Millions of Thoughts

airing out my ticker tape...

2012-01-30T18:53:00.004-07:00

still needs binding and the 'line' to be stitched down...

clcik on image for a larger view

I have been playing with ticker tape blocks... little bean's teacher is about to have a baby, and I want to do a class project with the children - each child will create a ticker tape block from the mountain of scraps I bring along. They will dab some glue stick and glue em on. I had my boys practice for me so I knew what I was getting into. Glad we practiced.

After making this little sample, I'm still not sure whether to go the route like the sample above (except 21 little ticker blocks, and several lines ) or if I should go with the safe, predictable, fastened route of a checkerboard style quilt. Checkerboard would be more durable and washable, right?

I had a lot of fun machine quilting this yesterday. It was fun, because I wasn't pressured to be perfect. So, I quilted a design I used to doodle in my journal pages. (I used to doodle while chatting on the phone for hours to my peeps in my young and dangerous days.)

Aurifil thread still is my top favourite - I used 3 other brands on this sample, and my machine just loved the Aurifil still the best. Juki just purrs. Or is it the new attitude with her decals?

Winner!

2012-01-30T11:02:00.004-07:00

I tried to get the random.org widget to post here - and it did, but it wouldn't put a permanent generated number on there... oh well. You've got to just trust me is all. :-) One day, I will spend my hours figuring out html code. blech.

Winner is #17 Kit Lang - I've fired off an email to you - please send me your mailing address!

Thanks for playing along everyone!

Machine Makeover Madness - Giveaway!!

2012-01-25T11:29:00.006-07:00

Pimp my stitch...

Ink my machine..

Tattoo my Juki...

I may or may not have considered taking my pimped up Juki outdoors for a photo shoot for better lighting. She is just gorgeous.It was too windy, however and my neighbours are already perplexed by my quilt hanging outdoors in odd places. So, sorry for the photos not having professional quality lighting.....

When I saw these decals at Quiltastick I knew I had to get them. I have always thought machines were a little bland looking. I mean, this is coming from ME, the bland neutral decor person. If you go to the website you can see that I had a huge variety of styles and colours to choose from. That was the most difficult for me. There are 24 custom colours available too, check it out!

The decals are very strong, stronger than a normal sticker - they are removable if you change your mind later - and there is an instructions page for that (you need a little goo gone or adhesive remover if there is residue left over) You can use a minimal amount of decals on your machine - or jazz it up with lots, like I did....

The decals are on a 12 x 12" sheet and have assorted designs on them - they are easy to remove from the sheet and easy to reapply if you make a mistake. You can cut around objects or cut the stickers to fit the space you are covering. I did that in several spaces such as where my needle up/down button is. Very easy!

I used one set on my machine. I could have used more, but I thought it may turn into one of those tattoo jobs gone wrong.... you've seen them. You know. Kind of like a car with a bumper sticker problem...

I may or may not have thought about dressing up my washer and dryer with these decals.

Isn't it fun!!??

If you go to the Quiltastick website, there is a gallery where you can see some stickers used on those industrial looking long arms:

Shipping was free and quick (even to Canada), and customer service/communication was excellent!

Giveaway:

I contacted Quiltastick if they would send me an additional sheet for a giveaway, and they kindly did.

I am giving away a 12 x 12 sticker sheet in the same pattern I have used - in orange!

Leave a comment below if you would like to win. For an additional entry - just blog about this giveaway, and leave a comment that you did.

What do you think? Is it a makeup job gone wrong? Fun and Funky? Drag queen machine?

I'll leave this giveaway open until Sunday January 29, 7pm MST and draw a name then!

Thanks....And an upcoming giveaway!

2012-01-24T20:15:00.001-07:00

Thank you everyone for your kind thoughts about Mandy. It was a really difficult time, but we have gotten over the deep hurt and emptiness that initially set in. Life moves forward...she won't be forgotten, but we are moving on. :-)

Also, thanks for the feedback on my quilt blocks. I have pieced the top together in a random pattern, and am getting it ready for quilting....

I recently purchased something uber cool for my drab looking machine....that's one thing I think could be improved on- the looks of our machines. I mean, we pay a ton of cash for our dream machine. Shouldn't we be able to customize it somewhat? Especially those industrial looking long arms? I found something to inspire me and the look of my machine...make it more cool and funky looking. And guess what? I'll show you in my next post what it looks like! AAAANNNDDD there will be a giveaway too!

Stay tuned.....have a fantastic day!

Which one do your eyes prefer?

2012-01-18T13:16:00.004-07:00

When I thought up these simple blocks, I was playing with positive and negative space.

Here are two arrangements, with just some of the block colours showing-

Randomly placed:

Arranged with its colour mate:

Of course, I still need to play with arrangement of colour, but which do you prefer - the positive and negative spaces arranged randomly, or matching side by side with its colour mate? I think I know what I would do, but curious what you think?

*******

Monday evening was the hardest ever. I put on my brave face and went in with Mandy. It was quiet, calm and quick, and I held her and kissed her as she passed. I don't think I've ever felt my heart really ache until that night. Mandy was my amazing dog - she was a protector, a friend, playmate, a teddy bear, and an incredibly smart smart dog. This house is so quiet and empty without her. Rest in peace, my sweet girlie girl....

Colour Therapy

2012-01-13T12:21:00.002-07:00

I pulled a bunch of my favourite brights out of my stash and started sewing. I have been tinkering with positive/negative spaces as well as reading a lot about MCEscher and tesselations. My love of graphic simple lines always shines through. The quilt done should be done fairly quickly.

My dog is not doing well, and we've had some really hard decisions to make. There's kidney disease, tumors large and small, enlarged liver, and very low red blood cell count. We've got one last 'thing' to try but the longevity and outcome will be inevitable in our near future. With that news and the decision making, the sewing once again reminds me how tremendously therapeutic it can be. I lose myself in my thoughts while sewing, and it is almost soothing to hear the purr of the machine (or the screech of the tires when I do long races of strip sewing). It is totally a place for me to calm down, reflect, and even heal somewhat. The past few days I have paced, chewed my lips, nails and cuticles to bits, eaten many bad things, watched mindless tv, cried my eyes out....and then I sit down to sew and it all lifts away after awhile.

I don't know how to explain it.

My cat knows something is up. The dog is at the vet hospital for two days, and prior to that, he has been laying very near the dog....today the cat is meowing loudly all over the house looking for the dog. sigh.

Colours, texture, pattern

2012-01-09T00:00:00.001-07:00

This sand art painting was behind glass....it was just stunning. I want to use these colours, pattern and movement as inspiration for a new design. I see curves in my technical future and improvisation in my creative future.

What techniques are you getting ready to try?

Millions of thoughts...

2012-01-08T17:52:00.005-07:00

A wishing tree....at our local science centre called Telus Spark. It had hundreds of wishes hung from it. Mine is in there too, somewhere. It looked so beautiful - so grand. The simplicity of the white lights, the light branches, and the red papers hanging from the tree. I took this first picture, and then spent about 20 minutes in the tree, just reading all the wishes.

Some wishes I giggled at....
Some wishes I nodded at....
Some I sighed at....
...and some made me well up in tears....
My wishes for 2012 are for the usual health and happiness. 2011 was quite stormy with ups and downs...and the last 1/2 of 2012 it mellowed out and settled down again. (phew!)

My personal goals wish - become a runner, take better care of myself, spend more time on myself and be kinder to myself.

My wishing tree wish? It was quilt related and more the far fetched type wish - totally attainable, but still, a wish.

Have you ever seen a wishing tree? It really moved me.

What would your Quilting Wishing Tree have on it?

Let's Get Real.

2011-12-17T18:13:00.004-07:00

You're getting all excited to see the photos of all my projects now, right?

I procrastinate in every way possible when it comes to Christmas readiness. Actually, yesterday I came to the realization that my parents are to blame. Yes you read that right. I'm blaming them.

I'm forced into a society where Christmas begins in late November. This is impossible. You see, growing up, it was unthinkable to get the decorations up before December 15... We didn't get a tree up till usually around the 15-20th. Therefore, Christmas spirit has been indoctrinated to not appear until past mid December.

I was getting worried people, very worried. Every time I heard Bing in the shops, the tears would well up. Where did my spirit go? I think it's arriving, finally, albeit late according to society. I realized this yesterday, when I finally had some kind of wee bit of spirit developing inside - I even wrote Christmas cards.

So here is my list from last post, December 6. I'm keeping it real -

pillows - finished one, see below...other one needs a back. I still have 7 days.

ipad pouches - found them at Winners (like TJMaxx) for 5.99! Keeping it real folks.

zipper pouches - do I really need them? nah. I still have 7 days.

kleenex pouches - kleenex already comes in sanitary plastic pouches. Why waste fabric? I still have 7 days.

coasters - cut out , but on a recent dollarama trip, found some great croco ones for $1.50 - good for now, why stress to get them done for Christmas? I still have 7 days.

pyjamas - Walmart had all pj's on for $9. Really? Do I need to explain?

quilts - ideas ready. backing ready. I still have 7 days. backup gift already sent.

zipper coin pouch - ready to sew. Still have 7 days.

table runner - I still have 7 days left, right?

tree skirt - presents are under the tree right now. Nobody will see the skirt?!

couching experiment - Ideas ready, however, need scraps of cool yarn. May delete this project until I collect cool yarn scraps.

Hopeless.

What have I done with myself for the last 11 days you ask? Well, normal tasks aside...there have been field trips to help with, stomach flu, crafts at school, winter concerts, a birthday party to plan and execute, drapes and hardware to shop for, purchase, mount and steam/iron. Blinds to shop for and mount.

And in between my lady of leisure life, I catch up on Days of Our Lives. ;-)

Pillow - Red is an accent colour throughout my house - I wanted to make red for sure. I almost bought a set of red cushions at the big W - for cheaper than making them. But I didn't want to totally cop out of my list.

I also found this gorgeous wool blend that had clear sequins attached throughout in a very random pattern. The fabric just glistened, without being gittery. I knew this was the accent I wanted for my pillow. After seeing THIS cushion at Urban Barn I was inspired. My other pillow will follow a slightly different design...same concept though.

Super easy to make - I cut out 2.5" squares of fabric, folded them on the diagonal, and sewed them in a straight line down the background fabric.

I took a few photos to try and show the sparkle that the triangles have - but it doesn't show up as nice as in person. One day, I'll be a great photographer!

Making my list....

2011-12-06T09:38:00.003-07:00

Things I want to accomplish in the next 19 days.

pillows

ipad pouches

zipper pouches

kleenex pouches

coasters

pyjamas

quilts

zipper coin pouch

table runner

tree skirt

couching experiment

Doable right?

Etchings - a Moda Bake Shop Project

2011-11-14T00:01:00.002-07:00

The day is here to finally share my new Moda Bake Shop project. Please go and check out my new tutorial on Moda Bake Shop. It's the Etchings Quilt. The fabric, Etchings by 3 Sisters, is just SO lovely! Please go over and leave a comment - or leave a comment here. I'd love to hear what you think!

I am away on a ship right now, talk about timing. Anyone like me that just adores receiving comments - and here I am, away at sea and not able to check if anyone commented! ;-)

If you have any questions, please feel free to ask.

Lily's Quilt

2011-11-13T00:01:00.006-07:00

This quilt is way overdue. I belong to a lovely group of friends called the BCBabes. We met online while planning our weddings 10 years ago. You know, when all that revolved in our lives was eating out, growing our careers, wedding dresses, favours, honeymoons...

We formed some great friendships and often get together once a month for potlucks or babefests, as we call them. A while ago a dear friend and fellow BCBabe had found out she had breast cancer. This was just an awful and silencing time for me. The thoughts that I had when we first formed our group were starting to come true - when we were planning our weddings I often thought about the future of the babes - our future children, our future success and failures and as we got older, our health issues....and it was starting to happen. How could so many years be passing us by already?

We all wanted to do something special for her. Lily has an ~~obsesssion~~ passion for tea...and the teacup theme came about. We came up with the idea of collaborating on a quilt and the 'craftier' people would sew up the quilt, while each person in the group would hand stitch/make a teacup block representing Lily's interests or symbolizing themselves on the quilt. This process took the longest - just rounding up everyone and keeping tabs on who was finished, who needed help, who needed a little fire under their butts to get going and complete things. Fast forward to today, when the presentation was made to dear Lily.

An idea of some of the teacups...

Closeup of the quilting and lovely crinkling...

