Hand Stitching

 This was a busy week with lots of activities every day, so, not much sewing happened.  I did manage to add more stitches to the sky in my cross stitch project and discovered that I was going to run out of one of the colours. I purchased a skein at the local craft shop and I'm ready to keep on stitching. Someone asked last week if there are sunflowers in the picture--the answer is yes...there are several sunflowers in a combination of stitches and beads as well as a button at the bottom of the picture.  I will do the beading when the cross stitching is done. 

I finished hand quilting the orange block this week and I'm just about done with the red block.  The next block is blue. 

A couple of friends, Mary and Christine, came over to visit yesterday.  We visited Jumbo, the Little Red Mitten yarn shop and the Elevated Park before coming back to my house for lunch and some knitting, cross stitching and hand quilting in the gazebo.  I did not take any pictures of us in the gazebo but here are some pictures at our morning stops. 

There are lots of new blooms in the garden this week including day lilies, bell flowers and coreopsis

Lots of wildlife sightings this week including this deer on a neighbour's front lawn. 

The turkey vultures don't usually get this close.  We saw this one on a low branch of a tree while walking at the park one morning. 

The racoon family was back in our yard again this week.  Five babies and mom wandered through our yard. 

We saw lots of Canada Geese at the park too. 

We had the Retro Quilter, Maude MacDonald, as the speaker at our annual Quilt Guild banquet this week.  She channels the 70's in her unique and fun quilts.  Maude has a large collection of vintage bed sheets that she uses to make quilts and clothing.  She does in person talks as well as on Zoom--a great speaker, enjoyed by everyone at the banquet.  

My patio pots are filling out and bursting with colour. 

My husband and I took a cooking class this week on British curries.  We made Coronation Salad appetizers  which were delicious!  Five recipes were shared as well as a history of how curries became popular in Britain. The class was a birthday gift for my husband from me. 

Finn managed to wrap himself up in the drapes for his nap this week. 

He went to the office one day with my daughter and loved seeing all of her colleagues. 

I am listening to "The Book Woman's Daughter" this week.  This is the sequel to "The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek" which I read a few years ago.  Both are good books and I recommend reading them in order. 

I will link up with Kathy and Frederique this morning. 

Back to Hand Quilting

If you read my blog on a regular basis, you will know that I started hand quilting my pineapple log cabin quilt a while ago and then, I stopped.  This week, I brought it upstairs from my sewing room and spent a few hours working on it.  The gold block is quilted and I am almost finished quilting the orange block.  Next up, the red block.  Funny how projects don't get done if you don't work on them...  I have another quilt that is begging to be hand quilted in the wings so I want to get this one done so I can work on it.   Only 8/12 blocks to quilt after the orange one is done. 

I also spent a few hours adding more stitches to my counted cross stitch this week. There are lots of colour changes in the bottom part of the picture.   More sky stitches were added too.  When all of the stitches are done, there are beads to add. 

I made yet another zipper pouch this week.  I can make these with my eyes closed, but I usually leave them open to prevent sewing and cutting injuries… 

The Rainbow Scrap Challenge colour this month is "pastel colours".  I don't have very many pastel colours in my stash so I will be making purple blocks this month.  I started cutting squares and HST's for my blocks one day this week.  I have not cut any of the background fabrics yet.  I don't have a very large stash of purple so my friend Christine has given me some of her scraps to add some variety. 

I noticed that one of my neighbours has a tulip tree in bloom in their yard.  Such interesting flowers!

Our peony has several flowers now.  If you look closely, you can see just a touch of pink on some of the petals. 

Our Dianthus is in full bloom right now in the backyard garden.  

Chives have such pretty flowers too. 

The squirrels are having lots of fun at the park where my friends and I walk each morning.  It is fun to see their antics as we walk by. 

Finn is such a happy boy!  

This spider was casting an interesting shadow on one of the chairs in our gazebo this week.  

