Merry Christmas

Merry Christmas. This will be my last post for the year. We are going to the in-laws for Christmas and between my FIL and DH I have a very slim change of any computer access. They are also on dial up, so I get impaction.

On Saturday we went and had picture with Santa, and it went well. LM was full of smiles. Then on Sunday she came down with a nasty cold. It is the first time she has been sick and she just wants to be held. Was starting to think we would be home for Xmas, but today she started to get better. I stayed home with her, as she was too sick to go to daycare, and tomorrow DH already had the day off, so I think she be good to go Xmas eve. She is sleeping now, yesterday she wouldn't even sleep unless I was holding her, poor little thing.

Wishing every one a great Christmas and all the best in the new year.

Floss

Presents & December

Last Monday was my guild Christmas party. we always have this at someones home. One of the girls had recently gotten a long-arm so we picked her house so we could check out her "baby". As always the party was lots of fun and included a gift exchange. We play the game were you pick a present and the next person can pick from the pile of steal you present. We open the presents at the end. This is what I ended up with. The puppy ornament was on the outside of the present and he just called to me. Inside was the lovely hot mat and felt ornament. There was also some peanut brittle but it didn't last to the photo.

December is a very busy month in my house hold, starting with my birthday at the beginning. We quite often keep it low key, with just a nice dinner out and a movie. I just wanted to share these lovely gift I received from my family this year, a couple of Australian fat quarters and this little sewing bag. Both sides are done the same, when you open it up, there is a spot for your little scissors, a spot for needles and a little drawstring bag for any other goodies.

On Friday was LM birthday and Gran sent her this lovely knitted teddy bear. I just love how bright and cheery she is. Don't you just want to give this teddy a hug?

Tomorrow is my first day back at work and LM first day at Daycare. I am stressing over it, I kept trying to tell myself that everything will be fine, but I just can't help it. It's going to still be silly cold. Not the kind of day you want to head out if you don't have to and for the last year I didn't have to, so think I should stay home till its warmer. (Don't think my boss will go for that).

We are hoping next weekend it a lot warmer as would like to try and get picture with Santa and do any last minute Christmas shopping, before we head to Grandma's Christmas eve. I think we have too much packed into December this year, but there not much that we can do, so will just try to enjoy as much as we can.

SSCS

Good mail today, DH came in with the mail and there was three thing in it for me: something non quilting, my regular quilting mag and my SSCS package. I was expecting a couple of little thing, but not this many packages. I open the lovely heart ornament and it will go on the tree when I put it up next week. Once I am done this post I going to sit down with the magazine. Should be a nice relaxing evening.

I have got some quilting done, I finished putting the bunny top together and started quilting it. I am keeping the quilting simple as I am still trying to get it done by LM birthday, which is the 11th, so running out of time.

We are having a birthday party for her Sunday. Hopefully people will be able to come. A lot said they were, but the weather turned nasty today. DH came home at lunch as the roads were already bad. There is meant to be 20cm of snow and it's real windy. By Sunday its meant to just be cold, hoping that is the case. With DH home this afternoon got a lot ready, so tomorrow will be a little more relaxing. Shouldn't complain, the winter has been pretty mild so far. I am glad I didn't have to go out in it.

Bunny blocks

I have a little bit more done on my bunny block, they now have the first border and a few have stars added. Still slow progress, but any progress is good.

I have been busy trying to get things ready for birthday, Christmas, etc before I go back to work in a couple of weeks. I feel bless to live somewhere that I can take a year off, but it will be hard to go back to work. I had so many things I was going to get done this year, and I am not sure where the time has gone. Hopefully I still find a bit of time to do some quilting.

The Last Bunny

I finally finish the last bunny block on the quilt I am making for my daughter. Now if I can get them trimmed to size and made into a quite by December, it will be ready for her first birthday or Christmas. Still a lot of work, but I think it will be doable.

I also finished my SSCS present (yeah), so now that that's done I should be able to focus on the bunny quilt. Its so nice when you finish something.

Happy Halloween

It's this poodle first Halloween.

My block for BoM

I have got a little quilting in this week, but nothing really to share. Tomorrow my guild is having a sew day so I am looking forward to that.

I have been showing you the few block I have made for my guild Block of the Month, October was my month to pick a block, this is what I picked.I always find it hard when you are picking a block for a group project, I made this a few months ago before I had seen many of the other block. It come down to this block or one other, so I had to laugh when one of the other girls picked the other block, so I got to make both of them anyway.

