Catch-Up

Well, I'm not sure how to merge 2 blogs into one, so I will discontinue the other one and continue on with this one.   I only had a handful of postings on my new blog, so I will attempt to use this post as a catch-up.

I now have the time and ability to quilt again, so in the past few months have made a few quilts and finished other UnFinished Projects from before.. here are a few photo's of what I've been able to accomplish since October:


Sprocket Cushions, using a tutorial courtesy of Cluck, Cluck, Sew.   The 2 little girls who were given these cushions for Christmas are very happy with them.  I highly recommend making these, they are fun to make and put together.

Mixed-Up NinePatch Quilt for a sister, also a Christmas gift.  A number of years ago, before my quilt-interruption, I had promised her a quilt made from colours of her choice.  Well, about 5 years later she finally received it!

















A new project I am making from small Scraps... just starting this one, not sure how it will look when finished, and will work on it in bits and pieces when time and my inclination permit. Who knows, it might just end up being a potholder!  Or, maybe even part of a king-sized quilt (though I had promised myself many years ago, never to make a huge quilt again!



And, now my newest project which I just picked fabrics for this morning.  I haven't figured out the design for it yet, but think it will have some cool logcabins in it... The colours make me think of dreaming, so I have a feeling it will be named something dreamy :)  



Some of you may recognize these fabrics from a few years ago - you're right, thats when I was building up a serious stash.


I'm glad I built a good stash back then, as fabric was less expensive compared to now,and for the most part, I'm still very happy with the fabric I had chosen.   I have told myself that I will not buy any more NEW fabric until my current stash is used up, but we all know that's a promise made to be broken!  I will track the progress of this quilt on this blog.

Opps!

Opps !  I just found the passwords to this blog, after a few years absence during which I had misplaced them... and naturally, just a short time after I had started a brand new blog... eek!

Now all I have to do is to figure out how to merge the two blogs into one - is it even possible?!   

Almost Ready!

My new quilting studio is coming along.   I travelled to our cottage yesterday and was able to see the progress on the quilt room - and the cottage itself too - but I'm most excited about being able to have one complete room dedicated to just my quilting.  I have already started to move fabric over, and I didn't think I had all that much until I began packing.   Many many boxes and tubs later, I changed my mind - I have a lot of fabric and it all started because I will save the tiniest of scraps  - for some unknown reason!

So now I wonder if my room will be big enough?  I want to keep my fabric in more spacious shelves and holding bins so that I can view it better, and so that it won't be unhappy living in cramped spaces.

But, the room itself has some great light and lots of windows.  It will be a great day when I start to set up my sewing tables and machines in this room, now occupied by saws, tools and dust!

This photo is looking towards new Q-Room from the covered deck - no, the garbage bag does not contain my beloved fabric scraps... I could never do them the injustice of living in a dark, closed black plastic bag !!

Distractions

March 2, 2013

I am not as prolific as I used to be.  Perhaps its because I had double jaw surgery just shy of 2 months ago.  Or, maybe its because I like to listen more now, than I used to.  In any event, I do see that I have been distracted and I need to get back to my hobbies, and especially back to Quilting.

I am sitting in my quasi-quilt room right now - its a spare bedroom that shares duties as an office and a quilt room.  Its cluttered and at the moment is in the process of being de-cluttered so that I can repaint it at some point over the coming weeks.  

How does one de-clutter a sewing room?  Not easy as I tend to keep every scrap - I can't stand throwing any little tidbit away, and have baskets and boxes of oddly shaped bits of fabric that I know I will use - one day!

But I tackle the job as I am also, after many years of dreaming, about to spread my quilting passion into a brand new quilting space up at our cottage.   I will have a new room, 12x12 feet, available to me, as well as a large storage closet in the new basement and in a closet of a spare bedroom closer by. Finally a space for me big rolls of batting.  I am thrilled and very eager to start setting up the space, but at the moment its being painted and I have to be patient. Not so easy.  

New Quilt Room. 

Having a new space become available to me has allowed me to decide to move the majority of my fabric storage, threads and books to the cottage, and keep a smaller, more compact quilt space here in our condo.  

I hope that will allow me to keep a better focus on the "project at hand" and not get distracted when I see fabric in my collection that is calling to me! 

Starting Again.  

After a few false starts I am breathing new life into this blog.  During the time away I started a blog which was completely devoted to bicycles - rides I took, neat bikes I saw, neat people I met on bikes, etc.  Nothing technical, nothing preachy, nothing advocat'y".

Although it was fun to do and people seemed to like visiting it, I realized I had moved on and preferred to have a blog that was more of a mix of things I like to do.

So, OakLane Quilts & Things has been reborn.   Its been 3 years since I first attempted to work on this blog.  I am still deciding to blow away the few posts I did originally and start again fresh, or to keep them.    I have decided I don't need to make a decision on this... they stay for the time being!!

SunFlowers for Vincent - Full Pic

Here is a quilt I started as one log cabin block, and then it grew into all sorts of directions. Sometimes I added fabric pieces, and sometimes I added more wonky type log cabin blocks. It will be a wall hanging and I will wonky machine quilt it.

SunFlowers for Vincent

Close up of SunFlowers for Vincent