Saturday, December 26, 2009

Merry Christmas 2009


This is the wreath I made when Craig was a baby - it's been on our door every Christmas since then.

My sister Carol and I went for a walk again this year on Christmas day - much warmer than last year! It was only about -5C this year. This is Bowmont Park, about 5 minutes from our house.




Carol in the shade.
Happy Holidays everyone!

Sunday, December 20, 2009

Red or White?


Wine anyone?

Some time ago, I found this "wine bottle" print. Irresistible.

Then I found this block pattern on line: "Verre a Vin" (the "a" has an up to the left accent but I don't know how to do that in blogger) by Patti R. Anderson. Fabric and block are made for each other.
THEN I found this panel. Things just keep getting better!

So until I get over to the big quilt fabric store to look for some more fabric for the gold/purple quilt I started a couple of weeks ago, I'll chip away on this one. I think I have enough fabric of the necessary colours to do a complete quilt. And it's sort of seasonal, too. But then - you can drink wine any time!
Cheers! :)

Friday, December 18, 2009

More Minis


I needed to take a break from the purple/gold blocks. I'm up to about 70 or so, but I want to get some different fabric and between the weather and timing, I haven't been able to do that yet. Probably not till I have some time off after Christmas.

In the meantime, I decided to put together this little kit that I picked up at one of the quilt shows (I think Red Deer, but not really sure). I've seen this pattern in a number of places, so maybe you have too. It's really cute! Although to be honest, not too sure about the tree - at least I think that's what it is. Anyway, each of the little guys is about 3.5 *8.5 inches. Very tiny for a quilt! I'm keeping them to put with a little penguin collection I have for the "new" bathroom when Joe gets it finished.

Thursday, December 10, 2009

Exit the Socks, Enter the ... well - not sure yet...


I had plans to do a couple of kids quilts next. But... I had an uncontrollable urge to start something a little less defined. One of my new books is Thinking Outside the Block. What's the point of having a pile of books if you're not going to use them? Sew.... I'm starting in at the beginning.

I haven't actually done a "real" quilt, but am thinking of doing a Queen size this time out. Using 6 inch blocks, I'll only need about 255 blocks! I will need to find more fabric. In any case, here is what I've started with. I think I'm up to close to 40 blocks right now. Stay tuned.


Saturday, December 5, 2009

Rwanda

It's Christmas party season. We were at Scott's party tonight and so was Margaret. My "Canada Scramble" quilt was "won" in a silent auction at a fund raiser for her charity Inspire Africa by a woman who is going to Rwanda to do more great work there. And she's taking "my" quilt, which is now hers. I'm very pleased about this.

It's gratifying to know that I can contribute to important work by making quilts. I don't have the stamina that people like Margaret have to physically go to places around the world and actually roll up my sleeves and help, but I would like to help in some way. So maybe this is the way. I told Margaret I would make a quilt for her each year for her fund raiser. The next one will be better because by then I hope to have a better mastery of Harley.

Friday, December 4, 2009

Christmas Sock Epilogue

I found some gold beads with letters on them - perfect to put names on socks quickly! I dug through my stuff and found some red and green ribbon, threaded the letters with alternating pony beads that I also have from my past life (I love using up all this ancient stuff!). Tied each end to a bell and stitched the bell to the sock. Et voila! Socks with names!



Rhonwyn.
Monique.
There is also one for Carol and Dan - but you get the idea. If I had more time, I would have done something a bit more elaborate.

Top Secret

Shhhh - it's a Secret!



Some people are special. I like to make things for my special people - see "Like a Cat" post.

I want to keep my scrap heap under control, so what better way than to make some little gifty things with my scraps? At the Red Deer quilt show we saw some little "mini place mats." I didn't measure them, but they are large enough for a cup of coffee and a small plate of cookies, or something more healthy, but smaller than "regular" place mats.

Pam likes "mini" things of all sorts and I had some of the Loralie girls left from her quilt and thought it would be fun to make Pam a "mini" place mat that she can use when she's watching TV under her quilt!

But why stop at one? There were enough of the girls for five.

I also have the five Divas - but there were only four Loralie girls left after Pam. Problem solved: I also had some of the remains of the blue/gold Australian Rail Fence. Diva Karen liked the Australian Rail Fence quilt so much, she bought it. So I think she needs some mini mats to go with her quilt, too!
Finally, our friend Scott always has a Christmas soiree, and we like to take something. Wine is the traditional thing for such events, but Scott is a connoisseur and - well - we like wine, but don't really know much about it - so I prefer not to take Scott wine. I had some scraps from the bridge table covers and table runners I made for my Mom last year for Christmas and I think that fabric will fit in with Scott's stuff. So Scott gets some "minis" from that!

The minis are in the 8-9 inch by 13-15 inch range - I think the blue ones might be a bit bigger - its just the way the squares worked out. (See "artist" post below.)