I will link up with Kathy and Frederique this weekend.  Take care and have a great week. 

Colour Challenge Flimsy Done

I had a little less than a yard of the sashing and border fabric to set my colour challenge blocks and crossed my fingers that there would be enough to add 2.5" sashing and a 3.5" border.  I cut the pieces out that I needed to do this and had just a few scraps left.  Phew!  I'm happy that there was enough!  Now, I just have to figure out the backing--this will be pieced using fabric from my stash.   I will use a solid for the binding--not sure which colour I will use yet. 

I worked on my cross stitch barn project a few times this week.  You will have to check last week's post to see what I have added this week.  It's getting there, slowly!

I started a new book this week. My daughter gave me this book for Christmas.  I love the story so far and can't wait to read more!  As you can see, I was reading in the gazebo on a sunny day. 

While I was reading, I was being watched by a baby racoon in the evergreen tree at the back of our yard.  It spent quite a while watching my husband and I before finally climbing down and joining the rest of his family over the back fence. 

Our weigela bushes are starting to bloom.  

The purple clematis in our backyard is in full bloom now.  It must really like this particular spot in our yard. 

We went for a walk in Port Stanley one evening this week and saw this unusual bird that we had never seen before.  I turned on my Merlin app and it identified it as a Ruddy Turnstone, a shore bird.  

Here is Finn, checking on the weather conditions, before deciding to go outside to do his business.  He is not fond of peeing in the rain. 

He is a big fan of our daughter's crochet projects.  The balls of yarn are very comfy. 

I will link up with Kathy and Frederique as well as the rainbow scrap challenge folks. 

Cross Stitch, Crochet and Orange

 I must admit that adding stitches to the sky in my current cross stitch project is not that exciting...I try to break it up by adding stitches to the bottom part of the picture too.  You can see from the picture that progress was made on both fronts this week. Someone asked about stitching on perforated paper--the paper is quite thick and I have not had any issues with it tearing.  I have had to unstitch in a couple of spots and did not have any issues.  

My daughter has been working on her crochet in the evenings this week and has added a few more borders to her project.  The coral and green chains between the flowers will eventually be covered up by the next border.  She's learning lots of new patterns/stitches with this crochet along. 

I finished off my orange rainbow scrap challenge blocks for May this week. I had to dig into my orange fat quarter bin to add some variety. 

The Oxford Guild has been doing a colour challenge this year--pick your own block and make one with the colour of the month.  I picked a really simple block and decided to make an I spy baby quilt with my 12 blocks.  The fabric in the middle of the picture below will be used for sashing and borders.  I used fabrics from my solids collection to frame each of the I spy fabrics. I am only using stash fabrics for this quilt. 

I bought some rhubarb at the farmers market last week and made rhubarb blueberry crisp (the blueberries were in the freezer).  There was enough for dessert for three nights.  Delicious!

It seems the rabbits in our neighbourhood are not easily spooked.  This one boldly sat on the sidewalk while I took its picture. 

Finn got to go to one of his favourite places this week--the pet store.  He knows the way and walks very enthusiastically on the way there, but is not so keen on leaving to go home.  Must be the treats that the owner of the pet store gives him while he is there....  A nap is required when he gets home. 

There's lots of action in the gardens these days.  The deutzia bush is starting to bloom. 

The seed heads on the Pasque flower are intersesting. 

This peony is getting ready to put on a show.  This plant came from my husband's grandmother's garden.  She died in 1964 so this is a really old plant.  

My species tulips are tiny but a real bright spot in the garden. 

My columbines self seed all over the place and this one has picked a spot near our patio to put on a show.  

I planted chives, parsley and bay leaves this year.  

The patio and porch pots are all planted as well. I picked a hot colour scheme this year.  They will fill in over the next few weeks.  

I will link up with the Slow Sunday Stitching crew, the Rainbow Scrap Challenge folks and Frederique.