Just Got Home from a Quilting Retreat!

Three days and two nights of quilting!  I always bring more with me than I can possibly do while I am at a retreat but I like to have options in case I feel like changing projects.  However, by the time I left today, I only had one project that I did not touch.  Much was accomplished!  I started out slowly with a warm up projects.  I am making nine patch blocks for my Rainbow Scrap Challenge project this year.  March's colour is yellow.  They are a bit brighter than they appear in this picture.  The lighting in the room washed them out a bit. 

 Next up...my shadowbox quilt.  I finished the quilting at home this past week and put the binding on by machine at the retreat.  It is ready for hand stitching this week.  I call the quilting pattern "waffle quilting" and did it with my DSM walking foot. 

Then I worked on a quilt which will be a gift so no pictures yet.  I completed most of the blocks and then ran out of fabric that I needed to complete the last three blocks.  I will work on this at home to finish the blocks soon. 

This I Spy Potato Chip block quilt top was quilted and I put the binding on by machine. More hand stitching to do this week.  I found the backing at my local quilt store on the sale rack. This was my first purchase in 2025 and I only have a small strip of it left after trimming the quilt. It's perfect! The binding was in my stash. 

I have had an idea floating around in my head for a few months now for a wall hanging made with nine blocks.  This morning, I made the first couple of blocks...yes, there are partial seams in these blocks.  The background is Essex linen.  I plan on making each block a different colour.  The next block is underway. 

I also did some hand quilting on my Arizona quilt after marking some more circles on my quilt.  One of the other quilters had a nifty circle marking tool which she let me use.  Here is a picture of the back of the quilt which shows how much is done so far.  Those squares to the left and right of the centre may need circles in them too. 

 

The church sewing group that I belong to is making 1200 inserts for reusable hygiene kits for girls in Malawi.  They cannot go to school when they are menstruating unless they have these kits. We have already made 120 bags to hold the kits and other sewing groups at other churches are making some of the other parts of  the kits.  I have dragged out my serger from hibernation to work on these.  I am getting really fast at my part of the process!  We have 600 made and 600 more to go.  The deadline is the end of the month.  We only have 6 people sewing for a few hours a week. 

My daughter is still working on the borders on her Christmas blanket.  It's a big blanket and it takes a while to work her way all the way around it. 

Finn will soon be coming for his annual stay at our house. I am looking forward to lots of Finn cuddles and walks at the park while he is here.  Stay tuned for his antics!

I will link up with Kathy and the slow Sunday stitchers as well as Frederique.  Take care and have a great week. 

Another Secret Project Reveal and Retreat Report

There was no blog post last weekend as Christine and I were at a crafter's retreat at Camp Kintail.  There were other people sewing, knitting, crocheting, paper crafting, card making, painting, rug hooking, etc.  Lots of interesting projects to walk around to look at when I had been sitting for too long! I worked on several projects, one of which was a gift and will not be revealed until after Christmas.  I quilted two baby quilts--one of which you can see in the picture below.  It is not quite done yet and I hope to finish it off this week. 

Christine also worked on a baby quilt among other projects.  We both had a very productive weekend!

Christine made us friendship bracelets which we both wore all weekend. 

Here is part of the back of the baby quilt--I used some flannel chunks in my stash to create this backing. 

I added solid green binding this week and the hand stitching has been completed.  

The camp has a silent/live auction and fundraising dinner every December and I made this zippered pouch for the silent auction. 

We got together with my cousin and her husband today for lunch.  I gave her the quilt that I made for her over the last little while. She told me her favourite colours are brown and teal. Again, I used the potato chip block as the basis for this quilt.  All of the brown fabrics and most of the teals were from my stash.  I had to buy a few FQ's to add some variety to the teals.  The backing was also purchased. I quilted this with the walking foot on my DSM. I'm happy to report she loved her quilt!

My cousin with her quilt:

My friend, Pat, has been making quilts for her grandchildren using leftovers from pyjamas that she made them over the years.  This one is for a grandson who just started college in the fall.  He is very athletic and likes to participate in lots of different sports.  The red and white four patch/binding fabrics and the blue border and backing fabric were purchased. I helped her pick out the pattern (Bonnie Hunter's Bricks and Stepping Stones) and showed her a quick way to make the four patches.  The quilt was quilted by a local long armer. The backing is all flannel and is pieced to use up all the flannel chunks. 

My daughter has been working on her Christmas crochet along blanket parts and is just about done all four peppermint corner blocks.  The peppermint stick part of the border is done too.  She's hoping to move on to the next part this week. 

With all my sewing, I have not had much time for cross stitching in the last couple of weeks. I'm hoping to so some more this coming week. 

