Slow Sunday Stitching

I need a slow down day today. A day of doing nothing except taking long deep breaths, sitting in my comfy recliner with my feet up while sewing slow relaxing hand stitches.

Yesterday was a whirlwind. It started several hours earlier than my days normally do, since it was our guild’s Quilt Till You Wilt day. I spent part of Friday getting ready, using my Go Cutter to get everything cut and ready to sew. My goal was to do an I Spy quilt for our grand daughter. I’ve had the fabrics for several years, at least. She is starting to talk really well, and learning lots of new words, so this is a perfect time to get one done for her. I shocked everyone, including myself by arriving at the quilt day right on time at 9 am with my essential coffee in hand. With all my fabrics cut and organized and ready to go, I sat and put the pedal to the metal. By lunch time I had most of the blocks finished and was ready to start sewing them into rows. By the time I left at 3:30 all of the rows were sewn together. I still have to piece some partial blocks for the ends of 3 rows, and the the centre of the quilt is finished.  I used partial seams on the rows, leaving myself enough space at each end to add in the missing pieces and the finish sewing the row.
I haven’t decided what to do about borders. I was so focused on getting all this done, I didn’t even think to stop and take pictures. The only reason I have these is because my friend Gail, who blogged about the same day here,  grabbed my phone and took the pictures for me. (Thanks Gail!!)

After leaving the Quilt Till You Wilt time, we came home, picked up our grand daughter, since her parents had won tickets to a concert yesterday evening, and proceeded out to visit with our son Noel, his girlfriend Mel and our grand son Avery who was down visiting for the weekend. We had supper at their place, and then drove down to Port Stanley where there is a house that does itself up hugely for Christmas, or should I say its owners do. The statistics say that it has over 75,000 lights on the property. I’m not sure what I was expecting, but it wasn’t what I saw. It was fabulous! Here’s a link to the Facebook page about it Port Stanley Christmas Lights. Both Abbie and Avery were mesmerized by it. Avery kept telling everyone that “it has 75,000 lights aka 75 million!!” using the phrase “aka" being a new thing with him. Abbie ran...... everywhere... through the lawns, up the deck with the Christmas tree, down the steps of the deck,  up the paths on the hill at the back of the house and back down, then back up, then..... well you get the idea.... Abbie ran, exploring and examining everything and Grammy followed. Grampy would have followed, except he was hampered by the stroller that we foolishly thought Abbie would quietly sit in. Silly us, we should have known better, knowing Abbie..... although by the end of it she was tired enough to settle into the stroller for the walk back to the car. All in all it was a fabulously happy day, full of good friends and loving family. What could be better.

So, back to Slow Stitching. Today I am continuing to work on Leo’s Mane, no surprise there. I have the first side of the fourth border finished. Here it is laying beside the main body.  And a closer view. I’ve started on the second side of the fourth border and hope to get a good long way into getting it finished today, probably while bingeing on the British archeological TV series Time Team. 
 I’m going to link up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday stitching and then get to my own stitching.

Life is crazy, sometimes.....

