Its our Anniversary!

Here we are ~ 27 years ago today! Ohmigosh, we look like such babies. Of course I was, although I didn't think so at the time. Isn't it amazing how we think we know so much at the time and on looking back, realize we really don't know much at all. I really think life is much kinder to us in that way. Probably we would never leave the comfort of our Mum & Dad's at all if we knew what was waiting for us out there!

Thank you, dear blogging friends for visiting and reading my blog. And thank you even more for taking the time to leave a kind comment. You will never know how much your comments touch my heart and leave a smile on my face. The blogging world is full of such wonderful kind people, it has really opened up such a rewarding world for me, and even when I'm not posting, I'm eagerly looking for new posts to catch up on what is going on in your worlds.

I know I sound a little pensive, its looking through old photo albums that does that to me. I wanted to find just the right photo to put on my blog, and realized how much I was missing the people who are no longer here, and wanting the ones who are to know how much I love and cherish them....so bear with me!

Z is for Zinnias

I finished up my Hello Neighbour RR piece, I really didn't add too much more, so I didn't re-scan it. Its all ready to be mailed out to Carissa. And I also finished up my Garden themed exchange for the SBEBB which is ready to be mailed out too!

So for my weekend stitching, I started on my very last Prairie Schooler block, Z is for Zinnias:




This is on 28 ct evenweaver, I think its a 28 ct Ivory Lugana, I really needed something nice and easy on the eyes after working last week on the 40 ct linen.

I'm feeling a bit sorry for myself since Friday. I had blood work taken last week and then went in for my physical on Friday morning and it turns out my blood sugars are in the diabetic range. The doctor says this probably explains why I've been having so many funny troubles with my eyes recently. I ended up stitching my RR with my glasses off most of the time! So more blood work is in store - a 2 hour glucose tolerance test anyways. Meanwhile I'm trying to stick to hubby's diet - he is also a diabetic but with amazing willpower - and hopefully these blood sugars will come down enough that I won't need medications.

We are having weekly home assessments with Toronto Children's Aid for our fostering program. Two more interviews are scheduled for this week. How do you spell stressful? I will be so glad when its over! But things are looking good for us.

PIF from Vonna

Look what arrived in my mail yesterday afternoon! A fantastic Pay-it-forward gift from Vonna! She made a beautifullly beaded scissor fob from the loveliest sparkly beads and included these lovely scissors with them, and some very pretty variegated DMC threads, along with the postcard from Indiana.

WOW is all I can say. I'm sure everyone has seen the wonderful works of art Vonna (The Twisted Stitcher) has created on her blog and to be the receiver of one of her lovely pieces has made me feel very special! Vonna puts so much thought and kindness into all that she does, seeing one her packages come into the mail with my name on it, has made me feel like I have won the lottery! Thank you, Vonna, for this very special gift that you made for me! I shall cherish it!!

Some catching up

I was stitching up a frenzy over this Victoria Day Holiday weekend! After realizing I didn't have any suitable 40 ct fabric for my Hello Neighbour Round Robin, I had to scurry about trying to find a place that could ship some to me quickly and Drema from Needlecraft Corner came through for me. Wednesday my fabric came and I quickly started sectioning off my areas. I settled on blocks of 80x80 and after 2 nights of going cross-eyed, finally got all my threads to line up. Its amazing how many times I miscounted by just one fabric thread. So 4 days later, I'm well on my way to getting my block finished. And I realize a bird is just missing his head! I'm still undecided about where to put my initials/country.....

So we were off to the cottage for our first long weekend of the season. Its was wonderfully sunny all weekend, if a little on the chilly side, even though the kids braved the water and went swimming - well quick dips was more like it!



The forest is usually awash with our provincial flower - trilliums - and they were still a few left. Hubby managed to get a picture of this brilliant looking one.

My T-shirt girls!

While my 2 girls were not together on Mother's Day, when they were together last month, they took this picture to give to me for Mother's Day on Sunday. Note the cute T-shirts they were wearing.

