Hooking, Knitting and Piecing

Life is busy in my neck of the woods.  This is not going to change any time soon so I will just share my little bits of progress each week as usual.  I worked on my sheep rug hooking project earlier this week. The green grass is just about done now.  Next, I will finish that last bit of green on the right side of the picture before working on the blue sky and the yellow sun. 

I was in the mood to do some knitting earlier today.  I dug out some yarn, needles and a pattern for a lattice patterned dishcloth and got started on it while waiting for my husband who was in a short meeting. I had a pleasant place to sit and knit in the shade of a large tree beside a barn quilt. 

I made more progress in the car on the way home. I like it when the pattern starts to emerge and I can see that I have not made any drastic errors!

The purple and green wedding quilt has more blocks on the design wall --these rows are not sewn together yet...I might get this top done this coming week. Then, on to the pieced back--there is already a plan for this and it might take longer than the front of the quilt! The pattern for the front of the quilt is called "Lopapeysa" by Gudrun Erla.  She designed it based on an Icelandic sweater pattern. 

Finn had a nap with his Kong this week.  He loves it when my daughter puts peanut butter in his Kong, which makes brushing Finn a more tolerable activity for both of them. 

I came across this lovely little sunflower today.  It was only a couple of feet tall but so pretty!

I will link up with Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitchers in the morning.  Thanks to everyone who continues to visit my blog and leave comments.  I continue to have difficulty leaving comments on many blogger blogs--not sure why I can comment on some but not on others.  I do look at all the blogs that link up with Kathy each week.   Take care and have a good week. 

Lupins, a Bee and a Sheep

 My lupin block collection continues to grow...although, this week, the blocks were made with Finn's assistance, which means they took a lot longer to make than usual.  This week's blocks were made with a purple grunge dots fat quarter. 

So, now I have a total of 12/48 blocks made for this quilt.  Here are the three lupin fabrics I have used so far:

I have a FQ chosen for my next set of blocks. 

I started a new counted cross stitch project this week--a free pattern from The Blackberry Rabbit (Sorry, I can't provide a link to their website as they are creating a new website at the moment.) The bee will have a wreath of flowers around it and some words above it. 

Last week, I said I would be starting a Bee facecloth...my attention got diverted and I am making a sheep facecloth instead.   I am about half done. 

The London Modern Guild has been doing a year long HST (half square triangle) BOM (Block of the month) over the past year.  I made my final block this week and played with my 12 blocks on the floor when Finn was not looking.   

Here is the first layout I tried:

I will do more playing before sewing the blocks together.  This will be a baby quilt...I will likely add a border before quilting it. 

I picked up my Tula Pink 100 Modern Blocks Sampler quilt this week from the long arm quilter.  I will be getting the binding put on this quilt by machine early next week so I can sit and do the hand sewing out in the gazebo.  Each block is custom quilted...here is a sample. 

I am excited to use this quilt on our bed!  It's the first new bed quilt we have had for several years. 

I have joined the book club at the library and we will be discussing this book on Tuesday morning.  I am about 2/3 of the way through it so far and will finish reading it this weekend. It's a good book--I would recommend it!  As you can see, I have a reading buddy. 

The sedums are starting to bloom in our garden. I took these pictures in the morning after it rained. 

I will link up with Kathy and the slow Sunday stitchers in the morning.  I used to get emails notifying me of your comments but must have done something to stop getting them.  I am not sure how to start this up again...if any of you have any ideas, please let me know in the comments.  I sometimes can find your emails to respond to your comments on your blogs, but sometimes I can't... so I apologize for not responding to every comment.  I find I cannot comment on any blogger blogs at all.  I do read everyone's blogs though...

Take care and have a great week. 

Lupins!

