PURPLE AND PINK "FLAGS"

Last summer at the cottage, I saw this pattern in an old quilting magazine. I loved it enough to gather what I had left at the cottage to make a quilt.


You know I loved dots, but I think my love of them is waining.. I mean, I have so many quilts that have dot in them and I'm trying to use up stash but how much can one use these dots?


These squares are 16" so the quilt is 48" squared up.
I usually border my quilts as I like that look, but this one didn't require it for the effect of the quilt.


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I'm not that fond of it but now that the photo was taken
it actually looks better in the morning light. I used some of the remaining purple to make the back.


When I was a kid purple and pink were my favorite colours for happiness. I remembered this as I was putting it together. Funny what happens when quilting and the mind wanders.

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Anyway, there were 10 blocks and I didn't want to
waste any of them so I put one one the back. Now,
there are quilts that my sweetie thinks are weird!

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Remember the experiment in the summer? "Did you
screw up?" ...I wasn't too happy about that and then
of course, there's the bar code one just posted, so I was thinking he wasn't going to be given a chance to comment when I presented it as I was doing the hand sewing during the curling.

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Yep, he loved it and wondered only why didn't I put the pink and black "flag" in the middle of the quilt back? These blocks look like flags? He's been watching to much Olympics with the people waving all their flags I think!

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Other than batting and a bit of fabric since January, I'm sticking to my belated resolution to use up all those scraps that I've had put into bins "for future use". I don't know how people keep track of all their fabrics, because I just have a few dozen on the shelf, and still have 3 boxes of scraps and strips that need to be used. What, besides looking at fabrics do they do with it all?


What were the plans when fabric was purchased I wonder. Me? I've looked at fabric that's mostly on sale just to have it thinking, oh yeah thinking that I know what I could do with this.

So this morning, I'm off again to use up those pieces that are in bins.

IT LOOKS LIKE BAR CODES

Monday was Family Day in Ontario. The goverment put this into effect 3 years ago because there isn't a break from Christmas till Easter. Hence , Family Day.


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So on Monday we had a big Pizza lunch at our house with grand kids in attendance for Nana's homemade Pizza. Salads, fruits and home made cookies for dessert.


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I made this quilt last spring and since I'm feeling spring in the air as opposed to autumn for the Aussies, I thought I'd set a bright table.



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Remember when I tidied up my sewing room in January and cut all kinds of 2 1/2" and 3" strips? Well, my neighbour Mary's daughter had a birthday and I said I'd make her a quilt...

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I had all these strips already cut out, so the top went together in an afternoon almost. Very simple, but I just made the strippie a bit different.

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My sweetie looked at it and said "it looks like bar codes!" Now why oh why did I ask him what he thought? I should have known better but silly me I had to ask.


Then, of course, it's what I had to call it as the name stuck in my head.
The back is all in white. Plain and very effective I think.

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It measures 43" X 65" which is perfect for a lap quilt. The beauty of these is that the back may be made with 45" yardage although I used a single percale sheet.

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I have also sent off today my nine patch to Australia for Illene's quilt. I don't know when it will get there as I was talking to my friend Helen who mailed a quilt to the Irish Flood relief and she has been tracking it for about 6 weeks and it's still not arrived in Ireland! I think my little envelope will get to Aussie land before her's gets to Ireland.

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Olympics are taking over my life! So exciting to watch all of it and cheering on the participants. Did I ever tell you of my mogul experience? No? Okay, I'll give you the short version!

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It was, maybe my third time up a chair lift skiing with the kids, who are all teen age dare devils at the time and were so happy that I was skiing! Specific instructions were given, "go left when you get off the chair" but the groves that I got in were to the right.

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As I started down the hill, I noticed all these bumps....I thought "what the H....! and then I hit a couple of bumps, I started to speed up as I tried to avoid first this bump only to hit the other beside it. I can hear my kids who are going up the chair cheering me on and let me tell you, my knees weren't together and neither were arms!

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I finally fell, thinking that a ski pole had entered my chest, I lay there in absolute agony! My oldest son comes up to me finally, and I tell him that I think the pole went into my chest....."No, mom, it's your cigarette package", but he commented that people on the lift were shouting to each other saying " Look at that crazy woman doing moguls....which one?...the one in the bright lime green ski suit!"

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I asked my son who the hell would put bumps like that on a ski hill.....yep they're called moguls. I never turned right again on that hill. I also gave up cigarettes.