What a week! It’s been crazy! I worked like mad on Tuesday and Wednesday last week, because I knew I was going to the dentist on Thursday to have at least one tooth yanked out, maybe two. Turned out to be just the one...... whew!  But, because I’m such a coward when it comes to the dentist, I opt for the IV sedation, which meant I was out for the count all day Thursday. And then, because it was really sore, and I didn’t sleep at all well Thursday night, I was mostly out for the count on Friday. Thankfully, I have a husband who cooks, because Friday we did up the turkey and stuffing for our dinner on Saturday. Actually, I should say that Scott did the cooking on Friday. All I did was add the seasoning to the stuffing, since it’s a family thing that came from my side of the family, and I seem to be the only one who knows how it goes. I’ve tried to write the recipe down, but since I don’t measure things, it’s really hard to write it down, for the seasonings, at least. The rest of it they know how to do.
Our wonderful little Avery came down to visit on the weekend. Noel drove 3 1/2 hours up to get him, then 3 1/2 hours back here on Friday. They arrived shortly after 11 pm on Friday. I figured Avery would be so tired, he’d have to be carried in right to bed, but he was awake when they got here. I got a short cuddle and rocking in the rocking chair with him, before they headed up to bed about midnight. Saturday, we played all day, as well as had our dinner. We had so much fun, I only got one picture, since we were too busy doing to stop and take a picture of what we were doing.
Scott has a trains program on his computer, and they both love playing it.
I did a little better getting pictures on Sunday. Scott and Avery were playing with remote control cars.
And then a little later, Avery helped Grampy dry some dishes.
I love watching the two of them interact. Scott is so good and so patient with him. He’s a fabulous Grampy.
Noel did the 3 1/2 hours to take Avery home and then the 3 1/2 hours back to his place again on Sunday. It’s a lot of driving, but it was so very worth it. This was his first weekend trip down to see us, and I wasn’t 100% sure how it would go, but there weren’t any problems at all.
Yesterday was a recovery day, after the weekend. A little netflix, a little hand stitching, and a lot of blog writing for the London Friendship Quilters’ Blog. I’m doing the blog for this year and next as well. I’m doing a free sampler presented on the blog, so I wanted to get a fair way ahead on writing up the blocks to prevent ending up feeling pressured. There are posts done for it now up until January. You can go here and take a look if you’re interested. The blocks are being posted on the first and third Thursday of the month. And that takes us up to today, which was spent working. I finished up a customer quilt and loaded and started another. This evening,I’m heading out to Gail’s for  a couple of hours of visiting and hand stitching. Whew..... I’m tired out again, just writing about it all!
I’m finding that doing the two blogs, this is the one that is getting less attention. I might not get back to doing  posts about individual customer quilts for the next while. Instead, I’ll try to do short snippets of what I’m up to, hopefully more frequently, with just peaks at the quilting as it’s happening, rather than pictures of the entire quilt.
Anyway, time to go get ready to head out for a couple of hours of quilty friend time. I’ll be taking one of the last three rosettes for La Passacaglia.

We're home from our camping weekend.

We had a wonderful weekend, camping up at the park near Noel and Laurie's home. Other then the first day and night we were there, when it was quite cold, the weather was perfect. I don't know if there were temperature records set, but it was a glorious and warm weekend away. Lots of time spent outside, chasing the shade, relaxing and reading. Unfortunately, the wireless reception at the park was kind of hit and miss, so I wasn't able to do any blogging from up there. And, of course, there was time spent with family. After we arrived on Thursday, and got the camper mostly set up, we headed over to have supper with Noel and Laurie, Bill and Jan, who are Laurie's parents, and with Laurie's Grandmother, affectionately known as Gee-gee, short for Great-grandma. And, of course, we can't forget the birthday boy, Avery.

When we had Laurie's baby shower, before Avery was born, Becca and I put our heads and hands together, and made the cake for the shower. Considering neither of us had ever attempted making a tiered cake before, It turned out beautifully.

Once the shower was over, we had the top tier of the cake left. Jan very carefully wrapped it up, and stored it in her freezer, with the plan of keeping it, and taking it out to have as dessert for Avery's first birthday. I am still blown away by how fast that time passed. 
I think this might be the first time Avery has had chocolate. He had a fabulous time with it.

I don't know what it is about babies, and chocolate cakes and pictures of them with the cake all over their faces, but they are always cute, and never seem to get old, for being repeated. He's not as messy as some I've seen, but he sure is cute. It was fun to watch him take a tentative little pinch of the cake and taste it, and go from there to big hand fulls. What a joy he is. And he continues to turn this Grammy's heart to a melted puddle of mush. I actually have a video of him eating the cake, but I haven't had the time to upload it yet. I'll most definitely share it once I get that done.

Christmas 2011

As I mentioned in a previous post, we were able to go up to see Noel and Laurie and Avery over New Years for our family Christmas celebration. Becca and Matt came up as well. It was wonderful to see everyone, and went by way too fast. (sigh) As usual, there were home made gifts from Grammy.

Becca and Laurie got scarves and thrummed mittens each in their favourite colours, blue for Becca and purple for Laurie.

Noel received his Batman quilt and he really liked it. It's a perfect size for naps on the couch.

And here is Shelby on her very own crumb quilt.  She curled up on it as soon as it hit the floor, so I think she likes it. But then, she'll curl up on any quilt that happens to be on the floor. I think she's part cat in the way she loves quilts.

And than there is Avery, who had his really big stocking. He seemed to enjoy getting stuff out of it, and ripping at the paper.

Living in the top of Avery's stocking was a stuffed bear, who is baby friendly. His bear's fabric was pre washed before it was put together. And the bear's face was embroidered on, although the bear's face isn't visible here.

Unfortunately, I ran out of time and ideas, so Matt and Scott were left out of the home made goodness this year. But, I have ideas already for next year.

