Sept PCs completed

Well I've finally completed the September fabric postcards and I think finally after some half dozen months I think I'm letting loose with my embellishing instead of following examples. LOL! The two vertical heart ones are for the FAPC birthday swap group I'm in - basically all are the same pattern but I'm varying the fabrics and embellishments.

Then the horizontal one is an extra "Thank You" to one swapper who obliged my request to please send her "Betty Boop" PC to my caretaker who oohhed and aahhed my card when it arrived. This one is from the first batch I made and were basic crazy patches and I just finished embellishing it and now I've gotten a might more creative with the hearts!

Who knows what I'll try next - LOL!

A very appreciative Thank You to Linda M for most of my picture taking!

Peace Doves block

Well here is the second attempt at my latest hand needle turn applique project. Aren't they lovely? This block is part of the Christmas in July/August swap I have with my New Zealand quilter friend. This was a liquid embroidery image on a sweat shirt in an add that I just enlarged and then made up the dove freezer paper patterns and found some actual leaf fabrics and cut them out and embroidered the stems and that swirly thing - not sure what that is supposed to be - ribbon maybe or some straw or other nesting stuff! For the doves I used batiks so I could get the colour variations and then used my own ideas for the fabrics for this 12.5" block. Now I sure hope it gets to Sandra sooner than later!

This should have been completed earlier but in one of my two June quilting retreats Aie Rossman (fellow retreater) was missing her hand applique and wished she had some to work on. Well I mentioned I had a project here if she wanted to work on it! AND talk about surprised when Aie asked to give it a try and she actually did applique the lower dove on the first block, even though the technique I used is alien to her! Needless to say I'll finish this one off and make a small wall hanging as a keepsake for myself. Gotta think of an appropriate title and write up for it too. I have a couple of her smaller patterns and one of these days I will do them for myself.

Well tonight I finished embellishing and sandwiching three fabric postcards that have to get into the mail this week - also a little late! I can tell I'm letting loose with my freehand embellishing and was very pleased with the end result. Now to continue making the rest of them and hopefully keeping ahead of the list - that would be great!

Tomorrow night I'm hoping to search for some fancy cream and pale green fabrics to stitch up my hearts and have a few ready for Saturday's PJ party at my local needleworks shop. I figure it will be easier to work on embroidery and maybe even some beading than my hand applique that I took last time. I made so many mistakes I had to totally "rippit" and start again. LOL!

Well CU, till the next update!

Eagles Heaven update

Okay, remember I mentioned Sylvia had shown me how to do the stained glass in the quilt as you go technique. Well Linda M took pics of my hanger back and here it is to show you the stitching on the reverse. On the front you can't see it as it's black thread on black foreground. I love it! To see the front again just check the left side for a "It's Arrived!!!" message.

Learnt Something New

Howdy there! First off I have to tell you my quilty sister Sylvia arrived Friday in time to join me for our guild meeting and she brought me a couple of pressies!!! One is a Stumpwork SRE book and I'll probably be using some of the flowers for my CofHs or CQ stuff. And the other a very LOVELY pressie from my Dad so I promptly paid for my just ordered glasses, bought some much needed dress clothes at Nygaard's discount warehouses and paid some bills too. Yep Sylvia and I had a lovely weekend and we were also joined for breakie by our youngest sister Florence who was in the city to visit her grandson and shop with us too. WOW! Good thing I had most of the weekend off from the part time job (gotta go in shortly). Then Sat. afternoon I visited with my satellite quilting group and then checked out two LQSs before going for supper at my nieces! Then Sylvia and I returned to my apartment to experiment!!!

Sorry but I can't show you as I don't have a digital or scanner yet! BUT I explained what I had seen at The Croft and that Eileen had quickly explained to me and said it was so easy to do and I knew if anyone could do it it would be Sylvia! Well sure enough after a couple of trial and errors we did pull it off - I even made one but she did have to unstuck my jam up - LOL! I'll try and explain here what we played with.

