Catching up again! Some swap sewing and retreat hi-lites.

Last week came and went and I just couldn't find the extra time to blog. I was busy every night.  I had to make some choices and the computer didn't win...

Since the last time I blogged,  I went on a quilt retreat with my friends and had a great time.   I only finished one thing but I  got a few things further along too.  Good food, good friends and relaxation.  It's so nice to get away and not worry about making dinner, answering the phone, cleaning, laundry, etc, etc.  Nothing but me time.  That's what I like about retreats. I can sew until I'm too tired to sit any longer or take a walk or even a nap.  Of course, I didn't do those things. I just sewed and sewed. and ate and talked alot!  I took my tatting and my knitting but didn't touch either one.  We did make a trip into the local quilt shop and I bought a new project too.  Like I needed another project, right?  I saw this quilt and just had to have it, it was beautiful and I didn't want it to get away from me.  I'll be starting it soon but I have to finish at least 3 things first.  I started out telling myself I had to finish 5 things but decided to lower it to 3!  Ha, ha, I don't know if I can wait but I'm going to be patient and get some small things done first. 

When I came home Sunday, I was so tired. I brought all of my stuff in from the car and put my sewing room back together. I planned on sewing some but it just didn't happen. I sat in my chair and started watching some TV I had recorded and fell fast asleep. No sewing that day or the rest of the week either.   I didn't get to sew again until this past Saturday afternoon!  Last week was busy with grandkids and friends and family but no time to sew. I did watch TV one night and I knitted for awhile.  I'm still working on my Wingspan shawl. 

Saturday, I planned on finishing my blocks for my current swap but I only sewed on them a little while.  The grandbaby didn't want to cooperate and take a good nap. I had to finally put my sewing away and play with her....What a sacrifice! Not!

 Sunday afternoon, I was finally able to finish them up.  I made my 5 blocks for my swap this Thursday....These blocks took me forever!  Have you ever made a block and had to unsew it because it wasn't right?  Well, these blocks and I didn't get along at all.  I used fabrics for the outside triangles that were two different fabrics.  I had enough to do 3 blocks of one fabric and the other two were supposed to be the other fabric. I had to unsew them because the outside triangle fabrics weren't the same. I wasn't paying attention and sewed the wrong fabrics on the blocks.  They looked almost alike and I started to leave them as they were but I just couldn't stand it. I had to rip out.  I got my trusty seam ripper out and unsewed them. Then, I was stupid enough to sew two blocks wrong again!!!!I didn't think I would ever get these simple blocks done.  I was so aggravated with myself.  I was trying to watch Felix Baumgartner jump out of that balloon 24 miles up and I wasn't paying attention to what I was doing.  OMG, I am so glad those are done too! 5 blocks took nearly all afternoon but I finally got them done.  One more thing out of the way for the month! If you click on the pics, you can see how close the fabrics were....

One of my accomplishments at retreat was my 40 Nine Patches for the month. I love mindless sewing when I'm with someone.  I can chat and sew and not have to think about what I'm doing.  These weren't so bad this month.   We are down to only 4 more months and we'll have enough nine patches for the quilt... Yay! 




I wanted to show you what I worked on at retreat.  I decided I would make both my granddaughters the same quilt.  I think I told you that last week.  Well, I got alot of the blocks done at retreat.  I still have more to do but I am alot further along on this now.  I ran out of white fabric and had to buy some more.  That was my main reason for going to the quilt shop at retreat.  I couldn't stand the temptation though....

Can you tell there are two quilts on my design wall?  I still have some more blocks to make. I'm making them 6 X 8. I'm trying to make them both alike but I have a few blocks in there that are different. The colors are the same but the fabric is different, but just a few.   I think I still need about 20 more blocks.  I have so enjoyed making these blocks.  I even showed the girls at retreat how to make these and they started making some too.  These are my Disappearing 4 patches I've been working on for the Scrappy Rainbow challenge this year.  I've already decided what my borders will be for these two but have to find the fabric.  All of the fabric used is scrap except for the white. I had to buy extra white on white fabric as I used all of mine from my stash.  I hope my sweet granddaughters will like them. 

 

Now, here's a few pics of what some of my friends did at retreat....

 

Karen was working on a Trip Around the World quilt....

 

 

Ruth and Jessica (Mother and daughter team) worked on this beautiful Christmas quilt. Click on the picture and see how pretty this quilt is.  They almost finished this one. They still had to add the beautiful border on it when they left...This was a kit they bought a few years ago. The daughter will get this one...

 

This is a quilt that Judy was working on. The pattern was in a McCall's quilting mag from 2005. 

Some Christmas Dresden blocks. Glenda did these and they were going to be for our Christmas challenge swap but she liked them so much she decided to keep them and make a runner out of them.  She bought two fat quarters and made 5 dresden plates.

 

 

This is Witch Judy...she dressed up for us the last day we were at retreat.  So cute but I wish I had taken a pic of her socks...

 

 

 

A little bit of orange

I worked on some orange last night and this morning.  I had some left over from my Nine patches....I have added these to my other Disappearing 4 patch blocks and my other little blocks for the other project.  These are for the monthly rainbow scrap challenge. I TRY to do my nine patches the same color as the challenge so I'll be sure and have some scraps but it doesn't always work out.  I've got to play catch up now cause I  missed some colors but I sure like this DP4 block and I want it to have alot of different colors in it....

 

 

This is the block that I don't remember it's name. Anybody know it???

 

 

 

Here's my 40 nine patches for the month!

