Hello there and welcome back for another weekend update at Bonjour Quilts.
What I’m Sewing…
We have a quilt top!
I took all my triangles and turned them into a fun, modern baby quilt, which I’m now looking forward to quilting.
I think I have a store-bought sheet that will make a good backing for this one somewhere the Linen Cupboard of Treasures (where my stash lives).
What to sew next?
Once I’ve quilted up the pink and yellow version, I’d like to sew another one in a different colourway.
One option is to sew another baby size quilt in the colour way seen below. There’s a low volume print for the background, with 3 Carolyn Friedlander prints in navy, light blue and tangerine. The tangerine would be the smallest triangles – just a pop of colour.
However I’ve also been thinking about sewing a companion quilt for my Mountainside lap quilt for a while now. Below is my Mountainside quilt, sewn from a pile of teal Ruby Star Society FQs with Kona Snow accents. Two of the teal prints have a small fuchsia pop of colour.
These are the fabrics I’d use for a lap size version of the triangle quilt:
For this quilt I would use the Ruby Star Society Sugar print in teal for the background. I would use a mix of low volumes for both the large and medium HSTs and the fuschia scraps for the small triangles. I think it would look pretty cool and would match my Mountainside really well. It would also be quite a different look to the pink and yellow baby version (given the dark background). I like it when my samples offer two quite different looks. I’ll say that at the moment I’m leaning heavily toward this lap version (let me know in the comments if you feel strongly either way).
Around the Interwebs…
The winners of the 2024 Pantone Quilt Challenge are amazing! If you have a hankering to sew with Peach Fuzz after looking at those quilts, here’s a good blog post for you.
This felt pincushion tutorial is all kinds of adorable!
Another Modern Quilt Guild Challenge, if you’re interested.
I really enjoyed this episode of Ange at Gnome Angel’s podcast interviewing Lizzy House, who is stepping back into fabric design, yay!!
It’s May – also known as Small Business May (celebrating small businesses, hurrah!) or Me Made May (celebrating making your own wardrobe). I have a few relevant posts for you here:
- What it takes ($$) to run my quilting blog
- My Ruby top (I don’t sew many garments but I really like the yoke I made for this pattern)
- My Noodlehead Compass bag (I include bags in the range of garments :)
- My Poppyprint tote bag
Check out this show-and-tell about embroidering a Me Made May garment. This would also be a great way to jazz up a store-bought piece of clothing.
Reader Quilts…
I always love to see quilts you’ve made from Bonjour Quilts patterns so please keep sending them in! Either email (Kirsty at BonjourQuilts dotcom), or tag me on Facebook or Instagram.
Valarie has sent me two great photos.
First up we have her Scrap Magnet quilt, which is a great small scrap buster (I love the cute little animal centre squares):
And then we have Valarie’s fantastic Go West lap quilt, with such lovely fabric choices (Peach Fuzz, I see you!):
Here’s a wonderful version of Lollies sewn by Prue. I’m such a fan of a navy background.
A gorgeous Diamonds in the Deep in a winter palette – found on Reddit. (If this is yours let me know so I can properly attribute this beauty to you.)
Chez Bonjour…
What’s been happening around my house (Chez Bonjour) of late?
A rough start to the weekend
Dear Reader, I’m not sure I should share this, but I figure I have to share the lows along with the highs.
Here goes. On Friday afternoon I went to go to the loo in our ensuite bathroom and when I lifted the toilet lid there was water all over the place. Not in the bowl, where it should be, but splashed all under the lid and over the seat. What on earth…it was as if the water had been ejected up out of the toilet. A mystery.
As far as I’m concerned, any mystery involving toilets is BAD NEWS.
Feeling uneasy I then made my way to the next loo in the house, which is used by our two youngest boys (who were at school). The lid was not down. There was water EVERYWHERE – up the walls, on the back of the door. Toilet bowl was empty, explaining where the water came from. Not good, not good at all.
One more toilet in the house. I made my way to my daughter’s room, which has a small ensuite, at the end of the house. Once I entered her bedroom I knew my (relative) luck had run out. The smell did not lie. The million-dollar question was whether she’d left the lid down. Oh please, let her have put the lid down.
I held my breath, slapped myself across the face and said Let’s Do This. I walked to the door of the ensuite and…
Thank the Lord
The lid was down
The walls were clean
But the floor was brown.
Sob, sob (and a little dry retch, tbh.) I immediately called Utilities who tried to tell me I must have a problem with my plumbing and I should get a tradesman to the house. I held my ground and remarked that all 3 toilets exploding at the same time isn’t a plumbing issue, it’s a ‘something’s wrong with the mains’ issue. Long story short, they came, confirmed there was nothing wrong with our plumbing and then discovered that their contractors had caused a pressure blow-back while they were high-pressure cleaning the main pipes that afternoon. Mystery solved. Long clean up ensued. Hubby cleaned the two water closets (now I know why they’re called that!) and I drew the short straw. Nothing that a complete bottle of disinfectant and two rolls of paper towel couldn’t fix.
But seriously, have you ever heard of all the toilets in a house exploding? I thought that only happened in 80s movies (and college students are usually involved. Or Chevy Chase.) Can you imagine if one of us was sitting on the toilet at the time?
We’re installing a second overflow gulley outside so this can never happen again (although Utilities said this was something they’d never seen before, so statistically it should never happen again. *fingers crossed* )
I’m happy to say that the rest of the weekend has been uneventful…so far! And I hope you’re able to use this story to convince your loved ones to ALWAYS PUT THE SEAT/LID DOWN!! (I shudder to think if my daughter hadn’t.) *more soft sobbing*
In other news…
I had my very first breast scan recently. Having my breasts smooshed between a couple of plates was an absolute DELIGHT compared to exploding toilets so you’ll get no complaints from me.
