Cuddle Quilt Progress

OMGG I'm so happy,
I'm not only seeing PINK,
but I'm just tickled PINK!!!

See I've spent whatever free time I had this weekend (in this sauna of an apartment) piecing the blocks, planning the layout of the two fabrics for the back, and now just layered all three pieces ready for the quilt as you go assembly, block by block.

OH MY, OH My,
even with all this PINK,
I just LOVE the overall effect!!!

Yes I've been taking pics along the way and will post in the group Photos later on this evening (but not on my BLOG as Shauna checks that out periodically and I want to keep the LOOK at least a surprise). I'm very please and sure hope I can put this all together like it's supposed to look!!! At least I will have help from Sylvia, Ricky and Val if needed - thank you gals!

OH and those of you (me included) who did not think the greys would look good with the pinks and browns - well forget it - I'm totally blown away!!! I'd have never picked these colours to go together but I did let her choose the colours and her preference from a list of things I was prepared to make for her and obviously she knew what she was thinking when asked for this colour choice!!!

ROFLOL! Okay back to the stitching!!!

Linda Mullen's Comfort Quilt & Pillow

After supper I picked up Dianne (not that wobbily now - she's getting better) along with the comfort quilt a number of Aurora Online / CanadianQuiltSwappers quilters/friends made for Linda years ago when her sister Anita first became very very ill. Well the reason for such a lengthy delay in delivering this to Linda is that her sister was a very determined lady and fought her illness for 8 (yep eight) long years before succumbing on July 11th. So both of us had a comforting visit with Linda tonight and took some pictures with her treasures.




Thank you all who contributed blocks, fabric/supplies, and their time in preparing this comfort quilt for Linda. AND Dianne for so protectively storing this baby until we needed it. Linda spent most of our visit hugging or fondling them both.



She loved the colours of these blocks.



And for some reason I was not around when this was arranged and did not get a block into the quilt so I made my usual embroidered crazy patch heart and made it into a pillow.

Linda I hope that both these items will bring you comfort in the trying days ahead. Take care.

What a DAY!

Okay I just found out on Thursday that our LQS is closing its doors August 27th and already I'd say the store is halfway cleared out! WOW! Everything at the Quilting Bee is 50% off and what was 50% off is now 70% off, but choices are getting harder to find for a project. It's too bad that this is happening but times change and one's life does too. I wish Elena and Gwyneth all the best in their days ahead.

Needless to say my niece Pat and I have been doing some mega shopping to look after my sister's gift certificate as she won't be in Winnipeg until Aug 14th and who knows what will be left by then. Pat picked up some specific fabrics yesterday but was stumped at picking out three major fabrics and backing for a quilt - so today that was my job and I can honestly say it was not hard to spend someone else's money. Now I just hope that my choices are going to please Sylvia too. LOL!

Then I took a 2-hr class called the Needle Index and basically pages of hand stitching needle information with some wool felt and some actual needles inserted for a quick reference for future projects. I'll have to eventually fill in the holes and then hopefully keep it in a safe place for a quick guide to needles, what they are used for and also a listing of thread/floss used with them.

Then I beat it home and back to stitching blocks for Shauna's cuddle quilt. I've now stitched all the blocks up and tomorrow I will decide the size and square them all up ready for the quilt as you go part before assembling the quilt. I'm doing it without the sashing and will just hand stitch the seams closed on the back, row by row! The challenge will be adding the two borders on, but between Sylvia, Ricky and Val I'm hoping I'll pull this off! LOL! HUH, there's no hoping, I just have to!!! Nope no pictures as I know Shauna sometimes reads my BLOG so I do not want to spoil the surprise of the look of it at least! LOL!

Another Set Completed!

WOW considering it's been sooooo hot in Winnipeg this past week I'm really surprised I pulled this off and completed the PCC Summer Treats postcards (yep the set I totally forgot all about too). AND that is along with being called in to cover a desparate situation at Lewiscraft this evening too (my once upon a time part time job which I'd left April 30th). Needless to say I was a might tense about remembering how to work the till and guess what I even remembered my password!!! Anyways, the cards are completed and will be mailed off tomorrow.







AND I've also made a extra one - a "Just Because" for a friend's daughter at camp. Hope she likes her postcard too.





