Good Bye March!

 March is going to leave us at midnight & I so look forward to April & Easter & the wonder of Mother Nature as the earth comes to life once more. 

I did a walkabout this morning thinking those thoughts...

Looking through the dining room window at the deck railing that I use as my snow gauge, it is covered again by the strong winds that grow the snowdrifts.

The sky this morning was glowing with a beautiful magenta/ mauve colour.

The weather is calling for rain this afternoon, 'Red sky in the morning, sailor take warning'.

Bill has kept the asphalt lane plowed & the sun melts it well on black asphalt.

The asphalt was installed in the summer of 2017 & this year needs to be sealed again, that's going to be a big job! Remember the hot day that it went in Sandy & you gasped at the size of the area being done?

It's now 5 years later & maintenance time!

The Anniversary Garden is still asleep under its blanket of snow.

I so want to go into my potting shed & putter but it's too cold & so much snow to trek through right now. Soon sometime in April, it will just happen & the snowbanks will shrink!

Baxter, our 28 pound Boston Terrier is still able to walk across the top of snow. When the weather warms up he'll sink into those banks! He does a good job keeping watch on the potting shed & sniffs for any signs of Mr. Fox & his travels on the property.

This is such an encouraging sight, the hydrangea bushes are no longer buried under the snow!!

Rexton the Manx now has a double!

I made this cat from Sarah Peel's book Luna's Friends. The face, paw & arms were then needle felted with Rextons unique markings. I gave her the pink nose!

The whiskers are Rexton's! I find them on the rugs when I vacuum, the folklore is that it is lucky for the one that finds them! Bill has now given me a whisker with great delight that it is lucky for him too!

I made her a sweet pink suit for Easter, the full-sized patterns are in the Luna books too!

How sweet is she?!

I find her to be so precious to me as she's now 8yrs old & will be the last cat I'll own. Bill is allergic to cats & more so as we've aged as I've never been without a cat in my whole life!

The bench cover is coming along with just the natural colour of Briggs & Little to be hooked!

This is my 2nd rug this year, I try to make one a year. Keeping my hands busy with the hook at night keeps me out of the fridge!

I was watching The Last Homely House on YouTube this week & she showed her vintage pattern dog that she made with her batiks. I had an idea as I had batik-looking jelly roll strips...

So I cut the jelly roll into 2 1/2" squares & made the dog. She made her's with English paper piecing.

Then I watched YouTube with Jenny Doan & on how to make the cathedral window with charm packs. 

I had leftover 2 1/2 inch squares from the sea dogs & scaps of blue that I cut up into 2 1/2" squares.

You then do a quilt as you go to make a table mat or cushion front. I'm not sure yet but the sewing experience was fun!

This was my two-day sewing class with 2 1/2" squares & I never left the house!

I enjoy time in the sewing room & making the vintage dog & cathedral windows was fun.

This is vintage! I made it in 1977 for my eldest son's Gendron buggy as a 'cot cover'.

I had no idea at the time that I was hand quilting a quilt, I found it in a book & made it.

My stitches were not so good & in time I would master this hand stitching of the windows!

The next project from a kit that was purchased on a trip to Vancouver Island, the year the huge storm took down a lot of trees in Stanley Park. I was in Vancouver for four days & never once saw a mountain due to heavy fog the whole time!

Our son Mitchell took us to Banff in 2014 for an afternoon & I would then see mountains for the first time! 

The windows are hand-sewn & you can see a difference in my sewing skills.

A testament that 'Theory informs - practice convinces'!

I made a cathedral window quilt all by hand 45 years ago as a pram cover for the Gendron buggy.

It took forever to stitch together, the machine way was quick!

I also med a colourful cathedral window from a kit purchased years back when I was on Vancouver Island & the quilt show had free shipping! A box came to me after I was home with all the purchased goodies.

Quilts are memories of days gone by, the colours & designs are a reflection of that time.

I'm always learning new skills every year & the colours are always changing to what is old...is new again! 

