Almost 10 Years in the Making...

In October 2014, I took a class with Kaffe Fassett called "Overlapping Tiles".  We spent all day cutting squares and putting them on our design walls to come up with a pleasing composition.  Kaffe and Brandon came around the room to each quilter to make suggestions about colours/fabrics to add or take away and arranging the tiles. They added 5 fabrics to my quilt including the constant fabric--none of which I would have added myself.  I finished the quilt top a year ago. I originally planned to make a queen sized quilt, but eventually downsized it to a lap quilt.  It has been pin basted for months and this week, I finally got it quilted and bound.  I'm calling it "Spring Vibes".  

The green solid binding was in my stash and I had just enough of it. 

These next two pictures show the quilting design--done with my walking foot. 

I also did some hand stitching on my Lupins cross stitch project this week and plan on working on it again this weekend. 

The Dalias in my patio pot are putting on a show this week. 

This week's hike featured Canada Anemones in full bloom. 

Today, we were in Sarnia to celebrate my MIL's birthday.  We took a short walk by the water and found lots of fun painted rocks along the walkway.  Here are a few of my favourites!

And what is a Cozy Quilter blogpost without a picture of our grand-dog, Finn?  Here, he is assisting with an online meeting for our daughter's work. 

I will link up with Kathy and Frederique this weekend. 

Lupin Stitching in the Car in the Rain

Today, my husband was volunteering at a special event at a local museum.  I went with him so I could look at the WW2 displays around the property.  Shortly after we arrived, it started to rain and so I stayed in the car and listened to an audiobook while I added more stitches to my counted cross stitch Lupins. After about an hour, the rain stopped and the sun came out.  People started arriving and the day was a success. 

I asked my daughter and Finn to send me a picture of her recent cross stitch finish and they sent me this:  Silly Finn. 

This one shows off the picture much better! This is the first of a series of 4 pictures in a murder mystery set. My daughter has started working on the second picture. 

I finished the last of my 20 Quilts for Survivors donation blocks this week.  A member of the Oxford Guild who will be at Quilt Canada in Edmonton will take the blocks to the QFS booth.  I made most of my blocks from my batik fabric bin.  Three of my blocks are orphans, leftover from other projects. 

I decided that this Overlapping Tiles quilt, started in a class with Kaffe Fassett several years ago, needed to be quilted.  I am using a 28wt green thread for the quilting.  I hope to finish it this coming week. 

This week's hike with the Elgin Hiking Club included meeting a new friend,  

as well as a view down some no longer in use railway tracks. 

My husband's grandmother's peonies are blooming in our front garden.  I could not resist  taking a picture of one of the flowers after it rained. 

My husband and I spent a lot of time this past week repairing our flagstone sidewalk in the backyard.  The joints between the flagstones were full of weeds and moss.  It has been a process to remove all the plant and other organic matter between the stones before adding polymeric stone dust to hopefully prevent weeds in the future.  The main sidewalk is done and we are now working on a path through the flower garden.  I want this job to be done so we can work on the next job on the list!

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

Two Quilts Pin Basted, Navy Scrappy Blocks, Sunflowers and Visitors

 It is so much easier on the knees and the back to pin baste quilts on a table rather than the floor.  I took advantage of the tables at the Ingersoll Creative Arts Centre this past week to get two quilts ready for quilting.  The first one is a pattern by Christine at Tesselate Quilts.  I pieced the top over a year ago and it has been hanging out in the pile of completed tops for too long!   

My Kaffe Fassett Overlapping Tiles quilt was also pin basted this week. I have a quilting plan for both of these quilts--using my walking foot.  I hope to get to quilting them over the next month or so. In the meantime, I have some gifts to make that have a deadline.

I brought my navy scraps to the sewing day and made four 6.5" square slabs with my tiny scraps.  I will make a navy pineapple log cabin block this week as I have all the pieces cut out and ready to go.  These blocks are for my Rainbow Scrap Challenge projects this year.  I think most people have already made dark blue blocks but I didn't so I made them now. 

