My New To Me Thing Among My Thursday Loves

New To Me #1

I'm going to post a new to me thing each week. I'm still learning so much and the new thing will be anything I come across that tweaks my interest.  Learning new things is good for old brains too.  LOL
This week it is a quilting thing...tricot quilts.  I'd never heard of them till Carol spoke of them on her
Just Let Me Quilt blog.

The silky material Tricot quilts use make the stitching easy...what a great way to practice slow motion quilting or hand quilting.  I'm sure many of us have memories of just such silky feeling quilts from our childhood.




Remember the tempest in a tea pot that was taking place online about the use of so-called cheater panels in quilting.  I receive Janet Granger's posts directly in my mail box and lo and behold, there was Janet, who is a wonderful hand quilter and advocate, btw,  making use of just such a pre designed panel.
This one is called Stonehenge: A Stitch in Time- Quilt Block Panel and I like that palette.  Does it appeal to you too? She is using that dark mustard fabric for the backing.




Janet was saying in her post that she wanted to make a Quick Quilt and this panel fitted perfectly what she had in mind.  She quickly made her sandwich and has set about hand quilting it which she does beautifully.

Meanwhile I want to spread the word.
 The wonderful designer and quilter, Jacquelyne Steves, is offering a free BOM beginning in August.  I Love  Home will feature 4 blocks with borders and options to piece, applique or embroidery your blocks. I love the idea of such choice.  And who doesn't love houses?! And designers who generously share their talent!



And what do you think of this?  I'm quite taken with it. Maybe because I love the combination of fabrics and embroidery in general.

What word comes to mind when you look at this piece below??  Fanciful came to my mind.

Embroidered by Kimika Hara and I think I remember this is a fox out at night.  I'm going to try to find out more about Kimika and get back to you with what I find.



I like that Michael J. Fox became a Governor General's Performing Arts Laureate last week.

A great little video about Parkinson's, a disease Michael jokingly calls, the gift that keeps on taking.  

Happily linking with the other "Like" posts at Not Afraid of Color.

In and Around Our House

I wondered where Murphy was - she is usually under my feet.  And there she was all curled up behind me in my sewing room chair.  I hadn't seen her sneak by me.  She can be quite stealthy when she wants to be.

Rex too seeks out his comforts... often in my living room pet chair just like Murphy above is doing.

 Why these two very big dogs want to be off the floor every chance they get, I don't know.  They are rescue dogs; pretty sure Rex especially only ever knew a crate before life with us.

But I feel it is all the more reason to indulge them a little.

 They don't handle heat well but will still beg for their walks.  I'm not sure I'm doing them favours having them out wearing fur coats as it were.  Early in the morning works the best for them so it's then I take them around the pond with Murphy always diving in for a dip.
 Labradors adore water; we have witnessed her try to do a full body bath in a little puddle.

At the pond we encountered a deer one day but luckily, it was swifter at seeing us and was able to leap out of sight before the dogs got too excited.  I was rewarded though with the memory of its pretty pale red/brown coat shining in the early morning sunshine.

Two things I love about the picture below...the poppies are a given.  But also I'm loving my new Sketchers sandals for around the house.  Comfortable and totally attached so no chance of me falling off them (which I have done with the backless sliders, so no more of those for me).

Here's a closer look at them. Light as air and so comfortable and they fasten with velcro just like the little kids shoes.  What's that expression that applies now...once a man and twice a child.

A couple of bird shots for you.  The first, a chickadee at the feeder, taken from the veranda.

And a pair of Canada geese that stayed around our pond for a couple of months but have moved on now. Try as I might I couldn't sneak up on them without one sounding an alarm.  You can see the one of the left is doing just that.

An unlikely visitor to the feeder area...a wild turkey, all by herself, trots through every now and then. She seems to be hanging out in a area of the woods where Hubby has seen a groundhog.

Lots of bloom inside these days with longer hours of light. All the African violets are flowering nicely.

June is over and we are into July.  Time is like the air now...nothing to it at all.

A Big Happy July 4th to my American friends!

Happily linking this post to A Southern Daydreamer and lovely outdoor stuff.

What's Green and Very, Very Scrappy

My Inspiration

I've been interested in seeing the creative ways people are using their scraps these days.  So many wonderful challenges occurring around the net. What people are making for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge  is just one that I am following; amazing to see how inspiring each colour of the rainbow can be.

My Sad (ish) Scraps

 This prompted me to get out my tote with all the scraps and see if I could make something too.  I'd already sorted them into colours in separate plastic ziplocks.  I had a lot more in the green baggie though I don't really know why.  Other than for leaves, I don't think I've made anything green so the green was what I started with.

