Thursday, November 22, 2012

Indian Summer

Wikipedia describes "Indian Summer" as a period of sunny warm weather with above normal temperatures accompanied by dry hazy conditions, usually after a killing frost.  It typically occurs between September through to mid November.

Where I live in SW Ontario, all of the above conditions apply to the weather that we have had during the past few days, foggy mornings and evenings, sunny warm days with temps in the double digits and I am loving it..  HOWEVER, Saturday's forecast looks as if we are going to be shocked back to reality with our typical November weather, as the forecast is for snow and a high temp of 1*C.  

Guild meeting tonight, looking forward to seeing everyone again, as I missed the October meeting. It is my turn to assist the hostess with the lunch, yesterday I baked a carrot cake, it smelled so good.  When I finish this post the cream cheese frosting will be going on top.  I have a couple of "show and tell" to take, then I will take  photo's and post during the next couple of days.

To all of my U.S. followers, hope you are having a great Thanksgiving day.

Patricia




Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Names crossed off.....

Yesterday, I started my Christmas shopping and was able cross quite a few names off my list.  It was a glorious day, sunny and my thermometer indicated the high had been 14*C, not your typical Christmas shopping weather, but I will take it none the less.  My focus was gift purchasing and I am so proud of myself as I resisted to urge to visit two fabric shops, so not an inch of fabric came home with me.

Today, is already looking like a duplicate of yesterday's weather, which is just fine with me as I will be volunteering with a local organization which provides food and gifts to families which need a bit of help at this time of the year.  Today, my job will be "home visits" to clients who are unable to make the trip to the registering centre.

Must get going.



Patricia

Sunday, November 18, 2012

Wedding quilt finish this week

At this point in time my second eldest grand daughter has been married for a year and a half, and I will be able to give her, her wedding quilt next weekend.

Why am I so late?  Fabric, no it was not for the lack of it, my stash will confirm that,  just could not find exactly the right one that I was looking for.  When I did find it, life got in the way as it usually does, then along comes Summer, not much sewing done during that time of the year.  Life then comes along again, finally completed the top and sent it to the friendly quilter man.  All quilted and picked it up Monday last week, at the present time doing the binding and label.

Going to take it with me on Thursday to my quilting meeting for show and tell, then will post a photo.  Waiting for the right fabric paid off as I am pleased with the way it looks.

Lazy, lazy lazy, as far as sewing is concerned right now, after doing all the necessary outside work, just too tired to get into the sewing room.  That work is now all done, must get my mojo back and dust off that machine and  finish a couple of UFO's and start a new one, a person always needs to start on another quilt.

This week I also donated a quilt to a local nursing home to be used in the palliative care department,  it was  simple pattern  but very colourful, so hope it gives some pleasure to families during a very difficult time.

Hope everyone has a good week.

Patricia

Tuesday, November 13, 2012

A warning S. Africa heavy...........

There will be no quilting information or pictures during the next few days so if you don't want to look at my blog, I will understand.  I do, however, want to show some of the photo's from my South Africa trip.  As mentioned previously I took 1,600 pictures,  but have no intention of boring you with all of those, I will only be showing a few of the ones are particularly like.  All of these are familar to everyone, Elephant, Cape buffalo, Lion, Rhino and Leopard.
Patricia

Sunday, November 11, 2012

Ok "OLD MAN" bring it on......

Today has been a beautiful day.  Sunny and a warm 16*C,  a bit windy, but nice just the same.   So I took advantage of this weather to complete all the chores that still needed to be taken care of in the garden,  because  tomorrow's forecast is for rain and then later in the week much colder temperatures.

Pond pump removed---check.
All the leaves picked up and in the composter---check.
Bird feeders put out and filled---check.
Flower urns emptied and put in greenhouse---check.
Cut the lawn for the last time this year---check.
Deck furniture put away---check.
Spring bulbs planted---check.
The only item left on my "to do" list, is to get my Winter tires put on my car and that is scheduled for this coming week.

"OLD MAN WINTER"  bring it on I am now ready for you, well not really, however, my garden is ready.  As I am getting older I don;t particularly like Winter with it's dark mornings and evenings,  snow, ice, freezing cold temperatures and dull cloudy days which seem to last forever.   The only consolation is after Dec 21st. the days do get longer, if only for a minute at a time.

On the lighter side, I have a good stock of fabric in my sewing room, to be made into quilts for my three children and their spouses.  There are also three UFO's, one of which is for one of my grand daughters 18th birthday next year.  Then our guild makes quilts for chemo patients at our local hospital, so lots of time sewing away during those cold days.

I also have 1600 photos from my recent trip to sort out and put into an album, that will keep me busy for a little while.

Patricia

Thursday, November 8, 2012

African Sunset

My new header picture is one I took of the most amazing sunset I have ever seen and was able to capture numerous photo's during an evening and nighttime game hunt.

Just as the sun was starting to set, all of the jeeps on the game hunt stopped.  We were all very quiet as we had been instructed to be and expected to see an animal in the area.  However, everyone was asked to get out of the jeeps and stand on the sandy dry riverbed on which we had parked.   As the sun was getting lower and lower everyone was snapping photo's as the sky changed colour.  Just prior to me taking this photo we were all handed a small bottle of Amarula to toast the beautiful sunset that you now see on my header.

The colours were changing every minutes while we stood there watching, unable to tear ourselves away from such a beautiful sight.  We watched until  it faded, boarded our vehicles again to look for nocturnal animals roaming in the area. 

Patricia

Thursday, November 1, 2012

Home

Yes, I am home after the most fantastic three week vacation in South Africa.  Travelled thousands of miles, by air, boat, jeep, helicopter, bus, and on foot with a great group of people.  Seeing and experiencing so many things, the people of S. Africa, especially the children, animals, oh! the animals, birds, and a python.  The most incredible scenery, dry desert areas, which have yet to received the Spring rains, the mighty Victoria Falls, the rocky mountains, trees and shrubs in full leaf where some rain has already fallen, fertile valleys in the wine growing area and some of the most beautiful flowers I have ever seen.   I have eaten some of the most unusual food and visited the S. African wineries, and drank their wines.  There are over 1600 photo's in my camera, no don't worry, I will not be posting all of them here.

Today, I am taking things easy, getting over the jet lag after flying  to Toronto via, Cape Town, Johannesburg and  London UK all one after the other, with lay over times in each airport, it was a long 36 hours.  The unpacking of my suitcase is also on the agenda.

For those quilters that read my blog, yes I did purchase fabric.

Bye for now,

Patricia