Friday Night Sew In Report ??

I have been so busy the last while that I am sure I haven’t posted for forever… and I’m a couple of days late with my FNSI report.  The weather has been glorious here; the best it has been all summer.

Work is crazy busy, the garden wants to be harvested, I have been watching my grandkids a bit with sil being away and dd working night shifts at the hospital.  Today I:

- made chicken soup

- put on a 5 lb crockpot of sauerkraut to do its thing

- canned 11 litres of maple syrup which came in a big jug.  Canning will help keep it from growing mould

- did laundry, three rounds of dishes, tons of paperwork – paying bills and the like, walked the dog, picked some herbs from my greenhouse and took them to a neighbour, visited with two friends this morning

- and then went to a house concert this evening with another friend.  Two women playing and singing sweet Appalachian style bluegrass and folk music. 

I am playing catch-up with sewing obligations.  For FNSI I made the 2 sets of blocks for the 6 inch block swap that I owed for August.  Both of my partners asked for “mixed blocks”, one in pinks, beige and maroon” and the other in “any colours”.  So I made them both the same two blocks.  I think they are all kind of cool.

I had already received my blocks from my partners…. these pretty ones from Kerry in Australia…

And these lovelies from Lorraine in New Zealand.  I have no idea what kind of bird is on the card.  If anyone else knows, please tell me…

I also received some other goodies this week.  The lovely Maria offered to send me some postage stamp blocks and this package full of fun and flirty blocks arrived…along with a card with more birds I don’t know the names of…

And my friend Ida and I did a swap for some postage stamp blocks and I got more fun and flirty numbers from her…

And two giveaway wins this week… Elaine sent me four fat quarters of grunge fabric in colours I would probably never think to buy.  I love them!

And Frances sent me this cross stitch pillow kit, with the pattern stamped fabric and all the thread.  This will be a great take-along when hubby and I go travelling next month. 

There was a deer grazing in the yard yesterday and a bear came through today, but I got no decent photos.  I’m off to a quilt retreat with my friend Dahn on Wednesday evening – the retreat is from Thursday to Sunday. Tuesday night I’ll be staying in Whitehorse with my grandchildren.  So that means I have to get packed and ready to go tomorrow…. YIKES!

Janet

photo an hour

Well I’m super slow getting this post up.  These pictures are from Wednesday, August 29th!   I’ve had a couple of busy weeks…

7:30 a.m. leaving for work.  Fresh snow on the mountains and lots of low cloud but it is promising to be a beautiful day…

8:30 a.m. arriving at work in Whitehorse.  The sky is showing even more promise here…

9:30 a.m. at the coffee shop getting some tea and toast.  The sky is more glorious by the hour…

10:30 a.m.  Lots of paperwork on my desk today…

11:30 a.m. Off to a doctor’s appointment just a short three block walk from my office.  There are lots of buildings with murals in Whitehorse.  This building is an old school which now houses some alternate high school programs – the MAD (music, art, drama) and the outdoor education programs.

12:30 p.m.  It is such a beautiful day out that I am taking all the walks I can.  Had a few errands to run at lunch, including a stop at my LQS…

 

1:30 p.m. Here’s what I picked up at the LQS, some light oranges as I am really short of these tones for my colours quilt, and a cold drink from Tim Horton’s – mango and peach.  It was delish…

2:30 p.m.  Honestly!  I have got some work done today.  If I take a picture of my desk from this angle it looks so much less cluttered…

3:30 p.m. I’m outside again.  Can’t help myself – it’s so nice out that I decided to leave work a bit early.  This is the school that my grandkids attend (yup DGS is in kindergarten this year).  It is just a few blocks from my workplace.

4:30 p.m. Finally on my way home after getting all my errands done.  This is the Yukon River that I drive by on my way out of town…

5:30 p.m.  My favourite mountain greets me as I drive home…

6:30 p.m. A visit from a neighbour and his cute pup…

7:30 p.m.  DH and the dog are home from work.  Zeke and I are off for a walk…

I must have been in bed early because that is the last of my pictures!

Janet

The Quilt is Done!

Well almost so.  There is a foot of binding still to be stitched down and the quilt needs to be washed.  But there will be lots of time for Linda P. to get that finished tomorrow. 

The pattern for this quilt is from 24 Hour Quilts by Rita Weiss.  The finished size is somewhere around 72`` by 60 `` – I didn`t actually measure it but I think that`s what I remember from measuring what we needed for the binding. 

We chose colours for the quilt that would emulate the colours of the Northern Lights in the night sky.  Look at the marvellous scrappy binding.  It really finishes the quilt!

I quilted Marquise shapes (it took me ten minutes of searching on the internet to find out what the shape was called) in the squares to emulate the movement of Northern Lights.

 

And stars in the outer border because it is a night sky.

And I wrote things all around the quilt in the inner border.  I love quilted writing on quilts.  It personalizes them and you can put all kinds of fun messages on the quilt.  I like to think that the quilt owner will have some quiet sessions with the quilt where they just read and enjoy the messages.  No one has ever told me they do that with the quilts I have made them though. 

The backing is a soft grey flannel.

We used a thin batting in the quilt to make it a good weight for carrying around.  Linda and Linda made a bag for it too.  I don`t have a photo of that yet.  But I`m sure I will be showing you photos of this quilt again  

Janet

Things that come in the mail, and a bit of sewing…

It has been a while since I’ve posted a mail and sewing blog.  A bit overdue I would say! 

Here are my wonderful hexie flowers for July received from lovely Shannon.

And my beautiful 6 inch Cathy’s Campfire  blocks from Margaret.  I love the fabrics she used.  She also sent the piece of interesting and colourful fabric, which she says is hand printed aboriginal fabric.  Yes Margaret lives in Australia   She must know how much I love bright colours.  Margaret’s blocks are done and on the way to her but I forgot to take a photo before I sent them.

I did a little scrap fabric swap with Cindy from Fluffy Sheep Quilting.  Here are the scrumptious bits and pieces she sent.  Of course I didn’t take a photo of what I sent….

And I won a giveaway of forty-two colour coded blocks from Kat at Diary of a Flutter Kat.  Look at these beauties!

I know just what I’m doing with the two piles above.  They are getting combined with some other scraps of modern fabrics and I’m going to make this for my next scrap quilt. 

“Next one?” you say.  Well I have made some progress on my colours quilt and once it is done I am going to reward myself with starting the next one.  

Only four purple blocks left to go.  I plan to piece the blocks at a quilt retreat I’m attending at the end of September – so I’ll have to have those four blocks finished by then.

I finished quilting one of the baby quilts…. I know it is such a tiny little thing I should have finished them both by now…. and I still have to trim this one and bind it.  Ah sometimes quilts move slowly….

But here’s one that’s moving with great speed.  A friend from our town was diagnosed with a rare and fast growing lymph node cancer a couple of weeks ago.  He is very anxious to get out to Vancouver for treatment and found out on Friday that he is leaving next weekend.  Fellow quilters, Linda P and Linda H, and I decided we have to make him a quilt.  We chose a pattern on Friday afternoon, picked colours, cut and started the piecing Saturday and finished piecing and made the quilt sandwich today.  Tomorrow I have to quilt it, then one of the others will finish up the binding and label.  There is a collection going on for him and the presentation of the town’s gifts for him will be on Thursday evening.  Sometimes we do some really great things in our little town.  Anyway here is the quilt so far.  This man loves the northern lights and takes fantastic photographs of them.  So we’re trying to send some with him to Vancouver.

I’ll get some better photos of it tomorrow after it’s quilted. 

That’s all for now folks, nah, hah, hah, hah…..

Janet