And now for something completely different...

Well, friends, I have learned something very important about blogging ~ if you spend too much time on Pinterest there is not enough time to write in your blog!!  (Does this sound familiar?)  I am not sure if I still have any readers out there, or if indeed I ever did LOL!

Many months have passed since my last blog ... my letters to friends used to begin the same way!!!  I have had many interesting things happening in my life and have done a fair amount of creating.  I'll start with what I was working on today and over the next few weeks report on the missing months.

Today...

From this: 

To this:

These little scrappy blocks will work their way into a child`s quilt for the IWK (children`s hospital in Halifax, NS.)  I have not decided yet just how I will put them together.

From this: 

To this:

And also this:

I have found a quilting group (Warm Wishes) in my new neighbourhood.  I`ll tell you more about them later.  Anyway, they do all charity quilting which is right up my alley.  At our meeting on Wednesday I snafu`d the African print from a bag of donated scraps and decided to cut it up to make a couple of kid`s quilts.  More in the coming weeks.

And last but not least, here is a project I am hoping to complete this summer.  This Grandmother`s Flower Garden was started by my mom, pre-1950.  She set it aside when she had my brother and just never got back to it.  So I am hoping to finish it as a surprise for her.  It is all sewn by hand (not my forte) and, unfortunately, not with 1/4 inch seams.  So, it may be a bit tricky matching her sewing, but I am goiing to try.  This will probably result in a first - hand pieced but machine quilted!!

Don`t you love the hugging bears?

 They belong to my mom, too but there is no room for them in her room at the Guest House.

More soon and I hope you are all enjoying this lovely spring into summer weather!!

Well, friends, I have learned something very important about blogging ~ if you spend too much time reading other people's blogs there is not enough time to write in your own!!  I noticed that most quilt bloggers finished the year 2011 with a collage of the projects they had been working on during the year.  You'll notice that I did not say "completed" as we all have so many WIP's.  So, a few weeks late here is my review of 2011:



 

 

 

     

 

 

 

 I am quite pleased with all I accomplished, considering that 2011 also included the sale of our home by the ocean, moving our "stuff" into storage and/or our cottage.  Then three weeks later we found a new home and moved everything again!! The new home has a sewing room for me!! And also room for a long arm ~ hopefully. We anticipate that 2012 will include the sale of our cottage (which is just about emptied now.) Then I can settle into some serious quilting!!

Although this is a little late, I'm hoping that all of you had a great 2011 and are well into a year of terrific quilting!!

Merry Christmas

(made by Lisa)

to all!!

Four Christmas Trees!!

Christmas Day is one week away!  But Christmas celebrations have started early and go on as long as possible in our house!! 

We finally put up and decorated our tree today.  We had carols playing and a crackling fire in the fireplace, on our TV screen courtesy of our satelite provider LOL!  Our collection of Santas, snowmen and angels will get displayed tomorrow.  We think this is our seventh Christmas here in Florida and we have amassed quite a few decorations.  I miss some of the special ones we have left at home in Nova Scotia along with our family and friends.

My second tree is just above this post - I found a countdown clock to add to my blog!! I read a blog lately where someone was trying to do just this. If you want to know how to do this, email me or leave a note (with your email) and I will tell you how.

Every year, no matter where I am, as we decorate our Christmas tree I think of Boston.  Nova Scotia, my home province in Canada, and Massachusetts have a very special history which dates back to Dec 6, 1917.  Early that morning, just after the school day had started,  in the crowded wartime harbor, a French cargo ship loaded with TNT and other munitions collided with a Belgian relief ship, causing a fire, explosion, and tsunami that leveled over 2 acres of the port and killed 2000 people.  This was the greatest man-made explosion prior to the atomic bombs of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  Also, that night while thousands had to sleep in the open, a blizzard hit and caused many more deaths.   In the ensuing rescue effort, a well-supplied Massachusetts delegation was among the first to arrive in Halifax and the last to leave. The next year, the still-struggling city of Halifax thanked the people of Boston by sending them a 46 foot fir Christmas tree, a tradition that was revived in the 1970s and continues today.  This is the fortieth year of this unique partnership.

Here is the 2011 tree being loaded  for Boston, on Nov 15th.  The tree is always donated and the tree grower is proud to be a part of this special friendship.

And here it is after the lighting on Dec 1st.

This 45-foot Nova Scotia Christmas tree is adorned with 52,000 LED lights.

Tree number four is our new outside Christmas tree.  My partner came in from her walk tonight carrying a rather large cardboard box, proclaiming that the garbage-picker was home!  Someone had thrown out a tree that appeared to be in good shape.  When we put it together and tried it we found that one section of lights would not work because a few lights were broken.  We replaced them (the spare lights were also in the box) and here it is:

Gotta love Christmas trees - especially the free ones!!