Glorious, Simply Glorious!

What a glorious day here at Winterpast! The water is like glass

The fall colours are starting to be a little more evident, the rain is finished and the sun shining on the wet leaves is absolutely stunning. Add to this the sounds and sights of the Canada Geese... A glorious fall day!

I took a little walk around this morning, but I plan to spend a good part of my day piecing a quilt together for Victoria's Quilts. Quite a few years back our guild had decided to make quilts for VQ and it seems the demand is ever growing. At our guild meeting this week a plea was put out for more quilt tops, so I decided to whip up a quilt top. By the end of next week our group should have close to 10 quilt tops ready to send off to be quilted.

I am sure you are thinking, it is too nice a day to be indoors sewing, but I am blessed to have a very pretty view from my sewing space, so I will still be enjoying this perfectly pretty fall day.

See that middle window; thats where I sit to sew. This is some of what I see from where I work.

See what I mean? Glorious!
What makes me want to capture and enjoy it even more, is the fact that we will be packing up this long weekend and moving back home for the winter. So I am gathering up images in my mind to save, for a snowy, slushy, gloomy day this winter.
For these things I am truly grateful...

Oh, by the way, if you are not familiar with Victoria's Quilts and their mission, take a minute to check it out. There are chapters all throughout the United States and Canada.

www.victoriasquiltscanada.com

www.victoriasquilts.com

Another thing I am thankful for is that I am on the giving end of this organization and not the receiving...

"If the only prayer you ever said in your life was "thank you," that would suffice." Meister Eckhart

HAPPY THANKSGIVING from WINTERPAST.

A busy two weeks

Well it is back to just me and Mr. O. It was such a special 2 weeks though. We were able to arrange for my youngest sister to take my brother from the nursing home he lives in and bring him half way across the country. (No small feat!) they met up with my other sister in Montreal for the last leg of the trip. The two sisters have never been to Winterpast and my brother has, but unfortunately does not remember it.(very long, sad story that I referred to a few posts back)

I obviously am the oldest of four, and there are just us, now that Mom is gone, so it is really important to have these times together.
Because of Gary's health, we were not able to wander far, but we did take a drive to the "big beach" as we refer to it. We settled Gary in a chair as sheltered as you can get on a windy beach and proceeded to do a bit of beach combing. It was a very blustery day and they got to see the ocean in a bit of a turmoil. I always love a walk on the beach, but even more so on a really windy day when the waves are crashing in.

Really makes for a "bad hair day". (Sorry Barb!)

We were treated to some fabulous sunsets here at Winterpast.

The birds were a constant source of entertainment.

And the nightlife!

What can I say? Plenty! What a nuisance this varmint was! He was so brazen, he knocked over the planters to get to the birdfeeder and then even posed for a photo. What a mess, and two nights in a row until finally I had to move the feeder.

We watched movies, ate, sewed, watched more movies, ate some more; although some ate more often than others...right Pam?
We taught the youngest sister some embroidery stitches, and she cut out some felted wool and stitched herself a pair of cosy warm slippers, just perfect for the cool days ahead. While Pam hand-stitched, Barb and I pieced and machined our projects. I made two more purses, one for Pam, and one for her daughter.

See those white slippers below the sweater, thats the kind Pam made but
I can't seem to find the picture I took of hers.(these ones are mine)
While I was making purses Barb, tried her hand at her first Schnibbles from Carrie Nelson's book, Schnibbles Times Two.

If you don't have this book in your quilting library, you may want to check it out. LOTS of great projects.

Here is Barb's version of McGuffy. She was auditioning an extra border to enlarge things a bit. The plan s to give it to one of her grand daughters for a birthday gift. It will be a picnic cloth. How cute eh?

Barb made a Schnibbles and I made a Little Bite( I call it a "nibble")
I also made a second version of mine for the Schnibbles Parade (yesterday's post)
Pam and Gary had to return home after just one week, but Barb stayed on, and Mr. O was away on business, so we fabric shopped and sewed til the wee hours . It was thoroughly enjoyable.
Here are a few pics of some of the things we worked on.

Barb loved my granny squares and we made a deal, i provided the 2.5 strips and she sewed the blocks. One for her to take home and one to add to my collection.

She also made a reversible apron with two fat quarters plus trim. Too cute!

How about a few sewing organizer totes. Barb will be retreating in style next month!
The vintage notion print was perfect for these little projects.

The local guild here in Tabusinac has an ongoing project. Several pillow panels were handed out with the request that borders be added to them, round robin style, thus making a quick and easy lap quilt to add to their comfort quilt collection. My plan was to put my block on point thus having a larger starting base, but because it was not a perfect square and to make it so I would have to cut off part of the printed pattern, I opted for this...
Minutes before returning it the guid meeting, I realized tat I had inserted one of the bear paws askew...what would I ever do without a ripper. Thankfully it was a quick fix and all was set in order. Off to the next person for the next border!

All paws are in order, ready to move out...

All to quickly the time slipped away and it was time for Barb to leave...

All of a sudden, everyone is gone...
I miss you guys. Come back soon, okay? Please...

Apple Pie Without The Cheese...

Is like a kiss without a squeeze.

