Quilt Repair

I've been meaning to share this for a while, and kept forgetting -- so I'm doing it today because it's been on my mind!

More than two posts ago, I had a quilt repair adventure.

I confess I don't do much quilt repair -- including of the quilts given me by my late Aunt Alice Rennie (1907-2002) and her mother, my paternal grandmother, Maria Flood McIntosh Rennie (1875-1961).  

I have several quilts Aunt Alice made for me as a young woman -- a Log Cabin, an embroidered quilt (from a kit with printed fabric), a Dresden Plate and others.  One is a throw-sized piece, complete with Prairie Points on 3 sides, that is (of course!) in pristine condition!  It will outlive the planet, I expect!  Another is a double-bed quilt she made for my husband and me after I supplied a great deal of the fabric -- scraps left over from my making garments for me and my daughter back in the 1980s -- a mix of cottons and poly-cottons.

As a girl, Aunt Alice made a coverlet in red and white (a coverlet is a quilt without batting) which I've given to my daughter, and later in life, my husband and I commissioned her to make a double wedding ring quilt for my parents (2nd marriage for each), for their 25th wedding anniversary (1982) -- I got that one back when my mother moved into assisted living and no longer owned a double bed (1997 or so).

I also have a quilt that Grandma Rennie made for me that was given me just before she died, and I have something even more precious: a crazy quilt block she did as a 'practice piece' in 1894.  She dated it, and embroidered her maiden name initials (she was about 17 at the time, and didn't marry my grandfather until 1903).  I've had it 'preservation framed' and it hangs in my sewing studio.  The one she made for me when I was a girl has some holes in it; I don't use it, but keep it safe in my linen closet; it's a pink-and-white nine-patch variation.

I have repaired none of these, although many of them have worn pieces or bindings with worn spots.  I haven't dared.

That said, back in May the owner of our hamlet's local "vintage market" approached me with a quilt someone had dropped off to sell.  It really wasn't sale-able -- it was stained as well as worn -- but she liked it and decided that if the worn blocks could be repaired or replaced, she'd keep it for herself.

When I examined it, I came to the conclusion that the top was made long before it was sandwiched and quilted.  The top's fabrics were cotton, maybe from the thirties or forties or later but definitely before the age of synthetics.  The blocks were a good size -- 12" or so, finished; they were 9-patch blocks composed of half-square triangles, lights and darks.  There was wide sashing between them, and a wide border -- all of which was a white, somewhat heavier fabric -- possibly an old sheet.

The top was enveloped over white polyester batting.  The batting had thin and lumpy spots but the backing was pristine -- and the quilt was tied with acrylic yarn at the corner of each block and in the centre square of each 9-patch; in other words, very sparsely quilted.

It reminded me of stories of an old quilt top done by a grandma, found by a young grand-daughter or great-gran, maybe around age 12 or so, who asked Mom to help her quilt it, sometime in the late nineteen-sixties or early seventies when that awful batting was becoming popular.

I told the market owner I would do my best to repair it.  She supplied me with some old gingham aprons to cut up for the blocks, and off I went.

There were 3 blocks that had completely disintegrated -- two in one row and one on the other end of the quilt.  I began by taking out the first and making a sample, which proved to be too small. (I can do math but I muffed it this time!)  

First old block removed

Two more old blocks removed

And here are the new blocks:

First new block -- both from aprons
provided by the shop owner.

Second new block - the floral is from my stash 
of inherited cotton fabric and the
green is from one of the aprons mentioned above.

Third new block - my recycled fabric
The plaid is from an old shirt; the other
from donated cotton fabric.

I had to use a combination of machine stitching and hand-stitching to insert them into the top, in order to avoid taking the entire thing apart altogether!  There were inset seams that I could only do by hand!

There were other blocks that needed hand-done repairs because seams were split.  Can you tell where the split seams were?

Once all the new blocks were stitched into the quilt and the others repaired, I put new ties in to replace the ones I'd removed for the repairs.  I didn't add any new ones, as that would have spoiled the look of the original top.  These ties were wool though, rather than acrylic yarn.  Wool is better for tying quilts because it felts when washed, thus staying tied through time.  That said, this quilt will probably be washed only gently by hand, and left to dry in the sun, given the age and overall condition of the top.

