(upbeat music)
- So, it's been a different kind of month.
I know I've had my challenges over the past 6 months,
and this one was a different type of challenge.
For those that
are new to my channel, my eldest son,
Kamran, was diagnosed with stage four lymphoma
back in February.
He immediately moved in with us and all my sewing stuff
moved into my bedroom.
And as the world went into lockdown,
he started chemotherapy.
And it got a whole lot worse before it got better.
And in the middle of July, he had his last chemo treatment.
And for the past 6 weeks,
we had been playing the waiting game,
trying to keep ourselves occupied
while we waited for him to have a CAT scan
and get the results to find out what was the next step.
So, this month's vlog is really about
how I kept myself busy.
First thing, I got caught up in my Sugaridoo Quilt-Along.
Now I wasn't far behind.
First one I got caught up on was Mowed Lawn.
There were two ways to do this,
nice and symmetrical or improv.
And I chose to go with the improv.
The next row was called Cross-Stitch.
I actually liked working with this colour.
It was paper piece. We've done it before.
And I really enjoyed the look of this.
Then there was Dot Dot Dot.
Now, the original one was nice symmetrical circles.
And then she thought you could do them wonky, as in ovals.
But then I chose to do the third method,
which are these leopard spots.
It's all done in reverse applique. It was a lot of fun.
Now I know there's some people that do
the Sugaridoo rows in a day,
but I personally seem to take about a week, working on it
about an hour a day.
And this is how my quilt is looking.
I really, really liked the look of this.
I cannot wait for this to be finished,
and I only have 2 more rows to go.
I did manage to make some progress on my new hexagon.
I tackled the smallest one that I have left,
rosette number 9,
and now I have the whole left side of the quilt complete.
And here is a quick quiz.
What is the colour harmony for this rosette?
Most of us think of a triadic red, blue, yellow
colour harmony as the right hues,
And if that's what you guessed this was,
then you would be correct.
It's just a more desaturated version.
So I'm now moving on to block number 3 and I need
to choose the colours.
And it's so big now that I have to bring it to the studio
to lay it out, because it takes up so much room.
Now, those of you familiar with the new hexagon quilt might
notice that some of my rosettes are a different shape.
So, back when I was working on rosette number 8,
I had chosen these lovely blended fabrics,
but I was disappointed when I finished the rosette.
I didn't feel that there was enough repeats to really
bring out the beauty of the fabrics.
And yes, they are the same fabrics that I used
in my Stashbuster #4.
So I altered the block layout,
stealing a couple of spots from the rosettes beside it,
which meant my rosette number 11A was altered,
which meant my rosette number 10A was also altered.
So that just meant any of the rosettes were fair game.
So I've also altered the layout for rosette number three.
That means rosette number 9 is just
a little bit different.
And I don't think I'm done.
I think there's still going to be some alterations
in the other 2 that are remaining.
that's rosette number 2 and rosette number 10B.
So, stay tuned.
I finalised my deep dive into pre-cuts with two videos.
Pre-cuts: what you need to know,
And my Stashbuster 6 with layer cakes,
I made three quilt tops,
which means now I have to make 3 quilt backs.
For the Christmas one. I had some extra blocks.
I used them up doing a strip across the back.
I grabbed some Christmas fabric that I had in my stash,
and that is my quilt back for that one.
For my orange quilt, I dug into my scrap sampler blocks,
pulled out some orange and purple-ish ones.
And I made a strip with those.
I put a couple of bands of purple on top and bottom.
And then I had some other orange fabric,
which I finished it off with.
Well, I was actually very tempted to put purple
within the quilt itself,
but I decided to just go with a monochromatic pattern,
but I figured the back and the binding are fair game.
So I incorporated the purple there.
Now, the on the farm layer cake was by far
the most challenging to make.
It had a broad colour harmony. It had high contrast.
And it had unequal fabric distribution.
So, on this particular quilt top,
I want to put a border, and there are 4 colour hues
in this quilt.
There is orange, there is red,
there is a green, and there's a minty blue.
Now I would normally just go straight for the brown,
but I realised because of this broad colour variation,
it might not be the best choice.
