Quilt Retreat 2012

Every year for the past four years I've gone to the church quilt retreat.  Once again, it was a good day, full of sewing and relaxing.  Away from my usual busy home and family.  A day to sew and talk the day away.

I started the day with a pattern and a stack of fabrics.  I cut up all the fabric and got started on the blocks for a quilt for Zachary's bed.  I'm liking it!

My friend Ashley's cute baby all wrapped up in a quilt, of course! 

A Dr. Seuss quilt.  I love this fabric!

My friend Jen, stitching away.

Some sewing going on too.  Karen is a super-fast sewist!

Someone was working on a quilt-as-you-go quilt.  A very interesting technique that I may be interested in trying one day.

My sister-in-law Jennifer finished this quilt top and I love it!  It's a very happy baby quilt, that's for sure.

This next photo is for you, Suzanne.  Esther was inspired by your Midwife Quilt and is working on this beautiful quilt for her sister.  It's going to look very good.

 The organizers made the church hall look very cozy.  This is the "living room" corner for nursing your babe, paging through a magazine, picking out stitches or other such relaxing activities.

Look closer at the rug.  My sister-in-law is a very talented lady.  She spends more of her "free time" doing rug hooking than quilting lately.  And she's made some very nice rugs.  All of the wool fabric for the rugs comes from recycled wool blankets.  It makes me want to try it some day too.  Isn't it neat how the design for the rug is like a quilt pattern?

Another one of her rugs by a cutting table.  The rugs helped make the room look cozy and warm.

And a rug by the other organizer, Jan.  Crocheted from recycle t-shirts.  Very, very cool.

We were asked to bring a pinwheel block for a quilt.  Jen and Jan put the quilt together and quilted it right away.  It was delivered the next day to a girl going through chemo treatments for kidney cancer.  It's good to do make things together.  Hope she enjoys her quilt!

Handmade gifts

I don't know about you but I love to give handmade gifts!  Sometimes too much so and I forget that I could actually just grab something at the store if I'm too busy.  I always have some ideas floating around in my head and I find that part of the fun of it.  It does mean though that sometimes gifts are given very belatedly!

Anyway, here are a few of the latest gifts I've made:

A bias bound receiving blanket...

(a little too candy cane-ish for me but I was trying to work with what I had at home)

A crayon tote for a 4 year old...

And a pair of bibs...

I'm also just finishing up another set of placemats...I'll share those with you later this week.

I got my machine serviced last week and bought new needles and thread so I'm going to give Free Motion Quilting a try again this week.  I hope it works!!

Blueberry Raspberry Muffins

Today I'll share with you our families favorite muffin.  The recipe came from Alisa when we got married and over the years it has evolved a bit into this.

Blueberry Raspberry Muffins 

3/4 cup sugar (you can cut this down to 1/2 if you want)

2/3 cup oil (or half oil, half applesauce)

2 eggs

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour

1 1/2 cups white flour

4 tsp baking powder

1/2 tsp salt

1 cup each blueberries and raspberries

1 1/4 cup milk

Beat oil, sugar, and eggs until well blended.  Sift dry ingredients and add alternately to wet mixture with milk.  Fold in berries.  Fill muffin cups 3/4 full and bake for 20 minutes at 350 degrees F.

Enjoy!

Anneke(8) can make these mostly on her own now.  She loves it, it keeps her occupied and it helps me! 

Bib Week: The Winners

The winners of the bibs are

#24 - Susan Being Snippy
and
#7 - Jennifer!

The winners of the patterns are

#5 - Carla
and
#13 - Maggie

Congratulations ladies!  Please send me an email if you are a winner and I'll send your bib or pattern out to you shortly.  Jennifer - I'll bring the bib to you on Saturday! :-)

And with that I'll sign out for the week.  I'm taking a week offline (except for emails, I will check that!)

Have a good week!

Alisa

Bib Week: Bibs and a Giveaway!

The first set of bibs are all made by Suzanne.  She used my pattern and then came up with some beautiful combinations of colour and fabrics!

  She now owns her own Kamsnaps Pliers and she loves them too!

Super cute!  I love that bibs are a great way to use up those cute scraps of fabric.

Another set by Suzanne.  Above the fronts and below the backs of another two bibs.

The next two photos are from Kristy of Hopeful Threads.  She has been super productive!  And all for such a great reason.  These bibs are going along on a Love Without Boundaries Surgical Trip for a doctor performing surgeries on babies with Cleft Palette.  So wonderful.  Please check out her blog for a complete story.

Kristy, the bibs are lovely and will be well used and loved.  Thanks so much for sending me the photos.

And, one last photo of a bib done by my friend Jen S.  We've done some sewing together and it's always a hoot.  So glad you made one of my bibs!  It looks really good.

Now for the giveaway part of the post.

I'll be giving away 2 of my bibs as well as 2 patterns.

To win just leave a comment.  Something like this.  Hi, I'm Alisa and I'm from Chilliwack, BC and one of my sewing goals for 2012 is sewing something for myself.  Or anything really.  Just make it interesting okay? :-)

Feel free to pass the giveaway along!  I'll pick a winner by tomorrow evening.

Have a good weekend!

Introducing Perfect Fit Bib Kits!

