Must be a long weekend

Okay it was a four day weekend for me. Oh the joys of working only four days a week. I finished sewing the main part of the backing of the quilt. I need to figure out how wide the border needs to be (since the backing is suppose to be longer and wider than the top). That can wait for another weekend. I still need to buy batting for the quilt. Perhaps that could be the top item on my gift wish list. Here are two photos of the backing. Of course Calle was helping me to position the fabric just right.





I was back at work today. This week is only a three day week. Life is good sometimes.

We will have some tomatoes soon.

I hope we get more than three tomatoes. We will have a lot of basil for pesto. We may need a new freezer.

I hope to have more photos of the quilt soon. I am going to try to save my money to buy some batting.

More later.

L

Morning Garden Quilt

I have started a new quilt. It is from one of Kaffe Fassett's books. I am about 5/6 the way through sewing the top. I did a mock layout first using Excel to get a sense of how it would look with the fabric and to get an idea of how many squares I needed to cut out prior. Usually I cut the fabric and play with the layout. The finished dimensions are 95 inches by 62 inches.





For the backing, I'm thinking about doing another patchwork. All the pieces would be big. The instructions call for 6 yards of fabric for the back. If I use some of the left over fabric from the top, I will still probably need another 4 yards. I may pick 4 different fabrics and get a yard in each. I will finish sewing the top this upcoming weekend. I still need to get the batting as well. I'm not sure when I'll make it to the Quilter's Palette.

I need to work on decreasing the size of my fabric stash. I have a coworker who makes pincushions out of fabric scraps. I think I will give her some of my scraps. I have larger scraps that I can use for small projects (e.g. oven mitts and placemats). I think I will pick up some of the ribbon that I need to make some aprons (act surprised at Christmas).

I have almost finished cleaning up the branches that our lovely neighbour cut down and tossed in our yard on several plants. Seven plants were damaged. Most have bounced back. It took a while to cut up the branches. The leaves and branches filled five yard waste bags. I am still trying to think what is the adequate revenge is for such an inconsiderate act. If you have any suggestions please let me know.

More later.

L

Completed Projects

A few weeks ago I finally finished hand quilting Mish Mash. It looks great. When I started working on it again I forgot how bright and colourful the fabric is. It has been warmer at night, so it is getting well used.

Yesterday I finally finished Trish's birthday present. On Thursday I bought the buttons and brown thread at Mac Fab. Yesterday Trish and I figured out the correct length. I hemmed it last night. Just in time for summer.

Today I started cutting the fabric for my next quilt. It is based on Kaffe Fassett's Morning Garden quilt pattern. I 'm using Amy Butler's Lotus fabric for this. This fabric is perfect for the quilt layout. I'll post some photos once I start sewing it.

Trish and I need to spend some time weeding the garden soon. But unfortunately today was a little too warm. I did attempt to cut the grass this evening. I hope we get lots of rain over night.

I should get back to the fabric.

More later.

A Quiet Sunday at Home

Trish and I are enjoying Sunday. Trish is busy working (grading papers) and I'm, well not working. I have done some housework (dishes and the laundry is in progress). We did a bulk of the cleaning yesterday. We had lattes and chocolate croissants for breakfast from Madelaine's up the street. I have a few articles I want to read in the Sunday Star, but that can wait. I will need to make a trip to the grocery store, but first I need to figure out what I feel like cooking this week.

I had Friday off. I finally took the old desktop computer and monitor to Re-Boot to donate. The highlight of Friday was finishing the baby quilt for Nette. Yesterday I took some photos for my archives. Of course the cats were happy to help model with it. The quilt is now in the wash. I'll give it to Nette tomorrow at work. I send the extra fabric from the backing to Wendy to get a custom made changing cloth made (I'll post photos when I receive it). Wendy and two friends are in the process of setting up a small business. I have to find out if they have a website yet (I'll post a link for it).

I can now focus on finishing hand quilting Mish Mash. I also need to cut Allison's fabric for her Mish Mash. Once those projects are completed I can start on my next quilt. Allison got me two fat quarters of Kaffe Fassett from the quilt store on Bronte that is going out of business. I need to decide if I want to use the Kaffe Fassett or Amy Butler for my next quilt. Oh the terrible dilemmas I have. I'm going to use the left over fabric from Nette's quilt to practice making the blocks for the next quilt. Trish had the great idea of using the sample blocks and making oven pads out of them.

