Get out there and . . .ski!

 I LOVE THE WINTER!

I love the winter time, everyone hates the cold, esp in the part of the country where we live, however. . .. layer and keep moving, find something that you like to do and get out there and just do it!  Find a friend that likes to do it as well, or . . . . .get your Granddaughter out there and convince her that it's fun!

For Christmas this year, my choice was to buy her some skis, cross country ones, and so I set out and found some cute, affordable little ones that I thought she might like, of course when she was over prior to Christmas, I put mine on and zipped around the backyard and she thought they were great.

Today, we went out and she was amazing.  I watched a couple U-tube videos for teaching small children how to cross country ski before setting out.  We eliminated the poles  and went with the soccer kick approach.  We have a fairly large yard and my already set tracks helped her through the snow.

Here she is rounding the corner where her tree is planted.  She fell of course a couple times and I taught her how to get up on her own which she can now do easily.  I love it, there is nothing like hearing your little 3yr old granddaughter yelling to you that she loves you while on skis.  

I hope she continues with this sport, it really is a beautiful way to get your exercise in, esp if you find somewhere where the trails are groomed nicely and go on forever.  Ken has a friend with some. . . . .hmmmm, gotta get out there, often see deer and of course the rabbits and squirrels everywhere.

Well, here is to the great outdoors, get out there and just do it!

Quick and Easy Quilts

Matching  his and her snugly blankets?  My daughter thinks it time for new cozy blankets for their newly refinished living room and I agree (1 of their blankets goes back to highschool days)  I should talk, I still have  my leather coat from high school, oops did I admit to that?
Anyways, we went shopping to Fabricland and found this nice non-pilling fleece fabric, they match but are different!!  They have to be "the same length as the one Val made us!!!) because that one is just perfect for our height, especially Garrett!!  OK OK OK
ahhhhhh, Val does make them nice and long, you can pull them up over your head if you are tying to hide from kids and dogs!  I will take the beloved blanket up one notch to include a square at the bottom middle third of the blanket that you can hook your feet into!!  this also nicely serves as a pillow case when you fold the blanket down into it if you want to tidy things up if company is coming, or want to sit on pillows, or throw pillows, whatever.  I guess you could also stick your head into the block if you really didn't want the kid pulling the blanket off of you!!
This should work up fairly quick, lots of tying for the fringes, maybe while watching TV?
stay tuned for the finished ta-da!!

A Pirate with a. . . . Rolling Pin?

Not a Scarey Pumpkin, but I liked the effect, and anyone who wanted to could take a ring!!

Who could remember to take a video, see us all standing in the background?!?

These were simple but delicious as usual.

and.. . . . .finally with some help that pumpkin cracked open!!  Next year I am going to make a big hairy spider!!

Quilting square

Last Saturday the Assiniboine Guild that I belong to met, and Leona taught how to make this star block.  It measures 24X24 inches so it's a fair size for a table center or wall hanging if you like that.  The block is actually square but the intent is to fold the 4 sides in to make it an octagon shape so you are looking at the block "on point".
Of course I had the fall colour theme going but it might be nice for Christmas and I actually was going to make one for my daughter for Halloween but that thought went out the door this morning when I went to buy  spooky, creepy material for it, I am not paying full price for material, consequently the center piece will just have to wait till next year and I will keep my eyes open for some bargains, and for material that I really wanted, like the candy corn for the background material!!

PUMPKIN PINATA

So, my granddaughter Ryann is going to be a Pirate this year.  I thought maybe I would do something different for her so I made this pumpkin pinata for her.  I made it with the old flour water and salt recipe and all I can tell you is that this thing is as solid as cement!!
It did not mould inside as I feared it might, I drilled a large hole in the top to stuff all the treats through and to attach the "stem".  Then I thought, there is no way she is going to be able to break this thing, so I drilled small holes in various places around the pumpkin to help in the break for her.  I think that perhaps she is still going to need some help with that!
I will try and take a short video tomorrow night and post it, it should be funny.  Now I have to carve the 3 pumpkins I have out front.

and. . . . . . we're done!

