WIP Wed.

I am linking up again this week with the Needle and Thread Network for WIP  Wed. , so what am I working on , well too much really but that is what makes me tick .
First off I have finished the crazy patch block for the International Round Robin , I probably shouldn't show you a picture but what the heck , here goes . I will be passing this on to my dear friend Dianne in the next day or so .

Yesterday I started this little fall wall hanging , it is in the recent Fon's and Porter magazine ,it will look better one the stitching is done around the leaves etc. You probably can't even see the sneakers he is wearing .

 Did I stop at starting just one thing , uh NO , there is a cute runner I wanted to make for the fall as well so cut and have some of the sewing done on that and hope to finish sewing this together today .

 I also have to get back and finish the baby quilt ,the baby was born yesterday so I better get a move on and get that quilted . Of course Henrietta is waiting patiently to be quilted too so I have plenty to keep me busy ,better not start anything else right  ;-0

 Enjoy your Wed. and be sure to stop by at The Needle and Thread to see what others are working on .

Thanks for stopping by it is always a pleasure to have you. hugs Sheila

A little Quilt Show

I had a terrific weekend so I want to share just  a few of my adventures , first some friends and I went to a really sweet little quilt show at a local church , this show always amazes me as it is just a handful of women who do all this work of making and then setting up this lovely display.  You know when you arrive and see the display that is greeting you at the entry of the church hall that this is going to be great .

The hall was a buzz with women , some enjoying a lovely cup of tea and a light lunch and the rest viewing or maybe drooling over the gorgeous work on display. I'll just give you a little overview of some of the work , this is a small hall but they do pack quite  a few quilts in as well as a table selling lovely runners , bags etc.

One thing to note is most of these quilts are hand quilted and the stitches are amazingly small !

A lovely string quilt and to the left of that is a unique rag quilt with some lovely applique , loved that one.

A couple of traditional quilts ,the card trick and a sampler .

A pretty Dresdan Plate quilt , isn't the quilting gorgeous, hand quilted :-)

I loved this quilt and wished I could see it opened up to get a better perspective of the overall look .

I took this picture to show you they really try hard to make the show interesting with little displays such as this , ,to the right of the display the gal is selling tickets on a basket of goodies , guess I didn't win as I didn't get that call :-(

  If you were to ask me what my favorite quilt of the show was , this would be it , simple yet so gorgeous in a lovely scrappy design and oh the quilting , you have to see the quilting so I went behind the quilt to take a picture just so I could share it with you , wasn't that sweet of me :-)

 I know you can't see the tiny even stitches that have been done on this quilt but take my word on this I will never achieve stitches this small and this even  , wow .
  I know this is getting photo heavy but I really want to share a couple of photos I took yesterday on a little adventure to Big Island , I love this Island and it could possibly have something to do with the fact my first date with Bill was sort of here .Do you want to buy an  Island , I just happen to know where there is one for sale :-)

  Interested , pretty awesome right . It was a cloudy day when we first arrived but I really love taking photos of this kind of sky so I didn't have a problem with that at all. Want to see a few more of the area , well I will share a couple more because I love my province and all it has to offer in the natural beauty.

 This is to the right of that island and is a long sandbar , on the other side is a beautiful sandy beach and on low tide you can walk all around this strip , you could at anytime but it is a little easier at low tide .

 This is up the road a piece and I just had to take a picture of the wild rose bushes that are starting to turn , and as you can see the skies have cleared a bit too .

This is at the other end of the island , it is a marshy area and the different grasses have started to turn plus there are some rose bushes here that are turning so I just liked the contrast of colors in the land , not sure you can see that so well in the photo but in person it is so pretty .

And lastly I want to share these two pictures of wild flowers that as a child I would pick for my Mom and bring them home to her , so proud of them and she was always more than willing to place them in a vase and put them on the window sill to enjoy , funny how those things mean so much to me even today, so what flowers did I pick , well these first little yellow flowers always reminded me of butter they are such a lovely shade of yellow ,no idea of what they are but still love them

and finally these little asters I believe they are , I am not up on the names of the wildflowers I just love them for their beauty.

