Last Day - House/Cat Sitting

Guess you all are tired of me and my house sitting stories. Well it's close to this year's sojourn being over! And you know I thought I'd make it through the session this time without falling or other incidents - well besides the allergies acting up, but I knew that would happen with the cats! Nah, not so lucky, see I was taking garbage or recycle out to the garage but in my slippers and yep off the third step I slipped to the floor and jarred my ankle and bad knee. Now I don't think it's hurt and neither am I but I know I'll be sore tomorrow and I've a four hour drive tomorrow - that too won't be comfortable if this baby decides to do some swelling. Oh well!

Okay ready for a couple more pics of my Dad? I've no project pics as yet so you'll have to bear with me in this.

Here's my youngest sister Florence and Dad at the park ceremony. He's wearing a shirt he insisted I cut to short sleeves so he could be cooler for the summer! Not my kind of work and he just said cut and zip up, nothing fancy - yeah right glad I took the time to try to make it look good if he's wearing it out in public!!! Then here's one from the supper with Dad just a smiling and proud as punch that he's all dressed up and also Marlene is too sitting by her hubby Henry - at their youngest son's wedding last month.

Day 11 - House/Cat Sitting - Something New!

Can you believe this!!! WOW! I am so thrilled that I've printed off my first fabric label all by myself! Hey don't laugh that is a major achievement for MOI - let me tell you! Up to this point I've either been getting "Faye" to print them off for me or I set them up on the PC and then use my Pigma pens or other permanent markers and retrace onto fabrics with my OttLite. Hey whatever works.

And I only used a half page of freezer paper that just fits my bought label and presized my information, found an eagle clipart and reversed it for the opposite side and printed it off! Now I only have one label, so I kept my fingers crossed that it did not jam or mess up - WELL IT DIDN'T!!!!

Then I very cautiously checked Linda's PC programs and found the scanner Wizard and it walked me through the steps for scanning too. So here is the proof. For the actual wall hanging, you will have to wait till I finally finish it and get pics taken. Hopefully next week. At least the label is finished except to write in the Completed date.Yep either I'm getting wiser or braver, not sure which it is - LOL!

As for the cats and me - we are getting along. Two more sleeps and then they will be back and I will go home! Well for a few hours sleep on Friday morning and then off to Dauphin to visit family. Then back to Winnipeg to the working grind minus a car (mechanic will work on it in between paid jobs - LOL!) and back to the part time job too. Hopefully I can make it to the mall in time with city transit - coming home I don't care just less time to myself until I get the car back. It's either that or no car at all and I walk/bus it period!

Well since the label pic uploaded okay I'll try for the family pic again! Hey what do you know it worked! This was taken July 15th, 2006 at my nephew's wedding in Dauphin. So here is my sweetheart of a Dad (92 years young and soon to be 93 and still living on his own with homecare visits) and his eight children. From left to right: the youngest is Florence (was 6 months old when Sylvia married and #8), the eldest is Sylvia (my quilting partner and #1), Elsie (the bossiest and #2), Margaret (considered the middle child of Mom's first family and #3), Erlene (made me my first quilt and #4), Eugene (only boy and #7), Marlene (considered the tomboy and #5) and then 5.5 years break and me Rose Anne (oldest of the second family and #6). Mom (joined the heavenly angels July 1999) always called us last three her second family and we were basically cared for by the older sisters, until they left home and then I looked after the younger two (my brother 4.5 years younger than me and Florence 1.5 years younger than him). There that's my immdiate family and I've basically lost count of their children and the offspring too. Put it this way - at Dad's 90th birthday party there was I think 74 family members and three were missing - we had a sit down supper prepared by the siblings and we alone filled the seniors dining room! I think there are a few more greats added in, some grands' spouses changed too! Not bad EH for one family!

And here is who Mom always referred to as her "Second Family" as there was the 5.5 year gap between Marlene and I (in the green) which also allowed Mom more time for "farm/home" work while the older girls looked after us younger three (much to the chagrin of Florence the youngest).

