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. 

Spring Rabbit Done!

 I finished off the last of the stitches on the Spring Rabbit counted cross stitch this week. Then, I added the butterfly antennae, the bunny's whiskers, the lines in the ears and the stitches to make the tail "fluffy".  I love the bright colours!  I will wash it this week and give it a good press before taking it to the framer.  I hope it won't take too long to frame so I can hang it up soon. 

In the meantime, I have organized the thread and cut the Aida cloth for my next counted cross stitch project.  I'm hoping to work on this a bit tonight and tomorrow for slow Sunday stitching. 

I played a bit more with my HRT units on the design wall. I may rearrange them a bit more before sewing everything together. They are all sewn into pairs, but not pressed yet. 

Angela has announced that the colour for the Rainbow Scrap challenge in April will be purple.  I always make a purple block and a red-violet block when the colour of the month is purple.   These strips are for my pineapple log cabin blocks which I hope to work on this coming week. 

When my daughter was little, I used to make her dresses and pyjamas.  I loved the pattern I had to make the pj's so much that I bought it in two sizes!  It has been used many times over the years to make comfy pj's for my daughter and my nieces. This week, I made a pair of summer pj's for a little friend of mine. A 5/8" seam is huge compared to the 1/4" I use for quilting!  I actually made these with French seams.  I had a family studies teacher in high school who taught me how to do French seams and I use them in clothing construction where possible. 

We took Finn to the park one evening this week.  For some reason, he is a much better walker when we go to the park rather than walking around the neighbourhood. It's a good thing there are lots of interesting parks to walk in where we live. 

We had 3rd or maybe it was 4th winter this week.  The daffodils where not happy...   They are in bud and if we get a few warm days this coming week, they may open. 

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

Slow Stitching and Trying Out a New Ruler

I added lots of stitches to my cross stitch picture this week.  I just love the colours in this project...so bright and cheerful.  One friend said this pattern looks almost Scandinavian to her and I would have to agree. There is a butterfly to sew next, once the large pink flower and the beet are done. 

I bought myself a HuRTy ruler (designed by Latifah Saafir) at QuiltCon and wanted to try it out on a small project before tackling a bigger quilt.  Here are my first few Half Rectangle Triangles on my design wall.  I am not sure what the final layout will be yet.  I have more sewn, but not trimmed yet.  Maybe, by next week, I will have a little quilt top to show you.  If you have one of these rulers, Latifah has a series of YouTube videos online to watch to learn how to use the ruler.  The print fabric is by Tula Pink and I only have a FQ of it so when it is gone, my blocks will be done!  

My crocuses are starting to show their bright colours this past week. 

The bees are starting to buzz. These flowers are covering my witch hazel bush. 

Finn likes to supervise the neighbourhood from his perch on the couch.  He keeps us informed about dog walkers, cars going by, delivery vans and the arrival of the mail.  It's a big responsibility but he is up for it.

 

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