OHIO STAR...A HELEN CREATION AND LABOUR OF LOVE!

 Here is Helen's labour of love for her
daughter Marci.

This quilt, Ohio Star was started by Helen a number of years ago.  It is hand pieced, hand quilted.

Marci loves blues and this beauty has taken a long time to make because it is so large and Helen's fingers needed  lots of rest between putting the pieces together.

The quilt has silk batting which Helen
said was a dream to quilt as the silk was so light the quilting needle just slipped through it.

This quilt was done with a quilt hoop. I first saw this a few years ago when Helen had it on her lap here at the cottage.  At the time, I had no idea the true meaning of hand quilting.

The label denotes Marci's loving nic (?) name of Marci Mouse.

So for all of you who know the true meaning of quilting.  This is for you.

The beautiful photos were taken by Helen's sweetie and Helen around their cabin in the woods of their cottage....a perfect setting.




















 

WONKY STAR AND WONKY THOUGHTS

 I was looking for a Wonky Star pattern.  The  Sillyboodilly blog has an excellent tutorial. I also wrote to thank her for it and for using her photo yesterday without linking as I can't figure that out!  Yet.

So getting my thoughts together without seeking Helen's advice regarding patterns and such, I went ahead and made this one.

Well, you know you make one and it looks like it works, well when four or five get put side by side....it's a WHOA moment.  So I finally asked my private teacher Helen for advice....she said "oh this
is so YOU!"

I wonder what she meant?  In any event,
I've cut out 15 blocks so of course, I need
to put some sashing to at least make it
worth doing.  The dark blue might just
be the ticket.

Why do I do this to myself?  Well the good thing is that my sweetie loves the colours!  Really?

I thought it would be a good thing to make muffins out of my rhubarb coffee cake recipe....didn't work as you can see.

But no one seemed to care, as the first bite was a  "so what" moment...they are still truly yummy.   Another lesson learned this summer.

I have this flower in my beautiful pots.  I think it's a verbena but can't place it.  Do you know?  It really is a beauty but there aren't many  in the pots.  It appeared about a week ago.

Okay....I read that one can never have enough stash.  I now believe it!  I have a cedar chest full of odds and sodds of fabrics which just don't match to my minds eye...Helen is not surprised at this.

I think I need more white or yellow to make some tops to get rid of some of these unwanted or unloved fabrics.  Shopping is in the forcast!

The weather has gone somewhere else today.  We are going to have some serious rain I suspect.  The humming birds woke us up this morning to fighting and yelling at each other.  They just never learn to get along....and to boot, there was a couple of squirrels egging them on at 5:30 in the morning.   I wanted to close the windows there was such a racket.  

Our neighbours have gone home for a few days.  It always feel strange when the lake becomes quiet after the activities of the last couple of weeks.  Here in Canada the last week of July and the first week of August is the time when people take their holidays as there is a stats day in there so everyone in the country gets a long weekend, which means an extra day. 

The holiday is called Civic Weekend.  It celebrates not much but fireworks and a day off for Canada is a great summer excuse.  In February we get Family day in Ontario.  I really think we get it because from the first of January till Easter there wasn't a long weekend...How great is this Country ...eh?

MONDAY IS WASH DAY

I got this photo from the Sillyboodilly blog.  The photo was on a "wash day" photo file....  It's about washdays here at the cottage, which like my mother before me I like to do the big ones on Monday.

Since we are on septic system here, as so many people who live int he country are, I thought I'd try and do something a bit different for washings as we really can't use bleach in the septic or as
little as possible at least as bleach kills the bacteria
in the system.

Last year a miracle happened!  I discovered that
the TV ad regarding Oxiclean is just what it says
it will do and it's relatively safe for the septic.

We have a ten foot umbrella on our deck which
over time went a bit green and gray from mildew
and just plain dirt.

So, we thought we'd need to take it to the
commercial laundry to clean it, but when we
took it down, we discovered it was light and
fit into the washer very easily.  I put about
half a cup of the Oxiclean, let it soak about
two hours with a cup of Tide.  Let me tell you
that that umbrella came out like new.

I am totally hooked on Oxiclean.  Whites are
whiter and the stain remover is awesome too.

Now, Tide has been a different matter.  In my previous home we had a front loader.  I used any detergent that was on sale and liquid which was so much easier to use.

