Category: birthday

birthday, Blogroll, Family, Fishing, Friends, Summer, Uncategorized

My Birthday Weekend

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I love my Birthday, I consider it a celebration of life……years ago I decided that one day just wasn’t enough. So Although my Birthday is at the end of June I always say it’s not over until Erik and I have gone fishing and camping in September and he has to grill a smokie for me on the campfire.

Well my birthday is officially over…..I guess

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We enjoyed a spectacular weekend of perfect weather. Two nights with campfires both nights were warm with a clear sky.

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Three days of fishing

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We caught our limit of Lake Trout……..Yumm!

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and Bass

and then while Bass fishing I caught this (thankfully after 15 minutes of fighting with it Erik brought it in!) For those who don’t know it was a Pike (39” long and 14 lbs)

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I love September fishing especially when we get great weather, I was also able to take a couple of swims……the weather has changed and we may only get a few warm days here and there before the cold air starts to settle in for the next several months.

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Thank you Erik for another awesome Birthday Weekend!!!

birthday, Family, Grandson, Longarm Quilting, Uncategorized

Quietly Busy

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Its been extremely quiet here this last week, all of my girls have been away. Of course Sarah is always away now that she lives in Texas. Emily, Dave and Katie drove down for Jerry’s first birthday. I’m waiting for more birthday pictures…

This was one of Jerry’s first pictures as a cowboy

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and a year later at his party!

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Yesterday I finally re-quilted my original Summer Wind quilt. I really wish I’d taken some pictures of it to show why I decided to re-quilt it. I had used a panto that wasn’t as dense as I like and also used a wool batting, when it was washed it just did not like it. It is my summer quilt for my bed so I use it and I still love it so it was worth re doing. Thankfully I have a friend who offered to un-quilt it for me. I had been a bit concerned about the stitch holes from before but they have all but disappeared.

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I used a Robyn Pandolph backing that I absolutely love and suits this quilt perfectly.

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a little sneak peak of some quilting for the Circle of Friends Quilt Shoppe (opening soon)

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more to come…

birthday, Blogroll, Family, flowers, Life, Quilting, Summer, WEather

June 29

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The end of June has always been a favorite time for me as a child it wasn’t only my Birthday but also the end of the school year. Somehow I managed for the first 44 years of my life to have no school or work. Today I had to work but it was a lovely day anyways. I work with some great people.
All of my girls called me and my Parents had me over for a very yummy lunch and when I got home look what was waiting for me from Erik

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Sarah brought supper home for me and after dinner I indulged in a little nap.
and for a treat to myself I worked on a personal project instead of customer work
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and I did some blog surfing, one blog made me ponder my parenting a little. I have a little quilt that hangs in my upstairs hall way I made it several years ago, I removed the dad from the pattern and added my girls instead of just a boy and girl. At the time I was very content for my life to have only my girls and myself but now I’m so thankful that I have Erik in my life and his girls too.
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the weather over the weekend and the next coming days is for rain, my hair looks great but I sure am missing the sunshine. I took a few pictures out at Erik’s on the weekend, I was trying to capture the feel in the air but it didn’t really work. The gardens are coming along though.
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next sunny day there will be some serious weeding happening!
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Blueberry Bushes that we are hoping the bears will leave alone, we might need to build a fortress.
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I also finished a customer quilt this weekend, this quilt belongs to a good friend of mine and I just love it!

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birthday, Blogroll, Family, flowers, Life

A Needed Reminder

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4Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! 5Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. 6Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. 7And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.

8Finally, brothers, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things. 9Whatever you have learned or received or heard from me, or seen in me—put it into practice. And the God of peace will be with you

Life sure is a journey and at times the journey sure does get bumpy. At times life has felt like a never ending roller coaster ride. But God is in Control and I know that He has a plan and a purpose in all thing. He has a plan for all of my daughters and even for me. Childhood sure does pass quickly and then you have to allow your children to spread their wings and fly…..

Happy 18th Birthday Mary!

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birthday, Blogroll, Family, Life, Uncategorized

Favorites of the Week

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It goes without saying that my favorite part of the week was our little trip to Duluth.
One of the local quilt shops is closing, which is not a favorite part. The owner wants to retire and since she’s just had her 70th birthday its understandable. Its sad as this is the shop I have been visiting most of my quilting career and I have many memories of shopping with my little ones there (well they aren’t so little anymore) When I walked into the shop this week there sat a sewing machine that I’ve always loved and thought it would look sweet at my house…..well there it sat with a price tag of $30. so I have officially started celebrating my birthday month with my first gift to myself.

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its not exactly in mint condition but it will be a memento for me from Patchworks.

I managed to quilt a customer quilt this week, I still have to bind it.

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and Mary brought her little kitty for a visit last night, kitties sure grow fast

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I’m thinking he must be about 2yrs in people years. can you guess why?

