Guess Whoooo is Here?

A colleague at work is having her second baby any time now and her last day of work is tomorrow.  I started this quilt last week and finished it up on Tuesday night.  I brought it to work today to give it to her.  I included washing instructions!  Mom was thrilled with the quilt and promised to send me pictures of the new baby and her big sister with the quilt.

The name of the quilt, "Guess Whooo is Here?" came from the owls on the white fabric.  The quilting is a wavy cross hatch.  I used some solid yellow for the binding and a soft flannel for the backing.  All fabrics were in my stash...

I don't think there are any more babies coming soon so I will take a hiatus from baby quilts for now.  I did find another charm pack in my sewing room that I will likely use for the next baby quilt...

I will be working on the last 5 Foothills blocks this next week.  I finished two more last night...

I am so close to having all of the blocks done.  I have started the last 5 blocks and just need to make the geese and the HST's for the remaining blocks.

I will be linking up with Kathy and the other Slow Sunday Stitchers on Sunday Morning.  I love hand sewing the binding on a quilt!  I will be working on my Frank Lloyd Wright counted cross stitch this weekend...no progress so far this week but I hope to get lots done this weekend.

Frank and Another Baby Quilt

I want to start today's post with a thank you.  On Friday, an envelope arrived in the mail with more DMC #318 thread in it...and it matched the thread I have been using on my Frank Lloyd Wright Fountain Glass counted cross stitch project.  Thank you Karla for sending the thread to me all the way from Kansas!  The thread wrapped around the lower cardboard holder is my thread and I cannot tell the difference between it and the two skeins sent by Karla. I now have enough to finish my picture!  (Thanks again to Cathy, Carole, Pat, Kim, and Paige who also sent me thread during the making of this picture!  It takes a village...)

I did some more of the silver metallic thread outlining today and then worked on some more grey stitching.  I had some distractions while I was stitching today...my daughter and Finn came to visit for the weekend.  My husband and my daughter went to a Tigers game in Detroit and I am home dog sitting Finn. We had a great time---we went for a long walk with my friend, Pat, at the park and tonight another friend, Karen, came over to meet Finn. I made some progress on the stitching while Finn had a nap but then he woke up and my stitching time disappeared!

You can see where my attention and my camera were focussed!

I hope to get a bit more stitching done tomorrow.  I will be linking up with Kathy and the other Slow Sunday Stitchers in the morning.  

Finn on our walk today. 

One of my colleagues at work is having a baby in September so I decided this week to make a baby quilt for the new addition. I don't have a lot of time to get it finished so I went with a super simple design using only stash fabric. 

I had about a yard of the owl fabric and about 1/2 a yard of each of the blue and green fabrics.  I kept cutting squares for the hourglass units until I ran out.  I had just enough of the owl fabric for the squares.  I got the blocks sewn together and then decided it needed borders but I was not sure what colour to use. I did not have enough of either the blue or green left to go all the way around the quilt. 

After sleeping on it for a night, I decided to use my leftovers from both colours for the border. 

  The finished top measures 41" square.  I found some blue and green flannel in my stash that was the perfect size for the backing (with one seam) and then did the pin basting on my kitchen floor.  I have done some of the quilting and hope to finish the entire quilt by the end of the week.  I will have to find some other fabric in the stash for the binding as I only have a few odd bits of these three fabrics left after making the quilt top.  Check back later this week to see the finished quilt.  My colleague starts her maternity leave on Friday so I want to give her the quilt on or before Friday. (She does not even know that I have a blog!)

Have a good week. 

Swap Blocks and Foothills Block #18

During sewing time with Christine last night, I finished up the last of my 4th set of 24 swap blocks.  The Elgin Piecemakers Guild is doing a swap of these blocks over the next year or so.  We are to use neutral colours (white, beige, tan, brown, black grey) to make the blocks.  I wanted to get all of my swap blocks for September to December done before the end of August so last night, I achieved my goal.  I have 96 blocks done!  They are all bagged up and ready to go for each of our meetings this fall.

I also made one more Foothills quilt block. The quilt has 25 blocks in it and I have completed 18 blocks.  I am using my husband's discarded shirts for this project. I am starting to think about what I will use to sash my blocks...I don't have enough shirt fabric in one colour to use so I may use a solid colour (navy??) for the sashing.

I am going to piece the shirt backs together to make the backing of the quilt.  The bin of shirts is overflowing so I hope I can get a lid on the bin when this quilt is done. There will likely be more shirt quilts in my future.

On the weekend, my husband and I made mustard relish.  We were channeling our ancestors as we made it with my Mom's recipe in my Dad's soup pot and we did the processing in my husband's grandmother's canning pot.  The last few times I made this relish, my Dad and I did it together.  I thought about him as we chopped and stirred.  I have enough relish to keep us going for a few years now!

On Sunday, one of the no reply commenters asked to see the porch at our B and B from our vacation. You can see our view of the boats in the harbour as well as the book I was reading. 

There was a nice breeze as we sat out here most days. 

This picture was taken one evening at the harbour. 

I thought you might like to see a few hiking pictures too.  These were taken on the Cup and Saucer trail on Manitoulin Island. 

This was called Angel Wing fungus for obvious reasons. 

The trail through the woods. 