Day 10 - House/Cat Sitting

Hmmm well it's been very quiet on this front except for a couple of cat spats and hair ball incidents - I really could have done without them! Even with my dust mopping daily my allergies get me by bedtime - I guess they are getting worse with age! Shucks! My sister won't be pleased with that either as she loves when I come visit then her and partner take off for the weekend and I keep Dad company and also look after their two cats and stay at their place to boot!

Work has been lots quieter lately too (now hope I don't want to jinx myself) but they are putting up the walls etc in the renovated washrooms so guess they are finished with the messy knockout stuff on our floor anyways - thank goodness!

I haven't done anything quilt wise this past few days and actually not really up to any after mending those coveralls (still two to go)! Kinda takes the joy out of stitching period. I've spent the latter parts of the night before bed watching baseball and crocheting the kitchen hand towel tops. So will have a few for gifts now hoarded away - just have to find some Christmas or seasonal ones and then I'll be set for a while.

I think when I get home next week I'll settle in and get back into my crazy patch stuff - I sure miss that "creativity"! I also have a few small wall hangings that need finishing off too - would be nice to have the eagles one on display at work before my Director leaves us for his new job Sept. 8th. Wonder if I can pull that off! Guess I better get off this and get to work! LOL!

Day 8 - House/Cat Sitting

Well it's been a quiet weekend. I've watched baseball and, crocheted, cooked (which is unusual for me), visited and shopped with another quilter, and have started the "mending" of my mechanic's tattered coveralls in exchange for some repairs for my car to be done this month. Hmmmm something tells me this was not worth it! I should just get the name of his supplier and buy him a couple more instead of paying the labour! I don't even mend my own clothes so he better appreciate the work going into these coveralls. LOL!

I've also checked out more of the "chain of hearts" and naturally drooling like mad and wishing I was at home and could start some of my own now!!! Oh well I still have to check on my silk ribbon supply as I might need to order more before starting. I know I have more than enough beads and embroidery cotton and now sven some varigated cottons which I had bought for my hardanger projects but will share with my crazy patch embellishments too!

Speaking of my hardanger I have another "pajama party" coming up in Sept at my needleworks shop where you pay say $15 and arrive about 5:30 and the owner and co-workers prepared a scrumptious potluck for supper and you stitch until the food is delivered by the DH then eat! Then back to stitching and gabbing and sometimes during the evening the owner puts certain items on sale at different discounts and you can shop before going home around 11:00 pm. Loads of fun is had by all. This time though I'm going to make sure I have a hardanger project prepared along with maybe a heart for stitching! Oh that would be awesome!

Gosh I've gotta get myself a digital camera as there are so many of my quilting and crafts projects that are not in my Webshots that need to be and so many things I'd like to show that I don't too. With my new PC I just have to plug in the camera in front and VOILA - how much simpler could it get! Well then I also need a printer too, sheesh maybe I better still have that part time job end of the month instead of the store closing or I'll never get my toys this year. LOL!

Day 7 - House/Cat Sitting

No, you did not miss Day 6, just too much on the go to login and email.

Phew thank goodness it's the weekend and I'm away from that office and all the construction commotion and noise. Needless to say the headache has not left totally and any noise like the washing machine right now is bringing it back - UGH! Oh well I've two days to rest and play and hopefully get rejuvenated for the next week!

I've called my part time job and by the sounds of it - it probably won't be closing next week - wonder what is up with this company! Oh well that might mean I still have a part time paycheque for my spending money????

Well all I can say is I really could get used to living in a house (but probably without pets) to have the freedom to do what I want and when I want without infringing on my neighbours or them on me - just not sure if I want the responsibility of upkeep though! Gosh I probably should have invested what money I earned before spent years ago into something small and convenient for me but that's life! Now I'll be looking more in the 55+ communities and hopefully something more quieter and definitely no second floor!!! Them stairs are killers!

