Not quite so nekked

Well, I've been working on Helena's block as well as working on me. I've had a couple of sessions at rehab for my shoulder and it seems to be coming along nicely. It's 6 weeks yesterday since I fell down, and six weeks would be the amount of time a cast would stay on, so I think I am on schedule. The 100 details in 100 days has been changed to 200 days, thank goodness. I had my doubts whether I could keep up the pace!

Three little lads together

Caleb, Jack and Joshua

Suzie and Jack, Heather and Joshua & Lee Ann and Caleb

My three grandsons were all in the same place for the first time ever on Sunday. Two live close by and the third is from Morin Heights in PQ.

We also had a surprise birthday cake for my son who is definitely in the minority in PQ as a Leaf supporter. It's funny, Caleb the baby has two special outfits - a Toronto Maple Leaf jersey and a Montreal Canadiens sweater. The poor kid is so confused!

Neil and Caleb

A good excuse to begin another CQ block!

I'm going to make a block for my sister Helena's yoga studio! Here it is almost nekkid. The block is 12" x 12" so these are pretty small pieces of fabric because she wants it really full of stuff. I've joined the 100 details for 100 days group on Stitchin Fingers, so I'll use a good few of the 100 on here.

Setting up

Tonight we set up our tables for the business expo tomorrow and Sunday. The table looked very nice.

Cakes on show this weekend

My cake partner Verdie and I will have a table of our cake decorating this Saturday and Sunday at her Church in Scarborough. This will be our 3rd year at this business expo there, and we have created some new display cakes and spruced up a few that were in a recent competition. The pictures show six 4 1/2" mini cakes and decorated sugar cookies. Last year's Sunday attendance was more than one thousand people and we made some good contacts which resulted in a few orders and some students for our gumpaste flowers course.

Learning how to Tatt

It's a craft I've always admired, it's so dainty and fragile. I tried years ago with a shuttle, but couldn't get the hang of it. A couple of years ago when Lewiscraft closed down I bought an instruction book and some very long needles and had another go. I had a mental block following the instructions and didn't make any progress.

When I began CQ, it became necessary that I tried again because little tatted pieces just belong on crazy quilts! I spent an uninterrupted evening and just concentrated, unpicked, tried again, until I found a very simple way to wrap the thread and hold the needle. I've mastered the very basics only, and have a long way to go, but at least, after all these years of wanting to do it, I can now do it!

The little pieces shown are not "fine", I've used fairly heavy thread, but they are recognizable as a flower and a butterfly!

A friend from our Seniors Craft Club gave me a beautiful piece of her mother's tatting. That will be saved for something really special. That's a dime in the photo to give you an idea of the fineness.

Shabby Chic sort of!

Completed block

I was inspired to create this block after an exciting visit to Value Village. This was back in April. It's now finished but I strayed a bit from the theme. I think it should be a bit softer looking. Anyway it is finished - my fifth finished block. One of the five is my CQ4Newbies newbie baggie swap and contest. But of course I can't show that photo yet because it is to be voted on in early June.

Close up of iris

Close up of herbaceous border

Close up of roses

Under the sea CQ

Finished block Octopus

School of fishes Coral

I've been working on a CQ Under the Sea block. I think it's my favourite so far out of the three that I've completed. The colours - turquoises, blues and aquas are gorgeous together - and the little bits and pieces of beads and charms bring it to life. My son in law was kind enough to take some close up photos.

Mothers Day Cards

My three children each have a son. Their ages are five, eighteen months and five months. We are getting together for Mother's Day at DD Heather's. There will be four generations, my mum, me and my two daughters and their husbands and the boys. My son and his family live in PQ, so we won't see them this time. I wanted to celebrate the fact that they are mums too, so I created a card especially for each of them. The photos are printed on vellum and lightly glued on to dupoini silk fabric that I embroidered with silk ribbon embroidery. I don't have a photo of the card for Lee-Ann in Quebec (I was rushing to get it in the mail), so I have just shown a copy of the photo I used.

