Home from the Cottage, again!

My husband and I, our daughter and Finn spent the last week at a cottage.  One week sure does go by fast, but we managed to fill our days with reading, sitting on the dock, rughooking, knitting (me),  crocheting and cross stitch(my daughter).  We went to a farmers market and into town to do some shopping one day but just spent the rest of the time relaxing at the cottage. 

Finn loved napping in a chair on the screened in porch.  As you can see, I did a fair bit of hooking on my pitcher plant picture.  

I finished reading 4 books and started a fifth.  

My daughter, Finn and I went canoeing one evening.  We noticed that one cottage we went by had a barn quilt...no pictures as we did not take our phones in the canoe.  My husband was the official photographer from the dock. 

Of course, I took a few pictures...

Reading and cold drinks on the dock in the evenings after supper...

Finn was very helpful when I was knitting.  

The week before we left, I did a little demo on options for layouts for potato chip blocks at the Oxford Quilters Guild.  We are encouraging the members to try making a scrappy potato chip quilt over the summer.  I am making a donation quilt with my yellow and green scraps.  Now that I see the pictures, I think I will be removing the darker green fabric from the pile as they stand out too much. 

 I hope to make more progress on these this week. I will link up with Kathy and Frederique.  Hope you are staying cool in this heat we are having right now!  Readers from the Southern Hemisphere won't have to worry about the heat...

A Weekend at the Cottage

 My friend, Christine, and I had a few days away at the cottage last weekend. We brought our sewing machines, projects, and handwork with us, as well as some books to read and good food to eat.  It was a pretty relaxing weekend.  A storm blew through and the power was off for 12 hours, but we found lots to do.  We even toasted bagels and boiled water for tea on the BBQ!  

I started a Tiny House quilt (online class by Jo Avery).  My houses still need roofs and chimneys but I did didn't have the right colour of fabric with me to do them when we were away.  I need to make more houses and trees before I put it together to make a table runner.  

I took an improv tree class with Cheryl Arkison a few months ago and added a few more trees to my stack while we were away. 

Our guild is making some Quilts of Valour and I made these blocks to hand in for this group project.  The centre squares were provided and I used my own fabrics for the frames. 

There was knitting on the screened porch when the power was out. 

My flannel scraps baby quilt got some attention.  The centre is pieced together now and I put enough scraps together to finish off two corners.  I will have to piece more scraps together to finish the last two corners.  I didn't bring enough scraps with me...but do not fear, I still have lots.

Christine reupholstered a chair at the cottage with some selvages.  The old seat cover was looking a bit tired and now this chair has a new life!

One of Christine's goals for the weekend was to learn how to use her hand crank singer sewing machine.  She could still sew, even though the power was off!  She sewed her Quilts of Valour blocks on this machine and then started a new project.  She wants to piece the entire quilt top using the hand crank machine.  

On Saturday afternoon, our friend, Cathy of Eagle's Wings Quilts came for an afternoon of hand stitching and chatting.  There were also a few treats consumed...  Cathy worked on a paper pieced quilt--she has received squares from several blogging friends to use in this quilt and we added more squares to her collection when she arrived. Christine added more stitches to her cross stitch project.  It is almost done! I did some rug hooking on my pitcher plant picture. 

We ate our meals out on the screened in porch, overlooking the lake.  

One evening, there was reading time on the dock.  (until the bugs chased us back into the cottage!)

I came home to an explosion of colour in my garden!  Lots of flowers blooming at the moment.  

Several of the quilters who made quilts for the hospice were on hand last week to present 22 quilts to the new hospice which will be opening in July. (Not all of the quilts are in this picture.) The staff at the hospice were thrilled to receive our donation!  Thanks to all who contributed to this worthwhile project. 

It's been really hot this week, but Finn still wanted to spend time outside.  Don't worry, my daughter did not let him stay out too long in the heat.  

I have started working on the blue sky and the flowers are just about done. 

I will link up with Kathy and the Slow Sunday Stitchers as well as Frederique. 

An old UFO off the to do list

My 10 year old Sashiko project is finally completely done and can go out on display!

I stitched in the ditch around the navy part and then did three rows of quilting in the border.  The binding is on.  I didn't do any quilting in the sashiko panel--I could still add some if I decide later that it needs it. 

The backing is a fat quarter I had in my stash. 

I had a chance to knit several times in the last week and added another 5 inches to my scarf.  It is 56" long now. 

I finished the stems on my pitcher plant rug hooking project and did more of the brown at the bottom of the picture. It's coming along!

The scrappy flannel baby quilt also had some attention this week.  The centre part is sewn together but the selvage borders are not sewn to it yet. Yes...there will be partial seams on this one. 

The flowers in our gardens are bursting out in lots of pretty colours. Here is my Serbian Bellflower.  It doesn't bloom for long, unfortunately. 

My front porch is shady so I have a pot of begonias by the front door.  They do very well in the shade. 

This is a Blue Jay Columbine, a little past its prime. 

I noticed that our neighbour's tulip tree is in bloom when I was out for a walk this week. 

We went to visit our daughter and Finn last weekend.  They planned a mystery adventure day for us to celebrate both Mother's and Father's Day.  It included breakfast at an interesting cafe, a hike at a conservation area, an outdoor quilt show, a stone 5 arch bridge, a stone oven pizza and salad picnic with a view, ice cream, a textile museum and poking around the shops of a small town where several Hallmark Christmas movies have been filmed. We all had a great day--the weather was perfect.  Finn was very tired that evening!

The "Gear" exhibit was fabulous!  If you live within driving distance of this museum in Almonte, Ontario, I highly recommend that you try to see this before it closes mid July. 

I will link up with Kathy and Frederique. 

Have a great week!