My dear friends presented the quilt to her in person - I linked up through facetime on the Ipad and was able to watch everything from LA, as I awaited my boarding time onto the cruise ship.

The technology collaborating this was awesome - we belong to a bulletin board forum strictly for our group - and we were able to start a private discussion. We have members that are in Calgary, Iowa, Australia and northern BC.

The quilt started in Australia, where a great babe started the process of the center medallian and all of those wicked looking pinwheels. It later got shipped to me in Calgary. All of the tea cup blocks were sent from BC, Alberta, Iowa, and Australia to me, and then I compiled and completed the layout of the quilt. I pieced it together, machine quilted it and sewed on the binding....it was then sent to BC for the binding to be hand stitched by some other lovely babes, and finally to be packaged and presented.

It's just another way that quilting has brought together a group of women, and hopefully brought a hug to someone who needs to know we love her.

Remembrance Day 2011

2011-11-11T00:01:00.001-07:00

11/11/11 I remember.

Thoughts....

2011-11-10T14:05:00.006-07:00

Life is full of ebb and flow isn't it?

Mine is all about flow at the moment.

I can tell when my life is full of flow because my eyes and forehead start to hurt, I find my face constantly in squinting position, and it feels really really good to rub my face. I'm sure I'm forming wrinkles from the rubbing/massaging that's happening.

Sometimes I think that we get a little extra flow in our life as a 'test' to see how we can manage. And when we overcome life's challenges, it things just seem a bit easier on the other side of it.

I'm heading on a quick holiday next week, and hope that the flow slows somewhat. I'm going on a Disney Cruise! My first stop is the ice cream machine, followed by stalking Goofy on deck for a photo op.

Life is just going so fast...I'll be back just in time for the Christmas season to flow. I'll start some happy sewing.

While I'm away, can you make sure you stop by ModaBakeShop on Monday November 14? My project will be up and ready to show you! I hope you like it.

Here is something for you to watch (they're only 30secs long) my big E is up to..making stop motion animation videos. Enjoy!

This first one is only 30 secs long - so stop it after 30..the music just continues...

He figured out to shorten the music on this one..

Garment Sewing

2011-11-04T16:26:00.005-06:00

I've been watching all of these gorgeous tunics, shirts, dresses and skirts pop up in blogland. You know the kind - artsy, unique, comfortable. The kind where you see someone wearing them and you make a mental note of admiration.

What a sewn tunic looks like on:

Her - adorable, artsy, classy with an edge

Me - mu-mu.

I feel the same way about handbags and totes that pop up everywhere.

What an artsy bag looks like on:

Her - SO cute, she can really carry those colours off well. It just makes her outfit work.

Me - a homemade bag. Who the heck raided the remnant bin at the fabric store?

So in the spirit of making things I will make something I don't have to wear out and about. Something that I can wear comfortably at home.

What handmade pajama pants look like on:

Her - cute and crafty...could easily wear them to pajama day at school.

Me - baggy and sloppy.

Am I the only one that cannot wear home made garments well?

Machine quilting....

2011-11-01T14:55:00.002-06:00

Sigh... I could doodle all day. And I did...for several days. ;-) This is all I can show you for now.

Secret Stuff to share with you...

2011-10-27T14:50:00.007-06:00

No I'm not in a magazine, or designing fabric, or naming the new colours for Kona Solids, or writing a book....

I've been working on a quilt, with someone or some people. I can't say who because the recipient, if they read this, would figure it all out. I can tell you it's collaborative and has been a long time in the making. I've just finished the top and will be quilting it tomorrow.

It is lovely. It's quite traditional, but the thoughts behind it and how it all came to fruition is sure to make a great story...

Finished...

2011-10-22T17:20:00.004-06:00

I cannot tell you how much I love this quilt...the colours are so stunning. It's large enough for me to snuggle on the couch and wrap it under my feet - and include a child or two with me.

I'll let you know when the date will be to be posted to the Moda Bake Shop.

Basting a large quilt in my house...

2011-10-16T11:13:00.003-06:00

uh, mom...I want to go outside now.

my food and water dish are over there...in the far corner. uh, mom?
I finally found a spot I could baste my quilt.

Thanks to the help of my wee ones, I spray basted and smoothed it in no time flat. Don't worry, the doors and windows were all open...I LOVE spray basting. Haven't done a quilt this size before, so I'll report back if the spray basting holds up on this almost queen size quilt.

Naming your blog

2011-10-10T19:43:00.003-06:00

Have you ever thought about changing your blog name or your domain name? I have. many times. For about 2.5 years now. But Millions of Thoughts (trapped in my head) is just so attached to me, I've had it for 5 years now.

When I first started a blog, I never fathomed it would have lasted this long...nor would I imagine people read it! Have you seen that crazy ticker over there? =====>

Definately a giveaway when I hit 30,000. Holy moly!

The address, however, millionsofthoughtstrappedinmyhead.blogspot.com is just so long.

millions of thoughts is better.

If I change it...do I just shorten it, or do I go for a brand new name?

Quilting Thoughts

Millions of Quilts

or something cute and catchy?

or something studio-ish and modern? (even though my 'studio' is a dark corner below grade in my basement)

How do you take the plunge, or do you even do that?

This is kind of like the haircut question. You've grown your hair for so long and are bored with it. Do you just get a trim, or do you go for the short pixie cut and dye it jet black with a blue streak?

Sewing a Turkey

2011-10-09T13:06:00.005-06:00

Happy Thanksgiving Day to my Canadian friends! My family usually celebrate Thanksgiving on Sunday, and then have a lazy roly poly day on the Monday (the offical day off)

Last night Cameron and I made Cranberry Bread. We named it Camberry bread....he was totally chuffed about that.

Today, Ethan had a very keen interest in the unwrapping and dresssing of the turkey. He was particularly fascinated with the heart, liver and neck that come in the little 'gift' bag inside the turkey cavity. He helped me stuff the bird, and said that he couldn't wait until Christmas to see the guts of the next bird. ahem.

So, as he's stuffing the bird I realize that during our move, I've misplace my skewers and need to sew up the bird instead. I had a giggle as I went to my sewing space and rifled through my needles and threads.

Aurifil?

Guterman?

Poly?

Cotton?

Sharps? Embroidery needles?

What does this bird deserve?

I settled on an old discarded machine needle and some Aurifil. If it's good for my machine, it's got to be good for the bird. right?

right?

The Letter A

2011-10-02T14:25:00.006-06:00

It's cool... whatever it is.

It's a nice...patch.

*blink*

Those are the words from my darling supportive husband.

It was a learning experience in the following ways:

how quickly organized becomes chaos
realizing how many solids I actually have
sewing curves
making a paper pattern and realizing one must include seam allowances when cutting
my machine does not like to sew slowly
need to learn more about art quilt binding...or rather, have patience to learn more about art quilt binding
still hate Guterman cotton thread, and still adore Aurifil thread. (and no, there is no giveaway coming up...I just plain adore the thread and so does my machine)

Yes, the edges are curved. I could tell you I did that on purpose. I did not. But I went with it...you see, I quickly made a paper pattern without thinking or planning. That's all.

To remind you..here is my original doodle

So in response to my husband's "uses" that this has. *ahem*

a lovely tree ornament

A stunning fixture above the doorway...reminding me that I'm A, the alpha of the home...

A chef's dream for resting precious cooking utensils

~~A Mug Rug.~~

NO!!!!

It's a cookie rest.

I had quite a giggle about it all. Alot of work, alot of learning, alot of quirky comments between dear husband and I.

Back to my normal quilting....

doodles..

2011-10-01T15:43:00.004-06:00

I was doodling again, and a few cool ideas for new graphic patterns emerged. Onto the pile of the 'to do' list they go. There's just so many on my to do list. Frightening.

One idea, came from a sort of fancy letter A. This was a very quick 30 second idea, but I wanted to share the process stemming from an idea to pulling fabrics to fruition. This will be a VERY vulnerable train wreck, I'm sure. I'm planning to make this a small quilt... 'mug rug' size (gawd I HATE that term)

I started pulling reds and blues, which I love, and then some browns - the photo depicts more mustard colours, but they are browns...

I have no idea how this will turn out. I may need some hugs later. ha!

This has all stemmed from my reluctance to restart my beloved baking project. I spent 3 days watching Dr.Phil, Ellen, Days, and Dr. Oz, ripping apart every.single.seam. In all my extensive (ha) quilting experience, I've seen bloggers post about ripping apart quilts and starting over again. I've never had that desire. Until this project. I love the colours too much to do an okay job. So in a pile of unironed, seam ripped state they sit. For days. They haven't moved from the living room in a week. Can you tell?

I've reworked the colours and they are much better now. But I'm just taking a few days off to recharge.

Confession.

2011-09-26T11:32:00.003-06:00

I can blame this entirely on me being a Canadian and not knowing otherwise. Kind of like when some Americans think of Canadians as being red coated mounties riding horses through igloo cities.

Paducah.

How do you say it?

I've always said it PA-duh-kuh.

And today, I learned it is not. I actually prefer my way of saying it. It sounds a little more refined and not so quirky.

Just incase you are like me and don't know.... it is pah-DOO-kah.

*shrinking back into my igloo*

Bobbins winding me crazy

2011-09-19T17:58:00.004-06:00

Do you ever get into a rhythm of sewing...for me this week it's mega strip piecing, only to realize about 8 pieces in, that your bobbin thread has run out?

*blink*

please tell me I'm not the only one.

Random thought of the day: the silence in my sewing room grew louder today. ( well, aside from a snoring dog) There was no ticking of my wee little clock, the battery died. That thing is so darn loud

Today, I just may or may not be ripping apart all 36 blocks I have made. I'm not sure I like the 'scrappiness' of my blocks and am thinking colour specific may be better. *sigh*

Sounds around me..

2011-09-14T14:12:00.002-06:00

I was sewing for 3 hours straight today...I looked up from my machine and noticed the big huge monster mega man cave tv in front of me:

huh. I've been sewing here for 3 hours, and I could have listened to all of the doctors of daytime tv, or the trashy soap stories of Days of Our Lives. I just noticed this? What a perfect setup!

I realized how I've never even had the radio on while I'm quilting. I don't know what it is...the concentration, the silence. But I never have anything on.

You?

Etchings....

2011-09-13T09:51:00.004-06:00

etchings by 3 Sisters - moda.

Do you find it difficult to unwrap these pretty little packages? I do. Part of the beauty to me is seeing the colourway wrapped up and scrolled around.....

Etchings has been unwrapped. It feels like I have taken a bouquet of flowers out of the vase and tossed the flowers randomly on the floor.

I bought a new sewing centre last weekend, for a super duper price. I couldn't NOT buy it. It has some storage and two sections for two different machines. I'm only using one machine space, and the other will be a cutting area (not for big jobs) and a pressing space. My Juki fits perfectly in the sewing machine place and fits flush with the table top (the hydraulic lifter is adjustable)

Random thought: I am in desperate need of thread. Lots of colours. I feel a big urge to experiment with smaller quilts and machine quilting.

It's September...

2011-09-07T16:29:00.002-06:00

My husband climbed "Heart Mountain" on Sunday. Part of me is jealous, part of me is like, 'why'?

Part of me hopes he has released his desire to climb a mountain, as I was worried about him from the time he left, to the time he returned.

School is back in session, my boys are finally starting to realize that school is not an option, and that they will be push, pulled, or dragged daily even if they cry. haha.

Big Grade 1

Big Grade 4

We had a great summer..we moved to our new city, had several sets of visitors already and are enjoying our new home and new city immensely. We were able to do a quick trip down to Myrtle Beach and visit the grandparents.

Am I the only one who fights bunny ears in each photo op? What do bunny ears mean? Why is it so entertaining?

My machine is set and ready to go. I've got a project ready to "bake" and will share it with you as soon as I can. I'm pretty stoked about it, because not only is it uber cool, but the colours in it will match my new bedroom perfectly. Score.

I'm excited about the year. It feels good. The past year has been emotionally draining and a mega roller coaster ride. I feel the dust settling. I feel like things are going to be more permanent here.

Supply time!

2011-08-08T09:05:00.000-06:00

Back to school time doesn't have to be disappointing... for moms who like to sketch out quilt patterns, it's FUN supply time. I think I need to replenish the craft box. New crayons, new pencils, markers....and the kids get the fun too.

Isn't it amazing how a child will do anything to get in on a photo. He cracks me up.

