Imaginary Friends - A little bit different of an I Like/Love #36 Post

I've been writing this post in my head since I was in England. You know, I still want to pinch myself that that is a true statement. I was in England. Only a little over a month ago. It seems surreal. And I need to write a post or ten about the entire incredible trip. But not now. The title of this post comes from the husband of my good friend Sue with whom I met up and shared lunch whilst in England this summer.

I just noticed something interesting: we both love our dogs, and look at the card above us on the mantle!

This is also an I like/love post because it is filled with people and things and events for which I am most grateful. I am linking up with LeeAnna at Not Afriaid of Color, where you will find other like-minded grateful peeps. I haven't mused much in recent posts, so this is one of those posts. For newer readers, my blog was originally just called Musings of a Menopausal Melon because I started it when I was in the full throes of menopause and wanted to write down my thoughts at this new stage of my life along with my quilting adventures. Then, when I wanted the blog to be known as mainly a quilting blog, I came up with a more à propos name, but with a nod to the original with the acronym and double entendre (love them) of 'mmm', having the extra meaning of, 'yum!' or 'so good!'

So...friends, both imaginary and real....

Social/Sewcial

Tomato/tomato....

Happy start of a new year, both exciting and a bit daunting as one looks down the next stretch of 364 days. I hope you spent last night doing just what you pleased. I did. More on that in the second half of this post.

Social

I am super-excited, and pinch-me-I-can't-believe-I'm-doing-this and well, yeah, a wee bit nervous, to announce that I am one of the co-hosts for the 2018 New Quilt Bloggers Blog Hop.

Don't you just love the button Beth made? I sure do.  Some of you will know what this is all about, and well the title and sub-title pretty much explain it, duh.

However.

It is so sew so much more.  In the coming weeks we will be giving more details, but for now here are a few deets that need mentioning:

• registration opens February 1
• if you are a new or relatively new blogger, which means your blog is under 3 years old, then you are welcome to sign up

For the Love of Llamas

When I first read a couple of years ago on Julie's (Pink Doxies) blog about her getting a horse for her youngest daughter, I could totally relate, because I'd been there, done that with my youngest daughter.  When I read that she and her family had rescued two llamas, and had gone through hell and back with them, vets, nursing them, caring for, loving them, and then developing quite the relationship with the two, I was pretty amazed and intrigued.

Cecil in the background, Misha in the foreground, August 2015, when Julie and I first met in person

Where we used to live in Alberta, the closest gas station and convenience store was called The Laughing Llama, and yep, you got it, they had llamas.  They were so sweet.  And interesting!

Mug Rug

My love-affair with scraps is well-known.  I showed you the flimsy of the 6" square I made with scraps from the rainbow scrappy binding for Whirling Stars.  Here is the mug rug I just had to finish up this past week.

I honestly do not believe I have ever bound a quilt with a yellow binding, especially one this vibrant. It's another sneak peek at one of the fabrics responsible for my 10-day posting hiatus.  I did an X through the two main diagonal lines of the mug rug and then...couldn't stop. 😬

Here is the back:

I still have a little bit of this beloved Laurel Burch rainbow angel kitties fabric called "Holiday Collection" which she designed for Clothworks, just perfect for the back of my mug rug! I remembered before stitching on the binding to apply my label from Ikaprint. 😉 On minis, I cut my binding at 1.25" and do a single-fold application, which I first stitch to the quilt back, and then topstitch the front down.  It makes for a pretty neat finish.

Here it is in action the other morning.

I am a simple girl: give me a good book, one cup of coffee in the morning, a meaningful mug (this one a gift from my mum many years ago, Mozart, much-loved composer of ours), some graph paper and crayons and pretty fabric, and I'm a happy camper.

Quilt Stats:
Pattern:  original design
Size: 5 3/4" square
Fabric:  leftover binding HSTs
Batting: Pellon Nature's Touch 100% cotton scrap
Quilted: on my Bernina
Threads:  pieced with Gütermann; quilted with Aurifil variegated 3817
I noted on Instagram that I had just finished a terrific book, one I think all doglovers must read, so I want to mention it here for those not on Instagram.  It's called Merle's Door: Lessons From a Freethinking Dog by Ted Kerasote.  Just excellent.  He's got another one out, actually two, about Pukka (rhymes with hockey puck) and I got the mainly photos book about Pukka as a puppy and have ordered the novel, Pukka's Promise.

