Seasonal Quilts & Tales From My Boring Life (boring is good)

I quilted these two back in July.  One for Christmas. 

One for fall.

This belongs to a friend of mine, for winter.

This is one of mine that is planned as a Christmas gift.

My life is generally pretty boring and I'm ok with that.  Boring is good!  Boring means you don't have to call your friend and repeat yourself because she can't understand what you're saying while you're crying and hiccupping and blowing your nose.  I actually had a not boring, really FUN week in October, though.

In my last post I mentioned that I was going to see Michael Buble.  He was excellent!  And what's even better, I was in a pretty big arena and did not get covid! I left the next morning to spend a week with the Beach Girls!

I have been watching Only Murders In The Building for the past couple of months.  It's a very entertaining show, with Martin Short, Steve Martin, and Selena Gomez.  Season 2 featured Shirley Maclean, and she was always drinking Cocotinis, so I decided to make Cocotinis my featured cocktail for the girls.  They are quite drinkable. 😋 The cocktail on the show has a layered appearance, showing pink on the bottom so I started with maraschino cherry syrup in the bottom of the glass, then ever-so-gently added the mixed cocktail on top.  I don't know what happened, but I did not get a photo, so you'll have to use your imagination.  I apologize for making you do the work. 

How we entertain ourselves whilst sewing.  Identities have been disguised to protect the innocent.

The only lovely sunset was our final evening, while we were trying to eat up all the leftovers.  Even though we reduced the number of meals we brought this year we STILL had too much food. 

I came home three pounds heavier than I was when I left. I decided to confuse The Universe with reverse psychology.  Fingers crossed that it works.

OMG, those are ridiculously good.  Apple Cinnamon Rolls With Maple Cream Cheese Icing.  People need to stop giving me produce and fruit.  I feel compelled to BAKE something to share with them as a thankyou.

In the week I've been  home I have managed to finally finish the 20 flannel pillowcases for the hospice that took care of my s.i.l. during her last days.

Tomorrow it's back to normal...guild meeting on Monday, quilting work for two weeks, peel the remaining apples and make applesauce, do something with the butternut squashes, plant the garlic, ...

Jungle Walk, Recipes

 This is definitely the CUTEST quilt I've worked on in quite a while.

Jungle Walk by Harebrained Happenings

Here are a few of the blocks...

Today we are celebrating VALENTINES DAY.  Still locked in with the stay-at-home orders, until Tuesday.  Supper tonight will be leftover roast beef, but I'm making a Chocolate Olive Oil Cake for dessert.  This is a new recipe for me.  The Savour Ontario site (apparently I follow them on Instagram?) has never led me astray, so it will probably be very good.  Assuming I don't forget any ingredients which I know happens to all of us once in a while.

Yesterday, being GALENTINES DAY, I had a lovely two hour video cocktail party with the Beach Girls.  If they'd been here for our annual Winterruption get together I would have shared a large jug of Salted Caramel Martinis, but as it was I made a small jug and hic drank it all myself. 

MY THOUGHTS ABOUT POLITICIANS (not that anyone cares what I think...)

In Ontario, the province is getting opened up starting this coming Tuesday.  The government's plan is to transition the Public Health areas into colour coded zones - I think for two weeks at a time. I'm in Haldimand/Norfolk, which is going back to Orange status.  We are surrounded by Niagara on one side - which is going to Grey (really bad!), and Hamilton on the other side which is going to Red (bad!) - both areas keeping MORE restrictions than us because their situations are much worse than ours.  What that means is, like what happened around Christmas, residents of those restricted zones simply get in their car and drive to a more open zone to get whatever they simply cannot live without, which spreads more infection here into our zone.  So, my request to Hamiltonians and Niagrans:  STAY AWAY FROM HERE.  Please.  And thankyou.  The medical officers of health in most of the province think this whole thing is nuts, because the new variants are spreading and they want the stay-at-home orders to remain in effect for the time being.  But hey, why would the government listen to their experts?  

OK, that covers my thoughts on the Doug Ford Conservative government idiots.  Now I shall move on the the United States.