 I hope I have not bored you with all these photos , thanks for stopping by and hope you enjoy your day ,it is a beautiful sunny day here today and summer has finally arrived in the Fall.

hugs Sheila

Versatile Blogger

I was surprised to receive an email from Hilachas  saying she had awarded me the Versatile Blogger award . I have been blogging for a year and a half now , where has that time gone, and I have loved every minute of it ,still have lots to learn , there are a few tricks I would like to know but overall am having a lot of fun and hope that my followers, who I really appreciate having ,enjoy the little tales of my life . So thank you Hilachas I love to visit your blog as well.

There are rules to this award...
1. Thank and link back to the person who gave you the award.
2. Share seven things about yourself on the post.
3. Pass the award to fifteen bloggers that you think deserve it.
4. Lastly, contact all of the bloggers that you've picked for the award.

Here are seven things about me...

 1. I am a registered Nurse but my all time favorite job was being a mother to my three sons, they are all grown and have families of their own so I now have seven grandchildren to love , how great is that  .

 2. I simply love animals, horses, dogs, cats and oh how I love alpacas and llamas although I will never own one.

3. I grew up in a  small town in Nova Scotia but prefer living the country life and if the truth be known I would have loved to live on a farm.

 4.I love nature , trees, wildlife and birds and oh the wildflowers.

 5. I love to take pictures , no surprise to my friends lol!

  6.I have been sewing since a young girl but only quilting since about 12 yrs.

  7. Along with quilting I love to do other types of art and seem to be drawn more to landscapes lately and have a strong desire to pursue that avenue a little more . I have done some oil painting in the past but have recently learned that it is more fun to do that in fabric.

As you can see by my sidebar I have a long list of bloggers who I think are very versatile and wonderful interesting places to visit so please pop by to visit them and tell them I sent you . I am going to break the rule of presenting this award to 15 blogs that I feel are versatile as my list is far too long but I would like to mention just a couple of newer to me blogs who have so much to show and share .
1. Fundamentally Fiber
2.Ellie's Place
3.In Stitches and Seams
Thank you to all of my wonderful followers ,blogging is a wonderful way to meet new friends and share in the things we all love to do ,I have learned a lot and loved every minute . Sorry for breaking the rules but as I see it it is easier to get forgiveness than permission sometimes and rules are meant to be broken at times and this is one of them  , I love visiting all blogs they each have so much to offer and learn from so thanks for stopping by and I hope you 're enjoying your day.
hugs Sheila

WIP Wed.

I'm linking up again with The Needle and Thread Network for WIP Wed.  , I have lots of things on the go as you know but I will just update a couple of things , first off is my crazy patch block , I am working on this in the evenings as my deadline date is coming up fast , not too much left to do though so I am quite confident I can make the time frame. I have to tell you I am really extending my embroidery skills here , I do not have a lot of experience in embroidery just basic things but have enjoyed doing this block .

Remember my weekend adventures , well this morning I cut and washed the apples for the jelly I plan on making, here they are in the pot cooking away .

They are now in the strainer dripping out the juices , that I think is a slow process , drip , drip , drip .:-)

 The larger apples we picked I made some applesauce and we enjoyed a bowl for lunch .

Here you can see the applesauce as well as the four jars of blackberry jelly I made .

On the sewing front , I have the baby quilt sewn and this morning I sandwiched it ready for quilting.I actually need a few more pins but they are in use on another quilt so will have to baste with thread .

I also have a postcard started and will complete that this afternoon as we have a quilt meeting tonight and I want to share the postcards I have received as well as a few that I have made , I would like the guild members to do a postcard swap with another quilt guild , are there any guilds out there that would be willing to swap with us . What I hope to do is get enough members to join in this fun little project then swap with another guild and have a virtual show and tell once all the cards have been received , if  you think your guild would be interested please let me know,thanks . Also a little reminder for those participating in the postcard exchange I arranged earlier on this blog your postcards are to be in the mail today at the latest , hope you enjoyed swapping and look forward to pictures of the cards you receive and thanks for taking part :-)

Ready for stitching . Another thing I hope to get done this afternoon is sew the binding on my Mystery quilt , not sure I will have time but the binding is all ready to go so we will see how much I can accomplish .

