Winter Has Arrived...Again

Winter has arrived again with more snow. Since the wind has died down it really is quiet pleasant to be out shoveling the white snow. It's hard to believe that next week is Christmas! I'm still making gifts to give away for this wonderful season. Here are a few things that I've been up to & trying real hard to finish for the Santa deadline.

 Little sewing bags made from Moda's Seneca Falls collection. Paulette & I were at a quilt shop...maybe nearly a decade ago & I purchased this sweet lunch box tin with a charm pack & fat quarters in it. I've admired it for years but this is now the time to use it & enjoy it!

 The colours are that of a mauve, red, & blue. I made a sewing bag in each colour! Now to get them all sewn up!

 The embroidery is now done on my Snowman Doorstop. I found some piping that I'll install around the figure, the star batik is for the backing. I still need to put it together & stuff it & weight it with some crushed walnut shells.

 Going through my red stash for the Christmas Countdown quilt, I found a project from 2010. I know it was 2010 because it was embroidered into the star. I measured out a border & made cornerstones from the scrap blocks & voila, a sweet Christmas quilt top.

 I trimmed it in the red gingham by accenting the cornerstones & made binding to finish it off.

 See what happens when you 'date' things! We're going into 2014 & it feels like yesterday when I made that!

 My mom would have an expression when she was mad...'I'm so mad I could spit nails!'
Well,  I could have had that feeling if I had not taken the time to pick up those nails from the roof install. When we had a quick thaw I went out to sweep up.

 Several were found in my laneway,  right under my car! Others were gathered & swept up all around the roof's perimeter. The installer reassured me that the magnet would pick them all up. In 2010 my neighbour had her roof replace & I got the flat tire! I did not want that to happen to any of my neighbours, or myself & expressed this to the installer.
 There were a lot of nails left behind & pulling the snowblower out...it too would have had flat tires! There are still nails buried under the snow that had not melted & will be seen with the spring thaw next year.

 On a lighter note, the side of the house was fixed the next day, it looks as good as new. I had heard noise outside & a man was getting ready to re-install the corner piece.  I noticed it to be a bright white...not the colour match as I had the house done in creme. He took a broken piece for an example  & returned with the matching house colour. I'm so glad that I was home to redirect him to make the colour change. It does look good again.



Rug Hooking -

 My hooking classes are great. We do postcard samples, 5" x 7". Pantyhose & yarn technique, my Scarlet O'Hara.

 This is a raised & trimmed flower bud. That's a 2 1/2" square next to it. These techniques are great to learn. Tomorrow we're dyeing wool with Koolaid! What fun is that!!

 My runner with the Christmas dishes on it.

 Real popcorn & cranberries, I strung them with a needle & thread whilst watching a Christmas movie one night. Bill was amazed that they were real, after Christmas the wildlife can have it.

 I made pomander balls from oranges, lemons, & apples. Yummy smell as the hang from the tree.

 I purchased two new ornaments, this is the glass squirrel  ...

 And this is the glass wolf or in my eyes it's Diesel, I waited for the before Christmas sales from the Brian Gluckstien's collection at Hudson's Bay.

 Going through my studio I found a cat I made from Diesel, the Siberian Husky's, hair. He had  daily brushing when he stayed with me when Mitchell was at Durham Collage.

 I made the cat body from muslin, then stuffed it with diesel's hair & started to felt the entire body...

 Felting is done on a very thick piece of foam with a small barred needle, the ears were difficult & I picked myself several times.

 The big bushy tail wasn't easy either.  There's still more felting to be done & glass eyes to be sewn in. I thought it would be fun to make a cat with dog hair!

 This is a wee bear I made a few years back from a class with Kelly Richardson. She also taught me to make a polar bear. Diesel got a hold of this bear & carefully took the ear & one eye off. I replaced the ear & that's when I found the cat, when I was looking for my felting supplies.

Bear has a better profile on the side. lol

Here's a blast from the past!

When cleaning & organizing I found this old photo I took back in 1985. When I was attending my 4 year art course at Bealart , I was in a photography class with Vivian Sturdy & she was teaching us 'pinhole photography' yes this picture was taken with a pinhole camera & I developed the picture too! Oh the things I have done in my charmed life!

This photo was taken at Port Stanley, Ontario & that is Bill sailing  the sail boat through the lifted bridge.

It's a beautiful life! Merry Christmas.

O Christmas Tree

The tree was cut down & brought in last Saturday night. Bill cut down our own tree from our front yard! Yes on our postage stamp property in the core of the city, we have our own fresh cut tree.

 The tree was cut from this small front garden. As you can see it was very close to the house & the AC unit, that's been covered for the winter.

 Here's a small cedar that in about two years will be ready to be harvested too!

 It was not a very thick trunk but Bill finally adjusted it to hold the tree upright.

 Here's the first tree that Bill helped grow on our property, one of several but these cedars grow so fast & our neighbours yard is lined with them so seeds spread everywhere.

 Did I mention that this was a postage stamp property?

 Yes we're very close to our neighbours, just a car in between to separate the houses.

 Nick has a tree, well there's really two there! They too can be harvested in years to come.

Here's our Christmas tree for this year! We've not had a real one in decades...not since the tree holder leaked for days on the hardwood floor & heaved it right up. A new tree holder was purchased for this tree & wow the style of the base has changed too! The tree had to be cut down & we thought that this would be a great way to enjoy it this season.


Sewing Update...

