SO, WHAT DO YOU THINK?

Yesterday, after coming home from the dentist I looked through so many patterns for using my Marameko print that I was dizzy thinking of which way to go.

I looked at a lot of blogs and quilt patterns that seem to use the cobblestone in a lot of different ways, so Idecided to make mine this way too.

I am on a roll at the moment and only the tension in my shoulders has driven me away from the sewing table.


I've only made one with white as the border but I think
that it's too stark for the rest of the blocks I've made,
don't you?


I'm not making this quilt large as I'm thinking lap quilt here which is the most popular of the quilts I make. I suppose living in a winter climate, we all like to cuddle under these little quilts to keep warm while watching tv, or doing homework....


I actually have enough of the fabric to make two quilts if I use the retro fabric sparingly. I didn't realize, (surprise, surprise) that I actually had so much of it.


I'm also thinking that so many quilts are made using 2 1/2" wide fabrics as it is so versatile. It must be why
those jellies are so popular.

I did cut out some plain yellow fabric to use, but it too is just a bit much with all the blacks. I'm loving this so far.

Have a great weekend you all!

NEW PROJECTS!

Starting a new project for me anyway, is always a bit disconcerting as I don't always have the completed quilt down pat in my brain, such as it is.




See the colours on the right there? Well they are what I want to use, especially the top fabric as that's one of the pieces I received from my grandmother's stash.




It's very Meramiko retro and I just love the colours, so was thinking that the black fabrics would just be perfect for putting together a simple modern quilt



But, I also have this little piece that I bought the other day
at Fabricland. I like it too and although it's a piece that would
go with the blacks etc of the little stash, I wonder if the
original thought would be better.







I have lots of bright pieces to put with the blacks and even have some more blacks. It's so hard to decide isn't it, considering that my stash pile is relatively small compared to some quilters' stashes.



I keep putting this and that together thinking outside the box as they say, or trying to at least. I do keep going back to the first pile as the one I want to go with.





You can see from the last photo that I don't keep much fabric on hand. I just don't like making all the choices that go with making quilts from say, following a pattern.








I think I'd have trouble with the Dear Jane blocks if I ever started on to just put the little blocks of 57 pieces together....I'm exhausted just thinking of a block of 57 pieces. Karen and Crispy who hand quilt do this sort of thing as do many others on my blog roll, but I'm not that good....yet.











So, I'm going to look at the fabrics that I have and maybe add a couple more colours to my original thoughts of making a simple little quilt.











On the other hand, I may make butter tarts, or a pear with ginger cake.




Yep, that's me, not able to get my thinking on straight
and focusing on the tasks at hand.





Of course all this rattling in the brain is probably due
to the fact that I'm going to the dentist today to have
him replace a cap which has cracked, having to sit
for the better part of 2 hours while the dentist pokes
around my mouth and extracts almost what amounts
to someone's mortgage payment for 2 hours of work!



But first, I'm going to have a cup of coffee, sit with my dog !

DEJUNKING...AND I FOUND THIS!

I've been in a funk lately, you know, not sewing, not quilting, not doing much of anything pertaining to my addiction....then I received my copy of the Better Homes and Gardens Quilting magazine and down I went to look at my sewing room.



It was a mess and as you can see from the photo on the right there, and this was only one binn! I started by just folding all the fabrics and then sorting through the binns that were filled with all the leftovers of previous works and of course in there was all the fabric that I inherited from my grandmother.



So, I cut 3 1/2 " squares for nine patch little blocks,
then cut some lengths of fabric to match this. I also
cut 2 12" strips to make a coin quilt sometime when
I'm in the mood to put them together.



While I was dejunking I found these triangles from when I first started quilting. I found these from the first quiltS (the orange) and the second quilt (the reds) that I cut out to make quilts for Tory and Alex. the granddaughters who picked out the fabrics for themselves. It's almost three years now. Hard to believe!


I have so many of these left, enough to make a couple more small quilts as a matter of fact. But, I just ironed them ...once again... and put them into one of the storage binns.



Now, I've always, well almost always made a top and then
I quilt it. I found this quilt top in a pile of my junk and
couldn't even remember when I made it, so I decided to
just finish it while I was at it. I used red from one of the
junk bins to bind it and it really looks perfect. I think I
must have done this last spring because Pat Sloan had a weekend quiltathon using orange...of course you know I always have orange...and then I think I made this one because the pattern looks pretty much like Pat's.