Jamaican Vacation

Well no quilting this week, but hopefully I will have some to share next week. As promised here are a few shoots from my vacation. This was our first "family" vacation. The resorts we stayed at had a great kids program that even included the smallest guess. It was the first time LM had been to any kind of day care and I was very sad on the first time we dropped her off and she saw the toys and crawled away with out looking back. At least she was happy yo see us when we came to pick her up. It was nice, we put her in for a couple hours each day, but still had lots of family time.This was the view from our room. I think anytime you can see the sea from your room it's a good view.

We did leave the resort twice, once to go to Mystic Mountain, the photo is from the chair lift on the way to the top. This was a really long chair lift ride and the views were great. I felt fine, except when the chair lift stopped then I didn't like being so high.
At the top we road the Jamaican Bobsled, which is like a one person roller coaster where you control the breaks. This was a lot of fun. After this we zipped line halfway down the mountain. It was a series of 7 zip line and was quite the rush.

We also swam with the Dolphins, this was quite the experience and I highly recommend it. This was more fun than I expected. Something DH really wanted to do, but I am so glad that we did it.

The rest of the time as spent on the resort where they had lots of activities for the kids. although a little young, we took LM to one of the Sesame Street show. She bounced to the music.

We also took her out on the glass bottom boat ride. She spent most of her time trying to eat the hand rail. There were some great views both above and below the water. DH and I were surprised that we used the same boat when we went snorkeling.

Most of the time was just spent relaxing by one of the pools.

A very relaxing time was had by all.

Tenth Wedding Anniversary

We had planned our Jamaican Vacation to coincide with our Tenth Wedding Anniversary. We did what we could to make the day special and memorable, starting with side by side massage in the morning at the resort spa, and I stay on for a lovely facial. In the afternoon we (including LM) relaxed and played at the pool. For dinner DH and I had a lovely candle light dinner on the beach.

I really enjoyed this dinner, we had picked our menu earlier in the week and watching and listening to the ocean as we ate was so relaxing. I think I will remember this dinner for a long time.

Being on the resort the staff did what they could to make our day special. From bottle of sparking wine to this lovely way our bed was decorated.

I will tell you more about the rest of the vacation later in the week.

This and That

I treated myself to a new quilting book, I was at one of the LQS and they are offering a club were you work on a quilt or technique for this book. I looked at the book and was quite interested but don't feel I have the time to join the club, so I picked up the book. I can see a lot of these quilts in my future. I think for the next couple of years wall hangings and minis are what I will most likely to get finished.

I started on my SSCS, mainly just cutting it out, but it is a start. I am going to show you a sneak peak. This will be the only one as I don't want to give away what I am making. I think it will be pretty.

I also got another BOM done. If I only make six I will have one to go, but now I am think I might make nine, will have to check how much fabric I have, as that may make the decision for me.

I will not get any quilting done next week as on Friday I am leaving for a week in the sun. Hopefully I have a few vacation snaps to share with you when I get back.

Only one to go

I think I am getting slower at sticking rather than faster, or maybe I am more easily distracted. I see lots of blogs where stickery are done quickly, but I am still slowly working on my bunny blocks. I have completed another 2, so only 1 to go.

Not sure why I had left the ones with writing until near the end. The last block is bunnies again, so hopefully I will get that done quickly. Then onto the making of the quilt. I think my new goal is to get this done for LM 1st birthday.

As this is a post about my bunny quilt I thought it would be a good time to share this photo of the bunny (Hare) that spend time in my front yard. He will be around for a few days then I won't see him for weeks. I like seeing him, but don't like what he does to my lilies.

Sew Day

My guild had planned a sew day on Saturday, unfortunately it was canceled. I had done some prep and had a baby free afternoon, so I decided to have a sew day at home. I had thought about working on my SSCS but decided that I was in the need of a quick project. I had three charm pack projects in mind so I picked one and cut it out Friday so it was just sewing on Saturday.

I love how bright and cheery this turned out, but I think it will make a nicer pillow cover than wall hanging. I even have a pillow that I was planning on recovering, its just a little bigger, so I would need to add another small border. That's the plan at the moment, but I have been know to change my mind.

After finishing this top I decided that I wanted to work on a couple of blocks from the guild BOM. I got the first one finished before super, and the second one completed after LM bed time.

I think these are turning out nice. Since I am only doing a few of the blocks and I am having a hard time choosing which blocks to make. There is still a couple more months of blocks to come, so I also don't want to pick my blocks too early.

I think this was a good sew day. I have gotten a bit slower, with the reduced amount of sewing over the last year but I enjoyed my day. It would have been nicer meeting up and sewing, but this was still a nice afternoon.

I Spy Finish and Drumheller

Its been a busy couple of week, and as normal I got less quilting done than I would like to. I did manage to get the I spy Baby quilt finished, all I need to do now is get it in the mail. I really cut it close to not having enough fabric, I had to un-sew a bit I had done for the Shadow effect to make the binding long enough.

