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

Whew!!! Another Schnibbles in just under the wire!

With all the gadding about I have been doing, I didn't leave myself much time for "schnibbling". It would seem that Sue and I both had good excuses this month to pass on the August project, me because of so much traveling and company, and Sue because of the tremendous amount of sewing she did for her daughter's wedding just a week and a half ago BUT I am pleased to say we made it!
For those of you who may be wondering about my Schnibbles "sidekick"... Let me introduce Sue.

This is a shot of Sue and her brother having fun at the wedding festivities.
Here is Sue's August contribution to the Schnibbles Parade.

Now, at a distance it looks like she used a plain white with her Christmas fabrics, but, not so...have a look...

The camera doesn't capture it, but there is actually a slight glitter in the white fabric, which is a perfect background for all those wonderful scrappy Christmas fabrics.
I had originally planned to do mine in tans and blacks, but Sue came up with the cleverest title for her quilt, that I just had to follow suit and make mine in Christmas fabrics as well. To her eye, this Schnibbles pattern looked almost plaid like; are you ready for this? She calls hers.... PLAID TIDINGS!
So here is my version of Plaid Tidings too.

Made from a collection called Winter, by Minick and Simpson.
I have to say we have been thoroughly enjoying each month's Schnibbles challenge and both of us have worked only from our stash...neither one of us has had to go out to purchase anything...
I had fun taking pictures today even though the results were not all perfect. Have a look...

So there you have it, PLAID TIDINGS by Sue and Wendy. Be sure to check out the parade of all the others...

Nine thousand plus

That is how many km. we have travelled since my last post. For those of you not familiar with the metric system that is about 5600 miles. These miles/km were driven in our vehicle on Canadian and American hi-ways. We did 7455 km and came home for 3 days and then went to meet friends and do a tour of the Gaspe which resulted in almost another 2000 km.
On those 3 days in between I had 2 teenage grand daughters with me and they both wanted new purses, so like any other grandmother would do...I made them. One turned out not be suitable so I made another.

The third (and the best in my opinion) purse photo is on my camera and I am missing a cord to load it onto my ipad so I will post later. When we arrived home from our second trip we were blessed to have our company come home and spend a few days with us here at Winterpast. It has been 7 years since they have visited us here, so even though it was just a short visit we were thrilled to have them. Yesterday I was up at 3:45 to get things on the ball and get my grand daughter to the airport for 5:15 am. Home at 7 and coffee and light breakfast for my departing company and then I had to tackle the laundry...7 sets of bedding plus all the towels and personal laundry took a full day...that and an appt. to have a windshield repaired, a visit to the Dr.'s office and then to the hospital for x-rays, back home to finish laundry, pack the car and drive the hour back to the cottage. By 10 last night I was totally pooped.
Mr. O got up this morning and made/packed his own h and coffee etc and snuck out leaving me to sleep...bless his heart!

I really need to try to get back into a routine and get in a walk. It is surprising how quickly we can slip the pounds on and get out of shape with all this traveling.

Needless to say I have not had much time to get to my August Schnibbles and there are only seven days until Parade! Can you guess what I will be doing today after putting away laundry and a quick tidy up?

Mr O. plans to retire early in the new year when the mine closes. He says he would like to travel when he retires...hmmm I wonder what he calls what we have been doing the last four or five months...we travelled from N.B. to Ont. in April, Europe in May, quick 5 day trip to Ont. in June, trip to a family reunion in Northwestern Ont. in July and most of August and then all the Gaspe Penninsula of Quebec in August...
Gee I am looking forward to some "real" travelling after retirement!

Sunday Morning Solitude

After a 12 hour drive yesterday, it was nice to sleep in a bit. Up at 7 and after a quick coffee I told my sister in law I was going to take a bit of a walk before breakfast. I didn't bring my camera but I did have my phone so I took a few shots to share with you. There is always something to catch your eye on Ontario country roads

I love love love the huge weeping willows scattered all along the roadsides

Horses munching on clover and grasses.

Not a great shot but it was interesting to watch a pair of osprey try to distract from their 2 littles ones in the nest. They chattered and swooped and soared overhead but only because they didn't realize that I was no threat to them.

Cattails and Queen Anne's Lace.

Even milkweed looks so pretty with the morning dew.

An abundance of grapes growing wild all along the tree line.

Nothing quite like a walk down a country lane on a quiet Sunday morning.

I Killed 3 Birds With One Stone! La Maison Chocolat

Our son and his wife are building a new home and it seems they have run into so many roadblocks this summer. Hopefully things will pick up speed a little. On the other hand, my housing project is complete.

Oops! Did I forget to mention I was building a house this summer as well? Actually it was 5 houses...does that officially make me a licensed housing contractor now?
Let me explain...

I had several challenges to attend to this summer and I have been working steadily away at them.

I decided to kill THREE birds with one stone. (four actually)

1. July was "quilter's choice" in our Another Year of Schnibbles;

2. Our last guild meeting in June, we were given a challenge. There was a large selection of packages and wrappers all face down. If we chose to participate in the challenge, we picked a random package/wrapper. It was then explained that our challenge was to make a quilted project of our choice using only the colours on the package. This project was to be finished for the September meeting.

3. You may remember I finished my Cinnamon and Nutmeg quilt for the bed at the cottage, but I really wanted to use up the last of the fabric collection, so I made matching pillowcases and still had a fair bit of "scraps" left, so my goal was to use the rest of it .

4. I wanted to make a couple of toss cushions for the bed as well.

This was the package I had chosen for my challenge. Bakers Chocolate!
My fate was sealed...the fabric scraps I wanted to use was from the collection Chocolat.

Carrie Nelson had already made a cushion using the Full House Schnibbles pattern and had posted directions on her blog,

I went to work and this is what resulted...

I followed Carrie's instructions for the front and then just constructed my pillow sham according to what fabric I had left.
By constructing these houses, I made my July Schnibbles, made my guild challenge, made a pillow for the bed AND I pretty well exhausted the last of my Chocolate scraps, thereby "killing 4 birds with 1 stone".
Voila!
La Maison Chocolat!

***PLEASE NOTE:
No birds were harmed in the making of this post.

Have You Met My Grannie?

She is just the sweetest...her name was Annie Coffin. She was my Great Gramma actually, but we called her Gramma.

I've have mentioned a couple times that I am casually doing grannie squares with my scraps. I was quite happy with that idea...a block here and there. Enter: Lori Holt from www.beeinmybonnetco.blogspot.com
She took our granny squares one step further and made GREAT granny squares by adding one more row. When I first saw her post, I thought, "naw...I am already making granny squares...not for me."
Oh yeah...that didn't last long. Yesterday I decided to make a small project and I needed a few blocks, so naturally the first blocks I thought of were the great grannies. I only need one more block and it is cut out and waiting for me by my machine and the I will start to assemble my project.

I have four blocks together now, with the intention of sandwiching and quilting it and then somehow making it into a sewing machine cover. I used the collection Ruby by Bonnie and Camille. It seemed like the perfect fabric choice for my gal Ruby.

Like I needed another project! Oh yeah!