600 HST's Done!

It took three weeks of getting together with Christine to get my 600 HST's done...But here they are--all sewn, just waiting to be pressed. The other 200 are already pressed and ready for the next step. I hope to get the pressing done later today. Christine finished putting the borders on her 30's spin blocks. I love the fabrics she is using--so bright and cheery. They remind me of my grandmother's quilts.

BIG NEWS!  This week, I will be going away for a quilt retreat with Christine and Carol!  We are heading up to White Birch Lodge near Elk Rapids, Michigan for the annual Beaver Island Quilt Retreat with Gwen Marston! 

 This is my first time going to this retreat--Carol and Christine have been a few times before so I am the "Newby".  I am very excited!  I have a couple of Gwen's books and am fascinated by her liberated quilts. I am bringing a bin of fabric, my sewing machine, my camera and sewing supplies for 4 days of quilty bliss and two days of travel. I have a project in mind, inspired by a workshop I took at the Russian quilt show in Ailsa Craig a few years ago. I never did finish that project but hope to make my own liberated version on the retreat.

Gwen will be teaching us how to make "Small Studies".  I will take lots of pictures and do a blog post about my retreat when I get back.

In the meantime, I have to go and pack!

Happy Quilting!

QNIC with Christine

Tonight, I used my Accuquilt Go to cut out another 180 sets of HST's for my RRCB quilt. I bought this die especially for this quilt. I sewed the HST's tonight too but still have to iron them--a job for another evening.  They looked like little flags fluttering in the breeze at the used car lot before I cut them apart!

Christine continued to work on her 30's spin quilt from a workshop we both took last October. For a picture of mine, go here. She has just about finished putting borders on all her blocks.

Every Saturday morning, my husband and I go to our local farmers' market. In order to sell produce at our market, the vendors must grow it themselves. I always come home with lots of wonderful fruits and vegetables--some are quite unusual like purple beans, pink and white beets, yellow watermelon, etc. This past weekend, I bought an interesting gourd and a stand to display it.

I am always a bit sad when market season is over.

227

That's how many 2" red and neutral HST units I have made this week. Christine and I got together again on Wednesday night and I used my Accuquilt GO cutter and my new 2" HST die to cut out the pieces. 

Today, I sewed them all together. At one point I was so focused, I kept pushing the units through the machine with no bobbin thread!  

Here are my 227 HST's, all pressed and ready to go.

Now, I just have to cut out 373 more and sew and press them. My Roll Roll Cotton Boll quilt has 600 red and neutral HST's in it!

We had our first London Friendship Quilters' guild meeting this past Thursday. Our speaker was Glenda Spencer from http://www.stonecottagecrafts.ca/. This past year, she did a mystery quilt for some quilters in her area. This year, she is offering a new mystery quilt for members of our guild and I signed up for it because we all know I need another UFO! The quilt will start with a 12" block in October and each month, we will receive a pattern for a border to add. This will go on for 6 months and the goal is to have the quilts done for our quilt show next October. I have to go and dig into my stash to see what fabrics I will use. I want to try to avoid purchasing any new fabric for this project. You can see a picture of last year's mystery quilt here.  I also signed up for our annual November Quilt Til You Wilt day and plan on attending the workshop being offered in November as well. It looks like an exciting year ahead!

I wandered through my garden today and took some pictures of the flowers. I did not notice the spider in the middle of this picture until I looked at the picture on my computer. If you click on the picture, you will get a better view.

These flowers are called "Moonbeam Coreopsis".  They are one of my favourites!