First off you need the dissolveable Sulky or whatever and 3 or 4 layers of it and secure in a hoop. Draw out what you want to do (we did dragonflies) and fill in the design with crosshatching or stipling but ensure there is enough overlap so it won't fall apart. Then switch to a satin stitch and go around the wings or shape. You can also put a fine wire in around the top wing and satin stitch over, then it'll be bendable for 3-D. Then we switched to straight stitching and did 3-4 lengths of the body and the switched to a wider satin and also darker thread and went over the straight stitching and made the long body, but tapered tail. Knotted the ends and leave a half inch tail to later anchor under the body when stitching to whatever base.

Then cut away the shape, but save the pieces (in a baggie along with the rest of the supply) as we used two layers whenever we had a "tear" and thus we didn't have to scrap that try - AWESOME! I just use the washroom sink and rinsed very carefully until all the Solvy was dissolved. Or you can leave some in and then it'll have a transluscent sheen to it. VOILA here you'll have your own lacey works! One is not so great but the other I can use!

Now I'm sure someone else has done this before but it's new to me and I'm very pleased with my first tries. AND my sister already has ideas just a clambering to be tried out and can't wait until she has some time to play at home (I gave her some stuff too). She's on her way home and glad it's not a hot day like yesterday.

Okay now I've got to get dressed and outta her to work! Bye for now.

A Lovely Day

SHEESH what a day! WELL, our office had another of their touring Divisional meetings by Grey Goose bus up into the Interlake (about 2 hours north of Winnipeg) checking out two small metal manufacturing industries (developed with planning from RDC and MB govt) that actually ship products all over the world - amazing from rural Manitoba. Then we arrived at our ADM's Arnason (near Gimli) "cottage" for a locally catered lunch and some colleague bonding! Since my shoulder is not really into "games" I took to the beach and promptly shed my runners and socks abandoning them immediately for some relaxing strolls in the surf and I mean surf! I've never seen two foot waves crashing onto the lake beach in calm weather before and naturally even with rolled up pantlegs to my knees (would have shaved my legs if I'd known I'd be doing this) my pants were wet just about up to mid-thigh! When I got back they were into some volleyball and Frisknock and that I just could not pass up. So I threw the frisbee a few times and did not to bad with my left arm but after a while I just plum forgots and reached to catch one with my right arm and just about fainted from the pain. Yes I stopped playing promptly! Thank goodness it was 27C and I had dried off before getting back on the ACd bus to return to the city at 5:30 pm. Good thing I did not work or I'd have been very very very late! It was a nice day but tiring!

BTW, my appointment yesterday with the surgeon for my MRI followup was a huge waste of time and money (for the expensive test)! My Dr. had said after examining the shoulder pain and general xray that it was a torn rotator cuff, had a couple of cortisone shots over the year and prescribed physio which I did for over six months but pain was worsening and advised to stop and get it checked out again. Was sent to this surgeon for a check over and MRI and after 4 more months tells me it is not repairable by surgery at this time at least (in a way that's good as I was not looking forward to surgery and extensive rehab), maybe in the future. Basically it is extensive wear and tear from old injuries and definite onslaught of arthritis in that shoulder and to keep exercising it and taking whatever works for the pain (basically all he said). WELL! So guess I'll be going to buy more Ibuprofen and some Glucosomine too! Will also check with the Pharmacist to see he recommends for over the counter relief too.

It's arrived!!!

WAHOOIE! I can show you my pic of Eagles Heaven wall hanging that I completed with lots of help from my sister Sylvia! The eagles panel and pattern were a gift from my Quilt Day swap partner Tina Lynch, ON and you know that's exactly what I see in the Lake of the Woods area of NW Ontario, near my sisters, so this is so special to me! So once again Thank You Tina for this special gift! Guess I should have gotten a backside pic taken too - maybe another day! Sylvia even walked me through the steps of doing stained glass work as a "quilt as you go" technique and talk about awesome! We even added the borders on that way too! I can't wait to try this on some of my other wall hangings and then I'd only need minimal quilting in the centres. What a time saver too!

Gosh this reminds me so much of the Lake of the Woods and my MS Lady Kenora boat ride up the Winnipeg River from Kenora ON to Minaki Lodge, stopped for lunch and then the ride back again. I actually saw quite a few eagles soaring and some sitting way way way up there in their nests at the tips of tall pines. WOW what a sight and I even tried taking pictures of them and nearly was "Woman Overboard" in my enthusiasm to get closer with my expensive telephoto 35 mm camera!!! What an experience and one I'd love to relive again one day!

