You Can't Say I don't try

I'm thinking up new ideas for our Fall Bazaar. This first one is a no-no unless peole want to pay 50 cents or something for a bookmark that looks like their 5 year old grandchild made it. They do work is all I can say. I'll give them to the group and they can take them or leave them as they wish. They looked cute in the book, but even using a ziper foot were impossible to sew the back to the front nicely, mostly because of the beads and then because I had no measure for keeping the sides sewn straight.

One woman also requested bath mitts that you can put your small scraps of soap in so you don't waste them. I found one pattern that was crochet but had the wrong side yarn. Then I bought Bernat Crafter's Yarn and there was a knitting pattern on the back of the label. So I knitted it even though knitting isn't really my forte.. or rather putting it together after it's knitted isn't my forte. Then I knit a small pouch to put on it. Looks okay but I'd like to resew the pouch some way. I'm hoping someone in the group knits and can do something with this idea. I have a ton of sewing projects to do for them and a lot of them don't seem to sew so that is my area rather than knitting. I've never seen one made so I'm not sure the soap pieces won't fall out. Hope not.

Other than that it's a beautiful day in the neighbourhood. I'd really like to get out and plant a couple of things I bought but I'm too shy to be out there doing that on the weekend when the neighbours are home. I have weeds to clear in the yard but that would mean my eyes will be puffy and my nose will be stuffy tomorrow from my allergies. I want to go to church at 10am and then promised to go to the Ladner Market with my daughter. I don't want to miss that. I have so few chances to spend time with her cause she's always so busy working.

I've been thinking a lot about Lane's post the other day about "I'm happy because"... I've been thinking of starting a month long posting thing where we all post one thing a day that we are happy, grateful, positive about. It's a habit and it does work if you practise it daily. For years I did a gratitude list every night of 3 things I was grateful for. It really helped me to work on positive thinking. I actually have an old website that I haven't worked on for eons. If you go to http://inspiring-thoughts.tripod.com/attitude.html you can read a page I did on attitude with things I received from friends via email.

Have a nice weekend.

Life is moving too fast!

Every day I think I should blog and every day I think, no, I have too much to say and I'll bore everyone. So I'll do this and try not to be boring.

This is the latest Catalicious Stitchery from Red Brolly. I've lost count but believe this is block 5. She has also given us permission to copy the mice she has drawn on her site and use them in the quilt if we wish. I'm thinking I just might do that. They'd look so cute. She is such a very talented artist.

This past weekend I spent part of Saturday at our local Air Show. My husband had his plane on display. I took lots of video only to discover when I got home that I'd forgotten to put the camera chip in my camera - again! Darn. I had some really good stuff on there too. There was a group of 4 Harvard Aircraft that did a tribute to Support Our Troops (Canadian and American). It was amazing. It included a bagpiper playing - which was a little too loud. But it was lovely. It brought tears to my eyes. There must have been 8000-10,000 people there and everyone was absolutely silent during it.

Sunday I had church and then Sunday evening had volunteered to help make the filling for the sandwiches we were making Monday morning. Monday morning I helped making the sandwiches starting at 9am. I'm not a morning person. I also get very anxious when I have too much ahead of me, especially when two of the things were ones that I don't normally do, so I was completely exhausted by Monday afternoon. I did, however, finally get a photo of me with two friends who were selling muffins at the Spring Bazaar. The photo was terribly blurry and I tried to fix it but now it looks grainy.

Our weather is finally nice. DH went with his brother and father down to San Diego to try to get warm. Our weather turned nice as soon as they left. That's okay except now I'm the one who has to cut the lawns. Hmmm. Maybe I can sucker my son into doing one of them.

I spent so many years on my own, with him away, that this is a treat for me. I've gotten Jane Eyre and Northanger Abbey videos from the library and I have 5 Charles Dickens ones that my daughter gave me that I haven't watched. I get to read in bed before I go to sleep. I get to eat chicken stir fry. I miss him of course. He's been retired for 3 years now and is at home every night for a change. But I believe that having separate things in our lives as well as together things makes for a healthy relationship. Especially when I have possession of the remote *LOL*

Have a great Wednesday.

Fun Weekend

Thanks for all the birthday wishes. I sure appreciate the thoughts. When I was a kid I always wanted my birthday to be on a Saturday so I didn't have to go to school. As an adult I've never thought of it much but having my birthday on a Saturday this year makes me want to do it every year. I will get a Sunday next year as long as it isn't a Leap Year I suppose.

It's been so horrible here weather wise and it just happened to do a quick switch on Saturday and was a gorgeous day to get out in the yard. Yesterday I took cake to church to share. I never thought of it but my son-in-law asked if it's my birthday why am I the one who has to bring the cake. *LOL* Never thought of that. The minister loves goodies so he tells us (jokingly) that we have to bring a cake on our birthday. The congregation was small yesterday for a number of reasons but they sure went through that cake at coffee time.