I should say though, that I don't really have that much fabric either as stash or scraps. Still building.

 Such Stress Free Sewing, Sigh

I started sewing the smaller strips together and realized I had enough to make a runner.  I found this such a stress free process, so unconfined by shapes, cutters or templates of any kind.  I had the thought that maybe this would be my sewing by machine from now on.

It Grew So Fast

The strips quickly grew longer.

Then joined with smaller pieces in the center with the longer bits on the sides.

Before I Knew It, I Was Quilting

I decided to quilt this with straight lines using the walking foot which was already set up on my newer machine.

Another day later, I got to finish the edging all around with a little zigzag stitch.  Smooth sailing or should I say, smooth quilting.

A Very, Very Scrappy Finish

What a sense of satisfaction to have a finish.  I like the way it looks and there's no denying it is very, very scrappy.  With all those rows of quilting, this is sure to withstand the washing machine even though made of many little scraps of cloth.

That's a couple of branches of one of the dwarf Dogwood bushes that have been planted here; the variegated leaves are pretty.

Future Scrappy Stuff

I'm thinking I might try the same thing in red scraps for a Christmas runner and by the looks of it, I have enough reds to choose from in my scrap baggie.
Funny about it though, the baggie of green scraps does not look much smaller than when I started.

While stitching I glanced out the window and was a little startled to see this.

She/he has returned often lately to nibble on the tops of one kind of hosta, obviously the one that tastes best, and, oh yes to mightily tease the dogs!

Besides the wonderful link parties  on the side, I am happily linking up with Julie Lou's lovely blog.

Ten Interesting Facts about Canada

It's  Almost Canada Day!

Just like you, I love my country too and am thankful to live here.

We celebrate our country on July 1 each year, so tomorrow is a holiday and there will be community parties, get-togethers, barbeques, cakes, fireworks and concerts all across the country.

I thought I would write 10 interesting things about our country and then had a hard time keeping it to just 10.  Please bear with me as I show some Canadian pride.

1. Canada is the second largest country in the world next to Russia.

2. We have basically free health care.  When I had my daughters in hospital, it cost me about $5 each time and that was a charge for a private phone in my room.

3.  Our country has five  biomes...tundra, boreal forest, mountain forest, grasslands, and deciduous forest. That's a lot of forest. There are also over 3 million lakes housing approximately 60 % of the earth's fresh water.

4. Ottawa, where I live, is the second coldest capital city in the world.  If you've been following Canadian Needle Nana, you've heard a little about that. LOL

5.  The border between the United States and Canada is the longest unprotected border in the world and is the longest border between two countries in the world.
Watch This amusing video about the oddities and interesting facts about this border.

6.  Queen Elizabeth II is our official head of state.  We spell many words the British way as some of you have remarked to me since I've been writing to you.


 

7.  Our police are called the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, the RCMP .  We think they are special especially in their red serge uniforms. LOL




8.  We really are very polite.  The other morning going through the drive-through at Tim Horton's I could hear the drivers saying thank you and the poor girl working there saying "you're welcome"....over and over. By the end of her shift, she must be so tired of saying those two words.

9. Our money is kind of interesting; the bills are colourful which lead to jokes that it looks like play money.





 We have a coin for $1 that features the bird, the loon, on it and this fact quickly led to it being called a "loonie".  It just made sense that when we made a  $2 coin we would affectionately call it a" toonie".


10.  The beaver is our national symbol.  Nothing pompous, grandiose, or legendary.  Just a hard working rodent who minds his own business and spends all his time building his house and feeding his family.  That's us.  LOL

Here is a great little Attenborough video about the value of the beaver's work in an ecosystem.

Happy Canada Day to all who are celebrating!

And of course, so happy to link with Not Afraid of Color and It's a Small Town Life.

Strawberry Sundaes and What the Heck!

Love strawberries, do you?

I talked about making something with blueberries last week.  They are still in the fridge waiting.  I got waylaid by the news that the local farm strawberry u-pick was open for business.  Saturday I spent a very happy hour there with Daughter and littler grandson and got to scratch my berry picking itch as it were.
Came home with these and they were so ripe and sweet, we had to have some right away.

We decided to get together for an impromtu supper of "make your own" pizzas.  That's little grandson, Robbie, getting to help spread the toppings.  Three year olds want to 'help' so much.

These were thin crust and so good.
But the highlight was the "make your own" strawberry sundaes for dessert. Yummy!

