I went to 3 Christmas Craft Sales and they were hohum but lots of fun and an opportunity to meet new craft people.  Everyone feels the sales are much lower and maybe the economy is making people a bit cautious.  My sales were quite alright and many people were very interest in my quilts.  I didn't sell any but will get them listed back into Etsy soon so local people can shop there as well.

The tan and black quilt I posted last about did not make to any of the markets.  There was just too much work left to do and my neck starts aching if I do too much quilting.  It will be finished as my first project in 2012.

Oh, how I look forward to January every year.  It is my month to vegetate, be lazy, do whatever I want.  The house is still pretty tidy from Christmas, there's lots of food so what is left other than do indulge in your favorite hobbies.  Have I been stocking up on some great fabric sales just for new projects in the new year.  I am going to create my very own first modern quilt.  I have some beautiful Birch fabrics in teals, lime greens, greys, kona snow white.  There are several modern quilt alongs going on throughout blog land and I am going to take blocks from those as my inspirations.  I know this quilt is going to be a row quilt.

Some of the places I have been Online Shopping are Hawthorn Threads, NYC, USA; Honeyfork Fabrics, USA; and Denney's (closing out Cdn. Online Shop).  I love the service Hawthorns provides to Canada and they carry the best designer fabrics at the best prices with a giveaway every week and sales all the time.  Go check these out, I know you will find a few things you will want to treat yourself with.

No pictures today, sorry!  Hope everyone is getting into the festive mood and ready to celebrate with family and friends over the holiday season.  I have this ready for Santa!

Sewing, sewing like a mad woman.  I am so excited about this coming Saturday, it is the Home Trade and Craft Show.  It is only one day but with 30 booths, there will surely be some good sales.  Here is what I want desperately in the show...my sofa/bed topper.  I love how it turned out and now I need to focus on the quilting, so far so good.

This is all I am going to show you until it is finished.

Of course, the kids are ready and excited to go.  Here is one keeping check on me!

Cross you fingers for me.  I have been to Saturady shows the last two weeks and they were terrible.  The weather was bad and -20 windchills so no one was in the mood to shop.  I have lots to show you after the Saturday show.

Happy Thankgiving to all my American friend

Hi all, it is Christmas Market time and I have been sooo busy getting ready.  The sales are starting out very slow.  I think that if people can't buy it on a credit card, they can't buy....they don't have money!  I really hope I am wrong.  I have an upcoming Home Trade and Craft Show on the 26th of this month and I am looking forward to that one.  You get a whole different type of shopper at these shows and the people that come are interested in handmade items and are there to do some shopping.

I have one new quilt finished.  I couldn't take more pictures because I need to charge my batteries, that sounds kinda funny, yes and that includes my own batteries!!!  Here is my newest quilt.

Here is the back and a close up.

So many people like the softness of a fleece backing that I thought I would try one for sale.  I had lots of nice comments on it.  I always worry about my pricing which is very good if you look at similar items on Etsy but I had no remarks so that made me feel good.  Regardless of what the public feel, I am not changing my prices.  I have been in Mall shows where you have the uninterested, bored husband waiting, etc. that make comments like "I would never pay that when you can get a good blanket at Walmart".  I have my next show next Saturday , a payday weekend so I am hoping people will be getting into the Christmas spirit.  I will take more pictures then.  Have a great week!

I had to take a month off on the Doll Quilt Swap that I love so much, just too much going on.  Here is the quilt I made for my partner in September.  I have never done a log cabin quilt, I know it on the beginner list, so I thought I would give it a try.  I still have trouble keeping my blocks square so I don't know if I am ready for a bigger size.

This is a short post as I am off to the doctors.  Chat with you later.

Hi all you wonderful readers, thanks for stopping by when I haven't even been around.  That pain in the butt has been really bad but I am getting a shot tomorrow.

