Slow Knitting and some Zippered Pouches

 I belong to a sewing group at church--we get together every couple of weeks for a few hours to make items for our upcoming Christmas Bazaar.  This past Tuesday, 5 of us met at the church to sew.  P and I made two zippered pouches each.  J and M made bunting for Christmas, Valentines and Halloween.  K worked on another type of pouch.  The bin with our new items for this year's bazaar is filling up. We also have some stock left over from the last bazaar in 2019.   Here are the pouches that I made.  The pattern is from Noodlehead.  We have 6 ready to sell at the bazaar now. 

I did a little knitting while watching a webinar on the computer earlier today.  One more repeat of the diamond pattern is done. I hope I have enough yarn to make this into a square dishcloth!

Cooler fall weather arrived on Thursday this past week.  I went from shorts and a t-shirt one day to jeans with a sweater and jacket the next day. Finn and my daughter enjoy a brisk walk --most days.  Some days, Finn decides he doesn't want to go! He has a mind of his own. You can see my daughter had her warm jacket on. 

I harvested my bay leaves this past week and they are currently drying out so I can put them away for use later. This is the first time I have tried growing bay leaves.  I think I have plenty to keep me going for the next year or so. 

I took this picture while out for a walk last week...An interesting seed head. 

I will link up with Kathy and the Slow Sunday Stitchers in the morning. 

Whistle Stop Top!

Regular readers of this blog will know that I have not been very productive in my sewing room recently. My husband and I are involved in a couple of large projects at the moment that are consuming all of our time and energy. The deadline to finish is looming, so after that, I hope to be able to spend some one on one time with my sewing machine and my knitting needles!

I did manage to finish off the Whistle Stop quilt flimsy this week--The edges of the centre section were all on the bias so I stay stitched 1/8" from the edge to stabilize it before adding the borders.  I measured the borders by laying them out across the centre of the quilt on the floor and then pinned a lot so that the quilt would be square without wavy borders.  My strategy worked!  I will be quilting this one myself, eventually!

My light blue Drunkard's Path block is done! I have lots of blocks made but hope to add a few more colours before the end of the year when I will put this top together. 

These two strips don't look like much but they are the next step in the quilt I am making for a young couple that got married in June.  These days, every little bit of sewing counts, right?

I did not even pick up my knitting this past week but hope to make some more progress on my blue cloth this coming week for Slow Sunday Stitching. 

I go walking every morning at 8:30 am with a friend... This week, the fall colours were starting to show. This was our first foggy walk of the season. 

On Friday, my husband and I walked for 30 minutes on this trail. There were quite a few people out riding their bikes. It was a beautiful day. 

When my daughter was little, her favourite vegetable was green beans.  It is also one of Finn's favourites, although, with Finn, any food will do!

I will link up with Kathy and the slow stitchers in the morning and the RSC folks now. I remain hopeful that there will be more to show next weekend!

Light Blue RSC, Knitting and some Quilt Top Progress

I dug into my light blue scraps this week and got a start on my drunkard's path blocks for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge. Some of these fabrics have been hanging around in my sewing room for many years!  I used the dog fabric in the top left block to make a quilt for a colleague's new baby in 2003.  

I sewed about half of my whistle stop quilt top together one afternoon this week. It is not pressed yet...

I started a new quilt for the church Christmas bazaar as well this week. This is a stack and whack quilt made with squares instead of triangles.  I will use these blocks to make a small lap quilt.  The fabric is designed by Kaffe Fassett.  I like how each set of squares makes a unique block. 

Our Slow Sunday Stitching leader, Kathy.  refers to her collection of sewing machines as her "herd".  Using her language, I added a machine to my "herd" this week.  This is a Spartan machine--it only sews straight. Singer made these machines as a stripped-down, budget version of the 99K in the 50's and 60's.  I have had it tuned up by a quilting friend's husband and it is in working order. I can't wait to take it for a spin!

I did one more repeat of the pattern in my knitted cloth this week.  I did not have a lot of time to knit this past week, but every little bit counts, right?

We had a second morning dove nest in our hanging basket on the front porch.  The two babies have now left the nest.  I expect we will see them and their parents hanging around in our gardens before they fly away for good.  

Finn was out for a walk one day this week and decided this particular patch of grass looked very inviting. 

The Autumn Joy Clematis plants are in bloom right now.  Such dainty flowers!

My Gentian plant is also in bloom--such vibrant colour!

Like people all around the world, we are remembering the life and service of Queen Elizabeth this week. 

The plate below commemorates the 1939 Royal Visit to Canada by the Queen's parents.  This plate belonged to my Grandmother. Princess Elizabeth and Princess Margaret did not join their parents for this trip to Canada but their pictures are on the rim of the plate. 

I will link up with the RSC group as well as the slow Sunday stitchers.  

Orange and Light Blue, Hooking and Cutting

I changed the calendar to September today...I know...I was a day late but we were out all day yesterday and too tired when we got home to think about it.  I finished off my orange drunkard's path blocks for the August Rainbow Scrap Challenge and got busy gathering some light blue selvages for September's selvage HST's.

