Nick and Alex :)

Awwwwwwwwwwwww our oldest lad Nick on his 21st birthday this past Friday - with his girlfriend Alex - isn't this a great picture of the two of them??!! :)

I tried a new technique ...

to quilt a baby quilt - I bought some twill type tape, and stitched it over the seams after the quilt was sandwiched and basted. I think it looks pretty :) I'll do the binding tomorrow, and Puppies will be completed (42" square) :)

Up next are a couple of projects that have been completed but not posted:

Here's the last of the Laurel Burch Christmas fabric that Nancy (the tavern wench :D) gave me :)


And - last but not least - the fish stuffy I made for the Toy Society - I'll get another picture when it's packaged up ready to be dropped off ;)

Hobbs Heirloom "Cotton" Batting ...

Cotton my ass - it feels like polyester! I bought 2 queen sized batts at Hobby Lobby (Niagara Falls) last weekend because it was on sale and I assumed it would be nice and cottony like Warm and Natural - NOT SO! It's awful to the touch - I might as well be using 100% polyester batts. It's 80/20 cotton/poly but it doesn't feel like cotton at all. Warm and Natural batts are 87.5/12.5 cotton poly, and they feel like cotton - so either that extra little bit of poly makes a huge difference, or Hobbs brand isn't nearly as nice as the Warm and Natural. I'm quite disappointed.

With my psoriasis my hands and fingers are quite sensitive and the feel of poly batting drives me around the bend - I switched to cotton because it feels better and doesn't "catch" on my fingers. I'll use up what I have, of course, but I sure won't be buying any more of THAT brand!

Nice batting is really expensive in Canada so I generally only buy it in the States - Fabricland $70, Joanns $20 for the same product - that's disgusting. I'll check out bamboo batting next time I'm at a quilt store - I wonder how it feels compared to W-and-N.

No more Hobbs for Psoriasis Sandra - PATOOIE!!!!!!!!!

Happy Birthday Nick :)

My baby (my oldest baby, lol) is 21 today! We went to The Keg for dinner - the 4 of us plus Nick's girlfriend Alex - then we came home for cake :) He has to drive to Misisssauga early tomorrow for school, so we had to make an early night of it, lol. All 3 kids had their cellphones so we got a couple of pictures - I'm just waiting for the kidlings to send me a copy! In the interim, here's a fishing pic from 2 years ago - he's such a ham, that lad!

Some of my new fabrics :)

I've found a couple of projects recently that really interested me - I started picking up fabrics during our trip to Buffalo last weekend (my Christmas gift from dear hubby!) so I could start planning and cutting when I get some other stuff finished :)

The first one I'd love to do, is a log cabin quilt from Craft Blog --- the project is called Log Cabin in a Week :) I'm not sure when she's going to post the rest of the instructions, but I don't need them to work on the project :D I absolutely LOVE this color combination - it's way out of my comfort zone, but I find it absolutely striking! So I bought similar colors, LOL!!!

Then we have Peaches and Dreams - I fell in love as soon as I spotted this on Judy's blog! Had to buy fabric for this one as well!!! But of course I'll need more -insert big smile here- :) The prints with the green may not work, but I'll see how it goes when I start making blocks :)

Not sure when I'll get working on these two puppies, but I'm looking forward to playing with those gorgeous fabrics!!!

Doesn't everyone have one of these? ;)

We have a nice little bakery up the street from our house, so we go there quite often to pick up bread/buns and deli meat. I thought it would be nice to have a special bakery bag to carry my buns in :D I doubt that the kids or hubby will take it with them when they do the trip, but I will! The bag measures 15w x 14 x 4, and the zipper bag is 8 x 6 :) I have a second tote and zipper bag cut out because I wanted to use up the last of the fabric, so I'll make that one later on as a gift. I got the fabric at Mary Jo's in North Carolina during our road trip last year!

These are my second and third 12 months/12 challenges project for January (make something for yourself) :D

Here are the ...

35 pillowcases I made for a nearby shelter - I'll be glad to get these delivered!!

Cranberry Scones :D

I got my sexy new scone pan in the mail today - it came with a recipe for Cranberry Scones so I made 'em - I used dried cherry flavored cranberries instead of whole cranberries. Don't they look DELICIOUS!! I can't wait to try one for dessert, lol.

