Finally Friday

I finished my girlfriend's top today and snapped this picture before I trimmed it.

We both bought a fat quarter bundle of this fabric - she did something with hers - mine is still waiting for inspiration to strike. If you click on this picture to enlarge it, you will see just how perfect her piecing is - there isn't one point cut off or one seam not butted perfectly. I used a new to me thread on this - Superior Poly Quilter . The colour was perfect for the top and I'm pleased with how it quilted.

Tomorrow we are going to her son's wedding, so I can take the quilt with us.

I made another cover for my ironing board today. It seems like only weeks ago I made one but I seem to go through these things like crazy. The last one I used upholstery weight fabric but it really didn't seem to last any longer. Maybe I need to try the Teflon coated fabric. Making these really isn't my favourite thing to do but I can't find any the right size for sale around here.

Does anyone know if there is a 12 step program for Scrabble?

Hump Day

Things went relatively well with Leo yesterday so hopefully that is another hurdle behind us. Thank you all for your good wishes.


After spending what seemed like forever on my blue & white quilt, I needed a little instant gratification so made this for my Mum for her upcoming birthday.


It has a pocket on the outside and two pockets inside and was actually quite simple to make. The fabric is a Christmas charm pack collection called Mistletoe Manor, but I don't think it screams Christmas.

I had to pick Leo up this morning at 6:30 A.M. which meant I had to leave the house by 5:45 A.M. I am NOT a morning person and these early wake-up calls are not my idea of a good time. I'm back to work tomorrow, so sleeping in until 7 A.M. will seem like a treat!

I quilted my girlfriend's other quilt top today but on the last pass, ran out of bobbins. I used to think pre-wounds were a waste of money - until I tried them. Now I'm totally hooked on SuperBobs as they last so much longer than any that I wind myself. I've also noticed I have much fewer tension issues with the pre-wounds.

While I was busy downstairs and Leo was trying to sleep, our cleaning lady was busy burning out the motor on our central vac. We discovered she leaves it on the whole time she is cleaning and today it was on for well over an hour. Looks like a Dyson is in our future - along with a new cleaning lady!

Blue Rover, Blue Rover, It's Finally Over!

It's finally done and I have the holes in my finger to prove it!

Here's a shot of the back where you can see the quilting a bit better.

I put a striped bias binding on it as I just love the look of stripes on the bias. Thanks again to Mary who provided the pattern for this quilt.

A lot of you have asked what I'm going to do with it. A couple who have worked for Leo for over 30 years are retiring in July. They are a salt of the earth couple who are moving back to Newfoundland to enjoy their retirement. I know they will appreciate this and it will give me a lot of pleasure to give it to them. Harry has always referred to Leo as 'Mr. Leo' which has always amused me, so here's what I put on the label.

Leo has hit another bump in the road. He had an angiogram this week and they found two major blockages so want to put stents in as quickly as possible. He is going back in on Tuesday for the procedure and hopefully will be home again on Wednesday. I sure wish we could get on a road that was less bumpy - this one's making me sick!

Boom Boom Pow

That's the song I can't get out of my head today. My friend Joan (the evil one that got me addicted to Scrabble) called one of our games the other day "Do Your Ears Hang Low". Well, ever since then, I can't get that song out of my head. I'm not sure if "Boom Boom Pow" is an improvement, but that's what's been going around and around all day in my head (there's lots of room in there).

I thought you might like to see a Cocoa update. She is getting to be a big girl and she's still only half grown.

See the jar of dog biscuits on the the desk - that was full a couple of weeks ago. Her owner teases us that he doesn't need to feed her as Gail and I give her treats twice a day when we have our 'Cocoa break'.

We do make her work for them though. We've taught her to sit, shake a paw, down and stay. She is so funny when she comes into the office - she runs right to the desk with the goodies and sits patiently waiting for her treats. She's giving Gail 2 paws here in an attempt to get the goodie quicker.

I'm still sewing binding on my quilt. 400" is a lot of binding......... What on earth was I thinking?

Let's Get The Party Started

"Get this party started on a Saturday night".....

I've had Pink cranked on the iPod today while I pieced the back for my quilt. I may have mentioned before that piecing backings is my least favourite part of the quilt making process. Since this top is 98" x 98" I needed almost 9 yards of backing fabric. There goes all that bargain white fabric I bought in Maine. Now I'm just going to have to go back!

Hopefully the next time you see this it will be all quilted and bound. Mary gave me some great suggestions for quilting so I'm all set.

I've also figured out how to feed two addictions at once.

Now I can play Scrabble on Facebook while I'm sewing.

I'm sick, I know.

My Weekend is Here

I took a vacation day today as I had an appointment at Mt. Sinai Hospital in Toronto with a dental pathologist - who even knew there was such a thing? It took me just under 2 hours to drive in this morning for a 9:30 A.M. appointment and it took just over 30 minutes to drive home. Morning rush hour - you have to love it!

