No title for today

A good day despite the rain which I like anyway . It is refreshing and the trees just love it too. The leaves become so green and beautiful.
Before I go on did you see the little 6 year old spelling artist who gave her own press conference. What a confident child. She was adorable. I don't think we have heard the last of her ,Lori Ann Madison is her name.

Back to my boring life LOL. We went to TOM's this morning and he was there. We haven't been able to catch him on our recent trips. It was good to see him. He said still no news on the part for my embroidery machine, he said it has to come from Japan. Bad news! He did say he could fit me out with an Elna which he had for sale at $999 but he would sell it to me for $899. It will cost me $400 to fix mine but he recommended that I wait for the part and get mine fixed. That really impressed Ray and he said he could truly trust him since he said to go for the cheaper option. I always knew he was a good guy but Ray has  a suspicious nature!

This amazing embroidery was up on the wall of Tom's shop. I didn't ask but I bet Kerry did it. Kathy correct me if I am wrong.

I bought 2 sizes of blades for my cutters , 45mm and 25mm, which is what I am using at the moment.  I wanted some bug fabric but he is still not up to his full complement of fabrics after the fire. He did take us through to the new store's floor plan , nothing is done yet , just the bare walls but it looks like a nice space is going to happen there. I am looking forward to it.

This looks like it might be a class. I have that pattern, maybe I should take the class LOL.

I signed up for the embroidery club on the 19th of June. I won't be able to do the class but I paid for a chair because I want to get back to doing the things I had to give up when I was so ill. Just the opportunity to learn something new and the get the information papers and to be with the other ladies and Kathy! It will be a ton of fun.

These are very tiny Dresden Plates , the blades are very small and look like fun to do. I like the latice around the plates.

I know you all want to know where we went for lunch LOL, IHOP just down from TOMs . We had a big omelette and pancakes plus coffee.

Then we went to Staples as I had a pattern that called for it to be enlarged 200% and for heaven's sake they didn't have a big enough sheet of paper. That was Staples , don't they sell that stuff!! Disappointing but I guess I'll have to go to a print shop.

We went for gas, bread and butcher paper which we couldn't find.

When we came home I lay down and read for a while and of course fell asleep. We ran into the lady and baby Molly who live across the hall. Molly was going for her nap and I said so was I. We end up as we started LOL.

Ray is suffering from his Rheumatoid Arthritis attack. His right wrist and hand are really sore and he can't use it without a lot of pain. The doctor gave him some Methotrexate for the RA but he just took the first dose this morning and then the next one is a week from now.

Did I do any sewing today,well I looked at fabric at TOM's, does that count LOL.

Aren't these cute, scissors for Americans to celebrate July 4th .

A little cross stitch for July 4th. Where did I get these, can't remember. Haha. A disfunction of old age. Now that I am 80 I can do what I want if I can LOL and say what I want if anyone listens. I think not !

Time to rest again.

Have a great evening folks.

Kalispera.

Are you smiling? I am!

major work

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZTYhQGyidGw
http://www.threadsmagazine.com/item/3836/video-boutis-provenal
For those of you who are  looking for pain LOL, here are trapunto tutorials. Sharon Schamber has many tutorials to help us out. I admire her and her work which I saw when she won Best of Show at Houston. It was an amazing piece of work.

What do you think? Stunning quilt!

Another stunner at the Houston quilt show. There were a lot of painted quilts in the show and I think this must be one of those.

I went to the chiropractor this morning and he definitely helped me. I have a couple of ribs that just jump out of place regularly, even as I am leaving the office they are starting to move. Today I have been pain free all day. What a gift that is. This is from all the damage I did to my back in Ontario. Bad stuff!!

Bad news for RIM as the shares have dropped to a low,low $10.45, down from a high of $179, not quite sure on this number but the high was definitley very high in comparison. Is this the right time to buy a Blackberry I wonder.

Ray had to go to the doctor today while I stayed home for the cleaning lady. I had to clean up my sewing table. Sounds silly doesn't it but I don't want anyone else to touch my sewing table.

The doctor gave him some methotrexate that will hopefully ease the pain from his Rheumatoid Arthritis, he is in a lot of pain.

