Cats leave paw prints on our hearts

Yesterday was a very heart wrenching day for us. After a lengthy illness we had to say farewell to our beloved friend and companion of 15 years.

We got him when he was about 8 weeks old. He had been abandoned at the vets...they found him under some vehicles on the lot. There was no mistake, he was dropped off and left there by someone who had enough sense to leave him where he had a good chance of finding a new home. So you see he was a rescue pet, and he captured our hearts and soul from the moment we laid eyes on him. My husband named him, 'cause he didn't want him to have a "sissy" name.

He was a good cat and he will be sorely missed. He is at the vets until the spring when we will go and get him and bury him in the garden, under the lilac bush, wrapped up in his little quilt.

Today has also been very hard for my husband and I...we went around the house gathering his toys and dishes and grooming stuff...for a small cat he had a lot of 'stuff'. We will probably bring it all to our local SPCA animal shelter, where I'm sure they will put it all to good use.

I know I'm not alone in feeling this way about a pet. He was a big part of our family now that the children were all grown and gone. There is no doubt that he will leave a 'hole' in our hearts and in our life.

~~~Fran

A Valentine Surprise

I know I said I was taking a break, and I am....but I had to share this with all of you.


The door bell rang a few minutes ago, and my husband answered. He came up to my sewing room and brought me a very special little box.
A Valentine surprise from my good friend Belinda from http://browndirtcottage.blogspot.com/ and Belinda I could not have been more surprised than if someone had set off a firecracker in the room!

Ya all want to see what's in the box? ......want to open it with me?....Ok..here goes..

pretty well sealed...lots of tape...and wow..what have we here? Pink and red tissue paper...what the ...????

I take off the paper and there is a small card with my name on it.

And then the 'goodies' appear ....

....oohhh look at that heart...and I have to pin it to the design wall so you can all have a real good look at it.... isn't it gorgeous???

there's candy there also...

What's this?...it's beautiful heart fabric all tied up with pretty red & white ribbon... and it feels kinda lumpy inside....

Another surprise...look at all those lovely pieces of assorted fat quarters, their beautiful....ooohh thank you Belinda...I love fabric (don't we all?) any size any color and these are gorgeous....





but we're not done yet...the 'lumpy' part was this pretty little note pad with a cute little pink clip with little hearts all over it....if you click on the picture you should be able to see it better. and there is the card. ( I'm not the greatest photographer so the closeups may appear a bit blurry)

Here is the bag of candies ....I couldn't resist opening it up.....

chocolate...yummmmm!

I will share some with all of you if you promise not to take it all....

please leave me a piece or two to enjoy tonight while watching my movie....lol


Now wasn't that a beautiful gift to receive 'out of the blue'? I am so fortunate to be blessed by such good friends. Thank you again Belinda.

(((Hugs))) and kissesXXX to each and everyone of you.

I hope you will have as lovely a Valentine day as mine has started out to be.

God bless....see you in a few weeks...

~~Fran...:c)

Taking A Break

I've decided to take a break for awhile. I've a thousand and one things to do, and can't seem to have time for them all. So I've had to prioritize and this seems to be about 6 in my top ten of things I've got to put on hold.

If you could see my house...on second thought, no, I wouldn't want you to see it in this shape right now. There are curtains to make and walls to paint, cupboards to clean and spice racks to polish up...the bottles get so ughh... etc..etc...... I guess what I'm talking about is just good old Spring cleaning!

Then there is my sewing room...that's whole different kettle of fish. I've accumulated so much fabric in the last 18 months, yardage and fat quarters, bags and bags of bits and pieces of 'scraps'...none of it is sorted in any way that I could say is useful to me right now, it's like a beast and it just keeps growing and growing and it's now escaped from the closet into bags around the room, eeek....the next thing I know it will be in the dining room or the kitchen, can't let that happen!
It all has to be sorted into like colors and then ironed and the ones that are big enough must be cut into squares or bricks or fat quaters or SOMETHING...that I can use, and what I can't use I MUST throw out! This will be the hardest part...I'm such a pack rat!!!

