Scraptastic Tuesday - June winners

Before I announce the July Scraptastic Tuesday winners, I have some progress to share.



These are my blocks from BeeSewcial - I asked for all the colours with a 'maximalist' improv theme. These blocks are a riot of colour and pattern and one cannot help but smile at them, even when looking at this late night, bad light photo.

I arranged and rearranged them, left them up and took them all down from my portable design walls and put them up again. Maximalist is so outside of my comfort zone, despite how much I love these blocks. Finally I settled on this arrangement and started piecing them together. the two columns on the right are joined now as columns but not together yet, and a couple of the blocks at the top are joined.

There are no directions for how to make this kind of quilt and to make it 'feel right'. I did have some intention to this layout. It is sort of a medallion style, with the circles and diamond blocks sort of balanced. The corners are each crazy quilt style improv blocks and in between there is the roughest bit of working from the centre out. And there is no real hot or cool spots of any size. Now can you see it? Anyway it makes sense to me.



Of course the blocks are irregular which means adding fabrics to make them fit. I am trying not to change the blocks much as I go which means adding scraps of fabrics to the curved bits, etc. It is slow work as I am audition colours and such but it is also fun. I will share again as I go.

So, now it's time to share the randomly drawn winners from the June Scraptastic Link up of the prizes from our fantastic sponsors:

InLinkz.com

Here are prizes and the winners. If you are a winner, look for an email from me shortly:

• Karen Lewis Textiles  - scrap pack - 42 - Rosa from Rosa Patch. The Love of Sewing

• Fat Quarter Shop - $25 gift certificate - 1 - Katy from Katy Quilts

• Massdrop - Marine by Quilt Gate Half Yard Bundle - 7 - Julie from Julie's Quilts and Costumes

• Sew Sisters Quilt Shop - $25 gift certificate - 65 - Nicole, minibea123 on Instagram

• Simply Solids - £20 (20 Pounds) gift certificate - 44 - Karen from Tu-Na Quilts, Travels and Eats

• Mad About Patchwork - a $40 gift certificate - 62 - Sally at the Objects of Design

• Fluffy Sheep Quilting - a €20 (20 Euro) gift certificate - 34 - Celine at Espritpatch

• Green Fairy Quilts - $25 gift certificate - 22 - Cheryl on Flickr

Please join Nicky from Mrs. Sew and Sow and I next month to link up your scrappy project or thoughts on taming your scrap mountain on the second Tuesday - July 13.

And if you are looking for some scrappy inspiration, visit the July links, they are awesome.

Best,


Leanne

A hat

Yesterday, I set out to spend the day doing fun things. First I worked in my garden for the morning. My garden has some established fantastic plants but it also needs a lot of changing about. Yesterday I planted raspberries, blueberries, rhubarb and pumpkins in the old compost/ weed patch. I am guessing I will have plenty of weeds to dig up there again as I water in these new food plants, but it is good dirt and a nice spot, so whatever.

But then I was tired and my sore knee was hurting - it benefits from activity but then complains. So instead of the popping up and down of sewing, I pulled out my knitting and after a long while finished this hat. It took a long while as I ripped out the top decreases three times so as to not have any yarn left over and a good size hat.



I had one ball of this wonderfully coloured Noro yarn (Silk Garden colour 309 lot C) - well I hope I might have more but I only had one at hand - so I wanted to use the entire ball for this hat. The design is my own.

By the way, this hat has yet to be blocked. I will do that today and try to share a photo with you of the difference this coming week, which should be noticeable. Blocking is a good wash and dry, and then laid out on a towel or over a glass to dry in the correct shape.

