FLYING GEESE TOP...ALMOST DONE

Ok, I was wrong! Adding more flowers makes this quilt! I have finished putting it together except for the sashings around the sides and the top.


It does look really good. I'm very happy with it. I just don't know whether I can quilt this on my little machine.
I'm going to have to think this through...it's going to be at least 80 " X 90" by the time I'm finished.

That's a lot to do even with my trusty Janome 6600 which has a wider arm.

Can you believe that I actually pressed this with
this little dollar ironing board from Goodwill?


I kept moving the ironing board on the table, just pressing as I went along. My table is 6 ft long so it wasn't too difficult. Time consuming but not difficult.

It's a cold and rainy day at the cottage, I'm a bit chilled working in the sun room, so I think that just getting the room organized will take a bit of time, then, I'm done for the day.

Doesn't your mind wander when sewing? I was wondering how people get their blog names while I was sewing this morning.

I remember when I was setting up the blog, I had no idea what to call it, and I also was worried about spamming or some such, didn't know how secure a name was supposed to be. I think I tried "quilting for fun" or some such thing, and the blogger didn't allow that, so being me....and also not thinking too clearly at the time...I did the "quiltingforfunandmorefun" not realizing that it's such a pain to blog into that!

Now Karen, from "Karensquilting" she was thinking wasn't she? She was one of my early visitors to my blog, she suggested that I shorten it or change it as it was hard (and stupid when I thought about it) so I did "Quilting at the Cottage" because by that time I was here!

Why oh why didn't I do that in the first place? I found some of my favourite (Canadian spelling) blogs by their names. Think of it, "bejeweled quilts", "crispy quilts", "cutting edge", "quilting in my pyjamas" (now that's thinking) and of course the one that just got me was "cumberland island quilting chick" , "happy cottage quilter" and that's just a few!

How does a new blogger come up with excellent catchy names. I'm always thankful that Karen said to change my name. I find it hard to put all the http stuff together, and I'm the creator!

See what happens when I'm alone in a room with geese and flowers...it boggles even my mind! If I didn't mention your name here, it's not that yours isn't unique, it's just that there are too many to mention, but my blog roll has many interesting names. Wombats, Giraffes, with doodles and whatever else has our interests.

We are a crazy bunch, we quilters!

NO TITLE FOR THIS BLOG!

I didn't take this photo, I got it from the web shots or something like that!

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I have a passion for these pesky little demons! They are fiercely protective of their territory, will defend it to the death practically.

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Having said that....where are they? I have two! In years passed, we would have at least six pairs for the summer and then when the babies arrived, I would be changing the feeders constantly to provide food.

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In the past three years our hummers are all but gone!

I talk to other people on the lake who put out feeders

that also say the same thing. The season starts out well. There were at least six this year, then overnight the four just disappeared.

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I know that we have had cool summers for the last few years, but still, the flowers bloom, the insects (they eat 1/4 of their bodyweight each day) are there for them to eat, but they have literally all but disappeared from our lake.

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My friend in the city says that she has only two, one pair. There must be something going on that we are not yet aware of because we should have hummingbirds!

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We had a rainy weekend, so had a dinner party with good friends and good wine albeit homemade awesome red that was brought. Amazing what the little make your own operations can do!

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My sweetie made the best steaks outside of the best steakhouse restaurant! He does need a bit of practice so that he isn't so stressed over it, but he did a great job!

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Ok, ok, I'm going to tell you of the "quilt". Helen suggested that I add more flowers! She's right darn it all! I must add more to it to make it look right. We put a few of the extras on the rows so as to see and I'm going to add some. Also suggested was that maybe I make them a bit smaller to make me happier. So that's the plan when I go over to the other side of the room where it is looking at me and begging for completion!

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Of course the weekend has passed, the weather is wonderful, so we are heading to get some flowers for our deck. There is a fabulous nursery down the road about 30 miles that brings in the best baskets. Instant colour! Maybe the hummers will come back!

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Can you believe it? I just couldn't come up with a title?

SEWING AT THE COTTAGE!

Today was kind of a yucky day so I sat at the sewing table and put together the rest of the daisies.


I'm not enamoured with the whole thing. I don't know why, it's a lovely design even though I realized once I started doing the flowers, that I'm not into the flower thing. I like them fresh in a bouquet I think or in the garden.


