An old UFO off the to do list

My 10 year old Sashiko project is finally completely done and can go out on display!

I stitched in the ditch around the navy part and then did three rows of quilting in the border.  The binding is on.  I didn't do any quilting in the sashiko panel--I could still add some if I decide later that it needs it. 

The backing is a fat quarter I had in my stash. 

I had a chance to knit several times in the last week and added another 5 inches to my scarf.  It is 56" long now. 

I finished the stems on my pitcher plant rug hooking project and did more of the brown at the bottom of the picture. It's coming along!

The scrappy flannel baby quilt also had some attention this week.  The centre part is sewn together but the selvage borders are not sewn to it yet. Yes...there will be partial seams on this one. 

The flowers in our gardens are bursting out in lots of pretty colours. Here is my Serbian Bellflower.  It doesn't bloom for long, unfortunately. 

My front porch is shady so I have a pot of begonias by the front door.  They do very well in the shade. 

This is a Blue Jay Columbine, a little past its prime. 

I noticed that our neighbour's tulip tree is in bloom when I was out for a walk this week. 

We went to visit our daughter and Finn last weekend.  They planned a mystery adventure day for us to celebrate both Mother's and Father's Day.  It included breakfast at an interesting cafe, a hike at a conservation area, an outdoor quilt show, a stone 5 arch bridge, a stone oven pizza and salad picnic with a view, ice cream, a textile museum and poking around the shops of a small town where several Hallmark Christmas movies have been filmed. We all had a great day--the weather was perfect.  Finn was very tired that evening!

The "Gear" exhibit was fabulous!  If you live within driving distance of this museum in Almonte, Ontario, I highly recommend that you try to see this before it closes mid July. 

I will link up with Kathy and Frederique. 

Have a great week!

Flannel Selvages

I dug out my bin of flannel selvages this week, (yes--I have sorted all my selvages by colour but the flannel ones are all together.) and top stitched them onto a strip of lightweight non fusible interfacing.  These two strips and two others will be used in the scrappy flannel baby quilt that I am making. No matter how hard I try, I never seem to run out of scraps. 

The binding is on the quilted Advent calendar for the church bazaar. I added a ribbon to the top of each of the little ornaments and now I am adding buttons to hang each ornament on as the days go by in December.  I have 15 more buttons to sew on and then it will be done. 

The leaves are all done on my pitcher plant rug hooking project and I have started working on the background at the bottom of the picture. 

We had a busy week--My MIL turned 95 on Friday so we had a birthday picnic with her that day. Dessert was butter tarts--her favourite! Earlier in the week, we planted flowers in pots outside her window...geraniums in a hanging basket (Mother's Day gift) and begonias in patio pots (Birthday Gift).  She likes to look out her window and see the flowers.  We are still working on our own yard as well and still have a few more jobs to do out there.  I noticed my clematis vine is blooming this week.  I think this is the most flowers it has ever had. 

My daughter has read a lot of books this month and has made a granny square for each one for her book blanket.  I will post pictures of the squares and the books she has read in May next week.  For now, here is a sneak peak. 

And here is Finn, out for a walk this past week.  Finn is happiest when he is outside lying in the sun.  Here's to lots of sunny days ahead, Finn!

I will link up with Kathy and Frederique, as usual. 

36 Patch Quilt Done!

Over the past 10 months, I have been making 36 patch blocks in the colour of the month for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge.  This past week, I quilted, bound and labelled my quilt--that's two quilts finished in two weeks!  I'm on a roll!  I used my walking foot to sew straight lines diagonally through all of the white squares with 28wt thread.  The backing is a wide back called Sea Glass.  It has lots of colours in it to match all of the squares on the front.  There are no repeats of any of the coloured squares on the front.  Would you believe that my box of 2.5" squares still is not empty???  The binding is a Kona solid.  

The quilt is square...it was a bit breezy when I took this picture!

I finished up my scrappy Drunkard's Path block this week as well as my green selvage HST's.  I will need to take a look at these projects soon and figure out if I need to make more blocks in a few other colours. 

I have been watching the Modern Quilt Guild Sessions online this weekend and did some knitting during one of the lectures I watched yesterday.  I just have to add the top border of this cloth and it will be done. I hope there is enough yarn to finish it!  Fingers crossed!

