Merry Christmas

I want to send each of you a heartfelt wish for a healthy and joyous Christmas holiday.  I treasure each and every person who stops by and reads my blog which has created many friendships for me across the miles of our great country.  I am truly looking forward to 2014, a new year always brings new opportunities.

The turkey is out of the oven as we prepare to enjoy this wonderful meal with family and friends.  I hope your day is blessed in the same way. 

New BagI

I just wanted to show you the neatest little bag I have ever found.    I saw a tutorial titled "SOCK SACK" BAG.  Of course, curious me just had to check this out further and here it is.

There is a new pattern out where you can knit 2 socks at a time but you need 2 separate balls of wool.  This cute bag has 2 compartments, one for each ball of wool along with a centre zipper pocket to carry your knitting accessories.

 There are also two strap, one on each side, to guide your wool.  It is not  very big and my 2 fat balls of wool fill it full.  Here is what I am working on right now, a faux fair isle doll sweater.  I like the doll size clothes as it doesn't take much time to rip out my many mistakes!  This sweater will fit an American Girl 18" doll.  I found a beautiful 18" porcelain doll at a church rummage sale so she is my model.  When she has an outfit to wear, I will post a pic of her.   I tried the bag to keep my 5 balls of wool I had going at one point untangled.  I think it helped quite a bit but they still got twisted.  I am doing the yolk now and it has raglan sleeves and a turtle neck finish.  It buttons in the back so it is easy for a child to put on the doll.   This one project covers quite a few techniques for me to learn.  It is really fun. I forgot to mention you can purchase the pattern on Crafty, made by Ramona Rose.  She did an excellent job on the pattern instructions.

Last year I started stitching some granny square blocks.  My mother-in-law crocheted my daughter a blanket in this pattern.  I thought it would be nice to have a matching quilt.  I got about 9 blocks made and ran out of small print fabrics.  Over time, when I came across an appropriate fabric, I made a few more blocks.  This week I have a total of 20 finished.  This is all I am doing at this point.  This is one of my kit projects for the new year while I am recovering from my 2nd hip surgery.  Here are my 20 blocks..

Hope you enjoy my new projects.  Have a great week everyone.

Blogathon, Canada

I can't believe fall is almost gone and snow anticipated tonight!  But with fall comes Blogathon, Canada and Flo from Buterfly Quilting here is the host for Saskatchewan.  Thanks so much Flo.  The event starts November 18 - 23 so be sure to check out all the bloggers.  I have taken most of the year off and this is a perfect opportunity to get back connected with the quilting world and my friends and followers.

I am just finishing up the final touches on my Christmas charity project of my doll (pixy girl), bed and storage chest.  I have had so much fun with this and she is collecting quite a wardrobe.  I found most of my patterns on the internet, some I paid for but that is okay because everything doesn't need to be free!  I am new to knitting and have learned so many new techniques that I feel brave enough to try something a bit bigger this winter.

In January I am having my second hip replacement and that will be a perfect time to start a new knitting project.  This is my right hip so I may not be able to cruise along sewing string blocks.  I know right now that one of my first outings will be to the knitting group at the library.  The building is easy access with good parking and they have a wheelchair for patron use.  I am making some sewing kits that I can sew on one of my vintage machines without destroying the house with cutting scraps.

I have one small quilted bag started that I am going to work on tonight once I sign off here.  I'll be back with some pictures.

Here are some recent shots of Pixygirl.  Have a great weekend everyone.
She is sooo cute!

Small Talk

Fall is past and winter is closing in fast....a bit of snow already.  The computer is operational again and I do not like Windows 8.  So what do we do in November....Blogathon Canada  November 18 -24. I had a note today from Flo at Butterfly Quilts reminding me and to let us know she is the Saskatchewan rep. this year.  Thanks Flo!  You can read  her blog here

Computer Crash

Just what I don/t need this week...hot heat spell and need to work on sewing projects.  I had quite a few corrupted files and when I was fixing them I somehow deleted my one and only profile...poof, there I was gone and could no longer get into my computer.  After some discussions with the fixit man and an estimated $250. repair bill, I bought a new laptop.  Now I have to learn all about Windows 8, back to Explorer Internet and it goes on and on.  I came close to smashing it today!

So, hopefully in a couple days, I will have myself organized.

I can use any words of wisdom and encouragement right now.

Hi everyone, I am around busy getting organized for my Christmas Craft Show in November.  I am on the surgery list AGAIN....for my second hip so hopefully that happens in September.  I am getting my house prepared for Christmas, a bit of cleaning and my shopping organized.  Boy is it hard to find anything in the clothing line that has any quality in a small community.  I will be having my surgery in Saskatoon and will be going there for a preop session so maybe I will be able to shop a  bit there.

No pictures today but I have knitted quite a few outfits for [pixy girl and some cute shoes in various sizes mainly because I make mistakes and end up with one shoe bigger than the other.....you know how this is going.  I haven't done much sewing of any kind all summer and that was my plan...to take a break.  I have a beautiful flower bed that has been bursting with color all summer.

Remember a while back I was telling you how annoyed I get with the doves in our neighborhood?  A few weeks back we had 3 small type of hawks (or small falcons) move in and boy we haven't see a dove.  They say nature takes care of it's own so maybe the dove cycle is over....yeah!  Bye for now.

New Quilt Design

Of course by now you all know I use my charity quilts to practice a new quilt design.  I learned a new one this winter and I am very pleased how it turned out.  Here is a picture of the front and back.  The quilt pattern was Disappearing Nine Patch.

New Project

I have a new project that I am literally falling in love with.  This fall I joined a knitting group and we meet the first and third Wednesday each month.  This is such a fun group of ladies and it is more a social than a structured meeting, but there is always someone there to help you with a problem in your knitting.

