I want to take the opportunity to wish all who celebrate a very happy Resurrection Sunday. 

I wrote last week that I hoped to have the Bear for the Year in the Woods project finished by today. I made that goal with just hours to spare. I finished it last evening and then got a start on gridding the next section for the chipmunk. It is 10 grids across by 14 down. It is time consuming to do, but I have caught so many mistakes by having the grids there that is is more than worth the time and effort to do it.I should be able to finish the gridding today and get a start on this next cute little beastie. I’ll link up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching.

 Last summer we issued a challenge to our Prayers and Squares group members to make a block for a sampler. We gave each member a piece of the same material and then challenged them to choose a block that started with the initial of their first name from the Quilters Cache website. Any size was acceptable. We’ve had the blocks for quite a while now, but the challenge was in putting it together. Marg has been working on that off and on for a few months now. She finally finished the quilting on it yesterday. It is fun and bright and happy and unique. It is getting a dark blue binding. Janet has been working on the quilting on this panel quilt. Here at home I found a bag of triangles that were originally cut using my Go cutter for a quilt I did years ago called Northern Tree Line. There were enough of the triangles left to do a small version of that quilt. It is now finished and layered and waiting for quilting. I’ll link up to finished, or not, Friday.

 My Bear for the Year in the Woods is almost finished. Depending on the amount of time I spend in the evenings over the next week, it might just get finished. Then I can start gridding the next section and start on the Chipmunk. It is so much fun seeing these animals come to life stitch by slow stitch. I’ll link up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching

 Our prayers and stares group met yesterday, as usual and we got lots done, but most of it was not stages that lent themselves to pictures. However, Pat finished off 2 beautiful quilts that are now in the needing backings and layering stage. This one was made from a kit that we cut and assembled lat spring. We sometimes get together and choose patterns and fabrics and then cut them up into kits that our members can pull from the cupboard and work on. I suspect we need to schedule another cutting day soon. And this one was from fabrics that Pat herself had at home and put together for us. She wishes it to be used for our fundraising this summer. The colours in it are gorgeous!

I’ll link up to finished, or not, Friday

 We finished this quilt yesterday, the day before the finish parade. It got its binding on yesterday and its final picture yesterday as well. The sixth and last prompt for this was “quilters choice” which was a great choice. I had hoped that the final prompt would allow me to add a couple of plain borders for the finish, so that is what I did. It pulled it all together very nicely. I did a simple cross hatch quilting design up to the centre block. But because the centre was a bit off sized compared to the rest, I couldn’t continue the cross hatching without risking a lot of pleats and puckers. So I did a very simple large free motion stipple in the centre. It got finished with a diagonal striped binding. This is such a fun way to spend the long winter days. I’ll link up to the finish parade here

 My slow stitching focus continues to be the Bear for the Year in the Woods. I think I’m probably in the range of 60 percent finished with it. I started in on doing more of the bull rushes on the left hand side just to get a bit of a break from all the brown fur. I’ll link up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching

 We had lots of finishes yesterday. Marg was the binding queen and managed to get 4 quilts bound. Obviously, we do them entirely by machine. Janet also bound one yesterday, for a total of 5 finishes in one afternoon. Yay us!!! I think I’ve posted pictures of these quilts before, but this is them in their finished glory. I also remembered to get a picture of the garden themed quilt that Tammy has been working on. It is so pretty that we are seriously considering adding this to our fundraising this summer. And here at home I was working on going through our stash of green fabrics and sewed up a bunch of exclamation mark blocks. I laid them out yesterday and started sewing the first batch of them together. There are enough to make 2 quilts. They are going to get white one inch finished sashing in between the rows and a white narrow border and a wider green border to finish them.

I’ll link up to finished, or not, Friday

 About a year ago I joined a bi-monthly fabric club that gave a selection of Kona solids. I can’t remember exactly how many were in each bundle, at least 12 perhaps even 15. Anyhow, I decided then that I wanted to do a Judy Martin pattern out of her book Stellar Quilts called Card Shuffle. It’s a variation of the Card Trick block using star points in the blocks. I started this quilt a year ago, after receiving the first fat quarter bundle. I picked up the last bundle a week or so ago. I’d had to put the quilt on hold until I was able to get this bundle, and pick up a few additional colours to give a greater variety. Here’s where it was the last time I worked on it, back in November. Since then, I’ve gotten all the star sections made and have started adding more rows. After I finish that bottom corner there are still some borders to add. Then I can think about getting a backing for it and what I am going to do for quilting. I’ll likely do some very simple straight lines following the piecing. I want the stars and the colours to stand out rather than the quilting.

