Quilt Retreats are The Best

A few weeks ago I was invited to a quilt retreat at a quaint secluded spot about an hours drive from my home.  The wonderful thing about retreats is that you are given the time to just quilt and be with a  terrific group of like minded women.  Your meals are prepared and when they call you for meals you sit down to a delicious array of food.  I knew a few of the women there and the rest I got to know over the 4 days that we were away.  It was a great group with lots of chatter and friendships made.  I took a few pictures and wish that I had taken more.  

The room was set up with 3 to a group of three tables.  If you wanted to be closer to friends you could but most of us used our full table.  We blew a few fuses to start with and then settled for three irons on the go instead of everyone using their own iron.  We all shared and just took turns.

A beautiful appliqued wall hanging

It is hard to see the strips of colour in this tote but it was made with beautiful batiks.

The beginning of a beautiful quilt.

Some different squares that were being worked on.

A makeup case started.

  

Tiny squares that went into a lovely baby quilt or teddy bear quilt.

Magic nine patches.

Paper piecing to be made into a quilt.

 

I made three quilt tops over the 4 days and brought them home and quilted them.  They are all lap sized.

Click on any of the pictures so see them enlarged.

What a wonderful 4 days we had; we even had a snow storm while we were there but didn't really care because we were inside surrounded by friends and happily working away on our wonderful hobby.

Peggy

Two New Baby Quilts

We have a doctor shortage here where I live so it was really great to finally get a new Doctor last year.  We are in a small clinic and all the doctors are young graduates with a few years experience.  The clinic has been open for a few years so we are not their first patients.  Our doctor is a female, which I am really pleased about, but the one problem with having a young female doctor is that they tend to have their families when they are young.  In November when I last saw her she told me that she was pregnant.  In Canada pregnancy leave is 12 months but she told me that she is only taking 6 weeks off work so she will be away in February and part of March.

Being a quilter my first thought was that I would make her a quilt for her new baby.  

I made this quilt for Dr. G and then decided that I didn't like it.  I wasn't happy with the way the quilting turned out.  This one will be donated to the guild.

So then I make this one.  The colours are little softer and I left out the cornerstones.  On both quilts I made a green flange because I don't know if the baby is a going to be a girl or a boy and I didn't want pink or blue.  There is no pink in either quilt.

A bag for the baby quilt.

The fabric for the bag is the same fabric that I put on the back of each quilt.  When I buy backing fabric I always buy at least 4 meters and I was glad that I had because I had enough for both quilts and enough to make the bag.  I found a cute green button to match the green of the dinosaurs for the closure. This is an RJR Fabric that I just fell in love with.

Peggy

More Scrap Quilts

It has been a while since I blogged but things have been busy around here.  My brother has been ill so my thoughts have been with him.  He passed away after a quadruple bypass that he had before Christmas.  It was a tough recovery and took it's toll on his body.

I have been making more scrap quilts to keep my hands and thoughts busy.  One good thing about our craft is that you can immerse yourself in it.

Christmas Quilt

This quilt was fun to make until I realized that I made the flying geese 3 x 6 instead of 4 x 8 so I had to make a lot more squares than what the quilt called for.

 

My Neighbourhood

I have made this quilt before and really like it so I made it again.  That is something that I rarely do.  I usually just make a quilt pattern once unless I really like the pattern then I duplicate it.  Some of my houses are really colourful just like what you would find in any neighbourhood.

A Runners Quilt

A couple of years ago a friend of mine made a quilt out of this material for her daughter who runs marathons.  She had some leftovers from the backing and figured that she wouldn't use it again so I took it and made a scrap donation quilt out of it.

Peggy

Now is the Time to Show Gifts I Made for Christmas

Since Christmas has come and gone I can now post more of the gifts that I made for family and friends.  Every year I have to wait until the gifts are opened before I can show more of my sewing.  This year was a mug rug Christmas.  I made so many that I lost count of them all.  I even made one for me but I forgot to take a picture of it.  I guess I will have to do that soon.

This is a cushion cover I made for Lynda using the Pineapple Log Cabin block.

The beige strips and the backing are all about post cards.  She is in a group called Post-crossing where you send post cards to other members of the group, so I thought this fabric would be a hit and it was.

Mug Rugs for Maria.

I used a pattern from Craftsy but changed it and put applique for the word Sew.

She collects miniature shoes so I added one to the second rug.

Mug Rugs for Joyce.

Joyce's home has many outdoor bird feeders with blue jays visiting so I made a blue bird with a bird house for her second rug.

These were given to my sister and her husband

in California.

More Mug Rugs for special people. 

My daughter has an orange cat and my

son and his girl friend have a black cat.

These are really cute coasters for the guys on my list.

Christmas Pure and Simple

I started this wall hanging in the summer but only finished it now because I hate panels.  I don't know why I buy them except that they make great quilted wall hangings. 

I had an old wall hanging with the nativity scene that I had for about 20 years and decided that it was time for a new one.  

