My Bedroom and other Stuff

Did you think I was ever coming back......... I think I have mentioned that I am a procrastinator. Well in the last few days I have finally pulled my finger out and got one of the rooms in our new home completed.  My husband says that in terms of the bedroom we moved from the a bowling alley to a single lane. The room is very small but here it is redone. First the room was painted pale grey. I recovered our  headboard  using a black and white print that was purchased for a quilt back. Then I made a pillow cover  by wrapping a pillow form with the remainder of  the fabric and using and old brooch to close it.  On our new small window, I hung white sheers on an black rod and as you can see my darling sweet Shadow has her own little bed right next to ours. Lest you think she is stuck in a very cramped space, Shadow loves to be in a small space and especially in the dark. I am surprised that she let me take her picture with the light on. Once she is in her bed the lights must be out.   The "Dream" Script, stick on was something I picked up at Walmart and I love it. I will add a small one over Shadows bed.  

The group of "art" on the wall of our bedroom is a combination of a number of things that I had, all of them handmade.  In the upper left is a doll face brooch that handmade. Each person who attended Quilt Canada in Ottawa received a different doll at the gala dinner. Each one is a beautiful work of art and worthy of framing. Below that is a small silk ribbon piece that I made. Below that is a very old floral picture made of shells on black velvet. The middle picture is a cross stitch done by my great grandmother, and the two cross stitches to the right were done by me. 

The quilt below is not one that I can take credit for, but it is a donation quilt that my new guild makes. I took it home last month to put on the label and binding which I have done and have prepared it to return at our next guild meeting . I attend a small quilt show on the weekend with my neighbour Lori. It was put on by the Trent Quilters which is an evening group. They have a meeting this week in the evening that I may attend. We also bought a new car this past week and are piking it up on Thursday. However I think that I will keep that news until next Blog. 

 

First Guild meeting - Kawartha Quiltmakers

I went to my first "new" guild meeting last week and really enjoyed it. It is a very large guild. Well over 100 members. I jumped in with both feet and volunteered to be on the executive as a "greeter". I thought that sounded like a job that wouldn't require to much, while it would give me a chance to meet some new people.

I would like to say that my house is all in order and there is nothing left to do but sit back and enjoy my retirement. But alas that is not to be. I am the worlds biggest procrastinator. I will find almost any excuse to do something else, other than hang curtains or put away clutter.

Having said that we are getting there slowly. I spent yesterday reorganizing my linen closet, and sent Hubby down to the Humane Society with a load of old towels and blankets.

My sewing room is coming along, good thing too because there is still no sewing happening. I bought a new computer table and I want to have the thing put together before the end of the weekend.

It was on sale and although I have put it together it is just the right size for my tiny sewing room. Hubby has no patience for putting together so I am sure that my Mom will have to help.

I have done very little sewing lately however I have been listening to Jennifer Chiaverini's, The Lost Quilter.

Hubby like to watch hockey at night so I have been sitting with him and crocheting while listening to my book. It is wonderful being so close to my Mom, but I do miss my friends in Barrie.

Well I am going to read some blogs now perhaps that will get me in the mood to sew or decorate this place.
 

Up to my Nose in Boxes

I has been a busy few week and yes I did find my Camera.

In this first shot, my sewing has not been unpacked. In the second picture it has! Notice the subtle difference. Yes I see it is still a mess but I need everything out of the boxes so that I can see what needs to go where.

I only have one bit of advise to give on moving give away or sell everything you possibly can let go of beofre you move and once you have it all pared down, give away another 50% because you still have too much.

You can see that I have my priorities straight I have the TV hooked in my room so I can watch Olympics while I unpack.

Hubby took Mom and I out for Valentines day dinner at a lovely steak house. It is Hobarts in Peterborough,  Mom and I shared the Sweetheart special.

You shared an appetizer (bacon wrapped scallops) and a desert (Baileys Creme Brulee) and we each had an entree mine was steak and Lobster tail and Mom has steak and shrimp. Then we shared our lobster and shrimp. It also came with a lovely salad and oddles of veggies, mushrooms and a twice baked potato.

The meal was luscious and after each of us was presented with a rose. What a delightful evening.

Then we came home to watch Canada win there first Gold Medal of the Olympic games.

I'll be back when I can see the bottom of another couple of boxes.

The Move is Over

My post here will be short and sweet. The move is over and it went well but now comes the fun part of the putting away and finding places for all of those things that I didn't have room for in a larger house. I now have less room for in my new place. In the move my Camera went MIA, no doubt lurking in a box. 

