It's beginning to look alot like Christmas

That time of year when I convince hubby to go for a drive and look at Christmas lights.  Was a beautiful night last night, just after a storm with 30 cm of snow.  With Christmas music playing on the radio, we just went for a drive around the area and looked at all the pretty lights.  I love looking at houses at night and wondering what all the families are doing inside.  A kitchen light on, makes me think of Mother and daughter baking Christmas cookies with flower and sprinkles all over the counter.  A light in a living room on and I think of a family sitting around the TV watching It's A Wonderful Life.  A light on in a bedroom and I think of a young boy reaching under his bed and pulling out that special present he bought for his Mom, and looking for some wrapping paper and using masking tape to wrap it.  Most of all I think of  my Dad and Mom and my grandparents that made sure my childhood was filled with love and laughter.  May your holidays be filled with unforgettable memories.

Is it Wednesday or Thursday?

Just past midnight and I'm awake.  My time is all off today, some people we know have gone on vacation, and since I live so close to the airport they park their car in our driveway and we drive them to the airport.  The only bad thing about it is that they had to be at the airport for 4:00am, so what do you do stay up or get up at 3:30 in the morning?  I chose to stay up and went to bet at 4:30 in the morning. 
I've done quite a bit of sewing and crafts this past few weeks as I am only working 1 day a week for awhile.  Here is a picture of that ufo I finished for hubby

I use to make lots of these sweaters years ago.  I love knitting in the round.

I also filled the pin bottles and they sit right beside my machine, they are very handy,

 

 

Here is a pillow made with left over blocks I had

 

I  finished another baby blanket, Still love these quilts, as I just cut the small pieces I have left over.

 

My sewing machine needed a cover so made it this one.

 

Well that's all for tonight!







Gout!!! I hate gout attacks.  They happen out of the blue, and usually hit in my left foot.  Most of the time they are not in the big toe, but in the heal or the instep. A week ago one decided to hit my foot, lucky I had a doctor's appointment the morning after it started.  With the gout and some other medical problems the doctor has put me on 80% rest for the next 6 weeks, which means I work one day a week.  The weekend was not very productive in sewing as the foot was just too sore to put on the ground, but Monday and Tuesday I had alot of enjoyment cuting, sewing, pressing and sewing. I'm currently working on 3 different quilts that are all over my sewing machine.  One a baby blanket like this one I finished.

I love this quilt pattern it takes 3 differnt sizes of blocks 3 1/2 X 3 1/2 .....4 1/2 x 3 1/2....2 1/2 x 6 1/2.  Which means all of my scraps go into theses size of blocks and then I sew them between doing outher blocks.

This pattern is a baby blanket I made, I used old squares that I had originaly cut out using scissors about 1 1/2 years ago, when I first started quilting. I probably should of thrown them out but instead I re-organized  them and made them into a baby blanket. I even quilted it by machine, a first for me.

I'm also working on a throw size quilt using Bonnie Hunters Scrappy Magestic Mountain pattern, so am cutting out 8 1/2 in cquares and cutting them in 1/2 on the diagonal. Haven't figured out what makes it an up or down mountain, but I'll figure that out. 

I wanted to do some pincushions, and saw somemwhere on the net where someone use mason jars, so I did pin cushions on the tops of 7 mason jars. And now they are at my sewing machine, holding straight pins, safety pins thread and anything else small that I want to keep near at hand.

Anyone that has read any of my blogs or even knows me a little, knows that I am currently on a sewing machine craze.  I love antique sewing machines, the way they look they feel and how they sew.  I love looking through Kijiji at the different ones and sometime will see a nargain I just can't refuse.  Well this Friday looking through Kijij there was an add for an estate sale that was happeing on Friday and Saturday 10:00 - 3:00.  I was able all day Friday to convince myself that I didn't need another machine, and besides that I could hardly walk.  Well I held tough till Saturday at 2:30, then we needed to get a few groceries, so hubby and I head out well the estate sale was only a 5 minute drive from our house I convinced hubby to just swing by and see what they had.  I sent him in to see, he knows the type of machine I like.  He comes out and tells me they have 2 sewing machines, but they want over $150.00 for both.  Well he goes back in, carrting the portable one and says that he got both for $75.00.  Here is the first one, its missing the 2 plates over the bobbin cover, but they can be purchased at the local Singer store.

 

 

The second one is a real beauty, will take a better picture later of it.  This picture doesn't have the drawers in it, which I have, they were full of zippers, bindings, and different feet and the button hole maker for the machine.

 

The only problem with this machine is she weights a ton, the desk must be pure mahogany, and poor hubby had to carry it up from the basement, and put it in the trunk by himself.  I haven't tried it yet, but will use it this weekend I have a baby blanket I started using jean material, but I found it too heavy for my regular sewing machine to sew through 4 layers of denim.  This one should sew through 4 layers af it was nothing.

 



 

 

A Day to Remember

Rememberance day is just a few days off.  It's time to take a few minutes for all of use to think of all the men that have serverd to protect us. 
My dad was in WW2, he met my mother while he was doing his basic training here in Montreal. 

After the war was over he returned to Montreal to marry my mother.  My dad passed away 7 years ago, and I miss him every day.   It is difficult to think of him as a young man, heading off to France to fight a war.  I know he had to use his brothers birth certificate to enlist as he was under age. I also know that it took him years to forget about the war.  When I was young I can remember that we couldn't go and shake my dad to wake hime up, we needed to call his name first.  If you shook him to wake him up he would come up swinging, and the war had been over for 15 years then.  I'm sure my dad must of seen terrible things during the war, he only told me some of them when he was in his late 70's or early 80's, somehow the war didn't make my dad violent at all, he was a strong man who loved his family.
My father drove this truck during the war, he was in tank reconnaissance.

