MY SUMMER CHALLENGE....

This is my summer challenge from the quilt guild in Bathurst... I also combined the Dalhousie quilt guild challenge with the Bathurst guild challenge..

My pick from the bag was a lemon tea box.. 

My ugly fabric from the Dalhousie guild is the green border around my wall hanging.. 

According to my son Mitch who is an artist for Speilo in moncton where he draws amazing characters like snow white, my lemons are huge and my flowers are way out of whack.. but he says that this is my art and that there is nothing wrong with it.. 

In saying this, I sent him an email with a picture of my project before it was sewn to ask about  size of my lemons and he wrote back that it was all fine for what I was doing and in a side note he wrote " If my mom asks me about the size of her lemons again, I am going to die".. Well, I laughed and laughed at that... 

My lemon tea box... A little worn as I carried it around everywhere with me looking for colors.. 

My "When Life Hands You Lemons..." wall hanging.. 

 On to another project..
God Bless......

July Quilt Projects...

My first quilt is made from mens shirts.. It was a wedding gift for a friend. 

This other project is something I  found on the computer.. I found this on Pinterest on Kristy Mohans blog.. Loved it, so I made one.. It was the easiest thing I ever done in quilting.

I drew a grid of squares on the white background and placed the pink and brown squares in the grid.. Then just sewed down the sides of each square starting at the top of the quilt to the bottom.. I put a border and then binding and voila.. a baby quilt or little girls lap quilt about 36x 36.

 Now to continue working on my summer challenge..
God Bless....

Our Garden..

Well I thought I would share about mine and my hubby's garden competition... On the right side of the picture is his side of the garden.. that he is suppose to plant and look after.. On the left side of the picture is my side of the garden that I lovingly planted and look after.. His side is overrun by weeds and I keep mine looking more neat.. BUT the idea was to see who can grow the best looking produce.. Well that is a little hard to judge cause we kinda put different things in our gardens like he has tomato plants in his where I don't have any in mine.. His looks higher but his soil bed was higher to begin with.. And in looking at his side it does look nice too... We each have our own compost too, and last year my dill went to seed so I put it in my compost.. Well this year dill is popping up all over his side of the garden.. Can you guess why? My hubby took from my compost before he planted his garden.. that little bugger.. the proof is in the garden..  Hahaha.... 

I like neat so I think so far my garden looks nicer but you can judge for yourself.. lol

Our garden.. We have other spots with garden but this is our competition garden.. 

My side..  thats my pole bean tower down at the end in front of a small apple tree. 

Hubby's side..

This is one of my snow pea towers.. 

God Bless...

Something I wrote after returning from our February Quilting Retreat...

Hum of the sewing machines......

The excitement on the way to our quilt retreat weekend was evident by the giddiness of us 4 women from Campbellton in the van... Our non stop chatter, the back piled high with sewing machines, mats, sewing supplies and projects waiting to be finished.
After a delicious lunch at a restaurant, we arrived at the hall, and it felt wonderful to finally be at our retreat weekend... We unload as quickly as we can, and look for our work station with our name on our brown paper bag that should or would hold our thread leavings..
We hear ladies thrilling over seeing friendly faces and the sound of laughter is in the air as we hear one or two machines already set up and humming.
We set up our stations and haul out our projects and some of us set to work right away, while others go to their room to bring their luggage... Some ladies were working on some beautiful projects..
I personally hurried to my room before I got my sewing station set up to just drop of my suitcase. Debated a moment wether to throw on my pjs right away but decided against it... Then scurried back to set my table up.. I like where my station is set up.
I set to work on my reversible quilt. I take moments though to sit and just listen to the ladies chatter and smile with the joy of being here and with the fact that I am here with this amazing group of women. I take time to be in the moment... And do it often throughout the weekend... Ha, ha, you can tell I don't get out much... Let the weekend begin..
My secret sewer turned out to be Wendy and I thought, this is going to be tricky.. She seems to be here and there and everywhere all at once, as was Sue... Lol ... So I recruited a secret messenger ( thank you so much Ann ) for your sneakiness..
We shared great food, delicious snacks, lots of laughter, was taught and learned a few new things, which evades my memory at the moment. lol
I personally have gotten to know a few of the ladies a little more and I have to say, I am very Blessed to know such a nice group of women..
Sue and Wendy, are two ladies whom are much appreciated for all the work they put into making the retreat weekend a possibility for us...
So looking forward to the next one wether it be the October retreat if I can make it or the February one.. I know I will make sure I put my name for February..

Cutting out hexagons...

Two nights ago, I cut out almost 500 hexagons.. My hubby just shook his head at me like I was crazy.. Lol last night I started punching the center holes when I got a minor Meniers attack.. Fear grips me when it happens.. So I stopped punching holes and just rested.. Today the dizziness is light and periodic.. I have little Thomas today so hopefully it won't get worse than it is now.. Not sure I'll make it to the guild tomorrow night, but I hope to...

MY SUMMER PROJECT...

This is my design of my hexagon quilt I'll be working on as a summer project..
I got one corner heart done with three more to make plus all those flowers.. Today I'm basting some hexagons...

My Win...

I am thrilled.. I won third prize ribbon for my drunkards path reversible quilt.. 

My new project...

I decided to make a new quilt top.. Disappearing Nine Patch... finished up the squares while hubby worked on putting new windows in our big back porch and our chinese student and his chinese friend cooked kabobs and potatoes  out on a fire  hubby made in the back yard.. They loved it and want to do it again.. lol

Me, where I love to be...

Disappearing Nine Patch.. 

