Almost 10 Years in the Making...

In October 2014, I took a class with Kaffe Fassett called "Overlapping Tiles".  We spent all day cutting squares and putting them on our design walls to come up with a pleasing composition.  Kaffe and Brandon came around the room to each quilter to make suggestions about colours/fabrics to add or take away and arranging the tiles. They added 5 fabrics to my quilt including the constant fabric--none of which I would have added myself.  I finished the quilt top a year ago. I originally planned to make a queen sized quilt, but eventually downsized it to a lap quilt.  It has been pin basted for months and this week, I finally got it quilted and bound.  I'm calling it "Spring Vibes".  

The green solid binding was in my stash and I had just enough of it. 

These next two pictures show the quilting design--done with my walking foot. 

I also did some hand stitching on my Lupins cross stitch project this week and plan on working on it again this weekend. 

The Dalias in my patio pot are putting on a show this week. 

This week's hike featured Canada Anemones in full bloom. 

Today, we were in Sarnia to celebrate my MIL's birthday.  We took a short walk by the water and found lots of fun painted rocks along the walkway.  Here are a few of my favourites!

And what is a Cozy Quilter blogpost without a picture of our grand-dog, Finn?  Here, he is assisting with an online meeting for our daughter's work. 

I will link up with Kathy and Frederique this weekend. 

Lupin Stitching in the Car in the Rain

Today, my husband was volunteering at a special event at a local museum.  I went with him so I could look at the WW2 displays around the property.  Shortly after we arrived, it started to rain and so I stayed in the car and listened to an audiobook while I added more stitches to my counted cross stitch Lupins. After about an hour, the rain stopped and the sun came out.  People started arriving and the day was a success. 

I asked my daughter and Finn to send me a picture of her recent cross stitch finish and they sent me this:  Silly Finn. 

This one shows off the picture much better! This is the first of a series of 4 pictures in a murder mystery set. My daughter has started working on the second picture. 

I finished the last of my 20 Quilts for Survivors donation blocks this week.  A member of the Oxford Guild who will be at Quilt Canada in Edmonton will take the blocks to the QFS booth.  I made most of my blocks from my batik fabric bin.  Three of my blocks are orphans, leftover from other projects. 

I decided that this Overlapping Tiles quilt, started in a class with Kaffe Fassett several years ago, needed to be quilted.  I am using a 28wt green thread for the quilting.  I hope to finish it this coming week. 

This week's hike with the Elgin Hiking Club included meeting a new friend,  

as well as a view down some no longer in use railway tracks. 

My husband's grandmother's peonies are blooming in our front garden.  I could not resist  taking a picture of one of the flowers after it rained. 

My husband and I spent a lot of time this past week repairing our flagstone sidewalk in the backyard.  The joints between the flagstones were full of weeds and moss.  It has been a process to remove all the plant and other organic matter between the stones before adding polymeric stone dust to hopefully prevent weeds in the future.  The main sidewalk is done and we are now working on a path through the flower garden.  I want this job to be done so we can work on the next job on the list!

I will link up with the Slow Sunday stitchers on Sunday morning and with Frederique now.  

More Quilts for Survivors Blocks

I decided to make lots of HST's for this week's batch of blocks for Quilts for Survivors.  I did not have very much of either of these two fabrics for this block--I ended up piecing the middle square from three pieces of fabric to make it big enough.  You probably would not have noticed if I had not told you!

How about some flying geese?

Slanted Diamonds

Broken Dishes

Economy block variation

I actually have 14 blocks ready to donate now.  Two of them are not in this picture. Only 6 more to go to meet my goal of 20 blocks. These will be taken by a friend to the QFS booth at Quilt Canada in Edmonton.

