Lupins and 4 Finishes!!!

Four more lupin blocks made this week--I am not sure where I bought this purple fat quarter.  Here are samples of all the blocks I have made so far...24/48 blocks made.  I am half way there!  I have a few red-violet fat quarters in my pile so the raspberry lupins will blend in more once those are added. 

I finished the starfish baby wash cloth.  It is actually light blue...not gray. 

The "Let it Bee" cross stitch is done too.  I almost forgot to add the antennae!  I will frame this in a small hoop and hang it in my sewing room. 

I purchased a pattern for a blackwork project to work on next...I am in the process of getting my supplies gathered and hope to work on it this weekend. 

My daughter also finished her Nashville cityscape.  She has started a new project...not a cityscape.  I hope to share a picture of it next week. 

Finally, my Tula Pink 100 Modern Blocks sampler is completed!  I spent a few hours this week hand sewing the binding down.  I took this picture while standing on a ladder to get a full view of the quilt. 

I used three fat quarters of ombre fabric for the colourful bits in most of the blocks as well as my extensive collection of black and white fabrics for this quilt. The binding is the same darker gray solid as in the horizontal stripes.  

The colourful fabrics on the front and the backing fabrics were all designed by Tula Pink.  I purchased the three fat quarters for the front at QuiltCon 2019 in Nashville.  

My quilt was custom quilted by my friend, Julie C.  Each block is different and the background areas all have horizontal lines.  This quilt will go on our bed--our first new quilt on the bed in many years.  I have several quilts that fit our bed and rotate them about once a month so every quilt gets a chance to be on display and lay flat. I love looking at all of the blocks and finding little scraps of fun fabrics and admiring the quilting on each one. 

My friend and I go for a physically distanced walk every morning and today was foggy.  Water droplets clung to the spider webs we saw along the trail so I had to take a few pictures. 

I will be linking up with Kathy on Sunday morning along with all of the other Slow Sunday Stitchers.  

Paige at Quilted Blooms has a new link up on Fridays for people to share their finished quilting projects. Thank Goodness its Finished Fridays--TGIFF!!!

Have a great weekend!

Slow knitting and stitching.

 I now have 5 sets of 4 lupin blocks...I made one at 6:00 o'clock in the picture above this week.  This fabric has Celtic knots on it and was purchased in Inverness, Scotland when we were there last summer. I had picked out a different fat quarter to use for this week's blocks but when I went to cut it, I found that it was not big enough...I need at least 21" in length for the strips for these blocks.  Funny how fat quarters can vary so much in size. 

I did some knitting this week on the starfish baby washcloth...it's about 2/3 finished.  

My daughter continues to work on her Nashville cityscape in counted cross stitch. It is getting close to being done.  The patterns for her cityscapes are from Awesome Pattern Studio. 

My cross stitch bee is done except for the words above the bee and a small amount of outlining on the wings.  The words on the pattern are "Bee Well" but I am thinking of something different. 

My big accomplishment in the sewing department this week was to make and add the binding to my Tula Pink 100 Modern Blocks sampler quilt.  This is a huge quilt-- 100" square!  I have started the hand stitching and have one side done and have turned the corner to the second side.  I will be working on this for slow Sunday stitching with Kathy and the gang tomorrow. Maybe, I will have it done by next weekend. 

I did some weeding in my garden beside the front porch earlier this week and a couple of days later, broke out in a rash with itchy blisters...poison ivy.  I noticed that one on the weeds I was putting into the compost bag had the telltale three leaves...I went inside to wash my hands right away but it was too late. Calamine lotion is my best friend right now.  

The fall colours are just starting to show in our neighbourhood this week.  We had frost on the ground this morning so more are sure to follow. 

Have a great week!

Rainbow Scrap Challenge: Red-Violet

This month's colour for the RSC is red.  I had already made my red block a couple of months ago so I decided to do a red-violet block to add to my collection. 

 As I make these blocks, I am always surprised how easy it is to come up with 25 different fabrics to make each block.  I guess I should not be surprised...I have been collecting fabric for years!

I also made a gray block this week.  A few of these fabrics are leftovers from the Christmas tree skirt I made a few years ago and some are from backings or borders of more recently made quilts. My favourite fabric in this block is the zipper fabric. 

Dark green also made an appearance this week. The flower print was leftover from a dress I made my daughter when she was little. 

Here is a picture of my first 9 blocks, not including the gray block. 

