Very strange ...two posts posted today...both dated correctly...hmmm gemlins!
So you have tomorrows today..no post for tomorrow

Is this a New Product? 

I was in my local store and found this on clearance..I've never seen it there before and I am in there at lest once a week. 
It was $4.00 for a pack and a pack is 32 loads..Tide is $8 or $9  on sale!
I thought...hmmm..I'll just give that a try.
When I opened the pack, the laundry detergent is pressed into sheets that are scored in half .  Half a sheet for a small load and a full for a large load.
I washed some towels, the sheet dissolved quickly and completely, it isn't a fibre sheet soaked with product like dryer sheets and the towels turned out fine. 
I was thinking when  I bought this product...hmmm..that might be good for travel.   No bottle of liquid, or baggie of powder.  The sheets could be packed in their own bag, wouldn't take up much room in a suitcase and could be used a quarter sheet at a time or less, for doing that tiny bit of washing we usually do when we are travelling.
The have a web page.  I had a look...Less cost to transport the stuff because of the water weight loss..no large plastic jugs...
I like how tide cleans...I find no other is as good for whites, but I do like the idea of less impact on the environment.
I will have to keep an eye out for them.  And save some for travel!

Is this a new product?...no ..apparently it's been around for a few years..no longer available where I bought mine, but other stores are carrying it.  and you can order it on-line in larger quantities.( I won't do that , shipping costs would increase the price too much)  Yes, we can use it for hand washing (not our hands), but use a half or quarter sheet.
If I can find this product and it is a good price...I am going to start to use it for my laundry.

I haven't been sewing all week...allergies have really got me down..sinus headache..itching eyes ..sneezing...coughing...my head full of snot.  Many allergy meds say "do not take if...."  that means me!!  so I suffer a little for the love of the trees and flowers...gotta use the nettipot...maybe that will help.
Thing Two has been miserable, too.  Probably feeling the same way....plus lack of sleep for her...she never did sleep well, even as a small baby.

Well, it's pasta night again...and I am not making pasta.  Maybe I should call it " family night"?  I gave the mister home-made mac and cheese last night, so he shouldn't complain about no pasta...gosh, that man loves his pasta....and so he should..I fill the sauce with herbs, onions, peppers, garlic, zucchini and spinach and ground beef.  I may use a jarred sauce, but by the time I finish with it, it is way better with all the stuff I add and then simmer for a couple of hours.
So, tonight we will have ribs...the girls all love ribs.  And maybe (hah! I dream) there will be some left-overs for tomorrow and I won't have to cook.

I am going to try something different with them today.  I have a recipe that calls for each slab to be wrapped in foil individually and placed in a pan and slow roasted.  I don't usually wrap them.  Everything in the pan at once, slow roasted, slavered with sauce and then BBQ'd or broiled.  Gee, I hope I have enough foil...I didn't check to make sure....

I really enjoyed the quilt show in Binbrook.
We saw lots of fabulous quilts and I did a little shopping.
Here  are some of the quilts we saw.


http://smilebox.com/playBlog/4d7a45784d7a4d314e44553d0d0a&blogview=true

I bought some books...A thread stand and just 2 cones of thread...and the mister bought some fabric for me.  I let him pick it out and he did a great job

He chose these blues.. I hope that I have some complimentary fabrics already in my stash...I have some of the darker blues and some yellows...that turquoise is fabulous..I will have to look for more of it.

He chose these red, black and white fabrics.  I have already added some of my stash to compliment it...I have a jacket pattern that I saw at  another quilt show, then bought  on-line, that I thought I might use this fabric for.  I will need a whole lot more than this little bit for the jacket.

And he chose these red, black and white fabrics. They are christmas and winter themed...I have a few fabrics I can add to this pile, already..
 I am going to have to get sewing!
I have put a  dent (just a little one) in my stash with the FWSQ. I am using up a lot of my scraps..so soon, I will be shopping for fabric again....now I just try to walk on by...notice I said "TRY"...hehehe
                                                                           

This Saturday the mister and I were sitting in the family room and I said to him..."Do you have any plans?"  "Wanna go to a Quilt Show with me?"  He said "No" and "Sure". 

