Monday, March 28, 2011

Joanna Semel Rose

Do you know who she is? Well neither did I until just recently, but I did a little search when I heard her name.

Joanna Semel Rose

She was an English Major, an art collector, an intellectual, prominent philanthropist, and doyenne of a leading New York real estate family. She was formerly the chairperson of the Partisan Review. However, what is most interesting to me is that she owns at least 650 quilts!

 Impressive yes, but it gets better than that. All of these quilts are red and white!

When asked by her husband what she wanted for her 80th birthday she suggested ...and I quote 
Something I've not seen before and something that would be a gift for New York City."  Seeing all of these quilts at the same moment would be the ideal gift.  "



This is what resulted from her birthday request.

"Infinite Variety"










An amazing quilt show displaying 650 quilts from 3 centuries. 







Here is an excerpt from what is written in the show booklet.


















Saturday, March 26, 2011

A (long) Post With No Name

I'm not sure if any other bloggers out there do things the way I do, but it seems I need a Blog Title to get the creative juices flowing. Once I come up with a title, I could probably write all day. I was telling this to a friend last week and she suggested that I post my dilemma and have some of you readers suggest a topic or two for me. Well not a topic really but a Title; I thought that might prove to be a little challenging  because what if you suggested a Title I wasn't comfortable writing about or even worse was clueless about! So for today we have a "No Name" post.  Enough said!


My last post was on St. Patrick's Day, and since then Spring arrived...well on the calendar it did. When speaking about Spring, at least in our neck of the woods I think Mr. Van Dyke was quite correct.


The first day of spring is one thing, and the first spring day is another.  The difference between them is sometimes as great as a month.  ~Henry Van Dyke



Does this look like spring?





How about this? I took these pictures yesterday; can you see all those white spots? Yup, it was snowing again. I just have to remind myself that it could always be worse.

In spite of the weather I did manage to get out walking this week. So far I have logged 20km since last Sunday and I have one more day to finish the week, so I am hoping to get at least another 3 or 4 tomorrow.

Mr. O and I went to Moncton last weekend. He for laser eye surgery and me to have my sewing machine serviced. 

Mr. O had a very successful weekend and is pleased with the results;  me not so much...can you believe I forgot my machine at home! I mean really! Who makes an appointment for their machine, talks about it for 2 weeks and then goes away and leaves the machine at home?
 So-o-o Mr O goes back on Thursday for a follow up appt. for his eyes and this time my machine is going too; in fact I think I may pack it up and leave it at the back door a day or two early just to be sure.

Even though I have not been doing any machine work in the last while, I have kept my fingers busy. I knitted 4 scarves


I made two like this one.

I also made woollen (Briggs and Little) mitts to line Mr. O's leather mitts.


I knit slippers for my grand daughter and started another pair for her younger sister. 



Also made with B&L pure wool. I trimmed them with some specialty "eyelash" yarn so they are girly and fun but warm too. I knitted their mom a pair of mitts too, but I mailed them off right away so no photos. I am pleased to say I finally finished a pair of socks for myself that took way too long to complete..they kept being set on the back burner while I did knitting for someone else. Feels good to get that monkey off my back. 

I have been doing some hand stitching as well. Working on 2  cushions that I started late last summer.



Tonight I was hand stitching on a block that is to be my contribution to my sister's Winter Challenge Quilt. 


My plan is to do a bit of sewing next week. I plan to make a new bag. I am still a bit undecided about what colour-way. I am leaning toward the bright green/black. What do you think?


OR


I leave you with this thought. Yesterday I was reading a few blogs and happened upon this post.


I guess it spoke to me, because we have been organizing and purging these days; I have been thinking sort of on that subject...what in the world would Mr O do with all that fabric and "stuff" in my sewing room?
There is still quite a good chunk left in 2011 and I aim to work hard at depleting some of that yardage. I am not real speedy so ... Wish me luck!


"Spring is when you feel like whistling even with a shoe full of slush." Doug Larson













Thursday, March 17, 2011

40 Shades Of Green





Thought I would show you a few of my favourite pics from Ireland last fall.








View from the top of Blarney Castle



(kissing the Blarney Stone at the top of Blarney Castle)



 While in Ireland many years ago Johnny Cash was inspired to write this song. It sure is easy to see why.


***I would love to make a quilt one day that I will call Forty Shades Of Green.

Happy St. Patricks day

May Your Troubles be Less

And Your Blessings be More

May Nothing but Happiness

Burst Thru Your Door




Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Deadlines and Day Trips and Visitors

Actually let's start with day trips. 


Mr. O and I have been sorting and purging in the basement. We have a big job coming up this Spring and to do it we need to empty our basement (hence the deadline). Emptying a basement of a house you have lived in for over 33 years is much easier to say than to do. Over the span of 33 years you tend to accumulate a lot of "STUFF". Surely I can't be the only one who "tucks this away down here" in case I need it again.
Gracious! I found more than one thing I forgot I had, and some things I didn't even know I had!
Some of the treasures I found were vintage postcards with the postage stamps still on them, some of which are 1907 one cent stamps...not worth much but charming reminders of a time when people communicated by letters and postcards, not telephone, texts and e-mails. While sorting through my patterns and bins of yarn I discovered a book (magazine style) that was given to my mother-in-law over 60 years ago when she would have been taking her new baby home from hospital. It apparently gave a new mom all the information she needed for looking after an infant. There was an info page inside that she had filled in with birth details, ex. Baby's name, weight and date of birth, name of hospital and attending doctor.
Well there were a great many other mementoes that I simply could not get rid of so I packed them up to deal with at a later date. However there were also a great many things I/we decided we just didn't need anymore. So we packed them in boxes and loaded them in my vehicle. Last week I brought in a load of things and delivered them to a local volunteer centre. This weekend we managed to fill my vehicle again and I thought I would donate them to the volunteer centre in Tabusintac this time...spread the wealth so to speak...ha ha ha. Today I was to make the delivery. It is about a 1 hour drive from here so I decided to make a day of it. After a short walk on the treadmill, a quick shower and a few other small jobs I was ready to set out.


