High Tea

It is one of those milestone birthdays for me - #70. I'm off to high tea today with four of my children - gluten free for me. My eldest daughter and her two boys will be visiting next month. Dinner with the whole family later today. 

Pretty flowers from my two year old twin grandsons.

I hope everyone has a great day today.

Completed items and other things

 I'm busy sewing a couple of little dresses for my granddaughters who have birthdays next month exactly two weeks apart. Once I'm finished, I will take a photo.

In the meanwhile, I took some time to finish a few things that have been hanging around.

This is called Chilly's Gift. It is a small (4" X 4") card-sized cross stitch. It was a free design years ago and I thought it wouldn't take long to make. The original colours were red and pink but I changed to colours to suit me. There is supposed to be a charm in between the penguin's hands - hence the 'gift.' I haven't found one yet but once I put it in a card, I will go hunting for the charm. It's been hanging around for quite a number of years and I am glad that I finally decided to finish it.

I bake sweet bread almost once a week for my grandchildren who usually request it. It's a braided loaf with cardamom as flavouring called pulla in Finnish. 

This is what it looked like before I baked it. As an Easter surprise, I added red food colouring and on the top, I added sprinkles instead of sugar. It was an idea my little grandchildren had. I just made two more loaves today. They weren't as big as these because I think the yeast I used was a tad old. Nevertheless, my son said it will all get eaten. He has three little girls. The other loaf went to my daughter who has a little girl and a boy. 

I also managed to finish this sweater. I started it for my little granddaughter last year and since her birthday was coming up, I decided to get it totally done. I only had to finish off the sleeves (I knitted them together) and then sew it all up. I dislike sewing up knitted parts. That's the main reason my knitted items sometimes take years to finish.

Just a close-up of the yarn. It's a cotton chunky yarn that I bought decades ago. I have it in this pink, some beige, some blue and some gray. It was on sale and so far, this is the second sweater that I have made with this yarn. Years ago I made a pullover for my then, teenaged son with the beige. I still have the sweater. I need to make more sweaters to use it all up.

This is my hyacinth that started out with only three blooms but ended up with five. They are now done and planted outside to bloom next year.

About three years ago, on Easter Sunday, we were visited by a bunny rabbit in our backyard.

This little guy has come back again. There are actually two of them that we sighted yesterday morning but they were so quick, we didn't get any photos of the duo. This one camouflaged well.

Sometimes they do visit our neighbour next door (centre of the photo, on the other side of the fence) but they prefer our backyard.

Continuing on...

The Champagne Quilters met last night. I wanted to attend a guild meeting Wednesday night and asked Marg if we could meet Thursday night instead. She is very accommodating. Ann even managed to come out.

These are the bigger crazy stars that we had left. They were trimmed down to about 12.25 inches since the edges were all uneven. Since we didn't need the length so much as the width, Marg found some white on white so I added a two inch border to the sides. Next up was the frame that ended up being 1.5 inches finished. 

 Then we added this strip. Notice that it is not the same size on the ends as on the sides.

Once again we started auditioning what would come next. I'm not really a fan of this colour.

We didn't come to any solid conclusion so we decided that we would leave it for a week and decide later what we wanted to put on it next. It measures about 23 inches by 40 inches so far.

One week when Marg and I were talking about the charity that these quilts will be going to, I mentioned the little hats that I was knitting. Marg asked if crocheted hats would be okay and I said yes, of course. Well, here they are. She made five.

A lady at Marg's church brought over some fabrics (yardage, not scraps) for us and she even gave us the rubbermaid bin. One piece had a retail sales slip and the fabric was purchased in Buffalo, NY, at a Joann's in 1995. There was also a big baggie with all of this in it. Beads, eyes, long needles, bells and other goodies. Since Marg doesn't  make dolls and Ann doesn't either anymore, I took it home. There was a quite a bit of that paper ribbon or raffia looking stuff. I have no idea what to do with it. Oh well, if all else fails, I do have a Value Village just down the street from me.

I leave you with a photo of my tulips. These were a treat to myself.

I hope you all have a great weekend. 

Stay safe.

Little things

I have not been idle.

The flag is bound. There is a hanging sleeve on it but it still needs a label. My son and his wife were overjoyed (on behalf of their little girls.)

 In my efforts to use up yarn, I made one...

two...

three...

four little hats so far and 

I also cut and sewed up some flannel for receiving blankets. The hats and the blankets are for my favourite charity.

This is the only African violet that I have that's in bloom. 

It was a gift from my grandson Luc who told his mother, when they were out shopping, that they needed to buy Mummi some flowers. This was in January when we had our second Christmas. 

 I wanted to show Luc that the flowers are still blooming.

Miscellaneous Stuff

"The 24th of May is the Queen's birthday and if you don't give us a holiday we'll run away and play." That's the little poem my dad taught me when I was little. It was something he learned as a little boy. Today is Victoria Day or, otherwise known as Firecracker Day. It's a holiday Monday and there are fireworks displays in a few places tonight at sundown. It's usually a coldish day and even though it may be 60F or 20C, it still feels cool outside. There is no sun right now and it may rain. Typical.

