Just a wee dress

I made a wee Geranium dress for our grand daughter last weekend.  This is a free pattern in the 0-3 months size from Made by Rae and it is just so darn cute.  I used some Heather Ross fabric and some little red buttons.  The lining of the bodice is a yellow gingham check. I hear that there will be a pattern for the Geranium dress with all sorts o variations coming soon.


We were able to take the dress to the hospital on Tuesday because she arrived!  9 pounds 2 ounces of little girl.  Welcome to the world, Claire Elizabeth!  Pictures coming soon!  We could not be happier!!!

Family

No sewing for two weekends in a row!  What is the world coming to?  Last weekend we traveled to my Mum's for Easter and the kids joined us there to.  It was just so much fun to have everyone altogether.  Mum is turning 80 this month so we had a pre-birthday celebration.  And we had 4 whole days of baby squishes with our wee little buddy.

This weekend Husband and I were busy with flower beds.  We overhauled some much needed beds, obliterated gazillions of buttercups and spread landscaping fabric and mulch.  I can hardly move but it looks great!  Quilting next weekend for sure.

son in law, daughter with grandboy, daughter in law with baby to be, and son

Son, daughter with grandboy and my lovely Mum

We had a wedding!

Yep.  We did it.  Married both kids off in the space of 5 months.  The weather was fabulous.  The flowers cooperated.  The bride, our wee Emily,  was beautiful, of course. The groom, handsome and awesome.   Have a look.  The blueberry patch looks pretty good. And you may even see a few quilts in the shots.  Happily ever after!  And now I can start quilting again!

The backyard has never looked so fancy!  A bear visited in the night but didn't stay for the wedding.

Peonies from a local farm along with lady fern picked in the back with a ton of babies breath and a whole bunch of buckets.

 A beautiful bride.

And her best friend. Ever. And a quilt.

Bliss.

Having fun!

So busy...

Yesterday was our daughter's wedding shower.  It seems that the last while has been all about the wedding and that is just awesome.  I did manage to take a few pictures before all the food hit the table and the plastic wrap came off.  It was such a lot of fun but man, was I tired last night!  Now we are counting down to the wedding.  Hopefully I will find some quilting time.  In fact, I hear my sewing machine calling my name as we speak.

And this wee fellow thought that wedding shower was the place to be!  Have a super Sunday!

Slow quilting week and a wedding

This is what is on the design wall.  It is coming along quite nicely.  My lucky stars quilt is finished but I have not taken any pictures because we were a little busy last weekend when the weather cooperated.  It was all because of a wedding.  And what a lovely wedding it was!  Our son is now married and I am a mother in law to a wonderful daughter in law. As a result, there was no sewing.  But I did meet lots of people at the wedding who thanked me for various baby quilts over the past few years.  That was a lot of fun having people come up to me to tell me which quilt they have.

Did I say the wedding was lovely?  Here is a picture of my grampa at 96, giving advice to the bride and groom.

A little bit of this and a little bit of that...

Yesterday I quilted this St. Louis 16 Patch That Stash Bee quilt.  It will be donated to an at risk youth fundraiser when all done.  And it felt good to be at the sewing machine.  I have been busy with all sorts of things that aren't sewing.  Like crazy raspberries this year.  Oh my goodness.  The size of thumbs and endless quantities.

We have also been picking blueberries.  Typical July.  So many blueberries that husband says that is all he sees when he closes his eyes.  We were at the veggie store yesterday picking up some pickling cucumbers and we like to check the price of the little baskets of berries.  We looked at each other and declared, "We are RICH!"  In berries, at least!

And I spent several days last week with daughter and her special someone near Jasper, Alberta.  We did a lot of hiking.  The weather was not great but we had lots of fun.  I followed them up and down hills all over the place.  Puffing and trying to catch my breath.  I was even relatively brave at the top of the tram at the top of a mountain overlooking Jasper.  Relatively brave.

Road Trip!

Husband and I took off on Friday and headed for Alberta.  Thanksgiving with daughter and her special someone was the plan!  It was a gorgeous day for a long drive.  And I mean a long drive.  Even Mt. Robson was cloud free.

We spied a moving sale in Jasper so we had to check it out.  Daughter scooped muffin pans and Christmas decorations.   I think I was being told to not take a picture of her. Oops!

Aww!  They are such good sports. And no, I am not going to pay you royalties when your pictures show up on the blog.  They put up with my crazy road trip picture taking and we even found a quilt shop.  Why didn't I take a picture of that?  I did buy some fabric.

 Medicine Lake, Alberta.  It apparently fills up with melt water and then disappears as the summer progresses.  Oh.  These are the Canadian Rockies just so you know.  There was even a little bit of snow here and there and I do admit to throwing a snowball at Husband and it connected.  I think he was surprised.

Maligne, Lake, Alberta.  See the snow on the right?????  EEEK!

Daughter says this guy is always in the same spot blocking traffic.

We drove home today.  We had so much fun.  And Daughter totally rocks a turkey dinner!  It was delicious!

Ah, aren't they just so cute?