As planned, I made 4 more lupin blocks this week, this time using a recently purchased fat quarter with raspberries on it.  My whole family loves raspberries!  At our first house, we had a raspberry patch. As soon as our daughter was old enough to discover the berries, they never made it into the house.  She ate them all, straight off the canes as soon as she went outside for the first time each day.  Here are my raspberry lupins.  (I checked google and lupins can be spelled with or without an "e" on the end--lupin or lupine)

I just noticed my toe nails match my blocks, again!

I now have 8 blocks, 4 of each of the two blocks shown below.  40 more to make. 

I made two more blocks for my Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilt...I only have one more block to do to be caught up for 2020. 

The cat in the hat fabric is a scrap from a baby quilt I made several years ago. The top goose fabric is leftover from a quilt my daughter and I made for her bed in 2003. The third square down in the right column is from the quilt I made my daughter when she graduated from university, almost 6 years ago.  

I also made a bright blue block, although some of the fabrics could have gone into a dark blue block as well. 

 A couple of these fabrics were purchased at QuiltCon in Nashville in 2019. 

I finished the avocado dish cloth I started last week.  I have a pattern for a cloth with a bee on it which I will work on next. I will start it tomorrow for Slow Sunday Stitching with Kathy. 

My daughter and Finn have come for a visit.  Finn was very excited to see us and has been zooming all over the house and yard since they arrived.  We gave him a bath tonight so he is now smelling fresh as a daisy. This picture was taken earlier this week, just before going for a walk one evening. 

My daughter finished "Budapest" and has started stitching a new city, Nashville. 

Finn was napping while she stitched. 

Many of the flowers in our garden are fading, but the honeysuckle came out in bloom again this week. 

I did lots of scrap sorting this week, and purged some that I did not think I would ever use.  I also worked on a couple of secret projects, which you will all see, in due course.  Although most of my sewing supplies have been put away for our company this week, I did leave out a few things to sew while my daughter works and Finn naps.  I have another 4 lupins to make and a dark green scrappy block as well.  Take care and have a great week!

Hand Appliqué, Knitting and Y-seams

I have been working on a secret project this week which cannot be revealed until October.  It involved some hand appliqué so here is a sneak peak:

I will continue to work on this project behind the scenes for several weeks.  I am waiting for inspiration to hit before I do the next step. 

In the knitting department, I made a simple dishcloth out of some leftover yarn from one of the facecloths.  I thought there would be enough left in the ball to make the dishcloth, but I ran out before finishing so I just cast off.  This left a slightly truncated corner but I will keep this cloth for myself so it will not matter. 

I also started another cloth with a whale on it.  This could be used as a baby wash cloth.  It's a little over 1/3 finished.  I need to pay close attention to the pattern on this one so that the whale is identifiable when it is done...so far, so good!

I took a class from Libs Elliott about a year ago and was working on it at our guild sewing days before COVID-19 hit and sewing days were cancelled.  It has taken a back seat to other projects for the last few months, but this week, I dragged it out of hiding and have started to get the final columns attached to the section on the left in the picture.  Y-seams take a lot longer than straight runs but the end result will be worth the extra effort. 

I even have a couple of options for backgrounds in my stash for this quilt so I should be able to sail right through to the finish over the next week or two. 

My daughter is stitching Budapest next...

My husband and I go walking every night, after supper.  The trail where we walk at least once or twice a week has lots of Queen Anne's lace in bloom at the moment.  This is a close up of one of the tiny flower clusters.  Someone asked what type of camera I use for my pictures...these pictures are all taken with my iPhone. 

The white phlox are starting to bloom in our gardens.  The pink ones should be blooming by next week. 

Before I forget, I have also made a block for the HST BOM for the London Modern Guild.  There are not very many more blocks for this quilt so it will soon be a completed flimsy.  It should make a fun baby quilt. 

I will leave you with some words of wisdom from out local ice cream shop...

Stay cool and safe.  Wear your mask.  Take care

You can catch up on all of the slow stitcher's projects over at Kathy's blog tomorrow. 

