More shopping . . .

The mailbox had some lovelies for me this week.

I guess because I'm such a frequent customer (go figure!), the The Fat Quarter Shop sent me a little 20% off coupon for my next purchase. So of course I couldn't pass up a special and I chose the new 3 Sisters line called Portobello Market. This little parcel is called a "Charming Jelly Cake" collection - one charm pack, one jelly roll and one layer cake. It looks much more mouthwatering in real life - it was hard to get a really good photo of the depth of this sinful concoction.

It also turns out that this is the fat quarter collection that will be shipped out for the October Moda Fat Quarter Club that I have belonged to for the past six months or so. My little stack of Portobello Market will be just a wee bit higher come October.

Here is a closeup of a couple of my favorite prints . . . can't wait to come up with a scheme as to how these are all going to go together - won't be able to use the excuse that I don't have enough fabric!

When I get done with all the projects planned for this collection I'll probably be ready to move on to another color scheme - don't you think?

Maybe something like this one!

This is Portugal by April Cornell and is the August Fat Quarter Club collection. Beautiful yellows, blue, terra cotta and green . . . absolutely inspiring!

I figure I better stock up on all these fabrics now because if the dollar ever takes a nasty turn, at least I'll have my stash to fall back on. I need more time at home I'm thinkin'. Need to negotiate more holidays for 2009.

And to finish off my shopping show and tell - Fabricland had a great sale on last week - 50% off! Now I'm all stocked up on this wonderful product so I won't run out in the middle of spray basting another quilt . . . because I still have a lot of quilting to do . . .

'til next time,

M.

Blast From The Past

Look at this new little baby! Sleek lines, computerized . . . just a sleek little hummer . . . purrs right along . . .

and then check out this old relic. Kinda night and day, don't you think?

The little white beauty up there is the hot little number I was trying out for the past week. The old bomb is the first sewing machine I ever bought . . . I think I was 15 or 16 years old . . . she's been around for a good long while. I paid $100.00 for it and the refinished old Singer sewing cabinet.

Yesterday I returned the hot little number and sat down to my old relic and started clunking away . . . I swear it sounds like an old tractor . . . a little loosie klang, klang, every so often. But, you know what? Somehow it just felt more comfortable . . . like an old friend, maybe. Weird . . . I know, but what can I say . . . maybe because she was my first . . .

Now that I've kinda got this machine quilting thing figured out and that really seems to tie up the Pfaff with it's special bobbin thread, invisible top thread and the table extension thingy, I had been wanting to try out the little, lightweight machine to see if it would work for me . . . plus also for maybe taking to classes - something a little lighter and easier to lug around. But, alas, it just didn't feel right to me . . . and just how much I would use it . . . who knows?

We'll see how much machine quilting I actually do for myself and how much I'll be sending stuff out to have done . . . in the meantime . . .

I bought a new machine quilting book . . . just in case I decide to do more and more of my own quilting. Still need to read this one, it just came yesterday. Flipping through it looks very interesting. Anyone have a review for me?

The Bible also came . . . I have had a look through this book . . . very nice. Can't wait to try some of these stitches! Maybe work some into some new designs also - nothing too difficult though.

Ok, so I haven't done any sewing for myself in years. And when I did, way back when, everything always felt so homemade . . . just a feeling I'm sure! Then I saw this cool creation on Joanna's site and I actually reached over and jotted down the pattern number on a scrap of paper . . . for some reason I thought it would be nice under suit jackets and stuff.

Now I have the pattern . . . but I don't sew for myself anymore . . . and would I wear it if I did make it . . . where would I find the time to even put it together . . . help! . . . what have I got myself into this time?

'til next time,

M.

Busy, busy . . .

This last week I have finished off one of the quilts that needed machine quilted and made a really great start on the second one.

I have found that having the machine set up in the dining room is working very well for me . . . it is easily accessible to go over and sew for five or ten minutes and then jump up and do something else. This is working wonderfully for me on workday mornings . . . I can get in a little bit of quilting before work, at supper time and even sometimes afterwards. Working on the larger quilts is really stressful on the hands and shoulders, so doing this sporadic kind of quilting ensures that there are no huge aches and pains. Plus . . . it's really surprising how much you can accomplish in those little bits of time.

