Arizona Quilt Top and Deer Stitching

 I put my Arizona quilt blocks together and it is now a completed top--36"square.  Before assembly, I remade a couple of the four patches. If you look closely, you can see that the cacti are now mirror images of the adjacent block in the next quadrant.  Anal, I know, but I didn't like how it looked before. 

I also worked on the walking foot quilting on the second potato chip baby quilt.  It is about 3/4 done and I hope to finish it this week and get the binding on.  One more of these tops to quilt...  The raindrop fabric is the backing.  I had to add the strip of purple to make it wide enough. 

The deer in my winter cross stitch only has one leg to stand on right now... he should have more legs soon. The borders are all done now.  

It's been really cold here--I have still been getting out for a walk every day, wearing extra layers to keep warm.  The latch on our gate was looking quite frosty when I was in the backyard yesterday. 

My daughter has finished reading 11 books so far this month and her collection of granny squares is growing. I think she has made at least one more square since taking this picture.  That is her sew together bag that I made her for Christmas. 

Finn was so tired one evening this week that he didn't even notice he was using the iPad for a pillow. 

I will link up with Kathy and Frederique.  

Quilt Blocks Made and some Slow Stitching

Last weekend, I showed you some fabrics I purchased when we were in Phoenix, Arizona in the fall.  I had pulled out some co-ordinating solids to go with them.  This week, at the guild sewing day, I started to make some blocks. 

I am making four of each block.  Each quadrant of the quilt will be a mirror image of the quadrant beside and below/above it.  I am using one solid and one print in each block.  The blocks are 6.5" square.  Here are the blocks I made early in the week, in a possible layout.  I was trying to show the others at the sewing day what I was trying to do. 

Later in the week, I sewed with a friend and made the rest of the blocks.  We played around with the blocks on the design floor to see if we could come up with something interesting.   This is the tentative layout, although, I may reorient some of the blocks before sewing it together.  I will quilt this one myself and will hang it somewhere in our house as a reminder of our wonderful vacation. 

 

I'm still stitching the borders of the final quadrant of my winter cross stitch project. You can see I am very close to finishing them!  Then, on to the colourful parts!

My friend had an interesting way of storing her rulers...she bought this shelf at Ikea.  Hmmm.  I might need to try this in my sewing room. 

My husband and I went hiking at a local conservation area with the hiking club this week.  The snow looked pretty on the pile of next summer's campfire wood.  We had never been to this conservation area before, even though it is not far from where we live.  We will be going back to hike there again. 

I really should be quilting some of the quilt tops that I have finished already but here I am, gathering fabrics for another quilt...  I decided to try some lighter colours this time.  I'm not exactly sure what this will be yet...stay tuned.  

It's always funny to catch a picture of Finn with his tongue out. I can't touch the tip of my nose with my tongue, but Finn can.  

Finn decided he needed a snuggle while my daughter worked one day this week.  

Speaking of my daughter, she has finished three more books this week so her collection of granny squares for the book blanket is growing.  

I will link up with Kathy and the Slow Sunday Stitchers in the morning and with Frederique now. 

Sewing Day with Friends

This has been a busy week in the sewing department!  I have decided to rejoin the Rainbow Scrap Challenge again this year after a 1 year hiatus.  My scraps are in bad need of being tamed!  January's colour is pink so here are my two projects so far.  I may add one more but I'm not sure yet.  I have a pile of  white 2.5" squares with small scale prints on them.  I have had them for a few years and decided to use them for the centres of these hollow nine patch blocks each month.  I am also going to make some triangle in a square blocks.  I made my first one today.  I may do two each month...

Six friends came over for the day today for some slow stitching.  Three people were knitting, three did counted cross stitch, one did embroidery, one did some hand stitching on some placemats and one did rug hooking.  Two of us also did some machine sewing.  (I know--the numbers don't add up to seven--some people worked on more than one project. ) I made a quilt top from a set of 12 scrappy 6.5" squares I made in 2023.  This is the third quilt top I have made with these squares--only one set left to make into a quilt top. 

I decided on a shadowbox setting for this one. 