All in all, the work took about 15 hours to complete, not counting the new block I made that was too small.  I took all the materials -- including that block -- back to my client, and we negotiated a price for my time.

It was an interesting adventure, but I'll admit I don't want to make it a focus of my quilting going forward! 

Since my last post, I've finished another top for a give-away throw quilt, and have made progress on my socks and cross-stitch, but I'll leave that for another day.  In the garden there's been a harvest of a bumper crop of raspberries, with more waiting in the wings, so I'll leave it there.

Over at Off the Wall Friday, Nina Marie has finished her first hooked rug -- a new-to-her passion I share, as you well know, Gentle Readers.  So...have a great rest of your weekend and off you go -- to knit, to crochet, to quilt, to cut fabric, to hook fabric and yarn, to stitch into linen or aida cloth, to repair quilts or make new ones -- wherever your hands and your mind and your fancy take you!

Until next time...a bientot!

A Month of Making

There's a lot of 'making' going on! 😁

Yes; I'm still here, and I'm still making -- but in the past month I've been challenged by the need to a) make sure I care for my body -- especially my arms and hands, which this winter were  plagued by aches and pains; and b) make time for sharing what I've made and am still making.

In terms of the former, I found that a major culprit re: my hands -- especially my dominant right hand -- was with computer work.  I dug out a wireless keyboard and set it up so that I didn't strain my hands reaching up to type on my laptop's keyboard, and I got myself a new mouse pad with a wrist support.  That's been a game changer!

I've also been making time for stretches, especially for my arms, shoulders and hands.  Doing that, and pacing myself with respect to arm/hand challenging yard work (digging flower beds, lugging bags of topsoil, mowing the grass), has made a big difference!

Moreover, I've been pacing myself with certain activities that aggravate my hands, which means my knitting is being done in sprints rather than marathon sessions.

As a result, I've finished another LOSY (Left Over Sock Yarn) hat for the give-away box, and have managed to finish one of the pair of Garden Fence Socks I wanted to complete this month.

Pattern: Garden Fence Socks
Designer: Nancy Wheeler
Yarn: Tanis Fibre Arts
Blue Label Fingering
Colour-way: Teal

I won the pattern in the Sox-a-long 2025 challenge for March -- and I'm really enjoying it, even if I can only do 8 rounds (two pattern repeats) at a time.

Friends of mine are about to become grandparents for the first time, so yesterday I cast on the "Little Coffee Bean Cardigan" designed by Elizabeth Smith.  I'm knitting it in a single colour -- more teal! -- using Berroco Pure Merino from my stash, and I'm going to put only one button on it, at the neck.

Yes, I have more knitting WIPs on my needles than I care to admit, but the sock and the cardi are my focus projects for now.

Speaking of focus, about 3 weeks ago, a mobile home a few blocks down from me went up in flames -- likely due to an undetected smouldering grass fire that found a great source of fuel and BANG! exploded.  The three dear folks living there, and their dog and one of their two cats, made it out -- with the clothes on their back, and their vehicles (parked at distance from the blaze) but nothing else.

It's a mess, but the community has stepped up to help with temporary shelter, and gifts of thrift-shop clothing etc.

And I had a quilt top ready, so I quilted it up and passed it on to the neighbour who knew the family and would get it to them.  It measures about 54" x 62", so is a comforting throw-sized piece that I could quilt myself:

Pattern: Easy Breezy
Designer: Bonnie Hunter
from her Leader/Ender projects

This is the second one of these I've made; the blocks are small so it takes some time to gather enough for a decent throw, but once they're together, they create a cheerful, colourful, scrappy quilt!

My other quilting focus has been on finishing the "Old Town" quilt (another Bonnie Hunter design -- the 2024/2025 mystery project) for my son, and yes, I got it bound and mailed off to him earlier this month.  He's delighted to have a new quilt and told me he loves the colours and patterns of this one:

Here's a close-up of the quilting, which was done by the good folks at Quilting from the Heart in Camrose, Alberta:

Speaking of QFTH, yesterday I took the Celtic Knot quilt top up there so I could pick out backing fabric and talk to them about quilting it.  I'd roughly measured it at 112" square but in their larger space, they re-measured it at 116" square!  

