Happy Canada Day!

I got this quilt back from the long arm quilter last night. It is lap quilt size around 60 by 64 inches. I'm hoping to get the binding cut and sewn on to be ready to take to the artisan shop downtown next week.

My youngest is home for the weekend but spends time between here and his girlfriends. We have a supper party tomorrow night and we hope to get out golfing with my son and his girlfriend. I may get a little time in the sewing room though tomorrow. If not I'll get to it next week.
Enjoy your long weekend! I understand it is a US holiday on Monday so I hope you all have some good celebrations and family time.

the sun is shining

It's lovely to see the sun , finally. I'm having a sort of quiet day today. I have a bit of a  of heavy head ache. Yesterday though, I finished up this quilt, so I can put it away until I'm ready to get it quilted. I have two out being quilted right now. This one will wait a bit.

I pulled out a charm pack and some plain cottons to make up a baby quilt. I don't usually like to work with collections but I couldn't resist the fabrics. I have mixed in a few others to finish the blocks.

Lately, I've been missing  the more creative side of me. I am finishing up a couple of my own creations, and I've been musing and feeling the itch to do something different.  I actually prefer to do more printing or dyeing on fabric and then seeing where that takes me, but it is a process for me that does take more energy and sometimes I just don't have it.
For those times, I keep the regular quilting projects on hand because it's easy to pick it up and sew a few seams. So, for the rest of today, I'm going to relax with some art quilting books and think about what I shall do next.

not so bad for a rainy day

It was supposed to be a gray day with showers today and it was but there was more gray than showers. I planned for bad weather though, so last night ,I simmered a pot of turkey bones to make into soup today. My husband and I have been vegetarians since January, but I don't like to waste. I made it up along with a quick oatmeal cheese bread recipe, and took some to Gord's 95 year old aunt and to a friend who just underwent surgery. I'll take the last bottle to his parents tomorrow.

In the last couple of days I managed to get the narrow black borders cut and sewn on. I just cut one of the final borders and hung it to see what it would look like. It's pretty wild colors and patterns!

My friend the gold finch will not stop tapping at the window. It's the same one and there are many more out there that use the feeder but ignore the window.

 Today, Gord heard and then found a young chickadee that got into our shed. He left the door open all day,but it would only fly around above the rafters. I noticed it kept going toward the vent where it could see some light and some of the back yard trees. After I commented on that, Gord got the idea to get the ladder and remove the vent from the outside to make a hole. Finally with a little prodding, it flew straight out and home to Mama. We could hear the adults calling to it in the trees. I'm certain it was a chick that I saw amongst 3 others leaving a birdhouse at the back of our yard earlier this week. For years they wouldn't use it because a squirrel had gnawed at the hole and it was too big. Then last summer while on vacation I bought a metal ring that fit over the hole with the right size opening and this spring the birds moved in.

swimming day a few minutes of stitching

Wednesday  is my swimming day and sometimes I'm not able to do much else but rest in the afternoon.. I was pretty tired but I had set up a little piece to be thread painted before I went out, so that after lunch I was able to sit right down at my machine and sew. The piece was originally mono printed on a gel mold with fabric paints.

It didn't take very long to do the pink flowers. The next step for me would be to embellish with a bit of embroidery, then sandwich and quilt it. I'm thinking that it will be another pillow, there's something bothering me about the tree though. It's the size of it I think. I'm considering taking it apart enough to cut it off or maybe taking out some stitches to shorten it--not sure. I do like the picture above with the tree cropped out, though perhaps it's too much trouble. Maybe I can live with it.

off to campbellton

  Since yesterday was my house cleaning day, I didn't do much else afterwards except some hand work. This is a glimpse of one section of my wall hanging. I am slowly picking my way around it with embroidery.

Also, I did get some new cards done.

This morning after I got up, I could hear this funny noise coming from my sewing room. I thought at first it was my computer, but discovered that it was a gold finch tapping away at the window. It is cloudy and gray this morning, and he must have been seeing his reflection in the glass.
Yesterday, I got a phone call for an appointment today with the endocrinologist in Campbellton which is about an hours drive from here. So, that's where I'm heading shortly.

cold and rainy

An otherwise damp, rainy day today was brightened first by a trip to the market where I purchased a bouquet of perennials and herbs  grown by a lady named Eleanor. The second bright spot in my day was to share tea and a muffin with my friend, Wendy. I made the trip to her house to pick up some fabric that I thought might work as a narrow border on my quilt. She had in her words "taken it out for a drive" yesterday on her trip to town when she forgot to drop it off here.
The bunch of flowers was so large that I had to divide it into two bouquets, so I gave one to Wendy. My intention is to use mine to do some watercolors but you know how that goes. It's Saturday night now and I only plan to take a bath and perhaps knit later. we've booked a tee off time for tomorrow although that may be cancelled if it's raining. We're going out for Father's Day breakfast at least.

Once I got home from Wendy's, I tried the fabrics and then decided that my fabric would do after all. (It was worth a visit though.) I cut and sewed on the first narrow border and have pinned up the final border in 2 different directions. I think I like the second one. I've managed to take the photo when it had not quite focused. My new camera takes a nice picture when I take it at the right time. I seem to have difficulty knowing exactly when it is in focus. I really need to read the booklet again but I don't have the patience for it.

quilt retreat

Well, I followed a girlfriend's suggestion and I drove up early yesterday morning to my friend's camp where I joined them for the second day.  I did get lost as I feared but got there before 10 am at least. We read in the camp journal that we've been doing the retreats since 2005. As is always the case with a bunch of women with similar interests, the day was full of gab, good food, lots of sewing , knitting and laughter. Even 1 day was good for the soul.

This cute little hand embroidered item is actually a clothespin bag. Can you just imagine hanging your clothes out sporting it?

At noon the flies were not too bad; a few of us ventured outside to stretch the legs. I took pictures of these plants which I was told are pitcher plants. They are pretty unique. It looks like a little balloon inside the petals and the leaves are hollow (hence the name) and catch water and insects.

Today, I'm putting wash on the line and heading out for a couple of small errands and then a dental appointment for a cleaning. I'll be home after lunch and hope to still have a little sunshine to pass some time outside.