What an Evening!!!

First off I have to thank Thelma for her email blurb on the CQI group on tatting along with her link to her blog. At lunch I had joined up for the online tatting classes and who knows maybe I'll just learn how yet!!! OHHHHH that would make me and Norma H both very very happy - see I've tried on my own and failed!!! If approved, the Meet & Greet is May 7th and my first lesson May 14th - I can't wait - but shoot I need to find those shuttles and needles and books somewhere in this MESS!!!!!!!!! I've wanted to do this for soooo long now I just can't believe it's going to happen!!! YAHOOIE and thank GOD for computers and such charitable friends!!!

Well after work I came home and made a mad dash into the grisly sewing room and very swiftly went through some boxes and drawers and finally found a shuttle and spare bobbin - YAHOOIE I am ready!!!

Then I zipped out and met up with Linda and Patrick for supper at The Pony Coral and had my favourite chicken quesidias before heading over to McNally Robinsons Book Store Sharing Craft session from 7:00-9:00 pm sponsored by the Manitoba Crafts Museum and Library. We had about 16 guests (I'd say mostly stitchers) and I personally had a lovely time and even chatted with the other ladies present in between guests. I had taken Margreet's block with me and beaded the flowers and chatted with those interested in what I was doing.



I had my first CQd block with me and the Mystery Project one that I'd completed last year along with some CQd postcards and then this FFT#5 RR block. It was the first time I saw the progress I've made from the start to where I am now and still learning even more from the various group RRs too.

Just wanted to say THANK YOU!!! to all who helped me get this far.

My first CQ block
Last year's block
This year's postcard

Update on FFT#5

Yep another CQer has completed her addition to my block and it will soon be sent onto the last CQer to add her stitchery and then my baby will be coming home!!! So here are the pics of Diane's addition to my block.



after Diane's work

Now just waiting for Shari's input and then it'll be coming home! Gosh I'll have to decide what I'm planning to do with these hearts I've decided are going to be my RR projects. I can't leave their lovely works as UFOs!!!

I FORGOT!!!

Oh my, my forgetter just um forgot!!! Yep, I had it written in my datebook and the email was still saved. But with the past two weeks upsettings, ending with a surprise birthday party that I was decorating the cake for and then my cousin's passing and my sisters in for the funeral and shopping, I basically sat home Saturday evening and vegged out. Well I woke this morning still out of sorts so just turned over, fell back to sleep and work at 11:30 really out of sorts!!! LOL!

And dummy here just assumed she had nothing on for today so just continued to veg out, went for a walk to mail off items and pick up some groceries then just settled down with my book. WELL, after supper Florence from Aurora phoned to check on me as to why I wasn't at Val's bridal shower!!! WHAT??? I ran for my datebook and sure enough, I didn't even check it, I was so tired this weekend. DANG IT!!! The girls thought I may have forgotten - yep and totally not like me at all!!! Then Florence said well she'll definitely see me this next weekend - hmmm - OHHH YEAH the Aurora retreat!!! (smack my head up one side and down the other) Then I said I darn well hope I don't forget about that and go to work Friday morning instead of getting ready for hitching a ride out with Norma!!!

SHEESH this head of mine lately is just not working!!!

From Happy to Sad!

Yes, one day I'm preparing for a birthday celebration and the next morning attending a celebration of life for my too young cousin!!!




I was fortunate to have three of my sisters with me to attend this funeral along with meeting up with another of our cousins too. Now they have all gone home and I am trying to relax and maybe regroup with some stitching shortly.

Birthday Party

Well my niece asked me to decorate a birthday cake with bananas on it and label it "Happy Birthday Banana Man"!!! HMMMM, I did not ask then but did find out later on that it was a instant retort upon Ed and Randy's greeting when first introduced! It's stuck over time. Okay!!!!!

So here's the cake I baked and decorated earlier this week and the Triple B's table setting before guests arrived. Even Pat's Mom and Dad surprised them both and many guests celebrated his 50th last night. It was a smashing surprise right to the last minute!!! Way to go Pat - and Byran n Amanda for helping out too!!! Now I'm sure there were others that helped to pull this off too.

Here are some pics, but low on batteries so I shut down early.

Surprised that's for sure!

How'd you do it???

Gift opening with sister's help!

Cake time!

Byran the pool shark?

Bonding with Grampa!

Watch Mom, this is how you do it!

Roseann and Ed.

The other "Banana Man"!

The END!

Earth Day!!!

