Two Table Runners

I gave my friend, Pat, her Christmas gift early so that she can use it during the holiday season.  I used some more HST's from the charm pack that I found in my sewing room a few weeks ago to make this table runner. She really likes snowmen so it fit the bill perfectly. 

This past week, I quilted and bound my Tiny Street table runner-- this one is for me.  I learned how to make the tiny houses and trees in an online class through the Threadhouse Academy.  This particular class was taught by Jo Avery.  She gave lots of ideas of things to make with the tiny houses and trees (pouches, bags, quilts etc.) but I decided to make a table runner for a table in my living room. It fits perfectly and will be out on display after Christmas. I quilted it with 28 wt medium gray thread in a wonky waffle pattern.  The backing was in my stash and was purchased in Newfoundland when we were there on vacation in 2023.  I decided to match the binding to the fabrics in the runner.  This took a bit of extra effort but I think it was worth it. 

Finn wanted to show you what my daughter has been working on in her spare time...  This will be repeated three more times until the centre is shaped like a circle and then more borders get added on.  

I started a new book today.  My daughter gave me this one for Christmas last year and I want to finish it before Christmas this year.  Our family exchanges books each year and I am trying to read last year's books by Christmas.  It's a good thing they don't have a best before date! This one is set in Santa Fe, New Mexico  in the mid 1800's and is about a young women who moves to the area to work as a nurse/midwife.  I am only 50 pages in and I'm already hooked. 

This cardinal and his mate were eating the red berries off of our burning bush today. 

I continue to add some quilting stitches to my pineapple log cabin quilt each week.  I am finished the overall cross hatch and have started adding more quilting to this block.  This qualifies as slow stitching, for sure!

I started a small cross stitch project to work on during the holidays.  It doesn't look like much yet...maybe there will be more done by my post next week.  

Full confession...I hemmed a pair of pants this week that had been in my closet for over a year, waiting to be shortened.  It took me 15 minutes in the end.  I'm not sure why I waited so long...

I will link up with Kathy and the Slow Sunday Stitchers and Frederique and her crew.  

 

Camp Kintail Retreat Report

This post features my projects from last weekend's Crafters retreat at Camp Kintail, but first I want to show you my finished Fall cross stitch...TaDa!  I started this project at the beginning of September and have added stitches to it steadily until this week, when I added the last few.  As I have said before, I love the transparency where the trees overlap and the bright colours in this picture.  I will have it framed shortly and hang it up for the Fall next year.   I have a couple of embroidery kits that I would like to work on next, but likely won't start them for another week or two while I finish up some Christmas gifts. 

In an effort to use up all of the HST's leftover from the Winter wallhanging, I made another placemat for Meals on Wheels.  The backing fabric has tulips on it so it can be used with that side up when winter is over. 

Christine and I made zippered project bags at the retreat. One side is quilted and the other side has clear vinyl so you can see what is in the bag. 

Christine's bag is a bit bigger than mine.  We both used my black and white striped fabric for the binding. 

Here we are with our placemats for Meals on Wheels. 

I signed up for a year's worth of online classes from the Threadhouse Academy and this Tiny House table runner was made for one of the classes.  Some people made a whole quilt with Tiny Houses but I decided to just make a table runner.  It still needs to be quilted.  The houses and trees are meant to be a bit wonky--it adds personality to the project!  I would like to live in this neighbourhood!

I made these blocks by playing with my drunkard's path rulers and partial seams a few months ago.  They have been sitting in a pile in my sewing room, patiently waiting to be put together.  I managed to get this done at the retreat. 

In yet another effort to use up my bin of 2.5" squares, I made another baby quilt.  As you have probably guessed, the bin is still full of squares...  The gray background fabric was in my stash, leftover from backing another quilt. it is mostly used up now.  I should have something in my stash to use for the backing. 

A few years ago, Christine and I met Mary, a knitter, who is also a regular at the retreats and this year, she brought her friend, Elaine, along too.  The four of us hung out together for the weekend and one of the staff members at the Camp took this picture of us with some of our projects.  

The Oxford Quilters Guild is making several Quilts of Valour for injured veterans.  I took a pile of blocks to the retreat to put one of the tops together.  I also made a few more blocks to donate for the next QoV.

Finn stayed at our house for a week while our daughter was at a conference for work.  He's a smart cookie and knows exactly what our routines are when he's here.  

Finn is a specialist at looking cute. 

I will link up with Kathy and Frederique.  Hope you enjoyed the pictures of the retreat projects.  My previous post from a couple of days ago shows the finished quilt tops from the Round Robin that I organized for three friends and I earlier this year.  

Round Robin Reveal

Back in the Spring, I asked three quilting friends if they would like to participate in a Round Robin project with me.  They all said yes!  Each of us provided a block and a bag or bin of fabrics that we wanted used in our quilt.  We also provided some brief instructions regarding finished size, etc.  Today, we got together at Carol's house for tea, snacks and the big reveal. 

This is Katharine.  She wanted a table runner for a piece of furniture in her house.  The colours she chose came from some figurines that are to be displayed on the runner. She gave me the middle star block and I added the blue border around it and the 6 economy blocks.  I designed my own paper piecing pattern for the economy blocks so they would turn out to be the right size.   Next, Carol added the two stars with the peach coloured centres, copying the middle block but changing the placement of the colours. Christine added the final border to bring the runner up to the maximum size specified.  Katherine was very pleased and can't wait to get it quilted and out on display in her home.  She has enough of the dark coral fabric for the binding, or she may choose to use the dark blue.  We will see. 

