A Softer Palette

A softer palette,

which is a little out of the box for me.

I saw this pretty little quilt, designed by Erika Bea,

 in the February 2018 issue of American Patchwork and Quilting,

and thought it would work well with the plethora

of blue fabrics I inherited a few years back.

So, I picked up some very pale yellow background fabric,
which doesn't show well in the pictures,

kitted it up, and brought it back to Cape Breton with me.

I don't have anything suitable for the back right now,

so it will be relegated to the bottom of the pile,

until the perfect backing materializes!

I was able to cut this fabric into strips (2"),
not all wof, but long enough to strip piece the 9 patches,

which was nice for a change.

Usually, I'm building blocks with little pieces.

I'm not really into blue,

but as long as I'm sewing,

I'm happy.

I enjoyed making this simple, straight forward quilt top,
which finishes up at 68" square,

and I look forward to quilting it.
It will be just the right size to ward of the chill
on a cold, winter's evening.

~

Butterflies at the Beach

I recently spent a few beautiful summer days
along the southwest shore of Nova Scotia mainland.
While hiking this one magnificent headland,
I saw more Monarch Butterflies
than I've ever seen before in any one location.

The Monarch is just as beautiful
on the flip side as on the top.

They were so intent on feasting upon this patch of knapweed,
they didn't mind if I got up close and personal
for just a few minutes.

I hope you are having a sewlful week!
I have been having such a good time
visiting your blogs and seeing what you've been working on
or places you've been vacationing.
~karen

Scrap Happy

I completed another scrap quilt 

that I had started in TX.

It didn't really use enough scraps to call it

a scrap buster, measuring in
at 54" x 68".

I'll prepare the label today

and package it off

to surprise a very dear family friend.

This quilt caught my eye on Pinterest one day.

It is was the Snowflake Quilt-Along

on We All Sew

It looked like fun

and I thought it might play well with

assorted scraps.  I'm not disappointed.

I used it to warm up the Janome, after my long absence,

choosing fun, familiar stitching,

 only in the background,

which you can't really tell is different tone-on-tones.

I use Aurifil thread when I FMQ.

~

The Ranger built me a Chickadee house

from a hollowed out log.

We arrived home from grocery shopping Saturday

just in time to see a baby venture out

and fly away.

The hottest day of the year, so far,

I imagine the choice was

fly or bake.

We contented ourselves by setting up on the back deck

in the shade of the house

and waited for the rest of the babies

to fledge.

It was too hot to do much of anything else,

and it was great entertainment,

lasting most of the day.

Temperatures are pretty close to perfect now.

Hope you're having nice weather, too!

XO,

Karen

Disappearing 9-Patch QAL Finish

With summertime activities underway,

it took a little finesse to complete Julie's QAL,

but I did it!

I completed not one, but two Disappearing 9-Patch flimsies!

While digging into a basket of saved scraps,

I found some old leader/ender 6" square nine patches.

I couldn't resist making a quilt for

A Doll Like Me

as my leader/ender.

Thank you, Julie, for a fun, attainable, QAL.

~karen

June OMG? Nada! But.....

Sadly, I did not complete my OMG this month.  You see, Julie, at The Crafty Quilter, is hostessing a Quilt Along using the Disappearing Nine Patch block. I thought this would be one QAL I could keep up with.  While I was foraging around in my fabric cabinet I rediscovered a 1/2 meter bundle of five of Jen Kingwell's Lollies fabrics by Moda.  Last spring, I won them as a door prize at a local quilt show.  I couldn't resist setting aside my OMG to try to catch up with her QAL.  Perhaps it will become my new OMG for July?

But don't let that stop you from visiting Patty over at Elm Street Quilts and seeing all the OMG finishes for June!  There sure is a lot of fabulous eye candy this month!

It really isn't my fault that I didn't have a finish.  June went by way too quickly!  And I'm still waiting for summer to reach Cape Breton.  Every morning, when I step out the door and smell the ocean, it's like winning the lottery.  Now, if Mother Nature could just turn up the temperature a notch or two.......

Unfamiliar with Lollies?  Jen Kingwell cleverly designed fabric in colorful, usable strips on a bolt, as shown by this picture from her Etsy Shop, speaking of eye candy!  The strips were easily cut into 5" squares.

I have made a Disappearing Nine Patch once before, in 2014, as seen in this post.  I increased the size of the squares to 6.5", placing pieced blocks in the diagonal corners of my nine patch with very pleasing results.  For this new quilt, I'm going with a random placement. 

I chose the lap quilt size and need a total of 20 blocks.  

I'm over half way there!

Julie wasn't the only interference I had in completing my OMG.

Constructing Preeti's International Sister's blocks

is like eating potato chips.

I quickly tossed down this pile of 18 sisters

so you could have a little peek.

I've been making one or two every morning.

If your fabrics are precut and waiting,

they whip up quite quickly.

And to warm up on the Janome after so many months away,

I'm beginning with familiar, comfortable, and easy stitching.

I remember telling my elementary school students,

"Start with what you know..."

