With my friend little bird cross stitch done and framed (she loved it), I needed to get something new in the hoop. For a while, I’ve been admiring a variety of patterns done on black aida. Eventually, I settled on a set of patterns from an Etsy seller.

When we renovate my office this summer, I want to decorate it something like an old Victorian Naturalist’s room. I think these would look amazing on the wall.

I’ve started with the first butterfly

It’s not going to be a fast project. Not only am I working on black aida, but it’s also 18ct – so it’s pretty small. I think it’s going to look amazing though! I just have to take it one stitch at a time!

Once I got my unpacking done, and my laundry started, Saturday was the day to tackle fixing the corner on my SAHRR quilt.

I got out the seam ripper and got work taking those rocketship corners out. Then I got out the graph paper and started playing around. It took a little bit, but I finally figured out something that would work better. And once I did, they took no time at all to cut and sew.

Simple hearts on point. I honestly don’t know why I didn’t think of them sooner. And you can probably tell by Burton’s face… he thinks I should have as well!

Once they were together, it was just a matter of getting them sewn back into the top.

The photo is a touch blurry – but you can see it looks waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay better now.

The second round of the round robin was released last Monday (and another one will be announced today), but you’ll have to wait a few days to see what I did next.

Technically, it’s far too early to be worried too much about the gardens. And it’s still to early to plant any of my seeds inside. But the snow we had is gone, and the weather’s back to hovering above freezing so naturally the boys and I were outside poking around.

The cats aren’t the only furry things soaking up the sunshine…

All three of the pussywillows are starting to show their catkins. I thought it seemed a little early, but looking back at last year’s photos, it looks like it’s about right on time.

There’s lots of green popping up everywhere, but the thing I’m most excited about are these

Last fall, planted a pile of crocuses for some early spring colour. Despite these healthy sprouts, it will be at least a month before I see blooms on them. But it makes me happy to see the green, because not all of the bulbs I planted are going to bloom…

It seems the squirrels have had their fun with some of them. But that’s why I plant a tonne – hopefully the majority will make it through!

As mentioned earlier in the week, I was gone from Tuesday to Thursday on a little jaunt to our Nation’s Capitol.

It was a mix of business and pleasure, and with travel taking up most of Tuesday and Thursday, and business taking up most of Wednesday, there wasn’t a tonne of time for sight seeing. But I did get to walk around downtown Ottawa – which seemed to be mainly comprised of hotels, bars, restaurants, and office buildings and a few statues here and there:

And even an ice sculpture

I believe Winterlude is set to start this weekend and the sculpture is part of it. There were others but they were covered up

Ottawa was pretty similar in style to most of the big cities I’ve visited (ie Toronto, Chicago, etc), with a couple of exceptions.

1. There was a lot more people speaking French (for those who don’t know, Canada has two official languages, so with all the Federal workers, and Quebec literally a hop skip and a jump away, this wasn’t a big surprise)
2. These fancy buildings..

Our Parliament Buildings. (There’s another big building on Parliament Hill – West Block/House of Commons – but for some reason I didn’t take a picture.

As you can see, they were under construction (friends tell me they are ALWAYS under construction) but they are still quite pretty. If I’d been able to get pics of them in the day, you’d see that the roofs are a beautiful green colour (copper roofs that have patina-ed over time)

But I don’t think the Centennial Flame would have looked as cool during the day (my pics don’t really show it’s splendor).

And even though it was a very short trip – I was very happy to return home. I am a homebody at heart. And someone else hates it when I go away too

He says I’m not allowed to leave again – he’s going to be really upset when I go to Mom’s in a couple weeks…

Let cheer him up by voting him America’s Favourite Pet! (Don’t forget to vote daily!)

Cat croissant, anyone?

Here we are in February.

February is always the hardest month for me. Though it’s a short month, it’s almost always cold, grey and dreary. (Though winter this year has been exceptionally grey, it feels).

So in February, flowers in the house are a must for me

Happily, the grocery store always has cut tulips this time of year. I love tulips because they last so long as a cut flower.

And my house plants are doing their best to cheer me up too.