Christine stitched the sashiko bunny block several years ago and wasn't sure what to do with it until this round robin challenge came along.  She had lots of interesting fabrics in her bag to use.  Katharine added the piano key border with four patches in the corners. I thought the quilt needed some curved piecing to mirror the curves stitched in the centre square so I got out my Drunkard's path rulers and added 3/4 of a circle to each corner.  The navy fabric is a Japanese fabric that was in my stash.  If you look closely, you can see that it has bunnies hopping all over it.  Carol pieced the final border with squares to nicely frame Christine's quilt.  Christine was thrilled with our handiwork and has a spot picked out on her wall to display the finished quilt. 

Carol's project was started with the appliquéd birds and tiny pieced bird seeds. The birds and the fabric in their wings provided the colour inspiration for Carol's quilt.  Christine added the green HST border on two sides and the turquoise border on the other two sides.  Katharine added the pink HST's and the purple border, playing off the borders that Christine had added.  The quilt told me it needed black in the final border but solid black was too heavy.  Then, I remembered I had this black and white striped fabric in my stash. I mitred two of the corners, matching the stripes and then added squares in the last two corners to mirror the plain borders added by Christine and Katharine.  By the time Carol's quilt got to me, the eyeballs that she had added to the birds were shredding so I took them off and added new felted wool eyes which I embroidered into place.  Carol has to decide if she is going to hand quilt or machine quilt her wall hanging.  She's very happy with her finished piece. 

During COVID, I took an online class with Maria Shell "Riffing on a Block".  I chose a hashtag block and proceeded during the class to make a complicated hashtag, piecing it so it looked woven together.  We did not use any rulers in this class which is why my block is a bit wonky.  This block has been on display on the design wall in my sewing room for a few years so this round robin was a good opportunity to finally make it into something. Carol added the blue borders and the wonky HRT borders, top and bottom.  Christine went to town and added lots of improv pieced blocks around the center after adding a narrow green border around Carol's work.  Katharine added the final green border with triangle flags and mitred corners.   Wow!  This is beyond what I could have imagined!   Thank you so much, Carol, Christine and Katharine for saying yes to my round robin proposal!  It took a little longer to get to the finish line than we had originally anticipated but the results speak for themselves.  Well done!

 I will link up with Kathy and Frederique this weekend.  (My embroidery on the birds eyes counts as slow stitching, I think!)

I will be posting again on Saturday to report on a quilting retreat Christine and I went to last weekend. 

A Couple of Finishes!

I worked on several different projects this week and two were brought to the finish line.  I quilted and bound the winter wall hanging that I showed last week.  This will be donated to a silent auction fundraiser.  It is walking foot quilted with white thread in the white sections and blue thread in the coloured sections. 

I added a hanging sleeve. You can see the quilting pattern better on the back. 

Of course, I had leftover HST's so started another project with those.  It is not quite done and will likely be a Christmas gift for someone so this is all I am showing. 

I only have one more tree to do on the Fall Forest cross stitch project.  I will have this framed when it is done. 

The program committee at the Oxford Quilters Guild has offered a colour challenge for this guild year.  Each person who wants to participate picks a block pattern they like and each month, they are told the colour of the month.  They make the same block each month in the colour of the month.  This month, the colours are turquoise and aqua.  Participants can made one block with both colours in it or two blocks --one aqua and one turquoise.  I chose to make two blocks. This will eventually become a baby quilt. 

Last winter, I worked on a winter themed cross stitch project (the pattern is from Satsuma Street).   I took it in to be framed a couple of weeks ago and picked it up this week.  It is hanging on the wall already.  As you can see from the picture below, we had some snow for a few days this past week.  It has all melted now, thankfully.  We didn't even have our winter tires on the car before it snowed!

My daughter is working on her crochet along blanket and adding lace now.  She is learning lots of new stitches as she makes this blanket. 

I spent a few hours on my hand quilting this week.  This is the project I work on at our weekly guild sewing days. 

Finn enjoys a good snuggle with our daughter.  He always likes to be touching her, hence, the paw on her arm. 

 I will link up with Kathy and the Slow Sunday Stitchers as well as Frederique and her gang.   Have a great week!

Winter Wallhanging, and Some Slow Stitching

It's been a busy week with lots of commitments, which means I didn't get a lot of sewing done.   My hand quilting project is coming along.  After I finish the cross hatching, I will add more quilting to each block. 

I found a winter 5" charm pack in my sewing room and decided to make a wall hanging with it. The white on white snowflake fabric was also in my stash and pairs nicely with the charms. I made lots of HST's and then arranged them in a barn raising pattern on the design wall.  I am in the process of sewing them together.  This will be donated to a silent auction fundraiser which is taking place at the end of the month so this will get done quickly. 

I am stitching the second last tree on my Fall Forest cross stitch.  This is a Satsuma Street pattern. 

A friend and I went out for lunch and a wander around Port Stanley today.  The women in Port Stanley were busy knitting and crocheting poppies all summer--they made over 15,000 5" poppies which have been used to decorate the community for Remembrance Day.  The local Legion is in the background of this picture--the red across the front of the building is a blanket of poppies. 

You can see the difference between the knitted and crocheted poppies in this picture. 

The ginkgo trees at the local park where I walk each day still have most of their leaves, but soon they will all fall at once and create a yellow carpet on the ground underneath the trees. 

Finn likes to provide moral support while my daughter reads or works on her crochet. 

Our burning bush is burning this week.  The birds like to eat the berries. 

I will link up with Kathy and Frederique as usual. Have a good week.