Probably the last time they were seen in public wearing the same clothes was when they were 3 and 6 years old!

The Birthday Quilt

I finished the birthday quilt in time! And sewed the last few stitches of the binding in place that afternoon, in amongst the deadlines for work, phew, I hate cutting things that close. I didn't have time to cut all the loose threads from the back, but I don't think Kristy noticed. She was quite thrilled when she opened the quilt up and saw it, and the first thing she did was to wrap herself in it! So although I neglected to get a picture of the entire quilt, I did get this picture of Kristy, looking very warm and cozy with her new quilt.

Here is a picture of the birthday girl with Carrie and her ice cream cake.


And a picture of Kristy and Nick, in her new sweater, pink of course!

I hope everyone who celebrated Mother's Day yesterday had a wonderful day. I was wonderfully spoiled by my kids and Carrie cooked one of my favourite dinners for me, a Rachel Ray recipe, Greek-a-tiki chicken. yum-O! Hubby and I went shopping and we streeeeetched his income tax refund quite a bit and ordered a new living room sofa, brown leather, and two wing back chairs. The couch will actually arrive tomorrow, but the chairs not for several weeks, as we had to special order those. How's that for a Mother's Day gift?!?! I had actually hoped we would be able to repaint the living room first, but when they said they had a couch in stock, I wasn't about to say no.

And a Happy Dance - I finished up my latest Prairie Schooler block ~ Y is for Yarn:

Stitching Bloggers ABC Exchange

A very nice parcel came in the mail for me yesterday! My exchange arrived from Su, for the ABC exchange on the SBEBB. She made me a a lovely pouch, with a design by Indigo Rose, on hand-dyed linen called 'Hot Potato'. Her stitching and finishing are just superb, including the beaded tassels and cording! I love it, Su, thank you so much. What a lovely treat to open up such a parcel and she included some lovely hand dyed fibres from Six Strand Sweets and a lovely piece of Jobelan in a very sweet shade of yellow. Thank you again!!


This is a picture of all my goodies in all their glory!



I checked on the message board and I noted that Helene received my exchange which I sent to her. I stitched Prairie Schooler design called Forget-Me-Nots on 36 ct flax linen and made it into a needlebook. This was my first attempt at making a needlebook and I was quite pleased with the way it turned out. Above is the picture of the front and below the back. I forgot to take a picture inside, or of the goodies I sent along with the needlebook.


And finally, yet another picture, I finished off a pair of socks! I'm eagerly waiting for the mail to arrive with my brand new sets of Addi turbo needles that I ordered from the U.K. Nancy has promised even better socks (and faster maybe, these are turbo needles?) with these babies. She describes them as the 'chocolate truffles' of the knitting world LOL.


And a new blogger to welcome to our blogging world. My dear friend Ann had started her own blog, Knowledge and Needles. If you get a minute, please drop by and pay her a visit! She does the most exquisite needlework, especially of over-1 work, and is also the owner of a lovely needlework shop, which makes visiting very handy!

Thank you!!!

Thank you, dear friends, for your good thoughts and wishes. They were heart warming for me and I'm sure every single one of them helped hubby and me in our meeting this morning.

It went so well, so much better than I had dared to hope and I left the meeting feeling like I was walking on a cloud!

Without going into a long drawn out story, hubby and I have decided to offer our home to Kristy, who is a crown ward of the Toronto Children's Aid. Its been an uphill battle, and this morning was a make or break meeting with a supervisor and Kristy's case worker.

We've finally been given the go-ahead with the supervisor's blessing! The next step for us is to go through the foster parenting process - home assessment, background checks, interviews, training, which they will expedite in order to place Kristy with us before her current foster mother closes her home.

So if all goes well with the next few steps, we will have Kristy as our foster daughter by the end of June! So keep those good thoughts coming our way for us and for Kristy, please!!

