THE WORKSHOP....

Here's the shop. As I said he is a bit of a neat kind of guy and it is organized and looks amazing with everything in its place after the large project that my guy finished. The lift is finished with only the small deck needing staining.

I must tell you that there is a much larger shop at our home in the city...Yes he is a tool guy and does amazing work as you have noted with the cottage stuff that has been built here.

I did tell you that the screwdrivers were lined up in their places too. Won't work for me though...I usually pick up 4 or 5 for my needs. One of them should work....that's my theory....

Because there has been major building going

on for the past number of years, we have used

everything (note the word we) that is here.

There is a bit left over of stuff, but always keep

spare parts on an island that is 2 hours from a

local home Depot.

Just thought you'd know I wasn't exagerating when I said...it's a workshop.

I stored a lot of quilting stuff there last year when guests came and I just didn't have room for them and my quilting boxes too.

So I know how lucky we are here in this family to have someone like him who is such a craftsman and actually loves doing projects.

We even have a generator here in case the power goes out so we can at least have coffee and hot showers in the morning....what more can one ask for?

A BUSY BUSY DAY. THURSDAY

I tell you, when the energy level is high, I just don't know when to stop.



I received this lovely fabric from Jane and just didn't know what to do with it till now. Since I am in love with nine patch quilts these days, this will make a lovely quilt. I am going to use white sashings for these squares.




Jane sent this along with a very pretty little quilt that sits on the table in the kitchen here at the cottage. It is very admired I tell you.



I will have a variation of these colours in the

quilt as I go along and maybe can find some

white with little dots or flowers to just set

it off.



I am on a roll I tell you.



I also made a couple of bags in about an hour, cut and finished too. I lined them as the first ones I made didn't have the thickness I wanted. They are sturdy, but don't have the stability look of these one. So easy and the second one even got a pocket....See the photo with the staging of said bag.



It will probably be given away this weekend as

I am taking them home to get an opinion of what

can be done to them to enhance their use.



I actually think I will put side pockets in them

too. That would be good for shopping etc.

I found the straps at Fabricland for $.23 per metre....I took everything they had and have it in blue and beige...This is fun. The strapping was about $1.99 regular...so it was a great find.

I think I may make some deeper ones next, but using the same style as this. The will make great gifts when we go to dinner at friends..

Since I was on a roll today, I pieced all the remaining blocks I had left over of the black quilt I made. Oh and speaking of the quilt. I got two rows reversed, so I must take it apart. I hope it isn't going to be too much work.. I am an expert at picking, but it's not my favorite thing you know. I didn't know of the error,didn't see it as it's so busy until I looked at the blog photo...You don't want to know what I said....

I am writing this in the evening awaiting my sweetie to come in from the workshop...He has lots of energy too these days...a good thing we are going home for a few days to learn to relax again.

ANOTHER DAY AT THE COTTAGE

Yesterday was a sunny warm day at the cottage.

My sweetie is running out of big jobs to do so he has been cleaning out his workshop. Yeah that's it there and it is so tidy! I can't believe he has all the screwdrivers all lined up in sizes and what kind they are! Oh, yeah my family can as he is very organized...right Kelly? Anyway, we had this umbrella that we bought when we first came to the cottage...It was useless at the dock as if a little breeze came up and I mean little breeze, the thing would do what umbrellas do and we'd have to take it down. It was quite expensive and we could not discard it at all. We also had to replace one of the base parts in the first monthe we had

it because of the wind....So, it's been under the

cottage for about 9 years. It looked mouldy and

at first my sweetie just thought it might not be

feasible to fix it.

Well, we took the fabric part off and put it in the

wash and it came out perfect. A bit of cleaning

a new rope to raise it and now he has shade at

the workshop....I think he's going to move in

there as he loves the fact that it's a clean shop,

it has a view of the lake and the flowers.

Speaking of....did you note the way I moved

on to the next topic? Well the bee balm is

out in bloom and the hummingbirds should

be able to find them anytime now. I have

not see one at the flowers, but I did see a

few yellow finches there yesterday at the

daisies...

The hummingbirds love the feeders and with the cool weathers we have been having they are quite vigorous eaters of the necter in the feeders.

