A Soggy Day

We have had a lot of rain this month.  More than we had in April and May.  But my plants love it. Here is a hanging basket that I bought for next to nothing.  Lots of red here too.

I have been busy making more red hexie flowers.  Here they are in the garden, between bursts of rain, Guess there will be time for more sewing today.

I discovered another red flower in my solarium.  It's an Amaryllis  that was hiding in a corner.  It was with some others that were dormant.  I didn't think they would flower until the fall, but here it is.  In all it's red glory.

Hope you all have a great weekend!

Flowers on Friday

I love red flowers.  One of my favourite is blooming right now.  It's a poppy and it has been in my garden for a long time - probably 25 years.  I love this bright red colour!

And here is my red hexie quilt.  There are over 1,000 hexies in this top so far.  I still a long way to go on this one, but I have lots of time in the evenings to work on it.  I love red.  Oh, I said that already,.

So here is another red flower.  It's a Martha Washington Geranium - Pelargonium domesticum. I have also heard it called a Regal Geranium.  The little white flowers are Euphorbia.

We are supposed to get some rain today.  That will be nice.  My flowers will be singing.  

Have a great weekend, everybody!

A New Month and a Few More Hexies

I did not finish much last month.  But now that my machine is fixed, I hope to remedy that.  Last week I made 8 bibs.  They got finished and were very well received.  When I was cleaning up afterwards, I noticed that I had many tear-shaped pieces of fabric left over.  These were the pieces I cut out for the neck.  I was just going to stick them into the scrap bin or maybe even the garbage.  But then I got to thinking. Each one was just the right size for a one-inch hexie.  So that is what I did with them.

 I will use them in this quilt.

But that will have to wait until summer is over.  I need to get out into the garden. The weeds are taking over.

More Hexie Flowers and a Nomination

I made a few more hexie flowers for my red hexie quilt.  These have been slow going.  I have not had much time to sew, either by hand or by machine.  So much work to do in the garden.  And I am not finished yet.

I have had to start making duplicates of the fabrics.  But that is okay.  I will place them far apart on the quilt and no one will ever know.

Emily from Em's Scrapbag nominated me for a blogging award.  Thank you Em.  I am supposed to tell you 7 things about myself.  But I am sure you already know what I am all about.

1. I love scraps.
2. I love hexies.
3. I have been suffering from broken sewing machine syndrome.  What a drag!  But everything seems to be working now.
4. I love flowers, and I love to garden and grow some of my own vegetables.  In the summer I have very little time for quilting.
5. I used to work for the school board.  The kids in my class all had multiple disabilities.  I am retired now, but I often see a former student and they always recognize me.  I love that.
6. I recently became a grandmother for the first time.  My daughter gave birth to a beautiful baby boy.  He is the highlight of my life!
7. And best of all, he is coming over for a visit any minute.  I am really looking forward to that!

And now I am supposed to nominate as many bloggers as I like.  There are so many of them.  I love them all.  But many people don't like receiving awards.  So I will leave it up to my readers. Nominate yourselves if you would like to.

I am now going to tidy up my house in anticipation of William.  He is crawling all over the place now.  And he loves to pull himself up on everything he sees.  So I have to make sure he will be safe.

This photo was taken on a very cold morning last weekend.  We actually had night frost and all of our vegetables had to be covered for the night so they wouldn't freeze.  All survived.  And the rest of the day was full of sunshine.

Thanks again Em.  I love your blog too!

Has Anyone Seen my MoJo?

I seem to have lost it.  I have my machine, all ready to go, but I can't seem to get started on anything. I've been working on hexies though.  That is the only thing I have done this week.

Here are five of them.  And here are four more.  Sorry about the colour of these.  The sun is just too bright.

\I have a few more prepped to finish this evening.  Maybe tomorrow I will be able to sew something on my machine.  My kids both want me to make curtains for their homes.  Maybe that is why I don't feel like sewing.  Ha!  Curtains really are not my thing.  Does anyone else feel that way?  Or do you love to make things for around the house?

Good News!

My sewing machine is fixed.  My DS drove me to the Bernina Shop in Newmarket.  They had the foot pedal I needed.  The guy there wired it in and I was good to go.  Just got home and haven't had a chance to set my machine up yet.  I am exhausted, so that will have to wait until tomorrow.

I have done a few more red hexies.  Here they are in my dandelion garden.  I have never had so many dandelions before!  I'll deal with those tomorrow too.

Have a terrific weekend, everybody.

One Flower Wednesday

Is anyone out there still posting hexie flowers on Wednesdays?  I have 9 to show you.  I made these over the past few days.  I love making these!  They are so relaxing.

