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Wednesday, December 22, 2010

Our Quilters Guild Christmas Potluck






We now hold our quilters guild meeting at different church. It is a bit smaller but more cozy. We have about 150 members and it was a fun evening.

We were asked to bring an exchange gift, something we had at home, but never use, wrapped in newspaper, tied with old salvage pieces. I wrapped up many pieces of fabrics from my stash, about the side of a fat quarter. I give my salvage pieces to a quilter friend so I sewed 3 small pieces together. It worked great. We played one of those games where you pass the gifts around, and in the end the last person holding the gift gets to keep it.
They told the sorry of Mr. & Mrs Right, and Mr. & Mrs Left, that's how the gifts were distributed





Quilters Retreat Christmas Dinner




Maria's quilt retreat in an 100 year old church basement. We love being there. Here is part of our set up.




After 8 hours of quilting we had dinner. It was unbelievable. So much food and oh so good. mmmmmmm

Saku (Zack) Koski



Bill's sister married into the Koski family. I knew Sarah Michelle Koski when she was a little girl. As the years went by we lost touch. Thanks to Facebook I found her again as a beautiful young single mom of 3 year old Zack. I find Michelle refreshingly different, but most of all I just love that little guy of hers. Mom calls him Saku, Finn for Zack. When Wal Mart was going out of the fabric business I bought Disney's "Cars" fabric, I knew I'd find someone someday who would like this fabric. When Mom and son came to visit Bill and me, he was a well behaved little man. I'm so glad I made this quilt for him.

For Katie Lemieux




Jacqueline Lemieux worked at Wal Mart McDonalds. She is so friendly and works hard to sever the cutomers. Her beautiful smile would win your hear over. Her dream is to stay home and have lots of babies with her beautiful handsome young husband. Jacqueline is off to a good start she has a gorgeous baby girl Katie. I made this quilt for her.


Quilts, Summer to Dec 2010

I want to post the quilts I've made since this summer.



Maria introduced the disappearing 9 patch to our quilters guild members. It is great, very easy to make, and it can look quite impressive when it is done. Searching the net I found the Disappearing 9 Patch on points. I tried to get a nice balance of colours. I checked my stash and found Northcott's pink floral and some plum fabrics. I went to our quilt store, "The Quiters Stash", with the help of Judy and Doris we picked out beige, dark brown and turquoise. I really love how it turned out.
It's 2 1/2 days till Christmas and I just finished Brayden's new set of pj's.


These are the tops I forgot to make with the last set of pj's. I found more green skull fabric but not the green on green.
He will have a blue with green top plus a whole new pair of pyjamas in the same fabric. Brayden is happy with anything I make for him, good kid.




Now he has a new pair of pyjamas.

Flannel fabric purchased at Frabricland, Canada.

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Allan attended Ryerson University.

First cartoon,
Trudeau.


Nov. 1976.

Al wrote and drew cartoon for The Ryersonian, newspaper while at university in Toronto, On.

Wednesday, December 15, 2010

More than Quilting. Sewing pj's.



I made these 2 pj bottoms for Brayden, and sent them out to Utah 2 weeks ago.
When Chris received the package he called and asked me, "mom, what happened to the tops"?.
I found that so funny, I thought Brayden was going to use his tee shirts.
Now I'm making the tops. One top will be blue instead of green because the green fabric was sold out. I'm glad Brayden is not a fussy kid. I love him dearly.



The top for this one will be the same.

Tuesday, December 14, 2010

December 14, 2010



My beautiful son Chris lost 22 pounds. I'm so happy he's taking care of himself for his wife and sons sake. They all need a heathy man to take care of them.

Today's weather in Sarnia, and most of Southern Ontario.

Unusally severe storm. We were missed again. So far we have been lucky.

Quote from the Globe and Mail.

Some 300 people were originally estimated to be stranded on Highway 402 when drifting snow and zero visibility left drivers with no option Monday but to hunker down in their vehicles. It was the only shelter available to guard against the bone-chilling night as they awaited help overnight.
Police haven't yet had the chance to check other, smaller roads, where more vehicles may have been trapped, but believed that people in those areas had likely trekked to nearby farmhouses.
"We're continuing to physically check all the vehicles on the 402," said Ontario Provincial Police Constable Dennis Harwood. "Once we're finished out there, the idea is to go to the other secondary roads and see who's on them.


October 2010


My son Al and Dawn Walton worked together in China and Vancouver to cover the Olympics. This summer Dawn had a little girl. Al asked me to make a quilt for her. The main fabric featured animals on Noah's Ark.








Skull and Roses.

Pattern: Snapshot. Design By: Kari Nichols, Mountain Peek Creations, Centennial, Co.





A few years ago while visiting my son Chris, and his family in Utah, I found Alexander Henry’s fabric, skulls and red roses. September 2010, I visited my son Al. When I’m in Calgary, Al takes me to my favourite fabric shop, “My Sewing Room”. This time we took my great-grandson, 5 year old Brady, with us. He was allowed to pick out the fabrics he wanted. His choice, the small clusters of skulls and red roses, and Headgear's flames - red and orange fabric for the borders. I checked out all the patterns, I bought “Snapshot” because I could use large blocks so you can see more of the fabric pattern. I sent it out in the mail and he got it for Halloween.

