A Parcel in the Mail and Borders Progress

Robin, my swap partner for the recent Quilted Table Yahoo Group candle mat swap, made me a second candle mat because we all thought the first one was forever lost in the mail. She decided to make this one with a spring theme since we were already well past St. Patrick's day. So, now I have two candle mats! By the time I let her know the St. Patrick's mat arrived, this one was already in the mail. She sent a magazine about the Finger Lakes area in New York State as well as a FQ along with the mat. I am feeling quite spoiled getting two packages within a few days of each other.
Last night, I cut out the rest of the pieces I need for the pieced border on my Grateful Heart Sampler. I marked the diagonals on the little squares for the flying geese units and piled everything up by the sewing machine in preparation for some sewing time tonight. The weather was so beautiful today that I decided to do some outside jobs when I got home and after supper until it got dark--I was in an office all day and could just look outside at the sunshine. So, I vacuumed my car, put away the winter greens arrangement on the front porch, cleaned up some sticks in the back yard and put the table and chairs out on the patio in the back yard (with a little help from my husband). I did manage to do a bit of sewing when I came inside. I will keep working on the flying geese tomorrow. I hope to have everything pieced by the end of the weekend. For the last two years, I have been driving 1 hour and 10 minutes each way to work. I have been transferred to the office in my home town now so I only have to drive 6 minutes each way to work now. I have lots of extra time in the morning and after work to get things done! This is so exciting! More time to sew...

I took some pictures of my first daffodils today as well. The one on the left is less than 2" across. The one on the right is a regular sized daffodil.

St. Patrick's Day Swap

My garden is coming to life and with the warm weather forecast for this week, it will be bursting with more colour soon. I love the way the columbine leaves unfurl. I have many different kinds of columbine in my garden--I think they are my favourite flowers.

These crocuses are blooming like crazy in my front garden. The rabbits have not yet discovered them...
I also have some daffodils that are about to burst into bloom. I will add more pictures this week.

Back in February, I told you about a St. Patrick's day candle mat swap that I participated in through the Quilted Table Yahoo group. This is the candle mat that I made and sent to my swap partner in New York State, USA.

I waited and waited for my mat to arrive. The swap organizer, the quilter who made my swap and I were all perplexed about why my mat had not arrived since it had been mailed at the end of February. Finally, on Friday, my package arrived! I soon realized why it had taken so long to get here...When my swap partner did the label on the computer at the US post office website, she accidentally clicked on "Canary Islands" instead of "Canada"!!! Haven't we all done something like that before!!! I sent her an e-mail to let her know the mat had finally arrived and how it had taken the long route to get here. Thanks Robin for the beautiful mat, St. Patrick's Day mat and pencils. I look forward to using it next year!

Pictures!!!

The final layout for the Grandmother's fan block, already sewn onto it's row: The pieced strip on the end is not attached yet.

Here are the flying geese that I have made so far--some of them are not trimmed yet.


My goal is to finish piecing the flimsy for this quilt by the end of the month so I can take it to the Longarm quilter's.

National Quilting Day

Friday night, I celebrated National Quilting day a day early by going to Cherished Pieces in Tillsonburg with a few friends. I purchased fabric for the borders and back of my Grateful Heart sampler. The fabric was washed and dried on the weekend and now needs to be ironed and cut. I started to sew the first row of the quilt together after sewing the Grandmother's fan block into layout "C". (see previous post)

I spent National Quilting Day at Canada Blooms in Toronto with my husband. Lots of flowers and gardens to look at as well as booths full of gardening supplies, furniture, seeds, plants, etc. I did not really buy anything but we did speak to the man who will be building and installing our new gazebo later this Spring. Last Fall, we had our backyard landscaped with a new patio, bubbling rock, etc. The gazebo will be at one end of our patio and will provide a shady spot to do some visiting and maybe even some hand sewing!

Tonight, I spent the evening at Jacqui's for a QNIC. (Quilting Night in Canada) Chris worked on her braid quilt and Jacqui did some machine quilting while I made flying geese for my Grateful heart Sampler. I need to make 156 flying geese and I got about 1/2 of them done tonight. My camera battery needs to be recharged so I will take some pictures tomorrow and post them to my blog for all to see.

Come back again later this week to see the pictures!

HELP!

I finished the 4 little 6 inch Grandmother's Fans tonight. I hand appliqued the curved edge down. I am not really fond of the layout for this block in the magazine where I got the pattern so I decided to try a few options, take some pictures and see what all of you think. This is the last block for my Grateful Heart sampler. So...here they are:
"A""B"
"C"

When I got home tonight from work, my crocuses were blooming in my front garden. I ran inside and grabbed my camera to take a few pictures. It is supposed to get cold again this weekend...just when I was getting used to it being warm!!! The picture at the top of my blog was taken last Spring, before the rabbits ate the flowers.

#24 Tree of Life

I did it! I pieced the dreaded "Tree of Life" block! I have been putting this one off for ages and finally decided to tackle it this afternoon. I cut out all of the pieces last night while watching curling on TV (The Brier--the men's national championship). One more block to go--Grandmother's Fan. I shall start it tonight after supper and see how far I get. More curling on TV tonight so I may get no further than cutting out the pieces again.

#23 Fish Tales

This block took much longer than I thought it would--there was a big delay in putting it together because the power was out for over 2 hours this afternoon. I said in an earlier post that this weekend would have excellent weather for sewing--RAIN! Unfortunately, the rain came with some wind as well and a branch must have come down on a power line somewhere! There are a lot of big old trees in my neighbourhood so this is a common occurrence when the wind blows. These fish do not mind the rain! Only two blocks to go. I will try to get another one started today.