Interesting Saturday

Well I slept in again and then got busy making up those baby bath towels for Wednesday's Congrats Party at work for the two new arrivals for two computer techies! So I've finished the applique on the hoodie part and got the corners rounded ready for tomorrows serging and VOILA they'll be finished. I just LOVE that serger for the fast finishings. I'm not that with it on the cuddle quilt so guess I'll have to deliver it whenever I get it finished.

But early afternoon I left to attend the ceremony of my cousin's daughter and I've never been to a wedding where the bride was soooo unhappy looking and in such a sad state of crying before. Then I find out afterwards that she's been so sick my cousin is surprised she made it through the ceremony. When I arrived for the reception she looked more herself and even smiled some. Actually the bride and groom were both emotional so maybe it was a bad case of nerves as they're both young, early to mid twenties (known each other now 6 years). Anyways the evening went very well and the dancing started. After the required dances the floor was opened to all guests and who gets up to dance but my UNCLE, my Dad's brother, who last year had a broken ankle and then a broken hip and had to move out of his house and into the hospital for months and then into a seniors apartment complex where meals are provided for, but you look after your own room and laundry. And not only to dance but with his "lady friend" and then with his sister-in-law and to my amazement with MOI too! He even had a few more and that's mucho more than I had or was up to all evening!!! Now this man walks with a cane and here he was up dancing, now not like some young thing, but he could still move for a 80/90 year old!!! I took pictures to show my Dad cause I know he won't believe me when I call tomorrow! LOL!

Well 9:30 I packed it up, I was beat and headed back to Linda's to check on the cats (which seem to be okay) and maybe put my feet up and read or sew, not sure what yet!

Postcards

Sheesh I totally forgot to upload these pics! Now I know I'm not totally myself from those bug bites this past week or so.

Okay here they are, now these mini quilts are taken from a pice of fabric I bought ages ago and have plans of making them into mini quilts to evenutally display on a "clothesline" - someday! But when this theme came up I thought perfect I can use some of them up on postcards. So the first is the two applique ones and these will be donated to out MPQ guild Quilt Reflections show in April 2008. The second one is of the group that I made for the PC Cottage group Sewing/Quilting swap with the next showing the one I've kept for myself as usual. Now naturally I didn't "sew" the quilts up but I did quilt them and then sewed them into postcards so I think it still fits the topic!!!






And last but not least is a postcard I received from Pat F another awesome fabric artist as a souvenir from our Sun Dyeing day at her place. This is a paper napkin decoupage technique onto muslin with a black cotton matt to frame it. LOVELY and thank you Pat.

BDE day!

Well I caved in to my headache and just got up long enough to feed and look after the cats and then shut the door so they couldn't disturb me and in the nice dark room slept for another two hours. I had woken a little more normal and hope that it either stays this way or gets better.

Anyways after taking the morning easy I took in my first Stitch In at Mrs. Twitchett's Eye and actually worked on my Brazilian Dimensional Embroidery class piece. Lots easier when the sample is sitting right in front of you and the teacher just at the end of the table. I also chatted with some ladies I'd never met before and they were all making smocked crackers and all looked very lovely. Something I'd never attempted.

Now my headache is still in the background thankfully, as I'm awaiting the arrival of my niece and out to supper we are going, apparently she might be on her own and no children, will see. It's been ages since I've visited with Debbie and family (from Morris) except at family functions. I used to take a drive out there on the weekends and once stayed over night but since the part time job era that hadn't happened, maybe again soon.

9:15 pm

Well Deb arrived and waited and admired Linda's collection of bears while I fed Sooty and coaxed Holly out of hiding so I could feed her downstairs before leaving for supper. She has been going down the stairs herself but today stopped near the bottom and as I went past her to give her food she scratched my foot again and through my slipper!!! What gives, she never did that the last time I house sat. And the other morning she swiped my foot when I walked by after topping up the water bowl. WEIRD!!! Anyways I'm wandering, but heck those cat scratches sting!!!!

