Happy New Year

Happy New Year to all my new blogging friends.

May 2007 be full of joy, peace and friendships.

And lots of quilting!

I have enjoyed my year of blogging. I started blogging last January, I had absolutely no idea where my blogging experience would take me.

I have enjoyed meeting my new "blog-mates" and I am looking forward to seeing all the wonderful projects and quilts that you all create and share.

Quilter are the best people.

The Eve of New Year's Eve

Aren't they just so cute? This picture was taken in about 1984. Eric was born in Janurary 1981 - and he is about 3 years old here and Jessica is 5.

I have been carrying this picture in my purse. It was taken in the Dentist's office in August 1989. Eric on the left is 8 and Andrew born in February 1986 is just 3 years old. It is so hard to believe that it is now fast approaching the year 2007. I remember when I was a young girl in high school I used to imagine how old I would be and what I would be doing in the year 2000 -- which seemed a lifetime away. Now the year 2000 is history and I don't have to imagine anything anymore.

Jessica is 28 and newly married. Eric will be 26 on January 4th and Andrew will be 21 in February. And soon it will be 2007. Unbelievable.

A Very Fine Christmas Pudding

A Wonderful Christmas dinner was had by all. We always have a Christmas pudding, all in flames - to which we sing Happy Birthday to Barb - Jim's brothers wife who had the poor misfortune to be born on Christmas day.

Everybody had a good Christmas. Santa brought Jim a scanner for Christmas - the nifty thing about the new scanner (we did not have any scanner before) is that it will scan slides and 35mm film. Jim has boxes and boxes of slides from years ago, that never get seen because they are slides - it is so great to scan the slides into the computer and then they can be put on CD or DVD -- what a great idea. I received a lovely pair of emerald earrings from Santa. Andrew got an electric razor (he hasn't shave since Thanksgiving) and he also got an Ipod Nano. Eric got Season 5 of 24 and a Canucks Vintage Jersey.

Boxing Day we went for a nice walk along the seawall. There was quite a few Christmas trees on display - most of them seem to have weathered the wet and windy conditions quite well.

There was also a large wood nativity scene.

It was a nice day for a walk--- No Rain!!

Now I am looking forward the the tree coming down so I can get back to quilting. I am really enjoying the scanner though, I am scanning my Dear Jane blocks and putting them on the Dear Jane block map. (Santa was so smart to get this Scanner!)

The Stocking is finished and hung by the chiminey with care

The stocking was finished at 1:30 P.M today, lots of time.

I got this cute little Santa from my work Christmas party this year.

The weather is cold and wet today. Jim says - the cold that goes right through to the bone - and his sore shoulder. The salmon is smoking away.

All is ready for Christmas.

Merry Christmas to all -- and to all a Good Night.

Peace be with us in the new year.

Skating Party

Jim's office had their office only party this past week and it was decided they would all go up Grouse Mountain and go snow shoeing and skating -- I think Jim felt a little to "old" for snow shoeing so he did a little skating and then they had lunch up at the restuarant on top of the mountain.

Someone to a couple of pictures of him skating and he emailed them to me a couple of days ago.

He went to the doctor and Friday and found out that he will have to have the Rotator cuff surgery. It has been booked for either January 17th or January 30th.

This stupid blogger is now centering all the text I am writing -- which is a bit of a pain.

I am almost all ready for Christmas, just a few gifts to wrap and still have to put the lining in Anri's stocking -- guess what I will be doing on Christmas eve! We have Pickled Salmon to put in jars and some salmon to put in the smoker tomorrow. We like to give away jars of pickled salmon (that is our version of baking).

The boys will be coming over to spend the night on Christmas eve and then we will be going for a family dinner at Jim's brother's and his wife's house. Which is always nice, we have done that for the past few years. I do miss the turkey leftovers, we will quite often cook a turkey New Years Day just so we can have the leftover -- there is Turkey Pizza, Turkey Tacos, Turkey stew, Turkey SURPRISE and then finish it off with Turkey soup. There is no end of what can be done with a 20 lb Turkey.

Christmas Tree is up now

We put the Christmas tree up Sunday night - finally. I have been working the past two days, now a night shift tonight and then I am off until January 1st 2007. I think I need the break, I am very, very tired of work these past two days.