This is one of the things I packed to take with me...know what it is? No? Okay well look again...I'll open it up...


I had packed a pic-nic lunch for the drive. A little dish of raisins and almonds for snacking, slices of apple and cantaloupe, and a ham and swiss sandwich. I stopped and bought a coffee from Tim's and voila! Lunch to go! Complete with cloth napkins, after dinner mints and entertainment! Did you notice the audio book I brought along? It is Julie Andrews memoirs. The sun was shining, the snow was melting, Julie was charming company and it was an absolutely delightful drive. 
I stopped at a little shop along the way to look for fabric for a bathroom makeover that I plan to have finished by the end of April (another deadline!) 
Spring was feeling rather close what with mud puddles, melting snow and bare roads.

I know this looks like mud and water, but to me it means the snow is melting and when the snow melts we can move back to the cottage. So I decided to swing by the cottage to check on things...

Bare roads into the cottage...good sign.

But...I 'm thinking that it may be a while before we can open up at Winterpast (my name for our summer place)


That snowdrift is still about 8 feet high!
From there I dropped off my cargo and continued on to visit with a friend and have a cup of tea and chat knitting and quilting. Before I knew it the day was spent and I had to get back to Bathurst. A quick stop at the local library and then the grocery store and then home. Mr. O and I took a 3km walk before supper and all in all a good day.
Now I have to show you a few pics of some of the visitors to our feeders. 



Pine Grosbeaks



Notice I didn't say bird feeders because apparently it is not just the birds who are feeding these days.



Raccoon!

You know what's so nice about deadlines? The way they sound as the go whooshing by!








Friday, March 11, 2011

For all you stitchers...

Go check this out.



http://busyascanbe.blogspot.com/

She is giving away a free stitchery pattern. Very old fashioned I know, but I'm an old fashioned kind of gal. Don't you just love the little yo-yo's embellishing the bottom of this tea towel.

I have been busy packing, cleaning, and purging. Big job ahead of us this spring. More on that later...

Not much quilting going on in my neck of the woods. When I do sit I have been knitting. Finished 2 pair of mitts, and 2 scarves and now I am on the last sock of a pair that has been in my knitting bag far too long!
I was all geared up to go to the movies with Mr. O. We thought "The King's Speech" was still playing, but alas it is not to be. The choices we had were something about Mom's on Mar's
( I mean people..seriously!) or a disaster movie in California.   ( There is enough disaster on the news these days with the Australia floods, New Zealand earthquakes, and now Japan earthquakes and tsunami). How heartbreaking...I do not have television, but I did watch some clips on-line and it was so unbelievable. Those poor people...how frightening!

We really have no call to complain about snow... how insignificant compared to this!

Tuesday, March 1, 2011

Hope I'm not boring you...

...but I just have to show you a couple more shots of "my" chickadees. I never seem to tire of them. They are such a source of enjoyment, no matter the weather.




   As you can probably tell the last pic was taken just after the snow started (AGAIN!!) yesterday. 

I want to share with you something I read many years ago in one of my Victoria magazines;  about chick-a-dees. 
Being a chickadee lover and a quote lover and a scrapbooker I saved it in my little quote book.

"The chickadee was put on earth to demonstrate the power of positive thinking.  No day is dark, no night is cold, no hour is evil, no harm is in sight, no news is bad.  An acrobat and an optimist; the chickadee is perfectly named, (he named himself), perfectly designed. We should all wear a black cap, ignore the weather reports and make friends easily." 
E.B.White

Gotta love those chickadees!

I just finished reading Dewey by Vicki Myron.


I have read that it is to made into a movie...

From Publishers Weekly

One frigid Midwestern winter night in 1988, a ginger kitten was shoved into the after-hours book-return slot at the public library in Spencer, Iowa. And in this tender story, Myron, the library director, tells of the impact the cat, named DeweyReadmore Books, had on the library and its patrons, and on Myron herself....


As soon as I finish posting this I am going to hide away in my sewing room with an audio book. I am currently listening to Julie Andrews memoirs. (image taken from amazon)


Home to make a little progress on a lap quilt I have to get quilted.

Oh by the way the only person who responded to my query of the classic movie images was Linda H and she was indeed correct. Thanks Linda!
I didn't realize it at the time but it was a timely post with the Oscars being shown that very night. The movie was Lilies of The Field and Sydney Poitier won an Oscar for his performance in it. Linda I have to agree with you; To Sir With Love was my fave too!

I am off to find a black cap and tell myself that the forecasted snow for this coming weekend doesn't bother me a bit!
chick-a-dee-dee-dee...!