Last day of July...how did that happen?

poppies in full bloom

Seems like only last week we were starting July and now tomorrow will be August. That is going to make for an interesting month as I have at least 3 quilts that have to be finished for September. No hurry or pressure....right! Deadlines always bring out the best in my working mojo!

They are growing

There has been sewing this week in between housework and gardening. Our raspberry patch is producing a bowl of berries a day...yummy! Mostly though I have been hand stitching on these hexies. It is my on-again, off-again love affair with them. I stitch on them for awhile and then put them away for a bit then take them out again. At this rate, it could take years to finish this project and I am okay with that.
Our area is hosting a quilt show in September. It isn't sponsored by any one guild, just whoever wants to put a quilt in it ...can! So I need to get to work and finish one quilt for the show and also put sleeves for hanging on the others that I have entered. But before that show I have to get entries ready for our local Fall Fair which is at the end of August. So many things to do and just not enough time in each day to get them all finished.
Today I will be in the sewing room, trying to be productive and taking this pile of pieces and making it a finished quilt top .But I am sure later I will need a break and some slow stitching will be done just to unwind a bit. I find it so relaxing. So join in today and check in with Kathy and her followers of the slow stitching movement and see what others are working on today. Happy slow stitching Sunday!

MoreTidbits from down south

Tank our quiet observer

More from our Fabric Piranha retreat.This is the last of my few photos.I was a bit lax on my photo taking. I didn't even get one of our set up in the basement of my friend's house. I did get a few shots though. Meet Tank, he watched over us most of the weekend. He also made the perfect backdrop for some bear paw blocks.Even though he was a mount he and his buddy"Big Fella" in the other corner still gave me that queasy feeling in my belly!

4x8' walls of thread

During my trip away, I managed to visit 18 stores. They start to look all the same but different, if you know what I mean. BUT this one particular store in Ingersol, Ontario was a gem. It was a quilting/craft store. I started out as a cross

more thread

stitcher and if I had had this store I might never moved into quilting. I have never seen so much thread, pearl cotton and beads in one room. In another room there were patterns, kits and Aida cloth. In another room there was yarn,wool,patterns and needles and lastly there was quilting fabric and some notions. What a great little store!

While you are road tripping all over southern Ontario, you just never know what you will see. I especially just loved the golden fields at this time of year. We even saw a field that was varying shades of blue/green(cabbage, cauliflower or broccoli). But the cutest was these two cars on the side of the road. If you are familiar with the movie "Cars" you will no doubt recognize these two!

The sheriff and Mater.

Now I am home and things have settled down, it is time for me to get sewing again. I have a quilt that needs to be finished soon. Got to love deadlines, they keep you on your toes.

My best creation

Many quilts have been made but by far the best creation I have ever made.....my daughter!!! She was born 25 years ago today. So I am writing about her today in honor of her birthday and because she said I should post about her birthday quilt and the quilting I did on it. So here you go kiddo!!!

college quilt

Although sometimes she doesn't understand my whole quilting addiction, she does benefit from it. During her 3 year college career, I made her a quilt for each year and upon graduation she got a large hand quilted one. So to mark this significant birthday, her champagne birthday(25 years old on the 25th) she received another quilt.

She was able to choose the fabric and I picked out the pattern. But what made this quilt special is that it is quilted with the lyrics from her favorite song. I quilted the quilt from the back with basting to mark the perimeters that I had to stay within. After that chalk lines were made for each line of the song and off I went free motion quilting the words. All the words were done with no pencilling in, just free handing it. Got it all done in a day, about 8 hours. It was the easiest free motion quilting I have ever done.

The finished product completed and delivered with lots of hugs. So knowing she reads my blog, I would like to wish Kelly a very happy birthday and hope you are having a wonderful day!!!

Slow stitching Sunday....one week ago!

I am away busy today so I have posted more pics from my retreat that was a week ago with more pics to come later this week.
I found out about blogging from my friend Kathy who encouraged me to do it as well. She said if she could, I would be able to. After a year or so, I took the plunge. Because I follow Kathy's blog and have showed it to others, she calls me her "northern blog stalker"!