Finn likes to relax while touching our daughter.  We call him the velcro dog...

Such a cute little face!

I took this picture on the hike on a foggy day from two weeks ago. This is a gingko tree.  

I will link up with Kathy and Frederique. 

Retreat Report

 I had a very productive weekend at the guild retreat last weekend.  It was glorious to have three full days to sew--meals provided and no dishes to do!  I added binding to two quilts that are gifts so I can't show those yet, but they are both hand stitched now and ready to gift.  I quilted the table runner I showed last week that will be for sale at our church bazaar next weekend and added the binding this week when I got home. I hope someone will like it enough to purchase it! I also worked on three pillows for the bazaar but forgot to take a picture.  I will do that for next week. 

I also finished off the last of my 12 placemats for Meals on Wheels.  Our guild is collecting them and they will be presented to a representative from MOW at our next meeting. 

And here are all twelve:

I made the scrappy square blocks a couple of years ago for one of my rainbow scrap challenge projects and then turned them into churn dash blocks a few months ago.  At the retreat, I added sashing, cornerstones and borders and it is now a quilt top, ready to be quilted.  I made blocks for three baby quilts at the retreat as well but can't show them here yet. 

My Winter Woods cross stitch now has some mushrooms in the woods--more trees and another mushroom  still to add. 

My daughter is making good progress on her Crochet-a-long Christmas blanket.  She is on step two of six.   Finn was oblivious to modelling the sections she worked on this week. 

The lavender in my garden is still blooming despite having several hard frosts. 

The fothergilla bush in the backyard is putting on a show right now too. 

I was happy to see that my butterfly weed has decided to plant a few seeds in my garden.  It is one of my favourite plants with its bright orange flowers. 

You know Finn and his love of sunbeams!

I will link up with Kathy and the slow Sunday stitchers, Frederique and the Rainbow Scrap Challenge folks too. 

Yet Another Retreat...

 It's true.  My friend, Christine and I have attended two quilting retreats in March, two weeks apart.  (We won't mention that we were away for a week at the end of February at QuiltCon in Raleigh, NC...).  This is the end of our quilting retreats for until November, when we have two more. We are both very productive on the retreats and manage to get lots of sewing done.  It's amazing what you can accomplish over the course of 2 1/2 or 3 days of concentrated time with no cooking, dishes and other distractions!  I spent most of my weekend making quilt backs, pin basting and quilting a wall hanging and two baby quilts. 

This is the rabbit wall hanging I made for my MIL in the process of being quilted.  I used my Hera marker and a quilting ruler to mark one of each of the pairs of lines.  The second line was 1/2" from the first one. The up and down quilting was done with light green thread and the horizontal lines with the blue thread you see on the machine. I finished it off with the binding made from the same fabric as the narrow border.  This has been gifted already and is hanging up in my MIL's room.  She likes to show it to people when they come into her room. 

I bought a panel to make a quilted baby book recently and sewed it together at the retreat.  It has been gifted to a baby that is due in April. 

The walk between the building where we sewed and the building where meals were served was beautiful!

I sewed this quilt top at the previous retreat and quilted it at this retreat.  The binding was added at home this week. There is a baby in mind for this quilt.  She is due in May. The backing is the same as the background fabric in the crumby stars quilt I showed on my blog last week. I had to add a pink stripe on the back to make it wide enough. The turquoise binding fabric was in my stash.  

The scrappy nine patch quilt was quilted with a simple cross hatch through the white and gray squares. Again, the backing fabric was not quite wide enough so there is a strip of light orange added to make it work. I added the green binding at home this week and I'm in the process of hand stitching it to the back of the quilt. 

Our knitting friend, Mary, and I went down to the beach to see the sunset. 

I received some money for my birthday in February and purchased a kit to make a "Sew Together" bag at QuiltCon featuring fabrics with a New York City theme.  I started sewing it at the retreat and hope to finish it this coming week.  

Spring is being a bit fickle this week and so, in anticipation of a snowy forecast for Friday, I cut some daffodils and brought them inside for my table.  

Finn was not happy about the snow.  He likes to lay outside in the sunshine and it has been too cold to do this for the last couple of days.  Thankfully, most of the snow melted today and it is supposed to be warmer this coming week. 

Someone added some Easter decorations to a tree at the park where I walk each morning. 

Finn loves this little squeaky chicken ball.  It is not round and bounces erratically which makes the game even more fun. 

I bought a freshly baked pretzel at the farmer's market this morning...doesn't it look like it is ready to kiss me???

I will link up with Kathy and the Slow Sunday Stitchers in the morning and with Frederique at her blog.