WHAT DOES ONE DO ON A RAINY DAY!

Yesterday was a morning that was raining, cold, the wind was blowing wet leaves, and the sky was very dark.....

So, I decided that I would get some sewing done but didn't really know what to do. I had bought a sheet at goodwill for using it as the back of a quilt which of course it didn't look good, so it's been sitting on the shelf for ages.

I cut it into placemat size and went on a spree! I made 8 placemats in no time and have enough
fabric for doing napkins today. I had such fun
doing this, that I may use up a lot of scraps
and get rid of all the little pieces of batting that
I just don't have the heart to throw away!

I also made a pair of pyjamas bottom which turned
out well also. I had a sheet with a lovely bottom
decoration to it and serged this in about 15 minutes.

And since it was a crappy day, I decided to make
bread and pizza. My dough turned out so high
and light that I took a photo of it for you to see the way dough should look when making bread.

So many of us use the bread machine these days, but you know there is something to be said to just standing there, kneading dough and feeling how lovely it feels when it finally becomes a soft and completed little ball of dough.

The day wasn't a total loss as the sun came out in the afternoon which meant walking the wonder dog. I tell you dogs really are more frisky in cooler weather. The Westie runs all over the park on cooler days. Warm days, he walks and sniffs, no big deal...We returned home after about 45 minutes and within minutes, the sky had darkened, the hail hit the front of the house and travelled to the back with the wind howling, picking up leaves and what ever else was on the ground and blowing it across the park!

It's a good thing I had returned, it could have lifted the pooch!

I am also knitting the fingerless gloves for the hospital Christmas tree in Oshawa General. I assume that there will be a bazaar to go with the tree. My friend says that these mitten trees are quite popular. I need wool, so am off to Walmart and Zellers to get some bright colours today.

SOCK IT TO ME!

Oh I know it was a lame way to start a blog! But I did love Laugh In! when it was on.


I am making these slipper socks for my mother to wear at night. I can make one a night if I put my mind to it. I mean one sock a night not the pair.

I downloaded the original pattern, but it was way too small so I had to "improvise" (I do that all the
time in quilting, remember?) and make the pattern
larger. I think I have it down pat now and will make
a few pairs for her to wear at night in bed. I may even
make a few for me! They really are comfy.




Well this morning when we were just getting our day started, I wasn't even dressed at 10 am but when I looked out the window which faces the park and beyond that the new school, I could see little fairies, devils, witches, and clowns followed by hundreds of other dressed up munchkins!

I quickly dressed and managed to get a couple of shots of the kids as they went around our neigh-
bourhood marching and waving all the time laughing and following the parade!

What a sight. I wished for the days when the
grandkids were young again and doing this dress
up for hallo'ween.

I used to love that night when my children were
of the age....I used to have a large tub filled with
water, have apples there for dunking and loads of towels with
which the kids could dry their heads after the
dunking!

I made lots of caramel toffee apples, which was my specialty and since we lived in a small community, everyone knew I made them. The kids had to dunk, get the apple then they could pick out the apple of their choice. I got to really laugh a lot on that night. I remember one night when one boy failed to get the apple and he said that he would be back....went home changed costume and returned to win it the right way!

I also made butter tarts, brownies to give choices
to the little ones. Ah, those days when we didn't
lock our doors and every kid was safe in our neighbourhoods....yes those were the days.

I am still not sewing as yet, but my friend who is learning to quilt has her four tops done and next week, like it or not, we are quilting. That should do it for me.

I haven't been totally useless though. I did make a spaghetti pie that I hadn't done in years and years, made a meat loaf that also hadn't been done in eons. But the best thing I made was a supperb, (if I do say so myself) fresh apple cake. I can't remember where the original came from, but mine has been kicked up a notch, so much so that it has surpassed the "cowboy bread" as the new favorite quick cake. Now that's something.

I will post the cake soon. It makes a 9 X 13 so it's big. It also freezes well. (I tried that even though the next day it was unfrozen)

I'm like a few of you who sometimes just doesn't know what to write about.. isn't that something? Me........ without words...OMG!

