Hallowe'en is here

And I want you all to stay safe tonight.
I have garnered a lot of Hallowe'en photographs so the blog may be mostly photos. Some are amusing and some are adorable.
But just a quick  run down of the day.
We were watching TV this morning and I saw it was 11:40 and we had an appointment with the doctor for a flu shot at 12:00. you should have seen us scurry around, no time for beautifying, just time to get dressed and out the door . We were only a couple of minutes late but the doctor was standing at the door to her examination room with 2 needles in her hand and a smile on her face. She is such a great lady. We got the shots and never even felt the needle going in. Thank you Dr. Van Wyk.
Then we went out for lunch to Cockney Kings, At the door of the bank, no we did not go to the bank but close by was this amazing dog. I have not ever seen one like him before. He is the original shaggy dog and a patient one at that. Look at him.

Isn't he wonderful? If you know what kind of breed he is let me know!

Then we had fish and chips for lunch, one oyster for me as well. It was all very nice. You know people are so kind, Ray went to the WR and I was getting up out of the chair , it looks so painful and three kind men offered to help me up. It is just hard for me to lift up but I can eventually manage to do it. Also I have had so many young men open up and hold the doors for me. I am happy to say that all is well with the youth of today.

We came home and I am still spending a lot of time on the computer getting the embroidery designs found and onto the stick. I looked for a 5.5 inch ruler, I know I have two  of them but neither one showed up. Getting my work done these days is a lot of time spent searching for something. I know why I have two of things, I just go and buy a new one, takes less time LOL. By the time I didn't find my ruler I was just too tired to do more than eat my dinner which was radishes and celery with cream cheese stuffed in it. It was delicious. Try it some time. And no cooking needed haha.

Here come the pictures....

Here are the shirts I bought today. Ray said buy the red when I had chosen the wine so he said buy two. When I got to the cashier there were three tops there, a black one. Ray likes to buy me clothes. I have to stop him sometimes but he is such a great guy all the time.

See the lovely purple orchid at the back of the photo, we went to Hop On's for the last time this year as he always closes for the winter. The orchids were on sale for half price so he got  it  .You can see the other one on the right that we bought last week. I think this is a pretty photo.

 

This one too, Rose as a peacock for Hallowe'en and pretty as a picture, happy to be photographed. What a darling.

 

Piglets  in a pumpkin/Jack O Lantern, happy as pigs in a blanket.  My mom used to make pigs in a blanket , it was sausages in a pan and covered with Yorkshire pudding and baked in the oven. Oh my how we loved that!

Getting ready for the fight. Tough little guy and his friends. :))

 

A very seasonal place mat, too late for this year but get ready to do it for next year. No need for a pattern here, just draw the pumpkin and cut squares for the corn, it holds the napkin just in case you can't tell LOL.

A great haul for this little mouse.

 

Gotta have a dog!

 

 

 

The end of it stuffed and tired!

Have a great evening folks.

Buenas Noches

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Good Tuesday

I am praying for  all throw who were caught up in that dreadful storm on the east coast , who suffered loss of life and loss of homes and  power . it has been a horrible time for all of them.

http://quiltville.blogspot.com/2012/10/lessons-in-stash-folding.html

Just a little help with organizing your stash.
I had a friend who used this system and she had the nicest looking stash I have ever seen. She had plastic boxes for all the bits and pieces neatly organized into colours. Unfortunately she is no longer with us. She was an amazing quilter.

A rarely photographed Florida squirrel, Thanks David!

 

Tuesday special... Pat picked me up at 8:50  to got to Starbucks for coffee and a visit.  Then we left for the church where our quilting group is and where many things take place. Some sewing, some magazine reading, book sharing and offers of fabric for those who would like a special piece and thos who are ready to share. Betty offered me a nice piece of yellow for making a heart. I'll get it next week.

