It Must be Monday

Life threw me another curve ball this week.  My Mum is in hospital with cellulites in both legs and a rash all over her body which they believe is an allergic reaction to a pain patch she was on.  Her legs are so sore and of course the infection has increased her dementia. 

I did take my bag class on Friday anyway, and came home with this:

I didn’t put a whole lot of thought into the fabric I used as I just threw it together late on Thursday night.  I’m really pleased with it though.  It’s fully lined and stands up beautifully on it’s own.

Now I’m working on a quilt called Birthday Presents by Atkinson Designs.  I’m really liking how this is going together.

Pictures are wonderful – I now see that I need to change the first block on the second row – there isn’t enough contrast in the two fabrics.  This isn’t the final layout – I have 42 blocks to make so they are just going on my design wall as I finish them.

A certain little someone had her first birthday on Saturday.  Happy Birthday Molly!

First Day of Summer

It’s a beautiful day here and Ben and I just got back from our daily walk in the park and around the neighbourhood.

Speaking of Ben (nice segway) he was complaining that he hadn’t been in my blog for quite some time, so I need to rectify that.  Here’s my baby.

Now, I can’t put in a picture of one baby without the other, so here’s Molly.

The reason her nose looks so funny is she was sniffing some lillies in a flower arrangement and got the stamen dust all over her nose!  Silly girl!

Not much to show this week in the quilting department.  I did get my McKenna Ryan piece finished and put some crystals on the light bulbs and the bows around their necks.  They don’t show up very well in this picture.  This is another of those pieces that I liked a whole lot more when I bought it than I do now. 

I forgot to tell you the best news of all.  My Mum’s house sold a few weeks ago with a closing at the end of July, so that will be another load off my mind.

Lee & I are taking a class this week to make this bag.  I’m sure we could have figured it out on our own, but the class was only $10 so it should be a fun day out.

Hopefully, I’ll have the finished project to show you by next week.

Busy Times Around Here

I’ve had another productive week on the quilting front.  I made a couple more curved appliqué pieces.

I intend to donated these to our local Humane Society and if they like them, I’ll make some more as I really enjoy doing them.  I have LOTS of dog and cat fabric and this is a cute way of using some of it up.  They are time consuming but what in quilting isn’t!

I’ve also had this small panel in my stash for ages, so thought it might like to see the light of day.

I have no idea how I’m going to quilt this so I’m open to any and all suggestions.

Yesterday we attended the wedding of Kim’s son.  I’ve worked with Kim for the past 15 years and watched her boys grow up.  Here are the proud mother & father of the groom.

Kim’s dress was absolutely stunning and fit her like a glove.  Since everyone loves to look at a bride, here are the happy couple – Jeff & Mary.

Leo & I decided we’d try and take one of those ‘hold out your arm and take a picture’ of the two of us.  Sandra & Darren do it all the time.  Here’s our first try:

So we tried again:

Leo kept telling me it was because I was too short – yea, right – just because there’s almost a foot between us!  So, after about 10 of these attempts, we tried it this way:

Today is my Mum’s 88th birthday and we’re all going to meet at the residence and help her celebrate.  Let’s just hope she knows who we are today.

Some Finishes

I feel like I have my life back.  I’ve been semi-productive and it’s nice to have some time to myself again.

Here is my bright simple quilt done with my favourite Circle Lord Swirls. 

While Ben managed to stay out of this picture, I noticed his tuggy didn’t!

I love striped bias binding and decided to put stripes on the back too.

The colours look way off on the stripes, but you get the idea.  Here’s a close-up of the binding.

On Saturday I took a workshop on circular appliqué and I’m really pleased with my results.

It’s about 16” x 16” and you quilt it as you appliqué – with a straight stitch.

I really enjoyed doing this and can see more of them in my future.  We also got the pattern for a miniature Wedding Ring so that’s what I’m trying next.

I’m off tomorrow to a Shop Hop in the Niagara Peninsula.  There are only three stores, but they usually have nice patterns as a give-a-way.