Progress being made at the church and a finish

Every Tuesday I spend with my friends hand quilting at the church , I look forward to this every week , so relaxing and we enjoy a meal together and lots of laughs too . Yesterday I decided I would grab my camera and share what we are working on .

Here is Joan and Julia working away on my spool quilt , can you see how close to being finished we are , this makes me very happy :-) I love how the spools are just popping out now that they are quilted , I do love this quilt . On the second quilt , we always have two on the go , is Carol, Becky and Verna , this quilt belongs to Marlene and she also wants this finished for the quilt show , I think we can make it .

We have a long list of people waiting to have their quilts done , it isn't a quick process since we only meet once a week .
I have finished my landscape , did a little colouring in the sky with my trusty coloured pencils , overall I am pleased with how it has turned out .

I actually have another small finish but I can only give you a sneak peak , this is to be kept secret until our May meeting ,I think I told you about this project , we have to make something that represents our birthday .

That is not much of a hint is it ,oh well you will have to use your imagination until I can reveal the entire project .
 I have my April BOM finished up for Buttermilk Basin , such a sweet pattern this month , I just love it .

This would be cute on the front of a tote to carry to classes , thanks so much to Stacy for providing these patterns , if you are interested hop on over to her blog and check it out or visit her on FB .
 It is cold and dreary here today , I can be thankful it isn't snowing though and surely the warmer weather is coming soon . My heart goes out to those affected in Nepal , I really shouldn't complain about the weather at all , they have much more serious things to complain about .
 Enjoy your day and thanks for stopping by , it is always a pleasure to see you .
 hugs Sheila

A finish and a half :-)

 Good morning , did you think I fell off the edge of the earth , lol , I just have been very busy lately and no time for blogging but I have missed you all . I am really working hard to finish up a few things for our quilt show coming up the end of May. Did I finish anything you say ? Well I guess my post title has  given you a clue . I had my BOM that I had made for our quilt guild machine quilted by Lynda Campbell of Fiddle Stitches in Mabou and I had gotten that back a couple of weeks ago but it sat there waiting for me to get the time to bind it but that has now happened and here is my quilt all quilted , binded and even has a label , miracles do happen ;-)

 I am quite happy with how it has turned out , not my colors but somehow it has grown on me . Lynda did a great job of the quilting .So this is ticked off my list of quilts I need to finish before May 30th . I am on my last row of my sampler quilt I am hand quilting , we have made good progress at the church on the spool quilt and I am slowly but surely managing to machine quilt the Charming Stars quilt .I am not sure if I will finish all of these but I will give it my best shot without putting too much pressure on myself . 

 Hey guess what I have a half a finish too , what in the world is a half a finish you say , well if you remember quite sometime ago I started knitting a sock , well I finished one sock so that makes for half a finish , I figure it won't be a finish until I have two socks . By the way I had to restart the sock from the beginning with the help of my friend Carol and her guidance and assistance to do that heel , couldn't have done it without her , Want to see it ?

Believe it or not this fits perfectly , looking at this picture it looks like I am a member of the BIG FOOT family lol , just the angle of the picture I am sure , I am quite a tiny person . I love it even with all its imperfections I am so happy to have achieved this milestone , it only took me about 40 years lol!! I have now started sock #2 and have a few inches on the cuff done but that will likely take a back burner or at least get less done for a while until May is over and the show is finished up . 

On Saturday I attended a workshop at our guild and our instructor was Karen Henry a renowned quilt artist here in Nova Scotia , it was so much fun to do a class with her . There were 21 members who took part and each of us purchased a kit from Karen from a choice of three of her patterns , I chose the MacDonald House , a beach scene which I loved at first sight . Karens method of landscape is different than mine and in some ways I prefer how I do things but perhaps that is due to familarity not so much that mine is better . I learned lots and most importantly I had lots of fun .  My scene is far from finished and I am almost hestitating to show you how it presently looks but myself I like to see a work in progress so here goes . I would like to say the fabrics were chosen for me not my choices .

Do you know what is really neat , there were several others who chose this pattern and kit but no two are alike , each person did something a little different especially with the grasses and also the colours of the sky and water were all different . I would say about 3/4 of the group did this picture and some of the others did what is known as the Purple House , Ellen who shared my table did that scene and I was sort of glad I had not chosen that one , lots more detail to take care of but it will be beautiful when finished . I had bought one of Karen's kits a year ago at a quilt show where she was a vendor and I never had the courage to tackle it , now I think I can take a stab at it and I will get at that sometime soon . 

