March recap

I thought that I'd learned my lesson about putting things off - I always seem to get caught on the last day of the month with something unfinished!
But, I've had lots of finishes for the month too - my Quilty 365 blocks and 2 of my five Pieced Tulip blocks for the Rainbow Scrappy Challenge.  I'll post the other 3 when I have a bit more time to get them completed.
The colour for March was purple, and I have 5 very different shades of purple for my tulips - but I only managed to finish the 2nd darkest one and the lightest one - have a look:

The black centers stand out really well in some of the blocks, but there's not a lot of contrast in some of the other ones.  That shouldn't be a problem for April - the colour is orange, so those blocks should really pop!

Next up is the last 11 Quilty 365 blocks.  This last week has seen 3 family birthdays to celebrate - a sister, a brother, and my dad.  The block in the bottom row with the dress shoes is for him; one of the black and white ones is for Good Friday - a dark day in many ways, yet with a hint of the brightness and joy to come!

And here are all of my March Quilty 365 blocks together:

I've managed to keep this up so far - 91 blocks - but, will I make it all the way to the end in December?  You'll have to stay tuned to find out!  I'll be linking up to Quilty Folk for all the March reveals.

My design wall Mon. Mar. 21, 2016

I haven't disappeared yet!  I totally missed blogging last week - long story - but I'm here again today.  I thought I'd share what's on my "design floor", my Quilty 365 blocks, and my newest project(s).
I'm going to start with my Quilty 365 blocks.  These Dancing Plus blocks are so much fun, and they're so easy to make!  I didn't post my blocks for Mar. 7-13, so I'll show them first, followed by last week's blocks:

You can see that I've pulled some purple fabrics for my Rainbow Scrappy Challenge blocks (I don't have any of them sewn up yet); I've also found some really fun fabrics, and I just HAD to include them - there are chocolates in the first week's pics, and these chickens from last week just make me happy!

Next up is the information that I'm going to be participating in Hands2Help again this year.  The charity that was chosen for Canadian quilters is the Yukon Women's Transition Home.  They need quilts for adult women and for boys and girls.  

Sarah posted about the quilts that were needed a few weeks ago, and I decided that the 2 kid's quilts that I had started a few weeks earlier would be perfect for this project.  I was in the process of purging some of my quilt books, and found one that I had set aside because it had 1 pattern in it that I wanted to make.  Somehow, it didn't make sense to hold on to the book for 1 quilt, so I pulled a few fabrics, cut some block segments, and sewed together 2 groups of blocks.  I've laid them out on my floor - one is a random layout; the other one is more controlled.  I'm not sure which layout works best, but it's obvious that I'm going to have to do a bit more cutting and sewing to finish these tops!  Here they are:

The quilts will each get at least one border, and then I'll be getting them layered, quilted and ready to go!  The first "progress" check-in is set for April 17th, so I'm hoping to have the tops assembled by then.  They should be ready to mail out by May 22nd, so, barring any drastic events between now and then, I should have them out the door by that date.  It's not too late to join up for this very worthy project - just click the link on my sidebar.

I'm going to link up to Judy's Design Wall post - there's lots of inspiration there!

A new month begins...

And the blocks keep getting sewn up for Quilty 365!
Hubby and I had the opportunity to go to Toronto this past Thursday to see the Canadian Ripley Aquarium - what a beautiful experience!  I have no idea how many varieties of marine life they showcase there, but it's absolutely breath-taking!  We're already talking about going there again sometime.
So, to remember that day (not that I'd forget it any time soon!), I hunted up some very special fabric that I've had for years.  It was supposed to be for a child's quilt, but it was in my very early quilting days, and I didn't realize when I cut it that I'd have to be very careful, because it's a directional print.  Of course, I cut far too many horizontal pieces and not enough vertical pieces, so that project became one of my oldest WIPs.  So, if it's not going to work out for that particular pattern, no one's going to miss just a wee bit of the fabric - and here's the block that I made for Mar. 3rd:

I already shared my block for Monday as part of February's blocks, so there are only 6 to show for this week - and here they are together: 

The dark blue (top left corner) was the perfect representation for March 1st - snowy and blustery!  If the saying "In like a lion, out like a lamb" holds true, we may have a calm and warmer end to our month - I have my fingers crossed.

Finally, Kat of Kat and Cat Quilts is hosting a quilt block drive.  She started a charity (Covered in Love) to provide quilts for patients at the end of their lives.  Each month, she posts a block with instructions - quilters are then challenged to make the blocks, which she then assembles into quilts.  This month, she chose to have us make Grownup Eye-spy blocks.  I've got 9 ready to send to her - and I'm sharing two of them with you:

The blocks take about half an hour to make once the cutting is done - and I know she'd love to receive lots of blocks!

Next week Sunday is the kick-off for Hands2Help 2016 - I'm hoping to be involved with that charity event again.  The Canadian charity this year is Yukon Transition Home - so check in next weekend to see what I'm hoping to accomplish.