I still have to take the extra yarn from my Twisted vest back to Romni. Maybe next weekend. I am currently without a knitting project. I think I'm okay with that, I hope the shaking is from an excess of coffee.

Hopefully today we will have time to work in the garden. There is a lot of work to go. At the very least I need to water. Here a clematis. There are two other ones growing on the south fence, but there late bloomers.

More later.

L

Saturday

It has been a while since I have posted. I hadn't uploaded any new photos to my computer and I get bored of hearing myself ramble and figured you would too...

I have been working on the baby quilt for Nette. I have finished hand quilting it today. For the most part I have quilted it with circles. Now I need to work on the binding. I have started to cut the binding strips. It will be finished before she goes on mat leave at the end of the month. Here is Calle helping me baste it.

Things have been quiet. Allison was away for a few days (so she wasn't calling). We have finished watching season four of Monk. There are several options: Rome, Big Love, Deadwood. There is also the possibility of going to see a movie at the theatre (what a novel idea).

I'll leave you with some photos from the garden.

More later.

L

Native Plants

The native plants in the back shade garden are all doing well. Here is one of my favourites, the Wood Poppy.

This is one of my Trilliums. I also have yellow and red Trilliums that should be blooming soon.

The Jack-In-The-Pulpit has returned. Each year I fear it is not coming back. I need to remind myself that it comes back later than the other native plants.

Here are the Solomon Seals. I think there were two plants originally. There is also a few False Solomon Seal plants.

I have started a sweater vest for myself. I went to Romni today and bought the yarn. The photo below is the colour of Trish's vest. I got "Mango" for myself. It is a lighter orange.

I still need to make travel arrangements to the airport for my flight on the 19th. I should get that done soon. I also need to get carry-on luggage.

So much to do, so little time... Oh my. I better get back to my knitting.

More later.

L

Photos

Here are the photos I had a problem uploading on Sunday night. Below is another photo of the snow drops. They should be open today. I'll try to get another photo tonight after work.

Here is one of the photos I took of Trotsky on Sunday afternoon.


This is is Trish's sweater vest as of Sunday. I have knit 5 of the 8 inches for the armholes. Progress is happening...



Here is Calle conducting a quality inspection of my work, again.


More later.

L

Daylight Saving Time

The weather has been warm since Friday. Tomorrow the high is suppose to 9. I'm glad the snow is melting. It was startng to look and dirty. No doubt there will be new snow to replace the old stuff.

Last weekend I gave Allison her Christmas cardigan to get a zipper for it, since I had not found one yet (not that I looked very hard). Maybe she'll get one this week and she can give me the sweater and zipper to sew on Saturday.

Allison and I are meeting at the Quilter's Palette (http://www.quilterspalette.ca/) for their Open House on Saturday (March 17). I need to get some fabric for a baby quilt for Nette at work.

I have been busy handquilting Mish Mash. So far I have four of the 18 large blocks quilted. It is going well. I'm just a little slow. I'll take pictures once I have a little more quilted. It seems a little odd working with the old Amy Butler fabric after spending time looking at her new line.

On Wednesday Trish and I went to the Canada Blooms show. Saw a lot of beautiful flowers. I bought some more native plants for the back shade garden. They are from the Wildflower Farm (http://www.wildflowerfarm.ca/). Most of my native plants came from them.

We saw Patsy as we were leaving. I was thinking about her and Kathy as I wandered around the show. Several years ago I saw them at the show. Caroline was at the show with them but had gone off on her own for a few minutes. We had a good chat. She had to go and catch her bus back home. I forgot the camera, so I have no pictures. I'll definitely take photos of the new plants once they are planted.

I have signed Allison and Len up to join at this year's Walk for MS (April 15th). My work team has 7 people so far (including Allison and Len).

I should go and check on dinner.

More later.

L

Only a zipper away

I finished sewing Allison's cardigan. I finished knitting the collar on Sunday night. All I need now is a zipper and time to sew the zipper to the cardigan. There are no zipper stores in my neighbourhood (the purchasing of a zipper will require an field trip outside of the Annex...). I wonder if there is still a Fabricland at Yonge and Bloor? Then all I need is to remember what the zipper foot looks like for the sewing machine.

I have begun work on Trish's cardigan again. I have sewn the shoulders and am in the process of making the collar. I'll take some photos this week and post them next weekend.

