Crafts and Stuff

Want to See What I am Working On?

2012-01-30T09:57:00.000-05:00

Thought you might like to see what is on my design ~~wall~~ floor. This is what has kept me busy this past week.

I am not sure how big this will get. The instructions are for a twin size bed. Mine might only become a couch quilt.

I have also been working on my houses. I found a piece of dark blue fabric in my stash.

I think it will work well for the sashing between the blocks. I also have a huge piece of dark red that I might use for the corner blocks. I think it may be too dark. I guess I will make a few more houses before I make my decision.

And here is a photo of Mimi, sleeping out in the solarium. She seems to be feeling much better, although she still doesn't want anything to do with me after having to do all those medication things to her.

Thank you to everyone who sent comforting comments and positive thoughts our way. I really appreciated those.

January Cactus?

2012-01-23T16:16:00.001-05:00

While watering my plants this morning I noticed that my pink Christmas Cactus is in bloom.

This was the cactus that got knocked off its perch and crashed to the ground last year. Almost every piece, buds and all, broke off. I almost cried! But I collected myself and then |I collected all of the broken pieces. I planted them in a new pot with some fresh soil. They have been growing there the whole year and now they are rewarding me with some much needed colour.

We're having a dreary day. It has been raining on and off all day. The little bit of snow we had is gone again. It's as if the colour has gone from the world, so I am glad there is a little bit of it in my solarium.

Guild meeting tonight. I am getting cabin fever, so I am looking forward to going out this evening.

And here is a picture of Mimi that I took a couple of days ago. She refused to look at me when she saw my camera. We are still not the best of buddies after all of the eye drops, pills, water and food I have had to give her in the past couple of weeks. I am trying to gain back some of her trust of me, so I didn't remove the eye crud, but she definitely is feeling better.

Sunrise this Morning

2012-01-22T08:35:00.002-05:00

This morning\s sunrise was amazing. I just had to take a photo or two. I think this means that bad weather is coming our way. Isn't that how the saying goes?

'Red at night,

Sailors delight.

Red in morning,

Sailors take warning.'

I am putting this on my header too. It's too precious to waste. We haven't had any real winter yet. Strange for this part of the world. We've had some rain, a bit of snow and really warm temperatures for the month of January. Wonder if we will get some snow today. I hope so. It isn't winter without snow!

Harry Potter is Finished

2012-01-20T12:32:00.001-05:00

I have finished a charity quilt! My first finish for this year. Yippeeeee!

It was a kit from our guild, since this quilt will go to our Quilts from the Heart progrram. 30, 8.5inch blocks featuring a Harry Potter fabric. Looks easy, right - just sew the patches together and quilt it. Not! The patches were all different sizes, so I had to cut them down to 8.25inches. Then, as I was sewing them together, I discovered a yellow patch that was only 8 x 6 inches. I put everything away for a while so that I could think about this dilemma. That yellow fabric looked familiar. So I searched and searched through my stash and then my scraps. And eventually I found a small piece! I said a little prayer, ironed it and was able to cut an 8.25in. block from it. I am glad it is finished.

Building Permit LH366

2012-01-16T12:14:00.000-05:00

Hardhats must be worn on this site.

I went to Staples yesterday and had the paper piecing pattern enlarged so that the houses will be exactly 3 inches when completed. For some reason my computer wasn't printing them correctly. So now I have a total of 7 houses completed. I think I will be caught up by the end of this month.

Mimi is still with us. She seems a bit better at times. At least she is eating again. She weighed less than 6 pounds when we were at the vet's office last week. I have to give her 2 pills a day and put drops in her eye 3 times a day. Needless to say she is not very happy with me at the moment.

Keeping Busy

2012-01-11T15:48:00.001-05:00

Oh, look! I haven't posted for over a week. I have been playing with my scraps and worrying about Mimi. So I'll tell you about Mimi first.

She has not been feeling well over the last couple of weeks. I am not really sure what is wrong with her. She has no distinct symptoms, just a lot of little things that I can't get a handle on. She seems to have an eye infection. And maybe dental problems. She is not eating or drinking as usual. So last night we took her to the 24-hour clinic. She weighed less than 6 pounds. They took blood and urine. Gave her some water under her skin because she was dehydrated. Told me to syringe feed her. Gave me drops for her eye and some kind of pills for nausea. So today it seems as if I am running a cat hospital. The vet is going to phone me this evening with the results of her tests. Then we will know more. Mimi seems a lot better though. Right now she is sleeping and I won't disturb her until it is time for her to eat again.

And now for my sewing progress. Last week Em from Ems Scrapbag had another tutorial for the scrap quilt we're working on. I have a whole box of little 1 1/2 inch pieces sewn into 4 patches. A few have a 2 1/2 inch piece sewn on and made into a bigger 4 patch. This week's tutorial was on adding 4 1/2 inch pieces. I still have lots to do, but here is my progress so far.

Yesterday I spotted a little house quilt along. The houses are only 3 inches square when finished. I made a couple of them and then did one at 4 inches square. I don't know yet if I will join this quilt along. I have to perfect the pattern first. They are paper pieced. I think they are so cute!

My next project is a quilt for Quilts from the Heart. I was given the fabric to do with what I want. The blocks were all 6 inch square. I was supposed to randomly place the blocks together in a pleasing pattern. Sounds easy. But some of the fabric was great and some of it was not so great. I don't like working with slippery polyester fabrics. So I thought about this quilt for a while and decided that I would do a bit of piecing, take the 'not so good' fabric out and maybe add some of my own. This is what I have come up with so far.

I will finish this one this week, I hope. I have another Quilt from the Heart to make before the end of January.

A New Year...

2012-01-03T15:37:00.001-05:00

... And I still have scraps!

Here it is, already the 3rd day of 2012! I thought I would make a resolution to be more organized this year. But I have already broken it. Look at the state of my sewing table! Lots of scraps and strips.

So I decided to make a resolution I can stick with and that is... play with my scraps. That's my goal for 2012, to play with my scraps. I know it's kind of hokey, but I won't be able to keep any other resolution, so rather than feel like a failure, I will look at my scrappy blocks and smile. After all, isn't that what life is all about?

I saw a 'Lego Block' quilt on somebody's blog. I used to love Lego. My kids loved it too! We had lots of it. So this project solves two things - playing with Lego and building a quilt with fabric blocks.

I want to wish everyone a belated Happy New Year. Hope 2012 is good to you. I have been too busy to read blogs or answer my mail. But I'll be back soon. I have a bit of a sore throat at the moment. I hope it doesn't develop into something more serious. I just want to nap with my kitties! That could be my resolution too - taking lots of naps with my kitties. I know I won't break that one!

Mesdames et Messieurs.....

2011-12-30T15:11:00.001-05:00

Presentation... du Cirque du Soleil Quidam!

My DD gave me tickets to Cirque du Soleil for Christmas. We went to see it last night. It was fantastic! Dancing... live music... rope skipping... aerial acrobatics... clowns... juggling... audience participation... Chinese yo-yo skills... gymnatics... and so much more.

Quidam is French and it is said to mean no one and everyone at the same time. The Quidam of this presentation is a headless man, carrying a bowler hat and an umbrella. There is lots of thunder and lightening and other light and sound displays. The singer was live and she was terrific!

It's a story about Cloe, a young girl who is bored. Her parents live their own lives and don't pay much attention to her. So she dreams up a world of fantasy and imagination to keep herself amused. Quidam is the person who sings, cries out and dreams in each of us.

Christmas Greetings

2011-12-24T08:41:00.011-05:00

Hey Felix. Come here and wish everyone a Merry Christmas.

"Mew. I can't."

Why? What are you doing?

"Shhhhhh. I'm sleeping. Purrrrr."

But why? It's too early to go to sleep now.

"I'm not taking any chances. I want Santa to come and bring me treats, purr, purr."

Good idea!

Happy Holidays, Everyone!

The Reindeer Have Landed

2011-12-18T16:16:00.000-05:00

One of my quilty friends asked if she could see my reindeer. It's Deb from Patchwork Sanity - A Women's Piece of Mind. She has some deer in her yard too. Go check hers out. They are so cute! I put mine out on the front lawn today. These things are getting really old. I hope they survive the winter. I made them about 10 years ago (maybe even longer) when I saw some on somebody's lawn. I didn't have a pattern. I just drew the shapes on a sheet of plywood that was 4 by 8 feet. It was a little bit tricky because I had to fit all of the pieces on. I then cut them out with a jigsaw.

My neighbour stood in his driveway and watched me, shaking his head the whole time. Several years later I found a pattern to make these things. The reindeer in the pattern were much nicer than mine, so I filed the pattern away in a 'safe' place and now I can't find it. Don't you hate when that happens? I would like to made a new pair of reindeer some day if I can still cut things out with a jigsaw. My disability is making things more difficult for me. I used to love working with wood.

And I thought you might like to see a shot of Mimi. I haven't featured her on my blog for quite a while. She is a real opportunist. I had folded the flannel quilt and placed it on the coffee table. As the sun moved around and started to come into the living room and shine on the quilt, Mimi saw her chance and decided to take a relaxing nap.

Doesn't she look comfortable? Shhhh! Don't wake her. She hates to be disturbed when she is napping. Oh, oh. I guess the camera made a noise. Did I wake you Mimi?

"Meow! Go away and leave me alone. Can't you see I'm taking a nap? The sun is so nice and warm and this quilt is perfect for napping. Turn that camera off and go away! Right now! Meow!"

I guess I'd better do as I'm told. Can you tell who the boss is in our house? Certainly not those nice, quiet, well behaved reindeer. I really should make some more of them.......

A Finished Christmas Tree

2011-12-12T21:15:00.003-05:00

A few weeks ago I inherited a huge amount of scrap fabric that had belonged to a fellow quilter who passed away. Included in those bags full of scraps was a partly finished quilt top. I thought the quilt was cute - cute enough to finish. So I took a few seams apart, fixed a couple of crooked patches, appliqued a star on top of the tree and resewed a few seams that had nonexistent seam allowances. Then I sandwiched it, quilted it and sewed the binding on. I also put a sleeve on the back so that I can hang it up. And this is what I ended up with.

I think my quilty friend would be proud and happy to see her quilt top finished and hanging up for this festive season.

If Life Gives You Flannel Scraps..........

2011-12-01T13:04:00.000-05:00

.. make a flannel quilt. I have come to be known as the 'Scrap Lady'. Not that I mind! I keep getting those great scraps given to me. And I've never met a scrap I didn't like! There were a lot of flannel pieces already cut into squares in the last batch of scraps. I added a few of my own and came up with this.

It's lovely and warm. My husband was eyeing it last night. So I decided to make him one for his very own. There were some wild, outdoorsy flannel scraps in that batch. I had to change the pattern because there just weren't enough of the 4.5inch pieces. This will take me awhile because I still have a lot of Christmas stuff to get finished. And it's already December 1st! How did that happen?

And lastly, a shot of one of my Christmas Cactus plants, blooming in a gorgeous creamy/peach colour. My red one has already been in bloom for a couple of weeks and the pink ones are starting to bloom too. There are still lots of buds, so I hope to have lots of colour for Christmas this year.

Polar Bears for Quilts from the Heart

2011-11-23T10:58:00.001-05:00

Brrr! It's cold outside! -5C yesterday and freezing rain last night. It feels like polar bear weather! Nothing like a Polar Bear Quilt to keep me warm. I enjoyed sewing the binding down by hand with it draped over my body. But this one is not for me. This is a charity quilt, going to 'Quilts from the Heart' at our guild. It's a disappearing nine patch. And I got it finished in time to take it to our next meeting on Monday evening.

Crumbs on the Floor

2011-11-17T10:37:00.000-05:00

On, no! What's that on my floor? Crumbs! I'm not cleaning them up! Vacuuming would take time away from my scraps! Can't have that. Oh, no!

