Saturday Already?

SATURDAY, where has the week gone?  Yesterday I had a visitor for a few hours while her human family went hospital visiting.....Isn't she just so cute?  Missy kept me company while I sewed, then we went for a ride to the post office and the store, after that we took a walk came home and played and then when we were ready to have our evening meal, her humans came to collect her.    

Her human mum said Missy wasn't feeling well and that she wouldn't be eating any food, or so she thought.  Aha, after doing her duty outside and our romping inside, she ate some kibble and had a nice long drink, good doggie!

A young man who worked for a family member has been in a terrible accident and the doctors have determined that he will be a paraplegic.  Sadly this young fellow managed to retain high academic scores in school, hold down a part time job and manage to attain his private pilots' licence.  Now the Villagers, his friends and acquaintances are going to throw a huge fundraiser to assist in defraying costs for his rehabilitation which will not be covered by our health system, so, I will be donating a quilt to the Silent Auction.  Since the fundraiser will be in the fall, I am thinking something with earth tones and something not too busy.  Was thinking the Desert Nine Patch pattern.  What do you think?    

or the double Irish chain pattern all done in fall colors?

I am thinking the Desert nine patch might look nicer, but I am a sucker for these types of quilts, especially for fundraisers....who really knows, but I must make a choice and soon otherwise it won't be finished, knowing me!!! I am nearly finished quilting the outside pockets of the tote I am making, then I will be in a good position to make the interior and the handles and then put it all together.  It is my goal to finish it this weekend but I believe it is like I am hoping to get it finished....I never delay interruptions...LOL

I leave you with my thanks for stopping in this  morning once again to share my rambles with and I wish you a wonderful weekend and hope you'll give me a moment and comment with your ideas for my donation fundraiser quilt, I could use all of the help that I might receive and gratefully too!

It's not what you look at that matters, it's what you see.  ~Henry David Thoreau

Thursday Rambles

Ulla is a Quilting Teacher who lives in Finland and who also blogs.  WOW I am enthralled by her talents and how freely she shares and teaches in her Tutorials.   I was drawn by the mention of Sun Dyeing, and sure enough here on her blog is a beautiful themed quilt and pillow which Ulla did herself.  She also shares the link for anyone interested to the actual Sun Dyeing site and there is where you will see how the actual technique comes about. 
This is what caught my interest at first:

Having gone to tour Ulla's Quilt World site to see this beautiful quilt and matching pillows, I somehow, like Alice lost myself inside the blog.  Her skills and talents are fantastic at least I think so. 

I know Ulla is not the only foreign quilt teacher with a blog, I just haven't found them all yet.  I so enjoy my visits and oooh and aaah over the craftsmanship I find there.

This morning I was outside caring for the plants and flowers, got some waling exercise which I really needed.  Returning from my walk I noticed just how yucky my windows looked to I made busy with cleaning them (14 in all)!  They get so dirty because of the heavy traffic that flies past my house.  My living room windows face the road and all of the dust kicked up from cars and farm equipment travelling past leaves a residue of dust on the windows.  Thank heavens the windows are so easy to clean and the polyurethane sills are just as easy to take care of too.  I want all of the sun shine I can possibly get to come into my home.

After cleaning the windows I decided it was time to come here and share my rambles with you, I certainly needed the rest and a nice steaming cup of coffee and another mystery tour around the Quilting web-world.

Now it is time once again to bid you adieu and get back to finishing what I should have finished Monday.  I confess I have been distracted..oh well that's not a big deal having only myself to care for I have all the time in the world, not!!!

Thank you for stopping in and I leave you with this wonderful quote I found which makes more sense to me now than ever before.....

Happiness is when what you think, what you say, and what you do are in harmony.  ~Mahatma Gandhi

  

What Does Today Have In Store For You?

