Secret Project Reveal!

For a few months now, I have been talking about a secret project. My cousin has finally received her quilt and so now I can show it to you, my blog readers!  I did some sleuthing to find out my cousin's favourite colours and was told green and purple. I raided my stash to find several purples and greens that looked good together as well as a piece of gray hash dot fabric leftover from my modern sampler quilt.  I had just enough of the gray fabric and even had to piece a few of the triangles to have enough for all of the units.   For those who are interested, I use my Easy Angle ruler for the purple HST's and my quarter square ruler for the green and gray QST's.

Here are all the units on the design wall, partially sewn together. 

I pin basted the quilt at one of our guild sewing days where there was a large table to use -- It's hard not the knees to use the floor. You can see I mitred the corners of the border to match the HST angles.  I put green borders on the sides that touch purple in the units and purple borders where they touch gray or green. 

I quilted this one myself with my walking foot.  The thread is green going on one diagonal and purple on the other diagonal. I used my Hera marker to keep the lines straight in the borders. 

All quilted!  I used a solid lighter purple fabric for the binding.  

The backing fabric was in my stash!  I had to add racing stripes on the back of the quilt to make it wide enough. Funny story.  First I added a green stripe.  When I measured the back against the quilt top, it still wasn't wide enough so I cut down the middle of the green stripe and added the purple.  Success!  The only fabric I purchased for this quilt was the green border fabric. 

My cousin lives across the country and her mother visited our area recently so the quilt was delivered by my aunt yesterday. Of course, I forgot to take a picture of the finished quilt before giving it...  I will get my cousin to take a picture and send it to me. 

Since there can't be a blogpost without a picture or two of Finn...  Here he is with my daughter's crochet blanket that she is making.  It's almost big enough to cover Finn now--still lots more to do. 

Finn had a haircut yesterday and the groomer gave him a fall bandana.  Looking very handsome, Finn!

Fall will soon be here. 

Here is my cousin, all wrapped up in her quilt.  She loves it!

 I will link up with Kathy and Frederique on the weekend. 

Fall Leaves, Sunflowers and a Swatch

A couple of weeks ago, I pieced a fall leaves wall hanging and this week, I quilted and bound it.  The background fabric is Essex linen and the print fabrics had all been in my stash for several years. My goal for this project was to use up almost all of these fabrics while making a gift for my MIL.  I quilted it with straight lines using my walking foot.  

I used the Essex linen for the binding and hanging sleeve and finished off the hand sewing this afternoon. 

Here is the finished wall hanging, ready to bring to quilt guild this week for show and tell before giving it to my MIL at Thanksgiving dinner next weekend.  You can see how I used the leftovers on the back.  A few small pieces landed in my scrap bins.

Here is a picture of my somewhat wrinkly Sunflower cross stitch project.  I'm hoping to finish the lower left quadrant this week and then move on to the final quarter.  

I made a swatch of the wool for my new hat...I had to do this three times before getting it right.  I think I am ready to start the hat now...  I love the colours in this yarn. 

I went to our guild sewing day this past week and brought along my modern sampler blocks as well as the background fabric I purchased a few weeks ago.  These blocks were made during a block of the month organized by a friend from another guild from Sept 2020 to August 2021.  The original BOM was organized by the Kansas City Modern Quilt Guild and is available online for free.  I needed 13 blocks for my planned layout, so I made the circle block as an extra. 

Trying out this 4.5" sashing for size...

By the end of the day, I had all the blocks together.  I will bring this along to the next sewing day to add the borders.  I have an idea percolating in my head...   I am aiming for a twin sized quilt. 

Finn was in a deep sleep on the couch when my daughter took this picture.  He's got a certain style!

 I picked up a quilt from the long armers this week so I hope to work on the binding tomorrow for my slow Sunday stitching.  I should have another finish to show next week.  I will link up with Kathy in the morning. 

A Finished Quilt and A New Start

 Almost all of my sewing time this week was devoted to finishing the turquoise and gray wedding quilt.  Several hours were spent at the sewing machine, adding lines of quilting with turquoise thread using my walking foot.  The herringbone part of the quilt was quilted with diagonal lines following the pattern of angles of the turquoise strip piecing. 

The backing of this quilt is turquoise flannel--so soft and warm!

I did the hand stitching of the binding in the car.  I had some solid turquoise in my stash which was used for the binding.  I just noticed the thread formed a heart ... totally by accident, not design!

All done!  It's a bit wrinkly because of how I bunched in up in my lap in the car.  Both wedding quilts that I made this year are now in the hands of the newlyweds.  

When I looked in my stash of embroidery thread, I discovered that I did not have all of the colours needed for my next cross stitch project.  I had to go to two stores to get all of the colours.  I also bought some light turquoise Aida cloth to use for this picture.  The first colour I used was turquoise. (Turquoise seems to be a theme in this post!)

My husband and I took a trip by train to Toronto this week for my birthday, going to an exhibition at the Art Gallery of Ontario featuring the music, songs, poetry and art of Leonard Cohen.  We also went to the textile museum and out for supper before heading home.  It was a beautiful sunny day, perfect for walking around downtown Toronto. 

The sun was rising as we drove to the train station. 

Finn has figured out that the city my daughter is stitching is Ottawa.  He was out for a snowy walk today and spent some time rolling in the snow. 

