AHHHH! At last, some cooler weather.
We had a cold front come through...and when a cold front meets a warm front (or in this case a "hot" front), you can get ferocious thunder storms.
 We had quite the storm....pounding rain, hail, wicked winds, trees toppled, hydro(electricity) lines downed and the poles that carried the lines downed.
Parts of the city were without power...some for over 24 hours.
(HMMM...there is a nursing home over in that area...I wonder how they made out?)
The temperature outside is now a comfy 72 degrees.  Last week we had 94-96-98 even 101degrees!
I have a reliable temperature gauge under my patio table, in the shade (under a canopy), and one morning last week it was 101!  But in full morning sun!...Man it was breathless out.
Great for the pool and swimming, though!
The temps in the pool went up to 90.
I loved that!
 I won't even think about getting in unless it is 84.
Too cold and it just makes me ache....so it's not worthwhile to get in it before it's warm enough for me.
I have a "low tech" solar heater for the pool.
That's a 50 foot black garden hose coiled on the patio stones on the far side of the pool.  I attached the hose to one of the jets with a fountain attachment.
AND...It really works!
The girls are having fun in the pool.....Well, Courtney is....Hayley is being a normal teen...doesn't want to get her hair wet...doesn't want to look like she is having fun!
She has been reading a bit this summer.
I have been doing a bit of reading myself.
I have numerous books that I have either collected or been given, to read.
Right now I am reading "Blow Fly" by Patricia Cornwell.  I like her books...my daughter and I will swap back and forth, and I have a good friend that exchanges books with me. (She passes more my way than me her way).
One thing about having my sewing room in the basement....I don't like going down there when the weather is nice.

We are in the midst of a hot wave.  (if you didn't know)
The meteorologists have been telling us all spring that we would have a hot dry summer.
I didn't believe it, since we were having a very long, cold cool, wet spring.
But! Due to this heat, I have some tomatoes ready to eat already!
Yummy!!!!
I have been finding in the last few years that my yard is becoming more shady.
I planted blackberries in one spot that used to be full sun....not anymore.
One neighbour has a large maple tree that is now shading that area a good deal of the time, and it's taking a long time for the berries to ripen.
I am NOT going to complain, or will I cut any of it back!  I love having trees around.
In my opinion, there can never be too many trees ....they cool the air, clean the air, look nice (usually)...I can buy berries, I can't buy shade!
I used to grow more than I do now. 
I used to grow carrots, onions, tomatoes, green peepers and zucchini.
I've tried growing broccoli, cauliflower, peas and beans, all with  some success.
Nothing like the taste of fresh just picked fruit and veggies.
A friend still has a large garden, and will sometimes send some stuff my way.
But now,  I only grow tomatoes and green peppers.
This year, I tried something that I read on Pinterest......I put some Epsom salts into the Miracle Grow that I used on the tomatoes.  I also buried some crushed egg shells under each plant.
And are they ever growing FAST!
I used some of that solution on the pepper plants...they have fruit, but aren't growing large like the tomatoes.
My son container gardens, on his second story deck...with great success!
I wonder how high you can garden in a city?
Can the bees find your garden.....say ...10 stories up?  You need bees or other bugs for pollination...
Just a thought...

summertime

The first week of summer is gone.
We didn't do much.
We enjoyed the pool a bit, the girls laid out in the yard, listening to music and reading, delighting in the birds and chipmunks coming to the feeders when they were very still and quiet!
Courtney painted a little bird feeder that I bought at the dollar store for her.
She tried using some stencils on it, but then painted over it.

Courtney's bird feeder

She still has a couple of bird houses to paint.  She can work on them next week or later.
We have pencils, markers, paint, pastels, charcoal, loads of paper..we have air dry clay, oven bake clay, and paper mache to play with.  I plan on having them make their own paper mach.  We can sew, bake, cook...we can make cards, do origami....there is so much we can try our hand at!

