THE LOONS

Have you ever seen a loon? Have you heard them sing? They are quite facinating to watch and to hear their cry is wonderful on a quiet night on our lake in the summer.

These are amazing creatures. They live and breed in freshwater lakes but migrate to saltwater areas in the winter. We have a few hundred of these birds on our lake and it's such a treat to see one come along the shore about 50-100 ft out and then dive and come up so far away in such a short time.

The loons come north early in the spring and seem to know when it's time to leave in late October or even early November if the season is mild. The loons just seem to know when the first ice is going to spread on top of their lakes. They make nests along the shores of our lake, their young being so different in color sort of brown and fluffy. Sometimes they sleep on the backs of their mothers. Very very cute!

There are a few quilt patterns of these loons, but the best is done with a photo transfer I think and it would have to be a pillow size if I did one. But you know there are times when just seeing the real thing just makes my day!

We live about 6 miles out on an island in the summer and since our lake is very deep it can get rough and windy out that far so the loons don't come unless it's a calm quiet day and the lake will then echo with their calls. Sometimes we see all the young males in a group swimming along and since they don't have mates, they stick together for social time I think.

I have tried to take many photos of loons, but a telephoto is best because when we get too close they dive away. I will stop the motor and drift along and wait till the boat drifts closer to them. It takes so much patience and I am short on that, but the loons and hummingbirds are fun to watch as the hours go by on a lazy summer day.......Am dreaming again!

Oh and did I tell you that they like fish? I got this one from somebody who didn't take this photo, but it was sent to them. I can't believe it's real, but they are fearce fishers!

Enjoy your day.

BLOCKS AND WHITE QUILT

When I did the cut outs for this quilt, my original thought was to put them with nine patch squares of all the colours that you see here on this quilt. Well when I started to put the pieces together, it looked awful. Really awful.
So I changed plans and made the little white quilt(see side bar) just to see how it would look. It's only about 36 X 36 and looked really good.

So..... on to this one of using 6 1/2" squares with 2" white X 6 1/2 to border it and 4" white strips on the sides of each strip. It looks really good and Wilson just had to get into the photo and was very curious to see what I had put on the floor.

I am really pleased with the results and the quilt is about 60" square, with the striped blue and white on the back side it looks really good. I made diagonal binding again as it just finished this project. I had a hard time matching the diagonal pieces to look like the stripes were all going the same way. I think it's because I folded the fabric so some of the stripes are backwards to each other you know what I mean? Anyhow it still looks good.

Last night I watched the Grammy awards for the first time in years. And I mean years. I loved the show! Truely talented night of entertainment and I loved the combination of all the singers doing stuff that they don't normally do.

I loved Kid Rock's number and he was really a rocker as the saying goes. I must find some of his stuff in the next couple of days. Robert Plant and Alison Crouse were deserving of their award. Two really different people who came together and had incredible success.

Even the rappers didn't turn me off because they did entertaining (with me in mind) for masses that don't normally listen to them. Not that it made me change my mind about rap music, but it seemed that whoever was planning the show thought of how to best use the entertainers.

Coldplay had been on 60 Minutes last night and I had no idea who they really were and it certainly gave me an insite on this group. They are also good performers and then of course Sir Paul did his show and the place just jumped! He still has it and all the performers there loved his classic rock.

When the show finished, I had finished the hand sewing of the quilt. A good night.

A LITTLE BEAUTY

Just a little blog on this Saturday afternoon. My nephew and his wife presented me with my first grand niece. This is Kyla. But the biggest reason for posting her photo is that they are using the quilt I made for her when she was born. I worked hard to make it what her parents would like and to have received a photo of her on the quilt made my day.

For those of us who make quilts for love and affection and then pass them on for someone else to cherish, well a photo of the quilt with the person says it all.

