It`s Rose Marie`s fault

this is one of the beautiful gifts she had for us in a gorgeous gift bag Rose Marie posted the bag all the gifts came in. Thank goodness cause I was so excited I didn`t. It is a perfect Walmart bag for when we go shopping in August.  Rose Marie also gave us the first edition of 100 Blocks by Quiltmaker, to me this is the best edition great blocks to work on. We all loved this cute scrappy sock pattern that will be a good one to work on too, wouldn`t ya know it this was in our bag too
Go back to Rose Marie`s blog today she has posted more and you will have a great quilt show and be very jealous of what we got to explore everyday

I used my dishcloth and loved the size of it for doing dishes

so then I had to try to make one of my own…not as nice I have to wait till Mary (no blog) comes back from London England to show me the finishing. but if you look at my edges something is still not right...or maybe fly back to North Bay...hummmmm...I have a plan (that is for RM)

Knitting is instant gratification perfect for an applique quilter, look I made a slipper too, my DH loved it so I am giving him this pair and then I will make a pair a little smaller for me

I am not feeling well right now (don`t worry just a bug) but as you can see I have something to occupy my brain. I am digging in the scraps so that I can get more baskets ready to applique. Dig a little and then lay back under that quilt, dig a little and then lay back

Rose Marie also made this wonderful beef goulash dish and I remember making it many many years ago, as you can see I have another craving, another easy dish that I an slow cook and dump on a plate when we get hungry.
I just dumped it all in there,  now to wait till it cooks I hope I can smell it!

Memories with

My wonderful quilting buddies

I got to visit Rose Marie and Mary (no blog) last weekend I slept under my favorite of her quilts. It was like being in my own quilting resort you can see more pictures in Rose Marie`s blog

She tried to convince me that she could put the quilt on the bed above for our next visit, ain`t happening. It is lovely but it is not my Kojles that Rose Marie hand stitch and quilted

Look at her spectacular School house quilt, we had all started it but Rose Marie is almost at the finishing point. She designed her block (you can click there and see how)so that the windows on the side had curtains, every block is perfect. A perfect theme quilt to have displayed while we were there. We first saw a quilt like this at the Kingston Quilt show a couple of years ago  I bought 40 dollars worth of tickets and did not win, Rose Marie got us together and Mary and I have to complete ours still

We found strange tracks in the snow, don`t let this picture fool you it was deep, found a couple of bottles of Skinny Girls in there, it was the perfect fridge

Giles would always clean up after us after working in the kitchen for each meal, see how happy he is!! no matter how many dishes we left behind. Thanks Giles!!

Mary`s spot, Rose Marie had the other chair, I had the lazyboy and oh boy did I utilize that chair you will see a picture on Rose Marie`s blog, I couldn`t take a picture of myself

This bag is why I gained almost 3lbs I am sure Mary brought it full of delicious variants of chocolates, at arms length!!

Sunday we prepped this meal for Giles it was is 64th, he had no idea what was happening until the last load of friends and family was coming to the door, it was a surprise! I had to be surly and kick him out of the kitchen cause he was wondering why we were making so much food…

Look at the wonderful cake from Dairy Queen, we all love icecream

Birthday Boy blowing out the candles…It was great fun

Thank you to Rose Marie and Giles for the most fabulous time! will be back soon enough!!

Leaving

On a little adventure

First I had a workshop last Saturday making a weekender bag I got this much done in the class and have not been able to finish it so I will be taking the suitcase.
The class was with 2 lovely ladies from Harebrained Happenings they have wonderful patterns but I have wanted to make this bag for a couple of years. I used only the scraps that I had some fabrics from my strip quilt that my dad has and strips left over from the Giant star quilt. I will make another one of these bags of course, but with a thinner batting I picked one that was a tad too thick, lesson learned.

I was also leafing through some old Quilters Newsletter mags  and found the layout for my baskets that I had received on a swap that I was in a couple of years ago. I have some great alternate fabric to go inbetween the 4 pieced blocks and boarders. This will probably be one project I will bring on one of my other retreats I am going to in the next 2 months.

i am procrastinating right now I want to clean up a bit and think what to pack as you can see my huge Ironing surface is suffering from no space, projects, project ideas, marking items, oops in the corner on the left is my Easy street, can someone please just find me more time!!!
That little filing cabinet is jammed, I mean jammed with patterns I want to get done!

So what to pack, projects or clothes, well as long as I have my toothbrush and warm pj`s I should be okay…I am going to bring my BOAF blocks and Basket blocks, and my Love Letters maybe I can get those all prepped.
I`m leaving on a jet plane, don`t know when I`ll be back again…another song to sing all day!

Love is in the Air

If you know my DH you would be just as surprised, he has only bought me flowers once in the 15 years we have been together, I come home to see these gorgeous Roses.

Love is in the air….everywhere I look around…(appologies to those that won`t be able to get this song out of their head for the rest of the day)

They are just starting to show their centers and I was fortunate that I found the vase (3 sided) they were in at a yard sale a couple of years ago, I usually have my dried hydrangeas in it but they got tossed in a flash.

I have been working on my BOAF block that is 2/3 done and also my baskets as you can see below I have them all appliqued on there is about 25 of them our of 2oo and some odd, and now I am doing the little square in the middle.

I will have to dig in my scrap barrels and get some more baskets cut and ready for travelling.

Next week I will going to Rose Marie`s house with Mary we are flying to North Bay, it is just so exciting! we are counting the moments!

It`s not that I haven`t been quilting

this was the start of our winters day yesturday

This is my first Sally post block love my fabrics, that orange is a Jinny Beyers 1999 that I found in my stash. love it I got to work on this at Irene`s sew day on Tuesday with my friend Mary. Lots of fun and a great lunch.

Birds of a Feather is moving along am working on the first block but halfway done got my doves done though

finishing a UFO hand quilting it, can`t see? here is the back I am doing the borders free hand design since you can`t see the quilting anyways  on the front I don`t want it to be perfect. colors are not just in this photo will try later on once I get the binding on. it is dark in the basement at 500am

Also trying to finish this one below with some hand quilting



Working on the next Love Letters above

Some snow pictures, we got alot more than this by then though I was in the house after all the shovelling

i loved how the snow piled up in our rain gage…almost like a snow cone you get at the midway
Stay safe to you all

Fun

another one prepped (I keep saying I am not a thimbleberries fan, but then I pull out a fabric and read the bottom and it says thimbleberries! how does that happen...the brown background)

and another block prepped. I have them pinned to the design board next picture I post will show ya.
Hope`n to get the applique prepped then it will just be grab and go…I still have to do the piec`n too…
Guild meeting tonight with Kindred Hearts how to keep your sewing machine in top shape, perfect for me cause I am `bout due for  maintenance.

time to shower and get some sleep beef barley soup on the stove...i think I mentioned i love barley

Birds of a Feather started

Well I did a bit of prep and pretty happy so far

Don`t forget there is some piecing that will pull all these together

got on a roll and

got all the way to block 3 prepped and ready

tomorrow after work and then the gym (yes I said gym) I will prep my Sally Post and my next Love Letters. I have the pieces cut just have to pick the fabric…Don`t even think I am going to post of my quilt room right now
Fabric is just piled everywhere but there was still room to have my friend Mary over she is crocheting a lacy scarf with some wonderful wool and she has family visiting. We are flying to Rosemarie`s house at the end of Feb for a couple of days.
It will be great for both of us to get away to our friends retreat, up north in the hopefully by then deep snow.  I will have lots of applique to bring while I am up there.