Two Modern Quilts & ....

 These were two beauties that both wanted the pantograph Modern Curves.  

That's such a striking quilting design and it shows up really well on solid fabrics.

And, HEY!  I MADE A QUILT!  This was for a young man who's gone off to university.

Here are the strips of geese.  My original intention was to use a border print as sashing between the rows, but I didn't like the look, so I opted to stick with the solid black.  These are 4" x 8" geese made using the Quilt In A Day ruler.  Definitely one of my favorite rulers.

DOG STUFF

You may have seen this goofy pic already if you follow me on facebook or instagram.  A few people have suggested that we get another dog to help Coco relax, so...yup.  Being a crafty girl I made another dog.  Since this was taken I have brushed out this much fur AGAIN.  TWICE MORE in fact.

Here's another fun one - this one's from daycare.  Obviously neither one of these goofs has gone to Etiquette Class.  Elbows on the table??  Helloooo!

KITCHEN STUFF

Oh, hubby, hubby, hubby.  After one of my weekly chats with the Beach Girls I mentioned to DH that three of them have air fryers, and they were pretty surprised that I didn't have one.  Well, hubby doesn't need more than one reason to go shopping. 

 

I used it last night to bake frozen shoestring fries and onion rings and they both turned out pretty well.  Better than in the oven, as in crispier.  I don't think it did anything to make them healthier though.  That would require an act of God.  In a pointless attempt to make him repent I was reading the recipes to him that came in the little book... lots of sweet potatoes, broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, and fish recipes.  All on his personal list of "foods to avoid", ha ha ha. 

I'll close with a bit of beauty from Sept. 8th, courtesy of The Universe.

SUNSET

MOONRISE

COCO does a blog post

 Friday.  My favorite day of the week!  Mommy takes me for a drive so I can go play with my fourpaw fur-friends.

OK, now that I've burned off some steam it's Break Time!

Meh.  Don't like that pool.  More space in this one.

Self-explanatory? 😂

It's a dog's life... 🐕

New Collection of UFO's in 2022

 I'm sitting on the back patio, 8:30 on Friday evening.  Current temp is 24c with a feels like 30c.  Saturday and Sunday are both forecast to be 30c with a feels like 40c.  Given a choice between this heat or late January temps of -20c I will take this.  In the wilting heat of the day I'll stay inside and do whatever is on my necessary list but as it cools down a bit in the late afternoon I'm back outside.  I'm blaming this love of summer for my new little crop of UFO's.  The first one was a test run of the Modern Curves pantograph that two customers wanted.  At some point I plan to reload it and quilt it again on the crosswise grain - I think the resulting grid will be kinda cool.  Very 60's op-art-ish.

I'm not sure what I'll do with this...tote bags maybe?  Super cute fabric though.

As the Program Chairperson for the Binbrook Guild (fancy title - I was actually the ONLY Program person, ha ha ha) I made some samples of a fun quilt and shared a pattern for the ladies.  The first sample is made using a layer cake.

This second sample is made using a border print.

I'm also in the midst of making 20 flannel pillowcases for the hospice in Leamington.  And I've purchased 7 1/2 m. of fabric to make a Christmas quilt as a gift for someone.  But when it's nice outside I can't get myself to stay in the house and sew.  (or clean, but we won't go there, hmm?) 

At least once a week sleep eludes me - something wakes me up at 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning.  I lay there and I lay there trying to go back to sleep.  Sometimes I'll get up and read.  But usually what I want to do is go down to my workroom and turn on my sewing machine.  I never do though.  I assume that I'd wake up DH and since he doesn't sleep much better than me it wouldn't be fair to steal any of his precious shuteye.

Here's a shot from 5:47 am in mid-July.

In dogland, we're going to dog classes twice a week.  DH is doing most of the work with Coco, hoping to improve their relationship.  We're making tiny strides.

I did put her to work:

Coco helped me harvest the volunteer garlic.

Then she cooled off in the pool. 

 I haven't warned her that the potato harvest will start soon.

