Mom & Lecture/workshop/retreat

Mom still likes to party on a beautiful day. Back many years ago that used to involve much beer. Now, it's yogurt. Note to self: call the home today and see if upper dentures have been found in the laundry. Note to YOU: if you want to do something nice for your mom, just take her out for a walk on a lovely day. Give her the gift of your time (and maybe a yogurt parfait from McDonalds).

I have been booked by the Buckhorn Guild to do my dog & pony show (slide show of the Tokyo Great International Quilt Festival). After the meeting I will be leading a workshop on fabric postcards. I'm staying with my friend Margaret (of the Kawartha Margarets) for the whole week (yippee!!!). Anne and Sue will be joining us on Thursday. The menus are planned and the toenails are painted (beach weather - OMG, how great is that!). Sayonara 'till Sunday.

Sampler Quilt & HMCS Haida

Here are some pics of a sampler quilt I was working on last week. Beautiful, batiks.

Thursday was Red Hat day. Christine arranged for us to visit the warship HMCS Haida with a personal tour by a friend of hers. WOW. Definitely the most interesting thing I've seen in a long time. From the torpedo chutes to the engine room to the teeny little kitchen where meals for 200 men were prepared. Our tour guide was a former seaman who worked on ships similar to this one. Watching him hoist his (age 70-ish???) body into one of the hammocks where they slept made me wonder if he threw his back out. His personal story of watching the cook cut the green fuzzy off the ham before he boiled it took me back to my younger days of apartment-living. heh, heh, heh. They had a daily allotment of one shot of rum, which they all lined up for. It was an excellent day out.

Quilts of Valour & mini-break

Sadly, Canada has lost a couple more soldiers overseas. I finished up this quilt for the Quilts of Valour program. If you have some spare fabric (and I'm pretty sure you do...) or a quilt top hanging around with no intended home (this is pretty likely, too) consider contacting a longarm quilter in your area. Or check the website.

This past weekend DH and I went to Niagara Falls for a mini-break. This was a birthday gift for DH from my brother & s.i.l. Sadie also got a mini-break and had a sleepover with my brother. On our way to deliver Sadie, I went to the bank while DH filled the car with gas. Since we were holidaying he got a car wash too. Sadie has never been through a car wash. Now she's experiencing post-traumatic-stress-disorder and has NO plans to EVER go through a car wash again. I promised her that in retaliation, I would take DH on the Maid of the Mist.

He didn't cheer up again until I fed him a nice hunk of cow.A photo of the first thing a man always does in a hotel room.If you're looking for a nice little mini-break, check out these great deals.

Quilting & Volunteering at the Local Museum

Here is a little selection of quilts for you quilt junkies.
Dresden Plate.
This got the Feather treatment.
Log Cabin. I love the way this has been set.
Jane Sassaman fabric.
My muse. Wonderful fabric designs brighten up my whole day.
Twice a year I volunteer for the Victorian Tea at Edinburgh Square Heritage & Cultural Centre. Not only do I spend the day serving tea & coffee and washing dishes from 39 lunches, I make one dozen egg salad sandwiches. I thought some of my kitchen horror stories would scare them off asking me to contribute food, but no such luck.


Double layer, crusts removed, cut into four - corner to corner. Go easy on the seasonings. Most of the ticket holders are in their 70's and 80's and try to one-up each other with their digestive troubles.
Stack maximum two sandwiches high to wrap. Egg salad oozing out between the layers is not very attractive on the tray.
Cleanup crew. Warning - do not overfeed egg salad to cleanup crew. Gaseous explosion may result.

Needing the fingers of BOTH hands to count

Back in high school (many, many, many years ago) I was very good in math. Now it appears I cannot keep count. Two mostly identical postcards - one with 5 candles, one with 6 candles. ??? Anyone???
The latest member of Sadie's Playpen Cleanup Crew. It even sweeps up it's own grass clippings.My brother picked up Mom on Sunday, then they came over to get me and we went out for a nice Mother's Day lunch. Mom thought it was her birthday. She was missing her top teeth, and was wearing her slippers instead of her shoes (it seems our standards get lower the closer we get to 90) but boy, she really enjoyed her pierogies. I love my mom.

Goldilocks & the Three Beds

Too HARD.

Too DAMP.

Aaaah, JUST RIGHT.

Quilt Pics & Big Winning News

I'm catching up on some photos of quilts completed recently.
Batik #1 quilted with freehand curly flower design.

Batik #2 quilted with pantograph "Flambeau"

Sampler quilted with pantograph "Flying Paisley"
I found out on Saturday that the quilt competition I entered back in January has garnered me a second place prize. Woo Hoo!!! $600 worth of product from Circle Lord. Here's a link. A huge thank you to everyone who voted for me.