Holiday

I am surprised at how many people like snow or would like to have some! I shouldn't be because I am one of them. Ours has all melted though, so we get a bit more time without heavy winter clothes.
We are leaving for California again for a couple of weeks and I won't be near the computer so I won't be updating my blog. It's probably a good thing to have a computer break once in awhile. I'll see you all when we get back.

Quilting Weather

When I looked out the window this morning, this is what I saw. That is real quilting weather! There is not enough snow yet to look beautiful and pristine. There is no telling if it is here to stay but it certainly could be.


Simba was not keen to sit in all that wet, cold stuff so he got his treat without having to sit and be good. Well, he's usually good anyway so it was not a problem.

Green Fabrics

Today I have been making liners for crates to transport paintings. I used second hand bumper pads from cribs (cots for my Australian friends) and old blankets or bedspreads from the thrift shop. If you would like to see some of the paintings that will go into the crates you can go to Star Center Art


On a more quilty note, here are the green fabrics I have collected or dyed. On our recent trip to California I decided that as souveniers I would collect green fat quarters. We didn't stop at all that many quilt stores but I did get some. The left row is fabrics that I have dyed that I thought might fit. There are also a couple of thrift shop pieces and a bit of green left over from Summer's quilt.

New Dyes

Today I tried out some dyes that I have had for awhile but never used. The brown one is called Bronze and I really like the organic looking pattern that happened. The other is called Antique Gold but it looks like yellow to me. I guess that is what gold is, really. I might try to make the bronze a bit more intense the next time but I like it a lot as a neutral maybe with my green collection.
I have only one side to go on the Wonky Log Cabin and then the binding is on. I'll call it finished even though I haven't even made the label yet, let alone sewn it on.

Wonky Quilting

I have finished quilting the Wonky Log Cabin. It's a good thing the blocks are wonky because the quilting is certainly wonky. I marked the star on the front but the pattern was so busy that I couldn't see my marks properly. After the first round I quilted it from the back. In the squares between the points of the stars I used a pattern by Keryn Emmerson from her book Beautiful Quilts as you Go. The quilting is moderately successful but a bit lumpy in the middle. Luckily the quilting is mostly hidden by the wild colors on the front of the quilt. I have cut the binding but still have to sew the pieces together, iron it and sew it on. The end is in sight!

Clothespin Bag

Nines at Prairie Quilts asked to see my clothespin bag. Here is a picture of it with the approximate measurements. It is really like a double layered apron. My mother always had one so I made my first one soon after I got married. I used it for years and when it wore out I made this one. This one has velcro on the ties but I'm not sure I like that as well as regular ties. I have no idea where the pattern originally came from. I have never seen another one like it but I would be lost without it.
We had our first bit of snow last night but it is nearly all melted now. I don't think winter is here to stay quite yet.

Thanksgiving

I forgot to take a picture of the table loaded for Thanksgiving again. My excuse is that there were 7 ravenous teenagers (Well,6, because Micha is only 9, but she was ravenous too) filling the kitchen. I am just lucky I didn't lose a finger or two while getting the food on the table. They were barely able to wait until all the food was laid out. We eat buffet style,, so no fancy table settings.

Micha lost two teeth in the evening. That must be a record, in our family anyway. I think they had been loose for awhile so it was nice to get them out.




Finally, here is a picture of my laundry area. Like Darcie, I don't have a "room". This is in the back entry. I didn't get around to cleaning much. The bottles of water are there because we get our water from a well and don't trust it for drinking. I hate the wall color. We have a darkish antique brown in the kitchen. My daughter and I thought we'd be clever and mix in some white to lighten it a bit for the entry and save ourselves a trip to town for more paint. It turned out sort of pink but we went ahead with it anyway. I will repaint it some time. We also have an upright freezer in there and a lot of junk on the shelves. The stuff in the dryer is waiting to go out to the studio. I want to re-cover the pillow and I have a bag with thread there too. If I put things there I remember to take them out because that is the door we use going to the studio. The thing hanging by the door is a clothes pin bag. It looks like an apron but it has pockets to keep cloths pins. I have a clothes line out in back on the edge of the deck. I love the smell of sheets dried outside so I use the clothes line as long as I can until it gets so cold that they freeze while you are trying to hang them up. Then there is a risk of breaking the corners off and wrecking them. They do smell great though.

Another New Pincushion

I admired a pincushion on Katja's blog and she kindly sent me the pattern. I made the dark one and then, unable to stop at one, I made the other one. The first one is done in metric and for the second one I switched to inches so I could use my quilting rulers and squares. Lucky Canadians, we have both types of measuremnts on most of our rulers and tape measures (but usually not on quilting tools for some reason. I guess there would be just too many numbers and it would get confusing.) so it was easy to switch. I did a better job on the second one. I love this pincushion for my hand quilting because it has room for scissors, thimble, thread, etc. Thanks, Katja, for sending me the pattern.

Red and White Blocks

Here are three red and white blocks that I am sending to Clare in France for her quilt for Leukemia. Nothing very fancy but hopefully she will be able to incorporate them somehow.
Hopefully, they will be on their way today because I have to go to town to shop for Thanksgiving dinner. We had turkey a couple of weeks ago so on Sunday we will have a ham and I am working on a Jamaican theme to go with it. Maybe I will remember to take a picture this time.

Yin Yang Bag

I took a break from nine patches today and made this bag. It is from a pattern by Jamie Kalvestran. I just used whatever pieces I had around and it turns out to look a bit Christmassy so I guess I am getting ahead of the season.
I am a bit stalled on the nine patch quilt until I get some light fabric for the sashing. I tried marking the wonky log cabin. I think I will outline the star and then quilt it from the back with one star inside the other getting smaller. Then I might meander the dark areas outside the star. I need to get some thread to match the backing though, and decide what to do on the border, so stalled on that one too.
Maybe it's just too nice outside to be in the studio quilting. I guess it's time to make the dog happy and go for a walk.

More Nine Patches

Thanks to all the comments on my last blog, the snarky chicken is completely "cowed" and that is not easy for a chicken!



I have probably finished all the nine patches I will do for this quilt. I now have to decide how to do the sashing. THe one in the book has a darker strip between two lighter ones. I am thinking of making the light strips all the same and possibly the darker ones as well. I have to buy some fabric for the light strips. I have none on hand that really works. Once I have this much sewn together I will know if I need more nine patches. I think I will have a fairly wide border and have been toying with the idea of some letters on the border but not sure what they should say.




And these are some fabrics I dyed a couple of days ago. When we went to California I bought some fabric at Dharma Trading Company. I always go to their web site so it was thrilling to actually go to their store. I have never seen so much white stuff anywhere in one place. From their web site I was expecting a colourful store but when you think of it, white makes sense. All the colour is added at home. The fabric I bought dyed beautifully and I wish I had been able to buy more of it, especially considering that cotton costs more than twice as much here in Canada. Unfortunately, the car was packed to the roof with no room for a bolt of cotton. I will definitely go back there when we are in the area again.

Hand Quilting Continued

Here is the first motif hand quilted on my Double Irish Chain. This is the first of 20 so it is going to take awhile. The green border fabric is very hard to quilt through so it took me a long time to do the first row. The chicken is looking on in horror at the poor quality of my stitches. Maybe its not a maveric chicken. Maybe it belongs to the quilt police!