A VERY SAD DAY

Unfortunately it is a very sad day for us. Our beautiful Clydesdale mare "Dolly" passed away. Our veterinarian said she had congestive heart failure. He said he had never seen a Clydesdale as old as her in all of his years in Practice. She would have been equal to 110 in human years. She lived here with us for over 17 years, and we rescued her when she was 10. She was originally from Nova Scotia and came to Ontario in her younger years. They call draft horses gentle giants, and she was that for sure. She will be sadly missed. We loved looking out and seeing her eating grass in the pasture. Now she is eating greener grass at the Rainbow Bridge. I like to post about happy things, but life is not always about happy things, and I consider my Blog a diary of my life. So Dolly, you were loved so much, and we will miss you always. You brought us so much joy while you lived here with us.

This is a picture of our beautiful "Dolly"

PIECEMAKERS QUILT SHOW

Wow....two posts in one day. Well, I am back from the Piecemakers Quilt show. I worked this afternoon in the Tea Room and it almost Killed me ..... LOL. It has been 29 years since I have done any waitress work. I did enjoy it though, and I'm going back tomorrow to work another shift over the lunch hour. I took a few pictures of some of the Quilts for you to see. If you haven't gone to the show, there is still tomorrow, but it is the last day. There has been amazing attendance. People have come for miles to see the show.

This quilt was my favorite one at the show. I just LOVE the colors. My friend Peggy made this beautiful quilt.

Peggy's quilt

I love this quilt too

Another nice quilt

One of our Vendor booths. 

Shirley from "The Marsh Store" quilt shop.
One of our vendors

Another Quilt from the show

Lisa from "Soft Impressions by Lisa", one of our Vendors. 
We call her the gadget girl. She sells amazing gadgets for all of your sewing/quilting needs.

This is Joseph's Quilt (He won a second place in the show)

I believe this quilt was made by Shirley Bobier (The Marsh Store)

FABRIC ORGANIZING IS TAKING PLACE

It has been a long time coming, but today I am FINALLY organizing my fabric. I have to go and work at the Piecemakers Quilt Show today at 3:00 pm, but until then, I am hard at it. DH and I picked up my pine cupboard on Wednesday morning and it looks awesome in my new sewing room. It is painted Cloud White and distressed. It looks perfect with the butterscotch walls and my fabric is easy to see in it too. I am finding fabric that I had forgotten I had and I have even found some....."What was I thinking fabric".

I think that will be going :) I will be posting pictures when I am finished this task, so keep an eye out. If you haven't made it to the Piecemakers Quilt Show in St. Marys, Ontario yet,  you should try and get there. It is the best one yet! Lots of vendors with some wonderful gadgets, threads, patterns and fabrics. Lots of workshops and lectures going on too. Great food in the Tea Room. (That is where I will be working today and tomorrow). You won't be disappointed. It is a great show. Bring your friends and have  a day out. After my fabric organizing fiasco, I won't be buying more fabric at the show, that is for sure.

CHICKS HAVE ARRIVED

This morning DH and I went to our local Feed Mill and picked up our 24 day old chicks that we ordered. So far all are doing well. I have heard that sometimes a few don't make it, but I am hoping all of ours will. They are keeping warm under the heat lamp and are running around and eating well. They are so sweet. I am already attached to them. By late summer, we will have a sign out at the road reading "Brown Eggs for Sale". It has been about three years since I have had chickens. We only have chickens for eggs. I can't eat anything that I have raised, named, and made friends with. The last batch of chickens I had, one of the hens lived to be around 12 years old.

Rhode Island Reds and Plymouth Rocks

DAY II QUILTERS SHOP TOUR

Yesterday was day 2 of the Quilters' Shop Tour. We started out early again and arrived at our first Quilt Shop at 9 am when they opened. There was four us this time, Michelle's sister Sharon decided to joing us. Our first shop was Joyce's Sewing Shop. There was a very large selection of sewing machines, patterns, notions, and fabrics. The shop was very bright and lots of free goodies to take home, pens, date books etc. Joyce and her employee Kelley were very nice to talk to and made us feel at home while we looked around. We all found something nice to buy. Later in the day when I arrived home, I received a phone call from Joyce's shop telling me that I had won a prize, so I was  quite happy to hear that. I never win anything.

