Four Finishes and Another New Project

Christine finished the binding on the quilt we made for a family affected by the tragedy in Nova Scotia a few short weeks ago.  This quilt is ready to be packed up and mailed to the Maritime Modern Quilt Guild for distribution.  The binding is a medium blue fabric with tiny daisies on it that I found in my stash.  Christine has a clothes line in her backyard that doubles as a place to hang quilts for photo ops. We hope that this quilt brings comfort and peace. There is love in every stitch. 

The next two finishes are gifts for special people in my life.  Each block represents a memory I have of the recipients--retired farmers and quilters.

I hope these wall hangings will be enjoyed for years to come. They were custom quilted by Julie C. and she did a fantastic job!

I have made several quilts from my collection of 30's prints and still have enough for a couple more small projects.  They have been put away for now.

I finished knitting another dish cloth this week--this one is rectangular in shape, rather than square as I cast on too many stitches initially and could not get another skein of yarn the same colour to make it square.  It's still just as useful, even though it is not square!  I started another simple dishcloth today.

Finn likes to lie on the back of the couch and look out the window.  He keeps an eye on who is going by our house--lots of dog walkers and people riding bikes. 

Earlier this week, the Modern Quilt Guild offered a webinar on string piecing taught by Sarah Bond.  My swap partner in the Make a Mini, Make a Friend MQG swap in February mentioned that Sarah was one of her favourite quilt designers/teachers so I thought I should take her class to "meet" Sarah virtually.   It was a fun class--I sewed my solid warm scraps as Sarah taught the class.  She paper pieced her triangles but I don't like removing the papers so I used light weight non woven interfacing for my base for the triangles instead.  Here are my first few triangles completed during the webinar using chain piecing.

I have a three bins of solid scraps--warm colours, cool colours and neutrals (white, cream, black, brown and gray).  I did not even make a dent in my warm scraps!  I have a plan for a project using these triangles...stay tuned. It might be finished by next weekend.

We had a heat wave this past week and the air conditioning had to be turned on.  More flowers popped out this week including these thrifts:

these Icelandic poppies:

and the Bachelor Buttons.

I noticed that the chestnut flowers were out when I was out walking this week too.

One last close up of a block from one of the farm quilts--Local strawberries should be available this week in my area...I can't wait.

I will link up with Kathy and the Slow Sunday Stitchers in the morning.  Thanks for stopping by and for commenting on my blog.  It's fun to hear from people from near and far each week.

Binding, Quilting, and Two New Quilts Started

Since I have finished 4 quilts in the last few weeks, I thought I could give myself permission to start a couple of new projects.  (Even though I still have lots of UFO's that I should be working on!). These house blocks are a free pattern from Cluck Cluck Sew.  I have a half yard of the lighter fabric and have pulled lots of fabrics in the colours found in that fabric to make houses and backgrounds.  I will use all of the fabrics as both houses and backgrounds.  I plan to add some words to this quilt...stay tuned. I have made two blocks so far--I will need 72 for a lap sized quilt.

I have had a red, black and white jelly roll in my stash for years and decided to make a quilt using it and some Essex Linen that is in my stash to make a hexagon quilt. Here is the first block, not sewn together yet.

My friend, Christine, and I are making a quilt for families affected by the shooting in Nova Scotia a few weeks ago.  We each made 14 blocks and then Christine sewed them together.  She handed the flimsy off to me along with some backing fabric and I did the organic wavy line quilting.

I finished the quilting last night and today, gave her the quilt and some potential binding fabric.  She hopes to finish the binding this weekend and then we will mail the quilt to the Maritime Modern Guild early next week for distribution to the families.

I hope the recipient feels the love that we put into every stitch.  The heart block pattern is from Jaybird Quilts. 

Here is the backing fabric:

For my slow stitching this week, I hand stitched the binding on two quilts which will be gifted shortly, so you will have to wait to see pictures. 

My Canada 150 tulips are blooming right now.  I planted these a few years ago to commemorate our country's special birthday in 2017. 

These blue flowers are in the garden at the side of my house.  I think my daughter planted these bulbs when she was 7 years old and they have come up every year since then.

I bought a new plant for my perennial garden last summer and it is now in bloom...problem is that I can't remember what it is called...anyone out there know???

Have a great week, from Finn and I!

You can check to see what the Slow Sunday Stitching community is up to over at Kathy's blog.

Another Finished Quilt!

What a beautiful day today!  Last weekend, we had snow, but today, we were out gardening while wearing shorts and sandals.   I think I like this weather better, and so does Finn.

I finished off this quilt this week...quilted with my DSM and the walking foot.

The size of the quilt was limited by the amount of flower and bird print that I had in my stash.

The backing is the same gray as on the front--a lucky find at a local quilt store as I shopped by phone call and texted pictures of potential backing fabric.  I had just enough of the turquoise  print for the binding--only 6" to spare.

Finn is definitely not camera shy!  You can see my zig zag quilting in this picture.

