A Teaser, Retreat Project, Great Friends and Stupid Weather

This hasn't been picked up yet...stay tuned for next week.

Here's one of my drag-around projects that I was working on at retreat.  I am hopeful that I can finish piecing the top when I head up to Margaret's in May.

It's made from 100 of these.  It starts with 100 strip sets, then you add corners to two opposite sides and square 'em up.  Those corners are a pale muted yellow.

I have two go-to aprons and THEY WERE BOTH IN THE WASH.  How was I to cook???  The pink one was made by my friend Jean, and the aqua was made by my friend Karen.  I think of those girls every time I wear these, and that's a lot.  I met Jean somewhere's around 30 years ago, when we were both working in Toronto at RBC answering the Operations Help lines.  Until I started answering those phones, I thought I already knew everything about branch banking.  Whoa baby - I had a major come-uppance.  We connected again doing the same thing in Burlington several years later.  She's currently recovering from a broken femur after a fall on the ice.  **If you are taking a bone-builder make sure you get checked regularly - one of the side effects (oddly enough) is fractures in the femur.  Karen (of the aqua apron) is one of my Beach Girls. In the quiet part of my head I always think I'm the only person with any dressmaking skills but Karen slaps me down over that on a regular basis.  It's good to have friends who keep you grounded. 😘

And BLOODY HELL.  WTF, Mother Nature????  It was so warm on Friday I ditched the winter coat.  It poured rain on Saturday.  Sunday morning I wake up to this???

It's not going to last.  Tomorrow should be +10c.  But I'm still whining about it!

Some Pretty Spring Inspiration and Retreat Quilts

This was quilted last month, when I R.E.A.L.L.Y. needed something pretty.  It's Rainbow Trip from the book Garden Fresh Quilts.

The maker chose a lovely panto featuring feathers and flowers which suited the quilt perfectly.  I'm always so impressed by quilters who can tackle a challenging project like this and keep all their pieces where they belong.

RETREAT QUILTS
Every year the Binbrook guild goes on a three day retreat to Crieff Hills in Puslinch.  It's less than an hour away from home so it's a really easy trip to take.  The retreat center feeds us three meals a day and we take care of our own snacks and (ahem) adult beverages.  I also buy a one litre jar of honey there every year.  There's a local apiarist who sells product at the center.  The last several years we've run these as UFO retreats, instead of having a class.  I have so many UFO's I think I only did the class one year, so there has not been much change for me.  We also have Sew Little Time come on Saturday and set up her shop.  I showed excellent restraint this year and did not buy a single bit of fabric.

I promised myself I would not start any new projects in 2019 until I got some of my own sh*t finished, AND got rid of some yardage.  Last month you saw that I finished up two little panel quilts, and here I've done two more.  Yay me!!  These will go in the donation pile for either the Women's Shelter, Children's Aid Society, or ...I also plan to talk to the local food bank.  They put together Christmas hampers and might want gifts for families. These were assembled from my own stash.

Still about the Binbrook guild, one of our very important members passed away last fall.  Her mission over the last several years had been piecing small quilts for St. Joseph's Hospital, for the kids who are in there for some kind of treatment.  The newspaper wrote a story about her when she was up to 600 quilts.  By the time she passed away someone said she'd hit the 1000 mark.  Apparently her sewing room was still FULL of fabric.  A few of our gals helped the family with a rescue mission (so to speak) and the guild members are working through the remaining fabric.

I took two kits:  they'd been prepped with pre-sewn rail fence blocks, and a hunk of fabric already cut for a border.  I pieced the blocks together, added the border and brought the tops home.  Last weekend I got them quilted and bound.  They have a cozy flannel backing which makes them super snuggle-worthy.

STASH
So far this year I've managed:

• use up 32 m. 
• deduct the 8 m. of fabric added 
• net -24 m. of fabric in projects that are COMPLETE.  

That's my rule - if it's not COMPLETE I can't mark it off my stash report.  I have a list of  projects I want to complete this year, which in all honesty is the same list for the third year in a row.  Note to self:  stop watching so much tv.

Leftovers from February and Book Recommendation

Clearly, my schedule of posting weekly has flown the coop.  Organizational skills must have gone to Florida, where the inspiration for this quilt's colours could have originated?  By the beach, where the sky and the water blend so you can't see where one ends and the other begins.  Where it's warm.  Oh, sorry - my mind is wandering again. 😏

Reality comes crashing in with a winter inspired quilt - full of holly and poinsettias.

It's very pretty, but I'm awfully tired of cold and snow.  I added angels and "Joy" to cheer myself up.

Lots of straight line quilting to emphasize those Jacob's Ladder (?) blocks.

