Got it, I think!

Well it's taken me most of the evening but I think I've got you all back where you belong. I will know in a day or two if I've forgotten someone. Keep on commentating please, and that way I will know you're still with me.

Must take a course in blogging 101 because this darn thing is very confusing at times.

~~Fran...:c)

Grrrrrr......Big Mistake!

I just made another BIG boo-boo! I wanted to remove a name (blog) from my list of blogs that I read faithfully and ended up removing all of them. I'm a walking disaster when it comes to this blogging stuff. When or how long will it take for me to finally get this right?

Grrrr.......I'm so mad! I will have to spend hours now to get them all back on , and I sure hope I don't forget any.

If any of you know a way I can reverse this please tell me, or if I've ever responded to your blog, please let me know and tell me the name of your blog so I can place you back where you belong in "The Blogs I Follow" part of the page. Some of you come to mind right away, and you know who you are, and you will be back on tomorrow.

Tonight I feel like I've done enough damage and will call it quits.

~~Fran...:c(

Cloth Weaving

I spent the whole day yesterday at a workshop learning how to weave cloth. It was amazing!

The teacher had these mini looms for us to work on and all kinds of wool and fibers. She even had us add beads and charms to our project.

This is what we made. A mini 'vest' which opens up into a miniature sewing kit.

We spent the morning weaving our "cloth" . ... It was so interesting, we were about 20 in the workshop and we all had access to the same materials, yet there was not one identical "cloth" in the whole class. Once we had filled our loom tightly, we ironed on a piece of heavy interfacing. After it cooled we pinned on our pattern and cut out one front of the vest.

Believe it or not it took us 3 hours to do this. And she expects us all to make ourselves a vest by Christmas. AH! Maybe by next Christmas.

We spent the afternoon putting together our little vests. I kind of overdid it with the beads and charms,... LOL...but I'm not a fan of 'less is more' group of thinkers. I'm a ..."I paid $35.00 for this class, bring it on"..., kind of girl. :c))

:c)

Today I started adding the bits and pieces of the sewing kit and I do believe that a special little girl in Nevada who is just learning to quilt, will be the recipient of this little gem. Her birthday is at the end of November so it's perfect....Made to order so to speak.

:c)

It was fun, and I did learn a new skill, so it was worth the money I spent. :c))

:c)

~~Fran...:c)

Thank you & kudos

I want to thank everyone that have responded to my posts in the past week. Your help in finding my pattern was awesome. Kudos to all of you.

A special thank you to Jan, who just sent me an e-mail and informed me that my comments were not being posted and I didn't know this. I started exploring the blog site and found 49 comments waiting to be approved. I pressed a few "buttons"... and got them all posted where they belong, but I'm not sure if I managed to reverse this process. I'm so computer illiterate it's not even funny. I almost broke my arm patting myself on the back when I finally was able to make my own blog. Wow!! Even my husband who is the 'expert' was stunned that I managed to do this.

So...., hope I've fixed the problem and I will be monitoring this blog faithfully in the next few days, and more often in the future. As for right now I am going back to view my blog page and catch up on all those comments that were left and un-read. I promise I will try and be a good girl, LOL and check this thing EVERYDAY!!!

~~Fran...:c)

In Search Of...

These were taken by me at a quilt show this afternoon with the owners permission. However....I fell in love with this quilt called "Garden Twist". I even bought the fabric from the vendor, and when I asked her for the pattern she informed me that she "doesn't share her patterns". If I didn't like the fabric so much I would have insisted on my money back.

Now the search is on...can anyone help me? Where can I get, or buy this pattern? I've spent the better part of 3 hrs on the web looking for it to no avail so ladies there is just one thing to do in a case like this and that's to ask for ..... H E L P

I've been away for awhile so since I'm back there hasn't been a whole lot of trafic on this blog, but I'm hoping that even if only one of you see's this you will pass the word out that I'm in search of this pattern.

Thanks everyone....

~~Fran...:c)

Genealogy Quilt

I've been working on this quilt for a long time. It was just a 'get rid of the scraps' kind of quilt.

I had been visiting Quiltville with Bonnie Hunter. I went down her list of patterns and chose "Simply Stripy". Dog-dead easy. You will never find an easier pattern if you tried, and I figured this would get rid of a lot of scraps, and at the same time be fast to make.

