Giveaway Reminder!!!

I want to remind you all that you have until midnight my time - Atlantic Daylight Saving Time - to visit my sister website:  http://www.funkybabymine.blogspot.com/ and enroll as a follower to be eligible for my giveaway prizes. For those who miss out, stay tuned as I will be running another giveaway later this summer.

KEEPING IT SIMPLE IN THE SUMMER:

Unusual in my Northeastern Atlantic corner of North America, but this summer has been unbearably hot humid and muggy. I have no real desire to do anything about food except to eat very lightly, using what is available locally and is fresh and light. A typical menu one day this week was coffee and fresh fruit(berries) for breakfast, a mid afternoon meal of doorstep sized slabs of fresh white bakery bread popped under the broiler with slices of swiss cheese and minced green onion washed down with nice cold well water and for supper after the heat of the day a sauce of stewed blueberries and a sprinkle of nutmeg over a small slice of lemon loaf cake.

RECIPE FOR LEMON LOAF:
half cup softened margarine or butter
three quarter cup fine sugar
three quarter cup flour
teaspoon baking powder
4 tablespoons milk or water
2 large eggs
grated rind of one lemon

bake 40-45 minutes in 325F (180C) oven
pour mixture of 3 tablespoons lemon juice and 3 tablespoons of icing sugar over hot cake - let cool in tin and then turn out or cut and lift out as required - yummy!

Not long ago I acquired a tin of Crabtree and Evelyn shortbread cookies which supplies my need for a sweet now and then and awaits company for tea and a biscuit! And I get to have the lovely tin to keep needlework notions in later!!
For tonight I am thinking of fresh peas and carrots with a side of sliced fried new potatoes saved from boiling extra the other evening to serve smothered in caramelized onions alonside fresh veggies and a hamburg patty.
There is no need to heat the kitchen with cooking, and no real need for meat when so much fresh produce is available and so plentiful and yummy, and there will be time enough for long simmered oven stews, casseroles and home baked bread in winter when the extra heat generated is welcome in my old and drafty house.

GIVEAWAY!!!!

So again, today I forgot to take my camera with me when I went to run errands. Ah well - Still a few days left to capture the lovely drifts of lupins alongside the roads up here on the mountaintop, and maybe another two weeks to get some shots of the lovely magenta coloured wild roses growing everywhere. Will try to get out this weekend and do so - I'm planning to go put up some posters for the July 1st Quilt Show and Sale, so must try to remember that camera. Meanwhile, I just took some pictures of the aquilegia blooming near my door so you'll have to content yourself with those.

The last of the three is of the purple variant which is blooming for the first time after having taken a couple of years to get established. Must find time to get some more plants in this weekend, but quilting is keeping me very busy!

Now to tell you about the Giveaway!!!

Go to FunkyBabyMine   http://www.funkybabymine.blogspot.com and check out what you have to do to qualify, and also how to pick up more than one entry.

The GIVEAWAY is open until midnight my time (Atlantic Daylight Saving Time) on June 30 and there are two great prizes - a sweet vintage teacloth and a lovely retro apron in funky 60's orange yellow and brown!!

So be sure to go over to my sister site and register as a follower and start checking out my listings and commenting. See you there!

TOO BUSY!

Lately I find there are not enough hours in the day and my "to do" list keeps growing! As I live alone, if it gets done, it will be by me whatever it is: from garden care to running errands to minor home repairs. And of course I have to have time to work on my various quilt commissions. To say nothing of my own projects to add to my inventory for those folks who come through my door at my quilt studio during the summer months. At the moment I am in the planning stages of a large quilt commissioned by a young couple to celebrate their life together and their marriage taking place later this summer. I also have a small art quilt wallhanging on the go, and will be starting a large wholecloth quilt very soon.

So I really didn't need to launch a new website, but then again I did. I have promised to myself that I will liquidate my extensive treasure trove of lovely and carefully selected items and the way to go is to set up an online shop. So I am doing that and adding a few more treasures every day. I am open for business but not up to speed with a full inventory yet, so I'd suggest you check back frequently to see the latest.

In another week or so I will be announcing a giveaway at FunkyBabyMine which will run for the rest of June and may become a monthly thing. Start increasing your chances by becoming a follower(worth one chance!) if you are on blogspot and by commenting often, as a weekly  comment will give you another chance. Linking to http://www.funkybabymine.blogspot.com/  in your list of Favourites on your sidebar will earn you five whole chances! I will have a first prize and a runner up prize as well, and will announce what the prizes will be very soon. 

I've been a bad bad blogger!!!