My sunflowers cross stitch had a little bit of progress -- We have company this week--Our daughter and Finn are here for a visit. We went to see "Much Ado About Nothing" in Stratford one evening and to a family BBQ another day.  There was not as much stitching time this week as usual. 

I discovered why my parsley plant has not been producing much parsley this year.  This caterpillar will turn into a Black Swallowtail butterfly. It is very fond of parsley!

Finn loves to lay in the sun!  My husband and I were reading in the gazebo, staying in the shade. 

There was a trip to the pet store to get dog food one day early in the week. Finn gets very excited to there and doesn't like to leave the store. You can see his quilt that I made him a few years ago in this picture. It helps to protect the car seats, when he sits on it!

We took a long walk in Port Stanley one evening and went all the way out to the end of the pier. 

We were rewarded with a beautiful sunset as we got back to the car. 

I will link up with Kathy and the Slow Stitchers in the morning and the RSC folks today. 

UFO Progress, Yellow Blocks, Sunflowers and Burnt Cape Ecological Reserve, Nfld.

 Christine and I got together this week for a few hours to sew and chat.  Christine cut out squares for a disappearing nine patch baby quilt and I finished sewing my Overlapping Tiles quilt top.   I have not trimmed it yet--I may even do that after it is quilted to avoid all those bias edges as I quilt. The backing fabric is ready--it is the turquoise with the pink flowers that is the constant in the quilt top.  My husband held the top for me to take a picture --it was a bit breezy!

I bought myself a Half Rectangle Triangle ruler at Quilt Con in Atlanta and tried it out to make these blocks in March.  I finally got around to sewing them together this week.  I am pleased that my points are all pointy!  I have to decide if I will add a border or not.  I am leaning towards an asymmetrical border, varying the width of the border on each side.  I will have to get some coordinating fabric out this week and see how that might look before I cut anything. 

Yellow is the colour of the month for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge so I got my yellow scrap bin out and made four 6.5" square slabs and a yellow pineapple block.  I am up to nine pineapple blocks now. 

I am listening to an audiobook, Talking to Canadians, by Rick Mercer, read by Rick himself.  I listen as I walk each day as well as when I am cross stitching.  My husband and I watched "The Mercer Report" on TV for years and even attended a taping of the show at the CBC in Toronto years ago.  

On our recent vacation in Newfoundland, my husband and I took a private guided tour of Burnt Cape Ecological Reserve near Raleigh, Nfld.  Our guide was Ted, a local businessman who has a particular interest in the plants and geology of Burnt Cape.  After telling us the history of Raleigh as we drove around this small community, he drove us out to the cape.  The conditions are very harsh there, with little or no soil for plants to grow so at first glance, it appears that it is just a barren rocky area. Ted had us looking closer to see a great variety of very small plants that we had to be careful not to step on!  He also showed us a sea cave, carved out by the relentless waves of the ocean.  

That is a Canadian dime to show the scale of these tiny flowers.  The next picture shows the entire plant. 

The orange on this rock was caused by seagull poop!

Ted called these red growths British Soldiers...

Some of the trees and shrubs, all very small and close to the ground, were over 100 years old. 

The sea cave entrance.  

It was quite cold and windy on the cape so we all wore our hats and warm clothes. 

Ted recommended this book so I bought a copy at the next store that we were in.  We used it several times on our trip to identify plants that we saw on our hikes. 

These are frost polygons, caused by the frost heaving the rocks out of the ground into these patterns. Each depression in the ground creates a microclimate where small plants can grow. 

This small purple flower is a type of primula. 

These yellow flowers, the Burnt Cape Cinquefoil, are only found at two places in Nfld., one of them being Burnt Cape. 

The Burnt Cape Ecological Reserve is across the bay from Raleigh. 

Sunset over the Burnt Cape, taken from in front of our accommodations in Raleigh. 

I hope you are not getting bored with my vacation pictures.  I still have a few more places I would like to share with you over the next few weeks. 

Finn likes to keep at least one paw touching my daughter at all times.  The second picture was taken while I was talking to Finn on FaceTime this week. 

I will link up with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge on Saturday morning and with The Slow Sunday Stitchers on Sunday morning.  Take care.