Random Thursday... take a look at this!

 I found these in the woods the other day.  This stuff is so alien.  Indian Pipes or Ghost Plant.  Apparently rare, and completely without chlorophyll.  It lives in a parasitic relationship with the host tree.. living off a fungus that lives on the roots of certain trees, the plant gets its energy from the tree's photosynthesis.  How cool is that?  We have quite a bit of it in the woods and trod delicately around it all.  I had noticed some last year and here it is again.  Funny things grow in the temperate rain forest in which we live!

And these are green.  The garden is producing copious quantities of things green.  How many snap peas can one person consume?  Not as many as the garden produces.  We cried uncle the yesterday with the broccoli.  Husband made a quantity of broccoli salad... the one with craisins and pumpkin seeds.  I love it but he made enough for a large wedding buffet and there are just two of us at home.  He bagged it all up in the fridge and we have been eating it daily for days.  We couldn't eat any more of it.  I called a friend.  Thank goodness for friends.  It was a win win.  We both thought we had the better deal.  They had salad already made and we didn't have to eat it!  Maybe I could have used it as a quilt guild door prize?

Not having grandchildren, just grandcats... here are cute cat pictures.  Son was very concerned that the cats would be freaked out by Webster.  What do you think about that?

 And here are those naughty kitties.  We had to construct a barricade around the tv because they kept going behind it... a tower of cds on either side and a bunch of crumpled up chicken wire kept them out.  It was so stylish.  Industrial farm chic.

Linking up with Cindy at Random Thursday because everyone needs random on Thursdays.

Work in Progress Wednesday!

I signed up for the Modern Scrappy Bits Swap Round 4.  I have been in on this swap since the beginning and have had really awesome swap partners, I have to say.  This time I made coasters.  I made some little slab blocks from scraps of blue and green, added some linen scraps to the back and got seriously quilty.  Each coaster is quilted differently because I didn't want to be bored! Then I bound them in linen... oh, and I used this fusible stuff for the batting, 2 layers of it. The lady at the fabric store told me that it is used for things like place mats so with the 2 layers, the coasters are satisfyingly stiff.    Of course, this made binding the little suckers a bit of a challenge.  Erg, poked fingers!  So this one is off work in progress list!

 Road to fortune blocks are growing as are my Lucky Stars BOM blocks.  The black and white tv quilt made with the help of my bee mates at That Stash Bee is stalled because I have not decided how big to make it.  I am part way through making a dress.  EEP!  Yep.  For me.  More EEP!  I have not made myself a dress for decades.  I am using some seriously fuschia fabric that Mum got somewhere as the "muslin" so to speak.  It will end up as a wearable dress but the colour is so vibrant that this one may not get a lot of wear but I wanted a test run.  So far so good.

That is where I am at.  Slowly moving into summer and holidays.  Nice.  Linking up with the Needle and Thread Network and Lee at Freshly Pieced  for Work in Progress Wednesday.

Lucky Stars for July

Oh, I got right to the July Lucky Star Block.  I couldn't let it sit.  After a few really intense blocks, Elizabeth went easy on us for July.  It went together stress free.  Very little stitch ripper action required!

And just for fun, this is what the rest of them look like...

Linking up with Judy's Design Wall Monday...

Finish it up Friday!

Quilt stats

Name:  Baby Blue

Design:  4" squares

Size:  36" by 42"

Fabric: Stash fabrics including some prints from Sweetwater's reunion line, Camille's Happy Go Lucky and even some Cosmo Cricket's Salt Air, bound in Kona Ash, backed in stash flannelette 

Quilted: by me with Aurifil 50 wt in white

After selling a baby boy quilt in the last little while, I needed to get another classic baby boy quilt into the laundry basket inventory, just in case.  I went completely classic with this one.  Baby Blue.  Fresh boy colours with a splash of Kona Ash and Bahama Blue.  The owl print ran the show as the "boss fabric" and I added things from there.  I was happy to find the flannelette print in the right blue in the wall of fabric! 

I used my current favourite method of quilting... a fairly dense grid of stitching on either side of each square in my favourite thread, Aurifil 50wt in white.  The quilting looks so great on the back!  I bound the quilt in Kona Ash.  Perfect!  Here is is on the barn wall and ready to go into the laundry basket until a baby says, "Hey, that's mine!"

Linking up with Amanda Jean for Finish it up Friday!

Random Thursday... shoes for quilters

Can you read that?  Yep.  Shoes with Liberty Art Fabrics.  Be still my beating heart.  And on sale.  Super cheap.  I have been looking at these for months.  Finally at a greatly reduced price, they came home with me.     Obviously there are not that many people who understand nature of this find!  Shoes for quilters.  Happiness!
I cannot wait to wear them to my guild meeting next week.

And I am moving schools.  One of my staff and her students decorated my office door the last week of school.  They made me a door quilt.  So sweet!

Linking up with Cindy and Random Thursday!  Happy July 4 for those of you south of the border!

Works in Progress...

After sewing like a crazy person all weekend and we had a long weekend in Canada, I have 2 quilts nearing completion.  Just needing the binding sewn down.  The I Spy quilt is on the bottom of this pile and it is a commission so I got 'er done quick like.  The baby quilt on top is for the pile in case I need a baby boy quilt. I see a thread that is just sitting there needing to be dealt with.  How is it that you only see the threads once you have taken the picture?

Other than that, my works in progress are still happening and will continue to happen over the next weeks of holiday for me, 6 lovely weeks of being at home!  Yippee!

The July Lucky Stars BOM arrived promptly in my email from Elizabeth at Don't Call Me Betsy.  This month's block looks quite refreshing in its lack of a million little pieces.  I also have a swap to complete with the Modern Scrappy Bits Swap.

Road to Fortune and Black and White TV are also waiting for more progress but that will happen without a doubt!

Linking up with the Needle and Thread Network and Lee at Freshly Pieced for Work In Progress Wednesday!

Just one slab... Happy Canada Day!

Just one slab is the brainchild of Cheryl Arkison, co-author of Sunday Morning Quilts.  Cheryl lives in Calgary and had the idea that all of us quilty people could sew some slab blocks. The blocks could then be made into quilts for those impacted by the TERRIBLE flooding that Albertans have experienced in the last few weeks.  It is pretty bad.  Cheryl has some pictures of the aftermath on her blog Dining Room Empire.  Many people will be out of the homes for months and many homes have been completely destroyed.  A quilt can give comfort to those displaced.  A quilt will let them know that we are thinking about them.  I cannot imagine.  I know that stuff is just stuff but your home is your sanctuary.  Sigh.  So on this July 1, 2013, on Canada Day, I made slab blocks.

MMM.  That was fun.  The pink one was my first one.  Then I got the hang of it.  Made the yellow one and decided that two was not enough.  I made a green and a blue one too.

Just one slab became four.  It felt good.  Maybe you can make some too?