Cutting, Cutting and Mending

Not much sewing done. Got a few mending done (read boring stuff). Fix the cat "bedspread" which is an old piece of terry cloth. I wash it regularly and the holes get bigger with every wash. It was time to do something. (Yes, I agree, it was ready for a fixing a long time ago, lol.)

At the top of this photo, you can see the size of the holes (ashamed). On the bottom, I quickly stitched some batting to replace the missing cloth. Then, I took whatever fabric to cover it. A simple straight stitch over the folded edges was all that was done. Nothing fancy. 

I know that he will claw at it again whenever he feels it's time to make "biscuits", producing more holes but for now it's somewhat decent.  

Side A and 

Side B. The pink and blue fabrics are flannelette; the brown and yellow are cotton. You can see the sewing around the blue patch is beyond the patch. Those stitches are from the yellow piece on side A. I didn't measure; just winged it. He's happy to have his blanket back on his bed. And that's all that matters to him. 

 

I received some bags of scrap along with 12 masks made of jeans. Yes, jeans as in denim. 

First, aren't we all fed up of making masks? Second, who can breath through all this thickness? So, in my usual way, I'm taking them apart, cutting out the inside because ... 

I want to use those little bits of cotton. The jeans pieces are thrown out. Sorry, but I have no intention of unsewing these awful stitches.

There were lots of wonderful fabrics in those bags. I'm slowly cutting them in usable pieces. 

I want to show you this Winter Cactus because it's blooming. A beautiful, vibrant coral colour. I'm in love with it. 

I'm happy about this because this is MY plant! And it's blooming! I'm a serial plant killer so this is like AMAZING news! I bought it last June, or was it May, anywho, at a garage sale. It was just a tiny little thing. I transferred it in a bigger pot and it survived ... and it's blooming!

Also these Mums from last year that I kept inside all winter long. It came out of the house last Spring and it tried to survive the heat of the summer. Now that the weather is cooler, it's blooming too. 

Granted, it's not the prettiest plant ever but it's blooming. I'm sock! 

They are calling for a glorious unseasonably warm weekend. I plan to enjoy it to its fullest by sitting outside with a hand sewing project. Yep! I'm taking Ohio Star Shadow out of its summer hibernating state and get it moving forward while I watch the clothes dry on the clothesline. 

The last time I worked on this was on April 12, 2024. Let's finish it. 

That sounds like the perfect weekend to me. How about you? any plans? 

Enjoy! 

;^)

Also planning on joining these talented ladies; 

Angela at So Scrappy

Frédérique at Patchwork and Quilts

Cynthia for Oh Scrap

Kathy for Slow Sunday Stitching

Alycia for Finished or NOT Finished Friday

NinaMarie at Creations - Quilts, Art, Whatever

Two Long Weeks

I brought my "pet" spider at work on Halloween and someone invited a "Punk-kin" cousin.
They hitched up right away. Haha. (The lollipops are the punk's mohawk hairdo. So cool!)

She was running all over the place.
On the left is my beautiful co-receptionist dressed as Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz. 

No sun shining, 

No flowers blooming, 

No birds singing, 

No children out playing, 

No vember! 

(This is so right in Canada.) 

Ready or not, November is here. Enough said, on to sewing. Not that I did much. Got busy with nothing, played Volleyball, got some kind of bug/flu for 24 hours and went to a class. Now, that was fun. 

I learned how to draw on Pergamano or Parchment Craft paper. It is so beautiful! I need more practice but unfortunately this is hard to come by in Canada. 

This is the kit we got in class. I only did two because it is very delicate and slooooww work. 

I did the bookmark for Olivia as it was her birthday shortly after the class. I messed up the edges. It is a tricky puncture trimming. 

Regardless, I'm happy with my first try. Not sure how many I will make. It takes very good eyes and a steady hand to accomplish this craft beautifully. But the class was fun, with 7 other ladies. The teacher said we were good students. Yay! 

I also played Volleyball at the Dome! 

 

This place is huge. There are 8 volleyball courts and 3 soccer courts under one dome. The blue arrow points at a net (some 20-25 feet up) separating the 4 volleyball courts from the other 4. The white dome is inflated and the blue is the bottom part. I couldn't reached the white section even on tippy toes. (I'm 5'6" btw), I mean, it's a HUGE place. Very well ventilated and I didn't feel claustrophobic at all. We lost but we were must closer to winning than the first time I played. Maybe next time. 

How about sewing?  I did nothing worth showing but since you made it all the way down here, I'll show it anyway. 

I'm sewing pieces (read crumbs) of white to finish off the Stained Glass blocks. Boring picture. Skip that. 

I'm sewing some black and white HSTs for a new project. Yes, it will become my RSC2025. 

Or like this ? 

Or like the original quilt Cathy did, with the HST all the same size. (Oh, of course, I can't find it anymore! Darn!!!) Cathy, if you recognize your quilt that inspired me, please tell me on which post I saw it. It's a wonderful scrappy quilt.

I also added the border on the baby flannelette quilt. 

Not trimmed yet. If you look at the bottom right, I had to change the yellow piece. The previous one had frayed beyond the size I needed. This one is not the same yellow but it will have to do. 

Somehow, 9-patch blocks were made. I don't remember making some of them. Such were the last 2 weeks for me, lol. 

Back in September, I took a picture of my brown scraps. Remember this? 

And this morning, I took another picture. 

