Somehow, the photos are reversed. However you can see tha this little box becomes this wonderful surprise when you open it. My friend Helen from the cottage is making these this summer. She gave me this one and said she would teach me how to make this over the summer.

She is also an avid quilter and is working on a hand pieced quilt. Oh yeah, makes me feel really infantile when I see what she is doing. However, she has be working on the quilt piecing for a few years, and has quilted since 1970, so I don't feel bad and she can certainly give me pointers if I take my little stash to the cottage.

I won't be posting too much as I am not on dial up at the cottage as it take forever to even get online, so will be posting every couple of weeks.

Isn't that box lovely? It really is for sewing materials, like needles, pins, thinbles etc. I am going to the dollar store to fill it up.

MY STASH

Well, quilters have a say that who ever has the most stash wins at quilting. I am definitely a loser at this point in time. However I do have ambitions, not a room full though but plan to get more when I am on the road to and from the cottage this summer if I can find a shop in a couple of towns we pass through.

Yesterday I gave my mother a quilt that her dear friend in the British Virgin Islands made for her from the material from her little shop that she had for about 30 years which included many handmade items. It filled her with joy as she has dementia and just looking at the quilt made by Miss Dina just brought back many memories. I left her with a look at fond memories as she touched her little quilt made by her friend of so many years who was 85 years old when she made it. It is the only quilt that Miss Dina made and she gave it to my mother when we last visited Tortola. It isn't fancy, but it was made with much love and we cherish it because of that.

Wasn't that lovely? And it made my mother so happy.

We are off to the cottage for a couple of weeks and I am taking my "stash" sewing machine and other stuff that I might start to quilt.

Bye for now.

Well here it is the 12th of May and we returned from the cottage. I am posting the back side of tory's quilt as I didn't show the green before. It is posted this month as part of the block of the month as it turns out, so that makes me happy to see it on the web.

Yesterday was Courtney's birthday, turning 16 years old for a granddaughter was quite a celebration in her life. She had a big party with close friends at her dad's house.

We are back for a few days and will be returning to the cottage for the long weekend. I hope we will be there for a couple of weeks, so will not be posting I think as the dial up at the cottage is so slow that I could get a quilt done in the time it uploads.

Kelly and the kids are coming along with Tory and Alex for their first weekend at the cottage also.

Life is good and I have great ambitions for this summer to quilt while we also finish putting up kitchen cupboards and painting and decorating.

A new Ikea sectional will finish the livingroom so that I can drape quilt on it.

Well here is Tory's quilt finished. I did the binding in the green with pink polka dots and it looks amazing. I did finish the binding by hand as I didn't want any seams in the binding. I am off to the cottage this weekend and will take it for a few weeks there before it goes to its final destination, Tory's bed. She is awaiting this with baited breath.

I am already thinking of the next one to do, but for the next week we are opening our cottage, and I shall be kept busy working and cleaning and getting ready for the family to come for the long weekend.

I am very pleased with this result, but the next one will be a bit different and a lot easier I think as this was a lot harder than the second one as the squares were smaller.

This quilt was done by my grandmother in the early 1960 s and it is hand quilted. It is quite thin and we have used it for years as a lap quilt I suppose. I know where I got my love of triangles now. I think this is very simple to make and may try to reproduce this later this year.

I am going to try to finish Tory's quilt again today as I am finding it hard to do. I must work on it as Kelly gave me pant's of Jeremy's to fix and just wanted it done before we are off to the cottage.

We await the return of spring before we leave.

So, here is a photo of my first darling westie, who was wrapped in this lovely butterfly quilt. I can see that it is embroidered, but for the life of me I have no idea what happened to it. The front side was white with of course the butterflies, but the back was in yellows, oranges (who knew) in strips of these colours in variations.

I am looking for it in the family, but want to know if anyone has this. It really was lovely.

It is raining here in Whitby today, cold and damp, so I am going to try to finish the third quilt which is taking so long to quilt.