Including the gray block, I have 250 unique fabrics in this quilt so far. My scrap bins still runneth over!

Slow Stitching this Week

I finished the cross stitching on the bee this week and moved on to the wreath of flowers and hearts around the bee.  There is still some backstitching to do as well, but I will do that once I am done with the cross stitching.  I have not done any counted cross stitch in a while and I am enjoying this little project. 

In the knitting department, I finished the sheep baby washcloth and started a starfish cloth.  I am accumulating a pile of baby wash cloths to use as gifts when babies come along. The starfish cloth is actually light blue, but looks more gray in this picture. 

Four more lupins were made this week using a Kaffe paperweight fat quarter in purple.  I have had almost all of the different colours of paperweight fabrics in my stash at one time or another. 16/48 blocks are done now for this quilt.  I have a whole bin full of purple and red-violet fat quarters set aside for this project. 

Here are the four fabrics I have used so far. 

My husband and I went "glamping" for two nights this past week.  We stayed in a large tent on a wooden platform with a king size bed, our own washroom, complete with shower, sink and toilet as well as our own metal fire pit. There were lots of hiking trails nearby and we enjoyed several trails.  

We also brought our bikes and rode them from Port Dover to Simcoe and back to Port Dover on the Lynn Valley Trail--an old railway line that has since been made into a hiking/biking trail. We rode about 21km all together.  It was like riding through a bright green tunnel almost the entire way...we want to go back when the leaves are turning later in the fall. 

This week's flower pictures were taken on our hikes. 

Spotted Touch-me-not

Fungus on a dead tree

Jerusalem artichoke

Aster

Canada Thistle

Goldenrod

Jerusalem artichoke

Blue-stemmed goldenrod

White Baneberry

I looked up these flowers in my Audubon Society Field Guide to North American Wildflowers...if I made any mistakes or you can identify the white flowers in the first picture, let me know.  The white flowers were not in the book.  I am not sure what type of fern I have pictured either. 

For Slow Sunday Stitching this week, I will continue with my knitting and I will work on getting my Tula Pink 100 Modern Blocks quilt bound.  I will link up with Kathy tomorrow morning. 

Our local public library just had a beautiful mural painted on its east wall and I took a picture of it this morning.  I love the teapot and teacup well as the tea being poured--very quilty!

Lupins, a Bee and a Sheep

 My lupin block collection continues to grow...although, this week, the blocks were made with Finn's assistance, which means they took a lot longer to make than usual.  This week's blocks were made with a purple grunge dots fat quarter. 

So, now I have a total of 12/48 blocks made for this quilt.  Here are the three lupin fabrics I have used so far:

I have a FQ chosen for my next set of blocks. 

I started a new counted cross stitch project this week--a free pattern from The Blackberry Rabbit (Sorry, I can't provide a link to their website as they are creating a new website at the moment.) The bee will have a wreath of flowers around it and some words above it. 

Last week, I said I would be starting a Bee facecloth...my attention got diverted and I am making a sheep facecloth instead.   I am about half done. 

The London Modern Guild has been doing a year long HST (half square triangle) BOM (Block of the month) over the past year.  I made my final block this week and played with my 12 blocks on the floor when Finn was not looking.   

Here is the first layout I tried:

I will do more playing before sewing the blocks together.  This will be a baby quilt...I will likely add a border before quilting it. 

I picked up my Tula Pink 100 Modern Blocks Sampler quilt this week from the long arm quilter.  I will be getting the binding put on this quilt by machine early next week so I can sit and do the hand sewing out in the gazebo.  Each block is custom quilted...here is a sample. 

I am excited to use this quilt on our bed!  It's the first new bed quilt we have had for several years. 

I have joined the book club at the library and we will be discussing this book on Tuesday morning.  I am about 2/3 of the way through it so far and will finish reading it this weekend. It's a good book--I would recommend it!  As you can see, I have a reading buddy. 

The sedums are starting to bloom in our garden. I took these pictures in the morning after it rained. 

I will link up with Kathy and the slow Sunday stitchers in the morning.  I used to get emails notifying me of your comments but must have done something to stop getting them.  I am not sure how to start this up again...if any of you have any ideas, please let me know in the comments.  I sometimes can find your emails to respond to your comments on your blogs, but sometimes I can't... so I apologize for not responding to every comment.  I find I cannot comment on any blogger blogs at all.  I do read everyone's blogs though...

Take care and have a great week.