Here it is – that wonderful collaboration between me and Mom

You will recall, this project was made as part of the 2022 Rainbow Scrap Challenge. Instead of making lots of little blocks in each month’s colour, I made one big block for each month (more or less – there are only 10 blocks).

Once the top was done, I handed it off to Mom and she worked her magic.

The pictures don’t do it justice. It’s more amazing in person.

For the back, I used this wild, abstract rainbow print. And I had just enough rainbow stripes left from my gnome quilt to do the binding on this. How I love a stripey binding. Even more so when it’s diagonal!

And this one is a big one – 80 x 88″. I have it listed as a Twin, but it really depends on how much you want it to drop on the sides… this one could easily work well on a Double, possibly even a Queen.

And it’s in the shop now if you want to make it yours!

With Saturday somewhat of a write-off, I really wanted to do something productive with Sunday. I managed a couple somethings, and one of them was catching up on our sew-a-long with the Sewcialites. Burton and I were four blocks behind, and that would never do!

It only took a couple hours to get us caught up again.

And now we have 20 fine blocks with just four more to go. If things go as planned, this one will be sewn into a top before May!

“Things never go as planned – who are you kidding???”

Not a lot was accomplished with the stitching this weekend.

I completed the A, and made some good progress on the R. But that was it.

But I only worked on it on Friday night. When we stopped in at Mom’s on Saturday, she gave me back the Rainbow Scrap Challenge quilt.

She’d finished all her fancy quilting and it needed the binding finished on it. So I spent Saturday and Sunday night plying that tiny needle instead.

Pics will come soon – she did and amazing job on the quilting!

The weekend was a bit of a mixed bag.

As you know, Saturday, Dave and I were off to look at a used car. We are contemplating replacing his Buick Regal. We found another one on FB Marketplace that was a lot lower mileage.

I’d made arrangement with the owner over a week ago that we would come on Saturday at noon. The car was over two hours away (back in our old city) so we got up and on the road bright and early.

We arrived at the house two minutes after noon.

The guy opened the door a crack, and when I said we were here to look at the Buick, he looked really confused. And the said “I sent you a message to come Monday instead. It’s buried in snow right now.”

And he shut the door.

We stood on the door for a minute, looking at each other in shock. We could see the car at the end of the driveway… it had snow around it, sure… but it was maybe six deep at most.

I double checked my phone… there was no message – phone or text. Our last message with the guy was confirming Saturday at noon.

Now.. the strong waft of marijuauna that billowed out of the house when the guy cracked the door may be a hint to what the heck was going one. Don’t do drugs kids. It melts your brain.

We shrugged and got back in Dory and left

Now I was more than a little annoyed. Not only had we driven 2.5 hours… but I’d put off my weekend at Mom’s to do so.

But c’est la vie!

Since we were back in our old city, we took advantage and dropped off Miss Wren’s birthday present (a Barbie and a Squishmallow – nothing knit this year). We also took as side trip up to Mom and Dad’s for a couple hours.

And I got a little present.

Mom had just finished making me this little wall hanging. When we gto home, I found the perfect spot for it on the wall beside my machine.

It will look even better when I get rid of that ugly wallpaper!

At least it wasn’t a total waste of a drive!

Most of the birds continue to elude me and my long lens. They are still very wary if I’m out in the yard – even quite a ways from the feeder. But the squirrels have been endlessly fun to photograph.

Their feats of acrobatics are incredible. I’m just look at this guy:

He is only hanging onto that feeder roof by his back feet.

And he can do it from both sides!

You can see how both front and back feet are almost like little hands. The only thing they are missing is thumbs! Can you imagine how much trouble they’d be with thumbs!!!

I think this particular one might have been showing off a bit. He was upsidedown more often than not!

At the townhouse, we saw a lot of rivalry between the black and grey squirrels here. The gray ones (which always seem to be bigger) would run off the black ones every chance they got. But here, while they don’t seem to interact with each other, they tolerate each other’s prescence much better

I’m pretty sure that grey is the same one I showed you a while back.

She’s a very robust girl with a wonderful coat. I love the bits of white and brown on her chest and belly. And that tail! So fluffy with such depth of colour.

She isn’t quite the acrobat wee Blackie is. But she still manages her meals without too much trouble.

Unlike Blackie, she doesn’t like to be upsidedown when she eats.

But that’s still some amazing balance she has! I know I certainly couldn’t hold onto a metal bar with just my toes!

I suspect the secret to keeping balance lies somewhere in that magnificent tail!

This week… it’s been a week.

One of those weeks where everything piles on at once. Work was crazy busy. And that’s normally not a problem. I don’t have much of a social life, or outside commitments.

But this week… we had window guys coming to give quotes, doctors appointments, and then the Buick’s windshield cracked! There was lots of running around, and I felt like I was always behind, even though I never stopped.