APPLE AND SQUASH BAKE...YUMMY

Here is the recipe I told you about.

It really is Yummy! and easy to make.

2 lb butternut squash

2 apples (we used Macs) cut into 1" squares

1 tsp salt

1/2 cup brown sugar

1 tbsp flour

1/2 tsp pumpkin spice (or allspice or mace)

Cut up peeled squash into 1" squares.

Mix remaining ingredients, except apples

Stir mixture into squash.

In an 8 X 12 dish, pour squash mixture, top with

apples. Cover with foil.

Bake @ 350 about 50-60 minutes.

I have been helping a friend make strippie quilts for Christmas for her family. Myself, I am making a couple for the boys in my life. It's hard finding "boy" fabrics and I may go to flannels next time I do one.

Not too much otherwise going on in my life. It is good to be home, to have unpacked and get this house in order for the winter season. I should be out of my "funk" next week when the sun re- appears over our province. I love the fall season, but the rains are somewhat depressing.

Have a good weekend everyone.

A GIFT FOR MY MOTHER!

When we left the cottage on Thursday afternoon
we took about an hour to get warm in the car. I
even had the seat heater on to warm my butt!


On Thursday morning it was 24 F. and needless to say that was a bit chilly. We did have the wood stove and an electric heater on in the main part of the cottage, but when my sweetie put up the final three shutters it blocked any sunlight and it was cold!

Since we had the final packing to do even though the previous day we had taken a boat load over to the truck, we still had the final stuff to take.

Thank goodness we did get rid of the majority
of our goods as the new dock guy (guys) came
to remove the final little dock and we were
almost hitting bottom with the boat as the
water was so low. It would have been almost
impossible to load the boat after that.


The boat was then moved to the neighbours dock and we had to bring the motor right up out of the water as we were almost on bottom there too. Let me tell you it was a feat to get into the boat when we finally left. I almost had to jump down the water was so low, and of course the wind was blowing like a good thing.

And did I mention that it was cold? Yes it was a north east wind at about 15 miles per hour and my sweetie who is never cold actually had to keep coming in to warm up when he was draining the water.


So we left, it was in sunshine at least and the
wind was at our backs. We are not staying this
late next year...I'm just too old for this nonsense!




When the kids left on Monday, you can see here in the photo that it was cold as everyone is bundled up to the nines.


Except of course the grandson who just doesn't feel the cold! He was barefoot all weekend! Just
before they were leaving he asked his mom if she
knew where his shoes were and had she brought
him socks! It was also the first time he had put
on his jacket too!

Here he is reading in the bunkie in bare feet while the rest of us were bundled up. His mother says his feet needed scrubbing when he got home!

Do you blame us for leaving? Look at the storm which was the snow going across the lake on Sunday and Monday. We usually are in the mid 50s at this time of year! Everyone in North America is complaining of the weather.

You can see here in the photo that I still have flowers in bloom, the grasses are blowing in the wind and the snow is passing by.

So I brought most of my quilts home, forgetting the first nine patch I made in the new bunkie but

that's ok as I have lots here anyway, but I did

want to give it to one of the kids.

But best of all is the gift of love! I took my nine patch Oh Cherry Oh! to my mother and put it on her bed. She loves loves it! I had to bring staff into her room for her to show what I had been doing this summer!

Being 90 yrs old with some dementia, she just kept stroking it and looking at the bright colors.

She kept saying thank you and said it was just plain "pretty beautiful".

It doesn't get any better than that does it?

CLOSING THE COTTAGE

This weekend which was Thanksgiving for we Canadian, was extremely cold with the sun coming out only for Saturday. The men decided to take out the docks because the regular guy decided to retire and we hadn't heard whether the new guy (a lot of guys) would show up.

Anyway, it was a huge endeavour that took the men all day to just get the two docks you see up on the beach near by. As a result the men were just exhausted on Saturday night and had their brawn shown up by a 72 yr old guy that is so fit that he put all the others to shame.

I think the "men" are now thinking that exercise
is not such a bad thing after all.





