The rescue!

 Even though yesterday was the full moon, I slept like a baby! Although, isn't that expression kind of silly since babies tend to wake up a lot! I slept well - let's just put it that way! 

Yesterday was an interesting day. We had a visitor, and the Pony Express is alive and well. Actually, we had a visitor the day before as well. Both were making pick-ups and drop-offs for the Pony Express. And besides the rescue, which I'll get into in a moment, I just didn't seem to be working very fast. I'm not even sure why I was in slow-motion mode. 

I had great intentions of getting those placemats done (the day before), working on the soccer quilt, and doing some knitting, and well, I'm happy to say that the placemats did get finished as much as I could. 

There is a piece of fabric in the center, which I quilted through all layers - the fleece and the backing. Thankfully, I had orange thread on two bobbins in my bobbin holders to do the quilting. I also needed that orange thread to sew the borders on, since it was stitch-and-flip. But I basted the skinny little border on and used a different color to conserve the orange thread. The basting stitches had to be removed as I added the outer border. 

The placemats are pieced! 

Once that task was finally completed, it was time to trim the placemats. Sorry for those silly non-rotated pictures. It drives me mad! But the placemats are fun and bright. I did not add any quilting to the borders - I don't think it needs it. 

The placemats are trimmed

And these are the bits that were left over from trimming. Of course, I kept all those bits!! I can use the small black triangles as enders and leaders for half-square triangles; the larger triangles will go toward making hourglass scrap blocks; and the orange strips can go in the orange scrap box. The fleece - well, I can sew two triangles together to get a square for a hot mat, and I really should throw the other pile away. Those are really too small to do anything with. 

The scraps are sorted

Since I had purchased some solid black fabric the other day, I was able to make and sew the binding onto all four placemats. 

The binding is applied to the back

But not before I ran out of black thread for the top. ACK!!!!! Technically, I could have used any color for that part, but since the binding is black, I chose black thread. 

One empty spool

I got offers from several people to borrow black thread, but then I looked in my bobbin holder and VOILA - there are THREE bobbins of black thread. So I used one on the top and one in the bobbin. Perfect!!! 

Bobbins of black thread

When I was done putting the binding on the back, I put those three partial black bobbins in the retreat box. And when I get home, I MUST remember to stock up on the thread, as I'm almost out of my white sewing thread as well. Good grief -- how did that happen? 

The white thread is almost gone

But no worries because I can always use those bobbins on the top and in the bobbin to get me through the remainder of the retreat. All is good, and it sure feels good to use up those bobbins, but it's going to take a long, long time before they are all gone. 

By the way, when I was adding those black borders, I had just enough for the bobbin. Then it was totally used up!! How crazy is that? I played bobbin chicken and won. I think I had two inches left! 

Here are the four placemats with the binding on, but not topstitched to the top. I need more orange thread for that, and I'm happy to wait until I get home. I made GREAT progress on those. 

The four placemats are almost complete

The center is slightly wonky, but seriously? It doesn't matter. And I will likely keep one of them to show what can happen when you don't use a walking foot to quilt, but I may end up donating all of them. I'm just glad that they are almost done!

The center is slightly wonky

Helen Anne and I braved the wind and the colder temperatures for our walk, and it was fine. I actually think it was warmer than the previous day. Although from the house, it looked like it was almost blizzarding because of all the drifting snow. The little creek is still open because of the running water. 

The creek is still open

Lots of stuff is being made at the retreat, and two more people joined us yesterday, so we are now 8. I used to show all the things people made, but well, I don't anymore. It's hard enough to keep track of what I do. But here are two things that were made, and I asked permission, so here we go!! 

This is the Tula Pink Butterfly quilt that I taught several years ago. This one has a dark background, and it's stunning. Helen Anne made a different border than in the original pattern, and it's gorgeous. I won't go into details on what happened with the border, but let's say there was a wee design element at one point. The bottom line - it's done!!!! Beautiful quilt, Helen Anne!!!!! 

If you think there is a hole in the design on the bottom row, the half-square triangle at the point doesn't have much contrast. It's already been verified!!