October is Women's Cancer Awareness month and I hope all you ladies are getting your paps and breast screenings on a regular basis.  Our community is full of fundraising activities and I am helping with a coffee hour on Friday.  We hope to gather a few people to help with chemo hats, mastectomy pillows, quilts and anything else they might want to make.  Three of my quilts went to pallitive care this week, it is a sad feeling in my heart but I hope the quilts bring them some comfort for the time they have left.

We got the new Singer 404 cleaned up and the cabinet refinished.  The 404 sews so smoothly and the "tank" Fabric has a new home in the cabinet.  Here are a couple pictures.

The cabinet has no drawers so I was lost with what to do with all my junk I need to have around me.  My solution was this quilting caddy that turned out really great and was very easy to make.  If you want to make one , here is where you can find the directions http:// www.babylock.com/ftp projects. The link doesn't work so you'll have to type it in.  It is in a pdf file.

I love the window screening I used as you can see where your things are.  I altered the size a bit from the directions to fit over a large coffee tin.  The center can collection the garbage and thread.

It has been a  bit since I have been online.  While getting right into my gymn workouts, I pulled something in my hamstring and have been suffering with nerve pain.  It is really hard to sit or sleep but I am hoping it will go away soon. 

Hey, all you wonderful Canadian shoppers!  I want to tell you about a new Online Shop I came across recently right here.  It is so great to see more Canadian Online Shops and I needed a bit a fabric that Jennifer had so I placed an order and received it in 5 days.  She also just had a fantastic giveaway, but I didn't win, but that's okay because I just love visiting her blog and shop.  I hope you will stop buy and do some shopping, you will be so happy with her fabric and service.

I have been doing the Doll Quilt Swap over at the Quilting Board for a few months now.  It is just so much fun and the creative ideas post as so fabulous.  Here are my August and September quilts I received.

They are both sooo cute.  I plan to display these in my boring sewing room, as my daughter tells me.

I did another thing I shouldn't have this month.  I bought a Singer model 404 with attachments, manual, automatic buttonholer, automatic zigzagger and in a nice little cabinet for $35.00.  I haven't taken any pictures yet.  Got the little machine shinned up and she runs like a dream.  I am still working on the cabinet and now it's ready for the Danish Oil finish.  I have another purchase from this spring I haven't shown  and it weighs close to 40 lbs, solid cast iron, a japan clone called "Fabric".  I plan to put this one in the cabinet just because it is too heavy to lift up and down off the table.  The new 404 is about 18lbs so it will become a portable.  I will get some pictures done this weekend.

I need to get off my sore butt!  I see that Dragonfly has joined as a follower, thanks!  I love to see new people and some comments.  

That was a pretty beautiful holiday weekend to wind down the summer. We had family here from out of town so we enjoyed their company. 
I just finished 30 blocks I have had cut for some time to make a new scrap quilt. I sewed and sewed last night trying to finish them and I felt like I was making new fabric, silly, I know but it was just a jumble of square and rectangles. I got them all laid out tonight for a preview and here is what it looks like today.

It is showing pretty pinky/purpley but there is a lot of pink and burgundy fabric in there.  I think it looks pretty good, if you see something I could move to improve the balance, please comment.  I am just going to leave it laying out for a day and my hubby is pretty good at doing corrections so I want him to take a see.This is fabric my friend left me when she passed away from cancer 2 years ago.  It has taken me this long to be able to work with it.  I not a fan of pinks and purples so it will go to someone dealing with cancer treatments.

I am starting to see Thanksgiving and Christmas projects everywhere.  Do you do decorative items for the seasonal holidays?  I use to try and do Christmas things but never got them finished so scratched that off my list several years ago.

I am going to the gym.  I am just jumping in before I have to make a New Year's resolution that I will break.  Machine quilting those last 2 quilts within 2 weeks kinda did my left shoulder and neck in.  I decided it would probably do it good to get doing some exercises.  My gym has a great program where you pay $88 for 3 months and that includes your very qualified gym therapist and your own personalized program and use of the gym.  How much better can that get?  I have been doing pretty good considering the arthritis I have in my back and hips. I guess no pain, no gain!  If you are feeling out of shape, check out for a program similar at your gym.