We gathered yesterday for a wedding.  One of my niece's became the first of the cousins to get married.  It was a stinking hot day but the setting was lovely!  The fact that we were all gathered was lovely too and it was super wonderful to be able to take a picture of our children with their significant others.  From the left is clever son's lovely girlfriend, clever son, daughter's special someone and our darling "nursey" daughter.  I do hope they will forgive me for sharing this.  Sorry kids but sometimes Mum just has to brag.

Today was a full day sew in for my quilt guild!  It was so much fun and I will have lots of sharing.  Happy weekend!

29 years!!!!

Happy Anniversary, Husband!  29 years of wedded bliss. 

July 9, 1983

Ochiltree Ranch, BC, Canada 

Design Wall on a Sunday... and Happy Birthday Grampa!!!

Oh my goodness!  I love this block!  All of a sudden there are 25 of them!  I am using the block tutorial here after seeing a quilt entered in the Blogger's Quilt Festival!  I was inspired.  I really love her colour choice too but for some reason, I decided to make mine in blue and green.  I am using scraps again with a some greens from the stash too.

 I didn't get a ton of sewing done this weekend as it was spa and card ladies yesterday and we celebrated my Grampa's birthday today at my wonderful Aunty's house.  It was a gathering of the clan in honour of Grampa's 94 birthday!!!!  He says he will accept birthday wishes but says "94" is just a number!  Happy birthday, Grampa!!!!!

Looking good!

Linking up with Judy's design wall Monday!!!  and linking up too with Canada's own Needle and Thread Network!!!

He's baking up a storm!

He just keeps on baking.  Isn't that just the most beautiful bread?   YUMMY!  Husband is baking up a storm because it's Easter and Mum is coming to stay.

And Mum arrived.  She always brings a car load of treasures and today was no exception.  Not only did she bring me a old recipe book of my Great Gramma's with hand written recipes and pasted recipe clippings but she brought me a BAG of vintage sheets!!!  Woo hoo!  I have yet to take pictures but believe me when I say... AWESOME!

So there.  Now to visit with my mum.  Have a lovely evening!!!!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Canadian Thanksgiving that is!  Husband is asking everyone what they are thankful for...  I am thankful for my family and that is for sure.  I am also thankful that Husband does not think I have too much fabric!

Husband has been baking.  Pumpkin, blueberry and apple pies.  Happy Thanksgiving!

What's up? A new vintage sheet quilt in the works...

Mum is here for a visit.  She brought bounty from the Okanagan...  peaches, cherries, apricots.  Oh, yummy!  She brought a shoe box filled with old handwritten recipes from my Great Grandmother and my Nanna.  What a treasure!  The most hilarious recipe so far is for the "Anti-Constipation Sweet-meat."  The note indicates that the recipe should be stored in a safe place or maybe it means store the product of the recipe in a safe place!?.  Great advice!  The recipe includes figs, dates, raisins and the all important... senna leaves!  The instructions suggest eating a small amount as required! Let me know if you would like the recipe!  He he he!!!!!

In the box was a little homemade recipe book.  My Great Grandma glued recipe clippings into an old catalogue. The catalogue must date to the first world war.  Some of the recipes date to the early 1920s so that would make some sense.  My Great Grandma would have been a young mum then.  So very interesting!

On the quilting front, I have a started a simple 4 patch vintage sheet quilt for Daughter to drag to the lake or camping.  I thought she would want the blues and purples but she asked for green. Of course she did.  Green is not a common colour in vintage sheets so I told her it would be green and yellow.  She said, "oh, gross!"  I told her to trust me.  Kids!

And Mum seems to love the blue and yellow Clovers (aka Card Tricks) quilt despite its wonky points. So that is a good thing.

I leave you with a glimpse of blueberries.  Yep, we are picking!

Have a super rest of the day!!!!

Works in progress and unabashed parent bragging

3 works in progress currently!  We have from the top... Vintage sheet Sparkling Cider Quilt.  In the middle, Clovers by Fig Tree and Co.  Commonly knows as card tricks.  And finally on the bottom, my paper pieced scrap string quilt.  Piling up the blocks.  Absolutely no quilting was accomplished this past weekend as we were very busy celebrating with Daughter.  Check this out.  Unabashed parent bragging warning.  Bachelor of Science in Nursing.  Yep, we are so proud we might burst.

Congratulations on your graduation!

Happy graduation, Daughter!!!  You did it!  4 years of very hard work!  From those days of running around with your Fisher-Price stethoscope around your neck to today, a registered nurse!  It just gives me goose bumps.

Here is her gift.  A gift of sunflowers all ready to go.  A Kitchen Window quilt from Elizabeth Hartman's book, A Practical Guide to Modern Patchwork.  The quilt is finished with all over stippling in a yellow top thread and cream bobbin thread.  I had to play with the tension a bit because of the 2 different threads but it worked out perfectly.  I wondered about how to quilt it and then realized that just as Elizabeth did in her sample quilt, that the stippling was the way to go.  The stippling is not dense but rather loose.  I decided on the yellow top thread in consultation with Husband.  I like it.  The yellow disappears in to the solid yellow but pops here and there.  Again it was a good solution to the colour contrast in the quilt.  The quilt is backed with a lovely sheet in cream and green stripes and pieced with some sunflower yardage along with some Kona cotton.  This quilt makes me happy.  I have taken many pictures of this quilt so please bear with me.  I just couldn't seem to get enough of throwing it around the yard!