Dreary, Fall day,.....but that's ok!

One of many reasons that it's a great thing to have a hobby like quilting.....when you're feeling under the weather and it's a downright dreary day, you can put a few extra stitches into your applique than you normally would!

This week I've prepared the next border section of Auntie Green's Garden. It's quite a different textured background fabric. I like it! Having different background fabrics in a project helps keep interest up, in my opinion.

So a good start....

....and here is a reminder of how the quilt looks so far....

Actually, the picture of the whole centre medallion seems to be missing! So this whole centre section is complete.....I'll find that picture at a later date!....and the new part I've started will be attached along the left side.

I'm not one to applique in the evenings, but I think I'll go and do just that!

Hope everyone has had a wonderful day!

Stitching on a Sunday

What a busy weekend!

Friday we had a great outing to the Lighthouse Theatre in Port Dover to see Pete Paquette perform his "Elvis, the Moments" show. We were given tickets as a wedding gift by a good friend (thanks, again!) What a fun show....such great performances by the back-up singers and band members, too.

Saturday we went to Theatre Aquarius in Hamilton. Neither of us had ever been so were looking forward to it. It's a wonderful theatre. The play we saw was The Big Sleep, which was originally a movie in the 40's starring Humphrey Bogart and Lauren Bacall. The production of the play was fantastic. It was amazing the way the changing of each "set" was done. The only problem was that it was just slightly hard to hear the actors, which meant really straining to pay attention as this play has a ton of dialogue and it's very fast-paced. Other than that....great time! It would be nice to go back once a year to see a play there.

I'm linking up with Kathy at Kathy's Quilts to share with others on what I am stitching on today. I'm in between having applique pieces ready to work on (hopefully will find time for that today), so I pulled out my go-to project....which happens to be the same project

as what Kathy is showing today!

As I was working on this with my morning coffee I saw that Kathy was contemplating some wise words she has come across. It got me thinking and I figure I will share my words of wisdom that have helped me at times. I'll say first off....I am the oldest of four sisters. I'm sure that younger sisters always think that the oldest thinks she's a know-it-all. In my defense, I do think that older siblings do have a lot to share!!!

 A few years ago the words that help me deal with my "know-it-all" attitude are these...."Just because it's not my way, doesn't mean it's not the right way", meaning, of course, that there are often more than one way to do something. I can't you the number of times that these words have rung thru' my brain when I want to convince someone that they should look at things my way.

Of course, maybe these "wise" words are not my own at all! When I was a little girl I remember trying to convince my family that I had come up with this brilliant little poem. That was dashed when I heard a neighbour chanting the poem and I remember wondering how on earth she had learned my great poem!!! The poem was "Liar, liar, pants on fire", etc.

Well, I don't know if all this reflection makes for a good blog post, but there you go! Off to get ready for a fun afternoon at my grandson's first birthday party. Happy Birthday, Silas!

....and, here's a shot of Minnie, who' taken to snuggling up beside me in the morning as I do my stitching....

Have a great day....and remember to check out what everyone else is working on at Kathy's!






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Binding epiphany

Is anyone else working down to the wire to have quilts ready for their local fairs?

Here is what I'll be stitching at for the next couple of mornings...

I've always thought my bindings were done quite well....afterall I've been binding quilts for more than 35 years, right?

Well, last year at the Hagersville Guild we had guest speakers who were Fair judges. It was so interesting. I know that judges like to see a binding that is filled up with quilt, but what I didn't know is that they like the binding to be the same width on the front of the quilt as on the back of it.

I made this binding by cutting it 2.25" as opposed to the 2.5" that I might normally do. Darn it if I didn't still have a wider binding on the back than the front. Then clued in that I should trim the quilt just a wee bit less. Not sure if I'm making this clear but I'll try to show what I mean in a couple of pictures.

Here is my quilt untrimmed...

I figure my seam is 1/4", so I usually trim the edge for binding like this....

So, I'm sure everyone else would have clued in long ago, but not me! It's not so much the width of the binding, but how much quilt is there to cover by binding. I'm not sure I'm getting my point made clearly. This morning I trimmed my quilt a bit less (the middle couple of inches in the picture).....

and, lo and behold, it worked! Yay for small victories! lol

On a personal note, I was shocked this morning to hear of trouble during pilgrimages in Saudi Arabia. My brother-in-law is there now to take his very ill father on a last pilgrimage. Luckily, I got in touch with my sister and she heard from Rakan early this morning that their pilgrimage has taken them on to the next site and they should be home safe and sound on Monday. Thank goodness!

Also, I am going to see a Naturopath for the first time ever today. I am very curious on how this kind of thing plays out. I almost felt like cancelling, but I'm too curious on how a visit with a Naturopath will differ from a "regular" doctor. We'll see!

Hope everyone is getting their quilts ready for the Fair also....Have a great day!

Sunday stitches

The last Sunday of Summer 2015....I know we probably say this every year, but summer sure seemed to go fast!

