Sewalongs

Hmmm, I'm starting to think I may be involved in too many sewalongs! 

One of them will be ending in a couple of weeks, though...the Hand-Pieced QAL. 

I finished up the stitching on this week's block during my morning coffee today...

I have also been keeping up nicely with the Harry Potter sewalong. This week we worked on Snape...

Here are the whole gang hanging on the design wall...

That's about all for today....except I just have to share...

I was so excited to get the email yesterday informing me that my Down the Rabbit Hole has been accepted to the National Juried Show this year in Ottawa! 

As someone who has been a hand-quilter since I was 19 in 1980, it feels so special to have a hand-quilted quilt accepted...I can't even explain how it feels!

It's been quite a few weeks since I submitted my quilt. Then I had to put it out of my mind. I really couldn't believe it when the email came in :)

Now....anyone going to Quilt Canada this year?....Maybe you could take a picture of my quilt hanging in the show for me? That would be wonderful.

Today I am linking up with Elm Street Quilts for the Hand Pieced QAL, and with Sew Fresh Quilts for Let's Bee Social.

Baby, It's Cold Outside!

We finally have a bit of winter this weekend.

Yesterday was blustery and by the look of it outside, I plan on staying in again today!

I plan on having a bit of sewing time today and will work on a couple of things.

Here is the design wall this morning....

Along the top of the picture is the beginnings of my temperature quilt....I can tell already that I am going to love this quilt! I'm sure that today's block will include a dark purple for this extremely cold day.

The bottom block with the yellow in it is my first block for the #52blocks52weeks that CQA is hosting. My blocks will be made of 30's fabrics.

Just peeking into the bottom left corner of the pic is a bit of my I Am Enough quilt....which I thought would be the main focus of my sewing session today.....but, nope, I will be determined to do a couple of blocks of my One Monthly Goal, which is my Farm Girl Vintage blocks....three of which are done (in the middle of the picture).

So many choices, so little time!

The design wall got a major tidying up the other day as we needed to move it to the living room for a photo shoot. 

I needed to get a full-on shot of a quilt and finally had the brilliant idea of using the design wall. This meant taking everything down off the design wall and moving it to the living room....which meant moving all the furniture....which meant a chance at getting at all the dust bunnies that have been lurking under the couches....this was quite the process! 

We managed to get a nice shot...

If the quilt had been a couple of inches bigger I don't know what we would have done!

My slow stitching this morning consisted of some English Paper Piecing. This project is one I intend on working on when I need something for "on the go".....but I don't have anything else prepped at the moment so it got some attention today. This is for my Tula Nova quilt.

I think this quilt will probably progress quickly, for some reason. I haven't done EPP for a while and I do enjoy it. I'm thinking there should always be an ongoing EPP project!

I am linking up with Kathy for Slow Sunday Stitching, and with Anina at Twiddletails for updates on Temperature Quilts.

My husband just commented on how it looks cold outside. Can it "look" cold????.....yes, I think it can.

A good day to stay indoors and get some sewing and reading done!

Sunday Stitches

Just a quick post today as I have to get out the door soon for a loooong run with my running buddy :)

Lately I've been stitching away at block #3 of my Queen's Crown BOM. I am doing this as part of the BOM programme at my local guild. We are taking it slow, doing one block every two months.

Out of a relatively small guild of about 35 people, there are about a dozen of us taking part in this project....so impressive!

I came to a stall on this block this morning as I feel I have to choose another fabric for those last two leaves to add a bit more visual interest. And see that little tiny leaf on top of the flower in the top right hand corner?...there will be three of them, but that fabric is just not doing it for me, so I will pick something slightly darker.

I'm finding working with neutrals to be very challenging!!

I'll have to make those fabric corrections later today, hopefully. In the meantime, I started on Block 2 of my Summertime Sampler...

I don't know if all wool projects are done this way....but this pattern calls for all the pieces to be secured with a whipstitch in a colour floss that matches, then the contrasting blanket-stitch will be done.

I thought this a bit weird, until I did Block 1 and found that I liked the process.

It feels awkward to "toot my own horn", but I have to share some excitement from this past week. Only because many of you saw my progress on my Down the Rabbit Hole over many months of Slow Sunday Stitching, mind you! :)

I entered my DTRH and my Happy Days quilts into the Norfolk County Fair this year, and both quilts did very well.

Here is Happy Days....which won Grand Champion in the machine-quilted category....

.....and, to my delight as a hand-quilter for so many years, here is my DTRH, which won Grand Champion in the hand-quilted category....

I even got pictures sent to me from my family members...

I am a very proud Slow Stitcher!

I really have to get a move on now. I am linking up with Kathy for Slow Sunday Stitching.

Have a beautiful Fall day!

It's been a while!

