Catchup - June 1st-8th

June 2nd

Ohhhh it rained enough the other day for some water to collect in their pool for splashing! Dahli even joined in briefly!

Weird! I was texting Taunya and both jumped onto the couch looking out the window. Then immediately jumped down onto my lap! 😀

DAMN DAMN DAMN I hate lightning followed immediately with loud thunder plus increased slanted downpour! DAMN heart racing!!!

UPDATE: Owner emailed that fish are OK without the fountain so I feel better. The surrounding trees are shedding and thus would need constant cleaning to keep it aesthetically pleasing. Good to know!

Oh oh!!! Not sure what's happening but this was the lovely goldfish pond that I love to sit and listen to its soothing sounds while feeding them, taken May 30th. Today it's barely trickling and I'm very concerned. Needless to say I've a call in for the son to come see and he says he'll clear the blockage! I hope so! At least they've had fresh rainfall!!!! 🙏🙏🙏

May 30th lovely musical sound.

June 1st quite a bit less

June 2nd, barely a trickle.  YIKES!!!

June 4th

Dang, first off I don't have Amazon Prime and no intentions of paying just to have better customer service, which should first no matter what, so please no comments on that.

I finally gave in and ordered footwear and was thinking outerwear too but glad I didn't. I was totally shocked at the return postage for the sandals as per Amazon Return items instructions. No I didn't go through all the clicks to read the return policy before ordering, it shouldn't be so convoluted to begin with. Once contact with Amazon afterwards I'm in volleying contact with the seller who now says I could have returned it to their local store (not sure Winnipeg has one) free of charge! I flipped out - that should have been the FIRST item under Return Item!!!!!!!  

So will see in 3-5 days of what the result will be. BUT for sure I'm not ordering ANYTHING online anymore unless it does not need sizing, like books etc!!! I don't care what kind of savings online is!!!!! I've learnt my lesson for sure!!!

UPDATE:  Purchase price has been returned and the other day received confirmation that my return postage will be refunded soon!

June 6th

Yeah I've finally sewn the blocks in rows AND I think it's as planned.

Yeah the rows of blocks were sewn together too! It measures now as 43 x 54.5" - I had added in 10 extra varied blocks of original ones to fit. I really can not believe how evenly this had sewn up together, lots of bias edges, lots of pinning and step by step pressing to help in this end result. There will be 3 borders yet to be cut and sewn on. It's soon going to be finished. I love it and good as this is MY BABY for retreats.

Once again I bought an MPQ Quilt Reflections 2025 Challenge Quilt wall hanging kit! AND not two hours home my idea percolated and Googled inspirations saved with notes on how it might evolve and fabrics etc! This brain will probably not rest now, but want to get started on it! Ohhhh the theme is Transportation but I'm skewing this quite a bit!!! Here's the kit fabrics (can add 5 more) and talk about coincidence, I've the bubbles fabric in various colours to play with too!

June 7th

OMGG!!! I'm tickled pink as Leanne called to chat about our joint vacation in July 2025! The plans are falling into place and dates locked in and they are booking both excursions and all transfers for us to ensure we're together. As soon as they have the costs I'll square up! 😉

July 8th - they arrive from Australia in Calgary

July 9th - I travel to Calgary

July 10th-13th - we're in Banff sightseeing including a bus tour of Mountain Lakes and Waterfalls 

July 13th-14th - on the Rocky Mountaineer Adventure, gold level, overnight in Kamloops

July 14th-17th - we're in Vancouver together sightseeing 

July 15th - we're ferrying to Victoria for a City and Butchart Gardens Tour 

July 17th - I return home

July 18th - they return home

OOOOHHHHHH I'm getting excited and this time I'm taking my two stronger walking sticks!

June 8th

Ohhhh I've missed posting some pics!

June 5th enjoyed music from this bird, the fish even a pelican in the local pond.

June 6th MPQ a few of the quilters' display that caught my scrappy ideas eye and the blue one is 2025 Quilt Raffle prize.

2025 Quilt Show Raffle Quilt

June 7th OMA's Fire Hall Outdoor Quilt Show, just a few that appealed to me. A lovely day for this outing with Sylvia and Edna, ending with Peking Chinese in Edna's new apartment!

This one has quilted bees.

This was quilted with variegated thread and butterflies.

I'm making this one too but in scrappy look - awesome in planned colours. 

I've this one on my agenda too - but will try to reduce to smaller mini sized.

WOW!!!

Triple WOW!!!

Love it!!!

Very striking!!!

Didn't think of using solids!

Interesting!!!

Love this one too!

Way too intense for me!

Catchup - Apri 15th-21st

April 15th

And look at the lovely pieces we unearthed yesterday that Pat convinced me to add to my collection here. The black glove I used to make and sell and this lovely R bookmark that I think I received as a gift but no info with it. BUT still no shoe box of jelly rolls!!!!

