WHAT?? A CHRISTMAS QUILT-A-LONG??…

…in August?  Yup, you heard me!  Quilt Sue (Quilt Time) had the brilliant idea to set aside the second Saturday of each month and have a Christmas Quilt-A-Long where on that day we only work on Christmas projects.  By the time Christmas rolls around we will be WAY ahead of the game (for once!).  Sign me up…but I might have to do my stitching on the following day…Saturday is, after all, my Garage Saling day…;o) 

So pop over to Quilt Sue’s blog and sign-up…and don’t forget to wish her a Merry Christmas!!  She will be posting a Christmas Quilt-a-Long Button to help us get into the Christmas spirit!! 

So do you think I have any Christmas projects to do? 

For starters how about…FINISHING off Magical Christmas by Lynette Anderson…all the little reindeer in the centre of the stars have been stitched…and the fabric has all been bought and is waiting….

Then there is this little number~ shouldn’t take too long to whip up 4 or 5 of these gems:

I LOVE this Christmas quilt…I’ve wanted to make this quilt ever since I bought this book~

LOVE this book-Primitive Christmas!!  Ohhh, wait that reminds me…see the quilt on the top…

YES THIS ONE!!  I saw this one at a Quilt Show- stunning!!  He has been on my list for way TOO long…

And we aren’t even into the Christmas WOOL projects!!

Like this ornament penny rug~    

Or Cheri’s Grandma’s House…SEW adorable!!

YIKES!!  I can’t forget this GORGEOUS quilt that is going to take me at least 50 years to make…but SEW worth the effort!!

Look it’s such a huge project that it came in four packages!! It’s called the Merry Christmas Quilt by Heart to Hand…sigh…

Then there is this sweet little stitchery by Natalie Lymer….

I’m not even going to SHOW you this quilt…but isn’t it beautiful…maybe next year? (It’s in the Cold Wind Blows by Blackbird Designs).

    

SEW many projects…SEW little time…

SEW let’s put the pedal to the metal…and get cracking…thanks Quilt Sue for the Christmas reminder!!  SHHEEESH!!! I think I’m going to need more than ONE day a month!! ;o)

Have a super Saturday and Happy Quilting!~P

Score!

Australian Quilting Magazines are wonderful~ full of gorgeous quilts and stitchery patterns…LOVE them!  But do you know how hard it is to find a shop that sells them where I live? Very difficult… I usually go to Bollen Books in Victoria and they only get a few in so you have to go often before they are all gone!!  Well… look what I scored at a Thrift Shop in Victoria!!  For the price of two magazines I was able to score…

…a total of 11 magazines!! 

I did a happy dance right out of the store…

This weeks Day Trip took us to Youbou…a little town on the Cowichan Lake.  I grew up on this lake…or rather IN this lake!  I would get up early… sometimes before 7 am. to attend Swimming Lessons here at Arbutus Park.  I would walk the railroad tracks from my house to here..and it usually took about 10 minutes…the railroad tracks are GONE but the park is EXACTLY the same!!

The ONLY change that I could see was the ramp leading to the swimming pool…there use to be two logs chained together leading to the main wharf.  You had to be steady walking on these logs or you would fall in before getting to your lesson. 

This is one of the reasons why I love swimming so much.  I LIVED in the water!  Cowichan Lake is huge~ over 30 km. long and is crystal clear…one of the largest fresh water lakes on Vancouver Island.

Arbutus trees are growing all around the park, hence the name Arbutus Park.  Look at the initials carved in this tree..wonder how many years they’ve been there?  I wonder if R.M. will return to check on his/her initials?

Don’t you just love returning to your childhood haunts – seeing how some things have changed…and other things have remained exactly the same…or are completely GONE!    I can guarantee that these kids will have some wonderful memories of the their times spent at this park!

 

The Arbutus tree is the  only native broadleaf evergreen tree in Canada…with a unique bark that splits and peels leaving a smooth orangey trunk…and broad, rich looking, waxy leaves.  Being evergreen these trees are always green but they do loose their leaves…they are like a shedding dog…if you know what I mean!  They have white flowers that eventually forms berries that the birds love to eat. 

 

Arbutus trees are gorgeous to look at but can be messy in your yard ..what with the bark peeling, the leaves shedding and then the berries dropping…you would be always raking BUT I think it would be worth it!  They are magnificent trees!    On our way to Youbou I stitched…here’s a little snippet of the penny rug I’m making for the swap with Quilt Sue…     

Wish I could show you more…but I want to keep the ‘good parts’ a surprise!!

