My friend Judy and I have been busy the last few months making a Sampler quilt. We now have our blocks done and are ready to put it together. She finds making quilts a challenge where I like nothing better than making quilts but she can make doll clothes, kids clothes etc with no problem which I don't enjoy at all. She is also a beautiful hand quilter and loves doing that. I also am a very good quilter but hate doing it. It's funny what one enjoys doing. She has come a long way in making quilts.

I was to her house today helping her on some projects. We made this designing wall and here are her blocks. Hers will be black, red and white.  Its hard to see the colours against the blue table cloth. We scrounged around in her basement and found a extension rod that fit between her closet doors. It worked perfectly.  When it is not in use she can take it down and roll up. She bought a $5.00 table cloth with a felt back. It worked great. 

My designing wall is behind my sewing machine which makes it hard to reach the top. I have to use a step ladder to get the top blocks on. Not very safe. So next trip to town I will be picking up a rod also and moving mine. My blocks have a blue design. I am missing one in the picture but I have it. It's hard to believe that we can make the same blocks but both quilts will look so different when put together.

I finishing machine quilting a quilt for my mother. It tuned out really well. It was quite a large quilt and I didn't even get any wrinkles in the back. Yea. 

Now that the Weather is getting nice I plan on spending an hour a day doing some gardening and hope to have it all finished by the time the camp ground opens June 3rd. It's a little latter this year but that's OK. Gives me more time to get things done here. 

I think we are all ready for some nice weather. 

. 

I am back from my  trip to Baltimore. There are so many beautiful museums there. My friend Marjorie from Marjories Busy Corner and me did a couple. These quilts are at the Maryland Historical Society. We also went to the Walters Art Museum.  If anyone gets a chance they should visit. We enjoyed them 

We also lucked out and found some ladies on our cruise that was having a quilters retreat in one of the conference rooms. We had so much fun stopping in for a visit and they were all so nice. There was between 25 and 30 ladies from around West Virginia.

There was a few with these featherweight sewing machines so I got a chance to ask some questions. I hope I can find one. I find it hard to lug mine around because they are so heavy.  This would be so perfect to take to my sewing get togethers.  We came away with some good ideas and they were always ready for a chat. 

Marjorie and I had a great time other than my back problems. I wouldn't be taking the beds home. Made a few trips to the ships doctor. Marjorie was a great nurse. I got to the first two Islands but didn't get to the next two. At least I have been there before. The first two was the ones I wanted to get to. 

Baltimore magnolias came in bloom while we were on the cruise. We were there before we left and again after. Such a beautiful and fragranced flower. Love this city. Inner Harbour  was so nice walking around. 

A lot of memories made on this trip. Once I get my back feeling better back to the sewing room. After I clean house I guess. We will see which one I visit first. 

Birthday Gifts

It is raining cats and dogs here right now. We just got back from Moncton just in time. Trying to find groceries for my husband to cook for himself while I am away on a cruise for two weeks. My friend Marjorie from Marjories Busy Corner is going with me. Her first cruise. I think she is excited. My husband and I love cruising but with health conditions he is not able to go. I am torn about going without him but I know Marjorie and I will have a great time. 

Here are a couple of runners that I made for birthday gifts.  I love these patterns. They are My Runners by Disa Designs. I love her books. I made two of these tulip runners. One for my mother for Mother's Day. 

I have one more to make. I am doing the one with sun flowers next. I hope to do it tomorrow. My husband is going on a road trip with a friend tomorrow to look at a set of oxen's. It will be good for him to get out. We have another funeral today. This is the third one in the last week. It has been a hard winter for older people. 

Well my bags are all packed for my trip next week so will just do a little puttering until then. 

Happy Valentines

A very cold but beautiful day here. Hope everyone is having a great Valentines. My husband bought me home these beautiful flowers and I brought him home a Dairy Queen Valentine heart cake.

They are so pretty.  Nice to have flowers on a cold day.

I also finished this table runner. A fun piece to make. I have another one cut out to work on this afternoon while my husband is at the rink.

