Graduation

This week, my niece Stephanie, graduated from UNB with 2 degrees in Anthropology and Classics. She received double honors We are all so proud of her. Here is a picture of her with her degree.

Dad

Since I last blogged, my dad, Ernest Admond, was taken to the hospital with complications of diabetes. My sister called me 2 weeks ago today to let me know that the doctor said that it was very serious. I left the next day for Nova Scotia where my sister, brother and I watched over our dad for 7 days and nights in the hospital. He passed quietly at the Middleton hospital last Saturday. We had a funeral home visitation earlier this week where some relatives came and many people who knew Dad came also.

On June 14th in McLeod's Siding, Campbellton, Dad will be buried near my mother, who died 15 years ago.

A weekend with Aurora

Aurora comes Friday afternoon to spend the weekend with Grammie and Grampie, all by herself. We're going to get her ears pierced, go for walks in her stroller, bake cookies, try on her Baptism dress, and eat ice cream. We'll go shopping for the perfect tatoo for her, but we'll wait until she's a little older for that.










Note: Suppertime. Don't you love a sleeping baby. She seems to have found her thumb or should I say her finger.

Quilter's Idol Submission

Well, I finished my Quilter's Idol submission. Not many of my FQG quilter friends know about my blog, so I'm going to post this hoping not many will see this before next Tuesday.

Well, my submission will be based on my previous success with my recycled juicebag project. This submission will be a recycle project, but something with more "maturity" to it compared to the Koolaid packs I was recycling before.

I was flying solo in making this project. I spent hours thinking on how I was going to do it. How was I going to construct it with out a pattern? Would it work?

It's a 24 or 25" duffle bag made with Sunkist Prune bags. I've collected these for about a year, after my Aunt Mae was here for a visit. After the success of the Koolaid juicebag, she noticed some raisins that came in a resealable bag and commented that those raisin bags could be recycled into something. Well I thought, it would take me 10 years to save enough raisin bags to anything with. But every day when eating my daily Sunsweet Prunes and opening the resealable bag, I thought about Aunt Mae's comment. I thought... that would be just too funny and said, what's to lose, so I started saving the prune bags. So, Aunt Mae, you get the credit again.....

Well, I had no idea what I would do with the prune bags until a couple of months ago. Our quilt guild decided to do Quilters Idol as entertainment at our closing guild Pot luck. Ah, ha... I knew.... and immediately started thinking, what could I do with the prune bags. So after countless hours of figuring in my head, I knuckled down yesterday and today to finish the bag. It is made from 16 prune bags, 1 pair of recycled jeans and it is lined with a remnant of upholstery fabric that my niece, Stephanie would recognize from fabric we had thrown over an old cottage chair.

At the Idol presentation, I will cover my bag until I have given my speech which will accuse some quilters of referring to my Koolaid bag as a nice project but a bit "immature". Of course, nobody said that at all, but they won't know that. I will throw in some poo, or krappy references, and that in order to serve all ages, I have developed a new recycle project. I will let them know that I considered many types of bags to recycle like raisins, dates, and I might search the store for a few other examples. For effect,I have collected a few empty raisin and date resealable bags to show, for this purpose. Then I will show a single prune bag. And then lead into the unveiling.

So, tell me what you think, and if you have any poo stories, or something appropriate I can use in my speech, let me know.

I hope it comes out very funny..

May

Where is the month going? It's May 12th, and there's alot going on from now until the end of the month.

The first item on my to-do list - Tues, May 20th, I have an entry in the Fredericton Quilters Guild - Quilter's Idol - at the closing pot luck. I've decided to take my Juicebag recycling project to the next level. I'm in the midst of creating another useful item using recycled food storage bags. I'll post a picture of it later this week. I need to develop a krappy monologue to go along with it. You'll understand when you see it.

Item 2 on to-do list: Baptism dress. Aurora is getting baptized on May 29th. I want to do something really special in the way of embroidery on her dress. I've been looking at patterns, and lace. I'll be cutting that out by the end of this week. Stephanie is graduating from UNB on the same day. I was thinking of making her a gift, but I've got a better choice that's easy.

