tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-57739726610693797332024-03-12T18:40:26.932-07:00Quiltmom's Journeyquiltmom annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01976120921532056369noreply@blogger.comBlogger179125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5773972661069379733.post-36788104892509647312020-01-22T23:19:00.002-08:002020-01-23T15:54:16.030-08:00Dear Grace - <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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This is Grace- Grace was a mixed media project that I did last year with Gwen LaFleur at Dar Madden's Studio here in St. Albert. She is beautiful and has lots of shiny beads, lace, rich fabrics and is elegant. She is named for my beloved grandmother, Grace.<br />
My grandmother went by many names- Gracie, Mrs. Henry, Auntie Grace, Mom, Gran, Grandma and GG . The definition of Grace in the dictionary is "a simple elegance of movement" or" courteous goodwill ". Both would aptly describe my grandmother.<br />
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My grandmother, Grace would have celebrated her 103 birthday today. She became a grandmother a couple of months before her 40th birthday. I am her oldest grandchild. She lived to know her 7 grand children, her 8 great grand children and one great great grandchild. Family was central to the core of her being.<br />
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When I think of my Gran- I think of love. She radiated it- I don't ever remember her speaking harshly to anyone or about anyone. She was kind to all of God's creatures, a woman of faith who loved all of the animal species (well maybe she wasn't too fond of mice in her house π). She lived on a farm where she was surrounded by Nature. She loved the deer and birds and all the creatures that she saw on the land that surrounded her home. She believed in stewardship of the land and that we all had a responsibility to be Mother Earth's caretakers.<br />
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Her parents did not have money - in fact they struggled all their days to get by. Her parents were older when they married and had their children late ( Her mother Evelyn, had her last child when she was 48 and her husband William was 61) . Grace was the second youngest in her family. <br />
Grace left home when she was 15 to work out for another farming couple. She was beautiful- tall and lithe and had a great smile and sense of fun. My gran could milk cows, ride horses and grow amazing vegetables in her large garden. She enjoyed cooking and could bake like nobody's business.<br />
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Farming on the prairies of the Alberta during the late 30's and 40's was not for the faint of heart. There was not many creature comforts in those old wood houses. My gran was resilient - she developed all the necessary skills to be able to look after herself and her family. Whether the task was to look after the animals outside or to prepare food for the winter, Grandma Grace knew how to do it all. She believed in keeping a tidy house and a tidy yard. Chores always came first, play came later. Her faith in God was infused in all parts of her life.<br />
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She met my grandfather, Henry when she was a young girl- and married him when she was 18. Together they forged a loving relationship that would last for 53 years until my grandfather's passing in 1988.<br />
From the beginning, they were devoted to one another- always loving and demonstrative towards one another. If they ever had harsh words for one another, I don't remember them.<br />
I remember walking up behind them one day when they had come to town - it was a chance encounter ( I was about 16). They were walking down the street hand in hand like a much younger couple would do. π. It makes me smile just thinking about the way they celebrated their love for one another- They always put each other first and gave 100 percent to each other and to their children.<br />
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The unconditional love is what I remember the most when I think of them- particularly my grandmother.( I would have been devastated to know that I had done something to disappoint her) but mostly, I just remember her love. She made you feel like you were the most special and important thing around . You knew that she loved you unconditionally. She had high standards of the way one behaves and conducts oneself but her reminders were always done in a gentle loving way.<br />
Her love was infused into everything that she did- whether it was the white cake with pink icing on top with sprinkles of coconut that she made to take out to the men working in their fields, or the way that she took care of everyone who came within her circle . <br />
She had high standards and expectations for herself. Her clothing was always clean and neat and pressed. There was no excuse to be dirty, untidy or wear torn clothing, just because you didn't have money. She could look elegant dressed in her best dress or wearing her farm clothes and her curlers wrapped up in scarf so she could go out to the hen house to get the eggs. She was particularly fussy about her hair and in later years, would have regular appointments at the hair dressers. <br />
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When I was a kid, the family farm still had an out house and a wringer wash machine. The older house had running water in the Kitchen but there was also a hand pump to wash your hands. As well, she carried water in pails from the pump house. They built a second house on their property in the 1970's. It was only then that she had indoor plumbing and an electric washer and dryer.<br />
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When I was really little, I stayed with her while my mother was going to school and my father was away working. My mom's younger sister was in charge of me and the cooking, while my grandmother did the outside chores. My gran would tease me and say that they ate more burnt food that winter when I was with them, because my aunt would forget to watch the meat while she was playing with me. <br />
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The photo on the left is their wedding picture and the photo on the right is 50 years later. They made a handsome couple didn't they!<br />
My grandmother was forever changed by my grandfather's passing. It was like she was missing one half of herself. Some winters as a younger couple, my grandfather would go away to work so that they could financially manage. They wrote many loving letters to one another that reflected how hard it was to be apart and how much they missed each other. It was also in those years that my grandmother learned how to be the independent responsible person that she was.<br />
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In the very last years of her life, I would phone her often and we often would have many interesting conversations. A couple of times, she would say-" I could go out on dates you know" - I have no doubt that she could have dated and remarried if she would have been interested in doing so. I am sure that there was more than one man that would have loved to have had her as their spouse. For her, there was only one man- her Henry! She remained devoted to my grandfather's memory and forged her own way for the last 15 years of her life. She lived on the same farm property for 67 years - it was her home until her death. She continued to drive and grow a garden and maintain the property for all those years- She was a woman of independence ! ( The family farm was adjacent to the original homestead- our family roots were there for 90 +years and she was the last remaining person of the family name in the area) Her children would sometimes come out to help her with the bigger jobs on the farm but they needed to get there quickly or she would start doing the tasks without them<br />
( washing windows, mowing lawns, trimming trees) .<br />
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For her 85th birthday, I made her this quilt- I called it Gran's Garden. It is a watercolor quilt with a central colorwash Iris that is surrounded by an machine appliqued flower border. She loved flowers and was especially fond of Irises and Pansies. This quilt lives with me now, and has, since her sudden passing from a car accident in September of 2003. <br />
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Today I think of her in vignettes- of her singing her favorite country music songs or Rodger's and Hammerstein musicals. She and my grandfather sang often and both had lovely voices. They sang at many of the local events held in the old one roomed school or community hall.<br />
I have a coverlet that she made with the local woman's group over a few years. It is embroidered squares done on bleached feed sacks or muslin. It is not quilted but it is her and other ladies of the community's handiwork. I also have the treadle sewing machine that she and my great grandmother Evelyn owned. It was used to make clothing and mend jeans. <br />
I close my eyes and can smell her stove top country fried chicken. It is the best that I have ever eaten. There is no way to replicate the recipe- it was not fancy but it makes my mouth water just thinking about it.<br />
In my mind's eye, I look to her sideboard where the Author's card game is kept and the bridge mix candy is sitting waiting for people to enjoy in a pretty glass dish.<br />
My grandmother loved pretty things- dishes, and beads particularly. I love those things too. She was always generous and I often came back from the farm with a pretty bowl for treats or a strand of beads to wear. I have a number of her brooches and beads that reside in my jewelry box.<br />
My grandparents took me to see two of my first movies - "Mary Poppins" and "My Fair Lady." I still love those movies and the music from them.<br />
Gran loved books and fostered a love of reading. I continue to love books to this day. She did not have a television for many years . The TV viewing was limited in the country but books were plentiful and encouraged. Family time was spent singing songs, playing games or enjoying conversation with one another.<br />
My favorite ice cream is still soft vanilla cones that may or may not be dipped in chocolate. When I was a child we often had cones picked up a local Dairy Mart for 10 cents a cone. They were part of the treat of going to town. <br />
My favorite cookies were her ice box fruit sliced cookies or commercial Fig Newtons. The bread man would come and she would buy fig newton cookies from him ( sometimes he had jam filled doughnuts too) π<br />
There are lots of jobs to be done on farms- we weeded gardens, shucked fresh peas and picked berries - saskatoons, raspberries and wild strawberries mostly. There is nothing better than fresh berries and farm cream. It was the standard dessert during the summer months.<br />
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The many summers of my childhood are infused with memories of activities on the farm - some work activities like hanging laundry, picking berries and weeding gardens. She cooked using traditional homegrown food- whatever was available from her garden or from her farm. Gran canned and pickled and froze vegetables for the winter. She could make amazing meals from food raised by her own hands.<br />
As children, when our chores were done, we spent our time playing out of doors in the playhouse with items we had retrieved from the garbage pit( there was always interesting Avon bottles and Watkins spice containers to make our potions and suchπ) We made our own entertainment and my grandparents were always interested in listening to our made up songs and plays. We created our own puppets and cut out dolls from Sears and Eaton catalogues. We created houses using pictures of furniture from those same catalogues. We spent a great deal of time outside- running in the grass, smelling her flowers or walking down to get the mail. Sometimes we would go with her to the fields to help bring in the cows. Always she would encourage us to pay attention to all the beauty that abounds on this place we call Mother Earth. <br />
Grace was a woman of faith. She lived her life caring and supporting others needs before her own. She was generous and loving and used her large sturdy hands to work, play and demonstrate her love. She lived her life devoted to God, always compassionate, respectful and kind towards others. She believed in having purpose and sharing with friends and loved ones. My gran could be counted on to help and contribute to the greater community- no matter what the circumstances. She did not differentiate between close friends or acquaintances in times of need. If someone needed help , she willingly pitched in. Her home always welcomed newcomers. She carried herself with dignity, integrity and always with Grace!<br />
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Happy Birthday to my beloved Grandmother! I miss you, and will all the days of my life- Your loving heart and values continue to live on in my heart and shape my life . Grace touched many lives and was mourned by many when she passed.<br />
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And because I think some of you might enjoy having one of her recipes , I thought I might include a recipe that she made often. My mother continues to make this recipe- it is one of my Mom's staple desserts that she takes to a potluck or other family gatherings.<br />
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<b>Oh Henry Bars </b><br />
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Line a buttered 9X13 inch pan with graham wafer crackers<br />
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In a pot place : 1 1/2 cups of brown sugar<br />
3/4 cup of margarine and<br />
3/4cup of milk<br />
Bring these 3 ingredients to a boil for 2 to 3 minutes. Add into this boiling mixture the following:<br />
3 cups of graham wafer crumbs<br />
1 and 1/2 cups of medium shredded coconut<br />
Add 1 cup of nuts ( walnuts) if desired<br />
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Pour the brown sugar mixture over the lined graham wafer crackers and let cool. When cool ice the top of it with a butter icing or cream cheese icing.<br />
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To make a butter icing you use soft margarine, icing sugar and a bit of milk to get the smooth consistency to ice this square.<br />
Cut in squares.<br />
Enjoy.<br />
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On another note- I have begun a new project - Kathryn Kerr's 365 quilt block challenge. If you go to her website, perhaps you will want to join in too. It is not too late.There is no cost for the challenge -only your time and fabric scraps !<br />
More about that next time.<br />
Warmest regards,<br />
Anna <br />
<br />quiltmom annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01976120921532056369noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5773972661069379733.post-45302652497278207382020-01-12T18:56:00.000-08:002020-01-12T19:03:07.295-08:002020- A New Year - Winter has arrived- Some January reflections and past projects <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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This is my happy place - a place where I write ( very occasionally, it appears if you check out the date of my last blog posting π ) ! It is where I create with fabric, beads, paint and other materials. Some day I need to think of a name for this creative space!<br />
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This fall flew by and I am not sure exactly where it has gone but life has been busy enough it seems... The Christmas season came and went quietly - mostly spent with our own family and a trip to my parents.<br />
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The winter season has arrived here in Alberta and the temperatures have dropped down into the negative double digits. My spouse, Bruce, continues to walk daily about 4 or 5 kilometers on the trails in the St. Albert area. He is dressed in many layers of garments but is determined to keep up his walking habit. He feels better for the exercise and has taken some fantastic photos of the local fauna and flora during his walks. <br />
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Here are a couple of photos from his recent walks. The temperature had been reasonably comfortable for walking during the fall and early winter, until this weekend where the temperatures have dropped considerably. Still, Bruce plans to keep walking daily - not going quite as far but keeping up with his daily routine. He is well bundled up for the seasonal winter conditions. <br />
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EE5kNrQFoQQ/Xhu4t0pHvWI/AAAAAAAAElw/nLEy6hnTQg07HO-BAKNPnK6hyHmrAMbjwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/two%2Bmoose%2BDec%2B2019.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="900" data-original-width="1600" height="180" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EE5kNrQFoQQ/Xhu4t0pHvWI/AAAAAAAAElw/nLEy6hnTQg07HO-BAKNPnK6hyHmrAMbjwCLcBGAsYHQ/s320/two%2Bmoose%2BDec%2B2019.jpg" width="320" /></a>Early in December, while walking in a nature area near our city, Bruce saw this fine pair of moose. It was a mama moose and her young one. They made quite the handsome pair. He often sees birds and other interesting animals like beavers and muskrat on the Sturgeon river. Sometimes, he sends me pictures of local sculptures and other interesting local phenomena. Earlier in the year, he saw lots of ducks and geese before they disappeared south to get out of this cold weather country.<br />
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In November , my good friend ,Sheri-lynn, and I took a mosaic landscape course from a local mixed media artist Darlene Madden. In my previous post, I shared some of the other projects that we have done in her studio. This project was larger than the others, and was created over a three day period. My piece is created with a variety of materials that include stained glass, pottery, ceramics, rocks, beads and shells on board. We gessoed the board first. The over all design was taken from a photograph that I had chosen. It was interesting to try and keep the design simple enough but still create interest in something that represents Alberta's big prairie skies. I found it was a challenging piece to create but I am very happy with the finished product. After all the pieces were glued on the board, then we added grouting to sections of the piece. I really like the distressed look of the frame that was built by Darlene's husband. I still have to find the perfect spot to hang it in our house, but for now, it is resting on the fireplace mantle.<br />
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Lest you think that I have given up quilting altogether, here are a few quilting bits that I created for Christmas gifts . I made bowl cozies - in the end 33 of them for family and friends . I also made a few more of the 10 minute table runners. It is fun picking out fabrics from the stash, putting them together and creating something that is functional and reasonably quick to make. A note to self, is to start creating next year's Christmas projects sooner and spread the project time through out the year.<br />
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Do you have any small projects that you like to create for others as small gifts to celebrate friendship in the Christmas season? I am thinking about mug rugs or star ornaments or oven mitts..<br />
Other ideas?? <br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4wsM4L0FYYA/Xhu4bjlqLWI/AAAAAAAAElk/vyPRFYj0lwUosCs8knt6ftptualBPn5mwCLcBGAsYHQ/s1600/mask%2Bfrom%2Bexpressive%2Barts.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="900" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-4wsM4L0FYYA/Xhu4bjlqLWI/AAAAAAAAElk/vyPRFYj0lwUosCs8knt6ftptualBPn5mwCLcBGAsYHQ/s400/mask%2Bfrom%2Bexpressive%2Barts.jpg" width="225" /></a> I took two art courses this fall- my oil painting class was a continuation from last year. This is painting number four and it is of orchids. I continue to learn lots about value, shading and how light works.<br />
Have you ever had a preconceived idea about making things ?<br />
I had this mistaken idea that one could paint more quickly than one could quilt but my oil painting class has shown me otherwise. This painting has over 30 hours of time in it.<br />
The mask on the left is from an expressive arts course that I also participated in this fall. It was a very interesting class, as we played with various mediums while reflecting and exploring in a writing journal. I hope to explore more of those ideas in the upcoming year. I enjoyed getting to know some new friends while taking the expressive arts 8 week course. We plan to get together in the coming months. It has been a fun way to increase my retired social circle of friends. <br />
2020 has arrived and with it, some new courses and new instructors. I continue to participate in a movement class( a girl has to keep moving any way she can) π<br />
As well, I am trying my hand at watercolors. It is a very different medium than oils- needing new brushes, special paper and paints and some other skills to master. <br />
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As for some goals that I have for 2020 ...<br />
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Well, I want to get quilting again and hope to get the 5 quilt tops in the box all quilted before the end of 2020. I need to get them spray basted before I can quilt them so that needs to wait for some warmer weather. Perhaps I will finish up a couple of UFO's that have been hanging around in my closet as well. <br />
I have downloaded the blocks from Kathryn Kerr's 365 Block challenge and need to get started on the blocks. I just need to start cutting some fabrics - it may end up pretty scrappy unless I figure out a more systematic way to do it. There is some good advice on her website and the project does not cost anything but your time and materials.. This girl needs to continue to use her fabric stash π <br />
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I will probably take a few more courses on Future Learn or Coursera to keep my mind challenged and learning new things. I have enjoyed the ones that I have completed in the past year. There is always so many things to learn about in this big world of ours..<br />
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I will continue to take a movement class. It keeps me moving and able to do the other things I want to be able to do in my life. It is important to balance all the aspects of life - mind, body and spirit!<br />
A very sad thing happened in late November when the fellow, Bill, that taught our movement class passed away suddenly in a car accident. He was the same age as myself. I had taken his class for 18 months - more than half that time I attended his class twice a week. It was a great shock for everyone. The local senior center has found a new instructor for the class but it will be an adjustment to begin a new. Bill will be greatly missed by the many people whose lives that he touched. He taught classes to 20 different classes of seniors each week. He left an indelible mark on many people's lives. Life can be stilled so suddenly..<br />
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I am not someone who sets New Year resolutions. Instead, I like to stop and reflect about the richness of life. I count myself fortunate and feel much gratitude about my current life circumstances. We all face life challenges and deal with the loss of friends and loved ones. Some of those losses are more profound than others. Often as we age, those losses become all too frequent events.<br />
In 2019, My parents each lost a brother, as well as a couple of close family friends. These losses make one pause and think about the fragility of life. It also reminds one to appreciate our loved ones and not take for granted life's gifts. <br />
I feel fortunate to have reasonable health, a strong network of good friends and a wonderful supportive spouse and family. I had many wonderful creative opportunities this past year and look forward to new experiences in 2020. Life is indeed rich these days.. <br />
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My wish for you and yours is that 2020 is filled with good health, happiness, prosperity and all the things that bring joy to your life . Be happy and well! Happy creating dear friends, <br />
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Warmest regards, Anna quiltmom annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01976120921532056369noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5773972661069379733.post-70768969057493611882019-09-14T17:20:00.001-07:002020-01-12T18:57:43.524-08:00The End of the first year of Retirement- Part Two<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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It hardly seems possible that I have started the second year of my Retirement. My that went fast...<br />
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What do you do on the first day of School when you are retired ?<br />
Some retired friends and I sat and had lunch together on the first day of school this year. It is a yearly luncheon and fondly referred to as "To Hell with the Bells". Across from our table, sat another group of retired teachers. It just happened that they were teachers from the elementary school our son attended. He had had 3 of the teachers present as his classroom teacher. It was nice to see them and thank them for their contributions to our son's education. I also wished them a very Happy Retirement!<br />
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I am not sure that I really thought what it would mean to be retired- what my life would look like and what things I wanted to do as a retired person. Some people are great planners and organizers- others love to volunteer and get involved in their communities. Still others go traveling to places that they have longed to visit but never had time to do so..<br />
For me, I wanted to get healthier, more organized at home and try some new things. I didn't set it out as a specific goal - perhaps in the coming years, I will be more intentional with my plans.<br />
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I knew that creating things would be part of my retired life and so it has ..<br />
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In this post I wanted to make a collection of the art pieces that I had created over the past year, starting in the summer of 2018.<br />
My dear friend, Sheri-lynn, and I went to a couple of paint night classes. They were a great way to spend an evening - Sunflowers are my favorite flower and I was so happy to play with acrylics. They dry fast and you just paint over them if you don't like them. I have this one hanging in my creative space. <br />
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In this second one, Sheri-lynn's husband, Walter joined us. Mine is the top one, Walter's is on the left and Sheri-lynn's is on the right. You can see that each one is unique and beautiful in its own right. If you want to try painting and don't want to invest a lot of money in it- Paint Nites are for you ! Its been awhile since I have done a Paint Nite- I may have to check out their listings again.<br />
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In the late summer of 2018, I began to look at local art courses that
were being offered in our community. One of the courses I found, was a series of
oil painting classes being held at Hidden Talents Studio here in St. Albert. I had never worked with oil paints and the local
