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