Not Quite Marie #2

 Today we drew the 

powder room drawers. 

Oddly we found memories 

and history! 

Lots of basics, 6 pairs of tweezers, lots of nail files 

    We also came across some Tiger Balm. 

The small red tin brought back a load of stories. 

When the Offspring were young, we let them try lots

of different activities hoping to keep them active 

and engaged. MB ( middle boy) had 

a friend who did martial arts, 

and before long 2 were in Kung Fu and all four 

were taking Jujitsu.  Their sensei told them that 

tiger balm helped ease sore muscles. We all 

ended up using this smelly ancient recipe to ease 

the pain of strenuous activity! 

Other than tiger balm, the family got 

lots of value from these activities. 

Every week the Offspring would 

return from class with stories the teachers

shared.  We found out ; one teacher lost a little 

toe in a bike chain when he was young. 

It didn't affect his balance tho, 

since he learned to adapt

and compensate. The advice and 

introspection the teachers shared with 

the students on the way to teaching and 

training was inspiring. I still remember the

day My Eldest came home and said he 

learned how to  come out ahead on 

every fight.  His sensei told him , when faced 

with a potentially 

dangerous situation the 

best solution is to run and resolve the 

situation elsewhere.!

Good advice. 

The teachers encouraged older, experienced 

students to assist the younger and for 

everyone to work together.  It was a 

great learning time for everyone!

We also found an assortment of blister 

band aids.  Very inspirational.

 I used these when I began

 a running career in my 

6th decade.

  A co worker routinely runs 

Marathons and was chatting about running .

I made the 'mistake?" of saying, 

"I can't run" and the next thing I knew,

 I had a coach!  Off to a very slow start, 

( I could run a total of 40 seconds before

stopping) but by the end of the summer , 

I could run 5 sets of 10 minutes!  

I needed blister pads for my feet, 

( they are flat and bumpy) but I am a runner!

The highlight for me was being 

acknowledged with a brief nod by 

another runner on a morning run in 

Hawaii.  A great moment. 

Some good memories from that little clean out!

Keep tidy!

 

Still under the scrap pile!

  Well, the scrap pile is still very large

but  I did have a very productive month!

 Five scrap quilts were on my list to get finished.

I managed to finish 3  plus 2 squirrels that

  organically came in to being!

The floral quilts were so much fun to do! 

Two  are getting labels and shipping off today.

 The blue Sail Away quilt also got completed .

Three days late for my nephew’s 

3rd birthday but will still be a nice surprise.

  It rained on and off all day yesterday,

so I was able to sew up some orphan blocks

(RSC blocks, I cut them too small)

for the Table Scraps Challenge.

The place mats will be finished up today and

into the stash for Meals on Wheels.

 My 1st monthly goal was great motivation,

now on to the next!

 Stay safe and sew on!

Linking up with :

RSC 2021

One Monthly Goal Finished Up!

Table Scrap Challenge

Design Wall Monday!

Monday Makers

Out to sea!

 Well , it is complete!

Sail on is quilted and bound and

just waiting for a label! 

On the To do for this coming

week :

Labels, labels , labels!

One for the sail boat, 

two for the florals, 

three for the future 

and four for the float!

I make some generic labels 

so those will be " for the float". 

I put a kind thought on my 

charity quilts and I have a great 

idea for my rainbow quilt label 

It is actually up for the next 

pinning session! 

Back to the finish tho!

The Sail on quilt has some 

theme quilting. Sand on the bottom

with some random ovals. 

The quilting  shows much better in the photo of the back. 

Then waves in the ocean to sail on. 

The shore has some trees and 

further in some houses for the village. 

Then finally in the sky some piles of 

clouds with a hint of sun.

 It was fun to 

do and even tho I am not the most skilled

FMQ ( I seem to get really adept by the time I am 

finished with the quilt!), it turned out well. 

And the flip side!

Stay safe and sew on !

Linking up with :

Can I get a Whoop Whoop!

Off the Wall Friday!

Thank Goodness It's Finished Friday!

Finished of Not Fridays!

Stitch , Sew and Show!

Needle and Thread Thursday!

Put Your Foot Down

This quilt was featured!

Not Quite Marie Kondo #1

We are working on a clean up /rid out of 

our home pre reno ! 

I seem to have the attention span of a gnat, so

we made a list of every area to be renovated  

and will pick a location or two,  to be sorted each day !

We are not minimizing for the sake of 

having less , nor are we "deeply moved" 

to pare down all of our possessions. 

We just want to be able to use 

what we have wisely and well without 

lots of clutter in the way!

You can follow along on my 

" Not quite Marie Kondo" 

 tab above if you'd like.  It is like 

another treasure hunt !  I am sure we 

will find some 

  very interesting items!

 

Time to get started!

Planning a big reno and having 

to empty out our living space 

is certainly  a great time to clean 

up and rid out!

Here is the  jar of all locations and 

each day we  pull one or two to tackle!

First up were some easy ones!

The "serving side table and shelves".

We found a great selection of commemorative plates, 

Slightly creepy, but DH favorite. 

 Kind of like the wolf picture that hung

in a bedroom where I grew up. 

Slightly scary but you always wonder what was down the road!

Not sure who graduated from Western then

but they must have 

really become attached! The two family PhDs 

graduated from here so maybe a keeper?

Three will be donated, and two will be passed to 

friends who would like them. 

Some hot chocolate was moved to snack drawer,

 napkins sorted and

 2 delayed holiday gifts were moved to storage.

I made this goodie for our gift exchange but 

a nasty little virus delayed that !

Sadly, the map went back to the map drawer. 

We have to cancel our drive west since 

we are still in the midst of the pandemic here in 

Canada and the other provinces are restricting travel.