I think I've caught a scrappy virus or something. I want to sew scrap blocks and only scrap blocks, all day long. I was sewing them just before I went to bed last night and started up again as soon as I woke up this morning. I just can't stop.

I found this Crumb Along on Jo's blog. I can only say, "Wow!" i know this thing has been going on for a while now, but I just found Jo's blog a couple of days ago. And that is how I caught this virus! I'm sure of it. There is no cure. I just have to keep making crumb blocks - forever. It's really quite serious. I haven't had a shower or gotten dressed this morning and it is already 10:30am. I just want to sew, sew, sew. What will become of me?

BOM - A New Start

2011-11-12T12:21:00.000-05:00

At our last Guild meeting, about 40 members showed off their beautiful quilts, which they had made in a BOM club last year. It was announced that a new quilt was going to be started for this year - a block of the month. That sounded doable to me, so I decided to join in. It only amounts to one session per month. Most of the work will be done at home. I believe there are 50+ of us doing this year's quilt. It is called 'The Queen and her Court' and is by A Wing and a Prayer Designs. It will measure 96in. by 108in. when it is complete. Here are my first two blocks for this month.

I think I was inspired by the fall colours all around me. I hope I will still like it next year when it is finished. One of the perks (or downfalls) of this group, is that we will be doing a lot more than making our blocks. We will have coffee or tea and lots of conversation, tips and instructions. A goodie of some sort will be brought each month by one of the members. Today is my turn to bring something to go with our tea. A recipe will accompany my treat of a lemon loaf. Copies will be made and given out to the others members. By the end of the year we will, not only own a beautiful quilt, but will have collected lots of recipes too.

Finished - Snips and Snails

2011-11-10T12:57:00.002-05:00

A Finish! Hurray!!! I finished the quilt my DD asked me to make for a friend of hers. It only took me about a week. I still have to sew a label on it, so I guess I am not completely finished, but the quilting is done, the binding is on and a photo has been taken. I really enjoyed making this one! It used some scraps and some of the creepy, crawly fabrics I have been collecting. It is my own design.

Flowers for a Chilly Wednesday

2011-11-02T11:07:00.001-04:00

I am still busy with the bug jar quilt, but I managed to find some time to work on my hexies. I made four more flowers this week.

These photos were taken outside this morning. The sun is shining and the temperature will go up to 17C today, but I am sorry to say that these flowers are the only ones still blooming in my garden. We had night frost a few days ago and everything else has died.

I was also able to prep four more flowers to work on this week. Those four will complete my hexagon quilt. It is with ambivalent feelings that I tell you this. I have loved working on this quilt and hate to see it come to an end. But I am sure there will be more hexies in my future. (I still have another hexagon quilt with smaller hexies that needs to be completed) I am not sure how to finish this one though. The edges are not straight. I guess I will have to do particial blocks to complete it. I will post a picture next week when I have all of the hexies sewn together. Then the experienced flower makers out there can give me some advice.

Don't you just love this one?

Okay, so Here's the Plan

2011-10-26T16:39:00.001-04:00

I got a call from my daughter today. She wants to 'buy' a baby quilt from my quilt closet. The only thing is, I have no baby boy quilts right now. So here's what I plan to do. In keeping with my scrap obsession at the moment, I am going to scrap piece some blocks and combine them alternately with jars of bugs and other creepy things. It's got to be done in 2 weeks. Do you think it will work?

Mindless Cutting and Sewing

2011-10-22T12:35:00.001-04:00

After the excitement of the past week I do not feel like quilting. Even sewing some scraps together to 'make' fabric does not turn me on. But then I remembered Em's post challenging other quilters to join her in a scrap project, using 1 1/2inch pieces to make 4 patches. She has her first tutorial here.

4 patch blocks.

I already had a lot of those little squares pieced together before I joined Em in her challenge. And now I am making two different quilts!

This has been an ongoing project for me. (Ongoing for a long time!) I just cut scraps when I have a few that are too small for anything else. So a couple of days ago I decided to continue with the cutting of my donated and other scraps. This is such mindless work that I was able to do it while listening to music. It was very relaxing. I use the squares for leaders and enders, but I also take some time, every now than then, to just sew some together.

I had already cut a lot of squares to make an OMG Quilt. I started it in 2010. Here is my progress. Again, this is an ongoing project that I don't think will be finished anytime soon.

Patches sewn into 9-patch blocks.

9-patches joined to larger 9-patch blocks.

This is an alternating block for the OMG quilt. I can use more of my 4-patches on this one.

Hope everyone has a terrific weekend! The Creative Festival is in Toronto this weekend. I am going down tomorrow to take a look around. I plan to buy no fabric. :-)

A Day in Toronto

2011-10-20T07:49:00.004-04:00

This has been a busy week for me. I hope to get back into blogging and blog-reading today - after I take a nap that is. LOL I didn't do any sewing this week either, so that certainly has to change today too. This is going to be a long post - sorry.

Friends from Japan were here in Toronto for a few days. They came over for dinner on Tuesday evening and yesterday we took them on an excursion around our city. We started off by driving around to see some of the places in our city's centre - the Eaton Centre, the old and new City Halls, University Avenue and Queen's Park where the provincial government sits and a few more interesting places. The weather was not cooperative. We only got to do the outdoor things when the showers held off. At the CN tower we stopped and went to the top to view the city. Even though it was raining on and off, the view was wonderful.

Here are some gargoyles on the outside of the Roger's Centre, formerly know as the SkyDome.

We had to choose our destinations carefully. They had to coincide with the rain and the dry spells. So when it started to rain, we went to the St. Lawrence Market because it is held indoors. This market is open 5 days a week and has many vendors selling fresh fruits and vegetable, meats, fish and freshly baked goodies. There are also booths that sell specialties, like teas, rice, any household item you can think of and of course, souvenirs like maple syrup products and ice wines.

Some gourds.

I love going to the St Lawrence Market at any time. The atmosphere is very festival-like, but it was especially nice yesterday because outside the weather was wet, cold and windy. Surrounded by food, we became hungry and decided to eat our lunch there.

Our visitors.

We stopped at the Allan Gardens Greenhouses next. These are open to the public all year round and house a wonderful assortment of tropical, sub-tropical, local and dessert plants. I love visiting Allan Gardens!

Bananas growing in the central conservatory at Allan Gardens.

It is a wonderful place to go when the cold and snow of our Canadian winters creates fears of never seeing a flowering plant again. There is no admittance fee, so it's a great place to spend a few minutes or an hour or more.

Leda and the Swan, a sculpture based on a Greek myth, at one of the ponds.

After Allan Gardens, we drove along the lake, taking in Tommy Thompson Park, a man-made peninsula that was created when rocks and soil were removed from the building sites of downtown skyscrapers and dumped into the lake. This sounds like a dumb thing to do, but the dumped debris soon became the new home for wildflower and tree seeds dropped by birds. the wind and human visitors. These have grown into a unique parkland surrounded by Lake Ontario and inhabited by local and migratory birds, several species of frogs, toads and other reptiles and squirrels and other small mammals.

Waves on Lake Ontario.

The lake was very rough. It was too dangerous for boats to be out in the water, but we did see a few adventurous surf boarders out there. Crazy people who must love the cold. We drove along the lake and stopped at Bluffer's Park. It stopped raining long enough for us to walk to the edge of the lake and observe the incredible waves. Usually the water is very calm and just laps at your feet as you walk along the beach, but yesterday it looked like an ocean.

On our way out of the park we saw some deer. Viewing wildlife inside the city limits always makes me happy!

A deer at Bluffers Park.

We rounded the day off with a return to our place for some green tea and some 'shopping' in my fabric stash. I think my friend was inspired by my quilty things and wanted to buy a kit of something simple to take back to Japan with her. Unfortunately our local quilt shop was closed yesterday due to the activities at the Creative Sewing Festival this weekend, so I invited her to take a look at my stash. We found a pattern for an simple quilt-as-you-go table runner and some fabrics and made up a kit ourselves.

Dinner was at a Japanese restaurant. I learned about some new delicacies that I had never tasted before, as well as satisfying my craving for sushi - for a little while at least. Afterwards we drove them back to their hotel. They are flying back to Tokyo today. With mixed emotions we bade them farewell, with promises for them to return to Toronto and for us to go to Japan. Now, wouldn't that be nice!

I Am Easily Distracted!

2011-10-14T14:08:00.000-04:00

I've been AWOL. This has been a short week because of Thanksgiving's Day last Monday. Yes, I've been busy, but that is not the real reason that I haven't posted anything for over a week. I found the book, 'A Tree Grows in Brooklyn' in large print at the library. I had read it before, but that was about 40 years ago. I couldn't put it down. So I just sat around and read.

The only quilting I got done was on the Scrap Quilt that I was working on. It is 40in X 40in. That is as big as it is going to get because I ran out of the white fabric. But I think it's big enough.

On Tuesday I found a huge bag of fabrics at my back door. A quilty friend who is cleaning up her stash left them for me. In the bag I found some beautiful pieces of Laurel Burch fabrics. They were all cut up and ready to sew. There was even a pattern sheet in the bag. It's for a Grandmother's Braid quilt. I had never done one of these before. So, even though I had all kinds of things to finish, I whipped these pieces out and started sewing them together. I am not easily distracted am I? I mean, wouldn't any quilter get excited with these fabrics and want to sew them into something, especially when the pieces were all cut out already?

I think I will but them together with a dark blue sashing strip between them.

This and That

2011-10-06T12:52:00.003-04:00

I have lots to show you today...

First up are my hexagon flower blocks for this week. I only made 2 and last week I didn't make any, but I am still making progress. Got to stay on top of these.

I have been playing with my scraps and decided to put the finished blocks together for a quilt top. Here is my progress so far. I think I will add a few more rows. I don't have much of the white on white fabric, so when I run out, the quilt will be done.

Now for something different. Last Monday I went over to our local library and joined in on a 'drop-in program' for knitters. I haven't knitted anything in a long time. I used to make toques, scarves and mitts for the kids at the school where my DD teaches. I haven't done that for a long time either. So I started making some mittens. I'll try to make a few more things in this 2-hour, twice a month program. It was fun. Here is what I have so far.

I have also been busy in my garden. A while back, I discovered that there was such a thing as fall crocuses. I was able to get some at a local nursery. They have to be planted in the fall. Next spring they will come up and show some leaves. Then by August or September the leaves will disappear and beautiful pink or mauve flowers will appear.

This one is called Colchicum Byzantinum. It was already starting to flower in the package. This one has a very large bulb and the package said that it would have to be divided after a couple of years because it grows very quickly. That's a good thing! I also planted some small bulbs of a different kind of fall crocus. But I could have saved myself the trouble because when I went outside this morning I discovered that my resident squirrel had dug them up. I forgot to sprinkle some cayenne pepper on the soil. That is the only thing that keeps my squirrels away.

And last, but not least, I did some baking. I made a banana chocolate chip bunt cake and a marble bunt cake which is pictured here.

I also sandwiched a quilt that I hope to finish in the next couple of days. So it's back to the sewing room for me.

Lots of Scraps

2011-10-03T14:23:00.001-04:00

It is dark and dreary outside today. So I had to take my photos inside. The colours are actually brighter than in the photos. I will post another photo when it is done.

You'd think my scrap bin would be going down, but no! It seems to be growing and I have even been leaving the lights on at night. The good thing is that I have been able to get a lot of things constructed.

Here is my Scrappy Squares quilt. It's a flimsy right now, but I plan to quilt it soon. It's in line. I have a couple of quilts that are ahead of it.

