A birthday today and a race

No it is not my birthday it is my dear husband's birthday today , a significant birthday too I might add . Happy Birthday Bill !!!
On the weekend we went to Cape Breton to my home town where there was a race in my Dad's honor , my father was an avid Harness racing fan in all aspects, he owned , trained and raced horses for many years and then my brother owned horses for a while so he helped out with the training and care of his horses . I was really very happy that this race took place at the track he loved so much and spent so many hours through his life . The winning horse received a cooler(blanket) which had my Dad's name and the date embroidered on it . I wish I could have gotten a photo of the blanket and hope to do so in the future . Here are a few photos of the event .

The starting gate , as the horses aim to win this race .

It was a hot dry day and the track was extra dusting resulting in a very bad hair day , my hair felt like sand paper :-)

A little closer photo of a winning horse , it was sure great to be at the track , it brought back so many wonderful memories of days at the track with my Dad , he knew his horses well and although I never did get my own horse the love of horses is still as strong for me as it was as a young girl beside my dad in the stalls . Don't you think there is something very magestic about a horse , powerful , swift and beautiful !! I did a little betting but never won , but I really didn't care I was having fun and it was wonderful to be there with our family , my sisters , my brother and my Mom of course who was so proud to have this honor for my very special dad .
 No sewing to report so I will be off now to enjoy this beautiful day , thanks for stopping by and enjoy what makes you happy .
 hugs Sheila

A few photos to share

It is a wet day here on the East coast , much needed actually as we have had such tremendous weather this month and I am sure the ground needs some nourishment . I have a few photos I would like to share , first off Boston , it is a lovely city with so much to see , just look at the Boston Public Library .

This is of course the exterior of the building , quite nice but wait until you see the inside , incredible!

Do you see a quilt here ?

or maybe here ?

Those walls are marble I believe , unreal.

I have never been in a library more beautiful than this one.

Here Nila and Elise are my tour guides .

This building is the Mappurium , this is the only area I was permitted to take photos , we had a guided tour of the large globe which is made of stain glass which was incredible , sure wish I could have taken a picture though. The girls were quite fascinated with this tour and so was I .

So many gorgeous buildings , you can see Nila and Elise again , Elise is wearing the dress I made for her birthday which just happened the day before we arrived.

Love the contrast between the old and the new buildings .

There was a wonderful farmers market on Friday , don't you love those sunflowers .

These street performers were at the market , they were really quite talented dancers , maybe we will see them on "So you think you can dance " or America's got Talent ;-)

So that is all of Boston for now , let me show you a little of my little neck of the woods .

This beach is on Big Island , it was an incredible day , the waves came crashing in and I tried to get a good photo of that happening but I am not quite quick enough .

The roar of the ocean is always a pleasure to hear  and this beach has really lovely rocks which I enjoy taking home now and then .

So colorful don't you think .

I thought the seaweed was rather artistic and changed shape each time a wave came by .

 Now I know this is getting very picture heavy but I want to show you I have not been entirely without some stitching time, some I can't show but this little postcard is now in the mail and I really don't think the recipient even knows I have a blog so pretty safe in showing you .

The theme as you may have guessed was hexie's so I downsized my templates to the smallest that would fit on the 4x6 space and stitched it up . I hope she likes it as much as I enjoyed making it . I have also been trying to get my pinwheel blocks ready for Tuesday as that is exchange day , yikes ,nothing like leaving it until the last minute. 

I better get scrambling I have pinwheels with my name on it , enjoy your day and thanks for the visit.

hugs Sheila

The Lazy Days of Summer

Yep, I have been super lazy as far as blogging goes this month , partly due to vacation time but also I just needed a blogging break . So what have I been doing with my time, well enjoying our beautiful summer weather ,getting out for picnics and time at the beach but very little time at the sewing machine . Early on in the month I did make another tote, yeah I know , how many totes does a gal need but I was having fun so made this one and have used it a couple of times since then .