Unortunately Sunday was a disaster day for all of
us here at the lake. The men rested. It rained. It snowed. It then
sleeted. It was to say the least very cold also
as we had big winds. There were three heaters in
the sunroom to keep it liveable and the wood
burning stove going full bore.


I think that next year, we won't be doing Thanks
giving here at the cottage. It's just too iffy weather.

But speaking of the feast...it was awesome and with Mary stuffing the beast we had, a delicious apple-turnip bake, broccoli, and mashed potatoes and pumpkin pie and my raspberry thing, we ate well.

So........tomorrow we leave and I am leaving with
the memory of this little tree that sits at our shore
line. Everything looks so pretty when the sun shines, the breezes are light even if it is brisk outdoors.

Oh, and we now have raccoons on the island. I have some amazing bins that they can't get into but have tried so they are tipped over, and the wonder dog is sniffing like he knows something I don't....

LAST QUILT OF THE SEASON! NINE PATCH!

This is finally finished! It's raining and there just isn't a place inside the cottage to set up a "photo shoot" as the sayin goes.

I just love this quilt looks and since Oh Cherry Oh! is one of my favorite fabric Jelly Rolls, it is fitting that this is the last quilt at the cottage this year.

I did the binding in white to really give it the oomph as putting any colour but white on the binding just didn't work for me.

Since we are probably leaving next Thursday or
Friday depending on the weather, I have almost

finished packing away all my sewing stuff in its

large bin and since I am taking the little suit-

case home, I put all the little patterns that Helen made up for me this summer.

I also have a flying geese tutorial from her to make this winter. It's similar to the Fons and Porter design, but my private teacher is so organized that her samples are so precise that I can't screw it up, hard as I could try which isn't much when I have to do the math. I am so looking forward to making this as my next endeavour in this quilting world.

So, with this being the Thanksgiving weekend and probably our last of the season, I am taking it off and going to do puzzles and eat turkey.

I make Orange Cranberry Sauce every year from the Cottage Life recipe file. It is absolutely yummy. If you want it go to Cottage Life .com and get it. Happy Thanksgiving !

BEAUTIFUL RAINBOW!

This rainbow appeared last night on the island across from us. It has to be one of the favorite places for rainbows as I've other photos similar to this. Why does that happen I wonder. This also took place around 6:30 pm, just before sunset. Very unusual time. With only 4 people on the island we witnessed this spectacle! It was huge!






Helen has been busy! She started on these "little houses" and now has enough for a gift for her
granddaughter for Christmas. I love the colours
which just make this little design stand out when
surrounded by white which they will be.


She is going to search for little doll fabric to be
on the back of this quilt. Won't that be so cute?















There was an add for Walmart in a magazine and since Helen was making houses, I gave her the

add and this is what she came up with. The fabric was chosen by her granddaughter who is in love with bright fabrics. So it's going to be framed and given to her mom for Christmas.

I must say once someone like Helen starts making something, it sure releases her creative juices. In the middle of the little houses is a

leaning pine tree which they have in front of

their cottage, so it fits there perfectly! I think

it's a nice touch to have the pine trees inter-

woven in the houses don't you?

We haven't had the best of weather (oh lordy, being Canadian I do go on) but at least it isn't very cold and I can sit in the sunroom and sew.

I have almost finished the nine patch Oh Cherry
Oh! quilt top. I don't know if I'm behind the ordinary people who quilt, but I do know that Crazy Mom Quilts is probably finished hers plus a few others.....

I do love the quilt colours and am looking forward to finishing it before we go home after Thanksgiving. I'm making my list of things to take home already with a few packed as I won't need them.

The hardest part is always about the food. We need so much for the weekend, yet I don't want to be packing up so much stuff which means the boat trip again and you know that just shopping is a chore, but getting it into a boat etc is really a chore!

Oh well, we are going to eat well since I do have the biggest eaters showing up! Wahoo!

BACK AT THE COTTAGE....BRRRRR!

See this suitcase? I found this photo in a magazine (Quilter's Newletter) and thought of Karen (Karensquilting.com/blog/) who has been on holidays this summer, taking fabulous photos of her trips and posting on her blog. See my sidebar Karen Quilts to see the great and unusual pics she and her husband have taken.