Item 3 on my to-do list: Make 3 Juicebags for my Dr's office. The same 2 doctors and one nurse have been in that office for about 30 years. These girls are all the same age as me... or slightly older. I went to have my annual checkup today and they oogled over my juicebag.. how much do I charge etc. Well, I don't make them for sale I said... Then on the way home I decided I'll make them each one and drop it off sometime as a little something special. Today at my appointment, I was complaining about a pain here, and a pain there to her as she was doing my exam. The Dr. said it's retirement related. It's all the stress of my job coming out... She says I'll be pain-free in a year... So what does all that mean... Anyway, the good news is, my blood pressure is that of a 16 year old. That makes Mert green with envy.

Item 4: - Get sewing workshop items together for my 3 workshops that I'm taking at the Quilt Canada in Newfoundland. I leave on Monday June 2nd.

Mert will be joining me in Newfoundland after the conference where we'll go travelling around in the search of icebergs. One of my Microsoft friends from NL sent me this link to track icebergs in the area. So I'll be doing that on the days before we leave. http://icebergfinder.com/visiting-nl.aspx

Item 5: - This might be out of order, but I need to wash and prepare my fabric for the Quilt for an hour project that I'm starting on May 19th. I think there is an hour of sewing each day that week. I'm ok with that.

Item 6: - I'm going to make this little conference badge holder called the Aeropack for my trip to Quilt Canada in Newfoundland. It's to hold meal tickets, show tickets and other conference name badge items. http://www.studiokatdesigns.com/freepatterns.htm I'm not going to let myself start this until I get item 1 and 2 mentioned above done. Then as a reward, I'll let myself do this one little conference tag thing. I almost talked myself into skipping ahead of Items 2 and 2 and doing it today, but I stopped myself after cutting out the pattern pieces, and cutting out the vinyl. I'm sure I'll fight with myself again over the next week, but I'm sticking to my guns. Item 1 and 2 need to get done.

White Rolls - Before and After

I just had to make this special post. I haven't made rolls in years. Mert had even forgot that I knew how to make them. We're having fish chowder for supper and we felt like rolls with them. But the traffic out there today is just like Christmas.. So, I decided it would be easier to make them than go buy them. Here is the before cooking and the after. They are delicious.

Quilt for an Hour fabric and Suduko Anyone

Do you do Suduko?

Well, I have done this Suduko tabletopper quilt using Suduko. 9 different food fabrics, no 2 fabrics in the same row or column, or 9patch. It was fun to make.

We had a great fabric shopping day yesterday. I have fabric for at least 2 or 3 quilts ahead, so I have no shortage of projects to do.

Also, I now have most of my fabric for the Quilt in an Hour project that starts on May 19th. I'll need to pull a few more brights, but for the most part, this is it. I might tea dye the whites so they're a little darker...

Quilt for an Hour and shopping for Fabric

This Friday, I'm going shopping with 2 of my great quilt buddies, Lois and Valerie. At the Bathurst Gathering of the guilds in Bathurst last month, Valerie won the Grand Prize which is a gift certficiate for edge to edge quilting on a bed quilt. Valerie was so pleased, she cried. On the drive home from the gathering, the three of us were discussing what quilt she would make. We all had our opinions. Since Valerie doesn't usually make bedquilts and Valerie has a hard time with cutting, Lois and I offered to help make this big quilt. So this Friday, we're going shopping for fabric. We've all been looking at patterns all week and I think she's settled on a pattern that she saw at the Gathering. So that should be fun.

This week, I signed up for a Quilt for an Hour project on Judy Laquidara website. It starts on May 19th. I'm not sure of the format, but it really sounds like a fun way to do a quilt. And this quilt is sweet, don't you think. I wonder if I should make 1 or 2. If I make 2, I can have them quilted for 2 special little girls who share a room. They will look like twins if they have the same quilts on their beds. What do you think? I'll see what I come up with for fabric on Friday and make a decision then.

