Sometimes Treasures come in different packages ;-)

 .This  week my treasure is really special and once you read this you will understand why . On Saturday morning we got a call from our son Chad wanting us to join them for bowling in Antigonish , apparently the girls wanted to bowl so off we went. We arrived at the  bowling alley about the same time they did  so got to enjoy seeing Nila and Elise bowling , it was the first time for Elise and it was priceless to watch her little antics to get that big ball down the lane .I forgot my camera :-( Nila did extremely well and had a spare a couple of times , we don't want to know how I did so I will spare you the details ;-0
Now for my treasure , when we arrived Elise came over all excited to tell me she had a present for me , she said it was in the car so my DIL went out to the car and brought it in and passed it to me. I have tried to recreate what this package looked like , since I had to pull it apart it doesn't look quite like it did when it was given to me but you will get the general idea.

 On the left is the package , it is paper towel with I am sure an entire roll of tape holding it together and it was kind of circular and inside was all this plastic wrap , however each piece of plastic wrap was balled up in a little ball and placed inside this little package so I carefully unrolled each and every piece of plastic wrap and inside one I found my treasure , my gift from Elise ,do you want to see it , sure you do .

It is so small it was a little difficult to get a decent picture but this is a piece of clear beach glass , quite the little treasure from the best little treasure of all my granddaughter Elise ,

 I love my grandchildren so much , they fill my life with joy and love and Elise sure managed to make me smile with her special little gift , so yes sometimes treasures do come in somewhat strange packages . To see even more wonderful treasures be sure to stop by and visit with Melody of The House on the Side of the Hill who is our wonderful hostess for this weekly event , won't you join us . 

Thanks for stopping by and have a wonderful Tuesday , I know I will.

 hugs Sheila 

Not one but two finishes :-)

It was a nasty evening so I sat down and did some hand sewing to finish up my little welcome wall hanging as welll as the binding on the Christmas table topper and managed to finish both ,yippeeeeeee.....
My Welcome sign is now hanging in my entry and looks so cute . I added tabs to the top since there was enough fabric left over in the kit and I like that effect.

The tablet topper I should have taken the time to press but I wanted to share this finish and I have a busy morning ahead of me.

I just quilted around the leaves and berries , maybe before Christmas rolls around again I will have enough FM experience to feel confident enough to do some FM in the outer section , wish me luck with that.
Our weather last night produced some lovely ice to contend with , we had a mixture of snow that quickly changed to ice pellets then rain so a sloppy mess and it will change back to -8 by this evening .Ice I am nervous of so will stay put until this afternoon when it should melt some .
Enjoy your day and thanks for the visit.
 hugs Sheila

House block

Maybe I need my head examined but I have decided to join Terry in making house blocks, these are much larger than the PP blocks so I know I can handle this and it is just once a month , crazy I know I need to extend the hours in my day and if anyone has any to spare please send them my way . Please don't show me anymore BOM's I am in danger of serious disease ;-) This is a really easy block to make and goes together quickly and I do love house blocks so there you have it I have one more BOM to do now . If you would like to join Terry of Terry's Treasures I am sure she would be happy to have you play along and it is a great way to use up some scraps or that is my excuse .This months block was to be red and next months is orange , now that could be a challenge, not sure I have orange in my stash but I will be looking , can't buy any fabric ;-)
We are in for a storm today , a mixture of snow then rain , going to be a messy one so travel safely my friends. Thanks for stopping by and have yourself a great day and a great weekend.
hugs Sheila

FMQ Challenge update

I'm going to share my attempts at the FMQ I have done so far in this challenge with Sew Cal Gal. .I will first show you my first try which I have shared before but will do so again to see if you see any improvement or maybe I have gotten worse ;-)

 These are my first leaves , here are my second set;

Here you will see I tried to do some swirls as well, that was fun .
 Then today I tried the leaves again with different fabric and different thread , well actually I just left the thread in that I was working with on another project and I feel this thread was not as easy to work with and also the fabric was not the best and you may have difficulty even seeing my stitching as there is not much contrast .