For those of you who will ask for a pattern, here is the recipe which I am sharing from memory and the photo as the hat is off in another room right now. My hat was made with size 4 needles, or maybe they are 3.5, I swatched to get a fairly tight gauge as it is a hat so should be warm, and I cast on 88 stitches (a number divisible by 4) to knit in the round.  I knit 4 or 5 rows of stocking stitch to get a short rolled brim and then I did ribbing of k2  p2 for about 2". I changed to a pattern that would add the tiniest texture to the stocking stitch. It is:

• Row 1, knit the row; 
• Row 2, k3 p1 (repeat); 
• Row 3 knit the row;
• Row 4 k1 p1 k2 (repeat)

When I was at the top (about 6" from the brim for an adult size hat but this can be more or less as you like your hats to fit), I decreased as follows:

• First decrease row: k2tog, k7 (repeat)
• Knit 2 rows
• second decrease row: k2tog, k6 (repeat)
• repeat with each decrease row having less knit stitches until you are close to the top. If you are running out of yarn, knit only one row in between decreases and then on the last few stitches just decrease without knit rows in between until there are about 8 stitches left and then run the yarn through them, pull tight and stitch closed on the back. Mend in any other loose ends.

You can make a hat like this any size, bigger or smaller, just make a gauge swatch so you know how many stitches per inch you are knitting with your yarn and needles, then cast on enough stitches for the size of head you plan to wear the hat (remembering that you want the hat to be tight to stay on and it will stretch some) and make it long enough before you decrease for the wearer. Also  you can make the ribbing shorter, skip it entirely or make the entire hat in ribbing. The stitch pattern in the middle of the hat between the ribbing and the decreases can also be anything you like, plain or fancy cables or lace or something else.

I still often follow a pattern for a hat when someone else has done the math and planning for me but when I just want to knit, this is my hat recipe. 

Today I am waffling between starting my day with a good tidy of my own room - more likely and sewing - might be best left for the afternoon or the tidy/clean will never get done.

Happy Father's Day to all the fathers!

Best,

Leanne

A Show Ribbon - Canadian Quilters Association NJS

Good morning! A big thank you to my friend Krista (Poppyprint) I have some great photos of my quilts that are hanging at the Canadian Quilters Association's annual National Juried Show this week. The show is in Toronto this year. You can see all the winners on the CQA website here.

Breathe won the 3rd place ribbon in the Art - Abstract category and I am thrilled to receive this ribbon. Breathe had won a first place ribbon in the Minimalism category at QuiltCon 2015 and has toured the world over the last year in the Modern Quilt Guild travelling show. But I wanted to see how my minimalist quilts might be seen by judges looking at an "art" category. I might venture to enter more shows that have no modern category now.



I also entered Spin in the show in the Modern Category. Here you can see her hanging next to Krista's fantastic quilt, Chess on the Steps.



Krista is the best photographer (with her iPhone). This is the best photo I have of Spin I think. It shows off the crazy industrial modern style of quilting nicely, and although it is full of wobbles and is not at all perfect, it sure looks good at this distance.

Now, I'm off to garden and then hopefully sew a bit this afternoon. By the way, if you have not yet linked up for the June Scraptastic Tuesday, please join us before Monday night.

Best,

Leanne

Scraptastic Tuesday - the June Link is open!

It's the second Tuesday of June, and the Scraptastic Tuesday monthly link is open.

I've been away from this blog, and I miss it. I have also been away from sewing, but less away than away from the blog, so I have things to share that were made in between my last post and now. To get back into the habit of blogging, I will try to catch you up over the next few days.

By the way, I don't believe that one needs to apologize for blogging absences or explain them either - one can do as they like and there are no obligations to be here. But this time - because it often looks a little too easy here on the blog -  I will share a bit. My reasons for being absent are:

• too much work at the day job (interesting and challenging work but all the same too much), 
• a conference across to the eastern edge of Canada for which I was heavily involved in the planning and delivery of (it was a great success but jet lag was tough), 
• my garden (which is new to me and full of fun and a lot of work), 
• a twist/sprain/something to my knee (which makes me hobble and has spurred me on to reactivate my weight watchers app and think about getting into shape too)
• inertia 

It is that last one that I wanted to share about the most. It is hard to return to a habit of sharing stuff about myself on my blog. I could use that time to garden or put my swollen legs up and nap, or any number of other things. But, upon reflection, I miss sharing here. I miss being able to see where I have been and where I am going. I miss your comments and the connections that those can bring (I do try to reply to those commenters who have an email connected to their profile by the way). So I'm back, and I will share what I can. 

