Winter Wallhanging, and Some Slow Stitching

It's been a busy week with lots of commitments, which means I didn't get a lot of sewing done.   My hand quilting project is coming along.  After I finish the cross hatching, I will add more quilting to each block. 

I found a winter 5" charm pack in my sewing room and decided to make a wall hanging with it. The white on white snowflake fabric was also in my stash and pairs nicely with the charms. I made lots of HST's and then arranged them in a barn raising pattern on the design wall.  I am in the process of sewing them together.  This will be donated to a silent auction fundraiser which is taking place at the end of the month so this will get done quickly. 

I am stitching the second last tree on my Fall Forest cross stitch.  This is a Satsuma Street pattern. 

A friend and I went out for lunch and a wander around Port Stanley today.  The women in Port Stanley were busy knitting and crocheting poppies all summer--they made over 15,000 5" poppies which have been used to decorate the community for Remembrance Day.  The local Legion is in the background of this picture--the red across the front of the building is a blanket of poppies. 

You can see the difference between the knitted and crocheted poppies in this picture. 

The ginkgo trees at the local park where I walk each day still have most of their leaves, but soon they will all fall at once and create a yellow carpet on the ground underneath the trees. 

Finn likes to provide moral support while my daughter reads or works on her crochet. 

Our burning bush is burning this week.  The birds like to eat the berries. 

I will link up with Kathy and Frederique as usual. Have a good week. 

Home from the Guild Retreat

I just got home from our guild quilt retreat about an hour ago and decided to share some of my projects on my blog.  First up, handwork!  Christine and I watched the World Series  baseball games on the Friday and Saturday nights and  while we watched, we did some cross stitch.  She worked on her Halloween project and I added more stitches to my Fall trees. We had hoped for a different winner of the Championship but it was not to be this year. 

I also did some hand quilting at the retreat --more diagonal lines have been added to my Rainbow Scrap Challenge pineapple log cabin quilt. 

A friend gave me a kit to make some oven mitts a few years ago and before the retreat, I found it in my quilt room.  This was my warm up project for the retreat.  They are ready to use at Christmas time!

I also found a 2.5 inch charm pack in my sewing room and used the little squares to make this little lined basket.  That little package has been in my stash for a while and I am glad to get it used up and made into something useful!

My main project was Jo Avery's 12 Green Bottles quilt.  I am a member of her Thread House Academy this year and this was one of the project this fall.  It is improv pieced and I spent many happy hours at the retreat watching the online lessons and then making the units for the two types of blocks.  This will be a large wall hanging--about 66" square.  I decided on a restrained palette of green and orange with gray, black and white as well as a sprinkling of black and white prints. 

This quilt will take a while but I now know how to make all the units for the remaining 7 blocks. All of the fabrics are from my stash. 

These little houses were made on the weekend too.  They are from another Jo Avery online class.  I already have 6 houses that I made previously as well as two trees.  I forgot to bring the roof fabric with me so this table runner did not get finished at the retreat.  I will work on it at home. 

While looking for supplies for the retreat, I came to realize that I have quite the collection of interesting pincushions.  Some were made by me and some by friends as gifts to me. 

My husband and I belong to the local hiking club and go for a group hike once a week (most weeks).  It was a really pretty walk through the woods this past week. 

It was frosty on my morning walk a couple of days this week. 

Finn has taken to napping with my daughter's yarn .  He thinks the balls of wool make excellent pillows, and no, he does not unravel the balls or play with them. 

My daughter's crochet blanket is growing. 

Finn is a very snuggly dog. 

 I will link up with Kathy and Frederique, even though I am really late to their parties!

Back to Hand Quilting

 I have a collection of completed quilt tops waiting to be quilted.  Sometimes, I just don't have inspiration on how to quilt them and other times, I just don't have time.  This week, one of them yelled "pick me" for hand quilting so I got started.  This pineapple log cabin was one of my Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilts a few year ago.  Each block is foundation pieced on a printed fabric so the finished quilt will have three layers of fabric as well as batting.  I am big stitch quilting it with gray 28wt thread.  I am starting with diagonal lines through each block.  The goal is to keep the stitches even but that's hard with all the layers I am quilting through. 

My Forest cross stitch picture had some attention this week. Just a few more trees to go.  I took the winter cross stitch I did last winter to the framers this week so I can hang it up when the cold weather arrives. 

In the sewing room, I finished off my part of the last round robin quilt.  Four of us participated and we need to plan a date soon to get together to reveal the finished quilts. I will show picture of all four quilts when the time comes.   I also put together all the HST's into blocks for the Threadhouse Academy project.  There are three types of blocks revealed every 4 months over the course of a year.  This is the first set.  The fabrics are set aside so I can use them in the remaining blocks. 

