Weight of Love, Sunflowers, and the Beginning of a Hat.

 Late last week, I picked up my Weight of Love quilt from my local long armer, Julie. My goal for the week was to have it bound in time to bring it to the Oxford Quilter's Guild meeting on Thursday for show and tell. I finished the hand stitching on Thursday morning.  Yahoo!  

The backing fabric was in my stash. There are a few strips in my gray scrap bin from trimming the quilt. 

Several years ago, I attended a quilt show featuring quilts from New Zealand.  I purchased some New Zealand fat quarters and used them in this quilt as well as other fabrics from my stash.  I don't know much about the flora and fauna of New Zealand so if anyone can tell me about any of these birds and plants, please do so in the comments!

Here are some examples of the different quilting patterns that Julie used. I wanted the hexagons to continue into the background fabric--you can see that in the pictures below of me holding the quilt. 

I took a class from Libs Elliott in November of 2019 and started this quilt then. During the class, we learned how to do Y seams.  Now I just need to add a hanging sleeve and put this on display in my house!

I am just about done this 3rd quadrant of my Sunflowers cross stitch.  I have added a few stitches in the fourth quadrant to use up the thread on my needle.  I hope to do some more cross stitching tomorrow for slow Sunday stitching. 

I started knitting the ribbing on my hat this week.  I try to do at least a couple of rows each day. 

We have had some beautiful warm days this past week (a cold front moved in last night so it is much cooler today), so my husband and I went to a local provincial park to go bike riding one day this past week. There was only a touch of fall colour here and there.  

My daughter made herself a strawberry and peach smoothie this week.  When she turned her back to take a call, Finn helped himself to a taste!  He liked it!

Finn was sun beaming during one of our Face Time calls this week. 

Happy Thanksgiving to my Canadian readers!  I will link up with Kathy and the Slow Stitchers in the morning. 

Guild Sewing Day

I have not attended the weekly Oxford Guild sewing day since before we went to Newfoundland and finally went this past Monday.  I like going because I get a lot done and there are lots of friendly quilters to chat with as I sew.  I usually bring a UFO that I want to move to the finish line. The last time, I worked on my Overlapping Tiles quilt that I started 9 years ago in a class with Kaffe Fassett, and since it is still not done, I brought it along again.  I managed to get all of the diagonal rows of squares sewn and now they just need to be sewn to each other to finish off the top.  I will be trimming the sides of the quilt when it is pieced.  (note that some of the diagonal rows are not lined up correctly in this picture, but they are not sewn onto the quilt yet so that it will be fine when it is together.)

I seem to be in the mood to finish off some UFO's at the moment...  I pulled out a quilt top that I started in a class with Libs Elliott in the fall of 2019.  I finished the top in 2020 and it has sat in a drawer waiting to be quilted since then.  I decided I would take it to a long armer for custom quilting so I found some backing fabric in my stash, attached the label and cut a piece of batting for it. I delivered it on Friday and will likely get it back in September.  Here is a picture of the quilt top.  The pattern is called "Weight of Love". 

I forgot to get a picture of my cross stitch sunflowers in daylight so this picture, taken on my kitchen counter, looks a bit washed out. I will add some more stitches to this project tomorrow for Slow Sunday Stitching with Kathy. 

I have not had time to sort out any more Newfoundland pictures this week but will try to get some more ready to show you next week.   

Finn looks very skinny since his haircut.  

He wants you to know that he has no idea how that piece came off his toy. 

I bought an orange coneflower for my garden last year and this week, it bloomed!  There are lots of buds on it too.  I just love a pop of orange in the garden!

Christine and I have plans to get together to sew this week.  Maybe, I can get that overlapping tiles quilt top done...

Modern Snowflake and some Knitting

 The Modern Snowflake quilt is growing!  I made 10 more blocks but only have a picture of the first 8--all sewn together.  The next four blocks are made, but not added to the quilt yet. Part of the snowflake is starting to appear!  The buffalo plaid is looking good too.  I'm hoping to finish this top in the next week or so--I have purchased some red flannel snowflake fabric for the backing.  I love a cozy quilt with a flannel back!

 I also managed to re-knit the hat I started last week and had to rip out due to sizing issues.  Fewer stitches on the needles did the trick and it fits fine this time round.  I may add a pompom... I think it can be worn with the lower edge turned up or just left down for a slouchy look. 

