Things have to look up soon, right?? And random stuff.

 I bought a layer cake.  Well, actually I bought a lot more than a layer cake, but we'll leave it at that shall we?  At least this goes with a border print that's been in my stash for many years, AND I have a pattern that will work with all this stuff.  So it's good!  Well, except for the part where I'm not supposed to be buying fabric.  Ahem.

Even Coco thinks some of DH's t-shirts should go in the trash bag.

The last couple of weeks have been interesting. 

WEDNESDAY Aug. 23rd: I was half way through this quilt.  Then BAM the hydro went out while the quilting machine and the computer were all turned on.  No more work that day because the hydro stayed out until 8:30 pm.

THURSDAY 24th:  Quilting equipment was acting weird and kind of schizophrenic so I reached out to my support team.  They gave me a couple of suggestions which did not help.   Blecch.   Then 9:30 pm BAM the hydro goes out again.  And stayed out until 6:30 am, by which time the basement had flooded.  Because of course the generator decided to act like an asshole.

MONDAY 28th:  We had an outdoor guild meeting.  Just a nice social event to catch up and show off our summer stitching work.

TUESDAY 29th:  DH changes the start/stop switch on the quilting machine, and that seems to be the fix.  Yay!  Broken machines are very stressful.  Apparently the first hydro outage fried that little sucker.

FRIDAY Sept 1st:  I get an email from one of the guild members who was at the Monday get together.  Uh huh, she'd just tested positive for covid.

SATURDAY 2nd:  We had 1-800-LUKE and his wife here for dinner.  I spilled a whole mug of fresh HOT tea in her lap.  Oh, dear God.

SUNDAY 3rd:  The internet is out A.L.L.  D.A.Y.  Puhleeze... people can't live like that!!

Have you been reading news stories about how fast fashion is not sustainable and is really bad for the environment?  You may rest assured that that does not apply to me.

I made a lovely batch of Peach Marmalade.  One of the recipes without added pectin, where you have to watch the temperature and when the jam gets to a certain temperature it's ready to put into jars.  Uh huh...after I gave away two jars I decided to have some myself on toast.  Oy vey...that stuff is hard as a rock.

Hong Kong Nights Quilt & Donation Quilts (2019 personal challenge)

This quilt is realllly big.  I had to tip the tablet cattywampus to get a pic.

The maker used a beautiful collection of Asian prints for the blocks.

And I absolutely love the corner triangle she added.  That provides such an interesting touch.

Oddly enough, those print blocks are all cut on the bias.  I was really impressed that they were not stretched out of square when the 3-d flange was added to them, and then additional sashing too.  She's a really, really good piecer. ⭐
The setting triangles were a design challenge for me.  When you actually LOOK at them, they're not triangles, they have a square block inserted at the top.

Backs are so lovely...

2019 PERSONAL CHALLENGE
Last December, I set a personal challenge for myself to complete at least five quilts for donation.  I had such a collection of panels - that was where I started. 
When the contents of my Donation Box were counted up and there were SEVEN ...pretty darned pleased with myself. 👍

AND, the gal who pieced the Hong Kong Nights quilt above, brought along five small quilts that she wanted to donate.  She was happy to have me add them to my collection.

On Thursday last week I delivered all twelve quilts to the Caledonia & District Food Bank for inclusion in their Christmas hampers, then I treated myself to an afternoon out and lunch with a friend. 

Tobermory Retreat Recap & Technology Mixed With Idiots & Scammers

I abandoned hubby for six days - he and the dog were feeding each other kibbles and bits for a week.  Although, a friend took pity on him and had him over for a roast beef dinner mid-week so he didn't starve.

I played THREAD CHICKEN and won.

The railing with completed projects.  This is always such a satisfying pic!  Debbie definitely took the prize this year - completing all those wee monthly quilts.  So cute.

Of course, cocktails.

I work on my Double Wedding Ring for one day every year.  The Tobermory cottage is a great space for it.  This year, to my horror, I discovered that I used bad math when I had the pieces cut several years ago by a quilting buddy, using her GO die cutter.  The quilting buddy has fallen off the face of the earth, and of course I no longer have any of that white fabric.  (Non-quilters may not realize that there are a zillion different fabric versions of white, so yes, this will show in the end.)  I threw in the towel around 3:00, poured a glass of wine and curled up on the couch with a book, nursing my angst.

This is the top I pieced, I managed to get it quilted and bound this week.  So girly.  I used up lots of strips that I have been collecting through the Strippers Club at the Caledonia Guild.

Now we wait until Winterruption for our first retreat of 2020.

TECHNOLOGY MIXED WITH IDIOTS & SCAMMERS

Dear God.  Did you see this story?