Well, I knew a while ago that May was going to be a very busy month....but I didn't know that I wouldn't even have a few moments to do a blog post!

The jam-packed calendar continues until mid-June.

Here are a few highlights of the month so far, beginning with our quilt show at the beginning of May.

I was able to see my Down the Rabbit Hole hanging. This was the quilt that was completed just in time! 

Part of the fun was strolling around looking at the quilts with Gail of The Cozy Quilter and Kathy of Kathy's Quilts. 

And I was only able to visit with one of the vendors (due to a series of events brought on by the terrific wind storm that weekend), so was only able to make one purchase...

I wish I could make time to do some prep-work on this before heading to Nova Scotia, as it would make a perfect travel project, but I don't know if there is time for that!

The quilt show was followed by a quilting retreat. Why is it that it feels so relaxing while on retreat, but you come home exhausted???

Here is our hostess, Lana of Quilt Junction...

Here is our set-up for the three days, in the ballroom at the Elm Hurst Inn ....

....and the beautiful view from my room...

I managed to work on a few projects, such as my RSC18, Squared Away...

...and some of my Simple Folk pieced blocks...

It was also fun to see what others were working on!...

....and I even had to get a picture as proof that I am no longer a salmon virgin...

...that's a big piece of salmon! I figured if I was ever going to try salmon, doing it at a 5-star Inn may be the place to do it!

I did manage to get all the blocks completed for our BOM we've been doing at the Haldimand Guild this past year....

I am going to like this quilt once it is done. The irony is that despite the simple blocks, there were many errors in the pattern which made it frustrating. The further irony?....it wasn't until I had all the blocks on the design wall that I saw that I had made a huge design error in the planning of this! So funny! Oh well, keeps one humble, I guess!!  I'll elaborate at a future time.


Right on the heels of the quilt show, and the retreat....race weekend!

I had three races that weekend....not sure I'll do that again, but I did have a lot of fun!

.....and managed to have a wee visit with my daughter at the Optometrist where she works....obviously we have good taste in sunglasses....

This past week was more of the same...so busy with visitors from Alberta. Somehow I still managed to get a bit of applique accomplished. 

Here is the first block of Tomato Soup, The Sequel (almost)(finally!!) done...

Today I am linking up with Lorna at Sew Fresh Quilts for Let's Bee Social, and with Susan at Quilt Fabrication for Midweek Makers.

Have a lovely day!

A finish, a fail, and a cool dog pic!

I've almost forgotten to post my "finish" for One Monthly Goal this month!

It's busy times lately....at least I can say, as of this morning, my quilts are ready for the upcoming quilt show this week. I attached the sleeve on the final quilt as I sat with my morning coffee today....yay!! At least, I think that's it....I'd better do a final check this afternoon.

Here is the info on the quilt show....hopefully you can join us to take in the 240 quilts that will be on display!

My goal for April was to have Down the Rabbit Hole completed and it did get done. It does feel a bit strange to be finished....but nice to be back to some other applique that was put on the back-burner the last couple of months.

May will be an extremely busy month and I think I will be a bit ambitious thinking that I can set a goal and get it finished....but here goes....

I've signed up for Sarah Fielke's Simple Folk BOM for 2018. I'm really liking it and hope to get the pieced blocks completed this month.

First I need to get all the little nine-patches sewn together....

.....and then it would be so awesome if I could get them sewn into these blocks (I think there are 12 or 13 of them)....

I do not intend on getting the little applique bit in the centre of the blocks done, though. That can come later.

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I've had a bit of a "fail" lately, which I decided to correct before going any further.

I joined an applique project hosted by my LQS, Quilt Junction. 

Here is the first block...it's large, about 24" square, I think.....

....hmmm, a bit of a fuzzy picture...sorry!

Anyway, in real life the greens really blend in with the background a bit too much, but I carried on. Then when I attached the purple leaf and it really got lost I knew I had to come to an executive opinion before investing anymore time in this quilt.

So, I went with my first instinct and switched up the background. I'll save the blue background fabrics for something in the future.

I am so much happier with the contrast of the fabrics against the red background that I've chosen...

I have to share a couple of photos of my running life this past week. I've had quite the adventures.

I've signed up for a trail race at the end of May and I have to admit that I've felt a bit nervous...even contemplated selling my spot in the race. 

One of my coaches from Learn to Run offered to take me out to sample the route that will be the race next month....now instead of being nervous, I can't wait to go back!

It was absolutely beautiful. I think I may be a trail runner at heart! 

We did encounter a bit of mud as you can see by our shoes. I don't think I've ever run through the mud on purpose in my life! 

We came across a group that were taking this awesome picture of their dogs on a log. If we had been five minutes later we would have missed seeing them posing. 

