Family times

There are two grandchildren who have birthdays this month - back to back. One is turning 3 on Sunday and the other turns 6 on Monday. Parties quite often take place at my house. Yesterday after school, there was a birthday celebration with a dance party in my basement complete with strobe lights and lots of singing along with the music. All 12 grandchildren who live close by were there - even the youngest one who is just 6 months old. At one point, she was the centre of attention and they all gathered around her.

Family. They all get along - ages 6 months to 10 years. The dance party was a huge success. Missing are the two oldest grandsons (aged 12 and 14) who are in the Maritimes with their mom completing their cross country trip. They will be here in a couple of weeks for a few days and then we can have a photo with all the grandchildren.

High tea - Part 2

 

Here we all are at the Windsor Arms. 

From left to right and youngest to oldest - Ayla, Eric, (me), Maili and Mark. The only one missing is my eldest daughter, Laila. Peeking just behind Ayla, on the couch in red, is her youngest son, 4 month old Phinneaus.

Ayla with Phinneaus, all dressed up for the occasion.

My special birthday treat. I'm really not a fan of chocolate.

It was a lovely day with dinner later in the day and on Saturday I get to go to the theatre to see Singing in the Rain.

A work in progress and birthdays

Since my quilt buddy Judy and I have birthdays just one month apart, we exchange gifts when we see each other - and sometimes it's close to Christmas. The last time I saw Judy, before this past weekend, was at the quilt show that her guild put on in the spring (I still have to post those photos.)

At the quilt show, Judy admired this panel and figured she could do away with her Christmas tree if she had this. During the summer, Sew Sisters had this panel and the lights as a kit. I gave it to Judy early last month and, as you can see, she finished it. We saw many variations of this panel at the Creative Show this past weekend. Judy liked the idea of this panel so much that she was on the lookout for an autumn panel at the show but didn't find one.

This is what Judy got me for my birthday: fat quarters in colours I don't normally use (it's a good thing to stretch oneself), marking pencils for my quilting, along with some sticky quilting templates that I will be trying out, a novel and some note cards of Kim Diehl's quilts. All things that I could use.
And now...

This is the quilt that's on the frame - finally.

You can tell that there have been a couple of turns taken already on the right side. I normally roll from the bottom and top but changed it this time. It's a true pieced quilt.

Can you see the second strip from the top? The turquoise strip?

It's pieced. It was a fat quarter and I don't think I have any left at all.

 Here's another pieced strip.

And yet, another. Can you tell that I used two browns? I only had fat quarters and when my daughter wanted the quilt to be one foot longer, I had to find more fabric. This was the closest I could find. Looking at the whole quilt, it's not that noticeable unless it is pointed out. Not a perfect quilt but that's quilting for you.

In case anyone is wondering, the original pattern is an Atkinson Design called Fire Escape.

I'm linking up with The Needle and Thread Network and with Esther's blog.
Now I'm going back to quilt.

A super special family

Today is my birthday. From the moment I woke up, it has been filled with well wishes from family and friends but ... especially with flowers. Whether they live here in the same city or across the country, the flowers have been arriving.

First off though, is this ...

This is the outside of the card. The design is made with sand.

 

And this is the inside. By little Luc who is 18 months old. It may not be much to you but it sure did bring a smile to my lips this morning when I opened up the card.

So, now I will share my floral day with all of you.

 

 

There were just too many cut flowers from my husband to fit into one vase.

This arrangement, from Mark and Kate, arrived at 8:40 a.m. along with...

these gorgeous flowers from Maili and Casey.


 

Then, at 12:00 noon, there was a knock on the screen door. It was a local florist delivery guy and after I accepted the arrangement and told him that it was the third one that day, he told me that a fourth was in the truck. So, I put this one, from Eric and Ashlee, in the kitchen while he got the other one. I had been in the kitchen with the music blaring but I had left the door open so I wouldn't miss anything. I was told to expect a delivery today but I wasn't expecting multiples. We don't have a doorbell and I tend not to hear knocks on the door or the ringing of the phone if I am in my sewing studio with the audio tapes on.

So, here's a close-up and ...

from my family in British Columbia, Laila, Gilles and little Luc, I received these. When my daughter got married  4 years ago her bouquet was sunflowers.

