Has it Really Stopped Snowing?

The sun is out, well its rising with no clouds.  So far.  There is no roads closed.  Strange after being in a snow storm for 4 days.  I forgot what the sun looked like   I’m pretty sure we got an entire seasons worth of snow in the last 4 days…

You would think if there was a blizzard raging outside it would mean lots of sewing time inside…thats what I thought too…unfortunatly things didn’t quite work out that way.  Instead I spent the last 4 days pouring candles, yep, a whole room full of beeswax candles – yum.  Most of them I had done are already spoken for, but I’d like to build up my stock too.

Unfortunately that meant no time for sewing…although I did go into the sewing room a few times (old rotary blades are great for cutting paper!)

I’ve also been doing some purging so have been posting lots of items to give away.  Have you ever been to Kijiji (http://www.kijiji.ca)?  Its a great site where you can post things to give away, and find things too.  Although not too many people ventured out to pick up things the past couple of days…I wonder why :-}

What else…oh I know, back this past Monday we went to a meeting regarding so wind turbines that a company is interested in putting up near by.  Boy, was it a disappointing meeting.  There wasn’t an actual seminar/ talk or anything, basically it was a bunch of information boards posted in a room with a few circulating people you could ask questions to…the thing that really got me was when you asked the tough questions the answer you usually got was – I’m just a consultant, I don’t know – sheesh…if they don’t know so much why are they there?

Well, I would like to try to get some sewing in this weekend – I have a Christmas present I need to sew – so I best be off the computer!

Happy quilting.

This week in Review

Last night was week 3 of the rag quilt class – what a fun class! and all the ladies are doing so well.  Two of them already finished their quilts and there is still one week left!  They still have to clip all the seams, but the sewing is done.  Sure makes me want to buy some more flannel and make another one for myself…they just go together so quickly.

What I have been working on is a new project – go figure   I’m making fish bowls!  I put out an APB to get some fish squares so I have quite the collection now.  So, I think that brings me to 4 projects on the go…

You know, one of the draw backs of driving is having to keep the car drivable.  Two weeks ago I had my snow tires put on, turns out I will need to get new summer tires next year, as one of mine has a warp in it, and of course you can’t buy just one, so at least two it is…then, shortly after having my snows on I notice the one is almost flat!  Turns out it had a siding screw in it…no idea where I picked that up.  Fortunately I took it to the shop and they patched it up.  Sheesh, hopefully that’s all the problems with it.

So I was sitting at my computer this morning getting ready to type up this note and I couldn’t figure out why Ella (the kitty) was so intent on being under my computer.  Well I moved the box that was sitting between my desk and the file cabinet and low and behold a small furry was in there.  I have no idea why there was a field mouse upstairs by my computer, but maybe he was trying to mate with my computer mouse…Of course in behind the filing cabinet he went…

And so did Ella!

I left them for awhile, not wanting to be there when she caught him…which she did…good kitty!

Well I can’t say mouse would be my first choice for a meal, but I do love Falafels.  Yum, the basics of them are ground up chickpeas with cumin.  Mix it all up and then either fry them or bake them.

Oh, remember that homemade pizza I told you about?  Well, while we were making the dough we put some aside and put it in the freezer.  The other day we took it out of the freezer, let it thaw, put it in the toaster oven and tada! we had bread.  It wasn’t a very big loaf, more of a tester, but boy was it good…

Happy Quilting!

A Summary

Was this past weekend the nicest weather or what?  We took the dogs to the bush for a walk…it was enough to have a light jacket on, no mittens or anything.  Plus since it has been cooler there was no bugs…just about perfect.

Remember I told you last week I was going to be teaching a quilting class?  Well all went well…there was 7 students, although one didn’t bring her fabric so there was only 6 cutting and sewing.  Once they got into the swing of things it was smooth sailing.

Some of the fabric they brought in was beautiful stuff…actually there was a sale on at Fabricland so a couple of the ladies brought in similar pieces

One thing I did learn after that class was how to clean and get fabric fibres out of your cutting mat.  Yep, out of it…I think one of the ladies must have been cutting with all her strength as there was fibres ground into the cutting line (her blade was a little dull to so that probably didn’t help).  Anyways to clean it up I first used an eraser…just a general arts and crafts eraser…that got rid
of some of the fibres..then I used some packing tape, made it into a roll and rolled it over the worst parts, picking up even more fibres…Then out came the bucket of warm water with a tiny squeeze of dish soap and a scrubby sponge…oh and some elbow grease…and tada…an almost back to original shape mat!  Now if only I could figure out how to get the warp out of my other
cutting mat (they are right, you shouldn’t leave them in the sun).

