Placemats, HST's and the Hooking is Done!

I went to the guild sewing day this week and worked on my pitcher plant rug hooking project the whole time.  I managed to finish all of the hooking!  The first picture below was after I steamed it and the second picture was taken before steaming.  It really makes a difference, making it look much smoother afterwards!

I have started the wool edging but forget how to turn the corner and will have to consult with one of my hooking friends on how to do this.  The wool for the edging is a dark purple, even though it looks black in this picture. 

My daughter started a new crochet project this week.  Finn is guarding her wool.  He's very helpful. 

I made and pressed all of the HST's I need for the next blocks for the Thread House Modern Sampler project.  They are on the design wall and may get some rearranging before I sew them together. They will be sewn in the groupings as shown. 

Our guild is making placemats again this year for the local Meals on Wheels recipients.  I have decided to make 12 placemats for this cause.  This week, I put ten tops together and cut out the backings.  The tops are all Christmas or winter themed and the backs are fabrics that will work well for the rest of the year.  I quilted 6 placemats today and the other four will get done this week. I still have to figure out what I'm doing for the last two. Goodness knows there is no shortage of fabric to choose from!  I will do the binding when all the placemats are quilted. 

I made two snowman placemats. 

And four like this.  The little squares were printed on the fabric--it just looks like I sewed them all together.  

There are two of each of these placemats waiting to be quilted.  I am using up scraps of batting too.

In the garden, the gentian is in bloom.  

The bees and wasps are having a party on our Clethra bush these days.  This is a Great Black Wasp.  I had not seen this one before.  The wings are an iridescent blue colour.

My husband and I went for a walk in Port Stanley one evening this past week and a tall ship was coming into the harbour.  This is the St. Lawrence II from Kingston.  The sky was full of dark clouds but it did not rain. 

Here's a picture of Finn in his favourite morning nap spot.  He likes to be touching my daughter when he naps.  

 I will link up with Kathy, Frederique and So Scrappy. 

Starting a New Quilt

 I signed up for a subscription to The Thread House Academy this year.  It is a series of online classes, one per month, led by Lynne Goldsworthy, Karen Lewis and Jo Avery.  One of the projects is a modern sampler quilt with three types of blocks released every four months.  The first three blocks were released at the beginning of August so I have pulled my fabrics--navy, aqua, and magenta prints and a light gray on white print for the background.  Everything came from my stash.  Here are my first two "blocks"--this is not a traditional 12.5" block quilt.  

The pieces for the next "block" are cut out but no sewing done yet.  I will work on that tomorrow. Since Aqua is the colour of the month for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge, I will link up with Angela when I finish this post. 

I finished the binding on the gift quilt that I made so it is now ready for giving.  I will show pictures when the recipient has their quilt. 

I added more blue to the sky on my rug hooking project this week.  I wonder if I can get it done by the end of the month?  That would be great as I purchased a couple of fall cross stitch patterns this past week.  I even have the Aida Cloth and the threads ready to go...  I keep telling myself I can't start a fall project until I finished my knitted scarf and the rug hooking. This might take some will-power!

I have four different colours of phlox blooming in my garden at the moment.  Such pretty flowers that signal to me that we are nearing the end of the summer. 

My husband and I spent a couple of days in Toronto this past week.  We visited the Ripley's Aquarium, a dog fountain, the Royal Ontario Museum where we saw two exhibits-- "Auschwitz. Not long ago. Not far away." (very thought provoking and moving) and "Nature in Brilliant Colour" (the exhibit highlighted animals and plants in all the colours of the rainbow, colour by colour.), and we went to a play "Natasha,  Pierre and the Great Comet of 1812".  We packed a lot into our two days!  Here are some pictures of the highlights. 

Pizza at Eataly

The Aquarium

The Museum

Finn had a good week.  I can't touch the end of my nose with my tongue like he can. 

I will link up with Kathy and the Slow Sunday Stitchers in the morning as well as Frederique and Angela. 

On a Roll

 I have been in the mood to finish some quilts and so I have another finished quilt to show this week.  My yellow and green potato chip quilt is done. I'm calling it "Sunny Day". The striped binding was in my stash.  This quilt will be donated to my MIL's nursing home to be raffled off as a fundraiser. (Another quilt is quilted and will be bound shortly--it is a gift so no pictures yet)

I spent quite a bit of time rug hooking this week and made great progress on my project.  Lots of blue still  and a little bit more on the last row of the outer border to go.

My daughter's collection of granny squares for her book blanket.  She makes one granny square for each book she has read this year.  Each of the colours and position of the colours gives information about the book she has read--ie genre, rating, how she read it, etc. 

While watering my parsley plant, I discovered that I am sharing my parsley with a swallowtail butterfly caterpillar. 

I saw this flower on a hike this week. 

I love the lemony yellow colour of the thread leaf coreopsis flowers in my garden. 

The milkweed pods are plentiful at the trail where I walk each day. 

Mom and Dad Osprey and their growing baby were putting on a show this week. 

Thanks for visiting!  Finn says hello. 

I will link up with Kathy and Frederique, as usual. 

Walking Foot Quilting

I finished off the quilting and binding of the hollow 9 patch baby quilt earlier this week and got to work on quilting my yellow and green potato chip quilt.  I am using 28 wt green thread on top and white 50 wt thread in the bobbin. This is a bigger quilt so it is taking longer to quilt...more material to manage as I quilt. I will work on this again soon--I'm hoping to have it done to show on next week's blog post.  This is a donation quilt. 

And here is the big TaDa!  The hollow nine patch rainbow quilt is done.  It is 36" by 48".   I bought the backing on sale a while ago and only have 1/2 a yard left.  

My black eyed Susans are putting on a show in the garden in the backyard these days. 

Our Kangaroo paws plant is in flower!  Such an interesting plant!

I finished the red border and started on the Burgundy border on my Pitcher Plant rug hooking project.   This definitely qualifies as slow stitching!!  I also spent a couple of hours on knitting my scarf---another very slow stitching project.  I am itching to start another cross stitch picture but I am resisting until these two projects are done. 

My daughter read 14 books in July and here are her granny squares for each book.  The second picture shows all of the books she read.  The little squares will be put together in the order that she read the books.  She has a spreadsheet that keeps track of the books and granny squares...

My husband and I decided to take advantage of a beautiful, not too hot, day yesterday and we went hiking at Rondeau Provincial Park. There are some interesting plants there and we also saw several varieties of butterflies.  Only one butterfly stayed still long enough for a picture. 

Spice Bush Berries

Red Admiral Butterfly

Finn is peeking out from under my daughter's desk to say hello!

I will link up with Kathy and the Slow Sunday Stitchers tomorrow.  This post will also be linked up with Frederique and Angela today.