I was out talking to the neighbours today, enjoying the warm but wet weather we are having.  Both ladies had just lost their beloved older dogs.  Kefac,  was the black lab next door and sadly took a turn for the worse after christmas and had to be put down. The other dog was a pitbull and lived down the other end of the street, was a very nice, gentle girl, and also very old.

turkey tracks

turkey track block

Pit bulls aren't allowed in Ontario anymore...they have a bad reputation as an aggressive breed.  So my neighbour got a boxer/lab mix puppy...so cute..

canadian rose

When I was talking to my next door neighbour,  me told that she had taken the quilts she had shown me to a quilt appraiser..it turns out there are worth more than just a little bit.

The turkey tracks quilt is valued between $800 and $1200.

The rose quilt valued at $800 to $1500.

The well loved dresden plate...only around $100...BUT....if they had have been labeled by the maker...they would be worth much more

canadian rose

dresden plate

I decided to work on the next block and save the hand sewing of the last block for when I am watching TV with the mister.

Before christmas, I ordered a le creuset braiser for each of my kids...the second one hadn't arrived as of Thursday.

I kept hearing a noise and checking the door three or four times Thursday...nothing!...no one was there!...At about 3, I unlocked the front door for the girls and there was this box just sitting there.  I brought it in and unpacked the new braiser..put it on a chair in the living room and covered it with an afgan..

When my daughter came in I told her to just throw the afgan on the floor.  She threw it on the floor and shrieked ....!!!! her pot was finally here..

Very pretty green....apparently "fennel" is  a new colour.  She waited a looong time for her christmas gift.

Well, I did fix that one little square..I found a bigger piece of the fabric, so  I cut a small strip about 2 inches long and 1 2/5 inches wide.  Pressed the shorter edges a 1/4 inch...undid the top and bottum seams where the square was.  Slipped the prepared square into the two slots to cover the offending square...sewed the seams back up...turned it over and hand sewed the other two seams.  I examined it carefully and you can't tell where I fixed it!  GREAT..I gave it a good press...Now I am finding that when I press them seams open, I am disturbing the other seams that are pressed ...messing them up, so to speak.  So, I got my presscloth and started pressing all the seams again, this time covering the one I have done.  Worked like a charm...
I got the camera out to take a pic and then I noticed....another mistake...then another.  Well, I am going to use the same trick I just tried.  Hopefully it will work for a triangle.....We will see!
I really don't know how I did that...I was so carefull about the colour placement.  Just not careful enough, I guess.

I worked on a couple of blocks in The Farmers Wife Sampler Quilt.  I made this one, not too fond of the colours/ fabrics that I chose.  I don`t really like the basket but with one  hundred plus blocks in the quilt, one little block won`t matter much.  So   I think I will leave it as it is.

I also worked on this block called "Four  Winds".  Paperpieced....  It took a long time..All those little squares...I marked all the colours on the back so that I wouldn`t make a mistake.  Finally finished it ..decided to take the paper out of the seams, some of them were really thick.  After I did that I noticed that  I had sewn the last row on upside down, so I took it apart and fixed it. And pressed it...and really pressed it...lots of seams converge to form the pinwheel....

I thought I was doing really great ....

and then I saw it.....one square the wrong colour...crap!  no worries I can applique a square right there, right?...sorry...none of that fabric left.  I have to start over!  I think I will check my garbage pail first, though.

So, now I've found a scrap the right size.  Here is what I am planning on doing....I willopen up the seam top and bottom and slip the correct square ( two edges pressed) in, sew it by machine, then hand sew the two pressed edges to the sides.
Hopefully it won't take long..redoing the whole block  would take a couple of days, though.

I have always told my grand daughters "don't do anything blog worthy".  It's kept them on their toes and good behaviour....not that they are bad or difficult, Just normal growing girls.

So, they don't give me much to talk about.....
They are learning how to use the social media...especially Thing One.  She is almost 12.  Her birthday is 2 weeks away and she is maturing fast.  When she has difficultly with her little sister, Thing Two, I tell her ..."this is the way to handle it in a mature way, when you can do that without having to think about it, then we know you are really growing up."  Which she is! and fast!.

At any rate, she likes to be on the computer or ipod chatting with her friends or on facebook.

This week end she was so occupied, when Daddy decided he wanted to make yorkshire puddings to go with the roast they were having for dinner.  They called me and I gave them some pointers.  Daddy made his yorkshires and they failed.  He got hockey pucks!

