A Fall Day

Sunday, day 3 of Blogtoberfest. It was cold last night. Only about 2C. I managed to take most of my tropical plants indoors yesterday. Now I have a jungle in my solarium. There is not much room for anything else. Mimi was kind of scared with all that plant material out there. But then she went back to her favourite chair and tried to make herself comfortable. She did not look very comfortable or calm and relaxed. And I don't think she liked having her picture taken.

"Why Mimi? You now have your very own jungle. What more could a cat ask for?"

"Give a girl some privacy! Meow! Get that camera out of my face!" Here is one of the succulent pots I brought indoors. In the spring it looked like this.

And now it looks like this.

No time for sewing today. Apples were on sale this week, 49cents a pound. So I bought some and baked a pie. Something nice and hot on a cold fall day.

My Weekly Block

Day 2 of Blogtoberfest. Is it only day 2? It feels like a month has gone by already. I hope I can keep this up. I am also hoping that this daily blogging will return my zest - my energy, my interest, my spirit, my gusto - back to me!

Have you noticed? I have not finished anything this summer. Only started lots of new projects. I want to change that. I want to work on my UFOs and get something out of the way each week or at least each month. I am hoping that I will have to finish something each day so that I can show you interesting things.

This is this week's block - again, just an orphan block - not a whole quilt. This block is called 'Chain'. It is this week's block on the Friday Block Party. If you are not familiar with the Party I will give you the link here. Or you can just click on the Friday Block Party on my sidebar. I'm inviting you to put on your party hats and join me. I seem to be the only one out there lately and I feel as if I'm talking to myself. If you want to join in, I will send you an invitation and then you can blog and post your blocks on the Party site.

Back to the block. As I said, it's called 'Chain' and it's a 12-inch block. I hope I can break the chain, that seems to be keeping my creativity down, with this block and with Blogtoberfest. I decided to use some of my black and white stash. I have been collecting them, but I have not done anything substantial with them yet. Okay, Okay. I hear ya. I won't start anything new with them. I'll keep them safely in my black and white bin. See you tomorrow.

A New Month called Blogtoberfest

October is here! The weather is getting cooler, but that's okay. It was way too hot this summer anyway. The trees are changing colour, and that is great! I heard that the colours of fall were created by a caring God so that we wouldn't all jump off a bridge when our Canadian winter is around the corner. The evenings are longer, so I can work on my hand quilting. And that is good! Lots of TV time for me and my handwork.

It is also the first day of Blogtoberfest. I think I did something like this last year. But a year has gone by and I have forgotten what it was like to have to publish a new post every day. So here I go..... Just click on the Blogtoberfest icon on my sidebar if you are interested in joining in or reading other bloggers' daily posts.


This is my neighbour's tree. I wish it was mine! The colours are so brilliant this year. It's because of the hot summer we had. But summer is over now. This weekend I am going to have to take all of my tropical plants indoors because the overnight low on Sunday will only be 2C. My Hibiscus will not like that. Since my sewing room has slowly moved itself into the solarium (and other rooms) I will have to do some tidying up or I won't have room for all those plants.

Busy, Busy, Busy and One Flower Wednesday!

I've had a busy start to my week. No time for blogging or reading comments. On Monday evening we had our first guild meeting for this year. It was nice to see everyone again. We had a guest speaker, Renske Helmuth. She is a fibre artist and appliquer. I loved all of her quilts! She had some real beauties to show us. On Tuesday she held a workshop for members of our guild to do some wired-ribbon flowers. I had never done those so I signed up for it. It was a fun day. We met at 43 Police Division. They have a huge room with the most comfortable chairs I have ever sat in. The room is surrounded by windows. Too bad it rained yesterday, because I think that room must be fantastic on a sunny day. The only drawback was the airconditioning. They still had it turned up full blast. We almost froze and complained but were told that they couldn't do a thing about it. Apparently the temperature is regulated by their head office downtown. Grrrrr. Tax payers' money! But I won't start on that! Here is what I got done.
The sunflower is not sewn yet, which is a good thing. Now that I see it in a photo, I realize that the flower is not centred. I also didn't get the top leaf appliqued yet. There will be one more flower and a bud to make out of the wired ribbon. The centres of the flowers will be done with seed beads. I hope to get this project done before the end of October so that I can bring it to the next guild meeting for Show and Tell.

