Sit Still, Gibby!

If you're going to have your photograph taken Gibson, you must sit still!  

I finished piecing together the blocks of "Cranberry Garland, and put on a narrow border.  It needs one more wider border, and then I think it's ready to become a quilt.  What is it about cats and cameras?  I swear, as soon as Gibby hears me touch the 'on' switch, he's hamming it up.

Everybody's Favourite

I was glad to see this week's block wasn't too difficult! No sixteenth inch measurements.

This week flew by!

Little Boys Breeches - and a weekend of fun shaping up

Yeah, it wasn't easy.  A million Y-seams, and bias edges.  It is faaaaaaar from perfect, but I tried my very best. I drafted the block myself, rather than depend on the inconsistencies of printing the pattern. I hand basted the pieces together before sewing them by machine. And I had to press it VERY carefully in order to get the right sized block.  But I did it.  Little Boys Breeches

Earlier this week I finished piecing together all thirty blocks of Cranberry Garland.   

Hubby and I went to a nearby restaurant last night. The Albion Hotel dates back to 1867, and on Friday nights it's free mussels and $5 hamburgers!!  I'd never tried a mussel in my life, but took the opportunity to sample a couple of varieties.  

Today we went out to do a little shopping.  My vegetable peeler had gone missing!  So the goal was to find a new one.  Just up and around the corner we stopped in at The Casual Gourmet.  Hubby was practically giddy when he saw the sign on the door that they were offering free sharpening of Henckels knives.  We went back home, grabbed his knives, and back the store for a tune up.  I must say, that the lady who was doing the sharpening was quite alarmed at the condition of the one which happens to be MY favourite knife.  Hubby told her that he thinks I open beer bottles with it. 

It's a fun little store to browse around in -- if you're in the area, you should pop in.  I saw lots of cute things today, but only bought a new peeler and some dishcloths. 

We stopped in at a few other places: I found a terrific sale on new fleece sheets at Budds, and returned my library books.

While wandering around downtown, we saw a sign at Molly Bloom's: "Breakfast All Day $3.99" and decided to go in.  Although it's practically on our front door step, neither one of us had ever been in.  Oh my word...I don't believe I've ever had a WORSE breakfast served up to me, but LAUGH!! We were howling!  The worst was the "scrambled" eggs.  Absolutely inedible - - it looked like the dishwasher 'chef' had been practising perfecting an over-easy egg, and broke five yolks one after another, and shoved them aside on the grill until someone ordered scrambled.  And there was a TON of them - - at least five or six eggs, all browned from sitting in burnt oil on a dirty grill top.  

I arranged them in a large frowning face, added ketchup tears, and giggled my idiot head off.  When the waitress came to clear our plates, we wouldn't let her apologize - - it was just too funny.  She took the plate back to the cook, who came out to apologize, and asked how he could improve on scrambled eggs.  I burst out laughing and said "scramble them". Both the waitress and the cook had a good laugh with us. On an ordinary day, I would have been a lot more indignant - but it was just part of the very good time we are having this weekend. 

Little Red Schoolhouse

This week's Grandmother's Choice block wasn't tooooo bad; a traditional school house block, but I still substituted my own version.  No pattern - I drafted it on graph paper.  Even though I measured carefully, it wouldn't square up, so I had to tear out the centre horizontal seam, re-sew it, and press both horizontal seams open in order to get an 8 1/2" unfinished block.  Gotta do whatcha gotta do!  But now, I'm a block ahead!

Didn't make it to Ancaster today - - we had some friends from home pop in.  A little window shopping,  the best Chinese dinner ever, and coffee at a nearby cafe.    We had a great time.

A long weekend...

Try not to hate me too much - but I have a long weekend.  Because Remembrance Day falls on a Sunday this year, the office had the option of closing on Monday, or saving the stat  to be used at a later time.  We voted for a long weekend.

I woke up waaaay too early this morning - 4 a.m.  Nothing on TV.  Today's Grandmother's Choice BOW hadn't been posted yet.  So, I pieced together a random block that I "stole" from the Civil War BOW blog - just in case I really don't want to do this week's block (I'm such a cheater!) and put together a few more Cranberry Garland blocks.

On Tuesday, I visited another "new to me" Quilt Shop: Undercover Quilts & More in Fergus.  I chose a half dozen fat quarters to fill out my black/red/neutral repros selection as I continue to work on Grandmother's Choice.

I'm thinking about making a drive down to Ancaster today to visit The Quilt Rack - a shop I've heard so much about from quilty friend Jacqui who used to work there. 

Good News!

I had some blood work last week, and this morning, got a call from the doctor's office telling me that I needed to come in on Monday.  HUH?

My TSH is sky high. YEAH!!!!!!!

That might seem a little bizarre -- celebrating abnormal medical tests.  But this explains EVERYTHING!  For the past two months or so I've been freaking exhausted!

About a month ago, I cut back my sleeping pill to half, because I was having such a hard time getting out of bed. I know...why am I taking a sleeping pill if I'm so tired?  Believe me...insomniacs are some of the most tired people on the planet!  But that didn't help.

I've been too tired to do anything.  The apartment looks like hell, and I think Cheerios should be on the menu for dinner every night.  I was starting to think that I was becoming depressed.  

I get my thyroid checked regularly, because I have had Hashimoto's thyroiditis since I was pregnant with Itty Bitty nearly 20 years ago.  I've had to take medication before, so I'm not worried, but it's been yeeeeeeears.  

Just so darn happy that I'm soon going to be feeling better!

Cranberry Garland

Just in case you think all I do is stitch together one or two blocks together every week, I thought I'd share a peek of what I'm doing in between.  I'm afraid that I don't have a big design wall anymore, now that we're in an apartment -- just a closet door wrapped in flannel.  

This pattern came from a 2001 quilt magazine, and it's called "Cranberry Garland".  I kitted up this full sized quilt several years ago, cutting up all of my red and neutral scraps.

TEN - oh, the best laid plans

So I made the decision to make "Grandmother's Choice" Block-of-the-Week  about a month or so ago.  But so far, I feel like I've failed at least a dozen different ways.  First I cheated by skipping the really hard blocks and substituting them with blocks that are a little less intense.  

Today, the block of the week looks like an American flag.  No disrespect intended...but a) I'm Canadian  b) it had measurements with 1/16th inches!!!!  Are you freaking kidding me?