A successful road trip

What a fabulous day. Some time spent with friends - wearing masks and social distancing, of course. But hey - the pandemic does NOT mean you need to be confined to your house and does NOT mean you can't visit with friends. Let's get out there and accept the new normal. We should NOT and will NOT let this pandemic get us down. Get OUT of the house.

I know that some people are more cautious than others, due to health or family or whatever. And we each need to make our own decisions as to how we get used to the new normal. But if you look at the numbers, the percentage of people who are getting the virus is small. In Canada, we have a population of 37,742,154. We have had 121,652 cases of COVID. So if you do the math, that's .3 percent of the Canadian population that tested positive for COVID. That's a POINT three, not three. Now let's look at the number of deaths in Canada, which is 9,020. Of those that contracted the disease, the percent that has died is 7%. And something else to keep in mind, of those that got positive results - how sick were they? We only heard of those that had to go on the ventilator, but many just had flu symptoms. We hear very little about them.  A bit of fear-mongering to scare us??

As a country, we've done a fantastic job of keeping a lid on this virus, and unfortunately, many of those that died were lived in nursing homes. I'm not saying that we need to get out there and have wild parties, but the chance of us contracting the virus is very slim. If you are taking the precautions of the 3 W's - then you should be just fine.

What are the 3 W's???  Washing your hands, wearing a mask, and waiting 6 feet apart. So do your part - be sensible, have common sense, and get out and enjoy life.

So I went to see an art show yesterday at Homer Watson House & Gallery in Kitchener. I met three friends, and we had a great time looking at the fabulous art. This is the Colour with a "U" show by members of SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Associates). The pieces were amazing. Thankfully, we didn't have to pick a favorite, although I did gravitate to a couple of them. In case you're interested, SAQA hosts free Textile Talks on Wednesdays. The information is on that website.

Anyway, this was one of my favorite pieces. All those little letters, which, according to the card, was free motion embroidery??? Seriously??? - the letters were so perfect. And those leaves were a lot of work, but I'm betting that a digital cutter was involved. Who cares - the concept of the piece was brilliant. The artist is Anne Solomon. A lot of meaning in the piece as it's called Our Home ON Native Land—a great play on words.

A detail of my favorite piece

I think we all bought the catalog as well, which was great as there is a picture of each piece of art and the artist's statement. I hate when they just have the images of the art pieces. If you get a chance to go - get there. The show closes on September 7.  The catalog is $20 and a donation of $5 to get in. Call to book an appointment as they can have a maximum of 15 people in the building at any one time.

The catalog for Colour with a "U"

The sun was blazing when we got out of the gallery, and I noticed that my "red" car isn't really red. It's pretty orange in the sun. The color is called Paprika. I'm so frustrated with the navigation system in that car. I've been meaning to write a letter ever since I got the car and well - I can't take it any longer. I paid for that darn navigation system, and it's a total piece of junk. What crap - I can't believe Toyota even put out such garbage. And then ask me how I really feel about it!!!!

My "red" car

Since we were in a different town, I checked to see if they had a Value Village. Not that I need anything, but I keep my eye out for craft books, puzzles, and a few other things. So Katheleen, who did NOT need any persuasion, and I were off to Value Village.

One of the things that I look for are Scrabble games. It's very rare to find one. Can you believe we found TWO of them????  That was so odd. And she went to the other Value Village (I had to get home) and she found yet another one that was $1 cheaper than what we paid!!! That's hilarious.

Scrabble game

OK -- I bought it for the letters which I know we can buy in bulk, but I'd rather buy the game. I have a couple of others. I haven't used them yet, but I will!

My three Scrabble boards

I don't think I'll use the old game. But notice that the games are created by Milton Bradley and Parker Brothers. I'm not sure ho published the old one. 


I also found a couple of shirts, and I'll share what I'm going to do with those another day.

I found this, as well. I really wanted the tin postcard.

Bag of stuff at the thrift store

I removed the tin postcard, and this stuff will get donated back to them.

To be donated back

This I'll keep.

Tin postcard

I managed to get all 48 of the blue string pieced blocks completed. They are trimmed and ready to sew together.

Blue string pieced blocks are DONE

This is the bag of strings. Technically, it's only half full.

The bag of blue strings

But when you put in the smaller bits that I use near the corners, it's about three-quarters full!

All the blue bits are in the bag

I dug out the sheeting that I found, and I'm going to cut the next set of squares. I might as well keep going with this. I'd love to start taming the green or the red bag of scraps. It's a great feeling to get this under control.

And here are the cut off pieces. This is the kind of stuff that goes in the pet mats, not huge chunks of T-shirts, or god knows what else I got in those scrap bags from others. Sigh...............

The cut-off edges of the scrappy blue blocks

I have some half-square triangles that also needed to be trimmed, so I started on those this morning.

Trimming the half square triangles

I was sitting out in the backyard last night and look who I saw. Two finches. They were flitting around the bird feeder. I haven't had to fill it since I put it out, but I see it's going down very slowly!!!

Two finches at the birder feeder

 And look, I got my buckles for the straps on the backpack. I guess I have no more excuses for not getting that thing done!!!! Well - time - time is my excuse!!!

My buckles have arrived

I was going to go cycling this morning, but I had a rough night with my knees. Not the joints - oh no. It's the darn tendons in the back of the knees that are bothering me. I'm in denial, and it's not the first time. So I'll take it easy today. I'll still walk, and I know that I shouldn't - well, I can, just not as much. Maybe I should be cycling to give the knees a rest from walking? I've had issues way before I started all this walking. One of my menisci tore many years ago. It was repaired (trimmed off), but I bet more work needs to be done.

Well, I just got another good lead on how to get my cameras focused on my presentation, so I need to follow that one today. So much to learn and so little time!!!

I'm out of here as it'll soon be time to take the monsters for their walks. Between the three of them, it now takes me between 1 and 1 ½  hours to walk them. They need to sniff, they need to pee, and well, just hang out. It's a slow process to be sure, but they love it, and the temperatures are glorious these days.

Have a super day!!

Ciao!!!

North Star Show n Tell - The Narwhale

AH -- I'm back. I had a great night's sleep even though I had a wee nap around dinner time. Let's hope that I'm back in my time zone.

I thought I had better get some of those edited pictures up for you to have a peek at.

I'm going to start with the homework from the North Star quilt by Elizabeth Hartman.

This is one of our ongoing classes at The Hobby Horse. There are nine blocks in total and the last block will be assigned at the next class at the end of this month! I put my blocks up on the design wall this morning. Going to be chatting about that in the next class. Hmm - something weird was going on when I put them on the wall. But all is good now.

We had three blocks to do over the summer, but some people needed to catch up on a couple or perhaps some of these are duplicates from what you've already seen, but you'll never know.

Today, it's all about the narwhale. This is Neville Narwhal.

Jana's Neville Narwhal

I remember hers because every fabric has DOTS in it. Well, not quite all. Do you see the block in the bottom right corner, she has narwhale fabric in the center of it!  I love how everyone got super creative with their fabric choices. Just wait for the show n tell over the next couple of days. It's amazing what the students came up with.

I don't remember the owner of this one. Trust me, there were tons of blocks in our show n tell. The aqua colors in this are gorgeous and I love that argyle fabric! The tusk disappears a wee bit so we discussed different ways to make that show up.

Another Neville Narwhal

There'll be more of the homework over the next couple of days so watch for that.

So what did I do yesterday? I started off by zipping down to Ottawa Street in Hamilton. I was looking for two shops in particular. I'm totally blind because I parked practically beside one of them and I didn't see it. I had to look up the address and then realized my mistake. It was closed for the holiday weekend and I mean closed. There were big metal shutters on all the windows. But then it's a sewing machine dealer - big bucks in that store. I don't blame him.

I'll have to go back another time, but that wasn't the main reason I went so I wasn't too upset. Then I had to find the other store that I needed. I walked up and down that block several times. If anyone had seen me, I'm sure they would have thought I was a crazy person. I found the store - there are not many great shopping stores on that street. Anyway, they no longer carried the vinyl that I was looking for.

Back up the street to the first store I went in. Yep - they had marine vinyl and I got a lesson. The vinyl that I thought was marine vinyl was NOT marine vinyl. Now I know what marine vinyl is but I'm not sure I could identify it on its own. It can withstand extreme cold without cracking (I'm not sure what the crack point is on marine vinyl as I didn't ask). Anyway, I came home with a nice selection of different colors of vinyl. I've got some samples to prep and the vinyl looks really nice. I don't think I've ever shared my samples with you. I'll do that someday.

Then I went back to the sister shop (European Textiles) which was back down the block. I told you, I walked up and down that block several times. They had some nice remnants of silk, chiffon, and other oddities. I know - what's got into me?  They also had a lot of quilting fabrics. I glanced at them, got excited about one which I left in the store. When you see it, you'll faint that I left it.

Orange bike fabric

Seriously???  I left that in the store??  Well - it was flannel. I guess I could have purchased enough for a quilt backing, but I don't need more backings!!!!  So I walked away but only after I took a photo!

In total, I spent less than $200 and it was all for work-related stuff. Not bad! The more that I get involved in this education business, the more I want to get back to garment sewing. Fit is a big issue with garment sewing. One of the shop staff provided me with an information card for some amazing classes - basically a certificate at a local college in dressmaking. Hey - why not!!!!  I'm going to check it out. Anyone else interested??? It's at Mohawk College in Hamilton. 