So that is my Wednesday , I think I have enough to keep me out of trouble , what do you think ? Enjoy your day and thanks for the visit .

hugs Sheila

Tuesdays Treasures

I feel very fortunate to have a sewing space I can call my own , and today I want to share my cutting table that my dear hubby had made for me a number of years ago , he has always been very supportive of my hobby and trying to make it easier for me he had this made by a local cabinet maker and it is the best investment as it has saved my back big time . In this photo you will see one leaf opened and there is one at the other end as well so this extends to be a very large cutting surface or also great when pinning a quilt . There are two drawers which I manage to keep stuffed with patterns and projects I want to make .

Believe me it doesn't always look this neat , I took the time to clean up my sewing room yesterday as it had become a real disaster , scary really . Do you want to see the whole space , ok , this room is long and narrow but I have plenty of space to have two sewing machines and you won't see it in this picture but there is also a table for my serger ,I love this room and it is my Tuesdays Treasure for this week , my cutting table being a huge treasure and makes life much easier .

If you look closely you will see some of my antique sewing machines on the bookshelves , there are several on the top of that bookcase as well , running out of space . To see more treasures just head on over to visit with sweet Melody at The House on The Side of the Hill , our hostess for this weekly event. Thanks for stopping by and enjoy your Tuesday ,I'm off to quilting so I know I will enjoy my day. Hugs Sheila

Weekend Adventures

One of my favorite things to do is go for a drive down a country road , we are so fortunate that it is a short distance for us to be in the backwoods on dirt roads which I really love , so quiet , peaceful and so many wonderful things to see . Make yourself comfortable , do you have a cuppa tea to enjoy , perhaps a snack because I have a few photos I want to share and I hope you will enjoy my Sunday aftenoon tour .

Here is one of the country roads we explored , can you see the tinge of color that is happening with the leaves , some have changed more but for the most part it is just beginning to happen . We did come across one tree that had the most beautiful colored leaves so I jumped out and took this picture .

Aren't they an incredible color , and such perfect leaves , can you tell I love trees !

Another common sight this time of year is the blueberry fields are turning a glorious red , just love this , there were a few blueberries left along the edges , you can see them in the lower half of this picture but they are soft and only good for the bears , you could actually smell them fermenting .

Are you hungry yet, perhaps you would enjoy an apple , we came across an old abandoned farm with at least a dozen apple trees , of course I had to get out and pick a few , apple jelly on my mind ;-) What we didn't realize until we got closer to the apple trees was there were some blackberry vines that have been undisturbed for many years to the point they had grown right up into the apple tree branches .

 I am picking blackberries here not apples , I had never seen this happen before but it made for easier picking . So are you wondering just how many blackberries we picked .A bowl of black gold !

As a young girl I always went to the racetrack this time of year with my Dad and picked blackberries and Mom always made jelly or jam as Dad loves it so my plan is to make jelly today and of course I will share with Dad ;-)
  So you must be wondering about the apples , yes we did pick some but we came unprepared for this event so I was literally stuffing them inside my shirt to get them to the car , not a pretty sight so it was a good thing no one was around . I haven't tried them yet but they are perfect not a blemish and no sign of worm holes just a few had a little bite out of them from the deer that obviously call this orchard home and can you blame them , food aplenty.

I had such fun picking a few of these treasures , I don't have a lot but it will make some jelly at least .
 So that was my afternoon but now I must share the evening skies with you , oh they were amazing so I quickly grabbed my camera and ran outside on the deck first then out the front door so got two different views of this magnificent painted sky.

This was from the deck , this second one is from the front of the house , same sky but different view .

Isn't it amazing , I love what nature has to offer , all we have to do is look around there is so much beauty to enjoy ,hope you enjoyed my Sunday , I know I sure did .Have a great day and thanks for stopping by for a visit ,hope I didn't make you too hungry , if you would like an apple or some blackberies you know where to come . hugs Sheila

FNSI Report

I have seen for months now bloggers talking about FNSI and decided since I was likely going to be sewing something anyway that I would sign up . So what did I accomplish , well I worked on two things , first off I sort of finished Henrietta Whiskers , sort of you say , well I still need to do some embellishments but I do have the top completely sewn together and all the applique is now done but I need to do the embroidery attaching the stars in the outside borders as well as some eyes and some buttons which will be sewn on once it is quilted . So here is a picture of what the completed top looks like .

