WHAT'S HAPPENING?

I don't know what happened to my blogger downloads, but no photos are being allowed to be printed. Yuck!


I've been to see the specialist, results being, I can keep my feet, lose the hip though! Actually he was a no nonsense type of a guy and I really liked him! He said that the bunion needed to be fixed but that it wasn't a candidate for laser because of its size. Well that was a bit of a shocker as I was hoping that the second opinion that I have scheduled would say, "let's do this now" but he did say that the second one on the left is a possible candidate. Well it doesn't bother me at all as it's so small...


The hip, he says has got to go! I also am probably feeling pain from my back (arthritis) more than the hip he said. Now, what kind of a doctor says to start to do sit ups in order to strenghten the front (soft belly) muscles and that this would really help me with the back pain which sometimes goes down my leg? My kind of doctor I tell you! I loved him. He said if I lost some weight (OMG) that that would help me too. I am on his waiting list for the operations so I am going to give serious business to his suggestions...Flexibility here I come!



My quilting stuff is on hold for the weekend as we are having guests once again. The weather is lovely right now, a bit of rain this morning, but then sunshine. There is the first frost warning of the season, so it's only a matter of time before we begin to think of closing down our little piece of heaven.


Getting old sure ain't for sissies, or those of us that really suck at getting there!

THIS IS A DOT!

My friend Helen came across these dots.

She couldn't resist getting them for me!

I do think they will be used for a back and

not a front! Just a bit large for the front of a

quilt, but I just love the reversing colours. I am

going to see if I can do something with them

though, as I do love orange and white.







We had a glorious weekend here in Haliburton county. Not a lot of people up for the weekend, probably due to this having been the first week of school and all.





We also watched our granddaughter on CBC on the Mazda Knockout Regatta! Mary and I were cheering as if it was the Olympics. Just seeing her name come up on TV, we were knocked out! What can I say, the camera loved her! Heh, she's 17 and an athlete, of course the camera loves all those kids and the testosterone of those boys! Anyway she made it to the finals and came home with a bronze.
We went nuts! Well done!







I am returning home for a few days to see about the bunion on my foot and also to have the hip looked at. I am also going to see about the laser treatment for the foot next month. That won't be covered by medical but the orthopedic surgery would be. I have been reading on bunions (thanks mom) and find out that it is mostly women that have them, and that they are inherited.







My mother has bunions and has complained of her feet and hammer toes for years, never doing anything about them. I have learned a lesson from her and am looking into it now before they become too painful and I really have any further troubles.





See you in a few days...

SUCH CUTE QUILTS....

As you know, Helen (dear friend and teacher) is a hand quilter. So when she decided to do a machine quilt for a friend's daughter who is having a baby....she did this.





Helen has a Janome embroidery machine. She's had this machine for quite a number of years, but only did a few machine blocks using the machine which her daughters gave her one Christmas.


Anyway, look at the details of this little quilt.
Really unique and so very cute. All the plain
blocks are done like this, while the prints are
in the ditch. I couldn't believe how she just
had the creative juices flowing to make her
first machine quilt. So clever.







I know the yellow is a bit pale, but you can still see the details of her work.






Then, Andrea her daughter decided to make a
quilt for a baby of a friend in Australia. She sort
of copied one of my bright whites from last winter and produced such a cute original quilt...
her mother helped of course, but still Andrea
did all the work of putting the quilt blocks to-
gether and even used the colours in the block to
make the binding. She open pressed all the seams
in order for the binding to be smooth.


Now, she practiced the free motion quilted edges and sashing that you see. I do think that she has
inherited some of her mother's sewing talents.


It's mostly Walmart fabric too with some of Helen's stash bits here and there. I just loved the backing for this quilt. So bright so cheery and definitely primary colours which kids love!



A lovely first effort and Andrea wondered how
any of us that quilt could possibly think of
giving a quilt away due to the love and work
that goes into making even a small quilt such as
this crib quilt.

I also did some work on my latest project. Now the quilt called for 12 squares, however, I only have enough for these nine that I have put together to see if it suits me. I laid them out on the floor and moved them around quite a few times (as did the dogs) and finally settled, so far
on this arrangement.









Then, the bottom right black and pink one was
just too overpowering, so I have another on the
go with enough scraps to make one more
complimentry block. I will make a pillow of the
pink and black. I do like colours, but this one
is just too bright to put in the quilt.



I must find border fabric for it. Listen, I gotta get better organized because I use this and that and then gotta figure out how to finish the job! I must get stash stuff. Helen had a box of some stash that she had brought up for Andrea, so she generously gave me a few pieces to do this quilt.








We have had a glorious weekend. Light winds,
and sunshine. I wish the summer months had
been so sweet! We sat out last night as the full moon came up over the Haliburton Highlands making the lake so bright that we could almost read by moonlight. But we can feel the autumn coming, the male humminbirds are gone, the little junkos have arrived, the owls can be heard in the late night hours now.


