Retreat Success

Oh,  retreat was good to me!

Lots of stroller tops are done up so I can get quilting this week.

The mini vacation for me is coming up,

so I'd like to have them quilted and ready for binding

before I head off to the woods.

Here's a little show of what was finished last weekend.

Found pale blue  5" squares paired with I Spy blocks,

and this little stroller quilt was the result.

Cute as a bug and fun to look at.

Next up was a visit to New York to see the

 Rockettes march across the stage!

Just a few misplacements and 

the garlic knot quilt top was complete.

It's just spicy enough to be fun and should be great to quilt .

The salmon were sewn up quite nicely

 although one setting block did get lost in transportation.

As luck would have it,

a perfectly good triangle was found in a scrap bag

given by a friend. Spring spawning was saved!

Not be outdone, 

some 6 1/2" blocks got into

 the mix and went together in a cutesy

5 x 7 arrangement of I Spy fun.

Just look at those happy pigs in the corners!

I will be swapping out one of reds in the 

top row.  Those dancing cats just didn't behave!

There was also an interesting little floral block.

Paired up with even more leftovers from other projects,

it turned into a sweet little quilt that is sure to delight.

The fused centre will be 

grid stitched quite tightly so 

there's no danger of the applique lifting

Finally, there were bricks of two sizes 

waiting to go into column quilts.

These were leftovers from the I Spy block cutting frenzy.

These will be paired with some interesting fabrics and 

make some fun quilts for gifts or donations.

Just a few more blocks for equalizing the 

 length and they should be ready.

The smaller bricks ( 5 1/2") will find 

their design this coming week. 

Till then, happy stitching!

Stay Safe and Sew on!

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Retreat Season

Retreat season is upon us. 

Just like hunting season or ski season, 

we pack up our bags, 

all our equipment and off we go.

 

 I'm gearing up for the 3rd and last retreat of 

this spring retreat season.

I still  have projects that I can take.

Obviously, I'm either well prepared or 

I just have too many projects.

So let's see what's in the works for the next retreat.

I've got quite a few more rainbow scrap 

blocks to  put together for the 

next strip quilt. 

It is still lacking the remaining colors.

The bags of strips and scraps are ready to go

except for the red .

 I am going to harvest some chunks

and root thru the scrap drawer 

to make a goodly bag for the red squares. 

This is some of my chunk storage. 

Lots of red in this one.

I hope to have a number of baby quilts 

ready to bind,

and a few more I Spy quilts ready to stitch together.

Surprisingly, there are still lots of interesting 

fabrics in my stash, so I had another bit of fun

cutting out more I Spy blocks. 

Remember all those big ziploc plastic bags

I was gifted?  They are perfect for retreat projects and 

making up kits to take.  They are more space efficent 

and keep me a bit more organized!

These will certainly certainly keep me busy

 for another weekend in the country.

Two of last week's stoller quilts are

still waiting, so they will go back into the mix. 

The last retreat was at a lovely hotel 

within the city but the next is out in the country 

so it will feature a few walks

 through the woods 

in springtime.

Right now I'm going to pop outside

 enjoy some 18 C/ 64 F weather.

Stay Safe and Sew on!

 

Oh, That Garlic!

 These garlic knots are picking my biscuit!

They keep getting moved around and around,

 put out on the sewing table,

but never making any progress.

That's how many of UFOs are born.

They have some sort of glitch 

that makes us set them aside to deal with later.

Well later has arrived! 

The glitch with these was choosing

fabric for the background 

that was in short supply.

When a new background came into play,

the whole project kind of got pushed aside.

So now let's dig out some low volumes,

and get this plan in motion.

Count up how many blocks are complete,

and go from there.

Here is the block with the first  

low volume background. 

I counted up the blocks and 

there are more than enough for

 a very nice stroller/ baby quilt!

No more garlic for me!

The extra strips will be used to 

shadow lattice some crumb blocks I have

waiting in the wings.

 

 

Any square backgrounds remaining

can be used as alternate blocks in baby square top

I've been waiting start.

 Amanda Jene Nyberg says it best,

" No scrap left behind!"

Stay Safe and Sew On!

 

Add it All up!

 Finding matching blocks on that Discovery table,

leaves room for lots of different ideas.

These blocks were all leftovers from Chains of Love 

that I did ages ago for my brother.

I ended up making two, a small and  a large, 

because the blocks were fun to make.

It seems no pictures exist of those two quilts. 

Here is the pattern from the book.  

Notice how most of the blocks look nothing like the pattern?

I made the plus blocks and 

put triangles on the corner using the stitch and flip method.

Then I would cut them down to

 the proper size for the X blocks.

Oh the things we learn.

Thinking back on the name of this quilt,

it was a bit of foreshadowing, 

but that is a story best told elsewhere.

Anyway, I'm going to put these plus blocks

 together as nature made them,

and use a half block as the border. 

There are 26 of the 6" blocks to start with. 

They could go into a small stroller quilt

 but there are many whites waiting for a purpose

and I'll let them shine in this quilt. 

