Showing posts with label Scrappy quilt. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Scrappy quilt. Show all posts

Thursday, May 28, 2026

Half-square triangles

OH MY --- there are so many stories of how people just "randomly" meet, and it's meant to be. The blog is going to be late, as I listened to another story of just such a situation. Life is so full of coincidences, or are they really coincidences? The next time a coincidence happens --- think about it --- that happened for a reason.  

I am not sure that I'll go for a walk this morning - at least not in the direction that we have been going - down the local road. The black flies are out, and, well, I had a little extra protein for breakfast, and I have more lumps and bumps on my head and a bite or two on my arm. I might walk to the grocery store to get some bananas!!! Hoping that along the road, there will be fewer bugs. Oh, silly me! 

I made great progress in the day and found several more bags of HSTs in my retreat bag. Good grief -- you would think that I would work on one bag at a time. Nope—I like working on multiple groupings. Can you tell me why?

I found this one with some black, white, red, and grey. I'm happy to report that all is sewn, trimmed, and ready to be put away when I get home. 

Working on the first group of HSTs

Here is proof that all is done! 

All is done in this grouping.


Then I found this bag of cream, pink, and orange. A good part of them are sewn and trimmed, and I'm using them as enders and leaders as I work on my quilt tops. 

The second bag of HSTs


Yes, I'm working in groups of four. And this is what I accomplished yesterday! 


What I accomplished yesterday from this grouping


There are three other bags of half-square triangles in the retreat bag. One bag contains units that just need to be trimmed - that was the one that I have been trying to find, and I was pretty sure I had tucked it in that bag. One is just the triangles waiting to be sewn together, and the third one I had forgotten about, and some of the units have been pressed and trimmed. Some need to be sewn. That will be for later. 

Then it was time to get back to work sewing the scrappy flannel squares together. And this is what happened. I was pulling one row off the wall to sew it together, and a whole section fell off. Thankfully, I had taken a picture, so it was easy to put them back! 

Ooopsy


And later in the day (much later), it was finally assembled. 

One quilt top done!


Yes -- it's pretty scrappy, and yes, there are four very bright spots. And you know what? I'm OK with that! 

Then I pulled out the next bags of scrappy blocks. I got those put on the wall last night and got part of it sewn. 

The next very scrappy quilt


This is a very scrappy quilt, but all of the squares have a wintery theme. I'm making good headway on getting it done. But so much for sewing three quilt tops together in one day! I should be able to sew this together today, and hopefully the last one as well? We'll just have to see. 

I also removed five more raindrops from the Cherrywood Challenge. The large ones are super easy to remove, the small ones with slightly narrower stitches are a bit more of a challenge! No Prince song this morning as I write this. 

Removing more raindrops


And then there was the puzzle. It's a challenge as well - the easy bits are done, and now we are onto the greenery. There are three of us working on the puzzle, and hopefully we'll get it done before we leave. 


Progress on the puzzle


Plus, two of us went to another quilt store in the area. And we spotted this barn quilt along the way. Oh shoot -- we saw one the day before as well, and I keep forgetting to post that picture! 

A barn quilt


How is this for organizing half-square triangles? These are not mine. Of course not! Mine are always in a jumble, while these are super neat and organized!!!!

Nicely organized HSTs


We have no plans to go out today, except to walk to the grocery store and hopefully avoid the bugs!!! My head is itchy!!!!

Will I get through everything that I brought? You know what? I'm doing pretty well, and I should be able to touch almost everything I brought.OKK -- that's a lie - there might be a couple of things, but it's good to have variety!!!

And that's it for today. I must get back to the sewing machine. 

Have a super day!!!!


Ciao!!!!


PS --- YES -- the arm that doesn't move while walking is the arm I use to hold Murphy's leash. I try to keep a tight grip on her, and it shows!!!!

WAIT WAIT WAIT ---- I have something else to share. My artist friend (we've never met but have stayed in touch via social media for years) has been shortlisted for a jigsaw puzzle for Villager Puzzles (amazing company by the way - Canadian owned by a woman with women artists). 


Anyway, if you wish to vote for the puzzle, here is the link. It appears to be only on Instagram. Cynthia Frenette is one of the three. Vote for the best (which is hers!) OK -- so I'm biased. 



Tuesday, May 2, 2023

Day One at the Retreat

Here we are at Springhouse Retreat! What a fantastic house, and while we are 12 - the house is very roomy, and we are not on top of each other. There is a beautiful bank of cupboards in the pantry area, so all our crap is nicely contained, and with two fridges, we have loads of room. 

I confess that I did NOT get much done yesterday. I arrived at 10:01 and got some of my stuff into the house. But then we spent a lot of time catching up, which is what retreats are all about. But I did get to work, and I'm trying to finish a project with a serger. 

I made progress but decided to put it aside after I struggled with a specialty thread. I'll wait until later this week to tackle that again. So I dug out something easy, and I'm working on that!


There is always the GREAT EXCHANGE at any retreat. I brought all those quilts, and the majority have been "delivered." There are three more to be picked up by non-retreaters today! 

And look at the gorgeous gift I got. THANK YOU   -- THANK YOU!!! This was a surprise, and it's a project from our "Out of the Box" session, but I never suspected it was made for ME! 

My dimensional bowl!

And it even came with some triangles to make half-square triangles! LOL!!!! I can't escape those darn things!

Half-square triangles

I could do the presentation for our Monday sewing group from here. I hooked up to the TV so the others could also see. A few technical difficulties with that, including forgetting to plug in the laptop and therefore losing power! 

I took no pictures yesterday, so I quickly snapped a couple this morning. Here's the sewing room from my corner. 


The sewing room

This is looking into the house from the sewing room. 


The view into the house from the sewing room


And here's our view! It's a stunning place. 


The view from one of the windows

I have a room to myself with a king-sized bed, which is decadent, but I'm OK with that. I'm used to sleeping in the city where it never gets dark. But here? It's DARK And completely silent. And I love it!!


I have packed well, except I forgot my toothbrush, so I'll venture out this morning to get one. Good grief!

So I've had loads of inquiries about the scrappy quilt, and I'm working on the details, so once I know that -- I'll be taking signups. Since we are starting in October, I might wait a  month, but you'll get all the details soon. If you're interested -- send me an e-mail (elainetheriault@gmail.com) and put SCRAP in the subject!!


Scrappy quilt project


 Maryke and I went for a walk in the afternoon and were fortunate to miss the rain. She picked the perfect time as there was a half-hour window, and we timed it perfectly!


Well, I'm afraid that's it for today. Most everyone is now up, and I need to edit the blog post, and then I'm off to walk. I bet Murphy and Lexi are NOT happy this morning as they know they won't get a walk. The poor girls!!!

Have a super day!!

Ciao!!!