Where's The Thaw - Only Recorded Breaking Cold!!

We never had the January thaw this year in southwestern Ontario. It's just so cold with record breaking chilly temperatures nearly every day, week after week. The records date back to 1904!
I'm going to be so appreciative when the nice weather arrives.
You truly don't know what you've got till it's gone!

                                                              On the upside...

                                               The sun is shining & the sky is blue!

The 'blue' wallhanging is now done!

 The carrots & flower stems add a touch of colour but don't conflict with the blue theme.

This is the pattern by Lori Smith & yes I did use fusible web & DID NOT reverse the patterns first.
It was had but I worked in the daylight & taped the picture above to the window to see the proper placement. Hindsight I would have reversed the pattern!

Dark HST.

 When putting it together I didn't know which colour would look best in the center basket...

Light HST

The camera is your friend when your in doubt. The dark looks so much better! And the basket is facing the wrong way for the mirror image!

 I just love the movement of the rabbits around the fence.

 Now it needs to be quilted. There's snow coming this afternoon so I may just settle in with a hot cup of tea & machine quilt it together.

 With the William Morris blue scraps, I framed in some embroidery work. It's a free download from Bird Brain Designs. And the saying is oh so true!


The Pet Update

From the oldest to the youngest...

Tommy is sleeping the winter away & only makes an appearance to eat & use the grit box.
He's usually asleep on my bed. The great thing is he sleeps where I sleep & the bed is always warm for me at night when I get into bed! Thanks Tommy!

This is still Boris' favourite pastime until he get get outside to enjoy the warm sunbathing days.
If not here he's under his blankets sound asleep.

Rexton on the other hand...

 She loves the baskets & follows the sun in the rooms.

 She too hibernates her days but is very lively when awake.

                                                             She just loves the sun on her.

She now wears a Ducks Unlimited collar. It was a bracelet that my son Mitchell gave me but I think it looks perfect on Rexton & adds a girly touch to her. After wearing that head cone for two weeks this was nothing when I put it around her neck. She totally accepted it!

 We took a trip to IKEA last weekend.

 And purchased the cupboards for storage in the laundry room.

 The cupboards are stacked one on top of the other, perfect storage & more cupboards to come!

 Two over the dryer/washer will be a custom install that will be done this weekend! I just love this little room. As Bill put it it went from the ugliest room in the house to a very nice room! And oh so functional too!

Where's the spring?

 I've been adding a touch of spring through colour. The pink placemats were transformed into pillow coverings & the tablecloth was made into a inside curtain!

 Even though you look out at the snow, you first view the flower bouquets in the drapes!

                                                           Then you see the snow!

 I also finished the round crewel piece I found at a thrift shop. Someone did some beautiful wool embroidery on this & it reminded me of Mary Englbriet styling.

 When I was at the grocery store these mini rose bushes were on sale from Valentine's Day. I removed all the red packaging & added them to the empty clay pots I had. I'm going to take them east to put in my garden there. I've got them around the outside here & they've survived. Fingers crossed these too will make there home in my cottage garden.

 Here's a FREE BOM that I'm doing from Buttermilk Basin Design www.buttermilkbasin.blogspot.com

This is January's BOM...I'll be working to get caught up. New FREE patterns are released on the 15th of every month! I'm enjoying using my rug hooking wool with the quilting cotton. The two fabric textures really compliment each other in the primitive styling.

Thank you for stopping by & if your in the Baie-Sainte-Anne area this Wednesday evening at 7pm - do stop in for the first EBH Garden Club www.ebhgardenclub.com, at the firehall.  I wish I was there to hear all the talk of gardening, something that will be happening when the snow is gone.

I find spring to be the most God like time of the year, everything coming to life & the beauty of all that colour & texture that comes with it. Truly a time of thankfulness...that we survived another winter here in Canada! lol

Thought for the week.

Realize that life is a school and that you are here to learn. Problems are life lessons from which you learn.

#15 of the - 40 Pieces of Advice

Chaos & Weekend Warriors

This Family Day long weekend was one of change & creativity.
The laundry room nears completion & Bill & Nick did a fabulous job on this unique laundry room!
However in order to have change one must first have chaos!!

 This is the central upstairs sitting room, soon to become the TV room. It's between the front staircase & the back staircase & has all rooms running off of it.

 All the tools needed for cutting  & cleaning were placed there...

Just outside the laundry room & every other room upstairs! Chaos to create this change...

 A new plywood floor was glued & nailed down. A new dryer vent was installed also. There was so much noise on the second floor this weekend!

Then it all started to happen...

The new laminate, waterproof floor was installed. This flooring will also be added to the two upstairs bathroom with their renovation next year, adding a continuity throughout the upstairs.

