a dreadful disease

Another wonderful day in Vancouver, I know the rains will come but apparently not this week so it is a good time to enjoy and go for a walk.
Mesothelioma is a horrid type of cancer, once it starts to move it gallops through the system and affects all parts of the body... It is caused by proximity to asbestos. In the past before the dangers of asbestos were recognized it was used extensively as an insulation around pipes and other building materials. Nearly all buildings constructed before 1980 had asbestos in them , often used in attics as an insulation.
It causes the cancer mesothelioma which can sit there in the lungs for a long long time waiting to erupt. A person could be in a situation where he encountered asbestos in the 50s and 60s in his work and the mesothelioma would not show up for decades later such as the 2000s , horribly affecting its victim despite the person being a strong vigorous , intelligent human being.
That is the situation of my former husband and the father of my children. It has really affected me even though we were divorced in 1963 and Ray and I have been married since 1976. My children are taking care of him and it is very difficult for them.
Tonight i will be knitting on the sock and getting it down to the heel I hope. I am sure I can manage that LOL.
Picture coming :>)
Have a great night!! Fireworks here again, China this time.

Good deal

Isn't it great when you purchase one thing and get two for the prce of one? I lost my little cell phone about 2 weeks ago and decided to buy a new one. Off I went to Telus where I have my account and told the girl that I wanted the cheapest phone I could buy. I rarely use it, maybe once a week to call Ray after my sewing groups to let him know I am on my way home. It is eally just for an emergency. The saleslady did what I wanted and set up the new phone for me. When I came home I figured out how to add names and numbers to the phone book and did a couple of them. Ray was fooling around with it when I left the room and when I returned he said you have a picture of the air conditioner on your phone. What are you talking about I said confusedly. You have a camera on your new phone. Can you believe that 2 for the price of one. I was so excited!! Now there is no need to buy another camera in case my main one decides to cop out. I was going to buy a second camera for that reason. Two for the price of one, is that a deal!!!
We went to Fabricana this morning, Ray under protest,:>)) for their sale. As is usual when I go there for a sale , it is not the fabric that is on sale Drat!! But I bought some pieces for my on line Bingo games which will make me ready for the next four games. I bought these prints, Safari, Hallowe'en and small plaids, I had purchased Paper Dolls when we went to Abbotsford so I am set for 4 games. Then I bought a couple of metres of WOW and a meter and a half of a small red on white print for redwork embroidery. That was it.
We went to IHOP for lunch, had pot roast with onions, smashed potatoes , gravy and garlic bread, the best garlic bread I had had for a long time.
After the shopping I was tired and had a nice laydown , read for a bit and
had a short nap.
I called my friend Jean in Delaware as I had not been receiving her e mail , she contacted me on this blog and she had not received mine. There was very little mail today so I know something is wrong. I'll call Shaw tomorrow to see what the problem is.
I have not heard from Adam about his dad so far today.
It is a gorgeous evening so I'll blog off for now. Talk tomorrow...
Take is easy and enjoy the evening.
Bon Soir.

pretty things

I am late tonight because I spent the past two hours on my PC trying to locate a set of Sunbonnet Sue redwork designs that had come in on one of my lists. It was very difficult to find things as I had not deleted the messages because I wanted to keep that particular letter. After hunting through a ton of messages I finally found them and bought them. They are really lovely. SBS is a favourite of mine and I do not have any redwork ones I like, these I love.
We had a day of it . Rick called last night to say that Mac had a call from his doctor to come in tomorrow and he wanted Adam to come back so he and Lisa had to postpone their trip to Victoria. All three will probably go with him to the doctor I would think. Jim called and he is coming down from Edmonton on Monday, arriving Tuesday.
We drove Adam and Lisa out to Horseshoe Bay so they could catch the ferry to Gibson's Bay and then Rick would pick them up and they could go on to Sechelt. Before the ferry came in we went to Troll's and had pancakes and bacon. Not a very good choice as far as healthy eating is concerned but delicious MMM.
I took some photos today and will download them soon so there should be several new ones on the blog after I get them off the camera.
We started our on line Bingo game this week and on one of my cards I got 4 out of 5. The other players will hate me as I have won so many times. I was hoping not to win. My other card had no hits this week. LOL. You may say that I should not play but there are not that many players and we need the contributions.
Going, going gone :>))
Night!

uptown girl

We went downtown today . Lisa wanted to go to SFU to get into their files for some work she is doing. She is a university professor with a PHD so she needs to do that sort of work once in a while so she can publish or die :>) as they say.
While she was there we drove a few blocks down and went into the Marriot for a bit of lunch. We took a while to find parking as it is so expensieve in town. At first we thought the meters at $6.00 per hour were highway robbery so we tried some underground parking. The first one was even more expensive at $7.00 per hour and the last one we tried was at the Marriot was also $7.00 per hour, so we went back to the street LOL.
When Lisa was finished her business she walked up from the SFU downtown campus to The Marriot and joined us at the hotel.
Adam and Lisa wanted to go to Granville Island so we dropped them off and went on our way.
Bought some potatoes at our little mall for dinner. I made those great fried potatoes again, fried some hot sausage, boiled yellow beans and corn on the cob. And we had a bottle of red wine to drink. I actually had a small bit of wine, usually I don't imbibe but felt like it this time. And the wine was good!!!! I was surprised because I never drink red wine. I might become a drinker yet, right, after a life time of being mostly a teetotaller I don't think so :>)
Since we are entertaining there was no sewing going on, no one sews but me so it would be rude to hide away. However it appears that working on a laptop is okay so here I am, but not for long.
I will knit though as I can do that without looking and so talk with my company. I would like to throw the TV out the window since it is alwasy on from morning to night. If I am by myself I never turn it on. That is not very often though.
Tomorrow we take Adam and Lisa out to the ferry that goes over to Victoria .
Still no pictures I have to get going on that.
Have a great night , sleep well.

