Friday, March 15, 2024

Spring has Sprung!

Warm, sunny weather was with us most of this past week.  (We won't discuss the snow that we had last weekend!)  I have put away all of our winter decorations and have pulled out the Spring things!  I want to sew with Spring colours too.  My MIL likes to have her room decorated for the season so I am working on a Spring wall hanging for her.  The rabbit and flowers are attached to the background with fusible appliqué and I used a narrow zigzag stitch around the shapes to hold everything down.  I plan on getting this quilted this weekend so I can take it to her next week. 


I added a bright green binding to my Crumby Stars quilt and it has been hand sewn down on the back.  A finished project!





I picked up my Spring Rabbit cross stitch picture at the framers this week and it is now hanging in our living room.  I like the distressed frame with a touch of orange to match the carrots!


I added some leaves to my Sunflower cross stitch this week too.  


Finn enjoys nothing better than a nap in the sunshine, inside or outside!



He supervised my hand sewing this week too.  He's a very busy boy!


These hellebores are from my MIL's garden.  They came to live in my garden when my MIL moved out of her house. Such a  pretty colour!


I think a squirrel must have transplanted this crocus to my backyard from the front yard.  




I will link up with the Slow Sunday Stitchers at Kathy's blog on Sunday morning. 

Saturday, March 9, 2024

Quilting Retreat Report


Last weekend, I sewed for three days straight at the semi-annual Oxford Quilter's Guild retreat.  Early in the pandemic, I cut up many of my scraps into 2.5" squares and put them into piles by colour into a plastic shoebox.  I challenged myself to make quilts using these squares to use them up.  I have made several quilts with these squares but still had lots left.  I brought them and some gray and white print yardage with me to the retreat.  I had designed this quilt in my head and put all the nine patches together at the retreat. It measures 44.5 by 44.5"--a great size for a fun baby quilt.  Unfortunately, (or fortunately, depending on how you look at it) I still have lots of squares left.  There will be more quilts made with these squares sometime in the future.  The colours are random and I like how it sparkles.  I have a quilting plan and hope to quilt this one soon.  The backing is in my stash so I am ready to go. 



As an outreach project, the Oxford Guild is making pillowcases for Indwell, a charity with provides supportive housing for homeless and people at risk of homelessness in our community.  Everyone in the guild was asked to make 3-4 pillowcases each and I made two at the retreat.  I have already made one and have the fabric ready to make a fourth one this week. 


Next, I pin basted two quilts--I hade the use of two tables at the retreat to do this --much easier on the back and knees than basting on the floor at home.  One quilt was quilted at the retreat with my walking foot.  I have picked out some green solid fabric for the binding and will be adding that soon. 


I have been admiring this Film in the Fridge free pattern for a while and decided to give it a try with a jelly roll that was given to me.  I added some solids from my stash to make this quilt top. The online pattern uses 3" strips for the blocks--so I scaled it down so I could use the jelly roll.  I did some Quilty math to maximize my use of the strips so each piece in the block is 3.5 by 2.5".  This top is now in the "to be quilted" pile. 



I purchased a kit from Gotham Quilts (based in NYC) to make a sewing bag at QuiltCon.  I read through the instructions, cut out the pieces, and applied iron on interfacing at the retreat.  I am now ready to sew it together.  I love the fun NYC prints!


This was posted on the door to the room where we were sewing at the retreat!


The food was delicious.  Lunch one day featured Italian Wedding Soup and gourmet sandwiches.  


When I got tired of machine sewing, I pulled out my counted cross stitch project.  I managed to finish this one this week and will have it framed soon. 






You may remember that I was not quite finished my sunflowers when I started the above winter stitching.  I am back to working on the sunflowers now.  Here is where I left off and where I am now. 



We went to pick up Finn earlier this week for his annual stay with us while our daughter is busy at work. I took a picture of my daughter's murder mystery cross stitch while we were there. 




People who go to the retreat donate door prizes and then everyone gets something to take home.  I won this fun puzzle. 


Spring is in the air at my house.  I bought these bunny tea towels in Raleigh. 



