A good, or at least interesting day.

Today started off by taking a cranky kid to dentist. Cranky because he was hungry. You see, DS is an extreme, let me repeat, EXTREME needle phobic. So, he gets nitrous oxide for his dental work, which by default, means he has to fast from midnight the night before his appointment. This is a kid who is ravenous at breakfast, so, he was cranky. Then we were going to "try" to go without the nitrous, which lasted oh, about 4 seconds. An hour and a half later, we were home. Now he was cranky because not only was he even more hungry, he now had a frozen tongue and lip. FINALLY about an hour later he felt he had recovered enough that he ate a bowl of oatmeal and was much happier. At least the oatmeal didn't dribble down his shirt!
The rest of the day was spent with him trying to keep busy with tv, and video games, and books because the weather, (sigh) is still yucky.
Then the real fun began. A friend asked if I could bring her son home from school. Since my guy wasn't at school today, I hesitated, but then figured he would be ready for some play by that time, so agreed to go pick up her son. Well, you need to know that these two 10 yr olds got into a punch up in the playground a week ago. The 'friend' made it perfectly clear on the way home that all is not yet forgiven. (another sigh) So, Grandma picked him up earlier than planned.
Then a miracle happened! My son cooked supper. !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
My boarder told me that she had conspired with him to do this so I went on a convenient errand 20 minutes before suppertime, and when I returned, there was a steamy, hot meal of KD and beans ready, with a kid beaming from ear to ear! I like those kinds of surprises - keep it coming!
On the sewing side of things, I hit my favorite thrift store this afternoon and scored a dozen or so pairs of denim jeans. I've harvested the fabric, so I have enough now for my denim quilt. I think. Then I had the hand - forehead moment! Hey, I should use one of these discarded tops of the jeans to make a bag! I did, but not before a few blue words came wafting through the house, and 2 broken needles, and a couple of "error" alarms on the sewing machine. A curious note - when I do something nasty like that to my Horizon, she fights back! She runs backwards!!!
If I grab the handwheel to stop a needle breaking - you know - when the machine makes that awful grinding noise and you know it's not going to go through the fabric? When that happens, I grab the wheel and hold it until the machine gives up and stops. Well, the princess doesn't like that - oh no. If I don't turn the machine off to reset her brain, she runs backwards until I do.
I guess that is equivalent to a toddler having a temper tantrum when he doesn't get what he wants eh?
Anyway, the bag is done. She has a lovely bright pink zipper. I did sew the fly closed so there are no accidental loss of items. But considering it cost me less than $2 to make - it's pretty cute.

Noah's Ark

I just have to vent about the weather. I'm not a rainy day person. Rainy days suck the energy right out of my bones and numbs my brain into a coma. Today was one of those days.
This morning started with a bit of sunshine which quickly clouded over into a torrential downpour. Then it was just overcast and warm and muggy all day. I nearly melted in a store today because it was so humid and warm, and I didn't want to take my (light) jacket off because of a snack explosion that happened on the way there. (Just another reason why I should never wear white.)
I finally had to just bite the bullet and let the world know I had on a dirty shirt and take off my jacket after the cashier asked me if I was OK. I mumbled something about a "tropical moment" and mopped up my face - again.
So then I got home and unloaded, just in time for another downpour. I swear I saw Noah waving from the Ark as it went by LOL.
Enough already. I know, yes, my hyacinths look grand, but I'm craving sunshine!
(Click on light therapy lamp here.)
Between naps, I've been surfing.
I really like the new features on the Thousands of Bolts online store. They have a Quilter's Toolbox now where you can add fabrics to your wishlist and then design a quilt, plug in your fabrics and see how it will look. Then with a magical click of a button - you get an exact list of your fabric requirements for that project. AND you can just save your designs to your account or even share them. Like ! Check it out for youself!
http://www.thousandsofbolts.com

London Modern Quilt Guild - Inaugural meeting!!

Tuesday night I was honoured to attend the inaugural meeting of a new quilt guild here in London town. The "London Modern Quilt Guild". Wow. The turnout was fantastic - 14 ladies were in attendance with a few more who had to send regrets. Chantal Lynch (from Hyggeligt fabrics) hosted the group in the conference room at the Talbot Centre Mall on Fullarton street in London.
What a great collection of inspiring minds! We look forward to seeing what we evolve into and also look forward to a sharing, learning, caring, and FUN !!! group.
Stay tuned for updates. Oh, and new 'members' are always welcome.

