Fiber Day

Today I am off to play with the paint and have a good time with my Surface Group. Here is a photo of our last day together. We met last month and had a planning day. We had a great lunch too.

I needed to do some dying before we got together today. So Wed I dyed my 3 scarves and a few other meters of cotton yardage.  

This is the scarves drying out and the yardage folded on top. It makes me think of the colours of summer Ice-cream. Or at least something better then winter.

I also had to carve my stamp. I was going to make a new design but I just did a few adjustments to a design I had done last year. I still needed to crave the stamp. I hope it works well. If not I may not have much to do. I plan to stamp at least one scarf with this design and use paint. I am taking some dyed yardage so I can sample the paint and stamping method. I am hopping it can be one gift done. 

Gemma got a new bed. So far she loves it. I have been teaching her "to your Bed" and if she gets it right she gets cookies. Tonight is dog class too. 

Major Maintance

A few weeks ago I decided to order some new replacement parts for my Gammill long arm machine. I was having to fix and repair the timing way to often. Well the parts came and 13 days ago I started to take my machine apart. I was replacing my Hook assembly of my machine. I was very nervous about doing this. Was I going to get the new one in and the machine working well again? Well when I took out the old Hook assembly I could see one of the set screws was not like the others. It was the right time to replace the parts.  

I had my dad come over. He knows less about the sewing machine then me but I needed some moral support and an extra hand to hold a screw in place. I really did need one more hand. Hold a screw up and in place and hold the little piece in place all at the same time. So he was great help. 

I got it working. I first did some quilting on my practice sandwich. I did some more little adjustments so the machine did not sound quiet so noisy.  Lots of oil too. 

I was still a little nerve about getting going on a customers quilt. So I did a little quilt of mine first. I will show it after I finish the binding. Wow I did it. I am feeling like a Super Hero. I also replaced the spring assembly too. I finished my little quilt and can now work on customers quilts knowing and feeling I got it done. This was the first time in 15 years of custom quilting that I had replaced some of these main parts. So I am busy machine quilting again. 

Except I got a little bit of the flu on the weekend. Today I am back to feeling better. 

Drop in Retreat

Last weekend my friend Laural hosted and quilting Retreat in her Garage. Her sister and 1 friend came from far away and stayed in her home over night. The rest of us ladies were local and went home to our own beds at night. Mom and I traveled together, the roads were bad as we got our first real snow. We had lunch and dinner together, and wow there was lots of good food. So we called the retreat a drop in retreat. I think she is doing it again after Christmas. 

I took my units I did last winter for  the Celtic Solstice Mystery by Bonnie Hunter. I want to do this years mystery but thought I needed to get more done on last's years mystery. I only had one block done and all the units for the smaller quilt. 

Here is another Scrappy Trip around the world being worked on.

Some Christmas projects were worked on.

You can really see we were in the garage here. We were told to bring a lamp as the lights were not great in the garage, We every had one with a shade, made the place classy. 

Here is another great project in the works. Threase was working on it but did not want to be in the photo so Elizabeth is holding it up. 

After the weekend I got really busy and did some more blocks at home. 

I now have all the blocks done (plus 1 extra). I am hoping to get the top together this week. 

Bonnie is planning to start the Grand Illusion Mystery on Friday the 28th. I have not picked fabrics out yet. I am sure by the end of the week I will have a few fabrics in mind. I was worried I would have to buy some Yellow but I found one that I have about 2 m of. It is bright so I am sure the rest of my quilt will be bright too. 

Scraps at Retreat

This quilt was made my mom Betty (right). It is Scrappy trips Around the World and the pattern can be found on Bonnie Hunter's Site Here. There were many done last year when there was a quilt a long. I love the purple and greens mom used. 

Here is mom again. A few weeks ago mom and I did a retreat together. It is the best time in the world. Quilting, sewing, eating and talking with mom. I thought I should show you my photos from this years retreat. It was a few weeks ago, but I guess better late then never. 

On the far side is my aunt Arley and the near lady is her sister, Fay. They do not live close so the retreat is a great time for them too. 

Mom and I have booked again next year. 

I kind of started two new scrap projects at retreat. First is the Lozenges, also a based on a Bonnie Hunter  pattern. It is meant to be a Leaders and Enders Project. I started by just cutting a few things on the end of my table at home. Some of the fabrics have not found a home. Then I went to the orange scrap box then the Brown scrap box. I will have to be sure there are some light Blue ones for the Rainbow Scrap challenge. 

I bought a new little ruler on the way to retreat (far left) so I cut some bits for another new scrap quilt. It maybe a Thousands Triangles some day. See the light blue on the top row?

So at retreat I also love to collect some scraps. I went dumpster diving and shopping at the re-home it table. I found some of these scraps and then the lady cutting came by my table with the middle stack. We had a fabric exchange so there were some new fabrics use in my scrap quilts. I just love having a bit of other peoples scraps.  

I have added today's post to Soscrappy's Rainbow Scrap Challenge 2014

Crazy Busy

OK sorry I have been missing in Action. My fall has been so busy then there is no time left to take photos and write on my blog. 

The most resent thing has been the class I did for the Leduc Black Gold Quilt Patch Guild. Here I am in front of the blocks I did for the class. 

Late in Sept I took a Jacket class from Peggy Fleet and part of the Leduc Black Gold Quilt Patch Guild. Above is the fabric I had picked out for my jacket. 

Peggy took this photo of me working on my machine quilting the patch work to the back of the jacket. 

I planned to show this off on my blog much earlier, Here is the lay out on my wall. The jacket was built on a grey fleece jacket. I made the patchwork then quilted it on. 

I was worried about the pocket and how to make it work out. Wow I nailed it. I love how the pockets turned out. I had to do a bit of hand stitching here and there but it was so worth it. Love my new jacket. Now I need to get a photo of me wearing it. 

Here is Gemma. Today is her Birthday. She is 1 year. 

For her Birthday she got 2 new toys and some lip smacking Ginger cookies.