Off to the retreat!

Anybody got a pack mule? 8-)

I'm off to the retreat for the weekend!
Have a good one yourself!
See ya all when I get back!

Check out my Feb Finish and other stuff I've been doing while you are here! 8-)

Myra

My February Finish is done!!! 8-)

Not washed as of yet because I just made the last few stitches on the binding, so you still see my quilt markings on the boarder... They will have to wait to be washed out till after my weekend retreat, but it is done, done, done!!! Woohoo!...

Our Wonky Bits group only saw 5/13 of us crawl out in the cold today. -34C ...brrrrrr...

The photo at the side here is a layout of blocks that we were playing with a bit today. It is Lp's lovely handy work... Going to look great hanging in her stairway when done! 8-)

Retreat, 1 more sleep! Time to go pack! 8-)
I shall catch up with you all on Monday! Have a great weekend! 8-)

Yesterday's walk with the fur-girls at -6C turned to -33C with windchill this morning, and for most of the day. We also awoke to a large dumping of fluffy snow... Not that we needed anymore, but it is nice and clean to look at... was getting sloppy and dirty looking...

My dilemma with my invisible thread yesterday got solved today by my bright idea (don't get them often) of using one of the mesh things that I got with my Serger (that I have never used). They are to use over your spools. I am so glad I thought of it as the rest of my quilting went smoothly... Woohoo! 8-)

I had made the bias binding yesterday, and when I was ready for it, I couldn't find it!!! Took 10 minutes, but I found it! Sheesh! And just before I sat down to put the binding on the quilt, I realized I hadn't prepared the sleeve yet (I like to attach it with the binding), so that needed to be done! Being in a hurry to finish something can bring lots of forgetfulness for me... I blame it on hormones... 8-)

I managed to get one and a half sides of the binding hand stitched today, and tomorrow I will take it to Wonky Bits to finish up... Then my February finish will be complete, and I can focus on getting packed and organized for the retreat! 2 sleeps!!! 8-)

I am looking forward to Wonky Bits tomorrow, as we had cancelled the last one due to bad road conditions, and hoping to have some show and tells for you all in the evening! 8-)

Needle in motion...

Since I had not made any progress on my project I've chosen for my Feb finish, it was time to dive in on it! All was mostly going well, when....

I had to stop to untangle my invisible thread. Not once, not twice, but three times... My second time using it. Boy you have to watch that! 8-(
Thus I gave up for today, and went to make supper, eat, and crash on the couch to watch TV...

I'm not doing very creative quilting on it... not so confident as of yet...

Tomorrow is another day, another try... I am tied to finishing it! 8-)

Remember I said my hubby had 2 weeks off, well, it turned out being 1 week, which I was kind of peeved at since we were to switch my rooms over... It will have to wait till the weekend after the quilt retreat... 3 sleeps! 8-)

Till tomorrow...

In the sewing room again! Yaaaa......

I was played around with the blocks/parts I made yesterday for the quilt-as-you-go table runner that we will assemble at our retreat... Some interesting layouts.

This is how the pattern is. I felt like something is missing. There should be pink in the center block... my thoughts.
This is how I plan to make it in order for fit my mother's coffee table nicely.Then I tried a few other layouts....This one below is very cool don't you think, but still missing something in the middle I feel. 8-)
Then I took out the center block and tossed in the 2 outer triangles... I am liking the look of that, but didn't have enough fabrics left to make another block...
I did have some of the pink left over and stitched a square of it onto the center block... I think that is definitely what it needed. If I were to make another table topper as such, I will make a square in a square in the center block. 8-)
I used a bias bar to make nice, even folds on the pink block, to top stitch it down...

Today I made a Hot Iron Cover from the tutorial on Linda's Blog. Thanks Linda!
I had come across the link on Vicki's Web-page today while "hopping". Thanks Vicki! 8-)

The ribbon holds the cord in place...The middle layer is made of Radiantex (insul-bright)...
The pattern I drew up for it according to the measurements of my iron...
Retreat! 4 more sleeps! 8-)

In the sewing room!

Six sleeps till our retreat of 15 quilters!!! 48 hours of fun and laughter, stitching and eating! The best part is we don't have to cook, so it's peddles to the metal all the way! Maybe we will get some sleep... 8-)

Today I spent the day doing the prep-work for the quilt-as-you-go table runner some of us are making at the retreat. We don't want to take too much of Yn's and Kh's time away from their own projects, so hopefully we will have them completed in a couple of hours...

I decided that this table topper would be for my mother, so it will be done in colors in her living and dining rooms. I shopped my stash for it.

