My goodness it has been a long time since I posted... I really don't know where to start!
So I will just begin with the grandkids...
Thing 1 and Thing 2 are all grown up and no longer require my care, so now I am more or less free to do all the sewing all day that I want  Although Thing 1 (Hayley) does require my car now and then...... she has 2 part time jobs and is part of the robotics team at her high school.  Last year her team came in third in all of Ontario.  They have never hit the top three before , so they were quite happy!   Oh my gosh, she is almost 18!
Thing 2  (Courtney) is in high school now too.  She has a part time job too!  She has turned 14.  Both have grown into very pretty young ladies.  We still have a family dinner night so I do get to see the girls at least once a week.
Neither one asks to go and sew anymore.   Maybe as they get older they will come back to the machine. 
I have certainly been busy at the machine!  Both quilt guilds I belong to have had a push on to make at 150 charity quilts for Canada's sesquicentennial.  150 year anniversary!  and I believe we made that plus more for both!  My hands and wrists were sore from hand binding all the quilts that I worked on, so I needed to learn how to machine sew on the binding.  I could do it but it didn't look that nice...I needed more practice and I certainly got it.  Now I feel more confident sewing the binding on completely by machine.  And I think I will use that method more often!
Sew...that's it for today....

testing...testing..
This blog is testing my patience. 
As I said earlier, it seems I cannot upload pictures anymore.
I tried all sorts of different things to fix it.
I already have the newest browser, but I don't have CHROME and I don't want Chrome.  I prefer BING. And I use BING.
I think that may be my problem.  I think Blogger is part of google and google is part of chrome.
I think IF I want to upload pictures again, I need to install it.
If that doesn't work, then I will have to blog without the benefit of pictures, or just stop blogging all together.




Well....
I installed Chrome....shut down and restarted...
Still can't upload pics....................
So, THAT didn't work!  AT ALL!

I still can't seem to fix blogger so that I can up-load pics.
Soooo frustrating!


Kevin brought his newest quilt home to be repaired.
The kid is hard on his quilts.
At Christmas he brought his newest quilt for repair.
Hummmm...newest quilt ....it's over ten years old.
I don't know what he does to it, but the top and bottom were shattered.
The batting was shredding and the binding was gone.
I really had to sleep on it to figure out what to do to fix the quilt.
All the batting was there just pulled apart, but it was all there, so I decided to use batting tape (fusible tricot ) top and bottom, to fuse the batting back into shape.  I used a good cotton batting in his quilt.  I was able to fuse both front and back, top and bottom.
Then I looked into my stash for the  fabric that I used and BINGO! I found some!
I ended up machine appliqueing new blocks over the shattered ones, or what was left of the blocks.
I cut a new, wider binding, and sewed that on.
All most as good as new!
I would like to show you what I did, but blogger will not upload my pics.  Sorry

I have been sewing, actually repairing, mending and retying  quilts for my son.    He was the recipient of one of the first quilts I made.  I've made him 2 large quilts and both needed repair.
I think he is  very hard on his quilts.
He has a tumbling block quilt;  I tied that one.
It was a challenge for me...all those "Y" seams.  Not a lot of fun.
At least I used large blocks....lol!
It had a puffy polyester batt in it. 
Oh Gosh!  Why do we always want our first quilt to be puffy?
Sooooo, Kevin brought home the tumbling block quilt, saying it needed repair.
He had pulled out almost all the ties, and it was dirty.
First thing I did, was wash it.  Then I had to think about how I would re tie.
I thought, and I thought....for a couple of years...(he got a new quilt in the meantime).. then I took it out and worked on it a bit.
Straightened out the batting...I started doing a bartack to tie the quilt.
Didn't like that much and put it away....for a few more years.
He asked me about it this Christmas....
It was the push I needed, I guess.
Out it came again and  I washed it again. 
Then I seriously got down to getting it re tied.
BUT...instead of a bartack, I thought I would use eyelet buttonholes.
I put a whole lot more ties on the quilt.
And it didn't turn out too bad.
I was going to show a picture but for some reason, I can't upload it. 
I am working on trying to find out why I can't upload.  If I fix it, I will post it!

The holidays are finally over and it is back to reality.
The tree and all the ornaments are put away for another year.  We still have to disconnect all the lights, though.
I washed the tree skirt(s), Christmas table toppers and runners and put them away.
MissT was really out of sorts after I took it all down, kept coming into the living room and meowing at me....wandering around....lost...
MissT  loves to lay under the tree.
As soon as I start putting it up, she is sprawled out underneath.  I have to be careful not to step on her!
 I usually put a small quilt under the tree for her to cuddle in.   She doesn't seem to bother with the ornaments anymore.  Actually she never was one to play much at all.
I never had her as a kitten, I adopted her as an adult....maybe she never learned to play!   Plus she is getting be to an old lady now, she's over 10 years old.
My tree is an old one.  I have had it now for over 25 years.  It was a really expensive one that I bought after Christmas one year.  It really looks real!  Especially when I attach pinecones to the various branches.  It has fooled many people over the years.  The usual comment is that it doesn't have a very strong pine scent.


Grandkids back here after school and Mom over to pick them up.
hehe...I actually forgot they were to be here again yesterday!
I am a terrible Gramma!
The weather has been bitterly cold with lots of snow.
We certainly are getting the winter they called for.
I had to remind each of the girls that they need to cover their ears, wear their mitts and come straight home.
Hayley didn't come straight home and she had frostbite on her cheeks.
I remember my own daughter at this age.....mind of her own....

WELCOME 2014!

We had all the kids here for New Years dinner.
I cooked another turkey roll, scalloped potatoes and a large ham.  For veggies we has broccoli, cauliflower, carrots and roasted onions.
The mister loves his roasted onions.
 Cheese sauce , cranberry relish that my son made, and gravy.
We also had some baked brie as an appetizer again today.
This time I heated the cheese for 10 minutes and put it on a plate with crackers.
I still used that marble slab I have, only not for the cheese.
I starting baking my scalloped potatoes first,  (yes it was that big a pot of scalloped potatoes) then put the turkey roll into the oven.  When it was time to put the ham into the oven, I took out the potatoes, put the casserole on my cutting board and covered the whole thing with a couple of towels.
Not thin ones, good thick ones.  I wanted to keep it all hot.
I put the marble slab into the oven and let it get hot.
I then slipped that under the casserole dish.
Those potatoes were good and hot still when I put everything on the table.
The whole dinner was marvelous, and we were thankful to all be together and healthy.
My hope for you this year is health and happiness.
May your bobbin always be full.

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!