Catalicious Block and Life Stuff

First things first. Here's my Catalicious August Brutus BOM. I'm glad it was a small one cause as it is it took me until last night to actually finish it. I'm being like Di this month and haven't even started my Gifts of Grace block. Isn't it nice to have company Di? Or this month did you finish and I didn't?

And yesterday my s-i-l send me a Martha Stewart page that has the neatest State Birds embroidery. Here's the URL if anyone else wants it. I've printed them all out and in it goes in my to do file. 

http://www.marthastewart.com/article/bird-embroidery-projects

It's sooo pretty.

Oh, and I got a photo of my wedding ring quilt that was in the quilt walk. They had it in the Yoga studio where there's lots of room.

It's kind of wrinkly but here's a close up of my hand embroidery. I think I'm doing pretty good for a first time. At least it really does look quilty. 

I've been sewing some for the bazaar bur things just aren't working for me. The microwave mitts didn't work and the tissue cozies ended up all different sizes. I did make a table centre mat and place mats the other day that aren't too bad. Not my style of fabric but maybe someone will like it, especially someone with kids. I'm going to finish them up today and I'll post them tomorrow I hope. 

Another couple of neat things are first of all I was invited by the site Lunch to post my thoughts and opinions on books I've read. The head of the site found my book blog and invited me which I thought was neat. Also on my book blog I found a comment, which I don't often find. It was from the author of the book I'd just read which was quite a surprise. 

Otherwise I'm having a really hard time the last while. We're supposed to go back East the middle of September. The plan was to go to Toronto to see my neice and then drive a rented car up to Ottawa to see my sister stopping to see my 94yo aunt in Coburg on the way. And then I started to think about things I haven't seen since I was a kid that I'd like to stop at - Niagara Falls, Old Fort Henry and Upper Canada Village for sure. So it would be a fun trip. 

I've had an upset stomach for the last week for no apparent reason and the last 4 nights I haven't been able to sleep. So I'd be up playing solitaire trying to get sleepy after lying in bed for 4 hours.  My brain is a freight train, I can't turn it off. And it isn't about the trip so I thought it wasn't related. I thought I was looking forward to it, aside from the airplane and driving on the 401. 

Last night it was about my hair dryer. It's old.. don't know how old but old. So I thought maybe I needed a new one but why buy a new one when the old one works? I only dry my hair a bit anyway, the cut I have just naturally lets my hair fall the way I want it to - no styling. I told myself to stop thinking about it so my brain switched to what fall trimming I need to get done. Then to how to better organize my kitchen cupboards. I was all over the map. I think God forgot to install an off switch when he made me. 

DH says it's all related to the trip. My anxiety and panic is kicking in and I'm trying to hard to ignore the trip that all this other stuff is gushing up that I feel anxious about. I hate being this way. To be honest I could be happy just living in this little town and never going anywhere. This is my comfort zone. Anything outside of it isn't. And it's not because I haven't tried to expand my boundaries. Sometimes it works, others it doesn't so it's never anything I can rely on. 

So, dunno. Guess I just need to take it one day at a time. 

Now is it Fall?

It has been so hot here for the last while. How hot was it? Well, on Tuesday it was 90F. Yesterday morning I woke up to clouds and 70F. Crazy difference, I would have preferred it to get gradually cooler. I actually did get to go on the boat for the first time on Tuesday and it was wonderful. It's so much cooler on the water so a welcome break. Today if we went I think I'd need earmuffs *LOL*

To sewing. Yesterday I decided to make up a tree skirt panel I had to sell at the bazaar

The panel also had two squares on it. No instructions on it so I decided to make trivets of them

The squares weren't square to begin with and the side of the panel had been cut so close that I would lose corners if I'd tried to straighten them. I'm still struggling with the idea of using binding sewn to the back rather than the front and then edge stitched on the front. But I guess practise makes perfect and maybe they don't look so bad. It certainly is faster than hand stitching down the binding on the back. 

My Town & quilts

First of all I'm glad to report that the eBay seller is refunding my money. It should be in my PayPal account by Monday. She said she let a relative package it and she won't do that again.

Last night my daughter and I decided to walk around and look at the quilts in the windows. They aren't all up yet but most of them are as Friday is the busiest hanging day. I found my son in law's quilt - the one that smells of smoke. It's in a government building that is closed all weekend.

My daughter pointed out the irony of this sign on the building right beside the quilt

Taking photos in the afternoon or evening is difficult because of the late day sun on the windows so that is the only quilt photo I took. 

I sometimes take the safety of where we live for granted but I am aware of it and of the unique village we live in. We were walking around from 8pm to 9pm on a Friday night and the thought of us not being safe even entered my mind. The streets are empty. There was a car in front of the take out pizza place and 3 couples at the 2 sidewalk restaurants. Aside from that, nothing. We did run in to one guy who is mentally handicapped and likes to talk to everyone he meets and another fellow who I thought was also mentally handicapped but Lisa informed me he was drunk. I'm so naive. Drunk, Stupid, what's the difference?