All I have on the chat line tonight.  Thanks for stopping by and leave a comment, I love to hear from you.

I belong to a Doll Quilt Swap and it is so much fun.  I sent off my partner's quilt over 2 weeks ago and I am anticipating that it has arrived by this time, plus I don't think she comes to my blog. Here is your sneak peek!

I am on this flower kick all summer, just want them around me every day.  I call this "Garden Paths" and I really wanted to try the offset design.  I did some oblong meander in the white sections only and a loose feather in the borders.  I found my first piece of vintage pillowcases and used it for the backing.  All, in all, I am quite happy with it.  I love these little projects and September is black & white with a "splash" added.  Boy oh boy, guess what I have to work with and I am ready and we don't even have our partners yet.  Hope you have made some great plans for the weekend.

Sorry about the rest of the pictures yesterday.  Here are the little pouches, sunglass case, and microwave fabric bowl. Enjoy!

This fabric bowl is 12" across and will fit several sizes of bowls

I also got another of my chariety quilts completed and I am so happy with how it turned out.  With all this new sewing going on, I might not get another one done for a bit.  I showed you a while back how I was laying out the blocks and it went together so quickly.  From there I did some digging in a tote of backing fabrics and found these cranes, just meant for this quilt.  Here it is ready for someone dealing with Cancer!

I even got to show it to the lady that gave me all her strings.  She was more than pleased with the design and the backing.  I have another string quilt top done but not quilted from her strings.  I guess I will mark it nex on the list.

Canadians, enjoy the Labor Day holiday weekend....I know football has started so there must be some games scheduled!  For my many other visitors, hope your weekend is great with whomever you have around to share it with.



Kids started back to school here today, that means summer is pretty well over and the parks shut down after the Labor Day holiday.  It was sure busy getting around town, LOL, our population is 16,000 and you can get across town in 7 minutes.  I love our size, maybe not all the shopping we would like but the way people travel, they can go to a big center for the theatre, concerts and big mall shopping that we don't have.

It has been pretty warm(hot) here so I have been on a sewing binge all week.  I showed you the pretty fabric I received from New York City, well here are some designer pot holders I made with some of it.  I also made these cute little zipper pouches and sun glasses cases.  I found this new microwave pot holder that you put in the microwave with your dish and it is ready when your food is hot and can be used on the table as a pretty hot mat.  Have a look, what do you think?  I am thinking of doing a Christmas Farmers Market this year.  I need to charge $12.00 for each item, would you pay that much?  I am rather out of touch with craft shows, so any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

I can't get anymore pictures added to this post so I will have to show them to you tomorrow.  Until then, have a great evening.

Summer is getting very busy, do you feel the same?  Gorgeous days, fresh garden vegetables, and I really want to just be lazy all day outside.

Here is an update on some things I have been working on.  I received my July Doll Quilt and it is just adorable, my first modern quilt and I love it.

I have just sent out my August quilt but I better wait a bit before posting a pictures.

Today, I received the most wonderful fabric from Hawthorne Threads in New York and only 6 days shipping.  I can't believe it.  Just look at what I got!

I am planning on making either a bed/sofa topper or a wall hanging to sell in my Etsy Shop.  I need to get some new items made for the Christmas Season.  I am thinking of small items without a big price tag.  I have lots of ideas, just need to get sewing.  Before all that happens, I am going to enjoy the few weeks of summer left and I hope you do the same.  Chat with you soon.



Hi everyone, just here to remind any of you quilters or not to just stop over at here Stash Manicure to join in the great Wanabe Quilter campaign !  There will be great prizes every day of the week for the next 12 weeks.  How much better can it get and if you have never quilted, even better, you will have a chance on fabulous prizes to get you started and you will become a quilter in no time.  So just stop over there and Madame Samm will explain everything, she is sooo good.  Hi Madame Samm, we love you!

