Christmas Eve

Thats right it's down to the last hours of mad scrambling for tape and wrap. I am done shopping. I think. I hope. We always seem to forget one child's present. The list is long for the nieces and nephews. New babies to buy for or sew something special.

I already know what my present is . We leave for a trip, some sunbathing for momma, cabana boys and fancy drinks, ocean view and all my family with me. Yippee! Punta Cana, the countdown is on. I have never been anywhere where there is swimming in December.

Life on the beach gotta love it. I think this might be a mistake I could take to the snowbird life with a passion.

With the daylight fast approaching, I have much to do last minute baking for my Mother inlaws Christmas. Gotta love noise If you go there tonight. Santa is coming to all the kids delight. And at the end of the evening silent night.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Christmas Past

Visits from Christmas past. These are pictures from the first Christmas with out my mom. I am glad I took pictures although my heart wasn't in it that year. My favorite little girl Sierra Rose. She is one ball of energy. We have a pic of the Einarson women and that isn't even all of us.When at my mother in laws AKA Ruby, Santa comes for a visit. All the little ones and a few big kids get their pictures done with him and then the Chaos ensues. Shrieks and squeals as presents are handed out with a few helpers. Big Dumb Dog aka JJ. He is such a big sucky baby. He is so happy it was hard to get him to sit still for just a moment to get this shot.

Just a few more days and the chaos of Christmas at my mother inlaws will start. Jokes and laughter, young and old, friends and family will all gather for a meal and then wait for Santa. There are a few more little ones who have arrived on the scene since these pictures were taken. New memories to be made, new stories to tell, new babies to cuddle. Family time. Isn't it going to be great!

Its Here!!!

My parcel has arrived from my SSCS partner. I haven't even read who it is from yet. I don't think I can make it to Christmas Eve.

I am Back!!!

Really am glad to be back on track with my life. I took a hiatus to help out with my sister and her family. A little while back she was rushed to the hospital in agony here in Selkirk. They in turn sent her to a Winnipeg hospital who sent her home saying it was just an ovarian cyst. JUST said a man doctor, like to hear that if it was JUST on his testicle. Any way she was sent home and she stayed there for about 6 hours and went back to the hospital in Selkirk and they promptly rushed her in for surgery. Appendix decided it wanted to be a bigger part in her life and threatened to burst. It was actually seeping already and when they got in they hoped they managed to clean out all of the fecal matter and infection out of her abdomen . A few days later taking oral anitbiotics and pain killers she was at home and puffed up like a balloon. Allergies to the antibiotics so off she went to the hospital again. After Antihistamines and new meds she went home and then came back to hospital yet again she was in alot of pain couldn't walk and well just miserable. So they kept her there. We are now talking over a week with only ice chips and IVs giving nutrients. After 2 weeks she was finally given soft food (read Jello and pudding) after they had to go and clean out her abdomen again and hook her up to another bag to continue draining all infectious fluid. So until then liquid diet.
My part in all this . Looking after the kids. Afterschool activities take them to birthday parties, swim lessons, dance lessons, science club and finding sitters for when I couldn't be there because I work too. I had to stay at her home as my niece Alysa is allergic to cats. Yeah fun times. I am not used to young children. Anyway time passed and my sister was given a clean bill of health and sent home to her family allowing me to finally be here and catch up on all things here.
I am so glad to sleep in my bed have my furbabies around me. I gotta say I love all my nieces and nephews but boy am I glad my kids are grown. I am too old and selfish to have younger kids taking over my time lol. Waiting for grandbabies is okay when they arrive I know they can go right back to their parents. I can do the fun stuff and spoil them and send them home hehehe.

Sunday Morning

Well its quiet here at this time of the morning. The fur babies are all tucked in sleeping and snoring away on pillows and quilts. DH is also snoring away on the couch . I think he was waiting for me to go to bed and well here I am still awake.
So what am I doing at this time. I am trying to finish my SSCS of course. I had decided to hand quilt it and started and well I don't think that was a good decision. My hand cramped up within 10 minutes. My stitches are not as good as they once were. Its the carpal tunnel thing. My thumb gets achy and kinda stuck and its hard to straighten it out because it hurts. I will still muddle through this though and I hope my swap partner doesn't mind my stitches are not even. I found a little yummy treats to go with the gift and a few little gifties that I hope she likes. I am actually getting a bit excited because I hope she likes what I have for her. Soon it will be all wrapped up and sent off to .... a secret place, to a secret someone. I have been reading her blog regularly.
I don't know if I could wait until Christmas to open then. I am a curious sort. But being that we are not giving big presents this year so we could do a big family vacation it will be nice to have something to open then.

Addictions

Well it occurred to me that I was really really addicted to fabric. Since I have been stuck getting home so late I haven't been able to go to a store any store really and well you would think that is a good thing. Nope I have discovered that online stores are open 24/7 and my paypal account is in good standing. So where was my fabric fix coming from?
I found one store that was clearing out fat quarters, all for only a dollar each. I bought 50.. , and before that I purchased 10 yards of Kona Snow. Another store I got 5 FQ bundles of specific colours. Reds, Blues, Greens, Beiges and Blacks. Thats another 40 fat quarters. ( I fondled these ones this weekend since they arrived.) In another two shops I found Layer cakes and now I have Layer cakes and jelly rolls soon to be arriving.
Saturday I went to the grocery store and since there was only housework to do, I started out to the evil new store in Stonewall. That store is crammed full of goodies. I actually had to start saying "I do not need more fabric" as a sort of mantra to turn me around and get myself back home.
I never thought of myself as having an addictive personality but wow. I had recently paid off my visa in full and just from fabric shopping my bill is going to be huge again this month.
I know for certain my addiction cannot be hid from my husband because of the number of parcels that have been arriving. I can't just stuff them in my bag and sneak them into the house. Gone are the days when I could only afford one or two FQs and those were easily snuck into the stash.
I also been asking myself do I need help? Yes... Do I want help? I am 60/40 on that question. Is my addiction affecting my daily life. Sometimes, It looks like a fabric shop exploded in my house and that just freaks out DH. Is my addiction causing harm to others. Nope, family and friends get quilts from me.
So why am I complaining? Because DH (its always the mans fault) hasn't started building my studio yet. I have to stop buying until I have space of my own just for my toys and stuff. Until then I have DH tucking JJ under my stuff. Doesn't he look like he is enjoying being under My quilt. The Quilt that I purposely made for myself. ( and I am still doing the binding)..... He does look cute all tucked in though. AAWWWWWWW. He is such a sucky baby dog.

