A little under the weather

Just to let you know I haven't disappeared it is just that I have picked up some dreadful flu bug and have been in bed since Friday evening .It has been years since I have had anything like this and I sure hope it will be many years before it happens again , I am extremely weak and not eating much but today I do feel just a tad better so hopefully by the end of the week I should be back to normal .Sorry I don't much feel like commenting on posts or reading them either to be honest so I will catch up when I can ,take care .
hugs Sheila

Crazy Quilting Friday

I was concentrating on getting the Christmas item posted and forgot about my crazy block for this week . This block was made on Wed. at our sewing sessions and I took enough fabric scraps with me to show my friend Dianne how to make them as well . We had lots of fun choosing fabrics from the pile and I wish I had taken my camera with me so I could show you the pretty block Dianne made .See the button in the center , well that piece is actually a paperpieced bird house I did a long time ago for some reason and never used so I thought why not add it here and my plan is to applique a bird on the block but time got away from me so here it is before much embellisment . My sewing machine is acting up and when I try to do any decorative stitches it doesn't cooperate infact the needle broke and came flying up at me so that is when I quit . I do have an extra machine but just ran out of time because believe it or not girls I am trying my best to get the mystery quilt done or at least to the next stage .You must be sick of hearing about that quilt and to tell you the honest truth I am sick of it too !!

Thanks to Betsy of Quilting Fiesta for hosting this fun weekly event and I think you should try it out , you just might get hooked I think Dianne did ;-) Dianne just loves to embellish and she is so talented at doing just that so these blocks are perfect for her and I hope to see many more beautiful blocks .

We had snow overnight and it is still snowing , looks like one of those snowglobes , very pretty but not what I want to see just now ;-)Today is my Mom's birthday so Happy Birthday Mom ,love you !

Have a wonderful day and thanks for the visit .

 hugs Sheila

One Christmas item

 Narelle is hosting a one Christmas item a month and this month I made this runner , my favorite pattern for a quick scrappy runner called "Little Charmers 11" by Heather Mulder Peterson . I've added a close up as it is kind of hard to see it is Christmas fabric when on the hutch . To see more Christmas items head on over here  and enjoy your Friday .
 hugs Sheila

From this to this !

Yesterday when I was at Frencies I also picked up a twin size sheet made by Laura Ashley , a soft green print in a nice cotton that I thought would be perfect to make a much needed cover for my ironing board . Here is what it looked like before the new cover , I think you will agree a new one was well overdue . Pretty sad state huh !
So I proceeded to make a pattern for the cover by inverting the ironing board and drawing around it on some newsprint and after it was drawn I cut it out and pinned it on the sheet , easy enough right .

Then once it was cut out I serged all around and then measured around the ironing board and cut elastic just a little better than half that measurement and zigzaged it on .Now to hold it firmly I used some of those clips for sheets on your bed which work really well but it really would have stayed with the elastic I sewed on, this just makes it a little smoother so here is the result and I am really pleased , at least something in my sewing space looks neat and clean ;-) and it only took about 30 minutes to acheive , how is that for results !

 Hugs Sheila

Here is the quilt

This is the quilt I bought at Frenchies for $2 this afternoon , if you look closely at the right hand corner you will see a stain , well there are a couple of those but otherwise it is in ok shape , it is pretty in these pastels and was probably purchased at a store such as the Pan Handler and is hand made and hand quilted but was not an expensive quilt. I do like it however and I am pleased with my purchase .I may place it on the round table in our bedroom for the spring , all these pastel colors will brighten the room . It has been washed twice in hopes of removing the stains but I am afraid they are permanent now .Thanks for the visit .
hugs Sheila

A special basket

Every Wednesday morning I spend sewing with some very dear friends , well this morning my best friend Dianne passed me this adorable basket and said "I want you to have this it belonged to my Mother " .She also told me there was a little piece of fabric inside ,wasn't that just so sweet of her , she knows I love baskets and this one will be really special to me because I knew her Mother and she was a sweet person who made me smile so when I look at this basket from now on I will think of both Dianne and her mother June . Thanks Dianne I love the basket as well as the fabric . Dianne is a very creative person so if you haven't checked out her blog you really should so don't waste anytime head on over here and see what she has been up to lately .

