Now You See it, Now You Don't

We used to have a pool in our backyard. It was a fun pool! We spent many a hot summer day in there. When I lost the use of my legs back in 2007, I could no longer look after it. I had always done all the cleaning and chemical adding. My DH didn't know how to do any of that. The water turned a pretty green colour and later a thick pea soup green. We decided to fill it in and build a raised garden that would be easier for me to deal with. This is what it looks like now - the same view without the pool.We are still working on the patio. It will be where the shallow end of the pool was, right near the backdoor so it is easy to carry things out there and to use the barbecue.

This was the pool from the west side.

And here is my garden. from the same angle, as it looks now.

I still have a lot to do. Lots of my perennials, that are at ground level, will be moved to the raised beds. I have no idea how they will survive the winter, so I am just experimenting for now.

This is the back of my yard. The few cherries that remain are for the birds and squirrels.

This is the view along the east side of my yard. Still a lot of work has to be done here too!This is the raised bed that has my vegetables in it. That big sunflower was planted by one of my resident squirrels. I love sunflowers, but I think those squirrels had a mission, because they have already harvested several of the flower heads.

And here is a head-on shot of my vegetable garden - tomatoes, zucchini, egg plant, cucumber, basil, parsley, rosemary, lettuce and radishes. I also planted a couple of pieces of potato to see what would happen. They came up fine. I've never grown them before.

Like I said, we used to have a pool in our backyard. With all this hot weather we are having, I wish we still did.

Hot but Green

We're having a heat wave. The temperature for today is going to be 34C and with the humidity it will feel like 40C. The past few days have been hot too. Not much sewing got done. And to add to this, I seem to have been stricken by a flu bug of some sort. Haven't felt like eating and can only take sips of flat ginger ale, of which two-thirds have come back up. I won't bother you with the other details. I have spent most of the past two days in bed. Feeling a bit better today.
While I don't have much to show you in terms of sewing, I do have some shots of my garden. That's the 'green' part of this post. Or did you think it was my flu-like symptoms? Well, maybe.

On Sunday I spotted this zucchini. It is my first zucchini for this year! I ate it raw, in a salad. Delicious!


This morning I went out to water my pots and hanging baskets. It's amazing how everything suffers when I don't feel well and neglect things for a day or two. I noticed that my zucchini plant has been busy. That little zucchini in the photo above had grown into the zucchini on the left in this photo. And there were two more that needed to be picked. I guess there is going to be some zucchini bread in my future!
My tomato plants are looking good too. I have so many green tomatoes already! Here's an example. The plants are huge too. Much bigger than usual for this time of year.


I did manage to prep a few more hexagons for my I Spy quilt. I decided to work on this one this week because several people have offered to send me some novelty squares if I don't have enough.

What constitutes a "Heatwave" in Toronto? At least three consecutive days with temperatures of 32C and nights with temps staying above 20C. This current heatwave will continue for the next few days and maybe even longer. A thunder storm is brewing. That will be nice. Maybe I won't have to water my garden for a day or so.

A Scrap Happy Summer

I am officially joining Emily for a Scrap Happy Summer.

The idea is to make something using scraps. Since it seems that everything I am making at the moment uses scraps, I thought I'd join in. Here are a few of my projects, The first one is my klosjes. I have been working on these for quite a while and I am about halfway to my goal of 320 klosjes. So far I have used each spool fabric only once. Then there are my Grandmother's Flower Garden flowers. I am really enjoying these! I have no idea how big this quilt is going to get. These flowers are so much fun to make, I may have to buy a bigger bed!

An off-shoot of the flowers are these I Spy hexagons. I came across a box full of these hexies which I had started many years ago. I decided to do them in English Paper Piecing, since I really like that technique and this is what I have so far. I am hoping that I will have enough different I Spy fabrics.

Then there are the tiny squares which I showed you a few days ago. These things are very addictive. They are only 2 1/2 inches square (unfinished). I usually don't keep scraps this small, because there is a wonderful gal at our quilt guild who collects these tiny bits to use in her classroom. But it is summer now and I have no one to give them to, so I thought I would try making these little squares. And voila! I'm hooked. I have no idea what I will do with them.

