Featherweight machines at the Retreat

Fiona

Sally

Cathy

Lois

Me

Sewcializers 2nd Annual Schoolhouse Retreat at Trail's End Lodge

I spilled my wine! Honest!

The Sewcializers  as it turned out , year ending retreat went well. In fact it was great! We all had a ball didn't we Fiona?

The first night we had a BBQ steak dinner cooked by our hostesses Gayle and Cathy.

The next day we did a Jewel Box Mystery Quilt taught by Joanne. There's Sally trying out a zig zag setting.

We also did iron totes that look like cute purses and a folded flower block

Saturday night was a murder mystery. There's Patti the stewardess on the left, Wynter the socialite in the middle who loves spending her daddy's money, and nurse Mary or Ratchet as she became known as, with her bad bedside manner on the right. The picture on the right has Pete the gambler, Joe the cop and Bess the former model.
Unfortunately  the rest of the cast of characters were so evil that their pictures didn't turn out.

1 more sleep

Tomorrow is the start of the Sewcializers Retreat, this year in Tobermory. I'm almost all packed up except for food and clothes. The weather isn't going above 20 so it should be good for staying indoors and sewing. I'm going to take/bring (sorry Pete) my Featherweight.It doesn't get used very much and as Fiona just got one there will be 5 of them there that I know of .In fact I haven't used it in so long that I had to get the book out to see how to thread it. It does such a beautiful stitch and I do have a 1/2" foot for it. But I found the bottom of the carrying case falling off though, so duct tape to the rescue. I'll have to get a new case somewhere. Got the camera so pictures to follow.

Bad Blogger

A Big Dolly

Charms and White

It's been a while since my last post but have been busy and going on road trips. The St. Mary's show was great as usual and we found a nice shop in Stratford-Ye Olde Quilt Shoppe. Last week was the Ailsa Craig show of Quilts of Denmark. It was terrific, on par with the Netherlands from last year, good food too. And I forgot my camera both times. A lot of really nice arty quilts were shown. Someone at today's guild meeting had an arty block in red and greens that she made at a workshop there. And a lot of beautiful projects were shown at the guild  show and tell. I showed the Clifford from the last post and donated it to Linus. My first show and tell but the members are so nice and supportive that I didn't feel intinidated. Joanne did a trunk show of her prolific quilts, big ones, small ones and litty bitty ones.

This quilt for Scrapbags is last month's dolly quilt. It's waaay too big for a dolly but will make a nice crib quilt.


 This one is made from a charm pack that I  half squared with white after seeing online somewhere what to do with those charm packs. I think I'll keep it for  that day when a little girl quilt is needed..

A Little Dolly

The bottom one is made from a block that was found in a bag of donations at Scrapbags. It is a little dolly.

The Sewcializers retreat is coming up fast. I do have my projects ready I think. It's in Tobermorey so no early morning ferry trips are involved.

recent projects

4 Square

log cabin

Clifford Saves the Day

sashed 9 patch

Here are a few things that I have done this past month: a scrappy Log Cabin  block for the guild"s Block of the Month, A Clifford the Big Red Dog panel that will go to Project Linus and two more dollies for the Scrapbags. I think I'm over the bright green and pink combination now after the last one. I did see a nice pink and brown hourglass baby quilt though and will probably do one.The dollies are from Lyn Brown's Blog of Dolly Quilts of the Month.
This past Thursday Elizabeth and I went to an Art Quilt show at the museum in Stratford. The art quilts were small wall hangings and were brilliant, done in fabric, mixed media, embellishments, really nice. We shopped in the town at a nice shop, went to Shakespeare and Newton and  stopped at Anna Mae's on the way home for a delicious roast beef dinner. We did our bit for the economy for sure.The beautiful unseasonal weather was just calling for a road trip.
Still having a problem with Bella. Now we think it's the Cruise Control and I have sent it back for replacement. I was very disappointed when the encoder was replaced and the problem remained the same.

Double slice of red

Double Slice of Red

Today at Scrap Bags we all worked at finishing up UFO's. I got this red Double Slice from last month sewn up. It looks a lot better sewn up and in daylight. It was pretty sad looking last night.I thought that if it was given to a sick person it just might make them feel worse.I also brought home a kit from years ago called Interlocking. It looks like a puzzle.

I finished up and delivered Strawberry Short Cake last week along with the Big Trucks for the little brother.  SSC was around 40 years ago and has made a comeback over the past few years. And I heard on good authority that  Puss In Boots is now back. Everything comes back eventually. There are a lot of things that I hope never do though.

I ended up making 50 of the red and white Jacob's Ladder blocks from Joanne's Outreach Day.

in the works

Arrowhead

Rock a Bye Baby

Jacob's Ladder

Big Trucks

OK, I'm a bad blogger but have been quilting.
Here are some pictures of my latest things.  My Feb. doll quilt is called Rock a Bye Baby. It was super easy, a quilt as you go.
The Jacob's Ladder is on ongoing project (for me) from Joanne's outreach day last month. I'm sewing the components of blocks together, 4 patches and 1/2 square triangles that the group made that day. I still have some to do. I love that block and have put it onto my mental to do list.
The big trucks is a panel given to me by Gayle. It is going to the son of a young woman from work. Her daughter is quite ill and I'm making a Strawberry Shortcake panel for her and did the trucks for her little brother. I was going to outline quilt it but it would take me forever. The Arrowhead  was made by Lois and quilted by Betty in The Scrapbag group. It was donated to raffle at work for a fundraiser for this family.