A wonderful weekend with sew-buddies.

I've had a wonderful 2019 so far! I am counting my many blessings.

1. After some extended family health issues, things are looking much better.

2. I spent a glorious week with Hubby in Costa Rica getting lots of Vitamin D!

3. I've taught a few classes - Kids are the most fun to teach!!!! (more about that later)

4. I had an amazing few days this past weekend sewing with friends.

I want to share with you what I was able to accomplish this weekend. I used to attend 2-3 quilting retreats every year. I went with as many projects as I could and most of the retreaters knew that I was there to sew. If I was head down (and ear buds were in), they were encouraged to ignore me. I made sure I came up for air often and took the time to socialize and eat!!!!

I haven't been to many quilting retreats in the past few years and now that I'm working from home most days, I seem to get sidetracked too quickly and feel that I'm not accomplishing anything.

Brenda and Arla came over (we have regular sew days and lunch) Friday evening and stayed for about 3 hours, then showed up mid morning on Saturday and spent the day working. The girls know that I like to be head down, focusing, so they wait and ask me lots of questions and chat with me when I'm pressing or cutting, not at the machine stitching. Both are working on Piano Key borders for king size quilts and took advantage of my longarm frame and table to lay out their quilts and borders in process.

Anyway, I want to share what I was able to accomplish. Drum Roll Please!!!!!

It was my Dad's birthday mid January and even though I knew what I wanted to send him, I just couldn't get it going. On our January sew day, I got most of this stained glass quilt done. If added the binding and labels/hanging triangles first thing on Friday.

I took photo of a piece my Dad made for my daughter's new house and turned it into a 14" wall hanging.

On small quilts like this I add triangle corners to use as hanging sleeves. Simply slide a small piece of dowelling or thin base board and hang on the wall.

I'm teaching this fantastically simple method of stitching Stained Glass quilting at Pinheads Quilting Company Thursday evenings, April 25 and May 2.

Once I finished this wallhanging, I was able to finish off a few other projects that have been sitting around forever!

One of my Tries for 2019 is to not purchase any fabric. Well, we all know how that is going to go, but I have a goal of keeping my fabric purchases to a minimum. So, I've collected strips (1 1/2" and 2 1/2" wide) and sewn into scrap blocks. I sewed 1 1/2" wide white and 2 1/2" strips to the sides of each block. The quilt top is done and ready for quilting in my "to be quilted" box. I'm calling this quilt WOVEN SCRAPS.

I've joined in the 52 blocks in 52 weeks craze hosted by Canadian Quilters' Association. These blocks are 6" finished. A number of years ago I joined the Splendid Sampler and made a few blocks. These got put aside when I started another project. I also started the Farmer's Wife 1930's sew along. Again, not finished.

So, when I saw the opportunity to continue working on 6" blocks, I thought I'd combine all 3 projects in one.

Each week, I'm going to add the weekly block from CQA with a few from the other projects and add a row, either to the bottom or the side of the quilt. I've chosen and cut the sashing strips and the corner posts and have a lovely navy batik for the outside border. Who knows how big the quilt will be? I'll just keep going to the end of the year.

I've circled the 3 blocks so far. I think that keeping the sashing consistent and not worrying about which batiks I use, the quilt will look fantastic!!!!!

Many years ago I sewed this Swirl quilt from Jewel Box designs. I recently found the quilt top in a box and realized that I just needed to prepare the binding and add it to my "to be quilted" box.

And finally, I want to share my completed DUNAMAR GARDEN quilt. I designed this last year and I don't think the picture does it justice! I used a lot of ice dyed fabrics in greens to represent the various leaves in the plants in Mexico. There are so many different flowers there too! The blocks were all pieced, but nothing else was done. So I needed to sew the blocks together, and add both borders. My friends and I were all working on Piano Key borders at the same time! I'll tell more about this quilt when I get it quilted.

So, amid a lot of chatter and laughs I was able to get a variety of projects to the next stage. I'm pleased with what I accomplished and my Sew Buddies are pleased with their progress too!