Quilting and other Things

May was a good month quilt wise.  I had three things that I wanted to accomplish.  The first was my mini quilt swap project, the second was my Milkweed 3 piece and the last was a design for my Cherrywood Challenge.In January I signed up for the Canadian Quilters Association Mini Quilt swap.  I chose to swap by mail as I hadn't planned to attended the conference.  The conference has subsequently been cancelled due to the current COVID-19 pandemic and all the swaps are being done by mail.  The mailing date is June 1st.  My partner and I decided to exchange table runners rather than wall hangings.  The maximum size of wall hanging was 24" square.  I had a list of colours and shapes my partner likes and in an email conversation learned some of the designers she likes.  The starting point was dragon flies.  When I think of dragonflies I think of waterlilies so I needed a pond.  I decided my pond should have a field of flowers and my table runner was born.  It was completed May 24t…

I need to get the table runner done for the CQA exchange this month.  It needs to be ready to mail June 1st so its crunch time.  I did spend some time on Thursday and have a two alternate designs.  They are similar so I can choose how to place elements as I proceed.  Designs and finished pieces aren't often the same.  Yesterday I pulled a selection of fabrics.  I'm not sure how many of these will end  up in the runner but it gives me a good starting point.

I'll have to double check the selection.  I thought I had a variety of values but this looks like they are all darks or lights.  It may be just they way they are stacked but perhaps I need to look for some additional values.

I'd also like to get Milkweed 3 finished and start the design of milkweed 4 which will be a winter scene.  I think it will be smallish but I'm not certain. First up is to make the butterfly and caterpillar and then select the background

If time permits I need to get a start on the Cherrywood cha…

While I had great goals for April quilting I got sidetracked by a Photoshop virtual conference, sketching and transcribing old diaries.  Some libraries / museums online have handwritten journals that they are trying to transcribe.  They've put images of pages up and asked for help transcribing them to make them easier to search.  I also have access to some old family journals that I'm looking at.  So many possibilities for working on.  I also did some reading and have been able to get out for walks.  Most days I try to get my main walk early in the morning as there are fewer people out walking so maintaining my distance is easier.
I did spend sometime on the Milkweed 3.  Most of the components now have their internal stitching done.  I need to still make the caterpillar and the butterfly.  I had fun(?) pulling potential backgrounds out of the stash.  I pinned one to the design wall and pinned all the components to it.  I did not want to take them all off and put them on the nex…

It looks like most of April will be spent safe at home, staying away from others as much as possible.  The schools here won't be re-opening on Monday.  I do need to go to the store this week for fresh fruit. 

This month I'm working on three things.  I started Milkweed 3 and want to complete that this month.  Its a summer version of my milkweed series. 

The components are all cut out and the centres and veins have be fused since I took this photo.  I think I've also cut out more components since this was taken as a trial layout said there wasn't enough pieces. 

The second thing is this little quilt made with blocks I won at the guild block of the month many years ago.  The paper with one possible layout was printed from EQ5 which means the blocks have been lingering for more that 15 years if my google searches are correct.

This isn't the suggested layout but I think I like the little stars better so I'll go with it.  I found a purple in the stash that will do ni…

March has been a very interesting month.  So many cancellations and trying to minimize how much I'm out and about.  I still get my daily walk in although I'm trying for earlier in the day when fewer people are out.  That hasn't worked so well the last couple of days because I am definitely a fair weather walker when I have a choice.  Its rained the last few mornings and cleared in the afternoon. 

My goals for March's OMG was to quilt Milkweed 1 and 2.  Both of those got quilted at the beginning of the month and I was able to take them to the show at the Monday sewing group before that got cancelled.  The biggest problem was how to quilt the background of piece 1 but I ignored that until the flowers and pods were all quilted and suddenly thought quilting the flower shapes in the background would work well.  So I grabbed a spare flower shape and traced around it and that was the quilting for Milkweed 1.


For milkweed 2, I had written words I wanted included in the quilt. …

Its been wonderful to be able to quilt again.  Hand applique is still a bit of a challenge.  The fingers don't like holding a needle for very long so I take looks of breaks if I want to do hand work. 

With that and some deadlines in mind, my goal this month is to quilt my two Milkweed tops.  One was completed after the Jane Sassaman workshop in December and the other was a result of ideas not explored during that workshop.  Its also part of  a working  in a series group for an online class run by Katie Pasquini Masopust  I want to get these two done, so I can get onto the third piece.  



I also need to make my Trendtex challenge quilt for CQA.  This is the third time I've purchased a kit and the first time I know what I want to make.  The quilt is due at the beginning of April although no pictures until later on.  These should keep me busy for the rest of the month.

Linking up to Patty's One Monthly Goal