The two girls and I went out to lunch and then to Value Village.
Value Village is a second hand shop...clothing, books, household goods......
The girls always find a couple of books they would like to read, and they did this time too.
They picked out some cute "T"s and we found a couple of really nice dresses for them.
Hayley certainly is becoming a mature young woman!
As soon as we got home all the "T"s went into the washer.
The dresses were washed on delicate and hung to dry outside.
Hmmm...had to take them in overnight because it was so humid they didn't dry very well and it was beginning to rain.
The girls have gone to see their other grandparents for the weekend, and they took their pretty dresses to wear to dinner at the clubhouse.

I have a few ideas on want to do for the summer, and Pinterest is full of craft projects for them to try.
Usually Hayley just likes to read (or shop).....lol!

Courtney's handiwork

I've got them enrolled in a week of camp at the Art Centre. Two different weeks, so they will each a  week home here with me for some one on one time.
I hope they enjoy it.
Hayley really wanted a drawing course, which there wasn't any of...only night courses.
Last year they went to a "camp" at a local pottery shop.  They and I were disappointed in that week....they were taken for a looong (in the heat) walk to a local store for a frozen yogurt.  They didn't do the things they were supposed to do, the owners were always late getting to their store in the morning and cancelled the second week of camp, to which we had a very, very hard time getting a refund! (6 weeks!)  It's a good thing I didn't make any plan to travel, or my daughter would have been stuck for a sitter. ( I often wondered if they were having troubles making a go of the business.)

The first long weekend of summer!
The girls are home from school on a PD day (professional development), so they get a really long weekend!
And at home, not here with me.
They have been staying home while their mother works when they have the odd day off.
Last week, when Courtney was home with strep, she stayed with me.
They have to be quiet and not bug her, because, even though she is home, she is working in her office.
They are now old enough to realize that she is working.
Hayley wants to stay home , but her Mom has her come here, too.
I have enrolled them in some art classes this summer, I offered a week of dance camp too but no one was interested.
  And really, Courtney has to rest her knee.  She really injured it in the winter, falling on ice.  It's been 6 months and still hurts if she overdoes it.
So they will be here for most of the summer.
 Courtney loves to swim in the pool.  
She got in it at 68 degrees.....BBBRRRR.
It's warm now ..81 degrees.
This will probably be the last summer I have them both, they are getting old enough to stay at home.

I have been doing some quilting.

I took a couple of quilts at guild the other day.
These ones are ready, or mostly ready to quilt.


not gray, it is really green

I have 4 to work on this summer! A cute little orange and pink one from one guild that was a kit and I already finished, and told you about in my last 2 blogs and two from my other guild that are ready to quilt, plus one that I had to layer.
I started with the largest one...a pieced Christmas quilt.
Very pretty!
I was given a batt for this quilt, but it was garbage...thin, with holes.  I wasn't going to waste my time using that batt, so I got one from my stash.
Then I layered and pinned the quilt, started quilting and I noticed the back was bubbling.
I picked it apart and then used quilt spray on it.
I (machine) quilted along the blocks on a diagonal.
Then inside the block along either side of the white squares, down through the whole quilt.
I used a pale-ish green thread on top and a dark green in the bobbin.
In the side and corner triangles I will free motion a motif....just searching for the right one.
I have one in mind just need to scan, resize and  print it out.   And opps!, printer is out of ink...going to have to go and buy some more!  LOL!
I haven't decided what to do in the wide border...maybe something Christmas-y.

I have finished machine sewing the binding on
 the little cuddle quilt I brought home.  All I have to do now is hand sew the binding.
I used my new tool that I bought at the quilt show!

creative grid easy angle finder

 You use it to help  mark the sewing line on the corners.
The corners are sewn instead of folded, to create the mitred corner.
It's actually very easy, and if you are familiar with Heirloom sewing, the technique is the same.  I think I said before that I had tried to do this, without the tool and not knowing just what to do.  If I remember correctly, I didn't have enough fabric then, either.  It turned out, but I hand sewed from the right side of the fabric to do it.
Like I said ...I knew want I wanted, just not how to accomplish it.
I really like this method of sewing the corners, and this  is what judges in quilt shows are looking for.
Not that I would ever, ever be in the running for a ribbon!



the back

When I attached the binding on the cuddle quilt, I didn't have enough fabric....no matter how I tried...not long enough.  I only received 4 strips of the fabric width.  I really needed 5.
And I have absolutely nothing like this fabric in my stash....
So I used a different colour completely.

front of the quilt

The original binding is multi-colour ...orange, pink, yellow, purple.

