Fall Cross Stitch and Other News

It's been a couple of weeks since I have blogged.  There has been a lot going on and this will become apparent as you read today's post.  First, I have made a bit of progress on my fall cross stitch project.  The cardinal is done and more leaves and branches have been added. I love the colours in this picture although I am not sure a tree exists that has such a variety of leaves on one branch! 

I finished off one of the donation quilt tops I was working on.  I need to buy a backing fabric as I have nothing in my stash that is suitable.  I went to my local (small) quilt store yesterday only to find out they have moved  and do not reopen until later this coming week so this project is on hold.  I don't have enough of the dark blue background fabric to add borders so this is the size it will be. 

I made more blocks for the second donation quilt and have about 40 more blocks to make.  I have already filled in some of the holes in this picture. I will likely need to buy a backing for this one too. 

We spent several days over the last couple of weeks helping our daughter move to a bigger apartment.  Finn has been quite confused by all the packing and unpacking but he will settle in nicely once everything is unpacked and put away.  I brought home my daughter's quilts for some repairs so she has a quilt on her bed that I made for her a long time ago with leftover fabric from flannel pyjamas that I made for her when she was younger.  It is not quite big enough for her bed but will do until I get the other ones repaired.  Finn always approves of any blanket or quilt.  

While out on my morning walk, I met a new friend. 

Every year since my Dad died, my husband and I go to the local ice cream place and get some black cherry ice cream on my Dad's birthday.  It's a fun way to remember him. 

This past week, my 96 year old mother in law passed away peacefully.  As you can see, she also loved ice cream and our excursions with her always included a stop at an ice cream shop.    I made her many quilted gifts over the years and she always had my wall hangings, table runners and quilts out on display in her home and in her room at the nursing home.  I loved her dearly and will miss her every day.  I was blessed with a wonderful mother in law.

I will link up with Kathy and the Slow Sunday Stitchers as well as Frederique. 

Rug Hooking, Knitting and a RSC Baby Quilt in Progress

After making 6 purple hollow nine patch blocks last week, I took out the bag of blocks that I have made so far this year and discovered that I had enough to make a baby quilt. I took them to the guild sewing day this week and laid them out on the design wall as shown above.  I sewed them together and  today, pin basted it and started the quilting--diagonal lines in both directions through each square. 

I'm using 28wt white thread in the top and 50 wt white in the bobbin.  The backing was in my stash. 

I added most of the red border to my rug hooking project this week. 

And more rows were added to the scarf --it is 60" long now.  I will knit until I run out of wool in the little ball in the picture. 

There are lots of butterflies in our garden these days...Today's picture is a Red Admiral. Its wings look a bit worse for wear. 

Our shamrock is blooming. It does well every year in a pot on our back step which is in the shade all day long. 

Can you handle another bee picture?  

My hanging baskets are very purple this year. 

Finn and my daughter went home this week.  Finn loved being outside in the backyard while he was here. The redbud tree in this picture had major storm damage this week when the trunk split and half the tree came down.  It may need to be removed which makes me sad as I love the pink blossoms in the spring and the vibrant green colour of the leaves in the summer.  

Now that my daughter is home, she is trying to get caught up on her book blanket granny squares.  Here are her June squares and the books she read.  She promised to have the July squares and books ready for next week's post.  Finn is a reluctant granny square model tonight. 

I will link up with Kathy, Frederique, and Angela. 
 

A TaDa Moment!

This afternoon, I added the final stitches to my Winter Woods cross stitch!  There were lots of little stars to add in the sky of several pictures and a bit of backstitching, but not very much. I love this picture and look forward to getting it framed to hang up somewhere in my house next winter.  We have lots of snow right now, although not as much as many places north of us where roads have been closed for days on end as the snowplows try to clear the snow away. 

I spent some time at the sewing machine this week, quilting my shadowbox quilt with a waffle cross hatch pattern.  I have all the lines going across the quilt done and have started the lines of quilting going from top to bottom.   I hope to finish this quilt soon, so I can get quilting the next one in line. The backing is a fun Peanuts fabric that has been in my stash for a while.  I had to add a solid strip on the back to make it big enough.  

I added 3.5" to my scarf this week.  The little ball of wool is shrinking fast! The scarf is now 35.5" long. 

Christine came over for a few hours one day this past week.  I did some hand quilting on my Arizona quilt and she did some cross stitch.  We also did some machine sewing. 

I made 6 turquoise hollow nine patches for my Rainbow Scrap challenge project this week as well.  These will do nicely for blue month!

