Some photos of the garden

        Today is our 34th wedding anniversary and yesterday was my ?? birthday.  All went well yesterday.  The DH and DS gave me a gift card for Mark's so I went shopping for some badly needed jeans.  Both my jeans and capris were worn out at the crotch and had iron on patches keeping them together.  I was afraid I would be bending over at Safeway one day and I would be arrested for indecent exposure.  Everything at Mark's was pretty picked over but I did find some jeans and I found jean capris at Walmart for $11.00 so I am set.  The t-shirts and blouses in the stores right now are made of such thin fabric that you need to put on two to get any coverage and at my size I don't need any extra bulk.  Major dieting on my horizon I am afraid.  I have to get my mind set.  I think once this last customer quilt is completed I will be able to settle my mind and get things done.

        My mom took my DH and brother and I out for supper for my birthday, so that was good.  I did not have to cook.  We had an enjoyable time.  DH and I just went home after and watched TV with the dog.  DS was with friends and working last night so I saw him for two seconds, in the afternoon, in passing.  He is going through a manic phase right now, I hope he can manage it without going nuts like last year.  I pray.

        Today is our anniversary and I do not know what we will be up to.  We do not have any plans.

        Here are some pictures of the flowers blooming in the garden.  I need to do some work with moving the perennials around in the fall because it is a mess in there.

        I need to find some perennials with larger flowers, everything is small and/or spikey.

Happy quilting.

More Thelma Wynn Project Photos.

        I missed posting some of the photos of baby quilts on my previous post so I am adding another post.  Here goes.

I made most of the quilts hanging and on the tables.  The sleepers and receiving blankets, etc. were made by other church ladies.  I have also included a picture of some pansies that self seeded in my garden.  They have a very pretty colour in real life.

I now must go and see if the Red Velvet cake I made is cool enough for the icing.  Yum.

Happy quilting.

Thelma Wynn Project Quilts and a picture of our lilac shrub in full glory.

I have not taken the time to blog forever so I thought I better post these pictures before they are lost.  There is a picture of the mess on my cutting table of all of the fabric bits I was trying to make into baby quilts.  There are also photos of some of the quilts hung and shown on tables at the tea.  I was so pooped from sewing like a mad woman after that project was done that I have had trouble getting down stairs to sew.  I have organized most of the scraps into groups so that when I get the urge I can just pick up and start making something.  I have a quilt on the machine for Shirley that I must get done before I can tackle any of my own projects.  It has either been too cold downstairs or I have been too busy running around for Mom and us that I have had trouble getting motivated.  Next week it will be completed.  I need some sanity in my life for awhile.

Anyway, here are the photos.

 In the first picture I only made the quilt on the left, in the third picture I only made the centre one, but for the most part the rest of the quilts I made.  These are just a few of the 30 I made.  As a challenge to myself I hope to have made more that that for next year.  I will have a head start because we just started the project in January.

The lilac looks beautiful in real life.  I was finishing off putting the brick edging around the Daylily bed, hence the mess on the ground below.

Happy quilting.

RRCB finished and some other stuff

Here is a photo of my RRCB on my bed in my room finally.  The curtains are newly purchased from Ikea and have all of the colours that are in RRCB and Easy Street.  I am sure my Orca Bay would not clash either.  The great big black hole is MJ's giant tv that will stay in the room until he is back from Thailand or wherever his travels will be.  It is not in my way.  The dog can stay with the DH as far as I am concerned.

This is a photo of DS on his way to the airport Feb. 19th to begin his travels to Thailand.  He went from temps of -40C to temps of +30C.  He says it is so hot he want to vomit unless he is in air conditioning or under a fan.  He had a minor motorcycle accident the second week and has been healing from scrapes and bruises.  We miss him.

This mess is a future rug for my bedroom.  It is done by making the rope by spool-knitting fabric strips then sewing them together.  I started it way back when, at least 10 years ago and I finally picked it up again to finish.  It will make a good sized bed side mat.  I am sure that the dog will take it over.  I tried to figure out how to attached the coils together by crocheting them with pearl cotton but my pea brain could not come up with anything that looked decent, so sewing with doubled quilting thread was my solution.  I want to finish sewing it together soon so that I can finally work on the puzzle DH bought me for Christmas.

