Tagged - 8 things

I was tagged by Pam to list 8 things about myself.
I am supposed post the rules -link to who tagged you; post the rules; list 8 thing about me; tag other people and then link to their site.

OK, here are my 8 things.
1. I am Australian, I moved to Canada when I was 19. I was meant to go home after a year (didn't quite go to plan). When I first moved here I lived in rural Saskatchewan about 3 km from a small village. I had a boss that would sign me up for all sorts of things -like broom ball, and tell me its like ice hockey, all the Australians can tell you this was no help at all. I had a lot of fun living there.

2. I worked as a Nanny for 6 years before I decided that it was time to go back to school and get my BSc. All the people I met as a nanny was surprised by this; the friend I had from high school thought this sounded a lot more like me.

3. I met my DH at school. We both have the same BSc. but I work in Data Management and he works in Sales. We got married in my home town in 1999.

4. I am a big kid when it comes to water. If there is a lake I want to go swimming in it, even if I don't have a swim suit, there no reason you can't go for a paddle. Yes, this includes glacier-fed lakes. Strangely enough, on my recent trip to Waterton I was the only one in our group that went for a swim in the lake.

5. This will be no surprise after number 4. One of the things I miss the most living in Calgary is the ocean. I love the smell of the salt in the air, and all that water. Whenever I go home or on vacation I try to get at least one day at the beach, even if it's raining.

6. I am the youngest of three children, I have two older brothers. I am very close with my oldest brother.

7. I first showed interest in quilting when I was 15, I asked my mum if we could make a quilt for my bed. So we picked up a couple of books and some fabric and started to hand-piece a quilt. My mother finished the quilt and has been hand-making quilts ever since. I think I finished two blocks that became pillows. My next attempt at quilting was a class in 2002, and I got to use my machine :)

8. As well as my mother quilting, so does my mother-in-law and my sister in law.

This was harder than I thought.

I will tag Welsh Quilter and Quilting Canuck (I think she is on vacation).

Red, B&W

Well things are getting back to normal, the house seems very quiet. I did manage to get some quilting stared. I decided that I should quite my Red, Back & White quilt, before starting on anything new. This is going to be a birthday present for a friend 60th birthday, in a couple of weeks.

I just did some large stippling on the B&W, I found a nice B&W variegated thread. I didn't like the look of it on the Red, so I am in the process of outline the red with red thread. I think it will look OK. My quilting can still needs work, but the girl I'm giving it too will be happy as I made it for her.

Vacation Over

My mum left yesterday, and I when back to work today. It has been great having her here, and I miss her already. I have been feeling down all day.

I didn't get any quilting done while she was here, we were too busy being tourist. Decided I would do some quilting tonight. I added the boarder to a boarder round robin I am doing with my guild. There are 5 of use in my group for the round robin, there is also a another group doing one as well. We will unveil the completed round robins at our Christmas party. I can not share pictures as this is strictly no peeking. I will share once all has been revealed to the group.

Here are the photos from my two big purchases. The first is the rest of the fabric for the flowery quilt. As you can see I like to mix fabric lines. I think these are really pretty.

I am a bit of a purple freak, so had to pick up the kit (the front of this picture). This is only for the center, so I also grabbed a few other fabric to go with it.

Now what to do first.

Secret Santa Christmas Swap

I have join the Secret Santa Christmas Swap on Chookyblue blog. It should be fun. This will be my first Internet swap, so I am looking forward to it. Now I just need to think of something to make, and then I need to make it.

I thought being on vacation I would get some sewing done, but I have done less than normal. Been to busy doing tourist things.

Bears

OK I will get back to quilting stuff soon.

I wanted to share a couple of photos of the bears we saw on the way up the Icefields Parkway. These photos were taken by DH as his camera has a better zoom than mine does.

The day before we had talked to a couple of rangers and they had told us the 4 ways to tell a Grizzly from a Black Bear.

1. As the Grizzly digs for its food, it has a hump of mussel on its back near it shoulders.

2. The Grizzly have much longer claw (don't think you can see this in the photos).

3. The Ears are different.

4. The Grizzly has a pointier nose.

I think we were so lucky to see both of the same day, before this the biggest thing I had seen that day was a squirrel.

Mountain Trip

Just got back from a 4 day trip to the Rockies. The first day we went to Banff, Field, and Lake Louise. When we left home, it was raining, but it cleared up in the afternoon. I had been to this area lots of times, but it was the first time I had gone to Takakkaw Falls, they were spectacular. Will have go there again.

The next day we headed up the Icefields Parkway. This 3 - 4 hour drive took us 10 hours. We stopped to look at everything, including all the lakes, waterfalls and took a tour up on to the glacier.

The third day we spent in Jasper, didn't take any photos as it was very cloudy, and rained a few times. We skipped the tramway to the top of the mountain, in favour of going to the hot springs, before heading to Edmonton.

Today we showed my mum the West Edmonton Mall, before heading home. We did stop at a couple of quilt stores, but didn't buy anything, we just looked to see what they had.

Sugar Pine

Did a day trip to Canmore today. No trip to Canmore is complete without a stop at the Sugar Pine, this is my favorite quilt store. I am planning on making a quilt in pinkie colours with flowers. This is very different than what I normally make so need to pick up most of the fabrics. Here is what I picked up. A couple of larger pieces (for a different project), and lots of flowers.

Waterton Lake

No quilting photos to share. Did manage to get to a couple (5) quilt store to show my mum. She has picked up a few thing, so far I have picked up a fat quarter.

Just got back from a trip to the south west corner of Alberta. Thought this was a nice place to share. Took my mother and my in-laws. Here is some of the scenery. One is red rock canyon, one is from the cruise on the lake, the one is looking down at the main lake.

Here is some of the wildlife.

The deer just walk in town. These were a few that walked by while we were all sitting outside our hotel room. It was nice being there during the week, it was getting busier today as we were heading out to come home.