Hey there, since today is the Civic Holiday across Canada, I have been wondering just what everyone else is using this Monday for.  The weather this weekend has turned a tad chilly at nights so that those sitting around camp fires are definitely wearing sweats and sweaters and the swimming is while not quite finished the waterways seem to have only those stalwart people who don't mind the lower water temperatures in there splashing about and using summer to its fullest. 

This morning I heard the Loons on the Lake, I just love Loons, don't you?

Then also this morning I heard geese honking, lots of geese who seemed to be on their way south or so it looked to me as if they were flying south, maybe getting a head start on their annual flight to their winter quarters....

just guessing of course.

My neighbors' pumpkins are growing fast and furious too, so who knows better than nature about the changing of the seasons?

IT'S 53.6 degrees outside on my veranda this morning....up from 52 earlier and I have dressed appropriately to allow for some extra body heat while still keeping all of my windows open to enjoy this wonderful fresh air.  Thank heavens this cooler temperature has scared off those pesky mosquitoes...LOL 

Today is catch up for me after yesterdays throbbing headache and company it is time to get back to my tote bag quilting and creating..I say creating because I never follow a pattern and end up changing it as I go along, a little like Ms. Mary Ellen Hopkins who sadly passed on July 11th, 2013, Ms. Hopkins was my all time favorite inspirational Quilting Guru.

I never got to Skype with my friends yesterday so I'll be sewing and Skyping today, can you feel the anticipation here?  I should be looking to finishing the many quilt tops I have but this tote idea got in my way...LOL

Are some of you like me?  Always eyeing that next project that takes your fancy?  I have so many quilt tops to sandwich and quilt and while I have good intentions to work on those I allow myself to get sidetracked.  No wonder I am always behind my own schedule! 

It is my cousins' BIG 60th Birthday today so HAPPY BIRTHDAY CUZ I wish you a fantastic Birthday this year....WISH YOU WERE HERE AGAIN?

Seems like I have rambled on enough today, so I leave you with my thanks for stopping by to read about what it is I am sharing today and hopefully tomorrow if I don't once again get sidetracked may have something more than just the fabric I am quilting for my new creation to share with you. 

Let us be grateful to people who make us happy, they are the charming gardeners who make our souls blossom.  ~Marcel Proust

A Taste of the Frugal

Sometime last year I introduced you to a friend of mine, Emma MacPherson,  whose talents are many, then as a photographer and author, now Blogger.  
Today I would like to introduce you to Emma's Blog, Living The Simple Life!  I am certain as time goes on if her introduction to her blog is anything to go by will prove to be of great interest to many.
Congratulations and welcome to the world of Blogging Emma, I for one am so interested in your point of view and am certain I too will be learning something new as I follow along with you!
As I sew on my latest project today the scent of the baking beans I am making are wafting throughout the house....Mmmmm I so enjoy home baked beans and freshly baked bread of which I have a loaf of just waiting for me to cut into....YUM

Several weeks ago a good friend gave me these freshly grown peas from their garden and these have been blanched and are now residing in my freezer for good eating come this winter....so, what's in your freezer?

As Quilters and Crafter's we all search for ways and means to support our hobby habits and in this endeavor many of us follow similar rules to acquiring our materials to create something out of.  As said in some of my previous posts I so enjoy hoking about for remnants to make my quilts from as well as up-cycling different types of fabrics to create my tote bags from as I so enjoy selling that "one of a kind" item I have created and I have Bonnie Hunter, to thank for the taste of frugality I now practice.   Bonnie has been advocating this type of scrappy fabric gathering forever and she proves it with her glorious quilts.

What about you?  Do you up-cycle?  Do you scrounge the 2nd hand shops and remnant bins for your quilted and crafted items?  I see many shops on Etsy that practice up-cycling and these people create very beautiful items.