Sewing Tuesday

I wrote half this blog and it disappeared so it has to be done all over again. What magic fairy did that to me I wonder LOL.
Oh well! Today was my sewing out day so I packed my bag with the quilt I'm binding and the label I wanted to finish off by cutting the jump stitches. I took a small pair of scissors for this job but they did not work. I actually like the small scissors with the curved blade for this task as they can get to the end of the thread and cut it off close to the stitching.
But I had my quilt and thought that I could finish it today , but it was not to be. Why does binding take so long and why does it look as if it is close to the end when it is not? :>) But I am sure it will be done this week.
So we had lunch around 11:30 . I always eat then and the others wait for me to pull out my lunch so they can eat their's .Funny isn't it. Ray always makes my lunch, I think I may have mentioned that before but he is remembering to put the napkin in now. Good thing as I am really sloppy unfortunately.
We are waiting for Adam and Lisa to come over for the night on the way to Victoria for a bit of a respite. Rick is staying with his dad to relieve Adam and Lisa.
It is not good I am afraid , the cancer has gone to his brain. This is such a senseless , dreadful disease.
No photos tonight , maybe tomorrow.
Good evening, have a beautiful one, summer nights are so magical.

that blasted camera

My new camera is not working again and has to be taken back to the shop. I am going to buy a cheap one, they seem to work better LOL. So no photos of my work today. Which was by the way a label for my heart quilt. It took me quite a while to get it sorted out on the embroidery machine, all that editing and arranging and cancelling takes a lot of time but finally it was ready to go and I got it done.
Then my granddaughter Mary sent me a couple of little designs one of which she digitized herself. And I so wanted to send her a photo but you know what happened there.
I got a comment today on my blog of yesterday which said this person who is anonymous keeps writing me and I don't answer. Whoever you are please give me your name and for sure I will answer you. It is the first comment I have had for ages so believe me I do want to answer you. You can reach me at nanb@shaw.ca and we'll try and sort this out. Thanks for commenting..
Whoopee Ray just fixed my camera, the battery was not seated properly. Who knew? ;)) I took the photos and will have it up soon. Ray is so clever , he fixes my computer but has no idea how to use it and now he fixed my camera and has never used it. We are a good pair, one does the user side , the other does the repair side... together we make one whole person LOL.
I was feeling better today than the last couple of days so that is a great thing. :>))
I got the cuff done on the first sock of the yarn that Ione gave me to do socks for Lynn. It is the same wool as Ione had her socks made from. It is a pretty , variegated yarn so I will enjoy working with it.
I had to buy a new purse today as my little black carry around one gave up the ghost. So I bought a white one this time. Now I need to get everything re arranged in the new purse, that's my task for tonight.
We are watching Lie to Me. The paper today said that the lead in this show is charismatic and one cannot keep the eyes off him. A bit over the top as far as I am concerned, still I do like watching this one, not as much as The Mentalist with Simon Baker though. Later we are going to watch the new Betty White show. I know that is not the name of the show but So what. Betty White is a funny lady. Hot in Cleveland is the name I just looked it up.
Enough for tonight. Have a great evening ladies.
Bon Soir!

The Help

What a great book this is, read it if you can. I found mine in the library on the Fast Read shelf. It took me 2 days to read it instead of a week , it is that good.
The story revolves around three women in Jackson Mississippi during the time of civil rights in the 60s. One is an African American called Aibeleen, another a white woman nicknamed Skeeter and the third is an African American named Minnie. They each tell their stories and those of their friends and relatives in a turbulent time in American history. The African American women are maids in the homes of white women, subjected to all the rules of a time when blacks and whites did not cross invisible lines except for the black women who were needed to serve the white women. That is the story of the two black women. The story of the white woman is one where she feels the injustices of the system and decides to approach Aibileen to tell her story so that Skeeter can write a book about the life of maids in Mississippi. Aibeleen enlists her friend Minnie to join them. Minnie has a tough life as she is far too outspoken and so loses job after job. She has five kids and an abusive husband.
In this tale of black and white the lives of all three shift and change, it is a tale of losses and gains and fears and triumphs as told by the women who have to meet clanestinely to avoid the horrible risks they would endure if the book is discovered by anyone.
I am deliberately not telling you the actual events of the story but the outline. I kmow you will find it very entertaining.
Be restful and sleep well.

another gorgeous day

The weather has been unbelievable this past month, it makes me want to be young again when we used to take the bus downtown and walk to all the events in town. This week is the fire works competition. Spain is the country strutting their stuff. We can hear it from our apartment but it is too difficult to get there for me.
I remember going to Stanley Park and watching the musicals in the "Theatre Under the Stars " on a balmy summer night such as this one. It was wonderful.