studio offered a course for the" Scared Stiff". While I had played with
paint at a paint night, or at the occasional all day workshop, I had never
taken a course with formal instruction. <br />
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Here is my first painting with oils- I call it my Oiler Rose- for our hometown hockey team - The Edmonton Oilers. Our instructor, Laura, is a fabulous locally celebrated painter and an excellent instructor. The course is challenging and I will continue to explore oil painting this coming year.<br />
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I had this idea before I started oil painting that you could paint an oil painting faster than you could make quilts. I discovered that is not necessarily so. I also learned that my quilting eye still needed more training to see color value- light medium and dark. Like other things, it takes practice to develop your eyes. The Oiler Rose painting took most of the first term's lessons. We learned about different paint palettes, and how to underpaint (with white, black and numerous shades of gray). The intent of under painting is to establish the lines as well as to help you better see and produce richer shading of the many different shades. I am still learning how to mix colors and see the gradations of the light, medium and dark values. You sometimes need a surprisingly small amount of paint when you are applying it to canvas. My brush stroke still needs lots of work! <br />
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I continued the oil painting course over the winter and spring. </div>
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Here is my second painting - a sea scape taken from a calendar photo in New Brunswick, Canada. </div>
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It hangs with two other seascapes that were done by Bruce's mother, Betty and his grandfather Jefferson. </div>
In November, some friends and I took a workshop with a local artist named Samantha Williams Chapelsky. We have done some other courses offered by Sam's and loved each one of them.<br />
My painting below, is done with various acrylics ( high flow, heavy and medium paint). We also experimented with different pastes, gels, inks and stamps/ stencils. ( I love bead gel and fiber paste- they add such amazing texture and the bead gel is sparkly )<br />
This painting is large about 24 inches square on board. (My oil paintings are all done on canvas). All the painting surfaces are gessoed to help the paint better adhere to the surfaces.<br />
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After Christmas, I tried my hand at some mixed media with another local artist named Darlene Madden. My friend ,Sheri-lynn and I made mosaic Mandalas. I love working with mixed media and have enjoyed all three courses that I have done with Dar. I am looking forward to our next course together which will be a mosaic landscape on board.</div>
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I am very happy with this mandala - the found objects included glass marbles, cut up bits of pottery, shells, beads, jewelry and a variety of tempered and beach glass. It also had paper napkins at its base. I would like to explore mosaics again. It is a fabulous medium to use. It is amazing to me how many things that you can glue on to fill up the surface. The mandala is 11 inches across- Do you see the flower that is made with the pottery pieces ? <br />
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The story totem has found objects that Dar had available in her studio. We used polymer clay, found objects, a skeleton key, ceramic and metal pieces. The top of the totem says "Embrace The Journey." The clay pieces are sort of patchwork like and there is a cat earring hanging from the key.<br />
The story totems are suppose to reflect or tell you a story- I think it shows the things that I value most in my life :)<br />
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I want you to meet Grace - She was produced in an Angel and Icon workshop that was taught by Gwen LaFleur at Dar's Studio. She has a board base- Her dress is made with some luscious brocade- She is surrounded by filigreed lace and netting. In the background are gossamer leaves- Her face reminded me of my beloved Grandmother, Grace.<br />
I think that she has her same elegance and classic beauty. Grace makes me smile when I see her hanging on my wall. This past week marked the passing of my gran. It is hard to believe that she left us 16 years ago now. Sometimes it feels like yesterday and sometimes it feels like that my gran has been gone forever. <br />
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When I was looking for a third picture to paint I decided to paint something that looked spring like. This piece hangs in my parent's home. I still want to practice mixing the colors more- The monarch is not orange enough in places but I am quite pleased with the background.<br />
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My current oil painting is of Yellow Orchids. It is still in process so you will have to wait for the great unveiling of it later this Fall.<br />
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I have continued to work on a variety of other projects besides my paintings over the summer.<br />
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I still enjoy playing with beads and I made this little bracelet for a friend. She was having surgery and I wanted to give her some healing wishes as she embarked on her surgery. It is made with some amethyst and fluorite stones as well as two lampwork beads made by Kerry Ann Gibson of Seaside glass designs out of Nova Scotia. I love lamp work beads - there are some amazing artisans out there that are making glass work. I think I might be scary with a torch, so I will leave that to the expert bead makers.<br />
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I repaired some bracelets and updated some other ones. I tried my hand at making bowl cozies using a You Tube tutorial. The bowl cozies are to put around bowls to keep the bowl warm as well as to carry them from one place to another. It is important to use all cotton batt in them if you are going to put them in the microwave. <br />
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I did start one other quilt project this summer. It was inspired by our friends travel to visit Europe in late spring . They saw this Klimt painting in a museum so I decided to pull out the panel and make a quilt with it. This is one quilt that I did not have the right fabric for the background so I checked out the 3 local quilt stores before I found what I wanted.<br />
I really like Gustav Klimt's work and this quilt panel of "The Kiss' is fabulous.<br />
I found the pattern available through Hancocks of Paducah - Gustav Klimt fabrics by Robert Kaufman fabrics at www.robertkaufman.com<br />
I still have to make the backing for it. I hope to find the backing in my fabric stash but we will see. <br />
I will be machine quilting for a while it seems to complete all of these tops.<br />
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My friend, Carolyn owns a long arm machine . On a recent visit, she offered to take home the Very Busy Carle quilt home and quilt it for me. Not many days later she returned with the quilt quilted for me. She used a nature pantograph on it! The quilt looks amazing and will be gifted to someone special in the near future! A long arm machine does such uniformly spectacular designs- I appreciate very much that this quilt is all quilted and read to go! <br />
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I wanted to thank her in some small way for her generous quilting so I made her a bracelet. These lampwork beads are also Kerry Ann Gibson's pillow beads. They look lovely on her and I hope that she gets pleasure from wearing them.<br />
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Here is the finished Very Busy Carle Quilt. It just needs binding and a label and it will be ready for a special someone!<br />
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I have continued to make table runners from the 10 minute tutorial. This horse one was an anniversary gift for some friends who celebrated their 50th anniversary.<br />
I need to make some fall ones for myself- I gave them all away last fall to others. <br />
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Over the last few months I wondered if I had been productive during my first year of retirement. </div>
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Besides these quilting, beading and painting projects, I have been going to a movement class once a week and more recently, twice a week. </div>
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As well, I have been working on some other exercises, on a daily basis given to me by a physiotherapist and a restorative chiropractor. </div>
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This fall, I will continue to do those exercises to help strengthen my physical body. </div>
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I have enjoyed taking some courses through Future Learn and Coursera on the computer-</div>
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It is my way of exercising my brain. They are no cost university courses( unless you are wanting credits for them) on a variety of topics. They vary in length - usually 6 weeks.</div>
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Here is a list of ones that I have completed so far: </div>
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<li> Jane Austen - Myth and Legend</li>
<li> a Geology course about Rocks.</li>
<li>Rome- Art and Archeology</li>
<li>the History of Royal Fashion ( British).</li>
<li> I am currently finishing one about " The Tudors".</li>
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My next one will be about an Earlier Period of English History - the Plantagenet Kings that will give me additional background of the period prior to the Tudors. <br />
Sometimes I sign up for courses too fast and then I don't have enough time to get the studies in before the time runs out. Oh well, I will just to have sign up again at another point when they are offered again. <br />
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The painting and movement classes have introduced me to some new friends as well as getting me out and about in my community.</div>
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I have been reading more novels, trying new recipes in the slow cooker and cleaning out some spaces in our house. There are always things to do and not enough time.</div>
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One has to make choices all the time, even in retirement!</div>
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<b>I am not sure what the second year will bring or whether I will have a more focused purpose???</b></div>
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For sure, I know this coming year will include more quilting, with a focus on the quilting part, so I can complete these quilts tops waiting in piles in my quilting space.</div>
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I know I will do some more mixed media art as well as oil painting.</div>
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I hope to explore some combination of art journal writing and perhaps some genealogy. I have been interested in genealogy since I was a teenager . In high school , I did a special project about my father's side of my family. My mother has a wonderful set of books filled with photos and materials she has gathered on many family lines. This photo was taken from one of the genealogy books my mother has created . My great grandmother, Caroline Belle, is the one in the top row on the very right. </div>
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I know I still need to continue to dig around in the boxes in the garage trying to clear out the clutter that remains from moving nearly 3 years ago. Who knows, I might even find some hidden treasures that I have been missing!</div>
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Most of all, the next year will include time spent enjoying the company of my spouse, family, friends and loved ones. </div>
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Someone said to me a while back, what is going to be in your next chapter?</div>
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I am not sure yet, but life has many rich experiences to offer and I am happily continuing to explore my choices in the great smorgasbord of life. Life is good.. </div>
quiltmom annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01976120921532056369noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5773972661069379733.post-77959768282925982722019-06-30T23:09:00.001-07:002019-09-16T12:46:33.100-07:00Do you wonder if I have been quilting during my first year of retirement? <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aKtHOtWG2aU/XRgyAQvOZPI/AAAAAAAAEJc/nzdNt5IY5LMFe8X9daB88q8sDuBsCJydQCLcBGAs/s1600/saying%2Bgood%2Bbye%2Bto%2Bmy%2Bclassroom%2BJune%2B2018.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="768" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-aKtHOtWG2aU/XRgyAQvOZPI/AAAAAAAAEJc/nzdNt5IY5LMFe8X9daB88q8sDuBsCJydQCLcBGAs/s320/saying%2Bgood%2Bbye%2Bto%2Bmy%2Bclassroom%2BJune%2B2018.jpg" width="240" /></a></div>
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Here I am, on the last day of school June 2018, just outside my classroom door. I had worked in that Room 2 classroom for the past twenty two years. In that time, over 500 kindergarten students had walked through that door and together we learned, laughed, cried (occasionally) and played together. It was hard closing the door for the final time! It felt bittersweet, I had a pretty good idea what it meant to be a teacher. After all, I had spent 40 years of my adult life being an educator. I wasn't sure that I knew what it meant to be retired. </div>
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9IysIEC-HUc/XRg8fxXyRuI/AAAAAAAAEKQ/JGUVva56U1AIegNtGPx3uWvj_gd5FaK-QCLcBGAs/s1600/boxes%2Bbefore%2Bthe%2Bcupboards%2B2018.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="720" height="320" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-9IysIEC-HUc/XRg8fxXyRuI/AAAAAAAAEKQ/JGUVva56U1AIegNtGPx3uWvj_gd5FaK-QCLcBGAs/s320/boxes%2Bbefore%2Bthe%2Bcupboards%2B2018.jpg" width="240" /></a>My colleagues held a fabulous garden party at our home to help me celebrate . The cake was amazing and so were all the other things that happened in the last months of my teaching career.<br />
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A few days later, I began to do some work in my quilting space . If you look behind my head, you can see the boxes of fabric that are piled rows high. It was getting harder and harder for me to move the boxes, in order to find fabrics to create new quilts. I have arthritis and I have developed some problems with my mobility. After some discussions with my family, my daughter in law, Rose, helped to design a new storage system for my fabric. They are PAX cupboards by IKEA. They have roll out drawers and shelves. Our son, Kevin, assembled the cupboards. Then, it was my turn to go to work- the beginning months of my retirement were spent folding fabric(again with Rose's help) and - voila I had a completely different work space.<br />
My quilting space needs a new name with its much improved look. ( I still haven't come up with a name for it- any ideas out there?)<br />
Even when its messy, its much neater than before. The part I love the most, is that I can find things more easily now. I also know what fabrics that I have and which draw it might be in. I no longer need my spouse to come and move 4 or 5 boxes so that I can get the potential fabric that I might use. My previous box system was not unorganized (all the fabrics were color coded or theme labeled) but this new system allows me to physically pull out the drawers and actually see what is in them.<br />
Do I wish that the quilting space was bigger - sometimes- especially when I am wanting to cut and sew but I have worked in smaller spaces and this one is just great .<br />
You can see that the fabrics are color coded still! We still could put doors on it but for now we are leaving it this way. I like the accessibility of it and the room is sheltered by large trees and the front portico of the house so I don't get an excess amount of light in my space. <br />
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Once we got the quilting space organized, I found I had some time to actually work on projects that had been on the back burner for a while. This quilt was a retirement gift for my teaching grade partner. We worked together for a dozen years. She had retired in June of 2016. The fabrics were done by Jackie Robinson (she created a fabulous quilt pattern called Weaver Fever many years ago) I chose these fabrics because the wild flowers had lots of lupins in them. My friend, Doreen grew up on the eastern coast of Canada in Nova Scotia. She loves lupins and I was thrilled to find this fabric line with a floral border and coordinates that included lupins. The quilt pattern is Sideliners by Maple Island quilts. (They are known for their BQ patterns. You can find their patterns on line- I have enjoyed making a number of them.<br />
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nRFAelIsZts/XRhJfsOIKPI/AAAAAAAAEKo/ZLCnO1ZKp0QaVj8d-jKiyP9JHOSdw6v1QCLcBGAs/s1600/doreen%2Band%2Bthe%2Bback%2Bof%2Bher%2Bquilt.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="960" data-original-width="714" height="400" src="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nRFAelIsZts/XRhJfsOIKPI/AAAAAAAAEKo/ZLCnO1ZKp0QaVj8d-jKiyP9JHOSdw6v1QCLcBGAs/s400/doreen%2Band%2Bthe%2Bback%2Bof%2Bher%2Bquilt.jpg" width="297" /></a></div>
The back of her quilt is almost as interesting as the front of it. I saw the Lupin fabric in a magazine and was able to order the fabric from Hancocks of Paducah By chance, I found the backing for the quilt while checking out their sale section. I ordered enough to back the quilt easily. I pieced the bottom of it so that the flowers could go on and on. Doreen is also fond of the mountains so I knew that she would enjoy having mountains, rocks and the flowers of nature all together. A little farther down you will see some photos of some table runners. If you look carefully in the pile, you will be able to find the table runner I made for her as a Christmas/ birthday gift for her as well.<br />
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One of the other projects I finished last summer, were two wedding quilts . They were a kit that came from Connecting Threads in Vancouver, Washington. The Move Over pattern by Mari Martin came as a kit. It was generous enough that I got both of the quilts out of the one kit.<br />
Both of the quilts have the same fabrics except for one black fabric(my cutting error). The borders are different on each quilt. It was an interesting pattern to make because I don't usually work with such light colors.<br />
I quilt all of my own quilts - you can see my Babylock quilting machine on my table.The machine has an extended bed on it to make quilting easier. I have free motion quilted a king sized quilt with this machine, without any problems.<br />
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When we bought our house in 2016, we bought a king sized bed. Most of the quilts that I made in the past, were large queen sized quilts so we no longer had a quilt that was really large enough for our bed. I decided that I should make myself a retirement quilt.<br />
The photo below shows some of the strip sets that made the strippy part of the zig zag for the quilt. <br />
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In the end, I made over 600 blocks that were cut into 4 and half inches square. I have no idea how many scrap strips I used but there were a lot of different fabrics - a few were as old as 30+ years old. I got rid of lots of fabrics when we moved house, and again ,when I culled the collection so that I could more easily fit the fabric in the new cupboards. However, I did have a drawer of strips and small chunks of fabrics that I had saved for sentimental reasons. Most of those pieces were left over scrap fabrics from family quilts that included a baby quilt that I had made for our son.<br />
I used 6 yards of background brown /black fabric for the alternate zigzag pattern. I actually ran out of background fabric, so I had to find an alternate fabric for the inset triangles on the border. It was an interesting challenge. This quilt came completely from my fabric stash so that was a very satisfying feeling as well. I have the back of this quilt prepared - Next I will spray baste it and then quilt it on my machine. It is definitely a king sized quilt so it will take a while to quilt ! <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">It will look fabulous when it is completed!</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">The back fabric needed some piecing as the fabric was not quite enough for the large quilt. I though a set of blocks that were left over from the front was the perfect solution for quilt back. </td><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><br /></td></tr>
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I wanted to find a simple Christmas gift for family and friends so I made these 10 minute table runners. ( I also made a few bowl cozies for wrapping a bowl in to keep your food warm.)<br />
All these fabrics came from the fabric stash too! I altered the design a little by making them a little bit bigger than the original dimensions of 9 inch center strip with 18 inch fold over. Most of them are 10 inch centers and 20 inches on the fabric fold overs. I did put batting down the center I also quilted around motifs in almost all of them. You can find tutorials for these table runners on You tube under 10 minute table runners.<br />
Also the bowl cozies pattern is on You tube!<br />
In the end, I made around thirty of these table runners - I gave them all away to others - so I need to make some more if I want to have one for our table in our living room! <br />
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Below you can see Doreen's tablerunner which is bigger again because I used the border motif for the center of the table runner. I did quilt around all of the flowers in the central panel so it took more than 10 minutes to complete . LOL <br />
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Since Christmas I have made 4 quilt tops - <br />
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These quilts are another pair in a series of convergence quilts I have made, using the Ricky Tims Convergence Quilt pattern. You can find the pattern in his book" Convergence Quilts" - my variation uses larger squares for the quilts but the technique is the same. These quilts are about the size of a big throw or twin sized quilt . Unfortunately the light in our great room does not always make for excellent photos. In each case, I am quite happy with the color combinations. If you look at the top right corner of the one on the left, you will find a bold print with all of the other colors in it. I have used it as a border for the outside of the quilt. <br />
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I love the Spring Easter egg colors of this one on the right. The top left corner is a batik with the other three colors in it. The challenge with convergence quilts is always to make sure you get enough color differences so that you don't get mush. I think they are both happy quilts. I have found fabrics for backs and will get the backs made up this week so that I can get quilting on them. <br />
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I love Sunflowers and this another version of the Sideliners pattern that I used in Doreen's quilt. I have done a few quilt series - using jelly rolls, this Sideliner pattern, a twisted flower design, and the convergence patterns. I love that you can use different fabrics and the quilts all look different The BQ patterns tend to showcase the fabrics so if you have some large fabric prints that you want to show off then BQ patterns are great for that purpose..Some fabrics are better contrasts. Athena the cat gives her cat approval to all my quilts . It is important to test drive a quilt you know :)<br />
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You can see the colors better in this photo below and you also can also see the big sunflower border that I added to complete the top on this one. <br />
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I have made many many of these burrito baby wraps. With the first ones that I made, I tied them together rather than quilted them. I used flannelette for the one side and cotton for the other side. I first made this pattern from a McCalls Baby book of quilting in 1982.<br />
This one was the most recent one that I have completed. It was made last fall for a friend's baby. It has a minkee insides but it still looks like a cloverleaf when it is opened. The baby's mom is very fond of squirrels so I was thrilled to find squirrel fabric for it. They work great in a car seat or for wrapping a baby against the weather. <br />
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This larger children's quilt is for someone special - a young child that does not yet have a quilt from me. It was a quilt kit that has the Very Busy animal stories of Eric Carle. It is quite a large quilt and will take a little while to quilt . My summer plans appear to include some quilt projects that need to be completed. <br />
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So this is the end of my quilting journey from the past year. I still have many pieces to finish quilting, From this post, it appears that there was some quilting happening in my first year of retirement. Quilting was not the only thing that I did during my first year, but I will post more about my other projects in my next blog post.<br />
When I am not quilting these days, I have been busy taking some on line courses and attending some movement classes to help me with some mobility issues that have come from having arthritis. I am getting out with friends for lunch or coffee, and trying to find a new rhythm in my retired life.<br />
It is a change of pace- occasionally busy, but I get to have more choices about when and how long I have to eat lunch etc. I have time to have bathroom breaks too which is great as well.<br />
Life is simpler and I am learning to take the time to smell the roses. Still, I am not sure what my new purpose or focus in life will be- For now, I am finding a new way of living as a retired person.<br />
I hope that you too take the time to enjoy life's daily pleasures. Look around and enjoy, Next time I will share a little more about other projects in my retirement life. Stay well .<br />
Warmest regards,<br />
Anna <br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Everyone needs a new spring outfit. I bought this one recently at my favorite consignment store. </td></tr>
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<br />quiltmom annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01976120921532056369noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5773972661069379733.post-41237458599708500612019-05-02T19:06:00.000-07:002019-05-02T19:06:03.125-07:00It is spring isn't it? or is it? <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="https://1.bp.blogspot.com/-44-kLjTC_9A/XMt7axuB53I/AAAAAAAAEBY/dR1YB2EvPg8csJMaTBy25NvZmijJOPyvACLcBGAs/s1600/2019%2Bspring%2BEdmonton%2Bbridge.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"></a>They say it is spring time here in Alberta but Mother Nature has other things to say about it , and while the calendar says its the first week of May, we have continued to have had snow arrive on and off the past few days. I, probably should not complain ,as other parts of Canada and the US, have had to deal with serious flooding. Each day when I go out , I wonder do I still need a heavier coat etc but I know that this too shall pass.. In the meantime, the trees look beautiful but we are tired of Winter and really do want spring.<br />
