We Have a Visitor!

Finn is here!  Our daughter is quite busy at work for the next few weeks so we have Finn here to keep us company.  He loves to sit on the back of the couch and keep an eye on the comings and goings outside, as well as watch my husband and I.  Finn likes to keep track of his people.  He's staring at me as I type this blogpost on the computer...obviously, I need supervision!

Finn is not allowed in my sewing room so I have a baby gate up at the doorway so he can still see me but can't get into things in there.  I managed to do some walking foot quilting on my black and white checkerboard quilt after I worked out how to quilt it and marked the beginning of the design on the quilt with a Hera marker.  Now that the first few lines of stitching are done, it will be easy from here on out. I am using fuchsia thread that matches the sashing and border. 

My sewing machine is now in the dining room for the duration of Finn's visit.  This way, I can do a bit of sewing when he is napping.  It feels like having a two year old in the house --I have to keep an eye on what he is getting into all the time and sew during nap time!  I managed to make three more blocks for my Quilt for a Survivor of a Residential School, which several members of the Toronto Modern Guild are making. As a group, we have committed to making 30 quilts for this worthwhile cause.  I am aiming for 12 blocks and will add sashing and a border when the blocks are complete.  A couple of the blocks will be made from four small blocks as you can see in the second row.  I'm using brightly coloured batiks for this quilt--all from my stash. 

I made one more pinwheel block after the group shot above.  

I started making blocks for this quilt in an Improv class with Cheryl Arkison a few weeks ago. We learned different ways to make variations on four different traditional blocks--churn dash, pinwheel, log cabin and sawtooth star.  She encouraged us to just play, which is what I am doing. 

My knitting project, a hat for myself, is stalled until I can borrow some double pointed needles from a friend this week so I can finish off the decreases at the crown.  I have some yarn already for the pompom so I will need to make that this week too. 

I made some additions to my thread collection this past week. The turquoise and orange spools were purchased to replace some that were just about gone--the rest are colours that I did not have before.  

I received a fabric store gift card for my birthday so did a bit of stash enhancement!  --3 yards total.  I still aim to only buy backings and background fabrics for this year, besides this small birthday indulgence! 

More of the Witch Hazel flowers came out this week with the warmer weather.  

I will link up with Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitchers in the morning. Happy International Quilting Day!  I hope everyone had a chance to do a bit of quilting today!