Almost a Week at the Cottage

Christine and I spent most of a week at her cottage and did lots of sewing, chatting, watching movies and eating good food!  It was a bit buggy outside so we were mostly inside.  Christine has lots of bird feeders which she kept well stocked all week so there were lots of birds and other critters to see out the window. 

But first, the sewing!  I added yellow binding to my colour challenge quilt and, over a few days, finished hand stitching it down.  The dock was a good place to take some pictures. 

I did most of the hand stitching in the evenings while watching a movie and drinking tea. 

The colourful birds at the feeder were distracting, but in a good way!

For June, the RSC colour was "pastels" but since I don't have many pastels in my stash, I decided to make purple blocks this month.  I completed all the purple blocks for my four projects while we were at the cottage. 

The Kawartha Dairy just released a new ice cream flavour this week.  We had to try it, of course.  Delicious!

One of my goals for the week was to make the last (paper-pieced) block for my Summer Sorbet sampler from the Threadhouse Academy.  It took a while to make this block as there were four curved paper pieced sections and then curved piecing to put each quadrant together before sewing them all together to make the block.  I put all the blocks together into a finished quilt top before we headed home. I have fabric for backing at home and will work on getting that pieced and the quilt pin basted this week. 

Christine noticed a visitor under the bird feeders one day.  What does the fox say, you may ask?  Nothing.  He was too busy eating.  

Our friend, Cathy, from Eagles Wings Quilts came over for lunch and an afternoon of stitching and catching up. We had not seen Cathy since we were up at the Cottage last June!  I stitched my yellow binding, Cathy worked on some knitting, and Christine did some cross stitch.   A fun afternoon!

Down on the dock, I took a couple of pictures of Christine with her projects.  This Christmas wreath wall hanging had the binding sewn on at the cottage.  The double star with the grey background is for her colour challenge project and is the last of 12 blocks that she has made.  She will be able to assemble the quilt top now. The quilt top hanging in the screened porch is ready for quilting now that the borders have been added.  We also both worked on  Dream Bird coin pouches from the Taster Weekend for the Threadhouse Academy.  No pictures yet...I will take some when we finish our projects. 

You all know that Finn loves a sunbeam.  My daughter took these pictures this morning.  The second one shows her progress on the rounds of her crocheted blanket. 

I took lots of bird pictures at the cottage...  The goldfinches and the hummingbirds were fun to watch at the feeders. 

This squirrel and others were happy to munch on seeds that fell on the ground. 

I am on the program committee for the Oxford Quilters' Guild and we are organizing a 9 patch swap  mystery quilt for the 2026-27 year.  I made 20 nine patches in three colours while I was at the cottage.  Christine worked on making nine patches too but I didn't get any pictures of hers.  The instructions will soon be sent out to the participants in the swap.  I decided to get ahead of the game as I hate the last minute pressure of getting something done for a deadline.  I am also trying to encourage more guild members to sign up for the swap by sharing pictures of my nine-patches.  Each month, the participants will bring in 20 nine patches in a specific colour. The program committee will collect the baggies of nine patches and redistribute them evenly amongst the participants--each person will get 20 nine patches back at the next meeting, made by the other participants. We will swap nine-patches for 7 months for a total of 140 nine patches.  There are also constant blocks which will be made along the way.  At the end of the guild year, the final instructions on how to put everything together will be given out.  It will be fun to see everyone's quilts!

To end this very long and picture heavy post, I present a picture of a new type of featherless bird at the feeder...

I will link up with the RSC folks, the Slow Sunday Stitchers and Frederique. 

 

The Sky is Done, on to the Flowers.

Yahoo!  The sky stitching is done on my cross stitch project.  Now, I will be working on the flowers at the bottom of the picture. There are lots of colour changes in this section so it will take a while. 

I quilted my colour challenge quilt this week and will be putting the binding on this weekend.  Then, I get to do the hand stitching--I like this part of the project.   I used 30 wt white thread on the top and light blue 50 wt thread in the bobbin to match the backing fabric.  I will have a picture of the completed quilt in next week's post. 

My hand quilting is coming along too...the red block is done and the blue one is well on its way.  The metal piece in the middle of the block is my magnetic needle minder.

My butterfly weed is about to burst into bloom.  This is one of my favourite flowers in the garden with its bright orange flower clusters. 

The purple flowers are Veronica and the pink ones behind it are Pincushion Flowers. 

The swallowtail butterfly caterpillars and I are sharing the parsley plant again this year. They sure grow fast. 

I saw these mushrooms on a neighbour's lawn on my walk one morning this week. 

I bought this plant for my garden last year and it started to flower this week.  So pretty.  The underside of the yellow flowers is red.  I'm not sure what it is called...

My husband and I tried goat milk ice cream this week.  Delicious!

Two years ago, Christine and I attended a barn quilt painting class and this week, we finally hung up my barn quilt on the wall beside our patio.  I can see it from the kitchen...it makes me smile!  My husband found anchors that make it easy to take it down and put it away for the winter and then re-install in the spring. 

Finn, just after eating his breakfast one morning, and before cleaning his beard.  He's going for a haircut this coming week. 

I will link up with Kathy and Frederique this weekend. 
 

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.