A Little of This and A Little of That

Regular readers of my blog may remember that I took an introductory class in rug hooking last summer.  The hooking has all been done for a while and I finally finished off my project last weekend.  A friend who describes herself as a "hooker" and "addicted to fibre" showed me how to do the outer edge of my sheep project.  I hope to hang this little rug on the wall in my sewing room.  I would be quite willing to try another rug hooking project. 

For the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, this week I used up some tiny scraps to make these four 6.5" square slabs.  I am not sure how they will go into an actual quilt yet, but each month I will make some in the colour of the month and will decide later what to do with them. 

Speaking of the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, I completed one of my 2022 tops --the scrappy Drunkard's Path blocks are now put together.  This top is now in the "to be quilted" pile. 

I finished appliquéing the last house's window and door for my Coming Home Quilt this week.  Next up are lot of leaves (80 of them!), some vines and four birds.  I have lots of cutting out to do before this next step!

Finn would like you to know that my daughter has started another counted cross stitch city.  She did not tell me what city it is so your guess is as good as mine. 

Finn also wants you to know that the snow where he lives is deeper than him!

We have a bit of snow here finally--it has been a mostly snow free winter until this past week.  It looks pretty on the tree branches in the park where I walk each day. 

I pin basted and started quilting a wedding gift this week. The top was made at a retreat in November and I've got a deadline of two weeks to have this quilted and bound so I can give it to the newlyweds. I'm using 28 wt thread for the quilting. I like how the turquoise contrasts with the gray background fabric.  The lines are about an inch apart.  I have a different quilting plan for the turquoise part of the quilt.  Stay tuned. 

I made some more comfort quilt blocks for the Elgin Piecemakers Guild this week. I have them all done (except for two--waiting for the instructions) for the year. 

Navy, lime green and white:

Nautical theme using the colours in the sail fabric. 

Gray, yellow and white:

 I feel like I got a lot done this past week.  Let's hope that this coming week is just as productive!  I will link up the the Slow Sunday Stitchers and the Rainbow Scrap Challenge folks in the morning. 

Back to the Sewing Machine

I spent some quality time with my sewing machine this week.  The Elgin Piecemakers Guild makes comfort quilts for adult chemo patients at our local hospital so each month, we each have to make a block in a certain colour scheme.  I have my first four blocks for 2023 made.  Here they are:

January:  Blue and white.

February: Red, white and blue

March:  Purple, pink and white

April: Blue and purple churn dash. 

I worked on the last three houses for my Coming Home Quilt.  I did not have any light turquoise thread with me at the sewing day this week so I will do the door and window on the magenta house next week. 

I finished my MIL's wall hanging on our way to visit her last week.  She loves it and wanted to hang it up right away!

I finally got around to working on a blue block for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge this month.  I have two panels of printed pineapple blocks for foundation piecing and decided to use one of them for the RSC each month.  The gray background fabric is a relatively new addition to my stash.  It should look good with all the colours each month.  I have two more ideas in mind for the RSC for a total of three projects this year.  I hope to get my drunkard's path project from last year put together next week.  I already know how I want to quilt it!

Finn just loves this Statue of Liberty ball and was running up and down the hall at my daughter's apartment with it this week.  

Beautiful sunset when we were on our way home one evening this week.  

I will link up with the RSC folks on Saturday morning and the slow Sunday stitchers on Sunday morning. 

Finding my Rotary Cutter

 The condition of my sewing room has deteriorated over the last month or so to the point where I could not find my rotary cutter... it was time for a clean up.  I spent over an hour putting things away, folding fabric, sorting through piles, etc. and still no rotary cutter.  I tried to think of the last time I used it...then, I remembered I used it at a recent guild sewing day---it was in the bag I took to the sewing day.  Oh well, the sewing room is looking much better and I had a new project planned!  I gathered up my supplies and got started. 

My MIL lives in a long term care home. She loves to have her room decorated for each season so I decided to make her a small wall hanging for Valentine's Day.  I got out my red 2.5" squares and some other red scraps as well as some white solid for the background.  It did not take long to get the top together, pin basted and machine quilted. 

