Bonjour, Montreal!

We dropped off son in Montreal last week. Hubby and son drove up (3 day drive) and I flew up and met them. Hubby and I drove home together (another 3 day drive). That way son could bring his stuff and we didn't have to leave Bowie as long.

 Montreal is beautiful city. There are many historic buildings and churches.

 Rue St. Catherine is all decked out for blocks.

 McGill University is a gorgeous campus.

 It feels almost medieval on some parts of the campus.

 Here he is, in front of the huge music building, where he'll be spending most of his time. We shopped and got him settled in his apartment, so not much sight seeing this time. It was so hard to say good-bye.  I felt like I was in Paris or Europe.  I can't wait to go back and see more of this city.

 Before I left, I laid out the the sheet quilt top on the kitchen table and pinned the layers to the batting and backing.

 I used my walking foot to machine quilt it. I just need to hand sew the binding to finish it off.

It's good to be home. Super hot here in Texas, but looking forward to cooling down this fall. Hope you are enjoying the last bits of summer.
Leslie

Happenings at Brookhollow Lane

Someone had a birthday last week. My oldest son had a cake delivered, since he couldn't be here. It was a really nice day.

 I did get the upcycled sheet quilt top done. I also added a sheet binding. So excited about crafting right now!

 This cute plaque was included in a gift basket and was made by my friend Celeste at Southern Day Dreams. She spoiled me on my birthday. So fun to have a blogging friend that lives close to me. I think it looks so pretty with the pale colors in the quilt top. I'll share the progress on it as I go. I'll be machine quilting-it's been so long since I made a quilt, I want to keep it super simple.

 I did get one hexie finished. I think I'll call it a mug rug. I sandwiched the hexie,  backing and batting and sewed and then turned it out. I did a little machine quilting around the hexie edges.

 Piles of hexies to use up.

 Went antiquing last week and found this cute and colorful crochet. That will be going on the craftroom wall.

I'll be taking a blog break. We are taking our youngest son to Graduate school in Montreal. It's a combination road trip and flying  to get him settled in his new school and new country. So excited to see Montreal, and the weather has got to be better then it is in Texas right now. See you when we get back.
Leslie

Piles of Lovely

I started collecting hoarding vintage sheets awhile ago and have gotten quite a stack. I have finally decided to so something with them.

 Cutting 5" squares is easy and fun with the rotary cutter. It gives me a chance to look at each design as I go. Some of these sheets were from my Mom's house and I remember them.

 As this pile gets shorter,

 The cut squares pile gets bigger.

 Here they are ready and waiting for my next project. I love all the pastel goodness-yellows, pinks, blues and greens. A quilt will be in the making around here.

 I also have had this lovely pile of vintage hexies that I found at a thrift store. All hand sewn-not paper pieced-so I don't know how she accomplished this beautiful pile of hexies from those lovely vintage prints. Each one is made of different fabrics and each is a little work of art.

Trying to decide what to do with these. Not a quilt, because I don't know how I'd join them without paper piecing. Still thinking about that. I've been so excited about crafting again and it's absolutely too hot to do anything outside. I'll keep you posted on my progress. As always, I love reading your comments and visiting your blogs. Hope you are having a wonderful week!
Leslie

Strawberries and Crafting

I finally got my craft mojo back. Partly because I rearranged son's boxes in the craftroom and am now able to sidle by to my desk. I have wanted to make these for awhile.Also checking out my new readers (I'm testing different strengths after my eye surgery) to see if I can thread a needle and I can!

I just cut some rounds on scraps of fabrics. Mine were 4 1/2" across. Cut each circle in half.

 I folded over , right sides together and sewed the edge up on the machine with a little rounded point.

 I turned them right side out. They look like little gnome hats, don't they?

  I used quilting thread, but any heavy thread will do for the next part.

 Using the quilting thread, (Here's where I really needed to be able to see), I did a running stitch on the top edge. Be sure to leave a tail on the  knot so you have something to pull.

 Stuffed it and pulled in the gather and tied it off in a knot.

 Cut out little leaves from felt. Also little rectangles.

I rolled the rectangles and hot glued and held it with a cloths pin. Also glued 2 little leaves together in the middle.Glue each leaf on end of strawberry to cover your gathered hole. Hot glue the rolled stem on the end.

 Clean off all your glue strings and there you have it. Ripe strawberries!

 These were so fun to make.See the little printed one in the jelly jar? It has berries and cherries on the fabric. That was fabric from my Mom's stash.

 This was a perfect little project to ease my way back into crafting. Feels so good to be creative!

 Maybe I'll make some strawberry pie later, on this super hot summer day. With real strawberries, though.

 Progress report on the morning glory. It's growing over the 8 foot fence into the neighbors side and is just lovely.

 My purple crepe myrtle is in full bloom.I love that shade of deep purple.

Let me know if you have any questions on making strawberries. Still hot here, but of course it's summer in Texas. Hope you have a wonderful week!
Leslie