Today is Day 6

Welcome to the last day of Blogathon Canada brought to you by Sew Sisters Quilt Shop in the metropolis of Toronto, Canada.

Did I tell you about Sew Sisters?  They have a brick and mortar shop in Toronto and an on-line store at the link above.  They stock Kona solids, lots of beautiful modern fabics, a Canadiana line called Stonehenge which is awesome, and lots of other lovely fabrics.  The prices are good, the service is better and every once in a while they have a free shipping in Canada event.  And they have been hosting this awesome Canadian blogathon for the last three years.  Check them out!

The host bloggers for today are

Lorna from Ontario at Sew Fresh Quilts

Sandy from Ontario at Upstairs Hobby Room

They will have more giveaways, and lists of Ontario bloggers for you to check out.  And there will be another giveaway on the Sew Sisters blog.

Thank you again to the sponsors!  Robert Kaufman, Timeless Treasures, Camelot Fabrics, Northcott and Aurifil.

I have created a monster for myself, having such an awesome giveaway.  And deciding that I had to respond to the commenters and check out their blogs!  Oh well…  There have been quite a few no reply commenters.  If you check and find out that you are one of them, you can email me your contact info.  Don’t leave another comment – I won’t accept your info update that way. 

A few people asked about the arrow blocks.  I made these for one of our participants in the Canadians Quilt Bee on Flickr.  This might be a closed group – I’m not sure.  Anyway here is the link to the tutorial we used.  It is from Carla at Grace and Favour blog.  And it is pieced, not paper pieced, and is actually quite easy to make.

This is what our weather has been like.  We are waiting patiently for more snow and colder temperatures!

Janet

It is Day 5–MY Day!!

Hi there everyone.  Welcome to Blogathon Canada brought to you by Sew Sisters Quilt Shop in the metropolis of Toronto, Canada. 

Today is my day to participate in the blogathon along with Josée, from Québec, who blogs at The Charming Needle.  Please be sure to check out her blog and giveaway and the links to other Québec quilt bloggers that she will share with you.

And on Sew Sisters blog today there is an awesome giveaway from Timeless Treasures.

I am a wife, mother and work-a-holic in my early sixties.  (Dang that job!)  My three daughters have all flown the coop and settled into lives of their own.  Two of them live  about an hour away.  The third one (you may have heard me whine about this before) lives at the other end of the country, in Newfoundland.  And Canada is a big country!   I have three grandchildren; one granddaughter and a grandson live nearby, and then there is the granddaughter in Newfoundland. 

I have loved sewing since I was a young girl.  I love textiles and threads and all the trims and how you can make beautiful things with your hands and a needle.  I started quilting about 7 or 8 years ago and I really love how creative a medium it is.  I make traditional quilts and mug rugs and bags and pin cushions and…. My favourite part of quilting is taking bits and pieces of fabric and playing with them to come up with an individual creation.  I only wish I had more time for play.   

I have one piece of sewing that I want to show you today.   In October my daughter and her family came to visit for almost three weeks.  My daughter arrived with a “project” that she wanted me to help her with.  This is what we made…

For those who don’t recognize this it is Elsa’s dress.  Elsa is the queen in Frozen, the latest popular Disney movie.  And wearing it is my granddaughter J, from Newfoundland.

The thing about making this dress…. see that sparkly fabric in the bodice.  Well it is some kind of stretch fabric with thick sequins on it and MY SEWING MACHINE WOULD NOT SEW IT!  So every seam that touched the bodice had to be sewn by hand.  And believe me, every piece of the dress touches the bodice.  It was an interesting, but long project.

Please check out my earlier posts to see some of my other sewing projects.

I am the representative blogger for Canada’s territories. 

See the red, yellow and blue areas across the top of the map.  That is the area I represent.  It is an area of about 3,500,000 square kilometres.  That is a lot of space.  The combined population of the three territories is… about 107,000.  That means that each person has 32 or more square kilometres to roam around in.  Now mind you a lot of it is barrenland, ice and bush.  But here is my point.  I have two, just two, other quilting bloggers to share with you from the territories.  And they both live within an hour of me…  So please make sure you visit them.

Quilting Under the Midnight Sun

http://www.quiltingunderthemidnightsun.blogspot.ca/

A Geeky Crafty Life

http://fignie.blogspot.ca/

Enough prattling.  It is time to get on with my giveaway.  Sew Sisters Quilt Shop is providing this lovely fat quarter bundle for my giveaway.  Too bad I can’t win it!!

The giveaway is open internationally.  It will be open until midnight my time on November 23rd and I will announce the winner on November 24th.  If you are a no reply blogger make sure that you leave your email address.  If I can’t contact you, then you cannot win. 

