JUST A LITTLE STRIPPIE

I love to stipple, but am getting a bit bored with it as I do different quilting.



So I decided to practice some new ways to move my free motion foot. I practiced on a small piece and then came up with two different patterns, to work on the smaller of the strips.



I'm quite happy with them and I took my time as I have
a tendency to work fast in free motion spirit.

I have tried stitch in the ditch, but have a bit of trouble

with the stitch length. The stitches seem to be too tight

when I set the tensions. My instructions don't say how long they should be. How long should they be I wonder?


This little quilt is for a teenager who suffers from seizures and loves pink! My granddaughter suggested the coloursfor her and was supposed to help with the quilt, but other than the colours,she just didn't have the time. So knowing her school workload and her workout
schedule I realized that before she leaves for training
camp that there would be no way for her to make time to do this, so with love, I made it for her.





You can see the three different patterns on the back. I stippled the largest strip but will definitely do a few more patterns in the future. 365 days of free motion quilting offers so many ideas and I can incorporate which ever I like....with practice.



Today is the start of the Olympics! This will be two weeks of watching the "youth" of the world trying to do their best! Here in Canada, we will have hours and hours of coverage, not just prime time. It's a shame that countries do pay that amount of money, but only provide a couple of hours a day.


I have the knitting needles ready for some serious socks as I shall be glued to the tv for the next couple of weeks.

WILL YOU LOOK AT THIS?

I just popped in to visit one of my new blogging friends, Patchmaker Quilts. (see my blog list) and she has posted a few photos that she uploaded of these albino moose in Nova Scotia.




Not just one but a few and look, no snow on the ground.
Read her story as it's better detailed than what I could say as I don't paraphrase very well. The memory forgets quickly.





The house is finished! We are back to normal in every
sense of our being. The basement is a bit of a mess, but I was down there this morning and sorted through some of the excess. I think we will be having our first garage sale this spring. I have no idea how one goes about doing one, but I am sure with the help of my daughter and Mary that we can be successful. It's not that I have so very much, but some of our stuff is just too good to take to Goodwill.






Did I tell you of the absolutely best thing about the painting? No? Well here it is. About 6 years ago, while we were still at our "big" house, I lost a pair of earings, gold hoops that I'd had since 1961. I remember because it was the year Kelly was born. Anyway, I looked everywhere for them, and I mean everywhere in that house, all the drawers, closets and any little thing that I found, I would open it and look.




For the life of me, I just couldn't imagine what I'd done with them as I only have a few pairs that I wear at any time. I bought two pairs that year, one larger ones and a smaller pair (18k to boot) that I eventually gave to Kelly. So, I find this bathrobe that my sweetie has and it's been on a top shelf of his closet, as it was on the shelf of the "other" closet. I decided after all these years to wash it....as I am emptying the washer, I hear a clink! I look in the washer and...


OMG....I pull out one earing....I thought....what the .......... I shook the robe and the other earing fell on the floor.....I was whooping and hollering all over the house....sort of crazy dance too I think....and I am now wearing my absolutely favorite earings....Can you believe that? All those years, it's been in the pocket of a bathrobe that I probably wore twice in my life!




I'm happy!

MEREMEKO QUILT IS FINISHED!

I finally finished this little quilt! It's the meremeko
fabric that I inherited from my grandmother's stash.



This fabric is prior to 1965 which is when she passed away. I used the black and whites to really show this off and my sweetie helped me lay it out.

I found out after I washed it that it actually shrank a bit, so I rewashed it and stretched it again and it now looks perfect.

I hate prewashing but this is a lesson learned isn't it?

So this morning while washing this quilt, I washed the rest of the fabric that I have, about 2 large fat quarters.

I actually got this idea from Bumble Beans as she has some similar patterned quilts, so thanks to her I am quite in love with this pattern. It would lend itself to a jelly roll too, like Helen's quilt that I posted last week.

PAINTED HOUSE ALMOST FINISHED!

Last week when the house was white and the painter came, I really wasn't prepared for the changes that were about to happen!


I tell you, I wasn't excited, as I liked the white house that I've been living in for four years. It was simple, every room matched and even though my daughter, grand daughters, and even Mary, (the neighbour) said we needed colour, neither my sweetie or I put much thought into it.


But I tell you that once it was decided that we needed
sprucing up, well the colours were picked with me saying
"ok, whatever you want" type of thing to the colours that
the man of the house picked.



Well he did a great job! The yellow walls look fabulous!
I feel like I'm in a new house.
Everything is so bright, and as each room was completed my sweetie cleaned and polished everything that went back into the rooms.

We don't have that many rooms as our house is very open plan as I've told you before, however the result has been amazing! I love the colours that he picked.



Now the best part for me was the bedroom. We had
bought a new king size mattress last spring from Sleep
Country (for those that are American, it's a large and
very popular shop here in Canada) and had a lot of
trouble with it. We paid a lot of money so having the
feeling of going uphill each night was not what we
wanted.


So we went back and without any fuss, they exchanged the mattress. Now of course the dilemna that we all face when we buy a 15 " mattress, is that the duvets or bedspreads, or blankets that fit nicely on our 9 or 10 inche mattress of past is that they don't fit any more.

Our duvet was goose down, but only 100" wide. It barely covered the sides of the new mattress. So Mary and I went shopping for super size bedding. Well I found this which measured 114 " across and it's perfect with a new silk duvet to boot! I couldn't be happier.

I am beginning to feel that like Murphy Brown, that the painter lives with us and is never going to leave. He says each day, well the last two anyway that it's his last day, but he's coming back tomorrow ( Monday). Well he's no Eldon, kinda cute though, but I want my house back!

I must rise and shine each morning early, showered and dressed before 8:15, and you can imagine the man of the house rising that early now that we are retired, well, tomorrow is his last day or else!

I'm sewing but have not had time to do much as you can imagine. Tomorrow as Scarlet says is another day!