I have also been working on a Crosses quilt. Wanda from Exuberant Color has been making one and I just couldn't resist. It uses 2 1/2 inch strips and I have lots of those. This is about 1/4 of the quilt. I made myself a small design wall. It's not big enough, but I think it will work if I do a quarter of the quilt at a time.

Where Did the Summer Go? Garden Shots

2011-09-26T12:35:00.001-04:00

Fall arrived last Friday. It's only three months until Boxing Day. Where has our summer gone? I have been doing lots of sewing, but have only some scrap blocks to show for it. Nothing I can share at this time though.

I thought you might like to see a bit of my garden. Just a bit, because almost everything has finished blooming. There are still several Geraniums (Pelargonium) in full bloom. I love the colours on this one. I might try to take a few cuttings or move the whole plant inside for the winter.

And here are some Ipomoea. The first one is a sweet potato vine. And the second one is a morning glory. The morning glories volunteered themselves.

This wonderfully large bloom is a Rose Mallow. I bought this plant at a variety store just a few months ago. It is supposed to be a perennial. I've never had one of these before. I'm hoping that it will come back next year.

And do you remember my Leopard Lily, sometimes called Blackberry Lily?

They have finished blooming and have formed seed pods. They really do look like blackberries.

Mimi is still happy to be able to look outside and see the sunshine. I took this photo as a practice shot with my new camera. I still have a lot to learn about that thing.

A New Camera

2011-09-21T11:23:00.001-04:00

My old camera stopped working on the weekend. I had taken it with me to Edward's Gardens (a beautiful park). I wanted to take some photos of the fantastic scenery and gorgeous flowers that are there. But it seems that my LED screen stopped working. It showed some bands of colour, but not what was in the view finder. It wouldn't let me take any photos.

So I stewed about my camera for a couple of days and then went out to Staples and bought a new one. This camera has a few more bells and whistles, so I am spending all of my spare time today, reading the manual.

I did manage to make some fabric this morning. I am going to make another bag and maybe a baby quilt with these string blocks.

I have also been busy with my hexies. Three more were sewn into the quilt top last week and 6 more hexies were made this week.

When I went outside to take the photos, Felix tried to follow me. He only goes as far as the doorway. Then he gets scared. It's a big world out there and this morning there were several cats who came visit. So he placed himself at the top of the stairway so that he could keep an eye on me. When I came inside I still had my camera turned on - and like I said before - I need all the practice I can get.

So I took a photo of Felix. He is a big cat! I am sure he would qualify as a watchcat.

Flower Power

2011-09-14T18:16:00.000-04:00

Remember this quilt? I think I was working on it last year. I decided to take it out and try to finish it.

So here are three more flowers. They are not sewn together yet, but they are prepped. I will sew them this evening in order to stay awake while watching television.

Yesterday I told you that my sewing room was a huge mess. Today I found Mimi in the midst of all that. She looks pretty comfortable, doesn't she?

Playing with Scraps

2011-09-13T16:54:00.001-04:00

Hi Folks!

Our summer is over. It is still very warm, but school has started and our mini quilt group is back to meeting once a week. We met this morning and it feels like we have been doing this forever. Where did the summer go?

I am still playing with scraps. I have several Oak Park bags at various stages of completion. And I also have been making these cute little square within a square blocks. They measure 6 inches before being sewn together. The blue and red ones were started about a year ago. I just keep making them whenever I have some blue scraps. No two are alike. I have no idea how big this will become. So far I have not had any desire to sew them together. I have about 75 of them so far.

And here are some more square in square blocks. They are also 6 inches X 6 inches. I am using up lots of scraps. As long as a piece of fabric measures 2 inches wide by at least 14 inches long I treasure them and turn them into these blocks. The narrower scraps are being made into scrap fabric. It's the mindless sewing I need sometimes. As you can imagine, my sewing room is a huge mess! Sorry, my camera refused to take a picture of it.

A Scrapbag or a Bag Made of Scraps!

2011-09-04T14:43:00.001-04:00

I had a few low days. Not feeling much like quilting, yet wanting to sit and sew. So... I made some fabric with my scraps. Then I used that 'made fabric' to make another bag. This is not an Oak Park bag. Oak Park certainly inspired me, but this one is more or less my own design. I took it shopping yesterday and was amazed at how much I could stuff in there.

I took the first photo of the bag in my garden, but then decided that a close-up would be better. Anyway, most of my perennials have finished flowering for this year and my garden is not looking as good as it could. I still have a few things that look nice though. That is a perennial rose mallow in the front. These things are fantastic! The flowers are at least 6 inches across! The blue flowers on the right are an annual sage or salvia. I planted some last year. These came up from the seeds. There are also some morning glories that volunteered themselves. But they have all closed for today. I guess I wasn't early enough with my camera this morning.

We are having a long weekend. It's Labour Day tomorrow. That marks the last unofficial day of summer for us. On Tuesday schools will be open again. My DD has already been in her classroom for the past two weeks, cleaning and decorating the cork boards etc. And my DS will also return to his teaching duties at Centennial College. The support staff are on strike there, so I hope that it won't be too difficult to cross the picket lines.

Okay - So I'm Addicted......

2011-09-01T08:52:00.001-04:00

Didn't sew much this week. But I've been reading and reading some more. I did, however, finish another Oak Park Bag. I just can't stop making these things! Very addictive! I used a lot of scraps for this one. But in order to make a dent in my scrap bag, I would have to make a hundred of them. Hmmmm... maybe.

We have a bit of sunshine this morning, but it is still early and we are supposed to get showers this afternoon. Here is what the inside of the bag looks like. Don't you just love the Kaffe fabric I used for the pocket, handles and bottom of the outside of the bag!

Happy September everyone!

Another Oak Park Bag!

2011-08-24T14:16:00.000-04:00

These bags are addictive! I finished my second Oak Park Bag and have started on a third! Number 2 is done in black and white fabrics. I have quite a collection of them and this was a great way to use some of them. I changed the the pattern to make this one two inches wider. The pattern was easy to adapt for this. Notice the red button? That's because...................

The inside is red! I even patched the pocket. I love this bag!

Oak Park Bag

2011-08-21T09:00:00.001-04:00

Look what I made!

Simone of the Quilting and Stitchery Diary selected me in her give away. I choose the Oak Park Bag pattern as my prize! Boy! Am I ever glad I did! It is a fantastic pattern by Stephanie of Loft Creations, so easy to follow and everything fit together exactly. The hardest part was finding the rings for the handles. I made mine in some fall colours from my stash. The name Oak Park made me think of trees and fall. It soon will be fall. In fact, it looks like fall outside today - overcast with showers. Tonight the temperature will go down to 14C, so it will be cooler. Great for sleeping!

I had to take the photo inside, but I think the colours are pretty close to the real thing.

Journal Quilt

2011-08-16T10:59:00.000-04:00

If you stopped by to see my Pets on Quilts Show, please scroll down to yesterday's post or click here. And if you can, please leave a comment. Mimi loves to hear from everyone, especially when they say nice things about her. Like that she is cute, for example. Oh Mimi! You're so vain!

Nothing has been happening on the quilting front these days. I got my sewing machine back, but it is still giving me some problems. Sometimes it doesn't pick up the bottom thread and then the seam just opens up and falls apart. But I did make this little Journal Quilt. It measures a mere 8in. by 11in. I used it to try out my machine, so don't look too closely.

This quilt is based on the book of Calendar Quilts by Kim Shaefer. I don't have the book yet, but I loved her little quilt for June. So I sort of did my own interpretation of it. It feels more like a journal quilt for July or August.

And here is another mystery vine that grew in my garden beside the pumpkin vine. I think the squirrels are responsible for this one too. But that's okay. I love this blue morning glory. This is the first bud to open.

Cats on my Quilts

2011-08-15T16:59:00.002-04:00

Sew Cal Gal is having a 2011, Pets on Quilts Show. I'm joining in. My fur babies always help me when I am quilting. And I wouldn't have it any other way. How else would I know if my quilts are soft and warm and perfect? Felix loves everything I make. He just can't get enough of my quilting. See how eager he is?

Mimi on the other hand is very fussy. But she loves bright colours. She is especially helpful when I put my blocks on the floor. Then she rolls in them and moves them about as she pleases. The layouts usually look better when she has had her say, than if I just lay them out myself. Oh, yeah. I almost forgot. She also loves to play 'catch my tail' when she is busy helping. It seems to help her artistic concentration. Thanks Mimi and Felix!

Gardening

2011-08-06T10:14:00.002-04:00

I spend a couple of hours in my garden this morning. I decided to go out while it was still cool. There was a bit of a breeze, but it was not as cool as I thought it would be. I harvested my pumpkins, pulled some weeds, trimmed some plants and tied up a few that were falling over.

I still have some beans to pick. The hot weather seemed to have stopped the flowers from forming, but over the past week it was a bit cooler and now I have beans again!

I also have to tackle my tomatoes, especially the little grape ones. They have grown very large and are falling over. I have some red ones and some really tasty yellow ones.

But they will have to wait until later. It is getting too hot out there.

Good News, Bad News

2011-08-05T10:24:00.000-04:00

The good news is: I have found a home for my 'Goodnight Moon' quilt! My neighbour across the street from me has become a grandmother, so I decided to give her new grandson this quilt. I started it a long time ago and just sewed the label on this morning. I hope she (and he) likes it. I may have posted it before. The pattern was created by a quilting friend who belongs to our guild. Such talent!

And now for the bad news. My machine is going back to the shop for service. It's not the same shop that I took it to the last few times. This is a new place. I talked to one of the salespeople there yesterday. (Also a quilty friend who belongs to our guild) She told me that the repair guy there has had a lot of experience with Bernina, so I hope he can fix it. All I am able to sew right now is straight stitching - forward and back. None of the special stitches work. I can't even do simple zigzag to machine applique some blocks I have been working on. This is so frustrating! I think I am going to get a lot of reading done this weekend.

Progress Report

2011-08-04T10:13:00.000-04:00

We had some really hot weather this summer, which brought my quilting to a virtual stand still. But yesterday it rained - not much and not enough. But that brought the temperature down a bit and I was able to sleep last night.

I had a chance to visit some quilty friends yesterday and I was inspired by them. Hurray for friends! I had been working (sort of) on this hexagon I Spy quilt. I still have a few more rows to do. The hexies below the flimsy are fabric that was given to me recently. The two on the left were from Connie (no blog) who gave me these when we met at her house yesterday. The white one with the dog came from Nynke, the Dutch Purple Rabbit. She sent me a package with some remnants she didn't need any more. Thank you Nynke, you're the best! I love other people's scraps! I right away made a few more hexies.

There was also some red fabric in Nynke's stash. Right away I made some blades for the Dresden Plate quilt I started recently. This is to be my 'goto' quilt. Whenever I don't know what to work on I will do a few blades. They are English paper pieced. I am kind of hung up on that method at the moment.

And last, but certainly not least, is my Wannabe Quilt. I made this small section, from the purple down, in order to square the quilt off. I had a lot of trouble doing that. It seemed as if I was making it crooked. It has sort of become a UFO over the past few months. But I feel excited again! Inspired by the energy of my friends! I only have three more of these triangle sections to do. And now that I can see a pattern, I am set to go.

Christmas in July

2011-07-30T12:19:00.001-04:00

I finished another quilt! This one was started a couple of years ago. Do you see those flying geese blocks? They were the first blocks of an online BOM by Twiddletails, called Geese in the Forest. I eagerly started it, but by the time I had made 27 of these blocks I decided that this quilt was not going to happen. I kept the flying geese blocks in a container, in case I changed my mind and wanted to continue with this BOM. Needless to say, that never happened.

While cleaning up one day, I found them and decided to put them together as a Christmas quilt. The geese blocks are 6 inches finished, so I cut a 6.5 square from every Christmas fabric I had and sewed them together alternately. That was last winter. The quilt top then sat in my UFO bin until a couple of weeks ago.