To enter my giveaway please leave a comment on any of my posts for Blogathon Canada.  The others can be found here, here, here and here.  If you leave a comment on more than one post, you will be entered more than once.  

Don’t forget that all the giveaways for Blogathon Canada will be open through the 23rd so if you have missed any please go back and check them out.  And check out the giveaways on Sew Sisters blog as well.

And please come back and visit me again.

Janet

Today is Day 4

of Blogathon Canada hosted by Sew Sisters Quilt Shop!

And the blogs for today are:

Heather from Saskatchewan at Peace.Love.Quilt

Lori from Manitoba at Night Owl Quilting

And once again, don’t forget to check out Sew Sisters blog because they will have an awesome giveaway as well. 

This evening I went to a trunk show with Anna Hergert.  She is an art quilter from Saskatchewan, who is here in the Yukon to teach some classes.  The photos on her website don’t do justice to her work.  It is stunning!  I signed up for the second class, which is on Sunday and Monday.  After seeing the trunk show I am regretful that I won’t be at the first class on Thursday, Friday and Saturday.  But I am swamped at work and just can’t afford to take the time off.  Dang that job anyway!

Anna gave me permission to take photos and to put them on my blog as long as I acknowledged her.  I can’t say that my photos really portray the intricacy and beauty of her pieces, but I’ll show a couple of them anyway.

Can you guess what this piece portrays? It is called Alberta Night Sky.

This one is called Memories of Italy ll.

She uses an amazing array of fabrics, papers, man made materials, paints etc. in her work.  I am awesomely inspired.

Don’t forget that tomorrow is MY day in the Blogathon and I will have my own fantastic giveaway going on.  I hope to see you then.

Janet

It is Day 3

of Blogathon Canada hosted by Sew Sisters Quilt Shop!

The blogs to visit today are:

Kelsey from Alberta  Everyday Fray

Leanne from Alberta  She Can Quilt

And don’t forget to check out Sew Sisters blog because they will have another awesome giveaway as well. 

My daughter informs me that people in Newfoundland don’t consider it to be a “Maritime province”.  They are okay with Atlantic, but Maritime just won’t do.  I haven’t had time yet to look through all the blogs from yesterday to see if there are any from Newfoundland.  I hope there are.

I have been very behind with my October blocks for the Canadians Quilt swap.  I guess you can tell how behind I am since they are October blocks.  I couldn’t  see a moment in the next week when I could get them done, so I came home from work today and MADE myself work on them.  They were easier than I thought they would be.  So here are two arrow blocks which are on their way to Saskatoon tomorrow…

I’ll see you tomorrow when I’ll be back to let you know which blogs you should check out for Thursday!

Janet

It is Day 2

of Blogathon Canada hosted by Sew Sisters Quilt Shop!

The blogs for today are:

Linda from the Maritimes

Linda from the Maritimes

Tee hee.  Yes there are two Lindas and two blogs.  For those of you who don’t live in Canada, the Maritimes refers to Canada’s four “maritime” provinces: New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland.  They are on the east coast of Canada.  Very far away from where I live.  My middle daughter and her husband and my granddaughter live in Newfoundland.  On the very most eastern point of Canada.  I live almost at the most western point of Canada.  …. Oh yes you are waiting for the blog links…

Linda from Scrapmaster

Linda from Stitch Lines

Remember they will each have links to lots of interesting Canadian (maritime Canada) blogs.  And they will each have an awesome giveaway.  And check out Sew Sisters blog because they will have another awesome giveaway as well. 

Today I finished my November hexie flowers for the Inchy Hexagon Flower Swap.  They will be winging their way to Simone in Australia. 

See you tomorrow for an update on the day’s blogs in Blogathon Canada.

Janet

It is Day 1

of the Blogathon hosted by Sew Sisters Quilt Shop!  Sew Sisters is located in North Toronto, Ontario and I actually got to visit the store in person last year! 

The blogs for today are:

Stacey from British Colombia   Stacey in Stitches

Jessica from British Colombia  Momiji Studio

I’m going to check out Stacey and Jessica’s blogs and I hope you do too!  They will tell you about themselves and what they like to create.  And they will both have a giveaway from one of our sponsors.   

Robert Kaufman

           Timeless Treasures             

                           Camelot Fabrics

                                          Northcott

                                                    Aurifil

There will also be a great giveaway from Timeless Treasures on the Sew Sisters blog so check them out as well.

Edited to add:  I think that there is actually a giveaway on Sew Sisters blog every day of the blogathon.  Sweet!

