Works in progress

I am afraid I do not have a lot to show today , I have been busy with other things plus I desperately needed a new blade for my rotary cutter , it was starting to bother my shoulder with the extra pressure I had to give to get the fabric cut . However a little progress was made and every bit counts.
 

This is the little Bunny Hill BOM and I know most people are making these into ornaments but I think they make sweet little mini quilts so that is my plan . This is Februarys block , I still need to do the embroidery and quilt it , the applique is complete . 

 Next I have been trying to get my Charming Stars quilt finished and this is where the difficulty came with the cutting . That cotton I am using for the sashing is tough to cut.

I have all of the blocks made and some are on my sewing machine right now getting prepared to stitch . After I purchased a new blade I began the process of cutting all of the sashings with much less problems . If you look closely the top row is sewn .I think I am going to try doing the quilt as you go method here , I will sew all the strips together then cut my backing fabric and batting and see how I can get along . I will be happy to get this project done ;-) 

On the weekend , Saturday was a lovely sunny day so I said to DH ,lets go to the beach , strange request with so much snow around huh , well I just wanted to see what it looked like after all the storms .

Here is the road to the beach , as you can see the banks of snow are very high so there was no climbing over them to see the beach , however I can not give up that quickly so we drove down a side road and I took this picture from the car , brave huh .

This poor walkway has had some damage from the storms and as you can see the beach is snow covered and the ice is in the harbour , if you look way out you can see some open water . 

Here is a little brook from another day , I love the look of brooks in winter .

Did that cool you off , thought so , I am sure it would be very refreshing to dip your toe in there .

 Well I spent the morning cleaning the house so I can now go play on those blocks . Thanks for stopping by today , have a good one .

 Hugs Sheila 

Two Flimsies

You know storms do have some positive outcomes , I manage to get some sewing done and have now completed two of my BOM projects into flimsies :-)
 First off is the Aurifil BOM for 2014 , I have had this done for a week or more but just forgot to share .

Not the best lighting but guess what it is snowing outside , I say let it snow :-)
 Next up is my guild BOM , several members of the Thistle Quilt guild are taking part in this BOM which is being directed by our talented Program director Anne and all blocks were from the public domain from such sites as the Quilters Cache and McCalls Quilting . It was up to ourselves how many blocks we make and we could change them up for other blocks if we wished , as Anne said it is our quilt so we could complete it however we wished as long as we have some quilts for display at our upcoming show in May .  So here is my completed flimsy for that BOM , oh I had chosen to do this in Christmas fabrics although they are not the traditional Christmas fabrics I am accustomed to using . I did add blocks as well as substitute blocks from the list that Anne provided but overall this quilt contains most of the blocks that were suggested .

I challenged myself with this one , first using these nontraditional colours and secondly taking graph paper and sketching out a plan as to how I wanted this to look . I chose to make one large block for the center and add a large area to add some applique , I love applique but the challenge was in finding a block that would work and figuring out how large those sashing pieces needed to be to make it all fit , WHEW , I did it and yeah it all fit perfectly . I really quite like this mess of colours , bright and cheerful and a wonderful learning experience , thanks so much Anne for that challenge .
 Talking about the guild , last evening was our general meeting for February and thankfully we did not have to cancel due to the weather but the turn out was a little less than normal due to roads and slippery ice conditions . I was pleasantly surprised when a friend gifted me with some wool she had received on a bus tour but felt she would never use and felt I just might find a use for it , wow I was thrilled , thanks ever so much Kate , I will definitely use it .

Maybe they will be used in the Buttermilk Basin BOM I am taking part in , that sure is a fun one or the OOM from the facebook group . Why not hop on over and check it out , believe me they are quick and easy to do .
 Thanks for taking the time to stop by today and hope your day is filled with creativity .
 Hugs Sheila

A little wool work

Wow a whole week has flown by since I posted , I have been busy for sure . Today I am going to share some wool work I have been doing , nothing much just little projects that are wonderful to pick up in the evenings .

First off is this OOM (ornament of the month) from a FB wool applique group , these are so fun and quick to make .  Also on the same FB group there is offered a mystery BOM by Buttermilk Basin or you can also obtain it on her blog , another fun and quick project , you have to love those . This is wool appliqued on cotton .

Also on the wool front I have been plugging away on my socks until that fateful moment when I was to start turning the heel . I might have gotten through it ok except I needed full concentration and the phone rang and after chatting for over an hour  I forgot where I was when I tried picking it up again so will need a very fresh brain to tackle this again and see if I can figure out just where I am  :-(
 On other news I have made great progress on my guild quilt , have just the borders to attach now but I want to wait until that is complete before I share again . I am much happier with it now than  I was last week , amazing how sashings can pull things together .
  Here in Nova Scotia we are digging out from a weather bomb , lots of snow , freezing rain , rain , flash freeze then more snow and lots of high winds to blow everything around . It was quite the event and I am so glad it is behind us . We were very fortunate to not loose power in all this mess but other parts of the province are still without power, it is very hard for the crews to get to them .  Winter may have been late starting but Mother Nature is sure making up for lost time . More snow to come later this week but not a huge event thankfully .  It does make for great weather to stay inside and stitch .
 Thanks for stopping by today , hope all is well in your world .
 hugs Sheila

FNWF Report

Oh I know it is Monday in this part of the world and I am late , late for my report on stitching with my friends for Friday Night with Friends hosted by lovely Cheryll , thanks Cheryll . Do I have an excuse , well not a great one, I just have been having some joint issues with all this nasty weather we have been dealing with so being on the computer is not something I wanted to do . However I did stitch , on Friday evening for a while I did some more knitting on my sock , I am so enjoying this now that I have passed the ribbing , oh don't look too closely at my ribbing unless you want your laugh for today .

