Quilt Matters: An HBC Point Blanket Quilt Of Your Own

  To all my Canadian friends out there--I don't know if you all know/follow the fabulous M-R at Quilt Matters,,,but if you don't, you should. (All you non-Canucks should go take a look too! HBC is the original fur trading store from our country's early days,,and is still in business--however they don't do a lot of fur trading these days!)
   Take a look at this amazing HBC Point Blanket Quilt M-R designed & quilted. It's phenomenal,,,and just shouts Oh Canada!!!
    If you stop by to take a look,,,tell M-R I sent you! She's a wonderful quilter, and funny as all get out (to say nothing of generous with her knowledge!)

HBC Point Blanket Quilt

Quilt Matters: An HBC Point Blanket Quilt Of Your Own

  I hope 2013 brings you all a Very Happy New Year filled with health, wealth, happiness,,,and lots and lots of sewing!!!
Mary

Happy Holidays to all!

Courtesy of irrepressible, indomitable, insurmountable and certainly inspiring

MDM. SAMM!

May all your wishes come true!

Mary

A difficult time

  I've struggled with whether or not to write this post.  Things in household are not good right now, and finding the spirit of Christmas is difficult to say the least.

   As some of you I've emailed with know, we are facing a major challenge in my family, and I've had to take a step back from blogging & from commitments I've made.

   You see, a few weeks ago, my youngest brother was diagnosed with lung cancer and has had to move in with my husband and I so we can care for him. We are on what we lovingly call "The Cancer Merry-go-Round", and his first radiation treatment was last Thursday with another to follow Friday. With the major storm we had hit, we couldn't make Friday's appointment, but we are on our way in the morning (if the road conditions improve enough to drive the hour there!) for treatment #2.

   His cancer is Stage IV non-small cell squamous lung cancer, and is inoperable. Chemotherapy is not an option either, as his cancer is too far advanced, and he is too frail to undergo the treatment. Radiation is only palliative; there is no cure--only the hope we can make it easier for him to breathe.

   We are all very surprised we've made it until Christmas, and God willing, he will see in the New Year.

    Before anyone asks, does it really matter whether or not he was a smoker? He is dying of lung cancer,,,period. What came before does not matter; the only thing that matters right now, is making him as comfortable as possible in his last days/weeks.

    My friend, Hayley, at Mrs. Pickles Garden, is going through this nasty journey with her father right now, and while it's comforting to be able to commiserate with someone travelling the same road in our Canadian medical system--which is the greatest and the worst in the world all at the same time; although I wouldn't wish my worst enemy this journey.

   So,,I'll update when I can, blog when I can, and hopefully my weeping sewing machine will have some company (ME) over the next 2 weeks while my husband is on Christmas holidays (some holiday) and is easing my burden.

Mary
  

Merry Merry Christmas

   It's the most wonderful time of the year! Not!  We've had the snow/ice/freezing rain storm from Hades here since Thursday night! It started off innocently enough. Snow coming down so pretty. But then the damned stuff didn't stop! And the temperature rose, and we had snow upon snow upon snow, with melted slush underneath. And then,,,,it froze up solid. So now, we have snow packed roads, covered with 2 to 3 inches of ice, and then more snow today on top of all that.  I hate winter!
    There was a tractor trailer flipped on the highway outside our small town yesterday,,,so today they closed the TransCanada Highway to right the truck, and get it on its way. Which is a great thing,,,except they re-routed all traffic through our little town. Our main street got clogged so they (the police) decided to re-route the traffic down residential streets and the main street. It was lovely. Those of us who live here (aka "not from away") essentially stuck to our homes. What was supposed to be a 4 hour detour turned into 8 hours. GGGGGGRRRRRR.

It is not this pretty!
 

  I wish each & everyone of you who visit here the merriest of Merry Christmases, and may 2013 bring all the best to all of us.
  Have a great holiday season.
Mary

Winner! Winner!

  Wow! 255 comments and 112 followers! I can't believe it. It seems impossible to imagine 112 of you are following my blog, reading my posts and checking out my work.
   Thank you Thank you Thank you!

   The winner of my Quilting Gallery's 5th Birthday Blog Hop Giveaway is

 #156 ...OhioLori. 
   Congratulations Lori,,I wish I could have entered! I'd love the chance to shop at Julie's store on someone else! Who wouldn't?

