Seven Random Facts...

Hi everyone! I'm back in Cleveland visiting my kids with DH. First I must tell you that I spent two days at the International Quilt Festival in Chicago - it was amazing!!! I was a little jet lagged but I'm glad that I had the experience. The quilts were wonderful! More on that later after I get my computer to download my pictures...

I've been tagged for the first time. Let's see how this goes...

1. Once you are tagged, link back to the person who tagged you.
2. Post THE RULES on your blog.
3. Post 7 weird or random facts about yourself on your blog.
4. Tag 7 people and link to them.
5. Comment on their blog to let them know they have been tagged.

Here are the 7 random facts about me:

1. When I was in college I wanted to be a veterinarian until I found out that part of the program consisted of working on large animals, I mean horses, cows and pigs! No thanks, I just treat guinea pigs...

2. I speak English, French and colloquial Arabic.

3. I spent two summers working for the Canadian Government in a Microbiology Lab.

4. I've had to escape from a polar bear on an ice flow by jumping back into the helicopter.

5. I love to watch Syrian soap operas especially the historical ones.

6. I took ballet lessons when I was in my early 20's and I always had season's tickets to Les Grands Ballets Canadien when I lived in Montreal.

7. I consider myself a New Englander at heart even though I haven't lived there for many years.

OK. That's it for me. I would like to tag the following bloggers:

Aby
Siti
Laura
Wendy
Tine
Sandy
Vickie

Greetings from the USA!

I've been tagged by Jackie for seven random facts about myself but it may take me some time to answer because I'm still traveling with my husband here in the US and I'm not sure if and when I'll have internet access.

Please stay tuned!

...To finish divine!

I'm sure you've all come across the saying: To quilt is human...to finish divine!? That's how I feel about this latest baby quilt. Yes, I finished all the hand applique and the machine quilting. Better than that is the feeling that I did a pretty good job and that's saying something because I'm usually quite critical of my own work. My applique circles are not completely round but I doubt that anyone would notice (unless you held up the template and examined each one)!

On the positive side, I learned quite a few things about quilting while making this baby quilt many of which I picked up from my daily reading of quilting blogs. For example, to learn how to make perfectly round appliqued circles (this info will be used when I make my next applique quilt!!!) check out Kim's pictorial tutorial. Then check out the results she gets in her cherry block (very cute!)

When it came to hand sewing on the binding, I decided to try Dorothy's method over at Morning Pages. She uses a ladder stitch that sews up really fast and becomes almost invisible. I had been getting painstaking results with a modified applique stitch before but Dorothy's method is so much faster!

So big 'thankyous' to Kim and Dorothy for their 'virtual' help - isn't this world getting smaller? Wow!


I even managed to sew my label on the back!


And finally, I must show you this picture of 'Mademoiselle Misty' who has decided to grace our picture with her presence! Our wonderful house helper Arti is holding up the quilt (she feels shy about her feet being in the picture!) but I told her I must show all the quilters in blogland our 'cute kitty'!


Quilter's thought for the day:
Count your blessings, stitch them one by one!