What a DAY!!!!

Well, it started out by me sleeping in and I had to hoof it to make it on time to my Boss's farewell breakfast this morning! It's his last day with our Dept. and our office gathered for an informal feast with him. Then my co-worker gathered all the goodies she ran around for the past couple of days and I helped her to set up the meeting room for an afternoon coffee party (even though he really didn't want anything). It turned out really nice and his sister (works a few blocks over) even dropped in to say HI! Well there was me trying to help set up and also trying to gather the data for our weekly Markets report. Needless to say I did not complete the report but it was close, so I'll have to have my nose to the grindstone Monday morning.

THEN, I rush out the door to catch a bus to the shopping mall for my shift at the part time job and I get there with 15 minutes to spare! Well I needed that time to wolf down a sandwich and in the 2-3 weeks that I've been away they have totally revamped the store and it is like a regular Dollar Store but not (actually Bentley's Liquidation) and then I put in 4 hours on my feet repricing stock we'd priced just before I had taken time off! Go Figure! Oh but the clincher is I work tomorrow 10-6 (sheesh not done that in a long time) and then I also work Sunday 11:45-6 too! SHEESH guess it don't pay to ask for vacation time!!! And then I found out that our old gang from Lewiscraft is getting together tomorrow evening for a crafts night - I'll be totally wiped out by Sunday night! Some welcome I'll be when my quilty sister arrives to stay over too! It'll definitely be a quiet evening! And I had made plans to go into work on Sunday to defrost and clean out our disgusting office fridge!!! Don't know when I'll do that!

At least I did get the label and binding on my Eagles Heaven wall hanging last night and it is now on display behind my desk at the office. Yes pictures were taken but were not emailed to me before I left so will have to wait till Monday to see them. Sorry, but I did get lots of compliments on this one, does that make it worth waiting to see?

Okay I'm off to bed as my eyes are drooping as typing!

What a Weekend!

Talk about a lovely fall weekend! After a 5 hour snooze Friday morning I woke around noon and then repacked and drove to Dauphin to visit my Dad and sister and also drop off the three coveralls and my car for the mechanic - who had disappeared for the weekend! Oh well he'll pick up the keys from my sister hopefully tomorrow and go over the car's needed repairs sooner than later.

Even Saturday evening I got to do some needle turn hand applique on a Christmas block for a quilty pal - totally enjoyed it! Now I just have to finish it off and get the package mailed off. Once finished I'll get a pic posted.

Well my Dad was in a fantastic mood all weekend and even asked me to take him to an old fashioned threshing demo complete with the clydesdale 4-horse teams and old steam tractor. Too bad I didn't have my camera but they have this every year so maybe I'll take pictures next year. Naturally I cleaned up Dad's apartment with a couple of special requests from him (involving lots of elbow grease that naturally aggravated my aching shoulder but he really does not ask me to do things, so how could I refuse. All three sisters that usually take care of things for him were out of commission this past 6-8 weeks except for brief checks and naturally phone calls so he was needing it. So I "worked" all weekend besides cooking and doing dishes and even miked an apple crisp which he asked me to make another one the next day - see there were bags of home grown apples dropped off in the lobby all weekend. So I even miked up some apples with sugar and cinnamon and nutmeg and he'll have it as fruit whenever. Then on Sunday he wanted to go visit his BIL in hospital plus shopping at the mall so off we went again - WOW that's the most he's let me cart him around in my car in ages. LOL! guess he was getting desparate to get out for a ride!

While I was with Dad my youngest sister drove into Winnipeg to visit their only grandson and in the end bought a brand new car too! So I looked after her two cats while they were gone and today she gave me some tomatoes and apples from their garden to take back with me. They wanted to give me more but as I was returning by bus and walking home some 10 blocks I said no as I had my bag and tote to cart.

So all in all it was a lovely weekend - weather was up in the 27-30C range - UGH! Good thing I slept in the basement were it was cooler as sis's house has not AC, lots of fans! Now it's back to the grind and my part time job by city transit! Hope I can make it on time.