All the make ahead parts are done, the blocks, binding, and the batting and backing are spray basted and ready to roll! Below is a closeup of the fabrics. Nothing fancy, nor anywhere even near the newest fabrics in shops now... Waste not, want not! 8-)

The fur-girls had to put up with me in the sewing room all day, so I made a comfy place for them to be close to me by my sewing table...otherwise one wants to be on my lap, and that just doesn't work! 8-)

Ruby is laying on the shelf under the cutting table, and Dora on a footstool. Can you say spoiled!?! lol!

Another Show & Tell

Now how did that happen!?! I forgot to post Du's lovely Chenille Handbag in my Show and Tell post last night... Luck Du received this bag from friend F. The pattern is from Quilter's Jewel in our province... I have that pattern, but haven't produced a bag as of yet... One day! 8-)
Great bag Du! You are a lucky lady to have it! 8-)

Show & Tell from tonights quilt gathering...

This is Pg's finished (except the binding - hand sewing) "Double Delight". It was Bonnie Hunter's 2008 Quiltville Mystery. (don't like this purple link color) Pg doesn't have a blog, but she sure follows lots of them! She got hooked into making Bonnie's Mystery quilt... which I might add, I got the blame for...?... I think it was this one? She will set me straight if I have that wrong... 8-)

Pg has made many a quilt from off the internet... This is her 3rd quilt finish that she has done since October. This one is awesome Pg! Love your fabrics!! You should send a photo to Bonnie! 8-)

Now, here we have another finish of Sd's. I posted a single block photo a couple of weeks back... This is her Tulip Quilt! Sd doesn't do much stitching while she is at at our weekly meetings. Usually she sits and visits, look at magazines, and help with some stitching or/and ripping on someone else's work, but she sure gets to it at home! Lovely quilt Sd!!! 8-)

This one is As's creation. Her rendision of the stack and whack! As always has some small finish to show. Love the sunflowers! 8-)

As has really only gotten into quilting this last year, and is trying out all sorts of methods, but she has been a seamstress for years! You should see some of the beautiful outfits she makes her granddaughters!!! 8-)

I was working on my hexagon hand-piecing again tonight...

9 sleeps till the retreat!
The gals are getting all excited about it, and Yn and Kh will be guiding us through the quilt as you go part of these table runners that they made at a workshop 2 weeks agon... We will have everything else prepared before we get to the retreat... The one on the left is Kh's, on the right is Yn's... 8-)

That be it for tonight! 2 posts in one day is enough for today! 8-)

Plans in the making...

Me and my drawings... I love drawing home floor plans! Yup! When we had our former house built, the blueprints were made from a drawing of floor plans I had made. Before we moved to this house, we "had" hopped to build on a property we have, thus I was busy drawing up plans again... Love it! I often thought that I should have taken up architecture when I was young. Hubby says I still could, but.... Anyway, I've been drawing up plans for my sewing room. Thus this photo... Keeps me out of trouble... 8-)

Can you believe it! My poinsettias are still looking great! So are the one's I bought for my parents... 8-)

Photos on this blog here brought back memories of 1965 for me... Thanks Nanci! Check them out! This is the comment I left on that blog;

"I recall, from when I was 5, the winter of 1965, we had a big snow storm that resulted a situation just like this when all was said and done. We lived in and apartment block and my parents were the caretakers, thus Dad had the job of digging a tunnel, yes I said tunnel, on the front sidewalk to the front doors of the building... We have a photo of my dad standing in the tunnel, while my brother and I stood on top... memories... thanks! 8-)"

I shall have to ask my parents about that photo and put it on my blog for you to see...

Very impressive knitting...
Oh my goodness! You all must check out Bugknit. This woman does incredible things with her hands!!! Tiny knitting needles, and beautiful miniature knits! You won't believe your eyes!!! Really!

This, that, and a purchase...

DH home on holidays, so no sewing getting done, but we did buy some things for my sewing room, for when we switch the bed and sewing rooms...

DH wanted to make a fancy custom sewing room for me, but I said that would be way too expensive. My needs are functional, not esthetically appealing. We did not set out to buy for the sewing room today, but we went gallivanting from store, to store, to store, for different things. DH needed vinyl to recover boat seats, and since we were at the fabric warehouse (Marshall's) I took some time to look through all the cottons. I needed to get some batting, but I ended up not buying anything except the vinyl.

