Spring is here just look up

I love living in a country that has 4 seasons, some of course are shorter than others.  Some times I think that if we blinked then we would miss the arrival of the seasons.   On a warm day in May I looked up and saw this.  I loved the colour of the sky.

Three weeks later I looked up and this is what I saw.  Only 3 weeks, what a difference there can be,  mother nature does know how to work quickly.  I wish I was as quick at making a quilt.










I have been working on quilts, but the process has been very slow.  I spent a week in the hospital, and then when I got out, my pointing finger on my right hand swelled up.   For a good month I couldn't use the finger without it hurting, doctor said there was probably some fluid in there, and that it would eventually work its way out.  It is back to normal now, but for a monthe it was ver difficult to d any quilting.

Right now I am working on a baby blanket.  I'm following a shawl pattern that starts in the center and works out in a square.

Ok I finally took some pics of the extra room I'm working on.  This table topper is one I just finished, and will also be a quilt.  Insatead of using it as a table tooper I decided to put it on the bench as a seat cover.This is one of the doll cupbords that I have my dolls in, also hanging abouve the shelf is some bracelets I made during my beading period.

In a previos post I talked about some wall shelves that I wanted.  Well here is a picture of the wall where we mounted them.

 

 

Here is a close up of the box.

and of course here is what the bax really is. A dollar store find.  I love dollar stores.

Enough pictures for today.  I'm still working on the knitted mice and hope that Pat will help me pin one of my quilts this weekend.

 

Winter is coming ..sigh… It’s not that I hate winter, ok but after 55 winters here in Montreal I should be use to it.  It’s dark at 6:30 in the morning now when I’m getting ready for work, it makes me think it’s still night and I should go back to bed.  My sitting room, as the bedroom has become to be known as is coming together.  I have to take some pictures of it.  There are some unique things in it.  The couch my dad made, has a lot of cushions of it that I have made.  The curtains were made by my grandmother.  I wanted little shelves on the wall like shadow boxes but not clear glass on the front.  Instead of having made them I bought Kleenex boxes at the dollar store.  These are made of wood with the cutout on the top[ to let the Kleenex out and the bottom slides outs  so you can put a new box in.  The boxes were painted black then the side with the opening was screwed to the wall.  So looking at it, it looks like a shelf that has s sliding door on the front.  I love it. All my Baby Face dolls are in the room now.  These dolls were only manufactured in 1991,1992.  They are all the same doll really except the facial expressions are different.  Most have blue eyes and blonde hair but there are a few with different colored hair.  The table runner that I made from the Dresden plate design fits perfectly as a seat cover on the bench.  Here is what the dresden plate looked like when I first started it.

I’ve put sewing on hold right now, and taking a break to do something different.  The local wool store at Christmas usually has a set of mice in the window.  So I went and got the pattern for the mice, they are by Alan Dart who is from England and they are the cutest set of mice.  This weekend I finished 2 mice and have the pieces made for another one.  I’ve made one out of finger weight yarn and one out of DK(as the pattern calls for). I’d like to make a lot of them along with the sewing pattern I have for mice, and then have them on display on a box that is behind the couch in my sitting room.

 

 

Friday at 3:10, only 40 more minutes till the weekend, Halleluiah I’m so looking forward to the weekend.  This weekend I am working on setting up one of the spare rooms, ok let us call it Willy’s old room.  My son decided a few months  ago to move to the basement, I left his room alone for a while to make sure he didn’t want to come back, but it seems that he likes the basement, so that means I have another spare room.  The other spare room is known as the baby room, as it has a crib in it, and a lot of baby dolls.  So Willy’s old room has been painted my favorite color, maple leaf.  I bought a carpet for the floor as the floor was a mess.  I moved one of the benches I have to in between the cupboards, where my bigger dolls will sit.  I found some old curtains we had packed away in a case.  The house I now own was built by my father over 60 years ago and when growing up in it there was my grandmother, grandfather, mom dad and 3 brothers.  My grandparents and father never threw anything away, I think that is whee my love of quilting began,  my grandmother would never throw old clothes away, she would recycle them into quilts or aprons.   The curtains I found were handmade by my grandmother, and along with them I found a camera from the 1940’s.   I’ll be moving a couch that my dad made years ago into the room, I want most of what is in this room to be hand made.  I want to make a list of things that I want to finish up, it seems I start a lot of things but am slow at finishing them.  I want to make some pillows out of some stuffed bears I have, the bears take up too much room and I need the pillows for the couch.  I'm going to hang a quilt on one wall, and of course will have one on the couch.  I also want to get a trunk for a coffee table.

