Ohio Rose

Many years ago I purchased a vintage Ohio Rose quilt top. Mother was in need of a new bed spread so I decided, since she liked pink and green, this would do the trick. It wasn't quite big enough to be a bedspread so I added a green & pink print then a white border then hand quilted it. The quilt did the trick for many years, but the green stem/leaves faded and now no longer match the green/pink print border. And finally the inner pink hearts have suffered from age and the sun.

So, the quilt is now back at my place and I am removing those inner pink hearts and appliqueing a nice pink batik heart in their place. First batik heart done, only 59 more to go! I think they'll look good!

TTFN

Quilts from France

So my week off work is over :(. All in all is was a great week! I had a huge To Do list, and actually got through most of it - yeah. Including a trip to a local quilt festival, Quilts from France. Now that the show is over I can safely post some on my pics. Below is an interesting triptych.

I believe fabric strips were pulled through a muslin background and long threads layered over it creating an interesting waterfall effect. The first one was a lovely pastel, the centre was rather dark greens and blues and blacks, and the one on the right was a vibrant reds and pinks.



I rather expected to see several quilts with Boutis quilting, but I was disappointed. Below is the only work with this style.

There were several "traditional" quilts, all very well done. Unfortunately I can't provide attribution as I was too distracted in getting a good shot of the quilts I once again forgot to take a pic of the sign describing who did what - sorry!

 Of course I couldn't resist taking a pic of  this Hexie quilt ;)

 And then there was this wonder!!! I couldn't get far enough back to get the whole lovely!
Really like what she did in the centre.

 It seems the French guild which sent these quilts had an exchange with a guild in Japan. Their "challenge", I think, was to use some Japanese fabric (possibly old Kimono silk) and some french lace.

I really liked this one as I like the grey background (old kimonos I think), the straight line quilting. The hot air balloons were made of French lace.

The gold fish in the quilt on the right were very well done, and reminded me of our visit to a Japanese Tea Garden when we visited Japan many years ago.

Love the Cranes in this one, the fans and the Fairy (?) playing her flute.

And of course this quilt, also with musical notes, and flying Kimonos!


And finally, one with a Shinto gate. I really like the use of colours in the background, and the well placed stones reminiscent of a Shinto garden.

The Quilts from France show also had a challenge to use blue. Here is an eye catching example

The flowers here were lovely, I am partial to embroidery on quilts, especially well done ribbon embroidery! So here is a closeup.



And finally - this beauty !!!

Victoria Day - Garden time!

 

This was my front garden on Sat. morning. Mourning is a better word. My poor Weigelias at the front barely survived last winter - just like me! And to top it off, last winter was the first year  tented them - for protection! So, last week I gave them a good dousing of Miracle grow, and this weekend the nephew came over to help put my pation together (THANKS MARK!), so I had him tote a big bag of black earth and gave these poor babies some new dirt to live in.

We also moved the tower from the back yard to the front. Here's hoping these bushes recover this summer. Shall be babying them along! I moved the bird bath to the back - you know sometimes you just need a change! Those are decorative cement Mushrooms at the foot of the bath ...

My lavender from last year only half survived, so I lucked out and was able to purchase 2 small bunches to supplement last year's crop. Here's hoping it will be happier in its new location atop the bird bath, and produce some florets before the end of summer!

Last fall's garden work paid out and my White Irises are blooming! Last fall we (Mark and I, but mainly Mark) added some nice black earth and cedar chips. I guess this gave them the protection they needed.

My Caragana is in full bloom, and the bumble bees love it! While I sat and enjoyed the patio last night there were at least 5 buzzing around. What an extra bonus - I get a beautiful tree and the bees get much needed food.

Well, the wonders of the season never end, at last week's guild meeting I WON!!!! First I won a fat quarter - a rare, usually once a year event, then I won the door prize basket - an unheard of, never happened before event !! And indeed it was a basket, with a small cutting mat at the bottom, an "Elegant Quilts Country Charm" book, a charm pack, 4 fat quarters in matching solids, a tape measure, pack of flower head pins, a pair of snippers, a bobbin holder and a pack of Heat n Bond. Can't beat that eh!

WooHoo!!!

And last but not least of all the good things happening so far this month - I have this week off work - yeah - it's sunny and warm - yeah, and it's the Quilt Festival in Ailsa Criag this week = Quilts of France! Whoopee !!

I finished off the May Flowers door hanging for mother - finding the perfect scrap of blue for the binding ...

  TTFN

Pow!

Summer has arrived! Spring  is over ! Pow! It happened so fast I barely got a chance to enjoy Spring and now the heat and humidity are here :(.  The Forsythia has gone from brilliant yellow to green and both trees in the back have popped their leaves. The Bumble bees will soon make an appearance to get the nectar from the Caragana flowers. The nephew is coming over next weekend to help me put out the patio furniture just in time so I can sit outside and enjoy this season on my week off. YEAH! I am soooo looking forward to having some time away from work.

I've got some of my cooking mojo back and tried a new soup recipe last week - Russian cabbage roll soup. Verdict = YUMMMMMM. It made way more than I could eat in a week of lunches. I was afraid  it would not freeze well, so took some over to the nephew who also pronounced it Yummmmmy.