NOW onto that cuddle quilt that has to be finished by mid-late-August as it is a gift. It'll be my first attempt at quilt as you go technique too - SHEESH!!! I've been told it's so easy so this definitely will be a test! I've all the pieces cut out and ready to stitch so that'll be tomorrow's job right after work.

What a Day!

Well my co-worker Shauna has submitted her resignation letter to HR and will be leaving our office/Department/Government and this fall entering full-time classes in the school of nursing. She is still "young" so has decided on a different career choice. So once again our office will be short a critical piece of the chess board so to speak! Wonder how long it'll be before a replacement is found this time around?

What Kind of Flower are YOU?

What Kind of Flower are YOU?

Not sure if this will work but here is what came up for MOI!

"You stand up for what you believe in, even if it gets in the way of what other people think. You are proud of yourself and your accomplishments and you enjoy letting people know that."

I am a Canna What Flower Are You?

What a LOVELY Day!

Yep, even though they say it was 32 C today I have an AWESOME day and hardly spent any money except for food for the potluck and most came home for MOI too! As usual too much food. LOL!

Anyways, my day started out with dropping off my PC and to get my anti-virus stuff switched from Norton to the Zone Alarm provided by MTS Internet and get my HP camera download back - don't know what I did with that but this past couple of weeks it disappeared! Then I zipped over to SuperStore to pic up BBQ chicken and they had a combination value of Frech Baquette and two 454 g salads for $9.99 (I thought that was a good deal and especially when most came home with me too so I've food without having to cook). As usual I'm getting ahead of myself, guess it's all the excitement I've had today - or the heat - scrambling my thoughts!!!

Then off to stitch with the Aurora gals and it's been a while for me so I was really looking forward to this day. Well I took all my rectangles I cut out last night (4 hr till 1:30 am) and finished off cutting the lengthwise strips so I'd have leftovers for borders eventually. I also cut out all the back and batting squares in preparation for the quilt as you go method. Then we had our lunch and this time all the gals brought "meal type" food and NO DESSERTS!!! Not that we needed the calories but usually we have quite the selection of desserts and sometimes not much for the main course - ROFLOL! As usual some of the gals start to leave after lunch but Mobird and I stayed and chatted and I finished trimming my rectangles ready to start stitching tomorrow. We stayed till 3:00 pm and then left for home.

Once I dropped off my leftovers into the fridge and my pizza box full of my cuddle quilt pieces I then filled up my water bottle and headed out to Dugald MB to the 125th Springfield Agricultural Society Fair where my selvedge vest and my All Creatures Great and Small challenge piece were entered into the quilting class competition.

I can tell you that it was just lovely to see all the competitions in the garden and floral sections - something slowly diminishing from our larger Red River Exhibition. Well then I walked over to the Crafts section and I was thrilled to no end when I came upon my Flying In wall hanging and it had a white "THIRD" place ribbon on it!



Needless to say I was grinning from ear to ear! LOL! There were some AWESOME entries from the "younger" crowd and was thrilled to see many ribbons on them too! I was a might sorry I did not see one of them coming upon their entry and seeing the prize ribbon attached - that would have made my day!!! I still didn't see my vest so I continued on and even took a picture of a Victorian dress someone sewed and enter - WOW!





Then finally just before the baking section was my vest and it had a "FIRST" place ribbon on it! WOW WOW WOW! I just about started crying I was so happy that others liked it too! The prize money was peanuts but can tell you the ribbon means a lot to me! Something I'll get to keep in my album which I better get moving and make soon!!!



And outside were some machinery on display but I didn't go there, a horseshoe pit in action, a miniature golf waiting for someone to play and a baseball game going on. The Winnipeg North Black Sox playing against the Springfield ??? (forgot their name) so I parked myself on the bleachers and watched till it was time to pick up my entries and then head back to the city.

I picked up my PC, reconnected it, then headed for the shower to cool down and freshen up - UGH what a hot day and no AC in the car or my apartment!!! Now I'm gonna relax and hopefully tomorrow start sewing the cuddle quilt and maybe if it's too hot in here pack up my hand applique and head for the LIBRARY and relax for the afternoon in comfort!!!

WHAT A LOVELY DAY!

Look at this ROSE!!!

WOW!!! I was just about blown over when I opened my box and there were TWO postcards in there AND NO BILLS!!! Gosh that is such a rare happening that I just beamed! Yeah I know, I'm crazy! LOL!