My daughter is working on her crochet along project.  She is a couple of steps behind as there was a delay in getting the last few balls of yarn shipped. This is the centre of the blanket.  The part I showed you a couple of weeks ago was one of the corners. 

The trees are losing their leaves here as we had lots of wind and rain this past week.  I saw these oak leaves on a hike this past week. 

This sumac was pretty. 

Finn is showing his true allegiance in this photo.  I made the pillow for my daughter a few years ago.  There might be yarn stored under the chair...

I will link up with Kathy and Frederique.  
PS. Apparently, I am not the world's slowest knitter as I claimed in last week's post...many of you told me you have had knitting projects on the go for more than two years...  I will pass you my crown. 

World's Slowest Knitter Award!

 I bought the wool for this scarf while on vacation in Newfoundland in June of 2023. I started knitting it in November of 2023 and finished it today.  I may win the World's Slowest Knitter Award!  I worked at it in fits and starts...I don't think knitting is my first love as far as hobbies are concerned.  I am very pleased with how it turned out.  I like how soft and warm it feels and the texture of the knitting.  The colours will go well with by black winter coat.  I've already made the matching hat  and still have a kit to make Thrumb mittens to match.  I might wait until after Christmas to tackle those. I have lots to do in the next couple of months without adding another project. 

On the Fall Forest cross stitch front, I have finished the tree I started last week and have now finished this side of the project.  I have moved my hoop back to the centre and I'm working on the next tree which looks like a topiary. I'm still loving the way the trees look where they overlap. 

I hosted a slow stitching day at my house today for four friends.  I made a pot of butternut squash soup and everyone brought something to add to the feast.  We drank tea and ate blueberry coffee cake while working on our projects.  Frances did some rug hooking on a class project. 

Elaine added many stitches to her stamped cross stitch quilt. 

Pat worked on two pairs of socks but I only took a picture of the blue ones. 

Christine made great headway on a large cross stitch sampler.

I worked on my cross stitch and cast off my scarf.  It was a wonderful day!

My butterfly weed pods are fluffing these days, spreading their seeds around the neighbourhood.  I love the bright orange flowers which attract the butterflies in the summer.  I gave a couple of pods to each of my friends to plant the seeds in their gardens. After a light rain earlier this week, I took this picture from directly above the plant.  

Finn has a new cozy place to have a nap.  He likes to be comfortable. 

We went on a couple of hikes in the woods last weekend.  It was glorious!

I will link up with Kathy and Frederique.  Happy Stitching!

Gift Quilt Reveal, Cross Stitch and Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy (Canadian) Thanksgiving!  Our daughter and Finn are here for the weekend and we had a turkey dinner with my husband's family today. I put out my pumpkin decorations this week.  I even raked some leaves--it really feels like fall now with cooler temperatures and the trees changing colour. 

I'm adding another tree to the Forest cross stitch picture.  It looks a bit odd now but will look better when it is all filled in. 

Finn came with us to the farmer's market this morning and I managed to get him to pose in front of the pumpkins, but only very briefly!

We can see his eyes now that he has had a haircut. 

I have completed the 12 placemats that I am donating to Meals on Wheels.  Here are the fronts--you can see I made some matching sets which might go to a couple. The second picture shows the backing fabrics. 

Here are the two that I finished this past week. 

These two pictures were taken when my husband and I went for a walk in the park one morning this past week. 

The program committee at the Oxford Quilter's Guild has started a colour challenge.  Everyone has been encouraged to pick a block and then make it in a different prescribed colour each month.  The green block was for September and the orange one for October.  I am keeping this project very simple as I have a lot of other projects that I want to move along to the finish line this fall as well as a new quilt I want to start. 

My daughter has joined another crochet along and made one of the corners this week to check her gauge.  

Back at the beginning of the Summer, I mentioned I was working on a secret project.  I made this potato chip quilt using shirt fabric for my cousin.  He received the quilt in September and sent me a picture of him with the quilt this week.  He really likes it and was very surprised to receive it. He has already used his quilt several times--this makes me happy. 

 

One of the things I really wanted to do on our recent vacation was a trip on the Agawa Canyon train out of Sault Ste Marie.  We bought our tickets months ahead of time and although it was a cloudy day, thoroughly enjoyed our day--lots of fall colour and three waterfalls at the Canyon to see when the train stopped. If you have never taken this trip, I highly recommend it!  We were there the last week of September and the colours were at their peak. 

I will be adding more stitches to my cross stitch project for Slow Sunday Stitching with Kathy.  I will also link up with Frederique.