Two Quilts Pin Basted, Navy Scrappy Blocks, Sunflowers and Visitors

 It is so much easier on the knees and the back to pin baste quilts on a table rather than the floor.  I took advantage of the tables at the Ingersoll Creative Arts Centre this past week to get two quilts ready for quilting.  The first one is a pattern by Christine at Tesselate Quilts.  I pieced the top over a year ago and it has been hanging out in the pile of completed tops for too long!   

My Kaffe Fassett Overlapping Tiles quilt was also pin basted this week. I have a quilting plan for both of these quilts--using my walking foot.  I hope to get to quilting them over the next month or so. In the meantime, I have some gifts to make that have a deadline.

I brought my navy scraps to the sewing day and made four 6.5" square slabs with my tiny scraps.  I will make a navy pineapple log cabin block this week as I have all the pieces cut out and ready to go.  These blocks are for my Rainbow Scrap Challenge projects this year.  I think most people have already made dark blue blocks but I didn't so I made them now. 

My sunflowers cross stitch had a little bit of progress -- We have company this week--Our daughter and Finn are here for a visit. We went to see "Much Ado About Nothing" in Stratford one evening and to a family BBQ another day.  There was not as much stitching time this week as usual. 

I discovered why my parsley plant has not been producing much parsley this year.  This caterpillar will turn into a Black Swallowtail butterfly. It is very fond of parsley!

Finn loves to lay in the sun!  My husband and I were reading in the gazebo, staying in the shade. 

There was a trip to the pet store to get dog food one day early in the week. Finn gets very excited to there and doesn't like to leave the store. You can see his quilt that I made him a few years ago in this picture. It helps to protect the car seats, when he sits on it!

We took a long walk in Port Stanley one evening and went all the way out to the end of the pier. 

We were rewarded with a beautiful sunset as we got back to the car. 

I will link up with Kathy and the Slow Stitchers in the morning and the RSC folks today. 

Whistle Stop Top!

Regular readers of this blog will know that I have not been very productive in my sewing room recently. My husband and I are involved in a couple of large projects at the moment that are consuming all of our time and energy. The deadline to finish is looming, so after that, I hope to be able to spend some one on one time with my sewing machine and my knitting needles!

I did manage to finish off the Whistle Stop quilt flimsy this week--The edges of the centre section were all on the bias so I stay stitched 1/8" from the edge to stabilize it before adding the borders.  I measured the borders by laying them out across the centre of the quilt on the floor and then pinned a lot so that the quilt would be square without wavy borders.  My strategy worked!  I will be quilting this one myself, eventually!

My light blue Drunkard's Path block is done! I have lots of blocks made but hope to add a few more colours before the end of the year when I will put this top together. 

These two strips don't look like much but they are the next step in the quilt I am making for a young couple that got married in June.  These days, every little bit of sewing counts, right?

I did not even pick up my knitting this past week but hope to make some more progress on my blue cloth this coming week for Slow Sunday Stitching. 

I go walking every morning at 8:30 am with a friend... This week, the fall colours were starting to show. This was our first foggy walk of the season. 

On Friday, my husband and I walked for 30 minutes on this trail. There were quite a few people out riding their bikes. It was a beautiful day. 

When my daughter was little, her favourite vegetable was green beans.  It is also one of Finn's favourites, although, with Finn, any food will do!

I will link up with Kathy and the slow stitchers in the morning and the RSC folks now. I remain hopeful that there will be more to show next weekend!

Light Blue RSC, Knitting and some Quilt Top Progress

I dug into my light blue scraps this week and got a start on my drunkard's path blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. Some of these fabrics have been hanging around in my sewing room for many years!  I used the dog fabric in the top left block to make a quilt for a colleague's new baby in 2003.  

I sewed about half of my whistle stop quilt top together one afternoon this week. It is not pressed yet...

I started a new quilt for the church Christmas bazaar as well this week. This is a stack and whack quilt made with squares instead of triangles.  I will use these blocks to make a small lap quilt.  The fabric is designed by Kaffe Fassett.  I like how each set of squares makes a unique block. 

Our Slow Sunday Stitching leader, Kathy.  refers to her collection of sewing machines as her "herd".  Using her language, I added a machine to my "herd" this week.  This is a Spartan machine--it only sews straight. Singer made these machines as a stripped-down, budget version of the 99K in the 50's and 60's.  I have had it tuned up by a quilting friend's husband and it is in working order. I can't wait to take it for a spin!

I did one more repeat of the pattern in my knitted cloth this week.  I did not have a lot of time to knit this past week, but every little bit counts, right?

We had a second morning dove nest in our hanging basket on the front porch.  The two babies have now left the nest.  I expect we will see them and their parents hanging around in our gardens before they fly away for good.  

Finn was out for a walk one day this week and decided this particular patch of grass looked very inviting. 

The Autumn Joy Clematis plants are in bloom right now.  Such dainty flowers!

My Gentian plant is also in bloom--such vibrant colour!

Like people all around the world, we are remembering the life and service of Queen Elizabeth this week. 

The plate below commemorates the 1939 Royal Visit to Canada by the Queen's parents.  This plate belonged to my Grandmother. Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret did not join their parents for this trip to Canada but their pictures are on the rim of the plate. 