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Bruce has been out walking on the trails in the St. Albert area these days. He often sends me photos of the beautiful things that he sees. My arthritic body is not up to walking the distances he is walking so I appreciate him sharing the natural habitat and animals that he comes across on his daily treks. My daily treks involve exercises and movement classes that are making me more mobile - at least on most days. The whole point is to keep moving in what ever way one can . Some of these photos are ones that I am collecting in a file to perhaps paint one day. I especially love these ducks and the branches beside them and I intend to paint them one day soon. <br />
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Below is a photo of my most recent completed painting of a flower and butterfly. It is my second oil painting of choice. It is a very different medium than acrylics or watercolor (watercolor is a little too intimidating for me right now) I have been taking an oil painting class all winter . I am starting to make some progress in my ability to see shapes and value. It is different than quilting but somewhat the same. You do need to be able to see light , medium and dark values in both. It is interesting to train your eyes in other ways. Perspective is particularly challenging. <br />
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I have just begun a new floral piece with orchids.It is probably hard to see but I have started the under- painting. It is drawn using a grid and then all the details are shaded in, by under painting the piece. You have black and white and get to mix all the shades of grey.- and there are many shades of grey.<br />
For me, the drawing is still very painstaking and I find myself continuing to add additional lines as I start to see the values. I thought that painting would be less time consuming that quilting but that is definitely not so. Both of these pieces are done on canvas that has been gessoed and measure 16X20 inches . Learning brush control is another interesting challenge.<br />
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Just in case, you thought perhaps I had abandoned quilting , I thought I would post my newest top that has been completed. It still needs a backing made and to be spray basted together so that I can quilt it. It is a Maple Islanders Quilt Pattern called Sideliners . All the BQ( big quilt blocks) patterns showcase the fabrics so nicely. I have made others of this pattern but am particularly pleased with this one- Sunflowers are my favorite flower and this one was partially cut out. Athena the cat is generally a fan of all the quilts. Below you can see the additional borders that were added to complete the top. <br />
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Earlier this year, a couple of friends and I attended another Mixed media workshop ( the Instructor Darlene , was the same lady that taught us how to make the mandala in one of earlier posts) . My piece is the one on the right .<br />
I used a variety of found materials in my piece including a skeleton key, a cat earring , clay, a wood sign that says "Embrace the Journey", and a metal sign with the word" Family". The baked clay has quilt like imprints with a lettering piece on top that has the word Love . The story totems are intended to reflect things that might be important to the individual.<br />
My friend did a beautiful intricate heart where she added some detail painting using wax paints and special inks on it. There are so many ways to express one's self through different artist mediums.<br />
My hope is that you take the time to find ways to express yourself through an art form. <br />
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I have started another convergence quilt so I will share that with you next time. A friend posted some convergence quilts from a recent workshop, and it gave me the urge to try another. I have the luxury in retirement of trying different things and sometimes, it is fun to return to old ideas and make them new. Each of these projects feed my creative spirit.. <br />
Spring is coming isn't it- hopefully we soon will see some green grass and spring flowers blooming . Stay warm and dry wherever you live. Until next time, be well. .. Warmest regards, Anna quiltmom annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01976120921532056369noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5773972661069379733.post-45569782184760728252019-03-23T19:05:00.000-07:002019-03-23T19:05:39.394-07:00We spent National Quilt Day in Las Vegas .. My husband Bruce, has been an ardent hockey fan since he was 6 years old . We have been huge hockey fans together for the near 40 years that we have been a couple. In fact, when we first went out, Bruce already was the owner of two season's tickets for the Edmonton Oilers hockey team. ( He had tickets beginning in the late 1970s throughout the 1980's) . He first had season tickets with them when the team was not NHL, but belonged to the WHA. By choice, his two seats were not together- one was at one end of the ice and the other was at the other end of the arena ( He liked seeing the game from different vantage points.) One of the seats was part of a trio of tickets with friends, and the other was a single seat. When I would go with him, he would sit in the single at the other end of the area for part of the game and his two friends and I would sit at the other end of the arena. Between periods, we would meet on the concourse and sometimes, one of his two friends would go and sit in the single seat and Bruce and I would get to sit together. It still makes me smile thinking about our first hockey game dates! Later we did have some seasons where we had our seats together when we still had season's or partial season's tickets. The cost of tickets escalated and life priorities changed ..<br />
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These days we get the opportunity to go to an occasional game thanks to the generosity of others. Attending a game live is a different experience but our recent experience was indeed unique! In January we were offered an opportunity to go to see a game in March in Las Vegas! <br />
First we had to get on a plane- something that I had not done for many many years for various reasons. After some thoughtful deliberation on my part, and, me actively seeking a passport, we found ourselves boarding an early morning plane to Las Vegas on March 16. This meant that we had to get to the airport by 5:30 am which meant leaving our house at 4:45 am! Here we are on board the airplane at 7:30 am. I am pretty sure that I am still half asleep!<br />
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We stayed in a very nice Hotel called the Aria Hotel and Resort Like all the big resorts on the Las Vegas strip,there is a huge casino on the main floor. It also had numerous restaurants and a high end shopping area called Crystals that included shops like Harry Winston, Gucci, Hermes etc<br />
-Here is sunrise from the 22nd floor of our hotel room on Sunday Morning. The view was spectacular and we enjoyed seeing all the flashing billboards and lights on the Strip.The city is an amazing happening city with lots of things to see and do, if you have the time, money and energy. <br />
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One of my favorite things in life is to look at Art. The hotel and resort area has 20 different art installations . Bruce is sitting in one of the 3 chairs that were called a Turtle Dove chair ( though they reminded me of pigeons which made me think of a series of children's books by Mo Willems that include a story named " Don"t let the Pigeon Drive the Bus") It was a nice space in front of the hotel and a great place to people watch :) <br />
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T- Mobile Arena is a vibrant place- there were cheer leaders and show girls with feather head gear, lots of very loud music , noisy fans and lights displays throughout the evening .It happened to be St. Patrick's Day, as well, which added to the ambiance. Before the game, there was a big tailgate party in the area outside the arena. The crowd was large and filled with many hockey fans wearing their team jerseys and/or green or both!<br />
While the Oilers lost, it was a never to be forgotten experience. Earlier in the day, our group went off to see the Welcome to Las Vegas sign - here we are standing proudly wearing our NHL Jerseys- The Oilers have had a mediocre season and are not likely to make the playoffs, but this year will be a special one for Bruce and I . It is not every year that you get to go to a different NHL city to see a game - what a fabulous opportunity it was, as a fan of the sport of hockey. I highly recommend the experience! For more complete analysis of the game, you can check out this link to Bruce's hockey post!<a href="https://edmontonjournal.com/sports/hockey/nhl/cult-of-hockey/edmonton-oilers-greatest-weakness-among-several-candidates-poor-transition-game-stands-out">https://edmontonjournal.com/sports/hockey/nhl/cult-of-hockey/edmonton-oilers-greatest-weakness-among-several-candidates-poor-transition-game-stands-out</a><br />
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The Saturday that we arrived in Las Vegas it was also National Quilting Day! I wanted to post some photos of a quilt that I have been working on this fall and winter to honor my quilting passion. I have made a number of retirement quilts over the past years for friends . Our family has lived in our current house for over two years and it was time for me to make a quilt for our bed in this house.<br />
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The background fabric is all the same until the borders. I used all 6 yards of fabric in the background in the body of the quilt. I had to search my fabric stash for something that would work for the set in triangles without trying to compete with the zig zag strips. (The quilt is put together on point so you end up with zig zag edges.) I think I found a subtle batik that works well !<br />
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I chose a red stop border to float between the two border sections. Athena the cat obviously approves of the newest quilt. As always, she enjoys coming to check out my quilts - Isn't that what quilt cats do? Now I just need to find backing and get it spray basted so that I can quilt it! <br />
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I will close with one last photo of Las Vegas. There was an enormous Henry Moore stone sculpture that was in the courtyard area at the Hotel. It is a fabulous piece of art that represents a mother and child. It is really beautiful and so enormous.. I can not imagine how many hours it took him to carve this massive stone work! <br />
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There are more quilty things I want to show you but I will save them for another day! When we returned to Alberta late Monday, there was still lots of snow on the ground. Warmer weather has arrived and the piles have melted away this week. Soon we may get to see some spring flowers. I am really looking forward to that.. Until next time stay well and be Happy! Warmest regards, Anna <br />
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<br />quiltmom annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01976120921532056369noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5773972661069379733.post-78999172294461785892019-03-05T13:50:00.000-08:002019-03-07T15:40:17.222-08:00Remembering Moe and his quilt<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Our family's heart is broken-<br />
This is my Uncle Moe - Yesterday on March 4- he left us after battling with Cancer for the past 8 months. Moe had just celebrated his 74th birthday. He was a big man with a big heart and a big laugh. If I close my eyes,I can hear his big rumbling laugh that so reminded me of my beloved grandfather, Henry. The photo above is a few years ago when I had the privilege of going to lunch with my parents, and two of my uncles and one aunt. Moe always had that cookie duster mustache, twinkle in his eye and that big smile that lit up his face. He was my mom's younger brother, who loved to tease and joke and have a good time. Moe enjoyed playing his guitar and a lovely voice- He was always willing to sing around the fire at camp out. Uncle Moe lived in the mountains for many years of his life- but he had deep prairie roots. <br />
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The photo on the left, is of my two uncles together ( Uncle Gary and Uncle Moe.) The one above is of my Mama, Dolores, with her beloved Mini Moe. .These photos were taken at a celebration honoring the 100th anniversary of the completion of New Hill School.in 2012. My great grandfather Nels was responsible for building a one room school in the farming community where my mother and her siblings grew up. As in most farming communities, there were many connections to all who lived there. My mother Dolores is the matriarch of her clan. My grandfather had 2 brothers and a sister. The 3 brothers ( my grandpa and his two brothers) all raised their children in the same farming community so, while my mother had only 3 siblings, in reality, she had many more, because her cousins were all like siblings. To this day, they maintain close connections with one another. My heart mourns with all this family too.<br />
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As a quilter, I have enjoyed making quilts for my family. This quilt is my Uncle Moe's quilt. It was a BQ pattern called Sideliners .<br />
I entitled his quilt " Man from the Prairies- even though he spent the later part of his life in the interior part of British Columbia.<br />
The corner blocks of sheaves of grain. <br />
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When I think of him, I am flooded with memories from my childhood. He was always generous to others. My brother and I went to visit him once when I was still in university. Gene( my brother) and his wife Kris have spent many summers going to spend time with Uncle Moe. My uncle was a great mentor and supporter of my brother and they had a very special connection right until the end. <br />
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My uncle gave me a great gift these past two years , He brought my parents up to visit us in our St. Albert house. It is a most treasured gift.The first visit was when I was sick in the fall of 2017 and home recovering from gall bladder surgery. Uncle Moe was out visiting for the third time that summer and we had not had the opportunity to visit. I was thrilled to have him come and see our home and meet our pets . He loves cats and our son and his wife have 5 of them so that was an added bonus for him :)<br />
He returned with my parents in July 2018 and these photos are from that day.. He, my parents and one of cousins ( Stan and his wife Doreen) had an afternoon of visiting and family time. We had so hoped to have another visit this summer but that was not to be unfortunately. <br />
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I had spoken to him on the phone a couple of times in the past few months .My family- (particularly my Mom, my auntie Janet and my brother , Gene and his wife, Kris and other cousins) had frequent phone contact with him in his last days. Some family had visited him last week while he was in hospice care. He was blessed with very good friends who supported and cared for him in his last months.<br />
This photo of our last hug and kiss goodbye is filled with the joy that I felt having time with him. It is a very treasured memory indeed. There are many more stories and vignettes that I could tell ... of play houses built on the farm and other tales ...<br />
The pain in our hearts is great and we mourn his exuberance and zest for life. Rest easy dear Uncle - You were well loved and will be greatly missed.. Much love , Anna Me....<br />
<br />quiltmom annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01976120921532056369noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5773972661069379733.post-21975546884316625402019-02-25T17:58:00.001-08:002019-02-25T17:58:22.789-08:00Still not in the groove<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Bruce and I have attended many NHL hockey games for all of our 40 years together as a couple. On Thursday night we were given seats to the Oilers game.We go occasionally these days when we are fortunate enough to get tickets. It was a terrific game where the home team won ( this has not been a frequent event lately in Edmonton). It was a lovely date night that had capped off a full day. I had a couple of appointments earlier in the day followed by a visit with family and then a surprise offering of a pair of tickets from a very generous friend. That is a very full day for this retired person :)<br />
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Over this first retirement winter, I have done various artsy things that have not always been quilty. I have been playing with paint for the past couple of years. When I first started to paint, I worked exclusively with acrylics but, this winter, I decided to take an art course that is teaching me how to use oils. It is a different medium- I have learned a great deal about color, value and how one sees light versus dark. It has also taught me how to see things in different shapes. It has been a challenging thing for me- learning how to use a brush in a controlled manner as well with a steady hand, takes patience and persistence.<br />
Here is painting number 1:<br />
I called it Oiler Rose as the flower is Orange and the background is blue which are the colors of the Edmonton Oilers. This flower was traced onto the canvas except for the leaves and the bud, which I drew free hand.. <br />
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My second painting was taken from a calendar photograph of a Nova Scotia seascape. I drew this piece on the canvas using a grid technique . I, then under painted the picture with black and white, to help give place markers for the lines, values and shadows. I finished it by adding the color. This realist painting is fairly true to the calendar picture, except for the rocks and the addition of water at the bottom. One thing I learned was that it will be awhile before I want to do windows again.<br />
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My husband, Bruce grew up in Newfoundland on Canada's most easterly shores. Both his mother, Betty, and his grandfather Jefferson, painted seascapes that we already owned. We added my lighthouse painting to this collection of paintings and they hang together as a family trio, in our front entrance.<br />
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My new oil painting project is in the early stages - I have pencil drawn the butterfly and flower onto the canvas. I hope to complete the black and white flower stage soon .<br />
Like Quilting, it always takes longer than one expects. One needs to spend hours learning the specific techniques such as developing one's brush control. I have found the class helpful in other ways. It is developing some skills that will be helpful as a quilter. <br />
Not content to just play with paint, a friend and I decided to try our hand at making a Mosaic Mandala. It was a fantastic project using found objects like beach glass, tempered glass,marbles,cut up china, shells chain, old jewelry etc. The sky is the limit as far as what you can use to glue on the boards that form the base of the mandala. <br />
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The central motif has tempered glass followed by chain and flat beads and a floral section that is made from cut up Sri Lankan china tea cups. The instructor used a special tool to cut into chunks for me. Everything was all glued on a wooden board . The wooden board was first gessoed( acts as a primer) and then bits of torn paper napkin were glued on - If you look carefully, you can see under the marbles and sea glass, some of the napkin bits.<br />
Like my fabric stash, the instructor had infinite choices of what found objects one could use to create the patterns on the board- In some ways, that was the most challenging part for me, as I can get lost in a box of fabric possibilities, and end up making a numberof combinations of one pattern. It then causes two problems - one is that I get playing with combos and don't get anything made, and the other, is that I end up with re creating the quilt pattern a few different times because I can not settle on one choice. With the mosaics project, I had to made a choice and then get moving on my choice, as there were many more choices and layers to be added before one could make it ready for grouting.<br />
After all the sea glass, flat marbles, broken china, other tiles, chain and tempered glass were glued over the napkin layer, we left it to dry overnight. The organic shell, glass star and other smaller shells were added to the glass surface, after the piece was grouted . The next day we came back to add the black grout material. Making mosaics was indeed messy, but oh so much fun.. There are patterns everywhere to be found in the art world. In a couple of weeks, my friends and I will try some polymer clay work and create a story totem. It will be lots of fun too. <br />
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Perhaps there are other creative forms that you have explored or tried. I would love hearing about them. There are so many ways to express one's self creatively.. It is great to have time to play and create these days.<br />
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In my coming blogs I will return to sharing some of the pieces that I have quilted more recently. I have a few quilts to share that I have made in the last few years as well as some other kinds of projects too. Hope that you will stay tuned...<br />
For now stay warm ( if you live in most of Canada and Northern US and stay cool if you live down south of the equator.<br />
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Warmest regards, Anna <br />
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<br />quiltmom annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01976120921532056369noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5773972661069379733.post-4097426366807112772019-02-06T18:18:00.000-08:002019-02-07T15:34:05.076-08:00Convergence Quilts revisited- should I begin to blog again???<br />
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Convergence Quilts Revisited<br />
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Well it has been rather a long time since I wrote a blog post- I am not even sure that I remember how but I am going to give it a go. My friend <a href="https://www.with-heart-and-hands.com/convergencequilts/">Michele Bilyeu </a> wrote a post about convergence quilts and asked if she could use some photos of my quilts which I was happy to share.<br />
The Convergence Quilt above belonged to my in laws - a gift that I created for them for their 63 wedding anniversary. I love the borders as it was covered in Cardinals, my FIL 's favorite bird. The backing has red birds on it. After they both passed away, the quilt came to live at our home again.<br />
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In the photo you can also see my newish quilt room. You can see the wonderful cupboards and part of my fabric stash. The cupboards are fantastic and I really enjoy being able to find what I am looking for just by pulling out the roll out drawers.<br />
A lot has happened since I last posted in 2015. We de-cluttered and packed up our previous house and moved to a large bungalow in an area north of the city of Edmonton called St. Albert, in the fall of 2016. We had lived in our former home for 35 years . It was in the heart of the city of Edmonton . Our old house needed lots of work and we decided we needed a different type of house. <br />
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The old house has been torn down and there are now two houses on our former property. The house that was next door to ours is also gone! The only thing that remains on our old property is an apple tree that we planted when our son was small.<br />
The new house is in a lovely wooded area and has a terrific front portico and a fabulous sheltered pergola over the back deck that we enjoy a lot through out the year. At present, it is very cold and snowy here, so this picture makes me miss the warmer days. <br />
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In June of 2018, I retired from teaching after 40 years. At present, I am learning how to live life as a retired person. I have taken up oil painting and am attending a weekly movement class. I am still quilting and have a few things to show you in upcoming blog posts that I have been working on- newer quilts and smaller projects - maybe a few beading things as well. Life is good.<br />
Warmest regards,<br />
Anna <br />
quiltmom annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01976120921532056369noreply@blogger.com11tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5773972661069379733.post-79959619853901524542015-07-02T15:10:00.000-07:002015-07-02T15:10:36.146-07:00Summer time and the lost blogger returns???<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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It is a beautiful July day and I finally am making some time to write about the past few months. It has been a long time since I visited my blog- Life sometimes does that or maybe I needed a hiatus from writing here.. As always I love to start with flowers - Right now our table flowers are looking a bit droopy as we are having a heat wave.. Summer time often has some hot days but we have had a very warm/ hot June and beginning of July. I still have not bought any flowers for the front deck- perhaps that will be today's activity or very soon. </div>
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Summer vacation has officially started- June 29 was my last day of work until late August. We are going to do some de-cluttering of the classroom, so I will head back earlier than some years. For now though, I have closed the classroom doors and moved the things that needed to be removed so that they could clean the classroom.. Some years, I am more tired than others, and this is one of those years.. I am looking forward to some rest and relaxation.- reading, relaxing and spending sometime with friends! Of course I will also get quilting. My summer project is to finish some quilts that I have been waiting in the wings. For sure I plan to complete our son's long delayed wedding quilt. It is presently laying on a batt on a king sized bed in our basement- I am still trying to organize the blocks in some sort of orderly arrangement but hope to soon have it back on my sewing machine..</div>
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In the meantime, I thought I would share with you some photos that tell some of my creative experiences in the last few months.. At the end of January I gave away the quilt that I shared in the previous post. The dear lady to my right, Lena retired and returned home to Northern Canada. I know that she will use it when she is going to a sun dance or during the cold winter months in our north country.
