Wednesday, May 6, 2026

I Spy with My Little Eye

 Wow, do I have a lot of I Spy  fabrics,

or should I say , " I buy fabrics!"

It doesn't really seem like a lot but 

when you're cutting 5 ", 61/2" or even 10"

blocks, you can make a lot of  projects!

I'm currently jonesing on 5" and 6 1/2"  squares. 

There's also the one quilt out of  bricks, 3 1/2" x 7 1/2"

from leftover bits I just couldn't throw away.

Add to that some short bits that were

left over from making the brick quilt,

and I've got a wealth of  I Spy projects on the go.

Once again I enlisted the help of GKs

to lay out blocks. It turned into a few games of I spy

and lots of creativity on their part.


Sharing blocks, adding little bits of blocks to the centers of others 

and adding some appliques made lots of fun for all involved.



I certainly have a lot of stitching to do!

The last thing I did before the retreat was oil

 my featherweight so it was good to go.

Here is the progress report!






The Pretty Yellow

with the floral centre was the first one stitched up.

The centre was gridded to hold down the applique.

The centre got straight stitching 

around the applique pieces anyway.

It always pays to keep your pieces in place.


Then came a 6 1/2" block I Spy. 

Lots of interesting things to see there!


It was bound in dark blue which 

also had little Santas frolicing all around it.

Then came a quilt of leftovers.

 Using up a stack of little nine patches, 

as well as some 5x5 colour blocks

created a lovely stroller quilt.


Then the 5"  squares were up.

First,  a complete quilt of nothing but squares. 

It was very cute and bound 

with some leftover beige from another project


Finally more 5" squares with an alternating 

stack of precut blue blocks came together quickly.

It was pillowcase turned so even more speedy!


Each of these quilts have flannel backing.

They certainly made a dent in the flannel bin!





Stay safe and Sew on!

Linking up with:








Monday, April 27, 2026

Slightly Less & Garlic is Good

 So I had enough time and space on 

the design wall to lay out the garlic knot blocks.

There are enough blocks to make a good sized baby quilt.

They will get stitched together and get a  bright 

binding to curtail the blocks.  

It can  go off to the Northeast Babies next month. 

It took a few tries to get the right layout.

First, one of the blocks did not play well with others.

Do you see it?



Once I got that straightened out,

 I needed to figure out what

 the design was going to be.

This way,

That way,


and finally blocks dancing across the rows,

like rockettes!



It looks very interesting and 

will certainly delight its new owners!

I can't wait to get it all stitched  together

Stay safe and Sew on!

Linking up with:

Monday Musings

Sew and Tell

Handmade Monday

SrSPS

Design Wall Monday

To Do Tuesday

Wait Loss Wednesday

I Quilted This

Put Your Foot Down

Finished or Not Friday

Off the Wall Friday

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Patchwork & Quilts

 Oh Scrap







Tuesday, April 21, 2026

Retreat Success

Oh,  retreat was good to me!

Lots of stroller tops are done up so I can get quilting this week.

The mini vacation for me is coming up,

so I'd like to have them quilted and ready for binding

before I head off to the woods.

Here's a little show of what was finished last weekend.

Found pale blue  5" squares paired with I Spy blocks,

and this little stroller quilt was the result.

Cute as a bug and fun to look at.


Next up was a visit to New York to see the

 Rockettes march across the stage!

Just a few misplacements and 

the garlic knot quilt top was complete.

It's just spicy enough to be fun and should be great to quilt .


The salmon were sewn up quite nicely

 although one setting block did get lost in transportation.

As luck would have it,

a perfectly good triangle was found in a scrap bag

given by a friend. Spring spawning was saved!


Not be outdone, 

some 6 1/2" blocks got into

 the mix and went together in a cutesy

5 x 7 arrangement of I Spy fun.


Just look at those happy pigs in the corners!

I will be swapping out one of reds in the 

top row.  Those dancing cats just didn't behave!




There was also an interesting little floral block.

Paired up with even more leftovers from other projects,

it turned into a sweet little quilt that is sure to delight.

The fused centre will be 

grid stitched quite tightly so 

there's no danger of the applique lifting



Finally, there were bricks of two sizes 

waiting to go into column quilts.

These were leftovers from the I Spy block cutting frenzy.

These will be paired with some interesting fabrics and 

make some fun quilts for gifts or donations.




Just a few more blocks for equalizing the 

 length and they should be ready.

The smaller bricks ( 5 1/2") will find 

their design this coming week. 

Till then, happy stitching!

Stay Safe and Sew on!

Linking up with:

Retreat Season






Retreat season is upon us. 

Just like hunting season or ski season, 

we pack up our bags, 

all our equipment and off we go.
 
 I'm gearing up for the 3rd and last retreat of 

this spring retreat season.

I still  have projects that I can take.

