Finally caught up on some quilting!

On Thursday we had to euthanize our lovely grey cat, Ba'el.  She was not eating, had heart and kidney failure as well as thyroid problems.

This was not an easy decision.  Decisions like this never are.  She had been part of our lives for 17 years. 

Ba'el was my constant companion when quilting.  I knew that my sewing room would feel really lonely.  Postponing sewing would only make it worse. 

So after coming home from the vet's I went for a long walk.  On icy side walks.  You have to concentrate hard when you walk on ice.  I found that that kind of concentrating helps centre my thoughts.  After the walk I headed for the sewing room.

 I started working on block #2 for the Pumpkin Patch Lane block of the month quilt. 

Not sure what I'll work on tomorrow, but time in the sewing room is a must.  Otherwise I'll avoid going in there for months. 

Our other cat Tina doesn't like to come upstairs much any more.  And she has never been very interested in quilting.  Somehow I don't think she will be taking Ba'el's place in the sewing room.

Quilting and vacation planning

For Christmas, my dear husband enrolled me (and paid for) a block of the month club at my local quilt shop.  He had to tell me about it before Christmas as the first block instructions and fabric were handed out in early December.  With Christmas, a number of family and friends passing away (4 to be exact) it wasn't until last week that I was able to start working on the block.  It was to be finished before January 23 when the next block came out.  Well it wasn't until January 25 before I managed to get the block finished.

Here is the first block for a quilt pattern named "Pumpkin Patch Lane"

I was really intimidated by the block so I found loads of excuses to delay starting on it.  Once I got started, the block was a lot of fun.

An e-mail friend contacted me to see if I would like a spool holder that had been given to her.  She included a photo and I said yes please!  It was dropped off on Monday and is great.  The spool holder measures 30" high and 25" wide with storage at the bottom.  I haven't counted how many spools it holds, but it holds all the threads I have!

So now I have to re-organize my sewing room yet again.  Now that is always fun.  You never know what I might re-locate during a clean up.

Now for the trip planning. 

We had our first trip planning meeting last weekend.  This is for our spring trip to Walt Disney World.  There are 6 of us going with 5 staying on Disney property.  Planning included the ins and outs of meal planning, how we will meet up at the park, getting to the airport and even ideas on what to pack.  I'm sure there will be more meetings which I'm looking forward to.

The family member who will not be on property is staying at a time share.  A good friend has arranged for him stay there.  Unfortunately, trying to get information from the company that runs the time share has been a nightmare.  The staff actually working at the time share resort are great.  But a lot of the information has to come from the main company. 

He is trying to get confirmation that the reservation at the resort is in his name. (Would be nice to know he actually has a place to stay.)  When the park shuttles come and where the shuttles drop and pick guests up? (Be much easier to meet up with him if we know where and when they will drop him off.)  Any expenses he has to plan for?  All the questions that usually come up when you plan a trip. 

So while he is waiting for a number of weeks for answers to his questions and concerns he gets a phone call.  Call display says it's from the management company for the time share.  Great, they are calling with some of the answers.  Nope.  It's a sales pitch.  "You have won a free vacation.  All you have to do for your three day vacation is sit in on a time share sales pitch."  How is it free if he still has to pay for the flight, food, etc.?  The sales agent would not get off the phone and finally our family member has to hang up.  This is at 7 in the morning!  Not a great way to start the day.

Here's hoping he finally gets the information he requires soon.

Happy New Year and Trip Planning

So how did 2014 end for us?  Not well.  First DH had two uncles pass away.  So there was a funeral on the Friday before Christmas and a viewing the Monday after.

Then on the final day of the year my Mom's last sibling passed away at the age of 97.  She was in a nursing home in Bakersfield, CA.  From what we have been told she had a lung infection of some sort and the nursing home did not give her the antibiotics that the doctor at the hospital prescribed.  No idea if this is true, but it is what her family told my mom.  Not very pleasant for Mom to think about her sister passing away under circumstances like that.

Then we heard that the father of two wonderful kids that we know through friends had passed away.  He had Huntingtons disease.  Our prayers are going out to all those who love him.

Here's hoping that 2015 will be much better for all!

We do have another trip to Walt Disney World planned for this year.  Celebrating both Mom and my birthdays.  I have posted photos of the backpacks I've made for our group a while back.

There are several firsts for this trip:

Our cousin RB will be joining us for his first visit to the "World".  He has some serious health issues so we are really hoping that everything works out.  Mom really likes showing WDW off to new visitors.  In fact all of us get a kick out of this.  It's the wow factor that really adds to our enjoyment.  We are looking forward to taking RB to WDW.

A good friend of RB is letting him use his time share in Orlando.  So for a very low cost RB will have a lovely suite complete with kitchen (to help keep down costs).  He won't be renting a car and will be relying on the time share's shuttle service.  He's promised to blog about the experience of staying at a time share (off property) and not renting a car (which is what people usually do - but he can't for medical reasons).  I've been enjoying reading his thoughts on the trip so far.  And RB's enthusiasm is really contagious.