Anyway, when I saw this photo, it reminded me that if one is a hand quilter, then this little suitcase would have indeed been a perfect travelling companion for someone such as Karen.

Her hand quilting is extraordinaire so go have a look and enter her giveaway!

We have returned to our little cottage to find that the cold has indeed arrived at the lake for the weekend. Not too many cars at the marina and the island has only two inhabitants so far, well three, the mighty dog has come with us too!

The east wind is howling as I write this so it will make it difficult for the neighbours who will probably arrive at twilight which is now 7:30 pm. The lake level is very low so they will have to do a climb out of the boat of about 5 ft. Honestly the lake level has dropped that much in the past month.

Those of us who have floating docks are lucky. We do for the time being but next weekend they come out, so I think we will be having to roll out of the boat if we leave the island.

I think I am ready to leave for the warmth of our house. You know a furnace, a garage, all things automatic! After reading of Barb's (Bejeweled by Barb on sidebar) my little complaints are nothing. American Samoa needs some help, so I am going to do my best to send something to those people.

Have a good weekend. It's calling for rain, rain and more rain here, but we are warm and have food. We are blessed!

SUNRISE ON THE LAKE, SEPT. 26, 2009

When we awoke this morning, the sky looked like this!


So we decided that the red sky in the morning meant only one thing....bad weather was coming.


So we are leaving the lake today sometime. Before we cross the lake in bad weather as we
don't have protection from rain on the boats.

We are tough!

See the plant hanging from the deck? It started
out looking like an ordinary plant. I think it's
related to the petunia family. I don't know, but
one thing for sure, it sure grew over the summer
and is now over 6 ft hanging there and still
blooming and growing. I am going to buy one
next year for sure. I had some daisy type planter that has been long gone and you know I spent so much money on those planters!


The basket with bidens and million bells is still in full bloom. But since we are heading home for a few days, I think that we will have frost so that will be the end of the flowers for this year. Sigh!





Now what do I put in that box? I received this
from my sister in law Kim for my birthday. She
gave it to me last weekend. It matches some of
the sofa cushions that I covered this summer.


She didn't know I had that pattern in the great room.
How cool is that?



And Mary who bought me this watch in the summer and actually kept it for a couple of months gave me this a couple of weeks ago.


I have this thing about watches. "Nana, not another watch" is what the Olympic girl said this
morning when she called.....I must have about 15
watches, almost all of them run too! None are very expensive, but the main thing in the last
few is that I can see the time without having to
search for my glasses!




This one I can see without even stretching my arm out....I love it.


I received money from the sweetie to do with what I want....Fabric for sure.

Thanks so much for sharing this birthday with me! I am touched!

FREE MOTION QUILTING, IS WHAT IT'S CALLED!

When I started this little quilt last year out of just scraps of this and that, I was thinking a lap quilt is all.

Of course things change when I start thinking and the brain gets really thick! Oh yeah, this photo looks so amazing doesn't it? It's supposed to look awesome because I decided to do something different in my "free motion quilting" thing.

Remember a few days ago I mentioned a site

called by that name? Well she is doing 365 days

of free motion designs......Yeah, and this one

is supposed to be easy. How hard can the

"beginner" level be? I says to the slow moving

brain yesterday.

This is supposed to be "sea grass" or some such thing as for the life of me I forget and am too embarrassed to go back and look at the real thing on her blog.....Not only that, but for the first time since this is a small quilt, I decided to add a piece of what would have been the front to the back.

Well, now I think that the back looks better than the front. I just didn't think I should photo the back but now, it looks better and better.

I finished the binding in bright (oh yeah, bright)

yellow to take away from the free motion (sic)

quilting I did.

Ok, here's a hint to anyone attempting something

like this.....try a 12" square instead of 3 ft square

dahhhhhhhh! I did practice for about 45 minutes

and on a small piece of scrap, I was booting it at

a great pace, you know steady, meandering (I

think that's her word not mine!) and thought

it was time to "go for it"

Lesson....try to just do the sashing as the "sea grass" for starters!