Okay, I was out last night to kid sit for my niece and took my kitchen towels with me and crocheted the tops while watching TV. Today I was up and attem early even though my old bod did not want to move and did a bit of shopping. I picked up some fabric on special and also found some awesome beads for my scissor fobs so once my charm swap is packaged I'm back to more fun and games. I've tonight and all day tomorrow to play and watch TV too (a huge screen one)!!!

Probably will grill some burgers for supper or tomorrow for sure! That is if I remember in time to feed before bed! LOL! Okay, washer is finished so better get back to work! CU!

Day 5 - House/Cat Sitting

Well I guess I did jinx myself the other day! Last night was a miserable evening with my allergies acting up and causing much unrest and tossing and turning until the wee hours when I finally fell asleep. THEN Sooty decided to join me in bed and BOING wide awake and sitting up - scared the heck outta me and the cat and off he scat and didn't come back. Again a fight to go to sleep and then it seemed like minutes later but actually 3 hours later the alarm goes off. UGH! I barely made it to work even driving the car and the pounding headache was in full force along with the construction at work too!

AND talking about construction!!! While I was away yesterday they were sawing something above the computer techies area and cut through a pipe and sprung a leak right ontop of our co-workers PCs, desks and cabinets along with the printer and paper!!!! So there they are today with fans and some cleaners etc trying to dry the carpets, desks, etc and access the damage! Needless to say the smell is atrocious and got Shauna and my allergies plugging us up again! When will this craziness stop??? I went this morning to tape the security door lock open and close the door after complaining to the workers that I was told they weren't to be drilling etc after 8:30 that we have to concentrate on work and not constant migraines! He just shrugged his shoulders and they continued. So I phoned their foreman which the Bldg Supe gave me but that also did nothing to stop it. GRRRRRR!

Well on a good note I stopped on the way home at Michaels craft store and picked up more glass beads to make up more of my scissor fobs as they seem to be popular and also some groceries! WOW it's like a smorgasbord for me compared to my place!!! Yeah one of these days I'll restock all again and have some proper meals too. I even was checking out some fancy stuff for my Chain of Hearts whenever I find the time to get those started. I've dreamt up my basic plans and will go from there and see where it leads. But honestly it won't be until the new year that I'll have any to swap, unless I relly have a spurt of nonsleep again! Hope not.

BTW I did get some of my family pics scanned today and here is one of the whole family with my Dad who is 92 years young as he says - just starting to feel old! HUH! Well I've tried about a dozen times and just no way can I upload the pictures! Sorry about that, maybe another time it'll work.

Day 4 - House/Cat Sitting

WOW, I hope I don't jinx myself but the cats seem to be behaving except for a couple of spats - no fluffs of fur! And today I took a vacation day and spent it with Pat, my quilty niece, and we commenced where we left off last year at this time on our second 1930s mini. Well we only had about 4 hours sewing so did not get too far - it's still going to take at least another stitching day to finish off. It is a variation of a nine patch with a diamond template cutout and then orange wedges sewn in the cathedral window like cutaways. They circles are tricky to sew and my niece found out the hard way you can't just zip through them you have to pin and pin and pin and pin then sew carefully. Both of us can't wait till this one is finished as we've both picked up more 1930s plus I had received some in my swap parcels so there are many more 1930s minis to be made! LOL!

In the afternoon my quilty sister (Pat's Mom) and DH arrived from out of town and she brought me some goodies for my crazy patch plus figured out how to turn a regular pieced pattern (which I dreaded to tackle) into a paper pieced one and even made a second copy of my pattern for me cause she knows I make mistakes and even jotted down some notes on how to go about stitching it together. Ain't she sweet!

