Finally a New Year and a New Post

To say that the last days of 2018 were difficult would be a mild understatement. I am still recovering and likely will be for a while. My best friend and quilting buddy passed away unexpectedly on December 21st. There is one giant hole in my heart. We first got to know each other as work colleagues and then as friends and finally as quilting buddies.
So while I could not do anything that required focus I did stitch together a couple of quilt tops.

These Half Square Triangles have been lurking in the sewing room for sew long I can barely remember the original quilt they came from. The dark is a navy blue cotton and the prints are from drapery sample books that were given to our Scrapbag Quilters group. The samples were 100% cotton so I washed them and then used them. This quilt top is roughly 39" square. For my quilt guild this year I am doing a program I call Totally Triangular. Each month I am showing something different do to with those lovely waste/bonus triangles we all seem to have. Or at least some of us have. I am hoping to get back on track soon and to be posting more regularly. Piecefully, Joanne

Linking with Cynthia at Oh Scrap! (here) 

A busy week with lots happening

As my subject lines says it has been a busy week with lots of different events. I started the week as the guest speaker for the Bluewater Quilters Guild monthly meeting. I spoke about Pattern Testing and my journey to becoming a quilt pattern tester. It was the first time I had been a Guild speaker. Hubby was worried about me driving there at night so he drove me there and read a book while I did my presentation.
The rest of the week was eating cautiously and then prepping for Friday's colonoscopy. So I spent time stitching scraps together as that does not require the attention to detail that pattern testing requires.

This is one little project I got assembled this week. I cut the bars out this summer while the work table was set up in the garage. Smoky pinks and olive greens. Over a period of time I made small rail blocks out of them. Each block here is 1 1/2" x 3 1/2". then stitched a pair together and then made a four together unit. I thought it wouldn't make a very big quilt and recalled hearing that setting them on point extends the size. Went on line found out about the Math for the setting and corner triangles and here it is.

Today we are heading to a Festive Brunch. We purchased this "event" with our neighbours at the local Rotary Charity Auction. We each invited another couple so there will be 8 of us for brunch. 

Hope to be back to regular stitching in the week ahead. Piecefully, Joanne

Linking with Cynthia at Oh Scrap! (here)

Oh Scrap! I am still at it

Who said Waste Triangles are garbage? Not I for sure. This small quilt is 29" square. Each Half Square Triangle finishes at 1 1/8". I was at two retreats last fall and at both of them friends were throwing away their Waste Triangles. I couldn't let that happen. So they would bring them to me in installments and one just stuffed her's in a baggie and dropped the baggie off. I had a lot of fun playing with them and trying to make them into something useful. with the borders on them they are now big enough for the small Project Linus quilts.
As to what else I have been doing. It is a lot of secret sewing. that phrase used to drive me nuts but I totally understand it now.
Piecefully, Joanne
Linking up with Cynthia at Quilting is More fun than Housework (here) and later in the week with Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilts (here)

Playing with strings

I have been playing with some black with white and white with black strings in between other tasks. I 24 of these blocks done and the second 24 are well on their way. I do however wonder how the bag full I started with is still essentially full.I have really been doing a lot of quilt pattern testing and that requires for the most part nothing be said or shown until the pattern is released. So the cone of silence will remain in place.
Last year at the end of the year I looked back at my favourite book for the year. I did look over my "books read" for 2016 and find that I do not have a favourite. I enjoyed many of them and some were Book Club reads that I managed to finish. I have signed up for Harper Collins 50 Book Pledge again this year. I find it a fantastic way to keep track of books read and authors enjoyed. This is my 4th or 5th year and you can look back over the previous year's book shelves if you need to find something.
The first sewing task this morning is some mending. Not glamorous but necessary. Then back to my testing. Linking up with Cynthia for Oh Scrap! at Quilting is More Fun than Housework (here) Piecefully, Joanne

Another little flannel quilt

This little quilt (34" x 51") was the one I worked on at the January Scrapbag workday. I made little four patches and joined them together. This represents the end of another bag of scraps, thus the slightly odd size. I was thinking wheelchair lap quilt at one time but think it is too long. Each piece is 3" square and I sewed them together with a generous 1/4" seam as recommended by our leader for the January work session. It has a nice medium blue flannel on the back and when it went through the wash everything came out well.
It has been so cold here this last few days it was a delight to have this on my lap as I finished the binding. Piecefully, Joanne
 Linking up with Oh Scrap! at Quilting is More fun Than Housework (here)

A finish is a finish no matter how small

In January the Scrapbag Quilters were working with flannel. I dug into my scraps and cut up quite a bit for the workday. When I got down to these little bits they were so pretty I couldn't bare to throw them out. So I cut some of my favourite 1 1/2" x 2 1/2" inch bricks and made my "go to" simple bricks block. This is what I had so this is what I used. The finished doll quilt is 16" by 20". We donate doll quilts to the toy drive at Christmas so I have one done already. I aim for about a dozen over the course of the year. Piecefully, Joanne
Linking with Cynthia at Oh Scrap! (here)

I don't think I have ever met a blue I didn't like

And today I can also say I am loving the blue/green colours. At the end of May when we were at the retreat in Tobermory a quilter who was getting out of quilting offered us her fabric. We all had a great time. When I can pick I go for the blue/green/purple side of things and sometimes brown. Last night I prewashed all the blues and today all the blue/greens are on the clothes line. The blues are pressed and I will cut them as the day goes by. The hard part for me is taking them from a big bag of stuff to something I can use. This time I am going to cut 10", 5",2 1/2" and 1 1/2" strips. Gudrun Erla is starting a quilt along on her new Facebook group that uses left over Layer Cake pieces, hence the need for 10" squares. I don't buy layer cakes as they are terribly expensive here.
The peas are essentially done, the boys are returning tomorrow, and summer is half over. What more can I say. Piecefully, Joanne

Linking up with Cynthia's Oh Scrap! at Quilting is more fun than housework (here)

Orphan blocks ready for their forever home

A big round of thanks to both Cynthia and Kristel. Cynthia of Quilting is more fun than Housework fame organized an adoption event a few weeks ago. Regular followers of her blog and its Oh Scrap! linky party were offered the opportunity to give away one or more sets of orphan blocks to a new home for completion. Readers visited the blogs and left comments about why they would like to have/finish/complete/use the orphans. I left a couple of comments and was delighted to find out that one set of Kristel's orphan's were coming my way.I love the Bento box design and Kristel had a set of blocks that just needed assembly and quilting. As they say in quilt talk, done and done. This is all labelled, washed and ready to donate.
It was a bit windy when we took the picture so the boys each took a corner to hold it flatter. They are scheduled to be here every other week this summer so it remains to be seen what I will accomplish in between visits.
Linking up later today with Cynthia's Oh Scrap! at Quilting is more fun than Housework. (here)
Piecefully, Joanne