As you can see I have a ways to go before I will actually be wearing this , maybe my the next century at the rate  I am going but I am having fun :-) Do you see I am using five needles, yes this pattern asked me to change to the fifth needle , yikes I was having enough trouble dealing with four but I did what I was told , rare for me , and so far so good .
 I have also been trying to catch up on my guild BOM , I had a few more blocks to make and made those and then decided on my design layout which meant making even more blocks , I love to make extra work for myself you see ;-) I am now in the process of making a 16" block for the center and these blocks will surround that in some fashion , certainly not as you see them here . After I get this large block made I will need to make three more 12" blocks to complete my design . I must say I am excited to see how this will work out . All of the blocks used are in the public domain , most from the Quilters Cache and a few from McCalls Quilt site .

 I have to be honest here , these colours are just not doing it for me and I am hoping when I get the sashings in it will pull things together and make it work . My newest blocks are the second row down . I do enjoy taking part in our guild BOM and seeing all the different variations of the same quilt . Mine will be very different as I am adding so many extra blocks . 

Want to see the snow we got in our huge storm the other day , it might cool you off a tad .

This is my patio door and the snow had compacted some by the time I took this picture .

I took this picture from the bridge in Eureka , it sure did look cold ,probably because it was -25 C. 

They had predicted a storm for tomorrow but thankfully it is going to by pass us this time , whew I wasn't quite ready for more snow , we are still cleaning up from this last blast , well not me but Bill, he is the one with the shovel and snow blower . I haven't seen the poor little robin for a couple of days now , sure hope it has just moved on and not succumbed to the cold .

 Thanks for stopping by today , I really appreciate your visits .

 hugs Sheila 

Some mail , some progress and a little visitor

Hi there , hope your Thursday is going well . Here in Nova Scotia the weather is again a factor , this time we are having some rain which is creating ice and tonight it will get colder and change to snow , lovely ,just lovely . On to something more positive like pretty mail , I recently received two Valentine postcards , the first arrived from Judy all the way from Idaho and she even handpainted the background fabric , how fun is that .

It is adorable , thanks so much Judy . The next one arrived from Saskatchewan from Carolyn and this was her first postcard exchange .

This sparkly little creation brightened my day , so cute , thanks so much Carolyn for being my partner in the postcard exchange and I hope you will join us again in the next swap , it was my pleasure to swap with you :-)
 Here is the postcard I sent to Carolyn .

This a PP heart , I know she has received it now so I can post a picture . I also sent one to Susan , no blog who lives in Halifax and although I haven't heard it must have arrived as it was sent a couple of weeks ago . For this one I used a free pattern by Karen Neary , it was meant to be a mugrug but I downsized it to fit a postcard .

I hope all the postcards for the exchange have been mailed and possibly received by now , please be sure to post them on your blog and also on the flicker page provided , thanks so much . https://www.flickr.com/groups/2785330@N22/

Now for my progress , I have sewn my blocks together and then my rows together and this is how my quilt looks now .

It would no longer fit on my design wall so I laid it on our bed which makes it a tad more difficult to get a decent picture and since it is raining taking it outside is out of the question . Since taking this picture I have added a narrow border in a green , not the same green as the spools but it does appear in the blocks , I had no more of the green from the spools left . I will now add a pink border and am praying I have enough . I did a rough calculation and I should be fine so fingers crossed .

 While I was eating my lunch I happened to notice through the patio door that a Robin was eating the apple I had thrown out yesterday . I had seen the robin around and was so surprised as they usually don't appear until spring . I grabbed my camera and zoomed to the maxium my little camera will do and took this picture , I cropped it to cut out the door frame .

I know it is not all that clear , it was raining at the time plus it it through the glass , I didn't want to disturb him by opening the door .
 Thanks for stopping by today , I am off now to add that second border , heres hoping I have enough fabric .
 hugs Sheila

Some spring colours on a cold winters day

It is mighty cold outside today as we brace for yet another storm , more snow with this system , yikes . Anyway it is a great day to spend in my sewing space and work on these blocks .

These blocks are not lined up properly just on my design wall to see if I like what I have chosen to do . You see that center block with the embroidery , I messed up , the quote should have been done on point rather than the way I have done it but it is my fault for not reading all the way through the instructions , I am so .... bad for doing that and rather than redo the block I am going to sew them together in this fashion rather than on point which is fine by me as it will be less work in the end ;-)  Those corner stones are not in the proper place either , just wanted to see how that fabric was going to work , my supplies in the reproduction prints is getting very depleted which was my intent when I started these blocks but I didn't think this through to the end so I am now struggling to get things to work . There are six more blocks to add and these blocks may not stay where they are presently it just happens to be the ones I have finished  adding the sashings to make them into spools , the other blocks are all made just waiting for this little addition . This was the Aurifil BOM for 2014 which I enjoyed taking part in .  I have to say I do love these little prints , just so cute and fresh looking . I really love the spool block in the center , that is adorable and would make a sweet cushion on its own .
 Hey guess what, I have finally started to try knitting socks , yep , it may take me a while to actually wear them but at least I have made a start . How is it going you ask , well it seems I can't count or get lost in other thoughts so my ribbing is my very own pattern as it doesn't look anything like normal ribbing but it is done and I will continue on and maybe sock #2 I will pay more attention lol!
 That's it for me today , hope you have a wonderful day , stay safe and warm if you are in the path of this storm . Thanks for stopping by and hope to see you again real soon .
 hugs Sheila