Aloha Home Again

It's taking me a few days to get back in the swing of things.....not :-). It sure was wonderful to be out of the rain and cold for a whole week. We had a fantastic time in Kauai soaking up the sun and playing in the ocean, the snorkeling was great and we could just walk to the beach. We stayed in the Southern part of Kauai called Poipu, I'm already planning to go back again.

A local botanical garden gift shop had a couple of Hawaiian quilts on the wall, don't know if there were for sale or not, I didn't look. Could you imagine doing all the needleturn applique.

The gardens were absolutely beautiful, I was amazed at how the orchids could grow outside in between the lava rocks with there ever so delicate looking flowers.

Now back home and I still haven't sorted out what projects I was working on before going away, my head is still somewhere on the beach in Kauai.

New Bag

I'm back with the bag I made over the weekend. This is the first time I used only interfacing to give the bag stability, usually I would use a batting to give shape to a bag. The middle section with gathers doesn't have the interfacing but the lining and the bottom of the bag has fusible interfacing. I think it's about !5"x 16" or so, which is a nice size for carrying books, magazines and my stitchery stuff.

I'm so happy with my new bag.

Antique Shops

Where does the time go......I can't believe how long it's been since I posted something. I've made a new bag and will take a picture soon. For now I'll show my little antique shopping purchase from the weekend. I love the crocheted potholders, especially if they are red and even more if they are a dress or something cute. I found this red, green and yellow combo and really had to bring it home. These little gems are not easy to come by in my area, so it was a real treat to find this one.

These are a couple others potholders I found on previous trips to antique shops. Next to fabric shopping, antiques are my next favourite shopping trips.


Happy Shopping!

Fun Weekend!

We had a wonderful weekend retreat, sorry my camera didn't make it out of my bag this time. There was 17 of us and what a fantastic group of ladies, we laughed all weekend and played a silly game each day,....of course......I didn't win anything.....don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining one bit......I had such a fun time.  The accommodations were great, the food was "to die for", so delicious and home cooked. The Edenvale Retreat centre employees really know how to pamper us.

Here is the sewing I accomplished over the weekend. I decided working on little quilts would give me that instant gratification of completing something.

This is an older Kathy Schmitz panel that's been in my sewing room for a long time. It was long over due to be made into something, I added the small blue border with cornerstones and the outer black border with blue corners. A friend gave me the idea to finish this little quilt using pearl cotton and the "big stitch" quilting, I think it will really suit this quilt.

This is a Lori Smith pattern, I bought the pattern and fat quarters as a kit on my LA trip. I'm still deciding if I should add the top border, the pattern doesn't have this border in the instructions. The binding is blue so that might finish it off.

My second little quilt using the Lil Twister ruler, these are very addictive. This was a charm pack called Max and Whiskers, really fun group of fabrics.

I started stitching Pacific Patchwork new free BOM called Home Sweet Home. This is block one done in brown and a little pink. So that's it for my weekend away. 

 Today was a beautiful sunny day so I took these pictures from my front porch.

Keep on Stitching. 

I Love Retreats!

I just couldn't resist giving this little heart a try, to quote Cheryl, "blogland is so full of temptation and I have no willpower!" My heart is 8" finished and Chery's, is 6" finished.....so tiny. You can see her layout here, to make your own little sweet heart using the teeny tiny twister ruler. Cheryl has also posted a Lucky Charm using this ruler,  another cute one to temp me.....AGAIN!


My bags are packed and I have all my projects ready to work on. I'm taking off tomorrow for a quilting retreat here. No cooking, no cleaning and no washing.......sew, sew all day and just show up for delicously served meals.


Happy Quilting!