beach girls

In the Dark (or how to entertain five longarm quilters when the hydro goes out) from caledonia quilter

Retreat is half about socializing and half about productivity. I was plugging away and got the braid border finished for a Round Robin.

I finished the Block of the Month for the Binbrook guild (two blocks, really).

I also finished a sample block to see if my instructions were workable, for the house block swap group:

We were enjoying ourselves in the afternoon sunshine:

When all of a sudden - POOF! NO HYDRO!

We looked at this for a while:

Then, we decided that since my laptop was charged up I could show them my pics from Birmingham Quilt Festival. EXCEPT ...

added by helen-mary 2 weeks, 6 days ago. under beach girls , block of the month , block swap , retreat , technology , tobermory

Is It October Already? from caledonia quilter

I have temporarily exchanged my horizon, from this:

to this:

so I could spend time like this:

and like this:

I'm planning to get the borders on this:

I've also convinced four friends to join me in a monthly House Block swap, to copy the Terry Rowland quilt. So stinkin' cute with all those little critters in the window(s):

Blocks will be 4 1/2" unfinished:

sample made by Janice:

Good lord, it looks like a bomb went off in there.

added by helen-mary 3 weeks, 1 day ago. under beach girls , block swap , retreat , tobermory

Am I A Fraud? (also, how I cook snow peas) from caledonia quilter

I might be a fraud because this is the ONLY thing I've quilted in June. And I didn't make it. This is a top that was gifted to the Binbrook Guild by Paul Leger for our donation program.

It was quilted the first week of June and it's been sitting patiently waiting for someone (ahem) to get the binding on.

I might be a fraud because I went to Quilt Canada and bought absolutely NO fabric. Although I did buy a book. But you can't quilt with a book.

I might be a fraud because I ...

added by helen-mary 4 months, 3 weeks ago. under asparagus , beach girls , garden , house , plumbing , politics , quilt , quilting , snow peas

Happy June! (or Good Lord I'm Sick Of Politics!) from caledonia quilter

After You-Know-Who's inauguration in January sh*t started happening. Every morning I was glued to the news sites, my jaw dropped, often in shock saying "honey - did you see this???". I kept thinking that once Trump got that (whatever executive order he'd just signed) out of his system things would quiet down and politics would go back to normal. But no! There was more! Every single day!

After four+ solid months of this I've decided to give it a rest. The USA is not my country, and I cannot do anything to effect any kind of change ...

added by helen-mary 5 months, 3 weeks ago. under asparagus , beach girls , challenge , donation quilt , garden , guild program , politics , scrappy , super bowl quilt

Mom, where are you going?? from caledonia quilter

Tobermory!

A better lunch than I'd usually get at home.

And chicken pot pie for supper, with apple crisp for dessert.

Head honcho of the Beach Girls to crack the whip and keep us in line.

Second-in-command who likes to pour the wine.

Traveling companion who keeps me awake on the road (and makes my bed every day!).

Best week of the year. ❤❤❤

added by helen-mary 1 year ago. under beach girls , tobermory

Working on Recovery from caledonia quilter

Yes, I mean recovery from Covid. (I have not entered a 12-step program to disengage from my sewing machine.) It's October, which means a week in Tobermory with the Beach Girls, and that seemed to me like a perfect place to recover!

I figured a Limoncello Spritz would be a very healthy cocktail, right? Served with short rib crostinis for our afternoon cocktail hour. Sadly (or not??) the spritzes weren't a huge hit, so Deb and I had to drink two each.

We've done some practice with our Zentangle skills...

There's still one more wedge space ...

added by helen-mary 2 years ago. under beach girls , covid , donation quilt , guild , retreat , tobermory

Seasonal Quilts & Tales From My Boring Life (boring is good) from caledonia quilter

I quilted these two back in July. One for Christmas.

One for fall.

This belongs to a friend of mine, for winter.

This is one of mine that is planned as a Christmas gift.

My life is generally pretty boring and I'm ok with that. Boring is good! Boring means you don't have to call your friend and repeat yourself because she can't understand what you're saying while you're crying and hiccupping and blowing your nose. I actually had a not boring, really FUN week in October, though.

In my last post I mentioned that ...

added by helen-mary 3 years ago. under beach girls , cooking , longarm quilting , quilt , quilting , recipe , retreat , social , tobermory

A Quick Catch-up from caledonia quilter

Where I'm going tonight. Might come home with a new t-shirt!

I made a couple of pear & raspberry galettes to thank the ladies who gifted me with the fruit.

