Coins are Stacked

The past weekend was a long weekend and I tacked an extra day on top so had 4 glorious days.  

Was so nice to have the time off work but 

I really should have gotten much more done around the house.  

Poked around the house for the first day and half and then I went down south of town to visit a quilting friend.  We enjoyed each others company, got lots of sewing done, went for a long walk through the back forty and helped her hubby move the cows from the corral to the pasture.  Not sure I was much help with that but I can say I ran with the bulls that day. (he, he, he)

I just love the beautiful song of the meadow lark and the wide open spaces of the prairies.

It really is like a breath of fresh air to get out of the city.

It was very productive sewing wise.  

The coin quilt is now quilted and I just need to get the binding sown on.

 For the backing I chose a bright and cheery yellow.

I really like the way this one came together.  I must say I am partial to pink and girly quilts.

I did all of the quilting myself.  

Nothing too elaborate here.

I did a honeycomb down the white sashing and then just did corner to corner on the coins.

Can hardly wait to get the binding on now and get it in the washer.

I have been working on this little quilt or wall hanging for quite some time now.  

I kind of got my second wind though and have it over 3/4's done.  

It was nice to have another quilter look at it

 and think it looks good so I'll push through and get it finished.

Cute panel though.

Well, I am heading off to the Festival of Quilts tomorrow.

I'm hoping that the rain will stop as it has been raining for at least 2 days straight now.

I'm linking up with Crazy Mom Quilts for my finish.

Have a great weekend all!!

Shauna

Mr. Postman . . .

. . .  brought me a special package!!

I won a give away over at Jen's blog, Glinda Quilts a little while ago.  Although we live on other sides of the pond and then some, the postman came knocking yesterday!

What a lovely way to start a long weekend!!  

 It's so cute and I can hardly wait to use it!  It has all my favourite colours in it.

Just look at it . . .  

 Lovin' the label too!

It's all so perfect - thanks Jen.

I have been working on my hexagons and have almost a row put together.  

It's going to be a nice keepsake once it is finished.

See the spots above where you see where the holes, 

I'm going to do a muslin piece that is embroidered.  

I haven't done any embroidery for years but have been inspired as of late 

by some of the work that I've seen on other blogs.

 

The rain was threatening today and I wanted to get my flowers planted.  

I have just a nice size garden box at the front of my condo.   

The previous owner had left many volcanic rocks in the back area.  Can't say they are my favourite but I've incorporated a couple in the front flower bed and they add a little interest there.  

The back is another story - there are way too many of them so I'll be looking for a way to ditch them.

 Hopefully the flowers will fill in a little.  

It does add a little colour to a drab world though and makes one smile.

Hope you are enjoying your long weekend so far.

Shauna

Bloglovin & Stacking Coins

Apparently in order to claim my blog on bloglovin I must post this link:

<a href="http://www.bloglovin.com/blog/5222445/?claim=mtrhn2n3fem">Follow my blog with Bloglovin</a>

I've been working on my Stacked Coin baby quilt over the past few days.

The top had been put together and all I had to do was stretch it, pin it and start to quilt.

Does anyone else out there have one of these handy gadgets called the Kwik Klip?  I find it saves on the fingers when trying to pin.

The line of material is called Posy by Aneela Hoey for Moda.  It's really cute!

I blogged about this quilt originally here.

 I did my previous quilt without my quilting gloves.  For some reason I could not find them.  It's hard enough to quilt and without my gloves it was doubly hard so I went to the local quilt shop yesterday but they didn't have any in stock.  So . . . . next on my list was to head down to good old Canadian Tire to look at their gardening gloves.  

And I found the perfect pair!  

They fit great and the palm and fingers are done with grippy stuff.

They are so bright I should not loose them!

I may not get out to the garden this weekend as it is supposed to rain off and on so it may be a good weekend to catch up on life as well as getting some quilting accomplished.

One last picture, I promise.

Hopefully I'll be posting sometime this weekend my finished quilt.

Shauna

Finished

 Start to finish this quilt took me three weeks.

I have enjoyed the journey of making this quilt. . . 99% of the fabrics were from my stash.

I bought the light pink thread to quilt it but other than that a very economical quilt for me to make.

I even got it done in time that I could snap a couple of pictures outside.  I'm very pleased with the look of this quilt.

What I love about this quilt . . .

  . . . the scrappy binding.  I have decided that I really like the look of this and have done it on a couple of my quilts.  The fabric that I used was remnants from what was left after I cut out the material for the blocks.  Most of the material with exception of the polka dot was Beach House by Robin Pandolph.  It was very nice fabric to work with and has a really nice feel to it.

I also splurged and bought some nice thread to quilt it with and used the same thread to hand quilt the binding on.  It is Mettler silk-finish - loved working with it for the hand stitching.  

It didn't ravel nor get all matted.  

Will definitely use it again!

The size is 68" by 54" - just a nice size.

Now to get this in the mail to a very special aunt of mine and I pray that it reaches her in time.  

