Guys… the internet is a very dangerous place….

A couple weeks ago, I was just innocently hanging out on Facebook when one of the women in my quilting group posted about this…

… a little sewing machine bird house.

I had to check it out. A quick google search told me that it was sold at Joann. Bummer… Joann is a U.S. company, no good for me here in Canada. But I decide to take a closer look anyway.

And guys!!!!! JOANN NOW SHIPS TO CANADA!!!!!!

You have no idea how excited I got. For YEARS I’ve been listening to all my American crafting friends go on and on about all these great deals they got at Joann. But none of it was any good for me!

To make it even better, they show the Canadian price on the website… AND they offer free shipping on orders over $80 Canadian. This is HUGE!!!!

I wasn’t planning on placing an order right then and there, but then I scrolled down. There was a doorbuster deal… almost all flannel was $4.99 a yard. That’s crazy cheap compared to most places, especially around here! And you know how much I love putting flannel on the back of quilts.

I started filling my basket. However, I am very proud to say, I didn’t just throw in anything that caught my eye (thought I wanted to.). I asked myself what fabric I had that I could use it for. If, and only if I had a fabric collection that would work with it, did it go in my cart.

In the end, I ordered seven fabrics at 4 yards each (enough for a good sized lap quilt/small double)

• The penguins will go with a penguin panel and set of fabrics I got recently
• The lighthouses are for a lap-sized ship quilt similar to Brigantine Baby
• The bees are for some bright, bee-themed fat quarters I have.
• The black with pink hearts, stars and flowers are for a Barbie-themed fat quarter pack
• The jellyfish are for another ocean themed fat quarter pack
• The daisies are for my gnome quilt
• The grey cat faces will go with my Mod Cat Fat quarter bundle
• The multi-coloured cats will go with another cat fat quarter bundle with similar colours.

These should keep me going for the next few months without having to order more stash (or at least backs!)

Before I leave, a small story about picking this up from the post office.

Our actual mailbox at the post office is very tiny, it basically only fits letters. For any parcels, we have to go to the actual post office desk where they keep everything behind a counter.

With all the stuff Dave and I order, the post office ladies have gotten to know me pretty well in the short time we’ve lived her.

So as soon as they see me walking in, they are usually retrieving my parcels before I even show the the parcel card. This particular day she had it on the counter already and as soon as I walked in, she gasped. “Valerie!”

Thinking about the size of the box, I said “I know… I’m sorry, it’s a big heavy one, but it was a really good deal”

She said “No! I had no idea they shipped to Canada!” and pointed to the packing tape the declared the package was from Joann for all to see.

I laughed and explained to her how I found out. Apparently, she used to drive to Port Huron frequently (the border is only a 40 minute drive) to shop at Joann, but hasn’t been since COVID hit. She’s been missing those deals! She was very excited to find out she could have them delivered right to her!

Here we see the rare indoor cave cat in his natural habitat…

These fascinating, but elusive felines make their impromptu day-time nap spaces amongst whatever piles of home goods and textiles they can find. Though for this particular ginger breed, homemade quilts are much preferred.

Sunday afternoon saw Burton and I in the studio again. Since we’re still waiting on that white fabric, we had to get creative with our sewing.

I pulled out a small fat quarter pack I’d bought a while ago and got cutting.

This is a very simple pattern, and to be honest, I’m surprised I didn’t think of it sooner. Before I was blogging, I dabbled with a few quilts (baby quilts for friends) and with my limited skills, it was always my go-to layout.

And it’s funny, as your skills increase, it’s very easy to forget that there’s nothing wrong with keeping it simple now again again. Not only did this layout require no white background fabric, it’s the perfect kind of thing for large print fabrics like those mermaids

And even with cutting, this one goes together super fast. I started around noon and was done before three.

Beautiful in its simplicity!

And that coral solid around the border was total kismet. It’s from Tula Pink’s line, and I’d added it to a recent order from Lens because it was on sale. The online image made it look like a deep, but soft orange. I should have known better though – Tula’s fabrics are BRIGHT! I was a little dissapointed when I got it, but knew I’d find something to use it with.

And it obviously didn’t take long. It was just perfect to add a touch more width to this. It’s only 34″ square, and I had to keep it small. I had a special piece of flannel in mind for the back….

It was a clearance find, and there was only one yard of it, but that’s just enough for the back of a small baby quilt! The colours were too perfect to pass up. And look – more of those fishies for will work for the binding!

