Where Have I Been (part 2)?!??!?!

Hi There!

I've been having pain in the palm of my hand and it's been getting progressively worst.

Finally got in to see a specialist who told me that I had a "nodule" in the palm of my hand and to try using "Voltaren" for 2 weeks.  If that didn't work, she'd give me a Cortison(SP?) shot - NOT!!!

And, as a last resort, if the Cortison(SP?) shot didn't work, she'd remove the nodule.... Once again.... NOT!!!

Soooo, I bought some Voltaren and put some on my palm, almost every day ... and eventually I stopped 'cause I didn't notice a difference.

Two weeks ago, my pain was in constant pain and I pulled out the Voltaren cream and this time, read ALL of the instructions.

It said to rub the cream on the affected area and "rest".  DUH?!??    *slapping my forehead*

I was putting on the cream and carrying on with my life....  The rotary cutter would dig into that nodule and the ironing?!?!?  WOW!!!  Another major pain activity!

So, like the specialist told me, use the Voltaren cream for 2 weeks. 

Which I am now doing.

And, I'm forcing myself to take a 2 week "right hand" break.

Today's my last day - YEAAAH!!!

So, I haven't been as productive as usual but with Gilbert's help, managed to find some quilty stuff to do, anyhow - THANK GOD!   *grin*

My first project?   This was a UFO and only because when I started machine appliqueing the letters, I quickly realized that I found this to be boring.

But, since the letters were already ALL cut out, I ironed them on with my LEFT hand and started appliqueing them!

Saw this pattern on the internet and I thought it was the CUTEST thing, ever, for a baby!!!

So, that was one UFO project, out of the way.

What was I to do next, before I went stir crazy?!??!

I pulled out this puzzle that my friend, Jo Spindle, had sent to me eons ago.

Played with it for half an hour, while sipping my Tim Hortons coffee.

And, then, I gave up!  Note: My Aunt had previously figured out how to put this puzzle together and had put numbers on the back of each piece.  

Yup!  I cheated!

LOL!!!

Only 9 pieces and its INCREDIBLY difficult to put together!

Anyhow, its now almost 8 a.m. and I'm heading downstairs.

Off to see what other kind of adventure I can create...

Have a Fantastic Friday!

Rosa

"Blue Skies" and "Bee Happy"

 Hi There!

So, Mom asked that I make her and Dad a quilt with blues and yellows.

Had a blue and yellow striped fabric that I've been meaning to use - its so cheerful!

And, finally decided to do Bonnie Hunter's quilt from her book "Adventures in Leaders and Enders" but I decided to simplify it, a bit.

Here are some of the blocks on my design wall.

I'll post another picture once the top's put together.

Calling this quilt "Blue Skies".

And today, I finished binding Gilbert's daughter's baby quilt.

Its from "Henry Glass" and its called "Bee Happy".

Tomorrow, I need to print out some more Inklingo melons so that I'll have something to hand piece when I go to my quilty group, on Thursday.  (more on that, later)

And its now 10h45 and I'm EXHAUSTED.

Good night, peeps!

Rosa

Fours Cats, One Quilt and Some Teddy Bears

Hi There!

As I've mentioned before, we now have 2 cats and a couple strays, that we feed.

Callie and Minou, the 2 calicoes in the bottom of this picture are ours.

The beigeish/whitish cat eating is "Frankie"... or "Frankie Blue Eyes".

He (or she?) looks like a Burmese or Himalayan cat.

And he or she has been spayed or neutered, as per one of our backyard neighbours. She told me that the previous owners just moved and left him/her behind.

How cruel!!!

She told me that the cat in the top right hand corner was the same thing. Cat was spayed or neutered... owners picked up and left without their cat!

*long sigh*

Unfortunately, this one doesn't play nicely with Minou or Callie, but Frankie's truly a wonderful and cuddly cat.

Frankie's been invited in our home, several times, with no problems... other than he/she has to be reminded that cats don't jump up on our kitchen table or kitchen counters. But, in all honesty, he or she is getting MUCH better at minding their P's and Q's...

*grin*

Soooo, Friday after work, I decided to give them a rare treat.

A can of "wet" food, mixed in with their "dry" food.

I'm always astonished at how there is a hierarchy or pecking order, with these cats!

The white and gray one is patiently sitting back and with his/her turn, at the dish.



Thursday, Gilbert finished quilting my Baby Lasagna Quilt and Friday evening, I finished the binding on this quilt.

This one is for sale - $75.00.

Please contact me if you'd like to purchase it.

It measures 35" X 43"



And here's a picture of the back...



And a close up of the quilting.

Pattern is called "Teddy Bears".

Saturday morning, since Gilbert is doing a suspended ceiling in our bedroom, I decided to hang my Teddy Bear collection, on our clothes line.

After that, we headed out to one of our local quilt shows and errands.

Will post pictures of the quilt show this evening.

Hope you all have a Super Sunday!

Rosa

V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N !!!

Hi There!