She is suffering from cancer and this will be sent with much "love, hugs & prayers."

I'm linking up with AmanadaJean from Crazy Mom Quilts.  Check out her blog, she just finished the most beautiful Bohemian Garden Quilt.  I just love the colours!

Have a beautiful weekend!!

Shauna

Loopy

 I had a very busy weekend that just past.

I spent time with a dear friend whom I haven't seen for a couple of years.  It's amazing to me that we can just pick up where we have left off.

I also went to a ladies conference that my mom invited me to at her church.  The speaker was a Professor that I had when I went to college.  Nice to see her again and also to meet some new people as well as renewing some old friendships.

In spite of my busy weekend, I started quilting the quilt top that I got done at the retreat.

I'm afraid that I defaulted to doing something easy (loops) so that I could get it done faster and send it off to the recipient.

 I should be able to get this accomplished this week.

On another note, I finished a book just the other day.  

It was called, Perfect Square by Vannetta Chapman.

It's an Amish Mystery story and was pretty good.  

Light and a good read for bed time.

Even though it is a fiction book, there are a couple of quotes that I would like to pass on.

". . . . Callie realized there was only one explanation for those things.  Their lives were stitched together by a divine quilter, and she could trust the pattern would be a good one."

" . . . you can't turn back and choose a different path.  Live the life you've been given."

Good words to live by!

And one more thing . . . I won a pants bag over at Glinda Quilts the other day . . . sooo exciting!

Enjoy your week!!

Shauna

Quilting Finds in Victoria

Back from my jaunt to Victoria . . . what a breath of fresh air!

Got to a couple of my favorite haunts while I was in town.

One being Russell Books on Fort Street.

They always have a wonderful selection of new and used books.

Found a couple of used quilting books that are in perfect condition.

I have been enjoying looking through them and getting some ideas.

I also found the Satin Moon Quilt Shop also on Fort Street.

I found the store a little smaller than their previous location but none the less, found a few gems in there.  Didn't buy any fabric this time though - just a couple of patterns.

They are friendly and have a nice selection of Asian prints as wells as children's fabrics.

All in all a nice way to spend some time.

 

 

Everything was so green and lush in Victoria . . .

Flowers are already in bloom

Leaves are on the trees

People are enjoying the sunshine

 

And only a few drops of rain on my last day.

I had the privilege of enjoying a great cup of Java at my son's cafe called Heist.

It's a beautiful cafe on Courtney Street in downtown Victoria.

They do Americanos, Cappuccinos, iced coffees and various other kinds of coffee.

My son is very passionate about coffee and it was nice to see him in his element.

Graham treated me royally while I was visiting him.

One of these days, spring will come to us in Alberta. . .

 

. . .until then, I'll be thinking of my trip to Victoria.

 

Have a great day everyone!

 

Shauna

Quilting Retreat

Wow!  

What a weekend!

There is so much to blog about this past weekend.

I had a fantastic time at the quilting retreat that I went to with a really good friend of mine, Wendy.

I drove down to her place and we loaded up her vehicle with all of our quilting tools, fabric, machine and of course the most important thing . . . . snacks.

Wendy made ham and egg cups for breakfast on Friday morning with a fruit tray and english muffins... mmmm... good!

Wendy reads my blog so I couldn't show you my bag that I made for her birthday. 

We hadn't seen each other since her birthday in February.

We stayed at a lovely lodge called Mountain View Inn.  

The name is very appropriate!

Just look at the beautiful views!!

As a group we made Neonatal quilts for one of the hospitals in Calgary. 

It was so interesting to see all of the variety that was made.

Wendy taught us a new block (buggy barn star) so we used that to make our 'little' quilts 

that are only 17 x 25 inches big.

Using the block, it makes two and then we added borders to make it the right size.

When I was putting this post together, I realized that I didn't have a picture of the finished with the borders.  Our small quilting group created 25 of these quilts.

This group of ladies have been meeting for a few years now and they have been doing a block of the month.  Again, it was very interesting to see the variety of colours.

I'm excited to join in if they do more blocks.

Aren't they all so beautiful?!

I also worked on a quilt and am happy to report that I finished the top.

It's very soft and has the most beautiful pinks and light aqua colours.

 It's so wonderful to look up and see all the wonderful quilts on display.

All of the ladies there are very talented and I felt honoured to be a part of the group.

 The lodge lends itself well to displaying all of the quilts.

Just look at the variety and colours.  

Can you see mine?? (top left picture - right hand corner)

We did a fat quarter exchange - well it was in the form of a game and one could steal . . . 

but was lots of fun. 

As with any quilting retreat, you sometimes get to sneak away and go to a quilt shop or two.  We went to the one in Cardston and I ran into two good quilting friends of mine (Marge and Dorothy) . . . unbelievable!  So good to see them . . . they are creating some really beautiful and fun projects.

Being down in Cardston area, you are close to the mountains and with mountains in spring time, you sometimes get snow.  Well this weekend was no exception . . . we got 11 inches of snow.

Looking forward to my week, hope you are too!

Shauna