Sunday, March 27, 2016

The real stars

These are my colours, aren't they?
I've been spending most of my time outside for the past week because the weather's been so nice. My 500+ tomato seedlings have been enjoying a bit of sunshine each day, but I have to drag them back into the house at night. Today it's been raining and cold. At one point I thought it might do the unthinkable and drop something very unspringlike on us, but it didn't. But I'm sure it made the local Easter Egg Hunts a little uncomfortable. Still, where free candy is concerned, children will bear some lousy weather.


I was hoping to get some time at my sewing machine, but I've been spending the day cleaning up. It'll take another year or two of cleaning to get this house straightened up! Or longer when you have
Sunshine AND quilt blocks!
helpers like Rusty and Ginger.


I was working on a square to go with the sawtooth stars that I made some time ago. The stars were for a quilt for Mr. ZQ's father, who unfortunately passed away unexpectedly before I finished it (Hell could freeze over before I finish ANYTHING!). That happened around this time last year. His mother gave me some of his father's dress shirts to include in the quilt, which I am now making for her.


Anyhow, I made the points for this square and it looked so similar to the stars I'd already made that I stopped and rethank my plans. Then I tossed the pieces I'd already made down with the stars and new ideas started coming. So did Ginger and Rusty. I'm not sure whether the ideas
How could you be mad at a face like this?
are workable, but I'll give them a shot.


How do cats know that you're about to focus on an object when they're in a separate room?


The weather gnomes say the rest of the week is going to be absolutely beautiful, so I'm not sure how much sewing (or cleaning) I'm going to get done in the next little while, but there's always tomorrow.


Our local outdoor farmer and flea market starts up in May - hence the 500+ tomato seedlings and about 100 pepper plants. But I sell other stuff there as well over the course of the summer, much of it things that I've sewn - so I can't spend all of my time playing in the dirt, much as I'd like to. The summers here are usually long and hot - made for being outside. I'd drag my sewing machine out onto the deck if I could. (Well, I could, but then I'd have to drag it back inside every night also.)
Layout possibility
Until next time,

Thursday, March 10, 2016

Lots of ideas

I want my Live Writer back! My blog looks so awkward without it. But no use in whining when there's nothing to be done about it. Onward!


There was a New Moon on Tuesday, and that means Action! It's also a good time to get your butt in gear, whether you want to or not. And boy, there seems to be a lot more action associated with this New Moon than most. It occurred in Pisces at around 19 degrees. All of you Pisces will be feeling it, but so will you Virgo, Pisces' opposite in the Zodiac. Pisces should be feeling comfortably motivated for the next month while Virgos may be feeling more restless than anything. This month's New Moon was directly opposite Jupiter in Virgo and square Saturn in Sagittarius. Pisces are normally quiet and contemplative while Virgos are quiet but analytical. Sagittarians are talkative and idealistic. The ruler of the New Moon chart is Mercury, so ideas and communication are going to be high on the list until
the next New Moon on April 7 (in Aries). Fast and furious the ideas come, and just as quickly they'll disappear. Whether you agree with them or not, it will make for an oddly enjoyable and satisfying month.


The weather where I live has been typical for March. After no snow at all in February, we got hit with the white stuff on March 1 and 2. It melted by the afternoon on both days. Yesterday morning started off so nicely that I grabbed my camera and took a long walk down by the Thompson River, one of my favourite places to walk. This is what the country around here looks like. I think it's beautiful. By the afternoon, just moments after I went outside to do some yard work, the wind whipped up and it turned cold. Today is beautiful but still windy, and just now I look out my window and see some Canada Geese being
blown out of formation by the wind. Not that anything stops them for long, especially when they're heading for water.


I made another wallet last week with some bright flutterbyes on it. Love this Blank Quilting fabric. It's from a few years back. For the inside I picked a lightweight fabric with huge butterflies on it. I have no idea where this one came from - must have been a remnant that I bought at some stage. Hope I didn't pay too much for it. Anyway, go big or go home, right? It certainly makes me stare at it each time I look at it. If I truly hated it, I wouldn't be using it in a wallet.


I would be using it to experiment with - to make new blocks that I was unsure about. Earlier this week I was at Quilter's Cache looking for a block to go with some sawtooth stars I have and I found this one . I'm putting it together using junky scraps so I can get an idea of the size and how it would fit. I like paper piecing, especially when I can't decide what I want to do. You can't really improvise when you're paper piecing. You just follow the instructions and add one piece after the other until it's done.


Until next time,