Swedish Weaving

For those of you who wanted to see some of my swedish weaving, here are three of them. The one on the left was my first attempt at it so I followed the exact pattern. After that I got brave and mixed patterns on the other two pieces. Once you have the Monk's cloth ready and the thread counted so you find the middle, the rest of it is so easy that I watch TV and stitch away. This is quite similar to cross stitching, except that it is larger stitching and therefore, not as hard on the eyes for us old fogies. LOL

Our fox did return yesterday morning but was not close enough to photograph. We have yet to see him today. It has been pouring rain here today, so maybe he didn't want to get wet.

MIL has been admitted to the hospital and hopefully will improve now under the doctor's care. It has been a bit stressful this week so far with her illness along with DD's DH leaving for 7 weeks for his training. We know he has wanted this career for a long time, so go P go. DD is going to get sick of me telephoning her to see if she is o.k. That is what mothers are for, right?

Yesterday, we looked out on the front of our house, and there was at least 150 ducks swimming by and diving for food. What a sight! I think that has been the most I have seen on the lake at one time.

Until our next post, have a great time!

A Foxy Day

As most of you know, I live in the country. Well, this morning, I looked out my window and hollered at my husband to come and see. A most beautiful and gorgeous fox was on our lawn hunting for lunch. I ran for the camera but wasn't quick enough, only caught the end of his tail. - Darn it! I think he will probably be back because he did catch something in our neighbour's yard - either a mouse or a squirrel. We couldn't tell but he did throw it up a couple of times.

Yesterday, we drove to Moncton - almost three hours from here to visit my sick MIL. She is 87 years and is still living in her own apartment. She has severe arthritis and osteoporosis. She is on a lot of medication and is affecting her mentally and physically. Hopefully, if they can get the pain under control, she will be able to recuperate enough to stay by herself. DD went down today to visit with her. DD had to drive her DH to Moncton to catch the bus to Nova Scotia for the first part of his training for his new job. It is raining quite heavy here right now, so I hope DD will be careful coming back.

DH is back to renovations and I better get my act together and get doing laundry and clean up as well.

Hope everyone has a great day!

PIF Tagged

Having put my name on Rachael's blog for a PIF tag, I received word that I was one of three chosen to receive a handmade item sometime during the next 365 days. Looking forward to receiving this.

Now is my turn to have a PIF Tagged contest. If you are interested in receiving a small handmade item from Mumzy, just leave your wishes of it on this post. On October 31st, - no fooling on Halloween day, I will put your name in the box, shake it, and DH will pick 3 names to receive such items sometime within the next year.

If you name is picked, I will contact you for your address. In turn, you will carry on the next PIF tagged contest to someone else.

Good Luck!

DH is back!

WOOHOO! DH is back home after having to spend almost five days in the hospital. On Friday, he started to have slight pain in his chest and it was starting down his left arm, so I called the ambulance. They came to get him and took him to the hospital that is about 45 minutes away. Since he has a history of heart disease, they wanted to keep him in until Monday, when his cardiologist would be back. By the time the ambulance arrived at the hospital, the pain was gone and he was pain free all weekend. Monday, when he could have been released, the nurses were afraid he had caught a virus, so in isolation he went until Tuesday morning. He felt fine on Tuesday morning, and therefore, he was allowed to go home.

He has not stopped since he came home. He is a perfectionist and saw all the work that needs to be done at home and so, he has been doing work around - no pain which is good. I took the riding mower yesterday afternoon and mowed the lawn. Because the mower has pickup bags, I was able to pick the leaves at the same time as the mowing. This year the leaves have been more plentiful than I have seen in years. The joys of living in the country.

Today, I decided to make pumpkin pie and at the same time, I made some turnip puff casseroles for the freezer. I don't like turnip alone, but the turnip puff has sugar and eggs and has a nice taste.

This morning we had our first snow flurries - not enough to stick to the ground but snow flurries anyway. To my way of thinking, that is much too soon for this foolishness.

Hope everyone will have a great day!

Another Busy Day

Believe it or not, but today, I did one more batch of pumpkin jam. Yes, it has been that popular around here. DD and her hubby have been the recipients of three big bottles of it so far. Then some friends and other relatives have also received some, so now after today's batch, I believe I will have enough to do us for the winter.

DH has been doing more renovations in the kitchen area. When we were in Town earlier in the week, I picked up more flooring samples and also picked up samples of counter tops. I already know that my cupboards are going to be white and we have picked the colour we are putting on the walls which is called "fire weed" - a red colour which has kind of burgandy tones. I'm told that dark colours are in right now so I'm getting out of my comfort zone and going with it. I love it when a plan comes together.

When I sat down to watch the last episode of ER that Abby was going to be in, I picked up my swedish weaving and got about 3 inches done on it. I find it hard to just watch TV without picked up some handwork or a puzzle book. My swedish weaving project is on a piece of forest green monk's cloth and the pattern is done in a variegated yarn. I'm not real happy with the yarn - I find it to not be sharp enough in colour. However, I have to get it done as I already have purchased the materials for my next project. It is a beige coloured monk's cloth with a beautiful variegated yarn.

I should get back to my quilts as well - oh dear! Never enough time to do what I want to do. Some retired people claim they are bored -- not me.

Enough rambling for tonight. Must go get my zzz's.

