Summer comes to an end.

We have had a wonderful summer here over all.  The weather has been mixed between hot summer days with high humidity and thunder and lightening shows at night.  I love the heat and the humidity doesn't really bother me so I have been a happy clam!  We have travelled some and spent some time at our boat.  I am sad to see summer go but I do love the fall as well.  I live at the bottom of a foothill and the colour show in the fall is spectacular!

This is last year!  We are not this deep in colour yet!

As for the sewing department, I have been doing several projects but nothing too big.

I made this sun dress for Me!  I love the pleats on the front but the underarm binding on the back was a little odd, just ending out there all on it's own!  Maybe it is the pattern....maybe it is me sewing in the wee wee hours of the morning?  However, it is light and flowy and doesn't touch me much which is great when the humidity is really high!

I made Kobo covers for the kids.  One for Moo (girly) and one for Bean (boyish).

And we all made several dog beds to donate to the Humane Society.  Of course they need to be tested before they go so the Princess Moo did the testing!  They work well apparently!

Farewell, my friend....

It is a sad time for me and my family as we say good bye to a wonderful woman.  I am sad to say that our dear friend Hazel has passed away.  She was a lovely, friendly woman who "adopted" me and my children as though we really were hers.  We shared a love of quilting and fabric hoarding collecting.  She was amazing at many forms of crafting and I have some wonderful items that she made that I will hold dear and cherish as memories of time spent with her.
If not for Hazel and her hubby Jim, my move back to Ontario to take care of my parents would never have happened.  They were a slick packing team and kept me in good humour while we tackled the daunting task of packing up my life and my two children and moving across the country.  I have many pictures of Hazel with my sisters and my children but I think my favourite is of her rocking my "eternally colicky" son when he was tiny.
She had a brilliant, captivating smile and a gentle soul and I will miss her dearly.
I am grateful for her time on earth and I know she is in Good Hands.  Thank God her suffering is over.  If you have a minute please say a prayer for Hazel's family and friends as those who remain are hurting.

As I was in the process of making an Alzheimer's touch quilt for Hazel with some of her fabrics, I will still complete it but I will now donate it to the Alzheimer's Association in her name (unless of course her hubby would like to have it to hold on to).  As for the rest of her fabric and the Singer Featherweight that I inherited, she will be remembered every time I touch any of it.

Rest in Peace Hazel, may you find the best Fabric Shops Heaven has to offer.  Say, "Hi" to Mom and Dad for me and give them a hug.  Love you......

Friday Night Sew In ....Success!

Well, the Friday Night Sew In went on until 3:00 am Saturday morning and I am not quite done, but I am thrilled to say that I sewed two Christmas presents!!!

This one is for my grandson's to share.

Room for six cars.

I love how the cars settle all the way into the pockets!

This one is for my nephew....

He is a Hot Wheels fan.

I used the tutorial here from Punkin Patterns blog.  I managed to scrounge up the Riley Blake Wheels (My Minds Eye) fabric from a Canadian fabric shop online called Dragonfly Fabrics.  The mat folds up and buttons closed for play on the go.  The cars all stay put and it is small enough to pop into just about any bag or purse to take along to the doctors or park.   I need to get some cute buttons for these two mats and then I can show a picture of it all folded up.  But all in all, I think Friday Night Sew In was a great success!  I also got to watch a great movie called the notebook while I was sewing.  A friend lent it to me and it was a lovely movie.
Well I think I may try a Saturday night sew in also, just to get ahead!
Hope you all have a great weekend!

Pay it Forward and a New Challenge.

We have been traveling quite a bit this summer and so I have not been able to blog much but I wanted to share a picture of my first "pay it forward"! 
I made this apron for Kelly from A Plain Path.  She is a sweet Mamma and a terrific, supportive bloggy friend. If you click her link you can see her wearing the apron!  We got a chuckle out of the fact that I was making her apron as she was making jelly and needing one!

This was the first time I used the labels that I made and talked about in this post.  They seemed to work great!

