Cold & Icy With Sew Days!

 We weather has been cold with slippery icy days that make me very nervous about walking about outside.

So for now I shovel the front porch for outside activity & stay warm & cozy inside!

I finished the Scrappy Irish Chain 90" x 90" only to have fellow quilters, thoughtfully point out that some blocks were turned!

I was so thankful!! There's another in the bottom left side too! This quilt was at the longarm quilter to be quilter until I called & asked to hold it until I come to 'fix & unsew those squares'.

It really pays to look at the finished work through a lens! 

All 989 scrappy squares & 300 dark brown squares were sewn to natural linen, oh my, what was I thinking?! I was so pleased that the fat quarters finally had a wonderful complimenting project!

And from the numerous scraps cut for that quilt that was leftover, I made a 22" square quilted pillow cover & a sweetheart accent pillow. 

I started to do the final placement of the wedding signature banner from the wedding of our son to our new DIL Nicole on October 11, 2020. 

I need the whole area free of pets to do the photo & then a full day for sewing all the blocks together.

I am comfortable in working with muted colours from the past but also enjoy working with the bright colours of the 30s & the colours of today. I love colour in every hue!

This is the free February SAL that I'll be sewing together each week.

And it is Kitty Approved by Rexton the Manx!

I pulled from my stash to make this one too! And the background will be a custard yellow with blue baskets from a sale fat 1/4 I purchased a few years back & have admired as I love the colour blue.

My husband Bill often teases me that I have everything I have ever purchased...

This is an old wool Buchanan tartan (Richardson is part of that clan) that Boris Loree used & he died in 2015. He would scratch to cover himself up & his nails would create holes but I still saw enough tartan wool to make something from it, after all, it was our tartan colours!

And the fringe, well some of it was still intact.

Most people would through it out but I see value in so much that is made from quality goods and 

I just needed a creative jumping board...

And that idea was last fall on PEI visiting a tartan store & what they had done with a wool blanket!

The small pillow is all made from the wool blanket & the large pillow is from the blanket with a double fringe layer (I knew it could be incorporated somehow!) & faux dark brown suede the same suede that I have cut for the Scrappy Irish Chain's binding.

I love when ideas are out of my head & I can hold them!

I have wanted to make this baby a quilt since his birth in November & finally got around to it this week.

His name is so unique that I wanted it on his nursery blanket.

It's an adorable bunny print by Bunny Hill print by Ann Sutton, again I've had it in my stash to make a baby quilt & have finally done so!

The print was too adorable to cut up and the name piecing was a job itself so I'm pleased with how cute it is!

 

The background is a white polka dot on a soft green & the chocolate rabbits will be great for this beautiful baby's first Easter.

I'm slowing down due to my back going out with the heavy deep shovel shovelling but I'm on the mend! It will be better now that Bill is back from England & can plow & shovel the deep snow.

I blame myself for missing several of the maintenance chiro appointments to keep my spine aligned, next week I will look into that issue!

Here is one of my favourite sayings:

Be who you are and say what you feel because those who mind don't matter and those that matter don't mind. 

You'll never guess who said that!

Dr. Seuss, pen name for Theodor Suess Geisel

Thank you for popping in for a visit & I hope you are well & taking care.

You will never be as young as you are today.

Stay safe & stay healthy.

Cynthia

First Storm of This Year

 Well, Atlantic Canada got its first storm this year of snow followed by freezing rain followed by rain. We have had such mild temperatures & with just 85 days until Easter, this winter is going to go by fast!

I got two of my quilts done the day before the storm & I am really pleased with how they turned out!

This is the Autumn Harvest quilt & the border print that was leftover was cut into 300 -  2.5"squares for the scrappy Irish Chain quilt that I'm working on now.

Rose is going to do edge-to-edge leaves quilting on the longarm, it will really complement the falling of the leaves from the top to the bottom in this autumn quilt.

It was a fun sew-along & it is the only way I would have done this quilt as it was like eating an elephant one bite at a time. The next sew-along is in February & will be tradition baskets, I'm in!

The Lori Holt -  Scrappiness Is Happiness 32-week quilt along, I finished mine as it was taking up way too much of my sewing room after week 10. I'm onto more projects for this spring!

I added some personalized touches to this quilt pattern.

How sweet is this Boston?! He was in my Christmas stocking from Nick & Leslie & I love him in this quilt, he is my Boris Loree.

Then the house has Bridget Loree & Baxter Loree coming to the door, a very frequent happening here daily. When they come in they get a treat so they love leaving to come through the door for a treat!

I ordered some KYROTIME labels to put on things that I make. Kyrotime is my happy place! And the sewing machine for my sewing & the flower basket for the love of the garden both make my heart sing!

I've been working on Mitch & Nicole's wedding signature banner to take to them this Easter. It is getting there with just a few more modifications. I used Civil war reproduction prints & scraps from the wedding quilt I made them. Each patterned square will finish at 16".

