Quilting Photo a Day October 28th–Squares

Yesterday we had “Jigg’s dinner” – a Newfoundland specialty and had DD’s fiancé’s family over for dinner.  Some families have this every Sunday!  This is the squares part of the dinner as in “three squares a day”.  You’d only need one square a day with this feed.

L to R top row – blueberry duff (a not too sweet white cake with blueberries), cabbage

L to R centre - salt beef (this is quite like corned beef),  turnip greens, stuffing (or as some call it – dressing), pease pudding, turnip, carrot

L to R bottom row – roast turkey with gravy, potato

The desert can be viewed on the previous post.

As for sewing squares, I finished the two baby quilts before I left.  One square ran when I washed it and left dye on the backing fabric.  My friend Linda P. was going to rewash it and try to get it out.  Did it work Linda?

Janet

Quilting Photo a Day October 27th–Solids

Is there a difference between solids and squares?  I mean when you’re speaking of food.  Here is the solid part of the meal – yummy pumpkin/squash pie!

The quilting solid is another block I have made and mailed in the last few days.  We are supposed to keep this a secret so you get a back shot.  I will say we were supposed to pick a solid that fits our personality.  This is what I chose.

Janet

Quilting Photo a Day October 26th–Brown

We had a great day out in the St. John’s area yesterday.  We went to a pumpkin patch/vegetable farm with a petting zoo, had a great lunch in Shamrock City Pub (kids allowed during the day), saw the “stinky ship” – a Russian cruise ship that was halted in St. John’s about a year ago due to all kinds of infractions.  And it does have a weird smell.  And went out to Cape Spear, the easternmost point in North America.  (Wickipedia says “excluding Greenland (see Nordostrundingen) and the portions of Alaska west of the 180th parallel of longitude (see Semisopochnoi Island).  I love the brown colour of the rocks here.

I think I’ve mentioned before that I don’t use brown very often in my sewing.  But I don’t think I ever showed this apron I made for my S-I-L last Christmas.  He works at a micro-brewery and is very knowledgeable about beer.  He doesn’t look overly happy in this photo, but I think he liked his apron.

Janet

Quilting Photo a Day October 25th–For you

I am pretty sure this means for me. 

This is what I brought to work on this trip for myself.  I haven’t done anything on it yet. And I just discovered that I didn’t bring the background for block 2 that I put together before I left.  Rats.  Oh well, if I even get this block finished it will be an accomplishment.

And I did find a quilt store.  Apparently one of two in the area, although I think there might be another one on the west side of the island – oh 1000 miles or so away.  I had a quick visit in the store as DH was waiting in the car.  DD and J (my step granddaughter?) came in and were looking at the wool that they also sold as well as Pfaff machines.  I only bought one fat quarter, but it is “for me”.  They didn’t have many fat quarters cut and there were a couple of women getting scads of fabric cut.  Fabric there is only $8 – $9 a metre; less than half of what we pay for it in Whitehorse!

Janet

Quilting Photo a Day October 24th–For Someone Else

Oh goody!  Since I’ve been sewing for someone else since I left on holiday I have things to show…. and first of all I get to show you my completed Mouthy Stitches bag.  It went off in the mail today.

The front….

The back….

The reverse…

And my partner commented on my Flickr photo that she likes it – YAY!  I got her preference right…

I need to tell you the trial I have gone through the last few days getting this bag done.  I finished up the hand stitching and figured piecing it together would be easy.  My daughter said her fiancé’s nan had a sewing machine and would be happy to let me use it.  Well it turned out that she hasn’t used it for quite a few years and the tension was terrible and I couldn’t fix it.  I snuck out pretending that it had worked just fine because I knew she would be apologetic otherwise.  Fortunately my daughter has been hinting for a while that she wants a machine so I went and bought her one – a Brother from Walmart, but it works just great!

Here are the September hexies for Christine in Australia.  I finally got them finished and mailed them today.

Janet

Quilting Photo a Day October 23rd–Triangles

Here is a triangle of fresh lobster waiting to go in the pot.  Did you know that Newfoundlanders cook lobster in sea water.  DH and DD’s boyfriend had to make a trip to the beach to get two pots full.  It was the best lobster I’ve ever had.

And here are the little triangles that I stitched on the key fob to accompany the Mouthy Stitches bag…

Janet

Quilting Photo a Day October 22nd–Extra Large

I’m stumped by this prompt.  So far in Newfoundland I’ve seen nothing quilting related, except my own projects… So here is a view of the extra large ocean…This is the end  of “the feather” – the point between Harbour Grace and Bryant’s Cove (where DD # 2 lives).  We hiked out here this afternoon as the sun was going down, through lush green and rock, with horses and cows feeding all around.  Beyond the island, which is uninhabited but used for sheep grazing at times, is the wide ocean, stretching to Great Britain.

And here are DGD and DGS in the extra-large aprons I made for them. 