I found some backing fabric in my Christmas stash (the only piece large enough) and sandwiched it. Then came the heat! I couldn't quilt it until the past few days, which have been overcast with a few drops of rain. It's a bit cooler, but still hot!

Here is another view of it. The sun is really bright today. I hope you can see the colours. Don't you just love the summer phlox? You can see two colours in this shot. The light pink ones to the left of the others are plants I bought many years ago. They never had a chance to grow because my garden had too much shade. But in my new raised beds, they have taken off.

I also have some white phlox. I don't know where these came from. The only white phlox I had was planted under a wisteria bush and didn't get enough light. But now these have come up in my west garden. I think I will mark them and transplant them next year - to a better spot.

The ROM

2011-07-24T09:54:00.000-04:00

No quilting got done this weekend. Yesterday we decided to go to the ROM (Royal Ontario Museum). They are currently featuring a special exhibit about Water. It was very interesting and somewhat disturbing. Living on the shores of some of the biggest lakes in North America it is sometimes easy to forget how precious our fresh water is. 20% of the world's fresh water is right here in the Great Lakes! Can you imagine? We have a gigantic obligation to keep our waters clean! If you ever get a chance to see this special exhibit, I hope you will do so.

A prehistoric turtle.

They wouldn't let me take any photos inside the Water exhibit, but later, when we toured a small area of the permanent exhibits in the main part of the museum, I was able to take a few shots of the dinosaur exhibit.

Tyrannosaurus Rex looks hungry.

Inspiration

2011-07-22T13:26:00.000-04:00

As I told you yesterday, Vicki from Felines and Fibre Arts came for a visit. She brought me stuff! Oh! I was so excited!

Wonderful fabrics and a great new book! How lucky can a girl get! I am so inspired!

She also brought me another bag of scraps. I can't show you those because I have already used a lot of them in these scrap blocks that I have been working on. The rest are in my scrap basket.

Last summer I made a picnic quilt for my DD. You can see it here. It took me a long time to get my head around a quilt that would be put on the beach and sat upon. But I finally got it done. DD took her quilt on a picnic last weekend. Now her friend wants one too! So I took out my scrap blocks and decided I would make some more. This kind of sewing is very relaxing to me. I just take one strip after another and sew them together. I will sandwich and quilt each block and then join them in a quilt as you go fashion.

It is still hot today, but not as bad as yesterday. Mimi is not happy about the heat, but she continues to sit out in the solarium where it is the warmest of any place in our house. Just to show you how fed up she is, here is a rather unlady-like pose for my camera.

"Meow! Go away, you're making my head itch."

We're Having a Heatwave......

2011-07-21T07:10:00.001-04:00

I thought it would be fun to record the progress on my mystery pumkinsquash, but our weather has been so hot over the last few days that this ridiculous thing has started to ripen. And... it's turning orange. So it must be a pumpkin! It appears that I have not been the only one keeping an eye on it. Can you see the little bite mark? That must have been my resident squirrel. Guess I am going to have to fight him for it.

25 inches around

Here is the second pumpkin that was fertilized on this vine. It is actually bigger than the first one and it is still growing.

26 inches around

And here is the smallest pumpkin. It may seem bigger than the others but that is because I zoomed in to take the photo.

18 inches around

It's hot, hot, hot in Toronto today. We are going to have a high temperature of 37C but with the humidity it will feel like 47C. That will probably set a record.

I was out early this morning, watering my potted plants and hanging baskets. We haven't had any rain for a long time. The sun was just starting to come up while I was out there. I had my camera to take photos of the pumpkins, so I used it to capture the sunrise. It is actually hotter outside than inside. I am expecting Vicki from Felines and Fibre Arts to come over this morning. I think we will be hiding downstairs in my cool basement.

Oh, no! As if a Mystery Squash isn't Enough. Now There Seems to be a Leopard Lily in my Garden too.

2011-07-19T15:05:00.000-04:00

This cute little flower is blooming in my garden right now. I planted it last year and it didn't flower then, but now it is beginning to. It had a name tag, but I put that away in a safe place and now I can't find it. Duh! I think the common name is Leopard Lily or Blackberry Lily because of the black seed pods that form after blooming.

Does anyone recognize this? The flowers are very tiny, but it looks like an interesting plant. Please leave a comment if you know what it is.

Another Finish for July

2011-07-15T11:04:00.001-04:00

I promised you a quilt and here it is! I started this about 4 or 5 years ago. It was taught at one of our guild's Bee Nights. It was intended to use up some of the 5inch squares we had been exchanging. I made mine 4 1/2 inches and used up many of my own novelty fabrics. We had to piece the blocks according to a pattern. Then we had to cut the quilt top in half and cut that piece in half again, so that after sewing the pieces back together the blocks were 'on point'. I know it sounds complicated, but it worked! It has become an I Spy quilt!

You can see some of my plants in the background. I must go out and pull some weeds! It is going to be hot again today. I was outside early this morning to do some watering - my hanging baskets and potted plants.

The fabrics in this quilt remind me of the I Spy hexagon quilt I was making last summer. I think I am going to look for it and sit outside in the shade this afternoon and do some hand sewing.

Hope everyone has a nice weekend!

Pumpkin Squash Update

2011-07-14T22:18:00.001-04:00

I have decided to measure my mystery pumpkinsquash on a weekly basis to let you see how quickly it is growing. This thing is incredible! It is already almost 22 inches around. There are two more smaller mysteries on the vine. I will show you tomorrow - or sometime in the future.

Hope this isn't too boring for all of my quilter friends who come here to see what I have been doing quilt-wise. It is very hot this week and the heat is staying and even getting worse in the coming days. There is no rain in the forecast. I don't feel much like quilting, but I was able to finish another quilt tonight, one that I started over 4 years ago. I will show you tomorrow. It is too dark to take a photo now.

I'm Dancing on Top of the World!

2011-07-11T14:50:00.000-04:00

I couldn't be happier! My kitchen is done! Now I just have to clean up some saw dust and polish finger marks off my stainless (?) steel. The water has been connected and the plumbing is done. The appliances have all been installed. I am ready to roll.

This is the view of the left side. I still have to make the stained glass panels, but right now I can't get to the work area of my studio. Once I get all the stuff back into the cupboards I will be able to find my books and magazines to decide on a nice pattern.

This is the right side of the kitchen. The water line to the fridge still has to be installed so that I can get automatic ice cubes. I need them to water my orchids. Sounds crazy, I know. But I heard about that a couple of years ago. I instructed my DH to put 4 or 5 ice cubes on top of the bark chips in the orchid pots every week. It worked great and my DH was able to water my orchids when I could not.

Tomorrow I will show you some more of my garden. My Little Shop of Horrors pumpkinsquash is growing quickly. I think I will measure it every couple of weeks to keep you informed of its progress.

Secrets

2011-07-09T17:25:00.000-04:00

I haven't posted in a week! That's because I haven't done much sewing. I finished the miniature for the winner of my give away, but it's a secret. I can't show it to you because she reads my blog. Oh, yes, and another reason is that I put everything into a box, taped it up and mailed it and then remembered that I hadn't taken a photo of it.
I hope she will send me one when she receives it.

And now a walk-about in my secret garden. My plants have grown so much that my neighbours can't see me anymore when I sit outside. So I feel as if I am in my secret garden. Here are a few of the blooms that give my garden colour this week. My white lilies. I love these. I managed to keep the lily beetles off this one!

Here is my little shop of horrors pumpkin squash. It's getting big! But I still am not sure of what it is.

My zucchinis are getting big. I think we will have to have some for dinner tonight.

And here is my Oleander. I cut it back severely last year and have not had any flowers on it since then. But now it is huge again and showing its beautiful colour against a blue sky.

I have also been working on my hexies - not much mind you - only a few of these got done this week.

Have a great weekend!

A Finish for July!

2011-07-02T11:33:00.001-04:00

I finished another Disappearing Nine Patch quilt. I used left overs from other charity quilts as well as some of my own scraps. This one will be donated to Quilts from the Heart when our guild starts up again in September.

I thought some of you might like to see this. It's the first flower on my 'mystery' vine. A beautiful colour, but impossible to tell what kind of plant, since all flowers on squash, cucumbers and pumpkins look similar.

Canada Day!

2011-07-01T15:38:00.000-04:00

Today is Canada's birthday. Our country is 144 years old. Happy Birthday Canada!

Little Shop of Horrors Revisited

2011-06-26T10:09:00.002-04:00

Yesterday I showed you my mystery plant. I think it is a pumpkin, but who knows! It could be a man or woman-eating plant from an other world. I am going to leave it. Maybe move it over so it is not directly in the middle of the path. I have enough trouble walking without tripping over this thing. Here are some photos so you can see for yourself.

I put a geranium basket beside it for comparison.

This is one of the leaves. It's about 12inches (30cm) across.

And here is a shot of my cucumbers. Similar leaves, but much smaller.

One More Done!

2011-06-25T14:42:00.001-04:00

Another charity quilt done. Gosh, I'm really on a roll!

This was also a kit from my guild. I think I got lucky this month. The fabrics they gave me are all nice. Sometimes you don't know what you're going to get.

And speaking of what I am going to get... I have this 'thing' growing in one of my raised beds. No idea what it is. It's a volunteer. Maybe a pumpkin? It is taking over my garden! The curious child in me wants to let it grow and see what it becomes. But the adult in me wonders if I should pull it out. I hope it isn't anything from 'Little Shop of Horrors' fame!

Another Charity Quilt is Finished

2011-06-23T11:36:00.001-04:00

I finished another charity quilt last night. It's a Disappearing Nine Patch and it came as a kit from our guild. I love these colours I think this one is going to a veterans' centre - probably to one of the many women who fought to give us our freedom

Another Kitchen Update - Back Splash

2011-06-20T10:18:00.001-04:00

We went to Olympic Tile yesterday afternoon and I picked out the tiles for my back splash. I have been playing with them ever since we got home. I love them! They remind me of a quilt. I think they will tie the whole kitchen together - the light flooring, the cabinets, the paint and the gray of the counter top. These tiles are made out of real stone.

My DH and I have a 'thing' for stone. We are always looking for interesting colours or fossils. And even though they are real stone, one side has been polished. It is smooth and shiny. I think it will be easy to keep clean. Can't wait to get them up on the wall.

Disappearing Nine Patch?

2011-06-18T13:33:00.000-04:00

My sewing machine is still not working properly. Sometimes the needle does not go to the centre position when I turn it on. It's not really a problem, unless I forget to check it. I was so excited about making another DNP quilt, (I know, I know! I shouldn't be starting anything new! But I just can't help myself.) that I started to sew immediately. And... well you guessed it. I broke my needle! It was so wedged in there that I had to use a pair of pliers to get it out. Luckily I was wearing glasses because the tip of the needle flew off and hit me. I put a new needle in and continued on with my DNP. Here is what I have so far - 18 blocks, only 12 to go. They are just on my design floor and are not arranged as they will be when it is finished. I need more blocks to see how the colours work together.

I really shouldn't be calling it a DNP because I did not make any nine patches for this top. I just didn't have enough large pieces of fabric in my stash. But I did have strips of fabric measuring 3' that I wanted to use. So I made up my own DNP blocks.

Here is what I did. I cut the larger pieces from larger fabrics. They measure 6' x 6'. Then I cut two pieces of fabric measuring 3' x 6' for the sides. For the small squares I chose a fabric that I used throughout. It's the red in my quilt. I cut one of those for each block measuring 3' x 3'.

Then I sewed them together - a 3' square to a 3' x6' rectangle and a 6' square to a 3' x 6' rectangle.