Well I did it, but just about gave up! See Investors Group out in the southern industrial area decided to have a free electronic drop off from 3-7 pm today and I hauled off my broken TV and VCR along with the VHS rewind machine too. See I was in that area today so more convenient for me. AND talk about the line ups. But I perservered and within 30 minutes was out of the lineup and on my way - PHEW!!! So now I don't have to wait for May 1st and haul it off to the north industrial park and pray the government recycle program is once again in operation so I don't have to pay the $55 or $15 fee for those not working items of mine.

So after that I zipped over to Costco's to check out their Pharmacy as I heard you don't need a membership to get your prescriptions filled and their handling fee and pill costs were the lowest around. Well I've paid $39.69 for one month's supply and $60.17 for two months supply and today I picked up "three months" supply for $60.09 - WOW!!! Now if I picked up the "six months" supply it would be slightly cheaper yet!!! But I wasn't sure if I had the funds to do this time, will check out for the next round for sure!

Then I ended up at Byran's LAST school concert and boy has he ever improved on his keyboarding and I can't wait for his music class recitals coming up in June! Now that's when Auntie starts crying and then he's embarrassed as I'm taking pictures and hugging him afterwards! I've been told I have to tamp down my enthusiasm - hmmmmph, isn't that Mom's, Auntie's and Grandma's perrogatives!!! After the concert I dropped by the house and saw the awesome tiles laid in the foyer and the newly painted bathroom with light fixtures installed (beautiful), now just gotta get the plumbing in there and the door and finally after a zillion months might have a decent "bathroom" and give the overused basement one a rest finally!!! LOL!

They even have the beautiful den kinda-French door but fogged glass; the kitchen cupboards (look real nice too) and the hardwood floor boards in the house ready to be installed - wonder when that will be? BUT shoot it's beginning to look like a house again instead of that bare rafter hollow!!!

Motif Swaps Received!!!

YAHOOIE, I can now brag about my loot too!!!

Some of the gals from this swap have received theirs like a week ago and here I was patiently waiting!!! I said my motifs have finally arrived - maybe on the scenic route to Canada from the USA - hopefully they enjoyed too this lovely warm weather we're having right now. Probably not EH! - especially in those yucky canvas postal bags I see at work - sometimes I wonder if I should even be touching them!

Anyways here are my goodies and some I just can't wait to use in my CQing projects and others I don't want to use at ALL - maybe keep them in a plastic sleeve and just appreciate them and all the work that went into making them!!! There are so many in there that I just LOVE and such great ideas too!



And the following are ones that I found very intriqueing and probably will be keeping these for my own projects.

SRE by Janet P.

Needle punch by Beth P

Hardanger by Kimberly B

And last but not least that is for sure!

Antique lace fan by Dakotah

I LOVE THEM ALL!!! Thank you to the following ladies for swapping with me:

3 tiny beaded stars - Shari J

pearl star/motif - Sandi F

lge crocheted heart and sunflower - Cathy L

irridescent swirled flower - Ira R

antique lace fan with silk ribbon, stone bead and crystals - Dakotah

Venice laces bow embellished - Nicki L

3 small crocheted flowers - Violet P

machine embroidered umbrella and angel - Darlene DJ

crocheted heart in spring colours - Susan B

Hardanger patch - Kimberly B

rose croched fan - Cobi W

SRE roses patch - Janet P

yellow crocheted motif - Cris R

tatted ornament and hand made bead - Freda B

beaded circle - Marci S

irridescent rose - Debbie S

lge crocheted flower and leaves - Perry L B

sheer button and beaded flower or bow - Ruby R

rings only tatted edging - Jeanne Z

needle punched turtle - Beth P

Now I'm looking forward to the next one but shoot what will I do this time???

CQd Block Finished

YAHOOIE it's been a long haul but my 6" CQd block for Mary Lou (Whoopsie it should have been for Lynn) of the CQ-CA group is finally finished. AND I've decided I don't care for the starting or finishing of embellishing a block!!! I don't mind the middle part but for some stange reason I have trouble getting an idea started and then also finishing it off and I can notice that especially!!! SHOOT!!!

Okay, here's the bare block, not so great eh? I know I just about took some pieces out or even contemplated redoing it totally. But decided to just work with it instead.



Then here is the block finished! Not bad if I say so myself. I maybe have overdone the embellishing compared to the other ladies in this group - hope not - but in the international group they work on covering the whole block so I was using this block as my testing ground so to speak.



Yep they "fill it up" so I've lots to overcome to get to that stage and even while this block is on the design board can see some open spaces which others would have worked in but I'm leaving it as is. Yep it'll be mailed hopefully Tuesday!

No I didn't do the tatting, it is a piece of a doily I cut apart and then tacked in place with beads. Now the crocheted heart, yes that is something I did and also attached with beads. And yes all the stitching was done by MOI and by hand, alongwith the beaded spider. Yep I like this one and don't even notice the background fabrics like I did before, except as the background. So here are some close up pics of the block too!