I decided not to put the whole 24 flowers into the design
as I'd really not liked it at all.

It's not the geese! I like those. I'm sure many of you have
done this too. Loved the pattern in the magazine then,
when you do it....it's just doesn't grab you.


I am going to finish it mind you as I have so many hours
into it now and all the fabrics are cut out. But, I'm not
sending it out to be quilted. Nope! I received an email
from Trish at Compulsive Quilting and she suggested that I outline the geese, then stipple the rest and I'm doing that.


There is still a 10" border to go around the patterns so it will finish quickly now.

My sweetie looked at it and said he thought it was great and so much work, and best of all he said that I had learned new techniques! I did and will definitely do the geese again, but flowers aren't really my thing.

I have some left over and will make the effort of doing
a couple of pillow cases to finish it.

So you can see the geese are sitting on a chair just waiting for me to finish it all. I'm a bit bummed by it even though the sewing effort was well worth it. I learned . That's what this was about wasn't it? What did I learn?

That I usually do my own thing and I should stick to that most of the time.

Tomorrow, weather permitting we are off to the mainland to purchase paint for the two, count them two addirondac chairs or as they are know here Bear Chairs for the dock. I'm looking forward to going to town where more than three people in the post office at a time is a crowd!

PUSHING UP DAISIES?

I started out today by actually hand sewing all the stems of the flowers. How good was that? It was so relaxing. Ok, I didn't do the bias binding, Helen made it last night.



She made it as one continuous piece of fabric then she cut the fabric and voila! All the stems were done in no time at all!



Today she was back and made enough of the bias binding to finish off this quilt! I'm quite please with her work! But , she didn't press it! She rolled it all up neatly (of course) and tied it well so that It will come off the roll so beautifully when the time comes to add the binding.
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I managed to do one strip of flowers but for some reason even though I measured (I really did) I was a bit off at the bottom so I had to kind of squeeze the last little daisy (I'm calling them that) on the panel.
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I think there was a bit of creative licence on my part so the
next two panels will be as close to this one as possible.

The directions weren't totally specific about the stem part, so I just made it all one and pressed my flowers over it.

I also realized that if there wasn't stabilizer (?) on the back to make it stick that the fabric moved a bit. So I had to spray a couple of pieces.

Improvising as I went along as usual for me anyway.

I also used the blanket stitch (needle down) which was just what went wrong with the first sample of this baby!

Here are a couple of the flowers. I am so happy you can't imagine and this is so very cute too! I'm definitely keeping this one.

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Now I bought Hunky Dory by Chez Moi for this but really except for the first few pieces, there were lots that I wouldn't buy if I was buying yardage. It's pretty, but it also has lots of yucky greens and wishy washy beiges too. It's not like the Swanky one I bought last year.

I just wouldn't recommend it as a favourite.

Tomorrow I hope to finish the flowers, then, the piecing of the whole quilt.. Helen is here to help if I need her.

A georgous day at the lake today. Wine and cheese on the dock!

HERE'S THE GEESE...AND THANKS FOR THINKING OF US!

First, I'd like to thank you all for your kind posts and
private emails inquiring how Courtney's operation went.


It went very well but we both had no idea that we would be back there within 6 weeks for the second of three processes to remove or make very tiny this tumor!

Apparently the biggest problem is that it sits so close to the bone thus, the pain, the difficulty of the removal of it.
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Now, since the kid weighs in at about 130, is 5'6" tall and hardly even takes aspirin....you'd think that a bit of morphine would put her into lala land. Well it didn't. Turns out she is quite drug tollerant and felt a lot of the pain. Go figure!
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So, between the morphine and the percacet, she wasn't in
pain, but had lots of upset tummy and continued so into
the wee hours of the night.

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Today she is back to normal and thanks to her mom's
making her have Lipton's Chicken Noodle soup, it made
the you know what so much easier!

So again, thank you so much for thinking of her this past weekend. Blog friends are the best!


Ok, on to my geese. I've put them all together, have to say that it was so much easier than I thought. I just laid them out on the table as you can see from the top photo
and marked each row so that I didn't goof it up.

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It all went together very well in a couple of hours of sewing and pressing.
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I do think that this was the easy part though as tomorrow I tackle the bias vines for the flowers and start pressing the flowers onto the white strips.


