This year...

Several quilt blogs that I follow do a summary for the year. I don't have my photos in a collage so will just copy them in without comment beginning with this small window hanging. They are in no particular order. The first 24 are a mix of small quilts to hang in the window, table toppers, up to queen-size bed quilts. Eleven of them were for refugees who became fast friends. The last four are tops only, given to a charity group to sandwich and quilt. I know, I cannot believe I did all this. It has been a hectic year besides.

Two Done, Two more in Progress

A refugee family of six arrived the first part of the month. They are super people. One of our friends described them as "pure gold." So mom and dad's quilt is done and two for their daughters. The top for one son is done and I'm cutting out pieces for the other son. All these are in their 20s so these are full size.They are designed according to photos they sent me, sort of. I took liberties with their choices. They do like bright colors however both these photos are not right. The gold/green one is actually brighter and the blue one is not this bright. Go figure?

I'm also working on scrap quilts. Pinterest has several layouts for orphan and scrap blocks so will try one of them soon. 

 

 Also, my bruises are almost all gone. Most came  with no pain but those still on my legs hurt to touch. I'm thanking God for surviving such a tumble. My daughter keeps saying, "Why didn't you break something?" as if it were a given for someone my age. We just rejoice that this turned out the way it has. I went to a specialist today, and he just shook his head and told me to carry on!

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.

Stalled, sort of

 This month has been filled with expected appointments, events, plus a host of unexpected stuff, some were happy, others frustrating. I flunked the patience test a few times!

However, this quilt center is done. I had perfect border fabric but not enough. Could not find it locally so ordered from a shop in the next province west. They had it at a good price, but the shipping -- yikes. Anyway, it is coming next week. So this one is on hold. The colors are way off. A deeper gold and greenish gold somehow disappeared. It is in daylight so ???

I started a March hanging for my window. People love February's heart. This one will be a leprechaun's top hat with shamrocks growing out of it. Soon to be March!

We have a family brunch on Monday, I'm to see my doctor Tuesday, hubby has surgery and will be in the hospital Wednesday, bee group meets Thursday. To offset the stress of that, one fun item on that group's casual agenda is to plan a theme basket for our guild's show in June, to be auctioned to help pay for the venue. I have way too many ideas. This and Monday should be fun. Don't know about the other two days.

Now back to work, but first to smell the roses. Our church does brunch every Sunday. We feed 300-600 people, white tables with roses on many of them. If someone helps with cleanup, they get the roses. We were given two of them a couple weeks ago and they were picture perfect, had to share this one. 

 

One done, five to go . . .

What? It is February already? Well, I have a good excuse. We traveled in January. In AZ, rainy weather greened up the desert and ruined golfing, so my dear hubby took me for a shop hop. Could not buy more than a few fat quarters (suitcase full already) but did get a few patterns and lots of inspiration, plus great conversations with shop owners and customers. The best one? The Quilter's Oasis in Mesa. I'd have been happy with any yardage in the store. Wonderful fabrics, exquisite quality and just yummy. Next time I will take an extra empty suitcase!

Then we went to SC to spend a week with our daughter and son-in-law. The weather was crappy but the fun made up for it. We ate, shopped, toured, and made three 1000 piece puzzles in three days -- hard ones. Now we are experts. Laughed much and just enjoyed being together.

My daughter had a love poster on a door and another one outside on a hanging rod -- to celebrate Valentines Day and February. So I came home and made this in one afternoon. It is in our dining room window so everyone who goes by can see it. Our daughter is a sweetie, a wonderful hostess and very thoughtful. I want to be like her when I grow up.

Now I am working on a larger project. It is for a refugee couple who arrive in Canada soon with their children and the grandmother. All will get a quilt, so this is the beginning one. I've made only four blocks thus far. A dear friend from our bee group offered to make one of the other quilts, so that might mean all five will be finished before their plane lands. 

Sorry for no posts this past while. We have been buried in to-do lists since getting home. I'll try harder, if I'm not sewing like a mad woman.

Two Finishes, lots happening

Finally. My TO-DO program keeps reminding me to post, but I tend to procrastinate progress reports in favor of finishes. Sigh.

Anyway, this is a queen-size, long because the man is tall, and these colors because his wife wanted a bit of pink in it, with grey and white solid. They read solid anyway.

The other one is a quilt for a 4 year-old boy who has an abundance of energy, likes bright colors, and enjoys the alphabet. It is 38" x 56" and was fun to do. 

This is a refugee family who fled their home because of death threats. The boy was born after that an has spent all of his little life in one room. Now they are free and he is learning about the big world outside of that room, and his parents are learning new parenting skills!

Blue Quilt progress...

I offered to make quilts for refugee families thinking with Covid and the crazy amount of paperwork to get them here, I had lots of time. Not. One family is coming in July, a mom and three daughters. The yellow one is done. The blue on is on the longarm, pictured here. The red top is finished and next in line. The black one is still in my mind. I do have the fabric though. It seems best if they are all done before these gals arrive, but I'm not sure it will happen. I do have another life and do need to eat now and then! Sigh. 

Anyway, the blue one is twin-size, 12" blocks in a modern arrangement. I decided to use variegated thread and a simple panto to quilt it. This panto is called "Saffron Blossom" and just happened to work out to one motif per block, roughly. It gives the plain blocks a kick and pretty much disappears in the pieced blocks. I'm happy. Hope she likes it. Two of the women are in their early twenties and one is still a teen. It will be great to meet them!

Otherwise, I'm sewing icon pieces to the Legend of Zelda quilt while watching hockey and other stuff after supper. Funny, it was supposed to be a queen-size but wound up a king... and the young gal in the couple it will go to told me this week that she has been bugging her hubby (my grandson) for a king-size bed! So my 'mistake' might turn out for the best after all. 

Hubby is golfing this week. He has been working hard and long (from home) for the past few weeks and deserves some fun time. He 'retired' three years ago and never slowed down. He loves his work too much to say no to all the phone calls for help!

Hope everyone is enjoying sunshine and flowers!