I added some shelves from Ikea to my sewing room for my rulers this week.  They are actually meant to hold framed photos but work quite well for my rulers.  This job involved moving my cutting table and vacuuming up all of the dust bunnies under it...not pretty but looking nice and clean now!  They are right beside my cutting table and very easy to access when I need them.  My assorted small rulers are in a wooden ruler stand on the cutting table under these shelves.  

On this week's hike with the hiking club, I saw this nest piled high with snow.  I love walking in the woods after a fresh snowfall!  Apparently, lots of people like to walk here with their dogs too as the evidence showed...

Finn was so cold when he came inside from doing his business once day this week that he was shivering! My daughter wrapped him in his blanket to warm him up.  

Finn just sent me a couple of pictures of my daughter's crochet progress this week. Three more book blanket granny squares and the Christmas blanket has had some attention as well.  She wants to keep working at the Christmas blanket so it doesn't turn into a UFO.  

I will link up with Kathy and the Slow Sunday Stitchers, the RSC folks and Frederique this week.  Have a fantastic week.  

Favourites from 2021

 The end of the year is a good time to look back at what we have accomplished in the past 12 months.  Cheryl at Meadow Mist Designs hosts and annual "Best of..." party and so I will be linking this post up to her blog.  I have done lots of machine sewing, hand stitching and knitting this year and it is hard to pick out which projects were my favourites.  Here is my best effort!

1. My favourite hand stitching project was "Love Birds"--a counted cross stitch picture that I made for a friend's daughter and her husband as a wedding gift.  They have it hanging on their wall and were very pleased to receive it, even if it was several months after their wedding before I finished it! 

2.  I participated in the Colour Blocks challenge this past year as a way to use up some scrappy 2.5" squares and made several quilts--I still have lots of squares left so there may be more quilts assembled using these colourful scraps! I had lots of blue scraps and made this baby quilt with them. 

 

I also really loved my gray and yellow colour blocks quilt. 

3.  Last year, I made a scrappy red and white Modern Snowflake quilt for a friend.  I wanted to make one for myself this year and used stash fabrics to make this Buffalo plaid version.  I finished hand sewing the binding this week and it is now in use in our great room for the winter months. This was the only sewing I did this past week so I will be linking up with Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching party on Sunday morning. The pattern is by Modern Handcraft. 

4. I am happiest when just playing with fabric to make up my own designs and I want to do more of this in the coming year.  I made a wall hanging for a friend for Christmas this year doing just that.

5. I had a couple of sewing goals this past year --use only stash fabrics and try not to buy any fabric except backings and backgrounds. I made lots of quilts using my stash this year including some baby gifts and quilts for family members. Many of them had pieced backs in an effort to use up what I had. Here is one of the quilts I made with only fabrics from my stash, including the backing and binding. I made it to match the colours in the family room of the recipients. 

I bought some fabric online during QuiltCon in February and have been using lots of it in my projects--many of which are still UFO's on my list to complete in 2022. Stay tuned--there should be some finishes early in 2022. 

Happy New Year, everyone!  

I can't have a blogpost without a picture of my favourite grand-dog, Finn and his new squeaky Fox toy!

Another Hat and a Quilt Top

I had started the second hat last week on our way home from the cottage, and managed to finish it this week.  I will need to make pompoms for both of these hats--my friend, Christine, has a pompom maker that I can use. This yarn is super chunky and the hats are thick and warm--the bottom bands are turned up so they will keep the ears cozy on a cold day. 

 During my sewing room time this week, I finished putting this quilt top together.  The rust colour really brightens up the brown, tan and cream swap blocks.  I had over 150 swap blocks and the top used 81 of them.  

I have pieced some into 4 patches for a strip on the back of the quilt.  The rest of the back will be the rust fabric.  I will use one of the blocks for my label for this quilt. The extra swap blocks will be put aside for another project later. 

We had Finn out for a walk in Port Stanley one evening this week.  Finn and our daughter will be going home shortly. 

My quilt top is Finn approved!  He thinks some of the brown squares match his fur. 

I took a few pictures of some flowers in the garden this week.  Our clethra bush is in bloom and I took a few close up pictures of one of the flower clusters.  When I looked at the pictures later, I noticed one of my pictures was photo-bombed by a tiny flying insect.  

The wasp's nest in the tree in our backyard is huge now with lots of wasps buzzing around.  It is bigger than a basketball now. They have not bothered us but I am looking forward to when they move out for the winter and we can get rid of the nest. Hopefully, they find a different spot next year!

We have three colours of phlox in our garden--white, coral and purple.  You can also see that the black eyed Susans are putting on a show at the moment as well. 

For Slow Sunday Stitching this week, I will be starting the embroidery on this kit that my daughter gave me for Christmas.  I traced the pattern onto the material this morning. I will link with the other slow stitchers in the morning at Kathy's blog.