What a surprise when we went to the van, Debbie brought Kailyn with her and she's soon to be going into Grade 5 - YOWL they sure grow up fast. We had a nice supper at Moxies and then walked the mall a bit before coming back to Linda's. BTW Holly was A-Okay with me when I went down and carried her upstairs so Sooty could go to the litter box etc. Totally WEIRD!!!Anyways, Debbie had told Kailyn about the cats and all the bears so she wanted to come see them and was mighty impressed by the way!!! And both cats were okay with her pets and mine too AND no she did not even touch the bears before leaving a few minutes later as they had to go grocery shopping before heading back to Morris. I'm really gonna have to get out there and visit sooner than later.

All right wonder what the rest of the days will bring me with Miss Holly? Gosh my foot looks like it's been through barbed wire with the bug bites and now two sessions of cat scratches!!! Speaking of which I better go put some cream on for the night, just in case, don't want no tetnus shot too boot. LOL!

House Sitting Saga - Day 9

Well things are still going smoothly except for my pounding headache today. Not sure what triggered it but I woke with it and it's stayed all day even with migraine meds. I'm glad I don't have to go to work tomorrow or Friday (vacation days) and hopefully will get rid of it. Now I chatted a bit with Sylvia and while on the phone my cell phone was ringing - sheesh - well it was probably my younger sister so I left it and finished off talking with Sylvia. Sure enough it was Florence so I called her back and she just updated me on the aftermath of the hail storm that hit Dauphin last week. Apparently the town has not masking or duck tape to be found anywhere or so she says as damaged items are being held together literally until they can be fixed. WOW!

Anyways I received yesterday my CQ-CDN crazy patch "Cleopatra" baggie swap and since I was taking it easy tonight I drew up my own block pattern - a first totally. Yes I've used a basic ze tern and then changed some of the pieces to my liking or to fit the block size but never succeeded in drafting up one that I liked before. So if things go as planned I'm hoping to get the block stitchted together and then I've just to plan out all the various embellishments! Yeah just!!!

Well the cats are still fairly well behaved, except Holly took exception to going upstairs this morning and took a swipe at me, just catching my ankle, yep the same one with those dratted bites. Now lucky I had some insight and pulled back so it's like a paper cut, superficial but stings like !@#$. And this evening she's A-okay with me - maybe she registered my foul mood and didn't want any part of me - ROFLOL!

House Sitting Saga - Day 6

Well so far the cats, the house and I are still doing good!!! Well maybe Sooty is missing Linda as he's taken over her computer chair and would not move when I came in here - had to roll that one over and roll Patrick's for me to sit on while computing. LOL! I'm not that productive sewing wise though as I'm still dealing with delayed infection from some bug bites from the week before and let me tell you, talk about bad. It's either my age, maybe the meds, or my allergies that is making bug bites a menace for me!!!

I took a picture the other day to show my friends and assure them it was mucho better and they still were concerned. I was using Linda's antibiotic ointment this past 4 days and it is getting better slowly so today I decided to go to Shoppers and get my own Triple Polysporin (actually bought the Life brand - same stuff but cheaper) and checked with the Pharmacist on a prescription I had for cortisone cream. See, when I got back from vacation in June I was covered in mosquitoe bites that scratching in my sleep had made raw and infected and I had bad leg swelling too, so off to the Dr. but they cleared up before I had funds to buy the cream. The Pharmacist basically told me the polysporin would take care of the infection but the cortisone cream would kill the itchiness and also help with healing and scarring so I broke down and bought it too.

So I'm loaded with bait to kill this problem with flexible stretch dressing strips so I can wear my shoes tomorrow to work (been bare foot and slippers all weekend), more Ibuprofen for the headache pain, Benadryl for the allergies acting up too, and the cortisone cream and triple polysporin if needed. YOWL talk about a bill!!! It better do the job and fast!

The good part is I gave in and bought the newest "Quilters Home" magazine by Mark Lipinski and inside there is an awesome article on Round Robins - be a great reference for some group activities. Okay I'm going back to my embroidery of postcards and watching baseball! CU!

