Happy Birthday Claire!

 She's one year old!! Can you believe it? What a lucky girl.

My sister had the family over for a birthday party. What fun watching Claire open her gifts and play. She was really into pulling out the tissue paper, oh what fun! Claire danced around and laughed and played with the paper. Maybe we should have just given her tissue paper!!

Then again, the sock monkey was an immediate hit! People thought it was something I made, but nooooo - that was my purchased present. My hand made contribution was the Felines and Flutterbies quilt. I had to reassure "the family" that she will NOT be getting a quilt for every birthday .... but I thought that she might enjoy these kitties and butterflies now!

On the home front not much else happened this past week. It's been freaking frigid cold this past week, and next week isn't forecast to be much better. I do not do cold very well, so all my energy is spent just getting to and from work! Oh to be one of those lucky retirees ! None-the-less I did manage to get my "April Showers" door hanging sandwiched and ready to quilt.

Then I stalled for lack of inspiration on how to quilt it. Not to worry, on my Sat trip to WalMart for cat food I stopped to look at one of the many quilt mags - and found my inspiration - raindrops! I'll quilt raindrops!! This should be fun :).
TTFN, hoping the weather improves a bit, at least warms up some !

Winter - Bah Humbug!

Another day of EXTREME cold - luckily it's Family Day in Ontario so I can stay home indoors and snuggle up! Yeah ! Not looking forward to the rest of the week - I don't do well at all in this kind of cold. Winter - bah humbug!

Finally got inspired Sunday afternoon. Got this fabulous umbrella fabric, with matching rain boot fabric a few weeks back. I have decided to work on a door hanging for Spring. Why dwell on the rotten cold weather - let's think Spring!! Here's what I got accomplished last night

I'm using the rain boots fabric as the umbrella base. The umbrella in the top left is going to change, I'm not happy with that green or just the single piece of it. As you can see I applique using freezer paper on top rather than fuse my pieces. So far I'm very happy with the white dotty fabric - makes me think of rain drops. stay tuned ...

New season of Vikings starts this week - WOOHOO, yeah Ragnar :)
TTFN

Shhhh, Don't tell mother

A Valentine's day mug rug for the mater. When I was picking out the scrap strips these looked great. Now that it's all done I'm thinking it's rather Christmasy ? Maybe that's just me as I used the one fabric in a Xmas table runner for my niece and now I see that fabric as Christmas. The strips on the side are a bit wonky, never mind, I got something accomplished last week and that's a good thing.....
The next couple of weeks will be busy for me, ticket selling at our next guild meeting, driving all around town picking up/delivering people for a pre-Valentines pizza dinner, taking the car in for its last required oil change, birthday celebration for the grand niece! Can't believe she'll be one year alread!

The weather has been - yucky - can't say much more than that! Took a second personal "snow day" and requested to make up the time. Noooooo, the "boss of the hour" is sticking to the union rules. Why me? After years of watching other people allowed to "make up the time" I'm sure tired of them pulling out the "union rules" when it suits them.  Just 3 more years - if I can hold on that long. Grrrrr, winter!

Enough of my rant,
TTFN

It's February :)

Still in love with hexies ..... I spent Friday evening first sewing on the binding, then decided I had made a mess of the machine quilted hearts in the border - so I picked it all out before sewing down the binding. All in all I'm happy with this one and will post it on my bulletin board at work :)
Next - I think will be a Valentine mug rug for the mater (shhhh), then perhaps I should get busy and finish off my 2 or 3 UFOs. That should get me to March when I can then start on some Spring projects - Ohhhhh, doesn't that sound nice ?
Spent Sat evening with one of my quilt friends watching movies - nice break from the regular routine and good movies too! Invite much appreciated :) 
TTFN

January is almost over!!

January is almost over - woohoo! It's my least favourite month of the year. For me it's 6 weeks between pay cheques, usually very cold and snowy and dark. All in all I'm just not a fan. But, February is coming and this year I think I'll be ready !