Stash Report Dec. 4

I was hoping for some sewing yesterday, in order to finish up step 1 of the Orca Bay mystery, and start cutting for step 3, but life got in the way, but in a good way. Our daughter, Becca and her husband Matt have an apartment less than a 5 minute drive from us, and the regularly come over to our place to do their laundry, rather than pay the horrible prices to use the machines in the apartment laundry room. Usually they put in a load, go do a few errands, and come back to do more. But yesterday they stayed and visited. They are about a year away from being able to do anything about buying their own home, but Becca and I still had some fun sitting and looking at real estate on the computer in what will be their price range. We've discovered we have different criteria in what constitutes a good house. Mine is that it is a five minute walk away from us. Somehow, I don't understand why, she doesn't seem to see that as being the top of the list. LOL!!! So, the only stash that got used this past week was for the backing and binding for the Crunbs quilt And there won't be a whole lot done today either, since I have to work this afternoon and evening. Anyway, here's the numbers:

Used this week:                                      3 yards
Used this year:                                    144.9 yards
Purchased this week:                            0 yards
Purchased this year:                            162.5 yards
Balance:                                         17.6 more yards in than used.

That balance number is getting better. It might not get to zero, and that isn't my goal, anyway, but it is fun to see it shrink, just the same. I'm linking up to the Sunday Stash Report over at Patchwork Times And now, time for lunch and maybe a teeny bit of sewing and then work. See ya......

Thanksgiving weekend Part 2

One of the things I love best about our family thanksgivings, besides being with family, of course, is how the work load is shared. Noel generally does the turkey and the vegetables. He makes a fabulous sweet potato casserole. I do the pies and the stuffing. Scott will peel and chop all the potatoes and sweet potatoes. And Matt and Becca generally do the clean up of the pots and pans. Laurie looks after the organizing of everything, and Becca also looks after the table setting. So no one is swamped with all the work. This leaves plenty of time for everyone to be able to visit, and especially to have fun with Avery and his newly discovered Jolly Jumper. I couldn't resist taking a video of him in it. He's looking at and talking to one of his favourite people, his Grandma Jan, Laurie's mom. They live here in the same town with Noel and Laurie and Avery, and get to see him almost every day. It is so nice that they are here, and able to be a close source of love and support. But, I must confess to just a teeny bit of envy. (sigh) But, I will enjoy the time we have with him, and take as many of this kind of thing as possible, to remember him with when we can't be there. He is just sooooooooooooooooooo cute!!!!!!!!!

Ponderings

What is it about disasters that glues us to our TV sets? What is it about us that causes us to sit and watch the same photos, the same film footage over and over? September 11th, the boxing day Tsunami, and now the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, all have created the same phenomenon. There even used to be a television show on the history channel called "Disasters of the Century", which told of all different disasters that happened all over the world. And then there is the whole genre of disaster movies that always seem to draw huge audiences. I find myself sitting here, watching the footage of cars floating off, and houses being removed from their foundations, hoping and praying that there was nobody in them. It certainly puts my complaints about a few inches of snow to shame.

On a happier note, we had dinner over at Matt and Becca's last evening. Becca cooked up a beef pot roast in her slow cooker, and it was absolutely wonderful. She's come a long way in the last 6 or 7 months, since she got married. It used to be impossible to get that girl into the kitchen to cook anything, let alone a full dinner. Marriage and Matt have been so good for her. While we were there, I put the last stitches into the binding of the Chocolate Swirls quilt. It has been washed, and is now waiting its turn in the dryer. I just might leave the final reveal until after the baby shower in April. Laurie reads my blog, so I have to have some secrets. (Sorry Laurie).  I have to work this weekend, so I'm going to go see if I can get a couple of borders done on the baby hexagon stars, and get it to the ready for quilting stage.

A wonderful Christmas

Laurie, showing off her baby bump in front of the Christmas tree

We had a wonderful Christmas in Collingwood with all our children. We arrived there on the 24th, after a beautiful 3 1/2 hour drive. The weather was good, and the roads were clear, both for the drive there, and coming home again, which was a direct answer to a lot of prayer. Noel and Laurie did a wonderful job of the preparations.  They went out and cut
 down their own tree, and it was beautiful

They had a full table spread of finger foods for supper on the 24th, and we spent the time just enjoying each others' company. Laurie is starting to show a really cute baby bump. Her Grandmother was there to celebrate with us, and it was fun to be able to get to know more of her family. It is so wonderful to have the in-laws all get along with each other, such a blessing. Christmas day was fun. Noel had gone out and done some shopping for baby clothes, which he gave Laurie as parts of her gifts. I would have loved to have been a fly on the wall to watch him as he did that shopping, as he chose the items, and looked at all the adorable clothes. He even picked up the outfit that they will use to bring the baby home. He is going to be a gentle and caring father. I am looking forward to watching him be a father, almost as much as I am looking forward to being a Grandma.