Attempted sextortion leads to call for stricter phone porting rules

I do feel great sympathy for the idiot.  His cell phone number was stolen.  Once the scammer accomplished that, he gained access to the idiot's emails, personal files, credit cards, and (of course) his personal sex tapes.
Why do men think they need to make sex tapes of themselves and their partners?  Why does ANYONE think they need to have nudie photos of themselves and/or their partners on their phones?  Do they get bored while they're standing in line at Starbucks and think "hmm, maybe I'll pull up one of my sex tapes and jerk off while I'm waiting for my Grande Mocha Latte"?  Or, in a boring meeting at the office do they decide to get the conversation started by showing pics of their former girlfriend's boobs?  Seriously.  Get a life, idiots.
This fella has admittedly compromised his own reputation, but Dear God, also the poor people who were intimate with him.  They will be on pins & needles for the rest of their lives, wondering if and when their pics/videos will be shared all over the web.

Not that anyone cares what I think... but my suggestion would be that you don't take photos and keep them on your cell phone or send them up to the cloud.  Really.  Simple.

Progress on the To-Do List, and Random Stuff

As you can see, I am making some headway on my list of "things intended to keep me amused" for two weeks.

That pantry job took waaay longer than expected.  Several  years ago, well ok - more like a decade ago, I bought hanging files to try and get myself better organized with paperwork.  I set up folders for every month.  And folders for "vacation", and folders for research for Mom - first for Retirement Homes and then later for Long Term Care Homes.  There were folders for banking and folders for paperwork that I needed to read.  And more folders for ... more stuff.  That THING was taking up about a foot and a half of shelf space.  Not only was it not serving the purpose it was intended for, I also piled more junk on top of it.  Junk which was always falling down, and then I'd swear, and have to pick it all up off the floor.  Well.  You can probably see what the problem was.  That one job took several hours because I had to go through all that STUFF.  I burned a ton of paperwork in the fireplace - things with names and/or account numbers.  Another ton of paperwork junk went in the recycle bin.  I was left with a tiny, tiny pile of "stuff" that I think I need to keep.

Here's the table topper, with quilting AND binding complete.  Those inside miters were a challenge.

Next week (hopefully) I will show you the Chic Picnic with quilting and binding complete.  The quilting is done and the binding is on.  It is just a matter of finishing the hand stitching.

Now we can move on to the Random Stuff.

• My dog, darling Sadie, has been on Prednisone for many months.  She licks and licks, for no apparent reason, until her skin is raw.  The vet thinks it's allergies, and prednisone keeps that issue down to a dull roar, but I know it's not good for her.  Now that dope (?) is legal here in Canada I wanted to get her some CBD oil to see if that would calm her down and I could reduce the steroid intake.  Technically in Ontario we are only allowed to "order" cannabis products from "the Government Store" (isn't there a song about that???).  But there are medical marijuana shops all over the place.  The cops will occasionally go in and bust everybody, confiscate all the product, and next thing you know the store is back open.  Anyhow...DH and I were driving down Upper James St. in Hamilton, when he whips his head around and says "isn't that a pot shop?".  Well yes, yes it is.  It is very well hidden from the cops by the BIG NEON SIGN out front.  So I turned the car around and zipped into the parking lot.  OMG.  What a sketchy place.  I'm glad I wasn't alone.  But they DID have CBD oil, so Sadie's been getting 2 drops per day - one at noon and one at bedtime for two weeks.  I've reduced the prednisone from 3 pills to 2 pills and so far, so good.  Now I smile at her and call her "my dopey dog".  ha ha ha.
• A super-nice woman in town loaned us a dog magazine because it had an article about dogs and CBD oil.  Well, there was a fun article in there about making dog beds from old tires.  Seriously???  Yup.  Here's a link - now you too can go down the rabbit-hole of weird internet things.  hah... see you next week. 😀
• I've recently been muttering to myself about how I never get comments on my blog and only a few remarks on facebook when I put up a new blog post.  Well, hell.  There were a dozen comments sitting on Blogger waiting to be approved by me, going back several months.  I apologize to you commenters!  Blogger used to send a notification when comments came in but apparently that's been discontinued.  I will pay more attention.  I promise.
• As I mentioned, I'm cutting my workload down a little bit so I'll have more (ahem) leisure time.  I have started to make up quilt kits with patterns that I want to make.  HERE is the latest one that I've saved to make with the three charm packs I bought at Missouri Star Quilt Company in 2017.  I also still have, from that same trip, 2 MORE charm packs and two layer cakes that I haven't done anything with yet.  geez Louise - stop buying fabric!!!

I hope the New Year's Baby brings us all peace, love, joy, and money in 2019.  See you next year!!

Favorite Block, Sweet Friends, Garden/Zucchini Update & recipes

No, I have not finished the quilt I showed you last week.  I'm still plugging away at it.  If I could get DH to refresh his memory on how to use either the vacuum or the hoe I might make quicker progress.  However, if he DID get out the hoe, I'd be a little worried about his aim when he got near the zucchini plants.
I will tease you with what I think is my favorite block so far.  I love Dresden Plates.

As far as sweet friends go... Margaret occasionally sends me squishy parcels.  Those are the BEST things to find in your mailbox.  If you need to cheer up a quilty friend for some reason, or just remind someone that you're thinking of them this is a great way to do it.  It's much better than getting another hydro bill in the post.