Is back to school time a happy time for you, or do you get nostalgic and a little emotional? I get a little happy, knowing that I can wear my turtlenecks, jeans, and hibernate indoors in my quilting space.

In other news, my boys have been outfitted with golf clubs. They are not sports junkies, but they do show an interest and desire to hit a golf ball. It was a proud weekend for daddy this weekend. I've been told how lucky I am that the boys will go off and golf and I will get some alone time. well, it's really not true. I want to learn so badly myself. Even if I wasn't interested, I'd still be there with them at the driving range - cheering them on!!

Your boys are SUCH good readers..Part 1

2011-07-28T16:55:00.002-06:00

I get this comment alot. I know my boys are readers. They love to read. Reading isn't always about what book they are reading, but the experience...

We visit the library once a week. It's a scheduled 'activity' you would say. I have heard a few comments from time to time about library books - yuk - germs from houses we don't know WHERE THOSE BOOKS HAVE BEEN!! I don't care where they've been. I'm getting free books as often as I want. I'm not a germophobe. I don't carry hand sanitizer in my bag. My kids wash their hands when I think to remind them. They're fine.

I have been reading to the boys every night since they were about 2 years old. Probably earlier, but that's when it really was a routine. I still read to them every night. There's independent reading in there now too, but I will always finish off with a story for them.

First off, buy the special library bag for 1.25. It makes the kids feel important and that their special treasure books go with them. I end up carrying the bags most of the time after they fill up, but they are very sure to know which bag of books belongs to them.

Most definately, sign them each up for their own library card. At our library, the KID card is a kid theme card, as opposed to a boring adult one. It makes the kids feel VERY important.

Don't put limits on how many books one can sign out. I usually give them a guideline of what the bag can hold. The only thing I limit is how many DVD's they can sign out. The late charges on those are wicked!

Find the children's section and really show them where different book genres are - my youngest LOVES humour and picture books with funny illustrations. My oldest LOVES non-fiction books.

some libraries have fantastic comfy seating for kids....

Don't worry if your kids are 'stuck' in a certain type of series. They'll eventually get tired of it after reading 10 or 12 of them...just like you do. Don't 'force' your child into reading a certain type of book. This is a total turnoff. Remember high school novel studies? Yup. Really let them choose on their own and load up that bag.

One amazing thing your child can do with that library card is search the online library catalogue for books and put HOLDS on them. We have quite a few library branches in Calgary, so, for instance, Ethan will search for dinosaurs (yes, STILL) online and put holds on whatever books he's interested in. The books are sent to your branch when they are available and then...get this...the BEST part is getting the phone call that a book has arrived at the library and is available for pickup. And then the even BESTER part ( quoting Cam) is finding the books on the hold shelf with his own name on there!

see the hold shelf in the back of this photo? all the little papers with people's name on them? jackpot of excitement for my kids.

When it's time to checkout, go to the self checkout counter if your library has it. It takes a little longer, but the kids love to do it. They use their own library card, they check out their own books that they chose on their own, and put them back into their own library bag. Sometimes a book doesn't check out properly and you need a librarian's assistance. Well, watch them puff up their chest as you send your child to the main desk telling the lady that there was an error with this book and it won't sign out. Pretty soon, your child 'owns' the library.

In part 2 of my reading post...I'll explain some of the wild and wacko things I do when reading aloud to my kids. Not really wild and wacko, but stuff that makes reading time fun and interesting....

bleak black blog...

2011-07-28T15:54:00.006-06:00

I've moved and am now living in yet another city. Calgary is beautiful, the weather, so far, is great (a little of this a little of that...and lots of summer thunderstorms, ya!) All is good.

Our new house is quite new, so all we had to do was move in and unpack. There are NO renos to be done. I'm kind of relieved about that. My sewing space is a shambles, as it seems to be the last area of the house to unpack, but my machine is ready...my sketchbook has been in overdrive, and I'm ready to sew.

I've sketched out a few projects, one is in line to get started - I'm just awaiting for the fabric arrival. The sketching aspect is fun, but the actual planning and fabric requirement thing totally hurts my head.

I've been thinking of trying some software out, but being a mac user, there doesn't seem to be many options. I don't think software would ever replace my love for sketching out an idea, but it might help with accuracy and repetition of drawing blocks. I need a tool where I can draw my block idea, and then repeat it, flip it, turn it..to try things out. nothing fancy with fabric patterns and such..just something to work with blocks. The search will continue.

Next on the agenda, is getting blog reading back up and running. I've taken a huge hiatus from blogging - including blog reading. to the point where I had thousands of unread posts....so I've marked them all as read, and will start this week. Oh blogland, I've missed you. I can't wait to contribute to your blog comments...and I hope you continue to follow along with me. It's been a tough year, more than I could describe in words in blogland. But I think....I think we're back on track with life. And I can really feel my passion bubbling again.

solid inspiration..

2011-06-03T13:58:00.002-06:00

these handbags are eenamaria . I love the mod look. Totally wouldn't wear them, because I'm way too boring, but don't they have that mondrian feel? Posting these for future solids inspiration...

ahem.

2011-05-04T15:25:00.002-06:00

tap tap.
tap.
tap.

?

I'm here. almost FIVE months later. Here's the lowdown. If you're interested in a sewing post, move on.

I started running.
I took a break from running.
While taking a break from running, I gutted my master ensuite and renovated it by myself.
My husband got a job. In a different city.
I put my house up for sale.
We have a pending offer on it.
We went to Disneyland.
We went on a Disney Cruise.
I am moving to Calgary in about 2 months.

I puttered and beautified my garden and house to sell it.

As for sewing. Nothing. But lots of ideas. I'm hoping that once things settle, do they ever? I will begin to sew again. My creativity misses it.

Next on the agenda-
start running again.
confirm sale of house by end of week.
call movers, get quotes.
be even keeled for kids and appear calm and organized while husband moves to new city to start new job.
pretend that i don't miss him terribly.
enjoy better weather.
find new home in new city. (husband is in charge of 90% of this. I will visit to say yes or no)
eat icecream daily to appear calm and organized while husband is away.
celebrate 40th birthday.
pack.
move.
reunite as a family.
sew.

makes me laugh...

2011-01-30T20:53:00.004-07:00

My five year old advised me out of the blue today that for my birthday he was getting me a new pair of blue shoes.

and a squirrel.

my birthday is not until mid May...

Confession...

2011-01-24T15:45:00.004-07:00

shhhh...this totally undignifies my quilting status.

This is the first time EVER I have changed a blade. and I only have one cutter.

It was fast and painless - like, less than 10 seconds to do it.

HOLY COW the new one rocks!!!

So, I've confessed. what quilting sin are you guilty of?

united colours....

2011-01-23T16:35:00.005-07:00

I'm creating a lego series quilt, but as I'm constructing it, it has a slightly mondrian feel meets benetton meets primary blocks.

Not quite finished putting the puzzle together, but I see some fun quilting ahead of me.

Crayons on fabric

2011-01-18T19:51:00.003-07:00

Did you know about this? Am I the only one who didn't?

please indulge me and tell me that this is a great discovery for you too..

What a fun, cool and awesome way to make a quilt or even just embellish a block!

You take your normal everyday wax crayons. Tape some cotton fabric to the table, keeping the fabric taught. Colour! Draw! Print! Go Crazy!

Then, to set the crayon, you slip the fabric that you coloured in between two pieces of plain paper. Iron on the cotton setting. Do this a few times. You'll notice the wax will 'soak' into the paper somewhat.

Done!

I did this little example in less than 5 minutes just to show how bright it shows up. I didn't press ultra heavily either. Instead of black crayon, use a micro fine sharpie to draw the image first, and then colour it in. I'm sure it will look much sharper.

Mr. Paleo had a try too - he really liked it, and wanted to make a whole bunch of squares to make a quilt. Again - at the end, touch up with a fine sharpie and it would look awesome.

I bet this would technique would be cool as a watercolour wash style....

Liebster Blog...

2011-01-17T11:01:00.004-07:00

I'm feeling kind of humbled because I received this award the other day from Little Island Quilting

It is essentially 'awarded' to those crafty blogs with 300 followers or less who are quietly going about doing their own thing and possibly not getting the exposure that some of the larger blogs are.

I thank her for the award, but in a way, I'm mad because now I have another 15 blogs that I added to my reader list - you know how you hop from one blog, click on one of the links, hop to that link...see another link...hop there...well, that's what has happened. ;-) It's all good.

While I love some of the 'big names' out there, you've seen them all too. I like the mix of home, pets, cooking, people, crafts, troubles, frustrations....I like to get to know the blogger behind the quilting too.

The hard part now, is that I get to pay it forward and award it to 3-5 blogs that I really like (with less than 300 followers) This one is really hard, because I have a lot, and narrowing it down to 3-5 is crazy. And because I am who I am...I HATE hurting people's feelings...I have 8 blogs I want to list, and the restrictions are 3-5. that's not fair?

In no particular order:

GitDownKitty - Lisa cracks me up. That's all I can really say about her. It's either her or me that's crazy, but I have been in tears of laughter through written emails with her. She's really stepping up her crafting work and making USEFUL projects. And she drives the coolest car ever.

Grendelskin - Sally's quilting has evolved into absolutely stunning work. She's very humble, and I love to read her blog, she always has interesting tidbits to write about aside from quilting. She's one of the oldest blogs I've followed, and I always remember her because she knew about Rene Simard (iconic cheesy French Canadian 70's star) and I still giggle that she would even talk about that.

LiveAColourfulLife - okay, she's JUST at 300 followers. She's the sweetest woman, but has a nasty selvedge habit. She makes the cutest pin cushions, all theme related. I love reading her blog, and she always takes the time to comment on mine.

I've got a million more on the list, and I've really really struggled with this list. I hate to leave people out. Hate it. I don't want to hurt anyone's feelings or make them think I like them any less compared with someone else. I hate following rules. I should just print out my blog reader list and you can have at it.

I like this award because it's showing off some interesting pepole out there, kind of like the little village shop, as opposed to the big box store.

Sure, the popular ones have posts everyday, but I always like reading my regular everyday peeps the best. And for some reason, my everyday peeps feel like friends. You know who you are. ;-)

Word of advice..

2011-01-16T17:59:00.005-07:00

1. Buy apple juice, gingerale, pepto, gravol, when you see the flu rampaging in your house. You,yourself, are not invincible from it. Do not think otherwise.

The family flu struck our house this week. It was glorious and colourful.

It started with Ethan, and hit very suddenly. My husband was heading for a 4 day work function at a ski resort the next day. He made it an hour out of the city and headed home...he got hit with it. And then came Cameron and myself. I was in my glory thinking smugly how we had evaded the thing. I was even at the pharmacy and grocery store.... no, we don't need any extra juice, pepto, gravo.... I can just pick that up another time. the boys seem to be on the mend.

And then it found me in the wee hours of the morning. Suddenly and swiftly. oh how I needed that apple juice now....

nothing like your 5 year old screaming at you because you don't respond fast enough in making his morning strawberry milk. Apparantly, pouring the milk only, and running to bed to quit the nausea and dizziness is not allowed. Cam then got hit that same morning with the flu.

We were quite a family.

(It's slowly passing, taking a bit to regain strength. Just when you think you're better, it reminds you with a bit of nausea or fatigue that it's not quite over. but i did lose 4 pounds. is that wrong to celebrate?)

I've been inspired by this one image I found of a lego sticker pack. I thought it would make a great start to a lego quilt series. I've got a few sketeches that need to be worked out.

Also on my wall, I plunked (really...plunked is a word) up my bee blocks that I have received back so far from my group. I asked for rectangle in rectangle blocks using my Katie Jump Rope stash.

It should make for a pretty cool quilt when it's all ready to go. I wanted it to be a wall hanging for my sewing space. We'll see what happens.

Making mojo...

2011-01-12T14:20:00.004-07:00

How do you make sewing mojo? Can someone give me the recipe please?

Actually, I totally know the parts that are affecting me:

1. New home with 'jobs' that should be tackled...e.g. painting, ripping out other bathroom, carpeting, flooring....

2. WIP's that should get finished and are still hanging around weighing heavily on me.

3. Sewing Bees - one is over. Another one, there's still a bit to go.

Sewing Bees - I know some of you are in many bees. I joined two for fun in 2010. While I really did like learning some new blocks, this has greatly affected my impromptu sewing mojo. When I get an idea and have it drawn out and want to play with it....the sewing bee block package stares at me. Make me. You have a deadline. you need to get it done. And then, poof, the mojo is gone. I won't be joining any bees for 2011. I will finish my committment for the one I currently am in, but that's it.

