Pin Basting and More Placemats

I added the binding to the placemats I made last week for Meals on Wheels.  Now, I have six completed placemats and I hope to make 12 for this project of the Oxford Quilter's Guild.  

This week, I started four more placemats and I have fabric pulled for a couple more.  I need to piece some more batting scraps to quilt the rest of them and pick out binding fabrics. Sorry, no picture of the 4th one. 

I finished off the last few stitches in the blue quadrant this week and started on the border of the green section to the left.  More details will emerge as I add more stitches this week.  The wonky border to the right of the fox is actually straight--it just isn't lying flat in the picture.  

I also added the outer border to the potato chip quilt I am making for the Hospice and got it pin basted.  I will be quilting this one myself with my walking foot.  

These begonias on my front porch have been blooming happily all summer.  

My husband and I went for a walk in Port Stanley as the sun was setting one evening this week.  The lake was calm and the seagulls were showing their stuff. 

Our hike with the hiking club was at the Fingal Wildlife Management area.  The leaves are just starting to turn in our area.  It felt like we were walking in a tunnel!

Finn, as usual, is a happy boy, especially when he gets to go outside!

I will link up with Kathy and Frederique.  

Placemats for Meals on Wheels

 Once again, the Oxford Quilt Guild is making placemats for Meals on Wheels recipients for distribution at Christmas.  They are due at our December meeting but I decided to get going on mine right away and get them done!  I dug into my fabric stash to see what I had--so many possibilities!  We are to make one side Wintery and the other side to be used for the rest of the year. So far, I have put together and quilted six placemats--the binding will go on this week. 

I found a few orphan blocks that I can use to make some more placemats before the deadline.  These are great projects using larger prints as well as leftover batting --I piece it using a zigzag stitch. 

On Wednesday night, I went as a guest to the Ancaster Modern Guild meeting.  The speaker was Christine of Tesselate Textiles.  Christine and I each made a quilt using her Whistlestop pattern a couple of years ago. I brought my quilt along to the meeting to show Christine and for a photo op!

I made great progress on my cross stitch project--I am almost finished this quarter of picture.  I will add more stitches to the top picture tomorrow for slow Sunday stitching. 

Finn loves to get comfy on top of all of the pillows on the couch. 

My daughter reorganized her bookshelves this week and Finn helped by keeping the piles in place. 

The cream coloured crochet blanket has 9/42 rows done now.  

My husband and I went on a couple of hikes this week--one on our own at Pinery Provincial Park where we saw this interesting plant.  It is a Strawberry bush.  It has very interesting seed pods.  

A view from one of the trails at the Pinery. 

The next day, we hiked with the Elgin Hiking club and I saw an interesting bug -- this is a spotted cucumber beetle.  Amazing what you see when you look closely. 

In my garden, my aster plant produced magenta flowers this week.  On the same plant, there are white and pale pink flowers as well. 

Have a great week.  I will link up with Kathy and Frederique, as usual. 

I Won Bobbin Chicken!

I played bobbin chicken this week while sewing the binding on one of my quilts, and I won.  Only a few inches of thread left on the bobbin when I finished sewing!  This quilt is completely done now as I now have the binding hand sewn to the back of the quilt. 

The fox square is done (oops--just noticed the eyes are not stitched yet!)  and I have started the rectangular section above. I did lots of stitching of the light blue border this week too. 

I called my daughter tonight to ask for some pictures of her crochet progress and she sent me this picture of Finn helping her work on her blanket.  He likes to be close to her at all times!

6/42 squares are made for her "fried egg" blanket.  (See last week's post for the explanation about the fried eggs!)

We visited my MIL this week and her yellow hibiscus was in bloom. 

Finn kept occupied one day this week trying to get the treats out of his kong. 

My husband and I took his sister and her husband to a Tigers game in Detroit this week for their birthdays.  We walked by the YMCA where this wonderful public art was on display. 

The Tigers won, 3-2. 

The two mourning dove babies looked quite big this week when I took a peek in their nest.  (You can only see Mom and one baby in this picture) They have fledged now and we can water our droopy fuchsia plant again. It is looking much better!

My husband and I went to the Backus Page House heritage farm show today. I watched the antique threshing machine in action, visited the chickens and took a look at the Farmall tractors. 

I will link up with Kathy and Frederique.  Still lots of secret sewing going on behind the scenes here... To be revealed in a few weeks. 

A Fox, Fried Eggs and Secret Projects

I have had a very productive week in the sewing department.  Unfortunately, I can't show you two of the projects because they are gifts and must be kept secret for a while yet.  Suffice to say that I have used up some older stash fabrics this week as well as a few newer fat quarters purchased specifically for the quilt. In time, I will show both projects here. 

I have managed to add some stitches to my winter cross stitch every day this week. The fox section is well on its way to being done.  Those stitches that look like I forgot to do the second part of the X are supposed to be that way.  I should be able to finish this section this coming week. 

I picked up my sunflower cross stitch from the framer's last week. It is perfect for this time of year--the sunflower fields in our area are in bloom right now. This is a Satsuma Street pattern. My winter/Christmas cross stitch picture from last winter is at the framer's now.  I still need to finish the lupins outlining before it can go there too. 

A friend gave me an aster plant that she had grown from seed.  It bloomed this week and there are many more buds on the plant ready to burst.  

You may be wondering about the Fried Eggs in this post's title.  My daughter started another crochet blanket this week. Yes, I do believe that she officially has UFO's now since she has more than one project underway at the same time... When she showed me the white circles with the yellow centres, I thought they looked like fried eggs...she finished one block to show me that they are actually flowers!  This is going to be pretty! Her blanket will have 42 blocks like this.  

She also worked on her cream coloured blanket this week--using up one of 11 balls of yarn.  I like the texture!

Finn thinks a ball of yarn makes a perfect pillow. 

I went to the park with a friend and her preschool aged grandchild today.  We found turtles, frogs and a heron.  It was very exciting!  We spent time at the playground too and finished off the afternoon with ice cream. 

I will link up with Kathy and the slow Sunday stitchers as well as Frederique.