After church we went to our street market that's here every summer. Yesterday was the first day of the season. It's very crowded - a lot of out of towners come which is good for business. Even a lot of the stores are staying open now and the Thrift Shop to take advantage of the shoppers. We park in my daughter's driveway and they were sitting ouside on the porch when we got back to the truck so we had a visit. Rilo has a new harness and leash so she can go outside with them. She's never been outside and panicked when she got "too far from home", which means off the bottom step *LOL*

A latest picture of her

She went to stay with my son-in-laws parents. It was only supposed to be a couple of days but ended up being two weeks. Their other cat was very ill. His kidney's failed. After two weeks of treatment they finally had to make the decision to have him put down. Meanwhile Rilo was having fun with the Golden Retriever and son -in-laws sister loved Rilo so much she decided to get herself a kitten. Rilo isn't even one year old yet and she's spayed but she decided that this was her kitten. She lays in wait for it and when it passes by she attacks it and holds it in a headlock while she cleans it. She's back home now but goes over for a play date at least once a week cause she's very lonely with the other cat gone and after having so much fun for that two weeks.

After saying goodbye to the kids we stopped off at the local Memorial park because there was a bandfest all weekend. I loved it! I haven't seen a real band sitting up on a band stand for years and years. They were all wearing vests and bow ties and they had old fashioned straw hats with the matching hat band. There were different bands from all over the lower mainland of British Columbia playing for two solid days.

I'm working on hand quilting my daughter's quilt still. That's going to take another year, I can just tell. But I also made a couple of samples for the Quilt Shop last week while the weather sucked. I wasn't crazy about the quilt and it didn't turn out well in the picture anyway. It's called a folded star which I'd never tried before. It wasn't difficult at all. Then she also has some Homespun Magazines she wants to get sold and one of them is the Red issue so I offered to do one of the redworks for her. It's kind of cute

I haven't even started my Catalicious for this month or my Gifts of Grace. The Cat one looks like a simple one again which is great. I really don't want to fall behind cause then I'll keep putting it off.

Have a great Monday everyone.

I Got Mail!

I have been on the blog for awhile. I just seem to run out of time these days and I don't know why. Of course our weather has been very depressing and I have a habit of not wanting to get out of bed in the morning so that shortens my day. Anyway yesterday I got majorly cheered up and I'm still feeling good because of it. Look what came in the mail from Angela!

I took off the fabric and look what was inside!

The picture doesn't do it justice. I was just in awe of that pincushion. I've never seen anything like it. And I sure can use it. Now that I'm hand quilting my spool of thread keeps rolling off the end table. This gives me a place to hold it. And there are little pin holes.. don't know if you can see them... so I can put the proper needles that I'm using in there. A regular pincushion is okay but I have a habit of keeping all sorts of needles in it and then I have to check each one til I get the right one. This way they'll just be there. And If I'm doing something like hemming pants I can put my pins the holes as I take them out. I just LOVE it. Thanks so much Angela.

She also sent me Crazy Eight Jelly Roll and the fabric she used to wrap it all in is perfect for my collection of fabrics for my grandmother's fan or grandmother's flower garden or whatever I decide to make from that era.

I'm so excited.

Shoe Bags & Stencil

Our bazaar isn't until November but with the way the weather has been I thought why not get an early start. Then if by any chance we actually do get summer and a nice Fall I won't be stuck indoors trying to get everything done. Actually we're hoping to go away for a couple of weeks in the Fall too so that's another good reason to do things early.

One of the things people have been asking for at the bazaar is shoe bags. I didn't realize people still used them - at least out here where we don't wear winter boots. But apparently they do for putting shoes in when they travel. I usually just use a plastic bag. I had this fabric that I got at the Thrift Shop for a song. I thought it was so ugly it wouldn't look good as anything aside from a nice flannel quilt back on a charity quilt. Wonders of wonders it looks kinda cute as shoe bags. So I've made 10 in two different sizes and have enough fabric to make 10 more if they need them. I also used French Seams cause I don't have a serger. If you don't know what french seams are it's very simple. They work great for pillow cases too.

It's hard to see so I put a dotted red box around part of it. You first of all sew the edges of your fabric wrong sides together. Then you flip it so it's right sides together like we're used to and sew down the seam again, making sure it's a bit wider than your first 1/4" seam. It gives it a nice finished look.

The other thing I have I got in the mail today was a stencil for hand quilting the centers of the Double Wedding Ring quilt. I think I'm nuts. I'm not even good at hand quilting. But this is just so pretty.

It looks like an awful lot of work. Angela offered to lend me one that is 4 hearts which would be a lot less work. I just can't decide. Maybe I could do the rose without the leaves. And then it has that cute rose bud to put in the smaller between spaces. I think I'll put a sandwich together with scraps and give it a try before I decide.

