Enjoying the Garden

We had a lovely day today.  Lots of sunshine.  In fact, there was not a cloud in the sky.  I was outside for most of the day and my nose is probably sunburned.  I worked in the garden all afternoon.  There is so much to do.  I transplanted a few things, but mostly I pulled and dug out weeds.

The garden was full of butterflies today.  I was able to take a couple of great photos.  This first one is of a Question Mark Butterfly.  I had to look that one up.  I don't think I have ever seen one before.  Well I probably have.  I just didn't know the name of it.  At some times there were 10 or more of these fluttering around my early flowers.

There were also a lot of Red Admiral butterflies.  Here is a photo of both the Question Mark butterfly and the Red Admiral butterfly on my cherry tree.

I decided to update my header.  These butterflies make me so happy!

Some More Rose Star Hexies

I completed 3 more Rose Star hexagon blocks this week.  I just love doing these.  They are great for evening hand work when I am watching television.  I am trying to finish 3 of these per week and so far I am doing okay.

White Stuff in my Garden

We had a blast of winter the last couple of days.  It was cold, cold enough to wear a winter coat.  We had a lot of rain, but also sleet, hail and snow.  The wind was fierce at times.   It was very depressing.  Nothing stayed on the ground though.  But there is a lot of white in my garden.  Good white, that is, as in flowers.  My cherry tree is in bloom.

My Iberis is also in bloom.  This is commonly known as Candy Tuft.  I love this little plant.  It gets bigger every year.

And then there is my Lunaria, commonly known as Silver Dollar Plant.   Usually this plant has pink or purple flowers.  But I also have a few that bloom in white flowers.

And last, but not least, is my flying geese block for this week.  Thanks Em.  I thought this one would be difficult, but it wasn't.  Can't wait to make the next block.

Some Applique Work

You may have noticed the 'Vintage Sampler' icon on my sidebar.  Reeze Hanson is posting some applique blocks from her sampler each month, one on the 1st of the month and another on the 15th of the month.  I have been doing her blocks and I am actually up to date with them.  I really love to applique, so this is right up my alley.  

These blocks are in no particular order.  They haven't been trimmed yet either.  I just wanted you to see them, not only because I have nothing else to show, but also because they are rather pretty.  Go to my sidebar and click on the icon to see more.

Flying Geese in the Sunshine

The sun is shining today.  Mimi is happy about that.  She loves to find a ray of sunshine and curl up in it.  Just look at that satisfied smile!  She is feeling much better and says 'Meow, Thank you for all your best wishes, Meow.'

I am going out for a ride on my scooter.  It's fixed and I have it back!  Or did I tell you that already?  But before I head out, I want to show you the flying geese block I made for this week with Em.  I think I like this block best of all so far.  Don't you?

BOM - The Queen and Her Court

I have been working steadily on my Queen and Her Court quilt.  So far I have finished nine pieced blocks and I am working on the tenth one.  Sorry no picture of that one, but I can show you what I have done so far.  Tomorrow is the next class, so I am trying to finish what I have to date.  I hate being so far behind.

These blocks are not arranged in any order.  The quilt is going to be a huge one and these blocks will be spread around with applique blocks in between.  I managed to do one of the small applique blocks.  Since I am doing them by hand, (my machine still doesn't want to zigzag without dropping stitches)  I had to fudge the pattern a bit to make it easier to applique.  There will also be some background blocks done in 1 1/2 inch squares as in the picture.  The applique is not finished.  I had to leave openings for the stems that will tie all the applique blocks together.

It is Friday and the sun is shining!  The high temp for today will be 15C.  Shopper's Home Care phoned me this morning and is delivering my scooter between 11:00am and 1:00pm today.  I hope to be able to go out for a while after that.

Mimi is feeling much better.  Last week she jumped on my bed and meowed in my face.  Her breath was stinky.  I also noticed that she had some brown drool coming out of the corner of her mouth.  I checked her teeth and found one that was totally brown.  The gum was very red and looked as if an abscess had burst.  I took her to my daughter's vet.  They agreed with my diagnosis of tooth decay and tarter build-up.  I was given some more antibiotics.  The first vet's diagnosis was way off base. even though they charged me over $700.. There is nothing wrong with her stomach or other organs.  Poor Mimi!  She's had a toothache all this time!  She will have to go in for some dental work soon.  But I can tell that she is feeling better because she has been grooming herself.  Here she is 'hiding' from me behind the stair railing.  She loves this spot because I can't get down there to pick her up and give her her meds.