Well as is said 'the best laid plans of mice and men'.... I made the top in an afternoon and then having no "design wall" I threw it on the floor and HATED it!
I put it away for awhile and would periodically throw it on the floor again to see if it was redeemable. One night or I should say morning at around 3a.m., (insomnia) there it was on the floor with the cat laying on it when inspiration struck.
I started counting all the solid colored pieces, then I counted all of the people in our immediate family ( had to do this several times, kept forgetting one or two) and I came up with this .......

Genealogy Quilt

You can't see the names, but they were all embroidered "Tonya" style with white and red cotton. On the small solid pieces that I couldn't put a name on I put hearts. I tried several borders but since I didn't have any fabric left over from the body of the quilt, I simply sewed 2 two inch borders.

One is black print with flowers, and the other is a yellow whimsical fabric that I picked up. It said "A Passion 4 Patchwork" . It was so cute with small spools of thread between the phrase. It was perfect for this particular quilt.

On the back of the quilt I used a black fabric marker and made up the genealogy chart.

What started out to be an ugly quilt, an "I don't want to work on this anymore quilt", an unwanted quilt in other words, has turned out to be probably a family heirloom, and all the fancy beautiful quilts I've made will come and go, and that will be the end of them, but I see this one being passed down and added to.

I have 11 grandchildren and they are all asking for one also. I smiled and said perhaps as a wedding gift. Only next time I will add a lot more solid fabric, so there will be lots of places to put my great grandchildren names on (*LOL*) This one was given to my son, who came to me last year with his quilt I made him when he was about 12, and asked if I could make a new back for it. Since it was over 30 years old I suggested that maybe it was time I made him a new quilt . He hugged that quilt and with a gleam in his eye he said "Mine!" We all laughed at 'Linus' and mom put a new back on his old quilt. When it was time to give this quilt away there was no one else in the family that came to mind other than Richard. Although it didn't start out as a quilt for him , the gods had other ideas.

Until next time

~~Fran...:c)

Autumn Splendor for Thanksgiving

Hi All,

It's been a while since I posted but I'm back and ready to go. We've just come home from a long weekend with our sons and spent Thanksgiving with them. Turkey and dressing, sweet potatoes and pumkin pie, oh my... I can hardly move. I should have jogged at least halfway back home. It will take me from now until Christmas to burn up all the calories from this weekend. But, what a wonderful meal and what fun to be with our sons, their wives and our grandchildren.

This is one of our boys home in the heart of the Ottawa Valley. The colours were spectacular and I honestly didn't know which way to point the camera. As you can see the house is nestled in among the maples. These are the same maples which provide us with the honest to goodness of maple syrup, come spring. Below was a view of the field across from his house.
It so happened to be my birthday on Monday and my son and his wife gave me a brand new camera. Being totally mechanically and computer illiterate, I'm having a hard time figuring it all out. This thing even takes videos. Looks like I'm going to have to take photography 101. (*LOL*) Not to be outdone my other son who owns his own computer business is building mom her own personal computer. Specs are to be "VERY" simple with lots of memory, and no bells and whistles. :c))

We passed many beautiful places and so may scenic sites but couldn't stop at every one and shooting going 55 miles an hour is not recomemded photography if you want nice clear pictures. I tried to take some out the window and got these kaleidoscopic blurs. Pretty but not pretty enough for publication.This was taken in a little village that was so picturesque, you could almost say it was enchanting . I got a novel idea for turkeys that someone put together from hay bales.

What a pretty little church!

I could go on and on but I just haven't the space. here for all the pictures I took. I'm now going to make supper and then spend the evening catching up on all my favourite blogs.

Talk to you all soon.

Until then.....

~~Fran...:c)

New Look

Well.....whatcha think??

After many questions from DH about "when are you going to change that doll on the top of your blog?" type of questions, I decided to try something else.

If you don't like it say so I may be able to get it back the way it was.

Until next time

~~Fran...:c)

I'm Liberated Also!

And now before someone starts saying that this is not messy enough, well let me tell you, it's messy enough for me. See the computer monitor under the plant stand? Well there's another one behind the chair in the corner that you can just get a peek at the top of it back there. What you can't see in the photos are the dust you can write your name in, or the cobwebs in the corners of the ceiling...my mother use to call those "Irish Lace" (*LOL*) she had an Irish grandmother who use to say that if anyone was bold enough to comment on them.

