Hands to Help finale for 2015

I did a little laundry today. I like to wash a quilt before it is donated. Nita will be getting the second from the right quilt and the wife of a friend from the gym will be getting the third from the left. The others have not got specific homes yet. Quilts 3,4 and 5 on the line were all Mystery quilts and they turned out OK. Or at least I think they did.
My other donated quilt for Hands to Help this year is going to Project Linus through our quilt guild. I have what feels like a million tops that need quilting so I need to knuckle down and get some more ready to donate. I really feel that is what I should be doing with my time at this point in my life.
I enjoyed a wonderful retreat in Tobermory with some local quilting friends. It was fairly cold so nice to stay inside and get some sewing done. The women who plan this event do such a great job. We ate well, we had fun, we got some work done. And this year we had a totally unexpected surprise. On Saturday afternoon a woman came to the door at the Lodge. She was a quilter who was going out of quilting and giving away what remained of her stash. We were all invited to come to her place at 4:00. We went, we had a ball. She had bags for us and everything was laid out by colour. I got several quilts worth of very nice scraps (fat quarter sized pieces). Everyone got something. Piecefully, Joanne

A chorus line..... pattern coming soon

 

Juliet at the Tartankiwi  (www.thetartankiwi.com)  has done it again. This time it is a chorus line with lovely ladies kicking high. The pattern will come with ladies kicking to the right and ladies kicking to the left. There are also several sizes. I tested the 12" by 18" size. There are a couple of very minor tweaks to the printed pattern before the pattern release in the next week or so. And yes it is a paper pieced pattern but everything is so clearly laid out it is really quite easy to construct.
Now for my high kicking chorus line story. About 50 years ago my Dad took our whole family to New York City for a week. It was our first plane ride and we stayed at a downtown hotel. Each day we went into a different area of the city and saw as many of the highlights as we could. One day we went to see the Rockettes at the Radio City Music Hall. I can still remember the precision. Oh my! Sometimes now you can see them doing a little spot on the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade and when I see that I am taken back to that trip. We packed a whole lot into those five days.
I am off on an extended weekend retreat starting this afternoon. We are focusing on UFO's on this retreat as opposed to creating more UFO's. I had a hard time deciding just what I would take. I think I have enough for a month but who knows. They are calling for rain on Saturday so that should be a good day for sewing. Piecefully, Joanne

What happens at retreat, stays at retreat...but I can tell you this much

I had a terrific time. The Kincardine Sunset Quilters Guild booked the Crieff Hills Centre for a 2 1/2 day retreat. We arrived Tuesday morning and left Thursday afternoon. We all brought projects to work on. Each person had their own table. Irons were set up in the hall outside the sewing room. We were bunked in at two to a room.The food was great and the company was even better. This is me at show and tell. On the design wall behind me is a lap size double slice quilt top and I am holding up a tiny bricks baby size quilt. I got four tops assembled at the retreat. The blocks were done and I had laid them out in rows before going, so the sewing was pretty mindless. Also got a start on the Braille Quilt Along. Thanks to all the organizers for a wonderful time. that being said we thought we should be somewhat circumspect when describing the experience so we would not have too much competition for the limited number of spots next year. Yes, next year is booked already. Piecefully, Joanne

A terrific mini workshop

I had a great day with Kathy Wagner yesterday of the blog kathysquilts. She came to Owen Sound to give a trunk show for the Bluewater Quilters 25th anniversary and then stayed to do a workshop the following day. I had a couple of other pieces I played with but the ones on the cutting board show the scale. We got a terrific package of notes and she had so many samples for us to have a look at. My friend Jeanette drove over and back I felt very pampered.

Next challenge is helping our daughter finish her move. But meanwhile I am going on a short retreat tomorrow with some new friends from the Canadian Quilters On-line Yahoo group.

A Flurry of Finishes

These two tiny brick quilts are my most recent finishes. I tend to get "stuck" on a particular design and go with it in a variety of colour ways or sizes. So three tiny brick quilts finishes and three more have the bricks cut out. They will be donation quilts when my guilds resume in September.

The final Scrap Bag Quilter session of the season was last Wednesday. We tied 10 quilts and sent them home with different members to have the binding completed over the summer. I only have one to do. In May I enjoyed a variety of quilting experiences. The Quilt Pocket (a yahoo group) held Jambo 2011 in London and I attended that. What a fabulous time. The organizers had thought of everything. We stayed in a Community College residence. There was time for sewing, time for sharing, time for fun, time for eating, especially chocolate and time for shopping. And a couple of us even managed to sleep a little.

Then two weeks later Quilt Ontario happened in London. I signed up for two classes. Karen Combs More Patchwork Illusions and Ursula Reigels QAYG Apple Core Table runner. Both classes were great. I have one project almost done and the other is close to finished. The shows associated with the event was inspirational. Although I have come to terms with the fact that I will never be an "Art Quilt" type of quilter.

Then in another ten days some friends locally organized and held a retreat. Again a well organized event with lots to do, sewing time, eating time, a couple of games and just great fun with friends.

I have hit the half way mark on my 50 quilts from stash this month. The list just needs to be updated.

That's about it for now. I want to get the binding attached to my Scrap Bag quilt so I can stitch in the evening. And my nephew is getting married next month so I would like to actually finish his quilt before the wedding.

Piecefully yours, Joanne