BCQuilter's Weblog

It all started Friday evening. I had been invited to a retirement party, which I attended. I had only ever been to one before, and that was a few years ago. I didn’t really know to many people except for the co-workers of the fellow that retired. I had worked for this company for 9 months, and although I am not currently working for them, they treat me as part of the family. It’s a really great feeling! Before I left home, I realized I was going to have to fill up the van with gas… I didn’t remember until I drove by the gas station on my way home. Oh well, hopefully I’ll have enough to get back in the morning.

Welcome Saturday morning. Forecast is for snow… but doubt we’ll see anyway… that’s the way it usually goes. Before heading to our Guild’s workshop on Appliqué, I head to get some gas. While I’m in the area, I stop and pick up a cup of tea to go! Mmmm… Earl Grey with a shot of vanilla. Now I’m on my way!

I’m looking forward to doing appliqué. I haven’t done it before, and think this will be a great technique to learn. The first part of the day (or morning), is on wool appliqué. What a great project. Wool appliqué is very forgiving. It doesn’t have to be perfect. My project isn’t finished, as it will take a little longer than the time we had to finish it.

Lunch time was a bit of a “surprise party” for one of the quilter’s. She “retired” at the end of December, unfortunately they closed the shop she managed. A number of the guild members, and another guild she belongs to, got together and completed a good size quilt in 10 days… that’s including the quilting, which was long-armed. The quilt was designed by one of the guild members. It’s gorgeous!

After the shock of the “party”, we got back to appliqué. This time it was to be needle appliqué, using a template, and folding the edges over, then handstitching to a foundation piece. My youngest daughter is also a guild member, and she attended the afternoon workshop. I helped her with the pressing of her pieces, and she started handstitiching. She was very excited about this project. It will be completely done by her, and she already has a few ideas to do a few more, and make a small quilt. The day was finished with all of us with a couple projects to do, and 2 new techniques under our needles. The needle-turn appliqué will be done on a Thursday evening. We were all suffering from information overload.

After a quick trip back into town, to do a little shopping, and picking up something for supper, I found I was back at home. I was tired, and fully expected just to have a quiet evening… not so. After supper, I decided to work on my redwork project. I am doing 12 blocks of redworked cats. I have 9 completed… finishing the 9th on Saturday night. I also crocheted another face cloth, the last for a special order I had.

It’s Sunday! What to do today. Well, I had to find 3 more cats… they are now traced onto the fabric, ready to be stitched. This should go quickly now. Then just have to make the alternating blocks, and then that quilt will be ready to go. I also did some quilting on the “There’s a Dog on My Quilt”. I have decided to quilt bones in the sashing, and hydrants and paws on the cornerstones. I stitched in the ditch around the 9 patch blocks. I need to decide what I’m going to do with the 9 patches, and the dog. I made three templates. I used the washable blue marking pen. Worked very well on the sashing. I haven’t marked the hydrants or paws yet… those will be on black. I have a few of the bones quilted, and used an Aquadoodle pen, to remove them. This little device works wonders! There is minimum wetting of the quilt to remove the marks

Well, I’m off to do some more quilting… and start marking the hydrants and paws. This quilt is really starting to look very nice!

Hope your weekend was what you wanted!