For those of you who read this blog, look over on the left and go visit "getting stitched on the farm". I visit this blog daily to see the happening there on their sheep farm. You will love the comments and the photos too that accompany the blog. Christine, who writes so well, is a knitter and her farm and sunflowers have been in a couple of US magazines. I learned that a lot of the magazines that we love are called "shelter" magazines as they deal with the life of homes and families. Interesting. Read the blog, it's really good.

We have balmy weather today. I mean warm and the snow is melting. Please let it melt for a few more days. Please keep it warm for a few days too.

YOU CALL THIS SNOW?

Ok, I got some more photos of snow and I think that they were taken in northern Quebec. I don't know why but that's my thoughts from some of the shots.

I can't imagine this amount falling in Ontario even the north part of it, but some parts of Quebec do get humungus amounts and that's my story and I am sticking to it.

I had so many responses to the snow photos that I thought I would post a few more since I am working on a quilt and it's not ready to post as yet.

Imagine having to just throw the snow up over the snow bank and the path to the house is amazing. I do have one of the snow which blocks part of the window in the house. A later posting if possible.

So, for this Friday afternoon, with the temperatures becoming absolutely balmy, we are going into the plus temps by tomorrow and to almost 40 degrees F, and 6 celsius till Tuesday or Wednesday, I'm sure there will be flooding because we have snow everywhere.

Enjoy your weekend.

NOW THIS IS WHAT I CALL SNOW!

I feel we have this much snow! Well almost anyway. I received this in an email from a friend. Can't even imagine how it's done, but that is winter snow!

The kids would love it! Very funny too. So for the bloggers in Australia and New Zealand that are complaining of high sweltering heat.......tough is all I can say!

We have had the best couple of days! Sunshine, no wind and just freezing temperatures, It feels like spring, I'm telling you!

Ok, I finished another quilt. It's not very big, but I love the colours in it. I wanted to give it to a friend whose daughter is having a boy in a couple of months, but Jerry is loving this one a lot and sees it on a bed at the cottage. I don't know what I'll do. It has rocket ships on it and is just a young boy's quilt I think. Time enough to think about it though.

I had to take some of the stippling out as I had a dull needle and it was awful. A lesson learned for me. I really like the look of this quilt. I am learning a lot about colours I choose and I know that white is might when it comes to quilting. I also like the look of it.

The back of the quilt is a small checked fabric that looks very green when it's turned over.

I've been tagged by http://michiganquilts.com and am flattered, however I don't know how to add all the things I am supposed to do with it.

Maybe tomorrow I'll try to get it done.

SULKY KK 2000- WHITE QUILT

See this little can on the right? Well all I can say is WOW! What a great product! My sweetie
bought this for me in my bag of goodies for Christmas. I looked at it and didn't give it too much thought, well actually thought that the quilt store just gave him a sale for stuff they didn't sell much of.

Well I tell ya, (Sarah Palin style) it's the best little product! I used it sparingly, have done 2 quilts with this and still loads left. It went on so smoothly and I had lots of work time with it and was able to manoeuver the fabric as I smoothed the quilt. It saved me about 2 hours of basting, which is how I put a quilt together. My fingers weren't sore.
Enough shmooshing of this product. It does say that you must work within the 24-48 hours of spraying, and they mean it as I found out, but that's for another day.

One thing though, I changed needles in my sewing machine to do this. It worked much better with a new sharp needle.

So here is this little quilt. It's small and I just love it.It was supposed to be 48" square. But when I had cut out the corresponding 81/2" squares of all these colours, well it just looked like a dog's breakfast!
OMG it was awful is all I can say. So I got out the white and the little flowered print and took apart the combinations of the large squares and the nine patch and started all over again. Isn't this just the cutest little thing?


I just love the look of it with the white making the nine patch look so amazingly crisp. I know now that some of the problem with me doing quilting is that I just need to simplify my work and have much more fun with it.
Here is something else I learned. Try a new
needle for hand sewing. OMG (again) it made
the work so much easier. I do not have sore fingers from hand finishing.


