....and now we wait....

Little Minnie is getting close to having her puppies.

My bet was for today....but I think she could wait another day now. She has started to make herself familiar with the whelping box we've prepared and her appetite is down a bit.

Cooper stays close, seeming to realise finally that something is going on!

If she's waited this long, I now kinda hope she gives me another day so I can finish this quilt in time for it to hang in Quilt Junction's booth at the upcoming quilt show this weekend being held at the Ancaster Fairgrounds.

The fabrics are beautiful. The background fabric is a linen/cotton blend...something different! I also have the opportunity on this quilt to try the new technique I learned in longarm classes with Bethanne Nemesh. 

The technique is named after Bethanne....Nemeshing.

A little scary trying something new, but fun at the same time!

This quilt comes after another custom-quilted quilt. I think I have four of the Haldimand Guild's BOM quilts to do and this is the first one...

Such a pretty quilt!

I'd better get back at it....have a wonderful day!

The good, the bad, and the ugly...

The good....

This past week I worked on such a fun quilt for someone, I think she called it Wonky Chickens?

It was done in wool applique and it was a quilt to make you smile, for sure!

The bad...

I feel crappy today....don't know why but I'd better get over it as I have a full day in store!

The ugly...

My sourdough bread that I mentioned in the last post was a disaster! 

We used some of it on Sunday evening as a makeshift focaccia and made turkey sandwiches.

I am determined to succeed at this, so I've been feeding my starter and will have another go at it later today!

Another task for today is to prepare some hearts for my Year in My Life/Quilty365. I've fallen a bit behind and I need a hand-project ready for tomorrow when I host my applique group. I don't want to work on my neutral quilt with the ladies as I'd like to keep that one under wraps 'til it's complete!

Have a great day!

Happy Easter!

It will be a busy Easter Sunday here today.

For the first time we are hosting an Easter brunch. I'm quite looking forward to it, as it means creating a different sort of meal than usual....thank goodness for Pinterest!

There was not much time to prepare through the week as I had two custom quilts to work on. 

One went fairly quickly and was a lot of fun to work on. It's a baby quilt made by a friend of mine for her first grandchild...due in mid-April. Well, babe had other things on his mind and came early, and thankfully all was well.

The quilt feels very organic and has a lot of movement and energy...love it!

The second quilt was much different and soooo pretty, I love the fabrics! The pattern is MetroScope by Sew Kind of Wonderful...and my friend is calling it Metro Retro!

I tried to remember on this one to take pictures through the quilting process...

The pups have gotten used to their little bed in the studio and are usually keeping me company...

As for my applique....this week I can finally say that the lower border of FlowerGarden is complete! I appliqued the final couple of pieces this morning with my coffee.

Even the teeny circles that I had been dreading that represent the water in the fountain. Not perfect but not bad!

I'd better get in the kitchen and try to get started on my brunch recipes...I'm so looking forward to it, I hope everything works out. There are two recipes I haven't tried before...but my family is familiar with experiments!

Hmmm, now that the FlowerGarden border is complete I think I'll have to spend some time later preparing the next bit of applique. I think it's time I re-visit my Auntie Green's Garden. 

I am tempted to just do a bit of stitching on a couple of Life is Beautiful blocks. 

I'm inspired by Kathy over at Kathy's Quilts. She is working on her Life is Beautiful this week and has even started to assemble a few blocks. Check it out, and you will also be able to see what others are slow stitching on this Easter Sunday. It's funny, even though this weekend may be busy with family get-togethers, we still find a few minutes for our peaceful past-time! 

I'm also linking up with Cynthia over at Quilting is More Fun Than Housework for Oh,Scrap!, since my FlowerGarden is scrappy. 

Have a wonderful day!

Stitching on a Sunday

Well, not much time for slow stitching today. I am such an early riser but there's the odd time that I actually sleep in!

 Not the best day for that as we are heading down to have lunch with some of the family at a wonderful restaurant called Johnny Rocco's. It's one of my favourite restaurants and I especially love it when it's a first it's a first time visit for someone....today that person is my daughter. I hope she likes it!

This morning's applique was just one little heart for my Quilty365/Day in My Life...

This was a heart for yesterday, commemorating working on a lovely scrappy quilt made by a friend of mine for her granddaughter's first big-girl bed. The heart is a wee scrap I stole from the leftover scrappy backing of my friend's quilt. The piggy background used because my friend always seems to incorporate a pig fabric in her quilts...

The quilt turned out great, it is one of the prettiest I've ever seen...

Usually working on my Quilty365 I try to pick fabrics that reflect the day, but it's not always easy. This week, though, it seemed I had a few good ones!

On Tuesday I heard a wonderful speaker from Ottawa, Elaine Quehl. She is a prolific dyer of fabrics, saying she does about 5000 yards of dying per year!

 Here is my heart for that day....using a hand-dyed fabric out of a stash I've been coveting since 2007 and the heart is one done by me in my short experimenting with dying many years ago...

