Bunnies are ready to leave the burrow

I have surprised myself by finishing the March blocks for the cottage swap before the end of February.  Here are the twelve blocks laid out and ready to be mailed across the country.  Now all I need to do is find the addresses.   The block was not that difficult, I  wish I would have read the instructions to the end.  The topsy- turvy triangle borders gave me a bit of worry, especially where they narrowed.  At the end of the patterns. there is a reference to Lynn D who made her borders wider, then cut the blocks down to the 9.5 size.  I read this when I had three blocks left, and found it much easier with the wider border.

My March block was number eleven in the 12 block swap.  I seriously need to decide how to put the blocks together in a quilt.  Here is a gallery of completed quilts.  Which one do you like best?

Didn`t get a t-shirt

Andrea and Ron have been speaking at Word Press camps (Chicago, New York) while I stay home and babysit the girls.  Andrea promised to bring back  a t-shirt for me as proof that she was at the conference  and not just spending a weekend holed up at a hotel with her husband.  Here`s proof she really did attend the Wor d Press Camp.  To hear my wonderfully intelligent daughter go here!

I`m one proud mama, even if I didn`t get a t-shirt!

How a sewing machine works – how cool is this?

Still sewing the blues

Each day the sun sets a bit later,  providing me with a few more minutes of natural light for  sewing.  I prefer natural light, especially when  cutting fabric.  This by far has been the easiest quilt yet, once all the rectangles, brick and binding were cut.

My daughter calls me the `the queen of borders`, and this quilt will be no exception.   I plan to sew a white 2.5 inch border along the main body of the quilt, then a border of small bricks, then a 1.5 inch border of navy, followed by a larger border of dark blue fabric.  The binding will be multi coloured made from strips of each fabric in the quilt.  It is an excellent stash buster.  I am seriously thinking of making the same pattern in shades of green.   If I enjoy a quilt, it is not unusual to make the same patterns two or three times.

I like a quilt that hangs down over the bed, at both ends and the sides.  There shouldn`t be any problem with this quilt covering a queen sized bed generously.

The last few days have been extremely cold in the Maritimes, .  At 5:10 this morning it was minus 25 degrees, This afternoon it is a balmy minus 10.   Bring on the sunscreen.

Happy Ground Hog Day!

Today is my DH`s favourite holiday.   There is no religious significance, no present giving, no decorations to gather, no dumb songs playing endlessly on the radio.   It is just one wonderful day celebrating the lowly whistle pig!  The only sad part is kitty and I are celebrating on our own this year, as DH is off on a job site.    Tomorrow Win and I are going out for supper to celebrate the day.  After all,  it is only right that she spends the holiday with her family.

According to environment Canada, we are in for below normal temperatures for the months of February, March and April.   Maybe the ground hog has it right! Show your head for one day, then burrow back into your warm home for six more weeks of sleep.  Sounds like a plan to me.

To you and yours, Happy Ground Hog Day!

Aprons

My friend Bridget sent this.  Brought back a few memories.

Remember making an apron in Home Ec.? I don’t think our kids know what an apron is.

The principal use of Grandma’s apron was to protect the dress underneath,because she only had a few,it was easier to wash aprons than dresses and they used less material, but along with that, it served as a potholder for removing hot pans from the oven.

It was wonderful for drying children’s tears, and on occasion was even used for cleaning out dirty ears.

From the chicken coop, the apron was used for carrying eggs, fussy chicks, and sometimes half-hatched eggs to be finished in the warming oven.

When company came, those aprons were ideal hiding places for shy kids.

And when the weather was cold grandma wrapped it around her arms.

Those big old aprons wiped many a perspiring brow,bent over the hot wood stove.

Chips and kindling wood were brought into the kitchen in that apron.

From the garden, it carried all sorts of vegetables. After the peas had been shelled, it carried out the hulls.
In the fall, the apron was used to bring in apples that had fallen from the trees.

When unexpected company drove up the road, it was surprising how much furniture that old apron could dust in a matter of seconds.

When dinner was ready, Grandma walked out onto the porch, waved her apron, and the menfolks knew it was time to come in from the fields to dinner.

It will be a long time before someone invents something that will replace that ‘old-time apron’ that served so many purposes.

Grandma used to set her hot baked apple pies on the window sill to cool. Her granddaughters set theirs on the window sill to thaw.

They would go crazy now trying to figure out how many germs were on that apron. I don’t think I ever caught anything from an apron.

I love a bargain

During the summer months, I spend Saturday mornings going to yard sales.  Best selling books from 2 years ago I buy at the Great Canadian Dollars store for $3.00.  When I finish reading these, I trade them at Reads in Fredericton towards other books.   Most of my clothing comes from Value Village or other type of reassigned clothing stores.  I shop for the best price and rarely buy anything that has not been discounted.  Groceries shopping is no exception.    Today was an exceptionally  good discount day at the local Sobeys, including 10x the Air mile points on orders over $50.00.

I am a big fan of the Europe`s Best Frozen Fruit and vegetables line, especially the frozen raspberries.   This past summer I found coupons for $2.00 off a bag of frozen fruit.   This morning I came across a coupon for a free bag of vegetables with every purchase of two bags of frozen fruit.   Not only did I get a bag of vegetables free, I also received $2.00 off each bag of fruit I purchased.  For a total of $12.00, I purchased $27.00 in frozen fruits and vegetables.   I prefer fresh fruit and vegetables, but during the cold months of winter frozen taste better than  produce trucked in from California.  Besides deep dish berry pie or Pavlova will help warm these dark winter days.

My china collection

Remember the blue and white china dish fabric I showed a few weeks back?  Here is the same dish pattern in a brand new style.  The dress is entitled `Memories of Beijing`.  Talk about recycling.

I`ve been saving my broken dishes to make a collage, never thought of a dress.

To see more of the artist`s work, go here

Another good blue day

The nurse visited to change Sarah`s dressing and will do so every day until she is well again.  Andrea sees a huge improvement  in Sarah since yesterday so my granddaughter  is on the mend.   Sarah was on Facebook and twitter today, which is a sure sign life is getting back to normal.

Keeping with the blue theme of my blog this week, my lovely daughter gave me these blue vintage treasures  as a Christmas gift.

Mind you only after I emailed her and begged her to put these lovely on her PayPal account as I could not remember by password.

I had been searching for turquoise beads for awhile so when I found these glass beads  in Whitebird Design Esty shop, I was very happy.  The lot consisted of a35″ continuous strand of small faux pearls in a pretty light blue.
a vintage 16″ strand of turquoise blue round glass beads.
a dainty 15″ sterling and blue bead necklace with a small 5/8″ matching pendant.
a little 1″ long scotty dog pin; goldtone with light blue enamel and a tiny blue rhinestone eye,
and an assortment of buttons and bead.

Having such lovely blues makes me happy!

Sarah

My grand-daughter visited the doctor today to have the staples removed from her incision.  Unfortunately the doctor discovered an infection so Sarah will continue to recuperate at her mom`s for awhile longer.   Starting tomorrow a nurse will visit to dress her incision.

With a round of antibiotics and Andrea`s care, Sarah should be right in no time.  Other than the occasional cold, Sarah has not been sick before.  So this is quite concerning for our family.  Good wishes and prayers sent her way would certainly be appreciated.