I was just glad the Tamils weren't demonstrating today so the road wasn't closed. If they had been, I would have run them over - honest! I think it's disgusting what they are allowed to do, but I digress.


I have a lovely disease in my mouth called Lichen Planus. If you click on the link, you'll find out more than you ever wanted to know about it. Bottom line - it's painful and something you just have to learn to live with. I've had it for years, but when I saw a specialist about the arthritis in my jaw, he suggested I see another specialist to see if I could get some relief. I've been given yet another prescription so we'll see what happens.


Not wanting to waste my afternoon, I laid out my Blue Rover on the living room floor - it seemed to be the only place big enough to lay it all out.

I've tried to look this over with eagle eyes to make sure a block isn't turned the wrong way. It wouldn't be the first time I've sewn everything together then noticed a block or row was wrong.

This is one of the first quilts I ever made called Pointless Wonder. I was so proud of it until I noticed that the top row was on the wrong way - and worst of all, I didn't notice until the whole thing was quilted. Well, needless to say, it stayed that way and the recipient doesn't seem to mind.

Tuesday Ramblings

There isn't much blog worthy going on around here. I had a lovely Mother's Day - as usual, my daughter spoiled me with some lovely and thoughtful gifts. My son actually remembered, so that in itself, is something of a miracle. My baby gave me hugs and kisses.

I'm quilting two quilts as a favour for my girlfriend. I got one of them finished last night and just sent her this sneak peek.

It is such a pleasure to do her quilts. Her piecing is so precise - never a point cut off or a seam flipped. As you can see, I used my favourite, Circle Lord Swirls. I haven't decided what to do on her other top yet - maybe I'll try out my new 7 Treasures of Buddha template.

I've been engrossed in a book for the past week - Penny Vincenzi's "The Best of Times".

I think she is my favourite author - I love all her books and they are nice long reads - I'm on page 689 right now!

We had our bowling banquet on Friday night and a good time was had by all. Our team won $132 each - can you imagine how much we would have won if we were any good????

Santa Table Runner

I had a lot of enquiries yesterday for the name of the pattern for the Santa tablerunner. It is called "Topsy Turvey Santa" by Happy Hollow Designs.

I think it would also be cute if, instead of putting the faces on, you used the shape of the Santa as a Christmas tree then you could embellish it with beading, crystals, ric rac, etc. That's about as creative as I get.

Springtime & Christmas

I love magnolia trees. We have a small one in our front garden and it's in full bloom right now.

I took this picture through a screen window so it isn't as clear as it could be. I'd love to see the magnolias in Charleston when they are in bloom. We visited there a number of years ago while there were still a few left over blooms on the trees and they were the size of dinner plates.

From magnolias to Christmas. I finished this runner yesterday.

I just stitched in the ditch as I didn't think it needed a lot of quilting. Sometimes I think we longarmers feel the need to have everything quilted like crazy, and it really isn't always necessary. Of course, if I could quilt like some of my quilting idols, I might think differently.


Speaking of idols, it's almost time for American Idol. I've been recording it all year as I bowled on Tuesday nights, but bowling is over for the season so now I get to watch it live. I'm pulling for Adam, Danny & Alison for the top 3. I'd be happy if either Adam or Danny won and I'd also be happy if they got rid of Paula - she drives me nuts!

Someone Opened My Box...

And I crawled out... I tried some freemotion on this tablerunner. All I see when I look at it are my mistakes and things I could have done better, but I'm good at telling everyone else not to stress over it, so I'm trying to follow my own advice.

I'll even show you a close up:

Ruler work on a longarm is a lot harder than it looks - honest!

I got another little baby strippy quilt finished today and although I used a panto (Popcorn), I did try a new method of stitching it. I kept both hands on the left handle, almost like a joystick, and I think I'll be doing all my pantos that way from now own. I've tried it one handed but didn't like that, but this way seems to work a lot better for me than one hand on each handle and it is also much easier to see the laser.

While I was taking a picture of my quilt, I snapped one of my new panto holder that I got at MQX. I've always wanted one of these so when we saw them in a booth, both Lee & I grabbed one.

It felt good to get something accomplished this weekend. I didn't do a thing last week, mainly because I wasn't feeling good (I feel much better now), but also because a certain someone - JOAN - got me addicted to playing Scrabble on Facebook. I must have a very addictive personality - for weeks I was hooked on Pathwords, now it's Scrabble. I hadn't been near Pathwords for ages, when Joan very kindly suggested I join her in a game of Scrabble. I may never forgive her... She's just lucky she has such a cute little dog. His name is Casey and I lifted this picture from her siggie - isn't he adorable!