Ryann's "Christmas blanket" is now complete.  I wanted to take a pic before I washed it, heaven knows what it will look like after that!!  It will either be delightful, or I will be disappointed.  Either way, it's done!
My goal was to make quilts using a new pattern each time, after doing this one though I think I will make more, of course the colours and design will be completely different, however I do like the way they turn out, so snugly and warm.
My daughter's eyes lit up when she saw it the other day, I said, so do you think it's long enough for you too? I added another 2 rows!  Pre-washed size is 43X65 1/2 inches, just right for her and Ryann to snuggle up under!

now completed, I really like the way it turned out, and not pink!!

Ryann's Christmas Blanket

Ryann has requested a Christmas blanket, so I got started, you know me, everything to the last minute.
I chose red and white, I was going to add a blue, but I like the look of just the red and white and there is enough for a pillow cover as well.  just a quick guage of the approximate size..
We have snowflakes on the white print and the red print has little snowmen on it.

Well, it shouldn't take me too long to wrap this one up.  I'll post a pic after I snip and wash it, I just hope the whole thing doesn't come out pink!

GARDEN BLOCKS

Slowly, I am getting the raised garden bed area the way I would like it to be, so far.. . . . raised garden beds, check.     blocks, well in the interior portion anyways. . check.

Next year, bricks around the exterior and who knows, maybe that pergola will happen . . . .who knows!!  Like my little forest?  I plunked them in there last fall, they survived the winter there so I just let them be.
Oh and Ken was talking about a fence around the entire raised garden area, instead of all the wire fencing around each unit, that would be nice.

Do we have Leaves?

We had leaves and plenty of them, notice that only 1 neighbour has 2 bags out for collection?  I think all the leaves in the bay blew into our yard, now raking and sweeping all of them was actually a lot of fun this year as the weather was grand so it was like gathering giant corn flakes.  The problem was with obtaining the paper bags to collect them in, (new rules) I ended up just bagging them in the big old orange plastic ones first, which ended up being a good idea due to the weather turning to snow, anyways we just transferred them into the paper ones once the stores finally got more stock in.
Well that's the end of the fall clean-up.  My garden is empty.  I put wooden stakes behind every perennial plant in my flower bed so that I now know exactly where they are.  I had put everything on computer but when you can't be exact, it's easy to dig things up in the spring as I found out this year.

A Quilt for August

My little niece August was born Aug 15 on her Grandma's birthday, how special is that!!  I had the quilt top made in 2 weeks.  Then after this and that, I finally finished it, I had to go back up to Stonewall to get more of the colour for the binding.  So it will be off in the mail soon.  I went out of my comfort zone and actually did some leaves here and there, I free handed them so they are not perfect in way shape or form, however I will never get past stitching in the ditch if I don't do something other than that will I!

Violet loves her quilt, I gave it to her mom when she was up last week, I put her picture on the label on the back and she totally loved that little special that makes it hers.  Not that all the colours don't say, this is Violet's quilt!!!

Now Ryann said she wants a Christmas blanket, thinking of ideas there. . . .a rag quilt stands out, however whatever it is, I will have to start soon as I take forever to complete anything.

My Friendly Squirrels

Well, this is what those little guys can do in a very short period of time, this lattice is very strong and thick!
My sister asked if I was sure it was squirrels and not beavers!
ok, this was last month, I'll have to get on this blog more often so I can figure some things out.

My Favorite Time of The Year

I remember this poem from when I was just little, love it still. . . . 

September

Helen Hunt Jackson

The golden-rod is yellow; 

The corn is turning brown;

 The trees in apple orchards

 With fruit are bending down.

 The gentian's bluest fringes

 Are curling in the sun;

 In dusty pods the milkweed

 Its hidden silk has spun.

 The sedges flaunt their harvest,

 In every meadow nook;

 And asters by the brook-side

 Make asters in the brook,

 From dewy lanes at morning

 The grapes' sweet odors rise;

 At noon the roads all flutter

 With yellow butterflies.

 By all these lovely tokens 

 September days are here,

 With summer's best of weather,

 And autumn's best of cheer.

 But none of all this beauty

 Which floods the earth and air

 Is unto me the secret

 Which makes September fair.

 'T is a thing which I remember;

 To name it thrills me yet:

 One day of one September

 I never can forget. 