Well, the front loader stank to high heaven, so what to do.  I read that Tide...more expensive too...granuals...in a box...would eliminate all the oders.   It did and I also used less than required as we had a water softener.  The water here at the lake is also soft....so less soap, and of course the mighty Oxiclean in whites...

It takes out mustard stains too, which I learned from not spreading mustard neatly on a sandwich....yeah all over my Tee shirt...out with Oxiclean.

I read that Tide was first advertised in 1949...Proctor and Gamble advertised it on the Red Skelton show...remember that?

So, today is washday, my clothes are blowing in a wonderful breeze that we have today, very little humidity so how good is that?

I love summer.

SUMMER IN FULL SWING AND BLOOM!

It's hot August nights and also the days.  Other than having had a very dry season, we are so enjoying these summer days.

I love lilies...I have a few varieties on the septic bed to go with the bee balm or monarda as these red flowers are called. 

The humming birds have been going crazy eating from the bee balm.  That makes me so happy.

The flowers are what one sees coming out of the bunkie/cabin  in the morning.  Isn't that a sight?  Even if it is a septic bed, I've planted perennials there for colour.  I love this photo taken by our nephew Jamie who has such a touch for photography. 

This is the bunkie that has a two piece in it.  The sink is almost the size of what one would see on an airplane, only in white.  I have heard it said that one can sit on the toilet and brush their teeth at the same time...it's that small/big take your choice.   But everyone loves the feel of this little place.  It''s cozy, simple, and private for those of us who must rise in the night for business.

We have finally got our granddaughter Alex to get up and water ski.  She has passed her swimming lessons and with the confidence gained, got up to ski around our lake.  We are just thrilled about her accomplishment.

The lake temperatures are in the mid 20s/70s and
this summer season is the best in ten years I swear. 

Even this old body of mine has been swimming more than ever.  I think I've been in the lake more this year than any other that I could remember.  I am pain free and able to just climb that ladder so easily.

Final photo shows our nephew Jamie doing an incredible cannon ball into the lake!  The way to get young children used to the lake is to take action photos of jumps and turns and cannon balls.

At the cottage of Jamie's the kids don't have a deep jumping spot, so this was so fun for them although I am only showing Jamie as he loved having photos taken of him instead of him being the photographer.

The quilting has taken a back burner in these past days as there has been so many visitors, action on the lake and heat.  I had to turn the fan on so close to me to get air and it was too warm for comfort.  I'm not complaining here, just saying.

I love summer.  I love summer. I love summer.

OUR ANNUAL POT LUCK SUPPER.

 Well our second annual pot luck supper went off without a hitch once again.


This little package of goodies was provided by the "Prydes" with enough packages for each of the families in attendance.  It's a "Christmas in July" gift.  Mary, my co hostess distributed the packages
to each family as they were leaving. Everyone thought it was so cool.  


Considering that Pauline's husband damaged his knee in the morning and wasn't able  to attend, however Pauline, the maker of it all did come to have drinks.


The count this year was 69
so that says it all.  Everyone
brought wonderful foods and
the tables were overflowing which as it should be.


The table photo which is empty in the photo was so full, unfortunately so much was happening that I didn't get a good photo of the feast.


My sweetie wore his Jam's shirt.  I think next year we may do a contest for the loudest shirt which his was.


But that's not what we do.  We do hats!


This year the hat was a 
fastinator won by Evelyn
which was the fastinator of
all fastinators!


It was a no contest!  She won the helmet that the winner from last year presented her with instructions that it must be displayed in a prominent place at her cottage.   

As you can see, there were a lot of people in attendance which made for great conversations.


The party was over by about 8:30 when all boats departed to see the fireworks.  The fireworks display was fabulous with about 40 minutes of non stop action.


The highlight for me of the day was seeing about 350 boats bobbing in the water, with all the families awaiting the booms of the spectacle.  Then when it was over the lights of all the boats turning and heading for home...just a wonderful day.

WONDERFUL SUMMER DAYS!

Last week I started a new quilt block which was the same as this favourite quilt that I have.  Every time I bring this baby out, there are raves for the look of it.

So, I decided to make another that is more suited to the "new" decor at the cottage.