Like many other places, spring has come way too early to our area and my primroses are in bloom.  This is very concerning!




I will link up with Kathy in the morning for Slow Sunday Stitching and with the Rainbow Scrap challenge folks as well. The colour for March is purple.  There are lots of purple squares in my scrappy 9 patch quilt at the beginning of this post. 

Thursday, February 29, 2024

I'm Back From QuiltCon!

I am home from QuiltCon!  My friend, Christine, and I had a wonderful time meeting quilters from all over the world, attending lectures, looking at all of the quilts and shopping!  I have participated in the #makeaminimakeafriend swap at QuiltCon twice in the past and signed up again this year.  This past fall, I was told my swap partner was Katie in Oregon.  I asked her to make something that told me about where she lived and she told me she likes fall colours. I did not pick out fabrics or do any sewing until January but I was spending time before that mulling over a design.  I found some fabric for the background at a quilt store in January and that led me to picking the colours below for the quilt...four greens, four yellow/gold and four orange/red solids from my stash. 



Then, I got busy making a 6.5" churn dash in each colour. 


For the centre, I made a 12.5" churn dash in a churn dash block in two shades of gray. 


I quilted this project with my walking foot, using the background fabric from the front as the backing for the quilt. I did a poll with some Quilty friends regarding the colour of the binding and there were equal votes for gold, orange and green so I had to cast the winning vote for gold. 



All of the swappers met up on Friday night and exchanged their quilts with their partners. Katie and I hit it off right away and both of us were thrilled with the quilts we received from each other.  The quilt that Katie made for me features narrow strips sewn together into the shape of the state of Oregon and a Riley Blake Designs Oregon print on the back. Perfect!



Friendship bracelets were a popular giveaway/trading item at QuiltCon this year.  Katie made me the one on the left and I received the other one from Corinne Sovey. (Corinne is speaking via Zoom at the Oxford Quilter's Guild in March!)


It was a two day drive to Raleigh and lots of stitching was done in the car as we travelled.  I am working on the last motif on my winter/Christmas cross stitch project. Maybe I will get this done by next weekend...


Many modern quilt guilds from around the world participated in the annual Community Outreach quilt project and these quilts were on display at QuiltCon. Each year, there is a palate of colours and a theme to be used in these quilts. You can see the colours below and the theme was Symmetry. As a member of the Toronto MQG, I made four identical checkerboard blocks. Several other members were also given two fabrics to make four identical blocks.  There were no repeats in the blocks and once they were gathered up, a group put them up on a design wall to decide on a layout.  We just happened to be at the quilt when another member of the TMQG was there--Meg.  Christine took this picture of us pointing to our blocks. 



One of the advantages of going to QuiltCon is the weather--it's warmer and we get a taste of spring!  The camellias were in bloom. 


Downtown Raleigh has an oak tree and acorn theme.  


While in line for a lecture the first day, we met these modern quilters from Scotland.  They belong to the Glasgow and Edinburgh Modern Quilt Guilds.  It was fun to chat with them and we saw them several times throughout the show. Their fun sweatshirts and bags caught our eye! When I was in Glasgow several years ago, I saw the actual Duke of Wellington statue with the traffic cone on his head.






We saw our friend, Karen Brown of Just Get it Done Quilts, at the show too.  The three of us sat together at a quilting retreat several years ago and we saw her every month on zoom during the pandemic as members of the Toronto Modern Guild.  


Finn sent us this picture while we were away so we would not forget him!


We had a great time in Raleigh at QuiltCon and now we are inspired to sew!  Christine and I are off to a Guild retreat this weekend.  My bags are packed and I have lots of projects to work on. 


One more quilt--this was made by our friend, Barb.  She hosted several swaps that we participated in a few years ago and she spoke at our guild and led a workshop on pineapple log cabin quilts.  Barb's quilt was at QuiltCon but she wasn't.  Maybe we will get a chance to meet her in person some day!




We drove along part of the Blue Ridge Parkway on the way home.  Beautiful views!



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