A long post today

This is a picture of Chesterman's beach. It is by Tofino on the west coast of Vancouver Island. A beautiful place to go - I think it is a place that God created so we could go there and reflect and renew ourselves. This is the place that I go. I posted this picture for Teodo, she posted such a beautiful picture of a lake in Italy. I saved her picture and I will one day go there.

As you have been following my decision to change jobs I will tell you about this week. I have worked as a nurse at the same hospital for 16 years. The "powers that be" are changing things so much - and moving all of the medical patients from my hospital to another hospital - so although I would still be working with all the same staff we would no longer be at "our" hospital. The new hospital is the largest in BC and things are very different there. On Tuesday morning - while I was at work - I had to tell the people that I work with that I will not be working there anymore. It was so terribly hard. But I think for me it was a good decision.

Tuesday afternoon we found out that a beloved nurse on our ward had committed suicide Monday night. We are all so upset, devastated and angry. She has left behind 4 teenagers and a husband. She never even let us know how unhappy she was, although she was close to us all. I spent the day with her last Tuesday at the new hospital -- she did not like it and did not want to move -- but none of us did. I was quite happy to join in with her unhappiness about the move. Then we worked together on Wednesday - she was a bit irritable - we all were - we were short staffed and had extra work in the morning. We all pitched in and helped each other. I did some stuff for her, by afternoon things were better, she was happier - she had a party to go to after work that night with her daughter. She wanted to skip her dinner and leave a little early to get to the party. So I said that was fine - and off she went. I did not work the next day, and she worked three more shifts and no one else at work got any indication from her that she was in such despair. I wish she would have talked to us - I would have listened and told her not to do it.

I hope it is okay that I posted this - but I really needed to. Thank you for listening.

We will be going back to Tofino in June - it will be a time to reflect and renew.

Easter Weekend

We had a fairly eventful Easter weekend. With the kids all "adults" and away from home there isn't any Easter Egg hunting anymore. We did have everyone over for dinner on Saturday night though. We had a very nice turkey dinner this year. Andrew and Anri, Eric and his friend Dusty and Jessica (who is in town for the weekend for her girlfriend's stagette) and her girlfriend Danielle ( the bride to be). So we had quite the group for dinner.

Jenny, who has never barked, decided there was something evil lurking in the backyard this weekend and would not go into one corner of the yard. She also decided whatever was evil needed to be barked at from the deck during dinner. So all in all -- Easter this year was noisy if nothing else.

Andrew's girlfriend, Anri, is wondering if I can teach her to sew a summer dress and maybe also learn a bit of quilting. Her and I looked through my fabric cupboard and she was right away drawn to my collection of Amy Butler fabrics -- I think she might make a good quilter!




I did some more on the 4 patch Chocolat charm square table quilt. I am putting the little sashings in. The sashing is just 1/2 inch finished. I think it was a good idea, I really like the look of this quilt and it will look great finished and on the table.

Well, I am off to work for the next couple of days. We had the turkey on Saturday because I work Monday and I hate making a big meal the night before I have to work. I went for a job interview on Thursday - it went well and a big decision will be made by Tuesday I think. I think changing jobs is more stressful than getting married! Wish me luck.

Grip-n-Grip

I thought I would show a picture of the work I did with the Grip-n-Grip. I iron the freezer paper templates on the muslin and then draw a sewing and cutting line on the fabric with a mechanical pencil. I do prefer it to the sandpaper. The line is smooth and easy to draw. The fabric does not move at all.

When I was at the Sewing and Craft sale there were just tons of notions and gadgets for sale there. The woman I went out there with and I were talking about how it would be interesting to have a show and tell at our guild meeting one night of the "Most Useless" and "Most Useful" gadgets. Boy -- I tell you I have bought some useless stuff over the years. Maybe we should have a blog "show and share". Sometimes something looks like such a good idea - you spend $20.00 on it and come home and find it is a complete waste of money. Anyway -- I think the Grip-n-Grip is good value for money.