I started my day out by working a little on my Flower Garden. And, I know I probably say this every Sunday, but I wish I could just sit and applique all day today. It really is my form of meditation every morning.  Earlier this week my sister commented that I should try to stay up later at night so I could sleep in. Well, that wouldn't work, as I know very well that I would still be an early bird. What she just doesn't understand is that I love that first bit of time to my day. In fact, I consider it important. To each his own!

I have a few birds to applique on the top border, then it will be done....

This week I worked hard on one of my own quilts as I would like it done in time for the local Fair. I did finish it yesterday, except for the binding, and I'm quite happy with the results. What a lot of fun I had quilting this one!

Have a great day....and check out what others are working on today at Kathy's Quilts!

QuiltX.....and more Circles!

What a lovely week it's been weather-wise....I could take a couple more months of this, for sure.

I'd like to say that I've been able to take advantage of the nice days and be outside puttering away at the garden, etc., but, no, I've been having way to much fun playing on my Circle quilt!

I should continue working on it today, as I think about four more hours will call it done but I have decided to play hookie and take a day off with the girlfriends.

We made our way up to St. Mary's to an event called QuiltX and you can see what it's about HERE. It is a different kind of quilt event put on by a number of vendors. Of course, it was nice to go by way of Tillsonburg so we could drop in on Cynthia at Cherished Pieces.

One of the vendors was our friend, Lana from Quilt Junction, in Waterford. She had a lovely booth and seemed quite busy!

There were many, many vendors and it was nice that they all had their own "flavour"....not a repeat of the same fabrics from booth to booth.

I bought this necklace from Hyggelit....I kept walking past it saying "no", but finally twisted my arm and gave in.....

Although the event was mainly a showcase of vendors, they do have a couple of guest speakers doing lectures. Today was a quilter named Johanna Masko and this afternoon's lecture was about taking the mystery out of making a Farmer's Wife quilt. Here is a bit of a shot of her lovely neutral Farmer's Wife....

Now, after 35 years of being a quilter, I do consider myself somewhat experienced....but the pattern book for Farmer's Wife was beyond me! I have long since stowed mine away in a box and not looked at it for years. After today, I think I may have to re-visit this UFO and look at it with new eyes with all Johanna shared in her talk.

QuiltX is still on tomorrow (Sept 19). If you need a bit of retail therapy, I suggest taking a drive to St. Mary's. Oh, and I always appreciate it when a show makes an effort to provide a good tea room/luncheon and they certainly have done that, as well!

That's all for now. I'm sure this post isn't my best writing, but it's been a long day! A long one, but a nice one spent with good friends.

Have a great weekend!

Circles... and so it begins!

What a dreary weekend.....but we do need the rain! Makes for a good time to start quilting on my Circle quilt.

After a rocky start (don't ask), I'm pleased with the start......

....and, of course, I started my day with a few stitches on my Flower Garden. I really should be getting back to Auntie Green's Garden, but I'm just enjoying this border so much!

Hmm, I may have to replace that one circle....it will bother me that it's so close to the same fabric in the wing of the bird!

Have a visit over at Kathy's Quilts to see what others are stitching on today!

Have a great day!

Circles!

Well, this week certainly flew by! How can one stat holiday make such a difference?

I will work today on a lovely quilt and later on get to start the thought process on a special custom job....my own! If you ask any longarm quilter, I'll bet they'll tell you the same thing....in order to get one of our own quilt tops done it has to be put on the schedule just like anyone else!....or we'll never get to it.

I am hoping to come up with some grand ideas for my "Circles".

It has a fairly wide border, so I really want to fill it with something nice. My biggest quandary is what to do in the very middle of each circle? Hmmm, hopefully something will pop into my brain.

My motivation on getting this done is that I hope to enter it into the Fair this year. I'd like to encourage everyone to consider entering a quilt into a Fair at some point. It's discouraging to hear people say that their work isn't worthy. It's such a good feeling to share our work, especially at the Fair. Next time you go to the Fair take note of all the people in our community that wander thru' the aisles. It's so nice for them to see the quilts (or baked goods, or needlework, etc.) that we enjoy.

I had a nice dinner out last night at our local Boston Pizza. It was especially good since I got to sit across from this delightful little girl and watch her utter enjoyment of her noodles and then her ice cream. So precious!

Have a great day!

My blooming Hibiscus

What a nice lazy start to the Sunday of a long weekend! I may decide to do a bit more stitching today just "because".

It's been a lot of fun working on the first border of my Flower Garden quilt. There are a lot of interesting little animals to applique.

The first of four little foxes....

A cat lounging beneath the sun....

....and a funky little rooster.....

This quilt sure doesn't get boring to work on!

We have been in the middle of a heat wave and some of my newer plants in the garden may be suffering a little bit, but not my hibiscus! I've never seen it so big or with so many buds and blooms...

I love the size of the blooms...probably 9" wide.....

Visit Kathy over at Kathy's Quilts to see what others are working on today!

Have a great Labour Day weekend!