And here are some strip blocks. I only have a few more to make. Hope to have a finished quilt to show you soon. These strips are also very addictive. You can't just make one!

As I am writing this I realize that I have a few other projects on the go that involve scraps which I forgot to take photos of. I'll leave them for next time.

Vicki from Felines and Fibre Arts came over for tea this morning. She brought me some delicious cinnamon scones. So yummy! And also this wonderful fabric yumminess - fabrics she brought back from her trip to Kauai a few weeks ago. Aren't they stunning? And as if that wasn't enough, she also brought me the cutest little chicken pin cushion! I don't know how I feel about sticking pins into this. He is just too cute! There is a neat story that goes with the chicken and you know me, I love trivia! Did you know that the island of Kauai is over-run with chickens? Apparently they're everywhere. It seems that there were a couple of hurricanes during the 1980s that freed the chickens from their coups. Since there are no natural predators on Kauai, the chickens have flourished. Hawaiians must have a great sense of humour because these pin cushion chickens are everywhere too. Don't you just love it!

.

Happy Canada Day!

Canada is 143 years old today. Happy Birthday Canada!

An Addiction

Only got 3 flowers done this week. But that was because I got sort of side tracked. I was searching for a UFO that I started several years ago. I didn't find it, but I did find an 'I Spy' quilt that I started many years ago. It was a hexagon and triangle pattern. I had lots of hexagons cut out. They were supposed to be sewn together by hand. Since I have been doing grandma's flowers using the English paper piecing method, I decided I would never finish the I Spy quilt by hand. So I turned it into hexagons without the triangles. Here's what I have done so far.

I was also doing a bit of mindless sewing. Wanda from Exuberant Color gave me the idea. She makes little squares with her left over fabric. I decided to follow her lead. These little squares measure 2 1/2inches and will finish at 2inches. They're kind of addictive. I should really be quilting a couple of charity quilts I promised to make at our last guild meeting.

Just can't stop making these. But I really should work on my other projects. Yes, that's it. I am going to put these little squares away for awhile and work on my UFOs..... or, maybe not.

Our City Under Siege

I don't often use this blog to complain about the world around me. I know others do and I applaud them for their ability to speak their minds and not worry about what the rest of the world has to say. But the G8 and G20 Summits, which were just held in our province, have kind of stirred up my thoughts and given me the desire to share my feelings.

While the G20 members were calmly smiling, waving and posing for the cameras, our city was anything but calm. Thousands of protesters descended on downtown streets when the G20 Summit was held here this past weekend. Although noisy at times, they were mainly peaceful and nonviolent - lots of colour, lots of signs, lots of chanting, lots of music and dancing in the streets. When I saw them on television I was reminded of the 60s when demonstrations were held by flower-bedecked 'hippies' to make love not war. I wanted to go downtown and join them. If only I was 18 again. Here is a 2010 flower child, wanting to share her daisies with a cop in full riot gear.
I never doubted that our police force, as well as thousands of police officers from other cities, would be able to handle the demonstrators. But on Saturday, I was astounded to see violence and mayhem on our city streets. A group, calling themselves, the 'Black Bloc' splintered off from the main protesters. They wore black clothing and had their faces covered by balaclavas or bandannas in order to hide their identities. They started smashing store windows with anything they could find like bricks and boards. On other buildings they spray painted obscene graffiti. They eventually set fire to or destroyed four police cars. I watched the scenes play out in horror on my television - from the safety of my living room. What I really found interesting was that everyone at the scene seemed to have a camera or cell phone and was taking photos. I hoped that everyone of those violent protesters would eventually be identified and arrested.Our police have come under harsh criticism for their actions this past weekend. Some people believe that they didn't do enough to stop the thugs who tried to take over our city. Others claim that their actions were not democratic and should have been more fair. Many of the 'Black Bloc' were arrested and charged. In fact, it was reported that over 900 people had been detained and/or questioned over the weekend. I am proud of our police, even though they had to resort to firing teargas and rubber bullets into the unruly crowd for the first time in Toronto's history.

