Celebrating Canadian Quilt History!

I'll revisit the pricing issue later this week—there's no time this morning. I'm back home, and there is much to do this week. I must not let that wreak havoc with my schedule! 

The last day of the retreat is always bittersweet. I've been away long enough to create chaos in my work schedule and long enough to ignore it, but at the same time, I want to get home, sort things out, put things away, and give my girls a big hug! 

I'll share as much of that story as possible this morning before I go to spin class. I'm sorry, but the sorting story will happen tomorrow. 

But first, I promised to share two things with you, and here is the first one. Several years ago, I ran into Judy Lyons (Quilt Appraiser), who mentioned that she was writing a book about Canadian Centennial Quilts. I had forgotten that, but I spotted this at the desk when we were in the local quilt store at our retreat. 

Bookmark for a NEW Canadian Quilt History Book

OH MY --- Judy finished the book! I took the bookmark, and when I returned to the retreat house, I immediately emailed her! We arranged for me to pick up the book on my way home. 

And here I am with Judy, getting my copy! How exciting is that? It's autographed!!! Thanks, Judy!

Judy and I with her new book!

I'm so excited because we must celebrate our Canadian Quilt Heritage (or just our Canadian heritage—we're way too polite!). I sat down with it for a bit last night, but after the "ordeal" of getting home, unpacking the car, and trying to sort everything out, it erupted into another scenario I will tell you tomorrow. 

Here's the book's cover. It's big—269 pages. There are lots of pictures and lots of history about the 1967 Centennial. Where were you in 1967? 

The cover of Judy's book

And there's the flyer announcing the new book. 

ALERT - NEW BOOK!!!!

So, how do you get your copy? Judy is the only point of sale, so email her - at judy.lyons35@gmail.com.  

We had some interesting discussions about quilting at the retreat. I do not profess to know all the history, but I know what has happened in the quilting world since 1998 and who all the well-known quilters were then. But if you have recently started to quilt, you often do NOT know where some of these techniques came from. New designers frequently release a "new" technique, which has, in fact, been around for years! I think credit should be given to the original, but I bet the new designers don't even know, or maybe they don't care. Anyway - I'll leave it like that. 

But contact Judy. There was a limited production run, and you do not want to find out you can't get a copy. 

If you want to meet Judy and hear her speak about her book, there is an "official" book launch at Kindred Spirits Quilt Shop in St. Catherine's, Ontario, on February 14th. Check out the link for more details. 

Let's join Judy in celebrating Canada's Quilt Heritage. Thanks to Judy for all her hard work in preserving our Canadian history!

Speaking of quilt history, let's move on to one of my retreat projects. Jinny Beyer was one of the quilt gurus in her day. All her work was hand-pieced, and she designed many beautiful fabric collections. She is a legend in the quilt world, and I LOVE her stuff. 

OH - and she was FAMOUS for her border prints. Everything I learned about border p[rints, I learned from Jinny! She came to Canada (Alliston) and taught several classes, which I had the good fortune to attend. 

I even taught the border prints as a class, as I found this in the book. Did anyone attend that workshop?

Class requirements! 

This UFO consisted of one yard of the Christmas-themed border print, and I already had one placemat made. If I were doing this today, I would have cut the border print fabric into strips. I did not initially, but that's how I started yesterday. I aimed to make as many placemats as possible from the one-yard cut. 

After cutting the border print into strips, I used my templates to cut as many pieces as possible without having to piece anything. Jinny's concept was to match the principle design lines and the print within that wider strip. I soon abandoned that idea, as it would waste so much fabric. The placemats would be donated, and who would care? 

Laying out the placemat puzzle

So, it became a puzzle. How do I match up all these pieces to cut triangles? I needed six triangles, and none of my pieces were large enough. 

The puzzle pieces

With a bit of ingenuity in the piecing department, I managed to get all six triangles cut. 

Creative sewing to get a triangle

Some of them had a few seams, but all matched pretty well. 

Plan B - and it worked beautifully!

Here are the five placemats. The one in the back is completely finished, while the four in front are just tops. These have been on the UFO list for many years, and it feels great to have the fabric cut and the placemats together. If you look closely, two are the same, and the other three have different centers. That's how this border print worked to get the maximum from the yardage. 

