Welcome to Month Two of the Clementine Quilt Along

This month the block we are making is called Broken Berries. We are adding one new fabric design and taking away one from last month. For those of us living under a blanket of snow these are a delight to work with. Such happy colours. The fabric from the Fat Quarter Shop is fabulous.

The block components are straight forward, clearly illustrated and ones you are likely used to making.

I hope that you are saving your bonus triangles. I am generating a goodly number of them and have not as yet stitched them into actual HST's but they are contained and ready to be my next Leader and ender project.

If you follow some of the other bloggers who are working on this Quilt Along you may have seen the little Valentine purse made by Pat from the  Scrapatches Blog (here). She used her smaller bonus triangles for the project. so far I am generating two different sizes and have just put them all together in my next Leader/Ender container.

And these are my two Broken Berry blocks. I would encourage you to join in. Make a donation to St. Jude's Hospital. We don't have that particular hospital in Canada but we do have Hospitals like Sick Kid's in Toronto that fulfil a similar purpose. The work they do is amazing and has been for years.

Visit the Fat Quarter Shop to purchase a monthly block pattern for a simple donation. Piecefully, Joanne

A little more fun with scraps

This top is now ready to quilt. It began its life as a baggie of bonus triangles in blue/green/white. I used them as Leaders and Enders to make Half Square triangles. From there they went to pinwheels. Once that was done I thought they were a little small to make a quilt top so I got nervy and asked Mary if she had any more left overs from her triangle donation. She did and I added from my collection. The borders came from my scraps too although it is almost embarrassing to mention the date on the selvage of the blue green wavy outer border. The resulting top is 34" by 37". Personally I love the colours. when it is quilted it will go to Project Linus.
In non-quilty news I had a birthday this week. Next birthday a decade will change. The whole family came to celebrate with me which was very nice. The boys stayed the rest of the week. DH will take them home tomorrow so no more LEGO in the family room or forts with the couch cushions. Well that is until they return towards the end of the week.
I think my big job next week will be organizing my "Strings" workshop and making certain my samples are up to snuff. Piecefully, Joanne

Linking up with Cynthia's Oh scrap! (here)

Welcome to Blogathon visitors

What is a blog post without a picture. So I looked for one that reflected some of what I do. I make scrap quilts, I like to use up the last of the little pieces and then 98% of the quilts I make get donated to one cause or another. This little one was made of bonus triangles and was just the right size for the Salvation Army Toy Drive a couple of years ago.
We have had way too much snow this week and the Highway was basically closed from Tuesday to Thursday. I was very happy to see my hubby get back here late on Monday from a few days of babysitting with the grandsons.
The other thing I find myself doing more of lately is testing other designers patterns. This involves making up the pattern in a specific size, checking measurements, yardages, instructional diagrams and making suggestions for any improvements I could identify. It keeps my mind working and I suspect at my age that is a good thing.
Ontario is the last day on the Blogathon and I suspect most you you have found many new friends through this experience. Thank you to Sew Sisters in Toronto for organizing this yet again. I think this week has shown that we Canadians have a good thing going in the blogging department. Piecefully, Joanne

Can Brown be beautiful?

Jeni Baker at In Color Order is running a Block of the Month on her blog this year showing different ways of using Half Square Triangles to make a block. These are the first 10, only two more to go and then I can assemble them. I had these "bonus" HST left from a Bonnie Hunter project and just hope I have enough left for the remaining two months. Dylan liked his quilt enough he wanted to take it to school for show and tell. His Mom convinced him that a picture of him with his quilt would be a better choice.
It is Canadian Thanksgiving this weekend, so Happy Thanksgiving to those who might be celebrating.
I have a quilty week lined up with Kincardine Sunset Quilt Guild Wednesday and hopefully a shop hop Thursday and Friday. Piecefully, Joanne

Family Day Holiday in Ontario

Tomorrow is Family Day in Ontario. It is a mid-winter holiday where families are encouraged to spend time together. Our family lives about two hours away from us so today while the weather looked OK we made a run for it. I delivered the blue and yellow quilt to my sister and the little hot mat pictured to the left. The plates set on the placemats give you some sense of scale. I still have more of these tiny HST to make into something.

We got our hug bank replenished by the grandsons. And had a lovely birthday lunch to celebrate all the February birthdays. Grandson number 2, his Dad, his other Grandma and my Husband all have February birthdays. It meant the other three at the table had to sing Happy Birthday extra loud.

I have my Scrap Bag group this week, something I always look forward to. I am wondering who was able to finish the project from last month. Joanne

Waste not, want not or how I learned to love bonus triangles

This small doll quilt is for my Scrap Bag Quilters group. We give doll quilts to the toy drive at Christmas. This one is made from the "waste" or "bonus" triangles from a quilt I made last year. Each HST is 1 1/4" finished. I sometimes get a little obsessed with using up bits.
With regard to progress on my other challenges for this year I have completed 8 quilts in the 50 quilts from stash challenge. I have pulled my blue scraps out to look at them and make a decision about what to make and I found UFO #6. It was started the month before I was diagnosed with cancer three years ago. So going back to try to finish it is a little tough. But I have the perfect place to hang it if I can get it done.