Quilting and other Things

My goal for the month was to finish the applique on the squares so they could be added to the blossoms.  All of them did get stitched, cut and added to blossoms.  I still need to add the stems and other leaves.  The stay stitching seems to have worked well to stabilize the edges judging from how it felt when I was adding the triangles.   During Monday sewing sessions, I also got all these little patches for the outer border pressed and the seams swirled.  I would stitch for a bit then press ten of them.  Back to sttiching until I needed a break then press ten more.  Over two Mondays all 180ish were pressed and are now ready for their triangles and to be stitched into the outer border. The big press over the last two weeks has been to actually get a quilt finished for the Cherrywood Fabric 2019 challenge .  This morning I took the photos and have just finished submitting the info to the website.  It was nice to see this m...

My goal for June will be more progress for Common Bride.  I'd like to get the applique added to the 10 large squares so that they are ready to trim and added to the flower blocks.  Ideally, I'll get the triangles added to the flower blocks and the last appliques added but I have a challenge quilt to work on in June as well so I'm not sure there will be sufficient time.  Applique needs to go from this to this in order to be cut apart and added to the flower block.  One of nine blocks is completed.  I've started on the second block but need to cut more shapes before the others can proceed.  I also have an appointment to go quilt my Grand Illusion quilt in June.  It will be nice to have that quilted and bound.  I need to look at the list of tops and make an appointment for July or August to go quilt another one.  I do much better when I make an appointment before I leave for the next visit.    Linking up wi...

Last Saturday was the fourth of the nature sketching classes and this time it was at Colonel Samuel Smith Park .  One of the fun things with this class has been to go to different places in Toronto.  Some I've been to before and some its the first time.  I walked through the edge of the park last summer when I walked part of the waterfront trail into Toronto and then again in December when I went out with some friends for a photography day. Saturday rained most of the morning but the Humber College student building was near where we were going to be so the class was scheduled to go ahead.  I arrived wearing my rain pants and jacket for hiking but should have had my hat and sunglasses.  Again, it was a lot of gesture sketches trying to capture birds in nature except the owl and the kestrel.  There was a bird festival in progress and one of the places had birds on exhibit.  The owl had been hit by a car and had a badly broken wing.  I'm not sur...

I completed a fair amount of sewing this month which feels really good.  I was able to join a group of ladies sewing on Mondays which also meant I was able to combine my stitching with some social time.  Its fun and I plan to take advantage of as many Mondays as I can. I finally got a set of red and cream blocks completed for QOV Canada.  I also have one of the pieced kit blocks on the design wall that I need to get to them.  I think I can deliver both to a couple of ladies at guild next week so I need to confirm something on the kit block and then contact the ladies to see if they will be there. The strip sets for the outer border of Common Bride got made and cut.  I've since sewn them in pairs and they are waiting to be pressed.  The stems also got made as well as the pieced leaves so the flower blocks are pieced and the triangles to go on either side are ready to be appliqued.  After looking things over carefully, there isn't a way of redoing...

Saturday was the third sketching class and this time we went to Riverdale Farm.  I've lived in the GTA for over 30 years and it was my first visit.  Rather fun.  Our guest this week was a Veterinarian and our subject was gesture sketching using the farm animals.  Rather like life drawing classes were the model changes poses quickly.  Some of the animals moved quickly.  Others held their pose for several minutes or would come back to a similar place as they ate. The vet had diagrams of how arm and leg bones in humans align with the similar limbs in dogs and horses.  I was surprised to learn that what I had thought was the knee in animals is really the equivalent of my ankle!  No wonder it bends in a strange direction. The horse's body stayed relatively still as he ate some hay.  His front end moved a lot but he kept coming back to a similar pose.  The cow was curled up for a while until the other one came over and butted in on he...

I didn't get a post done for the One Monthly Goal for April but I did make progress.  Grand Illusion (Bonnie Hunter's 2014 Mystery) is now a completed top.  It was stalled for several years as I used the wrong greens originally for the checkerboards that form the sashing so it was a very busy quilt.  The value was wrong.  This winter at the guild retreat, I finally remade the checkerboards in very pale greens and it works much better.  Scrappy pink binding is ready for this once it is quilted.  I need to pickup some backing and book a time to go quilt it. I also finally got the stars sewn together and added to the centre of Common Bride . (the link goes to the designer's pattern page, no relation just an easy way to look at the complete design)  I'm not sure whether my stars are too small or the centre is too big but the coping strip I originally added made the centre too big for the stars.  I did need a small strip but it really was very...

This past Saturday was the second of the Nature Sketching classes.  This time we meet at the Toronto Botanical Gardens (Edwards Gardens) and went down to sketch beside Wilket Creek in the ravine. Our naturalist talked about invasive species and how important the ravines are to the ecosystem.  The beautiful grasses that I love to take pictures of are an invasive species -- they grow quickly and with a deep dense root system that really takes over and area.  Since the seeds are so light in the feathery heads, it also spreads like wildfire.  Its not native to this area so nothing or atleast not many animals will eat it so there are no natural predators.  I hadn't thought about plants having predators to help keep them under control.  Invasive grasses (different location) In the last century many ravines were filled in, often with garbage, without thought or understanding of their importance.  Ravines are carved by rivers.  In this case, r...