Here's what the top looks like, spread out on my lawn in 'flimsy' form:

And yes, they'll quilt it -- they can get batting that's more than wide enough!  So...I bought 4.75 metres of 108"-wide backing, and they helped me split it into pieces so I can make it wide enough.  Once I've done that, my daughter and I will meet up there to pick the over-all quilting pattern (no need for custom work on this one) and thread colour(s).  Stay tuned for the results!

What about stitching focus?

That's a bit tougher to pin down.  I've tried to be disciplined; really I have! 😉 But it's a challenge when I see so many wonderful projects going on floss-tubes!

Here's the update from my last post:

• I've finished the stitching of the Flanders Fields Biscornu from Heartstring Samplery -- but haven't taken a photo! Sigh...
• I finished "Chubby Ewe" from Jeannette Douglas Designs:
  
  
  
  
  

• I started and finished the May bouquet (Block of the Month) from Thea Dueck at The Victoria Sampler:

• I finished -- and fully finished! -- "Hope" from Modern Folk Embroidery:

• As "Hope" was my "Sunday Stitch", I've started a new one: "Proverbs 31" from Plum Street Samplers:

• And I've made progress on two other pieces -- one might refer to them as "les pieces de resistance" in light of the current state of the world:
• First, "Disagree" from Rebel Stitcher, which I'm doing on 40-count Vellum from Picture This Plus, using one strand of 12-wt Sulky variegated thread, over 2 strands of floss. I've actually done a great deal more on this, but the photo below is the last one I took:

• Second, I've also made more progress on "Ruskin's Penguins" from Modern Folk Embroidery.  Again, I've done more on the top of that border, but haven't an updated photo.  It's pretty dense stitching, 1 strand over 2 fabric threads on a 40-count 'Traditional' fabric from Roxy Floss Co's Fabric Club (Sept. 2024 installment) and Roxy Floss in "Gomez" (black) and "Betty White" (white, of course! 😉):

But that's not all!  The greatest blessing of this past week is that I finally put burlap on my new Cheticamp frame and began to hook a new piece!  I'm working through Deanne Fitzpatrick's "Playful, Joyful Rug Hooking" course, which has whetted my enthusiasm.  

I began by drafting a '3-line landscape', and hooking the foreground:

Then I filled in that foreground:

My original thought was to put in either a gravel road or a field of canola...but then I thought, what about water?

I liked it, so I kept going!

The working title is "Jewels in the Water".  I'm thinking I'll move into the background with low, rocky foothills below the sky...but I'm letting it 'percolate' for a bit.  Stay tuned! 😁

As I mentioned at the top, the yard and garden have also had a great deal of 'focus' in this last month.  To whit, 

• I've planted my 2 raised beds: a cherry tomato and 2 hills of zucchini in one; and green beans, leaf lettuce, basil and dill in the other.
• I put out my bedding plants in pots -- my over-wintered geraniums with my favourite lobelia; and my brown pot of bacopa with impatiens; and
• I've added some sedum and pinks to my perennial beds.
• My wildflowers are coming along, though the grass and dandelions hide several of them from view.  I don't mow the "Meadow" until June, so I've had to put stakes in to mark the spots where daisies, hollyhock, violas, wild geraniums and Alberta roses are sprouting -- I don't want to mow them down when the time comes!
• And I've added some marigold seed and poppy seed to a couple of bare areas, which I fortified with fresh topsoil and mulch.

With all those dandelions, I've made one batch of jam, and have picked another collander-full of blossoms for a second...

But the most lovely thing on sunny afternoons now is to sit outside with a book or some stitching, listening to the ornamental fruit trees as they hum with bees...

And with that image for you to savour, Gentle Readers, I'll bid you farewell for now.  As usual, I'll link this post to Nina-Marie's Off the Wall Friday.  This week she highlights the "3 Laws of Art", with which I heartily agree.  Make.  Make again.  Just keep making -- however you do it, create beauty every day.  It brings light to life!

A bientot!

A Bit of Everything

When I was a kid, my mother told me that one of her father's favourite expressions (he died when she was in her early teens) was "Six of a dozen assorted".  That's sort of what I have to share this go 'round.

The Madman to the South continues his threats on my country's very existence, so I continue to make, make, make in order to bring a modicum of order to the chaos swirling around us.

Blessedly, I have enough materials and ideas to keep that process going!

