Halloween at the new house...

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

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..

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..

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..

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...

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!

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...

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...

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...

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!

I move into my new house tomorrow! Hurray!

I'm here!!!

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...

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

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...

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...

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...

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...

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!

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!