UFO report

Somehow or other the month of May got totally past me. My UFO didn't even get taken out of the box, although the box did get taken down from the shelf. But that was only because I was looking for some fabric that was in it. Maybe I'll get to it this month?? But probably not. I'm in the home stretch of a long stretch of shifts at work, ending this coming Sunday. My job after that will be to catch up on the customer quilts I have sitting here, waiting for me to do. I am so looking forward to the day, a little more than 2 years from now when, God willing, I can retire to quilt. I can't think of anything that would be much more pleasant than that. But, in the meantime, I quilt on my days off. And on the days I have to work, I play in my sewing room with relaxing stuff, to get my mind into the space it needs to be in order to work.
I've made progress on the  Heartland Star quilt.

Turns out that the goof I thought I made with making too many units, wasn't a goof after all. I really did need all of them that I made. My reading skills really need to be improved. LOL!! I'm hoping to get a start on putting these units together today, before going in to work. Then I can start on the stars that surround the center.

A lot accomplished today....

Even though the only major thing I have to show for it is and empty shelf, and a very full recycling bin. I went through all my quilting magazines today, almost 10 years worth of Quilter's Newsletter. I took out the stuff I wanted and put it into sheet protectors, and into a couple of binders. The rest went in here
 I'm glad I'm not the one who will have to lift this on the next pick up day. It might need to get divided up into the other bin, so that It can be carried to the curb. I hadn't opened any of those magazines in years, so I figured it was time to get them cleared out. Next will be all the odds and ends of knitting patterns I have, It's hard to come up with a good reason to keep them, when so much is available on the internet. So, I'll eventually go through them, keep the ones I really want, and ditch the rest. I was sitting on the couch, doing all this, but now there is hockey on, the first game of the last of the Stanley Cup series. I am NOT a hockey fan, so I've come upstairs to my sewing room, and I think I'll spend some quality time with my sewing machine. I'm going to keep an eye on the Facebook chat section as well, to see if Susan can come out to chat for awhile tonight.

Design Wall Monday, May 28, 2012

I spent a quiet day yesterday in my sewing room, and managed to get quite a bit done. Avignon Picnic is now a flimsy. I had been planning on putting borders on it, but when I hung it up on the wall, it told me that it was a perfect size for a twin bed, and that it considered itself done. I decided not to argue. LOL!
And I got a start on the quilt that I bought the fabric for on my trip out with Jannette. It's a
pattern from Judy Martin's new book, Patchwork Among Friends, called Heartland Star. I have to say, yet again, that I love her patterns, the way they are written, and the quick cutting rotary techniques she uses. Of course, it always helps to actually read the instructions. Somehow, I ended up making eight of these units, instead of four, my fault, not the pattern's. But, I'm sure I'll find a use for the other four somewhere. The next step is cutting and piecing the diamond units for the points of the stars. That might take a while. This time I'll make sure I double check the actual amounts I need. LOL!
I'm working today, and I still want to do some playing in my sewing room, and maybe get a start on the star points, so I'm making this a short one. As usual, I'm linking to Judy Laquidara's Design Wall Monday. If you've got a few minutes, there's always lots of fun stuff to see over there.

Stash Report, Week 22, 2012

I haven't done a stash report in quite a while. In fact, I haven't done anything quilty in quite a while. I think I'm about ready to go into withdrawal. I had a horrible night at work last night. In the middle of changing one of the patients, he suddenly became very resistive, and grabbed my right wrist, and twisted it. Then, he let go of it with one of his hands and started punching me. No permanent damage was done, but my arm is sore, and I'm just a smidge upset, so I've taken today off. I don't think it would be a good idea to be lifting with it today. So I think I'm going to treat myself to a quilty day. I might finish up Avignon Picnic. I might work on some New York Beauties. I might start something completely new. I'm not sure yet.
When I went on my visit to meet Jannette, I bought some new fabric which I haven't reported on yet, so I'll add it in today.

Used in the past couple of weeks:                0 yards
Used this year:                                              46.5 yards
Purchased in the past couple of weeks:         10 yards
Purchased this year:                                      109.25 yards.
Balance:                                                        62.75 more yards purchased than used.

Maybe I can make a dent in some of that this afternoon and evening. If I do, I'll report in later on with the results. As usual, I'm linking up to Judy's Patchwork Times and her Sunday stash report linky.

Not much quilting happening.....

It's that time of year when I can't bear to be indoors. I've waited all winter for this, and I just HAVE to get out and enjoy the glorious warm sun and summer breezes. I love the summer, and even the hot weather and the humidity don't bother me. Unless the air quality deteriorates, in which case I have to surrender and retreat to the house.

We're putting in a small vegetable garden this year. I've just started planting within the past week, so there isn't much to show for it, yet. I managed to get 2 rows of lettuce planted today, and 2 rows of multi-coloured carrots, with radishes in the same rows, to mark where they are, since the carrots take so much longer to come up. I used to have a gardening book that suggested doing this. Apparently it also helps in thinning out the carrots, as well. There are going to be 2 trellises across the width of the garden at the back. One for pole beans, and the other for cucumbers. The trellis across the short side of the garden has snow peas planted at the bottom of it. There is still spinach to put in, as well as yellow bush beans. I'm not sure if we'll be putting in tomatoes. The last 2 years in a row that we did tomatoes, they would set lovely fruit, start to ripen beautifully, and then would get some sort of fungus and would rot on the plant. We have lots of farms and farmer's markets quite close by where we can buy tomatoes for canning or freezing, if we decide to do that.

 There are two new Rhubarb plants. It might be a couple of years before we can get anything from them, but that's OK.

 I think there are a couple of little turnip plants just starting to peak through. I've never planted turnip before, so I don't have a clue what the new plants look like.

And I'm pretty sure these are snow peas just starting to break through. I love watching as the little plants start to grow. Weeding, on the other hand............... I might have to make a deal with my hubby. I'll do all the planting, if he does the weeding. I wonder if he'd go for it?

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.

A fun adventure, and some stash enhancement too

I had the wonderful opportunity yesterday to go and meet Jannettte. We've been corresponding through blog comments and emails for quite a while now, and decided that it was time to take the plunge, and actually meet each other. We met at the Tim Hortons for coffee in her little home city, which is about a 30 minute drive from here. Being myself, I was rather nervous about the whole thing, and felt rather awkward for the first couple of minutes. But after that, it just sailed. We must have sat and talked for at least an hour, sitting in the Tim Hortons coffee shop. It was wonderful. We have a lot in common. We are Christian sisters, both of us are nurses, although she no longer works in the profession. Obviously, we are both quilters, so there was lots to talk about.
Then she took me to a little quilt shop, called Quilted Creations, that was having a sale for the month of May, with all fabrics being $10.00 a meter. That comes pretty close to what it costs to order from the internet, by the time shipping and import fees are paid, so I went for it. There is a quilt in Judy Martin's new book, Patchwork Among Friends that I really badly want to do, so with Jannette's help, the fabrics were chosen for it. It was so nice to have someone to shop and pet fabrics with. LOL!! This was the selection I ended up with  And, of course, I'm just itching to get at those fabrics and start cutting and playing, but they are going to have to wait. It is Avery's first birthday tomorrow, and we are going on our first camping trip of the season to go and see them. I can hear my husband outside in the lane way cranking up the trailer, as I type this, so I'd best get up and off the computer and start to help get everything ready, so all we have to do tomorrow is pack up the coolers, hook up the trailer to the car, and go. My next post will be from the beautiful region of Georgian Bay, with lots of pics, and maybe a video or 2 of our precious grandson and the rest of our beautiful children.