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.

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.