New Appliances

I thought I'd just brag a bit about our new appliances. The stove is a Bosch convection, self-cleaning oven and ceramic top. I was a bit leary of the ceramic top because I love my cast iron frying pan and dutch oven. I can still use the dutch oven in the oven but the frying pan has found a new home. Of course my old cookware didn't work either because the bottoms are not flat so I got a Cuisinart set.




















The dishwasher is a Bosch too, which we could never have afforded except that they had a second hand one there. They do the repairs in the shop on site so we thought we could take a chance. We have a week to change our minds on it. We have hard well water, so dishwashers tend to not last very long even with our water softener. We have to get an intake hose and some couplings before we can install it.

More Wonky Work

I have been very lax about posting this week. We have been searching for a new stove and dishwasher and finally got them today. The dishwasher is not hooked up yet but the stove is wonderful.




I got some more fabric in Morden but in the end, after auditioning both of them, I still went with the polka dots in the first border of black and white. I lined it with iron-on interfacing to make it a bit stronger. I will use one of the new fabrics in the next black and white border. The checkers will look great on a cityscape if I make one.
Today I put the dotted border on and the trees on three sides. I still need one more tree. I thought I had enough but when you sew them together the strip gets shorter. Then it will be the triangle border but I have to decide whether the next black and white border will go between thetrees and triangles or after the triangles. In the picture I have it between the trees and triangles but now I am thinking it might be better on the other side of the triangles.

Inspiration

These pages are from the Chinese books I mentioned yesterday. They could be the inspiration for my next quilt. I especially like the city on the right. Maybe my checkerboard fabric will get used soon. I think it would look great around something like this.

Trees are Done!

Whew! I am pretty tired of doing trees but I think I have enough to go around the quilt. This is turning out to be a medallion type quilt. I have pretty well decided to retire the checkered piece to the Parts Department for later use, but it will stay in place until I find something I like better. Today I finished the triangle border, which took almost no time. They are very fast if you string piece them and you can be as sloppy as you want as long as they cover the base rectangle,because they are all supposed to be slightly different sizes. Lol. My type of quilting! Then I did a lot more trees. I got so tired of all the tiny piecing that I made some from fussy cut prints and they turned out quite well. The center bottom one on the pink and blue background is a bit square for my taste but I like the way it looks like a shadow on the ground. I ran out of the darker pink so I had to use a lighter piece. I want to try it with a water looking piece eventually. That's the great thing about this kind of piecing. You discover all sorts of things by accident.
I still have to arrange the trees and try to get them all the same height so I can make them into a border. I also noticed when I looked at the photo, that part of the pink triangle border is on upside down. Good thing it's only pinned to the design wall.

More Village

First, for a bit of a change, here are a few pages from some art books from China. Their designs are fantastic. If I were into applique I would use some for sure, at least as a starting point. Maybe I will do some fusing using some of their ideas. There are several pages of borders too that are very interesting. Maybe I will take more photos tomorrow.



Today I made some checker strips and sewed them onto the village but now I am not so sure about it. The comment I got was that it changed it from a jungle look to more of an urban look. I think that is right so the checks may have to find a different home. I had exactly enough fabric and in fact, the last two black squares had to be pieced. I am planning to back the dotted fabric with interfacing so I can use it. I really like that fabric. So, it may go where the checks are or if I go to town I might look for something that appeals to me more. Luckily, it's not time wasted because you can never have too much in your parts department. I really like the looks of the triangles on the pinkish fabric so I will make some more of that and do a lot more trees.

Still in the Village

I'm sure you are all getting tired of the endless pictures of my village but that is all I am working on right now. I have made lots more trees and tried the triangle border from Freddy and Gwen's book. It is easy to do and I quite like the look of it. I don't think I will be able to use the black and white polkadot fabric, much as I like it. It is quite flimsy and almost transparent. I will look for some real quilting fabric like that. Black and whites are a bit hard to find but I am sure if I look I will find something. I really like the dots but any bold geometric pattern will do. I think it will have to be quite strong to stand up to the colors of the village.
I am thinking that I will Quilt as You Go on this one. I want to do some interesting quilitng on the houses that would be very difficult on a whole quilt. Once I get the right black and white I will start quilting the center pannel.
I still haven't settled on what words I want to use. Any suggestions would be welcome.
It's still great quilting weather here. In other words freezing cold and windy. The sun is shining brightly though so we are feeling quite cheerful about it.

In the Village

Here is our forecast for today.
Periods of light snow and blowing snow. Wind north 40 km/h gusting to 60. Temperature falling to minus 23 this afternoon. Wind chill minus 37.
And here is the view out the studio door. It doesn't show how cold it really is.