The pattern is from this book that I've featured before.

It has beautiful quilts in it as well as the

 occasional heartwarming story. 

 It is just a wonderful book.

The X blocks went off to quilt Canada for 

the block challenge. 

Can't wait to get started on more plus blocks!

Stay Safe and Sew On!

Linking up with :

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Oh Scrap!

Swimming Up Stream

 It's almost a time for the salmon to start 

going back to where they were born.

These little blocks were discovered 

when I was packing up blocks

for the quilt Canada leftover block challenge. 

I feel good saying that 190 blocks 

are on their way to go into charity quilts

to be done at quilt Canada.

These little fishes will be starting to swim upstream

on a background of white on white.  

Ripples will be sewn into the white squares 

a water effect.

I would love to have it ready for this 

month's meeting but I'm not sure how far I'll get today!

So, here is where it lands this morning!

Some precut 5 1/2"  strips made great

background blocks and it is ready to stitch!

It will certainly be ready by next month's meeting.

And also that time of year again.

I have another retreat coming up!

Most of the prep for that is done.

I just need to recharge the sewing kit and

 verify a few projects and I'll be ready.

My little featherweight

 with the handi work tray always goes along to retreats.

Have a great week stitching!

 Linking up with: 

Monday Musings

Design Wall Monday

Sew and Tell

SSPS

Put Your Foot Down

Wednesday Wait Loss

I Quilted This

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Finished or Not Friday

Off the Wall Friday

Oh Scrap!

 

Out with the Books!

 Nothing like a good fabric sale

 for a friend to help you realise

 how much extra you have in your sewing room.

The weekend found me clearing out a lot of my books.

Some I hadn't looked at in a long time,

and after a good peruse I found that 

a lot were more instructional

instead of pattern oriented.

So out they go.

There are a few places 

to donate good quilting books.

A local charity that has

big fabric frenzie twice a year,

and a few of local thrift shops

 that are in areas with many quilters

are also good outlets.

My shelves are now looking pretty tidy,

 with a lot of the books out of the way.

I even  sorted project boxes 

 that just said "scraps".

There are a few empty project boxes

on the shelves. 

Remember those pins?

More were unearthed during retreat packing. 

split pins in 2 sizes,

plain old straight shirt pins,

and scads of safety pins.  

I am a pin baster and use the 1 1/2" pins. 

There are straight and curved ones.

I find the curved ones are a bit too light. 

Smaller ones get used for labels and size tickets. 

These, however , these are not the pins we're looking for!

Have a great week stitching!

Design Wall Monday

Sew & Tell

Monday Musings

Handmade Monday

Stitching Stuff

Wait Loss Wednesday

Put Your Foot Down

I Quilted This

Design Wall Friday

Finished or Not Friday

Patchwork & Quilts

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Pins, Pins, Pins

 Wow, do I have a lot of pins!

Does anyone else have that plan when

they go into a quilt store and feel obligated to buy, 

you always leave with a little something?

Well my little something is pins.

Also sewing machine needles but 

we'll leave those for another day.

So here are most of them !

I like to use T pins to hold up 

partial works and patterns on my cork board. 

These are heat proof pins. Long, which is good, 

but the round top makes the 

iron move when you press them, so not my favorite. 

I do love novelty sewing pins. 

They seem to get misplaced, 

damaged or lost easily tho.

There are spool shapes, chicks and 

even button as well as the flower headed ones. 

Way too many traditional yellow headed quilting pins.

 

Longer than a normal pin, not heat resitant, 

but easy to see and quite strong. 

These were one of the first items I bought for quilting!

I do like the flower headed ones, 

but I think I am overstocked on them. 

Some are still in the box!

There are two boxes of these pins. They are silk pins. 

Thinner than the yellow headed pins but shorter.

These may go in the garage sale box.

These colorful pins are great mutlipurpose pins for 

for hanging things up and pinning. They are pretty and 

I do use some on the design wall. 

These are my current favourite. Heatproof and

  flatheaded  they allow for easy pressing and

 doesn't make the iron move. 

They are long enough that I can pin things easily.

Not as long as a yellow-headed pins though.

These flathead flower pins, were used as row markers, 

until I was gifted these below. 

They work great but the shape is a little awkward.

The numbers on the pins wear off very quickly.

As you can see, I've taken the writing 

over the numbers with a Sharpie.

 

This pin cushion keeps all the pins

used on the design wall close at hand.

Yes,  I fell victim to the things at the counter,

and bought the star pins. I won the blue crystally pins,

 bought the Unicorn pins, found the corsage pins in the middle and then just supplemented with yellow-headed pins 

and the pink flower headed pins.

Oddly enough, the unicorn pins are not magnetic so 

are only good for stick pincushion. 

After all that, I will try to thin out the amount of 

pins sticking around the sewing room. 

Linking up with:

Monday Musing

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Sew & Tell

To Do Tuesday

Wait Loss Wednesday

Oh Scrap

Finished or Not Friday

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Patchwork & Quilts