Long overdue

I can't believe it's been two weeks since my last post! This one is definitely long overdue. There has been lots going on in our household lately what with birthdays, spring cleaning, gardening, concerts, etc. and I haven't had much time for either stitching or blogging. 
I have managed to start an ornament for my monthly SAL but I'm unable to post a pic at this point in time. I also did a little more stitching on Victor and Irina. Here's my progress up until now.

Viktor looks a little cross at this point but I'm sure he'll look more stately once I add his whiskers!

I mentioned a few posts back that after visiting the Quilt of Belonging I had stopped by a quilt show with my friends. It's usually held in the venue where the Quilt of Belonging was on display so this year they resorted to a church for the showing. I expected to see the quilts on display in the church hall but I certainly didn't expect to see them displayed in the church itself. See for yourself how they displayed them!

I love how the quilts were draped over the pews! They looked so beautiful. I've only take a few pictures but there was actually another row of quilts on either side as well as antique quilts displayed in the transept. Amazing!!

The quilts on the clothesline in this one are actual little quilts!
Now for a few quilts in the hall:

I also promised some more pics of the Quilt of Belonging.

Denmark

Croatia

Dominica

Senegal

Swaziland

Sudan

Italy

Sri Lanka

Lebanon

  
Once again, more blocks from the First Nations:

Labrador Inuit

Lillooet

Cayuga

Nisga'a

 I think that the First Nation blocks are some of my favourites. The skills shown are amazing and I love how many of them tell a story of their culture.

That's about it for now. I'll leave you with a few pics of my grands, taken on a recent visit to celebrate my oldest granddaughter's eigth birthday. Happy Birthday Océanne!

A progress update

It's been a little while since I've posted a pic for you of my BBD Awake the Dawning Day. This piece got put aside for a bit but now I'm back on track and making an effort to make a serious dent in this one.

 This is a housewarming gift for my friend Pam so I'd like to get it completed fairly soon.

This is the only thing that I've stitched on during the past week. The springlike weather earlier in the week got me on to some spring cleaning especially since I knew we were having a house full of guests this past weekend. We hosted a potluck dinner for one of Bob's choirs and about 25-30 attended. Clarisse loves it when we have people over! She acts as hostess and greets everyone at the door. Mind you, she got a bit lazy at one point and in typical Ragdoll fashion flopped down at the top of the stairs to watch the proceedings from there.

She was a big hit and there were many who would have liked to take her home with them!

My Wednesday afternoon craft group are really getting into preparing for spring and Easter's arrival. These are some of the projects they're currently working on.

Thea's Welcome

Another of Thea's lovely applique

Shirley's Easter Chick

Thea is our master of applique and I swear she churns out 1-2 new pieces each week. 

I allowed myself to place a small order following the Needlework Market to purchase a couple of the new releases. I also included a couple of recently released charts. 

I'm a huge fan of both of these designers and can hardly wait to get started on one of these new additions. Aren't they lovely?

The school winter breaks in our area have come to an end and the kids returned to school just in time for our latest snowstorm. We are supposed to receive 15-20 cm of snow today but it's currently stopped and we only have about 8 cm on the ground. I'm not disappointed though. I've had my fill of winter and can hardly wait to see green grass once more. I'll leave you with a pic of my grandchildren celebrating their school break. They thought perhaps a swim at the local pool would be a great change of pace from toboganning.

Close to a finish

This past week I finally decided to take a break from stitching ornaments and give some quality time to my BBD 'Tis The Season. I'd really like to have this one completed by Christmas and after this past week I know that I'll make my deadline.

Seeing this picture I notice that one of the gold leaves of holly may have to be restitched along its stem. The colour variation is such that it's just not showing up in the stitching well at this point. The suggested colour didn't show up at all so I substituted with Belle Soie Butterscotch which seems to be a little darker and I'm happier with the results. 
There's very little remaining to be stitched on this one and theoretically it should be done within the next couple of days. However life is getting busier as Christmas Day approaches so the happy dance might have to wait for several days.

Since 'Tis is a little too large to take along on day trips I've started another ornament by Gazette 94 called Bon Noel. Here's my progress so far.

That tree will soon have a kitty reaching up into it, trying to dislodge the ornaments. It's particularly fitting for our family as you'll hear later in this post.

I've managed to get all my decorating done minus putting up the tree which will take place on the weekend. My son Daniel celebrates his 28th birthday on Saturday and always comes to our place on that day to help me with the tree. My hubby's birthday is tomorrow and because of his busy schedule with numerous Christmas concerts I always hold a joint celebration for Daniel and him which will probably take place towards the weekend. I did get my twig tree put up this week though which holds all my ornaments for now. Eventually these ornaments will end up on the big tree as I add to my collection.

I made one big mistake this year though in adding some new birds to this tree. There are three of them in red, green and a tan colour and they each have long tail feathers. Guess who has taken a fancy to them?
If you guessed Clarisse, you'd be absolutely right! In the next pic you can see the green bird on the tree which was recently moved up higher where she can't reach it as easily.

I returned home Sunday to find several ornaments on the floor and the bird sitting rather cockeyed on the tree. The tail feathers seemed a bit damp too!  Speaking of damp, I've been bringing out the water bottle and each time she attempts to get near the tree I give her a little squirt. Sometimes she stands her ground and just squints at the bottle but other times she slinks away and hides until she thinks I'm not around anymore. As of today I think she has finally given up in her pursuit!
This is unlike my son Chris and his girlfriend's cats which are Maine Coon kitties. This is their first Christmas and Chris recently posted a score on Facebook which read Kittens - 10, Tree - 0! Apparently they don't care if they get wet so the water bottle isn't very effective with them.
Here's a pic of the two of them sitting in their fridge. They like to jump in every time someone opens the door.

I'll leave you with a picture of my grandchildren taken with Santa and Mrs. Claus. My son just sent this to me. Love it! 
I hope you are all enjoying your preparations for this very special season and Happy Hanukkah wishes to all of my readers belonging to the Jewish faith.  May you be blessed with health and happiness!

Four More Finshed Ornies and a Birthday

This weekend I added to my growing pile of ornies once again by finishing off 4 more of my previously stitched ornaments. 
Here's the results of my swearing, I mean sweating!

This last one was probably the biggest cause of all my profanity. Using all my smarts I had stitched this ornament too close to the edges of my fabric. Consequently I didn't have much fabric to work with when sewing it together. Add in the fact that I made an error in the sewing, had to tear it out and restart, which led to the fraying of what little edges I had left on the linen. It might look a little rough but I'm more than happy that I managed to get the darn thing together! I've always loved the bear on this one and think that it's probably one of my favourites.
Our first significant snowfall of the year arrived yesterday, bringing bright, sunny skies with it. Six years ago today we welcomed the arrival of this special blessing.

Happy Birthday Summer! Grandma hopes you have an extra special day!! 
This picture was taken on a recent visit to my son's to deliver birthday gifts. Isn't she a sweetie?
I'll be back tomorrow with updates of my other stitching for WIPocalypse.