End of May

Not so long ago, we were stuck in snow knee deep. Remember that?  What a difference with today: sunny and 21 Celsius!  I am looking forward to a beautiful weekend with my boys.  We will do a few hours of volunteer work and then ... we'll see.  But one thing is for sure we will be OUTSIDE!!!  No open house this weekend so more together time for us! YEAH!


During the month of May, I have enjoyed following and reading  Marcia's "May for Me" and all the wonderful people who have posted on the Linky party.  I will continue to follow Marcia, (love her work) and a few more blogs I have discovered because of this link.  So thank you so much Marcia for the idea and taking the time to organize the link.

Today, I will join the link (again) but with something that has nothing to do with quilts.  It has everything to do with me!  I love to look at other people's garden; flower gardens, veggies gardens, herbs gardens, whatever. I admire their gardens because I can't keep up with one.  It always ends up being covered in weeds because I have a bad back  and has been so for the last 35 years.  Anyway! I found on the Net a project that I fell in love with and that I can take care of.  All by myself!  I wanted one! I wanted one real bad and I had the perfect place for it too.  So, last Sunday morning, hubby and I got to the store and bought everything we needed.  Came home, made it, watered it, loved it.

walking up the pathway

A little flower post! Hmmm! ♥♥♥ Love it! ♥♥♥  I bought a hanging basket just to get some already blooming and hanging flowers. Of course, it will get fuller as the summer slowly warms up.

This picture was taken right after setting it up.  As you can see, some plants didn't like the transfer but I'm positive they will come back full and strong soon. (in the second pot from the top)  The front of the house faces north so it will get some sunlight in late afternoon and evening. In the morning, it makes a pretty dark picture, sorry.

from the top of the steps

It is just a little thing, took about 30 minutes to put together and yet it adds such a punch to the house's look. I am very happy with my first try and, yes, I will do this again ... every year!
On this last day of May, I link up to Marcia's May for Me.

Tomorrow I will have some quilt stuff to show you. Hope to see you then for a Slow Sunday Stitching.

Until then ... SMILE  ... and ☼ light up ☼ the place.

On Sunday

Today we are holding an open house. Needless to say, the house is clean which leaves me some stitching time. Yeah!

I will be working on these projects ... while waiting for visitors or between the visitors.

I have prepared some pieces for Rose Dream to do.  (Darn! I shouldn't have put the ironing board away so quickly. ) I also have marked some hexies but they are not for the Century quilt.

Like many of you, I too put labels on my quilts.  They usually are hexies flowers labels.  I use to do different labels for each quilt and one day I decided to make the same labels on every quilts.  Why that's boring you say.  Yes, maybe but it will be easier, in 50 years or so, to locate my quilts. They are the ones with the hexies flowers!  Smart?  I don't know about that but I know that it is FUN!!  I don't know why I chose hexies flowers but I like it a lot.  Each "petal" offers a lot of space to write the information of the quilt, date, name and so on. Sometimes, I have a LOT of fun decorating the flower. Hehee!

And for Rose Dream I think I finally have a plan, a layout for this quilt. I've always said it would be small but it is getting bigger than first planned so ... plan B is forming and it is looking good, if I might add.

So, yes, this will be a lovely Slow Sunday Stitching with Kathy.   Part of my favorite things to do now on Sundays  is to browse all the links on Kathy's blog and see what everyone else is working on. I so enjoy that.  I hope you will join us.

You might also want to hop to see  Marcia's from Crafty Sewing and Quilt for May for Me giveaway.  It is such a lovely giveaway just for answering a simple question.

Thanks Kathy and Marcia for making my Sunday so much fun.  Hope you all find some time to stitch a bit too.

For those of you who love English paper piecing, check out what they are working on at Quilting Readers Garden.  Some wonderful quilts on that blog too.

Until next time ... SM :^) LE ... because there is no point in keeping it for yourself.
Chantal

Yesterday, I wanted to ...

post about my Design Wall Monday like so many do. I prepared my post and then found out I had no Internet access all day. Aaaarrgh!  So, I am posting it tonight and I hope you don't mind reading about "old" news!  :)
Here is the belated post.  Enjoy!


Design Wall Monday:

Because this is a long weekend in Canada, I get to play some more in my sewing room!  YEAH!

A while back, I showed you a picture of fabric and said it was for my first DS.  The quilt is called Take 21 and it is on my design floor today.

16 blocks done! Some 64 blocks to go ... I think. My son has three quilts already, (one was shown here) and they are still in good condition but still, I want to make him a new quilt for his birthday!  You do need a new quilt on your 21st birthday right? Of course!

So I showed him a few pictures of quilts that I took  borrowed from the net and blogs I love to follow. I chose quilts with a modern feel to them and nothing girlish, of course!  The answer was almost always the same; "hmm not bad."  But when I got to the picture of the Rising Sun on Krista's blog, he stopped me and said "that's the one I want.  But no yellow please."   So I asked which colour then?  "Black!"  Black? I said and he's like "yes, black!  It will look nice with black ... but no yellow"   So here it is, a black heart block!  I have to admit he's right; I like it in black too. (and in yellow!)  I had to change the third colour too. I used a very aggressive lime (it's not yellow!) colour fabric which he likes. Yeah! Brownies points for me to get it right on the first try!!!


Until next time ... SM ;^) LE ... little ones are looking up to you.
Chantal

The twins called a friend over!

At the beginning of April, I got myself involved with twins that followed me home! (Hehehe!)

