Finding my Rotary Cutter

 The condition of my sewing room has deteriorated over the last month or so to the point where I could not find my rotary cutter... it was time for a clean up.  I spent over an hour putting things away, folding fabric, sorting through piles, etc. and still no rotary cutter.  I tried to think of the last time I used it...then, I remembered I used it at a recent guild sewing day---it was in the bag I took to the sewing day.  Oh well, the sewing room is looking much better and I had a new project planned!  I gathered up my supplies and got started. 

My MIL lives in a long term care home. She loves to have her room decorated for each season so I decided to make her a small wall hanging for Valentine's Day.  I got out my red 2.5" squares and some other red scraps as well as some white solid for the background.  It did not take long to get the top together, pin basted and machine quilted. 

I will finish hand sewing the binding and hanging sleeve tomorrow for Slow Sunday Stitching. 

I finished knitting the pink dish cloth this week.  I ran out of yarn before I ran out of pattern, so I just made the top border much narrower than the bottom one.  By the time I wove the ends in, I had one inch of yarn to spare.  If I use this pattern again, I will have to use smaller needles. The resulting cloth is still quite usable, even if it isn't square!

As I mentioned earlier, Christine and I went to the guild sewing day with the Oxford Guild this past week. I brought along my "Coming Home" BOM quilt which I started in January 2019.  This will be my project of choice for upcoming sewing days so I can see if I can get it to the finish line.  I spent the day adding more doors and windows to this house border. Some of my doors and windows are a bit wonky but I don't mind this a bit--it gives my fabric neighbourhood some personality and charm. 

Here is a picture of what I have done so far...I am working on the fourth street which goes on the bottom.  The blue house with the pink doors and windows above is part of the fourth side. 

My husband's sister and her family gave us a mushroom growing kit for Christmas.  It has been interesting watching the mushrooms appear out of this brown blob on our kitchen counter.   We harvested four mushrooms today and added them to the sauce on our spaghetti and meatballs tonight.  Delicious!

Finn is back to running around in the snow and sticking his face in.  We are so glad to see him back to his usual self. 

Here are a few more of the circle pouches I made as Christmas gifts. 

Last week, someone asked me about my book with the Christmas ornament patterns in it.  Here is a picture of the book, published in 1991 by Carol Siegel and the Dimensions Design Studio.  This book includes the Bethlehem and cabin ornaments I showed last week.  The other patterns were from a very old crafting magazine.  

I will link up with Kathy in the morning. 

Camp Kintail Crafter's Retreat Report

My friend Christine and I attended the Spring Crafter's Retreat at Camp Kintail this past weekend.  Since last week was extremely busy, I did not have anything to blog about before I left on Friday, but now, I have lots to share! We drove through some snow squalls on the way to the camp on Friday but the roads were fine.  We managed to get some walking in while we were there, in between meals and sewing.  I always get lots done at a retreat--no meals to prepare, no dishes to do...just sew, sew and sew!

 I started out with a couple of my Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks for April--the colour for this month is pink. 

Of course, we brought our own quilts for the beds in our room.  Christine's Roll Roll Cotton Boll:

My Friendship star quilt, made by some quilting friends for me when my Dad died 4 years ago. 

After breakfast on Saturday, I pulled out my big project for the weekend.  In 2019, I participated in the Coming Home medallion quilt along  online class with Sarah Fielke in Australia.  I managed to keep up for the first 6 months and then life got in the way. I got back at it a year later and made the large house border, and then put it away again.  I decided to bring this quilt along for the weekend to see if I could gain some momentum to get it closer to the finish line. I spent Saturday and Sunday cutting out, glue basting and hand appliquéing doors and windows on the houses.  I finished 2 1/2  "Streets" and now I'm motivated to keep working on this project. Here are some pictures:

I have the next 4 houses glue basted and ready to sew. I hope to work on them later today. Christine made a cloth book for her grand-daughter (I didn't get a picture) and made blocks for a new quilt.  I love the bright and cheerful fabrics she chose to use. She started another project as well.  Both of us are trying to use our stashes rather than purchase more fabrics (except for backings and backgrounds).  

We woke up on Sunday morning to snow falling.  Everything was white. By lunch time, it had melted, thankfully.  The roads were fine for the trip home. 

What a fun and productive weekend!!!  I will link up with Kathy and the Slow Sunday Stitchers as well as the Rainbow Scrap Challenge folks this weekend. 

Finn is 4 years old today!  Our daughter bought him two honky pigs for his birthday...He is having lots of fun playing with them!  Happy Birthday, Finn!

Appliqué Chimneys and a New Project

A few weeks ago, I noticed that another one of the Slow Sunday Stitchers was starting a new counted cross stitch project through Linen and Threads--it runs a new part of the pattern each month for a larger sampler project and there is a bonus Christmas ornament pattern each month as well.  I have decided to make a few of the Christmas ornaments and started the January pattern this week. The pattern suggests using one colour for the entire design but since I did not want to follow the directions, I picked out three shades of gray and a red to stitch my ornament. I managed to work on this most days this past week and I think it should be done by this time next week if I keep at it. 

(If you look at the pattern at the link, you will notice I made a few adjustments to the pattern due to my colour choices.)

This week, I finally got back to working on my Sarah Fielke 2019 BOM quilt--Coming Home.  For some reason, I had drifted away from this one for a few months and just could not get back at it.  The next stage involved picking colours for all of the houses on the next border and then piecing all of them.  (I actually still have a little bit of appliqué to do on the previous border as well--some stars near the moons and kites and birds near the suns.)  I started by picking out the colours...

The small houses were next.  I quickly realized that I would have to hand appliqué all the chimneys before adding the sky to each house.

I did one house at a time and soon the neighbourhood was growing.

The doors and windows will be added in one fell swoop when all of the houses are pieced.

The trees were completed in a previous step.

Soon, one "street" was completed and I was on to the next one.  There was a bit of paper piecing on the triangle sections of the larger houses.

I have four more houses to make to finish the last two sides.  Then, there will be lots of appliqué to keep me busy for a while.

I also made one more comfort quilt block this week for the Elgin Piecemakers Guild.  This one is for November 2020--green, black and tan.

I will be linking up with the Slow Sunday stitchers at Kathy's blog in the morning.

Coming Home Progress Report

My husband and I went to visit our daughter for the long weekend so on our way there and back, I stitched in the car.  I brought along the house borders for "Coming Home" and got all the doors and windows and clouds appliquéd.  There was a lot of traffic in spots so I had more sewing time in the car than I usually get on our way to where my daughter lives. 

I just bought the material for the window and door on this house a couple of weeks ago specifically for this project. It reminds me of balls of wool...

I fussy cut the little hearts in the windows for this house.

I added all four borders and the suns and moons this week.   I will be adding the kites, birds and stars soon.  

I'm really loving this BOM so far and look forward to starting the next border-- trees and more houses.

I will be linking up with Kathy and the other slow Sunday stitchers this weekend.