We never know what Susan will be working on. She has several grandchildren and always seems to be working on something for them. She wanted to make a car seat poncho, and this is what she came up with. She never uses a pattern - she just wings it! It's adorable, and she made it with the two-sided fleece, and it's soft and so cozy. If I were the baby, I'd never want to take it off!! 

Car seat poncho

That is the same style of cozy fleece Princess Lexi sleeps on at home, and she loves it! But only if her bed is made!

A couple of the ladies went shopping, and boy, they were taking their time. But it's their retreat, so you can do whatever you want. And they had gone to a chocolate shop and a quilt store, so you can see why it took so long! 

Around four PM, I received a distress call. Their car broke down, and they were not far from the house but were waiting for CAA to tow it. The car was making a big racket, but they could run the engine to stay warm, so they didn't need an immediate evacuation! They gave me an address so I could track their location, and I was waiting for their call that the tow truck was arriving shortly.

As I was driving down one road to turn onto another, I saw the tow truck lights flashing and knew I was close, and they were exactly where I envisioned them. As I drove up behind their car, I spotted the tow truck driver standing outside it with a large wrench in his hand. What? NO WAY!!! The lug nuts needed to be retorqued? 

This tow truck driver was excellent (CAA in case you didn't catch that before). Instead of immediately hooking up the car to the truck, he asked questions. What was the problem? What did the noise sound like, etc? Well, it turned out that the lug nuts on the wheels were barely hanging on. He could remove some of them with his bare hands!!! Yikes—they are lucky they stopped when they did. 

I often see signs on the toll highway to get your tires retorqued after switching tires in the spring and fall. I never do, but this was a good indication of what can happen. So I waited until he was done, and then he drove off, and I followed their car to the retreat house. All seems to be fine. This is something that this person does every year - she gets the tires retoqued, but this year, she didn't get back to the garage to have them do that. 

So it was all good and a good lesson. But something else happened. While I was driving down the road, I glanced up and OH MY GOD -- the full supermoon was out, and it was spectacular. So I stopped MANY times along the road and took many pictures. WOW --- it was stunning. 

A full SUPERMOON

The colors in the sky changed as I drove, and it was fascinating to watch. If I had NOT received the "distress" call, I would have totally forgotten about the super moon. 

This picture was taken from the house's porch when I got back. 

Another shot of the supermoon

After my placemats were done, I dug out the knitting bag. Here are my thirty squares for the afghan. Yeah --- a couple of them have the knitted sashing done, but many are just blocks. I also checked out all my tools in that little tin I showed the other day. 

Thirty blocks for my afghan

And I found this gorgeous half-done set of hand warmers!! I LOVE them and have a few pairs, but this pair is very delicate, and the yarn is lovely. 

My hand warmers

I must get myself back to finishing those. I had a peek at the knitting this morning, and well, I'll explain what I'm doing tomorrow. It's quite the job I have ahead of me. Actually, it's super easy, but using some new techniques like casting off and sewing at the same time! I did it on some of the other blocks, so I can do it on this one. The only problem is that it looks backward (the wrong side is showing up on the right), so I must investigate how to fix it. 

And that allowed me to pack another bag that can go in the car! Yeah!! One less thing to pack when we leave. 

One more bag to load in the car

I also dug out another scrap project to work on, and the knitting. I dug out another puzzle from the retreat house and may or may not start it. It's only 350 pieces, so it should be easy to finish. 

Well, that's it for today! Things are going well - just need more time, but that's a constant issue. 

Today should be a quiet day. I mean, no one is coming, no more drop-offs or pick-ups, and well, I should be able to stay focused - I hope!!!

Have a wonderful day!!!

Ciao!!!!

And then there was one!

And I'm home! It felt good to sleep in my bed, but I'm also sad. Retreats are so much fun! I accomplished a lot, making me happy, and the girls were beside themselves when I arrived. 

I was up early and trimmed my flying geese units for the 365-day quilt. I also trimmed some more of the half-square triangles. 