I'm Back

Did you miss me?  I certainly missed all of you.  I have come to the realization that I cannot go without my computer for even a day.  Last weekend I tried to install an antiviral program.  I got it downloaded and then went to install it.  I left the computer because it took so long, and when I came back, there was a message that the program installation could not be completed.  Because it was midnight and I was brain dead, I decided to deal with this issue in the morning and turned my computer off .  When I turned it on again the next day, I discovered that my computer was frozen.  My cursor would not move and my mouse seemed to be stuck.  Luckily for me I have a wonderful quilty friend whose son is a wonderful computer geek.  He came over last night and fixed my computer!  :-)

Now for my quilting news.  You'd think I would have gotten a lot done seeing as I was without a computer.  But the opposite is actually the case.  I worked on a few things, but have nothing to show you.  Except my flying geese blocks from the past couple of weeks.  So here they are:

The one on the right was the block from two weeks ago and the one on the left was last week's block.  Em has posted her next block.  If you want to see it, or perhaps join us, her blogsite is here.

Earth Hour and More

Hope you are celebrating Earth Hour by turning off your lights for an hour this evening.  For us that will be 8:30pm until 9:30pm.  We will be at my DD's house.  I plan on taking my hexagon stars to work on by candle light.  In order to do my part for our planet in the coming year, I will try to give up plastic bags for keeping left-overs fresh to using re-usable containers instead.

In case you are wondering how they look (my hexagon stars, that is), here is the latest photo.  I am really enjoying these blocks.  They look complicated, but they are just as easy to do as any English pieced project.

 I also finished another block for my 'The Queen and Her Court' quilt.  This is definitely not my favourite block.  I still have three more blocks to do and then a lot of applique blocks.  It doesn't have to be done until August, so I have lots of time.

Enjoying My Special Day

No sewing going on today.  I've been shopping and driving around on my scooter, enjoying the spring weather.  I am 23,377 days old today!  So I have been getting lots of emails, phone calls and regular mail.  It's been great!  Everyone has been singing to me!  I love it!

Want to know how many days old you are?  Go here.  And because I can't post anything without a picture, I will attach my Pulmonaria (Lungwort).  I have never had this flower look this beautiful on my birthday.  Usually it is still covered in ice and snow.  This definitely is special!

A New Hexagon Quilt

I wasn't able to go to Fabricland on Friday.  My scooter was willing, but the weather did not cooperate.  It rained all morning.  Even in the afternoon the weather people said to carry an umbrella.  So I didn't go.  And in my depressed, irritable state, I wasted spent a couple of hours exploring blogland.

To my great delight, I came across a new hexagon block. It's called Rose Star. There is a tutorial for it here!    And it's a wonderful, portable, handwork project, perfect for the summer.  I made a couple of blocks and I just love them.  Don't you?

Where Did Spring Go?

It was another beautiful day.  The sun was out.  The sky was blue.  The temperature was hot.  It seems we have gone from winter directly into summer.

I have some news regarding my scooter.  Someone finally came yesterday afternoon to pick mine up.  It needs some bearings replaced and other miscellaneous things done to it, at the shop.  It may take a few days or several weeks, but the good news is they gave me a loaner for the time being,.  That meant I was able to go out!!!!   Tomorrow I want to try going up to Fabricland.  They have a 50% off for membership holders only.  I really don't need much, but what the heck.  Now that I have a scooter, I want to go places!

Here are two of my flying geese blocks that I have been doing with Em from Em's Scrapbag.  The one on the right is week 2 and the one on the left is week 3.  I did week 2 in reverse, but I don't think it will matter.

Mimi sends her love and thanks everyone who left such nice comments about her.

Signs of Spring

Yesterday Marilyn from Marilyn's Maze showed some signs of spring in California.  I couldn't even recognize most of the plants she showed.  It looks nothing like our springs.  But it did arrive yesterday and there are lots of signs out there right now.  Today the temperature is around 25C but with the humidex, it feels more like 30C. That's a record breaker!  The weather is perfect for being outside!  My garden has never looked so green.  Everything is coming up far earlier than usual.  So here are a few photos which I took in my backyard this morning.

