Wheels on the Cart!

A lot of work has been happening over the past few weeks at our cottage.  One bedroom that had dark panelling was transformed with a couple coats of white paint.  A new floor was also installed.  What a change.  Plus the outside of our cottage went from beige to Wedgwood Blue.  Sorry no photos, but we are happy with the changes.

While driving to and fro from home to the cottage, the fall foliage showed us its' glory.  This section of the gravel road to our cottage is mostly yellows.  Other sections are beautiful reds and oranges but we didn't stop to take photos of those trees.  We didn't want to linger on the roads too long as it is hunting season and we weren't wearing orange vests.

This was taken at our lake.

I've been admiring this cedar tree for many years.  It is over 50 yrs. old and was already there when my parents bought the property.  How beautiful those cedar trees have grown.  It would be perfect to take photos of one of my quilts hanging from a branch.

Here is my latest finish!  Whooohooo ....

The breeze was blowing and I had to quickly take my photos as the quilt danced in the breeze. 

Quilt Details:

I started making hourglass blocks in October 2020 during a sew along with Cluck Cluck Sew.  All my blocks were made using charm squares.  Yippee ..... that stash was greatly reduced along the way!

Then, I started playing with EQ7 to see what interesting design I could come up with to use all those hourglass blocks and viola "Wheels on the Cart" was born.

Started:  October 2020

Top finished:  January 2021

Quilt finished:  October 2021

Quilt size:  74-1/2" x 93-1/2" (top size before quilting, washing and drying:  76-1/4" x 94-3/4")

Batting:  Hobbs poly on a roll

Machine quilted by:  Kathy Wareham

Another quilt is done and the top was finished during the start of a long covid lock-down!  What can I say except how happy I am to have this quilt finished and ready to enjoy this winter.

This past weekend was Thanksgiving here in Canada.  This year, it was decided to spend the holiday at our cottage.  It has been over 25 yrs. since we last did that.  The weather was perfect and the temperature was warm and that is something we haven't seen in many years.  The younger generation hit the trails and roads on their atv's and what fun they had. 

Cherish your day, cherish your life!

All that binding!

Yesterday, I picked up 5 quilts from the LAer.  Lots and lots of binding to come!  This is a good time as the temps. are starting to cool down now and to have these on my lap in the evenings will be most welcome.

I do have a finish but no photos to show you.  Binding and label are done.  Tick, tick.  Just need a sleeve and then wash and dry and then photos to come.  Happy, happy, happy to have something finished after quite a dry spell of just finishing tops.

Cottage season is starting to wind down and I will be spending more time at home now.  But not quite yet as there is some work that needs to be done to the cottage.  Staining of the outside and some painting inside as well as new floors laid in the two bedrooms.  The cottage is small and the work is something that can be achieved in day trips here and there.  Only a few more weeks and then the cottage will be closed for the winter.

Last Friday, I zoomed for the first time with a number of quilters from around the world.  Chookyblue is the hostess and she has been trying to get me to zoom for quite a while now.  Friday was a rainy day and I stayed home and viola ..... zoom, zoom, zoom!  To all those ladies that I met and are reading my blog for the first time .... hello again and it was lovely meeting you! 

Cherish your day, cherish your life! 

What a surprise!

This is what I saw when the curtains were opened this morning.  Usually, my hubby has them open by the time I get downstairs but not this morning.  Why?  Surprise!

Where have the years gone?  One day I'm 20, then 50 and .... wham ..... 70!  Thank you to my dear family for arranging this.

Another surprise was when our neighbour came outside (holding her baby girl) and wished me a 'happy birthday' but also thanked me for making the NICU blanket for her baby.  What a coincidence.  I'm a bit confused because my name is not added to the label as I prefer to remain anonymous.  Perhaps with the last batch my name was added to the label by someone else.  A mystery.

A call came from another neighbour wishing me 'happy birthday'.  Now everyone on the street knows how old I am.  Darn, I was hoping to keep them guessing.  LOL  Anyway, she informed me that it is their 63rd wedding anniversary today also.  How sweet is that!

  

This is another surprise.  This buck was sleeping on our hill this past Saturday and stayed in that spot until 11:30 a.m. and then finally got up and munched its' way along the ridge.  He was so well camouflaged that my husband didn't see him when he went up the hill to work.  Hubby was just 20' away and suddenly the deer lifted it's head.  My husband slowly backed away and left him to sleep the morning away.

On the quilting front, progress has been made with the applique for my "Gingham Swirls".  These are all completed.

