Friday catch up

I've been really busy this week, working on customer quilts. I finished Charlene's, and loaded Maureen's Easy Street. I can't show  a pic of Charlene's until she picks them up, but I can show a sneak peak of Maureen's.

I spent a large part of Wednesday evening and yesterday cutting the fabrics to start making Meteor Shower. Last night I finally had enough cut to be able to begin sewing. This one requires the total engagement of the brain in order to make sure that all the colours are in the right place and that none of the units are turned the wrong way. I found that out the hard way, which involved a couple of sessions of unsewing. But I am lovin' what I'm seein'. One of the light blues in the light blue star section is a bit too pale, but I have something in my stash that can replace that particular fabric. This pattern is my Newfo for May. I hadn't thought I'd get much more done on it, since we were planning on going away next week. Those plans have since changed, so there is a whole week left to sew on these, and also some other things. Right now, I'm going to pull out my Grandmother's Choice box, and piece together 2 blocks, and see if I can't keep doing 2 per week until I'm caught up.

Design Wall Monday, May 20, 2013

I have the results on my design wall of working on some of my getting it done goals. First off are some of the border units arranged around Cactus Rose. Eight done, 28 left to go. I haven't decided if I will sew the curved seams as I go, or wait until they are all done, and then have a marathon curved piecing session. Then comes the decision on how to quilt it.

And I managed to get 2 more of the Grandmother's Choice hand pieced blocks finished. The umbrella, and the 7 pointed star down at the bottom left. The umbrella is, unfortunately, upside down, but I'm not taking it out. I'm still behind on this one, but it's coming. Out of 49 blocks, I have 28 done. I really like the way this is looking. Seeing it here just might give me the motivation to get caught up. Maybe if I do 2 blocks a week. That shouldn't be too hard, says she who is having trouble even getting one a week done these days. LOL!
I'm linking up to Judy's Design Wall Monday. Lots of fun eye candy over there today.

Stash Report, week 20, 2013, and a little hand stitching as well.

One of my getting it done challenge goals for myself this month was to get the borders for Cactus Rose started. Well, this past week, before we went away, I got the cutting for them done, and some of the paper piecing started. I'm hoping to maybe get more done today, so I'll have progress to show tomorrow for Design wall Monday, which is a great motivator.

Used this week:                                               4.5 yards
Used this year:                                               63.2 yards
Added this week:                                                0 yards
Added this year:                                          131.25 yards
Balance:                                                           68.05 more yards in than out.

That balance number is coming down nicely. All I have to do is resist pushing any more "checkout now" buttons, and it should continue to come down. But we all know that's not going to happen.
I got the opportunity to sit outside in the yard yesterday for a bit, and plan on doing more today, during which time I was able to do a little hand stitching on one of the Grandmother's Choice blocks.

It's a Seven Pointed Star for Australia. It has a lot of really odd shapes, and I debated for quite some time with myself exactly how to approach it. I finally decided on English paper piecing. It seems to be working OK, but I think simple hand piecing after drawing the lines on the backs of the pieces would have been easier. It looks a little wonky right now, but once it is done, and the cardboard shapes removed, and it is pressed and trimmed, hopefully it will look the way it is supposed to.
I'm linking up to Judy's Stash Report and Kathy's Slow Sunday Stitching.

We're home again, and a good time was had by all.

We made it in at about 10:30 last night after a good time out camping for the first time this year. But I must say it was COLD!! Winter is hanging on way too long in these parts. We saw some interesting things up in Grundy Lake Provincial park, including some of these:

Bear tracks down on one of the beaches. We never saw or heard the owner of these tracks. They were pretty small, so we think it might have been a very young one. But these were the only tracks we saw, none that were bigger that could have belonged to a mama bear. Oh, and those other tracks that are in that picture belong to moose.
After we picked Noel up from the theater in Sudbury, we headed off to Awenda Provincial park. Unfortunately, we didn't realize we were going in the wrong direction until Noel mentioned something about a sign saying something about the distance to Sault St. Marie. Oops........ After some map consulting, and some turning around in the right direction, we ended up about taking 1 1/2 hours longer to get to the park than we thought. That, unfortunately had us arriving after dark, in a completely empty park, trying to find a campsite that had the hydro post in a position that would work for our trailer and its 15 foot long plug in cord. We did find one, and then came the challenge of backing the trailer onto the site, in the dark, directed by flashlights in order to miss backing into the trees and the rocks. Noel did a great job of that, and we finally got all set up and settled and the heater on. One big bonus of the cold temperatures..... no mosquitos.
We spent the next 2 days visiting with Avery. What a lovely, sweet and happy boy he is.