We are starting to think of closing up, putting things away . We are hoping to be able to stay till Thanksgiving which is around the second week of October in Canada. Last year it was wonderful mild weather. Hope it's the same this year.

THE SUMMER IS ENDING..

This weekend, the neighbours arrived on Thursday
night bringing me this little bouquet of flowers!
They are so very nice to us here, always helpful
and so generous with their collections of wines!
Just kidding. Kent is a bit of a wine expert so we
periodically have had some very good tasting
different wines. But best of all, they bring
lovely bouquets of fresh flowers for my table.


The last long weekend of summer is almost passed here at our little piece of heaven, with so many people here for their last kick at the cat as the saying goes. Boats and boats of skiers, wakeboarding, along with canoers and since the water was warm, many many people still swimming in the lake. It's been the busiest weekend of the year so far. Today most people will close up to return to the city and a new beginning for many.


Our granddaughter Nicole is off to Nipissing U.
being very excited about getting her degree to
be able to teach art.


This past weekend our Olympic hopeful managed
to win two gold, 2 silver and 2 bronze medals at
the Canadian Canoe Championships! She is a
bit tired from travelling, training and missing
her mom's cooking I think. School starts on
Tuesday for her too!



The little photo on the right is a cake! A friend
of my daughter has been making cakes for as
long as I can remember. This is quite the cake
I must say and I included it because of the
suitcase postings last week or so. All decorated
by Susan! Fabulous!



I have been busy on the tic tac toe blocks having made 8 so far. These two were done on Saturday morning so I thought I would feature them.

I made them reversed of each other because when I was cutting out the two colours, one needs two pieces of 22 X 8" cutting each piece twice on the rectangle. Therefore one would have enough for two different blocks. I hated to waste precious fabric so here's the result.


My teacher Helen came over (by boat, all 500ft)
and loved how I had done the project. YES! I am
beginning to have the lessons pay off. Getting
a compliment is huge due to my inability to put
two and two together to understand simple
templates!



I do have one with black dots, pink fabric which is so overpowering that my sweetie said to make a pillow to go with the quilt as it just blinds out the other blocks. That's another photo day!



So, today Mary is doing her short shift at the hospital, then leaving from there to drive up for a night of pizza! She gave specific orders not to make it till she was here! It's on the menu. Bob, the first hand for my sweetie has been painting
the "back lot" as we have called the back of the
cottage. You know, the movie sets always have
a place where they put everything....well we did
too. but it's being spruced up and looking mighty fine. The guys did stop work around 4 pm yesterday to sit on the dock with appetizers and beer to watch the kids from next door ski. They had a couple of five year old girls trying to get up. Girls are different.....The guys find that out all the time but keep forgetting it....Anyway to top off the day, I went tubing....yeah Kathleen said the one of the seats had my name on it. I didn't even get wet....What fun!

TIC TAC TOE QUILT ON THE GO...

When Helen, my private quilting teacher (oh yeah I have luck here at the cottage) was showing me a pattern she would cut out paper or light cardboard of different colours to demonstrate a project. Well it paid off yesterday when I was doing the Tic Tac Toe Quilt layout.

I actually read the directions on making the template. However as a lot of you probably know, sometimes the book directions aren't quite what we understand them to be. I did cut out fabric 8 X 11 directed, but when cutting the first template, there was no way it was going to end up a 6 1/2" block....so I fiddled with the template a bit and voila!



I actually have two of them done to absolute perfection. I am so over the moon happy. Helen's patience has paid of and I have it in my head how to do an accurate template.


I made the blocks in reverse of each other and learned that the fabric must all be on the right side of each other or else
the blocks would be in reverse and not match. I only have
seven more to go as these finish out 18" squares. The photo
yesterday showed it using "scraps" well I don't have enough
of them here, but this is such a fun and funkie quilt that I
think I could do this in yellow, black, white and red for my
grandsons who never get a quilt because my quilts are to
"girlie" for them.



Our helper Alex left us yesterday, which is a sure sign that summer is at an end. She put her little boat away and said that her life would have been perfect at the cottage if her friend Brianna had only been here to share it with her....We miss here already. Mind you, we will have food in the fridge and don't have to oil its door any longer....I'd forgotten how much teens can eat!



Have a great Labour Day Weekend. Next week all our lives change as the children go back to school, we see the yellow buses and the stop flags in full operation. Let's keep them safe.

ISN'T THIS CUTE?

Can you see this cute quilt? I am going to make it next. I have been looking at it for ages. You know I love bright colours and this one is so perfect. It is from the Quilters Newsletter. Now I did see one similar in another magazine, but the instructions (oh yeah those) seem to be better with this one.



Of course the flash dimmed the photo a bit, but it's a go for today. I am excited for this one. My sweetie loves the look of this one. I don't have the exact fabrics of course, but will try to make
a funkie quilt.