I finger pressed the seams in opposite directions and sewed my two pieces together. And... Voila! A finished block. I need 30 of these for a baby or lap quilt - 5 blocks across and 6 down. Easy, peasy.

Something New and Something Old

2011-06-15T07:58:00.001-04:00

My kitchen is moving along........

The 'new' in this post is my new countertop that was installed on Monday. It's called 'Silestone' and is a man made material made of quartz and some kind of binder. It looks like stone, but it is actually much stronger. Here is a close-up.

And the 'old' is a UFO that I started three years ago. It is all hand pieced and appliqued. I'll show you more when I have it done.

Not Much Progress

2011-06-11T19:35:00.002-04:00

Yesterday I finished a block from last week's Friday Block Party. It is called, "Friendship Scrap Block" and is made out of triangles. It's a 12inch block. Although it was not terribly hard, some of the pieces didn't line up as I would have liked them to. I don't think I will make any more of these. This one will be added to the 12inch blocks and hopefully one day I will make a quilt out of them.

This morning I just couldn't get myself started. It was dark and gloomy outside and I had been out late on Friday evening. I took a short nap and then decided to 'make' some fabric. I got a few pieces sewn together. but it just wasn't doing anything for me. So I changed directions and made some small 9-patch blocks. That is the block which is featured on the Block Party this week. (see my sidebar) These little blocks measure 3inches when completed. They are for my 'Oh My Gosh' quilt. The original OMG quilt uses even smaller blocks, but my fingers and eyes don't like to work with blocks that small. This quilt is fun, but it will not be done for a long time!

I also want to work on a UFO quilt that I started three years ago. If I can get it done by August I will enter it into our guild's Quilt Show in the fall. I hope I will feel in the mood for that tomorrow. Have a great weekend everyone!

A Finish

2011-06-10T09:10:00.002-04:00

After a week of procrastinating, I have finally finished another Beach Party quilt. I love this pattern because I can use a lot of scraps. This one measures about 41in. by 57in. (105cm by 145cm) and is a good size for the couch or even a baby quilt. I never know how big these quilts are going to be until they are finished... and they are finished when I hear them speak to me.

The blocks for this quilt were made by using 2 1/2in. square scraps and bigger pieces for the triangle blocks. At the moment I am cutting out more scraps using smaller pieces, (2in. and 1 1/2in.) but those are ongoing projects and I probably won't be finished them until the end of the summer.

Now, what else can I show you? Oh, I know. Here is a favourite perennial of mine! It's called Cranesbill or Geranium. I have another Cranesbill in another part of the garden. It is a pink one, but I think I love these blue flowers the best.

And here is a photo of Mimi, wedged in behind a chair in the solarium. She is trying to soak up every ray of sunshine she can get. Our heatwave is over and it is going to be a very comfortable 20C today.

Just a Few of my Perennials

2011-06-08T11:53:00.002-04:00

It's a hot one today. Can't concentrate on quilting, so I thought you might like to see some of my perennials. This first one is a Columbine. It is very similar to the wild columbine that is our city's (Scarborough) official flower.

When I looked out this morning I noticed that a few of my Oriental Poppies have opened up. With all the rain and heat I don't expect these to last too long. But they are beautiful right now.

And here is a shot of that blue and white Iris I showed a couple of days ago. It is in full bloom now! I love this thing! Oh, yeah, I said that already.

Flowers and a Kitchen Update

2011-06-06T12:12:00.000-04:00

I am sure many of you are wondering about my kitchen, so I thought I'd give you an update. Not much has been going on lately. But the door handles have been installed and the fan is now in place over the stove. This week the counter top is to be delivered and installed. The sink and taps will also be added at that time. Then it will just be a matter of the back splash and some final work and my kitchen will be done! Ohhhhh! I can hardly wait!

Our weather has become hot and humid. But that is much better than the rain we had for the month of May - twice as much as normal - 140mm of the wet stuff! I bought this beautiful basket of begonias yesterday. They are a new species, blooming all summer long, and come in salmon and red. I think I might go back to the garden centre and buy myself a red one!

And last, but not least, my blue iris has started to bloom. Isn't it fantastic?

And now I am going to sit outside in the shade and do some crocheting. I started an afghan last summer, but never got it finished. Maybe that will happen this year!

Wednesday Stuff and Give Away

2011-06-01T12:35:00.001-04:00

Summer has arrived - finally! It seems like we only have two seasons, winter and summer. We had record setting temperatures yesterday. The humidex went up to 39C. I kept busy watering my garden. It was too hot to sleep. I had the air conditioner on, but it didn't seem to be working. It turned out that someone had turned the A/C off at the furnace. Once my DH turned it back on the air became cooler and I was able to get a couple of hours of sleep. Today it is a lot cooler, but the winds are strong and everything in the garden is dried out again. Guess I will have to go and water again. Here is a lovely, colourful basket.

On Monday evening we had our last quilt meeting for this year. It seemed hard to believe that another year has gone by. We are now off until September, but that won't stop me from working on a few more charity quilts over the summer. Here is the top of one I made on Monday night, after our meeting. I couldn't sleep anyway so I figured I'd use the time productively. It's a DNP.

And today was the day I promised to pick a winner in my give away.

The winner is Nynke from the Dutch Purple Rabbit.

Here is your mini quilt!

Please send me your snail mail address, Nynke and I will mail it out as soon as possible.

We are expecting a mail strike starting at 11:59pm on Thursday. If they reach an agreement before that I will mail it out on Friday. If they go on strike I will hold onto it until the strike is over.

Working on my Blocks of the Week

2011-05-27T18:30:00.000-04:00

I am trying to catch up on the Friday Block Party. I still have several blocks to make. Today I finished the birds for week 20. If you like these blocks and would like to make your own, just go to the Friday Block Party link on my sidebar. There are lots of really nice blocks there. And if you should want to join us in making these blocks, just let me know and I will send you an invitation so that you can post and show your work.

Here are my Blue Birds of Happiness.

This was the first one I tried. It's not quite perfect, but it will do.

This second one was much easier. Since this bird is done on a 5 by 5 grid, I decided to make mine 10 1/2 inches square without having to add any strips on the outside. The 5 by 5 grid means that you can divide this block into five by five sections. If you make each section 1.5inches (including the seam allowance) the block will be 5 inches finished. If you make each section 2 inches (including the seam allowance) the block will be 7 1/2 inches and if you make each section (like I did) 2 1/2inches, the block will be 10inches. Hope this makes sense.

A Completed Section on Wednesday

2011-05-25T11:28:00.002-04:00

We've been having a few nice days. I was able to get a few things planted. Today is again a wonderful, cool, sunny day. Ideal for putting some colour into my garden.

My hexagon 'wannabe quilt' is getting bigger. I have finished another section. This adds some nice colour to my garden. Don't you agree? The yellow 'flowers' in the background are Euphorbia. I put 'flowers' in quotation marks because they are not real flowers, but in fact are bracts - leaves that are yellow.

Now I am off to the garden centre on my scooter. I want to buy some geraniums (Pelargonium) for the pots by my front door.

Flowers on Wednesday

2011-05-18T16:56:00.000-04:00

I am still working on my hexagon flowers. I made 6 of them yesterday. I still have to attach them to my wannabe quilt. I'll show that when I have the section I am currently working on done.

I took this photo outside at around 4:30pm today. It was really windy. But, what is that? A ray of sunshine? OMG! I had forgotten what sunshine is. So many rain days! And more to come. This is just a little tease from Mother Nature.

I have decided what I am going to give away. It's this little miniature quilt. The blocks are 3in. square when finished. Each block has 21 pieced in it. It is paper pieced. I have not sewn the block together. I will do that tomorrow. If you want to take part in my give away, just leave a comment on this or yesterday's post. If you are a follower of this blog or of my blog 2, let me know and I will give you another entry. I will draw the winner on June 1st. Good Luck everybody!

My Blog Returns Home

2011-05-17T20:08:00.000-04:00

Smile Mimi! I have terrific news! My blog has been returned. I turned my computer on yesterday and out of habit went to my Crafts and Stuff blog. At first I didn't believe what I was seeing! My name was on the blog, along with the 'howto-think' character who had stolen it. I quickly went to the 'permissions' section on the blog and erased the hijacker's name. My profile came up immediately and I was once again the owner and operator of my blog. It was a time of dancing and singing! I have no idea how this happened, just as I didn't have any idea how it was stolen in the first place. I did contact blogger and I think they are the ones who fixed this. Whoever it was, I am grateful!

Now I have the problem of having two blogs. I think I am going to continue to post on this, my first blog, and use Crafts and Stuff 2 for my own record of my quilts as I make them. You, my faithful readers, can go to either one and see my progress.

And now I should announce my give away. I want to thank everyone who came over to my new blog and read my post, left a comment and became a follower. I have not done a give away in a very long time, so I am a bit rusty. I will have to think a bit about this. Just leave me a comment that you would like to be included in the draw. I am working on a miniature for the give away. Will post it as soon as it is done - probably a few days or so. I will pick a winner on June 1st. I know that is a long way off, but I am not organized right now. Too much is going on right now. Hopefully the kitchen will be done soon and I will feel more relaxed.

I have been busy though. Here is a quilt I have been working on. I think the pattern is called 'Beach Party'. It's 40 inches square. I was able to use a lot of scraps in this one. I will probably donate this one to Quilts from the Heart.

Flowers on..What Day is this Anyway?

2011-05-04T11:42:00.002-04:00

I had no energy today. We have had so much rain lately. I feel dull and sluggish and just not much like doing anything. The sun tries its best to come out, but with no luck. So I needed something to get me started today. I took the 15-minute challenge that whoever is doing in blogland and I made 10 tiny 9-patch blocks. That's Felix's tail so you can see how small they are. Thanks for being there for me Felix!

I have also been working on my hexies. This section will have a lot of yellow flowers in it. I guess the hope of spring is on my mind.

Even though it has been dark and gloomy, there is lots of colour in my real garden. Besides the hyacinth I showed you a couple of days ago, I have Scilla Siberica, violets , early tulips, Hellebores, pansies and daffodills.

Oscar is also feeling lazy this morning.

It's Beginning to Look Like Spring!

2011-05-02T15:57:00.000-04:00

An update on my kitchen: It now has lights - pot lights in the ceiling, lights under the top cabinets and lights in the cabinet that will have the stained glass fronts. The stove and dishwasher were delivered last Saturday. The sink and faucet have been purchased. Now we just have to decide what we want for our counter top and get that ordered. Things are moving along nicely.

Since I haven't had much time for quilty things, I thought I would show you the colours in my garden. These are my hyacinth. I never realized how many colours these things come in until I started to plant them in my garden. Here is a nice blue one. (Sorry, some of the pics are a bit blurry, but you get the idea.)

And a nice pink one. I have several bunches of these.

A dark purple one. I really love this colour!

A pretty white one.

This one is a light blue one. I don't know what it will look like when it is in full bloom, because I just bought it last weekend. But I think it will be pretty. As I was scootering around the neighbourhood this afternoon (to get to the voting station - Canada is electing a new prime minister or maybe not), I noticed some pretty light salmon ones. They will be my mission for next year.

Sitting in the Dark

2011-04-28T14:15:00.000-04:00

It was raining very hard this morning. I could hear the wind blowing things around out in the backyard. It was because of all that wind and rain (I guess) that our power went out. I was composing some emails on my computer when there was a huge 'boom' and everything went black. It was only around 8:00am. But without power there is not much I can do. So I cut some little scraps for my OMG quilt.

And when the power did not come back on, I went back to bed and fell asleep. Kind of like Oscar here. But he is faking it. He's awake. Really he is! He just doesn't want to get up. Kind of like me.
But now I am going to do some kind of quilt-related activity. Otherwise it would be a waste of a day. Wouldn't it?

