Finally 100 Posts- Can you guess what that means?

Did you notice my header change- The beautiful star came to me from a giveaway that I won recently from Michelle of the Raspberry Rabbits blog. I have written to Shell for a couple of years now and I was very inspired by the quote on the Star. It seems like a fitting header for a Brand New Year!
I have been writing this rambling blog for over two years. Finally, I have reached that magic number 100 - It has been a wonderful journey. This last year I have written more sporadically - perhaps in 2011 I will make a more frequent appearance here. It is not that I don't think of you often and wonder how my blog friends are doing, but more that my daily life seems to get in my way.

For example, I had hoped to post yesterday but I seemed to have caught a flu bug and spent the day alternating between the couch and my bed, when I wasn't gracing the bathroom throne. However, whatever it was seems to have passed, and I am starting to feel like my regular self.

Today is the begin of a New Year and a fresh start... It is snowing outside and we are off to some very good friends for New Year's Dinner later this afternoon. I have some photos of the holiday to share with you and then something for my dear friends too..

This lovely collection of fabrics I posted about last time. They came from Elaine of a Faithful Quilter. The fabrics are so beautiful that I hoped that a photo in more natural light would show you how beautiful they truly are. Thank you so much, Elaine, for the gorgeous fabrics. I was one lucky girl in the month of December as I won a few giveaway prizes and this was the first one.
Bruce and I went shopping on our way back from the airport where we left our son and his girlfriend who have spent an enjoyable two weeks with her family and friends in Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island.
One place we stopped was a little antique mall that has all sorts of bits and bobs of things. I loved this Christmas plate and these two brooches so they came home with me as a Christmas present to me. My grandmother, I am sure had one similar to the flower one and it reminded me of a sunflower. ( In an upcoming post I will sharewith you some more sunflowers, as we received a beautiful sunflower girl painting for Christmas and glasses with sunflowers from a dear family friend)
The same day I found the plate, a very nice parcel came in the mail from Carrieof Schnibbles fame- It was a beautiful parcel wrapped in Red tissue with a roll of fabric to make her Christmas pattern from the Henry Glass blog hop . As well, she included a lovely set of her patterns, a Christmas cup and a Santa Claus for my tree. It was such a wonderful prize, Carrie- Thank you so very much! I can see that I have a few of my Christmas patterns to make for next year.

On the quilting front- Perhaps you remember me debating about adding the yellow to these placemats - I thought you might like to see the finished version. Our family friend loved them. I know that I loved her sunflower painting and glasses. The glasses were given to Bruce and I to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary.
On the day of our wedding anniversary, my family had a lovely turkey dinner for us followed by a Happy Anniversary Carrot Cake. A couple of days later, we had a special dinner to celebrate Christmas with some very good friends. This picture of Bruce and I, is taken with a very special gift from them to celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary. The painting done by Jane Lee Ling, is made using a Hayter viscosity rejection technique on an acid etched zinc plate. It is a gorgeous piece that we will cherish always. We are currently looking at how we can move some pictures around so that we can show this beautiful piece off in our home.



And now to something I have been planning to celebrate my 100th post. A giveaway of my own- I hope that you will find something in this group of things that you might enjoy if you happen to be one of my winners. All you need to do is leave a comment and tell me what is your favorite color. If you have a New Year's resolution you can add that too. I will close off the comments next Sunday January 9,2011. The first name drawn will have choice of the three prizes, the second one next and the last one will get third prize.
These are the three choices
The first one has a book called Nine by Nine as well as some fat quarters.

The second one has some patterns and something else - I haven't quite decided whether it will be a bit of fabric or something else.
The third one is a book called Twin Peaks and some fat quarters.


This giveaway is open to all of my readers where ever you live on this globe. I have been a lucky girl recently and I want to celebrate a New Year and 100 posts

Later in January I will be participating in the last OWOH event (See the icon link) in the top right corner of my blog. I will be making a couple of bracelets for that giveaway. That post will happen on January 31- through February 17th.

Here are a few other giveaways going on in Blogland-

You might want to check this one out. Vicki of the Pickledish Patch is hosting a nice giveaway on her blog. She is lovely Australian blogger who is going to open an etsy shop.

There is a fabulous giveaway going on at Stray Stitches Linda has a gorgeous quilt and fabric that she is giving away to celebrate 2011 and her followers.
Go and have a look- it really is a fabulous giveaway prize- Someone is going to be very lucky indeed!

