A Gift, Orange Blocks and a Walk in the Woods

On the way to sewing day on Monday, I stopped at the quilt store to pick up a gift for someone and some fabric to make a table runner for a friend who likes purple.   The lilac fabric jumped out at me as there are lots of lilacs in bloom here right now.   I bought three other colours that went with the lilacs and a striped fabric for the binding.  When I arrived at the sewing studio, of course I cut right into the new fabric and got to work on the table runner. (I was supposed to be working on my Kaffe Fassett Overlapping Tiles quilt that I started putting together last week--that will have to wait for another day!)

The runner is all put together and quilted.  The binding has been sewn on by machine and I am working on the hand stitching. 

My Orange scrappy Pineapple block is finished for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.   Below, there is a picture of the 6 blocks I have made so far. 

I made four 6.5" slab blocks too with my orange scraps. There are lots of little treasures in these slabs!

I finished off the bees on my cross stitch project and have moved on to the next sunflower.  I found the thread that was MIA last week and stitched the rest of the lower petal on the sunflower, but then I discovered I did not purchase one of the other colours I need for this picture. It must have been out of stock when I was at the store. This little problem will be rectified tomorrow. 

Finn received this lick mat for his birthday. It sticks to smooth surfaces with little suction cups on the back.  He particularly likes it when my daughter puts peanut butter on it for him to lick off the textured surface.  

Finn and my daughter are avid readers--here is the book they were reading this week.  I have read this book by Fredrik Backman and loved it.  Finn thinks it should have been called "Anxious Dogs" as he tends to be that way himself!

My husband and I went for a hike this week at a local wildlife area.  It has not rained here in two weeks so we thought it should be dry and I had heard that the trilliums were out, so off we went. 

It wasn't dry.  There were lots of very soft muddy sections on the trail and once we got started, it was easier to just keep going rather than turning back.  We were up to our ankles in mud. 

Despite the mud, it was a beautiful sunny day and there were lots of flowers in bloom. 

Speaking of flowers, our gardens are showing their best colours these days.  The deutzia bush is just starting to burst into bloom.  

These thrift flowers are a beautiful colour!

I will link up with Angela and the Rainbow Scrap Challenge tomorrow and with Kathy and the Slow Sunday Stitchers on Sunday. BTW, I cleaned our hiking shoes when we got home and they look as good as new.   Happy long weekend to my Canadian readers!  We will be in the garden...