Some quilting, and a request

Finally some pictures uploaded! With hubby's help of course. Hey, it wasn't all my fault, for some unknown reason, my USB port decided not to work any longer!

Anyways, here is the start of Kristy's quilt. These are the charm packs I ordered from the Fat Quarter Shop, Nick helped me pick out these particular ones, I think they were called 'Sweethearts' as Kristy's favourite colour is pink. And this quilt is certainly very PINK! I ordered 8 charm packs, with 35 5" squares in each pack. I just went with sewing them together in strips but laying them in a diagonal pattern and filling in the outer edges with a triangle.



Here are my rows and rows and rows.....



And finally....sewing these rows together. I had enough 5" squares to make a good sized top - its about 65" x 85", so definitely a good size for a single bed.


Friday afternoon I roped hubby into helping me sandwich the quilt together - such a tedious job and the one part of quilt making that I really detest even though I cheat and use 505 spray to make everything stick together. Friday night I finally started the machine quilting, and most of Saturday and Sunday morning.....the quilting is about halfway done. I have 4 days left until Kristy's birthday. Do you think I"ll get it done in time?

Sunday afternoon was a stitching get together at Anita's with my wonderful group of stitching friends - the time went by far too quickly, and I didn't get nearly enough stitching done and of course too much eating, and the best part of all, lots of laughing and fun.

Tomorrow hubby and I have a very, very important meeting to attend ~ please send good thoughts our way for this. It means a great deal to us for this to go well ... more info will follow, but superstitious me, I'm afraid of doing anything that may upset the balance.

A little Blackbird enabling

Its been a frustrating day, I can't believe I sent out an entire day's work (Monday) with last year's date on it!?! That means it all had to be corrected and re-printed....ugh! Where is my brain at these days? Today I had 2 morning appointments to get through, scrambled to get caught up on deadlines, wasted far too long searching out a missing invoice, and finally gave up on trying to get to the bank, so have now reconciled myself that my GST payment and income tax are now officially late. Luckily I don't owe very much so if I get any interest charges, they won't amount to much and it will wait until I get to the bank tomorrow.

Instead I was going to update my blog with some pictures I took of the quilt I'm working on, this is for Kristy's 16th birthday next week and I finished piecing the top last night. I also finished up the pair of socks that have been on my knitting needles for far too long and thanks to Nancy's knitting enabling, I'm been knitting up a storm since Saturday's Knitting Frolics.

But I can't get my pictures to upload to the computer! Can I confess how terribly computer-illiterate I really am? It will have to wait until hubby gets in from work......

Meanwhile, until I get those pictures....my scanner still works ;-D





......these pictures are for Deb, in particular, and well, anyone else I can possibly enable into these wonderful Blackbird Designs, with a peak inside the new With Needle & Thread book, which I picked up last week. They give some pretty detailed instructions in the book on finishing pin cushions and treasure boxes, like the two pictured above, and even coffee grounds included in their supply lists. I can't wait to start one of these sweet designs, I just don't know which one to do first?

And I have been doing a little stitching~



Prairie Schooler Y is for Yarn

Get Away

Ahhh, internet problems. I finally get a chance to get on to post...and I can’t get in! We seem to be getting more and more server problems these days. What a busy week. We had a great few days in Pittsburgh! Sorry, no pictures from our trip however. We were about an hour’s drive from home when we realized we had forgotten to bring the camera and there was no turning around at that point. What a pair?!? We really did need a few days away! Luckily for us, we picked a very nice hotel, with a fantastic huge jacuzzi tub in our room, so that certainly made for a very nice end to a long day, especially since you could lay back in the whirlpool with a glass of wine in one hand and watch the TV from the comforts of the swirling water! So lots of driving, lots of shopping, eating, and relaxing. It was a wonderful get-away.

I did manage to find one cross stitch shop, a very nice one called Teatime Stitchery and I found a few little things to add to my stash, the new book by Blackbird Designs, and one of the Little House Needleworks/Crescent Colors collaboration, pictures below.
The fabric is called Fossil, its just a small remnant piece but the colour was too cool to pass up!
Unfortunately I didn’t make it to any quilt shops, however Joann’s Fabrics managed to satisfy my fabric shopping.

