Black Sampler Quilt & Postcard Class Prep

We've had two birthday parties this week - one for my soon-to-be niece who turned a lovely 25, and another for my sister-in-law who turned a lovely 25 x 2. I brought myself a bottle of wine to the 25 x 2 party last night and apparently drank the whole thing? They have these HUGE wine glasses (fish bowls on stems, really) so the amount of liquid in them is very deceiving. Until it's time to go home and your shoes won't stay still long enough for your feet to get in them. Oh my.

I've finally finished this gorgeous quilt. It took a lot longer than I anticipated, although some of that was just design work. The infamous 'S & S' technique (stand & stare).








































My useless assistant, fiercely guarding the front door.
Doesn't that position look very uncomfortable?





I'm heading off to Zurich after lunch today (the Zurich at Grand Bend, Ontario, not the other one). I will be staying with my friend Diane. On Monday I'm teaching a postcard workshop for her guild in Goderich.
I've made up 50 kits to make Christmas Postcards. This entails 50 ziploc bags, 50 sets of a three page "how-to" pamphlet, 100 pieces of Peltex 72 fusible heavy weight interfacing, 200 pieces of 6.25 x 4.25" fabrics for the fronts and backs, 50 pieces of Steam A Seam, 250 pieces of Christmasey fabrics cut into smaller pieces, 100 pieces of fuzzy yarns for couching or edge trimming, 50 little baggies filled with seed beads, bugle beads and sequins. Are y'all tired yet? I certainly am. To top it off, I simply cannot find loose sequins, so I have to buy them by the yard then UNSTRING them. I make very good use of my skinny tweezers.

Red Hat day and quilting

Did you think I'd run off with my new kitchen assistant? Not so. unfortunately

Thursday was Red Hat day - this is Barb (our Queen and local quilt shop owner) and Anne (her faithful ally). We had our Christmas luncheon at Cottonwood Mansion in Selkirk.
Our surprise entertainment was a brass couplet who serenaded us after lunch. And dear me, is that one of our members having her afternoon nap???
We even sang Christmas carols. When was the last time I did that in public?


I've finished a couple of quilts and started on this beauty. It is VERY HARD to see black thread on busy, black fabrics. All I want for Christmas is some 20-year-old eyes.

Quilt Class and Tonight's Supper

My supper menu for tonight was homemade Leek & Zucchini soup, salad, fresh bread. I was teaching a class this morning then I had errands to run, so I left a request with my kitchen assistant: "Please make a loaf of bread in the breadmaker".
Here is a view of the bread through the window. There is still another 35 minutes to go on the timer. Chances that it will push the lid open attempting to escape are looking pretty good. Why is it so difficult to measure yeast?

Should I try to trade in the kitchen assistant for a new one that looks like this? If successful I don't think I'd really care about the yeast. Seriously. :-)








Class today was good! This is # 7 of 8 classes and the gals are all doing very well. Arlene appears to be praying to the quilting gods. Really, though, she's just marking her border. She is the overachiever this session, as her quilting is mostly finished.

Lorraine is sorting out her border blocks.





Reta has her top finished and plans to hand quilt it over the winter. I will baste the layers for her and she can use her Q-snap frame. The way the sunlight is shining on her quilt it looks like she has some heavenly approval, eh?

Busy Week

Tuesday I taught my quilt class in the morning, then ran Mom around to her appointments in the afternoon. Later, (angel that I am) I brought her home and fed her supper. Wednesday was quilt guild all day & evening. When I got home at 10:15 pm I had to make a dozen double-decker egg salad sandwiches for Thursday. That's when I volunteered at the Victorian Tea for the little museum in town. I'm now officially dog tired. I wonder if that's connected somehow to the expression "my dogs are barking"?

I love my Caledonia Guild. We sew all day, have a catered supper from Cafe Amore, then our meeting runs from 7:30 'till 9:30-ish.