After reading about it on Facebook, I called to see how they turned out.  My daughter killed herself laughing when I told her Thing One had posted it ...turn about is fair play, I guess. WE now have to watch that We don't do anything she might blog about!  lol

My neighbour has a decluttering business for seniors...or whoever needs it.  She came across these quilts from one of her clients.  Isabel Brubacker.

Unfortunately she didn't label her quilts. But here are a few pics of 3 of them.  The first is a well used Dresden plate..some of the blades have disintegrated.   The back was not cut away, so the quilt is still intact.   Hand appliqued and hand quilted.

This quilt was made for the Centennial year,( 1967).  Made from a Chatelaine magazine pattern called Canada Rose Quilt- Centennial Heirloom  inspired by a then new hybridised rose by Fred Blakeney called Miss Canada..  The rose is shades of pink, cerise and wine

This green quilt is one of the three she showed me. Again, hand appliqued and hand quilted..  These last two quilts were put away and are as bright as the day they were made .                                                                                                                            

            

I went over to my neighbours the other day and I noticed a absolutely beautiful piece of gold silk she had over her banister...I assume it was silk..the sari was embroidered beautifully along the bottom edge and down the front where it would show when worn.   The colours were fantastic. Still fresh, bright and clear....  Absolutely stunning.  It had been wrapped and put away for all her mother's adult life   She told me this story....

".My grandmother, Elizabeth MacRae, was born in Scotland and was the youngest of several girls. Her father died soon after she was born and her mother was having a hard time coping.  So Elizabeth went to live with the local doctor, his wife, and their only daughter, as a sort of adopted sister.  At some point in her teens, the doctor and his family spent some time in Kenya and Betty brought the sari back from there.  That would have been sometime between 1910 and 1914, I figure.

She subsequently married a WWI veteran and moved to Argentina with him, where he raised polo ponies.  She eventually started a boarding school for English children in the foothills of Cordoba, away from the unhealthy summer climate in Buenos Aires.  My father and mother were both born in Argentina and emigrated to Canada in 1952.  My grandmother gave me the sari on one of her trips to Canada."

As you can see, the colours are fabulous, even after 100 years.   The camera  washed out the gold colour, it's vibrant in person .

Well, I charged my phone and put it and my camera in my purse..went to guild and we had a fabulous speaker Sandy Simmelink.  I asked her if I could take pictures of her quilts and she kindly said yes.  So, I started to take a few pictures of her fabulous work.  She said that 2 of her quilts take her 2 years to finish and one took a year and a half.

This one took 2 years to finish..it commemorates her family.  There is a block for her father , in the second last row...a fiddle...he played for his daughters every night before bed....a wreath of flowers for her mother in the second row..Saturdays after chores , they would fill their house with flowers from the garden.. many of the blocks are beaded and three dimensional.                                                                                        

Here is a cathedral window quilt heavily embellished.
Then my camera battery died...some of the pictures I took are not there..

I got out my phone....not too proficient with it, but I did get a few more pics.

Here is another quilt that took Sandy 2 years to finish..also 3d.  The lady's sleeves on the top left block are lace...tatted lace if I remember properly.  Here is a close-up.

She had some other quilts that she spoke about ...that and her technique for free motion quilting.  I took pics, but they aren't on the camera..

I am changing that thing as we speak.  Funny, I took this camera because I wasn't sure how strong the batteries in my other camera were....

A great night, I wish it could have been more.

Quilt guild tonight and I am charging my phone and putting my camera in my purse...Hopefully I don't forget to use them and have some pics to show.
We went for a walk the other day and I put my phone in my pocket...three days later when I wore that coat again.....hmm  there is my phone!  I didn't even miss it..

I got a phone when my mother moved an hour away and was declining rapidly and I thought if I was on the highway a lot, I should have a phone, just in case....But I hardly used it.  Just not hooked up like some of the younger generation, and really don't want to be.

The mister has had a phone since they first became available...A huge thing as big as a briefcase....he didn't carry around all the time with him, just during business hours..we had to have a special receiver and  antenna installed in our car for better service...no special features...no games...no features....just a phone.....now! HAH...people can't live without them..coverage is great...phones fit in the palm of your hand and the cost is similar...

$700.00 for the phone and $17.00 a month for service.. all calls extra.  I remember one month when he had a lot of problems with quality control in the company he worked for and his bill was over $500.00!!!  That was a whole lot of talking, and soothing of costumers.

