My First ABC's

I am still reeling from my broken ankle.  But I just had to make this little alphabet quilt for a teacher friend of my DD's.  She is having a baby in a couple of months,  

 

 

It only took me a few days.  The letters are machine appliqued.  The most difficult part for me was trying to download a photo. to this post.  This is not the photo I wanted to add.  My computer is still giving me troubles.   But I guess it's better than nothing.

Be My Valentine

A little fabric Valentine's Day card for William.

And this week's Canadian Quilter's Association block.  I had heart fabric on my cutting table so I used that.

Happy Valentine's Day

Some of This and Some of That

Just a quick tutorial on the red quilt.

I made a few more blocks for the red quilt.  I also found a blue block.
It is very old.  I have lots of blue scraps, so I made a couple more blocks.  This is how the block is constructed.

Each piece of fabric is cut to measure 2in by 3 1/2in.

Two light pieces are sewn together,

Then a dark piece is attached to each end of the light block.

A light piece is sewn to adark piece to form a long section.

Then a long strip is sewn to the block.  The dark fabric has to be on the top left of the block and on the bottom right of the block.

All blocks have to be constructed the same.  The pattern on the quilt is accomplished by alternating the blocks.

I like the colours.  I think this will become my leaders and enders project for a while.


I also made a few more hats.

Still have some to finish.  I found a new pattern on the Caron website.  The hats range from toddler to adults.  The white one is a toddler size.  The yellow and aqua ones at the top are youth size.  The rest are adult.

I worked on an Alphabet Book for William.  I still need to bind it.  But here is some of what I have.

This is the cover.

W is for William.  This was the first page I made.

He loves elephants.

And fish.

And tigers and giraffe's.

I also weakened and joined the Canadian Quilters Association for their 52 blocks in 52 week.  Here are the first 4 blocks.  I am making mine scrappy.

Well that's all for now.  Till next time.

Red

This month's colour on the rainbow scrap challenge is red.  I have been working on this flimsy for a long time.  I thought it was just about done.  But I think I need to add a few more blocks.  Right now it measures 72in by 59in.  I want it to fit a twin bed, so it needs to be longer.  I will have it long arm quilted when I reach the right size.  I just can't do thid big stuff any longer.

Also red is my Amaryllis.  The first bud opened last week.  This week a second bud has opened.  And there is a third bud.  Never had that happen before.  It will probably open next week.

Linking up with soscrappy.

I can't get the link up to work.  Will try again later.  

A Few Things I Have Been Working On

I wanted to make some Christmas presents.  But that didn't work out.  I got sick.  So nothing got finished.  Except this pillow case.  William loves it!

I have been doing a bit of knitting.  A few weeks ago I took Wheeltrans to go to the Scarborough Town Centre.  There was already someone else on the bus when I got on.  We started talking.  (It's what I do best.)   We discussed hobbies.  And she pulled a knitted hat out of her bag.  She said she had made over 400 of these in the past years.  She  donates them and they are well received.  These little hats use up all kinds of left over yarns, which I have lots of.  So I asked her for instructions and started to knit some hats while I was sick.  They were easy to do while watching television and in between taking a nap.  I have made 3 of them so far.  Each has been a learning experience and so far there is not even a dent in my scrap yarn bin.

Now that I am feeling better I will work on some of the Christmas presents I couldn't finish.  But I will use my evenings to knit more hats.

Cats I Have Known and Loved - Feline Friday Special Edition

Sarah from Sarah did it posted a wonderful entry about the cats that have made her life better   She invited others to do the same.   So here I go.

I have always been a cat lover.  I had a very large tabby cat named Puss when I was growing up.  Sorry, I have no photos of him.  I don't think I even owned a camera at that time.  But I loved him just the same.

When my kids were young we got a white cat from a friend's litter.  My daughter named her Snowflake.  We just called her Flakey.  She was a terrific cat.  Unfortunately she passed away when she was only 13.  It was very traumatic.

We decided to get another cat and Rascal came into our lives.

Rascal

We got her at an animal shelter.  It was love at first sight for my DD.  It took us a long time to name her.  She could be very naughty at times, so we called her Rascal.  Rascal gave birth to three kittens before we could get her spayed.  She lived to a ripe old age of 18.

And that's how Tobicat and Daisy Mae came into our lives.  They were two of Rascal's kittens.  The third kitten went to live with my sister.

Tobicat

Daisy Mae

These kittens were a wonderful addition to our household.  They were well-behaved and comical.  Tobicat had some major health issues.  He was an outdoor cat.  When he got sick the vet feared that he had been poisoned.  We think he drank antifreeze from the driveway.  His kidneys were destroyed, but we kept him alive for many years by injecting him with a saline solution under his skin.  He lived to be 17 years old.  