I had it quilted by a local long arm quilter because I couldn't decide how I would do it let alone manage the size of it.

I left off the outer border because it would be too large for the wall it would go on.  I am happy with it even without the extra border.

Snow Days

My son asked me to make him a wall hanging and we came up with this one.  I started this one back in April and finally got it finished now.  One of his grandfathers was a railroader so possibly that was why he was attracted to this panel.

I had this one quilted by a long arm quilter and she quilted snow flakes on it.

It wasn't a Christmas gift but it was a good time to finally get it finished.

Peggy

More Placemats

I started these a while ago and as things go they got put aside.  I thought I blogged about them but when I posted the pictures a few days ago of the other placemats that are slightly different I realized that I hadn't posted them.  

I made 12 of these to use for Christmas dinner because I never know how many people I will have but usually not more than a dozen.  I have been known to set the table for less people than were coming for dinner.  I don't think I will go wrong with making 12 this time.  Since I made the other 4 I don't have enough fabric left to make a table runner so I guess I will just go with the placemats this year.

Peggy

Christmas Isn't Far Off

Last Christmas I received a new wall hanging kit from my daughter.  It was a Christmas wall hanging and since the Christmas of 2014 was over and 2015 was a long way away I put the wall hanging away and forgot about it.  I was rooting through some of my drawers looking for UFO's and I found the wall hanging.  Since a lot of time had gone by I thought I better get on it and get it made.

A panel with a difference

According to the instructions I made holes in the panel around the tree and inserted lights that came with the kit, added batteries to the small pack that sits in a pocket in the back.

I have it hanging in my hall.

I also made more placemats from Christmas fabric.  They are a lot like the last 12 I made but I had to put green binding on them because I ran out of red.

When Lynda and I were in Tallahassee last year we went to a Quilt shop and I bought some winter fabric to make placemats for me for winter.  I didn't want Christmas but winter so I chose some whimsical snowmen.  I decided to use them this year again and wanted a table-runner to go with them, so I pulled out the left-over fabric and came up with a runner with the same pattern as the mats.

I used a dark green for the background triangles to set off the squares.

I think I have all my Christmas quilting done and will post it after Christmas.  I am going to concentrate on my UFO's and a new baby quilt for my doctor.

Peggy

Making Christmas Gifts

I have been really busy making Christmas gifts but I can't post some of them because the people that they are made for, check my blog.  There are a few I can post and I will save the rest for after Christmas.

Christmas Tree Skirts

I made one of these for myself last Christmas and had lots of leftover fabric so I thought that maybe my children might like one as well.  I had started them and put them aside because there were other things to make and Christmas was a long way off.  I actually forgot about them.  I was going through my boxes of projects and came across them about a couple of months ago.  I decided that I should get going on them or I wouldn't get them finished for Christmas.

There are very few repeats of fabric in them.  The pattern is really interesting because there is no real angle to cut it is all done with measurements and a regular ruler.  You can find the PATTERN HERE.

I also made some mug rugs and coasters.

I have made these before and they are so easy yet so attractive.

Jody does a great tutorial on this mug rug. 

The Pattern is HERE.

When I was in Southern Ontario last year I found this great strip of fabric to make some beer coasters.  The back is also neat because it is beer mugs.  I didn't quilt these because I tried and didn't like the result so I just put backing and batting and then sewed them right sides together, flipped them and top stitched around the edge.

Peggy

From Scraps to Scrappy

Working on scrap quilts keeps me busy.  I love to find new patterns and then sort through the scrap bins to come up with a quilt.  Sometimes I have to cut the pattern down to a size that I like working with so I have to choose patterns that I can do that too.  I like them to fit onto one piece of fabric for the backing and the usually size turns out to be 38-40 x 48-52 inches.  The size that will fit onto a wheelchair or a small lap quilt.

Jewel Toss

This quilt used up some of my 2 1/2 inch squares as well as some of my 5 inch squares to make the 4 1/2 inch half square triangles.  Check out Moda Bakeshop for more scrap quilts.  I think I have said this before, but as soon as I see the pattern using a charm pack I think of scraps.  I may have to make this one again, really like how it turned out.

Dog Lovers Quilt

I had this dog fabric that I hated to cut up so by making it into large squares I was able to use it without losing some of the doggy faces.  I good quilt for Precious Bundles.  I hope a little boy gets this one.

Peggy.

Applique Workshop

I have been under the weather, as they say, so I have not been doing much blogging.  I did attend an applique workshop put on by Dori Hopko from Sioux Lookout here in my home town.  She rented a conference room at one of the local hotels and there were 16 of us learning a lot about applique.  She talked about different needles and what to use them for and also gave us a lesson on thread.  We learned about stabilizers and different types of backing for your applique.  Dori also spent time going over the different applique stitches that can be used on a project.

Here is some of the work done that day.

A large selection of different applique techniques.  A great workshop and a lot of information was giving out to the participants.

Peggy