Saturday, September 26, 2009

SUNRISE ON THE LAKE, SEPT. 26, 2009






When we awoke this morning, the sky looked like this!


So we decided that the red sky in the morning meant only one thing....bad weather was coming.


So we are leaving the lake today sometime. Before we cross the lake in bad weather as we
don't have protection from rain on the boats.

We are tough!

See the plant hanging from the deck? It started
out looking like an ordinary plant. I think it's
related to the petunia family. I don't know, but
one thing for sure, it sure grew over the summer
and is now over 6 ft hanging there and still
blooming and growing. I am going to buy one
next year for sure. I had some daisy type planter that has been long gone and you know I spent so much money on those planters!


The basket with bidens and million bells is still in full bloom. But since we are heading home for a few days, I think that we will have frost so that will be the end of the flowers for this year. Sigh!





Now what do I put in that box? I received this
from my sister in law Kim for my birthday. She
gave it to me last weekend. It matches some of
the sofa cushions that I covered this summer.


She didn't know I had that pattern in the great room.
How cool is that?



And Mary who bought me this watch in the summer and actually kept it for a couple of months gave me this a couple of weeks ago.


I have this thing about watches. "Nana, not another watch" is what the Olympic girl said this
morning when she called.....I must have about 15
watches, almost all of them run too! None are very expensive, but the main thing in the last
few is that I can see the time without having to
search for my glasses!




This one I can see without even stretching my arm out....I love it.


I received money from the sweetie to do with what I want....Fabric for sure.

Thanks so much for sharing this birthday with me! I am touched!

Friday, September 25, 2009

FREE MOTION QUILTING, IS WHAT IT'S CALLED!


When I started this little quilt last year out of just scraps of this and that, I was thinking a lap quilt is all.
Of course things change when I start thinking and the brain gets really thick! Oh yeah, this photo looks so amazing doesn't it? It's supposed to look awesome because I decided to do something different in my "free motion quilting" thing.
Remember a few days ago I mentioned a site
called by that name? Well she is doing 365 days
of free motion designs......Yeah, and this one
is supposed to be easy. How hard can the
"beginner" level be? I says to the slow moving
brain yesterday.

This is supposed to be "sea grass" or some such thing as for the life of me I forget and am too embarrassed to go back and look at the real thing on her blog.....Not only that, but for the first time since this is a small quilt, I decided to add a piece of what would have been the front to the back.
Well, now I think that the back looks better than the front. I just didn't think I should photo the back but now, it looks better and better.
I finished the binding in bright (oh yeah, bright)
yellow to take away from the free motion (sic)
quilting I did.
Ok, here's a hint to anyone attempting something
like this.....try a 12" square instead of 3 ft square
dahhhhhhhh! I did practice for about 45 minutes
and on a small piece of scrap, I was booting it at
a great pace, you know steady, meandering (I
think that's her word not mine!) and thought
it was time to "go for it"
Lesson....try to just do the sashing as the "sea grass" for starters!
Lesson...Don't show it to the sweetie. "It looks like a signal flag!"....."Oh you messed up with the back did you?"....."Oh it looks good!" (Too late for any sucking up now .......sweetie)
He is heading to the dock with a glass of wine for me....fat chance of THAT happening.....oh, geez, I probably need two of those!




On a lighter note, we are heading home next week for a few days, so I will have a break to renew my "creative" juices...OMG!
Oh, and a happy birthday to me tomorrow, along with about 8 other people I know. But none as old as me....who cares?




Wednesday, September 23, 2009

SWANKY CHEZ MOI....FINISHED!

When I started this quilt, I think I was in a
great place for creating. Not only did it turn
out better than I expected, but it really is so
just plain pretty!



I used up one 1200 yds roll of thread give or take a bobbin or so. Just to do the stippling was 12 bobbins! Thank goodness for the Janome winding of spools, it is so efficient!


I had a hard time deciding to even just open the Jelly Roll, let alone what I was to do with it! I decided to do a coin quilt. I used one of my
favorite fabrics for the backing in yellow. It really makes the quilt look kind of delicate even
though it's fairly bright.




Oh and I tried to photograph it sort of like BGH magazine front.. oh well it's finished. It took me almost three days to just do the stippling because I decided to do it close.


I have another sort of coin quilt top to finish as it was started with scraps of left overs in the winter and speaking of the "W" word, I must move along because I think we will have only a few weeks left here at the cottage.


