Next Freebie Fifteen Done

I'm done a little lot early this time.  It helps to be on vacation!  This is the Freebie Fifteen block of the month from Traditional Pastimes.  It isn't actually due till June 15th.

This is the one I mucked up a bit.  I had cut the strip sets to make all of those 9 patches, but accidentally cut them at 13 /16 instead of 1 3/16.  Of course, there wasn't enough fabric left to cut strips of the correct size. Luckily, though, I have a fabric or two in my stash.  They had provided a mostly black fabric for the dark squares.  I had some Kona charcoal left from the baby quilt, and I think that looks just fine with the other colours in this BOM.

You Won't Get the Best of Me!!

Ha ha! she says.

You may remember this post, where I was whining about the difficult block in the Sand and Sea Glass BOM.  If you recall, there was a part of the pattern that looked like this:

The instructions were to cut out all of those tiny little triangles using templates and sew them together.  Twice - there are two units.  (In case you're not totally insane after the first one.)

After much hemming and hawing, and seriously considering ditching the whole thing, I decided to draft myself a paper piecing pattern.

And.......success!!

The entire block is 12 1/2 inches, so you can see how tiny those little triangles really are.  This block took me about 6 hours to complete - not including the drafting time.

Here is a close up:

It's not perfect, but it's done.  Mr. CQT was taking a careful look at it, and said, "Is there supposed to be that overlap there?" - meaning the cut off parts of the triangles.  I snatched it away and replied, "They told me that you non-quilters weren't supposed to notice those things!"

Meanwhile, I had a bit of  a setback working on this month's block.  The instructions said to cut 12 strips 1.3/16 inch wide.  Even with my bifocals, I missed that tiny little dot, and cut them ALL 13/16 inch wide.  And sewed them together.  Then realized that the resulting strip sets were WAY too small.  Oh well - it's only fabric.

Bloggers Quilt Festival

Something new to me, but not to Amy at AmysCreativeSide - the Bloggers Quilt Festival.

Here is my feature (and favourite!) quilt. 

This is Spanish Steps, a pattern by Judy Martin.  I made it in a class at my LQS - because it looked like it might be difficult to do.  Turns out, Judy's instructions are so clear that our instructor didn't do much more than tell us what page to turn to in the book.  I was really happy with how it turned out - I love the shadowed look that many of Judy's quilts have.

I gave the quilt to my brother and his wife.  When they opened it, my SIL announced that it would be perfect for their dining room wall.  Well, that required a hanging sleeve, so I took it home and quickly attached one.

Now, I'm off to tour the other linked up blogs!

Well, That Was Short

Yes, that is snow falling.  It's currently 4 degrees (C = about 40 degrees F). I know I said that summers were short here, but this is ridiculous!  The tree in the foreground is our crabapple, which is just starting to bud out.

Actually, this isn't all that unusual for Calgary.  No one with any experience plants their bedding plants until the week after the Victoria Day long weekend (which is this weekend).  I haven't even bought mine yet.

So, what to do when you're on vacation and the weather is awful?

Have a great day!

Freebie Fifteen Tomorrow

I'm on vacation for the next 3 weeks.  Nice!!  I'll be going away for part of it, but for now, I'm at home, just relaxing.

Being on vacation makes it easier to get in for this month's Freebie Fifteen at Traditional Pastimes.  I'll even have time to do a little shopping!

I've got the block all ready to go.

Nice blues and browns in this one.  I haven't got the companion block done yet - in fact, I haven't got last month's companion block done!  I will have some time, though, in the next 3 weeks!

Now, I'm off for a little nap.  Oh, the luxury of a vacation!

Opinions Please

It's a gorgeous spring morning here - finally!  The grass is green and the trees are starting to leaf out.  Living in the shadow of the Rocky Mountains in Canada means for very short summers, but oh! what joy when they finally arrive.

I've been working on two almost identical baby quilts.  The pattern is from Judy Martin's book, Scraps.  (If you haven't heard of Judy Martin, take a look around her site.  She is a fantastic designer, and her instructions are so carefully written that you cannot go wrong.)

Here is where I'm at so far:

Here's the photo from the book:

You'll notice that there is one more partial border to attach - the multicoloured one on the top and right.  But, when I look at my quilt, I think I'm done.  I'm kind of a symmetrical, orderly girl, and that extra partial border, to me, seems to put the quilt off-kilter.  Also, it's already really quite big for a baby quilt - 45 inches wide.

Since I haven't got an artistic bone in my body, I thought I would put it out there.  Should I add those extra borders, or leave them as is?

I totally stole this

from Fons and Porter's Facebook page, but I'm pretty sure they are sharing it from someone else, who was sharing it from someone else, and so on and so on.  Does copyright get diluted? 

Anyway, I think it's funny.

The Postman Doesn't Have to Ring Twice at This House!

Actually, the postman doesn't ring at all.  We have a supermailbox, so we walk a block to get our mail.  But, I don't mind when it's mail like this!

AJ, over at I Knit N Quilt 2 (and The Quilting Pot podcast)  had a giveaway last week.  And, I was lucky enough to be chosen to win this beautiful set of Moda Charm Squares.  The colours are as soft and warm as they appear in the photo.  I have no idea what I will do with these, but I'm sure I will think of something.

Thanks, AJ!