However the cold weather outside makes my jungle village look even warmer and cosier. I think the houses may be finished and about half the trees. The trees are quite time-consuming to make but it's really fun to see how they will turn out.

Parts Department

I made more trees for the forest. The spruce looking trees are from Freddy and Gwen's book. The round ones are from a paper piecing pattern I saw in a quilting magazine but I didn't paper piece them. I just free formed them and then cut them into rectangles at the end. I like the green one in the middle the best,probably because of the way the grass turned out. The bottom orange one is a bit square looking for my taste. I want to make some more that are more wonky, now that I know how to make them.
We took a drive to Killarney (yes, there is a Killarney here in Manitoba, and most of my kids live in Miami, Manitoba) and there I got some black and white fabric. It is in the zig zag piece. The dots were in my stash. I prefer the dots and I'll be looking for some stripes in black and white too. I took the pastels off the design wall but they are not forgotten. I am thinking of a medallion style with the houses in the middle surrounded by the trees. I'm not sure if the baskets will get used on this one. I am trying to come up with a quotation to do in wonky letters. So far I have thought of "In the jungle, the quiet jungle, the lion sleeps tonight." I'm not sure how I would arrange that and at first I thought that it wouldn't do because there is no lion in the picture. Then I realized it is because he is sleeping! Of course, in the unlikely event of finding sleeping lion fabric, I would make a house for him. Unless I can figure out how to make one from fabric. Stay tuned.

Granddaughters Again

I had so many nice comments about our Granddaughters that I thought I had better post a few more pictures. They stayed two days and they were fun-filled. (Both the days and the girls!)

Notice the safety wiener sticks. We saw them in a store a couple of years ago and bought several. The points face inward so there is no chance of stabbing anyone by accident.What' s a wiener roast without the marshmallows? We had a contest to see who could roast the perfect one. Of course, the grandparent judges had to do a taste test. Good thing I didn't put healthy eating as one of my New Year's Resolutions.

They made a bump half way down so they could do some jumping. By the end of the day they were able to jump over it without falling down some of the time.

Yesterday I spent most of the day cleaning my studio. It was not a mess left by the girls. They are pretty good at cleaning up. No, it was a huge mess of fabric and dust that was all of my own making. Today I was able to work a bit more on quilting the butterflies. I have decided to do half orange and half blue on the back. I promise not to point it out to anyone as a mistake.


And finally, here is my "parts department" as recommended by Freddy and Gwen. I have rounded up all the stray blocks I could find to add to the ones I am making. I am pretty sure the pastel looking ones will end up back in the drawer, but you never know. I can't imagine how I will put all these together,but maybe if I invest in some black and white fabric and chose a "neutral" like red, it will be possible. It will be fun trying, even if the results end up being a bit strange.

First You Play...

First you play. So the girls went cross country skiing. Luckily our hill is not very steep where they were. Hard to go up, but easy to come down. I won't post the one where they have all fallen down!



Then you work. First an art lesson from Grandpa.

Then sewing time. What a great method of stash busting!


Ariana made a house which she plans to sew into a bag.



Summer made a bag.


Micha is working on polar fleece slippers. Guaranteed to fit.


Sacha made a pillow.
This evening we are planning a wiener roast so there should be more pictures tomorrow.

New House

I have had a lot of help from bloggers on the mistake that I wrote about yesterday. The most common suggestion, which I will probably do, is to make more blue patches, or even many colors to make it look like it is a design thing. Great idea! Much better than ripping out.
On the New Year's Resolution front, aside from the general eat better, exercise more, lose weight, etc. which everyone makes and almost no one keeps, my resolution is one of Freddy Moran's rules. Never point out your mistakes. It is a bad habit I have. Totally not necessary or useful. The exception to that rule for me will be on my blog. There I get helpful advice, as in yesterday's post.



Meanwhile, I have made one new house and several trees for my forest. What can be more fun than that?

First Mistake of 2007

Well, I didn't make it very far into 2007 before making my first big mistake! Sheesh! I would have liked at least a month. I have been quilting the butterflies with free motion. This morning I thought I would get a good start on the new year and used up one whole bobbin. When I took the quilt off the machine so I could refill the bobbin, I realized that I had forgotten that I was using orange on the bottom. I had sewn it with blue on the bobbin which looked ok but different. Yikes. It is not hugely obvious and will be a horror to undo but I will probably have to undo it anyway. I may finish the rest of the FMQ and then see if I have the courage to rip out the blue section. I am not a fan of ripping out at all.


So I went back and did another house and some more "parts" from my new book. There are no such things as mistakes with that method! Right up my alley.