We had our first snow this week--just a few flakes.  While out on my morning walk, I took a few pictures.  The ice in the puddle may inspire a quilt some day!

My husband and I put away all of the patio furniture and emptied the flower pots this week.  He took down the wasp nest that had been in our tree all summer.  The wasps had moved out when the weather got cooler.  I hope they find somewhere else to make their home next summer!  The scientist in me had to open up the nest to see how they had made it.  More quilt inspiration inside!

There were four layers of this structure inside. 

The outside layer was paper thin and the whole nest was very lightweight.  Amazing engineering. 

Finn is his usual happy self this week. 

I will be working on getting this Libs Elliott "Weight of Love" quilt top quilted and bound this month for my UFO challenge.  I have some backing in my stash and will get it pin basted in the next week.  I took this class with Libs exactly two years ago this week.  It is time to get this one out of the UFO pile!

This weekend, I am going on a quilt retreat.  Everyone is double vaccinated and the tables will be spaced far apart.  I have several projects packed, ready to go.  I'm looking forward to a productive weekend.  For my birthday, just before the pandemic started, my husband gave me a rolling cart to use for my sewing machine and supplies when I go on a retreat--this will be my first opportunity to use it!  

I will link up with Kathy and the Slow Sunday stitchers on Sunday morning. 

Appliqué Done, Next up...Quilting!

 I worked away at the appliqué on my Weight of Love quilt most days this week.  This involved lots of thread colour changes, but it is now done!  Last week, someone asked about the name of the quilt--this is a Libs Elliott pattern and she calls it Weight of Love.  I took a class with Libs last summer and started it at the class.  

I will be quilting this one on my DSM with turquoise thread.  I hope to do that and the binding this week. This was the last bit of appliqué:

I finished another dish cloth this week and started a face cloth..the yarn calls this colour "avocado". As you can see, I did some knitting in the car today. 

Here is the finished dish cloth...also green. 

After years of seeing others participate in the weekly Rainbow Scrap challenge, I have decided to jump in and make a scrappy quilt...goodness knows I have enough scraps to make several quilts. The August colour is purple. I do not have a lot of purple fabric in my stash and had to cut into a few fat quarters that have been purchased for a particular quilt in order to get enough variety for this block. I did not want to repeat any of the fabrics. The fabric with the gold Celtic knots on it was purchased in Inverness, Scotland last summer when we were there on vacation. 

I now have two blocks...I did a red one for July for Canada Day. 

My mini red roses are in bloom right now. I was given this plant in 2001 after having some surgery and it blooms every year.  I just noticed the bug on the top of the flower!

This phlox is actually a lovely coral colour but it looks more red in the picture. 

Finn liked my daughter's book so much that he decided to sit on it.  

I will be linking up with Kathy and the Slow Sunday Stitchers in the morning, as well as the Scraphappy RSC link up from today. 

I saw this on Facebook today and thought you could all relate. 

Weight of Love Appliqué and some Knitting

My goal for this week was to finish the y-seams on my Weight of Love quilt and get started on the appliqué...I am happy to report that I managed to accomplish this goal!  Those y-seams sure take a long time.  At the time I took this picture, I had one more seam to do. Note that my toe nails match my quilt...

 I am using a solid Essex Linen in pepper for the background.  I pressed under 1/4" all around the edge of the finished large pieced hexagon and then hand basted it down to the background. I discovered very quickly that I needed to use multiple colours of thread for the appliqué, which slows down the process.  I guess that's why they call it Slow Stitching!  I will work on this tomorrow and link up with Kathy and the other people who sew/knit/embroider/cross stitch/crochet slowly in the morning. 

My daughter has made progress on Budapest this week...Finn is quite happy to lie beside her while she stitches. He's also very good at letting her know when it is time to quit working. 

I enjoyed some knitting time while listening to an audiobook which I borrowed from the public library online.  The baby facecloth is completed as well as another simple dish cloth which used up the remainder of a ball of yarn. 

As predicted last week, my pink phlox are in bloom this week.

 Our clethra bush has pink blooms too. 

My husband and I went bike riding mid week at a provincial park.  It was not very busy at all and the weather was perfect for the ride, our picnic and watching the sunset. 

Have a great week!