Did you know? That you can look at any public account on Instagram and see the person's photos?  I am mmmquilts, so if you want to check up on me, I am there every day or two!

I got some very happy mail yesterday:

This is from my friend Pat, who is on Flickr here.  She sent me a terrific article about the importance of moving and stretching mindfully, to keep your hips and knees and back in good health.  It is written by a personal trainer with many years of experience, both hers and her clients'.  It amazed Pat, and now me, with how similar her insights are to Yin poses and reasoning.  I will be incorporating some of this knowledge into future Sunday Stretches!  I just love the saying on the card she included and that BAG--!  I've admired these, especially the ones Anja has made, for some time and have wanted to make one but still haven't.  Love that fabric, right?

Linking up with
Confessions of a Fabric Addict
Crazy Mom Quilts
TGIFF at A Quarter Inch From the Edge

Quilt Bloggers' International Retreat

If you follow me on Instagram, you've seen photos of the glorious fun-, friends- and fabrication-filled three days I had recently.  You've probably read posts from some of the other bloggers who gathered at Julie's.  I haven't read any of their posts yet; I wanted my take on the retreat to be authentic and mine, you know?  So if I'm repeating stuff you've already seen and read about, this would be why.  Notice I make no apologies!  Nor do I for the many photos. I'm still soaking it all in.

You may recall from this post, this post, and this post, that I'd been down to visit Julie last summer. I was so excited to be going back!

So you see where I live in relation to Julie, about 300 km south of me as the crow flies.  We didn't take the ferry across Lake Erie, but drove around the west end of the lake and on down, about 4.5-5 hours.

OMG That's What Friends Are For

Encouraging.  Supporting.  Listening.  Sharing.  Reminding....

As of starting this post I have 7 hours left to get in my OMG for September.  I know that thanks to reading Preeti's and Tish's posts within the past half hour.  Without further ado or sidetracking, I would like to get my Mini Round Robin quilted by month's end.  It may not be bound by then, but quilted it shall be.

Make mine a mini on the wall...

I received my mini quilt yesterday from Cindy of Stitchin at Home, and I am just IN LOVE!! What she did just pulls the centre to the last round and snuggles the middle two rounds together...like friends, right?  I like that Tish and I are hanging out, even if that is vicariously, through our quilt tops, and even if that means that, yes, I haven't mailed hers yet...

We were a bit busy on Labour Day Monday, buzzin' around, as I'd mentioned in Monday's post.  It amazes me how many Americans don't realize their northern neighbours, and in my case, their southern neighbours, since Detroit is north of us, also celebrate Labour Day (I spell it with a 'u' but probably 50% of Canadians spell it without; both are accepted) on the same weekend.

Lake Erie...my favourite colour in all her glorious hues

WHAT a spectacular day, much-needed 'ahh', and soul massage, and all is okay with our world that was.

Tuesday brought with it my mini and some lovely surprise mail.

Cindy knows how I love blue, and included this glorious butterfly print with my mini.  Like I want to chomp it.  Frame it maybe, make a shirt like I saw Kate wearing as a dress? on a magazine today in the store, okay make it the centrepiece to a quilt methinks.  She also sent the rich grey that sometimes reads dusky purple fabric, so cool with the line-drawn squares inside of which is a dot. Kind of like rolling a '1' on a die.  She is a wonderful and thoughtful friend.

Below it are two fat quarters and a button with a quote to live by from Lisa at Sunlight in Winter Quilts.  No reason, she just wrote me a note that said here's the fabric you commented that you loved so much.  She's using it in her Snowflake Shimmer QAL.  Like WHAT a darling!  Both these sweet ladies live in southern Ontario too, makes me want to arrange a get-together somehow... (and that might be happening with one of them in the very near future, right Cindy?!)

Here's a peak at what has been keeping me well and truly 'back to business' as mentioned in my last post.  I think I can, I think I can, I know I can! See the light at the end of the tunnel on this quilt, and I am SO excited.

Everything is done as of this post but for finishing quilting the final border, which may involve pretty fancy feathers, and echoes and fillers.  (highly doubtful I'll have a Friday finish; my name isn't Judy LOL).  Here you see some Judi Madsen, some Leah Day and some Kathleen Riggins inspired FMQ.

