One of many reasons

I have been away from the blog so much, asides from getting ready to move, and designing patterns, is that I'm also making and selling quilted wraps! I have just launched a website, Wraps by CaraQuilts! Up until now I was only selling them through a store in Foot's Bay, Muskoka, and that will still be the only physical location you can find them, but I am now going to be selling them online as well!

These are ones I did last week.
 My wraps are all made with quilt shop fabrics, bamboo batting, and Moda Snuggles backing! Anyways, I'm not going to push them here I just thought I'd let you know since I know a few think I haven't been quilting.

Lest We Forget

    On the eleventh hour, of the eleventh day, of the eleventh month we will remember them.

   Today is Remembrance Day here in Canada, Veteran's Day in the US and Armistice Day in the UK and France. While originally only commemorating the Great War (WWI), and then both World Wars, today we remember all of our veterans of all conflicts, and our Peacekeepers around then world who so bravely serve and fight for our freedoms and way of life. Where ever they are, remember our serving men and women, and their families who stand up for what we as a nation stand for.
Whether in Afghanistan, Kosovo, Bosnia, Rwanda, or Haiti  or those from conflicts further in history, remember the important and great work our men and women have done and continue to do.

  In high school I was very blessed to be able to go to France with a large groups of history students to travel and learn more about the World Wars. We visited so many very important sites, The Somme, Dieppe -the site of one of our greatest defeats and later a great triumph; Vimy Ridge- the site where Canada became nation is the eyes of the world; the Beaches of Normandy; too many cemeteries to count, though the most significant for me was Bayeux.
Bayeux cemetery is a multi-national, mutli-faith cemetery where far too many soldiers are buried. The thing that I remember most though is meeting this beautiful woman who had been in Bayeux when the battle took place there.
She was 16 years old and like so many women of the time took care of the wounded and dying. Every week since then she has tended the Canadian graves at this cemetery. At the time it had been 56 years.
For 56 years this woman tended the graves of those boys, and they were boys 16-22 mostly, who had come to liberate her country from horrors she still will not speak about.
Grave after grave, and so many saying only "To Be Known Only Unto God". Boys no older then I was then. So many heartbreaking inscriptions. To this day I cry when I think about it. So many families left behind.

 On the anniversary of D-Day we were in Bennie-sur-Mer, on Juno Beach. The beach Canada took for the allies in what is still one of the greatest military operations in history. We were invited to march through the town as part of a parade to commemorate the liberation of the town, and at the end to sing O Canada while ground was broken on what would be a memorial centre. People  hung out the windows watching, and when they saw our flags and jackets with the maple leaf they cheered and waved. We heard more the one Vive la Canada! Merci Canada! And these were not just from the elderly who had lived through it, but all ages who had been brought up to remember. I cannot tell you how proud to be Canadian that memory makes me.

Today and everyday may we remember the sacrifices of those who have gone before us, and who go before us now so that we may have our corner of freedom and peace.

 For those who are teachers, please continue to teach our history. We cannot forget the huge sacrifices that have been, and are made every day by not only those who serve in our armed forces, but their families as well. Bring out the old text books with more than one chapter on what has made us.
Bring alive the history, the human sacrifice, the trials and triumphs.
Our country came of age in the midst of horrendous wars. We stood tall when greater nations fell. We volunteered more men per capita then any other nation. We held lines when others ran. We took the field when wave after wave of others had failed. We showed kindness to those who had been so brutally mistreated. Europe does not forget and neither should we.
Be proud of our history and our legacy. Teach our children to be. Teaching them that our peace came at a terrible price does not glorify war and violence. Teach them that all it takes for evil to triumph is for good people to do nothing. Teach our children that peace is the ultimate goal, but it is not always an easy one. It takes strength to stand up. And as Canadians we have long and proud history of standing up. Teach them to continue that. Especially when it is hard. Teach them to call those who do nothing out. To Stand On Guard. Our anthem is not just another song. Teach it to them.

So that never again will our nation, or any other, ever be called upon to make such a sacrifice again.
Lest we forget.

