Scrappy quilt

In the middle of the summer my middle daughter decided she wanted to start quilting.  Actually, I had started to sew a few strips together and she kind of took the project over.  Her quilt is still in process and I quite look forward to seeing the end result.

While she occupied my sewing machine for hours at end I was left to twiddle my thumbs.  At a loss of things to do in my sewing room I began to organize scraps.  What a great idea you say!  Well, yes and no!

I wasn't really prepared for how long that venture would take.  You see, my daughters have been playing with my scraps since they were in diapers.  Considering one of them becomes a teenager in April, that is a considerable amount of time!  Other than a few ziploc bags of leftover cut materials, the summation of my scrap collection was stuffed into an old milk crock.  Which had been emptied over my sewing room floor and stuffed back on too many occasions to count.

At the start of the process, most fabric needed to be pressed as the pile was a wrinkled and disheveled mess.  After that I started to cut strips at nausea.  I wasn't sure I would ever stop cutting.  Days turned into weeks, and weeks turned into a month.  I forced and bribed myself to cut strips.  Each day I would go in, grab a handful and complete it.   I found myself mostly cutting 2 1/2" strips.

As I cut I came up with a plan.  Thinking of how to use all those 2 1/2" strips.  I tossed aside all the dark colours and kept pulling anything bright.  My strategy was to sew 4 strips together and then cut them into another 2 1/2" strip.  I calculated that I needed 224 strips.  I then sewed those into 16 patch blocks.  Using 4 strips of 4 squares.  In the end I landed up with 56 blocks and sewed them together 7 blocks wide x 8 blocks high.

The quilt was with 896 squares!  28 squares x 32 squares.  Quite a feat when they were all cut from random scraps at random lengths.  I had it machine quilted and used up the last bit of a scrap for the binding.  Couldn't be happier!

The result was a quilt that I was thrilled with and landed up being a belated grad gift for my niece.

disappointed

Half the family has gone to the city two hours away for a concert

Two of us stayed home. We had all planned to go.

However our oldest has been sick the last few days

Two days of sore, achy, chills, headache...just like her mom had on the weekend.

Today we thought she was better, we were packed and gone

Although not far!

We had made it to the drive thru window at Timmy's

(that would be Tim Horton's for those of you who don't know)

When we heard someone getting sick in the back

Ugh! Smile at the lady in the window and hope she didn't hear it too!

Really, not the best place to get sick!

So we headed home

Two of us got out and three continued on their way

I really don't like having half the family gone

I really like to travel together

But they will be home late tonight

I wasn't suppose to be home, so I don't have anything pressing for today.

I am thinking that I am going to grab a coffee,

a good book,

a homemade quilt

and snuggle up and waste a few hours

See you later responsibility.....

how do you like it

I really cannot decide and wonder if you can. Laundry?

.

Do you do it all in one day or a little each day?

.

I have done both.

.

Being a good dutch girl I use to call Monday my wash day and didn't stop washing till it was done.

.

Enter kids and scheduling time wasn't quite so neat and tidy. Actually neither were their clothes.

.

(Disclaimer...Mom you should stop reading here!)

.

Yet, life kept evolving as more kids came, responsibilites and activities changed. Now it sometimes happens, really it is rare though, that the same load of laundry gets washed, then rinsed and maybe even rinsed again! It gets forgotten in the washer for a couple of days, then sits in the dryer for a couple of days. Eventually it gets folded when the next load needs to be dried.
.

I can't find my fairy...so I guess this will have to do! What about you?

been gone...but now i am back

got home from vacation yesterday

our house is quiet

no more company

no more niece (so sad)

unpacked

re-acquainted

today i hear

my husband working

the washing machine

the dryer

the dishwasher

kids playing

their friends laughing

wasps

today we went

to the doctor, papaya might have strep, boo-boo's finger is still infected and needs oral antibotics

around in circles, kind of like a dog, trying to make its bed comfortable again

to a birthday party, so much fun!

today i smell

laundry soap and cleaner

brave flowers who are still blooming

fall in the air

"cherry" from the decongestant bottle

supper on the barbeque whichs really needs attention!

glad to be home!

i've lost my children

Today we set up a tent in our backyard! Everyone needed a change of pace as we have been in summer holiday mode for quite a while. The first part of the afternoon was great. There was a little rain but nothing much. For most of the afternoon they played very happily while they coloured and read.

Jesse, our dog, stayed close to the tent all afternoon but never went in!

All of a sudden the weather turned. Okay, I saw the storm coming over the mountains but I thought it was just rain! Our dog rain for cover and then things got a little ugly!

It was kind of like a good prairie storm with the wind whipping through and a good ole downpour! However, the downpour turned to hail in a blink of an eye. It got so loud outside I had to yell to see if the kids were okay.

