Hi, I am Hooty and I just flew in at Samantha's House



Well, how is everyone today?  Hope you had lots of sunshine as we did, just a lovely day.  I keep talking about sunshine because a city like Toronto has only had 5 sunny days this spring vs 28 last year and temps at 5 C vs 28C last year!

I love my little Hooty that I designed and sewed up today.  He is about 7x10" and so cuddly and totally child proof....nothing hard....nothing can fall off.  He is made of poly fleece and stuffed with a poly stuffing.  I plan to offer him in my shop which is coming soon.

Our Cancer Society is hosting the Relay for Life this weekend.  I donated a lovely pink quilt that I made from a mystery design by Bonnie Hunter from Quiltville called Double Delight.  Sorry, I didn't take a picture before I turned it over to them.  On another note, we are a Regional Hospital and serving a large farming and ranching community in Southwest Saskatchewan.  Many people now come to our hospital for part of their chemo treatments and surgery when needed.  I approached our local committee about distributing quilts, afghans, shawls and anything else that might bring the clients some comfort while dealing with this terrible disease.  I just received word that they would take on this project and I am thrilled I will be able to direct my quilt donations to our own local people.  Here are 3 I have just taken to them.

I love making string quilts and I sew them to a fabric foundation.  I used a fleece for the backing with no batting.  I love how it turned out.  Here is a closeup

Another smaller string quilt that I added some cute prairie points to

The next one is partially refurbished fabric that I found at a garage sale.  It has a cute light hearted theme in bright colors.

I know many of you readers make donations to various charities.  Doesn't it give you a good feeling of warmth to visualize someone in need receiving a nice handmade gift?  I love it and will make as many blankets as I can get together.  My goal each year is 9 but so far I have only managed 6.

In closing, I want to share my most recent purchase.

Oh, my picture isn't very good.  These are labels printed with "Samantha'sHouse.blogspot.com" that I can sew on my projects that will go into my shop.  I have looked and looked and was thrilled to find these that Michelle custom designed for me.  You can have some too by visiting her Etsy shop "Inked Papers".

I am going to have something special for all my viewers and followers on Wednesday, June 1.  I know you are going to like it so I will see you then.  Have a great week.

















I can't believe how much time has passed since I last posted but I have been a busy quilter.  I'll be here tomorrow to post pictures of what's been happening.  I hope you'll come back to join in.

This has been quite an eventful week with the Blogger crash.  Seems things are being restored but I thought I would just wait until things were working better.

It was a wonderful weekend here and I spent most of Saturday repotting my tomatoes and bedding plants into larger containers so they will hold out another week or so.  It was quite warm, windy but I loved every momment.

A month or so ago, I was chatting with a couple of my quilting ladies that live in a senior complex.  I told them I had a quilt I made over a year ago that was still waiting to be quilted.  I keep putting it off because once I start on it I want to finish it.  They offered to come and help me, so nice of them.  I got a better idea!  Would you be able to get permission to set up a frame in your complex and I would bring my stands, boards and the quilt and you ladies could quilt it and I will give you the quilt to do as you wish.  They were so excited and had approval in no time flat.  We set a day and armed with the equipment and my husband, off we went.  We were met by several residents so interested in how we were going to set this all up.  Many were there offering help with whatever we needed.  It wasn't long and the quilt was on and ready to stitch.  Really, there are only 2 ladies there that are able to do any amount of quilting and, in fact, did most of in 10 days would you believe.  I took it back home and finished it off with the binding.  Here is a pictures of their lovely work that they are selling tickets on. The proceeds will be donated to a worthy cause.

I really like this quilt and I am so happy I decided to donate it to this group.  It has been a real social event there.  It was reported there was lots of coffee, cookies and many stopped by to check on the progress.  It brought back many memmories of quilting bees and good conversations.  I certainly would consider doing this again if they are interested. 

One night I came across some drapery samples I had gathered.  Christina from "A Few Scraps" was encouraging us to try reverse quilting using a piece of preprinted fabric.  My samples were too nice to hide so I did some practicing on thread shading.  Once  I had done enough, I thought I would finish it off into a generous tote. 

This pretty well sums up my quilting projects this week.  Check back often as I will have a surprise coming before the end of the month. 

Enjoy our first summer holiday weekend, happy gardening, happy quilting.

Want a chance to win a facelift to your blog, well go here to enter.  There are also tips and you can just hire her to help you with your designs.

Hi everyone, hope you all had a wonderful Mother's Day.  I certainly did and was gifted so generously by my family.  Look here, even a card from my granddog, Hudson!  He came for a visit and is soo adorable, even if he is a big boy golden retriever.  He gives us so much love, just like pets are suppose to right!

And lookee what I won!  I am so excited and now I will have a legitimate excuse to go to Saskatoon.  Monika from My Sweet Prairie here celebrated her birthday in great style last week and had a number of giveaways.  Stop by and see her wonderful fiber art.  She does the most amazing fabric pictures from photos of the Prairies.  I know you will not be disappointed.

Another project that is finished and in the mail are the cushions I made for my cousin.  I love the hexagons and I am going to make one for myself now.  Easy fun stuff!

 I have had this community cold and flu for a week now.  Went to the doctor and got meds on Friday so I am feeling pretty good today.  Last night I just ran out of energy so I played around with these blocks that I had put together some time ago.  I had a substantial amount of green scraps so got the idea that I could piece them and make them into nine patch blocks.  Well, I did but they don't look that great so I added a white sashing to 2 sides and charcoal polkadots to 2 sides.  I just randomly laid them out on the floor.  This will be a quilt for the Cancer Society when finished.  I think it needs a bit of a border to tie it all together.  My thought was to make a quilt that could be given to a man.  I really struggle with designing masculine quilts.

I do have one other project that I am finishing up and I will show you when it is done.  I will pop  back later this week with another posting.  Until then have a fabulous week.

Hi everyone, hope you had a wonderful Easter weekend and now it is May woohoo!  Today I made a special trip to Canadian Tire to pick up 6 geranium plants on sale $1.49 reg. $2.99 and a few other annuals.  DH set up my little greenhouse outside so it needs something to nurture and everything is in such a hurry to grow.  The roses wintered very well and the leaves are budding out.

I am happy to report my quilt for Japan is in Calgary.  I managed to sneak a couple items with the quilt.  I sewed a second flower center to conceal a Loonie, Toonie and my city pin.

Another finished project for me are the cushions I made for my cousin.  I love her dearly and she is more of a sister and friend.  Her and I have antique furnishings and I am throwing in some modern fabrics and designs to brighten up my living room.  She said she was game for something new and bright so here is what she is getting!

Here is the first with appliqued hexagons and bubble quilting.  The bubble quilting took 5 hours but I love the results. I outline stitched around the hexagons in lime green.

If she doesn't like the hexagons, she can flip it over to this

Here is the second cushion that I did some embroidery on the top depicting a spring songbird on a cherry blossom branch.

I spent many hours this past week getting a virus out of my computer, thus no posting, didn't want to infect anyone else.  My system is clean thanks to the talents of member of the Computer Help on GardenWeb Forum and Lanzdown, a site that coaches you through disinfecting you computer.  They were all so great and I can hardly believe I did this by myself.  During this stressful time I puttered around and found a pattern to a boxed zipper pouch.  This is my trial and error version.  I see by my pictures that it is really important to get those ends to match. Oh well, they will be useful to put my scissors and thimble in when I go quilting.  I think they are very cute.  I make even give a tutorial a go, so check back.

I am going to be off next week doing a bit of gardening, but keep quilting and stop by, leave a comment, I would love to hear from you.