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In the spring time, my husband brought tulips and a dear friend gave me a calla lily. What magnificent flowers it had for most of the spring time. The lady on the right is name Cec and is an award winning rug hooker. A quilty friend invited me to come and try out this different kind of hand work - rug hooking. It was an interesting afternoon and I loved spending time with some lovely ladies trying out this medium. I discovered I am not a very good rug hooker and have lots to learn if I ever manage to complete a piece of work. The afternoon workshop was held at a local museum. The technique is done with wool strips cut on an amazing machine. The rug hooking tool looks like a crochet hook with a bulb handle. I will need to practice lots if I ever expect to get the hang of it. One needs to have new challenges too .. LOL.. <br />
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Some babies were born this spring and what is a new baby without a baby burrito wrap. The two little boys were born in April and I know that they will be well loved. I love celebrating the birth of new life and I hope that both of these spring arrivals live long, healthy, happy and prosperous lives. The wraps have minkee fabric inside and cotton on the outside. They look like a big 4 leaf clover when they are open flat. I have been on a journey making them - the first one was made in 1984 and I know I have easily made over 100 of them in the years since. I used to tie them with yarn and they had eyelet, piping or lace on the outside. The overhauled design has made them more washable, durable and easier to make with a bias bound edge..
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I have the privilege of working in a fabulous school with an administration who finds ways to bring in some terrific programs for our students to experience. Our kids got to see an Olympic skipper and participated in a program called Rocks and Rings ( curling). They also had a pair of sports guys who came monthly and introduced the children to a great variety of games including mini golf, badminton, baseball, floor hockey and basketball. This is a photo of some masks that my students got to make with a team of artists in residence who came and spent two weeks with our children. The children got to choose their animals and then they embellished them with different recycled materials. The children really enjoyed the process. We also did some great movement activities that incorporated yoga, dance and brain gym.
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Recently I completed another jelly roll quilt - it was made from a collection by Robert Kaufman that had some gorgeous rich fabrics. I love Kaufman fabrics and have bought a few jelly rolls from Craftsy, especially for quilt patterns just like this one. This particular quilt is a wedding gift for a friend's son and daughter in law to be. It is a twin sized couch quilt and meant for using across a sofa on a cool evening or to cuddle for an afternoon nap.. I am hoping that the couple will share many happy years together..
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It is quilt show season here and our local Edmonton guild had a show in mid June. The guest speaker for the Saturday morning breakfast was<b> Elaine Quehl</b>. She is from Ottawa and recently was awarded the Canadian Quilt Teacher of the Year. She gave an inspiring talk about her quilt journey. She recently completed a fabric line for Northcott fabrics of poppies. She brought with her many beautiful quilts. The two below are just two of her many wonderful pieces of art. She has a fantastic eye for color and uses photographs as one of her jumping off points for creating her stunning designs. Elaine also creates stunning hand dyed fabrics. </div>
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These were two pieces that Elaine shared- Hosta and Tree (I have forgotten the official name of the tree )that Elaine Quehl has created. Unfortunately my cell phone camera does not pick up the gorgeous detailed quilting on these beautiful pieces. Do go check out her work at <a href="http://www.elainequehl.com/">elaine's website</a> or at her <a href="http://www.elainequehl.blogspot.com/">blog </a><br />
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I really enjoyed seeing the work and wished I would have had time to take in her course too.<br />
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Time to do a bit of work - things like getting more of the fridge cleaned out and the stove too. Not all of that today but soon.. LOL after all this is summer vacation. This evening I am off to catch up to some quilting friends over dinner...<br />
I know that Google makes it difficult to leave a comment but I hope you will let me know that you have stopped by to visit. I will try to write sooner- so do come and check out and see what is happening here on my blog.. You can always find me on my facebook page too..<br />
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Wishing everyone a happy healthy fun filled summer doing the things that you enjoy the most.<br />
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Warmest regards,<br />
Anna<br />
<br />quiltmom annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01976120921532056369noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5773972661069379733.post-7057821363856396662015-01-18T17:25:00.000-08:002015-01-18T17:25:13.091-08:00January jelly roll and Convergence quilts.<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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It is a nice January day outside but I am enjoying a lazy Sunday afternoon with my favorite Chai tea from Second Cup in my favorite snowman mug. The sun was shining earlier and there were people out walking their dogs. We watched some Sunday sports (curling, hockey and NFL football) and I finished up some school work.
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Yesterday I cleaned out most of the vestiges of Christmas- there are a few things left - The Winter village and this lovely poinsettia plant will be around for awhile yet. I dusted shelves off, vacuumed the floor and generally got rid of the debris that had been collecting in our living space. It looks a lot nicer and now I can concentrate on the things that I need to for this week.
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Bruce brought home some fresh flowers to decorate our table.I especially like fresh flowers on the table in the winter. It just brightens up the living space.We have been enjoying the music of Frazey Ford, who is the lead singer of a band called The Be Good Tanyas. I just got a collection of their music from 2000 - 2012. Frazey Ford has a new album called Indian Ocean that has some terrific pieces on it. <br />
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I have been getting some quilty things accomplished. Last Sunday I quilted, squared and bound this jelly roll quilt. It has turned out quite lovely. Today's goal is to add the label so that I can give it to a friend who is soon leaving our school staff. I hope that she will enjoy cuddling under it on a winter's night. I really have enjoyed making the jelly roll quilts. They are faster than most quilts and this one is about the size of a small twin bed sized quilt.
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Athena the cat definitely has given the cat seal of approval. She looks lovely on this particular color combo. Athena is becoming a much more sociable cat with us- Her latest friendly ??? move is to come at night, and sleep behind my husband's head. She is quite taken with his head and will lick his hair- Pets really do such funny things to express their feelings and friendship.
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This lovely piece of art was a gift from dear friends for our 34th wedding anniversary which we celebrated on Boxing Day. It is the work of a Newfoundland artist named Cara from the Grumpy Goat Gallery. I love the bright colors and the funky way she creates movement in her designs.
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I want to find a frame for this card that came with the canvas picture- Don't you love the quilt and the tops turvy curves . I especially like the clothes on the clotheslines. They both make me smile when I look at them. You can find the Grumpy Goat Gallery blog on my blog list and if you are on Facebook, she also has a facebook page.<br />
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I am making progress on the wedding quilt. It is not speedy but here is a box full of over 300 half square triangles made, for the next 80 quilt blocks. These ones are all pressed and now I am trimming so that they are all 2 and 1/2 inch square so that they will fit together more accurately. I don't have a firm date of completion, but I am making progress, and the quilt has risen to the top of the pile.
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I am really excited about an upcoming event that is happening here in Edmonton. Ricky Tims is coming to Edmonton and I am going to get the opportunity to see him in person. These are some of the quilts that I have made using his techniques and designs. I know I am going to be inspired and enjoy listening to him talk about his process. He came to Calgary a couple of years ago but we were away on holiday so I was not able to take in his session. The photo above is my version of his kaleidoscope pattern.
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One of my favorite techniques is his Harmonic Convergence quilts. This one I called Black, white and red all over. I gave it to a friend who was celebrating her 50th birthday.
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This flower is called Chantelle Chanson- It was my first sort of improvisational quilting- we use it for a table top cover in our living room. It intentionally has wobbly curvy borders and the points cut off.<br />
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And here is another variation of the Convergence quilts... I did a series of them. The original pattern was a wall hanging size but all of mine ended up bed sized quilts. I have done 7 other posts about the convergence quilts but am not sure how to link it here. I know that they are labelled as such, so perhaps if you are interested check the labels for convergence quilts. <br />
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My friend Michele <a href="http://www.with-heart-and-hands.com/2015/01/my-harmonic-convergence.html"> recently posted this piece</a> on her blog about the Harmonic convergence quilts. Michele is an amazing lady who creates really beautiful pieces for others.(if you click on the highlighted words above it will take you to her post). She was very involved in the Alzheimers Art Quilt Initiative that raised money for Alzheimers. Amie Simms spearheaded this project which has now reached its completion. Do go and check out Michele's blog - you will find lots of patterns and links on it .<br />
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Bruce and I are going to a concert with Basia Bulat and Harry Manx later this month. We may go out and see some winter fireworks at the University that is part of Winter festival. As always there is lots going on at work to keep me busy. We have been lucky so far here in Alberta - the weather has been relatively mild for January with only a few indoor recess days. The days are getting lighter which always lifts my spirits.<br />
I hope this post finds you all well and that you are having some time to create beautiful quilts.<br />
Perhaps in the next post I will have some more wedding blocks put together..<br />
Stay warm if you are in the Northern Hemisphere and cool if you live down South.<br />
Warmest regards,<br />
Annaquiltmom annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01976120921532056369noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5773972661069379733.post-36522086487658762392014-12-31T22:40:00.001-08:002014-12-31T22:40:54.082-08:00Some quilting reflections and updates- wishes for 2015I love flowers and my spouse knows that I love flowers - so does he, if the truth be told. When we were at my parents during the Christmas break, my mom had some lovely alstroemeria on her table that my father had brought home. This bouquet was inspired by that pretty bundle of colour. We still had some sprigs of lavender from an earlier bouquet, so I added their purple beauty to this grouping. <br />
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A friend of my husband's named Mike loves astronomy and taking photographs of the stars. I thought he might enjoy a star quilt of his own so I created this quilt using up a number of 2 inch star fabrics (there were a large number of them LOL). It is my variation of a jelly roll quilt but is somewhat larger than a typical jelly roll quilt that uses 2.5 inch strips. Sometimes, I am not very good with dimensions so this one turned out slightly larger and runs lengthwise rather than crosswise . My friend Linda had sent me a calculator for the correct number of strips ( I tried to follow the recommended number they suggested) but I had some partial strips so it became more challenging to figure out. ( that's my story and I am sticking to it LOL) </div>
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The other challenge was that I had strips with almost every color of the rainbow so I spent quite a while searching for a stop border for the quilt. I am very pleased with the red border.
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Below is a view of the quilt without the border. Athena the cat, loves to check out all my quilts. She is a long haired cat so I often have to use a sticky roller to get rid of all her fur deposits.
She certainly is a nice decoration on all my quilts and enjoys laying on all of them. I am convinced it is a cat thing as Mars cat also loved to curl up on the quilts and fabric too. <a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-g09nEhKrYOw/VKTGZGdjYSI/AAAAAAAADJw/7cxvcit2vYU/s1600/DSC01173.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-g09nEhKrYOw/VKTGZGdjYSI/AAAAAAAADJw/7cxvcit2vYU/s320/DSC01173.JPG" /></a></div>
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One of my other little projects this fall was to get some baby wraps made again, as I was completely out of them. I made 6 of them and they are all ready and waiting for the next new babies to arrive. I have made this pattern since 1984 so there is easily over 100 babies that have used one of these creations. They do work so nicely in a car seat I am told, and wrap a baby up like a little burrito. I used to tie them with yarn, but now, I quilt them by machine,and use minkee on the inside of them. The original pattern came from an old book by McCalls - I am not even sure of the title anymore but it was all handmade things for babies. It had patterns for hand knit clothing as well as baby toys. <a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3GODcom-HkY/VKTH7sCIqlI/AAAAAAAADKk/Uw5pdqLTHpQ/s1600/DSC01304.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-3GODcom-HkY/VKTH7sCIqlI/AAAAAAAADKk/Uw5pdqLTHpQ/s320/DSC01304.JPG" /></a></div>
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Every Christmas I put up the village- it has a number of houses that get lit up each night over the holiday. It is the first ornamentation that I add to our home ,and the last thing I will remove to close off the Christmas season. Putting up the decorations help to make our home more festive.</div>
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Some years it can be a bit of a struggle to find that Christmas feeling.</div>
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I also took out some of the Christmas quilts. I am particularly fond of this paper pieced poinsettia quilt that I made close to 15 years ago. One day I will do another paper pieced project- the pattern maker has some lovely designs that are a variety of flowers - cactus flowers among them. So many techniques to explore and so little time... <br />
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One of the other things I did since I last posted, was play with the beads. I repaired a couple of my favorite pieces as well as made a few new pieces. I thought I might like to give away some as gifts for friends. It is fun to play with different materials and making beaded things is indeed faster than making quilty things. I like the change of pace, and creating adornments that can be worn by others.
I do like working with stones and most of the bracelets used stones like labradorite, agate, and other such rocks. I especially like the ones that are shaped like donuts. It can be a challenge to find a bead to fit inside the spaces. <a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CQfVR2NlaNs/VKTHwsTvyQI/AAAAAAAADKY/4JLpCnjZFjE/s1600/DSC01301.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-CQfVR2NlaNs/VKTHwsTvyQI/AAAAAAAADKY/4JLpCnjZFjE/s320/DSC01301.JPG" /></a><br />
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I took out my little featherweight machine today to make this jelly roll quilt. I have a friend who is retiring at the end of January, so I wanted to make a little quilt to keep her warm when she goes back up north to live. You can see the pile of strips from the jelly roll on the feather weight. If you have not made one and you have a jelly roll floating around - it really is a fast way to create a lovely quilt. You can find tutorials to make them on the net- I like the Missouri Star Quilt Co ones - they have a couple of variations that you can do too.<br />
I bought my jelly rolls from Craftsy- they are really reasonably priced there when they have a sale ( around 20 dollars ) which is way cheaper than what I can find them here in Canada. I love Robert Kaufman fabrics and this one was a line by Robert Kaufman. You can see below, that it really does work up quickly - and so pretty.
