What I Did Yesterday

I baked a lemon cake.  Yum!

September 25, 2014

Little Letters

These are so cute!  I have become addicted to them.

September 24, 2014

It's Fall

Fall started on Monday evening.  I can't believe it!  Where did the summer go?  We had lots of rain and very cool weather in September.  But now that fall is officially here, the weather has turned warm and sunny. This is my kind of weather.

We started up our Tuesday morning quilting group a few weeks ago.  This really makes it feel like fall again.  Here we are sewing, reading, chatting, knitting, eating and drinking tea.  It's a wonderful time to get together!

September 23, 2014

I am now off to my sewing room.  

Our guild, the Rouge Valley Quilter's Guild is holding a challenge.  It's called the PhD challenge. PhD stands for Projects half done.  This is how it works.  We have to register an unfinished project that we want to work on.  We have to finish this by next May.  If we finish it we have met the challenge.  If we don't finish it we have to donate $5 to our local women's shelter.  Heck, that's a win/win situation!   I am going to enter several of my UFOs into this challenge.  It will be so nice to get some things done!

Meet Giselle

I finally finished the giraffe for my soon-to-be-born grandson's room.  Her name is Giselle.  Giselle the giraffe.  Cute, eh?  The pattern was free from Red Heart .

The garden is overgrown, so she has lots to eat.

Gotta pull up some weeds.  But that can wait until another day.  Today is Giselle's day.

September 18, 2014

I am linking to Sarah's Happy Dance today.   

Yellow Sunshine

Another beautiful day.  Lots of sunshine with low temps.  It feels like fall.  I am busy with my unfinished stuff.  Here is a picture for today's photo challenge.

Beautiful yellow sunshine.  September 17, 2014.

A Photo a Day for 365 Days

After a lot of thinking and trying to see if I have time for this, I have decided to post one photo per day for the next year or so.  This will keep me focussed on the present and allow me to look back and see where I have been and what I have done.

Yesterday I went for a ride up to the mall.  I had to take the back streets because our main road is under construction at the moment.  They are upgrading the water system and putting new curbs and sidewalks in.  As part of the daily photo challenge, I was instructed to take my camera everywhere I go.  As I passed by some colourful berries against a beautiful blue sky, I stopped to take a photo.

So this is officially my first photo for the yearlong challenge.  September 15. 2014.

And for today I want to show you some letters I have started to make.  This is going to be an adorable quilt made up of letters and other blocks.  It can be colourful or neutral, depending on which fabrics are used. The tutorial is on Temecula Quilt Company.  It started last week.  Sheryl Johnson offers a new letter every few days.  Tomorrow it will be the letter 'D'.  I am looking forward to it.

September 16, 2014

Goodnight Irene is a Flimsy!

It's done!  Once I was determined to finish the top it went quite quickly.  This had been a leaders and enders project, but it would have taken me another year to finish it if I had to do it all that way.  I am now looking for another leaders and enders project.  Maybe I should finish another UFO project.

Here is Irene.  She measures 64 by 80 inches.  I will send her out to be long-arm quilted.

I am happy with how this turned out.  Thanks Terry, for hosting this sew along.

I Made Some Charming Stars Blocks...

I said I wasn't going to do this sew along with Terry, but she put me on the list anyway in case I changed my mind.  And I guess that's what I did.  So here are the 4 blocks I have made for this month.

I didn't use a charm pack because I didn't have one.  So this is busting my stash.  That's something that I can use!  Busting my stash before my stash busts me.

I have been busy canning stuff this week.  I made three batches of tomato sauce and one batch of low sugar peach jam.  I think my canning days are done for now.  The weather has turned cold and my tomatoes aren't producing any longer.  My garden is just about ready to be put to bed for the winter.

What I really wanted to show you today was my Goodnight Irene quilt top.  I am almost finished but this morning as I was sewing the last border onto the quilt, I noticed (just before the end of the row) that I had run out of bobbin thread.  Very frustrating!  I had to re-pin everything and just as I was starting to sew again, the phone rang, so I lost my concentration.  I will definitely sew that sucker on this afternoon.  Then I will be all done with the top.  I will have to decide if I will quilt it myself or send it out.  I am leaning towards sending it out because I am really busy at the moment.