I had to learn to be frugal due to my being on a very fixed income from pensions so that after paying my living expenses I find not sufficient left over to spend on my hobby.  To this end I made myself a promise not to buy anything new if at all possible and to this end I keep pulling from my stash. This provides me still with lots to work with and at times when I am looking for that one of a kind piece to make I go scrounging the second hand shops and as many of the remnant bins as I can find.  
My recent forays always have me searching for zippers and nice sized buttons to use in my many projects.   Not only do I sew for charity but I also make things to sell near Christmas time and to add as inventory to my Etsy Shop (which is woefully empty at the moment).
Stretching the few dollars I manage to save from selling items is very gratifying. 

Do you remember that wonderful old quote "look after the pennies and the dollars will take care of themselves" or something like those words.  Since becoming a pensioner this is what I have had to learn.  

Once again I would like to thank Emma for her timely themed Blog "Living The Simple Life" because again it has reinforced my need to continue on the road I have set for myself being as frugal as I can possibly be.  

Remember that piece of fabric I showed you the other day ?  I plan on turning it into another one of a kind tote bag which I am still quilting the fabric for, so it is off to get back to that.

Thank you for dropping in today to share some of your time with me and I wish you a perfectly wonderful day and I look forward to posting again tomorrow.  

Expect nothing.  Live frugally on surprise.  ~Alice Walker 

It's All A Matter Of Perception

It seems like it was only yesterday when I was wishing for spring and summer to arrive!  It has been raining since last night and very heavily all morning and into the afternoon.  The summers of my youth just do not seem to be happening anymore, or could it be my memories are failing me?  This morning near 10 a.m. it could have passed for 9 p.m. that is how dark it was.  It has done nothing but rain for most of this summer around here and I am not liking it, how about you?

Have you noticed, the stores are showing fall fashions and pushing brands for back to school, reminding people that it won't be long now before the new school year begins and praying the profits rise before the onslaught of the Christmas season which will in all likelihood begin to appear in commercials this coming October....already I have seen ads for Christmas in July - like we all have an abundance of ready extra cash to throw about.  Yea yea yea I will take a dozen of those and a gross of the other.....Why not a back to giant back to Quilting sale for us quilters?  I'd enjoy that, wouldn't you?
However, I am remaining calm about the whole Christmas thing, what about you? LOL

I guess you could say it is all a matter of perception!!!!

More than likely come mid November I will be in a panic because I never followed through to complete the so called plans to put under someone's tree..

I tidied up my sewing area, set the two tops I have completed aside to be sandwiched and quilted sometime later (they call this procrastination) and set the scraps neatly away in their containers and while doing that came across a very pretty remnant I found last year.  Now I realize I should finish those two quilt tops, but today I just don't feel like working on them so gave myself permission to begin quilting a huge piece of this fabric for a new project.  I am one of those who cannot afford nor have I come across any decent sales on pre-quilted fabrics so I must make my own and knowing I have control I can quilt that piece any way I choose.  
DO you quilt your own fabrics before turning it into something deliciously fantastic to give away?  I so enjoy quilters who go all out and are creative with their quilting.

Leah Day of "The Free Motion Quilting Project" is one of my quilter heroines....she is so inspirational and motivates me to try new and different ideas while learning something new at the same time.  If you have not visited her blog, you can visit her by clicking here.....She's such fun to follow!!!!  

This is the colorful piece I am working on.  Bright red, gold, purple and black with hints of white, isn't it wild?  Wild can be useful and am thinking a large tote!  Time to make some more totes and other baggie items.  I believed I still have inventory, but no the bin is empty. 

Do you shop for those unusual pieces of remnant fabrics?  I simply love hoking about a remnant bin trying to find that one of a kind piece I may never have seen before. Sometimes I walk around a very long time before I feel ready to pick it out and begin working with it, it is like I just said, I got this piece last year and have seen it many times when in the fabric drawer but just never found that idea for it. 

Look what I just found on Facebook!!!  Isn't she just so cute?  LaCrosse anyone?

Time to say cheers to you for today and I hope your day is turning out to be very pleasant and enjoyable no matter what it is your doing.  Do your best to make it HAPPY.

