Blue skies after a grey weekend

Today the view is very different, blue skies and sunshine.



A great morning for a walk along the quay.


Purple anemone in my friend Rita's garden.


Lovely orange blossoms.


Hellebore.


Orange and yellow tulips.


Flowering cabbages getting leggy amongst the daffodils.


Grape hyacinth under the Rose bushes along the quay.


Pretty periwinkle blossoms.


Primulas bursting forth for another year.


Delicate blue and white flowers.


Pretty neon blue and purple hyacinths.


Pink and white star flowers.


A determined dandelion.


View into the courtyard.


Lovely contrast against the blue sky.


Blossoms bursting all over.


Heather blooming in the background.


Weeping cherry trees beside our water feature.


I love listening to the waterfall.


Very delicate pink blossoms.


Different shades of pink on the same branch.


Welcome to the last day of March, came in like a lion and leaving like a lamb. -Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Grey Sunday morning but the cherry blossoms are in bloom.

It's another grey morning on the west coast the rain started up again this morning but the bright spot are the cherry blossoms in the courtyard.


The weeping trees are a deeper pink and they have a double blossom.


On Friday I received some more camera blocks this one is from Nancy Chan.


Beckie Stewart made this batik beauty.


Debbie Miller who owns the local quilt shop The Needle and I made this one.


Tricia Brown my twin eleven years and a day apart made this one. She also co-ordinated everyone who participated.


Sandi Bajcar chose to capture the lens as it was closing.


Lynne Fanthorpe made me this red camera.


And to finish off my first red flannel spool as a companion block to the wool calendar blocks. The next two are cut out and started to be stitched. Each spool block is a different size or sizes and colours.


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Mika by Bella Moon Block One second unit.

Yesterday I did the piecing of the second part of the block one unit. Then in the evening I appliquéd the hearts and sewed the two star blocks together.





I'm not going to join them together until later. For this project Maria suggest pressing the seams open to keep the pieced units flatter. I like how there are two shades of each colour for the hearts. I varied their locations a bit by choice. I'm liking how this is coming together.





Now I have to wait until the third Thursday next month for the next instalment.
-Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Mika first block done!

Yesterday after finishing my post I finished preparing all my appliqué pieces for the snowdrop block and started stitching.


I had it finished before heading off to bed. I love this block? Next to do the pieced stars and then appliqué hearts on and I'm done for the first month.
-Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Mika by Bella Moon and Blocks of the Month

On Thursday Rita and I went down to Granville Island in Vancouver to The Cloth Shop so I could show her my new project and pick up the first block of the month.  Mika...pretty flower is designed by Bella Moon from The Cloth Shop.  Maria Roder and Barbara Jean Paxton are the owners of this Vancouver quilting institution and where I took my first quilting class from Jean Koroluk, Barbara Jean's mother.  I saw Maria working on this piece back in January and despite it not being my my usual colour palette it spoke to me.

 The snowflake and heart star blocks are the first month's project.  I'm choosing to do it with freezer applique not fused so I can take it along to sit and stitches.

 This basket block with a touch of applique is lovely.

 The marriage between applique and pieced blocks is just beautiful.

 I love the robin on the branch beside the tall house block.

 A bit of applique is found on almost every block.

 The soft Japanese fabrics marry well with the feel of the quilt.  They are still taking orders for this project.  If you live in the Vancouver B.C. area you can contact them at 604-224-1325 or toll free at 1-778-224-2325 their website is The Cloth Shop.  If you call them please say hi from me.

 I finished my first two wool blocks of the month from the Buttermilk Basin/Primitive Gatherings collaboration, I still need to do the companion pieced spool blocks.  My twist to make the blocks my own is to use brighter threads for my stitch, change the script of Be Mine and add a bee.

 Here is a closer look at Be Mine and the bee.

 For March I will add three buttons on the thread between the needles after the quilt is together and I added the thread wrap around the spool.

 April is pinned for placement and I've prepped the applique for starch so I can swap between the two projects depending my mood.

I hope you are enjoying your first full weekend of Spring or Autumn depending where you live!

Heart swap, cameras and Spring is here!

Here is a photo of all the hearts I received from our latest Mary Lou Weidman yahoo group swap.

 We were told to use pinks and reds for the hearts and black and white fabrics that read more black than white.  Some people pieced their hearts with strata or some chose to use on fabric for both halves or two different fabrics.

 I love how all those blacks work together.

 I chose to make strata and used four different black and whites as background.

 I was on a roll and made several (10) extra that I've added to this second picture.  I just popped all the hearts up on a design wall to take a picture and now the fun begins to figure out how to put them all together.  I may add some more as I have a few partial blocks done and them will have some fun playing again with how to put them all together.

 On Monday at my wool group three friends turned up with more birthday camera blocks for me.  This first one is by my friend Debbie Matthews.

 Ethel Snow made three!  One for herself with some lovely words to enjoy.

 One for our friend Shona Kelly who moved from Canada to England to Australia and back to England.

 My friend Sandi Hill made this beauty for me.

 Ethel also made this one for my mom to sign...is that not so sweet.  My mom doesn't do the Internet so when I'm travelling Ethel relays messages for me and they have lovely chats together.

 Here is a grouping of the most recent blocks.

These join the others I received for my birthday here is a link to them.
This is a picture of three of the cherry trees in my courtyard this morning, they are a deeper plum pink rather than a soft pink.  I noticed yesterday that they are breaking out in bloom just in time for the first day of Spring.

 My view towards the river, love the three gents out for a brisk Spring walk and enjoying more cherry blossoms.  Welcome to Spring on the west coast of Canada, the day of my dad's birth.