Last week's hexies are all together now and the top is made. Today maybe a quilting day, then again  maybe not! I spent the last week soaking/cleaning most of my linens ..... 26 doilies, at least 2 dozen linen napkins, miscellaneous tea cloths and table runners and a dozen or so cotton/linen hand towels.

I used this product which I purchased from Soft Impressions by Lisa one of the vendors who visited our guild in November. I wasn't convinced it would work, but did drag up the enameled wash basin from the basement . Well, this product does work so fortunately/unfortunately I now have A LOT of ironing to do!
I took Friday off to have a 3 day weekend. It seemed like a good plan .... I spent the day house cleaning, laundry, grocery shopping and a visit with the pater and his partner. They got a flat screen TV for Christmas, so I was asked to hook up the cable for the "old" TV in the basement. Got the TV hooked up and found the remote, so now he can watch TV in his Dad's den!
Saturday was a full day starting with picking up my nephew's winter coat he wants mended, then picked up the mater and off to her hair appointment. Brunch next door then grocery shopping, pharmacy, post office, delivering her groceries to her place then back to my home.  I cooked us a roast beef dinner in the crock pot -  yummm. A couple of TV shows and a wee visit then back out in the cold to take the mater home. I have to admit I was tired by the time I got home .
Today the sun is out and I'm busy baking muffins and boiling eggs for next week's lunches. Dare I say it - I'm looking forward to going back to work so I can relax! Ha ha ha.

How's you're week been?
TTFN

Hexie Love :)

 It's hexie love - totally!! Here are the two mug rugs I made last week, front and back. I don't use a pattern, just whatever piece of matching fabric I can find in my stash, hence the different sizes. Not to worry, they both still work as mug rugs!
I spent the rest of the week cutting up more paper hexies, studying my two hexie books, and making up a whole wack of red hexies. Here they are all laid out, going to be a mini Valentine's Day heart hanging for my bulletin board at work. Hmmm. now my scrap squares box is missing several reds - oh no! So guess what I'll be sewing next week !

I'm totally hooked - OMG! Must remember I have several UFOs still to finish before I get too involved in another massive project. Right now I'm tempted to make both a Lucy Boston AND a Grandmother's Garden, or maybe a Giant Monstrosity quilt. What's a girl to do, sew many fun projects, so little time ...

I've had some overnight visitors. I think it's rabbits, based on the scat they've left behind. In January I try to leave out some goodies, especially if it's been real cold. Lately I've been leaving out some apples which had gone soft. Apparently the local wildlife like apples!

That's all for my week, Downton Abbey tonight !!
TTFN

Hexies Mojo ...

Well, I have  rediscovered my quilting mojo. After my Christmas sewing marathon last Fall I rather  lost interest in any sewing /quilting. But I have found it again  and the pic below was/is my inspiration!

So, dear readers, you all know I have lots of Owl fabric leftover from the Whoo Loves you Baby quilt I made almost one year ago. This fabric is so pretty, but what's a girl to do with it? I didn't want to make another Owl Baby quilt and I have already used some making Claire the Amish puzzle ball. Hmmmm.

So, I dug up my printouts from the Fairies & Fibres blog, an excellent source btw of  EPP (English Paper Piecing) information and for inspiration, and my leftover Owl fabric, and ....

this is what I made last night while watching The King's Speech. I used 1.5 " hexagons templates from moxieideas.com and printed them on card stock. Thought I should start my hexie journey with something not too small or complicated. These hexies were fussy cut - warning ladies, fussy cutting wastes lots of fabric, but the results are nice!

Ok, now I get it  - the great hexie addiction affecting so many quilters out there. I know of  two women in my guild who are now doing Hexies. Here's a link to Cathy S who is doing the Giant  Monstrosity Quilt project, also from Fairies and Fibres. Fortunately (?) I'm not that ambitious - oh, what am I saying ! Did I not buy the Lucy Boston Points of the Cross book and start cutting 2000 elongated hexies? Haven't I also bought myself a Hex n More ruler ?

Yes, I'm crazy. Stayed tuned for more of the fun!!