LOOKOUT LONDON - HERE WE COME!!

Warm up to a Royal Wedding....

For those who have a good sense of humour, and can't wait for the wedding of Prince William and Ms Kate Middleton, well, here's a little something to bide your time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kav0FEhtLug&feature=player_embedded

Enjoy!

I just went in to buy sewing machine needles......

I really did. Honest. I was in Michaels and look what jumped into my cart. These cross stitch kits retail for about $50. They were on for $9.99, so I got two. Score!

April FNSI

Oh what a night.......as the song goes. I had a productive FNSI this month. I started right after "school" which means after I picked up my son and brought he and his friend to their club for their Friday night fun time. He's taking the club bus home now so that means it takes me 5 minutes to pick him up instead of 30. Bonus!
I'm doing the machine quilting on a friend's butterfly quilt. So that's what I finished last night.
With my trusty sidekick at my side


XL, double-double, stirred, not shaken.





I finished the stitching around each appliqued butterfly and then did a serpentine stitch in the narrow sashing. That's stitch # 19 at a stitch length of 4.0 and width of 5.0 on my Horizon. I can see myself using that again! I love how it made the sashing puff up.
This is why I LOVE my walking foot.

Serpentine stitch in the sashing.

Then I thought about what to do in the wide border. First I did a freehand butterfly in the corner. Well, let's just say: Madame Butterfly, meet Mr Frog. That butterfly was so NOT symmetrical and had a mishapen head to the point where one had to use a lot of imagination to decide that it was, indeed, a butterfly. So it came out.

That's when I decided 2 things.
1: I needed to use a paper template and
One seriously abused paper template.

2: I needed to stitch from the back so I could see what I was doing.
That was a good move, because it went a lot smoother from there. So now there was a full butterfly in each corner with a "in flight" butterfly around the perimeter. Between the "bugs" there is a swirly line to indicate the flight path. One of the butterflies is a true romantic, she flew in a heart shaped path. Another was a little tipsy and did many loops in a row before meeting the next one. :)
Butterfly in flight.

The outer border needed something a little plainer, so I just did loopies about the size of a quarter.
By midnight, I was done. In more ways than one.
Back of stitching around applique in blocks.

This morning I called my friend and told her it was done - she couldn't believe it. I put 14 hours into stitching it, all in about 4 days. So I think that was pretty good!
Pretty as a picture, don't you think?

A cute Easter Craft - Door stop Bunny

Check out this link for a cute bunny craft. It's a doorstop Bunny! Great for holding doors open now that we've got windows open to air out the house. It keeps those doors from slamming shut in the breeze.
http://weefolkart.com/content/doorstop-bunny

Enjoy~

FNSI

It's that time again! This Friday, April 15 th is another Friday Night Sew In. Can't wait. I'll be lining up the projects all week. Sign up by checking out Heidi's blog or just click on the link on the left of this page.
Hoot hoot!

What's been happening these past 2 weeks.

Forgive me for deserting you for the last 2 weeks or so. Life got in the way, as it has a way of doing. My darling son "survived" his first two dental appointments and still likes the dentist. That alone is a feat since he is probably the biggest needle-phobic this side of Mars.
That being said, we both got new glasses as well. His are really cool, and he likes them enough that he's wearing them without nagging!
Mine were a style change. I like them. My dog doesn't know who I am. She just stares at me.
I've managed to get some quilting done on Katie's quilt. After auditioning several patterns, I settled on a circle of feathers in each block. It looks good!




I've also been working on the cross stitch project that I started in February at my "girls weekend" away. I've just got the last corner to do and then it will be ready for blocking. I am really loving the richness of the colours. I am, however, eager for it to be done. I dare not put it away or it will become a UFO, lost in the closet somewhere. I've got too many hours into it for that!
So, that's what has been happening here. The snow has melted. The days are warmer than the freezing point most of the time. We're starting to see the sun on a regular basis. Life is good.