March Is Still Roaring!

Old man winter has been making his presence known this week, producing many high snowdrifts.

It's an odd feeling of seeing all winter white again as you sit down in the dining area.

The white snow wall is back!

Sitting down this is now the view...

I'm hoping for March to go out like a lamb with lots of warm sunshine to melt these huge piles down.

This weekend we will spring ahead with our clocks & the days are getting longer, the season of spring is creeping in!

And the deck that has disappeared will reappear with the patio set waiting to be put in place.

It was a mild great winter so I have patience awaiting spring as I'm closed in with this winter wonderland. It gives me many 'sew days'.

The green has come out for St Patrick's Day, it was my grandma Haynes's favourite time of the year as her dad was from Tullyboy Ireland.

Grandpa was from Birmingham England & came here at the age of nine with his family. It was God's gift that the family was too late to board the ship & had to take the next one...the ship that set sail without the Haynes family was the Titanic.

 I was so blessed to have these two in my life, grandma was a firecracker so full of love & life. I have blue eyes & so does she, that was important to me as my dad had brown eyes & my mom had green eyes. One day looking into her eyes I said 'Grandma you have blue eyes like me' she replied 'That you do duck, that you do'.

St Pat's Day always makes me think of grandma & fills my heart with loving memories of this grandparent that was an important part of my early life.

The blue basket quilt continues & rails & nine patches are now done, with only four more baskets to be made & a few more blocks this will be done. Each Monday morning has instructions for the next blocks to be done. I'm enjoying the project this winter!

Well, I need to get ready for another chiro session to get my hip back in place. I threw my back out shovelling heavy snow & twisted the wrong way. Followed by a bout of COVID so for three weeks I did not have a good time. 

Now it is time to align the spine again & get that hip in place, I went last week & this is another appointment.

 Being 65 years old with a weathered body is not easy some days but time to get the spring in my step before spring arrives!

Thank you for stopping in to see the snow I shared & hopefully warmer days are ahead!

Stay safe & healthy.

Hugs,

Cynthia

Spring Arrives In 24 Days!

 Yes, spring will arrive in 24 days and the daily weather is still very much winter. Tonight the low will be -30C with the chill factor, very bitter cold still. 

The Miramichi Bay is well frozen & the smelt fishing is going on daily even into the evening with their lights guiding the way. I'm not a fan of smelts but the locals find them a glorious feast, it is part of the culture around here. A food that their parents & grandparents would feast on & it still holds cherished memories for them. Smelt suppers are going on weekly, this week smelts, mashed potatoes, peas, lemon chiffon pie, coffee or tea, all for $15. These dinners help raise money to operate centers & churches through these cold months & other expenses to keep them open.

I'm still battling the post-COVID effects & have such a shortness of breath, I'm going for a chiro adjustment to align my spin. It is a much overdue appointment as I usually due a maintenance alignment every 6 weeks for my scoliosis, it has been months & much overdue.

Enough of that, on to my love of textiles!

I'm loving turtles right now! This is the baby turtle that will ride on her back. It is done in batiks which I am also enjoying working with again.

When my girlfriend Liz filled a metal trunk of sewing goodies for me as she knew she was dying from having 17 brain tumours. She was told the news in July 2017 & the day my trunk arrived on August 4th, 2017, was the day she died. Liz had this kitted wall hanging in the bathroom & I always admired it, now I will hang it in her memory & she always makes me smile at the thought of her. I will always carry her in my heart.

The Mom & Pop Quilt Shop had a 12hr sewing marathon with this Lisa Pay of Pay It Forward's turtle pattern...a perfect accompaniment to the wall hanging!

Do check out this Australian designer Lisa Pay, she has so many wonderful free patterns & instructions for doing all of them on her YouTube channel!

I personalized his belly with our property brand Beaver Moon. The shell is attached with snaps & comes off making it possible to make different shells for different occasions. For now, he has the colouring of the wall hanging & will just add to the enhancement of the batik colours.

He was fun making & creating the shell from faux suede & batik.

I love how the turtle in the wall hanging is now a three-D!

I have the inner border & outer border to finish the wall hanging & am so pleased with how it turned out! I'm going to buttonhole stitch it together as a quilt as you go to finish it.

It is fused together & I'm going to do a buttonhole stitch & some quilting on with my machine doing a quilt-as-you-go technique.

Block #2 is done with 8 more baskets to go...

Block #3 was the rails that will go around the baskets, all 48 are done and I'm ready for the next block release on Monday!