Still Quilting

AUGUST QUILT

A BABY QUILT, for a little darling niece named August, not quite finished, I think I will border it with the raspberry colour batik.  It's actually quite large, each square is 8", so it's a good size.  I'm still 2 quilts behind, sigh. . . . . .  It is the favourite time of year for me, still hot on most days but the morning breeze promises 

cooler weather to follow soon.  

Maybe a fire tonite, that would be nice.  I've started pulling out plants in the garden that were really non-producers.  Yesterday we had Moe over to replace our lattice under the deck where the squirrel super-highway was, it is reinforced with small wire mesh as well.  I have my fingers crossed.
This is a short entry, just to ensure I had at least one entry in August, hopefully another to follow.  Gotta run for now.
going to find supplies to make squirrel (friendly and humane) traps.

Berry Picking

Nothing says summer more than strawberry picking, or berry picking of any sort.  So that's what we did the other day at Boonstra Farms by Stonewall.  

We went early to try and beat the heat, they were actually closing early that day.  We wanted to get there about 0830, but we kinda got a little off the direct route and it took us a bit longer to reorientate  ourselves!!

The day started off well with some cloud cover and a nice breeze, then out popped the sun, we were smoking hot in no time and both Ryann and I forgot our hats.  We quickly filled our baskets (well as fast as we could taking into account the number that were disappearing), thank you Ryann!

We were going to go the the barn and see the animals but it was just too hot.

We went into Stonewall to Subway (opted out of the tea house, no air conditioning!)

Then of course had to make a stop at the wonderful quilt shop there.  We had a great day, hot but nice.  We will try and get out picking earlier in the season next year, the farm said that the berries were getting smaller but seriously, these berries were the smallest ones I have ever seen, some smaller than raspberries!

Here is a pic of Ryann enjoying the berries later on that day, again!

ANTHRACNOSE

I love the colours on these leaves, they are among my most favourite, which is why I love the fall season.
However, when one sees multiple fall looking leaves on the ground in the first week of July, closer inspection is warranted.  As you can see, it is some sort of fungus (of which there are many) to attack plants, trees, foliage of any sort and it has descended on my tree in the front yard.  I had ripped out all my strawberry plants earlier in the year as the leaves were looking somewhat like this, the rhubarb leaves to a degree, my lovely Virginia creeper, Midnight Lady with her lovely large leaves.

Fungus spreads literally with the wind as the spores go through the air landing on anything and  everything and if the site is nice, set down and destroy to whatever degree they can.  I am going to try spraying with some liquid soap, a gallon of water with a heaping tablespoon of baking soda.  This apparently changes the ph and the fungus will not set on the leaves sprayed with the baking soda, it does not kill the fungus itself.  I'll let u know how that works out, I have a pretty big yard to deal with.
I wanted to try and be as organic as possible before resorting to fungicides containing coppers and sulphurs!
In the fall, I will not leave any leaves anywhere in the yard!!  All to be raked (well the ones already on the ground have to be raked now and bagged to try and prevent the fungus from spreading).

• Anyways, always something new.
  I also did something yesterday that I knew was wrong but did it anyways, must have been the heat!!
  

  

  Never move plants around in the heat, esp flowering ones that are producing (in this case zucchini).  It looks like it might recover somewhat though.
  Radishes have gone to seed, the lettuce is done, the spinach has gone to seed.  What a heat wave can do to growing plants!
  Time to re-seed!

PRETTY IN PINK

PRETTY IN PINK

So, not everything is coming up roses but some of the flowers as usual are spectacular.  I love colour of these ones, every year I dig up the red ones and give them away, however some part of the root stays hidden for a comeback the next year.  You can just hear them with their ta da's!  as they show off their flowers.

Many cherry tomato's have self seeded from last year's toss into the flower bed, so I've dug them up and relocated them around the beds, I don't think they will do as well as they did where originally planted, however, it may deter the rabbits from eating my flowers.   I just spied some gorgeous orange tiger lilies in my neighbors yard, are the rabbits blind??

Re-seeded cherry tomato plants

 I wanted to see more green in the winter, so I bought these Dwarf evergreens, they spread nicely and maybe. . . . . .choke out those weeds!

This is another nice little specimen that I just bought, another dwarf that only grows to 6 feet high which is perfect as the hydro wires are close  by.

