My Blog List

Sunday, October 26, 2014

Good Morning!

The sun was shining, briefly, so I snapped this pic of the view from my kitchen door. :). We are enjoying some lovely Fall weather and I am feeling thankful as we all know that the cold weather is just around the corner :(.
I was feeling rather punk towards the end of the week and convinced myself I was getting the cold which has made the rounds in my office, so stayed home from work on Friday. After sleeping a good part of the morning away I got ambitious and went into the sewing room.
I got the last row of blocks done, the rows put together and the top is all done. The borders are ready to be attached, but now I have to make a decision. I think it needs a flange separator between the quilt top and the border. Green or pink or blue ? hmmmm, what to do ....
Did I tell you of my excursion into Internet shopping? Well, I normally choose to support my bricks & mortar quilt shops and refrain from shopping online. None-the-less, I have not been able to find an acrylic 1" honeycomb template for my Lucy Boston POTC. Grrrr, so last week I finally succumbed and ordered it online from Paper Pieces. Well, it was easy! fast and rather painless! Apart from Mastercard denying my purchase (at first, why I don't know) I now proudly possess the necessary template!!
One step closer to getting started on this project ..... wait for it :)
TTFN

Monday, October 20, 2014

Quilt Show!


So last week I managed a quick trip to the local Value Village way out at the south end of the city. I was hoping to find some nice wool sweater (it was a grey rainy chilly day), but instead came away with this prize!! A lovely Limoges cake plate for $5, my bargain of the week :) Not quite the same as my mother's pattern, but close.
I've been pluggin away and have the blocks for 3 rows sewn on the baby Kalidescope. Hoping to get the remaining rows done today - maybe .... This one is going together rather nicely - so far.

Not to tease you any longer here are a few pics from my guild's quilt show this past weekend.

Now before anyone gets upset, I did not take a picture of every quilt, just ones that piqued my fancy . This is my blog and my personal opinion only, NOT a comment on your workmanship or creativity, OK?

Second, (and this is a CYA statement) I am hoping no one takes offense at my posting pics of their quilts. I've read on some other blogs where some bloggers have been vilified by their quilt colleagues for posting pics from their quilt show. Really? How silly, you put it on display in a public quilt show so what's the problem?


Anyway, I'm going to risk it as I see many of my colleagues posting pics on FB - so there!

Third,  because I was somewhat rushed (I had mother with me and she was waiting in the tearoom) I did not take a picture of the labels, so sorry,  no attributions:(.

I am hoping everyone enjoys this mini review of  our Road to  Friendship 2014 LFQG quilt show!


So much talent and so much variety ! I was very pleased to see so many large
quilts and so much colour! And even better, there were some with hand quilting ! GASP, yes, I said hand quilted!! The double wedding ring on the left was hand quilted by local Mennonite ladies. Two of my quilts were hand quilted (btw) and I do believe we  hand quilters should get special recognition now (blatantly biased opinion there). Not to put down all the marvelous machine quilters out there, but hand quilting is also a skill and one that is fast becoming a lost art :(.

Love this  pattern, especially in the Fall, one that is on my never ending "got to make" list. Geeze, that list just keeps getting longer and longer, lol! Also love this Ying/Yang (think that's what it's called) pattern on the right. I think this was a workshop last year. Unfortunately I don't get out to as many workshops as I would like, full time work does get in the way. Dragging my machine and all the other "stuff" you need for a workshop is such a hassle :(.




Speaking of fall , love the falling leaves here! I think I have this pattern tucked away somewhere, hmmmmmm.

Had enough yet? Want more ??

Always like stars, and I thought this
setting was very creative.  They definitely twinkle :)




Thought I'd show you a couple of our "modern quilts" - we're not all
old fogies, some of us keep up with the trends ! Isn't this elephant just the cutest ?

And, another leaf pattern, also very cute. I must have an affinity for leaves - or maybe it's just the season.





  Owls  are always cute, thought this was another very creative setting. Lucky baby and lucky new mother who receive this one.
Speaking of creativity I love it when you see someone create a beautiful quilt from no pattern/their own design! My "quilt buddy" is exceptionally good at this, and is also an colourist par excellent!




It was really hard to get a good pic of some of the really large quilts, 
but I couldn't resist with this one, who could? A pink Hexie quilt!! Gorgeous!

This star wall hanging was/is stunning. Black as a background
always works for me and obviously for this talented quilter!



And yet another bright star quilt! Nice colours, nice setting - great quilt !





and finally
Love this one, not a tough pattern, but great colours!!

Well done and a big KUDOS to all my quilting colleagues in LFQG. Hope you enjoyed this mini review of our Road to  Friendship 2014 quilt show.

TTFN


Monday, October 13, 2014

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Wasn't it a glorious holiday weekend? .... Wow. Started out with a nice drive in the country to a small local town with one of my quilting friends and a wander through an antique store. Nice store, got lost a couple of times (good sign) and to my amazement I "found" a framed temple rubbing from Thailand. So what you say? well, in my family it has been the topic of conversation for a couple of decades "what ever happened to those temple rubbings from Thailand we made?" Well I found one!!, I'm pretty sure it was one of ours, framed and everything, cheap too. Did I buy it back ? Noooooooo. Why you ask ? probably because I took a good look at it, guess the cultural significance is lost on me now so it's now just a "souvenir".
My sister and hubby normally cook the family Turkey, but they're in Barcelona right now. So, Grandma and I picked up "the boys" and we went out for Turkey! Boy, was that place packed!! Instead I'm baking up some Pumpkin bread for next week's tea breaks @ work. Yummmmm, house smells wonderful! Next is chicken soup of my lunches :).
Having 4 days off work sure makes a difference. Got my sewing machine back from Coolens (sewing machine wizard), cost a bit but it purrs like a kitten - yeah! Bad news is he thinks my walking foot is pretty much caput :( so guess I'm lucky that the walking foot for my Kenmore works on both machines. The local Husky store wants $150 for a new one! Yikes!! Once the chores were done I spent some time in the sewing room getting a new project started - another baby quilt.
That's an Eleanor Burns Kaleidoscope in a Day book in the background. I'll probably not follow her method for construction, but appreciate the specialty ruler I got from one of the guild ladies, and the helpful hints Eleanor has.
Spent several hours playing with possibilities. I had this lovely blue fabric with pretty little girl dresses on it. Over the last few 50% off sales I have manged to pick up various fabrics which will go well with this, including  a nice pink with small teddy bears, a check with different coloured stars, a white with ABCs in various colours and the perfect green (not a solid, but looks like it). Trouble is the green is dominating the "look" when I really wanted the blue to be the focus fabric. Hmmmmm, must play some more .....
Here it is all laid out on my design wall. The green still dominates, but not totally, and I've been told that "modern"mothers don't like pink or blue for babies now, so guess green is OK.  Still deciding on what to do in the corners ? Add the green or use the pink, what do you think? Now all I have to do is get it all sewn up and quilt it. Wish me luck, the baby is due late November/early December!
Next weekend is our Quilt show ...
So I spent some time putting on hanging sleeves and labels. Not too much from me for this show. Should be a great show, please come out if you can .... Oakridge Presbyterian Church, 970 Oxford St W, London, ON.

TTFN