McWilliams are the worlds best Movers, I highly recommend them. Perhaps

I will have my boxes unpacked, find the camera, hook up my computer (I am using Mom's) by next week and my next post.

Visit with Kelly

Kelly came over yesterday later on in the afternoon. We had a nice visit, surfed the web checking out our favorite blogs and adding yet more projects to an ever growing list of, "I'd like to try that". We ordered a pizza amidst the mess of boxes, and proceeded to enjoy.
After supper we sat and stitched ( isn't it relaxing, the gentle movement of the needle sliding in and out of the fabric in even stitches) Well! theoretically anyway.
Once we had more room in our tummies Kelly whipped open a box of Apple Blossoms, which we baked and served with whipped cream. Yum !!
We always have fun together. I sure will miss our regular visits.
I will be to busy too blog for a few days during the move but will be back as soon as possible with more stories.
 

My Goodbye Party

My kindred group "Friends In Stitches" had a party for me this past Saturday. We had a lovely pot luck lunch and then we sat down in Margarets lovely Living room  and I was presented with Large Gift Bag of Presents. Many of them were hand made and all of them were beautiful and just perfect. I can not thank the my friends enough.

 My BFF, Kelly gave me a handmade "Biscornu" pincushion. We are so alike. I laughed when I opened it because I had wanted to make one for her for Christmas but never got to it.

Brenda gave me this lovely handmade bag in a sewing motif.

Sandra gave me this pretty Pashmina and a Clover Bobbin keeper, one that will get lots of use.

Margaret gave this beautiful handmade sewing box adorned with her lovely wired ribbon flowers.

Elizabeth gave me this exquisite handmade Picture, wall hanging made of silk, entitled "Going Home".

It is a true art quilt and will cherish it and treat it like the original piece of  Art that it is.   

We had a fabulous day, the food was great. The chat was fun and the gifts were "Over the Top" but mainly the friendship was irreplaceable.

Here we all are in very stages in FUN.

Chaos

I have only two weeks before we move. I have already spent two half days in my sewing room and it still looks like this.

And well you may ask ,"if your room looks like this why are you sitting at the computer updating your blog".

I am a procrastinator by nature. I like working to a deadline, any quilt I have ever made I usually book my long arm quilter ahead so that I have a date to work to. So nothing new here I am acting true to form. I will get there but it will be all very last minute.

Yesterday I had a glorious day with my friend Kelly. Kelly came over, brought lunch, and I supplied the dessert. We spent the afternoon perusing our most recent quilt magazines. Then we sat in what is left of my livingroom and watched 2 episodes of "The Quilt Show" with Alex Anderson, Ricky Tims and guest Jinny Beyers, and then guest Cindy Brick.

It was a great afternoon.

Then we decided that we would start a new blog so that we could keep up to date on what we are both working on. As my move will take me about 2 hours away we won't be able to see one another as often as we do now. If you would like keep up todate on our progress you can find us at  http://kellydebstitchedtogether.blogspot.com/

Colletta's Kitchen Sink: 100th Post and New Year Giveaway

Colletta's Kitchen Sink: 100th Post and New Year Giveaway

I just found a great giveway if you would like to get it on it
try the link above, become a follower.

Another Snowy Day

It seems as though we have had a string of snowy days lately, with more to come. I was working on a quilt label today and also putting together some squares for a scrap quilt.  It seems like the kind of day to be indoors and do some hand stitching and cooking, so I found a recipe for Beef-Bourguignon . It sounded good and simple, two of my favorite cooking criteria. So s I type this I cam smell a wonderful aroma coming from my oven and I am going to stitch this label on a Quilt to be gifted.

Love is a quilt - a quilt is love . . .

Both love and a quilt should be:
Soft enough to comfort you,
Bright enough to cheer you,
Generous enough to enfold you,
Light enough to let you move freely,
Strong enough to withstand adversity,
Durable enough to last a lifetime,
And given gladly, from the heart.

I hope you all have a wonderful sunday.

Happy New Year

I hope everyone had a wonderful Holiday, Great Christmas,and New Year. I know that we sure did. We were with my Mom for Christmas and had a wonderful time. Here are a picture of two of the 4 pillows I made for her new digs.

We were home for New years and had a quiet evening with an old movie and Hubby watched the Canada Juniors game. Yea they won!. So back to the packing only three weeks to go until we move.