I will link up with the RSC group as well as the slow Sunday stitchers.  

Orange and Light Blue, Hooking and Cutting

I changed the calendar to September today...I know...I was a day late but we were out all day yesterday and too tired when we got home to think about it.  I finished off my orange drunkard's path blocks for the August Rainbow Scrap Challenge and got busy gathering some light blue selvages for September's selvage HST's.

HST's made!  These are top stitched along the selvage edge onto a lightweight non-woven interfacing square, 9.5" by 9.5".  Then, I cut them in half!

I harvested lots of grape tomatoes today after supper.  This should replenish my supply in the fridge after making this delicious summer pasta dish for supper.  Today is our 33rd Wedding Anniversary --we went out for lunch. Tonight, we made supper together...a summer pasta recipe I found on the internet.  I substituted green beans for the zucchini. 

I finished the hooking on my class project this week.  Now, I just have to remember how to do the edge to finish this off...I have to steam it first.  I think it looks pretty good for my first time rug hooking!

I had a bit of time one evening this week to get the background cut out for my "Whistle Stop" quilt.  Everything is pinned in place on the design wall and I hope to get back to the sewing room sometime this week to get it sewn together.  The outer border is also cut out, ready to go but is not on the design wall. 

It's time for the sedum plants in my garden to flower.  These pink flowers are growing beside the path to our front door. 

Finn is happy to spend some time outside.  He often does not want to go back inside after he's done his business...

I will link up with Angela and the RSC folks on Saturday morning and with Kathy and the Slow stitching gang on Sunday morning. 

More Hooking and A New Quilt Underway.

My friend, Christine, and I used to get together every week to sew before the pandemic.  We have recently started doing this again as time allows.  This past week, we cut out and sewed the HST's for the Tesselate Quilts "Whistle Stop" quilt along. Here are my HST's laid out for 1/4 of the quilt. I thought that I would easily be able to find some fabric in my stash to use as a background for this quilt...but no.  I tried various shades of green, gray, blue and even white, but nothing worked.  

So...off to the local quilt shop where I tried out several colours of solids before turning around to see this fabric on a shelf at the other side of the store.  I laid out my HST's on the fabric and it was perfect.  I bought enough for the background, backing and binding.  The fabric has been washed but not ironed yet.  This week, I will try to get it ironed, cut out and the quilt top pieced together. The fabric is called Love Is... from Maywood Studios.  It has very cute baby animals in the selvage which you can see in the picture below. 

Over a year ago, my friend, Cathy, moved away.  Before the pandemic, we would get together to sew and during the pandemic, we sewed or knitted together on FaceTime.  This week, on FaceTime, Cathy did some sewing and knitting while I did some rug hooking . It's fun to chat and catch up with each other as we work on our projects.  I finished  off the sun and did a lot of blue sky as well.  I think one more session of rug hooking should be enough to fill in the rest of the sky.  Then, I will have to remember how to do the edging.  

A few people asked what it was like inside our glamping tent so here is a picture of the inside of the tent. 

And here is what it looked like from the fire pit. 

Hello from Finn!  I took this picture when we were talking to him on FaceTime this past week. 

I will need to finish off my orange drunkard's path blocks this week and get started on the next colour for September, light blue, for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  I will link up with The Slow Sunday Stitchers at Kathy's blog in the morning.  

Starting a New Quilt (or two!)

 The rainbow scrap challenge colour for August is orange so I pulled out my bin of orange selvages this week and made my selvage blocks.  Each selvage strip is top stitched very close to the edge and the are foundation pieced to a square of very light weight non woven interfacing.  Orange is one of my favourite colours. 

I will get my orange scrap bin out soon to work on my drunkard's path blocks. 

In the meantime, I have started a new quilt--this one is a wedding gift.  The wedding was in June, after a two year delay due to COVID.  I had a conversation with the bride and groom before the wedding about what they wanted--colours, style, etc.  They chose modern over traditional and purple green and gray as their colours. The purple and green fabrics are from my stash.  I purchased the gray background. This will be a lap quilt. When we talked, I told them they would have their quilt sometime this fall. They were fine with this--just too much other stuff going on in my life to finish it in time for the wedding. Here is what I have made so far...

I'm hoping for some sewing time this afternoon to make some more progress. 

True confessions...I started another quilt this past week. I signed up for the Whistle Stop Quilt along with Tesselate quilts on Instagram.  I picked out the fabrics I am going to use from my stash but I'm not sure what I will use for the background yet.  There are various sizes included in the pattern...I'm making the one block quilt shown below, but your can make quilts with multiple smaller blocks as well. 

I finally got back to my rug hooking this week too. I added some green grass to the lower part of the picture. 

The phlox in my garden is in bloom this week.  Such a pretty colour.  I also have white phlox in the back garden. 

Don't you just love the pops of yellow from Black Eyed Susans at this time of year?

Hey Finn!  Did you know that you have a post it note on your ear???

My daughter knew Finn was up to no good when he came tearing down the hall this week and ran under her bed.  What did he have???  

Hmmm...

A shower cap from the bathroom.  After fishing it out from under the bed, my daughter just had to get a picture of Finn wearing the shower cap.  He's such a monkey!

I will link up with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge people at Angela's blog today and with Kathy and the Slow Sunday Stitchers tomorrow.  Have a good week.