Another Finish and praying for rain

Five quilts done for a family who will arrive in Canada in early July... and the fifth one is finished. They are excited to finally have tickets and I am so glad to have their quilts completed. This one is square, will work on a bed but also to keep warm in our cold winters. It is called Sleeping under Stars and Flowers because there are stars all over the backing. The quilting on the big blossom isn't showing well here.

Now I'm working on a simple log cabin. Blocks were done weeks ago. Since it is 6 x 8 blocks, I had to get creative with an arrangement but have two rows sewn. Picture next time.

With the wildfires in our area, being outside is not pleasant. The air quality is off the charts. Rain is forecast next week so hopefully we will get reprieve. More than 15,000 people have been evacuated from various areas and the news two days ago said the area burned was 20 times the area of Calgary, a city with a population of 1,640,000 and with a typical prairie city sprawl. 

The fires are not close to where we live, but the smoke has reduced visibility like no fog ever has. Our air quality is 11.7 times above the recommended limit given by the WHO. Normal is 4-15, we are at 228 and it could go higher. This is a daytime image. Glad for AC and tight windows.

A Finish and a Start

The older teen boy wanted a computer gamer theme or soccer for his quilt. What is the matter with quilt fabric manufactures? They make online game fabric which is cute -- for little kids. There is nothing much for soccer except white balls on a green background. 

So I found this panel of gears and made the top but could not think of a name. So I googled the panel and found "Steampunk" -- a term used with computer games. So it is called "Steampunk, maybe?" 

My gamer friends say that's "Pretty close." I hope the boy likes it. I do, and it was fun to make. Fabric is gold, black and browns, metallic running through, very cool.

The other one is for his grandmother. It is not finished, needs about 10" of borders, but I like it so far. She sent a picture of a quilt with a big flower in the middle, so I looked and this is was the only one I could find of left of that big blossom that was popular months ago. Some bright colored pieces, but she wanted light. Anyway, I'm having fun with this too. The outer corners are in soft greens, not a great photo in artificial light. Hope to get some daylight next time. Quilting it will be interesting. 

But later. I have a hockey game to watch!

May's Window Quilt

With all the time spent at the sewing machine, I should have more to report, but this past week has been full. Wednesday morning, a dear cousin passed away, unexpectedly. She was a wonderful gal and I will miss her. This has affected my week.

That evening was a Guild meeting (I'm on the executive) and late getting home. The next day I led a prayer group at our church for a few hours. Friday brought a financial deal that is too much to explain. 

Saturday we drove two hours to visit our oldest and his wife, then stopped and my brother's on the way home. Sunday, a special ordination at our church for a young pastor who is the best preacher ever. In the afternoon, more tying up that financial deal. 

Monday was a Guild Sew Day, but I stayed only long enough to gather fabric/patterns/kits to make my contribution. (Do I need more projects?) That night was our small group Bible study. (Also another hockey game with our home team in the first series battle for the Stanley Cup that we had to tape and watch.) 

Yesterday, I put a large twin top on the longarm and started the edge to edge quilting with a pantograph. 

Today, we drove an hour one way to the funeral, attended by 800-1000 people. We visited with family and friends until most others had left. Tonight is a Guild executive meeting on ZOOM.

However, during all that I finished this window hanging for May. Our dining room faces the street and I'm making monthly small quilts to wave at the people who walk by. It is 18" x 31" and cheerful. This Pot of Tulips was fairly simple to construct with scraps and fusible, minimal quilting. Still, I'm a tad tired.

On the window... and in the 'finished' pile...

Here is the April quilt in my dining room window. It is close to a street/sidewalk where many walk by so my way of saying hello. This occurs to me to be a good way to practice new techniques, so I'm now on the lookout for ideas to try.

This quilt is for a refugee couple. They sent the smaller picture and I've assumed that the color is more important than the pattern. It was a challenge, as all bigger quilts are starting to become heavier. I am not as strong as I used to be and manipulating lots of fabric takes muscle!

