In Memory of Duke

Here is a photo of Adam the day he got his pony Duke. This weekend we lost Duke. He was some were over 30 years old. It took us three hours to find him in the long swamp grass were he lied down. I worked hard last winter and did not think he was going to see spring. Me and my two boys were planning a little ride on Sunday. Sunday morning he was not with the other horses.
Here is a photo of Adam with Duke. We had gone on a fall family trail ride into the next section of land, I think this was my birthday in 2007. This is were we stopped to have lunch. It was a great day.

Trail Ride in the Rockies part 1

Here is me and my Dad on our horses. I just got back from a week of riding in the mountains. This trail is the Canary river trail. We rode around the back side of this mountain up to Paradise Valley.
Here is Lunch stop at the east end of Paradise Valley. We are just in a ways from the look out of the South Ram River. The view there looks out towards Banff National Park. This is my horse Jester, he is a Paint gelding with a Thoroughbred mother.
My riding partners on this trip were Jim on the left then his daughter Jessica. Next is Toby and Tim, with my dad in the back. Tim and Toby just happen to be ride the same week and I know Tim's mother very well - Marge a Quilting buddy. This is our third day, we rode up the Hummingbird creek and back down for about four or five hours.
Here is Toby, Tim, Jester and Me. This is the morning I was leaving. My dad and Jim and my uncle will be staying to ride for a few more days.
My husband and kids came on this trip to camp and hike. I will have to show some photos of them in a day or two.

Two Altered Boxes

I needed a large box for a partner swap that is going to Japan. I will fill it with goods that are both new and handmade scrap booking supplies. I found this larger metal box to buy a few weeks ago. The smaller box had tea in it, and is long gone. I used the Ranger alcohol inks to cover the boxes - Silver, Stream and Wild Plum. They dry fast and then I sealed it with Mod Podge.
Now both are dry and I need to pick out flowers to go on top. I pulled out most of the flowers I had. It took longer to pick the flowers than to paint the boxes. I have brads through the flowers and then I glued it on to the top with E600 glue. Love this stuff.
The finished box heading to Japan later this week. If my partner peeks - Surprise!
Here is the little tea box. I sprayed the paper flowers with glitter. This box is for me to keep. I think I will keep it in my bedroom on a dresser. ( I do not know why I have this underlined? New to this blog thing. If my kid was here he could fix it.)

Jumping Frito

I am getting old. This is a photo of me more than 20 years ago, so I edited the colour. I jumped horses at the big shows. I still have a horse but now I trail ride. I have a big trail ride coming up and we have lots of planning. It is kind of like planning to go to a horse show but we have not been practicing for weeks and weeks every day. I have ridden my current horse about 8 times this month. He is being a good boy. After the Trail ride I will show photos. We are going into the Canadian Rockies. We will be on the west edge of Jasper Park at the Hummingbird falls stageing erea. We will cross the Ram River and Hummingbird River above each of the water falls. Cells phones do not work here. No power to pugin to. And bad outhouses. Seeing the mountain on horse back is amazing. You bond with your horse as you both need each other.
This is Frito, his show name was Esplanade. My last name was Manuel at the time and some people would expect to see a darker skinned girl with these Spanish names. This photo was taken on the Sunday of the Edmonton Northlands Show in 1986. I had been to a grad all night and had not slept at all that night before. We got a ribbon, as we got a ribbon in all our classes at this show. I sold Frito later this summer and started University a few months later. My dad took these photos from the side of the ring. These are my summers as a teen.

Blackfoot Ride

We took the horses to the Blackfoot grazing reserve, just east of Edmonton yesterday. It was great fun. This photo is from a trip last year, I did not take my camera this year. But hear is a photo of me and my horse. Note the big smile on my face, it was there all day. My Dad and Son and a friend Jim went. About half way we had a heard of about 12 bison stampede on the other side of a 8 foot fence(and a few bushes). Talk about a very big scare. We all stayed on but it was not pretty. The Bison were in Elk Island Park and we were riding the north trail next to them called Blackfoot. I promise to have more horses next week.

Betty's Black Bracelet

I made the bracelet some time ago, and then for her birthday I made the earrings to go with it. She finds that it is hard to find Black and gold earrings.

Eating out two times?