I’ll link up to Wednesday Wait Loss

 I’ve finished the bottom third of the Bear for The Year in the Woods series and have now moved to working on the middle section. I find it easier to keep track of where I am when I break it down into these sections. And somehow the amount left to stitch doesn’t feel as overwhelming when I can’t see the whole thing. I’ll link up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching and then go find something to do, likely quilt related, to take my mind off the amount of snow that continues to come down. I am so past ready for winter to be done! Unfortunately, here in Muskoka, it often lasts well into April. We aren’t reliably frost free until the beginning of June....... sigh......

 I’ve been absent from the blogging world for a couple of weeks. I had a case of the crud with a nasty sore throat and just as nasty cough. But all is well now and I can get back to doing things I enjoy rather than vegetating in my recliner. I have gotten lots done on my next animal in The Year in the Woods series, the Bear. This one is a bit different than the others. The texturing is curves rather than the straighter lines on the rest that I’ve done, but I like it just as much. And I just discovered by looking at the picture of the finished piece along side what I’ve done that one of my colours is wrong. So there is some ripping to do on the bottom of one of the feet. It should be a light tan not a dark brown. As Winnie the Pooh would say, “Oh bother!” I must have labeled the floss bobbin wrong.

I’ll link up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching.

 Last Wednesday’s prompt was “two colours to make anything you like”. That one didn’t take much thinking at all. I wanted something simple and also something in scale with what I’ve already done. That led me to the Simple Blocks library in Electric Quilt 8 where I chose Diagonal Strips to be done in 4 inch finished blocks, the same as the previous borders. I am running low on the colours I picked for this project. Ideally the blocks would have been aqua and orange, but I’m out of the orange, so I did aqua and yellow instead, alternating with aqua and white. It now measures 44 x 60 which is very close to the size I’m aiming for. Depending on what the next prompt is on Wednesday, I may declare this done by adding a couple of plain borders to it. I’ll link up with the rest of the round robin participants here.

 My goal from last week was to finish the stitching on the Ferret from The Year in the Woods and to start o the next set of three critters. I am happy to say that I met that goal. The ferret is finished. And the first section for the next set of three is gridded off and the Bear started. I haven’t much else to share at the moment, so I’ll link up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching and return to my stitching.

 One of our Prayers and Squares members knows of 3 children who lost their mother to a drug overdose and who would benefit from prayer quilts. She picked up fabric for them and between us we have been working on very personalized quilts for them. One of the children stated that his favourite animal is a winter fox. So Sharon drew up a fox and appliqued it to a lovely background. Another of the children said that she loves plants and her favourite colour is a light green. So we’ve done a light green with leaves for her. This one is now almost finished. It will get top and bottom borders next week to bring it up to a better length. The last one is greys and blues, also a specific request from the third of the children. All three will get layered next week. Tammy finished another block for the garden themed sampler. Marg is working on a medallion style sampler. And Barbara finished the charm quilt she’s been working on. I’ve been working on a couple of projects here at home, but none have pictures. Perhaps by next week. I’ll link up to finished, or not, Friday

 The fourth prompt for this year’s round robin came out last Wednesday, to add curves of some sort to our quilts. They could be in any form we chose, curved piecing, applique, vines, circles, anything that we chose. As usual, I had great and grand ideas of what I wanted to do, but none of them quite worked. I played around with adding Dresden Fans, colourful wheels, drunkard path blocks and they all just sat there saying “meh”, totally underwhelming in the way they looked. But then inspiration hit, facilitated through a video call with my friend Gail, who had a split Drunkard’s Path block up on her design wall in the background of our video call.  Back to Electric Quilt 8 I went and drew up a version of that split block. I really liked it. But then I had to figure out how to do it. I only have one set of templates for a Drunkard’s Path block, and it finishes to 7 inches, much too big. I settled on cutting background squares at 10 inches and circles the size of a sandwich plate which were then appliquéd down using a zig zag stitch on my sewing machine. I then cut them into eight sections and sewed them together, resulting in a 4 inch finished block. A perfect fit for the rest of the quilt.. The original thought was to have These blocks going all the way across. But I quickly changes my mind when I realized that I’d have to make more of them and then have leftovers. So I pulled the previously used quarter square triangle idea out into this border to finish it off. I really like it. The quilt now measures 44x52 inches. I’m looking forward to this Wednesday and the next prompt. I’ll link up to this week’s party here.

