JUST A BIT WINDY! THANKS "BILL"

I have written about the winds we get on our lake here at teh cottage. So the first photo shows the wave action. I don't know if you get the idea, but we had honkin' waves on Friday. The docks were rockin and rollin making it difficult to get to the big boats. So we never worry about the two little boats that are on the inside of the docks!


Well the waves and rain actually sank the yellow boat. It has never happened before. I think that this was the remnents of "Bill". We couldn't bail the boat till the wind died down a bit.


Well then the boat was sinking more and my
sweetie thought there would be damage to the
motor so he put a set of pulleys across the docks
just enough to raise the boat and bail it out.



Of course during this, he was being pushed a bit and he kept stepping on stones, he twisted his knee which is now quite swollen. He said that the wind had shifted rocks from the bottom of the lake and he couldn't see them, so he stepped on a couple and hense the damage to the knee.


He's in bed with ice packs right now and tylenol as it's still swollen after three days! And you know what men can be like!


I am going home today. Doctor appointments tomorrow to have the bunion xrayed and also the hip and knee areas to see if there is any damage there as I have been quite sore. You know what women are like.....we don't complain! (big grin here)


I am so looking forward to shopping for fabric. I have so little left here and four tops to be finished. Very excited about that and hoping that there is some sales. It's the end of summer, there should be something for me.


See you in a few days as I am not taking the computer home....

WOW! THIS IS A SUITCASE!

After reading my blog, a "friend" sent this little
suitcase photo to me! I am still laughing!


Can you imagine this contraption? Not only that,
but who thought of it to begin with? It all looks rather painful to me and the thing on the bottom looks like a drill for goodness sake.


I am also thinking for those of you being nurses out there.......just imagine .
(click on photo)


So, as you know going shopping from the lake is a big deal! Make a list collect the shopping bags to use as we must bring our own. We have two cooler bags that we always bring plus and old soft duffle type suitcase and a few others form local grocery stores. (I keep thinking I should make my own since I have the fabric). Anyway we take a 15 minute boat ride, unload all our bags, water jugs, garbage (for the dump) and pile all of that into the truck and off we go. After a short stop at the dump with us doing all the dumping of the recycled stuff, where they watch that we have put the right garbage in the right bins....we are off on a 45 minute drive to Huntsville where the shopping is just a bit better than Dorset...they have Home Depot, Canadian Tire and a Loblaw's Independent
.

Then we reverse it all, get water on the way back to the cottage and there went five hours. I am usually just too tired to make dinner. It's always a simple meal of salad and sandwiches because we have fresh foods! No wonder we live longer!


Fabricland has the end of summer sale and I tell you the one in Huntsville had more crap! Excuse the language dear friends, but it was just little bits of left overs that should have been on the dollar table! Needless to say, that was a futile visit. So I am still without fabrics to work on finishing my projects. That was a huge disappointment. A lesson learned, shop at home....


Of course it's raining again! Just getting ready for company is so much more pleasant when the sun is shining and it's warm. I put the heaters on to take the dampness away. I shouldn't complain. It's still better than being anywhere....have a good day wherever you are!

TUESDAY TALES

Yesterday, since it was hot and humid, not much

moving around the cottage because if I moved I

was sweating, so I cleaned up my little sewing

area that I have at the cottage.





The first one I keep all my extra sewing supplies in it so that I only have to open it to grab threads, needles, ribbons, etc. It is quite handy to have around and I just close it up when finished working at the sewing machine.







The second one keeps all the magazines, books etc so that they are not stacked all over the table which is used for coffee, feet and food, not

necessarily in that order at the same time either.







When I finish with them, I stack them up and

use them as a little side "table" for whatever.

I have found this one to be particularly handy as I have about a dozen different magazines about the cottage that had no place to go. Now when this fills up, I will take them home for a permanent place, but for now, this is good.










My friend Helen who has been quilting since the 1970s has passed two quilting books to me to look and get inspired (I think). These two were

a series of quilt patterns, including templates that

were popular in the 1980s I think she said. There

are hundreds of different designs in the books.