So I booted up the 'puter, checked the address, looked at a map and directions ...grabbed the GPS and off we went to Binbrook.

It wasn't far..and not hard to find....except themap said turn that way and  GPS had us turn the wrong way.   We soon corrected that and were at the show.

On the way there, we passed a large sign advertising another  quilt show..but in May..same weekend as our quilt show...I checked the dates as we passed it on the way home...hmmmmm...I can go on the Sunday!

I took 2 cameras.

  I wanted the mister to take some pics of the quilts that he liked. 

He didn't want to.  So  I took lots of pics.

He and I walked around the show and we discussed the quilts and what he liked.  He marvelled at how the same pattern he has seen or heard of before is so different with every quilter...He diffenetly knows what he likes

 It was a great show of quilts, both newly made and antique...apparently over 200 quilts were shown...and this is a small community!

The show was in a church, the quilts were displayed over the pews....not really  the best way to showcase all the fabulous work...the ladies were all very pleasant and pleased to showcase their FABULOUS creations and those of their ancestors.

This is one of the mister's fav's..can you read the label? It was made by 58 year old Maria Mbanjua of Sweetwaters...Mzansi..(that is South Africa!)

He loves the colours in this orange one

Another of the ones he liked was this one. Bargello in the Round it is called...very pretty, but we couldn't really see it all! 

This was another of his favourites

A very soft looking quilt. I meet the  maker, Helen Hurbert.  She  said it was a lovely summer quilt ...Strip pieced...very lovely!  Lots of people loved this one.



#57  Morning

 I started on the next block...# 57.. Morning.... it looked like an easy one...oh yeah!  I'll just whip this one up in a couple of minutes.

 There is a whole lot of seams that I can eliminate, it should go really fast ...HAH!

Famous last words......
Four "Y"seams....count'em.....4!!!
I laid that block out CAREFULLY!!  I didn't want to resew any of those seams.
 It actually went quite well......but it took a whole afternoon.  First section that I made, I accidently cut the wrong part of the block..it was folded over and I cut it.  So I had to redo it. When I sewed one of the "Y" seams, I had a little pleat.  I resewed and pressed like crazy!
Looking at the block I can see an easier way to paperpiece this one.   This is not this first block that was harder than it should be,   there are 5 rows and if a small triangle was sewn onto each end of row  2 , 3 and 4 it would have eliminated the "Y" seams.
 But now it's done!

We had Quilt Guild the other night...our quilt show is getting closer and closer!  Time has flown.  Not many people had show and tell...and again...I sat there and NEVER took a picture!!!  dumb me!!!!! I had my camera! I didn't even think of it until now.  I just enjoy the show and tell too much !  I don't  know why I don't remember to take pics!
Tonight we had a fabulous speaker....I throughly enjoyed the meeting tonight.  She showed up scrap quilts..lots of scrap quilts with a little bit of applique.  Two things I love.

I have always said that scraps begat scraps and she showed us how her scrap quilts begat more scrap quilts.  She works at a VERY well known fabric store...I couldn't do that!!! I would end up paying them to work there !!!! LOL She teaches and does workshops....she showed us how different a quilt can be with the same block, just a different placement of colour or a turn of the block....her quilt were ARE simple and yet complex...A throughly enjoyable evening for sure!

I haven't done any sewing for a few days now.  The weather is cool,  sunny and bright. The sun and dandelions making it hard to stay in my sewing room.  There are even butterflies out in the back yard! There are some of the little yellow ones and some small black and red ones my son says are red admirals.


last summer



I have toyed with the idea of moving my machine in front of the window.  It's a nice big window and I can see out at the back yard.  The  cedar trees are full of birds and squirrels.  In the neighbour's wood piles, we have a family of chipmunks.

I have 4 bird feeders out in the yard and the critters keep me busy filling them up. 

Last summer we even had a opossum in the feeder.  He (or she) came for several nights, early, just after dark, and raided the feeder.  After a couple of days I though I would take some pics..I was only a foot away from it.
 Bob, next door traps all sorts of raccoons all summer long,(they come for the cherries, and after they ferment on the tree, they get drunk! LOL), so I went over and asked him to try for the possum. 
He caught it the next day.
 I don't know where he takes the animals, but it's illegal to harm them in anyway....or so I was told when I called the 'HUMANE SOCIETY". 