I think we got a very nice tree from the Boy Scouts this year. We usually like to get a wild tree ( not cultured) but this year there were none left except for a few "Charlie Brown" trees. (My mum always liked the Charlie Brown trees) So we got this tree which is shaped a bit but really looks more natural than cultured. I think it is a very pretty tree. There hanging on the door behind the tree is Andrew's Christmas stocking from years ago - one he had to colour with fabric crayons. I am still not finished that last stocking - I have until Sunday night - right!!


One year - about 7-8 years ago I made a bunch of these little Santa ornaments. Very cute and easy to make and I kept one for myself. There is a little bell hanging from the end of his hat - so he jingles a little bit.

This is our tree angel. Andrew made this angel in about Grade 3 I think. It has been on the tree every year since. Sometimes when we take it out of storage it needs a little repair - this year I used a glue gun on it so it should be better. I just love this little angel - it is one of the things that remind me what Christmas is really all about -- love, family, peace and hope.

God Bless and Merry Christmas.

Working on the last Christmas stocking

I was supposed to go into North Vancouver today for my little quilt group and do my final bit of shopping at the Mall today. We have had another terrible wind and rain storm and the power is out everywhere (except here). The power is out at the mall, so it is closed The road are littered with downed trees and many of the street have no traffic lights --- so I decided to stay home and make Anri's Christmas stocking.

I sew 2 1/2 inch strips together and then cut them into 2 1/2 inch strips and then sew that together so I have a piece of "fabric" made from 2 inch squares. When I cut out my stocking pattern I then put the piece of "fabric" on point so I have the diamond shapes instead of squares . I always have bits and pieces left over when I cut out the stocking shape.

With the left over pieces I have been sewing the bits together to make small "crazy patch" heart ornaments. I put a bit of ribbon on the top to hang them and then a bit of gold trim all around the outer edge of the hearts. I put velvet on the back and then just stuff them with bits of left over batting. They look quite cute - I don't have any of the finished ones to show as I usually just make 1-2 every year and give them away.



S0 -- the Thai Massage was nice - interesting, relaxing, and I think I would do it again - except it's $96.00 for 60 minutes ( and of course they really recommend 90) It was more than just a massage. I was lying on the floor on a thick mat and the women did a lot of pressure points and then moved my legs up and around and over (she mentioned that she was surprised how flexible I was -- as was I!) She bent my arms backwards and over my head. Thai massage is sort of like yoga - but someone else doing it to you instead of you doing it yourself. I've always wanted to try yoga - the masseuse suggested I just buy a DVD and start yoga at home - so I may do that in the new year. That could be my New Years resolution. I bought a Pilates DVD once - it is in my sewing room, still in the shrink wrap. Maybe I should start with that DVD first??

Anyway - we will probably get the tree up on Sunday. Shopping is almost finished and another year is almost gone.

Getting ready for Christmas

I went off to do my big Costco Christmas shop yesterday - so that started to feel a bit like Christmas. We don't entertain all that much over Christmas any more - not like we used to. We used to have a big open house party where the house was full of people and food and activity, but we stopped doing it a number of years ago. I think once the kids start to have kids of their own then the Christmas activity will start up again. But I think it will be quite a few years yet before that happens. But I thought I should post a couple of Christmasy quilty things.


This is not quilty but it is a small Christmas wall hanging that Jessica made when she was about 8 years old - so that would be 20 years ago now - and it is always sitting over the fireplace. I just love it.


These next two wall hangings were made by a girlfriend who I introduced to quilting. She quilted up a storm every year for Christmas for a number of years and gave me some wonderful things - table runners, placemats, aprons etc. Then she had children and had to slow down on the quilting. I'm sure she will go back to quilting once the kids are not needing so much time.

I have never quilted anything for Christmas (except the Christmas stockings) but I really like having the little quilted things to put up and around the house, it make the house much more festive. I think I would have made a Christmas item or two except my friend sent me so many different Christmasy things that I never needed to make any myself. We have not put up the tree yet - we will do that next weekend, so I will post a couple of tree pictures then. We usually put the tree up the weekend before Christmas and take it down New Years Day. The kids come over and drink eggnog and watch their mum decorate the tree!! They used to help with it but now they just like to watch. Jim puts up the tree and the lights and does help with the decorating a bit - he doesn't like to put on the tinsel - which is a very important part of the decoration.

