January Challenge .... Tick!

Well, my friend (no-blog Mary) and I have completed the January binding challenge!  Wooo hoooo!

My quilt is bound, label and sleeve on ..... DONE!

This is not the best photo, but it will have to do for now.  Next month, all my red/neutral quilts will be on display and hopefully, that will be a good time to take a decent photo.   The quilt has been hung onto my curtain hiding my stash.  We won't talk about that!  LOL

 

This is no-blog Mary's quilt.  Let the heavens open up and let the angels sing "hallelujah".  Well done, Mary!

We have chosen our February quilts, but that will be on another post.

I've been busy on other matters.  Like, sewing a removable nursing cover and cushions for a rocking chair.  There is a new nephew coming and I did my contribution for the nursery.

Cherish your day, cherish your life!

Blog Book

Next month, I will have been blogging for 15 yrs.  Fifteen years!  Holy cow!  How much longer will I blog?  Time will only tell ....

In the meantime, it was time to get around to publishing my blog posts into book form.  I'm using Blog2Print and surprise, surprise, it is very easy to do.  This is my first book.  This past year was chosen so that I could see the quality, etc.  Very happy with it.  So happy, that an additional two more books have been ordered. 

It has been interesting and bittersweet to go back through the years and read my posts.

I really do miss these two furry girls.  Miss Hank and Miss Ashes.  What joy they brought to us and I had so much fun showing them off to the world with their antics.  They were the best of companions and they so loved to help me quilt.  Yes, bittersweet, but good memories.

When it was time to play, Miss Hank would stick her head into the toy bucket and choose the perfect toy for me to play with her.

Miss Ashes loved to pose and then make herself comfy for sleeping.  Fun years.

Going through the years, there were about 50 posts that I did have to go back into and adjust by removing the function of Read More.  It took a bit of thinking but I was finally able to figure out what had to be done to remove that function so that when those posts are submitted to Blog2Print the whole post will be picked up and printed.  So, if you get notifications from me for posts back in 2013 and 2014 that is the explanation.

We are now in the middle of winter.  Snow and very cold weather.  The temperatures are crazy.  Yesterday afternoon it was 2C then overnight it went down to -28C.  Such extremes in a very short window of time.

The steps in our backyard are slowly disappearing.  Look closely at the snow in the foreground .... it looks like someone threw a handful of sparkles on top of the snow!

Below is my hubby snow blowing our driveway.  It was cold, very cold out there .... but someone has to do it!  LOL  Thank you hubby!

My "Presents Galore" is finished, washed and dried.  I just need to take a better photo of it.

Cherish your day, cherish your life!

Xmas Stars update

Life in the slow lane ..... good for the soul!

It has been slow going, but progress is being made.  More than half done now.  The big section at the top has been sewn together.

.

How satisfying it feels when basting stitches are starting to be removed ......  

..... along with the paper templates.  Such a nice feeling!

Cherish your day, cherish your life!

Liking my binding!

I'm quite happy with my choice of binding for my "Presents Galore" quilt.  It took a while to hand cut the bias strips and then matching the pattern when sewing the strips together; but, oh, so worth it!

It has been very cold this week.  Just before heading out to do my weekly grocery run, my husband looked out the window and said we have a sun dog (vertical piece of brightness in the centre of the sky).  I was able to capture it with the camera.

It looks like a vertical rainbow.  About 10 mins. later and it was gone.  Lucky me to have captured it.

Today, it is snowing but there is a layer of ice under the snow.  Very slippery to be driving/walking anywhere today.  The snow is starting to pile up.  Unless we get a January thaw, soon those steps will be just a white blob of snow.  We have been having such crazy weather lately.  A few days of very frigid cold temps., then last night almost above freezing (the reason for the layer of ice) and tonight back to frigid temps. again.  Crazy!  Mind you, it is nice to get a break from the frigid temps.  

Another great day to stay inside and sew!  Back to the binding.

Cherish your day, cherish your life!

A friendly challenge

My friend, no blog Mary, and I have decided to challenge each other to bind one quilt per month.  