I actually got a UFO finished in July. This has been a UFO for quite some time. My friend died of a second round of cancer almost 2 years ago and when she was too ill to sew anymore, she asked if I would finish up a few things for her, this quilt being one. I have taken it out so many times and just couldn't work on it, I just miss her so much. Last week I decided this is it but every step was challenged. I wasn't real crazy about the colors and thought it somewhat wild, but with it finished, I like it. So what do you think?

I have been messing around with some other blocks that I received last year on a BB exchange.  I had a theme, Summertime Fun and the blocks were just great.  I don't really need another quilt so I am taking some of them and making them into placemats. I have 2 done and I think they are very pretty.

I also use these small projects to try new quilting designs on.  The one on the right in the purple section I did a dense paisely design and on the left in the purple some straight line stitching.  I hope I can get a few more done before we call summer over.

Hope you are having a great day and some quilting is part of it.  Chat with you again soon.



I was at the end of my post so I have to continue on a new one.  I wanted to show you the little quilt I sent my friend.

I have a new partner for July but I forgot to take a picture before I sent it so I don't know if you will ever see it.

I bought my first magazine this year because it actually had 5 things I would like to make.  I started kitting up this strip quilt.  By kitting, I mean I have done the cutting, some piecing and can continue to sew at when time allows without much mess.  I learned this from Bonnie Hunter from Quiltville who travels lots and does this to sew in hotels during her travel.  I like doing this and it is amazing how much you can get done in little spurts of sewing.

Here are my blocks, a bit brighter

I think I am going to use navy sashing with a lime green cornerstone and a red circle appliqued on top.

Hi, I know I have been away again but here is my reason....

Yep, more flowers and this is my new burgandy lily, isn't is just beautiful.  And, here is my best buddy sharing the shade with me.  I hope you have a favorite spot to enjoy some summer time and it is slipping by fast.  I don't know of one area in North America that has not had some sort of severe weather.  I hope each one that has been through tough times is making a comeback and we all support you.

I joined a Doll Quilt Swap on The Quilting Board in June.  I have met just a super friend and we have been stressing out together while Canada Post had their strike and backlog of mail to deal with.  Here is my beautiful quilt, card and neck cooler I received.

Summer is definitely here and I am loving all the very warm, dry weather with lots of sunshine.  Today was all about berries, quilts, flowers...how much better can it get.

I have picked my first dish of strawberries, just enough for me and so tasty.

Now, I have my favorite little spot in the yard where I love to go any time of the day.  I can enjoy my morning coffee or the cool afternoon shadows and enjoy my beautiful flowers.  Just had too much sun today to get a good picture of the roses in full bloom.

I have a couple new quilts to add to my Etsy Shop.  You can view by clicking here.  It has taken all spring to get decent photos taken.  Here are a couple shots

I was part of a Doll Quilt Swap on the Quilting Board for June.  My partner and I are still waiting for our quilts to arrive.  The post office is not doing anything speedy because they are not happy with their settlement.  I can't post my picture of this cute quilt I made.  As far as other project I added a piano key border to a string quilt so it is now ready to quilt.  I have a collection of summer theme blocks I received through a Birthday Block Swap and I have selected a few to make into summer place mats.  You can see the first one under my dish of strawberries.  I hope to do some more work on them this week.

I hope you are enjoying summer whether it be BBQ supper, holiday at the cottage, whatever it may be, may it be a great time .



The holiday is over and I am happy to be back.  I hope many of you have some exciting summer plans.  We took in some of our local Canada Day celebrations and the fire works were spectular.  Today, we hope our US friends have enjoyed a special July 4th celebration.

The postal strike is ended and what a relief.  It did nothing but create stress for those of us trying to ship parcels, letters, etc. to only find the government had locked the employees out.  We are only received 2 pieces of mail of any value since the workers were ordered back to work. 