Summer of 2009



My dad married my mom 9 years after his first wife passed away. My brother, sister and I always knew who dad's first family members were, but dad's grand children didn't know we existed. In the spring of 2009 my dad's Great grand daughter Nancy, found my sister Monica, through Ancestors.com. Summer of 2009 my neice Betty Ann and her daughter Nancy came to Thunder Bay to meet us and to check out Betty Ann and her husband's old homestead. I made this quilt for my Great-grand neice Madison, she is so beautiful, you can't help but love her.




Madison's Christmas photo. I love her.

Sunday, December 12, 2010

Chris and Nicole,

My second born son and his wife.

They ran in Utah's" The Night of the Living Dead" race.

Love you both.




Allan

My First Born Son.








Grandpa Maki would have been so proud, you look just like him.

Love you.

Northcott Fabrics.

During the summer our quilt shop had Northcott fabrics on sale. The pastel colours appealed to me so I went crazy and I purchased more than I could use in a life time.

I made 4 quilts and still had fabrics left over.

The 3 ladies who got these quilts are all very helpful to Bill.

One is a psychologist, the other 2 are employees of McDonalds.






Name of the quilt is Daydreams, from "Simply Strips & Squares' by Suzanne McNeill. The owner is Donna.

The name of this quilt is "Swell', from the book "Simply Strips & Squares. I still have it.







The name of these two quilts is "Serenity" from the book " Strip Happy" by Donna Kinsey.

The first one went to Karen, The second one is Mary's, Bill"s psychologist. We both love her.



Bill and Mary.
Tote Bags.

One type I make, sew and flip 2 1/2 strips.







Teddy bear quilts made by our quilters guild members for our Christmas Cheer fund. We have kind, generous ladies in our guild.


pj's I made for my 5 year old great grandson.

Things I made this fall

Extra Mug Rugs.




A Bitterly Cold Week.

This has been a busy week for me. I had many visits to my dentist who is 10 miles away from my place. Cleaning off the car and driving in the cold isn’t much fun, but I assume the exercise is good for me. lol. It’s more difficult for Bill, with some loss of balance he nearly fell a few times, but I’m always there to catch him.
Heather, my quilting friend, and I, made pot luck supper for the ladies in our quilting group. I made the soup broth and the sweet and sour spareribs, she did the chicken wings, potatoes and salad. Thursday Maria and I went to the border to pick up our parcels, We keeping ordering fabrics from the States, but they weren’t in, so we had lunch at the First Nation Casino. When we started out the weather was fine but things changed in a hurry, by the time we headed home we hit a snow storm. It was foggy and the wind blew the snow across the road making it difficult to see at times. Friday and Saturday it was very cold, I’m grateful to Heather for picking me up in beautiful warm van with the warm seats to take us to our quilting retreat. Today was no better, it’s cold but we have no snow, unlike Minneapolis.

Quote ” Workers shovel snow off the roof of Mall of America Field at the Hubert H. Humphrey Metrodome in Minneapolis Sunday, Dec. 12, 2010. The inflatable roof of the Metrodome collapsed Sunday after a snowstorm that dumped 17 inches (43 cms) on Minneapolis. No one was hurt, but the roof failure sent the NFL scrambling to find a new venue for the Vikings' game against the New York Giants.

When I was growing up in this area we had winters like that, but now we have more moderate winters. We are truly blessed.

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

Blog by Joan my Mug Rug swap partner.

Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Mug Rugs


I have to share with you the wonderful mug rug I received in the mail from Betty. She was my partner in Aunt Polly's Porch mug rug swap. Can you believe what a wonderful package she sent to me? The adorable mug rug, and great stainless steel mug, hot chocolate, and candy! Only to top it off with ribbon and ric-rac thread and buttons. Whew, I am so lucky. Betty comes from quite a line of talent too. Her husband does wonderful cartoon drawings, one of which she put on the back of the recipe's we swapped, and her daughter in law is quite the accomplished scrapbooker and paper artist. I am lucky to have one of her cards too. If you want to see some inspiration that is over the moon great, check out her blog at http://madebynicole.blogspot.com/. Betty shared a delicious sounding recipe for Shortbread cookies. I will be giving them a try very soon. As for you Betty, words can't thank you enough. Your the best.
















I have to confess, in my rush to thank Betty, I told her how delighted I was with the little watering can on the mug rug????? The next day while enjoying my coffee on my new "rug" it dawned on me. Watering can???? It's a coffee cup. So I had to write an apology letter. I have to wonder some times about myself. Is it my rush to thank someone, my old mind going, or just that I'm a big ole goober! Whatever the case, Betty I love my rug. Thank you so much, for being so forgiving! And I am delighted to have a new Internet friend from this swap.

I can now share the little package that I sent to Betty.

In keeping with the theme of things, you can see that I put a cute little Elephant on her mug rug! LOL!!! Geesh, I hope that my mind doesn't get any worse with my age! :-)





This is the one Joan sent me.

I was blessed to have such a wonderful swap partner.
I loved everything she sent me.
Thanks Joan, so glad to know you.

Quilts by Betty




It's was a beautiful day out, sun shining brightly, I thought it was a perfect day to take a picture of my quilt.

What a surprise, Bill's silhouette showed through the quilt, he looks like a ghost.

I still haven't given this quilt away.

Now you know a little bit about Bill.

Bill's latest drawings.