On Wednesday, I attende the Opening Reception for the "Piece by Piece" fund-raising exhibit at the Lacombe Performing Arts Centre (fondly referred to as LPAC).  My piece was one of two distinctly textile-genre pieces; there was also a piece that was mixed media (including found objects) and a variety of paintings, both in oil and in acrylic -- landscapes, portraiture and so forth.  Twenty-two artists in all.  

This is a silent auction and runs through May 2nd, so I hope my local friends will get over to the LPAC to see it -- and maybe place a bid!

"Prairie Gold" 12" x12" on canvas

I recently got word that I've been accepted for a booth at the 2025 Encore! Lacombe Art Show and Sale.  I was Featured Artist in 2023, but took the year off last year and will be returning this year with both quilted and hooked pieces.  Four of the quilted pieces will be the ones that have just come "home" from B.C. -- the ones I made for the 2022-2024 "Art in the Park" residency and touring exhibit.  Here's a shot of them hanging in the Revelstoke Visual Arts Centre gallery:

I'm very excited to present them to a new audience in Lacombe!

With them, there will be several new hooked pieces, including smalls that can be taken home for very little expense.  

But besides that, I continue to work on the usual...knitting...quilting (piecing) and cross-stitch.

Last going first, the cross-stitch.  I've been a bit all over the place but still focusing (a bit) on what is (mostly) Canadian.

I've made more progress on "Anne Perrin 1841", a reproduction sampler from Jeannette Douglas Designs, and made my way over to the "berry bowl" in the centre:

I've also made some progress on "'S' is for Stitcher" from Thea Dueck at The Victoria Sampler:

I also started Thea's 2025 BOM -- a floral 'Block of the Month' in stitches.  I've done the first two months and, having the pattern for March, will do that one soon:

And I've made my way to what is essentially the centre of the piece, but there it sits for now -- along with the "Quilters' Dream" from Modern Folk Embroidery, because, of course, there are other things...

Such as the "HOPE" sampler -- a section from a stitch-along created some years ago by Modern Folk Embroidery.  I mean, after all, we could all use a bit of hope these days, right?  For this one, I'm using a single strand of a WonderFil #8 Perle cotton in Sue Spargo's line, colour #EZM89 on 32-count Thornfield linen from Needle & Flax, from my stash since 2023.

And for now, another project that I want to give to a friend is a biscornu.  Some months (maybe over a year) ago, that friend gave me a pattern and flosses for this pattern.  Her birthday is coming up and I've decided I want to finish it for her:

Pattern: Flanders Fields Biscornu
Designer: Heartstring Samplery
Fabric: 36-ct Grey (Weeks)
Floss: Weeks Dye Works

My quilting has been focused on the Old Town Mystery from Bonnie Hunter.  I've finished all 25 blocks and, lacking fabric for the called-for pieced sashing, decided to put the blocks together as a top:

Then I added a narrow inner border (blue-green to match the centres of each block) and pieced outer borders.  The latter consist of 4-patches that I made from what I had for the four corners of each block and for what might end up in a border; and from a series of hour-glass blocks made out of 'bonus triangles' from the flying geese in this project.

Pieced borders: 4-patches on two sides,
and hour-glass units on the other two.

There will now be a wider (3" finished, I think) cream-coloured outer border all around, taken from the wide backing bought for this piece (the only fabric I've bought for this quilt).  Then...off to the long-armer to be quilted and eventually given to my son for his up-coming 40th birthday.

As for the "Easy Breezy" throw, that top is finished but not quilted yet.  That will come.

Finally, some knitting.  I'm trying to finish 2 pair of socks -- one cast on at the beginning of this month, and another from the formerly-ignored WIPs.

The "Twizzler Socks" that I mentioned in my last post have been finished.  I'm keeping them for now...they'll be more suitable for wearing when the weather warms up a bit.