Usually, I don't move any of the strips around, but I didn't like the way some
of the strips were together ( too many chunks of the same color or same
fabric together) so I shifted a couple of them once I had the body of
the quilt together. I need to
find a stop border and an outside border for it. I am sure that I will
find that in the fabric stash. I think it probably will be a blue fabric
but
perhaps a deep golden yellow or a russet brown. You never know until you try different fabrics - sometimes the color that you think it will be just doesn't work out.<br />
I will have to audition a
few choices like all of my quilts.<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GZrUh6wvICU/VKTHOsKWKcI/AAAAAAAADKI/bPO-ikmr01Y/s1600/DSC01487.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-GZrUh6wvICU/VKTHOsKWKcI/AAAAAAAADKI/bPO-ikmr01Y/s320/DSC01487.JPG" /></a>
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I didn't make any quilts for Christmas presents this year- but I did
make some pillow cases ( 22 of them - 11 pairs) The biggest challenge
was to find fabrics that complemented quilts that I had given to my
siblings in years past. Sometimes I got lucky and found bits of the original fabrics in the scrap box. I also made some friends some pillow cases and a
couple of sets for my spouse. Once I found the fabrics the rest of it
is a fun project that goes pretty quickly. We don't generally exchange
presents with my siblings anymore but this was a little something that I
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This year has been reasonably productive quilt wise- I finished off some quilts that were carry overs from the previous year, as well as, making a retirement quilt in May and a queen sized BQ quilt in July. I also finished the signature quilt in the summer and completed 4 jelly roll quilts that were all large couch sized quilts.</div>
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From a quilting perspective, I am making progress on my list. The remaining big quilt project is our son and his bride's wedding quilt as well as a signature wall hanging. I have completed 80+ blocks for their king sized quilt which is about 1/2 the number of blocks I need to complete it. I have all the cutting done for the second set of blocks - Hopefully, I can finally put my head down and get on with the making of their quilt. It will begin it tomorrow on New Year's Day.</div>
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It is coming, my children, it is coming :O)</div>
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This Christmas break has been very low key. We went to visit my parents and siblings at Christmas time. For the first time in a couple of years, I saw all of our nieces and nephews, as well as their little ones. I have had time to read and work on some quilting projects. We went to see the movie " The Imitation Game" which I highly recommend. I have done some school work as well.<br />
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We are spending a quiet New Year's Eve - Bruce is working and recording data for his hockey blog- unfortunately, another overtime loss for the Oilers. We will drink a toast at Midnight and ring in the New Year with Auld Lang Syne on the tube and a toast.<br />
My wish for one and all is that 2015 is a year that is filled with good things- good health, prosperity and the love and laughter of the ones that you hold most dear.<br />
I will return again, by the by, for another post- In the meantime, I will be creating and learning with my littles in the classroom. Most importantly, I am striving for balance - balance between work and play- One needs both to be healthy.<br />
May you enjoy a wonderful 2015,<br />
Warmest regards,<br />
Anna
quiltmom annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01976120921532056369noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5773972661069379733.post-5874344690327226362014-10-13T22:20:00.000-07:002014-10-13T22:21:34.651-07:00The season of Thanksgiving and quilt finishes...Life is full of big rocks- rocks that provide stability and sometimes create challenges. I love rocks and stones and this one has a pretty cool story. My dad used to hunt and fish when I was growing up- well for a long time after that too. One time he and a friend found this beautiful chunk of petrified rock and hauled it home. This was no mean feat, as I can barely move it across the living room floor! My dad would have packed it a couple of miles back to his vehicle. It still sits in their home. I wonder what stories the rings of the rock could tell??? <br />
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I know it has been awhile since I have posted - I have lost the rhythm of writing and got out of the habit of sharing here. Today is Canadian Thanksgiving. On a day where one is Thankful for all the things that one has in their life, I thought it was fitting that I took some time to write. Its not that I have not been busy- quite the contrary. Summer and fall have been busy productive times. I completed 5 quilts this summer. All of these quilts came from my stash- I didn't go out and buy anything new to make these quilts. I did buy some batting and invisible thread from Connecting Threads to augment the stash. I did have a couple of fabric adventures over the summer, with my friend Lou, but I mostly added some neutral fabrics to add to the stash.
I don't often buy neutrals so that was my summer challenge to myself.<br />
The BQ 3 quilt below went home with my brother in law, Earle, when he visited here in September. It was a relatively fast quilt to make- I love the greenery in the central blocks. There is more than one way to layout this quilt, but I preferred this one (the other layout was to form large pinwheels but the block looked too clunky to me). I hope he and his wife,Tracy get many years of enjoyment using this quilt. I do like the BQ patterns- by Maple Island Quilts. They are fun designs and make lovely quilts. I did a series of the Sidelines patterns by the same company. This was a belated wedding gift, in time for their first wedding anniversary. - I am getting close to completing my wedding projects( my son and his wife's quilt has risen to the near top of the pile LOL)
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Speaking of wedding quilts, here is my friend, K. with her signature quilt. She was pleased with the results of all the signed wedding blocks. I am the short one at the back( I am not that short but both of the other ladies are tall women.LOL)
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Above is the third wedding quilt- I did enjoy making these jelly roll quilts and this wedding quilt is made from a jellyroll created by the Laundry Baskets designer, Edyta Sitar.I love the vibrancy of the colours in this quilt. I hope that Fred and Mirta find it a cheery and comforting quilt. <a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PgMFpwyrV6M/VDxlCiOwwGI/AAAAAAAADHQ/VA2S0gzDXRc/s1600/DSC00896.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-PgMFpwyrV6M/VDxlCiOwwGI/AAAAAAAADHQ/VA2S0gzDXRc/s1600/DSC00896.JPG" height="240" width="320" /></a><br />
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This second jelly roll quilt I call Sea and Sky. It had such vibrant blues and I found a wonderful batik border in my stash. Here is Athena the cat making herself at home on the quilt. She does love to check out my quilts. <br />
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This was the last of the three jelly roll quilts that I completed. You can see how I spray basted it so that it was easy to quilt. It is quite a fast process to tape it/ clamp it to the tables and then use a fabric spray to glue it together temporarily. Our dear son did not have any of my quilts in his home so this quilt went home with him when he came to visit in September. Hopefully it won't be too long before I get their wedding quilt completed. I spray basted these quilts in the same church building where I go to quilting workshops.<br />
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At the end of that afternoon I spray basted the four quilts The top one is the back of the brown and blue quilt. The black diamond like shapes is the back of the Edyta Sitar quilt. The bright blue is the back of Sea and Sky and the other blue is the back of the BQ quilt. I had already completed the signature quilt. <br />
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While Kevin was here visiting we took the opportunity to take a few photos including this one. Dusty the dog figured she needed to be in the photograph too. <br />
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Last week we had a reading event at school. My husband, Bruce came out and read to my students. It is always is fun to listen to him read to the little ones in my class. He is sharing one of our favorite books, that he read to our son when he was little" The Elephant and the Bad Baby."by E. Vipont. <br />
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Fall has truly arrived in Alberta- I love the contrast of the blue sky and yellow leaves. We don't get as much color out here in the west - our leaves are definitely, orange, yellow and brown with a little red. It was a marvelous Canadian Thanksgiving weekend here in Alberta- Nice weather and beautiful blue skies. This is our apple tree in our front yard.<br />
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It would not be a post without a photo of flowers on our table. I love the contrast of the stargazer lilies and the hydrangeas. There is a massive leaf on the left side of the bouquet. Mother Nature does create some amazing colours and designs of her own.<br />
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I had hoped to make some more baby wraps this weekend as I know some friends and loved ones who are soon going to have a new member in their family.. Somehow the time got away from me.<br />
The weekend time was well spent in other ways- I did get out to have lunch with a friend and got a bit of school work done. I also started another jelly roll quilt( well it was my own jelly roll collection of star fabrics). I think that the wide blue will be the border on the jelly roll innards. I am still searching for the stop border for this one. <br />
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Happy Fall dear friends. I hope you had a lovely weekend and shared a great meal with family and friends if you celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving. We made a very nice dinner of turkey, brussel sprouts, mashed potatoes, dressing , and turnip. It was indeed yummy...<br />
Warmest regards,<br />
Annaquiltmom annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01976120921532056369noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5773972661069379733.post-17688289996339569172014-07-27T22:53:00.000-07:002014-07-27T23:21:48.094-07:00The Joy of Summer<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Summer has come to the Alberta prairies and I am on a hiatus from school. Somehow I thought I would get back to blogging sooner but I have been doing other things- some quilty and some not. One of the first things I did was get some plants for our front deck to add some color out there. Isn't this purple container a beauty of color? I did put some flowers together in the barrels at the bottom of the front steps, but this one I bought, just because I loved the rich colors. Purple and Pink are my favorite colors so this one just spoke to me.
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In the spring time Craftsy offered this box of fat quarters at a great price so I decided to buy them. They are all Free Spirit fabrics- designers like Riley Blake and Amy Butler are in the box. It is such a pretty rainbow of fabrics and more modern than I would normally choose. Sometimes a girl has to check out some other lines, and these fat quarters will make a fun wedding quilt for someone.
I have some great fat quarter patterns to try out someday. The list of someday quilts continues to grow.<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pC5ffF3s4Pg/U9XPRF89JwI/AAAAAAAADEY/Bp5ZL7UPGrM/s1600/DSC00683.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-pC5ffF3s4Pg/U9XPRF89JwI/AAAAAAAADEY/Bp5ZL7UPGrM/s320/DSC00683.JPG" /></a></div>
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A friend of ours had made this lovely traditional Dresden Plate quilt. She had wanted to finish it and needed a bit of help with the binding so I gave her a hand with it. Binding is one of those jobs that is so much easier with the proper tools. Our friend had it quilted by a local long arm studio and was really happy with the completed project. I believe that the quilt was started by her mother.<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6ZeW6YJ1z1g/U9XPqUR22CI/AAAAAAAADEo/a4grPAuacB4/s1600/DSC00731.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-6ZeW6YJ1z1g/U9XPqUR22CI/AAAAAAAADEo/a4grPAuacB4/s320/DSC00731.JPG" /></a></div>
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In my previous post I shared this four square batik quilt with you. Here is the completed quilt being given to its new owner. My friend, Ms. G, was quite surprised with it. I am very happy with the quilt pattern and would make it again. It was a tutorial from the Missouri Star Quilt Company and is called <b>The Half Square triangle quilt using the four Seasons block. </b> I had not used their technique of making half square triangles and it was an easy technique to use.
A friend showed me another technique using a tube and and a strip ruler that is another way to make half square triangles.<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RtFZOsZupaM/U9XPzltYIlI/AAAAAAAADEw/BXg00i2C_Ww/s1600/DSC00720.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RtFZOsZupaM/U9XPzltYIlI/AAAAAAAADEw/BXg00i2C_Ww/s320/DSC00720.JPG" /></a></div>
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A while back I participated in a giveaway contest hosted by The Fat Quarter Shop in Texas, when they were at Quilt market. I was very excited when my phrase was chosen and this beautiful package of Kate Spain fat quarters arrived in the mail. The Fat Quarter Shop does have a lovely on line shop and are very generous to quilters. If you are looking for an on line shop to try, they certainly are a shop to consider. They have lovely fabrics and fair prices. Their products always come beautifully wrapped and you get excellent service from them. Postage costs to Canada are getting more pricey, so I have not bought from them as often, but I do love their shop. They have an excellent blog called the Jolly Jabber.
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Athena -also known as Atari or Kitten,
the Tonkinese cat ( she is a cross of a Burmese and Siamese cat) has taken over in the roll of quilt kitty at our house. She has quite a different disposition than Mars cat, but loves to leave her mark( lots of white fur) on my current quilt projects. She is quite partial to this wedding signature quilt that is now together as a flimsy. I will spray baste it later this week and will get it quilted before too long. I have added borders to it since this photo was taken. </div>
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Our good friends V. and A celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary this past week and I decided to make them some pillow cases to match their quilt. I dug around in my stash looking for fabrics that had come from their quilt but, unfortunately, I did not have any larger pieces to use, even for the two inch piping. I was surprised how quickly that the pillow cases went together. I used another tutorial from the Missouri Star quilt Co. - Jenny Doan gives good instructions . I have since made more pillowcases for my parents ,who celebrated their 59th wedding anniversary today. There is a Dusty dog under this pile of pillow cases- if you look closely you can see her head and red collar on the left side.<br />
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My second major summer project is to get Kevin and Roseanne's wedding quilt put together. These fossil ferns are some of the fabrics that I am using in their quilt. This is a collection of the whole line of fossil fern fabrics. I got a kit from Craftsy called Under the Stars Quilt Kit by Nancy Smith. I have over 80 blocks made, but the quilt is a king sized quilt so I need almost that many again _ I think... I have loved this fabric line forever and it is really a lovely line to use. It handles beautifully.
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In the image below you can see how the block is going to go together- I think it will be a pretty quilt when I get finished.
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The summer is flying by- I have been reading some great books - "I am Malala" and"The Pearl who broke its shell" are among my favorites.
I have been out with friends for lunch and taken care of some general health/ dental things. I still want to clear out some things in the house. It won't be too long before the summer is gone.<br />
I did get a chance to visit my folks early in the summer, as a beloved cousin passed away. While the reason I went to visit was a sad occasion, I did get the opportunity to see extended family. Part of that trip included some time spent traveling with my mother's brother and sister. It was nice to have that time to reconnect with my uncles and aunts.<br />
I recognize since I have gone to google +,that is difficult to leave a response or comment on the blog. I find that frustrating because one of the things that I loved about blogging was making connections with other bloggers. I don't know if anyone has any suggestions about this, but I would love to hear them. I do miss hearing from my other quilting friends on the blog. A few blogging friends have emailed me comments and I appreciate them taking that extra effort to leave comments.<br />
I hope you all are enjoying your summertime and get some time to spend doing the things that you love to do.
Until next time,<br />
Be well,<br />
Warmest regards,
Anna
quiltmom annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01976120921532056369noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5773972661069379733.post-53690753239434077942014-05-23T23:30:00.000-07:002014-05-24T22:35:46.502-07:00Half square triangles can create a beautiful quilt design<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Mother's Day came a couple of weekends ago - I was lucky enough to enjoy these stunning pink sweetheart roses and some lovely cards from our son and my beloved. I had quite a lovely day exploring a local rock and gem show on Mother's Day. There were lots of pretties and bling to tempt this bling girl. One of the things that I brought home was a lovely soft blue celestial geode.<br />
Currently I have postponed working on our son's wedding quilt, as I had a quilt project that I wanted to complete for someone special. I plan to go back to working on the wedding quilts over the summer. After checking out a few patterns and talking with some quilting friends, I chose this pattern that is a tutorial from the Missouri Star Quilt Co. of <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L43Uc9H_RUA&feature=em-subs_digest">the Half SquareTriangle Quilt using the Four Season Block</a><br />
The project is a quilt pattern from the Missouri Star Quilt Company pattern called <b>Half Square Triangle quilt using the Four Season Block.</b> Unfortunately I do not have a design wall at home so I took the blocks to school and laid them out on the tables so that I could see how to better arrange them. <br />
I then brought the quilt blocks back and got it all sewn together in a top.Last weekend (which was our Victoria May long weekend) I went back to school and and spray basted it all together. <br />
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I knew I had limited quilting time just now so I was very happy to have some time over our long weekend in May. This photograph below was taken of the quilt now that it is quilted. I took my time choosing the outside border and I am pleased with the results. I still have to bind it but I am well on my way to finishing it.<br />
Jenny Doan from the Missouri Star Quilt Co, does a great job of explaining how to put the quilts together step by step. I had not tried the technique that she used to make the half square triangles but I liked the technique very much. I found that the triangles less daunting than usual and would use this technique again. I would have liked to have a written version of the quilt so that I can check it out what I am doing but the tutorial was pretty clear. I understand that the Missouri Star quilt Co, has begun to write a magazine called<b> Block. </b>I believe that they have two issues of the magazine- one that has come out recently. I don't know if they have written out the instructions for this particular quilt. <br />
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This quilt used 6 charm packs- three dark collections and three packages of little fabrics that were combined with a little bit of yardage for the wide borders. The back of the quilt is Stonehenge fabric by Northcott - it quilted up beautifully. The quilt is a large twin sized quilt. I hope the intended recipient will really enjoy having an afternoon nap under the quilt.<br />
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On another front entirely, we have a new cat named Atari. She is a senior cat who needed a new residence as her owner was moving to New Zealand. We are beginning to adjust to each other though she still is a bit shy. We wonder if she will be quilt kitty like Mars was?<br />
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Or perhaps we will have a dog quilt helper- - you can see that Dusty the dog thinks that she could help too.. The jury is out whether the two of them will be compatible or whether they will just put up with one another.. Stay tuned for news about the pet front..<br />
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The next few weeks will be filled with school projects that need to be finished at year's end. Then I can look forward to summer which will be busy with some old and new quilt projects. More next time.. <br />
Warmest regards,<br />
Anna <br />
<br />quiltmom annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01976120921532056369noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5773972661069379733.post-65526455806971886572014-04-07T20:51:00.001-07:002014-04-07T21:14:16.950-07:00Finally a new post- a wedding and the current quilt project.....When I look back at this winter, I can't believe that it has been 3 months since I posted on my blog. Yikes- maybe the title should be " Dear Abandoned Blog... During this time I have had a number of different flowers that have graced our table including tulips, poinsettias, <br />
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lovely orchids and more tulips that opened out spectacularly beautifully<br />
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and the gorgeous remains of wedding flowers -<br />
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Did I say wedding flowers - Yep- these gorgeous hydrangeas were combined with greenery and plum carnations and roses. They looked stunning as our son Kevin and his lady Rose (now wife) said their vows in February.<br />
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A photo of the loving couple looking gorgeous. Her beautiful bouquet was silks with rhinestones and pearls and had deep plum flowers in it.<br />
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They were married in Banff on a cold day in early February. The majestic mountains were a stunning backdrop for this auspicious occasion. It was a very small intimate affair and was enjoyed by all.<br />
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Below is a photo of my beloved and me, decked out in our wedding finery. My jewelery included pieces that belonged to my grandmother, Grace. She would have loved being there on the kids special day and I felt like she was with me celebrating the momentous occasion.<br />
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We were so happy that my parents were able to join us in Banff. It was so nice to spend time together enjoying the mountains and wonderful views. </div>
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My mother took this photograph of the view from their hotel room.Isn't it an amazing view? In the summer, the valley has a golf course with the river coursing through it.<br />
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And here are Rose's parents all decked out to celebrate the nuptials. We were happy to meet them and look forward to other times when we might cross paths. <br />
In the meantime, life has gone on with other things- I have been working on Kevin and Rose's wedding quilt but, it will be a while, before the king sized quilt will be completed. So far I have cut and completed 83 blocks - I am not sure exactly how many blocks it will be but at least twice that many. This is what a few of the blocks look like when they are placed together to form bigger blocks. The pattern is called <b>Under the Stars</b> and is a Craftsy kit of Fossil Fern fabrics by Benatrex. It is interesting to see the secondary patterns forming when you place the blocks together.<br />
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I went to a quilt workshop with some quilting friends in March, and have been the usual busy with my kindergarten students. Our kinders went to see some little chicks and rabbits on a field trip just before spring break, which was last week.<br />
During spring break- I got in some good quilting time , where I got some work done on another quilt project. More about that as that quilt comes together - right now its a secret project for a friend. The pattern is a one of the Missouri Star Co. tutorial patterns and I am pleased to see it starting to take shape.<br />
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We went to visit my family for a couple of days to celebrate my parents birthdays ( Happy Birthday Dad and Mom). I also got some time with my favorite girls and their parents. My dear friend, V and I had an afternoon of visiting and beading which is always fun.<br />
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Since Kevin and Roseanne's wedding, Bruce and I have taken in a few concerts including one to see the band" Yes". Our first date 35 years ago, was to a Yes concert, so it was fun to see the band still playing all these years later. We enjoyed seeing the band and hearing the music. It took us back to a different time and place. This photo is a little selfie taken on the cell phone at the concert. <br />
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Yesterday we went off to the Art Gallery to see the newest exhibits.The main exhibit is called High Adventure on the Columbia Ice Fields- 1924. It is a lovely showing of photographs taken by Byron Harmon and Lewis Freeman. The pictures, done in 1924, showed the Columbia Ice fields,which feeds 6 different glaciers and rivers to three different oceans. The exhibit had some very cool archival footage that included a dog named Buster riding on horseback across the cold lake water. There are also some paintings done by Lawren Harris and A. Y. Jackson (two painters from the Group of Seven) done in 1924 in Jasper. Lots of Mountain connections in this post, it seems.<br />
Today I returned to the classroom and the third term begins- my this school year is flying by. Life seems to have been particularly full the first three months of 2014, with lots of special celebrations happening.<br />
I haven't forgotten you my dear blog friends - just got a little busy on the home front.
