Two Finishes and some BOM Blocks

It has been a while since I have had a finished project to share on my blog (besides placemats), and this week, I have two!  This blue colour block quilt is made from 2.5" squares from my blue scrap bin.  I found some really fun crayon fabric for the backing and even added a label already, even though I have not written on it yet.  This quilt will be set aside for a future baby gift. Most of the fabrics repeat in the quilt so lots of fun to be had for some little one trying to find the matching squares. 

The blocks for this next quilt were leftovers from another colour block quilt--this one is gray and yellow.  The large project is not quilted yet but as of this week, it is pin basted and ready to be quilted next.  This is my second small project from the leftovers of the main project...  The backing was in my stash.  The quilting was done with the walking foot on my DSM. I hand stitched the binding today. 

I am almost all caught up on my Modern Block of the Month (BOM) blocks.  I made three more blocks this week. 

I have the pattern for one more block which I hope to make this week.  Next, I will have to figure out how to set them into a quilt top...

 Love Birds moved along at a snail's pace this week.  I spent more time at the sewing machine this week than with my hand stitching. I am getting closer to finishing the wreath of flowers with each stitch. 

Finn lodged a complaint after I posted last week's blogpost.  He did not make an appearance!!!  He has been sporting a donut collar this past week as he has another infection around his mouth, caused by the cone that he had to wear for two weeks due to the previous infection.  More antibiotics and special wipes for the infected areas and he is on the mend, thankfully.  We all hope this is the end of vet visits for a while! To make up for his absence in last week's post, here are two pictures of Finn.  In the first picture, he is supervising my daughter as she organizes her embroidery floss collection.  In the second, he is modelling his "Zen Collar", but not all that happy about wearing it.  He's getting quite fluffy and is in need of a haircut.  

My daughter has finished her Munich cityscape and has been working on a new embroidery picture, a butterfly with flowers. 

The garden has been producing more blooms every day, even though we have a risk of frost tonight!  Last week, our air conditioning was on because is was so hot, and now the heat is back on to take the chill off.  The patio and porch pots of annuals and herbs have all been placed undercover to keep them from being damaged by the frost. 

Wegelia Bush

Blue Jay Columbine

Bachelor Button

Deutzia Bush

We are still mostly locked down here and will slowly reopen based on the percentage of the population that is vaccinated.  My daughter gets her first vaccine this week--Yahoo!  I will link up with Kathy and the Slow stitchers in the morning.  

A Whole Lot of Binding!

This was my week for hand stitching binding, among other projects.  I finished hand stitching the binding on these three placemats for Meals on Wheels last weekend.  I now have 12 made for the Elgin Piecemakers donation and three for the Oxford Guild donation.    

Next up, this quilt was pieced by a member of the Elgin Piecemakers who sadly passed away.  It was given to the guild by her family and we decided at a recent meeting that it would be quilted by one of our long arm quilter members and then bound by me before donating it to the local Women's Shelter.  It is queen sized.  The three placemats above were made with some of the leftover fabrics from this quilt. I think R would be very pleased with how it turned out. 

I plan on doing some more binding tomorrow on a baby quilt which I quilted today.  While cleaning up my sewing room this week, I found that I had 9 quilt tops (baby/lap sized and a couple of wall hangings) waiting to be quilted.  Some were even pin basted already!  Yikes!  I need to get these to the finish line! Today, I picked the easiest one, my blue colour block quilt, to do first.  I had already decided on a quilting design and the backing fabric was all ready to go.  

 I am using a navy blue solid for the binding. I just have to do the hand stitching now.  Maybe I will get another couple of quilt tops quilted this week...

I took a Maria Shell class on Zoom this past Wednesday--the reason for the cleaning up of the sewing room.  The class was titled "Riffing on a Block".  Maria had all of us cutting our fabric without using rulers, something I have done before, but not it quite the same way.  We each had to make a sample of our chosen block and then make several more blocks based on the sample. Here is my sample block, made without rulers. 

And here is my first block, based on the hashtag sample block. The wonkiness is intentional. I did not originally add the dark green strips on the sides of my pieced sections, but decided to add them to make them pop a bit.  I love the result!  I have more ideas percolating in my head for more blocks. 

I am participating in a round robin with the Toronto Modern Guild and made these three 6" blocks to mail to the next person this week.  Unfortunately, I messed up when reading the chart of who I was supposed to mail them to and sent them to the wrong person!  It has been sorted out now and they will be sent to the correct person this week, thankfully! 

Love Birds had some stitches added this week when we were in the car. I've started on the next large cream coloured flower. 

Munich is just a few stitches shy of being finished by my daughter.  She hopes to finish it tomorrow. 

Our patio and porch pots are all planted and growing nicely.  The perennial gardens are looking good too.  We finally had a bit of rain today which should help bring the flowers on.  Clematis, Columbine and Thrift:

This daffodil is a new one I planted last fall. 

