A few finishes

I realized it is almost the end of June and I have not updated my OPAM this month :-(   must get busy and get that done . I have a few finishes to show you , as you can probably guess by now I do love doing landscapes and have enjoyed making a few small landscapes in the form of postcards which is really fun so I have two to show you that I just finished.  Then on the left is a gold finch I just completed as well , I made a scrappy border in browns , mostly because I didn't have enough of one or even two to do the entire thing but I rather like it this way .  So that gives me three finishes but hey I have one more , one that I did a while ago , much earlier in the month but forgot to show you , can't imagine why as I really love this little mugrug , the stitchery I got from here  a pattern by Vicki of the Pickledish Patch and since I am not a coffee drinker I did tea instead , then my friend Linda gave me the red fabrics , aren't they just gorgeous so we designed the rest of the mugrug to make the best use of the fabrics and to show off the teacups ,love our little prairie points , just too cute don't you think. I even hand quilted it on the diagonal just for the heck of it . Thanks for stopping by and hope you have a great day . hugs Sheila

It's a Blue Day

It's One Flower Wednesday and I had hoped to have more than one flower this week but ran out of time ,  so it is just this little blue flower to show and to add to my garden .I hope the flowers are blooming well in your garden , to see more lovely blooms be sure to visit with Karen and thanks so much for the visit . hugs Sheila

Tuesdays Treasures

As I mentioned I went to a yard sale on Sat. and purchased some silk ties , well here they are , my treasures for this week , these are all Italian silk ties , rather colorful and I think might be an excellent addition to a crazy quilt , what do you think?? They only cost me $3 for the lot which I felt was a real bargain.

I also wanted to share this wicker armchair that was purchased a number of years ago at a yard sale , we actually bought a pair , the other one is on the other side of the table but it would be difficult to take a picture of both . These chairs are very comfortable and were a real bargain at only $75 for the pair , another real treasure ,I love finding treasures at yard sales ;-)

To see more treasures hop on over to visit Melody of the House on the Side of the Hill . Thanks for stopping by and have yourself a wonderful day .I'm posting early as it is still Monday here but I will be off early in the AM to quilt if all is well .
 Hugs Sheila

Ready for a quilt show?

On Saturday I attended a local quilt show in a small community church with two quilting friends, Linda and Joan . I am not sure of the age of this church building but it is old and quite unique so is a great place to display quilts . I will share a few of the many quilts that were on display and I hope you will enjoy the show. One thing to note is this show includes quilts that are old as well as new , some are entirely handsewn which is amazing when you look at the size of the pieces . They have quilt hung all along the walls over windows so it does make it a little dark in there .

This is a good example of an older quilt that is stitched entirely by hand , just look at these vintage fabrics , the pieces measure about 1" even the white areas are single pieces cut at the 1" size so this is a lot of piecing , plus of course it is all hand quilted with realllllllly tiny stitches .

Another hand stitched quilt and such an interesting pattern , anyone know what this is called? Imagine dealing with all those curves , just cutting them all out would be a chore before you even took one stitch . Lots of beautiful hand quilting in this one as well .

A view of each side of the church .

This one is for the purple fans out there , isn't it beautiful .

What can I say , this one is simply stunning , the colors as well as the design , just gorgeous and so very well done with lots of lovely quilting , just love this one!

I am not sure of the age of this gorgeous piece but the lady who made it is no longer with us . It is a work of art , all silks and all hand embroidered with prairie points all along the border . This has no batting but is hand quilted , again in the most tiny stitches . After seeing this I was at a yard sale and bought six silk ties that I plan on taking apart and making some crazy blocks with , they were only $.50  each so I figured I had not much to loose and perhaps lots of interesting pieces to gain. More on those later  ;-)

It is too bad this quilt hadn't been opened up better as it is simply beautiful with all the hand applique , Margaret the owner and quilter of this gorgeous quilt does amazing work ,I'll show you a close up of one of the blocks next .

Isn't that beautiful?