I also took some time to myself this weekend and did some sewing…
The fruit and veggie baskets I was telling you about are all done, I just love how quickly they go together.  Spoiler alert for anyone involved in the swap – I’m going to post some pictures of the blocks so if you don’t want to see them…close your eyes for a second 

Grape Baskets

Veggie Baskets

I was also working on a couple of Puss in the Corner blocks…what a great block that is and its always nice when all your corners line up like magic!  Of course they were mailed away and I didn’t remember to take a picture first!  Sheesh…

Now if you are feeling adventurous and want to try some thread painting I was pointed towards this blog and she is doing some tutorials on Christmas themed thread painting…they look so pretty, I just might try some…one day!  Thread Painting I love the poinsettia…It would add some dimension if for the seeds in the center you added beads…

If you are looking for some more inspiration I have heard that some of the quilts here: Japan Show Are fantastic…unfortunately due to dial up restraints I haven’t seen many of them…

Well now that you are all quilted out its time for dinner!  Yum, homemade pizza… I had no idea that making pizza dough was so easy…now we just have to learn to capture the flavour of canned pizza sauce in a home made version…

Happy eating….errr, Quilting

WhooHoo another Thursday!

So, do you have this funny white stuff falling from the sky where you are?  Big huge fluffy flakes are floating slowely from the sky…the first snow is always sort of pretty…by the 400th snow fall its not as pretty anymore…

To top off the pretty factor when I stepped out to take this picture there was a deer running through our neighbours field!  My camera wouldn’t zoom far enough for anything to show except a brown sploch in the distance

The sock quilt top is finished…well mostly anyway, I haven’t decided if I will put a border around it or not…then I need to figure out how to quilt it!

I should get down to the sewing room to start packing…I am teaching a rag quilt class at the local high school and it starts today!  There is apperently 10 people signed up.  I do hope some of them have their own cutting mat and cutter…I only have 3!  I think I will bring the supplies to cut using templates just in case

On the candle making side of the fence we just got a new-to-us wax melter…its huge!  Well, not huge, but still pretty big.  Its about 4′ tall and 2′ around.  Thats a lot of wax!

This past weekend we were doing our fall clean-up outside, we were spreading the last of the mulch we had and found this strange cluster of things…we originally thought they were a fungus, but on further investigation they are eggs…based on the two huge snake skins we also found we are thing they are a clutch of snake eggs!  How neat, helping to increase the snake population

I’m taking a road trip this weekend to Sauble Beach.  Don’t worry I don’t plan on going swimming   There is a craft show there that I will be taking some of my stuff too.  It looks like the Christmas Craft shows have started for another year!

Well I think thats about it for this week…stay warm…

…and happy quilting!

And Then There Was 7…

For the past 2 days I’ve kept the chickens inside…boy they sure aren’t happy with me. I keep telling them its for their own safety, but that doesn’t get me anywhere. Lady #8 got attacked by something earlier this week, without going into details we kind of suspect a large bird of some sort…our chicken graveyard is getting bigger

On to a happier subject…quilting! That blog I was telling you about, well I found it (with some help, Thanks Peggy) Its a neat idea how she takes a picture of her cutting table on Wednesdays to post. Check it out:  Quilting in Cyberspace…I’m sure I would have a number of pictures where the stuff is piled 2 feet high.

Right now I am working on some veggie baskets for a group swap I am participating in…well coordinating actually. The baskets are so quick to put together, only 4 pieces and no seams to match! (oops, kinda sound like an info-mercial I am going to try, again, to put a free pattern on here for you, a pattern of the veggie basket, or you could use fruit fabric and make it a fruit basket.

Another blog I thought worth mentioning was one related to a book I just read. The book was called ‘No Impact Man’ and was about a New Yorker who took it upon him self to live for a year without having any impact on the environment. Well he did have a small impact so he made sure to do some positive impact to counteract the negative impact. The blog is here: noimpactman.typepad.com/, although if you are on dial-up, like me, be prepared to wait awhile for it to load. The book was nice since it actually contained information and wasn’t just another book about someone writing about some “stunt” of going green for a year. The actual printing of the book was even thought out, a lot of the ’save the planet’ books are printed on overbleached paper that was probably made from trees harvested from endangered forests (ok, maybe they aren’t that bad), but this book certainly takes the printing process into consideration. Although a very eco-friendly way to release it would have been electronically…oh well, can’t win them all I guess.

Alright here goes trying to post the information for the basket pattern.

Happy quilting!

A Day of Learning…

Well this is interesting…I’m typing, but I can’t actually see what I am typing. I presume it is a glitch in the blogging program as I can see everything else, just not the “body” of my message…I can still even see the squiggly red lines when I’ve made a spelling error…thankful for that

I guess I will see how good my touch typing is…please bare with me if somethings don’t make sense !

