Life happens!

Yes life happens and before you know it...a week has gone by. I had good intentions of posting after the events of last week but one thing lead to another and then a long weekend(with much work to be done outside) and here we are Tuesday!!!

Group shot

So bear with me and let me rewind a bit. Last Tuesday was our monthly guild meeting and the exciting part was we had a guest Carla Alexiuk of Quilting by the River. She is a local-ish teacher(in Northern Ontario, 3 hours or less is local) who I got to know when I lived in Sudbury. She did a wonderful trunk show for us which was a prelude to the workshop she taught the next day. A little water issue where she was suppose to stay opened an invitation to stay at my house. Thank goodness I had cleaned the house the day before!!

my block sample

Funny story happened too! I carpooled to the guild meeting leaving my vehicle in the town next to mine to be picked up that night on the way home. With the change of plans, Carla drove me home after we visited a quilt store of course! Once home, I questioningly look at DH and asked where was the van and he looked at me just as strangely and said " you have it!" Hmmmm....bahaha guess I will be picking it up tomorrow morning on the way to class was my answer!!!
Needless to say the evening went by very quickly. You know what happens when you get two quilters together. DH just listened, he couldn't hardly get a word in...but we let him speak every now and again!
The workshop the next day had 21 ladies enjoying Carla's pattern River Rocks and learning with the Studio 180 rulers. It always amazes me how you can take simple bare bones units and put them together and have a wonderful block that then makes a great quilt.

After class we sent Carla on her way home and we headed to our own.
The pieces for the quilt sit on their paper plates(Carla's idea) waiting to be worked on. That will happen this week at a UFO day unless I get a chance before that.

Being so busy this weekend, I missed linking up with my friend Kathy. But you can still check in with her and her loyal followers and see what everyone is doing!

Today I am catching up on things indoors. I need to be out of the sun(too much yesterday) and it looks like it might rain anyways.

Lazy Sunday

class quilt

Happy Mother's day to all the moms in blogland. It has been a quiet yet wonderful day for me. A full day of sewing with the windows open letting in the smells and sounds of Spring!

baby quilt with churn dashes

I have been in a sewing fit this week. I just wanted to sit at the machine and do some piecing. So I finished the top for a class that I will be teaching in a few weeks. I was working on miniature churn dashes...but I put them on point according to the pattern that I was following. Once it was done, I realized that I didn't like how they looked. They no longer looked like churn dash blocks at all....so what is a girl to do!?! Yup I started another one. Scrappy but with a little more rhythm and reason to it.It is also going to be a bit smaller as I don't have time to do a larger one. This one will be a baby quilt.


In my need for piecing at the machine, I also completed this little quilts this week. They will find a home with some little people in need. I give them to a guild member who is a member of VICARS.So fun to make when you are in need of a sewing fix!

wee quilts for stuffed animals

I will be checking in with Kathy and seeing what everyone is doing. I have missed a few weeks so I am wanting to catch up with everyone.

Challenging challenges!

Where does the time go? One day you decide to sew up little tiny 3" finished churn dash blocks. Mostly I sewed on them at retreat last Fall. Everyone thought they were cute but that I was crazy! I  saw this quilt in a magazine and offered to teach it at my guild this Spring so I had to get it done.

Once the blocks were done I had to find the perfect or almost perfect fabric to be the alternate square. I didn't want to buy anything as like most of you, I was sure I could find something in my stash that would work. I pulled out several options and questioned my friends on which fabric would work. This is their choice and it is growing on me!

Now my problem...once I put the churn dash blocks on point for the quilt, I didn't like them anymore.They now look like some strange cross or emblem. Also the quilt isn't as big as I would like. So what is a girl to do but make another one and this time I won't be putting it on point. My class is in about three weeks...I can do this!!!