This is the view of the front of the church , pretty impressive don't you think.

One local lady made these hand woven blankets , how lovely they are ,it was really nice to see them beside the quilts as they are a work of art as well .

I loved this quilt , basically a two color quilt , but just stunning and the applique in the border really adds so much to the overall design .There were of course many others I could share but this post is getting photo heavy so I won't keep you any longer but I sure hope you enjoyed your visit to this quaint country church and their annual display of the local talent . Thanks for stopping by and have a nice day .

 Hugs Sheila

Quilt Blocks for Kaaren

As many of you know Kaaren of the Painted Quilt has taken a leave from blogging due to some health issues so some kind hearted bloggers have arranged to have blocks sent to be made into a quilt for Kaaren to show her we are thinking about her and sending her loving get well wishes . It is quite simple just follow this link and it will give you all the information on what size block to make and what colors you should use , Allie will be very pleased to hear from you .Kaaren has been so very generous to all of us with her wonderful patterns that I know we will all want to give back in this very simple way , thanks for helping .

Crazy Quilting Friday

I'm still plugging away with my crazy blocks, I did plan on sewing some together this week but that plan fell through but since I have two going at the same time I know I am pretty safe in just going ahead and making more . I really didn't have a lot of spare time so no embellishments but at least a block got sewn ;-)Thanks for stopping by and have yourself a wonderful Friday , the sun is shining here so it sure makes this day a whole lot better . hugs Sheila

One flower Wednesday

A little sunshine on a dreary day , just one little flower again this week and I chose this yellow fabric to brighten up my day ;-)To see more lovely flower gardens be sure to visit with Karen of A Journey of a Quilter  who is our lovely host for One Flower Wednesdays and there are lots of beautiful gardens blooming all over blogland , check them out . Thanks for the visit and be sure to come back again . hugs Sheila

Rain Drizzle and Fog !

As promised here is my completed landscape for the rain, drizzle and fog challenge , I went with fog , tried to add rain with some silver thread and beads but literally hated that so took it out and just went with the netting to soften the mountains and layered some white netting over sections of the mountain and then a darker netting over the entire picture . This is my first challenge in this type of work and although I am pleased with the general look of the landscape I don't think I captured the challenge theme that well but that is ok I still enjoyed making it and really like how it has turned out . It was difficult to get a decent picture as guess what it is raining so this room is quite dark and dreary at the moment . Thanks for stopping by and have yourself a great day . hugs Sheila

Crazy Quilting Friday and a finish

It's Friday again , where did this week go ? This week is just a random block starting with the butterfly , love butterflies . I think perhaps I should follow in Betsy's footsteps and start sewing these blocks together to get an idea just how many more I should make , I will say, I am not running out of scraps so that is certainly not a problem ;-0 Thanks to Betsy for hosting Crazy Quilting Fridays .

I also finished this little table topper , it is a pattern by the This and That company and this pattern is called Harvest Bouquet , it is made with a charm pack .I had some fun doing free motion quilting and it is much easier on a piece this small and was great practise .

I can't show you just yet but I am doing a landscape for a challenge I decided to join in on and I have quite a bit done but more to do so will wait until I have it completed to show you .This challenge was to do a landscape that showed rain drizzle and fog , do you think I have any idea what that looks like ? Dumb question I know . Have a great Friday and enjoy your weekend. hugs Sheila

One Flower Wednesday and a reveal !

One lonely flower again this week and you will recognize the fabric from the project below , the scraps were right there in front of me so I cut some hexies and sat down and sewed this sweet little mauve flower .Since it is raining again !!!!! I had to take the picture inside on my Christmas Cactus . Thanks to Karen for hosting our One Flower Wednesdays , they really are addictive so why not give it a try .