Daisy Mae was a quiet, gentle cat.  When she was only a couple of months old, the neighbour's dog chased her to the top of the telephone pole in front of our house.  She jumped down and miraculously didn't injure herself.  Perhaps cats do have nine lives.   She lived to be 19 years old.

The next kitten we got was Mimi.

Mimi

My mother found her on the road in cottage country and brought her to us. She was so tiny when we got her.  She fit in the palm of my hand.   Eventhough I loved all our cats, Mimi became my favourite.  I used to have her contribute to my blog posts.  She was a very smart cat.

While Rascal, Tobicat, Daisy Mae and Mimi were still alive my son begged me to adopt a couple of cats who were going to be put down.  The couple who owned them didn't want them anry longer.  They had been kept in a closet and had never even been given names.  What could I do?  So I took them in and named them Felix and Oscar - the odd couple.

Felix and Oscar

And odd they were.  And frightened.  Felix hid in the basement for several months, coming out only to use the litter box or get some food or a drink of water.   But as he got over his fear he began to stay by my side every minute of the day.  He slept on my bed at night.

Felix

We never found out how old they were.  But they had been neutered and (ouch) declawed.  They were also the biggest cats I had ever seen.

But they all got along nicely.  Little Mimi and her big brothers.  After all the trouble with Tobicat and his kidneys I decided any cats we had from then on would have to be indoor cats.

Looking and longing to go outside.

Oscar had a seizure one very hot summer's day and passed away.   We missed him terribly. He was such a funny cat.

Oscar

For a short time my DD adopted a couple of white cats from the animal shelter .  They lived with us until she moved into her own home.  Their names are Patty and Shroeder.  Patty is a white cat with blue eyes.  And as is often the case, that combination  produces a cat who is deaf.  Patty still lives with her.  Here is a photo of little William when he was very young with Patty next to him.

William and Patty

Shroeder proved to be too much work for DD.  He kept wanting to go outside.  And he didn't like William too much either.  So my son took him to live at his house.  Shroeder was very happy about that.

Shroeder

We have had other cats who lived with us from time to time. Some when their owners were away or ill.  I loved them all.  I am grateful for all the felines who have graced my life.  They make everything okay.  Now I only have Felix.  And he is getting old.  I may have to adopt a little calico from the cat rescue place.  That would make my life complete.

I am linking to Sarah did it.

String Theory

This has been my 'go to', relaxing project over the past few weeks.  I made some more string blocks last Friday,  These things are so addictive.  And so much fun!  I have enough strips to make two more quilts after I finish this one.   LOL  My scrap bag is still half full.

So far it measures about 42 X 49 inches.  I want to make it at least a generous twin size.  Then I plan to have it longarm quilted.  Just can't do anything bigger than a baby quilt any more.

We Went to the Markham Fair

All the farm animals were there.

The big stallion horse

Was nipping, of course,

On the fingers that stroked his soft hair.

The chickens and geese

Crowed and clucked as they plrased.

While the donkeys and cows

Paraded to cheers from the crowds.

The rabbits were cute!  Oh so very cute!

The wiggly pig danced a wiggly jig.

And Xavier's beautiful bunny 

Won the Grand Championship.

Xavier is my nephew.  He loves animals.  This is the third year that his rabbit has won the Grand Championship.  Way to go Xavier!

It was cold yesterday.  A real fall day.  It took me hours to warm up when we got home.  But William had a blast!  He loved hanging out with his favourite cousins, the keepers of the bunny.   He ran and jumped on averything he could find.  And he went on a few rides.  

But his favourite activity was riding in the front seat of the fire truck!  He could do this all day.

Hi Nana!

Welcome Fall

I got this reusable bag at Walmart.  Nice, eh?

It is finally cooling down here in Toronto.  I have been working on my hexie temperature quilt.  I started it on the Summer Solstice -  June 21st.  Then the heat of July hit us.  The temperatures were out of this world!  I lost track of how many days with over 30C temps there were.  And the heat kept on going into September.

But last night the temperature went down to 9.7C.  The colour I am using for that temperature range is light green.  The first light green hexie for this quilt.

To give you an idea of the heat this summer here is the rest of the quilt.

It was difficult to do any sewing in that heat.  But I did have a huge bag full of scraps.  So I decided to make a scrap quilt.  Drum roll please......  Scrap Vortex was born.

I have emptied half of the scrap bag, but there is still enough fabric in there to make another Scrap Vortex!  I am going to be busy for a long time!

A Busy Weekend

I have not been doing much sewing lately.   This past weekend was a busy one.

We started out on Friday evening by attending the Beach Jazz Festival.  Lots of music and drumming.  I wanted my Japanese visitor to experience a typical Toronto summer event.  It was great!