But the storm seems to have passed, and other than going out to look at a vehicle with Dave today, I’ll be devoting a good chunk of my weekend to just chilling out!

On Thursday, when things were finally starting to lighten up a little, I popped outside for some fresh air. It was a beautiful sunny day. While there were still some piles of snow on the ground, wherever the sun touched was bare. Naturally, I did some poking around in the gardens, and a wee bit of yellow caught my eye!

Aren’t they just the happiest little blooms? Winter Aconite is one the earliest blooming flowers, and that’s one of the reasons I planted the bulbs last fall. I have just three little clumps so far. I can’t remember if that’s all I have, or if there will be more. I know I planted the bulbs in groups, but I can’t remember how many. They will spread too, so this early show will only get better with each passing year.

Even though it’s just a handful of blooms, these wee petals cheered me up immensely!

As did this guy.

It’s not the best picture, because I took it through my office window. He’s been hanging out in the tree outside my office all week. I’ve also seen several Red-Winged Blackbirds. And last week, a flock of Tundra Swans flew over the house. I didn’t have my camera handy, so no pictures of them unfortunately.

But there’s no denying it – even if Mother Nature sends us more snow…. Spring is Nigh!

Lord Burton Bearbottom and I would like to wish you all a very happy St. Patrick’s Day!

As you can see, we are all about the Green over here! Green room, Green quilt, Green eyes!!! (Even I have Green eyes!!!).

Other than enjoying the Green, we aren’t doing anything special today. It’s another work day for me. They are calling for rain all day today, so Burton will probably be running out, sitting in the rain, then running back in to me, expecting me to dry him off repeatedly! It’s one of his favourite things to do when it rain.

If you are celebrating, we hope you have a wonderful time!

We’d also like to wish a Happy Birthday to Sister-in-Law Jenn! If you’re reading this – your card/present is in the mail. I got busy and didn’t mail it until yesterday! Hope your day is FABULOUS!

Friends of ours have just welcome a second baby boy to their family. My plan was to grab one of the quilts from the shop while at Mom’s and send it off to them. But since I didn’t make it there, I decided to throw together a top just for him.

I’d made a quilt for his big brother back in 2017. In fact, it was one of my first! Boy have I come a long way since then!

Since I wanted to get it done in time to take to Mom’s THIS weekend**, it had to be something quick and easy.

A charm pack and the Oh My Stars pattern to the rescue!

You’ve seen my make this one so many times before. I can throw one together in just a couple hours if I’m motivated.

This one used a charm pack called Colourful Friends, by Crayola.

I’d recently gotten a chunk of crayon fabric in a grab bag, so I knew it would be just perfect for the border

I’ll do plan black binding to balance of the inner black border, and I’ve got a nice chunk of fun animal fabric for the back.

** Sadly, I won’t be quilting it this weekend as planned. Dave wants to look a used car he’s thinking about buying, and he wants my opinion (and help with logistics if he does get it)… so I’m postponing my weekend with Mom once again! It’s a good thing it takes a while for babies to outgrow quilts!

You might have noticed something different about my hands in my last post.

I am a chronic nail-biter. And at 43, I’ve pretty much given up any hope that I will stop and be able to grow the nice, beautiful nails of my dreams.

I’ve gotten acrylic nails a done a few times. And while I absolutely love them, they are time-consuming to have done, and expensive to up-keep.

So mostly I just deal with having short nails. Given all I do with my hands, my nails can’t be super long anyway. But then last month, someone in my facebook feed showed off their beautiful “press-on” manicure.

I’ve done press-on nails before too, but found them too long to be useful. I even tried children’s press-ons. I have small hands, so they actually fit very well. But they always come with an adhesive on them (not the super-glue type nail glue the adult ones use), and I found they didn’t last very long.

But this site where the facebook friend got her had shorter options. I thought what the heck! I won’t be able to wear them once garden season starts, but I’ve got a few weeks before them to give them a try.

I ordered four sets and they arrived just before the weekend.

There was a bit of a learning curve with getting them on securely. But I am absolutely in love! The look much better than any press-ons I’ve had before. They say they should last about two weeks. But if I get a week out of this first set (since I did mess them up at first), I’ll be happy.

And there are so many fun options.

In addition the cat set I’m wearing, I got a different cat set, a fun mushroom and moon set, and a gorgeous butterfly wing set.

This should keep me going for quite a while!

Another weekend come and gone – another three nights of stitching with Burton

We didn’t accomplish quite as much this weekend as we did last…

We finished off the ‘f” in ‘fresh’, completed the ‘F’ in ‘Farm’, and got a good start on the ‘A’. All these letters are a bit of a slog – especially in FARM because they are big and thick. But this one doesn’t have a deadline so I can just take my time and enjoy the stitching.