If I could only program myself to do a little every day I think things would come more naturally. I must say I do like doing leaves though.
 Although I don't have my block completed I thought I would also share my Hannah and Harrington BOM the new  BOM for 2012 by Shell of Raspberry Rabbits, the icon is on my sidebar , be sure to check it out , if you love wool you will love doing this cute project. I have the snowflakes embroidered and the rest is ironed on but not yet stitched .Kind of cute and now tonight perhaps I can do the stitching .

The rabbits are wool from a scarf I shrunk on purpose to use for wool projects and it is the perfect color for these adorable rabbits. The snowman is made from a jacket I also shrunk for these purposes , you have to love recycling ;-)
 Thanks for stopping by and enjoy your day.
 hugs Sheila

WIP Wednesday

Wednesday seems to roll around so quickly , seems like I just posted for this but here we are again. So what have I accomplished in the past week , well my most important accomplishment was finishing all those pinwheels and getting them sewn on my Stay at Home RR hosted by Sunny . Do you want to see , sure you do .

There you have it , ignore all those little blocks on the right hand side , I have been making six in. blocks but have been slack the past while so there they sit .
 I also did sew on all the leaves on the penny rug BOM with Melody  and started on the wool project with Shell of Raspberry Rabbits , didn't take a picture of that so will share that later .
 I have all the applique completed and the quilting done on my welcome sign and am in the process of sewing down the binding as you can see here.

 I really love this little project and will have this hanging real soon.  Then I decided to do something for the one Christmas project a month with Narelle so since my month was slipping away real quick I went for a quickie , Oh I know I am kind of cheating but something small is better than nothing right. So this little stocking was the kit I won recently and it went together nice and easy and it is cute .

The pattern calls for two of the bows but I found that a little much so just sewed on one. Are you getting tired yet , well don't fall asleep quite yet , today at sewing session I started a Christmas project , we decided that every month on the third Wed. we would work on a Christmas project of our choice , just so we have a little stockpile for gifts when next Christmas comes around, loved this idea so I went searching for what to make . I had made one of these before Christmas if you remember and it became a gift and I loved it so much I decided I would like to make a second one , that is rare for me I seldom repeat things . So here it is , I have all but three berries now appliqued on , I'm really pleased about that as that is the major work in this table topper .

Do you see that icon on my sidebar in Dutch , well it says basically that I will shop from my stash for this year and I am proud to say that I have almost made it through Jan and have not bought one single piece of fabric and when I decided last night to make this project I was really wondering if I had anything for the background  so checked in my sewing room first but nothing really spoke to me so off I went into my other storage space , yes I have fabric hoarded away in a few places :-) ,anyway I came across this plaid and I just love it , perfect for the look I wanted to achieve and I had just enough . So that was my week in a nutshell , to see what others have been doing be sure to check out the Needle and Thread Network where I am linking to today .
 Thanks for stopping by for a visit and enjoy the rest of your day .
 hugs Sheila

Tuesdays Treasures

It is a miserable wet and windy day here on the East Coast , mild but raining and down right miserable , think I'd rather snow.
 Today is Tuesday so that means sharing a treasure and our host for Tuesdays Treasures is Melody of The House on the Side of the Hill , be sure to stop by and check to see what others are sharing this week. 
 My treasure today is actually something I did many years ago, I would say it would be one of my first attempts at embroidery and I wanted to have something to hang on Robbie's wall as he was just a baby at the time so it wasn't yesterday for sure .So I traced off this picture of the little boy from a coloring book , always did love to color and just did an outline stitch and a few french knots , had no clue what I was doing but  I do remember enjoying making this for him. I can see that I should have chosen a deeper color for the face and hands of the little boy but I probably did not have a lot of choice in floss .

