Just one of those mornings!

Thankfully, I'm one of those people that can jump out of bed and be productive five minutes later.

I fired up several sewing machines and then I just seemed to have one issue after another. Loosening the tension and changing the needle helped one machine and wouldn't you know it - the other one needed a new needle as well. But not before I spent some time ripping!

How do you love that crazy weather out there? Even the girls are happy to be in the house! While they both have big thick fur coats, it's their feet that get cold. I've seen Miss Lexi standing out there lifting her paws. We're not going for a walk this morning. I have a limit on what temperature I'll walk in. -19!

Despite the machine issues, I did get stuff done, but alas - it's all homework for upcoming classes and I wouldn't feel right to share it with you before sharing it with them.

Now, how cool is this?  Susan sent me a link to a shop offering classes in England. Guess what is one of their classes???  The Everyday Basket that I wrote when I was at Northcott. The pattern is still available on their website!  Here's the link to the pattern on Northcott's website if you want to make it. It's super cute and I love it. I have several of them around my studio to put stuff in.

I know that I have no one to blame for this but myself, but I'm going to gripe just a wee bit. I was instrumental in putting together the Charity quilts for two local Modern Quilt Guilds. I obtained the fabrics, made the kits, came up with a basic design concept or several and then one was chosen which was a design of mine that had been modified, made the application - anyway - you get the picture. The blocks were made by the guild members and the tops were sewn by someone else. No big deal for that part. Everyone wants to be part of the design process, everyone wants to make blocks, but when it comes to the quilting (especially) and the finishing - well no one wants to do that!  Now I'm not complaining in the least about that. What I ticked off at is that in one of the guilds, I got resistance that I was in the charge of the quilt - that it was my vision! Anyway - long story short - YES - I could have been more proactive and doled out the jobs so I really shouldn't complain, but that one bad comment ticks me off.

What I totally dislike is the lack of respect for the amount of time that I WILLINGLY put in to make and finish those quilts. Do people think that I have loads of spare time?  I GET IT!!!  I didn't ask for help but I don't mind doing the work - I just wonder if people appreciate the fact of how much time all that finishing takes?

So while these two charity quilts are done and gone, that's it for me. I will have NOTHING to do with future charity quilts for the Modern guilds. Someone has stepped up to take over the job in both guilds - YEAH!!!!  I will not make blocks, I will not quilt them, I will not bind them nor will I put on a sleeve. I've done my time!!!!!

OK - enough of that griping - here are the quilts. I did spend most of yesterday afternoon working on finishing them up and got them packaged and to the UPS office before 5:30. They are scheduled to arrive on Feb 5 - THREE days before they are due!!!!  Can you believe it? I can't!

Here's the first one. It's for the Grand River Modern Quilt Guild. It's a knock off of one of my designs that appeared in a magazine last year. I'll show you how I changed it tomorrow.  I absolutely love the quilting on this one. Very textural and yet it doesn't detract from the very graphic design of the quilt. I called it Flower Garden - although I should have called it Modern Flower Garden or what is the names of those english gardens????  I can still change the name - maybe! Only five of the seven colors in the palette were used.

Quiltcon Charity quilt for Grand River Modern Quilt Guild

I wanted to put a purple binding on the quilt, but NO - I used the purple for the other quilt. Ooops. Well, I had some of the blue left over. I knew it was going to be tight and was prepared with Plan B, but guess what? I had enough with just a wee bit left over. The blue was meant to be!!!!

A HUGE SHOUT OUT to Northcott for donating the fabrics for the quilt. We love you - Northcott!!! This quilt is made entirely with the ColorWorks solids.

Barely enough binding - but it worked!!!!!

The second quilt used the same base of colors but all seven of the colors in this year's palette were used in the quilt (Green and white were the two additional colors). The members made the blocks using a maximum of two colors in each block. The members arranged the blocks at the January meeting. I called it Scattered. But now that I'm looking at it in the picture, there's an X forming in the picture with the white! Oh well - doesn't matter. This one just needed a label sewn to it as I had finished the binding and the sleeve a while back. It's mostly made with Northcott fabrics (Colorworks solids) but we added in some similar color/value fabrics that had a design printed on them. The backing is Toscana by Northcott. Again - thanks to Northcott for supporting our guilds and their charitable endeavors.

Quilt con Charity quilt for the West End Modern Quilt Guild

I was hoping to ship them together in one box, but that didn't happen. I had two identical boxes and one went in each. It was cheap to ship them as one shipment (with two boxes) so the cost wasn't too bad. Bottom line - they are gone. I just need to write up the story that goes on the label that will be attached to the front of the quilt. A job for later today.

That's two more finishes for this year. And neither of them belong to me. I'll recap the January finishes tomorrow - just in case something else gets completed today!

I finished off these blocks that were hanging on the design wall. The blocks are called triple nine-patch. Anyone want to use them as seed blocks to make their own quilt???  The end result is gorgeous.

Triple four patch blocks - up for grabs

I've made two quilts from these blocks. That's enough for me. Both are done. Here's a link to my blog post so you can see one of them.   And here's the second one that is currently hanging in my upstairs hallway.