My blogging friend Thimbleanna is celebrating four years of blogging. She is one of the blogs that I read before I blogged. Anna used to tease me about being "Anna NO Blog". She has a great blog- shares some wonderful recipes and loves to share her quilty stories. She has some lovely gifties for her winners too.

Thanks for dropping by and sharing in my journey - in some patches of time, it is more quilty than others. I have been inspired by you all and enjoyed reading about your life's journey. I have enjoyed getting to know many wonderful people from around the globe that share a passion for creating things- not just quilting.

My New Year's wish for you is that you can find time to feed your creative spirit. May the New Year bring good health, prosperity and wonderful times spent with your loved ones.
A very happy New Year to one and all.

Warmest regards,
Anna

Signs of the Season...

Poinsettia throw made around 2002 - center of the quilt is a paper pieced pattern by Eileen B.Sullivan. It is a sew and flip technique.

My dear friends,
It has been a busy time for me- it seems like a common refrain but somehow this fall has been busier than usual or maybe I am getting older... For whatever reason I have not got as much done at home and quilting seems to have fallen to the back burner. In the New Year I want to change that - I have some quilt projects that I want to make for some special people to acknowledge their importance in my life.

The festive season has arrived in my house. We are all lit up with lights of the season. This year we have had more snow than some years so it is indeed a winter Wonderland.
This furry bear friend who is hanging on for dear life has graced the top of our Christmas tree for many years. Sometimes, I think its time we replaced him but the men in my house say he is a tradition, so there he sits, perched on the top of the tree. We put him in his place yesterday when we decorated the tree with dear friends and family. Our tree trimming party is an annual event where friends come and help adorn the tree. It looks beautiful doesn't it! Last weekend, I put up some of the other Christmas decorations that add ambiance and reflect the Christmas season. This stand came from my in laws home, and is very old. I change it seasonally and it holds all the symbols of the changing seasons.

The mantel holds some of my favorite Santas. Do you collect certain kinds of decorations?
We live in a small house and so I rotate the collections of things. Over the years, I have been given a number of Santas. This is just some of them. They say less is more- I still haven't quite figured out how to be a minimalist but this is reduced..LOL

We have had a real tree for all of the years we have been married. We love the smell of the real tree and don't mind the real life droppings of nature that decorate our rug by the end of the Christmas season. The tree is covered with an eclectic collection of decorations-many which have been given to me by students. Some ornaments have hung on every tree for the past 30 years. The tree does not have tinsel on it yet. Santa Claus usually added it on Christmas Eve- This year I am not sure if it will get on or not..

Poinsettia flowers were my wedding flowers in 1980. I have a great fondness for them and Bruce brought this beautiful plant to grace our table. There are some wonderful Christmas cacti too. Cacti have quite an amazing flower- almost like a trumpet shaped flower that keeps expanding out... We have an old one and a new one and both of them have blossoms- Nature does have amazing timing..
I have been very fortunate lately. I have won some giveaways. These are a couple of things that arrived in my mailbox.

A while back I won a gift certificate to a place called Patchwork Plus through the Barbara Cline book bloghop.( If you love lone stars then you should check out her book "Star Struck Quilts.") When I began searching The Patchwork Plus on line website I was thrilled to find some beautiful sunflower fabric and some teacher like fabric with all sorts of math and science symbols on it. As well,I found a pattern of a quilt that I had admired on Tazzie's blog awhile back.Tazzie is an Australian quilter who has contributed designs to Australian Patchwork and Quilting. I really loved how Tazzie used black and white around the central blocks. Her central blocks were Kaffe fabrics. It seems quite fitting that the pattern was bought from a gift certificate that came through a giveaway on her blog. Thank you Tazzie!
Elaine from a Faithful Quilter held a giveaway in honor of her birthday earlier in December. I was so amazed when an email appeared in my box to let me know that I had won some lovely fabric. I wish that the camera captured the truly gorgeous fabrics done by Barbara Brackman. They are rich and luscious to look at. Thank you Elaine for your beautiful card and generous gift. It is very special fabric.

And here is a giveaway for you to check out at retro mummy She is giving away some really lovely Lecien fabric called Flowered Sugar.... yummy...

Christmas will be a little different in our house this year. Our son is flying with his girlfriend to the other side of the country to spend Christmas with her family. We know that they will have a fantastic time but we will miss them both. We will go earlier to visit my parents and have dinner with my siblings.On Sunday Bruce and I will celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary. I am not sure yet how we will mark it but it doesn't really matter as long as we have time together.

