Hearts For Pulse Orlando

http://theorlandomodernquiltguild.blogspot.ca/2016/06/details-for-quilts-for-pulse-donations.html

I don't think I need to say anything else.

Peggy

Two New Teddy Bear Quilts

I hated to cut this fabric so I decided to just put batting and backing on it and quilt it for some teddy bear quilts.  I picked this fabric up at the Creative Festival in April in Toronto. I had some black polka dot fabric that went well with the Dalmatian dogs for the binding.  

A cute little elf

Twin elves on twin quilts.

Peggy

June 20 th 2016 what a day!!!

We were heading to Halifax today from Sydney to spend a few more days there before flying home.  The day started out a little off because I couldn't find the car keys.  We had all the suitcases down at the car ready to load them and the keys were no where to be seen.  We took the bags back upstairs and started going through my suitcase and we found them.  I have been keeping the keys because Lynda seems to lose them all the time.

We got on our way and headed for the quilt shop that was on the way to Halifax.  When we pulled in the large sign in front said that the shop was closed on Mondays from  May to August.  Their website and Facebook did not mention this.  We were a little upset after going out of our way to go there.

We started off again for Halifax and turned onto a road that we thought would take us back to the main road.  It didn't.  We continued on and went from one bad road to the next.  We were doing well until we hit a pot hole and heard a bang.  We had blown a tire on a deserted road.  We hadn't seen another car for quite awhile.  We decided to start walking and we heard a car coming.  It was a truck with a middle aged man who said he would change our tire for us.  When he started I really felt that we would never have been able to accomplish that ourselves.

He directed us to a small town called St Peter"s and to OK Tire.  Mike checked the tire and said that it could not be fixed and no one in town had a tire that would go on our car.  He could order one but it would take 24 hours at least to get a new one.  He suggested we drive back to Sydney and get Enterprise to swap out our car for a new one.  We drove on a donut tire at 80 km an hour.

Well that didn't work either.  When we got back to Enterprise in Sydney they had no vehicles and said they would order a tire and we would be on our way tomorrow.  So back to the hotel we just checked out of.  

I called home to let YKW know where I was and find out that he had fallen in the garden when he was finishing up and broke his wrist.  What else could go wrong.

It didn't take long because on Tuesday when I called to find out when we could get our tire replaced we found out that the garage forgot to order our new tire.  Enterprise said they had a vehicle returning today so we could have it and be on our way.  After 1 pm our car arrived.

We grabbed a quick lunch and were on our way to Halifax.  We finally arrived at 6 pm just in time to have dinner and pack for out flight home tomorrow.

Peggy

Cape Breton Island Day Ten and Eleven

We left Port Hawkesbury and made our way toward the Cabot Trail to take us to Sydney.  This trail leads all around Cape Breton Island up and down mountains and across rivers.  Travelling along we stopped at the small town of Mabou because we saw a church steeple.  

St Mary's Church

The inside of the church.  

Notice the tartans hanging on the columns

We drove on further and stopped at St. Joseph du Maine.  You can see how close the road is to the ocean and how the road twists and turns.

We are so high up here looking down into the valleys.

Another stop at Lakies Head.

We drove through Cape Breton Highlands National Park of Canada and down the eastern side of Cape Breton Island.  I wanted to stop at Ingonish at the Keltic Lodge because I had been there 38 years ago and I wanted Lynda to see it.  

Keltic Lodge

Bridge over Big Bras D'or

We looked down on the bridge and then after many twists and turns we drove over it and then onto Sydney.  That was one long drive.  It took us over 7 hours.  It would have been about 5 if we hadn't stopped a few times along the way.

On Sunday we decided that we should go to church.  We found one not far from us with Mass at 10 am and decided that we would have breakfast and then head over there.  We found it but couldn't find a parking lot where we could park.  The sign out front had no mass times so Lynda stopped someone on the street and she told us that this was one of the churches that had been closed.  We figured we would forget it and start out on our way to Glace Bay and Fortress Louisburg for the day.

We drove into Glace Bay and the GPS told us that we arrived at our designation.  Just around the corner was a huge Catholic Church and the sign out front said that Mass was at 11:15.  We checked our watches and it was 11:20 so we went in and Mass had just started.  

St Anne's Church at Glace Bay.

After Mass was over we went back into the church to take some pictures.  

The main altar.

There were 2 very large stained glass windows, one on either side of the church.

We continued on to Louisburg.  Lynda wanted to travel along the coast so we stopped at a few beaches.

This one had a gorgeous beach.  The sand was very firm.  The water was very cold and I ended up with wet sandals trying to put them back on and trying to get the sand off my feet.

To get to the beach you walked along the boardwalk to the pods which ended at the beach.  This way you didn't have to walk through the tall grass.  This is tick country here.

We finally got to Louisbourg National Historic Site.

We had had no lunch so we went to the bakery and had French Toast and tea.  Because it was early in the season it closed at 5 pm so we had very little time to spend here.

Everyone was dressed in period costume

The Guard at the Main Gate.

I climbed up to where the cannons were overlooking the fort.

We took a short cut back to Sydney and went for a hot tub and then dinner in the dining room downstairs.

Tomorrow we head back to Halifax for a few days.  It will take about 4 hours to get there.

Peggy

Day Nine Heading to Cape Breton Island

The sun was shining this morning when we got up but it was still cool.  By the time we had breakfast and packed up to check out of our hotel, the temperature went up to 16 C.  A nice change from 8 C yesterday.  We decided to walk around down town some more because the provincial legislature is just a few blocks from our hotel. 

Part of the Provincial Legislature.

A closer look at the war memorial.

We walked around the building instead of taking the street and came across more buildings and a sign.

1864 was the year of the Charlottetown conference when there was great discussion about the provinces joining together to become Canada.

