Knitting, Sewing and Secret Projects

I have always been someone who likes to get a head start on projects with a due date...I did this in school with essays and assignments and I do it now with gifts for special occasions such as birthdays or Christmas. So, yes, I have already started to make some Christmas gifts, which I cannot share on my blog for fear that the recipients will see them here before they unwrap them in December.  I am also working on a 20th Anniversary challenge for the Elgin Piecemakers Guild which I cannot show yet either.  All that being said, I did start a new quilt for our bed this week. 

Six years ago, my husband and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary by taking a two week trip to Iceland. We rented a car and drove around the perimeter of the island, stopping often to take in the views.  We were there in June, when the days were long and the lupins were in bloom, everywhere.  Purple flowers for as far as the eye could see in many spots...the lupins left an impression.   Fast forward to QuiltCon 2019 in Nashville where I was shopping in Gudrun Erla's booth.  I purchased her book:

The quilt at the top of the cover caught my eye along with the picture of the lupins.  I decided then and there that I would make this quilt and started to collect purple and magenta fabrics whenever I had the opportunity.  The fabrics, along with the background fabric and the book, were placed in a bin in my sewing room.  I have been itching to start this quilt for months now, but was determined to finish my UFO's first, before tackling a new project. Last Sunday afternoon, I caved. 

I made my first 4 blocks of the 48 that I will need for my queen sized quilt.  The purple fabric in these blocks was purchased in Scotland last summer at this time (our 30th anniversary trip).  It features thistles.

The plan is to make 4 blocks every week and hopefully, have a completed quilt top sometime early in 2021. I will keep you posted on my progress. 

In the meantime, I am still knitting facecloths and dishcloths to practice my knitting skills. I completed the  green facecloth I started last week.

I am using the leftover yarn from this project to make a dishcloth. 

I will work on this again tomorrow for slow Sunday stitching with Kathy. 

I have now made 5 Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks, which you can see in my previous post.  My turquoise block is cut out but not sewn together yet. 

A couple of these fabric scraps are from a quilt I made for my daughter when she was in Grade 7. It's funny how these little scraps bring back memories. 

I have many types of Hostas in my garden and this one is in bloom this week.  

The Gentian is also starting to show off this week. 

When I was little, my bedroom was purple and my aunt made me this petit point picture of violets to hand on my wall.  I found it this week in a box and it is now hanging up in our guest bedroom.  I sent a picture of it to my aunt and she remembered making it for me all those years ago. 

Take care. 

Back from Vacation

My husband and I spent two glorious weeks in Iceland earlier this month. This was an early celebration of our 25th wedding anniversary in September. We decided 5 years ago that we should take a special trip to mark this occasion and several ideas were discussed about where to go. My husband came up with Iceland and after doing a bit of research, we both decided that Iceland would be our destination.  What a beautiful country!  Many of our friends and family members were quite surprised that we were going to Iceland, and many scoffed, but once they see our pictures and hear the stories, I think many of them will be convinced to consider going to Iceland themselves someday!

There were several different types of wild flowers.

Lupins grew everywhere.

I loved seeing the basalt columns.

More basalt columns --the perpendicular columns form from the bottom up as lava cools. There were other columns that were "curly" and they had cooled from the top down.

We went whale watching--this is a humpback whale.

 



Interesting clouds.

A volcanic crater--we hiked all the way around the top of this crater.

A rocky beach.

Dried up seaweed on the rocks.

I have not done much sewing in the past 6 weeks. I had a sick family member in the hospital and recovering at my house for the month of May and then we went on our trip. This past week was spent trying to get caught up on everything at work and at home. Christine and I will be getting together this week again to sew--we have not been able to do this in almost two months and are both looking forward to getting our quilting mojo back!

I sat in our gazebo and finished the binding on this quilt this afternoon. I used Bonnie Hunter's pattern, Majestic Mountain Majesties. This is a lap quilt, perfect for using while watching tv or reading a good book.

There are lots of fun fabrics in this quilt--all from my stash, except for the outer border and backing.

Check out the chicken feet!

Green beans and lettuce.

Corn on the cop and barnboard.  Sunflowers, too.

The quilting is oak leaves--the same pantograph used for the shirt quilts that I made everyone for Christmas from my FIL's shirts. Cathy over at Eagles Wings Quilts did the quilting on her long arm machine.

I am linking up to Kathy's Slow Sunday Stiching.