Two Pretties from May, and life-in-general

 Here's a gorgeous, soft & gentle quilt made by Margaret (of the Kawartha Margarets 😄).  She manages to seriously tackle several UFOs every year.

Margaret & I talk almost every Tuesday just to keep up with each other's lives.  It's nice to get a parcel in the mail from her and send back something interesting in return.  Those boxes don't usually contain a whole quilt, but sometimes...

As you know I love scrappy quilts.  That shot of pink running between the columns adds a great touch.

I've never made a braid quilt myself, but it's on my list.

One of the items on my to-do list for the last few years has been to GET TO THE LAWYER.  That was finally taken care of, so we now have proper Power of  Attorneys for both property and medical, and we have updated wills. 👍

Coco has been having a great deal of fun at Doggy Daycare. 

But I'll tell ya, she's not good for anything later on.

My plan for today is to try and get the garden planted.  I don't think I've ever been this late with it before, and there's no really good reason for it.  I've been out there quite a bit pulling weeds.  Apparently what I should have been doing is pulling a weed out and sticking a cabbage seedling in.  I've been eating lots of asparagus (pulling weeds out of that patch, too!).  The other day I made an asparagus quiche for the first time and IT IS DELICIOUS.  Recipe here.  I substituted dried basil for fresh, but otherwise I followed the recipe.

I still have lots of fruit in the freezer from last summer, so I decided to make a cherry/strawberry pie (since I was in the kitchen anyways making the quiche).  I made a full batch of pastry which splits into 6 x single pie crusts; I used one for the quiche and two for the pie.  The others are in the freezer, keeping the fruit company.  Now, half a block of lard has settled on my butt.  I guess I will have to move my diet to another day. 

Two More "Same But Different", Movie, Book, Dog

 Here are two more quilts of the same pattern, but different colour choices.

The pink quilt got a fun back too - made with a floral panel.

Whenever I go to a quilt show I hang around the aisles where they've hung all the quilts that were made at a workshop, so you can see the "same but different" quilts.  I've learned a lot about colour by paying close attention to how other people make use of their fabrics.

MOVIE:

I watched West Side Story and did not enjoy it.  It was depressing.

BOOK:

I finished reading The Diamond Eye.  It was good.  Except for the people who died, everyone lived happily ever after.  ha ha ha

DOG:

OMG, Coco loves doggy daycare.  When I took her last week she was whining in the back seat all the way there.  I thought maybe she needed to poop and I almost stopped at the side of the road.  I didn't (see:  proof right there that I'm a bad dog mom).  When I got her out of the car at the trainers' she was CRAZY to go see the handler, wagging her non-existent tail, rolling over for belly rubs, and jumping up in excitement.  After my little burst of joy at her happiness, I felt a bit like chopped liver.  Sigh.  Taking here here (The Canine Bond) was definitely the right thing to do to help her get out of her anxiety after the traumatic move from Mexico.

Coco's the little one on the right, with one of her new friends. 

SOCIAL OUTING:

Yes.  I went OUT.  The Beach Girls met in St. Jacobs for a celebratory birthday lunch.  Afterwards we hit the outlet mall, and then drove three minutes over to the Market.  I've never been to the market that I can remember.  We got a bonus deal on blueberries so the next time you see me I might have a slight purple tinge. 

And speaking of food, I made a batch of DELICIOUS Maple Buttertart Bars.  If you're like me you might scratch your head a bit over the cranberries, but trust me - these are delicious.

What I should be eating:

Same but Different, Coco updates, More UFO's

 I love seeing the same quilt made two different ways.  These are customer quilts, but this pattern is definitely on my "to-do" list.

Example #1 - dark geese with light background.

Example #2 - light geese with dark background.