 I’m continuing to make great progress on the Ferret from The Year in the Woods. I’m thinking maybe this week will finish it. I hope so because my supplies for the next set arrived on Friday and I’m itching to get started on it. But I am trying very hard not to leave another cross stitch project as a UFO. I have 3 or 4 of those and don’t want to add any more to that list. I really need to dig out my framing tools and get the first set of these into their frame. It is here, along with the foam core board. All I need to do is find my 3/8 inch pins that I use along the edge of the foam core before lacing it. It’s been sitting waiting in my cupboard since about this time last year. I will be watching the pairs figure skating later this afternoon, so I will put more stitches into this in between the skating. I’ll link up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching.

 We’ve had a couple of really busy weeks at our Prayers and Squares group. I didn’t do a post about it last week though because there wasn’t anything to show that was new. We spent almost the entire afternoon making backs and layering 5 quilts and making the back for a 6th that didn’t get layered due to running out of time. Yesterday, however was much better for doing stuff that needed pictures. Also, I’ve been busy here at home. Janet finished this beautiful top. She picked all the fabrics based on the colours found in the beautiful large scale floral. I’m sure someone will be very glad to receive this one. Tammy is continuing to work on the garden themed sampler. She is doing such a great job for a “beginning” quilter. Here at home I finished the Boston commons quilt I started about 6 weeks ago. It is  one that was layered last week and is now back here waiting its turn to be quilted. And then, after that one was finished I started a very fast one using 2 1/2 inch sets of four that were done leader/ender style and adding solid colours to them. Susan put the binding on it and it is already going to someone in need of comfort and prayer.

I’ll link up to finished, or not, Friday

 This week’s prompt asks us to use a block or blocks inspired by the animal kingdom. It could be applique or pieced. 

• A block or unit named after an animal: Bear Paw, Monkey Wrench, Snail's Trail, Birds in the Air, Shoo Fly, Puss in the Corner...there are so many!  Looking for something simple?  There's always that classic quilt unit, Flying Geese.
• Applique of an animal
• Pieced block that looks like an animal
• Fabric that contains animals

There are so many blocks named after animals that it is hard to choose. So, I went searching through my EQ8 libraries for some ideas. I finally narrowed it down to a choice between two, the choices being determined by the size. I didn’t want a large block or blocks, since I don’t want this quilt to end up larger than a lap quilt. I was wavering between a design called Migrating Geese which I planned on putting at the bottom and top to turn the quilt into a rectangle, or a block that I found in EQ called flying goose. I finally decided on the flying goose, using a 4 inch finished block. It looks like a variant of the Birds in the Air. My quilt is now 44 inches square. I was able to bring the black fabric from the centre of the quilt out into the edges and used a large scale blue and orange floral The orange in the middle now feels like it fits with the rest of it. I’ll link up to this weeks party here

 Progress continues on the Ferret for The Year in the Woods. I’ve almost finished the bottom half of the chart. He looks rather odd without his head.I’m planning on watching/listening to some of the olympics this evening while I stitch and give the poor critter his head. I’ll link up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching

 I met my goal of finishing the Raccoon for the Year in the Woods last week. I actually finished it last Sunday evening. And then I immediately started on the next animal which is the Ferret. Here’s a picture of the three of them side by side. And of course, I also ordered the supplies I need for the next set of 3. They are coming from 123 Stitch in the States, so it will likely be another week or 2 before they get here. I ordinarily like to order from Canadian suppliers, but the price of $4.95 shipping was impossible to pass up. Plus their selection of different counts and different colours of linen can’t be matched.

I’ll link up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching