Plodding along

I got some more work done on this quilt. The borders are 14 inches wide,but I think it will look better if I narrowed them down to about 11 inches. In the corners I made 2 mariner compasses. Two more to go in the bottom corners. If you have a look at the picture below you can see a third compass on the right. While I was working on that one yesterday everything went wrong and it is not usable. But I put it there to see if some added smaller compasses in the centers of the borders would add to it. And I think it does. These will only be 6 inches. Now I will have to be sure I have enough fabric.
But it will have to wait a few days. I'm all packed and ready to go. Tomorrow morning I will drive to Haliburton for a trunk show and then on Thursday a workshop.
The weather is great. Where yesterday there were only a few narrow leaves showing, there were crocusses today. Now we can also see what has to happen to the lawn. As soon as I'm back I will have to start cleaning and raking.
Today I found pots with pansies at a local nursery and I could not resist. Nothing brightens things up better near the back door than a big pot of pansies.

Good intentions

Yesterday promised to be a quiet day with lots of time for sewing. I did have to do some bookkeeping, since the accountant was coming today for the year end of the farm. So far so good. But then there was a knock on the door. A big box with things from Holland was finally delivered. When my mother passed away in January, we had to clean out her appartment and I had some things I wanted to have send over. The box about 100 by 90 by 60 cm. was send by air and took 4 days from Holland to Waterloo. The last 50 km took 10 DAYS. But when I got everything unpacked nothing was broken. This quilt was one of my first ones and I made it for my parents, who had it on a wall for over 12 years and it is still in good condition. I used a collection of neck ties from friends and family members, both in Holland and Canada. The piece of paper with all the names was still attached to the back. It was sobering to see how many had passed away since the quilt was made. During the unpacking I realized that our dog was not herself and we ended up taking her to the vet. clinic. She is quite sick with an infection and is still there on i.v.
Since it was on our way, we drove on and picked up our seed corn. By the time we got home it was supper time. Then hubby decided we should go to the local farm show and there went the evening. So no sewing got done. Today was a little better. The accountant is gone and there is an hour yet before I have to start supper.

I like to keep my amarillis bulbs from year to year. I planted some at the end of January and the first one is blooming with 2 others to come soon.
This one even has a second flower coming up. These blooms and the sun outside make all the difference. Now we know, that spring cannot be far away. Today I noticed the daffodils coming up.

Back to the postcards

As promised Laurence came home early Wednesday morning, but with a bad case of the flue. He has been sick for most of the week and is finally feeling a little better. For me....so far so good.
It is back to the postcard quilt. Sometime it will get a more appropriate name, but for for now this will do. The rows of cards and the center piece are all sewn together. I did finally manage to do it by myself. It was silly to ask somebody to drive all the way to the farm to help me with a few seams. Was it easy.....no. The border strip is wider than it will be in the end. I made it this way, so that I will have some extra once I'm ready to put it together.
In the four corners will be mariner compasses. In the center of the border will be smaller compasses. Once I'm that far, I will know if I need to add more, say some silhouttes. The following are a few of the cards on the front.
This is a few of the back. Since I want it to be a two sided quilt, this side is just as important. The extra cards are just pinned down for the time being. The piece of fabric on the left shows the world map. It is 12 inches wide and I like to figure out how to use it and make it all fit together with the front.
This shows the back of a few of the cards.
I really want to try and finish it, so that the borders can be quilted before spring. And yes, yesterday we had another stormy day. Tonight I met 3 snowmobilers crossing the road and taking of with a lot of speed. I don't mind winter, but even I have had enough. Let spring come, the sooner the better.

A touch of spring

It has been a very quiet week here at Lauren Farms.
Early last Wednesday morning Laurence left with fellow enthousiasts to go to Moline, Illinois for the "gathering of the green" And no, this has nothing to do with St. Patrick's Day.
This is a gathering of antique John Deere lovers. So that meant, that it was just me, the dog and the chickens at home. Now I do chores all the time, but it is different, when you are by yourself. As long as everything mechanical is working I'm fine, but if even one switch won't turn or one auger stops, I'm lost. It would only be till Sunday evening, but things changed. I ran into a few problems in the barn, which were fixable, but annoying and took a lot of time and than Laurence phoned. The truck had broken down, was in the garage, but parts would not be in till Monday so.... their return had been delayed. Can't say I was overly thrilled. Then yesterday I was told, that the wrong part had been ordered, so it would be another day. By that time I felt sorry for the guys, more than for me. We still managed here. But they are on their way and should be home in a few hours. But we did have a few sunny days and one of the visitors to the bird feeder was this nuthatch. They are very shy birds and don't stay at the suet ball long. I love watching them going down the tree.
Then yesterday I found a sure sign of string. Right there, in a sunny spot I found the first snowdrop. I have always loved these small flowers, even as a kid.
Needless to say, that not much got done on the postcard quilt. It is almost impossible to sew the narrow strip on by myself. When the quilt is nice and level I cannot get at the machine and when Im ready to sew, it is all bunched up. So I have asked a friend to help me next week. Tomorrow is guild meeting and 3 small quilts are ready to be taken in .
Right now it is raining and a lot of the snow is gone. I do hope for better weather for Easter.Laurence's wish is to be able to go for one last snow mobile ride at Easter time. I doubt he will get his wish or it has to be a very slushy ride.

Postcards

Another week-end....more snow. What's new! But this time it affected us quite a bit. Shawn and Emily flew home for the week-end. Their bridal party had organized a big party at the local Community Center. A few hundred tickets had been sold and everything was a go, till Saturday morning. It started to snow and it never let up. By supper time hubby decided to blow snow again and I would do the chores. Problem number one: The door handle to the barn was frozen, but nothing that some hot water could not take care of. Problem number 2: once inside I closed the door, so when the chores were done, the lock was frozen again. Laurence was still blowing snow and even if he came home, I could not be sure he would notice my absence. For all he knew I was upstairs, sewing. But there was this small side door. I got it open and faced over 4 feet of snow. It seemed most of it ended up either in my boots or under my clothes. But I did get out and closed the door. More hot water opened the door again. This time I kept the door open ,while I checked things out one more time.
The road was very bad, but we did decide to go to the party, at least for a while. But I was prepared. We took the 4 wheel drive truck and I took an extra coat, snow pants ,socks, and hat along, just in case.About 200 people showed up. When we left (early) it was funny to see the parking lot, full of big pickup trucks. And yes, we made it home. Sunday was better, although I had counted on 12 for dinner ( 4 birthdays the previous week) and ended up with only 4. So lots of left-overs. By Sunday afternoon things had turned back to normal and we got the kids back at the airport in time for their flight to Calgary. Next time home will be for their wedding in July.
Back to quilting. I have been working on this quilt for MCC. I want it to be a two-sided quilt ,so both side of the cards can be seen. The problem was, how to make it strong enough. I came up with the following. First 2 cards were sewn togheter with a zigzag stitch. I cut 1 inch wide strips of dark blue fabric and ironed them double.
I sewed a strip on each side with a narrow seam. Both strips were folded over and ironed. The loose ends were sewn down with a narrow blanket stitch The cards were all supposed to be 4 by 6 inches, but some were wider, some narrower and that made it harder to get them all in a straight row. But I did get them all together and pinned around the center. And oh boy....it all fitted just right.
The next step will be to sew the long inside strips. I will have to set up a few tables and ironing boards to get a big flat area for that. The size right now is about 45 by 60 inches. My idea is to put another 12 inch wide strip around this, again in the trip around the world pattern, with a few Mariner Compasses and some silhouettes.And now it is back to knitting sock number 2. And I did find out that 5 rows is all I should do or my shoulders start to complain.

Anniversary quilt

Exactly a year ago we had a big snow storm. Laurence left early that morning for a meeting in London and he never made it back home till the next morning. He ended up sleeping in the car about 20 km from home. Well, this morning he left for the same meeting, again with snow coming down heavy at times. But right now things have changed. The snow has stopped falling and the sun is out. He should have no problems this time Just a day to go for a long walk with the dog. I have been working on a few projects, but really have nothing to show yet. This quilt I made over 10 years ago after my parent's 50th wedding anniversary. I'm the only one in Canada. My parents decided to celebrate this day with us here in Canada. This time they did the traveling, not us.The rest of the family all came over and they all stayed over at our place. We did borrow a few trailers, but it all worked out fine.
After everybody had gone home I started to work on this quilt. I had some of the pictures printed on fabric, a first for me. The blue fabrics I used for the piecing and appliqque were choosen to give it a feel of the old tiles we had in our kitchen

The walls were covered with old Delft's blue tiles, some with fancy flowers. Later, when the front of the farm was replaced, some of these tiles were incorporated into the new hall.
The lettering I did with reverse applique, also a first for me. The leaves are embroidered. It was quilted by my mother-in-law Hilda Mae. I finished it a year after the celebration and had it shipped over to Holland, where it has hung in my parent's bedroom ever since.

