Hello everyone!

This has been a fairly busy week for me. First of all, we were away for a couple of day and I received a group of beautiful cards for Carma House in Rob's name from the girls in the learningfa group. Mary H, Fran Cox, Jenni S (both from Australia, Jeanette P., Tricia --- as you can see, more glorious cards..

My husband and I were very happy to meet one of his
relatives (the son of his cousin who originally was from Scotland and now lives in England) the other night. They were heading to Banff and Jasper and hoped to take the Rocky Mountaneer Dome car through the Rockies to Vancouver. Now that there is the strong possibility of a railway strike - I am not sure what they will decide to do. It is too bad,
they were so looking forward to the dome car adventure.

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We took an overnight trip to Lethbridge in Southern Alberta. We drove down the
'Cowboy Trail' where the huge ranches are. These ranches were the original ranches that were homesteaded by the first ranchers in this area. It is a very interesting area. We drove down to the highway east and west and had our lunch at Lundsbreck Falls, what a
pretty spot. Check out the header picture. I took it yesterday. We stayed overnight at
Lethbridge and meandered home this morning. It did me lots of good.

Once again, thanks to all those wonderful friends who are sending me the postcards.

Shirley

More beautiful cards arrived today

Vicky B from Alberta sent me 7 wonderful cards for Carma house, and a lovely card for me.

My friend Jackie

from Edmonton sent me these three postcards - aren't they fun?

This and that

Good morning! I just wanted to drop in and say hello. It has been awhile since I have posted as things have been a bit overwhelming this past month since my son was
found to have a serious cancer. He is holding on, still in his apartment and managing on his own. (For how long, I don't know).

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I have been working on a wall hanging of a winter scene. The center panel is l4 x l9"
and once I get the border on, it will be a nice sized wall hanging. It will be one of the
wall hangings I will donate to Carma house for the quilt auction in November. As the
Winter Olympics are in Vancouver, BC in the New Year, I thought I would do some winter scenes for the auction. I have been working on small pieces this past 6 months and got the urge to go back and do a larger piece for a change.

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I have been taking a bit of a leave of absence from my group (learningfa) because of
the situation with my son. I am so pleased that Julie from the group has stepped in and
carried on with the promised classes by sending out the class emails. She really has
been such a help.
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Our weather has been really uncertain this past while. We haven't had a nice summer at all , and as it is so short, it is a shame. Oh well.

I don't seem to have much to say right now but will drop in when I finish something.
Thanks to all of you who follow this blog, and I hope you will continue to do so. I hope to become more active in the next while. Shirley

Chris & Terri

sent me 3 beautiful cards. I am getting such a wonderful variety of cards and they are all 'one of a kind'

Thanks so much ladies.

here are a couple more

of my cards. It has been such a help to make them this past week. I made them all in
groups which is a faster way of making them.

Later in the week I hope to do some painted cards with little scenes. I am going to take the cards I have received down to Wellspring tomorrow. From what has been posted it sounds as if quite a few of them are still coming so I will take more down when I have more.

I spent yesterday working on two

different sets of cards. Lots of fun. The bottom picture shows a 'strip' which will be made into 3 cards.


I talked to my Son in the morning and he was sitting out in the yard and seemed quite 'up' which was nice to know. I guess we can hope for some good days in the next month or two. He phones me everyday which is helpful for me. We are having our little grand
daughter Hayley over for a sleepover. She is five and such fun.

I want to sent my friend Verona best wishes as she underwent surgery last night. She should be home in 3 or 4 days.

We have managed to get all the information as t Dr's, medications, etc. so I am feeling less worried than I was. We will just have to hang in there, I guess.

Hayley (my grand daughter) just arrived for a sleepover so it is time for me to sign off.

Shirley

Another little beauty received

This lovely card was received from Lola W. and I thank her for it. I will be taking the first group I received down to carma house on Tuesday. I am continuing to make different ones for the collection.

Cards are arriving

from my wonderful friends. I received 3 today - two from Janet H. and one from Jane E.
they are absolutely wonderful. We are getting a really nice collection of cards and
Carma House will benefit from them.

Another example of how to make a group of cards

I cut a strip of sky fabric 20" long by 5 inches wide. I added the mountain fabric and the foreground fabric across the strip. I placed it on timtex and using a glue stick I
attached the strip to the timtex using a glue stick, quite close to the edges (about l/2")

I cut 3 post cards from the strip as shown, and finished them the way I did in a previous post. before adding the back I did a small amount of thread painting on the cut out cards.