I've finally reached the foot on the first of a pair of "Cornflower Socks" I cast on a couple of years ago, and am approaching the toe:

At the beginning of this month I decided I also wanted to join the "Socks from Stash" Ravelry group's March Challenge -- and I needed a pattern that reminded me of nature.  So...I found the "Wandering Rose" pattern and a ball of Lana Grossa Meillenweit sock yarn in a stunning shade of red and cast on:

As of this morning, I've fully finished the first sock of the pair:

None of this has stopped me from being smitten by a renewed case of "startitis", though.  I signed up -- and even paid for a pattern (!) -- for a Lenten Mystery Knit Along (MKAL) from Joy Jannotti of "Quail's Knitting Nest" on YouTube.  The first clue dropped on Ash Wednesday and clues drop every Sunday thereafter.  It's for a shawlette in mosaic knitting, but that's all I can tell you.  You can find the pattern on Ravelry, and there's a community on both Joy's YouTube channel and on (I believe) Instagram (I'm not on IG).  Sorry -- no photos at present. No spoilers! 

I also stumbled on another shawl pattern -- another freebie -- can't recall where now -- and cast it on at the beginning of this week, using luxury stash yarn I bought a good 20 years or so ago: the Freesia from Annie Baker Designs on Ravelry.  I'm making it with Peruvian Baby Silk yarn from elann.com, in the Raspberry colour-way (#2010) -- but sorry, no progress photos yet. It's early days!

I've not paid much attention to the "Lake Reed" toque I mentioned in my last post, but I'm making steady progress on the "Missoni Accomplished" pullover.  I'm within 4 rounds of splitting for the sleeves, so stay tuned for more on that.

And so it goes.  I watch the news, I pray, I knit/quilt/stitch/hook/repeat.  I go for walks or shovel walks, as the weather dictates.  I rally online with my Canadian compatriots and hug my American friends and family across cyberspace, as we all try to figure out how to deal with what's going on.  Canada has been attacked and pushed into a non-violent war that is designed to weaken us so badly we'll capitulate and become part of the US...which is simply Not On.  And so it goes.  

For all of you, I leave you with a wish and a hope that you can find some time in the midst of this mess to create beauty.  That you are still able to be kind to strangers and known loved ones alike.  That you can get out into nature and do what you need to do to restore your soul.

I leave you with my usual link to dear, persistent, consistent Nina-Marie Sayre and her Off the Wall Friday sharing platform...and with this, written by a Canadian, for Canadians, but also, I hope, for those from outside Canada who seek to understand us better:

Until next time, a bientot!

Why Make?

This is question that never really leaves my mind.  Why make?  Why make art?  Why make anything at all?

Because the artist cannot help herself.  The artist must make art.  And in the same way, the maker of anything -- assuming the maker is a living being, that is -- must make that thing, those things.

Deanne Fitzpatrick makes hooked rugs for the floor and the wall, but that's simply her method, her medium.  In reality, she writes in her Sunday Letters (and says on her podcasts), she is making comfort, peace, thoughtful expression -- and beauty.

Judy Martin makes hand-stitched, hand quilted pieces for the wall and elsewhere.  But again, that's simply her method, her medium.  In reality, she writes in her blogs, she is making comfort, peace, thoughtful expression -- and beauty.

Why do I make?

I make pieces with textiles: cotton and/or linen fabrics (and sometimes polyester or a bit of silk); with threads: cotton or silk (and sometimes polyester or a bit of wool); and with yarn: 99.99% of the time, wool.  Sometimes I make pictures, sometimes abstractions, and sometimes I use OPI (Other People's Instructions).  But these are simply my methods, my media.  In reality, I too am making comfort, peace, thoughtful expression -- and beauty.

As Judy wrote in her recent Journal post, as a whole, since the 1800s, people -- at least in our Western culture filled with reason and commerce and conspicuous consumption -- have divided the creation of something -- the making of things -- into whether what is produced can considered 'useful' and 'practical' -- or not.  And if its not seen as utilitarian, then it's less highly valued. She wrote, that when we make "usefulness" the most important criterion for making something, those of us who produce art simply for art's sake, begin to doubt our worth. 

I don't know any artist who hasn't had those same doubts.  I know I have -- especially when I stopped producing art for sale.  Yes, I have art for sale -- in independent shows I choose to enter, and in the collections at Andrea Hatch's Curiosity Art and Framing gallery in Red Deer, Alberta.

But I never started to make art for money.  It piles up in my small house, and so I put it on show and out for sale because...why not?  If it doesn't sell, it doesn't sell.  It's still  out there for the viewing and the enjoyment of others -- and for that, for the deep support Andrea's given me for almost 20 years now -- I am grateful.