Both of the poinsettias I bought before Christmas are doing quite nicely. The trick with poinsettia is to keep them moist (but don’t drown them) and give them lots of light.

I’m hoping I can keep this pair going to next Christmas. I’ve kept a couple poinsettias till mid-summer… but never past. I’m going to enjoy this challenge.

My light purple violet is still blooming up a storm. I can’t get over how well it’s doing. It’s a very happy little plant.

And remember that aloe that bloomed? We’ll I’ve got another one blooming

This one is a spikier, smaller aloe, but it’s got some pretty big, bold orange flowers. These aloes are certainly happy in the sewing room window.. despite our grey skies!

I’d fallen slightly behind with my blockhead blocks, so I had two to make this weekend instead of just one.

I am absolutely loving these fabrics, especially fussy cutting all the centre bees. And I think the boys agree.

Another block came out today, but as I’m away this week, I’ll hopefully find some time to put it together on the weekend.

His Lordship was back on the job this weekend…

… making sure I met my stitching deadline. And we were successful. Early Sunday night, I put the last of the letters in. The words aren’t part of the pattern, I just winged them and they worked out very well.

I gave it a good soak, and then a press to get all the wrinkles out and framed it up.

And as you read this, I’m either waiting for a plane, on a plane, waiting for another plane, or on the ground in Ottawa – maybe even giving this to the recipient this very moment!

… and to Reward the most noble fluffbutt for all his hard work, we’ve entered him in America’s Favourite pet.

If he wins, he will be featured in Modern Cat magazine! You can vote for him daily, so please do!

Vote here!!! Vote often!

The first prompt for the Stay at Home Round Robin (SAHRR) was released last Monday. It was a signature block.

As signature block is a block with a white space on it that you can literally sign you name on (or put a message on).

It’s frequently used in milestone quilts (for weddings, anniversaries, etc) for friends and families to write a message to the recipient.

There are all types of signature blocks, but they style above is the most common. Now, naturally, I had no use for signatures in my quilt, but the style above can be arranged to make sort of a zigzag border.

I wasn’t loving that idea. But I thought, if you made the signature part a little wider… it’s shaped a little like a leaf… and my fabrics do have a botanical theme. I got out some graph paper and started sketching.

I finally settled on a simple heart, flanked by signature “leaves”

I got the top and bottom borders on and both Lemmy and I thought it was looking pretty good. But when I went to put the sides on, the corners were looking just too big and blank.

I had the “brilliant” idea to put a bigger”leaf”, in a different fabric. And I thought it was all looking good until I got it all on and laid it on the bed to take pictures.

And suddently I no longer had hearts and leaves… I had hearts and rocketships…

Burton thinks it’s absolutely hilarious…. and it is… but it definitely won’t do!

I’m going to do some ripping and rethink those corners. I’ve got a few ideas of what I’ll do instead, but I’m not settled on anything yet. I won’t be able to get to it until the weekend any way.

One thing I am thrilled about is the black background. When I first bought the fabrics and started planning what I might do, I wasn’t planning on using a black background. But then I started looking closer at the fabrics in the collection, and a lot of them are light. If I used a light background, I’d be very limited it how I could use almost half the fat quarter bundle. I made a last minute decision to go with black… and I love how it looks.

So… you lose some… you win some… and next weekend we’ll turn that loss into a win!

All that snow you saw on my garden yesterday… well it’s gone. That pic was take a few days ago. But Thursday, the temps started rising. It’s not super warm ,but it’s stayed above freezing. By yesterday, all that was left was a few lumps of snow here and there.

I took the opportunity to give the inside of Dory a good cleaning on the back drive. While I was working away on that, the boys were out getting some fresh air…

The cats do go outside in when it’s snowy, but they don’t stay out as long. And even though the snow was gone, it was still very wet, so Relic settled in to watching the world go by from the relative dryness of the cat cabana

Lemmy is not quite so fussy…

He was very busy in every corner of the catio

There’s no doubt that he’s the youngest of the bunch. He’s just a very busy boy.

Burton has far more dignity…

A little sniff…

A little stretch

And he retired to the comfort of the sun porch.

And you’re probably wondering where Rupert is…

He’ll come out when it’s actually Spring… none of this false spring for him!