(What is with this ocean theme I’m on?)

Hopefully my bolt of white fabric will be here soon and can get back to my other quitls in progress!

It doesn’t really look like it, but I am making decent progress on Hemlock

I’ve already added a few full repeats, and I’m happy to say, this time around, my stitch count is 100% correct. Slower is just fine if I can keep it right!

We start this tiny needle Tuesday with a conundrum:

My sister-in-law’s (Jenn) birthday is fast approaching. And I have pretty much made her everything under the sun I could think of of the last 20 or so years… hats, mitts, cardigans, socks, cowls, quilts, bags, pillows,… and anything I haven’t made her (place mats come to mind), her daughters or Mom have. It’s gotten very hard to craft for her!

So I put my thinking cap on and realized, I’ve never cross-stitched anything for her. I messaged Miss Paisley, and together we came up with something we think her Mom will love.

This weekend, I started stitching:

I’m not going to show you what the finished project will look like, because I think it will be a fun surprise for you all. But I can tell you it’s a wreath of flowers/leaves with a fun saying in the centre.

I’ve got quite a ways to go on it, but I’m pretty confident I can get it done by Jenn’s birthday (on March 17th)

In other stitchy news. I’m not the only one who’s started cross-stitching again. Seeing my projects inspired Mom to pick up the tiny needle again. She made us both cute little project keepers to help keep our projects tidy when not in use.

And in typical Mom fashion, she filled it with a bunch of stitchy doodads. Including this VERY handy needle minder

Which is absolutely fantastic because I am forever losing needles and Dave is terrified of stepping on one. He cringes every time he sees me with a needle in hand or the pincushion out. But back to that project keeper

It fits my largest hoop perfectly and keeps everything safe from prying paws!

This weekend I was all excited to do this month’s Rainbow Scrap Block. The colour is aqua/teal, so I went through my scraps and pulled out the fabrics I needed to make a pile of HSTs. Then I started cutting the white fabric for the background…

Then I ran out of white fabric…

With white, cream, black, grey and navy (our basic background colours), Mom and I buy them by the bolt. The bolts live at Mom’s, and I just cut off a few yards at a time as I need them.

But when I was there last weekend, I didn’t realize how low I was. I didn’t bring any home with me. And it’s not like before, when I could just pop up and get some at my earliest convenience. It’s a 2.5 hour drive now, and at $1.50/L for gas, even if I had the time to burn….

But with no white fabric.. I couldn’t finish the rainbow scrap block, or do the next round on the Round Robin quilt, or add the border to the gnome panel, or even start the new quilt Samantha just commissioned…

(Oh… that’s why I was so low on white!!!)

Since I obviously use a lot of it, I decided it was time to get my own bolt, and put an order in to MSQ. Sadly delivery isn’t instant, so I had to figure out what I was going to sew.

There was only one project on the go that I could work on, and that’s because I’d already cut out all the white pieces I needed for it. (In fact, that’s where the last of the white fabric went)

If you’ve been hanging around the Bearbottom Facebook page, you’ll have gotten a peek at this one already.

The pattern is the Chandelier Quilt. I first saw the pattern when ChrisKnits made one, and I fell in love with hers immediately. It’s the pattern I plan to use for my Kitty Corn quilt, but I thought it would be fun to try it out in baby size first.

I used some leftover charm squares from a fun ocean print line I bought a few years back (I made A Fish Called Rhonda and Sea Stacks with them) I put the blocks together in an afternoon the week before last. I had hoped finish the top before going to Mom’s for my quilt weekend, but I ran out of time. So, on Saturday (since I could sew nothing else) I laid it out and started sewing it all together.

I love on-point quilts, but they can be a little fussy to sew together. Happily, this one didn’t cause me any trouble, and it was together in no time.

It’s such a great looking top. And it’s going to be even better looking when it’s quilted.

Especially with this fun whale flannel for the back, and these cute little fishies for the binding!

Last weekend, I mentioned that I has plans to grow some seeds indoors, as well as the winter so I showed you.

Years ago, in the townhouse, I grew some seeds on Grandma’s table under the dining room window. Dave wasn’t too keen on the idea, and it did have some drawbacks. The light wasn’t quite bright enough there to get really good seedlings. It also took up a lot of space that we didn’t really have.

