Sewing to and from QuiltCon in Atlanta

My husband and I drove to Atlanta last week so I could go to QuiltCon.  This was my second time attending this great gathering of modern quilters from around the world.  My friend, Christine and I went to the 2019 conference in Nashville, but unfortunately, she was unable to come this time.  As you know, I like to sew in the car to stay awake on long car trips and this trip was no exception.  I did quite a bit of stitching on my Spring picture. I forgot a couple of floss colours at home so the holes will be filled in soon. The rabbit is almost done and I have started working on the flowers.  I love the bright colours in this piece. 

Speaking of Spring, it had arrived in Atlanta before we got there for QuiltCon!  We spent an afternoon at the Atlanta History Museum and wandered around the grounds where there were lots of flowers in bloom. It was warm, 23 degrees Celsius, and the sun was shining.  

What better way to celebrate Spring than ice cream from Jeni's?  This is by far the best ice cream I have ever had.  We went to Jeni's when we were in Nashville too.  It seems to be a QuiltCon tradition...  I had Brown Butter Almond Brittle and Darkest Chocolate ice cream.  Yum!

Of course, I did a little shopping at QuiltCon.  

My orange fabric drawer was quite depleted so I added some more fat quarters to my stash as well as some dots and some fun neutrals.  I'm looking forward to trying out this new ruler and I've wanted to try making some rope baskets for a while too. 

While at QuiltCon, I noticed several people were sporting Quilty fashion items--jackets and bags.  Here are a few that caught my eye. 

I have a jean jacket in my closet that I don't wear very often...perhaps I will add embellish it with quilting and I can wear it to quilt shows...  

Of course, there were lots of wonderful quilts at the show too and I will show my favourites in a future post. Christine and I are off to a Guild Quilt Retreat this weekend. It may take a few posts to get caught up on all of the quilting news!  I will link up with Kathy on Sunday morning for Slow Sunday stitching.  I have packed my cross stitch to work on at the retreat. 

Take care. 

Cross Stitch Rabbit and a New Project

I spent a little time each day this past week adding stitches to my Spring cross stitch picture. The rabbit is coming along nicely.  Finn is here for his annual visit while my daughter is busy at work and he doesn't mind lying beside me as I stitch.  He is used to doing that while my daughter works on her cross stitch when he is home with her. 

 My daughter's picture of the city of Ottawa is coming into focus as she adds more colours.  The giant spider is a statue called "Maman" in from the the National Art Gallery.  I am adding a picture of the actual statue  below--I didn't take this picture..it is from the internet. The sac below the mother spider's body is filled with spider eggs. 

Today, I attended  the Vice President's day at the Oxford Guild.  Everyone was making the same quilt with their own fabrics.  I chose some bright turquoise, orange and green from my stash for my blocks.  There will also be some black and white fabrics in this quilt.  I finished all my blocks while at the sewing day and will work on the layout and the black and white parts at an upcoming quilt retreat.  The colours are brighter than in the first photo.  

I made one more comfort quilt block for the Elgin Piecemakers this week.  The pattern, Prairie Queen, was given to us and we were to use blue, yellow and white to make our blocks. 

Finn was looking quite dapper in his heart bandana on Valentine's Day this past week.   He will be getting his hair cut this week... You might not recognize him 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. 

Quilting, Knitting and some New Projects in the Wings

I spent a little time each day this week working on quilting this wedding gift quilt.  It is much bigger than the quilts I usually do using the walking foot on my domestic sewing machine so I decided to keep it simple with horizontal lines on the background fabric.  The scrappy herringbone section is shown below.  It involves a lot more manipulation the quilt I have finished three sections and will work on getting the rest done this week.  Then, on to the binding!

I started another knitted cloth this week.  I am using the same pattern as the last one I made but I'm using smaller needles this time. I'm hoping to be able to do the entire pattern without running out of yarn.  We shall see if this works!

I have been wanting to start another counted cross stitch project for a while now but was not sure what I wanted to make.  This week, Sarah at Quilting By the Sea sent me an email about the patterns at Satsuma Street being on sale.  She wondered if my daughter might be interested.  I took a look at the website and promptly bought three patterns for myself. I think I will work on the Sweet Spring pattern first.  I checked my embroidery floss stash and discovered that I did not have some of the colours needed for this pattern so there will be a trip to the craft store to buy those this week. I can't wait to get started!

I am celebrating one of those significant birthdays this week--one that ends in "0".  To celebrate, my husband and I hosted a Murder Mystery Party last night based on the theme "Happily Ever After".  Everyone dressed up as a Fairy tale character and had parts to play in developing the story and then solving the mystery.  I was Red Riding Hood.  I made my costume with some solid red fabric that I had in my stash.  Prince Charming, Snow White, Rapunzel, Hansel, Herb the Dwarf, Beauty, the Beast, Axe the Woodsman and Red Riding Hood's Grandma were in attendance.  We had lots of fun!  

Finn really likes it when my daughter puts some peanut butter in his Kong.  

I will link up with the Slow Sunday Stitchers at Kathy's blog. Have a great week!

A Little of This and A Little of That

Regular readers of my blog may remember that I took an introductory class in rug hooking last summer.  The hooking has all been done for a while and I finally finished off my project last weekend.  A friend who describes herself as a "hooker" and "addicted to fibre" showed me how to do the outer edge of my sheep project.  I hope to hang this little rug on the wall in my sewing room.  I would be quite willing to try another rug hooking project. 

For the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, this week I used up some tiny scraps to make these four 6.5" square slabs.  I am not sure how they will go into an actual quilt yet, but each month I will make some in the colour of the month and will decide later what to do with them. 

Speaking of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, I completed one of my 2022 tops --the scrappy Drunkard's Path blocks are now put together.  This top is now in the "to be quilted" pile. 

I finished appliquéing the last house's window and door for my Coming Home Quilt this week.  Next up are lot of leaves (80 of them!), some vines and four birds.  I have lots of cutting out to do before this next step!

Finn would like you to know that my daughter has started another counted cross stitch city.  She did not tell me what city it is so your guess is as good as mine. 

Finn also wants you to know that the snow where he lives is deeper than him!

We have a bit of snow here finally--it has been a mostly snow free winter until this past week.  It looks pretty on the tree branches in the park where I walk each day. 

I pin basted and started quilting a wedding gift this week. The top was made at a retreat in November and I've got a deadline of two weeks to have this quilted and bound so I can give it to the newlyweds. I'm using 28 wt thread for the quilting. I like how the turquoise contrasts with the gray background fabric.  The lines are about an inch apart.  I have a different quilting plan for the turquoise part of the quilt.  Stay tuned. 

I made some more comfort quilt blocks for the Elgin Piecemakers Guild this week. I have them all done (except for two--waiting for the instructions) for the year. 

Navy, lime green and white:

Nautical theme using the colours in the sail fabric. 

Gray, yellow and white:

 I feel like I got a lot done this past week.  Let's hope that this coming week is just as productive!  I will link up the the Slow Sunday Stitchers and the Rainbow Scrap Challenge folks in the morning.