Finally I found my butterfly block that needs to be taken apart as I out it on the wrong side of the fabric and I really want it to be correct. I have to unstitch the parts I have already appliqued.

This one is orange and yellow but the one that needs to be undone is blue.

I did nothing today, no sewing or cutting. I just mucked around on my laptop. My PC is not working , well I should say the keyboard will not work. I wonder what that is all about. Mary said Ricky will come and have a look at it. My grandchildren are all so computer literate and very clever.

This is a photo of Ricky.

The latest TV news is that NBA is cancelling Harry's Law  because the viewers are too old. Come on there are a lot of us Seniors around and we could boycott NBC.

Kathy and I e-mailed tonight and chatted about the Embroidery Club. I want to go just for the fun of it. I have no machine but still it will be nice to see everyone again. Ray and I are going to Tom's tomorrow to pick up some bug fabric for my Bingo and I can sign up then. I really want to get back into the things I like to do.

Perhaps I should look at the next few themes for the Bingo and pick them up so they will be ready to go. I am booked up with the pansies , sent them already to Linda. I thought it was pansies for this game.

Where do we sleep, in a bed but the wee mousies bed down wherever they want to. This little guy likes the centre of a sunflower as his bed.

Perfect peace!

I wish I could sleep like this  but not in the flower LOL.

The hockey is now down to the last games between the NY Rangers and the LA Kings. It has been an amazing rife for the Kings who were 8th in the line up in the Western Conference and look where they are now. I'd like to see them win. The score is 1-1 at the moment.

Time for me to find my sunflower and reast a while LOL.

Have a wonderful evening.

晚安 (wǎnān) 晚上好 (wǎnshànghǎo)

No hearts tonight , all my hearts have been rejected by the server, so you will just have to imagine a heart LOL.

Tuesday sewing

Pat picked me up at 8:40 and we went to Starbucks for coffee.
It was so much fun this morning at my sewing group.There were a good number of quilters attending so that makes for great conversations if you can hear them LOL. And there was some beautiful appilque being done. One lady is making the border for her Baltimore Album quilt, yipes!  What a woman!! I  haven't felt like doing applique since I got back to the group and have only made Yoyos from a charm pack so they would coordinate. My plastic bag of yoyos is getting pretty full. But I might start doing some applique.

One of the applique pieces being done . I think I have this pattern somewhere if I can find it.

Flowers at the edge of the churches parking lot.

Beautiful orange poppies.

Lupins, not a native colour which is purple and very hardy , but this lovely red. The blossoms are covered with aphids, common to the hybrid types . Way too bad!!  I do like lupins. All along the highway there are the wild lupins that grace the roads with colour.

The blog is late tonight as I was going through all my quilt magazines and I have a lot of them. I got so involved in looking at all the great patterns that I'll never have enough time to do and forgot about writing my blog.

One thing that kind of irritates me about applique patterns in magazines ,despite the fact that I understand the reason for it, is the suggestion to enlarge the applique design by 200%. That means going to Staples to see if they can do it. The last time I tried that the clerk didn't know how to do it. It really irritated me. But I will have to try once more.  After all it is only one elephant. LOL.
Once again I didn't get to Community Quilts but Juliet is coming back early in June so she will take me to Betty's for tea and then take me home. I'll be happy to get back to doing that  and going to Community Quilts .
When I got back home I was tired once again  and lay down for  a nap that turned out to be a sleep. Ray had started on dinner and finished it when I got up. I don't like to waste an afternoon sleeping. But what can I do when my eyes won't stay open Haha

Last night we watched The Hatfields and the McCoys episode one. At first it moved fairly slowly. I guess they were trying to establish the background and the atmosphere. It took quilte a long time to do that and I was ready to leave the show, but then things picked up with the romance of the yournger generations and the joining together of a Hatfield and a McCoy. Kevin Costner seemed to me to be a bit out of place as he is too refined to play a Hatfield. Still I liked him the best for all the players. He has gravitas.  The next episode is next Monday and the third and final one is the following Monday.

Back to quilting: the block is called Lady of the Lake . As you can see you only need to learn half of this block and then repeat it reversing the colours.  I took this off my old photos from when I made blocks with Quilt Pro for the guild web site. That ended when the president following me had it all taken down. But I had a lot of fun doing it.