We also went to some furniture warehouses, just to browse cause soon enough we hope to have some new living-room furniture, and looked at a few vehicles. In need of one of those soon too... 8-)

My DH likes to go to the refit store every so often, but I had never been there before, so I wanted to see for myself. Well, we ended up buying (in photos), 2 matching, used, 6 foot long counter tops. One is for a high cutting table, the other for a computer/printer/TV surface. They are in pretty good shape! We also bought 4 little shelf units (3 backwards in photo) for on top of my work surfaces. So, I'm a happy camper! 8-)

Ten more sleeps till our retreat!!! I best get thinking and preparing things to bring along!!! 8-)

OF INTEREST PERHAPS:
I just discovered Fat Cat Patterns from a link that Gina at Quilting in the Valleys had in her last post! What a great site! You must check it out if you are one for applique! Thanks Gina! 8-)

Check out this tutorial on back basting for hand applique on Gayle's blog Sentemental Stitches... I shall have to try this method out sometime... 8-)

Not liking this purple and dark blue showing up in here... went in to change it, and it is not doing anything... Anyone else ever have this problem?

Happy stitchings people!
Myra

Will be quilting....

... in the next few days...
I have my hand-applique all done, my stems machine-stitched, my 3 layers sandwiched and ready to be quilted! Woohoo I'm on a roll!!! Company coming for the next 2 days, and outings to happen, so shucks... Wish I could carry on and get it done... I mean, it has only been 3 years since the start of it!!! (tongue in cheek...) 8-)

The quilt is made up of 36 - 4" finished paper-pieced blocks, will be approximately 32" square when done, and hang wonderfully on one of my walls... It will feel good to get it done! 8-)

I have old pillows that I lay on the floor in my sewing room for the fur-girls to lay on. For the last 2 days Ruby has taken to climbing all the way into the pillowcase with the pillow, making goofy noises, turn around in there and come out. Quite comical to watch I must say!!! lol! 8-)

There you go Brenda from Alberta! Photos! lol! 8-)

Well, that be it for now...
Have a good weekend everone!! 8-)
Myra

The night owl is still up!

Well, it was 12:19 AM when I posted this... So it is/was morning... 8-)

Nothing much happening, except to say I've been doing applique all day! So, tomorrow I will hopefully get my stitchery parts done...thinking of doing it by machine... Once that is done, it will be time for sandwiching, etc! I will get this one done for my February "one project a month" challenge... 8-)

DH just informed me tonight that he booked holidays for the next 2 weeks... 2 weeks!!! It is going to be an interesting 2 weeks...?... hmmmm? Maybe my sewing/bedroom switch will happen!?! 8-)

Later gaiter! 8-)
Myra

Interesting weather here...

I can't believe it, we have rain in February!!! I don't ever remember having freezing rain in February before!!! Makes for very, very poor driving conditions out here. You could skate on our front street, and in some areas they have been doing that for the last 2 days! Unreal!!! This weather also makes it somewhat foggy also, which can be trecherous already!!! There has been many unfortunate accidents due to these conditions, on highways, and in the city streets... 8-(

"Dear God, please take this wet weather to Australia, where they could really use it..."

Great photos complements of cousin Lia L. Thanks! 8-)

Sewing has been non-existent around here lately... 8-(

Thinking of all out there...
Take care...
Myra

Australia...

Watching the news last night I was shocked with the devastation that many Australians are facing right now. With the flooding and fires, my thoughts and prayers go out to all, and especially to the many Australian blogging friends I've made...

An email I received today...

This just about sums it all up! 8-)

Summer is almost here in Manitoba, Canada
We can see the deers' heads now when they are moving around...
Yep! Won't be long now... 8-)

Computer play today...

Yup! Total waste of time in some peoples eyes, but I am getting acquainted with my new electronic friend. With a suggestion from Kh, I was able to fix my "squished" problems from last night. Thanks Kh!!! It worked!!! 8-)

I looked through blogs, of some of the lovely people that have been gracious enough to have left me comments, that I have always gotten hung-up and frustrated on!!! Yahoo!!! I had been getting nothing but grief with my old computer trying to view some person's blogs that has a lot of widgets, videos, music, and slide-shows on it, and now it is no problem!!! Yahoo!!! Happy, happy, happy!!! 8-)

We have a 21 day countdown till our end of February retreat! All the gals are getting all geared up for it! It will kind of break up the winter blaaaaas... 8-)
I may have posted a photo of this before, but since I can't access my other photos yet (on other comp) I managed to grab this photo from my face-book account... The photo is of a small wall-quilt I made about 3 years ago for my mother's new apartment Kitchen. She has an ugly electrical panel sitting in plain site that needed hiding... 8-)

In looking at it now, I see I should have made a darker beak, and that the tail could have been laid out more straighter. Shush Myra! You are your worst critic!!! 8-)

That be it for today!
Happy stitchings!
Myra 8-)