And of course what would summer be without the return of leaf miners.  Seen here on my little mock orange tree.  I will go out and cut off as many affected leaves as I can, however there are many types of leaf miners out there that affect the leaves in different ways, some just curl up.
My lettuce and other leaf crops are now up, now they say you can just inspect the undersides of the leaves and wash the eggs off.  Somehow, inspecting every leaf doesn't sit well with me, and I just know I'd miss some.

I have wanted a couple of these for some time now, actually ones that are birds or whatever but I found these on sale last night, they are out in the garden charging up, I couldn't take a pic, the light kept bouncing off of the globes.  They change colors so I am eager to see how they will look.














I just saw the cutest little skirt to make for Ryann out of 2 bandannas, I already have 2 new pink ones.  Going to give it a try, that is after I go and make this fresh blueberry breakfast cake.  yes it's noon here, however.
summer is here, now the days start getting shorter, can you believe it!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Done!

Well, I managed to complete the nickel challenge quilt on time for Monday's pot luck, and my goodness what a great pot-luck spread these ladies can put on!!!
 12 of us who took part in the challenge brought in our quilts to show everyone, these ladies can quilt!!!!!! I felt honored to actually stand up there with them and show my quilt.  Everyone had completely different quilt patterns, from the Winnipeg sky line to geometric dazzling pieces that you just had to stand back and and admire the ingenuity of colour and placement.  I was a little nervous presenting mine as this was not something I had done before and in the presence of such seasoned quilters I didn't know what to expect.

They loved my quilt!! and not only that. . . .they thought I had been quilting for a long time and experienced in fabric art.  Certainly a response that I did not expect, but really honestly loved the response!!

I am holding my quilt and my husband is taking the pic, my Granddaughter is checking it out and decided that she likes it and wants it on her big girl bed!
All I have to do is quilt it now and that will be minimal as the quilt itself is busy enough, perhaps some swirls on the ends as they are longer to fit the bed (didn't need any kind of wall hanging!)
So on to the next project which is finishing up on a quilt for my niece Violet and I am behind 2 baby quilts, and of course those darn rabbits are still keeping me busy eating everything in sight.

Caught Red-Handed!

My yard has become a web of chicken coop wire towers and my garden is now surrounded with wire fencing.  As I was outside snapping a couple shots, guess who here was trying to scope out his supper!  He just froze in his tracks (although I am not sure why as they are such cocky little buggers) and really don't move too fast when they see me in the first place.
Anyways, what else can I do, I have researched some and maybe a male cat would put them in their place, people apparently sprinkle used litter in their gardens, omg!!  Hair is supposed to turn them off (like, wouldn't it turn anyone off, hair in their dinner)  hehe,  hair in their dinner, could be hare for my dinner soon.  There are various other solutions that people have come up with, seriously only a electric fence is going to work here.
Tomorrow is going to be hot hot hot and sunny, a good day to finish that challenge quilt as I hate the heat and the sun!
Cheers and does (anybody have a good recipe for rabbit stew?)

Rabbit War!

Last year the rabbits did virtually no harm except to one vine out front, this year they have chosen to eat everything especially with seasonings on top.  Lillies with peppers, all my dill plants!  I am now considering some kind of chicken wire boxes over the garden area most certainly.  We have had rain rain rain and more rain the last while, I was out in the flower beds today trying to accomplish something, I left the garden area 4 inches higher due to the lovely gumbo mud that we are blessed with.  I have dumped in more bags of sand and peat moss but it is still not great.  I decided to then prune the trees that required some cutting back, it was going quite well until the long pole popped back and snapped me in the left cheek leaving a nice little cut, thanks, I was about finished with that job anyways!
The only thing I can say is that after planting the garden all this rain is certainly good to get things germinating well.  More rain is in the forecast again tomorrow, fine because I am going into work anyways for a break!
The sun is supposed to make an appearance sometime on Thursday, it will probably bring out all the mosquitoes lying in wait in the grasses.  Nice!  hello summer.

does it get any busier?