Lesson...Don't show it to the sweetie. "It looks like a signal flag!"....."Oh you messed up with the back did you?"....."Oh it looks good!" (Too late for any sucking up now .......sweetie)

He is heading to the dock with a glass of wine for me....fat chance of THAT happening.....oh, geez, I probably need two of those!

On a lighter note, we are heading home next week for a few days, so I will have a break to renew my "creative" juices...OMG!

Oh, and a happy birthday to me tomorrow, along with about 8 other people I know. But none as old as me....who cares?

SWANKY CHEZ MOI....FINISHED!

When I started this quilt, I think I was in a
great place for creating. Not only did it turn
out better than I expected, but it really is so
just plain pretty!



I used up one 1200 yds roll of thread give or take a bobbin or so. Just to do the stippling was 12 bobbins! Thank goodness for the Janome winding of spools, it is so efficient!


I had a hard time deciding to even just open the Jelly Roll, let alone what I was to do with it! I decided to do a coin quilt. I used one of my
favorite fabrics for the backing in yellow. It really makes the quilt look kind of delicate even
though it's fairly bright.




Oh and I tried to photograph it sort of like BGH magazine front.. oh well it's finished. It took me almost three days to just do the stippling because I decided to do it close.


I have another sort of coin quilt top to finish as it was started with scraps of left overs in the winter and speaking of the "W" word, I must move along because I think we will have only a few weeks left here at the cottage.


I was sewing this afternoon and looked out the
window and noticed that this tree turned colour
overnight! OH OH!


We started out with thunder and lightning to
go with the rain this morning, but this afternoon
wow!, The sun is out and a light breeze to dry
the deck and it's truly beautiful.....70 degrees and
it's almost September 26th....my birthday.



We are heading to the dock for the rest of the afternoon since it's so sunny down there!


thanks for stopping by!

GLAD FOR GLADS!

Before the new neighbours left for the week, they invited a few of us for dinner on Sunday night. Now our hostes is a vegetarian...Well she does eat fish and chicken making sure that her girls who are also veggies get the proper amount of protein to their diets.

Anyway, she served the most amazing beef tenderloin (she sure knows good beef) wrapped in procuito and portabello mushrooms with some secret spices I am sure...So absolutely yummy I tell you.

Best of all her darling guy who always brings her flowers such as those glads that you see in the photo, that now grace my kitchen table and is the most knowledgable guy about wine that we know here at the cottage, and come to think of it anywhere. So Helen, who was there too has decided along with me that we could seriously become red winos!

Kent served a french wine that is called Rasteau and I have no idea the cost, but both Helen and I are heading to the wine store to look it up. I am writing the name here so that I never forget what it's called...Think of Rasta ....you know and it wil stay in my head for a good while. He also had a few other wines, he could reply the country, the areas it came from and where one could get it in the liquor store. He did say that the french Rasteau may only be in stores that have what is called "vintage" wines...

Kent also brings both Helen and I flowers all summer. Isn't he just special? Young guy too and so full of energy! So thanks for the wine lessons!

I am just about finished stippling my coin quilt....14 bobbins so far so you know I've been busy with close work. I told my sweetie to come look at the work this morning and said that I had stippled westies in my work! He said I needed a break as I was seeing things! No, honestly, I did a few westies in the quilt and it was easy. I am now, after making 15 quilts and stippling most of them pretty good at it now, so my next one will be kind of loopy.

I have a few more tops to finish and am also done the nine patch squares for the second round of nines with Crazy Mom Quilts! I am going to add white borders to the Oh Cherry Oh! because the white will make me more comfortable putting all those patterns together. I do think I will make them a narrow sashing though as it's better than too big a sash.

It's a warm but rainy day at the cottage today, so it's a good day to quilt. I wish my fingers didn't get so sore hand working, but Penny from Harmony Hopes suggested getting some soft surgical tape to put on my finger. I am heading to Huntsville, so will look for it at Shoppers Drug Mart. A good suggestion.

Oh and I am planning Thanksgiving which is October 10th weekend for us here in Canada. I hope I can find a large turkey this week and keep it frozen for the next couple of weeks. We are planning on a gang of teens, so they eat!