The border print placemats

I might put this on my UFO list for February, and the job will be to finish them off completely. Then they can be donated, and they are gone! 

Speaking of things gone, well, that's a story for tomorrow. I'm almost ashamed to share it, but you will all be able to relate to it!

This is what greeted me when I opened the door. 

MOM - I got a big booboo on my nose!

I guess she's still trying to bury her bone in the frozen backyard. Sigh. Lexi does not want her bone, but Murphy is not listening! 

But yesterday, when I was on the phone with my parents several times and sitting at the table for snack and dinner, they entertained me! Those silly girls are so like little children. 

Mom's home - Mom's HOME!!!! 

Well, I'm off to spin class, and then it's a super busy day with the first of my online events for February, which is also National Embroidery Month!! 

Speaking of which, here is the FINAL QUILT social post. Check out what you can create with mySewnet Embroidery Software.

Oh, and now that I'm back on my big computer with a much larger screen and keyboard, I know why I have two computers. The laptop is excellent for travel, but I would hate to write on it daily! Yes, I could have external hook-ups, but this works for me!

Have a super day!!!!

Ciao!!!!

Spring House Retreat - celebrations!

Here's an interesting question from the comments: If you could be any age, what would it be and why? I think that should be under 10. Of course, the lives of today's children are so different from our childhood. What age would I want to be? I think 5. I would be old enough to be semi-independent but young enough to be in total wonder of the world! 

One of the most significant issues with growing up is maintaining that sense of wonder? Hopefully, you have the choice to be yourself and have parents, teachers, and friends who do not squash those dreams, creativity, and curiosity! 

While technology is here to stay, we must get those crayons out with our children or grandchildren. We must take them to the park and roll in the dandelions, looking for bees and bugs. We need to converse with them on car trips, asking why and having them ask us why. 

Luckily, that happened in my life, and I'll go to my end thinking, "Wow, I always wanted to know how the crematorium worked!" 

We have been behaving ourselves! In case you were wondering. 

So here's what's been happening. I'm happy to report that I have completed all the blocks for the 365 challenge until the end of April. That makes me one-third of the way through the blocks! Yes, I know there are still many more blocks, but at the end of every month, it is time to have a mini-celebration. 

April is now complete for the 365-day quilt

While we can be pessimistic, there's no need for that! It's all good news. I must start sewing the blocks together to see what it looks like! And I hope to plan a day or two at home to cut the next month's blocks. Then they will be ready to go, or I could use them as enders and leaders. I can DO THIS!!!!

I had thrown five partial spools of thread in my sewing box—thank goodness I did. Two days ago, I put the fourth one on the machine. When I went to wind a bobbbon yesterday, guess what? 

My fourth spool of thread

Yep—another empty spool! I'm on my last one, but thankfully, it has a fair amount of thread, so all is good! 

And it's empty!

I don't know what is happening to me, but I get easily distracted and am not at the end of a seam. I don't know how often I returned to my sewing machine to find I was partway through a seam, but I don't think I ever do that at home. 

A distraction!

I managed to get my Oh Canada Quilts of Valour quilt top together. I had to do some creative piecing to get pieces long enough for some outer logs, but it's together. That leaves two Ziploc bags of Canada-themed scraps, and I'll bring at least one of them back to the next retreat to figure out what to do. So all is good. It's all about progress! I wish I had MORE progress days in that area, but you do what you can and don't dwell on the entire picture. 

Quilts of Valour top done! 

I had to go out and get our dinner yesterday, so Dede and I also stopped at one of the local quilt shops to pick up something for one of the other ladies. I wasn't going to buy anything, and we even thought about having the store owner wing the package out the door to us. However, we thought that was a bit tacky! 

I bought some white fabric—you can never have too much white! I was interested in these bright rolls of strapping for bags. Now, I could rant about this because I think it's ridiculous. But if the designer can do it and people are willing to buy, then spend your money. 

I took two rolls of designer webbing to the cash to inquire about the price, as it was NOT marked on them. It was $10.75 a meter. WHAT??? Did I hear correctly? Yes, she said it was $10.75 a meter. But if I wanted "regular" webbing, I could buy the other stuff, which was $2.00 a meter. 