Oh, and a gentle reminder that if you’re overdue a breast cancer scan, be sure to book one on Monday. You have to take care of yourself.
Cats’ Corner
I know I’ve just put you through a lot! Here are some photos of peaceful, dozing cats to make you feel a bit better. They really are little bums – always asleep. Never cleaning toilets.
Thanks for dropping by this weekend. I hope you get the chance to sew a little (or even a lot). Until next time,
Kirsty x
Kirsty, I am so sorry for what you had to go through this weekend. I go through the house screaming when I see a toilet seat up and no one sitting on it. We had a little frog get into one of ours once, don’t know how this happened. I was uncomfortable using bathroom for a while after that. I can’t even imagine how you felt sitting after that. I am so in love with the cats. I look forward to every email to see them.
Hi Patricia, I know what you mean about frogs. Many years ago I visited a remote place in North Queensland and there were 3 big green tree frogs under the lip of the toilet bowl in the amenities block. I really didn’t want to wee in there but I really had to go! They didn’t seem at all concerned and didn’t give me a hard time, but it was one of the stranger things I did on that trip! :)
The best thing about the Utilities people coming out to our house after the Code Brown was that they told us what had happened, why it would be very rare for it to happen again, and how to make sure it doesn’t (putting in the overflow gully). If they hadn’t been able to give us a reason/solution I don’t think I would have been comfortable using the toilet in that house ever again!
Least said about The Plumbing Affair the better (but glad it was resolved and heartfelt sympathies on the clean-up roster). Love the little pink triangle quilt. So sweet. And the next one is going to be wonderful too. I think this might be the best collection of reader’s quilts yet. Well done readers (and Kirsty for creating the patterns in the first place).
Yes, I love seeing what people make with my patterns – they have such great ideas on how to use different colours in ways I’d never consider. Inspirational!
I shudder to think of moving backward to outdoor plumbing but I’ve had a similiar but not as bad situation. Luckily we have a tennis court across the street with an outhouse that we used for those 2 days of fix and cleanup. Also it was just me and Hubbie, not a house full of kids. Thanks for posting the adorable pics of the Quilt Test Team. And the beautiful quilts!
Yours sounds worse Joan – I was able to clean it up that afternoon and then go back to normal. A good reason to never have carpet in a bathroom!
Hope the rest of your weekend is filled with nothing but happy quilting and sunny days! One thought to boost your mood – it could have been worse: your two fur babies could have discovered the mess, traipsed through it and then wandered through your house! So there is a silver lining to a very bad experience! Hug them for being such good fur babiese!!!
On the quilting….i like both options!
Oh yes, we were quick to lock them in a bedroom when it happened. I could definitely see them stepping through it all, asking “What’s going on Mum? And why are you crying?”
Sorry about your plumbing problem. I had something similar when I was on a septic tank! My heartfelt sympathies. Hope this week is much better.
Oh no – we lived in a house with septic once and used to ‘feed’ it yogurt to help with all the biological processes. Thankfully we never had anything like this happen then. *shudder*
Just purchased the Greta Quilt. I’m so excited to start it (after our granddaughter’s graduation quilt).
Yes, we’ve had the same thing happen at our house. Thankfully the clean out is directly across the street from us so when I see the big truck parked I run (not walk) to lay a towel under the seat and close the lid. There’s usually a warning rumble before “old faithful” erupts. Thankfully, also there is only 1 bathroom to deal with. It’s happened several times. Fortunately, I was home each time and had time to prepare. I truly can’t imagine what all your clean-up required, both time and effort!
Oh no, it sounds like you need an overflow relief gully installed too. It lets the pressure escape outside so that you don’t get BAD THINGS happening inside!
I love the new quilt pattern Kirsty. I vote to match the Mountainside colors, that’s such a great color combo. I always want to make all your quilts. Sorry to hear the plumbing misadventure! Ugh!
Thanks Karen, the darker, lap size version is calling to me too.
I’d love to see the lap quilt with the blue & orange, I’m intrigued to see how they fit. Regardless of what you choose, it’ll turn out beautiful, as always ????
OMG for Chez Bonjour, I’m scarred for life & have images that will haunt me for some time to come.
Off to make sure lids are closed before walking the dogs (but I love your cats) then trying my first bit of attaching binding – wish me luck xx
Yes, lids down all the time!! Sorry for scarring you but hopefully walking the dogs will clear that image from your mind!
“But seriously, have you ever heard of all the toilets in a house exploding?”
Well. Grab your tea and smelling salts.
I live in a hoity-toity area north of Houston, TX. The local water authority was doing some work on our sewer drainage system- and long story short, not one, but THREE homes had A Very Bad Day.
Home #1- no major damage.
Homes #2 & 3- the eruption was so intense, the families are still not back in their homes.
All of their belongings had to be removed and are going through intensive cleaning. The
interiors are being decontaminated and sanitized and then they will have to be repainted.
It has been more than a month. Home #2- the owners had bought the house about three years ago but didn’t move in for about 6 months due to extensive renovations. The outside is stunning, so I can only imagine what they did on the inside.
At the very least, I think your utilities service should have called in a cleaning crew for you.
Oh my goodness, I’ll take my dirty tiles anytime compared to this! I can only imagine what the damage was…ewww.
I was just so grateful she’d put the lid down. It could have been a catastrophe!
Thank you Kirsty again for my morning laugh (and oohs and ahhs). Ugh about the toilet episode. God bless.
Thanks for dropping by, Rose!