Sewing time

I bit later tonight , I had a short nap of  half an hour, but I did spend some time reading my latest book. It is The Lighthouse by P D James. I have not read one of her books for years. It is excellent I really like her character delineations. They really paint the picture of each character's personality and pecadillos . Of course they are full of odd character traits. Good reading. Oh and the mystery is murder .
As it was Sunday we did not go far from home. We just went to Safeway for fun LOL. We bought a loaf of bread and some flour. It is so seldom we use flour so I have to buy the smallest bag, I think it is 2.5 pounds. I don't do any baking and only use flour to make gravy or cheese sauce and not much of it. But the flour canister was almost empty.
We came home and I had Ray put up the ironing board so that I could starch and iron all my Hallowe'en items, table runners and hangings.

Then the magic happened, I got to fixing up those blocks I got at guild last month. And I took some photos of the process. It was fusible applique. I did the four blocks that were in the bag but did not actually do the applique sewing on the machine.  That will be my next step.After all the ironing and then the preparing of the blocks I was too tired to do any more. But still I was happy with what I did do.

Step one: Iron the heart onto the back of the fabric. Use your pressing film.

Step two: Cut out on the given line.

Step three: Peel away the white backing and press the heart onto the background fabric, using the pressing film so as to keep the glue off your iron.

Step four: Done.
Here are the four blocks...

 Now to do the machine applique and that will be it. Remember I did all those blocks the other day.

I love the look of these Japanese Lanterns or as the Chinese call them Chinese Lanterns. Even as a kid I loved them. They are so cheerful. Isn't the fall season wonderful for all the fabulous colours that are on display?

And they are so papery to touch.

Adam called this morning, he wanted toknow if I got the photo of Adam and his new creation. I did , it was on the blog last night. We talked about the respective merits or demerits of our respective health systems. That is always a topic for discussion between us. He did tell me of a friend whose wife had a heart attack and they discovered a bad valve. The bill for the surgery was $400,000 as the friend did not have insurance. I was aghast and felt so sorry for the friend. I know we have to wait for surgery but if it is life threatening we can get it right away. I got help all last year right away when I was taken to the hospital. I guess it is a discussion we'll always have. :))

Now aren't these little guys beautiful . I think they are weimaraners. I would like one of these dogs. But then it seems that I would like most dogs.

 

More wonderful fall colours. Sunflowers make a full burst of colour.

 

A native representation  of the Harvest moon last week.

There that's the one I saw just a coupleof nights ago. It was amazing and low in the sky.

 

A black swan and her grey cygnets. These are the most beautiful of birds. And the most graceful . I have seen them I think in Victoria and definitely in England.

A sweet baby, he looks as if he has a bandage around his neck for support LOL. I wonder if he can stand up yet.

Time's up folks.

Have a great evening.

 

 

 

 

Saturday goings on

Morning and I got up late as Ray let me sleep a bit longer. It was good and I felt great all day, so the day began well.
we went to SavOn for our groceries, had coffee at Tim's and then on to Safeway for another few items. We then went on down the road to HopOn's for the produce. So now we are set up for the week.
Ray usually does the veggies and fruit, washes them and puts them away. Because I felt good and poor Ray's leg was very sore, I did the job while he was asleep in his chair. He is taking Advil for the pain and that makes him snooze.
I washed them all , took the tops off the radishes and the tails too, Cut the green stuff off the cauliflower and put it in the pot to cook for dinner. All was done when Ray woke up and asked what I was doing. He was very happy that the job was done. I made dinner too, not much to do there as it was just leftovers. I love the roast , you cook for one meal and eat for three. Good deal eh!
Ray cleaned up the kitchen after dinner and did not complain that I had left a mess. I can't remember if I did, usually I try and clean as I go. But who knows, haha!

And that was the day.
I did read a whole section of the newspaper about the regime of Idi Amin in Uganda when he had all the Asians and Ismailis ejected from the country. He took over all their goods and homes, as well as their citizenship, leaving them with virtually nothing with which to emmigrate. They were taken in by other countries,many went to the United Kingdom Canada took in 5,761, India 4500, Kenya 2500 and the USA 1200. Those were the major countries who helped these people with out a country. They went on to become excellent citizens of their adopted countries. But it was a dreadful time for them.
That reading too me a bit of time this afternoon but it was most interesting. I remember when that diaspora occurred in the 1970s, I was horrified . My doctor in Maple Ridge was one of the Ismailis who left it all behind him. However Canada offers our immigrants the opportunity to remake their lives and they did! They are all excellent citizens.
Not that I know them all ....
 My 10 year old great grandson Adam made a Ninjago with lego blocks and the assistance of his dad.

Clever boyand here he is with a motorcycle helmet on. How can you tell it isn't his LOL ?

 

Now for some serious talk.

