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!

One Monthly Goal - October

This past weekend I was away at a quilting retreat.

Of course, for the week before that as I thought of what I'd like to work on, I was tossing projects into the Retreat bag.

Then, later last week I realised that I was getting close to my monthly goal of having my houses completed for Down the Rabbit Hole. I managed to get them stitched up and packed away for Retreat...

So, of course, Down the Rabbit Hole was added at the last moment to the Retreat bag!!

Everything fell together beautifully...

Now I'm at the "elongated hexagon" border. I love the two fabrics I chose....but sewn together to try out the border I'm not sure the floral fabric shows enough contrast :(

I'll just live with it for a bit since I still have to do a bit of applique on the piece before going forward. I'm telling myself that I could probably make the hexagons "pop" more with some strategic quilting....right??

I also got the next "clue" finished for the Magnolia Mystery offered by Meadow Mist Designs...

I have to say, after having the houses as my monthly goal a few times, it feels very good to have them done and I love how they turned out! 

There is even a couple of fussy-cut bit in the windows...

I am linking up with Elm Street Quilts for OMG - One Monthly Goal. Woohoo!!

Have a wonderful Fall day!

A successful Retreat!

Back to the real world after a few lovely days on a quilting retreat hosted by Quilt Junction, held at the beautiful Elmhurst Inn in Ingersoll, Ontario.

The decision to go was definitely meant to be a one-time treat to myself....to go and relax, meet new quilting friends, be pampered in the Spa at the Inn and enjoy excellent cuisine. Well, I think this is now going to be a yearly thing! 

There were thirty of us set up in the Grand Ballroom, a beautiful large, bright room that was perfect for getting some sewing done....

Lana, our lovely hostess, had a booth set up just in case any of us had forgotten any essentials....or just needed a bit of retail therapy!

I was happy to start my Retreat with having lunch with my sister...of the four sisters she is the youngest and I am the oldest. We don't see each other very often so it was so special to get to spend an hour or so together...

I can't say enough about the food our group experienced during our stay....here is just a sample of our meals....

I wish I had taken a picture of this dish on the menu so I could remember what was in it and maybe try to replicate it. Oh well, I guess I'll just have to go back sometime!


I did manage to get some sewing done! I paced myself, since last time I spent too much time in a chair sewing resulted in being laid up with back problems for a couple of weeks. So...many breaks walking around looking at everyone else's inspiring work!

My main project was to complete my Happy Days quilt. After a rocky start things started to fall in place...

.....and.....it's done!!!!!......

My goal for April was to have this quilt top done. I am linking up with Elm Street Quilts for OMG-One Monthly Goal, April Finish!

I'll set aside some time this Summer to get it quilted up in time for the Fall Fair season. I had thought to do an edge-to-edge quilting design on it, but after seeing it laid out in full I now think a light custom job is in order. I love it!

Day 2....I wanted to get the next step complete in my version of Sandra Walker's sew-along, Freefall Spring Quilt-Along.  I had the prep-work done ahead of time and was happy to get them sewn together....all ready for the next step. It was fun, also, to learn a couple of slick techniques for these blocks....thanks, Sandra Walker! 

I want to keep on track with this sew-along since I think this may be a good entrant into this year's Fall Fair category that is celebrating Canada's Sesquicentennial! I am linking this post to Sandra's linky party at Musings of a Menopausal Melon. Check it out to see other quilters' take on Freefall!

My final project for the Retreat was to assemble my Nature's Neutrals. 

This was a quilt made of blocks from a group exchange. The blocks are 5" unfinished and we were to make 2 sets of eight blocks per month for two years. Each month we submitted our blocks and came away with sixteen different blocks. 

I did not want this quilt to wait years to be done, so it was on the list for this week.

Here it is...

I have kept a few blocks aside so I could make a decision at this point to see if the quilt needed to be wider or longer, etc. So, an hour of work sometime in the near future will see this one truly done! 

During our Retreat, Lana did a couple of demos and also showed us how to construct a little fabric "box" meant to put our odd bits of thread and snippets of fabric into...

Thanks, Lana....this will be put into my applique bag for the times I get together for stitching with friends!

All in all, a very successful Retreat....not to mention making new quilty friends. Can't wait 'til next year!

Today I am linking up with Busy Hands Quilts for Finished or Not Fridays, Koka Quilts for sew, stitch, snap, SHARE, and with Confessions of a Fabric Addict for Can I Get a Whoop-Whoop!.