This is one of the outfits Noel picked out, so soft, and so cute.

Matt acted as the designated "elf", delivering the gifts the the anxiously waiting family, and decided to decorate himself, at the same time. Can't you see the mischief in those eyes!

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My 2 "boys", Matt and Noel, the father-to-be, looking calm and peaceful, and not too happy with mom and the camera, after a wonderful turkey dinner.

 On the 26th, Noel and Laurie flew down to Texas to spend a week with Laurie's parents, who go down there for the winter. So, we got to bring home a visitor for the week. Shelby, who is their Chocolate Labrador Retriever, They have done such a good job with this dog. She is obedient, doesn't chew things she shouldn't, and is quite good company. However she has one habit that brings out the "Eeeeuuuuuwww" factor, she loves "poopsicles". All together now ......eeeeeeeuuuuuuwwwwww!!!

And, somehow, in taking these pictures, I didn't manage to get one of our daughter, Rebecca. Shame on this Mother. (giggle) She doesn't read my blog, so she won't feel left out, I hope. And now, after writing all this, and finally figuring out, after blogging for a year, how to get pictures to go where I want them, I'm going to go take my Nine Patch Pineapple off the machine, because the quilting is finished. I'm going to clear off the dining room table, and use it as my large surface to trim the quilt, and then I'm going to get the binding onto it, and maybe even have it finished by the end of the year. Woohoo.

Design Wall Monday Dec 20

Wow, December 20, already. Four days from now, we'll be heading up to Collingwood to spend Christmas with our son and daughter-in-law, Noel and Laurie. Our daughter, Rebecca, and her husband, Matt, are going to be there too. I am praying that the weather cooperates, and we don't have any of the heavy snow squalls that have been hitting us this month. Laurie, who is around 4 months pregnant, is having an ultrasound on the 22nd, so they will, hopefully, know the sex of the baby by the time we get there. And then, the true fun begins, when I can seriously think about a customized baby quilt, just for that precious child. Woohoo! I was hoping to have all day today, after working the weekend, to relax, and play in my sewing room. But, Rebecca called, and wants to head out to do some Christmas shopping, and how can I pass up an opportunity to spend time with my daughter. However, I
did manage to get one more of the 100 block challenge blocks made this morning, so I'm up to date. Go on over to Patchwork Times to see more design walls

More snow stories

 These are pictures of Matt, the wonderful young man our daughter married this past summer. She sure knows how to pick a good one. He's making believe that he's a human snowplow, trying to get through the backyard in order to get to the shed, to get the extra snow shovel. Scott had taken the one from the front porch, where it is usually kept, to work with him, so that he could shovel himself out of the parking lot in order to get home. It's waist deep back there, and Matt's over 6 feet tall. The look on Scott's face when he got home and found the driveway all cleaned out was priceless. Thank you, Matt.

Design Wall Monday Oct. 11

My design wall has a very familiar sight on it again. Cactus Rose. 3 of the blocks now have the applique finished, and the 4th is all glue basted down. I was so excited to have all the applique in place, that I just had to see all 4 squares up and together. I love it, and am doing a happy dance. I'll be doing the 4th square as my take along project , so, it just might be getting close to being time to do the paper piecing for the outer borders. We had a fabulous Thanksgiving weekend. We went to Collingwood to spend it with our son Noel and our daughter-in-law Laurie. Laurie's parents, Bill and Jan were there, as well, and we all had a wonderful time together. We are so blessed that everybody gets along with everybody else.  Noel did almost all the cooking, which also made it a quite enjoyable day. The weather was perfect, and we got a chance to go out for a beautiful hike yesterday afternoon, before we had to head back home. If you get a chance, go on over to Judy's place to see more design walls. It's a great way to explore other blogs, and find beautiful quilts, and lots of inspiration.

October Goals.

I really liked the feeling of accomplishment that came from writing down goals, and getting all but one done, back in September. So, I'm going to try it again. Most of them are going to relate to getting some quilts finished.

