Cold and Wintery Sunday

I've been absent for awhile. I've had no mojo for quilting but it is coming back. I've joined a volunteer group that makes quilts for cancer patients and have one quilt top almost done. The name of the group is Victoria's Quilt's Canada http://www.victoriasquiltscanada.com/ and we have a local group here in Okotoks. The lady who owns the local quilt shop lets us use her class room every second Tuesday for cutting, sewing, talking, laughing and meeting.

We are in need of men's quilts so that is what I have started. The fabric is mostly donated so most quilts are scrap quilts. I think I have enough of the dark brown to do a 2" border. The quilts are made to about 52"X72" - a good size to let patients cuddle and keep warm.

I have 4 quilts back from the long arm quilter so lots of hand sewing over the winter months. I left her with 2 more and will have more for her after Christmas.

Probably part of the lack of mojo is that I have not started any new projects as I had decided to dedicate 2012 to finishing up UFO's. A good idea in many ways but it severly cramped my creative juices...so last week I allowed myself to start a new project and feel much better. I am making a quilt for one of the walls in Tony's office. More on that another day.

We had new hardwood floors installed on the main floor last month and I just love them. With a Golden  Retreiver there will always be hair so we just decided to go for it. I love the gradients of colour and the grain of the wood. Now that we have new floors, everything looks different though, so now the process of painting and re-decorating has started. That will be a gradual process over the winter as I am going to paint a few pieces, and re-cover some stools etc.

Tony is making lasagna, so Chloe is supervising and waiting for any little crumb to drop. Dana and her boyfriend Drew are coming for dinner tonight, so along with lasagna we are having the traditional garlic bread and caesar salad. And hopefully leftovers for Tony and I tomorrow night!

Have a wonderful Sunday and a great week!

Fall Clean Up

This morning we pulled the annuals out of our outdoor pots, cleaned up the deck and front porch and just did a fall clean up. The weather is still fairly nice for us here, sunny and high teen temperatures (about 68-70 degrees), but the plants were getting leggy and just looking old. So now I am pulling out my fall wreaths and quilts and decorating for fall.

I have Neil's quilt labeled and have started putting the rows together. hopefully more progress this week on that.

This is what I am using as leaders for the above project. I started a winter quilt for the master bedroom months ago and grew bored with it. Not sure why that is but thought I could get a kick (re)start on it by sewing in between putting the above rows together...

I said 2012 would be the year of finishing projects and have done well with that. I have 3 quilts waiting for binding, I have 3 quilts at the longarm quilters and two ready to go when I pick the others up. More on those another time.

Have a wonderful week!

Neil's Quilt

I have finally made some progress on this quilt. This is for my son's queen size bed.The blocks have been sewn together for months and left languishing under my cutting table since. So one night this week I laid them out and have left it there so every time I walk by I move a block to a better place. Today I plan to number the rows and get started putting it together.

Then I have the borders planned:

It is quite hard to find a masculine fabric that is tasteful and even though there are some almost flowery pieces in the quilt, I think that a 26 year old man will be happy with this. His room is painted dark brown, so the green, white and turquoise will add some lovely colour.

Have a wonderful week!

Catching Up

Even though I don't have little ones in school any more it seems this time of year is always a back on track/back on schedule wake up call. We've had a lovely summer weather wise and now we are definitely feeling the cooler mornings and evenings. We've had time away, and now we will be "back on schedule"...

We went to Golden B.C. for the wedding of our daughter's best friend. It was so beautiful and our daughter did such a great job with her speech.

Words cannot describe the beauty fo the 360 degree view of the mountains.

I am trying to finish off a king size quilt I have been making for the master bedroom. These are the last 4 rows and all I have to do is attach them to the rest of the quilt. As soon as my quilter Deb calls to say the quilt she is doing for me now is done, I want this one to be next.

I used "Martinique" by 3 Sisters for this and love the soft colours with the more masculine lines of the quilt. Our wall colour is the same as the taupe colour in the quilt, so can't wait to see it done. This was supposed to be our summer quilt for the bed...did I say next summer quilt?

http://www.nationalsewingmonth.org/  Enjoy September as it is National Sewing Month in the U.S.

Have a great week!!

More Sewing Room Photos

Last weekend I went to Ikea to get some frames for my card collection. My friend Rhonda makes brautiful cards, and I wanted to frame them and hang them. So off we went to Ikea on a weekend. What were we thinking ??  I have a real love/hate relationship with Ikea and part of that is due to the great things they have but you pretty much have to walk through all the displays to get to what you want. I do not shop as a hobby nor is it a leisurely activity for me. I want to get what I want, and leave. Anyway after all that I bought the wrong size of frames, and had to go back today to get the right size. I got the cards hung today, and am so glad I can look at them all the time.

Wall one

Wall two. See the sewing machine? And of course a sunflower!

It is really fun to decorate this room with pieces of me with mementos and treasured items. Next up will be some quilts for the big walls.

Have a great week!

I'm Back!

Well hello! I am at light at then end of a very long tunnel, and and happy to be there. Since last October I was president of our condo association, and it was a volunteer position that took over my life, and at times was bigger than life. We were due to go on holidays in mid July and both Tony and I knew that I couldn't enjoy my holidays as I was "on call" and also not sleeping. I resigned before we left and it is only just now that I am feeling "better". No sense of dread when my phone buzzes with an email or text. Now it is family and friends and that is the way is should be.

Dana moved out on Mother's Day and I really miss her even though we didn't see each other a lot when she lived here...but I now have a new sewing room. Tony works from home and needs a nice room for an office, so he got my lovely sunny sewing room. I moved downstairs to Dana's old bedroom. Tony painted it a lovely green and it is warm and cozy.

 It looks like a dull dreary day but is actually a beautiful sunny day, and I had to shut the shades to get a picture.

On the floor are three quilts awaiting binding completion. On TV is the Olympics, of course!

I have a little abutment on the wall for decorative "stuff". My angels, photos, keepsakes, etc. I have a quilt or two to put up yet, and also a plan for another wall. My friend Rhonda makes beautiful  folded paper cards and I have some framed already. I will go to Ikea to get some more frames and do a display of her beautiful cards.

My plan is to get re-organized in my room as I kinda forget what I was up to!

Have a wonderful week!

Another Finish

Well I had decided that 2012 would be the year to finish all those quilt tops I have in my closet, and so I have another one done. This was long arm quilted by my new best friend Deb, and I am again very pleased with her work. She has 4 more to work on, and I hope to have more tops for her when those 4 are done. I will run out of money before I run out of tops to be quilted!

This is another baby quilt for another little girl born in March. I am using the green as the binding and will get that on today so I can start the hand sewing tonight in front of the TV. I would like to have it done in a few days so I can give it to them this week. 

This is the pile of 5" squares I cut from the left over backing of last weeks finish. 

I love the chocolate brown colour and think I will use them as alternate blocks in something...don't know what yet, maybe pinwheel bocks with some red and blue. 

Later today we are going to a little "meet and greet" for the family with the baby I finished the quilt for last week. Blogger isn't let me download the picture of it for some reason...

Have a wonderful week!