Update

We lost our lovely boy October 21, 2016.  He will be forever missed.

We also lost my Mom December 29, 2016 after a lengthy illness.  She was not well, not happy and is now in a better place.  Shortly after her passing a picture popped in my head of her when she was younger and she was leaning against my Dad with a big smile on her face looking very happy with my beloved Charlie leaning against her.  I know now that they are all safe, no longer ill and in pain and happy together.

Enough sad stuff.  On to quilting.  Because my life has not been my own these last few years I have got quite behind with blogging, sewing and stuff in general.  I have sewn a couple of charity baby quilts ready for batting and backing.  I think I will just make tops and do the finishing all at once.  Easier to store.  I also made all of the six inch blocks for a 'Trail Mix' quilt.  They are pinned in rows ready to sew when I can get around to it.  I have three customer quilts that need to get done before I tackle it.  Having said that I gave been playing at the machine paper piecing blocks for a 'Pineapple Crazy ' quilt.  I decided that it is too tedious and not enjoyable to work on so I am just going to make a wall hanging and call it done.  I gave put that away until the customer quilts are done and gave just been sewing crumb strips and string blocks for future charity quilts.  I am hoping to use up every last crumb and string because I am overwhelmed with them and also sick if the fabrics.

I have been doing a bit if Charity knitting as well but that will be in my next post.

Well since today is Saturday I am not going to work on the customer quilts and just do fun things with the hubby.

Happy quilting.

Post to save some photos just in case.

Charlie having a snooze.  Charlie showing me where the treats are?  Charlie relaxing in the snow, weird dog.  Charlie after successfully destroying his Christmas toy.  Handsome boy.  Yum, ice cream.  Flowers from my sister for my 60th.  My pretty little patio display, weeds and all.  Giant zucchini from the garden.  It is either the third or fourth picked this year.  I made two small and one large zucchini breads.  I also had four cups left over for zucchini pancakes. 

Crazy spring

I have not been inspired to post anything to the blog.  I think I would like to change the name because I am interested in more than quilting these days.  I taught myself to knit more than scarves last year and have tackled socks, hats and mittens.  I have knitted socks for Fred, Nicole and myself so far and they did turn out ok.  I don't think I will bother again unless I can afford the good sock yarn and it is not wool because it makes me itchy.  I have made hats for Fred, Mike and Nicole.  I have made several hats for Koats for Kids and mittens as well.  Knitting for Koats for Kids is a great project for me for sitting in front of the tv and for taking along to appointments.

I finally finished my last customer quilt the week before last.  Thank goodness.  I cannot take that pressure and responsibility anymore.  I guess it has to do with everything that has been happening I. My life the past few years.

My mother is finally in a temporary personal care home and she hates it.  She is sharing a room right now but will eventually be moving to another home when a space becomes available.  I hope it is soon because I am sick of her games and I hope she will be happier having her own private space.  She is not the easiest woman to deal with.

The weather has turned and we have had below zero nights these past few days.  I am hoping the rhubarb, hollyhock and shallots I have planted survive.  They are covered up.

I have to come up with a new name for my blog and try and figure out how to make the changes.

Happy quilting

Happy belated New Year 2016

I haven't posted for quite sometime because I forget to.  I did make and complete a couple of projects for Christmas gifts.  I quilted the Mexican Star top and gave it to Nicole for Christmas because it was purple and I made a Winter Wreath tablerunner for Ruth my hairstylist.  Job well done for a change.  Forgot to take pictures of them of course.

I have some customer quilts to complete but Christmas, my mother's frequent hospital visits, appointments and my rotten cold have thrown me for a loop and I can't imagine ever getting caught up.  

My DM has been panelled for a spot in a personal care home, yeah.  She will hopefully get a spot by the end of the summer, then clearing out if all of her junk begins.

I have to say that I am so glad I did not do the mystery quilt this time around.  I knew I was going to be too busy and when the colours were announced I knew that I did not want a quilt in red, gold, gray, black and neutral.  The quilt revealed is quite hideous.  I like most of the ones that did not use her colour choices so much better because I do not like red and gold together unless green is there to neutralize the combo.  Eggs and ketchup, yuck.  Happy I did not waste my time.  I am hoping she will come up with an autumn coloured quilt for the mystery one year.  I will keep my fingers crossed.

I wrote to the company that distributes self threading needles because there usually is only one needle in each package that doesn't shred the thread and I could not find it in the package I had.  Well, they kindly sent me all of the loot in the photo following.  Lucky me.  I will never run out, I hope.

That is it for me.

Happy quilting.

Easy Street done.

My 'Easy Street' quilt , pattern by Bonnie Hunter, is done.  This was one of her mystery quilts from a couple of years ago.  I finally quilted it this summer with a pattern called sticky buns and finished binding it last night.  I wish I had put a border on it but it would have been way too big for my bed.  I want to make some pillow shams to match since there is not pillow tuck room.  I also need to make a label for it.  I just have to find the details to include on the label.  Photo below.

Next up is quilting the baby quilt for the neighbour and then I just found out my doctor is expecting in November and since she has been so good to us and my mother that I felt I must give her something and a baby quilt is one of the best gifts as far as I am concerned.  I saw a cute easy one on Pinterest that I may use as inspiration.

Happy quilting.

My potato reveal.

It started out to be a nice cool morning yesterday, after the above 30 degree weather we had last week.  I decided it would be a good day to harvest the potatoes and have them for supper.  My 

DS and his girlfriend were coming for dinner.  I was surprised by the outcome, there were more potatoes than  I expected but less than I had hoped.  They had scab too which disappointed me so I can't really store them.  I think we can eat them all up this week.  What a difference between fresh potatoes and store bought, very crisp when cutting up to cook.  I have since learned that I should not have used manure in the buckets, so next year I will get better soil and look for specific potato fertilizer.  The experiment was fun. 

I managed to sew the binding on my Easy Street quilt.  It does look nice on the bed however I wish I could have put on a border.  It would have been way to big for my bed if I had.  I am sure I will get used to it being borderless.  One more almost finish.  

There is a baby quilt on the machine for the neighbour's first grandchild that needs to be quilted.  I have to change the backing because the fibres pop through with the stitching.  I may just quilt zigzags on the domestic machine and call it done.  Don't know yet.

Next up on the machine will be a fall themed wallhanging for the hallway.  Hopefully it will be done before Christmas, lol.

Happy stitching.

First UFO a finish of 2015

This quilt was started in October of 2000 at a class taught at a now closed quilt shop called The Old Cotton Shop.  I finally put in on the machine in December meant as a Christmas/Birthday gift for the DH.  It took awhile to get it quilted because of the holidays and it was time consuming due to all of the thread colour changes.   It is done and on the bed, yeah.

I have some customer quilts  I am working on right now but once done I will get started on another long time UFO.  I have a lot of quilts in the queue for quilting plus my niece is having a baby in April so a couple of baby quilts are in my future to make.  One will be a rag and the other who knows.  

I have a couple of on going scrap quilt projects on the go.  I am paper piecing a 'Wild & Goosey' project.  I don't know how big it will get because I am just going to use the batik scraps I have on hand and I will keep on going until they are depleted.  I need to make at least 196 three and one half inch paper pieced squares for a throw size and I have only completed eight so far.   The other scrap paper pieced project is a 'Pineapple Crazy' quilt and that is using even smaller pieces than for the W&G.

I also have charity quilts to get started working on but they can wait.

Better get at it.

Happy quilting