Hope you like it Mary Lou! Now I've pie on my face as I did not follow my own instructions and now the colours are totally wrong for Lynn - what to do??? So Lynn if you still want the white/cream please say so and I'll get right to it and hopefully you won't have to wait too long! SORRY!!!

Some Weekend

Okay it's been one of those weekends that I kinda wish didn't happen. Friday night I can't even remember what I did - now that's bad! And Saturday morning I slept in and then rushed out to pick up the girls to go to an earlier than planned guild meeting as it was also our International Guilds Day - our sister guild from Grand Forks was bussing up for a visit! Talk about a yucky start for them some up at 3:30 for a 4:30 am start and still they didn't arrive until 10:30 (half hour being lost in the city too) and it was SNOWING or trying to again!!! Well we hoped so as we are in the midde of a "flood" and the Red River in places is 17 km wide - YIKES! Thankfully Winnipeg has a floodway around it or we'd be lost but many of the communities and farms around and in low areas are flooded badly.

Then I went home and settle for the evening with a pounding headache so just relaxed and did some stitching off and on. Woke Sunday still not 100% so again just coasted and stitched and watched curling and hockey once again. Finally had to force myself out the door to do some grocery shopping and then back home. Where I then found out my cousin (a few years older than me) who has been battling breast cancer a few years now developed complications and succumbed to various bone fractures and Saturday morning passed away! Linda had retired a few years back so she'd be free of stress to help with her fight - a terrible loss!

So after that news I settled into finishing my CQ block and baked a cake too!

Update on Dad

It was a Happy Easter - my Dad is doing LOTS better and more mobile and even being close to his ornery self once again. (Love him though) Basically I had him all to myself this weekend except when three sisters with spouces arrived Sunday for supper with Dad and I, then we all left around 7:00 pm as he can't handle long stretches of company/noise now a days. Yes I did the cooking of meals/cleaning for Dad and I and even a simple meatloaf and devilled eggs for the family supper. Elsie thought I should make Easter dinner by myself and treat them - Yeah right!!! I don't try to compete with my sisters' meal preparations as it would just be a constant pick apart of should have dones etc. - definite not opening that Pandora's box!!!

Yahoo - YAHOOIE???

Okay, I go visit family for the weekend and without Internet access and Yahoo goes weird on me??? I come back and am checking emails and wanting to visit photos uploaded and no access - some problem known and being looked into??? Then I decided to change my settings from Digest back to Individual Emails and notice I've only 17 groups listed not the 27 that I have - what gives!!! Even the one group I'm supposedly looking after has disappeared - YIKES!!! Well after about three hours I've finally all my groups back so maybe I'll try and check some of those pics now!

SHEESH, what happened?

Farewell Gift!

Okay, it was a short and sweet stay for Rhonda with our office and today we had a small farewell party for her at Tavern United. So now I'm alone holding down the office administrative duties again but hopefully short lived as interviewing plans are on the very near horizon this time!!!

Well with barely two weeks to make the preparations and find a suitable gift the pressure was on. I knew Rhonda gathered Kokopelli items and even had stencilled them in her home so I spent an hour or so on the phone trying to find a gift store that had some type of gift. AND to no avail, then one of the co-workers came over and suggested I just make something with my "talents"!!! YEAH right it's that easy and I now had one week to do so??? But then an idea formed (from Kokopelli.com) and within 15 minutes I had the plans for a small Kokopelli wall hanging planned out and could not wait to get home to search my fabric stash and get started.

So Saturday I started tracing, cutting out, adhering to the auditioned background fabric from the half dozen or so chosen, layered/basted the backing, batting and top together and then stitched through all in a fine satin stitch all around the design. That was like 5-6 hours later and then back to my housesitting to relax.



Then Sunday back to the apartment and I proceeded to attach the borders, print off the label, attach the binding - another 4 hours later and back to my housesitting to hand stitch the label and binding into place.





Monday evening was my Ravenesque quilting meeting and naturally show n tell of this hanger and Jackie kindly took my picture.



Tuesday lunch I headed to the apartment again to do some final touch ups with a fabric marker and clean off all the fuzz and hair which naturally the black attracted like a magnet. Then I brought it to work to be secretly shown off and gift wrapped. That is the FIRST time I've had a quilted project finished on time - well actually a couple of days ahead to be exact!!!

notice her boo-boo finger?
yes she was surprised
and very pleased
and loved the colours!