Another version of the triple four patch quilt

It was a two spool day yesterday. I emptied two more spools of thread. The thread drawer barely has a dent in it so I'm not running out to buy more thread - just yet!

Two more empty spools of thread

In keeping with not letting quilts that need binding pile up - I got the binding on this charity quilt finished yesterday. Yes - another finish that didn't belong to me.

Binding on the charity quilt - DONE

 While I've been puttering, I came across this bag of thread. What the heck was it for??? There are bobbins, top thread and bobbin thread, feet and a screwdriver?  And I wonder why I can't find things sometimes.  I'll ponder on it for a day or two and then put it away if I can't remember what it was for.

A bag of supplies - for what??? Who knows.

I also dug out the serger this morning and finished off a pet mat. I'm not counting these in my finishes, but again - something done and it wasn't for me!!!!

A pet mat - DONE

 Not that I'm worried about no finishes for myself. I'm making great progress on several projects. Those projects are HUGE and not the sort of thing that one would finish overnight. Oh yes - I'm not worried about the finishes for me at all.

When Ronda and I took our class last week, we found a few things to buy. I was looking for spring-like fabric for my Hello Sunshine quilt. I spotted this fabric. How cool - there are 8 FQ printed as a panel.

8 FQ printed as one panel

The girls at the shop (Creative Sisters) had a very clever way to fold that fabric so that ALL eight fabrics would show in their packaging. I was so excited this morning that I opened it up without taking a picture. Ronda is on the train (hopefully) after waiting in the bitter cold and so I'll get a picture of her bundle for tomorrow.

On that note, I booked THREE things to do outside the house today. BRRRR!!!!!  I'll just dress warm and I'll be fine!

Have a super day!!!!


Ciao!!!!

Snowmageddon

That was a lot of snow yesterday. I spent about 2 hours shoveling the driveway. I did it in sections and then DH came out to move the cars and shovel beneath those. Yep - he got the easy job! I don't mind. I got to eat a LOT of extra food yesterday and I deserved every bit!

The left side of the driveway before the plow came by

The right side of the driveway

The plow doesn't normally hit our street until the evening so I changed all plans to venture out. Of course, the plow comes at noon! No big deal, but boy - what a crazy situation. The guy driving the thing looked about 15! He was barreling down the street, knocking over garbage cans that were in his path. But for the life of me, I can't understand why people put their garbage cans on the street yesterday. I didn't even bother putting ours out. We don't generate a lot of garbage so even with pick-up every two weeks, we often don't put it out until it's full which is about once a month - if that. I want to know what's in their garbage cans! How come so much waste? Same with recycling - some peoples bins are overflowing every two weeks. We put ours out about once a month.

We live on the curve of a cul de sac so there are a couple of pie lots. My neighbour drives me crazy because she doesn't own a shovel! She has this massive scoop and proceeds to push the snow onto the street. Her excuse - no place to put it. Meanwhile, her front lawn just a few feet from the driveway has ZERO snow piled on it.

When that plow came by, we were watching. She happened to be out in her driveway pushing the snow into the street. And that driver helped her by pulling all the snow away from the end of her drive!!!!  GRRRR!!!!  While I'm happy because it didn't end up in my driveway, he enabled her to continue doing that!!!! I'm going to buy her a damn shovel! But she won't get it even then.

Clearing the snow in style!

So after our street was all sparkling clean, we did have to go back out and shovel the end. DH says - we can drive over that. Yes, we can, but I'm not driving over it in my new car which is very low to the ground. It also causes ice to build-up and causes slippery conditions. I shoveled most of it and he came and helped me.

Oh - I know the blog is late today. Really, really late. That's OK - I was at the gym!!! Haven't been to spin class in a while and it was time. I thought my legs were going to fall off. I pushed to get to my goal. Now you have to realize that its different in spin class than being on the road. The more effort you put in, the more KM you rack up. It's not necessarily just a speed thing.

Here are my results from this morning.

Stats from spin class

I was happy - the equivalent of 31.1 KM in just less than 1 hour. On my way downstairs I ran into a couple. She works out in the gym and he does the same spin class. He also does triathlons and is skinny as a rail. His wife commented that I looked like I worked harder than he did. So I asked him how many KM he cranked out. A mere 27.3 KM to my 31.1!!!!  Oh yes - if I'm going to the gym, I go there to do maximum effort in the time I have.

Then I popped into the sauna where two men were doing their exercises. Good grief!

And that's why I'm very late this morning.

I spent a good part of yesterday finsihing up that charity quilt for Quiltcon - well, when I wasn't shovelling or eating! I ate a lot yesterday and because of the spin class, I get to eat a lot again today!

But here's the quilt. I'm very happy with the results. That's Charity quilt number five for the year that I've quilted and eventually will finish off.

Charity quilt for Quiltcon - DONE!!!!

Here are a couple of shots of the quilting. I'm very happy with it. My favorite part is the light purple. I could do that all day! I just love the texture and the illusion that changing the direction provides.

Details of quilting on Quiltcon quilt

More quilting details

I did other stuff as well, but you won't see that until Friday.