This is the material I had left from my curtains that I did for my rec room. Enough to make a table cloth for this corner of the rec room. There was no waste to this material.

This is what I got accomplished this week besides cleaning out cupboard's. Two big garbage bags full. Where does all the junk come from?

A beautiful winter storm which made everything so pretty.  I had my three grandchildren down for the night, Sara, James and Owen. We had a great time. Of course Sara and I did crafts played cards and watching a few episodes  of  Last Man Standing. Sara likes Tim Allen.  Here is Sara with a couple of her projects.

Sara made this beautiful table runner for her mother for Valentines day. A pattern from SewCanShe. I changed it a little for her to make it easier. She appliqued the hearts on.

Sara helped me to make this candle holder that I saw on Pinterest. So cute and looks perfect on my mantel.
The  boys loved the new rec  room and Netflix. They watched TV, played games and had a lot of  laughts.

They look pretty comfy. They didn't spend the night as they had hockey pretty early this morning.

Now to pick James up at the rink and take Sara and James to racquetball.  I haven't seen them play yet so will stay and watch them. A nice weekend.

My new room

I wanted to share a few pictures of the renovations of my reck room. It is a room that I have wanted to redo for years.  They give it a good name, "reck room" because it was a reck. I am so happy how it turned out. I have had a lot of years picturing how it was to look and I must say it turned out that way.
I just need a TV so my grandchildren will have a place to watch Netflixs and my grandsons favorite You Tube Mindcraft. Right now they sit in my bed and sometimes when I go to bed there are a few crumbs.LOL but I love them anyway.

The TV will go on the mantel when we get one to put there.

My Christmas present to myself. Everyone should always buy themselves a Christmas present. It is so pretty especially at night. It will have colors that show up blue, red and yellow. So pretty.

I love how the curtains turned out. My first time putting grommets on. Very easy once I got the spacing right. I ended up with over a meter of material left. There was no waste. I will have enough for a couple of small pillows. My big luxury. The material was not cheap, but I love them.

Now that the room is done I am suffering. Really bad pain in my shoulders and upper back now,  today it has worked into a headache. Can hardly move. It was worth it though.  I have a massage booked for Monday afternoon. I have a sewing day with a group of ladies Monday morning. I don't think I will take my sewing machine. Can't seem to lift much right at the moment.  I am sure I will find something to work on. Looks like a good day to take my cross stitch.

Next week it will be time to get back to the sewing room and finish some projects that I have started over Chriatmas. A friend wanted to do a sampler quilt which we work on on Tuesday afternoons. We now have six blocks done and all the borders and binding cut out. I am also working on a scrap quilt which is coming along well. Here is a picture of the top half. The bottom half will have five rows of blocks.

I love it. My box of 1 1/2" and 1" strip was over flowing.  Also finishing up on a couple of other things also. My granddaughter was over and found a pattern for a handbag on crafty that I printed off for us to make the next time she comes down. I will need time to study that one. There was quite a few pages. Next time I better pay attention to what she picks out.

We had a beautiful snowy day yesterday. It is so clean and freah. A good day to rest the shoulders. It's hard for me to sit still but I need to. Can't wait for that massage on Monday.

So I hope everyone is having a wonderful day.

I hope everyone had a very nice Christmas. We had a great Christmas. It went by really fast as usual. I had my Christmas dinner for nineteen on Christmas eve. My best friend from Ontario was home and was able to join us. Her mother and sister and family joined us also. So many laughs. It was a great night. I always
look forward to her gift of a snowbabies. This year was  called Heavenly Chorus. So very pretty.

I am getting quiet a collection. She thinks they should end. I suppose she is right. But I do enjoy them.  Here is my collection.

So hard to get a good picture. 

Boxing day and the pot of turkey soup is on. My husband has the flue so has been in bed most of the day so I headed back to the sewing room. We are also babysitting our sons black lab, Jake. We went out for a nice walk and also went for a nice walk with a friend. The weather has been so nice this Christmas. Looks like it might change tomorrow. Not sure what we are getting but it is that time of year. 

