Leavin' the Country

 I'm killing time...the last half hour before hubby takes me to Hamilton Airport, to get on the bus to Pearson Airport.  In Toronto I'll get on a plane to Heathrow in London.  

The bucket list is getting another item crossed off - I'm attending the Birmingham Quilt Festival.  Today I made a couple little cord-minders - one each for my phone and tablet.

Two weeks ago I was making little 'project bags' for the Singapore family, who are here visiting.  Hubby was kind enough to contribute some very sketchy jeans.

I pieced the outside of the bags on the longarm.

• I loaded batting only, no backing.  
• Basted some gridlines so I could keep things reasonably straight. 
• Sew the denim pieces with 1/4" seamlines.
• Pin the 'fashion fabric' top & bottom pieces, then stitch those with a 1/4" seam allowance.

Once the piecing was complete, I unloaded and cut the appropriate pieces, and constructed as usual.

Gotta go - time to load the suitcase in the car!

Guilt By Association

 Janice and I are spending our last five days in Italy quarantined in our hotel room.  Because I have Covid.  I tested positive on Friday morning, and yes, I feel like total crap.  I've had the worst headache, that does not want to go away without drugs.  Tylenol to the rescue.  Janice is NOT sick, but because she's traveling with me she is automatically considered infected too.

I'll share a bit of our LAST day out...

The 5th was a free morning so we wandered around town, went to the post office so I could mail some postcards, and did some shopping.

In the afternoon we piled on the tour bus and headed off to the town of Lucca.  Our first stop was the Villa Reale.

We got quite a bit of history during our walk around the gardens.  Napoleon sent his sister here, much to her chagrin.

She renovated, built gardens, and kicked out the Bishop who lived in the villa behind hers.  She removed all the separation(s) between the two villas and put in a really big yard. 

I wish we had the opportunity to go through the residence, I would love to have seen inside.  It was bought and sold a few times - one guy bought it for his wife.  Um, honey... you might need to up your game!!  The most recent purchase - 2015 - was for 45-ish million euro, and the renovations were completed over two years.

After the grounds tour (the maintenance guys were zipping around on John Deere Gators, for any of you farmer/country folk) we got back on the bus and went to the walled city of Lucca for a tour and dinner.  

After dinner is when I mentioned to Janice that I didn't feel very well and might be staying home the next day.  Well, when morning rolled around and I confirmed that I was staying here she reached into her little bag of tricks and threw a covid test at me.

FYI, if you're lucky enough to have avoided taking a test, TWO lines is a bad sign. 😷

We have been told that Italy has very loose restrictions around covid.  We are apparently (?) allowed to go out if we're masked, as long as we get the hell off the hotel property and don't associate with anyone else from the tour group.  I am #6 from our group of 38 who I know have tested positive.  And I'm pretty sure I know who I got it from - a fella I sat beside at dinner on our first night.  He seemed perfectly healthy but didn't come out with us the next day and was then in quarantine for several days.  I've been in no condition to go anywhere, between sleeping and coughing and zero energy.  Janice has gone out a few times to the shops; after all someone had to buy us a thermometer and more rapid tests.  Oh, and parmesan cheese.  It seems we needed that too. lol.

the Sewing Watch, a Beautiful Border, and Strawberry Biscuits

Waaay back in 2013 my Singapore niece was married in Bali.  If you have insomnia some night, you can scroll back through my blog and find my stories about that.  BUT, on the way home from Bali I had a layover in Hong Kong.  While strolling around, killing time, I wandered into a little gift shop and saw a watch that was clearly made JUST FOR ME.

It was originally equipped with a red, fake leather band.  Which lasted about two weeks.  Seriously - that's no joke.  Two weeks.  On one of my adventures with Beach Girl Diane to a quilt show somewhere in the USA, I found twill tape printed as a measuring tape.  That self-made watchband lasted almost 10 years, but it truly needed replacing this year.  And what did I do as soon as the new band was installed?  I dropped the watch on a ceramic tile floor.  🫣  Had to take it in to the watchmakers and get new guts installed, which cost me $65.00.  How much was the original watch, you ask?  About $20.00.  (we will not add on the $5000 wedding trip cost).