 

 Eat your greens and see on this chart wher the best greens are on the pyramid. My guess is at the bottom of the pile LOL. At least that is where I would begin as I like all those greens. Actually  I would probably stop at row 2 and not so much all the other parts. Well maybe the nuts... :))

 

No not for soup but I love turtles , this is a quilt folks, an amazing one.

And this photo because I love the look of Autumn, pumpkins along with a lonely looking stone cabin. Makes a gorgeous picture.

....another quilted turtle, wouldn't that make a great name for a quilt store, The Quilted Turtle. Sounds good to me. This one is so pretty with the lovely mauve fabrics of the turtle's shell.

A totally amazing tulip, it is called the Ice Cream Tulip. I wonder why :))) It is stupendous looking isn't it? Can you imagine how the neighbours would be stunned at seeing this tulip in your front garden. Hard not to be amazed.

 

Talk about stunning, this is a gorgeous quilt . If I were in a quilting mode I would love to make this one. However I have not been in the mood for some time. I hope that changes soon.

Time out folks.

Have a lovely evening.

Guten abend.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Nested triangles

Download now as a pdf pattern

Children's Delight Quilt Block

       
http://www.quilterscache.com/C/ChildrensDelightBlock.html

 

 

Looks simple doesn't it but those pesky triangles can be difficult to perfect.

 

Download now as a pdf pattern

 

 

http://www.modabakeshop.com/2012/09/mod-nine-patch-quilt.html

 

Have a good look at this page to see for yourself how to make half square triangles the easy way. Sew and Slice. LOL

 

http://efemera-ink.blogspot.com.au/2010/06/wise.html 

This one was just too cute and simple to pass up.  We all need a wise old owl to help us along with the day.

 

http://www.cluckclucksew.com/2012/07/tutorial-strip-and-flip-baby-quilt.html

Rainbow strip and flip quilt tutorial.

Very Interesting work. I kind of like it.

 

There you go , a a good number of sites to peruse. They all look interesting to me and so I hope to you.

Jim left today at noon , then I had a shower and we went out a bit after 1:00 . We had to take some money to the bank for deposit and get some out for spending. The reason we have to do two things is we needed some smaller bills to spend. We had the money that Jim gave us, $100 bills to finish paying for Big Red and  those bills were too big to spend. Lots of places don't like to take a bill that big ,  because they don't have enough change. So we opted for $20 bills. There the big financial  transaction of the day.

After the bank we sashayed up to Metrotown for a coffee from Tim Hortons. I had three Timbits and Ray had a toasted cheese bagel.

We had to go to the bakery for bread and Ray wanted to go to the knife store. He bought a new paring knife as his had somehow disappeared. It probably got caught up in something the went into

the garbage. Anyway he has a nice new Henkels knife. For Ray to get a knife or a tool is like quilters getting a new pair of scissors, makes us warm all over. I think it is time for me to get some"warm all over" soon LOL.

We came home and Marg called to say she had a book for me and she wanted to come over to give it to me. Thank you dear sister , you are keeping me in reading material. I will be taking your library book back this weekend. I have read it but want to finish my last library book so I don't have to go up to the library  twice.

 

 

My goodness sweet Rose is surrounded by her things and she looks happy there. Sweet bare feet too.

 

This photo is stunningly beautiful. I find it so exciting.

Ah another warm and fuzzy. Can she?

 

Does this make you smile deep down in your heart? Another aw moment.

 

Special quilt for a special season. It looks to me  like a flannel quilt , warm and cozy for those October moments. Could be for November too if you want to stretch it a bit.

 

Hahaha...... straggly looking puppies LOL.

 

Black Dragon Rose. A new type of rose. Amazing!! Ray and I had a lovely rose garden in the 0s when we had the house. One whole portion of the yard was given over to a number of varieties of roses. We had 60 different kinds, all gorgeous. But this one is stunning. Too bad we don't have a back yard nor the energy to look after it. We don't need a house though LOL.

A whimsical little quilt, fun to hang on your wall. I love the ant with the piece he has bitten out of the watermelon. Aha I got it he is saying. The colours of this quilt are very well chosen.

Haha it all depends on your perspective.

 

That's what cats think , now let's hear it from the other side LOL>

I am done for the night folks.
               Have a lovely evening.
                       Bon soir!

                              

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Brains and other things

I am having a blank happening in my brain tonight LOL. BUT I did read an article this morning that claims mothers who have male DNA in their brains  are less likely to contract Alzheimer's disease. And women who have had sons are more likely to have Male DNA in their braisn. Boy am I lucky, 5 sons puts me in the good brain category. However there is the question of masculinizing the female brain. So what I say, I feel fine with the brain I have :)) and happy to have a smaller chance of getting Alzheimer's Disease. You can find the whole article in The Vancouver Sun daily newspaper Section B.

