Merry Christmas

This is getting to be a Holiday blog I am so infrequent posting updates.

Lots of changes since October.

Mom has successfully transitioned to a long-term care facility and Dad has had the paperwork done as well. Hopefully this will enable them to be together in a facility. It is hard top be separated when you have been married nearly 67 years.

Since I was so busy settling parents the past few months Christmas cards etc. went by the wayside. I will  be back on track next year though.
We are even dining at The Westin this evening for our Christmas meal.

I have managed to sew though and the Quiltville mystery, Roll Roll Cotton Boll is in various stages in my sewing room.

The girls, Claire and Anna give us lots of joy, we just spent the very early morning with them watching gifts being unwrapped. Santa was very successful finding their house.


Next year the home in Toronto will have a little one that Santa will have to pay a visit to.

George and Gracie continue to grow and make sure we don't sit for any length of time, they are great walkers and sniff lots of trees and poles on every occasion.

 May you all have a healthy  holiday season and a Happy New Year with family and friends.
Wouldn't it be wonderful if "peace" could have a chance.

Happy Thanksgiving

It is a beautiful autumn day here, cool this morning for DH to walk George and Gracie but they didn't seem to object.

 We enjoyed our Turkey dinner on Friday and two meals made their way to Mom and Dad. She still in hospital and he is bacheloring it!
Leftovers ruled most of our meals this weekend.

 I have been machine appliquing the top part of The Great Pumpkin wall hanging. http://pumpkinpatchprimitivequiltshoppe.blogspot.com/2009/09/great-pumpkin.html You can see a photo of it on this site.
This is a 4 or 5 year project. I expect when I complete the applique part this week it will be put away until I drag it out again next year. Then I shall put it all together. Frankly I am getting sick of looking at it after intensively working on it for the past 6 weeks.

I am starting to paper piece the diamonds for the Twelve Days of Christmas Mystery from Esther Aliu.www.estheraliu.com Six of twelve diamonds made and I hope to complete them today. Then I will start Part 2, I am only a week late with this mystery and I hope to catch up.

The newlyweds had their first anniversary on Sunday, congratulations to a great couple. Next year they will have a little person to help them celebrate.

Remember this?  It is at the long-arm quilters, should be ready in a week or two.

Curried Zucchini Soup

 2 tbsp butter, preferably unsalted
1 medium onion,coarsely chopped
 2 tbsp curry powder, depends on your preferences as to how "hot" you like it
 6 cups chicken broth
2 medium potatoes peeled and cubed
1 tsp. salt
1 tsp. freshly ground pepper
8 cups zucchini, washed and seeded, cut in chunks
1/2 cup table cream.

In a large saucepan, melt the butter. Add the onions and cook until they soften. Add the curry powder, chicken broth, potatoes salt, pepper and zucchini. Bring to a boil, then lower to simmer until the vegetables are cooked. Transfer ingredients to a blender and puree. Blend in batches and be careful the hot soup doesn't splatter and burn you! Or use an immersion blender and puree in the saucepan.
Add the cream last.

Serve in heated bowls with a dollop of sour cream or plain Balkan or Mediterranean style yogurt with croutons scattered on top.

Serves: 6 healthy servings.

I had a huge zucchini, added about 6 new medium potatoes and used two boxes of chicken broth, 1 liter each, so I had lots of soup. I froze some and will add the cream when it is reheated.

Another monthly post

Since I don't seem to manage more than one a month these days...
However plenty to comment about.

 Hurricane Earl dropped in on the weekend, and by the time he was near HRM he was downgraded to a mere tropical storm. G&G spent most of the time on the balcony watching and trying to gobble up any leaves that came their way. A few trees in the woods behind fell, but they were derelict anyway, and on the streetscape some of the young ash, birch, maple planted by the developer succumbed.
However no one appeared to have structural damage.

Not so in Christchurch, NZ  All family there seemed to have fared okay with loss of bits and pieces and knicknacks. Louise was without power after the 'quake and I hope it has been restored. Mother Nature has certainly been making her presence known around the globe. She is displeased!

Mom fell on Friday morning, luckily her a Home Care worker was with her when her knees just seemed to buckle and down she went,  fracturing her right hip, so she spent most of Saturday waiting to go to the OR, because of power interruptions she was bumped to Sunday and finally went around 430 PM.
She came through with flying colours, a little confused from the whole deal, but that is understandable.
It wasn't a bad break so a simple DHS was the only necessary intervention.
Time will tell now as to her post-op mobility.

The Cassia Bud pickles are bottled and some already eaten, they are good. A few bottles were gifts to my neighbours who plied me with goodies post-op.

