Thanksgiving poodles................

We had a visitor for Thanksgiving. Carrie and Justin brought Winslow with them. He is feeble. The sweetest doggie ever. Love him to bits. He thought he was getting away with something getting petted on Gerry's lap. He is not allowed on furniture. He soon cottoned on to that and came and asked.Do we look crowded, five kids on the seat with us?

The Poodles all accepted him into the fold. Only once did Bodi object when I was petting him. She was not happy about that but only growled a little bit.
He settled in and was quite at home.

Ya think?

Meanwhile the Poodles all napped as well. When they all awoke Winslow (who is deaf) slept on.He doesn't see well either and when he went outside he kept going in the garage thinking he was in the house.


Bella relaxes much like Winslow

When they wake up they want a drink. They have to have my water out of a glass. Gerry tried to get a picture of them both with their heads in the glass but Brea got in so deep Bella had to take a breath.


That was the Poodles Thanksgiving, everyone had a good time. You know, sleep, eat, sleep, drink and get a few pets in and so on.

Linens saved................

I have written about this before but as I just finished ironing all afternoon, well, I had to share my love of linens again. There are many beautiful linens to buy and choose from on the market today. I prefer old linens though. When I iron them I see how much love and work was put into them. It's just not the same when something is mass produced or manufactured. Mine have imperfections and stains and that's OK. It's a part of who they are. They were used and loved once and so when I see them at garage sales I buy them. I have way more than I will ever use, drawers full now. People don't like to iron things anymore. I don't mind that. I just had to be in the mood. It took most of the afternoon but had been accumulating for a couple of years maybe.
So here are a few pictures of some of my lovies.





I am always amazed at some of the skill of the people who did the embroidery. I can't say ladies because my Dad was quite skilled in the art. Dad did this table runner, detail of one end. I remember both mum and dad sitting by the fire with needles flashing.

Some are just pretty and the linens that they are sewn on is so soft and always comes up beautiful after a wash



Some of the towels, I can't imagine doing all that work and actually using them. I have a whole drawer full of table cloths, they get used frequently. The tea towels and guest towels though, not so much.

I use the table runners a lot, keeps dust off of bedroom furniture for one thing.

I have some favourites. This next one......The back is as lovely as the front, someone was very skilled.The French knots have flattened and are soft now.


Some have been mended and the skill of the people who darned them is as great as those who embroidered. This one is a table runner and was apparently not long enough for the hand crochet lace.
You can't see the stitches they are so small.

I do love the crocheted doilies, have done several of those myself. I doubt I will do any more now. Too much else to do and no one really appreciates the time and skill it takes. I often wonder if any of the girls in the family will ever take up any of the domestic skills.?

I think only by doing this yourself can you appreciate the work that goes into it. I taught myself crochet but embroidery and sewing were taught in school. Not an elective either. We began in the early grades and worked up. Learned it all. One of the things was thread pulling.

We learned cross stitch on gingham, we learned to hem and gather stitches and sew a pocket on an apron. Then embroidered it with cross stitch.


I have yet to learn tatting. I should really as I would love to know how. Is there any point now I wonder


I really like the stitches on this one. Applicate and the embroidery is so cute too.

Remember when ladies had hankerchiefs?

Look at the French knots on this one. What a beautiful blue.

Well, that's my ironing out of the way and I did enjoy it and the memories it invoked.

Not done yet..................

You would think I would have run out of steam by now. I mean, I have probably not got this much accomplished since I began quilting. I do feel like a bit of a fraud because I am not actually doing the quilting part myself. I am sending them to Barb who has the long arm. Still, my goal was to use and not waste all the fabric I bought over the years. My first project a nine patch got me hooked. That one I did stitch in the ditch and hand tied it. My first quilting lesson I was talked into taking. Silly me. How could I know it would become an obsession with fabric?