I am not sure of the color to use for sashing, still not good with colors as yet.. and plan to put a couple borders on it as I want it bigger than this.. Kinda want the blocks to pop.. I was thinking maybe a light fabric.. Plus I may even change the pattern of the blocks as there seems to be a lot of seams to match up..  decisions, decisions..  lol
God Bless......

Attempting hexagons...

This is my first attempt at my hexagon flower.. not sure if I will make more.. maybe some day.. This may  be appliqued on a piece of fabric for a table or something.. Was not as difficult as I thought.. 

I have a table topper on my quilt frame but I am antsy to start a new quilt top... what to do... what to do..
God bless..

Death and Life...

Death....
Today is the 3rd anniversary of my moms death.. I keep thinking that if she were alive, I would make the most beautiful quilt for her... I just got into quilting a couple years ago.. I miss her very much.. I wrote this song to help be move on .. I have it sung on garageband/ itunes but can't seem to figure out how to put it up on my blog..

Miss Your Voice..

Looking back, thru my tears
Remembering you, and all those years
The times we had, more good than bad,
Memories... Are all we have..

I sure miss your voice..
Long to see your face
Want to reach out my hands
And hold on to you
Some folks say time heals
And my God reveals..
As we suffer our loss,
He will not let us go..

My heart hurts, knowing your gone
To see you again, is what I long
Oh but God had planned, it was your day
And so I watched, you slip away...

I sure miss your voice..
Long to see your face..
Want to reach out my hands
and hold on to you
Some folks say time heals
And my God reveals, as we suffer our loss
He will not let us go..
He will not let us go...

Life....
Today, my grandson was born.. As I was reflecting on my mom,  my son calls me with this news.. Thats when the tears came.. I feel so Blessed... Words can't describe my joy.. His name is Luke Thomas Martin.. My moms maiden name was Thomas.. God's hands were at work here..  I also have two of the most beautiful grand daughters.. Felicity and Lauryn.. They are 5 and 3 years old.. Blessings, Blessings, and more Blessings..

In death we have life........
God Bless.....

My newest favorite music video..

I love this song... I wrote a song using his melody but changing the lyrics... for my mom whose been gone now for three years this March 23rd...
Okay, I"ll stop playing with my blog for now and get to my quilting..

A new day...

St. Patrick's day... I'm not Irish, at least I don't think so, so this day does not mean much to me in that regard, BUT this day means a lot to me today cause my son was born on this date 29 years ago...
He and his wife are expecting their first child, hopefully today.. She was due last Monday and we are all a little antsy for little Luke Thomas Martin to arrive so we can welcome him into this family of ours and into this big world...
As I write this, I am sitting on my garden swing in my pj's in my big back porch enjoying the sunshine..... It is warm and sunny and feels great.. As I look out into my back yard (floor to ceiling glass windows lets me see the whole back yard) I sit here contemplating my spring and summer garden plans.. For the first time in over 30 years ( not counting the 2 years I suffered with a bad back in 05/06 ) I will have the summer off from babysitting... And I won't say plan, cause sometimes that backfires, but God willing, I will work on my garden, go for nice long walks, do some reading, and especially do some quilting and maybe get some time in Moncton spent with my three grandchildren...
Come baby Luke, Nanny and Papa are anxiously waiting to see Gods miracle in your birth..
God Bless...

 My son Mitch and his wife Laura and Baby Luke..

Felt encouraged today....

Today I felt encouraged to write in  my blog... and to share my sewing nest..

Because we host a chinese student, my sewing room in being occupied as his bedroom so therefore I am parked with a lot of my sewing gear down in a part of my living room.. Here are a few pictures of my temporary nest..

The first picture shows one half of my living room... 

The second shows my sewing area.. 

And the third picture shows where I store my bins with my fabric and supplies.. which is under my table and sewing machine cabinet...

 In this shot you can see first and foremost my little jar of skittles.. My hubby don't know they are there yet or they would be gone.. lol  Lynda gave me this wooden caddy she won at the retreat cause she already had something for her things.. So this caddy is holding my 1 x 12 in. ruler, my rotary cutters my scissors, my book of needles, ( was a gift from a friend ) my seam ripper, a couple of my marking pencils and pens. and my magnifying glasses that attach to my prescription glasses..

I try to keep it as tidy as I need for my hubby cause he doesn't like to see the mess all over the place... and I don't blame him one bit.. He is very nervous about pins on the floor.. as am I with the babies but they are not allowed in the sewing part of my living room.. My couch divides up the living area and sewing area but I try my best to make sure all the pins are picked up.. It will be nice to have my room back.. 

Also I want to show what I am working on now which is the snow man blocks I won at the guild...I am hand picking it cause I miss doing the picking on a quilt...

Oh and one last thing... I made this cute rag purse or bag this week... I just love it.. Our next cruise, it is coming with me.. 

Thanks to Wendy  ( It Is what It Is! ) for passing on the idea of sharing our nests..

I am not good at this blogger stuff, but I'm learning...

Getting antsy for the quilting retreat weekend.. Still not sure of the projects I want to work on as yet.. Have another day to decide.
Have yet to cut my fabric for the mystery project.. Have yet to write out the recipe I need..
For the sweet table, I will be making rice krispie squares... My favorite..
My two little guys are here for the day, and at 2 this afternoon, I pack them in the buggy to go pick up Colby at school...
I'm thinking I need to organize my time better.... There seems to be so much I want to do but not enough time and sometimes energy to get it all done... For today, if I could get my retreat stuff ready, floors swept, and supper started while having my little men here, I'm doing good..