I thought I'd post a photo, so here is one of Anna. I borrowed this from Patti's FB page. She is adorable.

Recipe for Cassia Bud Pickles

Kathie I have been meaning to post this recipe for you for months. They are lovely , kind of take a while to make but well worth it  IMHO.

ADDITIONAL NOTES:  The total amount of sugar is only 6 cups, don't add anymore after Day 10. I was able to get 13 pint bottles from my nearly 8 pounds of pickling cukes.
I buy my Cassia Buds from Bulk Barn, they usually have them in stock.



              Cassia Bud Pickles                                                       Yield 8 – 10 pint and quart bottles


Approx 8 lbs of pickling cucumbers, 2 – 3 inch, washed, scrubbed both ends removed. Cut in half and half again.


Brine: 4 qts. Boiling water in which 2 cups of pickling salt has been dissolved.

Put cucumbers in large crock. Cover with brine and then with plate which is weighed down. I usually use Mason jars filled with water.
Let stand in a cool place for one week. Remove  any scum form top of brine daily.

7th Day: Drain
      cover with boiling water, and again with the weighted lid. Let stand 24 hours

8th Day: Drain, cover with boiling water and 1 tsp. Powdered alum. Cover again with weighted lid.

9th Day: Drain and cover with hot syrup for 24 hours
    6 cups white pickling vinegar
    5 cups white sugar
1 ounce cassia buds
1 tsp. Celery seeds
A few whole cloves

10th Day: drain and save the syrup liquid, add 1 cup of white sugar. Heat to boiling and pour over cucumbers. Recover with weighted pot lid.

11th and 12th Days: repeat Day 11.

13th Day: Drain, bring syrup to boil. Pack cucumbers in sterile jars. Cover with boiling syrup, seal and enjoy.

Recuperating

Since the last missive I had emergency bowel surgery, everything went well and now I am home. I have nothing but great praise for my colleagues at the Dartmouth General, they are the best from ER/OR/PAR/ and the Surgery floor in this whole province.

Now I recuperate, along with Home Care visits from VON .


DH held down the fort and G&G had a few days wondering where I was, they are hanging pretty tight to me since I arrived home.

I am thinking this may be the time to start handquilting the Autumn Leaves wall-hanging that has been basted for 2 years and completed for 3 and started in 1997. What do you think?
I can't sit to machine quilting for any great length of time.

The Big Kid arrives home on the Redeye Friday morning, I'm anxious to see him.

It's July?

How did that happen? I was sure I just blogged recently.
Seriously though life was busy and Pastiche was along way down on the list.


 I did go to Toronto for ten wonderful days of R&R visiting the newlyweds. I love TO, especially exploring the King St. E neighbourhood, and the multitude of restaurants. We sampled lots of different cuisines, Thai, Japanese, Italian, Chinese. I explored the fabric shops along Queen St. W, didn't buy a thing but looked at lots.

 Arrived home to family crisis with my parents so the paper work has been started for long-term care placement for Mom. Dad has finally realized that he is unable to keep up the pace. It will be better for both of them and Mom will get much more outside stimulation and fresh faces to see daily. Now we sit and wait, the process usually takes 3 - 6 months.

Claire was four years old and she had a tea party for some of her friends, we enjoyed pizza and cake in the evening with the family.

Anna had a good time swinging away! She is growing like a weed, and a very contented baby.

Char and Faeyque were home for 10 days and just headed back to TO, and the heat last weekend. Luckily they missed the G8, G20 mess and chaos. We had a lovely visit and F saw more of NS. They also went to PEI  and of course the pilgrimage to Pictou County.

The sewing room is tidied and not in use, in preparation for more visitors this weekend and in August. I have some handwork to keep me occupied though.

It is really quite hot here this week so  I am enjoying cool drinks, popsicles and the fan.

I almost forgot to mention George and Gracie, they are sweet little dogs, I didn't think they were going to bark but George let out a few one day when a strange thing was on the bed. It was my  bright yellow purse. He was adamant that he would not go into the room until he had my attention and he knew what was lurking. They are plunked down in front of the fan now, catching a few zzzzz's.

The Recovering room

Those two puppies are hilarious, they certainly had discussions among themselves about the cones, and they didn't like me calling them "coneheads."

George is almost back to his normal self, and occasionally licking the spots, but Gracie is another matter. She is playing the role of the invalid to the hilt. The abdominal binder is causing her much grief and she won't walk with it on, even to her food dish.

 She is just lazing around, just waiting for someone to pass her a treat or brush her face or rub her belly. Or, even to give her a toy.
She thinks this is a spa.


Its a dog's life.

