Paper Piecing (deuxième partie)

OK, I'm throwing in the towel.  I don't think I've ever had so much difficulty with a seemingly simple block.  I seem to be spatially challenged and had more than one nasty episode with the seam ripper.  Finally, I just decided to own the mistakes, sew it all together and move on to something that doesn't require thinking inside out and upside down!

However, the blocks themselves are very cheery, so I hope the bee recipient this month likes them.

There hasn't been a lot of sewing going on around here, what with raking the winter debris from the lawn, picking up broken branches from the ice storm, and getting foolish horses back under the saddle.  The horses are taking a lot of time, because they are especially silly this year.  There is no end of prancing, dancing and head tossing going on!  I tried to get a shot showing how windy it was, but I was too afraid to take a hand off the reins!

Every year I tease Neil about his winter wood pile, also known as the Wall of Wood.  This year it is particularly fine!

But he's gone beyond and is now building the great wall of China!  The man does enjoy a good pile of wood, and we do love to have enough to last the winter.  This year we ran out in March, and it was no fun burning green wood.  It's never a good idea to cut, split and burn the same day.

He's starting on the second row and I have no idea when he's going to stop.  This doesn't include the 40 or so cords in the shed ready to be sold in the fall.  I think it needs to warm up so he can go golfing!

The daffodils are starting to bloom and the grass is getting a bit greener, so I hope we can say that spring is here i

Sugaring Off Season

Saturday was the annual BMP Hospital sugaring off party fundraiser, and what a terrific day it was!  The sun was shining and temperatures went up to 15 degrees, and that alone can put a smile on anyone's face!  It's an annual event that has been hosted by the same family for 22 years now, the Rhicards from Stanbridge East.  It's an event where you meet everyone you know, knew, or will know from all over the countryside. It's kind of like a county fair, but without the rides!

The air was full of the smell of syrup boiling and the sugar-on-snow troughs did a brisk business.

There were four teams of horses giving wagon rides around the farm.  I am particularly fond of Dave Evans girls that were being driven by his grandson, under his expert eye.

A troika hitch was there too, not something you see very often.

There were demonstrations of working with hand tools--this gentleman is making a wagon wheel.

 
Here, John Rhicard is squaring up a beam. (There has been a sawmill on the farm for over 100 years)

One of the barns was set up for dancing, with people of all ages joining.  I always love the country duos who play, sing, and have taps on their shoes for percussion.  Such fun.

Rob Young brought his ox, who also pulled a wagon for a few rides.

But then he got tired and had to take a nap!

All in all, it was a wonderful community fundraiser with over 900 local people showing up to support our local hospital.  My hat is off to the organizers.

Poissons d'Avril

 Poissons d'Avril as we say in Quebec, and April Fool's Day in the rest of North America.  I thought the saying came from the cinnamon candies shaped like fish that used to be sold, but I haven't seen them in a long time.  ( I just looked it up on Wikipedia and found this reference:  Although not directly related to Easter, the tradition of “Poisson d’Avril” is followed by all French children on 1 April. Paper fish are used to play an April Fools trick, involving sticking a paper fish onto the back of as many adults as possible, then running away yelling “Poisson d’Avril” (April Fish!)

The joke is on all of us as spring is still nowhere to be found.  Today is the first day in a week that it hasn't snowed, and the sunshine and warmer temps made everyone tilt their faces to the sun.  As a celebration of it being above freezing, many of my co choir members and I met at a resto for fish and chips.  It just seemed appropriate!

I've been playing around in sewing world lately, trying to decide what block I'd like for my turn of the quilting bee.  I did enjoy last month's more challenging (for me) blocks and would like something really "my style" when it comes round to my month.

I started playing with scraps in the same colour and tried different sizes of wonky star, both of which turned out well.  As always, I love blues, but I don't know how an entire quilt of these blocks would look. I used this tutorial for the stars and really like the end result.

I like the look of the stars offset mixed with the central ones.  I think it would be a happy quilt with lots of colour and individuality.  It doesn't show in the pictures, but the two are very different in size.  The original makes a 17.5" block, so I shrunk mine down to 15" for the blue one and 13" for the pink one.

Then I made some oversized flying geese blocks with the idea of having a wild and crazy design with geese going in all directions.  I like the size of the blocks and think it could be fun, but more white is needed to give space to the fabric.  It looks quite muddy even though, individually, I love the fabrics and colours on the left, but there's not enough contrast.

I'll try a few more with whites or lots of white in a pattern and see how they go.

I'm linking up to The Needle and Thread network today, so hop on over to see what everyone is up to.  Let's all keep thinking about warmth and green grass!