Here's some of what I've been making lately:

I took on Deanne Fitzpatrick's "10-minutes-a-day" rug hooking Challenge for 2024.  I started it in the last week of June, when the kit I ordered for it arrived -- and finished it July 1st!  It's 6" x 17", an odd size as far as mounting it on a canvas goes, so  I'm pondering ordering one of the frames her Studio makes for just this size.  Here's "Little Yellow Flowers", designed by Deanne using the kit, on burlap -- and placing the colours just the way I wanted:

Once that was done, I decided I wanted to play with hooking letters on a plain background, to make a cushion just for me.  I chose the words based on one of Deanne's Sunday Letters -- the essay entitled "Searching for Perfect":

"As we all come to terms with the new normal we have experienced with Covid, there is a bit of a reckoning.  We all realize that things are different now.  Still sometimes we are suddenly taken aback by it all.  We have all been shocked into those new normals around us.  Those sullen moments where you think that it is just so different, are not yours alone.  

I have those moments too.  And in them I turn to my rug hooking and my writing.  I turn to creativity and joy and love and prayer and I try to deepen my relationships with those things.  Because those things are still there.  They are unchanging in the midst of great change.  We need their constancy more than ever...Because making feels right and it brings me back to myself, the self that believes in hope and joy and wonder and love..."   -- Deanne Fitzpatrick, Sunday Letters, Deanne Fitzapatrick Rug Hooking Studio, Amherst, NS, Canada, (c) 2022 - p. 52 (emphasis mine)

I call this little piece, "What Lasts" -- and here is my progress as of yesterday:

 

 I'm learning a lot making this, and the process itself soothes my soul and eases my mind.

It's been very hot in these parts for over two weeks now, so spinning has taken a bit of a back seat.  I love to do it outside, and the early morning is the only time it's been cool enough -- but any sort of yard work I want to do has often claimed priority (useful, right? Sigh...)  Still, I managed to fill a bobbin with the purple-to-pink-to-peach section of the Falklands braid (roving) I won last year in the Two Ewes Summer Spin in:

It's the finest I've ever spun, I think.  My plan is to ply it with a single from black alpaca I still have from a large assortment I was given a year or more ago -- but first I have to spin that up...soon, I hope, now that most of the yardwork I needed to do is done.

On the knitting front, I traded knitting woolly things -- like the vest for my daughter and the pullover for me -- for something in cotton.  I've had the pattern for a summer tee top -- the Vincas tee, from Berocco -- for a long time, and the cotton yarn even longer.  at last the two paired up, and earlier this week I finished the back, and cast on the front!

Photo taken just before back was finished!
Pattern: Vincas
Designer: Berocco Design Team
Yarn: Estelle "Young Touch Cotton DK"

If I plug away, I might have it finished before fall! 😆

As for cross stitch, I declared July to be "Canada Month" and have been working on reproductions of samplers originally stitched by young Canadian girls.  The first one is "Julia Amelia Hounslow (1848)", which was reproduced by The Essamplaire, out of Red Deer, Alberta.  I bought it last year for a Canada Day start -- and after that, set it aside, but this year I finished it!

It's a wee thing, only about 6 1/2" x 7 1/2" on 25-count.  I stitched it on 36-count "Cream and Sugar" by Fiber on a Whim, so it's even smaller.  And I used DMC and a bit of Soie d'Alger from my stash:

I'll make it into a little pillow for my bowl.

Julia Amelia is believed to have stitched her sampler in or around Sweetsburg in the Eastern Townships of Quebec.

My next sampler was reproduced by Kathleen Littleton of Cross-stitch Antiques, and was originally created by another Quebecer: Emeline Hotchkiss (1846).  She was from the area of Lacolle, Quebec, which is a community of about 1,000, and a major border crossing from Quebec to northern NY State.  I grew up near there, and my step-father worked at that crossing (and 2 others) as an officer for Canada Immigration back in the day (he retired in 1978 and with my mother moved west to the Okanagan of B.C.)  

