Today is my blogaversary...one year today I started blogging.  At first I blogged every day.  I couldn't keep up that pace for very long. lol
I even blogged when I went on holidays...and read blogs on holidays.
I admire how Leah Day could put out such a great blog every day...with videos to boot.
Other people have lots of neat ideas, lots of advice and lots of pictures.  LOL!  Half the time I forget my camera...then I even forget I have a phone and can use that...silly of me. I usually forget any neat ideas I have read about until after I finished my project, then it hits me...oh crap ..I could have done it this way!
Some days, I can write 2 or 3 blogs..other days I sit here wondering what I can blog about.
As you know, my grand daughters have been front and centre a lot this summer.  That's cause they are here and I spend the days with them...doing whatever they want to do....
Blogging, sewing and housework get put aside while we craft or do whatever.
Next week...back to reality...here's hoping that I can keep it up for another year!

One of the groups I belong to is a quilting group...long arm quilting. Another one is for the smaller frames also.   I've had a Super Quilter frame (original tabletop) for 8 years or so and a Husqvarna MegaQuilter. 
 At first I used my regular sewing  machine on the frame.  I found I couldn't quilt a large enough space, so I got the MegaQuilter.
 I really enjoy using this frame and machine, I can quilt a quilt quite fast.  Sometimes it takes longer to load the quilt than to quilt it...lol...I was blown away a few years ago when I saw the new frame that my local sewing store SewingMachinesEtc.. 
Some of the frames now use a spline instead of a leader..saves so much time...saves so much work......But I don't produce enough to warrant getting a new frame.....
Anyway, because I have the frame I didn't really progress with free-motion quilting on my domestic machine.
So, I have been making smaller projects that can be done on my machine, well, except for the famer's wife sampler quilt.
I am blown away also by the quality of quilting on a machine nowadays.  Some ladies are so talented in their quilting...I never cease to be amazed!
I am looking forward to getting back into the sewing room and getting moving on my quilting and piecing.
And maybe even looking forward to the change of seasons......well...some cooler weather anyway.

I am fed right up!

I keep getting phonecalls about getting my ducts cleaned.
I have told them I am not interested, and they call again...
I tell them not to call and they call again...
I've told them I don't have ducts and they still call.
I have gotten mad and sworn at them...
They call back.
You can't call the number back.
I am on the "Do NOT Call List"...it's useless.
I have call block on my  phone service and call block on my phones.
I can only block 12 numbers on my Bell service, I don't know how many I can block with my phone....I already have quite a few blocked.
Sooo...
I block their number and they still call.
They change the number they call from and call again.
I reported them to the CRTC.
I don't know if it will stop....
But I'm p*ssed off and not taking it any more!

3 more days of full day babysitting and then it's back to school.   BIG sigh...Courtney is being difficult...she doesn't want to do the crafts I have lined up and keeps complaining of being bored......she wants to shop...worst part is, she doesn't really want anything!
She hasn't been in the pool for quite a while...doesn't want to...fatigue is a Big factor!
I've told her mother if she doesn't get to bed earlier and get more sleep, I am bringing her home!  She is far too old for crying tantrums!
If she is tired, she won't have a snooze.  She never would, even as a baby.  So she needs to hit the pillow early!
She finally stopped crying and went back to her crafting.  We are trying to create a picture with glue, then let it dry and paint it...the glue is not thick enough...hot glue is too thick and it needs to dry overnight.
Thank Goodness she has a birthday party today...something to do and friends to see!

Opps!  Didn't post yesterday. But   I did spend some time in my sewing room.  I went up to make a couple of birthday cards and to sew on my spiderweb quilt but starting on something else.
I had a little bit of red white and green fabrics that I had already sewn into a strata.  Well scraps from it anyway.
I cut 6 inch blocks from it , and started sewing on a little quilt for Courtney and her doll.
I stopped to make and eat dinner, then the mister and I worked on the pool. 
After that we went for a long walk....well, we intended to go for a long walk.
While out, I saw an old school  friend.  She and I  lived on the same street and went to the same schools.  She had moved to the general area a few years ago and we a promised to keep in touch.  We ran into one another a couple of times since, but I hadn't seen her for quite a while.
I thought I saw her last week when we went out for a walk but I wasn't sure.
I saw her last night walking her little dog, and we talked and walked for quite a while.  My feet were really sore by the time we got home and back I went to my sewing room.