Taming the UFO Pile

My goal for the next little while is to tame the UFO pile.  I have made lots of quilts during this COVID-19 pandemic but most of them have been gifts for friends and family.  Now that all those gifts are done, it is time to tackle the UFO's.  First up this week, was borders and backing for the batik Scrappy Trips quilt that I started earlier this year.  I had to purchase the fabrics and then wash them before ironing, cutting and sewing. 

The backing was done with one seam and then I took it to the long arm quilter's house.  She let me know today that the quilting is done so I will pick it up tomorrow.  This one will be donated to our local hospice and will be washed a lot so the binding will be applied by machine...no hand stitching. 

Next up was my Tula Pink 100 blocks Modern Sampler quilt.  We had to move all of the furniture in the living room so that I could lay this monster out on the floor to make the backing. 

It took three widths of fabric for the backing and I found the perfect fabric in my stash for the label.  The turquoise accent piece beside the label matches one of the colours in the backing. I will write the information  about the quilt on the label before it is quilted. 

The London Modern Guild is having a fabric post card exchange so I made my post card this week.  I will put it in the mail this week.  I don't know the person that will be receiving this postcard so I can show you what I made. 

The third UFO of the week was started 3.5 years ago.  I signed up for a broken dishes block swap with Barb at Fun with Barb and the blocks have been in a zip lock bag all this time, waiting for inspiration to hit.  This week, when I was out for a walk, I got thinking about the blocks and an idea came to mind. 

I made four blocks like this:  

I am still figuring out what I will put between the blocks and as a border...stay tuned...this top should be done by next week. I am still contemplating quilting ideas as well.  I bought Jacquie Gering's book Walk 2.0 this week so I may peruse it for inspiration. 

I finished my green facecloth last week and started a new dishcloth --I am using a new pattern this time.  So far, so good.  The pattern is showing up as expected!  I will be doing some more knitting tomorrow for slow Sunday stitching with Kathy and friends. 

We finally had some rain this past week so the gardens are flourishing.  

Finn is getting his hair cut this week so here is a picture of him before the appointment.   Such a cutie!

Take care!

Barn Raising!

Over the course of 16 months in 2018-2019, 10 quilting friends and I made and exchanged 20 neutral blocks each month.  We could use any neutral colours including cream, beige, brown, white, gray and black and each block was to be made using two lights and a dark or two darks and a light. This way, each of us ended up with 320 neutral blocks at the end of the swap.  I divided mine into two piles--1:  white, gray and black and 2: cream, beige and brown, and decided to make two different projects with my blocks.   

I found some yardage of the turquoise fabric in my stash and it determined how big my quilt would be...when it was gone, the quilt top would be done. This is an asymmetric barn raising layout.  I ended up with a lap sized quilt which I may display as a wall hanging...we'll see.  The quilting was a co-operative effort between Julie the long-armer and myself.  She quilted the turquoise strips and I quilted the squares.  Her part has been done since March and I finally did my part this week.  I used black solid for the binding. 

The backing is gray with little turquoise and white triangles on it. The label was put on the back before it was quilted.  You can see the quilting better on the back. 

Now, I will have to figure out what to do with the other pile of neutral squares...

I had 6 blocks leftover from making the Scrappy Trips top that I showed in  the previous post.  I used 4 of them to make this table topper which I quilted this week with concentric squares with golden yellow thread.

I spent several hours this week slow stitching the binding on these two quilts.  The backing for the table topper was in my stash and I'm happy to use up a chunk of it for this quilt. 

I may make another couple of blocks and make another table topper to donate to a fundraiser.  The borders are still not on the Scrappy Trips quilt which will be donated to the hospice...isn't it funny how the project made from the leftovers got finished first???

I have several types of echinacea plants (coneflowers) in my garden and they are all blooming right now.  

Some of the hostas are starting to flower as well. 

I will be doing some knitting tomorrow for Slow Sunday Stitching.  I have just about finished another face cloth this week.  I will link up with Kathy and the other people who like to take things slow on a Sunday tomorrow morning. 

Until next time, have a great week!