Bears are pinned

I can't believe it's been almost a month since I last posted. I got a lot of UFo's completed! I'm going to count them when I am totally finished...there are 6 more pinned and awaiting quilting. This includes the top 'Shadow of the Bear'. Yes, the one I was having trouble with. What a busy month. The quilt shown is called 'Trail Mix', I can't believe how huge it is! Queen sized, aka 'driveway quilt.' My 5 year old grandson thought the white areas were stars and so he decided to go to the moon. He got part of his car seat, the top for my butter churn and away he went! What a delightful imagination that child has. That quilt is now complete and just waiting on a bed.

This is my amazing dog, Hershey, brown lab and collie. You can see just a bit of the white on her right foot....it's quite funny, when we are out in the car and she sees cows, she barks and growls and paces...it's the herding instinct I'm told as collies are used for herding cattle. She is the gentlest of all creatures and loves playing with my 5 year old grandson, Ethan. It doesn't matter if he sits on her or plays with her toys, she absolutley loves him. When she has had enough, she goes into the 'green' room (formal living room) and sleeps. Ethan is not allowed in there, as I feel Hershey needs some space to herself. It was really funny as several weeks ago I heard Ethan crying in the hall and went to see what was going on....Hershey was in the green room, with ALL her toys and 2 of Ethan's and Ethan is not allowed in there. He wanted his toys and Hershey had them....there was no telling him about sharing.....

Busy weekend ahead

Well, I finally challenged myself to finish several projects and clean my sewing room. The sewing room is clean! I took 8 projects in various stages of completion and stacked them on my ironing board. I have challenged myself to finish them by Monday night. This is in no way all of my UFO's.....I did finish the bear paw top and started and finished a Hallowe'en table runner. I know, I know you are thinking....that's 3 months away. Well, I wanted something small that I could finish in a day and the table runner was the perfect choice. Pictures will be posted, soon.
My 24th wedding anniversary was on Tuesday....and my husband forgot....there is not much marriage left to celebrate, but an acknowledgement of 24 years would have been nice.
My 5 year old grandson is taking Spanish classes for the summer...just half day and he will continue in the fall on Saturdays. After just 3 classes, he is reciting his numbers to 10. He is such a smart child. We spend several hours Wednesday night sorting buttons and choosing the ones for the Hallowe'en table runner. What fun we had!
Well, I have dinner dishes to finish up and then off to bed. It's an early start for me in the morning.

Just popping in for a quick 'hi'!

The temperature outside of Toronto, Ontario hit 87.8 (31C.). The humidity was in the stratosphere, and there I was on a ladder picking sour cherries. I did manage to get 2 more quarts down before the rain started....yep, got a little wet as well. My 26 year old daughter, Paige lectured me for standing on a metal ladder in a thunder storm. hmmm.....wonder why? LOL.

The first borders are on the bear paw quilt, just have one more to add. And, yes, that one side was still too short...argh! Do you know how many times I measured that thing? And, the measurements were the same everytime? I even had my daughter measure it, with the same results....I finally broke down and added 2 narrow strips to that corner....not too happy having to do that, but it is now square and ready for the final borders. Hopefully tomorrow after work. I am so ready to move onto a different project.

My 28 year old son, Ash called from Ireland today. He is serving with the British military and had been on training exercises since the beginning of May. Communication with him was sporadic during that time. I am so glad I was able to talk with him today. He sounded so good and as he got to spend the weekend with his finance as well....that probably added to his upbeat mood. Come to think of it, he is always upbeat, loves what he is doing....

Work was brutal today...I think it was 'pick on Claire' day today....why? I really need to get a full time job and get on with my life...but full time work is proving difficult to find. I have resumes everywhere and some testing going on with various companies, but nothing solid yet. It would be appreciated if anyone reading this keeps thinking positive thoughts.

4:30 a.m. will be here before I know it, so am signing off for now.

Bears are sleeping...shhhh

The class instructor was over yesterday, shortly after I posted. Oh, wow do I have a lot of work to do. She suggested taking off the borders and trimming the 'tails' off to a certain length. Originally, I didn't know what to do with them, so I sewed them in. As for the corner that just won't fit, she suggested moving the border down just a bit, which will then take a bit of fabric from the other end, and it should square up nicely. Key word...'should'....so I have spent the day removing borders, very carefully, I might add, as there are setting triangles that are on the bias...I'm glad I have a new can of spray starch....the borders are off. We'll see what happens tomorrow.
Early this morning I was up making cherry jelly. I have made many preserves and jams, but never jelly, let alone cherry....it went very well. The jam has set and the jars sealed, so I consider that a sucess! There is a huge sour cherry tree out back and I try to get the cherries in and frozen before the birds get them all. Cherry pies, tarts, muffins and crisps are winter staples. This winter cherry jelly will be added to the list. My grandson wanted to taste the cherries and I warned him that they were sour. He said he liked things that were sour....so he picked his first cherry ever off the tree and popped it in his mouth....wish I had a camera....'way to sour for me, Nana'....as he is spitting it out. I assured him that the jelly had lots of sugar in it, so he could enjoy it on his morning bagel.

Bears 2...me 0

Bears win!...for now….

I spent several hours this morning, taking apart the corner…again…and re-sewing it…I even added pieces of fabric to make it fit…it didn’t, so I am now awaiting a call from the lady who taught the class. Hopefully, we can get together over the summer and get this fixed…I really dislike when things don’t go together as planned. For now I am walking away from it, so I don't make it worse than it already is.

My eldest son, Simon is 29 today…now how did that happen? Seems like just yesterday he was a sickly, colicky baby weighing 5 pounds, with 3 holes in his underdeveloped heart….he cried and threw up 26 hours a day…well, it seemed like 26…what an amazing young man he has grown into. And, I am alive to talk about it!

Bears have me beat

I've been reading blogs for a long time now and thought it was time I created one of my own.
I am a quilter and am taking a break from the "Shadow of the Bear", pattern by Trudie Hughes http://www.aaqg.org/winners2006/winners2006-i0019.htm a top I have been working on for quite some time. There is one corner that has me stumped.....one side was too short, I created another block, replaced it and it is still too short. so, I added a bigger setting triangle...still too short....it seems the more I try to fix it, the worse it gets....so I am taking a break....bears 1, me 0.