With 11 quilts to bind plus 3 more at the LAer (no blog Mary won't reveal how many she has!), this was the perfect challenge for both of us.  Anyone wondering why I call her "no blog Mary"?  I can't remember, but the name has stuck.  When she sends gifts my way, she always writes "no blog Mary".  Oh, the things we do to amuse ourselves!  LOL

This is my quilt that I will work on this month.  It would be nice to hang this quilt up next month with all my other red/neutral quilts.

My quilt will have the gingham fabric on the bias for the binding.

The quilt below is from no blog Mary.  Beautiful job!  

Her quilt will have navy blue binding.

Yes, I think this challenge is just what we need.  Sometimes a gentle push gets us going.  

This photo shows all of my quilts (except one) that is my challenge for this year.  Fun times ahead, for sure!

On a different note, this is a hibiscus plant that was pulled from my sister's garden this past fall.  What a beautiful bloom!  Let's see if I can continue to make it bloom.

Cherish your day, cherish your life!

A New Year!

A New Year .... 2022 ..... will it be a good year?  Covid cases are up in our area.  For two years, our numbers sat mostly in the single to mid teen digits then wham we are in the four hundreds now.   Are people getting lax or is the virus getting stronger?  Hubby and I received our booster shot last week.  Will we need to get another down the road?  We will, if necessary.  To keep us safe, we are still wearing our masks, washing our hands and keeping our distance.   To be clear, everyone in our province must wear a mask.

On another note and a more positive one .... let me do a recap of what got accomplished in 2021.

First up, what quilts got made?  Six quilts.  Not bad, but I could have done better.  Not to worry, this year will be better!

Oh, I mustn't forget the three baby blankets for our local NICU.

How can I do better?  Well, there are quite a number of quilts waiting to have binding sewn on them.  How many?  Eleven, so far.

Plus, these three which are at the LAer and I will be getting back in a week or so.  That will bring the total to 14 quilts to have binding.  Will they all get done this year?   To be realistic, probably not, but what exciting times ahead!

Tops waiting to be quilted.

ZERO

NADA

NONE

ZILTCH

That is happy news for me!  My garage friends will be so happy.  No more kicking me in the butt to get those tops quilted.  No more lectures with fingers wagging.  No more diarrhea for one of my friends when she thinks about them.  She would get nervous and have to make a mad dash to the bathroom.  True.  We all laughed whenever she told us about it. Oh dear, I didn't want her to suffer like that, so I quietly worked away on those tops.

From now on, my tops will get to the LAer in a timely manner.  

Now .... UFO's ..... always a tough spot for me.

The year 2021 started off with 35 tops.  Seven projects (see all those x's) got to the flimsy stage and quilted.  Some of these are on the binding list.  Seven projects ..... actually not bad at all.

So .... 35 tops minus 7 should bring me down to 28 UFOs.  Right!  Wrong.  There were a few squirrels that came to play and stayed around.  

My UFO's are sitting at 32 at the start of 2022.  I figure about seven will get done this year.  We shall see ..... we shall see ......  Some of these UFO's were worked on last year and they have moved along nicely.  Just need to bring them to the last stage.  Will there be squirrels?  Absolutely!

So, that, my friends was 2021 .... time to move forward and see what 2022 will bring.

I've been zooming with other ladies from around the world.  So interesting to see what they are working on.  A number of these ladies have blogs which I've read for quite some time.  How lovely to meet and talk to them.  Chookyblue is the hostess and she sets up the zoom meetings for all of us.  When I zoom, handwork is the preferred project to work on.  The last few meetings, my EPP Xmas Stars has been pulled out and that is my go-to project at the moment.  I do want to get the top finished and move that one along to the LAer.

During our Xmas zoom meeting, Chooky asked what Xmas food traditions are in our family.  Well, I got everyone's attention when I mentioned Pig's Feet jelly on buttered toast.  What?  Yes, google it and you will get more information.   There are different versions on the making of this meat dish.  Then, we started talking about pastry and dough.  What is the difference?  I talked about what my Mother did with leftover pastry by making  pets de sœurs or nun's farts.  That got a chuckle.

Yes, zooming is fun.

Cherish your day, cherish your life, make the best of 2022!