Tokyo Quilt

Here is one of the Tokyo quilts. Click on the photo to make it large so you can read the embroidery - the book holds a very important message from me to you.

Vintage Quilt, Ragtime Quilt, Bye Bye Charla

This quilt has been made from vintage linens, embroidered by my customer and the ladies in her family. It includes embroidered collars and hand tatted edging. What a keepsake. The backing is prequilted eyelet, so there is no additional batting.











In comparison, here is my dog's new car blanket. Yaaay, another UFO off my list. Now I'm down to 16.




Yesterday we had dinner at my brother's to bid a fond farewell to my niece. She will be heading back to Singapore for another year. sniff sniff. We also welcomed the newlyweds home and got all the poop on their New York honeymoon. Of all the times to NOT have my camera with me. They were cooking a turkey for us - at one point the whole barbeque was engulfed in flames. I got the hell out of the way since I was wearing a synthetic blouse and I didn't want to be the secondary attraction. Come to think of it, the last time I saw a bbq engulfed in flames was also at their house. That time I think it was bacon-wrapped appetizers. Very crispy. Dinner was great though, the turkey was fine, and we had my favorite hash brown potatoes with corn flake topping. Yum. Thanks for dinner guys!

Free Episode of The Quilt Show

This weekend only there is a FREE episode of Alex Anderson and Ricky Tims in The Quilt Show. A perfect way to spend an hour on a rainy day.
Click on the link.

Quilts & garden bugs

These are the blocks I won from the Binbrook guild a few months ago. The ufo blocks have morphed into a ufo top.

I put the top together on Wednesday. My plan (!) is to donate this to Quilts of Valour. Sometimes when they're finished they're so pretty I hate to give them up. The angel in me has to have a tug-of-war with the selfish brat in me. And the selfish brat is the fat one who plays dirty by sitting on the angel. sigh...

Here are Barb's two quilts. It makes me smile that one quilter can have such diverse tastes - bright and bold vs. soft neutrals.
However, I think they are both gorgeous. The blue batiks has wool batting which is my all-time favorite. The taupe quilt has 80/20 which comes in a close second.











Here is my latest boo-boo. I was weeding in the garden Tuesday evening. I was wearing freshly laundered jeans that had been dried on the solar drier. My inner knee felt funny when I went to bed, like I'd bruised it.
When I woke up Wednesday morning that knee was covered in blistered welts and nasty looking red marks. I think perhaps inky-dinky spider mistook the leg of my jeans for the water pipe and crawled inside. But I'm only supposing - I have NO IDEA what ate me.

Gorgeous quilt this week

I've been hard at work on this beauty.




We went to the movies and saw The Proposal with Sandra Bullock last week. That was a really good, funny movie.

I've been digging up yellow daylilies to share, and weeding the cutting garden.

Today was mom's 89th birthday. I'm bringing her home for supper tomorrow - it should be a really nice day weather-wise to have a barbeque.

Postcard and Quilt Exhibition

My poor friend Marion is having surgery this coming Wednesday for an aneurysm. This is her get well postcard, representing a 'recovery angel in the fast lane'.

Yesterday was Micheline's exhibit opening at the Greenwood Quiltery in Guelph. It was a very festive event, in part because her quilts are so bright and colourful. Artsy quilts, not bed quilts. The quilts look fabulous hung on the walls. Try and get out there to take a peek. Her exhibit is on until the end of July. Click on the link for the store hours, the gallery is upstairs.

She very kindly gave me credit as her longarm quilter. Following is an excerpt from the bio she drafted:
The technical skill of manipulating the Longarm machine is one aspect of Helen’s talent, the other being her sense of design and imagination with respect to ideas and suggestions for quilting patterns and thread colour. It’s fun to work with Helen; she has a knack for interpreting what you are trying to convey with a particular piece and accommodating to your vision and, if you are at a loss of where to go next, she is never short of ideas or suggestions. Helen has the knowledge and technology to mock up stitching patterns over photos of your quilt and email them to you where you can view various options and make decisions with confidence from your home (or office). Helen’s work is impeccable and her anticipated turnaround time for work completion is accurate.
That's almost enough to make me afraid of myself. ;-)

Happy Canada Day

I hope you're enjoying this glorious country of ours. Appreciate it and keep it safe.