My Steeves Quilt

DH's descendents came from Germany. The first one to come across the Atlantic was Henrich Stief with his wife and they had seven sons. The quilt is made up of seven colours representing each son and these colours were picked in 1966 when the descendents had a reunion in Hillsborough, New Brunswick. Each person would wear the coloured ribbon representing the son they came from. The ship's sails are shaped as a 7 for seven sons, S for Steeves (Stief was changed along the way to Steeves) and F for family. On each block, I embroidered the ship and the name of the right son for that colour. DH's family comes from Frederick which is yellow and that is why the two yellow blocks are placed in the middle row. The middle block, I used the seven colours to make up a scene. Then on the yellow border, I started at the top and embroidered DH's family tree all around the quilt ending up with DD's and her husband name last. The back of the quilt is done in yellow and I hand quilted in black thread. DH helped with the design and the spacing of the descendents around in the yellow border.

This quilt took me a couple of years to do in my free time. However, it is now an heirloom for DH and someday for DD.

Today, is catch-up day as far as washing and cleaning. We celebrated our Thanksgiving on Saturday with DD and her hubby, then again, on Sunday with my brother and his wife.

Happy Thanksgiving to all!

Pumpkin Jam

Well, as a lot of you know, my DD hi-jacked my blog to tell you about my pumpkin jam. Yes, it was a success, so much so that I made a second batch of it today. Some of you have asked for the recipe and so, I will post here now.

Pumpkin Jam

About 8 pounds of peeled, seeds taken out, and finely diced pumpkin
3 finely diced oranges
3 finely diced lemons

Mix one-to-one cups of pumpkin and white sugar in a large bowl or pot. Leave overnight and it will create a fair amount of juice. The next day, drain the sugared juice in a large pot and boil down until you can form a string like drip from a spoon when tested. It is very syrupy. You then add the pumpkin, orange, lemon pieces to the pot and cook until the pumpkin becomes transparent. When that happens, you bottle it, cover and seal. I did mine in mason jars, and they will pop in when they seal.

As Cathey mentioned, it is very much like marmalade but I do love it. If you have difficulty and have any questions, don't hesitate to contact me.

This has been a very busy day for me. It took all morning to make my jam, and then the clean-up. In between that, I had three loads of wash and did my ironing as well.

Since we have done the renovations on our home, we had to place our bird feeders outside our front room windows, which happens to be the second storey on our home. The basement is finished and that has our master bedroom, my quilting room, a full bath and a laundry room. The top storey has the livingroom on the front of the house looking onto the lake. As I started to day, our bird feeders are nice and high and we thought that our squirrels would not be able to reach them. WRONG!!! They have found them, so I am constantly on guard for that as well. Those little monkeys know now the sound of the window opening and take off for a while, but do come back as soon as my back is turned. The hardships of living in the wilds. LOL

Have a Great Day and Good Luck with the Jam!

Pumpkin Jam Is A Hit!

Pumpkin here :o) I've high jacked Mom's Blog because I want to tell you guys something.

Today, Mom and Dad stopped by for a minute, mainly to bring me some of Mom's jam so I could restock my freezer ;o) Along with the strawberry and raspberry, she also gave me a jar of that pumpkin jam that she wrote about. I put it in the fridge as she instructed and then took off into town to pick up some groceries.

When I got back I was ready for a snack. Since I just bought some fresh bagels, I decided to try them with the pumpkin jam. Well...this is what I have to say -

Okay so there are no words but I think the expression says it all :o) LOL!

No, but seriously, that is some YUMMY jam!!!! If you like marmalade you're going to LOVE this! I just hope Mom realizes what she's done. Of course, maybe if you're nice enough to her, she'll send you the recipe ;o)

Thanks Mom! The pumpkin jam really was delicious :o)

Happy Birthday to DH

Today, we are celebrating DH's birthday. His cousin and wife are here visiting from Northern New Brunswick and they, along with our dear friends, have a great "Seafood Casserole" supper and our friends brought in a huge Dairy Queen blizzard cake. It was chocolate, of course, which is DH's favorite. So, we are all very full.

Today, I finally tried the Pumpkin Jam that I wanted to try. Just finished it a couple of hours ago. It looks good and hopefully it will taste as good as it looks.

New Colours

DH and I went to Moncton on the weekend and on the way down, the trees were starting to be very colourful with the Fall colours. However, when we drove back on Sunday, it was just awesome. The reds and oranges were so brilliant and beautiful. What a lovely drive back!

While away, I visited Fabricville and bought more materials for my working project. I have now decided to do mostly blues and whites for my new quilts. I found some really pretty blue material with tiny little hearts for the backing. I will take some pictures soon and show you the materials I am working with. We are in the middle of renovations, so my time to quilt is minimal and so I'm frustrated. However, I am looking forward to my new rooms being done.

While visiting in Moncton, we were staying with my BIL and found a recipe for Pumpkin Jam. It sounds yummy, so I copied down the recipe. The recipe is a bit confusing about the sugar that is put in the recipe, so I wrote down the e-mail address for the magazine's editor and will get in touch with her to see if she can clarify it. Will let you know how I make out. If I can get the jam to turn out, my guess is that Pumpkin, my DD, will want some.

Yesterday, I cleaned out the refrigerator in the RV, so I'm guessing we are done till next Spring. I always feel sad doing this. However, had to get it done so we can store the RV for the Winter. Maybe, next year when it is time to bring the RV back out, we can park it in DD new location. Yes, Cathey, you are not getting rid of us that easy. LOL

I better get back to work. Have a Great Day!

Mumzy