BLOGGERS QUILT FESTIVAL. MY ENTRY.

http://parkcitygirl.blogspot.com will get you the rules and details.

I have decided to join the Bloggers quilt festival.

Click on the blog above and see how to join up.

This is my favorite quilt. It's not new. It's over 40 yrs old. I restored it to its former glory saving as many of the original blocks as I could.

It was a labour of love on my part and I am so very proud of this quilt. The red border just pops the red inside the blocks.

Hope you like it.

EASY PEASY QUILT IN A DAY

Remember I told you that my friend Dawn was returning from Florida? Well yesterday, was lesson two in her quilting adventures.

Last year she came to the cottage for a few days, brought a down pour which consequently meant no playing or sitting outside.

So, I asked her about learning to quilt which followed with a strippy quilt being done in one day, quilted but not bound. Hello! we needed to eat and sleep!

She is going to a shower for her nephew whose wife is having a baby and asked about a baby quilt....Lesson 2 was yesterday.

We bought this panel and backing, spray basted and with a lesson in stippling she proceeded to oooooh and aaaaaaaaaaaw at how wonderful the Janome 6600 was to work with, so as you see, she is gloved...didn't do what I can do and that is stitch the glove to the quilt....and proceeded over the next few hours to stipple the quilt while I cleaned up my shelves.

As you can see, although this photo shows the quilt upside down..I didn't get her face in the second shot...she only has to hand sew the binding and label.

A great job and a fun day!

The daughter of a friend of mine is just starting to blog, so have a look at Claire's blog which is located in my side bar as Claire in Florida. Pop in and comment on her adventure in blogland.

It's Friday, I am taking our future Olympic girl to see about her leg once again. So my day of starting a new project is cut short a bit. The stress fracture that showed up in CT scan is being looked at by an orthopedic surgeon this am. He starts earlly, 8:30, so I gotta get going.

Have a super weekend folks! It looks like next week we may head up to the cottage to see how it fared through the winter. The ice is almost out! Wahooo!

AN EASTER STORY

I don't have much to report today, except that over the Easter weekend, I was reminded of an Easter about 14 years ago when Courtney was about 2 yrs old.

I made her a Polly Flanders (I think) dress, paid too much money for the pattern which had puffy sleeves, a full skirt and even a pinafore. I spent about $50.00 on just the material and lace for the pinafore. I spent about 2 weeks sewing this absolutely beautiful mauve and white print dress, then being so careful with the lace and the huge bow that went with it.

I called my daughter and said that Courtney should be in a slip and white tights as I had something for her.

I had to put the dress in one large box, the pinafore in another because they were so poofy, you get the picture....So, we arrive at the house with two huge boxes and the kid starts to tear it open and she picks up the dress, looks at me and says in her best english..."NO NANA" she didn't like it at all! She then opens up the lace...looks at her mom and says "NO MOMMY NO!"

I started laughing so hard, my sweetie was laughing, my daughter was horrified and her husband was just looking at the dress and pinafore thrown on the floor!

It took Kelly and I an hour to get her to put the dress on and only because that child loved us both that she put the damn thing on. She hated the dress!

We have only a snippet of a video of her wearing it, and she was drinking her juice while her poppa and daddy were drinking theirs (same colour as apple juice).

Kelly has no idea what ever happened to the dress, she passed it on to someone but can't remember who, and here I thought it would be such a keepsake...

To this day, that girl does not ever and has never since worn anything resembling poofs or full skirts and never mauve....I still laugh when I see her behind the bed, pleading with her mother and nana, saying the only words she could...noooooooooooooooooooo, Nana.

DOTS AND STRIPES FINISHED

Here is my Dots and Stripes quilt. It's finished, measures 65 X 70 which is large for me to have done, but it went so well that I was able to complete it on the weekend. I used warm and natural batting. Is it just me or does this quilt feel heavier than most...It was definitely a hit with the girls that came for dinner on Sunday. The grandson..."nice Nana" was the only comment. He's not into pink obviously....

These long weekends with such nice weather can get a girl away from sewing for sure. We were out to dinner, had guests, ate too much and we were all just ready to veg out on Monday.