Good bye to June, hello July!

Why is time is passing so quickly?

Enjoy your upcoming holiday week, USA friends.

Happy Canada Day, CDN friends!

~karen

PS.  Forgive me if I haven't commented on your blog of late.  I am visiting.

But Safari hasn't been playing nicely with Google

and I haven't been able to leave comments very often.

I just read that Google Chrome isn't going to support Adobe anymore.

What's going on out there?

International Sisters

Last winter, I was so delighted when Preeti asked me 

to test drive her African Queen block for her.

It was fun to make, 

quick, and quite simple to sew together. 

And when I didn't have any appropriate fabrics 

in my Tx stash to make more, 

she kindly sent me some of hers.  

(Thank you so much, Preeti.) 

So, I stitched up a few, kitted the rest, 

and brought them back to Canada to finish up during the summer.  

But one thing led to another, 

and I never took them out to work on them.
(You might remember that someone brought me
a bag of scraps and I got lost in them.)

Fast forward one year. 

I am so glad it worked out that way, 

because her African Queen adventure morphed into something bigger.  

If you haven't read about Preeti's International Sisters Blocks, 

do it now!  I'll wait!

Pretty cool, Right?  Not only does Preeti tell a good story, 

but quilters collaborating with quilters, 

even just through chatter, rock big time!  

What a wonderful idea!  I'm all in!
I can't stop making them!

I pulled my blocks out this week

because I needed to generate more neutral scraps 

to finish my scrap green 16-patch star quilt, 

shown in my last post.  

I like it when I can accomplish two things at one time.

In the meantime,

I completed my Sew Together Bag

with plenty of time to slip it into the mail.

Okay, I'll fess up.  There was no deadline.

It is a random, surprise gift for my very special Auntie.

I hope she likes it as much as I like mine.

It's unbelievable how much it will hold.

Crafty Daughter helped me pick out the fabrics.

I'm a lucky mom!

Now, if you just kept reading
and didn't check out Preeti's International Sisters post,
make sure you go there now!
Just click HERE!

We are finally having some sunny, warm weather!
Hope it hangs around.

Enjoy the rest of your week!
Thanks for stopping by for a visit.
~Karen

Making Progress

Oh, my goodness!

Another post, and so soon!

If I told you that it's because there is a heat register

under my desk and I'm cold,

would you believe me?

It is cold and rainy this morning,

but we just had four heavenly days in a row,

and instead of sewing, I was working in the yard,

so I'm glad for the break.

I did manage to sneak a little machine time in here and there,

so I will show you the progress I have made

on my June OMG project.

I am hoping to manage four more blocks from the scraps.

That might require a little extra piecing,

but that's okay.

When it's all quilted up, no one will notice.

Probably one of the smartest things I ever did

was to designate a 'just okay' quilt flimsy as a practice quilt.  

I would go from a small practice sample, 

to the practice quilt,

to the quilt I was working on for real.

It was a nice inbetween step from little to huge!

Point is, it's not only finished, but it's already in the mail,

3-1/2 years later.

You can see it and read about it here and here,

because I couldn't wait out the weather any longer

and never did get a 'finished' photo.

Sorry about that!

But, I do have a photo of a finish to share.

A former student of Crafty Daughter's,

now a colleague,

is a retired disabled vet

and a very deserving recipient of my first ever 

(scrappy) QOV.

She's in the white t-shirt.

On Good Friday, we had her  over for a late lunch.

My SIL prepared a delicious pulled pork dinner

AND cleaned up after!

He's such a dear!

Last but not least,

I always have a leader/ender project.

These green blocks were pieced in 2013.

I thought it was time to finish them up.

I have 20 of them to surround with neutrals,

and am half way there.

My goal for today is to complete a few steps 

on a Sew Together Bag,

a very special gift, if it ever gets finished!

So, off I go!

Hope you have a wonderful. funderful day!

~Karen

One Monthly Goal/June

Hello, everybody!

   No, I did not fall off the face of the earth.  

I just lost my blogging mojo.  

And you know how it goes.....the longer you put something off, 

the more difficult it is to do.  Well, it's been 6 months

and I thought Patty's OMG 

would be a good way to ease myself back in.

   My goal is to use up all my scraps of B&W, W&B fabrics.  

Here is what I have so far. 

I started on June 1 and have made two a day.  

By the end of the month, my desire is to have a flimsy 

of substantial size, 

and no more black and white scraps.  

I will just sew until I run out.

The Maritime Modern Quilt Guild, out of Halifax, Nova Scotia, 

is having an executive challenge.

The rules are to use black and white, with a pop of color.  

One color.  

Well, my intentions were noble, 

but I just couldn't seem to restrict myself to one color.

The pattern is called B&W by Kim Schaefer

and is available for free from Andover Fabrics.

I only changed fabric placements 

because I'm not working with yardage.

So, there you have it. 

Stop in to 

 Elm Street Quilts One Monthly Goal June Link-up.

to see who else has linked up with one monthly goal.

~karen