UFO Progress, Yellow Blocks, Sunflowers and Burnt Cape Ecological Reserve, Nfld.

 Christine and I got together this week for a few hours to sew and chat.  Christine cut out squares for a disappearing nine patch baby quilt and I finished sewing my Overlapping Tiles quilt top.   I have not trimmed it yet--I may even do that after it is quilted to avoid all those bias edges as I quilt. The backing fabric is ready--it is the turquoise with the pink flowers that is the constant in the quilt top.  My husband held the top for me to take a picture --it was a bit breezy!

I bought myself a Half Rectangle Triangle ruler at Quilt Con in Atlanta and tried it out to make these blocks in March.  I finally got around to sewing them together this week.  I am pleased that my points are all pointy!  I have to decide if I will add a border or not.  I am leaning towards an asymmetrical border, varying the width of the border on each side.  I will have to get some coordinating fabric out this week and see how that might look before I cut anything. 

Yellow is the colour of the month for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge so I got my yellow scrap bin out and made four 6.5" square slabs and a yellow pineapple block.  I am up to nine pineapple blocks now. 

I am listening to an audiobook, Talking to Canadians, by Rick Mercer, read by Rick himself.  I listen as I walk each day as well as when I am cross stitching.  My husband and I watched "The Mercer Report" on TV for years and even attended a taping of the show at the CBC in Toronto years ago.  

On our recent vacation in Newfoundland, my husband and I took a private guided tour of Burnt Cape Ecological Reserve near Raleigh, Nfld.  Our guide was Ted, a local businessman who has a particular interest in the plants and geology of Burnt Cape.  After telling us the history of Raleigh as we drove around this small community, he drove us out to the cape.  The conditions are very harsh there, with little or no soil for plants to grow so at first glance, it appears that it is just a barren rocky area. Ted had us looking closer to see a great variety of very small plants that we had to be careful not to step on!  He also showed us a sea cave, carved out by the relentless waves of the ocean.  

That is a Canadian dime to show the scale of these tiny flowers.  The next picture shows the entire plant. 

The orange on this rock was caused by seagull poop!

Ted called these red growths British Soldiers...

Some of the trees and shrubs, all very small and close to the ground, were over 100 years old. 

The sea cave entrance.  

It was quite cold and windy on the cape so we all wore our hats and warm clothes. 

Ted recommended this book so I bought a copy at the next store that we were in.  We used it several times on our trip to identify plants that we saw on our hikes. 

These are frost polygons, caused by the frost heaving the rocks out of the ground into these patterns. Each depression in the ground creates a microclimate where small plants can grow. 

This small purple flower is a type of primula. 

These yellow flowers, the Burnt Cape Cinquefoil, are only found at two places in Nfld., one of them being Burnt Cape. 

The Burnt Cape Ecological Reserve is across the bay from Raleigh. 

Sunset over the Burnt Cape, taken from in front of our accommodations in Raleigh. 

I hope you are not getting bored with my vacation pictures.  I still have a few more places I would like to share with you over the next few weeks. 

Finn likes to keep at least one paw touching my daughter at all times.  The second picture was taken while I was talking to Finn on FaceTime this week. 

I will link up with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge on Saturday morning and with The Slow Sunday Stitchers on Sunday morning.  Take care. 

Finishing Other People's UFO's

Sometimes, we quilters have UFO's--unfinished projects that seem to just take up space in our sewing rooms that we just don't feel motivated to get them to the finish line.  The quilt below was given to me by another quilter along with the backing fabric, probably over a year ago...long enough for me to forget who gave it to me to finish! I was asked to quilt and bind it and then give it to the Chemo Unit at the hospital for an adult chemo patient.  Just before last weekend's Oxford Quilt Guild retreat, I found this in a bag and decided to take it with me to quilt at the retreat. I used my walking foot to quilt straight lines through all the blocks. The quilting shows up better on some blocks than others.  I used leftover backing fabric for the binding. I brought it home to do the hand stitching on the binding.  It is now completely done and ready for donation!  Lots of scraps in this one!

