TWO of my own finished and the Garden Terrorist

 I set a few challenges for myself every year, in a feeble attempt to accomplish something.  Otherwise, Facebook, you know?  This year's UFO portion was to finish any three UFOs, and I completed that at the end of May.  I already showed you the Vintage Tulips a couple months ago - that was #1.

#2 completion is the sampler quilt that the Binbrook guild ran as a block of the month from 2017 through 2018.  I managed to finish it in only three years!  Woo hoo!

The objective was to make each block twice, but reverse the colours on the second one.  So, take your lights and swap for darks.  It was a fun exercise and I was very happy with the end result.

Here's a lovely shot of the back.

And a closeup of the quilting in the blocks.

My third finish is the X's and O's that I've been dragging around with me to endless retreats for several years.

The front is quite busy but the plain squares show the quilting motif very nicely.

This is a better photo of the pretty, delicate border design.

I'm more than half way through hand stitching the binding, so I'm calling this one finished.

The remaining items on my Challenge list include several projects that I want to get started on, as well as making sure I get at least five donation quilts ready before the end of the year.  Last year I took quite a stack to Martha House and I'll probably take this year's there too.

THE GARDEN TERRORIST

I always know that summer has truly arrived when as dusk descends I notice the white noise of frogs and toads singing in the background.  My friend's husband Larry - we call him Mr. Science & Nature - explained to me the difference between frogs and toads.  Frogs are water creatures, whereas toads live on land.  In pre-covid times when I had the luxury of going OUT somewhere in the evening, it was always fun to come home in the dark and notice the little toads hopping out of my way as I'd come up the walkway, from the driveway to the front door.  Then approaching the porch and before I opened the front door, I would check the upper corner where the walls and the roofline meet to see if our resident bat was lurking up there.  (I learned that little habit the HARD way.  Use your imagination!)

My little TERRORIST friend lives on the back patio.  This year I was ready for him so I paid very careful attention when I was mucking about in the flowerbed.  I saw him before he hopped away, and avoided having to explain to DH that "no, it's ok, I'm fine, nothing to see here".

Then not a half hour later, the little bugger.... !!!!  Scared the POOP out of me.

Focus Print Quilts, Medallion Quilt, & Gardening

These are the BEST quickie type of quilt.  Choose some gorgeous fabrics and add a border or two.

They make lovely lap quilts, sofa throws, bed coverlets, or tablecloths.

 I studied this one at great length.  I've never made a medallion quilt even though I've been quilting for 25 years.

It looks pretty straightforward, with large piecing.  I'm definitely giving this a go...

Gardening...I've been eating fresh kale, that lived over the winter.  The crazy thing is, it showed up all by itself last year - I didn't plant it.  Sometimes it pays to be a messy gardener, deciding in November that "to heck with it - it can stay there and die a lonely death under the snow & ice".  I guess it had already gone to seed, and then came back to haunt poor DH. 😆

And I've been picking asparagus for over a week.  Yum!!  Don't laugh...yes it take a few days to collect enough for a proper serving at this time of year.  In June I will probably be begging people to take some.

The problem with leaving blog posts so long in between is that I forget what the heck has been going on. 

• I took a six week writing class which was really (!) good.  Instructor was Deborah Kimmett.   I've been (trying) to write a bit every day, but you know... facebook.  
• On nice days I try and get out in the garden because I'm a fair weather gardener.  
• Hubby had a birthday so I baked a chocolate cake for him.  I got the icing out of the freezer, and checked if he was around to see that the label on it was 2017.  SUCCESS!  I did not poison us!  Ha ha, marital duplicity. LINK to the recipe - Martha Stewart Chocolate Frosting.  This makes enough for TWO double layer cakes, hence a batch that stays in the freezer for, um, a while.  Honestly, I really HAVE to put this in the freezer or I would eat the whole batch.  It's not super sweet, and the dairy makes it sooo creamy - mmm.
• Speaking of the freezer, we're having frozen, uh, stuff for dinner tonight.  He's getting the frozen leftover spaghetti, and I'm getting the frozen ??? that looks like either chili or stew.  Maybe Chili Chili Bang Bang from the Looneyspoons cookbook?  It appears to be vegetarian, but I'm not quite sure...

Elephants & Gardening & More Covid (and a little stupid humour)

 This elephant was great to work on.

All ruler work, as you can see, except for a few bits of tusks & toes, a wrinkly nose, and a shaggy tail.

This was pieced by the same gal who did this Unicorn quilt.

It made me think of the crazy elephant jokes we heard on our honeymoon, from another honeymooning couple at Blue Mountain.

GARDENING

After crabbing about mending hubby's pants a few weeks ago, the Universe decided to even the score.

Uh huh.  These are MY pants.  Sigh.

I decided to get all girly with my repair. 🌻

Bloodroot, which is alway nice and early.  

A bit of a change from daffodils which I also love.

The big news for me today - the asparagus is up!!!  Tomorrow I'll make a pot of soup from the last frozen packet of the 2020 crop, then it will be time to start pulling out all the recipes for fresh cuttings.  Mmm mmm...

COVID-19 UPDATE

WORLDWIDE:  140 million cases, 3 million deaths, 832,800 new cases April 16/21

USA:   32.3 million cases, 580,000 deaths, 82,000 new cases yesterday

CANADA: 1,106,000 cases, 23,541 deaths, 9,346 new yesterday

ONTARIO: 413,000 cases, 7,698 deaths, 4,362 new yesterday.  Ontario has been reporting record high numbers this past week. 

HAMILTON:  15,146 cases, 344 deaths, 247 new yesterday - a new record high.

I've been stewing and steaming most of the day over the Ontario Government's handling of the pandemic this year.  Yesterday the Premier announced the 4 week stay-at-home order would be extended by an additional two weeks, to end on May 20th.  I'm all in favour of this - don't misunderstand me.  But he could have done so much more, and much much earlier.  With the current lockdown, big box stores were finally limited to essential goods only, so apparently Costco and Walmart have cordoned off the fluffy goods we don't really need.  

Hubby and I have gotten our first shots last week, which was such a relief.  But in all honesty, we are in a great position to stay at home and stay out of harm's way.  I feel so badly for essential workers who should have been prioritized for vaccines - the dental hygienist, the grocery store cashier, the day care worker, the assisted living employee, ad nauseum...  And as far as essential goods goes, if we don't have vaccines for the Amazon employees, should Amazon really be open?  Putting their staff and the shipping company employees at risk so we can order a kite, or a set of magic markers?

If I were Doug Ford I would be in a coma by now from lack of sleep.  I truly feel sorry for him having the pandemic drop in his lap, but he has an excellent crew of scientists and medical experts who have advised him and warned him for months about where we were headed.  Because he did not heed their advice we have indeed landed where we don't want to be.

OK - off my soapbox.

STUPID HUMOUR FROM OUR HONEYMOON

Q: How do you get an elephant into a VW?
A: Open the car door, put the elephant inside, close the door.

Q: How do you put an elephant into a fridge?
A: Open the VW door, take the elephant out, close the VW door, open the fridge, put the elephant inside, close the fridge.

Q: How do you get 4 elephants into a Volkswagen?
A: 2 in the front and 2 in the back

Q: How do you know if there are 4 elephants in your fridge?
A: There's a VW parked outside your house.