Pressing and trimming

As the morning progressed, I was determined to finish trimming all the half-square triangles, sew the flying geese units together, and finish what I could on the current quilt top. I couldn't finish the quilt top because I hadn't cut enough fabric. Duh! 

The first person left around 11 a.m. Then, in what seemed to be half-hour increments, the other two left. I was NOT leaving until I had finished those things on my list, as I knew I wouldn't get to them when I got home. 

I was alone in the retreat house for over an hour, and it was fine. My audiobook kept me entertained. 

And then there was one! 

I flitted from one project to another. Every time I went to press a seam on the quilt top, I pressed and trimmed more of the square triangles. I sewed the flying geese as enders and leaders, and when I needed to press those seams, I pressed and trimmed more of the half-square triangles. The pile was dwindling. 

The dwindling pile of half-square triangles

When I did stop to press those half-square triangles, I did them in five groups of four! I'm unsure how many triangles were in that bag, but they seemed to go on forever! 

Methodically trimming half-square triangles

However, I think I have two bags left of half-square triangles that need to be trimmed, which is HUGE! There are tons more to sew together, but I'm now on a sew, press, trim routine! 

The flying geese units were sewn together and pressed. 

Flying geese units for the 365-day quilt

If you've made that quilt and wonder why I have four flying geese borders, I did not like the four different borders around the center square, so I made them all the same. My quilt—my way! 

Soon enough, the entire bag of half-square triangles was pressed and trimmed! The quilt top was as complete as possible, and it was time to pack up. 

The bag of trimmed half-square triangles

When I drove out of the driveway, it was 1 PM, which seems to be my usual departure time. Even though we have until 3 PM, no one stays that late. The last day of retreat is always weird. People get anxious to get home! I don't know why since most of the retreat attendees are retired. So you go home and do what? It's when you get to a certain point on a project, and starting another one doesn't make sense, so it's time to leave. 

Since I was there alone, there was no point in staying, but I only left once that work was complete! I think I stayed until check-out time only once, and I've been to many quilt retreats. 

So, we became aware of something while at this retreat. As we drove up the first day, we spotted signs that made it pretty clear a significant event was happening on the weekend. Signs for parking and shuttle buses and whatnot dotted the side of the road. There were four letters on the sign for the event, but none of us could remember them. I got all four letters, but not in the correct order!

We initially thought it was the RibFest in Orangeville, but it wasn't. So, someone in our group did some research, and we discovered the Toronto Study Centre, which belongs to the RSSB group. WOW—they purchased two farms to create this center and built two massive buildings on them. 

Toronto Study Centre

I took a detour on the way home to pass by the facility. It's HUGE, as you can see from the two buildings in the top photo. One is almost 100,000 square feet, and the second is 76,500 square feet. In addition to the 800 paved parking spots, several acres have been converted to event parking and roped off in sections. A small tent city was set up as well. I didn't get out of the car but snapped this photo out the passenger window, where you can see the roof of one of the buildings. 

A massive event space

Let's just say that traffic in that area on the weekend will be a nightmare!! With 23,000 people expected on both days, I can't imagine even going near the place. They encourage people to come by bus, as the bus people get priority for indoor seating and lunch! That's an incentive! This organization has been around for many years, and this facility was completed four years ago. I've never heard of it! 

I made it home and got my stuff into the car, but only after I had help. The minute the door was open, she was outside—and not to run away. Nope—she wanted to be in the car! 

Mom - I can help!

After sorting out all the bags, this needed to be brought upstairs. Don't worry—it's all gone, so no one tripped. And I ALWAYS hold the handrail. I never do stairs without it. 

Stuff to take back upstairs

Last night, I made the backing for the next community project quilt, which required some calculating. 

The backing for the next quilt

I still have some bags of flannel left, and I was going to have it made into quilt tops. Instead, I will use the larger pieces for quilt backings, but they'll have to be joined. I'll do that on a need-to-do basis. 

The quilt is loaded, the batting is pieced, and it's ready to quilt. However, I got home to a notice that we would NOT have electricity this morning, so I needed to come up with some non-electrical things to do. Hmmm—what? Let's hope they actually do the work this time. This is the third notice! 