Happy New Year to all!

Make a Smilebox slideshow

More Progress on our New Digs

Hubby and I were home last weekend and I wish I had taken pictures. We are having a wall taken down in a spare bedroom which is adjacent to our kitchen. This will become our new dining room. Our house is a split level so the  "new" dining room will actually be up a few stairs from the kitchen and it will have a railing across the wall opening.

While we were home we shopped for a new dining room light fixture and an electric fireplace for our living room.

The fireplace is an entertainment unit and there are places for the cable box, DVD player etc. and some glass shelves on each side for display. Although I do like it very much it really was my husband choice. We having my grandmothers furniture reupholstered, the chesterfield in chocolate brown and two chairs in rust, both in a microfibre which is lovely and soft.

  

We had our kindred group Christmas Luncheon Sunday. We have a pot luck which always includes soup, home made butter buns,cold meat, salads, cheese and fresh fruit. Because it was Christmas we also had lovely Christmas Cookies, the batch above was Margaret's (in the red) Empire cookies.

We exchanged small gifts all of a quilty nature and I can tell you they were all lovely presents.

My friends above are Margaret, Brenda, Kelly, Sandra and Elizabeth. As I am moving to Peterborough next month which is about 2 hours away, I expect this might be one of my last group get togethers for some time. 

I sure will miss them.

 

Interesting

When I was home last they had drained the river to make repairs further up at a lock (Trent Severn Waterway) Here are before and after pictures.

Truely Sorry

Sorry that I have been absent so long but you all know how busy it is this time of year. The renovations to my Mom's house are complete and she is now moved in. The place is absolutely gorgeous. Here are some photos. These are before and during the move. The tv is now mounted over the fireplace and the bookcases filled with books and ornaments.

As you can see there are still no draperies but we are moving along. Each time I go down to help I need 2-3 days to recover. Thankfully we had movers and my Mom had some lovely friends who came and helped us put the kitchen in order.

I have a few things on the go right now but know of them I can't blog about because they are mainly Christmas gifts and my friends and family have a habit of reading my blog. Nice of them!

I can say that there are a few handmade gifts but not all made on the sewing machine.

We now looking down the home stretch to our move and packing gradually. Still alot of calls to make on my TO DO LIST.

Hubby is selling his car as we have decided that we don't need 2 cars and my Mom has one as well. So if you know anyone in the market for 2002 Ford Mustang? 

Our New Home - Decorating

Here is a picture of my Mom in her now living room, soon to be my living room. I am currently thinking about how and where I plan to put my furniture.  In the basement of house we saved my grandmothers chesterfield and a couple of her chairs. I have always loved them and we are planning on having them reupholstered before we move, so they will be ready for us when we arrive. I sort of have this dreamy picture in my head of what I want it to look like but somehow I don't quite have the decorating savy to put it all together.

I am so happy to be moving back to my home town. I think that it will be funny for a while being the home owner of the house I grew up in, but I am sure we will can figure it out.

Here is the sofa and chair I am going to have recovered.

 This final picture is the view that my husband and I will have every meal as we sit at our kitchen table. Now you can see why my mother didn't want to move so we added on to her house.

IT"S SOLD

Yea, we have sold our house and are very happy. We don't close until the end of January but that is fine with us. It will give of lots of time to pack and I have to help my Mom pack and move over to her side of the house. Once that is over there are some renovations that are going to be done to our home and then have all of the carpets cleaned before we move in, so I will still be very busy. Then throw in Christmas, New Years etc and I think I might have a thing or two to keep me busy.

The construction on Mom's Granny flat  is well past this stage. The outside is complete and they are drywalling and finishing the interior now.

We had some other good news today our niece has become engaged. No news on a wedding date yet.

Finally at Long Last Ta Da!

It is my weekend of my Mom's 80th Birthday and she is here spending it with us, so I can finally unveil the quilt that I have been making for her. I made the quilt with the help of my friend Kelly.
The Quilt is a variation on the chinese coin pattern. I started with the floral fabric and pulled other matching colours. Once we have them together we decided we needed the navy strips to make the other strips pop. I quilted it on a longarm at our local quilt shop.

We also got Mom an original watercolour by Nan Sidler a very talented painter in Peterborough.
Sorry that my photographs of her work aren't  the best but please go to her website to see some of her work. sidlerart.com

The pale yellow rose backing seemed perfect for all of the other colours.

I'll have more to update in the days to come. Happy Thanksgiving to all my fellow Canadians.