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Thursday, July 25, 2013
Sunday, May 12, 2013
Wednesday, May 8, 2013
Trip to Canada
I was able to make a quick trip to Canada last week....hubby is working in Fort Saskatchewan, and I hadn't seen him for six or seven weeks (I lose count of how long he's been gone). I scheduled the trip for the last weekend in April hoping to avoid the harsh weather, and the planning paid off. The weather was great! There was still snow on the ground when I got there Thursday night, but by the time I left on Sunday, it was mostly melted. Here are a few pictures of some places we visited:
Elk Island National Park
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| Bison |
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| Bill |
So pretty.......The rest of the pics are Fort Saskatchewan, mostly of the historical area.
This was the area near the bank of the Saskatchewan River
Sunday, April 28, 2013
Another Finish (Not a Quilt)
The master bedroom has (had) a built in vanity that I've never really used, and when I had a few weeks off for the Christmas/New Year holiday, I started thinking about getting rid of it and trying to figure out what I would do with the space if the vanity were gone.........I decided I wanted a floor to ceiling cabinet where I could keep some of my vintage quilts. I made some phone calls, got some recommendations for carpenters, and made some more phone calls. The first carpenter that I called came over the same day, drew me a sketch, and gave me an estimate. It seemed like he understood what I wanted and could do it for a reasonable price. I gave him half of the money upfront, and he came back the next day to take out the vanity. He was going to build the cabinet in his shop, and install it at the end of the week (right after New Year's day). When the weekend came, he called and said he didn't have it painted yet as it had been raining all week. I had to go back to work on Monday and told him I'd give him a call the next weekend. It rained some more, and he still didn't get it finished. This went on for several weeks with various excuses from rain to illness to family problems, etc. In the meantime, this is what I'm looking at in the master bedroom:
And I'm running out patience, and my phone calls aren't being returned at all. Sometime near the end of March, I called from a different number and got an answer (not the one I wanted). The cabinet had gotten wet in one of the rainstorms and was ruined. He would have to completely rebuild it. Did I want to pay for more materials? My answer was no, I've already paid for the materials, and I want a cabinet or I want my money back. He said he'd try to have it finished by the following weekend.
A couple of weeks and several phone calls later, I finally had my cabinet. But it was nine inches to narrow for the space! It had to be rebuilt again. Last weekend, I got a finished cabinet that fits the space. Even after all the stress and unpleasantness, I like it! It's not exactly what I asked for, but it will work.
Here's the finished cabinet:
Here's the finished cabinet:
And here it is with all the shelves filled with vintage quilts. I was at a loss with what to put in those little shelves on the lower right. They weren't part of my original plan, but I put some awards I've won for quilts I've made in them. I need to get busy and win more awards so I can finish filling them. LOL.
Wednesday, April 3, 2013
Another Finish (and Just in Time!)
I got Serenity's quilt finished in time for her first birthday. It was two weeks ago, but I'm having compound problems posting pics that I've taken with my smart(?) phone. Maybe the phone's too smart for me! All I want to do is send a pic from the phone directly to my blog. Since the phone's platform is Android and blogger is a google software, it should work. And, it probably does, if I could just figure it out. For the past two weeks, I've been sending pix out into cyberspace somewhere. To top it off, my phone is showing a message on the notifications screen that it's waiting to retry sending the selected pix. I finally did it the old-fashioned way and sent these to a folder on the computer:
Here's the story on this quilt. At the baby shower (Feb. 2012, I think) all the guests were given a square of fabric and some markers to create a square for a memory quilt. I should have gotten it finished sooner, but I got frustrated because some of the guests had written and drawn close to the edge -- which I needed for a seam allowance; also the fabric wasn't 100% cotton, so the few squares that I attempted to heat set (to make them color fast) started shriveling up on the edges. On top of all that, the obstetrician induced labor a couple of weeks earlier so no way was I getting it done by the time she was born. I basically decided it would make a good first birthday gift instead.
So, if you know an easy way to send a pic from your phone to your blog, will you please leave a comment and let me know!
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Lake Jackson Quilt Show
Not too much to talk about--I am still making string geese, but the progress is slow. There was a quilt show in Lake Jackson over the weekend, and I got to go on Friday, although I was in a hurry and didn't have much time to spend looking. I did see lots of nice quilt entered in the show and even remembered to take a few pictures.
I liked the scrappy sashing on this one. It's the same technique I used on the last swap quilt I assembled--I don't think I ever posted a pic of it on here....
Here are two with lots of hand work. I have the pattern for the redwork one saved (somewhere). It's from an older American Patchwork and Quilting Magazine.
This is the Fire Escape pattern. I've made a couple of these and still like the graphic quality of it.
Nice and scrappy Lemoyne Star
A medallion-type setting with a closeup of some of the detail.
I guess that's all the pictures I took. There were a lot more quilts there and lots of nice ones. The judging was already done and I thought I had shots of the category winners but must have accidently deleted them from the phone.
I liked the scrappy sashing on this one. It's the same technique I used on the last swap quilt I assembled--I don't think I ever posted a pic of it on here....
Here are two with lots of hand work. I have the pattern for the redwork one saved (somewhere). It's from an older American Patchwork and Quilting Magazine.
This is the Fire Escape pattern. I've made a couple of these and still like the graphic quality of it.
Nice and scrappy Lemoyne Star
A medallion-type setting with a closeup of some of the detail.I guess that's all the pictures I took. There were a lot more quilts there and lots of nice ones. The judging was already done and I thought I had shots of the category winners but must have accidently deleted them from the phone.
Tuesday, January 29, 2013
String Geese - Adding the Side Triangles
I have over 60 geese made--time to add some side triangles. Do you remember the original vintage quilt? It had peach-colored side triangles and I wanted that same look. Unfortunately, the peach color I have is pretty anemic looking. :(
I have probably over three yards of it, it's not likely I'll use it for anything else, and the whole purpose of this is to use up some of the leftovers that are just taking up space.
The first thing is to trim the geese even with the foundation papers.
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| Untrimmed |
Lay your ruler along the side even with the paper and trim.
Here's one that's been trimmed on all three sides:
You can remove the paper foundations after trimming the geese, but I prefer to leave mine on until the side triangles are added. It gives more stability to all those strings which are now cut on the bias. The papers are a little tougher to remove after adding the sides, but it's worth it to me to have the stability of the paper when sewing.
I used my Easy Angle ruler to cut the side triangles, but if you don't have one you can cut 4-7/8" squares and cut them on one diagonal to get two right triangles. With the Easy Angle, I cut several 4.5" strips, stacked them, and used the ruler to cut my triangles.  |
| First, remove the selvege edge! |
Sew a triangle to one side and press away from the string center.
Now add the other triangle:
This is what they will look like once they are sewn together:
I'm really noticing how beige my peach looks.........I think it will just have to do since I already have it on hand (and I've already cut a bunch of 4/5" triangles from it).
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