Anyways, here's the beauty that was noted "a flower for you!" and which I've dubbed "a ROSE for Rose Anne by Roxanne"! I don't know how she did this but it is an actual stained glass picture with the black leading. And some of the petals and leaves look like they are even hand painted for more emphasis! And to boot it is set on a background of muted yellow roses - WOW!!! And she's used some type of "glue" to seal the edges instead of stitching - hmmm need more info on this technique.

Thank you so very very much Roxanne, it's a definite picker upper for me! I'm thinking of adding this to the odd one or two I have framed! I can just imagine the compliments it'll receive from my co-workers.

I LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

A Present at WORK!!!

WOW I remember asking for one of those legal sized monitors a couple of years ago when I saw one of the techies using it, but was just told wishful thinking. Well I said it wasn't fair as I worked with huge spreadsheets and sometimes copying from one program to another or to another spreadsheet and had this piddly humongous TV like monitor!!! I guess things were in the works as that was soon upgraded to a 17" monitor which did make things a bit easier but I still craved that ONE - shoot it even rotated from portrait to landscape and I thought WOW I would be in my glory with that baby!





WELL guess it was noted and eventually budgeted for as Tuesday I did receive a 22" landscape monitor (not the rotating one though) and what a dream working on my side by side worksheets and not having to squint cause it was zoomed down to show as much as I could read!!! AWESOME!!!

Naturally I had to rearrange my desk as all did not fit with this wider addition! LOL!

Postcards a flyin!

Oh I know I'm behind blogging and really there's nothing much going on but trying to catch up on commitments piling up like cordwood unbalanced to roll ontop me. LOL!

Okay here's a picture that's a calling my name all the way from Port Pirie, South Australia, thank you so very very much Catherine S. for this so realistic postcard that when the envelope was opened I thought I could just jump right in there and go for a walk down that road!!!

And here is one set of postcards completed and mailed July 17th, themed Off the Color Wheel in the FAPC group I'm in. These remind me of my very first trip to Texas and walking the North and South Padre Island beaches - WOW!!!!

Then here's another set just completed half hour ago and to be mailed out Friday, themed Expressing Yourself for CQ Friends group I'm in. I just love this all in one layering and quilting through front, batting and backing technique for the through the window landscapes. Here I've taken the liberty of adding seed beads, silk ribbon embroidery and even some Brazilian dimensional embroidery and naturally my spider and web which seems to be my siggie for my crazy patch projects.

This one is MINE!

Hope all the gals enjoy their cards when they finally arrive, hopefully safe and sound. I just love making these mini projects.

At Linda's

WELL I'm sure glad that Jonathan is not a fussy eater cause I'd be having canipshuns trying to make meals! So much easier just looking after oneself - LOL! The first night we had frozen pizza - right up my alley! The other day I thought I was pulling out ground beef and instead I think it was minute steak or something like that but still grilled made great hamburgers. We cleaned up the salad greens and now onto veggies! Today I looked for chicken pieces and could not find any - tonnes of steak but I'm a lousy steak cooker - so this time I found the ground hamburger. So I made meatloaf and found some young potatoes, so marinade them and onions in Italian dressing and threw both dishes into the oven at the same time. WOW the smell was to die for and I could barely wait for the timer to go to dish out along with miked carrots!

Needless to say I thoroughly enjoyed the meal even if I skipped the gravy (which I'm lousy at) but Jonathan said he ate his meatloaf plain so PHEW!!! And I like mine with ketchup! Hmmm now we have just enough meatloaf for sandwiches for lunch tomorrow and then to find something for supper again! I had to chuckle as last nights supper I got the comment of "I sure miss Patrick's homemade fries!" - see he had already asked if I knew how to use the electric deepfryer and I VETOD that idea lickety split! ROFLOL - poor deprived teenager!!!

Well today I skipped out for a couple of hours to check out Quilt as Desired's sidewalk sale as they had buy 3 FQs and get 1 free, 7 FQs and 3 free etc etc and buttons, laces, elastics, zippers etc at 90% off. I could not pass that up at all!!! So I came outta there with some quill tape to wrap my embroidery hoops, tonnes of fancy buttons for crazy patch (and I mean tonnes) and then off to Fabricland for some Mettler poly threads at 65% off for my postcards, but the FlexiFirm was only 20% so will wait for the 50% and hope it's soon as I've lots of postcards to finish off and I'm just about OUT again!!!! I think I'll have to buy like 2 or 3 metres this time.

