One of the things that we did this weekend was to document with photographs some trees that have very special meaning to our family.

This is a Golden Leaved Black Locust tree that was planted on the grounds of the Research Station that my FIL worked at for his entire career. This agriculture research facility is home to over 500 species of ornamental trees and shrubs.

My FIL passed away on Thanksgiving day in 1994 and this tree was planted in his memory shortly after.

My husband now works at the same research facility and so this farm continues to hold a special place in our hearts. When my daughter was in grade 2 and my son was in grade 4 they brought home small tree seedlings from school. We had no room to plant these seedlings at home and so we headed over to the Farm.

This is a picture of my husband standing behind one of the seedlings that was planted 11 years ago. The location that the kids chose to plant their trees was very sheltered and shaded. The seedlings have to compete for sunshine with the other trees nearby so I am sure that is why this tree is still so small.

A few years ago, my husband rescued some abandoned feral kittens and brought them home for my daughter to foster. Unfortunately, the kittens were very sick and way too young to be separated from their mother and so we lost them. They were been buried at the foot of this tree.

We continued to drive along the base of the mountain–for the most part on a path of sorts that had been recently mowed. We came to the end of the beaten path and the terrain changed a great deal. You can see from this picture that the grass suddenly got very tall. Yes, that grass is really the height of the hood of our truck. Finally, my husband decided that he could no longer see where we were driving and so he turned back. Thank goodness!

This is my favorite quilt pattern. It is a pattern from Quiltmakermagazine called, Warm Wishes.

I have made this pattern enough times now that I know how the quilt goes together with very little reference to the pattern. It is a favorite because I know just how much fabric I will need to buy, just how many pieces of fabric to cut and what widths. I know how this quilt pattern is going to turn out and I can easily reduce or enlarge the size to fit the recipient–fewer number of blocks for a crib quilt, increase the number of blocks for an adult lap quilt. This pattern has become an old reliable when I need a quick gift–I just choose a novelty fabric as my focus or theme of the quilt based on what I know the recipient will like and then I pick three contrasting colours from the focus fabric as my rail fence blocks. The border can be more of the focus fabric if I have enough on hand or as in the case of this quilt top, a narrow strip of the print with one of
the contrasting fabrics as an outer border.

In this case, I have used up all of what was left of the butterfly fabric from a previous quilt–The Simple Life Quilt. The small trimmings that were left when I was cleaning up my sewing area have already been sewn into some colour catcher string blocks so there truly is no usable remnant of this fabric left.

I finished putting this top together on Saturday.

This is another Warm Wishes quilt–the one that featured the colourful frogs. Quilting this top was today’s project. The quilting pattern is accomplished with Circle Lord’s Swirls template. The quilt is shown in this picture while it is still on the long arm machine. The quilting is now finished and the quilt has moved on to the binding pile.

Last weekend, I was looking through my quilt patterns for a pattern that would be suitable for just three fabrics. I wanted to make a quilt that fit Judy’s July Stash Challenge. I came across this pattern by Lissa Alexander called “The Simple Life Quilt”. As it turns out this pattern is a 4 patch variation–referred to as a 4 by 4 by 4 patch by Lissa.

If you double click on the picture, the image should become larger and you should be able to read the writing. At the bottom of the pattern, there is a note that states, “Assemble quilt in a Trip Around the World design refer to photo for placement.” All I have of this pattern is this single sheet. I do not have a photo to refer to as mentioned in the instructions. Since I am a visual person, I went to my quilt software, Quilt Pro, drafted the block and played with block placement variations.

This is my block.

This is the version of the block placement that I liked the best. I like this version better than the Trip Around the World placement. This is 16 4 by 4 by 4 blocks.

I added a 2 1/2″ border to the outside of the quilt. After quilting, I am planning to put a “flap” of pink on the edge of the border, tucked under a green binding. This will bring the pink and green colours back into the quilt on the outside edge, framing the quilt.

Yesterday was my DH’s birthday and my SIL’s birthday. My husband and his sister were born on the same date six years apart. While growing up, my SIL told everyone that my husband was more her brother than anyone else’s (there were 4 other siblings around at that time) because my husband was born on her birthday!

We were together as a family yesterday to celebrate the reunion of the families of my FIL and his sister. Both my FIL and his sister are now deceased. It has been at least 30 years since this branch of the family has gotten together.

This is a picture of my FIL and his sister taken many years ago before they were both married.

These are the first cousins.

First cousins again arranged in order of age. Yes, my husband is really the youngest in this photo!

First cousins again………this time arranged in order of height. There was quite a bit of laughter and joking around while we were organizing these photos. Arranging the cousins in order of age and height for photos was a family tradition–“Just like we used to when we were little!” could be heard above the laughter.

These are the children of the first cousins–or at least the ones that were at the reunion. Unfortunately, not all of the kids could make it.

And finally, the grandchildren of the first cousins.

These two stole the show as far as I was concerned. These two boys are sons of my husband’s niece.

Today marks the 140th celebration of Canada Day, which commemorates the day that Canada became a nation.

Because July 1 falls on a Sunday this year, we all get tomorrow off making this a long weekend.

I am behind in meeting my monthly goals — finishing one of the BOM snowmen blue work blocks and finishing off one of the listed UFOs on my side bar each month. I hope to get back on track this month–starting with the extra time I have this weekend.

To those blog readers in Canada–enjoy your long weekend!