Windmill 2

I just finished this week's Party Block. This is week 27. Over half the year is over! I can't believe it! This one is called Windmill 2. Having been born in Holland, I kind of like the name of this block. But that is about all. It's a small block, only 8 inches square. Almost every piece of fabric in this block had a bias edge. My points didn't line up and there was nothing I could do about it. But it's finished! That's all I can say.

Even my furry critters didn't want to sit on this one! Sorry Karen!

Diz iz Z Cross

I am finally posting my block in the Friday Block Party for last week. Usually I am way ahead of myself, but this week was crazy busy (graduation, house sale, lawyers, banking, Canada Day) well, you get the idea.

This block is called Z Cross and it is a 10-inch block. I'm not really sure if I like it. I wish I had used a different fabric for the cross. Maybe I would like it better. But it came out of my scrap bin and I am glad I was able to use it up.

A Bitter Sweet Moment

This was the house my father bought in 1959, two years after we immigrated to Canada. His dream of owning a home had come true. He was so proud of the house that would provide comfort and shelter for his family. It was to become our family residence. See that little window to the left of the front door? That was my room.

The house sat on the corner of a quiet street. Very few of the other homes in the area had been completed. The side street was a little dirt path. But over time the city of Toronto grew up around it. The house now sits on the corner of a busy intersection. Huge trees line the street.

If walls could talk. This house saw a lot in the last 50 years. There were first days at school and graduations. Birthday parties and Christmases. There were weddings and wedding receptions. There were births of children and grandchildren. It saw separations and divorce. It saw illness and death. It saw good times and bad times. We laughed. We cried. We played. We dreamed. We left the little house to make our own futures. So many memories.

My father passed away 14 years ago. His widow lived in the house until she died last summer. Then we put the house up for sale. We removed pictures from the walls. We painted. We cleaned. We emptied it of its contents until it was just a shell. And today the final papers were signed. The house belongs to someone else now. It's a bitter sweet moment.

Magna Cum Laude - With Great Praise!

I am a proud Mom today. That is not to say that I am not proud of my children every day, but today my DS graduated from York University. I always knew he could do it! He received an Honours Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics. He was the only one receiving that degree out of hundreds of other graduates! And he did it Magna Cum Laude!
I took this photo of the huge screen that was hanging in front of me. It was impossible to get any closer in my wheelchair. Those things that seem to be sticking out of his head...well they're microphones on the stage. I couldn't do anything about them. They make him look like an alien or something. All I can say is, "The Mathman has landed!"

Oh! Yes! I am a proud Mom! But I think I said that already!

An Update

I just wanted to show you how I am doing with the baby quilt. It's coming together nicely.


I still have to machine applique the lambs. Still debating on what type of stitch to use. A few of the lambs don't have ears and a face yet, but they are in the works. I bought that blue and purple fabric to act as the first border. I think I will then add a narrow green border and finally a piano key border using most of the fabrics. You can see a bit of it on the left side of the photo.

Yesterday my son drove me to a LQS! I bought some red fabrics. I noticed that KarenDianne was doing a beautiful Dresden Plate quilt in reds and I fell in love with it. So I bought a few fat quarters to start me off.



Well that's about it. Oh, oh! I think Mimi is helping me iron. Watch out for that rotary cutter Mimi! It's sharp! Actually it isn't as dangerous as it looks. This my new rotary cutter! I love it. The blade snaps back as soon as pressure is taken off the handle.

"Mimi! You're putting wrinkles into my fabrics!"

"Meow! Yeah, I know! Wrinkles give the fabrics character!"

"Yeah! Right! Figures you would know about character, you...... charac, aaaah, cute kitten!"

Hey! Where's My MoJo?

I'm in a bit of a funk. Can't seem to decide what to do next. After finishing two quilts in one month, I am lost. I have lots of UFOs to work on, but nothing is turning me on. The garden is also calling me. I really have to go out and figure out how to pull all the weeds. We have had a very cool and wet spring. Everything is growing like crazy, especially the weeds. I don't ever remember my tomatoes being so tall before July.

And I just found out that we had a new addition to our extended family. My cousin became a grandmother! Her son and daughter-in-law had a girl! Here she is just shortly after she made her appearance into the world. Cute, eh?

I love making little pink things. I think I may just leave all my UFOs and start on something new for the new baby. Yes, I think that's it!

Maybe I will do this pattern that I found in the Fons and Porter Baby Quilts Magazine. I love those little lambs! I don't think I am going to piece all those little 1 1/2 inch squares in the inner border though. Nor am I going to make the outer border to look like a fence with ivy appliqued on it. I think if I just get some cute fabrics for both borders, I should be able to finish this little number in a short time. Yep! I think I am getting my MoJo back!

Psychedelic Butterflies

Do you remember that crazy fabric I had in a 'Quilts From the Heart' kit back in March? It was kind of scary! I decided to make some nine-patches and machine appliqued butterflies with it. I had the quilt all sandwiched and basted a few weeks ago, because I wanted it to be done before our last Guild meeting for this year. But that was not to be. Today I had a lot of sewing time and I was able to finish it. Yippeeeee! Another finish for June! Gosh it feels so good! It's a bit bright. So go and get your sunglasses before you look at it!

Here is a close-up of one of the butterflies. I used an old piece of Heat and Bond to applique the butterflies onto the background. It was a heavy weight bond, so it was difficult to do a zigzag stitch around each butterfly. My needle kept getting gummed up and I broke a few. I will definitely not use that stuff in the future!

I had some of the front fabric left over, so I put it on the back. This will go to our Guild in the fall. Hopefully someone with a sense of humour and colour blindness will enjoy it.

It has been raining all day today. My peonies were heavy with raindrops. Nasty weather! The beautiful blooms were flat on the ground. I waited all year for these things to open up and bloom and then the rain came and just knocked them over. Can't have that! I went out and cut them and brought them inside. Now their heady perfume is almost making me nauseous! But I'm tough, I can handle it!