Going to the Dogs

Introducing... (drum roll please) ... Patches, my little dog!  Isn't he cute?

I have neglected my sewing for the past two days in order to put this little guy together.  But it was worth it, I think.  I am very pleased with how he turned out.  But not only was a bit of crocheting going on around here, a lot of growing was going on in my garden.  We had some extreme rain in the past few days and the temperature was very spring-like.   Just look at how my garden has blossomed!

Here is Patches in my Bergenia.

And here he is admiring my Euphorbia.  This is one of my favourite plants in my garden.

But he looks lonely, don't you think?.  I must get busy and make him a brother or sister. 

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day!

 

Have you hugged a Mom today?

Butterfly Hexies

I joined The Hexie Blog to make a different hexie block each month.  The block for May is a butterfly.

I didn't add the hexagon with the antenna because I didn't have any fabric that would work for that.  I think I will just embroider some after I applique the butterfly to a background fabric.  Here is another shot of it beside some dandelions that are coming up all over the place.  It's spring and I love it!

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Dance of Joy

The Folk Dance Jamboree is being held because it is Education Week here in Toronto.  Every evening this week, Albert Campbell Square is alive with the sounds of music and children's laughter.  I have always loved this wonderful event, so I asked to go along and they let me.

I loved it!

On the sewing front, nothing much has been going on.  I had an extremely busy weekend. There was a lot of fence staining going on.  My future weekends will likely be filled with more of that.

But I finished the baby blanket I was working on.  It is loosely based on a Lion Brand pattern. And when I say "loosely", I mean it.  I didn't use Lion Brand yarn, not even the bonbons yarn that the pattern called for. I used mostly Red Heart yarns - huge balls called 'Comfort' and some others that I had in my stash.  With size 6mm needles I cast on a number of stitches that I thought would make the blanket wide enough.  I don't even remember how many.  Then I knit some white rows and changed colour according to the colours of the rainbow.  I had these yarns at home, so I didn't even have to buy any yarn.  I used 8 rainbow colours.  The only problem I had was running out of the white about 10 rows from completion. So I went out and bought another ball.  Bummer.  But now I have enough to make another blanket.

It's just plain knitting, but I love how it turned out.  It's about 35 inches wide by 45 inches long. My DD loves it too.  I made it especially for her.  Well, not for her exactly, but for her new baby boy.  You see, my DD is pregnant and that is why I am doing the Happy Dance!

What I am Working On

I am always asked why I don't post more often.  People complain that they visit my blog, but there is nothing new going on.  I am working as fast as I can, folks.  But it is spring - sort of - and I am busy in the garden, getting out on my scooter and doing other outdoor stuff.

I am still sewing and quilting, but not as much as I would like.  I do have something to show you though.

Here are some of my maple leaf blocks.  I still have a few more to go.  Hopefully I will finish them in the next week or so.  I am trying to sew at least one block per day.

And here is something new I started a couple of days ago.  I am sewing selvages together that will eventually become a bag.  This is so much fun!

If you want to show me how much you like my blog, leave me a comment.  That way I will know that folks are interested and maybe I will post more often.  Thanks!

Bob the Builder Baby Quilt

The top is finished!  Now I just have to sandwich and quilt it.  My DD commissioned me to make this for a friend of hers.  It is approximately 42 inches square.  The baby shower is not until the end of June, so I have time.

This was a fun project to work on.  I have another piece of fabric with dinosaurs on it.  Someone gave it to me.  I think I will make another quilt like this one, using that fabric.  But first I have to finish the maple leaf quilt.  Hope to show you that one soon.

I am linking up with the needle and thread network and a quilting reader's garden.

Happy Earth Day!

We finally have some spring.  Not a lot, but there is a hint of it in the air.  I planted an urn with some spring bulbs, pansies and primrose.  I just couldn't wait for the flowers to come out in my garden.

But my Scilla Siberica is also blooming on my front lawn.  I love blue flowers.  When these come out I know it's spring.

It rained last night and you can see the droplets on the flowers.  Another sign of spring to my eye!

Today is Earth Day.  This is one of my favourite days of the year.  I hope you plan to do something green to help our planet.  Maybe join in on the 22 minute clean up.

Happy Earth Day, everyone!

I will show you some quilty stuff tomorrow.  I promise.

Hey! What's that White Stuff?

I had wanted to show you what is on my design floor, but I can't concentrate on my quilting when my world is starting to look a lot like winter again.

