Happy Holidays .... !

 I love this time of year. So many holidays to celebrate! I'm all about celebrations. My favourite of course is Santa Claus ... love that guy and everything he represents. I'm hoping to catch him this year! ;)

Wish me luck! lol

Remember this?

 I finally finished my knitting project .... En Voyage by Espace Tricot. I started that project way back in May 2020. Knitting the shawl became totally about surrendering to my imperfections. Should you wish, you can read about it here, which is also where you will find the link to the free pattern.

The other day, I decided it was time I blocked it ... It's getting quite chilly around here and the shawl could be put to good use. Where or where to block such a long piece. Then comes Penelope's usefulness ...

A 12 foot table base ... perfect for blocking a shawl. Oh ... don't mind the mess underneath.  Over 12 feet of empty space that I cannot bare to leave uncluttered unused! lol

I would show you a picture of how the shawl looks on moi ... but my favourite daughter took it home! lol

Thanks for stopping by. Off to start another knitting project! Cheers!

December ... My favourite time of the year!

 Goodness, time seems to be flying ... December will be over in no time. I am so ready for 2020 to end. I haven't seen my family in over 6 months ... I miss them so much.

Yesterday, I received the wreath I ordered from a local gardening center. I requested a plain wreath with a dark blue bow. When I picked it up, the individual says something to the effect that it was so plain and how he liked the ones with decorations on them. I just replied, "I like things simple". Well, I certainly think it looks gorgeous on my door ... and I especially like my new wreath holder ... 

I did put up my Seuss Spruce. It makes me smile ... goodness knows, during these covid times, we all need to smile more often.

And guess who is hanging around? lol

I also decorated my book shelf. I love the little tree skirt. It's my favourite. You can read about the tree skirt here.

It's amazing how a bit of decorating will cheer up a somber mood ... add some holiday music and you're on your way to humming with joy ... ok, and some dancing too! lol 

I do hope you have found ways to bring some joy into your life. 

Thanks for stopping by my little corner in cyberspace. Cheers!

Wow ... time flies when you're unfocused

I am so looking forward to some form of normalcy. I find myself unfocused .... 

Back in December 2017 I had worked on the Christmas Village quilt, a pattern by Sweetwater, that consisted of numerous flying geese.

I kept the scrap wings of the flying geese in the hopes of turning it into a quilt. The half squares were sews, trimmed and placed in a bag back in January 2018, patiently waiting. I decided it was time I did something with them.

What to do ... what to do? 

I didn't have enough to make a lap quilt so I decided on making some small table toppers.

It's a great feeling to be using up scraps. 

Catch you all later! Cheers!

Happy Birthday Sirius Black!

Wouldn't you know it ... one of my favourite Harry Potter character was born on the same day as moi!

Do you think we'd be compatible given we are of the same zodiac sign? Lol ....

Chookyblue's Zoom Sewing

 This early morning I had the wonderful opportunity to join Chookyblue and other like minded quilters for a Zoom Sewing Gathering. Given that I finish work on Fridays at Midnight, it was the perfect time to log on and get to know some wonderful quilters.

I poured myself a drink .... It's 5 O'clock somewhere ... and joined the gathering!

I had an early coffee date with friends in the morning ... So I stayed till 2 am .... I probably should have stayed later, as I was to wired to fall asleep. lol

Thank you Donna for allowing to join. I enjoyed chatting with everyone.

Thanks for stopping! Catch you all later! Cheers!

Fixing my blog

 I love my blog. However, with the recent and not so recent up dates with Google/Blogger, I noticed that I had lost all the videos/slide shows I had created with Picasa. If you clicked on the post, you had no record of the photographs ... blank

Luckily, I was able to link my Picasa account with Google and retrieve all the photographs. I then begin creating slide shows using iPhoto. Love my Mac.

What a production this has been; viewing blogging posts from December 2011 backwards. I think I have corrected everything. This has taken me the better part of a full day, but at least it is all there ... new slide shows.

