It's Time For A...UPDATE!

To celebrate the Dog Days of Summer, Master Gryphon and Miss Gwendoline asked me to have a Give Away. I'm off to Canada again so will bring something back (don't know what it will be yet) so if you are interested in being "selected" leave a comment and G&G will do a draw next Friday, August 7th. G&G wish you luck (and a couple of licks)!

G&G UPDATE:

Gwendoline: Besides some Canadiana that Mum brought back (yes we have that)...She is also including a cute little fabric collage using one of her old birthday cards (Gryphon: Do we get those?) - how's that for a teaser! Leave a comment by this Friday for the draw!

A Quilt Moment

One of my blogging peeps, Barb over at Oddles and Oddles, recently posted about a lovely old quilt she found while "on the hunt". Over the weekend I was doing my domestic goddess thing and cleaning out the spare bedroom and realized my bed quilt was very similar so thought I'd share. I don't think it is quite as pretty as Barb's but it was one of those ridiculously low priced items at a second hand/gift shop that I had to adopt it - all hand quilted.

Cleaning is a good thing (which I seem to do less of the older I get) especially when it comes to quilts. I don't think this is a really "vintage" quilt by proper definition - even so, it does have that feel.
Actually, this is a cautionary tale - if you have one of your lovelies sat out, it's a good idea to "air" now and then. Hubby and I stood outside and shook this baby for quite a few minutes because of all the dust it was generating (seriously, I could have used a face mask!). I then let it sit outside for awhile to get that special smell we all love.
And of course whats an old quilt without some old pillow cases - one of my Thrift Shop scores. I adore the little blue birds.
Anyways, that's my moment! And remember to air your quilts!

G&G Vacation Report 2

Gwendoline: After dealing with bears, foxes and other wild life (Gryphon: No lions or tigers thank goodness) we headed for our cottage. I’ve recovered from this part of our vacation, but you should know I considered this a most traumatic experience! The last leg before we got to our cottage was a drive through Manitoulin Island.

It started out well enough – I was asleep in the back as we crossed over from the main land.
We stopped along some scenic areas along the way - including lunch here at Mindemoya (Gryphon: Say that three times fast). Mummy even found a Quilt shop!

Mum and Dad bought some art work for back home.
Then Dad did an odd thing and got in line with a bunch of other cars at this place called South Baymouth. There were lots of other dogs with their persons about. Some strange tents I’ve never seen before.

And then it arrived! (Gryphon: Notice Mum is getting fancy with her photos)....
Suddenly all these cars came out of its stomach…and then we had to drive in!
It was horrible – I shook the whole time (over an hour) and Mum held on to me tight.
Gryphon: I honestly don’t know what the big deal was – the weather was nice and I was with Dad.
Lot’s of interesting things to look at.
Gwendoline: Needless to stay “Get me off of this ship!” We finally landed and I collapsed in the back of our car. Mum said that was it for awhile – no more car rides for me for at least a week! (Gryphon: Darn, I LOVE car rides)
But we had a very nice time. The weather was perfect. Mum and Dad made native style bannock one night over the fire.

They took canoe rides around the harbor. And we did a LOT of sleeping.
Gryphon: Fine by me!
Gwendoline: That’s it till next time (September) – we all can’t wait! Meanwhile, hope you are all having a lovely summer where ever you may be (or winter for our Aussie friends!) Lick, Lick – G&G.

A Tisket, A Tasket

I seemed to have acquired some "basket" embroidery during my travels.

This lovely design includes butterflies.
So does this (but no basket).

This tablecloth was in really rough shape with some ugly brown spots all over it - I soaked it for overnight in Oxybrite and that seemed to help though you can still see some of the spots. I may try something else (or just leave as is, you know what they say about cleaning things on the Antiques Roadshow!). My favorite, however, is this pillow cover - crunched up in the bottom of a basket. For $2 CDN ( $1.82 US) I'll take it. I plan to put a pillow form inside and display it. Reminded me of this book I have.

Which leads me to another "non basket" item (found at the same time).

It was very "off colour" when I got it - but it also got soaked and is ready for me to embroider (Barbara Jean if you want to "copy" before I do let me know!). The same book also had "pet" embroidery. I have many of the books in this series - I used one for my "7 of Hearts" Playing Card Quilt for our Guild Challenge this year.

Well speaking of pets, G&G are chomping at the bit (so they say) to give another vacation report (seems a distant memory now). Stay tuned!

G&G Vacation Report 1

Gwendoline: So, how did we fair during our vacation? For the most part we slept - you have to remember we are both "seniors" so there were plenty of times Mum and Dad left us behind on their outings (Gryphon: I hate when they do that) or we could not do anything more strenuous then eat (ahem) french fries or Tim Bits ...here are a few select photos of us ...

Gwendoline: Okay - technically NOT a dog (Gryphon: Man I was worried there for a minute), but part of one our first adventures (Mum would not let us near this guy). While leaving Sault St Marie to Sudbury we decided to make a side trip to St. Joseph's Island. Ever heard of it? Neither of us had but according to Mum it was not going to add much to our trip and it had an "old fort" built in 1796 on it so the humans (Gryphon: who out vote us every time) said "what the heh" ....this fella was sitting in the parking lot of the Park Visitor's Center. We got there after a long drive over some very pretty back roads. We were the only ones at the Park and the two nice ladies working there let us walk through the center with Mum and Dad so we could go and "inspect" the ruins.

It was a nice day - but boy were the mosquitoes bad - you did not stand still for long. We wandered about to take in the scenery - Mum says that is Michigan on the horizon.

Dad at least let us take a break once in awhile (Gryphon: Geesh I was knackered). The whole island is off the beaten trail, but worth the visit (said Mum and Dad). Personally, I'm just wondering when we get to eat. We did cross this cool bridge and had a pit stop at a little side park.

Nice spot to do your business if you know what I mean (heh, we're dogs!). Then off to Sudbury!
Gryphon: Where's Mum, where's Mum.....

There she is, standing under one Big Nickel! A Sudbury landmark...

And yes that is ONE BIG NICKEL!

Gwendoline: I'm bored - when do we eat?

Gwendoline: Our day trip from Sudbury was to some place called Killarney- you drive through the park to get to the village - it was overcast and cool but still busy. We stopped here for lunch (yeah) ...

Where Mum and Dad shared some really good chips. There were some very pretty cottages that Mum insisted getting pictures of while we walked off calories...

Back in the park we could not go hiking, but went into the main campsite for more pics - Dad said the hills in the background are very cool...

Gryphon: What the heck? Gwendoline: BEAR....Dad quick just keep on driving (This is Mum, no animals were approached or harmed during this photo shoot - but we did see one more a few minutes later cross the road!!!)

Gwendoline: Well that enough for today - more to tell later (Gryphon: Nap time!), and thanks for following our road trip with us. We hope you enjoyed our pics (Gryphon: We wanted Lovely Leslie to know we had an okay time ;->) G&G (lick, lick)