Have a frisky Friday and Happy Quilting/Stitching!~P

Give Away Spotted!!

Marj from Eclectic Quilter is celebrating having over 40 Followers by having a wonderful Give Away!!  Look at the lovely hand bag pattern that she is giving away to some lucky winner!!

I have NEVER made a hand bag before…maybe it’s time I turned some of that FREE Garage Sale upholstery fabric into something glamorous and useful?  Hmmm, second thought, you really don’t want to go over to Marj’s and enter this give away…it tastes awful and it’s good for you and besides there’s nuts in it…;o)

Seriously… Marj has a wonderful blog…you are going to want to do a lot more than just enter this wonderful Give Away…you’re going to want to become a follower!!  Hurry on over and say HI for me!!

Make sure you watch “The View” this morning as President Obama is on!!  What a charismatic, dynamic person…I watched all the American political shows and debates when the American elections were happening…he got MY vote and I’m Canadian!!  American politics is MUCH better than ANY reality shows on TV!!  They can’t write scripts like this for TV…I mean squeaky clean John Edwards in a scandal and now Al Gore…yikes!!  and then there’s Sarah Palin…I mean, it doesn’t get any better than this!! In Canada our politics/politicians are so boring…painful to watch!  Don’t get me wrong…they lie, are dishonest and break campaign promises left, right and centre but at the end of the day they all go home to their wives…we need another PM like Trudeau to shake things up!  This is just one quilter’s opinion…

Have a thrilling Thursday and Happy Quilting!~P

Free Motion Quilting’s Not Free!

I am in awe of quilters who can free motion quilt using a plain ordinary sewing machine…I HAVE tried and it ain’t pretty!  There are bumps and lumps where the stitching should be straight and there are sharp point where there should be curves…I am hopeless.  And the length of the stitches…well let’s not even go there!!

For the past 6 months I have been watching Leah Day’s videos on 365 of Free Motion Quilting Filler Design (LOVE this blog-she is so wonderful!!)  She makes her quilting designs look so easy..so effortless…so flowing…”I WANT TO LEARN HOW TO DO THAT!!” I tell Lisa after each broadcast. SEW…today I put together a bunch of practice fabric sandwiches…watched a couple more videos…did some practice drawings and then tried a fabric sandwich…needless to say…you won’t be seeing any pictures in the near future of my free motion quilting!!  I then phoned Satin Moon Quilt Shop and enrolled in three free motion courses!!  Two are in October and one is in November…The morning class is for beginners~this is what we will be working on…

 

I’m a good, keen student so by that afternoon I figure I’ll have advanced to intermediate ;o) so I signed up for the Intermediate Free Motion class from 1-4!  This is what we will be doing~

Yikes…do you think I have bitten off more than I can chew?…

A month later, after they have recovered from my Intermediate MESS…I am hopefully going to slip in and take this class..free motion quilting borders.  Now this one looks like fun!!

In the meantime…think I’ll keep working on those sandwiches…and that’s no baloney!  Yeah, yeah…I know..I know…lame!

Have a winning Wednesday and Happy Quilting!~P

Raspberry Tea…continued…

Here, let me pour you another cup of tea while the parade of quilts continues…oh and how about another slice of cake?…darn I wish I had taken a picture of the Raspberry  Shortcake but I always hate the looks that I get from the people who don’t KNOW WHY I’m taking pictures…YOU know ‘the looks’…when you bring the camera out to take pictures of food…like it’s your last meal…or…like you’ve never had sweets before (poor thing)…like you’re weird…So picture this- a 5 inch square of homemade cake…(it was really 4 inches but it’s my picture) topped with freshly picked raspberries, all plump and juicy and a HUGE dollop of whipped cream…delish…

So I’ll bring on the rest of the quilts while you finish eating~

This gorgeous Dresden Quilt was really old…I don’t know who owns it or the story behind it but the Dresden flowers are sewn onto a crinkled muslin…almost looks like flour sack material from the olden days.  There was no batting in this quilt so it’s a summer quilt and I just LOVED it!! All hand done~ sheer perfection!!