This whole thing has got me thinking. Our government spent over a billion dollars for security this past weekend. Wouldn't it have been better to spend that money on poverty, maternal health, the economy or whatever else they discussed at their Summit? The leaders could have participated in a teleconferencing Summit, each safe in his/her own country. But I understand the limited photo ops in that plan. I guess we can't have it all. Peace without policing. Government spending without a Summit. Photo ops without cameras.

Now it is time to clean up the mess left in the downtown area. I hope our city can go back to just being Toronto the Boring Good. That's the way I like it.

Cats in my Flower Garden

I've been AWOL for awhile. It has been a hot and humid week. The heat never used to bother me. I would just dive into our pool and cool off. But the pool is gone. We had to fill it in. So sad. (more of that on a later post) Now all I can do to cool off is stay indoors where it is air conditioned. And that's what I did. So you might think that I got a lot of quilting and sewing done - actually no. Nothing is completed for this month. I did get some flowers made. Five of them to be exact, but I was still working on them last night. Here they are.

"Oh, Mimi, get off my flowers so I can show them to my blogging friends."

"No way! Purrrr. I love these things. Just get that camera out of my face, Meow!!"

"Get off and I will go outside and get you some catnip. Ahhhh. That's better!"

Oh, no, not another one! Now Oscar wants in on the action! He always wants to do what Mimi does. Guess I'd better go out and get that catnip I promised them.


I also got a few spooltjes (klosjes) made. I have close to 200 now. I am trying to figure out how many I will need. Mine are 3inch blocks. If I make the quilt 48in. by 60in. I will need 320 blocks. Yikes! That's a lot! Guess I'd better get back to work.


And here is a gratuitous shot of Felix. He was polite enough to stay off the flowers, but I thought his photo should be in this post too. He is just so handsome.... and huge! My DS calls him 'The Big F".

Grandma's Flowers in My Flower Garden

I managed to get a few flowers made this week. It rained all day yesterday, so I couldn't take a good photo. But today the weather is gorgeous! So here are my flower blocks for this week.
First, 3 of them in yellow and green with my Verbena and Calibrachoa or Million Bells. I used to think that Calibrachoa were miniature petunias, but they are not. Although closely related to petunias, Calibrachoa has a very different DNA structure. They are wonderful in a hanging basket, and with the peachy Verbena they make for a colourful show in the garden.

I also made 3 in pinks and turquoise. Here they are in amongst my Phlox and Shasta daisies. The phlox is already beginning to bloom and the daisies look like they will open soon too.

A Volunteer Tea

The school where my daughter teaches is having a tea this afternoon, to honour all the volunteers who have helped out during the past school year. I am invited. I didn't do as much this year as I have in other years, but they invited me anyway. My daughter thought she would like to experience what it is like to bake a cake for such an occasion. Don't worry, she is not intending to quit her job and make cake decorating her career. She just enjoys baking cakes and decorating them. This one was a simple layer cake with butter cream icing. It measures 13in. by 18in. A couple of people expressed an interest in seeing the finished cake, so here it is.

Here she is putting on the finishing touches.

A Good Mail Day!

It's been a hot and sticky day today. I wasn't planning on doing too much in the kitchen. But then the postal service came and delivered a package. It came all the way from Australia and I knew right away that it was my apron from the apron swap that Sarah from Red Gingham organized. Hilary from quilary - take a peek over the fence sent it to me.

Here is my daughter modelling it. I am a lot bigger, so it fits me perfectly. I just love the little kangaroo and all the other Australian animals. So cool! So even though I now have this cute apron, I still didn't do any cooking. We ordered Swiss Chalet chicken instead. I'm not sure if I will wear it tomorrow either. I think I'll just sit and look at it for awhile. It's really too pretty to wear while I'm cooking and have things splatter on it. Hilary also included a couple of hot pads in her package. They will look great hanging on my kitchen wall! Thank you Hilary! You've made my day!

Flowers on a Rainy Wednesday

We are having a day of rain. Don't get me wrong, I am not complaining. We really need the rain. I can hear my flowers singing their hearts out in the garden. The birds are happy too! Guess it will be a sewing day for me and that's okay. I don't get much time to sew during the summer. Since it is Wednesday I am showing you some of my hexagon flowers. Here are last week's blocks. Only got three done, but it was a very busy week.