I will finish hand sewing the binding and hanging sleeve tomorrow for Slow Sunday Stitching. 

I finished knitting the pink dish cloth this week.  I ran out of yarn before I ran out of pattern, so I just made the top border much narrower than the bottom one.  By the time I wove the ends in, I had one inch of yarn to spare.  If I use this pattern again, I will have to use smaller needles. The resulting cloth is still quite usable, even if it isn't square!

As I mentioned earlier, Christine and I went to the guild sewing day with the Oxford Guild this past week. I brought along my "Coming Home" BOM quilt which I started in January 2019.  This will be my project of choice for upcoming sewing days so I can see if I can get it to the finish line.  I spent the day adding more doors and windows to this house border. Some of my doors and windows are a bit wonky but I don't mind this a bit--it gives my fabric neighbourhood some personality and charm. 

Here is a picture of what I have done so far...I am working on the fourth street which goes on the bottom.  The blue house with the pink doors and windows above is part of the fourth side. 

My husband's sister and her family gave us a mushroom growing kit for Christmas.  It has been interesting watching the mushrooms appear out of this brown blob on our kitchen counter.   We harvested four mushrooms today and added them to the sauce on our spaghetti and meatballs tonight.  Delicious!

Finn is back to running around in the snow and sticking his face in.  We are so glad to see him back to his usual self. 

Here are a few more of the circle pouches I made as Christmas gifts. 

Last week, someone asked me about my book with the Christmas ornament patterns in it.  Here is a picture of the book, published in 1991 by Carol Siegel and the Dimensions Design Studio.  This book includes the Bethlehem and cabin ornaments I showed last week.  The other patterns were from a very old crafting magazine.  

I will link up with Kathy in the morning. 

Slow Sunday Stitching 2023

 I have been missing in action the last couple of Sundays for my weekly blogpost.  Our Christmas took some unexpected turns this year ---as the saying goes, life happens when you are making other plans.  Our daughter's dog, Finn, had surgery on Dec 19th to remove a broken tooth. After the surgery, he went into kidney failure and was in the animal hospital for 10 days in intensive care to receive treatments to improve his kidney function.  Thankfully, his kidneys are now working normally again and he is home and feeling much better.  The vets at the hospital called his recovery a miracle as his prognosis was initially very poor.  We are all very happy that he is now home with our daughter and is mostly his usually perky self. We spent the holidays at our daughter's place and are thankful that we could be together to support each other through the stress of Finn's illness.  Finn is our daughter's faithful sidekick and COVID lockdown buddy and we all love him.  This picture was taken a couple of days after he got out of the animal hospital. 

Now, it is time to show off my secret sewing projects!  I made several counted cross stitch ornaments on wooden spools.  This one was for a friend who is a minister.  The pattern was in a book published in 1991 that I have in my collection.  

The next one was given to a friend who likes snowmen.  I didn't realize when I started this one that this Aida cloth is not 14 count--it turned out to be very small and a challenge to stitch.  It is on a very small spool. 

These next few were made using spools from my husband's grandmothers' sewing boxes.  The price on the spools was 29 cents!  We certainly pay more for thread now!  I gave these ornaments to my daughter, my nieces and my sister-in-law. There was also a snowflake ornament which I do not have a picture of. 

I finished my Mother-in-Law's wool appliqué sheep.  She has always been very fond of sheep!

I cut out the pieces for a blue and white block for the Elgin Piecemakers January comfort quilt the other day and will get them sewn together this week. My sewing room needs a major clean up before I can back to doing some sewing. 

I made my husband and my daughter small pouches for their headphones or their charging cables.  I made a lot of these as gifts this year for other family members and friends. Here is a link to the pattern. 

I brought some knitting with me to my daughter's and worked on a dishcloth.  It is not quite done yet. I hope I have enough yarn to finish it!

I will link up with Kathy and the Slow Sunday Stitchers in the morning.