Oh speaking of sisters I got my pics from the family wedding in July and as soon as I get them scanned I'll post them. My Dad was in such good spirits that weekend for a 92 year old, we all could not believe it! And I've a couple of really good family pics I need to have enlarged and duped for the family. That sure was a lovely weekend except for having my BIL in the hospital that whole week after falling down the a set of basement stairs landing face first on the cement floor (no broken bones or internal injuries - Thank the Lord!) and missing out on all the festivities (minor considering what could have happened). But he's doing really good and has healed marvelously in this past month. So we had a lovely supper of bison burgers and salad and fresh fruit and after they left for his sister's I joined my niece at her son's football practice before returning to Linda's! A wonderful day off!

Now I'll go catch up on a full day's emails!

Day 3 - House/Cat Sitting

Well I can say I must be getting used to this house as I've had two good nights sleep and neither of the cats have dared to come into the room at night (even though one does for the family)! I just wish this stupid headache would go away already (aggravated by the construction going on down the hallway at work)!

Well I'm going to try adding some other blogs to my blog tonight and if it don't work I'm going back to making my scissor fobs or some stitching. Gosh I wish I was at home so I could play with a heart block - now I'm anxious to start that - but I can't I've got to finish my backlog off first.

Well I just found out today that our young and so understandingly fair Director has taken another position and I'm just sick with what this change is going to mean. I personally do not like change at all and boy has our office ever undergone numerous changes in the last two years and looks like it will continue instead of maybe levelling out as I had hoped. SHOOT! Well I sure hope they get Mary's (retired July 31st) replacement into place pronto like as I've requested some time off and with the step student leaving soon that'll leave me to fill the shoes - I'm not happy about that either. I'm still trying to catch up the backlog of projects from when my previous Manager left two years ago and work seemed to be falling by the wayside with remaining coworkers. I can only do some of the work, the rest has to come from the professionals and I sure don't have the pull to get them to do it either. Eh enough of that!

Well off to do my updates and then watch some baseball while working on some projects.

Storm Again

Sheesh! I don't know what is going on with this weather lately. We've never had such storm warnings before never mind tornadoes touching down this close to the city! The south eastern corner of Manitoba seemed to be in the warnings path before but now are getting hit repeatedly instead.

When I was driving over to Linda's yesterday around 5:00 pm I thought the sky was weird and then the news reported funnel cloud sightings north of the city and tornado damage south east of the city (about an hours drive) at La Broquerie that totally destroyed a farm house, shed and scattered machinery too. At least there are no fatalities reported. Hmmm Linda was taking off an hour later so I wonder what the sky looked like then from up there (same as what we see upwards or is it different?) or if they could see the swath of trees downed by the tornado after it hit the farm?

All is calm down here on this new front for me. Sure will be nice to relax this evening instead of winging off to the part time job.

Day 1 - House/Cat Sitting

Shoot, I typed this once and then hit something and POOF!!!! See this is Linda's PC and the keyboard is slightly different from mine.

Okay Sandie I think I've found the culprit that won't let email back to me. I did all you suggested but that did not work and so I got brave and kept checking all the other tabs and found under Settings and Basics I had a NO for show email so I changed that and hope it works now. So Lillian from South Korea, you might want to try that too as I could not reply to your request for close up pictures of my PCs.

As for the house/cat sitting I feel I'm in home luxury (well at least in my opinion) and it's just too bad it's about 20-30 minutes commute to work one way but then the AC and HUGE TV screen will definitely make up for the travel.

SHOOT, talk about being totally embarrassed at the airport after dropping off Linda and family. I adjusted the seat for my very short legs and then the mirror and then put the brand spanking new SUV into drive but DUH it's not going anywhere. I looked for the emergency brake release and instead popped the front hood - can this get more embarrassing??? So I got out and shut that (did I notice if the vehicle was actually running - NO!) and got back in but still it would not go. Starting to panic I look around and there's my friend still at the entrance calling her hubby back to see what my problem is! SHEESH! I had not turned the key totally to start the darn thing! It worked like a charm once I did that! But talk about nervous and naturally I watched my speed all the way to their place and lucky I didn't get pulled over for being too slow! ROFLOL! And they said to use it while I'm here! I doubt it - I have my old boat here and that's what I'll use if I'm going out after work. Wait till they get home, they'll probably be teasing the heck outta me!