So I posted the third photo to just show some of the
squares. I have of course so much fabric cut
out, but not to worry. I am going to do stacked
coins with it.

I do not remember being so sick of winter as I am this year. So much cold. Never mind the amount of snow that we have had! Its the cold that just gets to my bones even with a downfilled coat to walk my little westie. He wears a coat and loves to walk, but usually the wind just gets to my face and we must turn around.
It looks wonderful from the back patio doors though and very pretty to look at.
I am imagining the spring meltdown. There will be flooding for sure in some areas.
I've not been posting because Jerry has been working on the computer and he starts early in the mornings. I'm sure I'll get some time next week though.

COTTAGE DREAMING AGAIN!

This is a partial photo of the old kitchen at the cottage. The brown is the panelling that was there and Jerry is doing a primer coat of Freshstart from Benjamin Moore on it. It's the best to cover panelling.

We then painted it a soft creamy yellow. Everything else is white in the old cottage so this really freshens it up. We lived with the kitchen for 8 years before finally doing it up. We bought Rona kitchen cupboards and Jerry put them up, with my supervision of course (oh yeah I am good at supervising). I handed the tools, held the cupboard against the wall and just oohed and ahhed at the work.

And here is the kitchen completed. We bought the new dishwasher at Home Depot. It's a lot lighter than the one we have at home, but goodness a dishwasher at the cottage!

We justified it because we live there for 6 months of the year. Kelly lost her job as chief dishwasher!

It was so exciting to have the drawers on the right there to put utensils without having to yank at the drawer to get a knife. The window looks out into the great room which Jerry also built from the bottom up. That's another day's postings.

On the left is the other end of the kitchen which before had the fridge and stove, with an old cupboard on the left to just hold pots and pans.

Now, it has pot drawers and the top drawer is for 'junk' can you believe it!

The fridge is from Sears that we bought when we built the great room and had the barge come across the lake, and at $1,000.00 for the day, at that time, we used it for everything. Looked like the Clampets on that day I tell you. We got the new fridge which was the largest we could find and the stove with self cleaning oven and as few gadgets as possible due to power surges we can get there. It's better than the fancy ones I have at home. Really!

On the right is the brown panelling that was painted a soft yellow and see below for what it looks like now. So different when painted.

You know, I probably said something about this kitchen before, but it's been so long and I am anticipating going back in April/May when the ice goes out on the lake, we leave to go to this place

The table is an old table that was at the cottage when we bought it. I think it's the only thing remaining of the original stuff that was there. Jerry took the old warped top off and built a new one in about 45 minutes! I waited 8 years for him to do that! Not like he wasn't busy in the meantime, anyway, the top I stained with puritan stain, painted the bottom a soft black and voila! It looks amazing. All the cheers of joy from Kelly were worth it as she had given us the art frame for Christmas to go in the place where we put it.

See what a difference the art work does. It was just what we needed to finish the kitchen. The flowers are real! Our new neighbours at the cottage live on a farm. They grow veggies and their neighbour grows those flowers. Each week I am presented with this beautiful bouquet of flowers. It always this big too! And the kitchen is just perfect!

I love the way the whole plan as they say came together.

I'M DREAMING AGAIN

Ok, so because of this unbelievably cold winter, I put myself on this beach in the Virgin Islands. Doesn't it just look inviting today? It's 6 degrees above zero F. Now if that isn't cold, and bone chilling I don't know what is....

This beach is Smuggler's Cove and they made a couple of old movies there, one being the Old Man and the Sea and another that had Anthony Quinn in it and friends actually had bit parts in the film. when you see the movie, it doesn't look like Tortola at all. Oh well, that's show biz.