This winter I got some seed mixed with capsicum..that's hot pepper juice.  Apparently it doesn't affect the birds, but the mammals  don't like it.  I think one squirrel developed a taste for it...she kept coming back for more, or else she was really hungry!  She's been around for a long time and I noticed she had babies in the fall.
All the animals around keeps the cat entertained ...she will sit at the patio door for hours watching the feeder just outside..not a foot away from her.  Then I will let her out....of course...nothing will come to the feeder then.  So, she comes back in and sits patiently waiting and watching for diners!

I had a big push on to get some sewing done.....it's not working anymore!....that beautiful sunshine is showing all the dust and grime ...I can't ignore it much longer.  The dust bothers my nose, so I need to take time to do some cleaning.  I cleaned the blinds in my bedroom, that 2 out of 12 done.  I bought some new drapes for my bedroom, but ended up taking them back.  I really didn't like how they looked, and they needed hemming if I kept them....Sorry...not doing that!.

I did get a couple of blocks done. 

Linoleum or block #55   I put a bit of red in the center and it has a small vein of gold.  Sort of looks like something I would have on the floor.

Then I started on another.. Mother's dream, block #58.

I need to go and sew some more.

excel thread

I get a newsletter from " about.com"  about sewing and quilting.  I am not sure how often it comes, but if there is anything interesting, I will read it.  Well, the other day, I got an article that was very interesting...about thread...linty --cheap--ruin your machine- thread .  There were pictures of all the brands of thread and you could see just how linty they are.  It told me about those cheapy '3 for a dollar' spools of thread . It also showed pictures of many brands of threads, and some are really bad. Cheap thread is made with shorter fibres, long staple fibres are used for more expensive thread.

   If you would like to read the article, here is the link.

http://sewing.about.com/library/weekly/aa102100a.htm

coats cotton

I read it and thought "Do I have any of that cheap thread?"  So I checked my thread rack and good enough.. I had lots of really cheap, linty thread.  I didn't need the thread magnified to see all the loose fibres on it either,  I could see them easily!  Needless to say, I threw it all out.  I had some samples of thread from when the mister was a buyer for a company and they had a supplier of threads.  That thread was weak and full of lint. I had thread from my mother...I even had some of that 'exel" brand thread.                              I got rid of it, too.  Got rid of it all!  Anything that was linty is gone.  I suppose I could save it for crafting, but I'm not keeping it...all of it is OLD and full of lint.



cheap thread



I have lots of good quality thread to use,  I am going to make sure that I only buy high quality threads from now on.... long staple thread..

Today is pasta day and the girls all stay for dinner.  We haven't had 'pasta' per se in quite a while .  Thing One has been sick of pasta and so am I.  We haven't had it for 3 or 4 weeks...so today we had pasta.  I also made Thing One  some chicken.


hovering hawks

 And I worked on a couple more blocks..I finished 'hovering hawks'.  I chose a flowery brown and a fabric that I have used often for the background.

Then I worked on maple leaf...I was going to make it red and white for our Canadian flag, but then I thought...no, it would stick out like a sore thumb.
 So, there was a particular green fabric that I thought would be nice...and ooopps..out of that one.  I found another green that I liked for the leaf and then a nice gold for the background.  I made sure the design in the gold fabric  was going in the same direction.  With an easy block like this, I was successful doing that...and I think it turned out quite nice. 



maple leaf



I made a few of the spiderweb triangles then went back to the farmer's wife sampler quilt.

I am really pushing now, besides, there is a whole lots of hockey and baseball on TV now, and I am not interested in that.



block 51 hovering birds

I started on the next  block " hovering birds" and decided I wanted this really nice blue that I had used on another quilt.  I had 4 triangles and that was it!  No more of this fabric.  It was touch and go as to whether I would have enough.  I had to search the trash can for the last little bit.

