Review of February Focus and Goals

Saturday I spent the day at a friend's sewing half square triangles together into blocks and then into pairs.  At home I sat down and ironed the pairs to prep the 26 star centres and corner blocks and went OPPS!  I had forgotten I made the half square triangles oversized so I could trim them down.  By the time I realized this error I realized I needed daylight to trim them and put them away for the evening.

 I did get them all trimmed and paired up to be resewed on Monday.

 Yesterday I got the information for the next month of sewing for March.  We will add flower circles with centres for the 26 stems and add a bias edge to the circle.

 I got my first cotton and wool pieces down for my House Party Revival window 1 I'm about halfway down window two.  My plan is to do all the wool and cotton applique and then have fun with the embellishing stitches.

 Yesterday we had an unexpected snowfall.  This was my place about ten o'clock.

 It did come down heavier for awhile before stopping.

 And by one o'clock it was all gone.  Farther east they got quite a lot.  My cousin is in Palm Desert and says the desert is greener than she has ever seen it before.  She also mentioned that Chicago has set a record for snow free days this winter!  We have an aunt who lives there.

 Other February unexpected goals were designing and finishing my challenge quilt in four days.  No prizes but I was told it was Lorna's husband's favourite.  Prize enough for me.  There was a tie for second and third prize and my friend Mary was one of the tied people.

 Got the borders on my Valentine's quilt.

 Friday I went for a walk and found these crocuses and snowdrops outside the condo door.

 Witch hazel is in full display but the yellow one has almost none on display.

 This Hellebore reminded me of a dogwood bloom.

 And a pink version.

 Love the dark contrast on this yellow crocus.

 These were more of a daffodil yellow.

 The early rhododendron is out in bloom already.

 One of the crows needed a closer read of the information signs along the boardwalk.

 Love these purple crocuses that look so delicate.

 This year is Canada's 150th anniversary of Confederation on July 1st and all National Parks are free for entry.  I decided to get one of the passes.

 Time to write down my finishes and maybe get a couple of February goals that I missed started on.  I didn't get my Mika or Sunflower Gathering backgrounds stitched so maybe that will be my final February Focus goals for today.  Then to list the March ones.

February Staying Focused!

I forgot to share the the finished stitching on my English Paper Pieced Applique block for my Happy Days quilt but got it done well before the halfway point of the month.  I did get one more prepped to sew this month a rather detailed Hawaiian Applique block that I forgot to take a picture of but will share that soon.

 Earlier in January I got these fun zippers from A Threaded Needle to make up a planned project.  As a bonus I was gifted the two pieces of ribbon.

 I also ordered some variegated Sashiko and solid colour threads.  They came in the sweet raindrop and ice cream bag.

 But these Handbag zipper from Fabric Depot was my favourite zipper purchase for a new Bionic Mother Lode Bag.  The pattern is still being finalized but I'm slowly gathering the tools for making it.

 I added another BOM to do with my friend Rita.  This is All Around the Town by Susan Garman who recently passed away.

 I've prepped the templates for two blocks and they will be worked on this month.

 This one will be for March.

 I have one short term project that I started last nice with these challenge fabrics.  I got the bones done and hope to get some quilting started before adding another layer.  I forgot they changed the deadline and thought I had missed it and now want to submit it.  More later once I have it finished.

I've got my Mika, Sunflower Gathering blocks to start working on when I get back home today.  Off to have my eyes checked and then to the Dentist.  Hope you manage to Stay Focused in February.

Prepping and Staying Focused.

I've not touched my Sarah Fiekle Happy Days Quilt for some time and signed up for her new Down The Rabbit Hole on which starts at the end of this month.  So I prepped some of the pieces for one of the last applique blocks to take to my sit and stitch with friends today.  The flower petals are English Paper Pieced Hexagons with a curved outer petal.  The leaves are a half hexagon piece.

 I also neglected my 366 Circle project in July and have decided to work backwards from December and prepped some snowflake, star and Christmas themed circles that I used on my Santa and Tree project.

 I also prepped a couple from the Row by Row home fabric and a couple of October Halloween, autumn themed ones to also applique.

 I prepped the flowers and leaves for my next Mika block which is 16" square.

 Here are some of the fabrics for the background cut so I can start at the beginning of February.

 Last Friday I went for a walk to see the ice in the Fraser River.  We were expecting rain to arrive on the weekend.  One of the pieces got caught up on a dead head in the river.  When the tide is in you don't see the roots and it will float off.

 We've two Witch Hazel trees one orange and on yellow.  The yellow is about to burst forth with it's spidery leaves.  I saw someone on Instagram share a photo of one on the North Shore already out.  It's been cold along the river and ours are late.  The yellow variety is always later than the orange one.

 Another view of the ice on the tree root and more ice across the river.

 A look towards the mountains, it was very damp and chilly along the river.

 The last remnants of the snow are now long gone as we've had about three or four days of rain.  Some major flooded intersections and large puddles. Today is sunny right now so time to go and get ready to stitch.

Hope your weather is pleasant where your are, I know a lot of snow and ice along with big melts are happening all over.  We are back above our typical temperatures and yesterday only had a one degree Celsius fluctuation in our day.

Staying Focused!

I'm happy to say that so far I'm on track with my goal of Stay Focused!  At the beginning of the month I cut out the fabrics for Block Three of Sunflower Gathering; along with the alternate block and started sewing the background for the wool applique.

  I'm waiting until I have a few more of the four patch colour combinations sewn before I start sewing the alternate blocks together so I have a good mix of different four patches to chose from.

Here is the wool block background.

Here are most of the wool pieces cut for sewing, the red will be 52 little flowerettes so I'm waiting until I'm ready to attach them before cutting out.  The larger green left over will become some of the stems for the Sunflowers.

 I prefer not to fuse my blocks but had decided to try it with this projects.  As it has been sitting for a couple of years it did not fuse well so I have decided to pin and then fuse after sewing.  I don't like how stiff the fusing makes the pieces and I also did the window technique so just the edges are fused and not the body of the piece.

 Yes those threads at the top and side are extending off the block as they will have the red flowerettes on the next blocks.

 I also prepped the freebie block.  The colours are truer in this first photo without the flash.

 Stitched down and French Knots around the centre.

 Here is block one, the leaves will extend to the next block.

 Here is block two it also will have some pink flowers and vine onto the adjacent blocks.

 I also prepped the fans and pinwheel block three for Mika.

 Here are the finished pinwheels which will be sewn into a row.

 And the fans will be trimmed down and sewn into another row.

 I started prepping the next Mika block which will be a 16" one and will prep the next Sunflower Gathering block today.  But I've decided to work on something else until February that is on my UFO list.  Will have to see what I chose, I'm not yet sure myself! \

 I took this picture on Wednesday with my iPad of the snow on the mountains and the Native Paddle wheeler that still goes up and down the river.  There is more ice floating down the river but things are expected to warm up by the weekend.

Are you Staying Focused?