I  measured the last of the fleece pieces, now stored in the storage room. 

Fleece and Minky storage 

It was easy to find a piece of Minky for backing that red and black quilt I pieced at the retreat! So now those two blue tubs are only half full each and can be repurposed soon. Well, not soon in time frame-wise, but they will be repurposed at some point in the fall. One of the clear tubs is filled with fleece pieces, and one has plush. Just that little bit of organization makes life so much easier!!! 

Now, I have the tub on the left to process. I can bring up a cutting mat upstairs on the kitchen island when we have no power. What will I do when the scraps are all in order? I'll be lost! But it's so nice to know that all the bits are being used up and are together. 

Fleece to cut into squares

All in all, things are going well!! 

So, another retreat has come to a close, and it's time to get back to serious work, but not until after today when I can do computer stuff. No paperwork for me today!!!

On that happy note, I'm out of here!

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!!

All waxed up!!

The weather is just totally insane. Earlier this week, we had high humidity and hot temperatures. I'm wearing my sweatshirt this morning, and it's only 14 outside. Zero humidity. I'm not complaining—I can put on more clothes, but it changes so much from day to day that you don't know what to wear! 

Sadly, we are leaving later today. I'm not ready!!! I have a lot of stuff to do at home, so I guess I'm good to go. Plus, those two girls will be very excited to see me. 

I've been up early and already at work. I've got all the flying geese for the 365-day quilt trimmed and ready to sew together in a border around the center block. How exciting is that! Before finishing that task, I have to make the four corner blocks. I won't have time this morning, but who knows what I'll get to when I get home. 

Trimming quilt components

I downloaded an audiobook, put on my headphones, and trimmed early in the morning. In addition to trimming those flying geese, I decided to work on the bag of half-square triangles, and my goal is to finish trimming them before I leave. Why not get the darn things done? I want to say that I'm halfway through. I made good progress so far, and that's all that counts. 

We had a good laugh yesterday when one of the ladies pulled out a UFO. Look at the detailed notes she had in her box. 

Detailed instructions for a UFO

And then look at this. There was a note, but all it did was bookmark the pattern in the book!! 

No instructions - just a bookmark!

If there is one, most of my notes look like the second example! I need to change that because no one will know what it's all about if I don't finish a project. 

We stopped at the used bookstore yesterday, and I hit the jackpot. I had 31 books on my list, and I found 11 of them, many from before 2000. 

Inside the bookstore

Like many used bookstores, it's a maze but extremely well organized. The name is CTR Books (Orangeville), and the owner is amazing. I had a list by author and title, and she had everything on the computer for those I couldn't find by myself. She had to dig in a box in the back for one of the books—I think that was the one from 1967! She's very knowledgeable and very helpful. 

And YES—I can return books to her, so I'm going home to unpack those donation boxes. I should have brought them with me. DRAT!!!! They have sales in February, June, and October, so I might wait and come up in October to return the others! 

They only take cash, so now I owe everyone in my group! Thank goodness for them and their emergency funds!

While we were there, someone spotted this old tractor! Oh my—we had to stop, and I took pictures and sent them to my dad. This is a Rumley tractor manufactured in Indiana. It's pretty old, but it has been refurbished. 

A Rumley tractor

OK -- so when we got back and had a quick bite, we were ready for our afternoon adventure, and this was the setup. 

Setup to make waxed food wraps

We were making beeswax food wraps. Since none of us had made them, we had no idea how it would go. It ended up being a group exercise as we helped each other. They had to go in and out of the oven, and it was hilarious as we had timers going off and dancing around each other to keep the production line going. 

Waxed food wraps in progress

We had borrowed a melter for the wax, which worked like a charm. 

The wax melter

We worked as a team to let the wax harden on the fabric. 

Having fun with waxed food wraps

In the end, we each made 8 wraps, and I used up all the fabric I cut. Yeah!!! That was very cool, and I'd make them again. It helped that we could borrow all the equipment from someone who makes these and sells them. 

Our finished wraps

I've been drinking Yogi tea for a couple of weeks, and only yesterday did I realize (after someone mentioned it) that all the tea bags have a wee saying on them. Who knew!!!!