I started reading The Help last night and it is a great read- kept me reading until 2:00 AM. Now that is a good book in my opinion, I even lay down and read it for a couple of hours this afternoon. Then we went out for dinner to our favourite family restaurant where the waitstaff is marvellous, food is delicious and there is plenty of it.
No sewing today but maybe a bit of binding later . I want to set up another pair of socks for Lynn. Ione gave me the yarn so we can thank Lynn for all the quilting she does for COmmunity Quilts.
My day today was not very interesting nor are my thoughts so I'll just leave off for now.
Have a beautiful night....

sew sorry but no sewing today

I guess there is no need to sew every day despite the fact that I think of sewing every day. Too many thoughts and not enough energy or time.
I went for a hair cut, Ray and I went out and I came home really tired so I basically rested. Oh I did sew, sewed down binding while I watched TV. Then I went to bed for a while and read my book.
This is really a weird book and I thought that I would not finish it but it kept luring me on and on despite the fact that I got "The Help" from the library on a Fast Read, "read in a week" plan.
If it takes me over a week I'll just pay the fine. The library needs the money.
The book , a $4.99 special, is called Secret Story and is written by Ramsay Campbell and author unknown to me. The protagonist is a very strange young killer who then writes a story about his murder of a young woman at a train station where he pushes her off the platform and onto the track. Then his story is picked up by a magazine when his mom whom he calls by her first name and with whom he lives sends it in to the magazine contest for new writers. It is so liked by the powers that be that they decide to make the story into a film. Of course they want the killer to commit more murders for the movie but the writer is not really creative and can only kill again in order to satisfy both his own need and the editors need for more killings.
I find it really enthralling despite the fact that it is just a pot boiler, as it is a very different concept. Original, which may be the reason for reading further into the story.
I'm going to try and out one of my quilts on the blog.
Good evening folks.

double dealing

Ha. That means I am multi tasking right now. Embroidering and Blogging. Left brain, right brain. One step, Two step LOL
I did another seahorse today but it had difficulties and I am not very happy with it but if it works for Adam then that's okay. If it doesn't back to the drawing board , I don't think I have had this much trouble before or at least since I started. When I first started embroidery the design I was doing ran out of bobbin thread and I did not notice as the thread was white and so was the towel. A large part of the chef design was really messed up but I went back hoping to fix it. Not happening. Guess who got that towel, Ray of course LOL. As for today I wonder what is wrong with me, usually it goes as smooth as glass.
But right now the machine is doing another in my series of leaf designs. I'll take a photo when I am finished. I love these leaf designs from Emblibrary. So tempting to buy them all - I may yet!!
And blogging of course , taking time to consider what I want to say.
Ray and I went to Richmond today to the large mall there as it is good for walking and looking. Well the walking was good but the looking was not. At least half the mall is closed off for renovations. I wonder what they can possibly do to make it that much better. But then it takes imagination to figure that out . However it was a bit disappointing to go that far to find not much :)
Also I did some more of my binding in the afternoon while watching Oliver Twist in B&W. In the morning We watched part of Great Expectations in B&W. Starting to really love those old films.
We had lunch , of course, I had a Greek salad and one stick of lamb Souvlaki. It was delicious, the lamb was very tender.
There goes the machine calling for attention....Fine I changed the thread.
Now I am going to go back to uni-tasking.
I want to give instructions for how to do a good embroidery on my blog but that seems a bit presumptious after what I have just described to you in this blog. :((
Good night have a great evening.

whoops

Here I am watching an old Margaret Rutherford movie- a Miss Marple performance to be sure. I have alwasy loved her movies, she has a face that changes shape with whatever she is thinking , amazing actress. I get such a laugh out of her pictures.
I made another seahorse towel today becuase the one I made the other day was too bright for my son. I am not really pleased with this one. I made this one for him and Lisa several years ago when I first got my embroidery machine. I did not know what a good design was at that time and I cannot find out who the designer is though it was a freebie. But it is what he wants so it is what he is getting LOL.
I had a visit to my chiropractor this morning and a good thing, my back was way out of whack and ribs were out of place too. It is so funny , you can hear the ribs click back into place. The body is a wondrous thing :>)
Do you remember that I wanted to take pictures of a great lavender bed, I did take them when my camera was turning everything all blue so they were no good and I deleted them. I went back today , sadly the lavender is not at its best, it is at the fading stage and the display isn't the beautiful photo that it was so I'll have to wait until next year and that's a promise.
:>))
I am getting tired so I will close this blog for tonight.
Have a good rest!

hurray a special event

The number of hits on my blog is over 5000- a milestone for me and my blog LOL, that makes me very happy. Thank you friends of grandmas-bits and pieces.
Tonight a book review of some of the best short stories written by Peter Robinson, a favourite writer of mine.
Peter Robinson writes about the character Inspector Alan Banks in The Price Of Love. In this book he writes a number of short stories witn a longer novella as the last story. A novella is somewhere between a short story and a novel. I am not a big fan of short stories so it is unusual for me to make a case for them but somehow Robinson makes the lie of my feelings regarding short stories and novellas.
Not all the stories are about Inspector Banks but all are excellent with intricate plots unusual in a short story , a surprising twist at the ending. Robinson is a student of human physochology that enables him to compose these masterful stories. I have to say I enjoyed every one . You will find a story of a boy who finds a police badge in the sand of Blackpool, one of a pianist hearing a haunting refrain,two dog owners who meet on a Toronto beach and the novella of Inspector Banks which is almost as good as a commplete novel. That is how good a writer of mysteries Robinson is.
If you want some superb summer reading get this book from your neighbourhood library.
AS for the rest of my day I took a couple of photos that I'll share with you, I spent the day with some fabulous quilters and good friends.
On the news I just saw a tortoise going for a walk with her owner. I love turtles so that makes a wonderful ending to this blog! Wish I had this photo.
Take time to enjoy the balmy summer evening ladies.
Bon Nuit!

