Vacation week !

Well, I'm not so sure I should title this post "vacation".  I had something on the go every single day, what with car/bank/personal appointments, parents stuff,  a couple of movies, a Sew What's gathering for a bit of fun, and Spring cleaning =  I was soooooo busy this past week it was insane!
The week started off with the mater, then the nephew came over and we put together my patio - YEAH! The weather was wonderful all week but too hot and too noisy to sit outside for most of it :(. None-the-less I did manage to finish my book, The General Theory of Oblivion.
The condo corp got a complete redo of our drives/parking lots so the week was filled with dump trucks, back hoes and steam rollers noisily rumbling by the house all day long! Since I'm on the board of directors this also meant several emails to stay on top of things making sure everything was being done as we wanted. It also meant the whole complex had to park on the street for the week. Not fun having all week to walk uphill a block or more to get to the car  :( . I started and almost completed my spring cleaning - so I can return to work with a sense of accomplishment - yeah!!

Holiday Monday, Victoria Day, was spent with a friend at the Alisa Craig Quilt festival. This year the quilts were from Latvia! This fabulous Klimt-like quilt greeted us at the door  - one of my favourite artists!

This was followed by a lovely stained glass poppies, how apropos ... this year we had a speaker and workshop on the stained glass technique!

This abstract woman was lovely and used vintage doilies and other lace bits in her skirt.

 It appeared there were a couple of  themes in this show, the use of vintage lace, the use of denim, and portrait quilts. I thought this denim portrait quilt of a woman was tremendous. I so admire the fabric artists that can do this kind of work, and working in denim isn't easy!

The B&W portrait quilts were of "famous" Latvian poet/writers, also good examples of fabric portraits!

This Monet like work was Ann's favourite with very soft colours,  while I rather like this waltzing quilt for it's movement and scrappy background!





On the home front I managed to get 2 more mug rugs completed!!

On the left a Haida inspired mug rug for a colleague from out west who loves Haida art and has several pieces in her office, so I thought this fabric would suit her perfectly!

The musical mug rug is for a colleague whose life revolves around music. I am so enjoying the process of finding fabrics and making a themed mug rug for each person :).



And to end off my "vacation" week mater duty again then I made a birthday cake from my b-i-l's B-day celebration today.

Phew ! I'll be glad to get back to work!! No word/phrase of the week for this week,

TTFN

Busy May

Well, May is only half over but it's been busy busy busy. I've had several health care appointments which took considerable prep time as well as time off work. One more to go then a week's vacation. Looking forward to the week off, just so I can sleep in, although almost every day is booked with appointments ! Yikes!! I'm feeling rather exhausted and did not advocate for myself as well as I should have at the various appointments. Disappointed but what can you do. Consequently I've not got much sewing done. It's spring and I'm trying to get my cleaning started/done so that  has taken priority.
Started a new project ... I'm hoping to retire soon and have decided to make mug rugs for all my colleagues at work as my retirement gift to them! I managed to get these 3 mug rugs done ...

Golf balls! I have 2 work colleagues who are golfers so I'll be making a second one of these.

My boss is a real foodie. In his previous job he managed the Grad club on campus and organized all the food. For us he has organized our egg club - we get farm fresh organic free range eggs every week!

And lastly postcards for my colleague who likes to travel! Definitely having fun thinking up appropriate patterns to match each person's personality.
Word for the week:

Skeirmorphism  - the design concept of making items represented resemble their real-world counterparts. Skeuomorphism is commonly used in many design fields, including user interface (UI) and Web design, architecture, ceramics and interior design.

TTFN

Dinnertime!

So last week's gathering of the Sew What's was a dinner party!  Above is our hostess and her partner.

John, our chef, spent several of his younger years in Indonesia and likes to cook, so he treated us all to a fabulous Indonesian dinner! Here are some of the delicious foods John made. Please don't ask the names of these dishes I was too interested in eating them and forgot to ask :)

Of course we had a lovely time chatting before and after dinner. L-R here's Cynthia M-R, June P and Mibs B. Cynthia M-R is one of our founding members and this was her last night with us as she will be moving permanently to the east coast. She will be missed.

At the other end of the room is Susan VanA, Edith W and Pat F. Sorry, I missed getting a pic of Elaine T who also attended this lovely evening.

And last but not least here's Lu M and Ann R. Not everyone was able to come out for this evening of fun, but we were a good crowd anyway. June made the suggestion we have an afternoon Tea party soon. What fun! Still no quilting to show you, have been busy collecting Mug Rug patterns - stay tuned!
Word for this week:

Badinage - humorous or witty conversation, that which we enjoyed this past week!

TTFN