More Blocks

Here are a few more blocks I've made from my new quilting book. I love their way of making tons of blocks and then having fun putting them together. That's what I did with Micha's quilt and it was really a blast and it turned out fine. I also like Freddy Moran's theory that you can't have too much colour. This quilt will be a real test of that.



The close up of the two houses shows how the animals fit into the houses. The horse had an orange roof but it was too small so I ripped it off and will use it on a smaller house. The houses are getting a bit more wonky but I want to take it even further.

Snow

Yesterday and last night we had about a foot and a half of nice, soft, fluffy, white snow. We went for a walk and Simba was almost out of sight in it. He was totally enjoying it. In fact , in the morning when I went out on the deck to get something, he actually grabbed my hand in his mouth and tried to coax me out for a walk. It was so funny. I just had to get dressed properly and go.



Here is a picture of our table on the deck with it's layer of snow. It looks just like a big white cake. I should put a candle in it. I'm not sure why the picture turned out so blue but you can see the effect anyway.

Pamphlet Hanger Done

I finished the Pamphlet Hanger this morning and already I can see things I would do differently. Mainly, I would put some sort of heavier backing on it. It puckered a bit when I sewed on the pockets and I think it generally just looks a bit flimsy. It may look better when it is filled with pamphlets. I would sew the binding to the back and topstitch it down on the front. It would look just as good and save a lot of time. I kept forgetting that it was not a quilt and that no one would ever see the back. I put on a bottom hanging sleeve in case it buckles when it's full. Still, I really like the look of it and it should brighten up Christine's office. I didn't have any dowling to put in the sleeve so in the photo it's just pinned to my design wall.

Once that was done, inspired by my new quilting book and recalling Tonya's wonky houses, I used some of the jungle print from the hanger to make these houses. I think the rest of them will be more wonky though. My feeling is, the wonkier the better. I might also remove the grass from the monkey house and put in the vine fabric with a dark path like the hippo has. I also don't like the way the sky comes only to the edge of the roof but that might have to stay. If it were more wonky that area would look better. I do love how the fabric made the door for the monkey and he is standing in front of his house. There are several more animals in the fabric so there will be more houses.

A Book Adventure

When we went to California, I bought Rachel's Holiday by Marian Keyes to read on our trip. Unfortunately, the last 40 pages or so were missing. Instead it started over. I brought the book back to the bookstore where I bought it. They replaced it with a different copy, and found another faulty one on their shelves in the process. I finished it and passed it to Cherie to read. Her comment was that it was a great book but it started on page 41. This one had the beginning missing. Yesterday we went to Winnipeg so I took it back to the bookstore. They were happy to replace it but had no copies at that location. I opted for a credit because I had already read the book. Instead I bought this book!!!!



I have only read part of it but just looking at their sample quilts is inspiring! And I love their idea of a Border Patrol to go along with the Quilt Police. I am about to start a new quilt and I know they will be an inspiration. Now I am off to read some more of it before I head out to the studio.

Whew!

Christmas is over and silence reigns once more. We had a great Christmas thanks in part to Cherie's great cooking. We all want that stuffing recipe now.
Yesterday Christine (DIL for those who don't know us) came over and we worked on a wall hanging for her pamphlets at work. We got the hard part of measuring etc. done and all that is left is to sew it together. There will be three rows of pockets in the print fabric and I might put a 3 inch border of print around the edges. I'll put a hanging sleeve on the back. This morning I managed to sew the first row of pockets on but now we have to head out to Winnipeg so it will have to wait until tomorrow. We both love the colors and the print fabric. It's very suitable because she works with kids. The picture is a bit dark but you can get an idea of what it is like. I am just wondering if I should put a backing on it to make it stiffer. I guess I'll be able to tell when it's all done. I don't want it to buckle with the weight of the pamphlets but I am hoping that a hanging sleeve will prevent that.

NinePatch Done!

I grabbed a few spare minutes this morning to finish the binding on the NinePatch. I had a long piece of bias cut binding so I thought I'd try round corners on this one. It sort of softens up the squares of the piecing and goes with the round pattern on the border quilting. It is large enough for a topper on my queen bed but it will probably be a sofa quilt. I am not really happy with the quilting. It stretched out of shape a bit on the first couple of rows of stitching. Then I did free motion on the borders. I am still learning FM as you can see on the close up. It was good practise though so it is not a total loss. Now I have to wash it to see if the marking comes out. I just hate washing new quilts but I think I will have to on this one so I will know if it is safet to use the blue carpenter's chalk for marking on white.
Now off to do some more cooking.
Merry Christmas to all you bloggers out there. Have a good one!