My frog is freezing his little you-know-what off.  Not a happy camper right now.  I think.

And what about this robin?  I found him sitting in my apple tree, singing away and preening himself.  Kind of like using the snowflakes as a shower.  He seemed happy, but I'm not sure.  I wouldn't be.

I guess he has seen snow in April before and is making the best of things.  So I will do the same and show you what I will be working on in the next week or so.  First is my maple leaf quilt.  This is one of my UFOs that I want to get done this month.  I have a few stems to applique before I can finish it.  But that shouldn't take long.

And then there are my hexies.  I am still working on them.  I doubt if they will be finished any time soon. They are my ongoing evening project.  I think these will take another year or so.

And last, but not least is this quilt.  My DD asked me to make a baby boy quilt for a friend of hers.  So this is what I came up with.  There will be a total of 16 blocks with sashing between them.  I hope to have it completed - at least to a flimsy stage - by this weekend.  The focus blocks are made using a Bob the Builder fabric that I have had in my staff for a long time.  It will be good to get it used up.

And now I am off to my Tuesday morning group. 

 See you again soon.

A New Species of Wildlife

At around 9:30PM on Saturday evening I looked out of the front window of my DD's house and saw what I thought was a cat.  Our visitors had just gotten into their car and I wondered how this 'cat' had not been frightened away. It had its back to me, so I called my son over to look at it because it seemed to be a strange colour.  That's when my DS told me it was an opossum.  How exciting!  I had never seen one before.  I thought they lived in the southern states.  And they do, but lately many opossums have been seen in the Greater Toronto Area.  I wasn't able to take a photo because it was too dark and I didn't have my camera, so I borrowed this pic from the internet.

This is the Virginia Opossum and it is not native to Southern Ontario, but has been coming here over the last few decades, probably hitching a ride on the back of trucks.  It is the only marsupial found in North America.  They really don't like the cold, but the one I saw seems to have weathered our worst winter in over 20 years quite well. I can't wait to see more of them.

I am now going back to my sewing room.  I had wanted to post 'what's on my design wall' this morning, but decided to go to the library first thing, before the rains came.  I also needed to buy milk.  It is still warm out - in the high teens, but that will change by tomorrow morning.  The forecast is for -1C with freezing rain and snow.  How crazy is that.?  Hope that opossum is able to keep himself warm.

Garden of Hope - A Recovery Quilt

Our Guild held a quilt show this weekend.  It was fantastic!  Lots of quilts and wall hangings.  Lots of vendors, a boutique, an auction and results of our quilt challenge.  I spent my afternoon viewing the quilts and then manning the admissions table.  I managed to get a few photos of the quilts.  I will show some more of them later, but for now here is the quilt I entered into the show.  It measures about 60 inches by 84 inches.

This is the quilt I started a few years ago when I was in a rehab hospital recovering from a rare neurological disorder.  It was an attempt to relieve my depression over not being able to walk any longer.  I was given large doses of steroids to stifle my auto-immune system, but even after several months things did not get much better.  I was offered mood altering drugs by several doctors, but I didn't think my body could stand even one more chemical.  I told them to give me fabric instead of pills and they just laughed at me.  But even as they were laughing I turned my hospital room into a sewing studio.  Boxes of fabrics, lined my walls.  I hand pieced and appliqued during my free time between physio and OT and often far into the night.  The nurses were very supportive.  They would come and visit my room to see what I had accomplished that day. I based my quilt on one that I saw in the magazine, Australian Country Threads.  And guess what?  My therapy worked!  A creative heart is a happy heart!  

I got many compliments on my quilt today and that felt good.  A wonderful woman named, Janet Chisholm long arm quilted it for me.  She did a wonderful job.  I don't think my quilt would have looked as good if she hadn't spent so much time on it.  

And now I am off to bed.  It's been a long, exciting day!

 

Quilt Show

It's spring!  And if you live in the Greater Toronto Area and feel bored this weekend, what better thing to do than to come and join us at our Quilt Show.

I was over there last night to drop off my quilt and it looks like it will be a great show.  Lots of members' quilts and wall hangings, our raffle quilt,  merchant's mall and guild boutique, tea room and bake sale, guild challenge display, viewer's choice awards, door prizes and more.  It's being held at the Pickering Recreation Complex located at 1867 Valley Farm Road in Pickering.