Aside from the fire in the seniors apartment a couple of weeks ago we did have another fire about 6 months ago. It started in the kitchen of a restaurant on the main street and took out the building beside it as well. On top of that there was a convenience store on a corner that has been there for about 40 years and it was decided to pull it down and build a new building as well. 

These two construction zones are surrounded by wood. A few local artists have taken advantage of the opportunity to use their talents to make these boards less unsightly. Where the restaurant and store were you will see this:

The guy sitting on the bench in this last photo is real, not a prop. 

There is an even larger set of murals where the corner store used to be. 

There are more but you get the idea. It just shows that it doesn't take too much imagination to make something unsightly into something fun and pretty.

Disappointed!

I do have to say first that my eBay account shows that I have bought 55 items. I've been lucky and haven't had a problem with any of them.

Having said that look what I received today:

One corn dish is intact.

I was charged $20 shipping and handling to get this from the State just south of us (I'm in Canada). The best part of her packing was the tray:

The tray part didn't break but one of the handles did. 

She used too large a box and simply put bubble wrap in the bottom of the box. This was done so effectively the corn dishes were just put in loose on top with no padding between them. There was a Fragile stamp on the box but we all know how far that goes as far as protecting things. 

I always check the rating of sellers. But I didn't look at what all the positive ones were for. Looking at it now they were left by people she bought things from. The negative one was from someone she sold to who also had her item arrive in pieces. 

She did ship quickly I'll give her that. Her website says she accepts returns but the buyer pays the postage. I've emailed her and told her I don't believe I should pay for shipping something that arrived smashed due to her carelessness. I'll keep you updated. 

Now I'm heartbroken. I've wanted some vintage corn dishes for the longest time. I ordered some last year and they never did arrive. I never heard from the seller again despite numerous emails. And now this. 

Sorry I haven't been around. I had some health concerns so was feeling down. I feel much better now. I haven't seen my dr yet but will be when she gets back from vacation on Aug 20. 

And the quilt walk is on Sunday! Love the quilt walk. I've entered 3 this year. My work in progress hand quilting my daughter's wedding ring quilt, my son-in-laws Boston Red Sox quilt and the table runner I made for the bazaar. It's always such a fun weekend. They have a night market the night before now and a game where you are given a list of clues and have to find which quilt matches. I've never done it before cause I was an employee. This year I can do it.  

Quilt Rack

So we head off to the antique fair today. I had no intention of buying anything cause this place is a lot of overload. Dishes, jewelry, small items of furniture, old books. old dolls, old tools, and onandon. So I saw an iron just like the one I played with when I was maybe 3 or 4. I actually found a photo of one on the internet.

When I started my search I was finding sites that said irons were invented in the Middle ages and before that even the Romans had used them. I figured ours was probably from the middle ages cause we were poor. How hard could it be to break? But they were manufactured in the 1900's cause not everyone had electricity in the country. Mine was a tiny one... it looked like a child size one but I really don't know how many children would be able to even lift the thing. We had a big black wood stove in the kitchen and that is how my mother heated the iron. She had 2 of the large ones and you would iron until it got too cool, then switch the handle to the other one that was heating on the stove. Of course I was never allowed to heat mine. I think it was a grown up iron for using on small items like children's clothing, towels, etc. 

Anyway this thing was $20 and I really couldn't justify buying it. I mean what would I use it for? I'm getting too far along in life to buy "stuff" just cause I remember it from when I was a child. 

However, we were almost done when I came across this quilt rack. It was $125 but it is something I will use, something I will love and something we have room for. I went to find DH and he said he'd seen it too and was going to show it to me. He was off buying a painting he'd seen that he liked. So I took him back and said that I thought the quilt she had displayed on it was very nice too. It's in good shape aside from one place where the seam has ravelled so will need hand stitching is all. Long story short. I got it! 

That isn't it's permanent home. It's just there out of Michael's sight until I can move a chair which will free up a space for it. He doesn't like it but it will be going in a place where it will be inconspicuous so he'll be okay with it. 

And here is the quilt. I don't know how old it is cause I'm horrible at guessing ages. I'm hoping it's 30's maybe 40's. It's all cotton and it's hand quilted. Now that we've been talking stitches per inch I think measuring them (my kingdom for a ruler in inches instead of centimetres!) it's only 4 or 5 per inch.

But the stitches are nice and even and it has a neat quilty look to it. It's heavily quilted in a crosshatch of about 2" squares. 

Anyway, that's my excitement for the day and my allowance until at least the new year since I don't bring in $ any more. *LOL*

FIRE

My son-in-law took this video last night and it was used by BCTV for their lead news story.