44 years and Counting

44 years ago my mother, bless her, gave birth to what she would have called her biggest work in progress. *VBG* ME!!! I was a terror. at 4 I was running away from home going all the way down the block to Granny's house I would go. Skip ten years and I was still running away to Granny's House. Skip another 30 years and Well here I am living in , you betcha Granny's House. lol




I received a present from a lovely lady named Sunna. She didn't know It was my Birthday and as I got around to opening my mail, out popped a little sparkly pink ribbon pin. Thank you very much Sunna. She also blessed me with a few Scrappy Geese to go into my OTR yes!!!

I finally opened my parcel with my postage stamps. Very Pretty Ladies and Thank you to Sweet Pea (Paula) for Hostessing the swap. I have enough little bits to keep me going for a little while if I get a chance to piece them together into a Triple Irish Chain or just maybe a Postage stamp . I am currently waiting for my Kona Snow to be delivered and then I will decide. Not to mention my 9 patches were just delivered. Kodo's to Karen D. for being the Hostess of this swap. They had been delivered to somebody else and they finally returned them to the post office. This has happened a few times for me. I wish someone would take the visa bill though. If wishes were horses....

Well it has been hectic around here and the earliest I have been getting home is 8:00 pm since I leave for work at 6:30 am its a long day. Things just pile up and wait for me to take care of it so the last 2 Saturdays I was a whirling dervish trying to clean up my home so that I can sit at my machine and work on my OTR or something without feeling guilty. errrr I hate house work. DH tidies but with 3 furballs living with us there are rabid dust bunnies seeking out prey attaching themselves to eek my fabric! DH says there is just as many bits and pieces of strings here but he exaggerates. I chain piece so there is not at many. lol.

I had cut out a large chunk of the pieces needed for the OTR so I got to spend quality time with my machine Last Sunday not so much this Sunday. I have all the bits for the 4 patches sewn into 2 patches last Sunday and was chaining them into 4's by the early afternoon. Once I had enough of that, I began piecing the half square triangles for the pinwheels. It never ended. By 8:30 I was stiff and tired and seemed to have made little progress in the pinwheel department. I can't believe some ladies actually got theirs done in one weekend. Maybe if I didn't break and go out for dinner have a naps , lol.


I am also working on my Secret Santa Christmas Swap. Bits and pieces of it are all over the place. I told you about SAD and I am having acute attack right now and have changed my mind on colour ways twice now so I have starts for 3 presents. I know she has similiar tastes as me so I wonder if she is having the same problem on her end for her SS. Enquiring minds want to know! Well I want to know , Wicket my darling kittie looks like she don't care. lol

Now I went and did it I mentioned Christmas. Do you all have as many gifts to finish I am sitting at 9 and I hope to get them done and photographed all before Dec 24. Since I seem to only have time to sew on weekends. I am thinking I will only get 2 or 3 done . errr that means I will have to go shopping and I don't know about you but I hate shopping in the holiday season! It's way to much for me. People, perfumes and lineups AAAAA. Well gotta go and sew or something is not gonna finish.

Oh and I have to mention Canada Post is going on strike so maybe that is why I am having so much problems with my parcels arriving in a timely fashion. Errrr!

Hugs and Blessings
Lynn

With age comes wisdom I think

Wow I can't believe it is November already , my time has just been flying away from me. I loved looking at the leaves as they changed colors. The alive feeling I got feeling the brisk wind in my face . Today most of the leaves are gone. I can see my breath in the still cool air.

It is my Birthday month. Yippee I think I am supposed to get older. lol. With age comes wisdom so they say. I have learned a few things I think. Appearances are not everything. Body parts are not where they were in the eighties. My hair is healthier with out perms colours and 20 pounds of hairspray(even with the gray). I can't believe I would take allergy medication every day so I could spray my hair. I love myself more today than I did then. I would spend hours agonizing over how fat my clothing made me look. I was by no means a svelte willowy gal like I wanted to be. Just solid athletic and healthy. I wish I could go back to and tell that old me that I looked great.

I would warn myself that I needed a big sewing room in the future so that I would have been planning for it and have it by now. lol.

Most I made up patterns for my own use. I only had a small Kenmore sewing machine that had seen better days. My mother got it for me as a christmas gift one year. Did any of you go through the pastel and lace Molly Ringwald phaze? I wore pastels and lace that I added to clothing or made . and now that I am older , realized that they did NOT work for me. I also did the punk look. Purple spiky hair, nose ring and black clothing. A precursor to todays Goth look. I expect that if I was that age now I would be a Goth chick . Pale makeup spiky or Rasta hair wearing the big army boots and plaid skirts. The fringe clothing worked for me better. Even though my mother wouldn't sit beside me on a bus. lol.

Today I am comfortable in a pair of yoga pants and big T. Or if I am feeling flirty a girly gypsy skirt with sequins, or practical work clothing to wear on the quad or doing yard work. I have clothing that fits all the different facets of my personality. I wear what I like and am not set up as one look. At this moment I look sloppy its the weekend. This afternoon I may dress as I was going out for tea. I am quite pleasantly called bohemian. I like that.

Embracing me in all my moods is ok. And its great to be silly and laugh at yourself. I think I have a lot to learn and so far I learned alot. Lets see what the next year brings.

