Just An Old Fashion Gal…

Well, it’s done! 

It’s bold…

It’s solids...

It’s modern…it’s SEW not me!!

My youngest daughter’s quilt top is finished…I must say that it was weighing on me…I started it way back in February/March and it has been sitting there preventing me from enjoying any other project.  Has that ever happened to you?  You have a project that NEEDS to reach completion but your heart just isn’t into it…

Yesterday I put myself out of my misery and got ‘er done!!  What a great feeling…so now I will order some backing fabric…maybe a wild exciting print and finish it off… while she still likes it!!

Yahoo!!  It’s on to another project…think I will be cutting into some nice Civil Wars…:o)))

Thanks for stopping by…have a good one!~P

FUN Friday!

First off I want to SHOUT OUT a huge “THANK YOU” to Anne from Cotton ‘n Wool Blog!

Yesterday I received this pattern in the mail…just out of the blue…from Anne!! 

She said that she loved it, so she knew that I would too!  Isn’t that SWEET?!  How right she was too…I am Over the Moon for this pattern!  How VERY thoughtful and kind of Anne to think of ME!! 

Anne went to Market in Portland this Spring and bought it there…you can read about it HERE!  Anne said that one of her favorite booths this year was Norma Whaley's,Timeless Traditions.   Norma used to be part of the Geoff's Mom design team, but has since broken off and started designing on her own.  Well lucky us!!  What a talent!  I predict an ‘At Home in the Garden’ Blog Quilt-A-Long happening in the near future…you might want to think about it…come on…gather up that wool!!

Thanks again, Anne!!  You made my day…no you made that my week!!

Speaking of weeks..this is what I’ve been working on this week…making 10’ leaders for the mid-arm.  That meant…a lot of fabric…

…and a lot of measuring and marking…and sewing!

Then there was THIS ball of Velcro …would you believe the sales girl took the thirty feet of sticky backed Velco and stuck the non-sticky Velcro together and then put it into the bag…YIKES!!  What a mess…the more I untangled, the more of a mess I made!  Then the sticky tape started to come off…that stuff sticks to EVERYTHING…fingers, shirt, table and other tape!!  I’m hyperventilating just THINKING about it…!!

We need to change the subject…and FAST!

Ahhhhhhhhh…YES…that’s better!! 

Little Mason looks a little like Prince Charming waiting for a wake-up kiss from his Grammy…

  Hmmm…well that didn’t work…I think I’m going to HAVE to pick him up and smother him with kisses!!  Yup…that’s EXACTLY what I’m going to do!

Ahhhhhh…Don’t you just LOVE the smell of a new born babe?! ~P

She’s Up…but Not Running…yet!

Can you see what is up and under the window?  Yup, it took us ALL DAY yesterday to put the Mid-Arm table together but she is up…

..but not quite running YET…

I still need to make three 10’ leaders for her…

…but before I do that I need to buy SIXTY feet of Velcro…thirty feet of the sticky stuff and thirty feet of the non-sticky stuff.

The Hunt is on!  Wish me luck! ~P

A Scrap Happy Kind’a Day

It’s a grey and dreary day here on the West Coast of Canada…making it a perfect scrap happy day!! 

Thought you might like to see what I’ve been working on!   The vine has been hand appliquéd down…

The leaves have been prepped and placed, waiting for the circle flowers ..which I prepped while watching TV last night! 

Now the whole shebang gets glued..just a dab of Roxanne’s glue in the middle of each appliqué piece does the trick!  This will hold everything in place until it all gets hand stitched…LOVE Roxanne’s glue!

There’s nothing like a scrap happy day…

on wet summers day!

Thanks for stopping by…hope you get to play today too!~P

YOU can Help!

Imagine losing everything in a flood or fire…not a pleasant thought is it?  Well that’s the situation in Southern Alberta…thousands lost everything…and those lucky enough to have a home still standing face going back to a massive cleanup!

 

A group of quilters has taken action…rounding up quilts for those in need!  If you would like to contribute a quilt then here is the address…

"Quilting for Calgary"
38 Rockbluff Close NW,
Calgary, AB T3G 5B1

OR for more information please go here~

https://www.facebook.com/QuiltingforCalgary?fref=ts'

 

If you don’t have a spare quilt or two…then pass on THE WORD that there is a need!  Thanks for your help…if I have said it once, I have said it a thousand times…Quilters are the BEST!  Thank you Marilyn, for passing on The Word!

Now the waters need to recede so that the clean-up can begin!