The family went out for supper after buying school supplies tonight. We took the kids to A and W but when in the parking lot we saw a new restaurant. It was a Moroccan buffet. We knew the kids would not eat there. But it looked really good. So we took the kids to A and W and we did not eat there. Then we went to the Moroccan Restaurant and me and my husband ate supper while the kids sat and watched us eat. The owner let the kids have free desert, fruit and a baked sweet bread.

I have to ask- Has anyone ever done this. Taken the kids to their restaurant and then the parents eat at theirs?

It was silly, but me and my husband are glad our food was not A and W. The new restaurant was very good.

Vintage Halloween Charm Swap

Here are two charms on the right that are finished for a swap on Two Peas in a Bucket. The left has the 20mm shell disk beads that I started with and still show on the back side. I thought they looked like the harvest moon.
I printed small images of an old postcard. Sealed them with Mod Podge (Glow in the Dark). When dry, I used the light table and traced the circle on the back side and cut it out. Then glued the images to the 20mm shell disks. When dry again, I used Diamond Glaze to cover over the image for a good raised glaze. You have to try not to get bubbles in the Diamond Glaze.
Here are the many disk images drying before I can add more beads. I placed the disk bead on a 1 1/2" jewelry pin head and added the gold moon and star bead.
I love to put the charms together using my muffin tins. I have bought a few old muffin tins to use for project trays. I look for them at the second hand stores. This can then sit on my lap in from of the TV or at a table.

Altered Box for Betty

This past week was my mother's birthday. I love making her something. I was planning on some jewelry but then needed to rap it up. I had three pairs of earrings and a charm bracelet. I thought it would be cute to have it all in one pretty box. That is when it hit me. I made the box with this tin candy dish. I first covering it with Ranger's Alcohol Inks. I used a red, black and gold. When the ink was dry ( it is fast), I sealed it with Mog podge. I added the three layers of flowers and a button.
The jewelry did not sit in the box nice so I added a bottom liner. I used a heavy wool fabric and trimmed the edge with a blanket stitch in red thread. Now the jewelry would sit nice and quite in the box.
The completed box. It was a hit with mom.

Flowers at Their Peak

I love to take photos of the garden flowers. Here are two beauties at the edge of the pond. The mauve peony poppies are like weeds and have to be kept down. They self seed and can take over any area. I let a few here and there just come up to fill any empty spots. I got the seeds from the boss's wife (husband's boss- I work for myself/customers).
Here is a lily with two blossoms open and two more to come. I have been planting my lily bulbs in pots and then I put the pot in the ground. I have pocket gophers all over the garden. They had tunnels under this one and would have eaten it if not for the pots. Most lilies not in a pot are eaten now. We have gotten three gophers from this part of the garden. Let's hope they do not come back or dig a hole in the pond liner this winter.
We are starting to eat tomatoes and basil from the veggy garden. Peas, lettuces and spinach are done. I will keep you updated on the garden.

Wave Quilting

I have been doing long arm for customers for more that 10 years now. I like to do free motion quilting the most, like this one in the photo. This week I asked the owner of this quilt if I could post a photo. She would like to remain anonymous. It is a sampler style quilt set on point with the two boarders. I thought because the colours and the flip flop batik were so much like the water or beach that the wave quilting would work best. It really does feel like a water or beach quilt now.

Scrabble Tile Charm Swap

I made a few scrabble tile charms for a swap. I did two for Twilight - Alice and Bella. The next one is the Heart group - I used a photo of one of my quilts that had hearts on it. The next one is the Skull group. I did Donald Duck for the Disney group. The Horse photo is my horse done for the Animal group. And the last one is a lily from my garden for the Flower group.
I followed directions for these one a web site. Here is the link http://www.makeandtakes.com/links/scrabble-tile-pendant-tutorial I printed photos and then sealed them with Mod Podge, Cut them to fit the tiles and glued in place. When dry I could add the Diamond Glaze. When dry, glue a hanging bail on the back side.