Jim and Ray had a good time today running around town and looking at things men like to look at.  I stayed home with Lynn the cleaning lady while the boys had fun. However I did not feel so well and that didn't bother me.

Jim took all the blades off our overhead fan and Ray washed them for Jim to put back. It had not been done for years since Jim had done the job many years ago. So it was good to get that job done. Jim has done several jobs since he has been here . So we took him out to dinner at the Keg for Prime Rib and baked potato with the works . At least I had the works. Haha.It was a nice time and good food and fun company.

We were supposed to go to a meeting tonight but neither of us wanted to go so here we are sitting at home. It feels good !!

Sam wrote to me today , it has been a while since we heard form him. He said he has been out of the country and very busy. He will call us the week of Thanksgiving which is the 8th of October. I wonder if he will be able to come for dinner. Rick is coming here for the Thanksgiving weekend offered to cook dinner. He asked if Meaghan, Lewis, Ricky and Charlotte could come too. Of course they can. I am looking forward to  having them all here. I sure hope some of them will help with the clean up.

http://freemotionquilting.blogspot.com/2012/09/ufo-sunday-5-quilt-for-you_23.html

Good one to look at if you are interested in gifting your quilts during the coming season. Several ways and means of doing that.

Hexagon Pinwheel Quilt. A Debby Kratovil piece.

http://debbykratovilquilts.blogspot.com/2012/09/hexagon-pinwheels-and-plaids-free.html

Thisis a quilt that Jim and I designed as he wanted a Spiderman quilt. We bought the panel and fixed up around it.

 

Download now as a pdf pattern

 

Magnolia in a pineapple square.  Kind of pretty . I don't usually care for  pieced flowers but the pineapple adds a bit of interest.

 

 

Kate at the market in Toronto. Is she looking at sunglasses?

I love these mother and child photos but this one is unusual , mostly I do dogs, cats, horses And so on. This is a cute picture.

 

Another fabulous mother and child picture. Who would think the little guy could get up that high, so maybe mom was lying down when he got on and then she stood up. No matter it is a great picture.

 

That's all for tonight folks.

Have a great evening.

 

Gott Kveld

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hardly awake

I am so tired I can hardly keep my eyes open and so forgot about my blog. Fortunately something reminded me, not sure what though. LOL. Not that it matters though since I  am back on track.

Jim and Ray did electrical thing around here today, they changed all the plates ,switches and plugs. We had to go down to Rona to pick up some extras and while I stayed in the car and listened to the radio the two of them had a wonderful time in the hardware store. They took their time but that was all right by me.

We went into Walmart to see if they had Jim's overalls but no such luck and believe it or not we did not buy a thing in Walmart. First time haha!!
Then we dropped into Wendy's for lunch. It was late and I did not eat much since I planned a a real dinner tonight.
We came home to do the switches LOL.
I made the Pork roast , well truthfully Ray made it ready for the oven but I looked at it while it was cooking, really hard work. The hard work came when I made the cheese sauce , my specialty, for the cauliflower because Jim said it was his favourite. I cooked small potatoes and made the gravy, my other specialty LOL, that's it , my 2 specialties!!
 But dinner was delicious. Too bad I did not take any pictures. You would have been envious haha.

 I didn't sew even though I had planned to make the Mrs. Keller block.  It is hard to do any sewing when I have company as we take them out all the time. Tomorrow we plan to take Jim to The Keg for a steak dinner . It seems that I have not sewn for a long, long time.
Lynn, Ray's daughter, called tonight from Quebec to say she had received the animal book that we mailed for Hayley Rose. And Hayley Rose was so excited to get it. She plans to take it to school tomorrow  for Show and Tell. She is going to English school so she values the books we send her since they are unable to buy them in quebec. Language laws prevent the importation of English books but we can personally send them in.


http://www.quilterscache.com/M/MapleLeafBlock.html. 

This is Susan's block which she has decreased in size from quilters cache size of 12 inches. Susan's block is a 6.5 inch block so you would need to make each square 2.5 inches to get this size. It is a lovely block and easy to make.

Wow an albino lion fish, what a beauty.

Which one is which .

 

A cute little wall quilt. I should make one like this as I change my wall quilts regularly, just put my Hallowe'en one.

 

 

Lovely piece! 

Isn't he adorable and look he is smiling haha.

It pays to keep up appearances LOL. And mousies are doing so.

I love you mommy.

 

A sip from a cup for a bluejay. Is it tea or coffee. I think tea. Who has coffee in china cups?

 

Some boy this is. We call him a wrinkly dog ,  actually he is a Chinese Shar Pei. As a puppy he has a lot more wrinkles than the adult Shar Pei. Odd looking puppy wouldn't you say!

Bad kitty, try and be nice.

What a lovely little fountain and pot garden.  No place here for this but we used to have a gorgeous garden when we lived in the house.

Time to go folks.

Have a good evening.

Good night!