Building has begun on our local hospice and I am collecting quilts from local quilters to be used on the beds at the hospice.  I have made one quilt already and will make another one this summer. I have lots of batik fabrics to use for this quilt and I am deciding on a pattern/colour scheme.  Here is the quilt I made in 2019 for the hospice.   I used Bonnie Hunter's Scrappy Trips pattern for this quilt. (building the hospice was delayed by the pandemic)

I spent a few hours cross stitching this week on my Lupins.  There is a lot of backstitching to do on this picture which will help to define the flowers and bring out the details.  I backstitched the stem on the left lupin this week just because I wanted it to look more like a lupin and less like patches of light purple.

There is a pond at one of our local parks--the bullfrogs were talking to each other, loudly.  I named this one "Jeremiah". 

Finn was angling for a belly rub while my daughter worked from home this week.  Who could resist those eyes?

We went to the local nursery and bought flowers for our patio and porch pots.  Everything is planted now and is being watered every day.  The flowers will grow and fill in the pots nicely, as long as the neighbourhood squirrels quit trying to dig them up everyday...

The purple clematis is in full bloom. 

My husband and I went on another hike with the local hiking club this week.  It is our plan to go on one hike a week with the club.   The Mayapples were in bloom. 

We missed the peak of the bluebells but there were still a few in bloom. 

Dappled sunlight on the trail. 

I had to buy a new 1/4" foot for my sewing machine after breaking mine--it was 23 years old so it didn't owe me anything.  Anyway, now that I have a new foot, I hope to do some more QFS blocks this weekend as well as some machine quilting on a lap quilt. I will link up with Kathy and the slow Sunday stitchers in the morning as well as Frederique today. 

A Little White Lie

 When my friend, Christine, asked me what I was sewing at the guild sewing day, I told her a little white lie.  I told her that I had worked on my sew together bag and that I had finally finished it. She asked me to send her a picture, which I "forgot" to do, until today, when I actually finished it!

The reason why I was not working on my Sew Together bag is because I was making one for Christine for her birthday.  I took her out for a birthday lunch on Friday and gave her the bag, and then told her that mine was not finished yet...   She was very surprised that I had made two of them! Here is Christine's bag: 

I did some cross stitching several evenings this past week. The lupins are coming along nicely now!

Friday night, the northern lights were visible in our area, so we went for a late night drive down a dark country road to see them.  We could see something faint but as soon as I looked through my phone camera, the pinks and greens were very clearly visible! It was a "wow" moment, for sure!

My husband and I went for a hike with the local hiking club one morning this past week.  It was a gorgeous day and there were lots of wildflowers in bloom.  This is cow parsley.

A dandelion seed head. 

Jack in the Pulpit

Finn is glad to be back home with our daughter and has settled into the routine there. 

He was an enthusiastic walker when they went to the pet store to get his food one day at lunchtime.  He was not so happy to leave the pet store...  They give him treats there. 

The deutzia bush in our front garden is starting to bloom.  

And, the clematis by our patio is starting to bloom too.  I just love this time of year!

The Quilts for Survivors of Residential Schools group is collecting 12.5" blocks at Quilt Canada in Edmonton, Alberta in June.  Members of the Oxford Guild have been asked to make blocks to give to this worthy cause.  One of our members who will be attending Quilt Canada has agreed to take the blocks in her suitcase to Edmonton for us.  The blocks are due at our June meeting. I dug into my bin of batik fabrics to made some blocks.  I challenged myself to use two fabrics in each block and to make each block different from the others.  I made six blocks this afternoon and hope to make more before the deadline.  I have not run out of batik fabric yet...

I have another block cut out but not sewn yet and some more fabrics are paired up waiting to be cut and sewn into blocks.  I'm aiming to make 20 blocks--enough for one quilt.  The blocks will be sewn together at the QFS booth at Quilt Canada and they are hoping to get enough blocks (1000) to make 50 quilt tops.  I'm hoping they far exceed their goal. 

I will link up with Kathy's slow Sunday stitchers in the morning and Frederique's link up as well. 

Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers and those who take on this role in other's lives.