2026 - Little Cars - Quilt 03

Another quilt finished 2026-03.

The topper was donated to Project Linus and I picked it up at the May Sewing Day.

I decided to just back it with fleece to turn it around in good time.

The red fabric is little cards with faces. The other squares are lime green and purple blocks.  Works really well.

I got some red fleece and cut it roughly to size and pinned it with my quilting pins.  I put red thread in top and bottom and sewed around each red car square 1/4" from the edge.  That meant no crossing of stitches which worked out really well.

I then squared up the topper and trimmed the red fleece to 1.5 inches from the edge of the topper.  I ironed down the folded over edge to the back.

I used purple thread top and bottom to sew down the binding.  I used the curvy stitch on my machine and sewed from the front with the edge on the 1" mark. That brought the stitching right along the edge of the binding on the back.  This blanket will be delivered back to Project Linus this week.  It measures 39" W x 54" L which puts in the Toddler/Child size and with the little cars that works really well.

2026 - Quilt 02

My second quilt of 2026 is done - Musical - Orange Strips Quilt.  

Accents - I chose to make the columns random so there was little chance of my seams looking misaligned.  I chose an orange cotton poly blend and added random strips which were appliques to the 11" fabric squares.  I then added gold sash pieces in different heights and placements to ensure that my columns in the end where the same length. 

Quilting - This was done randomly based on the shapes that were in each column.  The thread is a gold color.

Batting - The batting is a flannel sheet. 

Binding - I was advised to make the binding orange and I am glad I listened.  It did mean changing my mind about the self binding I was going to make with the gold backer.  Cut to 3" folded in half, sewed to the front and fold over to the back. Stitched right next to the binding from the front to catch the fold over on the back. I followed this video for the installation of the binding and will likely continue this process. 

Measurements: 40.75"W x 65" T

It took time over 4 days to get it done. It will be donated to Project Linus.

Note: I made my seam attaching the bind generous because of the width of the binding but in the end I had to trim the quilt edge to have the binding fold over nicely. Not sure what happened there.

It is hanging on the the dowel I set up above the trim on the closet doors in the craft room. You can see more details on it here.

Sylvia's Simple Shots

I finally found American White Pelicans at Beaumaris Lake.  There were at least a dozen in a couple of groups. 

They were getting along with the Canada Geese which there were somewhere around 50 of them on the water.  Thanks goodness it is a big pond.

I enjoyed an evening walk instead of my usual early morning walk. I walked from 8 to 9 pm.  It was a very nice temperature so there were loads of people on the path.

This shot was great because the reflection of the main pelican is good and you can see the reflection of the one next to him and the orange tip of its bill. The light is really good.  

The field blueberries were on sale this week.  My sister and I have been on the look out. She had often found them in her neck of the woods but with a call the regular supplier no they did not get any this year.

She called to say that one of the large supermarkets had them on sale.  I had my supper and headed out in hopes that there was supply on the shelf.  There was!

I bought enough to put 5 regular bags in the freezer and eat some fresh for a few days.

Thanks sister!

I am working on a bit of an update on the living room.

Now that I have another chair added to the mix I thought the rocking chair at minimum needed a wash and the buttons replaced.

I purchased the chair second hand back in 2016.  I had washed the covers then and as you can see it is white.

I gave it the covers a good scrub and a bit of bleach on the stains and it turned out really well.

I search my stash for buttons and choose these shell button which have a grey undertone.

It is nice to have that project done.

I am working of new cushions for the living room.  Trying to work in the ivory, deep moss green and the yellow chair colors along with the navy on the dining room table which sits in front of the balcony window.

A solution appeared!

I dropped the car at the dealership for its regular maintenance and I headed out to Fabricland to get thread and zippers for cushions I had planned.  I had purchased several different fabrics that I thought would work for the new green chair. Well, check out this upholstery fabric I found at the fabric store. It includes all the colors I would have wanted - grey, mustard, ivory, navy, warm green, and yellow in a heavier synthetic fabric. It will match all the chairs, include the navy, will last longer than cotton, and it was on sale for $5 a meter.  