Maybe we should develop a Crayola bomb as our next secret weapon.  A happiness weapon.  A beauty bomb.  And every time a crisis developed, we would launch one.  It would explode high in the air - explode softly - and send thousands, millions, of little parachutes into the air.  Floating down to earth - boxes of Crayolas.  And we wouldn't go cheap, either - not little boxes of eight.  Boxes of sixty-four, with the sharpener built right in.  With silver and gold and copper, magenta and peach and lime, amber and umber and all the rest.  And people would smile and get a little funny look on their faces and cover the world with imagination.  ~Robert Fulghum

Finally This Top Is Finished

Finally, I have finished the Scrappy Four Patch quilt top.  Took me longer than I had anticipated what with company dropping (who doesn't love company?)  I still had some wash to do, some vacuuming and changing of things.  I moved around the bed and managed to get the extra mattress under it in the spare room yesterday, not an easy task for me because my joints are just giving me grief brought on by this inclement weather which doesn't want to disappear.

Scrappy means just that and even though I am inclined to try and control color I just didn't seem to on this one and convinced myself it was okay not to control it at all. 

Now to get it sandwiched, quilted and bound and then another charity piece will be ready to go. 

I really missed not sewing much these past few days, but have spent some quality time with friends not only here physically but on Skype, for those of you who use Skype, isn't it fun to be in touch?

My grandson managed to really hurt his hand and now cannot play his favored Lacrosse for awhile.  Poor mite, fell from his bike on a gravel road and had to have stitches. 

 Mum and Brayden spent 11 hours at Emerge this past Saturday just to have it seen to and took quite a number of stitches. 

 Granddaughter Mikayla is off on her first ever sleep over camp for the week, I just know she will be enjoying her time there.  

Baby Ella is happily playing and staying home with Mum and Dad....

That's as much as I have to share with you today.  Thank you for stopping in and please I love to hear your comments so if you wish to comment away. 


The difficulties of life are intended to make us better, not bitter.  ~Author Unknown

Fun In The Sun with the G'ma P's Treasures

I'm tuckered out ready to inspect my pillow, sun ripened, with a full tummy and why?  Well, I  spent a wonderful day with the grandchildren at the KOA campground today what fun, and spent lots of time in the pool with all of the children (6 of them) boy did we have fun....

 Ella has a new playmate, Mr. Alpha Caterpillar 

 Zachary and Brayden showing off their new tatoos

Naomi thinking about what she'd like to do next and Mikayla looks like she needs a nap.

Mr. Caterpillar makes a wonderful and comfy group pillow which they're all checking out before heading to the fire for S'mores.....YUMMY

How could a gran not enjoy these moments?

One thing I'd love to mention is that the little quilt I made for Same has been entered at the Quilting Gallery for the Weekly Theme, so if you have an extra moment or two, head on over to the Gallery and look at all of the entries there are some beautiful little ones quilts in this week.  My entry is number 61, you scroll down to see all of the entries and

if you think it worth a mention, please vote for this little quilt, each voter may vote for 6 of their favorite entries.  I love the Teddy Bear quilt, it is so cute!!!

I managed to piece together two rows of my latest project so hopefully tomorrow I will have the rest pieced and ready to share with you.

Thank you all for stopping by for a share of my day, I am off to put my old bones to bed and I hope to see you again tomorrow. 

Love puts the fun in together, the sad in apart, and the joy in a heart.  ~Author Unknown

I Can't Count!

Seems I cannot count properly today.  I have 34 of these blocks and should have 35 - seems like I goofed...one more to make!  Here I was thinking ahhh finished piecing but not so. 

I have laid out the 30 on the bed and from the pictures I believe some of the blocks need swapping because there is a row that has no red in it.  So the finished layout will be a tad different as opposed to the colors.  What do you think?  

 I keep going back to the scraps and for some unknown reason these never seem to diminish.  Hmmmm I wonder, is there a scrap weed growing on the bottom of the pile, you know the type of weed that just keeps on growing and growing and growing no matter how often you cut it down.    