AND these are just pictures of my dining room and my kitchen counters, I wasn't about to go around every room in the house to show you my stacked boxes and totes, just "waiting" to be placed in storage. It's been a long wait.:c)) And I couldn't show you stacks of dirty dishes as DH takes care of those. I know it! I'm spoiled, and I love it!

What you must all realize is that there are just the 2 of us here now and it just shouldn't be that way, but it is and I don't much care... IF it takes time away from my quilting, or my charity work at the church, it just won't get done soon. It will get cleaned and dusted when I have the time, which will not be in the near future. Probably 2 days before Christmas, before my kids start coming home for Christmas. Well I wouldn't want them to think their mother wasn't the perfect mother would I? I have to put my best foot forward....(*LOL*)

So there, I'm liberated also!

I just love this post Lila started, because it is so much like human nature to always put our 'best foot' forward, and to hide the 'nasty' stuff under the carpet or in my case behind the bedroom door (NO ONE EVER looks behind your bedroom door!

When I was first married, I had an unexpected visit from my mother-in-law and while my husband met her at the door I was frantically shoving dirty dishes in the oven. (*LOL*)...it just wouldn't have been right to have her think that her son had married anything but the perfect little homemaker....gosh when I think back... how many times have we all been guilty of hiding our 'dirty little secrets'? And by that I mean the basket of clothes that hasn't been sorted or folded, shoving magazines under the couch cushions, or closing bedroom doors hastily so that 'if' our guest had to use the bathroom', he or she wouldn't be shocked see our unmade beds at two in the afternoon.
I once had a neighbor that told me that her husband wouldn't live in my house because it wasn't "clean enough" for him! The man worked for the city and half the times in the sewers, and took a shower once a week! EUGH! I had a small 24x24 foot house with 5 growing children. It wasn't dirty, but it sure has heck was messy! Needless to say this neighbor and I parted ways.

On that note I send a challenge to the rest of you to "GET LIBERATED!" Tell the world your human and you can't do it all, nor do you really want to do it all. Life is too short, and there are so many other more important things to do than wash up the breakfast dishes as soon as possible so the kitchen will 'shine'



Till next time...



~~Fran...:c)

Mama"s Got a New Baby!!

Isn't he beautiful?? He arrived Friday evening and has been fussed over and pampered ever since. I've never had anything like it before.

It's like I've been driving old jalopies all my life and now I have a brand new Cadillac. It has so many features.....

...look at them all...

Picture is a bit blurry but believe me...:c)

It can do a blanket stitch, all kinds of quilting stitches, the old zig-zag- with pizazz, all kinds of embroidery and a whole lot more.

I'm so excited!! Can you tell??

It 's a Brothers sewing machine and many of you may not have heard of this name as it is totally Canadian. This is what I wanted. That way I don't have to ship out for parts to Idaho, or Colorado or Timbuktu. Shipping and duty really take a bite out of our dollar.

You can read all about it by going to Google and typing in Brothers Sewing Machine, a whole lot of sites will open I went to the 2 nd one down and the model # is CS5000H . Now I know that this is not the top of the line but for me the line has been brought up like 100% from what I had.

You may wonder why after I bragged about my old work horses so much that I have gone and bought a new one. Well let me tell you......

Last Thursday was the day a bunch of us girls get together at the South Cove community center and spend the day sewing and chatting. We bring our lunches and generally have a great day. Last Thursday was not so great for me! To start off with I didn't have my own vehicle (DH needed it for golf), when we got there we all picked our tables and started on our projects.

I got about 30- to 45 minutes in when my machine went Pfffft!!!! KAPLOOEE!!! GRRRRRR!!!!!

Dumb, dumb, dumb I had no hand work with me. I spent the whole day admiring what everybody else was doing and twiddling my thumbs. Not Fun, I've had fun. That wasn't it.

Hence the new 'baby' on Friday. I spent the day Saturday making 2 table runners.

I worked non-stop yesterday afternoon and finished quilting 3 care quilts for our church. Here they are ....

