A Friday of Sewing

First I was working on finishing a quilt on the longarm. This quilt was a little out of my normal... its a scrap quilt, made by making slabs of any leftover flannelette that matched the colour scheme... The back was also pieced from bits of leftover flannelette. I quilted this hoping that I would have enough thread as I was finishing off the spool. I had just enough!

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Then I loaded the longarm with a strip quilt....

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And finally I pulled out a project box containing a Hallowe'en Double Wedding Ring that my now 7yo designed 2 years ago. Good thing we took a photo of the layout from then. She really wanted to use the Accuquilt Go Double Wedding Ring Die and the Hallowe'en Fabrics.... The top is now finished.

A few finishes

Last week my daughter was going to a birthday party and needed a gift... I dug through the stash... and came up with enough fabric for a pillow case....  Pair it with a book from the closet and some bath bubbles and I have a gift I didn't need to leave the house for... and even better it is personalized!













So I finished a few things up on Monday....  These were on my longarm a week or so ago... I loaded a few metres of muslin on my longarm, and then added batting pieces (yes using up scraps) and did 2 computer bags (3 pieces total), and a pillow (3 pieces).   It was a great way to do some smaller items all at once on the longarm.  

First up was a couple of computer bags using this tutorial.  A computer bag for my husband.... This one is lined with Gortex as my husband cycles to work.  Its not fully waterproof (no seam sealing, and has a zipper) but if its drizzly it'll help keep the computer dry.  I suggest he still uses his Dry Sack on really rainy days!

And one for my son... no Gortex on this one... but he pieced the top and quilted the inner layer his first time using the longarm.

And finished the pillow I originally started from January's Dare to Dresden.....

And I also finished blocks for the Simply Solids Bee.... This one is a Churn Dash ready to mailed out....

And then this one is a modular Cathedral Window based on the tutorial A Few Scraps: Modular Cathedral - Single Window Block.  I've sized mine up so that it will be a 12" finished block....

Table Topper

This is the table topper that I made for a friends wedding from a 5 FQ pack. I was going to do a pieced back, but couldn't get them the same size, so just used 4 squares of the backing, and wrapped the backing around as the binding. I did the quilting on my domestic machine (not my longarm) as I can't pickup my longarm and move it to the beach!

This quilt top started off as a Bento Box, and then arranged with the cross in the middle by my 10yo... I wasn't sure whether to do a long table topper, or a square!

When wrapping, we used shear curtain fabric that I'd been cutting up for small projects and I made a cross for the bow.  I found the idea for the driftwood and sea shell cross at My Sophia Ryan... We have so many shells and pieces of driftwood just outside the door I didn't even need to walk down to the beach. 

And this dress is one of the few my mom saved from years ago... Here is my 7yo wearing it... She loves it!

Christmas QAL....

This past week I finished off my Winter/Christmas Pillows....




And this weekend I cut out the batting for the table runner I completed last week


And I pulled out the blocks I'd started last year with the 2012 Craftsy Quilt Along....

Unfortunately I don't have much white fabric here at the cabin, so might not make too much progress on these.... We are at the cabin so the fabric store isn't just around the corner... it requires an ferry ride... and so I only go to town once every 10-14 days... and I went on Friday!




My husband did some more blackberry canning.... Blackberry Jam (seedless) and Blackberry Jelly (that didn't set).... and we made Blackberry Ice Cream!!! 

Argyle Pillows

These pillows were made by my 10 yo daughter.  She used the Argyle Pillow Pattern in Small Stash Sewing ~ 24 Projects Using Designer Fat Quarters by Melissa Averinos.

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Lazy Days of Summer....

Linked up with Clean and Scentsible Inspiration Exchange and Take a Look Tuesdays

Ho Ho Ho! Let's Blog Hop!

Welcome to Day 6!

Many thanks to Madam Samm at Sew We Quilt and Carol at Just Let Me Quilt for hosting this Blog Hop. It has been great getting a head start on Christmas sewing...

August 7

Cherry Blossoms Quilting Studio

From This to That

I Like To Quilt Blog

Leah @ L3Designs (you are here)

Sew Mollie Sue, Quilt Much?

Just Quilt It

Meadowbrook

Peanut’s Patchwork

Around the Homestead

Feathered Nest Studio

In The Boon Docks

MO Broker, My Creative Side

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This week my 10yo daughter and I have been working on our entries.  Our first project was a Penguin Pillow.... She drew the penguin and I turned it into a fusible applique pillow....  And I used lots of decorative stitching for quilting the borders. 

and he looked lonely so we also worked on a Polar Bear Pillow.

Here they are both together....

Also using Connecting Threads Christmas Mini Charm we made a quilt top for a table topper... Haven't decided what to back this with, or what to use for binding....  And I'm out of batting, so this will have to wait until I can get to town (or get my husband to bring some in his backpack to the island)

Thank you for making time to visit, I really appreciate it. Please visit the other blogs at the links above. They all have beautiful projects to share and perhaps a Giveaway or two. Thank you! 

Summer...

This week we started canning blackberries! Blackberry Jelly and Blackberry Juice Concentrate...

My husband picked 16L (4 ice cream pails) and the vines hardly look touched!

This will be a great year for blackberries, but not a great year for plums or apples....

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My older two working together...
My 12yo son has been playing the bagpipes for a number of years now...
My 10yo daughter has just started and can only play the chanter...

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Roses still in bloom

Today my kids were sewing... hopefully they'll each have projects to show soon.  My sewing is all part of the Ho Ho Ho Blog Hop....

Snowbirds!

Photo Courtesy of Aircraft Information

This past week wet had the opportunity to watch the CF 431 Air Demonstration Squadron.... The Snowbirds.... The display was going to be in the harbour on the other side of the island, so we headed to the park to watch it. A great show that we watched from 5km straight across from show centre! There are 3 great locations to watch any air demonstration from: show centre, directly behind show centre AND in an airplane. Watching at show centre would have required a ferry.... and watching from an airplane is probably a once in a lifetime opportunity... That once in a lifetime opprotunity happened when I was 17 getting my pilots license on my long cross country flight past one of their practice sessions!

After we watched them, the kids and I headed home and we watched the  "Canada's Magnificent Snowbirds: The First 20 Years" published in 1991!  I remember watching this when it first came out.  Then, and still, my only complaint about the show is that it isn't just every boy's dream to fly with the snowbirds!  Some girls also have dream too!  And just this summer, one woman has recently retired from the position of Snowbirds Commanding Officer ~ LCol Maryse Carmichael. 

Here are some of the photos taken last week....