I bought a few fat quarters as well to add a small sashing in between my four patch blocks for my table centre. The sashing will be the blue and then I will put small red corner blocks. I have also bought a new TV and another table for my sewing room. So -- I guess I gotta work for a few more years yet :))

And here is a Jenny picture. She really seems to be settling in well. She is a bit more playful than we expected. Last night - when we were ready for bed she was ready for ball! We gave her a bath on Sunday and her fur crimped up like it had been through a crimping iron. She is so soft - and isn't shedding any hair at all. She is such a mixture of breeds. She is so gentle and quiet. We have heard her bark only three times so far, and only one short bark each time.

Indroducing -- Jenny

We picked her up this afternoon. It is very hard to take a picture of a black dog. She seems to be very quiet and gentle, and very, very tired after a very long drive. They left Topley at 1 p.m. yesterday and got to Vancouver at noon today. She still has a real "puppy" look about her although she has already had a puppy. She has been spayed. She has such lovely brown eyes.


She was quite happy to have a sleep on the deck. One very tired pup.

And this is my purchases from the Sewing and Craft Show. I bought 3 packages of wonderful silk fabric from a new little "in home" shop that is just starting up in Vancouver. I think I need to start collecting enough pieces to make a lovely silk quilt. The silk pieces are on the lower left. I also bought some silk thread for applique that was on sale. Seven spools for $28.00, good deal. Also various fat quarters and 1/2 yards of fabric that were on sale. I got the two fat quarters of a blue fabric from the Chocolat line that I will use to make a small sashing for my table centre.

And in the upper right corner is the reason for my trip to the Sewing and Craft show to begin with! It is a piece of Grip-n-Grip. For drawing pencil lines on fabric, instead of using sandpaper. You get a smooth, clean pencil line - the fabric doesn't move (so I am told) And with my DJ blocks I am always drawing pencil lines on fabric. It also is good for Crayon quilts. I have not used it yet but I have heard wonderful things about how well it works. Has anyone else used Grip-n-Grip?

It is a start

It has been quite awhile since I posted. I went to the Sewing and Craft show in Abbotsford last Friday and bought a whole bunch of stuff (pictures to follow in another post) Then on Saturday we had the two boys booked in for the moving of furniture, they came out and all the work got done - but without me unfortunately. I ended up working Saturday evening because they were so short staffed -- so I was not home for the moving. Everyone managed to follow my instructions fairly well - but I have been working steady the rest of the week so my sewing room is still in the just beginning stages.



Here is the sewing table set up. I love having it sit under the big open window.

As you can see below there are still a few remnants of Andrew left! He has taken two of the three guitars and he still has his large stack of egg cartons sitting in the corner. I moved his big amp into the storage room. I wonder if he will ever get it all :)) I think the stereo will be getting moved to the other side of the room, we will get a small TV to put in with the stereo. I can sew, watch TV, listen to music, and use the computer all in one room. I may never leave home again!

I think we should be able to finish most of the small bits this weekend. I want to get another small table and put it up on bed risers to have a higher table for cutting fabric.

The other new is that we are getting a new dog - she is supposed to be coming tomorrow. I will post a picture of her when she arrives. She is coming down from a place in central B.C. that rescues abandoned or abused dogs. She is a 1 year old black lab/retriever cross that was found under a house with her one puppy. The puppy has since been adopted. So hopefully all will go well with their trip here and we will be picking her up tomorrow morning.

Some time spent stitching

I worked on the Chocolat Charm pack today. Of course - inspiration from Darlene - I decided the Chocolat would be perfect for a table centre for the dining room table. You know the table that sits there, that my husband felt we really, really needed - that is used twice a year. But it is a lovely table - a dark stained oak. Perfect for Chocolat. I am trying to decide what to do with the centre. Wendy showed a quilt that has a really narrow little sashing and corner blocks between the four patches. I quite like that, but if I am going to do that I will have to buy some fabric. I don't have anything in my stash that will work.