There are six of us going and we managed to get a direct flight to Orlando.  This flight happens once a week so we either had to stay 7 days or 14.  Naturally we chose 14 days.  So we are going to have the luxury of time.  I'm sure it will still go too quickly.

For the first time I chose to use an official Disney travel planner, "The Magic for Less" for my immediate family.  Previously we either booked through Flight Centre or direct with Disney. 

One benefit of using an agency that specializes in Disney vacations is that they watch for deals.  And if one comes out it is automatically applied to your vacation.  We got the good news on Monday that a discount came out and over $1,000 was saved for the four of us.  And Mike will keep looking for discounts for us!

Now the friend that is coming with us (SB) booked her trip through Flight Centre.  Several issues here and it's been a learning experience for all of us. 

My group has our luggage tags and confirmation for our airport to resort transfer.  We've had them for several months.  Our agent, Mike, requested that they be sent as soon as we booked our trip. 

The travel agency Flight Centre uses does not submit all the information immediately to Disney.  In fact, SB will not receive her luggage tags or confirmation for her airport to resort transfer until two weeks before she goes.  If there is an issue with the mail, she may not get it in time.  Yet she's paid for this service.

So I ended up calling Magical Express and asking for another luggage tag for her as she will have two suitcases.  Normally only one tag is sent but Magical Express has no issue with providing another tag.  The cast member, Maria, said that it would be sent out right away.  So at least SB will have a confirmation for the airport to resort transportation in time for our trip and one of her luggage tags.

SB had another issue.  The official itinerary with her Disney confirmation number would not be mailed until just before the trip.  She needs this confirmation number to link to her My Disney Experience account.  Without this she would be unable to make early dining reservations, book Fast Pass Plus for rides and shows. All of which she is paying for.


We called and we were told we'd get a call back.  That didn't happen so we went to Flight Centre in person.  There we found that even if SB had the correct confirmation number there was another issue.  The agent did not have SB's correct phone number. Not only that, the agent had given the travel agency they use the wrong phone number.  The travel agency in turn gave the incorrect number to Disney.

We tried to link the confirmation number we finally got to SB's My Disney Experience account.  But Disney has security set in place to prevent fraud.  It couldn't match her name, confirmation number and phone number.  Which is when we realized Flight Centre was using a wrong number.  So that had to be corrected.  Another trip back to Flight Centre.  We weren't going to wait for phone calls that don't happen.

To make it more frustrating the agent had difficulty understanding why this was such a big deal.  She seemed to think everything could be done when we got to WDW.  We tried to explain that Disney has changed things recently.  You need to book everything early and that even guests staying off property have to pre-book or else wait in long lines...but she just didn't get it.

Then the discount was announced.  The agent decided it would be "not worth" it to try and get the discount applied to SB's trip. 

This seems to be a theme with Flight Centre staff.  A few years ago Disney came out with free dinning.  My family was going for 10 days during the time when free dinning was offered.  Our agent at Flight Centre tried to dissuade us from cancelling and re booking to get the deal.  After all it would cost $50 per person to do this.  Really....spend $200 on cancellation fees to have 4 people eat for free for 10 days. Lets just say we prevailed and the trip was cancelled, re-booked with free dinning added.

So here's hoping that this will be the only post that has a rant in it.  I highly recommend using an agency that specializes in Disney vacations when going to any Disney location.  You will get great service and the best prices.  Plus really good advice.

Christmas Prep and Quilting

Merry Christmas.  Hope you are more prepared than I am for the Holidays.  We're still getting ready for our Christmas Eve open house.  Not sure how many people will be here, but I'm preparing for 40 (just in case).

That means the whole house has to be company ready.  Yeah...sure.  I'm confiscating eyeglasses as people enter.  For those that don't wear glasses I have some for them to wear.  Much easier than really cleaning.  Takes less time as well.

The food will be the standard snack food:  chips and dips, nachos and salsa, meat and cheese trays, veggie platter with dip, and a few items from M&M Meats so we have something from the oven.  Add hot chocolate, coffee/tea and hot apple cider.  I really don't like those "c" words (cooking & cleaning)

There were no photos of Christmas decorations at the malls this year.  I really enjoyed getting to the malls early so I could take photos to post last year.  But this year our local mall, Londonderry, is renovating.  They've tried to make it festive, but it's a loosing battle.  Next year the decorations should be great.

With a sick kitty and my father-in-law having health issues we've spent more time at the vets and hospital than at the malls.  In fact, other than grocery shopping I really haven't been shopping.  Good thing I got that order from Amazon or there wouldn't be much under the tree.

My sewing/quilting has come to a standstill.  I use the sewing room as a prep station for all the food/dishes/beverage storage for Christmas Eve.  My huge cutting/pressing table is great for this.  So the room is now "reasonably" clean.  Plus all sharp objects have been put away in case there are any little visitors.

