Time For Tea

For all of my "Ladies In Red" fans....the bag is finished. Such a difficult pattern to follow and I would have thought that the templates and instructions would have been accurate, but they were not, so I had to do a little fussing with this one to get everything to match up.
I like how all the pieces were chosen from my scraps, a $1.00 fabric bag from the quilt shop and the embroidery was done on an old pair of linen pants. So in the end the bag was very inexpensive to make, just many hours of stitching.

Looking Back

This is a picture of my Grandparents house that they lived in for over 60 years. The house my father was born and raised in. Although this picture was taken a few years ago, the house looks completely different than I remember as a child. The big front porch is missing and the joining glass sun porch is gone as well. The colour use to be white with gray trim and the lower left windows use to be one. After my Grandfather passed away, my Grandmother stayed for several years and maintained this 5 bedroom, 2 kitchen, 3 acre house by herself until the day came when she could no more.
New owners now occupy the house and on this day that these pictures were taken, I had a chance to meet the them and was welcomed to take as many pictures of the house and gardens as I liked.
While wondering around the yard I found it very emotional, and to see different curtains hanging in the windows and a different car parked in front of the barn brought me to tears. The apple trees were still out back and the new gardens replaced familiar ones, and the rose arbor was as beautiful as ever.
I hadn't been back to this house for more than 20 years until this day and I was pleased to know that a wonderful family had chosen to raise their children here. Despite all the differences I saw, the one thing still remained untouched. The big old tree sitting on the front lawn next to the gravel road was exactly how I remembered it.

Recently I have had news that the wood stove inside this part of the house had caught fire a few moths ago. The family escaped in the night and were found running down the road calling for help. Everything is now gone, and I feel such sadness for this family who has lost everything, along with the years spent in making this house their home. The land is just an open field now filled with tall weeds and left over bits.
Somehow the loss of this house fills me with sadness as well. Memories of most of my early life was spent on this farm and I remember every inch of it of how it looked then.
Still, even now, after everything is gone, the one thing remains untouched.....the big old tree sitting on the front lawn next to the gravel road still stands unharmed. How I wish trees could talk....imagine the stories they would tell.

He Sits On A Wall....

This guy was painted on a piece of wood hanging around in the garage back in 2003. He comes with soldiers, horses, a castle, and of course a brick wall. It was finished just in time for Christmas for a gift for my son. His dad turned it into a toy chest and has been filled to the brim with treasures ever since. Lately I have been wondering why I spent so much time on painting something that he would surely grow out of.
This morning my nine year old son told me that when he buys his first house, and he has a wife, that this toy chest will make the perfect coffee table. This makes me smile....I guess you could say that maybe he will never grow out of it. Maybe he will have it forever and someday will hold treasures for his children too.

Ladies In Red

I love these little ladies that I have been working on. This is a pattern from Bronwyn Hayes called "Ladies To Tea". Many hours of stitching and piecing hexagons to form in the end a beautiful bag. I seem to be having a problem lining everything up and this makes me smile because it has been a work in progress for awhile. I am hoping to finish this today..... or at the very least finish piecing it together. Something red and sort of white.
Happy Canada day!