Saturday, December 29, 2012

Alex playing Santa

Alex hates to dress up, but once a year he can indulge his Mom & Dad for
the Christmas card photo!
Yes, we are Nutz!

Friday, December 28, 2012

More doggie holiday pictures

Our guys love the presents at Christmas time.  We can't even put theirs out until we get up on Christmas morning.  DH took them out to potty while I put down the presents.  Murphy didn't even hesitate, but made a bee line for the tree.  Gus is more laid back, but once he's started, there are papers everywhere.  They both love to rip all the wrapping into little tiny pieces.

Oh Look!!  Presents!!!!!  Let's start ripping them open.


I got one too.......  Think I'll just carry it around for a while.
Kathi

Thursday, December 27, 2012

Oh the holidays

Jill in Portland - your dog looks worn out from the Christmas holiday festivities.   :-)

Our little Sophie had a big time on Christmas morning.  She got a bully stick in her stocking, which was consumed in half an hour.  Then, watching all the gift opening and her humans  laughing our heads off for a couple of hours, she gave up.   It was all too much for a little dog to bear.  

Here are photos that capture her in a comatose state.  It was her best defense.   ;-)  


Wednesday, December 26, 2012

Appilique tips

I am finding this information interesting and thought it better to isolate it in a separate posting.  Kathi is quoted as "I like a long straw needle, size 11, (also called a milliners needle) for needle turn. "...Kathi, what is a straw needle?  I use a regular sized needle, a sharp...not sure the # on it.  I don't use a short needle other than for my quilting stitch.  Also " I also use silk thread, as it buries itself into the fabric way better than cotton does."...another question:  does the silk thread break more easily than the cotton thread?  I prefer silk covered cotton thread...Mettler silk finish cotton thread it is called.  I can't find it around where I live so when I do find it, I buy more than I need and store it in my studio.  If anyone has any more tips or suggestions for applique, which not everyone does ejoy, I'd love to hear them.  I can always learn and besides, I'm not into the mainstream of sewing supplies so I'm behind times there.

This is a quilt that is being offered for free on the CQA Members website.  The centre surround has been redesigned.  After being at Art college and looking at this quilt more closely, that inner border is weak in design, so I've changed it a bit, just the inner border, the quilt looks much the same as it is here.  I've given the Canadian Quilters Association copyright permission to use it and although I haven't seen it, I'm told it is on their website now for members to download for free.

A quiet day following Christmas, bedsheets to wash, dry on racks around the wood stove (since we were placed on Smart Meters, which records our every usage, I refuse to use my dryer.  Our hydro bills, because of the B&B can be quite high unfortunately.  Nice to be with family and although there is one family missing of choice, we had a lovely time with supper and overnight.  Unfortunately, too, my 5 yr. old granddaughter is in the midst of recovering from Scarlet Fever, the only childhood disease I hope to avoid in my older age.  I had it three times from the age of 4 to eighteen, every seven years and pick up strep throats like dogs do fleas.  The incubation period is one to seven days.  I'll rest a little easier in a week's time...but that's what happens with grandparents...we can and do pick up our grandchildren's illnesses and it hits us all the harder.
RoseyP in southern Ontario, Canada




Tuesday, December 25, 2012

Wishing you all Peace for the holiday and New Year.
Staying busy here with cooking and baking and music,

might even venture to the sewing room later in the day.

Happiness is.......

The look on a five year old's face when he sees the dinosaur quilt Grandma made for him.

Merry Christmas, all!

Kathi

Merry Christmas

It's late Christmas day here and I thought I'd get on and wish all of you a very happy Christmas and New Year.  We've driven 200 km to the other grandparents' (and back) to share the day with them, our middle son's little ready-made family, their aunt and cousins.  Presents were a hit, thank goodness - not yet used to working out what a 6 year old girl would like, having brought up 3 sons.  Little Charlotte is 8 months old and already crawling.  We will have a very late celebration with our other 2 sons and their partners when we travel over to Melbourne in a fortnight's time.  

2 days ago it was over 44 deg C here (113 F) but it cooled down for Christmas Day - much better for travelling and enjoying the day.

Rosey - love seeing your designs.  Thanks for putting up the photos. Kathi - I really like the colours in your quilt and a white version sounds great also.

It's already 6 weeks since we returned home after our time away in Nth America. We visited both Niagara Falls and the Grand Canyon, took public transport with the locals in New York, Washington DC and Los Angeles and spent many hours at a variety of museums in Rochester NY, DC, Birmingham AL, Oklahoma City and Oregon. We were fortunate enough to spend time with several quilting friends (and their hubbies) who knew the areas where we were staying, so we saw quite a bit of countryside not familiar to these Aussies at least.  This included staying on the banks of Lake Martin in SE Alabama and visiting the site of the 1814 Battle of Horseshoe Bend; a week in Central Oregon where we did a quilt shop hop through Sisters, Bend and other nearby towns, had spectacular views of ancient lava flows and the John Day fossil beds and finally managed a clear day to see the 3 Sisters and other snowcapped mountains. We following a friend's recommendation to go to the Tar Pits in LA, where the skeletons of sabre-tooth cats, mastodons, mammoths and ancient horses (and one lone human bone!) amongst many others, have been recovered and are on display in a purpose-built museum. We visited 2 Spanish Missions in California and five covered bridges in Oregon and were shown houses built by Frank Lloyd Wright at opposite ends of the country. Several times it ALMOST snowed in my presence but I'm still to enjoy putting my hand out to feel snowflakes fall. (sigh)  We were there for Halloween and the election and celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving with friends in Alabama.  We were away from home almost 10 weeks in all but already it's fading into a happy conglomeration of memories.  


