January doings and February maybe’s

January was a good month to sit and sew and sew and sew.  The weather was very cold.  It got down to -38C (-36F) for a few days.  I needed to stay bundled up and warm.  A quilt over my legs and a cat on my lap kept me toasty.  So, let's see what I did for the Chookshed Stitchers 2026 Challenge.

Finally got this top done!  Can cross that off my list.   Top size:  54-1/2” x 73”

Next on my doings is this hexie project.  Got lots done as you can see.  The bottom left section will get sewn together during the Olympics.  Yeah .... so excited to watch the events!

Also, for February, the binding will get sewn down onto this quilt.

Finally, if there is time, this quilt needs to be started and ready for gifting in May.  It has to be enlarged to double size and I'm hoping there is enough fabric to do that.  If not, I will have to improvise.  

On a political note, our Prime Minister Carney announced that in 6 months, Canada has made 12 deals/agreements with countries on 4 continents.  Now, that is quite an achievement.  As you see, Canada has moved on.  We just got tired of the orange clown's threats and decided enough was enough.  We are no longer attached to the hip with the USA and we can't go back.  There are way too many crazies ready to step in and do the same once the clown is gone.  We learned our lesson.  As one country amongst others in the middle power, we can achieve lots.

Cherish your day, cherish your life, cherish your freedom and cherish your country.  My country will always be CANADA!  

Elbows up!

A Hexie we will go ….

I’ve had a great week ….. got to work on my hexies.  I could just work constantly on this project and not do anything else, but I have a few goals to try to achieve this month.

This is 1/4 of the top.  

The top section is all sewn together as you can see by the white part showing between the sections.  Oh yes, I could easily just work on this.  This will be handy to work on while watching the Olympics next month.

Mr. Ridley is quite comfy to stay indoors these days.  It is -17C this morning and he just sniffed the air and walked away from the open door.  He remembers that was the temperature when we rescued him nearly two years ago and he doesn’t want to go back into that temperature again.  Here he is in his cat tree.  I bought a wicker basket for him to sleep in instead of the flimsy bed that came with the tree.  I had to cover the wicker because he started to chew on it.  The basket is screwed onto the tree so that it will not fall off.  Do you not think he looks like a prince surveying his territory?  He likes to watch the humans walking their dogs.  I wonder what he thinks of the coats and booties that the dogs are wearing?

Deer are back eating the leaves off of this shrub.  There were a total of four that came that day.

Freedom ….. I see the American freedom disappearing daily.  Is this what you really want?  What will you do when you are ordered to show up for an event and clap and cheer like crazy?  Wake up before it is too late.  

Cherish your day, cherish your life, cherish your freedom and cherish your country.  My country will always be CANADA!  Elbows up!

Rail Fence Delight

Looking over my photos of finished quilts, here is one that was never shown.  My “Rail Fence Delight”.

Ridley had to photo bomb my set up.  What a guy!  Thing is …. he wants to play and thinks this will make me stop …..

It all started with a small salad container and some pre-cut neutral strips that I bought from a lady that was moving (Wendy in Barrie as I know she reads my blog).  The Rail Fence block was the way to go!  The center was done quite some time ago, but the border stumped me and the project was shelved for many years.  Oh, what to do, what to do?  Stars!  They were in the center panels as flowers and that was my final decision and I’m so happy now!  Circles were added to break the stars up and make it even more interesting.

Remaining extra Rail Fence blocks were put onto the backing and they make quite the impact.

Quilt Details:

Pattern Source:  this is my design and no pattern is available.

Rail Fence Block size:  3-3/4” square finished.

Started:  March 2015

Top finished:  May 2024

Quilt finished:  November 2024

Quilt size:  73” x 88”  (size before quilting, washing and drying:  76” x 91-1/2”)

Batting:  Hobbs poly

Machine quilted by:  Kathy Wareham using Stars at the Gate by Christy Dillon

 

Cherish your day, cherish your life and cherish your country!  My country will always be CANADA!  Elbows up!

2026 Chookshed Stitching Challenge

This will be the third year participating in this 10 month challenge.  I always seem to do well as the rules are vague and flexible and that makes it so easy to accomplish something.  