Yesterday, Donald Trump was exonerated for inciting the riot at the Capitol on January 6th.  I kind of expected that, but I am still shocked.  No more than I was when he was initially elected, though.  They have become a country that willingly elects a man who laughingly, sexually abuses women, makes fun of disabled people, feels justified in paying almost zero taxes, etc.  Now, they have no problem with permitting (arguably) the most powerful man in the world to run roughshod over democracy and encourage the murder of his fellow politicians.  What a sad state of affairs.  I was honestly hoping that with the election of Joe Biden things would turn around but that is not to be.  I would no more travel to the USA again than I would go to Iraq, Nigeria, or North Korea.  Not happening, and I know I'm not alone.  Sigh.

COVID-19 UPDATE

WORLDWIDE:  108.7 million cases, 2.4 million deaths, 310,800 new cases Feb. 13/21

USA:   27.6 million cases, 484,000 deaths, 84,727 new yesterday

CANADA: 825,000 cases, 21,200 deaths, 3,046 new yesterday

ONTARIO: 285,868 cases, 6,693 deaths, 981 new yesterday. The current stay-at-home order is in effect until Feb. 16th.

HAMILTON:  9,830 cases, 275 deaths, 40 new yesterday

2 Quilts (one complex & one simple), What's Cookin'?, and Covid numbers

PLEASE NOTE THAT I ONLY HAVE A FEW OPEN SPOTS BEFORE CHRISTMAS - GET IN TOUCH SOON IF YOU WILL NEED QUILTING DONE.

Here's the complex quilt, with a medallion setting and a bunch of paper pieced sharks teeth.

And curved piecing.  Don't forget the curved piecing.

This quilt took me back in time.  When I was a kid, Mom had made me a skirt that I loved - dark grey with box pleats.  The inset in the box pleats was pink with a tiny black print.  I felt so sassy when I wore that...every step showed off the pretty pink.  To this day that is still one of my favorite colour combinations. 

Lots of s.i.d. and straight line quilting on this one.

Here's the simple quilt.  Well, not simple exactly - it's all on point, which makes the outer edges really stretchy when it's time to add the borders.  But simple in the sense that it's a one-block quilt, and the blocks are only 2 pieces.

This is from a Fons & Porter magazine, and the maker requested quilting similar to what was in the pics.  I love her colour choices, and she did a great job with the layout.

WHAT'S COOKIN'?

There have been lots of PIES coming out of the oven lately, both savory and sweet.

1.  tomato sauce, mozzarella, mushrooms, cooked sausage, green peppers, tomatoes, onions
2.  pesto, mozzarella, shredded cooked chicken, tomatoes, onions
3.  tomato sauce, mozzarella, diced ham, pineapple, onion
4.  peach (plus another one in the freezer!😁)

And I've been doing lots of sweating over a hot stove.  Peach marmalade, blueberry marmalade, peach-rosemary jam, mango chutney.  I will save DH's reputation and not tell you the story of how I came to be in possession of enough mangoes to necessitate the making of chutney.  You can use your imagination for that.   Not shown are the 21 quarts of diced tomatoes which I finished on Friday.  By February you can expect to see my arse another size larger.

COVID NUMBERS

Worldwide: 25 million cases and 843,000 deaths.

USA:  5.97 million cases and 183,000 deaths

Canada:  128,000 cases and 9,113 deaths.

Ontario:  42,000 cases and 2,800 deaths.

PERSONAL COVID UPDATE

I had my Red Hat girls over last week for a brown-bag-lunch-at-a-distance on the back patio.  Our patio isn't fancy, but it is nice and big.  We hadn't seen each other in MONTHS so it was really good to have a chance to catch up in person.  A few of the gals couldn't make it, but that's par for the course.  Since we're all members of the Caledonia Grand River Quilters' Guild we did a bit of guild catch-up too.  Our guild donated a quilt to the Fair Board to raffle as a fundraiser (see the Guild Feb. 9th post), so many of us bought raffle and/or 50/50 tickets.

I was supposed to leave for two weeks in Italy on Friday.  Yeah, no.  I have actually received a refund for what I'd paid to date, which is good.  I have not yet received anything regarding my seat upgrade for the flights...still waiting on that. ✈

I have another HAIR appointment next week. 👩 Yaay.  This stuff is way too long, and way too hot.  It's going to get a very generous trim.