I wish I had some hexie flowers to show you, but I only got a lot of green pieces done for the red hexagon quilt. I have 49 completed flowers for that quilt - to date.

I saw a beautiful hexagon quilt on a website and thought I would try making something like that. I had some hexagon pieces that I couldn't use for the red quilt. So I made a few more and put them together based on the beautiful quilt I found on that website. I am aiming for a quilt, but it may just become a wall hanging. This is what I have done so far. Some parts have not been sewn together yet.

Leaves

Now that fall is here, my mind is on colourful leaves. Bright reds, oranges, yellows. browns and purples. So here is a block to celebrate Autumn. You can find it by clicking on the Friday Block Party on my sidebar. It's called Ozark Maple Leaf and it is 12 inches square.
Happy Friday everyone!

Eleven Flower Wednesday

I worked on some flowers this week. Eleven to be exact! These are all small ones for my red garden. Here are the finished ones. There are 7 of those.

And another 4 prepped and ready to sew. I also made some green leaves to go between the flowers.
Today is the last day of summer. The Autumn Equinox occurs at 11:09 tonight.

Two Blocks from the Friday Block Party

I managed to get two Block Party blocks done. The first one is called 'Cups and Saucers' and it is a 9 inch block from week 36. The pattern is from Quilter's Cache. You can click on the Friday Block Party logo on my side bar to get it. Sometimes Quilter's Cache has bizarre instructions for making the blocks. In that case I usually just make them the way I think is best. But for this block I followed their 'quickie method' to make the flying geese units. It worked like a charm. I just love the red fabric. Don't you? It's from America Samoa. Barb sent it to me a while back. Thanks Barb. It really makes this block zing!
The next block is from this week (week 38) on the Block Party. It's called 'Grandmother's Puzzle'. I really like this block, even though I am not a grandmother yet. It was quick and easy. Just a few HST and some 2 1/2inch units. It is a 10 inch block, so I used batiks. I must look for the other 10 inch blocks that I've made to see if I have enough for a quilt. If anyone is interested in joining the Block Party, just let me know and I will send you an invitation so that you can post your blocks on the site. Hope everyone has a terrific weekend - the last one for this summer if you live in the northern hemisphere. Of course, if you are 'down under' you are looking forward to summer. (sigh) A large flock of robins came to my garden today. There were so many that I could not count them all. I guess they are getting ready to fly south - a sure sign that fall is close. And a very noisy Blue Jay came to see if there were seeds in the feeder. It's the first one I have seen since last spring. There were no seeds in the feeder because I planted some Morning Glories at the bottom of the post and they have taken over. It's probably good that I am not feeding the birds right now, otherwise they may decide to stay too long and not be able to make it all the way to warmer weather before it turns too cold.

Wednesday is Flower Day!

The summer is just about over, but I still have some lovely flowers in my garden. This one is called Lavatera. I started them from seeds, indoors. The package said they were mixed colours, but most of mine are this wonderful pink. They are a member of the mallow family. Can you tell? Other plants in the mallow family include hibiscus, okra, hollyhocks, cotton plant, Rose of Sharon and many more. In fact there are about 200 genera and over 2000 different species in this family.

Here is a close up.

A few white Lavatera came up too. I really love the large, snow white blooms.

Family: Malvaceae. Genus: Lavatera.

A couple of other flowers are blooming in my hexagon garden. I made several this week. I joined them to the others, so I am not exactly sure of how many I made, and I am not going to show you how it looks at this point. These flowers are rather small and it doesn't look as if the quilt is growing. I'm afraid if I take a photo every week I will get bored and not finish this quilt. Yesterday I joined a small group of quilters for tea and quilt talk. I was able to make two more flowers. I now have 35 flowers altogether.

I decided to join an online BOS (Block of the Season). I know, I know. I already have too many projects waiting to be finished. But this is going to be a small cat wall hanging. I just couldn't resist. Check it out. It's on Ellie's Quiltplace. Or click on the Cat Quilt icon on my sidebar.