This is what I put together yesterday. I am out of white fabric to complete a small quilt. Since we are heading home for a few days, I'll replenish my white and see if I can do something regarding the back of this quilt. I love the bright orange in the pieces. Orange is such a happy colour don't you think?

Yesterday was such a productive day.. I cleaned the cottage, even the floors got done and I still had energy to do the squares...I have been suffering a bit of arthritis and have started taking apple cyder vinegar...It tastes absolutely awful by the way....and I am for now pain free!

I hve no idea why it works like this, but I read on the web about it's benefits and so thought to try it. My girlfriend Dawn is going to try it too to see if it's a fluke that I'm without pain, also my daughter is going to test it too for her little aches and pains. It's a research program in progress.

Am off for a few days I think.

I had a bit of a problem with the blogger, so it's a bit wonky now. The post looked good before I started to fix it....

WILL YOU LOOK AT THIS ONE! WAHOOO!

Well yesterday, I put this top together. It's the Walmart fabric plus the black print that I wanted to make larger. However, it's a lap top size and it will be very dramatic when completed
.

We are heading home for the weekend so I'll shop for backing fabric. I think this has a modern look to it and I may use it in the house in the city.


I am now looking at another quilt top that is partly done and I brought it to the cottage so I may do that next, although Helen has a double irish quilt pattern set up for me.

I'm just a quilting fiend these days I tell you. I am in the groove after a, for me, seemingly long time not making quilts. It feels so good to be moving right along in my plans for what's in my head these days regarding quilting.


I am dreaming of what to do with the Jelly Rolls
that are in the mail. If you have any suggestions
of any you have done let me know. This is a
first for me.


I've posted that I make homemade Pizzas. They are
so very very good and you can make one one day
and make the other to put in the fridge for a
couple of days...And the second is sometimes so
much better I don't know why that is, but it
is so.


I got the recipe from Better Homes recipes last year and I ajusted a couple of things as I used to bake bread years ago in another life, so it was easy to do two or even three pizzas from this recipe.


It also can be made into rolls or bread, whichever you wish.


Here it is remember you can ajust a bit to the
humidity in your area...


1 cup warm water
1 tsp sugar
1 pkg or 1 tbsp yeast plus a bit more if you are using loose yeast. (regular yeast, not bread yeast)


In a bowl add water, stir in sugar till disolved and sprinkle yeast on this. Leave for 5-6 minutes.


3-4 cups all purpose flour (apps)
1 tsp salt
3 tbsp olive oil (or veg oil, but I prefer the olive oil)
1 large egg.


In a large mixing bowl, add egg, salt, olive oil and beat well. Then add yeast mixture to this mixing well.


Add 1 (one) cup flour and beat well.
Add another cup of flour and beat well. It will start to get a bit wonky in mixture and thick.
If your mixer will take it, add a bit more flour and beat again, otherwise.....


Put 1 cup of flour on the counter and pour out the pizza mixture and rub your hands in the flour and start to knead this for 5 minutes. To knead, keep dough moving in one direction for about 2 minutes. I knead this way, with my left hand I pull the dough to the centre as best I can and with my right hand rotate the dough to the left bottom part of the dough to the left. I move left to right so that's how I do it. Keep adding flour so that the dough doesn't stick to your hands and the counter. It will be smooth to the touch when you finish kneading.


While you are doing this, your large bowl should be filled with hot water so that your bowl is warm to put the dough in. Dry with a towel when finished kneading, add some olive oil, enough to coat the dough, top and bottom and sides. (about 1 1/2 tbsp should do it) Cover lightly.


Let rise 1 1/2 hours. Punch down and divide in half or quarters or mini pizzas, whatever size you want. I roll quite thin and this makes two large pizzas, each on a large cookie sheet.


Add your sauces etc, and bake at 375 for about 18-20 minutes. Delicious!


I think it's the egg that just makes this sortof like Pizza Hut dough.


If you have any questions, just ask me, now worries there.

ANOTHER QUILT FINISHED, FINALLY.

I finally finished the nine patch yesterday. I love the look of this quilt made from Walmart fat quarters, two bundles plus one of mine to be exact. It measures 62 x 65 approx.