This week I began that sampler, and was intrigued.  I wondered if some folks on FB -- in the public group, Chateauguay Valley Photos and Memories -- would know anything about a Hotchkiss family in Lacolle area over 100 years ago.  I posted an inquiry on the page, and wasn't disappointed!  In the comments, they sent me these treasures:

First, a newspaper item believed to be the death notice of a Mrs. Hotchkiss who very well could have been Emeline's mother:

Next, an Ancestry.com record that could show a connection to other relations, including those in the US.:

And finally, the piece de resistance -- a photo of dear Emeline's headstone.  She died at age fourteen...😢

I decided to try to contact Ms. Littleton, who reproduced the sampler, and she was delighted to have this additional information.  It's a special blessing, indeed, when something so serendipitous happens; this was a highlight of my week.

So I am diligently stitching away on the border of her sampler.  Here's my progress as of last evening:

I'm working it on 40-count Vellum from Picture This Plus, using some called-for DMC and some alternates from my stash that are close to those called for -- ones that weren't available at the LNS/art/craft shop near me.

In addition to "Julia Amelia", I had another finish this month -- a Fully Finished object, that is!  "Cake Tier" became a flat mount applied to the cover of a spiral-bound recipe journal and was mailed off to my friend P. in Westmount (a city within the city of Montreal!) for a belated birthday gift.  My eternal gratitude to Helen D of floss-tube fame (aka East Coast Crafter), whose tutorial on flat mounts was instrumental in how good it looks!

Yes, there's a bit of quilting going on too -- early-ish in the day, when my south-facing studio is still fairly cool.  I'm working on a Very Special Quilt -- which my daughter has commissioned me to make -- a gift for some good friends of hers who have a special anniversary next year.  We chose the pattern and the fabric online (Hamel's Fabrics) almost 2 years ago, because it was the pattern and colours she felt would be most suitable.  

It's the Celtic Knots Quilt kitted through Halcyon Fabrics, using their lovely blues/aquas/cream fabrics (this link to Hamel's info on it is dated June 2022 -- I told you it was a couple of years old!)

It's one of the more complex patterns I've pieced, and of course it had to be 'up-sized' from 90" x 90" to 104" x 104" for a king-sized bed...!  (It's the notion that "Mom can do anything" kicking in again! LOL!)

Anyway, I washed all the fabric (as is my habit), ironed it and labelled it with the colour number as recommended.  This is turning out to be very important, as messing up the colour order would mess up the pattern.  Here's my stack of prepped fabric:

And an example of how I labelled each fabric in the line:

Next I cut the fabrics into strips, rectangles and squares.  The strips were used for strip sets, cross cut to make pairs of squares.  I then assembled 144 (count 'em!) units composed of rectangles and those strip-set units:

Each day for the last three now I've been assembling larger units -- 10 1/2" unfinished -- in groups of five, which will go together to make the final large blocks:

Block set #1

Block set #2

Block set #3

I still have a number of sets of five to assemble, and then some sets of four blocks.  After that...I'm assuming they'll all come together with sashing to make a beautiful whole.

That's all well and good -- but the units I've cut were only for 9 large blocks of 22" (finished) each -- and I need 16 to make the size of quilt desired. So...the process will begin again with the remaining fabric (yes, Hamel's Fabrics owner and staff figured out how much extra we had to buy!) to make the remaining 7 blocks.

Once that's done, there will be an inner border, a narrow 'zinger' and a wider outer border.

Onward!

The last bit of beauty being made around here has been in my garden, which continues to delight me, even as I dead-head dandelions and other spent blossoms, prune deadwood from shrubs and aging ornamental trees, and try to keep the young cats from digging in every bare patch of dirt where seeds were once sown!

Here's just a taste...

Just some of the peonies I brought inside.

This is the first blossom for my youngest peony!

Brown-eyed Susans watching every move
in the meadow!

Poppies competing with daisies under
the big twin willow

Sweet William in pink in the east bed

Nearby, Sweet William in white

And in the aged ornamental on the front lawn,
which I pruned mightily over 2 days, a belated
bouquet of blooms!

And so, my friends, I'll close this l-o-o-o-o-ng post for now, with my usual link to Nina-Marie's Off the Wall Friday.  As I understand it, she has a new job and is working long hours -- meaning that while she might be solving problems creatively, she's definitely been in the "utilitarian" zone.  I hope she has some time to wind down and refocus for a bit...

Stay safe, Gentle Readers, in spite of extreme heat, flooding and/or tornados. May you find beauty every day.

A bientot!