It's coming well and Helen is here on the island to guide me along.
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She loved her trip to Ireland even met the editor of the Irish Quilting magazine which has been started by a woman from the United States and has featured "Irish Muses" also known as Micki the lucky ! I say that as Micki has Irish luck so seems to win many of the blog giveaways!
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Helen will be in one of the next few issues as she donated a quilt to the Irish flooding victoms. It cost her more to send the quilt from Canada than it did to make it! Well almost, but so very generous of her.

We are expecting a storm this afternoon, the weather is very humid so I'm going to batten down the hatches as they say and think of what to have for dinner if the power goes out!

WE ARE HEADING HOME!

We are heading home tomorrow for our granddaughter's operation. So today will be spent putting things in order, getting our garbage ready to put in the boat and closing up for a few days.

The tumor which is benign is being removed at a radiology clinic in Toronto and we are taking her. It's a long operation I'm told, but just day surgery.

After all this, the recovery should be speedy and she will be back on her feet and putting 100% effort in her training program.

It's been a long haul to determine the growth and the pain. So it's being removed!

We have been having such incrdible weather, but it does have a downside. This past winter there was little snow up in the lake area, hence, not too much of a run off to our lake.

The photo actually is a tributory of a lake higher up
than ours and usually the waterfall (see below) is roaring
at this time of year.


Well it's just trickling down like it was the middle of July this year. So for all the good there is always a bad I suppose.








You can see the waterfall on the right side of the photo that is coming off the upper photo. It is usually just roaring down at this time of year.



The kids walk up there to just hear and see the roaring of the waterfall at Bear Lake. The upper part is called part of Livingston Lake in this area and they dump into ours, which is Kawagama Lake.


It is always an adventure to go there with the kids and I used to be able, like them, climb to the top and just wonder at the beauty around us.

The other photo is of our wonder dog Wilson who loves the boat ride and the excursion of the visit to the waterfall but we put the "boat coat" on him. It's easier
to control him and he knows there is a trip when he
sees the red life jacket.


I have a new blog for you to look at to just make us all that blog know that we quilters are a special breed; the cumberland island quilt chick (what a name) is on my blog roll and her photos are very amazing as well as her writings.

Isn't it something when someone connects with you, you connect with them and the links are all over the world?

Each and everyone that I visit is always so fun in the mornings when having coffee, seeing what each person has done, how their day is going and each day is a discovery! Visit Cumberland Island seen through her eyes.

NOW, WOULD YOU BE SEWING WITH THIS KIND OF WEATHER?

Now who would sew with this kind of weather? It's like
summer....the summer we haven't had for three years
here in Ontario.


The weekend was all bliss weather, in the mid 80s, the sun was shining, light winds, therefore the lake went to about 60 degrees....at the top 5 inches the swimmers told me!

Now, I just couldn't get my head into thinking about sewing. It was just not to be. I even tried to honestly lay out the geese, but it was too hot.

It's still so hot today and therefore, I am relaxing totally as we are planning our first trip to Dorset for our first shopping trip of the season. Yes, we need food after the weekend!

We also need water! Our lake is clean enough to drink from, but the taste just isn't sweet so we go to the spring well that the town provides.

I do count my blessings in life that we are still able to be here!

FIRST STORM OF THE SEASON! AND MY FLOWERS ARE CUT OUT.

We were sitting on the deck last evening, the wind was calm
so we were enjoying a glass of wine before dinner.


I was sitting facing east and remarked to my sweetie that the wind was coming up!

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So he glanced over noting the "cats paws" on the lake.
I said they were more like lions paws as I was beginning to feel the breeze.

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Well a couple of minutes later, the breeze was a storm coming through and the rainbow that you see had moved from over the island in the distance to the big
island right across from us.


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The lake became very dark, the wind was dislodging pine cones from the trees, branches were flying across the roof and huge drops of water were starting to fall.

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You can see the white caps forming on the lake. The sun is shining to the west of us and since we are facing south you can see the sun on the other island.


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It was truly wierd! I must tell you this was all in the spance of less than 10 minutes! I would pop out the door and take a shot and dodge the pine cones and branches,then pop back into the cottage.

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In about 15 minutes, it was all over, the wind dropped, the lake calmed and not only that but the wind changed to a westly breeze!

