I think this Christmas is one of the most beautiful ones I have ever seen.
We have a lovely white Christmas and the trees all sparkled prettily.  That was due to the covering of ice they still had.
Mind you, it wasn't so nice for some people...no power, so no heat no lights, no dinners and for some no water!
We were lucky, our power was only off 2 hours total for the whole storm and clean up.
 Our Christmas was a huge success.
  The grand daughters  loved their placemats.
I was a little surprised that Hayley was so thrilled with hers, because I just made a placemat to represent Guns & Roses,  not their logo.  But she was thrilled!
Needless to say, I was pleased that they like them so much.
Courtney wanted to eat dinner on hers that night.  I asked her to wait, since we were having pasta (cannelloni) for dinner, she really didn't want to dirty it right away.
We were having our Christmas dinner on Friday.
The girls and daddy went off to see their other grandparents for Christmas day.
Our son came for Christmas day, actually the day before too.
(Big ice storm, no power for him at home, he needed to shower before he went to see a friend).
I made a turkey roll and a duck (yummm) for Christmas with our son, then Friday, I made cannelloni and salad for dinner. Both times apple pie and home made ice cream for dessert.
I also made a large cheese plate and some baked brie for snacks before dinner.
I had a big ooppsie with the brie.
I have a stone, it's marble, you heat it and cook small appetizers on it.
I heated it up( for hours), heated the brie, then put the brie on the stone.
OH MY!
The brie melted all over the place!!
But boy was it good!
I had to scrap cheese off the tablecloth! lol!
I think I will try it again, but not heat up the marble quite so much.
The kids gave us tickets to Cirque de Soleil!
 I am so thrilled!!!
 I can't WAIT!

HOLY CRAP!

The weather forecaster has been predicting freezing rain for a few days.  It was getting to the point where I didn't believe them anymore.  They had been  wrong so often.
Well,  yesterday it came true.
Usually on a Saturday night, my daughter and I go out and shop...have some quality time. 
I called her and said STAY HOME!!
I went to my sewing room and sewed all night long.
I worked on applique blocks for outreach.
Tidied up my sewingroom a bit.
Then I went back to my table runner, worked on that for a bit.
 Still not done.
Every once in a while I would check outside.
It was raining.  It has been drizzle-y for 2 days.
Around 9 or ten, I could feel the air getting colder.
By the time I went to bed, I could here sleet hitting the windows , trees were covered with ice already.
I dozed for a little and with a flash and bang.....out went the power.  I don't know for sure how long it was out, but it was enough for the house to get cold.
I put another blanket on and tried to fall back to sleep.  The power was off and on, off and on.  Each time with a flash and bang.
I awoke to the furnace running and too warm for the extra blankie.
I could hear the neighbour kids outside playing on the ice. 
I looked out, wondering how bad it was.....
After breakfast I noticed the birds trying to get into the feeders.
They couldn't  with all the icicles, so I went out and knocked off some of the ice.  Put some seed out.
I thought, they must be hungry and threw  a bunch on the snow.  They were flocking to it in seconds.
I wonder, with only 3 days to Christmas, will it be a white or green one?
Stay safe
and
Have a great Holiday!

   I went down to my sewing room the other day and really didn't want to sew on my project. 
My shoulder has been sore, I don't know if it was the knitting or maybe sleeping on my arm weird, but it hurts and I didn't feel like wrangling the table runner.
I thought, I want to do some sewing, but something mindless.
I wanted something quick and simple.
I pulled out a drawer with some scraps that had been precut.  I thought something  in here maybe...
I came across some half square triangles that I had trimmed and saved.
I sewed two at a time, then decided on a pattern.
I only really had a few squares to work with, but this is what I came up with.
 Sewn, quilted and bound...all in a couple of hours.  It's 2 1/2 inches by 10 inches.

I took this little quilt to guild for " show and tell".   The white glove ladies told me it was too heavy for them to hold up.  Hehehhe!                                                              

I used up a few scraps of fabric, a scrap of batting, and a smallish scrap (from a friend, for another friend, but it went GREAT) for the backing. 

 

I will be back in the New Year...........                                               

                                               

   Have A Merry Christmas!                          

For Christmas I decided to make a couple of placemats for the grand daughters.
  Courtney loooooves owls right now.  Owl this and Owls that.  
I was at Fabricland the other day and saw an owl decoration on sale for a couple of bucks.  I bought it for her.
We have downloaded patterns and made owl pillows.
I went out and bought an owl panel that was 5 pillows....and owl fabric for the backing.  We made up all five pillows.
So,...I thought....an owl placemat!
I downloaded a pattern, actually the pattern we used for one of the first owl pillows Courtney made.
I made up the owl and cut a placemat . 
The little owl looked lonely all by it's self.
I knew somewhere I had some fabric that looked like wood so I cut a branch.
Needed more than that..
I cut a tree and some more branch bits.