Some of you may have collected this series also.
Really good stuff for me to look at at least.





I had a visit from Penny at http://harmonyhopes.blogspot.com/ and being a new visitor to my site, I went to look at what she had on hers. Well go have a look. Her work is quite amazing, more art than quilting and all hand worked, so I was pleased that she took the time to visit my blog.





I am always pleased when new people come over
and comment. It makes my day I tell you! Those of us who comment on each others blogs know our little quirks and quarks so someone new is great to have join us.





Remember the cottage neighbours who have an issue with the crossing of their property? Well they have posted huge "POSTED, NO TRESPASSING" signs now and so there will be no making up that we can see. It is very sad that they feel we have violated their privacy. I really don't think we are "that bad" (grinning here) . We tried to have an intervention with the owners, but to no avail. We now must travel 400 ft by boat to each others cottages. Sad, but nothing further we can do.





On a lighter note....my sweetie's family is coming for the weekend. We are excited as it's hard for all of the sibblings to get together, but each summer we have a weekend of catching up. We will be prepared with lots of food. I am making parmesean chicken. It's an easy peasy recipe and so very very good. Sunshine will love this one when I post it another day. She tests all the recipes I have posted.





Oh, Helen made the "What's In it?" appetizer and she said that her gourmet cooking friend asked the what's in it query as all people do. She didn't give out the recipe either...





Have a great day.

IT'S FINALLY SUMMER IN ONTARIO!

Summer arrived a few days ago! It has been

so warm, the lake is warm enough for me to

have entered it three times! That's three

times more than last year! Wahoo!

Needless to say, not much sewing is going

on here this past week!

Since the weather report was so very good, we called Bob and Mary to come for the weekend!

They were here by 9 am on Saturday morning with the might Quin in tow. He loves me so as I am Wilson's favorite person on earth! I also have a good lap and he likes to spend some time there a lot when he comes to visit.

The lake was so calm in the morning that it was quite hot by 10 am. But then the breezes came and it was perfect. We spent most of the weekend by the lake, sitting and getting a tan for the first time this summer. We all got a bit too much sun, but it's ok, it's summer finally. All up and down the lake cottages, people were swimming, skiing and just hanging out.

The Quinlan's who are on the back side of the island and who always cheer when our skiers go around the island, presented us with a four person ski by and we cheered them and they were hooting right back at us! It was pretty cool to have a bit of a ski show right by our dock.

It's Monday morning and the lake has become quiet of the activities of the weekend. We still have the warm weather, the humidity, but I am so happy this day! Summer is here!

BEST STORY EVER!

This is the funniest true story of the summer....


At my sister in law's cottage....Charlene


Visiting nephew....Colin. (3 1/2)


The scene is Char in her small bedroom, in walks Colin.


Aunt Charlene, what are you doing to your face?

I'm putting on moisturerizer to smooth out wrinkles......

Well Aunt Charlene did you get a receipt?

Why Colin?

Well......... you should get your money back....cause it's not workin!


We are all still laughing when we tell this story....BEST STORY EVER!

JUST ANOTHER COTTAGE DAY!

At the cottage there is always so much

activity going on with the wild life around

us.

We have a young hawk as seen in this photo

that I took yesterday. He has such a sad cry as he looks for his mother or nest mate. He has been crying for the past few days and we actually did see the mother on the first and second day just following her young but low in the trees and I don't think he saw her.

He is here again this morning. He is probably a red tail hawk which is not a large hawk at all and is usually a very good hunter. So he better get hunting as he will need food soon. It's hard to identify what he is but I did a bit of research and it could be a red tail.

On the other end of the wild life, we have our little brown duck who started out with about fifteen young and has now six and they seem to be doing very well. She is very friendly and has been around our dock for the past couple of years. She has no fear of our wonder dog and he actually stepped back a few steps on the dock when she came visiting yesterday.