DON'T EVEN ASK!

Don't even ask how stupid I am! I have been trying to download photos since last week only to realize just this minute that I must have pressed the "edit html" button on the blog and then did something else and lost the ability to download photos.


OMG! I have been so frustrated, even deleted Picasa from the computer (am going to reinstal) and can't even mention how many times I tried to post a photo!



Oky doky then. See the little houses? Well I happened to mention to Helen that I had seen this little house quilt on Crazy Mom Quilts and said that I thought this was the cutest thing for her granddaughter who loves little houses and paper dolls! So of course, she has been "playing house " this weekend. Her creative juices are in full swing when it comes to her grandkids. I just love the houses and she has her templates of course and is so organized. After I post this, I am on my way over to her cottage to see what else she's doing! I can walk over because the
neighbours who don't like us to walk on the island aren't there so we are all enjoying the path .


The second photo is fabric that I purchased last time in the city to make a couple of quilts for the boys in my heart! I haven't a clue what I'm going to do but, I had Alex (granddaughter) pick this out. I also have red to add to it. Man, what I do should be called disorganized creative quilting! Honestly, why do I do that? Anyway, the boys will be pleased to get "boy" quilts for their laps.

The little westie pillow was done by Helen for my sweetie! He helped her sweetie put in a new shower at her cottage and since we have the wonder dog Wilson, she made this little gem!

Iam finishing a coin quilt which I am stippling quite close together. It's the swanky Chez Moi from Moda. Gosh that company sure puts together lovely stuff. I should have that ready in a couple of days.


It's great to be back in blogland as you know, you all make my days complete!

WHAT'S HAPPENING?

I don't know what happened to my blogger downloads, but no photos are being allowed to be printed. Yuck!


I've been to see the specialist, results being, I can keep my feet, lose the hip though! Actually he was a no nonsense type of a guy and I really liked him! He said that the bunion needed to be fixed but that it wasn't a candidate for laser because of its size. Well that was a bit of a shocker as I was hoping that the second opinion that I have scheduled would say, "let's do this now" but he did say that the second one on the left is a possible candidate. Well it doesn't bother me at all as it's so small...


The hip, he says has got to go! I also am probably feeling pain from my back (arthritis) more than the hip he said. Now, what kind of a doctor says to start to do sit ups in order to strenghten the front (soft belly) muscles and that this would really help me with the back pain which sometimes goes down my leg? My kind of doctor I tell you! I loved him. He said if I lost some weight (OMG) that that would help me too. I am on his waiting list for the operations so I am going to give serious business to his suggestions...Flexibility here I come!



My quilting stuff is on hold for the weekend as we are having guests once again. The weather is lovely right now, a bit of rain this morning, but then sunshine. There is the first frost warning of the season, so it's only a matter of time before we begin to think of closing down our little piece of heaven.


Getting old sure ain't for sissies, or those of us that really suck at getting there!

THIS IS A DOT!

My friend Helen came across these dots.

She couldn't resist getting them for me!

I do think they will be used for a back and

not a front! Just a bit large for the front of a

quilt, but I just love the reversing colours. I am

going to see if I can do something with them

though, as I do love orange and white.







We had a glorious weekend here in Haliburton county. Not a lot of people up for the weekend, probably due to this having been the first week of school and all.





We also watched our granddaughter on CBC on the Mazda Knockout Regatta! Mary and I were cheering as if it was the Olympics. Just seeing her name come up on TV, we were knocked out! What can I say, the camera loved her! Heh, she's 17 and an athlete, of course the camera loves all those kids and the testosterone of those boys! Anyway she made it to the finals and came home with a bronze.
We went nuts! Well done!







I am returning home for a few days to see about the bunion on my foot and also to have the hip looked at. I am also going to see about the laser treatment for the foot next month. That won't be covered by medical but the orthopedic surgery would be. I have been reading on bunions (thanks mom) and find out that it is mostly women that have them, and that they are inherited.







My mother has bunions and has complained of her feet and hammer toes for years, never doing anything about them. I have learned a lesson from her and am looking into it now before they become too painful and I really have any further troubles.





See you in a few days...