But I got the whole thing done.
Sewn, quilted and bound....Done!

Yesterday was family dinner night, the mister was in Montreal, so it was just us 4 girls for dinner.
I took a break and we had burgers for dinner.  I love a good burger!  We don't have them often, so I really enjoy them when we do.
After dinner, my daughter played with hair dye ......Hayley now has black hair and Courtney's ponytail was "dipped" in black..  She also has some black streaks around her face.  I find the black too harsh around her face, but the dips look good.  Hayley looks really stunning in her black hair...makes her eyes look blue ...(they are a greenish blue).
Mommy does like to play with her girls' hair!
 I wish I could grow my hair long and play with style and colour, but I have fine, curly hair that reacts to humidity..any humidity..and I get too hot with my hair longer.

As I said, the mister was in Montreal yesterday...now it's official...he is retiring in 7 months...he has given the company an extra year and a half.  Time for him to relax now.  He has been travelling for a long time!
The extra half year was my idea...I didn't think it was a good idea for him to retire in October.  He likes to play golf, so March is better...he can fill his days with golf and work in the garden.
When he get bored, he can help me in the sewing room...there are a lot of men that take up quilting!  Only thing is...he has to get his own stash!

The girls were supposed to be in art camp this week...cancelled...Hayley is making herself busy downloading some books from the library.  
Courtney wants to play with clay.   She would be if she was at camp.  I praised this place for their summer camp, the girls were anxiously waiting for their week of camp and now the girls are really disappointed..

So Courtney wants to play with clay.

Of course I have some!  I has some cheapy dollar store clay that I've had for a couple of years.  She has been playing with it, but she is complaining that is drying out too fast and she can't do much with it.
I wonder if she would like to use some FIMO clay...I have lots of that!

Oh...nope!  Now she is asking to work on assembling a small wooden birdhouse.  She has used a glue gun at school so I guess she is old enough to use it here..
Off we go to make bird houses....

Well, Courtney and I finished off her sleep pants....I only guided her, she did all the work.   She didn't want to hem the bottoms of the legs, so they were just serged.  She is really proud of herself!

NOW, she wants to work on a dress...It really shouldn't be too hard for her, it's got a lined bodice.  She likes the square neckline.

It takes over 3 metres of fabric....hmmm...should I buy some or should I let her raid my stash....will she wear this dress?????
Hayley has her nose in a book again today.  She has read more than 6 books in 4 weeks or less.

I'm looking for my sewjo......have you seen it?...it's gone missing.
I haven't worked on quilting for a while. Although, I do have a top I could layer and start quilting on, but it seems I've sewn doll clothes and that's it! That's made Courtney REALLY happy! lol!
Soon, both quilt guilds that I belong to will start, school will start and the grand daughters will be here only after school again.  I will have more free time. The family room will stay fairly neat again.
Now that we are at the end of the summer holidays, it seems harder and harder to keep Courtney occupied.  She is getting bored and there is no one around to play with.  Hayley just keeps on reading and reading....She read the Twilight series last summer, she read The Hunger Games before it was cool, and she had read quite a few books this summer.  She really wasn't into any crafting, except when we played with alcohol inks.  Then she got into it, but the alcohol gave her a headache.
Maybe I will have Courtney bake cupcakes.  She likes doing that and I do have a few mixes I need to use up...

Oh crap...
The girl's last week of art camp has been cancelled.  There goes all my plans for this week. I don't think we can get them into another week of dance camp.  They are really disappointed.  They were looking forward to using a pottery wheel and sculpting clay.  What Coutney made at the beginning of the summer at this camp still has to be completed, and turned over to her. I wonder what is going on????

Courtney and I cut out 3 pairs of sleep pants the other day and she used the serger to sew them.
We still have to make the elastic casing, hem them and then they are done!
 She laid out the pattern and she cut out most of it herself.  I had to help because we layered all the fabric at once.  I sat beside her and directed her on her method of sewing, and except for one seam where she missed quite a bit and she asked me to redo it, she did it all.  She is really quite pleased with herself.
I guess we will finish that this week instead of next week...I still have a few crafts for them to do.  Hayley has been doing ALOTof  reading and not really interested in crafting.
I really hate to hear  "I am bored!"  ! !  