This last week with the giveaway...well I could have given a lot more had I known exactly what I had, what I wanted to keep, and what I could share. That alone has given me the insentive to get cracking and stop all my fooling around, you know...the "I've got to do something about this" and never getting around to it. As it is I don't seem to have any idea what I have and what I need. I'm sure that there is at least 9 or 10 quilts in the scraps alone, but I will never get around to doing anything with them unless I sort them out. Right now it's a mess.

I could show you pictures but I won't because I know that most of you know exactly what I'm talking about....so the time has come to put a little order into this insanity.

On the home front there is a lot going on and it keeps me hopping. Again, a lot of you know what that's like, so as I said, it's time to put my ducks in a row and start making lists and try to achieve something at the end of each day. Say a prayer and wish me luck.

I must say it's been fun, and I've met a lot of lovely people. I will keep the site open for the future and I know I will be lurking around all my favorite blogs when I get the chance, and I will write in your comments, but I just won't be posting.

So long....for a little while

~~Fran...:c)

Drum Roll Please!!!

And the winner is number 58. After assigning a number to each name, (I wrote all the names down on paper and my husband randomly gave each entrant a number). I then wrote the numbers on a small piece of paper and placed the papers in a small box. Last evening I had had my dear old friend stick her hand in the box to draw a number. I compared the number to the one on the list and her name is "nannergirl".. Congratulations !!!

.

She wrote "Hi! I love the idea of clearing out stash with a giveaway. I'd use your bright fabric to make some more whirly giggles....I'm obsessed by them! I'm off to search my stash for things to give away...Thanks:)

.

Your very welcome...and I will have to go and investigate just what whirly giggles are...LOL

.

I will be wrapping up the parcel and it will be in the mail first thing Monday morning. I would mail it tomorrow but in Canada, the post office is not open on Saturdays.Now I'm off to see if I can reach you by e-mail to let you know you won.

This box was held up high so she could not possible 'cheat'. Not that she would know which number was assigned to who, even if she did have a computer and was aware of the whole giveaway. She's 82 and comes over once or twice a week to do hand work with me. I know some of you used electronic machines, but I'm old fashioned and this is how we do it at church whenever there's a contest, so if it's good enough for church, I figured it was good enough for this contest. I took some pictures of the 'drawing' last evening and this morning I placed the number on the back of the box so I could also take a picture of it also.

.

My turn to give thanks to Katy of http://www.imagingermonkey.blogspot.com/ for thinking up such a great contest. It was a lot of fun and I would not hesitate to do this again in a blink of an eye.

.

It doesn't look as if I had any luck this time but maybe next time. Had fun while it lasted :))

.

.

~~Fran...:c)

Contest Time is up. The entries are closed

Well, I certainly had a lot of fun with this contest and now it is 6 p.m. EST and my part of this giveaway is over.
There were 64 people who entered my giveaway and I have placed 64 pieces of numbered paper in a small cardboard box and tonight my dear friend who is totally impartial will pick a number out of the box and the winner will be announced tomorrow. If you have left me an address where I can notify you personally I will do so. If not please check back on my blog to see if you're the lucky winner.
I hope you all enjoyed this as much as I have and I'm looking forward to doing this again.

Thanks for visiting my blog and participating. The winner's gift box will be mailed on Monday February 9Th. and depending on how far it has to travel will determine how soon it will arrive.
.

~~Fran...:c)

The Great International Stash Busting Giveaway

It worked!!!! .....Well kind of...I got it on the Post but still have not managed to move it to my side bar. Well I'll work on it. But for now let me tell you what this is all about. As the name of the blog says it is a stash busting giveaway.
.
Katy at http://www.imagingermonkey.blogspot.com/ has come up with this wonderful idea to cut down on the stash by sharing it with others, and I for one would like to be a part of this....have you ever looked in your stash and it looks soooo... boring? You wish you had just a little piece of some of the fabulous fabrics some others seem to always be 'playing' with? Well now's your chance.