This was a gorgeous view of the full moon rising on Feb. 19th.  Living in the country can often be a real pain in the arse, especially in the winter.  But there are also many uplifting moments.  I'm quite sure that two minutes after taking this pic I had to add a few more logs to the fire.

This winter DH has left the firewood HUGE.  I don't know if he was trying to save gas in the log splitter, or if he figured I needed the weight-bearing exercise for my bones (or maybe just some exercise for the aforementioned arse?), but Geez Louise.  I get a workout whenever I pick up a few slabs.

BOOKS

I have a new FAVORITE author:  Elizabeth Berg.  I'm very glad I discovered her because last weekend I threw my back out.  I spent three days flat on my back either watching tv or reading books.  Much of that time was spent in a hot bath loaded with epsom salts (and that's where I'm heading when I finish this post!).  I am back at work but can't work a full day yet.  Sadie and I have returned to our fair-weather walks but not our full length outings yet.  Because I KNOW you're curious, it wasn't an overly heavy log that damaged me.  It was getting out of bed.  Jesus Murphy.  I thought I had the art of bed-getting-out-of mastered, but apparently not.  As I departed said bed I thought "huh, cranky back this morning".  By noon I could hardly move and it went downhill from there.  

While I was perusing Ms. Berg's site I happened upon one of her friend's essays.  Hah!  A little ZUCCHINI inspiration. Read it - it's fun.  As much about marriage as zucchini.

Anyhow, I'm on the road to recovery.  Another week and hopefully I'll be good as old (ha ha...).  In the meantime I'll continue crabbing at DH to P.L.E.A.S.E. vacuum. 

Next week, assuming the blog-posting schedule has resumed 😊, I'll show you the little quilts I pieced at retreat the first weekend of March.

Aah, WINTERRUPTION

Another February Winterruption with the Beach Girls has come and gone.  And I just want to point out - in this pic there is not a cocktail glass in sight.

The girls arrived Thursday, late afternoon.

• unpack
• cocktails
• supper (which included Happy Birthday To Me 🙉🎵)
• movie

Friday:

• breakfast
• field trip to Ottawa Street, Hamilton .  We went to the toy store, an import store, an antique store, a couple fabric shops, and a consignment furniture shop.
• late lunch/early supper at the Black Forest Inn
• stop in at Vintage Soul Geek 
• walk across King St. to Denningers (damn, I wish they'd had some bacon-wrapped tenderloin in the freezer.  Best. Appetizers. Ever.)
• stop at the drug store and check twelve thousand of DH's lottery tickets from the past year.  OK, twelve thousand is a bit of an exaggeration, but there WERE lots of tickets.  What is wrong with the man, he buys tickets but never checks them???  I took his $46.00 in winnings AND all the free tickets.
• return home, put purchases away, change into jammies & yoga pants.
• settle in front of the tv for two more movies.
• supper was potato chips and assorted junk food.  Healthy, no?

Saturday:

• breakfast
• sewing day
• lunch
• sewing
• bar opens at 3:00 🍷 for appetizers and afternoon cocktails
• supper
• settle in the living room for two MORE movies
• now that we've seen FIVE movies, a little pop-quiz to see who could remember the title of Thursday night's movie.  ❓❓❓ Nope.  I had to look it up.  At least we're all forgetful together. 

Sunday:

• Stupid, stupid, stupid (!) weather forecast for today. 
• breakfast
• the girls were all gone by 9:15 this morning.  I wasn't even out of my jammies yet.

On our "sewing" day I finished the binding on these two little panel quilts that I'll be donating somewhere.

I sorted out the progress I've made on my Nine In The Middle  Leaders & Enders quilt from Bonnie Hunter's book.

From this point on, I will be adding the brown cornerstones as seen above.  Once those are all done I will add the completed sashing strips to the sides of the 9-patch blocks to create these:

Our next get-together will be the semi-annual SOLO meeting in April.  Until then...it will be Messenger chats.

I Love Polka Dots and I Hate Winter

Oooh, get a load of those bright grunge polka dots.

Quilted with a "modern" pantograph, oddly enough called Mid Century.  The backing was pieced, using preprinted Stack 'n Whack fabric and more of the grunge polka dots.

THE STORY OF I HATE WINTER

Last week I showed you a pic of my kitchen door covered in ice.  This is the same door, THIS week.  Fresh ice. This was Tuesday morning.

Here's the back yard Tuesday night.

Here's the front yard Wednesday morning.  Now we've got snow on TOP of the ice.  Guild meeting tonight is cancelled.  This makes three in a row - one for each guild I belong to.

