Color wash and remembering.....

One of our favorite flowers is alstroemeria- As a cut flower, the blossoms take a little while to open up in bloom. Once open they last for quite awhile. These beautiful purple ones, have been sitting on our table for the past two weeks. In the center is a statice like flower whose name I have forgotten.

Here in Alberta,the September weather has been mostly hot and warm outside for the past two weeks- It has made the classroom quite warm, but manageable. My students and I are settling in together. I have 27, four and five year olds, who keep my days full. It takes some time to get the classroom routines established, but we are working hard at getting those routines in place. This week we will have our annual corn roast to kick off the school year. Meanwhile, we are playing games to learn each other's names and enjoying painting, reading stories and being active in the gym.

At home, our kitchen window has some beautiful cacti and a solo blooming pink violet plant. People keep telling me that violets bloom better in pairs but this pink seems to be unaware of that particular rule of nature. The sunflower containers were a gift from our very talented family friend Sherry. Pretty aren't they? I plan to keep coffee and tea in them.

This posts edition of From my Quilt Vault:

One of the techniques that I have explored on my quilt journey, is making quilts using the colorwash technique. I saw this churndash quilt in a magazine and really loved the graduated color. I really like the churndash block. Do you have a favorite block? The quilt is a nice sized wall hanging and our cat, Mars, thinks its a lovely place to sleep in the sun. I made it around 2001.

This quilt's name is Gran's Garden and it was made to celebrate my grandmother's 85th year of life. It was made from a McCall's quilt magazine pattern. The central medallion has 30 X 40- 2 inch squares that were laid on a large iron on grid fabric. The outer border addition came from an Australian patchwork and quilting magazine in 2002. I have done very little applique in my quilts but I liked how the flowers worked out. Perhaps some day I will design my own quilt completely. This quilt comes the closest to being my own design. I combined elements from a couple of different sources. I know that my gran loved her quilt. It was returned to me after she passed away in 2003.

Our niece posted this very cute photo of her little one. It makes me smile just looking at these sweet eyes peeking through.. She will be a year at the end of this month... Where has this year gone?

My blog friend Michele recently had a blog contest for a quilt album program where I was her lucky winner. Michele wrote this lovely piece about all the things that one can do with the album. I was very touched by all her kind words too. The quilt album is very cool tool and I feel really fortunate to be her winner.

Do you keep photos of your quilts? Do you journal about them. I have a couple of quilt journals. I am looking forward to using this great tool. Do check out Michele's blog. She is an amazing lady who creates beautiful quilts to raise money for Alzheimer's research. She has lots of links to explore and some great free patterns too.

Do you have a favorite color? Another blogging friend Pam had a giveaway to celebrate her 200th post where she gave away some beautiful fabrics. She loves purple(so do I) but her blog is called passionate purple quilter. I had the good fortune to be one of her winners. Do go and visit her blog and see her wonderful quilts.


There is a Moda county fairblog hop going on right now Sandy from pieces from my heart blog was the first of a number of designers who are offering free patterns and some prizes through out the month of September. They are creating some fun little projects for the hop. It is always fun to see what the designers are making... Do go and visit the links and catch up

I want to leave you with a link that another blogger,Melinda posted about 9/11. It is a four part link on You tube. You can find the link here:

Melinda has written a beautiful post for 9/11. Like so many others, I do remember that tragic day. It was a day like many others, where I began teaching my little ones... One where a colleague found a link to CNN news and we watched in bits and pieces, the tragedy unfold... In the days following, I remember thinking how quiet our skies were because of the grounding of the planes even in a city that was 4000 miles from NYC. As a society, we were forever changed- less innocent and trusting and marked by the tragic events ten years ago..We pause to remember those people who perished in that senseless tragedy....

Until next time,
Regards,
Anna