In closing, I would like to wish you and yours a lovely festive season where you have the opportunity to enjoy some good times with family and friends. May 2011 bring good health and prosperity to you and your loved ones.
Warmest regards,
Anna

It has been a busy Festive Season

Poinsettias are my wedding flowers (our wedding anniversary is December 26th) so we usually have poinsettias in our house over the Christmas season. This one was enormous and was a gift that I received at work in a gift exchange. It is such a glorious color. We had a difficult time figuring out where to put it in our house as we have limited space so I cleaned out yet another corner to find space for it. Unfortunately I think the corner was too cool for it, and so it has lost some of its beautiful foliage it still is pretty gorgeous.
Today's post brought me a package from Keepsake Quilting, which included these two poinsettia patterns. I got this idea that I might like to make a new poinsettia quilt, and these patterns both struck my fancy. I figured if I collect some new ones, that I might actually create a new quilt to adorn our house. I made this poinsettia couch quilt a number of years ago, to celebrate our anniversary. The center is a paper pieced pattern by Eileen Sullivan-She has many other lovely flower(for example iris, daffodil and cactus) patterns that you can make using a Sew and Flip technique- I believe her patterns are Designer Workshop patterns but you can find her site just by googling her name.
Behind the table center piece, you can see some of the other fabrics that came in my package from Keepsake Quilting. They had a nice sale before Christmas so I bought a few lovely pieces to add to my stash- a few florals and some sock monkey fat quarters.
Isn't this Iris fleece panel glorious- I love purple flowers, and one that makes me think of my beloved grandmother. She so loved flowers and Irises were among her favorite flowers.
Christmas brought some lovely pressies from my spouse- Bruce found me some great new pens for quilt labels, a book about Pieced borders that has been on my list for a long time, a couple of quilting magazines, a new ruler and a box for my growing collection of fat quarters. My friend L. gave me a wonderful casserole cover she made, as well as Jinny Beyer's new book. It has 4.050 quilt pattern blocks in it! There are also some grids to help a person figure out how the block is designed. I hope that you found some quilty things that you have been wishing for under your Christmas tree.

This lovely collection was a giveaway prize that I won from Cara of Cara's quilts. It has such beautiful handmade pin toppers,a wonderful handmade log cabin pincushion and a glorious set of a dozen floral fat quarters. Thank you so much, Cara, for such a special giveaway. Do go and visit Cara's blog- she made some wonderful stockings for Christmas- the one she made her daughter L'il Bit is a gorgeous princess one.

There are some wonderful giveaways around the blogs just now. Some will soon be over so do check them out before they are gone.

Sue at Alderwood quilts is offering a fun giveaway of a Jennifer Chiaverini book and some fat quarters. She also sells templates for Louisa Smith's curved quilt designs. The templates are not easily found, and she has them on sale until the New Year. I ordered two sets- one of the basic and the second set as well. She has them on sale for 25 percent off and was most helpful when I spoke with her on the phone. I first saw them on Exuberant Color's ( Wanda's) blog - I love circle quilts and you can create the most fascinating designs using the templates.

Heidi is a new to me quilt blog who is having a really nice giveaway of bag with Amy Butler fabric pieces or a baby panel with fabrics. It is her 100th post and she is celebrating it in a grand way. Congratulations Heidi!

Oz girls are having a giveaway of some very pretty Robin Pandolph fabrics - it is hard to choose between the pink or the mint fabrics.

Just as I began to write this post, I received notification that I had won a giveaway from Margaret of a bit of Kaos. I won an Australian quilt magazine and diary. I love the Aussie magazines and they are not too plentiful here in Western Canada. I used to get a subscription to Australian Patchwork and Quilting and enjoyed the magazine very much. Thank you so much Margaret. I will look forward to reading the magazine and using the diary when it arrives.

January is beckoning- I have enjoyed the time off- it has given me some time to reflect and pause after a very busy fall. We enjoyed some great family times with my family in Red Deer on Christmas day and the weekend that followed. It was nice to see our nieces and some little ones at my parents.

It was great to spend time with my parents, who have always been a steady loving force in my life. I value the times that we have together- My mother always does special things for each of her family members, whether it be gathering card making stamps for my niece to borrow, or making lasagna for Kevin our son. I know that my son enjoys his time with his Poppa. This time, Kevin helped my dad. build an extension to his new snowblower and change the headlights in my dad's Van. From the time Kevin was a little boy, he has loved to help my dad build and fix things. Each and every time, he wants to bring home some of grandma's dill pickles. The traditions continues..