Our great granddaughter in Quebec taking a turn on the piano. Isn't she a cutie? Piano photos always make me happy.

So that's the day.

Have a good evening folks.

Kalispera.

new circles

I sewed 7 more Drunkards path blocks. Still haven't figured out how many I'll need to do to make a quilt. In the meantime I am anxious to get started on  a Twister quilt. However there is something in me that says" Finish this one first" so I have to finish the DP before I start the Twister LOL.

Here's 1,2,3,4,5,6,. There is a 7 coming up.

There it is , at the top. The purple one! LOL.

I am still going to do some more and then I plan to arrange them in some form of design. Simple or complicated? I would like to make the one that I showed here yesterday. However I ran into a pattern in one of my magazines that is really simple. We'll have to wait and see.

Ione sent me this one , it was from the Hyack festival in New Westminster. She knows I love dogs and turtles so what could be better than this. Nether the little dog nor the big turtle seem to be bothered by each other nor by the crowd. I seem to remember photos of this turtle before. I can't recall his name either, useless aren't I. Thank you Ione for a fun photo. I had to really enlarge it to show off the dog , he is so small.

We were up so early this morning, well early for us as I usually get up shortly after 8:00.  Ray had to go for his catscan this morning, the one he couldn't get last week due to it being a holiday. LOL.

We got there in plenty of time, they took him in right at his appointment time and the catscan was short as they were doing his lower spine.

On the way home we stopped at the White Spot and had some breakfast. I had a sunny start and Ray had eggs and sausages . I helped him with his sausage. Think what you will LOL.

Then we decided to try  Bosa's  again. We found the store which is hidden behind some other buildings and is hard to find. It was just a fluke that we found them.  So we wandered the store looking at all the Italian imported product . We bought 6 hot Italian sausages and 6 mild ones. Guess who the mild ones are for haha.

Once again I was tired and had a nap when we got home. It was after I woke up that I sewed. Still I feel I have accomplished something today. I am ready for tomorrow , my bag is packed! Pat will pick me up and we'll go to our sewing group. I am excited, missed it last week because Pat was away.

All bundled up with bare feet . Charlotte in her new outfit !!

Going back in time, my mom with my first baby Adam and me of course with Margaret way up there on top of the stairs. This was my favourite dress at the time. It had lovely pink and red roses on the fabric and a very flattering boat neck line.  I like this picture a lot.

I still don't have my beloved embroidery machine  back home, so can't make any of the lovely towels right now. I don't know why it takes forever for a part to come from anywhere. We have planes don't we?  Oh well I just hope it comes home while I am still able to use it :(

Thank you Pennie for the comment on my blog Sunday Times. I hope others will take the time to read the comments. This one is quite interesting.

Time to go folks.

Have a lovely evening.

Guten Abend.

 

Sunday times

http://www.needleandspatula.com/2011/05/drunkards-path-block-variations.html

Variations of Drunkards Path block settings. I don't like the colours together , not enough contrast for me but interestingly different settings. I do like the one I have put on here before so you won't be surprised when you see it again.

 I love the contrast  in this beauty.

http://missouriquiltco.com - How to do Dresden Plate with Jenny from Missouri Star ... Dresden Plate Tutorial  .

Another of my favourites, you can see I love the old fashioned patterns. They make sense to me. Art quilts do not although I am able to see the genius that goes into them.

You can buy templates for Dresden Plate. You can buy templates for almost any block these days. We are living in a great age for quilters.

These are my Dresden Plate cushions. I made a quilt of Dresden Plates. It was the one I sent to Marion to comfort her during her fight with cancer. And I can't find the picture on this laptop. It must be on my Computer. I'll look for it tomorrow.

And once again it is time for Quilters Cache. No quilter should be without it in their favourites.

www.quilterscache.com

This morning I felt really great so I wanted to help Ray as he doesn't feel great. I helped him with the dishes and as my legs were working well and feeling strong I decided to do all the laundry, five loads. He kept saying I'll do it but I told him it was my turn to help him out and to just be quiet LOL. He did.

It was good for me and good for him.