The sun is a bit too bright at the moment so these colors are a little more washed out than they should be . The only other machine sewing I did was make a dress and skirt for my granddaughter for her birthday and I neglected to take a picture of those . Oh I did make this postcard  which winged its way across the ocean and has arrived safely now .

I guess you can guess what the theme was , hot air balloons .Other than that I have been making some pincushions by hand for an upcoming bloghop , for details click the icon on my sidebar ,this should be fun . I also am stitching along with Jane of Jane's fabrics , Jane wanted volunteers to stitch up a project or two to increase the love of hand embroidery and she generously sent each of the particpants some samples of her threads to use , you won't get to see that stitching for a while yet but you can sure check out Jane's blog today for this Monday's guest  Bea. I have one project done and a second one in the works so I will let you know when I will be a guest. I love hand embroidery so I was more than willing to take part.
 I don't know if I ever told you I am a baseball fan , probably not ,well I had the good fortune to go to Boston last week and take in a baseball game at Fenway Park , something Bill and I have always wanted to do. Going to Fenway was one thing but going when the rivals The Boston Red Socks and the New York Yankees were playing was the ultimate for us . Bill and our son Chad went on Friday evening and then on Saturday Bill and I went ,it was an incredible experience , one I will never forget .

 I took this photo when we first entered the park , those empty seats were not empty for long , there were no empty seats . We had great seats just left of the home plate , gladly not out in the sun which was very hot that day.

Here the crowd was doing the wave . This was of course a ball park filled with Boston fans so when the Yankee player Alex Rodriguez came onto the field there was loud booing and name calling . I actually love both teams and although I was cheering for Boston on that day I would have been just as happy to see NY win . Sadly my favorite player D. Jeter was on the injured list for NY and was not playing that day .

Another view of the park , it was truly a thrill to be there !!
I did some exploring of the city with my DIL and granddaughters , we travelled the subway to various spots in the city an experience in itself coming from rural NS. and with a ball game in town there wasn't even standing room . I also did a lot of walking which I loved as I got to see lots of the sights and sounds I would not otherwise have seen. I loved Boston and would go back in a heart beat and I will say the people were super friendly and helpful .
Now to come back to reality and everyday life and maybe I  can even visit some of my favorite blogs for a change ;-) Thanks so much for stopping by today ,I will share a little more of my trip another time but now I must scramble.
 hugs Sheila

OPAM and UFO report

I am a little late in getting this done but better late than never I guess. First off my UFO'S , it was not a successful month in the ufo department ,I only managed to sew my existing blocks of the crazy patch blocks together and make three more blocks .

Here is what it looks like right now , I needed to make one to complete that last row so that is not attached to the top just yet .I made that block plus two more but since I did not have time to do the fancy stitches on them they have not been attached. Here are the blocks I made.

Now as I look at this top I think I will have to make several more blocks to make this a decent size lap quilt so that is my plan for this month to continue making blocks and hopefully get them sew together as well. I prepped one basket block but did not even start the hand work so this is how it stands right now.

I am trying to decide whether to add leaves and I think I will so will cut a few more and get started on this . My other plan for this month was to work on the nine patch and snowball Christmas blocks but nothing happened at all and  the fairies must have been to busy to help ;-) SO... my plans for August include working on the three projects from last month . I am linking up today to Carrie of A Passion for Applique , wish me luck for a better month this month  .

 OPAM for this month , I completed the following , 8 postcards , 3 totes , 3 mug rugs , 2 aprons ,a case for my kobo and one for my camera for a total of 18 , so I guess my time was spent doing new rather than UFO'S ,Oops !

Thanks for stopping by today and have a great day. Oh just a reminder to those who participated in the postcard exchange that I hope all cards have now been sent and hopefully all received as well.If I can figure it out we will have a linky party  to show off our pretty cards in the very near future.

hugs Sheila