Joseph's Coat

Finally, finally, this quilt is finished!

I brought it to show at night guild and two lovely ladies held it up for all to see while I sat in my chair and talked about it.

In my mind, I have been thinking that this is a 15 yr. old UFO.  Duh, wrong!  It was started in 2009 and that makes it 17 yrs. old.  Now, the funny part is .... we have a high school principle in our group and when she heard about when it was started .... can you guess what she was thinking?  Math was never my strong subject.  Oh well .... move on!  LOL

Here is a closer look:

Anyway, can't say this has been a total joy to make.  A few different methods of applique was used until my favourite method was used to complete it and then the finishing became easier.  I'm glad it is done and crossed off my UFO list.

Quilt Details:

Source:  I can't find the source for this pattern.  It got lost while this project was being shuffled around for a few years.  This started as a quilt-along, but I think the blog is no longer active.

Started:  November 2009

Top Finished:  September 2025

Quilt Finished:  May, 2026

Quilt Size:  62-1/2" x 90-1/4" (top size before quilting, washing and drying:  64-3/4" x 93")

Batting:  Hobbs poly

Quilted by:  Kathy Harris using Midsummer Dream by Christy Dillon

So glad this quilt is done and put away for a rainy day.

On a different note, my niece and her family nearly lost their cottage that is situated on a lake in our city.  She sent me photos the next day.  Look how close the fire came!  Cause is possibly electrical from a water pump.

This was the fire taken from the lake.

My niece's cottage is the one with the Canadian flag.  Luckily, neighbours doused the side of their cottage with a hose to keep the flames from spreading.  The only damage to this cottage was a dryer vent that buckled from the heat.  Fire trucks were there but the fire was too far gone.  The cottage was old and wooden, so all they could do was keep the fire from spreading.

This was all that remained the next morning.  So sad as the owners lived there for 53 years.

Cherish your day, cherish your life, cherish your freedom and cherish your country.  My country will always, always be CANADA!

Elbows up, eh!

Joseph’s Coat

Well …. It took some time, but I was able to finally put borders on and this project that was started many years ago is now a top.

Now, for something new in my studio ….. a railing.  When the Occupational Therapist came to my home to give me tips for coping with my condition, she gasped when she saw what I was doing to pin stuff onto my design wall.  I have a bench and was using a step ladder to lean onto to help with my unsteadiness when standing on the bench.  She said the step ladder just would not give me the support that I needed.

She gave me some ideas to start with and from there, I hired a carpenter and between the two of us, we came up with this concept and viola, I’m now able to safely work with my design wall once again.

Now, I can easily rest my arms onto the side supports and not worry able falling sideways or backwards.  The project on the design wall has been there for a few months now as I just didn’t feel safe to work on it.

The railing can be moved along the bench enabling me to work on whatever section I need to.  Now I’m happy!  I still get to keep the storage area underneath the bench.

It is now time for politics and a rant from me.  It really irks me when I read about Senator Joseph E. Martin from Maine, who sent a letter along with a proposal for “A Vision For Welcoming Western Provinces Into The United States” to MLAs in British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba.    Google the proposal and read about it.  

So, Senator Martin …. take your proposal and stuff it where the sun don’t shine!

What a bunch of BS that is coming from imbeciles in the USA.  Elbows up, Canada.  Pete Hoekstra hates it when we do that!  He is up here spewing more BS and lies.  He should be sent home and banned from Canada.  Why in the world would we want to become part of the USA?  Why.

Just a little bit of info here about health care.  It is perfect?  Heck, no.   Will any of us go bankrupt having major surgery or cancer treatment?  NO!  How many people declared bankruptcy in the USA last year?  Over 500,000.  In Canada …. ZERO.  Think about that.

Just to give you an idea about my recent care and appointments.  I have had an MRI and next week will be having a cat scan.  I’ve met with a neurologist for initial diagnosis and then had a nerve and muscle electrode testing done.  Both were out of town.  Then, I was referred to a team of neurologists in Toronto where I had further nerve and muscle testing done.  My costs to me for the medical care …. ZERO.  Since I had to travel out of town due to no specialist in my city, I have received gas as well as hotel accommodation grants from the Ontario government.  I have received just over $1,000 from these grants.  I have a health card that I present for each appointment.  No hassels except to print out the grant form for each appointment and have the specialist sign the forms.  

Sorry if anyone is offended by what I say next …. but your morals just don’t meet our standards here in Canada.  There are millions of US citizens that think like us …. but there are many more millions that have lost their thinking and their way and are eager to support and praise deranged people in authority.  Like rats following the pied piper.

ELBOWS UP, CANADA!

To my fellow Canadians …. Happy Thanksgiving!

Cherish your day, cherish your life and cherish your country.  My country will always be CANADA!

August and September Goals

Summer has been very busy here buy so enjoyable.  The heat lingered far longer than appreciated .... at least we had heat.   We are having a false fall right now.  Temps at night got a tad cool last week and at our cottage, we were under frost warning.  It didn't happen, but had to put an extra blanket on me in the early hours of the morning.

Cottage season is slowing down and next month we will be closing it for the season.  How time flies when we are having such fun.

A lot more sewing got done this month.

This is how my sides are being finished off. Seams will show here but only slightly.  There are no seams anywhere on the top, except on the edges.