I do my painted cards this way. I used to do 4 or 5 different strips for swaps, so that I would have a variety of cards with different fronts.

To all my Canadian friends.

HAPPY CANADA DAY! We are so fortunate to live in our homeland. It is stable,
beautiful, peaceful, friendly, and helpful -Our country has been sending peacekeeping troops for nearly 50 years, all over the world. Lots of people, even Canadians, are not aware of this fact. My husband was with the United Nations in l960 in Gaza and many were in Cyprus before that - so many soldiers over the world helping to KEEP PEACE.

I will always be proud to be a Canadian - Shirley

'LIFE IS LIKE A QUILT'

Life is like a patchwork quilt
Each little patch is a day,
Some patches are rosy, happy and bright,
Some are dark and grey.
But each little patch
As it's fitted and sewn to keep it together
Make a finished block in this life of ours
Filled with sun and rainy weather
So let me work on life's patchwork quilt
Through the rainy days and the sun
Trusting that when I have finished my block
The Master will say, "Well done".

Author unknown

More Postcards received

I have received more postcards and as I needed something to keep me busy I have made some for Carma house as well. The ladies have sent some beautiful cards. First four The cup and saucer is from Marion in the UK> the others are mine




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Cards from Gladys D, Diane B, Ricki J. and more of mine.
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I finished thread painting the large panel of flowers - I am happy with the way it
turned out -- It was helpful,as working on something so beautiful helped me deal with all that is going on with my son. Shirley

Postcards for Wellspring

I just received three more beautiful cards from Susan Loftin, Sharon McKay and Julie
(quilting Jewel) from the Learningfa group. They are wonderful and will be delivered to Wellspring to be sold with the proceeds going to Carma house for support for Cancer
survivors, their caregivers, families etc.
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As my friends are being so kind by sending these beautiful postcards, I have decided to make some to add to the ones I receive. It is for such a good cause. I have a lot of fancy fabric on hand so I will be able to use some of it.

We are in the process of packing up as we are probably going to move at the end of July, so we are busy with all the things going on with my son. It looks like it is going to be a very long year or two for our family.

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It is a lovely day -- I am finishing up the panel and will be sending it home shortly. then will get going on a few postcards to add to the beautiful cards I am receiving from my friends.

Hayley

is my five year old grand daughter - what a joy.. She had this taken last weekend on
"Super Soccer Saturday" where about 20 teams of different sizes played soccer.

the hat is a tarantula with eyes and arms so the team was called the "tarantulas" -they were all 4 - 5 and 6.
They are so cute and it is so much fun to watch them. I thought I might share. Shirley

I have been thread painting

a floral panel for a friend from the Big Sky retreat -I thought you might like to see how it is turning out.
Click on the pictures so you can see the thread work.
It has been something I have enjoyed doing this past week in between visits to different hospitals.

Postcards for Wellspring

I have just found out that the members of my group (Learning fa (fiber arts)) are going to be sending me unaddressed postcards to me to give to Wellspring to sell and hopefully raise funds for Carma House which has just opened here in Calgary- Wellspring is a
center for cancer survivors and support for cancer patients.
Who would have thought that I would be using their facilities a year after I decided to
support them by donating my wall hangings to raise money for them. As mentioned in
my last post - my son has just been diagnosed with terminal stomach cancer.

If you wish more information please let me know by commenting on this blog.

Thanks to all the people who have sent me supportive emails, phonecalls and posts during this difficult time. I especially want to thank publically the members my online group
who have shown me nothing but support and kindness during this past week. Special thanks to Deb, Verona and Caroline and other close friends -who are giving me unqualified support . Shirley

Shirley

I haven't posted for awhile

as we have had some bad news and have been trying to deal with it this past week.

I won't go into details, however we have found out that my oldest son is very ill . This has thrown our family for a loop, and it has been
a very busy week, going back and forth to hospitals for tests. Things have settled down for now, and he will be receiving treatament, once they get all the paper work done.

I want to thank all of those who have sent so many messages of support. It makes a Huge difference.

Our health care system is under fire, but I will tell you this -- if it is urgent, and if it needs immediate attention, they do a wonderful job. We only found out a week ago today, and he has had minor surgery to help him eat already, as well as two tests with more booked.

I likely won't be on line much for this next while. Thanks for your kind thoughts, they are so appreciated. Shirley

Miniatures -

Here are most of my miniatures. some of them are in private collections but some are available.













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