A HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Today is the 17th birthday of Courtney, my daughter's little girl. She is now 5'7" and still growing, towering over her mother and her grandmother.

Being the daughter of a daughter, it's quite surprising how much personality she has that is similar to the two of us.

All the good stuff of course. She has drive and ambition, looking to the future of university and her dream of being an olympian. The olympian dream is strong to the point that she isn't home this year because of trials in Welland.

Our Courtney is a good student, is organized and very thoughtful. Her friendships with childhood friends have been long and loyal. She is the apple of her grandfather's eye as she continues on her path of adulthood.

She is also the Easter girl that I made the mystery dress for. Her style will always be simple and classic....that's just her make up. Happy Birthday Courtney!

Mother's day was quiet around here, what with all the kids working or visiting friends, it's not like the old days of huge gatherings. Phone calls came in the morning to see who would be the first to wish mom her day. Ted won it hands down!

I am making 2.78 squares which will be made into triangles using my grandmother's scraps. She saved blues as her favorite colours I think. The blocks have been a challenge, finding the size in the scraps big enough to cut the required fabric.

I'm just making the little triangles, then will add a 4 1/2" square of colour to go with the blues. I don't know what the end design will be....depends on how many triangle squares I end up with.

The storms of the weekend have passed .....of course and the day is beautiful without a cloud in the sky...Isn't that always the way though, rainy weekends and lovely Mondays. There should be a law....no rain on weekends in the spring and summer months.

COTTAGE BLISS!

Did I tell you that our arrival at the lake this year was like this? Crystal clear waters, several loons on the waters and blue blue skies! It just doesn't get any better than that for a day.

We were loaded with our food supplies for about a week and all the other "stuff" we need to make our stay comfortable.

We arrived just as our docks were being put in, our neighbour was there also, having beat us to the lake once again this year.

The first thing my sweetie did was unwrap the funicular, known as the lift from hereon in and turn on the power and move $200.00 worth of groceries, clothing, tools etc up to the deck.

This is the deck as we saw it on arrival. Our neighbour had come over and blown all the debris from the winter off so that our arrival would be smooth. Isn't that sweet?

This is how the deck looked when I walked up to it, all bare, fabulous views of course, and warm for the end of April in the north of Ontario. As we were a week early opening, we dressed for the occasion, winter coats, hats and gloves coming across the lake because it was cold, the ice had only been out for a week, so imagine.

We then opened the doors and this is what the great room looked like when we entered. It was dark as we had shutters on all the windows, and we had piled all the outdoor furniture in there to protect it from the winter.

Most people who don't have a cottage, camp, trailer or somesuch have no idea the work it takes to just get the seasons started.

This room wasn't the priority at all. We had to get the water started, warm the cottage, by starting the wood stove, (I had left it ready for a match) .

Once the food stuffs had arrived up on the deck, it was an hour putting everything away, starting up the fridge....did I tell you that this 22 cu.ft is simple with no gadgets at all. No ice cube maker, the freezer is on top and it is so much better than the stainless steel one I have at home which cost 3 times what this white one costs. It's bigger for one, and the freezer is huge ...I love this fridge..

I had put an electric blanket on our bed last fall, turned it on to medium, went to make sure that all was well with the world regarding the water pump etc and took 2 chairs out to the deck and opened a bottle of wine.

Wilson, the wonder dog spent the afternoon hunting mice, wonder what he will do if he ever gets close enough....nah that will never happen.

We settled in early after a light dinner of salad and sandwiches. We had our books, the bed was warm, the cottage cosy. We slept like babies...

SEND ME BACK!

We have returned to the city for a few days for doctor appointments. I am coughing so much that my stomach is sore! I hold it while I hack! Ok, too much information there, right!

The weather at the cottage has been brisk to say the least. We have only about 640 sq ft to heat for the main part of the cottage, so I have just been using a little heater that I bought last year.

It's amazing how well it works, so I haven't had to start building fires in the stove each day.

There are only a few of us on the lake at this time of year. Brave souls only and of course the fishing fools as I call those that fish in the blowing lake, and rain storms....

We went to the waterfall yesterday, (Monday) and it is flowing like a good thing, so we did take photos which have yet to be downloaded. As we were leaving Jerry turned the boat around so that his back was to the waterfall so that I could take photos of him etc. I noticed what looked to be one of the biggest trouts I've ever seen in the water, then a whole school of them were swimming in about 2-3 ft of water near the edge of the waterfall stream! I will see how the other photos are and will post them later.