I said YES!

 

I dropped off a bag of blankets to the rep for  Project Linus.  The blankets were made my 2 of my sisters.  I have not gotten back to making quilts as most of my fabric is still in storage and I believe will remain there for another while.

It was great to connect with this lady that I have been meeting for the last 5 years at least.

Project Linus provides blankets to people in emergency situations.  They are handed out by paramedics, police officers and fire fighters.  Those who need them get to keep them.

The book this week was T is for Trepass by Sue Grafton.  It was nice to have a visit with Kinsey Milhone again.  This story deals with a vulnerable senior who needs help after a fall.  There is no close family and a couple of the neighbours care but are not family. 

Someone is hired to provide care for Gus who lives next door to Kinsey and Henry Pitt.  He is known to be testy with the neighborhood kids and all around grumpy old man.  Solana Rojas was hired and Kinsey was asked as a private investigator to check out her references for the family.  Just the basics was requested.

Solana is a career criminal and has stolen an identity to get this work.  She is treating Gus very badly and has started liquidating his assets. She is restricting the neighbour's access to visit.  Kinsey is getting suspicious and eventually takes action to rescue Gus from his caregiver and saves his life.

I have to say having had ailing parents this story hit too close to home at the beginning of the story.  Generally, Kinsey deals with murders which is much removed from my world and is easier to accept in a fictional text.

My aunt invited me over to watch te movie, Avatar - The Way of Water.  We had stir fry for supper with blueberries and raspberries with yogurt for dessert. Yummy! A walk through her garden before we settled down for the movie. Only then did we discover it was over 3 hours long. It going to be a late drive home.

I watched the first movie (2009) - Avatar as soon as it came to theaters in my area. On a big screen with friends it was really great.

In this movie I found the war outweighed the family dynamics and values of the movie.  It is set up to have a third movie and I am not sure that I would watch the next one because it will be all out war.

It was a beautiful movie to watch!

Sylvia's Simple Shots

I spent several hours on Sunday taking pictures at the local lakes.  

These geese in flight was taken at Lois Hole Centennial Park.  My first time there this spring.  The water levels are decent but not a lot of ducks.

The black birds were in good numbers and the geese were making their presence known with much honking.

There were a few skirmishes among them and furious protection of nests.  Goslings should be around very soon.

It was a great morning with beautiful weather.

On Monday, I took a trip north to visit Mom and take her to medical appointments.  

I stayed overnight at my sister's place and we went Tuesday morning to final the details for Dad's funeral next week.   He passed away May 12th in his sleep as he had wished.

I stopped at the honey farmers and picked up a pail of honey.  I have purchased my honey from these folks for years.  We had a bit of a visit and caught up on life.  I guess the winter has been hard on the beehives and some have been lost to temperatures.  Very distressing for the farmers.

I use mostly only honey for sweetening.  In my tea always.

Another book finished this week.  The Winter Sea by Susanna Kearsley.  This is my third book by this author and I just loved it.

It is set in Scotland.  In the spring of 1708, an invading Jacobite fleet of French and Scottish soldiers nearly succeeded in landing the exiled James Stewart in Scotland to reclaim his crown.

Now, Carrie McClelland hopes to turn that story into her next bestselling novel. Settling herself in a small cottage in the shadow of Slains Castle, she creates a heroine named for one of her own ancestors Sophie and starts to write.

She seems to be very connected to Sophia. She writes then when researching discovered that what she has written is true.  How can that be?  Ancestral memory from Sophia maybe. 

The owner of the cottage she is renting has 2 sons who take an interest in the woman writer who moved into the cottage in winter.  One is a history professor in Aberdeen who visited his Dad most weekends.  These two connect over their common interest in the past.  This was a very good book and I would recommend it.

On Thursday, I dropped off another 10 blankets for Project Linus.  

These blankets were all made by my sister as I have not sewn a blanket since my health issues in 2020.  

Now with trying to sell my place I cannot have the place uprooted with a big project as it must be tidy most of the time.

