On a Roll!

 For some reason, I was really in the mood to sew this week.  It was too hot or rainy outside so I spent my time in my sewing room, playing with fabric.  I finished hand quilting my Put a Ring On It wall hanging, trimmed it and added the binding by machine.  I will work on hand stitching the binding tomorrow. I can't believe how much I enjoyed hand quilting this project...maybe I will have to do some more hand quilting again soon. 

I also finished the cross stitching on my Lupins project and I have started the outlining.  I like how the outlining defines the blobs of colour into flowers and leaves. 

Finn sent me a picture of himself with my daughter's cross stitch and crochet.  Finn is very fluffy right now--he is getting his hair cut this week. 

Finn had a bath last weekend.  He's always very soft after his bath. 

It all started a few months ago--I saw lots of people were making variations on the potato chip block. Then, a member of the Oxford Guild made two baby quilts using this block.  I wanted to make another quilt for our local hospice which is being built right now and will open in the Spring of 2025. I decided that I would use my batik scraps to make my blocks.  All of these fabrics came from the scrap bin, except for a few of the light coloured fabrics--some of those were cut from fat quarters.  I made one block, just to see how it would look. I planned on making these blocks as leaders/enders as I worked on my secret project. 

But, like potato chips, I could not just make (eat!) one and pretty soon, I had 8 blocks on the design floor and other blocks partly completed on my sewing table.

Today, I finished off the last 12 blocks for a total of 20 blocks.  I have been working away on the secret project too but it is still not fully put together. The potato chip blocks became the main project and the secret project became the leaders/enders!

As I laid the blocks out on the floor, I started to think about how to put them together and decided that sashing and cornerstones would be the way to go.  Since I don't want to buy any fabric for this quilt, I searched high and low though my stash to find the right thing.  I found this birch tree fabric at the bottom of the yardage stack--I purchased it many years ago when I was at a Beaver Island Quilt Retreat with Gwen Marston.  I used some of it in a quilt I made for my FIL in January 2013 and since then, it has sat on a shelf in my sewing room.  

Of course, I had to start sewing the sashing to the blocks right away to see how it was going to look.  It's perfect!  Just the look I was hoping to achieve.  It's a good thing I kept that fabric for all these years!  There will be an outer border too but I am not sure how I will do that yet.  Stay tuned. 

My friend Pat and I saw a doe with her fawn at the park when we were walking one day this week.  We often see the deer, but this is the first time we saw a baby. 

My favourite flowers, butterfly weed, are blooming in my garden right now.  The ants like them too. Such a bright and happy pop of colour!

On Wednesday, we had lots of rain, the remnants of Hurricane Beryl. I went outside in a break in the rain to take a few pictures with my phone.   This is a shamrock. 

This shamrock flower was unfurling itself. 

This is false heather--the flowers are quite tiny. 

The hostas had lots of water droplets on them.  The bee was trying to keep out of the rain!

This is a single flower on one of our hydrangea bushes.  It is also very small. 

I will link up with Kathy and Frederique again this week. Thanks for stopping by.  I love to read your comments.