Welcome Mid-June

 Summer is next week & what a wonderful taste of an early summer we have had!

There has been no frost this month in the NE next to the water, the gardens are beautiful as are the lush green lawns!

The Lily of the Valley is just gorgeous this year & so plentiful too, I think they look great in this holder that Bill made me last year!

I started a Connecting Threads kit from 2009 called Baskets at the B&B. I've wanted to do it for years & when I was gifted that same quilt kit ... I gifted mine to a girlfriend that was having a birthday & enjoyed transitional quilt patterns. She was over the moon & finished in a few months, that was several years ago so I started mine & will stick with it until it is done & ready for the longarm quilter.

I wanted to share with you fellow quilters how I use used dryer sheets for my back as a stabilizer while I work a machine buttonhole stitch around the handle. 

It's easy to cut away & I leave on any too small to cut areas to be sandwiched into the batting/backing.

Oh pretty colours that I worked into a small miniature granny square quilt, I'll talk about that later. lol

Back to the basket's handle, see how nice & stable the stitches are with the stabilizer used on the back?!

I had several friends saving me their used dryer sheets & the size was perfect for the back to do the handle!

So happy to use something that was nothing once used, it has a new purpose now after its use!

Here's one of the many 9" baskets that will make up this quilt. They will be done in several different colours with green blocks between them!

I've been watching Lori Holt of Bee In My Bonnet lately & she was demonstrating the granny squares by using her coloured yarn to match her quilt fabric. 

Then I remembered I had a small yarn collection from a yarn shop that closed in Richibucto several years ago & used that with a small 2.5 crotchety hook to keep the scale in a miniature scale.

You can see these wee yarns are only 3" tall & they're 100% cotton too!

I was pleased with how they turned out with the white crotchety cotton borders to bring them together.

I'll put it with the Luna Lapin collection to build on making rooms maybe this winter!

A little shot of pretty for you to view again! I wish you could smell the fragrance from those sweet bell flowers!

Bill was gone for a week so I made this Bumble Bee quilt with the layer cake by Riley Blake called My Mind's Eye - Honey Bee. Rexton is always photo bombing my floor shots!

I was tired & went to bed... not looking at the center of the quilt where I had made a mistake!!

I will say I am a professional seam ripper & took it apart to make it right.

I added a 8" border of the bee damask fabric in black & white. The backing is black with small white polka dots.

I added a checked sashing then the border, I love how it reads damask until you get close enough to see the bees!

This will be our new summer quilt & I'll use the light polyester batting to keep it light!

Here's Laundry Basket's Summer Mystery Block one at 6 1/2". I did not like how the bottom fabric read so I seam ripped it & redid it with another colour choice.

Here is the change & Block #2!

Block #3 was released today & I'll post that one next.

Looks like a bumble bee!!

I needed to play with colour! & use my arthritic hands with differnt tools.

And look at the colour in this quilt I made for Donald's 45th birthday this month!

I love the quilted movemnt in the quilt, he loved his quilt!

I appliqued unicorns into each corner & yes used dryer sheets to stablize the unicorns as I blanket stitched around them.

The fabric had a glitter to it adding to the magestic mystery of this beautiful animal!

The blue was KONA's colour for 2019 - I saw a Tiffiny Blue or a Birks Jeweler blue, either way it reads richness & the longarm quilting was gorgeous on it!! Thank you Rose!

Back in 1977 I made his quilt from my hospital bed all hand sewn into cathederal windows, then whipstitched an eyelet border around it. I never knew it was quilting, I found it in a book called Golden Hands & it had great instructions & I had 3 months of hospital time on my hands.

Back then they were called cot covers & used in babies large Gendron buggies.

I found it comforting that as time has moved on that gorgeous blue has remained as my go to for him.

Enjoy your 45th birthday son, you are covered with my love! xXx

This is homemade Lemon Curd that we use on blueberry muffins, plain cake, or just enjoyed by a teaspoon or two to taste. Each jar has the juice of two lemons, pucker power for sure but the butter sweetnens it! I make & freeze it but it doesn't last long once opened! lol

Well thank you for stopping in for a visit on this beautiful summer day on the north east coast.

And a Happy Father's Day to all you Dad's out there this Sunday.

I miss Dad, he was quite the character, he could be a grizzley with a heart of gold. 

He would be so happy that the whole family is in the elevator business across Canada.

Cheers Dad!

I'm everything I am because you loved me. I love & miss you.

Have a wonderful weekend everyone, wherever you are! 

Cynthia xXx