I have taken part in the Quilting Board Doll Quilt Swap.  I have a wonderful partner Carron who lives in California.  We have enjoyed many messages to each other trying to figure out when it should be safe to mail our mini quilts.  They are gone off to their new homes but I cannot share a picture of my little darling I sent to Carron until she receives it, soon I am hopeful.  Now I am into the July Doll Quilt Swap with a new partner, Linny of Minnesota.  I have hers nearly done and it is very small.  I can hardly wait to get it off in the mail to her.

Another new adventure for this summer is a Postcard Swap.  I am in a group with 3 others doing a swap of "what is in your picnic basket".  I have never made a postcard so it should be interesting.  I went in search of a large piece of Peltex I had but I am fearful that ,not knowing what it actually was, I have thrown it out.  Oh dear, not a place in my town to buy fabric let alone Peltex.  I will try fusing together some pieces of cotton to see if I can get it stiff enough.  I am looking forward to this.  This is my type of break from making quilts during the summer.

I have done one small Charity project, Chemo hats.  A friend phoned me saying the local Cancer Office didn't have any chemo hats on hand and would I make some for a former employee.  Well they know me, of course and the next day I was off to the hospital to chat with the OR nurses about their cute hats they wear.  One was so kind and gave me one of hers to keep and take apart for a pattern.  I then had to search for some good fabric that would be cool during the summer months and came up with a nice jersey knit, a seersucker aqua cotton, and a red rayon.  I made 12 over the weekend and got  them delivered promptly.

I will share a secret with you.  I made a small quilt and made a mess of it.  I truly mean a real mess.  I even went to Christina of "A Few Scraps" for some help.  Then I prepared to rip out all the stitching I had done.  Shield your eyes, here it is!

See in the bottom left hand corner, that's were the worst is.  I have ripped everything out from the green checkerboard up.  Christina and others have suggested using a white thread on the white background using a dense pattern of paisley, flowers and add some butterflies, snails, worms, etc.  They have excited me and I am madly practicing some dense stitching.  I am not ready yet to go back to this finished item, just might muck it up again.  This is what is so wonderful about blogging and having so many great friends on the Internet.  You can get honest feedback on a problem as well as encouragement to keep working at it.  I would normally chuck this mess but I felt I had done a good job sewing the blocks together and it was worth having a second chance.

I am really tired out tonight so I am going to sign off.  I will try and return tomorrow with some pictures of something I have finished or something new I have started.  I hope each of you have a wonderful evening.

How have you all been.  I am so happy to be here today.  I have some great photos to show you.

Last weekend I went to our local Quilt Show.  It was small but what was on display was just as beautiful as any big show.  There display area wasn't real big so not easy to get every quilt shown but here are some:

The second and last pics were from a mystery quilt run by a LQS.  They were really beautiful and the applique really added a nice finish.  One of the nicest mystery patterns I have seen.  The quilt on the left side of the second picture was done as a first large quilt by a member who took part in a block exchange.  She added all kinds of small appliques and block and put every ones names in a border around each block.  I wish I had taken a better picture of it.  There was another room of smaller items which included, runners, apparel and some nice tables set for coffee and desert.  We had a great afternoon taking several tours of the displays and visiting over coffee.
If you are Canadian you have to watch hockey the past week whether you understand the game or not!  Game #7 on tomorrow night between Vancouver and Boston.  These 2 teams are so closely matched that the game could go either way, in any event, there will be 100,000 plus fans in the streets of Vancouver cheering and watching the game.  I will just say good luck to both teams and move over to a good baseball game.

I hope life is improving for all of you who have suffered from the flooding, fires, tornadoes that have been happening in many parts of the world.  I hope everyone has a great weekend and are able to celebrate Father's Day with your favorite Dad.

The winner of my draw for the boxy pouch and fabric is SkippityDoDahQuilts.  Thank you so much for stopping by and visiting my Etsy Shop.  I had lots of viewers visit this week, but not any that took time to post.  I will have another giveaway soon.  You can visit SkippityDoDahQuilts  here, she does some very awesome projects. 