Scrappy Irish Chain

I was not going to do this but it called out to me as the perfect pattern to use the Williamsburg Exploration fat quarters that I have been fondling for twenty years. 

989 2.5" squares are needed for this and another 300 of the brown from the Autumn Harvest scraps, with a linen-like fabric that Jocelyne gifted me years back to make a curtain. 

This is a quilt along with Fabric Cupboard in Moncton NB that just spoke to me...

Maybe it was a need for the muted dark colours to ground me after using the bright happy fabrics from Lori Holt of Bee In My Bonnet. Fabric is colour much like friends, some are loud & happy others are quiet & more sombre, it is wonderful to have choices to play with as winter now here.

Each block has 81 blocks & there will be 13 of them! Sew much sewing to do now & choices of placement, I will want an easy no thinking quilt after this one!

I love the texture of the brown fabric with the linen fabric, it is going to have such a wonderful look!

An old world fee is what I'm trying to achieve, time will time but so far I am pleased with the colour & texture choices.

Rexton wanted in on the action too & grounded the main fabric with her approval! lol

The larger fat quarters are going to be made into cushion covers that will look great on the brown leather furniture in the great room!

With Christmas put away, I leave the RH birch up to give light to the dark days & it really looks nice at night! 

These hearts were at Urban Nest for 50% off as Christmas ornaments, I used them for decor for our New Year's dinner & will leave them up for Valentine's Day. They are very well made & double-sided!!

The backyard view of the morning before the storm, red sky in the morning, sailor take warning.

I loved the warm hue with the cold snow & the fringe of the island's evergreens separating the colours.

Thank you for stopping in for a visit, I'm glad you came by to see what I was up to & creating.

I hope you have a wonderful weekend followed by a great week!

Stay healthy this cold & flu season & happy with whatever makes your heart sing!

Hugs,

Cynthia xXx

And The Year 2023 Begins!

 We celebrated new year's eve in our dreams, we could not stay awake past 10pm as morning people enjoy getting up early to start the day. And when we awoke, it was 2023!

Bill had been very busy in the lead-up to the year ending & here is what he was up to!

Look to the left corner with the small built-in cupboard that was there when we purchased the house...

Here is another view, it is a popular spot in the winter with the firebox for Baxter & Bridget!

Bill made me this beautiful custom built-in cupboard for all my quilts & afghans, these are just a few from my collection over the years. I'll post a photo again when it is full! 

He was so busy every night after work measuring cutting & creating this beautiful piece of custom furniture for me & my creativity! xXx

Look on the right side of the firebox...he made a welded holder for the firewood!!

The corner of the great room is so customized now & winter has found us, yesterday it snowed!

Here is a close-up of the cast iron owls before everything was painted. I took this photo when Bill was making sure everything was measured right & fit into the space. We found these owls at Louis Open Door Antiques in Chatham a few years back & used them to decorate the log pile. Bill made them so they swivel & I never noticed that they were sitting on a branch until they were detached from the metal bars & placed upward! We've had such great finds at Open Door Antiques!

This is the 'before'. It now has such a great function & is handy for filling the firebox!

This is the 'after', Bill also installed clear acrylic down the side to keep all the bark bits in!

The northeast corner of the great room has great form & function to it thanks to Bill's creativity & his gift to work with wood & metal. He said the metal was so much easier to work with as he understands it more but is enjoying the journey of learning how to make things from wood.

Gary, our London ON friend introduced him to the Busy Bee shop & he is like a kid at the candy store...or his wife in a quilt shop! lol

I played that Baxter was Max from The Grinch! lol

This was the first time Bill had made a cupboard & enjoyed it so much that he's now designing built-in cupboards under the great-room window with a wrap-around cupboard to go under the large TV screen!

He is a talented man in everything he does, I'm so blessed to have him!

I quilted up this 24" pillow cover & will make a pillow out of it for the Praire Meadow quilt. 

The Praire Meadow quilt has now been bound & is housed in the new cupboard!

 

I'm doing the finishing touches to this 16" x 20" Kathy Schmitz project called Frosty & Friends.

I wanted not Christmas on it so I could hang it for the winter months. I'm doing embellishments on each one with beads, embroidery, pompoms, etc...there are thirty of them!

This trio is brought to life, with 27 more to go!

Bill fills the feeders Christmas morning & has the chickadees feeding from his hand again!

You can see we had great weather so far this winter!

This too will pass...

We have such a good life out here on the east coast on the Atlantic, around us wildlife is abundant.

It is quieter in the winter but come spring everything comes to life again with mother nature.

Bridget does not do mornings well, she likes to just stay warm & cozy in her bed.

Baxter is the same way, he's on the other side of her under his blankets warm & cozy.

As we enter a new year everything is fresh like we have a new start with our days, make them count!

Thank you for stopping in for a visit & I hope you enjoyed seeing the updates to Bill's customizing our home here out east. 

Wishing you the very best this year!

Hugs,

Cynthia xXx