Pumpkin Charms

Halloween Fibre Charm Swap. Here are the little smiley faces. I am so pleased with how they turned out. This is the first time I have tried Felting. I dyed the wool then started to wet felt the wool into balls. It takes about 10 minutes for each ball. Start with a chunk of warm wet wool and some soap in you hand. Then roll softly and slowly adding more presser to the wool. Rolling Rolling. I could speed up the rolling when it was looking round and starting to stick together.
When the orange balls were made and dry, I got out my jewelry findings. I had some trouble getting the jewelry pin into the balls of wool. I sewed the black beads on for a face. I made the stem out of green beads. I added a silver leaf at the top with the lobster claw clasp. I have a few extra and plan to make some earrings for myself.
I bought wool last week to dye. Here are the dye supplies set out to get started. Below are the pots simmering on the oven. I dyed green thinking I would make the stem from wool but it looked like Florida oranges not pumpkins. I had to dye twice as I did not dye enough the first time. I was surprised how much wool is in a little felt ball. To do my 25 balls I should have dyed two oz of dry wool.

Three Dotee Dolls

"Madonna the Mermaid" is for a Swap on Two Peas in a Bucket. Her chest is made with two shells that I sewed on but had to add glue as they were wiggling all over the place. She was going to knock an eye out with them. (Ha Ha Sometimes I think I am funny)
Some of the beads I have used have come from old necklaces. I have a bread bag full of old necklaces form a neighbor and I look at garage sales. Each of these three dolls have at least one bead form the bread bag of necklaces.
"Rainbow Man" is for the Anything goes category. I love this print of cotton and the Lime green (what other colour would I use). He has a charm that says "Laugh".
Here is the Cupcake Dotee Doll. She has a pink wool frosting hair style. I have used my hand thread to stitch her body lines. I think her name should be "Pink Frosting". Her cherry bead on top is from the necklaces.

I have made all my dolls with my our patterns. I just drew a little on paper, sewed some and then made some changes. Before this swap I had not heard about Dotee Dolls. We were given a link to a blog here it is http://dotslifeandart.blogspot.com/ She has an Etsy site were she sells kits too. I think hers are a little smaller than mine. Check it out if you would like to know more about the world of Dotee dolls.

Here is the Two Peas in a Bucket swap board link http://www.twopeasinabucket.com/mb.asp?cmd=list&forum_id=14

Saskatoon Picking

Today me and my two boys picked Saskatoon berries. I am planning to make some berry pies later in the week but we needed to pick them. I will have to make peach pie as one boy does not like Saskatoons and I still wanted his help. So our trade is "If he picked enough berries for a Saskatoons Pie I would make him a peach pie." I have to buy the peaches.
Our dog the Chesapeake Bay Retriever found out just how good the berries are. Here he is nibbling off berries. He first tried to take from our buckets but did not have any luck with us. I think this is Chessy style. He also ripped down on small tree from the truck just to get the berries up higher.
A good start to a bucket of berries.
Saskatoons are a native berry to the western prairies. I know my grandmother picked and made many berry pies. Some make Wine or Jam but we like the pies the best.

Look at these purple hand. It will take a day or two for the purple to wash away.

Internet Connect - Wall Quilt

This Quilt is called Internet Connect. It is in the Connections Series of quilts and has been shown at Art Galleries in Alberta and B.C. It is 38"W X 45"H. I have hand dyed all the cotton fabric for it. After the main body was pieced I used letter blocks to stamp words about the internet. I asked the school kindergarten teacher if I could use her great old set of block stamps. I then quilted it on my long arm machine and then quilted the large triangle pieces by ruff edge applique still with the long arm.

Fibre Charm Swap - anything goes

Here is the last fibre charm swap I was in. I love all the colour in these little beauties. You should click on the image and enlarge it to see them better. The charms I made are on the bottom. I have been doing these charm swaps on Two Peas in a Bucket. I think that I should get my Edmonton and Distict Quilters Guild to do a Fibre Charm Swap. I will have to talk with the program poeple and see if we can do it this year.

Telephone Line Quilts

Telephone Tag by Cathy Tomm 26" X 15" Fibre art with covered cords
Connections is a fibre art series made by me and two friends, Dawna Dey Harris and Sharon Willas Rubuliaik. We call our group Filiamenta. We have been showing fibre art together for more than five years. These two quilts are in the Connections series.
Party Line by Cathy Tomm 13" x 42" fibre art with covered cords

Fish Pond

I thought I would share my pond with you today. It is a bright sunny day and perfect for sitting by the pond to enjoy the trickle of the water fall and the splash of the fish. The water lilies are blooming.
Today the pond needs the filter washed out and the water level topped up, but this will only take a few minutes. We built this pond ourselves and moved in many field rocks from around the rock piles and fields on the land. I have four fish this year, one gold fish and three koi.