Here’s the backing fabric on DGS’s apron…this pirate fabric was a gift from Leslie.  Thanks again Leslie; it has been perfect for the apron.

 

Janet

Quilting Photo a Day October 21st–Orange

I know I’m a day behind – I’ll hopefully catch up  tomorrow.  Here is a beautiful orange sunset ….

 

This picture was taken in Harbour Grace, Newfoundland.  Here is some information about this town. 

It became a permanent settlement first in 1583 – perhaps the first permanent settlement in North America – earlier than St John’s and Jamestown.

In 1610 a pirate by the name of Peter Easton made it his home base.  He is buried in a little graveyard in the town which looks like it could be featured in any horror film. 

In 1932 Amelia Earhart left from Harbour Grace’s airfield on her solo voyage across the Atlantic Ocean. 

Capt. Eddie Rickenbacker (aka Snoopy) also flew out of the Harbour Grace airfield.

There is a sailing ship, the SS Kyle, grounded on a shoal in the harbour.  It has been there since 1967. 

Here is an orange quilting photo.  The back panel for my Mouthy Stitches bag.

Janet

Quilting Photo a Day October 20th–Why?

Why, oh why, would they make this lovely panorama in the airport …

and have a Dall sheep and a coyote within feet of each other.  It would just never happen in real life.  On the left there is a raven.  They are very large birds.

And why, oh why, am I not finished my Mouthy Stitches bag yet?  It is supposed to be mailed tomorrow…. Here are the outside and the lining but as you can see it still needs to be sewn together.  Not a huge undertaking but I have to find a sewing machine.  Apparently my daughter’s fiance’s grandmother has one that I can use…. it is ancient apparently and only has a knee pedal, but it works well….

Janet

Quilting Photo a Day October 19th–Sunny

There is one thing it wasn’t today and that is sunny.  We had snow, wind and grey skies.  But here is a sunny picture from our birthday dinner for DH last night.

And here is a sunny block that I received from Teresa in Ireland for the Adventure Block Swap last month.

And I’m looking forward to all the sun I’m going to see tomorrow as we wing our way south, then east.  DH and I are off on a trip to the east coast, first to visit our daughter and her boyfriend in Newfoundland, then to our daughter’s graduation in PEI, then some more visiting in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. 

Janet

Quilting Photo a Day October 18th–Red

This is my centre block for the Quilt U Be Mine mystery round robin organized by Michele.  It may seem early for a Valentine project but it has to go around to three people for additions before returning to me.  I like these mystery round robins – so much fun!

 

Janet

Quilting Photo a Day October 17–Not Done

I guess the moose realized they were NOT DONE with my garden because when I arrived home from work this afternoon there they were polishing off the morsels that they missed in the cold frame, and then they fed at my trough of flowers.

I took this picture from the front stoop – which you can see the edge of in the lower right of the picture – literally three or so feet away from them.  They were there for five minutes or so apparently not noticing me, then one of the calves looked at me and made a startled movement.  Then they slowly trotted to the back yard.  This photo gives an idea of how big this animal is…as she towers over my car.  She didn’t want to miss the petunias in the pot.

My colours quilt is also NOT DONE, but the top is!  I finished it while at the retreat a couple of weeks ago and I am thrilled with how it looks.

Zeke likes it too.

I am thinking of not putting any batting in it as it is quite heavy already with the muslin foundation for the blocks.  Any opinions on that?  I will still put on a backing and quilt it.

Janet

Quilting Photo a Day October 16th–Circles

My first circles are berries on a tree.  Many of the lovely folks who leave me comments on my blog have asked what the trees are in my header photo.  Some have even asked whether the red things are berries or flower or leaves.  Here’s a close up of the luscious berries; they come in both orange and red.

I did just take this photo today and as you can see the leaves on these two trees have hardly put on their fall clothes at all. 

I know these trees as Mountain Ash.  Here’s what Wikipedia has to say about them.  “Sorbus is a genus of about 100–200 species of trees and shrubs in the Rose family Rosaceae. Species of Sorbus (s.l.) are commonly known as whitebeam, rowan, service tree, and mountain-ash. The exact number of species is disputed….”  Feel free to go and read further.  It gets into the technical biological stuff if that interests you.

My quilting circles are to be found in this quilt top that I finished putting together today.  My friend Dahn and I started to make this quilt at the retreat a couple of weeks ago.  It is for my boss who is retiring on November 2nd.  Dahn saw this “6 minute block” on-line and wanted to try it out.  It took us about four or five hours to make the 12 blocks, so I’m not too sure why it’s called a six minute block. 

We had a heck of a time getting points to match in the centers but, the browns will be folded back like the curves on a Cathedral Window and when Dahn is doing the quilting she is going to fill in some of the spaces with brown thread.  I think it will look lovely.  I say “we” are making it but she is going to sandwich and quilt it which is the bulk of the work.  I’ll probably have to hand sew the binding as she hates that part.  Here are my quilting circles.

