Slow Sunday Stitching

Happy New Year everyone!! I hope it’s a great one. I’m actually starting off the year doing well..... a blog post yesterday, and another one today. I really fell off the blogging habit last year, badly. I would like for that to be one of the things that I do better this year.
We had a fun end to our day yesterday. About half an hour after I finished writing my post yesterday, found here, where I was saying I was sad because Scott and I were sick and we wouldn’t get to see Avery again before he went back home, who should show up at our door than Avery and Noel and Mel. Avery made us up the sweetest get well picture and he brought it to us in person. He sat down with us and explained all the different parts of the picture. The bottom left picture is Avery roasting marshmallows at a campfire. He says he has bunny ears rather than people ears because he doesn’t know how to draw people ears. Beside the campfire is a tent. He said he drew a tent because he didn’t know how to draw our trailer. Then there’s a picture of Mel fishing at a small lake. And the bottom left picture is of Avery and his Daddy, complete with baseball cap, out on a lake in a canoe. He even drew in bull rushes. We are most certainly having a good effect on him when it comes to enjoying the outdoors and camping. We’ll definitely have to make sure we plan some more camping trips with him this year.
I am doing some slow hand stitching today. This quilt, Geese Around the Tulip Patch, is almost finished. The binding is done. All that is left is to hand stick down the edge of the hanging sleeve. Once that is done, I can get some decent pictures of it, finish editing the pattern, and it will be ready for release. So very exciting! So, with that in mind, I’ll link up to Kathy’s first Slow Sunday Stitching of the year, and then get stitching on that hanging sleeve.

Slow Sunday Stash and Stitching report

I’ve pulled an old project out from the black hole beneath the stairs- My Tweets. The last time I worked on this was in February of 2014. I am hoping to work on this for the rest of this year, while I wait on supplies for another English Paper Piecing project. I put the last of the stitches into block number 8.


Then  I took out what I’d already done on block 9


and then prepped some more pieces for it. There are 2 more leaves to go onto the bottom on either side of the point of the heart, and then this one will be ready to finish stitching.


It’s been ages and ages since I posted a stash report, mostly because for the longest time there wasn’t anything going in or out.
This gorgeous, sweet little face just might have something to do with it. Given a choice between spending time playing and cuddling with her, or sewing, I’ll take our little Abbie every time.

And then there’s our little Avery, who isn’t so little any more. He was down visiting with us last weekend, and we’re hoping he’s coming next weekend, as well.
He’s 5, and in big kids’ school. How did he get to be 5 and Abbie get to be 10 months so incredibly fast?

But the last several weeks have seen some movement in the stash department, so I thought I’d post one, and get it going again. I’m not sure if it will be weekly, but certainly more often than every other month like it’s been the last little while.

Used since mid September:                    12.8 yards
Used this year:                                        79.3 yards
Added since mid September                        1 yards
Added this year:                                    62.45 yards
Net stash busted:                                   16.85 yards

I’m linking up to Kathy’s Slow Sunday Stitching and Judy’s Stash Report

Tuesday news

There hasn’t been a whole lot of quilty stuff done in the last few days. We had a wonderful visitor this past weekend, our grandson Avery. He is very well behaved, easily amused, plays well by himself and with others, and talks non-stop. And when he wasn’t talking, he was singing to himself and he has the typical four year old boy’s love of silly noises. I spent a lot of time smiling and laughing while he was here. There was a little bit of knitting time after he went to bed on Saturday. And then I did a blitz of knitting and stitching on Sunday after he left at about 3 in the afternoon.  Between the stitching and knitting and watching Call the Midwife on Netflix, I kept my mind occupied while Noel drove Avery the 3 1/2 hours to get him home and then another 3 /12 hours to come back again.
I did make a little bit of progress on my Northern Tree Line quilt on Friday. It’s going together quite easily, in between other things, since I’m using it as a leader/ender project. It’s amazing how many half square triangles can get sewn together while making sampler blocks. I got three more blocks done for the London Friendship Quilters’ Guild Blog Sampler. This now takes us up to the end of April. I got them written up and scheduled for their publishing dates today. It’s free and anyone interested can follow along. And that’s about all that’s been going on here.

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.

An Avery sort of day.....