This was a fun quilt I worked on last winter.  Love, love, love those borders.

It's high season for strawberries now.  My freezer still holds a large bag of berries from LAST year.  A few days ago I was awake at 4 am, so by 6 am I was getting hungry.  And I wanted sugar (which seems to be a companion to insomnia???).  Hmm.  What to do, what to do...

Strawberry Biscuits.  Very good. (**)  Used up some of the frozen berries.  The biscuits were totally gone the next day.

(**)  Recipe was adapted, because y'all know how I like to cook healthy, if I can:

• replaced 2/3 cup flour with Whole Wheat Flour.  
• for the buttermilk I used leftover whey from when I made yogurt a few days ago.  There wasn't quite enough so I topped it up with sour cream.
• I whizzed up a handful of walnuts in the food processor and added them to the mix, for the Omega 3's.  If "bad" food is on the menu I can at least try to get some good cholesterol, right?
• Slightly smaller size - I made 12 biscuits.  Although that didn't help much, as we still managed to eat all of them in the space of about 30 hours.

This message was brought to you by my cutting garden.

 

Sad Fur-baby News, Complaint Update, etc...

 So yeah, sad news here last week.  Our sweet dog Sadie took her last breath on the same day as Charlie Watts.  I've been comforted by the thought that she went through the pearly gates with someone who loved music, and she can keep him company. 

DH and I are so grateful for the wonderful care she received throughout her 14+ years from the Caledonia Veterinary Clinic.  Oh darn, excuse me... sniff, crying again. Sniff.  OK.  Let's carry on.

As an old dog she was on meds quite a bit.  It got to the point where DH and I were having trouble keeping track of her pills, especially if one of us had to hit the road in the morning, or went to bed early at night.  Whenever she was on a round of antibiotics I had to resort to keeping a separate calendar that we could tick off for every dose.  Here's an example of twice a day dosing for three weeks.  That's a little whiteboard in the kitchen - it's turned out to be the BEST. THING. EVER.

THE COMPLAINT UPDATE

In my last post I mentioned that I'm attempting (hah, pfftt!) to go 30 consecutive days without complaining.  I've had to restart another couple of times since my last blog post, so the most recent start date now sits at August 22nd.  This current 14 day stretch is the longest I've managed in one straight run.  Previously the maximum stretch had been nine days.  It seems that every time I've caught myself slipping up, I've been in conversation with a girlfriend (or several) and the conversation turns to crabbing about something.  Sometimes I start the crab session, sometimes I just join in with whoever's carrying on about whatever.  Very broadly, the complaints have tended to be about husbands (no real surprise there, as anyone who is married will tell you!) or regarding some area of politics.  There's a federal election coming up soon, which is driving a LOT of complaints.  I have gotten to the point where I'm much better at having a discussion instead of ragging on in misery.  Will I get through another 16 days?  I'll keep you posted.

GARDEN UPDATE

Whoo baby!  All those leaves and the mushroom compost certainly paid off.  We are drowning in potatoes, many of them volunteers that overwintered through that thick blanket.  I've got butternut squash big enough to kill somebody.  The zucchinis are still producing, and the cucumbers are only now deciding to give up the ghost.  I have to start doing something with the tomatoes this weekend.  Some of the slicing tomatoes are the size of my foot, and even the romas are big, fat and round.  

FUN TRAVEL

I finally made it up to the Kawarthas to see Margaret.  It had been over two years since we'd seen each other.  We spent some time tooling around the lakes in her boat, ate lots of junk food, spent an afternoon at Kawartha Quilting, and generally caught up.  Her neighbours kindly provided some entertainment and threw a wedding in their backyard.  FYI they still play The Macarena at receptions. 🎵

I'm catching up on as much social life as I can because it'll be another long, lonely fall and winter season I think.  Covid is not going away anytime soon.

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.

Two Cute Kid's Quilts & Leisure Activities

Cute little cars, quilted with a panto.  This will make a great baby quilt for some little person.

Embroidered bears in an assortment of activities.

Given all the work that went into this beautiful embroidery, custom quilting was certainly warranted.

Leisure this month was an evening with my Red Hat girls.  After dinner out, we went to the museum for a MUMMY UNWRAPPING.  Honest to goodness.