However our girl is back from Florida training camp, all tanned and antsy to get out on the frigid waters of Lake Ontario. So Monday morning instead of sleeping in and lazing around we went to get her kayak on the trailer of about 30 odd that came from Florida. There were very fit bodies there to remove the kayaks off the trailer and find our two which were were bringing back to the local Canoe Club. It was quite an experience to see how these kids had loaded and unloaded the boats.


The photo of the grandkids and me whilst awaiting the feast of roast beef, potatoes, sweet potatoe casserole and brocolli casserole. I made rhubarb crisp for one of the deserts and Martin brought Pumpkin pie for the other.

Did I tell you I had been given a box of left over fabric from my grandmother's stash? She passed away in 1965 I think it was and one of my aunts has kept a couple of boxes of her fabrics. I washed and pressed what I could yesterday and think that it's one of those that I must find a pattern that isn't too big in order to use the fabric.

I may cut out 2 1/2" squares and get ready to make a top with these and some of my scraps too.
It would mean connecting all these little squares together in 9 patch I should think and then add a colour in between.. It's a work in progress, and as I said, I got the fabric washed and pressed, that's the start.

Oh we are expecting 50 degree weather in the next few days. I saw a finch yesterday and so many redwing black birds! It's here, there are buds on the trees and when we went downtown to pick up the kayaks, there were so many shops with all the pots of flowers and perennials out to be admired! I love Spring!

PS. am going to the post office to pick up envelopes for mailing prizes today too.

AND THE WINNERS....ARE!

I put all the names in a bowl, I had 27 names of my friends of the past year who commented on my blogs and entered. I know it's not very many, but I so appreciate what was written each and every time.

Here are the winners...Anya, Caron, Trish, Karen, Lindsey, and Crispy. Please send me your addresses and I shall get to the post in the next few days and mail your gifts.

I hope you enjoy them. There is no grand prize winner, and I have the gifts put together and the 6 names will go into the bowl with the 6 prizes and that's how you get your prize.

Have a Happy Easter Weekend.

LETTERS, LETTERS, WE GET LETTERS!

This was the easiest quilt I've ever made. It was a panel that I bought ages ago and just couldn't decide what to do with the back.

Well it was decided when I saw the yellow check fabric I got from Mary. Perfect and I put it together yesterday. 4 bobbins is what it took to stipple this in yellow. Mary was over the moon happy with this. It's for a baby shower she is going to.

I hate to harp on the weather, but lordy, it's just awful! We've had more snow. Not a lot but just enough to make it slushy when walking in the park...with dogs, they get really wet. I took a ball to throw and it ended up picking up snow and it turned into a little snowball. Talk about a confused dog!

My friend Dawn has returned from Florida. Great! I'm happy to have a luncheon partner once again. We meet every week before we go to play bridge and do girl talk. It just doesn't get any better than that!

Planning my Easter dinner has become almost a daily chore of lists of what to do and what to have. It's decided...prime rib, roast potatoes, green beans, and of course sweet potatoes. I always make a cheesy brocolli casserole for any family function. Also for desert, pumpkin pie is on the menu as it's my sweetie's favorite, but what else has not been decided. It's looking good for now.

Today is bridge day.. I'm looking forward to it.

MY GIVEAWAY.

When I decided to do a giveaway, I think I forgot that there should be rules for entries.

Here they are.

1. You must have blogged here in the past year.

2. Let me know if you like selvages or not as I won't draw your name in that prize.

3. You only need to tell me once, because I know most of you.

4. Tell me what kind of quilter you are...hand or machine.

That's it, easy and simple. On Friday, I will draw the names of 5 and will contact you. Ok?

When we go to the cottage, we spend 6 months there. We leave in May and return in October.

The weather can get pretty hairy in October, so we start preparing for the "any day" situation for returning.

I think the most favorite spot at the cottage is the deck. We do everything there to the point that we pull chairs from everywhere when there is a gang for the weekend.

It's south facing vista gives such an expance that lots and lots of photos are taken from that spot. I have a telephoto lense and often take photos of the kids doing their water antics, which turn out well as spontaneous pictures often due.

