What happened to the past few months!  Well: This was the last group project that I organized.  It was for the Binbrook guild and I had "planned" to do a demo on back-basting at the June meeting, to end the season.  All the background squares were either white, cream, grey, or black, with text of some kind.  All the center circle pieces were somewhere between yellow and red. However, it was scheduled for the day I got home from Quilt Canada in Edmonton. As you can guess, I did not make it to the guild meeting.  I also managed to pass the virus along to hubby ..read more

 Spring is crazy around here. (You'd have to live under a rock to not be aware that I like to garden.)  My body has been talking quite loudly: "Lady - what the fark do you think you're doing??? You sat on your ass all winter watching tv. I can't do this stuff - and if you make me, you're gonna pay!" And yes, I'm hurting. Bursitis in my shoulder, an awful knot in my shoulder blade, golfer's elbow, and a bad knee. Oh, and whatever is wrong with my neck, that I woke up with yesterday. Sigh. HOWEVER, I still manage to get out of bed every morning, and for that I'm grateful. In earl ..read more

The apron I made for my egg-providing neighbour.  I know she appreciates these...I popped over there one day for a visit and she was wearing a tattered apron that I'd made her a couple years earlier.  Ever since then I make her a new one every couple years. I'm lucky enough to have friends who I meet at Mapleview Mall for an irregular dinner date, maybe a half dozen times a year?  We met through our work at Royal Bank ...so many years ago I don't even want to think about it.  Somehow these new shoes managed to come home with me last night. Today's completed wall hanging ..read more

Aah, New Years Day. ? Time for a reckoning.  I set some targets every year so there's an endpoint where I'd like to find myself.  I don't manage to fulfill ALL of my goals, but taking a few minutes early in the year to think about where I've been and where I'd like to go does help to give me some focus. This is a quilt I started several (!) years ago.  It's a Bonnie Hunter leader & ender pattern TO THE NINES from one of her books. Occasionally we have enough sleepover company that I need to put the sofabed to use, but I didn't have a quilt that looks nice in that room AND ..read more

 Coco the rescue from Niagara Dog Rescue in the back.  Nina the rescue from Hamilton-Burlington SPCA in the front.  Two dogs who don't exactly like to wear Santa hats, lol. ? DH and I haven't had a puppy in probably 20 years.  Clearly I forgot how much work they are.  Most mornings Nina's been yipping & barking to go out between 5 and 5:30 am.  Did I mention that the dog crates are in the master bedroom?  She has been very good about going back to bed after one of us takes her out, but only for another hour and then she's up.   We've had her f ..read more

 Yes, I mean recovery from Covid.  (I have not entered a 12-step program to disengage from my sewing machine.)  It's October, which means a week in Tobermory with the Beach Girls, and that seemed to me like a perfect place to recover! I figured a Limoncello Spritz would be a very healthy cocktail, right?  Served with short rib crostinis for our afternoon cocktail hour.  Sadly (or not??) the spritzes weren't a huge hit, so Deb and I had to drink two each.   We've done some practice with our Zentangle skills... There's still one more wedge space to fi ..read more

 Janice and I are spending our last five days in Italy quarantined in our hotel room.  Because I have Covid.  I tested positive on Friday morning, and yes, I feel like total crap.  I've had the worst headache, that does not want to go away without drugs.  Tylenol to the rescue.  Janice is NOT sick, but because she's traveling with me she is automatically considered infected too. I'll share a bit of our LAST day out... The 5th was a free morning so we wandered around town, went to the post office so I could mail some postcards, and did some shopping. In the after ..read more

 The hotel we're in was built in 1897 (we think - it might have been 1891?).  It has operated as a hotel that whole time and was the first hotel here.  They still use the old phone. Hah, just kidding.  That's the phone in the ELEVATOR.  One of those fun ones where you have to open the two doors, then close the two doors before you push your floor button.  When you arrive at your floor, you have to open the two doors on the OTHER side of the elevator, get out, then close those two doors again so the contraption can carry on it's mission of making people slightly ..read more

 This is a bowl of leftover green beans (DH does not like green beans) and pickled beets (DH also does not like pickled beets, the weirdo) and feta cheese. This is what I have picked so far today: That's 5 sweet peppers, 2 lovely tomatoes, a bunch of cherry tomatoes, 2 strawberries (now gone - they were my lunchtime appetizer), a container-thingy of purple beans (which turn green when you cook them), and 3 zucchinis.  I already have 9 zucchinis in the fridge and I gave away 3 yesterday.  I have to go back out again to pick the Roma tomatoes.  And don't get me started on ..read more

 I bought a layer cake.  Well, actually I bought a lot more than a layer cake, but we'll leave it at that shall we?  At least this goes with a border print that's been in my stash for many years, AND I have a pattern that will work with all this stuff.  So it's good!  Well, except for the part where I'm not supposed to be buying fabric.  Ahem. Even Coco thinks some of DH's t-shirts should go in the trash bag. The last couple of weeks have been interesting.  WEDNESDAY Aug. 23rd: I was half way through this quilt.  Then BAM the hydro went out while th ..read more