I will try to be a less of a stranger to blog land in the coming months. Keep watching for quilty updates.<br />
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In the meantime, I hope this finds you all well.
Happy Quilting,<br />
Warmest regards,
Anna
quiltmom annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01976120921532056369noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5773972661069379733.post-41576609654727198612013-12-27T23:00:00.000-08:002013-12-27T23:00:05.150-08:00A lovely visit- babies and some new quilts...<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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Poinsettias were my wedding flowers and yesterday, my husband, Bruce and I quietly celebrated our 33rd wedding anniversary. It does not seem possible that we have been married quite that long- through good times and bad we have always had each other's back. Our journey together has had our fair share of twists and turns, but I feel very fortunate to count my partner in life as my dearest friend. This beautiful pot of poinsettias is a large one- we considered briefly putting on lights and decorating it as our Christmas tree. The poinsettias were a Thank you gift from a friend and we are enjoying their luscious rich colored petals. ( In the end , we did put up a small artificial tree and the poinsettia adorns our table)<br />
Time has flown by quickly and this fall has been particularly hectic. I seem to have disappeared from my blog page this year- especially this fall. When I sat down to write I suddenly realized why it had been so long. Here are a few highlights...
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In Mid November our son and his fiancee arrived home for a couple of weeks to finalize the plans for their wedding in early February. It was so lovely to have them here for parts of two weeks. Here are the four of us gathered in my parent's kitchen. I am sure that the wedding is going to be lovely. The wedding will take place in Banff- a beautiful spot in the Canadian Rockies. It will be a small intimate celebration but I know that it is going to be a special time for us all, but most especially, for Kevin and Roseanne. I have chosen a quilt pattern and have the fabric for their wedding quilt. One of my goals over this Christmas vacation is to get a good start on the blocks for the quilt. I hope to have the top put together by their wedding.( it is always good to have a goal LOL) We shall see....
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While the kids were here visiting we celebrated my November birthday. They brought me this cute little sewing machine to decorate my sewing room. It reminds me of my featherweight that I will be using to piece the 200 or so blocks in their king size quilt. The wedding quilt fabrics that I have chosen are a kaleidoscope of color from the Fossil Fern line by Benatrex. I have always wanted to use this fabric line as it has so much movement and texture in the fabrics. I am sure there will some photos in upcoming posts of the wedding quilt blocks.<br />
Late November is always an exciting time in kindergarten. We wrote letters to Santa and made some drawings. I thought you might enjoy seeing my student's drawings of Santa along with their reindeer.
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Santa Claus came to visit our kindergarten students. It is such an exciting season and the children are always awestruck when Santa comes in, bringing parcels and goodies with their names on it. I love watching the magic of Santa - It is always a special day when he comes to school.
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Quite awhile back a dear friend gave me this quilt top to finish. With our combined efforts, it is now a completed quilt. I knew that my younger brother's quilt had seen better days, so when I was home for Christmas, I brought this quilt to him. I called it The Twist and Turns of life and I know that he was thrilled with it. I hope that he gets many years of enjoyment out of it .
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Last summer I was busy making wedding quilts for two of our sibling's children: one for a niece and the other for a nephew and their new spouses. One of the quilts was delivered to our nephew and his bride in October. Now the mate to that quilt has now been delivered to my niece and her husband. The pattern is a disappearing 9 patch and the fabrics were all batiks. I had both of the quilts all pieced in the summer, but I had not finished quilting this one in time for their August wedding. I am pleased to finally get them both finished.May each couple enjoy many happy years together and may they know how much they are loved by their family and friends.
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2013 has brought three new babies to our extended family. Two of our nieces on my husband's side of the family had babies. We had a new nephew arrive in August and a new niece in September. Here I am with my arms full of two beautiful babies wrapped in their baby wraps. They are both sweet and will enjoy lots of good times together as they are first cousins. They sat so nicely with their grand auntie - There is nothing like holding small babies - and this pair were as good as gold.<br />
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This handsome little boy with all the hair belongs to another nephew of ours. He was born in late November. What joy these new family additions are bringing to all of our lives.
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The festive season has been a busy one- lots of preparations - cooking, decorating, shopping and wrapping for the big day. Now is the down time of the Christmas vacation: a little rest and relaxation along with some fun times spent with family and friends. I know that January will be a busy month and our son's wedding is the first part of February so the new year will be exciting.
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Hopefully when I post next I will have the beginnings of the wedding quilt. The New Year will certainly start off with a bang. <br />
I want to wish you all a wonderful 2014. May it be rich with good times spent with loved ones. May you enjoy good health and prosperity in the year ahead.<br />
Warmest regards,
Annaquiltmom annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01976120921532056369noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5773972661069379733.post-89838466049065972782013-11-09T20:22:00.002-08:002013-11-10T11:24:36.868-08:00A quilt finish, One hundred widows and other November news..This pretty bouquet of flowers given to me to remember Mars, was left on my desk at school by a lovely school friend- The blossoms were the colors of Mars cat- rich oranges, carmel and white. It was such a touching gesture of kindness. My colleague is also a pet lover and knew how sad our house was with the passing of Mars Cat. We still have bits of the bouquet brightening our dining room table. <br />
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Winter has arrived here in Alberta- the trees were laden with snow and look so pretty after the first snow fall last weekend. I was grateful that I had a day to get used to the snow before I had to venture out in it with my car. ( I managed to get my hair cut across town before the snow started- wahoo)
It snowed all day today so the roads will not be too wonderful for the next day or two but I don't have to go too far and Monday is a holiday as it is Remembrance Day on November 11. We made poppies at school and talked about Peace- and living Peacefully. There is something quite peaceful about trees covered in snow..
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I started this Twister Jack pattern just before we lost Mars. I have yet to do the second cut of this quilt- not sure when I will tackle it.
It is made using a fun little tool called a twister ruler- Don't you wonder how people come up with these cool ideas? I have seen a heart done this way too. You can get varying sized rulers to make different sized pattern blocks with it. Have you tried a twister pattern?<br />
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This is as far as I have got but I have lost my motivation to finish it just now- perhaps by next summer I will get back to it again.
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In the meantime, I have returned to finishing the second wedding quilt from the summer- This first view shows it just before I decided on the outside border. Like many quilts I auditioned various borders before choosing this one.
The pattern is the disappearing 9 patch and is a companion mate to the one that I made for our nephew and his bride that live in New York.<br />
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While it snowed last weekend, I ventured upstairs to my sewing room and got the quilt quilted. It is almost a queen sized quilt so it took a little while to free motion quilt it but it is now quilted. I am pleased how nice and flat it quilted up. I trimmed the quilt today and will try and get the binding on it before this weekend is over. It is sometimes difficult to get things finished during the school year but I want to get this to our niece and her husband soon. While the two quilts had some similar fabrics- the different borders do change the look of each of them. The camera really doesn't capture the rich batik colors. I got a new camera awhile back because my I had problems with my other one- however I really don't like the picture quality of this one- sometimes too cheap is just too cheap to produce a good photograph. I guess I will put it on my wish list for my upcoming birthday or Christmas.
Our son and his fiancΓ©e arrive next Friday. We are so excited to see them both- I know we will talk about what their wedding quilt is going to look like as I need to get started on it.( Their wedding will be in February 2014) Christmas will have come early in our house with their two week visit.<br />
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Recently, Bruce and I went to see a very fun earring exhibit done on some netting called 100 widows. The earrings were all singletons- ones who had somehow lost their mates. The day that Bruce was reading in the newspaper about the exhibit ( it was created by Elizabeth Withey)- I lost one of my favorite earrings ( or it appeared to be gone) I searched high and low for it- by some miracle it had got caught in my sweater and it fell out at my feet, a couple weeks later when I took the sweater off. I was thrilled to find it. The exhibit had some really interesting stories that went with the lost earrings. It is always fun to check out what is happening at some local art galleries.
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One Hundred Widows Exhibit - Latitude 53</div>
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Check out the link if you are interested in reading more of the one hundred widow stories </div>
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<a href="http://onehundredwidows.tumblr.com/">http://onehundredwidows.tumblr.com/</a></div>
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We are off to a concert with Three Folk artists on Monday evening- Rodney Crowell, Emmylou Harris and Richard Thompson. It will be a terrific evening of music...The venue has wonderful acoustics and live music is always a great way to spend time together..<br />
One of my blogging friends Victoria from Bumblebee quilts is having a giveaway of her terrific book time to Play. <a href="http://bumblebeansinc.blogspot.ca/2013/11/giveaway-1yr-anniversary.html">Victoria Finlay Wolfe of Bumblebee quilts</a> ( click on the link and it will take you to her very fun blog). We all need to take time to play with whatever fills ones creative soul...<br />
In the meantime, I have some cleaning, as well as school work to do and some reports to finish so the weekend will fly by..
It is the season of craft sales and Christmas planning.. I expect I should do a bit of shopping soon so that I don't have to mail presents after the kids return to the east coast. LOL<br />
Have you done some Christmas shopping? baking? decorating? Perhaps we will put up the Christmas village while our boy is here... <br />
'Til next time, have fun creating and planning for the upcoming festive season...
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Warmest regards, <br />
Annaquiltmom annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01976120921532056369noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5773972661069379733.post-89986356330370735682013-10-27T21:11:00.000-07:002013-10-27T21:11:29.681-07:00Mars the cat and some of her quilts...Our beautiful quilt cat Mars has passed on. She leaves behind a bundle of quilts for others to cherish. Each and every one of Anna's many creations, were cat tested by Mars. She always seemed to be around to help test the fabrics and check on the finished ones for comfort. Sometimes she would come and help sew ( a few times I thought she might catch her paw in the sewing machine needle) when she was younger, she liked to come and supervise the stitching of the quilts. She is mourned by her human parents, Bruce and Anna and their son Kevin and his fiancΓ©e Roseanne. She will also be missed by her dog sibling Dusty. Mars had just turned 15 at the time of her passing. <br />
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Mars had a number of interesting past times that included sleeping in a variety of baskets, checking out the birds and squirrels outside the window and chasing Dusty when she got sufficiently annoyed.
She had some favorite foods- soft vanilla ice cream, milk from a tall cup and roast chicken. The only cat food she would eat was Whiskas. <br />
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This quilt pattern is called a Disappearing nine patch and is made of a wide range of batik fabrics. I love the texture and colors that can be found in batiks.
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Here the quilt is laid out on my tables at school to be spray basted together.
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This quilt has been safely delivered to this lovely couple- our nephew and his bride. I know that this quilt will be well loved by them both.<br />
I recognize that I have been away from my blog for awhile- Life this fall has been very busy with school work and tending to our sick pet. It is hard to believe that it will soon be November.
We are looking forward to our son and his girl visiting from PEI in mid November.
I will leave you with a few more photos of Mars and my quilts...Perhaps one day I will have another quilt helper- It is hard to imagine that there could another cat who would look so pretty on my quilts..
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Mars came quilting with me during most of my journey... It feels just a little odd to think about quilting without her being their to check out my work.<br />
This is my current project - a twister jack- o- lantern that is partially done. <a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-RI4LBPyYkdo/Um3gY1VQMSI/AAAAAAAAC4g/gPsFCGryaIE/s1600/DSCF0002+(2).JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-RI4LBPyYkdo/Um3gY1VQMSI/AAAAAAAAC4g/gPsFCGryaIE/s320/DSCF0002+(2).JPG" /></a> <br />
It has lots of oranges and red- <br />
I know Mars would have liked it too. <br />
Happy quilting,
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Warmest regards,
Annaquiltmom annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01976120921532056369noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5773972661069379733.post-43545634370431882762013-08-31T23:32:00.000-07:002013-08-31T23:50:50.492-07:00August has come and gone....Life is indeed full of circles...August has flown by with a number of things that have included all the mainstay life events ( one birth- one more to come, two weddings , two funerals) - they all are part of the circles in life. It has been full of a myriad of colors that as always include flowers in and out of our home. At one point these lovely sunflowers adorned our table. <br />
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With the help of some wonderful long arm quilters from Sparrow Studioz, this red and white quilt is now finished, and has made its way to <strong>Quilts for Calgary</strong> ,where it joined over a 1000 other ones, that will be given to families who lost everything in the Calgary area floods in June. I was very happy that the red fabrics maintained their color after being washed in Retayne. At one point it looked like some of the red fabric dye might try and migrate. I washed it with some trepidation, I have to say, but it truly did work out in the wash. This quilt was indeed a collaborative project- Diane, a friend from Red Deer made most of the blocks- I sashed them and bound it after it was quilted.
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At one point this summer, we had some lovely pots of stargazer lilies and sunflowers but unfortunately, the Alberta weather has been fraught with storms, that brought hail and severe rain to our communities. These flowerpots are now looking quite beaten down by the storms but they were pretty for awhile.
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Speaking of pretty, our pretty cat, Mars, has developed some significant health issues in her senior years. We now have to give her some insulin daily... She is soon to be 15 and is otherwise a healthy girl. Here she is helping me quilt- she does love to sit on my fabrics and quilts...The fabrics she is sitting on were for a wedding quilt that I am still finishing for my niece and her husband.
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Here is my niece Ms. A- Wasn't she a gorgeous bride- here is the handsome couple on their wedding day. I am making progress on their wedding quilt and hope to have it finished before too long.
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We had a lovely time at their wedding and took a few moments to take a photo of my siblings and our spouses. It has been a few years since we took a photograph of us all, so it was nice to have one and this one turned out pretty well.
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After the wedding, I spent a few days with my folks followed by a short trip to the mountains. On our way to the mountains, my spouse and I visited a few quilt stores to indulge my quilting habit. In one, I saw this fabulous wall hanging - I loved the sentiment- quilting friends are indeed the flowers of life...
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If you ever are in Canmore( a small town just outside Banff (a beautiful mountain resort town in the Canadian Rockies)- you must go to see the Sugar Pine quilt store. It is full to the brim, of
quilting and beading things, as well as many other treasures such as art cards and Laurel Burch items... I added some lovely batiks to my ever expanding batik collection from the Sugar Pine clearance section..