Bill showing me the new & improved - laundry room! Wow, I just love that rooms improvement.

 The crown molding was installed...

 And cursed several times as the angles must be perfect & the trim had a profile that was cut perfectly...upside down! *%#* a lot of yelling at one point. lol

 Yes Nicholas crown molding all around the room! He asked me ' Mom who has crown molding in the laundry room?' Well the answer was easy - me!

The new appliances were installed & Rexton as already jumped into the dryer to investigate these new shiny pieces. Bill also installed the safety tray underneath, just in case of a malfunction with the new washing machine. We've used this room for over 15 years without one & no mishaps however one must not have a sense of false security as what is up does come down!

This light switch has been hanging out of the wall for over a decade & Bill jokes that it will be the last thing fixed in that room. It's the first thing I touch going into it & it has always made me natter at him. He laughs & calls it job security. lol

The laundry room is neatly tucked away behind this large hinged mirror. When the new wood floor goes down next year?? the baseboards will wrap around the room & the bottom of the mirror will have its own baseboard attached, creating a real hidden look!

Here's my new hidden gem in the house!
Thank you Bill & Nick for bringing my ideas to life! Handsome & handy guys!

And the back staircase is done!

It now will have the crown molding added around the down stairs part & just going up the stairs is such a pleasure now. This century home is really coming together. :)

So while the guys worked upstairs - I sewed downstairs!
I was procrastinating on making Mitchell's drapes. I had spent a whole morning measuring & cutting them at cousin Ann's studio. She has a wonderful open space & large cutting table that she generous let me spread out all the fabric & blackout on. I had done it a couple weeks earlier on the living room floor...all to the wrong measurements!!! The same fabric was found at another Fabricland & purchased, wow that was an expensive mistake. One that I'll have huge hindsight to! Measure twice...cut once. So I procrastinated all that much more because of it!

 

 Bev was doing a kit of a BOM for April & I saw the rabbits & just had to do it too!
So I challenged myself to do it in blues to go with my blue/white dishes at the cottage.
It still needs more blocks & the weather this week is frigid, so I'll sew!

 This is the dining room - an explosion of creativity!
Creative minds are seldom tidy...very creative indeed. lol

 The sapphire blue is 100% wool as is all the green leaves/stems & orange carrot.
I also worked my William Morris fabric into it, I'm going to like this piece!
Next post should have the completed hanging.

Then it was time to clean up all the blue & white fabric & pull out the drapery fabric. I started with the bedroom drapes first as there was only one pair of those to do & it was done with what I think was upholstery fabric & were they heavy. On that note - they're going to be a great insulator from the Alberta winters & the hot summers. I also lined them with a heavy blackout lining too!

With the bedroom drapes done it was time to do the living room drapes ~ two pair were needed & these were the drapes I cut at the wrong measurement. I cut them to finish at 40" when that was the size of the window...I needed the finished measurement of 52"!!
This is Mitchell's living room after being painted.

This is the living room with the furniture & now it will have drapes! Theses too were done with blackout lining for more warmth & coolness.

I never took pictures...so I'm hoping Mitchell sends me some when they're installed!
It's great to see that he uses the quilt I made for him! I enjoy seeing my labours of love being used.
He made my Valentine's Day! Mitch sent me a limited edition, silver heart, with a pink stone & diamonds, for my Pandora bracelet.
Thank you Mitch & I hope you like your drapes. XO
By the time I got the drapes done my hands were covered in band aids, those darn straight pins would grab me, prick me & make me bleed on the fabric as I handled it through the machine. I'd put on a band aid & continue...sewing with band aids, so my DNA was not all over the drapery! lol
Now with that done & the 5 roman shades are waiting in the que...

 I'm going to finish the April BOM wall hanging & several UFO's first.
 

The temp is warming up a bit (chill factor this weekend was -38C) & thankfully the snow has stopped. The east coast has been digging out daily & I've been thinking of them daily too!
My guardian  gargoyle seems to have had just about enough too! lol

 Inside I try to fool myself with fresh cut tulips, this is their 2nd week & I love the colour of them as they open fully & gently fall off.
I put out the ceramic rabbit pitchers too.

 This little guy is up on the kitchen shelf, rabbits are so spring like. Soon it will be spring, it's just around the corner but the depth of all this snow is going to make things really wet this spring...before the April showers!

 The weather man made joke of winter being in Ontario & Quebec & the maritime's were the snow banks. Wow have they had the snow this winter & the winds that create horrible drifting!!
So much snow!!

Thank you for stopping by & I hope your winter a season is of health & happiness.
Cozy in for the rest of this winter season ride & let those fireplaces blaze!

Procrastination is the thief of time ---- but I do work well with a deadline!

Enjoy your drapes Mitch!