This winter I broke my leg so I knitted a sweater that isn't quite done.  I enjoyed this so much.  I remembered forgetting to plan an item to donate to the Salvation Army Christmas gift baskets.  In past years I have either purchased or made a doll and a wardrobe.  Now this year I decided to plan well ahead so I would have everything ready for Christmas.  Last summer I purchased a set of doll bunk beds for $5.00 and handmade of oak.  This spring I started looking for a nice baby doll to go with it.  I ended up with 4 nice dolls, one has ink on the face and it will live with me.  I have been having a lot of fun knitting clothes for the dolls.  I am also working on the little quilts for the bunk beds.  Oh yes, I also purchased a small 3 drawer storage unit on wheels to store all the bedding a clothes.  What fun!

Here is a little peek at the doll that will go with the bunk beds and the quilt tops for each bed.

I think this doll is soo cute.  She is about 12" and I knitted the romper and hat for her.  She needs some booties to match.  She has weighted beads inside her so she can sit up nicely and on the edge of items.

I plan on attending  a Christmas Craft Show in November so I will be back to my quilting soon.  I like a bit of a summer break and these little items are just perfect to work on.  I will post more pictures of the new kids at my house as I get clothes made for them.

Happy Valentines

Hope you all have had a wonderful day with special people in your life.  My day could not be better!  I awoke smelling fresh coffee and chocolates were on the table, that was a perfect start to my day.  Later in the afternoon we went out for strawberry sundae and coffee.  I did manage to finish my Valentine twister heart.  I don't usually do seasonal projects because I just simply never finish them.....well my sewing machine was certainly trying my patience on this one.  I changed to red thread and then it didn't want to FM nicely and breaking thread and tonight it still is skipping stitches as I was sewing down the border.  Anyway I won and I hope you enjoy this picture.

I don't know how many of you enjoy curling but here in Canada it is a national sport and if you live in small town Saskatchewan, it may be one of the only winter sports you have.  Saturday, the Tournament of Hearts ,which is the Canadian ladies teams, starts for a whole week.  I will have to organize some simple sewing so I can sew on my "Fabric 15-91" while I watch the games.  Another note, we are half way through winter...woo hoo!  Temperatures are starting to rise but we are getting rain and lots of snow but that's okay, it is winter here.  Have a great weekend.

Red and Pink are my Colors

Hi everyone.  Hope you are getting through the winter months and having fun working on projects.  We have just completed a week of a-40 to -45C windchills!  I can tell you I have gotten a few projects done just by staying indoors.  The flue landed hard here even closing one wing of our hospital but I think the cold windchills have taken care of those bugs.

Here is my second finish for 2013, a snowball quilt.  I was super excited to find some flower quilting designs while visiting Marcia's Quilting Blog.  She has a longarm quilting business and does beautiful work.  I have always struggled with flowers, just can't keep them round.  Now seeing how Marcia does hers inspired me to try again  and I think they are okay, at least, the best I have done so far.

The photos could be better, however, this was during the snowy freezing weather dull days.  I made this quilt entirely out of scraps.....maybe about 600 2-1/2" squares.  It looks real pretty all finished up and will be going to a cancer patient.

Since it is February and I have time to play a little, I am working on Connie's twister heart project and you can see her tutorial here http://www.conniekresin.com/2013/02/twisting-heart-valentine-tutorial.html
Here I am so far....

See the tiny 2 1/4" template I used to cut the squares.  I have never done this tiny of twister blocks so I used my scissors to cut the blocks apart after I traced the template with a FriXion pens.  When I get it done, I am going to link to Connie's Freemotion on the River. Connie is also having a giveaway today if you live in the US.   Have a great day everyone.

Hello, I am Here!

I am back after a few setbacks.  I had to upgrade to Google Chrome which is fine other than so many things have moved/changed that it takes me longer to do things.  As I was going through this task, feeling annoyed, I remembered back when I was employed and our company introduced CHANGE.  Wow, what turmoil and unhappy employees and disgruntled employees we had.  What change was doing was making everyone more accountable for what they did.  It was not that hard, just took time to get used to, so as I was doing my updates, I thought why am I so upset over all of this?  I will and did get through it, and yes, I still have some issues to deal with but they will resolve themselves in time.  I am not going to let being a senior make me an unhappy blogger.

Back to business, do you ever make binding up ahead of time just to have available when you want some in a hurry?  I do, especially for scrappy quilts where  a scrappy binding is often the right choice.

Above you can see my assortment of blues that I sewed together and pressed ready for a quilt.  I usually sew 7 - 8  2 1/2" strips together.  This time I have some left over so they will get joined to some other set.  Below is my finished quilt with the binding attached.  It was a good fit for this quilt.  I regularly sew at night and how often have you finished a quilt and would just love to get that binding on but to start from fresh is just too much at 10 pm so this is when I go to my binding stash.  Try it, I am sure you will like it.

New Year

Happy New Year everyone.  Hope you all had a happy Christmas and are enjoying 2013.  I know we had the best Christmas ever, just being with family and at home during the holidays.  The weather was good with a little Christmas snow, so how could you wish for more.

My DD had some holiday time so we had a couple sewing days together.  Here is a picture of my finished bed topper that I made out of my stash of 2 1/2" squares.  Well sometimes funny things happen when you haven't posted for a while.  When I click on insert pictures, I can't browse my computer for pictures.  Wow, this is going to take me some time to figure out.  If anyone knows why I am having this blip, please let me know.

I put together a small quilt to donate to our Palliative Care Unit and it is ready for quilting.  I will post some pictures when I get this problem sorted out.  Until next time, best wishes to all.