Regular and designer webbing

I bought a little bit of both and brought them back to the house to ask which people preferred. It was about equal. Wow --- that's insane, and people will buy that $10.75 because it belongs to a well-known designer. People --- where is your head? I would NEVER pay a premium (OK - except for yesterday) just because it has someone's brand on it. 

I don't care who the designer is - if the same product is available without your brand and is much cheaper - I'll buy the cheaper one. This same designer now has rulers - we didn't check their price. And there are scissors and many other notions, in addition to many fabric collections. OK -- if you want to pay that price, you go ahead. I'll use my old stuff. Or buy the cheap stuff! 

However, when I was at the store, I spotted something I had to buy, and I'm picking it up on my way home later today. You'll have to wait until tomorrow, but I was so excited! 

It's hard to see, but the sun was shining on the ice in the trees, which was so pretty. This house is ideally situated for the sun. The sewing room faces south, so we have blazing sun all day from sunup to sundown. I'm going to miss that as I move back to studio B. 

The late afternoon sun

We all come to retreat with different ways of organizing our projects. Look at this - I think this one beats them all. 

She has cut and marked all her little squares for stitch and flip corners. They are laid out in specific groups of ten. 

How is this for being organized? 

Here are two more mini design boards, and everything is laid out and labeled, with the corresponding fabrics on the second design board! 

More organization

And all those boards stack up neatly and get tied together with a ribbon!!!

The stack of mini-design boards

One of the ladies was running out of things to sew, so I told her I had a community project quilt with me and offered it to her to sew. This is the result—I'm glad one more top is done! Thank you so much for the help! You know who you are!

Community project quilt top - done

And that brings another day to an end! 

I packed most of my stuff in the car yesterday. I'm not taking forever to put it all in today, so I'm packing it a bit at a time. The sewing machines are still in the house. I pulled three projects to keep me going this morning. I finished one of them last night—the Quilts of Valour quilt. Will I have enough to keep me going this morning? Oh yes, the one I pulled is a doozy!!! Just wait until tomorrow to see that! 

Yesterday, we celebrated a birthday and had cake for dinner—wait—we didn't have cake for dinner; we had cake for dessert! 

Don't forget to be curious about something today! Ask questions - don't just accept things at face value. I want to hear what you learned! 

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!!

Spring house retreat - that's what friends are for!

There has been much discussion about friends at this retreat. What is a friend? Do you have a friend you could call at 3 a.m. if you need help? As we went about our business yesterday, I looked at my pencil. Oh my!!!

Oh my!!!

I got quite a chuckle from that. 

But a bit of chaos happened at the house earlier in the day. You know what I'm talking about if you saw the picture on Facebook. Those red chairs around the firepit were calling for someone to sit in them. I had no takers. Seriously? We're friends, so why wouldn't someone volunteer to sit in them? Maybe they're not part of my gang after all!

Then Helen Anne said she would take a picture of ME if I sat in one of them. Well, that was all the encouragement I needed. And then it snowballed from there. Everyone else had gone shopping, and only Maryke, Helen Anne, and I remained at the house. Maryke was still in her housecoat. We made hasty plans, Helen Anne got her camera, and away we went! I laughed because someone commented on Facebook that we should be left unsupervised! Thanks for the vote of confidence - Sally! 

Seriously - don't those chairs just scream for a photo op? 

Come sit down - have a cup of tea! 

I have permission to post this, and it's so blog-worthy! Poor Maryke almost fell several times in that deep snow, which was NOT compacted, so she was up to her knees. Why? Because I didn't want any tracks showing how we got to the chairs. We circled around and came in from the back! But I was thoughtful and gave her the chair with the least snow! 

A dedicated friend! Or she's just crazy!

I came in from the other side, where the snow was much more compacted, so I only fell through a few times. I had my running shoes on but no socks. 

Flopping into the chair

We took plastic bags to save our butts from getting soaked. And I should mention that it was starting to drizzle. Also, Diane arrived about when we were getting ready to walk to the chairs. So we had an audience. 

So how's the weather? 

Those chairs were wet with the rain, but the temperature was only minus 1. It was the perfect time because it started to snow heavily snow after, although that would have also been hilarious. 

Oh my - what we do for entertainment! 

And there we are - the crazies. And a HUGE thank you to Helen Anne, who was the instigator of the entire process. We had to go back so I could take a picture of her taking pictures of us. I had my phone with me, but was laughing so hard, I completely forgot!!!