This was a printed piece that I added 2 borders and piano keys to. I just love this quilt it is so colorful and cozy. It's sure to brighten someones day and get them smilling. We quilt these Care Quilts right on fleece. Can you see the nice wavy stitch?

This one was pieced this summer and I added the backing and quilted it yesterday. Isn't this a nice pattern for fleece?

This was a printed panel also, but I just thought it was so cute I couldn't resist it. A nice red backing and border is just what it needed. Some lucky young mother will be happy to get this.

I hope..... Anyway I know the baby will be warm. :c)

Anyway I smoked it again today and I'm almost finished my 2 table runners and my I SPY Quilt. The table runners just have the binding to sew on.

Now, I'm going to go take a hot bath and sit down, put up my feet and sip a glass of wine and try to read a good book. Wonder if I'll make it past 10 o'clock? :c)....

Until next time...

~~Fran...:c)

PS: These are flowers from our garden that DH brought in for me when I was feeling so upset Thursday....

Goodnight once more....

Filling the freezer

Aren't these just the most beautiful cabbages you have ever seen? I thought so and picked a big one and took it home with me.


I guess it must be the time of the year but I get this urge to start preserving and filling the freezer.
After Church today I came home and made cabbage rolls.

I took a few pictures as I was making them.


Here you see the cabbage half gone. I boil it in this big pot until the leaves are soft and pliable, (yet not cooked right through). When that happens they get cut off from the stem and I end up with this..



I personally feel that it it easier to roll them if I cut a bit off the back of the center rib.

Everyone seems to have a different recipe. Mine includes lean ground beef, raw par-boiled rice, salt & pepper, about 1 tbsp of dried oregano and the same of marjoram, 2 heals of bread passed through the food processor, and the old standby, a stalk of celery and 1 large onion , minced. (The amounts depend on how many I'm making)
I mush it all together and place a bit of this meat mixture on a cabbage leaf and roll it up.



Here you see them lining up on the cookie sheet and when I'm done this is what goes into the
freezer.



When they are frozen solid I will separate them and place them in freezer bags. This way I need only take out what we can consume in one meal. When ready, I usually thaw them out for a bit then I add a can of tomatoes. I cover them and put them in the oven at 350 Fahrenheit for an hour or so, the rice should be cooked through when done. ( The time of course depends on how many I'm cooking). My family love these and it wouldn't be fall without making these up.



I had planned on sewing this afternoon but this took precedence. It has to be a primitive need in me to start filling the cupboards and freezer come September, making sure that the winter coats are all dry cleaned or washed, and that the winter boots are in good shape and ready for winter. This happens annually, like getting the furnace serviced before the hard frosts set in.

When all this is done I can sit back and sew all winter, as snug as a bug in a rug, and quite happy. A good warm feeling.

Wishing you all the same warm feeling.

Until next time....

~~Fran...:c)

Getting Ready for Fall

Well I'm kind of catching my breath. As you see I went on a major shopping spree when I went to Detroit (actually Port Huron). I've only posted a couple of pictures, but I bought too much to put it all on one post. Jo Ann's had some terrific buys on fall fabrics and I was really getting low on my solid cottons so I stocked up. Fat quarters for .99 cents, wouldn't you? I couldn't resist the black with the bright red cherries. I only bought a 1/2 yd. but I only want it for accents. I'm thinking potholders, maybe an oven mitt, or a pocket on a red apron? I just fell in love with it.

I want to make a table runner for my daughter in law for Thanksgiving., hence the gold & red fabric very 'turkey' looking. LOL :c)) In Canada we celebrate in early October and we are going to spend the holiday with our son and his family.



As you can see I've haven't posted for a bit but I have been VERY busy. Our quilt guild has started up again as has our regular quilting bees. Between those and the two quilts I'm trying to finish by the end of the month, well... not so much free time to myself. I usually take a few minutes after dinner to catch up on my favorite blogs, but even then I haven't posted responses very often. That's bad, bad, bad of me, because I do know how much these responses mean when you have a blog. "Hey! Someone reads my blog and cares enough to let me know." I will try to do better.