We left downtown and got on the road again.  This time we were heading for the ferry to take us back to Nova Scotia and to Cape Breton Island.

The Ferry Coming In

View from the Ferry

A lighthouse and a beach near the ferry port.  The buildings are change houses and picnic bench enclosures.  We saw them at Basin head too.

We landed in Nova Scotia and drove to Port Hawkesbury on Cape Breton Island so that we will have a good jump on the day tomorrow when we drive the Cabot Trail around the Island.

Peggy

Day Three in Charlottetown

This morning the sun decided to shine.  We started off today driving to East Point on the Eastern side of the Island.  This is the furthest point North on the Eastern side. We were heading for the East Point Lighthouse.  

When we entered the lighthouse they said that we could climb to the top if we would like to.  So for $5 we took them up on it.  

View from the top.

There was a fishing boat out in the water.

These were the very steep stairs leading to the top.

We left East Point and when we were heading home we stopped at Basin Head Provincial Park so that we could see the beach.

The Beach

We could see a very large ship out in the water and didn't know what it was or where it was going.

The wind was really strong and it was cold, notice that I have my gloves on.

The Souris Lighthouse

As we drove into Souris we could see the ship again that we saw at Basin Head.  It was a ferry boat carrying large transport trucks and cars back and forth to Ile de Madeleine or the Magdalen  Islands.  

We watched it turn around and dock.

We then decided that it was lunch time and stopped at a cute little cafe called The Blue Fin.

Just down the road was a lobster and seafood take out that had a large parking lot right beside the ocean and the tide was going out so of course we had to walk on the ocean floor again.

It was like walking on corduroy.

I got a great picture of a mussel shell when the tide was out.

Now it was time to head back to Charlottetown.  It would take us over and hour and a half and it was now after 2 pm.  We wanted to walk around downtown and see a few of the sites there.

We found Sir John A MacDonald

The John Hamilton Grays

At the Charlottetown Conference of 1864 when confederation was being discussed there were two men called John Hamilton Gray.

We also found St Dunstan's Cathedral and the strange thing about that is that when we were children living in Toronto we went to St Dunstan's school and church.

The ice cream that is considered to be the best ice cream on the island is called Cow's.  We found the statue of "the" cow.

We enjoyed a Cow's ice cream cone even though it was freezing outside.

Tomorrow we take the ferry and head back to Nova Scotia.

Peggy

Day Two in Charlottetown

It was raining again today but we weren't going to let that stop us from enjoying our holiday.  We started off today checking out the quilt shop in Charlottetown.  It was hidden away in a small mall so we missed it the first time and thank goodness for the GPS, it took us through a residential area and back around again.  It was a great little shop with a few maritime fat quarters so I picked up about 10.  It was her 24th anniversary so I got a 24% discount which was really great.

We then headed for Green Gables the home of Anne of Green Gables the imaginary character from Lucy Maude Montgomery books.  Ann was there helping us enjoy our time.

Anne

It was hard for L M sometimes to forget that Anne was imaginary because she wrote about her so much.

Anne's room.

She told us that it was neat and that she made her room.

We left Green Gables and found a nice cafe for lunch.  We thought we would like to go to Cavandish Beach but it was a Provincial Park and we had to pay to go in just to see the beach so we turned around and headed for the town of O'Leary.

There was a quilt shop here and the owner was so nice.  The fabric was very reasonable and lots of PEI fabrics for my quilt. 

Lynda asked her what she thought we should see while we were in the area and she suggested a museum.

The Canadian Potato Museum.

Prince Edward Island is very famous for their potatoes.  They are the largest potato growing area in Canada.  The earth here is red and great for growing potatoes.

There is nothing like having your picture taken with the world's largest potato.

Tomorrow we will tour the Eastern side of the Island.

Peggy

Day Six We are off to Charlottetown

We checked out of our hotel in Truro and took the main highway heading to Charlottetown.  We noticed that just off the highway was the town of Springhill.  This is a very famous town for two reasons.  The singer Anne Murray was born in Springhill and there is a coal mine that had an explosion in 1958 killing 75 miners.  I remember hearing the news about the disaster.

We pulled off the highway and drove the 15 km to the town.  Our first stop was the Anne Murray Centre.  We went in and enjoyed Anne singing some of her popular music while we perused the exhibit.

We decided to drive on to the mine sight where there was a museum and a tour of the mine.  

We started off in the washing shed where the miners stopped off before they went home to wash the coal dust off them selves and leave their clothes so that they wouldn't take the coal dust home with them.

Each miner had his own hanger where he hung his things.

This was hanging on the wall in the washshed.

In the next shed miners got their lamps and the rest of their gear.  They carried about 30 pounds of it.  We had to put on hard hats to go down into the mine.  The ceiling was low in areas and we had to duck so we wouldn't hit our heads and the hats came in handy.

The main entrance to the mine is closed and there is a recreation center now build there but the town has opened up this entrance so that the public can go down and experience what the miners went through every day.  

The shaft has been brought up to today's safety standards so that there would be no more accidents.  Fresh air is piped in so that there is no chance of methane gas.  

We were 300 feet underground.

It was quite an experience walking down making sure we didn't bang our heads or slip on the wet ground.  The main part of the mine is now filled with water and the bodies will never be recovered.

We left Springhill after lunch and headed for the Confederation Bridge that connects Prince Edward Island to the mainland of New Brunswick.  So today we have been in 3 provinces.

The Confederation Bridge.

Once we go to the Island we decided that our next stop was a quilt shop.  It was called Bargain Fabric Shop but there weren't many bargains.  I was looking for marine fabric so that it would be from the area and it was $15 a meter, so I left it behind and hope that I can buy some at the next stop.

We found our hotel and settled in for the night and will start some sightseeing tomorrow.

Peggy