I have to go off to the stores again today, a few more things only to do and a couple of packages to mail off and a couple of Christmas parties yet to go to this week. Next week I am working so I will not be able to do much next week -- and I do not go to any stores on the weekends or the last 4 days before Christmas -- already the stores are getting way too busy for me. Not much for me to get in the stores now and I pretty much stick to a short list - go in, buy, get out.

Last year Eric gave me a massage (Thai Massage) for Christmas and I am going to go have the massage today -- see what that is all about. I have never had a massage, so I am a little unsure if I will actually like someone rubbing oil on me - I don't know how relaxing I will find it.

New Chair

 

 

This is a bit of a test post. I was able to post this picture from Picasa by shutting off the backlinks as recommended by Blog help. Still can't see the darn thing though. I am not sure what it means to have the backlinks turned off, but that was what was suggested to do. Can you tell I am a bit obsessive about this!!

This is a picture of the new chair - so nice a comfortable. Sofa picture to follow. This is our Christmas present this year. I must get back to quilting!! I have a Christmas stocking to make yet and it is the 9th of December.

A baby quilt started

I bought this quilt kit at my last guild meeting (although I changed the colour of the nine patch from white and green to gold and green). I thought if the nine patches were white and green there would be too much white. The bunny fabric is quite cute.

Someone was selling all the kit for $10.00 - including the backing and binding. I have a neighbour who is expecting her first baby next May so I decided I would make a baby quilt for the baby. I started sewing it on the new featherweight -- which is working quite well - except after a few rows when I was disconnecting the plug from the wall the plug end came away from the cord - I was planning to take it in for a tune up anyway so I guess it will be sooner rather than later. I really like the little machine. The inside of the case has a bit of a musty odor - which is getting better as it is sitting in the garage airing out - if anyone has odor removal suggestions. But the machine is fine and at first had a bit of a musty smell but it went away quite nicely with a bit of a cleaning and I shined it up with a bit of lemon oil as well.

Still with this post the picture is showing up as a bunch of code when I am creating the post - I find this a little disturbing - I can not see the picture at all until I Preview or Post - I wonder if this is happening to everyone or just to me.

Also I had been having trouble with my Quilting 4 Pleasure blog ring icon as well - unbeknownst to me of course, so I have been off and on the ring for the past few days. And my new little icon seems to be working but it is different, not the same little quilt patch. And also unbeknownst (apparently that is not a word) my email setting had changed when I switched over to Beta. Of course I was looking under the wrong spot to change it and thought it was there but it has to be changed under "Profile" not the other setting. Ahhh the frustations of technology. But it is amazing how much more about computers and codes and such I know now that I started this blog.

I also heard about an interesting blog the other day on CBC radio. It is by a 93 year old fellow. Don to Earth He is from Canada - doesn't own a computer but posts his blog on a regular basis from an internet cafe. He lives in Toronto and there has a little entry about him in Wikipedia

So I guess if Don can do it - I must get over my little frustrations with the beta blogger.

We are back and tired

What a busy weekend it was in Calgary. 17 people all together in three hotel rooms - trooping through the streets of Calgary (the trooping was through the Plus 15's actually) to go for meals and such. The younger generation were up late each night - swimming in the pool and playing various games. I think a great time was had by all but it was very tiring!!



I got this package of Dear Jane stuff just before we left for Calgary. I wanted to get a couple of more packages of the freezer paper for the printer - it is great to have for the Dear Jane quilt as well as it could be used for lots of other things. One day I would like to do some of the Linda Franz diamonds as well.

I of course thought if I was going to be ordering a couple of packages of freezer paper I should make it worth while and get a few more items. There is now some fabric that can be ordered from the website - so I got a fat quarter selection and then I thought I needed a Dear Jane bag for carrying all my Dear Jane stuff -- Of course I'm right on that one.

It seems so strange to be away from quilting and blogging for so long - we got back late on Sunday and then off to work both Monday and Tuesday. I was very tired on Monday. I am working a night shift tonight and we are supposed to be getting the new sofa today. I think this year all in all enough money has been spent -- time to get back to frugal spending now. I think I should be going on a fabric diet!!

