Gratitude and Glimmers #106

"Perfect happiness is a beautiful sunset, the giggle of a grandchild, the first snowfall. It's the little things that make happy moments, not the grand events. Joy comes in sips, not gulps."

                                                                            - Sharon Draper

Welcome to my post of glimmers (of joy and wonder) and gratitude for the month of March. You can find links to more posts like this one at LeeAnna's blog, Not Afraid of Color.

1. This is the absolute BEST. I couldn't' stop grinning the entire two videos. Watch both, one comes on after the other) and I am still grinning as I type this! Click to watch Huxley the rescued raven imitate his rescuer's sneeze and say his name.

Project Quilting 17.2 Scads of Plaid

I wanted to make the Plaid-ish quilt by Erica Jackman Kitchen Table Quilting for a very long time. So when I saw Trish's prompt for this week’s PQ challenge at Kim Lapacek, I knew right away that’s what I was going to do. And I think I accomplished it, though with not as much success as I had hoped, yet I'm reminding myself it is Plaid-ish, much like Erica’s original which also uses mostly prints with a fair amount of tone-on-tone ones, though brighter. The most successful part of this was that: A. I got a finished comfort quilt and B. I used up a ton of 5" squares, several 4" squares, along with strips and various other scraps.

I missed the sunshine we had for three quarters of the day, so we have a blueish tinge to photos.

SAHRR #2 - Aquamarine

The name of this quilt just popped into my head when I was writing down details in my longarm notebook. Upon checking that I did indeed have the colour link correct, I learned that the colours of this gem vary from lighter blue to deeper blue-green, but they all evoke the colours of the sea and sky, which is right up my alley or should I say beach! It's the birthstone for March, and the gemstone brings calmness, clarity, and serenity. It belongs to the mineral beryl. (Note to self for a good name for another blue and green quilt!)

The border is a perfect match; you’d think I planned the colours in the quilt from it! It’s actually a piece I bought many years ago in Alberta for a quilt back when my aunt took me to a quilt shop near Barrhead, which I just found out today is still there, and which my cousin‘s partner frequents! I had about 1.5 metre left, most of which was only half the width of the fabric but I was able to get four 1.5" borders and three of the 4.5 strips I needed for the binding. A few extra joins of half-width of fabric strips easily made enough for the binding with about a fat quarter now left. 

Jasper Quilt Finish

I have another finish which makes two in a week! I figured I’d be able to get the Jasper quilt quilted between Project Quilting challenges, and SAHRR prompts and I’m so happy that I did. If only the weather had cooperated for better photos, but oh well, I can always add in one or two when the sun decides to shine on us again.

As you may recall, this quilt is going to my cousin Val, who lives in Jasper. As you may also recall, the town of Jasper was evacuated last summer due to a raging wildfire that roared through the town, destroying one third of the homes, various buildings and businesses over the course of its rampage. Val’s home was one that was burned to the ground. 

Rainbow Bricks

This was my first Rainbow Scrap Challenge project this year, in my ongoing attempt to empty my strips bins (not a lot of success so far, sad to report).

I made two 10" blocks in each of eight rainbow colours for a four by four block set, giving me a 40" square quilt. This was such a great simple, mindless project to do each month that I will continue making these blocks for another quilt!

Broken Heart Syndrome and Grace

I do love this pattern of mine, first one that I got professionally tech-edited (thank you Yvonne) back in 2019 around this time of year. I do not love the reasons for the three times I've had to make it. This time is another tragedy, so I'm advising you of a trigger-warning in the content (death and loss) in this post.

One day and one year ago my nephew, Andrew, passed away at the all-too-young age of 32. His mom, Pat, is MacGyver's sister; she was one of our bridesmaids along with my two sisters. Andrew had a bad cold last November, but when Pat visited him to check up on him, he was having trouble breathing, and she knew something was very wrong. She called an ambulance despite his protests.

Rainbow Gingham Quilt

I’ve had a few finishes under wraps of late, some because of surprises, others because they’ve had to wait their turn. This is one of the wait your turn finishes.