Lots of mistakes

Wowee I definitely shouldn't have been close to the rotary cutter yesterday. I didn't cut myself but my measuring was a way off TWICE. Instead of 2 1/2 x 4 1/2 inch rectangles I cut them 4 1/4. I recut and did the same thing again.... grrr. Luckily this is for a very small table topper, only 8 flying geese.

I am glad I took a hiatus from the DWR. The melons and rings are all done and I just have to sew the final two rows. Pat myself on the back here.

Then when it was all sewn together I did one upside down.
I went to bed! I'll fix it this morning.

Gracie and George are recovering, they had their life-altering spaying and neutering on Thursday. George is nearly back to normal but poor Gracie is still perplexed and cannot believe she had this happened to her.
So far she has lost two of her three sutures so I have had to put a surgical transparent dressing on it, so I can see the incision but she can't gnaw it. The cone and tea-tree oil are also being used to keep her away but.... somehow.

Anna visited her great - grandparents yesterday,her first road trip.They approved of her.

Anna Catherine

Anna Catherine arrived on early Friday morning, April 30. She weighed in at 8 pounds and is a healthy baby girl. A lovely head of auburn hair and, so far, blue eyes.

 Claire is very excited and is enjoying being the Big Sister.

We were all fooled, thinking that this baby was going to be a boy but.... so now I'll start a girly quilt for her.

End of April

It is hard to believe that April is nearly over. Today we are  having the showers and intermittent sunny spots that bring May flowers and greener grass.

We are still on baby watch, the newest addition shows no haste in arriving in the big world. Perhaps it wants to be a May baby, that would be nice since we have lots of Aprils and only Papa is May.

I have nearly finished piecing the third row of arcs of the DWR. It is looking good, the sewing room isn't though. Gracie has obviously been finding little pieces of thread since some passed through this morning. I will have to be vigilant with her and her brother, they will eat anything, except the kibble from the vet.

DH and I went to an open rehearsal with Symphony NS this morning to hear the Dvorak Cello Concerto. The cellist was Matt Haimovitz and he and the orchestra are performing this evening. SNS is having a Dvorak Festival. The performance this Sunday evening is From The New World and Giora Schmidt, is the featured violinist. The New World Symphony is one of my favourites. It should be wonderful.

Falling behind...

Again, boy, am I an intermittent blogger.
 It isn't as if I have nothing to tell, I do, but I get carried away doing something else and whammo the day is gone and so is the blog opportunity.
So.

I took G&G for a long walk this morning, they sniffed everything possible and ate nearly all the dead and dried up earthworms on the sidewalk. They sure find them tasty, and all that great protein. 

I am making great progress on the DWR, one whole row pieced and the second is nearly completed. At this rate it should be completed by the end of the summer. I have even been keeping track of the hours spent working on it. I have to lay it out on the floor to make sure I am putting the contrasting four -patches in a random , but controlled, order.

We are on baby watch here, the new babe is due on Saturday. Claire is anxious to be the "big sister."

The Quilt Rack

My father made me a lovely quilt rack a few years ago. It is made from Oak and he carved it himself.
It sits at the end of a hallway and I have a number of quilts on it.

Of course the way the quilts are hanging leaves a little space in the middle on the floor which is just perfect for hiding... and this is where Gracie hangs out when she wants some peace and quiet from her brother George. She is getting her bed ready here, an old quilted tabletopper.

Meantime George knows that this is her space and he is trying his darndest to get in and have a nice quiet nap as well.

Eventually he wormed his way in with her and here they are all jammed up.
However that didn't last too long and now George is on the outside once again trying to make some headway past her and she is growling and ready to pick a fight with him.
Now Gracie is out and George is in... kids!!!

April

Today is April Fool's day and all I did was sleep in until 1130. It was lovely.
G&G also slept in with me, they were probably tired from all the playing they do in the run of a day.

I started a Double Wedding Ring quilt last Saturday, I am taking a six-week course. It has been on my Bucket list for a long time. This one is done using John Flynn's instructions and is strip pieced so it isn't as arduous as the originals. I am using FQ's that I have saved for years, all 30's fabrics with a neutral background.
I cut out 207 slices for rings on Monday and Tuesday, that was after sewing six sets of strips to make them. That is a lot of sewing, I used the little Janome Gem and she just chugged along.
I want to use it for the whole process and then I know the 1/4 inch on the pieces will be consistent throughout.
Not always guaranteed if I switch to another machine. Besides it is easy to take to class.

And I have started quilting the whole-cloth Trapunto, and the Happy Birthday banner is ready to be quilted now. I may do it tonight so I can hang it up to honour two birthdays in April.