So no further suspense , here is what I was working on when I showed you the sneak peak the other day , this apron ,I have made a few of these before but made them reversible , however I thought I would try it in a single layer this time and do some bias binding around it , I made all the bias binding and then sewed it on as you would a quilt and turned it under and stitched in the ditch and that worked so well , much easier than the traditional double fold bias plus I love a binding made with stripes especially when cut on the bias . This is called the church ladies apron and can't you just see your grandmother wearing one just like this , I know I can . I just added the picture of the pockets as in the larger picture it is hard to tell just what that triangle is but this is actually a double pocket ,still not that clear is it , oh well you get the idea .

Hope the sun is shining where ever you are and that your day is going super . Thanks for stopping by and to see more flowers head on over to visit with Karen as I am sure there are many gardens that have grown since last week. Hugs Sheila

The postman arrived :-)

Don't you just love when the mailman arrives with a squishy envelope , well I got not one but two squishies in my mailbox ,yippee. Since today is also Crazy Quilting Friday but I am a little slack this week so this little squishy will be my crazy quilting for this week . My pincushion base arrived yesterday and I was soooooooooo pleased , it is just gorgeous and I am sure you will all agree . Don't you just love all the detail , the first addition was the sweet little bunny by Dee Dee , it has the most adorable face , then it travelled on to Sandi who added the flower and leaves ,then off it flew across the ocean to Val who added the delightful magpie and the pumpkin, we do not have magpies here in Nova Scotia although my son has them in Saskatchewan and I love the look of them , for its final journey it visited with Fiona who added the spider web and spider, she says he is harmless ;-0 ,isn't that adorable , she also added some gum tree leaves and flowers which I love as we also do not have them here ,oh and she added the little twirl to represent the twirl around the world this pincushion has taken , it sure is well travelled and has come back much better than it left ! I mean how lucky am I to have a pincushion as sweet as this , I don't think it will ever see a pin stuck in it though ;-) Thanks so much Fiona for organizing this very fun little RR I have thorougly enjoyed it . Thanks also to Dee Dee, Sandi , Val and Fiona for making this pincushion the work of art it is .

 My next little squishy was from the Green Bag Lady , I won this great cloth bag on her blog and also the fabric to make another bag which is to be given to a friend to make our earth just a little greener one bag at a time . I love cloth bags and use them all the time for my grocery shopping so this will come in handy for that purpose . She also provided the pattern to make the bag , isn't that fabric just so cute . Thanks Teresa for this great bag and for making a difference in our world.
I hope you all enjoy a wonderful day and if anyone has any extra sun they might want to share please .... send it this way , this gal is growing web feet ;-0 Thanks for stopping by . hugs Sheila

A special surprise

Do you remember this quilt I showed you that was on display at our quilt show on the 28th of May , well this quilt won the viewers choice award last night at our meeting , the best part of that is this is MYquilt , I was totally shocked , never in my wildest dreams did I expect this to happen . There were so many beautiful quilts on display and they chose mine the Flower Garden Sampler , I mean wow and double wow .I was blown away and so very proud . This quilt was a BOM that we did with our quilt guild and was under the direction of Anne as our program coordinator .I thoroughly enjoyed making this quilt and it all came from my stash , I did buy the background fabric the pale green but otherwise this was a random , ok what do I have that will work for this block .  I just had to share this I hope you don't mind . I recieved a $25 gift certificate to our local fabric store , you know I won't have too much trouble spending that . Thanks so much for sharing in my honor and a huge thank you to all who voted .

 hugs Sheila

A couple of finishes !

I haven't had too much to show in the way of sewing lately but I finished off these two aprons last evening so thought I would share them . I had bought this rather funky fabric last summer and am just now getting around to making something with it . It isn't even in a color I would normally buy but I just fell in love with it , kind of a fun print ,I started off with this bib apron which is a pattern called Four Corners Apron by Vanilla House Designs , a fun and quick pattern to make and very versatile as well . The model is shy ;-) I have made many of these aprons and really love them . I had some fabric left over so decided to see what else I could make and this is the next one I chose to make , another simple and fun one to create , found this pattern here , it says it will take you an hour well not quite , I must not be as speedy as the designer  ;-)  It requires very little fabric and I love the design , I added a pocket although it didn't have one in the pattern , I always like to have a pocket . Same shy model ;-0  That's it for today , I had a great day quilting and tomorrow is our last sewing day for the year , well for the summer months and also our last guild quilt meeting , things are winding down but the weather is not showing much in the way of summer .  Take care and thanks for stopping by. hugs Sheila

How was your weekend ?