Yesterday, I officially started my 2 week holiday and, as it the tradition, I'll be maintaining my Vacation Journal and uploading as many silly pictures as possible. *grin*

(click on the coconut drink to read what I've been doing...)




Every time I start my vacation, I automatically start humming this song!!!

V-A-C-A-T-I-O-N !!!

Last weekend, I managed to finish a baby quilt top, in 30's fabrics...

Thursday evening, I believe, I finished off the 2nd one and this morning, I finished the 3rd one. Mind you, I had been sewing these blocks together, for quite a while. All I really had left to do, was to sew the strips (across), together.

The other 2 "blue" ones are identical to this (pink) one 'cept they're in mostly blue colors.

And this evening, I pulled out that king size Batik quilt and, with Gilbert's help, measured the quilt and cut up the strips to make the border.

By the time I turned out the lights and shut down my sewing machine, I had 3 sides sewn on.

That's about it, in my life.

Waiting for Irene,
our tropical storm...

Rosa

Baby Snowball Quilt (For Sale)

Hi There!

Gilbert and "Bertha", our longarm machine, have been extremely busy lately - THANK GOD!!! - but I managed to get them to quilt one of my baby quilts...

I've posted some pictures of the progress on this quilt and today, I'm pleased to tell you that it's now finished and the binding's finished AND this one's for sale
and listed on KiJiJi.
(please contact me if you're interested)



The background on the back is dark pink with cute cats, dogs and mice.



And here's a close up of quilted pattern, called "Daisy", done with a nice pink thread.

Hope you're having a Super Saturday!

Here, the sun "supposed" to be with us for today and tomorrow!

YEAH!

Rosa

Chickies Will Be Roosting...

Hi There!

Baby Chicky Quilt is finally quilted!

And I machine sewed 1/2 of the binding.



This evening?

We're watching a movie and I'll be doing the other half of the binding, by hand.

Susan, one of my regular commentators on my blog said the the chickies can come home to roost on my lap!

*grin*

Hope you're having an EXCELLENT weekend!

Rosa

Baby Chickies Now Have Faces!!!

Hi There!

Guess what?

All three borders have been sewn
on the "Chicky Baby Quilt"!!!



All TEN chickies now have faces!



Gilbert will probably custom quilt this one, this weekend even!

Then, we trim the edges and I get to work on "binding" it.

And YES, I will be hand binding it,
as, IMHO, it does a better job.

*s*

Hope you all have a nice (long) weekend!

Here in New Brunswick, most of us have Monday off - it's "New Brunswick Day"!!!

Rosa

Okay... EQ to the Rescue!

Hi there!

ALL chickies have been appliquéd!



All the blocks have been sewn together!!!

Yep! All blocks sewn together....

Now, I need to add some "borders".

And, I broke down and refreshed my memory with EQ (Electric Quilt).

Gives me an idea on what it will look like.

Hope you all have a Wonderful Wednesday!

Rosa

Heads Up!!!

Hi There!

Just a "Heads Up" - Yup, that's certainly an intended pun - that ALL the chickies have their heads on and appliquéd!!!



In fact, 3 or 4 even have their bodies machine appliquéd!!!

Once they're all done and the blocks are pieced together, I'll work on the embroidery part.

Rosa

The Chicks Have Hatched!

Hi There!

Well, this morning, I washed all my fabrics and hung them out to dry.



Then, I worked on some binding and restoration of a couple old quilts, for a client.

This afternoon, I started to work on the
"Baby Chicky" Quilt, working on the 4 patch blocks, first.



Then, I cut up the plain blue 6-1/2 inch blocks.



I then added the chicks-in-the-shell appliqués.

No, they're NOT ironed down and NOT machine appliquéd, yet. I just attached them there, with a pin... to see what it would look like.

And I like the look!

*grin*

Tomorrow, I will work on appliquéing the heads, first, and then the egg shells.

Rosa

It Ain't EQ But....

Hi There!

I had been asked to make a baby chick quilt and yesterday, Gilbert and I went to Mardens and picked up the main colors, of this quilt. I will probably be adding a couple other (minor) colors, as well. (Keep in mind that my camera color skills aren't the best.)

I've been told that when you have a blue quilt, you need to add a touch of green, to make the quilt "sparkle". *s*



Gilbert sketched it out on a note pad and yesterday evening, I filled in the colors.
Once again, the chicks will NOT look quite like these. This sketch was just to give me an idea on where to start.



Well, for a nano-second, I had hesitated on whether to try and use my EQ 5 (Electric Quilt 5) to do the design, but I just know the basics on this program and HONESTLY.... I wanted to sit back, relax, sketch and color... with my brand new box of Crayola Coloured Pencils!!!

LOL

I'm still not sure on the corners.

I might change it into corner blocks.

Not sure.

I might even add a blue and green hen, in each corner.

Dunno. We shall see.

"Baby Chicky" quilt's fabric is now washing, as I type this.