And, as always, I appreciate you reading what I'm up to!

I'm going to link up to Oh Scrap! and Scraptastic Tuesday over at she can quilt.

February 2016 wrap-up

It's Leap Day!  It only comes once every 4 years of course, but this year it's a little more special because I'm doing the Quilty 366 challenge!  One extra Dancing Plus blocks to make for this year...  and, of course, I had the PERFECT fabric to use for my block!  I've had this adorable Dick and Jane fabric for a few years, and only cut little bits off of it every once in a while - but today was one of those days!  Now you want to see it, don't you?  Here it is:

The Dick and Jane books were some of the first books I read, and I wish that I still had them (I'd be rich!).  

The other thing about it being the 29th today means that I need to show you all the blocks I made for the month - all 29 of them. 

This is going to be one VERY large quilt!

And, finally, I have my RSC '16 blocks done for February - the colour for the month was brown, with the addition of pink if desired - and I had a few browns with pink in them, so I figured that they had to be used.  Before I actually started making these blocks, I thought that using black for the centers would be a great choice, because there's no way that Angela would pick black for a month's colour - but some of the fabrics I chose don't work so well with black... oh well.  It can only get better, right?  (March's colour is purple!)

I'm off to link up at SoScrappy and QuiltyFolk.

On (and off) my needles Feb. 26, 2016

Well, I finally managed to finish my Gather cowl for the Tin Can Knits "New Tricks KAL" on Ravelry.  I tried it on, and discovered that it's not as large as I thought it might be - and that's when I discovered that it's a VERY good idea to read all the pattern details - I knit the child's size...  Now, the point of the KAL is to learn a new skill, and I had fun deciphering the details of smocking, so I met the goal, but I now have a child's size cowl and no one to gift it to!  I love it though!

So, one knitting project done - that means that I can start another one, right?  I'll still work on the 6 or 8 other knitting projects that I have on needles somewhere around the house... most days...  That new project has come about via a couple in our church.  They recently received a prayer shawl when one of them had cancer surgery.  I head up the craft group at our church, and we've now been approached to consider making prayer shawls for member of our congregation going through difficult times.  I've made a few prayer shawls (this one for my friend Ila), and they're designed to be fairly quick and easy.  I decided to make an example to show the ladies at our next meeting - and I found a very simple pattern.  Cast on 57 sts. knit 3, *p3, k3, repeat from * to end.  Repeat for every row until project is approx. 54" long - can it get any easier than that?  There are lots of other interesting (and free) patterns available on the 'net.

I'm using 8mm needles and the first ball of yarn I came across in my stash - Mosaic from Bernat.  I love the way the stripes are working up!  Here it is so far:

The pattern would be appropriate for either a male or female, and the colours will be too (now all I need is to find another ball or two of this colourway...).

I'm going to link up with Judy's On The Needles post, and the Tin Can Knits "New Tricks KAL"  finishing post...

And here he is!

We've been to the farm, and baby #6 was contentedly sitting beside his mum - yes, it's a boy!  We've got 3 ram lambs now, and 3 ewe lambs, with one "girl" left to lamb.  Hubby told her that she needed to give us one of each sex to keep our numbers even for the year - I'd happily take a big healthy single ewe lamb...
We aren't sure whether we'll be keeping the flock past this summer, but we've had a great experience with them this winter.  Provided that the farmer doesn't mind over-wintering them for us again next winter, I'm happy to carry on.
And here he is!

The sewing continues....

It's been a rather busy week here, but I'm not really sure that I've accomplished much.  I did manage to keep up with my Quilty 365 project, and I pieced a top for a charity quilt.  I've also been working on 3 different knitting projects, but not enough to blog about...
So, I'll show you my week's worth of Quilty blocks - as always, some of the fabrics just demanded to be used, and others were chosen because they were handy.  You'll see what I mean when you check this week's projects.  First up are my Quilty 365 blocks for Feb. 15-21:

There are 2 blocks using brown fabrics, in keeping with the colour chosen for February's Rainbow Scrap Challenge (I still haven't assembled those blocks - I have a week left!); the purple and rose coloured tulips were Saturday's block, chosen because we set a new record high temp for the day and my daffodils and tulips are starting to poke their heads through the ground!  The solid purple in the top left corner is Wisteria Kona - a leftover from my other project from this week - the last floral strip quilt using "leftovers" from the large scale floral Disappearing 4-patch block swap that I did with Cathy.  I debated putting borders on the sides, but I did that with the first one, and much prefer it without.  You can also see the second one (also borderless).

We'll be heading out to "the farm" shortly - it's lambing season, and we had a new little one born this morning, so we need to check on it's progress.  I think this makes lamb #6 for the year - possibly one ewe left to deliver and we'll be done for another year!

Thanks for stopping in!

I'm off to link this project up at Cynthia's Oh Scrap post.