Another true friend 

We had so much fun, and I can't stop laughing every time I look at that photo. I'm uploading it to my Aura frame at home so I can randomly experience our joy. 

Life is way too short not to get out and have fun. Be silly, be crazy - whatever it takes to keep you going! Thanks to Maryke and Helen Anne for a silly and memorable moment. I think it's the best retreat photo of all time. How will we top that one? 

Maybe this has to be a new theme—some crazy setup from each retreat. Hmm—something to ponder. 

The farm excitement of the day was the cutting down of some trees in the back of the house. As you saw, it doesn't;t take much to amuse us!!

Tree cutting and moving in progress

There is no need to worry about running out of propane—the tank has been topped up. This has been a very entertaining retreat! 

Propane delivery

I decided to take some of my MANY bags to the car to avoid having to take it all out on the last day. It was snowing these huge flakes by then. I decided that it was warm enough to go for a walk. 

I wanted to check out the snow on the creek since it was so warm. 

It's not just snow on the water; it has to be partially frozen, as an animal walked right down the center! 

Animal tracks on the creek

But looking at the other side of the small bridge, you could see the water coming through the snow. 

The water is seeping through the snow

And when I walked down to the bridge on the main road, the water was definitely seeping through the snow. 

Water seeping through the snow

On the other side, you could see a little water seeping through the snow. However, it's cold this morning, so I doubt any water will show through. 

The creek on the other side of the road

I swear there are days when I'm regressing in life. Obviously, I had to walk in one direction toward the creek. On my way back, I decided to walk beside my previous steps, so I was coming and going simultaneously! I sometimes do that in the city. Why not make people guess—coming or going? Or both?  

Coming and going!

It was so warm I didn't even have a sweatshirt under my coat. Neither did I have my scarf or a hat! But my jacket, which is so old, it's no longer waterproof, was getting soaked, so it was time to come home. My mittens were also wet from handling the car door handle when I put my stuff in. I seem to have lost my little black gloves from the dollar store. That's OK - they were on their last legs anyway. But where could they be? 

It's getting wet! 

Lots of accumulating snow, and it was WET. 

Heavy, wet snow

So, I bet my water coach wants to know the status. Well, first, I emptied another spool of thread. Why do we have so many partially empty spools of thread? I threw in FIVE partially used spools. Three were close to the end, and all three are now empty! I might look in the box of thread and throw another one in for the next retreat, but that is far away. Still, when one retreat is over, you must replenish the supply box to be prepared! 

Another empty spool

As for the water, I went through two containers and probably half of another one, so I'm happy with that. I'm about 3/4 through the first one today! I will never drink the quantity of water my water coach drinks, but that's OK. I'm doing OK by more than doubling my water consumption, and that works for me. 

I also managed to get some sewing done, but barely. After our little adventure, I returned to my sewing machine to find this. 

Stopped midway

I didn't even bother finishing the seam—that's impulsive. I'm okay with that!

You'll see what I worked on tomorrow, as I'm running out of time!!!!

I have some QUILTsocial blog posts to share with you. Since February is National Embroidery Month, the posts discuss what you can do with an embroidery machine and how to get started. 

The first post explains why quilters need an embroidery machine. OK, so you may not need one, but this first post shows you how to embellish your quilts with machine embroidery. 

Day One - Why a Quilter needs an embroidery machine

Day Two - Supplies needed for machine embroidery

Day Three - Examples of ten of the 36 different machine embroidery techniques

Day Four - Loading designs on the HV Designer Epic 3

Day Five - not posted yet

So much exciting stuff!!!! 

On that note, I'm out of here!!!!

Have a super day! Do something so out of character that your family will start to wonder, and that's OK. 

Ciao!!!!

Springhouse Retreat - Chores!

Oh my --- you know what they say - what happens at the retreat, stays at the retreat, but I have a couple of things to share. The first is all about the water. Yes, we had a considerable discussion about drinking water - how much is too much? How do you test it? Do you need salt? All kinds of things. 

And this might be too much information for you, but here's the scoop. In the past, I would have been lucky if I had drank one of my water bottles daily. (sip, sip!). My water coach was only here for half the retreat, and she left yesterday, but I still drank 2 1/2 bottles, so that is good. Although it helped that someone had a timer set for 30 minutes, and we had sips throughout the day. 

