What Are Quilters Blogging About Today?

 Spring has arrived and it was time to change the small wall hanging just inside  the front door.  Down came Welcome to Winter and up went Hello Spring.  I hand stitched the pretty floral design and finished it up with machine quilting in 2022.

Spring has arrived

Our Spring weather is often temperamental and we have had heavy wind and rain.  The wind blew, blew, blew, creating  a carpet of yellow kowhai blossoms scattered across the lawn in the back yard.  Our native tuis love the kowhai nectar and have been feeding off the tree, in between busily chasing any ...

Our weather has turned wintry again, with snow on the ranges.  That didn't last long, when the rain arrived, and some wind.  It is still winter after all, it's just that we have been spoiled with calm, mild, sunny days for ages. Luckily, there is a heat pump installed, so there is clean, efficient heating here in my little home.  And it has been perfect soup making weather too.  My latest batch was pumpkin and kumara, so nice and tasty, with added pieces of fried onion and bacon, after it was whizzed smooth.  This was made in the ...

I'm pleased I have a sock finish, this pair seems to have taken ages.  But only because I don't work on them all the time, I tend to flick from one project to another.   These are for my daughter, I asked if she would like another pair for Christmas.  "Yes please" she said, "I'd like pale blue this time".  So they are done well ahead of time, which is good.

I'm home! The girls are happy! Everybody is happy! 

There's a new dog in town! This is Crosby - a puppy just adopted by our neighbors! I haven't had a chance to meet him yet, but I can't wait! I sure hope we get to babysit from time to time! He looks so soft and cuddly! 

Meet Crosby

An update on the Machine Embroidery Retreat: We had so much fun! The two days were long, and I was exhausted. I slept like a log last night. But everyone learned something about their machines and went home much ...

 Oh --- another bonus about the TruEarth laundry strips—they are Canadian (Port Moody, BC). I remember seeing that on a website, but I forgot. Thanks for the reminder! I'm excited to give them a try!

I'm almost embarrassed to show you what I did for my 60-minute-or-less challenge, but as I said, it doesn't matter what you do, and if it takes only 60 seconds but gets done, that's perfectly OK. This item had been sitting near my computer in Studio B for months—probably close to a year. I finally tackled it yesterday. 

I have ...

If this week is indicative of the pace of retirement, I say bring it on! Having only two classes this coming weekend is the only urgent thing I'm dealing with. That's not true since I'm also writing, but the pace is manageable, and I have time to goof off if I want. I can deal with that. 

Well, this weather is helping, as I have no desire to stay outside and lounge in the gazebo. I could freeze to death if I did that! And it's not really going to warm up for weeks. That's ...

Friday morning the mountain was white and on Saturday morning the snow had moved down to usI love the snow, but then again, I don't live where it hangs around for 4 or 5 months.We've always had to get out in it because you can't manage a ranch from inside. There was always ice to break (this was 2015 - on DH's birthday)And livestock to feedRanching in the desert, you're always thankful for any

Thanks to everyone, I have half of the books on my list. Well, I found 11 of 23 books at two used bookstores. The best part is that the two stores recommended had fantastic service. Allison the Bookman in North Bay, received my order, gave me a price, and I paid via transfer. The books are being picked up later today. Fast service. 

I had the same speedy service at Bearly Used Book Store in Parry Sound, and three more books were checked off my list. They got picked up yesterday. All of them will be on The Pony Express ...

 I found EIGHT books at the used bookstore in North Bay. And I love that ALL their titles are searchable online. Even better, you can search by author, and whatever they have from that author comes up! It's called Allison the Bookman, and I LOVE the site. I will call today and pay for the books, then they will go on the Pony Express. Yes - Our Pony Express reaches faraway places! Now, I need to update my list, and I have a couple of other bookstores to check out. Oh my -- this is super exciting! 

Oh, I should mention ...

Here's an interesting observation. I had a busy week last week, as have been the last several weeks. It's not so much about being super busy - two 2-hour presentations per day don't fill the day, but there's prep work for each and other bits of life. Usually, one of the two events would be held in the evening. 

While I had three shorter Zooms yesterday, they were more "casual" than during the week, and after 2 PM, the rest of the day was mine. What a huge difference that made in my day! I could actually ...

 As I prepared to take the girls for their morning walk, I contemplated how to dress. The temperature was minus 19, with a wind chill of minus 26 or something like that. I'm pretty good for my head (a Tilley hat is the best, although it should probably be replaced as the ear flaps are stretched), but the tightly wound scarf keeps that all in check; my recycled pop-bottle coat is toasty warm, but what about my legs? 

Then I remembered some wind pants in the closet and checked them out. Good grief - there were TWO pairs of pants ...

I didn’t get done quilting on Scrappy Crossroads Thursday night – but almost so I know I finished it last night and will show it this weekend.    Only this much left to quilt.  Just the border and a couple of the X’s aren’t completely finished. The binding fabric for Scrappy Crossroads And the section for […]

Six rows are done now for the Broken Star Log Cabin – I might go ahead and stitch this row together before I start the next row.  I already moved some blocks around a little bit so the color is good. Another strip of Noriko’s Star was partially stitched and I will work more on […]

Yes we did end up with a heck of a lot of snow – they kept changing the amounts of how much we would get all day Wednesday and Thursday and we ended up with 10 inches when I went out to measure the snow on the deck table Friday morning. (the ladder was still […]

It's all how you look at it! I never considered getting up and down from my sewing machine as a squat. But it's a SQUAT! I'll take it! Elle mentioned that she works inefficiently in her sewing space, and so do I. We all need to keep moving, or you'll end up like my Mom. She can't move, because she didn't move! I need to move - if I don't, my body is going to seize up, and I'll be in worse shape than I am. 

But I love this little command station ...

OMG  --- you will NOT believe what happened last night! It was worth a few sleepless moments. 

DH and I have been working on another EXIT Game, and I bragged the other day about how well we were doing. Of course, that night, we had to look at one clue. And we should NOT have had to—we were just overthinking the process. So we arrived at the last puzzle two nights ago and were stumped again. I hate when that happens, but I'm getting over that. 

We started on this current puzzle two nights ago, but last night was ...

 I have finally finished this pair of socks for me.  This 4ply sock wool is branded Happy Feet, no colour named, just a number, and I received it as a birthday gift last year from Sew Wot friend Mary.    As most of you know, I knit my socks flat, two at a time, and packed the finished socks in my knitting bag on our recent caravan trip planning to get side seam stitched up.  That never happened, and I finally completed this task once we returned back home.  It's about time I finished them.

Although it is now Spring ...

 Our last night in the South Island was quite a worry.  A storm came rolling in as the day wore on, and was fully fledged by night time.  We could swear that the thunder was right over head, and each noisy clap spooked Gemma.  She ran around the van looking for a hiding place, hunkering down on the carpet at the foot of the bed, with the overhanging duvet giving her the illusion of cover.  Lightening cracked around us, torrential rain came down, and the caravan was buffeted all night by strong wind gusts.  Dear oh dear, what would our ...

I "caved," got a scrap of paper, and made a list. It was a short list, but it was a list of sewing/quilting things I wanted to accomplish. Mostly, I wanted a goal for the Cabin in the Woods applique. I know this will sound silly, but I wanted a place to stop so I could move on to something else - at least for that day. 

It's kind of what I aim for with the monthly classes. If we tackle a huge project and stick with it until it's done, it gets boring, and that's all ...