THIS AND THAT

I'm not considered a novice knitter you know, I can knit sweaters, socks, do cables and I do have a few doggie coats that I designed my self. So I went to Chapters in Ajax looking for Kristin's book (see the photo) and had to order it as it's not there yet.

I just love reading her blog about living there with the farmer and creating knitting patterns, doing her photography and raising her child! Her blog "getting stitched on the farm" is just a great journey of her life and it's always an interesting read particularly at this time of year when the little lambs are gamboling all over the place.

I am going to try to knit something from this book and if I can't, I shall have it as a coffee table book for my friends to think I have talent!

There are a number of my blogging "friends" that I follow,with coffee in one hand and mouse in the other to visit regularly to see what they are up to.

Karen is doing and insanity dear jane quilt.....all by hand and I am totally committed to see how she comes along in my daily visits with her. Of course Mary Quilts has also been one of my regular places to stop and chat as she is one of the first blogs I visited when I started quilting. Her along with Crazymom who gets so many hits that I just don't post all the time there. So many people and so little time to read all those blogs. My goodness it's a wonder Amandajean has time to visit me, but she does and I thank her and all those that, like me take time to visit.

I also visit a couple of gals from Ontario to see what they are up to and always leave a comment for Trish, who is funny and self depracating in her writings. I am awaiting her final stitches on her "male" quilt and am anxious to see some fusia instead of fish in her next quilts. Deb has the amazing quilt that she did years ago as a header on her blog and I visit her all the time too although she doesn't post often.

So, now to the that. Our dog, the Mighty Wilson, is like us obsessed about the cottage life and yesterday we took his "boat coat" out to see if it would fit on Quincy the puppy from you know where. It did, but Wilson went nuts as he say his coat and thought it was "cottage time". I had to hide it from him so that he didn't go any more crazy than he is.

Here he is with his boat coat when we were leaving the cottage last fall.

We are awaiting the ice out on the lake and have already sent the notice to put our boat in the water as soon as the ice is out. There is still 3 ft of ice there now and so it gives you an idea of how cold it can be just two hours north of Whitby.

But, when the weather warms to the mid 60s, the sun shines, that ice I tell you just disappears and I have no idea how all of that happens. One day there is a frozen lake, and the next....spring has arrived. That is what we live for, spring on our lake.

Just a ps, I am working on the victorian blocks, they are done I have the print to do sashing and have no idea as yet how I will quilt this. I do stippling and in the ditch. Can I do both in one quilt?

This is my little gift from Caron Mosey. Included with this lovely piece of fabric is a card with her quilt,"Ocean Waves" This quilt measure 80 X 97 and contains over 2348 pieced triangles alone. Ok. This is amazing in itself, but having the photo of the quilt done in a card is so cool. Thank you Caron, this is my first gift.

I am going to finish that "victorian blocks" that I started. I, today purchased coordinating fabric to sash the blocks. We shall see.

Since today was bridge day, I didn't do any sewing but over the next few days the weather known as spring is leaving us and rain is forcast for the next few days.

I feel so sad about Natashia Richardson. My goodness, such a young woman and such a freaky accident and I just heard that she has been taken off life support. Her husband Liam Neeson at her side made this decision...so very very sad and my heart goes out to her family. 45 years old is too young to die.

WHAT WAS I THINKING?

I bought this fabric because it looked so appealing! What was I thinking? It's nothing like I would normally do, it's got sort of Victorian panels that I now have 12 of and I bought fabric to make the frames for them too and, paid what I consider a big buck for!

Have you ever done that? They are really pretty you know, but just not the kind of thing I would normally do. I have even put them aside till I decide if I truly want to make something out of it all. The finished square is 12" so it's a fair size and with sashings would make a large enough throw kind of quilt. The only good thing about it is the sashing fabric which is black, that makes the whole thing look good. But it's not somthing that I normally do. I usually put fabric together, look at a few patterns and then start cutting out.