OK, so it has been over a month since I last made any entries, probably due to the fact that I have been outside slaving away, digging and digging. . . .I have some weeds that were left to run wild when we moved here, so for the last 2 summers (the first summer I wanted to see what came up that was worth keeping, turned out nothing).  Weeds that multiply underground and look like parsnips, if u leave even a hair of a root it is like blowing a fluffy dandelion into your garden.  I am very popular with the robins though, they always hang around when I'm out there with my pitch fork!!
I am happy to say that almost all  of the perennials that I planted last summer have made another appearance!  I was very concerned, every day out there looking, poking and prodding  (all my retirement gift money is in those beds).
Last year after having my 4 raised garden beds made and filled with earth, I rushed my planting before the May long weekend and lost plants to frost, this year I waited, and I still have had to cover the plants twice already!!

So, lets get back to the perennials, the lilies have for some reason become a favorite food this year for the rabbits, I even got the cayenne pepper out, I may have some Mexican rabbits because they just gobbled them down!

I had my little helper here the other day, oh what fun did we have in the garden!  "Gettin dirty with Grandma 2012" was the caption, not sure why it didn't come through.  The time in the garden ended up with flinging of dirt after the chant 1-2-3 you're it!!  it was bath time after that!

So, this is why I still haven't finished my quilt.  

The get together for the summer is June 11th and the top has to be completed so I'd better get my act together sooner than later.

The days are getting much longer and that sun streams through our bedroom window, very early and because I still haven't made any darker curtains for that room, we are up with the birds.

So many things to do!  I had a good idea using palets for my strawberry plants, they are almost finished and then I can move the entire bed of strawberries to their new location (they have taken up an entire 4X8 bed. So I will post a pic of how that turned out as soon as I get the back on them!

Days fly by and it has been quite cold this past week, as well the mosquitoes have made an appearance in the grass.  We were spoiled by a virtually mosquito free summer last year so I am sure we are going to be annoyed this year.  

Well, that's it for now.  Cheers and carry on gardening or quilting or whatever your passions take you, have fun.

The Nickle Challenge (did I mention that I liked to quilt?)

The Nickel Challenge Quilt

These are some of the prints I chose as my part of the challenge.

OK, not like I have enough to do, but I thought I'd like to take part in the Assiniboine Quilters Guild, nickel challenge quilt, you know the kind where you end up with 144 pieces of 5" squares and are to come up with a nice quilt.  The top has to be completed June and completely quilted in Dec (lots of time).  The members who jumped on it right away brought in their beautiful quilts amazingly soon after we started.  Well, there were mostly quilts done with triangles, of course I wanted something different!

Here is a pic of some of the squares we collected together.  I thought about it for some time, thinking that maybe a Amish type of quilt, simple with a black background to pop out the colours.  One thing led to another and before I knew it, I had a plan.  I went through my stash and added the number of squares that I thought would give me the required size for the challenge.  I cut all of the squares in half, then I decided that I wanted to have some play with the fabric, something to give it life.  So I ironed each piece in half and sewed a 1/4inch pleat down the centre, I did this which was fun, I had materials hanging in the bathroom, on hangers

Then I started laying everything out on the floor, (duplicates together).

I started putting out the squares in a graduated color scheme, something I didn't want to play with because I know nothing about it, however I just went with what was pleasing to my eye.  Because I have duplicate squares, my plan was to reflect them in the other half of the quilt.  Above is half of the quilt.

This is how it looks layed out.  I think it has a nice flow, I just reversed the rows placing the first column upside down on the far side and continued to the middle.  I wasn't sure how it was going to look because the middle rows would be so close, but I like it!!

Now getting back to the fabric manipulation, I thought I would run a multicoloured metallic  thread up and down each row to create a wave effect.  So I started doing that.

It's hard to see but each row has a wave to it!

I am now in the process of joining each row together, starting with the two middle rows as the wave peaks there into a larger wave.  I expect I will just border with a nice black.

I will post a pic of the completed top soon (at least of the wave action part) as I want to get this completed to I can get back to the other projects I haven't completed.

Ahead of my time?

For years people have poked fun at me and my repurposing issues, especially around my jar collection.  I always keep and reuse them for all kinds of things, now that Pintrest is here I am amazed that it is now "cool" to do so!!  They have  repurposed jars into almost everything, of course I probably got this from my Grandfather who was also "ahead of his time" with all his nuts and bolts and screws and stuff all organized in the garage with the lids secured on shelves so all you had to do is look up  and see where the heck a particular item was, hold the jar and twist off.   So, hats off to to my grandfather, who was always waaaay ahead of his time, thanks Grandpa, I love you and miss you lots. xo
And to all of you who poked fun at me, think about it.  Our ancestors repurposed almost everything out of necessity, and now it's not out of necessity that we are doing this but that it is just cool to do so.  We can all do our part in saving the earth, as I said "think green, do green, save the earth".  We can all do our little part, especially when it's just plain "cool".