Easter weekend is supposed to be blessed with warm sunny weather, we shall see....

I think I'll take a lamb pot roast to Mom and Dads' for dinner. I got the recipe while in Wellington last year and it was soooo good. They will love it, I am sure.

Maple Syrup Festival

Another stellar day, I have already been out for a long walk with G&G.

Tomorrow we head to Cumberland County for a Maple Syrup supper at the Westchester Fire Hall. Pancakes, baked beans, sausages, brown bread, sweets, tea coffee and of course the wonderful Maple syrup to crown it all. Check out the festival here.

Maple Syrup is the first agricultural crop in the NS growing season and the cold nights and warm days are helping to give the producers a banner year. Yummy! I can't wait to get some Maple Butter tomorrow.

There hasn't been much work done in the sewing room, but I did stitch together a Happy Birthday banner. It wasn't ready for Patti's but hopefully will be completed for the rash of birthdays coming up in the next few months.

 My Uncle Bob was featured in the Lives Lived column in today's Globe and Mail. It was wonderful to read the tribute that his son Shel wrote.
He was my Mother's older brother, by 17 months or so.
They had great telephone conversations every Sunday morning, discussing absolutely everything, but mostly the old neighbourhood around Spencer Street in St. John's. My mother is the last of a family of eight siblings, she has lived in Nova Scotia  since 1944 but she is still a Newfoundlander first and foremost.

March

Gee March has certainly been a pleasure so far, nice sunny days, lots of blue skies, no snow or rain, can it last? The temperature is not warm but 6C isn't bad for those of us in the Northern Hemisphere in March, and it isn't even spring yet!
George & Gracie and I have been walking long walks every day and they are loving it. There is a moral to the story though, if a large noisy truck is rumbling down the street don't try to use the crosswalk to get across at that particular time. They don't like it and will lie down in the middle of the street, and have to be coaxed back to walk.
They have been walking with an old glove in their mouths and look much like a pair of puppies leading me as they prance ahead and I follow, holding  the leashes. I feel like a teamster for dogs, instead of horses.

I am making progress on my Trapunto wall hanging, and enjoying it as well. I ran out of the water-soluble thread and have to make a dash to a store to get some. I knew I should have purchased two when I initially bought it.

Golden Canada

My goodness once they got over the "own the podium" hype they got down to business. 14 Gold medals. Not bad.

Our own NS son Sidney Crosby scored the winning goal in an OT hockey game against the US. I think everyone was glued or in close proximity to a television.
Good Job!

On a roll?

I wonder if the Canadian Olympic team is on their roll now. A gold last evening for Woman's hockey and a Bronze for Woman's figure skating.
There may have been more medals yesterday but I am not glued to watching the events.

This will be a sewing day it is raining buckets and any snow should be gone by the end of this storm.

I hope to finish a quilt top that has been in the works for a long time. I was ready to put the borders on last night but decided to change a block which was not in keeping with the rest of the top.
It would be a real plus to actually get the top sandwiched and basted, but I don't want to be too optimistic.

I have also made some little fabric boxes, I found  this tutorial on a blog and the embellishments were from Jenny of Elephantz, here.  She has lovely ideas.  I have used them to showcase FQ's. They look much better than plastic containers.

George and Gracie

Here is a photo of the two pups, this was shot last week just before Gracie had a facial and we discovered that she has two eyes. They are growing in leaps and bounds.

At the moment they are trying to figure out who the dogs are that are seen in the door of the stereo!

It is a conundrum for them that is for sure, but whoever those dogs are, they seem to be friendly.

Falling behind

I definitely am Not a good blogger, it has been months since I posted anything. What can I say?

Well in October we had a family wedding in Toronto and then another celebration here. That was lots of fun. We had visitors from NZ and Italy,and various Canadian provinces.

November we recovered from the wedding and celebrated year 42 of wedded bliss.
And I had to do something for Christmas, like buy gifts, send cards, wrap gifts. all that stuff that we put ourselves through.

December our poor old dog Jake was quite ill and he crossed the Rainbow Bridge the week before Christmas. My that was a hard time, his heart just gave up pumping. We certainly miss him.

January came and so did two new puppies George and Gracie. They are 12 week old Shih-Tzu mainly, but George appears to have some other breed in him. I guess there was hanky-panky in the porch 'cause both parents are Shih-Tzu.

February is training, and washing piddles off floors and training and washing floors. You get the picture.
When I remember how to post a photo I'll upload one.

Meantime I have been sewing and quilting and now I am taking a Trapunto Machine Quilting course. That is fun.

Hopefully I'll post again before another month.