Have you seen the latest Missouri Star Quilt Co. tutorial?  Isn't it marvelous how Jenny comes up with these wonderful and quick methods on piecing a block and getting a quilt top done in no time at all.  I simply love her tutorials and her ideas!
This latest tutorial of Jenny's is called the "Merry Go Round Quilt" and it's fabulous! 

If your interested, just click on the highlighted title of the quilt and it will take you straight to Jenny's tutorial. 

Now it is back to the sewing machine, one more block to make and then see how quickly I can put this together, sandwich and quilt it.  

Hopefully by the weekend it will be a completed quilt.  Tomorrow though I get to play with my grandchildren, hooray!!!  They are camping at the KOA campground up my way and so I have given myself the day off to go and play.

Thank you for continuing to check in on me, I rather enjoy sharing with you and do hope you'll return again.  Should you wish to leave a comment I would love to know what your current projects are.  Do you find your scraps never deplete?  

What you can't get out of, get into wholeheartedly.  ~Mignon McLaughlin

It's Been Awhile But....

Hello, it has been awhile since I posted anything, but with company, nasty storms, no electricity and pet sitting for others I have been kept busy, and too tired to do much thinking let alone any blogging.  
The weather isn't too bad today, we are once again expecting rain showers, but it has cooled considerably, making sitting in front of the sewing machine more comfortable than it has been over the past several weeks.
Since my last post I managed to finish off Sams' little quilt, packed it up and off it went home to Holland inside my cousins' luggage and been delivered.  YAY!  

Finished and delivered to Mama and Papa for their little boy Sam!

Sams' papa is reading all of the words and phrases I embroidered willy nilly inside the white centers of the squares, all relating to little people and what it is they do while moving from infancy into being a toddler which I had so much fun with.

I also managed to make a decision on the borders for my Scrappy Hearts quilt top, have those on finally and decided it needed something, what?  Walking around it I just couldn't seem to come up with an answer until one evening while vegging out in front of the tv and making hexagons I thought why not some hexie flowers, which is what I did. Not all have been sewn down because I am still playing with the placement.  You see I want them to look strewn instead of placed so I am still playing with those.  What would you do differently?

I also made a new bag for one of the seniors residing at my friends' retirement home, as the first one I made for her just plain wore out.  She carries so many things for the hours she's upstairs from her room downstairs and she just washed the old one far too many times, this one is the same style just great for her arthritic hands to hold.

 Then because I actually had so much fun with quilting the upholstery fabric and making the bag from it I dug out some of the left over upholstery fabric samples and made an armchair caddy for my friends' gazillion remotes they have...

As can be seen I have at least been quilting around my various busy activities, just small projects, nothing too much but fun to do all the same. 
What with the heavy thunder and rain storms we have been having to endure, and while waiting for a pet owner to come and pick up his Big Girl "Flippy", I decided I would set the scrappy hearts aside and make some four patches from bits of scraps I want to whittle down. 

Here are some, most are almost complete and ready to be pieced into another Charity Quilt top. 

I am thinking if I apply myself this afternoon I may just finish piecing the rest of the blocks and get a good start on the top. 
This then has more or less brought you who do read and follow me up to date.  I thank you for your patience with me, but as I said, I have been busy and not doing much computer time as I would have liked. 
Thanks for stopping by today, hopefully I will have a top to share with you tomorrow and no more pets this week to care for.
Don't say you don't have enough time.  You have exactly the same number of hours per day that were given to Helen Keller, Pasteur, Michaelangelo, Mother Teresea, Leonardo da Vinci, Thomas Jefferson, and Albert Einstein.  ~H. Jackson Brown, Jr.