The old deck was 8'x10', this one is 10x 40' and goes across the front of the cottage. When my sweetie designed and ultimately built the deck it was with the thought that the deck would be just what it turned out to be. The focal point to get together when it's "the season". It's perfect.

I do all my hand quilting there..You know finishing the binding.

I can't wait....

A GIFT FOR ME AND SOMETHING FOR YOU TOO.

My friend Mary went to visit her daughter in Peterborough the other day. Knowing how much I like fabrics and colours, she came home with all of this stuff. I already know what I am going to do with the yello check. It's going on a baby quilt that I have been "commissioned" to do. It's the perfect size check and I should have it finished in no time, as it's a panel that I bought last year and it's got this yellow in it.

The other one that she got is black and yellow. My goodness it is really bright! I am going to make a black yellow and white printed quilt and will use this for the back of it. It's pretty wild as you can see.

Now this flowery print below is actually 2 sheets the same colour and size.

I am going to make a quilt out of the two tops. I am going to add green on the sides etc to make it large enough to throw over Mary's bed at the cottage. The sheets are doubles, and the bed they use is a queen. It's so very bright and cottagey for their (as Mary calls it) bunkee.

I know that lots of people use only cottons, but my quilts are fun to make, easy too and I am just still practicing getting better and better at what I do.

The little print below is also a gift from Mary and I have plans to use it as the back of a quilt I shall be making from left over fabric from my grandmother's stash.

I need to make something with her fabrics and it has been suggested by a friend that I make simple squares and just put those together in a quilt. The fabric is fairly dark, but can take some red and I have lots of red left over from my red quilt that will someday be finished.

I am going to have a giveaway.....It's for those of you who have come to visit me in the past year, have kindly posted lovely notes and kept me going all this time.

I know that lots of people enter giveaways just to see if they can win, but I would like to thank those of you who have been kind enough to visit me and given me encouragement.

I have a lot of selvages which, if you collect them, let me know as you will then go into that giveaway...Other than that, I have "stuff" and am looking forward to picking 5 lucky winners to celebrate my having reached 100 blogs, and also for having a year in blogging.

Easy right and there won't be too many entries, but if anyone has blogged me then they are eligible...

THE WATERFALL

Each spring when we open the cottage the water levels on the lake are always high. That always means a trip to the waterfall at the end of the lake. It's the first trip the grandkids take because the trip itself is an adventure in Nana (me) docking the boat up against the old waterlogged floating pine that rests on the bank of the lake. I always get all the kids ready to grab a branch, and while holding a rope, at least 4 ropes are needed as it's hard to grab ahold of the shoreline tree branches, and tell them to hang on and pull the boat in, while I lift the motor, and try not to scratch the boat (ok, it's a bit scratched) and with everyone excited, we reach land!

The trip up to the waterfall is always full of oooooooohs and more oooooooooohs as we can hear the roar of the water coming over the rocks. We have many photo opps here and the kids just love climbing over rocks, tree limbs and crossing the top of the falls to come down to a level where Nana can take pictures of her darlings.

This is two of the boys just elated for having done the deed of the big climb up the waterfall and down to the big rock with the water just roaring behind them and they were just happy little cousins together at last after the long winter of not seeing each other!


This waterfall by standards of, well Niagara is a stream in comparison, but it's our Niagara each spring. There are always a lot of cottagers who come to the falls in the spring with their children and we all share this adventure, sometimes 4 or 5 boats will be tied to each other as there are so few spots to secure boats.

By June, the falls are a mere trickle of the past month and the black flies have come to the lake and only a few people go there till the season warms to kill off the black flies.

Being on and island, the breezes keep the flies away from us and it's like night and day from shore to islands regarding the pesky black flies. We couldn't bare it on the shores of the lake during May and June to work outside let alone sit on a deck and enjoy the day. But on the island we sit, read, sip our coffees and love the life at this little spot that we cherish.

When we bought the cottage, it was one of the first quetions I asked...you know black flies and the response was that out on the islands, there were very few...we believed him. And it's true, we can work with virtually no bug spray till dusk, when the mosquitos come out and the day ends.

Right now, there isn't anyone venturing out on the ice at the lake as there is some big things happening. There is lots of thick ice, open water in some spots, there has been heavy rain,then snow...everyone is awaiting the mid 60s temperature where one day there is ice and the next, the lake is open again and we all arrive to start the season.