These fixes were definitely a trip down memory lane ... I'll be honest, I cried at some of the posts and others, I relish in the experience.

Glad my blog is now back in order. Not that I expect people to read my blog from day one ... that would be January 18, 2007 ... Lots has happened since then.

On another note, I did receive my Wool Box from Primitive Gatherings. 

Off to think about what I want to work on next. Catch you all later.

UFO kick goes on ....!

 After I finished the little Hexe quilt, I remembered another quilt that needed my attention. This English Paper Piecing quilt was started back in the Spring of 2013. The pattern is from the Primitive Quilt magazine, Spring 2013 issue. I did blogged about it here. I used 1/2 inch hexes and 1900 century reproduction fabrics.

The issue I had with this quilt was regarding the border. How was I going to put the borders on? Was I going to cut the hexagons, creating a straight edge, and machine sew the border on or would I hand appliqué the hexagons to the border? I chose to hand appliqué to the border ... I could not bare to cut my hexes.

This project was actually a challenge with two other people. I actually completed the top in October 2013, and won the flimsy award. However Diane won the fully completed top and I think that was back in February 2014. 

I do love how it turned out. It's such a great feeling to have completed a long over due project.

I'm not sure what I shall work on next .... so many UFO to choose from! lol

Thanks for stopping by my little corner in cyberspace! Cheers!~

Summer goodness ...!

 I'm an all season gal. Every seasons has its perk ... 

Summer ... I love all the fresh vegetables. Sadly, at this point in time in my life, I do not have space for a vegetable garden ... but I can certainly enjoy the bounty of others.

I love zucchini ... and yellow squash .... They makes such a wonderful refreshing dish.  This is one of my favourite dish .....

What you will need ...

1 yellow squash

1 zucchini 

Olive oil (high quality)

Fresh garlic (you can use powder)

thyme (fresh or dried)

salt to taste

Sun-dried tomatoes

Added at the end - while in a serving dish:

Fresh lemon juice (you do not want to cook your lemon juice)

Parmesan cheese (optional)

Fresh ground pepper

Sauté the vegetable with all of the ingredients except the sun dried tomatoes. I like to add them towards the end of my desired cooking time. I like my vegetable crisp. Plate your creation and squeeze the lemon ... add the cheese. 

This was my lunch today ... so yummy

I added some pine nuts for protein. You can add cooked pasta to the dish. It is so light and a wonderful summer dish.

How are you enjoying the summer bounty? I cannot wait to have my own garden ... soon I am hoping!

Bon appétit!

Catch you all later!

UFO kick ....

Saturday evening, I was watching a video on IG from Corey Yoder (Moda fabric designer) and she was showing us around her quilting studio, talking about the various tools she likes to use ... All of a sudden my quilting mojo got a spark ...

Sunday morning, while enjoying my morning latte ... wondering .... 

Nancy does have a valid point! lol 

So ... I did neither and decided to work on a UFO. I wanted to finish an English Paper Piecing (EPP) quilt I had blogged about on July 29, 2015.

So, I got busy looking for that quilt so I can work on it.

Voila ...

The pattern is by Sue Daley called Little Things: Hexagon. All it needed was to be machine quilted and the binding sew on!

What a great feeling to strike one off the UFO list.

What have you been up to? 

Catch you all later! Cheers!

On the quilting front ....

I finally got around to sewing the binding on the Feed Sack: True Blue quilt.

I quickly got to work on hand stitching the binding ...

And Voila .... 

The quilt is all done .... 

Gosh I love those blues .... Another one on my list of favourite quilts.

As a reward for completing a project, I bought this lovely FQ tower ... At Home by Bonnie & Camille.

Look at all those delicious colours ....

I haven't cut into it yet ... but I do have it out and pet it every now and again .... lol

What have you been up to?

Remember when ....

I bought this Lego set over a year ago ... I'm such a space buff and love Legos ... a perfect combination ...

The box has been sitting there ... Not sure why I hadn't built it yet. Perhaps I was waiting for a special someone to help me.