Anyway, I'm now doing an improve with a panel and it is so much fun. Back later with photos.

Finally able to deliver her quilt

I made a quick trip to Vancouver Friday, home Saturday to deliver granddaughter's quilt. It fits her home, her locale, and in no time she was curled up on her sofa under it, sound asleep. Success! Except she woke up before I thought to grab a camera. So her roomie will take a picture and send it.

The latest refugee quilt is on the machine and about one third quilted. I'm using a pantograph pattern so far untried. It is 10" so goes fast and I picked it because I could center it and the motifs will form a bit of a border down the sides. The border there is plain so it works well instead of doing a freehand design to fill that space. I'm basically lazy.

Vancouver is lovely in spring. The Japanese cherry trees are starting to bloom and there are spring bulbs flowing all over the place. It was rainy Friday, sunny Saturday. We went to the aquarium and it was a surprise for me. If ever in that city, be sure to go. The fish and other indoor exhibits are wonderful, but so are the outdoor ponds with penguins, otters, seals, and other water-loving creatures. Since it was Saturday, the place was full of children and watching the little ones watching the critters was almost as much fun as seeing the thousands of examples of God's imagination swimming and chasing each other through coral and other colored under-sea life. This tank is plain, but most of them look as if you are deep-sea diving and the sun is shining through the water. Lovely!

One finished, one ready to quilt

These are two more quilts for a family soon to arrive in Canada. The log cabin was sewn by a lovely friend who offered to help with this task. We pooled our stash to find the best colors and she did a superior joy of sewing the top. I quilted it on my longarm. It is for a young woman.

The second one is the top. I'd hoped to have it on the longarm today, but I'm tired and will maybe get it finished next week. I'd made the center blocks then realized I'd forgotten to enlarge the pattern (DUH) so had to get creative with borders. The side blocks were the result of sewing the triangles cut off to make the Snail's Trail blocks so they were used up, then the other leftovers were used to make a top and bottom. This one is a small queen-size and the colors are pretty but when I take pictures on my downstairs design wall, the colors are seldom correct. This one is aqua and a golden yellow, not too bright and certainly not as whitish as it looks on my screen.

The log cabin browns are not bad, but the lighter colors are too light. Sigh.

I have two more twin size quilts to make for this family, am delivering our granddaughter's quilt next weekend, and more ideas floating around in my head...

These are delightful to make in some ways, but the bigger quilts are becoming difficult to manipulate. I keep telling my hubby that I need a houseboy, but he doesn't pay much attention. We did have a neat together project today. Our closet has a hinged hassock that we sit on to put on our socks, etc. and it is covered in a leather-look vinyl. The lid started to crack and peel and we looked for a new unit to replace it. Today we decided to recover the lid, so out came the heavy-duty staple gun, pliers, etc. and I found a piece of upholster fabric. We took the old cover off and fiddled with the corners of the new fabric until they folded fairly decently over the corners of the lid. So about an hour -- a new (looking) lid. The rest of this box-like thing still looks good. Our arms are sore but we high-fived anyway!

The latest quilt

 A photo was sent to me from a young lady who is part of a refugee family. I'd offered to make each of them a quilt and she sent her favorite. I rather think she likes it because it reminds her of the ocean and beach.

Anyway, this is on the design wall. The bottom two rows are sewn together, the rest waiting to be stitched. 

It was so much fun to make. I had all the colors in my stash. The pattern is "Seaside Park" by Villa Rosa Designs. 

I reversed the angle so it does not draw the eye down and out the bottom right corner, made the blocks bigger (original 5.5" and mine finish to 6") which changed the size to 65" x 77" (with a border) instead of 55" x 66", which is better for a twin bed. 

I also changed the colors... the pattern was a rainbow, but these colors are more like the photo she sent me... beach with sand and the waves coming in. I have not come up with a name for it yet.

This pattern is easy. I might make a smaller version (or two) for crib quilts.