When my mother passed away in January I took it home with me and now it hangs in our bedroom.

Back in business

Last week I wrote about my machine troubles. I was sure I would be without machine for a while, but the day after I wrote the entry I had a call. The machine was fixed and was ready for pick-up. I could not have asked for better service from K.W. Sewing Machines and Janome.
So it is back to machine quilting the Smile quilts, one per week.
This block is ready for embellishments. I have quite a few ribbons, beads and other things, but they were stashed in different places. That meant, that at times I would forget what I had. So after a trip to the Bass Pro Shop for small tackle boxes and a set of watchmaker tins from Lee Valley, I'm in business. Everything has its place. Now I have to be sure to put it all back in the right place.
My mother-in-law has been in the hospital for over a week now ( tomorrow she can come home again). At least one of us will visit her each day. On Saturday Jenny and Tony came for lunch and then went on to visit grandma.
She left me with some yarn and some needles.

I taught myself to knit before I went to school. I watched my mother , sitting across from her and since I'm kind of ambidextrious it was not hard for me to just knit mirror wise. But once in school I got into trouble, because that was not in the Dutch knitting curriculum. No standing in the corner or other punishments changed my style of knitting though. Over the years I did a lot of knitting, but about 10 years ago I had too much trouble with my shoulders and back, so I quit. Jenny has been knitting for a few years now and has quite a stash of yarns. I'm feeling pretty good, so decided that I should see if I could still knit socks. This time, instead of Jenny raiding my fabrics, it was me who wanted some yarns from her stash. This is Koigu and it knits beautiful. I promised myself to only knit after supper for a few minutes ,but that is very hard to do. I'm not a patient person. It is still winter around here. We did miss most of the snow, but it is still bitter cold. But for me there will be a spring tonic tomorrow in the form of a visit to the Stratford Garden Show. If that will not get me in the mood for spring I don't know what will.

Sewing machine troubles

I know,that I'm a day late, but yesterday was guild day and I had a list long enough to be gone for the whole day. And than there were some exta chores at home to take care of in the evening.
Last week would have been the week to get a lot of machine quilting done. But after only 5 minutes the machine stopped....dead in it's tracks. No matter, what it would not budge. That meant an extra trip into Waterloo.
Yesterday I was told, that it needed to be taken to the factory. All the gears had been stripped, something that the dealer had never seen. Since I have not had the machine long, he hoped that it would be a warranty job, so let's keep our fingers crossed.
I have another machine, but it does not have the same room to hold a quilt. Time to switch gears. One thing on my list was another crazy quilt block.
Last year I made the first block of my "horsey" quilt. I tried to use as many things as I could to remind me of our horses at home. My mother gave me the ribbons and I received pieces of old lace used with Frisian costumes. The finished block is below with my father on his horse in the forties.
Now we forward to the sixties and we see my youngest brother and me on our horses. At that time we did it very simple. There were no trailers, riding arena's or even lessons. We would tride after school on a small piece of land in front of the farm and we thought we had it made. And see.....no helmets yet.
The piece of fabric on the right is from my sister's Frisian costume. The piece at the top is from a collection of reprinted Dutch shintzes I bought last year from De Haan and Wagemakers from Amsterdam.
The weather has been great for snowmobiling. Today it was sunny, but cold, but it was just right for a walk with the dog.

Another week....another storm

I'm just about tired of this winter. Friday Jeanette came for a visit. I helped her with 2 baby quilts and some knitting problems. Our plan for Saturday was to go to Port Huron and do some shopping there. Friday evening Laurence decided to come along, as long as he could have breakfast at the Cracker Barrel. Saturday morning the chores were done before 7 and soon after we were on our way. After 10 minutes and 2 cars in the ditch, I was ready to turn around, but both daughter and husband only knew one direction...and that was forward, even after we saw an accident with 2 smashed cars and a horse trailer partly in the ditch. I have to agree, that the driving was not too bad, because there were not many people on the road. We did make it and were good and hungry for breakfast once we were over the border. And we did get our shopping done. The trip home was less stressfull. No snow till the last 15 minutes. Sunday was a different story. Blowing snow made it impossible to do anything. Chores were done with the help of tractor and snowblower. And what did not help either was the fact, that we had to take our computer in to town to get fixed a few days earlier. And the t.v. did not work right either. Jeanette had no choice but stay for an extra day. We cut some patches, read, she made pies and I made a big pot of soup. Monday was sunny and cold and things got back to their regular routine.
The last few days I have made some small quilt tops for the guild's Smile Quilt program. The one above is about 36 by 36. I made 2 identical ones. The one below still needs a border, but I have used all the fabric I bought. I was 2 blocks short, but found some matching chicken fabric.