Gilbert and I have NO ERRANDS to run this weekend. We're supposed to hunker down. I'll be working on quilts and he's supposed to put a coat of paint on a door that's going in Bertha's room AND spend a LOT of time with Bertha, as well!

Should be a fun weekend!

Rosa

Braggin' Buys on Canada Day!

Hi There!

First of all....

HAPPY CANADA DAY, eh!!!!!

Second, Gilbert and I went Yard Sailing, this morning and only went to one place but BOY, did WE hit the jackpot!!!!

Gilbert got himself a TWO dollar computer. Nope, he couldn't get it to work but he recuperated an 80 gig hard drive and a whole bunch of other stuff!

He was a happy camper!



Are you all sitting down?!?!??!

Guess what "I" saw, on the ground and in it's proper box?!?!??!

The cutest little Featherweight, for only $10.00!!!

But, since I picked up another item, I talked her down to NINE DOLLARS!!!

The box was a bit dirty and Gilbert's since cleaned it up.



There's 2 boxes of accessories and one of them had a receipt in it.

The original owners(?) paid $5.72 for one(?) of the boxes of accessories!

And it's dated the 1st of December 1951 !!!!

According to the serial number it would appear as if it was produced in Scotland, in 1951!

Here's another picture of the "box", featherweight and accessories.

Soooo, Gilbert and I did some reorganizing, with the surface of our china cabinet and I pulled out "Callie Elena" and we will be leaving these two out, on display.

Don't they both look ADORABLE!??!?

Nope, before anyone asks, we haven't had a chance to try it out but Gilbert says the motor's not seized - he turned it manually AND the lady that I bought it from said it worked the last time she sewed on it and YES, the bobbin case is there, too!

There doesn't seem to be any scratches or worn out spots - truly a wonderous machine!

*VBG*


This afternoon, I managed to sew some more frames and strips around my batik blocks.

We'll be Yard Sailing again, tomorrow morning... but I imagine by afternoon, I should be able to work on these batik blocks and finish off this King Sized quilt!

Hope you're having a good weekend!

Rosa

My 2 New(?) Projects...

Hi There!

Well, next on my UFO (Un-Finished Object) Radar are some batik blocks HM, my friend in Georgia, had sent to me many, many moons ago.

I had pulled these out several times since receiving them and simply couldn't figure out HOW to put them together. *s*

Finally, Sunday morning, I realized that I needed to make 2 more blocks, which I did and upsize them to 16-1/2 inches, making sure that they'd be ALL the same size.

Doesn't look like much, right now, but trust me... I DO have a plan!

*grin*



Then, on my break today, I suddenly got the urge to work on another scrappy quilt!

So, I quickly sketched a baby quilt design on scrap paper and once I got home, after work, immediately went to work on these blocks.

Would you believe that I managed to sew all 12 blocks, in about 3 hours!?!?!?

Once again, these blocks don't look like much, but they will be snow ball blocks.

I'll be posting lots of progress pictures.

Stayed tuned!

Rosa

2nd Blog Post, For Today!

Hi There!

Another blog post...
"Has she gone mad?", you ask.

Well, yes, I guess I am, sometimes...
*grin*

After we came home from errands, I blogged and relaxed and then, went downstairs in my sewing studio and finished off January's BOM.

No, I didn't get to do February's, as I had promised.



In the meantime, we had a happy moment that quickly turned into a scary moment.

Let me explain.

We've been in this house for 10 years and never, EVER, has the city sent their work crew to do any snow removal! Yes, they've plowed our streets after a storm but snow removal? NEVER!

So, when we saw the big trucks and their machinery arrived to remove snow, we were ECSTATIC!!! I even ran and got my camera!!!!

And then, it dawned on us!

They're predicting another 8 inches from Saturday night to Sunday... and then, yet ANOTHER 8 inches on Tuesday!!! The city MUST be panicking to send out their snow crew BEFORE!

YIKES!!!

Can someone send a message to the Big Guy, up there .... *pointing upwards* and tell Him that we've had enough?!?!

*s*

So, here's that baby quilt, from Thursday evening.

Remember?

Well, I sewed up the 3 pieces and with Gilbert's help and according to the pattern, we did TWO cuts into the quilt, resewed it according to the instructions.

Gilbert took a picture of me,
trying to finish the top off, ASAP.

And here's the quilt top, resewn together and with a narrow blue strip. I've since added a wider border onto that narrow blue one.

I'll share another picture after Gilbert and Bertha have done their magic on this one.

*grin*

And for my 2 friends' sake and to prove that I did some more baby steps, here's 2 pictures of my bus ticket!

I wasn't too, too sure... but when I saw "adult" on the ticket, I thought to myself, "Yep, that's me! And as an Adult, I can do this!!!"

*VBG*

And, since there's only NINE days till I leave, I've included another NINE number.

This one doesn't ring a bell?

Actually, this is one of the characters in Star Trek...

"Seven of NINE".

I used to watch Star Trek... a LOT!

LOL

Have a SUPER Saturday!!!

Rosa