I have hand quilted two quilts but then at the time I didn't know that I didn't know how to do it so it turned out fine. Now that I know I don't know how to do it, it will probably take me another year. Ignorance is Bliss *LOL*

I finished my Rotten to the Core book and I've picked up a book that Nancy once recommended called "Keeping the House". I'm only on chapter 3 but so far so good. At the beginning of each chapter is a piece of advice.. or a rule as it were... about keeping house in the 1940's 1950's. The first one is from Making Marriage work, Ladies Home Journal, June 1950:

"The bride who wants to do her full job will plan from the start to create the kind of home her husband wants, and to do it with no more assistance than he willingly offers."

That would explain why my mom raised all of us 3 girls while my dad sat and said "Look what they're doing now" when my sisters would scribble on the wall with crayons. I never did anything like that of course cause I was an angel *LOL*

Overall reading about the current woman, a literal 1950 bride, has me in stitches a lot. This woman had 19 aprons! They threw her an apron party before she married. She had one apron to match each of her dresses. She put a fresh flower on the dinner table that matched how she was dressed. My goodness! Wonder how DH feels about dandelions. I'm usually in jeans and a T-Shirt (and no apron) *LOL*

UPDATE

Okay, I've done my practise piece and I think I can do the hand quilting thing. It looks a bit pulled in the back but maybe it's supposed to? I definately need to get a new thimble that fits my finger. Even though my stitches are large I think they're consistent. Be honest. What do you think?

Front

Back

Gifts of Grace Block 4

Here it is, block 4 of Gifts of Grace. I'm really starting to like these. They look great in real life. I've decided now to wait to put the beads on. Guess I was just impatient at first to try it. This block is definately for me.


There is currently a sale down at the LQS that is unbelievable. We can take in fabric from our stash that we've decided we don't want to use, as long as it's good quality and good designer, and they'll give us a $5.00 credit per meter. We can also exchange for brand new fabric. Most of their fabric sells for $14.95 a meter so that's less than 1/2 price. Then they are also selling the traded in fabric at $5 a meter if anyone would rather have that. I'm sure I have a few meters down there I could use as a trade in. I want to do the free quilt that the Rabbit Factory has on it's site. I've been downloading all the blocks just waiting until I had the time to start it. I've realized it matches the Rabbit Factory wall hanging I have on our wall so I want to get some background fabrics that are close to it and it will tie it all together.

See, Patience is worth it *LOL*

I am in soooo much pain. Because it is so damp here in the winter, plus we live near the coal port so everything gets covered in black dust that builds up over the year, we need to powerwash the front of the house, the deck and the patio every year. A few days ago I did the front steps, railing and a bit of sidewalk. Today I did the front of the garage and the driveway. My back is killing me! I wanted to get it done before I put up hanging baskets or other flowers so I didn't have to move them. Now I can go out to the Nursery tomorrow.

Progress!

I can't believe I'm actually closer to the end of my double wedding ring quilt than to the beginning for a change! I was able to sew on the corners yesterday and I'm ready to sew the blocks together. The quilt is actually one block wider but it wouldn't fit on our bed. I meant it to be a queen size but I want it to have a decent drop on the sides.

I like to take pictures of things while in progress because it's so much easier to see in a photo than with the bare eye the things that you want to do. This quilt ends up with a half arc on the sides. I don't like that, it looks so unfinished. So I'm contemplating doing a scrappy binding with fabrics used in the arcs so there won't be such an abrupt halt part way through a ring.

This has taken me over a year and by the time it's totally finished will probably have taken 18 months. It's a LOT of work and even though it's not perfect I won't be making another one to try to improve. The quilt is 42 12" squares. There are 168 arcs total which means I cut and sewed together 1008 little triangles and then sewed them onto the Smart Quilt interfacing and turned them before appliqueing them on. I'll be so glad to get it finished so I can move on to some smaller projects for awhile that will give me a more immediate gratification.

All that said I feel very proud of myself and I'm really happy with the quilt. I never dreamt 8 years ago when I started quilting that I'd ever be able to make something like this. Too bad I have to give it away to my daughter. But a wedding quilt is something I hope she'll appreciate and care for.

Our weather has been  horrible. I did manage to cut the lawn yesterday between little showers but the weeds are taking over in the yard and growing faster every day because of the rain *ARGH* So if we get a nice day I'll have to spend a lot of time while it lasts pulling weeds out there so it at least looks somewhat decent. I've decided that landscaping paper and bark mulch are my new best friends :0)

I decided to give up on the book club book. Actually I've decided to quit the book club. Some things aren't for everyone. I love to read but I'm not cerebral enough to read those hoity toity books. I like the one I'm reading now "Rotten to the Core" about a girl who inherits an apple orchard and finds a dead guy in her spring house. Now that's my kind of literature *LOL*.