Now it's to get used to sleeping in a strange place which will take some nights. And lets hope the cats cooperate with my schedule for getting up and going to work etc. LOL!

Quilting Group meeting

WOW it was great to have a day off again! I made some tangy pork ribs and vinegar coleslaw for the potluck and joined our local group of quilters for a day of chit chat and some even worked! This is the second month in a row that I've carted my stuff (sore shoulder and all) and not even set it up! This month we also had a demo planned - various ways to make fabric postcards. Yep, I did one and mine naturally was based on a simple way to put them together. Here's a blurb on how I do my crazy patch fabric postcards.

Basically I prepare my paper pieced crazy patch (add in yarns and trims in seams desired) in whatever shape I desire and baste onto a batiste or cheaper cottons for the 4X6" PC and do all my hand embroidery now. Some I just do the whole rectangle but some I have a template and cut out a "frame" of some light weight upholstery fabric with a woodgrain type design and temporarily glue over the heart to hold to the batiste background. Then I choose a fancy stitch and edge the heart. Now I add my beads, buttons and other trims that would have interfered with the edge stitching. Now I've purchased FlexiFirm (double sided fusible compressed poly batting I guess - similar to that used for fabric bowls) and after trimming my fronts and computer prepared backs I then fuse all together. Using the same thread as the inner heart edging I secure the outer edge of the PC with the same stitch. VOILA! it is ready to be shipped off to whomever. Here is a picture of one of my first PCs.


This is another miniature quilt I made on my own by reducing the pieces of a 12.5" Four Winds block that were collected from across Canada (maybe elsewhere too) for family quilts of the slain four RCMP's near Mayerthorpe Alberta in 2005. I loved the block so much that I reduced it to a 4" size and perservered stitching it up and now have my own 4-block mini just above my PC.

Memories

I was reading emails over lunch when one on "do you use an apron" came up! ROFLOL! Oh laughing on a full stomach hurts!!!

This is soooooo funny for me! See in my "younger days" Saturday was the baking and cooking day in our household and into the freezer extras went. Well also in our house, not sure if it was Mom's or Dad's rule, but an apron had to be worn. ROFLOL, I just can't stop the giggles here! See, I did most of the baking and loved it totally, no matter what the weather and yes I had the apron on!

Well one day Dad was sitting in the living room watching something on TV - for the life of me that has slipped my mind - and yelled for Mom and I to come see! Well it was very interesting and we promptly went to sit down on the couch, which we had to pass by Dad to get there. When he yells loudly "DON'T SIT DOWN!" Well just about gave Mom and I heart failure I can tell you. Then he tells me to get out of the room now! HUH! What's with him now I'm thinking to myself! Then Mom starts laughing and that triggers the tears for me. Now I hope you're not laughing!

Well see I have the apron on so I'll be nice and tidy - where it's supposed to be - right. BUT for Rose Anne that's not the right place! See I have a tendancy to brush my hands off on my BUTT so needless to say that's where the apron went from then on. But sometimes I'd get spills down the front so I gave up and sewed myself a special one that slips over the head and covered me front to back - actually I still have it but hardly use it!!!! You're not laughing, RIGHT!

By the way here are the two latest postcards I've completed.

Crazy Patch PCs

Gosh I’ve worked my butt off these past few days and today I even pushed more so but I think I’ve finally got all the extra stuff done so my Yearbook can be posted to our Website soon. And now the process starts all over again. UGH!

Oh well I go home tonight just as the drilling starts up and will play on my next set of Postcards – YAHOOIE! Here are the recently completed crazy patch postcards that are on their way to the Birthday girls!

Spooky!

