All Kinds Of Things

I have all kinds of things that I need to catch up!  I had a Retreat that I went to this month.  What a fun place to sew.  We saw this location on Bonnie Hunter's blog and decided to check it out.  I'm glad we did.  It was very nice.

Cordes Cottage. We got so much done and even took a little Field Trip.  Plus we came up with a new end of the Retreat tradition. 

The sewing space:

I finished the top, Scrappy Mountains Majesties.  I started it last summer when I went to Bonnie Hunter's workshop. Now to figure out backing.  I also worked on another UFO.  More on it another day.

And Spring is coming soon!!

The daffodils are blooming and I think Spring is here.  I especially thought that when I saw my first butterfly of the season.
 

Hope you are enjoying your Spring and are able to accomplish all you want.

Bunnies

I made a couple of bunnies filled with catnip and fiberfill for my grandkitties.  They turned out so cute.  

I used this tutorial from Molly and Mama.  I didn't hand stitch them as they are for the cats, but I'm thinking I may have to make a couple more for me in which I do hand stitch them.  They would be so cute in a little basket.

I Thought It Was Done

I thought it was done!  Here is a picture....

It's my "Under The Sea" quilt.  I just love it!  The directions have you cut off the points to make it square and there was no way I wanted to cut those pieced points off.  So I was looking at the picture and trying to figure out a way to make pieces to square it up.  That's when I noticed my mistakes.  See at the top far right?  I have the block set in backwards.  No problem.

Then I noticed the 2 rows at the top left where the star pattern in orange isn't even formed.  Uck!  So while I'm adding pieces I will be fixing these two places.  But it's getting there!

The End

It's finally the end of a class.  I signed up for 2 classes in January that were multiply day classes and because of snow or ice we had to change the dates we met.  Saturday was the last day of Peas In A Pod class.  This is the class I took with a friend I work with who wanted to learn to quilt but didn't want to go to the class by herself.  I'm so glad I took the class.

This is my friend's quilt:

The picture doesn't really do it justice.  It's a beautiful pink, purple and orange quilt.  Such fun colors! 

And this is the front of my quilt:

It's "Wizard Of Oz" fabric.  It's hard to tell, but the yellow is the brick road fabric and the red is a flower fabric I bought to be the poppies. So fun to make and here is the back:

The fabrics in the center are from a "Wizard Of Oz" charm pack I bought and these fabrics represent the part of the film where it went to color. (Brick road fabric on the sides.)

The quilt is all pinned and ready for me to quilt it.  I do need to cut some binding for it and get it ready, so I'll work on that.  Then I'll be ready to cut every thing that is left and add to the Scrap User's System. 

Knots

I never really thought that much about knots until I read Jo's post at Jo's Country Junction and all the replies to the Post.

I use a variety of knots.  When I'm doing hand sewing I use the knot that Jo showed.  Funny thing is, I'm right handed too and I use my right hand to make the knot instead of my left hand.

When I'm hand quilting I use the method of wrapping the thread around the needle and sliding it off and down the string.  Here is a YouTube video showing you how to do this method.

And when doing counted cross stitch I weave the ends in the back under the stitches.  This happens as I'm working the cross stitch, I hold the tail of the thread taut on the back as I stitch, making sure the thread ends up under the stitch.

What about you?  Do you have a favorite knot? 

Rain

This past Saturday it was raining really hard.  Not sure how much rain we received, but at least it wasn't SNOW.  Saturday was also a sewing day for the Quilt Guild and we had about 11 members show up.

I worked on my "Under The Sea Quilt", cutting the edge off the gray and pinning on the slice of orange.  Took me all morning to do just that.  I did sew a couple of them when I got home as I wanted to see how they were coming along.

Once all of these are sewn, I can start to assemble the quilt. I can hardly wait!

Bins Of Fabric

I have a number of bins of fabric.  Especially since I have been collecting fabric since the late 80s early 90s.

I had a bin of "Vintage" Christmas fabric I used for the Sampler I had made.  I also cut out another quilt top from that bin and still had fabric left.  So anything left got cut into 8 inch squares.  I'm going to put those together for backing like one of the Guild members.  I love that look.

And since I was on a roll with cutting fabric, I had a bin that was to become a flannel rag quilt.  So I got busy and cut that fabric.  I spent most of yesterday working on that.  The bin is almost all trimmed up.  I made all the batting for this quilt way back when, see?

All the 12.5 inch squares plus some 6.5 inch squares and strings.  There was also a piece of fabric in the bin that was 8 yards long.  I'm going to use that for backing for one of my quilt tops I have hanging in the guest bedroom closet.

Feeling accomplished!