I guess the old saying "practice, practice, practice" really does pay off. This time around I'm feeling so much more comfortable and more satisfied with the results that I'm getting. Knock on wood that this holds true until I'm finished that big quilt.

Sporadic quilting is helped along by my little assistant. She knows how to slow the old production line down to a crawl. It's a little tough maneuvering the quilt around when it's weighted down.

Of course she did apologize, and then promptly curled up for a nap. As if she doesn't have enough quilts to sleep on in every room in the house! Maybe she's laying claim to this one too.

A very late flowering coneflower decided to show up in the garden . . . I've seen some really nice quilt patterns using this flower . . . gotta try one sometime . . .

'til next time,

M.

Manitoba Road Trip . . .

Not much quilting going on here this past weekend. We made a trip into Winnipeg to visit family . . . road trip consisting of two hours there and two hours home.

Since there are no quilt pictures for this post, I thought you might enjoy seeing some of the scenery of Summer (almost Fall) in Southwestern Manitoba. I know there are people visiting my blog from other countries and I also know that I love seeing the scenery posted on other blogs . . . always interesting to see what the rest of the world has to offer. Remember you can click on any of the photos to make the image larger and easier to see.

Here is a picture from Holland . . . Holland, Manitoba that is. The community built this little wayside park a few years ago and of course chose the little windmill as the landmark. I believe they have some trees and flowerbeds planted in the area and in a few years it will be well developed. Sorry about the dash closeup!

Harvest is getting closer and closer, and we did actually see a few combines, but of course when I brought out the camera they all disappeared! This photo is of an irrigation system located close to Glenboro, Manitoba where there are lots and lots of potatoes grown. The irrigation is certainly a necessity in this area.

This photo might be a little out of focus but I think you can tell that the sunflowers cover a giant amount of land. As far as the eye could see, this field just seemed to go on and on. Love the sunflowers fields . . . so bright and happy.

And here is a very typical Manitoba wheat field . . . we do seem to be having more and more canola grown around this area though . . . something to do with the price being really good. You'll be able to see the flat, flat land and the big, big sky - that's what we have quite a bit of here in Manitoba (and mosquitoes!).

This one of my favorite landmarks coming out of Winnipeg . . . these buildings just peeking over the little ridge - gotta love that sky . . . blue, blue and more blue.

And, of course, everything grown on those fields usually makes a trip to the local elevator . . . this is probably one of the smaller elevators around nowadays . . . most are huge terminals that truckers haul large semi-loads of grain great distances to. The small town elevators are not quite as popular as they used to be and many of the rail lines are being pulled out of the communities. This does cause many small towns to become little ghost towns and some just disappear completely.

All in the name of progress . . .

(I'm beginning to feel like a tour guide, so it must be time to wrap this post up!)

'til next time,

M.

Catchin' up . . .

Last weekend we hosted a 25th anniversary party for my husband's sister and her hubby.

It just so happened that my mother-in-law, who had made the wedding cake 25 years ago, had frozen a piece of the cake that was not needed for the wedding. When we decided to do this party thing, she rooted around in the freezer and unwrapped it from it's many layers of protective coverings and researched with numerous people to find out if it would still be edible or not. The answer was "why not" and so she contacted a cake decorator and had it all done up for the anniversary.

What a look of shock on the happy couples' faces when they found out it was the actual cake from their wedding. PLUS it actually tasted not bad at all!

(Just a little side note: we were teasing the groom that he must have grown since the wedding because he doesn't really appear to that much different in height that his wife. Turns out that she was standing on the curb and he was standing on the street when this photo was taken - makes him look really short. Lesson to be learnt - watch out for those old pictures . . . they come back to haunt some of us!)

As an extra dessert, (just in case the old wedding cake didn't taste very good), I whipped up some of my cherry cheesecake tarts . . . someone really enjoyed licking of the beaters!

Now that I'm back to work there is not much going on as far as the quilting thing goes. Have the machine all set up to quilt this quilt . . .

and this one . . .

and this one.

Also borrowed a little Janome Jem Platinum 760 sewing machine to try out . . . that way I can still do some test sewing on some of the patterns I'm trying to write and also try and determine (and justify to my husband!) whether I could really use a second machine or not. If you have one, let me know what you think.

Off to Winnipeg this weekend so there'll be no sewing at my house - it'll all have to wait 'til I get back.

Have a great weekend everyone!

'til next time,

M.

Vacation Time . . .