I'm done with the Sew-a-Long Mystery quilt with Fabric Cupboard in Moncton. I just need to add a saying & border then it is off to be custom quilted, it was a fun weekly mystery to do!

As I was doing this blog, look who popped on top of the snowdrift to look in the ding room!

Bridget startled me & then made me laugh! lol

See how frozen those drifts are with her 26-pound weight! She thinks she's a mountain goat!! lol

This has been quite the morning with all the outside activities & the birds singing their songs. 

Spring has arrived on the calendar now to be patient for it to arrive in this 4B zone we call home.

Oh, I forget to tell you, I found my earring!!

It had fallen between two bolts of fabric that were on the floor. When I put them in the shelf there was the earring on the floor! And that made my day!!!

Thank you for coming by for a visit, I hope you are well & adjusting to the new norm of living as we know it today.

I've never had so many vaccines in my lifetime, just in one year 2 Covid 19 vaccines, one booster, one Shingtex & the other next week. But I am healthy & will do whatever it takes to stay that way, even if it is with the help of vaccines. Oh & it has been 11 years since my tetanus shot, that is on the list this spring too as I like to play & make things that are rusty for the primitive ideas that come to life.

Thank you again for your time with me.

Enjoy the spring as it unfolds in front of us!

Cynthia xXx

Stay healthy, stay safe, wear your mask when needed.

Spring Has Arrived!

 Spring has arrived... on the calendar anyway!

We were greeted with an ice storm on Sunday, then rain, & today snow flurries.

This was Sunday morning, it looks like a skating rink in the backyard!

And everything had a coating of ice on it, see the railing?!

I was happy to see the ground above the breaker wall peeking through.

And last night Miramichi Bay has started to melt & have slushy water on top of the ice.

These are Bill's photos with his camera.

I saw the reflection of the landscape of the Bay du Vin Island in the water & it was beautiful!

See the smelt shack on the left, this bay was buzzing all winter with the smelt fishing!

I laughed when I looked out the window at the Skidoo & sleds, in the distance, they look like ants moving across a white tablecloth! lol

The smelt fishing is done for another year.

The island is not visible today with the snow, it is all white again.

I did a sew along with Laura-Lynn of The Mom & Pop Quilt Shop two Saturdays ago with this project called Beach Balls. I used scraps & a stray jelly roll for the balls & added in the three larger blocks for points of interest & to give a more 'beach look'.

I had to get creative with a few challenges!

The orange sashing was just the right length with the selvedges left on & I had to cover them.

So it looks like a picture with the holders covering the fabric shortage.

Then the scrap border was not long enough, by adding in the horizontal 1 1/4" scraps from the jelly roll beach balls, it allowed the length I needed.

It's now going to be longarm quilted with stars & anchors with a pattern called 'Anchors Away'.

Just one step closer to summer!

Ann Wood had on her blog a free pattern to make fabric Easter eggs. Once I stuffed them they look like beach balls to me! lol

Baxter & Bridget follow the sun whenever it is out, with their black coats they feel the warmth.

Rexton likes to feel my warmth & sits on my lap every night. She's usually under a project that I'm working on. lol

I'm still working on the Modernational Bear Paw & have the body of it done! With a three-piece sashing to go on that is mitered!!! That has me procrastinating on that & is on my to-do list this week. Followed by the pieced bear paws around it. The foyer needed a change as the same quilt has hung for 5 years & I can see this new quilt in that space!

This is a picture of the finished quilt, I had to unsew the bear paws last row as it made it too wide for the area that it was to hang in.

Bill's rug center is done, I'm still thinking of what to do around it. I'm leaning on crocheting it red, white, & blue polyester that I did Nick's in.

I've been hooking these sweet chicks for the bench in the dining room.

Here's the quilt so far.

I lost my earring that I just had repaired & have been going crazy looking for it as I know it is in this house somewhere! Bill has even joined in the hunt! I even used Bev's idea with a flashlight. Nothing.

I don't want to vacuum until it is found. It is gold with diamonds & a sapphire & was a gift from Bill so many years ago. Where are you my precious earring?!