These are some of my purple crocuses.  They really look good this year.  And here is a purple striped crocus variety.

The squirrels have been busy digging and pulling up tulips, crocuses and even hyacinths.  They don't seem to like the daffodils.  I think I should plant some more of those in the fall.  Lots of buds on this one.

Some early insects have also come out.  Can you see that huge bumble bee in this little crocus?  He buzzed around me for several minutes.  It was such a nice summer sound.

I planted some fall crocuses last year.  The squirrels had them dug up by the next morning.  But this one is seems to have survived and is doing well.  Do you see that brown stuff around it.  That's Cayenne pepper.  It is supposed to keep the squirrels away.  It works, but it has to be sprinkled around the plant almost every day,  Especially after it rains.

Mimi asked me to take a photo of her favourite garden herb.  It's catnip and there is lots of it this year.  Shhhhh, don't tell Mimi, but I am going to have to pull some of it up.  There is just too much of it.

What was that, Mimi?
Oh, you want me to leave all of it in the garden?
Okay my precious.  Since you asked so nicely.

"Purrrrrr.  I love catnip and fabric!"

Mimi is sleeping on my fabrics.  I started to clean up my sewing room, but only managed to make a bigger mess.  Mimi doesn't care.  She likes my fabrics to be all over the place.  Doesn't she look happy napping there in the sunshine?  

I am now going outside to sit in the sunshine too. 

Busy Braid Week

I spent yesterday at a friend's house. sewing a French Braid quilt.  There were 11 of us in her basement.  Lots of fun!!!  I asked my DD to drive me since I don't have my licence back yet.  She agreed and then I thought she might like to make a French Braid quilt too.  We went shopping for fabric and I spent several days cutting and preparing for Saturday.

Here is the one I made.  I still have to sew the sashing together and then border it with a narrow black border and a 6inch butterfly border.  Don't look at the black strips.  They are too short and I will have to add to them or cut new strips.  I was following the pattern and it said, 'cut 1 1/2 inch strips from WOF'.  That means width of fabric, doesn't it?  It should have been cut from the length.  

And here is the one my DD made.  Isn't it fantastic!!!!!  This is her first quilt done on a sewing machine.  She's a natural!  She picked her own fabrics too.

When I got home last night I was too wound up to sleep, so I went into my sewing room and because it was St. Patrick's Day, I made some green fabric with my green scraps.  Then I turned the green fabric into a Shamrock which I saw on Hillary's blog.  She got the pattern here.  So now I have a cute shamrock all ready for next year.

Flying Geese

Somehow I have lost my mojo.  So many things going wrong at one time, I guess.  My scooter is broken (won't start) and the repair people haven't contacted me yet even though it has been a week since I sent them an email.  A few weeks ago I lost a filling in one of my teeth.  I had it fixed last week and by the end of the week I had lost another filling in another tooth.  I have a dentist appointment next Tuesday.  Because my scooter wasn't working, I couldn't take my library books back and so I had to pay a fine of $6.   I am never late taking my books back, but this time there was either something wrong with my computer or the library's was out of service, so I couldn't renew them online.  Also, I have a headache and my neck feels stiff and sore.  I wonder if I am coming down with something.

So today I didn't feel like working in my sewing room.  I didn't feel like making houses and I didn't even feel like making fabric with scraps.  But then I remembered that Em from Em's Scrapbag is doing a Flying Geese quilt-a-long on Wednesdays.  So I went over there and took down the information.  Then I started sewing my geese.  My sister phoned as I was working on them and told me that she has seen a lot of geese down in the yard where the subway trains are kept.  (My sister drives a subway train.  Cool, eh?)  So it seemed fitting that I was making flying geese blocks.

Here is what I managed to do today.

I feel as if I have been a tiny bit productive.  And I almost forgot to tell you!  I won one month of the Bargain Lover's Fat Quarter Club.  That means I'll be getter 10 fat quarters for free!  That also made me feel more positive.  Thanks to everyone who voted for me!  I think I need to take a nap now.  Oscar is sleeping on my bed and he wants me to join him.

A Conundrum - Edited in Red

I have a problem.  A couple of weeks ago I sent a photo of a quilt I made to Sew Sisters.  It was part of a challenge they gave all of us in the Bargain Lover's Club.  I'll show it again in you missed it.

