Warmth in the North

do. Good Stitches :: Colourful Zigzags

    I'm so excited to finally have this quilt finished.  It seamed to take forever, although it really didn't take that long once I had all the blocks and sat down at my sewing machine.  As my first ever group quilt I think it turned out really well if I do say so myself.

    In May I signed up to be a member of do. Good Stitches on Flickr!, it's a group of quilters who make quilts for various charities.  I volunteered to be a stitcher and make blocks but by the end of the month I was the host of Grace and we started with the June quilt.  I asked everyone to make 2 zigzag blocks out of half square triangles, in white and bright colourful fabric.  All of the 9 other members sent me two blocks, I added two of my own and this is our final product.  It's in the mail and on it's way to My Very Own Blanket where it will find a new home with a foster child. 

 

    Every month we make two blocks each according to the quilters instructions and send them off.  It's so much fun to see what everyone makes but also try out new things that you wouldn't have without being asked to.  My turn as quilter won't come up again until November but I'm already working on ideas, I really can't wait.

starting out

    I should be showing you a finished quilt today but I need a little break from all those zigzags so even writing about it is going to have to wait.  After everything was done on the quilt I took a few minutes to start another project.  Once I sketched out a ton of things on graph paper I finally cut everything out and have it all sitting next to the sewing machine ready to start sewing.

    It will be for my swap partner in the For the Love of Solids Swap.  She asked for pink and aqua and I've added a bit of gray to anchor everything.  It's hard to try to figure out what to make for someone else in a secret swap, very hard, but I think I've kept her ideas and preferences in mind.  Hopefully she'll like it!

a little bit of math

    I spent much of yesterday at my sewing machine and managed to get through half of the quilting.  My shoulders are not all that happy with me this morning.  All that quilt wrangling takes more effort than you'd think but I think it'll be worth the time in the end.

    Do you ever go with an idea before really thinking about how much time it'll take to execute?  I thought that instead of going with quilting along the zigzags that parallel lines would be nice.  Without really thinking about it I started and quilted seven lines down the first row.  That's 140 times for the whole quilt, yesterday I got though 70 and as soon as this is posted I'm going to sit back down and hopefully get through the rest.  Next time I'm going some math before I start quilting.

colour, colour

    I was really hoping to have my circles June quilt for do. Good Stitches all finished by now but life has gotten in the way.  However the top is ready to go and I'm planning on spending the next few days quilting.  So hopefully it'll be ready to show off by the weekend.

    These postage stamp blocks that I sent out for the August quilt.  I really love them and a little part of me is tempted to try to make whole quilt.  The saner half of my brain is firmly opposed, it would take forever and a day.  I know there are ways to speed up the process but you loose the scrappy look that I love.

no going back

    I'm not very good at trying new things in most areas of life, honestly that's an understatement, I suck at the unfamiliar.  When it comes to crafting I've got no problem going out on a limb and failing.  I'm not sure if this attempt at applique is good or bad quite yet but it's definitely not perfect.  By the end of my days off I'd love if the top was finished so I'll be pushing on no matter how imperfect.  That's part of what I love about crafting it allows for the imperfect.

so many things

    Last Monday while traveling from BC to Ontario I though that other than a wedding on Saturday there wasn't really much on my plate for the next week and a half.  In the usual way of things the last seven days have been jam packed with activity.  There are no pictures of the center pieces that I helped with, the midnight buffet, my nana's newly painted ceiling or much of anything. 

    Instead may I present the last of my swoon blocks for the baby blanket?  I've been assure that the colour scheme will work perfectly for the new baby and more importantly the baby's parents.  The full top is actually complete and just waiting for quilting so with any luck it will be finished before the baby.  Although I'm tempted to take it to my long arm quilter to give it an extra special finish.

    I'm going the spend as much time as possible sitting in the garden hanging out with the birds.  It's really hot and muggy here so my time outside is limited.  I'm not sure if your body can lose it's ability to deal with heat and humidity but if it can mine has given up.  I guess living in a cool dry place for five years can have an effect on a person.

3/4

    Another block down and that little bit closer to checking this baby quilt top off the epic list of doom.  You see last night I wrote down all the things I'd like to get done before I fly to Ontario on Monday and it's looking slightly very unrealistic.  Very few of this things are necessary but it would make re-entry so much nicer so I'm really going to try and complete as much as possible.

    Honestly I probably wrote the list so that I'd have something to take my mind off this unfortunate situation.  I know that many people have been far more affected by flooding this summer but as the rain continues to fall there is the possibility that more of the roads between me and the airport are going to wash out.  It's going to be an interesting drive come Monday morning.    

2/4

    I know that I've gone on and on about my problems with yellow but for the record I actually like this particular shade.  Not that I'd want to drape myself in it or anything but it is generally acceptable.  Both of the fabrics in this block come from the honey colourway in the Prince Charming line.  Maybe I like honey just not yellow, weird but I'll take it.

1/4

    I was having a bit of a crisis related to non crafty things when it suddenly dawned on me that everything would be better if I only started cutting fabric.  In all honesty this didn't solve the problem but it did give me some time to think which is always a good thing.  Anyway I've started a smaller version of Swoon, inspired by this quilt top, with the hope that I'll manage to finish it in time to gift to one on the many babies due to arrive in the next little while.

outside my comfort zone

    I've been irritatingly sick for the last little while, nothing major but just enough to keep me in bed and asleep during most of my recent downtime.  Anyway it has curtailed my crafting and internet time, it'll be nice to get back to creating and reading about what everyone has been up to.  Being sick is boring.

    These blocks were made yesterday and as a way to reenter crafting they were well outside anything I'd usually try.  Jenny is the quilter for the Grace circle in do. Good Stitches this July, she asked us to make two wonky cross blocks with orange and brown as the background colours.  They were really easy and fun to make but those colours made things a bit hard. 

    I ended up buying some brown fabric because I had so little. Standing in the brown section of the store it struck me once again that I really don't like certain colours.  It's almost as if I find them uncomfortable.  I rejected bolt after bolt before finally deciding on the two I ended up with.  Now that I look at them in the finished block they're suddenly appealing, especially the one with the turquoise trees.