WIP's - how do you cope with these? I have a bunch. do I just toss them aside and work on l'idee du jour? (idea of the day)

On your marks, get set...

2011-01-01T12:56:00.004-07:00

I have no profound thoughts or reflections to make today... no look backs at projects I've done, accomplishments I've achieved. I have loved looking at everyone else's...wow, it's amazing what is out there. While the first 1/2 of 2010 was awesome and so wonderful for my quilting, the second 1/2 of the year tanked. Understandably...

I still plan on working with solids as much as I can, and make some of my drawings become real life, but also allow myself to use patterns; create for the love of colour and design, not for the need of more blog readers, popularity, or comments. (but please comment, it's such a high to see that email from you!)

I know 2011 will be outstanding. I feel hopeful, inspired, and ready to make this a far better year, consistently... I feel hopeful to experience this:

Zest, Passion, JOY.

I have started another blog based on my goal to be a runner. It is not quilt based, nor life/family stories, but strictly health, running, diabetes, and personal process related. I hope not to fail. My goal is to be able to run 5km by the time I'm 40, on May 20. At the moment, I'm not sure I can run even 5 meters without panting. It will have photos, ugly and beautiful, to document the pain and the victory. Now only if I can peel my behind off this chair and start the process!!!

On my mind...

2010-12-28T20:09:00.002-07:00

Some days I stare out the window and lose myself in my thoughts...

Solids...

Sewing...

Friends...

Health...

New Year...

New Ideas...

New Beginnings...

Do you start to ponder and reflect at the end of the year too?

On my doorstep...

2010-12-13T20:58:00.004-07:00

Connecting Threads purchase - cyber Monday sale - 50% off

I got almost 100 fq's for 50 dollars.

They're very soft, they have a slight sheen to them, and I know I will make good use of them. Kona cottons appear to be slightly thicker.

I will report back on the sewing side of the fabric when I get to it. For now they are mine...uh... well, they're actually dh's, because he's wrapping them up and gifting them to me.

He has the easiest job ever...seriously. I even shop for myself to help him out at Christmas.

I know a few anonymous people from my original post asking about CT were not thrilled with the fabric quality, but when I read AmandaJean's post a few days later, I read all of the comments about their thoughts about CT and most were pretty positive, so I thought for 50 dollars, I'd take a gamble on this amazing sale.

I wish I knew who the anonymous people were. Why are you anonymous? I truly value your opinion, and when you are anonymous, it makes me feel like we have a secret relationship. I start to fantasize about this....maybe Martha Stewart really IS reading my blog. Maybe it's some uber cool european designer waiting to pounce on my talents.

...Maybe it's John Travolta....oh that's a different fantasy.

on my wall...

2010-12-09T14:43:00.001-07:00

ready to be basted and quilted...

details to follow.

New on my bookshelf...

2010-11-19T17:39:00.003-07:00

I must say that blogs are what really got me inspired to quilt and keep quilting...but Weeks Ringle and Bill Kerr's The Modern Quilt Workshop really really got me inspired. So when I heard there was another book coming out, I just had to order it.

Quilts Made Modern is their newest book. It's in my hands now.

If you go to their blog Craft Nectar and scroll through pages 2 and 3 (way better photos than AI could ever take!), you will get an idea of most of the patterns in the book. I like them all...what I like about the book, is that it gives you colour variations and shows how different colour combos will affect the pattern.

I'm going through a phase right now of quilt design burnout. I'm on a wave of not wanting to design my own anymore, and just relax and use the gorgeous patterns that everyone else has worked on. I think this is truly getting in the way of enjoying quilting right now. I sit there and stare at my fabric and the ideas just aren't flowing. And then I think...who am I trying to be? I'm not trying to become a quilt designer. Why can't I use someone else's pattern? That's why they MAKE patterns! What a silly concept... sometimes I think blogland unintentionally gives that pressure. (perhaps it's actually home renovation burnout and I'm just lashing out at my creativity slump)

This book caters to my love of simple and clean design, and has beautiful patterns to feed that need.

The other two books that I am really interested in are Elizabeth Hartman's The Practical Guide to Patchwork (I wonder if it is overrated and it is more how to than patterns. I'll need to see for myself, I guess) and my all time favourite solids designer, Cherri House's City Quilts.

Actually...I think I'm going to go buy me some Cherri House right now. She inspires me.

**thank you for your feedback on Connecting Threads fabric. I won't order for now, there was a definate consensus on the quality. If you have any positive feedback, feel free to let me know. As for the threads, my favourite is Aurifil, and after numerous terrorist -like attacks of thread on my machine, I found Aurifil to be the one to keep the peace. I won't waver from it now ;-)

Connecting Threads

2010-11-18T14:00:00.002-07:00

I was shopping online at Connecting Threads. Have you bought anything from here?
Solids are 3.96/yard, they have a great selection of basics and prints. Some really cute dots and stripes.
Shipping is free with purchases over 50.00 .

And CANADIANS, you know how expensive it is here. If you purchase over 50.00 at Connecting Threads, shipping is only 7.00 . It doesn't matter how much you buy...you don't have to worry about fitting it in an envelope. It's 7.00 They charge a 10% tax/duty fee on top of that. I still think that is an incredible deal.

There are some prints and solids on clearance for 2.96/yard. Kits are 50% off.

I've heard the thread is good too.

Have you bought any of the fabric/thread there? What do you think of the quality?
I'm planning on doing a big order and have done the math.
Local fabric shop here sells Konas for 8.95/meter. Add 12% tax to that. So let's round it to 10.00/yard.
I'd get about 6 yards for the 60.00 I'd spend at Connecting Threads.

At connecting threads, I'd get just over 12 yards of fabric for 60.00. That's if I bought the 3.96/yard solids.

Wow.

Bathroom Reno..

2010-11-13T18:33:00.006-07:00

We knew there was some work to do on the house when we moved in... painting has been ongoing here and is almost done. Just a few more rooms to go. The bathroom was a biggie, one that we are just not experienced enough to tackle.

**insert cheesy sixties disco ambient music now...

Before:

Gorgeous sauna siding....

Yes, that's a yellow toilet, yellow sink, and yellow tub.

We didn't want anything fancy or upscale - just something up to date, clean, white and energy efficient. (That toilet tank took about 5 minutes to fill!)

When the contractors came to gut and reno...we found moisture damage...and HOW! The subfloor that was put in under the lino was fibre board - which totally sucks up moisture like a sponge.

After:

no decor yet...this is bare bones ...

toilet hasn't even been peed in yet in this photo!

We put up one of those curved shower rods for our bath - what a HUGE difference in space it makes when taking a shower! highly recommended.

Onto sewing related posts next time... promise ;-)

sunset...

2010-11-13T09:51:00.002-07:00

First dusting of snow on the mountains... this was a spectacular sunset a couple of days ago(this is facing north east, however) Everything was reddish pink..

Ikea finds...

2010-11-05T17:16:00.005-06:00

I've discovered that fabric shopping in Vancouver is worse than in Edmonton. Well...unless I want to travel 45 minutes. not.

I was looking for some Kona solids for backing my new quilt, and couldn't find the right gray. I didn't want to wait for up to 3 weeks for an online order to come in. I'm so impatient, I need instant gratification. I decided to head to Ikea and check out what kind of fabric and sheets they had.

Grey isn't easy. But I did find a charcoal twin sheet, 100% cotton, for 14,99 which I'll use. It's just a backing right?

On my maze through the aisles (and experiencing almost pedestrian rage as this woman and her cart stopped dead in front of me, in the middle of the aisle to start TEXTING for pete's sake. This is Ikea...do they not know I'm racing through so I can get the $1 hot dog deal at the end?)

I came across this whimsical fabric. They come on mini bolts - 47" x 118"

They are 100% cotton.

I bought two bolts - they kind of 'go' together. The characters are the same, the themes are slightly different.

I giggled looking through the different bolts. Do you know how awkward it is to

be a 6 foot tall woman, wearing a bright red coat, giggling at bolts of fabric? ya.

Some of it was worthy of giggling though.... no words needed here..oh how I love the Swedes!

(if you need me to explain, just email me privately LOL)

such a sweet duck, look at his boxers!

all of the characters are riding on different items, like teacups, shoes, cupcake liners...chairs!

The bolts of fabric were 9.99 each, and there were about 5-6 different kinds.

Now run, scurry, hurry!!! Go to Ikea! Buy some fabric! Send the kids to the SmalLand and take your hubby out for a date night at Ikea! Dinner tonight is only 1.99! Breakfast tomorrow is $1!

Halloween at the new house...

2010-10-31T21:53:00.008-06:00

warning image heavy...

My little mario and big batman...

stairs leading up to my home....

our pumpkins, carved artistically by moi.... please note the creative use of triangles (lol)
my front display....
my culdesac - we all pitched in to make the Tide Place Cemetery...

neighbour homes....truly, this is an immense, insane amount of work, that I would rather partake with fabric and my sewing machine...

I ran out of candy.

They came in cars.

They came in vans.

They came by bus.

There were many haunted houses.

Many foggy scenes.

Fireworks galore.

I was warned.

It was insane.

*truly, it was so busy, no car could get though, there were so many people. It was like a huge long lineup of people filing up and down from house to house. I couldn't even enjoy the wee cute trick or treaters, because there were just too many people, no pauses, no breaks for 2.5 hours straight!

Bloggers Quilt Festival October 2010

2010-10-29T12:06:00.010-06:00

Welcome to my entry for the Bloggers Quilt Festival Fall 2010

Thank you to Amy, for organizing this wonderful event. It's always such a treat to go and visit new blogs and view such inspiring work!

My entry this year is a quilt that I have shown before, the Bedford quilt:

I really like the look of square in square quilts, but I wanted to do something different - with rectangles instead.

For some reason, in my design process, I'm always trying to making things that are just slightly different than the norm. I don't like to use patterns, and like to figure out a design on my own, mistakes and all.

Solids are my favourite fabrics so I chose a wide selection of coordinating greens, browns and blues, et voila - Bedford was created. There is no emotional story today for my post. It was just a beautiful (to me) quilt, and the colours just seem to go together in harmony.

I am really proud of the machine quilting I attempted with this quilt... I made large circles all over, which was a first for me. It was a lot of fun, and once it washed up, I just loved the effect. AND any mistakes that I made in the machine quilting, all crinkled up!

In between the circles, I made curve/feather/paisley type shapes....

I completed the quilt with white sashing, and a pieced border around.... the binding was done in a solid brown.

Thanks for visiting - if you have any questions, please feel free to ask away!

A good thing..

2010-10-27T14:43:00.003-06:00

I'm probably the only one who didn't know this.... but in case you are like me and figuring things out as you go, here's a tip. NUMBER your rows after you have laid them out. That way, when you're doing Indy 500 sewing like I was with the sashing, you don't have to get up an down and remember where they were to be placed.

I know. You've heard it before.

**I used scrap address label stickers, marked them with the numbers and cut them up, stuck em down.

Thanks for your input on the sashing. I have come up with a totally different colour than white or charcoal. Stay tuned.

Loving rectangles..

2010-10-26T17:00:00.005-06:00

I love rectangular blocks. At about 9:30pm last night, I got a simple quilt idea (which I'm sure has been done many o times) to use my new fabric in a simple quilt with large and small rectangles. Easy peasy right?

Piecing is easy - except when you randomly pair them together, and then hang them to position them on your design wall..... This is where I use up wayyyyyy too much time making sure the combinations are just right. Time waster.

So, do I put any white or charcoal vertical sashing in between the rows? yes or no?

The UNprocess..

2010-10-22T15:32:00.006-06:00

In an attempt to make a baby quilt for a friend, I have discovered that part of the process is the knowing when to stop and halt all production.

I was trying to make a baby quilt out of stash and scraps that I already had. I almost was there, until I put the brown snuggles fabric around it. ick. I just didn't have enough fabric to really make something of it - even if just a small travel quilt. So I unprocessed - and removed, and placed the partial blocks away.

I know I need more fabric. But I'm on a spending freeze until I can use up some of my stash.

Except when I bought this set of fq's for 1/2 price at Fabric Flair on etsy. I know it's not solids which I covet - but I really love the charcoal and orange combo of these prints!

Eye Candy...