I send these off with blessings to those who receive them in their time of need and distress.  May they be comforted by a warm blanket.

With a bit of rain the flowers have just opened up.

This was taken in my neighborhood.  They have a beautiful front lawn filled with red and yellow tulips.

It is a blessing to have such neighbors.

It is so uplifting to see flowers blooming, blue Alberta skies, and the temperatures rise.

We had a full day of rain yesterday which I am sure bring more green and spring flowers.

Have a great week.

Sylvia's Simple Shots

The weather has been so good!  My aunt and I took a long walk in the white spruce forest on Saturday.

In the center of woods people have set up bird feeders so when we could not yet see the clearing the chickadees and nuthatches were welcoming us.  Unfortunately, we did not have food with us but I did have a chickadee sit on my hand for few seconds. Amazing.  I have seen many pictures but had not experienced it.

Woodpeckers were around as well.

When we walked the river trail we found Canada Geese on Big Lake.  There was very little open water on the lake and the river was frozen but they had found the bit.  I really don't know why they are hanging in here.

It's been a couple of weeks since I dropped 13 quilts off for charity.  

These quilts are headed to fire departments and ambulances where victims of emergency situations are given a quilt to keep them warm and to provide comfort.  They get to keep the quilts.

They were all made by my sister as I have not sewn a quilts since I got since last fall.   I am glad to have passed those anniversary with no further issues and improvement in several areas of my health.  God is good.

I am so grateful for those who distribute these to organizations who made a difference every day as first responders.

We are decorating cotton bags as a fundraiser for the gallery.  I think it is a fabulous idea.

I picked mine up the other day and gave some thought how I might decorate it.

I decided to add 3 stripes of fabric wrapped around the top edge of the bag.  I chose 3 different colors of green fabric.  The strips were cut to about 35 inches long by 2.5 inches wide.  I sewed and turned it inside out.  Then I started on the left hand side and ran it across the front, then across the back then back to the front again.  I left a tab on the front which was not sewn down.  I sewed an orange button on the end of the tab to hold it down and add an accent.  As you can see in the first photo I staggered the ends so the buttons where offset.

Despite not blogging I have continued to read.  

I finished this book a while ago. Between You and Me by Susan Wiggs.  It takes place in an Amish community.  I found it interesting to learn more about the life style and beliefs.

Caught between two worlds, Caleb Stoltz is bound by a deathbed promise to raise his orphaned niece and nephew in Middle Grove, where life revolves around family, farm, faith—and long-held suspicions about outsiders. When disaster strikes, Caleb is thrust into an urban environment of high-tech medicine and the relentless rush of modern life.

Dr. Reese Powell is poised to join the medical dynasty of her wealthy, successful parents. Bold, assertive, and quick-thinking, she lives for the addictive rush of saving lives. When a shocking accident brings...   I really enjoyed this book.  I look forward to another book by this author I picked up the other day.

This is my first of Sue Grafton's books featuring Kinsey Millhone the detective.  W is for Wasted.  Not sure I get the title.

Private investigator Kinsey Millhone finds shocking connections between two seemingly unrelated deaths in this #1 New York Times bestselling mystery in the Alphabet series.

This was okay.  The detective seems to have a moral compass and leans toward doing the right thing.  Love life is a bit come and go.

The twist was very good.

I have another novel in this series.  I will decide if another story with Kinsey will add her to my reading list.

Another card for my Dad who is still in hospital   We were all called down on Sunday October 31 thinking he would not survive the next few days.

There were many of us seeing Dad, feeding him his meals, spending the night with him in hospital, helping Mom with anything she needed.  He pulled through the crisis but has a long ways to go.

A move for each of them is in their future so the cleaning process has started.  We went through that when they moved from the house to the apartment and now downsizing needs to happen again.

I was there for 3 days and spent most of my time with Mom.  She is doing well despite the circumstances.  She sees Dad every day for lunch.

We shall see what the future holds. He will celebrate his 92 birthday in early December, God willing.

