Last week was a rough week, workwise. My job is deadline driven, but it relies on people to get me information in time to meet said deadlines. Last week, those people were dropping the ball on those deadlines, leaving me to scramble and make sure we got work done on time.
Most weeks aren’t like that, so I can handle the occasional bad one. But by the time it was over, I just wanted a short, simple sewing sewing to help me decompress.
Unfortunately, most of my projects are at the top assembly stage. Nothing short of simple about that. Luckily, I had just one that was still at the block building stage. My colourful pinwheels. And with everything cut and ready to go, it was nice and simple.
With in an hour, I had six more to add to my collection
I laid them out with the others, and it gives me 16 in total so far.
So colourful. They were just the thing to lighten my mood.
It’s that time of year again. That time when mother nature does crazy stuff just to mess with us.
Case in point:
Tuesday… Minus 9 degrees C, with bloody freezing wind making it feel like minus 15!
Wednesday… Balmy 11 degrees C, with beautiful sun and snow melting everywhere.
Thursday… SCREW YOU GARDENERS!!!! It’s back to freezing again, oh and here’s some more flurries!!!
Sigh… but ’tis the season. I know better than to get excited. We don’t see real spring until at least mid-April here. We don’t see actual blooms on flowers until the very end of April, (unless you’re a lucky gardener who can get snow drops to bloom… I’m am not said gardener).
But still, you know only that beautiful Wednesday, I was out poking around in the gardens to see what I could see. Mostly I could see that I have a literal crap tonne of peanut shells to clean up (thanks Squirrelington’s!). But, there was a little green here and there.
Clockwise from top left: Daffodil, Oriental Poppies, Iris, Sedum, and Tulips.
It’s not much, and as I said, we still have weeks to go until the real fun begins. But right now, this promise of things to come is enough!
Bonus pic…
I’m not the only one excited about the promise of spring!
We’ve reached the last week of the Round Robin 7, and the prompt for the final week was pinwheels! I love making pinwheels, so I was thrilled. I was a little less thrilled when I had to decide how to combine them with the log cabins from the week before.
After a little pondering, the idea came to me. After some quick, not overly-precise calculations, I figured I had enough material left to make 8″ cabins and pinwheels and combine the two into another full border, all the way around. This would make my quilt about 82″ square, but I like making big quilts.
I got to work on the log cabins first.
Up until now, I’ve only made cabins with 2.5 inch strips. But to get a nice variety of fabrics in an 8″ block, I needed to go smaller. These ones are 1.5 inch (with a 2.5″ centre door). I made 20 in total.
Then I got to making pinwheels, in two sizes.
Eight inch and six inch. Then I assembled those pinwheels into four units.
One for each side.
And it’s there that I had to stop. My not-so-precise calculations didn’t factor in my background fabric. I had enough to finish my blocks, but not quite enough to finish the borders. It’s not a problem though – I have lots more, it’s just on a bolt that lives at Mom’s. I’ll pop up there this weekend and grab a couple more yards.
In the meantime, the quilt is too big to layout and let you see the whole thing… but this should give you an idea of where I’m heading with these blocks.
That gap between the pinwheels and cabins will be filled with plain cream fabric. And the border will repeat all the way around with pinwheels in the centre and cabins hugging the corners.
And once that’s done, this baby will be ready to quilt! Hurrah!
You all know how exciting Squirrelington’s can be… well the other day, things got a lot more exciting!
The weather was warmer (About 7C/44F), so Relic was thrilled to be outside. The sun was shining, the snow was melting… and he decided a good place to enjoy this promise of Spring was on top of the garden cart… which is, of course, the main dining area of Squirrelington’s.
I didn’t think much of it… the squirrels would just have to wait until his cat nap was over to enjoy a snack. It’s not like he was going to eat all the peanuts on them.
Well… one brave (or foolhardy) squirrel decided the wait to get in was just too long. And he decided to take a chance…
And Relic just sat there while the squirrel grabbed a peanut and left. In truth, that doesn’t surprise me. Relic has shown zero interest in chasing the squirrels. I think he knows they are too darn fast. The only thing Relic likes to chase are butterflies and baby buns. He doesn’t even bat an eye at the adult bunnies.
But that squirrel…. well let’s just say that squirrel has some serious kahonies! And he didn’t just do it once! He came back multiple times.
I’m too cheap to pay the extra $100 a year to add video to the blog… but you can check them out on the Bearbottom Facebook page. (You don’t need to have Facebook to see it – it’s public!)
But seriously… another afternoon of sewing saw me finish up all my little hen blocks.
I just love these ladies! All those chicken-themed fabric in a chicken block… it just hits all my buttons! With them all done, I was about ready to sew the sashing when I decided they needed a little something more. Those poor girls were sitting on the cold hard ground… they needed nests!
I found some nice straw-coloured fabric in the stash, and added a nest strip, as well as another wire strip to square things up, and now my girls are nice and cozy. If I was thinking of it before. I would have made it so the “nests” came up around their sides…
But I can live with this. On another afternoon, I’ll sash them all together, which will create their “nesting boxes” add a border and then I’ll have a completed top!
Though I think I have to spend this afternoon giving someone some love… I think he’s feeling a little neglected!
When I finished up Jenn’s birthday socks, I mentioned that I should have enough to make my niece a matching pair. And I was right!
