You may be waiting a while to see this creation

I am wanting to make a drunkards path quilt actually two twin sized. I have 350+ blocks all stitched Here is my heap of 50. I have also grouped them on the ironing board to press them nicely .

Now here is the big reveal of my work so far.

Now just to let you know it took my 4 evening to cut these out, another 4 mornings with loads of interruptions to get them together. Now you wonder what is next?? I have these all pressed but I need to make sure they are all square. SO back to the cutting board.


And you think I would be close to having these done- oh no!! After they are all the same sized seams rechecked for duds I will sort them into like groups. After which I have to decided whether I will make a block up of four but will they all be the same color, color arranged on the diagonal or helter skelter. That all depends on how many of each I have. In my efforts I believe that the numbers are equivalent in the same color tones. I hope!

Then to stitch them up. This is the one most time consuming quilt and I wonder if I didn't think it might have been possible to create it in larger pieces each segment is 4" square. But why make it  easy on myself.  Actually there is an explanation- the black was a gift and was cut on the bias the pieces I had need to fit into the equation thus the smaller blocks. Yep I make life interesting.

Only a little test of time

So on a walk and  popping into a thrift shop I found this old hand driven singer - it can be converted to a treddle machine should someone find a workable lower unit. The total cost out of pocket $14. Picture one is pre cleaning and oiling and picture two is all set to start sewing

I looked up the registration number it is a 1908 as close as I can figure and made in Scotland. the thistle pattern gave it away!.
After a little oil it works and great I might add, even better no electricity used. It is only missing a little plate over the bobbin and I was able to order one. The pattern on the bed is a little worn but is much better than my foggy picture. I waxed and oiled the machine it will never be new as the clear coat has worn off the bed but it is a keepsake none the less. Even better it fits snuggly into my free to me table.

I am very pleased with my find and there are so many of these machines around. but this is a great find and the thrift shop is to support women in need so it is a win win situation.

I also have an electric model much the same that is in the original Wooden Brentwood box that my mother had and still works like a charm . I am very fortunate to have these machines and they are all in working condition. I think I found a new hobby

No snow only rain!

So a wonderland needs to be created. What better place then Victoria's downtown Bay Center. The Center is a gentle walk  a few km's from the house, we can easily walk it in about 15 minutes . Here you will find a little bit of Xmas with trees that have been snow bitten to a huge wreath that you can plant yourself into for that Xmas card- 8 X 10 glossy that you have been waiting to send your relatives.

What I neglected to do is to get a picture of the ice cicles hanging from the ceiling you can see them faintly in the picture above, they are strands of light hanging from the 3 storey ceiling I can see I need  a return visit

Wonderful display in Victoria, BC Parkide Hotel

There are many more to see this is merely a sampling ( no pun intended) the displays are made from gingerbread with an awful lot of icing and fondant. The Parkside has their display in a lower atrium with ponds and huge gold fish. The humidity is doing in the models and one was gone- I thought eaten but apparently in for repair because of the moisture degrading the display. SO my thought is why not make a plexiglas box to fit over each display and seal it from the environmental conditions. I can only train so many.

Some of these intricate designs took months in the making

The short and the long of it!

Well yes I have been missing in action . No I did not elope, get lost on a Desert Island, or win the lottery  Unfortunately it was a little more involved. My body decided to throw a fit so I have had to relearn a few new skills including how to survive on a very low carb  high protein diet. I have no problem with a keto diet that I have been forced to adopt. Basically I have learned to readjust my thinking to veggies ( that I love) high protein foods- not a problem but a whole heck of a lot less carbs. Just to make it interesting check your cupboards and see how you can last on 25 carbs a day. Ok so let me give you an example one little apple is at least 50 carbs and sweet apples forget it they are 100 carbs! Oh and that potato or banana could cost you at 30 carbs just looking at them . Yes it is an eye opener and I make it into a game. I have not touched any chocolate bars and Ben has a box of 90 he bought for Halloween and he knows how that we never get trick or treaters and now they are all his bounty.

Well that is just one mysterious ailment I managed to display- too many to go on and on about, once I get into experimentation mode I am going to start testing recipes and perhaps make up my own diabetic cookbook- It is a new adventure

Speaking of adventures I am unable to travel across the border. Trump probably has my  number anyway. So what is one to do?? Just like the dirty thirties GO West my child! And soon I will board a plane for beautiful British Columbia. It is going to be a different season for us but I have everything organized and even the neighbors.

A nice lady friend will pick us up from the plane and take us to the house. Another so sweet neighbor will help me haul home new furniture that I purchased, one can always use an uplift in decor. I have the events calendar up so I won't miss any festival , craft fair, or store sales.

I am thinking I am soon good to go!

So now you have been brought up to speed and I do hope that I can keep you entertained through my adventures. I have not been to BC ever in the wintertime so we will see what fun I can get into!!

In the meantime I haven't felt much like being creative but I did zip a few things up

Aren't these the cutest lace booties? I made them on my embroidery machine

This is getting rediculous

I need to open a shop. I do need to buy some ribbon to pretty them up, this is some binding I split and used for pic purposes

Silly boy

Wants to ride solo and give mom a heart attach - DO you see how sad he is ?

update on crafts

I have been running from one thing to another. This quilt is slow progress as it has a lot of pieces to stitch together. I am 1/2 way through and I started yesterday . I do it in drabs, bits and pieces. Unfortunately the disc degeneration doesn't like the stance that I have to hold to sew. Each row I complete I am vigorously doing my exercises. I am hoping that by Wed I can have this top completed. I have 40 rows across and 50 down I am on row 21. Time for a break I am sure there are things calling my name. 