A MENNONITE QUILT!

This lovely Mennonite quilt was bought by my friend Helen. Her husband spotted the quilt in a little shop outside of London Ontario.


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Helen said her husband had to convince her to buy it! Imagine that!

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It's hand appliqued, and of course all the hand quilting has different patterns around the appliques.

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If you click on the photo the hand quilting and applique is fabulous!

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I have done a bit of sewing but the Olympics which we get all day long are just rivoting and yesterday for the opening day of Curling, you would have thought it was the gold medal round as Canada beat Norway 5-4. The Norweigans have clown pants...honestly we were joking about the elephants must be just outside the arena!


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Today is bridge day, so not much sewing is happening . I am so feeling that we are approaching spring! I don't know why that is, maybe it's all the vitamin d I've been taking. I feel energized.

HOW DO YOU DO IT?

See the photo there, well it's on my sidebar also. We have been asked to

make a nine patch block to help Illene and her daughter who are going through some extreme hardships...

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Click on the icon on the sidebar and see if you are interested in making a small donation to the cause.

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Now, I have said in a previous post that my journey into the stitch in the ditch has not been quite successful. I have a Janome 6600 which states just put the attachment on, and away I go!

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Well, it's not working for me. Yesterday after having a great lunch at Helen's ....Julia Child's French Onion Soup etc....so yummy by the way, that Helen who has an embroidery Janome says that she uses an attachment specifically for in the ditch and finds it better than the Janome instructions.

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I think that she has the right idea! As I looked at my machine this morning however, I wonder if I can get the darn thing on as I have this "tongue" that is sticking out the back of the machine. I may give it a shot on my old machine...darn, I do love sewing at a sewing table as it's the right height.

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I don't want to complicate matters, but what exactly are those tongues (for lack of a better word) for?

I may take a photo and post it just to get the right instructions.

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Today is The Great American Race, Daytona 500, so I won't be sewing but will be glued to the tv to watch the race. My sweetie is already watching the pre pre race line up and the news of the day..

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I noted while visiting Bejeweled Barb this morning that they've had a small hurricane go through Samoa. Her photos were really good! I was sure, except for a couple of freeky earthquakes that she was living on a paradise Island! Still is a lot better than the cold of Canada , but check her out today!

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Happy Valentines to all of you loving bloggers.

My sweetie gave me my roses, but best of all a card that says it all about love...

JUST A LITTLE STRIPPIE

I love to stipple, but am getting a bit bored with it as I do different quilting.



So I decided to practice some new ways to move my free motion foot. I practiced on a small piece and then came up with two different patterns, to work on the smaller of the strips.



I'm quite happy with them and I took my time as I have
a tendency to work fast in free motion spirit.

I have tried stitch in the ditch, but have a bit of trouble

with the stitch length. The stitches seem to be too tight

when I set the tensions. My instructions don't say how long they should be. How long should they be I wonder?


This little quilt is for a teenager who suffers from seizures and loves pink! My granddaughter suggested the coloursfor her and was supposed to help with the quilt, but other than the colours,she just didn't have the time. So knowing her school workload and her workout
schedule I realized that before she leaves for training
camp that there would be no way for her to make time to do this, so with love, I made it for her.





You can see the three different patterns on the back. I stippled the largest strip but will definitely do a few more patterns in the future. 365 days of free motion quilting offers so many ideas and I can incorporate which ever I like....with practice.



Today is the start of the Olympics! This will be two weeks of watching the "youth" of the world trying to do their best! Here in Canada, we will have hours and hours of coverage, not just prime time. It's a shame that countries do pay that amount of money, but only provide a couple of hours a day.


I have the knitting needles ready for some serious socks as I shall be glued to the tv for the next couple of weeks.

WILL YOU LOOK AT THIS?

I just popped in to visit one of my new blogging friends, Patchmaker Quilts. (see my blog list) and she has posted a few photos that she uploaded of these albino moose in Nova Scotia.




Not just one but a few and look, no snow on the ground.
Read her story as it's better detailed than what I could say as I don't paraphrase very well. The memory forgets quickly.





The house is finished! We are back to normal in every
sense of our being. The basement is a bit of a mess, but I was down there this morning and sorted through some of the excess. I think we will be having our first garage sale this spring. I have no idea how one goes about doing one, but I am sure with the help of my daughter and Mary that we can be successful. It's not that I have so very much, but some of our stuff is just too good to take to Goodwill.






