MOTHERS!

 Mother's day is always a time of reflections for me.

My mother loved geraniums because they were so hardy, easy to keep, and forever colourful.  I always have them on the deck of the cottage, and think of her often!

My mother was a beauty!  She had a brunette colouring, different from me, and always loved clothes when she
grew up.

She grew up in New Brunswick,
She was a country girl with the love of the city life for years.  She moved to the Virgin Islands when she was 50 years old, opened a bar, and served the first lobster sandwiches in the BVI.

She said that her love of lobster had led her to order a small lobster sandwich when shopping in
Buffalo in the 50s.  It was served on
a hotdog bun.

When she opened her bar on the shores of Cane Garden Bay, she started serving the sandwich but on a much larger scale, and so incredibly yummy that people came from far and wide to have them, along with her great rum punches and pin colados.

She wined and dined a lot of people in her business there, one of which was Jimmy Buffet, while he was young an wild on his first Savannah Jane.  But that's another story.

She lived a life that many of us dream of, on an island in the Caribbean, on the beach no less.

She passed away at the age of 94.  I wish I had spent more time with her now.  She was formidable!

NINE PATCH FINISHED

THIS IS A POST FROM 2009, IT POPPED UP TODAY ON MY BLOG!  AN YOU WONDER WHY I HAVE BLOGGING PROBLEMS....HONESTLY!

I finished the nine patch yesterday afternoon.

I just love the look of this colour. It's a soft

yellow in the sa!62 X 68 size of it too.

I posted a photo of my daughter and thinking

it was her daughter, but in fact the little girl is

another granddaughter and these two could pass

for sisters even today, so as a grandmother, I can

make mistakes. My daughter corrected me .....of course. But it was the thought that I went after.

I am today, piecing the black quilt blocks and really even though I needed the striped fabric to make it larger, it's going to be a large lap quilt by the time I put the border sashings on it. My friend Helen (my private free teacher) helped me put it together.

I learned that not all fat quarters are the same size too. I also learned that cutting one way or the other determined a totally different count in block sizes. Some fate quarters at the local quilt shops around here are larger than the Walmart ones.

Did I tell you I bought two Moda Jelly Rolls? Oh my goodness am I excited or what. This is big time quilting for me. It was the Oh Cherry Oh that did it. It was on sale at the Fat Quarter Shop as was another Jelly, so I ordered the two.

A FEW EXTRA QUILTS!

I have a few quilts that are, well, extras!  I made some of them years ago, hung on to them because of the fabrics really.  I liked the fabrics!  Does that happen to you?

The top right hand one is from my original purchase at Value
Village (like Sally Anne) and I kept this quilt because the back is from a sheet and I loved the little flowers, but my tastes have changed, I am culling and these are "extras" I think.

One of them is quite large, a big double, from the days when I had my Janome 600, new to my life of a quilter.

The others are just, well, others.
But how does one say to a friend, um, do you want one of these for your home?

My darling Kelly has so many, and a lot of those are ones picked up by granddaughter.  (I need to borrow this one Nana)...

I have more quilts around here at the cottage, but there is no room on the shelf.  

I really am stressing over this.  Maybe my other granddaughters would like one or two.


I have written about my friend Helen a few times, she of the teaching patiently to this person, and how extremely talented she is in most things.  This is a paper shoe!  She made this as a stress relief in the winter, and then made about a dozen of them as a table setting for a dance at her community centre!  Yes, she has a big talent.   I love this little shoe!  Never can I ever wear heels again, so looking at it is of memories gone forever!

At the cottage, we get such boring sunsets at times!  Haha, they are sometimes so spectacular that many people post on our FB page about the lake.  Well Sunday night, this was ours from our deck!  The photo does not do it justice, because it was hard to tell the sky from the water.

We have set up our sunroom, so my days of quilting are about to begin.  I hope we get some warmer weather soon.  Where is spring?

ALL THESE QUILTS!

This is just a little pile of quilts that are on a shelf in the living room of the cottage.

The reason is that I don't know what to do with most of them, well the purple one on the bottom is a keeper, but the others are just others!

My friend Helen, well as fast as she makes them, she gives them away, but I have already given many away and as I create more, I have more. 

What to do is always a dilemma and I would like to offer them to a couple of people that have been very kind to us, but do they really want quilts?  Not everybody uses them in their decorations.

It's a tough one as my quilting season is just beginning once again.  We shall see.

We have had great weather.  Yesterday, the lake was a bit breezy, and an east wind seems to bring chilly days, but then last night at sunset, the lake became clear as glass, and this sunset photo is what I saw for about 10 minutes.   It was glorious which doesn't really show up in the photo.

On our local lake FB page there were many photos such as the above one as everyone was experiencing the same thoughts....we are in a little piece of paradise.

Spring seems to have arrived.

ARTS AND CRAFTS.

Art, it is the beauty in the eye of
beholder!

The artist Joaquin Sorollo y Batista, Spanish, is one of my favourites of all time.  This painting was done in the early 1900.  

The one I have is a print similar to this is also a beach scene.  I picked it up about 30 years ago, had it for ages, never thought to frame it as it was a $10.00 purchase at a frame shop that was going out of business.

I finally had it framed about 10 years ago and I love it.  It always reminded me of my daughter although she is my only girl.  I should take a photo of it to post sometime.    The artist reminded me of Andrew Wyeth, who is also one of my favourites.

The second little picture is from Sanibel Island artists.  There must be a tonne of shells there as people are always posting photos of their painted shells.   I think they mainly use markers which would get pretty expensive I think because the markers are not happy to paint on shells as they get roughed up.

But, I have shells here and do plan to get paints to colour them up.

Another chilly, (alright cold) day.  We have a breezy east wind which does not lend itself to warmth.  So we are staying inside mainly with the wood fire burning.  

Spring cleaning is in my thoughts, mostly here we cull and cull some more as for some reason we seem to get "stuff" and wonder where to put it all.   I cleaned out my clothes closet today although, I had started it last fall before we left for Florida.  I didn't miss anything that I put in the box, so it is off to Sally Anne.

It is good to be writing again, and I have noted that some of my favourite blogs have also gone on hiatus.  I totally understand that sometimes we just run out of stuff to write.   

Have a great day, and please send warmth to our little piece of heaven....7 days till humming birds return.

SPRING AT THE COTTAGE

 When we returned to the cottage, the sunrises are always a source of amazement that we are so fortunate to have come to this place.

Our lives are so much at peace here.  We work harder here than we would if we were in the city scene, but would not have it any other way.

Each spring brings new ideas, new projects, but as is the case when life takes over, many of these do not get done.

But, the beauty on the right is my summer project to do.  When Old navy has sales, I will be there to buy all the flip flops I need to make the wreath.  It is so cute and I got it from a craft site some time over the winter.  I love it.  

I also will be making a memory quilt for my niece, who has given me two huge bags of her daughter's baby clothes.  I will be starting that little project as soon as we can access our sunroom which looks like a storage room at the moment.

The lake is quiet, not many people have come back for the season as yet.  Actually, the weather has not been warm enough for any but the most hardy souls.  (that is us)  We have a warm wood fire on most of the time, as we await the true spring weather.

Good to be back.