Oh and today my youngest sister phoned and she's in the city so I'm meeting her for coffee as soon as her grandchild she's visiting goes to bed. So a lovely day so far! GOSH it's LOVELY not having that part time job to interfere with my weekends!!! Okay guess I better get off this thing and back to my postcards or they won't get finished tonight and I definitely want to start sewing the quilt blocks tomorrow!!!

Neither Here nor There!

Yeah, and my mind is following suit too! See it’s bad enough that I don’t like the heat this past weekend and I think I might have had a touch of sunstroke, but then the mosquitoes got my legs badly and I’m itching to beat the band too. I’ve used a whole container of Benadryl spray since the Alberta retreat and tried to buy some this morning and Shoppers didn’t have any so I picked up an Anti-itch clear lotion instead. Well it’s some four hours later and I’m still SANE!!!

So this weekend I'm staying in Winnipeg but I’m not at home - as I’m holding down the fort for Linda and Patrick while they are in Montreal for Anita’s funeral etc. She was one determined lady who wanted to LIVE, LOVE and LAUGH and I’m truly sorry that her intended visit to Winnipeg this month is not gonna happen. I’ve chatted with Anita a number of times while house sitting for Linda etc while on their holidays and naturally always checking out their family pics. It kinda feels strange to have Jonathan around this time, but oh so lovely, as he’s looking after the cats during the day (they claim I feed them too much - well they are meowing at me and following me so they must want food - right?) and I just have the 6:30 am shift – LOL – I’m usually up because of work so no problem and then I’ll just crawl back into bed for an hour or two on the weekend.

I’ve brought my postcard stuff and also my cuddle quilt material so got some serious stitching to do this weekend. I hope I know what I’m doing in changing a regular piecing pattern into a quilt-as-you-go technique cause it’ll sure save me on the quilting part which I’ve no experience as yet! I’ve dabbled but not brave enough to do such on a “gift”. Oh and my Off the Color Wheel postcards are coming along very nicely and then onto the next batch hopefully this weekend too.

Hmmm I’ve noticed the chairs in the sewing room are COVERED with Patrick’s shirts – NAHHHH he doesn’t want me to touch them – I’ve burnt dear old Dad’s the last time he asked me to iron his shirt for him. Yep, he’s never asked me to again and it honestly was an accident!!! Linda and I have this standing joke, she claims I am bound to show up if she had shirts on the chair waiting to be ironed, but if there aren’t any she knows I won’t be avisiting! So far she’s been right! LOL!

Family Weekend

PHEW I really can't stand the heat, especially in a non-AC vehicle!!! I also don't know how my sister copes with just fans in her house as I had it all to my (well with the cats too) for the weekend (no cooking either) and I was thankful for a cool shower before retiring for the night!!!

Another nephew got married and on 07/07/07 and I didn't realize the date at all until we were at supper and someone mentioned it and I thought HUH!!! DUH me!!! I'll blame it on the heat.

Anways my dear old Dad last minute changed his mind and decided to join us - which made my sister Marlene (groom's Mom) very happy! It was quite some chore pushing his wheelchair over the rutted farm yard and up/down the hill depending on the festivities. See they had the ceremony down near the wooded lake (we call it a slew) and then the supper/dance tent was up near the house along with portables set up on the outskirts. Now before you go WHAT! the invitations said "casual dress" welcome - even this bridal party was more casual than most.







Here's Sylvia (the oldest) with Dad. Honest they are both wide awake and smiling!!! Hey, towards the end of the evening they had a receiving line and I pushed Dad to the platform and he got up and then lifted the chair up for him to sit and NOPE, he want the chair to push and walk. Okay, so I handed it over and you know what he did???? They were playing a Kulamyka (Ukrainian dance) that he used to love to dance to and there he was (93 years old) using the wheelchair for support and stomping his feet and smiling to beat the band - he'd stop and catch is breath, move up in the line with my sisters etc and do it again! Yep I took a picture but not sure how it turned out - gotta get the prints made ASAP!

They had fogged the night before and again in the morning plus they had a mosquito trapper going too, so it was quite confortable until about 10:00 pm when I noticed they were biting even with bug spray on so we bundled Dad up and headed for home. That I must say was a first for me, where all the wedding was in the home yard and this was out in the boonies too! LOL!