They are shorter, but that’s ok – like me, Rowan loves shortie socks. Because they’re shorter this first one went even faster than Jenn’s pair. That second sock to this pair is just going to fall off the needles!
As planned, I got the manly lap quilt quilted and bound on the weekend.
I really love the richness of this one. All those warm reds and golds with the navy and black – it’s quite striking.
It finished up at about 60″ square – perfect size for a lap quilt, if you ask me.
While the backing and binding fabric weren’t from the same line as the jelly roll that made the blocks, they were from the same company. As such, the colours are almost a perfect match. This stripe fabric was a super clearance score I got at the end of last year, just before the second lockdown started. I got more than 8 yards of it and there’s still enough for a similar size quilt. I love deals like that!
The blocks have a fun, old-timey barbershop theme (hence the name!)
And like all my others, this one is now available in the shop!
The other day, Mom texted me a picture of the slippers I’d made Dad back in 2017. It had taken four years, but he’d finally worn a hole in the heel.
I guess he needed a new pair. Luckily, I still had a pile of yarn leftover from that barnyard cardigan, and it was just the right weight. I got smart, and gave the yarn a good long soak BEFORE I knit with it this time. It didn’t get rid of the smell completely, but it wasn’t so overpowering, and it was a little nicer to knit with (the sticky lanolin feeling was gone)
The pattern is Family Slippers, and it’s a nice, simple “traditional” grandma style slipper. I had these knit up in a couple of evenings.
That should keep his feet warm for at least another four years.
I’ve been trying very hard not to spend any money I don’t need to. And for the most part, I’ve been succeeding. But a few weeks ago, I decided I really NEEDED a new cutting mat. Mine was a birthday gift from Mom at least four or five years ago. And it’s been through a lot of quilts since then. To say it was worn out was an understatement.
I really wanted and OLFA mat, because I’ve read really good things with them (i.e. cutting blades last longer), and Missouri Star Quilts had the best price on the size I needed. But that means I have to order other things to make the most of the flat rate shipping fee!
I decided a treat for myself was in order
Fabric to make myself a cheerful springy summer quilt. What you can’t see in that picture is that those fat quarter bundles….
Have GNOMES!!!!! I have some fabric set aside for a winter gnome quilt…. but I decided I had to have a spring/summer one too! I bought an extra yard of the flower & bug fabrics (bottom left and bottom middle) to give me more options. I learned with my second Blockhead quilt that it’s nice to have one or two fabrics from the line in larger amounts for borders or things like chain blocks.
The yellow splatter fabric is not part of the gnome line, but it was a two-yard cut, and on sale – I thought it would make a nice background fabric. The charm pack was just an extra I threw on because it was on sale. It will most likely end up as a baby quilt.
I’m not starting this project right away, because I’m waiting to see if I can get just one more thing for this gnome quilt.
This gnome panel is from the same line. It’s currently out of stock, but… if they get it in within a month or two, I may snap it up. It is pretty darn cute!
And remember the other week when I mentioned the lure of Felici…. Well. I caved.
I was having so much fun with burger socks, I decided to see if they had any colours on sale. They did, but only one really grabbed my fancy….
Dragonboat! And while it was nice, it was only $1 cheaper than regular price.. and not enough to make me pull the trigger. But then I saw…
GOTH KITTY!!!!! It wasn’t on sale. But it was low stock. With a name and colours like that I just HAD to HAVE it before it sold out. This one is definitely socks for ME, ME, ME!!!!
And then of course… I had to fill the cart so I could get free shipping…
Aquarium, Rainbow, and Punch Bug came along for the ride. Aquarium will likely be birthday socks for Dave. Punch Bug will be Paisley’s birthday socks. And the rainbow… undecided… but you can NEVER have enough rainbow yarn.
And then…
A skein of Static came along for the ride. This is the Bee Keeper colourway. I’ve been wanting to try this yarn for a while. I got a nice manly shade since that’s what my stash lacks the most.
And with that out of my system… time to go back to my penny-pinching ways!
BONUS CONTENT!!!!
Yesterday, Mom surprised me with a fat quarter bundle I’ve had on my wishlist for a while!
Barbie!!!!! I’m so excited! There’s a panel that goes with these fabrics too, so I may just snag it when I order those gnomes!
I had an unexpected free day this week, so I decided to get a quilt top together. The manly barbershop quilt was the closest to being done, so I thought it was the best one to tackle. All the blocks were done. It just needed borders and sashing.
As planned, I used some solid navy for the sashing (though it looks a little black here). It picks up the navy from the blocks quilte nicely. The cornerstone were made from one of the prints leftover from the jelly roll. And then I wrapped it all up with a lovely red and gold print I had kicking around in the stash. It gave me a nice-sized lap quilt at 60″ square.
As I hoped, the sashing breaks up the busy blocks and makes it much easier for the eye to focus and make sense of the quilt. Though the blocks are really neat, there’s a lot of bias in them, which makes them a little tricker to put together. Still, it’s a nice block to have in my repertoire, and I’m sure I’ll revisit it at some point.
Hopefully, as you’re reading this, I’m up at Mom’s quilting it. I’ve got this fabulous striped fabric for the back and binding. It’s almost an exact match for the neutrals in the quilt.
Wandering Cat Studio 