Courtney's

It needed a moon....I have some beige and white hand dyed (by me) fabric that was perfect for a full moon.  The background fabric was dyed by me also.
It turned out pretty good.....the test will be Christmas day...I hope she loves it!
I was glad to use the hand dyed fabric,  I always hate to use it and this was a great way.
Then I started on a placemat for Hayley.
She likes bands now....Hedley, Guns n Roses.

Hayley's

So I looked on-line for Guns n Roses  and made her up a placemat.
I figure I have to be careful because of copywrite.
I don't worry about the girls seeing these before Christmas, they don't read my blog and I know you won't tell them!

Oh my....I really can't say "No" to my baby sister.
She is six years younger than me and was my birthday present when I was 6.  She was born 4 days after my birthday.  Let me tell you, I was really, really happy to have a sister instead of another brother.  I already had 3 of them!   I desperately wanted a sister.
So when she asks me for a favour, I usually grant it.
She wanted some curtains for her townhouse.  She asked if I would sew them.  I said "sure". 
We went out to our local store called Fabricland and she walked into a sale.  Premade panels on clearance.  She bought 10 of them.  Enough for all the windows.
She tried her best to shorten them and screwed it up a little.  They aren't garbage, but now they are too short.
She begged me again....."Please sew me some curtains".
So, out we went, again, to Fabricland.  She went straight to some fabric that she liked and decided that was it.
We browsed around the store, and there on the shelf was the perfect material.
 It was woven squares, and she loved it!
Plus it was DIRT CHEAP!  and I mean cheap!!!!!  $3.50 a metre (39 inches) and 240 inches wide!!!
Because it was so cheap, she decided she wanted a nice tablecloth.
Tabling fabric was on sale too, not the great price reduction that the other fabric was, but still a good price.
We bought enough to make her a round tablecloth and four small napkins.
We came home and she left right away.
I sat and had a cuppa tea with my mister, then went into my sewing room to work on the tablecloth.
Within a half hour, I called my sister and told her that it was done, too bad she didn't stay. 

That evening I started on the curtains for her.

Easy, peasy to measure and fold a straight line.  And to keep a straight line sewing.
It only took a few hours, far less than I expected, to complete her livingroom curtains.
Now I will work on some for her bedroom!
Merry Christmas Sis!

see...... I am sewing...just not doing a lot of quilting or blogging!

In June I brought home three quilts to work on over the summer.  Actually four ...I took a kit from my other guild.
The kit I made up immediately...2 days ..DONE! binding ..everything done.
The second I only had to quilt and bind.  That was done in a couple of days also.
The third was the same...I took longer because I wanted to think about the quilting.
So, maybe a week or two to get it all finished.  Plus I had a few issues with a lot of bias, but it turned out great! 
Both quilt guilds were glad to see them in September.
The fourth was a bigger quilt.  I layered it and started quilting.  Just stitch in the ditch, I had planned on a "scroll" type design for the edges (setting triangles) and borders.
I had my patterns planned and made up, pinned in place to sew.
And then I changed my mind and decided on lines of quilting instead.  I marked each triangle to keep everything straight and even.
I was really pleased with how it turned out.
I took it to guild and the lady who made the top and back, (the back is pieced also) made a comment about how much she liked how it turned out.
Dorothy makes and donates a lot of beautiful tops to our outreach program.
So we had our last meeting of the year and all the quilts that were to be donated to various charities were shown. 
The one Dorothy and I worked on was to be donated to Big Brothers and Sisters for their on-line auction! And it was to be in the next 2 weeks or so.
I decided that I would follow the auction and bid on the quilt.

I GOT IT!
The quilt is now MINE!  LOL!
I went and got it, and when I got it home I thought....It's been a while since I've seen it, so I would have a different perspective. 
I checked out my quilting job.
It looked pretty good, I thought!
But then, I noticed.....I had missed a couple of rows of quilting.
Well, I can do them now!
And make a new label giving Dorothy and I credit for the making of this quilt.

