Long weekend

I am hoping to have a productive long weekend - at least quilting wise. Here is what I made today from some scraps that I had. I don't have a backing yet (darn that means that I'll have to go buy more fabric:) I am pretty sure that I am going to machine quilt this. The fabric is pretty thick. It is an odd size, approximately 34x38 inches. Don't know what I am going to do with it, but I am sure that something will present itself.

Displaying Yarn!

The real question when you have a yarn addiction is how to display all the balls nicely. I've been toying with how to do this. What I have at the moment is a number of ends, tiny little balls of yarn. You may remember earlier that I put them in a vase. This worked alright, but I have taken to buying myself flowers and so I need the vase. Now, I don't want to display these in this mini-muffin tin, but I thought they looked fun! I was then looking for something else and my eyes landed on this purple bowl. I think that I will try this for a while - I just need to decide where I am going to put it.

The Greatest Children's books ever!

Yes, I did just add the code to have the Harry Potter count down on my site. I love the Harry Potter books! (and have a big party planned to celebrate the release - and, since apparently I am a grown-up, I am staying up all night to read it and plan to have it done by breakfast!) However the greatest and best Children's series ever is Swallows and Amazons! Written byArthur Ransome, the first book, titled Swallows and Amazons was published in 1930. The last book in this series that he completed was Great Northern in 1947. He was working on another book but he never finished it. These notes were published in the book Coots in the North and Other Stories and you can tell it would have been great if he had finished it!

C'est vache!

Fact of the Day: "The French superlative "c'est vache", meaning excellent, dates from the 19th-century Parisian practice of corralling cattle on street corners the better to extract fresh vaccine direct from the lymph glands." Honigsbaum, Mark. (2007) Vaccine: The Controversial Story of Medicine's Greatest Lifesaver by Arthur Allen [book review]. The Guardian Weekly 176(25), 37. BTW - the photo is from a fabric panel I have in my stash.

ROM Crystal

Entering the ROM Crystal Debate

For the record, I love the new Crystal structure at the ROM. Apparently, there are people out there who don't like it by I am not one of them. Here are some pictures I took in August 2006 during the construction:
These are pictures that I took at the beginning of May, showing the original entrance and then the Crystal structure. They were taken from the bus, hence the reflection. It is now finished and had it's opening. For more information, you can visit the ROM site

Gifts for Squiggly!

This is what I made for my nephew-to-come who at the moment is going by the name "Squiggly". The overalls (without the finishing touches because I forgot to take a picture of it all done) came from a great book "Simple Crochet for Cherished Babies" by Jane Davis. I plan to make many of the projects out this book. Below is the Beatrix Potter quilt. It is really cute material and was finished at the last minute!

The good thing about being a grown-up!

The good thing about being a grown-up is that if you are having a touch of insomnia you can just get up and make some popcorn and read some Harry Potter!!

And a bowl full of cherries!

Baby Shower

We held my sister's Baby Shower this past Saturday. It was a beautiful day - the weather was perfect, not too hot and no humidity. It was held in my Mother's friend's backyard which was the perfect setting. The food was delicious (a very important factor in our family!) There was wonderful conversation and a good time was had by all. Part of the display was some cloths that my sister had worn when she was a baby. In fact, the Christening gown on the left was my paternal Grandfather's.

The other item of interest (though they were all interesting) was this yellow sweater that was crocheted by paternal Grandmother. She was apparently well known for her crocheting, which my mother did not find out until after my Grandmother had passed. I like to think that this is goes to explaining why I am a crocheter - though not of the skill of my Grandmother (yet!) I also used my digital voice recorder which had just arrived. I got my mother to tell me the history of all the cloths. Now I just need to figure out how to edit the file that I have so I can take out the relevant part - and the software to do that.

June in North Bay!

Ah, June in North Bay - and everyone kept saying that you're okay to plant after the May long weekend - guess not!

Firefly Rules!

Your results:
You are Malcolm Reynolds (Captain)

Malcolm Reynolds (Captain) 95% Dr. Simon Tam (Ship Medic) 90% Kaylee Frye (Ship Mechanic) 80% Zoe Washburne (Second-in-command) 55% Inara Serra (Companion) 45% Derrial Book (Shepherd) 40% River (Stowaway) 40% Wash (Ship Pilot) 40% Jayne Cobb (Mercenary) 15% Alliance 15% A Reaver (Cannibal) 10%

Honest and a defender of the innocent. You sometimes make mistakes in judgment but you are generally good and would protect your crew from harm.

Click here to take the Serenity Personality Quiz