My bag and a walk in town

Wow, my first post was about this bag, and I've only just finished it last weekend. It sure took me some time, but I am very happy with the result. I like the country look of it, which fits very well in my home decor (or at least what I want my home decor to become...). Both sides are a little different, one is mostly reds and the other has more browns and greens.

We had a glimpse of summer last Saturday, when the temperature rose to almost 30 degrees. My boyfriend and I drove downtown and walked in beautiful old Quebec for the whole afternoon. If you have never had a chance to visit, let me take you on a little guided tour.


We started off at Place d'Youville and followed the walls of the fortifications.


Found the first flowers of the spring right across Parliament Hill.

Met some sheep behind Château Frontenac.

Admired the frescoes in Quartier Petit Champlain.


Spied on some cool roof terraces.


And walked down my favorite street, which is really a backstreet squeezed between the cliff and a busy street filled with restaurants and art galleries. This little street's name is Sous le Cap, which means something like Under the Cliff.

I couldn't resist taking one more picture of this favorite spot, Passage du Chien, or Dog's Lane if you prefer, a cute little dark alley.

And this other one, hum I guess I have a thing for dark alleys! This one is under the Musée de la Civilisation

And we finished our day sitting on the quay at Pointe-à-Carcy, watching the boats on the St.Lawrence River.

Can't wait to have more of these summer days!

Sylvie

Yummy!

This week I received in the mail some fabrics that I had ordered on Etsy. I always like to add new fabric to my humble stash, and I have a few projects in mind for some of these, in particular the blueberry print on top of the pile, which I fell in love with the first time I saw it!

Now, don't you think they look yummy? I know for sure that they'll end up in my kitchen!

Outside, the temperatures are rising, and I keep reading on beautiful blogs about flowers blossoming and returning summer backyard life. We are not there yet around here, we still have some patches of snow in the shady corners of the yard. However, I do see some promising green leaves growing in my flower beds, mostly irises, and in the meantime, our indoors peace lily is showing her first flower of the spring, after a long winter sleep. Thank you Lily!

Enjoy the weekend!
Sylvie

Let the sun shine in!

It has been sunny all week long, this feels so good after the gloom and greyness of the past weeks. All this sun has made me think of summer, of course, but also of sunflowers. I have a thing for this flower, I like its extremes in sizes, and its simplicity in colors and shapes. Last year I grew a miniature variety of sunflower, called "Teddy Bear". It is the name that first caught my attention, and then I was curious to see what they would look like, because they seemed like pompoms on the packet.

Last year was not a good one to grow flowers here, because it was cold and it rained most of the time, so I feared they would never blossom, but they finally dit in late October, and I quickly brought them inside and put them in a vase before the frost killed them.

This year, I plan on growing another variety, of medium height, called "Sunspot". I have the seeds ready, I can't wait to be able to put them in the soil and watch them grow.

In the meantime, before I can enjoy the real flowers, I can always rely on sunflower designs, such as this simple one below that I did in cross-stitch


and then decided to turn into a little bookmark for my summer readings.


Enjoy the sun!
Sylvie

It's here!

Spring, that is. Snow is melting and my irises are now peeking out in my flower beds, but there is still a few weeks to go before it all turns green outside. We'll have to make do with whites and greys for a little while...

In the spirit of Easter, I have sewn a little bunny this week, all by hand. I found out that I am not very good at hand sewing, and I had to redo some of my stitches, but I made it, finally! The complete instructions for this small plush animal and its variations are shown here.

I had made the mushrooms earlier this winter, also from a tutorial found on a blog.

I had a day off from work today for Easter and spent most of it sewing my patchwork bag. It is now almost complete, only the handles are missing. I'll post a picture of the result when I am done.

Happy Easter to all, I am off to a sugar shack party at my parents' house in the country.