Our hummers are going crazy with the feeding from the bee balm (monarda) and at times there are five hummers and about 25 little bees fighting over the flowers. Boy, those hummers sure have an attitude...I think that they even get mad at me when the feeder gets low. I was checking a feeder last week and a male actually landed on my hand! I froze as I couldn't believe that it hadn't realized it was a human hand. It stayed there probably two seconds, but man you can imagine my joy. Males are very timid, but the females are much calmer and don't mind me around their food source.

On calm mornings, the fish jump for the bugs that are on the water. We can see the rings on the water as they get larger and larger. When the lake is super calm these rings are seen in abundance.

The last wild life we have here is a beaver. Yes, forget that this beaver lives on open water, has a very deep lake to contend with, it's here. It has taken down all the service berry bushes, the young maples and I don't know what else around here. It does come at night on the east side of the cottage and of course that's where we sleep and the dog keeps watch over us.

I have a very wonderful and peaceful life here. I am very blessed.

HERE'S AN IDEA!

My neighbour at the cottage found some old golf clubs and cut off the shaft and made hooks out of the head of the clubs. Very clever recycling idea don't you think?

She used old barn boards for the four hooks of which only one is complete, so I took this photo.

She is putting hooks around the cottage in different areas so that people may put towels, life jackets, ski ropes, etc off the ground. Very clever.

Thank you so much for comments regarding making my small quilt large. I am going to do what Lindsey, (five healthy hearts) suggested. I am going home after the weekend and hitting the shops around my area with my top to find just the right fabric which I will use for the sashing and then use it for the back as well I think. Honestly, I need to find fabric...I don't have stashes of different colours and when I need something I must shop around. I'm not a good shopper and my sweetie has just said to go buy fabric as I will go nuts without projects to work on.

Our little bathroom in the cottage is being painted today. The ladies from next door are going to do it. It is repayment for the three doors hung by my sweetie in their bunkie. Yes, a bathroom door is essential! I have taken before photos and will let you see our very simple loo when it's painted. So in advance I thank the ladies....

I often wonder how we have become such good "friends" when we have never met....I visit all the blogs on my list and have a few in my favorites that I look at, comment and see if we connect at all. Micki, that I visit all the time is in my favorites list but for the life of me, everytime I try to add her to the blog list, it reverts to 2006. So she stays as a fav.

Others, I see what they do and how often they blog. I think 2-3 times a week is good to keep a current blog...I noticed that Crazy Mom Quilts...aka Amandajean, has hit the wall with so much pressure to produce more and more ideas has resulted in Amandajean just being very tired and has decided to take a bit of a break...Goodness if I had 200 hits a day with comments, I'm sure I'd be overwhelmed too! I wondered how she did it all and raised a family too. Her creative juices need replenishing...

So, we will all be here no matter how often we write, how often we need a break and how often we run out of ideas, and how often we run out of fabric....oh that's not you guys.....it's me. I am going to go shopping since all I have left is fabric to make shopping bags.

MODA JELLY ROLL ON THE MOVE!

A few weeks ago I bought a couple of Jelly Rolls !

One of them, Oh Cherry Oh! I am making nine patch with Crazy Mom Quilts, and the other.....

is what you see here. It's called Swanky Chez Moi...so very french don't you think? Anyway, here's what I did.

I sewed all 40 pieces of the Jelly together, well eight at a time. Then I cut these into 8" strips and joined all pieces together. I positioned them

so as not to have all the colours straight across by

taking two from one bottom, four from the next

and so on till I had them all lined up looking

good.

I then cut out 5" strips of white fabric and joined

the strips together. Now here is my "little"

problem.....I want to make it bigger than the

about 67" wide that I currently will have when it's finished with just white borders.

I want to add about 15" on each side. Do you think it would look like that's what I did? Of course I should have bought two Jellies, but I didn't. I am thinking of using one of the colours from the strips and adding that to the sides. What do you think?

I just love how this turned out and coins are such a quick and easy quilt to make. I couldn't believe how quickly it came together. I do have lots of white that I could use for more border, but that would be too much white. Help...suggestions please.

