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Back from Vacation

We are back and slowly settling into regular routines. It was a great trip, weather not too bad, lovely visits with family, and a ton of fabric that begged to come home with me. (really, it was shouting "buy me, buy me")

First the graduation: 

  A wonderful evening.  We were so proud, she was so happy, just bursting with joy. The only downer was our lack of a good camera, somehow it had gotten left behind.













Tried something different this trip. Usually I take hand piecing or I’m finishing a binding. This time I took along my hand quilting project and quilted in the van.









Everywhere we stopped, I shopped for fabric and sort of got carried away a little.

  But they all are earmarked for certain projects, purples for the Collaboration Celebration in August, ditto for the orange, the black and white for the shades of black quilt, and so on.  The biggest purchase was at a place in Maine called Mardens.  I also got batting there that is not shown in the picture.


First thing I had to start on was the Shades of Black quilt.

Going together well. Next up is the applique flowers. Maybe I'll leave that for tomorrow.

On vacation

We're on vacation in N.S. Brought a hand quilting project to work on. Just stiching and soaking up the sun.

another graduation, another road trip

Our oldest daughter is graduating again. This time from a para-legal course to complement her BA.  So once again we are driving down east.  Thus this week has been a flurry of getting stuff ready to go. Some dear friends have had another grand child this spring, so a Baby Sister’s Choice for the new baby sister.

  I’m happier with this one than I was with the first.  The neutrals are more neutral.  It makes a nice finished size for a baby quilt.
And I’ve been working on some place mats to take as a gift for our Boston cousin.  They are from a new pattern I got as a freebie during the local Shop Hop two weeks ago.  I thought this big print of vegetables and flowers was ideal for them.
 
The one thing worrying me is my garden. The lettuce is coming along strong and needs to be harvested almost daily now. I might have to recruit my MIL as a lettuce picker.  The tall plants behind the lettuce are my tomatoes, lots of green growth, no blossoms yet.



Linking up with Kathy for Slow Stitching Sunday, as I hand sew the bindings on these items. Off I go to sew, to sew.

Sunday Sum Up

 

A brief summary of the week’s activity :

While working on the TAW I unearthed a multitude of solid fabrics, and chose a few to use. Having found so many I thought I should do a project in solids. Then in the 100 Blocks magazine I found the ideal  block to use.

Here’s the progress so far with four blocks finished. I think I’ll do 12 in a 3 X 4 setting.

On the garden side, the roses are blooming

( much prettier than pictures of tomato plants)

And an ongoing project is racing to a finish soon. It is my attempt at a Quilt As You Go crayon box, don’t know if I’ve mentioned it. I’ve always wanted to do QAYG since reading Georgia Bonestell , and found a good tute on Youtube that helped with some issues I had.

The blocks joined by narrow white sashing.

 

The back. Each block has a different  print with a stripe fabric sashing them

A Rewarding Day

 

A very rewarding day around here yesterday.  It was staff appreciation day at  my dear hubby’s place of work. You might be thinking, lunch at a restaurant, or ordering in pizza, however when your employer is the government of the province it gets biggie sized. Like convention centre, banquet, trip into the big city. Leading up to this momentous event he had asked me to do a quilt to be auctioned at the luncheon  for the workplace charity he supports. A baby quilt didn’t seem right, too limited in appeal, so I decided to make the Trip Around the World from Bonnie’s free patterns. It’s big, and fast. But would I be fast enough to have it ready for him to take on the day?  Just made it, finished and washed at 11pm Monday.

He reported that they sold raffle tickets for it and the  preliminary tally showed it brought in $200 . Pretty rewarding efforts.

But the main reason my DH was trekking off to this event was to receive a reward himself. A little thing called a 25 year commendation. Here’s the loot he received, a book of photos, a tie tack and a silver loon that he picked out from a list of items. There is also a certificate in a frame but I didn’t get a pic of that. Way to hang in there dear. You made it through all the layoffs, cutbacks and contracting out that took place over the  years.

 

And not to be left out, I rewarded myself by redeeming my mothers day gift card for these goodies:

New thread

Trying Aurifil for the first time today. Wow it is so nice to work with. I knew I didn't want a stark white against the black fabric used for the backing so picked a nice soft grey.