Tuesday, September 25, 2012

WIP Wednesday

Yes it is still Tuesday but I have a busy day tomorrow so thought I would post this now . I have lots of things in progress , mostly for the upcoming blog hops so can't share those quite yet but the time is coming quicker than I thought so I will have to get my butt in gear :-) However I do have one project I completed just this evening that I would like to share . I signed up to take part in a Water challenge landscape with a yahoo group and it had to be posted by the 30 of this month so today I went to work and finished off this small landscape. It measures just 6x8 "and oh did i have fun ,I will in all honesty say that I am happiest when creating landscapes , not saying that I am great at it just that I can put myself in a space where time stands still if that makes any sense so without further ado here is my little creation.
This landscape is from a photo that I took on Big Island a year or so ago and it has always been on my to do list so when this water challenge was announced I knew this would fill the bill so I searched for the photo and the rest as they say is history. So what do you think , I even ventured into some thread painting , oh how I wished Monika from My Sweet Prairie was close by for some help , I had no clue where to start but just kind of went for it , after all it is just a few pieces of fabric and what did I have to loose other than some time which I was thoroughly enjoying :-) So this is my project for WIP for this week and I am linking up to the Needle and Threadnetwork.  Thanks for stopping by and be sure to stop by and see what others are sharing this week.
hugs Sheila

Saturday, September 22, 2012

FNSI Report

Its raining its pouring , so the old lady is sewing :-)Last night was Friday Night Sew in  with Heidi  so I did a little stitching ,I can only give you sneak peaks of what I was working on as they are both for upcoming blog hops .Oh I had such fun , these are really cute projects or at least I think they are .
I think the colors will give this one away but aren't they just luscious . Next I worked on this one and I was really excited as to how this one worked out , too bad I can't share more but I guess you will just have to come back for the hop .
Why not check out what others have been up to on FNSI . Thanks for the visit I am off to sew since the rain is continuing to fall . Happy stitching.
 Before I go be sure to stop by to visit with the lovely Jenny of Elefantz , she is having a wonderful giveaway and be sure to mention I sent you .

 hugs Sheila

Wednesday, September 19, 2012

Wip Wednesday

Have you ever tried Flower Pounding ,well it is a lot of fun and I just happened to have some treated fabric left over from a retreat I attended many moons ago , so decided to do some pounding and this is my WIP for this week.
 I gave myself permission to play with this little piece as when I pounded the leaves that are part of this flower they just kind of went mush so not all that attractive and I was going to toss it but then I sat down and did some work on it by thread painting and now this is what it looks like.I added extra leaves that came from a different plant and they pounded much better , you just never know what will happen and I did not have any test fabrics to try this out on first.
Far from perfect but lots of fun to do . I had one more piece of treated fabric left so this is my second attempt with flowers .
 It is fun to see what colors will appear , as the both purple flowers were pink before pounding , the yellow was a little different color yellow but it was yellow , infact it is a black eyed Susan , the top purple flower is a petunia and the lower one is a geranium , the flower next to the geranium is a Queen Annes lace and the little yellow flowers at the top are weeds .I haven't done any stitching on this one yet but plan on it .
 I am linking up today to the Needle and Thread Network , be sure to stop by and see what everyone is up to this week.
Thanks for the visit and hope you are enjoying your day .
 hugs Sheila

Monday, September 17, 2012

Dots On Dots Blog Hop

                                      Sew we quilt

The day has finally arrived when I can share some dotty goodness with you , thanks so much to Madame Samm and Corrie for being our wonderful cheerleaders and organizers , without them this would not be possible .I apologize this did not post at midnight but I did schedule it so must have done something wrong. So  on with the fun , First off I broke the rules a little as my first choice in blocks is a little larger than the 12" size suggested but I couldn't resist ,I have been wanting to make this little wall hanging ever since I seen it published in Quilter's Connection magazine in the summer of 2011 .The design is by Terry Morberg of Apple patch Designs .
 The finished size is 14.5x20.5 " , I just love it . So from there I went into a thought of killing two birds with one stone so to speak , I had been two months behind in the Shabby Fabrics BOM that I have been participating in and it just dawned on me that they would be perfect for dots , so dots it is .
 This is the first one I did , just love those sunflowers with their dotty bow.
This one is a little more difficult to spot those dots but believe me they are there , so click on the photo to enlarge.