Just hanging

I have been listening to a wellness guru on cd's in my car. I think I will have to rethink doing that because I had to pull over on the side of the road I was laughing so hard it hurt. Loretta Laroche is filled with sage advice and well if you want to get more info to de-stress your life look here .

What am I reading? Blogs all over the place and hopefully will add a few new ones to my list of favorites. This one Ladies tutorial is pee your pants funny. You just have to read it here!

I have to admit I haven't sewn a darn thing in a week. and my stuff is still set up on my kitchen table. I am not really feeling guilty about it. I haven't done laundry since last Monday. I have dirty dishes on the counter. I know the floor needs sweeping and a wash. I am trying to make a list of things that I should not do and do them. I had cold chicken for breakfast . I watched Legend at 10:00 am this morning. I had cereal for lunch. I had a nap at 4:00 in the afternoon. I had Candy corn. I read blogs and an hour on a murder mystery. I will be going out for Chocolate cake and Coffee at 9:00 pm. And since I am coffee so late Its not even going to be decaff. I think this will be the perfect should not day!

Hugs and blessings to all

October is Quilt Pink

Well as I get over my bronchitis which makes it a chore to walk even the beginnings of October brings a lot of reflection. North Americans think Orange and Purple and Halloween. I also think PINK. October is Breast Cancer Month. This is the disease that carried my mother away on her next journey. I urge all to take part , buy a pin, donate to a walker, Walk yourselves. Funding research is the only way we will be able to take this cancer and concur it.

My mother having survived it once became a mentor for First Nations women of all ages who were newly diagnosed. She gave workshops on the topic of holistic, traditional medicines and working with the Western Medicine. Her second battle with the disease left me and my sisters without the Matriarch of the family. May we only be so brave.
As a quilter, I am making a quick link to McCalls because they have some wonderful Quilt for a Cure patterns.
http://www.mccallsquilting.com/golden/qfac_patterns/

Hugs and wishes for good health for all
Deedee

Just a little whine.

I really don't have much to say other than whine. I woke up with a cold. You know the kind.
Head is full of stuffing you bend over and feels like its going to explode. I have the runny nose too. Great just because I have a friend who has school age kids and they are all sick. Yep going back to school means measles, mumps and every strain of flu and cold imaginable. Her 2 darling daughters are great girls , and when they are sick they hang all over you because they want to be coddled. What was I thinking going over there. Oh yeah right , we were fondling fabrics.

And pre menopause. Whats that? You get to have hot flashes and sweats and still have your period and can't guess when its coming. Yeah!!! that's right up there with things I have to have. I am the most miserable woman in the world when I am hot. Claws are bared, Bee in the bonnet, grumpy as a bear, psychotic all these words come to mind as I drift through the ever erratic hormones.

DH is spending more time with his hunting buddies , good thing too. Its safer out with a bunch of guys with guns than being at home with me. One wrong word and BLAMO! I will rip his hide with words so sharp you would think they are a filleting knife.

His last words to me before heading out the door was "oh yeah , your going through the change"
Heaven help the poor world if Men had the same hormone problems, because they are for the most part stupid. Great for opening stubborn jars but to have some type of"their"empathy not gonna happen. Their quick but doofy wit will get them bonked on the head with a frying pan.

Could you imagine a man freaking out with fluctuating hormones , they would be completely unable to function. DH sits on the couch and whines and pouts when he gets a little tickle in his throat. Could you imagine half the populace then beating the snot out of each other because Big John has cramps and is moody . LOL I can

Oh well enough of whining , I am going to go spread my germs to my loving sisters. I was taught to share with them at all times.

Hugs
Deedee

Friday Fling and Saturday Quiltshow

Its been a wonderful week off and boy did I need it. I didn't work quite as hard as I should have on fall clean up in the yard but darn I loved the week off.
Friday I found the energy to tackle the wall of quilting stuff which for the past 9 months has been sitting in my living room. My bad. In the effort of taming the stash monster I had totes full of stuff, and I had no idea what was left in them. So I started sorting. I found my patterns and kits for up coming projects that I swear that I wouldn't start until I did a few UFOs. I still love the patterns and will attempt them in the future after Christmas maybe. My DH just about fell over when he got home and could see the wall.

Total totes emptied and sorted 5 and that left me with 2 full totes put away in the room with my fabric cupboard. The cupboard was a whimsy that DH picked up. Its a little pine garden style shed with shelving. Its smells great. I lined the shelving and walls with clear shelf lining so I can still see the wood but my stash that could fit in there is now protected from any fluids that may seep from the pine boards. I still have 3 plastic drawer carts to organize. These contain my sewing machines feet and bobins , odd rulers and other numerous bits. Each are for different machines so I am half way there. Still have 4 bins in my bedroom to sort but all in good time.

I have earmarked a couple of patterns, one to my Secret Santa Partner from Chookyblue's SSCS
. I may even make a layer cake with my stash for *&^%#* in $^(*&)*^@ as part of my SSCS
I have another pattern for a Pay it forward that I am going to be doing later this fall.

Yesterday was a quiltshow at Pineridge Church. Very pretty quilts and some that are WOW . I took some pictures and loaded them onto the computer last evening and DH said they were okay but not particularly liked by him. He doesn't like the 2 colour quilts and said they were not as nice as mine. And the others needed more colours. Dear Man that gave him brownie points from me because I love making scrappy quilts.

Swap Parcels

The parcels have begun to arrive. So far I have received from Sallie, Sunna, Judy, Joanna, and Louise.
My interest is peeked and I need to peek! This is like telling a kiddie to wait until morning at Christmas. But I know there is more to come! I hope to make something special for the ladies in my swap. I am hoping that I can get my program to work properly for this. This is I hope, the first of many successful swaps.
We have discussed having a batik swap . Unwashed. mmm, Nickels and a few others that have been tossed around. We will be having one in October.

I have the week off to deal with court and a few other legal issues dealing with my mothers estate. Fun Fun Fun.