So, I threw them up on my computer and I played around,
I took the 4 main hues and I played with saturation,
and I played with value.
And it's very interesting how different colours bring out
different colours in the quilt.
In the end, I went with this low value green.
So, about this time, Kamran had his CAT scan
and we all got very squirrel-y
as we were waiting for the results.
After 6 months of no fighting, no biting,
suddenly we were getting quite snippy with each other
and we all needed to go off into our own spaces.
And I found myself, I had my fair share of trouble.
Just finishing my video on stripes.
I was so distracted trying to keep myself calm and cool.
There was a lot of fabric folding,
a lot of baking, and some mindless animal watching going on.
So finally, the results came back and he was good
except for one spot on a lymph node,
which might be nothing but a PET scan was ordered.
And then we had to wait for those results.
So, I finally decided to learn how to use this baby.
Back in January,
I bartered with a friend
for her mother's old industrial sewing machine.
And since February,
I have taken a couple of stabs at learning how to use it.
I mean, I had to learn how to thread it.
It different than a regular domestic machine.
I had to download a user manual from the internet.
I had to buy some industrial needles and bobbins.
I used it once and it was so powerful I scared myself.
I figured it was like learning how to drive standard.
And I managed that. So, I figured I could do this.
I figured making an ugly quilt was a good test drive.
And while I was using it, I made up the blocks.
But one of the biggest problems that I had was lighting.
It comes with this small little light.
I think it's like 6 watts. It's just so weak.
I brought in my OttLite,
but that doesn't give enough light in the right spot
without getting in the way of my sewing project.
And then every remembered I received
this led lighting strip from MadamSew.
It came in three parts: the track lighting,
the cord and the plug.
The track lighting had a piece of double sided tape
attached to it.
So, I just peeled that off and stuck it to my machine.
It's really a long piece,
which is great because this has a big harp on it.
So I use two elastics to hold it in place right here
at the front.
Didn't want to glue it yet.
I just wanted to be sure that it all works first.
I wrap the wire around the face and use the clips
to hold it on tight, and then plugged it in.
And I cannot believe the difference that this makes.
Here it is with just the regular light.
Here it is with my side OttLite.
And here it is with the led strip.
So, now I assembled the blocks.
And then we receive the most wonderful news.
The spot was nothing. My son is 100% cancer free.
Honestly, I'm still digesting the news.
I'm swinging from wanting to dance in the street to crying.
I've been in this bubble for so many months,
and now it's September,
and I can barely remember May, June, July.
It's just this weird time.
I really want to thank everybody at North York General
for all their skill, all their support.
Your kindness and care made an awful experience
so much more bearable.
To our home nurses, Miriam and Miriam,
you were the extra support when we all really needed it.
To my sew sisters who checked on me constantly,
even when I didn't have the strength to answer your texts,
and to you, my subscribers,
for letting me know that I was never alone.
Some of you even took time to mail me notes
of encouragement, which I keep in my desk
and refer to often.
It has been an awful journey with a happy ending,
and I know how blessed I am, and I have some more good news.
On September 21st.
I will be starting Karen's Quilt Circle
on my YouTube channel.
This is a series of interviews with other quilters.
Some of them have expertise in a specialised field.
Some of them are business owners.
Some of them are just really cool people.
We'll find out about their journeys,
and how they have taken their hobby and made it their own.
These are going to be different from my regular videos.
They will be episodes that are about 30 to 40 minutes long.
My regular videos are designed to be consumed
in a short coffee break,
where these videos are going to be longer,
30 to 40 minutes.
So they're made to be put on and listened to
while you're making dinner, or while you're piecing blocks.
So, thank you for joining me for today's vlog
and sharing with me this good news.
Please check out the notes below.
You'll find links to all the videos that I've referenced.
So, if you liked this video, please give it a thumbs up.
Please support the channel by subscribing.
You can also find me on Instagram, Facebook,
and Pinterest at Just Get It Done Quilts.
And of course, my website,
where I have lots of free downloads.
So check that out, justgetitdonequilts.com.
So take care, and I'll see you next time.