Summer is over the trailer is closed for the winter.  Hubby starts coaching hockey and I spend my weekends at home relaxing.  I love the trailer during the summer I look forward all week to getting away to the country, but as soon as September rolls around I love the idea of staying home on the weekends tually getting things around the house done.   I did get to go to the place where the wood was sold, it is such a lovely place with horses and goats.

This is the seen as you drive into the yard.  I wanted to pick up some pieces of wood cut into cookie size to spread among the rocks in the rireplace area.  I also wanted to make some tables just from logs split in half.

I wish they had horses in quilt stores, I would have no problem dragging hubby alongn if they did.

The one on the left met us when we pulled in he was friendly.

this little guy seemed thirsty, he shared the water with the dog.

I am amazed at people that can create or build things, the gentelman that owned this built the saloon and the benches, and he had built dog houses and lots of other thins you had to look for as in a sandbox, a shed.

I really loved the tranquilty of this place, and loved all the animals.

Here is the trailer where I spend my summer weekends, if you look on the chair right in front of the trailer you will see a quillt I was working on.  Yes there is a trailer there it just has an add on in the front of 12 feet by 24 feet.  During the summer I spend most days outside sewing or knitting or crocheting or planning things we need our hubby's to do. I choose a series that I haven't seen and watch it on my laptop at nights.  In the past I watched Boston Legal one summer Lost another one, and this summer I watched The Gilmore Girls. 

At night hubby sits at the fire and talks to the neighbours, and I love the look of the spot as it makes me feel so calm and relaxed.  You can see the wood cookies in among the rocks and the log tables if you look closelely.

 

One of the women in the campground was pregnant this summer and hubby asked me if I would make her a blanket, so I picked this panel out and quilted it over the summer and gave it to her at the beginning of the summer.  It worked out perfectly as she decided the theme to the baby's room was going to be under water, and so I'm sure she would need a Noha's ark.

 

 

 

HOT Just Way Too HOT

Oh well the best plans sometimes just doesn’t happen.  I was so looking forward to going to see that “mill” this weekend, and it didn’t happen. The weather at the trailer and here also was just to hot to do anything.  You know those days where just lifting your arms is taxing and the sweat is rolling down your back.  We left after sundown on Saturday to come home.  With 4 dogs, the heat wasn’t good for them or for us.   I came home and did some sewing.  I actually set up my sewing machine .  Sewed a border around the Noa’s baby blanket, a single blanket with dogs on it and the hexagon table runner.  I also took apart this gold material that I had bought for backing for the first quilt I ever made.   I decided to use the gold in 2 ½ ‘ strips around the small Dresden plates.  I know I should take pictures, I carry my camera with me all the time yet never take pictures.  I promise to take them this weekend.  Pat painted the outside of the add-on for the trailer, it looks much better brown.  It blends in with the forest more, it use to be white but white never stays clean looking.  Hopefully I’ll hand sew the 3 bindings on the pieces this weekend.  It is not supposed to be as hot as last weekend, so I might actually think about having something in my hand.  Oh and how stupid can I be, imagine trying to teach someone to knit with worsted weight wool when the temperature is 32 degrees celsius or 91 fahreneit which felt more like 105.

Hot weekend .....

Friday, heading into the weekend.  It is going to be a hot one here in the 30’s all weekend.  I’m heading off to the trailer for the weekend.  Went up yesterday just for the day and Left Pat and 4 of the dogs with him.  I came back last night as I only work ½ days on Friday’s.  Left him some work of course to keep him busy,  He’’s paint the outside of the add-on.  The trailer is a 24 foot trailer with a 8 feet by 24 feet structure built onto the front of it.  It is going to be a hot weekend and we don’t have air condition there, but is is more country and so hopefully it will be cooler there that in the city.  I’m taking the small Dresden plate squares with me to work on.  I have a few more plates to sew onto the squares.   I still have some more petals cut out but haven’t sewed them together yet.   I don’t feel like dragging out my sewing machine and taking it up to the trailer.  I need to measure the square size and decide what border I want around the squares.  I probably won’t get much sewing done this weekend as a friend wants me to teach her how to knit.  I learned to knit when I was a little girl, I’m going to start her off knitting a scarf.  I have tons of needles and of course a stach of wools, just home it’s not to hot sitting outside to knit.  On Saturday I want to head over to a place about 5 minutes away from the trailer, we went there on Thursday but they were not home.  This is a man that has a “mill” well he cuts his own wood, and a lot of the campers go there to buy firewood.  I want to get 2 inch cookie like pieces of wood cut to place like patio stones under a sitting area w have and then fill in with small rocks around the wood.  I am so looking forward to going over on Saturday, as he has a saloon he built and he has 2 horses I saw,  I hope he lets me take pictures.