A Walk Along the Bluffs of Lake Ontario

My DD picked me up yesterday and took me to Rotary Park in Ajax, just east of Toronto. The park has a paved path along the top of the bluffs. People are encouraged to walk, bike, skate or jog with a view of Lake Ontario all the way. I walked a little and got pushed in my wheelchair for part of the way.

It was a beautiful day. The temperature was around 21C and there was a sort of hazy sunshine. There were Monarch butterflies all over the Milkweed and Yellow Goldenrod plants. Canada Geese honked from the water down below the bluffs. I took this photo facing east. The sky was a nice blue colour. It is hard to see the water, but that is what I like about Lake Ontario. It is different each time you see it.
Although these photos were taken at exactly the same time, the view to the west looked completely different. The clouds were beginning to roll in. It is hard to see, but that large area of concrete buildings is the Pickering Nuclear Plant. To me this is the only blight on an otherwise beautiful natural setting. I know we need electricity, but heck.... don't get me started on that!

The Baby Quilt is Done!

My first finish for September. Remember that Baby Quilt my husband wanted me to make for one of his employees who had a baby? I hoped to get it done a couple of weeks ago. But things always take me longer than planned. In this case two times longer, which is about par for the course. I finally sewed the binding down last night. I think I will call it,'Pastel Baby'.
I think it was the back that took so long. I thought I had a piece of fabric that would have been perfect for the backing. It's the blue one with the little bears and stars on it. When I pulled it out I could only find a couple of large pieces and a lot of scraps. I thought I had a lot more of it. I have a feeling that the rest of this fabric is hiding somewhere in my sewing room. It has all of the colours that I used in the top, so I just pieced some of the leftovers from the top and did some back art. I hope the baby likes it.

Flowers on Wednesday

I made a few more flowers this week. I now have a total of 29 finished flowers and another 5 ready to be sewn together. I also got some more green hexies made. But these flowers are so small that I feel as if I am getting nowhere. I know this won't make any sense, but I can't stop making them. They are so inviting when I go to my sewing room each morning. I always work on a few just to get my sewing mojo back each day. I guess there will be hexies in my future for a long time to come.

Scrap Happy Summer Parade

I am sad to report that Em's Scrap Happy Summer Challenge has come to an end. Of course this doesn't mean that I will stop making things with my scraps! I will keep playing around with even the tiniest of fabric pieces to make something new.

So for the finale. Here is my Scrap Happy Summer Parade.

I have made several more of the strip blocks. They are not sewn together yet, but I hope to have them done soon. With Mimi's help I should be able to make a quilt out of these.

On previous posts I have already shown you some of the other scrap projects that I have been working on. Here are a few of them. The small flowers, the 2 1/2 inch crumb block quilt, the picnic quilt, the klosjes and the red and blue blocks and the 3 1/2 inch crumb blocks.

I haven't shown you a photo of my ongoing flower garden for awhile. These are the larger flowers. I think this one is almost done to the flimsy stage. I am not sure how big I will make it. I guess I will stop when the flowers become boring or if I run out of scraps. So far there is no sign of either of that.

And finally for today I want to share with you the row I made for the Row Robin Barb is hosting. I used some of my scraps and some of the fabric that came with this row. The theme for this quilt is springtime.

Go on over to Em's Scrapbag and see what others did this summer.

Flower Garden Update

This week I completed 7 more flowers and got 2 more prepped and ready to sew. That makes a total of 21 flowers. I also added a lot of green petals in between the flowers. This really looks great 'in person', but I am not sure if I like that purple flower in there now that I see it photographed and on my screen. Maybe if I add some more of that purple colour, it will look better. At any rate, I am not going to unsew anything. These little flowers are too precious. And have been sewn so tightly that I can't even get a seam ripper in there without damaging the fabric!

I have several other projects I need to work on, so this is all for Grandma's Flower Garden for this week. Hope to get some things done by tomorrow so I can show them to you.