House Sitting Saga - Day 4

Well it's been a couple of lazy days since I dropped off my sister yesterday morning but I think my allergies have shown up full force and I'm on my anti-histamines again. See the week before I was taking some pics in the yard at my nieces and my ankle/knee on one leg got bitten by something and just became very itchy and badly infected from my scratching in bed. I had used anti-itch lotion for a while but then the bites really became infected this week and I switched to Linda's antibiotic cream and it seems to be helping - not as red and swollen today. I guess the cats aren't helping with the allergies either. I guess the two things together started the reactions into high gear! Feels like I have a full blown head cold and yet I know I don't. LOL!

Sun Dyeing Fabrics

Here is the basic to the point instructional book and some projects explaining the sun dyeing I did this weekend.

Okay, I think this is the bookmy sister got from Copperfields as I know it was just under $19 before tax (Canadian dollars).

http://tinyurl. com/yohhvs

OR

http://www.copperfi elds.com/ booklookup. pl?section= sewing&title=Sun%20Kissed% 20Quilts% 20&%20Crafts&author=Baker, %20Barbara&price=25.95&disprice=30&pub=C&T%20Publishing&pubdate=8/&isbn=9781571202987

House/Cats Sitting Again! - Day 3

I'm a little slow on the draw this time around - guess just too much on the go and not enough time for all. Yep I'm again house/cats sitting for the Mullens who are in England this trip (hopefully MIL has received good news on her biopsy the other day) and Linda hopefully is taking in the quilt show while there. So far so good, they arrived safe and sound but tired, all is well with me and the cats are behaving.

The only drawback is I've been off since Tuesday from work (vacation time), most of my plans have backfired, and supposedly sewing up a storm well that's gone by the wayside for some reason. In a way it turned out okay as Sylvia and Len came into town for Dr. apt and shopping so I was their chauffeur for two days!!! Well they are heading home tomorrow.

So hopefully I'll be sewing before and after my trip back to the apartment to pick up mail and water my plants etc. Not much relaxing though as I packaged up my silk swap items and hopefully will get that mailed off tomorrow and back to some stitching tonight. Would be nice to finish off that one set of postcards tonight so they can go in the mail tomorrow too. Will see. I even started my Color Green postcards last night but they will need lots of time to finish off so I'd better get a move on and ensure I take my coffee breaks at work and get some stitching in, instead of just working (definitely will be strange with Shauna gone)!!! I'll need the extra minutes for these babies.

Sylvia's pics as promised!

Okay, I got Sylvia's pics uploaded to my PC. The first is of Nancy Bergman's Trio of Islands (might have the title screwy but it's not on her website - Sorry Nancy).



Sylvia didn't take pictures of her first two mini landscapes from the class but did work on her third one at home and I just LOVE it! Once the whole piece landscape was completed, she did some machine quilting, then pencil crayons to sketch in the trees in the background and the reflections in the water along with the grasses in the foreground. Then she cut the piece into three and shortened the two on the end and backed them pillow slip style and will join them together once the tops are closed and add a hanger on the back. So simple yet soooo artistically pleasing. This was made from a 9 X 12 inch mini landscape built from strips of fabric. I LOVE TAKING CLASSES!!!



Also here's one of Len, Sylvia and their middle daughter Pat with her two kids, Amanda and Byran. Sylvia and Pat are the two I go with to the Gimli Resort Hotel in February for a quilting retreat and have an awesome time together.



And last, but not least, the commissioned hanger she made out of the T-shirts from a fellow festival goer who passed away and donated them back to the festival for displaying. It was her first and probably last one like this as she found out even with bonding that working with the stretch fabrics was very difficult. It looks good!!! As usual a job well done Sylvia!

Sun Fun!!!