Can't wait....

CONNECTING THE DOTS...

Remember that dot fabric I bought? It's here and I laid it out this morning, took a photo and then arranged the rows. Yeah, I had to do it all over again as piling one row on the other just didn't work..

When I started to sew, I couldn't remember how it all went. Stupid me...I then laid it out again, forgetting to take photo of course , but pinned all the squares to each other. Looking really good now.. It's a bit different from what you see, but pretty close. I made an extra black square so that it was all matchey matchey..know what I mean? I am really pleased with the results and even though it's considered easy, I must be challenged somewhere, putting it together wasn't easy. It's 54" wide and 65" long. Somehow, I got an extra row of patterns from the measurements given. I'm sure it happens all the time.

Anyway, I have enough extra cuts to make the back interesting. It's pretty, and that's what I wanted.

See this photo on the left? Well my dears let me tell you of this photo. It Queen Elizabeth with her arm around Michelle...yep, the first lady...Apparently, the queen commented on how tall Michelle was and actually the queen touched Michelle first and then Michelle put her arm around the queen...The press in England is having a field day of this.....No one, I mean NO ONE is supposed to touch the queen! This is an absolute first...and it was the queen. She put her gloved arm around our Michelle (you know the song, ma Belle Michelle etc...) she loved Michelle and did the move of her life...she touched Michelle. It looks like they are posing for a family photo doesn't it. Anyway, the Brits just loved the photo that shook England yesterday!

We are having what is called April Showers, quite heavy in fact and so the sewing goes on. I took the dog for a walk and we were soaked when we returned. He was wet, thought he'd had a bath, and started running all over the house. I got a towel out to dry him and he jumped into the towel and was like a crazy dog....Too funny (Kel). I think dogs do all those crazy things after a bath and Wilson is one crazy dog...(Kel) She says he's the child we never had!

Karen, dear sweet Karen, sent me a lovely book on simple quilt making. Bless her...she knows my level. No hand work for me Karen! Just the sewing of those little squares, triangles and bars. I absolutely love it...Thank you again.

Have a great weekend all. It's almost springtime........

THIS AND THAT TODAY

I saw this photo on a site that had all different endeavours of people fighting the mighty Red River as it is flowing north into Manitoba. It is

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/03/redriverflooding.html there are so many photos of dispair yet hope as the sand bags are filled and the people fight on. North Dakota and Manitoba have experienced this many times and know the drill it would seem from the other photos...Have a look if you haven't seen these excellent photos.

My sweetie came back from Virginia, with a total of about 7 hours sleep since he had left on Thursday and returned Monday afternoon. We have been to races before, but this was his brother's first Nascar race so the two of them took a bus trip with 33 other guys to Martinsville.

He has been "catching up" on his sleep since returning. He also said that as usual all the people that follow Nascar must be the friendliest of people and his brother couldn't get over the way people were so "neighbourly" as he put it. Considering that the weather had been terrible since leaving, they arrived at the track on Sunday to the sky being blue and a perfect day for a race.

I, of course had the weekend to myself...wonderful, wonderful, is all one can say when the house is empty and I just did what I wanted to do, which was quilt... I did, finishing the Victorian quilt and piecing another. That one, the top is done and ready for finishing. I haven't decided on how to do the back yet and of course today is bridge day, so it's a bit of a write off as far as sewing goes.

It's April 1st, and no virus on the computers so it seems. I swear, sometimes it must be a quiet news day and someone says "virus" and away they all go to get updates on these pesky things.

Today, is a cloudy, expecting rain sort of day and a wee bit warmer than yesterday. It was a winter day yesterday, with the wind whipping around to make it seem even colder...I want warmth...

I found a great idea for making a quilted bowl. It's at Craftster Community or Geta's Quilting Studio. Unbelievable how clever some people are. She is one.

THE VICTORIAN QUILT IS FINISHED!

I really didn't know what else to call this quilt...x@# was my first thoughts, but I finally finished it. I didn't have my photographer here this weekend...Nascar trip to Virginia... so of course yesterday when the temperatures were in the 50s here in Whitby, I quilted. I got up at 7:30 , made coffee and attacked this quilt.

