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. 

 

Cross Stitch, Crochet and Orange

 I must admit that adding stitches to the sky in my current cross stitch project is not that exciting...I try to break it up by adding stitches to the bottom part of the picture too.  You can see from the picture that progress was made on both fronts this week. Someone asked about stitching on perforated paper--the paper is quite thick and I have not had any issues with it tearing.  I have had to unstitch in a couple of spots and did not have any issues.  

My daughter has been working on her crochet in the evenings this week and has added a few more borders to her project.  The coral and green chains between the flowers will eventually be covered up by the next border.  She's learning lots of new patterns/stitches with this crochet along. 

I finished off my orange rainbow scrap challenge blocks for May this week. I had to dig into my orange fat quarter bin to add some variety. 

The Oxford Guild has been doing a colour challenge this year--pick your own block and make one with the colour of the month.  I picked a really simple block and decided to make an I spy baby quilt with my 12 blocks.  The fabric in the middle of the picture below will be used for sashing and borders.  I used fabrics from my solids collection to frame each of the I spy fabrics. I am only using stash fabrics for this quilt. 

I bought some rhubarb at the farmers market last week and made rhubarb blueberry crisp (the blueberries were in the freezer).  There was enough for dessert for three nights.  Delicious!

It seems the rabbits in our neighbourhood are not easily spooked.  This one boldly sat on the sidewalk while I took its picture. 

Finn got to go to one of his favourite places this week--the pet store.  He knows the way and walks very enthusiastically on the way there, but is not so keen on leaving to go home.  Must be the treats that the owner of the pet store gives him while he is there....  A nap is required when he gets home. 

There's lots of action in the gardens these days.  The deutzia bush is starting to bloom. 

The seed heads on the Pasque flower are intersesting. 

This peony is getting ready to put on a show.  This plant came from my husband's grandmother's garden.  She died in 1964 so this is a really old plant.  

My species tulips are tiny but a real bright spot in the garden. 

My columbines self seed all over the place and this one has picked a spot near our patio to put on a show.  

I planted chives, parsley and bay leaves this year.  

The patio and porch pots are all planted as well. I picked a hot colour scheme this year.  They will fill in over the next few weeks.  

I will link up with the Slow Sunday Stitching crew, the Rainbow Scrap Challenge folks and Frederique.  

Orange and Cross Stitching the Sky

I got back to work on my orange Rainbow Scrap Challenge blocks this week and made 6 nine patches.  The next two sets of blocks need lots of HST's so that's up next at the sewing machine.  I need to cut more orange triangles so I have enough.  It's only half way through May but I am already wondering what the colour for next month will be...

We had a great discussion at Book Club this week about "the Berry Pickers."  In June, we will be talking about "The Frozen River".  I have already read this book so I feel more prepared than this month when I finished reading the book the day before the meeting...  I have started two more books... "Six for Saint-Pierre" is a mystery by a Canadian Author, Kevin Major.  This is the 6th book in the series and is set in Newfoundland and Saint-Pierre, a French island south of Newfoundland.   The rest of the books have all been set in Newfoundland and Labrador, most in places where my husband and I visited three years ago when on vacation there.  The author is from Newfoundland.   I love these books--the characters are interesting and I like how he weaves local history and sites into the story!

I usually have an audiobook on the go as well as a paper book. This week's audiobook:  A young widow's late husband has arranged to have 1 book a month picked up at the local independent book store after his death.  I love the way the narrator is telling the story.  I'm about a 1/3 of the way into this one and can't wait to listen to more of it. 

While out for a walk this week, I came across this rabbit on the neighbour's lawn.  Usually they run away as soon as they see a pedestrian.  This one stayed long enough to pose for a picture. 

I added more stitches to the sky and some areas around the barn this week.  Some of the stitches are even orange for the RSC...

While walking around the garden this week, I noticed this white bleeding heart.  I have never seen a white one in my yard before...must be a genetic mutation. The leaves are a lighter green colour than the ones with pink flowers too.  

We transplanted this flower from my MIL's garden. 

The purple columbines are just starting to bloom. 

Finn is happy to be back home although it does seem very quiet around here without him.  He is a good little traveller in the car and wears a doggy seatbelt to keep him safe. 

 

This weekend's job is to plant patio and porch pots.  We purchased the flowers this week.  Fuchsias grow really well in our front porch hanging baskets. 

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