My girlfriend Elizabeth is the biggest fan of Edyta Sitar of Laundry Basket Quilts & she is doing a BOM with the book called Blue Seasons. I'm such a lover of blue & this was a perfect fit. Thank you, Elizabeth for enticing me to join in on this project, I'm loving it!

I've been wondering what to do with this honey bun (a roll of 1 1/2" strips) I'm a huge fan of the designers Minick & Simpson and here are a few ideas I came up with!

A pair of runners & Kim Diehl's scrappy cats.

These two are going to the fair to be sold this August with the runners. I'm having a craft booth at the Napan Agricultural Fair this summer. They look sweet in a bookcase or just sitting on a chair.

Well, the snow is slowing so it's time to clean the front porch again, I'm so not going to miss winter once it is in the tail lights again & spring, such an exciting season, wakes up.

Thank you for taking the time to stop by and visit me in the northeast Atlantic area, do stop by again I have so much more going on. Life is so good right now with the world upside down I feel guilty feeling so happy. I know I am blessed, I am loved.

Have a wonderful weekend & take time for yourself, you are so worth it!

Hugs, Cynthia

Frigid Weather & Dealing With COVID

 The weather has been so cold here on the northeast Atlantic coastline... so cold that we had frost on the great room ceiling & that has been a first for us!

We've had hurricane winds this strong without the snow & windchill mixed in! 

I could not believe what I was seeing on the great room ceiling, it was frost from the cold air coming in under the eaves.

Thank heavens for our firebox that was going day & night to keep up with this cold vortex that had descended upon from the north.

The whole width of the great room had deposits of frost on it!

And it would take the better part of the day for the heat to rise & dry out those spots!

Poor Bridget was not impressed that Bill had taken them outside to relieve themselves.

She was in shock & just sat there until I dried her with a towel, if this dog could talk it would not have been nice words. lol

The backyard filled up with the wind snowdrifts & the porch was now buried underneath it.

The view from the dining room window was and still is, very high & white.

Bill has been keeping the birds happy with their feeders full & homemade suet balls in the suet holders.

A squirrel is living in a house high in a tree.

The front porch is always covered with snow or a dusting of snow. It is a winter wonderland out there.

The snowdrift is usually just a the bottom of the stairs so Bill & the Bostons drive the snowplow to keep things open.

The frigid winds coated the entire house!

I'm so glad of the saying 'This too will pass' & I'm so looking forward to spring.

During the unusually warm snap we had, the pot of hyacinth bulbs started to sprout up in the unheated garage, so we brought them in for an early bloom. I'm so happy we did!

The other plant finally bloomed too so the bay window is alive with life & beautiful colour & textures!

So beautiful to view any time of the day!

Does that not leave you yearning for spring & the arrival of the bulbs?!

Our property here is called Beavermoon, as it was in November 2012 on the full moon, that we became the owners. 

Bill came up with the logo that will be made into metal fencing & entrance for Beavermoon for the Hardwicke House.

Free sew along with Piecing The Past Stitchers

Block One is done!

I'm using fabrics from my stash for this quilt too. I had this custard pin-dot yardage from 2010 & it is working nicely with the blue baskets!

 

This is a pillow I made yesterday from a crosstitch I had done 20+ yrs ago & wanted to make into a pillow cover & finally did!

The pink cotton velvet worked well too, it was from scraps in my stash.

I put the gold metallic thread crosses in the background as the white looked too stark. I added glass beads to the center of the heart for more texture & bling.

I'm pleased when things come together like you visioned them in your head.

I finished the Alberta kids', Mitch & Nicole's signature wedding banner & it's now at the longarm quilter being quilted in a leaf pattern.

There are more places to have signatures from friends & family that were not at the wedding due to the strict COVID rules in 2020.

I embroidered some of the words from 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 & the wedding song from their wedding Beautiful Crazy by Luke Combs. 

Bill & I will be spending Easter with them this year & I'll have it done to take to them.

Bill came home from his business England trip on January 28th & with him he brought COVID to us, first he became ill & 3 days later I took ill with it. We are both on the mend but not ourselves quite yet.

Thank you for stopping in virtually & not getting this virus that takes you down & out for days.

We were able to bounce back without medication or hospitalization by having our shots up to date.

Stay warm, stay safe...COVID is looking for hosts to keep it alive to thrive. I know it died as we got well & came into contact with no one once Bill's test was positive.

It is now just 40 days until spring!! Longer days & warmer sunshine are coming for us!

Hugs,

Cynthia xXx

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