Working Like DOGS!

Geeze…I wonder where that expression came from?…Certainly not from around here..the only ones NOT working are the mutzos!  Oh they may raise their heads once in awhile as we carry and drag furniture by them…disturbing their morning/afternoon/evening siestas on the couch in the family room…It’s more like~ Ahhh it’s a dog’s life, at least around here!

For the third consecutive night I have gone to bed moaning and groaning…hmmmmmm… let me expand on THAT one…moaning and groaning in sheer agony!!  The old body sure can’t take a little work…not like it use too!

I was hoping to show pictures of a completed sewing room but alas…we have at least ONE more day of dragging and hauling…packing and unpacking, folding and unfolding, sorting and resorting…you get the idea!  It is, after all, a sewing room!  Rome was not built in a day…

But what I can show you is my favourite piece of furniture in the sewing room.  Yup…it’s an ironing board!

My husband made it for me about eight years ago…yes, I know…other women get diamonds and jewels…I get an IRONING BOARD and I still LOVE it!! It’s perfect for ironing quilt tops and large pieces.  I can change the cover in minutes as the top comes right off…I just wrap the fabric and staple underneath.  The top part of the table stays in place as you place it into the grooves.  And just look at the storage…I will show you the other side tomorrow…(would you believe my battery died!)  Oh and the other good thing about this ironing board is that hubby made it the perfect height for me..and it is on rollers!!  I love that I can roll it anywhere I want to…Yes, my hubby knows the way to a quilter’s heart is not with diamonds and jewels!  haha

Ok…enough about the ironing board…today we have more furniture to move, more fabric to sort, more…of everything!  Oh and what a mess the old sewing room is!!  Where does one start??  Maybe if the mutts got off the couch and helped things would get done just a little bit faster…but we KNOW that’s not going to happen!:o) 

Hey, don’t growl at ME!

Have a thrilling Thursday and Happy Quilting!~P

Whip-it-into-Shape-Wednesday!

Tackling it Tuesday worked…we tackled that flooring one more time…albeit it was new flooring (we returned the other stuff!) and got ‘er done!!  The new sewing room is starting to take shape and looks incredible! 

Hubby amazed me..as soon as we finished putting down the floor, he whipped over to Rona and bought the baseboards and had them all mitered and ready to nail while I made dinner!

Hmmmm…looks kind of small, doesn’t it?  Maybe we should be knocking out that left wall??…(:o}

So today I am hoping to whip it all into shape!  First I need to paint the baseboards, which should be easy as they aren’t nailed down yet.

Then I can start to move my sewing stuff in…YIKES!!  I thought this would be the fun part but, man, there is a lot of stuff to move!  And I don’t want all the unnecessary crap going back in…you know…things like magazines that you have been saving for a million years!! 

So last night, I started to go through those magazines…and out of about 40 magazine this is what I am saving…(yes, I pulled the patterns out of the magazines and they will go into plastic sleeve covers and put into binders). 

I have loved this quilt for years and years…would you believe..Quiltmaker July/Aug ‘97!

And this one…McCall’s Quilting Vintage Quilts…yup…still lovin’it!!

Just lately I am appreciating the Bear’s Paw block…this is from the same magazine, McCall’s Quilting Vintage Quilts ‘98.

See…do you see an obsession starting…I will file these two together…this one is designed by Kelly Corbridge…(no magazine name or year on the bottom of the page!)

There was no pattern for this bowtie quilt…but it’s from 1994 and it was designed by Shirley Botsford.  I love the way they have finished this bow tie quilt off.

I am filing this one away in the binder that’s labeled ‘Future Grand Babies’…just in case…(Found in Fons and Porter Fall 2007)

 

This one would be perfect made from all those 30’s fabrics that I bought at Monica’s GS this winter…it’s called ‘Cherries Jubilee’ and can be found in Quilt Magazine (what.. no date!!)  The designer is Karen DuMont.

Be still my heart!!  I have wanted this pattern ever since someone out in blogland made this beauty!!  And here I had the pattern all along or at least from Aug 2003 (American Patchwork and Quilting).  It’s a Jo Morton design…lovin’it!!! 

