Summer planting season

The warm weather has arrived and with it the bugs. Blackflies and mosquitoes have come in hoards and are enough to drive a sane person crazy. Without a bug coat(which are very warm to wear) you wouldn't get anything done outside. Although the warm weather has come during the day, the nights can still be chilly so I have not totally planted my garden. The plants I grew indoors are still waiting to be taken outside and I haven't even bought any flowers as yet.                                                       

Last weekend we had a town wide yard sale. I picked up a few things but this sewing machine and cabinet were by far the best things I brought home. Meet Madelaine! Her owner passed away a few years ago and recently her husband too, so the family was cleaning house. It is not that I needed another machine but I wanted the cabinet for a similar Singer I have. Oh well there is always room for one more in the herd! For now it will hide out I mean become a vanity table for my spare room.I am having a hard time dating her by the serial number...but I think she is 1960-1970 or so.

So in order to not be fighting bugs outside I am inside sewing. I have a quilt to finish...SOON!!! I need to be doing some power piecing today. Just as soon as I get this blog entry finished. I have string blocks, nine patches and I am working on 456 flying geese. Due to a small error in the pattern, I cut twice as many pieces as I need for the flying geese. Oh well more to make for later. If you are tackling Bonnie Hunter's talking turkey....check her errata on Quiltville for corrections of sorts.

I am continuing my hand quilting of this quilt for a friend. Her mom started it years ago and I am finishing it for her in memory of her mom. There definitely are some unusual fabrics in here in the leaves...everything from cotton to knit fabrics and even what I believe to be curtain fabric. Nothing was thrown away. I am sure if the fabrics could talk, they would tell us all what they use to be and how they came to be in this quilt.

This will be my slow stitching with Kathy project for today. I have a deadline so I do a little bit each evening. Although as Kathy said on her blog today, it is getting too warm to have a bundle of quilt on your lap quilting. I may have to bring up my Qsnap frame and use it.

And here's a photo that needs just a wee bit of background. This week we bid a happy and relunctant good bye to one of our friends. She and her hubby are headed to the west coast to live. We wanted her to have a pic of the group of us that was memorable. I think we accomplished that.We have been meeting every Wednesday for knitting although we do lots of other things too!!Happy trails Sandra(2nd from the left-front row) pretty sure you won't find a group quite like this one!!!

UFO day at guild

empty box and 1/2 of blocks needed

Who doesn't need one or many of these kind of days. Well it was perfectly timed for me as I have a quilt I want to make and it was a good day to do some power sewing. I have taken on Bonnie Hunter's pattern "talking turkey" and there is a lot of individual piecing to do before you can put all the units together. So yesterday I tackled the string pieced units, 60 squares need to be covered...no problem. PROBLEM!!! in six hours of sewing I only got 30 blocks finished. Yes sure there was talking and chatting and maybe a little venting too but in between all that I sewed and only got half the blocks done.  Not only that but my box of green scraps has been depleted. I will have to go in search of more this morning before I can go any further. Don't mistake this for complaining...I am simply stating a fact so today I am hoping to get the other 30 done and move onto the next step. I have set out a timeline of one month to get this top finish.

pic from Quiltville - Talking Turkey

DH is away for a couple of days on business and then on the weekend I am heading to a friends house to sew so I should be able to make some good progress on this project. Have a great day with whatever you are working on too!!!

Spring Fever!

Well it seems that Spring has decided to stay and maybe even become Summer in the near future!
It is nice to open windows, rake the lawn and even hear the frogs singing us to sleep at night. Living next to the creek and across the street from a pond,  you can hear them even with the windows closed. Another Spring activity is DH annual mud run, so he will be away this weekend and that leaves me with only time on my hands...hmm wonder what I could possibly do?

"Penelope" new home

I do have a few deadlines looming on the horizon so they will be looked at. But first I want to play on my new addition. A friend is moving and so she is re-homing some of her things. A sewing cabinet and machine were given to another friend of mine but she only wanted the machine...SCORE...I received the cabinet. It is homemade but the father-in-law(of the moving friend)worked for Singer so he made it to the correct specks. My blue Penelope(which I rescued from an auction) fits perfectly! I am so excited to have two machines in my sewing room now. Not that there is a lack of sewing machines in my house!!! :)

not so ugly looking anymore

This is what I am working on today. It is a quilt for my daughter.Don't adjust your settings....those colours are just that ugly!They were from a fat quarter club and we all agreed they are one of the ugly bunches we have gotten but my little girl loves them. Add in the newspaper print and we are set. I am working on the pieced border to finish it off. The pattern is from Sew Kind of Wonderful Curved Piecing.This is a gift for her 25th birthday and she knows already. The quilting will be done from the back using free motion, I am quilting on it the words of one of her favorite songs.

This is just for my southern readers. LOOK....my daffodils are starting to bloom. At this rate I should have them well into  June!!

As a side note, I wrote this post this morning and had good intentions. They however were derailed by a visit to my neighbours to see their litter of Golden Retriever puppies. It was great therapy to brighten my day. Now I have to get my train back on track.....sew,sew,sew!!!!

Happy May 1st

Where is the sunshine and all those spring flowers? I keep wondering but as long as they are MIA, I still have time in my sewing room.
I am now a week post dental removal of 4 wisdom teeth. It has not been a good week. Along with some uncomfortable moments, I also developed dry sockets in two of the empty spaces. A painful side effect of teeth removal that sometimes happens. The bone and nerves are exposed and needless to say it is an annoying discomfort. Lots of naps and advil and I think I am finally on the mend. Actually eating solid foods to some degree!!
But with this "take it easy" time, I have gotten two quilts finished. I completed the hand quilting and binding on this pink and brown one. Notice in the background of this picture those are my daffodils, that are just barely showing. They haven't bloomed as yet. On a good note I should have them well into June!!

