Family time and class progress

To celebrate Eric's birthday, we took in a Blue Jays game last night. They didn't win against Philadelphia but we had fun nevertheless - even in the heat and humidity.

The Rogers Centre...

formerly known as Skydome. I took these photos early on and that's why the stands look a bit sparsely attended.

We had a great view of the CN Tower and we sat in the shade. Eric knows where the best seats are since he's been here once or twice (several times, actually) before.

As I said, an early photo where the seats were not filled yet.

Believe it or not, it's not this little guy's first baseball game.

All decked out for the day. Sunglasses to shield young eyes and earphones for the all the loudness. He was a little trooper and good as gold throughout the whole game.

And here's my progress on the silk flower embroidery class.

Daffodils, wisteria and irises. I do love making the irises.

Not idle - just slow and a special day

I had a few bananas and so I decided I would treat my family to some banana bread.

The one on the right has chocolate chips and the one on the left has raisins and sunflower seeds.

I had signed up for Kathy Shaw's free silk ribbon embroidery class and although I am one of the last to begin the course, I am slowly moving on it. After the initial painting of the background and embroidering the trellis, I am finally making some silk ribbon flowers. They really are a lot of fun and so pretty.

On a personal, family note, way back in 1982 on this day, I gave birth to my fourth child and second son, Eric.

So,

HAPPY 

BIRTHDAY

ERIC!!!

Row by Row Experience 2015

If any of you in Canada or the US have not heard of the Row by Row Experience go HERE. Just click on the Start Here! button and have fun.
It's a wonderful shop hop where you don't need a passport or anything other than a list of participating quilt shops. We in Ontario, at least southern Ontario, are within 2-3 hours away from many, many quilt stores in a lot of small towns. The Row by Row Experience started June 21st and goes all summer long until September 8th. All you have to do is visit one of the stores and ask for their free Row by Row pattern or you can purchase a kit. This year's theme is Water or H2O. The kits in Ontario range in price from $5.00 to $20.00. I didn't buy many kits since I have so much fabric that needs to be used up. I have visited quite a few stores but there are still many that I would like to see. All of this preamble brings me to the reason I have been quiet on the blog here for the past few weeks.

 A couple of weeks ago I chose some patterns from the stores that I visited.

And I chose some fabrics to make the rows. I did buy a fat quarter bundle of the fabric that was selected for this project - mainly because they were blue and also because I noticed that some of the patterns needed a certain fabric.

I put my rows together and set it up on the frame to hand quilt.

It was totally finished this morning with quilting, binding and it had a label.

Then I brought it in to one of the participating shops - Feathering Quilt Shop in Dundas, Ontario.

And look!

I won!!

Here I am with Penny, the proprietor. She asked if she could borrow the quilt for the duration of the Row by Row Experience.

Here's my prize - 25 fat quarters for being the first one to bring in a completed Row by Row quilt that had eight rows from different shops and a bonus gift certificate from Penny for including the row that was offered by the Feathering Quilt Shop.

I think I'll go sew some clothing now and work on my 'to do' list.

If any of you happen to be in Toronto, why not visit Pioneer Village? Quilts at the Creek is on this weekend and it appears as if it's going to be a hot sunny couple of days. For those of you who do not know, it's an outdoor quilt show.

Charity update

Since the Champagne Quilters like to take a break for the summer, we wanted to finish up the quilt that was on the frame.

We finished putting the last quilt stitches in this quilt last Wednesday and I bound it the very next day. So now we have two quilts going to The Silent Children's Mission.

Marg has been very busy crocheting little baby hats. Here's 75 hats that she completed in a few short weeks.

And here's a dozen more that I picked up from her today. 

I was told that there was a shipment of baby things going overseas on July 28th so I'm glad that these items were all completed in time.

I'm busy with a quilt on the frame at the moment and that's why I've been a bit quiet. Once it's finished, I'll take a photo and show you.

Go and check out what other Canadians are up to this week at: The Needle and Thread Network.

A special day and the charity quilt is done

This is the second last baby quilt that needed to be finished. There's one more left on the frame but we're hoping to finish it next week.

This one is now totally complete. I just finished putting the binding on yesterday. It was a joy to quilt.

A 
Very
Happy
Birthday
to
my
youngest
daughter
Ayla!!

Today

Happy Canada Day!!!!