Forgive the wrinkles as I had to spread this out on the bed and stand on the bed to get a picture of the full quilt but itsn't it cute . I also did some work on the baby quilt and am pleased with what I accomplished , have all the sashings sewn on and the row sashings are sewn together but the blocks are not yet sewn together and I must do some stitching around the little bears to keep them in place but so far so good .This picture is before most of the sashings were sewn but it will give you an idea of what it will look like.

I fussy cut these little bears from a border print but wish they were a tad larger but it  is what it is . To see what others have accomplished on their FNSI visit with our host Heidi here

 I am  off now for the city , need some new footwear ,enjoy your day and thanks for the visit.

 hugs Sheila

Crazy Quilting Friday and the postman came !

It's Friday again , it sure seems to come around fast . I can't show you all of this weeks block as it is for the International Round Robin I am taking part in but I will show you a sneak peak , I must say I am really pleased so far , I have more handwork to do but will have it done in plenty of time for the deadline and I am enjoying this one .

I also received a postcard in the mail yesterday , I am taking part in a postcard exchange with a yahoo group I am a member of and this months theme was leaves , you can see my postcards that I am mailing out in this previous post . Monika of My Sweet Prairie is the moderator of this group ,if you have never visited here blog I really suggest you do , she is very inspirational and an amazing artist .She asked us to use real leaves , well the postcard I received yesterday afternoon did just that , I must say I was amazed and impressed that she sewed straight through the leaves and they are still intact . Isn't this amazing , Tamara said these are leaves from her backyard ,cool .Thanks Tamara

As for what I am doing today I am starting on another baby quilt , shh don't tell Sharon , I have a plan, now to get it started and finished by the time this baby arrives which is only a little over a week away but I figure it will take a little longer before the shower takes place so I won't panic just yet ;-) I'll show you a peak maybe tomorrow as I am taking part for the first time in the Friday Night sew in ,like I need encouragement haha! Not sure what the weather is like in your neck of the woods but it is a rainy drizzly day here and perfect one for sewing so if you need me you can find me in my sewing room. Thanks for stopping by. Hugs Sheila

WIP Wed.

This is my first time to link up for a work in progress Wed. and I am doing so here at The Needle and Thread Network . I guess by now you know me well enough to know I always have more than one thing going at the same time , much more ;-) So for a little update on what I am working on , first off I am in the process of adding the borders to Henrietta Whiskers , the blocks have all been sewn together now and one set of borders is added with the others cut and ready to sew .

 The fabric I used for the border has trees so was perfect for these woodland characters . On the design wall you will also see some 6" blocks , I challenged the girls I quilt with on Tuesdays to make two six in. blocks per week and to use only the scraps they presently have, not to go buy anything so these are a mixture of fabrics and this idea came from all the Farmers Wife blocks I have seen in blogland , I do not own that book so am using one by Judy Hopkins called Around the Block .Some of the girls have done better at this than me ,oops , oh well I am trying to keep up , maybe I shouldn't have so many projects to do at one time . What else am I working on well lets see , I have alread shown both of these blocks and I wish I could say I have done something to add to these but that has not happened .

Then I have been working on my postcards which you can see in a previous post and I am taking part in an international Round Robin with crazy patch blocks and I will just give you a peak of the block I must make one for ,in the works but not enough to show you anything but this is what I am up against , quite incredible really.

I am also working on a stitchery that dear Kaaren of The painted Quilt so generously designed as a Friday Freeby ,I decided to do it in various colors rather than all one color this time as I love sunflowers and wanted to try to make it look like one .

 I have so many plans but so little time , I think we are all like that right. Enjoy your Wed. and thanks for stopping by .

 hugs Sheila

Tuesdays Treasures

You will have a laugh at this one but I just had to share it . When my parents came for a visit on their way to PEI my Mom passed me a bag and said here is a gift for you , well inside was this gym uniform , not just any gym uniform but  My uniform from when I was in grades 7-9 . When I started in grade 7 it was the policy for the students to line up according to height , and that first year I was second from last on the short end , that did not make me happy I was so small and this uniform was so huge on me .Well by the end of that same year I was in the middle of the group , yeah, I grew but I didn't get any fatter so I was a tall skinny kid and this uniform looked pretty pitiful on me . I couldn't believe Mom still had it , you can see my initials on the pocket ,Mom did that for me as that was also required and it had to be in the school colors , our colors were actually burgundy and gold but this uniform is a bright red . The lower half balloned out , oh how cute they were "NOT ", now you will have to take my word on this but it still fits , not well but I did get it on and buttoned up but I sure had a hard time getting it off , it is the length that is the problem and there is no more balloning either , I should have taken a picture not that I would share it with you but I should have just for Mom , she laughed when I told her I had put it on .I couldn't resist  ;-0 Anyway this is my treasure from way back when , not sure what I will do with it but I will think of something for now I am just enjoying having it around again. Thanks for the visit and to see more treasures be sure to visit with Melody of The house on the side of the hill  .
 hugs Sheila