 I also just took this baby quilt off the frame this morning. So part of today will be putting the binding on it and stitching it down. That will be my slow stitching today with my friend Kathy.
We have a quilt show in September and I have to start to think of what quilts I am putting in the show but before that I have a couple of weddings and a significant birthday present to get finished. Sometime I feel that there just aren't enough hours in the day. I find myself going in spurts. I will get lots done in one week and then languish for a week or two and then put the push on again. Why can't I just go at an even keel!!??!
Here's wishing you a week full of bright sunny Spingtime, blooming flowers and finished quilting projects!

What was I thinking?

As I write this today, I am the day after having my 4 wisdom teeth removed. I was lucky(if you call it that) to be able to have it done at my dentist office ...no surgery! That however doesn't make it any less uncomfortable. My hygienist better appreciate not having to clean them anymore. BUT with every bad thing something good should happen. I am getting a lot of couch time and hand quilting.

one block wonder with fighter jets

This past week I have also finished machine quilting two smaller quilts. My one block wonder is complete and that is one pattern I won't be repeating...been there done that!!! I also completed this colourful quilt from a curved piecing workshop. After finishing these it was apparent that something was not working correctly on my husquvarna sewing machine.It hasn't been working quite right for awhile but I thought it was just me not holding my mouth right or just the fact that I am not a fan of machine quilting. It just came back from a tune up and cleaning and now the feed dogs seemed to not be working correctly. Back to the sewing doctor to find out I need a "step motor" for my machine that sends messages to the feed dogs. Well I nailed that one...but that doesn't make the part any cheaper! Luckily I am not in need of that machine for a bit as it is going to be at the doctors for awhile.

great backing choice

free hand curves

hand quilting on a frame

On Tuesday I was giving a demo on hand quilting.Something I like to think I could do in my sleep. It was a 20 minute, all I know  about hand quilting. I talked tools of the trade and had this frame and quilt set up, then a fellow guild member finished the talk with showing how the stitching is actually done and some of her methods and techniques. So now I have this little quilt to finish for next month. I was quite surprised how many of the ladies were interested in hand quilting. Of course that didn't mean they were going home to put one on a frame or in a hoop....I don't know why not!!!
I started a list of 12 UFO that I wanted to get completed or at least work on. This week, I was able to take two of the off the list and a third is not far behind. So I am hoping with the return of my newly repaired sewing machine in a couple of weeks that I will be able to eliminate a few more off the list.
I am road tripping this weekend and hoping to hit at least one quilt store. I am with DH so one store would be a good thing!! If not I will at least get to see my baby girl who returned last week from an Australian holiday. Can't wait to see her pics and see all the things she brought home with her.

Also adding to check in with Kathy and see what everyone is slow stitching today. I will be hexie sewing in the car.

April Showers....

filler'up we're hungry

bring snowplowers in our neighbourhood!! Yes we have had snow again, last week 8-10 inches and we got a couple more over night. It is looking more like early December. I have to say it is prettier than all that yucky brown Spring stuff but enough already ...it is April. Even the poor little birds are confused!!

Oh well it just means I have more time to sew and that if what we did on the weekend. We had a workshop with the subject being  the "one block wonder"! I have to admit, not one of my favorite quilts but I was willing to try. Sorry to say but they are seem to look like a "dog's breakfast" or a hodge podge of blocks with no rhyme or reason. I made my blocks and needed a few more to fill in so I added the cubed blocks and this will be the end except for the fillers on the two sides. I am thinking right now they will be a solid black. Maybe it will have a couple borders too, so there will be more pictures as it moves along and more decisions are made.
I also finished the binding on my Allietare mystery from Bonnie Hunter. I even went the distance and did the wavy outside border. That is what I was working on last evening for my slow stitching with my friend Kathy


Today will be spent sewing one block wonder rows together. One seam at a time till it is all joined together. Turning on the tunes and getting it done!!

Hello again

our little Belle

On a good week, I am only posting once so it has been awhile! Like most people in the north I took a vacation for a week. Now don't laugh!!! I went to my DH hunt camp with him and our dog to collect sap and boil it down into a delicious treat of maple syrup.

abandon nest close to the ground

It is something he and my brother in law have wanted to do and now they can stroke that off their bucket list. Although the time there was relaxing and I got lots of knitting done...I did miss my sewing machine and quilting. With a 20 minute four wheeler ride into the bush, I was packing light and took only hand work to do. On the warmer days(not many) I sat outside knitting and watched as the sap slowly boiled away and got darker....till finally we were able to bottle our hard work to enjoy later.Did you know that warm(rather hot) sap is delicious with a tea bag in it or just alone. Talk about a sugar high though!!

moving sap from one barrel to another

So after getting home and getting caught up on laundry, groceries and all those other things we have to do, I am settling in to do some sewing. I hope my machine remembers me. My Allietare quilt came back from the long arm quilter and I got the wavy border marked and now I just have to make bias binding and sew it on. I also want to machine quilt a curvy quilt that has been waiting in the wings to be finished.So hopefully by the weekend I will have more to show quilting-wise but for now I hope you enjoy a peek at maple syrup making!!

our sugar maple bush

playing with my camera-our sap evaporator

The final result

boiling in progress

The view out the front window of the hunt camp shows we still have snow and more on the way this week. I am hoping Spring arrives soon! Have a great week.