They were! Boo-boo said "It was the funniest day ever!" So what do I know? Here I was a little worried they would be stressed because they were caught in the storm and they weren't at all!

Now all is peaceful again and I am left with little reminders of the storm that passed! Kind of like life is sometimes!

fairy-sized watering can

My oldest, who is quite creative, made me a fairy-sized watering can. I think it is absolutely adorable and positively love it! I put the quarter beside it so you would have an idea of the size. As well, you can realize the detail she put into such a tiny can.

~~~~

It has found a happy home on my kitchen window sill.

admitting defeat

my afternoon was one etched in frustration

i admit that i like quilting, sewing, reading (my quiet hobbies)

i participate in kickboxing (my out of character sport)

i am good in the kitchen (cooking that is!, really!)

but i absolutely positively have no inkling about small engine repair

i think that i am pretty handy around the house in general

i will pick up a drill, screwdriver, hammer and tackle a project

it comes partly from my need to get things done

and partly that my hubby is gone alot of the summer for work

i either wait or learn how to do it myself! most times it works okay

so today when our gas lawnmower decided to be tempermental,

i thought i might give it ago and get it going

problem was it started and then dies again right away!

yes, the answer is yes it has gas in it!

i may be a red head, but i did check that!

after that, the next thing was the air filter...but nope that didn't work!

SO, i cleaned out underneath where it gets junked up from all the lawn clippings

thinking maybe it is slowing the blade down...nada!

okay, i have never ever done an oil change in my life, but why not i'll try?!

so i managed the oil change and thought i had done pretty well, until my daughter's friend knocked over the container with the old oil on the grass and herself! ugh!

but still the lawnmower won't stay on!

my neighbour offers the kindly suggestion "maybe it is bad gas!"

okay (i am really frustrated at this point), i will deal with that!

i pump all of the gas back out of the mower into the jerry can!

that's great but now what?

i don't have a spare jerry can!

i just put what could be bad fuel back into the can with what could be good fuel!

what do i do with it? put it in the van? my hubby might not like that!

dump it? we already did that with the oil!

ugh! it was then that i gave up!

packed up the mower and moved on to greener pastures!

or so i thought!

all i wanted to do was water the flowers! you know, get a job done?

that shouldn't be hard should it?
apparently nothing was easy today

i couldn't get the hose out of the reel! really!

i was yanking, pulling, pushing , shoving!

ugh!

think my gardening is done for the day? yep! lets try tomorrow!

and when i am out there i might be able solve one problem by teaching my four-year-old perpetual flower waterer a thing or two about rolling up the hose again!

our spring has come

we are a hopeful bunch here!

the snow has finally been gone for a little while

we are starting to see some new life in the garden

on the weekend i got out and gave my front garden a quick clean and raked the lawn

it felt so good to have sun on my face and not be wearing many layers of clothes

if you look close you can see some of my sprouts

yesterday it decided to start raining in the morning and didn't stop ALL day
it was unbelievable really! i was so glad it was rain and not snow!
then it rained some more
puddles started to form
fresh spring smell in the air...yay

and since it is raining and we are inside feeling so positively springy
papaya and i decided to plant some seeds, her is hoping they turn out well!
hope you are having a happy day!

is, had been, will be

as i was mopping my kitchen floor i had a great sense of a job well done

and thought my house is getting clean...yay

then i turned around and saw mess where it had been cleaned,

many little hands seem to undo things like that

then i went farther afield into my house and saw mounds of things to do,

and thought somethings will be done later,

maybe much later...how come i don't catch up?

for now, i need to get outside

my youngest proclaimed we have no snow on our yard anywhere

seems like it is time to play outside again!

comparison

yesterday

sunshine

hyancinths

wind

stanley park

15 km walk

cafe lait

death by taxi

aiport

good book

home

hugs, kisses, snuggles

----

today

catch some winks

school

paper dolls

laundry and more

cleaning

chili

boot lost in snow, never found

doorbells, phone calls

9 kids in one house

knitting advice given

early bedtimes

cuddles, hugs, kisses, prayers

a pre-christmas peek

poor barbies

as the girls went outside today they grabbed their barbies

at first i kind of rolled my eyes (i know i teach my kids not to do that)

but i perish the thought some days of all the clean up

a while later though, i was walking past the window and it made me smile

to see them playing in the leaves and it made me laugh because the poor barbies were still dressed in shorts and capris with no thought of the season change!

good thing i put their summer clothes away

otherwise they might have been outside in shorts too

i took some shots of the front of my house

i absolutely love house flags and this might be my favourite one of the collection

unfortunately it seems like we whip through fall and into .....

oops, can't say that word yet! okay! maybe i just won't

no, i am most definately not in denial about seasonal changes

this is the front of our house

once we buy our pumpkins, no pumpkin patch here

the girls carve one each and we set it out on the front bench

then light them on Halloween