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Bruce and I drove up to Lake Minnewanka which is up in the mountains above the Banff townsite. It is a gorgeous spot and we were lucky to get some breaks in the weather that day. Earlier that morning, it had been raining and the weather did not look too promising - we were happy that the weather cooperated as we only had a short time to spend in the mountains. The foothills area had suffered quite a lot of damage during the June floods ( particularly Canmore ) and the water was still quite high. Lots of the walking paths had postings of warnings to stay off certain sections of the trails.</div>
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The scenery is always spectacular in the mountains- the vistas are gorgeous and the colors breathtaking. This is one of the glacier lakes- I believe it is Bow Lake along the Banff - Jasper Parkway. </div>
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This is some of my booty from my visits to the quilt stores. We made stops in 6 shops ( I had my own little shop hop ... LOL. The top ones were from a shop in Rocky Mountain House which I only had about 10 minutes before the lady was closing for the day. We had stopped there last year and I found some other treasures. The bottom ones are from a shop in Olds called The Quilting Bee. My dad grew up in the Olds Area and their is an agricultural college there. My sister has a Horticultural Design Diploma from the College. It has two quilt stores and a terrific general store called Craig's that has some fabrics as well. These little towns are all relatively small - between 2 and 10 thousand people - it is interesting to see that quilting is flourishing in these smaller areas.</div>
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Bruce really is a good sport about my love of quilting. Recently Patti Carey from Northcott / Monarch fabrics came to give a trunk show at one of the local shops ( Lori's Country Cottage in Sherwood Park) Patti spoke about using fabrics and panels to create quilts. Bruce came along with me- it was 120 ladies and him. Patti Carey had some beautiful quilts in her trunk, and some fabulous ideas to make new quilts. This is a photo of Patti and the room filled with quilters.</div>
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She designed a quilt called the Long and Winding Road for the magazine The Quilter in January 2001. It is a pattern that I made around 2002.<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EGwbI56v9lY/UiLAXIZc2DI/AAAAAAAAC0M/kTBTJKb1rzo/s1600/DSCF0522.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" separator="" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-EGwbI56v9lY/UiLAXIZc2DI/AAAAAAAAC0M/kTBTJKb1rzo/s320/DSC<div class=" style="clear: both; text-align: center;" /></a></div>
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I really enjoyed making this bargello design and made
the blue version of this quilt for a raffle. I love this pattern and would make it again. The pink and brown version was a gift for my SIL. I think both of the color combinations worked very well. It makes a big queen-sized quilt and goes together quickly. I have seen it made in other color combinations and all of them were equally stunning. </div>
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It is funny how the different angles change the way this quilt looks. <b>Do you have a favorite technique/ design that you would make again and again? Do you ever buy large amounts of a certain fabric because you love it so much. There is a brown print in the pink and brown one that I used as a backing and and in the border. If I saw it again, I would buy a big chunk of it because it was just such a rich fabric.</b> </div>
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I have returned to the classroom so my daily life speed changes to a more hectic pace. I have been busy quilting most of the summer when we were not attending some special family functions, visiting friends and family, or in the mountains. One thing I love about summer is the opportunity to reconnect with friends and loved ones. </div>
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Now it is back to the busyness and business of school. It will be fun to see all my new little ones and try out some new tasks. I may be getting older, but teaching never does. I have a new Ipad to learn about, and more things to try on the smart board. In my school classroom, we try to play everyday because that is our work in kindergarten. We all need to have time to play and work - Hopefully I will find some time to play in the fabric. There are wedding quilts to finish and more wedding quilts to create for family members. It is a celebrating time of life.</div>
We are looking forward to the arrival of a new grand niece or nephew soon. And our son and his girl will get married in February. The next few months will be hectic indeed. I will drop by when I can..<br />
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Thanks for stopping by to check out my quilting journey.</div>
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Warmest regards,</div>
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Anna</div>
quiltmom annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01976120921532056369noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5773972661069379733.post-19743264430367974122013-07-21T00:25:00.001-07:002013-07-21T00:25:08.831-07:00Quilting for love- summer 2013<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-pNi0ySeVSSc/Uetwr6kzJfI/AAAAAAAACvs/tWFhkuYqcDk/s1600/DSCF0007.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-pNi0ySeVSSc/Uetwr6kzJfI/AAAAAAAACvs/tWFhkuYqcDk/s320/DSCF0007.JPG" /></a><br />
This summer I decided it was important for me to make some dedicated time for quilting. I wanted to know what I love about quilting . I got to thinking about why I quilt, when I was reading on a quilt forum that I read regularly, someone posted the question:<b>" Why do you quilt"? What keeps you quilting? How did you become a quilter? What inspires you to keep you quilting?</b><br />
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In some ways they are very separate questions and in other ways they are very much related. I have always loved quilts but did not have any relatives who were quilters. I am told that my father's mother made quilts but unfortunately none of her work remains. As an aside, I made a Double Wedding Ring quilt a number of years ago in tribute to my grandmother.( By the way, there is a Double Wedding Ring challenge going on right now. If you check Bumblebeans blog on my sidebar - Victoria Finlay Wolfe's blog, you will find some information about it) but I digress..<br />
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My answer to the quilting question is reflected in the following photos.<br />
Quilts provide ways to support causes that need support.<br />
Recently, I bought this lovely little quilt from the Alzheimer Art Quilt Initiative project that was created by Amie Simms in 2006. This piece was made by a lovely lady by the name of Michele Bilyeu who has contributed 75 quilts (9X 12 in) to aid and support the fund for Alzheimer's research. Do check out this post <a href="https://aaqiupdate.wordpress.com/2013/07/11/15000th-donated-quilt/">Alzheimer 15,000 quilt</a><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-u2MuFi-e4Mo/Uetw0vALkBI/AAAAAAAACv0/Q24g0_oCcKU/s1600/DSCF0003.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-u2MuFi-e4Mo/Uetw0vALkBI/AAAAAAAACv0/Q24g0_oCcKU/s320/DSCF0003.JPG" /></a>for more information about this important research.<br />
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Another reason that I enjoy quilting, is that I love fabric. I have been collecting fabric for the better part of 20 years and have some gorgeous pieces just waiting to be used in the many in my head quilts that are waiting to be made. These fabrics are ones that I pulled from the stash(mostly)for a recent project- a wedding signature quilt. Since this photograph I have completed the signature blocks for the wedding and am waiting for some of the blocks to be returned to me so that I can put them together in a top. The layout is a free pattern called the Fourth of July and can be found on Bonnie Hunter's quiltville website. If you are not familiar with her website, you may want to check it out. Bonnie is a prolific teacher, designer and quilter, who does amazing things with scraps. She has a number of books out and is generous with her ideas. Her blog is one of the first blogs that I ever followed. <a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rBrgGfBRdhU/Uetw-0qhbLI/AAAAAAAACv8/oXscmj75hq0/s1600/DSCI1044.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-rBrgGfBRdhU/Uetw-0qhbLI/AAAAAAAACv8/oXscmj75hq0/s320/DSCI1044.JPG" /></a><br />
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In June,2013 there was some horrific storms in a city named Calgary that lays 200 miles to the south of the place where I call home. In the surrounding areas of High River, Canmore, Bragg Creek, Kananaskis and Siksika Indian Nation areas, the heavy rains created significant heavy flooding. Some areas like the downtown area of Calgary had flooding that filled their hockey/ entertainment arena well up into the seating areas.<br />
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One sometimes wonders what can a person do, besides donate money to help support others in their time of need. For some of us, it means that we can create quilts to wrap around and provide comfort and warmth, to those who may have lost much. That is one of the reasons why a group called Quilts for Calgary was born.<br />
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Here in Edmonton , a long arm quilting studio called Sparrow Studioz, provided a place for some Edmonton quilters for 5 Sundays in July, to donate their time, talents and materials to create quilts for Calgary.<br />
A big thank you go out to Matt ( manquilter) and Bradie Sparrow for their generosity. This quilt top was made <a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Aiw5u6gKUZo/UetxRvHp55I/AAAAAAAACwM/kvNdQDpbI20/s1600/DSCI1076.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-Aiw5u6gKUZo/UetxRvHp55I/AAAAAAAACwM/kvNdQDpbI20/s320/DSCI1076.JPG" /></a><br />
by my mentor teacher and friend, Linda and quilted by Bradie on the long arm.<br />
It is a one of the many beautiful quilts that are on their way to Calgary.<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YzJj_vp0d_8/Uetx2r4if9I/AAAAAAAACws/Z7mK3SbPh3A/s1600/DSCI1077.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-YzJj_vp0d_8/Uetx2r4if9I/AAAAAAAACws/Z7mK3SbPh3A/s320/DSCI1077.JPG" /></a><br />
I loved this purple and black one that has a medallion design.<br />
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Here Ms. D., is putting together some beautiful batiks that were donated from a local quilter's stash, to create a disappearing 9 patch. It is going to be a stunning quilt.<br />
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This one is a top that I have recently finished up- the blocks came from a quilting friend who lives in the area around my hometown of Red Deer. I will take it tomorrow to the ladies who use the long arm quilting machines and then I will bind it and add it to the ever growing pile of quilts<br />
Below are two more of the quilts that will head to the Calgary area.<br />
I have to say it has been a wonderful opportunity to contribute to my community in whatever small way I could. Quilters made bindings, pieced batting and backing together, or, sent in fabrics for backing and blocks, and even whole tops to be quilted and shared. There were companies that donated batting, fabric while other places helped to defray the costs of shipping and getting them to Calgary area. We were only one of many individual/ groups of quilters across the province who were busy making quilts for down south.<br />
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Back to the original question of why I quilt- In some ways its simple- </div>
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Quilting feeds my creative spirit and allows me to play. Being a kindergarten teacher, I know about the importance of play in life. We all need to play whether we are 2 or 92. Play helps us to have balance, solve problems or provide us with opportunities to socialize with others. Quilting has introduced me to some wonderful friends that I would never known without the sharing of our passion for quilting.</div>
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Quilts give me a way to express my love to friends and family- Like most other quilters I know, my quilts are gifts from my heart, whether they are for a loved one or a stranger. The quilts form a big hug around its owner , when they wrap the quilt around themselves. </div>
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This little poster hangs in the washroom of the Sparrow's studio. The mat says" Keep off the grass and buy a standard sewing machine." I like the playfulness of this poster. That playfulness is joyful- something that I feel when I am quilting. </div>
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<b>So why do you quilt? </b></div>
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<b>Wishing you time to play and create with whatever brings you joy..</b></div>
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Warmest regards,<br />
Annaquiltmom annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01976120921532056369noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5773972661069379733.post-78820359577068746642013-06-30T00:50:00.002-07:002013-06-30T14:39:19.516-07:00A Potpourri of News - now just where I have I been lately?<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-F_Kn9L48DII/Uc-6x2-QqLI/AAAAAAAACuY/GGta7dhbWk8/s1032/scan0010.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><br /></a> I don't even know where to begin, as the past 6 weeks have flown by. These last weeks have been filled with many things - some which were tied to the end of the school year.<br />
Here are the current flowers on our dining room table -some pretty pink and white carnations. <a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RuLiHQpkczA/Uc-2NpHRgcI/AAAAAAAACsI/sclywhJSM34/s1600/DSCI1014.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RuLiHQpkczA/Uc-2NpHRgcI/AAAAAAAACsI/sclywhJSM34/s320/DSCI1014.JPG" /></a><br />
This lovely lady is my friend Brenda, who started her official retirement from our school district after over 35 years of teaching yesterday. Our friendship goes back to when I was a relatively new teacher ( my second school) We have maintained a friendship for over 30 years and I was delighted to be invited to her retirement. I am sure she is going to enjoy some great times with family and friends as well as exploring her passion for cooking, gardening and scrapbooking. Happy Retirement, my friend!<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ntMj9z0obUI/Uc-2le-QAYI/AAAAAAAACsQ/eWbGLyWCapg/s1600/DSCI0903.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-ntMj9z0obUI/Uc-2le-QAYI/AAAAAAAACsQ/eWbGLyWCapg/s320/DSCI0903.JPG" /></a><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RoxJCbTUG0Y/Uc-2rr5OlkI/AAAAAAAACsY/FXKorby0vak/s448/DSCI0893.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-RoxJCbTUG0Y/Uc-2rr5OlkI/AAAAAAAACsY/FXKorby0vak/s448/DSCI0893.JPG" /></a><br />
Here is a photograph of the lovely wallhanging that I received from Sharon (Vrooman's quilts) in the post awhile back. The photos do not do this beautiful wall hanging justice. There is some fabulous bead work on the crossstitched feathers. It is a really beautiful gift that I am honored to be its caretaker.
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In the early part of June ( right in the middle of report card writing LOL) my local guild held their biannual quilt show. It was held in a seniors center that has some spectacular glass works hanging from the ceiling. I have included a smattering of the quilts that we saw-( we only had a couple of hours at the show so we missed some of the quilts, but what we did see was a wonderful collection of local talent) I loved this collection of musical notes - I think that they must play some beautiful melody - they sure look pretty together don't you think. Music of the heart could be their title..<br />
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This Judy Niemeyer pattern is stunning and the young woman that made the quilt did a spectacular job of it. I believe that it was long arm quilted by one of our local long arm quilters named Matt Sparrow.<br />
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He and his wife Bradie have a long arm quilting studio here in Edmonton, and do fantastic work. Perhaps one day I might try out long arm quilting but for now I am content to quilt on my Babylock quilting machine.<br />
The Sparrow family are also very generous people- Tomorrow, they have invited quilters to come and use the long arm machines at the studio to make quilts for our friends who have been wiped out by the floods in Southern Alberta.<br />
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Recently our sister city of Calgary and the surrounding areas ( High River, Canmore, Bragg Creek and Siksika Indian Nation) experienced some horrendous flooding.The central core of the city of Calgary was immersed in water in the as well as many housing districts along the Bow river. They evacuated many areas of the city. The big hockey arena ( the Saddledome) and home to the Calgary Stampede grounds were saturated with flooding. There is also a wonderful Zoo there, that faced many challenges trying to keep all the animals safe. At one point, there was some concerns that the hippos might end up swimming down the river. Back to the quilt show...<br />
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-F_Kn9L48DII/Uc-6x2-QqLI/AAAAAAAACuY/GGta7dhbWk8/s1032/scan0010.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="320" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-F_Kn9L48DII/Uc-6x2-QqLI/AAAAAAAACuY/GGta7dhbWk8/s320/scan0010.jpg" width="221" /></a>I found this very fun quilting lady wall hanging utterly charming. I loved the details the quilter added to her quilt. I especially loved her red boa and the cat lying at her feet. She also has a fabulous earring in her ear.
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Here are some very special men in my life- One of the things I did for Father's Day, was make a small collection of family photos in an album on my facebook page. The one on the left is our son, Kevin, when he was about 3 months old. The other one was taken this spring when he was home visiting. The photos were taken 25 years apart. I have always loved this baby photo- it always brings me joy looking at the two of them together.<br />
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June has been a particularly rainy month here in Edmonton. We recently had lunch with some friends in a wonderful restaurant, Le Ronde, that rotates and gives some spectacular views of our fair city. You can see that the North Saskatchewan River is pretty high as well. It recently crested and the levels have now dropped. You can see on the right hand side that there are four pyramids that are a local plant conservatory.<br />
In case you are wondering whether I have abandoned quilting , I did finish these two sideline quilts.( I also got 9 baby wraps bound so they are ready for the next babies.<br />
This Pueblo pots quilt was given to this wonderful couple Ian and Charlotte to celebrate their relatively recently acquired home. ( it is only about a year late - LOL)<br />
I hope that they enjoy many happy years together in their lovely home. <a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MSrjxb2P7Nw/Uc-5ft8OioI/AAAAAAAACt4/WHcsvhNMT38/s448/DSCI1444.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-MSrjxb2P7Nw/Uc-5ft8OioI/AAAAAAAACt4/WHcsvhNMT38/s448/DSCI1444.JPG" /></a><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MDP7_irGLBk/Uc-5rr7m53I/AAAAAAAACuA/DQm5VBRiKQM/s1600/DSCI0981.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MDP7_irGLBk/Uc-5rr7m53I/AAAAAAAACuA/DQm5VBRiKQM/s320/DSCI0981.JPG" /></a><br />
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One of the fun things we brought to our school grounds was this bouncing castle, as part of our year end fun day . My school kids loved bouncing and crawling through the obstacle course.<br />
We had a couple of heavy rains and a severe thunderstorm the night before my school kids were finished. One thunderstorm knocked out a transformer and left us without power for part of the last day of school.<br />
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I also finished the other Sideliner quilt that I called Floral Retreat. It was made for my friend, Deloris, who also retired. I know that she is going to enjoy lots of time travelling to visit her family in Louisana, Michigan and California. She is passionate about books and I will miss her friendship and our conversations about children's literature. <a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-J4iT2WWe25U/Uc_U8dQi_YI/AAAAAAAACvM/y3hWaq36YE8/s1600/DSCI1015.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="269" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-J4iT2WWe25U/Uc_U8dQi_YI/AAAAAAAACvM/y3hWaq36YE8/s320/DSCI1015.JPG" width="320" /></a><br />
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So there you have it - Life has indeed been full- I am looking forward to summer vacation- it is such a change of pace after the busyness of school. I plan to get some things done around the house ( I began cleaning the stove today-) As well I have some quilts to create. I will begin working on the signature block quilt tomorrow.<br />
We had intended to go to Banff later in the summer but with the flooding in that area of the Rockies, it may make road travel a little complicated. We think instead we will head to Jasper for a few days, which is another beautiful part of the Canadian Rockies but is farther north. I love the mountains- there is something very restful about going to stay there...<br />
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Today was a lovely day- a visit to a couple of my favorite quilt shops and a wonderful second hand shop.(Needless to say, my fabric stash didn't get any smaller LOL... One of the things I love about summer, is the opportunity to connect and reconnect with my friends and family.<br />
My dear friend, Lou, came in from her lake cottage for the day. We had such a nice time together exploring our favorite haunts as well as having lunch together. I also spend some time on the phone with my dear friend, Val just catching up with one another. I even had some time with my spouse watching some of the tennis at Wimbledon.<br />
Bruce began his summertime shifts as a public interpreter at the local observatory today.<br />
This evening I managed to finally put all the spring bunnies away and will take out some summer decor for the sideboard..<br />
And so the summer begins- Hopefully I will return sooner and more regularly to any of you who are my blog friends. I have been quite neglectful of my blog this year. Thanks to you all, who continue to visit. I have added a bloglovin link should you wish to follow my ramblings :O)<br />
Until next time, be well,<br />
Warmest regards,<br />
Annaquiltmom annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01976120921532056369noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5773972661069379733.post-33757668646940194482013-05-18T22:46:00.001-07:002013-05-18T22:46:52.155-07:00The Busyness of May and a question about wedding signature quilts..I keep thinking that I will get myself back on track and writing more consistently but for one reason or another this poor blog gets the short shift or the long delay.. The last few weeks have been full and it is bound to get busier before the end of the school term. Let's start with some flowers to brighten your day. These roses are still hanging in- they were a glorious red - almost magenta and have lasted a long time. Outside the tulips along the south side of our house are blooming and the grass has begun to green up. <a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FqW6OA09tPg/UZhSQfIdjhI/AAAAAAAACqg/nKYRbPcyMu4/s1600/DSCI0843.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-FqW6OA09tPg/UZhSQfIdjhI/AAAAAAAACqg/nKYRbPcyMu4/s320/DSCI0843.JPG" /></a> <br />
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This morning I spent some time outside cleaning out the flower barrels and raking up some of the debris, sticks and such so that the grass can be mowed. One of the bonuses of cleaning up the debris, was finding a bracelet that I had made long ago and thought was long gone. I lost it in January and looked all over the place for it ,before giving it up for lost. Imagine my surprise when I found it this morning, while I was raking up. The backyard has some dandelions blooming that will need to be tended to- we do get rabbits in our neighbourhood, so I am reluctant to treat them with anything but the mower.