We were back home late on Friday night and Saturday I spent the day in Toronto at the Knitting Frolic - more shopping and more stash enhancing, this time for my wool stash.

And Sunday was spent working on a quilt for Kristy’s upcoming 16th birthday. Pictures coming for that.....

There were several of you interested in the Spring Sampler which I offered up in my last post, so to be fair, I wrote down all of your names and had hubby draw one, and Sonya was the winner. So Spring Sampler will soon be flying on its way to you, Sonya!

I still need to catch up with blog reading....and see what everyone has been up to!

Spring Sampler

Spring Sampler by Little House Needleworks using Crescent Colours Belle Soie silks, on 32 ct Natural Linen

C'est fini! Sorry the colours in my scanner don't seem to be picking up the pretty greens, they are much much nicer in RL. Its nice to get a smaller finish, I don't get many of these since most of my stitching projects are so huge. The new Belle Soie silks are so nice to work with, very reminiscent of Gloriana silks, although I was coming close to finishing the light green and had to be very careful towards the end that I didn't run out. That said, while I don't have enough to do a second piece, I am happy to send off my slightly used pattern and leftover silks to anyone who is interested in giving this little piece a try.

Leave me a comment if you are interested!

I know its Sunday, but its going to be a work day for me. Hubby is finishing up some holiday time this week, so we are off on Wednesday to Pittsburgh for a few days, just the 2 of us! How romantic!! I don't know yet what we will be doing, but shopping is definitely in, I have have addresses for all the local Joann's to plug into the GPS, and my Visa primed and ready.

Shocking - it was like summer here yesterday! The temperature outside my car read 27 degrees C!

PIF's

At least I can show some of what I have been working on.....

My PIF gift to Su:


This is called Quaker Tree, a freebie from The Workbasket. I used one of the new DMC colour variegated threads for this, and a hand-dyed fabric, 25 ct Vintage Country Mocha, very pretty and toasty coloured.

And my PIF for Sonya:




This one is called 'Think Spring' by Calico Crossroads, done on a 28 ct pink linen, and it used a really pretty Needle Necessities floss called Finian's Rainbow. I really fell in love with this fibre and I'm dying to use it again. Its used in the specialty stitches around the edges, which unfortunately don't show up too well in the picture.

I'm so happy that my first PIF's are out and now its time to send out these next batch!

Last night was a quilting night, I worked on the next stage of my Twisted Log Cabin blocks for my next class, its next week, but I needed to get my sashing done since the intersections involve different coloured stars and if I didn't get them all just quite right, I would end up with stars with different colours points = wonky stars.

Spring Sampler

Here is my update on Spring Sampler by Little House Needleworks. I'm afraid I don't have a lot to show as last week I also worked on my ABC exchange for the SBEBB. The stitching is done and next up is the finishing. I think I'll browse the Focus on Finishing blog for some ideas on that. And I spent some time this weekend quilting. It was another one of those very rainy, very chilly weekends, very spent inside. Although we did have a great dinner out Saturday night with some friends who kindly treated us after hubby had spent some time fixing up their computer problems.

Thanks for all the advice about magnifiers and readers! I tried some cheapie readers at the dollar store actually. The 1+ didn't seem quite strong enough and the 2+ seemed a little too strong. Yes a little bit of Goldilocks going on here, because of course they were out of the 1.5+ style. I don't mind the option of sticking an extra pair of glasses in front of the ones I wear. In fact I do that with my sun glasses. I have fantastic sun glasses that I bought years ago (make that also very expensive sun glasses) from back in the days when I only wore contact lenses and when driving I always pop them on. Works for me! So next time I'm near the dollar store, I'm going to try again. Meanwhile I'm afraid the 40-cts are going to have to wait for daylight stitching!