 These were made from the 'not so perfect stars from Temecula's Christmas Countdown quilt. They're less than 3" in size & now hang on the Christmas tree.

 This is a runner I made for the top of the bookcase self that now holds the Christmas dishes. It was quilted in squares then brought together in the 'quilt-as-you-go' technique.

 This is the other side, it's going to be great for Valentine's Day.

 Here's the Temecula Christmas Countdown quilt, all bound & displayed in the lounge on a bench by the Christmas tree.

This is my Christmas sewing for me this year! Thanks for your kitchen space for my photo shoot Beverley!


Then from napkins & placemats from the 'after Christmas' sales from last year, I purchased these to use as pillow coverings for this year. :-)

 How elegant & washable these will be! Just as I was about to make them, I changed the sewing machine foot to the zipper foot & low & behold...my machine was NOT holding the foot, the ankle on the machine had broke, the spring was missing.
 I took my machine in ASAP as the one year full warranty would  run out on December 14th. It's now being shipped to Toronto to be repaired. I'm using my old Pfaff for now & forgot how much I love that machine. It has not bells or whistles but can sew beautifully & fast.

Voila, I made three pillow in total, two square pillows & one rectangle pillow.

The silver damask goes so well with the fabric in the chair.

 And my favourite black pillows too!

The placemats are keeping the dust at bay - not as noticeable on the silvery grey as it is on the dark stained furniture. This old 1916 house sure can collect the dust, Bill says it's because I have pets, I think it's because of the furnace blowing things around. The filters are changed monthly & still the dust magically appears.

 O Christmas tree, O Christmas tree, how lovely are your branches!

New Roof Install

When I came home last month, I was trimming the lilac bush & noticed that that it had several shingles in the branches. I thought 'Some poor bugger had lost their shingles with the strong winds we had been having'. Well the next day I was coming up the hill, on our street with Bill & saw...that poor bugger was me! The west side of the house had shingles lifted everywhere!!

The next day Home Depot had the 'Don't pay for 18 months' promotion come through the mail & Bill & I were on it & headed to the Home Depot. A week later a sales person did the estimate & a week later the job started.

 There was over a foot of snow to be shoveled of the roof, then the layer of old shingles were removed. The whole process with all the snow was frightful for me watching these boys do their job.

 The icicles are on my house, I had double ice damning going on that day. The fellow would hold onto a rope with one hand & remove the shingles with a shovel with the other.

 This was the 'safety rope'... so long as you held on. lol

 The laneway filled with old asphalt shingles & the screen to the basement window didn't stand a chance with all the shingles piling up. I would soon learn that that would be the least of my worries.

After they had left & everything was quiet again, Boris wanted out & I opened the door & let him out.  I realized that he didn't want back in after a few minutes, where was he?

 Well, would you believe that I had all that shoveled out! The snow removal from the roof was everywhere & now blocking my pathway out & backyard gate.

 Where is Boris? ...

 The other gate was left wide open & packed tight with snow from the four workers & their wheel barrow. Boris had an opening out, I found him out front sniffing all the workers supplies that were left for the next day.

 I could not shovel the very packed snow with my plastic shovel. I called the company & he said they would have someone come back to make the yards enclosed, in about half an hour. And someone did come, not one of the workers from that day though. I thanked him for making my yard a closed one for my dog Boris & shoveling out my gate area. I was pleased with the service on Thursday the first day of work. I gave him a box of 4 rumballs for his trouble & thanked him again.

 Everything was placed in a tarp as I expressed my dismay when my neighbour next to me had a new roof installed & I got a flat tire from one of the roof nails that were missed.

 Bill arrived on Friday afternoon & he too liked the look of the new roof. It was Black Friday & the workers left early that afternoon. At 3pm Bill went out & came back in the house & told me why they left in a hurry or slinked out...

 Their trailer had backed into our house! The driver had to have felt that impact! Nothing was said from anyone. I was very disappointed in the workers & Bill made a call to Portman Roofing Ltd. but it was Friday at 3pm & Black Friday at that. No answer from the company. Then a call was made to the Home Depot Co-coordinator & he replied 'That nothing could be done till Monday'. So I know how my Monday will be trying to make this right again.

 Portman Roofing Ltd. of London did do a nice job on the 50 year roof...

 It was just how they left their job site...

 What a mess!

Portman Roofing Ltd. has a quote on their website ``When you hire us for your roof installation project, you`ll get a dedicated team of professionals every step of the way.`` Tomorrow will tell just how much they stand up to their motto.



On a lighter note, this one is for you Marg. I know how fond you are of Lucy & her outfits! lol

 My personalized sled from Miramichi,  New Brunswick & Lucy in her festive Santa suit I made her last year.

This little quilt finished at 32`x 40`` & is now ready to be quilted then have the binding put around it. I hope that you got yours done Ursula & Elizabeth...Beverley thank you for printing the pattern out for me & yes it was a lot of work!

I made this foyer entry planter by adding pussy willows & two small potted poinsettias to the Mother-in-Law`s tongue plant. I was pleased with these combinations and how one complainants the other. Red, green, & white, how could you go wrong. lol

December now begins, this is the best time of the year! I love Christmastime & my Sirus XM Radio is now on the Holly channel, only Christmas music with NO advertising or annoying announcers.
:-)  I`ve been making Rumballs & have more batches of raisins soaking in rum for more sharing of these yummies. Mitchell, your Rumball tin has been sent out & do share & eat responsibly, those raisins were plump with rum before I blended them into the other ingredients. Enjoy!
Let the festivities begin!