TAST

With all of the wedding quilt making and preparations for going away I was a little late in getting my first three weeks of the Take a Stitch Tuesday sampler ready. So better late than never here it is.

Week one fly stitch
Week two buttonhole
Week three  feather stitch

Family Wedding

So much to tell! Last weekend Mom and I attended a family wedding. My Mom had one brother who had eight children. Most of them are married now with their own children and their children have children. So this past weekend my cousin Ricks' daughter Amanda got married.  You can imagine how large a family wedding it. It was absolutely wonderful so great to see all my family.

The wedding took place at Queens Landing Hotel in Niagara-on-the-Lake, a vintage hotel which was absolutely beautiful. Mom and I made Amanda and her new husband Aaron a quilt, as a wedding gift.

I have never attended a wedding where there were so many babies and tots. Here is a picture of Mom and baby Luca, age 82 and age 2 weeks).

Mom and Luca

Mom having a lunchtime cocktail

    Luca had his own little necktie own. What a darling baby. The hotel was still decorated for Christmas it was breathtaking. We had just had a small bit of snow a few days before making it very picturesque.

Amanda and Aaron

The table and room

Bridal Party

Christmas Decorations

Robin and Amanda photo

The very sad part was that my cousins wife (Robin) passed away just a week before the wedding and although it was not unexpected it was definitely hard on Rick, Amanda and the whole family.  It was so touching when the JP asked Rick, "who gave this woman?" , he responded Robin and I do and he lit a candle placed next to her picture.  

Robin was a lovely lady and wanted her daughter to have the wedding of her dreams and she surely did.








My pictures of the Quilt aren't very good as naturally I waited until the last minute to take them and had to rush to wrap the gift. Believe me is it prettier than it looks.

Yellow and Blue Quilt, Bricks and Blocks

Happy 2012.

At our guild we have a sewing afternoon after our monthly morning quilt guild (Kawartha Quiltmakers) meetings. Usually someone in our guild teaches us a simple pattern and then we spend the rest of the afternoon sewing. At the meeting in the prior month the projects is shown to the group and then a list of supplies are put in our next Newsletter, which is sent to us by email ahead of time. If you are interested in making that project then you have lots of time to get your supplies ready before the meeting.

We have a nice time, at our sewing afternoons. Most of us who stay bring our lunch which we eat quickly so that we can get on with the sewing. I have always wanted to make a yellow and blue quilt, so when I saw that we were going to make the Bricks and Blocks pattern I thought this was a great time to use up some scraps. I when through all of my blue scraps and cut them up and used one yellow to try and unify the look. Once I finished with the body of the quilt I went through my stash to find the two bindings.

I like the way it came out and my plan is to quilt it myself in a simple line design. But we will see, I may cave in and send it out to be long armed. I still have a huge stash of yellow and blues for another quilt and I have another idea for that so you might see it later this year.

I have another quilt being long armed at the moment but it is a wedding gift for later this month, so I will have to wait to post the photos until after D-Day or should I say Wedding Day.
Gotta go now and prep for the New Years Day Dinner.

Christmas is Well and Truly over

You can tell by the photos that Christmas is over.  Hubby, mom and Shadow are relaxing.  Christmas was wonderful. I love spending time with the two most favorite people in my life, and my darling dog.

The week between Christmas and New Years has always been my favorite. A time to relax, take stock, make lists, plan for the future, both personal improvements and Quilting. A time to sit in my nightie and drink coffee, play on the computer, watch TV and THINK.    

Plans for this year:
- continue with (restart after holiday) low GI Diet plan
- begin with my Personal Trainer Natalie, starting Jan 6th
- begin working with a Dietitian in February
- work on organizing and cleaning up the basement shelves and crawl space
- this year I will begin the job of Web Master for our Quilt Guild
- I have signed up for Sharon Boggon's TAST
- finally, act on my list of unfinished quilts, either complete them, plan a completion date or donate    the unfinished blocks 

                                            

                                                                 UFOs

Ø  Femme Fatale wall hanging

Ø  Hearts and Flowers

Ø  Orchid Sashiko

Ø  Victorian Bouquet

Ø  Scrappy Lattice

Ø  Newfoundland  trip wall hanging

Ø  Sunbonnet Sue

Ø  Mauve blocks that I won

Ø  Red flower Tinners

Ø  Garden Embroidery Quilt

Ø  Red work Sue Quilt

Ø  Shadows Wall hanging

Ø  New York Beauty

Ø  Scrap Half Square Triangles

Ø  Needle case, felt

Ø  Baltimore Album

Ø  Yellow Brick road

Ø  Brick and Blocks

Ø  Pink and Blue Baby Quilt

Eatons Embroidered blocks

So that is my plan for the new year. I am trying to keep it simple and not to overwhelming. The list of UFO'a might grow as I remember more unfinished projects.

Merry Christmas to All and to all a Good Night

Hubby took me out to a quilt shop in Millbrook earlier this week and bought me a special present. This quilt shop also sells giftware and specializes in Jim Shore, Hubby know that I love fairies so he bought me this.