Recent Photos

I went for a walk with my aunt on the weekend and finally got a good photo of the Bohemian Waxwing.  I did not recognize their song but she did as she gets great shot regularly in her neighbourhood.

They were in very tall trees and and the coloring was so close to their feather they were very hard to spot.

I just love their vibrant coloring especially their bring yellow tail.  I can see the light in its eye which was great to capture!


Macro Monday on Flickr this week was Sweet or Savory.

Here I have photographed white sugar with my antique silver sugar spoon.

You can check out my photostream and my final selection.

A visit from my sister and brother in law recently saw the return of my TV tables.  He created a small stand for the tables from the wood of the larger table that used to hold them.  I did not need the table and needed the room it was taking so he offered to re engineer the set.

I am so happy with this smaller foot print!  I will have to declutter some more to make the perfect place for them but it is coming along.

Gaining on the keeping the place tidy!

My small quilt box was overflowing!   I delivered these quilts to the rep for Project Linus yesterday!  Now I have room for more quilting.  I also delivered 3 made by my sister. Red and Blue, Animal Baby Quilt, Baby Boy Quilt

She has been quilting a lot this winter as well.

I will likely not be quilting this summer and focus on photography!  I soon will have to trim down my volunteering so I can feel I have a little more free time.

I made a Memory Book for my Mom from the photos I took at our Reunion this summer.  This was a Christmas gift.

I delivered it to her on the Family Day weekend.

Sharing on Mosaic Monday #68 hosted by Angie at Letting Go of the Bay Leaf.

Through my Lens #229 hosted by Mersad.

Blog Give Away

I am working on a photography show in 2021. 

There are several options regarding subject matter.  Nature Minimalist, Golden Hour, Black and White, Abstract, Reflections.

I am interested in what my followers' opinions would be. Follow the link above and leave a comment with your choice and what you think about the style.


Thanks so much.

Sewing Project - Quilt 6 - Green Squares in Tan

I have completed another quilt for donation.  This project morphed from the original materials I had selected.  I chose black for the sashing but decided the fabrics were too dark to have dark sashing. 

Finished Size: 42.50" x 55.25"

Front: Green patterned fabric cut into 10" squares

Backing: Hunter Green Flannelette

Batting: Cotton Sheet



Sashing: Caramel dual texture fabric cut 4 inches wide

Binding: Caramel dual texture fabric cut to 2 5/8 inches wide  You can check out the Fool Proof Quilt Binding video for details.

Thread: Dark Green cotton thread  

Binding stitching: Stitch in the ditch.  I pinned very closely and had perfect capture of the folded edge on the back. Excellent.

Quilting: One quarter inch around each square on the square with green thread keeps the caramel intact and matched well with the green back. I remembered to add the next row of sashing before quilting so I have a good edge to follow.  A quarter inch foot helps a lot! Great investment.


The thread spool was taller than my regular spools and was dancing around on my spindle.  I added a straw on the spindle that fit into the hole of the spool. Perfect solution.

Lessons Learned: 
Measure twice cut once - on the rows of sashing I cut them 42 inches after doing some math (not my strongest skill) thinking that would give me extra but the row of squares was 43" wide when it came to quilting.  I did have enough fabric to re-cut the 5 rows of sashing to 45" to leave me some extra.

It worked out in the end because the too short sashing was turned into the binding.  I did have to add about a foot to have enough.  I was going to use black for binding but since I had what I needed I went ahead with the caramel.

It is getting easier as I improve with each one.

Made several green scraps disappear as well!

Sewing Project - Quilt 2 - Blue Green Squares

I finished another quilt today in time to share with the ladies at Quilting tonight.

This is another inheritance from the lady that passed away.  There was a stash of fabric and our leader took all the pieces home and cut 5" squares.  She packaged these together and we were each given a set of 40 squares at our Christmas social get together on Dec 9th.

I worked a lot on trying combine the patterns and eventually just reassembled them into larger squares.  I needed 48 5" squares so I dug into my stash to find what I needed.  Worked out pretty well.