 I had some lovely mail arrive last week , a package from the UK from Pauline  , what a wonderful surprise , it sure did brighten my day . It was so thoughtful of you Pauline .

In the package were these  two magazines from England , Stitch the magazine on top has a great article on Monika of My Sweet Prairie , I was so pleased to see that , These magazines are not available in this area that I know of so I really appreciated Pauline sending them on to me . They both have some great projects and interesting reading . Do you see the sweet card she sent as well , it is a picture of a wool felted project she created , just amazing , Pauline is so talented !! Thanks again Pauline :-)

As you all know by now I love the country side and love old farms , well yesterday Bill and I were out for a little country drive and I spotted this old barn with some sheep , strange looking sheep and little baby lambs running around so on our way home I encourgage Bill to stop so I could get a picture , unfortunately some of the babies had gone into the barn , there were brown and white lambs as well as black and white . I would love to know the breed , so cool with their extra long hair and two colours , wouldn't it make for interesting wool , hmm I can see some very nice socks lol .

Did you notice something in this picture , the snow is gone , yep , gone except in wooded areas , it doesn't get the sunlight so takes longer to disappear . Now to tell you that it is snowing right now and the ground is covered with the white stuff but I am sure this will melt quickly , if only it would warm up . Thanks for taking the time to read my ramblings , I guess I am making up for lost time . 

 Enjoy your day and hope to be back to you real soon .

 Hugs Sheila 

Looked what came hopping into my mailbox today

I love surprises , don't you . Well the mail just arrived and inside was this adorable little bunny from Selina .

Isn't she sweet with her pink egg , thanks so much Selina , I love it !!

  Our grandsons girlfriend spent some time in Bali so I asked her to pick up some batiks for me , she came for a visit on Friday with a bag filled with the most gorgeous batiks I have ever seen .

The one at the back is actually a dress she had bought which had gotten torn in an area that it would be impossible to repair so she gave that to me as well . Thanks so much Chelsey I am sure I can make something very pretty with these !! Chelsey even took a class to make batiks , now that sounds like fun but she said it was a lot harder than it looked .

 On the weekend I finally was able to get down to visit with my Mom , with the dreadful weather we have had these past few months plus some joint issues it was impossible for me to drive that far and not exactly safe either . I travelled with my brother and his wife which was nice as we had a chance to catch up . I was able to deliver my little landscapes that I had made for my brother , my sisters and my Mom . If you remember I made them with my Dad's ties , they loved them which makes me extra happy ! If you hadn't seen them previously you can check them out here . My Mom gave me five more ties so lets see what I can create with those , since I didn't get a landscape for myself I may just make one ;-) 

 Not a lot of sewing going on at the moment but I did finish this little wool ornament , a free pattern on a  wool applique FB group , they are fun and quick to make and my collection is sure growing now .

That bright green was once a boiled wool jacket , I picked it up at a thrift store for this purpose , it is wonderful to work with .

That is it from me today , hope everyone is enjoying there day and thanks so much for stopping by .

 Hugs Sheila

Some mail to share

The sun is shining oh JOY and hopefully the snow is melting .It actually looks like spring today if you don't look at the snow that is still piled high in our yard .
Anyway onto more pleasant thoughts like wonderful postcards that arrived in the mail . In my little exchange I had two partners , I didn't have any at first when I was assigning names but once the request went out I had several offers and I chose the first one who was Janet and the second one was Jo as she is new to postcards and I wanted to have a newbie to swap with . I have shown you Jo's postcard here but today I will share Janets card which just arrived yesterday .

Isn't it lovely , some beautiful swans , Janet was saying she wasn't pleased with her results but I think it looks fabulous . Thanks so much Janet .
 Then today I opened the mail and there was a surprise postcard from Linda at Scrapmaster , I love surprises and I haven't even emailed her to thank her yet but Thanks so much Linda I love it .

Since my postcards have now arrived to my partners I will share those with you too .

This one was sent to Jo , a purple bunny , aren't they all purple, this friendly little gal has a purple posey and some painted eggs to share  lol .

This Easter basket went to Janet , I guess I had a thing for purple that day . I had fun finding fabrics for the eggs .
 Thanks to everyone who took part in the exchange , I hope you have enjoyed it and have received your cards by now or will very soon . Remember to post them on the Flicker page which I have now placed a link on my sidebar , check it out , lots of lovely postcards on display . For those who have never been in an exchange it is so much fun and so easy to do so why not join us the next time we swap .
 Thanks for stopping by today and incase I don't get back here for a while I wish to take this opportunity to wish each of you a very Happy Easter .
 Hugs Sheila