So from forty magazines, I have a wee stack of patterns…to be sleeved and organized into binders.  I’m liking this…a lot!  Why didn’t I do this YEARS ago?? 

What about YOU?…WHAT’S IN YOUR…MAGAZINES?

Now I only have about 200 more magazines to go through…and that’s no exaggeration!  But I will get ‘er done because it’s…Whip-it-into-Shape-Wednesday!!  Yeah!

I hope you have your own wonderful Whip-It Wednesday and Happy Quilting!~P

Tackling Tuesday…

The sewing room flooring came to a screeching halt yesterday…we could not get the wood laminate boards to snap together!!  Sheesh…we tried everything but there was always a little gap in the middle of the board!  In the end we decided to stop…and regroup today!!  I think the boards are going back to the store…or at least that’s the way we were leaning last night!  This is our third room at working with wood laminate so we know (sorta’:) what we are doing…

But onto more pleasant thoughts…

How about Quiltmaker’s new 100 Blocks magazine out now…FINALLY in Canada!  All blocks in the magazine are 12” blocks so that you can team them up and change them around and hopefully they will all snap together without any gaps!

  

Here were the highlights for me…a block submitted from our own Arlene Neely, of Rabbit’s Haven.  Arlene is practically a neighbour, living on Mayne Island just off from Vancouver Island!  Sweet, isn’t it?

Love this coneflower design forming a wreath…by Barbara Cherniwhan of Coach House Designs!  This would be a great focal block…or even one of many!

Now wouldn’t Some-Bunny love this on a wee quilt?!  Adorable!!  Designed by Paula Stoddard.

I do love Churn Dash blocks and this one has been kicked up a notch!! Love it!…by Janelle Noack of Country Matters. 

I really liked the tabs on the side (see the four colours on the left of each page) telling us how each quilt is grouped…this one is orange so it’s been pieced!

I also like how there is a section of Quilting Designs…

…and 40 great tips for quilters like me…who need all the help that they can get!

I also like the sections on how to form cute table toppers or quilts with the blocks!

Yup…for only $7.99 (less if you live in USA) we get a lot of bang for our bucks!  It’s a good thing!

And when I wasn’t reading this magazine or fighting with boards, I have been working on this wee table topper!  I am trying to bang this one off…I NEED a finish!  Have you ever looked at your projects and thought that they were NEVER going to reach completion…well that’s how I have been feeling lately!

I’m sure that once this little guy is finished I will feel better…even if he is only 15 inches square!  It will be a FINISH!!

Now if we could only get that floor finished!!  Geeze Louise…just give me a FINISH!!

Have a terrific Tuesday and Happy Quilting!~P

Let Me Entertain YOU…

My husband says Garage Saling is a disease…I say that it’s a form of entertainment!  I mean really, where can you go or what can you do for $1?  I had more fun opening up that DOLLAR bag of sewing stuff than a kid going to a Candy Shop!

Sure there was some crap in the bag…but there were tons of things that were great!  Just look at that thread…we all know how much ONE spool is worth and it’s a lot more than $1!

Vicki T. wrote and told me that she saw these Chadwich hemmers on Ebay…and that they are indeed used for hemming!  I also discovered someone is trying to sell them for $28!!  Yup, they were in that dollar bag…hmmm maybe I will try to sell them?  That WOULD make hubby happy…maybe he wouldn’t consider this a disease after all!!  Anyone want some high quality VINTAGE Chadwich hemmers..for you only $20!!  See we are talking deal!  haha

So Sunday Morning I ‘gently’ reminded hubby that we needed to take the truck and pick up my BIGGER GS finds!  He was quick to REMIND me that two big things in, means two BIG things OUT!  hmmm I remembered our rule…I just can’t decide which two big things?  I will have to think about that one…

Off we went…and it was no easy feat…the TV armoire and leather chair were big, cumbersome and heavy!!  And we had to work around the tow hitch which is bolted to the bottom of the truck.  I have to tell you, hubby took it all in stride…without one word of complaint!

So here they are!!  The armoire is for a TV with storage underneath and the chair is for my ‘new’ sitting room…which is still under construction!  So for now they will stay in the dog house…I mean the garage!

