a favourite shade of blue

a favourite shade of blue

Wednesday, April 29, 2015

again

Here I go again.  Some nights things are difficult. So I hope I can get the blog done tonight.

I am eating jelly beans while writing this . But they do go quickly so no more jelly beans LOL. There are more on the table but I don't want any more tonight.

I did not go out again today. I am staying in more often lately, don't have any idea why that is happening. Gee do you think I am getting old ?

So I did not do a lot today. For some reason I seem to have misplaced my little heart quilt top. I was planning on working on it today but it was not to be found. I found all the butterfly blocks but don't feel like doing those right now. I need to but up all the sashing and borders for that quilt. That is a bigger job than doing the heart quilt.

It was such a lazy day for me. Ray did get out a bit though to wash his car, go for his pills and buy some bread. All at different malls so it took him a while. I napped while he was out. Told you I was lazy. I spend a lot of time on my laptop.  I need to get sewing tomorrow or at least get out for a while.

We didn't even have dinner tonight just ate snacks.  Now I am hungry, I won't do that again.   From now on it is a meal of some sort. I hope something good.  Right now Ray is making toast for our evening snack. 

This is a way to use up your sample blocks. To me it is very busy , I like more open space to rest my eye. though it is very cleverly done.


This one really made me laugh isn't it a hoot. LOL. Clever cat.

Called Mossy Garden Quilt. I don't find it very attractive  but it does show good use of strips.

My mom and dad had a radio like this in the 40s. It was like our television, we sat in front of it and listened to The Green Hornet and other programmes. The pictures were created in our imaginations. 
These babies are not siblings, they are cousins. However this is a perfect picture of two babies lying together on a pillow. Two little beauties aren't they?

Well now it is time to watch Criminal Minds. I  like this show.
So have a great evening everyone.

Good night.



difficulty

I am having trouble with my laptop and my blog so If this ends badly that is why. I'll send this explanation first then try again.

Tuesday, April 28, 2015

short

Download now as a pdf pattern
Balkan Puzzle,  nice block!  One large centre square and many half square triangles. 

I am not writing a blog tonight, kind of tired and I didn't do  anything worth writing about. 

I am just lazing around watching TV.  Sorry about no blog folks. I'll do better tomorrow.

Good night.                       

Monday, April 27, 2015

miscellaneous

In answer to your question Jean, yes that is the Gail I mean. she passed away at the beginning of the month. I miss her.

This day was spent at home. I had an episode of feeling  ill again but had a short nap and feel fine now. I guess I should explain that when  I say ill I usually mean I have diarrhea. I get that often for some reason. It makes me very tired. 
However I was fine later and able to make dinner for Ray and me.
Ray went out for a few groceries when I was sick. So  I watched TV, read my book and had a nap.


Aren't these fellows amazing?  They are in New Zealand. It amazes me what people can do. They have so much talent.

Twister Heart  made with a little twister template. I really like this one. And I think I have the template somewhere. I'll look around.
It looks like fun.


Wonderful pinwheels. And check out the prairie points. The first quilt I made had prairie points and  I can't remember where it went. To some family member I guess.

I love this Disappearing Four Patch. I wonder where I could find the pattern. And this one has some great colours.  Thanks Kathy for the correction.


And here we have a double pinwheel. It is so attractive and colourful.



More pinwheels, great colourful piece of work.

Quilt show is over. Have a great evening.
                     Good night!

                                            


Rose Albert and Quinn having a wonderful time. They are right there in the front of the train.


























Sunday, April 26, 2015

owlies

Download now as a pdf pattern

Block of the Day .   Broken Path.


Cute but I could not find the pattern but looks like a single crochet throughout and cross stitch on top.


Family of Champions.

Aaron/Rich did the Ironman Championship race today and he finished it too. What a guy, my grandson. Show here with his wife June, daughter Melany, son Adam. Lovely picture.

My day is very confused as I am not sure whether it is Sunday or Monday. Oh well that is what happens when every day is a day off LOL.
Whatever day it is it was great. We spent a lazy day doing not much of anything. Ray worked on his boat model and I just played with my laptop and read a book.  I did make dinner though. It was perogies. I fried some bacon , onions and celery while the perogies boiled in water,  and then drained them ,put them into the bacon etc. And fried them. Served with sour cream. Tasted wonderful. Ray even had some, we each had 6 perogies with the bacon mixture. Great meal.

