Blocks for RSC

This seemingly messy pile of fabric is actually the makings of a baby quilt!  I took this picture when I had all the parts cut out and piled by my sewing machine, ready to sew. In the pile, are 12 of the 6.5" square crumb blocks in different colours for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge from last year.  I have four sets of these blocks and decided to use each set in a different setting to make four baby quilts.  The one I made previously was made up of star blocks. 

This time I am making churn dash blocks.  I had just enough of the black and white check fabric to make 12 blocks.  I actually had to piece two of them to make them big enough. 

After finishing my first block at home,  I decided to chain piece the rest at the guild sewing day on Monday.  Most people "practice" sewing blocks with no bobbin thread, but not me.  I forgot to thread the machine with a spool of thread before "sewing" all of these strips together...Ugh!  Back to the beginning again...

By bedtime, I had all 12 blocks put together and up on my design wall in no particular order.  I will play around with placement before adding a narrow sashing and cornerstones, as well as a border.  There are lots of scrappy memories in these blocks. 

In June, we had a Carolina wren nest in our hanging baskets on the front porch and now, we had a pair of mourning doves sitting on their nest. 

My daughter has been crocheting this week.  This is the beginnings of "Bernard the Elf".

I find it hard to do outlining when I stitch in the car so I have started a new counted cross stitch picture--a winter sampler by Satsuma Street.  It is not much to look at yet!  The Aida cloth is Cadet blue--much darker than it appears in this picture.  I will try to get a better picture next time. 

A few more outlining stitches were added to the lupins. There was not much time to sit and sew at home this week. 

Finn is telling my daughter that he would rather sit outside than watch her work from home inside!

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

Baby Quilt Done!

A few months ago, I dug into my flannel scraps and made a flannel vortex baby quilt top in an effort to tame the flannel scrap bin.  I ended up with a quilt top and a still full to overflowing flannel scrap bin.  Sigh...  This week, I finished off the quilting using this nifty attachment to keep my curved lines equidistant from each other as I sewed.  It worked really well!  I found some red Kona to use for the binding and now this quilt is in my baby quilt storage area, ready to give away when a baby comes along. 

The back is flannel chunks from another bin of flannel leftovers from pj's I made many years ago for my daughter and nieces.  

I worked on my secret project this week too. The back is pieced and I am ready for the next step in the process--pin basting.  

The lupins are getting some back stitching done on them most days.  Today's stitching was done in the gazebo. 

On our weekly hike with the hiking club we saw lots of wildflowers including this thistle. 

My husband and I went for a 21 km bike ride at Rondeau Provincial Park on Friday.  We ride mostly in the shade of tall trees at this park.  Of course, I stopped to take a few pictures along the way. This is Jewelweed.  

The maidenhair fern was so pretty!

We went to the garden centre today to buy a bush to replace one that was dying.  Everything was on sale...so we ended up coming home with 2 bushes and 5 perennials for the garden.  After supper tonight, the mosquitoes "assisted" us in getting everything planted and watered.  

This is called a Spigelia "Little Redhead".  I had never seen one of these before. 

We had a guest one night for dinner as we ate on the patio. Very shiny!

Finn has had a good week with lots of pets and snuggles.  

The pink phlox in my front garden started blooming this week. 

I will link up with Kathy and Frederique, as usual.

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. 

On a Roll!

 For some reason, I was really in the mood to sew this week.  It was too hot or rainy outside so I spent my time in my sewing room, playing with fabric.  I finished hand quilting my Put a Ring On It wall hanging, trimmed it and added the binding by machine.  I will work on hand stitching the binding tomorrow. I can't believe how much I enjoyed hand quilting this project...maybe I will have to do some more hand quilting again soon. 

I also finished the cross stitching on my Lupins project and I have started the outlining.  I like how the outlining defines the blobs of colour into flowers and leaves. 

Finn sent me a picture of himself with my daughter's cross stitch and crochet.  Finn is very fluffy right now--he is getting his hair cut this week. 

Finn had a bath last weekend.  He's always very soft after his bath. 

It all started a few months ago--I saw lots of people were making variations on the potato chip block. Then, a member of the Oxford Guild made two baby quilts using this block.  I wanted to make another quilt for our local hospice which is being built right now and will open in the Spring of 2025. I decided that I would use my batik scraps to make my blocks.  All of these fabrics came from the scrap bin, except for a few of the light coloured fabrics--some of those were cut from fat quarters.  I made one block, just to see how it would look. I planned on making these blocks as leaders/enders as I worked on my secret project. 

But, like potato chips, I could not just make (eat!) one and pretty soon, I had 8 blocks on the design floor and other blocks partly completed on my sewing table.

Today, I finished off the last 12 blocks for a total of 20 blocks.  I have been working away on the secret project too but it is still not fully put together. The potato chip blocks became the main project and the secret project became the leaders/enders!

As I laid the blocks out on the floor, I started to think about how to put them together and decided that sashing and cornerstones would be the way to go.  Since I don't want to buy any fabric for this quilt, I searched high and low though my stash to find the right thing.  I found this birch tree fabric at the bottom of the yardage stack--I purchased it many years ago when I was at a Beaver Island Quilt Retreat with Gwen Marston.  I used some of it in a quilt I made for my FIL in January 2013 and since then, it has sat on a shelf in my sewing room.  

Of course, I had to start sewing the sashing to the blocks right away to see how it was going to look.  It's perfect!  Just the look I was hoping to achieve.  It's a good thing I kept that fabric for all these years!  There will be an outer border too but I am not sure how I will do that yet.  Stay tuned. 

My friend Pat and I saw a doe with her fawn at the park when we were walking one day this week.  We often see the deer, but this is the first time we saw a baby. 

My favourite flowers, butterfly weed, are blooming in my garden right now.  The ants like them too. Such a bright and happy pop of colour!

On Wednesday, we had lots of rain, the remnants of Hurricane Beryl. I went outside in a break in the rain to take a few pictures with my phone.   This is a shamrock. 

This shamrock flower was unfurling itself. 

This is false heather--the flowers are quite tiny. 

The hostas had lots of water droplets on them.  The bee was trying to keep out of the rain!

This is a single flower on one of our hydrangea bushes.  It is also very small. 

I will link up with Kathy and Frederique again this week. Thanks for stopping by.  I love to read your comments.