COCO UPDATES

• She's still terrified of DH.  I keep reminding both of us that we should expect to have 14 years with her, so calm down.  If it takes a year for her to get comfortable, then so be it.
• We go out in the backyard in the afternoons now.  She kinda plays but not for very long.  She HAS barked at me a couple of times out there.  The first two or three barks really made me laugh - you could tell she hadn't used her vocal cords for quite a while.  You know how weird you sound first thing in the morning?  Transition that to dog barks. 😄
• Morning walkies can be a bit of an adventure.  She likes to pick things up, carry them for a while, drop them, pick them back up, repeat...  She also likes to eat dirt.  Ick.  That can't be good for her, can it?  She also likes to eat grass (which might explain the middle-of-the-night puking).
• The most recent "normal dog" event - twice now she's gone and picked up one of her toys from the dining room and brought them to her bed in the living room.  Is she corralling them?  Maybe.
• She looked like she had fun at doggy daycare this week.  
• I washed the floors on Easter Sunday.  OMG they were filthy with dog drool.  And that's all we're going to say about my housekeeping.

MORE UFO'S

Yes I need to have my head read.  I have two more ufo's on the go.

I'm working on a quilt for Ukraine with a friend of mine.  We're each making blocks, then we'll assemble them into a nice sized quilt (double bed size I think).  It will go to one of the refugee families.

Working on those blues & yellows has temporarily interrupted my other recent UFO.

I have 98 of those little blue/grey half-square triangle blocks, which are cutoffs from a baby quilt I made a few years ago.

JANUARY 2022

The are getting the log cabin treatment until they hit 7" x 7".  At that point I will make two baby quilts from them.

APRIL 2022

And speaking of Ukraine and the atrocities being wrought by the Russians, I just started to read The Diamond Eye by Kate Quinn.  It's too early to say good/bad but it's about a female Russian sniper.
 

Log Cabin & Stars

 This is quilt work from January.  During the pandemic I didn't really have a lot of opportunity to go over quilting ideas in my studio - we were all afraid to get within six feet of each other.  Quilts would get dropped off on the front porch and we'd visit for a little while.  The quilt would stay in quarantine for at least three days, then I'd photograph it and email doodles to the piecer so we could kick around ideas.

This was nicely pieced, which makes it much easier to work on.

Feathers, with some nice contrast from the straight lines.

A beautiful combination of colours, don't you think?

My favorite kind of back...artsy-fartsy, using some leftover blocks. 

WHAT'S BEEN GOING ON...

• First use of the solar dryer on March 18th.  That's always uplifting because it means sunshine and warm weather.
• Our s.i.l. passed away from a brain tumor - just heartbreaking, she was only 62.  I contacted the hospice where she spent her last days and they would be grateful for flannel pillowcases.  I had offered them either pillowcases or a Dignity Quilt, but they already have a quilt.  I've got lots of flannel on my shelves (ahem) so that will be my little project for the next few weeks.
• I'm trying to use up some of the frozen produce from last year - I made a nice pot of asparagus soup, rhubarb muffins, and cherry-almond crisp.  You can probably see my arse expanding from there.
• Coco started doggy daycare with the scaredy-cat group.  The first day she spent two hours being a scared/disinterested attendee.  Then she must have figured what the hell and decided to play for the last hour.  Week two was even better - she got right into the fun as soon as she got there. 
• I finished the Superbowl Sunday quilt.  Yay!  This goes into my box of donation quilts that will be delivered somewhere later this year.  Usually I bring them to the Women's Shelter in Hamilton.
  
  
  
  
  
  
• Coco is starting to turn into a "normal" dog.  She woke us up puking at 3 am.  sigh.  Other big events:  she picked up a Kong ball and nosed it around, she's eaten the treats that were stuck into the Kong rubber bone (one of those toys designed to keep a dog amused for a while), she likes to roll around in the dead/rotting bird carcass on our morning walk, and she's chased the frisbee in the backyard.  Mind you, she only chases it ONCE.  Then I throw it, I go get it, I throw it, I go get it...  
• I finished the 2021 bookkeeping and got everything off to the accountant.
• Out here we all have those rural mailboxes at the road.  One of our neighbours has a problem in that their little mailbox door is usually open.  I guess it's loose and won't stay shut.  On our morning walkies today Coco jumped up and tried to rip it off.  Just for fun.  You know.  Thankfully she has bad aim!