My Second November Quilting Retreat

Christine and I attended the annual November Crafter's retreat at Camp Kintail this past weekend.  We both love these weekends away to get lots done on our current and new projects.  I just noticed that a lot of my projects are green in this post...  I made this I Spy HRT quilt top at the Oxford Guild retreat early in November and managed to get it quilted and bound at the retreat.  I finished off the hand stitching on the binding at home this week. 

I found this fun green and white striped fabric in my stash for the binding. 

The backing fabric was also in my stash, but as you can see below, I did not have quite enough of the dotty fabric so I added in a couple of strips to make the backing big enough. 

Christine also quilted a baby quilt and added the binding at the retreat.  With us is Mary, a knitter, who also attends the retreat each year. She was making socks for her brothers for Christmas. 

I made the last two pineapple blocks for my Rainbow Scrap Challenge project...gold and dark green.  I have not sewn these blocks together yet but you can see my 12 blocks below. 

My green hat is just about done--I just have a bit of the seam to finish sewing up and then I can wear it!

I have started my scarf to match...I found an easy pattern on Ravelry.  knit 2, knit one in the back, pearl one.  Rinse and repeat.  I like the texture! The scarf will be a lower priority over the next while as I work on Christmas gifts. 

I finally quilted my Whistlestop quilt, a pattern by Christine at Tessalated Quilts.  I made the top a while ago and just never got around to quilting it until now.  Again, more green!

I chose to do some orange peel and straight line quilting with my walking foot.  I added the binding at home this week and will work on the hand stitching this weekend. 

Here is a cute picture of Finn as a brief break from all of my project photos!

Camp Kintail was decorated for Christmas, inside and outside.  This is the path from the building where we were sewing to where we had our meals. 

As I said in my last post, I put my sunflower cross stitch aside and have started a Christmas project.  It will not be done for this Christmas but it is fun to work on a seasonal project at this time of the year. 

My modern sampler quilt has most of the backing pieced with fabrics leftover from the front of the quilt as well as other fabrics from my stash. I have one more piece to add at the top and then I can take this to the long armer.  It is a twin sized quilt and too big for me to quilt on my DSM.

Another view of the path through the woods at Camp Kintail!

This quilt is an Elgin Piecemakers comfort quilt for a chemo patient at our local hospital.  Lynn put the blocks together and I am doing the binding.  I have lots of slow stitching to keep me busy this weekend!  I made the boat block in the bottom row of the quilt. 

I will be linking up with Kathy and the slow Sunday Stitchers on Sunday morning, as well as the Rainbow scrap challenge folks on Saturday morning and at Frederique's blog too on Saturday.  I am off to work on some Christmas gifts.  Yikes! It is December 1st tomorrow!

Architecture Class, Borders, Sunflowers, Christmas Bazaar and Knitting

Last Saturday, I took a zoom class with David Owen Hastings.  For the project, we were to each choose a picture of a building or structure to inspire our quilts. My husband and I visited Dunnottar Castle in Scotland a few years ago and I took lots of pictures there. The castle is mostly a ruin and my picture was of the end wall of the chapel.  We then used some paper frames to zero in on a particular part of our picture,  drew a pattern and made the quilt using three shades of solid fabrics and a pop of colour. 

Adding some walking foot quilting with various colours and weights of thread made my little quilt come to life.  I still need to add facings...maybe this week, that will get done. 

At the guild sewing day, I added the final borders to my modern sampler quilt.  It will fit the twin sized bed in the guest room perfectly!   I will be figuring out a backing and then taking this one to my long armer. 

Our church Christmas bazaar was today and I was asked to quilt this baby quilt top which was purchased at a thrift store for $3.  I stitched in the ditch around the rocking horse and around the light blue parts.  The backing is minky and I managed to finish it without any puckers!  The binding is a yellow and white stripe which a friend had in her stash. 

I have started the decreases on the top section of my hat.  It should not take very long to finish this off. I will be working on it for slow Sunday stitching tomorrow. 

A few more stitches were added to the Sunflower cross stitch this week.  I really want to put this aside and work on my Christmas picture...

There have been some cold and frosty mornings around here lately!

Finn is such a happy boy!  He decided that mid walk was a good time for a belly rub!

 

I will link up with the Slow Sunday Stitchers at Kathy's blog and with the Quilting Patchwork Appliqué blog.  Have a great week!

Guild Retreat Report

 This past weekend, my friend Christine and I went to the semi-annual Oxford Guild Quilt Retreat in Stratford.  We both were very productive at the retreat--sewing morning, noon and night with breaks for meals and sleeping only! This is why there was no blogpost here this past weekend.   I brought lots of projects with me--heaven forbid I run out of things to sew!  

I made a couple of Christmas gifts, one of which I can show here now.  This little wall hanging is for my MIL for her room in the nursing home where she lives.  She loves Christmas and having her room decorated for the season. 

I quilted this wall hanging and added a hanging sleeve and label before sewing the binding on. I used my new Hurty 1 ruler for making the HRT's.  The outer border is quilted with fuchsia thread.  The pieced section is quilted in the ditch with light blue thread. 

The backing was in my stash!

I wanted to use the HRT ruler to make an I Spy baby quilt next.  I brought lots of I Spy fabrics with me as well as this green background fabric.  I ended up using only fabrics with light backgrounds for this quilt.  There are lots of fun things to look for in this quilt.  I will quilt this one myself with my walking foot.  I found some backing fabric for it in my stash. I like to have a few baby quilts on hand, ready for gifting so this one will go in that pile. 

I put the blocks together for this modern sampler a few weeks ago.  I had to do some quilt math to get the width of the navy borders right so that the border with the squares would fit properly.  The top and bottom borders are slightly narrower than the side borders for this reason. There will be another navy border added.  I found some co-ordinating fabrics in my stash for a pieced back for this quilt.  I will take this one to the long armer for quilting. 

The church Christmas bazaar is quickly approaching.  I made these hot pads out of rope for our table and this week, we all made Christmas tree decorations to sell. 

I have figured out how to do the Trinity stitch for my hat and I am well on my way to finishing this part before the decreases for the crown of the hat. 

With all my knitting and sewing, I have not worked on my cross stitch as much this past week or so. 

The weather has changed and Finn likes to get out for a brisk walk with our daughter.  

Curling up for a nap on his cozy blanket is one of his favourite things to do after a busy day. 

I will link up with Kathy and the slow stitchers on Sunday morning. 

There will be another flurry of sewing at a second retreat at the end of the month...I still have lots of projects to work on.  I don't think there is any danger of running out of things to do.