HST's made!  These are top stitched along the selvage edge onto a lightweight non-woven interfacing square, 9.5" by 9.5".  Then, I cut them in half!

I harvested lots of grape tomatoes today after supper.  This should replenish my supply in the fridge after making this delicious summer pasta dish for supper.  Today is our 33rd Wedding Anniversary --we went out for lunch. Tonight, we made supper together...a summer pasta recipe I found on the internet.  I substituted green beans for the zucchini. 

I finished the hooking on my class project this week.  Now, I just have to remember how to do the edge to finish this off...I have to steam it first.  I think it looks pretty good for my first time rug hooking!

I had a bit of time one evening this week to get the background cut out for my "Whistle Stop" quilt.  Everything is pinned in place on the design wall and I hope to get back to the sewing room sometime this week to get it sewn together.  The outer border is also cut out, ready to go but is not on the design wall. 

It's time for the sedum plants in my garden to flower.  These pink flowers are growing beside the path to our front door. 

Finn is happy to spend some time outside.  He often does not want to go back inside after he's done his business...

I will link up with Angela and the RSC folks on Saturday morning and with Kathy and the Slow stitching gang on Sunday morning. 

More Hooking and A New Quilt Underway.

My friend, Christine, and I used to get together every week to sew before the pandemic.  We have recently started doing this again as time allows.  This past week, we cut out and sewed the HST's for the Tesselate Quilts "Whistle Stop" quilt along. Here are my HST's laid out for 1/4 of the quilt. I thought that I would easily be able to find some fabric in my stash to use as a background for this quilt...but no.  I tried various shades of green, gray, blue and even white, but nothing worked.  

So...off to the local quilt shop where I tried out several colours of solids before turning around to see this fabric on a shelf at the other side of the store.  I laid out my HST's on the fabric and it was perfect.  I bought enough for the background, backing and binding.  The fabric has been washed but not ironed yet.  This week, I will try to get it ironed, cut out and the quilt top pieced together. The fabric is called Love Is... from Maywood Studios.  It has very cute baby animals in the selvage which you can see in the picture below. 

Over a year ago, my friend, Cathy, moved away.  Before the pandemic, we would get together to sew and during the pandemic, we sewed or knitted together on FaceTime.  This week, on FaceTime, Cathy did some sewing and knitting while I did some rug hooking . It's fun to chat and catch up with each other as we work on our projects.  I finished  off the sun and did a lot of blue sky as well.  I think one more session of rug hooking should be enough to fill in the rest of the sky.  Then, I will have to remember how to do the edging.  

A few people asked what it was like inside our glamping tent so here is a picture of the inside of the tent. 

And here is what it looked like from the fire pit. 

Hello from Finn!  I took this picture when we were talking to him on FaceTime this past week. 

I will need to finish off my orange drunkard's path blocks this week and get started on the next colour for September, light blue, for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  I will link up with The Slow Sunday Stitchers at Kathy's blog in the morning.  

Working on the Sky

Earlier this week, my husband and I went glamping for three days--this means we stayed in a fancy tent on a platform with furniture (including a king sized bed) and a bathroom, a deck out front and a barbecue to cook our meals.  The property was lovely and had lots of trails for walking as well as a pond with a paddle boat, a canoe and a row boat.  The deck in front of our tent was in the shade most of the time so it was a great place to sit and read a book (I managed to finish The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams for book club in September--excellent book--I highly recommend it!), knit and do some rug hooking.  I made great progress on the rug hooking, finishing all of the green grass and adding lots of blue loops in the sky. The second and third pictures show the view from the deck. 

I worked on my knitting in the car--a few more rows. 

A week ago this past Friday, the Elgin Piecemakers had a comfort quilt sewing day.  A large amount of batik fabrics had been donated to our guild and two of our members organized a mystery quilt sewing day which we worked on in pairs.  We were given a pile of fabrics for our quilt, including enough for the blocks, backing and binding. Every so often throughout the day, we were given instructions for the various blocks.  My partner was Yvonne.  We managed to keep up with all the steps and had all the blocks done and the first section of the quilt sewn together before we left at the end of the day. These quilts will be given to refugee families who have recently arrived our area.  Here are the blocks we made, starting with four patches. 

Stars:

Flying Geese:

HST's:

And houses:

The quilt is made up of seven sections and here is our first section. You can see that we had to add some strip sections and a solid block to this section. 

Yvonne and I will get together soon to get the rest of the quilt together. 

Today, I got out my orange scraps and pieced them together for my Drunkard's Path blocks.  I will cut out and add the white parts this coming week. Lots of memories in many of these little bits of fabric. 

We saw this tree stump with lots of interesting fungus on it when we were glamping. 

We had perfect timing to catch this shot of the sun coming through the trees on one of our hikes. 

So fun to get a good clear picture of fluff!

Finn found it a bit hot on his walk home from the pet store with our daughter today.  Nothing like a shady patch of grass as a good place to cool down and take a rest. 

I will link up with Kathy and the Slow Sunday Stitchers in the morning and with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge folks now.