Well, so much for writing on this blog more often!  Bad me!  But I HAVE been busy sewing, along with all the other day to day stuff there is to do.

I finally finished my Christmas Cardinal duvet cover.  It's not supposed to be a duvet cover, but I don't have time to quilt it right now.  So I sewed it to a sheet and made a duvet cover out of it for this Christmas.  Next year, hopefully, I will take it off the sheet and actually quilt it.  I think I'm going to have to rent the long-arm machine at my local quilt store to get it quilted, as it's quite large, approximately 93 inches by 108 inches.  It all started when I fell in love with the fabric in the very middle and just had to buy some.  Then, as my SisterIL and I were driving around collecting Row By Row patterns, I kept finding more and more Christmas cardinal fabric ... and the panels.  Thus the idea of a Christmas quilt for our bed grew and grew.  I still have some pieces of the fabric left and need to make a pair of matching pillow covers, but not right now as there are so many things left to do before Christmas.

This is it on the livingroom floor before I added the sheet on the back.

And here it is on our bed.

Once that was done, I just had to get busy on one more project.  This is an individual Row By Row panel that I really wanted to get done for the second floor bathroom.  I changed it a little bit.  The pattern came from The Quilting Bee in Fonthill, Ontario.  Of course, their pattern had bees on it, but I changed them to ladybugs, as we have quite a problem with them swarming into the house in the fall. I also added the mirror.  It actually came from one of my purses and has velcro on the back, so I sewed a matching piece of velcro on the panel after the quilting was done.  This is the first time I've stipple quilted anything other than a practice square.  There are mistakes (I won't point them out) but nevertheless I am pleased with it.  Our second floor bathroom has two rooms, one with the tub and toilet, and one with two sinks, cupboards and a vanity.  This panel is now hanging in the tub room and I love it!

Now that is done, I will hopefully get back to the Row By Row quilt I was working on before.  It's supposed to be a Christmas present, but I don't know if they'll get a completed quilt or the pieces of it!  I'm doing it quilt-as-you-go.  In the meantime, I'm getting out all our Christmas decorations (at least 33 Rubbermaid tubs of them, not including the trees).  More about that later.

I'm also getting ready for our annual Tree-Trimming Party which will be this weekend.  We've been doing it for about 20 years and it just kept getting bigger and bigger.  We've had up to 60 people here (thank goodness for our big old house!).  I used to do all the cooking, but last year, due to health problems and age, I changed it to pot-luck.  It's nice not to have to worry about having too much or too little food.  I still do some cooking, especially my dinner buns and sweet and sour meatballs, but if we get a snowstorm and people can't come, they are easy to freeze.  My DH makes his clam chowder which seems to be the reason some people even come!  I decorate the rest of the house, lots of little do-dads and every room has a tree of some kind, but our guests decorate the main livingroom tree(with our own decorations).  My SonIL and his barbershop quartet come and serenade us with some Christmas songs and that's a big hit too.  Adults, teenagers, and kids ... it's crowded, it's noisy but it's  so much fun.

Bye for now ... time to get busy :D

Wow ... it has been four years since I added to this blog.  Hopefully I still know how to do it !  This will be a really long post, just to catch up.

Sewing and cooking have become the focus of my interests and travelling has been put on the back burner for the time-being.  I have turned into a really big fan of Pinterest and have had a lot of fun trying so many new recipes.

While I still love gardening, we have had such hot and humid weather the past few summers, that I haven't been able to do much in that direction.  I'm hoping that next spring will be a real spring so that I can get a lot done before the heat sets in.  Gardeners ARE eternal optimists, you know :)

I HAVE, however, been sewing a lot.  Mostly clothes for me and my grandchildren, with a little bit of children's clothing for charity.  The odd bit of 'crafty' sewing has been thrown in along the way, and now seems to be my main focus.

Two years ago I bought the material to make a king-size quilt/duvet cover for our bed.  The original idea required a ton of fussy-cutting and was rather intimidating, so I didn't start.  About two months ago I found a pattern on sale and it seems a little easier (and adaptable), so I think I will use that instead.  At about the same time, there was a tutorial on Pinterest for making the basic block for Drunkard's Path using freezer paper, and I thought I could use it for the quilt pattern.  Of course, I had to try it, so I did two sample blocks which turned out really well (picture me grinning like a Cheshire cat and muttering "it works, it really works!")... and then I couldn't waste those blocks, so I made myself a small tote bag.  I really like it, and it's had a lot of use.

Then, my SIL and I were in a local quilt shop and saw a Row By Row quilt, got very enthused, and I bought the kit and she got the free pattern.  Well, that really started the ball rolling.  Back (at my) home, we were both on the computer looking for more and figuring out how we could get more free patterns ... "Who do we know who lives near ...?"  Turns out that collecting the patterns was like eating peanuts ... you just want more and more.  I think by this weekend we have about 75% of the Ontario patterns and a few from other provinces and states.  I can't imagine that we will make all of them, and hopefully next June when the new ones come out we will stick to ones we can actually make ... but our plans were grand even if we don't make them all :)    So far I have made 4 panels towards the actual quilt, plus two others just in case I need them (they were easy ones and I needed the break).

I sewed quite a few of the 10-minute table runners from a video tutorial on YouTube.  I've done Easter ones for me, my DDs, my DDIL, and a dear friend, Autumn ones for us all, plus a whole whack of Christmas ones.  I bought all the fabric for last Christmas and didn't get them done (because I was desperately trying to get sets of 8 placemats done for my DDs and my DDIL), so it was nice to use up all that material.  After having done all that, I can tell you it still takes me longer than 10 minutes to make one :)

I also used up some of the Christmas material making a few other things.  I made a reversible cover for my Kitchen Aid mixer ... everyday side with green ivy material and the reverse side with Christmas gingerbread material.  I also tried making a Dresden Plate block and turned it into a table topper for the kitchen.  It's not perfect, but it looks pretty good, if I do say so myself !

So now I am back to working on another Row By Row panel and whatever else strikes my fancy for something quick and easy in between.

AND ... I've done something really dangerous ... I started reading sewing blogs.  Somehow or other I ended up reading a blog from a lovely lady in Norway (May Britt at http://abyquilt.blogspot.ca) which led to another, then another, then another, which led to more lovely ladies from Australia (one of whom is Chookyblue at http://chookyblue.blogspot.com.au).  I love the work that they do.  They incorporate a lot of appliqué and embroidery in their quilts/wallhangings.  Of course, that set me on another tangent, and now I have some of that hand-work on the go for quiet times.  A couple of new books with patterns had to be purchased as well.  They are not easy to find here in my part of the world, so I have also digitally subscribed to Australian Homespun magazine.  So many wonderful patterns :)  But I thank all those wonderful blog ladies.  They are such a source of inspiration.

That's it for today.  Take care.  Hope your day is wonder-full :)
NannyBee