Now for the challenge,  I have finally decided to join the Friday Night Sew In group.  I really need to make some sewing commitments and be accountable, so I am hoping that I can do it with this FNSI plan!  You can find out more by clicking the link on my side bar under For Interest Sake. Come join in and have some fun!
Now off to my sewing room so I can set up for tonight's Sew In!!

Thrifty Find!

I took a little stroll through the Value Village Thrift store a couple of weeks ago with Bean and look what we found!

1950 Singer 301

A 1950 Singer 301.  The "Big Sis" of the Featherweight that Hazel gave me last year. She is in pristine condition, not a thread or wisp of lint to be found anywhere.  Just a minor scratch or two if you really look close (excluding the dust she has collected this week in my sewing room after sewing a flannel housecoat!).  The cord was in excellent shape and after I oiled and greased her she purrs like a kitten.  The nice thing about her is that she fits in the same table that the Featherweight came in.  Although, when I sewed the housecoat, her top speed causes that table to shake!  I was looking for a machine to do free motion quilting on because none of mine will comply. Many of the quilting sites suggest this 301 was "made for quilting".  Imagine my surprise when I found her laying on the floor all dishevelled in her case at the thrift store!  Button holer and several interesting feet all intact in the original boxes as well. And, you will never guess at the price!  The sticker read $14.99.....and I had a coupon for 30% off!  So all in all, she cost me $10.00 and $11.00 at the local shop for a check up for the tension.  Now I need to find a free motion foot for her and see if all those quilting ladies are right.
Hope your weekend was great!
Penny

The quilt in Action!

It has been a busy few weeks here but I did want to show you the quilt I made for my Granddaughter in action.  We drove down to London, Ontario to see them before they left for San Francisco and brought Little E the Quilt. She put it to use right away.  She is just learning how to roll over and having her toys clipped on to the loops made it more interesting for her to be on her tummy (which she really dislikes!)  We are hoping that since the toys can't get away on her she may attempt to figure out a way to get to them and start to crawl.

She was quite happy that her toys couldn't get away, and was more happy to be on her tummy for longer periods.

It was a nice week of seeing family and we got to see all of our grandchildren in the course of one week.  That never happens since they all live so far away.  But since everyone of them is moving somewhere, we all got to meet them all in the middle!

This was our day on the beach with the kids and Grandkids.  We have been so blessed with great weather these last few weeks, so we took advantage of it!

Well I am off to search out information on a new sewing machine. Wish me luck!

Finally some finishes!

I finally have some pictures to show of the finishes I have made lately.  As the pictures loaded I realized I got more done than I thought.
First off I am finally done my granddaughters play quilt!  It is from the Quilt Almanac 2011, called "Hey Diddle Diddle".

This lighting is bad but it lets you see the loops that her toys can be clipped to.

Here is the back and label.

This is my very first free motion machine quilting attempt.  In the main block I made her initial.

In the middle shot you can see that I did make a label and it turned out really well I think!  I never used to label my quilts until I started blogging and read about how important that is. Who knew?  That was just something I was never taught.

Speaking of labelling things,  I made these:
using a tutorial by Patchwork Pottery.  I haven't
ironed them on to the twill yet but I will soon and I
have the perfect jar to store them in as well!  The
figuring out of the computer was the most challenging part of these.






I have a few more finishes to post about but I will save it for another day or else this is going to be one really long post!

I will leave you with a most wonderful parcel that arrived in the mail yesterday though.  I left a comment on Sweet P's blog on her give away day and I was the lucky winner!  Two great patterns and some lovely black and brown fabrics to start one of the projects off with!!

A stash piece to match!!

I really didn't think I had any colours even close in my stash but I took a peek anyway and look what I found!  There is only one match, but it is indeed a fabric that I can add to this quilt pattern!

For the other pattern though, I made a quick trip to the LQS for a couple of charm packs that I have had my eye on but didn't have a project for....

Now I am all set!  Thank you Paulette!!  I love my new projects.

Have a good night everyone.