This week I did a bit better. I made 5 of them. Here they are in my vegetable garden. I planted the lettuce at the beginning of April and we have been eating salads for weeks already. The rows on the right are radishes. I still have to thin them out. But not today. It is too wet and cold outside. I think I will stay indoors and sew these flowers onto my flower garden quilt top.

Convocation

I haven't blogged in a few days - been too busy convoking. Ha! I don't think I have ever used that word before. My DS received his Bachelor of Education with 'highest distinction' last Friday. It was a proud moment for all of us! The university he attended is not too far away from home - only about 40km. It's a relatively new university. UOIT stands for University of Ontario Institute of Technology. I'm glad he went there for his educational degree since he was able to learn a lot of new computer skills. He is currently working for the university, preparing some mathematics resources for future student teachers - using the skills he learned. That's him in the middle of the stage with the blue trimmed hood.
We had a lot of rain this past weekend. But we needed it. My garden was reduced to dust. I did not take any photos of my spooltjes (klosjes) or my hexagon flower garden. I have been working on them - a little. Hope to do some more in the next few days. Then I will post them.

Nine Patch Challenge

As I wrote yesterday, we had our last Guild meeting for this year last night. The food was plentiful and tasty! The company was inspirational and friendly. There were lots of praises and fat quarters for people who had made our Guild such a success this year. Also, the winners of the 'Nine Patch Challenge' were revealed.

I was on cloud nine! Cloud Nine Patch, that is, because my quilt was lucky enough to win third in my category. How exciting! I have never won a ribbon before! (Probably because I have never entered a challenge before.) Here is my entry. I call it '27 or Nine times Three' because that is how many times the nine patch block appears in my quilt. First the little individual nine patch units, then the bigger nine patch units (the black and grey ones) and finally the overall nine patch units that make up the quilt. Can you see them?
I was also awarded a couple of beautiful fat quarters for all the quilts I have made for 'Quilts from the Heart' this year. Aren't they lovely?

We all said a sad goodbye for the summer, but promised to be back in September. I still have one more Guild function to attend and that is next Monday evening. There will be another potluck to welcome all the new executive members for next year. I am one of them. I will be doing our monthly newsletter. Can you imagine? I volunteered for that! I have no idea what got into to me. I think it will be a lot of work and will keep me busy and out of trouble for the next two years.

Another Quilt Year Comes to an End

Tonight is our last Guild meeting for this year. We are having a potluck. I made some yummy deviled eggs to take with me. I also finished this little quilt for 'Quilts from the Heart'. The top is not very exciting, especially for a child, but this is the fabric I was given to work with.

The backing is cute though. Butterflies!

That's why I took a photo in the garden. There are lots of butterflies flitting around my flowers. The quilt is hanging on my wisteria vine. It's the only shady part of my garden that I have left. We cut down the dead peach tree and also a huge cedar that I planted a long time ago when it was just a seedling. We bought a new peach tree yesterday. I forgot to take a photo. Maybe I will later. Right now it is too hot to go outside. It's 30C and feels like 35C with the humidity.

Flower Garden

It's been over a week since I last blogged about something. Not much quilting going on, but I was very busy, busy planting stuff, that is. The temperature has been incredibly high all week. It feels like July. Lots of sunshine and humidity, but no rain! I did a lot of planting in my garden - and watering!

All the vegetables are in and the annuals have been planted in the front yard. I am trying some eggplant this year. Never tried to grow that before. I still have a lot of weeding to do, but that will have to be done slowly. It's just too hot out! Because we filled in our pool last year, I now have a couple of raised flower beds that need to be planted. Here is a picture of the iris I bought a few weeks ago. I didn't know what colour it would be, but I am not disappointed. This thing is beautiful! You can see the raised beds my husband made for me in the background. It will be much easier for me to plant things this way.


And here is a photo of my hexagon flower garden. These are the only things I got done as far as quilting is concerned.