My in laws had come to visit over the long weekend so we did a bit of the tourist thing and when to Drumheller, part of the badlands, on Saturday. First we stopped at Horseshoe canyon.

Before going to check out the HooDoos After this it was time for lunch and in the afternoon we went to the Royal Tyrrell Museum. I just share on picture from there, I love the way this looks like Little Miss is looking at the baby dinosaurs, I think she is actually trying to eat the hand rail.

It was a lovely day. It as so nice to have family here, as we don't live near any family I really appreciate any time we get to spend with them.

Bunnies

We have had a few nice days here, so not much quilting has been done. Last Monday was my guild's summer pot luck and I took along the I spy that just needs the binding added, and I think its still in the same bag as I took it in. I will hopefully get to it soon as the little girl that it is for was born on Tuesday.

I did pull out my bunnies to work on, I am not sure why but these seemed to have been put aside. I finished this block.

I just have three left. I need to trace them first, and for some reason when I cut out all the blocks last year I missed cutting out two of them. There is plenty of fabric, so I think this is just as case of getting it done.

Garden and BoM

I was planning on starting the post with a picture from my garden as for the first time in two years both the front and back garden are weeded at the same time -yeah. I was going to take the picture on Monday, but there was a thunder shower with hail on Sunday night, so will not be taking any picture of the garden any time soon, but at least I know it was done. So here is a picture of Fritz watching me weed. My guild has been working on a Block of the month. Each month one of us picks out a block to make. I am so far behind and I know that I will never catch up, so I decided that I am going to make a smaller quilt with just a few of the block, so I at least feel a bit involved. I have made the block for my month, which isn't until October, so will hold of showing that one until then. I also made my first of the other block. I picked to make the card trick, when I first became interested in patchwork this was one of my favorite blocks, I think I even made a couple of pillow using this pattern before I knew how to make a quilt. I decided that I wanted to use black and batiks, and when I was in my batik stash, the more masculine colours were calling to me. Here and here are examples of some of the colours and blocks a couple of the other ladies have made. I love seeing these when they are all revealed.

I also pulled out my scrap book of the quilts I have made, this is pretty simple with picture of the quilts, sample of the fabric and who I made it for, or gave it too. This was a bit out of date, but I should have it up to date in one more session. It will be nice to have it all done. I do like to have a record of what I have made, and find it nice to look back and see the improvement in my quilting.

I Spy top

I have not had much time to quilt these past couple of weeks, the summer seems to be quite busy. But I did have a bit of time to potter around the sewing room today and I managed to get the top for the I spy I am working on completed.

As I mention before this is a stash quilt. It is bigger than I was expecting, that is what I get by picking my measurements to use all the fabric I have. The amount of I spy fabric never seems to reduce. I have none of the background fabric left, and just enough of the shadow fabric for the binding. The zinger fabric was another one that I found in the stash. I have even found a piece of purple that is big enough for the back, which was left over from another project. It looks like I will need to pick up some batting, I only have very small bits left and don't feel like piecing that many. But over all very happy with how this stash quite is turning out.

Lorraine Stagness Quilt Show

Lorraine Stagness Quilt Show was yesterday and LM and I made an afternoon of it. This is a free quilt show put on every two years and it is a lovely way to spend the day. Other year have carpooled with some of the girls from guild but was out Friday night so thought I better play it safe and held out on my own as wasn't sure when we would be leaving. I did run into a few girls from guild and had afternoon tea with them.

Here are a few of the photo I took, I'm not sure why but blogger is not letting me put them in the order I want to, so will have to go with the order they are in.
This year the Dalemead Quilt Guild also had a display, which I think added a variety to the show. Above is one of their quilts. I love the way the scrappy blue quilt looks on the red barn.

This photo is just of the setting and some of Lorraine's quilts. As a country girl at heart I love any change I get to be out of the city and into the wide open spaces, I think I took as many photos of the country side as I did of the quilts.

These are three example of the mystery quilt form the retreat Lorraine host. I love how different all of these look, there were 7 on display, and I like how they were all hang together.

These two photos are more quilts by the guild, I liked the African fabric is the square quilt and the simplicity of it. The sunflowers just made me smile, so cheerful.

Below is another photo of the setting and a couple of nice quilts.

There is also a display put on by "the sister". These ladies make a lot of quilts and were only displaying what they had made in the last two years since the last show.

These two Asian inspired quilts were made for fabric for their sister who had passed away stash as memorial quilts for her children.

This quilt caught my eye as I enter their display, it is just my colours. This was a challenge quilt, fabric from a kit had to be used.