The good news is that I am great at multitasking, the house is clean, bird is cooked and Ben removed the meat from the bones. I blew out the driveway and swept it and Ben repaired a section of fence that I needed an extra hand for. SO we are in good shape---------- for a nap!!!

Here is what 1/2 my project looks like

Here is the full quilt

Purification system

Some people put their valuables in the closet this is our! WE do not have a basement so we mounted this in the closet next to the water softener. Now our water in not contaminated, YIPPY

AS you can see there are two hoses one to bring the water to the Purification system through the UV light ( in the silver tube) out to the filter then through the house. This system is in place because we can't properly sterilize our well- we keep trying hopefully soon. We are unable to treat the water at the source so we are purifying it as it comes into the house. The cost is $100 a year for maintanence for the UV bulb. Lucky for us our system was on sale when we purchased it last week!

Tokyo Subway

I decided to take this quilt on . It is quite labour intensive. It took me a week to lay out all these pieces 20 rows X 50 pieces and that is only one half of the quilt. It is much easier to see the pattern work when I lay it out and the transit lines

One more duplicate piece to stitch and then seam them together , followed by all horizontal piecing. Hmm wonder if I have enough background fabric

Want to colour?

I made Ted a crayon roll. The inside has frogs.. see the lines of stitching to keep his crayons straight?

My favourite Lawnchair has a hole in it what shall I do??

I found the perfect self portrait graphic and I adhered it to the chair- there we go and now we know which one is mine!

Are you sleepy

How about a book, better yet a reading pillow. This was pretty easy and fits a 16 X 16 pillow, I made it and put velcro on the enclosure. I am going to get Teddy's MOM to buy the pillow so I can put more things in his Xmas box

Horse crazy

I had some scrap and wanted to do a little something different. I drew out a template and then started to cut and glue strips on, added batting, channel stitching and red binding here we are 24 X 40 . Still have a ton of scrap it backfired!!

Wonder what mosaic I will do next!

Stay tuned

http://ohfransson.bigcartel.com/product/tokyo-subway-map-expanded

Check this out it is the pattern that I want to make and I am oh so close to getting all those squares cut out. Mine will be a little more scrappy !  I need to always have something in the background to play with ! I am not sure how much I will get done next week but here is trying!

Enough of this Craziness

We have been battling contaminated water for weeks
We have sterilized the plumbing from the pump through all our house plumbing.
The sample was to be analyzed but off the chart so very contaminated
Then  we had to take up the steps on the little deck for their lies the wellhead.
We managed to dig down and hit a pipe about 5 feet down under and we were lucky to get away with only digging a hole  12 " across, we found the top of the sandpoint well. Six bottles of javex and a few weeks later we got a clean sampling. SO now we have marked the sandpoint head more visibly and punk a hose down so that next time instead of digging up the darn thing we can feed javex through . That is our no dig, less work approach,  if ever there is a next time. We will repeat the samples until we are assured everything is holding clear.

Next up is reassembling the steps and putting them back, we had to cut them out as they were soo stuck in place but the good news is that we have a ton of wood to work with , and I have just enough stain to cover the repair job. 

Ted's time

Ted had his 3rd birthday while we were visiting. Ted loves books and especially when there are a lot of people to read to him. Notice the placemats  I made in Florida!
He is one happy and active kiddie.
GD bought him an ahooga horn

So much to let so little time

As you know our place has been a disaster zone literally

But I was able to get in some little crafting from Paw Patrol cape, T shirts, Reading pillows and a crayon roll. I have a quilt in the process with about 2000 pieces that I have almost cut out, It will be an adventure and lots of use for my scraps. I hope my plan works out.

 SO here we go pictorial form

 See the froggies when the crayon roll is opened

SO far that is it! Not much to show for we have been so busy

One foot forward and three back!

We are slowly gaining ground
Almost all the equipment in the garage has been taken apart cleaned and the motors tweaked so far we know we have lost one of our pricey tools and the most expensive piece we are stalling on - the generator.

The grounds are not too bad and I only lost a few flowers, my grass is having a hard time because with the flood waters came clay and it is all over. Even after power washing the mud from the driveway , it will not give so hopefully in the next decade it will wear off. I have so many weeds I found a weed and feed that is corn meal based it covers the lawn like a thick blanket, I picked two garbage pails of weed so the hunt is on for better yard grass. It is starting to come back very slowly . My apple tree has a lot of little apples Ben's tree zippo too many little animals loves his trees!!

 Now for the bad news- our water is so contaminated- too much for even a dog's consumption  . Ben just found the well head and a friend is coming tomorrow to help dig a trench. We will fill the trench with Javex so that hopefully it will bleach out the  cause root of the water problem, We suspect caused by all the water logged septic tanks in the area that were under water during the flood.  So tomorrow is another day hopefully once treated and then waiting for the tests we will some good news. In our limited wisedom when we put this head in we marked it with a steak after 4 feet down - where is the sillly well- we were over by 6" to the left, a little shovel in the right direction - EUREKA.How is that for old foggies?

Surprise! We were away when the flood hit
My friend turned off our power and he kept an eye on the place
Once all the water disappeared he spent many hours cleaning up and taking care of the yard. We are so thankful as there are so many repairs to be made and a lot of equipment loss including a  new car that I had for a week.

It will be awhile until we are back to normal but at least now the house looks somewhat presentable