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.  

Orange and Cross Stitching the Sky

I got back to work on my orange Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks this week and made 6 nine patches.  The next two sets of blocks need lots of HST's so that's up next at the sewing machine.  I need to cut more orange triangles so I have enough.  It's only half way through May but I am already wondering what the colour for next month will be...

We had a great discussion at Book Club this week about "the Berry Pickers."  In June, we will be talking about "The Frozen River".  I have already read this book so I feel more prepared than this month when I finished reading the book the day before the meeting...  I have started two more books... "Six for Saint-Pierre" is a mystery by a Canadian Author, Kevin Major.  This is the 6th book in the series and is set in Newfoundland and Saint-Pierre, a French island south of Newfoundland.   The rest of the books have all been set in Newfoundland and Labrador, most in places where my husband and I visited three years ago when on vacation there.  The author is from Newfoundland.   I love these books--the characters are interesting and I like how he weaves local history and sites into the story!

I usually have an audiobook on the go as well as a paper book. This week's audiobook:  A young widow's late husband has arranged to have 1 book a month picked up at the local independent book store after his death.  I love the way the narrator is telling the story.  I'm about a 1/3 of the way into this one and can't wait to listen to more of it. 

While out for a walk this week, I came across this rabbit on the neighbour's lawn.  Usually they run away as soon as they see a pedestrian.  This one stayed long enough to pose for a picture. 

I added more stitches to the sky and some areas around the barn this week.  Some of the stitches are even orange for the RSC...

While walking around the garden this week, I noticed this white bleeding heart.  I have never seen a white one in my yard before...must be a genetic mutation. The leaves are a lighter green colour than the ones with pink flowers too.  

We transplanted this flower from my MIL's garden. 

The purple columbines are just starting to bloom. 

Finn is happy to be back home although it does seem very quiet around here without him.  He is a good little traveller in the car and wears a doggy seatbelt to keep him safe. 

 

This weekend's job is to plant patio and porch pots.  We purchased the flowers this week.  Fuchsias grow really well in our front porch hanging baskets. 

 I will link up with Frederique and Kathy as well as the RSC folks. 

Happy Mother's Day!

 My daughter was here for the past week and she and Finn went home yesterday.  It was nice to have her here.  Finn was very excited to see her.  He loves it when all of us are together.  I did a little bit of cross stitch this past week, but no machine sewing.  I finished the framing stitches and added more sky stitches as well.  I hope to do more today. 

My daughter worked on her crochet while she was here, adding this pretty periwinkle lace border.  If you look at the close up, you can see flowers in it. There are still a few more rows to crochet on this but she is afraid she will run out of this colour so has ordered more.  

Finn and I spent some time outside one day, reading and enjoying the sunshine.  The Berry Pickers is the next book club book and we meet this Thursday to discuss it so I have some reading to do!

The redbud tree is in bloom in the backyard.  

Two more varieties of tulips bloomed this week.   Both of these have very short but colourful trumpets. 

This type of coral bells has beautiful leaves and not so spectacular flowers.  

This tree is in bloom in my neighbourhood.  So pretty. 

My daughter was in Newfoundland in February and went to the quilt store in St. John's and bought these FQ's for me.  We were in this store when my husband and I were there in 2023. 

I will link up with Frederique and Kathy.  Happy Mother's Day to all the mothers, and nurturing women in your lives. 

Orange Scraps

 I cut out some orange squares and half square triangles this week for my Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks for May.  Today, I made one orange block...there are more pieces cut out for the other blocks but nothing is put together yet.  I will show them in a future post when they are done.  The background fabric has orange square dots instead of round ones.  It has been in my stash for a while. These blocks use up most of a fat quarter of background fabric. 

Here is my block collection so far.  I have decided to make 9 blocks for a square quilt.  I have a list of colours I would like to add to the collection based on what colours I have for the background fabrics. 

I found out this week that I mixed up two of the colours in my cross stitch project...There was barely any difference in the colours so I will not be taking anything out.  Turns out that very light gray and very light blue are very similar.  I will likely have to outline the silo to make it more distinctive but that is quite doable.  Let's just keep this our little secret, ok?

There are lots more yellow flowers in the garden this week including primroses, daffodils, fothergilla and tulips (pink/red and yellow)

The bleeding hearts are starting to bloom as well.  I started with one plant and now have them in several spots in the gardens. So pretty this time of year. 

My husband and I went to see a Blue Jays game this week in Toronto so Finn went for a sleepover at my SIL's.  They have two border collies and Finn likes to play with their toys.  The squeaky squirrel was a big hit. (The Blue Jays won 8-1 against the Boston Red Sox)

He also enjoyed watching the birds at the bird feeder. 

The stadium where the Blue Jays play is called the Rogers Centre.  There was a statue of Ted Rogers outside the stadium.  I got a picture of a seagull on his head--it might have been more appropriate for it to have been a blue jay!

I will link up with Frederique, Angela and Kathy on the weekend.