a beautiful summer day

Beautiful in every way. We met friends for lunch, spmething we seem to do a lot of LOL. We just meet at the food court and do not have much as most restaurant lunches are way too big. I had a Vietnamese wrap , it has rice noodles, prawns and lettuce along with peanut sauce, so it was a healthy lunch and I love them.
After lunch we bought some hand towels for my son who asked me to embroider some seahorses on them. I did one of them this afternoon , different ones from the previous seahorses I did for them. I really like so if he doesn't I will be happy to keep it for myself :>)
But before we came home I went for my chest X Ray, that was not too bad. Usually it takes forever in that lab but this afternoon it was really good. However the little nightie things that they give you to wear after you have removed your clothing are really little now. They used to come down to the knees, now they barely go past your navel. Saves money I guess and your modesty is not important. LOL.
I did spend quite a while on the computer looking for a picture of a design I did a few years ago, no luck finding though. I can't believe I did not take a photos of it. Very careless of me :>)
Tonight I plan to work on my binding for a while. What are you all going to do?
Good night folks. Have a lovely evening.

breakfast /brunch out

Adam,Lisa ,Ray and I went for a later breakfast or an early lunch after they had done their speed walk around Stanley Park. They thought that it was just so beautiful and thoroughly enjoyed the walk. They are both champion walkers so it was actually a short walk for them. They really appreciated the beautiful setting. We are so fortunate to live surrounded by so much loveliness.
After they returned and showered we went out for breakfast/brunch. I love to go out for breakfast as we so rarely do it. So in keeping with the hour I had a waffle and some bacon along with coffee. We came back to our place and they packed up their luggage and left, Adam to go back to caring for his sick father and Lisa to Louisiana to take care of her sick mother. They are a wonderful couple both taking responsibility in very difficult circumstances.
I was thrilled that they could visit with us this weekend.
We came home and I played with my computer buying 10 designs from Emblibrary for $10. Adam asked me to make him some more hand towels for the bathroom and I have decided to make them some more tea towels as well.
Ray and I went to the produce store, it was so gorgeous outside that we dawdled in the sun for a bit.
The fruits and vegetables were lovely . I bought some new potatoes , fresh asparagus, Peaches and Cream corn on the cob and big mushrooms. Ray bought cherries,tomatoes,small cucumbersand radishes. I wanted to eat the potatoes, Ray is not supposed to eat them because of his kidneys. I sauteed the mushrooms along with onions, celery and garlic in butter and then added the potatoes sliced into the mix, added my favourite seasoning salt and oh my it was so good, I also fixed the asparagus and that was my dinner. After all Ray looked at what I had made and he ate some too LOL.
The only sewing thing I did today apart from buying designs was to set up two hoops so that tomorrow I just have to spray the stabilizer and attach the towel, then off I go.
But first I have to go for a chest X Ray, haven't had one for a long time so it is time.
That's it for tonight.
Kalinishta :>))

water,sun,breezes and fish and chips

Says it all doesn't it :>))
Adam and Lisa arrived at 12:30 and we were off to Steveston, a busy little fishing village on the edge of the ocean for a day of special family time and all of the above.
Steveston was once a small Japanese fishing village with small fishing boats and canneries where the fish was processed, but now it is a busy little tourist spot, the canneries have all gone " but the memory lingers on" LOL
We arrived there and got a parking spot right away, now what could be more prescient of a wonderful day to follow. We wandered around on the docks looking at all the offerings of the sea that were for sale right off the fishing boats, what could be fresher fish I ask you. But we did not buy any as we did not want to leave it in the car and also our fridge freezer is full with 6 very large crab that Adam and Lisa caught over on the Sunshine Coast and we have yet to eat . Oh my isn't that something to look forward to. The docks were very full of people, parents and children, wheelchairs and oldies with canes, myself included. It was warm, sunny and a lovely sea breeze wafted over the whole scene.
My son Matthew was captain of the small craft that offered tours around the harbour . There were the four of us , a small family of four and two women who I thought were tourists.
We saw many fishing boats both small and large, only one great blue heron, one of my favourite birds. I tried for a photo but don't think I got anything good. Birds are very difficult to photograph with a digital camera.
After the trip was over, Adam, Lisa, Ray and I went to Shady Harbour for lunch. I had oysters, fish and chips. I only wanted the oysters and fish. The plate was huge and so were the oysters. I knew there was no way I could eat all that so I gave Adam half my oysters and Ray ate some of the chips ,there was still food left on the plate so you can imagine how much was there to start with.
Then we came back home and changed the sheets on the bed as Adam and Lisa are staying the night YEAH!!
I am going to download my photos now and add them to my blog.
I hope your day was as lovely as mine.
Buenos Noches!!

Computers :>0

Aren't they the thing? I was using my laptop which I usually do in the evening, well morning and afternoon too :>)) and the battery warning kept coming on and saying not much battery life left. We turned off the computer and restarted it after counting to 10, then Ray turned off the power bar, no luck. The computer said I may have to change the battery. This is a new computer as those who have followed the life and times of my computers and cameras would know so no new battery. Then I said to Ray maybe it is detached from that other little bar called the reducer we think. Lo and behold that was the problem.
So I am back in business:>)
After my appointment with the doctor for a refill of a prescription we went to London Drugs to see about my camera which was still pumping out blue photos, doesn't sound very proper does it? LOL There was a different lady there and she knew what she was doing. She set it all back to default and the photos turned out just fine. I was so grateful as I wanted it for tomorrow . I was prepared to buy another one if I had to send that one back to Panasonic for repairs. Nothing can stop me LOL!!!
We gave some money to the provincial government in the afternoon at the Casino next to the race track. I said to Ray we should have bet on the ponies for all the good it did going to the casino :>)) It was a beautiful day, the band was playing and the horses were racing. You could get a drink of some kind and hot dogs I think. It would have been a nice day.
Sew,no sewing again. I am definitley planning on something on Sunday since we will be away all day tomorrow.
Did I tell you that my Winking Santa embroidered towel was featured on the Showcase at Emblibrary http://www.emblibrary.com/el/elprojects/showcase_elp.aspx?page=sh_071610_C
Long address so just go to Emblibrary.com and click on the Showcase. OR I could try and put it up on my blog ,right. Not that easy though but I'll try.
Yes right now, so have a good one and so will I :>))