As I said before ..MOD CONS(modern conveniences) can't live without them!

I got another block done...postage stamp

I had some squares precut and just used them.  Not paper pieced this time.

I am at a loss today...don't know what to say!
I am blocked? It was blue Monday yesterday.  "They" say people are more likely to be depressed or "blue"   The weather has been cold, now warm and rain again, with some fog.   Who knows?  Am I doing nothing?  Well, that's true...my life IS pretty boring.  I don't go out much, my house it my domain...
I am horrified at the current events...can't imagine the terror that was felt on that cruise ship .That was a terrible Friday the 13th....I do pray that they find survivors.

I've worked on a couple of blocks.

I am still fussing over colour selection, taking far longer than I should just to decide.

The first is Honeycomb.  It went together quite nicely without any glitches.  Didn't need to resew any seams.

Next was Woodbox...

Very easy to do ..I still fussed with the colour selection.

And last but not lest Periwinkle.  I chose a blue and purple  with a very light background.

I've been trying to put in a concerted effort to sew every day.  I've got to clean the house and do some laundry.  The town finally came and fixed the drip from the water meter.  I will want to wait to see if t leaks anymore, then I can put the stuff back under the stairs.  I did get rid of some of the stuff...I had silk stretcher frames for silk painting that I got from an ex-sister-in-law...gave those away.  I had never used them in...maybe...20(?) years or so..gone..out with you!  lol
The mister and I are trying to get to a healthy weight again, we are taking an hour walk a day..that's one less hour to sew.  lol  I am weighing every thing that goes into my mouth..and that means I am taking more time for meal prep...

I have done some sewing..worked on  block 47 called Homemaker....it should be called home wreaker with those tricky 'Y' seams. I thought I would utilize the stripe in the green fabric, then I sewed it wrong quite a few times, took it apart and redid it.  But I got it done, with a few others.  Almost halfway home with the farmer's wife quilt.

  The mister and I went out for a hour long  walk last week end . It was a beautiful, sunny, warmish day, about 32*F or 1*C.   To our amazement we noticed dandelions in  seed along the sidewalks.   That means...It has been WARM enough for them to bloom.  They weren't there last week!  Weather man says winter IS coming, I don't know when but when it does and I bet it will hit like a ton of bricks!  In the forecast for this week end, we were expecting freezing rain and some snow..but, the storm  has been through. And we had just a small dusting.  The storm was all around us.

In the mean time, I am trying to spend some time in my sewing room.

I had to put the sewing machines and all the stuff that the girls used in their workshop, away.  That started me trying to clean up more stuff.
I worked in my computer room for a while and only threw out some really old cds and two really old  books....not much of a clean out..lol  I have too much stuff!

I bought some beads for one of my wallhangings...now I have to find somewhere to put THEM!  Worst part is, it was cheaper to buy a bag three times the size, than a small one!

Then I went and finished the block that I was working on.

 Went together quite nicely.  Block # 46 , called Hill and Valley.
I sewed and unsewed this a few times.  I used a background I have used often.

Last night was quilt guild and there I sat...no phone!....no camera!...so no pics...sorry! 

In December we lost one of our members, Pam, to cancer. She had been quite active in the guild..she was quilt show organiser for a couple of shows, plus numerous other things she did for guild.

  She had hoped to make wedding quilts for all of her 13 grandchildren....Well, that was not to be...this summer she got the bad news....

She belonged to a stitch group and they all stepped up to help finish these quilts.  Last night these ladies, brought the quilts that they had finished for Pam.   Some were in progress, some mostly finished, some just an idea.

 Now, thanks to these angels, each of her grandchildren will have their wedding quilt when the time comes.

The girls went for their workshop today.  I stayed with them in case they had trouble with their machines and of course they did.

They really had fun making a little jewellery pouch.  First they practised their skills on some muslin, which I though was a great idea...after all, who likes sewing on paper?!.  It also gave us a chance to debug any sewing machines.  There were 2 other little girls there for the workshop also. After getting to know one another the girls started comparing their work, and helping one another.   Everyone seemed to have a great time.  After the girls all finished their projects, they decided to all try out all the fancy stitches on their machine, so they were given some more fabric with stabilizer to make their samples.

Paige, Megan, Brenda, Courtney and Hayley

I was able to work on putting a hanging sleeve on my wall hanging for the quilt show, I found the light in the store fabulous for working on a black project.  The sleeve is finished and now all I have to do is add the label.