I hope you have had a wonderful Wednesday ,oh I have to tell you this , I had to go buy my dog a blanket he seems to destroy them so quickly and there is this shop called Frenchies that sells dog blankets for $2 so off I went .They have a box in the corner designated for dog blankets which I checked but all that was in there was a couple of knitted afghans and a blanket with the binding which would not be a good idea for Luke , I don't think I need to explain why , anyway back to my story , I asked the gal working there if they had any blankets out back and she said she would check and out she came with a QUILT, now it is not a real special quilt but still for $2 I took it and she had brought out an old comforter which is more Luke's style so I got that one as well . Once I get the quilt washed I will take a picture to show you ,it is a little worn but like I said the price was right and it is unlikely it will ever be a bed for Luke ;-) Take care and have a wonderful day .
hugs Sheila

It is a finish:-)

I have finished my flower basket wall hanging ,I decided to hand quilt it so that took me a little time but I am happy I did .If you click on the picture you will see that I have also quilted through the basket to make it look like a weave . I am quite pleased with the outcome and now need to find a proper hanger to hang it up .
It is a gorgeous sunny day here today , a little cool but not bad , I just hung out my sheets and my fingers got a little cold but it was so nice to be out there in the fresh air enjoying the spring weather ,yes I am very thankful for my little peace of earth :-)
Enjoy your day and thanks for stopping by.
Hugs Sheila

Crazy Quilting Friday

Good Morning and a grey one it is but no snow and rather mild so no complaints from me ;-)
This weeks block I have two little lady bugs sitting in the multi colored garden , they are busy reading a book right now but it is probably about the best flowers to visit so I gave them lots of choices !Enjoy your Friday and thanks for stopping by .
hugs Sheila

How do you like me now?

How do you like the borders ? I have finished all the embellishments on the flowers , loved doing that part .You really have to love wool , it is the nicest thing to work with , so forgiving and such nice texture . So it is now down to quilting it and adding the binding , so far I am really pleased .

 We have our quilt meeting tonight , should be fun , always is ;-) Hope your day is going well and thanks for stopping by.

 hugs Sheila

A Win and a rare visitor !

First off I want to tell you that I won a $50 gift certificate for the Fat Quarter Shop in the Basics Charity Challenge on Cara Quilts ,isn't that amazing , I am so excited .I haven't gone shopping yet as this is a busy day for me but I am sure I will find something wonderful to buy with my gift certificate . I want to give a huge thank you first to Cara for having this challenge ,she has a very kind heart and this challenge was to make us all more aware of the needs in womens shelters as well as other community efforts , her efforts spread far and wide and I am sure many communities benefited greatly so thanks Cara ! Secondly I want to thank Kimberly of the Fat Quarter Shop for her generosity and I look forward to going on the site and drooling over all the wonderful fabrics , patterns and notions , go check it out here .

This morning when I was cleaning up the kitchen I was at my kitchen sink when I spotted this huge Pileated woodpecker feeding on the woodpecker feeder , now I have seen these birds many times on the trees and telephone poles around here but never ever on the feeder so I quickly scrambled for the camera and was lucky enough to capture this photo of him ,pretty cool huh!

No sewing so far today , I am busy making lunch for tomorrows quilting session , hmm wonder what I am having , I know Joan and Linda are probably reading this and wondering but you will have to wait and see ;-)

Have a great day and thanks for stopping by . hugs Sheila

What I'm doing now !

This pattern is called Spring Bouquet by Country Threads , I love baskets so when I seen this pattern I just had to make it for my kitchen . I am doing the basket and flowers in wool and they are not sewn down yet but I will do that later today . I am now working on the mystery quilt , forcing myself is more the word :-( anyway the pile of pieces is getting smaller so that has to be a good sign ;-)

 We had heavy rain and some very high winds but it is calmed down now and the rain has ceased at least for the moment , lots of flooding around .
 I must say my heart goes out to those in Japan as well as those world wide affected by this terrible disaster , it is unbelievable and looks more like a movie than real life , if only it was , so sad .
 I hope you are having a nice Saturday . hugs Sheila

Crazy Quilting Friday

I bet you thought I wasn't going to post this block today , I am a little late but here I am ;-0 This weeks block is rather pale and not all that interesting to me but it will blend in with the other lighter blocks and I do love the flower in the center .

I was out cleaning up the yard a little this afternoon , it is very spring like and the deck needed to be tidied some , so many bird seeds scattered everywhere it was a perfect opportunity to get a little fresh air , not much sunshine but at least fresh air . There is a brisk wind but it isn't too cold and the snow is literally gone . Oh I must tell you , the snow picture that I posted may not be Cape Breton but my son assured me this morning that there are drifts along that highway near North Mountain that are 20 plus feet deep he said there were pictures posted in their local paper the Oran showing the snow , just thought you might like to know .

I am adding this block to my crazy patch day , I just finished this one , I couldn't resist making a block with the cute little print with the children on it . A couple of years ago I made two I spy quilts for my grandchildren and these prints are left over from that project so I will make a cushion with this block ,it is 12.5" square.