I'm on my own now, and I've already drank 1/2 a bottle. So let's hope all is good, and I'll remember to drink when I'm home! 

Has it made a difference? By that, I mean—do I feel different? No, but my urine is clear even first thing in the morning. I think I'm drinking all that I need to. I aim to drink 2 1/2 containers of water, equivalent to 8 glasses of water a day. Any more than that would significantly disrupt my day with bathroom trips! 

With soup and oatmeal, I have enough to compensate for my cup of tea, which is often herbal. I'm good. I will put the water thing to bed, so to speak! But thanks to everyone for the comments and suggestions. Staying healthy is a full-time job!

The other thing we talked about is mental health, which I think affects all of us to a certain degree. I hope none of the retreat-goers take this in the wrong way. But I think my brain is overloaded! I primarily work at home, and I'm not used to all the stimuli here! Now, part of that is that I'm still writing articles (hopefully, the last one will be done today - NO - the last one has to be done today!) And I've had numerous calls to make or take for work and lots of other stuff. 

By about 5 p.m. last night, I was brain-dead! So I puttered in the sewing room and didn't sew after dinner—I don't think that has ever happened at a retreat. But I was done! The other factor is that we are not getting out to walk as regularly as I would like or as I do at home because the roads have been pretty slippery. Plus, the sewing I'm now doing is challenging. 

However, it has finally stopped blowing and snowing, so they got the plow out again and cleared everything. Plowing has been a daily occurrence since we arrived, but now the driveway is plowed back, and it looks great. 

Clearing snow once again

We moved all the cars to the bottom of the circle drive so they could clean it right up! That will be great when we need to load the cars when we leave in a few days. 

Those chairs seem to be getting buried deeper and deeper! I can't convince anyone to go out and sit in one so I can take a picture. Party poopers!!!

The fire pit gets more buried every day

 I did go out for a walk in the afternoon and borrowed walking sticks. They weren't necessary, but they were good to have on the walk to the road, as some spots still have ice. It's a country laneway—that's how it is. I've become a city girl with bare sidewalks most of the time. But there's proof that I was out, and it felt good to get out! The road past the house is gravel, so they can't get down to the bare ground. 

The roads are still covered with snow

A small creek runs through the property and crosses under the road to the house. It has running water, but it's been completely covered with snow. The creek also crosses the main road, and I walked there to see if the running water was exposed. Nope—it's totally snow-covered. However, if you look closely, one spot might be exposed on a warm day, as the snow cover looks thinner in that one spot.  

The creek 

You can see the creek's path here, but nothing is exposed. The weather hasn't been that cold, so I doubt it has frozen, but you never know. 

The creek path

Here was the sunrise yesterday. My picture does NOT do it justice! It was brilliant and beautiful. 

Sunrise

When I went into the kitchen in the morning, I felt like I was home. It was a different brand, and the error message was different, but deja vu!

Error message on the dishwasher

A quick Google search told me nothing, but I was confident this was a drain issue. Something was clogging the drain. I opened the dishwasher and removed the bottom rack. I manually drained the excess water, and then I found the strainer. I cleaned it, and bits of lettuce and other debris were caught in it. But there wasn't a little valve like the one I have. So I put it all back together, and we turned it on, and it seemed OK. Yeah!!!!! 

Then I had to clean the iron last night because it was a mess. I'm not sure how it happened, but it happened, and it was smelling pretty bad! A little elbow grease and the iron was shiny clean!

Here's my portable office! I got some bad news yesterday. I had to update my iPad Pro, which I should have done a while ago. 

My portable office

The bad news is that I have reached the limit of updates. My iPad is a 2nd Generation - I bought it at the end of 2017. Yikes --- that is the large iPad Pro, so it will cost a little bit to replace it. For now, I'm OK, but I know it's likely that new apps will NOT work on that generation. Yikes - better start saving! 

I spent much time doing work-related things yesterday and only managed to sew ONE block for the 365 quilt. I still have six or seven blocks that have to be done before I leave. I hope today will be a better day. 

Here are the five blocks that I've made so far. 

Anyway -- I'd better organize myself to get those blocks done and write the article. 

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!!