I'm trying to rectify a bunch of fabric that was cut up to supposedly be a quilt. I gag when I think of how awful it looks. I have discarded the plan of making another ugly quilt. Too many colours. I now realize, I must simplify my quilts, and I think I'll have more fun that way. I love white and notice on some of the blogs, and flickr that white makes colour stand out. I've been using toooooooo much of the colour and not enough of the white.

So, today or tomorrow, when I get my mojo working to quilt sew again, I'll post the corrections and the quilt as corrected.

When the pattern calls for 14 fat quarters, I think that's where I get lost. Too many for my liking and so many patterns. So, I am just not going to do that for a while.

THE BIG DAY FOR AMERICA!

Ok, it was a big day, I watched it most of the day. I switched between CBC and CNN then later added ABC. Honestly most of the CBC one was much better talk and I actually hated the CNN stuff about the graphics that John King kept going to to show us over and over again the people, the places etc. But the rest of it was pretty good. Sometimes just too much little bits of too much information.

On ABC, well I love Diane Sawyer anyway and her smooth delivery is always exceptional. George S. was also good, but sometimes they also delivered so much of "too much information" and it sounded a bit like announcers do at ball games....

I thought also that Obama delivered a sober speech after being sworn in and if his daughter thought it was "good job dad" then it was. What can he say....the world economy is in crisis and we must all do our share whether we are Canadian or American or whatever.

On a lighter note, I kept wondering how come Michelle wasn't cold in that lovely outfit. She probably is the type to say that she just doesn't do cold.....And she walked and stood on her feet for soooooo long. Honestly, in heels too. What a woman. All I kept thinking was that my feet would be killing me and she walked up that street like she was just going for a walk.

Oh and I loved Jill Biden in her red, red, coat and simple hair style too. She looks great in red and her ball gown, which I would have posted here had I been able to see one suitable for here, I would have.

Michelle's simple gown is perfect for her. She's a big woman and exudes the self confidence to wear what she wants and all those people that think she should be thinner....oh yeah, just watch and see it coming ......I say leave her alone. She is a woman with curves and she looks GREAT.

To see the faces in the million plus crowds, to hear the joy in their voices, and the hope in their eyes...lets hope that it continues.

Oh! I forgot to mention Linda Johnson the former President's daughter who spoke with Diane Sawyer and Charlie Gibson (good by the way) and told little stories of being in the whitehouse and tales of growing up there for those few years...very poignant. A lovely speaking voice she has too.. 61 years old now and very gracious.

Good for America.

Ok, back to the day after... today is Bridge day and the girls are off to lunch as one of the gals is leaving for 2 months in Florida. It's gotta be better than this, my god the snow...ok all I say now is that it's about 8 weeks till warm weather because it sounds better than 2 months.

SNOW STORM FOR JANUARY

It's not often that I post on Sundays, but today is an exception! Look at the snow! It's been snowing since last night, still coming down. It does look like a wonderland out there, but it's still only 12 F this morning, but supposed to warm up later on today. Still very cold though.

In fact the wonder dog won't be able to go out till we shovel a path for him in the backyard.

See this? That's where he is supposed to go out to. Well it's not going to happen as far as he is concerned. It's 9:15 and I must get dressed and shovel a path for him to do his business.

There is nothing moving in the area and it's so quiet out there. Now this snow isn't heavy! There's just so much of it again. This is the house where Quincey lives and they are usually up and moving early. No sign of them either.

Oh and he got a hair cut. Remember him? He's the puppy that I posted earlier this year at 10 weeks old. Well, we still puppy sit him and he's had his first hair cut. Mary brought him over for us to take a shot of him while he was still neat!

So of course this is a day for doing not much except snow removal. I must get the guy who does this up and at the task. Maybe we'll call the neighbours with the BIG snowblower, bribe them with a great brunch and have a snow fest!

Doesn't that sound like a good idea?