Courtney has been watching some on-line videos and has been getting ideas for her dolls....oh dear!
She wanted to go to thrift shops looking for jewellery boxes to use as a dresser for her doll.  She wants to make a tree house for her doll....oh dear!  We didn't find anything....mom doesn't want any more "stuff" at home...no room for it!
We did find a very easy pattern for her to sew for herself.
Tomorrow we will go to Fabric Land and see about some flannel for her to make herself some sleep pants.  We can use the scraps to make PJs for her doll.
Hayley always find stuff at these places..books..lots of books...how could I say no to books?
I never would.  One time we went to Value Village and I told the girls they could have books, not toys....OMG! we came home with bags of books!
 Money well spent really.

Almost....I had it in my hands again today..  I even looked at fabric.  But I put it aside...no FWSQ today.  I did try.

But instead Courtney and I sewed on doll clothes.

panties

I made her panties for her doll, She's been complaining that her doll has no underwear...Well, she does now!

I made her a shirred sundress.  I tried putting the elastic on my bobbin,  the elastic wouldn't stay in the tension  so I ended up zigzaging over the elastic thread instead.

Last night, after Courtney went home I went into the sewing room and made her a skating costume.  The circle ruffle was easy to do, figuring out the size wasn't too bad. 

Courtney came in this morning, saw it  and was thrilled!

Soon....Soon I will be back at the FWSQ.  The month is half over now.  School starts in 3 weeks and after I give the house a good clean , I will be back at sewing the FWSQ.  While maybe the week after that....The mister is planning a week off. 

skating custome

sundress

I tried...
I tried really hard...
But I didn't get it done..
I picked up my pattern for the next block in the Farmer's Wife Sampler quilt...I got the book...opened it to the page of the block...and didn't choose fabric and didn't sit down and sew it.
Why?  why indeed....Thing Two wanted to sew....so I layered  a cheater panel with batting and backing and set her up at one machine.
Then I made a pattern for a body suit for her doll and sewed that up...then I started on a second one....she wanted a skating dance outfit.  I needed to research on-line how to make a ruffle from a circle...well, I knew how, I just wanted to refresh my memory. 
So, now she has a ice skating outfit complete with skates (OMG! the skates were $12.00! at Micheals..but we had a coupon for 40% off)  I used my hot fix bejeweller to decorate her outfit..
I have been spending more time sewing doll clothes than anything else!  LOL!

Thing Two is getting anxious for September.

  Not for back to school.  ( the 4th)

  Not for mommy's birthday  (the 7th)

  Not for her own birthday. ( the 12th)

But for her great aunt Maggie to come for a visit....
Why?

She's bringing her a featherweight sewing machine...Lucky girl!
Thing Two is really anxious to start sewing on her own.
The other night, she bought herself some fat quarters and a bin to put her sewing stuff in.  She wanted to buy thread.
 I guess she will be looking for scissors, rulers and all the other stuff we need.  I keep telling her I have lots of fabric, she should save her money..
LOL...she is gathering all her supplies ahead of time.
She told me she built a "fort" over a table in the basement so that she can lay claim to the space and use it for her sewing..
I have no idea what she wants to sew...but she sure seems determined!

This week I will have her play with my machine and work on a cheater panel if she wants to.

It's Sunday and the week looms ahead.  I have no idea what to blog about today, or the week ahead.
We've had 4 days of dark, dreary weather with lots of rain. We really needed the rain.  The grass is greening up nicely  but the garden still looks like it's September.
We still haven't harvested any tomatoes yet.  There are lots on the plant, but all still green.  I will probabley be overwhelmed with tomatoes when they do ripen.  How I loved a toasted tomato sandwich when the tomato is still hot from the sun!
I had one green pepper almost ready, then it rotted on the vine....darn!
I like the taste of homegrown veg, much better than store bought.
My sister has chickens....yum...fresh eggs.   I remember when we were kids (sis a baby)...we had chickens...Mom sold eggs.  The taste of those fresh eggs.....yummo!  I sometimes  wish we could have chickens here.