I did not take a photo of my quilt before I put into the show, but tomorrow I will be manning the admissions desk and I will have a chance to look around and take some photos.  I'll post them on Monday.

Now for my indoor garden.

This is my red Amaryllis.  There is a second flower stalk coming up beside this one.

This is a pink one.  I didn't even realize that I had a pink one.  Soooo pretty!

And here are the tulips my DD brought me on my birthday last week.  They are still gorgeous.  I just love yellow tulips!

Hopefully I will be able to show you some outdoor spring flowers soon.  We had rain all day yesterday. Most of the snow and ice is gone.  My robins are back and my crocuses are blooming in front of my house. You can see them on my header.

See you at the Show!  Have a great quilty weekend!  I know I will!

Earth Hour

First I want to thank everyone who wished me a Happy Birthday yesterday.  Between snail mail, my blog, emails and Facebook comments, I was busy all day!  Then my DD and her fiance came over for dinner and brought me these beautiful flowers.

I thought this bouquet was perfect for Earth Hour - the bounty of our planet to brighten up my kitchen. What more could one ask for?  So if you want to help bring attention to saving our world, join us for Earth Hour at 8:30pm this evening.  Just turn off the lights and television for one hour.  Light a candle and sit with family and friends, chatting and enjoying the solitude.

Happy Earth Hour to everyone!

Stuff

It's been a week since I last posted anything.  Not much sewing has been going on here, so there is not much to show.  I have been working on my hexies, though.  About 150 are prepped and just waiting to be sewn into the the quilt top.

On Monday evening I decided I needed a few more dishcloths.  So I found some nice spring coloured cotton and got started.  Felix sat on them as soon as i put them down, but he refused to look at me when I took the photo.  I still love him though!

Last week I showed you a photo of the crocuses growing in the front of my house.  I was hoping they would be in bloom by now, but NOT!!

It's been way too cold.  Below freezing temps and lots of wind.  We did miss the storm that moved through just south of us and hit the Maritimes with up to 50cm of snow, the biggest storm they have had this winter.

The only things growing are inside.  This is an Amaryllis that I bought a couple of years ago.  It went dormant and now it is ready to bloom again.  There are two buds on this one and another plant has one bud.  Can't wait for these to open up.

And my Streptocarpus is doing fantastic!  It went into a dormant spell, but now it is blooming again.  I love these blue flowers.  I know these plants are indoors, but they give me hope that spring will arrive one day - soon, I hope.

Tomorrow I will be 24106 days old.

Spring?

In an hour or so spring will be here.  Don't get me wrong.  I love spring, but I am a bit skeptical this year.  It doesn't feel like spring and it doesn't look like spring.  In fact, it looks just like winter to me.

This is the view from my front window.  Still lots of snow.

I decided to work on my 'green quilt'.  I need green in my life right now.  This quilt is from a 2005 calendar by Fons and Porter.  This was the quilt for March.  There were no instructions, so I just made it from 2.5 inch squares and bigger pieces of all the greens I had in my stash at that time.  When I ran out of green fabrics, I put it away and just found it again this year.  I have more greens now, so I think I can finish it.

It's called, 'Scraps of Green'.

It is only 2C today and we have had snow flurries all morning.  But look what I found in front of my house. A patch of crocuses, just showing their green shoots above the ground.  They are only a foot or so from the house, so they are in a warm zone.  Usually they are blooming by now. But not this year.  Still, I'll take any sign of spring that I can get, especially if it is green.  

 

 

 

So bring spring on!  To this year's winter I say, 'enough is enough!

 

 

 

St. Patrick's Day

Scraps and Pi

I was searching through my stash the other day, looking for a quilt I had started in 2005.  It was in a Fons and Porter calendar for the month of March, all done in green fabrics.  I really loved that photo and decided to make the quilt, but I ran out of greens.  My stash was not as extensive then, as it is today.  I found the green blocks, but I also found a partially completed top made with 2.5 inch scraps.  I decided I needed to finish this one first.

I worked on it all morning and hoped to show you the finished flimsy, but I guess my calculations were not the best, or maybe there is a block hiding somewhere in my sewing room.  Anyway, I am one 25-patch block short.

Calculations are not my forte.  But I do know that it is Pi Day today.  My DS is a math instructor at a local college, so this day is celebrated at our house yearly.


"Meow.  What is pie day?"

Oh.  Hi Felix.  It's not pie day,  It's pi day.

"Meow.  I love pie!  Especially catnip pie!"