They were all about 16-20" long and there were more than a dozen of them. We turned on the fish finder and it showed the temperature at that part of the lake to be about 15 degrees warmer than the main part of the lake. That's why they were there, keeping warm. They are pretty safe as there aren't more that 4 or 5 guys fishing and they think trout like to be deep!

We noticed that there were a number of trees down on properties due to winter and early spring storms, but amazingly enough not one cottage was damaged...close though as we have a neighbour's small hemlock leaning against a bigger hemlock almost on top of the edge of our little bunkie...this weekend they are removing it.

Lots of docks are floating on the lake as the water is so high that when the ice went out the docks which were up on the shores were dislodged and they float down the lake and people will start looking for them when they come up for the May long weekend.

There are lots of wild turkeys around for some reason. I have heard them, but not seen one yet. I think they are on another island but it's hard to tell as we get so many echos out our way due to the winds and the islands being fairly high up.

I am glad to be back to pick up my quilting supplies. We are taking the table and new machine up next week. I must get organized for summer projects even though we will be back and forth a few times.

It's nice to write again, but we are going to try dial up next week when we return to our little piece of paradise, so that I can post. Don't know about photos, but I'm going to try.

TO THE COTTAGE WE SHALL GO.....

We are going to open the cottage this week. I have been shopping in anticipation. I have lists for lists, you know the drill, making sure I don't miss anything, and then rechecking the master list again.

Then there is all the stuff we brought back last fall to fix or use or whatever, that has to be packed as well.

It's a huge undertaking for us as we are not getting any younger you know. The really good thing this year is that we do have the new lift to take everything to the deck. The photo is where we used to sit when it was really hot and the ottoman is where the dog likes to be, hence the little rug on it. But now, the gate of the elevator is right there, so we are adjusting our seating plan and have been moving it around the deck to see what works for us. There is a large, I mean really large hemlock which overhangs on the deck and gives us the shade so desired when it gets really hot. I'm not fond of hemlocks as they are really messy, but for the shade of the deck and the breezes it affords us, it's great.

I know that for those of us who are fortunate enough to have a cottage, cabin, trailors, or mobile homes to go to for R & R its a place where sometimes we work harder and enjoy doing it more.

We have lots of company, friends, relatives, and just other cottagers that stop by all the time. I am a bit of a loner, however, at the cottage I love people dropping by.

I am looking forward to the hummingbirds arriving in the next week, so you know it's going to get warmer. The annual baskets aren't at the nurseries yet, and I am hoping that Kelly, my gardening daughter and Kate, my gardening daughter in law will make sure I have beauties as usual.

So, I will try to post, in the next few weeks, although we will have dial-up. Lordy, I do hate dial-up with a passion, but I must blog...it's in my blood now..

Oh, my restored quilt was delivered to my aunt and uncle this past weekend. It was a huge hit and I felt so good to give it to them. I even put a label depicting the original blocks made in 1966 and my restoration 2009.

WE ARE BACK!

We are back from Pennsylvania. It must be one of the most beautiful States to drive through. We enjoyed the scenery so much and the roads were like new...actually highway 15 has been redone and it was smooth driving.

This quilt that I am featuring is on my Aunt Pauline's bed in Williamsport. It was made for her in Grand Falls, New Brunswick, is machine pieced and hand quilted. It's a large double, and very light weight. She said it's supposed to be a summer weight.

I must ask if summer weighted quilts are done with poly batting. It really is light...And is this a "Ohio Star" pattern?

The funeral was one that I had never seen done here in Canada. My Uncle Charlie was a Korean war veteran, involved in veteran's affairs in his area, very involved in church and community.
There was a full military honour guard at the cemetary and 21 gun salute, then the presentation of the American Flag to my aunt. I had never seen this done and was so moved by it all that I wished we had such ceremonies here in Canada. Truly, truly a moving experience.

I hope that each and every soldier that returns from Iraq is afforded such a ceremony. The famiies of soldiers everywhere deserve it.

In Canada, we have, for our fallen soldiers, a "highway of tears", it is about 150 miles of highway from the base landing to the coroner's office in Toronto. People stand at the sides of the highway and on overpasses with flags draped in honour of these young men and women who have given their lives for freedom in other countries.

So, this past week, I have been given the honour of being present to a ceremony that I didn't know existed, and was moved to tears by it all.

Thank you so much for your comments of condolensce for my family.