This week I managed to get four antennae embroidered on my butterfly blocks. I don't want to get them done too soon, no real danger of that LOL.  There were no magazines today so I got a bit more done. Joan showed us her beautiful Scottie dog quilt . All the dogs had plaid coats, very cute! 

 

 

That was the only show and tell today except for another showing of the bird quilt which I didn't show last week. This week I will show it.

This is a group effort for a gift-a McKenna Ryan quilt Home Tweet Home. It is so delightful.

 

Juliet was not going to Pumpkin Seeds again this week so I did not go either. Pat brought me home. She doesn't go to Pumpkin Seeds as it is a function of  our guild and Pat belongs to another guild. She lives quilt a long way from where we quilt so she needs to get home before the traffic builds up.

Next week Juliet will be going Hurrah!!!

 

Ray and I got home at about the same time and after a little chat I went for a nap . Then when I woke up I decided to sew the last three blocks . However I had a lot of trouble with my sewing machine . The bobbin are had thread stuck in it and it took a bit of work on my part to finally clean out the bits of thread. I had to take it apart several times and clean out the area. I don't know what was happening in there but eventually I got it fixed and then did the three blocks.

 

Dinner was soup and crackers Jean. And how are you in Delaware after the storm?

 

Did I show this one earlier well it is just as cute now as then and it is just about Hallowe'en.

 

Block of the day -Peony Basket. How it got that name is beyond me haha.

 

My grandson Ricky, don't see too many pictures of him.

 

He is Rick's son, nice profile eh! He is a nice young man too. I am fortunate to have wonderful grandsons and granddaughters.

 

Kind of rough out there but he makes it look easy LOL. Not a laughing matter really but dogs always make me laugh.

 

Now cats are another thing we must take them seriously at all times. Nice quilt too.

Translation: I am serious man-

throw just one more.....

I'll leave it to your imagination to figure out what will happen....LOL

Time's up folks.

Have a great evening and if you are in the east take care.

Gute Nacht.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PP Witch

http://www.shopmartingale.com/halloween-freebie.html

PP the Witch!! You have to register , that takes but a minute and then you have access to the witch and various other patterns. Scroll down for the witch, it is a great pattern.

http://www.quilterscache.com/W/WeathervaneBlock.html

Susan of Starwood Quilter fpund this one in Quilterscache and shared it with us all. I like the way she has featured the flower in the centre piece.

 

I read in Denise Russart's sock blog Sad Socks that she was having trouble with a sock she was knitting and so she relegated it to the "naughty knitting basket."  That so amused me that I had to put it on my blog.

My sock behaved itself very well LOL.

 

Coyote sighting   at the park. We were driving home and caught sight of a coyote in the grass just walking around. It is a somewhat common event here in the city because we have so many high forested parks. The trees are so beautiful but the built up areas of trees  house any number of wild animals. We have seen lots of critters in out travels especially when we were able to walk regularly. Of course it was long past when I managed to get my camera out. Too bad. At first I thought it was a dog without an owner but quickly realize that was not so.

Our street and many city streets are all tree lined.

Ray and I went to the mall after lunch and did our small walk. It is such a shorter walk than we used to do but I guess any walk is better than no walk at all. And this way we don't spend any money because we are too tired to look around. Sad but true.

When we got home I sewed my Hallowe'en hexagon blocks and I won't show them until they are done since it looks funny with the corners jutting up. I have not trimmed the corners yet so they are three layers of fabric. I am still undecided as to whether I should trim them or leave all three layers.  I worked on them all afternoon and now just need to do three more. No embroidery today . I seem to be useless when it comes to doing more than one thing. Tomorrow is out since it is my goody day with my sewing ladies LOL.

I did mail the piece I made yesterday to the lady I promised it to in February. I don't really know if she can use it now but a promise is a promise even if it is late. I'll show it here when it arrives at her door so as not to spoil the surprise.

Katie , my granddaughter just called from Toronto for a chat. She is waiting for the storm to hit. We   had a lovely conversation about men LOL.  She is going to university there. She said she and her friends are going to Chelsea's concert this weekend. Chelsea is my other granddaughter who is going to university in Toronto.