How was mine you ask ? Well it was great , especially yesterday I got to spend the day with my granddaughters near the little village of Mabou a very picturesque little village in the mountains of Cape Breton .It was a foggy , drizzly day but it didn't make any difference infact it made for some very pretty photos , want to see a few , sure you do . This scene is in Glengary and you can see the low clouds hanging over the mountains , it had stopped raining long enough for me to get out and take this picture , beautiful don't you think ?

This one is on the hill of Glengary overlooking the village of Mabou although it is rather difficult to see much with the fog that was hanging over the area but again beautiful I think.

 Here are my beautiful granddaughters Nila and Elise , we had so much fun together , they make life worthwhile . Elise who is just two  will have a birthday this summer and told us we were invited to her birthday party , I asked her how old she will be and her answer ,"9" , she plans on skipping  a few years ;-) She is a riot , so full of fun and Nila is the sweetest most gentle little girl , very intelligent and can read anything, she is just six .Wish we lived closer , it sure is nice to spend time with them .  So how did you spend your weekend ? I have more to share but will share that tomorrow , until then , hope you are having a super nice day and thanks so much for stopping by , hope you enjoyed your brief tour of Mabou area.

hugs Sheila

Crazy Quilting Friday

Two blocks today because , well because I just felt like doing another one ;-) , perhaps I should have embellished the first one instead of heading into the second one but I was having fun so the embellishments will have to wait ,no time this morning .
It is another wet day here in Nova Scotia , seems spring is having a hard time giving us any sun , and I learned last evening that the severe thunder and lightening storm we experienced early Thursday morning, just after midnight actually, was the same system that caused the devastating tornadoes in Mass. in the US .my heart goes out to these poor people who have lost literally everything in just seconds , it must be a terrifying experience . We experienced some power outages and a few other damages in Nova Scotia but nothing compared to the massive damage in the US .
Thanks for stopping by for a visit and thanks also to Betsy of Quilting Fiesta for being our hostess for Crazy Quilting Friday , won't you join us .
hugs Sheila

A few more pictures

I hope you don't mind me sharing a few more pictures from the quilt show , I think by now you can see I was really pleased with our show ;-0
 I think you will recognize this quilt as I use it for my profile picture , it was a mystery quilt on Planet Patchwork a few years ago and my first mystery quilt , I have to say when I finished it I really was not fond of it at all so I added the baskets of flowers that I kind of flowed up to the center and I was much happier once that was added but having it hand quilted really made it pop , I am quite pleased with the overall look of it now .

In this next photo are some Bursting Buds runners that was done as a workshop with Anne and it is interesting to see the various fabrics used and how it changes the pattern .

Here you have some fractured landscapes that are the result of a workshop at a retreat in the fall with Deb Plestid, note that the picture that we used for our inspiration is hung below the landscape. Hanging next to that are some fabulous bags that were also made at a workshop taught by Wilma , I gave my bag to my Mom for mothers day so it is not here .

We had a Christmas section and this quilt by Wilma was my overall favorite in the show , just incredible , again I have the pattern and great intentions but that is as far as I got so far :-( Some day  list !

I just have to share this handcrank sewing machine , it is so nice and in such perfect condition ,I wanted to take it home but alas the owner Margaret came along ;-)

Another section with smaller items , lots of really sweet little wall hangings and a few more bags .Have I worn you out yet ? Ok just one more to go .

A mixture of projects here , always nice to look at , well I think I have show you most of what I have so  I hope you have enjoyed the Thistle Quilt show , not quite the same as being there but close  . Thanks for joing me on this little virtual tour , have yourself a great day .
 hugs Sheila