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 .