A Buddy Retreat , More Tops!

 The sewing group I joined when I first moved

to northern Alberta no longer meets but

we still manage a retreat each year. 

I took along the second hopscotch box

to work on.  There were about 1/3 of

blocks made up so I had a pleasant afternoon

stitching away on twosies to get it underway.

Then, I arrived at the edges. 

The original pattern shows a confetti like 

border but I wanted the blocks to flow 

into the border and appear to be floating. 

That meant the blocks touching the edge 

have to have the border fabric added. 

There were three choices for the border fabric. 

 Once again the winner was the one with

enough quantity!  It was going to be tight

but the math didn't lie. 

The winner was sliced up,

 

and all the edge blocks were modified to

 

flow into the border. 

Only a few snuck by without their border

partners, but they were soon altered. 

Tada!  Here it is in all its wonder. 

I am not sure if the center really floats but the 

thought was nice. 

The border fabric was the perfect amount!

Just a few scraps remaining!

Now I have 2 hopscotch tops to quilt! 

Onward to the pinning table!  I have more pins!

Stay safe and sew on!

Linking up with :

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Mountain Rest Stop

 I took a small hiatus and hung out in the 

beautiful Alberta Rockies for the weekend.

My YS (youngest son) and his darling wife ran in the

 grizzly paw Mountain Trail Marathon.

1800 runners over 2 days at the 

Canmore Nordic center. 

We enjoyed fantastic weather, 

lots of camaraderie and the kids both 

finished well in their classes.

The Young Buck of the family actually 

ran all five legs of the marathon and finished 8th in his class,

so overachievement all the way around!

We managed to get it all four seasons in one weekend.

Saturday morning was cool and fall like.

Later in the morning it was still cool 

but beautiful like a spring morning.

Early afternoon was bright and sunny,

without too much heat for the runners,

The evening began to cool off 

with a tiny spit of rain by dinner time.

A perfect day for running through the woods.

The next day we awoke to.... Snow!

We walked thru the beautiful town of Canmore 

and had a delightful lunch at a café. 

Truly a wonderful vacation.

Now on to the stitching!

The cover is coming off and 

I'm going to start working

on decreasing my personal backlog.

First up will be that adorable little owl quilt.

Horizontal stitches across the quilt,

will run up to each of the owls.

The owls will be outlined and 

maybe accented with one line of echo quilting.

A nice complimentary binding and it should be done!

Happy Stitching!

Owl Quilt is a Hoot!

A little owl quilt is turning out to be quite a hoot!

The strips of flannel were given to me in a bag of scraps

from one of the guild's charity groups. 

 

There was a wealth of blue and pink flannel scraps.

The little owls were part of a grab bag at a quilting garage sale.

 The mention of a quilt needed for a new cousin

by one of my DILs, made my brain

jump into action and the cuteness of the 

little owl print squares did the rest!

It came together right on the design wall,

with no written plan, so the spacing of the owls

is very random. 

It turned out well and now

the same is happening with the back.

A white strip of donated knobbly minky,

combined with leftover strips,

then widened with some leftover yardage,

and some more pink flannel strips,

are going together to make a nice pieced backing.

This top may or may not end up with batting

as the weight of the flannel and the minky 

could make it cuddly enough without a batt.

That will be decided at the pinning stage.

~~pin, pin, pin~~

This little quilt definitely needs a batting.

The different weights of the minky and the flannel

will be evened out by a batting.

Oh the pinning was fun!

We'll see the finished quilt in a few weeks!

It was definitely a hoot!

Linking up with:

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A Border Too Wide

The last retreat did not produce a border for

the many strings quilt,

but it did  inspire a new quilt using the borders that were too wide .

Pinned up on the design wall it looked like this.

I had great plans to use the sew along 

leftover gold 2" strips

as sashing for this quilt,

but they weren't really making the colours pop.

So I started auditioning colours.

Just like Goldilocks,

the black was too dark

there's not enough of this green,

a bit too bright,

a lot too dark,

it's so hard to decide!

Finally, I found just the right one.

Some time was spent repairing the edges.

I'd forgotten to do the stay stitching and with 

the curing time it spent in the closet,

there were quite a few stitches that had come

 

undone just enough to require repair.

So what did I choose?

Green! (I found more)

Now I have another flimsy to pin!

I'll have to find some more pins!

Stay Safe and Sew On!

Linking up with:

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Diamonds In the Rough

My year of making string quilts started out

with these lovely color family isosceles triangles.

The blocks are coming along nicely.

Smaller amounts of lovely greens and purples,

and yellow, blues and oranges.

Surprisingly, a large amount of browns, 

and the same amount of beige/white units!

Red seems to be the big winner!

They will end up in a few different tops.

It is possible that one will be completely blue,

with maybe a hint of yellow or green thrown into spice it up.

Maybe even black, which always makes the colors pop.

Blue is my largest scrap color 

so there are a lot more scraps to be sewn up. 

There weren't any gray strips lining up

to go into the triangle blocks.

The gray drawer in my storage bin,

has an abundance of strips so I may revise that,

 in order to add gray to one of the colors 

that's a little short on blocks.

That was my initial plan but a 

color wash top would be fun too!

The color piles were moved in to storage bins in 

the workroom to present a bit tidier look for zoom meetings . 

The tidy lightens up the mood too!

Stay Safe and Sew on

Linking up with:

Design Wall Monday

Free Motion Mavericks

Monday Musing

Wednesday Wait Loss

Sew & Tell

Put Your Foot Down

Handmade Monday

To Do Tuesday

SrSPS

Off the Wall Friday

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Patchwork & Quilts

Stitching Stuff

Oh Scrap!

Are Buttons a Stash?

 Stash -/staSH/   a store or supply of something, 

typically one that is kept hidden or secret.

So, does this meaning describe a supply of buttons?

How many of us have a goodly supply of buttons?

Do we keep it secret or hidden?

Time for confessions is now. 

Here is a tour of my button stash.

I am not a "buttoner" as  button collectors are known. 

I have buttons because people give them to me,

I find them, I put them all in one place. I have a weird

frugal idea that I could use them for something worthwhile,

be in  clothes or crafty items. 

Recently, my button supply has increased due to 

legacy buttons, and estate donations.

I even get some as surprises among sewing scraps!

There are many superstitions about buttons.

An odd number of buttons on a wedding dress, 

were supposed to mean good luck.

Sewing a white button with black thread was bad luck

and finding a button is lucky.

 The oldest button is about officially 5,000 years old!

I like to display some of my buttons

and every so often I need one.

Many of mine are kept in antique canning jars like this one,

or decorative tins.

More antique jars,

and some are hiding away with other items.

I have green ones, pink ones,

big ones and small ones. 

More in jars, 

and lots are in bags.

Some look like bones, and some look like bees.

Some look like cups!

Many are are hiding on shelves in little containers.

 

I don't count these, they're more like beads.

These are from Scottish highland costumes, 

so they have lots of memories.

This one is more like a bone than a button.

So, do I have a stash or a collection?



It is surprising how many I have

 when I track them all down.

There is even a Legacy Collection

that should get sorted and dispersed.

Have fun with your buttons!

Stay safe and button up!