Retreat Time And Some More Blocks

The Quilt Therapy Group needed a little bit of therapy so we decided to have a 3 day retreat.  It was held in Joyce's beautiful sun room this year and we all accomplished a lot of work and even went shopping one morning for more fabric.

Pierina was working on making pumpkins.

Four delightful Pumpkins

Three more and a little bit of decoration on 2 

of them.

She also made placemats to match but

I didn't get a picture.  I will

on our next therapy day, next week.

Joyce is making a purse.  The fabric could be summer or fall so it isn't too late to get started on it.  She picked up this beautiful fabric in Duluth when we were there in late May.

Lovely fabric

Joyce is quilting the inside of the

black flowers with black thread,

and then filling in some of 

the lines around the white and black

areas.

Maria has made 6.5 inch squares that she will

add to a wall hanging.  They will

become pockets on the wall hanging for 

baby essentials.

She appliqued a heart on the top.

This wall hanging is for a niece who is

expecting her first child.

I was working on some doll quilts.

They came out a little larger then

I thought but they will be great.

Doll Quilt number 2

The borders are different and that will also

be the backing and binding.

These little doll quilts are for Toys for Tots

 and are given to less

fortunate little ones for Christmas with a

Teddy Bear wrapped in them.

I have also made up more blocks from my BOM quilts.  I'm a little behind but catching up slowly.  Summer is such a busy time that it is hard to keep up, but with summer winding down I will be up to date in no time.

Morning Glory Designs

Letter N and Nostalgic Nine in Nine

Letter O and Old Oak on Point

In Colour Order August Block.

Some Things I am Working On

I am a saver and save scraps and large pieces of leftover fabric after a project is done. I really hate throwing scraps away.  After I finished the Shades of Autumn quilt there was a lot of leftover fabric and half square triangles so I got to work and found a small quilt that I could make with them. I am calling it Autumn Harvest because I harvested it from leftovers.

Autumn Harvest.

It measures 38 x 46 and made from scraps.

The only thing I purchased was the backing.

This is a small quilt made from a Charm Pack

that I won from Morning Glory Designs.

I added the white which was in my stash.

I have to purchase some fabric for the borders

and I will do that this week when I

am in Southern Ontario.

I have been working away on it so that I can take it with me when I am choosing fabric.

Right now it measures about 30 x 30.

These 2 fabrics are being used in 2 gifts that I am

working on for this weekend.  I can't

post them yet but will post later 

after they have found new homes.

Small Design Board

This is something that I thought a lot about making but just never did it until now.  I seem to be always jumping up and down from my sewing machine, (not that it is a bad thing to do) so when I saw this on another blog I decided to make one for myself.  I used her idea but made mine a little different.  You can see hers HERE.

I cut a piece of Styrofoam

13 x 13 since a lot of blocks

are finished at 12 inches.

Then I cut a piece of white flannelette

larger than my square.

Then I ran hot glue along around the edge

of the flannelette to stick it to the

Styrofoam.

Make sure you have something to rest your

glue gun on like a piece of paper

so that the glue doesn't go on your

cutting mat.

Nicely secured all around with

glue.

The right side.  It looks a little askew

but it could be just my picture

taking.

It didn't take me long to put it to use.

The idea is to lay out the block

on the design block and carry

it to the sewing machine so that it can

sewn together with very little

interruption.

Block #11 from Cranton Village Quilt Works

Block of the Month.

I didn't like doing this block.  The instructions were very poor.  Everything was cut on the bias and sewn together and that meant no sizing up of the square.  There were no final sizes for any of the blocks, you had to rely on your own judgement to decide what size each block should be.  This was the worst block from this series.  You had to be sure to sew the scantest quarter inch seam ever and then the final rows were sewn together with a regular quarter inch seam.

July 2012

We have had lots of company this month, my 4 grandchildren, SIL's, cousins, and nieces, so I thought I would post a few pictures of all the activity.  My grandchildren don't want their pictures on facebook so I think this is the best place for them.

Rowing Event, not quite the Olympics

The Best Grand Children ever.

The Gals

The Guys minus a few that had to leave early.

Up on Mount McKay, you can see the 

Sleeping Giant in the background.

Oldest grandson going home.

Playing Badminton at camp

Smoke from the campfire was lingering

in the trees and YKW was walking

down the road.  It makes an eerie picture.

I took a lot more pictures but if I posted them all, or more of them, it would be picture overload.  

Bags and Blocks

Sometimes I am called the 'bag lady' because of all the bags that I make.  I don't know what I am going to do with them all but I use them now and then.  I will have one for every season if not every month.

This is the Tahoe Bag.

I bought the pattern when I was in

Lake Tahoe for my sister's wedding

last November.

We were leaving the quilt shop

when I spotted it so I bought it in that shop and 

purchased the fabric in another shop there.

I made another Quilter's Carry All two thirds

the size that the pattern calls for.

I also made the front panel into a pocket.  I made

it just like the pattern but sewed it onto the main

bag instead of making it part of the bag.  The back of the bag

has the same panel but is not a pocket.

I am taking this bag on my next trip to

Europe in September.

It will make a good carry on bag for the 

plane.

Two more of my Irish Quilt Blocks finished.

I am up to date on them now just waiting for 

McCall's Quilting to post the last 5.  I am ready

when ever they get posted.

Joined at the Hip Block for July.

All half square triangles.

Tired and Hot

We were at the cabin the last few days working like crazy because we only had a few days to get the work done.  We were replacing some of the pink fiberglass insulation in the ceiling.  We had a leaky roof and Terry re-shingled the roof one year on the main cabin and then last year he did the bedroom and porch.

YKW checking over the situation

The insulation is all up, now the fun starts.

The plastic has to be added for a vapour barrier.

Three hours later and a lot of sweat

the plastic is up.

The temperature was around 28C so we 

also went through a lot of

bottles of water.

Paris revisited again

I bought fabric last year when Lynda and I went to Paris and finally got my nerve up to cut it.  This is the fabric from Le Rouvary Quilt shop that has the shop name on the fabric.  The fabric is called Romance de Paris Hearts and Flowers.  It doesn't really match anything in my house but I really liked it so I bought it.

I paid 4 Euros for 2 fat quarter pieces and the shop owner gave us some of her leftover scraps.  If you calculate it into Canadian dollars it is almost 7 dollars per fat quarter.  Well I am only going to be in Paris once in this lifetime so I bought it.

I had to piece the back of the cushion that I made because I wanted it to be made out of all Paris fabric.

I made the back envelope style

so that the cover can be taken

off if I wanted to.