Placemats for Meals on Wheels, Sunflowers, Ottawa and a Field Trip

The members of the Oxford Quilter's Guild are making placemats for Meals on Wheels recipients for Christmas so each member of the guild has been asked to make 4-5 placemats.  I decided to get mine done early. So far, I have one done and three in progress. This first one was made with some charm squares that were in my stash. 

This one still needs to be quilted. 

I have had this tool fabric in my stash for a while and I'm sure someone will like it!

I used more of the lighthouse fabric on the back of this nautical themed placemat. 

The last two are quilted now and the binding is on--tomorrow's job is to do the hand stitching. 

Finn was woken from his nap to model my daughter's finished Ottawa cross stitch picture. 

I worked on the darker coloured sunflower this week.  I should be able to get it done this coming week during slow stitching time. 

My husband took me on a field trip to a surprise destination this week.  He had heard that there were quilts at the Lambton Heritage Museum and thought I might like to see them.  Besides the guild quilts, there were some antique quilts on display as well. 

The museum was recently renovated with new displays installed, highlighting various aspects of life in Lambton County over the years. 

One of the displays was about the Campbell Family.   The plough in the picture below was originally purchased by my husband's 3x great grandfather in Wardsville, 30 km from the farm where he lived.  Archie was very strong and carried the plough home, walking those 30 km. 

There was a picture from a Campbell family reunion that took place in Lambton County in the early 1980's.  My husband is a descendent of the original Campbell settlers so he was at that picnic.  I took a close look at the people in the picture and found my husband!  He's wearing a blue golf shirt.  I don't think he was expecting to find a picture of himself at the museum!

While out for a walk one morning this past week, I noticed the sun shining on this spider's web. 

 

We have had rain off and on all day today.  Tonight, we were out for a walk and noticed these interesting clouds with the sun shining from behind them.  

I will try to add a few more Newfoundland pictures to my next post.  I will link up with Kathy and the Slow Sunday Stitchers in the morning. 

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. 

Guild Sewing Day

I have not attended the weekly Oxford Guild sewing day since before we went to Newfoundland and finally went this past Monday.  I like going because I get a lot done and there are lots of friendly quilters to chat with as I sew.  I usually bring a UFO that I want to move to the finish line. The last time, I worked on my Overlapping Tiles quilt that I started 9 years ago in a class with Kaffe Fassett, and since it is still not done, I brought it along again.  I managed to get all of the diagonal rows of squares sewn and now they just need to be sewn to each other to finish off the top.  I will be trimming the sides of the quilt when it is pieced.  (note that some of the diagonal rows are not lined up correctly in this picture, but they are not sewn onto the quilt yet so that it will be fine when it is together.)

I seem to be in the mood to finish off some UFO's at the moment...  I pulled out a quilt top that I started in a class with Libs Elliott in the fall of 2019.  I finished the top in 2020 and it has sat in a drawer waiting to be quilted since then.  I decided I would take it to a long armer for custom quilting so I found some backing fabric in my stash, attached the label and cut a piece of batting for it. I delivered it on Friday and will likely get it back in September.  Here is a picture of the quilt top.  The pattern is called "Weight of Love". 

I forgot to get a picture of my cross stitch sunflowers in daylight so this picture, taken on my kitchen counter, looks a bit washed out. I will add some more stitches to this project tomorrow for Slow Sunday Stitching with Kathy. 

I have not had time to sort out any more Newfoundland pictures this week but will try to get some more ready to show you next week.   

Finn looks very skinny since his haircut.  

He wants you to know that he has no idea how that piece came off his toy. 

I bought an orange coneflower for my garden last year and this week, it bloomed!  There are lots of buds on it too.  I just love a pop of orange in the garden!

Christine and I have plans to get together to sew this week.  Maybe, I can get that overlapping tiles quilt top done...