And, since I have 5 children and one husband, the last arrangement just arrived.

Inside a pumpkin and with lollypops - from Ayla and David.

And here they all are without all the wrapping.



Two years ago my birthday was extra special because on that day I found out that I was going to become a grandmother for the first time and now I would like to announce that little Luc will become a big brother next year. We are all thrilled that our family is growing.

I'm going back to the kitchen to bake some cookies and listen to more Dean Martin.
I hope your day is a good one.
Mine's better than yours by a long shot. Dinner with the whole family (the ones in town, that is.)

A start on a new quilt

Well, all the blocks are cut and sewn.

Here's a photo of part of the layout for the quilt. All that remains is to sew the blocks together. Not today, there are too many of them and I want to go do something else.

 Like, perhaps, make new kitchen curtains out of this.

Or celebrate my son's 33rd birthday.

Happy Birthday Mark!

W.I.P. Wednesday and a special day

Here's my Work In Progress for the Needle and Thread Network. Click on the link and visit the other needleworkers who are taking part. It's always nice to see what others are working on.

It's knitting once again for little Luc. His mom chose the yarn - she didn't like the baby colours they had in the recommended yarns. This one makes its own stripes and as you can see from what's on the needle, the two sleeves that I am knitting at the same time will be different. I figured it would be easy to distinguish what is the front and what is the back of the sweater this way. All you have to remember is what sleeve gets the dark stripe at the cuff and which one is the light one. I am hoping to finish it soon since I have other knitting that I started and should finish up. This one apparently is an easy sweater and I wanted to try out the pattern. Hopefully, next week I will have some quilting to show.

Today I am looking after Arja, a Shih-poo who belongs to my youngest son and his girlfriend. Arja is a bundle of high energy and loves old Baxter and the kitties. They, of course, want nothing to do with her. So, I guess we will be taking lots of walks today.

And 31 years ago today I gave birth to my third child, a little girl we named Maili.

I don't know how many years apart these were taken and the top one is several years old now but I thought it was nice to see.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MAILI!!!!

Gifts

For ME from dear friends.

I forgot to show you what my quilting buddy Judy got me. We exchange birthday and Christmas gifts. Her birthday is in September and mine is in October. Judy lives an hour and a half away and there have been times when we haven't been able to get together so we exchange both Christmas and birthday gifts at the same time.

This is a wall hanging kit. It's so cute. We both have cats. At one time Judy had five but now she just has one - along with a gecko/gekko (it's spelled both ways.) I can't remember what all I got for Judy but one of the things was a paper-pieced kit that made two mini leaf quilts.

Thursday night was the last meeting of the Champagne quilters since Ann will be leaving for Florida to spend Christmas with her son, daughter-in-law and only grandchild this coming week. So, we had our little Christmas party and exchanged gifts.

 This is what I got. The chocolates and BodyWorks trio came from Marg (as did the napkin that they want me to use as inspiration.) The four fat quarters and box of shortbread came from Ann. Ann always makes shortbread at Christmas and we always get some. I usually have to hide them or else there aren't any left when Christmas comes - and it isn't me who eats them. Aren't those fat quarters cute? Marg got a set of green ones since it is her favourite colour. She said she has to think of something to make now.

And here's a close-up of the fabrics. Kiddy prints - so I can make something for the little one that's due in April... I gotta find a great pattern to showcase these. Got any suggestions?

It's been 30 years

It was 30 years ago that I signed up for a night school quilting course. The course was to run for 10 weeks and I figured I would probably miss the very last class since I was pregnant at the time expecting child number three. Well, she came early (the girls were early, the boys late) and so I missed the last two classes.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY Maili!!!

And here's the birthday girl with flowers that her little sister sent a day early to her work. Today, the birthday girl is taking a day off work and going for a 30 mile run around the city with her boyfriend and a friend that came all the way from Portland, Oregon just to celebrate. The temperature is supposed to be a mild 12 C (54 F) with some light rain.

Reading, writing and photos

Here's the next installment in my journey of making icicle dolls. She is hanging from a twig tree that I use in my kitchen. It is expandable and collapsible. I have not yet decorated it since I haven't found the little lights and balls for it.

