Tuesday stuff

I was trying to join that Blog Along site cause it sounds like a neat idea but my computer keeps freezing up when I go there so I've decided to take out what I wrote and change it.

 

I got the backing fabric this morning for my son in law's quilt. I can't believe how quickly it got here! It's sooo soft. I may fall asleep working on it.  According to what I've read and what Hazel said free motion probably isn't a good option. On the other hand I do have 6 weeks so I'm thinking I could stitch in the ditch on the machine and then handquilt in the individual blocks. I picked up a large stipple template thinking I could use it. I like stippling freemotion but this would work for handquilting. I don't know that I feel like spending another $150 to have it long arm quilted.

I've also been working on the Gifts of Grace applique/embroidery blocks. Boy are they pretty! Almost done the first one. And I'm making a machine cover that has embroidery on it. I'm having to adjust it a bit cause my machine sits down inside the table and the cover is designed too long but I think I can make it work.

And I finished reading Touching Stars by Emilie Richards. Waiting for her next book to come into the library. Love that series.   

Charm Square Swap

Is anyone interested in a swap? I received 2 purple charm squares in the mail today. In order to participate I need 4 quilting friends to send squares to and in turn they send 4 to quilt friends. If you participate you will end up with enough squares to make a nickle quilt or something similar. I think it sounds like fun by maybe that's just me. If you want to participate please leave me a note in my comments.

I'm feeling very sad today. A woman from my church who I've known for over 5 years got hit by a car and was killed right in front of the church last Friday. I had a cold on Sunday so didn't go to church or I would have been there for the announcement and prayers. I will go to the memorial service on April 3 though. She's also in my bible study, which was cancelled this week because they said they lost the DVD we've been using. So I ended up seeing the story about the accident and then her obituary in yesterday's local paper. I sure wish I'd heard about it at church surrounded by others who knew her.

She was 78 and was a cancer survivor plus had had knee replacement surgery on both legs. But she had so much energy and she was so cheerful all the time. She started a program to make sandwiches one day a month at the church to be sent to a main church downtown to feed the homeless. It's a collaboration involving many churches but she made sure it was done by our church every month.

I feel so sad. She wasn't a close friend but she's someone who was always there. She was an added perk to going to worship each Sunday and going to bible studies.

Red Sox Quilt So Far

Here it almost is. I'm short 4 1/2" of red *grrr*. When I calculated I figured 5 strips would do for the final border but I really need just a bit more so I don't end up with little joins. I also didn't buy enough fabric for the binding. Actually that's okay cause now that I see it doing another blue for the binding might be too much. I want the blue to be more of an accent so I'm going to get enough red to do the binding as well. The white is Kona. The blue and red are Moda marbles but the red one is a graduated colour/value one. I thought it would be neat to have a little variation in there.

I'm really happy with how it's turning out. It has a few wrinkles here and there but then so do I *LOL* Cheryl had suggested a walking foot for attaching the polyester center block to the fabric. Well I just happen to have a 1/4" dual feed foot for my Janome so I used it all the way through. Gotta love that foot. My seams have never been so straight.

The backing is on it's way. I ordered it from Bear Paw Quilt and boy are they good! It was shipped within 2 days and they gave me a shipping number so I can follow it. It's in Chicago today in International Shipping. I'm gonna make sure to use them again.

Now I need to practise my quilting. If I have a chance to get my favorite long arm quilter to do it I will. She was in a car accident so I don't know how much she's doing these days. I don't trust anyone else with this. If it's going to get messed up I want to be the one to do it. This will be cotton with a fleece backing. I have some fleece downstairs that I picked up at the Thrift Shop so I can use that for practise.

The sun seems to have left us now. It must be on it's way back East cause it's supposed to really rain here for the next two days.

 

It IS Spring

Wow, look at what I woke up to today! It doesn't translate too well cause you can't see the beauty of the sun that's shining but I just loved this cloud. Remember as kids we used to look for shapes in clouds? I see a Cocker Spaniel coming in for a landing and looking to the next cloud cause that's where he's going next. Okay, so I played too many video games when my kids were little... like Mario who was always jumping all over the place.

But today really is Spring. It's 15C out there (60F) in the shade. Since I can't take vitamin D by mouth (I'm on special vitamins and that isn't one of them) I've put undercoat on my face with an SPF15 and I'm gonna go for a walk in the sun.

Started my son-in-law's quilt yesterday and I'm really happy with it so far. It's so easy so hopefully if not too much comes up today I'll have the top finished to show you tomorrow. I ordered the backing fabric and it will be a couple of weeks getting here. I got it from Bear Paw Quilts which is in the States so it has to go though customs.

Have a great Monday.