I now have a huge garbage bag of little pieces, fabrics that I know I won't use but do feel bad about getting rid of them. I had to be brutal! I don't have a huge amount of fabric and don't know what people do to use up their stash that they have on hand!


Now, I'm all tidied up, have everything in place, almost, which makes the space look so much better than I ever
expected.

I wonder how many of us ever go out of our favorite colour schemes. You know I look at some blogs that are always using, say, greens with blues, or whatever makes us happy. I seem to be a bit of all over the place although I do have lots of pinky type fabrics. Of course I have tonnes of white fabric as that seems to make me happy when quilting. Do you find yourself using the same colours, the same designers, or do you often go out of the box and go for it....Just wondering.

We went to see It's Complicated with Alec Baldwin and Merryl Streep, and Steve Martin. Very funny, and it's an adult comedy. I highly recommend it, even though I'm not doing a review, I liked it.

January Give Away Month

It seems to me that this must be the big month for giveaways. I just popped in to view Barb's blog and there is a giveaway there by Suzanne Early for having 1000 posts.

Can't even imagine that myself, but she is a busy gal.

Then one of my very favorite and longtime blogger friend Karen at http://karenquilts.com or just click on the side link here and you will find her fabulous blog.

If you don't follow Suzanne, go to Barb's blog (on the sidebar also ) and link to Suzanne.

That way you get to visit these great gals.

Also Bumble Beans (see sidebar) is also having a little giveaway

I don't even have a photo today. I've got the January blues I think. I did buy some great fabrics at the Fabricland sale but am too lazy to take any pics yet...maybe tomorrow.

and not only that the way my blog is looking, with the prints jumping all over the place. I may replace the formatting.

THE REVIEW- THE LOVELY BONES

Thank goodness I am not a movie critic. I couldn't make any money at it I am sure just because I would be torn between

giving the director a break and wanting to love the movie.

So, having said that and thinking that since it was directed by

Peter Jackson of Lord of the Rings, it had to be really good, not

great but good.

Well it was sort of. The girl in the leading role is excellent as is Susan Sarandon as the grandmother giving some emotional relief to a very sad and what could have been grizzly movie. The picking of the charactors for the film were excellent, Mark Walburg being the surprise of making himself very ordinary yet strong of charactor.

Stanly Tucci who is the murderer in the film was almost totally unrecognizable...but he was bang on in being the killer.

Last night with all the girls, eating popcorn, just being happy to be together, 5 out of 6 loved it. My granddaughter Tory who has read the book twice didn't. She really was right about her choice in the morning light ...(as we critics write) because Peter Jackson had amazing computer generated effects of life between heaven and earth...that's what they were, just fillers to fill up the screen.

It's a sad movie, it's well acted, it's visually right, but it just didn't do it for me this morning when I think of it.

I wanted to like it because it was girls' night out, we were have pizza together (which was yummy) and the fudge which the girls went gaga over.

Read the book!

oh, and a ps here. I'm not doing reviews of a movie again when it has just opened. It's stressful being a critic.

THE LOVELY BONES and PIZZA NIGHT!

Today, we are having a girls day out. We are off to see The Lovely Bones.
The novel by Alice Sebold was a prerequisite for the granddaughters to
see before having a movie night out.





We have all read it, we have all cried, we are happy that Peter Jackson did
the directions. I love Mark Walberg although this is a different part for him
to play as the father of the murdered girl.





It only opened yesterday here in Whitby, and already been rated as a 4 out of
5 star movie.





I'll let you know in the next post...but read the book, it really is amazing.





I also made 3 large pizzas as we are taking my neighbour Mary (cottage Mary) who had to make fudge as here prerequisite to getting to tag along with the granddaughters. Courtney (aka Olympic girl) reminded me three times to ask Mary about her delicious fudge..."tell her she can't come unless she makes fudge!" so Mary made fudge.






I doubled the recipe for the pizza dough, but I think because my cookie sheets are quite large, it still only made three. I know that people put lots of wierd things on their pizzas but we usually just add pizza sauce, mozzerella cheese, mushrooms, pepperoni, bacon and then tomatoes on half.





But the kids do like pineapple and I know that Tory likes some fresh herb on her pizza, although when I went to get the salad fixins' I couldn't remember what it was and still don't. So pineapple on the side and we have balsamic vinegar and olive oil on the table...Doesn't that sound good?