Obviously, I'm either well prepared or 

I just have too many projects.

So let's see what's in the works for the next retreat.

I've got quite a few more rainbow scrap 

blocks to  put together for the 

next strip quilt. 

It is still lacking the remaining colors.

The bags of strips and scraps are ready to go

except for the red .


 I am going to harvest some chunks

and root thru the scrap drawer 

to make a goodly bag for the red squares. 



This is some of my chunk storage. 

Lots of red in this one.

I hope to have a number of baby quilts 

ready to bind,

and a few more I Spy quilts ready to stitch together.

Surprisingly, there are still lots of interesting 

fabrics in my stash, so I had another bit of fun

cutting out more I Spy blocks. 


Remember all those big ziploc plastic bags

I was gifted?  They are perfect for retreat projects and 

making up kits to take.  They are more space efficent 

and keep me a bit more organized!

These will certainly certainly keep me busy

 for another weekend in the country.

Two of last week's stoller quilts are

still waiting, so they will go back into the mix. 

The last retreat was at a lovely hotel 

within the city but the next is out in the country 

so it will feature a few walks

 through the woods 

in springtime.

Right now I'm going to pop outside

 enjoy some 18 C/ 64 F weather.

Stay Safe and Sew on!

 

Monday, April 13, 2026

Oh, That Garlic!

 These garlic knots are picking my biscuit!



They keep getting moved around and around,

 put out on the sewing table,

but never making any progress.

That's how many of UFOs are born.

They have some sort of glitch 

that makes us set them aside to deal with later.

Well later has arrived! 

The glitch with these was choosing

fabric for the background 

that was in short supply.

When a new background came into play,

the whole project kind of got pushed aside.

So now let's dig out some low volumes,

and get this plan in motion.

Count up how many blocks are complete,

and go from there.

Here is the block with the first  

low volume background. 


I counted up the blocks and 

there are more than enough for

 a very nice stroller/ baby quilt!

No more garlic for me!

The extra strips will be used to 

shadow lattice some crumb blocks I have

waiting in the wings.

 
 
Any square backgrounds remaining

can be used as alternate blocks in baby square top

I've been waiting start.



 Amanda Jene Nyberg says it best,

" No scrap left behind!"

Stay Safe and Sew On!


 


Add it All up!

 Finding matching blocks on that Discovery table,

leaves room for lots of different ideas.


These blocks were all leftovers from Chains of Love 

that I did ages ago for my brother.

I ended up making two, a small and  a large, 

because the blocks were fun to make.

It seems no pictures exist of those two quilts. 

Here is the pattern from the book.  


Notice how most of the blocks look nothing like the pattern?

I made the plus blocks and 

put triangles on the corner using the stitch and flip method.

Then I would cut them down to

 the proper size for the X blocks.

Oh the things we learn.

Thinking back on the name of this quilt,

it was a bit of foreshadowing, 

but that is a story best told elsewhere.

Anyway, I'm going to put these plus blocks

 together as nature made them,



and use a half block as the border. 


There are 26 of the 6" blocks to start with. 

They could go into a small stroller quilt

 but there are many whites waiting for a purpose

and I'll let them shine in this quilt. 

The pattern is from this book that I've featured before.


It has beautiful quilts in it as well as the

 occasional heartwarming story. 

 It is just a wonderful book.

The X blocks went off to quilt Canada for 

the block challenge. 

Can't wait to get started on more plus blocks!


Stay Safe and Sew On!

Linking up with :

Monday Musings

Design Wall Monday

Monday Sew & Tell

Handmade Monday

SSPS

Home Matters

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Oh Scrap!







Tuesday, April 7, 2026

Swimming Up Stream

 It's almost a time for the salmon to start 

going back to where they were born.


These little blocks were discovered 

when I was packing up blocks

for the quilt Canada leftover block challenge

I feel good saying that 190 blocks 

are on their way to go into charity quilts

to be done at quilt Canada.

These little fishes will be starting to swim upstream

on a background of white on white.  

Ripples will be sewn into the white squares 

a water effect.


I would love to have it ready for this 

month's meeting but I'm not sure how far I'll get today!

So, here is where it lands this morning!

Some precut 5 1/2"  strips made great

background blocks and it is ready to stitch!



It will certainly be ready by next month's meeting.

And also that time of year again.

I have another retreat coming up!

Most of the prep for that is done.

I just need to recharge the sewing kit and

 verify a few projects and I'll be ready.

My little featherweight

 with the handi work tray always goes along to retreats.

Have a great week stitching!

 Linking up with: 

Monday Musings

Design Wall Monday

Sew and Tell

SSPS

Put Your Foot Down

Wednesday Wait Loss

I Quilted This

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Patchwork & Quilting

Finished or Not Friday

Off the Wall Friday

Oh Scrap!