Let's wrap up June (since it's already August!) Log Cabin & A Unicorn

Log Cabin - I love the colours in this.  The quiltmaker wanted it quilted "like in the magazine".

That involved feathered swirls in the blocks, from the center out to the corners, and then a simple meander in the rest of it.

No s.i.d. kept the cost down a bit.

Unicorn - this is all paper pieced.  Whoo baby!  

Thankfully the quiltmaker sent me a pic of how she wanted it quilted.  Otherwise I'd probably still be staring at it wondering what the heck to do.

I had to get a little bit of technical help from a longarm buddy who has done this style of work.  The background rays were done with the I.Q., and that was a bit of a challenge too, but in a good way.  I like learning new things.

On the personal front, the garden is coming along nicely.  The zucchini is a bust this year.  In an attempt to thwart the zucchini bugs I planted it in large pots on the patio. Two of the three plants died from wilt.  The third one is hanging in there, so far.  We shall see.  Thankfully a friend has an abundant crop and she's been willing to share.  The bumper crops this year will probably be potatoes and tomatoes.

Pizza and bread made from a big-batch artisanal dough recipe has made a frequent appearance on the dinner table.  In fact, it's pizza night tonight, in celebration of some very expensive mushrooms I picked up at the market.

Since the end of June:

• I had a real haircut from a real hairdresser.  Sooo nice.
• I've had several backyard dinner-at-a-distance with friends and relatives.  The hardest thing is definitely coping with the fact that I cannot hug anyone.
• I've had two massages.  My neck & shoulder have decided they want to compete with my hip to see which body part can cause me more pain.  Aargh.
• I had an honest-to-goodness restaurant meal, on a restaurant patio.  I was very trepidatious but it was long enough ago that I obviously did not catch anything.  Why does Blogger not like the word trepidatious?  Anyone???
• I had a bone density test, then a telephone appointment to review the results (which are good).
• I had an eye exam that had been postponed several times from last fall.
• I was back at the dentist, just for my semi-annual cleaning.  
• I actually received a refund for my trip to Italy that had been scheduled for August 28th.  That shocked the hell out of me, in a very pleasant way.

COVID STATS AS OF AUGUST 9, 2020

I pulled these numbers from the news this morning:

Global:  19.6 million cases, 270,000 daily new

USA:  5 million, 54,000 new daily

Canada 119,500, 220 new daily

Ontario:  40,000, new <100 daily (70 yesterday)

I have to remind myself not to get too cocky over the Canadian numbers vs. the USA.  We are opening up and I KNOW our numbers will be going up too.  Dear God, I hope not to that extent.  I like to think that our politicians have our best interests at heart and will handle things accordingly.  I do, however, have great sympathy for my friends in the US.  I can't see myself ever crossing the border again.

Jason Yenter Quilt and the Caledonia Pandemic Update

This is one of those quilts that scares me a little bit... I used lots of the "stand-and-stare" technique.

I will probably NEVER tackle a quilt like this - so much applique and paper piecing, with an on-point medallion setting.

I think at one point I had seven longarm rulers out - straight rulers, curvy rulers, circles, ...

I also needed chalk, a blue wash-out marker, and the IQ.  Along with some collaboration from the Beach Girls. 

Beautiful back.

In my last post I mentioned that some things had been cancelled with the Coronavirus epidemic, and that the grocery store was out of hand sanitizer.  Here is a timeline of things that relate to me, starting on March 9th.