Final Size: 41.50W x 54.00T inches

Colors: Blue, Green and Navy

Squares: 9.5 inches

Backing: A small print green patterned fabric in 100% cotton. 

Sashing: 4" strips of Navy in between the printed squares and rows between the patterned squares.

 Technique: QAYG Mom Style


I pinned my flannelette batting and my green backing together then using QAYG sewed the rows across.  I laid the navy top strip first then added the first wide patterned row and sewed that down and ironed it.  I then added the next narrow navy strip before quilting the first patterned row which gave me a line for my quilting of the patterned squares.


Binding: Navy at 2.5 inches.  Sewn to the back, folded to the front and finished from the back to make sure I did  not get navy thread on the green backing fabric.  I used a wide zig zag stitch to make sure I caught the fold over on the front.

Quilting: I just outlined the printed squares at a .25 inch.

Lessons learned:
Sewing down the navy strip below the patterned row helped me align my quilting on the patterned squares easily.
I used white thread to assemble the quilt and then switched to navy when I got to the binding.

It will make a great quilt for a boy!

Sewing Project - Quilt 1 - Red, White & Ivory

I have started quilting again following the holidays.  

I inherited this quilt top, backer and binding fabric following the death of a member of our quilting group.  I received the material in October about a year after her death.  She volunteered with Grandmothers in Alberta for a New Generation who organizes "Fabric Frenzy" every year in the spring.  This is a fundraiser for grandmothers raising grandchildren in Africa due to the HIV epidemic. 

The finished quilt measures 48.5 inches wide and 56.5 inches tall.

The topper is designed with 4 inch squares.  There are two different 4 patch squares with red ones and ivory ones with patterned deep red squares.  The fabric is 100% cotton.

The backer fabric is created by Marcus Fabrics - American Pastimes by the New England Quilt Museum.


The same fabric was used for the binding.

The batting on the inside is a heavy flannel fabric.

I cut the backer fabric and the flannel with extra to allow space to trim it once the quilting was done.

I then pinned the 3 layers together and quilting it by sewing on the diagonal on the single deep red squares.  I only had very small pins but it seemed to do the trick.


















I normally do Quilt as you Go which works better with my space and sewing machine.   It was a bit of challenge to do the quilting with my machine and small table but perseverance provides success in the end.

This quilt will be donated to the children who find themselves in crisis.

I was honored to be asked to complete this project for our friend.   She enjoyed quilting and working with the group of women who work all year long to organize this popular fundraiser.

Of course, working with fabric was right up alley and many members of our group support the fundraiser which add to our fabric stash.

The fundraiser separates the quilting fabric from the other types of fabrics like fleece, upholstery, knits, etc.  That is very convenient for us quilters.

I will bring it to quilting before it is donated so the girls can see the finished quilt.

Sewing Project - Quilt 6 - Yellow, White and Navy

I finished another quilt yesterday.  I am using those Crushed Curry floral squares again. You can see the first quilt where I used them.  That was a great deal on fabric.  I have enough for another quilt.

Final Size: 40.50W x 54.00T inches

Technique: QAYG Mom Style

Colors: Yellow, Embossed White and Navy

Squares: 9.5 inches

I decided to quilt as you go the columns this time.  A process my Mom shared with me. It will be more efficient in time and involves not cutting the backing and batting into small pieces.  The columns were sewn together with a pair of squares in matching colors as shown on the left. The backing was left in one large piece and I starting quilt on the left hand side.  On the first column you have a roll of backing and batting in the throat of your machine but as you move right the bulk ends up to the left of the needle.  The first seam was the first column and the navy strip then I ironed the strip over and added the 2nd column.  Stitched again and iron that one over to the right. Left to right goes like this: Column 1, Navy strip, Column 2, Column 3, Navy strip, Column 4

Quilting: Diagonal across the 9.5 inch squares in a pattern which makes these large diamond shapes in the center panel.

Binding: Navy at 2.5 inches.  Sewn to the front, folded to the back and finished from the front to catch the fold over on the back.  Makes a really nice finish on the front.