Finally , the teacups were moved to the display area

and the task was complete!

#1 complete!

The platters have been stored in the basement 

out of harms way during the renovation. 

I hope the next location is as easy!

Keep tidy!

Sail on !

  

Well it is gardening time after a brief snow last 

week but I am still stitching when there 

is a break in the weather. 

Can you see the village?  

I was inspired by a  Quilt Fabrication scrap quilt .

Using up a lot of my blue strip squares 

made the top come together quickly.

Then I added a self-designed boat to the top. 

 One observer studied it a bit and 

commented that she really liked the village on

the shore! Scraps quilts can really spark 

imagination!  

This smaller size top (55" x 68") has been

 patiently waiting 

for a turn under the needle. 

The time has come and it is now getting stitched up. 

The backing is a grey paisley with some 

found blocks sewn in for width and interest. 

It will almost make the quilt reversible once the

quilting is complete. 

Waves will be quilted across the bottom, 

then a  shoreline with grassy plants. A few suggestions 

of houses and buildings in the middle and clouds and 

sun in the sky to finish at the top. 

A nice blue patterned binding should  match up nicely.

One more item off the May to do list ! 

It will be off to Michigan to celebrate a 

3rd year for a nephew!

Scraps ahoy!

Stay safe and sew on !

Linking up to :

Oh Scrap!

Design Wall Monday!

Monday Making!

Patchwork and Quilts

To Do Tuesday!

Wednesday Wait Loss!

Catching up on Rainbow Scrap!

 Getting toward the end of another month!

Finally, I am getting a handle on doing 

Rainbow Scraps!  I have a few good blocks/patterns 

to do so now it is really getting fun. 

I found this cute little block with lots of 

parts cut ready to stitch in the UFO area. 

Of course I want to change the pattern. Thinking I had 

done the correct size, I sewed up a few blocks. ( 10!)

Then... when I went to sort out the colors, 

I found 6 more blocks of a different size!

 I wrote out the design and rejigged my 

pieces. Entry into the table scrap challenge

 will help use up these 

new orphans!

I wanted to catch up on earlier colors 

so....

I sewed up a group of Red for May. 

Next I sewed up two different shades of colors 

from the past few months!  The block uses solids with a 

small patch of patterned accent color.

I have yellow, green and blue!  I need one more 

variety of red and I will be ready for next month. 

I may manage a fuchsia or pink variation in there

 during our next round of rainy weather.

I think that is scheduled for this coming week.

Stay safe and sew on !

Linking up to : 

RSC 2021

What a Hoot!

Well Floral Me!

 It has been a flowery two weeks .

When working with scraps , it is always a 

bit of a treasure hunt! There seems to be 

a surprise around every corner!

Just like an old sack of whole 

wheat flower, these floral scraps

don't seem to be running out!

I am trying to finish them up , 

and suddenly they seem to have 

replenished! My Buddha bowl refilled!

My summer sewing room was still 

overrun by floral bits! What's a quilter to do!

So here is a small , sunny quilt show

of floral quilts!

First up is quilt using  3 " strips with a 

basket weave pale green lattice . All 

the lattices are 1 3/4" cut .

The strips were already in the 

scrap supplies so not much prep was needed. 

There was also a pile of 3" floral squares, 

so those were used to finish out some rows

as well as make up the size with a 

nice scrappy border. 

Only 1 WOF of the green was left over.

The back is a wonderful blue and white

paisley that was just big enough to cover .

Next is a quilt using 2 1/2" strips with a nice forest green lattice. 

As with many scrap projects, the green ran out so 

in came a bit of lawn green to finish off the pattern . 

All of the strips in my found supply were not made 

up of the same size chunks.  Some are very long and 

some much shorter. I let them remain au natural and 

sewed them as they came off the pile.  A raid

on an old bag of watercolor pieces provided enough 

squares to make up the border. 

  The back is 

made from a number of pieces from a coordinating

 floral whose age is a closely guarded secret!

The quilting used a serpentine stitch

that is # 100 on a Janome 7700. 

The third is a a dark blue  lattice using 2 1/2" strips. The  

dark blue strips read almost black from a distance.

The quilting is done using  number 19 of the utility 

stitches on my Janome , at maximum stitch length. 

 The back is half and half

green floral and yellow floral so carries  through the theme.

Again, I used 2 1/2" squares for the border. 

The last completed is a burgundy lattice.  The 

quilt did not get an end cap for the dark strips as 

I ran out of the burgundy not once but twice. 

I started with a solid , used that all up and then 

used  some polka dot strips and ran out of that also.

It doesn't look unfinished without the end pieces 

so I still class it as a success.

The back used more floral yardage and 

the remaining dark blue .

These lap sized quilts all have homes to go to.

 Two or maybe three will be shipped off

to some friends. Three will go off to 

the Zebra foundation for Children.

One more is in progress. 

This pattern is certainly conducive to 

using strips . My little featherweight seams 

to sew them up like a happy little daisy!

They are perfect to work on  during

weekly zoom bee groups. There are only 

few possible  mistakes to be made so you 

can pay attention to the stitching and 

the good conversation!

They might end being called Good 

conversation quilts!

I even managed to work on the RSC and sew up 

one with red lattice strips!

This one is still in progress.  A finish picture should

turn up next week. 

The answer to the  burning question? 

Yes I still have some florals remaining, 

but not nearly as many !

Stay safe and sew on !

Linking up with : 

RSC 21

Oh Scrap!

Design Wall Monday!

Monday Makers!

Put Your Foot Down

Patchwork and Quilting

Tuesday To Do!

Wednesday Wait Loss

Midweek Makers

Needle and Thread Thursday

Stitch, Sew and Show