You’ve seen this one as a flimsy, the quilt I made after my first three presentations to guilds east of Toronto in mid-October. It was a DrEAMi, a Drop Everything And Make it quilt. Last week I got it quilted and I think I’m as excited to show the back as I am to show the front!

Global Garden - Hands2Help Comfort Quilt

Here is my second H2H quilt for this year, the first being my SAHRR which you can see here. Hands2Help, in case you don't know, is an annual comfort quilt drive hosted by Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict. I named it Global Garden as a nod to the Trip Around the World corner blocks, the floral fabrics, and the centre garden-themed appliquéd block.

After I rummaged through my drawer of lonely blocks aka orphan blocks to choose one for my SAHRR, it hit me that I really should make an effort to work more of them into a couple of quilts. In the drawer were these five blocks, the centre appliqués one and four Trip Around the World ones. I ‘won’ them in a bidding activity we did in the local guild I belonged to at that time. That was more than six years ago! Out they came and I let them percolate a bit on the design wall until I ‘saw’ the idea of using big, 15” finished, QSTs to frame and pull them together. 

A note about my Rainbow Neighbourhood QAL: that post will be out this afternoon.

Wild and Wonderful SAHRR Quilt

It's been some time since I wrote a post; I really didn't intend to take more than three weeks off blogging. Hope you check in on me on Instagram because I do post fairly regularly there. If you don't, I'll catch you up with Rounds 5 and 6 for the SAHRR, as well as what I was up to during one of the weeks:

Looks fake doesn’t it, but I assure you it is real, taken with my iPhone, and not photoshopped or colour enhanced.

Ahh, as on our previous two trips to the idyllic island of Cuba, I found several sources of inspiration for colour and design. It felt good to do something normal as well, though I did and will always wear an N95 mask on an airplane. All was well, and we've returned healthy and didn't catch anything, but that is thanks to masking on the airplane and in close quarters in the airports, as well as lots of outdoor time, even eating en plein air, which I love any day!

Grapefruit Pizzazz

I have a quilt finish, and it was totally unplanned, but it grabbed me and would. not. let. go. This kind of quilt happening is a DrEAMi. Drop Everything And Make it. And this one is a true DrEAMi, because that is exactly what I did, despite having a few other projects I should have been doing.

What a pleasant surprise to see how well it goes with the impatiens and greenery!

Whirling Petals - A Hands2Help Quilt

I am happy to report that my second H2H quilt this year is a wrap! Hands2Help is being hosted this year by Mari at The Academic Quilter.

I had a goal this year to use up a bunch of leftover floral scraps, and some stash that I knew I wasn't going to use for the intended purpose. I made a dent, albeit small, in the pile.

English Garden Hands2Help Quilt

This is one of those quilts that say, 'meh' with the flimsy, and then say, 'Yay!' with the quilting. And yes, all it is is a simple jigsaw-style meander, but wow, it just melds all the floral prints together, and it's like looking at a veritable riot of an English Garden.

Early morning as this was, or darling evening are perfect times for quilt photos

I just know my mum would love this one. Speaking of early morning, have you ever truly contemplated how marvellous dew is? It's really quite the miracle, that every morning plants get a sip of pure water to start their day. This morning it was like a film of little beads of glass coating the grass. Sparkling and fresh. Hopeful. I needed that.

9-Patch Rainbow

It feels wonderful to have my second of three Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilts done and ready to gift. The first one, an H2H quilt, Delia, is here, and the third, Bowtie Strings, should be a flimsy within less than two weeks, as it is on my #WIPSbegone2021 list for this quarter. This one reminds me of a QR code, especially the black 9-patch in the centre.

This is another quilt from the book Nine-Patch Revolution by Jenifer Dick and Angela Walters. It's an excellent book; last year I made 9-Patch Spectrum, which actually got finished quilting earlier this year.

Gingham Quilt for J

This is my OMG for June, probably the fastest one I've finished since declaring and finishing.