Did I tell you of the absolutely best thing about the painting? No? Well here it is. About 6 years ago, while we were still at our "big" house, I lost a pair of earings, gold hoops that I'd had since 1961. I remember because it was the year Kelly was born. Anyway, I looked everywhere for them, and I mean everywhere in that house, all the drawers, closets and any little thing that I found, I would open it and look.




For the life of me, I just couldn't imagine what I'd done with them as I only have a few pairs that I wear at any time. I bought two pairs that year, one larger ones and a smaller pair (18k to boot) that I eventually gave to Kelly. So, I find this bathrobe that my sweetie has and it's been on a top shelf of his closet, as it was on the shelf of the "other" closet. I decided after all these years to wash it....as I am emptying the washer, I hear a clink! I look in the washer and...


OMG....I pull out one earing....I thought....what the .......... I shook the robe and the other earing fell on the floor.....I was whooping and hollering all over the house....sort of crazy dance too I think....and I am now wearing my absolutely favorite earings....Can you believe that? All those years, it's been in the pocket of a bathrobe that I probably wore twice in my life!




I'm happy!

MEREMEKO QUILT IS FINISHED!

I finally finished this little quilt! It's the meremeko
fabric that I inherited from my grandmother's stash.



This fabric is prior to 1965 which is when she passed away. I used the black and whites to really show this off and my sweetie helped me lay it out.

I found out after I washed it that it actually shrank a bit, so I rewashed it and stretched it again and it now looks perfect.

I hate prewashing but this is a lesson learned isn't it?

So this morning while washing this quilt, I washed the rest of the fabric that I have, about 2 large fat quarters.

I actually got this idea from Bumble Beans as she has some similar patterned quilts, so thanks to her I am quite in love with this pattern. It would lend itself to a jelly roll too, like Helen's quilt that I posted last week.

PAINTED HOUSE ALMOST FINISHED!

Last week when the house was white and the painter came, I really wasn't prepared for the changes that were about to happen!


I tell you, I wasn't excited, as I liked the white house that I've been living in for four years. It was simple, every room matched and even though my daughter, grand daughters, and even Mary, (the neighbour) said we needed colour, neither my sweetie or I put much thought into it.


But I tell you that once it was decided that we needed
sprucing up, well the colours were picked with me saying
"ok, whatever you want" type of thing to the colours that
the man of the house picked.



Well he did a great job! The yellow walls look fabulous!
I feel like I'm in a new house.
Everything is so bright, and as each room was completed my sweetie cleaned and polished everything that went back into the rooms.

We don't have that many rooms as our house is very open plan as I've told you before, however the result has been amazing! I love the colours that he picked.



Now the best part for me was the bedroom. We had
bought a new king size mattress last spring from Sleep
Country (for those that are American, it's a large and
very popular shop here in Canada) and had a lot of
trouble with it. We paid a lot of money so having the
feeling of going uphill each night was not what we
wanted.


So we went back and without any fuss, they exchanged the mattress. Now of course the dilemna that we all face when we buy a 15 " mattress, is that the duvets or bedspreads, or blankets that fit nicely on our 9 or 10 inche mattress of past is that they don't fit any more.

Our duvet was goose down, but only 100" wide. It barely covered the sides of the new mattress. So Mary and I went shopping for super size bedding. Well I found this which measured 114 " across and it's perfect with a new silk duvet to boot! I couldn't be happier.

I am beginning to feel that like Murphy Brown, that the painter lives with us and is never going to leave. He says each day, well the last two anyway that it's his last day, but he's coming back tomorrow ( Monday). Well he's no Eldon, kinda cute though, but I want my house back!

I must rise and shine each morning early, showered and dressed before 8:15, and you can imagine the man of the house rising that early now that we are retired, well, tomorrow is his last day or else!

I'm sewing but have not had time to do much as you can imagine. Tomorrow as Scarlet says is another day!

MY FRIEND'S QUILTS!

Do you remember my friend Helen from the cottage? She's the one that has been teachin me some quilting techniques. Well, she's always been a hand quilter....still is to some extent, but I think she thought that she had to start using up her stash or else Andrea would be inheriting a lot of fabric!



So, she started making machine quilts! I am posting a few for you to see the wonderful work she can do.



This white with navy print is an irish chain, which she loves to do.



This one is such a lovely simple quilt made from what I think is a jelly roll that she had purchased a while back. I love the look of this quilt as it's very cottagy.








