September & October 2012

I have not felt like sewing for the past while but I hope to get back to it soon. September was very challenging for me with my husband being so sick (thankfully recovering)  but October has been even worse. My best friend, Louise passed away on October 28. I am so heartbroken...I cannot express how much I loved her and how I will miss her. She truly was such a good person, so eager to help anyone if they were in need. She was so generous of her spirit, her time and her love.  Louise provided so much advice, care and support when my husband faced a very serious health issue 6 years ago and she helped me find him a fabulous surgeon (for that I will be forever grateful) - by then she knew the system very well.

Lou-Lou and I met in September 1994 in our local park where we had both stopped to let our children play after school. We had just moved to this town and didn't know anyone. Louise and I struck up a conversation and discovered that we lived on the same street but on opposite ends. At the time we met she was still recovering from very intensive and extended treatment for inflammatory breast cancer. She was only in her mid thirties when she was diagnosed - I had know idea someone so young could get breast cancer and I had never even heard of inflammatory breast cancer. We quickly became very good friends and happily our husbands became good friends as well. Over the years, Louise was challenged by 2 recurrences and she fought the last one for the past several years. Early in October she and her family were given the devastating news that there was nothing more that could be medically done for her. We were all in shock. It is strange but her mother passed away just a few days later without knowing how sick Louise was. Does a mother just know somehow?

I am very honoured that Louise called me friend.

99K - Thrift Store Find!

Last Friday, I took my Mom, my sister Cheryl and her daughter Deanna to visit my sister Glenda.We had a great time together and visited a few second hand stores, a fabric shop and just enjoyed being together.

I picked up this little number for the mere sum of 12 bucks. Silly me, I walked right passed it without noticing it but my wonderful eagle eyed sister Glenda saw it and now it is mine! I think she is a beauty..she was born in 1955...and she looks great for her age. It does say that there is a problem with the 'electrics' and that it should only be used for display but I thought for $12 I would buy it and take my chances. Once I got it home, I checked it over a bit a saw that the electrical cord does have a lot of tape on it. I looked in the base in hopes that maybe there were some attachments with it but no luck. I think it was stored very well and used frequently, there is no odour from the case and the machine does run and sounds great. I have not actually sewn anything on it yet but I don't really expect any problems. My husband looked it over and said the cords are cracked  but that he would rewire it for me ..... when he gets time. It can be very handy to have an electrical engineer in the house! It could be a little while before he gets it done though because the basement renovation is still in progress and he is still in recovery mode and not up to full speed yet. I am anxious to try her out but he doesn't want me to use it until he knows it is safe.

One of the second hand stores we visited was having a toonie sale and I was able to pick up several men's cotton shirts for only $2 each. These shirts will eventually go into a quilt that I have been thinking about for quite some time.

Dog Coats

I really want to create something but I have a lot of sadness in my heart at this time and I don't want it to spill into any of my quilts. I decided it would be a good time to make some coats for my pups. The weather has been getting cold and Molly and Peanut do need some protection from the elements. I have noticed that Peanut is really affected by the weather much more than Molly - she is just so tiny. So I looked around in the pet store for some warm coats and found that the prices were just too much for me. Even on sale the nice warm dog coats were $25 each. I had been thinking about making some but just hadn't gotten around to it until I saw what my sister Glenda was making. My Mom, sister Cheryl and her daughter Deanna and I spent the day on Friday visiting with Glenda and we had a wonderful time. Glenda is the sister that gave me Peanut and she has kept two of Peanut's siblings for herself. She showed me that she is turning cute fabric placemats into coats for her pups. How clever is that??!! She has definitely inspired me to get sewing for Molly & Peanut.

I made the first coat for Molly last night. It turned out a bit too small but it gave me an idea of how I needed to proceed. I think that it will be okay for Molly for the time being and maybe one day it will become Peanut's.

I measured the dogs and made up a pattern for each of them from newspaper. I just sort of made it all up as I went along and if it wasn't accurate I really wasn't too concerned.

Folded in half

Looks yellow but it is orange!

Exterior

Interior

I knew that I wanted the coats to be windproof and waterproof. I had an old vinyl tablecloth that I thought would work so I incorporated that as one of the layers as well as some batting and some flannel. The outer layer is just regular cotton but the layer under that is the vinyl, next is the batting and on the underside is the flannel and I used velcro for the closures. I think these will work great to keep my pups warm and dry. I am going to make them at least one more but I will adjust Molly's pattern first to give it a longer back. I plan to also make them some lined raincoats from the vinyl - nice bright orange!

My girls - Molly & Peanut

My dear Aunt Mary, Aunt Isobel and Marge - my dearest friend's mother - may you all rest in peace. You will remain in our hearts and thoughts forever and will never be forgotten.

Hourglass Blocks

Last night I had hoped to join Bonnie Hunter and her quilt cam but I ended up going to bed at 9 pm. I get up early in the morning and I wasn't sure if she would be 'on the air' last night. I should not have gone to bed because I didn't fall asleep until after 11 pm and when I got up this morning I saw that I had missed the fun.

Oh well, not to worry, I did sew earlier in the evening and I have increased the number of hourglass blocks from these few to all of these.

I plan on sewing again tonight and I will work on sewing more qsts into pairs. I think by the time I am done with them I will have sewn more than I need. I don't mind if I have a few too many because it will allow me to leave out the ones that just don't seem to fit in. Although, these all look pretty good to me! I love the colours and the fabrics that my niece, Amanda and her mom Glenda, have chosen for her quilt. They look like they have a wonderful sparkle to them.

Stars & Nines on My Mind

The upper corner is all sewn together.

The other day Kathy from Kathy's Quilts wrote a post for Slow Sunday Stitching and she talked about 'filling up your well'. I think that post really does express how I have been feeling because September was a difficult month around here and I really was feeling quite drained.

Over the past few days I have been doing my best to 'fill 'er up'. I have been sewing every day and look at the progress I have made on this quilt top. I am very happy with the way it looks so far but now that the top is almost all together I am rethinking my border plan. Thoughts are rolling around in my head that maybe it is too plain or maybe it would look better with some sort of pieced design.

I will wait until the top has been completed before I make my final decision but if I can come up with another border treatment that I like better who knows what will happen.