In the background the memory of the school massacre still hangs over us all.  So many families forever affected, from that of the shooter himself through to the young children who survived, who must live with memories of absent friends.  


And on that note I'll go silent again.  Every good wish to you all for 2013.  
Fran in South Oz

Monday, December 24, 2012


Thanks for posting your quilt, Kathi....it's gorgeous with the summer colours and the winter concept sounds interesting.The quilt here just above is the second version of the Arctic Reflections which was commissioned originally by Canadian Living magazine in 1987 which is above this one. I was never happy with the border, feeling it was too heavy in design.  About eight years, DH ran into some medical problems that for about three or four year was very stressful and I found my creative energy completely blocked. Dixie Lee, in the first photo, contacted me about this design which her aunt had started before she died and left in pieces.  Dixie finished it off for her cousin, contacted me and through her interest in this old design, I regained some creative inspiration and redesigned the border and made the quilt myself again.  I love seeing other people's choices of colour; it can change the look of a quilt so much.  Thanks for your patience, looking at quilts. 
Rosey

One of Rosey's designs

Here is my version of Rosey's design called Arctic Reflections.  I call mine Inuit Dreams and did the ptarmigan in summer plumage.  I've often thought about doing a second one using shades of white that show the bird with its winter coloring.

Kathi



Hopefully this won't take up too much space on the board.  The top design appeared in Canadian Living magazine in 1984, copyright to me, and the magazine sold over 100,000 paper pattern designs of the Canadian Provincial Flower quilt.  The second layout, same design, is by F. Babbington & a co-quilter and won a ribbon at the Stratford Breast Cancer quilt exhibit years ago.  The last design layout is by my friend, Beckie Shaw, from our area here, who won a second place ribbon with her quilt at the CQA conference last year.  The top quilt was made by Dufferin Piecemakers Guild as a fundraiser.  Believe it or not, I've never made this quilt though designed it.  The prototype was made by one of my quilting students who did such an excellent job on it (Arlene Rose was her name) that I never had the nerve to try it myself.
RoseyP in southern Ont., Canada

Rosey P. - Love, love, love your designs and what a beautiful quilt!

Doris - Lost your email in the email melee' that followed when Live Mail and Outlook conflicted and it supposedly got fixed. Boo hoo. Still working on it.

Wishing all a blessed and happy Christmas and all the best in the year to come.   Lavinia/AZ

Sunday, December 23, 2012

Sunday . . .

Although it is 46°F, the humidity is 93% and light rain.  It has felt much colder than the actual temp, all day long, probably due to the dampness in the air.

Rosey P - what a beautiful interpretation of your Persian Sampler quilt!   Thank you (and the quilter) for sharing a photo of it with us.

As of yesterday,  all the gifts are wrapped and under the tree.  Our weather finally  feels like winter, outside.  Now we wait.   We wait for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, as is appropriate during the season of Advent.   

Sophie may or may not get a Christmas bath tomorrow.   I've never had a dog who enjoys their bath, so I may give her a break and wait another week.   She's really not to grungy and would appreciate the postponement.   ;-)

I hope everyone has a wonderful holiday, no matter which one you are celebrating, including New Year's.
Hugs to everyone!

I don't think that the quiltmaker who bought one of my quilt designs, The Persian Sampler, would mind me posting it (D.Price, Canada).  She took my individual designs and composed her own design layout.   I can draw, some can't, I'm not a fine art 'drawer' but rather, a designer/drawer and I love it when quilters recreate for themselves, how they want their quilt to look and appreciate when they give me design credit for the elements used.  She has a nice sense of balance and flow with her design.

And I echo Bee's wishes for this time of year.  Never easy for some, it is for me a family time and that's what matters most, is being together with people, family or not.  We have some snow on the ground and we may have a 'white' Christmas.  It's very cold and the winds have been howling like freight trains through our pine trees.  I look back over the year and feel blessed to have experienced it.  Ups and downs like others, family relationships change, some pain there but friendships endure even as we grow older, each in our own way, we find a place in our lives that we settle into with some comfort.  I treasure waking up in the morning to hear the snuffling of my two lovely Australian Shepherds, to come down into my studio and as dawn is breaking, looking back into the meadow to see four or five deer moving silently like brown ghosts across the field, they are not easy to spot.  I'm blessed to be able to still use my hands and eyes although both are being challenged by age.  And oddly enough, I feel blessed to experience the age of the internet that has widened my world so much and yet, is tardy in its loading up reminding me that although I have high speed out here in the country, I really don't and am being charged for it....the reality of consumer life.  All the best and thank you Eric for this site.
RoseyP in Southern Ontario, Canada

Merry Christmas

to all on the BBchat, I have enjoyed talking to you during the year and like to hear of everything which is happening, some things sad and some happy. I hope you all have a great holiday and keep safe on the roads. Many hugs from a very warm and muggy NZ. Bee in NZ.