But as you know… we have MUCH more space here!!!! Still… Dave said Grandma’s table was off limits, so I had to come up with something else.

I looked at grow set-ups online, and if you’ve ever done that, you’ll know they can be quite spendy. I knew there had to be a better way to do it. Since what I was looking for was just basically shelves and lights, I decided to buy just that.

I got one of those black plastic utility shelf units on sale at Canadian Tire. It was just $30. Then I ordered a set of grow lights from Amazon for about the same cost. They are three separate lights, but all connected to one control – perfect for attaching to the shelves. They attach with double-sided tape, and the shelves fit together with no tools at all, so it’s a super easy project, and way less expensive than those other fancy set ups.

Another $40 filled it with peat pods and grow trays! I won’t be planting anything until mid-March… but I’m ready to grow!

In other plant news….

I’m afraid my Ranunculus sprouts just up and wilted away. Not sure what happened, but like I’ve had no luck with them in the past. I might try again when it’s warmer outside.

My sunflowers haven;t gotten any taller, but one has gotten bigger leaves. The other, in the back, is starting to yellow a bit…. but if you look closely, it’s got an itty bitty flower head. Time will tell if it will actually blooms.

And… on the way home from Mom’s last weekend, I stopped at Terra. It’s a HUGE nursery chain and the one by her always has a fantastic selection of house plants.

I came home with a String of Turtles, and a Pickle Plant! (Just look at those tiny pickles!!!!)

And… I’m very excited about this next one. You may remember the weeping pussywillow I had a few years back. Sadly, it didn’t make it more than a year, but I think that was because I kept it over winter in a pot, when I really should have planted it in the ground.

I hadn’t seen any since, so I was thrilled to find them at Terra

I’m thinking this will probably go out front, but I’ve got to sit down and draw up some plans. That’s a way off – for now I’m just going to enjoy all those fuzzy little catkins!

When last you saw the Hemlock Ring it was a giant lump of knitting. Well dear readers… I am sad to say…

… it is now a much smaller lump of knitting. Not long after I got it on the extra long needle, I got to another pattern row (it’s four rounds of plain knit, and one pattern round), and I thought to myself… “gee, there seems to be a disproportionate number of yarnovers to the k2togs.”

Hemlock ring is basically a round feather and fan. And in F&F, your decreases (K2togs) have to match your increases (yarnovers). Being round, they don’t have to match as you are increasing, but they can’t be wildly out of whack either. With the number of yarnovers I had to decreases, I’d basically created a giant, ruffled monstrosity.

Normally, I’m fine with leaving in a mistake or two, but this mistake was so exponential that it would have been a nightmare to try and block. So I frogged back to where I think I went wrong, and got it all back on the needle.

I haven’t had much time to start re-knitting yet, but I will tackle it properly this week. But sadly, at this rate, I won’t need the warmth by the time it’s done.

As I said earlier this week, I spent the weekend at Mom’s.

This greatly upset a certain someone:

While she is fluffy and adorable, and sinfully soft, Miss Winnie is not a fan of people.

Oh, she adores my Dad. And I she tolerates, and maybe just a little bit, likes Mom. But to Winnie, the rest of the world can take a hike. Me especially.

As soon as I walk in, I get a look of pure and utter disdain that just screams “Why are YOU here again???”

And though she doesn’t like people, she’s not one of those cats who runs and hides from company. No… Winnie sits there and stares you down. She follows you from room to room, distrustful of your motives.

When I’m in the basement quilting, she watches me from the back of a chair.

…her tail, swishing about in annoyance.

In the living room, she reposes on her curl, but never takes her eyes off you

Even when you want to get a little shut-eye. She’ll just jump up on the bed…

And stare at you until you fall asleep.

She’s cute… but she’s kind of a creep.

The last finished quilt continues the star theme, but in a slightly different style.

It is, of course, those fabulous pegacorns.

I’m not a big fan of pastels, but these ones are just bright enough to be really fun. I tried to highlight them with a fun rainbow thread.

It doesn’t show up great here, but it’s pink, blue and yellow just like the shades in the quilt. And of course, I had more of those fabulous pegacorns for the back.

But they are FLANNEL!!!! It’s such kismet when this happens, because I bought the original fat quarter pegacorns from Walmart, and it was a few months later that I saw the flannel version online at Lens! I love it when the universe brings it together like that.

And now.. these pegacorns have paraded on into the shop!