Katie, lovely isn't she. She is Rick's daughter.

 

 Haha!!

Fifth apron nice and frilly the way I like them.

 

I wish you all well who are in harm's way from the storm and hope you will be safe  and well supplied. Plenty of tuna. 

 

It is time for me to go .

Have a great evening!

Bonser.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

red

http://www.red-brolly.com/red-brolly/

If you are following the red brolly quilt, the last blocks are up is you can figure out what they are. there is a lot on the page and it cinfuses me sometimes. But the best of luck to all of you.

I have spent the day trying to get the embroidery files off my computer onto the memory stick. Especially I wanted to get one adorable little bear embroidery piece. I went to my files on emblibrary and it downloaded as as PDF . Not right. So my day was soent for the most part on wasted efforts.
However I did embroidery one piece and that was a cup of cappucino. It turned out very well. And it was fun. I also made three more blocks for my table topper.
Marg came over for a visit and brought me another book.  So we had a good chat. Then my neighbour came over with a wooden bowl that is meant to hold your wool while you are knitting so it does not espcape. It was made by a retired gentleman who was selling them for $20 to make some more money to enhance his retirement. They reminded me of the kind of wood work my dad used to do in his shop in the basement. He loved wood and had lots of beautiful pieces in his shop.

This is way too dark, the wood is a light ash blond and is quite beautiful but you cane see where the wool is supposed to travel through the side of the bowl.

 

Peter called again today to see if we were all right. There are rumours out there that the earthquake that occurred up in Haida Gwai was felt in Vancouver. None of us felt it, thank goodness, neither Ray and me nor Margaret. People here get all charged up when an earthquake occurs. That is all very reasonable since we are sure to have one sooner or later. Later would suit me!!  We had a very good chat and I was happy to hear from him.

 

Ray made dinner tonight , the pork loin we bought yesterday, small potatoes, carrots and we had corn on the cob but it wasn't very good tasting so neither of us ate it. It was pre packaged so we think it was old. Ray had to cut off sections and then it was no good in the end. It looked so nice in the package.

More time after dinner on the embroidery designs and the computer. As Einstein said insanity  is doing the same thing over nad over again and expecting a different results. So I stopped before I became insane.

 

Today's apron, the fourth of five. I hope they have given you some ideas of your own on what an apron might look like. They are like little dresses without sleeves. These are very elaborate ones but fun.

 

 

Download now as a pdf pattern

 

 

This block is called Patriot Star, it kind of reminds me of a Bear Paw block.

 

 Now these are close friends so it appears. I am not sure that the fawn is all that comfortable from the looks of it.

 

A nice place to live, it has all the amenities trees and water, what could be better. Now if it just has a furnace all will be well.

 

Peeping throught the door.....

 

Now It is time to sign off.

Have a good evening.

Good night.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

winner

Free Redwork Snowman from Charming Station
<http://www.charmingstation.com

Do you machine embroider? These little redwork snowmen are adorable and useful. I used one of them on a mug rug and it was really cute. I think I gave it to Margaret.
Have a look and click on the snowman to see what is there.

They are so cute.

I had a nice comment on Jaybird quilts from Patti USA. Thanks Patti for your comment I appreciate it and any others that come in .

Grocery shopping this morning, coffee at Tim Hortons which was full and we had to wait a bit. But the girls there take good care of me and found me a table quickly. They always bring my tray to the table as well.  Ray bought me a scratch ticket and I won $50 on it, I split it with Ray.  Since I have been lucky lately we decided to go to the casino this afternoon and I won about $600 . Ray was losing so I shared some of it with him. I had used up all my savings to pay for my embroidery machine. Not that I have to do that, I could take the money out of the bank but I like to pay for all or most of my sewing repairs and supplies out of money that I have save up.  So now I have replacement money for my savings envelope which is a fabric money belt that I used for travel once upon a time.