1. Quilt Charlene's tree skirts October 19
2 Make pies and stuffing for thanksgiving weekend  done, October 9th
3. Go to Collingwood for the weekend done October 9 & 10
4. Quilt Charlene's bed quilt
5. Quilt Evelyn's cross stitch quilt.
6. Start on Christmas gifts. (can't list them, they're secret!)
7. Finish Double Duty, brought forward from September October 16
8. Finish 3rd Cactus Rose block, and start the 4th done October 11
9. Do September and October blocks for Shannon's BOM done October 14
10. Do October embroidery for Raggedy BOM
11. Do unit 3's for Pineapple quilt-a-long done October 13

We're going up to Collingwood, to Noel and Laurie's for Thanksgiving this weekend, so I'm going to work on October's Raggedy Redwork embroidery in the car on the way there and back home. And, I'll take either Cactus Rose, or my basket, to work on while we're there. Oh yes, there is the stuffing to make, and some pies to do on Friday. Hmmmmm, 11's a good  number, for goals to do. Any more, and it might get overwhelming, so I'll stop there, and see how it goes. Now, to get started, and get those tree skirts loaded, which is quite the challenge, because of their odd shape. I haven't quite totally figured out how I'm going to do it yet. Probably float them, with lots of pins.

I love/hate my longarm

Well, I achieved all my goals for yesterday, and beyond. I got the quilt not only loaded, but 2/3 quilted. It was going along great when, for no apparent reason, the tension went wonkey. And, of course, I didn't notice until I advanced to the next row. So, now I'm going to have to do some ripping. Grrrrrr. I'm going to finish it up. but then leave it on the machine, and unroll it to the section that needs fixing. I'm hoping it is only small sections, in which case I can just take out the section that needs fixing, redo it, and bury the knots. If there is a lot to fix, though, I'll end up having to rip out the whole row. Once again, I say, grrrrrrr. Becca called a couple of days ago and said that their wedding photos would be ready for pick up today, so, I'll take Scott to work this afternoon, pick up Becca and go get them. We'll probably throw a mother/daughter dinner in there as well. Maybe take home dinner, so we can eat and look at the pictures at the same time. The photographer at the wedding was just fabulous, so I'm really excited to see these pictures. So, I'm off for a second cup of coffee, the good stuff I picked up yesterday, and some more work on this quilt.

A few wedding pictures

I've added in a few wedding pictures, but I have yet to figure out how to add comments beside each picture, so I'll have to list what each picture is here. The top left pic is myself and Susan. It was so wonderful to have her here to share the wedding and all the before and after with. Top right is my son, Noel, and his wife, Laurie. Second row, left is my son Noel, and my new son, Matt.  Second right is my daughter (in-law), Laurie. So, now I have 4 children. What an easy way to have kids, no labour pains, no terrible 2's, no teenage angst. Fully grown, wonderful people. Under the picture of Laurie is a picture of the table, showing the napkins that Becca and I made from the fabric left over from the bridesmaids dresses. The bottom picture on the right shows the bridesmaids during the ceremony. And the rest of the pics are of the glowing couple. It was a beautiful day, and worth every second of all the work that went into it.

The wedding is finished

The wedding is finished, and it was wonderful. It was a beautiful day, if a tad hot and humid. It rained for 5 minutes, and then stopped, although it looked a couple of times like it was going to pour down rain. But, lots of prayers and begging of the Lord, and it held off. Becca was a beautiful bride, and Matt a handsome groom. They were absolutely glowing! The ceremony and the dinner and the party afterwards went off with hardly a hitch, and everybody seemed to have a good time. Noel was assigned to the camcorder, and he documented almost the entire day. Scott, Susan, who arrived from the nether regions of Alberta last Tuesday, have watched it through twice, so far. There is so much on it that we weren't there to see. He basically followed Matt and Becca wherever they went, along with the photographers. He did such a fantastic job with it!  It was a good day, and I had a great time for the past 2 years planning it, but I'm glad it's done, and I can get back to my real life. I haven't had my hands on anything quilty in over a week, and I think I'm about to go into withdrawal, but I'm too tired to do anything about it. We're probably going to have to spend tomorrow restoring order out of chaos in the house, and then Susan and I, who is going to be here for another week, can get down to the serious business of some girl time, with, hopefully, some quilty stuff thrown in there. I have to be the proud Mama and throw in a pic of the gorgeous bride, and handsome groom. I'd add in more pics, but for some reason, I can't get any more to upload. But. I can guarantee that this proud Mama will be adding more as I get them.