I also finished taking apart the strippie quilt that looked awful when I attempted to stipple quilt it. So I think I shall do it in "v s" or waves. Don't know which, but I need practice at quilting part.

My brother in law and his wife showed up yesterday and raved about my quilts. He thinks that they will be passed down to generations. Wow. I felt so good.

I am off to quilt.

Ok here are two photos of a blanket that was handwoven and put together by my great grandmother who was an Acadian, in New Brunswick. The wool was spun from her sheep and what ever else they had to do. She fruit dyed the borders with what I believe is cranberry juice or raspberry. I don't know how it survived all these years, but it is in great shape and we do use it at times in cold days of winter. I do cherish it.

She was a great quilter too although none of her quilts have survived due to great use. There are 4 of these and I was lucky that my mother gave me hers. There are compensations for being an only daughter besides receiving jewelery...

This is a quilt that was hand made by my grandmother in the 1950's. She loved this pattern and a lot of us have this quilt pattern. It is hand stitched, but machine pieced. I have used it and although it is still in good condition, I wonder if I should still use it.

It's amazing that I didn't try quilting as I have always liked quilts. I notice that my grandmother's quilts are all light in colour and the insides of them is very thin. I wonder what she used in them. None are done with the the battings that are available today.

Anyway, yesterday I decided to use a green fabric for the backing of my 3rd quilt. I have run out of painters tape to tape down the quilt, so today since I am playing bridge and going out, I shall get some tape.

The weather being so nice, yesterday afternoon I sat out and started taking the quilting out of a strippie quilt that I goofed up on and it is just a simple quilt so only took me a few hours of cutting and putting together. I shall use it as a lap quilt when I correct the lousy quilting I did.

I think I will try waves on the quilt when I do it.

Crazymom quilts did this on a simple quilt she made and I loved it.

Well here is my quilt top that I finished yesterday. I just don't know what colour to put on the backside of it. Being partial to white, I just don't feel that this requires white. Any ideas?

This measures 68 X 90, and is another "jewel" quilt, and I don't know where this name originated, but the number of pieces cut and the number of pieces required are two different things. I again have a lot of green and red triangles squared left over. Oh well I can use them for something else.

I bought some warm cotton batting yesterday, and also some varigated thread that I shall try on a strippie quilt that I experimented with. I am taking the quilted part apart, as I am not happy with the look of it. Oh well, I am going to sit in the backyard and pick at the stitches.

Well good Monday morning to all. I am going to try to finish the top of the colourful quilt today. There is a sale at Fabricland of battings and I am going to stock up. I am still wondering what kind of batting is best for the quilt. I used the warm batting the last time and it was wonderful for the quilt in the ditch for the jewel quilt from Canadian Living.
The weather is so warm here in Whitby that the furnace is off and even the basement is quite warm where I quilt.
I shall try to post the photo of the layout of the quilt today if I can figure out the camera again.
I am anxious to try another method of quilting and shall try speed piecing in my next one. Oh boy, that should be fun as that is what crazymom quilts does I suspect as she puts her quilts together in no time at all.
Denise was my first viewer. I am so pleased, and there have been a couple more too, so I shall get this up and running in a better format.

Well it is April 19th 2008 and I have decided to become a blogger. I don't know how this will work out and if anyone but my family and a few friends will read this, but for me it is a journey.
I am going to try to post my quilts, and some of my favorite recipes for those that have a yearning for something really tried and tested and good.
Spring has arrived here in Whitby, and there are hundreds of wild flowers in the park although as yet no bees. I suspect it is a tad early for the bees. The hummingbirds are only a week or so from arriving and so I have told my neighbours to get their feeders cleaned and ready for next week.
We are off to the cottage for the summer so for me the task of keeping 5 feeders going for the 15-20 hummers that we get daily is my greatest joy at the cottage daily.
I am working on my third quilt and if I can get going here, I shall post the 2 that I have made, which look like orange popsicles. I loved the orange colours as it was so dreary when I started quilting that the colour cheered me up.