And finally  this months block was announced just a few days ago so I promptly made it with dots as well .
I almost forgot to show you this block which was so much fun to make , this is a free BOM from Fat Cat Patterns and although I have not been keeping up with these each month , this one I could not resist.
 I hope you have enjoyed seeing my dots today , be sure to stop by and see what all the others have made as their contribution ,here is the list of those participating today and for a full list of the event just head on over to Corrie's blog Quilt Taffy and she has a full list on her sidebar. Thanks for stopping by .
 hugs Sheila


September 17th


Friday, September 14, 2012

A few Photos to share

This gorgeous day in September I am trying to stay outside and enjoy the sunshine as much as possible. I think September is my all time favorite month , we have such lovely weather and the air is just crisper ,although today it is really very warm.
Look what I discovered blooming in my garden .
Isn't that just the most delicate pink rose , oh and it smells every bit as lovely as it looks .
 This shrub is giving us lots of lovely blooms as well and I actually like these dried , they are really pretty .
 This little toad was sitting on the mat by our door and was patient enough for me to go back inside to grab my camera , I love toads they are such great little guys to eat all those nasty bugs in the garden so I let him just hop away .
Now I am also doing a little sewing , can't show you too much as it is for an upcoming blog hop but maybe if you are really good you can guess what it is ;-)
 Oh I suppose that is not much help at all is it , well you will just have to come back and see it when it is revealed . These blog hops sure keep a gal busy :-) My day for the Dots on Dots is Monday so be sure to visit then as I have some really cute dots to share .
Laundry duty calls , I must take my clothes in off the line so hope you are enjoying your day and thanks so much for stopping by.
 hugs Sheila

Tuesday, September 11, 2012

Tuesdays Treasures and some mail

Early in September every year the county has the an Exhibition , basically a rural farm fair , I love this type of event , the animals , the crafts and the people .Yesterday we set off to visit the exhibition , the last day for this season ,not so sure I would wait until the last day again , the events that I enjoy had already taken place and I was sorry I didn't get to see too many horses . However this is my Tuesdays Treasures for this week , I had fun and here are a few photos to show you what I saw.
There were a few quilts on display and these  received  ribbons . Interestingly the one on the right was a top that was purchased in a thrift store and the person put the quilt together and hand quilted it , a lot of work to give away .
This lovely batik quilt also won a ribbon , aren't the colors lovely.
There are very pretty flower displays and just look at these sunflowers one of my favorite flowers.
Wouldn't the birds have a picnic here .
These horses were waiting for the upcoming three horse pull , very large powerful horses .
This little cutie just stole my heart .
And doesn't everyone love a donkey , I know I do .
I also happen to really love llamas and alpacas and if I were much younger I would start raising them.This llama was taking a little rest but interestingly he was constantly chewing .
This photo speaks volumes , no event can take place without the proper gear and don't you love the red hat :-) So that was my day at the fair , we of course seen a lot more, but this is getting very picture heavy so I will leave the rest to your imagination ,there were lots of other animals , lots of horses , cows , chickens , goats , sheep and even a few pigs so take a deep breath and just pretend you are in one of those barns , feel better now :-)
 Lastly but certainly not least I want to share the mail I received yesterday , this wonderful Bali Pops arrived from Linda of Linda's Quiltmania, I recently won this on her giveaway , I have been super lucky lately , perhaps I should go buy a lotto ticket . Thanks so much Linda these are just gorgeous and I know I will enjoy using them  !!! If you haven't visited Linda be sure to stop by you won't be disappointed , she has a lovely blog .
This really not the best picture , the colors are so much prettier , it was a rainy dreary day here yesterday so the light was very poor.
We received around 100 mm of rain yesterday and overnight , lots of flooding around. This system was actually two systems coming together and one of them was Tropical Storm Leslie which is a huge storm and it fed the moisture to the other low pressure system coming from another direction .We had lots of rain but it could have been a lot worse and the province of Newfoundland is being hammered today with  Leslie a powerful Tropical storm ,I hope they don't have too much damage .
I am off to Quilting now so be sure to stop by and visit with Melody of the House on the Side of the Hill to see what others are sharing today as their Tuesdays Treasure.