Oh…and did I tell you how much I paid?  Maybe YOU should sit down!  I got them for only $25 each!  That’s less than a pizza! A couple can’t go to the show for this!!  How about dinner out?  Nope can’t do it..well MAYBE MacDonalds…but is that REALLY dinner out? 

So just close those garage doors while I sit a spell…and savour the buy!! heehee…I told you GSing was fun!! 

 

Today my sewing room floor gets put down!!  Then it’s just the baseboards and I can start moving ‘stuff’ in…{insert happy dance!!!}

Have a Magical Monday and Happy Quilting!~P

“SCORE!”

So my plan for Garage Saling in Duncan went out the window yesterday!  Yes, the plan was to go to the Church GS across the highway and then head to town…Never happened!  There were just too many GSs out this way and then I ran out of $$!!  NOW that rarely happens!  Garage Saling is like gambling…when you run out of money you STOP!  It’s my rule! (…unless of course, it’s a Quilter’s Garage Sale then all rules are out the window!)

So I bet you want to see the LOOT!  Now keep in mind that I don’t NEED any of this junk…but…I can use all this stuff easily.:o)

Here’s all the stuff in the foyer!!  All I can say is, it’s a good thing hubby was still in Winnipeg!  I could just see him rolling his eyes and shaking his head…but you know what they say ‘When the cat’s away, the mice will go GSing!’

Let me break it up for you!  Now you have to use your imagination for some of these things…like this bulletin board!  I know it’s got race cars and ugly ribbon on it…BUT the bones are there…I can recover it and put some nice ric rac on and I will have a gorgeous BB for my sewing room!  Can you see it?  $1!!

Jewelry…for  the beads to re-do or to wear as is!!  A little disinfectant and they are good to go!   A sewing ‘mystery’ bag…for $1…should I take a chance?  You bet…the stuff I don’t need can go to the Share Table at the Guild! 

All for a buck!!

The thread in the ziploc can be used…the other thread can go into a pretty glass jar for eye candy!!  Love the old vintage wooden spools!!

LOOK at the bag of old buttons!!

Here’s a sampling~ SCORE!!

Also inside the mystery bag were these mystery clips~ I have no idea what they are for…they look old and have measurements on the side…

My guess is that they are used for hemming…and you use the measurement when you turn up the hem…??  Now this is just a guess…do YOU know what they are used for?

So I think I got my dollars worth…and a large bag is going to Heritage!!

Love this birdhouse…with a Saskatchewan license plate for a roof!  The man wanted $15..I offered $10 and we settled for $12!  GSing is so much fun!!  It’s quite large and will look great out in the garden (after I weed it!!!)

A huge bag of warm and natural batting…for $1.  This stuff will be perfect for making practice sandwiches for machine quilting!

Four vintage rulers…and yes, I have a project in mind!! 

A pair of brushed steel lamps and a matching overhead swag lamp.  They need to be dusted…but got all three for $8 total ..they threw in the dust for free!!

And a pair of brand new (my style) jeans for $2!! (see the corner of them!)

These shirts were all 50 CENTS each…and were going to be added to my shirting bin!  That is until I saw that the pink one and the dotted one on the right are female shirts and look dang cute on!  SCORE!        

So there you have it…this is the small stuff!  Today hubby (yes he got home last night…after EVERYTHING was put away!) and I will take the truck over to one GS place to pick up the BIGGER THINGS!  NOW I remember why I use to drive a van!!  His words…  “NOOOooooooo!!”  Geeze louise…and here I thought he’d be happy that I stayed busy!! haha (Will show you those things at another time!) 

Have a SUNNY Sunday and Happy Quilting!~P

Leftovers…

Last night I had leftovers!  Don’t you just LOVE leftovers…yum!

Here they are…they are the triangles that were leftover from the houses…(you have to cut the corners off to form the peaks.)  Well I’m not going to throw these babies away!!  No sirreee sir!

So I trimmed them…Then I played…

  

Sweet hey!! Today, I’m hoping to stitch these little babies together for a little leftover concoction…stay tuned!