Yes, I have done some quilting....
I have been participating in our guild challenge.
I finally decided what I wanted to do, then I waited a bit before I chose fabrics, mulling it over, sleeping on it.  I had the fabrics that I had to use for the challenge.
I decided on a table runner.  A friend was saying she didn't really want another wall hanging , and when I said table runner, she thought table topper!
I settled on a braided table runner.
I was thinking and thinking how I was going  to make this.  I don't have a pattern, so it's all off the top of my head.
I laid my batting out on my cutting table and decided to start with a 12 inch square, cut a few 2 1/2 " strips and started figuring out where to place colours and how I would construct it.
It hit me that I could do this "quilt as you go" by sewing and flipping.
I marked my batting with a centre line, width and length.
Placed the square in the centre ...but before I sewed I thought about the backing.
Hmmm...I could actually do BOTH sides sew and flip and have a REVERSABLE table runner!
So...you know what I did! Sew and flip two side at once!  I have fall on one side and winter on the other.
I started by centring the 12" block in the centre, I used quilt spray to hold the square in place, then sewed a 1/4" seam around  to hold it in place.  Then flipped it over and centered the second 12" square exactly over the square on the front using the sewing lines from the front.
Then sewed my 2 1/2" strips in place both side at once.
 I still want to make a couple of placemats to go with the table runner.

So this is the "right side" of my table runner.  I sewed so far then trimmed down my batting to the size I wanted.  It was becoming a little cumbersome.
And this is the other "right side

 

I am not finished yet, still working on one border and I have another border to do after that.                                                                                                                                  

 I still want to make a couple of placemats to go with the table runner.

I went out to quilt guild the other night.
It was our December "Christmas" potluck.
 I love a potluck, all those different dishes to try.
  All the different desserts!
No one leaves hungry, there always is a lot of food.
  I waffled between making cookies or meatballs.  I really didn't know what I wanted to make...well I do ...really... I wanted to make and take some short bread.  But I would have eaten it too.
The mister and I discussed my dilemma and he suggested DEVILLED EGGS!
He had a very good suggestion!  He loves devilled eggs. 
So I made them! I had 2 dozen eggs and devilled them all!

I never got one at the pot luck!
 NOPE!  They were all gone by the time I got up to the appetizers.  Mind you I did have some...I left half of them here for the girls and the mister.
He really loves devilled eggs... He had enough to satisfy him..lol!
For our programme that night we had a "Chinese auction". 
 A Chinese Auction is much like a Tombola.
That is, we bring in gifts, not always of a quilting nature, but whatever you like to donate.  A ribbon is attached trailing off to a bag.  Then we buy a little baggie with numbered slips of paper tickets, our names are recorded beside the numbers on a master sheet.   You put your tickets in whatever bag you would like to win.
 At the end of dinner we start pulling numbers.
 I and a number of other ladies bought three baggies.  You could buy however many you liked....All the proceeds go to the foodbank.
 I think they said they raised over $400......not too shabby!
After dinner they started drawing numbers...
I won a box of thread samples...Wha??? I never win!
They kept drawing  and drawing.  Did I say I never win?
 I won another....then another  ....6 of the prizes came to me! 


Hand made pin cushion

PLUS
I won the table decoration made by the past president.  She makes lovely decorations... aaand.. It had 2 fat quarters in the boxes!
I was shocked!!!! I NEVER WIN!
I wasn't the big winner, though.  Another lady won about a dozen gifts! and 3 or 4 other ladies won multiple gifts.
There were lots of gifts to be won ....over 100 of them.
I won the samples of decorative threads, 10 fat quarters, 2 tree ornaments, some embroidery cards (if they don't fit my machine they will fit my sister's machine), some Lindt chocolates (I hid those, otherwise I will gobble them all up!) a cute little dish, a wonderful hand made pincushion!, a hand made scarf, and a hand made journal cover!
I didn't open stuff there, I waited until I got home, so some of the stuff was a surprise; it was like Christmas!!!
The mister was getting a really good chuckle out of me!

scarf

It's been a while since I posted.
I was told the other day by a friend that I was missed.  So I thought I would make an effort to get back into it.
The mister and I are staying up far too late and sleeping late, so I am not sewing as much or blogging.  For some reason I still feel like we are on vacation.   (Gee, I don't know why??)  lol!
I have been doing some sewing.  And not just quilting either.
I bought some fabric and made myself a new pair of  dress pants.  They turned out great!  Look real nice...BUT!!!....they don't fit!  Too small!  The mister likes them!  He thinks the fit is great!  LOL!  But they are too tight..for me! in my opinion.  How did my pattern shrink inside the envelope?
So I adjusted my pattern, cut more fabric, and sewed another pair.  MUCH BETTER!!.
I've also purchased some fabric for T-shirts and some sweater material.   Don't know when I'll get that all done.
Then my daughter went to a wool store near her and bought a bunch of wool (yes, wool!) and a pattern book of the hats the girls wanted.
I ended up knitting 6 hats ... 4 slouch hats, a toque and another hat for my son-in-law.
The girls love the hats...I need to make me something warm just for my ears.  Not a hat, but a bandeau.  I am too hot for a hat, but I will get earaches from the cold wind. I have seen a couple that I like, now I need to make it.