When I told you about my month of September last week I forgot to mention the quilt retreat that I went to.  Three days of sewing and fun in beautiful Haines Junction.  I didn’t take any pictures….  but I can show you some of what I worked on.

A wee bit of quilting…. I hope to have another finish to show off soon!!

I finished the third panel on my Three Cat Stories Quilt.  This one was started in …..2010…  It isn’t quite done yet.  I am still going to put a border on it, but I am aiming to give it away at Christmas so I had best get on with it!

And I put some more of my postage stamps blocks together…. There is a long way to go on this quilt as this is at most a quarter of what I need.  But it does go together quickly once I work on it. 

That’s all for today.  I’ll be back tomorrow to remind you which blogs to check out for the day.

Janet

I Have a Finish!!

I feel ecstatic!!  It has been so long since I completed a quilt and this one has been in the works for more than two years.  In fact I completed this quilt TOP more than two years ago!

The pattern, by Buttonhole Quilt Design is called “Log Chute Quilt” although I have been telling everyone that it is a Sunshine and Shadows version of a log cabin quilt.

The finished quilt is 80 by 90 inches.

The big hold up for me was figuring out a way to quilt this gigantic monster.  I finally sent it to a long arm quilter, Dianne Gale, in Whitehorse.  The quilting is an continuous flower design.  The quilting thread is blue both top and bottom.  At first I asked her to use a red thread but then I decided that I had spent so much time piecing the darn thing that I didn’t want to cover up the quilt blocks with thread. 

This quilt is for DD # 3.  I struggled with a name for the quilt.  This is what I came up with.

Fabrics used: blues: FLEUR-C by Timeless Treasures, an unnamed blue batik, Hi Lily, Hi Lo by South Sea Imports; greens: Festive Foliage for Robert Kaufman, Krystal by Michael Miller and Designer Essential Harmony for Robert Kaufman.  The back is Shadow Play, a flannel by Maywood Studio.

I am giving away this pattern – I won’t ever make it again.  If you would like to have it please leave me a comment saying so.  If there is more than one person that would like it, I will draw a name. 

Woo Hoo!!

Janet

Giveaway winner

My concussion has been getting better and better.  Last week I had a sacral-cranial treatment.  This is a “new age” medical treatment which sceptics would think involves nothing.  However I felt bad for two days after having the treatment, then I suddenly felt really good.  Like normal, pretty well, other than one or two small dizzy spells.  I felt really good Friday and Saturday.  I did all that sewing and went for a long bike  ride.  Yesterday I felt lousy again…. I guess I overdid it. 

I was going to go back to work tomorrow, but now I think I will wait until Wednesday when I have a follow up appointment with the doctor.  I’m going to go back for another one of those treatments though.

I did make three triangle blocks for Easy Street yesterday.  This is what it looks like now.

 

We woke up this morning to fresh snow!  Although it has mostly melted now it is still COLD out.  I wonder how the crocuses are faring, and these guys…

We did the For the Birds blog hop giveaway draw this morning.  (He’d been in the sauna for an hour and insisted he was warm.)

And the winner is…

Congratulations, Judy!  I have sent you an e-mail.

Janet

Reading and giveaway winner

Thank you to everyone who entered the giveaway and gave me book recommendations.  I have put them into a spread sheet and I have 111 different authors – some with specific book suggestions and some who have all their books recommended.  If anyone wants a copy of the spread sheet please let me know.

The most suggested book(s) are the Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich with SIX recommendations.

I am off on a 26 hour bus ride tomorrow and I downloaded three of the suggested books onto my Kobo from the library:

The Litigators – John Grisham

The Night Circus – Eric Morgenstern

The Virgin Cure – Amy McKay

Don’t feel left out if you didn’t recommend these books.  They are just the ones I could get from my library. I’ve got a bit of sewing to do as well, and some crossword puzzles. And a pillow and blanket

I also have:

One for the Money – Janet Evanovich – first in the Stephanie Plum series on a CD, and

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society - Mary Ann Shaffer & Annie Barrows  on order from the library.

And on to the winner!  I used the random number generator this time and it chose # 163….

Katherine December 13, 2012 10:47 AM

who said…

“I'm a new follower” and “anything by Shirley Rousseau Murphey, Janet Evanovich or Laurie King”

I really wish I could give something to all who entered.  Thank you all so much for the fantastic book list.  I have suggestions to keep me going for quite a while!

Janet

BLOG HOP PARTY WITH GIVEAWAYS

The giveaway is now closed.  Thanks for entering.