NO POSTING FOR A FEW DAYS.

My Uncle Charlie has passed away after a brief illness. He and my Aunt Pauline were married for 55 years and were hardly separated in all those years.

They met while both were very young, he being in the US airforce and she being a young woman living in Canada. He would walk miles, across the US/Canada border whenever he had leave and would walk to my grandmother's house to court my Aunt Pauline. My grandmother fed him well and was sure that was why he was always showing up on her doorstep!

He was much loved by all of us who have known him in this family, and he left love wherever he went. He will be sorely missed by his six children, many grand children, but most of all, my Aunt Pauline.

We, that knew him were blessed....

BLOGGERS QUILT FESTIVAL. MY ENTRY.

http://parkcitygirl.blogspot.com will get you the rules and details.

I have decided to join the Bloggers quilt festival.

Click on the blog above and see how to join up.

This is my favorite quilt. It's not new. It's over 40 yrs old. I restored it to its former glory saving as many of the original blocks as I could.

It was a labour of love on my part and I am so very proud of this quilt. The red border just pops the red inside the blocks.

Hope you like it.

EASY PEASY QUILT IN A DAY

Remember I told you that my friend Dawn was returning from Florida? Well yesterday, was lesson two in her quilting adventures.

Last year she came to the cottage for a few days, brought a down pour which consequently meant no playing or sitting outside.

So, I asked her about learning to quilt which followed with a strippy quilt being done in one day, quilted but not bound. Hello! we needed to eat and sleep!

She is going to a shower for her nephew whose wife is having a baby and asked about a baby quilt....Lesson 2 was yesterday.

We bought this panel and backing, spray basted and with a lesson in stippling she proceeded to oooooh and aaaaaaaaaaaw at how wonderful the Janome 6600 was to work with, so as you see, she is gloved...didn't do what I can do and that is stitch the glove to the quilt....and proceeded over the next few hours to stipple the quilt while I cleaned up my shelves.

As you can see, although this photo shows the quilt upside down..I didn't get her face in the second shot...she only has to hand sew the binding and label.

A great job and a fun day!

The daughter of a friend of mine is just starting to blog, so have a look at Claire's blog which is located in my side bar as Claire in Florida. Pop in and comment on her adventure in blogland.

It's Friday, I am taking our future Olympic girl to see about her leg once again. So my day of starting a new project is cut short a bit. The stress fracture that showed up in CT scan is being looked at by an orthopedic surgeon this am. He starts earlly, 8:30, so I gotta get going.

Have a super weekend folks! It looks like next week we may head up to the cottage to see how it fared through the winter. The ice is almost out! Wahooo!

AN EASTER STORY

I don't have much to report today, except that over the Easter weekend, I was reminded of an Easter about 14 years ago when Courtney was about 2 yrs old.

I made her a Polly Flanders (I think) dress, paid too much money for the pattern which had puffy sleeves, a full skirt and even a pinafore. I spent about $50.00 on just the material and lace for the pinafore. I spent about 2 weeks sewing this absolutely beautiful mauve and white print dress, then being so careful with the lace and the huge bow that went with it.

I called my daughter and said that Courtney should be in a slip and white tights as I had something for her.

I had to put the dress in one large box, the pinafore in another because they were so poofy, you get the picture....So, we arrive at the house with two huge boxes and the kid starts to tear it open and she picks up the dress, looks at me and says in her best english..."NO NANA" she didn't like it at all! She then opens up the lace...looks at her mom and says "NO MOMMY NO!"

I started laughing so hard, my sweetie was laughing, my daughter was horrified and her husband was just looking at the dress and pinafore thrown on the floor!

It took Kelly and I an hour to get her to put the dress on and only because that child loved us both that she put the damn thing on. She hated the dress!

We have only a snippet of a video of her wearing it, and she was drinking her juice while her poppa and daddy were drinking theirs (same colour as apple juice).

Kelly has no idea what ever happened to the dress, she passed it on to someone but can't remember who, and here I thought it would be such a keepsake...

To this day, that girl does not ever and has never since worn anything resembling poofs or full skirts and never mauve....I still laugh when I see her behind the bed, pleading with her mother and nana, saying the only words she could...noooooooooooooooooooo, Nana.