Last weekend Pumpkin came up for a visit with Goofball. We had plans on Sunday to go on a hike, but with the temperature in the high 90F (31C) and high humidity, we changed our plans and Pumpkin said ... Why not build the Saturn V rocket?

Perfect idea .... We got busy setting things up.

There's Goofball enjoying our collective effort.

Voila ... Stage 1 of the Saturn V rocket is built.

BTW, next to the Saturn V is a lovely embroidery that my friend, Sewing Ninja, stitched for me as a gift.

I'm so impressed with this Lego model. It is built solid ...

Because we ran out of time ... the other stages will be built on their next visit.

Thanks for stopping by my little corner in cyberspace. Catch you all later!

Vanilla sweater ....

Remember this?

Well, my Vanilla sweater by Corinne from The Wooly Thistle is finally finished and it is now this ...

I'm really liking how it turned out. It fits so nicely. It is loose fitting sweater that goes over a shirt. 

It is such an easy pattern to knit .... so practical too ... So I decided to knit another one .... This time for my little Pumpkin ... in green

I'm really loving that green ....

Hope you are all keeping in good spirit. Thank you for stopping by my little corner in cyber space. 

Catch you all later ... Cheers!

How to block a hat ....

When I took the photo of the hat, it had not been blocked yet. I have been pondering how to block a hat when you do not own, nor want to own, a styrofoam head. I did think of a ball, but I don't own one the size of a human head ... 

I finally came up with a solution ... stuff it with towels ... 

Voici, the top of the hat

I first placed an open small towel and stuffed the other towels inside the cavity. The key is to get it nice and smooth.

The trick worked perfectly. It has now been delivered to the recipient ... just in time for his birthday. 

Here is the handsome, goofball modeling his birthday present LOL ....

I do hope you find the hat blocking trick useful. I would certainly enjoy hearing how you go about blocking a hat.

Thank you for stopping by my little corner in cyberspace! Cheers!

Yep, I became frustrated ...

Remember this?

Well ... it is now this ...

Just in time for his birthday! Not that he'll be wearing it during this heat wave!

Oh ... the wool for my Poppy Scarf came in this week from Black Sheep Yarns in BC.

Such delicious colours. I cannot wait to start on that project ... but first I need to finish a couple of things.

Catch you all later! Cheers!

Who ordered this heat wave?

OMG, Summer is in full swing. I think we went from spring to summer in a flash! lol With this heat, Penelope's room is like an oven. So off I went into town to purchase an air conditioner.

Last Sunday I decided that I needed to finish the reproduction quilt that was on my designer wall. With life being a tad chaotic, I had put it aside until things settled. Well, I can't say I'm not settled anymore! lol Besides, I'm itchin' to start a new project! lol

Back in February 2019, I fell in love with the fabric line ... Feed Sacks: True Blue by Linne Kull McCray for Moda Fabrics.

Look at those gorgeous blues! I am so in love with reproduction fabrics ... and especially this fabric line. I purchased a Fat quarter tower to work on the quilt pattern she designed specifically for that line. The pattern is also called Feed Sack: True Blue .... you can actually download it here.

Brought the quilt to a flimsy stage ... 

and loaded it on Penelope. With the room nice and cool, I tackled it today.

Voila! It's a done deal!

Tomorrow, it's binding time!

Thanks for stopping by! Stay cool!

A beautiful day in the neighbourhood ....!

Sunday was the first day the restaurants in our area were open for in-house seating. Naturally, my friends and I had our coffee shoping date set! It was wonderful to get back a bit of normal. It had been so long since we were able to just sit at our favourite coffee shop and chat.

On my way back, I took some picture of our gorgeous Lake Champlain ... how strange it was to see the lake so empty of boaters. Normally during this time of year the sailboats are out and about. It was a perfect day to sail. But with Covid, not many boats are in the water.

Being a hop skip and a jump from Canada, many Canadians keep their boats on this side of the border. With the Canadian borders being closed, they have not been able to cross in early May and de-winterize their boats. So there they sit ....