Hope you all have a great weekend!

This and That

It's been a busy week.  School started last Tuesday.  And even though I don't have to go back to work, I always feel the crunch.  I worked on my 'Irene' quilt on several days.  Then made a few bibs and a burp cloth.  Sorry, I forgot to take photos of them.  I hope to make a few more, especially burp cloths. I 'll take a photo then.  Also worked on the Jungle Quilt, but didn't get much done on that.  Yesterday a friend of my DD's held a baby shower for her.  There were close to 40 people there.  I lost count. All of them teacher friends!  We had a delicious lunch and there was lots of talking and reminiscing. Because I had done some volunteer work at my DD's school, I knew most of the guests.  It was nice to catch up on their lives.  She got lots of great gifts.  Two cars were needed to get all the presents back to her house.

Today I am making tomato sauce.  Last week was just too hot to cook anything.  But this morning it is nice and cool.  The tomatoes have been sitting on my kitchen table all week and I think it is time to get this stuff made before the hot weather comes back.

After that I am going to tidy up my sewing room and see what I can sew up.  Hope you all had a great weekend!

Still Working on Irene

This is the quilt I started with Terry at the beginning of the year.  It has been languishing in my UFO bin all summer.  So now that summer is over I decided to finish it.  Oh, yeah and also because Terry is starting a new sew along.  I showed you a few of the blocks from that one last time, but I thought I should finish Goodnight Irene before I make any more Charming Star blocks.

I know this is not a good photo.  The top is just sitting on my design floor.  And the sun is shining into my living room.  It's going to be a hot day today.  Did I tell you my AC is not working?  Well, it's not.  I have all the fans going and I hope my house will not be too hot by the end of the day.  I only have one more row to go on Goodnight Irene.  And then just the borders to do.  So I am sitting in front of a fan and sewing like crazy.  I hope to have this done by tomorrow.

Linking up to The Needle and Thread Network.  

What to Do?

Terry is hosting another sew-along on her blog, Terry's Treasures.   I did not think that I should join in since I still haven't finished her last sew along, 'Goodnight Irene'.  There are only so many hours in a day and I don'y think I can stretch myself any further.  Having said that, I took out my scrap bin this morning and found some 3 inch colourful blocks and some 2 inch light blocks.  I don't have any 5 inch blocks that the pattern calls for.  I cut the light fabric into 1 3/4 inch squares and made a few blocks using the 3 inch blocks.  They are very easy and I love them.  But now I have run out of the colourful, 3 inch. fabric squares and I will have to cut some more.

I have many other projects to finish right now.  So I think I have made up my mind as to what to do.  I will put this project on hold and finish some of the other UFOs.  It only makes sense.  No use making up another bin with an unfinished project in it.  But it was fun playing with these blocks this morning.

Jungle Quilt Update

I am still working on the Jungle Quilt.  My DD has requested some more jungle creatures, so I am complying - more leaves, plants, flowers, birds, frogs, a snake etc.  I have almost everything stitched down so far.  Today I am going to tackle the hippo.  Only a couple more HST to make.  Will do that today too.

Here is a close-up of the frog.  It's kind of blurry because I enlarged that section of the photo above.  I\ll post better pictures when I am done.

I have decided to link up to The Needle and Thread Network.

Some More POTC Blocks

First I want to thank all of you who gave me advice on my spider bite.  I really appreciate your caring and it was so comforting to feel that I was not alone in dealing with this.  The redness and swelling have gone down and it no longer hurts.  Sometimes the itching drives me crazy, but I can deal with that.

Not much sewing lately.  I have been working on the HSTs for the jungle quilt.  I think I have enough now to complete the background.  Also did a bit of machine applique, but still have a lot to do.

The only thing I have been working on are the POTC blocks.

These are an easy-to-carry-around project. In the evenings I can work on them while I watch television.  I am at a standstill now though.  I need more freezer paper templates, but I can't find my freezer paper.  Guess it's time to clean up in the sewing room.  See you later.