Shop Hop and Flop

We did it.Betty, Marie Claude and I went out to Abbotsford for lunch at the lovely little tea shop on Montrose Street . I had a chicken pot pie with salad , small scones, raspberry jam , Devonshire Cream and Coffee. Delicious!. The shop is so elegant, as is the plating, bone china teacups and plates,delightfully displayed and served. A real treat ! We stopped in at Quilt Essentials , a small quilt shop next to the Tea House but with lovely fabrics and delightful patterns. The diplays are artistically done. They also sell Berninas at the back of the shop. Betty bought a package with all the fabrics in it for a quilt that was displayed up on the wall. I bought just a few FQs but they were pretty.
Earlier in our trip we stopped at Fabricana as I wanted some quilited fabric, also bought half metre cuts for my contribution to the next on line Bingo game. The themes are Christmas for this game coming up and paper dolls for the next I think. The dolls are so cute.
After lunch and Quilts Eseentials, we motored on down to Quilt Works , A Great Notion, where I bought another spool of silk thread, a pretty turquoise a adorable Hallowe'en pattern. Don't know if I'll ever get it done as it is Paper piecing which I hate but if anything can get me PPing it is this pattern LOL.
We were going to go to Fort Langley but by this time it was after 2:00 and was time to hit the road to avoid the worst of the rush hour. We were pretty fortunate until we hit the approaches to the bridge where traffic all slowed down. But once past the bridge it was clear sailing. We got back to my place about3:22 and decided that we'd take in Fort Langley another time.
Now was the time to FLOP LOL.
After a bit I made a salad for dinner.
Face booking a little later but I am not a true Facebook fan as I rarely initiate anything, just read what my family is doing LOL. It is a bit like eavesdropping :>) My mom would not approve even though she has been gone a long time. Isn't it funny how parents never really leave us. As long as our memory survives our friends and loved ones who have gone ahead do not leave us either. I think of my mom, dad and brother every day.
Now I need to take photos of my purchases, just hope they do not blue out when taken in the house.

Bon Soir folks and take care.

out and about

Ray's title today and that is what we did. First we took my car to the garage to get the battery cable fixed. Then we met our friends Bob and Buzz for lunch at the mall. They had been an 18 day Panama cruise a while ago and we had not heard the adventures on board and on land. From what I have heard and experienced myself most cruises are essentially the same. Loads of food at all hours of the day or night , weight gain, ground tours, shows and movies, cabarets and so on. Still even though the itenerary remains the same people always have a great time. Ray and I have been on one cruise in 1996 to the Carribean. I would like to take the one to Alaska which would be easy as it begins on our doorstep.
Buzz tried to help me figure out how to get this laptop cpmputer to open up my embroidery designs. Then she sent me a site to see if it could help with the extensions. But so far I haven't had any success . Can't try tomorrow as I will be on a shop hop with 4 friends. We are going out as far as Abbotsford so it will be a full day. But thanks Buzz!!
Well my new camera is hooped, the pics are still blue at least the ones outside in the sunshine are. I took it in to the shop and they changed the IPO to a lower setting. That did not work so it has to go back to the factory. Can you believe that. Well I won't be going without a camera for a month or more . I'll buy another one, a little cheap $100 one . It will be handy to have two.
We picked up the car, the bill was $69 can you believe that, I was happy.
Then off to the Safeway for ice cream, naughty aren't we.
I bought a cute little stuffed turtle, maybe for one of the new babies our granddaughters are having-one in Quebec and one here in B.C. Abbotsford to be precise.
I did NO sewing today, spent the time on my computer checking mail , writing letters, trying to get my computer to open embroidery designs and looking for frog designs for Lynn. I am going to do some tea towels for her with frogs as she collects them. Well actually Ray collects them for her LOL -daddy's little girl still.
I'll post the turtle , as you know I love them. Stuffed or live.:>))
Goin' now.
Take care.

funny things on the computer

I wonder why I get mail on my upstairs computer which is a PC and it does not come in down here on my laptop. Not all messages because I get most of them on both computers but just the odd one. And the odd one today was from my son inviting us on a trip to watch the whales and go for dinner. Now if I had not been upstairs for other computer business I would have missed it. Ah the world of computers is an awesome one.
My today was great, both at the church where I worked on sewing down my binding and at Community Quilts where I had fun with the ladies there. I handed over the little quilt I spent all of last week doing LOL.
When I went out to my car to take Betty home, it wouldn't start, I figured it was the battery. Called BCAA and they were there within half an hour. He tested the battery and the alternator, both were good but the cable to the Anode was very worn. He started the car though and off I went, Betty having gone ahead with Marie Claude. I went to her place for tea, turned my engine off and worried that it wouldn't start. Betty wanted me to look at her new sewing machine, a Juki, She sews many hours a day and her other machine an Elna was not behaving so she bought another. It was a happy day for her.
Anyway the car started and behaved itself until I got home. Ray made an appointment for it to go into the service bay for fixing tomorrow morning.
And yes the socks are DONE!!! LOL.
So most of my things are finished except for my binding. My next project hopefully will be a cover for my sewing machine and some more embroideries. Isn't it great that we can always think of things to do.:>)
I posted a picture of the little house in summer . It is so picturesque. But for some reason my photo turned out too blue so I will take it back to the store and get that fixed.
Have a good evening folks. :>)
Buena Sera.