2010-10-10T17:00:00.001-06:00

1. square motion #2 in sage and espresso brown, 2. City Scapes, 3. Muslin Table Runner - Detail, 4. Color Weave no.2 - Art Quilt, 5. Color Weave no.2 - Art Quilt - Detail, 6. City Lot, 7. Primary Squares, 8. Finally done!, 9. straight on, finished, 10. finished!, 11. LinesFall, 12. Circle Quilt 2009, 13. Muslin Table Runner - Detail, 14. Mod Mood Quilt ~ Get Your Curve On, 15. Circle Quilt (detail 1), 16. Imperfection_1

Created with fd's Flickr Toys

What is your favourite flickr group for inspiration? Simply Solid Quilts is mine. I have really continued to know, that I love solids, I love plain jane, I love the clean lines and beauty of the understated. Above are some of my flickr favourites...

Could it be that my stash will one day become only solids, and a variation of solids - cross weaves, handweaves, hand dyed... and the threads I use will be the embellishment? I'm leaning that way.

I look at all of the different fabric lines out there, and none of them really grab me. Unless, it's two colour, simple dots or stripes. I know. How adventurous.

My stash of patterned fabric will soon become quilts for others... and then I can see a journey continued with solids.

So do you have a flickr group you just love to follow for inspiration? Is there one artist or quilter that you just always identify with, or get inspiration from? Does this reflect or run parallel with your own personality?

I'm not sure my inspirations or aspirations reflect my personality....

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving!

2010-10-10T10:40:00.003-06:00

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving! For all of my American friends, here is an article explaining similarities and differences of the Canadian Thanksgiving. Enjoy! Looking forward to that tryptophan drowsy state tonight LOL

I should be painting...

2010-10-08T12:15:00.002-06:00

I should be painting my raspberry coloured basement. (it's going white) But I am trying to catch up on my bees so I can lessen my to-do list...

Loved doing this Mondrian block. Every single aspect of this block screams 'me'. I love the solids, the blank white canvas, the gemoetric clean lines...Love.
This was a fantastic use of greys and stripes - it will be such a handsome quilt. I will definately keep this colour design in mind for a male quilt.

And finally, some inspiration I found wayyyyyyyyyyyy back in June. This father's day card was the perfect quilt layout to me. I wonder if it would have the same appeal if the squares didn't have the rounded edges. This is where that GO cutter would help with the circles, for sure! what a neat idea - using the cutter on your already cut squares. Applique the squares on beige background... Or just cut a bunch of beige circles. ;-) I'm going to keep this card on hand... I really love the colour combination, and somehow, I'll modify it to work into a quilt.

My new sewing room unfolds...

2010-10-06T11:39:00.005-06:00

The view from my living room window.. believe it or not, if I drive 1 minute down the hill, it's a major shopping area!

My sewing room closet - already had shelving in there. I've mashed my fabric in. I need to organize by colour, etc. My sister thought I had too much fabric. What??? Is that possible?

The room needs to be painted, and we intend to put new carpeting in (well, I'd love hardwood, but that's just not in the budget) It has alot of natural light, so it's a great little corner.

My new sewing cabinet, which I absolutely adore. It's a little taller than a normal table, and works fabulous for cutting and sewing:

I intend to make a design wall right above this desk - for inspiration and for project work. I thought of taking just regular chair rail lengths and frame it around a piece of batting.. hope it works!

This is another view of my new table. Note the drawers are on each end of the table, and the bottom one is full length of the table. Great storage for the unsightly stuff like batting. I love that the table can be extended or folded up to a narrow length... I only have one leaf extended here... The other leaf, I plan to cover with Insulbrite batting and fabric, to make it into an ironing side.
My first bee project in my new home....
I forgot to photograph the next one which was a spiderweb string block. Oh my gosh, those were so fun to do! I definately will be making string blocks again!

I feel bogged by being behind in the bee blocks, but they will get done slowly but surely. Thankfully, there aren't too many red alert speed demons needed.

Finally.. thoughts on this?

Is the internet blogging world buzzing with this new product or what? Do you have one? What do you think? They are incredible marketers of this product - going for the bloggers to spread the word. They know how word of mouth travels...I love that!

I'm not sure what I think about this tool. My first thought is - another thing to find a 'spot' for in my room. Also, I actually enjoy the process of cutting the fabric for my quilts. I love folding and cutting and stacking and watching the colours blend together in their little piles. Would it take away from that - would I become a little factory? Would I REALLY use this to control my stash, or would it just create more to-do projects? Thoughts?

Trying to settle in...

2010-09-26T10:40:00.007-06:00

warning...wordy, personal and all about me.

On moving day, we couldn't move in. The sellers hadn't even moved out. They assumed (assumed!) that the possession time was noon. Wrong. Possession was 9am. At 9am, my semi truck of things arrived, only to find that the house was still occupied. Aside from him telling my realtor to get the f off of his property (well, actually MY property by then) I think when his moving truck finally arrived at 9:30, they literally were throwing their stuff onto the truck. They still hadn't had everything moved out until 2pm. Thankfully, my realtor was quick to know that the place wasn't cleaned, and arranged for a cleaner to come and do a clean in the afternoon.

My moving truck was sent back to the storage yard. Ethan was so upset. Cameron was occupied with the Nintendo DS and hadn't a clue what was going on. Trent was in the minivan, observing me deal in crisis mode from a distance.

(we are still dealing with the lawyers on the extra cost we were charged due to this)
.........
We've been in our place for a few weeks now, lots of downsizing, more purging and realizing how much smaller this place really is.

Trent and I have both had a very difficult time with this transition. We have almost entered a depression of sorts and are trying to get out of it. We've entered the 'what the heck just happened, what did we just do' regret phase.

We realize that the last 3 months have been incredibly stressful, filled with quick decision making, exciting and chaotic, and its all part of the ride, but wow, it's a terrible time getting off the ride. To my Alberta friends, can you imagine, I totally miss Alberta and would go back in a heart beat!!! What I have learned - the grass is not always greener... yes the foliage here is greener, and our mountain views are incredible, but we're missing being Albertans.

The kids surprisingly have done incredibly well. Ethan has adjusted to his new school like a pro. Cameron not so much. The kindergarten here is all day, five days a week, rather than 1/2 days. He hates school, he's clingy, cries alot, grouchy, he is out of sorts. I notice a definate personality shift since our move, and am concerned.

To end on an upswing, the one thing I have not done was set up my sewing space. And I know that was really making me feel down. I was setting everything up for everyone else, and not for me. My sewing table had become the computer workspace, and I had no place to set up. So this week, I decided to take charge and I found a sewing table/cabinet on craigslist, and started to unpack my gear. As soon as I started doing this last night, I was already starting to have a glimmer of hope again. Motivation to improve the home. I will post about that next....

The one good thing about this move - I found my camera charger again!

One more day!

2010-09-02T09:26:00.002-06:00

I move into my new house tomorrow! Hurray!

I'm here!!!

2010-08-11T17:09:00.002-06:00

I'm here...we moved out, we moved on, we drove 13 hours and moved into our 10th floor condo (temporary until September 3) It's 900 sq ft, as opposed to my 3 story home, and I'm experiencing culture shock, noise shock, apartment living shock, dog in a condo living shock, kids going squirrelly within 1 hour shock, kids bickering all the time shock, grocery shopping and limiting to only 2 bags full because the mega security access and doors up to the tower from the parkade are too many to mention shock. It's all worth it though...another two weeks and I'll be moving into my new home.

And of course, there's no air conditioning. It's summer. There's road construction happening literally outside my window. did you know noise travels up?

But all in all, very happy to be home. Sushi restaurant in my lobby. Sushi everywhere. yum. Need to refrain.

We're taking full advantage of the major parks and recreation areas around us, and of course, the first few days we were here, we HAD to get a new library card, according to my son.

So, of course, that led me to realize that even though I have no access to a sewing machine for the next month, I do have access to 3 new libraries stocked with unread (by me) quilting magazines and books. Wahoo!
This is a great summer read, especially if you only have little snippets of time. I also got a whole bunch of art quilting books out to read through and figure out if that's something I want to branch into.

Hope you're having a great summer. I keep up with my blog reading, not alot of posting, but keeping up with what's going on. I'm looking very forward to the fall and settling in and getting started on some new projects.

nostalgia...

2010-07-28T20:45:00.006-06:00

Good bye dream fulfilled grand piano -

Good bye sweet baby boy memories...

and growing up memories....

Good bye sweet preschool memories...

...and elementary aged memories....

Good bye freak snow storm filled Junes....

I'll hang on to the best memories of family love....

and memories of finally finding something for me that I truly love....

Our Inukshuk dream has pointed us home....

Winners

2010-07-28T08:38:00.003-06:00

you lucky ones...

Winner of the Superhero pattern is Dresdon Quilter

Winner of the Turtle pattern is Katie B

I've contacted you via email, please send me your address asap! Movers are coming tomorrow!

...

and begin...

2010-07-26T08:13:00.003-06:00

I don't know why I am posting. Maybe to appease guilt that I haven't posted? Why do I have guilt? That's crazy. It's MY blog.

So there's tragic news here at Millions of Thoughts. I cannot find my camera charger. Therefore I cannot upload photos because my camera is dead. I know.

Movers come in 3 days.. EeeP! I will be in temporary accomodation (meaning - scramble to pack a months worth of stuff in my car ) for a month before we move into our new home in September.

But to increase my stress levels, I figured I'd do a giveaway. You see, awhile back, I purchased a superhero cross stitch pattern from Wee Wonderfuls. There was a glitch in the mail system and I never received it. The lovely owner sent a new one to me. Well, both patterns came then at nearly the same time ( I think one was a postage error). She included an additional hand stitch pattern as an apology, which was unecessary, but nice to do. Isn't this turtlestuffie cute? I asked her if she would mind if I give the extra away and she was fine with it.

So, tell me which pattern you would like to win?

The superhero cross stitch pattern

The turtle hand stitch stuffie

I'll draw two names on Tuesday night and mail them out on Wednesday...

and of course, no you don't need to blog about this or add me as a friend or put a bumper sticker on the car about this to get more entries.... but you do need to be reachable. I won't play tag with you for weeks. So, make sure your blogger profile name allows email replies, or add an email contact to your comment.

enjoy your day....

on holidays...

2010-07-09T19:05:00.002-06:00

So, I went on a 1.5 day trip to Vancouver to look for houses, 2 days before my trip to Myrtle Beach. I found a home to put an offer on, and it was accepted (after a multiple offer scenario)My husband stayed home to deal with work and watch the kids.

We officially 'sold' our Alberta house, and are almost done with with the purchase of our new BC home. We had an inspection done and a few safety issues were of concern - electrical being the main one. So we're just negotiating bits, and hopefully all will be done by the 10th.

I cannot believe that I prepared for, listed, showed, sold and purchased a home in 6 days...only to leave on holidays the next. LOL.

So here I am in Pawley's Island, South Carolina (which is 1/2 hour south of Myrtle Beach) and enjoying the heat, the humidity and the beach and pool. It feels good. By tomorrow night it will feel perfect, when the home stuff is all finalized. We're doing alot of things over the phone and by email, so its still preoccupying us.

Nothing beats the ocean though. Nothing.

Okay. well...maybe shopping.

I am scouting out fabric shops to peruse for sure this year. I deserve it. No pictures, sorry, but picture the beach, and me enjoying it. ;-)

update...

2010-06-29T07:56:00.005-06:00

took the kids to see StarWars in Concert a few nights ago. It was just super. The kids love orchestral music and John Williams is their favourite to listen to (Star Wars and Jurassic Park movie themes)

The live music was wonderful, and I don't know what was better - watching Cameron conduct, dance and sing to the music or just the whole experience itself. Ethan is the study boy - examines and studies everything in the show. Cameron is opposite - just feels it, and experiences it. They had displays in the halls of the stadium - my favourite was the original score from John Williams for the Star Wars theme. It was huge, complex, confusing and made me realize how simple my mind really is. LOL

No sewing news from me. After a few days of getting the house ready to sell, it went 'live' for sale on Friday. Saturday we got two showings, Sunday - a repeat showing. Yesterday an offer, an accepted offer! Now to remove the financing and inspection subjects and we have sold our house!

It's a tight and stressful timeline - that's the only way I seem to live (lol) so we leave on vacation in a few days, and then when we get back we have some serious house hunting trips to do. We'll be following the MLS (Canada's real estate website) to keep track of homes that pop up on the market while we're gone, and then as soon as we get back, we'll make a trip out to line up some house viewings.

