What We’re Working On

 We’ve got more quilts coming down the line as we continue to meet weekly for Prayers and Squares. One went out this week to a recipient and another 2 are now finished tops. This one made from three panel squares is the one that was prayed over on Sunday and will be going to its new home this week. There are 3 animal squares left from the original panel, so they are going into the centre of 3 more quilts. One of them is now a finished top. And then we have a fun pink and aqua top that is also finished.Both this pink and aqua top and the animal panel top need layering. That will likely happen this week. 

 Here at home, I’ve dug into the bin of 3 1/2 inch strips for bricks and then dug up some odds and ends of white muslins and black prints to make four patches for a Bonnie Hunter pattern called Bricks and Stepping Stones. I don’t have photos for that one yet. By this time next week it should be at the stage for photos. And lastly, we are working on a top using these beautiful pictures in this panel. I’ll get a progress photo tomorrow on where that quilt top is at. For all of these quilts that use panels for the central theme, the Electric Quilt software is an invaluable tool for doing the designing. It makes layout and colour selections and which blocks work and which don’t so easy to figure out.

I’ll link up to Mid Week Makers

Slow Sunday Stitching

 Mr. Fox is starting to show his personality as this stitchery continues to progress. According to my calculations, he is 50% finished. There are 130 squares in the grid and I’ve counted almost 65 squares as finished. I’m thinking that, if I want to start the next set of 3 critters after I finish this, I’ll need to order the supplies when I start the swans. If all goes as quickly as it has so far, that should be in the next 2 or 3 weeks. 

I’ll link up now to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching

On a totally different topic, we had a visitor to our front yard this morning. I was only able to get a picture of its tail end as it headed off into the trees after walking across our front yard.

This is the first time in my life I can ever say that I had a black bear in our front yard. Quite strange and surreal.

Slow Sunday Stitching

 I’ve spent lots of time this past week on my Fox for the A Year in the Woods series. I love his face and the emerging texture in his body. I think it is these details that pulled me into these stitcheries. And so far it looks as though the elements were designed to fit beside each other as it comes together. I’ll get a bit further and then perhaps next week take a picture of the fox and reindeer together. In the meantime, I’ll link up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching

What We’re working on

 We had another quilt go out this week, this time to a lady in hospital with worsening Multiple Sclerosis. She requested something “happy, perhaps something with flowers and pinks and purples”. Well, we just happened to have something that fit that exact description. Pat put this one together. I’ve been working on a couple of outdoorsy type quilts. One of them is almost done and will be gifted in the next couple of weeks.It needs a plain border around the outside to finish it and then binding. The other doesn’t have a recipient yet, but that can change very quickly. It is getting more of the square in square blocks around the last two edges.

And then I think it is going to get a couple of migrating geese borders to the top and bottom, plus some spacer borders to bring it up to a good size. These are fun to do. We recently purchased some more panels so be prepared to see some of those here once we start working on them.

I’ll link up to my usual Mid Week Makers

Slow Sunday Stitching

 Last week, after I finished gridding the area of my linen for The Fox, I got straight away into stitching the fox and his surroundings. The little cabin is almost done and the Fox itself is started. I love the texture in his tail and am looking forward to starting that section. It’s a damp and rainy weekend, so after I post this to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching, I’m going to find something to watch/listen to and then do a lot more stitching.

What we’re working on

 We have more quilts finished and going out to people who need them from our Prayers and Squares group. The greatest demand seems to be for quilts for men. Somehow, each time we get one finished it goes right out. We can’t seem to keep up with them. So for the moment, the focus is on getting more men’s quilts made. This one was finished and out within a week after being finished. We have a panel with six sections in it, each showing an animal that calls the Muskoka region home, so I’ve designed up some quilts that will use them and go together fairly quickly. This is one, which will be done quilt as you go style, which is why the borders are still separate. The side border has these wolves framed with a tree bark like fabric.The same borders repeat on the other side of the panel, but I don’t have the space to lay them out. And then there will be three quilts that will have the animal panel as the centre and then borders going around them to make them bigger. This one is just started.It will have the blocks with the wolves in them as the next border and then perhaps some stars.

This very pretty floral quilt may be going out this week as well, based on a three yard quilt pattern. It will be  a choice between this one and another also pink and floral.  

We remain a very busy group. I’ll link up to Mid Week Makers

Slow Sunday Stitching

 Except that it isn’t Sunday, but Monday when I’m writing this. According to Kathy’s link party, I have 2 more hours in which I can link up, so it isn’t a total waste. I got so involved yesterday in my actual stitching that I didn’t get a moment to write about it. It is very exciting. The reindeer is done and on top of that I was on a roll, so I get the gridding done for the next section, which is the fox. And past that, I even got the flosses sorted and organized for what I need for the fox. I can get started on the stitching for the Fox tonight. I’ll link up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching. 

The other exciting thing this past week was being able to visit with my friend Gail, aka The Cozy Quilter. We haven’t seen each other in person in over 3 years, so that was a great day. FaceTime visits are great, but they can’t compete with in person. They were visiting a cottage up here for a week so we spent the afternoon together at that cottage. We were able to sit out on the dock for a while and just chat. And of course we had to do a photo op with their grand puppy.