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Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Good mail is easy to find!

I have had some great mail in the past few days.



Pincushion won from Calico Daisy. The stitching is exquisite.



Fat Quarters won from Krista. I love the ones she sent me and some of them are in colour palettes I have not used. It is going to be so fun to create with them.



 

  

 


My potholders from Rosebud Johnnies/Jessica. They are beautiful and she sent me wonderful things with them. I am scared to use them. I love the smiley face spoon. My daughter has decided it is hers for when she cooks.



Here is something that I hope will be good mail for someone; my submission to the potholder pass swap that I sent out last week.

 

I stayed up late last night to watch the Olympic dance skating, and it was incredible to watch. I am so proud that Virtue/Moir won the gold for Canada! All the athletes are amazing and it is fantastic to see the dedication and hard work pay off. I don't have to watch every 4 years though to see incredible talent. I see it on all of your blogs each day and I am amazed at what you do. You are all an inspiration! 


Saturday, February 20, 2010

Friday Night Sew-In



Well, I decided to work on one of my PHDs. I started this project in December. I had some extra fabric left over from another PHD, and decided they would look cute as a table topper.  I designed it as though you are looking out a window. I had some quilting to finish on it and the binding. I tried out some of my speciality stitches on it. I also added a sleeve on the back if I want to hang it up. Just need to sew on the binding and I can have something else completed. I am calling it Through the Winter Glass.

Thursday, February 18, 2010

Trying to Quilt Along

I am here. I am so here. I am too much here. I have been spending all week organizing my PHDs. See that long list down on the left. I am finally admitting to all I have going on. I have been trying to organize things for my PHD Challenge with Myra. Life has been getting in the way however, and I have ended up working on different PHDs than I thought I would.  I have been cutting, organizing and sewing a bit.

As always, I have been trying to figure out what is wrong with me! Okay, maybe how I can get off this quilting bandwagon. I am totally addicted. It is a 3rd job for me. What I realized is that I use to make quilts for other people. Trust me I am not trying to sound unselfish here. I just really started quilting on a regular basis when my nephew was born. Then other family members, started having babies, friends had babies, and I had babies. Then there is special occasion quilts etc, etc. It has only been in the past year that I have really quilted for myself, and my family. With all of the swaps, and quilt alongs going on I now have a lot of phds. It is great and I have learned so much but I have to figure out how to maintain some sort of balance. This morning I was fed up with all of it, and decided I was going to stop quilting. I told my husband I was going to stop, and he joked with me about what he would turn my quilting room into. I gave him the look in reply. At lunchtime I went out to run some errands, saw a new quilting magazine and found some great patterns in it and bought it!

The good thing about quilting is that I am my own boss. The bad thing about quilting is that I am my own boss. I realized today as well that I would never work an employee as hard as I work myself. I would also blog all the time, if it weren't for having to take pictures!


Well, now that I have that out of my system, let's move on to more things I am joining!


I have seen so many quilt alongs that I have wanted to join. Last year I started on Amanda Jean's nine patch quilt along and have not finished it yet. I have half of the blocks. I was trying to decide whether I would turn it into a double size quilt or use the blocks in a different setting. I have not decided yet, but I am going to get back to making the squares. This quilt is going to be for my daughter. Last night she told me that she has outgrown her 2 other quilts (she's 5), though she still likes them and needs me to make her a new quilt. Guess what I will be pulling out!





I am going to be joining the Jelly Roll Sampler Quilt Along. I have 2 jelly rolls;  Figgy Pudding and Peace on Earth. I have yet to make a Christmas quilt, and I think this will be a great one to make. Moose on the Porch Quilts is hosting it and every 2 weeks a guest designer will post a block.



I am also going to be doing the Friday Night Sew-In tomorrow night. I am going to be working on my siggy blocks. I think that I will have to make another post, about the difficulty of finding fabric in Canada. My lqs was out of the Kona white cotton, so I ended up buying the Moda white that Rachel had suggested. I got it from Florida.

Just to end on a sweet note, on the weekend my son was playing a game on the computer. When I came to talk to him a few minutes later, I noticed he had started a different game. On it was a puzzle, where you were given a picture and by using needlepoint you had to make your own picture to match the display. When I asked him why he had changed to a new game, he looked at me and said in all seriousness, "Your not the only one who likes to quilt, Mom"!

Trying to quilt along,

Wednesday, February 10, 2010

Building Blocks

 

 

Here are a couple of blocks I made last week for my quilt guild. We will be swapping 4 blocks and then making something for them for June. I am in the brights and country group.



I realized on the weekend that it has been months since I have made something for myself. The weather here has been quite cold lately and I only have 2 quilts. I have been carrying them around the house like Linus. I decided to start something new for myself but it will actually be a wall-hanging. Here is a little peek.



These are my blocks for the potholder swap. I now need to quilt them.


 

  

For March's meeting of my guild, I have agreed to talk about online swaps. There are other guild members speaking, so I only have (thank goodness) 10 minutes to talk about it. I am hoping to get a few of my quilt tops together to be able to show them. If you have anything you wish you knew/want to share about online swaps I would love to hear from you.

Monday, February 8, 2010

Good mail is hard to find!

Here is some good mail I have received lately.




Beautiful modern fat quarters for my siggy swap and my potholder pass.



I had been wanting this magazine and could not find it locally. I ordered it and also ordered a surprise fabric roll from the Fat Quarter Shop. I have always been wanting to order  a fabric surprise. I was so happy when I found out it was a Blush Layer cake. I have fallen in love with Blush since I saw B-Sew cute's quilt.


Every year my children's school has a magazine fundraiser. I usually buy whatever quilting magazines they are selling. This year I got a new one, and a renewal. I was thrilled when this turned out to be the new one.


Inside, Julie's quilt. I am so happy for her.

 


Here's hoping for more good mail!



Monday, February 1, 2010

Keeping it simple

I must say the OPAM and the PHD Challenge have been very helpful to me. I have 1 phd finished so far, and more of them organized to start sewing. For February, I am trying to keep it simple.

  1. Make blocks for guild swap
  2.  Make potholders for swap
  3. Complete siggy swap
  4. Finish another phd






I think I finally figured out my colour blocks quilt. I have been really enjoying the blocks of colour sashed in white that I have seen on other blogs. With my keep it simple theme, I think I am going to that with them. For the backing/fronting I am going to use my blocks from my rainbow block swap. I have never done a 2-sided quilt before and I think it is going to be neat. Luckily, I chose orange and brown as the colours I swapped so I have extra blocks I can put in. I also have some aqua/teal left over from the red/aqua swap so it will be quick to make an extra block at the top.