Blog break and Miss Hank

I'll be taking a break from blogging and will return in the New Year.  There is just too much going on in my life right now and not much sewing.

Before, I go ... here is just a sneak of my progress with my Angles and Squares top. There is a navy blue border still to be sewn on, but this is it for now.  I'm very pleased with the way this has turned out. 

 

Here is a tip for those of you wanting to have your stripes going the same way (excuse my blurry shot)  for each HST block ....

 

When marking your blocks for HST, just have your lines drawn as shown below (on the cream squares). 

For those of you wondering about the status of Miss Hank .... well, I think this photo speaks for itself!  Miss Hank is back to being the dominant kittie and has put Miss Ashes back in her place with just a stare.

We still need to keep an eye on Miss Hank for any relapses and she will be going back to the vet's for tests in the new year.  Her fur is starting to have a beautiful shine once again.

Have a great day!

Miss Hank

We nearly lost Miss Hank to acute kidney failure.  She has responded to treatment and her levels are almost back to normal (they were off the chart before).  She is on a special diet for the next 6 weeks to make sure her kidneys are functioning OK.  The cause ..... she probably ate some lily plants that were growing outdoors and lily plants are very toxic to cats.

 

In this photo (taken last year), her fur is beautiful .... not right now it isn't.  She still has a way to go before recovering.  When we brought her to the cat hospital, the vet didn't have much faith for her to pull through.  Well, Miss Hank surprised everyone there.  Let's hope that she does well with this new diet and return to being the adorable, playful cat that she is.

 

To all my American friends, have a Happy Thanksgiving.

Coming along well ....

My Angles and Squares top is really starting to take shape.  I just need to make a few more star blocks and finish sewing everything together.  I'm still tweaking the block placements as I go along.  Since taking this photo, blocks got moved around and they will move again. 

For the stars, I tried using just one colour, but they just didn't sing .... so the red and blue stars will stay.  The borders will pick up those same colours to help calm the middle section and give the eye a place to rest.  Oh yes, I am very happy with this layout.

This project was started Oct. 17 .... can I get it to the top stage within a month of starting?  This is not normal for me to be this quick, so we will see .....

Have a great day!

Got Dots

All my Got Dots blocks are done and the time has come to put them up on my design wall and start the sewing together process to bring this to a partial flimsy.

There are two ideas going through my head for the borders and I have to decide which one it will be.  I'll talk more about that later.

As you can tell, more than one project gets worked on over the course of a week.  Unfortunately, I just get too bored to stay focused on just one project or UFO for any length of time; hence the reason for lots of UFO's.  Oh well, that is life and the main thing is .... I'm having fun! :o)

At least, I'm working on my UFO's and that is a good thing!  :o)

Have a great day! 

Angles and Squares

Last month, I joined the Near North Quilting Guild here in North Bay and signed up for two classes with Heather Stewart (who was the guest teacher).  Angles and Squares was one of the classes and we learned a short-cut for making this block.  You can go here to read Heather's post about her time at our guild.  Heather is a fantastic teacher and I truly learned so much from her and have incorporated many of her tips ..... except for pinning.  What can I say, I'm the queen of pinning and quilting is just not comfortable without my straight pins.  :o)

Heather did ask us to be creative with our layout and that is what I am aiming for.  This layout is OK but it needed something more.

 

What about the addition of some stars.  I couldn't decide on red or blue stars and may just go with the two colours. 

 

Can you see what I'm doing with the striped fabric?  This will make it more interesting instead of having the stripes going all the same way.

We'll see if it stays like this or those stars get taken out.  That is all part of the creative process.  Playing around with the 'what if ' ideas.

 

I will be posting about the other class that I took from Heather.  Log Cabin Chevrons and I tell you, log cabin blocks and I do not get along well.  But that is another story for another day.

 

Have a great day!

Aussie visit

We had such a lovely visit with our Australian friends, Jennifer and Kevin.  They stayed with us for seven days of fun, laughter, talking, eating, drinking, etc.  It was our goal to have them experience our lifestyle here in the near north part of Ontario and to do things that they have never done before.

Be forewarned .... this post has a lot of photos!  We spaced out our activities during their visit with some down time so that we weren't tired out.  When looking at the photos, no, we didn't do all of this in one day.  :o)

Our kitchen table was the gathering place for many meals and hours spent with the four of us having heaps of fun.   Here, Jennifer and Kevin are raising their glass of cheer.

Jennifer and I exchanged gifts and this is what she gave to me.  See that bit of ribbon at the top .... that was Miss Ashes and Miss Hank's gift and what fun they had playing with it.  Thank you, Jennifer, for my lovely gifts!

After our first supper, we all bravely climbed the hill in our backyard to take in the city view and the sunset.  That was the last day of sun (during their visit) that we had before Hurricane Sandy came ashore.  We were OK as North Bay was far inland; but we did get rain and some wind.

A city tour brought us to the shores of Lake Nipissing where Jennifer had to dip her hands into the cool water.  That is me in the middle.

We went to a local church bazaar where we bought some local crafts and pastries and tried our luck at a penny sale (with no luck).

We drove to Sturgeon Falls one afternoon and pulled into a look-out to have a better view of Lake Nipissing.

 We did a corn maze at Leisure Farms in Sturgeon Falls.  It was amazing to do!  :o)

Anyone for some TV Bingo?  Our local TV station has two nights where we can play bingo and it was just luck that Jennifer and Kevin were here for one of those nights.  Was anyone lucky?

Yes!  Jennifer won $75.00.  Later that night, a member of Lion's Club dropped off her cheque and graciously posed for photos.

Since North Bay is so close to the province of Quebec .... well, we just had to go there for a drive.  Jennifer got to practise her French that she learned in school when she was a wee tot.  We bought some French liqueur that has maple syrup in it and stayed for coffee and cake at a local restaurant in Temiskaming, Quebec.

It was raining, but we took a little walk along the Ottawa River which separates the province of Ontario and Quebec.

Lunch one day at Average Joe's restaurant on Trout Lake in North Bay was lovely.  It was their treat to hubby and I.

Since Jennifer and Kevin have never done Halloween before, we purchased some pumpkins when we were at Leisure Farms.  Here, we are all taking turns carving the pumpkin.

It rained Halloween night and we didn't have many kiddies come to the door.  We all took turns at shelling out.

My sister and niece dropped by later in the evening to bring us dessert and stay for a visit.

Every day, Kevin would sit at our kitchen table and look out our patio door to see if he would be lucky to spot a bear or a deer.  On their last day here, we were just finishing eating dessert when Kevin spotted a deer.  We were so thrilled to see the deer (three in total).   If they had left earlier in the day, they would have missed this sighting.

And, if they had just stayed just one more day ... they would have woken up to snow on the ground, this morning!

Jennifer and Kevin ... you are more than welcome to come back and visit us any time!

A few of you are probably wondering how we first met?  It was back in 2009 when there was a bad bush fire in Australia and I had made some quilts blocks and a quilt top for donation to the victims of that fire.  Emails went back and forth and we met up in Toronto (we were living there at the time) in 2009 when Jennifer and Kevin were visiting their son and the rest is history.

Have a great day!