My fitness tracker indicated that this run had the equivalent of 47 flights of stairs! Despite this, since I have trouble with hills, I still had a fantastic day.

Yesterday, my friend and I did a 10k run...which we have done a couple of times before...but we found it more impressive to think that we ran from one town to another on the trail.  Here we are running from Simcoe to Port Dover....

It was a bit tough....I think because I've put more kilometres that usual in in the last nine days....and because I was way overdressed. I did start to feel over-heated. Every run is a good run, though, and in this one I learned a couple of valuable lessons.

That's all for now....it looks like Spring is finally coming this week, hopefully I can be outdoors a bit and enjoy it!

I am linking up with Elm Street Quilts for April's One Monthly Goal Finish.

.....and, because of time constraints, this post will also be linked to the May - One Monthly Goal  at Elm Street Quilts!

Down the Rabbit Hole....almost a real quilt!

Well, it's certainly been a good weekend so far to do some extra quilting and have some extra time in the sewing room. 

The tulips have been on hold at 2" tall for over a week now waiting for Spring to really make an appearance.

This should be my last slow Sunday stitching on my Down the Rabbit Hole. Woohoo! It will be done in time for the quilt show, after-all!!!

If I knew how much I would dislike the quilting of the house row, would I have put the houses in or not? Probably. They are cute but they sure have been a pain (literally and figuratively) to hand-quilt....many seams and a lot of them pressed open to reduce bulk.

I'd been truly stymied on how to quilt the "sky" portion of this row. I could have just left it blank, but I felt it needed something. 

I posted the problem on the Down the Rabbit Hole Facebook page and got a couple of suggestions. One of the suggestions was just right. A quilter had used this fabric herself in a quilt and quilted it free-form, just following the lines in the design. Perfect!

I'm quite happy with the effect! 

There is more quilting I would like to do on this quilt, but that's not going to happen right now. I may do a bit more quilting on it during the Summer. 

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One of the services I offer as a longarm quilter is to baste quilts for hand-quilters. My friend, Sherill, is one of these quilters.

I asked her if I could show the quilt that was basted this week. I'm sharing it here as I'm sure she may be doing some slow-stitching on her quilt today......and because she was inspired to make this quilt from a post from Kathy's blog, so I thought Kathy may like to see the picture! :)

The quilt is a beauty....it just looks a bit mooshy because of the basting and the lovely wool batting.

I am linking up with Kathy's Quilts for Slow Sunday Stitching. Today Kathy talks about resting. She is within range of the same ice storm this weekend that we are experiencing around here, so is housebound also.

It does feel a bit strange to take the time to rest. I noticed it yesterday and am sure I will again today, but it is nice to have a reason to not be rushing about. I am glad to have a hobby that is perfect for this kind of situation :)

Have a safe weekend....hopefully you can stay indoors and take it easy. 

Slow stitching...

So, it's another "winter wonderland" out my window this morning. I wonder if we will skip Spring all-together and go right into Summer weather?

I've been stitching away at my Down the Rabbit Hole. Another couple of days should see this border completed....

I was glad to have the applique class going on on Saturday at Quilt Junction because this happened...

Luckily my friend, Lana, had one more spool of the colour I needed in the shop! I'm using YLI Quilting Thread...it has always been my favourite.

It was nice to spend some time appliqueing with the ladies on Saturday, as hand-quilting has been a priority at home for the last while.

Here is the block I'm working on at the class...

Not much to see yet, but I'll get more done soon. The blocks in this quilt are huge, I think 24"? This is from the book Fresh Picked by Blackbird Designs.

There are a lot of vines in the pattern. What I like to do is to get them all placed on the block, then baste them with a high-contrast thread (so I don't forget to remove the basting later!). This way I'm not having to worry about a lot of pinning.

I did take three days "off" of hand-quilting this week as my underneath thumb was a bit tender after being stabbed by the needle a couple of times. I took the couple of days to get a couple of sleeves sewn onto two quilts that need to be ready for the quilt show.

These are the quilts waiting to be prepped for the show...

I'm not sure what's going on with Minnie this week.....she really seems to be in a nesting, cuddly mood. She's been asking to sit with me during my stitching time, so I finally gave in for the last couple of days....

.....and I found her one morning nestled under a couple of quilts in the quilt cabinet....can you see her?....

Somehow she got behind and under the top quilt.

I hope to have another hour to do some hand-quilting today. I'd really like this border completed soon. My goal was to have the quilting done in 65 days....today is Day 56. 

I've just discovered the world of podcasts and have listened to a couple the last two mornings of quilting-time. If anyone can recommend some good ones, I'd appreciate it.

I am linking up with Kathy for Slow Sunday Stitching. Hopefully you can visit with her and see what others are stitching at today!