I must confess to a blogger's worst sin - letting real life get in the way of blogging! If you think I went toes up, no such luck. I just got incredibly busy between various commissions - I currently have two queen/king quilts and several smaller ones on the go, plus I am restoring a lovely family heirloom silk crazy quilt for a very patient client. Fortunately the end is in sight for the crazy quilt - it's a challenging and somewhat tedious process, but sourcing the materials has given me lots of fun. I look forward to blogging about this process after I've done.
In addition, I recently finished a smaller lap size wholecloth quilt in a creamy ecru, and the new owner is so happy she wants a bedsized one too! This will be my  fourth commission from Janie and she is talking about a fifth to round the collection off!
I have had to put my own quiltmaking projects on the back burner, but I love being busy.


One project I will not shelve is the opening of my new shop at http://www.funkybabymine.blogspot.com/ 

This shop will specialise in fine handmade table and bedlinens from the 1930's, 40's and 50's  and baby and small child dishware and cutlery. Now and then other quirky treasures blow in too! I am drawn to pieces of fine handmade lace, but have to admit that my tastes are eclectic and if somethings calls me I will likely go for it.
I know from the large number of home decorating blogs and young mothers' blogs that there is a keen interest in retro, vintage, romantic and sometimes funky finds for your home. This coupled with the fact that recycling of carefully edited treasures from the past is a very green method of decorating.
Many young professional families are choosing to restore homes in the "inner suburbs" of major cities which were developed with the advent of the electric streetcar. Homes in these areas take in a wide time range from Edwardian through twenties and thirties art deco and craftsman homes up to the lovely bungalows and dutch colonials of late thirties and early 40's. My own home growing up was an english cottage style house completed in 1938 in the west end of peninsular Halifax, Nova Scotia and from there it was possible to walk to a complete range of neighbourhood shopping and services.

I was a child growing up in this middle class home in the mid-forties and was steeped in this kind of handwork, knew what was in the linen closet and the drawers of the sideboard and was taught to embroider, sew and knit at an early age. My favourite reading was a huge stack of 1930's dressmaking pattern magazines. Thus I developed a strong love of these skills which are now close to lost. You can trust my judgment when it comes to choosing the very best of what is out there. To whet your appetite I want to show you a sweet and impeccably made set I acquired today.

The above teacloth is 36 inches square, beautifully embroidered and edged in lovely hand crocheted lace. The napkins are a set of 4 each with a small flower motif in one corner. There are no issues.

Check back with http://www.funkybabymine.blogspot.com/ as I begin to list more of my treasures.

Winterizing the old house

Yesterday we had a really rude awakening after a lovely, mild fall as temperatures dropped well below freezing and a fierce wind blew in from the northwest off the Bay of Fundy.
I have been putting off winterizing my drafty old heritage home and had to hustle around putting up clear plastic at the kitchen windows and also I ran up a curtain to hang over the poorly fitting door to the attic staircase. No need to wonder what sort of fabric to use in my house with the stash that I have! So I looked out some lovely Provence inspired drapery fabric and got on with it. An hour later I had a colour and style coordinated curtain that set off my little French corner in the kitchen. It's a lot warmer in that corner now, too!

As you can see I've filled my old French granitewear pitcher with a huge bouquet of lavender that I got from the same farm that supplies my loose lavender for sachets. I ordered several pounds fresh this fall and am now making up and shipping lovely lavender sachets like you see in the picture below.
PRICE 3 for $27.50 USD flat rate for shipping 3 or any quantity is $5 USD mailto:janet@novascotiaquilts.com to order

Fall and Winter Open Hours

It's time to switch over to my fall and winter open hours for Hall's Harbour Quilt Studio - this year Thanksgiving crept up on me and I didn't notice it coming until last week!! At any rate, I am now open only on Holidays and weekends with the exception of later this month during the National Springer Field Trials which this year are being hosted by the Nova Scotia and PEI Springer Field Trial Clubs and will be taking place on the farm land back of my studio/home here on the West Hall's Harbour Road. The farm land was originally attached to the home lot on which my 1820's home was built. An interesting event for dog lovers and an excellent and green use for this beautiful land. Come out and watch for a while.

And drop in on me - I will be open!!

I plan to be open on the weekends until Christmas at least and later if road conditions remain good. Maybe we will be lucky and have an open winter, meanwhile I'm stacking wood!! It pays to be prepared.

I won Heidi Kaisand's blog draw!!!

A while ago I entered Heidi's blog draw, never thinking I would be one of the five winners!

I was amazed when she notified me that I had won - a sweet little wool candlemat, a beaded votive holder and a lovely spice scented candle - I've been enjoying burning it ever since it arrived last week and will get some replacement candles when this one is finished. Heidi can be found blogging about quilting, family activities and her travels most days at http://www.heidikaisand.com/ I've subscribed for email posts so I don't miss any!!!

Thank you so much for the sweet gift Heidi!!!