I wish the colours would show better on this one (above) Its just beautiful. I bought the panel and the fabric seperate but it just goes so well. It will be backed with a nice deep red. I did add another border and it was the right choice. I love this one and may keep it myself.
I started sewing just after I left school. We did learn to sew in school back then so was already well on my way. My Dad bought me and mum a sewing machine. Well we both made clothes with it. I had started going out on weekends with friends to dances and needed clothes. We would make a new dress for every Friday night. It was easy back then as "shifts" were in. I have always learned quite well by reading instructions. I taught myself to crochet that way. So I even sewed one dress with a scalloped hem. I made clothes for our next door neighbour and even made a wedding dress.
Anyway, it seemed that a 9 patch was simple enough and would teach me basics for quilting. I enjoyed the lesson because I was with friends. I was horrified when I saw the 9 patch quilt we were to make. I figured 9 squares sewn together how bad could it be? Well those 9 patches were small and formed one quilt block, not at all what I envisioned. Still.........it was fun and we got er done.



The next one above is a Christmas quilt, most likely wont be done for this year but will be added to the stash for next Christmas gifts. I have two more Christmas ones to do.
I do have some bed size quilts to make but will save those for last and maybe make those a bit more complicated. I do hope I can get the machine out again after Thanksgiving and not stop while I am on this binge of sewing. I have 3 more cut out to start this week. I am hoping Edna will have time to come over and help me figure out the size for the backs of the ones I have done so far. Also hope Barb has time to do them for me.


Meanwhile I also got another Scubbie done. I love this yellow. I am going to buy some plain tea towels and put borders on them to go with the quilts I am giving as gifts. I am currently doing one in a raspberry shade. I like the combination of the two yarns together. Although I must say that the one I did for me in the beginning that is just the scrubby yarn works very well for what it was intended. I just wanted to try with a more absorbent yarn in it to see if it works better. I shall see when I try the first double yarn one.
Meanwhile I am also doing scarves but they can wait until done to show those.
Carry on................

Project review............

My last couple of quilt tops.


I really like this one with the Roosters, I have no place for it though. This will be finished after Christmas as I have too much to do before Christmas to complete what I want to make. I may keep it myself, I am not sure yet.
The next one thats under way

Egyptian Kitty
No home for this one yet either. I am not sure what I will back this one with just yet.

I really don't want to buy more fabric so may just choose to use the plain beige and have Barb do an intricate design that will show.
The one I am working on now is a garden quilt. It would actually be nice to sit outside in the garden in the Spring or Fall.

I brought down the rest of my fabrics from upstairs storage. I thought I was doing pretty good in using up fabric but when I got it all down I can see that I have only just began. I even brought down the Christmas fabrics. I think I will save that until next year and do it justice because I do have some nice Christmas fabric. I have to keep myself on track though. I need to start on Tote bags soon.

accomplishments....................

Not a lot accomplished this week but a bit anyway..............I got 6 more quilt tops to Barb this week. I picked up 3 she had finished. Good deal right. She does an awesome job with her long arm quilting. She also has some nice patterns. I did this small one for Cooper at Christmas and she had a pattern of a happy little fat plane that went on the back.


Isn't the little chubby plane cute?
These are lap size quilts. Handy for snuggling on the couch to watch TV or maybe take to a ball game.
This next one is a kitty quilt and she enhanced it with kitty paws in the machine quilting.


The third one is a bird quilt.............these quilts are quick and easy to make and use up printed fabrics that you dont want to cut, or use panels. I have so much fabric that I am using as much as I can. I will keep on making these and keep a stash of ready made quilts for gifts instead of fabric.


On the bird quilt you can see that Barb used a pattern of small birds.
I have two more cut and ready to sew. These too are both a panel and some fabric I dont want to cut up. I didnt have a lot of the Egytian cat one so its going to be a lap quilt and I have some Egyptian pattern fabric for borders. I am not sure what I will back it with yet. This is what I am putting together as the top.

Then the next one I think will be a table topper.Not sure, I may just do another lap one.

Another thing I have going, I am making pot scrubbers. I made one as directed but found it not at all absorbent. SO............I did the same thing with double yarn, the scrubby yarn and some cotton. If that's no better then I will back it with terry fabric but dont want to have to buy more stuff

I will also do a few kits that I have to give as gifts. This is one from a couple of years ago that I kept but will give away I think. If I had more followers who left comments on my blogs I might just do a giveaway.

Then this is one I bought a few years ago with the intent of doing a few myself.

I stopped in the Thrift shop the other day and didnt find a lot but did get this little teapot.

Well thats it for this time