Tonight we will begin with our traditional Christmas eve supper, Tourtiere and salad  and when we come home we will have Tea and Christmas cake and shortbread. 

Later tonight we will attend church where this is a live nativity, well really it is the children and some live sheep. I am looking forward to it. The church will be decorated so beautifully and we begin in darkness and all have a lit candle until the first hymn is sung.                    

Christmas morning we will have the "Christmas Morning Wife Saver" with fruit and coffee. No lunch will be served this day,  however will have our Christmas dinner around 5pm.

Turkey, Stuffing, Gravy, Turnip Puff, Mashed Potatoes and Coleslaw, later on in the evening we will have our dessert |Lemon Mousse.

Boxing Day I am having my Sister-in-law and her family for supper. We are having Baked Ham, Rice Pilaf, Green Beans, Carrots and for dessert Trifle and Tea. My nephew is a Chef and he is also going to bring Creme Brulee, how decadent. 

Gospel - Luke 2:15-20When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, "Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us." And they went with haste, and found Mary and Joseph, and the babe lying in a manger. And when they saw it they made known the saying which had been told them concerning this Child; and all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them. But Mary kept all these things, pondering them in her heart. And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

Merry Christmas to all!

Take a Stitch Tuesday 2012

I have joined  TAST 2012 so help improve my embroidery stitches and learn some new ones. I have done a couple of small Crazy Quilt pillow projects but my skills are rusty.

So for those of you looking for a challenge consider joining.

Facial

I had a fabulous afternoon, courtesy of my DH , First I received a dozen red roses as a "happy Christmas to my darling wife" and then I went for a facial (also courtesy of hubby) at Girlie Girls. A full hour on my back wrapped in a warm pink blanket.  I had my facial listening to lovely Bluesy Christmas music. It was a dream.

 I hope you all have the chance of some relaxation over this busy holiday season.

Noah's Ark

As I think I have mentioned I belong to a quilting group at my church. We spend one day a week hand quilting.

A few months ago I picked up a panel at the local "Fabricland", my intention being to use it to practice  machine quilting. Well instead of machine quilting, I took it into church  and it was hand quilted by some of the ladies. We always have one large quilt and one baby quilt on the frames at any one time. The baby quilts are always a panel. We sell them for $50-60.  I personally think it is a lot of work quilting for a panel but they are cheap to buy, quilt up nicely and seem to sell almost as fast as we can get them finished.

Right now our large quilt is a bit of a rescue mission.  It is a beautiful queen size cross stitched top which the quilting had been started on when the owner suddenly took ill. She had been quilting on a lap frame. After she took ill the quilt was put in a green garbage bag and sat there for some years. When it was brought to us it had a large coffee stain on on it (in several places). We have removed all of the previous quilting and mounted the quilt on a frame with new batting.  We have begun the quilting without cleaning first because quilting lines are preprinted on the fabric and if we pre-wash we will lose all the lines.    

Noah's Ark

 

Working On

It is that time of year again when everyone is so busy with preparation for the holidays. I have the tree decorated and am working on some projects .The main thing that I am working on I can't show because it is a gift for a wedding that I will be attending in January. However I can show you a couple of things.

First is a blanket that I crocheted for a cousin's baby. Baby boy was born a month ago and his name is Malachi.

The second item I have just finished is a prayer shawl. There is a knitting group at church. The ladies get together once a week and knit prayer shawls for those who are sick or in need in some way or other. I belong to the quilting group (who meet on the same day) so I don't attend the knitting group but I knit/crochet at home. The wool is all donated and I picked up a bag of greys/black and added some white and some colours. I saw an afghan made over at , hooked on needles and I loved it. I thought that it would be just the thing to use up little bits of yarn. I think that I will make an afghan out of scraps of the yarn that I have.  Finally I have to leave you two pictures of the most beautiful little girl in the world my baby Shadow.

Next time I will have some pictures of a baby quilt that I am finishing for my
church quilt group.

More of the Bobcaygeon Quilt Show

 Rose of Sharon

 One of the cabins in the Settlers Village

 One Block Wonder

 Colourwash Triple Irish Chain

Hawaiian Applique

Bargello

Beautiful cross stitched Bucilla Quilt

Tangled Threads Booth

Itchy and Scratchy Rides Again





So it turns out (I think) I have an allergy to Sulpha. I had to go off antihistamines for a week before I saw the Allergist. I was lucky and he had a cancellation. So I had got to see him on Friday, but that time I was so itchy I was ready to go insane. After our appointment the doctor took pity on me and gave me a free sample of Reactine to take there and then. I have a return appointment book and had some blood work done. So hopefully we will get to the bottom of this soon.



Kelly



On a happier note, last weekend my dear friend Kelly came down from Barrie to visit me and we had a fabulous time. We spent Saturday talking, cutting, sewing and looking a magazine. Sunday we went to the Bobcaygeon, to the Harvest of Quilt. We even manage to spend a bit of money at the vendors. Here are lots of photos.

The Featured Quilter at the showNancy Johnston of Kinmount  

This is a Quilt I would like to make.

Lots More

 

Tangled Threads Booth- Mary and hubby

Hexie Quilt