Well is it ever QUIET on the construction front! Makes me wonder if yesterday's goof up messed something up and they've set it aside a bit or just finished this particular part and have to wait for something or someone else before continuing. It really is weird after over a month of all this noise around us and then just normal office noices. There's two entrances, no doors and half finished walls within so they are not finished yet!

And to boot my emails are quiet too! HMMMMM!

Well my night off last night was very productive at home! I finished off a whole set of my crazy patch heart postcards and they are ready to mail out and then I stepped right into my "Through My Window" PC swap cards. I was going to cut corners and just straight stitch the pieces down as they are all Steam a Seamed in place but I don't care for that at all so now I'm back to step one and going over with a fine satin stitch. Sorry, but if I'm not happy I just won't pass them on. So I'll probably be finishing them off tonight and then I have to run out to Fabricland and pick up more of the double fusible Flexi-Firm I use as I'm all out! I'll post pics as soon as I get some taken. I need to get them completed tonight and into the mail tomorrow as I'm late and I don't care for that at all. Just too many things on my calendar to pull them all off on time - thank goodness I don't have any children or significant other to mess up my calendar anymore than I already do! LOL! Course maybe I could get lucky and they cook and clean for me? Nah, I'll stay single and dance to my own beat thank you!

Construction Calamity

Well they’ve gone and done it! They’ve been a hammering and scraping and shoveling and then that intense drilling again and then SILENCE!!! Oh Oh I thought that's strange! Then two seconds later the fire alarm goes off and we gather our stuff and start out the doors and are met at the shell of a washroom by this burning smell!!!! No workmen in sight. We get outside and there they are sitting around the BEARS on BROADWAY smoking and watching us file out!!!

Well four fire trucks arrived, then two leave and about 15 minutes later we’re allowed back in – about a half hour break in total. It still stinks to high heaven on our floor but the workmen are back in there doing their stuff so guess it’s safe! I've taped our security door lock open so we can at least close our door to the noise and smells. I’m just surprised this is the first time we’ve had something happen. Apparently whomever was sawing cut through some electrical wires! Maybe we should have a betting pool to see when the next alarm is triggered???

Well I can tell you my pounding headache is back full force. Thank goodness I’m off the next two evenings so I can just relax and catch up on some of my sewing and postcard IOUs.

Construction ETC

SHEESH! I’m ready to do some major damage to these construction workers and this one month into the 11 months they've projected! Some of the hammering, drilling and sawing is okay but some is soooooo intense it just feels like 10X more than in the dentist chair! Well this morning was really really really bad and so sudden that I SCREAMED and on top of the scare the co-workers got a double one from me! It also took about a half hour to calm me down and also a very fresh Cherry Blossom from the Chocolate Factory brought in by a co-worker from her vacation! Oh does that bring back many memories from years gone by! I’ve bought the odd one over the years but it definitely was not like this baby!

Well my 236 page statistical Yearbook is ready to go to print this afternoon! WAHOOOIE! One down one yet to start up!

Well it's this Sunday that I start house/pet sitting for my quilty friend Linda so that will be a treat as my AC is acting up and when we had the torrential downpours on Saturday I even had water dripping INSIDE my apartment and had to shut it down - the drainage hose must be blocked or something. Needless to say it's too warm in there for me, but then I leave at 7:45 am and don't return till 9:30 pm when working the two jobs, so I miss out on most of the heat. Thank goodness it's getting cooler at night so the windows are open and sleep is comfy.

Gosh it's QUIET

Hmmm, my sister left this morning when I left for work and when I came home it sure is quiet!!!

Well it was another 13 hour day today at both jobs and I repeat this tomorrow too but I'll be all alone for the evening 4 hours - UGH! We are closing this location August 31st and we still have probably a good 30-40 larges boxes of stock not opened from last week's MEGA shipment. WHY are we getting stock the last month, I don't know!!! As for the day job, it sure felt great today to get two of my reports off to the printer and hopefully the 220 pg Yearbook tomorrow too! It feels good to get some projects caught up and now hope it continues so I can maybe get back into a routine again!