The yellow in the sashings is a soft shade and I did the back plain yellow to just co ordinate the look I wanted.

I was trying to make it look like the two twin hand quilts that I posted earlier. The total effect is just a sweet little quilt.

I am today, going to work on the black quilt. After posting last week that I was looking for some striped black fabric, I decided that since it's just going to be a lap quilt, that what I have is sufficient to make a completed quilt once I add the black borders to it. Helen, (my private free teacher) was over yesterday and helped me with the layout and it's quite different. She made the design for me from her memories of blocks and I learned something different about this craft.

She also is completing a double irish chain quilt in soft pinks, with a pale little dotted centre and it is just so delicate in looks that I wanted to make one right away. Helen thought we should make it more modern in colours so it will be done as she saw the colours blending. I like the fact that Helen makes little coloured blocks out of paper for my lessons. She then helped me decide on the size etc once the fabric was picked. A good lesson yesterday about seeing blocks.

My friend has a Janome 9000 and since she is a hand quilter has never looked at whether the machine has free motion abilities such as the 6600 that I have. With her arthritis sometime hindering her mobility to do more than a small amount of hand quilting, she is moving to the machine for some of her tops that haven't been quilted. Does anyone know how this is model operates?

One of the best things that ever happened when my sweetie bought me the machine last year was to include the table....My goodness it really makes a huge and I mean huge difference when sewing quilts. Helen is looking for one for her machine or her sweetie will make one for her. I am actually going to have one made this winter to fit my other Janome. It will make those that come to sew with me able to have the comfort of the table.

Did I tell you that I finally ordered from Moda? Oh yeah, two, not just one Jelly Rolls. Oh Cherry Oh that I have admired while looking at blogs and loving the colours in the Jelly, so not only did I order one Jelly, but two and for the life of me cannot remember as I write this what the other was. But Helen has "Wonderland" which she has done in blocks already. So pretty that I may do mine like that too. The Fat Quarter shop had my Jelly on sale, along with the other so with the taxes, dollar exchange, I am saving quite a bit to have it shipped to Canada.

See you tomorrow dear friends.....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY KELLY MAE...

To the world she may be one person, but to me,
she is the world....

Yesterday was my little girl's birthday. When
she was born I just couldn't believe my luck to have given birth to this beautiful child. She had boundless energy from the get go and was a really good baby.



We have been close she and I. We are the best of friends as mother and daughter relationships go. And although we are very different in character, she being very definite in her ideas, we share the same values.


The little photo is of her pride and joy Courtney about 15 years ago. Look at us heh? There is Jeremy just born and she can't believe she has these two wonderful children.

I tried to post this yesterday but couldn't download photos for some reason, so that's why I am a day late posting.


You know, I read blogs about how we feel about our children and how much love we have for them, but when it comes to me describing my girl, I am blocked, I have joy in my heart to this day, but cannot express the words to pen (or blog) . So just take my word for it...

I am hand finishing the nine patch this morning when I finish here and will take a photo of it somewhere on the deck of the cottage if I dare to venture out in the cold. I don't know about you all, but we have had a cold, damp, dismal summer. Where is the global warming that we hear about? We usually are in the high 70s to the mid 80s by this time of year...Really. We have had maybe 3 days of that...Storms are all over North America.



Oh, I logged onto "Human Space Flight Sightings" and if you put your local city in, you can see the space shuttle going over your area. One cannot miss it as it's very very bright in the night sky. Fabulous, and the site states the times the angles, so have a look. Last night it was so close it seemed overhead.



The bee balm is just starting to bloom and if I had more that 3 hummingbirds they would be feasting but as it stands, because of the cold summer we are having the birds are somewhere else for the summer.



Did I tell you we have wild turkeys here on the island? Well they seem to come around at night and the dog from you know where goes nuts, so we have not been getting the sleep we normally get. At least they don't do damage like the beavers...The expert at the lake here says that beavers don't like deep open water.....oh yeah? Well tell that to the ones we have here who swim (I've seen them) across about a quarter mile of deep deep water and even tried to eat a large oak....the neighbours had to put chicken wire around the oak for fear that the bloody beaver (aka Bernie) would take a fifty foot oak to his lady....really, I must take a camera over there.