P.S. What would a blog entry be without a pic of my tree ? Well, we survived another first week of January with another day of snow squalls ....

Vacation is over - Wahhhhh

Really? How does it happen - you wait soooo long for some time off work, then poof - it's over. :(
Ah well, the house is clean, I'm well rested, have had lots of family time and lots of time with my friends so I'm not complaining. I spent 4 days, yes, you read that right - 4 days cleaning and re-organizing my sewing room! Below is a pic of two sofa cushions I finally got made! I used some of the bolt of fabric I have left over from recovering the East Lake chairs. I took apart the 2 extra cushions from the basement loveseat and used them as the pattern and stuffing. Not perfect, but they'll certainly do!

 

Since cleaning I have spent 3 afternoons in my sewing room going through all my patterns and mags hoping for inspiration. For some reason I've lost my quilting mojo and am just not enthusiastic about any new project!

So instead I watched reruns of Vikings (new season starts Feb. 19th - YEAH), Sherlock (the BBC one with Benedict Cumberbatch - oh yeah. If you haven't yet seen it do!), and Rehab Addict, I like what she does with houses!

Of course, tonight is the return of Downton Abbey - Hurrah Hurrah Hurrah!! 2015 is going to be a good year :)

TTFN

Ah, Christmas break :)

 

Well, Christmas is over for another year! 3 potluck dinners, 3 Christmas parties, 3 fancy cakes, 2 family gatherings over - phew! The stars of our show, Claire and parents Lisa & Greg, were there.

 

It seems to be tradition to wear red, here's the pater and his partner looking lovely in their Christmas red sweaters. Our family celebrates Christmas twice, once with the pater, usually the weekend before, and once again on Christmas day with the mater.

Even Claire was dressed in red. She was only semi interested in the Amish puzzle ball I made her. Her attention was all on the presents from Great Grandma! They were an immediate and definitely hit, go Great Grandma!

The table runners and table toppers I spent the Fall making were also a hit, here's the mater's on her coffee table - looking good! I have to admit I'm jealous .... I didn't get one :(

But I did manage to visit our local antique shop, another yearly tradition for me, and once again found a piece of my china (not that I need any) - my present to myself!

I have been enjoying my time off work, especially the sleeping in bit.  I made the mistake of tearing apart my sewing room - you know -  cleaning. Day 4 and it's still not completed, but will be by the end of today! Never mind, I will have a CLEAN and organized sewing room soon, and in the process will have rediscovered many items and forgotten UFOs. Maybe one of them will inspire me to complete it in 2015! Let's hope so.

So, how were your holidays??
Ho Ho ho

Where Does Your cat sleep?

Iris, seen above, likes to sleep with me. That's ok by me, but she likes to sleep in the middle of the bed! That means poor momma has to sleep around her, awkward most nights...... You know what I mean, cats rule, don't they? Simone on the other hand has been a mystery as to where she sleeps. I caught her in one of the designated cat beds, once, and I've never seen her use it since!

 So, last night I was stunned to find both Iris AND Simone sleeping soundly on MY BED! Not snuggled up close together mind you, but ON THE SAME BED in the SAME ROOM! Simone is making progress, breaking down Iris's curmudgeonly demeanor! You go girl!

The last of this year's potluck's is over. I am exhausted, phew! It was a great success and kudos go out to JP for all her hard work entertaining our Sew What's group :). Sorry, no pics, I forgot my camera :(. Secret Santa was kind to me again this year, this year I received a mini Christmas quilt top and backing - or a door hanging if you prefer. Many of us received projects to work on in 2015, so we have a group challenge to finish our Secret Santa projects by our next potluck. Should be doable!

Thank you Secret Santa!

So, it's cake #2 today. I made my Chocolate peppermint swirl cake for the ladies. Today's cake is a white peppermint swirl cake for the family dinner with the pater an his partner.

Now, wish me luck getting the cake, the cole slaw, the ice cream and the presents over to my sister's place without incident ....

Fa la la la la, la la la la :)