Thursday, July 24, 2014

Very weird:(

Has this happened to anyone?

I had lost my blog list on my sidebar months ago. No idea why or how. One day there...next day gone???

I still have a blog list I can follow on the Blogger dashboard but some days it won't appear and it gives me stupid error messages which is annoying.

Today I decided to start a new one on my blog sidebar so I added a blog on to the new list and suddenly a whole list of other blogs appeared. Freaked me out which isn't hard...ha ha.

Now some of these blogs are ones that I follow......but here is the weird bit......there are some I've never heard of and have never followed.

Hmmm...some of the blogs I follow are missing!

Eeeek.....cue Twilight Zone music......LOL

Bizarre or what.

I'll leave it for a bit and see what happens.

Take care:) 


Wednesday, July 23, 2014

Intermediate CQ Class with Kathy Shaw....

So I have started my class and now we are really getting into the main lessons.

First off I had to buy some supplies.

I live in the north part of the City of Toronto, part of the GTA, which is a fairly large cosmopolitan centre (* see below)...... but sadly stores that sell CQ supplies...any needlework supplies...seem to be few and far between. I ended up going to a store in Mississauga called Gitta's. Granted Mississauga is part of Greater Toronto but still it's a bit far to go.

I could have seriously spent a fortune there but I was very good as my husband was parked outside in a "pay for" parking zone. I managed to get some size 8 perle cotton that I needed and a few packs of silk ribbon. They had very little selection of silk ribbon as they cater mainly for cross stitch, tapestry and petite point work. It's really a lovely store. I think I may be going back :)  

I did luck out on Etsy. I found a vintage seller that had a small selection of Bucilla silk embroidery ribbon and as I bought what she had in her shop she threw in some extras...bonus. I'd say that I'm all set now to do some serious stitching:)

In this class we are to complete three blocks this time around as opposed to the one block we did in the Beginner Class. What I'm really excited about is all the stuff we are going to do with each block.

1. a spiderweb, tree, monogram, silk ribbon daisies and sunflowers and other stuff
2. ribbon roses, violets, leaves.....buillion roses and other stuff.
3. making a dimensional something, beading and other stuff

Ha ha...you'll have to what a see what the other stuff is but first I have get my blocks assembled.

Take care:)

p.s. If any of my readers live in T.O. and know of some other stores please share. Thanks:)

*

Sunday, July 13, 2014

Rainy days.....

So far this summer has been rather wet weather wise and the garden is flourishing because of it. More than flourishing...it's going nuts...LOL

I thought I'd show you some pictures. 

We have a fairly long growing season here but we don't usually see this many tomatoes so early. 

Romas

Cherry

They look like bunches of grapes.
Beefsteak...they are all on one branch
This cherry tomato plant is as tall as me!! I'm 5 foot 5 inches.
Herbs...all newly planted this year from itty bitty plants.

Parsley and chives

Lemon basil and oregano. I thought for sure the oregano wouldn't survive. There is sage there too.
Lettuce and Swiss chard
The two stonecrop plants are enormous and are giving our green pepper plants a bit of a crowding but not to worry. I checked and there are peppers already:)

The poor St John's Wort is also huge this year and sadly took quite a beating from a heavy storm we had a few weeks ago. It's blooming profusely though. There are so many bees on it that you can't go near it. They are very possessive those bees.

The hanging baskets were put out overnight because it was raining yet again....I see I need to do a bit of dead heading.


Strawberries...you can't see them but they are in there:)
There used to be coneflowers in the space shown in the pic below but this weed...sorry native wild flower... has taken over. I'm not sure what it's called. You see it everywhere in established gardens. I call it a bluebell...not to be confused with English bluebells....but it probably has some fancy Latin name:)


I'm not the gardener by the way. That's my husband who is retired and loves his garden. His motto is a little bit here and a little bit there every day..... when it's not raining of course.

Take care:)

Wednesday, July 9, 2014

Kathy Shaw CQ Classes

Once again Kathy is offering her free online Beginners Crazy Quilting class. If you are interested go here.

I took her class and ended up with this....

It's a fairly structured class which is good because everyone is working on the same thing. I really enjoyed the class and learned quite a lot about CQ.

She is also offering the second stage Intermediate Class free as well and of course I'm going to take that too. I'm really looking forward to trying my hand at crazy quilting again.

Take care:)

Monday, July 7, 2014

Redwork Embroidery....

So I'm finally starting a class in Redwork Embroidery at StitchMAP. My mentor is also doing the class for the first time so I have to be on my best behaviour and not give her any problems:)

I didn't realize that there was so much history around such a simple basic style of embroidery. If you're interested go....here.

I remember getting red embroidery thread and tea towels given to me when I was little by my mum. The tea towels already had a printed embroidery pattern on them. I was sat down and taught stem stitch, french knots and daisy stitch and the like. I vaguely remember manic dancing teacups.

Aha....I Googled....lol........

dancing teacup embroidery
Source


Maybe that's why I love vintage embroidery...so much fun:) Now a purist would have down this in all red, blue or green but I didn't.....ooops. Also, I didn't use the correct stitches.

I have since learned the error of my ways........:)

While I can't divulge everything from the class I can say that the beginning is really basic stuff about tools and fabric preparation. All good things to know and to be reminded about again. 

One thing is wrapping your embroidery hoop. This is something I have never done before so I'll have to see whether I'll stick with this idea. The big hoop is wrapped in bias tape and the small hoop in twill tape. I think I prefer the twill tape to be honest.

So that's what I'm up to in these lazy hazy days of summer.

I also making itty bitty fairies:)

Take care.