Silent Retreat

and if we're open, He speaks in the silence, too.

I'm off to a Silent Retreat during this Lenten time. I invite you to find a few minutes to imbue yourself in silence and find rest.

See you Monday.

Things I've Liked since Last Thursday

Another week has gone by and likes have surprised me.
1. The Vintage quilt raffle ended and the winning ticket was drawn by our pastor. We were thrilled that we made $1112 for the Uganda Water Project!  And the winner was the first person to buy tickets.

And she was - my Mom!  We were both shocked. She's going to put it in her guest bedroom where she has a queen size bed. Congratulations, Mom!

2.  I like that our Christmas poinsettia plant is still blooming and so pretty.  And no, it isn't plastic as some visitors have asked - lol.

My DH says the secret is to keep them outside (they hate gas fumes and heat), water thoroughly (meaning take them out of their foil wrap and hydrate til the water comes out the bottom, and don't leave them standing in water.  Last year's lasted til the end of April.

3. I like how I figured out how to test my stitches before I begin quilting a new quilt.  We're always being told to make a test sandwich with the fabrics we are using.  Lots of times I don't have any leftover fabric, so I put some on the edges of the quilt and test my stitches there.

 I always test my threads and stitches as I often use a different thread on the back and I don't want it to show on the top. Above I was checking the match of the blue thread with the blue fabric.

Here I was using gold thread on the top and a baby blue on the back. - the light green scrap was my test swatch, and it was on the part that would be trimmed off before binding.

I was so happy it rained two days last week. Praise God!  And it's even been a bit cold (I know most of you wouldn't say low 40s is cold), but it helped our mountain areas get some snow - cuz if it's 40 here, it's low 25 - 30s there.

Look forward to reading what brought you smiles. Go on over to LeeAnna's and see what others have liked this past week.

Blessings!

Some of This; Some of That

First the stash report. Made 2 baby quilt tops and found a backing for them. Used .25 for binding one of them. Used .10 for bias for Love entwined and .15 for SLOL, so that's 3.70 yards out this week.  This gives me a YTD total of 16.37 yds. Closer still to the 20 yds out I need to meet my goal.

Here's my progress on Love Entwined:

Doesn't look like much for 3 days of work.  Those 3/32nd bias stems take a while to make. Biggest are 1/8th. But I'm done with that part of the bouquet, and I was able to add the hearts. Now to add the vase, then the flowers.

I also got a bit done on SLOL.

Here it is on my design floor as this is much bigger than I thought.  I'll have to see if I'm going to make all of it.  It's already 50" wide.

Off to hand applique some more on my Anna's Garden block. Hope you got to quilt today.  I'm linking to Oh Scrap, Sunday Stash, Slow Sunday Stitching, BOMs Away, Design Wall Monday and a couple of others. You can check my tab under more in the header to see who else.

Have a wonderful week.