Update on my crazy quilt block

The weather in our area has been anything but spring like , we even had a blizzard last Thursday,  Mother Nature needs a wake up call and Shubenacdie Sam got it all wrong , we did not have an early spring . Well we may have, but winter returned 😉  Oh well look on the bright side it is close to the end of March , my least favorite month and April is just around the corner so surely that means better weather.
  I have lots of things on the go , one project I even completed but I can't share it as it is a mystery and can't be revealed just yet but I promise to share it soon .  I hate to admit this but I am also STILL working on my Round Robin project but it is getting close to a finish too , as long as I have it done by May I am good 😉  There is also my BOM Quilt that I am trying to finish up , I am in the process of sewing rows together
and I have had to unpick a couple of times , not quite as easy this way at least for me .

Now for the title of this post , I have also been working now and then on the crazy quilt block I told you about in my earlier post . I have now completed task #6 , yeah . Some of this embroidery was quite quick , the little row of French knot flowers took a little longer to complete but I sure do love them . I don't have a lot of floss in the 12 weight and most of what I do have is darker colours but  I did find enough to do the flowers as it makes a huge difference using this floss compared to dmc for the embroidery , a nicer finish . I have heard a store in Halifax now carries some of this type of floss so my next visit to the city will include a trip to Patch . Here is what it looks like right now. I am going to link up to Super Mom No Cape today , go here to see what others have been stitching .

 Now yesterday I needed a little break from embroidery and well,  I fell off my wagon of not starting anything new,  that didn't last long did it haha.  I seen these 6"blocks on various blogs and couldn't resist joining in.  I guess I miss the SS . This is another SAL , this time with other designers like Carrie Nelson ,Jo Morton and Lisa Bonegan to name a few and is called Moda Blockheads , here is a link to the newest block
http://blog.modafabrics.com/2017/03/blockheads-block-3/#more-14813
Only three blocks have been shared so far so it's not too late to join in the fun . I finished my three blocks since yesterday so obviously pretty quick to make.

 I am digging into the same container I used for  my BOM , there is enough to make a couple of quilts I think .
 So there you have it,  I confess I just can't resist cute blocks , can you ?
 That's it for me today , I am off to put some heat on my knee which is giving me grief . Thanks for stopping by and enjoy your day .
 Hugs Sheila

FNSI

Time to report on FNSI hosted by Wendy http://www.sugarlane-designs.com/2017/03/happy-st-patricks-day-fnsi-link-is-up.html
  I have a lot of things on the go and I know i shouldn't have BUT I signed up for the beginners crazy quilt course by Kathy Shaw so last evening I started my embroidery and I am continuing to embroider this evening but that is on a secret project so I can't share that but here is my crazy quilt block.

This is my second time doing this class , you see my first time I didn't finish it because of my wrist being broken so I decided I would try again as I really love crazy quilting.  If you ever have the opportunity to take one of Kathy's classes I would highly recommend her , she is more than generous with her instructions and information . Here is a link to her blog  http://www.shawkl.com , her classes are free ! 

Thanks for stopping by and hop on over to see what the other ladies were stitching on . 

Hugs Sheila 

Some ufos have been checked off the list

I have been doing a little catch-up on some UFO's that have been sitting patiently for me to finish them up . A few I finished a short while ago and one I finished just this morning .
 Our guild is having their annual quilt show the end of May so at the moment I am trying my best to finish off a few items for display. This year we are celebrating Canada's 150th birthday so our plan is to have some displays to represent this monumental event . The first challenge set before us was to create a banner , it did have to be a certain width and length and have the Maple leaf and the fact it was 150 years. Here is what I created .

 I really had no plan when I started but the first thing was to make the PP maple leaf , whew that was the worst part of this whole thing , so easy to mess up the pieces . I then decided flying geese would work well so made two sets of those to fit the width of the banner then my final decision was to add the silhouette of the Mountie , let's face it the RCMP is definitely a good representation of Canada and the fact our oldest son is a member nailed that decision for me . It was a little challenging to stitch around all that black . I don't know about you but I find sewing with black thread on black fabric a little hard to see where I have stitched.  

 A few of us also decided we would make a little table topper for the tea room at the quilt show . We all used the same pattern but all are different because so many different red fabrics were used . We will have a lovely red and white display for those enjoying tea .

My next finish was this little mug rug.  I had this almost completed before Christmas so I guess I am  extra early for next year . 

This is part of a panel which has many similar cute images , I still have a few to use . I carefully stitched around the dancer by machine to quilt it . 

This little skinny wall hanging was also started before Christmas and is now hanging in my entry , I was ready to take down the snowman 😉

Not sure you can read the lettering but it says "Enter with a Happy Heart " . Not sure why it took me so long to finish this off,  all that I needed to do was add the binding .

 Finally I will share my finish for today , hmm can't remember when I started this one but the pattern  was part of a blog hop a couple of years ago and the sheep is done with wool . I had decided right away I would make a pillow with this and had the pieces all sewn together but didn't have it quilted . I started to quilt it a couple of weeks ago and just did around the sheep etc then the crazy idea of doing pebbles came into my head to fill in the background.  I think my brain was full of pebbles when I decided to do that . I did it in shifts between sewing my sashing strips strips for my BOM.  This is not a big pillow,  only measure 14" but these little pebbles took me forever.  They are far from perfect , I don't do a lot of FM quilting but felt a pillow was more doable for me so even though it took me so long I think it was worth the time and effort and only I know how imperfect those pebbles are,  oops I just told you , oh well , you already know i am not perfect lol . 