And I needed that because I have had a lot of dental stuff happening and on Monday I had a non-healing sore on my cheek diagnosed as Basal Cell Carcinoma.  I had it cut out and now I have a huge scab on my face.  I have been assured that it will heal up over the next couple of weeks.  Basal Cell Carcinoma is the most common skin cancer there is, but it is not complicated and usually doesn't travel to other parts of the body.  It is one of the easiest cancers to treat   Even so, I am sure you can see the need for some relaxing hexie flower therapy!

Now to sew them onto the rest of the top.  

I'm Still Here, But...

My sewing machine isn't.  They still have not been able to get the part for me.
I am seriously considering going to the Creative Festival and buying a new sewing machine.

I was sorting through my hexies and found this UFO that I started a long time ago.  It is all hand pieced.  I don't need a machine for that.  So, instead of feeling depressed and miserable, I decided to do a few more flowers. This is going to be great!

Here are some more hexie flowers.  I have several more that will soon be done.

This quilt top is now too big for a wall hanging.  So I\ll just keep on making more flowers and joining them.  Who knows where this will go.  Speaking of 'on the go'.  Here is a picture of W. He is really moving.  

I changed my header.  It is going to be 21C today and I don't want any snow photo to jinx that.  Bring spring on!  I'm more than ready!  I will try to post more often now that I have a focus.  But I'm not promising anything.

A Bit of Weather - Under it, Over it. What the heck is going on?

I've felt a little under the weather the past few days.  Nothing too serious.  Just some body aches, stuffy sinuses and a bit of a headache.  I slept a lot and read a whole book in less than two days, James Patterson's latest, Hope to Die,

On Saturday I took my machine in to get the plug on the foot pedal fixed.  I have no idea if it can be fixed.  I am keeping my fingers crossed.  If they can't fix it, I guess I will have to buy a new pedal. But as the woman in the shop said, "That will be cheaper than a new machine".

And as I was coming out from under the weather, the weather became beautiful.  It started out cold and windy yesterday morning, but then the sun came out and it felt like spring.  We decided to go down to the lake and see how much winter was still around.  And I can tell you, there was a lot!  In the middle of the lake the ice had melted, but around the edges, it was still deep and frozen.  The ducks and geese were calling to us from the ice.  The gulls were screaming from the air.  It was impossible to walk anywhere because the paths had not been cleared.  So I parked myself on a bench, in the sun, along the edge of the water and took a few photos.

The sun felt nice.  Today is going to be another gorgeous day.  The temperature is going way up to 13C, that's around 55F.  Is our winter over?  Not a chance.  It will get cold again (not as cold as it has been) but the temps will be below normal for this time of year until spring starts on Friday.  And then we might even get a bit of snow.  This weather is crazy.  I want spring.

We still have a foot or more of snow on our lawn.  But close to the house the snow has melted.  And as it did, little green crocus shoots were already coming up.  Low and behold, a yellow crocus popped out of the ground and greeted me with a smile.

Okay, now I am feeling better.  The weather can do what it wants.  As long as I have something springlike in my garden I am happy.  I think I will ride my scooter up to the library and get another book. And maybe buy some strawberries for dessert.  Yummy!  I can taste spring already.

On the quilting front, do you want to see what I have been working on?  It isn't much.  Just a few more hexie flowers.  I can keep doing these because they are all done by hand, but the machine applique will have to wait until I get my sewing machine fixed.  This is what I have so far on ny design wall.  I have not decided how big I am going to make this quilt, but I don't think it will be much bigger.  Just a border or two.

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

Hexie Flowers

My machine is back home!  Hurray!!  Now I can get on with some of my WIPs.

I worked on some hexies while I waited for it to be returned.  I have about 32 hexie flowers to do, so this is just a start.  Some of these are done and some still need to be sewn.  I plan to complete 4 per day.

The temperature is going up to 6C today.  The sun is shining.  Our cold spell seems to be over!  I plan to go to the library today.  I need to get out before I succumb to cabin fever.

Happy New Year!

I can hardly believe that 2014 is almost over.  It seems like just yesterday that the year started.  I have not been sewing a lot this past year.  The arrival of my first grandson kind of strayed me off the sewing path.  But he is so cute and I had to hold him and play with him as much as possible.

I did finish The Hexie Blog BOM though.  I changed a few things, but for the most part I did as instructed.  My November block is different.  I used diamond shapes to represent leaves.  For me, in this part of the world, there is not much left growing by the time November rolls around.