Next up, I made four table toppers out of quilt blocks that had been donated to the church sewing group for the bazaar.  I quilted each one differently and used some of my own fabrics for the binding.  The backing fabric was donated to the church. Again, I did the hand sewing of the binding at home this past week. The church bazaar is next weekend so hopefully, someone will buy them and take them home!

I also worked on a pieced backing for a wedding quilt that I am making.  I used Lori Holt's "Spelling Bee" book to piece the Bride and Groom's names and wedding date for the back of the quilt. This took a while as there are lots of pieces and steps to sewing each letter.  I'm pleased with the result though and I hope the newlyweds will like it too. 

A secret cross stitch project is underway as well.  Here is a small peek.  Other secret sewing happened at the retreat as well but I'm not revealing anything for now. 

The Elgin Piecemakers had a sewing day on Wednesday and Yvonne and I worked on our quilt for a refugee family that we started in the summer at another sewing day.  We managed to finish the top of the quilt and piece the back. It was taken home by one of the long arm quilters who will call one of us to pick it up to do the binding as soon as it is quilted. Each pair of quilters was given a stack of batiks to use for their quilt.  The fabric was donated to the guild. 

My butterfly weed was fluffing this week when I was out cleaning up the gardens and raking leaves in the yard.  This is one plant I would not mind having more of!

When my friend and I were out walking one morning this week, we noticed that there were five squirrel nests in this one tree. They are all visible now that the leaves have fallen. 

Finn thinks the best way to deal with colder weather is to cuddle up with your favourite fluffy blanket and have a snuggle. 

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

Kitchen Scraps Challenge and Another UFO Done.

 Each year, the Elgin Piecemakers Guild issues a challenge to their members.  This past year, we were given a piece of insulbrite thermal batting and asked to make something for our kitchens using scraps.  On Thursday night, we met in person for the first time in ages and revealed our projects.  There were oven mitts, hot pads, a casserole carrier, tea cosies, etc.  Many in the group used selvages in their projects.  I decided to raid my denim stash (from old jeans) for my lasagna pan hot pad.  I have a large orange lasagna pan and always have to use more than one hot pad under it, but not anymore! It was fun to use improv piecing for the top and I found a fun fat quarter in my stash for the backing. 

The perfect size for the orange dish! I used 28wt orange thread for the quilting. 

I finished the quilting and binding on my Down on the Farm charm square quilt this week.  It even has a label!   I used the extra backing fabric for the binding. Another baby quilt ready for gifting!

Since I have finished 3 UFO's in the last month, I decided to give myself permission to start a new quilt!  Last Spring, I made a Modern Handcraft Snowflake quilt for a friend.  I used red and white prints for the background and made the snowflake with Kona White.  I have wanted to make myself a snowflake quilt too and since the Modern Handcraft Blog is holding another "Snowalong" this year, I joined in! This year, Nicole Daksiewicz has added instructions on how to make a Buffalo Plaid Snowflake quilt.  After looking at all of the possibilities in my stash, I picked these fabrics for my quilt and got all my cutting done.  The gray fabric is Essex Linen and the red and black fabric is Kona.  The white with the light gray dots will be used for the snowflake. 

I have made two blocks so far and have started a third one. 

I made a new hat this week too.  I received this variegated wool for Christmas last year and found a pattern that I thought would work.  I made a swatch and it was the right size so I started knitting.   

I had to switch to double pointed needles for the top of the hat. 

This is where the hat went off the rails---I tried it on at this point and it was so big, it went over my face!  I ended up tearing it all out and now I have to start over with fewer stitches on the needles!  Good thing that it is a chunky yarn and knits up quickly!

My daughter did a bit more stitching this week.  

Finn had a friend over to play today.  He was not so sure about having to share my daughter with another dog!  My daughter looked after Brick while his "Mom" was moving. 

Late Breaking News!!! Dubrovnik is done!  While Finn was napping, worn out from his company, 

my daughter put in the last few stitches!  

I will link up with the Slow Sunday Stitchers at Kathy's blog in the morning.  I hope to start knitting my hat, again!