You can see from the photo on the left the block as it would be with the finished look of it. What do you think?

So, have you ever gone totally different in colours, in styles and finishes that make you happy you did it?

Do we follow, say safe and true colours and styles that we are comfortable with that we don't look at anything else, like what I've done? And then, what do I do with this very Victorian looking quilt? Who does Victorian these days?


Maybe I had thought of the sheep at one of the blogs I follow where she lives on a sheep farm and knits...Who knows?

This past weekend in my part of the world, we had a taste of spring! Ah, you know, the freshness in the air, sunshine, children out without heavy coats, boots and hats, and everyone just so happy for some warm sunshine that we were all so very friendly to even strangers. Yeah, it was great.

Our neighbours invited us for a turkey dinner! Yeah, and no holiday or "nothin" as the kids would say. We had all the fixins and even sat in the dining room too. Mary found the turkey in her freezer and just went with it. It was, needless to say delicious and I didn't have to think of what to make for dinner.

I sometimes just can't think of what to make for dinner. I usually when in doubt, make homemade pizza. I have a yummy dough recipe that I got from BH&G and it actually makes two large pizzas which I make up and put one in the fridge for the next day. Two meals done and I could feed my sweetie pizza every day of the week, he just loves it! Well not everyday, but pretty close. Planning meals is just getting to me I think. It's not that I don't like to cook, but sometimes I just don't feel like it. I am sure everyone does, even Martha and I'm no Martha, close but don't pass out the cigars!

IT'S QUILTED, WASHED AND READY TO GO!

For those of you who have helped me with suggestions regarding the old quilt, here is is. I finished it and washed it in a front loader on gentle cold cycle as suggested.

I used the bamboo batting for the inside and stippled it carefully reinforcing the blocks as I went along as some of them were a bit frayed to say the least. I also used a number 11 needle as I thought that it was good to use a finer needle than the Jeans size due to the delicacy of the fabric.

The quilt is small than the original, but I do have one block left to save for my Uncle and Aunt to frame in remembrance of the original work of my grandmother.

I am happy to be finished with it and am very pleased how it turned out. Considering that I do not think of myself as a refurbisher of quilts but will try just about anything sort of person, this I consider to be a job well done and the quilt is preserved!

I also decided to bind the quilt in a red fabric to pop the red that was already on the quilt. I think this just finishes my love of this quilt done by my grandmother for her "baby" and his wife.

So, for Jerome and Linda, here it is.

ANOTHER NEW QUILT!

This is my new quilt, finished yesterday while feeling a bit under the weather! I don't know what happens to me, sometimes I just can't get going for the day. Yesterday was one of those days, so I did the hand finishing on this quilt.





I think it's supposed to be prairie queen? But I didn't put strips in and just combined the white blocks together and it looks good. Not my usual kind of quilt though.





I like using different patterns than this. But since doing the Pat Sloan orange quilt along, I decided to try a few different patterns.





I used only fabrics that I had left over from other projects and managed to make about 65" X 70" which is large for me to make. But I tell you the Janome 6600 that I use has lots of room to make this size and larger! I used a Jeans needle and the batting is bamboo which is a great product to work with. It's softer than the warm and white that I usually use.

I did the back in the same print as in one of the
blocks on the front.

I am also a fan of spraying because I tell you it takes about half the time to put the quilt together.

I am fortunate that I have a large work table to work on and maybe that makes it easier to manoeuver the fabrics. But it takes me about 20 minutes from start to finish, give or take a few minutes.

AND, while I was quilting Jerry is working on an old sideboard that we have had for a few years and want to take it to the cottage this summer. It will sit in the sunroom below the kitchen window. Right now all we have there is small table that we dump everything on. When we have the kids come with all their stuff, we hope that there will be less dumping at the door of the sun room. We'll see. I will post next on the sideboard. It is an antique with the back of it having a 14" pine board. You sure don't see that any more.