I hope there is a ray of sunshine in your day…Thanks for stopping by…P

A Little Rain Never Hurt Anyone…

Tell that to the people who live in Southern Alberta! 

If you watched the News last night, then you probably saw imagines of the flooding in Southern Alberta!  They have been experiencing some weird and unusual weather in the form of RAIN…lots and lots of RAIN!

My daughter lives in Calgary, Alberta  close to the city centre…this is the street that she lives on!  Yup, that is the street and those cars are abandoned…

This is the street that she drives down to get to work…in fact this is the street that she was cursing this winter as it is on a HILL…and she spun a 360 as she droved down it on the new fallen snow!  Well she won’t be cursing this hill anymore because it’s that same hill that kept her and her boyfriend’s house safe from flood waters!

This is the view from their street…much of city centre is UNDER water!

These are million dollar homes…who would have ever thought that someday they would be under water! 

The other side of the hill…leading to the city and a sea of water!

  

You can just make out the top of the tennis court net in the middle of this fenced area… No one playing tennis today!  

 

And here is a picture of my daughter, Erin in the pouring rain…look at her puppy Scout, using big sister Lola for an umbrella!!  A girl’s got to do what a girls got to do to keep dry!

I sure hope the worst is over and the waters recedes!  The folks of Calgary and Southern Alberta are in for a huge clean up!  My heart goes out to them…

Hope the sun is shining down on you today…and always!

Back in the Saddle AGAIN!

I have to tell you, I have been a lost sheep this past week…no sewing room to hunker down in!!  And yee-gawds…HOCKEY playoffs on TV in the Family Room!!  A girl NEEDS a sewing room at times like this!!

Well I am happy to report that I moved back in last night…and I have NOT stopped smiling!! 

Let me take you on a quick tour..keep in mind that it’s nothing fancy!  I needed more space to put the mid-arm…hence the wall came tumbling down!  I now have a sewing room/exercise room combine.  

I had to close the blinds for the pictures (it is actually a VERY bright and sunning room!)

There is an outside door leading to a courtyard area.

The actual sewing centre…

This shot was taken from the other side of the room…now you can see the exercise area…I need to be proactive and exercise daily as I have arthritis in my back. 

To the left is sewing, middle of the room is cutting and to the right is ironing.  I am standing where the mid-arm will go.

Grrrrr…look at that white dust on the chair…I JUST wiped it off!!  I think I will be fighting with drywall dust for awhile!

  I love this old chest of drawers…it holds my Civil War fabrics…:o))

And under the window is where the mid-arm will live…it’s 10’ long and needs a big space to live.

SEW…what did I do last night…watch a little HOCKEY?  NEVER!!  I put on an audio book and prepped more appliqué work!!  Would you believe I ran out of hand work!  Unheard of!

Hope you enjoyed the little tour…like I said, nothing fancy but it’s my little (wo-)Man Cave…no HOCKEY…football, golf, wrestling, car racing, soccer…make that NO SPORTS in general! :o)  Just stitching…and a good book!!

Ahhhh…heaven!! 

Zen-sational Stitches…

Some of the Heritage Quilters participated in a Workshop on a new form of doodling called ZenTangle… Have you heard of it?

Well…neither had I!! 

Zentangle is an easy-to-learn, relaxing, and fun way to create beautiful images that are unplanned, abstract, black and white art.  The ladies in the workshop created square paper tiles that were exquisitely beautiful and were one of a kind art pieces worthy of framing!

Have a look for yourself!…

Beautiful, aren’t they?!  This was what they produced in the morning.  After lunch they were going to apply their newly acquired skills to quilting!

Check out these sample quilts!  WOW!

   A work of Art to say the least!

And when you get REALLY ambitious, doodle a zen-sational umbrella!

The good news is..you don’t HAVE to take a class!  You can buy this book….

…OR…just  ‘Google’ ZenTangle and you will get unlimited info on how to Zen Doodle!  There are free videos and there is even a ZenTangle Blog!  So fill your boots…in fact you might even want to ZenTangle them!!  Go ahead and make a fashion statement!:o))

Have a Zen-sational day and thanks stopping by!~P

Celtic Quilting…

For those of you who are interested in Delores’ Pillows, this is what she had to say about them….

The designs on the pillows are Celtic Quilting.

Definition from the Web:

These quilts use bias strips, appliquéd in a Celtic design.

The basic shapes used are spirals, diamonds, interlace, zigzags and keys.