This morning I was reading the local newspaper online. It's my homepage and I keep up-to-date with what's going on. It's quick and I can just skim the headlines. I decided to check the latest additions to a section they have called "Acts of Kindness." It's truly uplifting and I always enjoy reading what little things my fellow Torontonians and Canadians are doing to bring a little joy into the life of a stranger. Well, today, as I was reading, there was a letter (a note really because they are all small entries) from a soldier stationed in Afghanistan. It seems he wanted to publicly thank a lady who wrote to him. Through doing a little research (I am a librarian after all), I found out that anyone can write a letter to a soldier. I found a discussion group and there was an address where you send your letter and the letters are then distributed randomly to the troops. The letter can go anywhere a Canadian soldier is stationed. Since my son Eric is now teaching as a long term occasional (the regular teacher is on maternity leave), I thought it would be a wonderful thing for his grade 8 students to do. It is probably too late for a Christmas card but a letter would be nice to receive at anytime. Apparently, you can even send them a Tim Hortons gift card since there is a Timmy's in Kandahar. (don't know how that would work if the letter went elsewhere.) The postage is free until at least January 2010!
Here's the address: "Any Canadian Forces Member"
                               Op Athena
                               P.O. Box 5058 Stn Forces
                               Belleville, Ontario K8N 5W6

This is a wonderful thing to do and takes so little time. I will be getting down to some writing later today. While reading some of the other entries, I found that there were some really wonderful Acts of Kindness stories - especially done by the youth.

And now another photo. Since it is my daughter-in-law's 30th birthday today, there was a party to celebrate on Saturday to which my husband and I got invited to - along with all the young folk. She is the last of the group who was born in the 70s to turn the BIG 30 and so she had to wear a banner that said OLD. What a great sport!

This had been worn for one whole day by the person whose 30th birthday it was. It has now been retired (as you can see, it has been around the block) and there will be something else for the people born in the 80s to wear when they turn the BIG 30.

This is the cake that she picked out. Multi-coloured meringue - delicious. Happy Birthday Kate!

Continuation

I have been thinking that I have not posted photos of my hall quilts in a while. This one, which is found beside the staircase (hence the awkward angle for the photo), is call Mid Night. It is made from a pattern that appeared in McCalls magazine many, many years ago. I borrowed it from the hospital book cart when I was having one of my children (can't remember which one it was.) Anyway, I made the pattern as it was in the magazine (that one is still a UFO since I do not know how to quilt it effectively) and then I decided I would make the quilt using the same blocks but in a totally different colour scheme and placed differently. The quilting is just something to fill in the big spaces and all the quilting is done in white thread. There are stars in three different sizes quilted in all the black areas. The label indicates that I finished it in March of 1993. (Click on the photos to get a better view of the quilting.)

Further down the hall, by the basement stairs is P. Cassos's Broad. This was a fun little quilt to do. It was a guild challenge for a quilt show. If you wanted to participate, you were given a little brown bag with odd little things and I think you had to use everything. I did not alter any of the things I ended up with. I'm still not into beading (although I would like to be) and so her earring is just a string of beads that was in the bag. Her eyes are porcelain flowers with a hole in the middle. There were three of them and the other one is found in one of the two hanging things at the bottom. I freehand drew the face on a piece of muslin and then zig-zagged over the pencil lines. I still have another face that I want to do something like this with. The bag also had a length of ribbon and you can see it just above her head. I didn't sew it down but left it loose. It has a batt but I don't know what I used - probably a piece of flannel. It is machine quilted and I didn't even put a label on the back. I was probably running out of time.

No this is not a quilt but a photo of the birthday girl Ayla, who would like to thank everyone for the birthday wishes. Since MJ died one week before, she thought she would honour him by incorporating him in her birthday. Big sis Maili made the cake (I held the template while she sprinkled icing sugar) and the cup/mug is dad's. Since he was a MJ fan, friends got him this years ago. It needed a bit of cleaning up since it was on top of the kitchen cupboards for quite a few years before being relegated to the inside of the cupboard.

P.S. the necklace she is wearing is one I had in grade eight(?) It belonged to my friend's sister who no longer wanted it and since I had a turquoise burlap dress (fully lined) at the time, she gave me the necklace.