OPAM and UFO report

It is that time of the month again , time to report the number of finishes for OPAM , I am happy to report that I had twelve finishes for this month . Here is a little collage I made to show those projects. Ok I am having issues with this dang computer , it will not allow me to load photos at the moment so I will just tell you my finishes . I have made five postcards, a Daisy a day Tote , 2 aprons, Simple Country Sampler finished and my three UFO'S - Shabby Fabrics Bom finished , Pam Buda Mini quilt  finished and Nine patch finished. That means I completed all three of my UFO projects for the month of June ,yeah , I will add the photos once I get this mess cleared up . Thanks for stopping by and enjoy your day .  I am linking up today to Carrie of A passion for Applique .

On a wet and somewhat wild day

The rain is pelting down and the wind is blowing so what is a girl to do but sew . I finished off the two Nova Scotian Tartan aprons this morning , whew , sounds like an easy task and it would have been except for one small factor. The yellow fabric that I purchased which is 100% cotton is the toughest fabric I have ever sewn and  in areas where there was more than one layer of yellow it was pure murder , my machine was not happy . I tried various sizes of needles and types of needles , even went to a jeans needle but no they all didn't care for this fabric so it is somewhat of a miracle they are done .

 I will just share one as they are identical , I sure hope they wash up ok and become softer . I used some of my vintage buttons to accent them , I hope the ladies who will eventually receive these aprons will be pleased

You know blogging friends are such great people , they even share great sales with you , like yesterday morning I was reading my emails very early in the am and Lesley told me she and a friend were off to Antigonish to a fabric sale so I of course had to have more details so I phoned her and asked all the necessary questions and my dear Hubby offered to drive me down to Antigonish . I arrived just a few minutes before Lesley and I didn't waste any time picking up a few things that caught my eye .

Not the best photo but you will see an array of goodies ranging from two scrap bags, ( you know I don't have enough of my own ) some variegated threads as well as solid colors , two lapel sticks , some paint stiks and rubbing plates (this is a whole new adventure for me so stay tuned )and of course fabric ,mostly FQ'S ,all of this was at 75% off , how could I resist right ! I think Lesley and her friend left a few dollars behind as well , it was a fun experience . Thanks Lesley for telling me , I appreciate it  :-) 

It is going to be a wet weekend so I think I will hunker down in my sewing room and see what I can get done . 

 Before I go I want to ask if anyone else is interested in taking part in a postcard exchange , it really is a lot of fun and no pressure at all , it can be as simple as you want or as complicated as you want. Maybe you need some inspiration for what to put on a postcard with a flower theme , well have a look here and be inspired  http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=flower%20fabric%20postcards . Lots of lovely flower postcards , I am sure you will find just the one to get you started  , come on it will be fun I promise.

Have a wonderful creative day and thanks for stopping by .

 hugs Sheila

postcard exchange and some mail

Good morning ,I hope all is well in your world . I have been thinking , sometimes not a good thing but just wondering if there would be interest in doing a postcard exchange , if you would let me know and if we get enough interest maybe we could exchange by the first of August , that would give you plenty of time to create your master piece. If you have never done a postcard before then you are missing out on a lot of fun , they are quick and easy to make and so fun to receive in the mail .  For a theme I thought flowers would be fun and since summer is in these parts flowers are on my mind and for those that are experiencing winter at this time it might be nice to put some bright cheery colors together and create a flower . What do you think ???
 I am in a yahoo exchange at the moment and yesterday I created this postcard, the theme was actually to use handdyed or painted  fabrics so this is what I came up with .
                             
A clematis flower , I downsized an applique pattern I had to fit the space and voila , a pretty flower .