DOTS AND STRIPES FINISHED

Here is my Dots and Stripes quilt. It's finished, measures 65 X 70 which is large for me to have done, but it went so well that I was able to complete it on the weekend. I used warm and natural batting. Is it just me or does this quilt feel heavier than most...It was definitely a hit with the girls that came for dinner on Sunday. The grandson..."nice Nana" was the only comment. He's not into pink obviously....

These long weekends with such nice weather can get a girl away from sewing for sure. We were out to dinner, had guests, ate too much and we were all just ready to veg out on Monday.

However our girl is back from Florida training camp, all tanned and antsy to get out on the frigid waters of Lake Ontario. So Monday morning instead of sleeping in and lazing around we went to get her kayak on the trailer of about 30 odd that came from Florida. There were very fit bodies there to remove the kayaks off the trailer and find our two which were were bringing back to the local Canoe Club. It was quite an experience to see how these kids had loaded and unloaded the boats.


The photo of the grandkids and me whilst awaiting the feast of roast beef, potatoes, sweet potatoe casserole and brocolli casserole. I made rhubarb crisp for one of the deserts and Martin brought Pumpkin pie for the other.

Did I tell you I had been given a box of left over fabric from my grandmother's stash? She passed away in 1965 I think it was and one of my aunts has kept a couple of boxes of her fabrics. I washed and pressed what I could yesterday and think that it's one of those that I must find a pattern that isn't too big in order to use the fabric.

I may cut out 2 1/2" squares and get ready to make a top with these and some of my scraps too.
It would mean connecting all these little squares together in 9 patch I should think and then add a colour in between.. It's a work in progress, and as I said, I got the fabric washed and pressed, that's the start.

Oh we are expecting 50 degree weather in the next few days. I saw a finch yesterday and so many redwing black birds! It's here, there are buds on the trees and when we went downtown to pick up the kayaks, there were so many shops with all the pots of flowers and perennials out to be admired! I love Spring!

PS. am going to the post office to pick up envelopes for mailing prizes today too.

AND THE WINNERS....ARE!

I put all the names in a bowl, I had 27 names of my friends of the past year who commented on my blogs and entered. I know it's not very many, but I so appreciate what was written each and every time.

Here are the winners...Anya, Caron, Trish, Karen, Lindsey, and Crispy. Please send me your addresses and I shall get to the post in the next few days and mail your gifts.

I hope you enjoy them. There is no grand prize winner, and I have the gifts put together and the 6 names will go into the bowl with the 6 prizes and that's how you get your prize.

Have a Happy Easter Weekend.

LETTERS, LETTERS, WE GET LETTERS!

This was the easiest quilt I've ever made. It was a panel that I bought ages ago and just couldn't decide what to do with the back.

Well it was decided when I saw the yellow check fabric I got from Mary. Perfect and I put it together yesterday. 4 bobbins is what it took to stipple this in yellow. Mary was over the moon happy with this. It's for a baby shower she is going to.

I hate to harp on the weather, but lordy, it's just awful! We've had more snow. Not a lot but just enough to make it slushy when walking in the park...with dogs, they get really wet. I took a ball to throw and it ended up picking up snow and it turned into a little snowball. Talk about a confused dog!

My friend Dawn has returned from Florida. Great! I'm happy to have a luncheon partner once again. We meet every week before we go to play bridge and do girl talk. It just doesn't get any better than that!

Planning my Easter dinner has become almost a daily chore of lists of what to do and what to have. It's decided...prime rib, roast potatoes, green beans, and of course sweet potatoes. I always make a cheesy brocolli casserole for any family function. Also for desert, pumpkin pie is on the menu as it's my sweetie's favorite, but what else has not been decided. It's looking good for now.

Today is bridge day.. I'm looking forward to it.

MY GIVEAWAY.

When I decided to do a giveaway, I think I forgot that there should be rules for entries.

Here they are.

1. You must have blogged here in the past year.

2. Let me know if you like selvages or not as I won't draw your name in that prize.

3. You only need to tell me once, because I know most of you.

4. Tell me what kind of quilter you are...hand or machine.

That's it, easy and simple. On Friday, I will draw the names of 5 and will contact you. Ok?

When we go to the cottage, we spend 6 months there. We leave in May and return in October.

The weather can get pretty hairy in October, so we start preparing for the "any day" situation for returning.

I think the most favorite spot at the cottage is the deck. We do everything there to the point that we pull chairs from everywhere when there is a gang for the weekend.

It's south facing vista gives such an expance that lots and lots of photos are taken from that spot. I have a telephoto lense and often take photos of the kids doing their water antics, which turn out well as spontaneous pictures often due.

