Sabrina's First Birthday

 Last week was my grand daughter Sabrina's first birthday. A lot of preparations went into that party :) I have a little pink plastic pig that blows up balloons and then I tie them.  I made a few balloon arches.

It was a circus themed party.  

My son Sean and I wore matching tee shirts.

I made 99 old fashioned sugar cookies and almost half of them were left over.  

Sabrina's mom prepared a beautiful spread of fruit.  They also had a popcorn bar with various spices to sprinkle on.  They had a savory one, Mexican chocolate, cinnamon and theater butter.  There were m&ms to add and praline pecans and little chocolate peanut butter cups.

Karina made Sabrina a banana loaf cupcake with whipped cream frosting, minus the sugar.  Sabrina loved it!!!

I drew this chalkboard for the party.

There were about 35 people who came, and it was fun to see all 9 one year olds play together :) There was a piñata, darts to throw at balloons and a bounce house!!! Sean grilled hot dogs which were delicious.

One more photo of Sabrina loving her little doll I made for her 💗

My Quilt Retreat

I went to a quilt retreat last week, Monday through Thursday.  It was only a 50 minute drive from my house but I still stayed at the hotel.  I shared a room with my good friend Nedra and we had lots of fun together.  We sewed and sewed and went to a nice restaurant every day. There were 41 woman at the retreat and it was great visiting and getting to know some of the ladies. This is me at my machine.  Everyone had a large Costco table to themselves which was really nice!

This was my view, sitting across from Nedra.
 

There was a sea of sewing machines in the. ballroom, quite a few of the women brought their embroidery machines along with their sewing machines.

We were just a block from a wonderful quilt shop called "Modern Quilting" where we saw and bought lots of gorgeous fabric!

I completed my Cabin Chills quilt. The fabric is designed by J Wecker Frisch. It's called "Old Made" and is all sewing related.  I fell in love with the quilt the moment I saw it, and bought the kit last year. 

Instead of the white background, I chose a gray fabric to make the quilt a little spookier.

I still have to do a blanket stitch around the moons and the windows.  I had my Singer Featherweight with me. It sews like a dream, but only does straight stitch.

I also made this little doll for Sabrina who turned one year old.

I attached a little tag on her back which says 

PS I love you.

Sabrina loved it!

I also made about 10 Halloween "Tell me a story" blocks.

The retreat was so much fun!  The ladies were all so lovely, we won lots of prizes and were given quilt patterns and all sorts of goodies.  

I sure hope to go on the retreat again next year :)

The Holland Pouch

I made another Holland Pouch, I just love making them! They're as straightforward as 1-2-3

The Holland Pouch is designed by Center Street Quilts, here is a link to their blog post.  I made the large size this time, instead of the medium size. I love it just as much.

The inside seams are hidden by contrasting fabric.  You have to sew through a few thicknesses.  With a size 14 needle, you shouldn't have any problems, especially if you go a little slower.

It always helps to have a cute charm for your zipper :)

I'm super excited to be going to a quilt retreat today through Thursday. It's local but I still get to stay at a hotel!  This pouch will be my handmade gift to give to someone.  I hope to have the Halloween quilt called "Cabin Chills" finished to show you next week.

Enjoy your week, hope it's a Quilty one!

Pineberry QAL

 I finished the Pineberry quilt along, and was actually on target! I love it when that happens.  Lindsey from Pen and Paper Patterns designed this quilt and I think it's so cute!

This is what a Pineberry actually looks like.  White or pale pink with red seeds.  I really want to try one!!!

Pineberries have a strawberry flavor, but with subtle essences of pineapple, pear, and apricot. Because they have a slightly lower acidity than traditional red strawberries, pineberries have a delicate finish that leaves the palate pleasantly refreshed.

Here are my Pineberries, I have two of each color.

Here's an apricot flavored Pineberry, Tula Pink fabric.

This pineberry looks very juicy.

One of my favorite parts of making a quilt, is choosing the fabric.

This one looks like it may have a "gumdrop" flavor, really sweet.

Here's the finished quilt.  I'll get better photos when I get it quilted :)

It was really fun to make, I keep seeing all the color schemes out there, it's very tempting to make another one.

Have a great week!

RBD Block Challenge 2022

 I really enjoyed this quilt along.  I chose some Tasha Noel fabric, aqua, navy, green, pink and red.  I have a healthy stash of Tasha Noel, she's one of my favorite designers :)

For the background, I used one of Lori Holt's bee backgrounds, daisy pink.  I used a Kona pink for the Irish chain squares.

I was happily making all the blocks every week, and was all caught up.  That's the fun of a quilt along, to be on task and see everyone else's cool creations. Otherwise, I always feel like I'm lagging behind.

When I saw that the finished quilt was an Irish Chain design, I was really surprised!  So many squares! I chain pieced them....

...until I had a neat little stack.

Here are the blocks that I completed, and put on my design wall.  

I changed the order of the blocks a little. We had to add a block of our choice, of course I added the red maple leaf block.  

Here is the completed quilt top.  I really love it!  There is a lot of pink in this quilt but I think that it makes the blocks pop.  I have no idea what I'm going to do with this quilt or any of the others I'm making right now.  Maybe I'll amass another 27 quilts and give them all away to my kids and grandkids again.  Or maybe I'll tag each quilt for a great grandchild.  Even if I'm not around to give it to them, their parents can do the gifting for me.  

I'm excited to get this quilt quilted and will show you a photo when I do.  My unfinished quilt tops are piling up!

This is my favorite block in the quilt, the one designed by Lori Holt.

My Sewing Room

I was in Eastern Canada this past week, with my brothers and aunts and uncles.  While I was away, my husband was acting very mysterious!  When I returned home, what to my wondering eyes did appear, but a sewing room makeover! 

He put 8 more shelves in my closet and moved my quilt tops on hangers to the guest bedroom.  

My sewing table used to be in front of the closet but was a little cramped getting in and out from my sewing machine.  He moved the sewing table in front of the window which has a view of the front.

Those two cabinets were where the design wall is, they fit perfectly on the side of the wall.  He bought that glam picture which I really love.

He purchased two dining tables and pushed them together to make an incredible cutting table, sewing table, design table, it's big enough!

The trunk below the table is new, along with the little aqua container which is very cute and matches the aqua container on the table and on my sewing table.  The baskets on the wall are new too.

The tables have some small shelves on the side for more storage.  The shelf by the woman with sunglasses holds a new iron that he bought.  It's a Chi iron and works really well.  

You can see the baskets on the wall, they're new also.  I'm pretty lucky to have such a talented husband who should have been an interior designer.

This cute picture of Audrey Hepburn is a photo he purchased on a different occasion when I was out of town.

This one as well.  All 3 of them are beautiful photos!

This chair is new too, it's really pretty, matching the other aqua items and the chair in the background is the one I used to use to sew on, now it's for family/friends who want to visit me in my sewing room :)

What do you think of my sewing room makeover?

Folk Blooms

 

Have you seen the Folk Blooms quilt pattern designed by Lindsey at 

Pen and Paper Patterns?

I was fortunate enough to make the Folk Blooms pattern out of a  fabric bundle that Lindsey curated from Robert Kaufman fabrics. It's difficult to tell from the photo, but the linen background is slightly textured with little colored threads.

The quilting job is spectacular. Go to Instagram and search #folkbloomsquilt and see some of the fabric possibilities!

I really want to make another quilt from this pattern ❤️