Lovely mail again!

The parcel mail seems to finally be starting to flow again in my direction.  Things I have sent out seem to be arriving at their destinations quite promptly, but I am still waiting for a couple of things that have been coming to me since June.  Let me show you what I did get this last week ….

Firstly, these six inch squares.  I joined the 6 inch block swap last month and so far I love it.  The smaller blocks are easy to make with material from my mountain of scraps and they turn out quite cute.  We swap two blocks a month in this group.  Here are the blocks I received from Sue.  Can you tell I’m going for hot colours in this one

Next up, this lovely mug rug that I received from Wendi for Leona's 2nd mug rug swap. 

Wendi is from Florida so she sent me a bit of Florida beach time.  Doesn’t the beige fabric look like real sand?! She also sent a really cute needle case and a couple of skeins of embroidery thread – something that I sorely need. 

And finally my pincushion top from the Round Robin has made it home.  Marina had sent it a long time ago and was getting anxious about it’s whereabouts….but it was just Canada Post being slow. 

I asked for a garden theme and look what I got: flowers - a whole wheelbarrow full of flowers - bunnies, butterflies and bluebirds.  Let me put the photo the other way up so you can see that nest of bluebirds clearly.

So sweet!  I love how it turned out.  Next step is to make it into a pincushion top….  Thank-you so much Sue, Jacqueline and Marina.

I finished the first of the stitchery samplers last night. 

The next one is backstitch.  Happy stitching to me!

Janet

Friday Night Sew In

I feel like I haven’t had any time to sew lately, so I was happy to hear it was Friday night sew in tonight.  And DH is gone away overnight, so I didn’t have any distractions.  I started sewing about four this afternoon; while watering my garden I did some hand stitching.  I am trying to follow Helen's Stitched Sunday embroidery lessons.  I was thinking while participating in the pin cushion round robin lately that I need to brush up on/ learn more embroidery stitches.  So this came at an opportune time.  I’m only on lesson 1 though and she’ll be posting lesson 4 this Sunday.  Oh well I am a Slow Poke quilter, and sewer.  I’m not posting a picture of lesson 1yet as it isn’t quite finished. 

I had to put the embroidery down and go to work on some blocks for my colours quilt.  I would so love to get it finished, and I am nearing the end.  I made three dark yellow blocks tonight.

Thirteen blocks left to make, unless I decide to make it one more row long. 

I got some great mail today, but I’m not going to show it now because it’s time for me to sleep.  Here are a few animal and scenery pics instead.

A bear, just leaving my yard….

A Richardson’s Ground Squirrel, more commonly referred to as a gopher… There are thousands of these cute little animals around here.  They are cute as long as they stay out of my garden

This grass is called Horsetail grass.  It is silky smooth in one direction but hard and prickly the other way.  Dogs often try to eat it and end up in dire trouble… It is beautiful though….

A clown performing at the music festival I went to a couple of weekends ago….

Happy weekend!

Janet

Interesting photos and giveaway winners

I am having a very hectic day.  DD # 2 and grandson are here for the day.  I have him signed up for swimming lessons so we went to that this morning.  DD wants some attention given to her hexie quilt; she needs more yellow and blue hexies, wants to borrow my small iron and ironing mat and wants to copy my hexie template.   I am watering all my gardens which takes several hours of moving hoses around.  I do books for our recreation board and there was some mail and cheque writing that had to be taken care of today.  Generally things have just been busy. 

Here are some photos I’ve been meaning to post.  I’ve seen quite a few moose on the road this year but here’s the first successful picture I’ve taken.  That brownish spot behind the bush in front of her is two calves.

If you look closely you can see one of them as they were running off into the bush here

I don’t have many outdoor flowers this summer.  I want to rebuild my flower  beds so I’ve left them empty.  I do have some beautiful flowers on indoor plants though.  First my orchid…

my African violet…

And a cactus…. I don’t know what kind it is…

I didn’t use random number generator for the draw.  No time to figure it out.  Here is the bowl with all the little slips of paper.

And a small boy who was eager to pull the slips…

You would think he could read – he was so intent on unfolding and looking at the papers. 