Last time I showed you the purse that my granddaughter made. Now this is the purse Nana made for herself. This is more my speed. LOL :c)

A few months ago I happened to be in my favorite Thrift Shop when the girl said to me "Fran, you quilt, would you be interested in this?"
"This" turned out to be a large box of upholstery samples. There must be 500 in there if not more. I asked "how much?" she said $5.00 and I had the money out of my purse so fast it practically flew out. This purse was made from some of these samples. It looks like I'm going to have a whole lot of bags to make for myself and for gifts to friends and family for a few years. :c) how good is that for $5 bucks?
Don't ya just love Thrift Shops? They're like Aladdin's cave, always full of unknown treasures if you only take the time to look for them.


Until next time....

~~ Fran... :c)

We Have a New Quilter in the Family

Yes I'm very proud to announce that we do indeed have a new quilter in the family.

This is my 18 yr old granddaughter Chelsea, and she lives in the USA but spent the summer in Canada getting re-acquainted with her family.

While she was with us I was making the 'sleepover' quilt and Chelsea fell in love with the pattern. "Do you think I could do that Nana?" I told her you CAN do anything! "Could I make it into a purse?"

"A purse! Well I don't see why not." We went shopping that afternoon and she chose her fabrics, and colors. We had so much fun. "What! That fabric?" giggle, giggle..."Yes Nana. It's going to be so cool!" Well it turned out way cooler than I thought.

That same afternoon I set her up on my spare machine and she started stitching her 'strings' together. The 'maverick star' came next and the rest is history. Here is a picture of her purse. Yes it's very big and very colorful, but you have to be 18 yrs old to fully appreciate this purse.

This is the front and now for the back

It was so much fun doing this with her and seeing her enthusiasm as she went along. She was thrilled to have done all the work by herself.

We drove her to Detroit last weekend so she could get her flight back to her home state. I was sorry to see her go, but felt good about having shared this experience with her. Now she is all gung-ho to start a lap quilt for her dad who is totally into Nascar. She is also doing her own design in black/red and white checker flags. I can't wait to see it.

So yes folks I can honestly say that the art of quilting has been handed down in our family.

I'm so proud of her. Can you tell?

Until next time...

~~... Fran :c)

MOO-SIC To My Ears

Well here we go....If chicken's can Moo in Texas, I want you all to know that cows are MOO-SIC to our ears in Canada. Wotcha think Belinda? Want to trade? he-he-he Finely got the chance to make one new pot holder, but it wont stay here long. Already my daughter wants to keep it. I need about 6 new ones so I better get busy after I finish my 'stars' on my quilt border. Maybe next week.

We've been taking a couple of days off from home to go camping with our kids. What fun! I haven't roasted hot dogs or made Smores in years.
Went fishing last night and both the granddaughter and I each caugth a fish. They were too small and we released them. But it was worth seeing the excitement in her eyes when her line started to tug.
this will be a short post , as I have to go get ready to go back. It's only a 45 minute drive from home so the old folks come home to a nice soft bed at night and return with missing supplies in the morning. Just wusses I guess, but I've done a LOT of that stuff with the kids years ago, and roughing it now for us is black and white TV. LOL :c)

Until next time ....

~~ Fran ... :c)

Seeing Stars!!!

Well that's what I'm literally doing.

For the last 2 days I've been machine quilting my sleepover quilt with my small tabletop machine. Since I'm just learning this skill, hand/eye coordination is not that great, so I decided to quilt the whole thing in country stars of all sizes. You know, primitive wonky little stars, and boy oh boy are some of these primitive LOL...;C)) Cute though, and the best part is that you can't really screw these up because they come in all shapes and sizes. My quilting teacher said that the secret to good machine quilting is to practice, practice, practice!!!! By the time this quilt is done I will be able to make these babies with one eye closed, and the tongue between the teeth is almost eliminated today... as it is I made these all night in my sleep. Hard Work!!!

Today I finished the center and now all I have left to do is the border. ALL...(she says) that border sure looks a lot bigger than what I thought it was. It's going to have to wait until Friday because I have a quilting bee tomorrow and I need a break.

It doesn't look good for sewing next week, as I have commitments Monday and Tuesday and I'm having company for the next 3 days after. Then on Saturday we drive our granddaughter to Detroit to catch her flight back to her home state. She graduated grade 12 this summer and she came and spent the summer here in Canada taking time to visit all of the rest of the family. She was 10 when my daughter and her family moved to the States and now she's 18, quite a change in my little angel. We enjoyed seeing her and getting to spend some "special" time with her.