OH MY, talk about an awesome day! First off I have to thank Pat for inviting the Ravenesque quilting group over for some fun in the sun and her hubby for putting up with us all! LOL! Yes I had a GREAT time even if I was apprehensive of the so termed fabric sun dyeing and shaving cream painting techniques. I'm more of the finished end participant rather than the front line preparation side. Guess on the sun dyeing part anyways, I thoroughly enjoyed myself and also all the other creativeness that was just flying around like the confused dragonfly.

Ohhhhh Ada Betty we missed you and I would have LOVED to see you mucking about with us getting paint colours even where they weren't supposed to go - like Jackie's shoes???? Shoot I didnt' get a picture of that!!! Yep, I took 45 pictures and would you believe it did not get a picture of my piece that generated that face!!!

Even after the exhausting Saturday I had this was a good lesson on letting loose and YES Pat insisted that I play outside my creative BOX and even took the step forward and made me let loose by taking my sponge and paint and running with it on my piece. (panic attack) BUT oh my that piece is my ????? piece de resistante [help Linda]!!! Gosh I'm tired!!!

Okay if you want to check out the pictures just click on the link and check my Webshots album! There are a few that sorry but I don't recall who's they are and hopefully someone will step forward and let me know!!! Also if I've got any named incorrectly please shout!!! I can always correct the uploads - no problemo there.

Busy Saturday

WOW, I again had a late night and to boot tossed and turned off and on through the night actually waking myself up and then the alarm went off at 5:30 and up and attem for a busy day - UGH!!!!!!!!! !! Yep I was showered and car loaded by 6:00 am and off to Kenora ON to meet up with my sister and a friend for another Nancy Bergman class (Sky and Water this time). Hmmm from the look of the sky coming up behind me I think Winnipeg area might have gotten a good soaking - oh as I approached Kenora (8:30 ish) it started to thunder and lightning too. Good thing I was smart enough to meet them at a restaurant as I needed FOOD by then and yet by 12:30 I was starting to feel lightheaded and kinda wasted from lack of sleep! LOL!

WOW, we were also treated to a small viewing of some of Nancy Bergman's fabric creations before entering our class and then again a private artist's walk by during class! The first is the newest Nancscapes - WOW!



I enjoyed the class but probably could have done without it and saved myself some money but then I hardly ever take classes (seem to be a self taught whatever) so maybe it was time to start eh! I did learn how to play with markers and pencil crayons on the landscape and can't wait to get down to playing with the pieces I did create there (definitely not finished).

This one uses hand painted silk for the water.

Here is my first attempt using my sky fabric.

Here is my second attempt with my rocks.

Here is the out-of-my-BOX attempt!

And can you believe this, I didn't take any pictures of Sylvia's landscapes (guess I really was out of it) and they were something to see too - well I thought so. Gonna have to ensure she takes pics of them and brings her camera in so I can upload them later on.



Anyways by 3:00 pm I was glad the class was over, did a bit of shopping with Sylvia and then picked up a pizza to eat in the car, pepsi, water and sunflower seeds to keep me awake and back to the city I headed. Sylvia picked up on one of Nancy's techniques and she's going to see if she can finish the piece to bring it with her this week when they come into the city and hopefully show me how she did it too. I finally got back home 7:00 ish and showered as the sun baked me to a sopping form! YUCK!

While out there I realized my younger sister had called my cell so I called her back and here Dauphin made the news with baseball sized hail, a storm of 45 minutes wreaking havoc to homes and vehicles - YOWL!!! My poor Dad's Seniors complex had either 11 or 19 windows busted on the north side (Dad is on the south side and said he didn't even see this - HUH???) and my sister's camper trailer that her partner uses for his work out of town during the week has a busted ceiling and totally soaked inside - needless to say they were out buying a new trailer today! SHEESH!!!

Apparently this storm hit the north end of Winnipeg after midnight so maybe that's what was disturbing my sleep even though I didn't really hear anything. I know some of my headaches are triggered by the barometric pressure so that could be it as I had a whopper this morning and thought about not even going! Oh well that's life!!!