The winners are:

Momtodc who said: The highlight of my day so far was playing Angry Birds on my phone with my son. We took turns and ended up spending over an hour passing the phone back and forth.

And Gene Black who said: The best part of my day so far was relaxing while holding my new Great Niece, Emily and watching part of a marathon of "The Voice" - it was a family day.

Congratulations!  I’ll e-mail you soon.  Have a lovely weekend everyone.

Janet

Showing off my June swap creations

Most of my June swaps went out late, due to the postal strike and my general state of malaise.  I’m all caught up now though, just in time to start working on the July swaps    Here’s pics of what I’ve sent out for last month.  I haven’t received any of my June swap items yet, but I suspect there will be some arriving soon. 

By the way, they have changed the postal delivery in town.  Now the mail is dropped off and picked up at 8:15 in the morning, Monday, Wednesday and Friday.  This should speed the mail up somewhat as one will be able to post items between 8 a.m. and 8:15 a.m. and have them go out that day.  And the mail will be sorted into the boxes by about noon.

On to the pics…

Hexagons for Hanne.  She asked for bright colours with yellow centres.

Just a sneak peek of Linda's block for the Christmas Block Swap.  I sent this out the earliest but I don’t know whether she has received it yet.

And a sneak peek for Lynn of her Adventure Swap block.  Lynn wanted autumn colours.

Marina's round robin wool pincushion top is finally on its way home to her.  Isn’t it beautiful?!  That is mostly thanks to Sue and Jacqueline who had it before me…

Here is the mug rug I made for my secret partner in Leona's second mug rug swap.  She asked for modern fabrics, so I got to use some of my recent modern fabric stash building purchases.  Completely sewn by hand.  Front….

And back. 

I’ve decided that I LOVE that Silent Cinema fabric – this backing and the two other greys from the front.

I sent a block for Kaaren's quilt, which is being organized by Allie (in case anyone wants to send a block who hasn’t yet, check Allie’s blog).

And lastly I promised Marina I would show her this UFO.  Check out this quilt that she has made using really similar fabric!

I’m going to finish this quilt some day….

I have some pictures of interesting items to show – I’ll be back tomorrow with some of those and results for the giveaway.

Janet

It’s Canada Day! I promised a giveaway….

Well here it is Canada Day. I’ve been blogging for one year.  I did promise a giveaway and it will be today.  First you have to see some pics from our fun Canada Day parade…

Above is DD # 1 and pseudo daughter #1 with her nephew.  A bunch of the girls who grew up in town and used to love Canada Day here came out with their kids to join in the fun.  After the parade, food, singing Oh Canada and eating cake, there were games for the little kids and then we got into the serious competition: spike pounding and swede sawing logs. 

Here are the grandchildren – they wouldn’t participate in the kiddie games but they did in the “bush” ones.

Hammering that spike….okay they gave him a really little spike ….

Big sister getting some pointers prior to trying the log sawing herself…

DD # 3 and her boyfriend joined the fun as well…. with a real log and real swede saw…

Happy Canada Day to Canadian friends and Happy 4th of July to those south of the border!

I decided to give away two sets of two fat quarters each.  These fabrics were purchased in the US so these are American fat quarters.  First I have a set of two themed fabrics, for those who like a little summertime fun.  Campers and deer….

And I decided to part with two fat quarters of my Sherbet Pips…after I ordered some more from the Intrepid Thread…

So, two sets of two fat quarters each for two winners.  From anywhere in the world.  The draw will close next Thursday, the 7th at 9 p.m. my time.  I’m almost at the end of the international date line. The postal strike is over – I will be able to mail. 

Two chances to win:

1. Leave me a comment telling me about the most interesting aspect of your day today.  Don’t say it was all boring – everyone has interesting experiences to tell about.  You can mention which set of fat quarters you like best too.

2. If you are a follower you get a second chance.

Here’s the most interesting thing from my day.  I participated in the serious games.  I’m not much use with a hammer but I do have a history of living in the bush and sawing wood to keep warm.  I’m proud to say I was able to saw the log (the big one) in 36 seconds and in good form.  I didn’t win.  A woman from town sawed the log in 20 seconds and my two daughters did it in 22 seconds and 28 seconds.  But still, 36 seconds is not bad for an aging grandma.

Janet