I quite enjoyed dabbling in dye. I don't know why I didn't continue.

And here is my heart for Leap Day. I was hoping to have a bit of frog fabric, but all I could come up with was a couple of little bunnies...

I've been successful in keeping up with The Splendid Sampler so far. I quite like Thursday's block. It went together nicely. I'm not quite sure of my fabric choices, but I did want to define the pieces. I didn't want to lose the design. In the end, I'm sure it will play nicely with the other 99 blocks!!

I'd better get started for my outing....but will share a picture of little Miss Minnie basking in front of the almost-done fireplace. I'm positive she thinks we installed it just for her....if it's running you can be sure she's stretched out in front of it!

I'll be linking up with Kathy's Quilts to see what others are stitching today.

Have a good one!

There comes a time.....

There comes a time when you look around the sewing room and realise that there are some quilts you may never get around to finishing.

It's very freeing to come to a decision on some of them to set them free and call them done!

I've rescued one such quilt in my stash this week. This was a project started at one of my guilds a couple of years ago. One of my friends headed up a "row of the month" that she designed. I had great visions of how this would look in the end but it's been waiting patiently for a long time. 

It's so pretty! I love the jolly look of 30's prints, especially paired up with this beautiful white background. It's only 48" square.....but a perfect size for a little grandson or granddaughter to cozy up with on the couch when visiting Grandma! So this quilt top is officially complete!

It will also be a perfect practice piece for later this Spring after I take some new longarm classes!

It really does feel good to let myself "off the hook" on this one. I'm going to be on the lookout for maybe a couple more to donate to the free table at my guilds. 

Today I'll be quilting on my wedding signature quilt...

I'm excited to work on it since I'll be trying out a new thread line. I've never had great luck using variegated threads on my machine, who knows what I'm doing wrong!! Early on, I invested a small fortune in threads and just can't use them on my client's quilts.

I've recently started to deal with WonderFil threads out of Alberta (love that there's a Canadian company to order from!).  They have recently launched a new variegated line of threads, so I thought that this quilt would be a great opportunity to try it out. Wish me luck! I know so many people would love these types of threads used on their quilts.

Here is the thread I'll be using...

What a pretty sheen it has!

It's a good day to hunker down and play with fabrics today as we are in the start of what has to be the first real cold snap of this winter. Not bad, really, for this far into the season!

Before I go play, I'll just share a picture of a beautiful tablecloth I quilted last week. It was a lot of fun doing some freehand motifs that picked up the floral design in the border...

Have a great day.....and stay warm!

Is it really the end of January?

What a beautiful weekend....makes a person feel that Spring can't be far off! I think what I miss most this time of year is the time spent outside in my backyard and garden. Oh well, we know to make the most of it when we can.

I've been hard at work lately quilting a couple of custom jobs. They've both been a lot fun, being able to use what I have learned in classes the last couple of years. I won't show the sampler yet that will be finished today as I haven't asked permission yet of the quilter...but I can show a few pictures of the one I finished before this one!

As soon as my friend brought me this quilt I had to ask if I could "play" with it! Here are a couple of close-ups...

I've been trying this week to make some head-way on our wedding signature quilt. By happy accident I found the perfect border fabric!

It's quite a lovely coral colour, I'm not sure it shows well in the picture.

The blocks in the 365 Challenge are starting to get a bit more intricate. They are adorable.

Our fireplace project is coming along nicely. We had great luck on Saturday at Lowe's and Habitat for Humanity ReStore for supplies. I love going to Habitat....you never know what you'll find!

As for this morning, I started the day as usual with some applique. This week I got a lot accomplished on my lower border of my Flower Garden.

 Today I tried to get caught up a bit on Quilty365/Day in My Life hearts. I've been doing the prep work almost every day, but it seems lately the applique falls behind a bit. They don't take long to applique, so I want to try to keep up and not let this fall into the dreaded UFO pile(s).

I was just reading Kathy's post over at Kathy's Quilts. She talks about staying on track and not veering off course. Lately, I feel like I'm veering wildly off course!!! There are so many projects calling my name. Somehow I have to learn to say "no"!

Have a visit with Kathy, HERE, to see what others are stitching on today.

Funky trees and samplers!

What a dreary day it is today....so far, anyway. Just makes a girl wish she could stay curled up in her special chair cozied up with a quilt and some applique....here's what I'm working on this morning, a funky tree on my FlowerGarden.....

Poking at my applique is not the plan for today though. Soon the "guys" will be here to install the new fireplace...yay! Which means tomorrow while I'm curled up in my special chair with my applique, I'll be doing it in front of a lovely fireplace. Sweet! I don't mind giving up our winter trip for this, we'll be enjoying it for years!

Also, I'll be working hard at this quilt on the longarm today....

It's coming along good so far! It's a sampler, so lots of different spaces to fill. I must say, samplers are maybe the most fun to quilt on the longarm....every  block different presenting lots of room for imagination.

Have a great day!