AND THE WINNER IS!

Yesterday while waiting for my son to get his colonscopy, which turned out well by the way, I thought I'd stop in at Sally Ann and see what they had on as Tuesdays are Senior discount days!


I found these two plates for .85 each. Hand painted in Portugal now less. The blue one has just a small ridge for cheeses etc and the larger one is quite flat but they were both so perfect for the cottage that I was just so pleased to have found these perfect items.


I'm getting to my decisions....hang on. Be patient!


Then, as I was looking through the books area for
something interesting, I found this old quilt book
of Quilts made in the last century in Ontario. Although some of the quilts are from Pennsylvania and New England areas and are photographed in black and white, the book was a dollar, so I grabbed it.


The history of Upper Canada as we were known is very interesting and probably not unlike what the pioneers of the northern States endured.


It has some great stories which I will post at other times when I don't have much to write about....



I remember when Karen (Karen Quilts) went to the
Dakotas last summer, I just couldn't get enough of
the stories of the pioneers of the area.



I can't imagine that we would be that tough today what with our central heat, the air conditioning in the summer and the cook stove at our disposal at any time and the refrigeration!


These women worked! We just putter around when one considers their working conditions.


Anyway, with all your postings, thank you all so much for the opinions, but #2 is the choice that I let my sweetie make. And so it goes.

Tomorrow we are off to the plastic surgeon for a carpol tunnel procedure on my sweetie's left hand. It's been bothering him for so long that he decided to endure the about 15 minute procedure. I have other things in mind if I am to visit a plastic surgeon, but that's another story.

Ah this blessed weather. Today was glorious to the point that for the first time in about 8 weeks, I didn't wear a hat when I walk the dogs! I'm tough!

DECISION TIME...ALMOST!

So I said it would be orange dots. Well with 5 squares to go, I placed the pattern in two grids.

I know which one I like, what about you?

Even my sweetie has ventured into this and has said which he likes. Fortunately, it's what I think looks best too, but it's a bit of dilemna still.


I am off to finish the last five blocks this afternoon. One of my sons has had a bit of a scare and had a colonscopy this morning which took up most of the day. He is good
to go now and it was more stress related than anything
else. But it's a lesson learned, we should all make sure
that this procedure is done at least every two years as
it's a curable cancer in 90% of cases caught . Quite a simple
procedure actually, a bit noisy afterwards, but you
nurses know this.

We went to lunch afterwards and he had to excuse himself a few times as I would not let him do anything in public! Ok, too much information there...but you get the point.


Let me know which of the two you like. It is a very spring like quilt as Deb commented yesterday.

ORIGINAL ART WORK!

There are a couple of women that are friends of my daughter Kelly that make these very origina Pieces of ar

windows. I don't know how they make them but I now have two of these.

The flowers are all pressed, then somehow glued to the one side of the glass and really, the old one

that is in the kitchen at the cottage (not the best photo)

is still just like the day we put it up.

So knowing that we admired and loved the gift from last

year, Kelly got us this one for the living room (I think)

for this year.

Now, I don't have too many walls inside the cottage as we

have so many windows and the space is quite limited, but

I think that we will remove a mirror and put it in it's

place.

I have a couple of old pine windows at the cottage that keep getting moved from one space to..."don't throw that out I'm going to use it" another when my sweetie starts clearing out stuff.

I had thought to put photos in the panes of glass of the old frames, but as I said wall space is limited. However,

I am going to do something this year.

I have about 25 blocks done of the buckeye quilt so have put them out to see which pattern I am going to do with it all. I must say, pinning sure makes a difference in accuracy...I hate pinning...so the quilt has certainly been a turning point for me and I am a pinning queen!

My cold that I had on Saturday is virtually gone! I tell you Coldfx is an amazing product. Yesterday I was up and about like a new girl! There are athletes here in Canada, mainly hockey players and the figure skaters I think who use it annually to ward off colds. It works, and as stated before, I have no idea why, but it does!

I'm off to do more sewing today although I still haven't got my Janome 6600 back from the shop. I feel like it's been kidnapped...gone since Dec 22nd. Of course they aren't open till tomorrow morning. I'm calling first thing as I should be ready to do some serious quilting.

I will need a lesson in using the stitch in the ditch attachment as I've not been able to figure it out although I do have an attachment from the old machine which should fit this one...if I ever see it again!