While I was at my folks, I played in the beads and made new bracelets for all the grown up girls in my family. (I made about a dozen bracelets by the time I put the beads away for the last time). We enjoyed lots of delicious food, including two turkey dinners that my sister D.,brought to my parent's home. We appreciated her delicious cooking and all her hard work to make it special- Thank you so much Sis!
There were 17 of us for Christmas dinner and 11 of us the following evening. My parents have lived in their small home since 1963. No matter how many people are there, there is always room for one more at the table.

Tomorrow, we will have lunch with some of Bruce's family- his sister, brother in law, and daughters and their spouses. It will be great to catch up with them as well. After that, we will have one more Christmas event with our dearest friends here. And so the celebrations continue..

In the meantime, I hope to get a few quilty things done before I return to the classroom- perhaps a couple of new pillowcases for our bed and start a new quilt. There are some other quilt projects that I would like to finish- I better make a list and a plan. What about you?

Do you have some project plans for 2010 ?

Kim has a great post today about ways that she finds time to quilt daily- She puts aside a half an hour a day to devote to creating her quilts. It is something worth contemplating ...
One thing that I intend to do is to blog a little more regularly in 2010- this fall has been pretty hit and miss-
I hope one and all has enjoyed some great times with loved ones. May 2010 bring you and yours good health and prosperity.

With best wishes and my warmest regards,
Anna

The clock is ticking - Hope and inspiration

It is the beginning of Christmas break and my thoughts turn to actually getting our home ready for Christmas- such is the way it is for me, at this time of year. I did put up our Christmas village and the Christmas stain glass a couple of weeks ago, and we have some beautiful Poinsettias sitting on the dining room table. However, the baking and presents and wrapping and putting up the Tree are now moved to the front of our agenda for the next few days. As I said before, buying for the two most important men in my life( my husband and son) has only begun... I am still looking for inspiration or maybe the belated Christmas letter to Santa...:D)

The weather has turned even colder with significant wind chill, so I am happy not to have to go out except for one big shopping trip. I know that the shopping will get done and so will our tree. We have always had a real tree in our home. Some years, we have had a big tree trimming gathering with many friends. This year we will have a scaled down version and invite a few people to come and decorate it. Life brings changes and sometimes keeping things simple is the best way.


http://with-heart-and-hands.blogspot.com/2008/12/thankful-for-those-who-rekindle-my.html


My friend Michele has tagged me so I will do my best to play the game.

I have posted about this quilt before- it was an anniversary quilt for my inlaws 63rd wedding anniversary that I made two years ago. It happened to be the fourth picture in the fourth file of my photos. The other photo is a picture of a sweater that my mother in law received that same year. My inlaws loved birds and the border of the convergence quilt so matched the quilt- it was astonishing.

According to the rules of this tag game, I was to choose the fourth picture of the fourth file in my photos. I was then asked to choose four bloggers who inspire me- that is a bigger challenge.
I have been inspired by many quilters over the time that I have been commenting on the blogs. I was a lurker long before I began my blog in September.I have found that quilters are keen to share their ideas and projects. If one is looking for new ideas, or to see the newest techniques and materials, blogland is the place to visit. I have seen many quilters who post daily and produce wonderful pieces of work. There are people who create gorgeous art quilts and others who create equally beautiful pieces that are meant to be used- both will be treasured by those who are fortunate who come to own them.
My side bar has a long list of bloggers that inspire me each and everytime that I visit them. There are quilters and non quilters alike who are from all over the globe. I am going to take the simplier way out and suggest that anyone who would like to play the game consider themselves tagged- I like Michele's concept of Heart math- the more the merrier I say.

This past week I was fortunate enough to win a giveaway prize from my friend Deb who is a quilter who lives in Alaska. She makes beautiful art and I am honored to be a winner of one of her prizes. You can find her here: http://akquilter1.blogspot.com/
Last post I shared a pinwheel quilt that I gave to my friend Jan. I thought you might be interested to see two of the other quilts that are the same design but look quite different.
The batik one is owned by my father. He is a fabulous gardener and loved the bright colors. I think he was very surprised when I gave it to him a few Christmas's ago. The other one is owned by a dear friend S.- It is seems muted compared to the batik versions but is not as soft as the one that Jan had. The fourth one in this series is a slight variation to my father's and is owned by the man who was the best man at our wedding.
My husband Bruce and I will be married 28 years on Boxing Day(December 26th.). More about that in my next post..
Today I will close with a wish for all who visit this post- May you find yourselves surrounded by your family and friends enjoying happy times with one another this holiday season.
To me Christmas is about Hope and Wonder... It brings the promise of the New Year...May you find yourself filled with Hope and Inspiration during this Christmas season...
Time to make my lists... check it twice ...
Seasons greetings to one and all.
Regards,
Anna