Now we are just watching TV. Castle this time. Not a bad series.
I am very tired tonight but there is no way I go to bed this early 8:16. That is when the babies go to bed LOL. My Charlotte is probably still up.  What on earth happens when you get old. I would just as soon lie down and read for a bit then go to sleep. But Ray likes me to keep him company in the evening. I will do the best I can.
Tomorrow I want to wash fabric for quilting. Then of course they need to be ironed. I actually like that job. Does that make me weird? No matter I will enjoy myself ironing away. Some folks have weird hobbies LOL.

Aaron ready to go or already finished. In any case he had a fine, fine day participating in the Ironman event.

That is it for me time to have that sleep . 8:30 is that too early? My head and body say go for it.

Have a great evening folks.
Good night.






game time

Watching the hockey game which is tied Vancouver 4,  Calgary4, lots of roaring going on. I think the game is at Calgary. We did have a 3 goal lead but all that is gone now. I just hope we can get one more goal and win this game. If not we are out of the playoffs.
Too close to call.


Made by my dear friend Gail who passed away recently. She did so many great quilts. At least they give her beloved husband David some warmth and love.


Here they are Gail and David and their two sons Michael on the left and Thomas on the right. This is a lovely  family portrait.

Oh drat we lost the game, that means it is over for us. I am not happy.



You all know I love turtles, this is so cute , it made me smile right away. Turtles are not known for their familial feelings LOL.


I love this block, not sure what it is called or how to find it.
It is cute though and would make a nice quilt for a child. 



The versatile and ubiquitous nine patch. Normally I find 9 patches rather boring but this one is really nice. I am not bored.



Not a very busy day today. Other than grocery shopping this morning we did nothing of any importance. Another lazy do nothing day. Tomorrow I want to try out a pattern. It has confounded me forever so I hope I can manage to be 
unconfounded !


This plane sits outside the library in Val D'Or Quebec. The ladies of Val D'Or decided it needed a quilt so they made it one.  My stepson sent this to me because he thought it would be of interest. It is. Thank you Jack. This is fabulous.


A Dresden Plate sunburst ,what a lovely piece.



Friday, April 24, 2015

new version

Download now as a pdf pattern

This is a different version of the block Churn Dash. I like the way it has a nine patch at its centre. It just makes the block more interesting.

I have been working on my blogs. Some persons say they have not been getting them so I have published again the blogs for this week. My apologies for this mistake but I do not know what happened and hope that the blogs showed up for all of you. Let me know.

Ray and I went out today as we usually do. but as usual we did not do anything very exciting. We just went to pick up a prescription at Safeway. It was for dizziness. I have been experiencing dizzy spells
And this medicine helps to diminish them.  Now nobody call me a Dizzy Dame please LOL.

It was a nice kind of day,  we shopped a bit at London Drugs for bottled water. Then came home and watched TV. Ray did that, but I worked on my computer. I tried to call Rick but he was busy so I'll get him tomorrow.  I tried to call Jim but could not get him either. Tomorrow I'll try the rest of them, Peter, Matthew and Adam.  It is not easy to contact 5 children  LOL.  They are all very busy. And so are we. That makes it hard to connect.



Here is a Dresden Plate flower, so pretty. I think this is a mug rug too but a bit bigger that usual. If not a mug rug it could be a small wall hanging for a small space. 

Ray is working on his boat, he made two of them already, it takes about a year to get one done but it gives him something creative to do. They are gorgeous when finished. I need to take a picture. Later. ;)






I know I wrote about going to Tom's last night  but I want to say again how much I enjoyed my night out with Kathy. It has been a long time.  Thanks Kathy.



Jacob's Ladder,  an old pattern but still elegant. 

And this is all for tonight folks.

Have a great evening.  

Good night.

                              















mug rugs

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/24277285..

Beautiful borders and gorgeous quilting.   Now these are Borders!

