Grey-Bruce Home Economics group

What a tremendous day! We created a quilt top for the Habitat for Humanity build in Hanover. The sun was very bright when we took the picture so it is a little washed out. The pattern is from a Turn Twenty book. I think it was Turn Twenty Times Four. The quilt took 20 fat quarters and then two borders. The colours we used were in the purple/royal family with a few hints of green. An analagous colour scheme for sure. The organizers had the plan well in hand. I was a sewer for the day. We had pressers, cutters, design wall people. Everyone had a job. The day was not as frantic this year as last so there was more time for visiting. We enjoyed a lovely pot luck lunch. Our host's cottage is right on the shore at Big Bay so when we weren't doing our designated task we had a beautiful view out the many windows. Piecefully, Joanne

Am I blue?

July's colour for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge is blue. I just finished this blue bento box for my brother. It is a lap size quilt approximately 45" square. It was started at a workshop in May so it did not take long to complete.
As to what else I have been doing. I am able to cross an event off my bucket list. I went on a bus trip with the Kincardine Sunset Quilt Guild to the Vermont Quilt Festival. No it was not a bus trip on my list, it was the Vermont Festival. The timing has always been an issue. So this year I made it. We had a great trip with stops at Keepsake Quilting in New Hampshire and an overnight stay and dinner in Scholarie New York,  where I met blogger Sharon Vrooman of Vrooman's Quilts. Her Mom gave an after dinner trunk show that was wonderful. Sharon did a blog post on our visit. Piecefully, Joanne

Can you find the purple?

Well if not, then how about the blue or the green or the orange or the yellow or the wild pink? This is yet another of my tiny bricks quilts. This one is just over 36" square and I think will make a happy baby quilt. The print that is scattered throughout is the funky sheep fabric that I used for my sister's quilt. I think life is going to start settling down and I can look at perhaps finishing a couple of quilts. Piecefully, Joanne

Second annual retreat

Here we are "modelling" our mystery quilt tops. the activity went quite well. I told them we were going to use Pat Speth's Nickel Quilt strategies and that the quilt would be crib size. I also gave them the number of light, medium and dark nickels to have with them. Only two had ever done mysteries before and those were not overly successful or so they said. I believe all were pleased with the results.
Cathy and Gayle planned a terrific retreat and the weather made us want to stay inside so we all got some serious sewing done. The food was tasty and nutritious. Great company. Not much more one could ask for. We also had a murder mystery to maintain the theme. Before the weekend we got our characters and what props we would need. The night of the mystery event we were given our scripts. Imagine my surprise when I found out I was the murderer. That meant I could tell lots of mis-directing lies. We laughed ourselves silly with that activity and only one person guessed me as the guilty party. Piecefully, Joanne

Perhaps 50% yellow will count

I was given a baggie of 1 1/2" yellow squares andsome 1 1/2" strips. The next questions was what to do with them. I have always wanted to try the Bento box design and Tracy Brookshier's revised pattern has directions for creating the block using 1 1/2" strips. So I used up some of the small squares andsome of the strips. I had all kinds of blue. This little quilt is roughly 24" by 30". I still had all kinds of yellow squares and not as many strips so I have started working on the same size block but more of them to make a larger quilt.
I attended an "official" Bento box workshop this week after making my first little one and was rather disappointed. The instructor only had one sample and it only showed one variation. The revised pattern gives cutting directions for 5 different sizes of strips and shows several different lay outs.
My trunk show in Kincardine went well and they asked if I would do a workshop next year. I said as long as it wasn't in the winter I would do one. Winter driving in our area can be awful or even impossible. The Hwy that goes through our town is the one that is closed most often during the winter months.
I am really hoping that once we get through the next month or so that I can get back to some more regular sewing sessions. I miss them.  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.

Medium size double slice

I finished this little baby size quilt recently. It is another double slice style/pattern. I started with 7" blocks because that is what the scraps would allow. It is bright and cheerful and with a soft blue flannel backing it will keep some baby warm at night.

Not many finishes recently as we have been dealing with far too many health issues and our planned trip to the Netherlands is off.