This is Céleste ...

Just divine with her little carrying case !

And this is Fleur ...

so named for the beautiful flowers pattern she has all over her.  She does need some TLC and I wish I knew where to start.

Anyway, guess what these two did!  On Saturday, (yesterday), they called a friend over to play!!

When I found the twins, I was so thrilled I told everyone about my find.  (Probably to the point of annoying some people!) But I was so ♪♫ HAPPY ♫!     Anyway!  That's when someone said she had to take care of her MIL's estate sale and there was a sewing machine for sale.  NOT ONCE has she mentioned it was an antique sewing machine.  Instead, she called it an OLDER machine.  So when I got to the house and saw HER .... I was drooling!!!

She is a beautiful thing!  Although I did have to clean her up a little bit before she could come in, I think she is just adorable!

So now, I am blaming the twins for this new friend.  If it hadn't been for them, the new one would have been lost to us.

She has been loved a long time ago ...   Of course she needs a name ... fit for a queen!  I have always loved the name Victoria but with a last name like mine, even if I had had a daughter, I wouldn't have named my child Victoria!  So, this little queen will be call Victoria.  It is also befitting because, in Canada, we celebrate "Victoria Day" on Monday!

The name plate still has it's original gold colour. She was made in 1923 so she is oldest of the trio.

And the bobbins and belt were in the drawers

....   oh! oh! I don't have a manual!! Help! I don't know how to wind these bobbins!  :~{

- But this is it, girls!  No more friends over, you hear!!!

Until next time ... SM ;^) LE ... to opportunities!

Chantal

Slow stitching time

Wow! It's Sunday again! Time sure flies when one has fun.

And this is what I call FUN !

Did some Rose Dreams blocks in Yellow!!!  They might not look very square and the reason is very simple : they aren't.



When I cut the fabric I don't pay a lot of attention to the seams if its straight or not, as long as there is enough fabric for a decent seams that's all I care for.  The most important thing is to keep those sewing lines aligned.  I'll be in trouble if they aren't.   :~o

I've prepared 8 blocks for today : 4 yellows and 4 greens.  That's all I can do until I find more white fabric. Can't remember which boxes the white fabric is in!! Oh well... it has to be in this house so I will find it ... eventually!

As I was taking pictures this morning, I wanted to get all the blocks together for a family photo and ... I can't find them.  I have misplaced them too!!   Oh my!  What is wrong with my head lately?!! Maybe they are in the same box as the white fabric!!  < :~o

Hope you enjoy some slow stitching too or the nice weather ... or both!  : D 

I am linking up with Kathy for Slow Sunday Stitching

Until next time ...  SM ;^) LE ... it's never misplaced! 

I did too!

Yes, I did too...

So many things are happening at once lately that I am left with little sewing time.  But today, I did it!! 

 I did some ...

SLOW STITCHING !!! 

YEAH!

BUT .... I did NOT work on my hexy quilt !  No, not today.

 I have traced and cut some hexies but it was too windy today to work on something so light ... and it was too nice not to be outside.  So I needed another project that I could work on while sitting on the deck, enjoying a glass of wine and sunshine.  Of course, earlier this morning, I've read Kathy's blog (part of my morning ritual, you know) and when I saw what she was working on, it was too much! It was just TOO MUCH!  Julie's been tempting me for awhile with her project and now Kathy!  That's more temptation then this girl can handle. I wanted to finished a few things before pulling it out but .... too bad,  I got it out ... and it is so nice to see it again.  

I've completed 24 blocks so far. I don't work on it during the winter months. It is a summer project: easy to carry, fold-able and very enjoyable.  

I had fun making a few more blocks today.  They are all hand pieced.  It is very slow stitching but where is the rush? I will get it done some day. (It will be a small quilt! )  I try to make very small stitches. By the time I have completed a hundred of these, my stitches will be Grandma Approved stitches.  LOL  My grandma told me that her grandma never did knots when she sew.  She started half an inch from the edge, sew to the edge, turned and sew to the other edge.  So I am trying that method. 

It's a needle family get-together at every curve! 

This beauty, found on the net a long time ago (sorry, don't know from where anymore) was / is my inspiration.  The block is call Rose Dream.  The biggest difference between the two is the size of the blocks : my blocks are 5.5 inches.

Two more done.  yeah! Honestly, I think Julie and Kathy have a better method.  Hmmmm! Should I switch? 

If you like this block and want to see more, take a few minutes and check out what Julie is up to!  And here's the link to see Kathy's, Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching.

Until next time .... SM ;^) LE .... because you deserve one too! 

It's May

... and Judy L at Patchwork Times has posted the block for May.  It's a spool block!  Love spool blocks so I might just do a lot of this one.

April's block was Contrary Wife and here is my block

which didn't impress me.  So I went back to Judy's blog and had a second look.  Oh boy! I did the block all wrong.  Back into the scrap bin I went.  A few minutes later, I had this one made up

Yes! Much better.
Take a few minutes for yourself and have a look at all the eye candy made by different people on Judy's link.
This is one for Marcia's May for Me too.  I didn't have to change my block.  Nobody would have said there was something wrong with it ... but me! I didn't like it and even though I don't like frog stitching (like everybody else I believe) I changed it ... just to please ME!  Now, I am happy and proud to show my little block.  Just a few minutes, it's all it took to make me feel better about myself.  You too, deserve a few minutes extra, so go ahead and take the extra time for you.

Until next time ... SM ;^) LE ... just for you.

Chantal