I am also quilting the old quilt. I used a block that I had to test how it would look stippled. It's the only way to go with it because I can go over the seams of the blocks and still have it looking good. I will post it when it's done. It's going to look good. Trust me!

THE OLD QUILT REPAIRED

When I got this old quilt, the sentimental value of it was what was important. I just didn't know how I would repair the blocks so that they would hold together.


So after all the comments and getting advice from Helen, a hand quilter also, I took the blocks apart and salvaged 14 original blocks. The ones that I just couldn't save, I discarded and then I took all the strips off the remaining blocks.





That took a few days and you can imagine what an expert "picker" I am now. I looked these 14 blocks over and realized that the measurements along with the age of the blocks, I may have also taken a bit off the sizing of the original blocks.



The first photo is the block as it was in its original

state. The second photo is after a lightly starched
and fused block. It was amazing what happened
when I fused the block. Not only did it stabilize
the block, but the colours came to life!

I don't know whether it shows in the photo or not, but really it looked like night and day.

I found an odd coloured check fabric that I used for the strips of the now fused blocks, I just didn't find a pale yellow that looked good with the quilt
as it is now.





The fusible web I used is called Stacy and it worked
so well and it was also very very light. I actually was
able to add little strips as needed because of the
sizing issues I had with some of the squares.




I have also decided to stipple it, but with larger
strokes than I usually do in order to not take away from the quilt pattern.

I am going to use the check as the back of the quilt and probably will keep it really simple by using that as the binding also.


I don't think I would ever do another "restoration"
as I'm not into that, but my grandmother made
this, and she gave it to my uncle Jerome and
his wife Linda as a wedding gift. It was made and given with love over 40 years ago and it has been used and loved all these years. So when I give it back to them, I hope that they have it for a good while.

I think that the instructions for washing will be
to dryclean or hand wash at best. I do have a front loading washer and it has a gentle cycle, so that will be ok I think.

The final photo is of the top pressed and ready
for the next step.

I am using bamboo batting, as it's my new favorite even though I do like warm and white
also. But the bamboo has a bit more flexiblility. The next job will be to quilt it and I do have the extra square to work with and see what works best.

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.

.

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.

NOW THIS IS A CHALLENGE!

See that carpet of flowers? Well it's an annual exhibition in Brussels. These photos are from last year!. Isn't that amazing? This all started in 1971 apparently to promote the beauty of begonias and all the colours of this plant.

Each year this carpet is produced using flowers, mulch and a few other materials to create this effect.

I bet they could do a dear jane quilt with the flowers too!

I have seen in magazines, paintings on outhouses, barns, sidings showing quilt blocks and a flower one would be a challenge. Enjoy the photos which I received by email.


You can see from the second photo how they
arrange the flowers and start the process.
Ok, it is a lot of bending over and I could not possible try this, but you get the idea.




The third photo is of the ground level display of all the flowers in this square.




My daughter Kelly who loves, and I mean loves
to garden is speechless now looking at this magnificent carpet of flowers! Try that Kel!

The cold has returned to Southern Ontario with a vengeance and so I am going to try to quilt another top that has been awaiting my pleasures.

I know that the cold isn't going to last for long, and just the little enticement of spring has brought the deer to my neighbours back fence. She saw five of them yesterday, just walking along the fence nibbling at the vines which had some leaves and berries left over that the birds had not eaten. She didn't take a photo as she thought that they would see her and run! They did that when the dog moved a bit and they were gone! I know that some of you see them all the time in your areas, but we live in a subdivision! The greenbelt that surrounds some of this area isn't that isolated so it was with joy that Mary saw the deer!

THE ORANGE QUILT A THON, PAT SLOAN, FINISHED.

Well here is the Pat Sloan, quilt finished.

I really love this. I finished it with the orange that was left over. I used all pieces of fabric that I had and did the back in the large floral print that is on the front. My sweetie just loves it and says not to give this one away too.




I really enjoyed making this and learned a lot about pattern fitting techniques. I think I 'll try another just to get it down right.