All right a bit more secret sewing to do tonight, so TTFN, that's ta-ta for now, and wish me luck on the OMG; I don't have a good track record, both in remembering to link up and in completing my goals, gulp....
Linking up with
Sew Fresh Quilts
Red Letter Quilts

Mini Round Robin - Round 3 and Final Reveal

Along with the summer speeding on by, our Mini Round Robin has come to an end and I can hardly believe it!  Of course there will be the final reveal of the quilted mini at the beginning of October.  The original centre, called The Attraction Block, is Tish's.  Julie added the first round.  Here is what I received from Cindy.

I knew two things, well three if you count the fact that I LOVED what Cindy did on her round!!  Okay, first I knew I had to do angles, not angels, angles, although I needed some angel guidance as August neared its end...45-degree angles are in each round as well as in the centre.  Second, I knew it needed pretty much all black and red as it was reading pretty white.

But what to do...

Tish had talked about her colour choices of red, black and white as classic, so I knew the final round should be in that theme.  I thought of a fancy appliqué, and I kept thinking 'classy' and classy ladies, and black tie affair, and tuxedo, and tuxedo cats (one of which chose Tish as his human), black cats, which Tish told me often find their way to her, and I, too, have a soft spot for black cats...

My darling cat, Raffi, had her from age 4 weeks (bottlefed her for two weeks) to the ripe old age of 17 1/2 years. Her whiskers and even her paw pads were black, AND she was a polydactyl.  She had 'thumbs'.

So a frame was added.  I had just the fabric, bought a piece when it first arrived in my LQS, Moda's Black Tie Affair by Basic Grey.  Thus ensued the math devils...my angels deserted me...

This is the second frame I added; the first had to be ripped off as I'd done the math wrong for calculating the width.  The block was 16 3/4", a most unusual size, so I knew I needed to bring it up to 18 1/2".

I remembered a mini log cabin pattern I had that had 3 1/2" (I thought) log cabin blocks. Log cabin is a classic block, my second favourite block after stars.  I'd made several of the runners over the years.  Did I still have that pattern?  A little digging, and yep.  Sadly, the blocks finished at 3 1/2", so they wouldn't divide into 18".  Still, I loved the idea and knew I could do something with it.  What about offset log cabins? They can produce some wonderful curves.  (You're thinking, 'Wait, Sandra, thought you were doing angles?' and...bada-bing! Welcome to my muddled menopausal melon.)

I pulled out three fabrics from the stash and scraps to make a few test blocks to see what size they'd end up.  Math had already gotten the best of me, so best to make some rather than trust my calculations...

Nope. Sadly these ended up at 4 1/2" unfinished, so 4" finished which did not divide into 18.  Should I pull off the frame and add a thicker one to make the starting block 20"?  That would mean the mini would finish at 28 1/2" not 24 1/2" as we were supposed to...still it was under 30" and somewhere along the way I thought we'd determined we could go that big if we wanted to add more to it when we got our own back...but that would mean more ripping...nooooo. There had to be a way.

The offset log cabin blocks didn't really curve the way I wanted anyhow with only two rounds and with only half a set of four, so I thought I'd go back to the log cabin runner pattern.

White centre squares.  I did 1/3 of them in an embossed white that looks like the exact same fabric in Tish's centre, that 'box' around her red centre.  But I noticed she also used black on white, and so did Cindy, so I looked through my thin stash of that, and came up with two, one with flowers on it (I remembered Tish sending me a photo of her newly planted flowerbed in early May) and another with sketched cat faces on it:

Perfect.  The grumpy ones are Bella and Princess Caroline LOL

Red and black for the logs.  The blacks in this block weren't solid, so I found one I'd bought last winter at a quilt show with a large line-drawn floral pattern, and then... in my MacGyver's flaming skulls quilt (yet to be made) stash I found a black with white pawprints on it fabric.  Tish and I both love animals; especially our pibbles, but we have all dogs' and cats' pawprints on our hearts, so I knew I had to do one round using this fabric.

Right.  The math was still worrying me, but I figured I'd start adding rounds as it was uh, August 28; time was a-ticking.

As you sew, you think.  It's very meditative.  Somewhere along round two, I thought of doing two sides with the red logs in and two with the black logs in.  Placing the red logs borders where Julie's black frame was, and the black logs where her red half-frame was.  Keeping the 'attraction' theme.

Yep I think that will work...Bella was helping as per usual...now this pesky math...

