I NEED ONE OF THESE T.SHIRTS!

These illustrations were done by Gary Glassbergen which goes to show that some men really really do "get" women! I loved these and do have a few more sent to me this morning by my friend who is in Florida. Dawn has been in Florida for about 2 months now, escaping the frigid north .

It's funny but in the world of blogging and emails these take on a life of their own. I received an email this morning also about a woman running for ovarian cancer. Basically it's an awareness email and being forwarded around the world. So I did send it on to a few others in my life.

I don't get too many what we would call "junkers" that I delete because most of the people who do send them to me know that I really love play on word jokes the best, and not too long of stories as I do have a short attention span.

I've spent the last half hour with new "friends" in the blogging world. Just popped over to visit a few and see what they're doing, how they are feeling etc. Kept a few in my favorites to see if I post them on the side bar to visit more often.

I did go visit Mary Quilts. She just got back from visiting her mom and since she does Heartstrings projects, she found a box of tops that are fabulous in the least in her mail box yesterday! People are so generous to be so involved in charities.

The weather being a mild gray day here in Whitby is going to be a sewing day for me and maybe lunch with my sweetie. We have been watching what we eat lately and he now knows that "what's that green stuff?" is good for him and eating more of it! So we are going to eat out!

Have a good weekend folks.

For me I shall be thinking of my Uncle Rolland's family in Montreal who are celebrating his life of 87 years. He passed away this week! A life well lived.

LEARNING A LESSON

When I first started quilting and I say that loosely, I didn't have a clue what I was doing except trying to sew 1/4" seams, and keep the blocks "fairly" straight. I also never did a sample block until, of course being me, I had cut out a thousand or so little squares. Keep in mind that I had a rotary cutter, and a small cutting mat about 12 X 14, and a small 12" ruler. So you know how long it took me to cut my first quilt.

I still have some of the orange and white squares from that original quilts and some of the squares in various orange shades from the second and some reds and so on.

So, today, I decided to copy the old quilt design and make it up. I decided on the colours of the small squares, the side squares and then did two for my sweetie to see which he liked the best as he has a good colour sense.

He picked the blue because of the blue in the side squares. He thought that even though the colours in the dots were right, the total effect just didn't work and when I produced the blue, he really like it.

Of course I didn't tell him that I had already cut out all the 4 1/2" centre squares of dots, but no matter they will find a home.

I also have been calling the strips between the rows of squares "sashing" and in fact they are called strips. Thanks to all my friends for not telling me the proper term. Since this is a day of learning, I found it out by reading a book on quilting this morning with coffee. I think this pattern is called prairie queen as best I can tell. An old pattern too and one that of course my grandmother would have made.

I did talk to an aunt yesterday who has had a quilt repaired that my grandmother made in indeed she sometimes made the stitches almost between 1/4 and 1/8 inches in her sewing and therefore you know it's pretty hard to do the repairs on 1/8" squares.

We are having above freezing temperatures today for I think the first time since December. There were many people out this morning walking in the sunshine feeling the warmth.

Quote of the day..."I never hated a man enough to give him back his diamonds!" Zaza Gabor.

Me neither I think!

THIS IS A CROC!

Did I ever tell you of my love affair with Crocs? Well I have about 6 pairs of them because they are so comfortable and easy to wash and cheap to buy for summer accessories.

The orange pair is probably the most comfortable of the sandals. the strap is wide and sturdy. I wear them the most in the summer.

I am ordering the green pair from my friend in Florida as we can't get them here in Canada. Not the Patra style anyway.

The other sandal I like is the Cleo, it's almost the same as the other but in softer material. It is also really comfortable.

Of course I have a few of the regular crocs and even a couple of the fur lined ones too. I just throw them in the wash and they come out looking good as new.

I am thinking spring and summer here so it's time to look at what I need to get ready for the "season".

I also shopped a couple of years ago at Jams World and got a couple of dresses direct from Hawaii and even a few shirts for my sweetie. His shirts are REALLY loud! He is always complimented on my good taste to put him in pineapple and birds of paradise shirts! They are expensive, but last forever.