Then I spent the remainder of the day puttering. Studio U and Studio B were in quite a bit of disarray. That was the result of NOT unpacking the suitcase and putting things away properly so the cutting tables were a jumble of stuff. Now all the presser feet and thread are back where they are supposed to reside. Bobbins and stuffing tools are back in their homes as well as the samples. Well, most of the samples. I've unpacked part of the suitcase and I need to finish that today and get it repacked in time to go to the CreativFestival later this coming week.

I don't know what to say about the CreativFestival. It's not what it used to be. I can only hope that this fall is different? I know I'll be there and we'll be showing everyone the NEW Husqvarna Viking DESIGNER EPIC 2 with all its cool new stuff. There are some great classes and I'd love to attend one of the Mary Fons events, but I'm not going to have time for that.

I would encourage you to come. If you don't want to come because of past experiences, then I would encourage you to contact the show owner and explain why you are NOT coming this year. While not attending is essentially feedback, I think it's important to verbalize why you're not coming. An actual voice with a reason says way more than total absence. Here is the link to the contact box. Be polite, be constructive, and be honest! This is the ONLY way, we can get this show back to its total glory.

Oh yes - if you want to get a fabulous piece of artwork, then check this auction out. It's part of the annual fundraising from SAQA (Studio Art Quilt Associates). All the pieces on this link are now $100 to buy. Some of the pieces are amazing. I believe they are 12" square.

On that note, I've got some computer work to do with the morning and then I"ll be back to work for the rest of the day.

Have a super day!!!!

Ciao!!!!

I SLEPT IN

OK - I'm late with the blog. Why? Because I slept in! I was wide awake in the middle of the night thinking about my projects so I got up to check some stuff. Went back to bed and now it's late - really late!

The girls will not get a walk this morning and they are NOT going to be happy. I should be leaving for Monday sewing right now!

Oh well - I'm going to be late. It's not like I need to be there to open the door. I'll get there when I get there. Life goes on!

I'm glad I got up as I had a few things to "learn" and my brain was in such an active mode that is needed to learn them at 3 AM!!!  I'm prepping for some events this week. I totally kept forgetting to mention them to you in case you'd like to attend.

One is being held at Thimble and Things TOMORROW. Sorry for the late notice. There are two events. The first one is on the embroidery software for PFAFF. Premiere +2 Embroidery Software. That starts at 9 AM. Even if you're a Husqvarna customer, you would learn something as the software is the same - branded differently. But don't tell anyone I said that.

The second class is on Embroidery and Embellishment where I'm going to provide inspiration for you - the embroiderer!! I've been working on some super creative stuff that blew my socks off when I stitched it out last night. I'll show you next week. It's so adorable!

The event on Friday is at Brampton Sew and Serge. One of the topics is on Inspiration for Quilting and the other is Embroidery and Embellishment. This time both slots are for Husqvarna Viking. Next time, I'd better give you more notice.

I did virtually nothing in the mass cleanup that's happening. I had other things to do. I had to trim all those quilts that I had quilted as they are being delivered today. They are all done including this customer quilt.

Customer quilt

I got one more border on the Tonga Rhapsody. Holy - it's being pretty temperamental. Almost like it doesn't want to be finished. But I persevered and now that border is done. Two more borders to go.

The second border is one

See all those checkerboards in that border? Well, they are done in mirror images of each other. That should say something as to what happened! But that's done and only two more borders to put on, then make the binding and find some backing. I can't wait until the backing part as it's so easy to find them now with the new filing system.

The remaining two borders and the binding are cut

Then I'll have to deal with the scraps. That's easy - I have a batik scrap bin and these bits will go in there. It's all about putting things away when I'm finished with them and to not let this remain a UFO for too much longer.

The scraps to be put away

I have a Sit n Sew later this week and I hope to be done by then (NOT going to happen) because it's taking up a lot of space on the tables and I need the space to lay it out to put on the borders. This is how I get so many steps in a day. My sewing machine is one on side of the tables and the quilt is laid out on the other. Works for me!!!

The quilt is on the opposite side of the table as the sewing machine

I did get a few more things put away in Studio B. I'm going to need the space in good shape for Thursday. Now how did that day creep up so fast? It's going to be a totally crazy week. But that's OK.

I hung up my magnetic board over the cutting table. I missed having access to my pens and paper which are attached in a metal holder. I washed it down and got rid of some of the stuff that had been hanging on it for years! I didn't get a picture of the new set up. That's a photo for tomorrow.

The magnetic message board is clean!

I'll leave you with this morning. Some eye candy. These are quilts that have been made by SAQA (Studio Arts Quilts Associates). The quilts are for sale as a fundraiser for the organization. There are some amazing pieces!!!!

And now I'm out of here!

Have a great day!!!!


Ciao!!!