I used  some greens that I had from
my stash.  I used the centre block of blue with brown and green dots to set off the rest of the blocks around it.  I've laid it out the way it will be finished as there are only nine 18" blocks that make this quilt up.  The quilt is from a design that was in a magazine that Helen gave me a few years back. 

It's from Quilters Newsletter, April 2009 issue in case you wanted to know.
It's an easy peasy block and goes together so quickly because of the cutting techniques. 

I have some fabric left over so may do some fancy back which could make this quilt pop.

The weekend temperatures were just perfect!  The water temp was at least 80 degrees F and wonderful for jumping off the end of our dock.

To get people to really jump into our lake, I take photos of crazy jumps, dives, and cannon balls!  This is our nephew who brought his family up for three days of fun!

Their cottage doesn't have a deep dock, so all of this was new to them and they practiced jumping for the camera with many funny shots.  But since Jamie brought his family to us, he gets the first photo.

We have finally had rain.  Today it's humid with more rain expected.  We have a total fire ban on in our area despite this rain as it's been almost a month since we've had a deep rain in the area.  We are lucky that no fires have errupted what with the lightning we've had.   Don't you just love a good lightning and thunder storm?  Our dog doesn't even move, although some dogs just shake with fear.  We have a westie....no fear from this terrior...he rules the world!

FAV. THINGS. FRIDAY! FANS!

 We have had a massive heat wave for the passed week in Ontario and the North Eastern US.  At the cottage we don't have air conditioning because except for this year, we've never needed it.  Maybe one day each year it gets really really hot.  Well this fan that is in the sun room does it all.  It gives air.

Isn't that what fans are supposed to do?  Well I put the fan on high yesterday.  It is the first time I've done this, ever.  The temperature reached over the 100 degrees F.  The humid weather made it so uncomfortable that even
the birds weren't flying.  Except this little
woodpecker that was obviously learning the "fanning" techniques to enable him to stay in the air.  He flew by me so close that I felt the wind from his wings.  Very cute.  He is on the tree on the right.  Looks like a little branch, but he's there.  Hard to take a photo of birds. 

The humming birds were even scarce because of this heat.  What is
with that!

Well, with the fan doing its job, I started a new quilt.  I love this pattern as it just uses up fabric!  I have odds and ends of fabric that I swear I'm not buying anymore till the colours are used up.  Except for white, which I love.

I love black too, but I find it hard to see when sewing.  I've seen a navy fan quilt which I just love, but know the dark colour will not work with me.

Have a great weekend all.  Ours will be busy as we are expecting three kids who love to fish!  Should be fun.

HOT, HOT, HOT....

 I know it's summer and it's supposed to be hot!  But this is crazy...weather is in the high 30s, or high 90s for those that follow different readings.

With the humidity its in the 40/100 range,  that's hot.  

The dog is fully recovered from surgery and has been on the hunt at
our friends' house which has the
beautiful pond with lots of fish that
also hunt.   The pond is home to about 7 frogs and 20 fish.  It certainly makes for a peaceful coffee place in the mornings.

We were in the city for our summer family wedding.  Our niece was married last Saturday in the city.

The affair was fabulous, as was the bride of course.  It was the happiest day in the life of her father.  The mother of the bride could become a wedding planner....I swear!

I took front and back photos of the dress.  A beauty of a dress and the bride could move in it very well to dance and walk about.  Some brides are enveloped in their dresses.  Not Carlie...she changed to summer flip flops as did the bridesmaids and they had a ball.

The groom who is the step son of an old
friend...how small is the world?...said that
all he had to do was buy a new suit and
show up!

 That's about all we had to do too...show up!

As we have returned to the cottage for about ten days of company, we are resting  as we prepare...also it's too hot to do much.  

It may be too hot to sew, although my head is spinning with an idea for a quilt, so I may go to the matt!

TEENY TINY SUMMER STUDIO! ...

This is the summer studio.  How tiny is that?  See the green antique suitcase?  Well it holds the threads, needles, extra notions that just works fine for me.

The two bins hold fabrics and batting.  On the wall are hung the rulers, scizzors and you can't see it but the extension cord for the iron.

The black quilt I finished this week
from the Wallmart jelly from the
winter.  I have the larger one to finish yet.  I can't find the batting which I packed, I thought.  So I must buy batting unless it surfaces.

I decided to do a yellow backing and give the back a bit of a boost also, which makes the whole thing very
cool for a kid I think.