At our guild this month we had Judy Lyons, a quilt appraiser from Burlington, On., give us a talk and trunk show. I had her appraise two of my quilts while she was there.


I also brought the Quilt of Valour for show & share. It's all ready to go whenever the need arises. Charlotte completed the binding and Lydia made the label. Thanks girls!




Here is a quilt I've finished working on this week. I taught this class last fall. All the quilts from these classes (I taught it twice) have been just fabulous. The pattern is from the book by Debbie Caffrey, Open a Can of Worms

Do you have a funny little quote that's been in your head for years? Mine is from the book Illusions by Richard Bach (who also wrote Jonathan Livingston Seagull). "You are never given a wish without being given the power to make it true. You may have to work for it, however."

Wide Awake

Note to self: (like I don't know this already???) It is a bad idea to start eating your way to the bottom of a box of chocolate mint Girl Guide cookies at 10 o'clock at night. Very disruptive to your sleep patterns.

Today's finished quilt

This is definitely one of the cutest quilts I've worked on this year. It was quite a challenge deciding how to quilt it.


I started with the music.







The borders got stitch in the ditch, wonky zig zags, and some leafy/flowery quilting in the applique.














The circles were s.i.d. in the curves, zig zags in the strips, and a wee flower in the centre.





In the background areas I did curly feathers around an oval shape, with ribbon candy inside the oval.

Shop Hop & Quilting Work

Yesterday I was out with Sue and Floris Ann on a shop hop. Usually Margaret would drag me out for the day on these trips, but since she moved up north I have to drag myself (and others) out. My pet peeve of the day is the facilities... you know, THOSE facilities. Why do shop owners have lovely bright clean shops and clean well decorated classrooms, yet the bathroom looks worse than what you'd find deep in the bowels of Grand Central Station? It certainly does not reflect well on the shop owner. In my opinion. And, like, who cares about my opinion. Besides me. I have a fabric moratorium in place and I did very well. All I bought was a Micron pen and a magazine. The best part of the day was the company. And the lunch. And afternoon tea & dessert yummmm.

This morning, I woke up to what I hope is not a forecast of the rest of the day. Someone (!!!) did not quite get the coffee pot underneath the little drippy hole last night, so this morning the whole counter was covered with 10 cups of coffee. Ok, really only maybe 2 cups. Nevertheless, very messy. The first words out of my mouth today (after 'good morning') were the 'F' bomb. If I were a coffee drinking cat I'd have been in 7th heaven, slurping away there on the kitchen counter, belly extended like Jabba the Hut.

I finished work on a second beautiful embroidered quilt. This one is for the maker's son so I took a more manly approach to the quilting.

Me, as a Tarot Card - my nonsense for today

You are The Star

Hope, expectation, Bright promises.

The Star is one of the great cards of faith, dreams realised

The Star is a card that looks to the future. It does not predict any immediate or powerful change, but it does predict hope and healing. This card suggests clarity of vision, spiritual insight. And, most importantly, that unexpected help will be coming, with water to quench your thirst, with a guiding light to the future. They might say you're a dreamer, but you're not the only one.

What Tarot Card are You?
Take the Test to Find Out.

Using leftovers

Back in June I made the Jelly Roll quilt. Last week I used the leftovers to make coasters. Leftovers are insidious... like rats scurrying in the sewer. You think you've got rid of them, when HELLOooo - there they are back again!! The middle stiffener is Peltex 72 by Pellon, which I also use for my postcards. It's already fusible on both sides.

I used the leftover leftovers, and now I've made little business card holders. More Peltex 72. Instructions were from Two Creative Studios. I could not find any snaps for the closure, so I just used buttons and cording. I made the cording with 4 strands of Perle Cotton #5. These will be going to some friends of mine who've done nice things for me. These could also be used to hold your credit cards or mad money. Or kleenex. Or leftovers. Or snaps. Well, I could go on here forever, couldn't I???

In case you're wondering, yes, now I have leftover leftover leftovers. (ooo - getting dizzy....)