I am trying to be incognito

So living up to that billing....I did what any stalker blogger would do...I took pics when she wasn't looking or even knew I was there.
If you missed yesterday's post you can check it out here and see what we were up to last weekend!

don't think she suspects anything

cute posing!

without her knowing,very serious stitching

Sorry Kathy just had to put these all in as a stalker would do!!!
I will definitely be relaxing tonight and getting caught up on some slow stitching. Check out Kathy's blog and see what everyone else is up to today.
Happy stitching everyone!

Aftershocks!!!

No, no earthquakes....just home from vacation retreat and now to get back into a routine of sorts. Garden needs weeding, laundry has built up and the house needs cleaning...but other than that life is normal!!

Fabric Piranhas

Our 3rd annual retreat is over and I had an enjoyable quilting retreat with my fellow Fabric Piranhas. I really have to say not much sewing got done but we did manage to do damage at a few stores. Myself, I managed to get to 15 stores. Most were on the row by row and some were part of another shop hop that I needed a minimum 7 of 14 shops to be entered for a draw. I shopped my way to my friend's house.With more shopping  spread out over 3 days, that with a bridal shower thrown in the mix..We fit sewing in where we could.

Kathy machine quilting

I would have to say the Kathy from slow stitching with Kathy blog, got the most done. She was machine quilting away before I even got set up. Then she went on to complete some blocks from last year's shop hop(it's never too late). Barb was working on a wall hanging from a workshop she took earlier this year,Louise(mother of brides-one daughter married and one yet to go this year) was binding on a quilt(her brain was on overload with the wedding plans) and I got my next quilt cut out and one block made!My suggestion was to have the retreat next year where there are less quilt stores to distract us!!

my pretty girl and her birthday quilt

Probably the best part of the weekend was delivering to my daughter her birthday quilt. She loved it!So naturally we had to do a photo shoot. With the bridal shower winding down in the backyard we took some time in the front yard. Then I had to see if I could fold the quilt small enough to fit in a backpack so she could take it home on her motorcycle! Mission accomplished.

now she's ready for the road-quilt packed

Each year I make up "goodie loot bags" for the girls. This retreat started out as my birthday in July(mine is actually in January). The big hit this year was these mugs.Offensive language sorry! A friend's daughter made them for us.

Seems appropriate that as our retreat comes to an end that there was this chance for a sunset pic at the beach looking out over Lake Huron. They have some beautiful sunset in this area.

I have more about the retreat in the days to come. Look back in to see what else we did.

Happy Saturday!!!

Packing day!

Fabric Piranhas Four!!! 2015

Yes today is cleaning house and packing day. "Fabric Piranha" retreat is this weekend!!! Three friends and I have been getting together each year to celebrate our birthdays so to speak. We manage to fit in some quilting and a whole lot of talking. This will be our third year with a slight change of venue so we can all be present and working it out so we can fit this into our busy lives. Usually I host it at my house but this gives me a chance for a road trip and some retail therapy which I just so happen to require.
 I have a project in mind but will need more fabric. Even in my vast stash...I don't have the variety I need for a two colour quilt. I have the neutrals but between red and blue....I need MORE!!!
Oh well, I have a couple other  things I can take to work on....blocks for block of the month that I have fallen behind on, my four patch leader and ender and let's not forget my tumblers. That was last year's leader and ender and I fear it will be continued through this year!! If I get to these I will be a happy camper!!

Check in next week and see what we got finished and what other antics we may have gotten up to. Also check out Kathy's blog ( I am her official blog stalker you know)as she is our newest piranha addition. She is a little more techie than I am...she can blog away from home. You will have to wait till I get back to my home computer.