Today has been just absolutely jam packed full, because it was an Avery coming to visit day. I have a quilt on the machine that has to be done by the beginning of next week, so I actually asked my dear husband to bring me in a cup of coffee at.... gasp...... 8:30 this morning, I had to get some quilting time in before we got ready for their visit. I've been working on quilting a London Roads quilt for our guild. It will be used as a raffle quilt for raising funds for the out reach committee, which does quilts for the Children's Aid society and also Quilts of Valour.

 It's getting a Maple Leaf pantograph. It's about 2/3 done now, so finishing it Monday shouldn't be a problem.  Then it is on to someone else for binding.
I worked on it until 1 pm, and then came back downstairs to get supper ready, since we were going on a short road trip after Avery got here.  Both my husband Scott and our son Noel, have some art work hanging in a gallery here, so we all went to see it. Here's a link to the Westland Gallery. We didn't stay very long, since it was hard for a three year old to be interested for long in the art. But it was long enough to get a really good look at most of what was hanging, and especially theirs.

We came back for some supper and play time, and a popsicle or two, and then it was time for him to go. It went by way too fast. For a little boy who's only three years old, he's so smart!! I may be a biased Grammy, but still, he's smart. He's reading! We gave him a new book, and he was reading the cover, and the titles on the pages. He talks all the time, and constantly uses his imagination. He is a Thomas the Tank Engine fan, which is why they are here this weekend. One of the towns near us has a Thomas train that they can actually ride on, so they are doing that tomorrow.
As for me tomorrow, I'm off to Gail's for a girls' day out for sewing. I plan on working on Meteor Shower, and am hoping to get lots done. However, it will mean an even earlier morning..... gasp..... 8 am, in order to be at her place by 9:30, and at least semi coherent by the time I get there. LOL! SO, it's time for medications and relaxing before trying to get to bed a bit earlier than normal. There just might be a report about the sewing day tomorrow.

We're home again, and a good time was had by all.

We made it in at about 10:30 last night after a good time out camping for the first time this year. But I must say it was COLD!! Winter is hanging on way too long in these parts. We saw some interesting things up in Grundy Lake Provincial park, including some of these:

Bear tracks down on one of the beaches. We never saw or heard the owner of these tracks. They were pretty small, so we think it might have been a very young one. But these were the only tracks we saw, none that were bigger that could have belonged to a mama bear. Oh, and those other tracks that are in that picture belong to moose.
After we picked Noel up from the theater in Sudbury, we headed off to Awenda Provincial park. Unfortunately, we didn't realize we were going in the wrong direction until Noel mentioned something about a sign saying something about the distance to Sault St. Marie. Oops........ After some map consulting, and some turning around in the right direction, we ended up about taking 1 1/2 hours longer to get to the park than we thought. That, unfortunately had us arriving after dark, in a completely empty park, trying to find a campsite that had the hydro post in a position that would work for our trailer and its 15 foot long plug in cord. We did find one, and then came the challenge of backing the trailer onto the site, in the dark, directed by flashlights in order to miss backing into the trees and the rocks. Noel did a great job of that, and we finally got all set up and settled and the heater on. One big bonus of the cold temperatures..... no mosquitos.
We spent the next 2 days visiting with Avery. What a lovely, sweet and happy boy he is.

 He loves Thomas the Tank Engine, and has lot of the railway toys and characters that go with them, and he can name most of them. There is a large square, Avery height table in their living room that has buildings and tracks on it for all his railway stuff. And under the table are all his trucks and cars that he loves to play with.

We went out to dinner with them for his birthday on Friday, and, for the most part, he was good as gold. He got a little restless at times, but nothing too bad. He spent most of the time playing with his car and fire engine and the crayons.
It was so good to see him again. It took him a while to warm up and get used to us again. But by the end of our visit he was comfortable and was freely giving out hugs and kisses. I get to talk to him again tomorrow on skype, and I'm sure there will be more Avery visits during the summer and fall.
Today was spent unpacking, although Scott did most of that. I find travelling, and sitting in one place in the car exhausting, and I'm not sure why that is, and have taken most of today to rest, and to go through all the photos and pick out the best ones. I miss him already..........

Playful Friends is a flimsy...

Here they are, in all their cutefulness. (Is that a word?)