This is a short posting as work is calling me, its piled high on my desk today!

Carriage House Samplings

I love these pieces, I really do, I just don't know why I don't seem to get more accomplished on them than what I do. I finally finished up Block 1 of Houses of Hawk Run Hollow, all except for the name and year. I'm leaving out the year, because really who knows when this piece will ever be finished. If I sound frustrated at this point, I am. Its been over a year since I started and I haven't even reached the halfway point.



I still enjoy stitching on this and I have to remember, the joy is in the stitching, not in the finishing. I guess its because there are just so many things out there that I want to do, and as much as I would like to start, I can only work on so many things at a time.

And part of the problem with this one and the CHS Alphabet series, is the 40 count fabric. I love the look of the stitching on this fine count, but my eyes have decided that its a little too fine for comfortable stitching. Which is a quandry because I can still see well enough to read so I don't feel I'm at the point of needing glasses. I tried a magnifier that clamps onto a table and as long as I can get it positioned properly, it works great. But most of the time I can't get it positioned properly. So every time I plunk myself down for the evening, I have to get hubby to help me adjust everything just so and I dare not move until I decide its beddy-bye time (and, sigh, this means no bathroom breaks either). That also means that I have to have everything at my finger tips, all flosses, scissors, snacks, drinks, and of course remote control!

So meanwhile I'm still plodding away at my CHS pieces, slow but sure wins the race......and eventually I'll need those reading glasses!

A Sewing Weekend

It sure wasn't one of those weekends where I wanted to spend much time outdoors. It felt like winter out there! So I had to make the best of my time inside and at my sewing machine. I made myself another project tote bag, this time one with fabrics that matched my sewing box (that is still in the works, waiting for its lid to be attached and various inside pieces to be done). But this tote bag it now done and I'm wondering which project I can use it for....hmmm, maybe something new?



I finished quilting this table runner for my kitchen table, ready in time for our Easter dinner. It was made with a charm pack called 'Santuary' which was a pack of 5" fabric pieces from the Sanctuary fabric line. Since everything is already cut, its so quick to sew it together and then it was just a matter of sandwiching it and machine quilting it into a table runner. Its nice to have something new and fresh for the kitchen.




And here are my completed Twisted Log Cabin blocks from my quilt class last week. These fabrics are called Spring Fling, from the Moda jelly roll pack. Cool looking huh? They are waiting on white sashing with stars at the intersections which I didn't get around to this weekend. A little too much thought needs to go into that since I have 5 colours to work on for the stars, and will need to mark each sashing piece to get the star colours to match up.

Hubby and I went out Saturday night to a local theatre production of Brigadoon. One of Carrie's best friends was starring in it and it was fantastic! We so enjoyed it - the music, the singing, highland dancing and even the bagpipes! It was held in a renovated town hall from 1873, so quite small but full of character. We really have to get out to more of these local productions. Last night hubby had tickets for the Toronto Raptors but basketball isn't really my thing so he took Nick and his girlfriend Kristy and they all enjoyed the game and I enjoyed my quiet evening. I got started on my ABC exchange for the SBEBB! April is going by too quickly for me!!

Spring Sampler ~ Little House Needleworks

I just realized I don't have pictures of my Jelly Roll quilt blocks... you'll have to wait for those! The class was so much fun and made me wonder why I hadn't been taking more classes. Its so much nicer to sew among a fun group of people than on your own. The day just flew by! I have a little homework to complete before the next 1/2 day class, but that's 3 weeks off so lots of time for that.

When I got home I had some nice mail stash arrive - a package from Mary Kathryn from Ehandcrafts with LHN's Spring Sampler. This came with the new Crescent Colours Belle Soie silks and 32 ct natural linen so how could I wait to start? Here is my little blue bird already done. While the silks really remind me of Gloriana silks in the look, they don't want to lay as nicely as the Gloriana. Another funny thing, the variegation seems to show up much more in the picture than in RL too! How odd? I'm wondering if I should re-do part of the birdie so he doesn't look so chunky??

