I Can Do It!

I can do it! I know it kinda silly, especially to the more empowered members of our sex, but I'm rather proud of myself!!! Two weeks ago I manage to add air to the front tire of my car, this week I managed to open the hood and add much needed washer fluid. Ok, ok, I still haven't pumped gas yet - I guess that will be my next milestone, and yes, I needed help opening the jug of washer fluid, but none-the-less progress is being made! Woohoo!

Another woohoo - I have a partner for a challenge. We've challenged each other to complete last year's Bunny Hill A Tisket A Tasket basket BOM. I'm already behind, my partner Christine R was working on block one at last Thursday's group, so I have to hurry up and get the first two completed by April 1st while she only needs to complete one. I think I'll suggest we do another two in April to bring us on track with the "block-o-month".
I love applique, so this shouldn't be too much of a problem for me. However it does force me to work on two projects at the same time. Speaking of which, the Country Vegetables are almost complete. One block to go for the applique then the embroidery.... stay tuned! Did I show-n-brag about my latest acquisitions at the Quilt store? All but the batik at the bottom are Robyn Pandolph's newest Canadian Cottage line. Very pretty.

And lastly, here's the pile of vintage purses, gloves and hats ready and waiting for the antiques dealer to come. Wish me luck, hope she interested in all of it and takes it all away. No, it's not my entire collection, but a substantial portion. Downsizing is inevitable and cleansing.
TTYL

Achoo

ACHOO! I've got a bad one .... boohoo for me. I'm down but not out for the count! Took two days off work, then felt guilty and bored so made the mistake of going in on Friday. Got to hear Debbie Travis speak at this year's Staff and Leaders Conference. Very entertaining, and yes worthwhile even for a sickie!                                                              Went to an antique show a couple of weeks ago with a friend at a local shopping mall. There was a booth with vintage jewellery, hats and gloves and stuff and I half jokingly asked her if she also bought stuff. She didn't have a card but wrote her contact info down for me, then came after me to say she also made housecalls. Hmmmmm, got me thinking this might be an opportunity to rid myself of some of my "collections". So, not being one who can sit still for too long .... yesterday I went through my vintage linens, corde purses, gloves, hats etc. The linens mainly consist of vintage cotton/linen hand towels, doilies and hankies. The corde purses, about 35, were from a collection I out together locally and displayed in my last apt. The gloves, also about 35, I got by chance at a local auction. They were contained in a "quilt block" bag and I thought I was bidding on a bag of quilt blocks. To my surprise it was full of green and yellow and pink and white and black gloves from the 50s and 60s! There even was a lovely pink pamphlet describing glove etiquette!

I guess I have the spring cleaning bug a bit early ... last weekend I went through my closets and pulled out 2 bags of old clothes I think need to be retired. That's all for now from this sickie. Hope you're keeping well?

Argh!!!

 Argh! I've come down with some sort of respiratory something ... So am well into Cold FX therapy .... here's hoping it stays off the worst of it. So .... last weekend while I was still feeling human I went out to the local quilt Fabric shop were I had a gift certificate (thank you to sister and b-i-l). With no particular project in mind .... I indulged in a half meter each of 10 of Robyn Pandolph's Canadian Cottage Challenge fabrics. Who knows if I'll get a project completed in time for the competition, but I fell in love with the fabric (my kinda colours - all in those country cabbage rose style - and with a Canadian theme to boot!) I also scored  a interesting thread container ... to match the green vintage styled wicker and wood sewing box I won at their store as a door prize. Woohoo!

So, here's a picture of the squares I was preparing for my next project - remember the last post ? Well, I decided the instructions were stupid (some patterns take the long road ) and I wasn't going to cut 108 1 1/2" squares in three different shades of blue ... instead I would cut 1 1/2" strips of three shades of blue in assorted fabrics and sew the strips together then cut into 1 1/2" strips. OK, this is good patchwork technique and would have worked just fine .... except ... being a visual personI then followed the pattern's picture instead of reading the instuctions .... see mess on the left! my patches did not match up in the corners and I was really po'd. 

So, the remainder of the week was spent unsewing those borders ..... I spent Saturday afternoon repairing the damage caused by pattern writers who don't pay attention to the accuracy of their visuals - tres important for all us visual people!!!! Needless to say, my borders are now closer to perfection and I am happier. LESSON learned? There are still sewing/quilting pattern writers who think the world remains controlled by text dominated patterns and are not yet politically sensitive enough to those who are visually dominated. HELLO-  wake up pattern writers!

Ah well, the world's not perfect - yet - but maybe someday (HA Ha ha). Below is the finally version with their respective interfacing overlay. I use the overlay to help me with the placement of the applique pieces - a wee trick I learned from one of my many quilting friends!

Wish me luck!
TTYL

Winter Projects

Shhh! Don't say anything. When this project is done it will be a birthday gift to mother for her Kitchen. I've had this pattern kicking around for quite a while and finally getting a chance to work on it! - Yeah! A bit of patchwork, a bit of applique and even a bit of embroidery. The pattern calls for the lettering to be done in satin stitch, but I might just do it by hand. I'm hoping to machine quilt it now that I've completed a course on machine quilting. Anyway, her B-day isn't til June so I've got lots of time...

So, January is over and I realized I hadn't begun the "laying out the quilts" for this year. So, while rooting around in my linen closet I discovered one more quilt I hadn't inventoried last year! This one was made by my maternal grandmother Lilian Grace Boyter and her mother-in-law Mary-Jane Boyter, we think it was made sometime in the early 1950s and was definitely made from men's wear wool samples. My mother's brother worked in a fine men's wear store for his first job and brought home all the sample squares of wool intended for men's suits. So, being enterprising women Grandma and Great Grandma made a quilt! In my memory this was always in the trunk of father's car and was know as the car quilt. It's backed in light grey cotton and nicely hand quilted in the Baptist fan pattern. Poor thing has had a hard life, it was used to wrap whatever cargo father had in his trunk and likely never washed much. None-the-less this utility quilt is part of family history and loved for what it represents.

I was given a new crock pot over the holidays so decided this week to attempt to make soup. Now, I readily admit to not being domestic .... at all .... so attempt #1 was an inevitable disaster. Don't ask, I know you're wondering how on earth someone can screw up making soup ... suffice it to say, I now know at least two important things when making soup and will employ these lessons in attempt #2. 

Wish me luck!!!!

TTFN