Sunday, September 9, 2012

Summer is not over just yet

Yesterday was the most delightful summer day , the sun was magnificent and the temperatures rose to 24 C. and it was a little on the humid side so felt warmer than those temperatures .So what is a person to do on such a lovely day but go visit our son and his family .
This is the view from the road where my son lives , overlooking the village of Mabou .
We are heading to the beautiful beach of West Mabou where the sand is as soft as silk.
 Isn't this gorgeous , a very long stretch of sandy beach , this is just one direction there is just as much to see in the other direction and as you can see is pretty much deserted .
 A few brave souls venturing into the cool waters , Shauna said it really wasn't all that bad once you got in and the girls didn't find it cold at all .
 We sure enjoyed our time with them and listening to the ocean waves lapping on the beach , so relaxing .
 Other than our visit I have been spending countless hours trying to recoup some web album space ,very time consuming but hey I have learned a lot in this process and will do things differently from now on .
Hope you enjoyed your short visit to Mabou and have yourself a wonderful day .
 hugs Sheila

Thursday, September 6, 2012

Another sneak peak and the mailman arrived

The rain has finally stopped , we sure got a good soaking which we really needed ,things were starting to dry out and I am sure a few people would be worried about their wells.
First off I want to share my wonderful mail yesterday , I was the lucky winner during the Bowls to Borders blog hop and here is what I won on Wendi's blog . I am thrilled , as I did not take part in the bowls hop but now I am the proud owner of this adorable little wall hanging ,Thanks so much Wendi.
 I have been working on my Dots to Dots project and here is another sneak peak ,I am quilting it now .Not much of a peak is it , oh well the 17th will be here before you know it .
I have also been working hard at trying to solve my problem with my pictures being much too large , thanks to Connie of Free Motion by the River and Susan of Susan being Snippy I think I can do this , thanks so much ladies , there is still a ton of work to do but at least now I know what has to be done.
Enjoy your day and thanks for stopping by .
 hugs Sheila


Wednesday, September 5, 2012

WIP Wednesday

On this rainy day in the Maritimes ,what am I up to , well not what I would like to be doing . Recently on Connies blog , Quilting by the River I read a post about sizing our photos for blogging , she gave a link to check to see how much storage space we actually have left , well I did panic when I discovered I was at 99% usage . I had no idea that I needed to resize my photos and at one time I used picasa to download the photos but the newer version did not have that button available so I have been using my pictures which apparently is a very bad idea . I spent the past hour trying to delete some photos to make room and will need to learn how to resize before I put them on this blog , any help would be greatly appreciated , can you tell I am not computer savy :-(
 So a little update on what I have been up to other than deleting photos , I am working on a few things for the Dots to Dots blog hop coming up very shortly , are you ready for it ? Here is a sneak peak of a project I just started .
What do you think it is ?
 I am also in the process of finishing up my little mini quilt from the Fon's and Porter magazine for June . I am loving it so far.
Since I am a little nervous my blog may just crash I will limit the photos for today , Help!! I am linking up today to the Needle and Thread Network with Monika , be sure to stop by and see what everyone has been up to .
 Have a yourself a great day and thanks as always for stopping by .
 hugs Sheila

Monday, September 3, 2012

Good for the Soul :-)

On the shores of Nova Scotia the sun shone brightly yesterday , the breeze told us that fall has arrived but the air was fresh and pure and yes good for the soul. Bill and I set off just after lunch for the small village of Fishermans Harbour ,I had never ventured this far on this shore so  it was an adventure . Port Bickerton and Fishermans Harbour have  a rugged coast being on the Atlantic Ocean you often deal with fog but thankfully there was none yesterday and our view was perfect .Would you like to see some photos of this rugged beauty ?


 In these areas of the province you will see lots of little wharves for the fishermen to dock their boats . You will also see plenty of these .
Nova Scotia has some of the best lobster to be found , the Atlantic Ocean is cold so the lobster is tastier in my opinion than warm water lobster ,yum!

I am not sure what type of seaweed this is but it is a lovely golden color and really was pretty with the contrast of the gorgeous blue skies , don't you love those wispy clouds .
This photo shows the color a little better plus the lovely rocky coast , did I tell you I love rocks , well here is a really neat one I just have to share .
Can you see the layers of different colors , probably not that well but it was so neat , you may be wondering if I took some rocks home , well of course I did , none this large of course but I was so impressed with the number of really flat rocks , I mean as flat and smooth as a piece of paper so I did take one home with the plans on making a welcome sign . I only found one very small piece of blue beach glass which surprised me .

Can you see it way off in the distance , well just down this gravel road about 1.8 km. is a lighthouse that is open to tourists , unfortunately when we arrived they were closing for the day but they did allow us to take a photo .
This is a little different shape lighthouse than I am accustomed to seeing but lovely all the same. We plan on going back someday to see it when it is open so we can explore inside.
And just so you won't think I gave up sewing entirely I have started working on this small mini from the Fon's and Porter magazine for May/June .I have all of the applique completed as well as the little pieces for the border just need to sew them all together now ;-)
 I hope you enjoyed my Sunday along the shores of Nova Scotia and I hope you have a wonderful day doing something good for the soul !!
hugs Sheila