• March 9 - WHO declares a Pandemic.  The Bulk Barn will no longer allow shoppers to bring their personal containers.  Toilet paper has been flying off store shelves for at least a week.
• March 10 - I made a trip to Swiss Chalet and Costco with a friend.  I needed an emergency supply of Parmesan cheese and baking cocoa.  You can't have an apocalypse without brownies, right??  My friend SHOULD have bought toilet paper because they had some and it was on sale.
• March 11 - at a guild meeting, I jokingly tried to auction off a bottle of hand sanitizer with a starting bid of $20.00.  No one would bite.  Bummer.
• March 12 - this was the date that Mark Preece Family House sent the email advising volunteers to stay home.
• March 13 - Colleges and Universities in Ontario have closed.  Mark Preece House sent an additional email advising that the House was closing and all guests were being asked to leave, asap.
• March 16 - I sent the revised SOLO invitation to the Ontario longarm quilters, changing our meeting from April to September.
• March 17 - This was a big day, item-wise.  The Province of Ontario declares a State of Emergency.  This closes many establishments and releases additional funding to some institutions.  This was the day of my last face-to-face client quilt dropoff.  My little warning antennae started going ding.ding.ding when she mentioned that she's a flight attendant.  Aaack!! deep calming breath  This was also my last face-to-face social engagement, when I had my friend over for tea & toilet paper (see March 10 item).  She'd been looking in stores for four days, with no luck.  This was also the day the travel agent advised that the final payment in March for the Italy trip (scheduled for late August) was being postponed.  Aaand my optometrist called to reschedule my appointment to mid April.  They have been ordered to close.
• March 18 - the customer booked for Saturday the 21st has emailed to cancel our appointment.  I had invited the tea & t.p. friend for dinner on Saturday, but I cancelled that in light of the current directives to "social distance".  For the life of me, I cannot remember what date we were told to social distance, so I'm going to assume it was March 17th, when the State of Emergency was declared.  I received an etransfer from a friend refunding the theatre tickets she'd bought us for a May 2nd performance.  Tonight I sent a big long email to my Singapore niece (who's actually in Vietnam).  I haven't talked to her since Christmas, so I just wanted to bring her up to date on what was happening here in Canada.  Every time I googled the virus and Vietnam, information was a bit sparse.  I wanted to know what was happening in her neck of the woods, and a little assurance that she and her family were ok.
• March 19 - Singapore niece replies to my email saying that she has no time to update me, they are leaving for Canada tomorrow.  Well, let me tell you...that brought some real tears of relief! She's the daughter I never had and I think about her all.the.time. This morning I had my first Porch Pickup with a customer.  I left her quilt out on the porch but I couldn't miss the chance to chat for a few minutes so I went out (staying away from her) and visited for a bit.
• March 20 - the Canada/US border is closed.  Only citizens (?) and commerce are allowed to cross.  DH's sister and her husband called to let us know they are back home from their winter abode in Florida.
• March 21 - the Haldimand & Norfolk Public Health Department has ordered the closure of all "personal care" establishments.  No haircuts.  No tattoos.  No facials.  Suck it up ladies - we're going to start looking like our real selves soon.  My optometrist called again, and cancelled my new April appointment - now they've been closed "indefinitely".  And speaking of looking like our real selves - I skipped the part of my day when I get dressed in "daytime" clothes.  Ha ha ha, pajama day!!  I got caught though - one of the Beach Girls accidently hit the "video call" button on Messenger and one of them noticed my jammies.  Whoops. It was a fun call, though.  Scrolling through facebook tonight I see the news that an employee at a sort-of-local McDonalds has tested positive.  There go any hopes I had of an Egg McMuffin takeout. wah wah...
• March 22 - the second Porch Pickup happens.  I have another one tentatively scheduled for tomorrow, for a quilt dropoff.  DH and I realize that we must have transitioned to "mature-and-at-risk"...our neighbours did some grocery shopping for us.  💗  The Singapore niece has posted on facebook - they have arrived in Canada.  happy happy  I had a cheque to deposit from the March 19th p.p. so we went for a little drive, and I wore a bright orange latex glove to use the banking machine.

Somewhere in there the upcoming meetings for my three quilt guilds were cancelled, too.  Every day I am GLUED to the news, and to facebook.  I hope that doesn't become a new bad habit.

What happened to February???? Lovely Embroidery

I have obviously been M.I.A. ...almost a month since I last posted?  Well, let me catch you up.

Oh, such a beautiful embroidered topper... tablecloth?

The maker is such a wonderful woman, she embroidered my name on there too. 💗

As I mentioned, my birthday was the end of February (the 27th to be exact, in case you want to note that on your calendar for next year, which will be a BIG ONE ha ha ha...).
I crossed off a bucket-list item and got the tattoo.  Many thanks to Tamara King at Sinkin Ink in Hamilton.  I am super happy with it, although still a little bit self conscious about it.