We had rain of course and today it's so very humid that my sweetie is having a hard time moving around. He really feels the humidity...Me? not too much. It's better than cold. So now it's Monday and it looks like another couple of days of high humidity and thunder storms...what else is new for us this summer heh? Then we are looking at next seven days of absolutely wonderful summer weather....it's still good because we are at the cottage dot calm!

RIDE AWAY WITH THIS BIKE....!!!!!!!!!!!

http://sharethelovelylist.com/share-the-lovely-listandwin.html

Now who would give this beauty away? Well it's there for the taking...go have a look and see the blog...it's really cute!

WHAT'S IN IT?

My friend Dawn and her husband came to visit for a few days. Dawn has done a panel baby quilt for a nephew and had 3 more babies born in her family so the request was for more baby quilts.

Since she doesn't quilt much....she can stipple and so we stippled these panels, labled them and they will be mailed to the children tomorrow.

Here she is with our birthday boy Wilson who was 4 years old yesterday...The child we never had says our daughter, don't you know... Dawn has had trouble with arthritis in her thumbs so I did some of the hand work and she was sewing the labels.

She brought the favorite appetizer recipe of all time! Sunshine.....this one's for you! Dawn's sister Monica is not known as a "cook" persay, however for years whenever there was a family do Monica would appear with a little casserole, and we would wait while it was baked and then this little gem would be devoured immediately! Now, she, being that this was about the only thing she could cook, well she could order chinese and add a few things to it and make it her own.....you know what I mean?

Dawn and I begged her for years for the "What's In It" recipe....finally after about 10 years and I mean 10 years she gave us the recipe as she was tired of bringing it all the time and it was time for someone else to "cook". Ok here it is...

WHAT'S IN IT-----AKA....MONICA'S RECIPE

1 CUP MINCED FRESH ONION

1 CUP HELLMAN'S MAYO

1 CUP GRATED CHEDDER CHEESE

MIX INGREDIENTS TOGETHER, SPRAY A SMALL DISH

TO FIT INGREDIENTS....BAKE 25 MINUTES @ 350

Serve with bagel chips or such.

ABSOLUTELY YUMMY!

I can tell you that no one will ever guess what you put in it and there will be nothing left over.

There will be a fight to lick the dish! Try it for your next little group of friends and let me know how everyone wanted the recipe....don't give it out...it's our secret!

Have a great weekend.

I LOVE THIS SEWING TABLE!

Yesterday, I cleaned up my little sewing area that I have in the corner of the sun room at the cottage
.

It's quite amazing that so much mess can be made in such a small area. I am always leaving pieces of this and that on the sewing table. I also never put the cover on the machine and I think that I should as the room is usually open to the elements and can be dusty. I wonder if people take their machines in for cleaning annually. I was told to bring it to the shop for spring cleanings as a good care program for my Janome. I haven't decided yet.


I must say the sewing table is the best thing since sliced bread as far as I am concerned. It is always a hit for anyone who sews and does a bit of work here at the table. I can't imagine that I actually worked without this smooth gliding surface to piece my blocks till last fall. I am alway thankful that my sweetie included it in his birthday surprise for me!



I had a lot of little pieces of this and that left over from the winter and don't remember why I shoved them in the container to bring here to the cottage, but am glad I did. I am almost out of fabric here for projects. I have fabric, but not enough to complete any project. This is sort of a coin quilt top which I added the whites to it to make it really pop. I use the old suitcase that it is propped on to keep current projects, sewing supplies etc here. I found this little gem at Goodwill years ago. I actually have four of them, one is full of lego, but the others are empty and I keep thinking of painting them or covering them to look like quilts.


I think these suitcases cost about $3.00 each and were probably used for overnight bags when first made. I also had a couple of makeup bags like these but the grandkids took them for cars and barbie doll suitcases. When the kids were little, there was always a suitcase for crafts, one for dolls, one for cars, and one for the lego.. Now the lego one has been refilled a few times, all using second hand lego from goodwill or garage sales. It's the colours that the kids liked that were different and so they were "borrowed"


The suitcases are becoming a rare find these days as it seems that people are collecting them for whatever reason. I always look for them everytime I am shopping secondhand. So handy for different uses.