Using up fabrics certainly won't be too much of a challenge for her as she has come up with a few other designs for the future!

This one went to her grandson for Christmas. It's flannel from a kit that she has had on hand for a while too.



I loved this top when she showed it to me in the fall before we were leaving the cottage. It was so soft. I haven't worked with flannels but feeling the softness of this I am sure that her grandson is loving the feeling of curling up to watch the hockey game with the quilt wrapped around him.


Note the feet. We all seem to have the same posture! Too funny. We all stand a certain way when displaying our creations.

Bridge day! And lunch with the girls too! The painting of the main part of the house makes it looks so very bright!

A WHITE HOUSE IS CHANGING COLOURS!

We have been living in this white house for the past four years, and although I am loving the white, we really need to add colour in our space.


When my sweetie decided last week that this was it. "We need COLOUR!" Well I just didn't argue, so we have the painter here this morning to start the process of painting the whole house.

As you can see from the photos that I do like white. My daughter, who is into colours actually approved of our choices. Surprse, surprise!




I don't know how many of you have bold colour choices in your life, but me, I like it simple. We have an affinity to this bit of soft yellow that we have used for most of our houses and even at the cottage, so of course it was included in this house too.



As you can see from the layout of the house, it's pretty open plan and not too many walls in the main part of the house.


Black , white and creams is what we have been using so these colours will certainly go with our choices I think.




Since I was only a bit involved in colour choices, I think the credit definitely will go to my sweetie.


I'm quilting in the basement to keep out of the way!

SO, WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Yesterday, after coming home from the dentist I looked through so many patterns for using my Marameko print that I was dizzy thinking of which way to go.

I looked at a lot of blogs and quilt patterns that seem to use the cobblestone in a lot of different ways, so Idecided to make mine this way too.

I am on a roll at the moment and only the tension in my shoulders has driven me away from the sewing table.


I've only made one with white as the border but I think
that it's too stark for the rest of the blocks I've made,
don't you?


I'm not making this quilt large as I'm thinking lap quilt here which is the most popular of the quilts I make. I suppose living in a winter climate, we all like to cuddle under these little quilts to keep warm while watching tv, or doing homework....


I actually have enough of the fabric to make two quilts if I use the retro fabric sparingly. I didn't realize, (surprise, surprise) that I actually had so much of it.


I'm also thinking that so many quilts are made using 2 1/2" wide fabrics as it is so versatile. It must be why
those jellies are so popular.

I did cut out some plain yellow fabric to use, but it too is just a bit much with all the blacks. I'm loving this so far.

Have a great weekend you all!

NEW PROJECTS!

Starting a new project for me anyway, is always a bit disconcerting as I don't always have the completed quilt down pat in my brain, such as it is.




See the colours on the right there? Well they are what I want to use, especially the top fabric as that's one of the pieces I received from my grandmother's stash.




It's very Meramiko retro and I just love the colours, so was thinking that the black fabrics would just be perfect for putting together a simple modern quilt



But, I also have this little piece that I bought the other day
at Fabricland. I like it too and although it's a piece that would
go with the blacks etc of the little stash, I wonder if the
original thought would be better.







I have lots of bright pieces to put with the blacks and even have some more blacks. It's so hard to decide isn't it, considering that my stash pile is relatively small compared to some quilters' stashes.



I keep putting this and that together thinking outside the box as they say, or trying to at least. I do keep going back to the first pile as the one I want to go with.





You can see from the last photo that I don't keep much fabric on hand. I just don't like making all the choices that go with making quilts from say, following a pattern.








I think I'd have trouble with the Dear Jane blocks if I ever started on to just put the little blocks of 57 pieces together....I'm exhausted just thinking of a block of 57 pieces. Karen and Crispy who hand quilt do this sort of thing as do many others on my blog roll, but I'm not that good....yet.











So, I'm going to look at the fabrics that I have and maybe add a couple more colours to my original thoughts of making a simple little quilt.











On the other hand, I may make butter tarts, or a pear with ginger cake.




Yep, that's me, not able to get my thinking on straight
and focusing on the tasks at hand.





Of course all this rattling in the brain is probably due
to the fact that I'm going to the dentist today to have
him replace a cap which has cracked, having to sit
for the better part of 2 hours while the dentist pokes
around my mouth and extracts almost what amounts
to someone's mortgage payment for 2 hours of work!



But first, I'm going to have a cup of coffee, sit with my dog !

DEJUNKING...AND I FOUND THIS!