Thanks for the info Delores!!  We appreciate it!
P

Heritage Happenings…

There has been absolutely NO quilting going on around here… BUT that doesn’t mean that the girls at Heritage have been sitting around eating bonbons all day, waiting for ME…no, no…they have been busy stitching and quilting…leaving me behind in their dust!  And it’s a good thing because this morning you get a little peak at what they have been up to!

Delores finished her pillows…using strips of turned bias tape.  Now this is a special technique…DELORES HELP…send me an email fast and we can inform the readers what and how you did this!!  I totally forget…but I do remember the bias fabric was continuous and couldn’t cross over or under in certain spots…which would have turned me into a drinker!  These were all hand stitched while at Heritage…

A scrap happy quilt filled with love…

This is Barb’s little masterpiece!  Exquisite!

You really have to see this quilt up close and personal to appreciate all the work that went into this wee quilt!!

 

The Heritage girls are very generous with their time, talent and quilting…two more charity quilts to add to the pile!

This Pelican looked VERY life like…such a talent to be able to do this!

I bet a lot of you will recognize this gorgeous block that Carol is working on…the pattern was taken from Pat Sloan’s Blog.  It was a FREE BOM that she offered a couple of years ago!  Some of these quilt designers are so generous with their Free patterns!  Just a shout out to them…we APPRECIATE IT!!

Elizabeth looks warm and cozy under her beautiful split rail quilt!!  Wonderful labour of love, Elizabeth!!

Every month the Guild has a BOM raffle…if you want to participate you take the pattern for the block, make it and when you bring in your finished block you get a raffle ticket and a chance to win ALL of the blocks that come in.  These were last month’s blocks…winner was Jane!!  Just wait till you see what she did with them!!  A REAL winner!

Loved this baby quilt…VERY sweet!!

And nothing more fun to make than the Twister Quilt!  Makes me want to Twist Again..like I did last Winter!  Ohh.. Twist again like I did last year! Go ‘round and ‘round…SLAP ME QUICK!!

This quilt top was found in the quilting cupboard…some anonymous quilter left it there…so Hazel took it home and quilted it!  This is not a great picture but this quilt turned out wonderful…and will be added to the Charity Mountain! 

Hazel’s quilting has been growing by leaps and bounds…which proves the more you practice, the better you get!!  Would you believe that she traded in her mid-arm for a long arm?  Yup…there is no stopping this quilter!  Stay tuned!!  I predict you will be see lots more of Hazel’s quilts!!

Hey…remember Heritage Judy from down south?  Yup, she is still making place mats for the Meals on Wheels Program!  They give out her free placemats when they deliver the meals!!  How tickled the recipients must be!

MORE charity quilts….Would you believe that close to 30 of these quilts were made!!  Awesome!

Yes, we even have some brave souls modelling hats that were made in a workshop happening downstairs!!  These ladies are all ready for laying around on the beach…

And look at this sweet toddler’s quilt!  It’s an eye spy…

…lift up the nine patches to find the bears…where are the fishes? where is the car?…and so on!  Great fun and a learning tool as well!!  This grand child is going to be extra ‘mart!

I think this one of Hazel’s quilts…just wonderful!

…and beautifully quilted on her new machine!

LOVE this quilt!!  Visually stunning!!  

I took a picture of this quilting…not sure which quilt it was on but isn’t it wonderful!!  I need to ‘Pin’ this one!!

You can never have too many bags…and these are perfect to take to our Farmer’s Market!

This quilt is the perfect example of how a simple quilt can be a stunner thanks to the choice of fabrics!!  WOW!!

No…I am not caught up…YES, I have been bad at keeping up with Heritage Happenings!  BUT I’m blaming it ALL on the quilters!!  They just crank out way out too many quilts every week! 

Before I go, I need to thank everyone for leaving such sweet comments yesterday about the birth of Grammy’s little Mason!  They sure warmed this ol’Grammy’s heart!  Thank YOU sew very much!! 

How about just a couple more baby pics?  Come on…humour me!

Here is the man of the hour…snuggling with mom!  Well that didn’t last long…

Maggie came over from Vancouver for some snuggles of her own!!  Doesn’t a baby look good in her arms…just sayin’…:o}}

AND of course Grammy had to have a little snuggle time too!! 

 

Before Maggie snatched him back again!!

Yes, little Mason is going to be in hot demand…Just wait till he meets the rest of his Aunties!!  Yowzers!

Thanks for stopping by and putting up with more baby pics…  Yippee!!  I’m a GRAMMY!!