Happy Spring!!

My Magnolia agrees. In honor of the first day of Spring she burst forth a lovely bloom this morning. All of the other ones are set to bloom in the next few days. It's a shame the blooming time is so short. But I'm grateful that it blooms at all.

I've also made a Spring Resolution. Why is it always New Years that we make Resolutions? I think Spring is a pefect time. It's a rebirth and a renewal. Last night I caught part of a program on PBS by Dr. Christine Northrop. She's an OB/GYN but she makes so much life sense. She was talking about healthy lifesyle, how to start and maintain that as we grow older (that's where I come in *LOL*). One of the things she said really struck a chord with me. I've had years of therapy and I know that the psychologist had been leading me in this direction, but it never came through as clearly as it did last night. Christine said many women have suffered through abuse, violence, childhood trauma. But it's over. We are starting a new stage in our lives and we have to let go of all of that. We have to accept that our lives may not have turned out the way we planned. That's okay, we need to start today, accept ourselves as we are, and live our lives from this day forward. 

I've decided I'm gonna do it. I'm not turning my back on the past, I'm filing it away so that it doesn't have so much of an impact on my life today. I'm going to move forward. I like it. 

Speaking of new beginnings. Husband finally got into the air in the plane he's been building for 6 years now. I can't believe when he started it was just a big box of bits in our driveway. We live in such a neat town. He took a picture down to the hardware store where he's spent a fortune on screws and other things he's needed as he went along and the owner is posting the photo in the store for everyone to see. I love my town.

Here's his baby

For anyone who wonders what kind of airplane it is it's a GlasStar.

  

Catalicious Quilt Stitch In Block 2

I actually finished this before the month is out. This is block 2 of 12 from Bronwyn at Red Brolly. I just think these are the cutest things.

It's sunny today again.. that makes 3 days in a row, I guess Spring really is on it's way. It's still cool out there though and definately cold at night.

I wanted to share a post with you too from Nattering Bears. This shows why we need to make sure we clean the fluffies out of our sewing machines on a regular basis. Look at her post "Where the dustbunnies live" I'm surprised this girls machine was working at all!

Thanks to Angela and Cheryl yesterday I think I have the pattern figured out for my Red Sox quilt. All I need now is fabric. 

 

Opinions again please

Boy oh boy when will she ever stop this? *LOL* Here is what I have:

I ordered the throw pillow cause I want to make a Red Sox quilt for my s-i-l. The company made an error and sent a pillow case instead. They wrote to me telling me to just keep the pillow case (no charge) and they'd reship the cushion.

My problem. For $19.95 the cushion is gorgeous! It's a very soft fabric like a cross between good flannel and velvet. The logo is fleece and very well attached.

The pillow case, on the other hand, has the word Boston in dark blue. It would be really easy to cut it to the 16"x16" square I want. It's 100% cotton jersey. But the logo is silk screened on... will it fade out? The fabric also is not as , stiff would you say?, as Kona which is what I hoped to make the rest of the quilt out of... if the colours are right.

I'm having a trouble with concentration today. I had a bad experience yesterday and my brain has gone to mush. I don't want to talk about it but imagine sitting on a highway with cars coming at you head on at 60+mph and no way to get out of their way. Scary stuff.

Anyway, this cushion is so darn gorgeous I hate to cut it up. So I'm thinking of using the pillow case and fuse plain white Kona to the back of it to give it the stabalization it needs to match the other fabrics.

I'm worried about the silk screen but since it's a quilt if she washes it in cold water and hangs it to dry it will be as good as a T-Shirt I figure.

I don't want to go to a lot of work making the quilt if the center is going to mess up. Guess I could always make my own logo later to applique on top though huh?

Thoughts?

Who Dun it?

We had fun today, and won't need exercise for a week. This morning I went to my class. Boy is this time change nuts! I had to set my alarm for 8:30 to get there by 10 but there's no way my body would acknowledge that alarm before 9:15... I was the last to arrive but I made it by 10:00!