Another One Pinned

Today I pinned the Butterflies. It has been sitting on my design wall staring at me, begging to be finished, so I spent an hour or so pinning. I am thinking of doing free motion on it. The blue will be some sort of meander. I may try to get a cloudy look that I have seen in some magazines. I think I will try some feathers on the wings but maybe when I get to that stage I will chicken out. I'll see how the meander goes. It probably won't go any farther than this before Christmas but at least when I am ready to quilt, it will be pinned and waiting. You can see in the picture that the back is orange. I have lots of orange thread but I'm not sure how that will look on the blue. I'll have to try a sample. The other option is orange bobbin thread and blue on the top. I'll know once I make a couple of samples.

Jacket Update

I had to dye the blue fabric twice, the second time with a tiny bit of black as well as more blue, and I would still prefer it alittle bit darker, but decided it was close enough. I like it much better than the black flowery fabric. I still have a couple of little mistakes to correct and binding to put on all around. I am still debating whether to put some sort of buttons on it. Since it was a sweater, there is not really enough fabric to overlap it. I could use round elastic or make tabs from cloth. Or it could be buttonless.

New Fabrics

Today is the last day our fabric store will be open, but since we will be busy today, I went for a last splurge yesterday. All the quilting fabric was 60% off so I had to buy quite a bit. How to stop, or maybe why, was the question. I ended up with quite a nice assortment and they will match with what I already bought a few weeks ago. I also bought quite a few spools of thread. They didn't have much left but there was some that matched the purples. It all came to less than $100 so I was pretty happy.
Yesterday I got really tired of looking at the flowered fabric on my patchwork jacket so I took it all apart and removed that fabric. It was the last on so it was not that big a deal to take it off. Then I dyed a piece of cotton that I had on hand to a medium blue. I don't think it will exactly match the blue that is already on the jacket. I ran out of that dye and now I can't remember which one it was. I guess I should keep notes but that is just not my style. Maybe an New Year's Resolution? Anyway, stay tuned for a new look. I just didn't have any enemies bad enough to give it to as Lily suggested so I thought I had better remake it to something I actually like. I already liked everything except the flowers so it seemed sensible to change that.

Katya's Pincushion

Here is a tutorial for a really neat pincushion. I have changed the pattern to inches instead of cms but if you want to go metric, it is 5 cm where I have 2 inches. I thinkinches makes a slightly bigger pincushion but any size will work.



You need:
Fabric A: 1 piece 6.5 x 6.5 inches and 1 piece 2x2 inches
Fabric B:1 piece 6.6 x 6.5 inches and 1 piece 2x2 inches
Cardboard: 1 piece 6 x 6

Sew the two small fabric pieces right sides together using a quarter inch seam. Leave a small opening for turning. Turn them right side out and stuff with batting. Sew up the opening by hand.

Cut the cardboard and draw on the inner lines every 2 inches. Score these lines with scissors or a knife so you can fold on them. They will be folded as in Origami. The angle lines are reverse folded.

Sew the two fabric pieces, right sides together with a quarter inch seam, leaving a gap of at least 3 inches on one side. Secure the seam with some backstitches. Turn right side out. Fold the cardboard so you can get it inside the fabric square. This is the hardest part! Sew up the opening by hand. Fold the cardboard diagonals up. Sew the pinchushion to the top.

I hope this is clear. If there are any questions feel free to email me.

Jacket

Katrina at Sunshower Quilts
posted a tutorial about making patchwork jackets using a sweater. I just had to try it. I don't like the flowery fabric under the arms. If I had used the blue fabric (just supposing I had any left!) it might have been all right but with the black flowery fabric it is just too busy even for me.
The technique is great though and I am thinking it might work using a sweater with a zipper. I'm not sure what to do with this one. I may finish it and give it to someone as a gift. They'd have to wear it or hurt my feelings. Lol.

Beta Blogger

I finally bit the bullet and made the change to Beta, mainly because I couldn't leave comments on any blog that had changed. After several witty and wise comments disappeared into the ether, I decided that I had no choice. So far there have been no problems. I haven't logged out and back in so who knows what awaits.

Yesterday we went thrift shopping and I found these odd little scissors for $1 each. There were two more which I didn't buy. I am now wondering why. Maybe because I already have 6 pairs that work just fine. I couldn't find any cloth to try them on. I didn't think the ladies in charge would appreciate my trying them out on some of the clothes that were hanging nearby. When I got them home I tried them and found that they are nice and sharp. What will I use them for? Good question, but I am sure they will find a use eventually.

The beautiful frost is all gone now but the sun is shining so it's a fair exchange.

Fairy Frost

We woke up to a real fairyland today. We went for a walk and took a lot of photos. It would be hard to find scenery more beautiful than this. Now it is mid afternoon and the frost is even thicker on the trees and it is still foggy. I am so glad we don't have to drive in it and can just enjoy it.