The season of Traditions

It is a snowy wet day here in Alberta and I enjoyed the day out with my friend, L. shopping and having a belated Birthday Lunch. The lunch was delicious and so was the time spent with a good friend. I did some Christmas shopping and checked out a local pottery guild sale. I found some very nice things for very good prices so I have a few pieces of pottery for friends and family on my list. Christmas shopping is something that I do all year round. As well. I like to keep some things on hand for gifts in case I have forgotten someone's special day. My mother has always had a gift box and I seem to have carried on that tradition.

I have a harder time having gift box items for my main man and the boy. It is harder for me to buy for my immediate family than anyone else. Sometimes I run out of ideas and so I fill up their stockings with things that they need- socks, underwear,coffee coupons for Tim Hortons- a popular Canadian coffee house(we do have Starbucks and Second Cup coffee places too), and other things that are consumable.
Yes even socks are consumable- at least they seem to be in my house- We have a large bag of one sock wonders that seem to have lost their mates. Does anyone else have that problem? I buy the males in my house socks in sets of 6 pairs that are all the same and that still doesn't solve the case of the disappearing socks. Maybe the dryer eats them or the dog or......

Our son will celebrate his 21 birthday next week. I am not sure where the time has gone... He is wonderful young man just finding his way in the world... We are still looking for that special birthday gift that recognizes that he is officially an adult.

In the meantime the Christmas buzz permeates life... My school children are excited and reflect the anticipation of the season. The joy and innocence of young children and their overwhelming belief in the spirit of Santa Claus fills me with warmth and pleasure each and every year. in the meantime, my students are busy learning their song for Christmas concert- "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth". They will look so cute all dressed up and singing on our school stage.

Today's quilt is a quilt that I showed in a local guild show around 2004. It is a double wedding ring quilt that is large enough to use as a cuddle quilt or on the Christmas table. I made this quilt to honor my father's mother, Olive. My grandmother was a quilter who made quilts out of whatever was available. She was a farm woman who was a great canner( she would put up 300 jars of wild fruit in a year) and baker( my mother still uses her dark fruit cake recipe for Christmas). Olive worked hard all of her shortened life- she passed away when she was 43. She had many health problems and unfortunately she died before I was born. Grandma Olive would have used feed sacks and recycled clothing to make pieced arcs instead of the continuous arcs of this double wedding ring quilt. She would have pieced and quilted her quilts by hand as they did not have electricity in the farm house that was my father's childhood home. I had the benefit of using acrylic templates and a rotary cutter- her tools would have been cardboard templates and scissors. Our technology may be more developed but the techniques would have been similar.

I would love to have one of her quilts, but I don't think that there are any of them left. I like to believe she would have liked this quilt even though is a modern take on a traditional quilt. Personally, I am very fond of the rich colors and the way the flowers lay in the rings. If I did another one, I would have fussy cut the centers of the quilt pieces. The binding needed to be true bias binding to go around the scallop edges.

Its been a while since I made a new Christmas quilt I have some gorgeous Laurel Burch fabrics gathered for a Christmas quilt but it will have to wait until after Christmas.

There are some really beautiful Christmas quilts out here in Blogland. If you have time, do check out some of the links on my sideboard- you will find some really wonderful pieces of work that people have lovingly created.

Last week I mentioned that my husband, Bruce went looking for pieces of the meteor that fell on the prairies in November. For those of you who might be interested in checking out my husband's meteorite adventure you can find photos of it here...http://skyriver.ca/astro/bruce/meteorite.htm


In the meantime, I will be preparing some snacks to share for our last quilt class on Monday and shopping for my loved ones. Oh and making nuts and bolts and making the odd bracelet with beads and putting up some more Christmas decorations and....the list grows by the minute... I did get the Christmas Village up as well as the Stain glass in the dining room window- Next to find the Christmas Santas and Snowmen for the mantle..

'Tis the season of traditions and celebrations...Remember to take time to savor the time spent with family and friends - to me, that is really what I hope our season will be all about..

Happy Quilting,
Regards,
Anna