YIKES! THIS IS ORANGE DOTS!

Now I like orange as I've said before in posts, but man alive....this is orange!


When Helen called in the summer and said that she had found some orange and white, white and orange dots and would I like a couple of metres since it was on sale, well what could I say?


Yeah sure a couple of metres should do me! Well how does one "tone" down orange? I've got this fabric that I found at goodwill and it actually seems to be doing the job. It isn't cut on the bias, it just is made that way, so it does give the block a bit of dimension, don't you think?


This is going to be my buckeye quilt that I posted a few
days ago. It sure is going to be differen. I may get
dizzy just looking at the dots.


Now, here is my question, should I put a yellow or
green binding on this, or just white. I think white
will be the back. I don't think I could live with
any more orange dots. The fabric actually also
comes in small orange and white dots...too much
of a good thing here....





I have been given a blanket holder...I'm going to paint it. Not orange for sure, but maybe just white and I am thinking that I shall put it in the bunkie at the cottage. Just for the decoration of it.


It was handmade by Mary's dad for her quilt that her grandmother gave her. So I'm going to cherish it. It has already come in handy for putting my strips for the quilt.


Oh it's so nice to have my computer back. Over 200 little critters were in here messing about. I was told that like a car, our computers need tuneups at least once a year. My antivirus scans didn't catch any of these! Only $70.00 for the fixup and a couple of new programs on of them being Excel, which I've never had.

We are in the middle of another very cold spell which I didn't realize when I took the dogs to the park for their run. The sun was shining and it wasn't until I got there that I realized the north wind was blowing drifts across the park. Even the dogs didn't last more than 10 minutes....One of them had ice on his chin from chasing the ball. My cheeks are still red! It's winter people!

I still haven't got my sewing machine back, hopefully tomorrow. It's because of the holidays and all the days that the shop was closed. Tomorrow...I hope!

GOODBYE AMANDAJEAN AND THANKS FOR THE GOOD TIMES!

Yesterday, I read that one of the most popular bloggers
was signing off.

I had just posted that she was the person who got me started quilting.  I've commented on her help over the past couple of years of course, but never did I think that her blog would come to an end.

I didn't expect her to respond to my comments, but when she visited my blog, I was so thrilled that she took the time to share her thoughts.   

It's a wonder she had time to sleep let alone keep up this blog that took on a life that she probably never expected when she started blogging.

I often wonder about the blogs that have hundreds and hundreds of followers like me, if they realize how much we depend on them...for free too.

Anyway, I found this photo on the web, saying goodbye and just thought I'd be one of the group who says thanks for sharing and bringing the love of quilting into our lives a little bit each day.

A QUILT REMEMBERED!

I saw this quilt that is the second quilt I made!  I remembered it so well as I made it with a 12" size cutting board and a 12" ruler.

My granddaughter Tory picked out all the fabric and started with the red dotted fabric.  When I finished this quilt, which is about 65 X 75, I remember thinking that this cutting thing was a chore! 

When I finished the quilt, is when I found a large 25 X 36 board, a long fat ruler and realized that changing cutters was awesome!  I tell you this (again) because it's now going into my third year almost of quilting so I have learned a few things since the 12" X 9" little pink cutting mat.

I love this quilt...it's probably in the easy label as quilts go, but I tell you, I had to look at each and every little block, every stitch, every seam that went into this...it was so hard for me to do.

I had only one little strip square left, but of course being me and doing the math the way I do, I actually have some of the red dot squares around somewhere.  Not enough to make a quilt, but a few squares are left.  Oh just another New Year reminder to this brain, I ran across all the orange and white squares that were part of the first quilt I made using the same measuring items.

I probably should have taken a lesson or two, searched the web a bit more, but after all, Crazy Mom Quilts...yeah her....she got me started.  It looked so simple and she didn't say what to use to cut the fabrics with...reminder to anyone starting out...use a large cutting matt and ruler!

So, looking at all my quilts, I've decided that I'm going to make another of this pattern...just because I really like the look of it, also I will need to try the stitch in the ditch thing with my Janome....that is if it ever comes back to me.  It's been at the shop since the 22nd of December.

Fabricland has a buy one metre, get two free going on...Sounds like good math to me!  I can cut out till my machine comes back.

Oh and I must do another strippy for a sweet little girl who likes pink!

Spring is 120 days away, give or take a day or two.