I was not sure what to work on so decided before Christmas to dig into my boxes of scrapes and an old telephone book. 

Also these pieces that are left over from other projects and also 6 meters of black. I wonder what it will be. 

This is a great project to work on without really having to think. I have a few blocks done and it is going to be very pretty. 

Looking forward to 2016 and all the new challenges out there. 

Merry Christmas evryone.

I have a whole week left before Christmas and probably this is the first time since I have been married that I have all my gifts done, wrapped and sitting here wondering what I should do. A whole week that I can do anything I want.  I wonder what I should work on.

Here is the last gift I had to make. A runner from Connecting Threads for my mother. She should like this.

So pretty.

We now have snow on the ground so it is starting to look a lot like Christmas. My friend Marjorie was up for a visit and had a hard time getting out of my driveway. It is that time of the year.

My granddughter  Sara will be coming Monday night and will stay until Christmas day. We will have so much fun baking
Christmas cookies, pies, cheesecake and our Christmas dinner for Christmas Eve. I am hoping that my other granddaughter Lauren will be able to join us in the preparation.  They helped me last year and it sure made Christmas.

Hope everyone has a great Christmas.

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas  from my home to yours.

So very pleased to have these finished. I love the Shepard Bush patterns. They make such a nice size Christmas sock. These are for my son's family who lost their home over a year ago. I hope they like them. 

I just have one more Christmas gift to finish and I just have to machine quilt it. Then I need to do some wrapping.  It's hard to believe that in two weeks Christmas will be over  with.

I also made eight dozen peanut butter balls today and made a batch of almond bark. A good start on my Christmas cooking.  

Our Christmas concert at our church was tonight. It went very well. The kids love saying their pieces and exchanging gifts.

Christmas Post Card

I received a beautiful Christmas post card from a very talented lady in Australia.  Thank you Maria. I learned so much from yours. The one I sent you was my first card. I will do better next year.

Here is my card from Maria.

It looks so pretty in my tree. I won't post the one I sent incase Maria hasn't received hers yet. 

Is everyone almost ready for Christmas. Almost done here. Just a few things to finish up. Tomorrow a group of us ladies will be meeting for a day of sewing. I have two projects to take with me. I hope to finished them and there will be three more gifts done. I always seem to sew right up to Christmas. But that is the fun of it. 

Maple Sugar Quilt

Another finish. This could be one of my favorites.  The colors are so pretty in this little lap quilt. It is a quilt kit from Connecting Threads called Maple Sugar.

Now that the Christmas movies have started and the Christmas music is playing
it's  time to start getting my gifts ready. This is one for my mother n law. This is one of her favorite blocks the bear paw. It should look nice on the back of her couch.

We had another sewing day at a local church yesterday and had a great time. Lots of ideas and lots of laughts. There was ten of us there. Working on a Christmas wall hanging called TheTwisted Christmas tree. Will have some pictures when I get it finished.

Today was such a beautiful day. Just like summer. Maybe I slept ed through winter and summer is here again. No such luck. We will take all the nice days we get. I really enjoyed my walk today. I also have my grand son for the night. His older sister made the high school basketball team and they won their first game. I knew I should have went. Next time.

The Lil' Twister

This is the project I was working on this afternoon. The larger one is a wall hanging but I think I will use it as a table topper for a center piece. Someone gave me a beautiful bowl and red candle last year for christmas that will look really nice with it.
 The smaller one is the left over material of the larger one which will be a nice mug rug. After you cut out the squares on the big one there is smaller squares that just needs a little trimming. I sewed it on a smaller scale than the 1/4" seam. My needle is at 2.5 for the 1/4" and I put the needle at 3 to give me a better fit for the smaller one.
This is the ruler that I used called the Lil' Twister tool. It is 3 1/2" and the smaller tool is 1 1/2.

As you can see the line on it is at an angle and that is what gives it the twist.

A fun project to do on a rainy afternoon. I recommend  this project. Now I have a pattern to make a Christmas tree. Can't wait. Just need to visit the material shop tomorrow on my way to PEI.