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He is such a fun little guy
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I’m still planning to stay pet free, but I do enjoy his visits.

birthday, Blogroll, hiking, Life, Quilting

TGIF

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Wouldn’t you think that since I only worked 3 days this week I wouldn’t have been so tired by Friday? It really felt like a full work week, anyways it it Friday!

So continuing on from my last post, this next shop has been my favorite ever since I discovered it about 5 or so years ago. She always carries many of my favorite fabrics and colours. Every time I’ve walked into this shop I truly feel like a kid in a candy shop. Erik new I’d be a while at this shop so he went for a walk and had a little rest in the van.

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It’s located in a little town called Castle Danger. I don’t know how many times we’ve driven by the State Park in Castle Danger, if you ever get the chance to drive the North Shore make sure you stop in to both the shop and the park.

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The cedar trees were amazing, the gnarled roots and twisted trunks fascinated me

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Moving along down the road we stopped in Grand Marais for some of Sven and Ollies Pizza
this is another little town that is well worth stopping by and visiting so many interesting little places to check out along with the beautiful scenery that surrounds Lake Superior
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We took our pizza and stopped on at a rest stop further down the road for a little picnic and stone skipping.

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birthday, Blogroll, Family, hiking, Life, Quilting, Uncategorized, Winter

Sunday

wendysquilting

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I am not very good about labeling quilts but I’m trying to turn over a new leaf so for now on I won’t let a quilt leave me without a label. This one was very simple, I traced the circle portion of on of the BOM’s that I’m working on from Gail Pans site, that I showed in the previous posting to this one. But I really wish I would have had time to embroider it.

I meant to get more quilting done this weekend but between being really tired and having to get my taxes together and plans for today..well I might still get a couple of hours in tonight.

If there are any Canadians reading my blog you will know who Rick Mercier is. He’s a reported for the CBC and travels about and does “reports” pretty funny stuff. Anyways not very long ago he visited Thunder Bay to experience a few “local” things. Thunder Bay has a large Finnish population, so he visited The Hoito which has been one of my favorite places for years. The food is all homemade kinda old style and very yummy in the way only comfort foods can be. So he went there to learn the fine art of making Finnish Pancakes, we make our own here. And then he joined some fellows and went ice climbing which is something that I never ever plan to do myself and then finished that day off with a good old fashioned Sauna. I found the episode on you tube:

The weather was a bit chilly today with the wind but we still made it out for our hike, its a conservation area not far from Eriks and is a 4.5 km loop through the bush, so relaxing and a good workout as its very hilly. I took a few pictures to show that the snow is melting. There is another snow storm in the forcast for up to 10 cm, I ‘m really hoping thats wrong its supposed to be spring!!!

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birthday, Family, hiking, Life, Quilting, woodcarving

Monday

wendysquilting

I love the Christmas Wish BOM that I found at Gail Pan Designs I am going to make another block for the quilt but decided to make this one as a little valentines hanging for my little cubicle that I spend so much time in. It is bound and hanging, I used the pink version of the border fabric to bind it but didn’t get a picture of it before I took it to work.

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I thought it looked abit lonely so I also did this one. I have done any embroidery in years and I’d forgotten how relaxing I find it.

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This weekend I started cutting out My Rosie Checks Quilt kit that I picked up last weekend. I just love the colours and I’m itching to just get at this one and get it done but I’ll have to settle for a bit at a time a savor the journey. I have quilt jobs to do and that day job of mine really takes up alot of precious quilting hours. I am thankful for my job really I am I just wish I had a clone that I could sent there and put in the hours for me.

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We celebrated my daughters birthday at my parents over the weekend

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img_2548-smallI’ve been meaning to share some pictures of some of my Dads work, he started carving when Sarah was born or shortly afterward and is incredibly talented, if I do say so myself 🙂 My mom has painted many of his pieces and one day I’ll share some pictures of her many talents.

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img_2564-small-2last year my Dad started carving whimsical houses. They are so cool and each one is different. His gift to the girls and I were our own collection each. 3 smaller ones to hang on our Christmas trees and one bigger one for display. These are some of the ones he as at their house.

He’s also carved many Father Christmas’ using trunks from Christmas trees waiting for the chipper. Great recycling eh?

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One more picture, from the hike Erik and I went on yesterday. We came across a couple of partriges sitting on tree branches just above the trail. They are really funny birds, usually when I’ve seen them they are standing on a country road and they don’t move out of the way, they’ll stand just like statues and I’ve seen cars go over them and they’re still standing where they were unfazed.

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One more thing I’d like to share is another blog that I’ve been visiting. It belongs to Nicole and even though I’ve never met her she’s been (being) a bad influence on me 🙂  I love her quilts and her fabric  and pattern choices…she is partly to “blame” for some of my recent shopping trips at fatquartershop.com.  There are of course many more blogs that I love and spend far too much time visiting and getting so many ideas that I may need another lifetime to try.