What the...Hey! Something Bit Me!

A few days ago I was out doing some gardening when I decided to get a few tools out of the shed.  I opened the door and something fell on me.  I didn't see what it was but in about a second and a half it had bitten me on the inside of my upper arm.  Gosh it hurt.  I don't think I have ever been bitten like that before. I thought it was a wasp because we have some of those in the shed.  Usually they go about their business and don't bother anyone.

I started to feel dizzy and my arm felt as if it was on fire.  I got an ice pack from the fridge and placed it on my arm and then went to bed.  I don't remember anything after that.  I fell asleep for over 2 and 1/2 hours and that was in the middle of the afternoon.  When I woke up the bite was red and swollen and still hurt like crazy.

Ignore the wrinkles!

Last night I lay in bed trying to figure out what to do about the pain.  It still hurt as if it had just happened and it was very red and still swollen.  The centre where the bite was had become infected looking. That's when I decided it must have been a spider and not a wasp.  We have lots of spiders here in Toronto. There are Black Widows, Brown Recluses, Wolf and Hobo spiders.  Usually these arachnids hide in dark out-off-the-way places.  My shed is dark, but not that dark and we go in and out of it all the time.

My neighbour had installed a new shed in his backyard, right beside our fence last weekend.  He had to clean up all kinds of stuff that was in the way - firewood, cardboard, branches and other trash.  I think that a spider was hiding in that stuff and came to find refuge in my shed.  Then I knocked it down from the rafters and it bit me.  I have never knowingly hurt a spider.  I respect them.  I love the webs they form and the way they eat nasty insects.  So why did this thing bite me?  I think it was just a misunderstanding.

Does anyone have any idea what could have bitten me?  I would really like to know.

Jungle Baby Quilt

I spent the better part of this week trying to figure out how to make the jungle baby quilt I showed you a couple of posts ago.  First I drew a very elaborate African scene, complete with jungles, savannahs and rivers.  It was nice, but way too complicated to applique.  Also, I didn't have enough fabric for the background.  I changed my direction and decided to make the quilt more or less as it was in the original. I started to make HST for the background.  They were fun to do and I just kept making them.  Then I started to sew them together and decided that they were too thick and heavy behind the applique parts.  I was still planning to hand applique them at that piont.  So I left some plain strips where the animals would go.  Then I decided to machine applique everything.  This is to be a baby quilt and it will get washed often.  Machine applique will stand up better. So that is what I am doing.

Here is a photo of what I have accomplished so far.  Still have to make some spots for the giraffe and more grasses.  But I think that working on small areas like this is the way to go.  This is a fun quilt to make.  I love all that wildlie!  I hope my DD loves it too.

Hope everyone has a terrific weekend.  The weather is cooperating - a nice, warm. rainless weekend for a change.

I am linking up with A Quilting Reader's Garden.  I know this isn't EPP, but maybe someone out there would like to see my progress.

Update on POTC Blocks

Just a quick post to show you my progress on the POTC blocks.  I want to link up with Angie's blog.  I think there is still time.  Not much quilting went on around here for the past couple of weeks, but now I am into EPP again.  I love this method.  I have lots of hexies prepped and ready to go.

I know it's Monday, but we are enjoying a nice long weekend here in Ontario.  Today is a holiday.

Linking up with A Quilting Reader's Garden.

Take Time to Relax

After we dropped the Kamajo students off yesterday morning, so that they could start the next leg of their trip, my DD and I decided we needed some time for ourselves.  It has been a busy 10 days!  So we went to Babies R Us to add to the registry she started a few days ago.  Gosh! There are so many lovely things for babies now-a-days.  I was just blown away!  We saw a cute little quilt that I would like to use as inspiration. My DD laughed as she wondered how many quilts this baby will have.  I thought about something as funny as a barrel of monkeys (I guess it was that little monkey on the quilt) and I said, "As many as .......?"  "A quilt shop?" my DD suggested.  No, that wasn't quite what I was thinking about.  So I said, "As many as are in a Grandma's attic".  That would be about right, I'm to be his grandma, after all!  Got any other ideas?  This quilt would be all applique.  I wonder if I could do it.

