Lupins!

As planned, I made 4 more lupin blocks this week, this time using a recently purchased fat quarter with raspberries on it.  My whole family loves raspberries!  At our first house, we had a raspberry patch. As soon as our daughter was old enough to discover the berries, they never made it into the house.  She ate them all, straight off the canes as soon as she went outside for the first time each day.  Here are my raspberry lupins.  (I checked google and lupins can be spelled with or without an "e" on the end--lupin or lupine)

I just noticed my toe nails match my blocks, again!

I now have 8 blocks, 4 of each of the two blocks shown below.  40 more to make. 

I made two more blocks for my Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilt...I only have one more block to do to be caught up for 2020. 

The cat in the hat fabric is a scrap from a baby quilt I made several years ago. The top goose fabric is leftover from a quilt my daughter and I made for her bed in 2003. The third square down in the right column is from the quilt I made my daughter when she graduated from university, almost 6 years ago.  

I also made a bright blue block, although some of the fabrics could have gone into a dark blue block as well. 

 A couple of these fabrics were purchased at QuiltCon in Nashville in 2019. 

I finished the avocado dish cloth I started last week.  I have a pattern for a cloth with a bee on it which I will work on next. I will start it tomorrow for Slow Sunday Stitching with Kathy. 

My daughter and Finn have come for a visit.  Finn was very excited to see us and has been zooming all over the house and yard since they arrived.  We gave him a bath tonight so he is now smelling fresh as a daisy. This picture was taken earlier this week, just before going for a walk one evening. 

My daughter finished "Budapest" and has started stitching a new city, Nashville. 

Finn was napping while she stitched. 

Many of the flowers in our garden are fading, but the honeysuckle came out in bloom again this week. 

I did lots of scrap sorting this week, and purged some that I did not think I would ever use.  I also worked on a couple of secret projects, which you will all see, in due course.  Although most of my sewing supplies have been put away for our company this week, I did leave out a few things to sew while my daughter works and Finn naps.  I have another 4 lupins to make and a dark green scrappy block as well.  Take care and have a great week!

Knitting, Sewing and Secret Projects

I have always been someone who likes to get a head start on projects with a due date...I did this in school with essays and assignments and I do it now with gifts for special occasions such as birthdays or Christmas. So, yes, I have already started to make some Christmas gifts, which I cannot share on my blog for fear that the recipients will see them here before they unwrap them in December.  I am also working on a 20th Anniversary challenge for the Elgin Piecemakers Guild which I cannot show yet either.  All that being said, I did start a new quilt for our bed this week. 

Six years ago, my husband and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary by taking a two week trip to Iceland. We rented a car and drove around the perimeter of the island, stopping often to take in the views.  We were there in June, when the days were long and the lupins were in bloom, everywhere.  Purple flowers for as far as the eye could see in many spots...the lupins left an impression.   Fast forward to QuiltCon 2019 in Nashville where I was shopping in Gudrun Erla's booth.  I purchased her book:

The quilt at the top of the cover caught my eye along with the picture of the lupins.  I decided then and there that I would make this quilt and started to collect purple and magenta fabrics whenever I had the opportunity.  The fabrics, along with the background fabric and the book, were placed in a bin in my sewing room.  I have been itching to start this quilt for months now, but was determined to finish my UFO's first, before tackling a new project. Last Sunday afternoon, I caved. 

I made my first 4 blocks of the 48 that I will need for my queen sized quilt.  The purple fabric in these blocks was purchased in Scotland last summer at this time (our 30th anniversary trip).  It features thistles.

The plan is to make 4 blocks every week and hopefully, have a completed quilt top sometime early in 2021. I will keep you posted on my progress. 

In the meantime, I am still knitting facecloths and dishcloths to practice my knitting skills. I completed the  green facecloth I started last week.

I am using the leftover yarn from this project to make a dishcloth. 

I will work on this again tomorrow for slow Sunday stitching with Kathy. 

I have now made 5 Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks, which you can see in my previous post.  My turquoise block is cut out but not sewn together yet. 

A couple of these fabric scraps are from a quilt I made for my daughter when she was in Grade 7. It's funny how these little scraps bring back memories. 

I have many types of Hostas in my garden and this one is in bloom this week.  

The Gentian is also starting to show off this week. 

When I was little, my bedroom was purple and my aunt made me this petit point picture of violets to hand on my wall.  I found it this week in a box and it is now hanging up in our guest bedroom.  I sent a picture of it to my aunt and she remembered making it for me all those years ago. 

Take care. 

RSC: Playing Catch Up

 After toying with the idea of participating in the Rainbow Scrap Challenge for months, maybe years, I decided to jump in with both feet this month and catch up with all the colours for 2020.

I showed my red and purple blocks on my last blogpost...

This week, I made my pink, light/bright green and orange blocks.

The fabric in the upper left corner is a scrap from my "going away" dress from our wedding day, almost 31 years ago.  I'm not sure if I will keep the square in the upper left...the green circle is attention seeking...

The green scrap bin lid stayed on before I rummaged through to find fabrics for my green block...now the lid won't go on at all.  

