Sneak Peek and Retreat

What's this? I'm working on a bag for a Dear Friend and this is something to get her excited. I don't want her to see it yet, so I'm teasing with a sneak peek before is all completed. I will be finishing this at retreat next week and then I can send it to her. Speaking of retreat I think I should be packing. Gotta go and get ready. Have a great week!



I couldn't resist sharing this Iris growing in my garden.

Off to Retreat with my Bags.....

Something you don't know about me is I have an obsession with making bags. I LOVE bags of all shapes and sizes. I find them fun and challenging to make, when I'm done I have something that I can use for various outings. I don't go out and purchase bags, only make them.
I don't know why this bag has been a UFO for about a year now, other than I couldn't decide if I wanted to put on fabric handles or the leather handles I've already purchased. Shouldn't be such a hard decision but I couldn't make up my mind, so there it sat. I'm leaving for my 5 day retreat on Sunday so this is the time to stop procrastinating, which BTW is another thing I do often. I seem to wait until the last minute to get things done. I always have lots of time to complete what I've been procrastinating about and get it done well but I put it off as long as possible.
I use this bag the most for going to retreats. The bag has a square bottom and sides that stand up, it will hold most of my project and sometimes I can even fit the rulers in. I call this my Flower Bag and also use this for taking to classes.

This is a Bareroots pattern and I just love it. I can use this when I'm taking my quilts for show and tell at my stitchery group meetings. I use this bag a lot.
I like this bag for taking along small stitchery projects, such as redwork and embroidery of any kind. The bag is made from Charm Squares and it's called 17 Patch Bag. When not holding my stitchery I can also use this as a toiletry bag, it holds my tooth brush etc.
And here is my knitting bag, well it's become my knitting bag since I started knitting last Feb. I had a really big urge to knit socks so I took a class and since Feb I've made 5 pairs and still love it.

So there you have it my collection of bags. I'm sure there are a couple more I've missed but these are the one's I use the most. I hope you enjoy them.

Have a great week, I'll be in wine country on a 5 day retreat.

Table Topper

This table topper is all scraps of 5" squares and the pattern is from the Nickel Quilt book. The top without borders is 32" square. I haven't decided if or what I might add for borders. Sometimes I like quilts without borders and maybe this quilt will not have one.

When I was making this yesterday, I had a light bulb moment. Wouldn't this look great using charm squares? To make this size you'll only need 32 darks and 32 lights, sounds easy enough. The book has many patterns all done with 5" squares. I just might have to make more. So many ideas and never enough time.

Got Your Sun Glasses

Are you ready....here is a very bright quilt for my DD's best friend who just had a baby boy...well he was born in April. The shower is coming up at the end of the month so I didn't see a need to have it done until then. No reason to finish it before it's necessary...right? I have a difficult time with bright fabrics so this was a challenge for me....talk about busy and bright. Each animal has a personality of it's own with funky shoes. I think the new baby will enjoy his quilt.



Gotta go...time to get this top quilted.

Playing With Yarn

My Double Wedding Ring is progressing nicely, it hasn't fallen off the radar yet...hee hee. I'm finishing a whole lot of arcs to have ready for applique. I think this would be a good project to take on my next retreat. Hey...I'll be heading for Naramata BC (wine country) at the end of the month. Our quilt group plans this same retreat every year at the end of May, this will be my second year attending and we'll be staying the entire week...it's a whole lota fun. Did I mention we will be right in the middle of wine country.


Now on to something completely different. Sock yarns are so yummy and hard to resist. Here are my socks in progress. As you can see I'm on my second sock, which is a good thing. The yarn feels really luxuriously soft by Crystal Palace Yarns "Panda Cotton" made of Bamboo, Cotton and Elastic Nylon for some stretch. I think I'll need to get more of this yarn, I didn't say that...ssshhhh.

Double Wedding Ring

I started this double wedding ring last year and really went crazy on cutting and piecing arcs. I made 3 complete blocks right away and then put it all aside for other quilty distractions. Well I didn't realize until yesterday when I pulled it out again that I had pieced all 200 arcs and cut 42 background blocks. I'm doing Eleanor Burns method from the Egg Money book. With her method the arcs are appliqued on the background, I like hand applique, so it's very enjoyable for me and I get the DWR look without the aggravation of piecing curves, I finished 2 more today. I like the browns and pinks, my new favourite colours for this year.

Happy Mother's Day!

Other Crafty Projects

Since I don't have any quilty projects to show or any that I feel like working on right now. I decided to take pictures of my Punchneedle projects I've completed. I didn't realize I had done so many and this doesn't include the Halloween and Christmas projects or the ones I've given away.

If you haven't tried punchneedle this is the time. It's fun, quick and very easy to do. Punchneedle is using embroidery floss to create miniature rug hooking, they are not very big and can be finished in a couple of days. Patterns come with the pre-printed pattern and all you need is a needlepunch and hoop.


Tulip Basket by M. Shaw is 5 1/2" x 3 1/2".












Another M.Shaw pattern.




























Crow with watermelon in basket by Threads That Bind is 5 1/4" x 3 1/2".



















Chicken's by M.Shaw is 3 1/2" x 5 1/2".















Ruffled Tulips by Three Swans Studios. The punchneedle carrying case is my design. I hope to have a pattern for this soon.















I currently working on this Pear "Green Anjou" pattern by Stone and Thread, it's 3" x 3 1/2". And this is showing the inside of the carry case above, pockets for pattern, hoop, needle, scissor, thread and needle threader.

Relaxing Weekend

Well the hot water tank got fixed on Friday, so off we went for a relaxing weekend at the lake. To get to the lake we have to drive to the ferry. And the ferry is about 1hr and 40mins trip and then just over one hour drive to get to Lake Cowichan. My DH and FIL got some guy time fishing in each morning. I don't know if you can see them off to the left in the picture. We had fish for dinner last night...yummy.





I made some progress on my redwork ladies, these designs are from Red Brolly by Bronwyn Hayes, really cute. I have 2 more to do. I finished a pair of socks over the weekend but my daughter got them before I could take a picture. Trust me they were a really nice lime green and turquoise variegated yarn. When I was knitting on the ferry one guy said to me "I like the colour of your socks, it's the same colour as my tiles". I'm trying to picture in my head where one would use lime green and turquoise for tiles...hmmm

A Little Quilting This Week

I've been working on my Jelly Roll quilt. The entire top is made of all 2 1/2" strips, the blocks are Sanctuary fabric and the sashing is Celebrate Spring, Darlene and Nicole's challenge fabric, I thought the fabrics went well together. I'm deciding on the border between the yellow or the green, I think I'm leaning more towards the green but still undecided.

Today we had plans to head over to Lake Cowichan on Vancouver Island. DH parents have a house on the lake and we can use it whenever we like. How relaxing is that to sit on the deck and stitch or knit or what ever suits my fancy. We received a call late last night from DH parents to let us know the water tank has broken and they will see if it can be fixed today. So if the tank can't get fixed today we will have to postpone to another weekend. So we'll be packed and ready to go just in case. I'll hope for the best.

Happy Quilting.