Prince Charles and Lady Camilla are visiting Canada (the Maritimes) for four days. Pop on over to Karen's blog to see photos.

Otherwise, I have been busy with odds and ends.

This is Midnight...

and this is Ben. They belong to my son Mark and his wife. They went away for the weekend and entrusted their care to me and my husband. We went over to feed them and to cuddle for a bit.

This was the sky earlier in the week. 

 It should have been April showers but it appears as if we are having May showers.

The backyard is greening up. I love my forsythia and my tulips but the squirrels seem to like my tulips too.

Here she is, my little Pixel with her yearly lion cut. Some people really get freaked out by it and others think it's cute.

I finished the challenge quilt I was working on. Here it is basted in preparation for hand quilting.

Here's another part of it. I'll show you the whole thing in a couple of days. It turned out quite different from how it started out in my head.

I'm working on baby things too but since it is supposed to be a secret, I can't show you. All in good time...

Just a few photos of some flowers I got for Mother's Day last weekend.

These were from my son Mark and his wife Kate.

I love the colours.

I love the variety too.

These were from my other son, Eric.

And this one lone white carnation I received when I went to the bank on Friday. 

I just happened to have my camera with me today.

These are the window displays at the Bata Shoe Museum. Colourful and very quilt-like.

Have a great week. I'm going to see what sewing I can accomplish today.

A small detour

Well, it seems that uploading photos is hit and miss these days. Loads of bloggers have been complaining and I couldn't upload this morning either. However, I switched computers and now I am using Firefox and things are back to normal.

I have every intention of completing things that have been started but while I was searching my pdfs for something, I came across Bunny Hill's 2011 block of the month, Henrietta Whiskers. I did not follow along and do the blocks every month when they were posted. Those that did, uploaded their photos onto a Flikr site and I have been perusing it. There are some imaginative people out there. I decided to begin my quilt mainly because I liked the squirrel and we have quite a few around here.

Not all the pieces are sewn together in this photo but I have now prepped all the blocks for the applique. There is some embroidery involved, hence the hoop. I just dove into my scraps to make these. I liked what other people did with their applique and I will take what I want out of the pdfs and create as I go along. I really didn't understand the stars in all the pumpkins in the original. We shall see what evolves as I slowly work on this.

My red Amaryllis gave me six beautiful blooms. Once these are gone I may purchase some tulip or daffodil bulbs.

After record breaking warm weather, we are back to colder days. Still great walking weather - makes you walk faster to keep warm.

I'll be back with some other things I am working on.

Not the same

I purchased this Amaryllis sometime before Christmas. It was a good price and I needed some colour in my kitchen.

Isn't it pretty? Delicate colours and I like the name too - Apple Blossom. It took a long time to start, at least it seemed like a long time. Perhaps it wasn't warm enough in my kitchen. Anyway, I have been watching with bated breath the last couple of days because the buds were about to open.

Well, looky here. Nothing like like picture on the box at all. A deep red Amaryllis is what I got. I'm not complaining but it definitely is different from what I was waiting for. It has at least 5 blooms and they seem to be opening up at different times. I must say, it is a nice surprise. My kitchen now has some colour - a great Christmas colour.

 

 

Note: I did put on word verification for a bit since I was getting so many wonderful emails filled with gibberish from Anonymous. I'll take it off after awhile.

A super special family

Today is my birthday. From the moment I woke up, it has been filled with well wishes from family and friends but ... especially with flowers. Whether they live here in the same city or across the country, the flowers have been arriving.

First off though, is this ...

This is the outside of the card. The design is made with sand.

 

And this is the inside. By little Luc who is 18 months old. It may not be much to you but it sure did bring a smile to my lips this morning when I opened up the card.

So, now I will share my floral day with all of you.

 

 

There were just too many cut flowers from my husband to fit into one vase.

This arrangement, from Mark and Kate, arrived at 8:40 a.m. along with...

these gorgeous flowers from Maili and Casey.


 

Then, at 12:00 noon, there was a knock on the screen door. It was a local florist delivery guy and after I accepted the arrangement and told him that it was the third one that day, he told me that a fourth was in the truck. So, I put this one, from Eric and Ashlee, in the kitchen while he got the other one. I had been in the kitchen with the music blaring but I had left the door open so I wouldn't miss anything. I was told to expect a delivery today but I wasn't expecting multiples. We don't have a doorbell and I tend not to hear knocks on the door or the ringing of the phone if I am in my sewing studio with the audio tapes on.

So, here's a close-up and ...

from my family in British Columbia, Laila, Gilles and little Luc, I received these. When my daughter got married  4 years ago her bouquet was sunflowers.

And, since I have 5 children and one husband, the last arrangement just arrived.

Inside a pumpkin and with lollypops - from Ayla and David.

And here they all are without all the wrapping.



Two years ago my birthday was extra special because on that day I found out that I was going to become a grandmother for the first time and now I would like to announce that little Luc will become a big brother next year. We are all thrilled that our family is growing.

I'm going back to the kitchen to bake some cookies and listen to more Dean Martin.
I hope your day is a good one.
Mine's better than yours by a long shot. Dinner with the whole family (the ones in town, that is.)