The baby quilt top is finished ...

This will finish to 42" square - I have an idea about using some blue rick rack for trim, but I'll see what I can find in Buffalo :D
A tote I finished up (the zipper bag was made last year) for a nearby shelter.

Awwwwwwww isn't this pretty fabric? This will be a gift - the lining is the beautiful pink gingham that the little tab is made from :)

Japanese Humor :)

Check out this video, LOLOL!!! Safe for kids, and safe for work if they don't mind you watching good clean fun videos. Rather noisy, so you may want to turn your volume down :)

Our Nortel shares are worth 96 cents, LOL!

Hubby just read me part of the statement we just received from our money people --- our Nortel shares - originally costing us $5300.00 - are now worth a grand total of 96 cents!! NINETY SIX CENTS!!! I remain firmly convinced that one of these days they'll shoot back up in value --- they could double or even TRIPLE and we could be worth ones of dollars!!!

Here's a little zipper bag I finished with a little scrap remnant from Evelyns Sewing Centre - it probably cost 50 cents or so, and I got enough fabric to make the outside of two little bags. That puts such a smile on my face (Nortel stocks notwithstanding, LOL) - yep, I'm a cheap date!!

BTW - I feel it only fair to point out - the Nortel purchase was MY idea :D

Run run run run runaround ... :D

The Runaround bag bag (7x9, with a 52" strap) was a trial run to test a new-to-me pattern. I'm not all that impressed with LG patterns but this one was fun to make - very quick and easy. I don't like the raw seams inside - it would be nicer with the raw edges hidden. Next time I'll add a closure (velcro, a magnetic snap or possibly a pocket redo with a zipper) to the back pocket. Overall I give the pattern an 8.5/10 :D  The zipper bag (7x9) was made with a Laurel Burch remnant given to me by my favorite tavern wench - thanks Nancy!

The doggy quilt is a stash-buster project to use up some fabric I bought in Ohio last year - I'm going to pick up backing for it in Buffalo this coming weekend. Those are 6.5" (unfinished) blocks - there are 3 more rows to be added, so the quilt will finish to about 42" square.

This last picture shows a couple of gift bags I made to finish off some stash Christmas fabric - the bags are 15x14, 15x15 and 12x10 :)

I couldn't resist ...

I finished the stitching and beading on this little guy this morning - now to decide how to ornament him (yes, in my world, that's a VERB!) :) Pattern is Santa's Buddy by Angel Stitchin - available in the 2009 JCS Christmas ornaments magazine. Thanks to Nancy, Meadows08 and Sue for making me get my butt in gear to get this done :)

A few completed projects :)

Here's how much thread I used in 2008 (before psoriasis was bad), and 2009 (where I was incapacitated for half of the year) - what a difference! I'm glad it's fairly well under control right now :D













A couple of stashbuster projects I finished - some of the zipper bags are for gifts and some are going to a local shelter - the bibs are for the shelter as well.












The pillowcases are a stashbuster project, and the 3 small pillows (about 12 x 16) are destined for animal shelters in Toronto!

My rant: Improvements my ass - it's still damn near impossible to place photos and text where I want to place them on this site! ()@*#$)(*@#$)$#@(&)#$@(* !!! Preview doesn't show what the page will look like, so why the hell is it called PREVIEW!!!

Ready to start the new year ...

I took a little bloggy/life break over the last couple of weeks - I was getting stressed over some stuff and I needed a break :D Christmas and New Years are over until next year, so things can calm down now.

My psoriasis is doing really well on my 2 medications so I'm able to do some cross-stitching :) I joined a FOSAL (Festive Ornament Stitchalong) organized by Sue (in Australia) - I'm doing Santa's Buddies by Angel Stitchin', from the 2009 JCS Ornament Issue. I saw Meadows08's version and knew I had to do it, so I borrowed the magazine from my favorite tavern wench, and started stitching. It should be done in a few days - I've uploaded a photo of my progress so far :)

That's it for now - I'm off to the kitchen to whip up a Cranberry Orange Pudding Cake - doesn't that sound yummy?!

BTW - I still have two Christmas packages to mail out, so if any of you out there in blogland are stressed because you didn't get "it" all finished - NEITHER DID I!!!