Kelley Richardson holding up my gift that I won at Joyce's Sewing Shop in London, ON.

We left Joyce's sewing shop, made a quick stop at Cotton by Post in Arva, got our passports stamped and headed up to Quilts and Calicos in Exeter. 

We arrived in Exeter and we decided we needed a coffee, so we went into Coffee Cultures and Mary treated us all to coffee and a scone. We walked into Quilts and Calicos and were greeted with smiles from shop owner Linda Bartlett and her employee Deb Campbell. There were iced cupcakes and truffles for the shoppers and the store was filled to the brim with wonderful fabrics, patterns, kits, and notions. It didn't take us long to find some great fabric choices. A great Quilt shop that has something for everyone!

Linda Bartlett  Shop owner of Quilts and Calicos, Exeter, ON.

Mary was having some fabric cut 
and Michelle was looking at the quilting  books

Truffles and Cupcakes

Our next stop was to be in Goderich at Quilters by the Square, but we had to make a couple of stops along the way. Our first stop was at Pine Sampler furniture in Hensall. They had a wonderful selection of wool for rug hooking and a wide assortment of primitive furniture and accessories and giftware. We enjoyed looking around at their latest additions to the store.

Pine Sampler furniture in Hensall, ON.

Next on our list was lunch at the Black Dog in Bayfield, ON. An Irish Pub and restaurant with delicious menu choices. The black bean soup was on special and it was absolutely delicious! We were all so full from lunch, we decided to look around a few shops before heading to Goderich.

The Black Dog in Bayfield, ON.

We arrived in Goderich and went into Quilters by the Square. Lots of goodies for shoppers to eat and drink and many fabric selections. Lots of books, patterns, and notions too. Very friendly ladies were ready to help to cut fabric or find that special pattern you were looking for. This was our last shop on the tour so we handed in our fully stamped passports. We decided we needed to celebrate the end of this two days of power shopping, so we headed down the street to J's Bistro for coffee and carrot cake. The best home made carrot cake that I have ever tasted. So all in all, we had a wonderful time on the Quilters shop Tour. We decide this will be a yearly excursion for us.

FUN, FRIENDS, FABRIC, AND FOOD

Today was the first day of a three day Quilters' Shop Tour, so myself and two friends decided that we would do the tour, but over two days. All of the shops stamped our passports and gave out a free pattern and offered 20 percent off fabric purchases. Today we did the West region and Saturday we will do the East region and that will complete the whole tour. There are draws for regional prizes for finishing each region and a grand prize draw of $1000.00 worth of coupons for one lucky winner who has their passport stamped from all 9 Quilt shops. We started out at 8:30 am this morning and our first stop was at the "Marsh Store" Quilt shop in Coldstream, ON. Shirley had the store looking amazing! Shirley greeted us with a huge smile when we walked in. We were her first customers of the day. She had lots of refreshments for the shoppers, chocolate Easter eggs, chocolate bars and bottled water.  Shirley has a great assortment of kits and bolts of fabrics, notions, and patterns. We all found a few things to purchase and then headed to Mt. Brydges to our next stop, "Sew Creative".

Mary, myself, Michelle and Shirley at the "Marsh Store" quilt shop in Coldstream,ON.

Shirley standing in front of her sample of the free pattern she did for the Shop Tour.

The refreshment table at the Marsh Store in Coldstream, ON.

When we arrived at "Sew Creative", Joan also greeted us with a smile. She had lots of cookies and juice for the shoppers and her store also looked amazing. Joan confessed that there was over 2000 bolts of fabric. She had something for everyone, also lots of patterns, books, and notions. All of her Pfaff machines are on sale until the end of June also. We all found something to purchase, got our passports stamped and headed to our next stop. We found "Sew Creative" a great place to shop.

Joan Hilhorst at Sew Creative in Mt. Brydges, ON

Sew Creative in Mt. Brydges, ON.