The saying on the tea bag

Finally, we got back to sewing, and I finished the quilt top. That was great. Then, I started on the next project, which I can't share because it's going into a magazine. 

Another quilt top - DONE

Wow—I love quilting retreats. I love getting together with friends and doing things we don't normally do, like taking little side trips. It's all a great feeling. Thanks to all my retreat friends!!!

I have some retreats booked for 2025 and know I'll have spots open. So, if you are interested, please let me know. The retreats are all booked for near New Hamburg in Ontario. elainetheriault@gmail.com

I've been keeping up my walking and walking more than my daily goal of 12.7 km. I'm a little bit behind, so the extra will take me closer to getting ahead. Hopefully, I can drop that daily goal, but I've got to work to make that happen. 

Well, I'm off for the morning walk, so I can sew before I leave!!!

Have a super day!!

Ciao!!!

Any progress is progress

 It's always exciting to be at a quilt retreat. I love being at this retreat house (Retreat at the Farm); we missed all the chaos in the city yesterday. Apparently, the rain was incredible, and the flooding caused many issues with traffic and power. We didn't have problems with either in our immediate neighborhood, but it wasn't fun for some. 

We started the day with a trip to Creekbank Sewing, where we met with Sally, who added to The Pony Express! Actually, it was a very fortunate situation. She had something she no longer wanted and asked if I knew someone who could use it. That person happened to be on the retreat, so the items didn't even get on The Pony Express!!! I love it when that happens. When I decide I no longer want something and have found a home, I want it to go.

But I'm patient—everything will happen in its own time! Patience is a good thing that we should all learn. It helps us cope in situations like yesterday!

I bought a few things, but here's my view of the quilt stores these days. I look at everything that is NOT fabric. I do not need more, but I could be persuaded to buy a new pattern, a new notion, or a supply. I ended up buying two supply items. They are consumables, so they can be used up. I got a notion - it's an old one, but I have wanted one and came away with some inspiration. So all was good. 

None of us broke the bank, and I think everything we bought could have been packed into one small bag. We are all in the same situation: We do not need much of anything. 

It was interesting because we discussed what we would do if we won the lottery. Guess what? None of us would buy anything big. We may buy a different house, but none of us wanted a bigger house! If I won, I have a list of people who need financial aid and would help them! 

I don't seem to have accomplished much in my two days here, but this retreat has never been about madly producing anything. However, any progress is progress, and I must remember that. 

It also depends on the projects you pick to work on. 

The good news is that I actually finished something. I completed this quilt top. 

Completed quilt top

It was a struggle to sew on the sides as there were a lot of seams, and I was working with my old sewing machine. I was getting loads of rippling even though the pieces were the correct length. So, with patience and many pins, both sides were on!!! This project has been to several retreats, and now—it's done!!!

I made the binding this morning, and I'll make the backing when I'm home. I might even quilt it up, as it's a modern quilt. I have a presentation in the fall on modern quilts, so I can add something new to the offering. 

The binding

I also trimmed some half-square triangles. 

Trimming half-square triangles

The little pile that I had pressed the other day is trimmed. Now, I have to press the next group. It would be great if I could finish that bag at this retreat so it never comes back! Or I could continue to work on it at home, but I have other stuff to cut. I still have time—slow and steady wins the race!!!

I'm using some of the blocks from the 365-day quilt as my enders and leaders and making some giant flying geese. I hope to have all of those done and trimmed up by the end of today. I'm changing up part of the quilt and making more of the flying geese than was initially required. I have one side of the squares sewn on and am working on the other. 

My flying geese units

You can't see it in this photo, but Susan made each of us a personalized napkin, which was incredibly thoughtful of her. Most of us have had ours for a while, but one person got theirs at this retreat. They are nicely hanging on the back of our chair. No one wants to use them!!!! 

Our personalized napkins

We are working on something different this afternoon, and of course, it requires fabric. I went through my boxes of novelty prints and found four potentials. I decided to use only one of them. I washed it last night in the sink and cut it up this morning. It's something for the kitchen, and this fabric is so bright and cheery—it's perfect. I used up the entire piece by cutting randomly sized squares that fit the amount of fabric I had. 