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We put the pillows back out on the deck and finished our wine! This was the first storm of the season.
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Of course my sweetie had just finished raking the winter debris and everything looked super!


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I have all the flowers finished! I spent a few hours tracing and then cutting them all out. I have decided to make the centers in one colour.....I think right now.

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I have also cut out the leaves which were easy. Now I am thinking that since "stabilizer" is paper, I may try using some old magazine pages which are thin and may just stabilize the white fabric enough to get started.
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It is Friday morning though and we are expecting company, so I'm probably not going to start the larger of the project till Monday at least.
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Bob and Mary (the neighbours) are coming for the weekend. Their lovely daughter is coming with the love of her life at the moment. (mom is hoping this is the one) So there is baking to be done.
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Better than Sex Cake is on the request menu, my daughter's oatmeal goodie squares also, and of course Pizza.
I can make all of it today. Believe it or not the Pizza is actually awesome when baked the next day. The crust is crispier which is what everyone like.
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Bob is bringing beef tenderloin for Sunday dinner, along with the fixin's. So, we eat too much again.

WITH A LITTLE HELP FROM MY FRIENDS!

Ok, the Geese were so easy, of course once the instructions were in my head! I can actually make 4 of these babies in about 10 minutes. That's including the pressing and the trimming. Who would have thought it?



I tried to download them yesterday but the satellite just didn't seem to want to accommodate me. So here they are today.

Yes, I am proud. Remember I told you that these were my grandmother's favorite blocks. They show up in so many of her quilts. She used a cardboard template which I have amongst her treasures of quilting stuff.



Ok, now to the dilemna. See the flower? I think that the stitch may be a bit too wide, that I can fix. But the white keeps puckering. do I put a piece of paper under the white?

I have fusible web behind all three cut outs as directed.

I did ask ask Anya at Hillscreek quilter, who by the way has been honored with an lovely award for one of her quilts. Go see http://hillscreekquilter however she uses a blanket stitch but she did give me adivice for that if I went to that stitch. But I think satin is the way to go here.

Please, also do I use less tension on the needle? I have a very light tension for the presser foot all the time, so should I reduce the needle tension too?

I have read a few directions on the web which show how to do it but not the set up. Gosh, I can sew, it's the set up that I can't figure out.

I'm cutting out all the flowers for the quilt today and don't think I'll kill myself with the scissors and there should be no blood dripping as my fingers are healing.

I just never thought of quilting as a dangerous hobby. After reading Karen's comment about not quilting in bare feet in case the rotary cutter drops on the foot, my sweetie (who knows me well) said that he better up the insurance on me! Today, he said that I should be careful with the scissors as I could poke my eyes out!

What a man!

FLYING GEESE AND BLOODY FINGERS!

When I was reading the little bio on Eleanor Burns,
one of the things noted was that she charged twenty
five cents for each person that didn't put the cover
on the rotary cutters!


I usually do this, but today I forgot and was reaching for a piece of fabric and look what happened! Yep, three fingers sliced! I had to stop working while the fingers stopped bleeding. A little nic by someone on 325 mg of aspirin sometimes takes a bit of work. I didn't want to bleed on the geese.

Well the geese are done and if I could have downloaded the photos I took, you would have been proud! I am very very proud of myself for following directions.

Well almost...the first practice shot I cut 11 1/2 instead of 11" on the white. So I thought why would she put all that extra fabric to trim? Yeah, then I re read the instructions...11" OMG. And this is day one!

Well I must say that I am very pleased. The Queen of Quilt in a Day did it right. I made all the geese in about 5 hours of sewing, cutting and measuring. I wish I could have downloaded them by satellite, but maybe I can do something tomorrow.

Anyway, the fingers are healing, the sewing is put away for the day, and I am now going to tackle the cutting of the little flowers as directed. Of course when I made my templates....oh yeah, I cut them out of mylar no less, then read Eleanor's little note (cut flowers 1/4" larger than shown) So I shall make more I think, just to be right and following directions for the first time ever. Gosh you'd think I was a man!

Oh, I don't know if my friend even got to Ireland yet as the volcano was acting up in Iceland and maybe she went to Paris instead! Now wouldn't that be a treat!

FLYING INTO SPRING WITH ELEANOR BURNS!