 I just remembered I also have two tea towels that I decorated to share with you . I shared these as part of our program last night at the guild so I can now share them with you .

I like to decorate tea towels , a very quick and easy finish that just brightens my day . 

 Well I shall let you go now , I hope I didn't keep you too long . Thanks for taking the time to stop by I love your visits .

 Hugs Sheila 

FNWF REPORT

It's Sunday already but I am reporting on my FNWF which took place on Friday hosted by Cheryll . Most evenings will find me handquilting my blocks for the BOM for our guild  project , I am on my last block actually then I will need to quilt all the sashing strips so a long way from finishing yet . I had never done a QAYG before so this has been interesting.  Here is my first strip all blocks quilted and one of the sashing strips.

I didn't get the whole strip in the photo but you get the idea . Here is the block I was working on Friday.

This one is called Prairie Queen and is from Quilters cache , it is one of our extra blocks as I felt it worked well with our theme.  Not too much left to do on this one then I will start on the sashing strips.  The exciting part of doing a quilt this way is when I am finished the quilting it is done , silly thing to say maybe but normally I make a top then quilt it this time I am making blocks then quilting them and then sewing them together . I think i will do this again , I have really enjoyed the hand work .
So that was my Friday night what did you do on Friday ?
 It is a rather nasty day outside,  winter has arrived back just when we were enjoying some spring weather . It is cold and blowing and a little snow is falling , I guess it isn't over yet , that was wishful thinking on my part.
 Enjoy your day and thanks for stopping by .
 Hugs Sheila

Did you hear me whooping it up 😊

I am sure you must have heard me clear across the ocean I was so thrilled to finish the flimsy of my Mom's quilt . It was challenging to make a few small blocks into a queen size quilt or as close as I could come . Mom was pretty insistent that she wanted this big , well this is as big as I could go as she had other rules too like no prints only solid colours so this is what she got .

As you can see the side borders are wider than the top and bottom , it would have been much too long had I made them the same . You see these blocks were embroidered many years ago from a pattern my mom ordered from the newspaper I believe and there should have been a large embroidered emblem for the center with these blocks surrounding it in some fashion . Well the emblem didn't get embroidered so  the time came to just go with what we had and this sashing choice by myself was to add inches to the quilt but also to add interest . The gold strip was her idea as the lettering is done in gold and the green was her choice as well as there are so many green leaves.  I think the colours work very well to show off her embroidery,  would you like a close up of the embroidery , sure you would I know i have had requests already . Okay here we go ...

Each province has a provincial flower and for Nova Scotia it is the very pretty Mayflower,  the scent they give off is divine , unfortunately they are not easy to find and obviously only in May . 

I won't show them all but here are a couple of more .

Aberta's wild rose 

Yukon Territories-Fireweed 

 To learn about the other provincial flowers go here.

 Here is a side view of the quilt,  my mom wanted to have the quilt extend over the side of the bed so I took this photo to send to her to show how it looks .

I think it has a nice drop and she seems pleased.  I am just happy to say this job is finished at least for now 😊

I am now working on my BOM for our guild project , I added some sashing strips today and things are looking great . I will share some of that later on but I wanted to stop in and share my flimsy finish . Enjoy your weekend and thanks for stopping by .
 Hugs Sheila

Where did February go?

I can't believe it is now March , seems like yesterday that I turned the calendar for February.  Today was rather a strange day , March  didn't come in like a lion or a lamb , somewhere in between , we had some strong winds and some drizzle but no storms . We had three major snow storms in the month of February with oodles of snow but guess what it is just about gone , we had a few days last week of spring like weather with warm temperatures and really warm winds which just took away all those banks of snow , yeah !
 So what did I do during that month , well I obviously have been a very bad blogger and I also have been rather slack at even visiting , I try I really do but life seems to get in the way .  I have been sewing but no finishes to share  . I have now finished my Splendid Sampler blocks,  I am super happy about that, of course now the job of sashing them comes next .  Here is a photo of my last few blocks

And lastly the entire collection of 124 blocks in this container . 

I have also been working on a special project for my Mom . My Mom embroidered these blocks  of the provincial flowers of Canada many years ago ,I would say at least 30 years ago . After many years of asking she finally allowed me to take them home with me to finish making them into a quilt top . I did have some challenges as there was not enough fabric in the box she gave me , next problem is these blocks are polyester cotton and after many attempts of finding fabric to match I had to just give in and use fabric that was a close match and in cotton . I wasn't too sure about using cotton with poly but it seems to have worked out alright.  I seen a quilt with a similar sashing so decided to try that to add extra width to the quilt , I only had 24  blocks at 9" so I had to do my best to increase the size . Here is a photo I took today and I still have one more larger border to add . My Mom does incredible embroidery,  the back looks just as good as the front .

 The final border will be dark green by Mom's request  . I hope when I am finished Mom will be pleased . This will eventually be hand quilted at the church .

 So in a nut shell that has been my month , not much accomplished really,  maybe March will be better .  By the way as I am writing this the Lion has arrived , it is raining heavily and the winds are howling !
 Thanks for stopping by , I always love to have you visit .
 Hugs Sheila