I used varigated thread and stippled it. It took me an hour to spray baste, and 3 -4 hours to stipple it.

I then watched a chick flick, The Lake House with Sandra Bullock and Keanu Reeves and then also watched figure skating between commercials....yeah usually guys do this channel flicking, but I was multitasking, sewing, flicking, and sometimes throwing the ball for the little white thing that is on the quilt photo. I finished it, washed it and made it to Bob and Mary's for candle light hour as we ate freshly made Lemon Pie. Her mother in law who is 87 made this pie. So very very good! When I got home, took it out of the dryer and Mary said, that I had missed a frame on one of the blocks. You know, I nearly jumped off the top of the stairs! I was so careful with this quilt and couldn't figure out why I was "off" when I had used template etc.

So, after her pointing out my mistake, I thought I would just leave it. I was so sick of this quilt as you know. Anyway I woke up this am and of course I looked at the block closely and then remembered my "restoration" expertise....I cut out a small piece and added the border to the missing square and just stippled it on the quilt.

At least now all the squares match. It's off a bit, but it looks good to the eye when seeing the quilt. OMG, I was so careful. And not only that, so many people looked at the thing before I quilted it...no one saw it until finished and I even said that I had trouble with one part.

I am glad to be finished with it is all I can say. It does look good though and the back is in the black print which makes it stand out.

Today it is pouring out and I don't have to think of walking you know who till it lets up because he hates the rain! I hope it's not raining in Martinsville for the race.

Karen has kindly sent me a recipe for sourdough starter. She is on my blog roll over on the left there and she made some biscuits and an apple cake that I just must have. So if you want to start sourdough, go look. Yeah Pioneer Woman would be proud of her.

I am going to start it and see if I can make pizza dough with it. I think it would be interesting..

One more day of being alone....bliss!

I'M SEEING DOTS BEFORE MY EYES!

Fabricland has a 50% sale on this weekend for members, so I went this morning and bought these dots. I just love dots and I am already planning what I will do with them!

The shop was packed and they didn't have the quilting thread that I wanted which would have been 50% off and they back ordered it for me! I was so pleased with their courtesy.

While I was shopping I also managed to find the current Better Homes quilting book. $10.00 plus for the little sucker! I am going to check and see if I can get a lot of the contents online. I kept thinking what fabrics I could have bought for that amount. Yeah I love the magazine, but, it's a big price with the taxes and all.

I also made a huge goof while supposedly adding to my blogger list and made a mistake and then to make matters worse, I deleted all my list! I am going to spend a lot of time over the next few days and add everyone back. Don't ask me how I did it, but I did. I, believe it or not have done this before, and vowed to be more careful, and just did it again! What a goof I am.

The doctor gave me a clean bill of health regarding my little skin cancer thing and said it looked well on its way to full recovery without leaving a scar. As if I really cared, however am glad it's looking good. It's only because it was so itchy that I had him look at it, so he's a good guy today in my books.

I am off to quilt for the day even though it is sunny out and it's truly feeling like spring. There are a group of boys of all ages in the park playing basketball. It's a sure sign when that happens.

Have a great weekend.

SPRING WISHES

See that little purple flower on the left? Well if you look closely, you will see a little hummer with his whole head in the flower just sucking away on the nectar of the plant.

I don't know what the flower is called, am sure Kelly will give me the name when she reads this, but what ever it is, my little hummers just love it. So when I buy my hanging baskets in the spring, I make sure that the flowers will attract and feed the little beasts.

Hummingbirds are describes as the only bird who always appears to be pissed off at the world. They take on crows for goodness sake! They can also be really noisey and when the male decides he wants to take over a feeder, he is fierce in protecting it. I sometimes, because I am bigger will remove the feeder for a few days and move it to another location to really tic him off.

The females will share with other females, no problem and when they are bringing their young to the feeders will even share the same holes with them. One can always tell the young as they are a bit clumsy when approaching and will sometimes end up a bit upside down as they have a wonky landing.