Keeping Busy on a Rainy Wednesday

2011-04-27T12:46:00.001-04:00

A busy Wednesday. I spent the first 15 minutes of today doing one block of this Disappearing Nine Patch. It is a kit from our guild and is intended to be donated to a long-term care facility. I am planning on making one of these nine patch block every day, so that I can have it done by the end of May. I am cutting the blocks and sewing them together as I go, because these are the only fabrics in this quilt and I don't have to worry about the layout.

I am also working on the next section of my hexie Wannabe Quilt. Haven't worked much on this quilt over the past few days. There just seems to be too much happening around here. I'll show you what I mean........

My kitchen got worked on yesterday. The guys were here for 13 hours! But look at how much is done! I love it. My nephew is doing an amazing job! Hopefully we will get a few more rain days and he will come back and finish the cabinets.

Then the counter people will have to come and take measurements for the counter top. That blue on my fridge is just the plastic protection. I haven't removed it yet. I want to wait until all the work is done so that the fridge won't get damaged.

Two of the cupboards on the top don't have doors. We ordered this cabinet without the wood panels so that I can make a couple of stained glass inserts for them. They will have glass shelves and a couple of lights so that the stained glass will 'light up'.

And last but not least is my Thimbleberries project for today. It is Thimbleberries Sew Day and I am joining Barb so that I can finish this one. The entire centre is done in rail fence blocks. The blocks are set on point and there are triangles along the sides with appliqued apples. Right now I have nowhere to put this quilt so that you can see it all. When I have more space I will take a better photo.

10-Minute Block

2011-04-25T16:29:00.007-04:00

I apologize for the bad photo. We have rain, lots of rain, for probably the rest of the week. It is dark, even in my solarium. I actually needed my flash. This is a 10-minute block which Barb of Bejeweled Quilts showed on her blog a few days ago. I really liked it and wanted to try it. I made my blocks with 8-inch pieces because that is what I had in my stash. There are 4 blocks in this top. I put one of the 'on point' pieces in the centre of the 4 blocks. It was very easy, but I had a lot of interruptions today. I plan to make this a bit bigger when I have time.

My second set of kitchen cabinets finally arrived. We were told they were being delivered today between 8:00am and 1:00pm, but they didn't get here until 3:30pm. Now my whole house is filled with boxes of cabinets because the guys who delivered them would not take the first set back. I have no idea what is going to happen now. And frankly Scarlet, I don't give a damn. Now I just want my kitchen installed so that things can get back to normal. Yeah, okay, semi-normal.

Happy, Hoppy Easter

2011-04-24T20:54:00.001-04:00

I waited all day for the sun to come out. But it never did before we had to leave to go over to my DD's house for Easter dinner. So I took the picture anyway because my little bunny just wanted to wish you all a Happy, Hoppy Easter!

Journal Quilt

2011-04-20T16:34:00.001-04:00

This is a journal quilt which I started several weeks ago, before all the problems with my sewing machine and computer. It was back when the crocuses were just coming up and there was still snow on the ground. All the snow is gone now, but it is still cold, wet and windy. We are ~~patiently~~ waiting for spring and wondering if it will ever get here. This quilt measures 8 1/2 by 11 inches.

Creativity out of Chaos

2011-04-13T20:00:00.000-04:00

The computer guy came at noon today. He played around with my machine and then went on the internet to find the download for my printer. Apparently my printer had not been downloaded correctly by the store. Then he played around with my camera. He had to go to the internet for that too. It seems that my beautiful camera is 'old'. What's up with that? At least the fact that my computer wasn't working had nothing to do with my computer skills.

When the computer guy left I tried to blog about my predicament. I couldn't get blogger to work. And even though my computer's problems had nothing to do with my skills, I was feeling very computer illiterate by that time. I felt tired and fed up. My bed looked very inviting. I could have slept all day. Then my sister phoned me. She convinced me to leave the computer for awhile and try my sewing machine.

So I didn't go back to bed. I went to my sewing machine instead.

It seemed to work okay. It was greasy and dripping oil, but I wiped it clean and started putting some little scraps together - my favourite past time. And I came up with this little journal quilt. It measures 8 1/2 by 11 inches. It represents the chaos in my life over the past couple of weeks. But out of chaos comes creativity. And I found it. I also found this catnip plant. It's just starting to grow. Spring is taking a long time to get here. But this little plant will grow and grow as the weather gets warmer. Mimi will be happy!

My Favourite Toys are Broken

2011-04-12T16:30:00.000-04:00

Edit - This is the post I wrote yesterday. Blogger wouldn't let me post it. I had the computer guy here last night, but he couldn't get my new computer to do what I want it to. Another guy is coming today. I hope he can fix it. I want my old computer back!

The birds are singing in my backyard so I thought I would put a photo of them on this post. But I can't download them from my camera. So these will have to do. These are my indoor birds. They don't sing, but they provide hours of entertainment for my fur babies.I haven't posted in a long time. My computer was giving me headaches. It sparked and zapped me each time I turned it on. So I just left it on for several weeks because I was afraid if I turned it off I wouldn't be able to turn it back on. But that idea backfired on me. After an extremely heavy rain storm last week, the power went out in my area. My computer turned itself off and I could not restart it. I took it to the shop. They said that they could fix it, but it would cost me a lot of money and since it was an old machine, I decided to put the money towards a new computer. Trust me, this new computer is great, but now I have a new problem. This computer does not recognize my camera. So I can't download shots from my camera. I can't post any new shots.

Not that there are any. My sewing machine was in the shop last week too. They tell me it's fixed, but I wonder for how long. This weekend I am going to go to the Creative Festival. My DD is taking me. I hope to check out all or many of the brand names that will be there. I hope I will find a nice new machine that doesn't put me in the poorhouse. I want to get back to my TAW!

Please be patient with me. I will return as soon as possible. Oh, yeah. I almost forgot. My scooter is not working either. I am under house arrest.

Blocks of the Week

2011-04-01T12:40:00.003-04:00

Just wanted to show you some of my latest Block Party blocks. This first one is 'Honey Bee'. It is a 10in. block and it was last week's block. This week's block is called 'Pieced Tulips'. These are very easy to make. The instructions make a 9in. block. Because most of the blocks that folks are making are 10inches, I changed the centre strips and made a 10in. block. The centre strips are cut 2 1/2in. by 4 1/2in. The centre square is 2 1/2in.

Now it is a 10inch block.

I was having some more problems with my sewing machine. I couldn't figure out how come my pieced units were too big for the straight un-pieced strips. I measured several times and just couldn't figure it out. Until I looked at the needle. It was in the centre position, but in my machine that was a little to the right of centre. So I moved the needle position to the left of centre and got a better seam allowance. But it still isn't perfect. I am not going to take my machine in to have it fixed any more. Ever since the top jammed, I have been having problems. I think they are unfixable. Maybe I should be looking out for a new machine. Any suggestions?

Thimbleberries Day - An Apple for the Teacher

2011-03-30T16:26:00.005-04:00

Today is the last Wednesday of the month. I decided to join Barb for this month's quilt-in, or whatever she calls it. Barb loves Lynette Jensen's quilts (and so do I) so she has proclaimed the last Wednesday of each month a to be 'Thimbleberries Day'. I have wanted to join in for a long time, but I had ~~misplaced~~ lost my Thimbleberries quilt. Yesterday, while looking for another quilt, I found it!!! Gosh, I love it when that happens! I started this quilt many years ago, for my DD. She is a teacher and I thought the apples on this quilt were perfect! Here is a small section of the quilt top. I still have some more of those apple triangles to applique. And a few more triangles to cut for the corners. This used up a lot of scraps from my stash. It is from Lynette's book, "The Thimbleberries Book of Quilts". I am going to work on this whenever I have a few moments. I would like to have all the applique work done by next month. Then I can add some borders and quilt it.

I also worked on my hexies today, but it was only to prepare my pieces. I have started a new section of the Wannabe Quilt and there is really not much to show right now. Plus, I put a couple of rows onto the TAW quilt. Then in the afternoon I went outside to get some vitamin D. We have had so much winter and today the sun was shining and the temperature was above freezing. It was so nice outside that I stayed out and cleaned up some of last year's growth in my raised beds. It was nice to work in the garden. I even took my coat off!

I passed by Mimi as I went outside. She was sleeping peacefully, but I heard her mumble, "Get me some catnip if you can find it".

Sorry Mimi. Everything was still frozen yesterday. It will take a few weeks before the catnip is up and ready for harvest. Do you want to come out and help me with the cleanup?

"Zzzzzzzz."

Hmmm. That's what I thought.

The Good

2011-03-28T13:29:00.006-04:00

I have been suffering from cabin fever for the past few weeks, so I think I should tell you about the good things that are happening around here right now. On the kitchen front - The Home Depot is going to exchange the cabinets and give us the ones we ordered. So that's a good thing. It will take a few weeks, but at least things are going in the right direction.

We still have a bit of snow and it has been very cold this past week.

But today the temperature is going up to 2C. The next few days will also be sunny with temps above the freezing point. That should get rid of the snow and melt the icicles that are still hanging from my solarium. Another good thing! But even with the cold and snow, my early spring bulbs are making me happy. Here are some crocus and snowdrops that have defied the cold and snow of winter. Aren't they pretty? A good thing for sure! Another good thing is the package that came in the mail from Sew Sisters today. It contained my fat quarters from the Bargain Lovers Club. These were supposed to be here a couple of weeks ago. I even phoned the store to see if they had sent them. I was assured that they had and that our postal service was to blame. The owner asked me to wait just a few more days. And that is what I did and this is what was in my mailbox today. It was postmarked March 14th, so I guess the post office was to blame. I love the bright colours! A very pretty package of fat quarters and that is a good thing. And the fact that they came today is another good thing. Because today is my birthday! What more could a quilter ask for on her birthday? Tonight I am going to our guild's meeting. A quilting friend is going to give me a ride. And that is a very good thing! My final good thing is Oscar, waiting for me at the top of the stairs while I was outside looking at my garden. He always worries about me when I go out. He is so cute and that makes me happy too! A very good thing, don't you agree?

Spring in Toronto

2011-03-24T09:43:00.002-04:00

I thought it was spring, but look what my world looks like after the snow we got yesterday. My DH was in the process of clearing the driveway, but it was coming down faster than he could shovel it.

This is what my yellow crocuses look like - totally covered in snow!

The roads were treacherous. Traffic was at a standstill. There was one accident per minute across Toronto. We fought our way through the mess to take some books back to the library, help my DD buy a new car and order a dishwasher for my new kitchen. Speaking of my in-progress-kitchen, Home Depot still hasn't called us back about the cabinets. My nephew and DH are going back there this afternoon. I hope all goes well. The cabinets are actually very beautiful. It's just that I am worried whether the particle board will be strong enough to support the heavy counter top. I want to get a lovely granite one.

I am tired of kitchen renovations.
And I am tired of winter.

Half Way Around the World - Yeah, I Wish!

2011-03-23T12:48:00.006-04:00

Lots has been happening around here! My kitchen is still being worked on, but it is beginning to look like a kitchen again. This is the view towards the outside wall where the window used to be.

And this is the space where our breakfast area will be. The boxes contain cabinets. They are spread all over the house. The floor of the kitchen has to be put in first and it will take another week or so before it is delivered. The big, corner cabinets could not be brought inside without being uncrated. Even then it was touch and go. They had to be brought in through the front door because it is wider. The guys who delivered it were very careful not to scratch anything. I appreciate that. Unfortunately the Home Depot, where we ordered these cabinets, made a lot of mistakes. We paid for solid wood sides on the cabinets, but when we opened the boxes we discovered that they had used plywood or particle board instead. I have no idea how this will play out. My husband went over to complain and he hasn't returned yet.