June motors along...

2010-06-22T07:20:00.003-06:00

Confetti blocks for one of my bees. I've really admired the look of these quilts on flickr.. .they look so neat. We were to make a signature block with our favourite fabrics for the 'confetti' and I chose some solids. As I look at some of the new fabric lines coming out, I realize how much I like very simple fabrics and simple lines - only 2, maybe 3 colours in a print - and very simple lines in a print. the more white/ black to balance it, the better. How very IKEA of me. LOL. When I look at say, an Amy Butler print, or Anna Maria Horner - I love the look of it, yet I would never really purchase it for my quilting. I absolutely adore Kafe Fassett prints and saturated colours, yet I only admire them in the stores and never pick any up. deep thoughts on a Tuesday morning.

My sewing area is getting downsized/transsformed during our selling/showing of our home. I'm so totally offended. *rolleyes* My two drawer caddies of fabric have been hidden in the storage room. Such a sad time. :( I refuse to pack the machine away though until the very last moment...I still have some flying geese blocks to make for my other bee group.

My home has been transformed into one that is very lackluster - very bare. But if it sells better this way, then I guess that's the way it will be. I'm tired from this work - need to escape to do something creative, but will feel guilty about it, because there's still so much to do!

Feeling the 'obligation' of quilting and blogging right now. When you need to downsize everything and pack away anticipating a move you wonder - will I get my mojo back? Will people still wait for me?? Isn't that silly? Crazy? I need a vacation - I'm waiting for my recently purchased stitching project to come in so I can do something fun in my spare time....it's been awhile, I hope it comes soon! Isn't this cute?

yikes!

2010-06-17T07:19:00.002-06:00

Life has definately steered me away from sewing! I just completed a few bee blocks, but that's about it.

We've been anticipating for some time, and I can now announce it!

I'm moving back to my home province! We're heading back to Vancouver! Yippeeeee!!!

We've wanted this for quite some time, and have been patient to wait for the right opportunity, a paid move, etc and we just got the confirmation.

It's going to be a crazy few months, and I hope I can contribute at least something quilty to the blogging world. I'm working on my sketch of a wall quilt which is all solids, and totally difficult to plan the piecing, but I'm excited about it. Just not excited about the timelines in the next 2 months -

Our vacation to South Carolina for 3 weeks in July will NOT BE INTERRUPTED BY THIS MADNESS!!!
Sell our house and buy a new house hopefullly before school starts in September
Move before September.

Did I mention that house hunting for a new home is difficult as we are a province away? a 13 hour drive??? I think one of us will fly out and check some homes out on our own and then when we narrow it down, we'll all go. dh and I have very similar tastes and wants.

yikes!

Is it wrong that I'm already planning my road trips down to Seattle, Oregon Coast, and California???? I'm so excited for the prospects of things to do!!!!

And no more cold harsh winters!

But lots of soggy sappy rain. But then I can wear really cute fancy rain boots and find someone to make me one of those gorgeous raincoats that I see in the quilting world!

things...

2010-05-31T19:15:00.000-06:00

I finished a few blocks for my bees - this one will be a zig zag quilt. The blocks were easy. I loved the colours. I'm not one that has much, if any, purple in my stash, but truly loved the crisp eggplant, mauve and blue colours against the white. There's also an avocado green which is such a beautiful complement. I think I may write these colours down for a future combination in a quilt.

The next blocks are for my scrap busting bee. The child fabric was to be used as a focal point somewhere on the block. I loved this fabric, so cute! There was a ton of selection of prints to choose from, but I cannot move away from solids, I just think they frame things so nicely.

Still awaiting news, but it 'should' happen this week. It was supposed to happen last week but things were interrupting the process. It's good news, a little scary, but good!

Suki and I were reunited and we've been sewing smoothly...so far so good!

This week, I'm going to be working on that set of linen napkins and placemats and see what I can come up with. Perhaps I'll show you my progress on Wednesday!

Workshop in Process...

2010-05-25T09:17:00.003-06:00

So I don't have anything processing right now, except on paper. But since I really need to start sharing during Workshop in Progress, I thought I'd share some of my sketchbook plans that I've recently been tinkering with.

I'm thinking of changing up some of the colours of this one, and it would make a neat bed quilt for one of my boys....this actually was going to be what I used with the Avignon prints, but the fabric just didn't look right in this block setting in the end.

I want to use bold colours in this woven ribbon effect quilt...I'm still trying to figure out measurements though, and colours (ideas?) I just want to really make the weaving look like weaving.
Taking my Bedford quilt to a subtle change. I just love the colours in that quilt so much, I have to make something else in the colours - bigger too.
This was my original plan for a solids quilt, and when I put it together, it just wasn't happening.

I think this is one of the hardest things about working out your own patterns from scratch - you really don't know if it will look good at the end.
I want to get a few smaller wall hanging quilts for seasonal stuff - not cutesy though. I definately want a Canada Day wall hanging for June/July and this is what I'm working on right now. As you can see, I'm having a hard time getting away from those squares and rectangles.

So there you have it... things going on in my head.

I totally emptied out every nook and cranny of sewing space this weekend and folded, sorted and purged a bit. Holy moly do I have a lot of fabric! (Well, for me at least - ever see the show "Hoarders"? well, let's just say, I'm the complete polar opposite of one of them...I had to talk myself out of purging fabric) So my solids are all in one drawer, my prints all in one drawer, and my scraps - one drawer for solid scraps, one drawer for print scraps.

My bigger guy is home sick with a fever today. I'm hoping to get my bee blocks sewn up. This week is a big week. Lots of sleepless and restless nights for the past few weeks. Perhaps that's the reason for my lack of sewing? Big news and we're hoping to hear today or tomorrow. Fingers crossed!!! (and it has nothing to do with a book deal or magazine appearance or quilting related anything! LOL)

Next post - the secret world of Moda Bake Shop. I know you all want to know. hee hee!

39 years old today!

2010-05-20T14:17:00.003-06:00

Yikes! I have one more year until I need to begin my mid life crisis!!! LOL

It's my birthday today! Nothing special happening, but I make it a point of saying happy birthday to me to make my kids think I never have an issue with getting older.... ( I don't)

I don't tell people outright, as I really dislike the attention. Never been one to throw a party about it. ;-)

Sewing mojo is just NOT happening this week or last ....it's the pits! I can feel it start to come back slightly though, so I hope this long weekend will afford me a few minutes of creative time to get back into it.

39th birthday year goal - to be able to run a 5km without stopping. I've never been an athlete, but I really want to be able to say that 'I can run'.

(quilting goals - duh...many!)

Hey...anyone read the new(er) magazine The Quilt Life? There was a great article in this months June issue about the quilting journey and process. Just kinda hit home is all.

Moda Bake Shop project -

2010-05-13T07:40:00.004-06:00

My newest project for the Moda Bake Shop is up - it's called Avignon Picnic.

Hope you like it!

I've got a chest cold (thanks little ones for sharing) that's kicking me right now... there's nothing girlie and graceful about a chest cough let me tell you. LOL!

Small Sewing Projects...

2010-05-11T07:25:00.003-06:00

I won this gorgeous fabric from Australia - Umbrella Prints on the Modern Quilt Flickr Group - I guess I posted and was randomly chosen some weeks ago. Anyways...isn't this beautiful fabric? It's hand screen printed organic hemp. It would/will make beautiful projects such as handbags, totes, wristlets...whatever. It has a linen like quality... beautiful, and the colours are so fresh. Thank you so much!

I made a couple of itouch covers for my sister with the blue fabric. I was reminded again at how I dislike sewing little things like that. I don't know why. I think I'll use the remaining for some zipper pouches or similar items. They may make some cameos in a quilt or two. If you butter me up enough, I'd be willing to share. (they are just smaller 44x50cm squares)

Confession - is it wrong to LOVE LOVE LOVE the swatch postcard they sent me the most?

My Moda BakeShop project will be posted tomorrow!

Thrifty finds...

2010-05-05T17:18:00.003-06:00

I couldn't pass these up today..

Mint condition linen placemats (thin though - not doubled fabric) and matching napkins, 6 of each. Seriously, I don't think these have ever been used or unfolded. I love the aqua border and thought these would look really cool somehow as a quilt. I'm going to do some figuring out, but I think I may need some Workshop In Progress advice soon!

6 yards of 60" white cotton with charcoal polka dots for FIFTY CENTS! It was supposed to be 12.00, but it was green tag day and all green tags were fifty cents. yay!
It snowed here yesterday, blizzard like, like a good 10cm. Isn't it May? I don't think we got it as a bad as south of us, but still, snow in May??

Irony...

2010-05-03T17:25:00.004-06:00

After writing this, this morning, about giveaways....I find myself in a totally ironic position... Check this out. I feel very sheepish, actually! I didn't tweet, or grab a button, or post about it or facebook about it. LOL!

I am a facebook 'fan' of CT Publishing - and have become a member of their Creative Troupe (still figuring out what that all means)

I'm quite excited to receive valuable learning materials!

A bit of this, a bit of that

2010-05-02T22:11:00.006-06:00

While photographing my latest quilt, this is what happened....

Seriously, why do all cats seem to do this? He was in the back yard and FOUND me. See how smug he looks?

My machine is at the shop. It's getting one more chance. ;-) My dealer told me not to trade it in. But I do have a new machine in mind if it doesn't cooperate after.

Do you ever get into a blogging/internet funk? I get that way a few times a year. I just feel 'done' with it. I get tired of giveaways and completed projects coming out of every corner (but mine) and join me on twitters and become a fan on facebook blog about this on your blog and my sponsors this and that....

I don't dislike individual blogs/bloggers because of this...I dislike the trend to where it's all going, commercialized I guess. I'm happy about people becoming successful and becoming business women and all the aspirations that they are striving for. It just gets tiresome to me sometimes. I just want to see your life and your projects! And one day, if I ever meet a pot of gold at the end of my rainbow, perhaps I will ask you to twitter me too. Except you most likely will never find me on twitter. ;-)

I wonder if the seasonal change has to do with it...the garden is just starting to show some growth now, a few daffodils and tulips up, and weeds too (why are they always out first?) I feel the need to get out there! Or maybe because my machine has been so mean to me that it's transferring over?

So I've been balancing and enjoying things outside of quilting too. Awhile back, I was even dreaming/nightmaring about quilting. That's bad.

We've been on a few road trips....

We had a fire in our backyard this weekend....

Taught Ethan all about twigs catching fire and then running to our pond to extinguish it and the 'pssss' sound it makes when it goes out in the water.

I'm amazed at the bond that Ethan and Mandy are developing - this is a terrible night shot, but if you could see how proudly Mandy was sitting for Ethan while being brushed, it brought tears to our eyes.

Ethan is in an all boy class this year (because there are only 4 girls total in all 3 grade two classes!) and his boy class was invited to sing at the music festival this year. They got dressed in white shirts and ties...and we treated him to a MonsterMudPie afterwards. Usually it's just a cone at McD's, so this was pretty awesome to him!

And Cameron, well, let's just say he's in the ham it up picture phase. I can't get one serious one!

And lastly....are there any blog friends that you have that just sometimes put a smile on your face or warm your heart or cheer you up for no real reason? I have to say thanks.... sometimes I get an email/comment or a reply back and maybe it isn't something you think makes a difference in someone's day, but don't ever underestimate the power of the written word, they do. :-)

Machines

2010-04-29T14:09:00.002-06:00

What kind do you use for machine quilting? Do you like it?

over and out.

Beauty in many shapes and forms...

2010-04-22T10:12:00.003-06:00

I got two gifts yesterday....

from my mailbox.... (my recent solids purchase)

from the playground (lost a baby tooth, had 3 or 4 stitches to his lip cuts)

Making old, new.

2010-04-15T12:51:00.001-06:00

My local thrift shop had these King Sheet sets on sale for 1/2 off. They stuffed them in this handsome Abercrombie bag. I think I turned fuschia pink walking out with this bag, but hey...afterwards I kinda stared for awhile and thought... hm, not bad!

(what's better, the fabric or the bag?)

I was eyeing these sheets awhile back. They are pristine - like I really don't think they were ever used. I bought them not because they were on sale, but because they are colours that I dread (aside from hunter green). Peach, dusty rose and pale pink. Pale pink is pretty easy, but peach? I could do the safe brown and peach, or go 80's with the aqua and peach combo. I'll need to hash this out. If anyone wants the challenge, I've got two king pillow cases of the peach, and two king flat sheets in it. Also have two king p/c's of the roses as well.

