Spinning Pinwheel Quilt

I had trouble getting the whole quilt in the picture, but you get the idea. The pieced border has now been added to my Spinning Pinwheel quilt. I had so much fun doing this pattern, I really enjoyed every step. So one quilt done, now I still have the pieced border to do on the second Spinning Pinwheel quilt.
Don't know if you can see the machine applique in this picture, a very small zigzag along the edge. (I'm really going to have to learn to use my camera better). Well, I've decided to machine applique my DWR blocks, mainly because I wasn't enjoying doing these by hand and I just want to get it done. There are 42 blocks plus the border blocks to complete the rings. It just seemed like this was taking too long and I was feeling like soon it'll be back in the UFO pile. I didn't want that to happen.

Nicole is showing lessons on machine applique, mine is a little different in that I'm not using fusible and the edges are turned under. There are so many method's of applique, my favourite is freezer paper and starch. In another post I will show you how I do that.

Heat Wave

It's been so hot on the West Coast, we are breaking all the records for high temperatures. For the most part sleeping is good with a portable AC in the bedroom but during the day it's been unbelievably HOT! Yesterday I hibernated in the basement with my DWR blocks. I can do the hand appliqué on my blocks while I keep cool. I even did 2 loads of washing as well but as soon as I come upstairs I loose any energy I have left. Wouldn't even think of sitting in my sewing room with this heat.

I wasn't looking forward to another day in the heat, just when I was trying to think of what I should do today. I received an email from a friend who recently purchased a Sewing and Vacuum store, she invited me to come and "play" at her shop....in the AC....whew hoo...I'm packing up my sewing machine and fabrics and away I go.

Back Home Again

The drive to Naramata was spectacular, we saw several deer and a black bear along the drive, sorry didn't get pictures. We arrived Sun afternoon and were greeted by the ladies from Edmonton. Three of the ladies drive 10 hours the Saturday before and then another 2 hours Sunday just to come to the Naramata retreat. They also stopped to pick up Louise, she founded Quiltaholics 30 years ago, and is now 83. She moved away from our area and can't attend the regular Tuesday meetings anymore, so it was really nice for her to come. After our hugs and hello's we got straight into quilting. A typical day was up early for breakfast, take a walk before it gets too hot, sew, laugh, eat lunch, sew, sew, a drink for happy hour, eat dinner and sew, laugh, and sew some more. We did get some sleep in there as well. And little break for shopping at Poppins Quilt Shop on Wed.

Here is a view of the building we sewed in, it's directly across from the beach.
We had somewhat of a view of the lake from our sewing room, the lake is behind those trees.
I was very happy to have completed more than half of my Double Wedding Ring blocks. They still need to be trimmed but I'm very happy to have so many done. I also worked on my redwork and a little bit of knitting. I'll show the redwork later when I get it made into something, maybe another bag is on the horizon :-)
The Quiltaholics have a challenge each year for the retreat. This years challenge was to make a quilt using only 2" x 3 1/2" rectangles which is from the book Successful Scrap Quilts. All the quilt pictures below are using this one rectangle, it's unbelievable how different each one turned out. I didn't have the book so I just couldn't get the inspiration to make one.









I'm off to take care of a sick cat, Jenny managed to hurt her paw while I was away. Took her to the vet yesterday and they needed to put her under to remove the nail. Just before I left for the retreat she was at the vet for a kidney infection, so she's really not feeling well. Poor little Jenny, she's getting old. This summer she will be turning 15 years old.

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!