My Challenge Quilt

About 2 months ago, one of my favourite quilt shops sent out an e-mail alerting it's readers to a quilt challenge.  We could get a free FQ at the Quilt Shoppe, pair it with another pre-chosen fabric, and then make a lap-sized quilts that would be donated to breast cancer patients.  There would be an opportunity to vote on the completed quilts, and also prizes for the winning quilts - and face it - who doesn't like prizes?  My 2 fabrics were shared in my July 6th post.  The darker fabric is the challenge fabric, and the other was a Basic Grey fabric.  I chose to do a variation on a Swoon quilt after seeing one on Pinterest.
I ran into a few issues - first of all, my father had recently given up his driving licence, so I'm now #1 or #2 "chauffeur" - when he "needs" to go to the library, or the bank, or wherever, I get a phone call, and everything gets dropped while I tend to dad's needs.  Then, I was diagnosed with tendonitis in my shoulder and arm, making it very difficult to work on a growing quilt.....  But, I persevered, and, one week late, got my quilt delivered.  I was somewhat hampered by the tendonitis, and couldn't do the Free Motion Quilting (FMQ) that I was planning, so it ended up being Stitch-in-the-Ditch, but I'm hoping that the eventual recipient won't mind.
And now for the unveiling:

I placed small pinwheels in each of the 4 border strips - they were made using the 4 pink fabrics that I used for the Swoon blocks; I also used leftover strips of the Swoon fabrics for a scrappy binding.  I used Warm and White cotton for the binding - I love the slightly vintage-y wrinkled look that it gives the quilt.  I dropped off the quilt yesterday - with the line "Done is better than perfect"....!

It's August...

....and I have another project to finish!  I'm so glad that Melissa and Shanna came up with the idea for "A Lovely Year of Finishes" - I may not have completed any of the quilts that have been featured here if it wasn't for them!  And, seeing as it's August, I need to commit to finishing something else - and I have at least 5 quilt-y projects that just need a boost to finally finish them.
So, without further ado, I give you:

My scrappy Dresdens!  I am pretty sure that I have at least 12 done - now I have to decide if that is going to make a large enough quilt, or do I need to make a few more plates...  You are going to have to check in here
in a few weeks to find out for sure.  I also need to decide on cornerstone block fabric, and how many (and how large) the borders will be.

July's finished project

Today is July 31st, so that means that I'm supposed to post a picture of my latest finish for the Lovely Year of Finishes - and look at this - I finished my quilt 3 days ago already!  Of course, I just finally took a picture of the quilt....!
This quilt will be going to a person or family that was impacted by the recent flooding in the province of Alberta.  My cousin lives in one of the cities that was inundated with flood waters (and worse), so that brings this disaster a little closer to home.  It's too much of a chance that this quilt will actually end up at David and Aileen's home, but knowing that they'll be getting one of the many being made by quilters across Canada brings some comfort to me and probably David's Ontario family too.
I think that I managed to get all of the quilt into this picture!  It will be going to a quilt shop an hour's drive away - that's the gathering spot for completed quilts - and the quilts will be going directly to Alberta with a TV news person that's here for a few weeks.  He'll be taking all of the donations with him when he heads back home - and I hope that he has a truck full!

A pretty card!

I'm not really sure what's happening to my card-making "desire" - maybe the love of quilts, and the effort and time needed to make one have taken over.  I still love making cards, but I just don't seem to make any anymore - unless I urgently need one for a specific occasion.
Today's card came out of such a situation.  I need a card, to write a note to a friend, and I didn't have anything appropriate in my box of finished cards.  I wasn't sure what I wanted the card to look like either, so I browsed through some of the designs that I have pinned on Pinterest, and this is the result:

I like that is doesn't have (or need) a salutation on it - I could still add one if I wanted, but it's also just fine the way it is.  The colour scheme was based on the colour of the flowers that I had in the cupboard, and the cardstock and floss for the button are nearly perfect colour matches - how often does that happen?  Now, I just have to write the note inside - and it's going to be a difficult one to write - but it needs to be done...

Hopefully my next post will have a happier result!  Thanks for stopping by today!