I'd somehow only made 20 blocks, not 24, 6 per side...don't ask me what I was thinking as I don't even know. Five a side??
Made four more blocks.  The logs finish at 1/2".  Just sayin'.  They're pretty small.  Sewed 6 together per side.  What to do in the corners... All black?  HSTs of red and black?  What a minute...

Tish's centre is two right triangles sewn together on the 45.  Julie picked up on that by mitering the black/red seams in her round.  So I followed that theme, placing a solid black square in one corner where the two mainly black log cabin borders meet, and a solid red in the opposite.  For the corners where the black meets the red I did an HST.

After all the ripping and hair-pulling it took with the math issues I am pretty pleased.  I also noticed that my tiny white square centres echo Tish's red centre, and Cindy's black squares on white fabric!  That wasn't planned but I'll take it!

You can see the other finished flimsies below:
Cindy at Stitchin' at Home (she did the final round on my centre and I just LOVE it!!)
Tish at Tish's Adventures in Wonderland
Julie at Pink Doxies

Linking up with
My Quilt Infatuation
Crazy Mom Quilts (Yay! Amanda Jean's back!)
Confessions of a Fabric Addict

Jeez Louise I only posted 6 times in August.  I reached (bashful face) rather a milestone in my bloggy life a week or so ago, over 250 followers now on bloglovin'.  WHOA Nelly.  (see? Louise and Nelly both got in this post) Should make a quilt and call it that...there will be some celebrating in my future. Which is looking rather busy for the month of September...but I hope to post more than six times sheesh!

Update: My bad, but I went to link to the Friday parties this morning, and I see I have an email from Brittany at Craftsy (I am an affiliate):  I guess all their classes are $199.99 ...oops! LOL had to leave that for a giggle.  Make that $19.99 (under $20 just so we're clear) from right now through Monday, Sept 5 11:59 pm MDT (that's because their classes can be bought and downloaded worldwide.  I will be reviewing one coming up that isn't even live yet, so watch for that. Previous reviews can be found here, and you KNOW how much I rave about any and all of Angela Walters' classes, worth every cent.  Did you HEAR?????? She has another book coming out with Tula Pink!!!  17 quilts that Tula designed and you guessed it, Angela shows how she quilted them. Cue the choir of angels already! I haven't even finished reading through her Shape By Shape 2 Collection 2 yet!! (no affiliation)

Okay I got sidetracked by Angela news (that girl can sidetrack me anytime, I do not mind)  Anyhow might be a plan to check out a class you have had on your wishlist for a while; that's what I do; I never pay full price (shh)... Speaking of 'under the radar' stuff, did you know that there are still amazing deals to be had on fabric at Craftsy? You do not have to wait for their sales.  I came across some screaming good deals on 4-yard cuts (think backing fabric right?) for $8CA a yard, like $6US.

Here is a Bonnie and Camille Hello Darling one, and here is a Kate Spain Canyon one. There are LOTS more.  I've bought these before, 1 yard cuts and a 5-yard cut of RJR Handspray in black.  Just like for clothes, you can never have too much black.  I see several of the Handspray precuts are on 35-40% off too.  Might be a time to investigate a little stash enhancement. ;-)

Lasagne

Which we had last night for supper, and will again tonight in the form of leftovers.  Vegetarian (not as good as the one Liz made for us in May) and a meat one for MacGyver to keep up his strength for all the macgyvering that he's been doing these past few weeks.  This post is a bit like that lasagne:  a variety of ingredients that end up creating goodness.

Incredible sunset behind the silhouetted massive trees

Kingsville 3rd annual Folk Fest:  a variety of 'ingredients' as in bands and genres of music, all-over wonderful goodness.  I spent the entire weekend either volunteering at or attending the folk fest.  IMHO it was not as good as far as bands go as the two previous years, but still worthwhile attending.  I love live music. Period.  Buffy Ste-Marie was the headliner, and I wish she'd brought her band, and I wish she'd played 'Power in the Blood' from her latest album.  She's not everyone's cup of tea, not exactly mine, but at 75 years old, she impressed the hell out of me with her physique, her memory (all those lyrics to all the songs she played!), and her musical abilities (plays guitar, the mouth bow, the keyboards and sings).

I am so proud to be a Canadian: the multi-cultural aspect of our country evident at this festival, from Canadian-born to Canadian immigrant music.  Hearing musicians belt their hearts out, openly of Mexican heritage, or Iranian, Irish, even Tanzanian, gay, young or old, brown, white or black-skinned, and be genuinely appreciated and applauded for their songs made me know deep in my heart there IS tolerance for all peoples, as there should be.