X's and O's, or Hugs and kisses just go together...in a birthday card, ending a love note, saying goodbye to a loved one, on a Tic Tac Toe game and in a Schnibbles Parade.

The project for September was one of Carrie Nelson's newest line of patterns; not technically a Schnibbles, more of a nibble of a Schnibble... sort of a baby Schnibbles. She calls them Little Bites. This months choice was called Speck, but I called them X's and O's. We really only had to make one, but come on, how do you choose between a X or a O ?
Here is Carrie's sNibble (Little Bite) pattern as you will see it on the package.

Actually this picture is not coming through very well on my tablet and the patterns look much nicer in real life, so here is where you can go to see them all.

http://missrosiesquiltcompany.bigcartel.com/category/little-bites/pdfs

I chose to make mine into cushions.

These little patterns are quite versatile as you will see. Just because they appear to be a small table topper or wall hanging doesn't mean that you are restricted to that...mine became cushions, and Sue made hers into something totally different...

She made two as well, but it would appear she is partial to X's, because she made two sewing machine covers in the same layout. How cute are they?

As always I urge you to go over to Sherri and Sinta's blogs to check out the parade for all the other entries.
www.aquiltinglife.com. and www.pinkpincushion.blogspot.com

Next blog post will be a big show and tell of the things my sister and I worked on while she was visiting. See you then.... XOX

BIG DAY HERE AT WINTERPAST...

The sun is just coming up here at Winterpast and it s a big day here.
My brother and both sisters are coming for a visit!

It has been over 9 years since either Pam or Barb has been to New Brunswick to visit us. They have never been here to Winterpast. Gary has been to Winterpast a few years back with Mom, but because of the nature of his brain injuries(he was run down by a drunk driver at the age of 15) he doesn't remember being here, so it is a big adventure for him...again

This picture was taken last month at our family reunion in Northern Ontario.

My family arrives at 4 this afternoon but I have many things to be done...thank heavens for company eh...it's good motivation to get out a dust cloth and the vacuum. Oh, I have this little job to attend to as well....

A friend generously offered me a bag full of fresh cucumbers. Timing wasn't great, but I know how much we will enjoy opening up a jar of home made Chunky Mustard Pickles come winter, so my coffee and bagel are done and I have things to do...see ya!

I'm a bad blogger

I have a list of blogs I read regularly and for the most part, these gals post regularly...I on the other hand seem to go in spurts. I have the best intentions and then before I get turned around the day is over and the blog has been left untouched.
I really don't have too much to say, but I have been meaning to show you a photo or two of the third bag I had mentioned making when my grand daughters were visiting.
I know you may have seen the first two pictures in the earlier post, but I will post all three again today. The first one was cut according to the directions with the exception of lengthening the strap.

Turned out perfect, or so I thought. However grand daughter #1, (Savannah) didn't like that the bag twisted when put on her shoulder. There is one handle comes up from the center of the bag, so when put on the shoulder it twists to lay against the body. No problem; grand daughter #2 (Alexa) says she doesn't mind that, but she really had her heart set on the bag being made in the fabrics she had chosen. Ok, let's do this again with different fabric...

Success! Alexa is happy with her bag, but we still have the small matter of Savannah's bag. How do I make the same style bag but not have the bag twist. Well, the handle has to come up from the ides of the bag, but that means twisting the body of the bag and therefore having the seam come up the middle front and back of the bag. I wasn't crazy about that idea, but Savannah said,"Nanny, I don't mind." however we didn't have any fabrics that she liked that I was willing to part with...a quick trip to a small local fabric and home decor shop would solve that. Probably a better idea to use a heavier fabric anyway. She picked our her fabric, and then we needed a big red button, just a slight change from the original. That's easy, just add a loop and button.the fabric was $20.00 a meter and I really didn't want to buy any more than needed...ok. 14 x17 (twice)were the numbers going through my head...Savannah says, no, just 14 (twice)...I purchased just what I needed and off we went to make a new bag. I started cutting...14 x 14 plus handles which were the rest of the fabric width. After it was all cut I remembered that the body of the bag was to be 14 x 17. Oh dear, I needed to buy more fabric because the bag was missing 3 " on the width... With a disappointed look, I heard, "It's ok Nan."
Then an idea formed, and I started to run with it... I would add to each of the sides, but that meant 3 seams up the front of the bag now...with the red button as my inspiration, I decided to add a small piece of red piping in the seams, so it looked like those seams were planned, not a afterthought. When it was finished, she loved it, and so did I...

Exhibit C...bag number 3

What do you think..kind of cute eh?
A classic case of, "when life hands you lemons, make lemonade!"

You have seen a glimpse or two of our two oldest grand daughters, but while they were here we took a stroll on the beach and I brought my camera along. I want to share a few of my favourite shots.

It was fun having them visit the "old folks". (a bit trying some days, but I would do it again in a heartbeat)
They used to spend so much time here but as they have gotten older they have so many more things/people pulling them in different directions. I do miss those days, when they were younger and it was a grand adventure to come and vacation at Nanny and Pa's place. Time oh time.....

Time moves in one direction, memory in another.
William Gibson