I am going off tomorrow to the Sewing and Crafts Show in Abbotsford tomorrow -- so I certainly will be up for some shopping. I will bring a little patch with me - maybe I will find something I like for sashing and also I need a little inner border. I have a great piece of Chocolat fabric for a outer border.



And now - how about a picture of what today looked like on the "Wet Coast" Can you tell where the ocean ends and the sky begins? This is called "Rain, heavy at times" to continue all weekend from what I'm hearing. So I guess we have a wet drive out to Abbotsford.

Charm Packs

On Friday I got my collection of Charm Packs I ordered from the Fat Quarter Shop. That really is a great place to get fabric from. They were very prompt with the service. At first it was to be $15.00 to ship it to Canada and then right away they sent an email to say they were able to send it off for only $9.00 for some reason - so they changed the bill. And it was here in about 3 weeks. Pretty good - all the way from Texas. I definitely will order from them again. I even got myself on their email newsletter.

The seven charm packs in the fabric bags were $49.00 - on sale half off. Such a deal. That is only $7.00 each, including the little fabric bag. Which of course we all need more little fabric bags!!

I also ordered a baby quilt charm pack and a civil war charm pack. I had a couple of charm packs already, the Sonnet collection - so now I have two of those, which would be enough for a good sized quilt I think. I also have some yardage of the Chocolat collection, which I would like to use to make another quilt. I will browse around looking for patterns and I think I will plan to take some charm packs to my upcoming 3 day retreat in April. I think the four patch method of Darlene's from Quilting Daze might be what I do with the Sonnet collection.

My oldest UFO

A few people have been posting pictures of their oldest UFO. I think that this is mine, although I can not be 100% certain because I have a few that are around the same vintage. This was a workshop I took not too long after I joined my quilt guild. It is almost entirely done with strips of fabric - cut either in widths from 1 1/4 inches to 2 1/2 inches. After throwing all the strips in bags of light and dark they are just pulled out and used to make the blocks.

I also have a couple of patterns that I had purchased and after taking the workshop I discovered that they were basically the same thing. Of course the patterns have never been opened. I think the reason I have never finished it is because I have no idea what I would do with it -- probably the only thing it would really be suitable for would be a baby quilt. It is baby quilt size. The border was supposed to be quite scrappy with various bowtie blocks and scraps of fabric but I sort of ran out of steam by the time I got to the border and thought the star fabric went well with it and I figured if I had to make more blocks it would never get finished. It is now a completed flimsy just waiting to be sandwiched and quilted.

I think this is a good idea to show off the UFO's every so often. I have some of them on the side bar but I really do forget all about them and some of them really are worth finishing. Wouldn't this one make the cutest baby quilt? I should finish it.



Here is a photo of how my "quilt closet" is looking now. I am using one basket to hold my "still wrapped in plastic and tied up with ribbon" fabric bundles. One basket will hold all my UFO's/PIGS and then the shelves are holding the folded yardage of fabric and of course my "fat quarter drawer" . As you can see I still have a lots of space - but I have not put all the fabric in yet. We are hoping to do a bunch of furniture moving this weekend - so stay tuned for further updates.

A Very Productive Weekend

This is the closet from Ikea that is Andrew's room. It had a couple of metal rack shelves and a bar to hang his clothes. The plan was to turn this into a cupboard for my fabric. As we begin the transformation from "Andrew Bedroom" to "Pam's sewing and computer room"


We went to Ikea yesterday and bought the parts -- a couple of solid shelves, a couple of basket drawers and one wooden drawer.



Here is Jim working away on the wooden drawer. It has taken a while to get the process started because Jim's surgery. I think he did a bit too much today - but he insisted on finishing it. He is not really able to do to much with his right arm yet - so the bulk of the work today was done with his left arm. We still have a lot of furniture to move around and I think it will be a few months before we can get it completely finished. I think a weekend of both boys coming over and doing the major furniture moving will be required to get the sewing room completely set up.