the wind is high

This morning it was really windy , the tree in front of my window was clacking its branches in teh high wind. There were a few downers as a big tree was uprooted in town. It was a great day for windsurfers , they were very happy!
Another disaster was a roof overhang that fell down in front of the exit for a kindergarten in a Surrey school. It was a blessing that school is out for the summer. The school is undergoing a seismic upgrade but we did not have anysign of an earthquake :>)) That's a joke LOL, I always laugh at my own jokes, nobody else does :<( News on the home front. We walked a different mall this morning,had Thai food for lunch, not much different from Chinese food in my opinion. I saw a beautiful African woman dressed in her national costume and did not have my camera with me. I would have asked her first before I took her photo but no Camera SIGH. She was a true picture of beauty. Then we went to another store and I bought two new nighties. When I tried them on they nearly reached the floor so I'll see how that goes after I wash them and if they do not shrink up then I'll cut the length off and sew a hem. I did a bit of ironing so I was a bit of a housewife for a few minutes. SEW!!! I sewed on the binding on my community quilt that you saw here yesterday. Man who would think it could take so long to do a D..... binding. Nearly two hours. First the machine ratted out on the first mitre and that took quite some time to rip out and redo, the rest of the binding went on okay until I got to the joining of the two strips . I tried to do the join that you set up for a 45' angle seam. It took forever and when I finally cut it guess what..Right I cut it on the wrong side so had two pieces instead of one join.. I am slightly dyslexic and do not alwasy see things right. So I gave up in disgust and did the join that you put one end in side the other end and sew along the binding seam. Not a goood description but I am totally fed up with binding . I have two PDFs on how to do that binding where I spent 2 hours trying to get right and neither of them make enough sense to me to get it right. Usually I get Lynn to do it for me but I did want to try and figure it out myself. NOT!!! So I am sitting in my chair for the rest of the night, sulking ,LOL. You do the same. Sit I mean not sulk. :>)
Have a great evening.

Quilting done for the night

Housework day and jobs are all done for the week. We went out to London Drugs to get some Vitalux for Ray's eyes as he has age related macular degeneration. It appears to have stopped its progression and we are happy about that.
Before we went out I removed the stitching that got messed up yesterday when the top thread was not looped up properly. Then when I got home I was in a lot of pain so took an Xtra strength Tylenol and fell asleep.
Then I finished the free motion quilting on my community quilt and trimmed the sides removing the extra batting and backing. It just needs to have the binding sewed on . Then it goes back to Community Quilts where the ladies there sew it down. Some of them like that job LOL. My free motion looks a lot better today I think I may give myself a C+ LOL. I am feeling good that the back looks not too bad. Now my arm is really sore from patting myself on the back ;>0
Tonight I will, I say WILL finish my second sock. And maybe set up another one or maybe work on that awful baby sweater that I started several months ago.
I had a nice call from my son Adam who is from Ls. and is here staying with his dad who is very ill. He is taking us for dinner Friday night. I am looking forward to that. My week coming up is full of good things :>))
Have a good night ladies.
Bon Soir!!

getting it right

Is there anywhere to go to improve the look of my blog. I see other blogs that look so together. I want to know more about designing a blog on blogspot. If you know please contact me at nanb@shaw.ca

I bought the Quiltmaker magazine today. It has been a very long time since I bought this magazine. I usually buy Fons and Porter's Love of Quilting and not much else. But this one came in a plastic cover and had a CD of quilting designs and a pattern on it. So I was tempted , gave in and bought it. It is a nice magazine and feels good in the hand, really silky feeling paper. I like it. The designs are for the most part good and I think there may be one or two I might make. I see lots of interesting items featured that may be something I would like to purchase and three books that are briefly reviewed.
My eyes are so bad tonight I can scarcely see this print , it is very small so that is probably why. I get allergies in my eyes and that makes them blur out.
I seem to be picking out library books that I have already read or ones that just are not a decent read so I just stop reading them. There are no library police that say you must finish what you start LOL. Just like there are no quilt police to say you must complete every thing you start if it has lost its appeal. Although there is the off chance that you may want to come back to it so don't throw it away. I am having an urge to finish a quilt that I thought I'd never finish because I was disatisfied with it. So who knows.
We are watching the football game, B.C. and Saskatchewan, we are losing Waaa!! Tomorrow is the deciding game of soccer between Spain and the Netherlands. I am rooting for the Netherlands but like Spain too so either way I will not be disappointed :>)) I read somewhere that people who are happy and positive are naive and too trusting. That would be me :>))
Good night folks!