My husband and I went for a couple of hikes this week.  This was my favourite picture from our hike on Monday...Trilliums in full bloom. 

I will link up with Kathy and the other slow stitchers in the morning.  

Black and White Colour Blocks and More Placemats

This week, I had to cut a few extra black and white squares to finish these blocks but all 25 are done now. I have these blocks up on my design wall while I contemplate sashing/border options.  I used up all sorts of small bits and pieces in my black and white stash so now my variety in these fabrics is depleted a bit.  I will not be buying more for the time being.   

Much of our time this week was spent outside, cleaning up gardens, weeding, spitting perennials, moving plants, etc.  Sunday morning, we hope to be outside planting our patio pots with annuals and herbs. There are still lots of jobs to do but now that we are both retired, we do not need to get everything done on the weekends...it's nice to spread the jobs out over several days, a couple of hours at a time. I love seeing what is in bloom when I go out to wander around the yard. 

Two types of Geum

Wild Columbine

Species Tulips

Eastern Redbud

I made three more placemats for Meals on Wheels today and will hand stitch the binding tomorrow for Slow Sunday Stitching with Kathy. 

Love Birds is seeing some slow progress.  I added lots of pale green leaves this week and will soon move on to a larger flower after completing one more leaf and a heart. 

The Munich cityscape is nearing completion. My daughter does beautiful stitching. 

I received a lovely surprise in the mail last week from Sarah in England. She made me this very cute bee hive cross stitch filled with lavender.  I was thrilled to get a package that I was not expecting!  Thanks so much, Sarah! Sarah and her daughter, Faye, are both Slow Sunday Stitchers. Faye sent me this little cream egg cover that she made a few weeks ago.  Both of them are very talented!

I'm happy to report that Finn is feeling much better...it took a few days for the antibiotics to work but he was soon back to his normal self.  He is much perkier this week but still has to wear the dreaded cone until he sees the vet later this coming week. 

My husband and I went for a walk at a local park last night and saw some baby geese with their parents and a blue heron. 

Enjoy your week and happy stitching!  

Placemat Production

Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers, aunts, grandmothers and others who nurture their friends and families!  

I have been working hard this week to finish off my 12 placemats for Meals on Wheels.  I used up some of my batting scraps strips, zigzagged together for this project--the bin is still full...sigh. I fear that all of my scrap bins are bottomless, somewhat like Mary Poppin's duffle bag. The scraps for these three placemats are leftovers from a quilt I made for my aunt a couple of years ago.  The placemats are about 12” by 18”. 

 I made 4 placemats which would be suitable for someone who likes gardening or woodworking.  

The other placemats can be seen in previous blogposts.  I thought I was finished with making placemats for a while...I showed the placemats to the Oxford Guild at our meeting this week and suggested that we take on this project for the Meals on Wheels recipients in Oxford County.  I had asked the agency how many placemats they would need--only 90.  Most people at the zoom meeting the other night agreed to make 2-3 placemats by the end of November so that they can be delivered with the Christmas meals. I have lots more scraps to make more placemats and hope to get those done this coming week.  

I am participating in a round robin with the Toronto Modern Guild.  I made my centre block this week and emailed a picture to the person who will make the next part. I received a picture of the quilt to which I will be adding a few 6" blocks this past week as well.  I have been thinking of ideas and will work on gathering fabrics soon. 

The colours are a bit off in the picture.  The background is Kona Steel gray and the pink pieces are actually magenta. Those yellow bits are more green that they appear...  I may have to try to take another picture in better light. 

I finished the dark green leaves and moved on to the hearts and stems this week on Love Birds.  You can see I don't have too much more to do to finish off the wreath of flowers. 

My daughter also added some stitches to her Munich cityscape this week.  This side of the picture is just about done. 

She and Finn have had a challenging week.  Finn has an infection and is now wearing a cone and taking painkillers.  He had an injection of antibiotics at the vet's and is on the mend, thankfully.  He was really not feeling very well at all. The medication makes him sleepy. He's not allowed to go for a walk until he sees the vet again. He is eating normally again--you know something is wrong when he does not demand ask for his food!

My husband and I did a tour of our gardens this week and have a long list of jobs to do over the next few weeks.  We hope to work on the yard for a couple of hours each day to get everything ready for the upcoming season.  I noticed a few more flowers in bloom this week including the bleeding heart, some purple flowers and tulips.  Does anyone know what the purple flowers are called?  The fuzzy white and green flowers are on our fothergilla bush. 

We noticed a robin has taken up residence on the windowsill outside our laundry room.  There are two beautiful blue eggs in the nest.  We have had nests on our windowsill before.  It's amazing how fast the babies grow once they have hatched. 

Here's a picture of Finn when he was feeling better earlier in the week. 

I will link up with Kathy in the morning.   If you want to see my Rainbow Scrap Challenge project, you can see it at this post.