 My mailbox was cheering yesterday as it was bulging with a package all the way from Haiku Hawaii , how great is that , wonder if I can fit in that package and ask to be returned to sender  ;-)

I won these gorgeous Mirror Ball Dot fabric by Michael Miller  in a blog hop . They were sent off to me by Mark Hordyszynski "The Mad Hatter of Maui" although I won them from Nanette , thanks so much to both of you for these wonderful colorful fabrics . What do you think I should make ? Oh the little folder is actually filled with all the swatches of this fabric line, so cool !!
 What am I up to day you might wonder , well I have just cut out all the pieces to make two aprons with Nova Scotia Tartan , this was a request by a lady who was given one of my aprons as a gift and she intends on giving these as gifts . I will give you an update as I get them constructed :-)
 I am a little sad today as my granddaughter Alyssa is graduating from school and I would so love to be there to see her cross that stage , all the best Alyssa , we are so proud of you and we  love you !! Here is a picture of her with  her prom date recently , she is a gorgeous young lady .
                                             

                                        Thanks for stopping by and enjoy your day .
                                                                Hugs Sheila

Give me a Daisy a Day

Wednesday has rolled around again , this week just flew by but maybe because I was away for a couple of them  so very little done in the way of sewing , however that said I do have a finish to share . My Daisy a Day Tote is completed and I am really pleased , want to see how it turned out .

It is quite a gray wet day so I took it outside on the step to get some natural light . As you can see I chose to do my daisies in yellow so they look more like brown eyed Susan's . This pattern was designed by my friend Annette of In Stitches and Seams , Annette's pattern is well written and easy to follow and I really enjoyed sewing this tote , thanks so much Annette !!

 A little closer view of the applique and if you look closely you will see that I quilted some of the lines in the fabric , a good way to practice FM which for me can be challenging  :-)
Since we are talking about Daisies just look at this amazing field ...

The entire field was covered with the pretty white flowers with their bright yellow centers , just gorgeous . Want a closer look , sure you do , everybody loves daisies .

I loved that they were mixed in with other wild flowers , they truly are one of my favorite flowers but these flowers were a joy to see as well .

Wild roses beside some very tall bullrushes , the smell was intoxicating  .

I spotted this Lady Slipper flower when I hopped out to try to capture a photo of a little rabbit , the rabbit escaped my camera but I was thankful to the rabbit for showing me this lovely flower , something I have not seen since I was a young girl in the woods near my home . There were just two that I could see and I certainly did not disturb either one , I know they have become very rare in this province from people pulling them out of the ground .

The pattern  in this field reminded me of a quilt pattern , the sun was shining just right to show the rows , love it !

Did I ever tell you how much I love the look of old barns , well I  do , there is something special about barns and all the history they represent and this is one of my favorites in these parts , it is so welcoming to come to this bend in the road and see that red faded door . 

 I am linking up today to the Needle and Threadnetwork for WIP Wednesday , be sure to stop by and see what others have been up to this week and have a wonderful day . Thanks for stopping by  and coming along for a little country drive with me.

hugs Sheila

WIP Wednesday

Good rainy morning to you all , at least it is raining here again but I planted my tomatoes last night and am happy they are getting a drink of the good stuff . Oh I know I am late getting these into the ground but there is only so much time :-)
 So for WIP this week I have started working on  a new project since I finished off my three UFO'S for this month ,  yes it is a fun tote bag which was designed by the very talented Annette and she kindly asked me to test out her pattern for her . The pattern is called Daisy a Day , so pretty and I love daisies but I decided to make mine a little different and they will be more like brown eyed Susan's , also a favorite of mine. Here is what I have done so far.

I have all of the leaves appliqued and have started on the flowers , I love it so far. Thanks Annette for providing me with some fun sewing .
I am also working away slowly on the sampler quilt on my frame , that will take me a long time but slow and steady wins the race right ;-)
My mailbox is real happy this week , I have received two packages from wins from blogs , the first was some pretty fabrics from Joanna of Needle Thread Happiness Blog , for participating in the Christmas SAL , it was a real surprise to learn I had won as I didn't realize I was even in a draw for these lovely fabrics .

