Chaos at the North Pole!!!!

Well it is that time of year again - NO - NOT Christmas - not yet!!!!

But it was our reveal for Welcome to the North Pole. And what a reveal it was. Needless to say, the class had fun all summer (OK - so most of them probably did the work this past week????), but their buildings were very creative as usual and you can tell they had a lot of fun designing and building them.

We started with the North Pole Carry Out

All the North Pole Carry Out blocks

Mary very cleverly used sparkly pipe cleaner for the roof

Mary (yes - the same one - crazy Mary who is making TWO) used strung square sequins on the second roof

Marlene (whose North Pole is COMPLETELY different) made a TEA HOUSE

Linda used landscape fabric for hers

Nancy with a very oriental theme for the carry out

I did NOT get a chance to get a close up of all the blocks, but Raili also used pipe cleaner (a white one) for her roof. And the choice of fabric is amazing - Kristen is making hers into a candy house and creatively used the fabric on the door. Well done!!!!!

The next block was Slick's Sled

Linda with a nice plaid sled house!!!

Jeanette with outstanding black trim!!!  and Karen with her Mexican trim!!! and looks like fussy cut windows

Kathy with brilliant primary colours!

Mine with the strips and Beth with those brilliant moons. Hey - how come Beth's sled house is bigger than mine???
Like I said - it is fair game - all hell basically broke loose - everything was changed!!!!

Raili used fusible bias for her sled, Kristen is converting her sled house into a quilt store (and looks like she raised the roof)

Mary and Marlene (who turned her sled house into a clothing and shoe store - can't wait to see what the elves are wearing this season!!!! - and those high heels - are they for Santa????)

Mary (same block as above - look at the icicles on the roof)

Marlene (yes - same block as above) used scrapbook trims to decorate her block

Nancy converted her sled house into a tea room complete with a GIANT spoon on the roof!!!!

And as if that wasn't enough excitement - they had a THIRD block to complete..... The Reindeer Barn

Nancy's barn - look at the detail in that door!!!!

My barn on top and Kristen on the bottom - look at that cool trim around her window and door!!!!  Looks like lights!

Drat - I forgot to ask Kristen if her husband was OK with Elliot (who is three months) to attend quilt stores!!!  He is so cute and Grandma came with them.

Marlene who turned her barn into a quilt store complete with little quilts hanging outside.   Hmmm - I wonder who is going to pull the sleigh???

I believe the top one is Karen's - must be - look at that tree on the right. It is either evil or windblown!!! Raili's barn is on the bottom - she used some satin stitch and a small reindeer button for the weather vane!

Kathy's barn with nice blue trim and good choice of colour against that dark background

Linda - Ah she has snow on her barn (and her little pack of buttons for embellishing when we are done)

Jeanette's barn on top. Love that black/bright fabric for the trim!
Flo's block on the bottom. Very neat fabric for the tree!!!!

Mary's barn. Nice striped tree!!!

Beth's barn on top - great weather vane. That little thing was very fiddly!!!!!  And Mary's second barn on the bottom. She was experimenting with thread painting to get the shading on the roof!!!

They all did such an amazing job. I can't wait to see these quilts together. But you have to wait until December for that.

This group just can't get enough of Christmas!!!!    I knew they would be bugging me for what is to come for next year. Instead of getting my homework done for the class, I spent the morning trying to locate some patterns and suggestions for Christmas Club 2012. Do you think I found enough????

Christmas/snowman patterns suitable for a year long project

At first they were intimidated by the sheer number of what I brought out, but very quickly and as a group - they were able to whittle it down to FIVE patterns. How impressive is that. Now the question will be - which one of the five. Have to give it some thought and check prices.

Speaking of Christmas - I got some more embroidery done last night on one of my other long term projects which also happens to be Christmas.

Two more holly blocks

That brings the total done to EIGHT. Yeah, however there are 14 in total. And I see that three of them still need to have the red part appliqued down. DRAT!!!!!  Well just have to listen to more of that audio book. I tell you - this one is VERY weird. So 3 out of 8 disks and we finally get to the murder. It is a VERY descriptive book, takes place in New York and so far has described the actions and lives of a bunch of seemingly disjointed characters. Now that the murder has happened - the lives are starting to intertwine.

I managed to get another small community project quilt done yesterday.

Community Project quilt

I also another one identical to this loaded on the machine and ready to quilt as soon as I finish the blog.