  I choose a purple and white print to go with it.

 Since I am doing this method...I might as well show it off.

The mister left for 5 days of golf!!!
And the weather here was cold, wet and dreary!
I had a quilt guild meeting,(I usually do, he goes away the same time every year!) and that meeting was the last of the year, so it we had a pot luck dinner.
I made meatballs...BBQ meatballs.
 The ladies usually rave over them.
They are just ground beef....fried and then smothered in BBQ sauce.
I don't make my own sauce, but I sure doctor it up!
I buy just the regular BBQ sauce, then I add....smoke flavouring!! lots of smoke flavouring and garlic powder! mix it up and YUM!
I reheated the meatballs for an hour before I left, so that they are (hopefully) piping hot when served...and ...I must admit...they are good.

At the meeting we did all our exchanges, ATC's, Block of the Month,...oh yeah ..
and
Awarded ribbons to our quilt show winners.
I brought home a cuddle quilt to work on.
And work on it I did.
I sewed up the (really easy) blocks, (just a focus fabric square with sashing and cornerstones).
Then pressed it all and layered it ready to quilt.
BUT!  My iron is acting up...half the time it won't turn on (it's "auto-off").
I ended up buying a new one and holy crap!!! was it expensive!!
But pressing is done and quilting is almost complete.
I quilted all around the sashing, then got out the painter's tape and taped off diagonal lines to place an "X" through the centre of each block, and through the borders.

I used my homemade pinmoors to pin the whole quilt together and they worked great!

Sorry for the fuzzy focus...the camera didn't like the bright yellow orange fabric, and I find it really hard not to shake when I use only one hand to snap a pic.

So, now all I have to do is bind this little quilt and work on the others that I brought home from my "other" quilt guild!                                                                            

It's been a while since I blogged.
I've been a little busy  trying to sort out my sewingroom.  I used to able to put my hand on whatever I needed.
 Now...
Things are moved around a little.
I still have a lot of stuff upstairs in a storage room.  Some large pieces of fleece, some knits, and battings.
I have a small storage space under the stairs, but the mister uses that for his golf clubs.
Well, we now have a whole lot more storage in the garage.....maybe he can keep them in there for the winter.....
I have been doing a little sewing.
I finally started (and finished) my ATC's.
And EXCHANGED them!
I had an idea in my mind what I wanted to do. 
But that's not what I did do.
I started with a 12 square of hand dyed fabric. 
I wanted to highlight the swirls of colour with stitched flowers, but I ended up just quilting flowers.
I then cut the 12 inch square into 6 card sized pieces.
I then fussy cut  a yellow-gold flower and fused, then sewed that down to each card.
Next I fussy cut butterflies, 2 of each....then fused 2 back to back so that they were double sided.


mine



 

 

Mary Jane's
 

I attached them to the card, leaving the wings loose so that they would flutter!
Couched some Ricky Tims "razzle dazzle" heavyweight thread to the edges for a bit of sparkle, then zigzagged the edges to attach the paper post card to the back.








MaryJane's is layered, framed and quilted


















Pam did a super job on this one...it's woven!


Pam's

 

Sandra's is appliqued, satin stitched and echo quilted

Sandra's



Janice's

 

Janice appliqued (turned edge), quilted and embellished hers with braid and a cute little dragonfly charm.                                                                                                       

                                                                                                       

Everyone seemed pleased with the ATC's they received, and a lot of people signed up again for next year!                                                                                                      

  And so did I!