And here is the final result. A new cupboard for my fabric - in my sewing room.



I started putting fabric in the cupboard tonight. The cool thing about the drawer is I can put all my fat quarters in it -- all lined up like at the quilt shops -- I can see everything, look through the fabric, fondle it -- just like at the quilt shop. I am quite happy with the way it turned out.

There is alot more left to do - but this is a start.

New Purchases

I think I might be more of a shopper than a quilter. I seem to buy much more than I make. I keep reminding myself that this is my retirement fund.

I purchased this hand dyed felted wool from my LQS this week. I had a filled loyalty card worth $25.00 of free merchandise - so the wool was pretty much free :)) So that's okay then!



I would like to try some wool applique. I have also got some pieces of wool coming from the Fat Quarter shop, I am not sure what size pieces they are or what colours they are exactly. I need to start looking around for some wool applique patterns. If anyone has some suggestions feel free to give me some ideas or such. I really haven't decided yet what I will do with the wool - but I really want some wool appliqued flowers. Maybe a nice little wall hanging or table topper - like a penny rug. I think with the leftover bits I am going to try making some bottle cap pincushions ( I saved that site).


The other thing I bought was this Laurel Burch panel. It was new at the store and I really enjoy the fun, bright, fantasy colours and design of her fabric.


When we were in Sausalito I went into a little shop that had a lot of her mugs, purses, scarves, socks etc.(no fabric though). Laurel Burch is from the area around Sausalito and the woman who owned the shop in Sausalito said she knew her quite well. There was a book there to sign to say hello to her and wish her well, which I did sign. The shop owner had told me that Laurel Burch has very poor health and a chronic illness that affects her mobility and her bones - I can't remember exactly what is her condition. It is amazing the beautiful things she creates.

Of course, again, I am not sure what I am going to do with my piece of fabric. I thought it would make a great bag. The piece is folded (it is 45 inches wide) with the same picture on the other side. Maybe a centre for a great Laurel Burch wall hanging or small quilt -- or maybe both. Or maybe I will just save it for retirement and keep shopping :))

Hugs and Kisses

It seems like quite a while since I posted. I finished all the blocks for the "Hugs and Kisses" quilt this week and it is now just pinned to my design wall. This seemed to me to be the best layout of colour for the quilt. I will start sewing it together soon. The slight difference in the WoW blocks is really not noticeable at all, you have to really look hard and search out the blocks which have the slightly smaller leaf design, it is the same pattern, just slightly smaller. I haven't decided what to do about borders yet but I would like to have something I think in the border. I have been working with the EQ6 program, so maybe that will be a place to try out different borders.

My son has pretty much finished my DJ website. I will post a link on my DJ blog. He has added a few sections - like "News" "About Me" etc. that I have not done anything with yet - he also added a picture of Jim and I - which I have left there for now. I think the virtual design wall looks great, he did a good job.

It was Andrew's birthday on February 24th. The baby of the family is now 21! My goodness. It is really amazing how fast time goes by. It reminds me how important it is to make time count as much as possible. So - that brings me to work......

I have been busy at work the past couple of days and I have been seriously thinking about some big changes -- like a new job. I have been working at the same hospital for 16 years. There have been changes almost every 6 months for the past 10 years - and now there are some really big ones happening and I think maybe a new job - which would be a big change, but a new change, would be a better fit for me. This is going to be really hard for me. I really like all the people I work with, and I always thought I would just work at this hospital until I retired. But the unit that I work on is being moved to another hospital and it will be a huge change for everyone. I have not done a resume in -- 16 years! But I am gathering my stuff together and I think it will be very good for me. I think it will take a few weeks to get everything organized but I have a few months yet before I really would like to be in a different job. I think before it is all said and done there will be a lot of - doubts, sadness, happiness, excitement, nervousness, apprehension -- and the list goes on.

