I am going to make an effort to return to a more normal posting schedule. First up is another round of Show & Tell. Elaine has been busy making more Monkey blocks, here are her April, May and June blocks.
Sigrid has been busy as well, and I really enjoy the different custom backgrounds she creates for her Monkeys. Here are the next three blocks she stitched.
Thank you to both ladies for faithfully sending me a picture every month. I very much enjoy seeing what others make with my designs.
Happy Canada Day! As you can probably tell by the silence on my blog, my life is still very much in disarray. I am hoping to return to some kind of normal during July, but it might take until August to sort everything out. In addition to the emotional upset we spent the last few days under the heat dome in the Pacific Northwest, and no, we don’t have air conditioning. It was no fun but the worst seems to be over, and I managed to keep my vegetables well watered, and they all seem to be doing quite well. The spinach and corn salad bolted before the extreme heat, I had a great broccoli and cauliflower harvest, and the beans, cucumbers and squash seemed to love the weather. I am grateful every day that I continued with my vegetable garden experiment this year, it really helps me keep my sanity.
This month’s monkey is going on safari. This was the block that my husband thought was the most hilarious… a monkey in full safari outfit. But hey, he wants to see the animals too, right?? Coming up with ideas for twelve different blocks is not always easy, and sometimes I just start drawing and it takes me in a direction that I hadn’t really planned. I think for this block I was more thinking of a monkey going on a hike but when his hat ended up looking like a pith helmet I thought it was funny and went with it. As always, the safari monkey block will be available for free download until the end of the month and move to the pattern store in August when the next block is released.
EDIT: July is over, and the block has moved to the pattern store where it is now available for purchase if you missed the free download. If you just need the finishing instructions, they are still available for free download.
Für die deutsche(n) Version(en) mit metrischen Maßen bitte dem/den Kauflink(s) unten für die englische(n) Version(en) folgen und beim Checkout angeben, dass die deutsche Version gewünscht ist. Ich verschicke dann per email die Anleitung(en) in der gewünschten Sprache.
Wer nur die Anleitung zur Fertigstellung sucht, kann diese nun auch auf Deutsch kostenlos herunterladen.
Life is happening in full force right now, disrupting all my plans, unfortunately not in a good way. Blogging and sharing pictures on social media is not high on my list of priorities at the moment. I am spending some of my energy on my vegetables, puttering around the garden makes me feel quite calm and relaxed. I have blanched and frozen a lot of spinach already, trying to get the most out of it before it bolts. The Super Gourmet Salad Blend from West Coast Seeds that KJ mentioned in a comment a couple of months back was my choice this year too, and I love it. Excellent results, and very tasty too. I did have a few mishaps though and killed all my cucumbers and most of my squash plants, and I also overwatered my tomato seedlings but I have learned that they are like weeds and very hard to kill. I transplanted them two weeks ago, and they made a very nice recovery. And I am very happy about the brassicas. We went through the trouble of building a cover for the whole bed, with rebar and PVC pipes (lots of good tutorials can be found on YouTube), and I bought some row cover fabric and a soaker hose. The brassicas are thriving in there, the cabbage moths and root flies can’t get in, and I haven’t seen any aphids yet (fingers crossed). The plants are huge and healthy, and the first florets are coming up on the broccoli. Even my own whimpy seedlings aren’t far behind the ones I bought at Minter’s. Last year I lost all but two broccoli plants to the maggots of the cabbage root fly. They just started drooping one day and keeled over the next, and when I pulled them, there were barely any roots left. So hopefully I will have a better harvest this year.
I will keep posting quilts when I have the time, and the Monkey Business BOM will continue as planned. The patterns are all written and will be published on the first of each month. Should I have to post a bit early or late, I will announce it in advance, so stay tuned for updates. This month, our monkey friend is still at the beach, playing ball and having a blast. The pattern is available for free download until the end of the month and will move over to the pattern store in July when the next block is published.
EDIT: June is over, and the block has moved to the pattern store where it is now available for purchase if you missed the free download. If you just need the finishing instructions, they are still available for free download.
Für die deutsche(n) Version(en) mit metrischen Maßen bitte dem/den Kauflink(s) unten für die englische(n) Version(en) folgen und beim Checkout angeben, dass die deutsche Version gewünscht ist. Ich verschicke dann per email die Anleitung(en) in der gewünschten Sprache.
Wer nur die Anleitung zur Fertigstellung sucht, kann diese nun auch auf Deutsch kostenlos herunterladen.
“Over The River And Through The Woods” is a Crabapple Hill design, mixing hand-embroidered panels with classic pieced blocks. This lovely version was made by Sandra, and she chose “White Out”, a snowflake pattern for quilting. I wasn’t always comfortable doing allover designs across beautiful hand embroidery but Sandra’s quilt is a great example of how good it can look. The snowflake meander blends into the background and doesn’t take away from the exquisite handwork.
Sharlene made this cute quilt as a baby gift. What a great way of using up scraps, the more different fabrics, the better! The empty areas between the kites will be filled by their tails, Sharlene wanted to have it quilted first before starting on the embroidery. The pattern we used for quilting is called “Wild Wind” – perfect for flying a kite!
June made this pretty star quilt using linen in solid colours for the stars. The quilt has a modern look, and June wanted a simple, modern design for quilting and picked the pantograph “Taj Mahal” for her project.
This quilt was made by Mary as a gift for a music loving friend. Actually, she made it twice for two different friends. It sure gives a whole new meaning to the term “piano key border”. We didn’t have to think about the quilting very long, I have a music pattern with notes that was perfect for Mary’s quilts.
May made this cute little baby quilt with pinwheels in bright colours. The outer border fabric has dragonflies which would have been a perfect quilting pattern. Unfortunately I don’t have a pantograph with dragonflies, and I couldn’t find one that I liked, so we went with butterflies instead and used “Butterfly Tango”. What a sweet baby gift!
There are lots of ideas out there for selvage quilts but I particularly like this one that Gail made and asked me to quilt for her. The grey and white frames give the illusion of spools and make the quilt three dimensional. I just can’t stop looking at it, if I ever decide to make a selvage quilt, this would be my pattern choice. (Not going to happen anytime soon… I am not even collecting selvages.) The pantograph I used is called “Celtic Scroll”, a simple swirly pattern that stays in the background but adds movement to the design.
This is Kathy’s version of the Chilliwack Quilters’ Guild Block of the Month Sampler and the last of the three that I quilted for members. Ellen’s version can be found here, and Janet’s quilt was featured here. Kathy chose lovely blue fabrics for her blocks and also liked “Ginger Flower” as the quilting pattern.