As for the luncheon, it was enjoyed by all who attended and dummy here forgot her camera at home but we borrowed another co-workers but two pictures and the batteries died!!! So Mike very kindly used his blackberry and took a few pictures for us to have and enjoy and me to show off!!!

BUT I've never heard of being given a farewell gift by the person leaving!!! Yep that is exactly what Rhonda did, presented our office with a gift as a thank you for the opportunity of working with us all!!! WOW!!!



an Apache Blessing!

And it looks just LOVELY above our printers and matches our new painted walls to the "T"!!! Thank you Rhonda!!!

Home Sweet Home!

I bet they just can't wait to get home and spoil their girls again. It probably seemed like a long two weeks for them without their "girls"!!!

Okay, Joan emailed from Kansas City this morning and they were to make it to Fargo for tonight. Then depending on how much detouring because of the flooding from Fargo upwards, they'd be home tomorrow sometimes. I've again tidied up and just have to wash the floors before bed and tomorrow the bathroom and I'm done except the sheets and towels which I'm going to leave as I'm not sure if I'll have to stay another night or if they'll make it home.

Maybe tomorrow night in my own apartment??? It's been a long two weeks, but we all had some laughter tonight as my niece Pat and son Byran came over and the dogs just lapped up his attention and Lilla finally sat on the end of the couch and vegged out a bit without barking!!! I know they missed that and my playing was probably not enough! Oh well they did get cuddles and treats!!!

"Lonely Tree" - framed

Okay I'm at it again at my place and have framed my "Lonely Tree" thread sketch from the Michelle Dobrin MPQ workshop on March 22, 2009. Slowly but surely I'll get the other projects finished. Was hoping to get my "Parent's First Homestead" fabric landscape completed so I could take it to Dauphin with me to show Dad - maybe I still can!!!



Okay, back to finishing the machine applique project today, if I can, then my time will be opened up to work on the landscape one.

Back to the Grindstone!

Okay yesterday I put together the 6" crazy patched block for my other swap and started to plan embellishments but with lack of sleep the night before and some stressing at work I could not stitch late. Had a great sleep and even the dogs did not wake me - guess they enjoyed the extra hour sleep in too - LOL!

And today I rushed to Zellers to pick up my new dishes only to find I READ the flyer wrong so will wait a while longer to replace these old ones. But I did pick up some Milk Bones as we're out and I know they like them more so than the nibbets - just like people and their tastes.

Then off to home to do some machine applique on another project before going back to cuddle them and back to hand work while watching hockey tonight. Sorry no pictures as yet but as soon as it's finished I will post.

Another Winter Day!

YEP we are still getting snow but today it is very light thank goodness. Hopefully it'll stop so I can use the car again this weekend. A friend of mine wrote that she was exhausted from reading my blog??? HUH, she should be in this old BOD and even today my muscles are still twitching or feel like ants within and naturally my joints are aching too! Ibuprophen to the rescue!!! Yes, I sat home tonight and stitched as I had just received some Japanese Buttonhole Twist (JBT) and can't wait to try it out on some seam treatments.

Well I finished off the promised two seam treatments on Diane's FFT#5 RR and just LOVE it!!! Either I'm loosing some of my anxiety of working on others blocks, loosening up on my need to be perfect stitching or just darn right enjoying myself with the challenges presented in each block. I'm not sure which it is or a combination of all but this one went lots easier once I got myself to stitching.

Okay first I did my usual web in metallic DMC and beaded body spider with buttonhole twist Bullion knot legs. Then I used the varigated Waterlilies silk floss for a bordering vine and leaves. And finally I saw this "bottlebrush bush" design in the "Candlewicking" book, loved it and waited for the ideal spot to use it. There was the perfect corner on this block so I sort of followed the design but did not use the Edmar rayon threads but used my Caron Waterlilie silk flosses instead. I naturally did not do it exactly like the design as I freehand embroidered so how the stitches laid that's how I went. LOL! Then I hit a snag and could not decide where or how to anchor my crocheted heart - so I've left it to someone else to do so or even Diane!



I mulled over the two seam treatments and finally came to a decision after work today. on the upper left area away from the butterfly I decided to do one of JO's seam treatments and used the JBT for the base, then switched to the Chinese silk (snaggy stuff when you have rough hands) for the fern parts and then another colour for the leaf tip. This I thought was really lovely but I took some artistic license and added beads to the centre points.

from JO in NZ

The second seam I did a soft yellow JBT feather stitch along with JBT coral colonial knots at the ends, and thought this is a nice soft border but not detracting from the two patches on either side.



Okay, that's it, I'm letting it fly to Finland now and let Ritva work her tatting magic on it!!!

after Rose Anne

Wonder what the next block will bring for a challenge???