I love that little kitten down at the bottom of this close up, hugging that ball of wool! I think some little girl is going to be very happy with this quilt. It has measured out to be 66" x 80", a perfect twin bed size.








                                            And here's a face that hasn't shown up on my blog for a while,  our precious, not so little any
more, Avery. Laurie posted these on her facebook page yesterday, and I'm pretty sure she won't mind me showing them here. I just couldn't resist sharing them. He's 23 months old now, and we talk on Skype every week. He is so smart, says this very proud Grammy. He can count to 10, and he can recognize and name a bunch of letters in the alphabet. He was having some alphabet cookies for a snack as we were chatting this afternoon, and he was naming the letters before he ate them. We usually manage about a 20 minute Skype visit before he gets restless and wants down from his chair to do something else. When it's time to go, he waves good bye and blows kisses. It has been a very long time since we last saw him, back in October at Thanksgiving. We are hoping to make a trip up to their neck of the woods sometime in May. Then I can hug the boy and kiss those cheeks, rather than just looking at them. He tried to share one of his cookies through the computer with me this afternoon. So very very cute. Be still my melting heart............

Design Wall Monday, August 6, 2012

I had a really busy week, and there were all kinds of plans to do blog posts about it as I went. But we all know the saying about the best laid plans......... I got lots done, just no blogging. I started a new quilt for Avery last week. He loves his trucks, plays with them all the time, even at the beach.

I've had a couple of layer cakes of fabrics sitting here for a while, waiting for an idea for how to use them. When I saw this Musical Pinwheels Quilt, designed by Jamie, I knew that was it. So, I asked if I could use the design, and she gave her consent.
 It's all from stash, using up lots of fabric. I didn't get a stash report done yesterday, so I'll do a double one this week. Anyway, there are a couple of fabric lines in this one, but I can't remember the names of them. I showed Avery some of the fabrics the last time we Skyped, and he was pointing at them and seemed to really like the colours and the subject matter.


After the complexity of the Grandmother's Diamond Ring quilt, it was fun to do the very basic elements in this quilt. And fast, too. I worked on this while taking sit down and rest my legs breaks while working on a customer quilt last week. I had thought that I just might be able to get it done before we go up to see them on this coming Sunday, but that was overestimating the time I would have to do it, just a bit. I have no idea, at this point, what size it will finish out to be. There is all kinds of fabric left from the 2 layer cakes that are coordinating colours, but without the trucks. I might end up using them in some sort of borders. I'm just not sure what, at this point. I have some customer quilts scheduled in for the next while, so my sewing time will be limited to when I need to sit and rest my legs, which is actually when this one was done last week, as well.
I'm linking up to Judy's Patchwork Times and her design wall monday post. Lots and lots of fun stuff to see. If it weren't for those design wall monday linky's, I wouldn't have seen this design. I love blogland.

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.

Stash report Week 13, 2012

This is the stash report that isn't. I goofed up my dates on my bus tickets. I was supposed to be going home today from visiting with Noel and Laurie and Avery, but instead, it's tomorrow's date on my tickets. Oops. And my book with my fabric usage info is at home, and I'm here. And, since I won't be getting home until after 9 pm tomorrow, I don't think there will be a design wall post, either. Oops. But, it does give me another full day to visit, so that is a good thing, even if it wasn't planned that way....... honest..... it wasn't.
Yesterday, we bundled Avery into the car, and took a drive out to the now very familiar campground near to where they live. It's a 10 minute drive, at the most, away from their house. We bundled him up into his stroller and went for a lovely walk. It was looking so pretty. The leaves are just starting to come out on the trees, and we got to see the campsite we've booked for the weekend of Avery's first birthday.
It's right by the water, with a hydro hook up. Avery's birthday is May 17th, and it isn't always reliably warm yet by that date, so the hydro site was necessary, in case we need to run a heater. And the site is in the radio free area of the park, which is a very good thing, because it also happens to be the long May weekend, when the park tends to be filled with very young, very loud people. We experienced a couple of those last year, and it wasn't a whole lot of fun. I think maybe this summer we will try for trips during the week, rather than on weekends, and then I'll plan on doing my shifts at the hospital on the week ends. So, that is my very un-stashy stash report. (giggle) And, even though this really isn't a true "Stash Report", I'm still linking with Judy's Patchwork Times Stash Report.