After a few errands and lunch with Sylvia, I kept her company while I washed/dried the four Aurora and my MPQ ABC NICU quilts ready for Thursday's drop off if I get the labels done!  

Then once home I went through the two huge bins full of scraps of fancy fabrics. So those with vibrant or colourful or textured went into a plastic grocery bag for Alzheimer's quilts, a small box for Monica and another bag maybe for MCC fancy doll clothes sewing, if they still do that, will have to phone first. In the end I had a half grocery bag for the garbage of small bits, discolored pieces and 3/4s full of lining pieces. So that's done and those bins will be used to combine the batiks and my kids I Spy fabrics into one bin each later on, right now in two plus each!  

I'm getting there sooner than the previous purging! Hopefully I keep going and then a fairly usable room for quilting!

April 16th

This is from Monica, of Aunt Monica's Attic in Transcona, photos by Monica too,

"Rose Anne delighted me today with a pile of her “garbage”. Everytime she tosses something my way, I get inspired. 

Right now, it’s all about zip pouches (or coin purses as usual old folks call them)."

April 17th

Well the four Aurora child's and lap quilts I found, that needed bindings, while sorting out my crafting supplies are finally complete. Yesterday I printed off the combined labels and today I bonded/stitched them on and will be dropped off tonight at MPQ for the ABC program. Now to find if there are any more and what stages they were dropped off to me in.

First, second and fourth are Aurora quilts.

The second is Aurora quilt.

OMGG I just love this! Wonder if this could be a yard addition within the fence for all to enjoy??? What do you think Angie, it doesn't have to be so ornate?

April 18th

I entered my latest NICU quilt into MPQ's "At Least I Tried" President's Challenge and the reveal was tonight. Basically I'm trying to use up my scraps and stash as much as I can. In this case the cut off triangles from previous projects to make the Stella Block which I reduced in size according to the HSTs sewn up, along with my stash. I thought I had LOTS of the gold stripe triangles to use BUT not so! Halfway through I ran out and anxiously searched my stash (no buying fabrics for this NICU coverlet) and found a plain gold. Also not enough of the red dots, plain gold or green from the blocks for borders too, so I had to search my stash again for some coordinating border fabrics. In the end I LOVE the result, but basically learnt I have to calculate amounts I need and measure my stash fabrics for my projects in the future!!! Sadly it was not in the ABC lineup of donations, second time for me.

April 19th

Well if anyone was anywhere as excited as I was that Pizza Hotline on Boadway and Hargrave was opening a dine-in again, I sure missed Cafe 22!

Too bad they spent money to upgrade dine-in when really it's none existent. No table service but lots of charging outlets, so at the counter I ordered for dine-in. Got shouted for pickup, boxed pizza and can pop, that's ALL! I asked for a straw or glass and serviettes, told got none but gave me serviettes. So sat down to eat etc, but had to leave as it was way too cold plus definitely not dine-in atmosphere. They sure messed up Cafe 22 totally. I won't be coming back for dine-in and probably not much for pickup either. That's prime restaurant location for this area, but not like this!

April 20th

Nice to visit with Pat, Jeanette and Ricky today at the Aurora gathering. I finished off another MPQ ABC NICU quilt top from donated blocks, adding three of my blocks and borders. Next to quilt these last two I've finished. Might take a break and work on one of my own UFOs next.

Also thank you Pat for your cut-offs again, now resting feet up watching Blue Jays and "rippit" from cut offs!

Well someone in a group mentioned a book Android App and I found/downloaded it. So simple to upload by scanning the ISSB No or by typing it in (this I found easier) as some did not come up. Then pertinent information fills in without typing it in. Also some did not have a photo but allowed me to take a picture of the cover. I also added sub categories to the main Quilting category: Patchwork, applique, Hawaiian, scrappy etc. I've only started but hopefully this will help me from buying duplicates and knowing Pronto if someone ask to borrow my book. Also can be exported into Excel if wanted.

April 21st

GO JETS GO!!!!

I'm ready for a great game!!!

Well again back to doing more spot crafty purging and some sharing of my sewing notion themed fabrics. Then a lovely walk with Sylvia before dropping off some of the crafty stuff to Angela for delivery to the Teulon Library for their varied crafts program/activities.

Yep definitely true!!!

Hmmmm for some reason my recording channel did not catch the Jets, differentchannel DUH!!! I missed half of the first period! Will have to see if it's on late night and record to see.

But I pulled out the overflowing hinged bin of my sewing themed fabrics, sorted out ones I don't care for anymore, cut and shared larger pieces and organized the rest by size. The purged ones are going to MCC for their crafts projects and NOW all fit into my bin with room to spare! YEAH!!!