July half-point check-in

Here we are, 2/3 of the way through July already!  I can't get over how quickly the time is rushing by this year...  The worst part is, I have no idea what's happening to my time - I can't see that the to-do list is getting any shorter!
But, I HAVE accomplished some of my July "Lovely Year of Finishes" project - my last post showed a few blocks and a strip - and today, all of the blocks have been assembled and laid out, and I'm starting to join blocks into rows.  This quilt will be heading to Alberta, for a family that's been devastated by the floods they had there earlier this summer.  As well, I'm hoping to quilt at least one more top that's been gathering dust in my sewing room; I might even send a few tops for assembling there.
So, without further ado - here's my progress so far:

The quilt will be 7 blocks wide, and 8 blocks long (I can't remember the measurements) - I'll have the actual size in the post for the completed quilt.

I also cut the blocks for my Breast Cancer challenge quilt for the Quilt Shoppe in Sarnia - can't show any pics of that yet - and the completed quilt needs to be handed in by Aug. 15th.

I just might have a few pics of sweaters that I'm knitting too - a dear friend is expecting her first great-grandchild in Aug., gender unknown yet, so I'm working on a little girl sweater, and one for a little boy too, just in case. There are also quite a few jars of newly-made jam in the pantry cupboard and more in the freezer - so, I guess I know why there isn't more progress on my quilts to show!

July's "A Lovely Year of Finishes" project and a challenge!

Okay, so I'm later posting this than I thought I'd be, but better late than never, right?
For July's project, I'm doing a quilt that will be donated to a resident / family that's been affected by the flooding in Calgary, Alberta.  My cousin David and his family were among the ones that lost everything, and while I know that a quilt won't "fix" anything, I'm hoping that a quilt might help them to know that people all over Canada care about their circumstances.  I found a really great looking quilt pattern from designer Kim Diehl called "Buttercream Twist" (http://quiltpatterns.s3.amazonaws.com/14/buttercream_twist_free_quilt_pattern_by_kim_diehl.jpg) and pulled some fabrics from my stash to make it.  It's going to be good and scrappy, and I'm sure that there's bound to be a scrappy-quilt lover somewhere in Calgary!  These are two of the fabrics - the rust one is the starting strip, and the gold shows the finished block.

This month I'll be doing the entire quilt - including the quilting and binding, so that it will be ready to give out to someone in need.  I'm hoping to finish quilting at least one more as well.  I also saw a comment on a friend's blog that the My Sewing Room quilt shop is also accepting tops, batting, backing, etc., so I'll send them a few tops too.

In June, I signed up to do a challenge quilt through the Quilt Shoppe in Sarnia - it will be donated to a breast cancer group.  We were all given a fat quarter, and could buy another fabric (on sale!) from a few selected by the shop - and after that, it's up to each quilter what to do with it.  It's supposed to be a lap quilt size, and the completed quilt needs to be handed in by Aug. 15th for judging.  All that I can do right now is show you my two starting fabrics.  

The bottom fabric is the fat quarter that everyone received, and the top one is the fabric I bought.  I have a design in mind, but I really need to get started!  But first, I've got to make some raspberry jam - all the rain that we've had recently has really brought on our berries!

June "Lovely Year of Finishes" project

I wasn't sure that I was actually going to get my quilt top done in time for this month, but I managed to pull it off!  We'll just ignore the fact that I (almost) had to pull an all-nighter to do so....!
I really loved the fabrics in the Simple Marks - Summer charm packs that I used, but choosing a fabric for the border was a little challenging.  My LQS had ordered the turquoise solid that was part of the line, but when I stopped in to buy the fabric, the turquoise hadn't come in yet (probably about 6 weeks after the rest of the line came), so I ended up going in a very different direction, and chose the orange solid.  Part of that choice stems from the fact that I have a really cute backing (and binding) fabric for the quilt, and it has a few greens, and some red and yellow and orange....  I thought that the red as a border would be too strong for the rest of the quilt.  I think that the orange is really stunning! and I may use it to bind the quilt too, instead of using the backing fabric for the binding.
So, here's the completed quilt top:

(The pattern is a freebie - you can find it here: http://www.modabakeshop.com/2012/03/on-go-baby-boy-quilt.html).

I wasn't exactly sure what I was going to do with this quilt - there are no babies or little ones in our lives, but I loved the pattern so much, and just had to make it.  Since then, we've received requests from a number of different groups to make and donate quilts to folks that have lost everything in the on-going floods in Alberta.  I'm thinking that this quilt would make a child forget about some of the tough things they've had to deal with recently, and give them some joy instead, so I'll be quilting this quilt, and a few more for my July project, and have them ready to send out west in September.

I'm hoping to post my July challenge tomorrow or Tuesday.