A Couple of Finishes!

I worked on several different projects this week and two were brought to the finish line.  I quilted and bound the winter wall hanging that I showed last week.  This will be donated to a silent auction fundraiser.  It is walking foot quilted with white thread in the white sections and blue thread in the coloured sections. 

I added a hanging sleeve. You can see the quilting pattern better on the back. 

Of course, I had leftover HST's so started another project with those.  It is not quite done and will likely be a Christmas gift for someone so this is all I am showing. 

I only have one more tree to do on the Fall Forest cross stitch project.  I will have this framed when it is done. 

The program committee at the Oxford Quilters Guild has offered a colour challenge for this guild year.  Each person who wants to participate picks a block pattern they like and each month, they are told the colour of the month.  They make the same block each month in the colour of the month.  This month, the colours are turquoise and aqua.  Participants can made one block with both colours in it or two blocks --one aqua and one turquoise.  I chose to make two blocks. This will eventually become a baby quilt. 

Last winter, I worked on a winter themed cross stitch project (the pattern is from Satsuma Street).   I took it in to be framed a couple of weeks ago and picked it up this week.  It is hanging on the wall already.  As you can see from the picture below, we had some snow for a few days this past week.  It has all melted now, thankfully.  We didn't even have our winter tires on the car before it snowed!

My daughter is working on her crochet along blanket and adding lace now.  She is learning lots of new stitches as she makes this blanket. 

I spent a few hours on my hand quilting this week.  This is the project I work on at our weekly guild sewing days. 

Finn enjoys a good snuggle with our daughter.  He always likes to be touching her, hence, the paw on her arm. 

 I will link up with Kathy and the Slow Sunday Stitchers as well as Frederique and her gang.   Have a great week!

Winter Wallhanging, and Some Slow Stitching

It's been a busy week with lots of commitments, which means I didn't get a lot of sewing done.   My hand quilting project is coming along.  After I finish the cross hatching, I will add more quilting to each block. 

I found a winter 5" charm pack in my sewing room and decided to make a wall hanging with it. The white on white snowflake fabric was also in my stash and pairs nicely with the charms. I made lots of HST's and then arranged them in a barn raising pattern on the design wall.  I am in the process of sewing them together.  This will be donated to a silent auction fundraiser which is taking place at the end of the month so this will get done quickly. 

I am stitching the second last tree on my Fall Forest cross stitch.  This is a Satsuma Street pattern. 

A friend and I went out for lunch and a wander around Port Stanley today.  The women in Port Stanley were busy knitting and crocheting poppies all summer--they made over 15,000 5" poppies which have been used to decorate the community for Remembrance Day.  The local Legion is in the background of this picture--the red across the front of the building is a blanket of poppies. 

You can see the difference between the knitted and crocheted poppies in this picture. 

The ginkgo trees at the local park where I walk each day still have most of their leaves, but soon they will all fall at once and create a yellow carpet on the ground underneath the trees. 

Finn likes to provide moral support while my daughter reads or works on her crochet. 

Our burning bush is burning this week.  The birds like to eat the berries. 

I will link up with Kathy and Frederique as usual. Have a good week. 

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. 

A Busy Week

Ta Da!  My Put a Ring On It is done!  I took this class during QuiltCon Together in February 2021 with Latifah Saffir, using her clammy rulers.  I had the top done reasonable quickly but could not decide how I wanted to quilt it.  This quilt kept telling me to hand quilt it, which I ignored until this Spring.  By then, it was screaming to be hand quilted so I got to work.  I used 28 wt Aurifil thread in green for the big stitch quilting.  I'm really happy with this project! I will be hanging it on the wall in my front entrance.  

I started machine quilting this flannel vortex baby quilt this week. Please ignore any wobbles you see in the quilting!  I am doing this one with my DSM walking foot. 

It seemed I had something major on every day this week so very little cross stitching got done--just a bit more outlining.  I hope to make more progress this coming week. 