Hope your Friday is a great one , thanks for stopping by.

hugs Sheila

Tuesdays Treasures

Since I have had a few comments on my green hutch I thought I would feature it along with my other hutch for Tuesdays Treasures .First off is the green one, this hutch we acquired when we bought a house a number of years ago and this was built in the pantry , it was an older home and had this neat old pantry with lots of shelves and this was part of that area , I suppose the lady used it to bake on in earlier years .At any rate we cleaned off the old stuff they had glued to the counter part and refinished the wood and left it with just a varnish finish . The dishes in this hutch are used everyday and I really am not too sure what I would do without it , it is wonderful storage .I tried to get a picture of the full hutch but there isn't quite enough room to get back far enough to do that but you can see there are doors on the bottom for extra storage underneath .

Then there is this very special hutch , this one has a family history that dates back to the early 1800's when my husbands ancestors came from Scotland and landed in Nova Scotia . These men started a sawmill where they made some furniture from the wood they milled and this hutch was made at that time and it has been passed down through a few generations now . The funny part about this is , well actually it isn't funny at all, we saved this hutch from the landfill , my husband was over helping his great aunt Bessie(his grandfathers sister) , you have heard me talk about her before , well Bessie was doing some renovations to the old homestead and decided she wanted a new modern kitchen and was literally having the whole kitchen gutted . There outside in the pile of debris was the hutch that I had admired so many times ,Bill was horrified and asked her if he could have it rather than see it thrown away . She said if you can get it out of here go ahead I don't want it . So he quickly retrieved it from the huge pile and got it into his truck and took it home . It didn't look quite like this , it was much darker , the varnish had darkened on it so overtime we have cleaned it off and just used Beeswax to preserve it and it has been with us now for over 30 years and has moved a number of times but I always made sure I had a special spot to place it and when we built this house about 6 years ago I designed the kitchen and dining area to accomodate both hutches and I am so glad I did .They are indeed treasures to me . To see more treasures be sure to visit with Melody of the House on the side of the Hill  , you will be glad you did.  Thanks so much for stopping by .
 hugs Sheila

Crazy Quilting Friday

I am back at making some darker blocks as I want to make a lap quilt and so far I don't have enough of this shade to do that .As you can see I have yet to add any embellishment,kind of ran out of time , it always seems to get away from me ;-)

I did however finish off the teacup crazy patch runner and I am really pleased with the results , the four blocks are a perfect size and as you can see it fits the hutch just so , will I leave it there , maybe not , you see I am a country girl at heart and this seems just a little too victorian for me , now I absolutely love the Victorian look but it looks out of place in my house so it may have to find a new home in the future . Now it may look better on a bedroom dresser , haven't tried that out yet .

It is a lovely sunny but very cold day here , -25C this morning with the wind chill , but at least the sun is around which makes it seem warm even if it isn't . Hope your day is filled with sunshine or at least all good things . Thanks for stopping by .

Hugs Sheila

Wool pincushion swap

Fiona of Bubzrugz has organized a wool pincushion swap and I am so excited to be taking part , first off I love wool , the feel of it and the look of it as well and then who doesn't love a pincushion that has been decorated by friends . So the base in front , the largest of these three will find its way off to the sunny south tomorrow .My hope is that by the time it finds its way back home that it brings some heat and sunshine with it ;-) I made this little wool label to send along so it won't get lost . So why three well , I made the one on the far right top before Christmas as I really wanted to try making one of Karrens pincushions  , I did make a Christmas one and wanted to do one with pastels but this is as far as I got so I will work along on these other two as practise pieces before working on the pincushion for my partner at least that is the plan right now. Have yourself a wonderful day and thanks for stopping by . hugs Sheila

Teddy Bears Picnic

Meet Harrison , he is all ready to head off to the picnic but he first had to wrap himself in a warm scarf as it is mighty chilly out there today , yeah a whopping -29 C. with the wind chill , sure hope it is warmer once we arrive at the picnic ;-) I made Harrison a number of years ago , too many to remember and I am no bear maker so he is far from perfect but my granddaughters Alyssa and Caitlin played with him when they were young and he really could use some tightening up . I hope there are lots of bears to meet so off we go to a much warmer climate and to visit more bears. Please head on over to visit with Melody who is hosting the picnic at The house on the side of the Hill and thanks so much for stopping by .

Hugs Sheila

Tuesdays Treasures

Today I thought I would share this hand carved purple finch , I love purple finches and this lovely bird was carved by a local artist Tom Gollin and is extremely well done . I love birds and we feed them on a regular basis and it is always a real treat when a purple finch arrives . For more Tuesdays Treasures head on over to visit with Melody at The house on the side of the hill .Thanks so much for stopping by and enjoy the rest of this wonderful day . hugs Sheila