The old deck was 8'x10', this one is 10x 40' and goes across the front of the cottage. When my sweetie designed and ultimately built the deck it was with the thought that the deck would be just what it turned out to be. The focal point to get together when it's "the season". It's perfect.

I do all my hand quilting there..You know finishing the binding.

I can't wait....

A GIFT FOR ME AND SOMETHING FOR YOU TOO.

My friend Mary went to visit her daughter in Peterborough the other day. Knowing how much I like fabrics and colours, she came home with all of this stuff. I already know what I am going to do with the yello check. It's going on a baby quilt that I have been "commissioned" to do. It's the perfect size check and I should have it finished in no time, as it's a panel that I bought last year and it's got this yellow in it.

The other one that she got is black and yellow. My goodness it is really bright! I am going to make a black yellow and white printed quilt and will use this for the back of it. It's pretty wild as you can see.

Now this flowery print below is actually 2 sheets the same colour and size.

I am going to make a quilt out of the two tops. I am going to add green on the sides etc to make it large enough to throw over Mary's bed at the cottage. The sheets are doubles, and the bed they use is a queen. It's so very bright and cottagey for their (as Mary calls it) bunkee.

I know that lots of people use only cottons, but my quilts are fun to make, easy too and I am just still practicing getting better and better at what I do.

The little print below is also a gift from Mary and I have plans to use it as the back of a quilt I shall be making from left over fabric from my grandmother's stash.

I need to make something with her fabrics and it has been suggested by a friend that I make simple squares and just put those together in a quilt. The fabric is fairly dark, but can take some red and I have lots of red left over from my red quilt that will someday be finished.

I am going to have a giveaway.....It's for those of you who have come to visit me in the past year, have kindly posted lovely notes and kept me going all this time.

I know that lots of people enter giveaways just to see if they can win, but I would like to thank those of you who have been kind enough to visit me and given me encouragement.

I have a lot of selvages which, if you collect them, let me know as you will then go into that giveaway...Other than that, I have "stuff" and am looking forward to picking 5 lucky winners to celebrate my having reached 100 blogs, and also for having a year in blogging.

Easy right and there won't be too many entries, but if anyone has blogged me then they are eligible...

THE WATERFALL

Each spring when we open the cottage the water levels on the lake are always high. That always means a trip to the waterfall at the end of the lake. It's the first trip the grandkids take because the trip itself is an adventure in Nana (me) docking the boat up against the old waterlogged floating pine that rests on the bank of the lake. I always get all the kids ready to grab a branch, and while holding a rope, at least 4 ropes are needed as it's hard to grab ahold of the shoreline tree branches, and tell them to hang on and pull the boat in, while I lift the motor, and try not to scratch the boat (ok, it's a bit scratched) and with everyone excited, we reach land!

The trip up to the waterfall is always full of oooooooohs and more oooooooooohs as we can hear the roar of the water coming over the rocks. We have many photo opps here and the kids just love climbing over rocks, tree limbs and crossing the top of the falls to come down to a level where Nana can take pictures of her darlings.

This is two of the boys just elated for having done the deed of the big climb up the waterfall and down to the big rock with the water just roaring behind them and they were just happy little cousins together at last after the long winter of not seeing each other!


This waterfall by standards of, well Niagara is a stream in comparison, but it's our Niagara each spring. There are always a lot of cottagers who come to the falls in the spring with their children and we all share this adventure, sometimes 4 or 5 boats will be tied to each other as there are so few spots to secure boats.

By June, the falls are a mere trickle of the past month and the black flies have come to the lake and only a few people go there till the season warms to kill off the black flies.

Being on and island, the breezes keep the flies away from us and it's like night and day from shore to islands regarding the pesky black flies. We couldn't bare it on the shores of the lake during May and June to work outside let alone sit on a deck and enjoy the day. But on the island we sit, read, sip our coffees and love the life at this little spot that we cherish.

When we bought the cottage, it was one of the first quetions I asked...you know black flies and the response was that out on the islands, there were very few...we believed him. And it's true, we can work with virtually no bug spray till dusk, when the mosquitos come out and the day ends.

Right now, there isn't anyone venturing out on the ice at the lake as there is some big things happening. There is lots of thick ice, open water in some spots, there has been heavy rain,then snow...everyone is awaiting the mid 60s temperature where one day there is ice and the next, the lake is open again and we all arrive to start the season.

Can't wait....