Back From Vacation

 We just got home from two weeks in Calgary, Alberta where we were visiting family.  We had lots of fun and went to lots of interesting places. This post has lots of pictures of our trip as well as the sewing I have done in the last three weeks.  I will start with some progress on my hand quilting of the round robin quilt.  I'm just figuring it out as I go along and will go back to quilt the blue border as well as the outer green border when I feel inspired. 

I started a new fall cross stitch project on our trip.  The pattern is Autumn Bird by Satsuma Street. I like to do a bit of this colour and then a bit of that colour as I stitch.  

I went to one quilt store in Canmore and purchased these four fat quarters, all with a Canadian theme.  I really like the touques on the birds!

While out for a walk along the river, we discovered some interesting art made with marbles.  You could only see the picture they made when the sun was shining from behind. 

I also caught a picture of an Osprey landing on its nest on top of a public art installation on St. Patrick Island. 

We went for a short hike at Big Hill Springs Provincial Park near Cochrane. 

Who doesn't love a happy barn?

A real sunflower and an art installation in a reading garden. 

I'm always on the lookout for Quilty inspiration...

Fishing, anyone???

This is the best bathroom art I have ever seen! It was at the SAM centre (Calgary Stampede Museum).   Yes, those are toilets in the background...

We also spent a day at the Calgary Zoo where my favourite animals were the penguins. 

These little birds weave their nests with grasses. 

We took a trip to the badlands where we saw lots of Hoodoos. 

I took last year's fall cross stitch project in to be framed before we went away and it should be ready soon.  Here is the frame I picked out. 

Also, before we went away, I finished met Rainbow Scrap Challenge 9 patch quilt. It's all ready for show and tell at our September Guild meeting. 

What would a blogpost be without a picture of Finn the granddog???  He just got his hair cut this week.  (I saw this mat outside a store in Calgary...)

I will link up with Kathy and the Slow Sunday Stitchers, Frederique, and the Rainbow Scrap Challenge folks as well. 

Machine Quilting, Piecing and Hand Quilting, of Course!

It's been a busy week in the sewing department!  On Monday, I pin basted my nine patch quilt.  I quilted it with my walking foot yesterday and I have binding picked out to cut and sew on today.  This quilt will be done and ready for show and tell at our September guild meeting!  I used a 28wt light grey thread for the quilting. 

I pieced the medium blue block for my "circle" quilt and now all the blocks are made.  I went searching through my stash for an appropriate sashing fabric as I did not want the blocks to be butted up against each other in the finished quilt.  I found this black and white striped fabric and will use this for both the sashing and the binding. I am going to cut the sashing at 1.5" so only an inch will show once everything is sewn together. 

I added yellow and green beads to my counted cross stitch project.  Three more colours to go!

I am working on hand quilting this pieced border, just figuring out what to quilt as I go along.  I am quilting the final border as well.  I still haven't figured out what to do in the wider blue border.  It will come to me eventually!

On our walk one day this week, we saw Mama deer and two fawns in the woods beside the path.  

There were some interesting spider webs as well. 

Finn helped my daughter will her crochet this week.  He finds balls of wool make very comfy pillows.

There were some very nice sunbeams this week too. 

I will link up with the Slow Sunday Stitchers at Kathy's blog, the Rainbow Scrap Challenge folks at Angela's blog and Frederique, as usual.  Have a good week!

Hand and Machine Sewing

I continued quilting my round robin quilt this week, finishing the orange and green spiky sections and starting on the next border.  I am still undecided about what to quilt in the wide blue sections.  I will wait until inspiration strikes to do this part. 

I watched the next Moon Trees lesson on the Thread House Academy with Jo Avery and then added the. running stitch embroidery around my tree branches, as she suggested.  I have fabrics picked out for 8 more blocks and will work away on them over the next while. I used pearl cotton for this stitching, green on the gold tree and a variegated gold thread on the print tree.  I'm looking forward to making the next tree block with interweaving branches. 

The Rainbow Scrap challenge colour for August is yellow.  I cut out and sewed my circle block today.  Only one more block to make before I can put this quilt together. As you can see in the second picture below, it will be medium blue. 

I pulled out my cross stitch this week too and added the top stitching on the windmill and some of the beads.  The kit included a very fine needle to use for the beading.  I still have more beading to do. The beads are really tiny!

I am making a bird coin pouch --this was one of the taster weekend projects for the Thread House Academy. I have completed the embroidery and now I just have to put it together.  There is a zipper to add first.  It doesn't look hard to do in her video.   You can see I was sewing in the car.  We went on a date day earlier this week and I stitched on the way to our destination and on the way home as well. 

I have a variety of coleus plants in my patio pots this year.  Such interesting foliage in lots of different colour combinations. 

We went to the Royal Botanical Gardens in Hamilton on Wednesday.  We saw lots of beautiful flowers and several garden critters, including this bunny which was doing its best to hide from view. 

They have a special display of brightly coloured garden sculptures this summer.  

As you know, I like to take reflection pictures. 

Such big ears on a little dog, blowing in the wind.  Finn is cute!

 I will link up with Kathy and the slow stitchers,  Angela and the RSC bloggers and Frederique as well.