I must get out tonight for some Easter shopping! I just realized I haven't got anything in for the kids, big as they are, they still look for something from the Easter bunny. And I think I have a pinched nerve in my neck - ouch! I've been stretching and using an ice pack, and of course my workload has suddenly increased hugely, but tomorrow is a holiday so that will help.

Have a wonderful holiday weekend!

Yummy jelly rolls

I have some new pics to share, if only Blogger will cooperate! Is it me, or is Blogger unbearably slow to upload pictures?

This is a jelly roll, not the edible kind that with all those delicious sugary calories. This one will definitely not be added to my hips! Jelly rolls are the name given to 2 1/2" cuts of all the fabrics in a fabric line, this one being called Spring Fling. I think there are 40 fabric prints in total. Isn't it gorgeous! This is going to be used in the quilt class I signed up for tomorrow, for a pattern called Twisted Log Cabin. Marg and I saw saw samples of these at our last quilt block meeting and couldn't resist. Tomorrow is a full day class and in 2 weeks, we finish up with a 1/2 day class. What a great reason to take the day off work.


Next up is my latest finished sock. And I've got to hurry up and finish the other one before Nancy entices me into some new start at the Knitting Frolic Day she is tempting me with. She knows my weaknesses!



And finally my Sampler Gameboard which I managed to pick up this weekend while at a stitching gathering at Marj's house. I got 2 houses, one motif, and some lettering finished up as of Sunday night. Tonight I'll have to get my things together for the class tomorrow! Can't wait....

Shopping

Carrie and I hit the mean streets of downtown Toronto for a shopping trip on Sunday. She needed a new dress for the wedding she is attending in North Carolina (no, not Kelly's :-) next month and her favourite store at the Eaton's Centre was having a store-wide sale.

Its so good to get downtown again after not having been there for a couple of months. The Eaton's Centre is always so spectacular when you first walk in. Its celebrating its 30th anniversary which is hard for me to imagine, as I remember when it was being built and when different sections of it started opening. Of course I used to spend every weekend there.


Carrie found a gorgeous dress, she's actually holding it here, its brown and white, and it fits her beautifully. She is eagerly anticipating where she is going to be spending her first pay cheque when her job starts at the Cancer Centre.

Carrie had to take this picture....her favourite actor, Wentworth Miller from Prison Break, modelling for The Gap. It took a few minutes to drag her away from this oversized image of her honey.

And here's me looking a little windblown - those downtown streets will do that to you. Of course what's a shopping trip without a Tim Horton's coffee?

No stitching to show.....all surprises going on here ;-D

Pillow Finishing

Thank you for all the great comments! Its really so wonderful to read these and know that other stitchers are looking at my work. Blackbird Designs are so much fun to work on, now that Gift of Life is finished, I'm wondering which one the SAL group will want to work on next.

Not a lot to show on the stitching front otherwise this week. And since I do love to have pictures of something, here are 2 pillows that I finished last weekend from last year's Shepherd's Bush series.

I am happy dancing though - Spring has sprung!!! Even though we are having showers on and off today, yesterday was gloriously warm and an amazing 11 degrees! It felt wonderful! Of course hubby and I had to enjoy it with a walk along the lake with the doggies. I am so glad the clocks went back early this year so we can get out and enjoy the evenings. The sunset at the lake was gorgeous and the colour of the water beautiful. Why didn't I think to take the camera!?!

This weekend is the Christmas Ornament SAL but I think I'll have to beg off this one. The fibre I was waiting on for my last PIF giftie finally arrived and I want to get started on it.

Oh and one more thing to show, I bought this magazine last week and have had it sitting on my desk all week so I can admire the cover quilt. Its called Spice Island Beauty and is shown made with batiks. I'm in love with this one, but its listed as 'challenging' and I don't know if I 'm quite up to that. But one can dream.....


Have a wonderful weekend!!