Oh, no! That's not Good!

I bought a quilt pattern a year ago from A Red Boot Quilt Co.  It is called "The Rabbits at Hyde Park".  I didn't have time to finish it last year.  So, when I found it in a box at the bottom of my closet, I decided to get 'er done for this Easter.  I thought it wouldn't take me long, since I had a good start on it.  But as I was rolling around in my wheelchair (I still use one in my sewing room because it is too small to have two chairs and I can't get around very well.  I usually just roll from the sewing machine to my cutting table.) I got tangled up in the cord that controls the foot pedal.  The cord pulled out of the plug.  Not good!  I wonder how long it will take to fix it.

I still have some handwork to do on the Rabbit quilt, so I will continue on with that.  The machine applique will just have to wait.  And, as if that wasn't bad enough,  I woke up with a sore throat and a stuffy nose this morning and then to make matters even worse, I burned the stew I was cooking.  It's true!  I can only do one thing at a time and this morning I was trying to do too much.

But since I am an optimist (sort of) I will show you the Rabbit quilt.  I think it will be cute.  This is only part of it.  I still have more on my cutting table.

And last, but not least, a Hibiscus flower.  My plant is starting to bloom!  Spring must be on its way.

Can I get any more positive than that?

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.

Stuff - Sewing as Fast as I Can

My machine is in the shop, getting a tune-up and other things.  I miss her.  Have been doing some handwork and made a few March blocks from the #qmbittyblocks on an old machine that was sitting in my basement.

Also made the Hexie Blog's hexie project for March.  This block is not done.  It looks kind of crooked, but that is because it has not been appliqued yet.

And last, but not least is my turtle block from the Elephants on Parade quilt along.  I will do the birds when I get my machine back.  Hopefully that will be on Saturday.

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An Elephant Parade Game

Where has the week gone?  Time just seems to be flying by.  But that's okay.  It is so cold right now that I can hardly wait for February to be over.  The weather people are calling this cold spell a Siberian Express because it originates in Siberia.  Last year was the year of the Polar Vortex.  Crazy! But spring has got to be around the corner!  It is, isn't it?

I did a lot of sewing this past week, but I have very little to show for it.  I am still working on the Jungle Quilt, but right now I am just appliqueing the pieced down.  My machine is not happy about that and is making a lot of silly noises.  I may have to take it in for a tune up before I can continue,.  I did, however, work on the Elephant Parade quilt.  I got the frog done and made 4 little baby elephants.  I have decided to make this quilt into a matching game.  All of the adult elephants will have a matching baby elephant somewhere in the quilt.  There will be two of each of the other baby elephants too.  This is what I have done so far.

I also finished the little crocheted blanket I showed you last week.  Unfortunately I gave it to my DD before I could get a photo of it.  It is just a small blanket that she will use in the library when she takes William to story hour.  I will try to get a photo of it later.  When my DS saw the blanket he asked me to make something similar for his cats to sleep on.  I found a couple of crocheted blocks in a bag at the bottom of a bin.  I have no idea where they came from, or whether they were the beginning of a quilt or some left-over pieces.  I am going to use them.  This blanket should go together quickly and I think the cats will love it.  I am going to run the ends in as I go.  I hate having to still do them all at the end.

Visitors from the Serengeti

I have completed the five large elephants for the first portion of the Baby Elephant sew-along.  I spent a couple of hours yesterday and finished them.  All of my other quilt-related sewing is kind of tedious and boring, so I really enjoyed making these guys.  Can't wait for the next instalment.

What I'm Working On

I have been out of town for a few days.  Just got back yesterday.  I didn't have much time for machine sewing.  But I did do a couple of small things.  I started to make the basket blocks for the bow tie quilt I started last month. This month's blocks were small baskets.  I don't really like them; just a bit too small and fussy for my liking. I only made two of them and I don't think I will make any more.

I know I promised not to start any other new projects, but I just couldn't resist when I saw the elephant baby quilt on the Sew Fresh Quilts site.  The sew along started on February the 1st.  I made one elephant block so far.  It is so cute and it took no time at all.  I will definitely make more blocks of this quilt.  But I will finish some more urgent quilts first.

While away from my machine I worked on some crocheted granny hexies.  I spent a couple of hours each day working on these.  I think I have enough for a small baby blanket.

Today I am heading to my sewing machine.  I really have to finish that jungle quilt before William is too old for it.

DaGMT 2015

I have decided to take part in the Drop and Give Me Twenty.  (DaGMT 2015)  This challenge started on the first of February.  I didn't read about it until a couple of days ago.  But since I have been working almost non-stop on the Jungle Quilt, I think I can still qualify for this.

Here is my statement.

I, Hetty G, am joining Quilting Hottie Haven's fourth annual quilt challenge.   I pledge to sew for at least an hour a day, during the month of February, 2015.  I think that is doable.  I want to finish several more quilts in the first half of this year and this will help me accomplish that.

So here is what I did so far this month.

On the 1st. I did about 60 minutes of sewing.  That was all I had time for.  Because it was Sunday, we had to do some visiting.