Then I started on the next block...hovering hawks...or so I thought.  I was on the phone with a friend and playing in the sewing room at the same time ...I guess I didn't notice it was the next block after that, 'jackknife'.  As I sewed it I thought...hmmmm..doesn't look much like the picture..So I went back to the computer to see on EQ6....hmm...can't be 'hovering hawks', and it's not.  It's 'jackknife', the ' hovering hawks' pattern is still on my cutting table.  Oh well, I will do that one next,  and check off this one.

block 53 jackknive

I was watching  videos on you-tube the other night and saw a video on how to do a paper pieced spiderweb quilt.  She even had paper patterns you could order.  When I saw them I thought..."HA! that would be so easy to make!".  And a different pattern to what I have used before.  So I wrote down what I thought it should be and the next day I tried it.

I used tracing paper from the dollar store, because I have several pads of it and it's bigger than regular paper.  I cut the paper down to 9 inches square. 

Then I cut it in half diagonally and then again across the opposite way.  I had four triangles.  You could cut it just in half and it would be a much larger triangle.  My scraps are smaller, so I wanted smaller triangles.

I then marked down 2 inches from the top edge on each of the shorter sides  to the centre of the largest side, drew a line then stacked up all the triangles, took it to the machine and with a unthreaded needle, I sewed all the lines through all the papers.

I then placed a square of fabric over the center area of one triangle, trimmed using the lines on the paper. 

.

Then I lined up my scraps and sewed and flipped then finger pressed then sewed and flipped until I filled both ends.

Then I trimmed and pressed..

and   VOILA!

I went to guild the other night and we had a couple of ladies as our speaker.  They are friends and neighbours  who have been together for 30 some years..sewing and now designing quilt patterns.  They were very interesting even though one was losing her voice and the other couldn't see very well due to unsuccessful cataract surgery.
They have a website http://www.harebrainedhappenings.com/ filled with very cute patterns for quilts and bags, which they had for sale after their presentation.  Two of those patterns were fresh from the printers'.

I brought date squares for my turn at providing some of the snacks...that I didn't enjoy!  lol  ..I bought them,  should have made them myself!..they were mostly tasteless...well definitely not as good as mine are!  I really should know better....I used to bake often, but I have lost my touch...besides I certainly don't need sweets hanging around the house for me to eat.  The mister doesn't eat a lot of sweets and he really doesn't like date squares.  Blueberry pie is his favourite and even then, he doesn't over do like I do!

homeward bound

I really tried to get a bit of sewing done on the farmer's wife sampler.  I have been neglecting it lately.  I sewed at least two blocks a day and today was no exception.




honey's choice

Homeward bound was a fairly easy block to do and I had no problems with it.  Then I worked on Honey's choice...it wasn't too bad, but it did take me a while to do..I didn't fuss over fabric, I had a good idea which fabrics I wanted  to use with both blocks.     I really like the gold and blue.                                                     

 I am up to the fifties now, so I guess you could say I am half way there.  The end is in sight!                                                                                                                

Pulling out different fabrics for each block sure makes a mess!  I need to clean up again.  and stay focused on the farmer's wife sampler.  lol                                                       

I worked on my next block 'Garden Path'  and I knew it wasn't going to be an easy block...so I got  prepared!

I printed out a copy of the block and coloured it with the colours I was going to use.  Then I laid my pattern on top.  I took each piece, worked on it then laid it back on the pattern.  I was so much easier to keep track of this block this way.  And I didn't make any mistakes!

Turned out okay ...When I come across a really complex block I will try this again. 

I continued all weekend long ....sewing until my eyes were blurry...which doesn't take too long at times.                                                                                                

I worked all day Friday in my sewing room.  I chose some fabrics for the next block and ended up pressing the fabric and refolding it.  I wanted to fold over a piece of cardboard so that I got an even fold..(trying to keep the sewing room somewhat neat).  I had a piece of cardboard but it was too short, so I took some file folders and wrapped them around the cardboard and kept it in place with elastics.  So I was able to refold some lengths of fabric all nice and neat.
Then I worked on this block.  Grape basket...I still had "fruit basket" in my mind and the problems I had with that...but everything went fine.


grape basket

There isn't another basket block in the farmer's wife sampler quilt, so I am okay.

Good Friday today...I am taking a few days off to sew...Happy Easter everyone

I don't believe it!.....I printed out another section of the pattern that I messed up...figured out where the colours go and it was wrong again....so I printed out another pattern part.  I sat there trying to figure out what I had done wrong the second time...I checked and checked...hmmm...what is going on???  It should be right, but it's not....I I took the block to the computer and carefully checked all the 'wrong' pieces...and low and behold...the pieces I printed out after the crash are reversed to the original pattern that I printed out.