Another sky, this one to the east, setting sun behind me, coming home from teaching yoga in Windsor.  Can you spot the moon rising, partially hidden by thready clouds?

Spotted this incredible flowering tree (look how tall she is!) in Windsor

Just WHAT is this tree please?  It looks so tropical; in fact I am sure I've seen these in Florida.  Rose flowers adorn the fernish fronds.  I zoomed in to try to show the flowers better.

Isn't it just gorgeous? Here you can see pea pods...is it a Locust or Honey Locust (we have lots of those here) of some sort?

A tree of a different kind being built:

Bella getting right in there again, had to be summarily dumped onto the floor and off the block more than once! She felt it would make a great cat cushion (obvi, Sandra, she says, eyes rolling)

I'm pattern testing an appliqué block for Cindy of Stitchin at Home, a block that has tried my patience I'll admit...but I persevered.  Those of you on Instagram have seen Cindy's blocks coming together, a block of the month she is doing for her guild.

Port Dover Lighthouse built around 1850

I'll admit to not being totally pleased with the final result (it is destined to be sewn into sashing which is why I have got the beach and tree in 3/8" from the sides).  Port Dover Lighthouse, on Lake Erie, is close to Cindy's home.  She lives about 2 hours north and east of me, half way to Toronto.  Yes, Lake Erie is that big...actually twice that big.  If you drove 100kph (60mph), it would take you about 4 hours to drive (it's just shy of 400 km, 241 miles, in length) from my end by the Detroit River, to the eastern end, at Buffalo up by Lara of Buzzin' Bumble.  Thus, this block brings we three 'ingredients' together:  Cindy's design, my efforts, and Lara's Crafted Appliqué technique.  The fabric I used for the water is a Nancy Crow I've had forever (found a couple more Nancy Crow gems in my stash thanks to pattern-testing this past couple of weeks) and the sky is a Maywood Studio.

Back to Bella, one of my three fur-kid ingredients in creating a balanced happy life, you've probably heard that it's that time of the summer!  Pets on Quilts is happening right now at Lilypad Quilting!  This has to be one of, if not my favourite linky party of the year.  Six more days to enter, and there are already 26 entries!  Bella will for sure be one, so come back tomorrow and read all about her contributions to my quilting life.  Okay, okay, she's nudging me, as she is wont to do when I spend too much time with a phone in my hand or wiggling my fingers to make clickety-clack sounds on the laptop, make that her contributions to my life.  Period.

Lots of terrific prizes to be won, did I mention that?!

Also I will let you know that (shh! don't tell) tomorrow you can grab some lasagne Craftsy style: many of their 'ingredients' to equal a pretty sweet sale.  Come back for deets on that and Bella tomorrow!

Two other heads-up, that you will see create a lovely 2-layer lasagne :-)
First up is Bernie at Needle and Foot.  She wrote a great article on something I had never heard of: Flipboard.  Even the intrepid Internet traveller, MacGyver, had not.  This reminds me of Pinterest, but it is a place to make personalized 'magazines' of articles on any topic that interests you, not just photos you like.  Sounds cool, right?  But Bernie takes it one step further by showing you how you can 'publish' your own articles into your own magazines, and make those magazines public.  This way, others on Flipboard who also like yoga or quilting for example, may find an 'article' (aka post) you wrote on a subject that also interests them.  This can help to bring traffic in the form of new readers to your blog!  More deets on this by clicking the link.  I've created a few magazines and added two posts to my Yin Yoga magazine, spending a grand total of maybe 30 minutes all told from downloading the app to setting it up to creating and finally adding two posts.  That's not bad.

Second is my friend Karen of Tu-Na Quilts.  She wanted to start a blog over a year ago, and would visit mine and comment from time to time. Some personal events brought us closer together, and I was able to finally encourage her to just DO IT!  She wrote her first post here, and she has just finished a terrific, informational, humorous series on her Minnesota shop hop adventure.  It is well worth a read, and hey, I just realized I could flip those articles into a Quilt Shops magazine I could set up!  Ha, didn't plan this, but there's my over-arching (cannot kill the English teacher in me) lasagne theme again: two 'ingredients' (Bernie's post on Flipboard and Karen's shop hop posts) creating goodness, as in a great idea for a personalized magazine.

Here's my infant-stage Flipboard link (need to add the social media button for this--going to see Tish about making these look prettier on my sidebar).