Still working on my May flowers wall/door hanging. Almost finished quilting the white background. Plan on doing some quilting in the borders, probably just follow the circles in the fabric. Hope to have enough done for Show-n-Tell @ guild this week.

TTFN

Yeah Spring !

This is what I woke up to last Sunday and they are still in full bloom! Thankfully the wee bits of snow have disappeared, although we did get one last (least we hope it was the last) snowfall this week. Although my backyard faces east and gets full sunlight all morning, for some reason my back garden is slow to bloom. This spring that is a lucky situation as my Daffodils were barely in bud and not affected by the late snowfall. Got my finger's crossed for the Daffs and the Irises later in the Spring.

Wasn't feeling the very best in the early part of the week, both cats had gastro-intestinal issues and so did mommy :(. None-the-less I rallied by mid week and enjoyed my evening out with the Sew What's ladies. I also got a start on another door hanging, or maybe I'll keep this one for my bulletin board at work.

Spring flowers with mini Dresden plates, yellow yoyos and green rickrack. The outer border, found in my stash, is the leftover from a baby Kaleidoscope quilt I did maybe 10 years ago. Just goes to show you it's worth saving all your scraps!!

 

  Have a great sunny week everyone,

Spring is Here !!

 

Yeah - Spring has finally sprung (shhhh - I may have just invoked the wrath of the winter gods). My Daffodils and Iris plants are poking through their winter cover in my patio garden - Yeah !! Easter has come and gone. What fun having a little one around.

Claire had her first Easter egg hunt the day before our family dinner, so she was all prepared and knew just what to do :). She had a bunny sweatshirt on and those crazy Bunny ears - too cute!!

I'm soooo sick of sandwiches for lunch at work, so today I made Broccoli, Ham and Cheese muffins. They smell great, hope they taste as good as they smell.

 Last week's Have it All wallet is a hit and I have requests. I ran out of the black fabric I used in the first wallet, but found this fab script print - and on sale. I may just have to make another for myself as I love script prints ... Hope they don't expect one any time soon ....  I have a huge agenda for today, including getting outside (I hope) and no time off until May :(. Sundays are never a day of rest for me. Ok, enough of my boo hoo story.
On a more positive note I have an announcement! I have finished - yes FINISHED cutting the 2000+ honeycombs and assorted paper pieces needed for my Lucy Boston POTC, and here they are

Woohoo!!

They are now stored away in plastic boxes meant for embroidery floss. I saw this neat organizing tip on a blog during one of my many tours of blogland. Can't remember who's blog it was, but what a brilliant idea - Thanks! Can't say I'm not tempted to start right away on LBPOTC, but I must keep to my "schedule" which includes housework (spring cleaning), garden work (yeah - outside work) and UFOs!

It's sunny and bright and warm today. Have a great week everyone :)

Happy Easter !

Last week my "theme" was ENOUGH. Well, I've had enough of this white stuff! I mean come on .... it's Easter! But no, that wasn't enough, this past week was a lesson on what is enough ...

The president of the university (image from Facebook friend) where  I have laboured for the past 36+ years experienced a lesson in how much is enough. For those  readers not tuned in -  the province where I live has legislated the publication of a "Sunshine List" = a list of every one in the public sector who earns more than $100,000.00 ! Well, it was revealed that our fearless leader not only earned over $400,000.00 but double dipped last year by NOT taking his paid sabbatical while still earning his salary at the same time, which then equalled close to $1 million in salary last year! The uproar was something to behold, and it was quickly obvious that everyone has had ENOUGH of corporate GREED!  It was all over social media, traditional media and even in the Provincial legislature. The faculty association held a non-confidence vote or 94%! and my own union is holding a non-confidence vote this week coming. In an attempt to mollify the masses and employees @ the university, who by the way average $43,000.00 per annum in earnings, an email and campus news story was sent out. The president offered to return the salary for his sabbatical and to NOT claim this same amount at the end of his second contract. The Board of Govenors, who negotiated his very favourable contract, also had a press release!  We'll see if their spin does anything. It certainly was an interesting lesson in enough is enough!

So, along with all those lovely fabrics I purchased on our road trip I also purchased some lovely sewing charms. I already had the pin so now it was time to add the charms and pin it to my sewing bag! (pssst that's a quilt block on the left end). Nice eh ?

I also found this fabulous selvedge fabric. Not sure what I plan to make with it, but I couldn't resist :)
On the right is some fabric I purchased a while back to make myself a new wallet. I got the pattern, Have it All Wallet,  at another of my favourite quilt stores (I have a few) the Marsh Store .

So on the left is the finished/not finished wallet. I decided to add a flower to the front and a wrist strap. On the right is an inside view. The black  /3 is a card holder area. Well, after it was all done I wasn't overly happy with the results. So I spent the next day unsewing .... Now that I understand the pattern (not enough pictures, not enough description for me) I now know exactly how/what I want to change to make this wallet suit me !

What else have I been up to? Well, it's Easter and the family is gathering, so I made a Lemon cake. Hope they like my Easter egg decorations :)

 

What an interesting week! TTFN