Very, very strange!..I don't have the printer set for transfer, that would reverse the printing, and I didn't have it set for transfer before the crash.  I will have to remember that if I need to print out a partial pattern again.

So, I will have to take the block partially apart again....sew the part ...again ..correctly ..and resew....ohhh (big sigh)..two days for one block...no wonder it is taking me so long ...but it is FINALLY FINISHED!

I forgot about posting for today..2 were posted on Sunday, then one each day.  The blog has been 'ahead' of it's self.  I wonder if April fools day screwed things up.
Anyway, yesterday was a real waste of time. 
I went to my sewing room to work on another Farmers Wife block.  I chose my fabrics, wrote on the pattern to make sure I placed them right.  Which I didn't.  I found out as I went to assemble the parts...one was definitely wrong.  So I thought I would check with Electric Quilt..oh crap...lost it in the crash...so ..okay ..I will reload it..have to find the discs.

But wait...the computer has a 'service pak' update it wants to do...okay ..I'll let it do it and I wait  ...and wait...I decided to go put the kettle on for some tea and wait.  While I waited for the kettle, I unloaded the dishwasher, then moved laundry around in the machines.  Finally made my tea and poured a mug.  Checked the computer....still not ready...so I called a friend, had another mug of tea while I talked to her for over 30 minutes.  Finally the computer is finished, but it wants a restart..so I wait and wait again.... more tea..finally I can reload my program, which I do..and of course ...error 42...I fix that and load in the add-on  Farmers Wife disc and FINALLY I can check the block and good enough...the one part is wrong, so I'll print out that piece again and resew it....but ...now it's 3:30 and the girls are home from school.  Thing Two likes to play 'Mario' on the DS with me and beat the pants off of me.

Haha...I have a surprise for her...I have been practising!!!..I actually won 2 games!

Our guild quilt show is coming up fast. All the ladies have been working hard at completing their projects.  I have two wallhangings entered  and that's all.  I asked for a bed quilt from the daughter but I didn't get a quilt back, it will be full of fur and need to be cleaned, so I told them never mind...I dreaded a putting hanging sleeve on the  quilt anyway..one was  a king.  The king was supposed to be for us, but the mister thought it was too heavy.  He would sleep with just a sheet! and I would freeze!
I have to go to their place and photograph all the quilted stuff I have made them over the years...since I lost all my photos.  It's been I week since I had to restore the desktop computer to factory settings and it's still not the same, never really was right since we had a virus over a year ago.  The mister wants to buy a new desktop, but there aren't that many out there...hmmm..everyone is going to laptops and tablets.  I was reading about the  Consumers Electronics Show in Las Vegas...holy cow! it's huge! they have 2 million square feet of showroom space! That's 35 football fields!  I am staying far away from there!

The mister was sick the other day.  I don't know what is was or where he picked it up.  He was in Montreal for a couple of days at head office...could have been there....on 2 flights...could have been there...he pushes the shopping cart when we do groceries...now there is a treasure trove of germs in those last two places.
He was out of sorts, then started with the chills, followed by a high fever. Didn't want to eat..just laid there with golf on the TV... Then he slept.  He very seldom gets sick, but when he does it's always the same symptoms, then the next day he is fine.  I wish I was so lucky.  Everything Thing 1 and Thing 2 pick up at school, I seem to get!
So, now he feels better and we have to car shop, the lease is up!  He has to see about a new, or new to us, car, van..or whatever...I hate car shopping..I am too indecisive.

The wallhanging is more or less finished.  I've put the hanging sleeve on and sewn one side of the binding.  I will hand sew the binding tonight while watching the Junos.

The dye that ran all came out.. for the quilting, I "McTavished " the whole thing.  The background is a very pale green.  Now I just have to make a label and it will be done.  I started working on this a couple of years ago...started at a friend's house, using her ping pong table to trace out the pattern then put it aside while I worked on other stuff.  Slowly, I got it done...now I can find more to finish....

oh yeah...

and work on The Farmer's Wife Sampler Quilt