What a great easy way to have the family together for a meal.

What the heck?!

Now something entirely different.
 One morning last week, from my Pet Chair, I noticed a flurry of bird activity outside on the veranda.  A friend was visiting and I didn't want to interrupt so just sat there meanwhile wondering what the heck was going on outside.

Later got to see this....

Bird nest material brought to each little alcove in the veranda roof.

We counted 13 places where it seemed a nest was begun with the one there at the start brought the furthest along towards an actual nest.
When we arrived here last year, there was a robin's nest at either end of this veranda which meant quite a space between and each bird able to fly off in opposite directions.  That made sense.

But I have no explanation for this...I do know it was more than one bird, appeared to be robins and they were there at the same time.  Very unusual.

Haven't seen a bird there since.
Any thoughts???

Should I Buy This?

I visit a lot of your blogs and it is a favourite pastime of mine.  I've noticed a number of you are using this particular tool and are very positive about both the time it saves you and the accuracy of your resulting fabric pieces.

                                     

Cutting fabric always makes me nervous.

It is something I'm not great at and getting it accurate even with a rotary cutter is also not a strong point of mine.  I'm a little like the old saying...can't draw a straight line even with a ruler.  I can't seem to cut accurately even with the rotary cutter.  And it's a whole other issue trying to keep the blades sharp-mine never seem as sharp as I see on the videos with the single pass through making a crisp sharp cut.

So should I buy this?

  An Accuquilt is what I'm talking about.  It isn't cheap and would mean an investment and a commitment to future quilts I would have to make to justify the purchase.

                            
I do have a lot of cutting coming up.  I purchased this fabric to make a quilt for our bed...the red, white and blue a nod to our Union Jack roots. ( Hubby being English born and the Union Jack was the provincial flag of  my home province, Newfoundland and Labrador till 1980.)

I just have to settle on a pattern or patterns.  More about that search in another post.

                                      



I'm debating.  I could ask for it for my birthday.
What do you think?  I understand there are several of these machines.
 Is there one you would recommend??

While I ponder that, I've just put together lunch for us...bulgur, spinach, apple, cranberries, and pecans.  That's a little goat cheese in my portion.

 I made this little apple cider vinaigrette to coat it.


1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar, 1/3 cup olive oil, 2 tablespoons honey, a little salt and pepper.
Tasty!

And for the rest of the day...easy guess, stitching.

Happy Stitching All!
And happily linking up with Cooking Up Quilts ,  Love, Laugh, Quilt, Molli Sparkles and A Life in Patchwork.

June Loves

Breathing easier now; I am so thankful my sinuses cleared. This is a big happy "like" for me.

I'm used to hearing frog sounds at night with living in the country.  At the old place it was peepers and bull frogs.
We have gray tree frogs in our back yard here.  I had no idea they are so noisy! Now that the weather has warmed up, every night they make a racket; however not for long. The first time I heard them, I thought it was a bird in distress and went out with my flashlight to find it.
 This doesn't bother me at all; I like the idea of sharing my space with living creatures.
  Another plus for Hubby and his deafness!

 Click below to hear exactly what we are hearing every night. Wild, heh.

Like lace curtains, I love the old doilies made by older generations. I often rescue them when I spy them at secondhand shops.  This post was in my book marks.  Perfect way to showcase some of the more intricate crocheted pieces. I like this. It can't be that hard to do can it?


                             

Being a Nana is an important part of my life.  I know just how fleeting these hours with the grandsons are and try hard to stay in the moment with them. With this little guy, I talk so much on my day with him that I sometimes have a bit of a hoarse throat when I go home. (Being in the classroom for 30 odd years killed my vocal chords.)  I love how he loves nature too.

Finally a bouquet from my garden.  A little bit of coloured bliss for our wooden house.

I love blueberries and wish I could pick them in the wild like you can in my home province.
I really really miss that.  I have happy memories of picking berries all my life till coming here.
Blueberry desserts abound at home with them used in cakes, squares and puddings and just as toppings with yogurt the way I often eat them.  I intend to make a special dessert with them this weekend.  I'll show you later what it is!

Meanwhile below is my blueberry cake and I've made this recipe so many times.

Here is the link to my cake recipe.

I messed up with the publishing of yesterday's post and today's...reversed them.  I think it's memory loss; Hubby says it's because of my habit of always trying to multitask.  I think I'll go with his version.

I will be linking with Not Afraid of Color and It's a Small Town Life. Really amazing variety of likes and thankful things to be found there!