Got home at noon and waited for DH to get home. We decided today is the day we'd go to our local museum to solve the case of the Great Bank Robbery of 1922. This is a Spring Break event so that has "kids" written all over it, but it also said children under 12 must be accompanied by an adult. So what the heck. It must be okay for adults too. We get ourselves into these binds all the time. We go to do stuff and the person at the door wants to know why we don't have kids with us. Well, it's because it looks like fun and we just don't happen to have any kids around that we can borrow. We aren't perverts we're just imature *LOL*

Same thing today. The lady said it was for kids. Maybe we just felt like visiting the museum anyway, after all we are members. So she let us pay our $5 and take part. This was a real robbery. I remember hearing about it when we went on a tour of the village a few years ago. Our museum is set up with little rooms representing the phone company, jail, general store, blacksmith, someone's front parlour, etc. So we started at a place that they'd set up as a bank vault and followed the clues from one place to another. Thing is our museum is narrow and 3 stories high. So they'd send us to the 3rd floor and then say go back down two flights then go back up two flights again to check something else out. I haven't climbed so many stairs in months. At one point DH said "Can't we skip the clue in the middle and do the two up here so we don't have to climb the stairs again? *LOL* So we did. There were interviews (on paper) and fingerprints (paper again). It was fun. We kind of got it right. It was darn hard. I doubt kids would get any closer than we did. We did catch the guy but we didn't figure out that he had 3 different aliases (which would explain why the print on the door of the vault matched that of 3 different people).

It was a great way to just get away from all the everyday worries. Pretending you're 12 is great :0)

Opinions please

I'm really determined on this thing. I have 28 blocks now. I know I won't be happy with 36. That will be enough widthwise but not lengthwise. So I have two options.

1. I can make all but 3 blocks as above. For the 3 blocks I'm missing I have enough fabric to make the background block if I attach the pieces it down the middle. Then I can make the quilt one row longer, which is perfect.

2. I can take the half background pieces I have and make a half block to put top and bottom of the quilt.

My preference would be to make the full blocks. I'm thinking if I scattered the joined ones throughout the quilt (of 42 blocks) the 3 different ones wouldn't really show... I hope. But would it be better to make a half row to and bottom so there are no seams?

This is driving me mad... I even dreamt about it *LOL*

So what do you fellow quilters think? Would you join to make full blocks or would you make rows of half blocks.

I sprang forward last night UGH.

Guess we all did except for those smart people living in Saskatchewan.So getting up this morning was a pain. I know I'll be exhausted by the end of the week, I always am as my body adjusts even to an hour, but there's so much I wanted to do this week. I want to go tomorrow morning to make sandwiches for the homeless. We do it the third Monday of each month but the women get together at 9:30am... double ugh. Then on Tuesday I have to get up again to go to my class at 10. I'm not a morning person in any way, wish I was.

I'll just play each day by ear.

Smartorstoopid

Another email quiz for everyone. I got 15 which means I'm 3.8 points stoopider than the average person. This quiz goes very fast. You have 8 seconds to answer before it goes on to the next question. Unfortunately it doesn't give you which answers you got wrong but I think I know cause at least 3 questions I had absolutely no idea of the answer. Click on the link below.

SMARTORSTOOPID

So what else have you been doing Shirley?

Well, I have no idea where the last week went to. I'm working on the 2nd Catalicious pattern... that reminds me, I'm out of gray.

We also watched the Academy Awards although every year we say we haven't seen any of the movies nominated so why watch. It was so nice to see Sandra Bullock win an Oscar. It's true none of her movies to date have been Oscar type movies but the one she won for looks SO good. We're going to rent it as soon as the shelves in the rental store fill up again.

We did manage to rent The Hurt Locker. Wow... I thought I didn't want to see it cause I'm not crazy about war movies except for the old ones where there's no blood and guts and always a romance going on. But this movie was so good! It was the directing, but the acting was so good. I could feel what all of them were feeling partly because of the way it was filmed. Awesome. I think everyone should see it to get an idea of what our soldiers are up against on a daily basis and how they feel and react. And the attitude of the locals watching them too. Even though it is ultimately about war it was the personalities that I found interesting.

Off to answer some long waiting emails and then going to sew... again... on my daughter's blocks this afternoon. I'm at 25 I think. Here's where I was the other day, at 16. Not a great pic, sorry.

 

Dining Out

Once a week my husband, the big spender, and I go to a local restaurant for dinner out. It usually costs us around $22 total. At least he doesn't make me eat McDonalds.

So last night we went out and I noticed they've changed the menu. No meatloaf. Hmmm... Well, this fish dish looks good, seasoned rice, nice looking vegies, breaded fish. Except I've never heard of this fish before. It sounded very fancy for $10.99. What it is?

Catfish! Blech!!! I didn't even know they could catch catfish around here. It's a lake fish isn't it? Not a salt water fish? Oh blech, blech, blech. So I ordered the open face turkey with rice instead. I still get the heebie jeebies just thinking about it.

Went to my bible study yesterday. Our minister scours the used book shop and thrift shop. So what do I see on the table with the other bibles?

Okay, so now do I wonder who's preaching? Or do I wonder what he thinks of the rest of us *LOL* Actually I browsed through it and it looks neat so I ordered it (second hand of course).

