Sewing Retreat Report and Gardening

Last weekend, my husband and I went to the Camp Kintail Crafter's Retreat--Christine, my usual accomplice at retreats, had other plans for the weekend so my husband agreed to go with me.  He did some reading and worked on weathering some model train cars.  We also went for several walks--it was a gorgeous sunny weekend. I finished off the last three blocks for this quilt.  I have not decided what to name it yet... The blocks are not put together yet as they have to be all trimmed to the exact same size first.   They are bigger than standard 12.5" blocks.  All these fabrics came from my stash--the background is Essex linen. 

I also got caught up on my hollow nine patch blocks for this year's rainbow scrap challenge.  Green is the colour for May and red for April.  

I made a pillowcase for my MIL for Mother's Day.  We stopped to have dinner with her on our way home last Sunday.  Her dad was a beekeeper and this fabric has bees on the flowers.  She has it on her pillow now and is telling everyone I made it for her. 

This panel was donated to our church sewing group and I took it on as my project for the bazaar.  There are little ornaments (mostly made already) that will be added and hang on a button for each day of advent.  I did the quilting of the wall hanging at the retreat.  This still needs binding. 

My flannel scrap bin is overflowing again so it is time for another flannel scrap quilt.  I cut up some scraps and started sewing them in pairs.  On Monday night, I started sewing the pairs into foursies.  (Christine was here to sew that evening)

After consulting with my hooking friends, I decided to remove the stem stitches and start over.  Luckily, taking a line of loops out of a hooked rug is very easy and quick.  They both suggested I use two strands of yarn for one line of loops in the stems.  I will give this a try soon. 

I asked my daughter for a picture of her April books and granny squares for her book blanket.  She was quite busy at work in April and did not do a lot of reading.  The pace is picking up in May so there will be more squares made this month. 

We have spent lots of time working on the yard and garden this week. This is the last daffodil to bloom in my backyard--so pretty--I like the orange edge on the centre part of the flower. 

My husband picked our this unusual plant at the garden centre where we bought annual for our porch and patio pots.  It is called Kangaroo Paws and originated in Australia.  We looked up what real kangaroo paws look like and you can see an image at this link.  The plant does look remarkably like real kangaroo paws!

I planted all our patio and porch pots and so far, everything is doing well, despite the squirrels best efforts to dig in the pots...

I need to buy some smaller trays for the bottom two plants on this stand. 

My husband's dad always grew geraniums from seed for us each year so we put geraniums on our front porch every year in his memory. 

Christine and I went out for lunch in Port Stanley for her birthday this week.  We went for a walk and then stopped for ice cream before heading home.  

Our deutzia bush is starting to bloom--it will be covered in these small white flowers very soon. 

Two chipmunks entertained my husband and I as we ate supper one night this week.  They would come close to us and then run off quickly. It was hard to get a good picture!

We hiked with the hiking club one morning.  I love seeing all of the spring green emerging at this time of year. 

And, the trilliums are blooming!

Finn likes to lend a helping paw when my daughter is reading or crocheting.  

My Mother's Day gift was a new cookbook.  I have already tried one of the recipes!  yum!

I will close this off with a sunset picture from Camp Kintail. 

I will link up with three blogs this week--Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitchers, Angela's Rainbow Scrap Challenge as well as Frederique's weekly link up.