The blogger seems to be having a few picture issues this morning. I have added a picture that is just showing up as text in the post box but it seems when I go to the Preview post it does show up as a picture - kind of strange and a little difficult to type around. I still am not happy 100% with the way the new blogger works. I sure hope they fix the issues soon. It is much more work to post and comment on posts then it was with the old blogger. Maybe I should send them an email.

Going off to Calgary for a few days

Just a quick post. We have had another bit of snow here and the drive home from work last night was quite slow and a bit treacherous (to say the least). But --- we are flying off to Calgary for the weekend today and hopefully the drive to the airport will be uneventful! We will be back on Sunday so I will be off for awhile. It is my parents 50th wedding anniversary on Friday and Jim's 50th birthday the same day. So a bit of celebration will be happening in Calgary (if we can get there)!!

More Weather Woes

First off here is the close up picture for Melzie of the little handmade house on the wall in my quilting room. A friend of mine and her children made it for me one year for Christmas. It is made of wood and pine cones and seashells and bits of things. It is quite cute and has been hanging in my quilting room for a few years now.


So the wonderful west coast has had another weather system storm through -- this time SNOW!! It started snowing on Saturday night and this is what it looked like this morning. And of course we have been without power since last night at 11PM. It was darn cold - the power came back on about 3:30 this afternoon, for that I am happy that we don't have to spend another night without power. Norma from Silver Thimble Quilting
has much worse weather out her way and hopefully she is okay and has power.

And lastly -- here is the other thing that hangs on the wall in my quilting room. It is an Elvis Presley hip shaking clock that Andrew brought me home from Graceland in 1997. He was 11 and my mum and him went to Memphis to see Graceland (both big Elvis fans) and I asked him to bring me back some sort of tacky touristy thing from Graceland and this is what I got. I just love it - straight from Graceland.

Clean sewing room and I bought myself a Christmas present

I spent all day yesterday cleaning up my little sewing room. I was quite despondent about it at first but once I got going I was quite happy with the results. Before picture click here . I also sorted out and cleaned up the book shelves that can't be seen in this picture. I was very busy and I feel like I can go in there and sew now. It was really starting to pile up and feel like I didn't even want to go in there. I also - if you can believe - did not have a scrap box. I would just put the scrap bits of fabrics in different spots and in different piles on my shelves. So I made one of the bottom drawers of my little plastic cart as a scrap bin. I think today I am going to go buy another little plastic cart to hold things like my Dear Jane stuff (which is sitting in containers in the TV room).



The reason I decided to clean up my sewing room is because I bought myself a Christmas present!!

Every November our quilt guild has a sewing room sale and people sell their crafts and clean out their sewing room and sell various fabrics, ribbons, craft supplies that are cluttering up their sewing room. And someone at the guild had their neighbours featherweight sewing machine for sale. I have really wanted a featherweight, I have been searching them out online for the past year or so. Most of them are for sale in the U.S. and the prices seem to be in the $400.00 or so range American. This little machine has the case, manual, and a whole bunch of bobbins and extra feet. It was $400.00 - Canadian. So impulsively I bought it!! It is in really good shape - sews really well. I will take it in to the Singer shop for a bit of a check over and an oil. The machine was built in 1954-55 in Elizabethtown, New Jersey and spent most of it's life in Guatemala being used to sew clothes for a family. The woman who's mother's machine it was had a little note on the handle of the case. I am so happy to have bought it. But it was a bit impulsive. Oh well - it's only money.

The Power is back and Fabric in the Mail

The power came back on Monday and 15 minutes to 6 PM!! We were without power for 5 1/2 days. It was an interesting learning experience. If it happens again we discovered there are some things we can do better, but all in all we managed fairly well. I read a book that I had been wanting to read for awhile now - and I had not been reading as much because of my Dear Jane quilting in the evening instead of reading. I read "The Da Vinci Code" . It was an interesting book. I enjoyed it, as I do like a good murder mystery and have read most of the Elizabeth George murder mystery books.

I got my package of fabric from the Reproduction Fabrics this week as well. That was exciting.


This is a stack of 20 fat quarters for my Dear Jane quilt. I really don't need fat quarter size pieces for that quilt but I have another quilt in mind that I can use the left overs for.