I am planning on semi-retiring next year when I turn (ahem) 65.  Having a life plan, for me,  means I need something to get me out into the social-sphere AND feel productive/contributing to the world-at-large.  I decided to start volunteering at Mark Preece Family House a couple times a month, with a view to spending more time there next year.  I managed to finish one four-hour shift, and then Covid-19 hit, which shut the house down until further notice.  Well, better safe than sorry.

A demo presentation at the guild (Four Patch Posie) left me with 18 quilt blocks.

I went on retreat with the same guild a week later and got three tops done, including those 18 blocks.  The panel quilt on the left is ready for quilting.  The two on the right still need border(s).

I guess now I can take one of my volunteer days and get the little panel quilted.  Or work on bookkeeping.  Or fill another box for the Goodwill.  Or...

 

Winterruption Recap

This year Winterruption took place from Feb. 13th to Feb. 18th.  Since Feb. 13th is GALENTINES Day, I made us all tiaras.  These girls are such a fun bunch, we wore them every night. 💓

These pics are actually from the 14th, which we spent running around having a fun time in Brantford.  We went to:

• Rose Hill Liquidators
• Value Village
• Zanders Restaurant
• Michaels
• Just Like New (which actually has a different name, but still a vintage shop)
• Butcher & Restaurant Equipment & Supplies

Lunch at Zanders was quite late because I had a heck of a time getting these girls out of Value Village!  I have to say, it's a nice large store and Karen & I both scored big with Tupperware.  That night we had an easy charcuterie board supper, along with soup.  If you can see the glass plates we're using, those were my mom's which she probably received as a wedding gift in 1944.  They are such a throwback - they're partitioned, and one of the sections is an ashtray.

They forced me to eat cake (which let's face it - was not much of a struggle!) since my birthday is at the end of this month.

Saturday was our day "in" when we mostly sewed.  This is the quilt I pieced during the SuperBowl, using three charm paks that came from Missouri Star Quilt Company a few years ago.  I needed to add 16 squares from my stash.  I still have two more charm paks from that trip, in soft baby colours...who knows how long it will take me to use those.  Oh yeah, AND two layer cakes, AND a cutting template.

I finished the top (at this point it's been cut diagonally twice, then had borders added).  I really like the bright, bold colours in this.

After the girls left on Sunday I loaded it on Pretty Boy Floyd (my longarm) and quilted it.

Fun variegated thread on top.

Bright yellow backing shows off deep teal thread.

Hopefully this afternoon I'll get the binding cut and applied, then I can call 'er done!

Deb & I see each other at a monthly guild meeting, and Karen & Diane see each other for random outings, but the FIVE of us won't be together again until the SOLO meeting in mid-April.  We always breathe a big sigh of relief when Mother Nature accommodates the driving dates for Winterruption with decent weather.

...until April!

First Ladies Quilt

Lordy, I'm behind with my pretty-quilts-pictures.  I finished this at the end of October.  In general, I don't post pics until after the customer has picked up the quilt, just in case, and this gal was unable to get here for a while because her own life was pretty hectic at the time.

First Ladies Quilt

This is a very large quilt, and it was beautifully pieced.

There was lots of negative space for some pretty quilting.

The blocks were all quilted individually.

In order to keep some continuity between the blocks, I restricted the quilting to straight lines and gentle curves, with a bowknot motif inside the larger center squares.

I'm not sure why, but this was definitely my favorite block.

On the Social Life front, I've been to see the Cherrywood Exhibit in Seaforth.  This was a tribute to Bob Ross, the guy from PBS with the big afro, who would teach you how to paint.  I'm surprised at how many people have never heard of him.

There were over 400 entries in the competition, and this travelling exhibit included 120 of them.

This was my favorite - you may have to enlarge it to see what's going on, but all the little forest creatures are painting.  This reminds me of those paint parties which are often held at restaurants.  So stinkin' cute!

I also managed to get out to the theatre to see a production of Mamma Mia.  That was fun - I was singing to myself all night long.  Ear worms, you know?

Since then, I've been nose-to-the-grindstone, trying to catch up the quilting backlog.  There is finally light at the end of the tunnel - I should be back working on the currently scheduled quilts before the end of the week.