We are still knitting at work for Street Knit Project. We gained our first male knitter this past week. Jim is a natural. He has been knitting on his breaks. We should have completed 50 scarves, 24 hats and 3 pairs of mittens by the end of the month in total since we started.

Several of the indoor plants are blooming. I'll take photos of them this week to post (help liven up the blog).

Next weekend is going to be busy. I'm having brunch on Sunday with Brian (since he left work to go back to school in August we have been trying to meet up for brunch once a month). Wendy and Lucie Jane are in Toronto for the ONDP convention. They left a few of Lucie Jane's toys behind at New Years that I should return. I think I also have tentative plans to meet up with Allison (she found the quilting pattern she misplaced at Christmas). I need to make a trip to the Goodwill to get rid of some old cloths.

Soon I'll start to work on Mish Mash again. I know I could get it machine quilted, but it is not that big. It is the basting that seems rather daunting to me. I need to iron the top and prep the backing. I also need to get the wrinkles out of the batting. I have only had that since September folded up in a bag. It will be nice to get it our from underneath the bed (although I am concerned to find other things that I have hidden under the bed).

Time to start dinner (there is a marinade that requires 2 hours of resting or whatever it does). I will have photos for next week and maybe funny stories about knitting and quilting.

More later.

L

It is actually snowing

I think today is the first time it has snowed this winter for an extended period of time. It probably won't stick around for long, so I have not gone out back to make a snowman. Of course we'll end up with a blizzard in mid-May.

I have been working on finishing Allison's cardigan. I have sewn the shoulders together and have started to sew the sides. Then I need to get a zipper and machine sew it in. The yarn is 100% Lopi wool.

Looking at the cardigan as I was taking the photo I had a nervous feeling that perhaps the sleeves were short. I tried it on to check (yes Allison I wore your sweater) and the sleeves seem fine. I can make an adjustment if they are short on Allison (knit a few extra rows in the rib pattern afterwards). I made one sweater for Trish that required extra length in the sleeves and body. It worked out well due to the pattern of the sweater. So no worries... okay maybe just a little one.

Last year I made Dad, Len and Trish one each of this sweater pattern in different colours. Maybe Mom and I will get one next year...

I'm trying to figure out how best to finish Trish's cardigan. The pattern calls for a ribbon, but Trish is concerned about washing. Maybe we'll try a button approach.

We ordered our two daylilies this week from We're In the Hayfield Now (http://www.hayfield.ca). We went with Hayfield Sunrise and Hayfield Sunset (they should come as a set). The 2007 introductions have been updated on the website.

I have booked my flight to Halifax for May. I had a credit with Air Canada I had to use before June 10, 2007. I compared the airline ticket prices to that of the train and a return train trip is $10 less. But it takes a day and half each way and there is the need to buy food.

I am still distracted by all the fabric I got at Christmas. I have found a couple of ideas, but I cannot start working on them until my Christmas knitting and Mish Mash is done.

I should get back to finishing Allison's cardigan. I may need to shove the walkway this afternoon. Where did I put the shovel?

More later.

L

Settling into 2007

My father called at 6:40 this morning to let me know that they arrived home safely. I spoke with both my parents tonight. I think it is best for me to talk to people when I have at least finished my first coffee of the day.


I took a photo of the white Amaryllis today. It will have three blooms on this stalk.

I hope to get the Ansel Adams exhibit before it closes on February 4th. The Emily Carr starts in March. When I first learned of the Carr exhibit, March 2007 seemed so far away. The restaurant at the AGO is closed during the renovations. We have lost a fancy brunch place.

I'm still working on finishing Allison's cardigan, then Trish's (I'll take photos of them in progress this weekend). My new years resolution is to minimize the number of projects I have going at the same time. Once the knitting is done, I can move onto finishing Mish Mash. I need to baste, then hand quilt it. First it will need to be ironed. I also need to de-wrinkle the batting.

I am still tempted by the new Kaffe Fassett and Amy Butler fabric I got at Christmas. I also have about 25 fat quarters of Asian fabric to figure out something with.

I received the copy of Kaffe Fassett's Kaleidoscope of Quilts. I am disappointed. I ordered it on-line without seeing first. Basically it is the same patterns with his new fabric.

The Street Knit Project group at work is still going. I guess we will keep working until we are told to stop.

More later.

l