We are having a great beginning to the weather this morning, other than having to put the spaceheater on because it is chilly here in the sunroom. It's lovely on the deck and I am taking my coffee out there while the lake is calm, the fish are jumping at bugs, and the hummers are happy for the warmth, as I am. We are expecting rain of course and yesterday about 30 miles south there was a small tornado that touched down and did some minor damage. What a summer! I just heard on the news that by Christmas it is supposed to warm up! Honest!

DO YOU THINK WE HAD FUN?

What a weekend! As you can see from the photo on the right, the boys were in for a big big dumping. The three of them went flying just as they were coming in to give the girls a ride!


If you look carefully, the blue lifejacket is just over Jeremy who went first into the water....it looks more dangerous than it actually was as they were not going too fast....Lots of screaming going on I tell you.


The girls who are now 17 plus just thought that diving from the raft was the most fun. It's just
what happens when raised for the past ten years
coming to the cottage and making the best of the
weather, no matter what.

The lake was very rough and so the tubing was a wild ride for those that ventured out on the lake. We did have calm weather on Saturday morning so we had the ski lessons done and both the new skiers got up on the first try. It happens when kids are used to coaches giving directions to the sprint canoers...Ryan, who was a friend of our grandson, got up on the first try and looked like a pro, while Brianne, Courtney's friend and her kayak partner was like an old pro. There was huge cheering as they both skied so well.

But that was it.. the wind was too wild for trying
doubles as we had hoped for Sunday morning.



The last photo is of the boys being brave as
boys will be. They just were cheering the wild
ride they had had!


Bob and Mary who had been here for the week left at noon hour with Alex because she lives just
around the corner from them. Kelly took the rest of them home around 5 pm. They ate an early dinner here and were looking forward to an even later bbq at home....Yeah you can't imagine the food we went through over 3 days....the fridge is empty!

My sweetie and I went to bed at 8:30 pm and didn't get up till 8:30 this morning....It was an exhausting weekend I tell you. But memories were made for all the kids.

I had fun!

ANOTHER STORM COMING THROUGH!

I just never get over the terrible weather we are having this summer. The first photo is the storm coming in from the west. It was like a white blanket was being pulled over the lake.







The water turned dark dark blue, the sky was this white sheet and the wind was fierce as you can imagine. It rained for about 4 hours, with the eaves troughs so full the water was overflowing them. Unbelievable rain.


The other photos are what the lake usually looks like on a clear day.










Of course it all happened just before we had dinner planned for a barbeque and our friend Bob had finished putting a stain on the front of the cottage. Change of plans and the stain stayed put on the siding.





We have a generator at the cottage. A most useful tool when the power goes out. Now this storm lasted a long time and we were amazed that we didn't lose power...called Hydro here in Ontario....and with the wind howling, the docks rocking, the rain coming sideways at times, that's
when we usually lose power...


So around 9:30 the lake is calm, the rain is calm compared to about an hour before when the rain was so heavy it was overflowing the eavestroughs. That's when the power went out....and I had no idea where the flashlights were, the candles were somewhere and the matches, when I found the candles wouldn't light because it's so damp right now....or they don't make wooden matches like they used to.



Anyway, we decided that it was late and the generator could be used in the morning for coffee, flushing toilets and water to sustain us. So we sat by candlelight, watching the lightning across the southern sky till it was decided to go to bed.


So this is another day, and we are expecting the gang of teens tonight with the weather for the weekend to be quite warm and clear skies for at least Saturday night. That's when the two marinas on this lake put on a spectacular fireworks display!


There is usually about 400 boats sitting in the dark of the night till the fireworks start. It is quite a scene, as we sit in the water, periodically pushing off each other as we continue to drift a bit in the waters. Everyone is usually quite quiet till the first display! Quite the night for all.



Then, after about an hour, it is over, the boat lights come on, the whole lake is red and green from the lights and all one can see is a huge line of boats coming down the lake to their cottages.


This year, with the gang we are having we will be two boats full of people with even the neighbours loaded in because of their own numbers.


