Slow Sunday Stitching

I have a finish! I took the last stitch in Leo’s Mane last week. Yesterday I released all the outer edges from the basting and pressed them open. Then I stay stitched the edges and removed all the papers around the outside edges. It is ready for quilting. Woohoo and yippee!!


So what’s next? I’ve been asking myself that for a while. When Charlene and I were at the quilt show in Shedden working in the vending booth, there were a number of people who made enquiries about possible classes and teaching using basic English Paper Piecing shapes like hexagons and 60 degree diamonds. The small project that I did based on Willyne Hammerstein’s Creme Brullee attracted a lot of interest. But I don’t own that design so I can’t in honesty use the design for teaching purposes. However I do have a design that was done in Electric quilt based on 5 different 60 degree shapes which I started putting together a couple of days ago. This is what I’ve got so far. I’m winging it right now for putting it together. As I am sewing it together I am seeing ways to make it easier and to break it down into units that will make it better for a teaching sample. Once I’ve worked through putting this one together I’ll do another and take pictures as I go. It might end up a written pattern as well.
So, I’m going to link up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching and get back to working on this sample.

Slow Saturday and Sunday stitching

We had an unexpected and very pleasant trip to see our grandson Avery yesterday. It involved 3 1/2 hours in the car to get there and 3 hours in the car to get back home again. But it was well worth it. And what does a person who is sitting in a car, obviously not the one doing the driving, do but occupy the time with stitching. This resulted in three out of four of the last of Leo’s Mane’s border being stitched to the main body of the quilt. One more to go and it is finished. WOOHOO!!

The light wan’t very good for taking the picture, but you get the idea.
But the bigger WOOHOO yesterday was the opportunity to see our grandson Avery.
While we were up visiting Avery, we decided to have a picnic and have some fun flying kites. We didn’t quite take into account that the precipitation that fell here last week as rain and freezing rain fell as snow where he lives. So we had a picnic in the snow. We got some interesting looks from passers by who must have thought we were slightly out of our minds. We also flew kites through the snow. The kite flying wasn’t too terribly successful as there wasn’t a lot of wind. But that was probably just as well since more wind would have made the picnic and being outside too cold. We had fun anyway. And then we went and found a leftover mini mountain of snow ploughed up from a parking lot. The boys had a lot of fun with that. It was a fabulous day!!
Today is going to be much more peaceful, with some reading, going to Church and some stitching.
Then tomorrow, Charlene and I are driving to Norwich where we will be doing a workshop with the Quaker Quilt Guild, called English Paper Piecing - More Than Just Hexagons. That will be lots of fun, and I hope to have pictures. However, I have been known to get so involved in the fun of workshops that taking pictures gets totally forgotten, so I make no promises on that one (grin).
I’m linking up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching before getting the rest of this day started.

Slow Sunday Stitching

I finally have the last of the borders for Leo’s Mane finished. All the remains is to sew them to the main body of the quilt. There are two side borders of eight blocks each. And two for the top and bottom of ten blocks each plus the corner blocks, just finished earlier today.


We had a great time at the Shedden quilt show, in spite of the terrible weather on Saturday. By the time we packed up and left at 4 pm on Saturday the rain that had been pouring down was turning to freezing rain. We made it home safe though, as did my friend Charlene who helped me out all weekend. This was our booth. 

It was so exciting to see it all set up. Our son Noel built the four sided peg board stand for me. It sits on wheels and turns. 
He took an old office chair and used the wheels from it to make it moveable and turnable. The whole thing comes apart and lies flat to get it in and out of the car. It was fabulous!!
We get to do it again the first weekend May in Simcoe at the Norfolk Quilters Guild quilt show.
However, for the rest of today, I’m going to start sewing the borders on, after I link up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching

Works in progress Wednesday

I haven’t done a Wednesday progress report in ages, mostly because all the projects I’ve been working on got stalled at the binding stage while I’ve been working on Leo’s Mane. However, Some of them are finally finished. Our English Paper Piecing business is going to be attending some local quilt shows as a vendor in the next few months, so I needed a banner/sign for the booth. I took the logo from our business cards and mega biggie sized it, then cut it from some Kona Pepper and fused it to a Kona Snow background. I found some odds and ends of EPP shapes that were left over from other projects and hey presto, a sign saying who we are and hopefully showing what we sell. I finished it off with a lovely striped binding. We’re going to be at the Shedden quilt show this weekend, Friday and Saturday,  at the Southwold Keystone Complex, in Shedden Ontario.