And remember to tell me the name of that tree if you know it!

Linking up with
Sew Fresh Quilts

Mini Round Robin - Round 2

I think all four of us would agree that this month was the hardest round to do.  I know mine was on my design wall the entire time, puzzling me.  Cindy had put a wonderful spin on Julie's centre block, literally, and I wanted to keep that feeling.  I knew I wanted to tilt it somehow. Putting it on point didn't look right, most likely because those angles conflicted with the HRTs.  So I knew I wanted to incorporate half-rectangle triangles, aka HRTs. 

FaceTiming with Tish tonight made me realize that I should've put a before photo in, so you see what I started with.  Here is the block I received from Cindy.

I used strips of white Moda Grunge left over from Aidan's quilt, Radiance, to put a box frame around it, and then used random strips laying around to mark off the possible angles I had in mind.  I could see a white square floating behind the coloured fabrics in Cindy's round; was there a way I could play off that?

Enter math.  And Mini Round Robin rules that we'd set out at the beginning, one of which was only being allowed to add a maxium of 6" finished to a round.  So these HRTs had to be mighty skinny.

I pulled various fabrics in keeping with Julie's oranges, purples, one pink, and yellow-greens, although there are some almost-mint greens in as well, and that rich brownish-berry checkered start to her offset improv log cabin.  Improv!  That was when I knew I needed to add improv to this round and stripes.  Yikes.  That worried me a bit.  Improv I've done, but not a lot.

The rick rack fabric was just to mimic a stripe; at this point I hadn't made all four of the improv striped rectangles.

I still really like the above idea I had going, to have the HRTs made out of striped rectangles.  So I sewed my four strips, and figured I could have a skinny white frame before adding the stripes...but that would leave bias edges on all four sides...Tish would probably not be too appreciative of that!  Or ...I could add a second outside frame after I angled off the stripes...

Hmmm... I was losing a fair bit of the fabrics doing the HRTs this way too and creating a fair bit of bulk at the corners....

Back to thinking.  Drawing.

Yep, using that Quilter's Planner Tish sent me to the max:-)

The idea of angling of the Grunge as the HRT and then adding the stripes was the one that really did appeal to me in the end.  (drawn in pink) Which was this morning, btw...a busy weekend with time out of the house meant I didn't have the sewing time I needed when it came down to the wire.

I put cornerstones in the four corners instead of carrying the stripe to the edges.  I originally had thought to do all four a green to echo Cindy's squares that tumble, but couldn't find a good one, or not enough OF a good one.  So I did four different ones, and matched them to the colours in Cindy's HRTs!

Each one has meaning:

A long-hoarded Nancy Halvorsen print, only about a fat eighth left

This one, left over from a good friend's baby quilt I made, says swans on the selvage, but I always think geese.  As in Canada.

The other purple corner is a chunk of Moda Marble Ombre Dots from Dayna's grad quilt.  I was with Julie last summer when I found the perfect purple to use in the final border of Dayna's quilt; I chose not to use a piece of it here because I wanted a richer purple to pull in the Grunge purple from her centre.

The fourth corner, the brilliant orange, is another chunk left over from Aidan's quilt, fittingly called Concrete...Rock Solid.  Let's just say Julie's family knows their concrete!

I'm sending it off to Tish tomorrow for her to do her magic on the final round.  This has been SO MUCH fun and even though it was such hard work and lots of agonizing this month, it is good to push oneself and to build on others' work; thus we grow.  Of course doing this with such good friends makes it that much better.

Here are the links to the others' posts for Round 3:
Cindy
Tish
Julie

Linking up with
Cooking Up Quilts
Blossom Heart Quilts 
Freemotion by the River 
Sew Fresh Quilts

Friends

I have the very BEST friends, and I shake my head literally and figuratively when I contemplate how they enrich my life, and make me feel loved.

You all know that Rocco had to have surgery May 10 for a torn ACL.  We have been housebound for much of the time since that surgery, one of us with him 24/7 up until a couple of weeks ago.  Because Rocco has not ever liked his crate, associating it with being left alone, something over which he goes to pieces, crating him to prevent movement for the first 6 weeks was not an option.  We tried.  I stayed right beside him for more than two hours the second time we tried it, moving his crate in the main living area of the house as opposed to the bedroom, doing my yoga practice for one of the two hours, reading/computer stuff after that.  He panted and trembled the entire time until about the 2-hour mark, whereupon, probably because he was so exhausted, he lay down and stopped panting and trembling.  That is no way to heal, we decided.

