Sewing Vacation in Wine Country

Well I returned from my vacation with my mom and sister in Wolfville, NS which I also term as Wine Country. It is beautiful there and there is so many vineyards. And the weather is typically gorgeous there. It's also the place where I got engaged :) So it's a special place in my heart.

We stayed at a nice cottage with a decent price so we could spend more money on fabric :) We arrived on Sunday and just set up our machines since we were visiting family that evening. Then the fun started the next morning! We went to Avonport Discount Fabric Store for three days in a row! I just love it there! Always something going on there and the staff are just perfect. I purchased a lot of fabric there...and then I seen something on their facebook group that I also want so I'll have to call and have them ship me a meter (or two) of some new fabric that just arrived. It is gorgeous! It has a bunch of quilter sayings that I've read lots of times :)

So after the visits to Avonport, we mostly stayed in the cottage and sewed up a storm. We had the perfect set up for three persons and we had cooked meals before going to Wolfville so all that was needed most of the time was to reheat them and add a few ingredients.

Here's a view of the kitchen part and my mom and my sister :) And this is also my sister's second time sewing. On another post, I posted a picture of the mug rug that she made. After that she was addicted and received her first sewing machine from my parents for her birthday.

The living room which a sewing machine was set up on the opposite side of the cutting mat.

We visited a few vineyards and I purchased a few bottles of wine (5) just to dull the shock of my husband seeing all the fabric purchases that I had made lol. I'll post my fabric purchases on Sunday since it would be way too long of a post if I did it all at once :)

Here are my projects that I worked on during the sewing vacation.

 Monkey Quilt Top is complete. Hopefully I'll have it quilted before the end of the weekend.

 Here is my Banner Block for the MMQG Banner. Which I may have to modify. I think I misunderstood the directions thought my block needed to measure 6.5" and I believe it's suppose to be 6" so I may have to modify it.

 Here is my Signature Block for the MMQG Banner. I used Variegated thread and used my stitching letters on my sewing machine to do this. I had not tried it before on my sewing machine so it was a learning experience and I think it came out pretty well.

Block #2 is complete for my Fat Quarter Shop Mystery Quilt 2014. Can't wait to see what Block #3 will be. I had to stitch pick this one a few times since the points weren't meeting up as well as I'd like. But I'm happy with the result :)

Here are my mom's projects

 This is a Quilt Top that was completed by my mom but the hand stitched applique was done by a lady who passed away and was never able to finish her quilt. The family of the lady did not know what to do with the blocks, so they were going to be thrown out. My mom asked for them and finally many years later, she has finished the quilt top. It came out beautifully.

 This is just a small mini quilt to try out a new technique using a rotary cutter that has a cutting board underneath. So you quilt four pieces of fleece fabric and then use this special rotary cutter to cut through the top three layers and it leaves your backing intact.

Here's a better picture to see the close-up of the technique.

There were some extra squares with that applique so my mom made a body pillow out of the remaining squares. And luckily enough there were some cheap body pillows at Walmart and they fit perfectly.

Here is my sister's project for the vacation. This is her very first quilt. She picked out a pattern and then picked out the fat quarters needed and ironed them all. Cut them all out and then started piecing her quilt together.

 Here she is laying out all the pieces after making up her blocks. And then her finished quilt top :)

 The wind caught her quilt at the same time that I snapped the picture but I think it's a perfect picture :)

The colours are just beautiful and bright. She did a great job! Especially for her first ever quilt! Next lesson will be assembling the quilt sandwich, quilting and then binding.

So we had a great sewing vacation. We plan on going back next year but staying longer. Hope you all had a great week :)

Julia