Almost a Week at the Cottage

Christine and I spent most of a week at her cottage and did lots of sewing, chatting, watching movies and eating good food!  It was a bit buggy outside so we were mostly inside.  Christine has lots of bird feeders which she kept well stocked all week so there were lots of birds and other critters to see out the window. 

But first, the sewing!  I added yellow binding to my colour challenge quilt and, over a few days, finished hand stitching it down.  The dock was a good place to take some pictures. 

I did most of the hand stitching in the evenings while watching a movie and drinking tea. 

The colourful birds at the feeder were distracting, but in a good way!

For June, the RSC colour was "pastels" but since I don't have many pastels in my stash, I decided to make purple blocks this month.  I completed all the purple blocks for my four projects while we were at the cottage. 

The Kawartha Dairy just released a new ice cream flavour this week.  We had to try it, of course.  Delicious!

One of my goals for the week was to make the last (paper-pieced) block for my Summer Sorbet sampler from the Threadhouse Academy.  It took a while to make this block as there were four curved paper pieced sections and then curved piecing to put each quadrant together before sewing them all together to make the block.  I put all the blocks together into a finished quilt top before we headed home. I have fabric for backing at home and will work on getting that pieced and the quilt pin basted this week. 

Christine noticed a visitor under the bird feeders one day.  What does the fox say, you may ask?  Nothing.  He was too busy eating.  

Our friend, Cathy, from Eagles Wings Quilts came over for lunch and an afternoon of stitching and catching up. We had not seen Cathy since we were up at the Cottage last June!  I stitched my yellow binding, Cathy worked on some knitting, and Christine did some cross stitch.   A fun afternoon!

Down on the dock, I took a couple of pictures of Christine with her projects.  This Christmas wreath wall hanging had the binding sewn on at the cottage.  The double star with the grey background is for her colour challenge project and is the last of 12 blocks that she has made.  She will be able to assemble the quilt top now. The quilt top hanging in the screened porch is ready for quilting now that the borders have been added.  We also both worked on  Dream Bird coin pouches from the Taster Weekend for the Threadhouse Academy.  No pictures yet...I will take some when we finish our projects. 

You all know that Finn loves a sunbeam.  My daughter took these pictures this morning.  The second one shows her progress on the rounds of her crocheted blanket. 

I took lots of bird pictures at the cottage...  The goldfinches and the hummingbirds were fun to watch at the feeders. 

This squirrel and others were happy to munch on seeds that fell on the ground. 

I am on the program committee for the Oxford Quilters' Guild and we are organizing a 9 patch swap  mystery quilt for the 2026-27 year.  I made 20 nine patches in three colours while I was at the cottage.  Christine worked on making nine patches too but I didn't get any pictures of hers.  The instructions will soon be sent out to the participants in the swap.  I decided to get ahead of the game as I hate the last minute pressure of getting something done for a deadline.  I am also trying to encourage more guild members to sign up for the swap by sharing pictures of my nine-patches.  Each month, the participants will bring in 20 nine patches in a specific colour. The program committee will collect the baggies of nine patches and redistribute them evenly amongst the participants--each person will get 20 nine patches back at the next meeting, made by the other participants. We will swap nine-patches for 7 months for a total of 140 nine patches.  There are also constant blocks which will be made along the way.  At the end of the guild year, the final instructions on how to put everything together will be given out.  It will be fun to see everyone's quilts!

To end this very long and picture heavy post, I present a picture of a new type of featherless bird at the feeder...

I will link up with the RSC folks, the Slow Sunday Stitchers and Frederique. 

 

Placemats, HST's and the Hooking is Done!

I went to the guild sewing day this week and worked on my pitcher plant rug hooking project the whole time.  I managed to finish all of the hooking!  The first picture below was after I steamed it and the second picture was taken before steaming.  It really makes a difference, making it look much smoother afterwards!

I have started the wool edging but forget how to turn the corner and will have to consult with one of my hooking friends on how to do this.  The wool for the edging is a dark purple, even though it looks black in this picture. 

My daughter started a new crochet project this week.  Finn is guarding her wool.  He's very helpful. 

I made and pressed all of the HST's I need for the next blocks for the Thread House Modern Sampler project.  They are on the design wall and may get some rearranging before I sew them together. They will be sewn in the groupings as shown. 

Our guild is making placemats again this year for the local Meals on Wheels recipients.  I have decided to make 12 placemats for this cause.  This week, I put ten tops together and cut out the backings.  The tops are all Christmas or winter themed and the backs are fabrics that will work well for the rest of the year.  I quilted 6 placemats today and the other four will get done this week. I still have to figure out what I'm doing for the last two. Goodness knows there is no shortage of fabric to choose from!  I will do the binding when all the placemats are quilted. 

I made two snowman placemats. 

And four like this.  The little squares were printed on the fabric--it just looks like I sewed them all together.  

There are two of each of these placemats waiting to be quilted.  I am using up scraps of batting too.

In the garden, the gentian is in bloom.  

The bees and wasps are having a party on our Clethra bush these days.  This is a Great Black Wasp.  I had not seen this one before.  The wings are an iridescent blue colour.

My husband and I went for a walk in Port Stanley one evening this past week and a tall ship was coming into the harbour.  This is the St. Lawrence II from Kingston.  The sky was full of dark clouds but it did not rain. 

Here's a picture of Finn in his favourite morning nap spot.  He likes to be touching my daughter when he naps.  

 I will link up with Kathy, Frederique and So Scrappy. 

Starting a New Quilt

 I signed up for a subscription to The Thread House Academy this year.  It is a series of online classes, one per month, led by Lynne Goldsworthy, Karen Lewis and Jo Avery.  One of the projects is a modern sampler quilt with three types of blocks released every four months.  The first three blocks were released at the beginning of August so I have pulled my fabrics--navy, aqua, and magenta prints and a light gray on white print for the background.  Everything came from my stash.  Here are my first two "blocks"--this is not a traditional 12.5" block quilt.  

The pieces for the next "block" are cut out but no sewing done yet.  I will work on that tomorrow. Since Aqua is the colour of the month for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, I will link up with Angela when I finish this post. 

I finished the binding on the gift quilt that I made so it is now ready for giving.  I will show pictures when the recipient has their quilt. 

I added more blue to the sky on my rug hooking project this week.  I wonder if I can get it done by the end of the month?  That would be great as I purchased a couple of fall cross stitch patterns this past week.  I even have the Aida Cloth and the threads ready to go...  I keep telling myself I can't start a fall project until I finished my knitted scarf and the rug hooking. This might take some will-power!

I have four different colours of phlox blooming in my garden at the moment.  Such pretty flowers that signal to me that we are nearing the end of the summer. 

My husband and I spent a couple of days in Toronto this past week.  We visited the Ripley's Aquarium, a dog fountain, the Royal Ontario Museum where we saw two exhibits-- "Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away." (very thought provoking and moving) and "Nature in Brilliant Colour" (the exhibit highlighted animals and plants in all the colours of the rainbow, colour by colour.), and we went to a play "Natasha,  Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812".  We packed a lot into our two days!  Here are some pictures of the highlights. 

Pizza at Eataly

The Aquarium

The Museum

Finn had a good week.  I can't touch the end of my nose with my tongue like he can. 

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