So many memories of the places I visited to purchase these fabrics when I look at these blocks. I have my next block cut out and ready to sew. I will link up with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge folks today.  Lots of scrappy goodness to look at there!

Here are all my blocks so far:

Appliqué Done, Next up...Quilting!

 I worked away at the appliqué on my Weight of Love quilt most days this week.  This involved lots of thread colour changes, but it is now done!  Last week, someone asked about the name of the quilt--this is a Libs Elliott pattern and she calls it Weight of Love.  I took a class with Libs last summer and started it at the class.  

I will be quilting this one on my DSM with turquoise thread.  I hope to do that and the binding this week. This was the last bit of appliqué:

I finished another dish cloth this week and started a face cloth..the yarn calls this colour "avocado". As you can see, I did some knitting in the car today. 

Here is the finished dish cloth...also green. 

After years of seeing others participate in the weekly Rainbow Scrap challenge, I have decided to jump in and make a scrappy quilt...goodness knows I have enough scraps to make several quilts. The August colour is purple. I do not have a lot of purple fabric in my stash and had to cut into a few fat quarters that have been purchased for a particular quilt in order to get enough variety for this block. I did not want to repeat any of the fabrics. The fabric with the gold Celtic knots on it was purchased in Inverness, Scotland last summer when we were there on vacation. 

I now have two blocks...I did a red one for July for Canada Day. 

My mini red roses are in bloom right now. I was given this plant in 2001 after having some surgery and it blooms every year.  I just noticed the bug on the top of the flower!

This phlox is actually a lovely coral colour but it looks more red in the picture. 

Finn liked my daughter's book so much that he decided to sit on it.  

I will be linking up with Kathy and the Slow Sunday Stitchers in the morning, as well as the Scraphappy RSC link up from today. 

I saw this on Facebook today and thought you could all relate. 

Weight of Love Appliqué and some Knitting

My goal for this week was to finish the y-seams on my Weight of Love quilt and get started on the appliqué...I am happy to report that I managed to accomplish this goal!  Those y-seams sure take a long time.  At the time I took this picture, I had one more seam to do. Note that my toe nails match my quilt...

 I am using a solid Essex Linen in pepper for the background.  I pressed under 1/4" all around the edge of the finished large pieced hexagon and then hand basted it down to the background. I discovered very quickly that I needed to use multiple colours of thread for the appliqué, which slows down the process.  I guess that's why they call it Slow Stitching!  I will work on this tomorrow and link up with Kathy and the other people who sew/knit/embroider/cross stitch/crochet slowly in the morning. 

My daughter has made progress on Budapest this week...Finn is quite happy to lie beside her while she stitches. He's also very good at letting her know when it is time to quit working. 

I enjoyed some knitting time while listening to an audiobook which I borrowed from the public library online.  The baby facecloth is completed as well as another simple dish cloth which used up the remainder of a ball of yarn. 

As predicted last week, my pink phlox are in bloom this week.

 Our clethra bush has pink blooms too. 

My husband and I went bike riding mid week at a provincial park.  It was not very busy at all and the weather was perfect for the ride, our picnic and watching the sunset. 

Have a great week!

Hand Appliqué, Knitting and Y-seams

I have been working on a secret project this week which cannot be revealed until October.  It involved some hand appliqué so here is a sneak peak:

I will continue to work on this project behind the scenes for several weeks.  I am waiting for inspiration to hit before I do the next step. 

In the knitting department, I made a simple dishcloth out of some leftover yarn from one of the facecloths.  I thought there would be enough left in the ball to make the dishcloth, but I ran out before finishing so I just cast off.  This left a slightly truncated corner but I will keep this cloth for myself so it will not matter. 

I also started another cloth with a whale on it.  This could be used as a baby wash cloth.  It's a little over 1/3 finished.  I need to pay close attention to the pattern on this one so that the whale is identifiable when it is done...so far, so good!

I took a class from Libs Elliott about a year ago and was working on it at our guild sewing days before COVID-19 hit and sewing days were cancelled.  It has taken a back seat to other projects for the last few months, but this week, I dragged it out of hiding and have started to get the final columns attached to the section on the left in the picture.  Y-seams take a lot longer than straight runs but the end result will be worth the extra effort. 

I even have a couple of options for backgrounds in my stash for this quilt so I should be able to sail right through to the finish over the next week or two. 

My daughter is stitching Budapest next...

My husband and I go walking every night, after supper.  The trail where we walk at least once or twice a week has lots of Queen Anne's lace in bloom at the moment.  This is a close up of one of the tiny flower clusters.  Someone asked what type of camera I use for my pictures...these pictures are all taken with my iPhone. 

The white phlox are starting to bloom in our gardens.  The pink ones should be blooming by next week. 

Before I forget, I have also made a block for the HST BOM for the London Modern Guild.  There are not very many more blocks for this quilt so it will soon be a completed flimsy.  It should make a fun baby quilt. 

I will leave you with some words of wisdom from out local ice cream shop...

Stay cool and safe.  Wear your mask.  Take care

You can catch up on all of the slow stitcher's projects over at Kathy's blog tomorrow.