I decided to leave the striped flannel as the backing to provide a warm and soft layer.

I paired the yellow floral squares with white embossed fabric which adds to the quilt but not another color. Coordinates with the pattern in the yellow squares.

I was limited in the amount of flannel I had so I made it 6 squares tall and 4 squares wide.  I wanted to increase the width so I added 2 navy stripes which helped to bring the navy I was going to use for the binding.

Lessons Learned:

• This process is definitely faster in putting the quilt together.  
• I have decided to use a neutral thread on the inside seams. I am getting some cones of thread from a lady at quilt group.  Grey, Black and White.  That will help a lot. Thread is expensive.
• Adding another row of squares helped with the symmetry in the design of this quilt.

Sewing Project - Quilt 5 - True Blue & Floral

I completed another quilt today.  When I go to quilting on Mondays and cut squares then I want to get the rest finished.  I can't really keep up this pace.  We will have a 3 week break coming up.

Final Size: 40" Wide x 49" Tall.

Fabric:
Cotton fabric which I bought at the Grandma Africa sale last year.  The True Blue solid worked really well with the cool floral.   I had 1/2 yard of each.  I had to piece 4 squares to get the 10 of each I needed. The back and sashing areTaupe 100% cotton.

Squares:
I cut 10" squares for this one to make it a bit bigger.

Quilting: I sewed the front of each column adding the taupe sashing in the right places.   More about that a little later.  I then placed it on the batting and backer and quilted each square on the diagonal corner to corner.  Once quilted, I cut the other layers to the size of the front.

I almost got all the sashing right but forgot one on column three and only discovered it then I was starting to put the columns together so I had to do some ripping out.  I added the sash between the squares where it belong but now my batting and back were short.  I had to add a strip to both.
I also put one column on backwards and had to rip it out and put it right. There were some distractions going on so my concentration was broken. 

Binding:  I cut binding 2.5 inches wide and 190 inches long from the taupe solid. This time I sewed it to the back and pull it forward and top stiched on the front.  Not sure I would do that again.  Check out the tutorial here.

Column Assembly: I used the Quilt As You Go method to assemble the 4 columns together.  You can check the tutorial here.

My take away from this quilt: 

• Love the colors!
• Quilting in columns takes less time and make the quilt softer
• I used a straight stitch for the tacking down of the sashing instead of the zigzag which was OK
• The quilting pattern did leave long areas with no quilting so maybe not the best.
• Quilting and sashing when things have to be in a particular order is challenging.  I did mix up the columns.  It looks good but not as I had planned.
• Binding should be sewed to the front and brought to the back.

Sewing Project - Quilt 4 - Fish Strips

I have finished another quilt.  I wanted to try a QAYG strip quilt which has less stitching as there is no top stitching in this one.

This one is larger coming in at 41 inches wide and 67 inches tall.

I used a piece of fish fabric cotton as the pattern in this quilt.  I added solids in yellow, brown and black fabric. I cut 4", 3.5" and 2.5" strips.

The back is a really soft fabric but I don't know the fiber content. It seemed a shame to cut it into squares so it was a strip quilt.

I added a layer of cotton polyester white fabric as the "batting" in this quilt. I started by pinning the batting to the wrong side of the back.

I started in the center and continued to add strips then iron them over and continued the process till I got to the one edge.  I then switched and went in the other direction from the center.  It is just a series of 14 very long seams. Once the strips were in place I then squared the quilt with my rulers.  I stitched all the way around about 1/8 in from the edge.

The bulk of the quilt was a challenge for the small throat of my sewing machine.  I rolled the quilt to get it through the throat and the length created a large pile behind the machine.

This will make a nice quilt for a boy.

My niece gave me this great piece of fabric from a stash she had been given.  Thanks so much.

This quilt took less time than my regular quilts made with 9.5 inch squares.  I chose grey thread so it would blend with the back.  I added a 2.5 inch binding in black fabric sewed with black thread.
You can check binding tips here.