Finn also wants you to know he likes to eat yoghurt, even though it is a bit messy. 

I will link up with Kathy in the morning. I'm hoping to work on some more cross stitch tomorrow for Slow Sunday Stitching. 

Wedding Gift Finished!

I have been working on two wedding gifts for couples who are already married.  The first couple got married in June and were told that they would receive their quilt by the end of the year.  This week, I finally finished their quilt!  I sewed straight lines about an inch apart across the quilt with my walking foot.  Would you believe that this took three bobbins of thread to complete???  I like the texture that the quilting added. 

I used some leftover purple fabric for the binding and hand sewed it down a couple of days this week as I watched Christmas movies on TV. 

My husband and I started our Christmas decorating today and hope to do the rest of it tomorrow.  We had to move some furniture around to make space for the tree.  My friend, Christine, made us this gnome wall hanging for Christmas a few years ago.  It's hanging in our front hall.  (I made the pillow)

Finn is happy as long as my daughter is close by.  He keeps one paw on her at all times, just to make sure she doesn't move.  This strategy doesn't always work...

Our church Christmas Pageant is tomorrow and I was asked a couple of weeks ago to make a couple of curtains for the "TV" at the front of the church where a reporter will be telling the Christmas story.  One curtain is plain black and the other is white with the words "Breaking News" on it. I used yardage from my stash for the curtains and hand sewed (with very large stitches!) some felt letters that I cut out onto the background.  This way, I can easily remove the letters and put the fabric back in my stash.  

I helped to install the curtains this morning before the dress rehearsal.  The top of the curtain is attached to rings with clips on them so the curtain will slide easily to change it from the white one to the black one.   

 We are looking forward to seeing the pageant tomorrow!  

Of course, there has been other hand stitching this week on my secret projects...   I will link up with Kathy in the morning. 

Another Retreat

You may have noticed that I was missing in action last weekend...no blog post!  Christine and I were away for the weekend at Camp Kintail.  The camp hosts two crafter's retreats every year and we try to attend both.  We both made great progress on the projects we brought with us and the meals and accommodations were fabulous!  The camp was decorated for Christmas, inside and out. The other retreaters were sewing, knitting, crocheting, doing paper crafts, making cards, making blankets, etc.  It was fun to see what everyone was up to and to visit with friends, old and new. I'm sure you are wondering what we made at the retreat...

I always like to bring a simple, warm up project to kick off a retreat.  I put my scrappy drunkard's path blocks together and decided on a layout.  I took a picture and then put the blocks away to sew together at home.  I will likely use this as a wall hanging.

Next, I dug into my turquoise scraps, cutting lots of strips between 1" and 2.5" wide.  Such a pretty pile.  

The idea for this quilt came from a free pattern on the APQS website called "Improvised Herringbone".  The pattern recommended foundation piecing the strips on a muslin base.  I didn't have any muslin so I used the interfacing cover from my recently purchased microwave instead.  I grabbed the cover from the box before it headed to the garbage and saved it from the landfill. (the box was recycled) I still have lots left, even after cutting everything I needed for my quilt. 

The blocks always look better after being trimmed!  Some of these scraps have been around for a while.  The heart fabric in the left rectangle is leftover from a quilt my daughter and I made for her bed when she was 12.  (She is 30 now!)

By Saturday evening, I had the quilt top made.  The background fabric is gray, even though is looks brownish in this photo due to the lighting in the room. 

I used lots of turquoise scraps, but, alas, when I put the lid back on the turquoise bin, it still looked full!

Christine did some hand stitching and made a cute ornament for her dog, Charley, for the Christmas tree. 

She also embroidered a name on a Christmas stocking, put the binding on a quilt, pin basted and marked a baby quilt for quilting and made some Christmas bags.  I don't have pictures of her other projects, sorry.

Saturday was a beautiful day so we took a walk down to the beach to see the lake after lunch. 

These friendly snowmen were outside the dining hall at the camp. 

The table centrepieces were made from pinecones and wood slices from the trees at the camp. There was a a big wind storm earlier this year that brought down a lot of trees.  The downed trees were cut up for firewood and crafts/decorations. 

I finished piecing the back of the wedding quilt I started earlier this year.  Samantha was too many letters to make so Sam it is!  As you can see, the wedding was several months ago.  I promised to have their quilt to them by the end of the year and I should be able to meet this goal.  The bride and groom chose the colours and style (modern) of their quilt. 

I spent some time this week working on the straight line quilting.  I'm about 2/3 done and hope to finish it soon. 

Of course, there was some secret sewing at the retreat as well...

I received a parcel in the mail yesterday.  It was from my daughter.  Last Christmas, she gave me piece of paper with the pattern for this embroidery picture to me as one of my gifts, with a promise to complete the embroidery before this Christmas. I was thrilled to open the package and find the finished embroidery.  It is now on the fireplace mantle in our living room. The pattern is by the Barmy Fox.  

Finn didn't want my daughter to leave his side as he slept on the couch yesterday, so he held her down with his paw.  

It's mitten season!  Finn likes to carry her mittens around but he doesn't damage them. 

I will link up with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge group as well as the Slow Sunday Stitchers.  My secret sewing projects are hand sewn...  have a great week!