Today we are going to attempt at planting the garden and put out the rest of the flowers.  Boy, we had a risk of mixed precipitation Friday night.  Got down to +3C, pretty scary.  I have to share this funny picture with you, my DH put his tomatoes to bed Friday night with these paper sacks just so they would not freeze; it worked.  I am sure the neighbors wonder about us sometimes.

I hope everyone is having a great weekend .

Amy Bradley has a new fun pattern out and you can have a chance to win it free here on Ruby's blog.  Hurry over as the draw takes place on Friday.

Good Day everyone, looks like the weather is settling down everywhere, we hope.  I promised some news today so here it is, I Have Opened My Etsy Shop, yes, it is open.  Go to Etsy.com and search SamanthasHouse. I haven't figured out how to do a link from here to there. This technical stuff is really hard for me so it takes me time to do things that may only take you a few minutes. 


I have decided that today I should have a giveaway, good idea?  Yes, mostly I want to thank my followers and all of you who come an view my blog or leave a comment.  Having you here just means so much when you start a blog.  So my thank you to you is this

I made one of my boxy pouches and I hope you like the color I chose.  I am sure that anyone can find a good use for this little pouch.  You can use it to carry your small take along projects in or maybe just some cosmetics.  I have included 3 FQs so you can make your own small item and I have wrapped them in a sample of my new ribbon I will use at my Etsy Shop:  SamanthasHouse

To enter you need to be a follower of my blog and tell me what items I have for sale in my shop.  Just 1 entery per person.  I will draw the lucky winner on Sunday, June 5, 2011.  So hurry over to my shop and see what's there and then come back and leave a comment.

Thanks for stopping by and I'll be back Sunday to announce the lucky winner.

Hi, I am Hooty and I just flew in at Samantha's House



Well, how is everyone today?  Hope you had lots of sunshine as we did, just a lovely day.  I keep talking about sunshine because a city like Toronto has only had 5 sunny days this spring vs 28 last year and temps at 5 C vs 28C last year!

I love my little Hooty that I designed and sewed up today.  He is about 7x10" and so cuddly and totally child proof....nothing hard....nothing can fall off.  He is made of poly fleece and stuffed with a poly stuffing.  I plan to offer him in my shop which is coming soon.

Our Cancer Society is hosting the Relay for Life this weekend.  I donated a lovely pink quilt that I made from a mystery design by Bonnie Hunter from Quiltville called Double Delight.  Sorry, I didn't take a picture before I turned it over to them.  On another note, we are a Regional Hospital and serving a large farming and ranching community in Southwest Saskatchewan.  Many people now come to our hospital for part of their chemo treatments and surgery when needed.  I approached our local committee about distributing quilts, afghans, shawls and anything else that might bring the clients some comfort while dealing with this terrible disease.  I just received word that they would take on this project and I am thrilled I will be able to direct my quilt donations to our own local people.  Here are 3 I have just taken to them.

I love making string quilts and I sew them to a fabric foundation.  I used a fleece for the backing with no batting.  I love how it turned out.  Here is a closeup

Another smaller string quilt that I added some cute prairie points to

The next one is partially refurbished fabric that I found at a garage sale.  It has a cute light hearted theme in bright colors.

I know many of you readers make donations to various charities.  Doesn't it give you a good feeling of warmth to visualize someone in need receiving a nice handmade gift?  I love it and will make as many blankets as I can get together.  My goal each year is 9 but so far I have only managed 6.

In closing, I want to share my most recent purchase.

Oh, my picture isn't very good.  These are labels printed with "Samantha'sHouse.blogspot.com" that I can sew on my projects that will go into my shop.  I have looked and looked and was thrilled to find these that Michelle custom designed for me.  You can have some too by visiting her Etsy shop "Inked Papers".

I am going to have something special for all my viewers and followers on Wednesday, June 1.  I know you are going to like it so I will see you then.  Have a great week.