My it’s been a long time….. but I have been busy.  With what?  Well….
I finished up my additions to blocks for the Modern Mini Mystery Round Robin and for the Quilt U Be Mine Round Robin and sent them on their way.  I can’t show them to you but them involved some of this….

I created these two blocks for Julie in the 6 Inch Block Swap.  She wanted grey, orange and white. 

I finished the binding on this quilt.  A nice tumble in the washer and it will be ready for gifting.  It is for my ex-boss who retired at the beginning of November.

And I decide to play along with Bonnie Hunter for her latest mystery quilt “Easy Street”.  She is already on to step three but I’m still working on step one. 

Today I made some shortbread cookies.  DH has decided that we should stop eating wheat after reading the Wheat Belly book and I’m willing to try it out because I think wheat is largely the culprit behind my reflux problem.  These shortbreads are made with rice flour and are quite delicious.  The recipe came from Andra Banting’s blog The Brighter Side of Gluten Free.  I’m going to try a wheat free Christmas cake as well.  The fruit is soaking in the whiskey as we speak.

And we had visitors today.  They arrived around 1 p.m., ate a bunch of fireweed and willow sticks then proceeded to bed down behind our sauna.  They didn’t leave until around 9 p.m.  DD # 3 was visiting with her two dogs so they and Zeke had to stay in the house most of the day.  And yes, she was eating sunflower seeds out of my bird feeder! 
Someone had told me that there was a rumour one of the calves had been killed by wolves, but they were both with her.

And now for the giveaway.  Quilting Gallery is having their yearly blog hop party with giveaways.  This year they celebrate their 5th anniversary!   I am giving away one yard of this fabric.  The blocks are 3 inches square and repeat every fourth square each direction.  It is very cute.

The giveaway is open to anyone in the world.  It will close on December 16th at 1 a.m. PST and I will draw the winner sometime later that day. 
1.  Leave me a comment suggesting a book I should read.  I like mystery, true life adventure, historical novels, biography, older fiction and any new fiction that doesn’t just follow a formula plot.
2. Followers can leave a second comment for a second entry.
Edited to add – I have received three anonymous spam so far.  So, sorry for those of you that don’t have an id,  but I’ve removed anonymous commenting.  Join Google and you can comment with your id….
I do like to try and answer any comments on my blog, but I still haven’t finished answering the comments from the last giveaway, so please forgive me if you don’t hear back from me.  I really appreciate you visiting.
And please check out the other participants in the blog hop at Quilting Gallery.
Janet

Sew Sisters Giveaway Winner, Sundogs and I’m Sewing Again

Thanks for all the comments on my Blogathon Canada post and your entries for the Sew Sisters Quilt Shop giveaway. 

Sorry for not getting the winner posted before now.  I was at a course on Non-Violent Communication.  It feels a little cult-like to me (peace will be created in the world one person at a time through this method), but I feel that it might serve me in finding peace for myself – a very interesting weekend.  Check it out here if you’re interested in finding out more.

And on to sundogs…. lots of people asked me about sundogs.  Here’s what Wikipedia says:

Sundogs may appear as a colored patch of light to the left or right of the sun, 22° distant and at the same distance above the horizon as the sun, and in ice halos. They can be seen anywhere in the world during any season, but they are not always obvious or bright. Sundogs are best seen and are most conspicuous when the sun is low. (Go to the link to check out more.)

I guess it is the sun low in the sky and the moisture in the air because of cold temperatures and open water that makes them common in the Yukon.  There are some fantastic pictures on the web – but here is one more of my humble pictures.

I have finally done some sewing – the first since returning home from my trip.  My six inch hexies for October/November that are overdue to be sent to Robyn.  She wanted a mixed block in any colours with a touch of blue.  They will be in the mail tomorrow.

And the winner is…. 

I wrote out 214 slips with names on them (there were five which were “third” comments from individuals), cut them up and folded them….

DH mixed them up in the bowl, then pulled out a slip…

And the winner is…. 

Amy wrote “Hello - nice to 'meet' you! I've never been to the Yukon and would love to go one day. I grew up in Ontario :) Fabulous giveaway - thanks for the chance!!!”

Congratulations Amy.  I’ll send you an e-mail.

Janet

Blogathon Canada (There is a giveaway)

The giveaway is now closed.

Thanks to Carol from Sew Sisters Quilt Shop for inviting me to participate in my first ever Blogathon!  It is a round-up of Canadian quilt blogs and I’m here representing the Yukon Territory, along with Vivian of Quilting Under the Midnight Sun. 