I did not do the blog last night as I was out with Kathy and forgot when I got home. 
We went to Tom's for cake therapy. There is cake and then there are quilts and Tom shows how to make certain designs. He gives a talk , we then go to the store which is open and if you want you can buy whatever.  I have not bought any quilting things for a long time so I had a good time picking out what I wanted to buy. I bought 3 half meters of three lovely fabrics, a template  for making Hexagons and one for making  Dresden Plate wands. I'll try them out and hope they work well for me. If so I'll let you know. It was a fun evening for me, I have not been to  one of these nights since probably last September. Being sick, in the hospital for a couple of months and just not getting there for the beginning of this year.  So it was great!  

I hope to be able to attend other quilting events. The next one is guild in May. I hope to be able to go to that. It has been several months since I got to go. I am excited about the possibility.
Sweet Peas on this cup and saucer.
It is beautiful. My dad used to grow Sweet Peas every year in his garden.  I remember the lattice he would put up and how the sweet peas used to climb up the strings of the lattice, the little tendrils curling around the strings. My dad loved these wonderful flowers and so did I. They had the loveliest perfume and were so beautiful.


My favourite little quilts the mug rug. This one is so very pretty and like a taste of Spring. It appears that the quilting was done first and the tulips appliqued on top of that.



And here are three little mug rugs,  the picture is redwork and not very clear, but the design of the mug rug is appropriate for the small space. Another good idea for mug rugs.
Time out folks. I need to get dinner ready.

By the way I have had 2 persons say they did not get my blogs so I have tried again to send them to the blog page. Hope you get them. If not let me know at nanb@shaw.ca
Thanks for the help.

Have a great evening.

                          









shoofly

Download now as a pdf pattern

Dancing Shoofly





Same block different views.


More repeats, I believe this block is called the Album Block. See the signatures in the middle of the block.

We had a bit  of an outing today. We had to go to the doctor , she said we are both in good shape. Nice to know. I know I feel good so she just confirmed my feeling.

After the doctor visit we went to Safeway to get prescriptions renewed  and to share an egg sandwich and coffee. Well, I had the coffee, Ray only has two in the morning because of his kidneys. Some days he has three. But his tests were great so he is not doing anything too bad.  Then we just came home and did nothing for the rest of the day until supper time. Except I gave myself a manicure.
I played on my laptop for a while then made hot dogs for dinner with sauerkraut. I should say Ray made the hot dogs, I ate them LOL.
There is a small plane down on highway 91, seems the pilot is okay.   Let us hope that is right.  It looks as if the plane did not hit anything but the highway. Lucky. Major traffic disruption as you may have guessed.

I read some of my book this afternoon. I have a lot of books that need reading right now.  I can't quite keep up, but I am trying.  I will catch up eventually.
I want to make some chili tomorrow so I need to get the meat out of the freezer tonight. And check to see if there are red kidney beans, tomato soup and onions. There that is all I need. 

Every evening around this time I have a big sneezing fit. What is that all about?  Just had tonight's fit. Haha.



This is stunning, I wonder how hard it is to make, looks difficult to me.  The colours are amazing and so vibrant.

That is it folks. Have a great evening.

                             Good night!

                                          












Tuesday, April 21, 2015

sign in

Signing in for tonight.  Another quiet day, mostly at home but a little time out.
We had lunch at Tim Horton's but it was not as good as usual. I had mushroom soup which was not very tasty and way too thick. But that's life, it can't all be great.

We went to London Drugs and bought some things. Ray got his bag of jelly beans. He always keeps a jar of them on the coffee table. They are pretty as well as tasty.

I usually buy books or magazines, but I have a backlog of books right now and need to read them before I get some more. I did not read for nearly 6 weeks when I was not feeling well . First time that ever happened. 

Watching the hockey game, it is for the cup. We are not winning , Calgary just got a goal.  Lots of cheering going on there.


This is a cake,  isn't it amazing? It is so funny in my estimation.


Ah more beautiful rows of purple lavender. Lavender fields forever.


Another amazing example fo the quilting art. Whoever could do this astonishing kind of work.


This is so gorgeous despite its name Licorice Twist. Obviously referring to the pattern and not the colours.


Great blocks , not enough yet for a quilt but they will make a lovely one when all the blocks are done.

Time is up folks. 
        Have a great evening.
                                       

                                            Miss Charlotte reading her book.