When I was quilting, I thought I'd try the elusive walking foot which made me happy that it works fine.

It certainly looks better in real time, but don't they all?


The room has another large piece
of furniture which stores every-
thing from soup to nuts as storage is at a premium here at the cottage.  I have no idea where to put my finished quilts!  There isn't room in the cupboard which has about a dozen cans of spray glue.  I forgot that I had so many and a friend gave me two which she thought she owed me....I will need to store these come winter as I don't think they freeze well.



Then, I thought, why not do the Helen
trick and put the quilts on the line.

The one little problem was that there wasn't a wind.  Typical of my thinking.  In any event, here is the last nine patch that I think I will ever make.  I just decided this, as I have been making one each summer.

The back of it is white.  No point in boring you with the details of white
background.

This little quilt is for my friend who belongs to the red hat society.  Actually more pink than red, but I thought the lake layout was pretty.


Typical of me again, I'vedownloaded the great room and quilts all mixed up, but since the photo op took about a half hour to download, here is the other
side of the room.


It's a sunny afternoon so I should be outside.  I'm going there now.

I even bathed the dog today as we are going home Friday for our wedding of the summer. 

The brave little guy is back to being stupid as Westies can be.  Actually, not stupid but very stubborn, not too much different from this owner's point of view.

Have a great weekend.

Helen's Quilts for Newfoundland

I just want to post this photo of Helen's artistic
thinkin for the photos of her quilts she and Andrea
were taking to Newfoundland.

She has been busy making these for god children who live there.  I think the fact that she and her daughter do this together is bliss for Helen.

I am quilting a nine patch that I did last summer.  Why I chose such a "girly" quilt I don't know.  Anyway it's almost finished and it does look better quilted than not.

Do you find that too?  I think I like the finished product much more than the original top.  I have also finished one of the black colourful quilt tops from the winter.  I have two to go to get quilted but honestly, I like to spray baste so must await a calm day at the lake.

We have had humid humid weather.  I know it even reached Arkansas this humidity, but we can't complain really as winter will make us moan of the snow!
  Last night without winds, storms or change in the lake pattern, the humidity lifted to the point where I put a sweater on.  My sweetie is loving this morning.

Yesterday was my daughter's 50th.  I can't believe this!  I'm not that old!  She had a wonderful dinner with friends who have known her all those years. 

WEEK END PROJECT AT THE COTTAGE

 Last week I did ask for a few hints regarding the recovering of sofa cushions.  Well, my friend Helen gave me the best lesson in making square corners.

These two sofas were an impulse buy about 10 years ago.  I hated the backs as they were so bulky and out they went.  I have had different pillows over the years to put along the back and people makethemselves very comfy smooshing pillows behind themselves.

I also have made different seat covers over the years.

Well this spring, I really noticed the wear and tear of people and of course the dogs....so, this is what I did.

I bought a solid piece of foam for the seats.  Then, my sweet cut the former seats down to seventeen inches for these to become the back.

We used a table saw, which unfortunately had to be cleaned afterwards as the glue from the batting and the foam really made a mess.  I didn't have an electric knife here as I know this is really a good way to cut foam.

Saturday, I only managed to do the seats, but Sunday, I was a whirling girl....I actually measured, cut and was able to sew the five backs. 

Not only that, but looking through a magazine, I noticed this fabric is also part of the Lazy Boy collection for their reclyners.  How good is that?

Her is Brooke Shields, sitting on the same fabric.

The total cost for the project was about $240.00.  I bought the fabric on sale, once at 30% and then 50% when I decided to do it right.  The foam was the most expensive. 

So, now that this is done, I'm going to try and get some quilting done. 

SUNNY SUNDAY SENTIMENTS!

I always just love to post one of my dear friend Helen's quilts.  This is for a young guy in Newfoundland where Helen and family are going to visit.  A lucky little fellow with his name labeled on the back.

Helen loves little fiddly works; so she copied a label to paper then copied that by fine pen onto cloth.
I couldn't post the photo, but needless
to say it's perfect.

It;s  a sign, strawberry season is almost over here in Ontario.  OMG...we are half way into July already.  Where does time go?