I've been doing some more knitting this week as well.  I made this dish cloth a little wider than the last one, by accident, so it may end up being rectangular rather than square as I only have one ball of the cotton yarn in this colour.  I picked up the size 6 needles I need for my next project this week so I will start that when this one is done.

I purchased my flowers on the internet from a local garden centre and just had to pick them up curbside.  This worked out very well and I did not have to worry about being too close to anyone while I shopped.  These purple and white petunias are lovely!

My bleeding hearts are blooming in the garden this week.  So pretty!

Yet another variety of daffodil bloomed this week as well.

We are supposed to get lots of rain over the next few days so we got all of our outside jobs done today.  I hope to do some sewing tomorrow and Monday when I can't be outside.   I have a couple of new quilts that I would like to start and I have other things to finish as well.   It's more fun to start something new...

I will be linking up with my friends at Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching in the morning.

Snowflakes in May

Yes.  You read that correctly.  Today, we had snow flurries.  In May!!!  I even wore my winter jacket, mitts and a hat this morning on my walk.  In May.   It can be cool here at this time of year but it has been many years since I remember having snow in May.

Speaking of snow, my snowflake quilt is done!

The quilting was done by Julie, a local long arm quilter and is a snowflake pantograph.

Finn assisted with the hand stitching of the binding...

Sometimes, he was not quite so helpful!

The backing fabric was purchased from the Quilt Kitchen in Exeter.  I called several quilt shops looking for some red and white snowflake fabric for the backing---this is not the time of year to be looking for snowflake fabric.  Luckily, the Quilt Kitchen had some on their sale shelf and she shipped it out to me right away.  It's perfect!  I sent her a picture of the quilt top to show her what it was going to be used for.

The red and white striped binding was in my stash, leftover from binding my tree skirt I made a couple of Christmases ago. You can see a wide variety of red fabrics were used in this quilt.

Finn also assisted with the photoshoot this morning as the snowflakes swirled around us.  It was unfortunate that my snowflake quilt was not the only snowflake outside this morning!

I am currently quilting my gray, turquoise and white quilt I showed a few posts back.  I hope to get back to it now that the snowflake quilt is done. The heart quilt top for Nova Scotia is put together now (by Christine) and I will be quilting it after this one is done.  I will post a picture of it next week.

I have three new types of daffodils in bloom this week as the first ones fade.

Daffodils are my favourite spring flower.

The tulips in the front yard just started blooming in the last day or two.

Finn enjoyed his after dinner walks this week.    I will be linking up with Kathy and the slow Sunday stitchers on Sunday morning.

Weekly Report from the Sewing Room

There were some changes in my plans this week... When I tried to get the right size of knitting needles for my next cloth pattern, the local knitting store was sold out.  I have my name on the list to get them when they arrive from the distributor, but like many shipments these days, things are taking a little longer to arrive.  In the meantime, I wanted to knit something, so I made another simple dish cloth using blue variegated yarn. 

Here is my completed project, just finished today.

Blue was the theme colour of my week as I used a blue 30's print as the border for my farm girl vintage blocks.  The first knitting picture above shows a close up of the fabric.  Here is the second quilt top.   I added some embroidery to the barns on both quilts and made the backings...these are ready to take to the long arm quilter's house.

Christine and I were talking this week and decided that we would make a quilt for the Maritime Modern Guild to give to people affected by the shooting tragedy in Nova Scotia two weeks ago.  She and I are each making 14 blocks like this, in all different blue fabrics with a white background.  Nova Scotia's flag is blue and white.

This heart pattern is from Jaybird Quilts and is available for free on her website.  I used her Hex 'n more and Sidekick rulers to cut out the pieces for the block.

Here is my selection on fabrics I will be using for my blocks.

I just happened to have a piece of Nova Scotia tartan in my stash which will be perfect for one of the hearts in our quilt. I managed to get all of the heart halves cut out this morning and will cut out the backgound pieces tomorrow. These blocks are quick and easy to sew together.  We will sew our love and support into each and every block.

Finn continues to enjoy the sunshine and warmer temperatures.  He would spend all day every day outside if we let him.

As long as the weather is favourable, I am managing to get out for a long walk at least once a day.  This week, I saw some turtles sunning themselves on a log in a pond near the walking trail I was on.

I have a quilt being quilted right now and two more will be going to the long arm quilter's soon.  I purchased backing for the gray and turquoise quilt today as well as more thread--I have been doing a lot of sewing lately and have burned through a whole spool of white thread recently (1000m).  There should be some finishes to show shortly.

My daughter has finished cross stitching another cityscape--this one is Washington, DC.  We were there in 2008 during the March Break for a few days.  She has ordered more threads, Aida cloth and a few more patterns to work on next. I remember visiting all of these buildings when we were in Washington.  (She did not have one colour that she needed for this picture, but it is in her thread order so she will add it when it arrives.)  I think her stitching looks fabulous!

I will be linking up with Kathy and the Slow stitchers in the morning.  I will try to do some cross stitching on the next Linen and Thread ornament at some point tomorrow.