December Catch-Up

I finished making a few things recently -

This is the Night Shift by Andrea Mowry. Made from handspun targhee wool.

This was my knitting when we took a road trip down south this past month (lots more photos later in the post).

This is a Sophie Scarf by Petite Knit. Made from some of first handspun from years ago - I can't remember what it is but I know the fibre is from SweetGeorgia Yarns.

I finished weaving some more tea towels, from 8/2 cotton. The pattern is Ozark Quilter's Towels from the March/April 2018 issue of Handwoven magazine.

I cross stitched a few different pin cushions as a break from my big three year cross stitch project. These are all stuffed with crushed walnut shells (lizard litter from the pet store). The patterns are from BlackBird Designs, The Scarlet House, and With Thy Needle and Thread. Stitched on 37 and 40 count linen that I dyed, with floss that I also dyed (stitched one thread over two).

As I mentioned earlier we took a road trip down south (as a nice break from the cold) so lots of photos to share-

Petrified Forest National Park, Arizona

Sedona, Arizona

Hoover Dam, Nevada/Arizona

Montezuma Castle National Monument, Arizona

Shattuck Windmill Museum and Park, Oklahoma

Wichita, Kansas

Henry Doorly Zoo & Aquarium, Omaha, Nebraska.

I believe that was a female gorilla because she just walked around picking up all the pieces of paper.

We visited with family in Arizona and they have the cutest dog!

While there I saw a road runner for the first time, and there was a coyote too!!

Came home to cold temperatures and snow. So pretty!

All the best!♥︎

Trip Out East

My husband and I just came back from a trip out east yesterday (to Ontario and Quebec), and I thought I would share some photos.

The main reason for the trip was to take my parents to my Dad's 60th reunion from Military college, in Kingston-

Marching came right back.

It was lovely to see the young students in their red serge uniforms.

We also visited relatives and saw some sights.

Our first stop was Brockville, Ontario. At one time it had the largest concentration of millionaires in Canada.

This is Fulford Place, and at the time of construction (1901) was the largest private home in Canada.

Also in Brockville was an amazing Railway Tunnel (this was Canada's first railway tunnel, built between 1854 and 1860).

It had an amazing light display, and was a real gem to visit.

Here is a link for a short YouTube video about the tunnel (near the 3 minute mark shows the coolest part about the tunnel with a 'train').

We also had a visit to Upper Canada Village (representing 1860's Canada).

Horse and cart outside the bakery

Tow Scow - horse drawn boat

 A beautiful quilt!

 We visited 1000 Islands, and this was the view from the 1000 Islands Tower-

In Gatineau, Quebec we visited Mosaïculture - large sculptures made up of over 5.5 million plants.

People working everywhere.

Houses of Parliament in the distance.

We all had a wonderful time!

The leaves were just starting to turn colour

All the best! ♥︎

More QAL Blocks

This weekend I caught up on a couple of quilt alongs.

The first is Westering Women -

This is Sweet Gum Leaf. I was hesitant about this one because of the Y-seams, and the original pattern involved printing out templates (not my thing). Luckily measurements were added for the dimensions of the parallelograms and it made things a bit easier.

The parallelograms ended up being cut from 3" wide strips using the 45 on the ruler and being 2+3/4" wide - even easier.

For the stem I didn't use the template either but a bias tube made with a 1+1/2" wide bias strip and a 1/2" bias bar.

For the Y-seams I remembered that I had inherited a little tool to mark the seam allowance - how handy!

My Y-seams worked out! I used to pin to match the dots and stitched from the dot to the edge of the fabric (in the past I have tried pivoting at the intersection but that never worked).

The three WW blocks so far (12" blocks, one a month for the year).

Next are the Circa 2016 blocks - 

The ones I made this week (3" blocks, two identical blocks per week),

and all the blocks so far, (the piles of pinwheels, hourglass and nine patches from the beginning make the centre of the quilt - I just have to decide on the fabric I will use).

plus all the squares cut for the 120 1+1/2" half square triangles we will need (we found out the QAL will go until the beginning of October!). I am really enjoying this QAL.

At the beginning of March my husband and I took our first vacation without children (just a few days and tacked on to a business meeting for my husband). We went to visit some my relatives in a small town in Quebec  -

lots of snow

and a few days in Montreal -

Old Montreal

Plateau Mont Royal -

Beautiful spring flowers at the shopping centre in Laval-

I couldn't resist taking a photo of the impressive chocolate selection at the grocery store-

We had a lovely time, and our children managed fine (I knew they would, they are young men now).

Thanks for stopping by and have a great day!♥