Eeeuwww...

If you're like me, living in blissful ignorance, you may be surprised to learn that you can BUY mummies.  Yep.  Because, I mean, who wouldn't want one in their living room?

In other news...DH continues with his twice weekly therapy sessions.   It's been getting a wee bit stressful for both of us (for different reasons 😊) which makes it a PERFECT time for me to get out of Dodge.  Yay for a week in Tobermory with the Beach Girls!  The cocktail ingredients are all set to go, as am I.

Happy Canada Day, and Quilt Canada

This is a great quilt to feature today, don't you think?  I feel so blessed to live in this great country.

Pantograph "Oh Canada".

Quilt Canada was held in Ottawa this year.  I had to grit my teeth to sign up for that - back many years ago when I was on the road with Royal Bank, everything "bad" that ever happened to me took place in Ottawa.  I accidently set a cash dispenser on fire, a childhood friend I bumped into stood me up for dinner, I was left stranded by a co-worker, etc, etc, etc.  But, you know, BEACH GIRLS, so I had to go.

THIS trip, my cell phone developed a bug that I still haven't managed to get rid of (must call Samsung...), and my credit card was declined at the Keg - even though it worked everywhere else.  Considering that I was there for the better part of five days I guess that's not so bad.

I took an Improv Piecing class with Krista Hennebury, which was a fun day.  Eventually I will set these bits into a quilt.

Here was breakfast one morning.  I loved the juxtaposition of the Froot Loops with the "healthy" breakfast.  That just made me laugh. 😄

This is the quilt that Diane had entered in the show.

Yes, those are all teeny-tiny little 9-patches.

Well, she was a big winner.  This is the ribbon for Excellence in Piecing.  Later in the week she found out she ALSO won Viewer's Choice.  Wow - big congratulations!!!

This was my favorite quilt from the show.  It evoked the fun times I always enjoy on my road trips with the girls.

A bit of a closeup.

This was the jaw-dropper for me.

One of the blocks.

Besides my improv class, I attended the lecture by David Taylor.  Hah, the guy is hilarious.  And he's very scornful of both fusible applique and raw-edge applique.  If you check out his his web site you will see why - all of his work is hand applique and it is INCREDIBLE. 

Another lecture was by Andrea Tsang-Jackson where she talked about the immigrant quilt and her summer as artist-in-residence.  She had the quilt with her and it was really something to see.

I was part of Laura Coia's Sew Very Easy Youtube Live show.  And when I say "part of" I mean that I paid money to be in the audience. 😉 This included a pattern and a bit of swag.

The free lecture by E-Quilter was very interesting too.  She presented a slide show from international quilt shows. 
Also this, in case you are working on any entries:

It was a great week, and now it's back to the grind.  Well, if you can call quilting a grind???

Vintage Dresden Plate & Quilty French Floors & Zucchini Update

Boy, I have a lot of catching-up to do, quilt-blog-wise.

This vintage Dresden Plate was quilted back in mid September.  I love vintage quilts - never met one I didn't fall head over heels for.

There were a couple of blocks made with new fabric, just to get a useable size of quilt.
Yes, those plates are a little wonky.  The centers aren't round.  The plates aren't centered.  But it is so pretty!  As requested by the owner, there is not too much quilting here.  Stitch-in-the-ditch around sashings, and inside & outside the plates.  Loopies inside the wedges, and motifs both in the corners and in the centers.

Pretty, pretty on the back.

French floors as related to quilts: 
1) Chevron.

2) Square in a Square.

3) Checkerboard Border - reminds me of Courthouse Steps.

ZUCCHINI REPORT
What the hell?  How can I be doing a zucchini report in November?  Well I got sidetracked and never finished back in September. 
When I was in France, there was zero chance that DH was going to pick zucchinis.  So when I got home... guess what?  Eleven more.  And a couple of them were, not surprisingly, pretty large.

Picked end of season:  11
Picked YTD:              127

Today's plan for supper is to make a big pot of vegetable soup and a Butternut Squash Tart With Fried Sage.  Some of that zucchini is coming out of the freezer and jumping into the soup pot.