Karen started knitting herself a new scarf with some yarn she had in her stash.   

Frances is making a shawl. 

Pat worked on some striped two at a time children's mittens.  The stripes are red.  I didn't get a picture of her second knitting project--a blanket that she is making from leftover yarns. 

Frances is making a beautiful hooked rug with feathers on it.  

Christine worked on the Fall section of her four seasons cross stitch. 

Elaine has started to embroider a stamped cross stitch baby quilt.  

I finished off the quadrant with the owl in it earlier this week and started on the border for the last section of my Winter cross stitch.  Progress was made today on the border. 

The border is not very exciting but it must be done before I can start into the exciting part!

We had turkey vegetable soup, buns, fruit and cookies for lunch. 

My daughter has been working on her Christmas blanket--the gingerbread border is coming along.  Finn is a big help, holding the blanket down while she crochets. 

She finished listening to three audiobooks this week and made three granny squares for her book blanket.  

My book club discussion about The Secret Garden went well and I am going to start reading next month's book this week.  During Black history month, we read a book by a Black author. 

I am reading this short novella first.  This one may make it onto the list for book club next year. 

A friend and I took a walk along a hiking trail this week and this was our view 

My husband and I went for a walk on the day it snowed.  It was very fluffy. 

Finn got a new toy for Christmas. It comes with molds to make frozen yoghurt balls that fit into the green part.  It slows him down a bit when he has his frozen yoghurt treat.  My daughter made the balls with plain greek yoghurt, some strawberries and a bit of peanut butter.  

I gathered some fabrics for a new project this week. I bought the four prints when we were in Arizona this past Fall. The solids were in my stash. I may get started on this project soon...I just have to sketch out the design idea.

A friend has a new grandson so I made him a cloth book. I have made many of these over the years. 

 

I will link up with the Slow Sunday Stitching crew at Kathy's blog, the rainbow scrap challenge folks and with Frederique.  Have a good week. 

Slow Stitching in the Car and My Daughter's Crochet

We spent some time in the car this past week, driving our daughter home to where she and Finn live so that gave me some time to do some cross stitching. I should be able to finish this quadrant off this week and then on to the fourth and final quadrant.  This is a great winter project!

Our daughter worked on her crocheted Christmas blanket when she was home.  She is working on the gingerbread border right now.  There is a white wavy "Icing" line to add and then more of the gold colour.  Then, there are 80 little "candies" to add to the two gingerbread sections. They are the same as the light green one shown in the picture below. Then, on to the final border.  The blanket will be 60" square when it is done. 

In the meantime, she bought some yarn online for her next project... a book blanket.  She reads over 100 books every year (last year's total was 123!!!) and will be making a granny square with four colours in it for each book she reads.  She has made a chart to keep track of the genre (mystery, romance, historical fiction, non-fiction, etc), star rating, source of the book (own, library, gift etc), medium (audiobook, physical book or e-book).  She purchased a yarn winder and she and I worked together to wind all her wool into balls.  They look pretty all stacked up and ready to be made into granny squares.  She hasn't finished a book yet so there are no granny squares yet.  She will keep working on the Christmas blanket and her other two UFO's too.  She is the proud owner of a wool stash!!  LOL. 

We enjoyed having Finn and our daughter here for the holidays.  The house seems very quiet now without them. 

Diann asked last week what books I am reading. I lead a book club and this month we are discussing The Secret Garden.  I borrowed my daughter's copy of this book.  It has a very pretty cover. This is our children's literature pick for this year.  We read a different genre of book each month. 

I like listening to audiobooks and I'm listening to "Long Island" by Colm Tóibín.  It is the sequel to "Brooklyn" which was also a movie.  The book is read by a woman with a wonderful Irish accent.  You should read "Brooklyn" first before "Long Island" --both are excellent.  Eilis Lacey is a young Irish woman who immigrates to New York City by herself and meets and marries an Italian man, Tony.  Highly recommended!!!  

 I received 8 books as Christmas gifts. I will probably pick one of them to read next.  I will link up with Frederique and Kathy. This is the week that I will be getting back into my sewing room to work on some quilts!