I plan to sneek in more than a few hours of sewing.

Remembering

Well last night was a restless night. I sat in my bed searching out poems. Not that I am a big poem enthusiast but rather somber task of searching for the perfect poem for my mothers memorial in the paper. On Saturday it will be 2 years that she has passed.
With each season the remembering becomes less painful. We sat with her those 9 days in the hospital taking turns sitting with her. There are happy little moments in those days of quiet resolve that she was going to leave us behind and that we better get our sh*t together. We bickered with each other as we were want to do. Striking up a surge of emotions that we could not voice. Helping her get up one moment she quite angrily shot " Why don't you start listening." I quite smartly answered her question with " After 41 years why on earth would I start now." She started laughing at that moment and agreed with me. My aunt was with us and was surprised at the vocalization of dissatisfaction and the laughter from both of us. It was how we communicated. We were to much alike to get on well together. Truth be told we never quite sure how too. I look back at our numerous arguments and think how silly and petty. She had me at quite a young age and I believe we both grew into adulthood at the same time, which in turn would explain why our arguments were more suited to siblings than mother and daughter.
Hug your family today folks
Hugs and blessings to all
Lynn

Girly and fanciful

Well for anyone that knows me in person they know I had hair down to the bottom of my bottom. I was standing next to a coffee shop just getting my 3rd cup of coffee of the day and I was gazing into the window of a very posh looking hair salon. You know the places. Hair dressers are all 20 something and beautiful , surrounding modern chic, and hairspray that cost over $20. I had a moment of I need change. So after sitting for 25 minutes with my eyes closed, I opened my eyes to a me without what seems to be 2 feet of hair. The style is cute easy care and was very nicely done. I have had a hang up over my hair for a good 17 years and had the same two women cut/trim my hair. The last time I had a cut was in 1999 and that was only because I went my usual salon and first time ever had a new person perm my hair. She didn't read my chart that I had on file there since I was oh I would say 14 or so. So you have to say long time customer, got over processed over cooked over curly frizzzzzzzzzzy mess. Not happy. So you know the nightmare where you wake up and your hair starts breaking off and chunks start coming out. That was me. So to Fix what they messed up I ended up with what I would call a boy's bowl cut. AARGGGHH! Picture is only drawing because I have burnt all photos of me with the nasty ugly boy's bowl cut.

So since that nastyness I have only had 2 very dear friends trim about an inch of my hair at a time. So I had nice long hair , but the drawbacks was that the ended were sunfaded and becoming split so the top of my head nice dark brown, bottom of my hair Coppery red crusty hair.

ILOVE MY HAIR. No split ends no odd colours, wash and wear, lighter lighter lighter only difference is when I went to wash my hair I used to much shampoo. lol. Change is good its girly and not to young.

And speaking of girly there are so many quilters that have amazing quilts with a very feminine soft pretty quilts. I don't think I could ever make something that fanciful and girly. I mean when I hit the shops with credit card in hand, I jump for the bold and the beautiful. I just don't pick up those nice soft girly fabrics. I love them but I just go for the brash in your face colors. I would have to change my shopping habits. Now there was a time that every time I went into a shop I would pick up a red or burgundy FQ. Who am I kidding I still do actually lol but I see other colors and currently in a orange and purple mode. And the soft greens and rose prints are left behind. I know I love those quilts and the girly girl part of me goes I want one, the bright free spirited me goes I want that orange feather print and the purple and lime batik. And I still don't have a girly girl pretty quilt.

The girly girl is the the part of me who loves historical romances and cutting flowers in my garden. Enjoys sitting in the shade with my pomeranian (girly dog supreme) reading said historical romances. I will probably buy a quilt like that for myself just to feed that frilly girly girl inside me. Meantime I have a bunch of purples that I have to cut up for my Old Tobacco Road.

Good night every one
hugs and blessings to all of you.

Swap Diva Deedee

Its happened I leaped off the nearest tower of stash and took the plunge into Diva hood.
We set up a Swap group, and boy that happened so quick I am currently giving my head a shake. Wow the response was absolutely great. Lots of you wonderful quilters are wanting to share!!!

I love Sharing, for me its a way to liven up my stash, receive colors and patterns that I would not have thought of myself. The first swaps are going to be put online by tomorrow pm. I have spent the last hour doing the guidelines for 2 swaps that we will be having for Sept.

Since it has been retreat weekend, my whole weekend has been quilt or swap related. Cutting stash. I have the bandaids to prove how busy I have been and I have piles of 2 patches for the Old Tobacco Road that is one of Bonnie Hunters Mysteries. And I have been pressing 4 patches for the Orange Crush mystery another of her mysteries. Enjoy whats left of the weekend folks.

HUGS
Deedee

OC, OTR, Sisters choice and Swap maybe?

Good day to all my visitors. I am doing the virtual retreat this weekend from Yahoo's Stashbusters group. This is a good thing as I am working on the Orange Crush Mystery, Old Tobacco Roads, and Sisters Choice.

Yep I have SAD, commonly known to all as Sewers Attention Deficite. Once I start something it can and will grow to a few somethings because I am cutting for a project and next thing I know I am working on 2 quilts and in this case I am working on three quilts. I am currently not working for the break part in the day. Sustenance in the form of Chocolate and a Latte, and I am sure I could look for the nutritious foods but whats the fun in that. Need a glass of wine too but I will wait for that until after I finish using the rotary cutter. Don't want to drink and cut.

Bonnie Hunter of Quiltville has started another mystery quilt. Its called the Old Tobacco Road. Now I haven't even finished the second step of the Orange Crush but here is a peek at my Step one.