I will continue to work on the foothills blocks.  I would like to finish this top soon so I can get it quilted and put it into the London Friendship Quilter's Guild show in October. 

Slow Stitching on a Boat

My husband and I spent the last week on the Bruce Peninsula and Manitoulin Island.  It was our first vacation in a couple of years and was a much needed break from our normally busy lives. There is something magical about getting on a boat and going to an island that changes your mindset.  We slowed right down and spent some time each day reading on the verandah at our B and B in between, hiking, sight seeing and eating some delicious meals. I actually read an entire book while we were away---something that I don't often take the time to do.

The ferry to Manitoulin Island--the Chi-Cheemaun--has recently been refurbished and a mural has been painted on the bow. I took these pictures as the ferry arrived in South Baymouth on Manitoulin Island to take us back to Tobermory.

I did some slow stitching in the car on our way to and from the Bruce Peninsula as well as on the boat  on our way home.

We sat by a window in the lounge as I stitched and my husband read a book.  I didn't see anyone else doing any handwork on the ferry but, for me, it was the perfect way to spend my time during the 1 hour and 45 minute journey. I did some more of the silver outlining at the top of the picture

as well as some cross stitching in the lower section.

Naturally, I took lots of pictures while we were away...here are a few of my favourites.  I'm not sure what type of butterfly this is but it was fun to watch it flit about.

This squirrel greeted us as we arrived at Misery Bay Provincial Park for a hike.  Don't let the name of the park fool you--it was beautiful there!

Even though the end of summer is in sight, there were lots of flowers to photograph as we hiked---that is my husband in the distance.

In other news, grand-dog Finn had his first haircut today. He's still just as cute as a button--no bias here!

I will be linking up with Kathy and the other slow stitchers in the morning.  I always enjoy checking to see what everyone has been up to each week.

A New Convert and more FLW

One of my colleagues at work, Sam, has a niece who will soon be celebrating her first birthday. Several months ago, she expressed an interest in quilting so I invited her to come to my house and make an I Spy quilt for her niece's birthday. The first night, Sam picked out fabrics from my extensive collection of I Spy fabrics and cut out 6 1/2" squares.  She laid them out on my design wall and moved them around until she had the arrangement she liked.  The second evening, she started sewing them together to make her quilt top.  Then, there was a long lull before she and I both had time to get together again...  

Over this past week, with the birthday quickly approaching, we got together three evenings to get the quilt top finished, basted and quilted.    Sam did much of the quilting herself and then I finished it off so that I could teach her how to make, attach and then hand sew the binding.

Sam took the quilt home to finish off the binding before the birthday party next week.  I know what she will be doing for the next few evenings...  Great job on your first quilt, Sam! I'm sure your niece will love it! I wonder what Sam will make next???

My husband and I went to visit our daughter last weekend--this involved a long drive to get there and a long drive home at the end of the weekend.  If you have read my blog before, you know that I do most of my counted cross stitching in the car. This past weekend was no exception. When we left, my picture looked like this..

I made a lot of progress, using up almost all of the grey thread (DMC #318) I received from Carole in the mail.

The lighter sections of grey are actually not quite finished yet--the threads are only going one way and I have not finished the second stitch to make the crosses yet.

Tonight, we went to visit my MIL and I started on the outlining at the top of the picture.  This is done with a silver metallic thread.  The pattern calls for double threads for the outlining.  I wondered if it would be too thick initially, but I like it more now that I have a bit done.  I hope you can see it along the top grey section of cross stitching.

I also made a little mug rug this week.  There was hand stitching involved in the single fold binding.

The back includes some calorie free treats...

We got to see Finn last weekend--our new grand-puppy.  So cute! We went for lots of walks and got to watch his puppy class.

I will be linking up with Kathy and the Slow Sunday Stitchers this weekend.  Take care and have a good week. 

Stitching and Swapping

I am well on my way on page two of my Frank Lloyd Wright Fountain Glass window cross stitch picture.  I did most of my stitching in the car again this past week.  My MIL lives out of town and I like to stitch as my husband drives when we go to visit her.  I find this time to be quite relaxing and it helps me to unwind from my hectic week. There are never enough hours in the day to get everything done so I am trying to prioritize the jobs and still give myself time to stitch by hand and machine. 

Two envelopes arrived this week with more DMC #318 thread---One came from Carol in North Carolina--it matches my grey thread perfectly!  Thanks so much, Carol, for sending the thread to me! The second envelope contained #318 as well but it must have been newer thread as it was much lighter than the grey I have been using.  I will return that thread to its owner when I see her in September.  Thanks, Kim, for sending the floss!  This picture is becoming a group effort!  I should be able to make lots more progress now.  What would I do without my stitching friends?

I am continuing to work on my swap blocks for the Elgin Piecemakers Swap.  There are 12 people swapping blocks each month for several months--I need to make 24 blocks for each month so my goal is to have all my blocks done for September to December by the end of the month.  So far, I have made two months worth of blocks.

It's interesting to dig through my scraps to find appropriate colours (white, beige, grey, black and brown) to put these blocks together.  Each block is a 5" square when completed.  Some of this fabric has been in my stash for a long time and it is good to find a use for it.

Here are my September and October piles as well as one block for November.

I will be linking up with Kathy and the other slow Sunday Stitchers on Sunday morning.