Awhile back Evelyn at UseTheLoot was clearing out some of her ~~obsession~~collection of vintage bed linens. She was stuffing envelopes full of fq's and selling them off for a great price. I took full advantage. Thanks Evelyn! Aren't they pretty? I am no longer shopping for vintage thrifted sheets anymore. I'm done. ;-)

I have been slowly working on a quilt project, but life and spring (see comments ahead) is kind of taking priority. I finally figured out (I think) my machine - it needs a different size needle for quilting than it does for piecing. Halleluljah!

Spring is trying to peek through.... I've been making a very big effort to put exercise into my daily regime and have been walking 3.5km every other night. The dog has no clue what the heck has happened! LOL. My feet (not my legs) feel like they weigh 20 pounds when I'm out there though, I'm hoping that stage passes. I am so totally out of shape muscular wise - endurance wise I can handle it no problem...but I think this past year or two of figuring out my health has put me two steps back in the fitness dept. I need to be patient. This diabetes thing is a scary and tolling thing emotionally. Physically, it has shown me who's boss too, and I need to push back and show IT who's boss. That's where the exercise comes in - here's hoping I come out on top of it all....

Hope you all have a great week!!

Easter Weekend

2010-04-02T20:02:00.003-06:00

My husband is on the mend...

I have cabin fever... (husband worked from home all week monopolizing the office and my computer addiction from 7 am to 6 pm ever. single. day.)

My sewing machine is causing me grief. (heard that one before, I know. My sights are beginning to set on a new one)

It's time to get away.

We're heading to Canmore, in the Rocky Mountains, for 2 days.

Hotel, check.

Pool, check.

Pool with waterslide, check.

Breakfast included, check.

Geocaching sites uploaded to gps, check.

Quilt shop mapped out, double check.

Bedford Quilt...

2010-03-29T18:49:00.005-06:00

There's something about washing and drying a quilt that makes it even more amazing than before. After I had finished machine quilting this, I was not liking it at all. You see, I used larger needles as was recommended by a Juki expert on yahoo groups. I experienced alot of shredding and thread breakage, even with my new favourite thread, 50wt Aurifil And it made holes in the back of my quilt. Topped with the gray thread, it just looked kind of icky.

And then I washed it:

Even my uneven circles, my wobbly lines were rescued. My doodling curvey filler in between the circles even start to look cool.

This bottom brown block is my favourite colour block of the quilt:
From the distance, I LOVE love love the effect of the circles. Next time, I would do all of the circles dense spirals...
I'll even let you look close at my crazy filler doodles.... because on the white backing, the entire quilt looks oh so cool. If you are a long armer and reading this, or have your machine on a frame - do not judge my work. I just have fun with it. plain and simple.

I placed a small border on it. I was fiddling forever on what to do with borders. I didn't have enough fabric for my first idea.

Measures approximately 46 x 56 after washing...please excuse the unevenness of the quilt in this last photo - I realized I hadn't stretched it and shaped it after taking it out of the dryer. In this photo, you cannot see the hint of the contrasting dark binding colour I used...but it's there.

It's called Bedford because, well, the colours remind me of Martha Stewart land, and one day, I will have a vegetable garden just like hers so I can stuff myself silly with okra.

Pattern is a basic rectangle in rectangle - no pattern used, so if you're interested in measurements, just contact me. The circles are 12" diameter - I cut out a piece of cardboard and marked the circles randomly on the quilt - then I just machine spiralled inwards from the outside edge of the circle.

Things I learned in this process and want to pass on to you (what I can think of at the moment):

Dense quilting makes it difficult to handsew binding on - get a thimble handy.
I find the Konas fray quite a bit. With the white sashing - trim your frayed edges, as when you baste/sandwich, those little buggers show through and then you have to take it apart because it bugs you.
when cutting and piecing your whites, make sure you really look carefully that you have all of the same lot of white. White is not all the same. I have two kinds of white on my sashing...if you look carefully in person, one is a creamy white. shhh, don't tell.
when machine quilting, look ahead of where you're travelling to with your machine, not directly where you are. Higher speeds often help the motion better (at least for me)
doodle with continuous line drawings on paper to practice your fillers. I used to do this all over my algebra books in highschool, except I didn't realize it would come in handy 20 years later!
when you are doodle filling, try and do this all in one sitting. I did it in two sittings, and found the 2nd time, it took a bit to relearn the doodle pattern groove I was in at the first sitting.
holes made from your needle will close up after washing.

Kona Colours used:

Blue

Candy Green

Celery

Bahama Blue

Herb

Honeydew

Mint

moss

O.D. Green (what does O.D. mean anyways?)

Old Green

Parsley

Seafoam

Sweet Pea

Zucchini

White

**at this rate, it's doubtful that I'll meet my "all" konas used goal by the end of the year...but I'll sure have a fun time trying!

Backing - a white cotton that I get from the drapery department of my fabric store. It's affordable and a nice weight, and it's super duper wide.

Thread - light grey Aurifil 50wt 100%cotton

Basting/Sandwiching - I spray basted and once again, loved it.

Something new to me..

2010-03-29T18:22:00.004-06:00

I picked this up from Craigslist for a whopping $35.00. I don't have time this week to figure it all out, but for 35.00 I jumped at it. It also came with a box of thread! A lady was downsizing her home and moving into an apartment, and her eyesight couldn't deal with sewing anymore. :( I was pretty excited. Now to find the time to figure it out.

Been awhile..

2010-03-27T20:30:00.003-06:00

Life has been busy.

Lots of catch up at home. DH had hernia surgery on Thursday so routine has been a bit off this week.

Kids started Spring Break this week so I should be able to get some more quilting time in...unless we decide to go away for a couple of days to the rockies.

My solids quilt - finally finished machine quilting it, and just finishing hand sewing the binding on. Should have a final reveal very soon. I'll definately post the gory details (things I've learned about machine quilting, needle size, machine speed, thread, holes, whites) about the process. I'm just sneaking into my one a month (solids) deadline here!

I haven't even purchased fabric for my next quilt. Any suggestions for colours? I've scoured the paint shops, big box reno stores, etc for hunter green colour card combos. There's NOTHING...except cognac as the complement to it. I'll put hunter away for a later date.

I've been seeing lots of solids quilts popping up everywhere - seems like everyone has the bug to work with solids! Very cool! I love looking at people's work and getting ideas from it. The only thing is - my motivation starts to dwindle when I see everyone else doing it. Does that happen to you?

I have another project ready to start - here's some fabric I requested for my next Moda Bake Shop project...the colours are gorgeous.

No quilting today...

2010-03-20T18:35:00.002-06:00

Yesterday I stumbled across a topic of Geocaching. I had no clue what it was. Now I do. And now I do it with the kids. It's a blast!

So yesterday I spent all day researching GPS related stuff. Today we went out and bought one (but am taking it back to upgrade to a better one tomorrow) The kids really had a great time and it was so much fun to get out and explore. There's little geocache sites all around my town, in little parks, big parks and forests. Very cool.

It's the thrill of treasure hunting. There's no big monetory value treasure. It's the thrill of hide and seek. We seeked 3 today.

We will definately be out there again.

Lee of Lala's Lovelys blog is in town with her son this weekend. I missed her call today. She's eating at a restaurant 2km from me. I cannot dare interrupt her dinner though and crash her party. Or could I? (LOL) We were going to hook up for a quickie visit. I hope she understands my fun day with the kiddies and why I missed her call. Originally I had planned to be home most of the day, but the weather was warmish and nice and well, we had purpose to get out there today! Hopefully I can meet up with her tomorrow, maybe, if her son does well in his tournament. If I don't, Lee, I hope you made it to at least one of those two quilt shops I recommended!

Adventures in machine quilting...

2010-03-17T18:35:00.003-06:00

No stippling for this girlie. No straight lines. No patterns to trace.

and you can tell. LOL

I'm doing circles - dense concentric ones and loose lazy ones. And then inbetween - filler doodling.

It's my doodling quilt. And there's uneven stitches and circles that are kind of wobbly, but it's fun and kind of therapeutic.

I'm not a perfectionist - I really enjoy process and the journey of learning something.

Here's what I've learned so far - when you are quilting a large pattern, don't worry about where you are, worry about where you are going in about 6 inches from now, that will give you smooth lines. Kind of a life lesson too - don't worry about what you're doing now...but where you are going.... deep huh?

Have a great day!

Juki and I are mending our friendship...so far I've been giving alot more than she has, but so far things are improving. ;-)

me and my juki

2010-03-13T19:52:00.002-07:00

after just emailing the other day it's previous owner and saying how much i loved it.... suki had a big tantrum today, and then of course i did too.

I find it very picky...like everything has to be just 'so' for it to work nice.

I love it's speed, I love the thread cutter. That's it for today.

Hopefully tomorrow we will get along again, and the stars will be aligned just perfectly.

Otherwise I'll threaten it.

A glass of wine is in order. It took me 3 hours to sew two borders today.

Bee Blocks

2010-03-10T17:09:00.003-07:00

So, I'm not sure if I said that I joined two bees.

Hey! I joined two quilting bees on flickr!

Wasn't sure if I would, but then last month, decided to. I'm liking it so far. It's fun to make a single block and learn a technique without having the daunting task of an entire quilt. If you haven't done one, try it out! This one required whirlygigs...what a fun and easy block!

Our group also decided to make signature blocks (our choice) for the back. Here is what I came up with:

Don't look too closely at my work.

1. I've never ever done a triangle block before, I'm a square girl.

2. I've never made a pinwheel before.

3. I've never embroidered my name before (all i know is thank goodness I didn't have my 13 letter maiden last name to do)

So, here's what I noticed when making a triangle block. I think it's called an HST (half square triangle) After I draw the diagonal line on my square, I need to stitch 1/4" on either side of that line. My quilting foot didn't like that (it has that fabric guide which wants to bunch up any fabric on the right of the foot) and I had to change presser feet and use the little guide line on my sewing plate. This was difficult because the fabric of the square was covering the plate markings so I really had to guesstimate.

Any solutions about that one? I'm thinking of yanking off the little fabric guide thingy on my juki 1/4" foot. I actually don't like the guide part of the foot either because it kind of distorts the 1/4" seam slightly larger (I think)

Colours You Avoid because...

2010-03-09T14:41:00.002-07:00

In my quest to use as many Solids as I can this year... I've been looking at this hunter green colour that just frightens me. It screams 80's. I have no idea what I'm going to do with it. My guess is that it will end up in some kind of last ditch effort in a Christmas quilt. LOL

So then I was thinking... what colour do you avoid because it's dated or ugly or too hard to 'go' with other colours?

My challenge is going to be transforming the unpopular colours and trying to combine them to make them a contemporary style quilt - make them in vogue again.

I'd love to hear what your colour fear or avoidance is!

Thanks so much for the kind comments on my ModaBakeShop appearance! I love how supportive we all are of each other - I'll never forget that. I hope I can be the same to you as you are to me....

Check it out!

2010-03-06T00:00:00.004-07:00

So, um this is me! I somehow snuck my way onto the Moda Bake Shop and did a project.

For the last 2 weeks since my project has been completed I have been losing sleep and having nightmares. Seriously. (dreams like....I received 3 comments total about my project and they were all negative. My instructions were garbled and formatting was all over the place and the font was some kind of weirdness too) The worst one for me was no comments. So go. Just comment and make me feel better.

The quilt is already in use and is getting fought over on a daily basis. Need to make another one. That snuggles fabric is gorgeous. All you want to do is pet it. And I want all of the polka dots from the Freebird by Momo.

Thrifty finds...

2010-03-03T13:36:00.004-07:00

I'm terrible at buying things at the thrift shop. As in, I usually don't. I can talk my way out of buying anything. I'm a husband's dream.

These sheets were at my local shop on Saturday and I hummed and hawed ALL day and all weekend over them. They were 9 dollars each set. I said to myself that if they were there on Monday, then I'd pick them up. Monday I was busy, Tuesday I didn't get there. Today I did. And there they were.

See, here's the reason I was stalling - they are each KING sized sheet sets with 2 king pillowcases per set. In pristine condition. I know. What the heck am I going to do with that much? eep! But now that they are at home, I'm sure I can hack my way through them in the next year - and perhaps swap a few prints.

And the pearl cotton? Are those colours the coolest ever? A bargain at 25cents each!

In Between Periods...