  Hmmm...
gremlins again today...this should have posted at 1:00 am  last night.  But here it is now!
I came into the family room the other day, mug of tea in hand , and I looked out the patio door.  I almost dropped my mug.  lol...
You know how a really small puppy plays in the grass...jumping over the grass ..falling over..wiggling,(giggling) then getting up and jumping again and again..well, out the in the (not long) grass was a tiny little chipmunk...cavorting in the grass! Sooo cute!
   I could remember  the delighted squeals of laughter of my own babies when they first touched grass  lol...quite the entertaining sight.
   The cat, MissT has been staying in...far too hot for her to be out.  She has been shedding like crazy, STILL!  So she lays at the patio door watching whatever comes to the bird feeder...squirrels, doves, finches, wrens and  chipmunks.
 I actually think there might be chipmunks living under the back porch.
It's been so hot here..
  I will have the patio door open for a little while in the morning until it starts to get too warm in the family room, then I close it up again.
Yesterday we sat out on the back patio in the rain.  Enjoying the sound of the rain and coolness it brought. We have been doing that a lot!
 One evening a storm blew up suddenly (it had threatened all day long) just as we sat for dinner...well it rained, then poured, then teemed and thundered...we were stuck..we couldn't leave ...our dinner would have been ruined....so we sat and ate and by the time we finished we were wet...even under the canopy.  We listened to the peals of thunder that went on and on.

Every evening we are cooking and eating outside ...the other day we even cooked the pasta on the BBQ...as long as the flies and mosquitos don't bug us (me).  Surprisingly, they haven't been too bad.  Now that I've said that, they will get bad! lol

We'll sit out and have our tea and coffee and watch the dragon flies swoop around catching bugs.

Today Thing Two had a friend over, so yesterday I primed a couple of wooden  plaques and a couple of large stars from the dollar store.
Then when Friend One arrived I took their pic..printed it out.  Had them cut it out, then we podged it on to the star.  After it is dried we will paint the stars...and they can take them home.
Friends' Mommy said she would be staying only a couple of hours...they have a new baby nephew to go see.
 So we have quite a few things to squeeze into the day.. the girls want to play with their dolls.  Thing Two is anxious to show off her new doll clothes.


painted and exchanged



I have some new patterns...we can sew some more this week while Thing One is at day camp.

Maybe I can get some more shoes made for the doll.  The take a long time.  I will have Thing Two help!

In the meantime I have started sewing my spiderweb blocks together. Haven't really got much done.  But I did expect this would happen in the summer...I just get too busy with the girls, and the garden.  That will soon come to an end, they are growing up so fast and summer is half over!

 This week has really been a bust.  I have been watching FAR too much TV.  Even I am sitting here yelling "ROW! ROW!"  , or "!RUN!"  "GO GO GO!".   lol....it's hard on my throat because it is a little sore still.

I am so proud of all the Olympians!  All of them ..no matter what country they come from..( well maybe I'll exclude  those who didn't put through their best effort)

Good thing the Olympics only come every few years!



Thing Two and I have big plans for this week....(Thing One is at day camp),
she wants to sew...she also wants her own machine. Too bad I got rid of all the extras I had.  Well, I misplaced (?) one.  I don't know what happened to it...really!  I don't! My sister has many (10-12) featherweights...she is running out of room for them all...so she has promised to bring one for Thing Two when she comes for a visit in September. 

It will be a short week, so no dawdling  on the crafts!  lol  Our time will end quite early.  Camp is finished at 3:00, so anything we start will have to be almost completed by then. She says she would like to make another small quilt. And some doll clothes.  I made her 2 body suits (leotards) a skirt, a dress and 5 pairs of tights for her doll.  I made the tights from pantyhose and trouser socks (like knee highs)...she is the best dressed doll around! lol!

We did some decoupage today, hopefully we will get it all finished in time for mom's birthday in September.  We are decoupaging glass and plastic Christmas ornaments for her.  We have enough for Thing One to do some too...

When I picked Thing One from camp she was hungry and hot...she wanted in the pool right away to refresh herself.