My son and granddaughter popped in yesterday on what was to be a visit to my mother in the nursing home, see the rest of the family and drive about 120 miles home. Well plans changed and they are sleeping still. We told tall tales till past midnight and I finally just collapsed into bed as I am not a night owl.

I am awake and feel awful from lack of sleep but I couldn't go back to bed so I am finishing this, making coffee and picking at the old squares. It's a pyjamas day for me.

ANOTHER WHITE QUILT.

I had done a similar quilt a couple of weeks ago. This is what is left of all those squares I cut that when they were put together.....well, a dog wouldn't have had it for breakfast!

So, I added white to it all and look what happens, it's a beauty. The others had blues that popped it and this time, I wanted to use pink to do justice to the work.

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I have believe it or not some little squares left over of the cutting that I did when cutting. My math is so awful, that I swear, I don't know how I ever passed out of public school all those years ago! Or maybe it's age and it's gone and long forgotten what I learned.

I like the size of about 45 X 50, just a lovely lap quilt. You know what the sweetie said right? "Oh it's a keeper, we

could hang it on the wall at the cottage!" Just so you know the only wall that we could possibly hang a blanket on a wall is one living room wall, all the rest of the walls are either windows or the room is too small for putting up a quilt!

I've pretty well decided to try a couple of the suggestions regarding the fixing of the old quilt. I will try to see if I can possibly do some hand quilting, and I use that term loosely. I have never done it before, so it could be a challenge. I also have a stitch on my machine that kind of looks like the hand sewed look, so I may experiment. I am still picking it apart and it's going to take time.

My new Janome 6600 is very sick with a terrible fever. It just quit yesterday with lots of directions as to what to do, but no avail. We are going to the hospital tomorrow as they are closed on Mondays. We didn't know that and my sweetie drove over there this morning while I was with Courtney, the granddaughter in training, to have a bone scan of sorts, which showed that she has a small stress fracture. She is off to Florida training camp for 5 weeks and cannot run, so the trainers will have her do different cardio stuff I suppose.

OMG, it was 5 above zero F. this morning! The wind chill put it into double digit minus's.! What is going on here? I want spring and want this winter gone for the next 8 months, am I asking too much? All over North America we are in this chill.

Quote of the day..."Sometimes when I look at my children, I say to myself, 'I should have remained a virgin'." Lillian Carter, mother of Jimmy Carter, (I think she was speaking of the other brother though)

REPAIRING THE OLD QUILT..

This is the old quilt that I have started to fix not restore as the sashing is just too thin to keep or repair.
I have taken most of the blocks that could be saved apart and kept the others for piecing if need be of the kept blocks.

Here is my delemna, because these squares are 40 yrs old and much used and loved, I wonder if I fused them onto a muslin fabric if that would strenghten the block? You think it would?

The pattern is quite simple, and I am able to piece those squares that have possibilities. I think I will end up with 12-16 squares. One of them I would like to put in a frame for my aunt and uncle to keep. I saw that somewhere while searching for a remedy to the quilt.

The batting was virtually gone from the inside, it was all in strips and I will put new batting, new sashings, and match the back to the sashings. The colour now is pale yellow which
I suspect was a muslin fabric due to the look of it. It certainly
must have been a bit brighter in its day, but I can't find a yellow
to even come close, and creamy white is not an option either.
So I have a small green and cream checked fabric which I think
will just do the quilt and look really good.

I had this batting and backing all over the family room this
morning and my sweetie just got the vacuum out! He admired
my patience, considering that my grandmother who did this
quilt used "scant" 1/4" and I mean "scant". I hope I can do
the blocks justice after I remove all the sashings and repair
the blocks.

So, what do you think, fuse the blocks? Can I then quilt
the block by machine? Should I stipple the quilt to strengthen
the fabric? Would stippling do that anyway?

I did take a square to a couple of shops to get an
idea of colour and the green that I chose really looks good with the blocks even though you see so much red with light blue, but each block has a soft green in it. It doesn't show so much in photos here, but it is there.