Coming Home Progress Report

My husband and I went to visit our daughter for the long weekend so on our way there and back, I stitched in the car.  I brought along the house borders for "Coming Home" and got all the doors and windows and clouds appliquéd.  There was a lot of traffic in spots so I had more sewing time in the car than I usually get on our way to where my daughter lives. 

I just bought the material for the window and door on this house a couple of weeks ago specifically for this project. It reminds me of balls of wool...

I fussy cut the little hearts in the windows for this house.

I added all four borders and the suns and moons this week.   I will be adding the kites, birds and stars soon.  

I'm really loving this BOM so far and look forward to starting the next border-- trees and more houses.

I will be linking up with Kathy and the other slow Sunday stitchers this weekend.

Lap Quilt Finish

I made this lap quilt using Bonnie Hunter's free pattern, Scrappy Mountain Majesties, and a pile of fat quarters purchased specifically for this quilt.   This quilt is a gift for someone special who does not read my blog.

It was quilted by Cathy at Eagle's Wings Quilts.

The backing is from the same fabric line...

As is my usual practice, I did the hand stitching in the car last weekend.  

We visited Finn and my daughter last weekend. We took Finn to get his haircut as he was starting to look a bit shaggy. We went for lots of walks and spent an evening at the dog park where he ran around and wore himself out.

Here is what he looked like before the haircut.

I will be linking up with Kathy and the Slow Sunday Stitchers on Sunday morning.   Have a great weekend!

Windows and Doors

I spent some more time appliquéing this week on my Coming Home quilt borders.  The top cloud is done... and I am still working on the bottom border in this picture. Sometimes, I am ready a bit early for work in the morning, and so I do a bit of stitching before I have to leave for work.  Every little bit counts!

This house is done now...

And I am still working on this one:

After I finish the door above, I will be working on the cloud above it.  There will be birds, kites, and stars added too, but not until I get the doors and windows on the houses and the clouds finished.

Frank Lloyd Wright "Waterlilies" had a few more stitches added in the last couple of weeks too.   I am alternating between cross stitching and outlining.

There will be more stitches added this weekend.

I will link up with Kathy and the Slow stitchers on Sunday morning.   Have a great long weekend!

Pop-Up Picnic

Earlier this week, I finished off the appliqué for the second sun corner block for my Coming Home BOM.  The points got easier as I went along! This morning, I prepped the clouds as well as doors and windows for the houses. 

This afternoon, the London Modern Guild hosted a Pop-Up Picnic at the Marsh Store in Coldstream.  A dozen of up brought our lawn chairs, our snacks, and our hand work projects for an afternoon of relaxing in the shade of a large tree as we stitched and knitted the afternoon away. Of course, there was an opportunity for some stash enhancement at the store as well...

I brought along two rows of houses but only managed to stitch on one of them...the other three are all prepped and ready to stitch when I have the time this week.  First, I did the doors and windows on two of the houses.

I started working on the cloud in this border as well but had to pack up to go home before I finished it.

There are still kites, birds and stars to add to the borders as well.  I'm still a month and a half behind where I should be but it is not a race so I will get it done when I get it done.

There were lots of people at the store this afternoon for the July Shop Hop.  Several came over to see what everyone was making.

There was sock knitting...

counted cross stitch...

Binding...

Embroidery...

Appliqué...

And English Paper Piecing.

It was a fun afternoon and I hope we can do this again!

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

Framed!

A few weeks ago, I took 4 of my completed counted cross stitch pictures in to be framed.  This week, I had a call that three were done.  The frame for the last one is still on order as I did not make the final selection until later for that one.  The first picture is a Frank Lloyd Wright stained glass window called "Tree of Life".  The original window is in the Darwin Martin House, in Buffalo, NY.  My husband and I did a tour of that house in 2013 and I bought the kit to make this picture in their gift shop.  This will hang in our living room. 

The Fountain Art Glass window was a pattern I bought online.  The original window is in the Susan Lawrence Dana House in Springfield, IL.  I have seen this house from the outside but it was not open for tours the day we were in Springfield...we will need to take a trip there someday to take the tour.  I will be hanging this one in the living room as well.

I bought the kit to make this snow people picture many years ago and started it but then it got put away...waiting to be found again when I was cleaning up one day.  I finished it, finally, and it is framed and ready to hang on the wall next winter.  The snowflakes in the sky are little white seed beads.

 I made a little progress on my current Frank Lloyd Wright cross stitch project in the car last weekend.  There will be more stitches added this weekend sometime.

Miami is coming along too.  My daughter collects Starbucks mugs from various places she has visited and this morning, she was drinking her coffee from her Miami mug.  It makes a great prop in the picture of her Miami cityscape cross stitch!

Finn likes to keep an eye on her at all times!

 I also did some appliqué on my Coming Home BOM this week.  There sure are a lot of points on those suns!

My daughter thought the picture below made the sun look sad... LOL!

The second sun is still in progress.

I have also been working on some secret projects this week.  I will be able to show them after they are gifted. There has been lots of activity in the sewing room this week.

It is stinking hot here this week and so last night I made a cold supper, which included this beet and goat cheese salad.  Yum!

I will be linking up with Kathy and the Slow Sunday Stitchers tomorrow morning. 

A Little of This and a Little of That

I have worked on a variety of hand sewing projects in the past week. I finally got back to working on my Coming Home BOM designed by Sarah Fielke.  There is a lot of applique to do for the next couple of steps so I am making an effort to get caught up.  There are two crescent moons and two suns in the current border.  I did the moons last weekend and this weekend, I am working on the suns.   I appliquéd the circles onto the yellow sun rays today at the London Modern Quilt Guild meeting. 

Both suns are now ready to appliqué onto the corner blocks.

I was going to make the circles yellow and the sun rays magenta but my daughter gave me the idea of doing it the other way around.  I like it!

I finished off the last moon out in the gazebo one evening earlier this week.  It reminds me of that old song...Blue Moon...

The London Modern Guild is having their first ever quilt show in September so I spent some time this week adding hanging sleeves to my quilts for the show as I watched a movie.  All three quilts are now ready for the show. 

Last weekend, Christine, my husband and I went to see the Nancy Crow quilt exhibit at the Mansfield  Art Centre in Ohio.  I had seen some of her quilts in Toronto, Ontario and Muskegon, MI in the last couple of years and jumped at the chance to see more of them in Ohio.  I wasn't allowed to take any pictures of the quilts but did take a picture of the poster. The quilts were amazing...I recommend you see them if you can!

We also toured the Weltzheimer/Johnson House in Oberlin, OH.  Frank Lloyd Wright was the architect.  My husband and I have toured several of the houses/buildings that he designed and jumped at the chance to see another one.  This one is owned by Oberlin College and is open for tours one Sunday a month.

The house was build for a family of 6 and has an interesting ball detail around the entire roof.

I immediately noticed that the ceilings were a courthouse step pattern...

While in Mansfield, we briefly walked around the gardens at Kingwood (until we had to race back to the car because it started to pour rain!) and I took this picture at the lily pond in one of the gardens.  It was my favourite picture of the day!

I did some more stitches on Frank in the car on the way to and from Ohio last weekend.  I need to do more cross stitching before I add some more outlining.  Christine did some knitting in the car but I did not get a picture.

My daughter also did some cross stitching this week...I think the palm tree gives away the city she is working on...Miami!

Finn did not want her to do any work on her computer today...

I will be linking up with Kathy and the other slow Sunday stitchers in the morning.  Take a look at the other blogs for fun and inspiration!  The link is in my sidebar.