I am talking about pi.  3.14 as in today's date, March 14th.   It's defined as the ratio of a circumference of a circle to its diameter.  This is the symbol for it.

I don't expect you to understand, Felix.  You have to be kind of nerdy to get this stuff and maybe not a cat.  But it is also Albert Einstein's birthday today, so it is a double nerdy day.

"Meow.  So are we going to have pie today - catnip pie?  I hope, I hope!"

Maybe, if I can get out to the store.



Buy I don't think that is going to happen.  We had another huge dumping of snow a couple of days ago. And yesterday it was very, very cold, so nothing melted.  Today it is nicer, but there is still too much snow out there for me to get out on my scooter.

I think I will go back to my sewing room and look for the missing block and if I can't find it I guess I will make another one.

Have a Great Weekend, Everyone!

Goodnight Irene Update

Got one more row of my 'Goodnight Irene' sew along quilt done.  Just haven't sewn it to the first two rows. Terry is hosting this one. Go over there and look at some of the other quilts made in different colours.  So interesting to see how different they look.  Now back to the sewing room.  I have to cut some more 2.5 inch green squares so that I can keep on using them as leaders and enders for this project.

It Still Isn't Over!

Environment Canada warns us that our winter is not over yet.  Spring will be delayed.  Like I needed to hear that!  I took a photo of the front of my house yesterday.  I can't believe how much snow we still have and it is already the 5th of March.  

I want to see flowers!  I want my crocuses to bloom in front of my house and the snowdrops to show up in the backyard.  I wonder how long I will have to wait for that.  I need colour!  While surfing some blogs this morning, I came across one that showed some fabric flowers.  Can't remember where I saw them, but I saved the link to the tutorial and made a few of them.  I didn't have the right tools and I wasn't able to make any leaves, but I think they look pretty in a pot of jade.  You can find the tutorial on this blog.  It is on her sidebar.  They are called, Fleur de Marguerite.

Remember I promised you a photo of my hexie demonstration at our guild a couple of weeks ago. Well a kind member sent me this photo.  Those are all of my hexagon projects in the back.

My longarm quilter got the quilt. that I am putting into our quilt show. finished.  Gosh it looks great.
I would post a photo, but I think I will wait until after the show is over.  Now I just have to sew on the binding, make a hanging sleeve and a label.  But in order to do that, I will have to take another trip to the quilt shop to buy some fabric.  Ha!  Poor me.

Coming Up for Air

I've had a busy month, but now I can finally breathe again.  On the furry feline front I've had to deal with Mimi's passing and Felix's diabetes. He is doing well, but he really hates to have his blood tested.  Hopefully we will soon work out the right amount of insulin to keep his diabetes under control.  I hate to see him unhappy.

On the quilting front I finished my 'Garden of Hope' quilt and it is now at the LAQ.  It should be done by the third week of March.  That gives me time to bind it before our quilt show on the first weekend of April.  This quilt top almost didn't get finished.  I only had a couple of rows to still sew together.  Most of the blocks were done, so that was really no problem. I had to go out and buy some backing fabric because I didn't have enough.  That was no problem either.  I was even able to add a few fat quarters to my stash.  LOL

But pressing the finished top almost drove me to pull my hair out!  It was very wrinkled and because I made most of it while I was a patient at a rehab hospital some years ago, I did not have an iron to press each block as I finished it.  Many of the blocks needed some help from a spritz of water.  I guess I used too much water because some of the red fabrics bled into the lighter backgrounds.  I wanted to cry.  But then I decided all was not lost.  I took the damaged blocks out and remade them.  It took me a whole day to remake and sew them back into the quilt top.  I don't know why that happened because I always wash my fabrics with a colour catcher as soon as I get them home.  But maybe a lot of the fabrics in thisquilt were from before the time of colour catchers.  I plan to wash the blocks and see if I can restore them to their original beauty.  Then I will make them into blocks for a project (Soy Amado) that Little Island Quilting is doing for children in a home in Mexico City. I have several other orphan blocks that I can donate.

I was also asked to do a demonstration of English Paper Piecing at our Guild meeting on Monday evening. That meant finding finished quilts and partly finished quilts to help teach the technique.  It was a fantastic experience.  My fellow quilters were very interested and some of them went away with a pattern sheet to create their own hexies.  I took my camera so that I could take a photo, but I never got to use it.  There just wasn't enough time.  The demonstrations were done in a round robin fashion.  That only gave me about 12-15 minutes with each group.  I did see someone come over with a camera, so there probably will be a photo at some point.  I hope to be able to post it later.

