Tuesday 26 August 2014

Muriel takes a road trip

It was a beautiful sunny day. Beatrice and I decided it was the perfect time for a road trip. We headed west to Port Hope. We remembered a lovely quilt shop Cozy Quilts that we had stopped at a couple of years ago and decided to stop in. The shop has been relocated. What a lovely setup she has.The shop was beautiful and the fabrics and finished quilts were amazing. The owne r(Shahena Fredricks) was the sweetest, friendliest person. We chatted with her for a considerable amount of time and she never made us feel unwelcome.
We explained Madame Muriel to her. She loved the idea. Here she is with Muriel and me.


While Beatrice and I shopped, Muriel wandered the shop. When I checked my camera at the end of the day I found several shots of Madame. Here she is in the threads.
.

Next, I find she was in the pile of fat quarters admiring the wonderful colors.


After all that shopping, Beatrice and I were ready  for some lunch. We went to a lovely deli called Basil's. Muriel had to have her photo taken with the backdrop.

 She looks like she is sitting on the chair in the photo lol.

Our next stop was Herma's. Muriel loved all the glitz and glitter and insisted on being photographed everywhere.

On the store sign


On the sculpture outside


On top of the angel sculpture

On the Spode tea set


In the crystal Christmas tree



Amongst all the glittery jewelry



 and snuggled into the chocolate.


I insisted that she have her photo taken with the Canadian Maple Syrup.


Our next stop was Primitive Design. What a unique and interesting store this was.
There was the most awesome stuff everywhere.

Here is Muriel on the carved dragon


On the carved Indian


Resting with me on the awesome throne



and posing with me and Optimus Prime. You can barely see her over my left shoulder.


Along with Optimus Prime, they had BumbleBee and Megatron. I was very excited to see these artworks and they did not disappoint.My grandsons were very impressed that I had my photo taking with the Prime.



Beatrice is posing with an elephant made from driftwood.


What a fun day we had. All three of us were tired and ready to go home. A stop at a local ice cream shop ended our adventure.

Muriel says she is happy to rest for a few days.

I've been working on my nutcracker stocking with little show as it's all backstitching. I have decided to concentrate on it for a while as I would love to have it done for my grandson at Christmas this year.





Sunday 17 August 2014

Summer Stitching

The nicest thing about the cottage, besides the peace and quiet, is the amount of stitching time I have.
There are few obligations other than a mandatory bathroom clean and floor sweep that need to be done.

And so I stitch.

My stitching progresses

Rahenna's Band Sampler RR. This was a quick and very satisfying stitch. I loved how it came together.




My Desert Mandala. I have completed the top two borders and the two corners except for the specialty stitches and the beads. I can now see an end in sight for this 5 year WIP.


I stitched up Oakley Owelet from Just Nan.


From the Chicago Retreat by Cathy of Hands on Design I stitched this.


When I returned from the cottage, I had a very full mailbox. These are some of the things in the box.

 I have joined Stephanie's Fabric of the Month Club. My first fabric is Bewitched 32 count lugana. I ordered two special dyed pieces Melody (for the 2014 Passione Ricamo 20th anniversary Mystery) and Red (for a Raise the Roof  design). Here are my beautiful fabrics.


I belong to a Facebook exchange group and I won this lovely giveaway from Marie and stitched it up.



My Birthday Floss Exchange group on Facebook has a Secret Stitcher Sister exchange running right now. Here is my gift from my SSS. Pretty, pretty threads and a girl can never have too many pairs of scissors.


From my dear friend Ginny - this lovely project bag made by Karen and other goodies. I had stitched a piece on Ginny's Joan Elliott RR that was blank.



 I so enjoyed stitching it and did not expect such a lovely gift in return. 


On my way home from Arizona this winter during those long hours in the car I wove this afghan for a dear family member who has moved into their beautiful new home. It was well received.


If those of you out there in blog land are still reading my blog, please leave me a comment so that I can say hello to you.

Madame Muriel's adventures are in the post below.

and now, since the Laundry fairy has not arrived for her regular shift, I will say goodbye and get on with my laundry.

Wednesday 13 August 2014

Madame Muriel goes to the cottage

I will let Muriel tell her story of visiting my family cottage.

Hello Everyone. I had a very adventurous trip to the Ayotte family cottage for 2 weeks. The drive there was quite long - over 7 hours. The cottage is way off the beaten path as in gravel roads (not liking those) and trees. I have seen more evergreen trees than I could ever imagine.

We finally arrived late afternoon. Here is my view of the cottage when we pulled in.


Hmm - I think I can handle this for two weeks.

What a busy two weeks it was. I spent a lot of time on the card table in front of the window. My view from there was spectacular.




There were gorgeous sunsets!




The dock was always busy with some activity or another.




I even tried my hand at fishing.




I learned very quickly that I am a better stitcher than fisherwoman. I will leave the fishing to the young folks.

One day, my hostess sat me on the window ledge above the sink. 


Thank goodness she didn't hand me either a dish towel or dish rag. I would have been exhausted and had dishpan hands in no time. I have never seen a sink so busy. The nice thing that I noticed while perched here was the women did the cooking and the men did most of the dishes. I like that plan!

And the food - OH HEAVENS! There was pork tenderloin, turkey and all the trimmings, steak, hot dogs, hamburgers, spaghetti and meatballs, fresh corn on the cob, bbq sausages and salads galore. They caught enough fish - walleye and smallmouth bass that one night we had a fish fry with coleslaw and homemade french fries. I can still taste that wonderful fish.
My hostess is quite the baker and there were coconut macaroons, peanut butter cookies, gingersnaps, birthday cake (for the BIL) blueberry cobbler and twice - blueberry pie. 

And visitors - Wow these people like guests!
My hostess BIL and his wife were there for the two weeks as were the two grandsons Jack and Hunter. Those boys were busy. They were swimming, fishing, taking apart an old dock,



playing cards or Rummoli, playing on their DS or tablets or eating. The world seemed to revolve around them. I did my best not to be jealous of them.

And then it was Friday evening. People started pulling in. The boys parents arrived to lots of hugs and kisses. In came the cousins and more cousins and again more cousins. There was a big travel trailer, a tent trailer, a tent and numerous cars and trucks. Soon the place was filled with hugs, kisses and lots of laughter. There were children - more cousins. We were all introducted to baby Ella who is 4 months old. You should have heard the fuss they made over that baby. These people LOVE to laugh and talk.
There is a sauna here and it was well used on the weekend when all the relatives were about.



I heard the ring of horseshoes, the clinking of ice in glasses, the pop of the beer caps, the crackle of the bonfires and the late night hooting in the sauna and the lake. 

Other family and friends dropped in and out for the two weeks. That old screen door slammed a lot.
I heard my hostess warn the grandchildren "Slam that door again and you will be going home tomorrow". I wonder if she meant it. 

The blueberries - let me tell you about the blueberries. It was a very plentiful year. The DH and BIL picked and picked lots. The grandchildren pretended to pick (as did I). 


There was enough for that cobbler and those two delicious pies. The family all took some home to freeze.

All in all, it was a wonderful time. We are back in Trenton now and I must say it is quiet and restful here. This will be my resting spot until our next adventure. My hostess is not giving me a clue as to when or where. 

My hostess has informed me that she will post her stitching progresses in a later post.
Until next time

Madame Muriel signing off!