A FINISH AND A BLESSING

About an hour after I hit publish on my last post, I heard my mother very weakly call me from downstairs. She was having a stroke. Thankfully, I knew what was happening and called 911.  Fast forward to today, and Mom is home and doing amazingly well.  She has no lasting effects from the stroke except fatigue. For this I am eternally grateful.  She will slowly build up her strength until she is back to normal. My mother is nearly 83 and very active. She plans to be back to her bowling league sooner than later : )

Sunday afternoon while the house was quiet, I decided to tackle the borders on Metro Area.  I hadn't touched my machine in two weeks and it felt so good to be sewing again. I find it very relaxing.

Borders are on !  Yay!

This quilt is a big one. 90" square. Now I hope to put it in the capable hands of my long arm quilter so she can work her magic on it.

More about that later.
Happy stitching and thanks for reading.

Carla

METRO AREA MONTH 8

Happy April !  Hurray for warmer weather and all the 'happy' that spring brings : )  I hope you are enjoying sewing these blocks as much as I am.  Some are more challenging, but fun just the same.

Pinks and reds this month.  It turns out red is really hard to photograph.  It turns bright orange or some other weird colour, but you get the idea anyway

I'm zooming in for a close up here because I was really happy with my points on this block.  Pressing the seams open helped with all that bulk

Little 1" squares.  Love them

I am off to work again : )

Have a lovely week end
Carla

METRO AREA MONTH 7

So, how is your quilt coming?  This month involves three colour ways and lots of sharp angles : )

I love this block, except I did it wrong. I had the bottom 'roast' section cut out wrong and pieced together before I realized if I flipped it, that would make it upside down. I left it alone........

the points on this one.  Just sew carefully

Done for another month.  I've been cutting the blocks for the next few months and oooh the fabrics are all so fun.

Happy Sewing!

PATCHWORK CITY -- MONTH 6

First off I have to say thank you to all of you who took the time to comment and e-mail me after my last post.  I tried to reply to every one that I could. Some of you have no e-mail address on your profile, so I couldn't reply, but thank you so much! It's been a roller coaster of emotions this week : /

This month marks the half way point of our block of the month.  Time sure flies when you're having fun !

This pinky red was nice to work with during the dark month of January : )

......and these orange blocks sewed up quick as there were no templates to fiddle with

Here they are all sashed and tidied up.  For those of you quilting along with me, your blocks will be popped into the mail this afternoon.   Enjoy!

METRO AREA

December is just around the corner so I thought I would post month number 4 a few days early.  I know of someone who is anxiously awaiting this post.  Hi Miriam !

previous months are here  and here

This months blocks relied on the black and white scraps from previous months.  Lots of choices

Four months in and I am loving this project.  I hope to start adding sashing just to see what it's going to look like.

I've been teaching a beginner quilting class this week.  I have 8 ladies happily learning the ropes.
Maybe they will let me post a picture : )

Enjoy your week end

Carla

THE DESIGN WALL--A WORK IN PROGRESS WEDNESDAY

Where do I start?  Some days are overwhelming when I walk into my room to sew.  Perhaps if it wasn't so messy......
I've not done too much other than work and spend time with the new babies.  Cuddles are very important : )

This is my design wall currently. My millefiori has been stalled for months.  Just a few more pieces and #3 will be done, but I just can't get with it

The blocks on the left have come in the mail and I am to make a quilt for charity. Unfortunately our group dissolved, so I don't think I will be getting any more blocks. Oh well, they are easy ones to make so I will get it done.  One day.

Patchwork City are fun blocks too.  Choosing colours each month has been great.  I need to keep one step ahead of everyone that is doing this as a block of the month through the shoppe. This is now sold out so the pressure is on  : )

Then there are the feathers.  I think 5 is it.  I'm deciding on a setting and it looks like I will have some improv piecing to do.  There is another baby shower this Saturday.  Think I'll be ready?

and because Christmas is just around the corner, I am making a scarf for a stocking stuffer.  This yarn is baby Alpaca and wool.  I really like this plum colour

The pattern is by Churchmouse Yarns and is called the Walking Rib Muffler.

I shouldn't be bored anyways

linking up with Let's Bee Social 

BLOCKS BEHAVING BADLY ( AKA METRO AREA)

Here we are at month number 3 in the Patchwork City block of the month at Katja's Quilt Shoppe.

For whatever reason these few blocks caused me some trouble.

This one needed ALL the stitch rippers..........and chocolate  : )

the other two went together alright

Then there was this one.  I cut the large triangle the wrong size twice!  I blame the fact I was sewing in a dimly lit hotel room while my hubby recovered from eye surgery. After all that, the cat is upside down. I'm leaving it

By now, we are getting quite a nice pile of black and white scraps. This will allow for lots of choices if you want to change things up a bit

Here they are all together.  I am loving that plum colour.
Hopefully I can get the next month's together with no mistakes : )

Enjoy your week

PATCHWORK CITY

This fall, Katja's Quilt Shoppe is going to be doing Metro Area from the book Patchwork City as a block of the Month.  The blocks are fun to make and quite different than anything I've pieced before.  It keeps it interesting : )
It's been fun choosing fabrics for each block and sewing up the samples.

The quilt ends up being 90" square, so a really good size.  Not sure about pricing, but we are working on it  : )

I'm off to work.  There are people to meet, fabrics to choose, and blocks to sew !

JULY

I love summer.  As someone who is always cold, July is my favourite month of the year.  Number 1 it's hot, and number 2, well........it's hot!

I've taken the better part of July off of work to snuggle my new grandson when he arrives and do a bit of traveling.

This has given me a chance to do some catch up on my sewing.
I made a couple of pouches.

This 'bubbles' block for Rene in the Mid Century Modern group.  This was a lot of work, but I love it

these improv Log Cabin blocks for Emily who asked for grey/cream solids for the outer ring. These were so fun to just grab random scraps from my basket and sew without thinking

If you're familiar with the Row by Row shop hop, the license plates came for Katja's quilt shop and of course she had to have something to do with hexagons. After all, she wrote the book  : )
I want this on my car.......

This fall, we are going to be doing the Patchwork City Quilt as a block of the month so I have started the sample blocks

and lastly, the other day, two of my daughter in laws came over for a sew day. One of them made her first little quilt and the other covered a piece of foam for a cradle that has been around for 50+ years.

It's the cradle that I was in as a baby. We used this laminated cotton in an elephant print. 

My job is to sew this stack of flannels into sheets to cover it and seeing as baby is due tomorrow, I best get on with that.

Have a lovely July.  I hope to have lots of finishes to show you when I get back from vacation !