I had my Shintrix vaccine this week & it went well, one more in a couple of weeks & I'll be covered.

Bill suffered so much with his shingles & told me to get the vaccine, so I did.

I did not know that there was a vaccine for shingles!

Thank you for visiting & stay safe through this stressful time in our lives.

Enjoy your week!

Cynthia xXx

Countdown Is On!

 The countdown to spring is on with just 9 days to go! And the clocks springing forward this weekend to speed things up... if only in time. ;-)

It's green on the inside with St Patrick's Day next week but on the outside, it is still very white!

The winds have been nasty from the open Miramichi Bay & the back deck has a huge icy snowdrift formed on it.

The tulips & hydrangeas blooms of colour are gone.

The celery is growing & I love the green texture from the lacey leaves!

Here is the other stem end growing green too!

The geranium is feeling the sun's warm & has started to bloom!

This geranium has huge 6-7" leaves on it. This is the plant that goes on the front porch every year.

I started hooking Bill a rug this week. I had made two patterns of the MUSTANG logo & gave one to Nicholas that had a border to it. I'm still thinking about how to finish the border on this one. 

This is a project that I forgot to show you!

It is a monthly Bareroots 'little stitchies', each month's block measures 12" x 12".

As I was getting them laid out to show you for the first time I could not help but notice that the third square of the four rows is green!! Ooops can you tell that I just put them together individually & when brought together voila, this is it!

Each little stitching in the center measures 5" finished with the border around it 1 1/2", hence 'little stitches'! 

Here's January.

February!

March winds indeed!

And I'm currently working on April, yes Easter time!

Here is May, I had left over blue house thread colour in my needle so I added it here. You can see how it comes together with thread colour. I'm thinking of adding some pencil colour but will wait to see all the blocks done before I add that medium of colour.

Here is the Modernational Bear Paw in the works. I have removed the last row of bear paws & will be adding it to the top giving it a longer length & shorter width. I'm making it to hang in the front foyer to replace the Canada quilt that has hung there for five years. I need a change of colour & texture & the black/brown/grey neutral colour has been my palette for a while.

 

I watch Mom & Pop Quilt Shop on YouTube & Laura Lynn came up with a pattern using the half Hexi ruler. I was gifted some very bright 1/2yd fabric from Leslie & used many of the bright colours for the grandmother's garden flowers. 

I goofed doing the center of this 'Walk Through My Garden' quilt & called this one ' Come see my double bloomer'. This does not look like her pattern layout colour but it was a good class in learning how to work with the ruler. I also added a braid border to the two sides but the quilt top is off to the longarm quilter so I'll show photos of the finished Easter table topper when it gets back.

In my stash, I had some Kathy Schmitz fabric that I thought would be perfect for the flower centers.

It fits the top of the table with just a little overhang, making it comfortable to be seated around.

With rain coming this weekend it should bring the winter snow accumulation down.

I love this fake plastic grass that I had purchased so many years ago for display in one of our tradeshows.

This is another Laura Lynn idea but she made the pinwheel squares into a wall hanging of nine. I 1/2 the pattern size & made this St Paddy's Day pillow for the foyer.

Oh my goodness when I saw this gnome I knew he was destined for the gnome home this year!

He was too familiar to me. xXx

I may be getting some reddish paint for his beard. 

How cute is he!! xXx

I'm putting together the stained glass window for the gnome house & Bill is going to have it underlit with a flower box under the window for me to add flowers to. 

So much to look forward to this spring/summer with the yard coming to life after being covered with its blanket of snow.

Thank you for stopping by for a visit. I hope you come back again. 

Please stay safe & healthy, here's an inspirational quote that was in my journal that I really liked, hope you do too!

DO SOMETHING TODAY THAT YOUR FUTURE SELF WILL THANK YOU FOR

It meant something to me as I am not taking anything with sugar to get my arthritis in control. But it has many meanings to many people.

My dad once said to me 'If I would have known I was going to live this long, I would have taken better care of myself.' 

That has always stayed with me.

Have a wonderful week & we'll visit again this spring! 

Cynthia xXx