With the Canadian border being closed until July 21, at which point they will decide on either extending or opening, not sure if it would make sense to put a boat in the water. The summer is almost gone!

I do miss seeing the sailboats sail across our beautiful lake. What a strange summer it's going to be.

Thanks for stopping by my little corner in cyber space! Catch you all later! Cheers!

I'm in love .....

I have fallen in love with Marie Wallin Designs ...... I recently purchased her book Gentle

And plan on knitting the cover project ... Primerose. It is such a gorgeous sweater. Marie wore it during her Instagram chat 4 and I fell in love with the design and colours. So I ordered the yarn kit as soon as it was back in stock at The Woolly Thistle. The fourteen (14) different colours are absolutely delicious.

This is quite the project and I'm getting cold feet ... so I thought I would start with the Poppy Scarf ...

A more manageable Fairisle project for a first try. 

I ordered my yarn from Black Sheep Yarns in Canada. They had all the twelve (12) different colours colours I needed in stock. I cannot wait to get the yarn.

Hope you are all doing well and keeping healthy! Catch you all later! Cheers!

A new project ....

My favourite on-line shop, The Woolly Thistly, is having a knit-a-long on Ravelry ... TWT Vanilla Sweater .... Corine, the owner designed the Vanilla sweater ... a simple sweater knitted in Finull Rauma.

Anyway, I think I need a course on reading knitting pattern because I found this pattern anything but easy to understand. It took me about seven tries to understand what I needed to do. This is not a complaint about the pattern writer, but more about my frustration with my ability to properly read knitting patterns in general.

Reading/understanding knitting patterns is a challenge for me. I think it's just a matter of getting comfortable with the language.

On another note, I found the yarn I needed for a winter hat I want to knit for a special someone.

If I get frustrated with the Vanilla Sweater ... I'll get going on the hat! ;)

Keep well everyone ... Catch you all later! Cheers!

Snood ....

Remember the snood I started a couple of weeks ago?

Well ... I've been working on it .... and it's done .... mostly!

I still need to weave the ends together to make it continuous. That can wait ...

I wanted to start a new project and felt because this was colour work, I needed it completely knitted so that my tension would be consistent. When I knit with more than one colour, I keep my tension looser than usual ... otherwise the design looks tight and I don't like that. I also need to think about how I'll go about weaving the two (2) ends together. Any ideas ... techniques?

This was such a fund project to knit. I loved using Jamieson & Smith yarn.

Thank you so much for stopping by my little corner in cyber space! Cheers!

And the beat goes on .....

The other day, I was chatting with my friend Gina. We were talking about the global situation and the need for compassion. Many are experiencing an increase in stress ... these are challenging times ... Covid 19 circumstances, reduced work hours, pay cuts etc ... however, on the surface there appears to be a calmness ...

Gina brought up the analogy of a calm lake. When you look at the surface, it is calm, serene and yet underneath are the currents, the turbulence ... sometimes the chaos surfaces and at other times it just is ... that's how I feel at the moment ... calm on the outside and yet, on the inside I'm affected by the situation.

I am truly grateful that I have a warm home, food, employment, my family and to be surrounded by wonderful friends. I do miss my family terribly ... and so wish I could visit. My parents are aging and I'm not there. I cannot cross the border. My inability to be there for both my parents is the underneath turbulence ... what the others do not see. Time is precious!

On another note, I started a new knitting project. The En Voyage shawl is still in the works ... I just wanted a little bit more of a challenge ... perhaps a good thing! lol

I purchase the kit from The Woolly Thistle, my favourite on line store. The pattern is called Foula Snood by Donna Smith.

It is from the book Shetland Woolweek - annual 2018. Lovely book/magazine ... Lots of wonderful projects!

I'm using Jamieson & Smith Shetland Wool from the Shetland Islands. Lovely wool!

I'm truly enjoying these various knitting projects I've been working on. Particularly enjoying learning about the various sheep breeds and the type of fleece they produce. Loving it!

Thank you for stopping by! Enjoy the moment! Cheers!