We have returned to our little "shack at the lac" as the saying goes about our little piece of heaven here in Ontario.

Not only have we returned but so have the humming birds. Only 2 so far and they are males, so the females can't be far behind. Usually about a week till they arrive and the mating season begins.

The photos that I've taken here are from American Patchwork and Quilting by Better Homes and Gardens. The feature quilter this month is none other than the queen herself Eleanor Burns.

I have all the fabric, the fusible web the backing etc. I even found
a machine quilter when shopping at Fabricland on Sunday. You know
if you listen to a conversation while browsing and hear the word
"quilt" well, the rest is easy. I asked if they knew of anyone who
did long arm quilting and low and behold one of the ladies does and she lives only 15 minutes from me! Now isn't that saying that karma happens when one least expect it!


Ok, I am also going to make the flying geese for the first time, make the flowers for the first time, follow directions for the first time, (that is to the letter almost).

There is a very good diagram of how to make the geese which I shall practice on some scraps before I begin in earnest.

Helen, my guru, my mentor, my very patient friend is off to Ireland for the next week with one of her daughters and her friend Susan. I am going to try on my own, but if I can't giterdone as the saying goes, I do have another project to start.

But I am full of confidence! I am going to make myself proud! I am starting tomorrow.

The weather is fabulous, very light breeze and it's 78 degrees in the shade of our deck. It just doesn't get any better than that!

DAVID COPPERFIELD...WHAT A SHOWMAN!

Oh boy were we entertained! I'm never one that has said, you know
how much I loved this guy! Well he was funny, he was quick with the
repartee, he totally amazed me and I laughed and ooohed and aaahed
for about 2 hours. Just short of that really, but it seemed like 15
minutes, because the show just rolled so quickly.

We saw him at Casino Rama where I'd never been for those of you who live in Ontario and know that it's near Orillia. 5,000 people in the theatre. I never knew that people, that many anyway would go to shows like this.


Now I know. We were also about 4 rows back with Helen, and her honey so we could see it all. My sweetie who is such a sceptic (?)
was totally and I mean totally entertained!

What more can I say, except thank you so much to our friends who had us for dinner, ribs extraordinaire, we got to sleep in what was like a hotel suite with total luxury!

We are back home, rested and today will be a shopping day for the next couple of weeks at the cottage.

I am also heading to Fabricland this morning with my list of goodies I require with instructions from the birthday girl of last week for a maple leaf quilt....Shades of red? Not for her...."Nana, just plain red and white!" It was her tone that made it clear....Well I may get a teeny bit creative with it still.

I think that spring is finally here as we are now in the mid 60s with sunny days ahead. I hope when I return to the lake that the hummingbirds will have arrived.

FAN QUILT

Did you really really think I'd made this? Not on your
life!

This quilt was made about 70 years ago by my neighbour's grandmother. This was what I wanted to do!

I mentioned to Helen that maybe my blog friends would believe that I made this....She laughed ! What? You don't think I could have done this? She was probably still laughing when getting into her boat to go home!

Ok, I didn't make it, but dreams do come true and one day, it will happen. Even if it takes me a year to accomplish such a beauty!

I think the yellow and white points just add drama to the placement of this quilt. If you click on the photo you can see that the quilting, done by hand all of it, is quite different in some of the blocks.

I just love this quilt and it will be at our cottage for the summer, so I can see it every day we are here.

We are heading home for a few days so I'm heading to Fabricland for fabric shopping. Big sale for this month and I do have an Eleanor Burns quilt which was in this month's BHG that I want to make. It's called Spring Fling...and uses fusible web to applique. I think I can do that! I'm not going to rush it, I'm going to make it my summer project.

I bought enough fabric from Green Fairy Quilts last month to make it except the white background. I probably should buy a bolt of white when it's on sale, as well as yellow, as I love both of these colours!

It's very windy today at the cottage. We are once again hunkered down and burning wood. No humming birds as yet and as Harmony Hopes aka Penny noted, they are smarter than we are. Maybe next week as the weather is supposed to warm up.

We are expecting a gang for the long weekend in May, which is like Memorial Day in the US except that we call it the May 24th weekend even if it doesn't fall on the 24th. It's a totally Canadian thing!

We are off to see David Copperfield on Friday with Helen and her honey! Can't wait.

IT'S TOO COLD TO QUILT......SO, I DID THIS!