Speaking of fests! I have been on Facebook and posted a whole batch of black and whites that I found in one of my mom's photo boxes. It's quite a collection and all the younger (?) cousins have surfaced and we are all connecting up again. It's quite the thing to see my cousins who are really all younger than me. I am number one! Anyway, some of them have kids that are grown, off to university etc and still some of the second generation of these have kids, just a wonderful lovein that we have had for the past week. I actually talked to a cousin that I hadn't talked to in 30 years...so it's a good thing as my friend Martha would say.

QUARTER OF NINE QUILT PROBLEM

So see the completed quilt? Well when I looked

at the pattern it said cut 2-6 1/2" squares from

the fat quarter, however.....when I looked at the

completed quilt, it had 4 squares -6 1/2" for each

block.

No wonder I am bad when it comes to cutting out quilts. If one reads the instructions for the 2 X 6 1/2 rectangles I count 4

And when I looked at the 2 1/2" squares I counted 14 squares not 9 and 2- 2" squares.

Now am I wrong?

This is extremely frustrating for me when I am reading these patterns.


I hope I'm not goofing here. But when I read the
directions, and then look at the pattern, it just doesn't jive.

On another note, I finished the top of my rocket quilt, basted the whole thing and undid it again as I just didn't like the dark blue back.

That's why this morning I started cutting out
the quilt above.
It's from Fons and Porter Easy Quilts, summer of 08.
I'm going to do it my way and see what happens.

Our puppy that we puppy sit had his first hair cut today.. he looks so cute and is getting so big now than the first time I posted his photo here. At that time he was 4 lbs, now he's 13 lbs and going. He's taller than our westie Wilson but not as strong for sure.
Just a note to my daughter who reads my posts....this isn't about Wilson, it's just a comment.

I hope to do quilting stuff this weekend as it's still very very cold out only a few degrees above zero, too cold to walk more than a few minutes even with dog coats on.

Next week, Tuesday to be exact there is a certain American who needless to say will be out of work. I am so looking forward to watching the American inauguration and seeing hope in the eyes of America. We are all of us in for a hard time economically and maybe we will learn to live more simply.

JANUARY FREEZE

I loved this photo that was sent to me. The caption said


"I'ts cold!" Really, all of us in most of Canada and the USA are freezing today. It's -5F this morning. And it's dark, no sign of sumshine as I sit here having coffee and blogging.





It's hard to get motivated when going outside is an effort to keep warm.





Yesterday, after a great afternoon of bridge....I was "sharp" I went to visit my mother at the nursing home, only to find it still closed with a flu outbreak still in effect.


I didn't go in because I haven't had the flu and don't want to get it either. I did get a shot, but apparently the strain that is going around is not one that I am protected from.


So, no chances for me in that area





Here is a photo posted on our cottage marina
site and it shows a lone wolf going across the lake which is very unusual to see a wolf in the day time on the lake.

Poor thing looks so lonely and cold. We hear them sometimes on still nights on the lake as we are so close to Algonquin Park and their echos are so haunting.

I started to stitch in the ditch of the most recent quilt and I had to undo the seam as it looks awful on the quilt. I don't know why but I basted and measured and ended up with a pucker at the edge. Oh well it's not large and I am good at picking seams.
I finished a pair of pyjamas bottoms and am so happy with them that I am making more for the summer season at the cottage. I bought some black print a while back and since I have some old black tees, I am now co ordinated when I go to bed. Jerry remembers the days when I wore silk nighties....ah those were the days he says.
Now I wear socks to keep my feet warm too!

THE ROCKET QUILT

I loved this magazine with the baby quilt patterns. Last summer when I was really learning to sew straight seams..Yeah really...I made a few patterns for strippie quilts from some ideas of this fons and porter edition.

Anyway, here is the quilt that I made my rocket quilt from the pattern on the left. I didn't do it identical, and my measurements were done at 8 1/2" squares because I was using the left over dog bones that I had. Of course I had 11 and I needed 12, but added another left over square of green at the bottom. It still looks good.