As for my aches, they are getting better and I called my Dr and there should be a followup appointment for the MRI results soon, now I wonder how long I'll have to wait.

Well back to my postcards and hopefully they'll go in the mail soon.

Yep I got into trouble!

Well it's been a lovely weekend with my older sister in, but talk about busy! And my younger sister did not come in as planned so the bibs got done instead of the PCs! We had our own personal quilting retreat! Sylvia even crocheted me a Brown Eyed Susan with leaves from a picture sent to me - WOW! And she picked up a few quilting books which she skimmed through in between my lessons!

When Sylvia and I finally got home from some productive shopping for her yesterday we were pooped and before bed I got into more trouble by showing her this awesome fabric my parcel swap partner sent me and the pattern to go with it, but that I was not sure how to do it. Wrong words to use with Sylvia as she promptly had me deciding, cutting and today sewing and now I have another UFO project but this one is 7/8s completed!!! Yep I had this lovely panel of islands and eagles and a Through My Window pattern from Patch Works Studio and WOW it just looks stunning! I didn't buy any new fabric, just used my stash along with the panel. Not only did I learn to do the stained glass technique but I also did it in a "quilt as you go" method and it was all stitched, borders added on and quilted all in one process. That was new for me too! Now all I have to do is the label, hanger and the binding and it's finished. Wonder how long that will take me to do! Once I get a picture of it I'll post it, sure need to get myself a digital soon!

Here I was supposed to finish off my postcards and instead, for me I learnt a new technique, fusible stained glass effect. So guess I'll have to buckle down and get the PCs out this week and then finish off a few other things before month end. I've also to decide what I'm taking with me for the next two weeks while house/pet sitting for a friend. I've no shortage of UFOs and naturally more PCs to work on to complete my swaps for the year. Hmmm.

Oh, I just about forgots! My shoulder I think is okay just a might sore but I don't think I did any other damage to it. It just lets me know when I'm lifting something or reaching that it's not to it's liking and to stop!!! Okay, guess I better shut down and hit the pillow as I am wiped from all the concentrating on the fine satin stitching with black on black - UGH! But ohhh it's soo lovely!

Oooop! I forgot the preceeding post!

Yep I fell and I can tell you it HURTS!!!!!!!!!!!!!

We were gathered around the coffee area for an impromptu prewedding celebration for a co-worker and I was leaning against one of the “unstable” (yeah I should have known better) partitions and my Manager was on the other side supporting it. Well he stepped away and back I went and the partition wobbled and down I fell. Yep I landed on my elbow and gained a quarter sized hot rug burn (and not any of the fun stuff either!) and an awful jar to my bad shoulder. Then as I’m trying to stem the pain, Bob tries to lift me by that same arm, but others quickly jumped in with a warning and helped me up with the other arm. !@#$ it hurts!

Yes, I filled in an accident form and if I need more therapy etc I’ll fill the other form in next week. Hopefully I have not done anything else wrong to the rotator cuff problem but it is burning hot in there and hurts to any pressure applied!

I thought I had published this last night but guess that's when the PC acted up and I just shut down!

I'm Okay and Shopped Out!

Well just to let you know I'm doing okay, just more achy than usual but I don't think any lasting injuries from my fall on Friday. I'm being very careful and not lifting or using it in a way to bruise myself more. As for the rug burn on my elbow well that'll subside soon too. Now I just hope I have no more internal injuries or whatever to the rotator cuff that I had the MRI on last week. Hopefully my followup appointment will be very soon too and decision made on fixing it if possible.

Well my quilty sister (here's one of her inspired creations) did make it in and we visited last night (showed her my Blog and QNN) and then crashed. Today we were up early and out shopping by 10:00 am and got caught twice in some wicked torrential like downpours. You know it's hard to go shopping and seeing sales and not having the funds to just buy!!!! LOL! We found many bargains and were back home by 3:00 pm and now she's sewing for me while I'm doing my favourite PCing!!! Well only to catch up on emails etc and then I'm onto my PCs and not sure what she'll be doing after she finishes appliqueing a couple of bibs for me as gifts.