Snowing & Sewing

 These are the last photos of Rexton styling her cone head at the end of her two weeks.

 Boris was a good buddy to her & allowed her on his blanket & in his basket with him.

 Auntie Ann made her a catnip toy & boy did she go crazy for it!

 Kicking it...

 Hugging it...

 Biting it...

 Smelling it..

 I've never seen anything like it!

 A catnip hug...

 Then it was Tommy's turn...

 He sniffed it & walked away!

 I finally found organic catnip grass at the Metro grocery store. Again only Rexton has taken to it & has grazed on it.

I've been getting itchy at bedtime & watching the TV commercial on dust mites makes me scratch more with just the thought of dust mites in my bed. I know it's because of the two cats & Boris' hair is like thin pine needles. So I looked into the dyson DC 61 animal handheld vacuum, wow they're expensive!
Then I had another thought, I've had Airmiles for decades & haven't used any points for years... I wonder - well it so happened that Airmiles had one & I had enough points! Bonus, it was ordered & came to me in less than a week.
I really like the three attachments, love it for the ease of the 20 minutes operating time & it's cordless, I've recharged it five times & emptied it four times. It's become my favourite working tool in every room of the house.

Konrad's Quilt

 The quilt top finished at 40" x 60"

 The back is a cozy flannel, perfect for the Alberta winters.

 I did a cross hatch quilting on it. With a 2" painters tape, I sewed on each side of the tape. Then used the ruler to add the next row of tape.

 Using quilt clips or you could use bicycle pant clips to hold the quilt in place, sew with a longer stitch on each side of the tape. Remove measure & sew again.

I used a 45 degree angle for my grind lines, once you have the one marked just follow from there. I start in the middle then stitch the lines above then stitch the lines below & press the quilt out again to remove any wrinkles. I also use fusible batting to do this type of quilting, no pins needed!

Baby Konrad arrived at 10:10pm last night! He's a bit early so I'm moving on getting this quilt finished & shipped to Alberta for him. Congratulations to Deb & Frank also Lori & Bill both very proud 1st time grandparents!

Remember the wall quilt -  Over The River?...

 I came across the UFO scraps that I incorporated with a embroidery piece I did years back.

 And it so sounds like summer!

So I quilted it up & don't know to make it a wall hanging or a pillow cover??

I also auditioned the buttons off of Boris' quilted blanket...

Boris' Blanket!!

 From the front it doesn't look too bad----

 However the back is a mess!!

I started sewing silhouettes of Boston Terriers & that worked for a while. Then as he tried to pull the blanket over him his nails would tear the aged fabric & the patches got bigger & bigger.
I've taken all the buttons off & washed the blanket till I know what I can selvage from the top as it's 100% wool, maybe a mini patchwork for his basket?

Painting & Renewing

 This sweet wall pocket is really wearing down so I thought some chalk paint would help hold it together!

I enjoyed the process to putting it to white!

 Let me try the metal April Cornell magazine rack...

 I love it in white!

 And the yellowish/beige fairy is newly refreshed in white.
My bathroom looks fresh with these pieces! Next week maybe I'll paint the bathroom. It's a very small room but boy can it hold a lot of stuff when you start pulling everything out!!

 The guys are back & I'm getting dug out!

 Nick is snow blowing out the laneway, he's back from Sri Lanka.

 Bill's back from China & both guys were told how much I missed them with all this snow. lol

 They worked for over an hour to get things cleaned up. It was a great day for doing it as there was no wind that day. The next day was freezing rain so it was good to get the snow away from the house.

 We're lucky to live up on the hill & have no one living across the road from us so that's were all the snow goes!

                                                         Lucy even got uncovered!

More sewing...

 I made this block to a wall hanging that I'm doing with Bev. I read the measurements wrong & the square was too big. :(
To challenge myself with this wall hanging I was using blue/white, it's to go to the cottage to hang in the kitchen with the blue & white-dishes.

In my stash,  I found this china blue rooster fabric for the backing.

                        I was also experimenting with wool(solid blue) & cotton together.
I added a glass button in the center as the focal point to finish off this mug rug that will sit on the table.

Spring is coming & the Escuminac, Baie-Ste-Anne, Hardwicke Garden Club is going to have their first meeting on March 4th, the first Wednesday of every month till October.  I wish I was there as I'm the Vice President & will have to hear everything after the meeting. :(
Heather is the founder of this club & has really brought it to life. She's the creator of the website too!

www.ebhgardenclub.com

So if your in our northern New Brunswick area, please join in & attend the monthly meetings at the Baie-Sainte- Anne Firehall - first meeting March 3rd!
Great job Heather! Good luck, wishing I could be there & thinking of you often! :)

Thank you for stopping by! Have a great week.