Bonjour and welcome 😊 It's been a very busy time here, and not all quilting related. I am happy to say that I did manage to get many things done (but it's never as much as I'd like!) I took a road trip with Lise this week to Almonte. It wasn't as we planned but it was awesome and good to get away and spend time together. I bought some antique lace that I hope to use for art, hopefully soon 😍. Let's get on with it, since it's already Thursday!

Blue Skies in the Rainbow Neighbourhood

After fixing an oops last week, I wanted to quilt something substantial on the Rainbow Neighbourhood quilt, so it was blue skies time. It wasn't without its minor frustrations but the top third of the sky is done. After considering my options, I went with a wave/meander. That's a good thing because my Jag really didn't want to play nice with the Bottom Line thread. I'm not sure that I could have FMQ anything more intricate.

Yellow house with FMQ blue sky

Blue house with FMQ blue sky

Orange house with FMQ blue sky

I'm sorry for the quality of the pictures. Soon we'll have the whole thing photographed in great light (when it's done!)

Summer Hexie Sew Along

I've been making more hexies for the Summer Hexie Sew Along with Mad About Patchwork. I'm not exactly following the order of making thing but close enough! Here they are so far. I really wanted to see if the fabric I had chosen would play well together. I would say that they do! 😁

Three single and two double flowers

I've got many more hexies prepped to stitch together so it is coming along well.

Bloomers Sew Along

I remembered that I wanted to sew more hexie flowers for the Bloomers SAL. I've prepared two more batik hexies but haven't stitched them to the pink backgrounds yet. Here are the five hexies and the flower blocks beneath them. They are hanging on my design wall, to which I added extra side panels so that I can hang wider projects.

Five Bloomer blocks with hexies

I'll be finishing two more hexies to attach to the other blocks. I still need to make one more flower block since it's easier to make the wall hanging with 8 blocks than 7.

Mémère's Placemat

I've been stitching while watching videos. Here is what I've added to my grandmother's placemat.

Feather stitches

Variations on the blanket stitch

I'm not in love with the blanket stitches but not sure I'll be ripping them out, It'll depend on my mood the next time I work on it. At least perle cotton is easier to rip out than floss!

Plans for the rest of July

Finish FMQ the Rainbow Neighbourhood quilt

First row: finish grass and details in the yards and houses
Second row: finish sky, pond/park and the last house
Third row: finish night sky, yards and house details

Make the teal house for the Quilter's Cove QAL
Make the Blue Jays appliqué and attach it to the t-shirt
Continue sewing together hexie flowers

What I learned

About that oops moment - I managed to quilt the batting to the backing when first quilting the orange house. I was hoping to just remove the batting without the stitches but the area was too large. So I removed the stitches and batting and re-quilted the side roof. It all went well, just time consuming.
Except for having problems with the white thread, I've been quilting with cotton and polyester thread without issues. I wanted to FMQ the sky without it standing out as much so I used a lovely Bottom Line light blue. I switched needles hoping it would help, but it didn't. I'm surprised that I've been quite patient, stopping when the thread misbehaves, removing it and then continuing. I have noticed that if I slow down, it happens less, so that's what I'm doing.
It's so weird since I wasn't able to use cotton thread to FQM my son's quilt but now it's the opposite. We'll call it a temperamental Jag moment and get on with it. I only have part of the second row of sky to FMQ. I'll switch to a cotton thread for the night sky.😁
I'm having so much fun sewing my hexies now that I've found the right fabric. It's lovely to sew them when I don't have the energy to FMQ.
There are 5 double flowers to make, three clusters of four flowers and then two clusters of three flowers. That's doable by mid August.
I'm really happy with the hexies for my Bloomers SAL but I'm going to try to wait until the Rainbow Neighbourhood quilt is finished before making the last flower block and sewing everything together.

I Quilted This!

Welcome to the I Quilted This! linking party that celebrates quilting on a domestic machine or custom quilting on a long-arm. Feel free to link up and share any recent project, even if you're not quilting it!

Here are the posts that included FMQ, ruler work and walking foot quilting last week. Thanks for linking up 😊.

Kat from Scrapbox Quilts used blocks from her parts department (orphan blocks) to make two Lil Bear Hugs quilts. They're so cute! There is also another potato chip block quilt. Some kids are going to be thrilled! Kat quilted these in different ways - you can see that more from the backing.

Orange & teal Lil Bear Hug quilt by Kat

Teal & orange Lil Bear Hug quilt by Kat

Potato Chip Lil Bear Hug quilt by Kat

Terry of On Going Projects finished FQM her Sashiko project. You'll want to head over there to read all about it!

Terry's Sashiko rose project

Here are Terry's lovely FMQ details

Diann from Little Penguins Quilts is working on her Quilt-as-you-go (QAYG) patchwork hearts project. There is always lots to figure out in a QAYG. You may want to read Diann's post to see what needed to be done!

Diann's lovely QAYG patchwork hearts

Sandra of mmm quilts released her Diamond Baby quilt pattern and made another version using primary colours, which she called Bright Spark. Check out her post for more details and the pattern.

Bright Spark by Sandra

Gwyned Trefethen's quilt, How does your garden grow?, will be on exhibition with the South Shore Art Center next month. This is an opportunity to see this beauty in person.