I was sewing this afternoon and looked out the
window and noticed that this tree turned colour
overnight! OH OH!


We started out with thunder and lightning to
go with the rain this morning, but this afternoon
wow!, The sun is out and a light breeze to dry
the deck and it's truly beautiful.....70 degrees and
it's almost September 26th....my birthday.



We are heading to the dock for the rest of the afternoon since it's so sunny down there!


thanks for stopping by!













Tuesday, September 22, 2009

GLAD FOR GLADS!


Before the new neighbours left for the week, they invited a few of us for dinner on Sunday night. Now our hostes is a vegetarian...Well she does eat fish and chicken making sure that her girls who are also veggies get the proper amount of protein to their diets.
Anyway, she served the most amazing beef tenderloin (she sure knows good beef) wrapped in procuito and portabello mushrooms with some secret spices I am sure...So absolutely yummy I tell you.
Best of all her darling guy who always brings her flowers such as those glads that you see in the photo, that now grace my kitchen table and is the most knowledgable guy about wine that we know here at the cottage, and come to think of it anywhere. So Helen, who was there too has decided along with me that we could seriously become red winos!
Kent served a french wine that is called Rasteau and I have no idea the cost, but both Helen and I are heading to the wine store to look it up. I am writing the name here so that I never forget what it's called...Think of Rasta ....you know and it wil stay in my head for a good while. He also had a few other wines, he could reply the country, the areas it came from and where one could get it in the liquor store. He did say that the french Rasteau may only be in stores that have what is called "vintage" wines...
Kent also brings both Helen and I flowers all summer. Isn't he just special? Young guy too and so full of energy! So thanks for the wine lessons!
I am just about finished stippling my coin quilt....14 bobbins so far so you know I've been busy with close work. I told my sweetie to come look at the work this morning and said that I had stippled westies in my work! He said I needed a break as I was seeing things! No, honestly, I did a few westies in the quilt and it was easy. I am now, after making 15 quilts and stippling most of them pretty good at it now, so my next one will be kind of loopy.
I have a few more tops to finish and am also done the nine patch squares for the second round of nines with Crazy Mom Quilts! I am going to add white borders to the Oh Cherry Oh! because the white will make me more comfortable putting all those patterns together. I do think I will make them a narrow sashing though as it's better than too big a sash.
It's a warm but rainy day at the cottage today, so it's a good day to quilt. I wish my fingers didn't get so sore hand working, but Penny from Harmony Hopes suggested getting some soft surgical tape to put on my finger. I am heading to Huntsville, so will look for it at Shoppers Drug Mart. A good suggestion.
Oh and I am planning Thanksgiving which is October 10th weekend for us here in Canada. I hope I can find a large turkey this week and keep it frozen for the next couple of weeks. We are planning on a gang of teens, so they eat!

Monday, September 21, 2009

DON'T EVEN ASK!




Don't even ask how stupid I am! I have been trying to download photos since last week only to realize just this minute that I must have pressed the "edit html" button on the blog and then did something else and lost the ability to download photos.


OMG! I have been so frustrated, even deleted Picasa from the computer (am going to reinstal) and can't even mention how many times I tried to post a photo!



Oky doky then. See the little houses? Well I happened to mention to Helen that I had seen this little house quilt on Crazy Mom Quilts and said that I thought this was the cutest thing for her granddaughter who loves little houses and paper dolls! So of course, she has been "playing house " this weekend. Her creative juices are in full swing when it comes to her grandkids. I just love the houses and she has her templates of course and is so organized. After I post this, I am on my way over to her cottage to see what else she's doing! I can walk over because the
neighbours who don't like us to walk on the island aren't there so we are all enjoying the path .


The second photo is fabric that I purchased last time in the city to make a couple of quilts for the boys in my heart! I haven't a clue what I'm going to do but, I had Alex (granddaughter) pick this out. I also have red to add to it. Man, what I do should be called disorganized creative quilting! Honestly, why do I do that? Anyway, the boys will be pleased to get "boy" quilts for their laps.

The little westie pillow was done by Helen for my sweetie! He helped her sweetie put in a new shower at her cottage and since we have the wonder dog Wilson, she made this little gem!

Iam finishing a coin quilt which I am stippling quite close together. It's the swanky Chez Moi from Moda. Gosh that company sure puts together lovely stuff. I should have that ready in a couple of days.


It's great to be back in blogland as you know, you all make my days complete!