It is just a simple design but it spoke little boy to me and he did like it , wonder if he remembers it now? I framed it in an antique frame we had picked up at an auction , we went to a lot of auctions in those days , most of our furniture came from there at the time . I must be getting nostalgic as I really enjoy looking back at the time when our boys were young ,how fast the time has flown by.  I think I will share one more treasure from a similar time , a few years later as we had two boys by this time and I was expecting the third . We were in New Brunswick our neighboring province and it was in the summer and a young girl was sitting in the mall drawing portraits with chalks so we had her draw our boys and I think this is really lovely .She was just a young girl , perhaps around 16 and was trying to make some money with her talent , often wonder what she is doing today . I don't remember her first name but the signature on the drawing is J Hasinger .

 This is Rob and Roger , lets see Rob would have been about three and Roger almost 18months ,this is a perfect likeness of them at that time , so cute. So off you go now and see what others are sharing ,it is always interesting .
 I normally go to quilting on Tuesdays but not today , my body is not happy with this weather and I must take it easy . Thanks for stopping by and hope you enjoy a great day.
hugs Sheila 

It's Christmas in January :-)

On this sunny but cold day the mailman delivered not one but two packages , the first I opened was this one from Melody containing this lovely star block for the Australian Block exchange .

I love the colors as well as the fabrics that Melody has chosen , it is gorgeous .Melody also enclosed a sweet little scissor fob with a cute little bear and two hand stamped labels , so cute !!Thanks so much Melody.
 Then I opened this package from Mary of Quilting Grandma blog , I had won this stocking from her but unfortunately Mary was quite sick and was unable to post this until this month , glad to hear she is doing better it was a rather hard road for her .

Mary made sure I was really pampered , inside this plush stocking was lots of chocolate to help with my constant craving for really good chocolate , then there was special coffee to enjoy with the chocolate while I had a pedicure and some sweet little stockings to wear after my special treatments . Oh and not to be forgotten is some wonderful fabrics and thread and a neat little ruler which she says is her favorite and I can understand why , it is a great size to take along to class .She also included a bell to ring in the new year ,she really did think of everything . Thanks so much Mary for this great package and allowing me to have Christmas in January :-)
 No sewing to report I have been dealing with a pile of shirts that needed ironing but no fear I didn't just stand there and iron ,I watched a wonderful video on art quilts , I am great at multi tasking ;-0 Enjoy your day and thanks for stopping by.
 PS. You really should check out this great giveaway Here at My sister made me do it . Ida is giving away a lot of really great prizes for her first giveaway , hurry on over .
 hugs Sheila

FNSI Report

I didn't accomplish quite as much as I had  hoped for FNSI but any progress is good. First off I made some more pinwheels and have the rest ready to assemble so the end is near ;-0

The pinwheel in the far upper right corner is a completed one and it is  there so I keep things in the correct order , it is amazing how I can turn those babies around . Here is a peak at what this will eventually look like, I have sewn pinwheels on one side ,and guess what, I was able to remove the spacer as it was not needed and would have posed more of a problem than a solution , go figure , guess I am not that good at figuring lol!

It was then time to do a little handwork, in the evenings I prefer to sit and sew by hand in my comfortable chair. First off was to do the limbs on the tree for the BOM wool project with Melody , you really should check it out it is adorable . Once that was done I started attaching all those tiny leaves , I have placed a spot of glue on each one just to save me a little time and also so I could see where they were needed .I have some of them sewn down but not all but it is really looking great I think. I used a variety of greens  and hopefully that adds a little interest.

 So that was my evening a successful FNSI, thank so much Bobbi and Heidi  .Thanks for the visit , hope the sun is shining where ever you are , it is a lovely sunny day here and a little chilly but a lovely winter day .
 hugs Sheila

WIP Wednesday

On this spring like day I want to share my progress this week , I am linking up with the Needle and Thread Network . Let me see , I have been busy this past week , I started another new project , shhh , don't tell anyone  ;-) it was too cute not to start right away and it will be perfect for Valentines day although once this gets hung up it will be up for a while , I love the colors.