Western Retreat addins

Oakie dokie, here are some of the pics that my sister Sylvia took with her digital and I finally was able to upload them to my PC to get copies etc. She got a kick out of me and my "bad" habit of clicking and chewing on sunflowerseeds when driving, but heck when I get bored I get tired and then I can't drive. My seeds keep me alert and unless it's more than 3-4 hr driving stretch I'm okay, otherwise I need a stop, walk and maybe relief too.

And here are our completed Mystery sampler blocks, mine 3" and Sylvia's 12" and she also has a set of 3" ones but those were just finished blocks on this trip. We used the camera to see the placement of the blocks and shuffled some around.

Here's one I took with her camera of Sylvia working on adding the borders to her mystery blocks and then the other is it completed along with Mirajam's on the left and not sure who's is on the right (sorry!).

These were taken as we were heading south from Rosetown towards Swift Current SASK and came upon this valley and it's picturesque scenery. Now there were no cars in sight for miles so I pulled over for her to get these quickly - I didn't even think about my camera.

Now isn't that AWESOME!

Yes, there were many more that Sylvia took but these were a few I noted here. The others I will be inserting into my Webshots, Retreats album along with those I've already posted so they will be a more complete story!

Quilting Bee Challenge Winners

YAHOOIE! (ohhh my aching head but I'm so excited I could burst!!!)

I can't show you pics as they weren't allowed at the shop, but will post them here and my Webshots album whenever I can get them, BUT it was a FAMILY/FRIEND clean sweep!!! LOL! One of these days I'll again attempt to enter. I was very impressed as this year there were about 6 entries that I thought could be winners out of the 16 entered - so it could have gone any which way.

See my sister Sylvia took 1st place again, her close friend Fran took 2nd and Sylvia's daughter Pat (first challenge attempt too) took 3rd place and she was going to chuck her piece in the garbage as she was stumped. Go Figure!!! Well her hubby and young son came to it's rescue and gave her suggestions which she liked and finished it off, delivered it and waited for the outcome. She's flying high and so AM I!!! just happy for all three of them!!!!

CONGRATULATIONS Sylvia, Fran and Pat!!! YAHOOOIEEEE!!!

New Postcards finished!

Okay, I really really tried to finish these two sets off on Saturday but circumstances prevented that off and on this weekend. I even just received my oldie 45 rpms (60's and 70's music from then rock n roll and some country) just transferred onto CDs and was enjoying quite the trip down memory lane listening to them while sewing! So without further ado here are the two swaps ready for mailing tomorrow morning.


PC Cottage - Dragons III



PC Cottage - Stained Glass II

And I've also worked on the Mary Engelbreit cards too but they aren't due till August 1st so I'll set them aside and think about the embellishments for them, while I work on my FAPC - Off the Colour Wheel postcards! My plans are drawn up I just need to pick out the fabrics and get to stitching them together. Then I've the CQFriends - Expressing Yourself cards to stitch too by mid-July so have my time planned I'd say.

WOW and somewhere in there I'm stitching up a cuddle quilt too, thank goodness I'm doing it in the quilt as you go method so it's put together as I'm sewing up the blocks. At least I sure hope that is the case as I've not much time to get this finished for a farewell gift.

The LOST is now FOUND!!!

OMGG my poor old heart is just a thumping and my stomach is just a rolling but I'm HAPPY!!!

See last summer I remember showing off my Birthday Sampler Blocks from the CQS swap years ago along with the completed Moondance blocks (only had two more to do) and then I misplaced them both!!! When packing for the Gimli retreat in February, I wanted the other blocks to decide on the remaining two blocks colours - could not be found anywhere and I was just SICK!!! At least I had the remaining fabrics and the patterns at hand to continue working on the chain blocks and eventually the appliques! Every time I looked for something in my mess I'd keep an eye out for them but they did not surface.

Well this morning I got a request for one of my patterns and now I'm searching for that book and what do I come across - YEP HIP HIP HOORAY! - my two jumbo baggies and sets of blocks! PHEWIE talk about a racing heart - I thought I was going to pass out on the spot in that overly warm sewing room! Needless to say I NEED TO WORK ON THAT ROOM AND SOON!

So now both sets of blocks are in the pizza box that Linda M brought back from the US shop hop for me and they are labeled and in my closet for easy retrieval when finally piecing into a quilt top! Gosh this has been a good weekend for me so far and long overdue too. Now back to my postcard making and maybe I'll get them babies finished too.