a reminder that SewCalGal's Christmas Quilt Show only runs until tomorrow. You can still enter. If you dropped by my blog to see my Christmas Quilt entries, please scroll down a couple of posts. Thanks.

If you came by to see what I have been up then let me show off my Charm and Scrap Quilt flimsy. I used up a lot of scraps on this one. But I have enough scraps to make several more. Felix helped me with this one too. Here he is trying to get under the top.


Here is another photo of the quilt top, including the 'lump'. This was fun to make. I hope to have it quilted as soon as possible. But first I want to take care of some Christmas charity stuff.

This is a photo of a kit I was given at my guild. It is supposed to make a child's quilt. The red fabric is for the centre of the quilt... just a plain red fabric. I thought it would be boring, so I plan to do an appliqued snowman in the centre. I have until Monday evening to finish this one. Then it will be given to Quilts from the Heart.

I have joined this group in their quest to make 100 quilts for charity. It has been organized by Aunt Spicy and Swim,Bike,Quilt.
Go over and take a look. Maybe you have a quilt lying around or scraps that you could make one out of. It's for a good cause!

Another Finish!

Today is day 20 of Blogtoberfest.

Oh, boy! I'm on a roll! I finished the second charity quilt for Quilts from the Heart. This one was fun to do. I was given a kit containing 30 ten-inch blocks, some backing fabric and binding fabric. But when I went to put the 10-inch blocks together I discovered that there were only 28 of them and three were a very inferior polyester. So I took those out and added some fabric of my own. Then I decided to do this log cabin type, square within a square. because I didn't think the blocks looked child-like enough. Now each block has a fussy cut kids fabric in the centre. I like it a whole lot more now.

And Felix seems to approve of my changes. All is well.

The UFO List Continues.......

Day 14 of Blogtoberfest!

I was going to pull another number out of my UFO bag, but then decided to just finish another 'Quilts from the Heart' quilt instead. I made the top for this one last June and now I am going to sandwich and quilt it so that I can take it to the guild meeting at the end of October. This is a bright one!

The Disappearing Nine Patch is Finished!

It's day 9 of Blogtoberfest. I want to show you the charity quilt. It's done! I just finished sewing the binding down. Hubby was kind enough to hold it up for me. It feels good to have something done - something I can scratch off my list.

I think I will do some hexies tonight as I watch W5 on television. Then tomorrow I will pick another UFO and work on that. Thanks for stopping by. I hope you will leave me a comment. I love comments!

A Charity Quilt in Progress

Day 7 of Blogtoberfest.

I had a hard time getting up this morning. Even after my second cup of coffee I still didn't feel like doing much of anything. The sun was shining and it is supposed to go to 21C this afternoon, but I still felt kind of crabby. I made a couple of hexies, but even they did not hold my interest.

So I made a list of things that have to be finished...... soon, like a bear applique wall hanging, the Yokohama friendship quilt, three charity quilts for Quilts from the Heart, the applique I started last week, a scrappy quilt and a few others. Then I cut the list up, put the items into a basket and pulled out..........

The First Charity Quilt for Quilts from the Heart.

This one is a disappearing nine patch that I started last June. It was supposed to be done by the end of September, but that didn't happen. So I am going to finish it now, for the meeting at the end of October. The top is all done and I just have to sandwich it and quilt it.

That shouldn't take me too long. I hope!

Another Quilt Year Comes to an End

Tonight is our last Guild meeting for this year. We are having a potluck. I made some yummy deviled eggs to take with me. I also finished this little quilt for 'Quilts from the Heart'. The top is not very exciting, especially for a child, but this is the fabric I was given to work with.

The backing is cute though. Butterflies!

That's why I took a photo in the garden. There are lots of butterflies flitting around my flowers. The quilt is hanging on my wisteria vine. It's the only shady part of my garden that I have left. We cut down the dead peach tree and also a huge cedar that I planted a long time ago when it was just a seedling. We bought a new peach tree yesterday. I forgot to take a photo. Maybe I will later. Right now it is too hot to go outside. It's 30C and feels like 35C with the humidity.