One thing I would like is to find a job much closer to home. I am now driving over 40 kms each way to work and there are 3 hospitals much closer than that. It would be nice to have a shorter drive to work - and better for the environment. I bought my VW Jetta in 2002 and I already have almost 170,000 kms on it - in 5 years. That is 34,000 kms a year, just driving around Vancouver. Although in that 5 years I have driven to Calgary twice. That is a lot of driving I think. So, we will see what the next few months will bring -- at least I can keep quilting.

Making the Rounds

I have been very busy playing with the EQ6 program. It is very similar to the Dear Jane software so it has been not too much of a learning curve. I have yet to design a quilt though.

I was asked a question by Su Bee what makes the EQ6 better than EQ5 and I don't really know the answer because I never had the EQ5 program. One thing I was told was that the EQ6 has rotary cutting instructions, which EQ5 doesn't have, but I can't even say if that is a fact. I am happy I bought the program and I hope to fiddle around with it for awhile before I try anything serious -- like quilting is serious.

I also have spent a few minutes this week finding out what I need - getting the idea first from Joyce and then it seems to be spreading around the blogs. I didn't go too far along because apparently the #1 thing I need is a Sperm Donor ( which I am certainly not interested in!!)

1. Pam needs a sperm donor
2. Pam needs no net to net a man ( so why do I need a sperm donor)
3. Pam needs our help ( I guess!)

I think the problem is with this is that my needs are apparently related to what Pamela Anderson needs - and that is not good.

Then - over at Calico Cat I got directed to The Fat Quarter shop and because of Darlene at Quilting Daze and the charm square 4 patch tutorial I needed to order a bunch of charm packages. So these were on sale.



I also bought a couple of other packages. Some wool charm squares because I just loved the wool applique that Wendy does, and I really want to try doing some wool applique. For some reason, and I'm sure I never even looked at the wool charm squares on the website - but they were on my order and they were on sale for $6.00 for 6 - so I guess it was meant to be.

Belem has a great link to a pin cushion tutorial ( and I can use my newly purchase wool when it arrives).

So all in all it has been very eventful these past few day. And I finished one more DJ block and I have only 4 blocks more to go on the Hugs and Kisses quilt, so I will work on that today.

Electric Quilt 6

I am so excited! I just can't hide it!

I got the EQ6 program today. I still haven't loaded it on the the computer, but I will soon. I have never had a computer quilt design program so this will be pretty new stuff for me. Although I do use the Dear Jane program so I think there is a fair amount of similarities in how the programs work - as EQ makes the Dear Jane software. Now I can design all kinds of quilts - hundreds of beautiful quilts - and then I can just save the files and say -- "One day, when I have time I'm going to make that quilt" Actually I think it will be great for making small baby quilts and such - so I really am looking forward to spending hours away on the computer planning quilting projects.

I have been busy, working all week and then Jim got back from Portland on Friday. He was quite sore with his shoulder in Portland, he stumbled on the sidewalk one day and jarred his shoulder a bit. He is better this weekend.

Eric is busy designing me a web page with a little grid to put up my Dear Jane blocks. He has done a great job and once it is already to be viewed by the world I will put a link up for it. I started scanning the blocks instead of taking pictures of them and they look much better. I also found some fabric that is almost exactly like the WoW for the "Hugs and Kisses" quilt, it is the same white and the same leaf print but just a tiny bit small - but close enough that it is not really noticeable. So I will finish the last eight blocks in the new fabric and mix them in with the rest and it will be fine. So all in all -- a good few days. Now I must try to load this program and see how it goes.

Happy Valentines Day

I have been away working the past few day and so much seems to happen when I can't check in the blogs I love to read. I will try to catch up. When I work the 12 hour shifts I leave home at 6 AM and do not get back home until 8 - 8:30 in the evening. So it can be quite tiring and then I have to get up and do it again the next day -- and so on.