I wonder how many of the bloggers actually visit all the people that are listed on the sidebars. I see some have around 30 "favorites" on their lists. I find it hard to visit the ones I have on mine and feel that they are there because the ones in my sidebar are visited regularly and I do take the time to visit them because I like the blogs.



I have visited others and note them to see if they are worth adding to the sidebar or just to periodically see what's doing. Just a thought. I feel that the sites that I drop in and visit are usually worth a note and that does take time.



I always love to read even a single line that has been noted and think that it's so nice to read that someone has taken the time to make comment on my blog. I remember the first comment I received. I mean the first comment from someone other than my daughter Kelly who would comment as annonymous because she didn't know how to do the leave comment thing. The first blogger was names Suze. She didn't come back though. I don't know what happened to her, but there are those of you who have stayed with me and comment all the time. If I name you and then leave someone out, I would hurt feelings. So for those of you who visit often, give me advice and drop in frequently, you have no idea how pleased it makes me.

Oh boy, I was getting syrupy there. It must be the coming warm weather around the corner. Our snow is melting in the back yard and OMG, the dogs have lived there for a couple of months and I must clean it up tomorrow before the next snow fall. It's a mine field out there!

I hope you like the quilt.

AND THE COLOUR IS !!!!

Well as you can see I ended up chosing the green. It was a hard decision because I also liked the white and the little flower print. But the orange in the print was "off" and the white was good, but the green really goes with the back which is the large flower print.

I did make the strips only 3" so they ended up 2 1/2" and it looks really good. I want to thank those that commented on downsizing my strips.

I have it stippled almost finished but can't quite decide on the binding. I think I will use the centre orange. I have enough of it left to do it.

This has been fun to do and I think I will now be able to do a disappearing patch as this is how they are done, right? Cut the centres and turn them around. I am gaining confidence.

I wanted to post this as I have been anxious to post the quilt. My sweetie also liked the green as did Kelly and they both have good colour sense.

We are awaiting daylight savings which comes into effect on March the 8th I think. I would be happy to not have the changes and it seems we are moving to that as this is earliest of the time changes that I can remember. Wasn't it supposed to help the farmers? Do you really think the cows are able to tell time? Do the sheep? Since the days are getting longer I feel spring is not to far away for those of us who have lived through this awful winter weather.

By the way, I loved the Academy Awards. I had no idea that Hugh Jackman could sing and dance. I loved his stuff and he looked so relaxed, as did Will Smith. Will could do the show too I think. I loved all the gowns and especially Penelope Cruz's gown. It was a vintage gown from a collection that she had seen 8 yrs ago and loved it. But I tell you some of those women need to eat! Did you see the bones sticking out of Angela Jolie? Gee, she looks like she has anorexia, I swear. I loved Mylee Cyrus's dress too, she looked like a princess. The Slum Dog entourage were very classy and they deserved their award! Sean Penn....so nice to see him smile! And I do love Kate Winslett. At least she has some meat on her bones!

Isn't it fun to diss those "stars"?

WHAT COLOUR WILL JUST POP THESE SQUARES?

Ok, I can't decide which colour to do the strips between these orange squares. I have looked at all the possiblities and it's hard to decide.

So the examples below are what I have come up with. I did think of yellow too, but just didn't do that one because it's a bit overwhelming.

I like the green best I think as it really pops the squares and there's a bit of green in the patterns.

I also liked that bias fabric, but then I'd have to square up the diagonals and I just know I couldn't do that. It's too hard for me to do.

I think the orange is just too much. And the white is the same, just a lot of white.

I'd like to do the sashings vertical and horizontal, keeping them the same.

I'm leaving it and will decide tomorrow I think.

This has been very fun to do and very quick I must say. I may try this with other colour combinations just for the fun of it.

I also think that 4" sashings and the binding being orange with the back being one of the sasing colours just might do it. I also thought to use the pattern of white print that is on the square too for the back.

A dilemna in the making here.