Author: Laura

  • a quilt sandwich

    A little bit of progress on Jess’ quilt!

    quilt back

    I finished piecing the back – but I was coming up a bit short on fabric! It turns out I made the top rather bigger than the queen sized batting, so I ended up picking off a few columns of squares and using them for the back as well. I think it should be kind of nice feature.

    quilt top

    And then I managed to baste the quilt sandwich (backing, batting, top) on the living room floor by rolling them up and working a section at a time. It’s really big! Up next is the quilting, which I’m going to do by hand.

    Have an excellent weekend!

  • Happenings

    It’s getting harder and harder to keep up blogging these days, even though I still love the format! I know I’m not alone, since my feed reader (I use Feedly) is quieter and quieter over time. I do think there’s more action to be had in sewing blog land – some favourites lately include Crafting a Rainbow and What Katie Sews. (Blast from the past, I remember Katie as a knitting blogger! Hi!)

    Anyway, since I can’t really share my knitting at the moment either (I have 3 sweaters due back in the US by June 19!), here are some other things I’ve been up to, mostly from Instagram.

    Dale and I went to the Knitter’s Frolic on April 25 and had a great time! I know I haven’t been around much in the local knitting circles, so it was nice to see knitters I know from here and afar. I didn’t buy much, but I did pick up a few new books, a sheepy mug from Sheppard Handmade, and a couple skeins from sweet fiber.

    I finally got around to hanging a tea towel as a curtain in the bathroom window. I think it’s quite cheery!

    I ordered this awesome sampler from Posie Gets Cozy, I had such a nice time stitching her previous sampler so I’m hoping to get to this one sooner rather than later.

    We spent hours and hours on the weekend making macarons and they are super good. I used the recipe from the Bouchon Bakery cookbook, which has some extra steps over most standard macarons recipes I see, making a syrup of regular sugar and water to stream into the egg whites, which stabilizes the meringue and really makes it easier to get good results! We used meringue buttercream for the filling, in vanilla and raspberry. So, so good. Now that I know the process, I can really jump into flavourings!

    Stereotypical #springstagram #nofilter

    Spring’s here – finally!

  • more and more plants

    I apologize if you’re not a plant person! There’s a little knitting at the bottom of the post.

    Last weekend we ventured out on a gorgeous day to do some shopping (City of Craft) and eating – here’s the soft serve we had after lunch at Momofuku Milk Bar – one cereal milk, one fried apple pie, both with cornflake crunch. Man that apple pie one was really delicious.

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    Crown Flora was having a plant sale and Dale’s been wanting some new cacti or houseplants so we checked it out. There was a line-up to get in still, but it wasn’t nearly as long as it had been before the shop opened, so I heard.

    Plant sale!

    Things were getting a little picked over, but we still managed to find some gems. It was one of those small spots where the line to pay snakes around the store, so once you join the line you can still check out all the plants on your way to the cash! Ha!

    Plant sale!

    It was quite windy, and I saw a few people struggling to protect their new plants while walking around. I’m super glad I took my basket as it made it very easy to carry them on the rest of our outing (with a box in the bottom for stability). Still managed to get poked by those cacti a few times though.

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    Some beauty shots:

    succulents

    moon cactus

    jade

    globe cactcus

    In the garden, the radishes popped right up and need thinning. The peas are just starting to come up – there was a bit of snow yesterday and today, hopefully they’re okay.

    radish sprouts

    And since it’s been so gloomy, I set up my desk lamp to be a grow light for the tomatoes (with a daylight bulb). They’re looking good and I think they’ll appreciate the extra light.

    tomato under lights

    A little bit of knitting, since I don’t have much I can share – I started this sweater out of Indochine silk from Lantern Moon, but I was a bit unsure about the amount of yarn I have, and it got ripped out.

    indochine silk

    But the good news is, the yarn is much happier being knit up into a cowl.

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    READING

    A bunch! A whole bunch of holds on e-books came in from the library all at once, isn’t that always how it is?

    Bios, The Chronoliths, and Blind Lake by Robert Charles Wilson: good straight-up scifi. I like this author a lot.
    The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Marukami: long and definitely winding. Like when I read 1Q84, I had to concentrate a bit to keep the thread as I’m reading. Lots of weirdness. I liked it but it was kind of hard to keep going sometimes.
    Ancillary Justice (Imperial Radch #1) by Ann Leckie: Interesting premise, I’m definitely going to read the other books.
    Edge of Dark by Brenda Cooper (The Glittering Edge #1): Another good scifi world from a woman author! I really enjoyed this one.
    The Martian by Andy Weir: Read this one really fast as I only had a few days left on the book! It really does read like a movie – the film is supposed to come out in November. Really draws you in, and amidst the science there’s humour too. Loved it!

    EATING

    The very first tiny leaves of chard from the windowsill; Oatmeal Date sandwich cookies (I made them smaller, and cooked the dates just with water and some sugar); shepherd’s pie. It’s still cold after all.