The rest of my projects from retreat

Hi all

   As promised here are the rest of the projects that I worked on. I took enough projects for 3 months. It felt so great to pull out older projects and get them going again. They kind of feel like old friends!

These 2 runners were panels I had kicking around, I just added a 9 patch to the center and borders.
Just quick and easy and oh my goodness a couple of gifts done already!

Just in time for summer too!

I had the center made of this flannel quilt. This is what I originally made the piano border for.
As I mentioned yesterday the scraps made enough for two quilts. 

A couple of years ago I made a friendship log cabin.
These were all the leftover 2" wide strips.
I made the 1600" quilt and added the 2" gold squares. It came out very long and skinny.
I still had strips so I made the piano border for the right side and a checkerboard for the other.
Who says that borders have to be the same!

Ok well now I have a few more quilt tops! Oh well those are for another day!

Quilting retreat

Hi All

    What a busy couple of weeks this has been. I have been working on my new embroidered quilt. I have the show and Demo this Saturday. I am almost done as far as I can get so that is feeling really good! It has been a bit of work but I have learned a lot and am looking forward to sharing my hints and tips....there are many!

     I also went away last weekend to a Quilting Retreat. We went to Wyldflower B&B in Qualicum. It is a great location for a group, lots of bedrooms, great workroom, no cooking, no dishes and no cleaning! What more could you ask for. The workroom is really well laid out and lots of space for each person. A great design wall large enough for large projects. The facility was really great. In a quiet country setting perfect for crafting, sewing and quilting.

     It had been many years since I went into Qualicum Beach, what a charming little town. I had a chance to venture in and spend a couple hours wandering around enjoying the day. Not to brag or anything but we do live in the best place. I don't think I could live away from the ocean.

What a day! Sunshine and blue skies....nothing better!

My sisters favorite stop!

This was my favorite shop. The owner had such wonderful little gifts and very well priced too.
I picked up the business card but have misplaced it, I will have to find my receipt and get the name!

These are just a few of the projects I worked on over the weekend and once I got home. I will share the rest tomorrow as the pictures are saved on my computer at home, darn!

This was a border print fabric from several years ago. I made the piano border for another quilt I worked on, I had enough for the 2 quilts. Awesome! My goal was to just get things done, doesn't need to be fancy just done!

This is a really easy pattern that is easily adjusted for larger or jelly rolls/Charm packs. I used scraps from another quilt from many years ago. All you do is cut a 2 1/2" x 5" rectangle of scraps and a 2 1/2" square all in the same fabric, for the number of rectangles you have. Sew the square to one end and press. Then just flip every other unit. I added a 2 1/2" sashing between the rows and bordered with a 4 1/2" print. Great baby size project and done in a few hours!

Well enjoy the rest of your day and I invite those who are in the area to come to my embroidery demo this Saturday at 3pm at The Cloth Castle.

Breezy Weave Bag

Hi all!

   Can you believe it ...the sun is out! After all that rain last and gray dark days. The week just dragged by. Too dreary for me!

   This week is a little quieter for me, just a couple of classes. One of which is The Breezy Weave bag. I have had a couple of spaces open if anyone is interested.

Class: Sunday March 16    11am-5pm
Cloth Castle 250-478-2112

   We have also just received a great selection of cotton prints. They are on sale for $9.99 a meter!
What a steal! Regular $18.99  a meter. So many cute prints.

Have a great day!

Show and Tell

Hi  everyone

We had a great day yesterday making our machine embroidered purses. Thought you might like the results.

Have a great day!

In The Hoop Purse

Hi everyone

Hope you all survived the week. It has been raining like crazy here in Victoria. The good thing with all that rain....the plants are starting to come back. You know what that means...Spring is coming!

I love the spring, everything is so fresh and clean, defiantly my favorite time of year.

This weekend is going to be busy one with classes this evening, tomorrow and Sunday! Tomorrow is my machine embroidery class we are making hand bags all in the hoop!

A little wristlet purse

and even lined too!

Isn't it cute! I love the zippers...never thought I would say that! These patterns are so great. This one is from Embroidery Garden, they have great in the hoop projects. Everything is made in the hoop of your embroidery machine. So fun! I LOVE embroidery. I should stitch that out....hahaha!

I have been working on my embroidered quilt as well. The Gypsy quilt is coming along, I will be having a show and tell day on Saturday March 29 at 3pm, anyone is welcome to come and see it. Also by popular demand I will also have the Hoopsisters Jacobean Journey quilt available. We have had requests for this design so we will be offering it to our customers as well. So many projects to be inspired by!

Well I hope you all have a wonderful weekend and have some time to be creative!

Paper Piecing Fun

Greetings!

   Tuesday we had another successful quilt club in morning and evening! Great laughs and wonderful show and tell. It so great to see everyone and get caught up.

  We explored paper piecing. I have been noticing a real trend to towards this technique again. Just recently we received a new book called Playful Little Paper Pieced Projects compiled by Tacha Bruecher. What a fun book!  There are over 25 patterns all shown so nicely made up in various projects. All the patterns are provided on a disc at the back of the book, for quick and easy printing. 

These are the samples I had a chance to make from the book:

Little Village houses made into a wallhanging. 

Apple Tea towel

...little spot of tea wallhanging

   All of the projects were made up quickly and I had no trouble at all getting seams to match and line up. When you print your patterns be sure that your printer settings are checked for actual size. If your printer allows  for scaling it will shrink and distort your patterns pieces. Also I really recommend using the Carol Doak Paper Piecing Paper. It is similar to a newsprint and tears away so nicely. Use a very small stitch length and you should have no troubles at all.

    If you haven't paper pieced in awhile or haven't tried it at all now is the time. we have classes here at the store to get you refreshed or started!

Beginners Paper Piecing Wednesday May 7  9:30am-12:30pm. Call The Cloth Castle 
250-478-2112 to reserve your seat!