Color My World Brown

It's that time again... this month's color was brown.

I use a lot of brown in my quilts... more than black.  I love brown.  I find it's a cozy, comforting color.  Some of the walls in my house are brown.  

I didn't have a hard time finding fabrics for this star but I did have a hard time deciding where to place them in the block.  I think it turned out pretty good!

Please head over to Quilt Matters and see M-R's Tree and check out what others have done with brown.

Next month's color is pink!!  Can't wait!!

Garden Path - TGIFF

I love this book.

I have been wanting to make another project out of this book for a while and thought that last weekend's retreat would be the perfect time.

So I packed up the book along with some fabric and steam-a-seam (I forgot the batting but my dear friend Pat had some extra!!).

I started Friday afternoon and finished the top around 10:30pm.  As you can see in the picture above, I forgot to reverse the pattern when I traced the pieces on the steam-a-seam... ooops!

I pin basted it and quilted it Sunday morning.

I put the binding on Sunday afternoon and

VOILÀ!!

It is now hanging near my front hall and looks so perfect!!

I am linking up to TGIFF over at Sparrow In Flight.  Please head on over and check out her beautiful Brick Path Quilts, as well as everyone else's great finishes!

A Fantastic Start To The Summer!

Doesn't this look peaceful?

View of the lake

The perfect place to start my summer!

Looking up at the cottage from the lake.

With great friends, food, drinks, music...

and of course our sewing machines!

My mom's featherweight.

I had a wonderful weekend with my quilty friends.  We worked on many projects and some were even finished!  

We sometimes have a theme for our retreats just to make the party a little more interesting.  This time around it was 50s & 60s.  We had delicious hamburgers and milkshakes for supper Saturday night.

Elvis was definitely with us on this retreat!

Here are some of the projects we worked on: 

My mom's scrap quilt.

A Tote Bag Pat made for her friend.

Pat's Granny Squares

I started a Log Cabin Quilt for my 4 year old.

Cheryl worked on this quilt for her sister.

These are Dale's friendship blocks.  Each of us made one of those blocks.

My mom's tumblers.

Pat made these Tote Bags for a Fundraising event.

Dale assembled the top of this gorgeous Christmas Quilt.

My mom pieced her hand embroidered snowmen blocks. 

I made this little wallhanging from start to finish, in 2 days!

We were so efficient with our sewing that the days just flew by and we couldn't believe how much work actually got done!  

Thank you Royal Cottage Quilters for a perfect start to my summer and to Pat and Victor for the use of their beautiful summer retreat!

Teachers' gifts

School finishes tomorrow so the girls went off to school this morning with their gifts to thank the teachers and school staff for a wonderful year.  I also work at the school part-time so I also made some gifts for the people I worked closest with.  This made for quite a lot of sewing!

Here are photos of the projects I made.

Monogrammed cushion

Mug rugs

A mug rug and a lanyard

Another mug rug and lanyard

Coasters

Coasters

Lanyards

I am heading of to my friend Pat's cottage this weekend for 4 days of eating, drinking, reading, sun-bathing... oh yeah, and quilting!  My quilt group is heading off for our quilt retreat.  I think this will be the perfect way to start off my summer vacation... some well deserved "me" time so I can be well rested for whatever summer will bring!

I will be bringing a couple of WIPs but I am also bringing a couple of new projects I have planned just for the weekend.  It wouldn't be a retreat without a new project after all!  I am hoping to have a few finishes when I get back.

I am linking up to TGIFF over at Pretty Bobbins.  Please head on over and take a look at some other Fabulous Finishes!!

Birthdays

My daughter was invited to another birthday party, so she made another cushion.

She is getting really good at making these.  At only 6 years old, she already knows how to put right sides together and follow the edge of the foot to get that nice straight 1/4 inch seam allowance.  She is starting to get the hang of the iron, and this time, I showed her how to turn the cushion inside out and use the tool to get nice corners.  She even designed the embroidery herself on my computer and picked out her thread colors.  The only things she didn't do is cut the fabric and hand sew the opening closed.  She even let her little sister help her stuff it!

front of cushion

back of cushion

Her friend was thrilled with his gift and she is so proud of herself!  

So is her mama!!

Friends!

Last night my mom and I made our way to the Ottawa Valley Quilters Guild meeting.

The highlight of my evening was definitely meeting my bloggy friend M-R from Quilt Matters!

M-R from Quilt Matters and me

M-R was the speaker at the Guild meeting last night and she invited me to come and see her.

She did a great presentation on Modern Quilting and the online quilt world.  It was really nice to see all of her amazing quilts (that I admired in photos), live and in person!

M-R is celebrating her 1 year blogiversary with 2 giveaways!  Be sure to check it out by clicking here!

Cupcakes and lanyards

I haven't had as much time as I would like to sew or quilt lately and I am suddenly realizing that sewing time will be different in the next months as summer vacation kicks in.  The kids are off in 3 weeks and from now until then I will be working on gifts for the teachers and trying to finish painting a bathroom and hopefully staining a deck.  

I have been working on these little cupcake quilts this past week.

I showed you Émilie's a couple of weeks ago.  I have since done the quilting... still have to add the buttons.

These two just need to be quilted and embellished.  My husband isn't sure he wants buttons on his... we'll see once it's quilted. 

I haven't made mine yet as I am having a lot of trouble deciding on the colors.  I am getting the holder in the next couple of weeks so I have started working on the June block but I will only show you that one when it is done!

I have also been making lanyards.  I am making some as gifts for the teachers and thought it would be nice to make myself a couple for my scissors!  I love them!

I will post pictures of the gifts for the teachers and staff at the school once they are done and all handed out.