And I guess since we're going to go across at Port Huron I might just make a fabric run at
Jo-Ann's Fabrics. Wish me luck that they have good sales. I'm going to check out on line to see if there are any quilt shops in that town. I know there are probably 1001 in Detroit city itself, but DH absolutely refuses to get off the interstate for fear of getting hopelessly lost . Can't say I blame him. I'm not a great tourist when I don't know where I'm going or how I'm going to get back. LOL....

Until next time...

~~ Fran :c)

Making Changes

Well, being new at this, I've found out that there are too many choices to make and I've changed the looks of this page several time.

I THINK I like this one. I visit so many other blogs everyday and see all the 'fun' things they have on their blogs and I want to try and figure out how to do these things on here. So you may see this page change a few more times before I'm happy with it.

Hope you will bear with me. :c) In the meantime I just want to give all of you a BIG

and I hope you will drop by often to see the many changes on this blog. LOL!!


Until next time...

~~Fran :c)

Mama Mia

Oh My Gosh!!! My daughter called me last week and asked if I would like to go to the movies with her and friend and her friends mom. Kind of mother/daughter night. I was very happy to agree. We went to see Mama Mia, and I can't tell you just how much I enjoyed this movie. Well...so much that when we got back to her place I called my husband and made a "date" with him to go see it again with him tonight so we could share the joy and laughs of this movie.

The music was fantastic, it had me bobbin in my seat. The cast was superb, and the setting in which they performed was just breathtaking. I felt as if I was actually on this Greek island with them.

It was funny to the point of laughing out loud and at the same time there were scenes that brought tears to my eye.

This is a must see movie for everyone that wants to recall the Abba days. The music is WOW!!! and the fun never seems to stop.

Boy, it seems like Meryll Streep hasn't aged a bit in the last 25 yrs. The antics of her two sidekicks are side splitting, and the young actress that plays her daughter is bright , beautiful, talented and believable.

I can't recommend this movie more. You just have to go see it for yourself.

Until next time......

~~ Fran :c)

My Grand Children's Sleepover Quilt

I say this but it really is my "Bonnie/Tonya Wanta Be Quilt"

I don't know of anyone else that could have inspired me more than these two great ladies. You can find Bonnie at Quiltville.com and Tonya is at Lazygalquilting.blogspot.com ... These are two wonderful sites and you can learn sooooo much from these gals. The stars are Bonnie's 'Maverick Stars' that I played around with and I was inspired by another of her quilts that

had 'wonky houses' going up and down. I did something wrong because my stars are tilting all the same way. But no matter, I like it anyway. The words are from Tonya's site, where she has a tutorial on how to do this. It's great!

I'm at the point where I want to 'write' something on every quilt.LOL :c)

I sent a picture of the quilt to them and Tonya asked me if she could put the pictures on her blog. I told her yes, and I was truly humbled by the comments that came back from other quilters. It gave me a warm feeling to get such praise from fellow quilters.

Here are the pictures of the border. It says's Sleepovers are Magical Childhood Memories. I designed a magic wand at the end of the word Magical. I think it's really cute. ...ahemm

I got the idea for this quilt a few months ago when I was shaking out the sleeping bags for my granddaughters, 8 and 11 yrs. old, who love to sleepover with 'Nana & Papa'. The next day I started to plan it. It had to be bright, cheerful AND easy to make. I think I got it.

I hope you like it as much as I do.

Last night I started to hand quilt this baby. Two and a half hours later and only 1/2 a star done , is when I decided that if I didn't want another UFO on my hands I had to re-think my strategy.

The answer is machine quilting. I started it this morning. It's still not going to be a 'cake walk' but at least I know I can do it.
I don't want to finish this post without thanking Belinda at
Browndirtcottage।blogspot.com for inspiring me to get going and start blogging. I must have read her first blog a dozen times or more, and she starts with "I did it" and continues with ....."Because I can".
That's when I thought "it's never to late too learn a new skill and by George, I can too!" and Belinda.... "I did it too" thanks! ....:c))lol

Till next time....I thank you for dropping by, and please come again soon.


~~Fran :c)