So my husband, aka MacGyver, being the repair and inventive type guy that he is, figured out a way to contain him using the rug under the coffee table as the 'crate' boundaries.  That did require one of us being with him in the room at all times, which is what precipitated me moving my sewing room to the dining table.  No dates or dinners out; we turned down or postponed suppers out with friends because we couldn't leave him alone.

When I mentioned this to one of our friends, and that going out for dinner consisted of me picking up subs at Subway on the way home from teaching yoga, she decided to give us "dinner out".  She showed up for one of my Friday Yin classes in May, and after class said she had something for me in her car.  Opening up her trunk, she pulled out a large box inside of which was this:

Appetizer: homemade bruschetta with baguette slices; a salad with homemade salad dressing, a bag of feta cheese to sprinkle over it, and the pièce de résistance, homemade vegetarian lasagne, toasty warm.  I was blown away by this thoughtfulness and care.  We enjoyed it all so much.  We didn't get just one meal, we got three!  MacGyver and I both agreed it was the best veggie lasagne we'd ever tasted.  I still have to get the recipe as well as the one for her dressing, yum.  We 'fought' over the last of it, LOL.

That same month I received this letter from my friend Linda.

used with permission :-)

I just love the explanation Linda writes as to why she took the time to write me this lovely long letter.  Linda and I worked together for 15 years.  We share a lot of common loves and interests.  Being of nearly the exact same age, we have shared many a laugh at ourselves, as well as the angst of going through this 'interesting' stage of life called menopause. She has a wicked sense of humour, as you can see in her 'So what's happening in my "Oh so exciting I can hardly stand it" life?' line.  The fact that she took all the time to hand write the letter to me (something which is harder to do these days when nearly all of our writing takes places on a computer keyboard) meant even more, and the timing was terrific what with feeling like a shut-in at that time.

MacGyver was out in Alberta for 2 1/2 weeks near the beginning of July, (he's back home now) which is why I haven't been as active in QBL of late; all the dog stuff, house inside and out, meanwhile teaching and doing yoga, was in my hands.  No big deal really, but with the worry of Rocco doing something to aggravate his healing leg or damage the good back one (40% of dogs tear the other ACL apparently), has meant not as much free time.  He and Brady had a blast the entire time.

Preeti called me about a month ago, a wonderful surprise, chatting about this and that.  In a care package I received from her in the spring was this Mysore Sandal Soap from India, and I have been alternating it with my bodywash.  I again told her that I cannot get over how the smell gives me such a strong memory and sense of well-being.  Maybe a yoga studio I used to attend burned sandalwood incense?  I was Indian in a past life?  Anyhow, Preeti said she can't get over how much mileage in the form of thanks from me she's got from one bar of soap!

And then a couple of weeks ago I received this care package from Tish, who you know has become a very close friend:

Now I knew she was sending me the DVD of "The Rocky Horror Picture Show" because neither of us have seen it, yet we each want to.  She came across it while shopping and told me she had picked it up to send me.  We had planned to watch it 'together' while MacGyver was out West, but Tish's MacGyver, Dave the Quilt Engineer, decided to be at home on opportune weekend watching evenings, so we have to reschedule.  I like how she staved off the loneliness on the part of the DVD by including a few fat quarters!

Another very close friend, Judy, sent me a care package that arrived the morning MacGyver left.  What impeccable timing, that I should get to drink coffee out of a mug from her!  This is MacGyver's (Yes! She got him one too, knows him very well...her own MacGyver might have this particular trait too...) 

The pretty pink Gerbera daisy is added by moi so no one will er, be offended

I think he smiles (even if it is just inside) each time he has used it for his morning coffee.  Now THAT just does not happen; not only is MacGyver not a people person, he is not a morning person.  Back.  Off.  Don't.  Talk.  I'll let you wonder what appropriate saying is on my mug, wink.

One thing I love about QBL is the support we give to each other.  I decided to support Ruth of Charly and Ben's Crafty Corner by joining her Rainbow Rose Quilt Along.  It has been fun, and the final linkup deadline is this weekend.  I just might have finished mine!  Come back tomorrow and I'll show you.  For now here is a photo of it earlier this week:

Seem to have a thing about ghost geese lately...