This is Linda’s quilt- above is one side and below the other side!  She is such a lovely quilter…I enjoyed looking at all the different blocks- all hand quilted.  Linda lives on acreage surrounded by farmland so this quilt would be perfect in her home.  Just gorgeous!!

Janice made this Japanese quilt…isn’t it wonderful?

Another Scrappy Quilt made by Miriam from the Duncan Heritage Quilting  Guild…a split 9 patch.  I really want to try this block…

This was another one of Miriam’s quilts…just lovely!

Another beauty made by our talented Linda!!  What a prolific and wonderful quilter!!

  

A close-up of her work!!  Everything ALWAYS matches!!

This is Marion’s lovely Drunkard’s Path…we finished Hand quilting this beauty last October.

Another stunner…

 

Elaine’s husband bought this quilt as a surprise gift for her…made by an Amish woman back east..just look at the work in this quilt!!  STUNNING!

 

Another quilt made by Linda…so sunny and cheerful!!  Wouldn’t this quilt brighten up any room!!

 

You have seen this quilt before…I called it the “Dead Lady’s Quilt”..a thrift shop find…Well I’d say the “Dead Lady’s Quilt” has come back to the living!!

Another stunning quilt!!

I JUST had to share this quilt…do you have any of grandma’s hankies in a box somewhere and you don’t know what to do with them…like me?  Well look what one quilter did with such hankies…

She turned them into a basket quilt!!  Too cute!!

And finally…this scrappy log cabin…made by Anna…just gorgeous!!

 

Look at the stitching…in the middle of each log…makes the quilt sing, doesn’t it?

Just love it!!  A true work of Art…and a master at her craft!

Hope you enjoyed the Raspberry Tea as much as I did!!  Wasn’t the shortcake delicious? :o)

Have a terrific Tuesday and Happy Quilting!!  It’s another glorious, sunny day!  ~P

Raspberry Tea… anyone?

Yesterday I got all gussied up (put on a skirt) and went to a Raspberry Tea and Quilt Show sponsored by the Sylvan United Church.  Now this is no ordinary Quilt Show…this is a quilt Show where we get to show off OUR quilts.  Every year our Hand Quilters are asked to display the quilts that we have made-the new ones and some of the old favourites. (There are also quilts made by members of the congregation.) Raspberry Shortcake and tea/lemonade is served and then a stroll through the quilts is in order…. 

Although I have been with our group for three years this is the first time that I have participated in the Raspberry Tea- why you ask?  Well…because before now I had nothing to show…I gave away most of my quilts.  And in the three years since joining I have only had two of my quilts hand quilted…a sunflower quilt, which I gave my sister and my snowball quilt.  So this year I had 14 entries- my snowball quilt and 13 other smaller projects (machine quilted Schnibbles and wool work mainly). 

Let me show you some of the quilts on display… 

LOVED this hexagon quilt…4 inch hexies and all hand sewn.  This was made by a lady who belongs to the Guild in Duncan.  Just lovely!

Marj made this lovely Christmas quilt 4 years ago.  Gorgeous!!

This tiger was made by another lady from the Duncan Guild…just stunning… (I think I am going to HAVE to check out this Guild…!!)

Look at her free motion quilting…she said she has taken lots of classes…is it me or is that tiger looking this way!! YIKES!

I NEED to make a Dresden Quilt…every time I see one I start to salivate…what’s with that?

 

A close-up shot…

Closer yet…LOOOVE it!!  Yes, I’m darn right drooling now…

One of Leah’s masterpieces..scrappy style!

 

Leah’s scrappy log cabin!

A close-up…what is it about Log Cabins…so homey and warm and cozy!

I can see Linda’s quilt hanging on the back of a couch…in a cabin..in the woods…wouldn’t it be perfect for that?

 

I remember working on this quilt…it was the last quilt we worked on with our wonderful Anna before she passed away.  I remember she had it proudly displayed on her dining room table.  Anna was in our group for over 30 years (one of the founders of our little group)…and such a wonderful lady.  I think our group will always miss Anna.

Another one of Anna’s quilts…she was in her 90’s and still quilting strong!!  She was planning her next quilt when she passed away!  That’s how I want to go…with my needle in hand…but I want to at least reach a hundred…after all…have you seen ALL my patterns!! 

  

Such gorgeous work!!

  

I have lots more lovely quilts…but I don’t want to overwhelm you SEW PART 2 tomorrow!!

Have a Marvelous Monday and Happy Quilting!!~P