Initially I thought the quilts would be judged by the Sew Sisters staff.  But now it seems that anyone can vote for their favourite - like 'best in show',  'most original' etc.  So what's my dilemma?

The voting isn't set up to just click on a box.  In order to vote an email has to be sent to Sew Sisters.  It seems like a lot of work, but the part I am uncomfortable with is this.  When you send an email, the party you are sending it to automatically gets your email address.  That seems a bit invasive to me.  I can't ask folks to make their email addresses available to Sew Sisters.  They could use it to send out all kinds of store related sales and events and other nuisance mail that others might not want to receive.  After talking to some quilty friends today, I now feel that it really is not such a big deal.  Emails can be deleted.  I am going to leave this up to my blog readers.  If you feel like voting, then by all means, do so.  I would really appreciate it.  

So what do you think?  Am I being neurotic?  Should I just ask my blogging friends to please vote for me?  I think the voting ends on Monday.  The voting actually ends on Tuesday, March 6th.

In case you want to do just that, go here.  That will take you to all the entries.  Some of them look really good so it might be a nice place to view some eye candy.  My entry is number 31.  Sew Sisters email address is on that page.

Now for something springlike.  The snow we got a few days ago is all gone.  In fact it was all gone by the end of that very same day.  I bought these tulips when I went shopping last week.  They brought me joy all week long as I watched them open up.  They have a lovely springy fragrance too.

Thanks!

Winter!

It's the first day of March and I think winter has finally arrived.  There was snow on the ground this morning, even though the weatherman said it was going to rain.  And it is still snowing.  I think this is the worst weather we have had all winter.

Needless to say I will be staying indoors today.  I have to work on my 'The Queen and her Court' quilt.  I am way behind on that one.  My next class is on Saturday and I want to be caught up by then.

Leaping Lizards!

No that's not right.  But leaping amphibians doesn't sound quite right either.  In honour of February 29th - leap year - I made this frog.

 I got the pattern from the Sew Sister's blog.  I remember seeing these frogs made by the grade 7 and 8 students at the school I was at many years ago.  It was a Family Studies project.  I always meant to get the pattern, but you know how it goes.  There is just never a right time.  I don't even know if they still teach Family Studies with all the cuts in education we have had.

But now I have the pattern and I am happy.    I hope my frog is too.  I may put different eyes on him and make him friend to play with.

If It Ain't Broke...

...Don't fix it.
I first heard that saying from a friend's Mom when I was around 10 years old.  It seemed so obvious to me.  Why would you fix anything that wasn't broken?  I don't use that phrase very often, but it seems fitting for this blogger thing that's going on.  Many of you will know what I am talking about.  All I have to say is this...

Hello!  I'm not in my twenties any longer.  It takes me a long time to learn new things.  

I have downloaded Google Chrome and that seems to be working.  It will take me awhile to figure everything out though.  In the meantime I think I will post more often just to get myself familiar with the way things are.

I have been busy with my Orca Bay quilt.  Bonnie Hunter had this quilt on her blog as a mystery quilt last fall.  It seemed like too much work back then.  But once I saw the finished quilts, I was hooked.  I didn't start it until a couple of weeks ago.  I am making it smaller than the original.  These are the blocks I have been working on this morning.

Can you see that little white furry thing in the top right of the photo?  That's Mimi's tail.  She thinks she is hiding from me.   Here she is.

A Finish!

I am having trouble posting on my blog. I get a message that says my browser is no long supported by Blogger.  Has anyone experienced this?  What's the solution?

Snow on Sedum

What a difference a day makes!   Yesterday I took a photo of my little snow drops.

Then last night we had some snow.  Not much, but it is soft and fluffy.  This is how my garden looks today.  My snowdrops are under there somewhere.

It is very beautiful!  We haven't had much snow this year so this winter wonderland looks amazing.  I think we skipped a couple of seasons.  We went from spring directly into winter.  The temperature is above freezing, which means it is packing snow.  I hope to see some snowmen snowpeople (let's keep this politically correct) on front lawns today.  We are supposed to get another couple of centimeters of the white stuff today.  But this isn't going to last a long time.  It will get warmer over the next few days so everything should melt soon.

I love to see snow on trees and branches and especially on my dried sedum heads.  It's the reason why I don't do a lot of cutting back in the fall.