How did the sisters choice get started you ask. Well I took part in the scrappy 9 patch swap from Blockswappers group and I got some fabulous patches back in return. I had shown a pic in a earlier post of the blocks I had made , now here is some of the wonderful blocks I got in return. As per Bonnies directions I hadn't put the points on the blocks yet and I was going to wait for when I have all 70 blocks to do this. Then Bonnie put up her OTR mystery up and well it had 2 inch half triangles, A BAZILLION OF THEM LITTLE BEGGERS, and how she started on hers for the quilt is she made it from the cut off spare triangles from the sisters block for one. So I started cutting out for the 2.5 x 6.5 strips so I can use on the sisters choice and spare triangles for the OTR.


And of course since I was cutting I started cutting for the 2 inch strips for that quilt as well. But suffering from SAD I promptly thought of the 2 inch squares that I couldn't use from the OC and started pulling out that tote with that project.


So last night after doing some of all this cutting and drinking a pot of coffee, I had all three projects lined up next to my machine so I chain piece them. So after 12:30 am rolled around and I finished the piles that I had I then had to iron the pieces so they would be ready for the next step. Once the iron was out this morning I figured I would just add a new bunch of fabrics to the pile and started ironing all my FQs to use in the OTR and of course there was some colors that I could use the OC and once ironed I began cutting again. I am now at the part where I was at last night at 11:30 with piles of little squares waiting to be sewn together and In need of Sustenance.

So in my moment of clarity I decided to Blog and take pictures of all the little bits going on in my house. I know nothing like this ever happens to anyone else out there. lol

Oh and since I am still suffering from this I also have the halve brained idea for a centralized strip swap of 2.5 inch strips , 1/2 width of fabric . 10 fabrics a set. 10 sets max.
All sets can be the same or different.

The Bog Run

Well Saturday was the most fun outdoors I have had in ages. We participated in East Selkirk's 2nd Annual BOG RUN. The Proceeds go to Cancer Care Manitoba. The bog was 300 metres in length filled with soupy mud. It was a HOOT. I guess I never quit liking playing in the mud .
This pretty picture was DH on his baby a 450 Polaris or maybe its 500. The MCs were a couple of people I went to high school with so there was a little ribbing going on... they wanted to know if DH ever took his quad out of the garage since it was so clean.
Thats me in the red helmet finishing my run. I was covered in mud. It was the first time that I went on a ATV run so I was a little nervous but the kid inside me was screaming with excitement. For one thing I didn't even know how to start my DH machine. lol. There was only 3 female contestants so I got second prize . I didn't get stuck. I only ran into one side at the turn. I did the course in 58.6 seconds. I am doing it again next year!
Of course DH was on call for the airport and sure enough he was called in so we didn't do the second run. The second run was better than the first because of all the machines going through there was ruts underneath that muck and you could get stuck. There was one machine driven by a couple. the girl was first place in our catagory and she made it in 50. 4 seconds. Her partner on his second run. He got stuck seriously stuck and he had to be hauled out of there,his time for partial run 8 minutes. There was some serious wise cracks about how a girl got 1st place on the same machine

Its Thursday

Well I have a lot of things going on. Monday I received my Postage Stamps from Jo in Scotland. I have just been fondling them every chance I get. I am still going through all of them(there are 35 bundles of 50) and reading the names people have placed on their little bundles. Wish I had thought of that. What I have been doing with them is separating them into colors. So far I love them all and I haven't even got through them all. I actually have 20 new fabrics to go into the next swap, and I haven't gone through all my stash. It becomes apparent that my tastes have changed in fabric over the years. When I first started seriously into quilting my colors were the tastefully muted colors of country prim. Now I am building a stash of bright colors, I have an abundance of purple tones in Batics, and as contrast I have Orange. LOTS of Orange. Purple Passionate Quilter eat your heart out.
I also signed up for Chookyblues Christmas swap. Thats the button you see on the right side of my blog. Last night I received my partner . SSSHHHH its Secret but I went to her blog and spent and hour last night reading all about her. She seems like a very wonderful woman and has a life that when I was a little girl , she is what I wanted to be when I grew up. ;-)
This blogging thing is totally addictive. I have read about people from all over the world (if they are in english that is) I have read about their triumphs, goals, wishes, and heartaches. You get to see a part of them that if you were just introduced to them you wouldn't know. Its personal, its sharing its about loving your life mostly. I admitted recently to Paula that I stalk her blog.
Any way my goal for today is a complete day at work. I have absolutely no desire to be there. Office politics as they are make me sick, really, I am emotionally exhausted when I get home. I am looking for a new position under the thought that a change is as good as a rest. I will post pictures of my postage stamps later right now I don't remember where I put the camera.

Have a great day folks.

It was reno work

Well I didn't sew a thing this weekend. The weekend was filled with house and yard stuff. We actually started replacing the fascia on the house in preparation to put up new gutters and downspouts. I think we are going to go with white trim on the house because of the white vinyl windows that we installed. That way we can do cream coloured siding. I hate the stucco on my house. Its gotta go. We located the spot on the roof that leaks . I guess during the last storm a couple of shingles were blown off and at least we know where to fix , unfortunately , the weather that is called for today is thunderstorms so it won't get fixed today. I also decided that the deck is going to get redone. The boards on the decking are old so its time to get a new deck top.
I could make a list of things that need to get done before winter because its all outside work. I actually enjoyed painting the fascia, and I didn't have to climb the ladder because of the deck . It will be nice to have the house look nice finally on the outside.
Maybe tonight if its raining I can do something quilty. Have a good day everyone.

Reno work or sewing

Well for the past few days I haven't touched my sewing machine, or my rotary cutter. I have to decide on which quilt I want to work on. I may just put stuff away for the week and let my mind declutter. I have a ton of ideas floating through my head and I have to write them all down or my brain is going to explode. We still have a lot to work on in the house and I think I may just work on the kitchen for the weekend. .. Yeah right ... I almost feel a need to sew right now just thinking of it. Oh I am a great procrastinator, I can come up with a gazillion things I have to do other than cleaning ... same with working on the house. I really didn't want to work on the house ourselves. That's what contractors are there for darn it! But I suppose that DH will want to become one with the power tools this weekend and my house will end up being covered in dust of some sort. I signed up for a pumpkin swap with the ladies from quilted sisters. I have to make 14 pumpkins of any sort and size 6,9 or 12. I think I will go Prim on these and I will have to go stash diving for my country ish oranges. Some one call out for a search party if I don't come up for air by Sunday.

more cat pictures

Any way these are the pictures that I was trying to load last night of the nine patches I made.









