Lazy days of summer - WIP Wednesday

This block is called Arizona. It is the last of the hst blocks in the We can do it! Skill Builder Sampler QAL hosted by Leila at Sewn.



I am now caught up to the group. Next up are three weeks of flying geese skill building blocks. I really like flying geese but have virtually no skills making them so this should help.



This is Squash Blossom, Block #86 from the Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt. The flickr group for the FWQAL is here.

Isn't that a lovely little block! Don't look too closely, it is far from perfect even though it is paper pieced. But it took about 5 hours to make! That is far more than it should have taken. I made every single paper piecing mistake you can articulate, over and over again. And then again for good measure.

I love the results of paper piecing, I love the "magic" of it, and it is kind of fun sometimes. But it is the least intuitive thing I have done in a long time. My brain just will not accept any part of it as logical or reasonable so I need to practice and practice.

I will get another FW block done soon and then post the updated group of my blocks. I am slowly catching up with other projects, but for now, this is my progress. That and making plum jam, and making more jam and handing out plums to everyone who will take them. Soon there will be blackberries, and jelly... Oh, and I have almost figured out how to celebrate 100 and more followers, stay tuned for more on that, probably on Friday.

I am linking to WIP Wednesday hosted by Lee at Freshly Pieced. I hope you will visit all the projects, I try to view everything as it is all so inspiring, although I have to admit to not finishing all of them last week, it is hard to keep up in the summer.



Best,

Leanne

Sunday night.

This weekend I made a couple more of the We can do it! Skill Builder Sampler QAL Blocks.



These are pinwheels. I always find pinwheels harder than I expect. There are a lot of seams meeting in the middle and it is easy to get things out of line (like the green pinwheel). But pinwheels always make me smile.



This block is four bow ties blocks put together. I am pretty confident of my skills with this one. I love the octagon in the middle. I have one block to go and I will be caught up to the QAL. The upcoming skills are far less familiar to me and I am looking forward to Leila's excellent instruction.



But much of my weekend was spent being a plum farmer. I have two different kinds of plums ripening now. These small ones are pretty bland eating when fresh so I thought I would try some jam.



It looks nice. This is part of the batch, 8 cups of plums make 7.5 cups of jam. I had to process it twice , and be rescued by my friend, the jam-making angel, but it worked in the end. I added cinnamon, cardamon, fresh ginger and vanilla, after consulting the family cooking expert about how to jazz it up. Turns out, it tastes like apple pie.



This is a small corner of the tree.  I think I have about 40 batches of jam to go unless maybe the neighbours love these plums fresh more than we do. I am going to try a bunch of different spice combinations, but the next batch is going to be just plums to see how that tastes.



This tree is full of excellent eating peach-plums. We are all stuffed, the neighbours are stuffed and some are in the fridge, with a lot more on the tree still. We put up danger tape and put garden furniture under the tree to keep away the deer. As I said, plum farmer.

So on Friday I mentioned that this blog was at 99 followers and a whole bunch more people joined in.  Thank you for the support. I am hoping to put together a prize for you to celebrate in the next day or two. I had thought it would take a bit longer to hit the 100 mark and that I had more time to decide what to do.

Best,

Leanne

decisions, decisions

Last night I suddenly realized how to quilt the doll quilt that I am making for DQS11. It is interesting to me that this quilting, which emphasizes the Irish Chain diagonals, makes it so much harder to "see" the nine patches which were so obvious before.



I have been trying to make this a close to scale mini bed quilt, and I was having a lot of trouble imagining a quilting approach that would seem realistic and proportionate in size to what might be done on a full size quilt. I think this works nicely.

I am still trying to decide on the binding, and everyone gave me lots of ideas last week. I'll keep you posted.

By the way, I see there are 99 followers of this blog, which is very flattering and fun. I am trying to decide what I might give away to celebrate when the number reaches 100. Any ideas of what you might like?

Enjoy your Friday, it is a beautiful day here.

Best,

Leanne

Wednesday - I'm on island time.

Here are my Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt blocks so far. I have 14 done. A bit behind, this week should be 18, but now that I am back to sewing, I should be able to catch up soon.



This one is Snowball, #81. I love the simplicity of the snowball block, one day it alone will make a wonderful quilt.



This one is Whirlpool, #102. I used water colours to add to the effect.



I am also catching up on the Mystery Quilt QAL. This block is called Clay's Choice.



I am sure you recognize Friendship Stars. I so love the friendship star block, I am going to start a quilt of these soon.



Here are my Mystery Quilt blocks so far. I am not yet finished the most recent instructions, so even with this progress I am still behind.



These are my blocks for Alix for my Twelve Month Quilting Bee. These blocks are called garden fence and a tutorial is here at Hyacinth Quilts.

I have many other projects to get to work on, but living on an island for the month means that I am working on being more laid back (clearly something I need more practice at). I will update you as I go, but I am not stressing about it today.

I am linking up to WIP Wednesday at Freshly Pieced. Please go and see what everyone is up to, I am looking forward to catching up with all the wonderful work that is always there.



Best,

Leanne

July was fun!

I enjoy going to read what everyone has been up to each month at Fresh Sewing Day at Lily's Quilts. Lynne has started making a mosaic of her accomplishments, and so I am following her lead with this mosaic. Follow the button to see everyone's work this month.

It was busy in July, with sewing, work and family time. I have made a lot of progress on the DQS11 mini quilt and now I am trying to make decisions about the binding and quilting. I finished my modern crosses quilt, which I named Rainbow Warmth. It is already in Cheryl's hands for the Quilts Recover Project. I made the blocks on my Kaleidoscope quilt, did a couple of Farmer's Wife blocks, made my first house blocks for one of my quilting bees and finished one of the Mystery Quilt blocks. Then we headed off to Hawaii for a week in the sun and the water.

I have a lot of quilting to do in August, and I have another month of mostly vacation at my cottage in the Salish Sea on the west coast of Canada to do it in.

I hope everyone is enjoying the summer and is out in the sun as much as possible!

Best,

Leanne