We retreated —

Last post I was getting all excited about retreat weekend coming up... well now I can say - we came -we retreated-we sewed.

We had a fabulous time!!!

Here is one of the views from where we stayed - we weren't right on the water but close enough to get great views and keep an eye on the tug boats and ships out at sea.

This spot was at one of the many bays here in Northland and out on the Whangarei Heads Road.

Friday night we were quickly unpacked and into the sewing -

  

Sew-Ezi tables rule - so easy!!

A few random shots of what different retreaters accomplished - 

One of our ladies is soon to be celebrating a special birthday. We surprised and wowed her with a cake and a gorgeous quilt.



We each had made a basket block. Mine is in the bottom right hand corner

See more of her birthday quilt here.

 Below is my work area - remember I do have a habit of 'taking over' - luckily there was plenty of room for  all 14 of us.

I managed 28 blocks for the Edyta Sitar quilt I started. Quite fun to sew, a good one to do while chatting, laughing and eating.

8 inch squares - almost a scrappy quilt but with a controlled selection of fabric.

 I really like it and think I will make it into a big one for our bed... so ---keep sewing Raewyn--!!
Hope everyone's week is going well, happy stitching!!

The end of week already - well nearly!!

Here it is Thursday night and I realise I haven't shared for a week--- I have a busy weekend coming up (more on that later) so I thought I would do a quick post before I get too distracted.
I've read both these books lately :-) I've read all of the Elm Creek Quilter books by Jennifer Chiaverini and have enjoyed them all. The latest, set during the American Civil War was a good read and a chance for me to learn and understand a bit more about this momentous event. Another thoroughly good read (which I read until 2am one morning!!) was the book on the right 'a single thread' by Marie Bostwick. I would love to know if she has written any other quilting novels?? I think she has a follow-up to this one in the pipeline.

Below is a project on the go...had a fun evening of chain piecing; of course my short attention span meant I had to get up and 'arrange' my chain to see how far down the hallway it could go. As you can see, Miss Timmie got in the way. This is the starting of a scrap quilt, a sample quilt for my favourite local.

Timmie can sniff out a quilt in progress at 100 yards!

And another sample for my local, a spot of stitching below. This was done with Cottage Garden Threads, which I found really lovely to use. I just love the colour variations along the length - quite beautiful.

 The fish below is some stitching for myself.. another block in the Life Is Beautiful quilt. This variegated thread is Aurifil, also lovely to use.

 And NOW for my big excitement! At Midnight Madness a few weeks ago I cut out the quilt below, in preparation for RETREAT which starts TOMORROW!!!!!!

Triangle Surprise by Edyta Sitar. Hope my version turns out as lovely as hers!!

 A weekend of friendship and sewing!! I am so looking forward to it.

Only sewing things packed so far, hope I remember things
like towels and toothpaste :-)

See you after retreat - have a fun weekend every-one, I'm sure I will!

98-99-100

Celebrating on One Flower Wednesday my latest milestone - 100 hexie-flowers...

-96-97-98-99-100-

.... oops, I mean 101!!

Some of you hexie-flowers makers and compulsive sewers will appreciate the following story.
We had friends staying recently. I was showing my friend my Grandmothers Garden quilt (well what I have of it) and the other little bits and pieces of hexie-ness I have around the house. She was quite amazed that I was mad enough to hand-sew all those pieces together.

Hexie paraphenalia and a sneak peak of my grandmother's garden quilt
(well, what there is of it so far!)



Then we started preparing a snack - chips and dip (and wine) ...... she watched me opening a box of crackers and then suddenly threw her arms up in horror - "even the food you eat is hexagons!" she exclaimed.

I had to calm her down and reassure her the crackers were actually pentagons and no I wasn't THAT hexie-mad after all!!

Have  a great day everyone!

A quick show-off

A quick post tonight to show you that I've finished the last block for Lynette Anderson's My Garden BOM I did last year....better late than never I guess; it's amazing how quickly one can get behind!!

Not a good photo sorry, I'll try to get a better one tomorrow.

And here's a photo of the bedroom scene that made me smile this morning. I am back down at my parents this week to give a hand. I hadn't been here very long and I had definately made myself at home!! 

Raewyn takes over!! Furniture rearranged, ironing board in position, Mum's
lost her sewing room chair, stuff everywhere.

It looks like I'm hoping to squeeze in a bit of sewing this week too, motivated by the need to do 3 more days of free motion quilting to complete my 14 day challenge.The jelly roll quilt on the bed is the one I am practising on playing with for it.
Thanks for visiting, happy creating :-)

Cushions, caps and climbs

Recently I have talked about joining the Free Motion Quilting Challenge but I was a bit shy to show my first efforts here :-)
Yesterday was Day 9 and I decided to attempted some fmq on a proper project - I was running out of quilt sandwiches to practise on and felt I had improved enough to take on something more. Below is the Easter Bunny foundation pieced cushion I made a few weeks ago...

Completed cushion!!

I just did some very simple stippling plus a bit of a pattern on his bag and a heart on his chest. Then I got brave and  did some simple zig-zags to represent grass.

It was interesting to fmq on a project rather than scraps - I found my stitches got a bit big because I was too scared to drive too fast!! {Now I have to hunt out another uncompleted project to keep practising on--- I have 5 more days of the challenge left.}

Here is a cushion I made a little while ago. Mr Scarecrow is a real favourite with adults and pets alike. 

 I also talked previously about some friends who came and stayed last week. It wasn't all talking and sewing while they were here.... Robyn and I got a chance to go shopping - Look at these caps we found for our dearly beloveds.......

We got them gift wrapped and gave them to them when we went
 out for tea - lots of fun!

 ... and we even got some exercise, climbing one of the 'back hills'.....

Quite a climb - you can just see the house in the distance

...And came down the hill through the bush.

(it was after the climb that we went to town and had a nice lunch - we felt we deserved it after that!!)
I hope everyone has had a good week. I have Midnight Madness tonight at my 'local' (my favourite quilt shop) so I need to organise myself for that. It's a UFO night from 5pm-midnight. Always lots of fun.
Happy stitching everyone,