The Picture at the bottom is the block from the missing magazine. Anyone out in blogland know which magazine because I am having a hard time locating the pattern in the scores of Mags that I picked up in the last year.

The Forgotten Stash

Well I haven't cleaned the hatch in my car for over a year. I found 7 bags of various yardage and FQs that I do not repeat do not remember buying. My hatch was filled with various items that I do not use every day. Winter parkas, Blankets, candles, flashlights, sewing machine(never know when your gonna need that)Picnic plates and cutlery, Various shoes and rubber boots, Hoodies, spare pants and socks, tools and one tire. Man I was ready for everything. While taking the items out I was finding bag after bag of stuff that I probably shoved into the hatch so my husband wouldn't find more fabric that I bought. It was kinda like an early christmas. I have now snuck it into my laundry room and its waiting its turn to be prewashed and slide into the overwhelming tubs and shelves of stash I already have.

Well after I drafted the beginnings of this post me and DH went to a dinner party. Best friends neighbor said " I have a lot of Fabric that I am not going to use. Do you want it?" Well it was in front of DH and he said "she doesn't need anymore fabric, besides she has fabric in a bag in her car." Apparently he went into the hatch of my car to look for something after I cleaned it and found the one bag of fabric that I left in the car and the sewing machine. He asked in front of all if they would help in an intervention. Darn, now he is going to be checking my car if I go out shopping.

When we got home he asked me if I really pull over for a sewing fix and do I have stash in the glovebox. Reasonable question.

Before the dinner party I was chain piecing a 6 inch block for a quilt that I can't remember which magazine I got the pattern from and well I need to know when to stop sewing these blocks. It is a ufo that I started before I made the ugly quilt (see previous entry)because I felt the desire to mindlessly piece. I started with sewing the 1.5 strips together and then I cut them into pieces around a 2.5 inch center. Its a scrappy quilt. I have to go through my bedroom shelving to find the magazine. I know its in this years publications so that is a big help.

I packaged and tried to courier out my scrappy 9 patches to Karen from Blockswappers. Unfortunately there is a darn Civic Holiday tomorrow and they are not picking up until Tuesday and they didn't have the waybills to make up the parcel. When I go to work tuesday I will get it picked up there to I had sewn 70 blocks , of which 50 were for the swap. They look nice. I want to make the sisters choice quilt from quiltville.com and I realized that if I had just used my stash I would have only had to make 2 more blocks before I need to put on the star points. The variety of blocks and fabrics that I will receive has me getting excited. And then there are the 1.5 inch squares that are on their way here. My husband will just have to suck up that fact that I am a Fabric Addict.

Well I have just spent the last 5 minutes trying to upload pictures and they wont go.
going to try one more time. If there is no pictures I went to bed.

Islendingadagurinn

Well, Yesterday was lovely me and darling husband went to Gimli Manitoba. It was warm and humid but the breese of Lake Winnipeg was refreshing. The street vendors sold jewelry, quilts, homemade knitted items ( there was a shawl I loved out of my price range) caps, throws and sweaters with icelandic patterns. The knitters out there would have loved the skeins of wool they were selling. I know I did and I don't knit.

We took in the historical village and the viking battles. The group of vikings was made up of Icelanders from all over Canada. In the village there was vendors selling their wares. Intricate handworked silver, carved bone combs and hair ties, goblets made from horns, leather crafts and woodworking. It was great. The outfits that the villagers wore was homespun cloth. The King of the villagers wore Chain mail. Oh boy you could smell the sweat and rust on his outfit.

Mid afternoon it was annouced that the king had died and a funeral procession of vikings carrying their king on their shields commenced. One of the Kings sons came sailing in on a dragon boat with a small band of his followers. Soon the insults were flying and the brothers battled to the death over leadership of the people.

I loved every minute of the day with only one regret. We didn't get to Amma's teahouse. I wanted to have a nice cup of tea and some Pönnukökurs or Vínarterta, DH wanted a burger and fries. Oh well next time.

Rip and Snort and missing in action

Well I had to put the Scrappy Bargello away for a bit. I was getting too put out with it. After cutting one of the panels and arranging them, I realized that one I inverted two of the colors in one section and missed one strip entirely. Three of the panels are sewn together ready to go. One of the remaining panels is cut "HORRORS" into its strips . Okay its fixable just remove the offending mixed pair and reverse them and then cut 2 1/2 squares of the missing color and insert. But being that I wanted to keep making the panels I took the last panel, not yet cut thankfully, and found the same mistakes. Figures I thought it was going to be a quick quilt and because I was in such a hurry its not. Serves me right.
I should be working on scrappy 9 patches for a swap. I got them started a while ago and now I have to 1 find them 2 finish them 3 mail them in 6 days. HA
the problem is finding them little beggars. I joined up on a swap a while ago and darn if the time doesn't run away from me. I just looked at the calendar and cursed. Why do I do that to myself. I started with the best intentions fully expecting to get them done and then life interupts and I end up rushing. Its like I like the adrenaline rush I get from being under the gun. I will blame my mom for that. She was the person that would always come over and say I need 5 matching skirts or dresses or mini quilts for tomorrow. So I have been conditioned. I miss her.
Have a quilty day folks and wish me luck in finding the 9 patches.