Usually at the cottage they arrive, if the weather has been warm, by May 8th, which is our anniversary and usually just a few days into moving in, so our dinner is always simple of hotdogs and beans, as that was all we had that first year of being there at that time. Traditions die hard!
I do add the salads and wine though and as we wait for the little critters to appear.


The photo on the left wasn't taken by me, but appeared in Cottage Life a couple of years ago and when I saw this, I thought I had to have the flower. Echineca, oh well I have that already in a few colours to enhance the bed. But because I have the bee balm, they don't go there that often.

In the spring when the birds arrive, the will also eat the little spiders. I didn't know this till I saw it last year. We learn all the time the connection between the hummers and the spiders as the hummers use the spider threads to make their nests. By the way the size of an egg is about the size of a pea. There are lots of sites on the web to have a look at them because what I know about this little bird is about the size of a pea!

In the summer, when the females are nesting, we only see them at dawn and dusk mainly to feed like crazy and back to their nests. When it's very hot, I water the flowers and make sure the water sprinkles the hemlock which is where hummers like to sit and watch and when I water they will go crazy bathing. The actually try to turn themselves upside down! So funny.


I am still in a bit of a funk about quilting....It may be because I really need to finish that quilt I started and move on. My sweetie is off to Martinsville, Virginia for the Nascar race this weekend and he leaves this afternoon. Maybe I will get sewing when I am on my own.

Being Canadian, I cannot but talk of the weather here in Ontario. It's about 50 degrees today and it was great walking the dog this morning. But I was thinking of Manitoba and North Dakota having to endure the flooding and watching the areas affected struggle to contain water makes me think that when people come together for a common cause....well they can do anything.

THE BIG BUNKIE

When one first enters the "big bunkie" as it's known, even though we have tried to rename it over the years, it's still called the new bunkie or the big bunkie. It's 14 X 16 ft and with the large picture window and high ceilings, it's very airy compared to the little bunkie.





It also faces the lake as you can see from yesterday's photo of our site, but it's back a bit in the woods and is very private. I couldn't find an up close of the exterior, however it does have a small deck for sitting on, but almost everyone goes to the deck at the main cottage.


We put in the laminate flooring here, but painted the little bunkie floor because it just suited it. The floor is the same as the main cottage. As much as the interior is very simple and woodsy, we haven't been able to give it the appeal of the little bunkie. So mostly it's adults that come to visit that have a place of their own with lots of ventillation. Although this past fall when the teens were up, we put them there, as they stay up later than us and they were away from the old folks.

I've thought often of whitewashing the walls to give it a cottage feel.Now that I have quilts, hanging a couple on the walls might make it more cottagey, but the kids just love using them for coziness. Each original sleeping spot has a light so that one can read before sleep time. We did this as all the kids read and we encourage it all the time at the cottage.

Our neighbours Bob and Mary have more or less claimed this bunkie as theirs as they come often so Mary just calls it "my bunkie". We are thinking of putting in a 2 piece bathroom in there. If it happens, I will post it for sure...lots of planning is in the works.

When we built this, it was because our family is quite large and on weekends with kids bringing their friends, we can be in the teens for the weekends, so we were pressed for room to say the least. For a couple of years we had the girls, all 6 of them camping out on the deck in a large tent that one of our sons had. It was a tight fit, but they loved it. And of course there wasn't much room on the deck with a 10 x 10ft tent up there. So we built the big bunkie.


Beside the bunkie and a bit further up the hill is my sweetie's workshop which is known as the Home Depot of Long Island as we have lots of "stuff" packed in there. Any one may borrow what we have, but, they must return as soon as possible in case of someone else's needs. It works quite well. The workshop is the size of the big bunkie and has a garage door so that all the equipment for sawing etc is done outside on its deck.


Yeah, that's the name of our island, and we live in a village called Brooklin, isn't that something? Talk about Karma!

Of course we have a large septic bed and it has all the perennial flowers I can put on it and even annual cosmos because I like how they bend in the breezes and add their delicate foliages to the garden there. I have not had much success with sun flowers, but maybe this year will be different.

I think I have posted the main cottage before, but I may find some new photos to share as I continue my yearning for this wonderful place. It's a very simple cottage, not fancy as you can see from the above photos, but we have made it homey and welcoming for all that come!