.morning FMQ

Sorry to those of you who are lovers of heat but for me who has major problems in the heat it is a blessing that the heat has abated some tonight. Not that we have the heat for long here on the coast.
This morning I got up early and tackled my Free Motion Quilting on Pink and Pretty. I noticed that things were not quite right , skipped stitches, some very long jump stitches, so I took it off the machine, and turned it over. Always check the back ladies, that's where a lot of the issues are. And yes the back stitches were a mess, how to describe it. They were very loose and the top and bottom stitches were not even kissing let alone joining LOL. I have noticed that when you have such awful stitching occurs it is the top thread not coming through the thread races. The solution is to take the top thread out and re thread . And yes it worked!! So I managed to do another panel, still not above a C ranking but getting there. At least I hope so. However I note that when I do quilt a Community Quilt it takes nearly a week to complete as I need to take a lot of breaks. And although I do like the
practice I have lots of my own stuff to do. So I don't often take one home to work on. I still have one more panel to complete and a row of stitching on the borders. If the weather is reasonable tomorrow I should get it done. Not bad!!
The photos I took today were all blue so I had to muck around with my camera to get the right colour, dumped those photos as the colour was the thing.
I went to lunch with my friend Barb whom I stood up on Monday, She was very gracious about that. We had a nice time , it has been a long time since we shared a lunch together.
Friends fill in the blanks of life with time and caring. Lucky is the woman with many friends :>))
Have you noticed how your weekly calendar fills up quickly. Yesterday our friends asked us for lunch next week and my calendar was empty so any day was good for them. Today I only have Monday not booked LOL!!!
Enough of my ramblings ladies.
Bon Soir!

Free motion quilting.

Yes I took the quilting bull byt he horns and did some Fre Motion Quilting. It alwasy scares me so I put it off. But life does not last forever so it is time to learn this technique. I have taken courses and the teachers just shake their heads as I am so bad at it. But as I mentioned the other day , I think about doing things which may be the way to learn- -kind of like memorizing for a test. So I did the test and not too shabby, not really great but a C I think not an E which has been my former grade LOL. I am heartened.
Last blog I told you how Kathy helped me with the finger tip potholder. I downloaded the instructions because there was no way I'd remember it only to discover I need to make another one the same as yesterday's. So another hurdle to jump. However today was out as you need about three hours to do just one.
We took my machine back to Tom as things were not right , so he worked on it again and fixed it. In the meantime Ray and I went to IHOP for something to eat.pancakes, eggs and bacon. Good stuff !! but we did not each have that, Ray had the pancakes and I had one egg and 4 strips of bacon which I shared. Ray gave me a portion of his pancake. It was good and we didn't over eat.
We went back and got my machine and I bought a new cutting mat.
I went to the library and took out 5 books one of them was about India and was very thick. If I like it and can finish it I will do a book review. I'll be 3 weeks easy reading these five.
Wonderful day despite the heat. I don't care for heat.
Have a great evening folks.
Take care !!

It's great to have friends

Kathy came over this afternoon and showed me how to do a potholder in the hoop of my embroidery machine. It was a real learning experience for me and I had a wonderful time. It was so good that I bought the whole package of designs from Embroidery Library. Now that is a topic of which I am Passionate. Emblibrary is a most wonderful place to purchase designs. Not only do they have Over 50,000 amazing designs beautifully mastered and digitized but they are very reasonable priced. They offer services such as informing you if you order a design and have already bought it so you do not purchase it over again. There are always sales and free designs. It is just fun to look through their site. Entertainment plus LOL.
Ray and I went out for lunch at Sears , I ordered a devilled egg sandwich. It was just awful, so runny that the egg salad ran out all ends of the sandwich. UGH!! Won't go there again!
It has been a warm day all across the continent. In Ottawa during the Changing of the Guard one of the guards fainted dead away and of course the other guards marched right around him as they are trained to do. But some kind soul came out from the crowd and helped to hydrate him.
I hope you all kept cool today.
Take care!!

Do you ever do a dumb thing LOL

I have been working on some butterfly applique blocks, some of which I have already shown on this blog. Today I completed one lovely piece and tonight while I was pressing the block I noticed that it was way off centre .. They are on point for the most part except this one is definitely not LOL. The question is what do I do now keep it or do another one like it. If you have any ideas please comment.
My heart quilt is done except for sewing down the binding . Lynn did a great job of quilting it, it is so pretty. I need to make a label now. I have been doing them on my embroidery machine lately but they are big. However I like them so will no doubt do this one the same way. I have more yarn to make socks for Lynn , it is the same colour as the ones I made for Ione. After I complete the pair I am working on which will soon be finished I'll start on the next pair. It is a never ending round of sock making LOL .
At Quilting this morning I set up Betty Lu's second sock ready for the ribbing. It will go a whole lot faster than the first one for sure. That one had to wait for all sorts of things like Betty Lu going to Europe, me being over in Victoria , neither of us getting to quilting on the same day and various other sock stopping activities. :>))
Ended up the day at Betty's for tea and goodies as we usually do.
We are making plans to go to Abbotsford to the cute little tea house and quilt shop hop some day soon.
Ray made a lovely shrimp salad for dinner. Nice guy!!!
I have been forgetting to add the books I have read to my reading list but suffice to say I have read more than are listed on the list. Must be more careful!
Oyasumi!! Hope that is right for good evening in Japanese :>)
Have a great evening....I know that is right LOL

another forgetful day

And a day not used for anything good. I have been really sick, like a flu I guess. So had to cancel my date with a friend for lunch and spent a good part of the day in bed. it feels like I might have to do that again soon. I want to be ready for tomorrow's sewing day.
Needless to say all the sewing I got done was in my head :>)I thought about pebble FMQ for my pink and pretty , not that I have ever done it but I thought about it. That seems to be the way things work these days.
Oh well time for bed YAWN!!
Have a good night ladies.