Most of the background fabrics are cut 12-1/2" x 12-1/2", but a few will have four 6-1/2" squares.  From the cutouts from the back of the applique, there is just enough fabric to cut one 6-1/2" square.  Every row will have a patched background block just to make things interesting.

So, I'm planning on having a terrific day!

Cherish your day, cherish your life!

Gingham Swirl goes to applique!

All the swirls are now complete ...... they just need to be appliqued onto the background fabrics and that is what I will concentrate on now.  It feels so good to see this much progress on an oldie UFO.

Cherish your day, cherish your life!

Gingham Swirl is twirling along!

Amazing what the difference it makes when a person concentrates on a project!  Here we are a week and a half later and this is what has been done.

Thirteen whirly gigs have been completed with 7 more to sew together.

Once these are completed, how will they be assembled?  One reader asked will they be appliqued onto a background fabric?  Yes, she already knew what I was planning.  Does she have ESP or has she read my blog long enough to know what I will do?  LOL

I'm debating if different background fabrics will be used or one extra wide fabric and mark off a 12" square grid.  That decision will have to be made soon.

Now that all the remaining blades have been prepped, my cutting table can be cleaned up once again.

Cherish your day, cherish your life!

I will be changing over from "no comments" to "comment moderation" and delete any spam comments before they appear on my blog posts.  To explain about the spam, what ticked me off was that one person recently left 65 comments on different posts on the same day.  About a month before it was 50 spam comments on same day but different posts.  A lot of work was involved with deleting messages from my email and marking (on the comment portion of my blog) those comments as spam or garbage so that they are not visible to my loyal readers.   

Gingham Swirl

Progress has been ongoing with this oldie!  My cutting station is a mess with red fabrics and red neutral fabrics.  Just when my station is nice and tidy ..... wham ..... it is a mess once again.

Still, I'm happy with the progress!

Six whirly gigs are completely done now.  Two different fabrics are needed for each blade making them very scrappy and interesting.

Six more are in the works.

A total of twenty whirly gigs are needed.  Time to cut some more fabrics.

Each day, more leaves are starting to change.  Day and night time temps are starting to lower.  It is that time of year to start sleeping under a quilt once again.

Time to get my summer quilts changed over to fall quilts.

Cherish your day, cherish your life!

What I've been working on!

In an effort to reduce more of my UFO's, a four more projects have been pulled off the shelf.

I have just two more of these leaf blocks to make and then I can pin all the blocks on my design wall and see where I'm at with this project.

Then, fabrics have been pulled to make more of these red/neutral blocks.

More petals are being prepped to continue working on this green/blue/yellow blocks.  

Last, but not least, borders have been decided on my Got Dots top.  I didn't realize the centre had all been sewn together until it was pinned onto my design wall.  Bonus!

Then ...... squirrel ..... a new project has been started!  I had so much fun making Red Sampler that I decided to make a new project called Blue Sampler.  There are going to be 15 leaf blocks that you see below along with a variety of pieced blocks.  So, sit back and wait to see more about this down the road.

These projects should keep me busy for a while, eh!

And .... there probably will be a few more squirrel projects popping up ....... tee hee!

My sister and I, along with my brother and two cousins spent four days at our cottage.  We had great fun, a lot of laughs, wonderful food.  You know what they say about "what happens at the cottage, stays at the cottage"!  All I will say is that we were extremely thankful that a pharmacist was in a cottage next to ours and she was able to render assistance to us.  She went out of her way to make a trip into the nearest town to her pharmacy to obtain insulin (person forgot to take the full amount needed during stay) and a monitor (it died) for a certain someone and if someone's glucose didn't stabilize at an acceptable level, that person was going with her to the hospital.   We owe her a case of wine for her kindness and her professional aid along with her educating that person on insulin and why the situation happened and how to avoid it in future!   Diabetes and insulin can be so tricky and dangerous.  Yeah, that's my story and I'm sticking to it .... yeah!

In the back is my brother, me and my sister.  In the front are our two cousins that drove up from southern Ontario.

The guys did all the cooking leaving my sister and I to sit back and take it easy.  Talk about being spoiled.  Our cousin Bob (sitting down) is a master BBQer and he gave instructions on how he wanted the food to be cooked.  The piece d'resistance was ribs on our final night together!  Gosh, they were mouth watering good!

I asked Bob if he had won any competitions and yes, down in the U.S. and at home in Canada.  So, we all knew we were in for a treat.

Cherish your day, cherish your life!