There were lots of visitors in my garden this week. The swallowtail butterfly flew away before I got its picture. Look at all that pollen this bee has collected!

I'm not sure why this blue butterfly is called a White Admiral.  We also had Red Admiral butterflies in the garden this week. 

This is Finn before his haircut...

And after--so nice to see his eyes!  He'll be cooler now with all of the hot weather we have been having. 

My daughter finished her first crocheted Wooble--a gingerbread man. 

Her next one will be an elf.  

The mystery cross stitch project has had more stitches added this week. 

The hospice quilt top made with potato chip blocks is all together.  I will be adding a light coloured border and then will take it to the long armer for quilting. The backing fabric is not quite wide enough so I will be adding a strip of a contrasting fabric to make it big enough. 

Christine and I spent a day in Toronto this week and went to the Royal Ontario Museum to see their display of Canadian Antique Quilts.  This one was my favourite.  There are over 8000 tiny HST's in this quilt.  I wonder how long it took to make?  The quilts are on display until November this year. If you are going to be in Toronto, they are certainly worth seeing!

Unfortunately, no one knows who made this quilt.  Label your quilts so when they are in a museum someday, it won't say maker unknown!

I will link up with Kathy and Frederique. 

Yet Another Retreat...

 It's true.  My friend, Christine and I have attended two quilting retreats in March, two weeks apart.  (We won't mention that we were away for a week at the end of February at QuiltCon in Raleigh, NC...).  This is the end of our quilting retreats for until November, when we have two more. We are both very productive on the retreats and manage to get lots of sewing done.  It's amazing what you can accomplish over the course of 2 1/2 or 3 days of concentrated time with no cooking, dishes and other distractions!  I spent most of my weekend making quilt backs, pin basting and quilting a wall hanging and two baby quilts. 

This is the rabbit wall hanging I made for my MIL in the process of being quilted.  I used my Hera marker and a quilting ruler to mark one of each of the pairs of lines.  The second line was 1/2" from the first one. The up and down quilting was done with light green thread and the horizontal lines with the blue thread you see on the machine. I finished it off with the binding made from the same fabric as the narrow border.  This has been gifted already and is hanging up in my MIL's room.  She likes to show it to people when they come into her room. 

I bought a panel to make a quilted baby book recently and sewed it together at the retreat.  It has been gifted to a baby that is due in April. 

The walk between the building where we sewed and the building where meals were served was beautiful!

I sewed this quilt top at the previous retreat and quilted it at this retreat.  The binding was added at home this week. There is a baby in mind for this quilt.  She is due in May. The backing is the same as the background fabric in the crumby stars quilt I showed on my blog last week. I had to add a pink stripe on the back to make it wide enough. The turquoise binding fabric was in my stash.  

The scrappy nine patch quilt was quilted with a simple cross hatch through the white and gray squares. Again, the backing fabric was not quite wide enough so there is a strip of light orange added to make it work. I added the green binding at home this week and I'm in the process of hand stitching it to the back of the quilt. 

Our knitting friend, Mary, and I went down to the beach to see the sunset. 

I received some money for my birthday in February and purchased a kit to make a "Sew Together" bag at QuiltCon featuring fabrics with a New York City theme.  I started sewing it at the retreat and hope to finish it this coming week.  

Spring is being a bit fickle this week and so, in anticipation of a snowy forecast for Friday, I cut some daffodils and brought them inside for my table.  

Finn was not happy about the snow.  He likes to lay outside in the sunshine and it has been too cold to do this for the last couple of days.  Thankfully, most of the snow melted today and it is supposed to be warmer this coming week. 

Someone added some Easter decorations to a tree at the park where I walk each morning. 

Finn loves this little squeaky chicken ball.  It is not round and bounces erratically which makes the game even more fun. 

I bought a freshly baked pretzel at the farmer's market this morning...doesn't it look like it is ready to kiss me???

I will link up with Kathy and the Slow Sunday Stitchers in the morning and with Frederique at her blog.