Too Much Time on Her Hands

Sandy couched her latest email to me with the title, 'Too much time on my hands!' From what I've seen, she's making excellent use of her time these days - those WIPs are just flying to the finish line! Like this beauty, for example. Remember she was so excited to get this fabric on sale last fall? Well, it has worked up beautifully in this pattern.

This is her machine-stitched quilt (she hand stitches most of her beauties) and apparently she has learned a lot along the way. All of the centre blocks are together (the top row is cropped off), so now she's 'dithering' about where to go from here. 

This is her first foray with Flying Geese and she's finding them more than a little addictive; they will become the border. And, she's got a basket full of HSTs to play with ... or not. The border will go together first and then she plans to lay it out to see what inspiration develops. She's predicting that she might be walking around this one for a bit!!!

And, a year after she and Ed moved into their new apartment, she picked up her beautiful hexie quilt to finish the quilting on it. I love the layout of this one. Usually hexies are laid in a vertical pattern, but with the diamonds placed horizontally you get a completely different look.

She's a little sad to have it finished up because the fabrics were so soft and lovely to stitch. The up side is that she and Ed now have another beautiful quilt to cuddle under. It's hand quilted and is 50" x 70", a size that the feels she will gravitate towards making more often. 

That's not all. Her autumn nine-patch is now sandwiched (her least favourite part of the process) and in hoop. Thankfully, the kitchen island was just long enough to lay it out to baste.  

The backing was bought on her way home from the cottage last September. Apparently she didn't plan for this quilt to be as large as it is so she didn't have enough fabric; time for a little digging in the stash. Happily, she found two more pieces that she had purchased at our local Stedmans on the day of my niece Julia’s wedding a few years ago that were just the ticket and gave her enough to put strips across the top and bottom of the back. Problem solved.

So, now she can enjoy quilting to her heart's content. Aren't those colours gorgeous? Me thinks that with so many projects moving over to the DONE column is won't be long before we get to see new projects from Sandy....M

I Think I'm Getting Close

Periodically I've been picking up a little hand stitching while sitting out on the deck and it's finally starting to pay off. I've just been stuffing finished segments for Minnie into my little black bag but when it overflowed I took it as a sign to press them and see where things stood. I couldn't believe how much came out of that little bag!

There are now several quite long setting triangles for the sides...

and I've just finished up the last round of one of the shorter setting triangles that will run across the top and bottom of the quilt.

Because I believe that I'm close to being able to lay everything out, I've been attempting to incorporate fabrics that I really love or maybe have been under represented in the quilt so far without having to head to the cutting board. 

I've got two more prepped and ready to finish up - this one with the purple polka dot border...

and this one with the blue. With any luck at all they will be finished this week and then I will give myself the luxury of seeing how everything looks together and what might be missing. Fun!...M

Happy Canada Day!

Wouldn't you just love to spend your Canada Day lounging here, sipping something cool as you stitch the day away? Sandy finished up her Postage Stamp beauty just in time. I can't believe that it's a quilt already! She started cutting her scraps into 1.5" squares at Christmas time thinking that it would be a project for years to come. 

Enter the novel coronavirus. In between making a couple hundred face masks for family and friends she has been happily stitching and watching Netflix - no worries about a particular pattern, just pick up a square and sew.

The huge variety of fabric was a fun walk down memory lane. She's not certain that there was a size in mind when she set out to make this quilt, but it finished off at 48" x 60" - that's 2,880 tiny squares! Apparently there are enough squares to make at least one more quilt, but not right now... 

For the backing, she stayed with the idea of the blocks but changed the scale (just a little 😉). Love it! And that scrappy border is just perfection.

Each square is quilted in the middle with several stitches, which is fun too and just reinforces the size of the tiny pieces when you look at it from the back. It reminds me of a tied quilt. Again, that's 2,880 squares; talk about patience!

There's lots and lots of puckering, and that's before it has been washed, so she's looking to enjoy even more texture after it's had a good soak. 

Our Canada Day will be spent on the deck as well. With everyone keeping to themselves it will be a bit quiet - no get togethers, no fireworks - but the Official Cookie Tester isn't letting that get in the way of his celebrations. He's donned his Made in Canada tee and has already enjoyed breakfast on the deck. It is a beautiful day so we plan to spend it lounging here, reading, stitching and enjoying the birds; maybe BBQ a few ribs. Doesn't sound too bad, does it? Hope you have a wonderful day, too!...M