Twitter Chat tutorial and Talkin' Tuesday!

Some quick things to know to make tonight's chat easier for those not familiar, with Twitter. These are assuming you are using web based Twitter.

A) create an account. You do need one to participate. It is free and easy. Do it. lol
B) The privacy settings have to be turned off to show up in the feeds of anyone who doesn't follow you, this is especially important if you don't follow/have many followers. We want to see what you have to say!
C) Include #talknt in all of your tweets you want to be part of the chat. That lets twitter know you are part of the chat.
D) You can click on the hyperlink #talknt to go to a page that is only going to show tweets having #talknt in them.
E) To message some one specifically, or name them include the @ symbol before their handle. For example, if you were either talking about or to me you would include @caraquilts in the tweet.
F)A few basic but common short forms are RT which means retweet, there is a button to do this and it just resends the message to all of your followers. I can't think of any others right now that aren't the same as any other online ones. If you don't know, ask.
G) Have fun! I'll be posting questions through out the chat to get things going but feel free to reply to what others have to say. Think of it as being in a big room of people at a party. I'm the host but that doesn't mean you can't chat with the person next to you! And since it's all typed out don't worry about not being able to "hear" lol.

Ok, now for more complicated matters. Not really but for some maybe.
I use a non-twitter based platform for twitter, especially for chats because I find it easier. There are tons out there. It can take a few tries to find the one that works for you. I personally use Seesmic, and I use the desktop version.
I like it because I can have multiple columns going. One to see the chat, one to see tweets mentioning me, and one for my normal home stream, which shows everyone I'm following. This is not necessary but I find it easier, just saying.
The only thing I don't like is because it has some agreement with Microsoft all links will open in Internet Explorer and I haven't found a way to change it Firefox.

Tweetchat is great to use, it will add the hashtag (#talknt) for you!

You can follow me on twitter by clicking the cute birdie on my sidebar, or search me there as @caraquilts.

Any questions? Clear as mud? Let me know! And I hope to chat with you tonight!

Talkin' Tuesdays

 I hope most of you know about Talkin' Tuesday which Natalia at PieceNQuilt has been hosting for about two months every Tuesday night. Well life has come up and even though she is Super Woman/Mom extraordinaire she needs a bit of a break from hosting so I'll be taking over moderating our weekly chats.
Don't worry though, Natalia will be dropping, in and chatting whenever she can still. Note the time change from the logo, it will be starting at 9 EST, and hour earlier then before.

So make sure you sign in to twitter tomorrow night at 9pm EST, (7pmMST) for some chit chat about sewing, quilting, and whatever else comes up! Oh and prizes! There are prizes every Tuesday night during and at the end of the chat!

You can link up to RSVP anytime, including during the chat, at Talkin' Tuesday, and we can all visit each other after!

It is easy to chat. Just sign in to your twitter account and when talking with us include #talknt to the end of your post. To follow the chat you can click on the #talknt and you will go to a page where anyone who put that in their tweet will show up. There are lots of platforms to use twitter besides the web so I will post about them later. A Twitter tutorial! lol.

I promised

Another sneak peek of a project I'm working on for MBS. Here is about 1/4 of something. Yup that's all you get for now lol.

This uses Sunkissed by Sweetwater and will be available in January. I have to tell you I think this is the most beautiful line! It is soft yet vibrant. Little Bit stole the fabric at first and refused to give it back until I promised her the quilt. She actually took the pre-cut to bed!

Check out this giveaway!

There's another Go! Giveaway over on Lavender Ridge! We all want one so go over and enter for a chance!

Halloween

I know I'm a bit late but I thought I'd share our Halloween pics!
First is Shane and Little Bit doing the carving of the pumpkins at my moms.

I love how this has become their tradition. I know she'll remember that when she's older more then what they carved but how daddy always helped her, and acted the giant child with the pumpkin guts.

For trick or treating we went out to one of her little friends place in the county and they had an absolute blast! It was quite cold so they only went out for an hour or so but then they had even more fun giving out candy!

I forgot to ask her friend's mom about posting their picture so only Boo Bear here.