I’ve talked before about Miss Rowan’s ability on the blades. Well I’ve just got to share her latest adventure….

Last weekend, while we were all hunkered down waiting out the storm – she was tearing up the ice to Michael Jackson’s Thriller.

Sadly, WordPress won’t let me share the video unless I upgrade, so you’ll have to sing the song yourself, and imagine how cute and awesome she was.

Her moves netted her a silver. This kid amazes me more every day!

My two favourite sloths

I wasn’t really expecting to finish this one quite so quick.

I have a pile of tops at Mom’s that have been waiting quite a while for finishing. But I quilted Swan Princess with a pale pink thread, and Mom overestimated the number of bobbins I’d need for it. There was still three bobbins wound up when I decided I had time to bang out another quilt before going home. And this one was the only one with a colour-scheme that would work with pale pink thread.

Like the swans, I stuck with loops, and I think it worked particularly well with this quilt. As many of you noted, it has a very feminine, vintage feel. And I think it really shows that simple (a nine-patch is one of these easiest blocks to make) can be exceedingly beautiful. Although I’m a fairly new quilter, I sometimes feel I’m not doing the fabrics justice if I’m not making something complicated. But just like yarn – sometimes, the fabrics are enough.

The clearance fabric was perfect for the back, and using the bunny fabric on the binding really ties it all together, making those centre bunnies stand out just a little bit more.

It’s not a big quilt – just lap size. But it definitely is a pretty one!

You may have seen this on our facebook page, but I’m having a bit of a dillema

Carbeth is all blocked and dried, so I went through my stash to find appropriate buttons. I found two sets in the right size and quantity… and now I can’t decide!

I’ve had these pretty silver hearts forever. They’ve never been used on anything because most of the work I’ve done has been light for them. They aren’t super heavy, but they do have some weight to them.

Then there’s these pretty dark wood ones. They are almost identical to the ones I used on the Blaster cardigan last year. These ones are bigger (which is why they didn’t get used for Blaster) and a bit lighter.

I like the way both of them look – and I just can’t decide. Which do you prefer?

I don’t mind winter, really. But I do long for spring. Partly for my gardens, of course – but also because it’s hard to get good FO pictures indoors! (I really do need to invest in an external flash for my camera).

But until the snow melts and the light gets better, you’ll have to make so with these

Here’s the finished Swan Princess baby quilt. The pattern is Moda Love, and I made it using a charm pack and that lovely silver grey for the background. While grey isn’t a conventional baby colour, I think it adds a bit of elegance too it. In fact, Mom liked it so much, she took my leftovers and is making a baby quilt with grey, yellow and white. And we’re not the only ones – grey is popping up more and more.

Mom says I’ll get bored of doing loop-de-loops eventually, but for now I’m quite content. They are fun and mostly mindless. And they don’t have to be perfect. IT’s a total win for me!

As you know, I found this awesome swan fabric for the backing, and I had some mottled pink in the stash that was ideal for the binding.

Now this quilt needs to be packed up and sent off to Alberta. I haven’t heard if the little princess has made her appearance yet, but it should be any day now.

Late last week I got the Carbeth Cardigan off the needles. It’s on the blocking board now, but it’s a thick knit, so it needs some time to dry before I put the buttons on it and model it for a post.

In the mean time, I’ve started the second slip stitch sock.

I haven’t gotten very far – most of the weekend was taken up by sewing down quilt binding. But this week my evenings are free so I should make some good headway on it!

Like a lot of you on the eastern half of the continent, we got a lot of snow yesterday.

Unlike some of you, this was pretty much our first significant amount of snow this winter. We’ve had a few dustings, but they’d always melted in a couple hours. It’s mostly been a winter of really cold rain.

It’s lake effect snow, so we got  a fair bit more than the areas around us (which is on the more unusual side – we’re generally a little more sheltered).

The snow fell all day. I didn’t mind. I rearranged my plans, so I did my  quilting at Mom’s on Friday instead. That meant I could spend all Saturday enjoying the snow from the comfort of the couch as I worked on quilt binding.

The birds didn’t mind either. Their feeder was nice and full.

And Burton didn’t mind…

He had a great view of those busy little birds!

If you got snow, we hope you were able to kick back and stay warm.

I told you those nine patches were stacking up fast!

And it took no time at all to finish up the sashing giving me another completed top.

I went with a pretty white-on-white floral for the sashing to just give it an added touch of elegance. The centre bunnies will make the binding and I’m thinking that blue floral fabric I picked up the other day will make a fantastic back (see, I knew there would be a need for it!)

And now, I’ve got quite the pile of quilts to quilt. I’m heading up to Mom’s this weekend to hopefully put a dent in that pile. Look for at least one FO post later in the week!

“You mean this isn’t a cat throne?

It is not, Burton… and neither is the sink!

 

When I made the seamless kitty cat hat for the pattern, I actually made two. One for Wren, and one to make sure I had my numbers right. I was looking for a home for it when I asked Mom if she knew of any toddlers in need of a hat. She did not – the youngest in her circle was Brooklyn, the granddaughter of her best friend. But Brooklyn is four – the hat I had would likely be too small. But obviously, Brooklyn needed a cat hat!

So on that fabric buying trip to Lens, I also picked up some Patons Canadiana

And now Brooklyn has a cat hat! All is right with the world again. (No modeled shots yet, but I’ll try to get some for you soon).