The Gees Bend Puzzle is coming together slowly.  We have not had much time to work on it in the last week or so. 

Would you believe that we had some snow one morning this past week??? Yikes!  

Finn is a great car traveller and does not mind the long drive to and from their home to ours.  

The fall colours are at their finest right now in our neck of the woods. 

One of our favourite places to go on Saturday mornings is our local farmer's market.  This morning, one of the vendors was selling hot pretzels.  Yum!  

I will link up with the Rainbow Scrap challenge folks today and the Slow Sunday Stitching group tomorrow.  Thanks for visiting!  

Orange and Light Blue, Hooking and Cutting

I changed the calendar to September today...I know...I was a day late but we were out all day yesterday and too tired when we got home to think about it.  I finished off my orange drunkard's path blocks for the August Rainbow Scrap Challenge and got busy gathering some light blue selvages for September's selvage HST's.

HST's made!  These are top stitched along the selvage edge onto a lightweight non-woven interfacing square, 9.5" by 9.5".  Then, I cut them in half!

I harvested lots of grape tomatoes today after supper.  This should replenish my supply in the fridge after making this delicious summer pasta dish for supper.  Today is our 33rd Wedding Anniversary --we went out for lunch. Tonight, we made supper together...a summer pasta recipe I found on the internet.  I substituted green beans for the zucchini. 

I finished the hooking on my class project this week.  Now, I just have to remember how to do the edge to finish this off...I have to steam it first.  I think it looks pretty good for my first time rug hooking!

I had a bit of time one evening this week to get the background cut out for my "Whistle Stop" quilt.  Everything is pinned in place on the design wall and I hope to get back to the sewing room sometime this week to get it sewn together.  The outer border is also cut out, ready to go but is not on the design wall. 

It's time for the sedum plants in my garden to flower.  These pink flowers are growing beside the path to our front door. 

Finn is happy to spend some time outside.  He often does not want to go back inside after he's done his business...

I will link up with Angela and the RSC folks on Saturday morning and with Kathy and the Slow stitching gang on Sunday morning. 

Starting a New Quilt (or two!)

 The rainbow scrap challenge colour for August is orange so I pulled out my bin of orange selvages this week and made my selvage blocks.  Each selvage strip is top stitched very close to the edge and the are foundation pieced to a square of very light weight non woven interfacing.  Orange is one of my favourite colours. 

I will get my orange scrap bin out soon to work on my drunkard's path blocks. 

In the meantime, I have started a new quilt--this one is a wedding gift.  The wedding was in June, after a two year delay due to COVID.  I had a conversation with the bride and groom before the wedding about what they wanted--colours, style, etc.  They chose modern over traditional and purple green and gray as their colours. The purple and green fabrics are from my stash.  I purchased the gray background. This will be a lap quilt. When we talked, I told them they would have their quilt sometime this fall. They were fine with this--just too much other stuff going on in my life to finish it in time for the wedding. Here is what I have made so far...

I'm hoping for some sewing time this afternoon to make some more progress. 

True confessions...I started another quilt this past week. I signed up for the Whistle Stop Quilt along with Tesselate quilts on Instagram.  I picked out the fabrics I am going to use from my stash but I'm not sure what I will use for the background yet.  There are various sizes included in the pattern...I'm making the one block quilt shown below, but your can make quilts with multiple smaller blocks as well. 

I finally got back to my rug hooking this week too. I added some green grass to the lower part of the picture. 

The phlox in my garden is in bloom this week.  Such a pretty colour.  I also have white phlox in the back garden. 

Don't you just love the pops of yellow from Black Eyed Susans at this time of year?

Hey Finn!  Did you know that you have a post it note on your ear???

My daughter knew Finn was up to no good when he came tearing down the hall this week and ran under her bed.  What did he have???  

Hmmm...

A shower cap from the bathroom.  After fishing it out from under the bed, my daughter just had to get a picture of Finn wearing the shower cap.  He's such a monkey!

I will link up with the Rainbow Scrap Challenge people at Angela's blog today and with Kathy and the Slow Sunday Stitchers tomorrow.  Have a good week.