A Busy Week

 For many reasons, this has been a very busy week!  Today was our church Christmas Bazaar so I was adding some quilting to some placemats every time I had a bit of time to sew this week.  For this set, I quilted along the red stripes both vertically and horizontally, creating a grid. 

Wavy lines were sewn in the boat and house sections of these placemats. I though they might be nice for a cottage. 

These red and white placemats had a few rows of wavy lines added. 

Organic wavy lines were quilted onto these paisley placemats. 

Lots of people came to the bazaar and most left with bags full of items purchased from the various tables...knitting, crafts, Christmas decorations, baking, canning, wood working, books, puzzles and more. The sewing group sold a lot of items and we have some things left to store for next year's bazaar.  I also did some Christmas shopping...

For my slow stitching this week, I continued to work on my secret projects.  I heard from quite a few others last week that they were also making gifts. 

My husband and I are sleeping under our new Lupine quilt.  Warm and cozy and it looks great on the bed!

Finn got snow on his beard when he went for a walk this week. There is nothing like fresh snow to sniff!

I will link up with Kathy and the Slow Sunday Stitchers in the morning. 

Finishing Other People's UFO's

Sometimes, we quilters have UFO's--unfinished projects that seem to just take up space in our sewing rooms that we just don't feel motivated to get them to the finish line.  The quilt below was given to me by another quilter along with the backing fabric, probably over a year ago...long enough for me to forget who gave it to me to finish! I was asked to quilt and bind it and then give it to the Chemo Unit at the hospital for an adult chemo patient.  Just before last weekend's Oxford Quilt Guild retreat, I found this in a bag and decided to take it with me to quilt at the retreat. I used my walking foot to quilt straight lines through all the blocks. The quilting shows up better on some blocks than others.  I used leftover backing fabric for the binding. I brought it home to do the hand stitching on the binding.  It is now completely done and ready for donation!  Lots of scraps in this one!

Next up, I made four table toppers out of quilt blocks that had been donated to the church sewing group for the bazaar.  I quilted each one differently and used some of my own fabrics for the binding.  The backing fabric was donated to the church. Again, I did the hand sewing of the binding at home this past week. The church bazaar is next weekend so hopefully, someone will buy them and take them home!

I also worked on a pieced backing for a wedding quilt that I am making.  I used Lori Holt's "Spelling Bee" book to piece the Bride and Groom's names and wedding date for the back of the quilt. This took a while as there are lots of pieces and steps to sewing each letter.  I'm pleased with the result though and I hope the newlyweds will like it too. 

A secret cross stitch project is underway as well.  Here is a small peek.  Other secret sewing happened at the retreat as well but I'm not revealing anything for now. 

The Elgin Piecemakers had a sewing day on Wednesday and Yvonne and I worked on our quilt for a refugee family that we started in the summer at another sewing day.  We managed to finish the top of the quilt and piece the back. It was taken home by one of the long arm quilters who will call one of us to pick it up to do the binding as soon as it is quilted. Each pair of quilters was given a stack of batiks to use for their quilt.  The fabric was donated to the guild. 

My butterfly weed was fluffing this week when I was out cleaning up the gardens and raking leaves in the yard.  This is one plant I would not mind having more of!

When my friend and I were out walking one morning this week, we noticed that there were five squirrel nests in this one tree. They are all visible now that the leaves have fallen. 

Finn thinks the best way to deal with colder weather is to cuddle up with your favourite fluffy blanket and have a snuggle. 

I will link up with Kathy and the Slow Sunday Stitchers in the morning. 

Secret Sewing Season and a Retreat

 I have been working on some secret Christmas sewing all week.  It is a hand stitching project and I just love how it is turning out!  Unfortunately, I can't show any pictures until after December 25th. 

This weekend, Christine and I are going on a retreat with the Oxford Quilter's Guild.  I spent a couple of hours Wednesday evening gathering projects to take with me.  I like to bring a variety of things with me so I have a choice. Of course, I have a couple of projects to work on by hand, including this cute sheep ornament.  I bought this little kit at a quilt show a couple of weeks ago. (my only purchase!)

In the picture below, you can see my projects.  Upper left--a comfort quilt--someone gave me the top and the backing.  I am supplying the batting and quilting and binding the quilt.  The purple pile is a wedding gift that is not done yet.  They were married in June.  I hope to get the top and the back finished this weekend so I can quilt it next week.  My rug hooked sheep just needs the edging done...I'm hoping that there is a rug hooker on the retreat that can remind me how to finish the edge.  The bag of fabric on the lower right is full of the supplies I need to make some Christmas gifts.  I also have a box of Christmas fabrics and a couple of table toppers to quilt for the church bazaar.   Believe it or not, last year, I ran out of projects to work on!  I don't think there is any danger of that this year!

A friend and I go for a walk every morning.  Thursday morning, it was a bit foggy and the water was very calm...a great combination for some pictures. 

Finn likes to nap in a sunbeam and watch our daughter work. 

I will link up with Kathy and the Slow Sunday Stitchers on Sunday morning.