I did get use my scraps on Sunday. I have been keeping my coloured solid scraps in that lovely pot that used to be my Grandmother's. I was nervous about using it to cook in as it is quite thin at spots but I wanted to see it often, so it seemed perfect for a scrap container.



In Beesewcial, each month's leader gives an inspiration and a few rules and then we make what we are inspired to make. For June, Felicity wanted us to be inspired by the greens or blues of the Lake District and make her strata style block. I have long been in love with strata - lines - and I was so happy to have this project to work on. I found a lot of green scraps, many of which were already cut in strips so I just started joining them together.



I was in the mood to add a few points of interest. Sort of like when you walk in the forest and it is so uniform and then suddenly there is little meadow or a dense thicket.



Before long, even though I was moving slowly and enjoying the process, I had this block done. It is about 25" by 12.5". The greens are light to medium, the darkest green in the photo is still a medium I think.  Felicity is going to have the best quilt!

So, now is the part where you share your scrappy projects, plans and ideas. First, our fantastic sponsors:

InLinkz.com

A huge thank you to our generous sponsors for providing the following prizes which will be awarded randomly among those of you who link up.

• Karen Lewis Textiles  - scrap pack

• Fat Quarter Shop - $25 gift certificate

• Massdrop - Marine by Quilt Gate Half Yard Bundle

• Sew Sisters Quilt Shop - $25 gift certificate

• Simply Solids - £20 (20 Pounds) gift certificate

• Mad About Patchwork - a $40 gift certificate

• Fluffy Sheep Quilting - a €20 (20 Euro) gift certificate

• Green Fairy Quilts - $25 gift certificate

Please join Nicky from Mrs. Sew and Sow and I by linking up a blog post or flickr or instagram photo sharing a scrappy project, in progress or finished, or your thoughts on dealing with your scrap mountain:

• You don't have to have joined us before, everyone is welcome.

• One link per person, and it will be your entry into the random draw for the prizes. It is the same link up here and at Nicky's blog - Mrs. Sew and Sow - so you only need to link up on one of our blogs.

• This link is to share with our community about using your scraps, please don't use it to advertise your own products or events.

• You can link up from your blog, instagram or flickr, but you have to link up to be entered in the prize draw.

• Please visit at least a few of the links, they are very inspiring, and leave comments too as everyone loves to connect. 

• Use the Scraptastic Tuesday button and invite your friends to join us too. Please share our button, or a link or the hashtag #scraptastictuesday in your linked post or photo. 

• The link is open until next Monday night at 10:00 pm MST. We will announce the winners next Tuesday. 

• If you have trouble linking up, let me or Nicky know and we will get you sorted.

Best,

Leanne

An InLinkz Link-up

Modern Selvage Quilting - winner of the book

I'm popping in quickly this morning to announce the winner of the giveaway of a copy of Riel Nason's book, Modern Selvage Quilting. You can get to know Riel better on her The Q and the U.

This randomly drawn comment (after I deleted the duplicate which, I am guessing, were caused by blogger being sluggish) for the winner of a copy of this fantastic book - Modern Selvage Quilting - was #66 - mb - RI, who blogs at Quilts in the Hood.

If you have not yet done so, you might want to check out the rest of the Modern Selvage Quilting book reviews on the blog hop:

May 10 Riel at C&T Publishing Blog

May 11 Cindy at Live a Colorful Life

May 12 Yvonne at Quilting Jetgirl

May 13 Diane at Butterfly Threads Quilting

May 16 Krista at Poppyprint

May 17 Casey at The Studiolo

May 18 Leanne at She Can Quilt

May 19 Sandy at Upstairs Hobby Room

May 20 Mel at The Quilting Room with Mel

May 21 Riel at The Q and the U

I'm off to sew and work and enjoy this rainy long weekend - the huge Alberta fires have made me appreciate the rain far more than I normally would!

Best,

Leanne