This is a small sample selection of Den Haan and Wagenmakers chinzt fabric. It has a slight waxy coating on it and I was thinking it would be great to make a nice bag out of this fabric. Otherwise beside just loving the chintz I have no plans for it yet. Suggestions always welcome. This fabric is quite expensive. $35.00 for the 9 pieces that are not as big as fat quarters. The fabric is about $30.00 per yard.

And last but certainly not least is some assorted chintz fabric - 1/2 yard cuts. This was only $8.50 per yard. I just love the fabric and I think I will collect a bit more before I decide what I want to do with it. I'm sure it will sit lovingly washed and folded in my fabic cupboards for a number of years before I can bear to cut it up!!

Terrible Storm

I am just able to briefly check in today. We have had a terrible storm here in Vancouver and the power has been off to our entire community since Wednesday. Trees and powerlines are down everywhere. We have had a little generator running the freezer and a couple of lights and a small fan for the fireplace. The whole thing is starting to get quite tiring and we are supposed to get power back today, but another storm is happening right now - so it is hard to know if the power workers will be able to get things back up today. I have been able to get a brief bit of computer use this morning.

I did get to go to my retreat - but I didn't work on my planned Japanese project because I had not managed to gather it all together in the dark of my sewing room. It has been very dark here, and cold, and no hot water.

Hopefully the power does come back today and I can catch up on all my blogging -- funny how you miss it.

My new quilting project

I received a pattern in the mail from Jenni at Fairybreads a couple of weeks back and I think I am ready to start working on it. It is a pattern that she found in a Japanese quilting magazine and she kindly sent me a copy (hopefully the copyright police will not come and arrest me). It is a simple but stunning quilt. The instructions are all in Japanese but I know a couple of people that can speak and read Japanese if I need some assistance with translation.


I bought some fabric today to go with a bit of Amy Butler fabric I have purchased. I am not sure if this is what I want to use because I don't want it to look like an "Amy Butler" wall hanging.

I have a collection of Japanese fabric that might be an idea. I also have a collection of brights and bolds and some Jane Sassaman fabric - that might look good.

I am going to a "Quilting by the Bay" retreat on Saturday - which is when I am planning to start the quilt, so I still have a few more days to decide.

This is the second time I am typing out this post. The jury is still out on this new beta blogger. There are some better things about it - but there are some downsides as well. I have to re-log in all the time, it doesn't remember me even when I check the "remember this password". I used to have a system with the Picasa2 which worked for me and I am not able to upload pictures with the Picasa2 any longer. I did use the Photobucket and that seemed to work well. I guess there still are a few issues to work out - and I shouldn't complain, it is a free program.

This is a test post

This is my latest Dear Jane block -- A-5 Cathie's Campfire.

This is mostly a test post - I finally switched over to Beta Blogger. Testing, testing, 1,2,3, ------ Have I ever mentioned that I hate change. I have driven to work the exact same way for 15 years (with one change of route because of bridge repairs). I probably change lanes in the same spots each time. This will be a stressful I think. I tried to post this from Picasa2 - my preferred method of posting - and I was unsuccessful, which has happened before. So now I will try again......... okay I am going to press that button!!!

Two different looks - or can you tell the difference?

I am wondering about the different bias strips on the wall hanging. I showed the pictures to my husband and he couldn't see what was different about them. When I pointed out the burgundy strip/blue strip on the centre curve he decided he preferred the blue.



I was looking for a bit of a boldness and thought the burgundy was a good idea but I think I prefer the blue as well. I think I might embelish this quilt with beads or something so that could be my boldness or sparkle. Plus there is the sparkle of the gold ribbon.



Any opinions out there? I have just a couple more bias strips to sew on and then I can layer it. I am starting to like it. The big wave at the bottom is green velvet - hard to see in the photo and I put a decorative stitch around the edge instead of bias strips, which would have been very difficult to put on with the tight waves. 

Remembrance Day

Jim's Dad - who fought in World War Two -- Bomber Command RCAF
Jim's Uncle Doug - who fought in World War Two - Infantry in Holland

Today we remember all the soldiers past and present who fought and gave their lives for freedom and peace. May we have peace in the world. And remember their sacrafice for us all.