Win this quilt

Orts of time

Well the word Ort has been a bit of a conversation piece on stashbusters. I like it. I think I will use this word a lot . My sewing has been on orts of time for the past week, my quilts are Ort quilts, I have orts of time to plan a design. hehe love it.
Seriously though I have had only orts of time to sew and I have had such big plans. Big thunder boomers out and my power goes, my furbaby goes into hysterics, and my $*^%^$ roof started leaking. We just had the roof redone a few years ago and as far as I am concerned it shouldn't be doing the leaking thing. Friday say 3:00 am, Taco has hysterics in bed and I being now awake started to listen for the trees to fall over on our house, but 30 minutes awake and one quivering dog later I hear the first PLOP, power is out so now its where is the now continuous plops coming from. Plop, plop, plop and it is now official I have a leaky roof.

Canada Day

Any way this is a frontal of my new baby. I have to move some stash around to get her settled in her new home. DH has been rumbling about having to move stuff around. lol
Its really hard to sit and sew right now. I had big plans to finish this Scrappy Bargello. But my stash keeps looking at me. I turn around and there a FQ or two sitting, staring at me. Am I supposed to feel guilty over not using them? I could cut out another kit for myself but I already have 5 kits cut up. What do they want to be in? There is nothing fabulous about them .... what to do with them. Not to mention I found some flimsies on my bookcase. I know I didn't make them, they must have moved in over the winter from some other quilters house.

And then there is a postage stamp swap. What was I thinking. 1. 5 squares . Seriously do I really need to have 1250 square running loose in my house. What if they multiply. Worse yet hide and then multiply. My house would be over run with those little beggars and I would never get them all. A friend , and I will use the term loosely mentioned " Oh I picked out a cross stitch pattern and I made that into a quilt from stash with postage stamps". Okay what would I do , Its going to happen I have been looking at cross stitch patterns looking for inspiration. I was completely happy with making an triple irish chain a few days ago with these squares.
Did I mention I have a short attention span.
Then there is the garden. Some big azz weeds are yelling at me "Nah nah". Some of the beds have been taken over by some seriously tough and nasty thistles. They are daring me to pull them out. The tiger lilies are threating to move out of the bed. There is actually a few daring babies in my lawn. I can't just run them over with the mower. They are beauuuuuuutiful flowers. That means I am going to make another flower bed sometime in the near future so my flowers can have their babies. I am such a sucker.
This is my fur baby Taco Bell. She is not very inpressed with me right now. It being 33 degrees celius with the humidex that is hot so I cooled her off with Big Dumb Dog at the creek. BDD jumped right in happier than a pig in S*#@. He swam around for a good half hour just happy to be swimming. Taco being a city gal that was raised in an apartment before she came home with me was above going in the creek. She needed convincing that cool water was a good thing. She is still not convinced but she was really energized once she was cooled off. I had ended up carrying her out to the water up to my knees and I faced her to the shore and I slowly lowered her into the cool water. She paddled furiously to shore cooled off but not impressed with me. She won't even look at me right now as you can see and the swim was 4 hours ago.
To All the Canadians today "Happy Canada Day"

New Baby is home

Well got your attention. Actually I purchased a lovely old Treadle. She was manufactured in 1915 in Quebec. Shes a little worn as you can see but she still sews. She came with her original manual and attachments. You can't see it in this picture but she has great cabinet with a few age spots there is carving around the drawer knobs and a raised design on the sides. Since I have always wanted a treadle and the one that I learned on is across the street in my cousins home I had to get this one. I don't know her name yet. For a 93 year old lady she was well taken care of. I had seen younger plain jane models for absolutely ridiculous prices with no character and are seized in need of refinishing.
When I picked her up today the owner said her mother bought it and since she is now moving there is no room for her. Aren't I the lucky one, and my DH didn't even say a thing when I came home with a new sewing machine. Grand total to date is 6 machines. My goal now is to get a long arm. Research time. and well start saving my money again so back to no buy for now. Besides I think I have enough stash to work on for a "few" quilts.
Any way its time I worked on the Scrappy Bargello. I have one more panel to start and finish and then I have one panel that I have to frog I missed one color in the panel so its one short and I don't really want to change my layout. I believe my fabric total for this is 160 different fabrics and I haven't even thought of the border yet.
I think I will take a peek at Bonnie's site http://quiltville.com

Getting back to sewing!

Well my kitchen is finally looking like a kitchen. I have cupboards and they look great. We are still waiting for the flooring to come in so I can be a little patient about that. What I have been working on. For one I have been cutting out Bonnie's Orange Crush Mystery and cutting up strips for whatever . Last night I was finally able to pull out my sewing machine and sew. I was having withdrawals. I needed something that I could just mindlessly sew so I started sewing the 2.5 inch strips together and by 3:00 in the morning I had half the scrappy bargello sewn. So far I have 150 different fabrics in it, ALL from stash. I think I will be doing more of her scrappy quilts just to reduce the piles, nay Mountains of stash that I have. I need to cut out 30 more fabrics into 2.5 strips so I can get a finished size of 72 inches on the bargello portion of the quilt. I am not sure what I will use for the border treatment but I am sure I have enough of something. green, yellow, pink, burgandy something. I know when people buy me presents or I get giveaways I always get yardage. Maybe that isn't helping the stashbusting but it makes me feel good.
Well I didn't realize how long its been between posts. For the past 3 months my house has been in a state of upheaval. Boy I can't wait to start the bathroom. NOT. Surely over the next few months I will get a few Christmas presents completed and I also am required to do a small wallhanging of lilies. Its for a coworker that is retiring. I wish. then I would have time to play with all my fabric. ... well maybe lay in the sun to.lol. I will post pictures of the bargello hopefully tomorrow. Smiles everyone, Smiles.

Lazy Gal Quilting: Liberated Quiltmaking Reprint

Lazy Gal Quilting: Liberated Quiltmaking Reprint

Check out Tonya's blog and leave a note if you would like a reprint of Liberated Quiltmaking. AMQ needs to see a a number to validate a reprint.