Suzie and Jack

Lee-Ann and Caleb

Heather and Joshua

A full cake day

Well, here is the order completed for Sunday. Twenty 4" lemon cakes with lemon curd filling and fondant icing and topped with a gumpaste calla lily and leaf; an 8" Jamaican fruitcake covered in marzipan and fondant and a baby cradle; a 10" lemon cake with lemon curd filling and covered in fondant icing, a sugar cross and rosary. And a sugar card. And a couple of dozen iced sugar cookies in the baby theme. Also 6 dozen assorted other cookies. Whew, it was a long day getting it all together.

Third day in a row celebration

Just a few words to say that mum was surprised to receive all the attention and also amazed that she did not know about the cake. Well, considering I do most of my jobs after midnight when she is fast asleep in her own apartment, it's not surprising that she didn't know a thing..

The Family Cake Lady

Since I've been doing cake decorating I've tried to do all the family cakes. Mum's birthday cake has been a bit of a challenge due to my arm, but I was lucky enough to have my SIL Elaine visit yesterday evening and I put her to work on some really quick and colourful fondant flowers. She's pretty creative and I think it turned out well. It's a vanilla cake with home made strawberry jam (I picked the berries), with Italian meringue buttercream. A lot of mum's friends go the Seniors crafts tomorrow and they always enjoy something sweet, so that's where it's going.

Damsels in Distress

Today I had rescheduled Mum's Vit.B12 injection to coincide with my trip to the fracture clinic. After both appointments were successfully completed we had a Tim's coffee and some Tim-bits at the hospital coffee shop and made our way to where the bus picks up hospital passengers. It's not the normal spot as the hospital is under lots of construction. We waited on the grassy verge for awhile, and when we saw the bus entering the area, we got up and I "flagged" it (it's called a "flag" bus). In that short few seconds when I stepped of the curb, Mum also stepped off the curb and fell backwards onto the grass, and the bus just ignored us and drove right by. Mum tried to get up by herself but collapsed again. She finally got on her feet, unhurt. I was angry at the bus driver and I was near to tears. It just happened that a van with a couple of men saw the whole incident. This story has a very happy ending. The van was full of construction stuff so one of them said: stay right there I'll be back with my car. True to his word in a few minutes he picked us up. In the back seat was a pair of crutches and it turned out that he also had been at the fracture clinic with a broken foot. Talk about our knight in shining armour - thank you Jamie from Ajax with the broken foot.

Another birthday visit

Today is Mum's real birthday. I can hardly imagine living to 92 and still have all my faculties. Not only that, but she can sit on the floor and play with the great grand babies and then get up unaided. She's like a kid herself, and nothing gives her more pleasure than her grandchildren (8) and the great grand kids (5). This morning my youngest DD came by with Joshua, 5 months old. He's a bundle of fun and energy, doesn't sleep much during the day and keeps my daughter busy. Even so, tired as she seems to be all the time, we had a really nice visit and then she offered to drive us to my fracture clinic appointment.

Happy Bithday Mum!

My DD, her husband and their boy Jack visited this afternoon to wish Nany a Happy 92nd Birthday for tomorrow. Jack is 5 and got a bit restless after listening to us adults, so I put him at the dining room table with some coloured fondant and the Wilton people cutters and he was happy as a lark for nearly an hour. He had a field day with the cornstarch! And not once did he catch on that the fondant was edible and sweet. I think he figured it was like playdough! Anyway, I'm going to mold him into a cake decorator very gradually.

Getting on with it.

It's been just a bit over two weeks since I fell and broke my arm. I go tomorrow to the fracture clinic to make sure it's healing properly. Every day seems to bring improvement, and I hope that I will be able to drive soon. Mum and I took the "Flag" bus to the mall and then walked about 1km to the grocery store. It was drizzling with rain. Mum was exhausted after the hike and we sat for a while and had a coffee. We loaded up the cart with groceries and took a taxi home. Then we both had a nap! Mum will be 92 on Monday and I'm trying to make a cake without her knowing. I baked it yesterday, made the icing early this morning and will make the decorations this afternoon. I will get someone to take it by car to the Seniors on Tuesday where most of her friends go for crafts. I've also been working on the summer flower garden crazy quilt block. What's missing is silk ribbon embroidery which I found was difficult to do at the moment.