 

Janet

Quilting Photo a Day October 15–On a Picnic

Someone brought these cupcakes in to work today.  They are supposed to be spaghetti and meatballs and  they are really good.  Especially the spaghetti, and the meatballs, which are chocolates covered with raspberry jam.  Yum.  The cake part was spice cake.  I say “was” because mine is long gone.   I had a picnic at my desk at work.

This is a little quilt I got in a swap last year.  I keep it in my office because it's bright and happy.

I’m caught up with the quilting photo a day list now; I’ll try and stay on track and only post one a day.  I went to look at some other people’s photos and I think I might be the only one who is actually playing.

Janet

Quilting Photo a Day October 14–With a Pet

 

Can you even see Zeke huddled up in all the blankets?  If is a cold rainy night here and he was outside for a while running around.  Now he is fast asleep.

Janet

Quilting Photo a Day October 13–Blue

Blue is a difficult topic for me.  I have more blue fabric than any other colour, but I don’t use it that often in my quilts.  Since we can interpret the prompt any way we like, I am going to use the antithesis of blue. 

I hadn’t got around to cleaning out my garden yet.  Most of the edible produce was picked but I had eight cabbage plants which were fat enough to be exciting and since they seem to not mind the little bit of cold we’ve had, I hadn’t cut them yet. 

Then we had some visitors.  They went right to work cleaning out all the plants in the garden, readying it for next spring when it is time to turn the soil.  But they also ate my cabbages. 

Am I blue?  Well how could I be….

I won a giveaway on Kate Spain’s blog a little while ago.  The prize was two “candy” pre-cuts of her fabrics.  Candy pre-cuts are the latest – they are 2.5 inch squares.  So I was expecting a small parcel or maybe even a fat envelope.  When the package arrived the other day I was blown away.  Look at all the fabric she sent me!

Am I blue?  Well there is quite a bit of blue in the fabric….

That is all I have to say about the antithesis of blue.

Janet

Quilting Photo a Day October 12–On the Floor

 

On the kitchen floor there is a shiny new coating of wax  

On the quilting floor there is the second baby quilt all sandwiched and pinned and ready for quilting.  Boy, I didn’t buy an extra inch of backing fabric!

The quilting is now done and the binding is machine sewn and the quilt is off to my friend Linda H. who offered to do the handstitching on the binding for me.  This project is almost done!

Janet

Quilting Photo a Day October 11th–Super Small

I’m cutting super small postage stamp blocks for swapping again.  Three sets of one hundred at 2 1/2 inches and three sets of one hundred at 2 inches.  I’ll keep one set of each size and swap two of each size. 

Since I’m cutting from scraps I don’t always have three squares the same…

Janet

Quilting Photo a Day October 10th–Just Beginning

I’m just beginning to get my photos posted….

Winter is just beginning… see the skiff of snow?

And I am just beginning to get my September hexies made….. sheesh..

Janet

Photo an hour for Thursday, September 27th

Oh my, I’ve had a very busy week at work!  And before that a busy quilt retreat last weekend!  I waited and took my Thursday photo an hour while at the retreat.  Hope you enjoy.

8:30 a.m. My friend and room mate at the hotel, Dahn.  A few seconds before she was lying on the floor with a beer bottle in hand.  Here she is bobbing for beer.  All in fun of course.

9:30 a.m.  We scurried over to the convention centre to get our favourite tables.  Only about 10 people here so far.

10:30 a.m. We do a “Chinese gift exchange”.  It has other names but basically when your turn comes up you can choose a gift to open or steal a gift that someone has already opened.  I had to go out to the car to wrap my gift.

 

11:30 a.m. Delaina is contemplating a layout.

12:30 p.m. My first finish – a block for the Adventure Block swap.

1:30 p.m. A spot of lunch and my second finish – two blocks for the 6 inch block swap…

2:30 p.m. The first gift is being opened…. it was a cat puzzle, a cat and quilts book and a gorgeous bag kit with lots of embellishments.  I stole it once but just couldn’t hang on to it.

3:30 p.m. The room is pretty full now.  There were about thirty women sewing away.

4:30 p.m. My friend and table mate, Dahn, is sewing a table runner.

5:30 p.m. I spent five minutes or more looking for my yellow thread…. guess where it was….

6:30 p.m.  Dinners were catered.  Ribs, chicken, braised cabbage, potatoes, yams (not on the table yet) and salad and a yummy bbq sauce.  Delicious!

7:30 p.m. These five ladies are from Haines Alaska.  They haven’t travelled the furthest (that would be me) but they come from Another Country!

8:30 p.m. Finish number three – this apron is for my new three year old step granddaughter who I’ll be going to meet in a few weeks.

10:30 p.m. Missed an hour somewhere.  We lay our finished items out on the auditorium floor.  It’s starting to fill up.

And it was off to bed for me.  I’ll be back tomorrow to show you some more finishes and mail from the last week.

Janet