The girls have been here all week..Thing One sat and played with her Ipod and my laptop..keeping in touch with her school mates.  Thing Two and I went upstairs to my sewing room.  She had some Pj's to hem....(.hmmm just like Grammie...)
So, up we went, I cut them down after measuring them and asked..."What shall we do with the cut off piece?"...Thing Two sat down to my new machine and sewed up the bottoms of the cut off ends of her  Pj's , we slipped a ribbon through the old hem and turned them into 2 little fuzzy bags....then, after I folded and pinned for her she sewed up her own new hems.  Proud as punch, she was!!!..then, while I cleaned and oiled 2 sewing machine for them to take for their workshop, she played with the machine...making samples and using the circle maker..made herself a coaster..with all the embroidery patterns...She played all afternoon.
Then we had to go downstairs and make dinner.  It was pasta night and the 3 girls stay for dinner.  Thing Two helped by cutting up all the veggies for dinner.  This little girl wants to be a domestic goddess.

I can't believe how warm it is..the precipitation is .....rain...rain...rain.... I remember one year (a number of years ago) that my sister -in- law was actually flooded out of her apartment...not a good thing right at Christmas and New Years..she went to her mother's apartment..... which was the next floor in the building.......good thing she had somewhere to take her family...
then it gets bitterly cold..
our weather is crazy! 
 El Nino!
 La Nina!..
too warm .......then
 too cold.......
Usually it is cold  here now...but....it's not ...we have rain..then some snow..then rain... then a lttile snow then a lot a warmth and rain........do I want the cold?
Some...but not a lot...I don't like to be cold.  It's supposed to be bitterly cold for a day.
I have a mattress heater.....just bought it this fall to keep those cold toes and legs warm...it hasn't been cold enough!!
well... maybe..I have been enjoying getting into a nice warm bed......it is sooo nice to get into a prewarmed bed....it helps with that unwelcome guest Aurther i tiss...

Here it is...New Years day and it is raining...again...no snow any more...it is all gone..yet in my son's city of Toronto..there is snow...
we are green...again...

New Years dinner was a huge success..we had ham...the ham was great..I haven't baked a ham in years....scalloped potatoes ( a family favorite if you haven't already guessed...veggies with cheese sauce (another family fav)  sugar pie AGAIN,( hubby fav) and banana dulce de leche for dessert...3 courses...2 desserts..lol..that's it for a while!  now we DIET!

...It seems like a long time since I have blogged about the Farmers wife sampler quilt.  I have been sewing a little on it..got a few more blocks done.
  I do mean a few......But not as much as I'd like. Here is a pic of one friendship star.
I haven't done the amount of sewing that I had hoped, or though I would get done.
I had hoped to sew all week long...hahahahaha
(that was a hysterical laugh right there and I am shaking myself in disbelief that I REALLY thought that I would be able to do more)...I didn't...we sat far too much and talked and drank tea or watched TV........we did a whole lot o' nothin'..........I REALLY can't imagine what is going to happen when the mister retires......ooooohhh...my gooooodnessss...he is already past retirement age..and my knees are sore from not moving enough..my hips are sore from not moving enough.....I  logged in to Ebay far too often...lusting after sewing machines I would never use to their full potential but wanting anyway...just..... because...(maybe I have something burning a hole in my pocket).......I can certainly feel it burning....ohhh ahhh..how I would love THATone........

While I was at my fav store, I also picked up a little thing called a mat cleaner for my cutting mat.  It looks like a piece of crepe rubber that they used to make shoe soles out of....But it works.  I had a whole lot of fibres embedded in my cutting mat that I just couldn't get out with my tape roller or clothes brush as suggested by some of the cutting mat sites.  Fleece and quilt batting have been embedded deeply and needed to be removed.  That did it nicely, although I do have lots left.  I have been using it often, it will clean out the remaining fibres eventually.