I am not sure about the colours I would use.  This would take a lot of drawing and planning, not to mention the stitching and sewing.  I only have about two and a half months left.  Yipes!  I think I will start the drawing stage this afternoon, after my DH and I go back over to Babies R Us to pick up the bed I bought.  They had all the beds, dressers and change tables on sale.  I had to buy it and lay it away because it was the last one they had and my DD's car is a little Honda Civic and we didn't think it would fit.  The bed is a nice natural oak finish.  We thought it was perfect.  I bought the change table to match.  And a comfy mattress. Everything will stay in the box for a couple more months, until the baby room is painted.  Do you think I am spoiling him?  That is not what I want to do, but I do want him to have a comfortable place to sleep and I promised my DD that I would buy the bed.  Okay, so where does the relaxing part come in?

Oh, yeah, now.  After our shopping spree, we went over to the Lone Star for lunch.  Fajitas. Very relaxing and yummy!

Hope you are having a great weekend.  We have a long weekend.  Monday is a civic holiday. Here in Ontario this day is known as Simcoe Day, in honour of the first lieutenant-governor of Upper Canada.  Have a good one!

A Couple of Finishes

I sewed the 16-patch top together yesterday.  I really like how it turned out.  I know it is August 1st, but I am counting this top as a finish for July.  Now I still have to quilt it.  Wonder how long that will take me.

Another finish is the home stay with our Japanese students.  We took them to the school this morning, with all their suitcases.  They will take a bus to Bark Lake, where they will spend the next 5 days or so doing all kinds of Canadian outdoor activities, like swimming, canoeing, rope climbing and archery.  It was a very emotional goodbye.  The girls were sad to leave, but I know they will love camp once they get there.  I know I would!  I am sitting down because I think I have overdone things a bit lately.  Too much walking.

The bus was all ready to go, but the girls did not want to leave yet.  There were lots of tears and promises to return one day.  These were a terrific group of girls.  It was such fun to have them stay with us.

Some Quilty Sewing Between Other Things in My Busy Life

I am going to do some sewing today.  The Japanese students have gone to Niagara Falls for the day.  They won't be back until 6:30pm.  That gives me some time to sew.  I plan to put my 16-patch blocks together.  I laid them out on my design floor to see how they will look together.  I may rearrange them a bit more before I sew them.

I also want to prepare a few more elongated hexies for my POTC quilt.  The weather looks good today.  I may want to go out in the garden and do a few things out there too.  I have a whole fridge full of zucchinis and cucumbers.  I hope I will have some time to bake some zucchini muffins or a zucchini bread.

Pizza Night

Another busy day yesterday!  The girls went to school in the morning and then to the Eaton Centre in the afternoon. They did some shopping for clothes and souvenirs. My DD picked them up from school and we had a do-it-yourself pizza night.

I made the pizza dough in my bread maker and divided it into 8 balls when it had risen.  The girls than took one ball each, flattened it and added the toppings they wanted.  Their favourite was ham and pineapple. Then we baked the pizzas on a stone in the oven.  It was possible to cook this last night because our weather has been more fall-like than summer-like and the kitchen remained cool even with the oven at over 400F.

Here is where I have to apologize for my forgetfulness.  We took the girls to Bluffers Park on Lake Ontario, for a short walk after dinner and I forgot my camera!   But it was getting dark and the photos would probably not have been the best anyway.  The girls had been to Bluffers Park on their first day in Toronto. They ate their lunch there before going to the CN Tower.  When I asked them how they liked the bluffs and the lake, they said, "What are bluffs? and What lake?."   I couldn't believe that they had been taken to one of the most beautiful parks in Toronto and not been shown around it.  I will show you a photo of one of the boat launching docks which I took a number of years ago.  It still looks the same.

I am off to my sewing room today.  I want to work on a couple of things.  A day just isn't complete without a bit of quilting going on!

Playing Through

My DS and DD took the girls to a Glow-in-the-Dark Mini Putt Centre last evening.

I stayed home because there are too many things to trip over at one of those places.  But the girls had a great time!  My DS did too.