The third one has a school busses. I think there is about 2 inches of fabric left over. All of them will be machine quilted and they all will have flannel on the back.
This afternoon I put the outside border on the Mariner Compass Quilt and I hope to take it in to the quilter tomorrow. It is big, about 96 inches. By now there is enoug snow for hubby to go out on the snowmobile. We hope for a few sunny and calm days so he can go for a few runs. I will stay in and get more projects finished.

Changed my mind

Yesterday I went looking for the white fabric and I could find nothing even close.
Then a thought struck me, why does it have to be white?
I went back to the store where I got the other fabric and found a green that matched perfect.
When I tried a similar white piece it looked very traditional The green border will give it a more up to date look, at least I hope. I do have to put an extra 1/2 inch wide piece all around to set the sashing of. But I have enough fabric to do that.So I hope to put the border on later this week and start with the marking next week and then it is ready for the quilter.
This has been a week of finishing things. The orchid quilt has finally been marked. The rectangles will be done in sashiko, the rest will be regular quilting.
The same here. The part circles will be sashiko with of white thread, the rest regular quilting with a dark blue thread.
Another project has been a baby quilt. A friend of Jenny's started on her first quilt. The baby was born early and she went back to work soon after, so Jenny took it home and it ended up here. Whoever had helped her in the store, did not know much about quilting. A velour type of fabric for the back is slippery and hard to quilt.I bought flannel for the back and a small check to use for a border. It all came together and I even enjoyed the machine quilting. I think I'm ready for another Smile quilt. Our guild tries to have enough Smile quilts available at the local hospital to hand one out to each child, who has a serious illness and there is always a demand for more.
These quilts give me a possibility to try out some different machine quilting.
There are a few other small project to finish. But I just don't feel like starting on something big right now. Have no inspiration it seems.
Time to go for a walk. School busses were cancelled, because of a storm coming our way, but that has not materialized. Just a few snowflakes, that's all for now.

Back to winter

Yesterday it was cool and rainy. Today we are back to winter with blowing snow and hard wind. School busses were cancelled and the list of cancelations on the radio are long. A perfect time to stay inside and work on a quilt. The center of the Mariner Compass has been completed. The worst part was the cutting to size of the blocks. I was very scared to cut wrong, so I measured at least 2 times, often more. But it all went together like a charm. The size is about 76 by 76 inches. I want a 10 inch border all around, but still have not been able to find the right fabric. I did find out, that it is an older fabric, what does not make it any easier. Below you can find the culprit. It is a neutral tone on tone.
If it cannot be found I either have to find something very similar, or go for something completely different. Any suggestions?

This has never happened to me before. Only once I had to ask for more fabric. That was for my first album quilt.In that case, one of the red fabrics ran into the white, even after been washed at least once.That time I was lucky and I received enough to finish the quilt. I did remove all the bad red pieces and bought another red, which did not bleed. But boy did I test that first!

A few weeks ago Jenny brought me a partly finished baby quilt. This was the first project of one of her friends. But the baby came early and soon after she went back to work, so Jenny took it home with her. She is planning to come next week-end to help me,but I decided put it together and today was machine quilting day. A small project is fun and it is almost ready for the binding.

Then it is back to the quilt for the MCC sale or in other words the "post card" quilt. The center is almost ready to be quilted and I'm looking at all the cards now. I received two more at the last guild meeting. Of the 83 cards, 55 came back, more then enough for the quilt I have in mind. More next week.