On the 2nd, (Monday) I spent about 30 minutes sewing by machine and another 90 minutes drawing and cutting out animal parts for the Jungle Quilt.

On Tuesday (3rd) I spent about 2 hours of hexie hand sewing at our Tuesday morning Friendship group at the church.  I finished the February Hexie Blog's block.

On Wednesday, (4th) I spent 3 hours machine sewing the parts of the animals that I had designed over the last few days.

On Thursday (5th) I spent what seemed like the whole day at my machine.  I am sure I did about 4 hours of machine sewing.  Then in the evening, while watching television, I did another couple of hours prepping and hand sewing some hexies.

So now I am up to today, Friday the 6th.  I am going to try to do at least an hour of machine applique. My DD is coming over today with William and that will probably be the end of my sewing time.

Can't have a post without a photo, now can we?  So here he is, the flying William, practising to be an astronaut..  Now I must get back to my machine.  

Hexie Block for February

I have been doing lots of sewing, but have very little to show for it.  I did, however, finish The Hexie Blog's block for February.  I love these little hexies.  They are so much fun to make.  Here it is, only the 5th of February, and I am already yearning for next month's block.  Just four weeks to go.  Guess I'll just have to wait.  (sigh)

Sewing Monkeys

I drew the monkeys and then transferred them to Wonder Under.  Then I cut them out and ironed them onto the quilt top.  Now all that is left to do is sew them down.  I am not sure if I am going to add anything else to this quilt.  It's been a lot of work, but I think it's worth it.  I hope William loves his quilt.

I still have some things to embroider.  Some eyes etc.  Maybe I will get them done tonight, while I watch television.

Drawing Monkeys

Now that the Super Heroes quilt top is done, I have to get on with my other half finished stuff.  The Jungle baby quilt for William is up on the design wall now.  I spent the whole afternoon yesterday drawing monkeys.  But I was not happy with them.  They didn't look like they wanted to be on the quilt.  Have to get back to them later.

But first I have a few errands to run.  And hopefully get my hair cut too.

I saw some really cute, little bow tie blocks on  Tubakk's blog.  They are from a sew along that just started this month.  I know I said that I wasn't going to start anything new, but these things just screamed to me. So yesterday morning I made them.  They are only 3.5 inches unfinished.  I needed 16 of them.  They are not sewn together yet.

Now out to the bank and stuff and then back to the monkey drawing board.

First Flimsy Finish for this Year

My sincere apologies to all of my blogging friends.  I have been absent for a long tine.  Just before Christmas I developed a toothache.  I had to wait until after the new year to have it looked at by my dentist.  He pulled it out since it had broken in so many little shards.  There was no saving it.  The pain should have gone away, but it didn't.  So the following week I went back to see him and he prescribed 10 days of antibiotics.  Those ten days came and went and my tooth the space in my mouth where the tooth had been was still hurting me.  I was unable to do anything but sit around and mope and complain.  So to make a long story short, I didn't do much sewing and I had nothing to share with you.  But last weekend I felt much better.  I spent my time finishing the Super Heroes quilt for my DS.  I still have to send it out to be quilted, but when it is finished he plans to hang it on the wall in the staircase of his new house.

I am so glad this is finished.  Now I can move onto other UFOs that I want to finish over the next couple of months.  Hope to see you soon with something new.

I'm linking up with the Needle and Thread Network

One Flower Wednesday

Haven't posted any flowers on Wednesdays for a long time.  But this is my January hexie from the Hexie Blog.  It sort of looks like a flower and, it's done!.  Just have to applique it onto a background. But I want to wait until I see what the rest of the monthly blocks will be.  I think I am going to like this BOM for 2015.

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.

Merry Christmas!

Sending warm wishes

From our house to yours

For a safe and happy Christmas

Filled with hope, peace and joy

I made my DD a new wallet.  I think I can show it to you because she is so busy with the baby at the moment that she probably won't read my blog.

Lots of room for a cheque book, a pen, change, bills, and credit cards.

My sister made this gorgeous stocking for William.  She is the cross stitcher in our family.  I just sewed the whole thing into a stocking.

Now to wait for Santa to come.

 

Off to the Library

It's cold out, but I have nothing to read.  I just can't see a whole week without a book.  So off I go.

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.

Earning my PHD

I have taken our Guild's PHD challenge.  PHD stands for Projects Half Done.  I am ashamed to say that I have many of them in my sewing room.  This challenge is a way of completing some of these projects.  I have picked 4 to work on over the next few months.  They have to be completed by the end of May, and must be quilted, have the binding attached and a label if the project is a quilt.  Smaller projects like pillows and wall hangings don't need a label. If I cannot finish any one of them, I will have to pay $5.00 to the woman's shelter our guild supports.  That\s a win/win situation.  Don't you agree?  Even if I can't finish the projects, the women's shelter will still benefit.

So here are the projects I have chosen to finish.

First is the Super Heroes quilt I started to make for my son last year.  I wanted him to use it on his bed, but he wanted to hang it on a wall.  I lost all interest in finishing it when I learned that.  But he recently purchased a brand new house.  It is still being built as I write this.  By Christmas it should be finished so that he can move in.  I want to finish this quilt for Christmas.  There is not too much left to do.  It is very large, so I will send it out to be quilted.

