Sunday 21 May 2017

Gardening Season is here

raspberry patch
Yes it has arrived along with the black flies and mosquitoes! I took advantage of the beautiful weather this week to get my gardens ready, weeded and some plants transplanted. This has meant that nothing was getting done in the sewing room. The closest I got to sewing or stitching was a few hexies at guild on Tuesday and some knitting each evening to relax with.
Today it is cool and light rain and I might go out and put in some seeds to get things going.Nothing that is going to freeze though as we had -2 Celsius and some small snowflakes yesterday.
bigger garden
flowers are still blooming
Yesterday was a full gardening day...cleaned out raspberry patch and made a bigger one. Then moved closer to the house and weeded flowerbeds. But the biggest job of increasing my main garden(hubby has his own at another lot we have). There use to be a garage there which was moved and we took out the cement floor last fall so it could settle over the winter. But the most exciting part was I finally got my own greenhouse/potting shed. It is a little rough looking but does the job nicely.
my potting shed




Sorry for the non quilting related post but this is the life of a quilter too!
I am hoping for some slow stitching time but it will be later tonight. For now I am heading back outside in rubber boots and a warm coat. Check in with Kathy and follow along as I do with everyone else who is slow stitching!

Sunday 14 May 2017

Mother's Day and ME days!

Belle&flowers from my daughter
 Happy Mother's day to all moms today! What makes this day extra special is it is a sewing day for me with a friend. DH has been away for a "boys" weekend so it became a "ME" weekend for yours truly.
I have a few challenges that are due in a month at two guilds. I really need to get working on them. So yesterday was orphan block day. I received an otphan block from a guild member and I have to make something with it and return it to that member.  I have decided to make a large quilt carrying bag or tote bag. Yesterday was designing and getting things to fit together. No scraps were harmed in the creating process....but chosen with care.(can't you tell by the mess left behind)
Today I will be quilting it and preparing to assemble it.
As many guilds are doing, the other challenge is for Canada's 150 birthday. I have used blocks from a recent workshop and incorporated them into a wallhanging for this challenge.
I am keeping things under wraps for now but will show pics later on.(two of them are in the picture if you really look)
Digging in the scrap bags
Yesterday I had a friend join me in my sewing room. Bernadette and I probably did more talking than sewing but some sewing was accomplished. She was working on her challenge too. She is returning today for more sewing. We were so busy sewing, I forgot to take any photos.
Enjoy your day with family and if you have time join me in checking out what others are doing today with slow stitching Sunday at Kathy's blog.

Sunday 7 May 2017

Rain rain go away......

May 7, 2017
Careful what you wish for. It has been raining for most of three or four days now. Creek levels in our backyard are back up to near the same as in the Spring. BUT this morning we woke up to this!!!
Snow in May. Not so unusual for this area  but a surprise just the same. Guess gardening will have to wait a few more weeks. But that only means that I get to stay indoors and get more sewing projects done.
The "quilt" is almost finished. I am working on hemming the last edge. Notice I didn't say binding! There was no binding this quilt as the top had finished edges. You can see here what I am talking about.
When this is done and delivered to the owner, I will be in my sewing room trying to figure out what to do next. I will have that dreaded disease...finishitis or what to do nextitis!!!When you have finished a quilt that has consumed alot of time and all the quilts and projects that were left on the back burner simmering, can now come out to play! Maybe I should start a list?
It was nice the other day to get to play with fabric. Well in a way. I had to clean off my table and in order to do that there was fabric that needed cutting into usable sizes and put away and hexies to be cut to put in my kit for travelling.While cleaning I found a couple more projects that need finishing..oh my!!

So with the weather outside..I will be in my sewing room getting things done. Later today I will be joining my friend Kathy for some slow stitching. No day is complete without some relaxing slow stitching. Enjoy your day and whatever you chose to do and have a great week!

Friday 5 May 2017

Quilting is DONE!!!

quilt waiting to be trimmed
WooHoo and hurray!! The hand quilting on this quilt is finished.Now I just have to trim the batting and backing and do a knife edge finish on this quilt. Because the top was already finished and a crochet edging added, this is the only way I have of finishing the edge. No binding will be added here.
pinned in place








stitching away

finished edge










I am timing this perfectly. I should meet my deadline with no problems.Then  I can catch up on other sew projects. Not to mention that it is getting close to gardening season. Although you wouldn't know that by the weather. Chance of snow this weekend.
Enjoy your Friday!





You just never know!

 The other day a friend texted me and asked if I recognized the photo she sent me. It was a photo of a quilt, one that I had made last year ...