Finally this is the trunk show I first saw when I arrived, I guess it was also the last thing I saw when I was leaving. Hope you enjoyed my look at the show.

Calgary Stampede

Nothing Quilting to share today, just thought I would post this pic of DH and LM ready for the Calgary Stampede. They were both so helpful when I was trying to get a good photo.

I am not that surprised at DH, if you look at any of our vacation photo you would think I always go on vacation by myself.

I think LM just wanted to eat her new hat.

Stash Quilt

Decided that I wanted to start on a quilt that will be a baby gift. I think I have lots of time, but I am horrible at remembering when people are due, and this is for a friend who lives on the other side of the country so I will not be getting any visual clues.

Decided that I wanted to try blocks floating with their shadows. Had see a couple of quilts like this but did not have a pattern so had to just see how it when. This quilt is made from the oldest fabrics I have in my stash. I started with the feature fabric, which is left over from the first I spy quilt I made, which was the second quilt I ever made. Picked the largest block I could based on the fabric I had. Then looked in the stash for a background fabric, and found this purple, this was the first fabric that I picked up that did not have a project in mind. It was on sale and I was on a shop hop with the first quilt I belong to.

I could not find a fabric I liked for a shadow so I did pick that up, but over all it feels great to be using the stash. I have made the block and have started on the sashing, I think its will look pretty good.

A finish (Square Quilt)

Woo Hoo, I finally finished something. Well almost I still should put a label on it, but need to have a name for that, and I just can't seem to come up with one. But a lot of quilts don't have labels so I am calling it finished.

Yes that is LM helping her Dad hold up the quilt for me to take a photo. I didn't even realize that you could see here in the photo until I was loading them on the computer.

DH keeps asking me what I am planning on doing with this quilt, and when I say I have no plans, he seems happy, so I think we will be keeping it. I like it too and I it goes with the colours in the family room.

Had to laugh I knew that I had posted about this quilt before here, and when I looked it up it was in 2007 and I had it at the top of my list to quilt. So if this is how long it takes me to do things at the top of my list I don't think the things at the bottom have a chance.

If any one has a suggestion for the name for this quilt I would appreciate it.

Thanks

Shopping

On Saturday I decided that I was going to go fabric shopping for a new project. I know I have plenty of UFO and project waiting to be started, but saw a pattern that I just wanted to do next. It is quite simple pattern which is good for me right now, so I should be able to get it done. I also though it would be good for the purple rose fabric that I kept looking at, and had been very good and not bought. So off I when I was thinking maybe green and purple, but could not find a green I wanted to use, but was very set on using purple. So here is what I picked up.

I think it will look nice. I didn't even realize that the store was having a sale so I lucked out, getting all the fabric for the top and binding for $40. So a good day shopping.

I also have done a little bit more on my bunnies and here is the next completed block. I find the bunnies don't take that long but it seems to take me forever to do the grass.

I also got the binding on the square quilt, which I really need a name for. I still need to finish hand sewing it down. Hopefully I will have it done to share for next time.

Quilting Done

When I was down in my sewing room, I was looking at what I had in progress, as I hadn't done anything for a while though I should see what I had on the go and where I was in the process. My square horse quilt was all sandwiched and ready for quilting. I think it would be at least a year that it had been in this state. I had planned on trying some fancy quilting, with curse to give the quilt a little more play. As I looked at it, I thought "in the ditched and finished is better than fancy and not started" so that is what I did. Then it took nearly an entire evening to find the safe place I had put the fabric for the binning. I am hoping to get that sew on tomorrow so I can stick it down this week. It felt great to make so much progress on a project that has sat for so long. I think I need to find a few more of these type of things that have been around for ages that are relative quick and simple to finish.

A bit Bluer

My Bargello quilt is now bluer than it was before. I find this a bit frustrating as I did prewash all the fabric for this quilt, not something I normally do, and it is the only one that I have had issue with the color running. I normally brush down or vacuum this quilt, but decided it was time for a wash, I even used dye catchers, they were also very blue. You can see the difference in the photos, there is also a bit of a difference in the lighting, we have not painted the room so the wall should show as the same colour. I still love this quilt and as you can see so do the cats.

More HP quilt show

Here are some general photos of the quilt show.

I love how simple this one is, yet it is very effective. I think I have the pattern for this, will have to check.

I really like the effect of curve piecing when in fact it just squares and triangles. I like how these two quilts looked together.

This quilt put a smile on my face, it was just so cheery.

And of course I had to include a cat quilt.

I think this bird quilt was my favorite. I just felt peaceful.

This photo was taken from the other side of the track, were I was looking for a spot to give LM a few quiet minutes, it was a lovely spot to look at the quilts in this beautiful setting.