Hand Stitching

I did not touch my sewing machine this week.  Not even once!  I did, however, do quite a bit of hand quilting and hand appliqué.  I did the first lesson of the Moon Trees Class with Jo Avery on the Threadhouse Academy and managed to get one block made.  The background fabric is a piece of Essex Linen.  The yellow tree is Fableism Sprout and the print is from Tilda. I plan on making more of these blocks with different variations of trees.  The next online class will teach me how to do this.  I'm using 80 wt thread for the appliqué and the stitches totally disappear. 

I finished quilting the centre square of my round robin quilt this week and started on the second set of orange and dark green triangles. I'm not sure what to quilt in the wider blue strips so if any of you have any ideas to offer, I am interested in hearing what you think. 

After being away for a week at the cottage, my gardens needed some serious dead heading and weeding. I did a bit each day this week and things are looking more shipshape now. There are lots of colourful flowers in bloom, both annuals and perennials.   Echinacea or Purple Cone Flowers have spread themselves around and I need to do some serious thinning of these plants...not right now when they all look so pretty. 

Orange Echinacea

Black Eyed Susans

Lantana (These are in a pot on my patio--one of my Australian readers told me these are considered to be an invasive weed there.)

Scaevola

Finn and my daughter have been here this week.  Finn likes to keep an eye on what is happening on the street from the back of the couch.  They will be leaving to go home soon. 

Finn and I had some time on the patio this week.  I was reading a book until someone came along for an ear rub. 

 The book blanket has had another row of squares added this week.  Only four more rows to go.  Finn was doing a good job impeding progress one evening this week.  He is very good at claiming all the blankets!

I will link up with Kathy and Frederique on the weekend. 

More Aqua and Hand Quilting

My blocks for Aqua month are done!  Here are the shoe fly blocks and the 25 patch HST block.  Lots of fun scraps in these blocks.  I have ordered some more Kona white as I only have a few small scraps left and I want to make more blocks for both of these quilts.  

I finished hand quilting this purple pineapple block on Monday and I'm now working on the magenta block.  Only one block to go after magenta--it is yellow.  Then, I can get this quilt trimmed and bound.  I will have to see what I have in my stash for binding.  Unfortunately, all of the grey background fabric in the blocks is gone so I can't use that.  (This picture was taken before the last part of the quilting was done--you will just have to believe me that it is now complete!)

I have a few herbs growing in pots on my patio.  The chives have been growing by leaps and bounds so I cut them back.  I cut them up into small pieces and dried them in the oven.  They are ready to use in soups, stews and casseroles next fall and winter. 

My Rainbow Scrap Challenge nine patch quilt is all sewn together and I have picked out some backing fabric from my stash.  I will get it pin basted and quilted soon so it is ready for show and tell at our September guild meeting.  I hope to have a few quilts ready to show at that meeting.  There are several tops in line to be quilted in my sewing room. 

The balloon flowers are blooming!  There are lots of balloons on this plant waiting to pop.  I also have a couple of baby plants that were seeded from this plant last year in other spots in the garden.  I love the colour of these flowers. 

The prickly pear cactus is also blooming this week.  These yellow flowers fade quickly once they bloom but they are a favourite.  Some people are surprised that a cactus will grow this far north but this one comes back year after year. 

I'm reading "Finding Flora" at the moment.  It's a Canadian historical fiction book set in Alberta in the early 1900's about a woman who works to secure her land claim.   A recommended read if you like historical fiction. 

Finn would spend all day outside if we let him!  His fur is like velcro and picks up all kinds of dead leaf bits and little sticks which he tracks inside.  It keeps all of us busy sweeping up!

I will link up with the RSC link up as well as Kathy and Frederique on the weekend.  