This year we didn't have much rain so the berries weren't very big, however these babies came from a Menonite farm that sells produce from other local farms.  No pesticides here as all their produce is done organically.  We noted that they do buy from wholesalers at times and the woman at the counter said that yes they did, but, when their products are available they use local farmers.

My little brave puppy is doing well.  His eye is black but there doesn't appear to be any discomfort anymore.  He still bumps into everything being a conehead till next Saturday, but he's doing well.

I'm making slip covers for the great room.  I will post the event when done as I worked for about two hours on the first cover yesterday trying to figure out how to make a square corner.  The first was easy, it was the second one that was a dewsy.  Helen arrived in the afternoon to guide me through my problem....Oh now I know how to do it!  Honestly, I do have to be shown visually so many things.

Cottage weather is fabulous, although we could use some rain I think as everything around us is quite dry.  Yesterday, the traffic on the lake was like Grand Central Station!  The first two weeks of July, and the first two of August are the busiest on the lake.  After those two weekends, people from far away, close their cottages and put the boats away.  A shame as many cottages are only used for a couple of weeks.

Our (formerly new) neighbours are enjoying the season immensely, and one knows that there are young children around, when around 9 am the boat starts up and off they go tubbing  which brings peels of cheers.

I'm off to sew..wish me luck.
ps. does anyone use google reader, and if so let me know about it.  I need to send instructions to a friend.
thanks in advnce.

BRAVE LITTLE GUY!

 Nothing like having a house closing that goes simply is there?

The sale of our house finalized today.  It's goodbye to six years of much happiness because of our neighbours that we were lucky enough to have across the street from us.

Bob and Mary have become family.
It's that simple.  People come into our lives for a reason.  This couple came to us so that we could have fun at the cottage and extend our family as well as theirs.  So the move is sad on that level, but on the other, we are at the cottage and a new adventure begins.

We were going along so well and boom, things happen.  My sweetie
fell about a foot off a ladder, broke
a bone in his foot, sprained an ankle
and that was all with about 15 minutes
left of us leaving the house after the
movers.

He has an air cast on so at least he has been able to move around.  And thanks to Bob and Mary, we have
lived with them for almost a week
while we settle our affairs.

The top photo of our brave little guy with the awful eye is the result of a cyst on his eye lid, which grew quite quickly and so, Wednesday he was operated on.  He also had his teeth cleaned....don't ask how he is feeling, suffice to say he is a brave little guy and only has groaned a few times...not like us who are moaning just looking at him.  He has a stitch on the lid which has to be removed.  We were so worried about him, till we docked the boat and off he went chasing squirrels...he will survive.

Mac, the beautiful retriever who lives with the flower guy (and girl who buys the flowers for him to give me) came over to visit and noticed my sweetie's broken foot and licked the foot, then lay down to protect .  Isn't that sweet?

Mac also gave Wilson's eye a lick when he saw him today.  Awww!  Yes, I know.

The last photo is our house that was a home.  The cottage is our place now, our new home with new adventures to come.

I have so much sewing to do that I hope the season stays lovely and I can sit by my window and quilt the tops that I made over the winter.

Also, I bought foam to make seats for the sun room.  I'm not great at doing stuff like this, but I will give you before and after photos for sure.  Just wish me luck.

This is a long post as I didn't take my computer with me, so have been catching up.  I've missed you all.

WEEK END WONDERS! GREAT WEATHER.

We had fabulous weather this passed weekend.  You know that usually weather is so fleeting that long week ends end up with rain....didn't happen so we taught this young man who is one of our granddaughter's best friend and originally from the Ukraine how to water ski.  He got up on the first try!

He had amazing fun and actually
skied around the island and the lake
was rough too.  He is also a kayaker
and used to taking instructions from
his coaches, so this was easy peasy
for him.
Our cottage was a behive of activity for three whole days.  Last night after all visitors had left and all cottage visitors on the lake had also left, it was very very quiet.

We are heading home for a few days to finish up the house closing then we return to our now permanent home!  New adventures begin.

I am going to cover a piece of foam four inches thick.  Of course I shall get ideas from Helen regarding instructions, but anyone with an idea as to an easy way to make this 45"X20X4 would be great.  I did buy a piece of poly to cover the foam, but that's as far as I got.   I'm also not good at the zipper thing, but will do my best.

See you in a few days.  Isn't summer weather great?  And the Aussies are in their winter...