It's Been A Perfect Day

What a fabulous weather day today, the temperature just perfect and a wonderful breeze.  I spent the morning finishing the Scrappy Hearts blocks,

 then auditioned fabric for the borders

Right side of fabric where the green is bright, or the

Wrong side of fabric which is muted, or

this blue with faint beige dots....

and because I simply could not make up my mind I decided that I'd take full advantage of the weather and sit outside and work on more hexagons, a most enjoyable afternoon.  Slowly my top is beginning to grow and of course I am adding them as I go along and not waiting to systematically put the individuals in a pile to sew together once there are hundreds, LOL.... I never was one for following rules!  I so enjoy hand sewing but my arthritic fingers can only go for so long and then I must stop and rest a bit.

Before sitting down to sew I decided to check on my garden and have discovered why the Clematis was withered and looked like it was dying!  Some critter (my neighbor thinks it may be the new baby rabbits from the wooded area across the way) has been eating at it,  I thought that it had been cut by a weed whacker, but not so, it is definitely a little creature that I share my surroundings with.   At least the roots are still in tack and in the ground, so hopefully it will begin to grow again and possibly I may end up with beautiful flowers to enjoy.  My rose bushes are doing well too, the red one named Coco looks like it will burst forth with a bloom very soon and the yellow bush named Lemon Meringue now has three buds ready to burst open with beautiful yellow roses.  I just love roses and these two bushes are climbers, I cannot wait to see them grow and prosper. 

Now, I have put away my sewing all to be picked up tomorrow.  

So what do you think?  About the auditioned fabric choices?  The blue looks like it may do the Scrappy Hearts more justice than the busy patterned green with black.  I wouldn't mind your opinion on this....  

Spend the afternoon.  You can't take it with you.  ~Annie Dillard

MONDAY AND NO SUNSHINE YET

Hey there, it's Monday and I have been keeping busy.  Took out the Scrappy Heart Blocks I was working on last year to finish this quilt off, trying to get another UFO finished.   My wonderful Easy Listening station is just about half way to full blast with all that wonderful music it plays without commercials 24/7 and I filled several bobbins and went to work.  Mind you in the beginning everything I attempted seemed not to be working well for me but, after a lovely hot cuppa and lunch it finally began to come together. 

My blocks are finishing out at 15.75" which seems rather weird, but rather than worry about it and seeing as I seem to have made the same consistent mistake, I'll carry on. 

Thinking it might be nice to add a large strip of square in a square blocks between these huge blocks, but, as per my usual routine I will walk around that thought for awhile until all of the blocks are fully sashed.  Possibly it might not look as busy if I just go back to my first idea when I began this project and add a huge border between the sets and then carry on that same border around the outside.  I am looking for ideas on how to make those scrappy hearts look like their floating...with my skill set I often get my ideas from seeing how other scrappy quilts look when sewn into sashed settings... Am I making any sense???

It should end up being a lap quilt size and I want it to be comfy.  

Our weather doesn't seem to be getting better yet, still rain and darkened days, hopefully real sunny weather with nice summery temperatures will arriver sooner than later.   So far this year has been on the damp side which isn't doing my arthritic joints any good. 

As i promised, there are a few more of those quilts Liz and I saw this past Saturday. 

This color combination was very restful, a rather nice teal with a beige against a lighter shade of ecru and I just wish I could have shown off the quilting in it much better, believe me it was lovely. 

This postage sized stamp quilt was nice and colorful.  Apparently it was a queen size and hand quilted. 

These quilts were displayed along side the Alter leading into the Tea Room, I this black, white and red finished up nicely, don't you?

This blue on white was exquisite but was set into a darker corner of the Church and my camera simply didn't do it justice.  It was pieced and quilted by machine.

This utility quilt was rather colorful and seemingly a very efficient way to use up left overs from other quilts. 

Back in the beginning of April I began a little quilt for a wee lad born to friends in Holland, well while my cousin was here I managed to squeeze in the finish and off it went with her to be delivered.  Here then, if you didn't see it on my Facebook page is the finished tiny quilt. 

Time to get going, I will wish you all a wonderful day or evening depending on where it is your reading from. 

If we all did the things we are capable of doing, we would literally astound ourselves.  ~Thomas Alva Edison