 

Aqua and Yellow

 The Rainbow Scrap Challenge colour for July is Aqua.  I just had my Aqua fabrics out last week at the cottage to complete the last block of my Sommer Sorbet sampler quilt so it was easy to cut out some squares and HST's for my blocks.  This is the only one I got sewn this week but the 25 patch HST block is laid out and ready to sew this coming week.  My interpretation of Aqua is blue-green, leaning towards green.  Turquoise leans towards blue in the blue-green family.  I think others do this the other way around.  It's hard to categorize some blue-green scraps as they are right in the middle of the colour family. 

I only had enough of the white with grey dots fabric, the background for my nine patch blocks, left for one more set of blocks.  I looked at all of the blocks I have made so far this year and decided that I needed yellow to finish off the set.  Even though it is not yellow month, I made my yellow nine patches and then figured out a layout for the blocks.  Right now, they are pinned in piles labelled for each row, sitting by my sewing machine waiting to be put together. 

I made a zipper pouch for a friend for her birthday when I was at the cottage with Christine but could not show it here until it was gifted. 

I finished hand quilting the medium blue pineapple block and then quilted the dark green block.  The light blue block is just about done too.  Only three more blocks to finish. 

I basted my next hand quilting project this week so I am ready to start it when the pineapple log cabin quilt is done.  This was the Round Robin quilt that I made with my friends, Christine, Katherine and Carol.  I have orange, green, yellow and blue thread to use for the quilting. 

I have been working on adding stitches on the bottom part of my farm scene.  There is a field of sunflowers at the bottom made with cross stitches, beads and a sunflower button.  I have to finish the cross stitches first before adding the beads and the button. 

My red bee balm flowered this week as well as my red echinacea.  The colour of these flowers matched the temperature outside this week.  Hot! Hot! Hot!

Through all the heat, Mom and Dad robin flitted about the yard finding food for their quickly growing babies. 

We had our Canada Flag up for Canada Day this week and to show our support for the Canadian Soccer team at the World Cup.  Unfortunately, they lost to Morocco today so they will be heading home.  This is the best showing that a Canadian Team has ever had at the World Cup. 

My geraniums on the front porch are putting on a show right now.  They are a lovely red/magenta colour. 

Finn loves being outside, even on a hot sunny day.  My daughter only lets him stay outside for a short time before heading back inside where it is cooler. 

Daisies are such happy flowers--if only they stayed in bloom longer!

I will link up with Frederique, Cathy and the RSC group. 

The Sky is Done, on to the Flowers.

Yahoo!  The sky stitching is done on my cross stitch project.  Now, I will be working on the flowers at the bottom of the picture. There are lots of colour changes in this section so it will take a while. 

I quilted my colour challenge quilt this week and will be putting the binding on this weekend.  Then, I get to do the hand stitching--I like this part of the project.   I used 30 wt white thread on the top and light blue 50 wt thread in the bobbin to match the backing fabric.  I will have a picture of the completed quilt in next week's post. 

My hand quilting is coming along too...the red block is done and the blue one is well on its way.  The metal piece in the middle of the block is my magnetic needle minder.

My butterfly weed is about to burst into bloom.  This is one of my favourite flowers in the garden with its bright orange flower clusters. 

The purple flowers are Veronica and the pink ones behind it are Pincushion Flowers. 

The swallowtail butterfly caterpillars and I are sharing the parsley plant again this year. They sure grow fast. 

I saw these mushrooms on a neighbour's lawn on my walk one morning this week. 

I bought this plant for my garden last year and it started to flower this week.  So pretty.  The underside of the yellow flowers is red.  I'm not sure what it is called...

My husband and I tried goat milk ice cream this week.  Delicious!

Two years ago, Christine and I attended a barn quilt painting class and this week, we finally hung up my barn quilt on the wall beside our patio.  I can see it from the kitchen...it makes me smile!  My husband found anchors that make it easy to take it down and put it away for the winter and then re-install in the spring. 

Finn, just after eating his breakfast one morning, and before cleaning his beard.  He's going for a haircut this coming week. 

I will link up with Kathy and Frederique this weekend.