  I have emailed Lori, and will be looking forward to hearing/seeing what she's going to buy with her gift certificate.

  Thanks again to everyone who entered, and most especially to all my followers, new and old.  

   Be sure to check back in,,I'll be having another giveaway to thank all my followers for pushing me over the 100 follower mark!

 And once again, I need to sing Julie's praises! With some issues that have come up in my life right now, I wasn't sure how I was going to live up to my obligation for this hop. Julie made it so simple for me to buy a gift certificate for this giveaway! Please go visit her, and give her some love (You could tell her I sent you!)  

  
In case you missed Julie's newsletter/blog, she has a coupon code this week (CORNER10) for 10% off your entire cart, and all Christmas fabric is marked down 40%.
Mary

Quilting Gallery's 5th Birthday Blog Hop Party

      Welcome to Michele of Quilting Gallery's 5th Birthday Blog Hop Party! This is going to be a fun one! Every blogger on the schedule (including me!) has a giveaway for you! This Hop is on from December 9th through until December 15th, and you can find the complete schedule at Quilting Gallery's birthday blog hop page!

     I hope you have a look around my little blog, and see what I'm about. I love to sew, whether it's clothing for me or others, quilting, home dec. I've been spotty with my posting, but I'm working on it!

     For this giveaway, I'm giving away a $20.00 (USD.) gift certificate to a great online fabric store, The Intrepid Thread. The owner Julie, has nothing but postive response from everyone, has great fabrics, at terrific prices and is just about to open a brick & mortar location! Julie will ship internationally, so this giveaway is open to everyone--whether you use that extra "U" or not!

     Congratulations to Michele on her 5th Birthday, and enjoy the hop!

    All you need to do to be entered, is have a look around Julie's store, and leave me a comment telling me your favourite new arrival.  For a second chance to win,,be a follower (new or old!), and leave me a second comment letting me know you are. This makes 2 giveaways in less than a month,,,so following could be a good thing!

    Thanks for stopping by and good luck in the giveaway. (Giveaway ends December 15, 2012 @ 11:00 p.m.EST, and a winner will be chosen by Mr. Random Generator.)

Mary

GIVEAWAY IS NOW CLOSED. THANKS FOR STOPPING BY & ENTERING!

Winner,,winner,,what's for dinner?

   Just a quick post to let you all know that a winner for the 1/2 yard of Kona Solids has been chosen (by Rafflecopter) and it is #214,,,,Carla



Carla G has left a new comment on your post "Blogathon Canada Part 2 & Giveaway!": 

I love the blues - my favorite is Water! :) 



Posted by Carla G to Sew Maybe I Can at November 28, 2012 3:39 PM.   



I've emailed Carla to let her know the good news.
   Thanks again, everyone for entering, and most especially for following me, both here and on Twitter!

 Hope everyone has a terrific week!

Mary

One day left!

    I've been busy the past few weeks running to medical appointments with a family member (yeah,,that's the emergency referred to a couple of posts back) and couldn't believe my eyes when I checked my blog and saw I had 52 ,,,okay, 51 (one of the followers is ME--I had to make sure someone followed me, so I signed up too!) followers. 

    I don't know if it's the giveaway,,,but even if it is, I'm still very grateful that you all would take the time to check out my little corner of the world. Thank you, thank you, thank you. You have truly humbled me. 

    A few weeks ago, I was wondering  whining to my darling daughter about what the point of posting was, and here I come back to find 50+ followers! (Trust me,,that lovely little lady I call daughter chewed me out but good, and told me to get my a$$ in gear and post! It may have something to do with her wanting the pouch I made for her tablet and me telling her I had to post pictures before I sent it to her!)

  Speaking of tablets, have you all seen the ASUS Transformer Pad? Daughter bought herself one, and brought it home on her last trip. It is way cool! Great graphics, fast as the dickens, has a keyboard, and the screen comes off & becomes a separate tablet and it's a great size! (I am not being compensated in any way for saying that, am not involved in any way with ASUS,,I just think it's a cool toy!)

   Anyway, just a quick thanks to you all for following me, and I'll be back sometime Sunday to announce the winner of the giveaway.

    Until then,,,enjoy your weekend. I'm going to try!

Mary