Someone told me they would be over if I talked about family dinner night.
It was tonight....come on over...but it's all gone..
We didn't have pasta...we (me, since I do the cooking...you cook, you decide)...wanted corn (again). The corn harvest may be affected by the drought, but it sure does taste great!  Other people who will remain nameless wanted burgers...there was some chicken in the fridge that must be cooked.  So we had a real summer BBQ
...corn, chicken and burgers...
Thing Two worked on a "day of the dead" skull...turned out real nice...Thing One vegged in front of the TV.

Thing one hasn't worked on her skull yet...I wonder if she will?

We had some left over corn on the cob...I removed the corn and made it into a salad along with green and red pepper, sweet onion, cherry tomatoes and italian dressing.  It was really, really good.  Went great with the leftover BBQ'd chicken.          

I still have the sore throat...all raspy ..I hope it doesn't last too long.
The girls wanted to go shopping, so off we went to our local Value Village.  The girls found themselves a couple of really nice jackets.  They are being washed as we speak...everything get washed when it comes in....we purchased a nice wool jacket for Thing One and I gently hand washed it too..She is definitely becoming more fashion conscious...and fussy!
My daughter calls Value Village the old gifts home..where unwanted,wrong sized gifts go to find new life...lol
The girls are happy with their purchases...and we killed an afternoon...
Tonight, I am going into my sewing room...first the mister wants me to fix a strap on his golf bag...all done...I redid the strap all together and gave him a velcro strap.  He broke the parachute clip on his strap and I told him it won't hold.
Now I am going to sew!  If it kills me!
And Monday is a holiday, so no blog for that day.  I'll talk to you Tuesday.

oh crap...I have something...sore throat...really runny nose...feel like crap...and the girls are here.

I brought out some of the crafts I bought for the girls to work on and they seemed really excited.  I had purchased a large canvass for each of them plus a "mod" wall decoration I though we would podge to the canvass then paint. 
They didn't want to do that.
They want to paint a scene on their canvass and just decorate the mod wall art.


Courtney's

 Sooooo..The wall art is slick plastic and I really don't think the paint will stick to it..I thought that if we covered it with podge it would be fine...but they don't want to do that...I had purchased  some alcohol inks and they work on glossy surfaces.  I brought those out...gave the girls each an apron and some plastic gloves....and they "painted" the wallart with the inks.  I had one applicator and made 3 more for them to use.  Eventually I had to have Courtney take off her gloves because they were far too big and she was wasting ink and making a mess.  I ended up with messy hands just cleaning up her mess...lol..
The wallart is quite pretty in person; the picture doesn't do it justice. 
Each girl did something different.  They put gold and silver ink on them along with the various colours.
I am having them take home their completed projects so that they can find some where for them..lol





Hayley's







We cleaned off the applicators with alcohol onto photo paper...these turned out fantastic.  Both girls did a great job on their craft...although Thing One did get a headache from the alcohol.  I think they had more fun decorating the paper than any thing else.





pretty paper made from inks

We can use some of this pretty paper to make a birthday card for mommy!

stamping off the excess ink



August already!  It seems so much later because we have had hot weather for so long now..very unusual for us.  At least last week we had lots of rain.  Lawns around here were brown and crunchy....lol...I read in the paper about a man who has a side business (he is a teacher) spraying lawns with green dye..costs about $200...lasts for months..

My garden looks like it's September.  All my black eyed susan are out.   The purple cone flower  is out..both are daisies and both have been in blossom for quite a while and are almost finished.  My hostas aren't in bloom yet, but I dug them all up this spring and split them.  I made a whole lotta people on Freecycle very happy.  I must have given away a thousand dollars worth of plants!
I had some miniature red roses by the back door that shot up, were covered in blooms most of the month.  I had to cut it back hard, the stems were spindly and didn't support the blooms.  It's coming back nicely and has been blooming again.

The weeds have been bad for me this summer.  I sit on the lawn and pull them up, but they seem to be never ending.

I have a lot of bind weed.... and I pull it and pull it..some of the plants are pretty big,  my fingers get sore from pulling it out by the roots.  And of course,  all that ground-in dirt is impossible to wash away, I hate to sew in case I get my project grimy.  Maybe next summer, the mister will pull all the weeds for me.....