 I should have been able to get the last of the flying geese quilts finished.  Unfortunately about 1/3 of the quilting had to be removed because of poor tension.  That took a lot of time.  Then there were holes in the backing to repair.  Now to figure out what went wrong.  Make the machine adjustments.  Then get the quilt back onto the frame.  I doubt it will get finished before the end of the year.

So I didn't meet all the goals I had set for myself this year in the quilting area.  My block of the month quilt was done on time.  I finished all the kits that I had stashed away at the beginning of the year (of course there are new ones now - next year's challenge?).  But I didn't get a top quilted a month.  It would have been great to start 2015 fresh with no unfinished quilts.  My New Year's Resolution?  Get all those tops quilted and cut down the scraps to usable sizes and organized.  Oh...and stay on top of the new block of the month that my husband has given me for Christmas.  This one is a six month project.

I did manage to get a lot of string bags made for the women shelters.  With 10 boxes and huge bags of fabric "gifted" to me from former co-workers and relatives who were downsizing, there was a lot of fabric.  I think it's time to say I give up and bring what hasn't been made into bags to the rest of the volunteer sewers to work on.  That would empty about a third of my sewing room!

After Christmas it's back to vacation planning.  So be prepared to be bored with updates!  And hopefully some news on quilting progress.

Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and all the best for 2015!

Spiced Eggnog Coffee!

It's back!  Several of the Second Cup stores have the Spiced Eggnog coffee in for Christmas enjoyment.  My dear sharp eyed son found it and made sure he would be nominated "Son of the Year' by buying some for his dear old Mom.

Last year I had been told by a local Second Cup store that they were no longer making this coffee available.  I was given an e-mail address to send in a comment/complaint.  The response I received was that there were several stores in Eastern Canada that still had a supply and that I could order it from them.  Then I was given a gmail address to send my credit card number to.  Yeah....right....that's going to happen.

I was fortunate enough to find some eggnog coffee at a local Winners store.  Not Spiced Eggnog, but Eggnog.  Well this year Winners is carrying Spiced Eggnog by Java Works.  $7 for 12 oz.  I haven't done a taste comparison between the Second Cup and the Java Works.  But I'm a happy gal knowing my Eggnog Coffee needs are being met this year.

For those who are wondering if eggnog milk works...it does but way more sugar etc then flavoured coffee has.
 
That's my update for now....off to drink coffee (who needs to sleep?) and get some sewing done!

Welcome to the North Pole - Finished

One of my 2013 Christmas presents from my husband was membership to a quilt block of the month club.  Each month I would go to the local quilt shop.  The owner had a demonstration on how to make the different blocks and we were given the fabric required to make it.

Fast forward 11 months and below is the final product.  More or less.
I plan on adding some more glitter to the snow.  I love ice crystals sparkling in fresh snow.  And darn it...this is my quilt so I'm gluing on glitter to the snow!  I will have to wait until after December 19th though.  That's when all the quilters who worked on this block of the month will bring their quilts to the quilt shop for a "show and tell".
I do not want glitter spread all over the quilt shop.  No one would thank me for that!  So the quilt is as finished as it's going to be until after the grand reveal on the 19th.

I have a feeling (or is it wishful thinking?) that there will be a new block of the month club membership under the tree for me this Christmas.

Another quilt finished

Another quilt based on the flying geese block is finished.  Just don't let the quilt police see it.   I get creative when it comes to disguising some problem areas.  A number of other quilters have reached out to me on this topic.  I refuse to mention their names and the quilt police will never get any information from me! 

On this quilt there was one spot where the quilting tension was awful.  The stitching had to be pulled out.  But the quilt was off the frame by the time I noticed it.  Since the area was close to the edge of the quilt, that's where the quilt label went.  (I've used a quilt label to hide puckers in the backing in the past as well...don't tell.)

I always wash quilts after they are finished.  I want to ensure that there is nothing awry.  Sometimes some quilting comes out.  Guess I didn't secure the stitching on that row very well.  At other times it's a seam in the top that gives way.  Probably that fabric that wasn't the greatest quality and it frayed.  Or maybe my 1/4" seam...wasn't a 1/4".  What ever the reason for the problem, a wash and dry brings issues to light prior to the quilt being gifted. 

On this quilt it was the binding.  It looked just fine at first glance.  But a closer look led me to believe that the edge of the top might start to fray and pull out from under the binding.  So a decorative machine stitch was added all the way around to hold everything down properly.

Not so long ago a member of the quilt police reprimanded me for machine stitching the binding on a quilt.  I was informed that in all cases, the proper way is to hand stitch.  (If this particular quilter washed her quilts prior to giving them away, she would change her tune.)

Because I wanted to feel good about my quilting I e-mailed several of the on line groups that I belong to.  And these quilters came through.  They machine stitch binding and use decorative stitches to secure "ify" seams.  They also use labels to cover up problem areas.  Add appliqué to hide points that don't match.  You name it, these quilters have done it.  And they made me feel great about the things I do so I can enjoy the final product.  A finished quilt!  Thank you....and your secrets are safe with me!  The quilt police don't know my pass words.