Friday Night With Friends

 

The first Friday of the month is time to "hang out" with friends and do some stitching in our homes and blog about it then go visit the other participants. Australia is like 16 times zones ahead of us here in our part of Canada. We had snow this week, It was so pretty. the grandkids loved playing in it until way past dark. It gets dark here about 4:30 now but that does not stop them. 

I am planning to do some stitching Thurs night and get a bit ahead of the others who do their thing Friday night there which is about 3-4 in the morning here. I could have done some sewing yesterday. It was Dec 1 and I woke up at 4 am and remembered that I had not transferred funds to cover a check I wrote on the weekend for the yearly custom work guys. We are talking about $26,535.16. We don't usually keep that much in the cookie jar. All is good now. But I did not think about doing any sewing. I did, however, play a lot of games. Yes. I am playing games again. And procrastinating. And eating a lot of junk. Why do we do that? My daughter is teaching the little girls to bake yummy squares and we have to taste test everything, now don't we? 

My Dec OMG is to make a few matching pieced Ella blocks, so I guess that is what I will be working on. After I do a bit more writing. 

Blessings,

Chris

December 2020 OMG Goal

Last month I switched my focus to some of the 150 Canadian Women blocks. Those are all pieced so no applique to tire my hands. This month I plan to work on some of the pieced blocks for the Ella Maria Deacon BOM from sentimentalstitches.. This program started in Sept 2019 and I bought most of the patterns each month for half price as they were released. I plan to only make 50 of the 85 offered to commemorate our 50th wedding anniversary next August. I started appliqueing blocks in April. Some of them are extremely challenging and so satisfying. However, the stiffness and pain in my right hand continue to hinder me for now, so I will be machine piecing for a while. This month's OMG goal will be to get a few more Ella blocks made. No promises as to how many. Just a few. The blocks circled in green are the Nov blocks and the ones circled in pink are some that I will be making. I had considered only doing applique blocks and not the pieced ones, but at the rate I am going it will not be finished until my 60th anniversary and I do not want to wait that long.

I am working with colours I do not normally use. Softer colors like aqua and coral and creams and butter and chocolate. Now I am getting hungry. Back to work.  

Blessings,

Chris 

linking with: needleandthreadnetwork. myquiltinfatuation.

 Also, I did something and cannot figure out how to undo it. I am not getting comments sent to my email. I had this problem earlier with the new blogger but resolved it but do not remember how. 

Friday Stitching

 It is the end of November and normally we would have been having my Sweet Husband's family Christmas dinner tomorrow. Two new great-grandchildren have joined the mob this year but we will have to wait to meet them. The snow we had last week has disappeared. Most of it into the hats and mitts and boots of our grandchildren who made angels and snowmen and body surfed and all sorts of other muddy versions of play. 

We are preparing for a cold winter, but I cannot complain. My children and their children all live here so we get to see them most every day. That has its ups and downs. That's a lot of food to prepare every day, but they all help. And that is a lot of dishes to wash, but they all help. That's a lot of laundry, but I got a new washing machine two months ago and they all help. And we have enough lego and bacon to see us through a long cold Canadian winter. Spring is only five months away. Well, until the tulips and daffodils we planted start blooming and we can run around outside in our bare feet again.

This weekend I am pulling out the Ella box of fabrics and prepping a whole bunch of patterns to foundation piece. I have been putting that off. I am again joining the gang in Australia for Friday Night Sew In. Tomorrow I will be hanging out with my Quilting @ Farm friends right here. 

But first I have to find my table. It has once again disappeared under a mountain of stuff I am puttering with. And there will probably be a new puzzle show up sometime tomorrow. 

Blessings,

Chris

November 2020 OMG Completion

My November one-monthly-goal was to complete at least twenty 150 Canadian Women blocks. Silly me. I did block 16 twice. I now have a total of 28. Only 122 more to go. 

We have snow and everything looks so white and cold. 

Blessings,

Chris

Friday Night Stitching with Friends in Australia on Sat Morning in Canada

 Some of us meet on Facebook Messenger to sew together on Sat mornings. I have been working on some the 150 Canadian Women blocks that were a block of the week project 4 years ago to celebrate Canada's 150 birthday. I started a Facebook group called Quilting @ Farm several years ago for the women who came out to the farm to learn to quilt. We usually got together Sat mornings. Seven of us took on the challenge to make the Dear Jane quilt. Mine is complete but not yet quilted. We often had small retreats. That was when the guest rooms were guest rooms and not family living in them. There are presently 10 of us living here. Well, most of the time. The 3 girl grandchildren go to their mom's half time. So it is only chaos part of the time. 

Last week I got 8 blocks made. So far this week I have made another 8. My OMG goal for this month is to have at least 20. Now to find the bin of patterns and precut pieces to put another 4 together. 

It's only noon so I have lots of day left to sew. 

Blessings,

Chris 

linking with: design-wall-monday

Weekend Stitching

 

All I got done in the hand stitching area this past month is one and a half little buds on this 3030 block. There are only 5 more weeks of blocks to be released including the outside border and final setting. 

Now if that is not slow stitching, I wonder what is? 

I did this during a business meeting last Sat. Now to complete the last bud and get the flowers back-basted on then the leaves. 

I did start sewing up some of the 150 Canadian Women blocks I prepped back in Sept. 

My OMG for November is to complete at least 20 of these. 

However, there are no applique blocks in this quilt. I wonder if I could find or create some? 

Not holding my breath about that. 

That's about it for this week. Linking up with Kathy at Slow Sunday Stitching. 

blessings,  needleandthreadnetwork

Chris

Blooming Geraniums

 

I have been overwintering geraniums for most of the 49 years we have been married and living in this old farmhouse. I wasn't always successful. One time I phoned in to a radio talk show asking for advice. They laughed at me when I said my geraniums just sort of wilted and drooped in the pots. I was told they were in transplant shock. Okay. Now I know.

My mother used to pull hers up and hang them upside down in her basement. I tried that. They might still be hanging down there after all these years. This house has a full basement with dirt floor and hanging pie shelf and cobwebs that would make the Munsters proud. We have often joked about starting a grow-op down there but there are no windows for light. Yes, I know we could put in hydroponic lights, but that would require a plan and follow through.

I used to plant them in the ground for the summer then pot them up to bring inside. It turns out that you have to water them sometimes. Got that. But they still drooped. Then I read a great suggestion in a  Country Woman magazine about 25 years ago.   Pot them then remove ALL the leaves and buds, put them in a sunny window and start watering them. More than once. The ones that did the best were the ones on the window in front of my computer. I poured what was left of the water I was dinking into the pot and was rewarded with flowers. I think I was on to something. 

This red geranium is one of 10 I bought from a girl about 25 years ago as a fundraiser for a school trip. I still have 2 of them. 

At first, I potted them in small pots then as they grew larger, I put them in bigger pots. Instead of planting them into the ground each spring, we put the whole pot in then brought the whole pot into the house in the fall. I have discovered that geraniums are not so particular about the temperatures, but really like direct sunlight. The ones in south windows have fared the best. Those on east or west windows get tall and scraggly but no flowers. 

In the spring, I put the pots in the flower beds in places that have no bulbs. Then in the fall when they are taken out of the ground, I plant tulip and daffodil bulbs in the vacated holes. Saturday we planted about 300 bulbs. There should be magnificent colour in the spring. But we have to do winter first. That could arrive here anytime since it is the second week of November, but we are still enjoying wonderful sunny warm days for now. 

And Ava is now a teenager. How did that happen?

Blessings,

Chris 

And I got almost no stitching done this week again. 

linking with: needleandthreadnetwork.