 Isn't it sweet , I mean could you resist this little wall hanging , It really won't take me that long I just need to do the applique stitching and I really quite enjoy that process .
 Then I also felt it was time to tackle the Stay at Home RR that I am taking part in with Sunny of Quilting Dreams . I measured my top so far and realized that neither  4 nor 6 would divide evenly into 34 so another spacer was needed so I cut 4 strips at 1.25" so the final measurement of the top would be 36" ,I have two sides sewn on , why not four you say , well I took this with me this morning for my sewing sessions and wouldn't you know I left the remainder of the fabric home and well I cut the piece too short so for piece number three , didn't allow for the piece I just had sewn on , I know kind of dumb . Not to worry I had plenty to keep me busy , I have to surround this block with either pinwheels or hourglass blocks and since I had seen a really neat tutorial on the Missouri Quilt Co. I tried that for making the pinwheels . I did manage to sew and cut all that I had with me I will need to sew a few more as I am making them at the 4" instead of the 6" therefore I need more . Here is my pile so far ....

As you can see only one completed pinwheel but lots ready to sew together ,if you want to know the truth I found making all those triangles rather boring .I have also been working on the Wool project with Melody of the House on the Side of the Hill , I have all of the applique done on the house and the base and trunk of the tree and my leaves are cut but not yet sewn on , this is fun , maybe not cutting around 100 leaves but the rest was fun  ;-) I have also printed off the pattern for the BOM on Raspberry Rabbits , another great wool project but so far have not gotten started .
So that is it for me this week , plenty to keep me occupied for sure , be sure to check out the Needle and Thread Network , there is so much talent out there . Thanks for the visit and have a great week,
 hugs Sheila

Tuesdays Treasures

It is Tuesday so time to share a treasure ,thanks to Melody for hosting this weekly event , it gives us a chance to realize just how blessed we are .
 I am sharing some older photos with you today , first off is this family portrait that was taken way back when , don't exactly know the year but I love this photo because as I look at it today it speaks volumes as to the personality of each of my three sons.Take a look .

 This photo was not really planned so not much went into dressing everyone special for the event but I quite like that fact about it really. Anyway ,Our oldest son Rob is in the background and today is an RCMP officer ,in this photo he just looks kind and gentle which he is ,a gentle soul , then below him is our youngest Chad , today a Bio Medical Engineer , doesn't this photo speak volumes of confidence , then our middle son Roger who today is a research Chemist and looks a little shy and quiet , so true , a real thinker who needs to know more about how things works before he will step in .Anyway this is a really special photo of my three sons and it is indeed a treasure . This photo hangs in our hall along with lots of other family photos and I just have to share this little photo ,I think it is rather cute , my first year in school and you know I remember this dress vividly , it was green and black and kind of gray ,I loved it .

 Oops , I forgot the picture also includes me as an 18 month child , I couldn't get an angle that didn't glare so both ended up in the picture , I haven't changed a bit ;-)
 Why not head on over to visit with Melody at The House on the Side of the Hill and see what others are sharing today,Thanks for stopping by .
 hugs Sheila

The postman arrived again :-)

It is a beautiful sunny but cold day here on the east coast but I am smiling as I got a surprise in the mail today , I had won a giveaway on Carolyn's blog , the Clenbar Cottage and the package arrived this morning , yippeeeeee! It is such fun opening squishy packages when you are not quite sure what is going to be inside , well I was not disappointed for sure . Carolyn sent me two Australian Homespun magazines , I love those magazines and they are really difficult to get here .She also included a really cute kit for a Christmas stocking with a hanger included and some Christmas prints .Thank you so much Carolyn , I really appreciate each and every thing in this package .You made my day extra special :-)

 I have been trying to decide what to do with my landscape , I really was not happy with it the way it was so I took the binding off and was going to add a border but I tried something else instead , I had this antique picture frame and it was the perfect size so I placed the landscape inside the frame and I really like this look , what do you think ? Forgive me for the glare , it is not unglare glass of course although I may replace it with the unglare as this glass is not in the best of shapes anyway .