I have lived in the Yukon for more than 35 years, coming here first when I was 24, meeting my hubby here and settling in to have a family.  My daughters are all grown; two of them live in the Yukon, not far from me.  The third one lives in Newfoundland.  Talk about the apple falling far from the tree!  Hubby and I have three grandchildren – two who live with their parents in Whitehorse and the third is a step-grandchild on the east coast.  I love having grandchildren!  

I started blogging about three years ago.  I have sewn since I was a young girl and love all forms of stitching and fabric.  Once long ago I started a quilt, but it burned in a home fire before I finished it.  About five years ago I took up quilting again, making baby quilts first, then bags and bigger quilts.  I am not very prolific, because I work full time and drive two hours to and from work.  But I started looking at blogs and decided I wanted to be part of the big world of swaps and showing quilts on line. 

My blog also features lots of pictures of nature.  I suffer from depression and nature helps me to find some reprieve.  And the Yukon is so beautiful – well all of Canada is really.  So I post pictures of sundogs in the winter sky..

And a Hairy Woodpecker on my feeder…

And sometimes I even show some quilting

I participate in lots of swaps, make quilts for babies in my town and make about five big quilts a year.  I’ve given them all away so far, but one just for me is coming soon.  I also make lots of little things, bags, mug rugs, hot pads, wall hangings.  I love to play with scraps more than anything else and I have three or four scrappy quilts on the go right now.  Here are some of my small pieces along some pieces I’ve received in swaps.

As you can see I love colour!  I don’t have anything recent or new to show, so I decided to put up my squares from the six inch block swap  The block is called Cathy’s Campfire and I’ve asked for yellow, orange and red, with the odd touch of brown or blue.  I am thinking of a blue sashing but would love any suggestions you have.  I am still collecting these blocks as I think I need quite a few more. (The white dots are the maker’s names.  I haven’t figured out a better way to keep track.)

Thanks so much for stopping in.  Please check out my blog and please check out the other blogs in the blogathon.  I only have a couple of Yukon blogs to list….

1. My friend Dahn blogs at The Wilderness City Quilter.  She loves fabric dyeing and thread painting best but we make a few quilts together as presents for co-workers.

2. Danielle blogs at A Geeky Crafty Life.  She e-mailed me a couple of months ago and asked me to give her a hexie flower lesson.  Wow, was I flattered!  It was great to meet her and she is full of exuberance.

3. I don’t know Nita from Nita Dances, but she has a cabin at Fox Lake as does my sister, so it’s like I know her.

And if you haven’t already been by the bloggers from earlier this week, please check them out by clicking on the Sew Sisters button or the Blogathon Canada button.

Phew – and now for the giveaway.  I asked Carol at Sew Sisters to pick something for me to give away as I was still on holiday when she needed to know – and she went all out Canadian! 

Mighty Moose - Table Runner Kit and one metre of Stonehenge – Oh Canada Fabric.  Wonderful!  Too bad I can’t enter….

For one entry please leave me a comment telling me where you live – city, state/province, country.

If you are a follower leave me a second comment letting me know for a second entry.

I will draw the winner at 8 p.m. Pacific standard time, Saturday, November 24th.

Janet

Giveaway winners and some hot mail!

Hi all, sorry to be so long letting you all know who won the place mat panels.  The pirates went to

and the I Spy went to

Congratulations ladies!  The packages are in the mail.  And if anyone is wondering, the pirates are a Timeless Treasures fabric and the I Spy is from Quilting Treasures.

I need to start showing some of the wonderful things I’ve received in the mail lately.  Tonight I have these two lovelies to show. 

My Friends with Benefits swap was slow to arrive but worth the wait. Leslie of Les Quilts made me this gorgeous hanging.  In the centre, hand embroidered, is my blog name. You can’t see it too well in the photo but she has held back the yellow border with stitching in several places which make is look like a curtain has opened to reveal it. 

Then surrounding the centre panel are gorgeous batiks and wonky stars. And in the overall looping quilting she has stitched a J in each of the stars. 

And here is the back with a lovely label and more of the animal batik from the embroidery panel.

I love all the detail she has put into this.  Just gorgeous!

I also want to show you a gift from Leonie at Strandkorb-traum.  I admired this “fly cover” on her blog and she offered to send it to me.  What a sweetie!  It arrived with a nice letter, a postcard, some drink powders to add to soda water and some extra yarn so that I can add beads around the edges to help it stay snug on the bowl.  If you look closely you can see one green bead that she added on the edge to show me how they go.  I love the rosette in the middle!

And here it is on my favourite bowl which is also from Germany.

Thanks so much Leslie and Leonie!

I did do some sewing this week as I had to get my May hexies finished for Deb.  But I forgot to take a photo before I mailed them off.

Janet