After the game

The laneway is empty, the kids are gone home and the soccer ball is left behind.

    Photos are taken with a Nikon D90 and a 40mm lens.

Serious goalkeeper - my border collie Skip.

Inspiration

I got my inspiration from this:

I love wooden blocks, specially these ones with a nautical look. I have a whole wire basket full of them to arrange them in different patterns.
For a Christmas gift I had great ambitions to make a lap quilt with HST's. I didn't know how much time it takes to sew, cut, iron and assemble the rows for the flying geese pattern - one of my favourites.

I decided to make a very small quilt - like a picture you hang up on the wall.

I just have to finish the binding but these 3 little rows took me forever to sew. Sometime you have to acknowledge to yourself to take a break from the sewing machine.

Early mornings at the cottage

There is nothing more beautiful to see the sunlight hitting the corner of my shed, blush rosebuds , dew on leaves and the soft silk of the milkweed pods.

Upcycling ideas for the holidays

It's never too early to start with self made presents and even better canadian made. Oh yah! Roots ( a true Canadian store) has their shopping bags this season with a grey/red knit image. If you kindly ask they are happy to give you one.
I took the larger shopping bag to cut two panels 9"x14" to make a zipper bag. For the lining I used the red monkey print.

Fuzzy cut three monkeys and hand sew the fabric on the hexagon shapes. Machine sew it on the front panel of the zipper bag .

There are several tutorials for zipper bags on-line . I matched the bag with a red zipper and topstitched.
The lining gets a clean edge with a serger.

If you are very ambitious make your own sock monkey or stuff it the original pair of Rockford Red Heel Socks.

Feeling better again...

At the end of the week even my dog Skip looks forward to run up north. Everything was fine but on Saturday night she acted very restless going out through the front door and coming in through the back door. I knew something was off but I couldn't read her mind. The next day I knew something was very wrong with her, she was lying in her favourite spot and breathing very rapidly and getting up with an arched back I know she was in pain.

We took her to our vet and the blood test showed that she had pancreatitis, an inflammation of the organ which is life threatening and has to be treated immediately. Administration of the medication wasn't easy and I had to get creative  with my border collie. So we had birthday cakes every 8 hours, spiked with little dried liver pieces. It paid off and we are taking her for short walks. I am so happy to see her eating again and waiting at the door to go for a walk.

Hexagon craze!

I have been to a few quilt shows and seeing a grandma's garden quilt I thought one day I will start....
The one day started last week and my first 100 hexagons are nicely stacked in a tray. Will this be a two year project??? I remember reading the labeled quilts at show "2500 pieces/ hand sewn/ 1994-1998" .
Hexagons are everywhere, even my xmas light I put up this weekend had this bokeh effect.

One of my favorite places to shop for small print fabric is bee modern fabrics in Niagara-on-the lake, Ontario.

There are different methods how to approach the production of a large number of hexagons. You need patients and many evenings in front of a fireplace. There is the freezer paper method, inexpensive and lots of prep-work to make the shapes, the other one is to download the pattern and print it out on a heavier text stock, but you have to cut each one out by hand. I am ordering my shapes online from Paper Pieces here. You safe time and instead of sewing I am dabbing water soluble fabric glue at the corners. 

This granny quilt will have a fresh look and might be ready in 2013!

Day 3 Sue Spargo

I am a little bit behind with my posts because ran out of space on blogger. Here is our group shot with Jocelyn , the owner of Stitch and Sue Spargo.

Valdani thread

working on my bird

Sue's work