For the month of January ….. I will try to get a binding onto one of these quilts:

For my next round of hopeful accomplishments (but not assign a number),  I will work on the following when it feels right.  That is what I love about the challenge…..it is so flexible and that helps keep me motivated!

Adding more flying geese blocks to this Xmas project.

This EPP will be worked on for most of the months of the challenge.  There is no pattern for this …. I’m just winging it and so far, I love it.  I do need to get all those hexies transferred to another portable design wall to help free up my main design wall.

Assemble the remaining blocks (that are in a stack at the bottom of this photo) into a top.

I will just start with these for now.  More projects will be added as the months go by and I can assess my progress.  With my condition, my abilities to do things are slowing me down and that is why I need to be realistic and see what I can actually achieve.

With the new year, I don’t generally make resolutions …. exception this year is exercise more as that will keep me from using a walker or a cane in our home.  My cane is my companion outdoors and a walker allows me to zip around in a shopping mall.  The stair lift in our home is very helpful on those days when my legs feel weak or for when I need to save my strength to go on errands or appointments.  It seems to be when there is a weather change coming my muscles are affected.

Cherish your day, cherish your life and cherish your country!  My country will always be CANADA!  Elbows up!

Scrappy Xmas Trees

It is time to show you this finished quilt.  It didn’t get displayed for the holidays.  It was brought to my night guild at beginning of December for Show & Tell and it stayed in the bag since then.  I simply forgot about it until today.   Jeez Louise.

It was fun going through my Xmas scraps and pulling anything that would work and I’m very happy with the results.

Quilt Details

Pattern Source:  corianderquilts.com

Block size:  12” finished

Quilt size:  62” x 74-1/2” (size before quilting and washed and dried:  65” x 77-1/4”)

Quilt started:  November 2024

Top finished:  January 2025

Quilt finished:  December 2025

Batting:  Hobbs poly

Machine quilted by:  Kathy Wareham 

Cherish your day, cherish your life and cherish your country.  My country will always be CANADA.  Elbows up!

Using up scraps time!

Since I’m drowning in scraps ….. what is a gal to do …… but start a new Hexie quilt.  I needed a project to keep my hands moving and this is perfect.

There will be a blue border all around and all other colours inside.  I’m still designing as I go along and the inside could change.

I’m staying warm and cosy inside while we have sleet and a flash freeze happening outside.

So, I think I will just pull out my 37 pencils and sharpen them up ….. because I can and don’t have an orange clown telling me I need only one.   BTW, can a person buy just one pencil?  Nah, they come in a box of 10 at least.  What an idiot.  While your economy is going down, down, down, our Canadian economy is doing ok.  Our BUY CANADIAN is strong and growing.  How lovely to see more and more Canadian products on the store shelves these days.  Oh and there is a FB site to warn us of products that were made in USA but labelled to make us think it was made in Canada.  We’re on to your scam!  We have moved on and won’t be back because there are a lot of American idiots waiting in the wings and we have learned our lesson.

Today, I bought a dark fruit cake that has been soaked in brandy.  Does anyone else eat fruit cake?  We grew up eating it at Xmas time and I’m always looking for different brands in search of finding the version that my Mom used to make.

Cherish your day, cherish your life and cherish your country!  My country will always be CANADA!  Elbows up, Canada!

Hamster stockings

My great nieces got new hamsters this year (their old hamsters passed on) and with Xmas coming ….. well they needed new stockings.  Luckily, I kept the pattern from the previous stockings and gave them the fronts and let them design what they wanted.  

Here they are hanging up with their other stockings that I have made over the years.

In other news, my knitted leg warmers are coming along slowly, but not when this little guy is awake and alert.  He has already chewed my yarn up in two places, so they stay safely hidden until he goes for a nap in his cubby hole.

 

 The next quilt up for binding is this one.

As I’m sitting here, a snow plow just went by and plowed the street leaving a ridge at the bottom of our driveway.  I was looking at it and saw its name ….. Catch My Drift ….. we have been naming our snow plows here for a few years now.  Not sure where the tradition started but it sure made me chuckle.  LOL. I was just too slow in getting a photo.  Next time, I’ll be ready.

Cherish your day, cherish your life and cherish your country.  My country will always be CANADA!  Elbows up!