Next, it warmed up overnight and melted much of the snow. Then it froze again.
Thursday morning.  Yeah.  Happy Valentines to you too Mother Nature.  Geez.  Poor Sadie is risking life and limb every time she needs to go for a pee.

Thurday morning front yard.  Can you see my driveway over there?  That is a massive sheet of ice.

It is Sunday morning now and the driveway is still a sheet of ice.  There's a crust of ice on top of the snow, so even going over the LAWN to get to the road is slipperier'n hell.

DH and I did manage to get out and run a couple of errands.  I hit the sale rack in the produce section and bought a bag of half price apples.  I cut up the whole bag for Apple Betty and used a 9 x 13 pan.  Yes - sugar is the only thing keeping me sane these days.  At least I leave the skin on the apples.

My Red Hat group got into a discussion once about buying produce off the sale rack (I think this was during the $7.00 cauliflower period), and whether we did or didn't.  Until then I'd never even thought about looking there, but if I'm baking or canning or cooking veggies for soup...why not?

This is as close as I can get to a giggle.

Blue Stars and Typical February Weather (with a little entertainment)

Mmm, pretty stars set into a white background.

S.I.D. around the stars and along the outer border.  Then motifs went inside the stars and into the setting squares.  The background around the stars was filled with some straight line quilting.

You can see the details more easily on the back.

Around these parts, February is known for it's particularly sh*tty weather.
Here's our kitchen door, Wednesday morning, 9 am.  The three customers I had booked all postponed until Thursday.

Here's Wednesday again, at 5 pm.  Lovely rain (?*#@!!?) and temps hovering just below freezing.

By Thursday morning the temperature had plummetted and the ice was hard as a rock.  Those customers have all postponed again.  You're taking your life in your hands out there with all the ice.  This shot was Thursday at 1 pm when the fog started to roll in.  We also got a severe wind warning with gusts up to a zillion km/hr.

For a little entertainment, I decided that we should clip Sadie ourselves.  She's 12 years old and is so stressed out every time she goes to the beauty parlour it just breaks my heart.  She also has developed a lot of weird skin conditions, AND she's still recovering from her knee surgery.  I thought it would be easier on all of us to just let her stay home for a clip.  Ha ha... this is post haircut.  Pitiful job.  I hope our skills improve.

Drunkard's Path (or, I Am Not To Be Trusted!)

Part I

I used to teach an 8-week quilting class twice a year, and I always wrote my own patterns.  I have an Accuquilt die cutter (see JAWS tab above), so I designed a Drunkard's Path quilt.  I asked a friend to test my pattern instructions, and she made this quilt  That was, I think, in 2009.  When I was visiting her last fall the quilt was STILL flopped over her design wall.  Every time she's mentioned this quilt she would get an unhappy tone in her voice, which always made me think she was having a hate/hate relationship with it.  So when I was visiting in September I stole it. I figured I would quilt it, get it off her 'annoying' list and she'd be super happy with the nice surprise. I packed it in my suitcase and snuck it out the door.

Part II of the story... 

We have a UFO challenge every year.  Geez Louise - doesn't she decide that THIS QUILT is going to be her first project.  During our weekly phone call she tells me that she spent A WHOLE DAY looking for this top and couldn't find it anywhere. OMG.  I didn't know if I should fess up...then she mentions that she also couldn't find the preview papers with her quilting ideas.  I never saw them and didn't take them - I only pilfered the quilt. Knowing that she had no plan any more I decided to keep my mouth shut and get the darned thing quilted.  

I finished it, wrote a stupid poem to pack in the box with the quilt and shipped it back to her in the hope that she loved me enough to forgive the skulduggery.

Part III - delivery 

As she was leaving for her knitting group she saw a parcel thrown in front of her garage.  First, she thought it was for the neighbours, then realized that no - it was addressed to her, from me.  She threw it in the car and continued on to knitting.  When she got home a few hours later and opened the parcel, what she saw was the light blue backing. She didn't recognize the fabric, so that made her think I had mistakenly mailed a customer's quilt to HER.  Then she noticed the piece of paper and the poem.  She laughed and laughed.  I have been forgiven and have a new reputation of being very sneaky and able to keep a secret.  She loves the way it turned out and is quite happy to knock this off her UFO list.

I did s.i.d. around all the piecing, to outline the colour bands and the floral centers.

The straight line quilting nicely contrasts with the "Nemeshing".

There's also a lovely border design which doesn't show on the top stripe, but looks really pretty on the back.

Later today...

Well, yes, I'm cheating a little bit.  This is LAST year's photo, but I'll be doing the same thing with different fabrics.  Gotta watch the Super Bowl commercials!