I have been travelling! Well, not really, but I have been sewing a Trip Around the World. I have always wanted to do one of these. When I saw it on Wanda's blog, 'Exuberant Color', I just had to make it. It is halfway done. I used a lot of fabric from my stash. Many were from the category of 'what was I thinking'. But in this pattern every fabric seems to look okay. Now that I have boxes and cabinets and all kinds of stuff all over the place, I have no room to take a proper photo of this quilt. I will take another photo when it is all done. Maybe by then I can take it outside and photograph it in the sunshine. We are going to have sunshine, aren't we? Spring is supposed to be here now. So why it is snowing like crazy today?

And because it is Wednesday I thought you might like to see my progress on the hexie quilt. Just a few more blue hexies and this section will be finished. I still haven't figured out how these sections will all fit together, but I am sure I will once I have them all done.

Spring!

2011-03-21T10:54:00.004-04:00

OMG! I haven't posted for a week! It's been busy around here. I seem to be forever dusting something!

I thought I would share my butterfly block with you on this, the first official day of Spring. The block is from this week's Block Party. It's easy and I think I will make more of these some day. We have rain today, but that's to be expected in the spring. Right? My crocuses are beginning to bloom and you can see my snowdrops on my header. There are a lot more out right now, but I don't feel like going out and getting wet. Last Friday I saw my first robin on the lawn. And this morning I heard them 'talking' to each other in the rain.

The kitchen is coming along nicely. The painter is in today to give everything its first coat of paint. I am staying far away from the kitchen. The smell is getting to me.

Camping in the Living Room

2011-03-14T04:30:00.012-04:00

My sewing machine is home again! I am still not completely happy with the way it is sewing, but at least it works. They didn't charge me anything for fixing it this time. I wonder what that means? Maybe they did something wrong last time.

I finished the frog block from last week's Block Party. It's not totally symmetrical, but I am not going to change it.

I also worked on and finished this week's Block Party block. It's called 'Flying Squares'. It is a 10in. block. Since I don't feel as if anything is flying in this block, I am changing the name for mine to 'Global Unity' because it reminds me of the photo of four hands representing different cultures.

And just to let you know that my kitchen is still 'in progress', let me show you a couple of photos. The window is gone! I will have more cupboards there. This room has a sky light, so I really don't need a window and there was nothing to see anyway, except for my neighbours brick wall. I am going to make a couple of stained glass panels for the doors above the sink. They will be nicer to look at. The outside wall has been insulated. The electricity and plumbing have been roughed in and pot lights installed. The drywall panels are next. I have yet to hear from Home Depot about the delivery date of my cupboards. But it won't be long now.

It is strange to be without a kitchen. It feels as if we are camping in the living room. Our kitchen table and chairs are in there - also the fridge and microwave. All we need now is a big tent.

Yellow Flowers

2011-03-10T14:18:00.002-05:00

It's still winter outside, but it is spring in my solarium. I bought these yellow tulips a couple of weeks ago. Yellow tulips are my favourite. They have been keeping my spirits up throughout this messy weather that we have been having - rain, freezing rain, snow, sleet. It's a mess out there.

I have also been working on my hexagons. They are all done by hand, so I didn't need my machine. And that's a good thing because it is in the shop again. Something is wrong with the needle alignment. I hope they can fix it. So here are my yellow flower hexagons.

This the section I have been busy with over the past week or so. I am really glad I have this project to work on because I could get very depressed with the weather, the mess of the reconstruction in my kitchen (my house is covered in dust) and having my machine give up on me.
Oscar likes it too. He is the only one who is not afraid of all the banging and sawing in the kitchen. He's a laid back kind of dude. And he stops to smell the ~~flowers~~ leaves.

"Meow!"

Death of a Kitchen

2011-03-04T09:09:00.005-05:00

I have no kitchen at the moment. The reno guys came yesterday and tore the old kitchen out - everything(!) beyond the bare walls, right to the studs. As you can see the window wall has no insulation. That's the way they used to build homes in 1959 when my house was built. The contractor is going to install some in order to meet the codes that are now called for. The floor has been ripped up as well. New plywood is coming today to fix that.

The old fridge will be removed tomorrow when my new fridge is delivered. The new fridge will sit in my living room for the time being. The old fridge leaks and I don't want my broadloom damaged. I need a fridge because I don't want to have to go up and down the stairs for a coffee etc. during the day. (There is a full kitchen in my basement, but it is not totally functional at present.) It will be finished in the next week or so. Then I will have to start cooking again and going up and down the stairs. Been going out for dinner the past couple of nights. That was fun, but we can't eat out for the next couple of months. That's how long it will likely take to finish it. The cabinets have been ordered and will arrive in about 3 weeks time.

This is the view from the other side. As you can see, it is not a big space, but there is nowhere else to go - no walls that can be removed or knocked down. I'll show more when I have something to show. At least my sewing room isn't being compromised. (sigh)

Scottie and McTavish

2011-02-28T09:46:00.004-05:00

This week's pattern on the Friday Block Party is 'A Scottie Dog'. I made two of them. One is in reverse so they can look at each other.

Today is Wednesday, I Think

2011-02-23T16:36:00.003-05:00

My day has held a lot of stress for me. I had to meet with my financial advisor to figure out how I will survive on my pittance of a pension for the rest of my life. He thinks he can do something for me, but I have been hit hard by our tax man. It seems I paid too much into my RRSPs and now I have to pay them back- the tax that is. This is going to take a huge chunk out of my new kitchen fund.

Then my DD phoned me to tell me that she was in a car accident on her way to work this morning. She is okay, but the car may not be. The couple that ran into the side of her car are okay too. Can't blame this on our winter. We had the most beautiful day today. The sun was shining and the temperature was not too bad. There was no ice or snow on the roads. DD thinks it was her fault.

I have been waiting for the guy from Home Depot to call me regarding my kitchen cabinets. We are supposed to okay the deal and order them tonight. Then the destruction work will begin. I'm dreading that. Just more stress.

I decided to make my own pattern for the paper pieced camel on the Block Party this week. I am not very happy with the way he turned out. But maybe amongst many other blocks in a child's quilt he will look okay.

And something I told myself I wouldn't do.... I fell for the cuteness of the Henrietta BOM. (You can find it on my sidebar) I decided to machine applique the blocks so that they would not take too long to make. I still have to finish them.

I have no pictures of my hexagon quilt. I misplaced one of the fabrics and spent most of my day looking for it. The good part is, I got my sewing room tidied up. And I found the missing fabric, so I will have lots to work on this evening, while I stay up late to watch 'Off the Map' at 10:00pm.

A Whole Week Has Gone By!

2011-02-18T09:20:00.004-05:00

Gosh! I just realized that I haven't posted for a whole week. It went by quickly, but I think that was because I had my Bernina back! It's all fixed and the tension is perfect. It just hums when I sew. I love my machine!

Let me first show you the fabrics I got this month from the Bargain Club at Sew Sisters. These look like Japanese fabrics, but they are by Northcott. Beautiful cottons in beautiful colours. I love the one with the bird on it. Don't you?

And here are the fabrics I received in January from the Bargain Club at Sew Sisters. Pretty pastels. Think a baby quilt is in my future. No time to start it now though. I have too many quilts to finish first.

So... having said that... here is a project I started last week. I know, I know! I shouldn't have done that, but I couldn't help myself. It's a Trip Around the World pattern. I cut the fabrics last week, but I didn't dare start to sew the strips together because my old machine does not do accurate 1/4 inch seam allowances. This is going to have to be a WIP because I can't do much more than a few strips per day. But I love how it is turning out. I'll show you more as my work progresses.

And last, but not least is my hexagon Wannabee Quilt. In order for the end sections to fit, I have to add another row of hexies to the inside section. So that is what I am doing now. There are a lot of these little pink hexies to sew on. It will take me awhile before I have this part done.

But Felix doesn't mind how much is done or not done. He just loves a Quilt in Progress!

Another thing that is keeping me from sewing is my new kitchen. Well, it hasn't actually been installed yet, but I have picked out the cabinets and the colour of the counter. I have also bought a new fridge - a nice stainless steel one. It will be delivered in the beginning of March. I'll show you photos when I actually have something to show. This past week the contractor came and built me a kitchen in my basement. We had always intended to have a kitchen down there. It is part of a one-bedroom apartment we built. I have been using the kitchen part of it as my stained glass studio. So even if we never rent it out, I will now have a beautiful full kitchen in my studio, with a sink, cupboards and a stove and fridge. We are still waiting for the upper cabinets because they were out of stock. As soon as they are installed I will post a photo. The kitchen downstairs will also serve as my temporary kitchen while the main kitchen is installed. I'll keep you posted.

You Gotta Have Heart

2011-02-11T13:29:00.002-05:00

I posted this block on the Friday Block Party this morning. Since I hadn't tried it out before I posted it, I thought I would give it a try this morning. I don't know what I did wrong. It may just be my machine. This old Jeans Machine does not do accurate 1/4in. seams. The pattern called for templates - which I hate! So I measured the templates and cut my fabric accordingly. The squares are 1 7/8in. The triangles were cut larger and then trimmed when the center of the block was complete. I had to make the strips around the heart larger than stated in the pattern. My block just wasn't big enough. Then I cut the block down to 10 1/2in. square.

More Mug Rugs

2011-02-10T15:46:00.004-05:00

We have beautiful sunshine today. But it is extremely cold. With the wind it feels like -25C. It kind of takes your breath away. I just stuck my head out for a moment to throw some peanuts to the squirrels. Oscar thought he wanted to go out, but he changed his mind once he got to the door and felt the cold. Smart cat. And smart me too! I decided to make this an indoor, sewing day.

But my sewing machine is still at the shop. It has been serviced, but I can't pick it up until Saturday. So for now I have been playing with my fabric. I have had to use my old Jeans Machine (White). The seam allowances are not very accurate and it feels like driving an old truck instead of a quiet BMW. But it was okay for making these string hearts. I think I will make a small wall hanging using them. I'll finish it on Saturday when I get my machine back.
I also made a mug rug with one of the blocks. I have sandwiched it, but will wait for my Bernina to finish it.

And last, but certainly not least, is my chicken block for this week's Block Party. I designed a paper piecing pattern for it. Then I added the strips on the side. The chicken part measures about 6 inches square. This will also be finished next week.

Scrappy String Hearts

2011-02-05T13:04:00.005-05:00

I just had to make a couple of these scrappy string heart blocks. They are so quick and easy and they only use scraps. I found them on Block Lotto and just couldn't resist them. I experimented with two blocks, but I am sure I will make more of them. But not this weekend because I will be without my sewing machine. It has to go in for a tune-up, so I will have lots of time to work on my hexies. Have a great weekend!

Valentine Kisses and a Mug Rug

2011-02-04T14:39:00.002-05:00

I have not been working on my UFOs as I had promised myself. I have just been playing with my fabric. This is not a good thing because I really have to get out of this rut and actually do some real quilting. I did finish my February block of the Birdie Stitches BOM. (see my side bar) It's cute, but it's not a finished quilt. (sigh)

I also made this mug rug using a cat pattern I had downloaded somewhere a long, long time ago. It's kind of cute, but it also is not a finished UFO! This week's block on the Friday Block Party is a cute, fat chicken. I may have to make another mug rug, but not before I finish something else.

So now I am going to tidy up my sewing room and look for a UFO quilt that I can work on this month.

Groundhog Day

2011-02-02T11:29:00.003-05:00

I made many hexies this week! And finished another section of the Wannabe quilt. I have five more of these units to make.

We are supposed to be having the worst blizzard of this winter. But if you ask me it's been blown way out of proportion. I don't see that much snow. Perhaps it is worse out in the real world and not what I see from my window.