What does one do at the cottage when the weather is in the freezer?



I decided to make focaccia bread! I had brought some buns from the bakery at home and thought that I'd try making them here.



The new neighbours (I gotta stop calling them that after three years) made me brownies for mother's day, so I decided they should get one of the loaves.




We were going to my friend Helen's for dinner, that was worth one and we got one.



The recipe I got from an online site, said that these
were made in the round. However, in Canada we have
focaccia usually in square buns
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I also read that one should add rosemary which the
neighbours had. Fresh no less as Kathleen is a vegan
so they always have wierd and wonderful things in
her larder!

As you can see from the photos they do look amazing! I was very pleased with my first attempt.

But...the next time I would use less olive oil, more rosemary and try to make them more crispy and less like bread.

As you can see they really puffed up and were quite delicious, but not what my goal was. I am going to give them another try to try an make them truly crusty!

Honestly, the weather had me hunkered down in the cottage most of the day.

My sweetie was outside wearing coat and gloves finishing putting the final touches to our precious lift.

The new neighbour guy who is so fit and actually can usually run with a 4x8 sheet of 3/4" plywood has hurt his back which meant that his girls had to carry all the groceries etc up to their cottage....overheard by someone...."dad we need a lift". It's a sign I tell you!

I am getting some advice on the fans today as Helen will make the trek to our cottage this morning. If it's not too cold for us to fire up the sewing machine. There must be a temperature level for that poor machine which is set up close to a heavy plastic window. For those of you in the south you have probably heard of Weatherwall Windows. Well that's what we have here in the sunroom. No insulation value whatsoever.

Ok, this week we will be in the mid 50s to low 60s. Spring is returning to our little paradise.

I must say though that some of the flowers that are usually in bloom when the hummingbirds arrive have finished blooming. What a strange year. I saw on tv this morning that the lilacs will also be 2 to 3 weeks ahead of their time. The hummers have yet to arrive here, although my neighbour Mary says she has them now.

It is still a beautiful day here, not a cloud in the sky, the lake is calm and we can actually hear the loons early in the morning with their haunting calls. It's worth it all.

I'M A WINNER....WAHOO!

Now, I've said it many many times, that I don't have much luck
when it comes to entering the thousands of giveaways in blogland.

You know some of you win over and over again, but not me! I have
finally won! Thank you to Christine at "The Cutting Edge" for giving
me my first ever win!


Not only that, but she felt a bit sorry for me moaning and groaning about never having won (grins here a bit) that she sent me more than just my winning package.

So thank you Sunshine! All the fabrics are coming to the cottage for creating something special!



I haven't been doing any sort of sewing, quilting, planning projects and definitely not the fans.

We have been at the cottage doing cottage things, like reading, eating and visiting with friends. The weather is just too awesome to sit and sew. And.....my machine hasn't made the trip yet.


It is a bit early for us to have weather in the mid 70s, or teens for
the celcius people . We usually are bundled up, keep the fires
burning hoping that the weather doesn't get too cold during the
nights so that we don't freeze.

Not this year, not even any fires at night during this past week.
I took this photo on Sunday morning. The lake is still
about 39 degrees, while the air was about 72. Hence
the fog which was lying low over the islands on the
lake.

The little island near the end of the lake seems to be in the clouds. It was quite an eerie morning, but still mild enough that I sat on the deck with my coffee in hand, listening to the sounds of the birds calling for mates.

We are still awaiting the hummingbirds which should arrive sometime in the next week if they are on their annual migratory schedule of past years.

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Returning to the city on Sunday afternoons is always different for us as we are retired so we never "travel" with the weekend cottagers. We were surprised at how many people were like us, opening cottages early due to the great weather we have been experiencing this year.

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We returned to take one of our granddaughters' for her appointment with a super surgeon regarding the tumor on her leg which is benign, but is growing and it's been bothering her for the past year. It is very close to the bone on her calf, causing quite a bit of pain during her training workouts, so we are now told that there will be an appointment at a radiology clinic to inject her with -for the life of me I can't remember what- which may require only one or two treatments to clear the tumor up. We are very thankful that it is a minor treatment program and so worth the wait to have it all cleared up.

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Gosh, my blogs are long! I just start and never know when to finish, except now, I'm making dinner which requires my full attention.