Then, I used my pinking rotary blade to trim the edges. This took a bit of finessing to make work, but I got it to work. 

Using the pinking rotary blade

Now, I have eight randomly shaped squares with pinked edges. I'm making something for the kitchen. Do you have any clues? 

My pinked-edged squares

I've been keeping up with the walking. I need to get that 12. 7 km in every day. I hope after my walking trip in Spain that the daily average will decrease, as I expect to walk between 25-30 km a day. It's all I'm going to have to do each day, so walking more won't be an issue. We are not going to talk about injuries!

I think that's it for me!! I've got a new project to work on today, but I must do some calculations first. 

Have a super day11

Ciao!!!

Double wedding ring quilts

 So here we are at Retreat at the Farm. It's a LOVELY house and much larger than I expected. There are only four of us for the next couple of days which is just fine - we each get our own bedroom. Sometimes, it's a good thing to pay a little more and get more space than intended. I love it!!

It was an easy drive to get here - the traffic was great, and the traffic lights were synced, so slightly over one hour of travel time. I love that as well. 

And I'm happy to report that my car was NOT full, not by a long shot. 

My car packed for retreat

I was good - I just have the one container with projects, but I doubt I will get past the big one I brought. More on that in a second. I did bring a few extra things, like our coffee maker, a few extra lights in case we needed them (we won't). You just don't know when you come to a new spot if you might need something. 

The house seems to have pretty much everything that we want. It's dead quiet and dark here at night as well. The beds are soft, the area is shaded by trees, and a very nice place. We'll come back. As a matter of fact, we have another date booked much later in the year. 

I decided to bite the bullet and get to work on that double wedding ring quilt. As I looked at the mess of components in the box, I decided the only way to make this happen was to lay it out. So I took over the floor in the "quiet room," which is just a random extra room. And then there's the bowling alley room as well. We're not even using that. 

Starting to layout the double wedding ring quilt

Paula had selected and cut three different background fabrics - different values of yellow and white and I wasn't sure how that would work, but it's going to be just fine. 

I had a couple of blocks made, and I laid those out and then laid out some components for more blocks. Thankfully, I put one of my small mini-design boards into my bag. So I load up ONE block at a time and walk to the opposite end of the house to sew and press the block. This is good for FITBIT steps!!

And this morning, this is what the quilt looks like. I'm aiming for five rings across the width and six down. 

The double wedding ring quilt this morning

And my components are laid out on this random bed in the quiet room. For whatever reason, I thought there would be enough components for two quilts. But I'm not sure. I'll just keep sewing the blocks together, and I hope to get at least half of the quilt sewn together here. Slow and steady, and I've got great companions to keep my brain occupied. 

The components of the double wedding ring

Speaking of good company, look at what they bought me!

My new water bottle

Personalized just for me! I love it -- and it's HUGE, so my goal is to drink at least one full container per day. I'm bad with drinking water. I certainly do not drink nearly enough. 

Personalized water bottle

OH --- here's what the sewing room looks like. So much light coming in those windows. It's awesome and has good lights overhead. There was one point in the afternoon where the sun was a bit troublesome. I almost needed sunglasses to sew! But I can live with that. 

The sewing room

I did go for a walk yesterday afternoon. It was a bit hot, but not much traffic on the road past the house, which is gravel! So when a car goes by, turn your head and keep your mouth shut!

We are super healthy. NO junk food - I'm so proud of everyone! 

Well, everyone is up now, and I've got a LOT of work to do today. We're going into town to visit the local quilt shop, which is about 5 KM away. And I might walk to the Tim's (about 2.2 KM away) just for the sake of going for a walk. I need (my personal goal) is 11.5 KM each day, and well, that requires at least two walks. 

Don't forget there's a new QUILTsocial post today. Shoot -- I can't find the exact link, so I'll post that tomorrow. 

Have a super day!!!!  It feels GREAT to be on vacation with no worries!!!

Ciao!!!!!