Coco trying to coerce a treat (?) out of one of the trainers at doggy daycare.

What I did to her AFTER daycare.

added by helen-mary 3 years, 1 month ago. under beach girls , coco , cooking , music , retreat

Two More "Same But Different", Movie, Book, Dog from caledonia quilter

Here are two more quilts of the same pattern, but different colour choices.

The pink quilt got a fun back too - made with a floral panel.

Whenever I go to a quilt show I hang around the aisles where they've hung all the quilts that were made at a workshop, so you can see the "same but different" quilts. I've learned a lot about colour by paying close attention to how other people make use of their fabrics.

MOVIE:

I watched West Side Story and did not enjoy it. It was depressing.

BOOK:

I finished reading The Diamond ...

added by helen-mary 3 years, 6 months ago. under beach girls , book , coco , dog , longarm quilting , movie , quilt , quilting , recipe

A Day In The Life (or five weeks worth of days) from caledonia quilter

I'm reading Her Turn by Katherine Ashenburg. It's a good book, and I noticed that each chapter represents a week. Since I haven't posted in quite a while I thought I'd borrow that format.

Feb 6 - 12

I started the week by giving myself another covid haircut. I was due for a proper cut at the beginning of January, but it's not like anyone cares what I look like. 37 years married...if you get my drift. Most of the time DH is happy if he notices that my shoes are still in the closet ...

added by helenmaryhubert 3 years, 8 months ago. under beach girls , birthday , coco , guild , guild program , house , marriage , quilt , red hats , winterruption

The Flag of India, First '22 Finish, & New Addition from caledonia quilter

This was such a fun piece to quilt! It's based on the flag of India and was the last "custom" quilt of 2021.

Much of the quilt is hexagons.

Some applique. Well, actually all of the hexies, the mountains, and the wheel are appliqued on to the background of sea & sky.

Lots of c/c quilting (Continuous Curve) and s.i.d. around all of the elements.

The strippy blues for the water are very effective.

I always love the back of quilts.

FIRST FINISH OF 2022

This one's mine. Started on New Year's Day and complete ...

added by helen-mary 3 years, 9 months ago. under beach girls , book , covid-19 , custom quilting , dog , layer cake , longarm quilting , quilt , quilting , stash , winterruption

Kicking 2021 To The Curb from caledonia quilter

One of the best memories from 2021 - Beach Day in Exeter. That car and I are approximately the same age. I think it's a '57, and I'm a '56.

Lovely scrappy one that I quilted in September.

Margaret's 150 Canadian Women Quilt. Mine is still only half way complete.

Wow, beautiful vintage blocks!

Ooh, so pretty. I had trouble figuring out the quilting for this one but I love how it turned out.

Ahem. How I spent December 16th. Lined up for 4 1/2 hours at Dundurn Castle's parking lot for a booster shot on ...

added by helen-mary 3 years, 10 months ago. under beach day , beach girls , challenge , covid-19 , custom quilting , donation , longarm quilting , new years day , quilt , scrappy , vintage

The Tobermory Event from caledonia quilter

I keep telling myself that I'm going to blog smaller and more often, but that clearly isn't working out so well. sigh.

Tobermory with the Beach Girls happened from Oct. 17 - 22. I would happily have stayed another week but responsibilities are a fact of life sometimes.

This is part of the sewing stuff. Retreats require a lot of packing! The upstairs fridge is jammed full and the downstairs fridge is holding the overflow.

Getting reacquainted with welcome cocktails.

Sunset on the 19th.

Afternoon cocktails on the 20th. Most of the week was gorgeous weather.

We did accomplish ...

added by helen-mary 4 years ago. under beach girls , christmas , longarm quilting , quilt , recipe , sewing , tobermory

Wide borders, Complaints, Kitchen, Covid from caledonia quilter

Wide borders can be a bit challenging to quilt. Oddly enough, I had TWO quilts that came in with wide borders, and even ODDLY-ER (Yes I know that's not a word. Who cares?) the same border design worked beautifully on both of them.

Yikes - all paper pieced!

The body of this was all done with s.i.d. There is no quilting I could ever imagine that would improve on that piecing.

The turquoise thread in the border really adds a gorgeous pop of colour on the black.

Applique, with a bit of additional batting behind the leaves for ...

added by helen-mary 4 years, 1 month ago. under beach girls , cocktail , complaint , cooking , covid , covid-19 , custom quilting , longarm quilting , quilt , quiting

Colour, Christmas, & Complaints. (And Covid, I guess.) from caledonia quilter

This is the hard 'C' post, pronounced 'K'.