.
I will try and explain it it but since Katy does it so much better you should visit her blog. Great place to drop by. According to Katy ....quote....
.
"The plan is, those interested in having a kind of chain of bloggy giveaways will also host a stash busting giveaway on the same day. Plus, we will all link to each others' blogs on our own, telling the whole bloggy world about our giveaways and hopefully having lots of people come and visit."

.

I am going to give away...

2 fat quarters..pink/chartreuse/yellow..some matching satin ribbon, some matching green thread , some bits & pieces of lace and a 1995 Quilting book complete with paper patterns that I picked up at a library book sale.

I will draw names from people who leave me comments and tell me what they may want to do with this pretty fabric. I will draw names tomorrow (Feb 5th) at 6 pm to give everyone a chance to get in on this. I'm kind of late myself but so what... I can do it on my time...right? RIGHT! Never know, if this works out I may do this on a monthly basis and try and share my stash with others.

Hope this all makes sense to you and I for one am off to visit my stash busting buddies over at Katy's blog. Good luck...hope you get in on lots of goodies and that you at least get in on time for the draw. She has wonderful prizes lined up.....whoo-hoo!

~~Fran...:c)

International Giveaway

Please bear with me, I am trying very hard to get this logo into my sidebar. I'm not great at stuff like this but Katy at Ginger Monkey has given me some instructions . Now whether I can follow these or not will be the test. The old saying the proof is in the pudding applies to me very well.

Here goes...I've cut the java script she sent me and now I will paste it here. If this works, when all is said and done I will have succeeded and the logo will be in my side bar.



Jus

Keeping my fingers crossed.....


Heh....it WORKED....whoo-hoo...... it's on the post and I'm going to see now if I can move it from the post to the side bar. Check my next post to see what this is all about....


~~Fran...:c)

Pyjama bags

So............Melanie (Jelly bean Angel)....suggested that pyjama bags would be really cute to go along with the girls pillow cases. I don't know where my brain was residing that day but I had no idea what she was talking about. She was kind enough to send me some pictures and I finally clued in. So the 2 top pictures are the backs of the bags, and they each have 2 pockets... 1 deep and a smaller one on top, and then you see the front of the bags and that is a large pocket behind their initials. So, a place for toothbrushes, a place for slippers and a pocket for bedtime stories. Thanks Melanie for the great idea. I hope I did you proud. I don't know if you can see it, but on the top part of the pocket on the front is a breast cancer fabric. White with pink ribbons, with the words hope, faith and love written in and around the ribbons. I only had this tiny piece and I wanted to use it, I figured this would be a good place for it. Kids are never too young to know about stuff like this.

And this is Lucky's finished kitty quilt. It's winging it's way to Nevada as we speak.

I used every bit of that fabric and if there is a 6" square left, that's about it.

Today was Guild Day for me, and this month was our 'care quilt' month. All of the guild members get together and we assemble lap quilts for the sick and elderly in our community.

All year through we all contribute through our BOM and once a year in February we start sewing these blocks together. We separate in teams of 3-4 people and one sews, another presses while still another cuts and trims. Some of the ladies spend the whole day just machine quilting the tops together. These small quilts...44" x 60"...are all backed by fleece and so there's not a whole lot of bulk for someone in a wheel chair and they launder like a dream. We managed to get 22 quilts done today, although some had to be taken home by various ladies to finish off the machine quilting. Not too shabby for a days work.

But tonight I will enjoy a long soak in the tub as my back, right between the shoulder blades, is killing me, we were at it from 9 am until 3:30 pm. I'm tired no two ways about it.

It's the kind of day where no one takes very many breaks as we all want to get as much accomplished as we can. I had an early lunch so now I'm getting kind of peckish and I think I will go and start dinner.

.

So on that note I will say so long until next time....

.

~~Fran...:c)

ps. I did finish the hand work and took the pins out...lol