Happy Quilting

Just me and my doggie!

rainy day  goings on

DH is away with our daughter at a Music festival, which was a belated Father's Day present. So the dog and I have had the run of the house. With all the rain yesterday, it became an inside day and that was good for me. Lots of sewing/machine quilting got finished. I have some looming deadlines and this is one of them. It is a gift for my daughter for her 25th birthday in a couple of weeks. She knows it is coming but has no idea what the quilting will look like. I basted the quilt as usual with a special line of coloured basting showing me the perimeter of the center of the quilt. I needed this as I was quilting the quilt from the back. I sent her a email with a picture of part of the quilt to see if she realized what it was and she did right away!

song lyrics are the quilting

Today it will be binding for slow stitching Sunday. Although I think some regular sewing will happen first. I have missed sitting at my machine and just sewing patches together. But I will get some quality time doing that at the end of this week. Our annual "Fabric Piranha" weekend is coming. We usually meet at my house for this event but a change of venue was needed so all could be present this year. We can make anything work when we want to!! Besides this way I get to go to more quilting stores to collect row by row patterns and deliver my daughter's gift in person.

This week I have a program meeting for one of the guilds I belong to. I have been on program before but not at this guild. I am looking for ideas that are different. There is so much repetition that goes on between guilds, I want this guild to stand out. I have a good group of ladies joining me on this committee with varied interests so it should be simple! Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated!
Stay tuned as I cut, assemble,pack and get ready for the "Fabric Piranha"weekend.
Have a great week!!

Road Trippin'

1/2 garbage bag worth

Well yesterday was a fun day. It is always fun road trippin' with a friend and Bernadette and I have very similar interests! Our friend Zelda(she's as much fun as her name)told us about a yarn sale at a Stedman's/V&S store in a neighbouring town(1.5 hours from us..that's a neighbour?) So we decided to check it out and visit a quilt store or two and if we found the new knitting store all the better.

quilt store goodies

Much to our surprise as we walked into the yarn sale, there was our friend Zelda. We had made no plans with her about the day but got to spend some time with her and have lunch together.The prices were amazing and by the pics you can tell I accumulated quite the haul! Most of it has a purpose but a couple bags were just too nice to leave behind.In all our travels of the day we only got to one quilt store and I got a row by row pattern and some fat quarters for my tumbler quilt.
We took one wrong turn in the whole day but it took us along a road and we saw this covered bridge. So we just went with the small detour and enjoyed the view.

looks like a country road but there is a neighbourhood nearby

Now today with my purchases put away for a bit later, I am trying to settle into getting something accomplished. My daughter's quilt is on the agenda. I know what I want to do quilting wise but I must sandwich and baste the quilt first then see if I can actually quilt it the way I am planning.I want to machine quilt it with words and I want the words to show, so I will be quilting it from the back of the quilt. So when I baste it, the basting threads will be my guides for quilting. YIKES!!!
And it all has to be done by next Tuesday!!

8 weeks old

2 years old

Now yesterday was also a special day for our little fur baby. Belle turned 2 years old. Those eyes look so innocent but we knew right from day one she was going to be a little stinker! She has her moments and we still say"it's a good thing she's cute!"

Enjoy your day, the weekend is almost here!!!

Post Quilt Finish Wanderings/Wonderings

"Tall groom short bride making tracks"-wedding quilt

How many times does that happen to you? You finish a big project and then WHAT? What do you do next. It isn't for lack of projects that is for sure. I have a few waiting in the wings but I wanted to share my latest finish with you. I was at the wedding this weekend and the quilt was delivered and appreciated by the groom and bride.
In the next few months I have a lot of sleeves to put on quilts so they can go into our show in September. I have another wedding quilt to make and a birthday quilt to machine quilt. After all that I can concentrate on some fun projects that I would like to do.

daughter's birthday quilt-she knows it is coming!
needs quilting

In a couple of weeks some friends and myself are getting together for a small retreat. Fellow blogger Kathy, my friend Louise and her sister Barb will converge on Louise's house for a few days of sewing, chatting and some glass tipping in the hopes of getting something done!

Now with all this going on, I also have to help plan the program for one of the guilds I am a member of. Never a dull or idle moment. Hope whatever you are doing this week, some quilting or sewing will be involved and that you get a chance to enjoy the sunny weather!