Just so you all can get a chuckle I set off the panic alarm in the
reception area of a Government office of Canada that I work in. Forces of Good ran to my rescue as I tried to stop the alarm from continuing its horrendous sound. Directors , my manager, my supervisor, co-workers, Assistant heads and all big brawny male types came running to my rescue some from the basement of the building. (I am on the 3rd floor) Me in my complete embarrassment Turning a full fire engine red have been accepting of the ribbing I have been enduring since that days lovely afternoon festivities. I in my apparent stupidity went
" oh whats this"
and stuck my finger in the hole of a little tiny box and as the mind slowly
kicked into gear thinking to myself "This must be the" and then the alarm
went off. I knew at the very second of inserting my finger exactly what
it was and have been firing off apologies to all parties involved in my
rescue. So how is your week going?

Quilt Reflections 2008

Well this was one fantastic weekend, Quilt Reflections 2008 had arrived there was many beautiful, inspiring pieces and I had the pleasure of going to a trunk show and dinner on Saturday night. I camped out at the Canad Inns Polo Park in Winnipeg since thursday night I was so excited to go. Friday went well enough I volunteered so I was on White Glove Patrol in the morning while it wasn't open , they had opened the show to seniors from a few homes so they go through with wheel chairs and didn't have to battle the crowds. I also got to see all of the beauties before the
Some of the Artists and award winners are people I know they are from The In Stitches Group from Little Britain Church. Judith Panson won 1st place with her beautiful panels and also won best in show with them. Its funny I knew her sons when we were growing up and they must be so proud of their mom. These are just some of the quilts that I took pictures of. Some of the quilts sing with colour and the movement some created wow wow wow!!!
I ran into a few quilters that I met last year and If you look at my older blogs there is one with Wild Thang and I got re-aquainted(spelling?) with Melissa M. I just received a phone call that I was a lucky winner of one of the challenge quilts. Yippee.

Ugly Fabric - Cut it up

Bonnie says. If its still ugly you haven't cut it small enough. Well To you this may look cute even pretty, not sewn well or cut square but cute anyway. To me its was a OMG what did I buy!
On a trip I wandered into a quilting store. Nothing strange about that. 10 feet from the door was a SALE sign, on it was bundles of Fat Quarters. 10 for $25. The one on top looked pretty enough, the bottom one too, so I bought it. I didn't look closely at it I just when cool sale. When I finally got it home and opened it up I was shocked, horrified. Inside it was the most ugly Fat Quarters I had ever had the displeasure of buying.EEEEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWW!

The fabric it self was not the best quality the colors were muddy in places and the patterns , well I certainly didn't care for them at all so they went into the pile of fabric that I had bought, that ended up in the WHAT WAS THINKING pile. Truth be known I hoard , everything, I am a complete pack rat. I save everything. I am trying to get rid of stuff but for some reason, (shopping, thrift stores, yard sales) things seem to stay around and multiply.

Friday I had the day off and since I finally picked up the black that I was so intent on buying the week before (twice as much as I was going to) I had some extra so I wanted to do something that wasn't in the WIP pile and UFO pile I wanted something new. By the way I always want something new to do. So I picked up the pattern that I ended up buying at the evil new store. And to myself said hey I have enough black to make a lap quilt. I can do that in a weekend. But I really didn't want to cut into some of my other fabric because of the Orange Crush mystery I didn't know for sure what colorway I was going to go with. I just wanted something that could be carted around in the car or use on the couch and eat on and not worry about so I went to the PILE. I had no problem with the FQs the black made made it look not so bad and the ugly parts I could cut them smaller , just like Bonnie said. If It ended up really ugly I would send it off to the thrift store. Somebody might like it.
I cut everything on Friday night and set them up so I could just keep on sewing . I didn't square anything up. Its ugly so who cares. I am busting stash and ugly stash at that so I gave myself a pat on the back for that part.

Saturday I pieced all the blocks and put them together and since I am busting i asked around to see if anyone uses Artic Fleece on their backs. Yup. was the majority answer so I now have the top less borders , Fleece that takes up half a tub and husband that is asking me when did I buy all that. So I explained I was making an ugly quilt with ugly FQs and using ugly fleece. DH asked why I was making an ugly quilt and my reply was so I could have a quilt fix. Whats it for he asks. So i can have a quilt to hang around on the couch with and watch movies or for what ever. So his reply to my answers was your making an ugly quilt to hang around with and be in OUR living room for everyone to see. No I don't want people to see it in our living room. So why are you making it again. So I can bust stash. Since he didn't get it I am now showing you all. Not in my living room but on my kitchen floor, before quilting . That what I am doing to day. Wish I squared up those blocks though. It doesn't look so bad.

Orange crush

Well these are the color I have chosen at this moment to be in the Orange crush mystery. I have asked do I really want to change the dark prints to black would that work for this pattern. who knows ... Well Bonnie knows so I sent her the question. Knowing how absolutely busy she is I don't know when I will get an answer. The green tonal is way off my comfort zone but hey i have to use it sometime. My past forays into scrappy quilts are usually more autumn colors with a few zingers thrown in for a bit of a punch . This one looks like its going to go for a halloween party. That is my all time favorite holiday.
Yesterday I started my day off by having breakfast with DS. I ended up going to the big city just to have breakfast with him. I miss him since he moved to Winnipeg. We don't get together as much as we used to since he is off to work when I am getting home from work. I am off work today as well so I think I will be scrounging through the bins to find all the bright colors and cutting up 2 inch strips. The majority of my stash is FQs so I always have an assortment of stuff for the scrap quilts. I would like to make this one more controlled so we will see.
Currently working on a basket weave top. I have been sewing and cutting 1.5 in strips into 4.5 strips. I didn't realize how many I would need so I began by cutting out of the sewn 1.5 , the 4.5 that I need for this quilt , 1.5 for four patches, 2.5 for something in the future and another 4.5 for Rail fence ... I think. Hell I don't even remember if I told you all this in my last post. lol. All the left overs will go into a string quilt or crumb quilt. either way what ever I am sewing I know I will have a large assortment of Leaders and Enders now. lol