And life goes on

Thank you so much for all your kinds thoughts. It has been a few tough weeks and we will miss "Beppe" very much.
I never would have thought that so many of you would respond.
The reason I started this blog was my dislike of any kind of writing. That got worse after one of my quilts was disqualified from a show because of my artist's statement( that's another story). Melissa, who looks after my website encouraged me to give it a try and so I try to write something at least once a week.
Today I had planned on showing you my progress with the compass quilt, but an unexpected trip to the doctor with my mother-in-law changed all that.
Another hour and all the pieces will have been pieced and appliqued. Now the scary part.... the cutting to size. I cut one strip an inch too short already! So there has been progress, that is the good part. Now for the bad. Last week I went back to the store for more fabric for the border and it was all sold. So now I have to look around and if nothing can be found I will have to get creative. This should not have happened to somebody with my experience, but it did!!!!
It has been cold and blustery the last days and this time a picture of a winter scene. I started this small piece during a workshop with Rheta Budd. It was fun to do and did not take long
Yesterday it happend again. Another quilt magazine and more ideas. I love looking through these magazines with all those great ideas. Then I look at my work in progress and come back to reality. I seem to go for the big and slow projects that take months, or sometimes close to a year.
I wonder what it would be like to make one small piece a week.
Computer time has been at a premium these last few weeks. Two nieces have stayed with us since the beginning of the year. They will finish their school semester and then join their parents in Saskachewan. This has meant the clean-up of 2 rooms. As our kids moved out I moved in with my quilt "stuff". It all ended up in my sewing room again with as a result that I cannot find anything. By next week I can use the rooms again. I will have to sit down and make 2 piles of stuff, one to keep and one to go. It is amazing what you can accumulate over the years.

Loss

There was a reason I have not updated my blog for a few weeks.
A week ago on Sunday I received a call from my brother in Holland. My mother had passed away very suddenly, a week shy of her 91st birthday. The Friday before she had phoned me yet and we had a very good talk. She had a massive stroke and did not suffer much.
Plans had to be made in a hurry . Jeannette and I flew over on Tuesday. The funeral was on Friday. During the visitation I met a lot of people I had not seen in a long time,but I wished it would not have been for this reason.
We flew back on Sunday and arrived in Kitchener around midnight.
This picture was taken last year, when I was over for her 90th birthday. She did still some knitting, but she complained about her failing eye sight.
It was from my mother that I learned my needle work skills. I was not even in school and I learned myself to knit, sitting across from her. It was easy for me to change hands, so I just copied her knitting and did it mirror wise. And I still knit "backwards" despite the teachers trying to change that. Sewing was learned on a threadle machine, a Singer.She did mostly mending, but did make our clothes, when we were small. Later there was a motor on the machine.
My mother loved to knit and crochet and she would knit the whole family socks till she was well into her 80th.
She also taught me to never give up. I was diagnosed with scoliosis when I was 4 and had a brace on from 4 till 16. I think it hurt her more than me to see me struggle at times. But it did help me and the cost of all that was not easy for a beginning farmer after the war.
Yes, we had our quarrels and could not agree on things, but that happens.
Friday is coming up again, the day I used to give her a call.
I will miss her!

Another year, the same quilt

Now that the holidays are over it is back to piecing the mariner compass quilt.
On New Year's Eve we enjoyed a fun evening with friends and on New Year's Day we visited Jeanette and Tony. Our son Shawn and his fiance Emily flew in from Alberta on Monday and this was the first time in a while that all six of us were together. We will not see them much for the rest of the week. They will try and get as many things as possible arranged for their wedding in July. That also means, that I have to get this quilt top done before the end of the month. The points have all been pieced and right now I'm working on the sashing. I do not have much fabric left, so I have to be very carefull with the next steps. I'm planning a 31/2 inch 8 point star where the pieces of the sashing meet. In total there will be 16. Then the 10 to 12 inch border will be plain. If I have time ( after the quilting)I will put double piping around the binding. Now I have to decide if it will be machine or hand quilted. My preference will be hand quilting. I guess it will depend on who is available.
A few weeks ago we went to get our yearly supply of birdfeed at a local Amish farm. As with so many others, they have started a side business. This family has a thriving business in bagging up different varieties of birdseed, that they will take to market. The quality is very good and the price is right. They also have a large selection of bird feeders. I found this "soda bottle" feeder and had to try it. The price was right, so I could not go wrong.
And as you can see, it works very well. The smaller birds love it. It takes some time to fill , but a funnel would make it much easier.

Theday after

This is about as energetic as we all felt early this morning. We had a few busy, but very good days. The family and friends are gone and we are left with good memories and lots of left-overs.
It started with a very meaningfull church service on Christmas Eve. At the end everybody, about 250 of us, gathered in the gym, with a lit candle and we sang the old carols in four part harmony. Getting out of church took a long time. Jeanette and Tony were along and this is the only time Jeanette will meet up with her buddies from her childhood. On Christmas day we had good company, good food and then presents. Now it is back to the two of us. When the sun came up we saw a winters' wonderland. The trees were covered with frost and and everything looked like a picture. Right after breakfast we went for a walk, but I missed the best part, when there still was some fog hanging in the fields.
I have tried to take pictures of birds with my new camera, but I have not been very successfull. After a few pointers from Tony I feel like I can do a better job. I took this picture of a woodpecker this morning, through a window in the kitchen. Mom and pop woodpecker are both around, but I have never seen them together. They seem to take turns at the feeder. This one, with the red spot on his head, is the male.