About two weeks ago, our daughter Brianne called us to let us know the son of one of her neighbours had just been diagnosed with cancer. He is the same age as Brady, and the two know each other through school. Although they have played together over the years, they don't seem to be able to get along, and so they tend to go their separate ways.

However.

No matter the conflicting personalities, we all feel terrible for him, and I immediately wanted to offer comfort...in the form of a quilt. He starts chemo soon, and having something warm and fuzzy may help a bit.

I took this photo in the 'golden hour'. There are two each day: the hour that follows sunrise, which was when this was taken, and the one that precedes sunset. That glow is actually the sun coming through the trees.

TGIFF - Friendly Fences, an H2H Quilt

Welcome to TGIFF! This is a linkup to show our finished quilt projects. And oh yes, pass on some inspiration.

I have finished the quilt for my neighbour who is an essential worker at one of our local grocery stores. You can read the story behind the quilt in this post. That will help you see why I named the quilt Friendly Fences, which may seem to be an oxymoron. It isn't, because our dogs becoming good friends through the chainlink fence between our yards led to us getting to know each other more.

I was really pleased to read that Sarah at Confessions of a Fabric Addict added this category to the Hands2Help comfort quilt drive. Unless you know someone who works in a grocery store or a pharmacy, I don't think we tend to think of them as people like ourselves, with families and homes and lives, you know what I mean? And I don't know about your governments, media, and rich fat cats who own these grocery and pharmacy chains, but mine here in Canada started out regularly highlighting their contributions. One even gave them an hourly raise at first...and then took it back. Now we don't hear so much about their continued efforts, though CBC TV runs a very poignant ad about nurses.

Hands2Help Check-in

This is the first check-in for H2H at Confessions of a Fabric Addict this year, and I have a flimsy finish!

I was dodging the rain showers and bright sunshine, but I managed to run out and get this photo in high cloud. Wind is often a factor here, and it was playing a bit with the flimsy today too, so it looks a little wonky.

Delia

Delia, the strings Card Trick quilt you've seen a few times, is done.

This is actually a very true photo as far as the colours go; the sun had just set.  This was an unplanned RSC project, from the book Classic to Contemporary String Quilts by Mary M. Hogan. It's a great book: my trees quilt, The Final Season was adapted from it, and my main RSC project is also from the book. I am focusing on strings this year because they are exploding.

They are still exploding. I loved the movement in her quilt, loved the black, grey and white with the pink she had used. I planned to switch out the white for another RSC colour.

Love That For You

My first quilt finish in 2021 is a wrap (ha, love saying that)! This is my OMG for January.

It's actually my third finish, one being my mini for Project Quilting, little hard to wrap up in it, and the other shown on Instagram but not yet blogged, a black scraps sorting box. This, however, is a lap quilt. 

Yay for a little sunshine today! The temperatures have been lovely this month, but it's been mostly grey skies.

Aren't the pinks just wonderful? It is such a good colour with which to work in the grey long month of January. This quilt has a bit of a story to it, as is the case with most of my quilts. It is a quilt I designed for one of PQ #11 challenges last year. This one, the third one I've made, is going to Brianne's best friend who is an essential worker. She, like me, absolutely loves Schitt's Creek, but she has been a fan longer than I! Both of us, unbeknownst to the other, think that Brianne is much like Alexis. The quilt is named for one of Alexis's famous sayings, one Brianne and Michele use between them quite often. 

Grace Once Again

For the month of June, we have a 'free' challenge, meaning we can make whatever we want. I knew I'd work with the Faded Blue Jeans line by Kathy Engle, and make a quilt. I wasn't sure what, exactly. You can read the background about the quilt and see the flimsy in this post, so I won't repeat myself.

I got the quilt quilted on the weekend and bound on Monday. I took it to Seacliff Beach after supper for some evening light on it against Lake Erie.

I love how it turned out.

Elvira Hands2Help Comfort Quilt #3

Back in March I participated in the Elvira QAL hosted by Gudrun Erla. Although I didn't sew the entire weekend with everyone, I did get my top made within the week that followed. I knew this would be another H2H quilt.