Busy as a Bee, Coming in like a Lion.

I got some of my circles prepped for Down the Rabbit Hole and learned how to do a continuous bias for the first time.  On Friday I had all the circles pinned and prepped and had almost half the bias stitched down when I went over to my stitching group.

 

 Here are are few of my favourite flowers.  I bought a small piece of this bee fabric about a year ago and finally found a purpose for it.

 I also made a smaller circle for a centre and this looked like the perfect large circle to add her to.  My flowers are pink, yellow and orange with three neutral greys with pops of colour.

 Love this happy accident of SEW.

 Some of the fabrics I did reverse for large and small circles.

 Had some dotty fun with others.

 Here you can see my different choices for stems, two batiks and a small cotton dot print.

 This turquoise and yellow print is a favourite of mine.

 Here was the centre before I started.

 My first layout I realized I had grouped a lot of lights too close together.

So I shifted them around and pinned them in place or thread tacked them.

 Unfortunately I managed to dislodge and misplace a few.  But found them all and ended up with this as my finished centre.  I also sewed down the centre circle which on next month's to do list.

 Here is a reminder of what the quilt will become.  Next up will be adding leaves, the centre (done) and the first narrow border.  Can't wait to start building those houses!  If you are on Instagram you can search #sarahfielkebom2017 to see what others are up to.  You can still join this group by going to Sarah Fielke website here.

Oh one more thing. this is what I woke up to yesterday morning.  By noon it was gone.

 But when I went to pick up my mom for dinner it started again. They had to close off several of our steeper hills due to treacherous conditions.  Around 9 last night it was coming down quite heavily and the news was warning people be careful on the steep hills in New Westminster.  Glad I was home stitching on my March focus on quilting pieces. Unfortunately the short video I is too large to send to my desktop.  I managed to post it at #shhdesigns1 on Instagram.

Looks like the slow melt is happening and the Spring bulbs will once again be uncovered.

Review of February Focus and Goals

Saturday I spent the day at a friend's sewing half square triangles together into blocks and then into pairs.  At home I sat down and ironed the pairs to prep the 26 star centres and corner blocks and went OPPS!  I had forgotten I made the half square triangles oversized so I could trim them down.  By the time I realized this error I realized I needed daylight to trim them and put them away for the evening.

 I did get them all trimmed and paired up to be resewed on Monday.

 Yesterday I got the information for the next month of sewing for March.  We will add flower circles with centres for the 26 stems and add a bias edge to the circle.

 I got my first cotton and wool pieces down for my House Party Revival window 1 I'm about halfway down window two.  My plan is to do all the wool and cotton applique and then have fun with the embellishing stitches.

 Yesterday we had an unexpected snowfall.  This was my place about ten o'clock.

 It did come down heavier for awhile before stopping.

 And by one o'clock it was all gone.  Farther east they got quite a lot.  My cousin is in Palm Desert and says the desert is greener than she has ever seen it before.  She also mentioned that Chicago has set a record for snow free days this winter!  We have an aunt who lives there.

 Other February unexpected goals were designing and finishing my challenge quilt in four days.  No prizes but I was told it was Lorna's husband's favourite.  Prize enough for me.  There was a tie for second and third prize and my friend Mary was one of the tied people.

 Got the borders on my Valentine's quilt.

 Friday I went for a walk and found these crocuses and snowdrops outside the condo door.

 Witch hazel is in full display but the yellow one has almost none on display.

 This Hellebore reminded me of a dogwood bloom.

 And a pink version.

 Love the dark contrast on this yellow crocus.

 These were more of a daffodil yellow.

 The early rhododendron is out in bloom already.

 One of the crows needed a closer read of the information signs along the boardwalk.

 Love these purple crocuses that look so delicate.

 This year is Canada's 150th anniversary of Confederation on July 1st and all National Parks are free for entry.  I decided to get one of the passes.

 Time to write down my finishes and maybe get a couple of February goals that I missed started on.  I didn't get my Mika or Sunflower Gathering backgrounds stitched so maybe that will be my final February Focus goals for today.  Then to list the March ones.

Focusing in February.

My Focus shifted a bit this month as part one of a three month kit arrived from The Stitchin' Post in Sisters, Oregon.  I've long admired Tonye B. Phillips work and have always wanted to do one of her patterns.

 Unfortunately she only has done House Party as a class project and not released this pattern.  I borrowed the image from her website.

 She is doing House Party Revival at the store starting this weekend and I found out that I could order the kit.  Tonye sent me pictures of the house and the details of the window so I can do it from afar.  So far I've traced the four window items onto freezer paper and cut out the fabrics.  I do the starch way of applique and just need to prep them and I'm ready to start stitching.

 I finally got all my templates for my Down the Rabbit Hole last Thursday despite giving the wrong suite number on the invoice.  Luckily I checked and saw them sitting on the floor of our mail area along with another package that I miss-addressed.

 Here is my centre Dresden Plate along with the stems for the flowers will will do next month.  I had thought of doing it in browns to represent the Rabbit Hole and dirt but as it is the centre of the quilt I chose to use yellows instead.

 I'm trying only to use my stash for this project but wanted a third yellow so I invested in a Moda Grunge Yellow to go with my Earth Series by Dianne Leone for Northcott Silk that has been ageing nicely and Rainforest Honeycomb by Alexander Glass.

I've also finished my Hawaiian Applique for Happy Days, the last of the applique blocks for this quilt. On Saturday my friend Tricia is hosting a group in her amenities room and my plan is to work on some of the many pieced blocks I've avoided since November!

 The second recovered package was my King Tut Threads for my 2016 Row by Row projects.

 I also got some 30" zippers from Sew Much Nicer for these projects.

 During our snowy period I worked on a multicoloured shawl that is now finished.  The colours are brighter than the photo.

Feeling good about my adjusted focus in February, and still have time to piece those other Mika and Sunflower Gathering blocks.

Snow Focused!

Friday I met at Rita's place for some stitching with friends.  She has a suet bird feeder and a family of three crows likes to visit.  One flew away as I reached for my camera.

 Must be good it's almost gone.

 One came back but wouldn't join it's friend.

 The snow that was supposed to start falling around 11 a.m. was already a dusting at 6 a.m.  This picture of the courtyard was taken around 3 p.m.

 The Winter blooming Forsythia is covered with snow.

 Small Primrose peeking out.

 Dried seed pods.

 Pampus Grass hanging in/

 Some of the stalks are weighed over by the snow.

 The city had just come by to clear the brickwork portion of the boardwalk.  They don't clear the wooden walkway.

 Red berries look great against the snow.

 Palms once again covered with snow.  Canada Customs building across the river.

 Took this picture about 1030 this morning, it has been snowing most of the night, very fine snow right now.

 The water feature is running again after been frozen last month.

 View outside my front door towards the river.

 Looking back towards our street.

 Working on one of my February goals.  At the end of January I found a journal that I used to try and keep monthly records and thoughts about my quilting.  I decided that I would keep it up and wrote what I had accomplished in January along with my February goals.

In past years I've marked down what I had accomplished for finishes, classes meeting new quilting people along with trips and shows I went to during the year.  I plan to continues this year after a four or five year gap.

I also finished the challenge quilt I shared fabrics with on my last post I'm hoping to venture out and deliver it to the gal who is doing it today, roads being cooperative.  Fortunately I can drive on some major through fares it's just getting to her side street that could prove interesting.

So until I can find out if I can share the image here is a little pixelated tease for you to ponder.