Quilting can wait...right!?!

Well it had to wait this weekend.  Our neighbour came over and cut down a huge dead Elm tree in our yard. DH was feeling a bit under the weather so I felt sorry for him having to do all the clean up alone...so work boots, gloves and rake in hand, the clean up began. Who knew picking up sticks and small logs would create so many steps on my fitbit!!


Today we were back at it, trying to beat the rain that was forecast. We had a few snowflakes fall on us and some ice crystals...but we kept working and finished the mess after lunch just as the cloud let go and the rain fell.
So needless to say not much sewing or quilting was done today or yesterday. I am hoping for a couple hours this evening. That will be how I join Kathy with putting some slow stitching into my quilt. I also have some knitting to do once I curl up in my rocking chair. (boy that sounds old)!!!

 Here is the latest up date on "the quilt"! I have started working from the other side and soon the quilting will be meeting and the frame will be coming down. I figure I have at least a week of stitching to go then the finishing of the edge. There will be no binding as the top of the quilt has already been hemmed and finished...so I will be just turning the backing to the inside and hand stitching it in place. There will be more about that in another post.

Hope you are getting some stitching/sewing done whether or not it is slow or fast!!!

Workshop's over

listening to instructions

It is like the day after Christmas! You wait all year for that one day and then POOF!!! it is over. My fun started on Tuesday when Susan (my friend) arrived and then Carla (our workshop teacher)from Quilting by the River, We chatted all evening and before we knew it it was bedtime if we hoped to be wide awake enough for the workshop the next day.

busy at work

one block done

The workshop started and off we went! We were doing simple units made easier and more accurate with the Deb Tucker Studio 180 rulers. Fourteen of us enjoy the day with Carla. Our aim was to get one leaf block done and most of us accomplished that.

cool stars

After a busy day, we relaxed with dinner out and returned to the building for the guild's monthly meeting. Carla gave us a trunk show which didn't disappoint either. A full house enjoyed her stories and her quilts. But like the class, it was over way too soon and we said good bye and she was on her way home that night.I am sure this guild will be having Carla as a returning teacher in the near future!! There are so many ideas that I would like to try with the new rulers but that will have to wait a bit.

tumbling bits

colourful stars

On Thursday Susan and I did some sewing and some buddy time before she had to head for home too. It is so nice to get together. We have been doing this for 10 years, getting together and quilting each month as we can make time.
Now my mind must turn to completing the hand quilting on "that quilt"! The weather is warming up and I want to be outside planting flowerbeds and gardens. So the push will be on this week to complete the quilting. The weekend is almost here!!!

Let the fun begin!

It has been a busy weekend! We had a Maple Syrup Festival on Saturday,in our little community of 3200 people where the population increased by 15000 I am sure.  There was a small quilt display where half of the quilts were over 60 years old. One was even over 150 years old. It was nice to hear the history of some of these quilts.This left the rest of the weekend to get ready for this week.

So today I am preparing my house, cleaning and getting rooms ready cause tomorrow my friend Susan is coming for a few days to visit. She has been in Florida for most of the winter and this will be our first face to face visit.(we don't include our chats on facebook) I also have another friend Carla coming who will be teaching at our guild on Wednesday.

We are working on the pattern Northern Neighbours by Studio 180 Designs and Deb Tucker rulers.
Carla is a certified instructor with Studio 180 and a CQA teacher. We are going to have a lot of fun on Wednesday. Our guild meeting is that night too where Carla will be doing a trunk show for us. WOW

But all that fun will be for another post. Today I must get ready. I haven't even gotten my fabric ready. I have been procrastinating and now I am almost out of time. I also have to get some things ready for the guild meeting which will be that night too. I am hoping to put a few more stitches in this quilt I am hand quilting. I was hoping it would be done by now but I am getting closer. I have moved to the other side of the quilt as you can see. Only a couple more rolls and it will be finished.

The weather is warming up and soon it will be time to be outside raking and gardening. My Spring flowers are starting to bloom and all the snow is almost gone from the yard leaving behind the mess from the winter and all those sticks our dog has scattered.
 I am a little tardy in joining in on Kathy's blog for slow stitching but I was last night. I work on this, our block of the month for May. Some yoyos and some applique was happening to relax in the evening. Check out Kathy's blog and see what everyone else was slow stitching on too!

Okay can't put it off any longer enjoy your day and week. Come back later this week and see what fun we had at our workshop!

Where does the time go?

DH and his home-made stove

It has been almost a month since I blogged on here.How can that be? Well here are my excuses.First off March is the start of the sap run. We have started making maple syrup with my sister and her hubby.This is the second year and we have made some modifications to how we do things and we were very successful this year.We made  32 liters of syrup and it is so delicious.

liquid gold almost ready to bottle

But it didn't stop there, my DH decided to tap trees in our backyard and we made syrup here in the backyard over the last two weeks. That is a lot of watching wood burn and sap evaporate to make 6 1/2 more liters for us and our family. On a good note, I got some long hours of reading in as you can't do much else.

final product

This weekend is Easter. We took the weekend and traveled the 5 hours to visit our daughter and meet her boyfriend. Always a fun time. We also spent the day with family friends and quilting buddies of mine. Lively conversations and lots of laughs were had and more memories were made.We came home today and it was pouring rain most of the way. Our little creek is really flowing and howling outside today.It will eventually calm down but right now it is looking very fierce. My friend Kathy loves the sound of it flowing by so this video is for her.

getting there!

With all that going on I am still hand quilting too! That is about all the sewing I am getting done as I seem to have fallen a bit behind. I was wanting to have this finished by now. It should only be a couple more weeks and it will be done. It is very productive each time I get to roll the frame and start on the next section.
You can bet today I will be joining my friend Kathy and doing some "JUST BE". We had a very late night and early morning...so even slow stitching is beyond me today. I just want to sit and drink my tea and munch on chocolate!!!