I also didn't make them on the diagonal because of the rocket guy in the fabric that I had. As you can see it's very colourful. Now my problem is what colour do I do the binding. What with the blue on the sides and blue backing (because I have lots of it) I am out of the yellow which actually has a little pattern on it and that would be great, but none of that left.

Soooooooo, I'm thinking, can I do it orange? I also have some green fabric, but I just don't think that would do it.

I am so pleased with the results of this one. All my squares lined up, all the corners match. Yeah, I know that they're supposed to but...it's me sewing and sometimes I gotta rip out and rip out. I am really really good at ripping out.

I am squirming with happiness here people! Can you feel it?

I haven't had the ambition to work on quilting for the past few days. I am facebook addicted these days and what with connecting to family, and seeing all the photos of friends past and present with their kids, now almost teenagers or worst yet, grown, I am feeling the love of reconnection to family and lost friends. So that's what I've been doing. I also scanned some old family photos of my mom and her sisters etc and you know the most comments are that the fashions were just fabulous and how beautiful all the people were.

Anyway, I am back to quilting and will consult with my sweetie and ask his opinion on the colour of the binding.

Oh and for those that aren't looking out the window today, it's a blizzard out there...again. what a winter.

NEW YEAR QUILT

This is the quilt with the nine block that I started during the Christmas holidays. I haven't been doing much lately and I think it had to do with too much on my little mind....I wanted to sew...but not quilt...so I made two pairs of pajamas bottoms and am happy with those. I used the serger on one and sewing machine on the other. Needless to say, serger one was done in no time. I am thinking of doing some embroidery on tee shirts to make them go together. Oh too much thinking there too.

I used a striped blue sheet for the back and cut the back fabric on the bias (first time) for the binding. I just love the way it turned out. It really is very spring like. I think I know who it's going to got to also.

We still have people with Christmas lights up and I think that by the 10th of January, they should turn them off! I mean it, even some of those awful snowmen are still up in the area. Time to move on people!

I am going to start another nine patch type of quilt, not so many colours I think. I find it hard to put them all together and the last one (January q.) Jerry helped me with the placement of colours, so that's why it looks so good.

I also have a build up of stash...who knew it would happen? I don't want to have so much that I can't decide what goes with what, it's hard enough buying fabric. There is a recession on and I am commited to being frugal.

It's the weekend and I am going to cut out a quilt or two. I think that I am doing about 52 X 52 quilts most of the time.. They do look great as lap quilts. I wonder what size most people make......

THE BANANA BREAD RECIPE

Banana Bread...350 - 55 minutes (approx)

3-4 bananas (3 large -4 medium)

2 cups apps flour

1 cup sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1 tsp salt

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp cinammon

1/2 cup butter

2 eggs

1 cup chocolate chips

Method.

I used a food processor.

Mash bananas in food processor, put aside

In food processor add

Eggs, sugar, butter till mixed well.

In cups measure flour, add

salt, baking powder, soda, cinammon and mix well together

add bananas to egg mixture just to mix.

Then add flour mixture to this, Pulse till mixed.

Add chocolate chips.

Spray 2 loaf pans.

Add mixture evenly.

Then......

1/3 cup brown sugar

2 tbsp flour

1/2 tsp cinammon

1 tbsp butter.

Mix above well and sprinkle over the two

loaves evenly.

Bake for approx 50 minutes.

Watch for last few minutes till you determine

they are done.

PS> if you don't like so much choc chips reduce

as required.

You could also add walnuts instead. whatever

you want.

Let cool for about 5 minutes in pans

Then remove from pans and let cool on rack.

This is a really easy recipe to do and Kelly did a great job with this one. Jerry liked it, but wanted a little less chips and maybe nuts next time. So it's your choice. As I say, I don't do recipes too much.

I've finished stippling the top of my latest quilt and should have it posted tomorrow. I just can't figure the edging yet, but will get Jerry to help me decide. He's good with colours.