In the still of the night...

It's late. Mr O. is sleeping and I know you will probably find this hard to believe, but I would rather do a little blog post than put away laundry or wash up those few dishes in the sink. Just a little recap of the last few days...Mr. O and I took a little road trip this week to take Ruby to see the Dr. It seems she had a large fur ball she just couldn't cough up.
We got that problem taken care of and thought she might look better with a new foot so we took care of that too.

Yes sirree! I got me a new foot pedal for the old gal, and I love it! I never understood why a machine of that quality didn't come with a larger foot pedal in the first place. I think most quilters have one leg slightly longer than other simply because the are always stretching their right leg out searching for that wandering pedal. Well
I think this big guy will stay put much better and I wont be chasing him as often as I did the other one. Look out gals, I will be able to put the pedal to the metal and keep up with fastest of you!
Just look what I found at www.badskirt.com

This little pattern just got placed on my "to do" list.
ZOOM ZOOM!
Here is the link for the pattern
http://www.badskirt.com/directions/BootPattern2.pdf

By the way, while we are talking about links, I can't seem to insert an active link to my blog post with the App I use for blogging on my Ipad. I use Blogger+ . If anybody has any tips for me, I will welcome them gladly.
p.s. When I say "active link" that is my highly specialized tech lingo that means, a link you can just click on and go directly to the site.

I made a 3 more Jumping Jacks blocks, and if you are counting you would think that my total is now at 7, but not so...I have 6 complete blocks. Why you ask, if I had 4 done and finished 3 is the total only 6. Well thats easy...I had to take apart #3 and remake it. It seems I had two different colour fabrics in my block sashing! Now It's bad enough I will end up with 5 with white sashing and seven with cream sashing, but having both colours in one block was just too much! Long story...I might explain once it is all done.

I have to say though, that I am liking them, even with my silly error in fabrics. It has been a little tricky with angled sashings but I think I am getting the knack of it now.
I made a couple little quilted fabric storage baskets, but forgot to take photos of them. I plan on doing another set so I will share those later.
Mr. O went blueberry picking a couple days this week and about 15 litres of berries. I was feeling a bit guilty that he did all the picking while I stayed home, but after standing at the sink cleaning and bagging berries, the guilt has dissipated. I did my part too!

So of course after the berries are cleaned the next thing to do is a batch of blueberry muffins. Yum yum!

We went for a lovely bike ride on some country roads. I started out to do a 8km ride but ended up doing 18, but it really was quite enjoyable.
The wild flowers and scenery were quite pretty and we took a few photos along the way.

We had heavy rains and strong winds the night before and just look at the windfall of apples from this apple tree!
Another curious thing we saw was a "shoe tree". A strange species grown in very few areas...

It really was a very enjoyable bike ride and I don't know why I don't do it more often.

I really need to get serious about my sewing this week. I have several projects I need to get done before our next trip and I have been bouncing around from one thing to another. Can we say A.D.D.?
Maybe tomorrow I will sit and make myself a list of what needs to be done and try to focus on those. Sounds good on paper, but if I know me...well, we'll see...

You're not going to believe this, but...

...but I have written a blog post almost daily for the last two months. Let me rephrase that..I have mentally formatted a blog post daily for the last two months; Something happened from the thought process to the keyboard though and so when I looked at my blog page today there was no news since the first of June. That is totally ridiculous! With all the technology today there should be a way for those thoughts to transfer automatically without me having to actually sit and type them out!
Until I can get that little problem rectified please allow me to apologize for such a long absence.
I cant even begin to bring you up to speed on all the events of the last 2 months but here are a few things that come to mind.
Our grand daughter graduated from high school. Hard to believe she is off to college in less than a month. She not only looked absolutely stunning on prom night

But she also graduated with honours. Way to go Lex!

We took a three week vacation to visit our son and his family. I have been able to attend/host three quilt retreats. Taught a family member to quilt. Took a Craftsy class by Tara Rebman and made a quilt as you go purse called a Tinker Tote.

I added a few extra things to the inside; a couple extra pockets with a touch of trim, and added a toggle to latch my keys onto so I am not always hunting for them at the bottom of my bag and I added a touch of bling to the closure tab.

I will likely make another at some time but make a few changes to the pattern to suit me better. All in all a very successful class!
I attended a garden tour and marvelled at the amount of time and energy some people can put into a hobby of digging in the dirt. ( I'm sure some people say the same thing about those of us with a hobby where we spend countless hours quilting)

I have started two bed sized quilts in the last 2 weeks. One is Quadrille, a Carrie Nelson pattern

Lots of piecing and prep work on Quadrille but nothing to exciting to show you on that one yet...the second one is Jumping Jacks by Fig Tree. There is a Quilt Along on Instagram that I am following and so far I have 4 of the 12 blocks finished.

At what age are we supposed to stop having sleepovers with friends? Just curious because apparently I have not reached that age yet. Mr. O went camping/hiking this weekend and I had a quilting friend come for a sleepover. We stayed up late, ate junk(not too much though), laughed, told stories, took naps in the hammocks, took goofy pictures of ourselves, did a tiny bit of fabric shopping, oh and quilted. It was fun and I'm sure glad I haven't reached the cutoff age for sleepovers yet!