My second PHD project is the Maple Leaf quilt I started last year.  I still have a lot to do on this one, but I really like it and I want to get it done.

This is my third project.  It is a Trip Around the World that I started several years ago.  I really love this quilt, but I guess I got tired of making the strata for this one.  This one will also be sent out for quilting when it is finished.  I think it will be a Queen size quilt.

The fourth project is a cross quilt that I started at least 3 or 4 years ago.  It used a lot of fabric that other quilters gave me.  I have no idea how big I will make this one.  I only know that I want to get it done.

I signed these quilts up for the PHG challenge last night at our last Guild meeting for this year.  I was kind of distracted and I totally forgot about William's Jungle Quilt that I have been working on lately. Since DD has been staying at my house, I have not had much time to finish this one.  But it has to go into William's room when they go home.  And that will probably be soon.  So I am, unofficially, adding this one to my PHD list too.  I am going to love working to finish this one.

Wish me luck.  I think I am going to need it!

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.

Little Letters Update

Haven't had much time to sew, but I did work on some little letters.  This is my blue/green version. The colour version is on hold for the moment.

William is starting to do cute things.  He smiles when anyone talks to him.  He loves to hang out in his monkey sitter and look around.  This morning I had him on top of my cutting table.  He loved it there.  He was able to help me sew and also look around at all the interesting things in my solarium. We had snow last night and the backyard was white and beautiful.

Big Smiles

Sorry that I have been so long in posting.  It is impossible for me to keep up with the daily photos. So much has been going on here.  There seem to be daily doctor appointments, breast feeding consultations and weigh-ins.  But I did want to show you a cute photo that I took this morning. William is almost four weeks old now and he is smiling - not only when he has gas, but all the time.

November 5, 2014

Pretty Cactus Plants

Thought I'd show you my Christmas Cacti today.  They are so colourful!  But it is nowhere near Christmas, so I guess this first one is a Halloween Cactus.  It is just loaded with orange blooms.

There is also a red cactus that has been blooming for a while now.

A light pink cactus.  I have two more pink plants like this.  They are very old, but they are still producing more buds.

And a dark pink one.  This might be my favourite pink cactus.  I love the fushia colour.

October 29, 2014

Adding to My Stash... I Know I Shouldn't, but I Did Anyway!

This is what I bought at the Creativ Festival.  A couple of pieces of lights.  I just love anything with words or numbers on it.  I found a piece of Sudoku and one all in French.  Also a Canadian flag fabric, bexause I didn't have any in my stash, and a grayish fabric that only cost me a few dollars for two metres.

I also found some colourful Kaffe Fassett fabrics.  I have no idea what I will do with these, but they were just too beautiful to pass up.

October 25, 2014

OMG!  It's only two months until Christmas!

Creativ Festival

The weather was perfect today, so I decided to attend the Creativ Festival.  It was an adventure.  First a trip to the GO station on my scooter.  Then a trip by GO train to downtown Toronto.  Then a short ride to the Convention Centre.

It was busy.  But soooo nice to get out for the day.  There were lots of exhibits of all kinds of crafts.  . Red Heart yarns had a wonderful jungle themed display.  Everything had been crocheted by volunteers, so there were no patterns.  Here is a bird that looked right at me!

October 24, 2014

I am going to have to look some of these up on Ravelry. 

I met many quilting friends from our guild.  I talked to other quilters about their favourite techniques. I bought a few pieces of Kaffe Fasset fabrics.  I had some lunch and afterwards made the trip back home.  Everyone at the GO station was very helpful, guiding me to the right platform to catch my train home.  Being downtown was kind of exciting.  Lots of construction going on.  Toronto seems to be growing day by day.

Sorry this photo is sort of blurry.  I took it through the glass of the Skywalk.

I can't wait until next year's Festival.

What's Happening to Our World?

A tragic situation took place in our nation's capital yesterday.  A Canadian soldier was gunned down at the War Memorial in Ottawa.  We are in mourning.  This kind of thing shouldn't happen in our country.

A police officer, running down an Ottawa street with his gun drawn.  Canadian flags blowing in the wind behind him.  I could get totally depressed over this event.  But I am Canadian.  I will take a few minutes to pray for the victim's family and hope that this sort of thing will never happen again.  Life must go on and we can't let a terrorist stop us from living our lives to the fullest.

With a new baby around it is easy to keep focused on the present.  My sister came over yesterday to drive DD and her baby to a pediatrician appointment.  DD is still not able to drive herself.  William passed every test the doctor gave him.  He is doing very well and growing quickly

My sister enjoyed holding him and keeping him entertained all afternoon...  until he began to cry and nothing could console him but his mother with a delicious body-temperature meal.

October 22, 2014

Thanks, Sis!  For coming all the way over here and doing the driving.  (She used to drive a subway train before she retired, so she is a great driver!)  We are grateful for all the support that we are receiving from family and friends.

Sashimi!

Yum!  We ordered Japanese take-out for dinner this evening. 

October 18, 2014