Then had to search through the book collection (Really MUST get them organized) because I booked an appointment with someone who wants a T-shirt quilt. Dug out the books and pictures to have ready to show them.

Books on T-shirt quilts

While searching for those books, I came across a book that I will donate through our guild to a lady who is teaching women to sew/quilt in Uganda.

Book for donation - yes - I know it is only ONE book and there are probably lots of others that I could get rid of that I have never used and will never use. But one book at a time!!!!!   If only I had learned to be more discriminating at the start - I probably would not have as many books!!!!!

Speaking of books - while I was searching the library - well my library, I also came across this book. See it does pay to search ones own books - it is NOT enough to have a list - you must browse the shelves!!!!!

Vogue sewing book

Yawn - Yawn - this is a sewing book - NOT a quilting book. What is so special about it????   This is THE book that I used when I was learning how to sew clothing. My REFERENCE book. I think I used it a lot and for some reason carried it with me for 30+ years!!!!!   Well a certain someone in my house has requested to take a "Learn to Sew Fashion" in my house and it isn't DH who asked!!!!   I thought this might help her out. She starts this week - let's keep our fingers crossed that it works out.

And while looking - OK - so I spent a lot of time looking  - I came across these magazines. Quilter's Connection. It is a Canadian magazine. It has been out for a couple of years and NO - I haven't read the magazines. So I gathered them all - placed them in ORDER (of course) and will attempt to read them over the next day or so. THEN - I will have to process them - keep them, rip them up or give them away. OK - I'm having separation anxiety just thinking about it!!!!!   But I got to start!!!!

Quilter's Connection

 I shall review the magazine as I go through the issues. I do like to support Canadian so I hope it is good. NO - don't go there!!!!!

Then I also came across these STITCH magazines from Quilting Arts - yes I think I have bought them all since they came out several years ago. I gave a couple to M - they tend to have funky, trendy projects in them and maybe she will find something she can practice on before she hits the classroom on Thursday. And I am going to read through these and process them as well. HELP HELP HELP!!!!!    My blood pressure is going up!!!!!!

Stitch Magazine by Quilting Arts

Well I sure hope my blood pressure doesn't go up. I don't want to take ANOTHER pill. I now know why people buy those pill box thingys with the days of the week on it!!!!   I am really really trying to get in the habit (which I vowed I NEVER would), but decided I had better start taking some stuff to help out my aging bones and other parts of me.

Pills I took this morning

Allergies, pain killers, Vitamin B and glucosimine. Then I always forget the calcium which needs to be taken with food but on its own. Crap - I need the deluxe version of the pill thing with morning, afternoon and evening!!!   GOD - I AM OLD!!!!!!!   Well - I do feel old especially when I can't make it through the day without a nap. I hate that, but waking up at night with aching knees just kills my day!!!!

So up at 4 AM this morning and had to find something to do!!   As if that would be a problem in this studio. I decided that I had better get to work on another of my long term projects - The Dragon Star.

Dragon Star by Judy Niemeyer

Working on flying geese units (way behind!!!!)

I actually enjoyed getting back to actual sewing. Since I have a sewing day planned with Marian this week - I think I might continue work on this and try to actually catch up and get ahead of the students again!!!!!

Yes - a sewing day with Marian. She comes home TODAY. Just when I have Kaylee all trained and calm!!!!   When I got up this morning, she didn't even bother to come down stairs. The first day she came - when I got up - so did she and she wanted to PLAY!!!!   When she did amble down this morning, she just lay down in her bed and went to sleep. She had a lot of fun chasing rabbits in the back when we went for our walk. I think she will miss that. Heck - we are all going to miss her. She is just like part of the family, but I am sure she will be happy to be back with Marian and Jim. Then at least she can sleep on their bed rather than the floor or the kid's bed!!!!


Before I sign off today - can you tell - I am getting old and organized!!!!   Here is my chair in the living room - this is my "staging" chair. Everything on here (including a bag of duplicate books and magazines I found that are going to another guild I belong to - they are having their quilt show soon and it can be sold in the member's boutique!)  anyway - everything on the chair is waiting to be picked up or taken somewhere. And there are a couple of quilts to add to the pile - just got to trim them and get them in a bag.

The "staging" chair!!!   Everything MUST GO!!!!!

And last, but not least - HAPPINESS is........

having a friend to lay beside while you gum/chew your toys!!!!!

Well - the day must BEGIN.

Have a great day!!!


Ciao!!!!!