This charity quilt and the other one I finished MUST be in the mail today. The binding is cut and ready to sew together. Then the sleeve has to be sewn on. That shouldn't be a problem but I do have some computer work that needs to be done first.

Oh - I see that Miss Lexi blogged this morning. I'm surprised that she remembers how - it's been a while.

Don't forget to check out QUILTsocial today.  Very cool stuff on Design Positioning with the HUSQVARNA VIKING Designer Brilliance 80.

On that note, I'm out of here to get the day started.

Have a great day!!!!

Ciao!!!

The lost art of cooking

I know the title of this post does NOT coincide with me and my reluctance to cook! For years I was happy to make a stop at Tim's for breakfast, for snacks, for lunch or whenever I needed something to eat. If it wasn't Tim's, it was somewhere else. Not that I was a fast food junkie, but I was quite happy to leave the house with NOTHING to eat in my possession and forage along the way. Some days, everything I ate came from outside my house. Now, how silly, unhealthy and expensive is that?

Since my lifestyle changes earlier this year, it's rare that I leave the house without my snacks. I've been taking my lunch to Monday sewing for a long time (which I NEVER did). The reason I'm telling you this is that even at the CreativFestival, I bring my own lunch. Why? Because it's way healthier and I'm NOT going to fall back to my old habits. I'm just not!

It's funny how all those convenience foods are what fatten us up. So we have more time, but we're less healthy. Well, in a matter of a few minutes this morning (basically while my breakfast was cooking), I've got my food lined up for the day.

Actually, it's all my food consumption for the day except for dinner tonight.

On the left is my bowl of steel cut oats, with some almond milk, a banana chopped into the oatmeal and two slices of turkey bacon. A bottle of water for the road. I'm already on my second glass of water this morning. There's a peach cut up in the larger container, almonds, and yogurt covered raisins in the small container and for the "main course," I have a wrap with ham and cheese. Hold the butter and mayo and whatever. The wrap doesn't need it. This way you can taste the ham and Havarti cheese. The only thing I forgot to add was my two Simple Pleasures cookies which I'll add before I leave. Yes - I get it that the cheese is very high in fat and the yogurt raisins have sugar, but it's all within the acceptable range of my food guide. Just!

Breakfast, lunch, and snacks for one day

That's it - that's what I get to eat all day!!!!  But you know what? I'm good with that. I'm not hungry and no need to spend money to buy expensive junk food or even more expensive healthy food while I'm out. Takes a few minutes to prep. Can you believe I said that?  I was the queen of convenience!!!  No longer - it's time to make and maintain lifestyle choices and it's time that we live for our health. The grocery stores would wither up and die if everyone shopped like me.


I belong to two modern quilt guilds and I'm looking after the charity quilts for both. Of course - why do one quilt, when you can do two quilts!!  I can't make the meeting this Saturday and couldn't make the meeting last night. After some quick math and a few e-mails, I got kits ready to be handed out on Saturday. Both quilts will look totally different and yet made from the same fabrics. How long have I sat on that fabric waiting to figure out how to cut it up for the kits. It's amazing when you have run out of time. In mere minutes, that fabric was cut and made into kits. The instructions have been added and someone is picking them up today for delivery tomorrow. A huge thanks fo Faiza for making that happen!

Kits ready for the QuiltCon Charity Quilt

I'll have to mail the other kits out as I just didn't get a chance to get those done and I wasn't driving all the way to that meeting after being at CreativFestival all day.

I took the toll highway to the CreativFestival to make sure that I would be there on time. I arrived a half hour early and sat in the car reading my book. I read 20 pages and finished the book off when I got home. It was very strange - but I liked it. Just a weird style of writing for this genre of book.

The day at the CreativFestival seemed to fly by. If I wasn't changing bobbins or rehooping fabric, I was chatting to customers, demoing machines (I love that best) or chatting to people who stopped by to say hello. And there were lots who stopped by!!!  I love these shows so that I can catch up with what's going on. It was great fun! I didn't even get a chance to pop out and shop. OK - I took a wee peek in the booth next to us but that was it. Some GREAT half priced kits. I was tempted but didn't buy. If anyone is looking for Crabapple Hill Block of the Month kits - these are HALF price. Older ones, but still - all the patterns and the fabric!!!!  A great deal! I'm still tempted, but I have so many of her patterns already that are waiting to be stitched.

Even though I technically don't need anything, I have set myself a budget - I can spend that much. There are a few things that I'm going to look at today or tomorrow. The first day is always the busiest. I'll let you know what I find. I know of two things that I want - one is expensive and one is not. Hmm - got to think about that expensive item. Hopefully, they have a show special.

I haven't had a chance to read this article yet, but have a look at the picture at the very end. That's my quilt pattern!!!  While I love to make quilts, I also like to see my patterns made by other people. I can't way to read the article. Looks very interesting. And thanks to everyone who has ever made one of my patterns. You should send me pictures as I'd love to post the pictures!!!!

On that note, I'd better get myself in gear. Lunch is made, I'm half dressed, but the girls - well, they're still waiting and not happy.

Have a super day!!!!

Ciao!!!