I took the mister with me and he had a little boo around the store, asked me which machine was the same as mine, which I showed him...Of course Elsa,(store owner) said I loved my machine still, right? to which I replied..yes , I looove my new machine ..and the new acrylic table that came with it...although I had to cut my machine desk more and use the acrylic table without the legs, to set my machine in my desk.  I told her I adjusted the height of the machine in the desk so that I had the acrylic table maybe an inch above the tabletop..it meant that the hinges on my desk didn't interfere with my sewing...and that I bought some suction cups to stop any slipping and  support the table in different areas.

no legs, just the nubs

I told her I had it in my blog, but I thought I would say it again, so that anyone just looking can find it right here.
This is how I did it.
The acrylic table sits ..maybe an inch above the desk top..not too much added height


extra suction cups for support and slippage



I went out to my favourite sewing machine store, Sewing Machines Etc.,  I needed more bobbins and I wanted another bobbin holder.  There is a newer one on the market called
Grabbit Bobbin Saver.  It's a soft plastic ring that is flexible enough to hold bobbins without them falling out, yet tight enough that they don't spin and unwind.  Holds any kind of bobbins..metal or plastic.  I now have two of them.  I have one of the hard plastic ones and I don't like it too much at all.  I have boxes that hold bobbins, I fight with the covers to get at the bobbins.  Besides, I keep my other machine bobbins in different cases.
I thought that I would get a whole lot of sewing done this week and I have hardly gone into my sewing room.
I have shortened some pjs...can you imagine that?? having to shorten your pjs??
I have to..or buy capri pjs.  I have some of those, but I find my legs are cold at night.  I like the room really cool, but then I need longer legs on the pjs, and then I have to shorten.

One pressie still has not arrived...I gave our daughter the option to take mine if she wanted...she says she will wait.
Every day I check to see if it has been picked (from the warehouse ) and shipped...not yet.  

still missing


I don't know if I can cancel the order and reorder a blue one.  
Our son loves his...he is a good cook and I know he will use it often.
As for mine, I use it almost every day and I love it.
I am getting to old to hang on to stuff I don't absolutely love.

Soon everything will be back to normal...back to quilt guilds..maybe take a few workshops.  I will try to remember to take my camera..or at least remember that I have a camera in my phone....and remember to keep that charged..lol.
Speaking of workshops I signed up Thing One and Thing Two for a kids sewing work shop at my local sewing machine store, Sewing Machines Etc..  Just a one day workshop.  They have a week long workshop, but I don't know if I will have the two of them here all week...so, just Friday it is.
I hope they enjoy themselves...I will have to schlep 2 sewing machines for them to use at the workshop.  Good thing the mister is home and can do the heavy schlepping for us.

You are behind me....Here it is the 27 of December and it is finally snowing.  The weatherman has been saying that it was coming all day...it was raining most of the day and night, then the temperature started to drop and the rain turned to snow. So finally, it looks like Christmas.
And today, we will finally have Christmas with the kids.  Our son came back again today (he lives in the city of Toronto) and our daughter and her family came over to open pressies. 
As I said I would ,..I made pizza for dinner.  but just for the three of us again.
Daddy had to work today, so Mommy and Daddy will bring Thing One and Two over after dinner.
I had ordered a le Creuset brazier for both of my kids...only one came.  I checked my order on-line on the 24th and it still hasn't been picked yet.  I told my daughter that if she wanted to she could take mine and I would wait for the other one.  I guess I should have ordered the same colour for both of the kids.
Thing One and Thing two were over the moon with their gift from their other grandparents...an Ipod touch EACH.....keeps them VERY, VERY quiet....lol

Christmas dinner was great!
Turkey roll ( de-boned turkey) was very good, all the veggies  and  scalloped potatoes were excellent ..Sugar pie and blueberry pie were excellent.  Our son ate to his heart's content, but because I forgot to take my meds...I suffered with indigestion....as soon as I realised I forgotten, I took them, but now I have to wait for my tummy to settle.  Sonny brought back a bunch of my plastic containers and then took home the same amount full of leftovers for him...the works..more turkey, some potatoes, veggies, gravey and blueberry pie.
Christmas day was good, but our son wanted to wait for his sister and nieces before he opened any pressies. So, all will be here again on the 27th.  I am not cooking again...too much work and then to do it again on New Years...well, maybe pizzas....
We opened what we had for one another ...our son gave us some videos...Gone With the Wind , and Wizard of Oz for me and Dirty Harry for the mister.
We gave him a le creuset brazier.

I watched Gone with the Wind again...and it wasn't as I remembered...what a shock!  It's been a while since I last saw it, and this time I watched it on the laptop. I don't think that I ever saw the very beginning.
 I paid attention to the sets and costumes ...I paid attention to the whole movie...if I needed to pause,  I did....I really enjoyed it and I knew I would.  I have been trying to get it for a while.  I know that I will watch it numerous times.
After I watched the movie, I watched Carol Burnett's spoof of Gone with the Wind..(again)..I really cracked up when she wore the drapes and said.."I saw it in the window and couldn't resist!"..lol  ..