Today - Valentines Day - I am working a night shift, Jim has gone to Portland for the week for meetings, so it will not be much of a celebration here this year. I will live vicariously through all my friends and blogging buddies.

Before he left Jim brought me a lovely bunch of lilies for Valentines Day since he would not be here. Very sweet. Valentines is one day that we always do something special.



The Valentines Day that is most memorable for me is 1998. The year the Winter Olympics were held in Japan. I worked a 12 hour day shift - so it was 8 pm or so when I got home. Jim had spent the entire day preparing a wonderful meal. He had gone to a meat market downtown to get a special cut of beef tenderloin. He bought food from all over I think. He had the table all set up with a lovely table setting, flowers, wine. He had a menu printed out and set on the plates. And the food he made was wonderful -- the tenderloin was just so good that night, I still remember it. He had potaoes he had mashed with roasted garlic and made green aioli to whip into them and then toasted them in the oven. He spent the entire day preparing and cooking. The most memorable thing about that night was - he had brought Eric's little TV set up from his room and set it on the table so we could watch the finals of the Canadian Womens Curling team. As we were enjoying our dinner the Sandra Schmirler team won the gold medal at the Olympics. It was an amazing game to watch. I think you can't top that!



I saved the menu. He has done a few other "menu meals" since but I think this was the best. We have don't go out to eat all that often any more, we are finding that we make much better food than we get served in a lot of restuarants - and the wine is cheaper!

Happy Valentines Day - and I will try to catch up with all my blogging when my night if over and I have my week off.

My work yesterday

I was pretty productive at my day long retreat yesterday. I finished 17 blocks. It went together very quickly. Big problem -- I do not have enough of the white on white background fabric. I thought I did......I guess I should have measured and calculated, but that is just too much like work. I think I can get more, I am going to be short only a small amount - maybe 3 blocks. I could calculate the amount I am going to be short - but that sounds too much like work!! But I will figure it out and hopefully my LQS has some in stock. I think it is a pretty common WOW pattern. I passed out little scraps at my retreat and I do have a bunch of quilters looking through their stash for me.

I think that the blocks are too big for a baby quilt. I think I would have done it in 2 inch square instead of 2 1/2, which is what was in the pattern. It is going to finish up at 55" by 55" (provided I find more WOW fabric!) But it is going to be a pretty quilt so maybe if I can find more fabric I will buy enough to make one in 2 inch squares as well -- since I still have a small mountain of 30's fabrics.

Using the stash

I found this really simple pattern on the internet the other day while browsing for baby quilt patterns. I decided to start another quilt! Like I need to do that. But I am going to use my stash of 30's fabrics that are left from the Dresdan Plate quilt. I thought this was such a cute little quilt. I started cutting up the blocks and I will work on it this weekend at my all day "Quilt by the Bay" retreat tomorrow.


I have finished my siggy blocks and will mail them off today. I am so excited to see the blocks that I get back. I have never done a block exchange before so I am hoping that the blocks I made will be okay for everbody in the exchange. Jim has a physio appt. today so I will drive him in to physio and mail them off - I have no idea how long it will take for them to get to Australia. We shall see.....

Six weird things about me

I have been tagged by Susan to tell six weird things about me -- I've been thinking about it all night, although thankfully it hasn't kept me lying awake! I'm not sure if I can come up with six things - or maybe once I start I can come up with hundreds of weird things.

1. When we go travelling I like to buy little items (above picture) but when I bring them home I never even take them out of the bags. I have no idea why. I still have a lovely little pewter box with a starfish that I bought in Nova Scotia in 1999 still in the box in the bag in my sewing room. Istill have pens I bought at Harrods in London in 1992 in the Harrods bag in my dresser! The stuff I buy for the kids as gifts I give to them right away but the rest I just store away. This picture is stuff I bought for myself on our trip to Arizona last April. I hauled it out of the closet to take a picture and them put it back in the closet. Now that's weird.