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Recently I picked up this new book by Jennifer Chiaverini from our local library. I am hoping to get it read before it is due, because it is sure to need to returned at the 3 week deadline. Has anyone read this one? Do you like it as well as her other books? I have enjoyed reading her other books and have read all the Elm Creek stories. <br />
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Last weekend was Mother's Day throughout North America. The chocolates were part of my Mother's Day gift, along with this stunning stone bracelet from my beloved. I am a girl who loves rocks/stones and I had wished that I could afford to buy it, after I saw it in a local rock shop. What a lovely surprise when Bruce handed it to me on Mother's Day.<br />
The stones are a gorgeous red/purple/pink color and it is lovely to wear. I am one lucky lady. <a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JVQWjk7AQ9E/UZhSn4Pp8OI/AAAAAAAACqw/_0zg1ziO4dM/s1600/DSCI0879.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-JVQWjk7AQ9E/UZhSn4Pp8OI/AAAAAAAACqw/_0zg1ziO4dM/s320/DSCI0879.JPG" /></a> <br />
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In February, I attended a long service awards evening that recognized school board staff. I was given a catalogue of items to choose from - my choice was this clock with a globe that spins at the top of it. My clock arrived this week. I love how it looks with the constellation and earth globes. <a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-iHQB934zIqo/UZhS0a_7LhI/AAAAAAAACq4/kYWsxb7Bkoc/s1600/DSCI0875.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-iHQB934zIqo/UZhS0a_7LhI/AAAAAAAACq4/kYWsxb7Bkoc/s320/DSCI0875.JPG" /></a> <br />
A quilting friend sent me this fun photo of a super quilter. I definitely need to be one of those this summer, as I have a number of quilts to get made. I have been trying to get on track with some of the projects but am a little short on energy... This little old lady makes me smile!<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-G8x7TaKV_lk/UZhS_CmAufI/AAAAAAAACrA/s4RO69KHvW8/s1600/SUPERQUILTER.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-G8x7TaKV_lk/UZhS_CmAufI/AAAAAAAACrA/s4RO69KHvW8/s320/SUPERQUILTER.jpg" /></a>
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<b>One of my summer projects is a wedding signature quilt. Has any of you readers made one? Got any advice about fabric choices? fabric pens? all advice greatly appreciated. I think I may have found a pattern(but I am still open to ideas) I am also looking to find a light colored fabric. Do I use white? other colors? I know that I need to back it with freezer paper so that it makes it easier to write on- I am only going to prepare the blocks rather than putting the whole quilt together before the wedding.</b>
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Recently I finished quilting these baby wraps- they just need some binding. I have been trying to get them completed so that I can concentrate on other projects. The binding is sewn together but not pressed. <a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-0LFI-lqXC2c/UZhTGQnnrcI/AAAAAAAACrI/q8GnOdnR7qA/s1600/DSCI0877.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-0LFI-lqXC2c/UZhTGQnnrcI/AAAAAAAACrI/q8GnOdnR7qA/s320/DSCI0877.JPG" /></a>
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I bought myself a new 6 and a half inch ruler not long ago- I thought I had at least one of them, with all my pile of rulers- but I could not find it (Does that ever happen to you? LOL) Now I have no more excuses to get these blocks squared so they can be pieced together. It will be a lovely little quilt once I get the tedious but necessary cutting completed. <a border="0" gt="" href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hxtGawgecm0/UZhTPKaqY6I/AAAAAAAACrQ/NiLePSkCWqs/s1600/DSCI0881.JPG" imageanchor="1" img="" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-hxtGawgecm0/UZhTPKaqY6I/AAAAAAAACrQ/NiLePSkCWqs/s320/DSCI0881.JPG"></a>
I recently was reading the blogs in blogland during a blog hop and won a very lovely prize from Sharon of Vrooman's quilts. It is a stunning wall hanging that she made a few years ago with beautiful cross stitched swans. Thank you so much Sharon- I will treasure it always..<br />
Do check out her beautiful blog- she has lots of great ideas that she shares with her readers.
<a href="http://vroomansquilts.blogspot.ca/search?updated-max=2013-05-12T21:25:00-07:00&max-results=4">http://vroomansquilts.blogspot.ca/search?updated-max=2013-05-12T21:25:00-07:00&max-results=4</a>
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This weekend is an extra long weekend - It is Victoria Day here in Canada. It has been a full weekend already- Our god daughter graduated from high school on Thursday. We attended the opening of Body World's at the Telus World of Science. We also had dinner out with dear friends last evening and I went to a wedding ceremony for a friend's daughter this afternoon. I hope to drop in on a friend tomorrow and then go off to see my family.. Sometimes it is hard to fit in quilting time...
Life is indeed full -
Until next time be well..<br />
I would love to hear any ideas that you might have about making wedding signature quilts. All suggestions gratefully appreciated..<br />
Warmest regards,<br />
Annaquiltmom annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01976120921532056369noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5773972661069379733.post-73933064940960067952013-04-22T23:06:00.001-07:002013-04-22T23:06:25.044-07:00Spring - just remembering.....<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-sY-_wiy0LGA/UXYDMhyVBsI/AAAAAAAACjY/yXGo3p21eGo/s1600/DSCI0688.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-sY-_wiy0LGA/UXYDMhyVBsI/AAAAAAAACjY/yXGo3p21eGo/s320/DSCI0688.JPG" /></a><br />
While Spring is only beginning to make an appearance here in Alberta- our dining room table has had a few bundles of spring flowers...We have enjoyed tulips, daffodils and iris over the last few weeks.<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8kNDeiRuSB8/UXYFeq8eQEI/AAAAAAAACjo/A8lVCoLLaps/s1600/DSCI0638.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-8kNDeiRuSB8/UXYFeq8eQEI/AAAAAAAACjo/A8lVCoLLaps/s320/DSCI0638.JPG" /></a>
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Somehow I have not been very productive in a quilty way.. Its not that I haven't been looking at fabric. I recently received an order from Hancocks as I did not have any grey or cream batiks in the stash. I have a specific project in mind that required that I using those colors..I am trying to order less from the US ( rising postal rates combined with a huge stash that is waiting to be used LOL) However Hancocks had a deal on shipping and they do have good prices in their clearance section of batiks, so I succumbed to the sale and ended up with some lovely neutrals as well as more kids fabrics for baby wraps.. I am very happy with the fabrics that arrived- now if I could only get on with the projects.. <a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MrG12RYaR9g/UXYGcDYM1vI/AAAAAAAACj0/sfAgiWbl4z8/s1600/DSCI0667.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-MrG12RYaR9g/UXYGcDYM1vI/AAAAAAAACj0/sfAgiWbl4z8/s320/DSCI0667.JPG" /></a>
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Recently my school participated in a district fundraiser for kids so I made some jewelery and coordinating scarves to be used in a silent auction. <a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5A--jxmQfPI/UXYHVBlS5DI/AAAAAAAACkA/_PE5mFbincE/s1600/DSCI0672.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-5A--jxmQfPI/UXYHVBlS5DI/AAAAAAAACkA/_PE5mFbincE/s320/DSCI0672.JPG" /></a><br />
They raised a little money for kids and I got to play with some beads and yarn - a winning combination - don't you think?<br />
I have been reading a book about the importance of Play by Dr. Stuart Brown. One of the most striking points that come from the book is the importance of continuing to play all of our lives. Sometimes I find it quite a challenge to balance work and play- even though I know I feel better when I play- I admire those of you who can carve out play time on a daily basis... even if it is only a half hour a day. I am just not very organized about playing versus working, and I get distracted by things I find on the computer- email, pinterest and facebook not to mention my favorite blogs... <br />
I recognize that reading blogs and checking out things on the computer is a different form of playing - but then I don't quilt or knit or bead...It is quite the conundrum...<strong> How to do you balance your time? Do you set a timer and say that is all the time you can use to do one thing or another?
Perhaps you have another way to fit in time to create and play?</strong> <br />
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This evening I started out trimming these blocks- it is a bit tedious and so I have squared some of the blocks (if I put my head down and just trimmed it would go a lot faster). <br />
Over the past week I have cut bias binding for the 10 baby wraps that I want to get made over the next few weeks. I plan to get the wraps spray basted soon so that I can get some baby wraps quilted up.. <br />
However none of these steps, which are valuable parts of the quilt processes, make for a very interesting blog writing. <br />
Recently we have had some family events - our grand niece, Miss A turned two. Here she is with her beloved flopsy earred bunny.<br />
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We also remembered the birthday of my husband's brother, David by having a lovely brunch at a local hotel. He would have turned 60 at the beginning of April. David left us far too early - He died suddenly in a car accident in 1975- a young man not quite 22. <br />
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I pulled out this coat that hangs in a closet in our house- a treasured piece of clothing that belonged to Dave. It holds a host of memories for my spouse. Dave was a talented pianist who had eclectic taste in music. Here is a collection of some of his favorite bands from the early 70's ( the Band, Genesis, Led Zeppelin and Chopin's Piano Concerto) David took my husband to his first concert- Procol Harem playing with ESO ( Edmonton Symphony Orchestra). Inside the vinyl record cover is a ticket stub and program from that concert - more treasured memories. David was a gifted mathematican and a writer. He worked for Canadian University Press at the time of his passing.</div>
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I did not know Dave except for my husband's stories and memories. When I created this quilt for Bruce's parents, it was important to meto include David in the family wall hanging.</div>
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You can see David's photo in the top in the middle. This quilt recently returned to our home after Bruce's mother passed away last fall. For a long time it had hung over Bruce's mother's bed. Mars is laying on our family picture. Do you think she recognizes her family? </div>
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April is a month of birthdays-both of my parent's celebrated their birthdays recently so I will leave you with the spinning flower quilts from earlier in my quilting journey.</div>
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This quilt belongs to my father. It is called Dad's garden and is made of rich batiks. The exact pattern name escapes me at present, but is a template quilt.</div>
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I created 4 quilts of this pattern - two that had vivid bright batik flowers( the batik quilts were quite similar) but the other two were more subtle and different from one another. It is so interesting to see how different a quilt can look when one uses different fabric combinations. </div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9CfIXF1_Z90/UXYaQf6JVSI/AAAAAAAACls/179A26oqm64/s1600/Copy+of+Victoria2005+032.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-9CfIXF1_Z90/UXYaQf6JVSI/AAAAAAAACls/179A26oqm64/s320/Copy+of+Victoria2005+032.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>
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Quite the contrast isn't it? This one was very soft looking with a mint background and pale sashing between the blocks. </div>
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And the final variation with no sashing between the blocks and a beautiful print backing and border- The spinning flowers were all different fat quarter prints.</div>
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Life does seem to get full and maintaining my blog is sometimes a challenge. Thanks for joining me for a bit of reminiscing and helping me honor David's memory. </div>
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My quilts contain my stories and my life's journey - yours do too.. I believe that the stories behind the quilts are often as interesting as the beautiful works created from the fabrics.</div>
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One day soon I will have some new pieces to show you I hope. </div>
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In the meantime, I hope to find my followers list - it appears to have disappeared from my sidebar. I am still not sure if I need to change something so that I continue to have a list of my valued followers. I know that some of the google reader is disappearing soon . Some of the technical parts of blogging remain a mystery to me. The more I read the more confused I get... LOL</div>
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Wishing you lots of time to play so that you can feed your creative spirit.</div>
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Warmest regards,</div>
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Anna</div>
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quiltmom annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01976120921532056369noreply@blogger.com6tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5773972661069379733.post-15236811808071258682013-03-31T20:44:00.003-07:002013-03-31T20:44:42.448-07:00A Spring Break and a visitIt is spring time here in Alberta and we still have snow on the ground. The last few days of March have finally brought some melting to the big piles of white snow that fell over the last few months. This beautiful array of alstromeria has decorated our table for the last couple of weeks.<br />
I love the rainbow colors after all that white outside.<a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-fPQq7HUgmXw/UVjsugDzFZI/AAAAAAAACgA/7bByY6LZQOg/s1600/DSCI0564.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-fPQq7HUgmXw/UVjsugDzFZI/AAAAAAAACgA/7bByY6LZQOg/s320/DSCI0564.JPG" /></a><br />
I have had the past 10 days off- a lovely break from the busy days at school. However, it is not that I have not been busy- au contraire- we had a very hectic beginning, with the arrival of our son and his fiancee from the east coast( about 4000 miles from where we live). We met them at my parent's home which is about 100 miles south of us.<br />
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This is a photo that was taken by either my mother or his girl- I like it very much- I miss his beautiful smile and this one fills my heart with joy when I look at the two of us together.
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Here is the four of us in my parent's kitchen- My folks renovated it a few years ago and it was one full space when the kids were home. My mother ( chef extraordinaire) cooked up a full turkey dinner( actually two turkeys) to feed the 20 of us that got together. The house was bulging with activity - there was one toddler, one five year old, two babies not to mention all the adults in the house. It was great to see so many of my family and to have time together, however compressed that it was. One of the other highlights of their whirlwind visit was a lovely evening with some family that lives her in Edmonton. They also tried to fit in some time with some friends of our son. My husband went with the boys (Kev's best friend) to see the Star Wars exhibit at our local science center. It was a grand show that had lots of artifacts and props from the movies. The Star War exhibit finished up this weekend so he was lucky to get a chance to see it.<br />
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I love seeing my folks with our son and his fiancee. He loves my parents very much and I know that the feeling is mutual.The boy and his girl had come to start their wedding plans for next summer. The wedding will be held in Banff- a spectacular place to visit with the gorgeous mountain views. It is only the beginning of some exciting days ahead.
Lest you think that I did not get any quilting things done well that would not be true... Kev and Rose were here in the beginning part of the week. After they went, I found lots to keep me busy. I finished a couple of novels- one by Lisa Jackson (Wicked Lies) and the other by Kristin Hannah ( Winter Garden).<br />
I got the mystery quilt ( the quilt has already been revealed on Quilt with us Connecting Threads forum) parts cut out and sewed the first part together. I still need to cut the strips into sections so that I can make the four patch blocks.<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QQI9Ij68uZM/UVjy170DzGI/AAAAAAAACgw/syyAYgi0HLo/s1600/DSCI0609.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-QQI9Ij68uZM/UVjy170DzGI/AAAAAAAACgw/syyAYgi0HLo/s320/DSCI0609.JPG" /></a> I have barely got this quilt started but I think it will work out pretty well.<br />
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I pieced the next part of my blocks together for the Rock Candy purple quilt. My next job is square up the 120 sections so that I can piece the 30 blocks together. It is a pretty quilt but I am not sure that I am going to make it into a large quilt.
<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-pIpEygAlVvA/UVjzXnW3U5I/AAAAAAAACg4/Ch2o20fYSgs/s1600/DSCI0599.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-pIpEygAlVvA/UVjzXnW3U5I/AAAAAAAACg4/Ch2o20fYSgs/s320/DSCI0599.JPG" /></a> I also tried to fit in a little beading as I have offered to make a bracelet or two for a fundraiser auction that is being held in mid April. Time goes all to fast so I need to get them finished for the auction.
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Yesterday I had a new assistant( Dusty the dog) as I began to cut out 10 baby wraps. I tend to make them in bunches as babies seem to be coming in bunches. A friend at work commissioned me to make a couple and I know of three babies that are to born in the summer that will need a wrap. Dusty all but disappeared in the pile of minkee... LOL
<img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dBJWafXbv58/UVj485lSpcI/AAAAAAAAChg/60YUZqgLJ64/s320/DSCI0618.JPG" /><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dtdsjNyiXlA/UVj3V7kIgHI/AAAAAAAAChI/w6FssdkYNuI/s320/DSCI0621.JPG" /><a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-em0QXw2VZ_0/UVj4Ky2LaRI/AAAAAAAAChQ/zlljnAHCrHs/s1600/DSCI0629.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-em0QXw2VZ_0/UVj4Ky2LaRI/AAAAAAAAChQ/zlljnAHCrHs/s320/DSCI0629.JPG" /></a><a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zgPlMuIlOvk/UVj50JRMAvI/AAAAAAAAChw/4_1LBVAhMhM/s1600/DSCI0620.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-zgPlMuIlOvk/UVj50JRMAvI/AAAAAAAAChw/4_1LBVAhMhM/s320/DSCI0620.JPG" /></a> <br />
She does look somewhat pathetic doesn't she? All she wanted to do was sleep in her bed on the floor and the minkee fabric kept getting in the way..<br />
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-fahSdTZYSCc/UVj6ZAEvYRI/AAAAAAAACh4/eXATXHHQTvw/s1600/DSCI0634.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-fahSdTZYSCc/UVj6ZAEvYRI/AAAAAAAACh4/eXATXHHQTvw/s320/DSCI0634.JPG" /></a><a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RDAafs8qB1Y/UVj6eaMqEaI/AAAAAAAACiA/fUXOuBzMDVo/s1600/DSCI0637.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-RDAafs8qB1Y/UVj6eaMqEaI/AAAAAAAACiA/fUXOuBzMDVo/s320/DSCI0637.JPG" /></a><br />
So here is the pile of wraps waiting for me to quilt them together.. The scraps on the right will be turned into bias binding before I put the rest of the fabrics in the scrap box for other projects. Somehow the scrap pile keeps growing..<br />
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I was a lucky lady recently ( actually I am lucky lady all the time) but this good fortune had to do with winning this lovely bracelet and earring set. Isn't it pretty? Do go and check out Elaine's lovely blog- she has recently returned from a trip to Florida- lots of great photos of a fun journey. .<a href="http://elaineakers.blogspot.ca/2013/02/time-to-beadbracelets-and-earrings.html">http://elaineakers.blogspot.ca/2013/02/time-to-beadbracelets-and-earrings.html</a><br />
I also won some bunny buttons from <a href="http://incomparablebuttons.blogspot.ca/2013/03/bunny-button-winners.html">Button Mad</a> from an earlier blog hop giveaway.. They are really sweet buttons and will look great on children's clothing or some other fun project. <br />
I return to school on Tuesday so I have one more day to get some more work done on projects. I will have some last bits of paperwork to finish. This school year has flown by - I can't believe we are soon in the last quarter of the school year. There is lots of learning to do but I can see lots of growth in my little ones at school.<br />
Happy Easter and Happy Spring....<br />
<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-zDkJzxb68K0/UVkAMN96yNI/AAAAAAAACiI/HfOUfreNVk8/s1600/DSCI0605.JPG" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-zDkJzxb68K0/UVkAMN96yNI/AAAAAAAACiI/HfOUfreNVk8/s320/DSCI0605.JPG" /></a>
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Thanks for dropping by for a visit... Until next time be well..<br />
I am looking forward to sunshine and green grass..
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My other assistant will be watching for it..<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YUMuQSgDRck/UVkA5nAWBWI/AAAAAAAACiQ/MR1-R3ekjXo/s1600/DSCF7526.jpg" imageanchor="1"><img border="0" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-YUMuQSgDRck/UVkA5nAWBWI/AAAAAAAACiQ/MR1-R3ekjXo/s320/DSCF7526.jpg" /></a><br />
Warmest regards,<br />
Annaquiltmom annahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01976120921532056369noreply@blogger.com3