Leaves

I have joined a postcard swap on a yahoo group and the theme is leaves for this month , I already showed you my flower pounded leaf postcard in an earlier post and since then I have made two more postcards . Some people make three cards the same but I like to make different cards , I am not one to repeat much of anything when it comes to sewing so first I will show you a group picture of the three cards then the last two I have done in a close up . These were reallllly fun to do since I love the fall and I love trees .

Ok here is the next one I made , you were to use real leaves so I took leaves and traced around them to make a template for the paper side of the fusible Heat n'Bond lite .

Now for the final card , more leaves

As you can see I did a little free motion stitching to form the veins on the leaves , some of which leaves a little to be desired but it was still fun to do .
 The leaves have not yet started to turn here but there is a definite change in the weather , much cooler nights and lovely days with seasonable temperatures , I love the fall , it truly is my favorite season . Enjoy your day and thanks for the visit.
hugs Sheila

Crazy Quilting Friday and Henrietta Whiskers

It has been a while since I did a crazy block for Friday but I have assessed my blocks and I have two categories , one more pastel group and one more earth tone group and the lighter grouping is ready to sew together as I think I have enough to make a small single size quilt but my earth tones I need to make  a few more so decided to to get busy at those so I can get these quilts made . I just grabbed a few of the darker scraps and started sewing and this reminds me of fall so it works ;-)

 Last evening I got my last block made for Henrietta Whiskers , I still need to do the machine applique for this and will do that now but thought since I was going to post I might as well include it . I have so enjoyed doing these blocks and it has been a great help in using up some fabrics left over from other projects so it is almost like getting a quilt for free :-) I will now have to check and see if I have all I need to put on the borders and get this quilted , I'd love to finish it to hang for fall .
 Enjoy your day and thanks for stopping by for a visit .
 hugs Sheila

Hexie Flower plan

Two posts in one day , oh well I did promise an update as to what my plans are for the hexie flowers and I think I have it . I know for certain I have more than enough flowers for this plan so lets see if it works out.

I know it is probably difficult to even see the background fabric on the design wall but you will get the general idea , I loved this basket block that I played around with last week, you can see that here  and I had been looking for a good size basket and even tried to draw one out that I liked but couldn't seem to get it quite right until I came across this one ,sorry can't remember which magazine I found it in . I hand appliqued this last evening and I like the outcome except I am wondering if I should add leaves , what do you think? It would mean taking out some of my stitching but if it would look better I am willing.

  Remember also the other day I was talking about flower pounding , well I wasn't pounding flowers I was pounding leaves , I learned real fast that some leaves have a lot of moisture in them and they don't pound real well and some come out completely different colors than you expect but this was all in fun and I was enjoying the process . So what was I planning on making with my pounded leaves you ask , well a postcard , I am in a postcard swap with another online group and the theme is leaves , she suggested we use real leaves so this was my solution to this challenge and here is the result . The large leaf in the center is of course a maple leaf and I pounded it then traced around the image to make it clear enough to do some free motion stitching then I painted it with some oil sticks , another first for me .The colors all over the card are various leaves that have been pounded onto the treated fabric and I then just did some free motion leaves on both sides , not that great as it is difficult for me to do it on this small space but it's not bad for a first attempt .

What else did I do today , well I love sunflowers and I had this fabric with these two large sunflowers that just spoke to me to use them on a teatowel for decorating for the fall , yes it is coming and quicker than I had hoped . I just put some heat and bond on the back and stitched around and voila a sweet little towel to decorate my kitchen .
 Hope you are enjoying your day , it is raining and dreary here but a great day for sewing .
 Thanks for stopping by , hugs
Sheila