Tomorrow it will be back to some sewing. My plan is to have all 9 mariner compass blocks done by year end, at least the machine sewing.

Winter breakfast

That is the name of this wall hanging. When I made this 2 years ago I had seen all the birds at our feeder, though not all at the same time. Then a few decided to take a break. But that was till a few days ago.
Mom and pop woodpecker and mom nad pop cardinal have returend. I only saw cardinals here once before and it seems that we are as far norht as they go. You never see both of them. They seem to take turns. So do the wood peckers.
It has been another stormy week. No church on Sunday. We stayed indoors, except to blow snow and do the chores.We had a quiet day.
The bottom picture I took through the window. I cannot get any closer, or all the birds fly away. The suet ball has a small stick through the top, what hangs on the hook. It looks terrible, but this feeder is in a very windy spot and this way the birds do not have to be scared to be blown awayThe Christmas cards have been send, the tree is up, most of the gifts have been wrapped and the cookies have been baked, so I feel that I can spend some more time on the Mariner Compass quilt.
By now I have to figure out what I will do for the sashing and that will have to depend on how much fabric is left over. Still have not learned to get enough fabric right from the start.
I hope that you all have a great and safe Christmas and that the new year presents you with lots of joy and happiness in your life.

Christmas arrangements

It has been a quiet week here on the farm. Winter is still here, so most of our time is spend inside. But there was the job of cleaning the workshop.
We have a heated workshop on the farm. During the busy season equipment, that is in need of repairs, is driven in and repairs are done. What is not done, is the clean-up afterwards. So that was one of the jobs we tackled a few days ago. The floor was swept and things were put back in their right place. Then I decided that I might as well make my arrangements right there and use the picnic table. Usually I do that in the kitchen ,but there is always a big mess to lean up. This way all I have to do afterwards is get a broom, sweep the left overs in the tractor bucket and that's it.
On my visit to the One-of-a -kind show in Toronto last month I bought this small container, or really there are two, one inside the other. I love the shape and came up with this design, using my own yuca leaves, dogwood, corkscrew hazel, euyonymus and some cedar. The carnations I bought in town today.
Dogwood, corkscrew hazel, euyonymus and 2 ivies in a shallow bowl with water and cranberries.
I had so much fun ,that I had to make a third one, quite similar.
Here are the rest, still without the carnations. The start of most of these was a piece of wetted foam in a big mug .I will not keep most of these. Tomorrow I will put them in the car and deliver them to our neighbours. The deal is, that if they give me the container back, they will get a refill next year, at least if I'm still in the business of doing this.
Today I bought our (real) tree. It will have to wait till Saturday before I will put it up.
Still plodding along with the compasses. Will finish the piecing on number 7 tomorrow. Then I will put the machine away and instead work on finishing the blocks
And yes, there has to be some baking done yet too.

Gallery show

Snow, sleet, freezing rain, hard winds we had them all in the last week. Talk is now, that we will have an old-fashioned winter with lots of snow. I do not mind some snow, but Laurence is just dreaming about getting his snowmobile out.
Last Thursday the quilts were hung at the gallery and on our way home from Jenny's on Saturday we stopped by and had a look. It is a very good display and it was fun to see so many of my quilts hung in good light.
I had brought a little of everything. Something new, something old, some large and some small. This show will stay here till the end of the year. So, if you are in the neighbourhood, stop by and visit the quilt and knitting store on Woolwich Street in Guelph.
It is the time of year again to be thinking of making Christmas cards. I have made 10 cards for years now, but I just realized that I never kept any back for myself, so I have forgotten what all I have made over the years. I do know, that I never came up with this card. I made 11 this time and one will stay with me!
The background is a piece of ragpaper I bought years ago. I ripped the edges, the rest has been fused on. I put a piece of ribbon at the top, so it can be hung. Now my yearly letter in Dutch yet. This is about the only time I write in Dutch and it is not getting any easier. When I talk to my relatives we use the Frisian language.
This year my plan was to get all the greenery I need for my arrangements before the snow would make it hard. Last week the forecast was for maybe some rain and not too cold. Boy, were they wrong. So again this year I will tramp through the snow to get cedar, boxwood, holly and twigs. Next week will be the time to make big and small arrangements. I just keep on going till I run out of "stuff"