Colour. This one is self-explanatory...wowsers. I love it!!

Christmas. Actually it's Winter, not Christmas. But that would ruin the alliteration. A great strippy quilt. This was fun to quilt.

Love the crochet doilies!

Complaints. I'm running a personal challenge - 30 consecutive days with no complaints. This started on July 12th, and I'm now on my FIFTH start date. At this rate I will still be trying in 2022. Interestingly, the first two restarts were because I was trying to one-up somebody; "Hah, you think that's bad...". Also ...

added by helen-mary 4 years, 3 months ago. under beach girls , challenge , christmas , cocktail , complaint , covid , covid-19 , custom quilting , longarm quilting , quilt , recipe

Officially An Old Broad! from caledonia quilter

First, here is the little Superbowl Sunday quilt, completely finished.

It's so pretty, thanks to the Moda Charm Square pack.

I did learn a valuable lesson, though. Don't write out a quilt label while you are messaging with the Beach Girls about March appointments for haircuts. You WILL put the wrong date on the label.

I figured it was close enough that I was not writing out another one.

BIRTHDAY!!!

In the middle of a pandemic, I managed to have my 65th birthday yesterday. Yay me!!

As I have been saying for months, YES, I had Bailey's ...

added by helen-mary 4 years, 8 months ago. under beach girls , birthday , charm pak , cooking , covid-19 , gifts , longarm quilting , quilt , quilting , retirement , shoes , zoom

Jungle Walk, Recipes from caledonia quilter

This is definitely the CUTEST quilt I've worked on in quite a while.

Jungle Walk by Harebrained Happenings

Here are a few of the blocks...

Today we are celebrating VALENTINES DAY. Still locked in with the stay-at-home orders, until Tuesday. Supper tonight will be leftover roast beef, but I'm making a Chocolate Olive Oil Cake for dessert. This is a new recipe for me. The Savour Ontario site (apparently I follow them on Instagram?) has never led me astray, so it will probably be very good. Assuming I don't forget any ingredients which I know happens to ...

added by helen-mary 4 years, 9 months ago. under applique , beach girls , commentary , cooking , covid-19 , custom quilting , friends , longarm quilting , politics , quilt , quilting , recipe , social , winterruption

Catching Up, again from caledonia quilter

I seem to have put my blog posting on the same schedule as my house cleaning...pretty darned infrequently! My new system for cleaning is to keep an eye on a couple of the pictures hanging on the wall - if I notice gooey, stringy cobwebs hanging off them I make myself vacuum some time in the following week.

I'm just going to give you some pics of a few quilts that I've completed for customers over the last couple of months, ok? OK.

This quilt came with a special request to add a couple of hearts in the ...

added by helen-mary 5 years ago. under beach girls , bitchin' , christmas , covid-19 , custom quilting , donation , embroidery , garden , goodwill quilting , longarm quilting , marriage , rant , scrappy

Entertainment During The Pandemic, UFO's, Quilt Ideas, Local Happenings from caledonia quilter

SCHEDULING UPDATE
At the moment I still have seven quilts here that I will be working on. As they're ready I'll contact you and arrange a porch pickup.
I am not taking in any quilts until the provincial restriction on non-essential businesses has been lifted. I realize you might find that to be an inconvenience, but as a rule I do what the "people in charge" tell me to do. Depending on how long this situation persists it might mean your booking in May gets delayed until Julember, or whenever. With all the UFO's that are being ...

added by helen-mary 5 years, 7 months ago. under appliances , beach girls , business , challenge , cooking , covid-19 , friends , garden , guild , guild program , longarm quilting , quilt , quilting , recipe , retreat , scheduling , sewing , tfuq , ufo , yogurt

Jason Yenter Quilt and the Caledonia Pandemic Update from caledonia quilter

This is one of those quilts that scares me a little bit... I used lots of the "stand-and-stare" technique.

I will probably NEVER tackle a quilt like this - so much applique and paper piecing, with an on-point medallion setting.

I think at one point I had seven longarm rulers out - straight rulers, curvy rulers, circles, ...

I also needed chalk, a blue wash-out marker, and the IQ. Along with some collaboration from the Beach Girls.

Beautiful back.

In my last post I mentioned that some things had been cancelled with the Coronavirus epidemic, and that the grocery store was out of ...

added by helen-mary 5 years, 8 months ago. under applique , beach girls , business , commentary , covid-19 , custom quilting , family , friends , guild , longarm quilting , longarm tools , quilt , quilting , social , solo

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