Today I listed 6 BIB KITS in my etsy shop. I know there are those of you out there who would like to play with bias binding and make a bib but either don't have all of the supplies, or are scared of making your own bias binding. This will give you a chance to make a bib without having to buy all kinds of supplies. And you'll have the pattern you can make many more! I took a screen shot of my etsy shop and I like seeing it with more than one item!  Check it out!

I plan to list a few of my finished bibs in the next couple of days too! Have a wonderful day!

Bib Week: Applying Your Bias Binding

Good Morning! Today I present you with another video, this time showing you how to go about applying the bias binding you've made. It certainly isn't perfect but hopefully it gives you some assistance.

If you have photos of your handmade bibs please feel free to email them to me - gordandalisa at gmail dot com. On Friday I'll post them all! Have a good day! It's Benjamin's 11th birthday today and I am expecting a bunch of boys over after school. Fun! (Not really but if I keep telling myself that, maybe it will be? :-)

Bib Week: Making Your Bias Binding

I am happy to present this video to you. It's certainly not the greatest video ever made, but maybe it will help you make your bias binding. For bibs, blankets, sleep sacks and more. Tomorrow I will post another video about applying the bias binding you've made.

I just watched the video and I'm not sure what happened but there is some voice overlap?  Anyway, this is the second time I made the video and I'm not doing it again.

 

 Have a wonderful day!

 Alisa

Bib Week - Bibs Galore

Today starts bib week on our blog!  The past few weeks I've been busy sewing up bibs for an order and also for the abundance of babies born and expected to be born in our church.  Below is a mosaic of some of the bibs I've sewn up.

Other things planned this week - a couple of video tutorials, some bibs from Suzanne and hopefully Friday I can feature some bibs made by you!  If you would like to send me photos please send them to gordandalisa at gmail dot com.  Have a great week!

Bib pattern available in my shop.

A Quilt for Jenna Lynn

Last month my brother and his wife were blessed with their second daughter - Jenna Lynn.  I love her name!  And I so wish I could hold her in my arms but that's not going to happen soon since they live across the country from me.

I asked my s-i-l if she would like a quilt for Jenna and she said she did.  Yeah!!  (Have I ever mentioned that I have very talented sisters and s-i-l's who make their own quilts already.)  Last summer when they were out visiting, we were talking about quilting, scrap buckets etc. and Linnet said, "I'd love a quilt from your scrap bucket,"  insinuating that she liked my scraps (or maybe that I have way to many?.. not sure.)

So that's what I did.  I picked through my scrap bucket to come up with a colour scheme for a girl that didn't include pink or purple.  That wasn't a request, just a challenge for myself.

I used my friend Rebecca's Baby Go to cut out the tumblers so the cutting was easy and the piecing was easy too.  It was a fun quilt to make.  The backing is a leftover piece of a sheet that I had used to back another quilt.  And the binding was not a scrap but a recent purchase.

My favourite part.  Do you see her name in the quilting?

I can't wait to see this little girl in real.  But I'll settle for a photo of her under or on the quilt. :-)  For now.

Linking up to Finish it up Friday at Crazy Mom Quilts and to Sew & Tell at AmyLouWho.

Placemats

My parents got these in the mail yesterday so I can post them now :) A set of place mats using scraps from this, this, this and this.  Wow - some of those go way back already!

The main fabric is an Essex cotton/linen blend.

I used this method for the squares and it worked marvelously!  Perfect matching corners...

The back...

I hope they get lots of use Dad and Mom!

Miscellany Bullet Post

Definition of MISCELLANY

1

a plural : separate writings collected in one volumeb : a collection of writings on various subjects

2

: a mixture of various things

• It's 13 degrees (Celsius) today.  Two weeks ago it was -15 degrees.  I dug around in my garden and enjoyed the feeling of spring.


• I took photos outside today of some bibs I've made.  This is what it looks like when I take photos.

A leftover piece of wainscot panelling, an old kitchen chair and sticky tack.  I should have painted the panelling with a matte paint though...

• Suzanne and I have dubbed next week "Bib Week" here on the blog.  Nothing huge, just bibs and how-to's all week.  I've even made a couple of videos.  Tried to anyway.  Not super professional but they might help you out.  Feel free to pass it on.

• If you have some photos of bibs you've made feel free to email them to Alisa.  I'll make a post with some of my favourites.  If you've made a bib from my pattern I'd really love to see it.


• I have three sick kids right now.  Zachary was sick on Saturday and Sunday.  Just waiting for the last one.  Hopefully Gord and I don't get it.  I washed my hands so many times that I have dried out skin.


• I'm looking forward to my annual quilt retreat in a few weeks!  I plan to work on Zachary's quilt.


• Benjamin is turning 11 next week.  I even plan to make him something for his birthday.  Not a bib.


 • Did I mention the weather?  I get energy from the sun, especially when it's not expected.  Here in the Lower Mainland we have some months with no sun.

Paint colour suggestions - please!

I would love your input for a paint colour for Sebastian's room.  We weren't going to paint it (it's a light cream right now) and I'm not totally sure we are going too but it could really use a paint job.

So...using his quilt (in post below) as inspiration what colour would you paint the walls?

Thanks!