Almost a Week at the Cottage

Christine and I spent most of a week at her cottage and did lots of sewing, chatting, watching movies and eating good food!  It was a bit buggy outside so we were mostly inside.  Christine has lots of bird feeders which she kept well stocked all week so there were lots of birds and other critters to see out the window. 

But first, the sewing!  I added yellow binding to my colour challenge quilt and, over a few days, finished hand stitching it down.  The dock was a good place to take some pictures. 

I did most of the hand stitching in the evenings while watching a movie and drinking tea. 

The colourful birds at the feeder were distracting, but in a good way!

For June, the RSC colour was "pastels" but since I don't have many pastels in my stash, I decided to make purple blocks this month.  I completed all the purple blocks for my four projects while we were at the cottage. 

The Kawartha Dairy just released a new ice cream flavour this week.  We had to try it, of course.  Delicious!

One of my goals for the week was to make the last (paper-pieced) block for my Summer Sorbet sampler from the Threadhouse Academy.  It took a while to make this block as there were four curved paper pieced sections and then curved piecing to put each quadrant together before sewing them all together to make the block.  I put all the blocks together into a finished quilt top before we headed home. I have fabric for backing at home and will work on getting that pieced and the quilt pin basted this week. 

Christine noticed a visitor under the bird feeders one day.  What does the fox say, you may ask?  Nothing.  He was too busy eating.  

Our friend, Cathy, from Eagles Wings Quilts came over for lunch and an afternoon of stitching and catching up. We had not seen Cathy since we were up at the Cottage last June!  I stitched my yellow binding, Cathy worked on some knitting, and Christine did some cross stitch.   A fun afternoon!

Down on the dock, I took a couple of pictures of Christine with her projects.  This Christmas wreath wall hanging had the binding sewn on at the cottage.  The double star with the grey background is for her colour challenge project and is the last of 12 blocks that she has made.  She will be able to assemble the quilt top now. The quilt top hanging in the screened porch is ready for quilting now that the borders have been added.  We also both worked on  Dream Bird coin pouches from the Taster Weekend for the Threadhouse Academy.  No pictures yet...I will take some when we finish our projects. 

You all know that Finn loves a sunbeam.  My daughter took these pictures this morning.  The second one shows her progress on the rounds of her crocheted blanket. 

I took lots of bird pictures at the cottage...  The goldfinches and the hummingbirds were fun to watch at the feeders. 

This squirrel and others were happy to munch on seeds that fell on the ground. 

I am on the program committee for the Oxford Quilters' Guild and we are organizing a 9 patch swap  mystery quilt for the 2026-27 year.  I made 20 nine patches in three colours while I was at the cottage.  Christine worked on making nine patches too but I didn't get any pictures of hers.  The instructions will soon be sent out to the participants in the swap.  I decided to get ahead of the game as I hate the last minute pressure of getting something done for a deadline.  I am also trying to encourage more guild members to sign up for the swap by sharing pictures of my nine-patches.  Each month, the participants will bring in 20 nine patches in a specific colour. The program committee will collect the baggies of nine patches and redistribute them evenly amongst the participants--each person will get 20 nine patches back at the next meeting, made by the other participants. We will swap nine-patches for 7 months for a total of 140 nine patches.  There are also constant blocks which will be made along the way.  At the end of the guild year, the final instructions on how to put everything together will be given out.  It will be fun to see everyone's quilts!

To end this very long and picture heavy post, I present a picture of a new type of featherless bird at the feeder...

I will link up with the RSC folks, the Slow Sunday Stitchers and Frederique. 

 

Two Retreats in a Row

 Yes... Christine and I were at quilting retreats two weekends in a row! I had a second set of projects lined up to take to our annual Spring Oxford Guild retreat before the Camp Kintail retreat.  The truth is that I could go on even more retreats and still come up with projects to work on.  Christine is in the same boat!

I finished up my chain link blocks for the vice president's challenge--I have decided to set them on point but have not decided if I want to add sashing or not before sewing them together.  I will have to audition sashing later.   

As you can see, Finn is very willing to help model my quilt blocks, often artfully rearranging them along the way. 

Next, I worked on my red Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks for March.  I put them on the floor for a photo this am and, again, Finn was there to help. 

I sewed the binding on my scrappy baby quilt and got it sewn down by hand at the retreat.  I still need to add a label.   The backing was purchased at an estate sale. 

I started my 12 Green Bottles Quilt, a Threadhouse Academy class with Jo Avery, at the November guild retreat and have not worked on it since then.  I find I need a good chunk of time and lots of space to work on this quilt as I audition colours for each part.  The first picture is going to be the centre block.  I hope to finish it soon.  

This is one of the borders on a corner section. 

As you can see, I have two corner blocks done and two more started.  I was pleased with the progress I made at the retreat.  Our guild is having a quilt show in the spring of 2027 and I hope to have this quilt done in time for the show. 

I will be linking up with the Slow Sunday Stitchers on Sunday morning, with Angela and the RSC group on Saturday and with Frederique too. 

A Busy Two Weeks

I was away last weekend and did not have time to blog before I left so today's post is a catch up on what I have been up to for the last couple of weeks.  I am happy to report that I have finished hand quilting my Arizona quilt and I am now working on getting the binding hand stitched and adding a sleeve and label.  

The Oxford Quilter's Guild show is the coming up very soon and I have registered 12 quilts in the show.  Most of them do not have hanging sleeves yet so that will be my hand sewing project for the next little while until they are done. I have five prepped and ready to stitch and there are more quilts waiting for sleeves to be made. 

Here is the information about the show in case you are local and are interested in coming to see all the quilts!

The church sewing group finished making the hygiene kits for girls in Africa a few weeks ago, and now we are working on items for our Christmas bazaar in November.  I found some neat vintage kitchen fabric in our stash and made two lined aprons and I am in the midst of making a third apron with bees on it. I used an apron I made for myself 37 years ago for the pattern.  I still wear my apron even though it has a few stains on it.  Maybe I should make myself a new one...

I made two more spinning drunkard's path blocks last week and just have three more to put together.  They will have to wait until I am ready for the quilt show. 

The weather has been up and down here.  One day it is sunny and warm (ish) and they next day we wake up to snow on the ground!  Hopefully, Spring will come and stay soon!  There are a few flowers blooming in my garden including these primroses. 

I have two hellebores that came from my MIL's garden and they are both blooming. 

The first mini  daffodils are out too. 

I am currently reading this cozy mystery, a gift from my daughter for Christmas.  Interesting characters and plot!

I received a kit to grow micro greens and planted them on Tuesday.  By Thursday, they looked like this. 

And today, they are like this.  Growing like crazy.  We will soon be able to enjoy some on a sandwich or a salad!

Snow from earlier in the week...

Finn enjoyed a long walk at the elevated park earlier this week. 

Finn celebrated his 7th birthday last week and my daughter bought him a giant squeaky banana which has proven to be quite popular

My husband and I have been working on a Charley Harper puzzle in the evening.  This one is called "Once there was a field".  I always think elements of his pictures would make interesting quilts. 

I should get back to my hand stitching.  Take care.  I will link up with Kathy and Frederique.