A Maiden Trip or Should I Say "Virgin" Trip to Intercourse

I am home from Intercourse and Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

Don and our Bus

We left Peterborough at 7 am sharp. Hubby drove me over to catch the bus and we were there at 6am so I could get a good seat on the bus.  Even at that I was near the back. I met my roomie who a lovely lady also name Debra. The bus ride was full of fun, gifts, snacks and a movie.

We arrived at our motel at 8 pm after several stops for coffee, lunch, our first trip to Jo Ann's Fabric, later to a grocery store to pick up drinks and munchies for the week and finally for supper at a Bob Evans before heading to our motel. As you can imagine we were tired and still had to unpack and get ourselves ready for the next day. We stayed at the Travellers Rest Motel which I would highly recommend. They had a great continental breakfast and supplied small fridges and coffee makers in our rooms. We had great weather and spent time sitting outside the Motel in small groups stitching and showing each other our purchases.

Beautiful Country Landscape

Village Quilts

The Old Country Store

Two horses and buggies, one had a baby car seat in it.

We spent the next day in the town of Intercourse, where we shopped at Zooks, Bittykinna's, The Old Country Store and a few more I have forgotten.  I should tell you that I have severe Osteoarthritis in my hip and so I found the walking a little difficult but I soldiered on like true quilt store shopper. I was also blessed by 52 angels who accompanied me on the trip. My fellow travellers were always offering to help me, carry my bags, give up there seat or whatever else I needed. What a wonderful group of gals, and also our bus driver Don was a big help. That night was The Kling House for Dinner, terrific.

The next day was two more quilt shops, my  favourite was Burkeholders. Wow I sure did some damage there. That night we had dinner in an Amish Family home, a very lovely experience.

On Wednesday we attended the AQS Quilt Show, it was out of this world. I will let some of the pictures tell the story.

Yes this is a quilt, heavily thread painted

My favourite.

Shadow Happy to see me home

I can tell you my photos do not do the quilts justice. They were breathtaking. I have more pictures to post for you next time.

I will leave you with a picture of my baby Shadow  who was so excited to see me return home.

Hop on a Bus.........Trip

I am getting excited now! For Christmas Hubby bought me a ticket on a bus trip to Intercourse and Lancaster Pennsylvania. This is a bus trip that is organized every year by the lady who is the head of Victoria Quilts (a Canadian organization which provides quilts to Cancer patients). I have never gone before and it sounds like so much fun. We leave on Sunday and get there Sunday evening.

We will leave Peterborough at the Coach Canada station at 7:00 a.m. on Sunday morning March 11^th.
The following are included in the cost of the trip,

- 6 nights at the motel which includes breakfast
- bus transportation
- four dinners which include taxes and gratuities
- Dutch Apple Dinner Theatre which is showing “9 to 5”
- AQS quilt show admission
- Sightseeing tour
- 7 quilt stores which include Burkholders, Weavers, Sauders, Martins, Country Store, Zooks and Bitty Kinna’s
- two outlet malls ,Christmas Store and Kohl’s
The outlets are Rockvale and Tanger.


So as you can see I will need to take a half empty suitcase with me. 


I will be back next week with lots of photos of the show.............

Strange Weather and Work outs

We have had some really weird weather lately. Such a mild winter, hardly any snow and then this.

This is the picture out my kitchen window

Then after the snow was over, our snowplow guy came and in 24 hours it looked we never had any snow at all. We have a little snow now.

Here is the latest Quilt that I have been working on
It was a wedding gift, however I am not great a taking pictures so here is hubby holding it up in the kitchen.
It was made from a Bali Pop can't remember the name.

Next is the most recent "DECENT" photo of me, in the last little while. I have a lot of extra weight as you can see. I have been doing aqua fit for about a year and I love it. However it has not produced to many results so I have been trying something new. First I have am doing the aqua fit about 4 times a week. I also now have personal trainer, Natalie with whom I workout three times a week on the nautilus equipment lifting weights. I am also using a program on the web where you track everything you eat and it give you a report each day on how you did.

Hubby's shoulder is very bad and so we are seeing an orthopaedic surgeon next week and after that \i am off on a bus trip to Lancaster Penn for a quilt show and some mega shopping.  More about those later.
I am going to try to post once a week from now on, I seem to be slipping.

I am going to be the Web mistress for our guild,  any of you had any experience in this area if so what program did you use.  Have a great week!

Hugs and Stitches

 

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.