I plan to stay home on Sunday to  sew and embroider . We bought a lovely pork loin today and Ray is going to cook it, so we both have jobs to do. It will be a good day. And as it is raining now and probably will be raining tomorrow it will be a great day to stay home.

Saturday's apron, another beauty. I wish I could have managed to buy the pattern. But I probably wouldn't get it done anyway. I have several projects in mind that I want to do. That is if I can remember them LOL.

 

http://www.rjrfabrics.com/patterns/all_patterns.cfm

 

what an adorable Hallowe'en quilt. You have to go to the bottom of the pattern list from  RJR. The pattern has 7 pages to download which can be a nuisance but the shoes and stockings are all there for fusing.  It is a fun quilt. I think I'll download it amd make in later on in the year.

Have fun with it.

 

Download now as a pdf pattern

 

More boots, this time cowboy boots just in case you need one haha. Or two!

 

This is a pretty wreath, no pattern but if you can cut out a heart and a leaf you have it made. Oh and draw a heart for the background.

 

Adam called tonight and said he had heard there was an earthquake in B.C. Always the worry is that it would be here on the Lower Mainland. But it was off the Queen Charlottes in the ocean. They often occur out in the ocean. So good luck the earthquake pssed us by this time. I remember the last one was in Washington state and the epicentre was in the capital city of  Olympia. My friend Donna lives in Olympia so I was concerned for her but she said she was okay and not much damage.

 

Not much more to say for tonight.

Have a lovely evening well it is actually night so have a good night.

Bonne nuit.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It's back!

http://www.jaybirdquilts.com/p/tutorials.html
This is an interesting page of a variety of tutorials. I only checked out one, the doll's dresses quilt. However it uses a panel and they are not always easy to find but you can use the layout for any kind of block or for embroidery blocks.

My embroidery machine came home today. I had forgotten everything and had to work it all out again. That was not as easy as it sounds. But I did get started after a while. My first embroidery piece was for Michelle , a coffee cup, but it did not turn out very well so I plan to get it done tomorrow or Sunday. I can't spend all my days embroidering and leaving Ray at loose ends. I even used the wrong stabilizer. Time to sharpen up!

 

After we picked up my machine and paid Tom $475 for the job, Ray thought it should have been free but that's Ray LOL, I was just happy to get it back, we went to IHOP for lunch. It was a big lunch so we had a corned beef sandwich for dinner. Good enough as I was not very hungry.

I made two more snowball blocks while the embroidery machine was working its little head off  haha. I will need to get many more of them done pretty soon. Not that a date bothers me, there is always next year and generally for me it happens next year. I want to work tonight but Ray insists that I don't work too hard. He must know something I don't LOL.

 

Aren't these colours delicious ?I have loved the colours of yarn all my life, even as a young child. Colour just does something to me.

 

It must be so for Aaron , my grandson . See his new machine.

Beautiful isn't it. His brother Sam always goes for black. Funny that!

 

Apron number two. These little aprons are so lovely.

 

Now aren't these gorgeous and so cleverly arranged.

Scrappy Floating Stars Block Pattern

and

Scrappy Floating Stars . I was thinking about  doing this pattern while I was laying in bed last night. Why do we quilt all night LOL. If I am awake I think about quilting. Some life eh!  With any luck I can sew tomorrow and if not then Sunday for sure.

 

Download now as a pdf pattern

 

Hmm some kind of Windmill,  I forget its exact name. Just hope I got the correct PDF

Old Windmill is the name of the pattern.

 

Time for a dog!

 

Well a puppy and a kitty. Kind of cute aren't they? I like cats that are this orange colour.

 

And here is Adam my great grandson in his Halloween costume. He has  such a great smile. His Grandpa Adam tells me he is a wonderful boy too.

 

 

And lastly this beautiful crazy quilting hexagon.

That's it folks.

Have a lovely evening.

Labas vakaras