Bloggers Quilt Festival, Spring 2010

It's time, once again, for Amy's 'Bloggers Quilt Festival'. I have chosen this quilt to show you. I made it for my mother several years ago. It's machine pieced, hand appliqued and machine quilted. Thank you Amy, for doing this once again!

I really enjoyed making it and hope to make another just like it soon.

If you want to see more quilts in the Festival, go to Amy's site.

No Quilting Got Done Today

We got a dose of summer today. The high temperature went to 82F (28C). That's hot considering that less than a week ago we still had frost and the furnace went on over night. I should have been busy quilting my UFO, but I heard the garden calling to me. I decided to go to the nursery and buy some tomato plants.

It was a beautiful day and I enjoyed the warmth of the sunshine and smiled to myself every time I looked at my purchases of tomato plants and marigolds that overflowed my scooter's basket and sat at my feet, ready for my garden.

As I was getting fairly close to home, I spotted my elderly neighbour, trying to cross one of the busiest roads in our area. She has been displaying the early stages of Alzheimer's lately. I haven't talked to her since last fall, but something about the way she stood and walked made me take a second look. I wondered if I should interfere with her outing or just mind my own business. She kept pushing the button for the 'walk' signal, but it never came on, so she just walked across on a red light. It's three lanes of traffic in each direction, plus a turning lane in the middle. Luckily there was no immediate traffic, but several cars had to slow down so as not to hit her. I decided her outing had just become my business.

"Howdy neighbour", I said when she reached the side of the road I was on.
She looked at me suspiciously and then demanded to know who the heck I was.
I told her, "I'm your next door neighbour. Don't you remember me?"
"Oh for gosh sakes! Of course!" she said.

"Where are you going?" I asked her.
She told me that she was heading to a mall that was at least 10km from where we were. I asked her how she was going to get there and she said that she was walking.
"Why that particular mall?" I asked her.
She told me that she lived there.

So I decided to really interfere. I invited her over to my house for some ice tea! I was hot and so was she and according to her reality no one was home at her house. We made our way slowly down the street, with her stopping to talk to her shadow several times and also to an imaginary dog, that apparently comes by all the time. I rode my scooter, while she shuffled along. We finally made it home, but she did not want any ice tea any more by that time. She was just glad she had found her house! She climbed quickly up the front steps when her husband opened the door. He told me she had been sitting outside in the back yard and must have gone for a walk.

I really hated to interfere, but if something had happened to her, something that could have been prevented by me helping her get home, I would never have been able to forgive myself.

I took my plants home and planted them in my garden. New plants, new growth, new life, new harvests. It was comforting to think about those things after witnessing the ravages of old age.

Yippee! It's Time for a Monday Update!

I love Mondays! Why you ask? Because on Monday everything returns to normal for me and I am able to do some sewing. Saturday and Sunday are usually so busy that I can't get any quilting done. Most of the time the only sewing I do is the hand kind when I watch television in the evenings.

So what did I do with my weekend? I made a 'flag'. My DD asked me to make one for her grade 8 class. They are doing a workshop for the rest of the school. Their topic is bullying. This is the flag that the students designed. I just made the letters and figures, DD helped with that. Then I stitched them down using a machine blanket stitch. I hope the students like how it turned out.
I also had a chance to work on my 'spooltjes' (klosjes). I now have a total of 129 completed. I did not take a photo of them. But here is one of my grandma's flower hexagon. I have made 30 flowers so far.
I know I said that I wasn't going to start anything new until I had finished another UFO. But I needed something to do during the day when I am inside and able to use my sewing machine. This is my new start. It's all done by machine. The blocks measure 4 1/2inches. I am just making a few of these every day. I am using every blue fabric in my stash. When I run out of blues the quilt will be finished.

SkyWatch Friday - Already!

A couple of sunrise photos from a few days ago. If you want to see more Sky Watch pics from around the world - and I know you do - go here. This one was taken just minutes before the sun rose above the horizon.

And in this one the sun is up. Nice sun, but it turned out to be a cloudy, hazy day.

On the quilting front, I have been busy with klosjes, hexagons and also my hand pieced and appliqued quilt. Will show you a progress report soon.