Then I managed to get the table runner I was making from Honeycomb Wreaths finished. I love the colours in it.

And since I was on a roll, I kept going and put the binding onto my version of Willyne Hammerstein’s Creme Brullee.
Both of these got striped bindings as well. I love diagonally printed stripes for bindings.  I’m going to link up to the Canadian Needle and thread Network’s WIP Wednesday and also to Let’s bee social. Then I have to sew down the bottom edges of a couple of hanging sleeves on these projects before I can call them 100% done.

Slow Sunday Stitching

I working on finishing a couple of things right now. Our paper piecing business, eagleswingsquilts.ca is going to be attending some quilt show this spring and summer as a vendor. We’ve also started a trunk show and workshop, so we needed a sign. A couple of days ago I took the logo for the business and enlarged it hugely and the cut it out and fused it to a background. Since then I’ve been sewing various English Paper Pieced units to the background to give a picture of what actually it is that we do. I have one last piece to sew down and then I can get it onto the quilting machine. I’m working on a bit of a time crunch, considering our first quilt show is at Shedden Ontario starting on Thursday, April  12 for set up. The actual show is Friday and Saturday. It would be wonderful to see some of you there.
The other project I’m working on finishing is a table runner made up of three variations of a honeycomb wreath that will be on display at the quilt show. There are kits in the store available to make them and we’ll be taking some with us to the quilt show.
So, with all of that in mind, I’ll finish this very short post, link up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching and then get back to my stitching.

Slow Sunday Stitching and Happy Easter

Of all of the days of the year, this one is the best. Easter Sunday, celebrating the rising of our Saviour and Lord from the grave. This Easter is extremely special. Years ago we belonged to a wonderful small but close knit church family. Unfortunately, over time, that church family grew smaller and smaller until it finally could no longer function and it closed. That was almost 20 years ago. Since then we have been searching for a new church family. We have attended numerous churches over the years but never quite fit. Back in January we heard of a new church that had started up in our city, Sovereign Grace Baptist Church, and we began attending. It didn’t take long to realize that the Lord had answered our prayers and that this was to be our new church family. Today we become official members of that church when they extend what they call “the right hand of fellowship” to us. I don’t talk a lot about my faith here on the blog, but it is an essential central component of who and what I am, and also of what I do and why I do, and so when important things arise, I will mention them.

As far as stitching goes, once more not a lot of that has been happening. This past week, once more I was felled by a bug of some sort...... that’s three this winter.... I’m done, no more please!!!! Since that really bad illness that landed me in hospital for 10 days last April, it seems like it’s been just one thing after another. I am so ready to be done with all that. I’ve mentioned to my husband numerous times that I’m sick and tired of being sick and tired. LOL! And each time, the recovery process takes longer. I suppose it must be part of the getting older thing, less immunity, less resistance and less energy at the best of times, let alone when ill. And of course it doesn’t help when I put myself into situations where I’m working at full tilt way beyond my strength and capacity, pushing myself way past where I should. A crash and burn in those circumstances is almost inevitable, as most of my friends and all of my family know and consistently warn me about. So I’ve been in enforced lay down on the couch and rest mode for the past week. I have done a little bit on the last four blocks for the last border of Leo’s Mane. I miscounted the number I need for this border, so I’m scrambling to find the fabrics that I used. I’ve managed to locate everything except the red. If I don’t find it I’ll have to do some creative substitutions. I have the four corner blocks already made. What were missing were 4 side blocks. If I have to, I’ll take the red off the corner blocks and move them to the side blocks, and then add a different red to the corners. At this point, I’m thinking something that is as close to what is already there as possible. But who knows, maybe a flashy contrasting red will work even better. Whatever the case, I have to decide soon, since I can’t go any further on those side blocks without the red.
I’m going to post this, link to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching, and then go red fabric hunting. If I don’t get attacked by yet another bug of some sort, these blocks will be done by this time next week, I hope.