 

 

 

Ok, gotta get off and get busy. I have more sewing to do before the grandbaby objects!  I hope you get to sew some this weekend. til next time!

 

 

9 Patches and Civil War blocks done for the month.

Well, I finally finished all 40 of my nine patches for the month.    When I first started this swap, , I liked nine patches, now I'm really bored with them...I just keep telling myself, the quilt will be great, the quilt will be great.  I guess the biggest thing is I shouldn't wait until the last minute to do them and if I spread them out over the month, it wouldn't be so bad...I'll start doing that.  Anyway, I finished those and I did my five Civil War blocks for my exchange too.  Both are due this Thursday at my small group.  Here's a pic...

I've been watching the Olympics and I've enjoyed everything about them this year.  I think they were great and I think Great Britain did a wonderful job hosting it.  I'm off now to finish watching the closing ceremonies, til next time, happy sewing.

Block exchanges, tatting, knitting and a little wallhanging.

I did a little bit of sewing on Sunday afternoon.  This week is my small group meeting and I wasn't ready for it.  I'm in two exchanges in this group and I had to get ready.  So, even though I wasn't really "in the mood" to sew, I had to suck it up and do it anyway.  So, I did. I made my 40 nine patches for my 9 Patch exchange and I started working on the other 5 blocks I needed for the other exchange.   Here's the 9 patches I did Sunday.

I finished my tatted earrings and my knitted scarf too.  The top earrings have seed beads on them. The little owl earrings have seed beads for the eyes.  I found the metal owls at Hobby Lobby and made earrings out of them too.  The other metal owl I found at Walmart and I'll just make a necklace out of him.  I like owls...can you tell? 

Here's a close-up of the earrings with the seed beads.

Here's the knitted scarf I finished.   It's made from Premier Starbella thread.  It was fun and easy to make. I have some gray/black/white to knit up too.  This one is a gift and the other one is for me.

Tonight, I finished the other 5 blocks I started on Sunday afternoon.  These are all made from Civil War fabric and we are about half-way through with the exchange.  This is going to be a great quilt.

This last picture is for Lesley, the Cuddle Quilter.  I told her I had made a small quilt out of the maple leaf blocks and had done it the same setting as she had done...I made this a few years ago and  enjoy this little wallhanging every time I see it. I had put it away and had to hunt for it to take the pic.  Now that I have it out, I'll put it up on the wall and enjoy it for awhile.

I hope you have a great week and get some creating time in.  til next time, happy sewing.

A few things I'm working on this weekend

I hope everyone had a great week.  I've had a good week and gotten a few things going.
I have been quilting on a little quilt for charity and having fun with it.  I finished the quilting on it and now just need to bind it.  I'll show you that little quilt when it's bound. 

Tuesday night was tatting night and I'm back to tatting crosses....so relaxing and fun to do!


Wednesday night, I had to watch DALLAS!  I love it.  JR hasn't changed at all except for his eyebrows getting bushier!  I watched this show years ago and couldn't resist watching it again.  I don't live too far from Southfork Ranch and trust me, it's just a little smaller than what they are saying on the show!  Anyway, it's fun to watch with all the scheming and conniving going on on the show. I hope you guys are enjoying it too....

Last night I went and sewed with some friends at the church.  I forgot to sign up for Heidi and Bobbi's Friday night sew in but I thought about it last night!  I hope all of you had fun sewing together!

I visited with my friends and got a few things done too.  I cut strips for some 9 Patches and sewed the strips together.  I also sewed up a red, white and blue round tablerunner. I saw this on Barbara's blog (Bejeweled) and loved it.  I ordered the fabric from her sister's site, Inchworm Fabrics and got the pattern free.  It was easy and quick to do and I have enough fabric left for one more... I still have to quilt it but it will be next in line. I want to have it on my table for the 4th of July!

Today, I put together 40 purple nine patches for my exchange this month. 

Here's a picture of 80 nine patches together in two sets...they are not sewn together.  I have 40 to sew together now and I'll get 40 more this Thursday too.  I think you call this a postage stamp quilt but I'm not sure.

With my left over fabric from the 9 patches, I put together 4 Disappearing 4 patches but...I cut them the wrong size so I can't use them for the project I intended.  :-(

Oh, well, I'll use them for something along the way.

See how much smaller they are compared to the other DP4 patches I'd done?  I started out with 5 inch squares and found some leftover squares in my UFO box that I thought I used for the project. They were 4 1/2" so I cut the purples down to that size without measuring...Well, duh!   I have a little bit left over so maybe I can make some DP4 in the right size.  I wanted to sew more but the kids are coming over and the baby is waking up so I'll have to stop for now.  Hopefully, I can get some more sewing time in tomorrow afternoon.  Til then, happy sewing!

Rainbow Scrap Challenge and some 9 Patches

Today is another Saturday for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. I haven't done too much with the challenge this month as the color is pink. I don't have alot of pink but I did find a little bit to work with....I saw these blocks on another blog that I follow and wanted to make them.  I'm going to be doing them in all colors like Teresa from Fabric Therapy did here.  When I saw hers I liked it alot and decided I was going to make one.  It's been one of those thinkgs I couldn't get off my mind...I decided today was the day I was going to start.  So, here's my feeble starting to this wonderful quilt.  More to come later!!!

Here's some more 9 patches I'm doing for an exchange.  Here's 20 of the 40 I need for the month.  I almost have the other 20 completed but I had to stop and play with the baby. I'll be sewing more later. I hope you have a beautiful weekend and get some sewing time in!