Doesn't this sound like a fun weekend?

I'M HAPPY, I'M OVER THE MOON HAPPY!

Ok, I know that we were supposed to do only one patch a week, but since I am at the cottage don't you know, I only have so much fabric here!


So I started cutting and sewing and with the help of Alex, my granddaughter who is visiting, we put together a whole lot of nine patch squares.


The weather needless to say is wet....It seems that for a change we can blame the weather coming to us from the southern States. And you know that CNN ALWAYS says weather comes from Canada so this is a change .


Everything is so wet to the point that we must
off the feet of the dogs when they come in.


So what is a girl to do but sew! I even had a
cottager from down the way walk over in a
rain storm just to do something to do. We had
a lesson in free motion quilting. She was very
very happy and since her machine is a 6200
Janome she can do all the same steps as I do.


This is the first time I've purchased a Jelly Roll and I must say it was very exciting to be using Oh Cherry Oh! as it is very colourful and so easy to put together. I am definitely going to order from the Fat Quarter Shop again as the service was excellent and the delivery within a week to Canada.


Our daughter is coming and bringing kids! What can be better for the weekend that is supposed to be perfect weather than to have water skiers in residence! I expect a lot of food to be consummed so Mary (my neighbour from Whitby is here) and I are heading to Huntsville to shop for the gang that is arriving Friday night with instructions for homemade Pizza. I can do that and will probably double the recipe to accommodate 4 big really big eaters!


On a happy note for Mary, my sweetie is installing a 2 piece bath in the bunkie that they sleep in. You know when we get older we need the facilities during the night so we have made room in the bunkie and it is looking really really good. There will be beadboard on the walls and the sink is a small corner sink, just big enough to brush teeth, wash face etc. Photos will be forthcoming as I think this will be very cute and useful too of course. Mary has already brought the towels.


To finish on a happy note...the hummers seem to have multiplied to six. The males make the feeders very interesting and there is lots of swooping and diving....I'm happy!

SEWING LIKE CRAZY TO CATCH UP!

I joined Crazy Mom Quilts online nine patch group
to make the second nine patch. I'm a bit behind
as usual. I didn't really want to even open the
Jelly Roll because it looked so neat. I mean neat
in the literal sense. All those colours wound in
a little roll, tied with the ribbon. I looked at it
for about 4 days till the ribbon was untied!


So I am off on a spree of cutting and making nine patch squares to at least keep up with the group.
80 squares to make the quilt is what she is asking for and I will have lots of fabric left over from the Oh Cherry Oh! I had a hard time deciding whether to just cut and do random squares or to take two pieces and make the nine patch. I am
doing the latter. I need symetry. I will have a few
with a bit of variation but all in all I love this quilt
so far.



My neighbours....(the ones with the mouse) have
this old quilt on a bed in their cottage. It was made
about 45 years ago and is still in excellent condition.
the binding needs replacing and has been repaired
a few times, but so far it's not bad. Machined
pieced, and hand quilted by Kent's grandmother.



I actually would have shown some of my nine patch squares but my granddaughter is here, has taken over my camera for a bit. I couldn't go through 100 photos to get a few of my stuff, so
another day.



See the golf driver at the right? Well my neighbour is making this into a clothes/towel hook for the cottage. She found the clubs in her barn when they bought the farm and always wondered what to do with them. She has four of them with wood handles. I don't know much about golf so don't laugh at my description of this stuff. She cut the handles off as best she could and has put a screw in the back of a piece of barnboard. She had a problem with one of the pieces so has put wood glue in the end of the place where the screw goes and if all else fails, she will see my sweetie to give her an idea about attaching the last hook to the board. Isn't it clever?



My middle son has come for a visit. He has been fed well, given his own room to sleep to his heart's content and to read his book. We had great weather for the past two days, but of course this being the summer from.......well the weather isn't going to co operate today and rain and thunder are coming.


Martin is heading home and leaving me a Alex to eat us out of house and home. Lots of food will be consummed in the next few days I tell you. It's what life is about if you are a kid at Nana's.