On Saturday I went to Pioneer Village to see the Quilts at the Creek.  It was fantastic!  I loved it.  I took many photos, but the one I thought was the best was a Veterens Quilt the hosting Guild had made.  So beautiful.

This would be great for using up scraps!  

How's this for an idyllic setting?

Sheep are not my favourite animal, but these were kind of cute.

On Sunday we went to the Grand River Champion of Champions Powwow.  This was a special event and we were lucky to get a chance to see it.  I thought my visitor would enjoy a day of colouful Six Nations costumes and dancing and drumming.  I certainly enjoyed it.

I will get back to my sewing soon.  There are only a few more days for my visitor to spend in Toronto.  On Friday they leave for other Ontario and Quebec destinations,  It has been fun having her stay with us.

A New Weather Hexie Project

I decided to end my weather hexies which I had started at the beginning of the year.  I wanted to add the overnight low temps to my quilt.  So I designed this layout.  Each daytime high is going to be a elongated hexie.  Then the overnight low will be the regular hexie to the right of the daytime one.  I was sewing up a storm until we hit the really high, humid days.  I couldn't keep up with the temps.  .  I am hoping that they will soon become available once again.. Or that I can find them somewhere else.  Right now my quilt has a hole in it.

Instead of appliqueing the rosettes to a background fabric like I did before.  I decided to outline each week with light colourd hexies.  I started with the first day of summer - June 21, 2008.  That is the first block you see.  I just finished week 5.  I'll post more about these blocks later.  I am very busy right now, hosting a Japanese teacher for a couple of weeks.  I'll be back soon.

I was going to link up with Sarah, but her site wants me to accept her privacy policy and I can't figure out how to do that.  

Scraps

I started a new quilt.  I know!  I know!  I said I wouldn't do that.  But a couple of days ago, while cleaning up, I noticed a big bin full of strips.  So I decided to sew them together to make a strip quilt.  I am using all kinds of strips.  All sizes and colors.  Only a couple of days and I already have this much done.

27 blocks completed and several more started.   I am foundation piecing them on old magazine paper.  The blocks are about 7 inches and I thought 6 of them would make a quilt about 42 inches wide.  This should take a normal piece of backing fabric 42 inches wide.  But that might all change.  Who knows.

I have cute little gold finches in my yard.  They come early in the morning.  Usually there are 3 or more on the feeder.  This picture shows only 1, but there was another one on the back.

My day lilies are in bloom and so is my Verbena.  I love the colours these come in.

Dark purple ones.

And some pretty pink ones. 

I am also going to go back to work on my weather hexies.  As soon as I can figure out what the temperatures were last week that is.  I am not giving up.

Hot, Hot, Hot!

Our weather is super hot.  I haven't been able to do much.  I started a new weather hexie project, but I haven't been able to get the tempwratures for past days.  I'll leave it for a while.

I have some more stuff to post, but William is here today and he is keeping me busy.  My son fixed my comments, so I hope that works.

Here is a bit of what is going on in my garden.

Phlox.  All over the place.

Lilies.  Very colourful.

I'll be back soon.

When Life Gives You Rain... Make Fish

It rained like crazy yesterday afternoon.  The winds were heavy too.  Trees blew over, taking out cars, homes and power lines.  There was local flooding all around the city.  Even the Eaton Centre was flooded.  All I could think of was fish.

I have been working on these for a number of months as part of the rainbow scrap challenge.  This month is aqua.  I love that colour!  They are so easy to make.  But I have to warn you.   Each fish needs 6 little squares to create the snowball effect.  That's a lot of squares!

The tutorial for them is here.

This and That - But Not Much Sewing

It's been a while since I last posted anything.  I haven't been keeping up with my weather hexies.  That is mostly because I am not pleased with the colours I chose.  Also, I would like to do a daily hexie where I can include the low temps along with the highs.  So far I haven't figured out how to do that yet.

In fact, not much sewing of any kind has been going on around here.  Mainly because the weather has turned warm and the garden is calling me.  We went from a gigantic wind storm that blew roofs off houses, uprooted huge trees and knocked our power out for 24 hours - then to sunny days with temps into the high 20s and low 30s.  I didn't know whether to turn on the heat or A/C.

We've had many blue/purple days in the garden.  My favourite colour.  The irises were fantastic.  Early in the spring we had some very nice hyacinth.

These are creeping phlox.

And a few of the many varieties of Iris.

I planted some vegetables - tomatoes, cucumbers, beans and zucchini.  I also planted a pumpkin especially for William.  It will be fun to watch it grow.  I also planted some herbs.  So now all that is left to do is water everything like crazy and wait for summer.