BRRRR! IT'S VERY VERY COLD

We are definitely in a cold spell here in Ontario.  Blizzard warnings and the lakes have frozen in the north near our cottage.

I received this photo to show that we should all be thinking of .....Antiqua...that would be good don't you think?

I sew in the basement which is usually just right for me to work, listen to music and be "creative" if you know what I mean.... well it's just too cold to want to do anything except put a quilt on my lap and watch television.

I did read "Playing for Pizza" by J. Grisham...the food made me want to go to Italy, but not in this weather...see?  I'm thinking warm and sunny all the time.

Last night, I saw "He's not into you" a total chick flick...Also watched "Two weeks notice"  again for the upteenth time and of course "Nottinghill" which is my favorite Julia film.

Today, I am off to pick up our Olympic girl as she is getting her resumes ready for University and we are going to lunch to discuss her future! 

Tomorrow...the tree comes down!  I'm over Christmas and all the holiday stuff.  I don't know any Ukranians !

THE DINNER PARTY

When we invited friends over for New Year's Eve, there were six of us for a small dinner party.  Cream of Leek soup, small salad, prime rib of beef, potatoes, carrots, onions and my "famous" yorkshire puddings which are always...remember that operative word always....so puffy and high that there are ooooooohs and aaaaaaaws, always. 

Everything went well till I looked at the yorkies just as my sweetie was carving the beef....They looked like hockey pucks in size !   What the devil could have gone wrong?   Oh well, we were amongst friends, so I served them on the platter anyway....Actually tasted good, although not as light as usual.  No one complained, because you know the best part of going to a dinner party anytime is not the food....it's the not having to clean up!  

We finished the night with delicious Monte Cristo coffees which my sweetie made at 11:30 so that we would be finished by midnight to bring in the new year!


Now, as we all get older and you know who I am talking to here....it actually gets harder and harder to stay
up past midnight on any given day, let alone New Years...We did manage to all be "cheery" till about 12:20 and then, it was four people out the door saying thanks so much for the fun!   We were all yawning as goodnights and thank yous were gushed!

I looked at the mess on the counter and thought " what was I thinking when I invited my friends to dinner?   Look at the mess!  Never mind that I had a good time, that there was laughing and great conversations......OMG, what a mess!

I decided to leave it till the morning, when my brain and body wasn't so tired...I actually slept in!  I couldn't believe that it was 8:45 when I awoke!    Happy New Year!   I felt actually good.   I don't drink very much at all so it is usually just being off schedule that bums me out for the next day...you know lack of sleep....

Coffee was made, the mess ignored....yes actually ignored and the bed beckoned me....I finished my little book, Playing for Pizza by Grisham (which by the way is quite good, different from the usual murder stuff) had another coffee and faced the kitchen.

The dishwasher was made for this occasion!  In about 10 okay 15 minutes, this is what the kitchen looked like.


Can you believe it?  Really it was done in that amount of time.  My sweetie cleared the dining room table, put the rest of our entertainment paraphanalia away and we were done!

Ok, it wasn't so bad afterall!  

Now it's the new year, I am not taking the tree down as I usually do on New Year's day, but will leave it till the 6th in honour of my Ukranian friends...I think I have some.    I'm not ready to get rid of it yet.   My family will be pleased as I usually clear out all the Christmas stuff as soon as I can.


Did you have fun? 

A FEW THINGS I HAVE LEARNED...SORT OF

I learned this year that my Janome isn't indistructable...
it has siezed twice in a year.


I learned that with help from my "private" teacher, I really improved in my pattern choices.


I learned that I really have gotten better at quilting at the cottage...


I also learned that it's not a race about finishing a quilt
so quickly...I don't know how some machine quilters do it.



I learned that the hand quilters who follow my blog are truly artisans....in my opinion.



I learned that the little threader that Helen gave me is probably one of the best little tool around.



I learned to get really really good at stitch picking.
Yeah really...



By the way the photo on the right is of the Virgin Islands, with 22 ft waves coming ashore. Oh to be a surfer.
I just loved the photo that was posted......I didn't learn anything from that...

.

I learned that sometimes 6:30 am with a cup of coffee in hand is sometimes the best time to quilt or get inspired.....my hands are quite steady then, so I can cut straighter than after 4 pm.




Best of all, so far, I learned that I am so thankful for the small joys in life that are shared by so many of the bloggers on the web....what did we ever do before the blogs were invented?



Happy New Year!