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. 

An Update

My husband and I were away for a little over a week recently and I managed to get some more stitches done on my sunflower cross stitch in the car on our way to Colonial Williamsburg, in Virginia. I am not going to be able to finish this picture before the end of the month as I had originally hoped, but I'm ok with that.  One of our (unintended) souvenirs from our trip was two cases of COVID.  We tested positive before leaving Virginia so it was a long 12 hour trip in the car to get home.   I'm still really tired so not much stitching is getting done!  We had both avoided getting COVID up until this time. 

 I have done a little bit of knitting over the last couple of days.  The ribbing on my hat needs to be 4.5" wide and I am at 4" now.  Soon, I will be moving onto a patterned section of trinity stitch. 

On our way to Williamsburg, we stopped at Watkin's Glen State Park in NY for a rather damp but scenic hike.  Thank goodness for rain gear!

At Colonial Williamsburg, I saw a beautifully embroidered woman's pocket.  The top of the pocket had a drawstring which was tied around the woman's waist with the pocket worn under her skirt and accessed through a slit in the side seam.  No one except the wearer would see the gorgeous handwork. 

One of the gardens had these gorgeous magenta flowers which the bees loved. 

Finn says hello!  

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

Modern Sampler Borders, Sunflowers, Ribbing, and a Class

In order to make my Modern Sampler quilt bed sized, I need to add borders.  I decided to make one of the borders pieced with 2.5" squares.  I cut out lots of squares and then made them into twosies.  Some of them have been sewn into longer chains but that's as far as I got this week.  Next time I sit down at the sewing machine, I will work on this again. 

My Sunflower cross stitch is 3/4 done!  My goal of having this done by the end of October is achievable, I think.  I will keep stitching! The fourth quadrant is already in progress. 

I did a little bit of knitting every day this past week and I am just about finished the ribbing on my hat.  The next section is Trinity stitch and I watched a YouTube video on how to do that this week.  Wish me luck!

There were two new babies in the family this summer.  This is baby W with his quilt that I made for him.  His Mom reports he is enjoying tummy time on the quilt.  The quilt is folded in half in this picture. This quilt was made with flannel scraps and also has a flannel back.  I made two of them and each of the two babies born in July received one.  My flannel scrap basket is starting to overflow again so I made need to make another one to keep it from exploding onto the floor. 

I taught a scrappy drunkard's path class today for the Oxford Guild.  First, we pieced some scraps to make fabric and then I showed them how to do curved piecing to make the blocks.  Everyone had fun playing with their scraps and I look forward to seeing their finished projects.  This is a slower project as it takes a while to piece the fabric.  The black and white scraps with the green background is my block. This will count for this month's Rainbow Scrap challenge as we are to use light neutrals this month.  I also worked on my 6.5" slab blocks --I will show a picture of them when they are done. 

Our burning bush started to show its fall colours this week. It is such a vibrant red in the fall. 

My husband and I went for a walk at the park one morning this past week. The leaves are starting to turn and fall. 

Finn is not so sure he likes this colder and damper weather.  He always stands in the doorway to check to see if it is raining before venturing out to do his business.  He doesn't like to get his feet wet!!

 I will be linking up with Kathy on Sunday Morning and with Angela now for the RSC.  I have started linking up with Patchwork and Quilts as well. (Patchwork and Quilts is a bilingual blog--French and English.  I am learning French by doing Duolingo each day for 40 mins and I find I can read the French part of the blog with minimal reference to the English translation!)

Weight of Love, Sunflowers, and the Beginning of a Hat.

 Late last week, I picked up my Weight of Love quilt from my local long armer, Julie. My goal for the week was to have it bound in time to bring it to the Oxford Quilter's Guild meeting on Thursday for show and tell. I finished the hand stitching on Thursday morning.  Yahoo!  

The backing fabric was in my stash. There are a few strips in my gray scrap bin from trimming the quilt. 

Several years ago, I attended a quilt show featuring quilts from New Zealand.  I purchased some New Zealand fat quarters and used them in this quilt as well as other fabrics from my stash.  I don't know much about the flora and fauna of New Zealand so if anyone can tell me about any of these birds and plants, please do so in the comments!

Here are some examples of the different quilting patterns that Julie used. I wanted the hexagons to continue into the background fabric--you can see that in the pictures below of me holding the quilt. 

I took a class from Libs Elliott in November of 2019 and started this quilt then. During the class, we learned how to do Y seams.  Now I just need to add a hanging sleeve and put this on display in my house!

I am just about done this 3rd quadrant of my Sunflowers cross stitch.  I have added a few stitches in the fourth quadrant to use up the thread on my needle.  I hope to do some more cross stitching tomorrow for slow Sunday stitching. 

I started knitting the ribbing on my hat this week.  I try to do at least a couple of rows each day. 

We have had some beautiful warm days this past week (a cold front moved in last night so it is much cooler today), so my husband and I went to a local provincial park to go bike riding one day this past week. There was only a touch of fall colour here and there.  

My daughter made herself a strawberry and peach smoothie this week.  When she turned her back to take a call, Finn helped himself to a taste!  He liked it!

Finn was sun beaming during one of our Face Time calls this week. 

Happy Thanksgiving to my Canadian readers!  I will link up with Kathy and the Slow Stitchers in the morning. 

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.