The Story of the Dog Treats

My mum has poor vision.    I go to their house 4 or 5 times each week.  Before going, I always ask her if she needs anything from the village.     So the story goes like this:

Could you pick up some dog treats , I am completely out.

Next phone call:  never mind the dog treats, I found a package of them.

Next phone call:  you better pick up some treats, the dog hates them.

So I pick up some treats and go up to their house.

I take a look at what she thought were dog treats, turns out they were peanuts in the shell she had bought for the squirrel.   No wonder the dog didn't like them.

I thought it was hilarious.

The Story of the Microwaves

A few days ago, my mother called me to say there were flames shooting out of her microwave and she needed a new one.  I asked her if she had put anything with metal in it and she told me no.  So off I went to buy a new oven.  I brought the first one home but she couldn’t read the control panel.  She has macular degeneration.    Off I went to buy a second microwave which, to me, looked much more legible.  Although this one was a little better, she still couldn’t read it without a lot of effort.  In the meantime, my brother had discovered that she had put a cup with gold trim in it which caused the flames.  So now she wanted her old microwave back.  Fortunately we had not disposed of it. 

But on the weekend, at a flea market, I found one that was very legible, even better than her old one.  Nice big black letters on a white background.  The vendor wanted $20.00, I offered $15.00 and he accepted. 

Now we have two ovens to return to the store, an old one to keep because it still works, and a new to her oven that all she has to do is press the start button.  It couldn’t get any easier.  

Making Pasta

A few weeks ago, we decided to try our hand at making pasta.  My mother received a pasta maker as a gift but doesn't have the time or desire to use it, so we took it home to try.  

Our first attempt was not very successful.  It took us hours; the pasta would not go through the machine properly, it stuck to the rollers and to itself.  It was a very frustrating experience.

Our second attempt went much better.  Apparently we were not putting enough flour on our dough.  With sufficient flour on the dough, it went through smoothly and without sticking.  Here Paul is feeding the dough through the machine and the newly made pasta is drying.  This will go with the beef strogonaff meal we are taking up to my parents tomorrow.

May 3, 2017

Yesterday, Pearl went for a much needed grooming.  Here she is looking so white and pretty.  Already today, she is partly brown.  Oh, the life of a Westie.





While I was at the Ocean Waves Quilt Society meeting on Saturday, I picked up this neat little gadget.  It is a stylus at one end and a seam ripper at the other end and when you are not using it, both items are stored away safely in the handle.

This and That

Lobster season has just opened  and here are the lobster boats getting ready to go out and catch all that delicious Cape Breton lobster.









Pearl often tries to help me; she does this by lying on my project that is in the machine.  I keep a large basket in my sewing room for scraps and to distract her I throw a handful of treats into the basket and she has to dig to find them.  Bits of fabric get stuck in her fur and later on we find small fabric scraps all over the house as she sheds them.

The tree is almost finished but I am going to run out of thread before it is done. Since I can't just run out and pick up another spool, I ordered some last night and I'm hoping it comes quickly.

 Posting as Brigitte Dimock    

Today was the quarterly meeting and AGM of the Ocean Waves Quilt Society.  This was the first meeting I was able to attend and it was fun.  I met up with some of the ladies I met at the quilt retreat last fall and we were able to do some catching up.  There were also some people selling quilting supplies and I stocked up on fabric and threads. As well as all this fabric, I purchased 7 spools of razzle dazzle thread and picked up a new book.  All this for only $141.00 and no tax.    There was a Featherweight for sale; I have wanted one for quite a long time, but I resisted the temptation to buy it.   We were served a very nice lunch and afterwards had a trunk show presented by Linda Smith.  She talked about her journey from making traditional quilts to making modern quilts.

Winter?

This is what we woke up to this morning and its still snowing lightly.  Good thing we haven't started the garden.

Its very difficult to find supplies for my fiber art here.  There are no quilt shops so I do a lot of online ordering.  Recently I ordered 63 spools of embroidery thread for $129.00 on Amazon, which is very, very inexpensive.  I was concerned the quality would not be very good.  They came on Thursday; they look alright with a nice sheen to the thread; the real test will be later today when I try them out.

I also have only about half the space I had in Ontario for my studio so I ordered this cabinet to organize my threads.  It is very functional.  It has casters so I can roll it close to me when I'm sewing and the drawers are the perfect size to each hold a single color of thread with some drawers left over for needles, bobbins and other small items.  I'm very pleased with it.  Another Amazon purchase.