We went out to guess where , London Drugs, haha because Ray was looking for a frame for a photo of his grandparents. There was nothing there we liked so we went across the road to Michaels and found what he wanted there and I bought some more yarn to knit dishcloths. We put half a dozen into the box of things Ray is sending to Lynn. 

Here is the yarn. It will keep me going for a while.

We did stop off at McDonalds for a small Sundae. It was tasty. My legs started  wobbling while we were there so I knew that we had to go home soon but we had another errand to do first. That was Michaels as mentioned earlier.

We met this friendly guy yesterday at Safeway, He greeted everyone who entered and left. He tried to get in the door but it was an automatic door and it kept shutting on him. Then he would back out and wait for it to open again. He was just great.

When we got home I lay down and read my book for about an hour. It was already late when we got home as we had watched The Help and that was a two hour movie. I really enjoyed it . Now I am sure I'll watch the movie again.  I read the book twice. It had an impact on my conciousness.

And now that I am officially an old lady, I can drink and dance and wear heels and hats whenever I want . Strange I don't want LOL

But I get a kick out of these two.

Tapped out for tonight .

Have a great evening folks.

Eat chocolate it's good for you!!

Bon Soir.

Saturday doin's

It was another gorgeous day today and after shopping for groceries in the morning we decided to go to False Creek and watch the boats go by. On a day such as today the boats are all out in force. I just enjoyed the scene and forgot to take pictures. However I am trying to get Ray to go to the beaches part of town where we can take fabulous photos,  I think LOL. That is if I don't sit in the sand and make sand castles. I did that when I was a child and it was such fun. Just a little bucket and a little shovel to pack the sand in the pail was all the equipment I needed to make fantasy castles in the sand.
Sand castles have evolved into sand sculpture and there are many countries where contests are held for the elaborate sand sculptures  that pass for castles in the air these days.

Now that's a castle. Next I'll show you the fantasy people or gnomes etc.

Boy they had better get out of bed when the tide comes in.LOL.

The ugly gnome has a beauty all himself.

It has always made me feel badly when these works of art are taken away by the incoming tide. If you want to see more just type Sand Sculptures into your browser and many photos will come up.

Lots of little ones outside playing in the courtyard in this beautiufl weather. It is so nice to hear them laughing and playing. Ray says it brings life  to the whole place. He is such a gruff romantic.

Don't tell him I said that haha.

I finally figured out why I don't get so much sewing done and so many other women do a huge amount of it. I see them write into the lists that they spent the whole day quilting and wonder how they do it. Well I know now how that is done. They don't have a husband or their husband is away all day working. As you all know Ray and I go out every day. He always want me to go with him. That takes time. It is what I want to do too but when we finally get home from our trips around town I am usually too tired to do any sewing. Ah well!

No words are necessary.

My new magazine. I bought it today at the grocery store. I like this magazine as I read it many times over looking for something I might like to make. I know we can find tons of blocks on the net but I do like the hard copy that favours my hands. I perused it earlier in the day but intend to go back and take more time reading it.

Time for me to take a rest.

Buona Sera.

snap!

http://americansewingguild.blogspot.ca/2012/05/lined-snap-tape-purse-tutorial.html

An early opportunity to make these little snap purses for Christmas gifts for friends and family.

This is the only site I have today, too busy to go looking for them.

We had another lovely day. It was one of those beautiful spring days that I  love so much.  The first thing we did was to go to Sears  to return one of the tees I bought last week which was too small. On the way to the cashier we passed something pink. Ray said that would look good on you so he picked it up along with a matching top. He loves to shop and colour attracts his eye. I did get refunded on the other one and went away with a new pink jacket and a lovely top.

Then he found a shirt that he liked for himself. He said oh I don't want to spend the money. I said you do want to spend that money as  you just bought me something lovely , now it's your turn!

For some reason he hid his face and laughed at me LOL.

We decided that we were going to go to the airport. It is a lovely airport . We parked our car and walked across to the lower floor. We went up in the elevator to the upper floor and had some lunch. We had an interesting sandwich, turkey and hot capicola, lettuce and tomato on a nice nutty bread. Coffee too. It was most tasty.

This wonderful piece was carved out of a huge slab of B.C. jade but the amazing artistic carver now deceased Bill Reid. It is the first thing you see when you get to the upper floor- a lovely greeting for visitors.