I got to thinking about all these wonderful friends (and there are many many more, like Pat, who reads and comments on every post, and told me last week she'd missed me), how they are like the pillow I made Tish earlier this year:  I was disappointed that after having had to wash it, it had crinkled up more than I'd anticipated, and then sending it to her put even more wrinkles in it, but Tish had said not to worry; it was fine.  And yes, like that wrinkled pillow cover, good friends really don't care if the other sees their 'wrinkles'; they see the soul, and that is all that matters.

Next on the agenda is an ongoing project with some more friends!  The Mini Round Robin.  I have oh, 3 days to get Round 2 complete and in the mail to Tish...

Linking up with
Sew Fresh Quilts

Warm Fuzzies

I love this term, one from my CGIT (Canadian Girl In Training) camp days (that takes me back).  It means something, tangible or intangible, that makes you feel warm and fuzzy in your heart.  A few weeks ago I had the absolute joy of receiving not one, but three surprise packages in the mail.  They were well-timed little warm fuzzies.

Tangible warm fuzzies such as this hand-made gorgeous bracelet that my friend Vicki of Vicki's Crafts and Quilting made me.  Several months ago, I'd surprised her with a fabric bowl at a time when I knew she needed a little pick-me-up.  Well, somehow she picked the perfect time to send me this.  How did she know I am a bracelet-loving girl?  I was always known at school for pretty bracelets, wore them every day.  Vicki, you do beautiful work; so intricate, and it's the perfect size. She stalked my yoga pics and decided I was pretty small; guess we have tiny wrists in common, as she used her own as a guide!  I love this and have worn it several times.  She is so talented! AND she just published her first Island Batik post as a new ambassador for their fabric company.  Her project is a beauty.

Life...

...has a way of getting in the way of sewing.  Yet, it's all good.  Talking on the phone or on Skype with my grandson.  Doing and teaching yoga.  Walking Rocco.  FaceTime-ing with dear dear friends (1.5 hours!! Love it.) A memorable trip, 3 days, to Watkins Glen to meet up with more dear friends.  Reading.  House-hunting.  All of the above have hindered my progress with "fleurs".  Would I have traded any one of them for a little more time sewing?  Not on your life.

So here we are:

Not a lot of progress since the last post.  All I've done is added the 1" finished green border.

I have, however, been making some decent progress today on the trellis final border.

Can you spot the one block with the squares as opposed to half-square triangle squares?!

This trellis block, which I mentioned in my previous post, is from the Trellis Quilt from Makower.

It has a Block A and a Block B, but the pattern shows them as identical.  I did figure out what Block B is actually supposed to be, so I will perhaps write to them about the error in their pattern...  Block B is a mirror image of Block A.  Anyhow, I hope this will give the effect I want.  I do like the interplay of colour in the deep green fabric!  It looks like light and shadow, perfect for the garden effect I seem to be creating!

In Watkins Glen, I had the fabulous opportunity to visit O'Susannah's Quilts and Gifts, Top Ten shop in the Fall 2013 issue of Quilt Sampler.

Janette and I spent a great hour in here, and it wasn't hard for us to support this shop!  The guys had their own fun, visiting the famous racetrack.

Love that Paris quilt! Love the ceiling too!

I do believe I found the perfect backing there for "fleurs"...

What a terrific sale section she has!!  This was on sale, $5.50/yard!!!  I had already bought some fabric from Fat Quarter Shop, but only got 4 yards, having no idea back in March how big the quilt might grow.  That fabric is a good backing choice too, pink and ivory.  Maybe I will combine them??  Anyhow, I just love this fabric.  I think 6 yards should do it.  Might have myself some fun pillowcases if I decide to use the original pink/ivory stuff too...

Loved Watkins Glen.  The scenery, Seneca Lake, Seneca Gorge, Seneca Lodge, where we stayed, the vineyards, the mountainous terrain, the picturesque town set at the foot of the lake with hills rising on either side, the farms, which, as one of my friends who was there in August put it, are "Americana views at their best", and she was absolutely spot on.

Seneca Gorge - breath-taking views, falls, pools, rock, and a great workout to hike to the top and back, 3 miles round trip.

And of course, the reunion was great, both for humans and canines:

The Hounds of the Harborage, LOL

Oh, yes.  House-hunting.  We sold our Florida condo about a month ago, and because of one thing and another, need to go down a little earlier than originally intended to pack up etc.  So we leave Tuesday, September 23!