Friday, 29 March 2019

Cherry Blossoms are finally arriving!

In February we had record cold temperatures for the Vancouver area, not as bad as the rest of Canada and the North American continent but bad for us.  March is heading towards one of the driest yet!
 The weeping ornamental Cherry Tree is finally in bloom.  A few days ago I saw our resident mallard duck couple sunning themselves under the at that time no blossom tree.
 A view back in the courtyard towards the lobby.
 And towards the river view.  The three threes on the right had to be replaced several years ago and haven't caught up to the ones on the left.
 I love finding these rogue blossoms on the middle of the trunk.
 So pretty closed...
 Even prettier opened.
 The English pincushion daisies have had a rough go in February but have bounced back.

 Lots of river traffic again today, a barge with wood chips went down the river just before this one with ?gravel on it.
 Not sure if the tide was rising or falling but this guy was enjoying the perch.
 The grape hyacinths have exploded with flowers.
 A bit closer look at their tiny bells.
 The daffodils are finally giving a lovely show with the English pincushion daisies below.
 I finally started stitching on my first fish.  I've since added an outline stitch around the green head along with some French knots on the gill fin and upper dorsal one.

Wednesday, 20 March 2019

Spring Equinox, Sisterhood Swap, how did mid February to March 20th go by so fast?

Today is the Spring Equinox, arriving at 2:58 Pacific Standard Time today!  It is also the anniversary of my Dad's birth so always a special day for me.
 I've decided to take part in the Sisterhood Quilt Swap hosted by Berene Campbell of Happy Sew Lucky blog. I follow her on Instagram at HappySewLucky On her March 7th International Women's Day blog post she shared details of the Sisterhood Swap.  The swap is now closed but if you are interested in participating you can still do so in private swaps.  The organization that will benefit from the sale of the patterns is Beautiful World Canada.  I emailed and asked Berene if I could share this picture and she gracefully said yes. Berene has donated all the money from the sale of the patterns to them even if you choose not to participate in the swap.  I'll share pictures of my finished blocks once I've made them.

 She also shared the following statement with me.

 I chose this organization for our Sisterhood project as Beautiful World is run by women for women, I know them personally, and I love their level of professionalism and dedication. Good to know where your money goes when sending it to a charity! 

You might notice that their logo has a flower of circles. I designed it while in Toronto. It has a similar story to the quilt block does. Each orange petal represents one of the support systems that they offer the girls, who in turn are represented by the pink dot in the centre. So a circle of support resulting in a blooming flower.
Explained a bit here: https://beautifulworldcanada.org/our-work/


 Each swapper is making either a right or left half square triangle sister block and sending them off to their group.  I'm sending mine to swappers in Japan, Scotland, USA and Canada...one just down the road from me!
 I could not resist this cute Spring ornament!
 Also these bunny "paper clips."
 And this flying geese bunny.
 Pictures of the last day of Winter Spring flowers.
 These are mini daffodils in my friend Rita's garden.  She and her puppies were sitting on the patio enjoying the sun.  We broke warmest day records that were in the mid teens to twenty Celsius around the province.

 Full size daffodil.
 Even her hyacinths are blooming!
 Hellebore started blooming last month.
 I love this little square of crocuses that are overtaking the winter pansies.
 A closer picture.
 Snowdrops and ?daisy.
 Love these star blossoms.
 Here are some of the star buds.
 Grape Hyacinths and more crocuses.

 The ornamental grasses survived our winter snow.
 Seagull partying at low tide on the river.
 Our crazy rhododendrons that bloom in October and February.
 Love this large grouping of Crocuses.
 This Peony plant is sprouting like mad.
 These ones just adjacent are also bursting out.
 Back in February I got some work done on my Fresh Cut blocks. 

 I went a bit more turquoise with my bird block.
 Next block all ready for embellishments.
 I got 5 fishes added to the background but no embellishments yet except for background.  Something's Fishy is designed by Uschi Greiner of Woolies on the Coast. She is dying wool and taking pictures trying to get her website up and running.
 One of two of these.
 Another one, haven't added the eye yet.
 Another Angelfish.
 Number 2.
 Not the greatest picture of the school of fish so far.  I also have a seahorse and Orca whale to add after adding the borders.  I plan to get started on the embellishing stitches for these first.
 I also picked up my Bird Dance blocks by Sue Spargo.
 This one needs it's bird.
 As does this one.
 Apricot birds 1.
 2.
 3.
All the birds have been stitched down and some have a start on their embellishments  I've also stitched three more down.  Just one left to be done which was missing it's background so I ordered some wool of a different dye lot and then it will be time to stitch them together and get the borders done.

Been busy stitching in February and March!