Grandbaby days

Thursday afternoon, I hopped on a bus and took the trip up to spend some time with Noel and Laurie and Avery. Scott wasn't able to come up due to issues with his brother, who is ill, and needed him near by. But the bus trip wasn't bad, at all. I had my Kobo ereader with some books from the library loaded onto it, and I was quite content to sit and read. The best part, though, was looking after Avery all day Friday while Noel and Laurie were at work. He is such a fun and happy little guy. The only time he gets grumpy is when he is tired, at which point he goes into his bed, without a fuss, and goes to sleep. I know it took some doing on Laurie's part a few months ago to get him to this stage, since at that time he had a really difficult time going to bed and settling. But she persevered, and it worked.

I have decided that I really need to invest in a new camera. The one I have has a lag time between when I push the button to take the photo, and when it actually does. Any suggestions for a good, inexpensive one without that annoying lag time? Every time I go to get a picture of Avery, by the time the camera actually takes the picture, the picture I wanted is gone. Very frustrating. I seem to do better with using my camera to get videos of him, since that way I don't have to actually try and get a single picture. I got one of him feeding himself his lunch yesterday. And, since I have nothing quilty to show, I'll show him, instead. Besides which, he's an awful lot cuter and more fun to watch, than any of my quilts. But, then again, I'm a terribly biased and proud Grammy.

Stash report Week 11, 2012

The damage that I did to my stash numbers arrived in the mail this week, so now I have to add it to the purchased column. Yikes!! That was a lot of fabric, but it's pretty, and it's fun, and I've already started to use some of it. I had a sampler in mind that I've wanted to do for a while, called Aunt Lucy's Medallion. I started cutting and piecing the center section last night, and hope to get it finished, the center, that is, today. And I used up a little bit for the New York Beauties, as well. And then, for the rest of today, I want to get the quilt Gratitude finished. I think that's a do-able list for the day.

Used this week:                       .6 yards
Used this year:                         21.9 yards
Added this week:                     27.5 yards
Added this year:                     84.5 yards
Balance:                                   62.6 yards more in than out. Definite Yikes!! Good thing I'm not trying to reach a zero balance, or anything like that, or I'd be in serious trouble. LOL!!

And now, Just because I can, and he's so cute, here's a gratuitous grandson pic, of Avery after eating blueberry pancakes and prunes. Apparently, he went right from having this picture taken, to the bath tub. I wonder if any of it actually went into him, rather than on him? Laurie posted this pic yesterday on Facebook, and I just had to grab it and share it. I'm linking up to Judy's stash report Sunday at Patchwork Times

Design Wall Monday Jan 30

There is nothing new on my wall. I am continuing to work on getting Endless Chain finished before the end of the month. There are 5 rows sewn together and pressed, with 4 more to go. I am hoping to have this thing done by tomorrow, which means I will meet my goal of having this UFO finished in January. If I do, there will be a picture of the finished quilt on the reveal for the January UFO projects that Judy Laquidara at Patchwork Times will be hosting in a couple of days. Although, obviously, there is no way it will get quilted in that time. So it will go and join all its other friends on the growing mountain of unquilted tops. Since I have yet to come up with a plan for how to quilt it, that isn't necessarily a bad thing. And it sure won't be lonely on that mountain of quilts. Although the picture of the quilt is an older one, I do have some new, fun grandbaby pictures, of Avery eating Greek yogurt with bananas in it. He loved it. He couldn't get it fast enough. But his aim was a bit off. LOL!! He is very independant, and wants nothing to do with someone else putting that spoon in his mouth. He has to do it himself, and it sure is a whole lot of fun to watch. I'm linking up to Judy's Design wall Monday linky at Patchwork Times

Warning....... proud Grammy post....

We are having a wonderful visit here with Noel and Laurie and Avery this weekend. Avery is so smart, and so much fun and so cute. (I did warn you about the proud Grammy stuff) We had a lot of fun watching him have his first taste of peas on Thursday night. The expressions on his face were priceless.


What are these things, Grammy?

They're called peas, angel boy.



OK, I'll try them....



Grammy, I don't think I like this.....



Eeeuuuwww........ it's stuck on my tongue, Grammy....



How do I get rid of it??

Somehow, I don't think peas were a hit.

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.