Back to the Drawing Board.

I still have the original kitchen curtains hanging, for 2 years now I could not pick a colour I wanted to go with, finally I made a decision.  The next ordeal was to actually find the right colour mix, I have been everywhere, called fabric stores, called fabric outlets, nothing.  I went to a sewing store this morning with the hopes of finding the right colour match as the outlet said they deliver a lot of batiks there.  Not so much!  I ended up purchasing the end of a bolt of material on sale, it wasn't exactly what I was looking for but it did include the colour of my tiles.  I was skeptical, and when you feel that way, you should just walk away, got the material home and it looks ghastly.  It is waaaay too dark and not the colour I wanted, so I called the store.  I did not think they would let me return the fabric but as luck would have it, they did make an exception for me as I had purchased the bolt end.  Lucky me, sometimes you catch a break.
Now I'll be on the hunt once again, I should check the bedding, sometimes they have awesome colour patterns, I could just buy a couple flat sheets and go to it!!  Probably would be much more cost effective as well,   Oh well, back to the drawing board!!

Some days are just like that!

Some days are just chaotic.  A couple days ago there was so much miscommunication going on I'm not sure how we got through it in one piece.  It ended with my husband in a pickle.  I asked him if he could put the clothes line back up (one of those round ones), he has a love/hate thing with the clothesline.  He folded it down last winter for easier access to snow removal.  Our granddaughter was sleeping over and we were occupied in the tub with squeals of delight as she squirted me with Myrtle the turtle.  Then we went looking for Grandpa, I finally spied him through the kitchen window with his hand caught in the clothesline.  He said he had been calling and throwing things at the window for some time!  I ran out but everytime I touched anything, it bit down harder on his hand, so I fled to the neighbour (A girls gotta know her limitations!) in my socks through the puddles and muck and rang the doorbell with the frenzy of a 9year old coming to a birthday party.  Our dear neighbour bolted over and saved the day.  An ice pack later and a few glasses of wine with our friends and all was well.  Some days are just like that!

"The Big Girl Bed"

I wanted to buy a versatile bed for my little granddaughter that would take her from her current munchkin size to teen.  I saw this one in the Calgary Ikea in 2 years ago and so when I was there last month visiting my sister, I bought it, not knowing how the heck I was going to get it home as I flew there.  You cannot order it from the catalogue and the Ikea here in Winnipeg is not slated to open till this fall.  To make a long story short, my friend Bev's son brought it back for me!!  We were all so excited to get it set up, at one point my daughter, granddaughter and 2 dogs were sitting in the inside of the frame, lol I should have taken a pic (I always have my camera handy).  We also ran into a problem with the base, in our hurry to get everything in Calgary we grabbed the wrong length wooden slats, so off to the lumber store I went.  This bed extends from the length of a crib mattress to a full length bed.  I now have butterflies and more pillows decorating (paint, ballet slipper pink is sitting here, waiting to be applied).  I love pink and so does she.  Next, find a rug to match!

Spring is in the air!

Spring is definitely in the air, the snow has almost seeped into the ground, my husband keeps putting what's left of the snow in the yard into the flower beds to keep the moisture levels up.  Just want to get out there and see what new perennials survived the winter, as I did not keep my receipts for them, I have my fingers crossed.  It is unseasonably warm, and as they do here in the 'Peg, fling off the jackets and boots and some are sporting shorts already!  I think I know how I will plant my 4 raised garden beds, big lessons learned from last year.  I have an entire Power Point presentation, hundreds of slides that I put together last year documenting the successes and not-so -much of my new gardening experience  (many years have passed since I had a garden).  I enjoyed every minute of it!  Out front, the city is completing a sewer cleaning and inspection today, thankfully nothing has shot out of the floor drains and toilets.  
I have so many plans for the yard, thanks to Pinterest!  I wish I could have it all done in a day so we could enjoy it for the rest of the summer, but alas the journey is what it's all about. Think green, do green, save the earth.