 I think the gold frame goes well with the colors in the landscape , I'll see what Hubby thinks when he comes home . No sewing happening here so far today , I have been cleaning house , not my favorite passtime but it needed to be done . Hope you are enjoying your day and thanks so much for the visit it is always a pleasure to have you stop by.
 hugs Sheila

A finish

In visiting blogs I discovered the Temecula Quilt Co and this cute little mini quilt "The 12 days Of Christmas" I didn't get started until after all the patterns had been given out but I knew I would have to make it as I fell in love with it right away . I did not have the kit that was being sold to make the quilt so went to my stash and found these scraps left over from my Louisa quilt and do you know I can hardly see that anything has been taken out of that container .So here is my version of the 12 Days of Christmas ,

 Just in case you don't remember the Louisa quilt , here it is again, I love this quilt  it reminds me of days gone past .

 This was hand quilted by the Holy Name Quilters of which I am one of and now I wish I would have taken the time to hand quilt the mini quilt but alas I did not .I may just make another , after all I need to use up those scraps ;-) . Hope you are having a great Sunday , it has been snowing all day but not making much but it is might cold out there . Thanks for stopping by .
hugs Sheila

It's a good day when....

It's a good day when the postman arrives with a little squishy with my name on it , I won this very cute little pattern on Stitchin by the Lake , thanks so much Marlene. I love basket quilts and it will be fun to do a minature of baskets.

 It is also a good day when you sit down and try to do a little FMQ, I have taken the challenge to learn how to FM this year and here is my first attempt , now I have tried to do some FM before but my skills are pretty limited so that is what I want to improve and add a few different designs and feel comfortable doing so. I have a bit of a sore neck today so didn't stay at this too long but it isn't too bad I suppose and with practice it should get better .

There is a nor easter headed our way don't believe it is going to be anything significant but there will be snow and at this time we have none.It has been a very strange winter so far ,personally I hope it stays strange and we have a relatively mild winter with less snow , I may be asking too much as Feb . hasn't arrived yet . Enjoy your day and thanks as always for taking time out of your day to visit.
Hugs Sheila

WIP Wednesday

It is Wednesday again so time to link up with the Needle and Thread Network  ,so what have I been up to ,well I have started two new things , yikes what am I thinking right but I did sign up at Cat Patches for one new project a month ,seems I have exceeded that already ;-) . Well first off I love wool , just love it ,love the feel of it and the look of it so there was no way I was not taking part in Melody's BOM penny rug over at The House on the side of the Hill .I have only just started so, this house is ironed on but not stitched yet .If you are interested there is still lots of time to take part, I mean really how can you resist :-)

Remember I am shopping from my stash this year and that means wool too , so luckily I had this large piece of very lovely black wool to use for the base of the penny rug and since I wanted  the house to stand out I choose this tan wool, it is a deeper tan than shows here.
Lets try this close up ,still looks paler than it really is ,oh well you get the idea.

I have been collecting wool for a little while , most of what I own came from thrift type stores or is clothing that has been taken apart and shrunk , it is such fun to make something from a recycled piece of fabric . I know I am going to love this project, I love it already .
 Then I had been seeing lots of the 12 days of Christmas minis all over blogland and even though I had not followed along when it was first introduced in blogland I did keep the patterns and decided I just had to make it . Well into my stash I went and found a box of scraps left over from my Louisa quilt and felt they would be perfect so I have made some of the blocks .

 I am really pleased so far , cute little blocks and not difficult at all . Just three blocks to go . If you are interested in doing this little quilt head on over here to the Temecula Quilt Co.  It is a fun little project to make.
I also made a postcard a simple design but I really like it .

I also finished off my landscape but am not overly pleased with that as I did not allow enough batting to add a border and don't really like it with just a binding , maybe I could frame it instead .This is not a great picture it looks a little wonky but it isn't .

Mistake number two was I hand quilted it and it was not that easy as I  always use some muslin as a base for the landscapes and it was a little challenging to get nice even stitches , it made it too thick ,live and learn ;-0
 So lots on the go and lots of UFO's to deal with too. Why not head on over to the Needle and Thread Network and see what others are working on.
 Thanks for stopping by,
hugs Sheila

Tuesdays Treasures

Along with my love for all things quilting I also really love cooking , I am in no way a fancy cook but I enjoy cooking and especially baking , so over the years I have acquired a lot of cookbooks which I will share just a few of today as my Tuesdays Treasures with Melody of The House on the Side of the Hill . I am not sure just how many I have now as I did give a lot away but I have these two shelves filled and a few in the bottom of my green hutch as well .