Hubby has been away (his aunt passed away, so he is off to Winnipeg..and I am left at home with the dogs.)…hence all this guilt free quilting!  Yesterday I went looking for a replacement hiker (the dogs aren’t happy with a quickie around the neighbourhood any more!!  sheesh!)…and lookie who I found!!

Remember Sandy, my RVing buddy from down south?   I roped her into going for a hike in the woods…

Here she is, enjoying the views at the end of the trail..and she didn’t even break a sweat!  Next time I’m picking trails with a little more incline!! heeheee

We are so lucky to live in such a beautiful area with hundreds of trails to chose from!  It’s always a miracle when you can find your way back…many of the trails aren’t marked very well so I put down markers all the time to keep from getting lost!!

I also wear a whistle so that I can play a not-so-happy tune for any bears or cougars in our path!  Lately I have noticed several hikers wearing bear bells!  I do have a Christmas Wreath with big jingle bells on it…I could just slip that around my neck and it would make a heck of a racket…yeah…that’s what I’ll wear NEXT time!

Anyways that was yesterday…today I am off GSing…wish me luck!!  No whistles or bells needed here…just a few bucks!

Have a super Saturday and Happy Quilting!~P

The Subdivision in the Country…

Last night I put on a movie and sewed up a storm…adding a few more houses to my growing pile!  Yup, I made a heck of a racket!  The hammer and nails were flying!  These houses are sew easy to do that after awhile you can bang them together in your sleep! 

Here they are…only one more left to do!

Ooops!  The pattern calls for rows of threes…See the bottom middle house..with the striped front…not liking that one so much.  I might just build two more houses and use that one for my label on the back…

 

But then maybe with the addition of windows and a door, he might add some character to the our little subdivision…

 

Yup, I’ll have to play…and see! 

The pattern for this quilt is found in ‘Primitive Gatherings’ by Terry Burkhart and Rozan Meacham.  There are TONS of wonderful patterns in this book!  Anne from ‘Cotton ‘n Wool’ is hosting a ‘Country Homecoming Quilt’ Sew-a-Long…and it’s NEVER too late to join in!  Come on, grab that hammer, a few nails and some fabric...  Shhhh…I kind of worked ahead…we are suppose to be working on block THREE…but that’s OK…those appliquéd doors and windows take time!  Sure hope I can finish block three in time! :o)

Have a FUN Friday and Happy Quilting!~P

RAK (Random Act of Kindness)

OMGosh!!  I have been RAKed BIG time!!  This arrived in yesterday’s mail and it almost knocked me on my seat!!

And just LOOK at what I found inside!!  Japanese Daiwabo Fabrics…SEVEN half yard pieces!! {Happy dance inserted HERE!}  Wow!! WOW! WOW! I was SPEECHLESS…and that rarely happens!

Now if you read my blog on a daily basis, you know that for the past couple of years I have been slowly building up my Daiwabo Fabrics to make the Heart to Hand Autumn Quilt, Heart to Home and Garden Quilts.  These fabrics are not easy to find…and they ain’t cheap!!  You’ll remember that I was thrilled to find 4 or 5 FQ of Daiwabo at the Victoria Quilt Show. 

Well Karen (Yellow Farmhouse Blog) noticed…and dug into her own stash and in a Random Act of Kindness, sent me these!!  So lovely…and not a duplicate in the bunch!  Yup, crazy hey!

Some close-ups for you to savour…but please, no drooling!

Oh my…I’m going to need a towel myself! 

Karen, to say that I love these fabrics is an understatement…your thoughtfulness and generosity is WAY over the top!  THANK YOU SEW MUCH!!

If you don’t know Karen and her wonderful Yellow Farm House Blog then you are missing out BIG TIME!!  She makes incredible quilts and has a ‘peeps quilting group’ that I REALLY want to belong to!  In fact, there is already a Paulette in the group…and she looks an awful lot like ME!!  Do you REALLY think they would notice if we did a switcheroo…kind of like in the movie ‘The Parent Trap’(you know, the old one..with Hayley Mills..)  Hey, Paulette…we need to talk…meet me at summer camp?

Thanks again, Karen!! :o)

Have a thrilling Thursday and Happy Quilting!~P