I'm lovin' it!

All day to do what I want to do . . . and I've been doing it. The hours just fly by in amazing creativity. I've worked on many projects . . . completed a few . . . wrote four new patterns . . . started writing four more that are in different stages of production and drooled over many new ideas matched up with yummy fabrics . . . oh! the hours just sped by.

Here is a peek at one of the new projects. I still need to complete the directions on this one and send it off to my tester. Probably need another month or so before it can head off to the quilt shops.

Another view of a work in progress. Yes . . . I have spread my wings! My pattern line will now consist of traditional piecing, embroidery, paper piecing and whatever else I can squeeze in. I wrote two patterns yesterday that have nothing to do with quilting, but use quilting scraps of all kinds.

This pink lily is the third and final new lily that I bought this Spring. By far my least favorite.

I have weeded every inch my huge perennial garden . . . oh, my aching back. The chiropractor has seen me a few times in the past two weeks.

Everyone knows by now that YELLOW is my favorite color! Look at all these beautiful yellows meshed together . . . daisies and lilies everywhere.

The bouquet on my table is a gentle reminder to enjoy every minute - our Summer season is so short . . .

I hope everyone is having a special long weekend . . . stay safe and enjoy the season.

'til next time,

M.

I'm Back . . .

We had a wonderful time (sorta!) in Marean Lake. Rained most of the day on Saturday but that didn't stop us from golfing on Saturday night. Night golf is hilarious! The full moon didn't help with the anonymous golfer idea - everyone knew it was me when the ball went sharply to the left every time. Oh . . . there was once . . .

Even though Wawanesa is in a little Valley (crater as my Son refers to it), driving into the Quappelle Valley in Saskatchewan is still very interesting. You are greeted with all these rolling, layers of the earth . . . and it stretches out for miles and miles.

The land is usually very fertile also and the flats are farmed - makes for a wonderful backdrop for those round bales. I can't say that I'd like to drive up and down such a steep hill every day - I think that the drive in and out of Wawanesa is steep enough on icy, winter days!

When I got home I had another lily in bloom - the yellow one! If you click on the photo you can view it really close up - there are tiny droplets of water all over the petals . . . really nice.

Here is one of the pictures from the Lake. Can't you tell that these dogs are quite used to this mode of transportation? They ride up to the clubhouse with their owner and they stay on the ATV until he comes back from having his coffee. Patience is a virtue!

Look at my little scrap/garbage pile! Aren't those colors just the most delicious and mouthwatering feast for the eyes? Wait 'til you see the quilt!

I've been on holidays since last Friday . . . we got home late Monday night and I've been sewing every chance I get between washing clothes, mowing grass, etc. I'm having a great time and I'm looking forward to a long day of applique and border making . . .

'til next time,

M.

Brillante Weblog Premio - 2008 Award goes to . . .

The five wonderful bloggers that I have chosen are (in no particular order) :

Jennifer at Life's Just A Ferball in Tasmania, Australia. I first checked out Jennifer's blog because I liked the name so much! Being a cat lover myself it was hard not to check out a site with that name and then I found out what a busy lady she is. Stop by and say hello to her!

Nancy in Norway has had me on her list for quite some time. There is always something new on her sewing table and lots of good pictures to inspire us. Thank you, Nancy!

Jennifer from Manitoba and lives only an hour or so away from me but we've never met. Yet! I'll be needing to make a little trip over your way one of these days to check out your digs and some of those jelly rolls and fat 1/4's . . . plus I do need some quilt tops quilted . . . might need to make that trip sooner than later!


Joyce at J's Quilting Blog in Manitoba also. I love her view on life . . . "WOO HOO What A Ride!" Joyce lives less than two hours away from me and hopefully we will meet at a quilting "thing" one of these fine days. Joyce lives in a beautiful part of Manitoba (although all of Manitoba is beautiful!) and the pictures of her corner of the world are nice to see. Check out her views on life and also take a peek at all the projects she is working on.

Natalie also from Australia. Natalie is so inspiring to me . . . she doesn't post near enough as far as I'm concerned. I joined in her Color Challenge a few weeks ago and had a great time photographing only one color per day - need more challenges similar to that where the focus is on doing one particular thing. Keep up the great work Natalie and congratulations on the October news!