His works of art are incredible. He made rings and bracelets carved from gold .

One of the shops at the airport.

On the way home we passed by the casino, well not really passed by. We went in for a couple of hours. We came out with the same amount of money we went in with. That was good! We had fun and it didn't cost us anything.

Then we had to go for gas. It is now a whopping $1.50 per litre. That is ciausing a big fuss here on the airwaves and television. So much of it is tax for the government as spending money. I am quite jaded these days with our government.
However it was still a beautiful day and I was very happy.

Matthew called to say Chelsea would be home June 16 for 10 days, then back to Toronto she goes. She likes it there and she is doing well at university.

After I do this blog I plan to sew two more of the Drunkards Path blocks as that is all I have prepared for sewing.

Adam and Lisa when they visited Jean and Sam in Delaware. Not sure if I posted this previously but as I always say it never hurts to see things twice LOL. Keeps the memory sharp!

A prayer for all small boys. I had small boys and can remember the things they could get into even though they were all really good boys. A prayer will help things along haha.

I got the pattern for this Amish girl in Iowa from the creator of it. I made it when I got home and call it rebellion becuase the AMish are plain folk and do not believe in adornment . I put that piec of lace at the bottom as a symbol of her rebellion. It is an easy one to do , she has no face so that hard work did not exist, the rest was easy. As usual my quilting was not that good but better done than not.
                        Time to rest.
Have a great evening folks.

off centre

craftsy.com/ext/FBEP_Quilting42

Wonky Churn Dash Block {Tutorial} | Urban http://starwoodquilter.blogspot.com/2011/11/cats-and-mice-quilt-block.htmltitches

www.urbanstitches.com

Wonky Churn Dash Block {Tutorial

http://starwoodquilter.blogspot.com/2011/11/cats-and-mice-quilt-block.html

Another block from starwoodquilter and a new issue of her grandmothers diary. This is most a  interesting look at life in the 1920s. If you love history a look here might stir your interest.

Re  the wonky churn dash.  I messed up my spacing....
If you like asymmetry this is the one for you. Personally I prefer symmetry. boring as it may be LOL. So there I prefer symmetry , linear thinking and logical thinking.

We met Sam for lunch, it was most interesting. He is going to Israel next wee. He will be gone for a week. Then we talked about the new motorcycle helmet law. The government has brought in a law that says riders need to wear the full helmet instead of the  half helmet that lots of riders wear. The full helmet gives the rider a lot more protection to the head. Good thinking.

After we left Sam we thought to go to Bosa and buy some real Italian food. We got into the line up and it went no where, cars were just sitting there. We are not patient enough to sit in that line which strestched a long way so we turned left and decided to go down to the Fraser River where they are building a huge new development. There was a handicapped parking spot so we hit the jackpot.
We walked out to the end of the pier so we could stand and watch the river go by. There was no traffic on the river but the amosphere was lovely. I love the wind in my face.

There were two young workers having their lunch. The cord of my camera case was stuck in the wheel. One of the young men came over to help the old lady and took off the brake , that released the cord LOL. It was a good moment. There were a pair of lovers standing on the top of the deck. So life is romantic and funny too.

The Fraser River.

Ray watching the river flow past.

When we left there we took the back road that we had never taken before and we have lived here since 1987. You could say we are not very aware or adventuresome. Not that it is a huge adventure to travel the road untaken. It was a boring route but we ended up on
Byrne road . On the way home we stopped at  Hop On's for some veggies and fruit. They have gorgeous plants too but we don't plant any more.  Still it is great to see them. Flowers make me happy.

Orange, a new colour for a calla lily, beautiful!!

A bevy of lillies ,yellow if you didn't know LOL.

Then we came home, I was tired out and had my nap.
We had corn on the cob for dinner , it was delicious.

Margaret, this is what little Adam has . It may not mean anything but Michael could get it on the internet for you. Osteochondritis dessicans, a portion of the bone dies and the cartilage separates from it, but because the bone is still growing they expect it to grow beyond this part of the bone. The prognosis for  a young boy is good.

Smile boy!!

I love this one, a mom who has a lot of babies has my attention LOL.

Okay that's it for tonight.

Have a great evening.

Dobrey Vecer.