Retreat Sewing and a Comfort Quilt

I love going on quilting retreats!  Lots of uninterrupted time to sew, no meals to make and no dishes to do!    Christine and I had a wonderful time and both of us got lots of sewing done.  I made this cute little wall hanging--I called it "Gnome for the Holidays!".  The gnome block was designed by cottonandjoy.com.   I quilted it with my walking foot--inspired by a class I took with Jacqui Gering a few years ago.  I even added a hanging sleeve and have cut the dowel!  I will find a spot to hang my Gnome tomorrow. 

I assembled these bird blocks, made by members of the Elgin Piecemakers, into a quilt top.  This will be quilted and bound and given to our local women's shelter. The bird blocks are a lot of fun!

I spent quite a bit of time assembling my lupin quilt.  I had access to a large table where I could layout four columns of blocks at a time.  

Pretty soon, I had half of the quilt put together.  You can see my blocks all numbered off to the left.  I had a system to keep all of the pieces and blocks organized!

3/4 done--the last four columns are each together but not sewn to each other yet.  I will work on getting the top finished as soon as my Christmas gifts are made and wrapped.  I had hoped to work on my modern sampler quilt at the retreat too, but ran out of time.  

I made a disappearing 9 patch quilt this week using some of my batik stash as a comfort quilt for someone with cancer this week.  I had a wide variety of fabrics in browns, beiges, and greens which all seem to go together. 

Here is the top, waiting to be pin basted.  

I used some leftover squares and larger hunks and chunks of batiks in the same colours for the pieced backing. 

I do my pin basting on the kitchen floor.  It is hard on the knees but it's easy to spread everything out then and tape the backing to the floor. 

The wavy line quilting was done with my walking foot--it is one of stitches on my machine. 

Tonight, I made the binding and got it sewn on by machine.  I will continue to hand stitch it tomorrow for my Slow Sunday Stitching project. I will link up with Kathy in the morning. 

Finn enjoyed a walk in the snow this week.  He does not like to wear the booties though and it is quite a production for my daughter to get them onto his feet before they go out. 

I made a Christmas pillowcase for someone special this week.  She does not read my blog. 

This black squirrel was enjoying a peanut when I walked by him at the park earlier this week.  

Secret sewing and knitting continue around here as well.  Take care and have a good week.  Stay safe. 

Crafters' Retreat

Christine and I spent the weekend at Camp...we each brought numerous projects with us and I am happy to report that progress was made on everything!

My ironing board is almost due for a new cover---ignoring that, you can see I worked on my flannel vortex baby quilt--my third flannel vortex quilt (I have also done one out of cotton quilting scraps).  This quilt involves lots of sewing, pressing, trimming, and then more sewing, pressing and trimming. I went home with some larger chunks, ready to be made into a quilt top.

I started a new Christmas quilt--no pattern, just my own design as you go project.  I will keep playing with more of the fabrics to add more shapes to this one.

I cut up yards and yards of these two fabrics for sashing and borders for my Tula Pink 100 Modern Blocks quilt.

I made them into twosies.

Here they are all sewn to the blocks, waiting to be pressed.  After pressing, the blocks got put away in the bag to be taken home for some time on the design wall before sewing them together.

I also did some hand sewing on Frank Lloyd Wright--no pictures--just some more outlining.  I sewed down the binding on the Christmas tree wall hanging as well.

I finished off a couple of Christmas gifts as well...top secret...no pictures.

By this time, my sewing machine was balking at sewing smoothly, so I checked under the bobbin for fluff...

Just as I thought...

Cleaned out and working much better afterwards!

There were delicious pumpkin scones to eat...

We went on a few walks around the camp on Saturday as it was a lovely sunny day.

Stairs to the beach.

Early morning walk.

A comfortable spot to watch the waves roll in.

We couldn't miss a visit to the ladies.

What a great weekend with the crazy quilters!  Lots of laughs and lots of sewing.

I came home and after supper, my husband and I finished putting together the quilt block puzzle.

Until next time...

A Very Shiny Nose...

Rudolph, the Red Nosed Reindeer, had a very shiny nose!

Tonight, I sewed the 13th of 15 Christmas blocks for the Sew Fresh Quilts Holly Jolly Christmas quilt.  I decided to make my reindeer block into a Rudolph block by changing the nose from black to red.  The eyes are quite small--only 1/2" by 1/2".  Here is my completed block...

I cut the pieces out on Saturday at the Guild Sewing day. There was a tiny bit of unsewing with this block...  I think Rudolph looks very festive!

Here are all of my blocks: (The partridge block will be going on the back of the quilt...I'm not fond of the brown--not enough contrast and it looks dull with all of the other colourful fabrics I have used for my blocks.)

I had a visitor in the bush outside my window yesterday.  This female robin was eating the berries off of my Oregon grape holly bush.  As you can see, there are not many berries left on this bush.

My red echinacea plant is in full bloom at the moment.  It is beside my front porch so I see it every day as I go in and out of the house. 

I will be linking up with Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilts on Wednesday.   I have a couple of other finishes to share later this week, so stay tuned!

Making Blocks

I have been sick for a few days this week with what my friends are calling "the crud".  Today was the first time I was able to do some sewing as I am finally feeling a bit better, thankfully! 

First up...the poinsettia block for Lorna's "Have a Jolly Little Christmas" quilt along.  I purchased the red fabric with the dots last week at Mad About Patchwork.  (I actually came home with several yards of fabric, but we don't need to discuss that now, do we?)

Here are all four blocks that I have made so far.  The next pattern will come out two weeks from now. 

There will be gray sashing between the blocks (same fabric as the background--I had to buy more at MAP!)

Next up, I made my next comfort quilt block for the Elgin Piecemakers Guild.  The colours for March are gray, white and yellow.  I saw this block online at www.abrightcorner.com.  It is called Scrap Bin Geese and is under her tutorials tab. 

The one I saw online had scrappy grays and whites with all the grays on one side and all the whites on the other side of the yellow geese.  I decided to try something a little different with my block. 

I am slowly working on the 2016 Bonnie Hunter mystery as well and did some cutting today for the half square triangle units.  Nothing to show yet...

I want to do some more sewing this week.  Hopefully, "the crud" has left the building!