The place is very dark and black lights are used.  It makes the area seem surreal.  Everything is very colourful.  Here is my student taking her turn.  They didn't keep score, but just had a fun time.

It was impossible to take photos inside because it was so dark, so here is one my DS took outside of the building.  Will the next Tiger Woods please stand up.

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Only a couple more days before the girls leave for camp.  I wonder what we will do this evening.

A Pink Scarf - Finally Something is Finished

I usually spend the summer months, knitting and crocheting mitts, hats and scarves.  The children at the school where my DD teaches often come to school in the winter without the proper accessories to keep them warm.  That is where I come in.  I make a lot of hats and mitts that they can wear.  Here is a scarf that I started a long time ago and just finished this weekend.  So glad to get it off my needles!  I think a cold, little girl will like this.

Cooking Japanese Food for Us

We thought it was going to rain today, so we stayed home and the girls cooked a delicious meal for us.

Sorry, I can't tell you what the dishes were because I have forgotten already, but everything was fantastic! And not only did they cook the meal, they also cleaned up afterwards.

On our way home from my DD's house it started to rain and thunder and lightening.  The storm is growing increasingly intense and now I am fearful that our power will go off.  So I think I'll go to bed.  See you tomorrow.



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At the Beach

The weather man lied!  It was actually a wonderful day.  The air was warm and the water was too.  After we ate our lunch we went for a swim.  Just testing the water here, folks.

We played some games.

And sang some songs.  This was practice for Monday when the girls have to sing at a community centre.

All too soon it was time to go home.  But we had a fantastic day.

The Beaches Jazz Festival

We try to go to the jazz festival every year.  It's a lot of fun.  Lots of music, entertainment, food and people! I love to go 'people watching'.  Queen Street is closed to vehicular traffic for about a kilometre.  We walked and walked and were totally exhausted by the time we got home.

But this morning we can sleep in.  (Well, not me exactly. I always get up early.)  and today we will be able to relax on the Beach at Sibbald's Point Provincial Park.  (That will be me doing the relaxing!)  Maybe we'll play some ball, Frisbee or badminton.  If the lake is warm enough we can swim or just float around on air mattresses.  I think I will take my hexies along so I can do a little stitching while sitting on the beach.

 

This Year's Students Have Arrived!

If you have been a reader of my blog for a long time, you will know that we try to host some Japanese students each summer.  This year is no different.  It is such a great experience!

The girls attend school during the day, to increase their knowledge of the English language and to see the sights in and around the Toronto area.   In the evening they stay with us, to experience what we do in our day-to-day lives here in Canada.  They arrived on Tuesday evening, but I have not posted anything until today because I kept forgetting to take photos.  And you know that I don't like to post anything without a picture.

But last night we took a walk along Lake Ontario out in Ajax and I remembered my camera!   It was already starting to get dark, so please excuse the poor quality of my photos.

We walked along the paved path that goes along the lake.  It's a wonderful area.  Lots of wildlife and birds. We even had a coyote cross our path.  The geese were talking to us from the lake below.  One of my DD's friends met us at the park.  She has a 1-year old daughter who just learned to walk by herself two weeks ago.  The girls loved looking after her.  I had trouble keeping up with them on the walk, so my HD (who came along) and I sat on a bench and enjoyed the nature all around us.  The others continued on the path.

Hopefully I can add some quilty stuff when I do my Japanese student blogs in the future.  But I have not had much time to sew lately.  I hope to find some time today.

Some Works in Progress

Oops, I haven't posted anything for a week.  Not much sewing has been going on, but I have been working on a few things, a little each day.  First are my hexies from The Hexie Blog.  I have appliqued May and June onto a background fabric.  The basket for April is not finished.  I am also experimenting with the sashing.  I think I will do the HST that I sewed between May and June.  I kind of like them.  What do you think?

Then there are my POTC blocks.  I have been working on these when I need to unwind  I cut out the pieces during the day and sew them together while I watch television in the evenings.  