Our next stop was "Quilting Creations" in Strathroy, ON.  We found Sherry to be a very nice lady.  She also had lots of fabrics to choose from and homemade cookies and drinks for the shoppers. Her staff were also very friendly and helpful. We also enjoyed our shopping experience at "Quilting Creations". Lots of patterns and books too.

Sherry from Quilting Creations with the sample of her shop pattern she was handing out to shoppers.

Our next stop was in Arkona, ON. at "Quilts n' Things". Lots of fabrics and homemade cookies for shoppers on the tour. They had a great pattern for Quilters to take home.

Our final stop for the day was in Sarnia at "The Quilt Shoppe". We were greeted with smiles from the friendly staff and had our passports stamped and we were given a free pattern to take home. We were told that all fabrics were $9.99 a metre and then 20 percent off of that. We all thought that was a great deal. They had a great selection of fabrics and kits. We all enjoyed our shopping experience here and found the owner and staff very friendly. There was bottled water, carrots to munch on, apples and donuts for shoppers. We all got some nice fabrics to take home. We also were given a 20 percent off coupon for lunch at  a lovely Tea House down the road, so seeing we were hungry after all of this shopping we decided to give it a try, after all it was lunch time.

The girls at "The Quilt Shoppe" in Sarnia, ON.

Refreshment table at "The Quilt Shoppe" in Sarnia, ON

DeGroots's Garden TeaHouse in Sarnia, ON.

Rustic Seafood Pie with Mandarin Cashew salad

(Michelle and I ordered this for our lunch)

Grilled Vegetable Panini(This was Mary's choice)

The DeGroot's TeaHouse in Sarnia was a fantastic place for lunch. They offered numerous healthy choices on their menu for lunch. Local products are used daily in their restaurant including fresh herbs, and vegetables. The food was delicious and the prices were reasonable. The portions were quite adequate too. We will definitely return. The TeaHouse is situated in a 1906 farmhouse with dining areas on two floors. Service was good, and they were very busy. The staff was very friendly, and made you feel welcome. They had recently received an award for one of their home made soups, but unfortunately the soup was sold out by the time we ordered our meals. We were very happy with our choices. Below are some of the fabrics I purchased on the Quilters' Shop Tour.

Some of my fabric purchases

Some Civil War fabrics

Some fabrics I will be using to make an Autumn Quilt

To sum it up, we had a wonderful time today and we will be doing Part II on Saturday, so check back for another update of the second half of the tour.

~Janet

A BIRTHDAY OUTING

Today being my birthday, DH took me for a wonderful buffet dinner at the Crossroads restaurant in Elmira Ontario. It was a beautiful day for a drive, so we headed out around 2 p.m and had a nice view of the countryside seeing the Amish working up their fields with their horse drawn equipment getting ready for planting this years crops. There were stands of fresh maple syrup for sale along the roads, and fresh eggs and loaves of bread and home baked pies. We arrived at the Crossroads around 3:30 just when the dinner buffet started. We feasted on delicious salads, then we headed up to fill our plates with the main course. There was turkey, ham, fish, beef, pastas, dozens of vegetables and homemade breads and biscuits. One could never sample all they had, there were so many choices. For desert there were dozens of pies, cobblers, squares and puddings. The mississippi mud pie is my favorite, so I made sure I saved room for a piece. Needless to say, we were both stuffed when we left. The Crossroads is becoming one of our favorite places to visit for special occasions. I also had a busy week lunching with a few friends to celebrate. I even had one of my neighbors sing "Happy Birthday" on my answering machine LOL. When I got back from walking the dogs to the bush I heard it. It made me laugh. She sings much better than I do and she is in her 80's!

Carving the roast beef

The Buffet

Yummy deserts

Amish working the fields up for planting

COOKIES

What a gorgeous day it is here in southern Ontario. A little cool, but sunny. I just got back from a nice walk through the bush with the dogs. I was up early as usual, 4 am and I baked DH some German Chocolate cookies. I found the recipe on Becky's blog, Primitives n Stitchin so visit her Blog for the recipe if you would like to bake a batch. Thanks Becky, the cookies are wonderful!

German Chocolate Cookies

HAPPY EASTER

I would like to wish everyone a HAPPY EASTER. 
May the Easter Bunny be good to you!
~Janet