I always think of the song, "The Last Leaf Clings to the Bough".  So I wanted my November block to represent the fallen leaves.  I used the pumpkin block to represent October.

Here is the whole quilt top.  A block for each month.  Sorry for the poor quality of the photo, but it is snowing out and the light is very bad.  Also, there was no one here to hold it up for me.

Happy New Year!

Hope 2015 is a good one for you!

Linking up with the Needle and Thread Network and Angie's blog, A Quilting Reader's Garden.

Some Handwork on a Dreary Sunday

It's dark and dreary outside, so I am just working away on my hexie quilt BOM from The Hexie Blog. This is the December block.  But don't get excited.  It is not my last block.  I still have a few more to finish off and applique down.  I am using different backgrounds because I  have lots of fat quarters. The HST are all from my scrap bin.

Have a terrific weekend.  I have to go and pick up the other blocks from my design floor now.  DH is going to vacuum and I don't want any of those tiny pieces to get caught in the beater bar.

Linking up to A Quilting Reader's Garden.

A Hexie Pumpkin

Things are slowly getting back to normal around here.  Grand baby has gone home.  It's very quiet now. Felix is happy about that.  And I am getting more than just a couple of hours of sleep at night. I've even had some time to catch up on some of my BOMa.  This is my pumpkin from the Hexie Blog for November.

I'm not caught up yet, but I hope to be soon.

Scrappy Hexies

I managed to sew a few more scrappy hexie flowers together.  That's 6 more in the past couple of weeks.  Now to sew them onto the quilt top and make some more white hexies to join them all together.

Linking up to A Quilting Reader's Garden.

Some Works in Progress

Oops, I haven't posted anything for a week.  Not much sewing has been going on, but I have been working on a few things, a little each day.  First are my hexies from The Hexie Blog.  I have appliqued May and June onto a background fabric.  The basket for April is not finished.  I am also experimenting with the sashing.  I think I will do the HST that I sewed between May and June.  I kind of like them.  What do you think?

Then there are my POTC blocks.  I have been working on these when I need to unwind  I cut out the pieces during the day and sew them together while I watch television in the evenings.  

I put a round of white hexies around the first block.  And I discovered something!  The blocks are made up of 24 coloured hexies.  This part goes pretty fast.  But then there are the white hexies.  There are 24 of them too - for each block.  The white doesn't hold my attention as much as the colours do. So I am having to persevere in order to get them sewn on.  I am going to have to set a goal for myself.  Like 12 white hexies before I start a new block.  That way I may get them all done before I run out of steam.  I am also experimenting with the joining squares.  I was going to make them colourful, but I think I will make them all a dark blue in order to save my eyesight.  All those colours are just too much!  

So there you have it!  My summer projects for 2014.  Both are English Paper Pieced.  And I love them both! There will be lots of machine time when the cold weather comes back and I have to stay indoors.  

I am going to link up with Audrey at Glory Be Quilter, who is taking over for Angie this week.  She has a give-away too.  So go there to see some more hexie love and maybe win something.

A Busy Weekend in my Garden!

We had lots of visitors this weekend.  And then last night we had a barbeque with my DS, DD and her fiance.  The weather has been perfect - real summer-time temps and sunshine.  Love it!!!

In keeping with the 4th of July weekend, I am posting my July hexie block.  (Happy Belated 4th of July to all of my friends south of the border.)  It's a cherry ice cream cone. Anybody want a lick?  I know that this block was only just posted on The Hexie Blog less than a week ago, but I fell in love with it and wanted to make it right away.

For years I have been seeing the POTC blocks on blogs and other places on the internet.  I wanted to make some.  I finally found the template for it serveral weeks ago and started to cut it out.  Then I put it in a 'safe' place where even I couldn't find it.  But yesterday it was just sitting there in a plastic container.  How did I miss that?  A few of the pieces had already been sewn together, so I finished it last night.  I know the colours are kind of loud, but I guess those are the fabrics that were beside my machine at the time.  I think I will keep the colourful theme going.  I love colour!

I will leave you with a shot of my colourful lily.  Told you I love colour!  I planted this a few of years ago and it keeps surprising me with its beauty.

Hoping everyone is having a great weekend!

I am linking up with Angie at The Quilting Reader's Garden.

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

Butterflies in my Garden

Last week I showed you the wonderful butterfly for the month of May by The Hexie Blog.

I saw a smaller hexie butterfly on the internet a couple of weeks before this orange one.  I decided to make a couple of them - purple one...

and a pink one/

I have no idea what I will do with them, but they were so much fun to make.  I think there will be a few more of these in my future.

I am linking up to A Quilting Reader's Garden.

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!

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.