Woke up to rain this morning. Now the sun is shining and it's getting a bit warmer - til the sun goes down anyway. Oh! And I was looking in the garden and what do I find? Rhubarb! I didn't kill it! It was just hiding from me cause it needed a break *LOL*


I've got 22 of the 36 blocks done for my daughter's quilt. I'll be SO glad to get it put together so I can quilt it and start working on something for me - after I make a birthday one for her husband by mid May.

Catalicious Quilt Stitch In Block 1

I finally finished it! This is the first block.. I'm a month behind as usual of course, of the Catalicious Quilt Stitch In from Red Brolly  I just LOVE Bronwyn's designs.

I'm making this for my daughter so instead of Brutus the cat I had to change it to gray and black in honour of her cat Rilo. This is a "baby picture" She's nowhere near as small as that anymore and she isn't full sized either. She's a Maine Coon Cat. Her mother was medium sized so hopefully she won't grow too big either. We don't know who the father was. The mother was a rescue cat and was pregnant when she came in to the facility.

I can't wait to get started on the next one. This time I did prewash the background fabric. I'm so used to not washing fabric cause I like that quilty look that I forget when I'm embroidering I need to or it shinks and gets all wrinkly when I wash out the lines. Oh well. The rest of the quilt will be quilty so why not the designs?

I've also put a new book up on my Book Picks Blog. I just finished reading Emilie Richards Lover's Knot and I can't wait for the next one to come in at the library. I've ordered it in and it's available at 2 other libraries in the system so should be here in a few days.

And, since I'm taking a Greek Mythology course I decided to put my assignments on my Shirleymac's Writing blog. It's so fascinating. I love myths. So far I've done 3 assignments and gotten 100% on all of them. Pretty good for an old lady *LOL*

Our nice weather is over. All the people who jumped the gun and put out flowers last week are out of luck. It's been almost down to freezing the last two nights. Poor tulips haven't bloomed yet and are drooping too cause they needed to be covered. The wind and rain last night was beyond amazing. I'm surprised we didn't lose power. Now it's sunny, which isn't supposed to last, so I'm off for a walk while I still have the chance!

My Irish Roots

Seeing as it's March I decided to look at my Irish families. One of them I know a lot about, a second I know nothing about, the third I have a family tree made up by an old fellow (my dad's cousin) now deceased. My problem is I was never much interested in that family. I loved my dad but I just didn't click with his mother. Maybe it had something to do with the "switch" she kept on top of her refrigerator. But starting to look at this family I've become fascinated. They arrived in Ontario early.. probably early 1830's. I know they came from Enskillen in Northern Ireland (near Belfast). I also knew from a Will I had found that they were very poor... although, ashamed to say it I saw my grandmother as a miserly penny pincher. Now I see her differently. Her family had a difficult time and money was not easy to come by.

I thought perhaps they'd come with the Peter Robinson immigrants but they didn't. I found them listed as living here but not in the groups of immigrants. Then I learned that Peter Robinson was looking for Irish Catholics, my family was Methodist so wouldn't have qualified. I also thought, like everyone else, that the potato famine was in 1848/1849. It wasn't. The first crop failures due to the blight were in 1821. Also linen had been a large industry in Ireland but with the coming of the Industrial Revolution in England Irish linen was no longer needed and left many families without a livlihood. Also the British wanted the landowners in Ireland to have x number of British tennants which pushed the Irish off the land they were working. It's really all very sad. The British saw the Irish as little more than uncivilized barbarians - the same way they viewed the Scottish. Makes me ashamed of the British parts of me.

The photo above is what a log cabin would have been like at the time this family arrived although there would have been no second floor or window. The cabins were one room with a dirt floor. There would be windows if they could afford glass, otherwise there was only the door. This family actually started off in a shanty which was even rougher. There were no windows and only canvas to cover the door which didn't keep out the weather or the wild animals. I can't even begin to imagine what it would be like. It looks from the census that perhaps by the 1850's they did have a log house.

Our weather has been wonderful here. Nice and sunny... but I keep thinking about the "In like a Lamb, Out like a Lion" thing. We may suffer for this. When the sun shines I can see all the dust and streaks inside the house so have been spending a good amount of time cleaning... well since the Olympics ended anyway. 

Quilt wise I'm still slugging away at my daughter's quilt. I just realized, though, that if I used stablizer on the back of the appliqued rings that means when I pulled the stabilizer off I weakend or even broke some of the stitches. So I'm going back and doing a second row of stitching.  It's a pain but better safe than having to be constantly mending it.

I'm also working on the first Catalicious embroidery from Red Brolly. She has the second one out now so I better get busy. I'm almost done but I know it will take another couple of nights to finish completely. I'll post a photo when I'm done.