Introducing....

Elly the elephant.  I finished her this evening.  I made up the pattern as I went along, so there is no other elephant like her.

She is right at home in my jungle garden.  Here is a close-up.  Cute, eh?

Hexie Transformer

I sewed my hexies together for the June hexie blog flower last night.  But I didn't have the layout for it.  And I sewed it wrong.  The stem at the bottom would not have come out straight.  If I wanted it to turn out like the one on the hexie blog, I would have had to undo many hexies and anyone who does these things knows how difficult it is to rip them out without shredding the rest of the blocks.  So I redesigned it and now it will be appliqued to a background fabric and made into another outdoor pillow.

I liked the colours because I have lots of purple flowers in my garden right now.  Here are some Sweet Williams.

And this is the Hydrangea that I planted in the spring.  My first Hydrangea flower.  Am I ever proud!  It is one of those lacy ones.

Hope everyone has a terrific weekend!  We are going out to the Mandarin to celebrate my husband's birthday tonight.  It's a long weekend for some of us.  Canada Day is on Tuesday.  Some folks are taking Monday off too.  Every day is Canada Day for me!

I am linking up with Angie at A Quilting Reader\s Garden

The Mystery is Over

Someone named Wendy Jones sent me an email, suggesting that the pattern I showed you yesterday is called, Rosewood Cottage.  I looked it up and this is what it is supposed to look like.

I think I may have taken this quilt as a class at one of our now-closed quilt shops.  I have all the patterns for the blocks, but I didn't realize there was so much applique to do on the borders.  I may have to make up something of my own.

Thanks for all your wonderful comments!

Look What I Found

While organizing some of my UFOs a few days ago, I came across these interesting blocks - some pieced and others appliqued.  I have no idea when I started them, but I am sure it was a long time ago.

I also don't know where the pattern came from - whether it was a magazine or book or maybe from the web.  I may have acquired it in a batch of scraps that were given to me.  I have a few more completed blocks and some hand drawn ones that need to be appliqued.  If anyone recognizes this quilt pattern, please let me know.  I would like to finish this quilt and empty out another plastic bin.

This morning I had a couple of hours to spare, so I worked on putting this block together.  (I still need to press it)

There is another block in the bin that is sketched out.  It has a birdhouse, a fence and a bird.  I'm really looking forward to putting that one together tomorrow.

I am linking up with The Needle and Thread Network.

Summer Solstice Stuff

As you may know, my DD is expecting a baby in the fall.  She wants to decorate his room, (yes, it's going to be a boy) in a jungle theme.  I made a quilt many years ago from the book, "How to Make an American Quilt".  She has had that hanging in her quest room for years. Now she wants to hang it in the baby's room and add jungle animals on shelves along with other jungle things.  I am glad to oblige.

This is Leo in my vegetable jungle.  I decided to crochet these wild animals.  I know Leo doesn't look very wild.  He is actually kind of cute.  I think he knows it too!

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I also plan to make an elephant, giraffe, rhino and monkey.  So I have my work cut out for me. Or rather, crocheted out for me.

But speaking of cutting things out.   I decided to make a pentagon ball.  I've been seeing them on the web lately.  Pentagons are five-sided polygons.  I cut out 12 of them from kid fabrics. Then I put the ball together using the English Paper Piecing method.  It turned out great, in my opinion!

Hope you all had a good first day of summer.  It's wonderful, but now the days will be getting shorter.  And I don't know if I like that.

I have linked up with Angie at A Quilting Reader's Garden.

I Do Finish Some Things Some of the Time

The nice weather is finally here.  Only a couple of days to go before summer starts.  Most of the gardening has been done.  Now it is just weed, weed, weed.  But that can wait for another day.  We had some unsettled days, weatherwise.  Lots of rain, thunder and lightning, hail, heavy winds and even a tornado just to the north of us.  But now the sunshine has arrived.

I have been quilting the Bob the Builder quilt for my DD's friend.  The baby shower is on Saturday and I had to get it finished.  So finish I did.  I put the last few stitches into the binding this morning.  There is still a label to be made, but I don't know the baby's name, so I think I will put that on after he is born.

While out in the garden I noticed my wisteria is blooming.  Our winter was very long and cold and I worried about this vine because it took so long to show any signs of life this spring.  But now it is doing fine.  It has lots of lovely flower racemes on it.

In all my excitement to get the quilt done, I have decided to link up with The Needle and Thread Network.  I think I have an hour or so left to do that.

A Bluish Purple Garden

My blue and white Iris is in bloom.  I love this plant and wait for it to bloom every year.  It has not failed me yet.  This thing is gorgeous!

And as I looked around my garden I noticed a lot of other bluish/purple plants in boom.  Here are my perennial Geraniums, also known as Cranesbill.

And my Chives.

I bought this basket of Million Bells several weeks ago.  I had to take it in and out of the house when the weather did not cooperate.  But it survived and looks amazing right now!

That is when I remembered that I had some scraps sitting beside my sewing machine.  So, yesterday, after returning from my outing with the Tuesday Friendship Quilters for an end-of-the-year luncheon, it started to rain like crazy!  There was nothing else to do but sew my scraps together and make a cushion for one of the garden chairs.

I used an old pillow form that had seen better days.  It is 14 inches square.  The fabrics are not really outdoor ones.  I will have to take this little cushion inside at night.  But it feels great to use up some of my scraps and make something pretty for the garden.  I hope to make several more of them from my scrap bin, in lots of other colours to match the flowers that will bloom later in the season.