We put a small bathroom in the new bunkie. It is just to the right of the window that you can see. That's Alex our granddaughter putting the final touches to the lattice work to finish it off. We lost both the large pines that were in the front of the bunkie. One when we built it and the other when my sweetie noticed that it wasn't healthy when he was putting in the plumbing lines across the roots. The 50ft tree actually moved a bit. Talk about great timing for the tree guys to appear the next day!


Alex has great dexterity with tools. It is so
strange as she has difficulty with small motor
skills at school. This made her grandfather
very happy that she could get under there and
finish off the trim. Who knew? She could be
a plumber too!




Here is the bunkie, trimmed out. We are putting an bear chair (adirondak) on the little deck when it is put together. My sweetie made a bunch of these and we have two to put together still. He moans that we have so many chairs. Of course the stump chairs don't count.



Yesterday was a clean up day here at the cottage.
We all pitched in to rake, organize the outside, and the inside got the floors washed. Oh yeah!
The little grey dog is white. It took two washes to achieve the job. I dried him with the blow dryer and he is fluffy and looking like the "show" dog that he is.


Have a great day everyone.

IT'S ANOTHER QUILT FINISHED!

Here is my newist quilt finished. I tried to make it a photo op, but it just looks ordinary. I think some people really have the "knack" for photos. In any event. I am so pleased with it. I managed to get the backing for $4.00 per metre as stated yesterday. I have another small pieced quilt like this one to complete.








I don't know if it's just me or what, but I find that my larger quilts are quite heavy. I can't remember why some seem lighter than this one just completed. I use bamboo batting or warm and natural. Is that it? I don't like using the poly one which might be the lightest batting to use.





I know that the larger the quilt the heavier it is, but mine seem to be more winter weight if you know what I'm saying here.





It was such a beauty of a day yesterday that the boats were just nicely lined up. We had to move the middle boat (aka my boat) on Saturday due to the horendous east wind we had that banged the boat on the dock. No damage to the boat which is a Key West and similar to Boston Whalers in construction. My very precious item

here at the lake as it goes really well in rough

weather.





The little one is a Water Mouse which was really

popular at Walt Disney world in Orlando, but I

understand that it's not made anymore. This

little sucker is 9ft X 5 ft wide and has a small

motor for the children to just drive around.

Yeah, imagine us having that when we were young

and our parents giving us this little gem! Our

granddaughter Alex has inherited this and she

drives it all day long. Yesterday she took me

for a ride. Trust me, It was very hard to get

out of. Not getting in, but I sure had a hard time

getting out.





We took the dog, Alex and me in that little boat

and did a tour of the island. Close to shore and

we were looking for the beaver den. No luck.






Here is the woodpile I mentioned. Can you imagine piling this as neatly as this? The guys that cut the trees, actually cut, chopped and piled this in about 3/4 of a days work. From 9 am till about 3pm and taking coffee and lunch breaks too!





The first photo is of the oak tree that was piled to

dry over the next year as it needs to dry quite

well. And the second is the size of the pile. It will last us a very long time as we are only here from May till late October, weather permitting of course.


It is so quiet here at the lake. There is no one here on our little island. One can tell that school and holidays have come to an end. At night we have wonderful views of the stars as there is so little ambient light making the stars so very bright.


My biggest job today is to bath a dog that should be white and he is now grey as he is so very dirty that brushing just isn't cutting it. He needs a hair cut, but not till we return to the city. He hates the bath, but boy, when I dry him and use the blow dryer, he even gives me a paw, he loves being dried so much. He comes into the bathroom in the morning when I am drying my hair and likes to get dried too. Stupid Dog!

PS.
Does any one (Chris) know how to remove a photo once it's on this page....sorry about the duplicate.

FALL IS HERE...WHAT HAPPENED TO SUMMER?

After being away for a week, I have returned to absolute

perfect weather at the cottage. It is now a perfect fall

day here at the cottage. What? Fall is here! I can't

believe that I missed summer! The nights are cool

now and we must put heat on to make it comfy in

the early mornings. I do like the colours of fall, but

I miss not having had hot days this past season.

Oh there is always next year, (sigh)

The photo of the gang of young athletes in the first photo is of our aspiring olympic athlete. Can you see her? I tried to get her by using picasa to zero in on her. She made all her races to the finals only to place a very close fourth in all her endeavours. We are so proud. She was pleased with herself too.

We had 6 large trees cut down last week and my sweetie asked that the stumps be made into seats. We have three of these now, all in a row up the hill behind the cottage. The tree cutting was quite an operation. It took an hour of just positioning the ropes for each of the trees so that they wouldn't cause damage to buildings and other trees on the property. We have enough fire wood here now to last for years! The trees are now cut and stacked to dry. I hope I love long enough to make a dint! I must take a photo for the next post!

Oh! That's me sitting on the stump chair.....not much room for the butt!

It's good to be back. I have been sewing and did manage to get my fabric to finish the black quilt that I pieced this summer. $4.00 per metre for the black and I also bought some yellow and soft green fabric which was the same price and I love the fabric. I have the pattern in white and it's just super! I must take photos of this too.

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.