Sue did not arrive empty handed but came bearing gifts which of course included fabric, but she also made me a little gift. It was just so suited to the quilting activity at my work station. Ever time I reached for pin it made me smile.

A Union Jack pincushion while I made Union Jack quilt blocks! I mean how stinkin' cute is that! I LOVE it! Thank you Sue!

That time of the Month...

It would beem I am becoming a monthly blogger. I really hope that changes. I enjoy writing and it is a good record for me when my memory does not always serve me well. My last blog post was to "show off" a couple of items for the Schnibbles Parade and it is that time of the month again, so guess what?

Yup! More schnibbles and another parade. The last one till Fall. As much as I enjoy them I have to say I am kind of happy for the break because I have a several projects that I have committed to that really need to get made this summer.

It has been a busy month...catching up on things here at home, a mini retreat with my quilting buddies, a trip to Ontario for family business, a couple rounds of company, painting the front and back steps ans decks outside, yard work and making a baby quilt.(my schnibbles for this month)

The painting job turned out well. The side entry really needed sprucing up. With prospective buyers visiting the house first impressions are important.

A new mat and...

A cheery pot of pansies atop an antique stool, and 

Revamped wreath for the door...

A friendly rooster to "how doodle you do" , along with fresh coat of paint was just what this entry needed.

I have one other thing I want to do but I need to pick up something in town next trip. I will share pics when i get it done.

Sue and I both made our Schnibbles into baby quilts this month. It is always good to have a baby quilt on hand. The pattern this month is called X rated, and I lucked out and didnt have to order the pattern because I have all of Carries books and this pattern is one of them.

Sue made her quilt scrappy and I just love it! The colours are so pretty. Well done Sue!

As you can probably see, Sue has hers quilted and bound! 

I on the other hand just have a "flimsy" to show this month. Once I get moved to the cottage I hope to get it and several other pieces quilted and bound....we'll see...

My baby quilt is made with Woodland by Natalie Lymer of Cinder erry Stitches

I only had one charm pack so I had to change things up a bit and do solid borders, but I think it came together okay for what i had on hand. 

Hopefully next post will be from the cottage. I have some fun things planned for the month of June; hopefully they will materialize!

I leave you with a photo from my May calendar page...it made me smile every time I looked at it.

Go ahead and try it..

Catching Up

It has been ages since I blogged. The internet was sketchy all the way home so I had little opportunity to post about our doings and then once we unlocked the doors to home, it seemed there was so much to get caught up on. Five months of mail was a major undertaking, catching up with appointments, friends and family; never mind the unpacking and all the dust and cobwebs! 

Before long the end of the month was hovering around and I still had not even started my contribution to the AYOS Parade. All I can say is this. I am glad it was not a big project!

Before I show you the parade entries from Sue and I, let me give you a quick recap of the trip home. After Texas, we drove to Pensacola, Florida to have a short visit with friends. My first trip along the Gulf Coast. 

It was extremely foggy that day and visibility was poor. You will have to believe me that the Gulf of Mexico is out there beyond all the white...and for my friends in Canada, NO that is not snow drifted on the centre line of the highway...it is fine white sand...everywhere, and YES, it blows around and drifts like our snow. 

For those of you following the dramatic weather in the U.S. Right now, you may know that Florida has been hit hard with heavy winds and extreme rainfall causing flooding. Our friends are safe but many in that area of Pensacola were hit very hard. 

These photos are of the very sections of highway we drove on just 3 weeks ago. Absolutely frightening!

While in Florida, we of course visited Disney World Epcot Center and Universal Studios, and The Kennedy Space Center. All very interesting...especially the Space Center. I have to say that being at Universal Studios and riding a bicycle up into a starry night sky with E.T. in the basket was quite a thrill as well. 

I chose not to mess with the Transformers though! I found it best to deal with them at a distance.

Have you ever had Dippin Dots? Well it was a first for Mr. O and I as well. We thought we were standing in line for ice cream cones...nope!

They are like little ice cream flavoured hail stones...much colder and harder than ice cream.

I had Oreo Cookie crumb and Mr O had Choc. Chip Cookie dough. Tasty, refreshing and cold, but definitely not ice cream cones!

Of course we also saw several of these....

No they were not in a zoo..but in the wild! Reason #1 for me not to live in Florida...and all this time I thought the heat would be the biggest deterrent. Give me mosquitoes any day!

After Florida we spent another week on the road, but I will save that for later. It's late and I don't want to miss the parade. Our project this month was a little different. It was not a Schnibbles pattern but a quilters choice of any of the Thimble Blossoms mini quilt patterns. We chose Round & Round mini.

Sue made her mini using the Quilt Diva collection of fabric and rather than just having a mini quilt, she turned hers into a tote!

How cute us this?

I used a small charm pack of Mistletoe Manor wovens and then added some hand embroidery.

It is hard to take decent photos at night so these are not the best. I wanted an aged and worn look so tomorrow I plan to give it a bit of a spritz with an antique spray I bought from Primitive Gatherings. If I don't ruin it I will post a better photo later. 

My sister in Saskatchewan also chose Round and Round and hers has a totally different look. I love it!

I am not sure why it is showing up sideways and it is late and I am not about to fight with it.

What is so amazing to me, is how we all started with the same basic pattern and ended up with three totally different projects!

I better get to bed or I will end up sleeping in and missing the parade! Night night...sweet dreams.