 

 

Tomorrow I will have a post on 2 baby blankets I finished this weekend

 



a windy day

We have a windy day here in Montreal.  Trees down every where and power outages. The wine has been crushed and is in the barrels and bubbling away. Here is a picture of the crates loaded in the van.

Brother and hubby needed to unload them...

I left the work to the men had to do some sewing.  October 31 was the deadline to enter a contest to our fabric store and I needed to get my entry finished and submitted.  Well it took me to the 31st to get it finished.  It needed to be 24 inches by 24 inches. I don't have a chance of winning but it was fun to do.  Here  is my entry..

 

and the back.....

 

 

 

Now onto the next project.

 



Another Weekend come and gone

I had so many plans for sewing this weekend, but then reality always crops up.  Saturday morning Hubby and I had to meet my brother in the east end of Montreal to pick up grapes.  Every second year my brother wants wine made his wife is the wine drinker, at least it's every second year now, we use to do  it every year.  Not sure why we do it other than he is my brother, as both hubby and I don't drink wine.   We need to meet my brother as I have a van, and he buys like 17 crates of grapes.  We get home the men unload the grapes and take them down into the basement, and spend the next few hours squishing the grapes.  Well there went Saturday morning, then in the afternoon had to pick hubby up from  a hockey practice and then did groceries.  Then Sunday afternoon had a hockey game (hubby coaches a Midget A hockey team).  I was able to get some things done, put a binding on a baby blanket using Pricilla.  This machine is a really nice machine, she just purrrs along.  I love the foot pedal it is really comfortable to use.  Threading the bobbin is easy,.  The strange thing about her is that her wheel turns the opposite of all the other machines I've used, her wheel turns away from you.  I've been trying to do a 24 x 24 inch piece to enter in a contest here at one of our local fabric stores.  I didn't pick a difficult pattern, ok maybe a little difficult as it calls for flying geese.  Simple tho a square and the the geese around the square to form a star pattern.  the deadline is October 31 at midnight. I am at the hand quilting stage, I hope I can get it finished in time.  I have tomorrow off  which is good, but then have different things I have to do.  Go to the motor vehicle burrow and pay for my plates, go and get Apples and carrots, and then take the car to the garage as I have a burnt out head light.

Some days you just don't

Some day you just don't get done what you want to.  Wednesday was one of those days.  Having the day off I only had 3 things that I wanted to do dye my hair (oops wait I am a natural red head) finish had quilting a baby blanket I'm working on and get some squares sewed for a contest at our local fabric store that is due the 31 of this month.
I had been looking at Kijiji, one of my favorite things to do, well there had been this sewing machine that was posted. I first saw the posting a few weeks ago, and they reposted it again.  They were asking for $75.00 and I offered $50.00 for it.  They accepted it, and since it was only a 1/2hr drive away, hubby and I set off Wednesday morning to get it.  She is a portable, the case is in excellent condition.  I get her home and of course now the question is should I dye my hair or try the new machine.  I take her out of her case, oil her plug her in, and thread her.  Put my foot on the pedal and push, get this wonderful soft purring sound and off she goes with a perfect stitch.  She is absolutely beautiful, her name is Pricilla she is a White.  Will check her model number this weekend and also take a close up of her pedal and this cute little oiling can that came with her.  Remember those small ones where you just pushed the bottom to squirt

The white band around her white side is just a piece of cotton wrapped around so you can put pins there.  A lot of women back then use to do this, unfortunately, after may years it does rubb off some of the decal. See the little oil can in her side compartment? The thing you see underneath her is a light that swivels back and up. I think this is going to be one of my favorite machines.

After checking her out, off hubby and I went to a second hand store, I wanted a small burrow to set under the leaf of the sewing machine to hold some material and supplies, since I had set up in the bay window an area that I will use for my sewing area during the Winter.

We went to Village de Valleur (Value Village, outside of Quebec) they had nothing, so we hearded for NOVA which use to be the VON (Victoria Order of Nurses).  We found 2 different units that would suit my needs, but right there accross from the door is a sewing machine.  Now I don't need another sewing machine.  I have 2 Treadles, 3 electric, and 3 portables.  But one can a girl do when she sees a price of $20.00 and she opens the top and it is a Singer model 99K.  From all that I have read on sewing machines the Singer 66 and 99 were the best machines that Singer made.  I looked at Huuby and said "We don't have the room for another sewing machine", he laughed told the lady it is going home with us, she can always find a place for it.  There was a bench with it for 20.00 but I din't want it, the sales woman advised me to look in it tho as there were parts that went with the machine in it.  I imediatel saw the button hole attachement,  I remeber my grandmother haveing the exact same one.  She showed me how to make buttonholes with it when I was around 10.  In the stool were also 3 tins of different stuff, mixture of needles threads, and parts for the machine.  So all 3 tins cam home with the machine.

Meet Twiggy, she got her name as she has a smaller shoe print thatn my other machines.

 

Of course the manuals for the machine and the buttonhole maker were with it, some extra babbins.  Also if you notice with the bobbins there is a long type boobin.  This bobbin is the one that one of my treadles use, I priced them at a Singer store just a few weeks ago, they were 22.00 each.  This one was in one of the tins with buttons in it.

 

 

 

 

 

She runs but the upper tension mechanism is missing a few parts,  I'll get the parts at the Singer store then she should run just fine.