Now hope I get some rest tonight so I can be up early and ready for a day of sun painting with some quilters!!! Pat I have the foam dinner plates and I picked up various sponges as I was not sure what kind are needed. I also have your FlexiFirm beside it too so hope I don't forget it!!! And I have some money for the silk yarn and hopefully my share of the paint etc. See you tomorrow girls.

Just Because

WOW, I think I must be sick, I've done another postcard and that's after zipping over to my niece's and taking pictures of their pooch, my ever pesky Belle, and staying for burgers, dogs and ceasar salad for supper!!! I don't know what's with Belle, but she goes plum locco whenever I arrive and then five minutes later she ignores me!!! She is a cutie though!

Anyways, here's my latest postcard, a "Just Because" for a dear friend's son at summer camp and naturally his mostest favourite creatures!!! I sure hope he enjoys the cut out and reassembled trio!!!

Pink Comfort

Oakie dokie here is the "just so close" to being finished cuddle quilt I'm making for my co-worker Shauna who is leaving our Department and going back to college to kick start her nursing career. She was soooooo thrilled and amazed by it, she's taken it home (strings and batting showing) to show her family visiting from BC! WOW I was honoured and what a compliment too.

Here are the "quilt as you go" blocks all trimmed and ready for stitching into rows along with the back view. Thank you to Pat F. for the grey print which is the perfect compliment for this quilt too!

Then here is Shauna and I holding up the stitched together borderless quilt at her farewell Branch party yesterday. She said she won't be getting much studying done cuddled up in it, but will definitely get lots of sleep under it!!! Funny girl.



I'll get it back on Monday and next week hopefully finish off the border and binding and maybe meet up to hand it over and share some nachos and Corona beers or Marguaritas too!!!

It's soooooo Close!

But close don't count here!!! Yep, I'm talking about the cuddle quilt!

I've completed the machine stitching of the main quilt top not long ago and now preparing for the last part of the hand stitching of the quilt as you go method. Guess I won't get the borders on tonight at all, considering I haven't even planned the fabrics nor cut them out either. Oh well I'll bundle up this main part of the quilt and at least let Shauna see what has kept me busy for the past month or so at tomorrow's farewell party. Then take it back and finish it off in the next two weeks as Shauna will be coming in for a final half day sometimes that last week of August.

I'm very proud of myself accomplishing as much as I have considering I mostly work with smaller wall hangings and fight with pieced blocks!!! My forte is mini quilts and you know what I think I'll forget about my other larger quilts until the new year after this and concentrate on some smaller UFOs. ROFLOL!

Ain't it a SWEETIE?

OH MY AWESOME!!!

That is exactly what I thought when I saw this baby in my mailbox today!

Thank you so very very much Maureen R for such a beautifully cross stitched Singer sewing machine even if it has pink thread on it! ROFLOL! (ps I'm not a fan of pink and I've sewn and now quilting a cuddle quilt for my co-worker mostly in pinks!!! - I said I'm taking a break from pinks for a while).

Now I can't wait to take this baby into work and see what comments this one brings forth! Gosh I think I have to make some kind of wall hanging for myself for work so I can slip in and out, mix and match postcards off and on! Okay now to get busy and design such!!!

A Quiet Sunday

Well I slept in again - hey it was cool in hear so I took advantage of some needed rest!!!

Then up and attem and prepared the basis for the next set of postcards (I think this set will be kinda fun and easy for a change for me) and then I received an invitation to visit at my nieces and BBQ supper too. So I packed up my cuddle quilt hand stitching along with the postcards for gazebo stitching and off I went. I kinda felt wimpy to sit and stitch in the wonderful outdoors and enjoy the breeze while they cleaned up their garden and worked on their garage, but briefly only, I'm not into gardening nor carpentry!!!

So I finished off stitching the backings together of the rows and worked on some of the hand quilting of the postcards before supper, then watched some TV with them in AC comfort before leaving for home. Here I pinned together the rows in pairs ready for stitching together tomorrow - onto the next leg of this cuddle quilt.