This was the harvest on Thursday morning.  As of yesterday the cucumbers started to outnumber the zucchinis, so it's a good thing I planted a small variety.  They're bigger than pickling cukes but smaller than conventional ones.  And it's easier to give them away too.  I had two offers of zucchini politely declined by people this week.  Bummer.

ZUCCHINI REPORT

Picked this week:  16
Picked YTD:         41
Gave away:           5

Zucchini recipe of the week:  Zucchini Fritters, link HERE.  I served these with Curried Tomato Preserves.  I like to try something new most years during canning season  and that tomato recipe was a huge hit for me.  I'm definitely making more this year.  link HERE.  

Sensational Solids and Wonderful Winnings

This beauty went home yesterday.

The slightly paler yellow in the wide outer borders is linen.  Very soft, and makes for a beautiful quilt.  On the down side, I found it a bit 'shifty' - think flannel or homespuns.  I suspect it would have been more challenging to piece with too, because of the loose weave.

The maker is giving this to her brother, so she didn't want "girly" quilting, and since music is his hobby that's what went in the wide borders.

Because the cross-hatching was interrupted by the squares, I chose to mark the quilting lines.  And I'm a big scaredy-cat when it comes to worrying about permanent stains.  I used tailor's chalk.  No muss, no fuss, brush or vacuum away.

An added service I offer is binding.  See the "PRICING" page for options.

WONDERFUL WINNINGS

The Caledonia Guild finished out the season on Wednesday with a pot luck supper.  All year the members have been bringing fat quarters for the year-end draw.  Each f.q. = 1 ballot.  The collection totalled 100 f.q.'s, so the pile was split in half and two winners were chosen.  Guess who won a pile of 50 f.q.'s?

GARDEN UPDATE

The asparagus is slowing down, but the strawberries are ready.

Canada Quilts, Red Hats in the Rain...rain...rain, the Potty Incident

Three great Canada quilts for the kids in this gal's family.
#1

#2

#3

This is (ahem) MINE.  When I was at Quilt Canada last week I bought the license plate panel, then came home and made up a quickie for the front door.  Now to get it bound and actually hang it on the front door.

Yesterday was Red Hat day.  Our outing was to Whistling Gardens.  Our admission included a tour and the water fountains choreographed to music.  What fun!  In the pouring rain!

It wasn't really pouring during the show.  But it was definitely raining.

We got in about an hour of the tour but gave up when it started to rain.  We decided to have our lunch early in the picnic area.  Do you see the rain pouring down?  Thank goodness for the tented picnic area.

It managed to stop raining in time for us to head over to Hewitts Dairy in Hagersville for ice cream.  A perfect finish to our day.

Aah, the Potty Incident.  That mirror, which used to hang above the sink, belonged to mom.  I kept it when she had to move into assisted living.  Why her spirit decided to fling it off the wall last night is beyond me, but I sure hope the "seven years of bad luck" thing is just a rumour.

Destashing - FABRIC FOR SALE - CHEAP!!

Once upon a time there was no quilt shop in Caledonia.  I was the only local place where you could come and get some emergency fabric.  Then Barb opened a quilt shop and I stopped, for the most part, selling fabric.  Then Barb's stock was sold to Sue, and then Sue sold to Lauranne, and then Lauranne closed.  So that is the history of quilt shops in Caledonia, as I know it.

Moving on... I am destashing.  I have so much fabric, I will never use it all if I live to be 100 years old.  Those of you who follow me on Instagram or Facebook have seen these posts floating by for the past couple of weeks.  It has all been either $7 or $8 per m.  (One m. is 39" for those of you in the USA.)  And I'm not done yet, there will be more to come.

Contact me if you want any of this stuff.  There is an email link on the right hand side-bar.  No you don't have to take the whole bolt.
SHIPPING TO USA OR CANADA:  I WILL LIMIT THE SHIPPING COST TO $10.00 FOR UP TO 5 M. OF FABRIC.  If you are purchasing more than that you'll have to pay the full shipping.

A couple pantos and ... what? More fabric?

This is a wonderfully cozy, flannel quilt.

Quilted with a holly panto - it should be ready in plenty of time for Christmas.

Ooh, a Sampler quilt in Blue & White.  Yum!

Quilted with a great feather-ey/paisley panto.

I should not be allowed to go on field trips to "help a friend" find fabric.  The only one who found fabric was me.  Not even one full month into the new year yet, either.  Perhaps I should pretend I was celebrating Chinese New Year?

The preponderance of red & white fabrics will help me with my 150 Canadian Women quilt. 

Decorating 101 for Longarm Quilters

Step 1:  Put a Christmas quilt and Christmas pillowcases on the bed.

Step 2:  Put a Christmas quilt on the other bed in the guest room.

Step 3:  Put a Christmas quilt on the couch.

Step 4:  Hang a Christmas panel in the workroom.  For sale.  $10.00 each. 23.5" x 42".  Call or email me if you want one. 🎄