Flights have been cancelled at the airport. Schools are closed. The Toronto District School Board actually closed their schools today. Do you believe that? This is unheard of! I phoned my daughter at 6:30am to let her know. She was ecstatic. She told me she was going to put her jammies back on and work on her report cards. Roads have been closed and lots of other things cancelled. It has stopped snowing now, but it looks bright outside, kind of like the sun is trying to come out.

And speaking of sunshine and shadows. Our resident rodent, Wiarton Willy predicted an early spring. He could not see his shadow. They had to have the event inside a tent because of the weather - a first in over 50 years. But if you ask me, no ground hog in his right mind would venture out of his burrow on a day like this and try to scratch his way out of the snow! I predict spring will arrive as it normally does, on the spring equinox.

Mimi certainly doesn't like the idea of waking up. Do you girl?

"Meow! Go away and let me sleep!"

The Coldest Month of the Year is Over! Yippeee!

2011-01-31T12:32:00.007-05:00

Because this is the last day of January I would like to tie up some loose ends. First of all I have to mention the award Carolyn, from The Vegetarian Hunter, bestowed on me. It's the Liebsters Award. I have no idea who started this one, but 'Liebe' means 'love' in German so I guess it's a Quilt Lovers or Blog Lovers award. Normally I don't accept awards. They are too involved and work oriented. But this one is just an award to bring bloggers together. I can now play it forward and nominate 3-5 more bloggers for this award, but they must have fewer than 300 followers.

I therefore nominate Nynke, from the Dutch Purple Rabbit. She is so sweet and generous and she has a couple of really cute cats!

I also nominate Vicki, from Felines and Fiber Arts. She has given me lots of scraps and some really nice fabrics too. Her quilting is amazing. You have to see it in real life, but since you can't you''ll just have to take my word for it.

Third is Saskia, from Dutch Girl Quilting. She does a lot of hexagon flowers and stitcheries that I love. Her whole family is creative! Go on over and take a look. There is always something interesting going on over there.

I can nominate two more bloggers who have less than 300 followers, but I will leave that up to you. If you qualify, give yourself this award. And then nominate 3-5 other bloggers who have blogs with less than 300 followers.

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Now on with my quilting! January was a busy month, but I did manage to make another quilt for charity. This one was very easy. The kit was missing a piece of fabric for the back, but I used one that I had on hand and I think it turned out pretty good.

I have not been able to sleep well the last few weeks. I seem to be up at all hours of the night and during the day I feel listless and want to nap all the time. This morning I woke up 1:30am and could not get back to sleep. So I got up and started sewing some scraps together. Here are a few of them. There were too many to show them all to you.

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Now I have to get my bread maker out and mix a batch of pizza dough. My daughter is coming over after work to pick it up. She wants to make pizzas tomorrow, but I told her to come over today because we are expecting a huge storm tomorrow - about 30cm of snow and I thought she should go straight home tomorrow. It is also going to be very cold. So... January is over, but look out, February is on it's way in.

Flowers on Wednesday, But No Hexies!

2011-01-26T11:05:00.005-05:00

I have some flowers to show you, but they are not hexagon flowers. Those are still at the planning stage and I haven't quite figured out how to fit the next section in. I have some thinking to do.

But I do have some wonderful flowers. This is my yellow, almost green, orchid. I have had this one for several years and it never lets me down when it comes to flowering time.

This one is a pink orchid. It has also been here for several years. Only one flower this year, but there are still a few buds that I hope will open soon.
We have shivered through an extremely cold weekend. On Saturday we went to do our weekly grocery shopping. It was snowing. And it was frigid. But these tulips caught my eye. I couldn't help but think of spring, so I bought them. They are a lovely peachy colour.
A couple of weeks ago I was 'talking' to Saskia of Dutch Girl Quilting about the horrible illnesses that can strike anyone, including family members and friends. It came to me that a positive attitude is necessary to recover from them. We need the four F's, faith, family, friends and fortitude. Now I am adding another F, flowers. They brighten our lives. They give up hope.

I finished the comfort quilt I made for my friend, Linda, who is going through radiation therapy at the moment. I used all my bright flowery fabrics. I had hoped to have it done sooner, but things always take longer than I imagine.

Felix has given it his approval. He is a good tester for my quilts.

It's a nice quilt, isn't it Felix.

"Meow! It's wonderful! And now you can add a couple of more Fs. Meow!"

What do you mean?

"I'm Felix, right? That's one F and I am a feline. so that is another F! Please don't make me get off. I love this thing! Meow!"

I hadn't thought of that. Felines named Felix are definitely a wonderful commodity when it comes to curing what ails you. So that is seven Fs - faith, family, friends, fortitude, flowers, felines and Felix. Thanks boy. Just don't leave any fur balls on that quilt. Okay?

First Finish for the Year!

2011-01-20T10:29:00.003-05:00

I have a finish! This quilt is destined to go to a vet in a nursing home. I have no idea who or where. It is a Quilts from the Heart quilt. Our guild members will know what to do with it. I'm just glad I got it finished in time for our meeting next Monday evening. A lot of scraps and pieces from my stash were used to make this Bento Box pattern.

I also pieced the back. I wanted to use up some more of my stash so that I can go shopping! The purple fabric in the centre is not really purple. It is very dark, almost a brown colour. But it has little patches of glittering gold so I guess that is why it tricked my camera into producing a purple colour.

We have some lovely sunshine today. The temperature is only -13C and with the wind it feels even colder, but a pair of mourning doves were enjoying the rays on the bird feeder this morning. Can you see blue sky? Isn't that beautiful? Don't get used to it though. We are going to get clouds and more snow for this evening and into tomorrow morning. It is nice while it lasts though!

Now to get to work on my friend's quilt. I want to mail it out to her on Saturday.

One Flower Wednesday and Other Stuff

2011-01-19T11:42:00.007-05:00

I have been busy with my hexagon quilt. Last Friday I showed you the inside of this block. This is all I got done this week. Once the piece gets bigger, it takes longer to go around. Six more hexies are needed for each round. This is where I am at now. Still lots more to go.

It has been snowing every few days since the beginning of the year. My backyard is covered in snow. I took these shots from the doorway. It is too icy today for me to walk outside. I am too afraid of falling. It's dark and gloomy. The snow just keeps on falling - tiny flakes that are almost invisible.

I started a new BOM. I know that I promised myself I wouldn't do that, but I just couldn't resist this cute block. I am going to do it all in black and white.

And speaking of black and white... Here is Oscar. He kept putting his nose into my camera lens until I finally relented and took his photo. Now he is purring! He's so vain.

My internet provider is acting up lately. If it seems that I have not been visiting your blog or not leaving any comments, it is because I only have a few short moments when it works. If this doesn't get better soon I guess I will have to phone the cable company and find out what is going on.

Flowers on Friday?

2011-01-14T11:56:00.003-05:00

Heck, why not?

I thought you might like to see some of my Christmas Cactus. They have been flowering since November and still have lots of buds. This is the red one.

And here is the pink one. This one fell over last fall and a lot of the branches broke off, but it doesn't seem to have had any effect on the flowers.

And finally, here is part of my hexagon quilt. It is getting so large that I have to work on it in sections. The prepared hexies were supposed to be last night's sewing-while-watching television, but my hands were too sore. I finished knitting a scarf instead.

Snack Time

2011-01-08T11:09:00.010-05:00

I was inspired by Wanda of Exuberant Color to make a journal quilt. I don't know if I am going to join a group doing this. It seems like a lot of work to do each week of the year. Then I have to wonder what I will do with all those little quilts. So I decided to make a mug rug out of my first journal. It seemed fitting to use the wonky log cabin blocks with the elephant block for week 1 and 2 of this year. It measures 8inches by 15inches. I think that is a little large for a mug rug, but it's only my first one and I am still experimenting.

Here is the fabric I used for the back.

So it's snack time. Coffee for me and peanuts for this Ellie.

Ellie the Elephant

2011-01-07T13:20:00.002-05:00

Here is my elephant block for week 2 of this year's Friday Block Party. Just click on the party icon on my sidebar and it will take you there. The instructions for this block were very clear, yet I still paper pieced mine. I can't help it. I paper piece everything if it can be done that way. It's a 10-inch block and I think I am going to make a baby quilt with the 10-inch blocks this year.

I have been sitting in my solarium today, enjoying the snow, the intermittent sunshine, the squirrels and Mimi. We had about 8cm of snow last night. Not enough to even bring the snowplows out. But it made for a nice white backyard. The squirrels have been running around through the snow on the fence and roof, driving Mimi almost insane! As soon as she saw my camera, she jumped down and hid under my bed. What's all that about? She probably thought she was doing something bad because those squirrels really were a tease.

A Gaggle of Geese and Some Wild Ducks

2011-01-05T16:19:00.006-05:00

When I showed you the projects I hoped to work on this month, I had completely forgotten about the Row Robin which I have been involved with for the past year. My last row commitment was due at the end of December and I thought I had already done it, but when I looked, I only found the rows that others had done and none of mine. Since there was already so much applique work in this RR, I decided to do a pieced row. The theme of this RR was birds and anything to do with birds. So, I chose 'Wild Ducks'. This block was featured on the Friday Block Party for week 43 of 2010.

As I was working on these three blocks, I kept having the strangest feeling that I had already done a row for this RR. When I was about 3/4 of the way through my third block I remembered! I looked in one of my UFO bins and found it right on top! A lovely strip of flying geese!

I finished the wild ducks anyway and have decided to send them all. Just a senior moment folks!

Here are the other rows in this quilt. I did not have enough room to lay them all out with mine included. So you will just have to use your imagination.

I also have some hexies to show you, but it is getting too dark out. I will take a photo tomorrow and show you then.

New Year UFOs! A Sort of Resolution

2011-01-02T15:13:00.004-05:00

I want to be more organized this year. I want to finish some quilts that I started not too long ago and some that I started years ago. I figure the best way to stay on track is to list my projects for each month at the beginning of that month. That way I will have to stay on top of things and finish them. So here goes. These are the ones for January...

The first is the 'Healing Quilt' for my friend, Linda. Only a couple of blocks to go then it will have to be sandwiched and quilted. I figure that will only take a few days, maybe a week. I want her to have it as soon as possible.

My next project is the Bento Box quilt I started to make for Quilts from the Heart. It is all pieced and ready to be sandwiched and quilted. I want to have it done by the fourth Monday of this month. That's when our guild meets again.

I also want to finish this lap quilt. I used a bunch of blocks from a quilt along which I joined a long time ago. I think it was called 'Geese in the Forest' or something like that. I made the first 27 blocks, but then decided that I would never finish it. So I brought out those little flying geese units just before Christmas and sewed the geese blocks alternately with Christmas fabrics. It didn't get done before Christmas. I would like to finish it this month so as not to have so many UFOs hanging around.

And then of course, there is my hexagon wannabe quilt. Those little hexies are a lot of work now that I have moved to the outside of the quilt. This is not a 'to be finished' quilt. I only mention it here because I will continue to work on it in the evenings, while watching television. It is a work in progress.

Finished Quilts for 2010

2011-01-01T11:32:00.020-05:00

These are the quilts and wall hangings that I finished in 2010.

Finished in 2010

2011-01-01T11:26:00.008-05:00

My finished charity quilts for 2010. My goal was to make one per month. These are the only ones I got done. Hopefully 2011 will be more prolific.

Happy New Year!

2010-12-31T17:38:00.005-05:00

From my family to yours... I want to wish everyone A Happy and Healthy New Year. Only a few more hours and 2011 will be here. Isn't that right, Mimi?

"Meow! Whatever! Just don't wake me 'til next year! I am getting my beauty sleep. Meow!"

I guess we are going to have a quiet New Year's Eve.