Sewing Retreat Report and Gardening

Last weekend, my husband and I went to the Camp Kintail Crafter's Retreat--Christine, my usual accomplice at retreats, had other plans for the weekend so my husband agreed to go with me.  He did some reading and worked on weathering some model train cars.  We also went for several walks--it was a gorgeous sunny weekend. I finished off the last three blocks for this quilt.  I have not decided what to name it yet... The blocks are not put together yet as they have to be all trimmed to the exact same size first.   They are bigger than standard 12.5" blocks.  All these fabrics came from my stash--the background is Essex linen. 

I also got caught up on my hollow nine patch blocks for this year's rainbow scrap challenge.  Green is the colour for May and red for April.  

I made a pillowcase for my MIL for Mother's Day.  We stopped to have dinner with her on our way home last Monday.  Her dad was a beekeeper and this fabric has bees on the flowers.  She has it on her pillow now and is telling everyone I made it for her. 

This panel was donated to our church sewing group and I took it on as my project for the bazaar.  There are little ornaments (mostly made already) that will be added and hang on a button for each day of advent.  I did the quilting of the wall hanging at the retreat.  This still needs binding. 

My flannel scrap bin is overflowing again so it is time for another flannel scrap quilt.  I cut up some scraps and started sewing them in pairs.  On Monday night, I started sewing the pairs into foursies.  (Christine was here to sew that evening)

After consulting with my hooking friends, I decided to remove the stem stitches and start over.  Luckily, taking a line of loops out of a hooked rug is very easy and quick.  They both suggested I use two strands of yarn for one line of loops in the stems.  I will give this a try soon. 

I asked my daughter for a picture of her April books and granny squares for her book blanket.  She was quite busy at work in April and did not do a lot of reading.  The pace is picking up in May so there will be more squares made this month. 

We have spent lots of time working on the yard and garden this week. This is the last daffodil to bloom in my backyard--so pretty--I like the orange edge on the centre part of the flower. 

My husband picked our this unusual plant at the garden centre where we bought annual for our porch and patio pots.  It is called Kangaroo Paws and originated in Australia.  We looked up what real kangaroo paws look like and you can see an image at this link.  The plant does look remarkably like real kangaroo paws!

I planted all our patio and porch pots and so far, everything is doing well, despite the squirrels best efforts to dig in the pots...

I need to buy some smaller trays for the bottom two plants on this stand. 

My husband's dad always grew geraniums from seed for us each year so we put geraniums on our front porch every year in his memory. 

Christine and I went out for lunch in Port Stanley for her birthday this week.  We went for a walk and then stopped for ice cream before heading home.  

Our deutzia bush is starting to bloom--it will be covered in these small white flowers very soon. 

Two chipmunks entertained my husband and I as we ate supper one night this week.  They would come close to us and then run off quickly. It was hard to get a good picture!

We hiked with the hiking club one morning.  I love seeing all of the spring green emerging at this time of year. 

And, the trilliums are blooming!

Finn likes to lend a helping paw when my daughter is reading or crocheting.  

My Mother's Day gift was a new cookbook.  I have already tried one of the recipes!  yum!

I will close this off with a sunset picture from Camp Kintail. 

I will link up with three blogs this week--Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitchers, Angela's Rainbow Scrap Challenge as well as Frederique's weekly link up. 

Pitcher Plant Rug Hooking

Our daughter arrived last weekend to stay for a few days before taking Finn home.  She and I spent one evening stitching together--I worked on my rug hooking and she did some cross stitching.  Unfortunately, her stitching was off by one square and  she had to rip out quite a bit of what she had accomplished so that project is now in time out!  I think my stem looks too thick so it may need to be ripped out and made skinnier.  Maybe it would look better if some of the background was hooked around it?  Any advice from the hookers?

Flowers are blooming everywhere--I saw these lilacs on a walk one day, just starting to open. 

We took Finn for a walk in Port Stanley one evening and there were lots of baby geese. 

Swimming as fast as they can to keep up with their mom. 

While checking out my garden one evening, I saw these tulips blooming...

...and mama bunny.  Her babies are in a  nest on one of our gardens, under the pile of dead grass in the second picture.  I found them when cleaning up the garden but put the grass back where I found it when I saw the babies. 

More daffodils blooming this week. 

And primroses. 

We will miss having Finn around but will see them both in June. 

I will link up with Kathy and Frederique this weekend.  I am looking forward to some sewing time this weekend.  Happy Mother's Day to all the Moms and women who have this role in the lives of children.
 

The Guild Quilt Show

The biannual Oxford Quilters Guild Show in Embro, Ontario happened over the past couple of days. As you know, I spent much of my sewing time over the past couple of weeks sewing sleeves onto my quilts for the show. On Wednesday morning, I dropped off my quilts and Christine's quilts so that they could be hung for the show. I entered 11 quilts and my barn quilt into the show and took pictures of each of them at the show.  

This is one of the quilts I made for the new Hospice which will be opening this summer.  It's a potato chip quilt. 

My modern sampler was my only bed sized quilt that I entered into the show.  It was a bit too long for the quilt rack so the bottom of it was pinned up. 

This big quilt was made by Megan using a pattern from "Quilts of Iceland".  My Shadowbox quilt is on the chair beside it. 

Here is my Overlapping Tiles quilt. It has all bias edges which is why the bottom is a bit wavy. 

I can't remember who made the house quilt but Christine made the pink and gold quilt.  My Crumby Stars quilt is on the chair. 

This is a better picture of Christine with her Pink Pineapple quilt. 

Christine called her hollow nine patch quilt "Jelly Beans."

Here is my scrappy nine patch.  You can see that both Christine and I like to make scrappy quilts!

Yet another scrappy quilt--this one is an I Spy Potato chip quilt. 

This is a Poppyprint pattern--I forgot to get a picture of the label and can't remember who made it.  You can probably tell why I liked it!

Several years ago, three friends and I ran our own round robin one summer.  This is Christine's quilt.  I made the triangle border.   (More scraps!)

Lynn made this fabulous teal/turquoise quilt during the pandemic. 

My Arizona Adventures quilt...

It was fun to see two barn quilts at the show--this one is mine and Christine made the second one, but I did not get a good picture of hers. 

My Whistlestop quilt was displayed with another quilters "cats in teacups."

This is Christine's recently finished Christmas quilt. 

"Put a Ring on It"-- machine pieced and hand quilted by me.

I really like making I Spy quilts... this one was  made with Half Rectangle Triangles.

I suggested that we offer a Scavenger Hunt for younger visitors to the quilt show. After the quilts were hung, I went back and made a list of things that could be found in the quilts.  I typed it up and the chair of the quilt show committee and I made prizes for participating in the hunt.  I made several rope bowls and Gwen made some pouches and crayon rolls. I was at the show on Friday and there were several children that completed the challenge.  It was fun to watch them looking at all the quilts to find everything.  (Feel free to borrow this idea for your guild's quilt show!)

Finn and I did some reading on the front porch this week.  I started a new book. 

Our gardens are bursting with spring blooms. 

When in Newfoundland in 2023, I purchased a rug hooking kit. This flower, a pitcher plant, is a carnivorous plant and is the provincial flower of Newfoundland.  Here is a picture of the plant in full bloom--this is not the pattern that I am stitching.  I have started hooking the border as you can see below.  This will be my slow stitching project for the next while. 

Christine, Katharine, and Carol and I are doing another round robin starting this month.  Here is my centre block and the fabrics I am including for people to add borders. I will not see it again until the big reveal at the end of the summer. 

 I will link up with Kathy and Frederique as usual.