I spent the day in Walkerton today. There was a seminar there about how to market your business…or atleast different ideas

to choose from. It was neat to get some different perspective on how other businesses advertise so people can find them. A number of the ladies I met today (it was a ladies only seminar) had websites so I will add them to my Links page. You just never know when you might be looking for the widget that person makes

Well, we did it. Remeber that giant egg I was telling you about? We decided not to wait for Guiness World Records to come see it and just eat it… the drum roll as we get ready to crack it (it seems to look much smaller in giant ‘man hands’)…

…and tada!

What?! only 2 yolks. I thought for sure this had to be a 3 yolker…oh well, one day…I didn’t get to have any of it, but it apperently tasted like any other egg.  Don’t you just love my ’70s bowls?

I recently came across this great blog that I wanted to share with you, but do you think I can find it again? I was a quilter who once a week would take a picture so show what was on her work table…I need to go through the rest of my bookmarks to see if its there…

Happy Quilting!

Scarecrows, eggs and the other thing

This past weekend was the 4th annual scarecrow festival in Clinton, On.  What a neat event. There are 4 different areas in the town where there is activities and such.  Of course the best part is the scarecrow contest…there was some pretty neat ones made…one even had a fish bowl head!  My overall favorite was the sunflower one…I think it won one of the prizes, but don’t remember what.As for the egg, while I went to gather eggs the other day and there was an egg in there that took up almost half the box! Ok, it wasn’t really that big, but it was pretty huge.  I took a bunch of pictures, maybe its the largest egg laid in Canada…I think the Guiness record was about 200g, mine (my chickens) was only 122g… bet that hurt :-}

Yep, 3″ long

It doesn’t even fit in the egg carton

There has also been some fabric playing going on.  I was part of a swap, were we each made the same cat pattern block, sent them to our hostess and received one from each of the other members back.  I don’t know what I will do with them, but they are too cute!

..here kitty kitty…

I’ve also been working on my sock blocks. I have 19 of them finished with one in the works.  Thats all the blocks and all the socks I have so it might be time to sew them together.

Happy Quilting!

Apple Saucing…yum…

We have a number of apple trees on the property that grow really great apples.  Since we didn’t have much of a harvest last year we decided to take advantage of the abundant amount of apples this year and make apple sauce. Yum.  We have the niftiest little machine to do this…The Saucer

We had lots of apples, so into the sink to wash first…

Apple bobbing anyone?

Then once they are washed, we sliced them up and into a pot to turn to mush.

Into the Pot

Once the apples are soft its into The Saucer.  The sauce squashes out one part and the rest of the goop (peels, seeds, stems) comes out the other.

The Goop

The ladies really like the goop…no part gone to waste

Buffet of Goop

Then magically there is jars of sauce!

Okay, it took a bit more work, but that wouldn’t make for the most exciting blog.

The Sauce

We also put aside some of the larger apples to slice and put into the freezer.  Some of them were as large as some you buy at the grocery store…actually I’ve bought smaller ones…

Full Size Apples

I can’t wait to eat the sauce, yum…although I guess we should finish up the sauce from 2007 first…

Happy Quilting!

Unlaborous Labor Day

What a great long weekend, even if I did work Saturday so it was a short long weekend.

They call it Labour Day, but I really did very little labouring.  Just the bare minimums.  I did some relaxing on the beach in the sun, enjoyed reading a book and did some sewing.

The book was the newest Janet Evanovich novel – Finger Lickin’ Fifteen.   What a great book, they always make me laugh.  Janet has a great sense of humour writing them.  If you are ever looking for an easy read and want a laugh I would definitely suggest one of the Stephanie Plum number books.

As for sewing I was working on some socks…no not darning socks, rather appliqueing socks…odd?  ya, slightly, but fun

Sock Blocks

Also got to watch Magnum play with a duck…actually I think the duck was playing with Magnum   Thats about as far as I’ve ever seen him go.

Playing with Ducks

Hope you all had a nice relaxing weekend too.

Happy Quilting!

Thats Some Fire

I just got word that there is a huge fire over in Markdale at the Chapman’s Ice Cream plant…smoked ice cream, anyone?

I do hope no one was hurt, so far the new releases are pretty vague about what happened.

The fire must be pretty huge as I can see if from the back porch and we are about 11 m away from Markdale.

Sheesh, and just 2 weeks after that tornado went through too.  Although it wasn’t mentioned as much on the news as Durham they still got a beating in Markdale too.

Well, I guess I should stop watching the smoke and get back to work.

Happy Quilting