I put a round of white hexies around the first block.  And I discovered something!  The blocks are made up of 24 coloured hexies.  This part goes pretty fast.  But then there are the white hexies.  There are 24 of them too - for each block.  The white doesn't hold my attention as much as the colours do. So I am having to persevere in order to get them sewn on.  I am going to have to set a goal for myself.  Like 12 white hexies before I start a new block.  That way I may get them all done before I run out of steam.  I am also experimenting with the joining squares.  I was going to make them colourful, but I think I will make them all a dark blue in order to save my eyesight.  All those colours are just too much!  

So there you have it!  My summer projects for 2014.  Both are English Paper Pieced.  And I love them both! There will be lots of machine time when the cold weather comes back and I have to stay indoors.  

I am going to link up with Audrey at Glory Be Quilter, who is taking over for Angie this week.  She has a give-away too.  So go there to see some more hexie love and maybe win something.

Zucchini Bliss

My zucchinis are growing like mad.  I went out yesterday, after not seeing any baby zucchinis on my plants on Saturday, and found another 9 huge, fully ripe zucchinis!  My fridge isn't big enough for this!  So I started to look up zucchini recipes, especially ones that can be frozen and I found many.

It was cool and rainy this morning, so I made a batch of zucchini muffins.   They turned out fantastic!  I also grated several cups of additional zucchini to freeze for future muffins.  Right now I have a pot of zucchini soup on the stove and a zucchini bread in the oven.  I think that will be enough for today.  But tomorrow I will make more.

I was able to finish the centre part of the Rosewood Cottage quilt.  Yesterday, while at Walmart I found a piece of light blue fabric that will work for the inner border.  I have already started to applique the outer border, but there still is a lot to do.  This is what I have so far.

And here is another pretty lily from my garden.

It has stopped raining and my cooking is done, so I am going out into the garden.  These wonderful blooms don't look after themselves!  I noticed some red lily beetle larva on this plant and I want to take them off before they eat the whole thing.  The Red Lily Beetle is an interesting bug, but very detrimental to lily plants. I wrote about it here.

Have a good day!

A Hexie Flower for June and Some Garden Produce

I put together another flower block for June from the Hexie Blog BOM.   Now it has a straight stem and I am happy with it.

I am going to start appliqueing these blocks onto background fabrics so that I don't get too far behind.  It was also suggested, by Julia, that we start making the sashing.  That way it won't be too overwhelming at the end, when all the blocks are done and it is time to put the quilt together.  So that is what I am working on now..

We had a few rainy days at the beginning of this week.  I did not go outside to work in the garden while it rained, but when the sun came out again, I went out to inspect my crops. That's when I discovered that many of my zucchinis were ready to pick.  I also picked a few cherry tomatoes. (Sorry no pics. I ate them straight off the vines.) They are so delicious!

The largest zucchini is about 8 inches long.  I ate the smallest one raw dipped in a spinach dip. That was the best lunch I have had in a long time!

I am linking to A Quilting Reader's Garden.

A Busy Weekend in my Garden!

We had lots of visitors this weekend.  And then last night we had a barbeque with my DS, DD and her fiance.  The weather has been perfect - real summer-time temps and sunshine.  Love it!!!

In keeping with the 4th of July weekend, I am posting my July hexie block.  (Happy Belated 4th of July to all of my friends south of the border.)  It's a cherry ice cream cone. Anybody want a lick?  I know that this block was only just posted on The Hexie Blog less than a week ago, but I fell in love with it and wanted to make it right away.

For years I have been seeing the POTC blocks on blogs and other places on the internet.  I wanted to make some.  I finally found the template for it serveral weeks ago and started to cut it out.  Then I put it in a 'safe' place where even I couldn't find it.  But yesterday it was just sitting there in a plastic container.  How did I miss that?  A few of the pieces had already been sewn together, so I finished it last night.  I know the colours are kind of loud, but I guess those are the fabrics that were beside my machine at the time.  I think I will keep the colourful theme going.  I love colour!

I will leave you with a shot of my colourful lily.  Told you I love colour!  I planted this a few of years ago and it keeps surprising me with its beauty.

Hoping everyone is having a great weekend!

I am linking up with Angie at The Quilting Reader's Garden.