It is too bad the challenge with the SAL states no red or green as these yummy fabrics would be perfect .Thanks so much Joanna and I am looking forward to the next months SAL.

Yesterday I received this package in the mail , are you familiar with the Greenbag lady ? Well this lady is amazing , each bag is numbered and she has given away at least 24,642 bags as that is the number on my bag , isn't that amazing . Her goal is to encourage each of us to use cloth bags for shopping and so much more rather than reach for plastic , wonderful idea. I use cloth bags when I grocery shop much to the dismay  of some of the cashiers but I persist anyway  .

Isn't this a fun bag , colorful with those bright dots , the back is yellow like the side panel, all fabrics are donated and she makes use of everything  . 

Here you can see inside the bag where she places the number of the bag sent , I am blown away at her dedication to this project , lets see what we can all do to use cotton over plastic , bags are a lot of fun to make and don't have to be elaborate to work so lets get sewing !! Go here to read more about this project .

 I am linking up today to the Needle and Thread Network for WIP Wednesday , why not take a few moments to see what others have done this week , you will be inspired I am sure .

 Thanks so much for stopping by , have a wonderful day being creative in whatever way makes you happy.

 hugs Sheila

Thistle Quilt Guild Show

Hello out there in blogland , are you ready to pull up a seat and enjoy just a small sampling of the Thistle Quilt Show that took place on Saturday ? I promise to keep this short and sweet and hopefully I won't disappoint.
 First off the highlight of the day for me was meeting up with fellow bloggers Lesley , Linda and Karen and also Linda's daughter joined us as we viewed the quilts . It was so wonderful to meet up again with Lesley and Linda and to have the opportunity to meet Karen for the first time , we had such a great time together.

Here we are all posed for the camera which was kindly operated by Linda's daughter . From the left is Lesley, Karen , Linda and me :-)

 I have to share the great tote bag Linda made for the occasion and she managed to fill it too , she purchased a few things from the vendors and then lucky Linda won a door prize , congrats Linda ! Linda had a few people ask about her tote and even had her photo taken a few times  , it was a real big hit :-)

This little display are quilts that resulted from  the nine patch exchange that I also took part in with the girls I quilt with on Tuesdays along with two others , such fun and just look at the great quilts we produced!!

Here are Lesley and Karen admiring some of the  quilts .

Two pretty quilts, the one on the left was made by my friend Diane , can't remember who made the one on the right but it could also have been Diane , both beautiful!

Along the stage we had a wonderful array of sampler quilts , so many colors and varieties of blocks , loved this display .

Part of our Christmas display , this one is for you Annette, do you see the little table toppers you designed ?

I love this quilt , a simple but very effective pattern !

A gorgeous Christmas quilt made by Joyce , loved the machine quilting on this one too  .

Still in the Christmas section , I think the little Santa wall hanging is adorable but that machine probably has my drool all over it , wow it was incredible , the stencils were in perfect condition  and a hand crank no less , I am impressed !!

Finally here is the view from the stage , just one direction , should have taken one from the other direction too but you get the idea just how much was on display. Our guild has around 72 members but not all members contributed to the show , we have to work on that , we want to see something from everyone next year :-)
Thanks for coming along , I hope you enjoyed the  show , there was so much more but I  , well I have to be honest here , I was too busy talking and visiting with my blogging friends that I didn't take all that many photos . To see a few more photos you could hop on over to visit with Linda , she has posted quite a few .
Enjoy your day and thanks again to my blogging friends for taking the time to travel to see our show , it was very much appreciated !!
hugs Sheila

Country side photos in spring

Last evening the sun came out for a brief time so my hubby and I headed out for a country drive . I love driving through the back roads of this county , it is good for the soul and balances me .

Isn't this tree magnificent , I have no idea what variety it is but I sure do love it .

The roadsides are presently dotted with the colorful lupins , gorgeous flowers .

A little closer view  , love the variety in this batch , sometimes they are all purples.

Just look how green the vegetation is along the river , we have had lots of rain so the water levels are quite high .

