Neutrals, what was I thinking??!!

I don't know if it's being of a certain age, but one of my favourite things is going out for lunch with friends, family....whoever!

Today I'll be meeting my sister-in-law for lunch at a restaurant I've never been to, Ferrera's in Simcoe. I'm quite looking forward to it...I don't know much about it except to hear a friend say that this restaurant has the best breakfast around.

Yesterday I worked on a quilt that was designed and made by my friend, Debra Allan. It's such a sweet quilt. She named the pattern Beary Love and Butterflies....and you can see why.....

A couple of years ago I was part of a block exchange that we called the Shoebox quilt. Everyone in the group ( I think twelve of us ) picked our own theme, made the first block, then passed the blocks around for a year 'til we ended up with our own Shoebox again. During that year we couldn't see what others were contributing to our own Shoeboxes. Every month we would have a month to construct a block ( or two ) for other participant's quilts.

We have finally set a date in July to try to get our blocks made into quilt tops, if not completely done!

There were a lot of fun themes....snowmen, trees, houses, fairy garden to name a few. My theme was neutrals. I've always been intrigued with the challenge involved in the making of a neutral quilt. 

Yesterday I figured I'd better at least get the blocks on the design wall. I really had it in my head that as I put them up they would magically fall into place into a pleasing arrangement!

Bwahahahahaha!!! Not so much!

I am totally stymied on what to do with my blocks! I'm going to rely on a old, faithful technique....leave them up there for a while until they talk to me and give me the answer!

I do have a kind of radical idea, but I don't think I have quite the courage :( 

Monday evening I went to a guild meeting. So many people showed their centre medallions of the 365QuiltChallenge block-of-the-day. I will have to take a bit of time out of my day to do mine after being inspired by every else's blocks. 

The beauty of being a bit behind is hearing everyone's advice on the piecing of the medallion....thanks, guys!!!

I did piece a block this week that was quite challenging. It's part of a BOM called Happy Days by Sarah Fielke. This is going to be a stunning quilt. I especially like that it will be challenging and using techniques that I'd never come across. 

Here is this month's block...

The middle bit is almost perfect but some of the dots in the fabric really make it look way off! Oh well, it's done and I like it! I also like that the tigers in the corner fabric all came out standing up by happy accident. 

I am linking up with Quilt Story for their Fabric Tuesday to see what others are working on today!

Have a great almost-Spring day!

Stitching on a Sunday

Well, not much time for slow stitching today. I am such an early riser but there's the odd time that I actually sleep in!

 Not the best day for that as we are heading down to have lunch with some of the family at a wonderful restaurant called Johnny Rocco's. It's one of my favourite restaurants and I especially love it when it's a first it's a first time visit for someone....today that person is my daughter. I hope she likes it!

This morning's applique was just one little heart for my Quilty365/Day in My Life...

This was a heart for yesterday, commemorating working on a lovely scrappy quilt made by a friend of mine for her granddaughter's first big-girl bed. The heart is a wee scrap I stole from the leftover scrappy backing of my friend's quilt. The piggy background used because my friend always seems to incorporate a pig fabric in her quilts...

The quilt turned out great, it is one of the prettiest I've ever seen...

Usually working on my Quilty365 I try to pick fabrics that reflect the day, but it's not always easy. This week, though, it seemed I had a few good ones!

On Tuesday I heard a wonderful speaker from Ottawa, Elaine Quehl. She is a prolific dyer of fabrics, saying she does about 5000 yards of dying per year!

 Here is my heart for that day....using a hand-dyed fabric out of a stash I've been coveting since 2007 and the heart is one done by me in my short experimenting with dying many years ago...

I quite enjoyed dabbling in dye. I don't know why I didn't continue.

And here is my heart for Leap Day. I was hoping to have a bit of frog fabric, but all I could come up with was a couple of little bunnies...

I've been successful in keeping up with The Splendid Sampler so far. I quite like Thursday's block. It went together nicely. I'm not quite sure of my fabric choices, but I did want to define the pieces. I didn't want to lose the design. In the end, I'm sure it will play nicely with the other 99 blocks!!

I'd better get started for my outing....but will share a picture of little Miss Minnie basking in front of the almost-done fireplace. I'm positive she thinks we installed it just for her....if it's running you can be sure she's stretched out in front of it!

I'll be linking up with Kathy's Quilts to see what others are stitching today.

Have a good one!

Day in My Life

Isn't Mother Nature funny! We had a bit of an ice storm last night and today is bright and sunny and not much wind. It seems to often be like that. 

I had to go out this morning and was a bit nervous of the roads.....there was some ice, but not too bad. On my way home it was totally fine. 

I thought I'd do a quick blogpost as I have an extra coffee for today in an attempt to stay awake. It was one of those mornings when you wake up at 3 and lay there for an hour before admitting that more sleep is just not going to happen!

I did get some nice applique done. I stitched down this little flower in my FlowerGarden quilt and I just had to take a picture. For some reason this little flower really pleases me! Funny, eh?

I am linking up with Quilty Folk for Audrey's monthly tally on our Quilty365...or as I'm calling mine, my Day in My Life.  

Here are 7 rows of 15 blocks....105 blocks! I have two more sewn and a few to catch up on. 

I'm very happy with the progress. I'm also very happy with the way the "scrappiness" is playing out since I'm doing this without any real plan to co-ordinate the blocks in any way. 

I once heard that if you make a scrap quilt out of your stash you are bound to love it since it is made up of all the fabrics that you originally bought for the very fact that you liked them! Makes sense to me!

I also want to share a blogpost by "Quilting is more fun than housework" which you can see HERE.

I've followed Cynthia for a short time, but I'm so surprised that I've never caught a glimpse of her Quilty365! I love it! I think if I had seen this in the beginning I definitely would have been "inspired" by Cynthia (meaning copied her, I suppose?). 

Well, off to enjoy my coffee and call my applique mentor. Always good conversation with her. The only problem is is that out of these recent conversations comes a niggling feeling that we will be starting a new applique project. Oh brother, what is wrong with this picture????

Have a lovely day!