I've been in a funk lately, you know, not sewing, not quilting, not doing much of anything pertaining to my addiction....then I received my copy of the Better Homes and Gardens Quilting magazine and down I went to look at my sewing room.



It was a mess and as you can see from the photo on the right there, and this was only one binn! I started by just folding all the fabrics and then sorting through the binns that were filled with all the leftovers of previous works and of course in there was all the fabric that I inherited from my grandmother.



So, I cut 3 1/2 " squares for nine patch little blocks,
then cut some lengths of fabric to match this. I also
cut 2 12" strips to make a coin quilt sometime when
I'm in the mood to put them together.



While I was dejunking I found these triangles from when I first started quilting. I found these from the first quiltS (the orange) and the second quilt (the reds) that I cut out to make quilts for Tory and Alex. the granddaughters who picked out the fabrics for themselves. It's almost three years now. Hard to believe!


I have so many of these left, enough to make a couple more small quilts as a matter of fact. But, I just ironed them ...once again... and put them into one of the storage binns.



Now, I've always, well almost always made a top and then
I quilt it. I found this quilt top in a pile of my junk and
couldn't even remember when I made it, so I decided to
just finish it while I was at it. I used red from one of the
junk bins to bind it and it really looks perfect. I think I
must have done this last spring because Pat Sloan had a weekend quiltathon using orange...of course you know I always have orange...and then I think I made this one because the pattern looks pretty much like Pat's.



I now have a huge garbage bag of little pieces, fabrics that I know I won't use but do feel bad about getting rid of them. I had to be brutal! I don't have a huge amount of fabric and don't know what people do to use up their stash that they have on hand!


Now, I'm all tidied up, have everything in place, almost, which makes the space look so much better than I ever
expected.

I wonder how many of us ever go out of our favorite colour schemes. You know I look at some blogs that are always using, say, greens with blues, or whatever makes us happy. I seem to be a bit of all over the place although I do have lots of pinky type fabrics. Of course I have tonnes of white fabric as that seems to make me happy when quilting. Do you find yourself using the same colours, the same designers, or do you often go out of the box and go for it....Just wondering.

We went to see It's Complicated with Alec Baldwin and Merryl Streep, and Steve Martin. Very funny, and it's an adult comedy. I highly recommend it, even though I'm not doing a review, I liked it.

January Give Away Month

It seems to me that this must be the big month for giveaways. I just popped in to view Barb's blog and there is a giveaway there by Suzanne Early for having 1000 posts.

Can't even imagine that myself, but she is a busy gal.

Then one of my very favorite and longtime blogger friend Karen at http://karenquilts.com or just click on the side link here and you will find her fabulous blog.

If you don't follow Suzanne, go to Barb's blog (on the sidebar also ) and link to Suzanne.

That way you get to visit these great gals.

Also Bumble Beans (see sidebar) is also having a little giveaway

I don't even have a photo today. I've got the January blues I think. I did buy some great fabrics at the Fabricland sale but am too lazy to take any pics yet...maybe tomorrow.

and not only that the way my blog is looking, with the prints jumping all over the place. I may replace the formatting.

THE REVIEW- THE LOVELY BONES

Thank goodness I am not a movie critic. I couldn't make any money at it I am sure just because I would be torn between

giving the director a break and wanting to love the movie.

So, having said that and thinking that since it was directed by

Peter Jackson of Lord of the Rings, it had to be really good, not

great but good.

Well it was sort of. The girl in the leading role is excellent as is Susan Sarandon as the grandmother giving some emotional relief to a very sad and what could have been grizzly movie. The picking of the charactors for the film were excellent, Mark Walburg being the surprise of making himself very ordinary yet strong of charactor.

Stanly Tucci who is the murderer in the film was almost totally unrecognizable...but he was bang on in being the killer.

Last night with all the girls, eating popcorn, just being happy to be together, 5 out of 6 loved it. My granddaughter Tory who has read the book twice didn't. She really was right about her choice in the morning light ...(as we critics write) because Peter Jackson had amazing computer generated effects of life between heaven and earth...that's what they were, just fillers to fill up the screen.

It's a sad movie, it's well acted, it's visually right, but it just didn't do it for me this morning when I think of it.

I wanted to like it because it was girls' night out, we were have pizza together (which was yummy) and the fudge which the girls went gaga over.

Read the book!

oh, and a ps here. I'm not doing reviews of a movie again when it has just opened. It's stressful being a critic.