Two of My Favourite Things

This beautiful picture of artwork was painted for me by my daughter, Sigrid. Because I was not given any girls, the women who married my sons, have become my daughters. I thought I'd better explain that wording as some of my dear readers will be thinking - "What?? I know they had 3 boys!!"  So now you know!! Sigrid is a most talented painter & her paintings show great detail. This is a painting Sigrid gave me for  Christmas 2001. I often look at it & enjoy it all over again & again.

This picture of the 3 bunnies Sigrid painted for my mom for her 85th birthday & it became mine when we cleaned out mom's apartment in October.
Right now, Sigrid is not spending time painting as she is helping out in our son's office. I hope some day she will return to creating more beautiful paintings.

Placemats

I don't do alot a sewing for "pay" but I had a special order from a special cousin who wanted  "musical" placemats  so I gladly agreed to do them for her.

I have a good selection of black & white musical fabric on hand & found a pattern that would showcase the fabric.

 Then I found some batting that is quite firm yet easy to work with & easy to sew through.

Now I think I'll make a set of placemats for myself and use some up of my fabric stash.

Another Finish!

I chose brown tones for this quilt. I went searching in my fabric stash & found lots of tan/brown tones leftover from other projects.

This is a simple 4 patch pattern & always looks great in whatever colour combination I have used,

I made this for a friend who is having some ongoing health issues & I gave it to her with love & prayers for a healthy year.

A Late Christmas Gift

 Because of our downsizing/house-building year, a grandson didn't get the quilt he was waiting for until today. I explained to him before Christmas that he was next in line for a "nanny made" quilt but just wouldn't be able to get it done in time & he was quite OK with that. So during the past week, I finished 2 quilts, this one for Adam & pictures will follow shortly about the other one.

This quilt features two of Adam's favourite sports - hockey & curling. The large blue squares represents curling & the darker squares displays a variety of goalie masks.

He looks pleased, doesn't he? He is a wonderful young man with the kindest of hearts. Adam, be blessed.

When I am working on a quilt, I pray for the recipient, that their life be blessed by the Lord, that if they don't know Jesus as their Saviour, somewhere somehow, they will have an opportunity to be introduced to Jesus & that they would look to God for guidance in their life.

A New Camera

My love of photography started when I was around 12 years old, growing up in Southern Manitoba, with very little chance to earn any cash to buy a camera. I earned a little money picking raspberries in my mom's large garden, that she would sell through my aunt who lived in Horndean. I managed to save enough money to buy my first camera at Winkler Photo Studio, like the one pictured above, for $12.00 & that was a lot of money for a young girl to have. It didn't have the flash, but I wouldn't have been able to buy flashbulbs anyway. I think the people at the studio gave me a roll of film for free. Then I had to save enough money to develop the film & this being the early 60's, was black & white. This little camera, an Ansco Cadet, served me well for a number of years & I really don't remember when I retired this one & upgraded. I've have several cameras throughout the years. My Canon Powershot 1200, that I received as a Christmas gift in December 2009, has taken lots & lots of great pictures & I will continue to carry it in my purse although I am learning to use my Iphone more.

In the fall of 2011, I bought a used SLR Canon Rebel  & enjoyed learning how to use it. This fall, when the Rewards catalogue came from Mastercard, I browsed through it several times & checked our points & realized that with all our house building & charging our Menards purchases to MC, I had enough points for a Canon camera & a lens.

 I put my order in for a Canon Rebel EOS T3i in Monday, December 30 & it arrived a week later. Unpacking the box felt like Christmas all over again!

 

The "Dummies" book I had purchased a year ago from a gift card from one of my sons.  So this has been an action-filled week with finishing 2 quilts & learning how to use this new camera. So I'm hoping for a sunny day tomorrow so I can cruise the countryside & take some pictures of the snow that the blizzard dumped on us last night. Pictures of the quilts to follow soon too.

January 2013

The above picture is of a home in Minot, ND. that Mennonite Disaster Service restored so the home owner could move back after the food in June 2011 & it has since received new siding.  So how is this relevant to my post today? Hubby & myself have volunteered for MDS for the past three winters for a period of 4 -6 weeks at a time & this winter we decided to change things around a little. Albert was getting restless with the thought of a long winter ahead with not too many projects to do as our new home is done on the inside.  There is much work to be done outside with the landscaping & brick driveway which we will do in the spring. So we decided that Albert work do a month of MDS while I stayed home to rest my body, mind & soul after a difficult year of transition. Albert is now in Minot, ND for the month of January volunteering as Construction Foreman & I am enjoying my time at home. According to my conversation with Albert last evening, there is still much work to be done & his skills & knowledge in  construction & renovation will be put to good use.
I am very involved in my sewing projects here which I will post about very soon. The first quilt is nearly done & I have a good start on the next one.