Well it is a bright sunny Sunday and I should be out enjoying it but I do not like going anywhere on the weekends.  Too busy with people.  DH and the dog have gone for a nap already.  I think I will either grab my ipod and sew on the rug some more or go and prep the baby quilts I have quilted so far for binding.  I am just turning the backing over and machine stitching down.  I have four quilts ready to sew bindings and four more that can be quilted.  I have two on the flannel board that are ready to be stitched together.  You cannot see the top of my cutting table for scraps but I do not have the concentration right now to figure out what to do with all of the smaller strips.  I am sure ideas will stew around in my head and I will figure something out.  Meanwhile this week I will work on the embroidered quilt belonging to Lois.  Feathers and more feathers are the answer.

Happy stitching.

Happy Valentine's Day

This is a photo of my Valentine's Day gift from my DH.  I came home from cutting fabric for baby quilts at the church and grocery shopping to find an empty house, except for the dog, and this on the counter.  DS called him 'sick' but instagramed a photo of it any way.

I volunteered to help out the church's quilt and baby layette sewing project and joined them this morning.  There were only four other women working on the project so it will be slow.  The ladies helping out do not have much quilting experience so I will most likely take on a lot of that.   They have cardboard forms that they trace squares with and cut out with scissors so it is going to be interesting.  I took some squares home and will make something up for next week.  I also have that Sesame Street fabric that I am going to make a quilt with.  I don't think it will get quilted because I have some customer work coming tomorrow.  We will see.  She doesn't need her quilt back until March so maybe I can work on the baby stuff next week.

A husband of a church member that passed away last year brought in a bunch of fabric and cut out baby items for the group to work with.  I am looking forward to seeing what treasures she had started and I am sure there is stuff there that I can help complete.

I finished cutting up strips for the Scrappy Trips project I want to work on with Kay's fabrics.  I made a good dent in the fabric which makes me happy.  I can get two tops done for the Victoria Quilts project with the stuff I have cut out so far.  I am sure there is yardage there that will work as borders.  They want flannel for backing so I will have to shop and I need batting anyway.  I should order some Quilter's Dream cotton because it is so light.

My baby's 30th birthday is Sunday.  I wish it was a happier time for him to celebrate.  This has been a hard time for us all and I will miss him regardless of the crap he has pulled over the last few months.  I wish him well on his adventure.  I hope we will see him again and that this experience will be what he needs and not a big mistake.

Well good night, tomorrow will be busy,
Happy stitching.

Photo of Gum Blossom background blocks

Here is a picture of the strata blocks I was working on for most of the weekend.  I have decided that I do not like one of the fabrics and I will not be happy until I have replaced it.  It stands out too much and the eye goes to that fabric every time.  It needs to be a bit more muted.  I will most likely shop for a fat quarter to use at the Quilt Market on the 16th as well as the fabrics for the leaves of the gum blossom.  It was fun to work on and I am looking forward to finishing it.

Back to the workshop for me.  I have to quilt the argyle quilt and am still kind of stumped as to how to quilt it.  The pantos that I see online are too dense so I think I will have to be careful and do a free hand swirl on my own.  I wish me luck.

Happy quilting

Lazy Sunday

      Just having a lazy Sunday sewing in the basement.  I should be working on the Argyle flannel quilt on the machine but I am stumped on how to quilt it so I am leaving it so I don't have to remove any more quilting stitches from it.  I will try to tackle it fresh on Monday.  I have been obsessed with sewing the blue stratas for the Gum Blossom wallhanging that Rita gave me her excess scraps and strips.  I have been able to make all the required 6 1/2" squares with everything she gave me.  It was great fun picking apart the off cuts to work up the blocks.  I have a few that I have to re-do corners because I will have seams meeting to closely and it will be lumpy so I will work on that this afternoon and put the blocks up on the design wall and start sewing the background together.  I need to shop for the greens for the large applique leaves.  I am still torn as to how I will do the applique.  Needle turn or raw edge?  I am thinking raw edge because I have so many other needle turn projects on the go that I would like to do something different.  We will see.

      Back to work, Happy stitching.