100 more hexies to sew together

The weather here is still cold and white.  We have had the most 'severe cold weather warnings' of any year since these records have been kept - about 28 days since the beginning of the year.  Today's high temp is -10C, (14F) but it will feel like -20C, (-4F).  The snow has not melted either and there are still huge piles of it at the sides of our driveway.  It rained a bit this past weekend, creating large puddles everywhere that froze into huge patches of ice.  Hospitals in our area are reporting an average of 4 slip and fall accidents per hour.  So I am staying indoors and waiting patiently impatiently for spring to arrive.

Now I am off to work on some of my current projects, mostly charity quilts.  It is a pleasure to have some time to work on those. I also went to the library and got some books to read.  Life is good.

One (?) Flower Wednesday

OMG!  I didn't know I had such a hexagon problem!  I have been trying to locate all of my hexie projects in order to display them next Monday evening at our guild meeting.  That is when I will be demonstrating my hexies.  Since I will only have 10-12 minutes with each group, I thought I would find all of my hexie projects and use them as teaching tools.  Here are some of them...

These are a couple of flowers that I plan to add to my basket quilt in order to make it larger.  You can see it here.

 

This is my La Passion.  I need to get back to this one soon.

 

This is the one I am working on at the moment.  I will use these hexies to demonstrate the English Paper Piecing technique.

 

This is part of my "I Spy" quilt.  The hexies are much bigger than the ones I am used to.

 

I love this one!  The pieces are all based on hexagons.  Still have to sew some more and then put them all together.

 

These are based on hexies too.  I have not committed myself to a whole quilt of these yet.  But maybe they will become a pillow.

 

Well, those are the hexies I have found so far.  There are more in my sewing room, but so far I can't remember where I put them.  Can you believe that?  I think I really do have a problem!

 



 



Goodnight Irene Update

I had almost forgotten about my Goodnight Irene blocks for this month's quilt-along.  I had these blocks finished a couple of weeks ago, but when I went to iron them I noticed that I had sewn a few the wrong way, so I put it away and forgot about them.  But I will fix that soon.  I am so loving this pattern.  Lots of scraps are being used up, so that is a bonus.  And I am doing the squares as leaders and enders.

I am linking this to terrytreasures.blogspot.ca   You can find the link on her sidebar.

When Life Gives You Tribulations...

What do you do when the stresses of life are more than you can handle?  How do you deal with an illness that no one understands, but leaves you with the task of curing yourself.  How do you mourn a sweet kitty who was the love of your life?

About 5 years ago I was diagnosed with a rare auto-immune disorder.  I was treated with steroids and put into a rehab facility to learn to walk again. 

It was summer time and I was stuck in a hospital.  I could not lift my legs off the bed.  I could not go up and down stairs.  I had trouble even walking using a walker.  I became very depressed. 

Then one day the hospital allowed me to go to Walmart in my wheelchair.  They picked me and a few other patients up in a wheelchair bus.  I found a quilting magazine that gave me hope. I decided to make it as a sort of recovery quilt.  My room became a quilting studio.  I had boxes of scraps of fabric everywhere.  My bedside table became an ironing board.  Late at night would find me working on that quilt.  I was not able to finish it before I left the hospital.  But a couple of weeks ago I showed it to my quilting friends at our Tuesday morning get together.  They convinced me to finish it and enter it into our upcoming quilt show.  

So I began working on it, just as Mimi was losing her battle with life.  It seems fitting that I should be working on this quilt through all my stressful times.  It has been my way of dealing with illness, both my own and Mimi's.  And now that I am almost finished I feel energized and rejuvenated.  I will have it long arm quilted and it will be ready to enter into our guild's quilt show.  I can't show you all of it right now, but this is what I am working on at the moment.  Lots of scraps and applique.

Mimi

July 1, 1997 - February 10, 2014

 

 

 

 

We lost our sweet kitten, Mimi, today due to age and heart problems.  She passed away peacefully as I held her in my arms.  Gone now but not forgotten.  She was the best furry feline we ever had.  My heart aches.  There is no way to describe the sadness and pain I feel right now.  But at least Mimi is no longer suffering.  She can breathe easily now as she romps and plays with her furry friends in the cat here-after.  Farewell, Mimi.  We will always love and miss you.