If you don't see the difference between the two pictures, you are absolutely normal. I didn't sew enough to make a dent anywhere in the brown scraps. Sigh! BUT! I love doing this and will continue to do so next year. 

At the craft class, one of the ladies said "if I had known you were coming, I would had brought a bad of scraps for you". Yes, I do have to continue this next year because scraps are still coming in, haha. 

Enjoy your scraps!! 

;^)

P.S. I am not receiving your comments in my mail inbox ... again! I've enabled comment moderation for the time being until Google fix this "shit-tuation". Have a great day! ;^)

Joining these talented ladies this week. 

Angela at So Scrappy

Frédérique at Patchwork and Quilts

Cynthia for Oh Scrap

Alycia for Finished or NOT Finished Friday

NinaMarie at Creations - Quilts, Art, Whatever

Awesome Retreat (quilt photo heavy)

We couldn't have better weather on Saturday. Sunday, Monday and Tuesday it rained on and off but we saw the sun every day. It was the best weather to stay inside and sew, sew, sew! 

The Fall decorations were out. She always have such a lovely entrance. 

Let's talk sewing! 

Francine (on the left) was able to finish sewing the blocks and assembling this big beauty made from her scraps. Her sister, Françoise is holding the right corner. 

Hélène, the third sister, took all the leftover fabrics, cut them up in strips and sew them together like a jelly roll quilt. This is the backing for the quilt she made last year with those fabrics. It looked better in person. 

Lucie worked on her Highway 401 Stars quilt. Do to a mistake in the pattern, she has to undo all the little stars or risk losing points. The little star block is bigger than the big star block. Argh!! 

Francine, Françoise and Lucie worked on this Snow Friends kit. This is where Lucie was at the end of the retreat. The big panel is the centre, so lots of little blocks to go. It is so lovely that I asked Lucie to buy me one if she sees it again for sale. I love snowmen. 

Mary had such a wonderful quilt but I can't find the photo of the top. :(  This photo only gives you a very little glimpse of the beauty to come. Sorry, Mary. 

Nicole worked on a baby quilt for her first grandchild. She started the quilting on Tuesday morning. 

  

Sylvie, our prolific quilter, added the blue border on this one. Then, she quilted and bound it. But that was just her first item on her to-do list. 

This one got quilted and bound too.  

Then, she cut and sew lots of red and white strips. And cut lots of batting strips and sew them together. Curling them up together in a bias tape fashion, she stitched a curvy line in the middle. 

Look at the size of that batting roll!! 

It's getting smaller. 

The end result. The "twine" will become a Christmas tree skirt, (in a rope basket fashion) but that was for another day, another retreat. 

She assembled part of the snowman kit. Hat, mittens, scarf, and many more other blocks to go. 

Sylvie brought some prizes for us. She pull my name out of the hat. I'm so happy. This little pouch is so cute. It was wrapped in a fat quarter. What's not to love? 

Josee was mindful of our health so she gave each one a zero calories candy and a nice soak for our favourite laundry. 

Josee also brought us some puzzle and games. It was fun. You might be able to print this one if you wish. 

That's all very lovely but 

What did I sew? 

My machine needed a spa day long before the retreat but I was too tired all the time to take it anywhere. So, I sewed slowly. 

The layout of the light border started on Saturday morning. By Sunday, I had decided it was okay, so I sew it up. 

Photographed on Wednesday, right after the retreat. It's a better picture than the one in the sewing room on a rainy afternoon. 

Friends' Favourite came along and much progress was made on this one.  (not the final layout)

Someone suggested that I add a border between the blocks because "it is very busy". Yes, but I like busy, I like scrappy quilts, and besides, this border will make it harder to align all those little white squares! But I gave the idea a try anyway.  ... It's not agreeing with me. 

Back home! This big guy is not leaving my side, spying my every move to make sure I am not packing to leave again. 

 

Although, it looks sunny on the deck, this morning was anything but warm. Part of the landscape is missing.

It's very humid and cold (+4 Celsius), as I set the blocks and quilts on my deck to take pictures.  

I had brought (to the retreat) a big bag of flannelette square that was given to me a long time ago. Each bag, in the big bag, was of a different size or a different theme print. I got out all the snow ones and then some, to make this little centre. Back home, I trimmed it with a red flannelette I had in my stash. It will be bordered again with the light blue and white fabric you see here. Easy peasy, little baby top done. (well, almost) 

It was so much fun to work with flannelette, that I continued for a second one. All these blocks were the same size. I cut some up to make a horizontal sashing as the bag was running out of variety and I couldn't make more 4 patches. I like it this way. 

Looking in my flannelette stash, I found this cute heart print that matches the colours of the quilt. So, it will be used in the border. 

Also in my stash was this yardage print; the exact same print as in the quilt. What are the odds? It will serve as backing. Yay! They weren't on my to-do list but slimming down the big flannelette bag was, so I win! 

I also worked on Stained Glass. I added a few triangles. The ironing boards are far from the sewing station so I abandoned this as it was too much walking. It will be much faster to do this one at home. The girls loved that one. 

 
I also looked at a few (pronounce many) magazines for inspiration. 

Sometimes, life is hard but someone has to do it. ( Wish I was still there. ) 

Enjoy some sewing, my friends. 

;^)

Joining these talented ladies this week. 

Angela at So Scrappy

Frédérique at Patchwork and Quilts

Cynthia for Oh Scrap

Alycia for Finished or NOT Finished Friday

NinaMarie at Creations - Quilts, Art, Whatever