A Busy Week

Ta Da!  My Put a Ring On It is done!  I took this class during QuiltCon Together in February 2021 with Latifah Saffir, using her clammy rulers.  I had the top done reasonable quickly but could not decide how I wanted to quilt it.  This quilt kept telling me to hand quilt it, which I ignored until this Spring.  By then, it was screaming to be hand quilted so I got to work.  I used 28 wt Aurifil thread in green for the big stitch quilting.  I'm really happy with this project! I will be hanging it on the wall in my front entrance.  

I started machine quilting this flannel vortex baby quilt this week. Please ignore any wobbles you see in the quilting!  I am doing this one with my DSM walking foot. 

It seemed I had something major on every day this week so very little cross stitching got done--just a bit more outlining.  I hope to make more progress this coming week. 

There were lots of visitors in my garden this week. The swallowtail butterfly flew away before I got its picture. Look at all that pollen this bee has collected!

I'm not sure why this blue butterfly is called a White Admiral.  We also had Red Admiral butterflies in the garden this week. 

This is Finn before his haircut...

And after--so nice to see his eyes!  He'll be cooler now with all of the hot weather we have been having. 

My daughter finished her first crocheted Wooble--a gingerbread man. 

Her next one will be an elf.  

The mystery cross stitch project has had more stitches added this week. 

The hospice quilt top made with potato chip blocks is all together.  I will be adding a light coloured border and then will take it to the long armer for quilting. The backing fabric is not quite wide enough so I will be adding a strip of a contrasting fabric to make it big enough. 

Christine and I spent a day in Toronto this week and went to the Royal Ontario Museum to see their display of Canadian Antique Quilts.  This one was my favourite.  There are over 8000 tiny HST's in this quilt.  I wonder how long it took to make?  The quilts are on display until November this year. If you are going to be in Toronto, they are certainly worth seeing!

Unfortunately, no one knows who made this quilt.  Label your quilts so when they are in a museum someday, it won't say maker unknown!

I will link up with Kathy and Frederique. 

On a Roll!

 For some reason, I was really in the mood to sew this week.  It was too hot or rainy outside so I spent my time in my sewing room, playing with fabric.  I finished hand quilting my Put a Ring On It wall hanging, trimmed it and added the binding by machine.  I will work on hand stitching the binding tomorrow. I can't believe how much I enjoyed hand quilting this project...maybe I will have to do some more hand quilting again soon. 

I also finished the cross stitching on my Lupins project and I have started the outlining.  I like how the outlining defines the blobs of colour into flowers and leaves. 

Finn sent me a picture of himself with my daughter's cross stitch and crochet.  Finn is very fluffy right now--he is getting his hair cut this week. 

Finn had a bath last weekend.  He's always very soft after his bath. 

It all started a few months ago--I saw lots of people were making variations on the potato chip block. Then, a member of the Oxford Guild made two baby quilts using this block.  I wanted to make another quilt for our local hospice which is being built right now and will open in the Spring of 2025. I decided that I would use my batik scraps to make my blocks.  All of these fabrics came from the scrap bin, except for a few of the light coloured fabrics--some of those were cut from fat quarters.  I made one block, just to see how it would look. I planned on making these blocks as leaders/enders as I worked on my secret project. 

But, like potato chips, I could not just make (eat!) one and pretty soon, I had 8 blocks on the design floor and other blocks partly completed on my sewing table.

Today, I finished off the last 12 blocks for a total of 20 blocks.  I have been working away on the secret project too but it is still not fully put together. The potato chip blocks became the main project and the secret project became the leaders/enders!

As I laid the blocks out on the floor, I started to think about how to put them together and decided that sashing and cornerstones would be the way to go.  Since I don't want to buy any fabric for this quilt, I searched high and low though my stash to find the right thing.  I found this birch tree fabric at the bottom of the yardage stack--I purchased it many years ago when I was at a Beaver Island Quilt Retreat with Gwen Marston.  I used some of it in a quilt I made for my FIL in January 2013 and since then, it has sat on a shelf in my sewing room.  

Of course, I had to start sewing the sashing to the blocks right away to see how it was going to look.  It's perfect!  Just the look I was hoping to achieve.  It's a good thing I kept that fabric for all these years!  There will be an outer border too but I am not sure how I will do that yet.  Stay tuned. 

My friend Pat and I saw a doe with her fawn at the park when we were walking one day this week.  We often see the deer, but this is the first time we saw a baby. 

My favourite flowers, butterfly weed, are blooming in my garden right now.  The ants like them too. Such a bright and happy pop of colour!

On Wednesday, we had lots of rain, the remnants of Hurricane Beryl. I went outside in a break in the rain to take a few pictures with my phone.   This is a shamrock. 

This shamrock flower was unfurling itself. 

This is false heather--the flowers are quite tiny. 

The hostas had lots of water droplets on them.  The bee was trying to keep out of the rain!

This is a single flower on one of our hydrangea bushes.  It is also very small. 

I will link up with Kathy and Frederique again this week. Thanks for stopping by.  I love to read your comments. 

A Fun Week

This was a busy week, packed with fun activities and a short getaway with my husband to Niagara on the Lake. On Canada Day, we hosted a BBQ and played Bocce in our backyard before going to see the fireworks in the evening. Dessert featured ice cream, strawberries and butter tarts (a delicious Canadian invention). I spent some time on my secret project and managed to finish all of the units for the quilt top.  They are on my design wall and I hope to sew them together this coming week. Sorry, no pictures for now. I did some hand quilting on my "Put a Ring on it" quilt. I am almost 3/4 finished now. 

Christine came over to sew one evening this past week.  She is making some flower blocks for a wall hanging.  One more to sew before adding sashing and a border.  The patterns are from Lori Holt. A great summer project!

The astilbes are blooming in my garden.  Such delicate flowers--I wish they lasted longer!

There were a few new flowers on our weekly hike with the hiking club. This is agrimony. 

Cornflower with a hoverfly. 

While in Niagara on the Lake, we went for a hike to the bottom of the gorge (and back up again!!). During all of the times we have visited this area, we had not realized that this trail was there. It was very rocky with lots of ups and downs, as well as great views of the fast moving waters of the Niagara River. 

We saw two plays at the Shaw Festival:  The Secret Garden and Witness for the Prosecution (written by Agatha Christie).  The book club I lead will be discussing the Secret Garden next January. Today, we toured several gardens as part of the annual horticultural society garden show.

There were beautiful hydrangeas in many of the gardens.  

I added more green stitches to my lupins picture on the drive to our getaway. As you can see, I am a specialist at S L O W stitching. These projects take time...   I took my sunflower cross stitch in to the framers this week.  I will show a picture of it after I pick it up.

My daughter has made a bit of progress on her next cross stitch mystery project. She was not happy how her crochet was looking so she ripped it out and started over again. Looking much better this time around. 

Finn took a nap while my daughter stitched. His pillow looks a bit hard...

I will link up with Kathy and Frederique.