When a circle gets joined to the rest of the top, there are a lot of pins holding the circle to the background fabric and then the hand sewing commences.  To make sure the circles don't get turned around (has already happened), little tags are now pinned onto the completed section and to the circle.  It is so much easier then to place the circle in the right spot and pin, pin, pin away.

This is where my Joseph's Coat top is currently at.  See the bright green square at the bottom.  Only that circle and a half circle beneath are all that remains to be appliqued and then the joining happens next.  Borders and then I can cross this project off my list.

Ridley always had a way of just plopping himself down onto my handwork when it was nearing his bed time.  So, no more work gets done when that happens.  You know, I would have finished this project sooner!  LOL

A quilt did get its' binding sewn on and that will be shown in my next post.

My September goal for Chookshed Stitchers 2025 Challenge will be to finish the Joseph's Coat UFO and to maybe get binding onto these two quilts.  Days and nights are cooling down and they will be warm on my legs and feet.

I've shown before how one niece really loves her quilts.  On any road trips for hockey or soccer tournaments, she brings a bit of home with her.  This is in a hotel room with her special pillow and her quilt that seems to be making the rounds lately whenever she goes anywhere.

That in a nutshell was my August.  

Cherish your day, cherish your life and cherish your country.  My country will always be CANADA

June and July Challenge Update

June was a good month for me for the Chookshed 2025 Challenge.

Good progress on this project called "Simply Serene".  I scrapped the brown out and replaced with floral looking fabrics.  This will be perfect for a donation quilt now.  My goal for July will be to assemble all those blocks and add borders.

Now, for this UFO .... as you can see much progress has been made on "Joseph's Coat".  The 'before' on the left vs the 'after' on the right.  My goal for July will be to move this project along more.  Seems my mojo is back!

My sister and I have been spending a few nights at the cottage lately.  On one of our trips, this flock of geese came and spent the day on our lake.  This is so unusual, but we think it was because of the air quality from forest fires up north and they came south for fresher air.  The flock has since gone back north.

Canada Day is July 1 and we are celebrating our freedom and as the country of CANADA.  To Taco Man ..... well, you will just have to get over it and move on and create another crisis (as in 24/7 chaos mode) of your making.  

To all my fellow Canadians .... Happy Canada Day!

Cherish your day, cherish your life and cherish your country ..... and my country will always be CANADA!

What I've been working on!

In an effort to reduce more of my UFO's, a four more projects have been pulled off the shelf.

I have just two more of these leaf blocks to make and then I can pin all the blocks on my design wall and see where I'm at with this project.

Then, fabrics have been pulled to make more of these red/neutral blocks.

More petals are being prepped to continue working on this green/blue/yellow blocks.  

Last, but not least, borders have been decided on my Got Dots top.  I didn't realize the centre had all been sewn together until it was pinned onto my design wall.  Bonus!

Then ...... squirrel ..... a new project has been started!  I had so much fun making Red Sampler that I decided to make a new project called Blue Sampler.  There are going to be 15 leaf blocks that you see below along with a variety of pieced blocks.  So, sit back and wait to see more about this down the road.

These projects should keep me busy for a while, eh!

And .... there probably will be a few more squirrel projects popping up ....... tee hee!

My sister and I, along with my brother and two cousins spent four days at our cottage.  We had great fun, a lot of laughs, wonderful food.  You know what they say about "what happens at the cottage, stays at the cottage"!  All I will say is that we were extremely thankful that a pharmacist was in a cottage next to ours and she was able to render assistance to us.  She went out of her way to make a trip into the nearest town to her pharmacy to obtain insulin (person forgot to take the full amount needed during stay) and a monitor (it died) for a certain someone and if someone's glucose didn't stabilize at an acceptable level, that person was going with her to the hospital.   We owe her a case of wine for her kindness and her professional aid along with her educating that person on insulin and why the situation happened and how to avoid it in future!   Diabetes and insulin can be so tricky and dangerous.  Yeah, that's my story and I'm sticking to it .... yeah!

In the back is my brother, me and my sister.  In the front are our two cousins that drove up from southern Ontario.

The guys did all the cooking leaving my sister and I to sit back and take it easy.  Talk about being spoiled.  Our cousin Bob (sitting down) is a master BBQer and he gave instructions on how he wanted the food to be cooked.  The piece d'resistance was ribs on our final night together!  Gosh, they were mouth watering good!

I asked Bob if he had won any competitions and yes, down in the U.S. and at home in Canada.  So, we all knew we were in for a treat.

Cherish your day, cherish your life!

JC update

I've put aside my klosjes for now to work on my Joseph's Coat, which is way behind, BTW. In case you are wondering, my design wall is a slab of pink styrofoam. :o)

If I plug away at them, perhaps I just might get caught up by June with a total of 35 (there are only 14 so far .....). In the photo above, the circles are being sewn together and I have to say that it is an interesting method whereby you do not see any seams. My version will be queen size and I haven't figured out yet how many more will have to be done. A wide border will be added and perhaps I might even try a bit of scallop on the edges to mimic the petals. This beauty will be for moi! :o)

On my next update, I'm going to count up the number of different fabrics that were used. Some FQ's and a layer cake were purchased to add to the variety, but a lot of them came from my stash.

If you want to see more gorgeous versions of Joseph's Coat, go here. Lots and lots of eye candy!

Have a great day!