A field of wildflowers , so very pretty and smelled lovely too .

Another view of these flowers .

I love the color of the water here and the little water falls is rather nice and not sure you can see them in this photo but there were two fishermen hoping to catch some trout .

A true sign of spring , shaky legged  foals , so cute , the other foal just laid  there and had no desire to have its picture taken and neither did the Mom's  .

The view from up here was incredible, not that visible in this photo but it is a panoramic view of the countryside ,the hills and valleys , I  just liked this bend in the road with the little barn with the rusty roof . Ah yes it was indeed a pleasant drive through the back roads of Pictou County ,thanks Bill.
I am off now to prepare for the quilt show tomorrow , be sure to stop by in a few days as I will post some photos of the show. I am off to CB on Sunday , there will be a plaque placed in the church in memory of my sweet Dad on Fathers Day so I won't be posting photos until after that event . Thanks for the visit and be sure to enjoy your day , look for a ray of sunshine even in the dark clouds .
 hugs Sheila
 A little edit here as I was reading Blossom Heart Quilts this morning and I realized I needed to claim my blog , yep, I had already switched over my reader to bloglovin and put the little icon on my sidebar but I did not realize I also had to claim my blog so here goes .
Follow my blog with Bloglovin
 I hope you will continue to follow with bloglovin , I sure would be sad to loose my followers . Thanks.

Time to celebrate

I am doing the happy dance right now , yeah , I finished number three UFO my "Patchwork Pockets " mini designed by Pam Buda is now completed , even have the label on which for me is a miracle .

I am so pleased , it is a sweet little quilt and was worth all that hand stitching in the end . Here it is in my the my little cradle .

Saturday if you are not busy and would like to see some lovely quilts you really should pop by  the Thistle Quilt Guild show and Tea , you won't be disappointed  . Here is our poster .

The quilt in the center is our raffle quilt for this year and this photo does not do it justice at all , it is simply gorgeous and who ever is the winner is very lucky .]

I really hope to see some of you there and it will be worth the drive I am pretty sure .Thanks for stopping by today and enjoy this lovely June day wherever you are , remember it is always a choice to have a good day or a bad day , be sure to choose good you will be much happier . 

 I apologize but I have had to turn on word verification , I have had a lot of spam lately .Hugs Sheila 

Christmas QAL

No it is not December but it is time to think about Christmas and when I read Sharon's post about the QAL that was taking place I was all ears, I love Christmas and this sounded like a real fun challenge, by the way if you haven't visited Sharon's blog you are missing out on a lot, this lady is an inspiration with how much she can accomplish ! Hmm , the challenge is to do a project that uses no green or red but yet it is Christmas, quite a challenge I thought but hey I love a challenge . My plan is to make a runner or perhaps a wall hanging , time will tell but I did get busy yesterday and made my first block but before I get to that if you are interested you will see the new icon on my sidebar right at the top ,just click on that and it will take you to Joanna where you can read all the rules and get started .

This block is called Star of Hope and I found this cute star in Around the Block by Judy Hopkins . It is an 8" block and my plan so far is to make other star blocks to complete my project , should be fun . I am linking up today to Joanna for Christmas QAL  .
Thanks for stopping by and won't you join us in this fun challenge ,come on I know you want to ,lets see what you can come up with .
hugs Sheila

FNWF

 I joined up with some of my Australian friends for Friday night with Friends hosted by Cheryll , I was pretty sure I would be stitching anyway and the good thing is I can stitch on Thursday which is Friday for them and again on Friday . So what did I do you are asking , my quilts are finished right , but my mini quilt is not so I worked on that and let me tell you it is slow going . I chose a much thicker batting than I should have and I am stitching pretty much every seam line and there are lots of seams which also pose a problem as there is lots of stab stitching . The consistency of my stitches leaves a lot to be desired but I am not too concerned .