I also just finished drawing up some plans for hand embroidery on another set of postcards and pray that they work totally as I'm very anxious for these to turn out beautifully!!! Okay, now I'm back to more hand quilting on my postcards and then maybe to bed earlier this evening!!!

Up and down like a YO YO!

Well I had slept in - it was finally cool - until my niece called and woke me arount 10:00 - it was time to get up anyways!

So after breakie I finished off my Mary Engelbriet postcards and then settled in finishing the herringbone stitching of the layered batting on the Cuddle quilt while watching the Blue Jays baseball game. Then I went out late afternoon to mail off the PCs (won't go till Tuesday though being a longweekend here) then escaped from the heat again home and continued with the Cuddle Quilt. Now I'm hand stitching the backing blocks together in the rows and as I finish a row I get up to pin it on the design board and then check emails and hopefully give my back a bit of exercise and different situation. Usually I just stitch till I remember it's time for the loo, food or bed! LOL! Oh and I planned out the next set of postcards Sewing/Quilting and also the Colour Green so hopefully I'll get back on track with these - let's hope so!

We're supposed to have t-showers tonight so not sure how long I'll be on this baby but hopefully it will break the humidity as I'm sure that's what is causing my headaches!!!

Another Set completed

Yep, in between my working on the Cuddle Quilt I'm trying to keep on target (or close to it) with my various swaps. Okay that's it, I'm just going to have to stop giving into my urges to do these no matter how enticing the topic/theme is. Enough is enough I've lots of quilting to catch up on.

So considering I did have one piece of the fabric themed Mary Engelbreit I chose not to use it and boy was I ever glad as Carolyn J did a mucho better job with it than I would have. Nope I went with pictures of a token box by Mary Engelbreit given to me along with my septor and crown at some fun and games by some jokesters (later name my naughty Court Princesses or Jesters) at the 2006 Western Retreat (notice Mobird's crowning sword).

Whoops I forgot to tell you what I wrote on the back!!!

"I think the postcard tells it's own story but to this day I'm labeled Queen Brat and don't know why, nor able to forget it either with the teasing!"

Cuddle Quilt Update

Ohhhhhh this is taking so long and with many versions of quilt as you go, I'm kinda fudging it with some written instructions, help from Sylvia, Dale Anne and Susan and also whatever I can figure out to make this work for me. It is materializing and I'm very happy with it so far but hopefully my nephew's Delectable Mountains quilt will go more smoothly for me. LOL!

Well I've separated the batting and trimmed it down and am halfway through hand stitching them together in the block joins so definitely tonight I will finish that and also hand stitch the backings closed. All I can say is last night it was tolerable in my apartment so lots easier to stitch and concentrate, but still I did not push myself and closed down early. That was a good thing considering today it's so cold in the office that my head and back aches have returned.

So hopefully this weekend I'll get the rows joined together and start preparing the pieced border, but I need the finished measurements of the components of the quilt for the extended diamonds to join up properly.

This sure is a learning curve for MOI but as long as all goes well no problemo! LOL!

Cuddle Quilt progress

Last night I completed the quilting of the blocks and squared them all off ready to be joined.

WOW, today was one hectic day at work but a good one. I think it has finally sunk in that Shauna is leaving and it may be a long time before additional help is finally brought in. Guess I and others in the office who will be covering her responsibilities will be kept busy!

And then this evening I completed the next leg of the cuddle quilt and I think I just might get this baby finished. I did join the quilt top rows of blocks together and the majority of the seams have matched beautifully. Now I've got the trimming of the batting (wedging) and then the herringbone type of sewing together before closing the back seams by hand too. I wonder how long these two steps will take? And then it's the repeated sewing of the rows together. I guess I should check the layout now to make sure I've not made any goof ups before the next steps!!!

I thank the Lord that citizens and emergency personnel reacted so fast to the tragedy in Minnapolis. That must have been so frightening and could happen anywhere. And who knows how many more have lost their lives, but hopefully many many more are survivors.