Spring Running

Today is a sunny spring day. The river receeds... and I'm heading out for a 4km run across the train bridge. What a great start to a day. I've been waiting all winter for perfect days like this. I'm glad the river is finally getting back to normal. Lately, the bridge has been really busy with people looking at the river. Measuring the water level from day to day. Here is how busy the bridge was last week... Today, I probably won't run into 2 or 3 people on the 10 minutes that I'll be on the bridge. My run usually consists of 10 or 11 minutes running to the bridge, then 10 minutes to run to the other side and back, and then another 10 or 11 minutes home. altogether, it takes me 35 minutes. It's my favorite run.

Tomorrow, I'll tell you about a fun Quilt for an Hour project I'm signed up for... and my Friday fabric shopping trip..

Cottage Flood pictures

Today is the cresting of the water in Grand Lake. So we took our chances that the highway wouldn't close and went to the cottage. The good news is, that my rhubarb is peeking through. This is a good sign since my sister gave it to me last spring and it weathered the winter just fine.

Now for the water... it's lapping at the flower pots my sister made at the base of the cottage last year. That is up a long way, if you have ever been to our cottage. We have hostas planted in there and they're not up yet. The kids cottage roof, is visable, but I think the little cottage has moved because the roof line doesn't seem to be even.

When Dad and Terry are up later this month, they can help Mert straighten it up.

A quilted toiletries bag for Denise - Mom to Be

Today I made this little bag for Denise, who is my son-in-law, Kenny's youngest sister. She is having her first baby this month, and we know it's a boy. I put a few personal things in the bag and will put a Shoppers Drug Mart gift certficiate in it for her. I love these little quilted bags. I've made quite a few of them. They take about an hour to make after you've decided on the fabric. I'd better get this over to her asap because she probably already has her bag packed. Most everyone else got the Coffee Cat bags last fall.

What would a fortune teller say?

Well, if I went to a fortune teller today, she would likely wave her hands over a crystal ball and look up to the sky with her eyes closed and say, I see water, I see travel by boat. Now I know what you're thinking.... flood, cottage, canoe, rescue Stephanie.... etc. But you would be wrong.

In the past 2 weeks, Mert and I have signed up for 2 huge trips. The first is our 25th Anniversary cruise through the Panama Canal. We start out mid-November in Florida and end up at the end of November in Acapulco where we'll spend a couple of days.. Our cruise itinerary is here.. Since we plan on being in Myrtle Beach next March 23rd when it's really our anniversary, we thought we would go a bit early. When we signed up, for our cruise registration, it asked our wedding date. I said Nov 23rd instead of Mar 23rd. You never know, we might get a free bottle of wine or something on our "Anniversary". On a boat, that's worth about $50.

The second trip we just signed up for is a trip in May 2009 to Madrid/ Barcelona Spain to catch a cruise to many places that you can see on our itinerary here... We had not even considered this, but a local travel agent (who we went to NY with last fall) is arranging this trip for about 20 couples from Fredericton, so we thought about it for a couple of weeks and said, why not. Being in May, it shouldn't interfere with cottage time. We did the Greek Islands a few years ago, but didn't do Rome, Venice, Spain etc. This itinerary takes us to Santorini for a port call, but that's about the only place we've been before. Going to a familiar Santorini for a day will be fun.

Crested

Well, they say the water has crested. Mert and I spent an amazing 2 hours walking the walking bridge this morning, and then going downtown Fredericton taking pictures. There were so many photographers out, along with media. Here is the link to over 100 pics that I took between last evening and this morning.
http://share.shutterfly.com/action/welcome?sid=0CYtWjNqyasX7A&emid=sharshar&linkid=link2
But this has to be my absolute favorite picture. It made me love my camera for the very first time since getting it last year. This is a home or 2 on Waterloo Row, and UNB in the background.



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