2. I love to eat oranges more than any other food, if I had to chose between an orange and any other food I would chose the orange.

3. I have never worn makeup. I tried to use it a couple of times but I could never get the hang of it and so I just never did it. I still have the only blush someone gave me back in about 1980. I also don't use face cream or hand cream although I do like it and also like to collect nice smelling hand cream and keep it in bathroom, but I take that out of the bag.

4. I had laser eye surgery in 1997 and still quite often, I forget that I don't have glasses on and go to rub my eye under my glasses.

5. I am left handed and I have a terrible time remembering which is left and right and give very bad directions because of it. Never ask me which way to turn to go somewhere. One day I felt so bad because I told this carload of girls to take the left lane to go over the Lions Gate Bridge and as I saw them drive off to North Vancouver in the left lane I realized that it was the RIGHT lane they should be in! I still worry they never found their way back.

6. I am not completely tone deaf but pretty close to it. I can't tell the difference between any notes. I know when the American Idol singers are really bad but I have no idea when they are out of tune, off pitch etc. Most songs I don't recognize until they have at least sung the title of the song. Drives my pretty musical family crazy. Middle son Eric is my partner in this. But I know the TV trivia - so I make up for it when Jim doesn't know what actor/actress he is watching and I know who they are, the last movies/shows they have been in, who they are married to, who their children are and where they are from.

Well that wasn't too bad. Now I should tag someone. There is a new blogger out there -- Wendy, I will tag her, and I will tag TJ if she has time before heading off to Grandma duty, and Bettsy.

Fabric purchase - no fabric diet here

Aftertaking Jim to the doctor on Monday I went off to the bird store to see if I could buy a new ladder for the birds - their ladder is comng apart at the rungs. Unfortunately the bird store is not open on Monday - so there is a Quilt shop very close by - so off I went to the quilt shop.

I didn't buy much but I spent a lot of money. The package of brights is a kit for a simple star/heart baby quilt. I don't have a lot of bright fabric, I discovered when making the quilt for Jonah so I thought the baby quilt kit would be better than buying a bunch of fat quarters to make the quilt. It is a very simple quilt - just an appliqued star in the centre of a 6 inch block. The quilt shop was selling the pattern separately for $10?? so I did not buy the pattern - I thought that was a bit much! I have some of my own brights to add and the black and white fabric is for the borders. I just made my own star template and will make the quilt that way I would like it. I have a couple of baby quilts to make, one I am working on now.

I needed some cream coloured fabric so I bought about 4 meters of three different creams. And the little pack of Moda, those are just so cute. I have another package of Moda fabric like this - but darker colours - that was a door prize at a retreat. Great to match up with a solid colour and make a quick half square triangle lap quilt.

The circle cutting tool is from Fabricland - on sale half price. I thought it was a nifty gadget - now I am not so sure. I was testing it out last night and with the rotary cutter that is suggested 28mm it is very difficult to cut the small circles. And the really tiny rotary cutter will not work at all. So the jury is still out on that tool. It is funny some of the tools I have tucked away in my drawers that I bought and have never even taken out of the package. I have an instruction book and templates for the Double Wedding Ring quilt that I bought in about 1996 or 1998 that I still haven't taken the shrink wrap off!

I have chosen my fabrics for the siggy swap. That took awhile because I wanted to use my stash but I wanted something that was sort of Canadian - The fabrics that I had in my stash that have moose and bears on them were too light and I only had fat quarters - so it will be leaves instead.

Last night I discovered a blogger trick. There is a website that updates blogger issues and there was a note on it about the "Remember Me" function and how it does not work in IE6 (which is what I have) If you go into "Tools" and click on "Internet Options" and then under "Privacy" you then click on "Sites" if you type in -- google.com -- then the blogger and Picasa both will remember you. And it works! At least so far, no more having to retype my password every single time.