Vivian from California is a wonderful free hand machine quilter and does beautiful work. She's also quite the little traveller! I wish she lived closer to me so that she could machine quilt all my quilt tops . . . beautiful work! Plus she has beautiful children that lead interesting lives and it's always fun to check in to see what is going on in California.

Now, the way I understand this award is that each person who receives it, needs to award it to five bloggers that they feel are worthy of the Brillante Weblog Premio Award. Let me tell you . . . it's hard to narrow it down to only five. Good luck ladies!

Thank you to these five ladies for providing me with inspiration and entertainment! And thank you to all those other wonderful bloggers out there that I was just unable to squeeze into this one little post.

'til next time,

M.

The "PPP Giveaway" Winner Is . . .

My little Walmart happy guy (current favorite cat toy) helped with the drawing. There were so many entries that there was hardly room in the draw bucket for him to sit! I know these are NOT Anna Marie Horner's or Heather Bailey's designs . . . and I really didn't expect to receive a thousand replies . . . but if even half the lurkers out there left a comment we would have had a great contest!

Fer

from Life's Just A Ferball in Tasmania, Australia. Jennifer please send me your mailing address and I'll make up a little package for you.

Thanks to everyone who stopped by and especially everyone who left me a comment - I love reading the comments!

Maybe the 100th post thing is overrated . . . seven more to go and then I will reevaluate life in general. It has been a year now since the first post went into cyberspace and sometimes it is a chore to find something to post about . . . other times there seems to be lots of things to post. The other question one must ask is whether I do this for me or for the wonderful people that drop by . . . if it is for me, is it what I want . . . or is the time spent doing this, actually time away from doing what I really want to do?

Let me know why you blog . . . I would like to hear other people's insights. If you don't blog . . . let me know why you like checking out other people's blogs - either way I'm sure bloggers and lurkers alike would like to hear the others' reasons.

'til next time,

M.

Time is running out . . .

Today is the last day to leave a comment for the PPP Giveaway (see my July 5th post) . . . I know there are lots of you stopping by (lurking!), - all you need to do is post a comment. You don't need to have a blog to leave a comment . . . check out how easy it is by visiting Chooky Blue and read her June 27, 2008 post about how easy it is to Leave A Comment or you can send me an email and I'll be glad to answer your questions.

Hurry though . . . you've almost run out of time to get your name in! Odds are looking really good for the few of you that have left a comment . . .

Some fabulously shocked . . . surprised . . . overwhelming news . . .

I have received an award from Quilter Going Bananas! Totally not expected . . . but very much appreciated. Thank you K!

Well I have been doing just a couple of minutes research on this award and so far I have found that Wales, France, U.S. and Canada have been involved in passing this award along and I am thrilled to be included.

The requirements are that in my next post I will need to post links to five other quilting bloggers and pass the award on to them. I'll be needing to do some research on where I'm going to send the award and find all the link information to post. It may take me a day or two to narrow it down to only five bloggers - there are a bunch of you out there! I'll have to have this done before Friday because I'm starting my holidays then and will be away from the computer for a few days.

I've been doing a little bit of stitchery "stuff" and having a great time - I'll show you more soon.

Anyone like pink out there? This little posie reminds of some of my Grandma's old lace . . . very delicate and pretty.

This little geranium has my outdoor quilt in the background . . . I need to feed these plants or something because they are not cascading over the planter like I had imagined they would - that's why you're only getting part of the picture.

and this beautiful lily is called "Cocktail Twins" and was on the front cover of a lily catalogue that I had posted about a few months ago. Guess what?! It looks just like the photo - some things in life never quite look the same as their pictures . . . but this one really does. I bought three lily bulbs that day and this is the first to bloom . . . I think the other two are pale pink or white and a yellow one . . . can't wait for them to burst into bloom.

Isn't he cute? The story about this little guy goes like this . . .

We bought a Serta mattress and adopted this little guy (his name is one sixteenth (1/16th)). My daughter came out to visit the last three days and was the first person to sleep in the new bed, so I kept teasing her that she kept forgetting to take 1/16th to bed with her. Yesterday afternoon, after she had left, I went upstairs to make sure that everything was turned off and the windows were closed, etc., and here was 1/16th . . . all tucked into his new bed, holding the TV remote.

Just when you think your kids have lost their sense of humour . . . BOOM! . . . you get side-swiped with a fit of the giggles. Thanks Candace!

'til next time,

M.