 He loves Thomas the Tank Engine, and has lot of the railway toys and characters that go with them, and he can name most of them. There is a large square, Avery height table in their living room that has buildings and tracks on it for all his railway stuff. And under the table are all his trucks and cars that he loves to play with.

We went out to dinner with them for his birthday on Friday, and, for the most part, he was good as gold. He got a little restless at times, but nothing too bad. He spent most of the time playing with his car and fire engine and the crayons.
It was so good to see him again. It took him a while to warm up and get used to us again. But by the end of our visit he was comfortable and was freely giving out hugs and kisses. I get to talk to him again tomorrow on skype, and I'm sure there will be more Avery visits during the summer and fall.
Today was spent unpacking, although Scott did most of that. I find travelling, and sitting in one place in the car exhausting, and I'm not sure why that is, and have taken most of today to rest, and to go through all the photos and pick out the best ones. I miss him already..........

We're here....

And the first thing we saw when we pulled into the campground was a sign saying "active bears in campground" Oh oh, guess that means all food stays in the car and not in the trailer. The next thing we saw, but I wasn't fast enough to get a picture were a couple of young moose calmly trotting down the road of the campground. They stopped, and turned around to look at us as if to say, "Hey you.... what are you doing here on our turf?"

We found a campsite, not too hard at this time of year, we saw 2 other campsites in the whole area occupied, got set up, and went for a walk. There are trilliums everywhere!!

The whole area is carpeted with trilliums. They are everywhere. The pictures don't come close to doing them justice.

We walked down to the lake, and I'm pretty sure that's a loon. But we haven't heard it calling, so maybe it's only a duck. The picture is as zoomed as I could get.

It's about 15 past 9 at night, and so far we're not too cold. We have one heater going, and 3 quilts on the bed, with another heater, and more quilts available if necessary. I'm so excited to be seeing our son again tomorrow. And dare I say it, even more excited to be seeing Avery on Thursday. I wish we could stay and visit with Avery longer, but Noel has to be at his new job on Saturday, so it's a flying visit this time. But there's lots of summer left for more camping and more Avery visits. 

 Oh, and the sock?? The leg is done, and the heel flap is started. I have a couple of other pairs of hand knit socks with me, to keep my feet cozy and warm, and this pair should be done in the next day or 2. It's a good thing I can knit without watching what I'm doing. Once the rain stopped, it was such a lovely drive. Some of the trees are just starting to leaf out here, and they are such a pretty shade of fresh spring green. And there is something about the rocks of the Canadian shield that are just so fascinating, the colours, and the patterns. I want to get some pictures of them before we go home. I'm thinking that those colours, made up into some kind of bargello type pattern would be stunning. Something that would echo and remind me of the ribbons of colour through the rocks. Maybe using Stonehenge fabrics. I've been eyeing those fabrics, wanting to do something with them for a long time now, so this could be it. And, thinking about it now, we have the other computer, that has the electric quilt program on it with us here at the campsite. Hmmmmm............

We're on our way

On our way to Sudbury to pick up Noel. I have a sock I'm working on in the car as we drive. It will be interesting to see how much of it I can have done by the time we get there.

Design Wall Monday, May 13, 2013

Another Monday, and still nothing new up on my design wall. I've been working on bits of things, but not enough to actually put up and show. I did start some of the paper pieced arc units for Cactus Rose yesterday. I have 8 of them partly done. I need 36.
Today has been spent doing our pre first camping trip of the year running around. We're heading up to the Sudbury area tomorrow to pick up our son, Noel, and to also spend some time with our grandson Avery, who turns 2 on Friday. It should be an interesting trip, considering the weather is calling for a low of 3 degrees Celsius tomorrow night. It was ice pelleting here yesterday. I'm wondering if there might still be snow in the campground. Wouldn't that be an interesting experience? There won't be too many people there this time of year, so getting a hydro site will be easy, which means we can have the heaters running, good thing. The rest of today is going to be spent getting stuff organized and packed into the car, so all we have to do in the morning is put in the food, the last minute things and then head out. I don't think I'll be taking any sewing with me, this time, just lots of knitting.
I'm linking up to Judy's Design wall Monday. Lots of interesting and fun stuff to see.