It's the first of September already. Where did the summer go? School starts next Tuesday. I still get that 'back-to-school' rush, even though I don't have to go back. It doesn't feel like the end of summer. Still hot here. Too hot to sleep. My air conditioner is running at full speed. Okay! No more complaining! It will be winter before we know it and I will be wishing for a nice, hot, summer day.

A Clamshell Update

The summer is coming to an end, although you'd never know it by the weather. We are in the middle of another heatwave. It is only 10:00am and it already feels like 40C! This is unusual for the end of August.





I only got a few clamshells done this month. Here they are. Click on the icon above to see more clamshell blogs.


We had the first executive meeting of our quilt guild last night. I got roped in volunteered to do the Newsletter this year. The only problem is that my computer is not cooperating. I have had several people come over and try to install the program, but so far I have had no luck. I thought the problem lay with me, but it seems that my computer's disk drives are not working. I may have to break down and buy a new computer.

If Life Gives You Scraps.........

I can't believe that it's Wednesday already. The summer is coming to an end and time is just flying by! I made a few more of the small hexies this week. I have started to sew them together and decided that this time I would put a green hexagon in between the flowers. (They are not all sewn yet.) I am using all kinds of scraps of reds and greens. I don't know if I have enough reds, so I threw in a purple and an orange so that I can use scraps of those colours too. I have been taking part in Em's Scrap Happy Summer challenge. It's been a lot of fun!



I am also working on a baby quilt. It is for someone who works for my DH. He didn't tell me about the baby until after she had been born. So now I am frantically trying to finish a baby quilt for a girl. This is just a quick sample that I made up to see how it will look. I think I will use these fabrics. They are from my stash. I also have a couple of other pinks and a beautiful light green. Do you think I can finish this by, let's say, yesterday?

Finally - A Friday Finish!

I finished the crumb blocks quilt! They were so much fun to make! Really addictive. I put them together with a polka dot sashing. And today I finished quilting it and sewing the binding down. Hurray!

This is part of Em's Scrapbag's Scrap Happy Summer.

Just a Little Post

I want to show you my tiny flowers. I made three of them this week. Here they are with a flower from last week for comparison. I have no idea how I am going to arrange them. Stay tuned.......
I am thinking of joining Christina's quilt along. I have so many things on the go right now I don't know if I will have time, but it looks like a terrific learning experience.

Now I am off to visit a friend in a seniors' residence. She called me last week and asked me to help her with a pattern for slippers. She wants to make some for a craft bazaar her residence is having this fall.

A New Project

This is the block from this week's Party. (Go to my sidebar) It's called 'Louisiana' and it's a 12inch block. I don't like doing pinwheels very much. I just can't seem to get them pointy in the centre. I think I need more practice.

I just love the quilt that is shown on the Quilters Cache site for the Louisiana block. The pinwheels are scrappy and that's right up my alley. So I made a few more blocks and hope to make that little quilt on the QC site. I figure if I do one block a day for the next two weeks, I will have enough blocks for a lap quilt. So that's my plan - along with all the other projects I have on the go at the moment.

See that little white paw in the bottom left corner? Yep. You guessed it. That's Mimi.

Mimi on Her Own Quilt

I decided to enter CalGal's Pets on Quilts. It isn't difficult to find a photo to use because every quilt I own has had a cat on it. So I decided on this photo of Mimi on her own quilt. The fabric in it is mostly cats with a couple of dog pieces thrown in. She knows it's hers and she sleeps on it every day.

She also does her daily exercises on it.

And she keeps herself white and spotless.

But my absolute favourite photo is this one - when she did the ironing for me. Such a helpful kitty! I once asked her why cats like to sit on the quilts we make. She is very philosophical and has great insight into all things. You can read her answer here.

Click on this icon to see more Pets On Quilts! This is going to be fun!

Flowers on Thursday

I finished the three flowers I made for this week. I'm only one day late. That's okay, isn't it?

I also finished another Block Party block. This one is called 'New Waterwheel'. It is a 9-inch block.

Now I have to find a photo of Mimi on a quilt so that I can enter the Pets on Quilts Show that SewCalGal is hosting. That shouldn't be hard. Mimi is always on my quilts.