Spooltjes Sunday and a Quilt from the Heart

Thank you to everyone who wished me a Happy Birthday this past weekend. I had a lovely time. Dinner on Saturday evening was nice. We ate at the Mandarin. It's a Chinese, Japanese and Thai buffet, so I had sushi, chop suey and mango salad. It's like travelling the world. It just doesn't get any better than that! After our dinner we went back to my DD's place and spent a wonderful hour by candle light, just talking and laughing. Let me tell you... Earth Hour doesn't get any better than that either!

And now I have a confession to make. When I started seeing 'Klosjes' on many of my favourite blogs I swore I would not be joining in - ever! But I just couldn't help myself. I have been making them for several weeks now. They are supposed to be worked on only on Saturday, but I usually do mine on Sundays. It works better for me. Do you want to see what I have made so far?
I have about 40 of them. No two will be the same. Have no idea how many I will do, but as long as there is interest (my interest) I will keep on doing them. The word klosje means a small spool, so in keeping with my Dutch/Canadian heritage, I will butcher the language and call them "Spooltjes". A lot of Dutch people take the English word for something and make it sound sort of Dutch. So for me it's 'Spooltjes Sunday'.

I have also finished another charity quilt for Quilts from the Heart at our Guild. My kit only had 10 eight inch blocks in it. I needed a total of 20, so I went out and bought a bit more fabric and created this. I cut the 8in blocks down to 4in. This one is done in flannel.

Now to finish my UFO Bear Quilt. I have procrastinated long enough. It has to be done by tomorrow! Yikes!

Earth Hour!

This evening we will celebrate Earth Hour. We will turn our lights off between the hour of 8:30pm and 9:30pm. I know this won't help much with the problem of climate change, but it just might help us all understand that we have to make changes if we want to leave this world fit to live in for our grandchildren.
I have been working on the 'Bear' quilt. The top is now done and I have to find something for the backing. I hope there is something in my stash. I really don't want to have to buy any more fabric. Show you more when I have it sandwiched and quilted.

I started working on the charity quilt for Quilts from the Heart. (Our Guild's initiative) They gave me a kit, but there was not enough fabric in it to finish the top. So I bought a couple of 1.25metres of fabric to sort of match. I am just doing 4in. squares. Hope to have it done by tonight - at least the top anyway.

We are going out for dinner this evening - early so as not to conflict with Earth Hour. My birthday is tomorrow, hence the dinner. The tulips at the top of this post were a present from my husband. Yellow tulips are my favourite!

Bee Night!

Monday evening was Bee Night at our Guild. We made these really cute placemats! It was a lot of fun and for a good cause too. They will be donated to Meals on Wheels. I might even make one for myself. This is the one I finished on Monday evening. They only take an hour or so to make - start to finish!Here are a few more that I have started. Still have to add backing and batting. I have already cut out the fabric for several more. I just love this project! And the fact that the finished placemats will go to folks who are unable to cook for themselves is a big bonus. A nice 'heart' thing to do for Valentine's Day!

I also met a lovely lady who sat across from me. When I heard her talk about computers, I asked her if she was a blogger. And she said 'Yes'! She has a really interesting blog. Her hobbies are crazy quilting and cake decorating. To see it go to Dianesdecoratingdiary. She made a lovely pastel placemat! It's on her blog too.I also finished this week's Friday Party block. It is called "Quatrefoils" and is 9inches square. I made it using kids fabrics because all of my 9inch blocks are done that way. It's an easy block to make up and I have already cut out the fabric to make one in a 12inch size and a 6inch size. I will post them when I have them completed.
If you want to see a beauty, go to the Block Party and see Julie's. She made hers into a small spring quilt! It';s just lovely!

So far I have not worked on my UFOs this week. That is going to have to change! I need to complete a few things in order to feel as if I am getting ahead. But I did work on the Jacob's Ladder scrap quilt. I am trying to do one block a day. I posted it on my sidebar, so that you can see my progress.