Now you may wonder how many of these I actually use , well there are certain books that have favorite recipes in them and there are others here that I really rarely use but still can not part with just yet. Here are three of my favorites that are off these shelves .

I don't think it would take a genius to figure out which is the most used , the one on the far right , that is one of the best cookbooks I own but the other two are close seconds . The Green Shutters cookbook on the far left is actually the second one of these I owned the first sort of fell apart , the Out of Nova Scotia Kitchens is a classic and the Best Recipes this side of Heaven , well the title says it all :-)  My favorite type of cookbook are the church or local community cookbooks as you know the recipes have been tried and loved enough to include in the books . So what do you treasure today ?Why not join in with Melody and share something you treasure .
A little update on Patches , he is still in quite a bit of pain so Chad had to go back to the vet to get more meds and since he was just an hour away we took the pillow down to him and got to visit with the girls for a short time before they headed back home. He has been licking the area above and below the bandaged area so the vet also gave him a collar to prevent him from doing that as he sure doesn't need an infection.
Thanks for stopping by and enjoy your day.
 hugs Sheila

Our friend needed some help

Yesterday afternoon I received a call from Chad our youngest son telling me some rather sad news . His puppy , a very large dog that doesn't look like a puppy but is just a year old got struck by a truck , he survived the ordeal but is in rough shape and had surgery on his torn leg yesterday . Here is a picture of our sweet doggy friend Patches.

This picture was taken in the summer just after they had adopted him from a family that could no longer handle him due to health reasons. Patches is a mixbreed , a cross between a St, Bernard and a Lab , he is a handsome guy, extremely gentle with the girls and is a wonderful family pet. Chad was quite upset as the neighbor that hit him was traveling rather fast and drove between the dog and Chad and the dog did not see him coming . Chad takes him every morning for a long run before heading to work and they live on a road that really has very little traffic but these things can still happen . Chad asked me to make him a pillow for inside his kennel and gave me the measurements so I immediately went into my fabric stash to find something strong enough that he won't be able to tear is easily and found what I hope is the perfect fabric , corduroy ,it is lovely soft fabric but strong and I put a zipper down the middle of the back so he can't easily access it but they can remove the liner I made and wash the top .It is nothing fancy but it will serve the purpose well , now to get it to them as they are two hours away .

Remember way back when , I told you I don't throw any scraps away , well if you remember I have an old pillowcase that I throw even the smallest pieces into and this pillow is partially stuffed with those fabrics , this is the second pillowcase I have filled this way , the first I used to make a pillow for Luke .
Here is the back side , notice the fancy purple zipper , hey you use what you have in these situations ;-)

Say a little prayer for Patches if you are so inclined as he needs some help to heal , he is hurting badly . Thanks so much and have a great day.
hugs Sheila

WIP Wednesday

It is a new year and lots of projects on the go , too many I think . I am always tempted by the many wonderful free BOM's out there in blogland but of course I can not do them all , just not possible.
 I am working on the fall BOM Autumn's Bounty , you can find out more about this by clicking here .
I am almost caught up ,just need to finish off this last set of blocks. Can you see the mistake I made on one of these blocks , yep , picked it up wrong and ended up turning it all around to form a totally new block but I will take that apart and do it correctly.

 Then there was this block , much easier with less pieces.

I have also started to make the little houses , you can read more about them here  at Building houses from Scraps .I will have to say that PP these tiny houses is a chore so I may try doing it by hand instead .

 And finally I have started a landscape project , not large and not real detailed but I did enjoy the process .I am just giving you a sneak peak of that as it is not completed yet .

  I am linking up with Monika at the Needle and Thread Network for WIP Wednesday , be sure to stop by and see what others are doing . Thanks for stopping by and enjoy your day , it is snowing here .
 hugs Sheila