Its Been a Long Time

Its been quite some time since I have written anything.  Life has been very busy.  I spend a lot of time with my parents, they just turned 88, as well as being involved in village activities and trying to keep up with my fibre art.  I also go to yoga 4 times a week and try to get out for an hour's walk with Pearl and my parent's dog every day.  The winter was quite good until we hit March when we had several storms in a row.  This is the lake on a stormy day.  I wouldn't want to be out there.

Moonglow Blocks

I finished all the blocks with points for Moonglow.  Now I have put it away, probably until next winter, while I work on some more fun projects.

Purple Fantasm

My latest completed projects are Purple Fantasm and Summer Whimsy.

Summer Whimsy

 Pearl loves to sit on my sewing table to look out the window and pretend she is trying to help me.  Here she is lying on my lastest project.  She does have a designated spot on the table with a small blanket but somehow the project in the sewing machine is always more desirable.

My latest project is "The Herons are Back" and I am planning to enter it in the SAQA Atlantic Members show.  The theme is Transitions, and what is more of a transition than the herons coming back signifying that the nicer weather is here to stay.  By the way we haven't seen any herons here yet.   I have spent about 30 hours on it so far and I figure its about half done.    I just love making trees.

The Herons are Back

With Ralph gone, I decided to register Pearl as a emotional service dog.  Now we can take her everywhere with us and she brings smiles to people's faces.  People around here just love their dogs.  I have yet to meet someone who doesn't like dogs or is afraid of them.  Its very refreshing after Ontario where you always had to be so careful, not that I am not careful here, but people have a very different attitude.

PS:  The pictures don't do justice to the colors.  I will try to update this blog on a more regular schedule.

Moonglow

I saw this Jenny Beyer quilt kit on line and immediately fell in love with it, thinking it would be a perfect quilt for the bedroom in our new house by the water.  I failed to notice that this quilt was designated for advance quilters which I definitely am not.  When I was at my quilting retreat last October, I spoke to a number of very experienced quilters who declared they would not even attempt it but it was probably a plus that I didn't know what I was getting into.  That did nothing to bolster my confidence.

I have been working away at it and am about to start block 8.  I have now found my rhythm and the blocks are coming together much more easily.  My points are getting pointier and my 1/4 inch seams actually look like 1/4 inch seams and are relatively straight.

I went back yesterday and reworked some of the blocks I had made.  One in particular was too small, I don't know what I thought would happen when I went to put the blocks together - could it miraculously stretch to fit.  So I added wider boards and now all the blocks are the correct size.

I signed up for 3 craftsy classes - Jenny Beyer's block of the month (which isn't Moonglow) but uses a lot of the same techniques, a basic paper piecing class and a basic quilting class.  I watch these in rotation while I work away on the quilt and pick up some useful bit of information each time.  By the time I finish this quilt, I will know the classes by heart and I should have advanced to at least an intermediate level quilter. This is a complicated and complex pattern and the fact that there are minimal instructions provided does not help but as this quilt kit was fairly expensive, not making it is not an option.

Happy Quilting Everyone or Whatever Your Hobby is!!!

Christmas and the aftermath

 Christmas Dinner was a success; the free range turkey delicious.  The challenge was keeping the food hot as it traveled downstairs. Dessert was a traditional "Buche de Noel".    After the meal, we opened presents.  My brother loves Christmas crackers and I had found this giant one.  Here he is opening it with his grandson.

 On Boxing Day, we took lunch up to my parents.  Paul had made a big pot of beef and barley soup which was absolutely delicious.  I made a strawberry and caramel banana trifle.  This was my first attempt at making a trifle.  It turned out very well except that I didn't cook the custard long enough so it was rather thin.  Instead of putting it in the trifle, we just poured it over our individual servings.

This morning we woke up to heavy snow which soon turned to pouring rain and melted much of the snow away.  The temperature was +6 but if this all freezes overnight, I don't think we will be going anywhere tomorrow either.  Since we didn't go out today, we finally got the rest of our blinds put up.  It was nice to get this job done.

T'was the Night Before Christmas

And everything is ready.  The tree is up and the presents wrapped.  The table is partially set. Tomorrow the family is coming over and I'm looking forward to everyone being together; the first time in a long time.  It may well be the last Christmas with my dad so trying to making it extra special.

I made the napkin holders and placemats.  The embroidery took hours to do and I am happy with the result.  Looks very festive.

The wall hanging below is paper pieced and has tiny led lights.  Pearl is the big present lying underneath it and on the right is the new mantle.

Hope Everyone has a Merry Christmas.