It is a darling little quilt so I will plug on and eventually it will get done .
My quilt frame was empty so I had thought about putting it away for the summer months but changed my mind as I enjoy sitting for a few minutes now and then and quilting so I had to see what I could put on so that was my next Friday night project. This quilt is likely my oldest UFO , yep , at least in the quilting category , I likely have some garment started somewhere that never got finished but once quilting came into my life garment making sort of went out the window . Ok back to this very old UFO , this quilt was the result of a block exchange way back , are you ready , 1999 -2000 , almost an antique for heavens sake . I did put the quilt top together about 4 + years ago but it never got finished and there is a story behind that but I won't get into that right now , lets just say it was missing for those four years . In 1999 I first started using a computer , and I joined an online group of quilters" the Friendship Quilters" which was part of a larger online group called Sewing World , anyone remember that site, too bad it is gone as it was wonderful. This group set up an exchange that was for 18 months  and we would change the block each month and exchange with a different person each time. This all went very well in the beginning but people have busy lives and things happen that some blocks never did arrive so I added blocks that I made mostly as practice blocks to fill in and make this quilt work . Carrie if you are reading this there are at least two but I think three blocks you made that are in this quilt, you were always great to send when someone did not  . I am excited about getting this hand quilted after all these years , it will take me a while for sure but I think since it has waited this long it can wait a  little longer . If I was smart I would have taken a before photo of the quilt top but didn't think about that until it was already on the frame and it is too much trouble to take it off just for a picture so I will update you as I go along but for now you can see the blocks that are showing at present .

Oh I forgot to add that we each chose a color palette that we wanted our blocks to have so my choice was sage green and pink , I still love that combination so I know I will love this quilt.
 This post is getting long but I also have a few postcards to share with you , I was in an exchange this month and the theme was leaves so I did what any gal would do I went to the woods and picked some ferns and then I stamped them onto the fabric and although not perfect they did turn out pretty good . The green came out well but there are places that didn't pound as well as others . I did not take a picture of the one I sent off , I have to start remembering to do that but I made three since I was having such fun .

 Then this one..

I also was given some very pretty fabric that I thought would make a perfect postcard so I sent off one in an exchange but this is an extra .

I did some thread stitching within the flower and leaves to add dimension , lovely fabric , thanks Linda !!
That's it for me today , it is pouring rain here as a result Andrea a tropical storm that is along the coast , not a nice day but a great one for sewing :-)
 Thanks for the visit and have a great day.
 hugs Sheila

Two down , one to go :-)

Oh happy day I have managed to finish two of my UFO'S the past couple of days , want to see ?

My Cottage quilt which was a free BOM with Shabby Fabrics for 2012 , I loved making this quilt , just delightful .Here it is spread out on the grass for a better view of the entire quilt.

It is very sunny today so the colors are a bit washed out , I did sew a hanging sleeve on the back just incase I decide to hang this quilt.
Next is my nine patch / 6" sampler blocks , the nine patch blocks were from an exchange with friends for several months last year and we had so much fun we decided to do it again this year only changed it to pinwheels .

It was a great exchange and I look forward to the pinwheels to make another colorful quilt.

On the grass with one corner flipped up , I used a paisley fabric that has been in my stash for so many years I forgot I had it , bet you have never done that  ;-) The back is actually pieced , i didn't have quite enough of the paisley so added some extra nine patch blocks to make it work .
 I have been a busy little beaver as I also  added round 5 of the mystery quilt yesterday .

Here it is on my clothes line , that dark spot is just that the quilt was not spread out enough , it is the same color as the rest.

I had to fight with the wind to take this photo and the top row kept folding over so I gave up . I am so loving this mystery which is shared with us by the talented Darlene of Quilts by Darlene , thanks so much Darlene ! Can't wait to see what round 6 will bring .
It is a gorgeous sunny day so I am trying to catch up on laundry so off I go ,thanks for stopping by and enjoy your day doing something fun ,maybe not laundry :-)
hugs Sheila