2010-02-28T17:48:00.003-07:00

I was working on this...

I love love LOVE these colours. It's a simple design, no special pattern. Sashing vertically and horizontally, and then I think I will frame it with a few rectangle borders to mimic the inside blocks.

What a nailbiting, fight to the end, game. That's exactly how good hockey should be. None of this 9-0 scoring stuff, or no scoring for an entire period. I love me a close, high blood pressure game. What a perfect way to end 3rd period with a tie it up score during those last seconds. Awesome. It could have gone either way at the end, but in the end, let me tell you - what a grand feeling to win that battle. Congrats to USA, and thank you for making it such a nerve wracking experience! Personally, I could care less about the medals we've won...it's the incredible Canadian spirit, excitement and patriotism these games have drummed up!

Closing ceremonies tonight...and then what?

Ah yes, SPRING and gardening!! Okay, maybe I'm getting ahead of myself on that one...

Be one of them too...

2010-02-26T10:48:00.005-07:00

Today I was one of them.

Foreshadow quote "You sure picked a great lineup today, didn't you hon"

I went with my youngest for a jaunt to my oh so guilty shopping at the big box Blue and Yellow store. You know, the one that you know the politics and ethics of the company are quite icky? I go there because, well, on one income, I really need to watch what I spend and I save money there. So, I do.

Ham was on sale for $8.77, wahoo, on the main display aisle, so I picked one up and was on my way.

Went to the checkout (first in line yahoo!) and put all the stuff on the counter. Watching what scans as what price, especially boots on clearance for ds for $3.00 wanted to make sure that went through as $3.00 and not 24. $3.00? for boots? I know.

Ham was a problem. It scanned through for 9.47 , not 8.77. I'm cool. Ask her what it scanned as and mentioned that it's posted as a different price IN THE AISLE DISPLAY DIAGONALLY FROM HER. It's blatantly posted there. In big numbers. She still needs to phone and get a verification of the price check. *blink. blink*

*understand that at this point, there is a woman with her two younger girls now lined up behind me with a crap load of stuff on the counter.

So, her phone P.A system doesn't work. She needs to go to a different phone. One 4 paces in front of her. STILL A MERE 30 PACES FROM HAM DISPLAY

As I'm waiting, ds needs to go to the bathroom. Of course. In a plight of bravery I send him on his own (he's 4) to the bathroom....it's right in front of us and I could ~~whip my cart~~ yell at anyone there from where I was.

All this going on, me being nice and letsnotgetanyoneupsetandrea personality tells her to cancel the ham and put through the other people's orders while I'm waiting.

*there are now 5 people lined up behind me.

As I'm waiting and laserbeaming ds to emerge from the bathroom, I look down at the counter to read something about scanning code of practice. Have you heard of this?

Scanning Code of Practice If the scanned price of a non-price item is higher than the shelf price or any other displayed price, the customer is entitled to receive the first item free, up to a $10 maximum. If a Code of Practice problem cannot be resolved at the store level, please call 1-866-499-4599 to register your complaint.

Finally, finally someone calls back to verify, that yes, indeed they are the price I said they are.

*blink* *blink* (remember...it's right in front of us)

And yes... I, at this point, am ONE OF THEM. The person who makes the cashier give my 50 cents back if I am overcharged. But it gets even better. I point to the scanning code of practice sign on HER counter and say I'd like to use this please.

Now she's the one who does the *blink* blink*. She's never heard of it. It's right on her counter. And on the one 4 paces away that she goes to verify.

And this is when I heard You sure picked a great lineup today, didn't you hon from someone way back in the lineup.

If anyone knows me, I am not one to want attention, I'm shy, I just want to blend in.

Blend in I did not today.

But I did respond to the comment. I replied quietly blushing red in the face, eyes glued to the ground

I'm really sorry about the wait. But the price was wrong, and now instead of saving 50 cents, I saved nine dollars. Ham dinner is free tonight!

And she gave me an encouraging smile and said - make sure you go to DQ (ice cream) for dessert then tonight!

So...I'm not sure if Scanning Code of Practice occurss in the USA, but it definately occurs in Canada....CHECK your scanned prices!! Even if something is two cents difference, you will get the item free!

randomness...

2010-02-22T09:48:00.006-07:00

So. I have been busy. And I have a million thoughts going on in my head. Again.

Like.... will my living/family room ever be free of dinosaurs, lego, trains, kidstuff?

Will my kids ever opt to wear clothes in the middle of the day?

I made a cover for my itouch and my new camera. My husband says they are very 'Andrea'. What is that supposed to mean? (paranoia has set in over that comment)

I've discovered that not only am I NOT a clothing sewer, I am not good at little projects (like itouch covers) My excuse? I didn't use a pattern. This time.

I'll stick to quilts, I guess. My little project is done, just need to get the binding sewn on, and then I can share more. And it's patterned, because that's what it is. My solids goal is still there. But hey, when I'm given free fabric...I'll take it.

Will his teeth always look that big in his little mouth? Good grief, he really needs a haircut.

I love and hate blogging. I love to document what I've been up to, but I don't love how it sucks you in....like really, do I plan on getting famous and appearing on Oprah over my itouch cover? Nope. I see some bloggers really making things happen and getting 'known'. But how known are they. Really? I think of crazymomquilts, and how popular in the blogging world she was, but really, if she quit the blogging world, was all the blogging effort worth it after all?

If I were a cat, would it really matter?

I dream of a career in quilting - somehow working with textile companies as a rep or distributor or SOMETHING to keep me in touch with my love for textiles. But then I think....my job as an elementary teacher, as a music teacher is far more rewarding salary wise, vacation wise, pension wise, and of course I love the kids. Except when they fart near me.

Just kind of wrapped up in a million things right now. And that's only the stuff I'm able to talk about publicly....as in my household, there's always plans unfolding and in the works and I sure don't want to jinx it.

Inukshuk...

2010-02-15T14:52:00.003-07:00

INUKSHUK

Pronounce the u's like oo in book in -ook-shook.

I've been eyeing this for quite awhile. It's from Costco (I love that place!). My dearest ~~predictably~~ surprised me with this yesterday after we spoke about it while watching the Olympic opening ceremonies.

It is made from stone, and is just so beautiful the way it captures the light.

Inukshuk is a stone figure shaped in the image of man to guide lonely travellers in Northern Canada. They point the best and safest passage, land or water.

You will notice the Inukshuk in some of the Olympic signage....

Thank you honey...I love it to bits. I know it's perfect for us and is pointing the direction home!

Thoughts on the ceremony...

2010-02-13T09:35:00.002-07:00

It was very Canadian. Mellow, unassuming, beautiful.
Nelly Furtado and Bryan Adams - too hollywood for me (lipsyncing was evident too) (how on earth could she even stand in those shoes?) and paled in musicianship to KD Lang.

Oh my goodness KD Lang's voice just haunted me and gave me chills. No lip syncing there! Just so unassuming, audience embracing and captures our souls with her voice.

The poet Shane Koyczan from the Northwest Territory - honestly, I've never heard of him, but he resonated Canadian culture through and through. What a proud moment to hear his poem.
What an incredible speaker, writer and representation of a Canadian.

The hologram shows were stunnning and beautiful.

The final torch bearer to light the Olympic flame - meh... Gretzky. It wasn't who I thought it would be, and it wasn't as magical. But I guess he is the 'Great One' in hockey land. Moving to the US way back when is still a little bit of a dagger to many Canadians here. Don't get me wrong, I'd move to the US (certain parts) if I could.... if I would have the healthcare plan as I do here!

My thoughts on Gretzy's lighting of the outside cauldron - sheesh! So much money put into the performance of the ceremonies, and the poor guy had ONE police car escorting him? Did you see the people racing alongside the truck? I thought he was going to get pulled down! ;-)

Onwards - onto quilt posts again!

Olympic Countdown...

2010-02-12T16:55:00.002-07:00

I'm on pins and needles. You can feel the vibe everywhere, and we're a 12 hour drive from Vancouver! My friends and family in Vancouver say the feeling around town is unbelievable!

The opening ceremonies will be a tear jerker for me I'm sure. There's much speculation and secrecy about who will light the Olympic Flame...and I'm routing for one special person. And if speculation runs true, it will be absolutely unbelievable.

I have diet coke, ice cream and kleenex box ready!

Wow...

2010-02-11T13:19:00.005-07:00

Thank you so much to all of your suggestions and comments. I'm totally blown away. It's amazing how many different suggestions there were, and how (happily) divided we were in our opinions! Love that!

I took a day or two off from the colours and said hello again last night. I finally caved and made a makeshift design wall in the spare bedroom *gasp! There are 6 pinholes in my wall now!! anyone grow up in a household where one was never supposed to put pins in the wall??? yup, me!

The design wall made a huge difference in plunking blocks here and there. I've tried the scattered white, gradation, no white, pale blocks, black blocks, charcoal blocks, pastel blocks. I think my design is just evolving, I'm afraid. I came to this last night, and it will likely be charcoal or black sashing. I really wanted to stay away from the comfort zone of black. It's just so typical, and I didn't want typical. It's not cut and done yet though...so maybe I'll let it rest another day.

My next load of fabrics came in, I tried to pick modern neutrals, and I have a plan to do wonky rectangles for this one.

Hope everyone is enjoying the week!

Workshop in Progress...

2010-02-07T14:22:00.004-07:00

I need help.

I love my solids projects...okay I love designing and coming up with a plan, but when it comes to fruition I start to hate it. So, as I'm organizing the blocks in my quilt, I get a few rows done and realize - yuck. I think it's the white I hate.

Do I change the white blocks to another solid, like black or charcoal? OR do I trash them completely and put all the coloured blocks together as I did near the bottom? or do I keep the white and keep going?

Ugh. I hate when I get to this point. I think I'm using too many colours.

If this is the rate my solids are going, I'm ditching the project and getting me some Moda love.

;-)

A new use for my old toy...

2010-02-07T12:37:00.003-07:00

So, I've had this little suitcase for 34 years. It was large enough to carry crayons or a lego stash for visits when I was young. I got it in Germany when I was 4, and have kept it in great condition all these years. I love the pink colour of the lining...and I think it would be adorable one day for my sewing room. For now, I filled it with a bunch of my collection of solids...recently my bloggy friend Jenny and I did a swap - I sent her some fq's of FleaMarket Fancy, and in return, I received a delicious assortment of colours to add to my collection for the year! Thanks Jenny!!

My February solids quilt is almost done! I've had a very busy week, and even though the kids had a few days off last week, it was taken up by sniffles and kids demanding my attention. (the nerve!) Today we are hosting a superbowl party...funny because I know nothing about football, but hey...the food is always fun!

In other news, I received really exciting (like omg dancing with excitement news like a little girl who just found out she's going to meet one of the Jonas brothers) news. I'll let you know in a few weeks - it's not that huge in the grand scheme of things, but for ME it's huge! It's quilty related so I'll be sure to let you know!

KatieJumpRope Quilt (designed by Ethan)

2010-01-30T12:11:00.004-07:00

Washed, bound and crinkly. Just the way I like it.

Blockmaking - using graph paper was really helpful in figuring out measurements and cutting for blocks. *never forget that 1/2" extra for seam allowances!

Fabric Choice - originally I wanted to use some solids like Ethan's drawing but I didn't have any (at the time) and I don't have a big stash of bold pinks.

Batting - I had a crib sized batting piece in that polyester thin batting. I was worried about it when I was putting it together, but after washing it, it's just as soft as other kinds. But, it is thinner, and so this is more of a lightweight summer quilt.

Spray Basting - wow, how super easy it was! I used 505 brand, as it was recommended to be less smelly. It was a great method for a small quilt. I'd get nervous using it for a larger quilt, but I may experiment on a larger one, just for kicks. I'm pretty liberal with my shoving and manipulating the quilt around on my machine, so often wondered if the layers would unstick or shift. Not the case. But again, smaller quilt so maybe better result?

Machine binding - let's just say it's quick, but I don't like the results at all. Perhaps it's that my binding looked uneven at the back or the stitching looked uneven at the back - it looked awesome at the front. But I didn't like the look of it on the back. In addition to uneven, it also looks too flat and not as fluffy as when I hand stitch.

**and yes, this quilt is made of patterned fabric - all from my stash. The only fabric I've allowed myself to purchase this year is solids, batting and backing. I need to use up my stash as well this year, so you'll see a few stash quilts here and there!

**My next solids quilt is all cut out and ready to piece!