And tomorrow my younger sister Florence is zipping in for a quick visit (4 hour drive in from Dauphin) for lunch with me and then some shopping and back home again! Great to be young eh!

Phew, what a chore

Well I did set up my BLOG and finally with many a trial and error and four hours later I posted some of my pictures too. I sure hope this is like learning new tasks at work, I get better with practice??? LOL! Now I just need either a digital camera or a 3in1 printer/copier/scanner and then I can finally have some show n tell of works in progress.

Today is another of my 13 hour work days but then I have the weekend free and my talented quilting sister (she's had a few of her inspired creations entered into our LQS competition and won 1st a couple of times and a second too) should be at my place when I get home and visiting for the weekend with me! WOW! Wonder what we'll get into while she's here? Guess you'll have to wait and see for my next update!

This morning started off with an office breakfast (co-workers farewell) at York the Hotel and talk about a scrumptious buffet! It was nothing elaborate but a very healthy variety of well prepared dishes and fruits to definitely whet my appetite! More like spoil it as I'm usually a juice, toast/muffin/biscuit or cereal and banana type of person. So needless to say I was full but did not go up for seconds and boy am I glad, as all that food so early kinda put a buffer between me and work upon return. Now I have to shift into high gear to make up for the late start and slight coasting this morning.

Here is a recently completed wall hanging I made for Mary, my co-worker, who retired July 31st. It was a copy of an office poster (permission obtained from the artist to use it and I sent him a pic of the quilt and me) that I had another quilter print off for me and then I put it all together and did quilt in the ditch for some of the borders and my first free motion quilting in the centre panel following the images and the outer border of gold metallic wheat stalks. What a project but boy it was worth it for all the appreciation Mary showed and still gives.

My First Posting

Well here goes! I'm not sure what I'm getting myself into but many have noted that I should write a book on my sewing and life-in-general adventures. See, many say my group emails are so life like that one can just picture it all happening! Hmmm, not sure how to take that, but it's now being channelled into this BLOG - not quite the "book" they suggested! I can tell you that I love my crazy patch and this is my first embellished heart block that I prepared and then it went into my satellite group's small RR and came back to me bringing a huge smile to my face and heart along with a label signed by my fellow quilters. Oh yes I've done more than just crazy patch, but paper piecing gives me major grief and strip or basic piecing drives me mad when it does not measure up as required! I do have my "first" completed quilt top and hopefully soon it will be quilted by my sister. I also have a half dozen quilt tops in various stages of UFO kingdom!!!


Lately I've delved into fabric postcards and naturally they are crazy patched and embellished with beads, silk ribbons, buttons, yarn and braids etc. My first ones were just rectanglar crazy patched and embellished but the latter set are these hearts and framed with this textured upholstery fabric in various colours to match. My friend printed off some of my own design fabric backs and VOILA my PCs.

Since then I think I'm doomed as I could stitch till 2:00 or 3:00 am without a thought of anything else - even food - and then up at 6:30 am to start the work day full of computer number crunching. Oh and the past 3-4 years I've worked part time on top of the full time office work for Lewiscraft (recently bankrupt) now Bentley's Liquidation. There are times when I don't know how I do it and then I think what will I do when I'm not rushing to and fro when I do give up the part time job! LOL!

Much to the dismay of my poor badly neglected orchids! Here is one of my faithfuls that blooms just about yearly and this one time a double bloom on the one spike - WOW! This baby is a Paphiopedlium Magic Flame and shoud be spiking soon again. It's a shame that my apartment environment does not agree that well with plants or me but the location is great in regards to work so I's a staying put at least until I retire.

Okay, I'm not sure how this BLOG is going to proceed but guess time will tell.