Nothing ever happens in  Ladner but last night the fire crews were earning every penny they ever made. We saw the smoke and went down to see what was going on. By then the white apartment building you see was gone. It had jumped across the street and took out some townhouses. They were watering down the houses nearest the burning building. That red one you see is a brand new house and carriage house behind it. There are empty lots where more houses were going to be built but hadn't been started yet, which is actually good. Let the fire department get closer. The video was taken from the high school lawn.

My daughter and her husband heard the fire engines and live only a couple of blocks away so were there pretty well when it started to get bad like you see it. It took about 20 mins to level that building. The smoke was unreal. I've never experienced anything like it.  I told DH I didn't want to stay in that smoke so we didn't stay long but still I had to have a shower to wash my hair and I threw our clothes in the laundry right away.

It was a seniors apartment building, which is even sadder than young people - it's hard for them to readjust and start over. Everything is gone. But everyone got out safely so that's the most important thing. They think it was a bbq on a balcony that started it.

I haven't done much sewing. I made another set of place mats but they're all same same.  Just oval. I'm still hand quilting my daughter's quilt. I told her maybe I'd have it done to give her for a Christmas present and then I wouldn't have to buy her anything. She told me just for thinking that I have to buy her two presents *LOL*

This is a long weekend in Canada. Basically it was started cause the government needed an extra statutory holiday to even out the paycheques - Geesh. Each Province calls it under it's own name I think. We call it BC day anyway. Next town over has a big Sun Festival celebration including a two day Antique Fair with really, really good dealers. I look forward to it every year. I've gotten some really nice things there.

Gratitude: I'm grateful that I live in a community that will come to the aid of those in need. Those seniors will have more than enough to start over with all donated by caring people.

Gifts of Grace - July

Here is July's applique/embroidery block from Val Laird's Gifts of Grace. I think I should have made the lettering a more toned down gold but I like it anyway. I love mushrooms, especially red ones with white splotches.

 We actually have summer here today.  I think in BC summer must be like Forrest Gump - "Summer is like a box of chocolates - you never know what you're gonna get." So today is 28C (@86F), too hot to really do much. I cooked a roast that we can eat cold for dinner with some cole slaw. I've given up on Deli meats. I mean I never paid much attention to them before. I thought they were higher quality than packaged meats. Then one day I asked about the salt content in the turkey breast because of my renal diet. The kid at the deli went in the back and brought out this wrapped, supposed, turkey breast and showed it to me. Turkey breasts aren't round like that and they don't come in a Maple Leaf wrapper. And they don't have a way high salt content. Well, I guess unless they fed the turkey lots of potato chips maybe. So I guess deli meats are reconstituted turkey bits slammed together, cooked and wrapped. Ick.

We were hoping to get the boat in the water today. But yesterday we pulled it out of the shed and husband fired up the engine. The engine works fine but the hydraulics don't, which means you could sit by the side of the dock and rev all you want but the engine won't lower into the water so you're not going anywhere. So he's working on that now.

We try to involve Michael in these things when possible. A lot of the time he rolls his eyes and is annoyed that we are asking him to do things he doesn't want to. When we were done testing we asked him to drive the truck forward a bit into the garage (the shed is behind the garage). Because we'd been working with water the grass was sodden and the back wheel spun. Michael was upset but DH showed him how to put the truck in 4WD and explained how that works. The truck went ahead smoothly.

When we'd finished and the boat was back in the shed and the truck in the driveway Michael was looking at the spot where he'd spun the wheel and he was VERY upset that he'd done that. I told him it would have happened to anyone, it happened to DH when we first put the boat in there. Michael just shook his head, got down, and began pulling tufts of grass out of other places and trying to cover up the mud *LOL* He was fixing it. Gotta love him. It took quite a few reassurances for the rest of the night to get him to finally say okay. Once he stopped mentioning it I hope it really was okay, that he wasn't still feeling bad about it.

 I did vacuum on Friday and I did get my book finished. Now I'm almost done another book I started on Saturday. Darn this reading habit. I was told about this new book. It's called House Rules and it's about an 18yo boy who has Asperger's Syndrome and is arrested for murder. A lot of what the book says I know is true and I know I am extremely lucky that Michael doesn't have all of the more trying difficulties that this mother has to deal with. And yet there are things that are the same and I'm nodding my head and saying yes to myself. It's a sad read, for me, but it's also gratifying in that it confirms that I'm not imagining things, I didn't cause things, things just are what they are.  And some things make me smile because I know the disorder, I know the literalness and inability to lie that goes along with it.

I was glad to see that this book and another one that I have ordered in, when available, aren't on the library shelves. They are out being read and hopefully not by people who deal with Aspergers but people who can learn from the books.


Today's gratitude is I'm grateful for libraries... if there weren't libraries I'd go broke buying books.