Retreat projects.

Were does the time go.  I had planned on posting the items I worked at retreat later in the week, and before I know it a couple of weeks have past.

Anyway here is what I worked on that weekend.  I started a new project.  there nothing more fun than staring something new. I know some people would say finishing, but if you look around my sewing room I defiantly like starting better. 

 This one will be a wedding gift, but I have lots of time the wedding not until 2014.  I knew that the bride loves green and white so decided to make a modern square in a square quilt using 4 greens, 1 blue and 1 white.  I completed the blocks but think I will put this away for a bit.

I also took a few Farmer wife blocks, I had per cut but this didn't work the best for me as I had made a couple of cutting errors so only finished 2 blocks at retreat.  Once I was home I able quickly finish the cutting I needed and finish 2 more.

I had a mental block on my flower quilt, I think it had sat in the same state for over a year.  I got a block on the applique border. So I was able to add the plain border that goes before the applique one, and then with a little help for one of the ladies get past my metal block and start adding the steams.  Not sure why this was such a block but am happy to be past in now.

I have not done much sewing since I have been back, the last couple of weeks the weather turned nice and I have been busy outside.

Canmore Retreat

Over the weekend was my guild retreat. This year we went to Canmore, so not very far from home, and had a wonderful time. We are planning on going back next year.  I nearly typed weekend, but I think my family may complain if I went away 2 weekends in a row. LOL.

Most of the weekend was overcast with snow Saturday evening, but here is the view from the hotel on Friday.  These are call the Three sisters.

 There was 13 of us this year.  One of the things I love about this group is the variety of projects we work on. After looking at my photo I realized that I tend to only take photos of a few of the projects, I will have to do better next time. Here are a few of the things that people were working on.

There is always someone working on a tiny project, this is too small for me to even think about doing.

 

These cute "ouch" pin cushion where in some of the door process, ofcorse every one got a door prize, full of goodies.

I did work on a couple of project and will share tomorrow. Every thing is still taking longer on the new computer and I have to run.

Autumn Table Topper Finished

My old computer was getting slower and more unreliable by the day, so I decided it was time for a new one. I think it was about 10 years old.  I got home from the store with the new laptop to find the old one had stopped working.  I have been trying to find backups for all the data, I think I will be able to find most of it.  And the new computer is set up quite differently, this is going to take some getting use to.

On the quilting front, I have a finish!

 I  finished my Autumn table topper.  This was made from a charm pack and the fabrics remind me of the Fall.  I am glad I went with the simple boarder.

 I used the extra square I had cut for the planned checker border on the back. The ones I hadn't cut yet ended up in a hexie project.

I also finished the last of the stitching for the center blocks for my herb pillow.  These will now be trimmed and I will sew the top, before I do any more of the hand work.

Happy Easter

Hoping everyone had a nice Easter weekend.  I have enjoyed mine.  We had a big Easter dinner on Saturday. It was mine turn to cook.  I made way more than was needed, but better than not making enough. I think I'm still stuffed.

 LM and I made Dinosaur Egg again this year. I gave instruction on making these last year here

 This year we served them with home made waffles.  One year, when I'm not doing most of the cooking, I'm going to make devil dinosaur eggs.

I had never made bread before, but decided that I wanted to make bunny buns for the dinner, though the kids would find them fun.

Easter Sunday was just a relaxing day, church and then an afternoon walk before left over for dinner.   Happy Easter
Floss

Easter Eggs

I saw a picture of these Easter eggs and just had to try to make some. I can't remember where I saw the photo but I seem to remember a link to homemade glue, I should have paid better attention, as these took a lot of glue.

They are pretty easy to make.  Put a few candy egg inside a balloon, here Little Miss small hand came in handy, and I only had to bribe her with a couple of the chocolate eggs.  Then blow up the balloon to  desired egg size. Then wrap in glue covered yarn, leaving gaps to see the egg but not too big as the eggs will fall out. Wait til dry, pop the balloon and remove, leaving the egg inside. Easier said than done as I was using small balloons and they clung to the candy.

I was running a little low on the glue so some are not a sturdy as they cloud be. These are currently in a pretty bowl as my table center and on Easter I let the kids eat them.  Not sure if I would make them again, but glad I did these as I think they are pretty. Maybe in a few years when LM could be more help.

Borders

So many of my project just seem to come to a stop when I get to the border.  It's not that I find them hard, I just find that I want to move onto the next project.

So this week when I found I had a bit of time to sew I decided to be good and I added the simple boarder to two projects tat had been sitting for quiet some time.  I started by adding this black border to my jungle quilt, I think this frames it nicely. DH is really liking this one so I may have to give it to him once I'm done. I have a plan on how I want to quilt it, which is very usual for me. I found a large multicolour batik in my stash for the backing.

Then I move onto a much smaller project, this table topper. I had planned on making a checker board border, but I made hexie out of the left over charm squares - oops.  So just added more background to make the blocks float and will add simple binding in the rust.  The brown fabric will be the back, more fabric from the stash.  This I think I should finish quickly as its not very big and I'm sure I have a piece of batting I can use for it.

I still find myself thinking of a new projects but hopefully I can be good long enough to get at least one of these finished.

Jar Table Runner

I had decided that I was going to go some simpler sewing. This translated into finishing a project that I had stopped part way through the quilting.  Normally I stop prior to adding the border or before quilting, so not sure why I didn't finish this.

Super pleased with how this turned out, so bright and fresh

Last weekend was DH birthday. Can you guess what his name is LOL.  We decided to include the kid -so we when bowling, then prime rib buffet for dinner, then back to friends house for cake.  DH is a big Dr Who fan and had been asking for a TARDIS cake. I baked the cake and a couple of our friend's decorated it. They have not see Dr who so was going of a picture. He loved it.  It was a great day, everyone had fun, we will have to do it again.

Hexie

I have been seeing a lot of hexie - English paper pieces around.and decided I should try it too.  Little Miss was gave me a solid charm pack for Christmas, so decided that would be nice to try with.

These are small, 6 hexie from one charm.  I think I will do light grey between these to make a pillow. 

Why try on one project when you can try on 2?.  These are a lot larger. Each hexie is made out of one charm square. These charm are left over from a small project, and there was just the right amount for the table topper I want to make.

Sewing and resewing

I finally got some time in the sewing room. I decided to make a quick Famer’s wife block. First I made all the HST the wrong size, too small so had to remake them all. I had them all made, ready to put the block together – Oh! Some of them should have been QST. So I remade those. This is taking longer than it should. I push on. I put the block together, somewhere in the making and remaking my fabric location got move around. I'm not very keen on this block, but I am not remaking it, it will look fine mixed in with the other Famer’s wife blocks.

Next time I'm going to work on some simple straight sewing. I need to ease myself back into this.

Here are a couple of pin cushion I made before Christmas. I couldn't share then as one was for the 12 days of Christmas.

More Snowman

Where did January go?

Here are 2 more snowman that where Christmas gifts.

 This next one I finished Xmas eve.

Nothing like a deadline to get things done.