Sunday snoozes

No work here today unless you count housework which I don't. It is just something to get over with LOL.
I was not up to much today either as I felt awful and took to my bed for a bit.
I did tidy up my sewing stuff so things are looking reasonably neat in there. I wanted to embroider more tea towels as embroidery is so easy after you get the piece hooped and on the machine. Then just let the machine do its thing. See what I mean , easy! But even that was more than I could manage.
I remember when I was young and had little ones and how I would think "Why do I never get tired like my friend does"( She was in bed all the time because she was always tired )and we were just in our twenties. But I had energy to burn, guess I burned it all out over the years. But I sure wish I had it back.
Just saw on TV a scene of hippos in a river and just the ears and eyes were showing, It was so funny. However the subject of the piece is not humourous as it is about the river drying up. This is on 60 minutes, we watch this every Sunday evening. The earth is getting hotter and hotter and rivers are all drying up, some from blatant misuse of the water by waste caused by humans ,but others from the drying up of the rivers. It is easy for me to criticise because I live where we have abundant water and fortunately for us we rarely have to ration it.But when I see things like desert city municipal departments watering the grass on a meridian and of course on the road when they have a massive water shortage or when I see Lake Mead declining year after year it makes me wonder about people and their priorities.
Off the soapbox :>)).
Tomorrow is another new day -what a blessing!
Have a good one!!

quilting and other things

What a very full day, It is now 11:35 PM and we just got home but it was all fun.
After we did our grocery shopping and put it all in the cupboards I started quilting on the baby quilt I brought home from Community Quilts on Tuesday. It is for a little girl as it is all pink and pretty. Part of the quilting I hope to be free motion but I did almost all the straight lines before I had to stop, eyes, shoulders and back said " time to quit". That was fine since we were on the way out to son Peter's for his birthday barbecue. We picked up a bottle of Australian white wine called Oyster Bay for the party. We saw some old friends of Judith and Peter's whom we hadn't seen for some time so that was very nice. The barbecue was very good, hamburgers, chicken and Italian sausage as well as BBQed pepperoni which is wonderful. There was salad, potatoes, corn on the cob, dessert and birthday cake. The conversation was lively and the two little babies took centre stage. They are the sons of Judith's son and daughter. It is so lovely to see such happy families. I took a couple of photos of the babies and of Peter for his birthday photo. I'll download them tomorrow :>))
We left at a reasonable hour and decided to take in the casino on the way home. I had a good night , won several hundred dollars and gave some to Ray as he was losing.
We are both very tired now so I will sign off. It was a great day....
Have a lovely night folks.

Sew,sew cozy

I finally got my tea cozy top made today. It is the second part of the tea cozy or the top. Earlier I showed the inside part that has the Insul Brite that keeps the tea warm. I made that in a class and started the outer pretty part but as you know all my projects have taken a back seat because my machine has been away. Happily I was able to start the back/front, does it matter which is which, side of the of the tea cozy. It is a strip pieced design where I sewed a strip on a piece of muslin in the middle of the cozy, then canted the bottom of the next strips by 3/4" to make the design conform to the shape of the tea cozy.
Then I did different fancy stitches from my machine along each seam line. I think it is very pretty.
Now what to do with it since I rarely drink tea and if I do it is a bag in a cup. Oops tea lovers would no doubt want to (well can't think if what they would like to do to me), but know it would not be nice LOL.
After I look at it for a while I will probably give it away to some fortunate tea drinker.
That took me a good part of the afternoon. But I feel like I am on a roll here with getting my projects that are UFOs completed. I want to make some more of those great napkins that I made the tutorial for and that is a good thing because I can't recall what I did LOL . Getting old causes some memory lapses though I have heard that younger folk also have lapses in memory so maybe it is just a human thing.What do you think? :>))
Oh and yes I need to complete the barbecue apron from the last class, hope I can find the instructions. Maybe Sunday when I clean up my stuff. I do that every week and usually locate missing bits and pieces.
We went to Wal Mart earlier in the day and gave the government an extra 7% tax on our purchases and Chicken McNuggets.
Then I mailed an envelope to a friend in MN. for a friendship quilt. In the envelope I had a block for the quilt and $10 for the friend to help with batting and backing. I wanted to send it PDQ. It cost me $14 to send that envelope which just had a block of fabric that couldn't have cost more than 50 cents. My head was spinning!!! The government really got me today....
Have a good evening ladies. I need to go upstairs to my PC and take soem things off it. So off I go!!

Happy Canada Day

To all of us, we are a fortunate populace and blessed with a great country and way of life. I am a happy Canadian!!
We did not celebrate in the traditional sense as Ray is still not quite right. Don't tell him I said that LOL. However we did go out for a bit. We went to Metrotown for a walk about. While there we sat beside a young woman with a small boy, he looked about 7 years old. She said they were from Fort St. John and down in Vancouver to have chemo therapy. He had been diagnosed with lymphoma just last week and they were in the mall where he was enjoying the different kinds of food. She was a lovely woman and he looked to be a very brave little boy. It was so nice to meet them.
Sew I did Sew a bit today on my tea cozy. It is made of strips on a piece of Muslin . So I sewed down the seam joins with fancy stitches. It was fun but by the time I was down with that I was quite tired . Sew I did not do the next step which is to zig zag around all the edges and next sew the two pieces together and put on a single binding. I have never done one of those, always do a double binding. Single ones seem to me to be more difficult.
I made a salad for dinner , Ray said I did a god job of it. He is the Salad King around here so I took the compliment gratefully :>))
I hope you all had a wonderful day....
Good night and God bless as per Red Skelton Haha!! And as per me too!! LOL