Flowers for a Winter's Day

Here in Alberta the snow has fallen steadily for 10 days straight. This is a view from my dining room window-look at the weight of the snow on the evergreens. We are wondering where we are going to put more snow if it keeps falling! I have to say we were thrilled to see the blue sky and the sun today. My kids even got to go outside to play at recess this afternoon.
Like many others at this time of year, I have stopped to reflect on life's gifts. The new year's arrival has been mostly quiet and this little panel quilt always makes me smile. It is joyful and I am reminded of my life's rich blessings.
Here is my sunflower girl painting that I referred to in the last post. I love the flowers in her hair. She is happy and smiling - just like the sunflowers
I have played with a technique called Snippets to make a version of Sunflowers. It is my tribute to the Van Gogh sunflowers. I gave this wallhanging away as a gift to a family member. Perhaps one day I will make another version of it. Cindy Walters has a number of great books that can help you learn how to do this fused applique technique. She did a marvelous version of Van Gogh's painting Starry Starry Night that is on to do list.

My good friend Val knows how much I love sunflowers. These measuring spoons were such a perfect gift for me. The handles are sunflowers and the backs are engraved with one of my favorite mantras " Live Love Laugh".
Over the last few years, I have collected sunflower fabrics. One of the quilts that I created with them, was this Disappearing Nine Patch quilt. Another way that I have used some of my sunflower fabrics was in two coin quilts.
Now I have a nice new collection of sunflower fabrics just waiting to be made up into a new quilt- I just need to find a good design to show off the beautiful sunflowers. Perhaps you have a pattern or idea of how to use some gorgeous sunflower fabrics?


Our friend who painted the Sunflower lady, also painted these flowers on a set of glasses for us. She is such a talented lady and can paint on anything- old saw blades, baby carriages, candles and pots of every shape and description. She loves to create on different surfaces.
December was indeed a very lucky month for me. Heather from my muse blog had a lovely Christmas contest where she sent me this terrific light bracelet. Thank you Heather- it is so charming and will be a big hit with my kindergarten kids...
Mary Jane Carey from Holly hill designs sent me a note to say she would love to send me a pattern of my choice from the 100 designer block blog hop. This was the one I chose- I love the saying" Snow is for the birds". Right about now, I couldn't agree more- The snow is very beautiful but we hope that it will stop falling for awhile!

I had to show you this gorgeous stain glass poinsettia. It is truly a treasure from a dear friend. Flowers do make me smile in lots of different forms. I love how the light shines through the rich colors of the glass.


A blogging friend Carolyn is having a giveaway on her blog just now. She lives here in Edmonton and one day soon we are going to get together to have tea and talk about quilting. Do go and visit here and meet her cat Tika and see all the wonderful projects that she is creating.

I have been reading with great interest Barbara Brackman's blog . She is a terrific quilt historian and has two blogs(that I know of) going just now. One is on Civil war quilts complete with civil war blocks to make.This year is the 150th anniversary of the beginning of the Civil war. Her original blog that is linked here has all sorts of interesting information about fabric and the history that surrounds it. For example, she had a recent post about a London museum who currently is showing a fabric exhibit where the fabric tokens were from the mid 1760's babies and mothers that went to the London Foundling Hospital. You can find a link to Barbara's post here. I love how she gives great background and context to provide the fabric's stories.

I finally got my own sewing machine out the other day and added some borders to a quilt. It is another version of the Wonky Rail Ties - I am pleased with the borders. I have been reading on other blogs about different challenges and goals. I am thinking about 11 quilts for 2011- that seems a bit of a lofty goal but one needs to have aspirations.LOL
It felt good to begin quilting again. Sometimes, one just needs to take out some fabric and begin playing. You never know where the fabric will lead you..

I hope that the flowers have brightened your day and lift your spirits. I know that one day the snow will melt and we will have beautiful grass and flowers again - Right now Mother Nature needs to rest and renew the earth.

Don't forget to come back at the end of the month- I will be back beading for the One World One Heart blog hop.

Until next time,
Happy Quilting,
Anna

Some Winners

My Chantelle Fleur quilt- Ode to Ricky Tims Every winner should see a flower too...
Well Ladies and Gentlemen,
Thanks for participating in my first ever giveaway(by myself giveaway- not part of a big blog hop) I have loved reading the comments this week. It is nice to hear from people from different parts of the world. You are all so kind. I liked reading about your New Year's resolutions and favorite colors.

Bruce helped me set up the random generator with the names and I am pleased to announce that the 3 winners are: (1) Hazel B. sew crazy
(2) Teresa( no blog)
and (3) Linda Quilt Cookies

I will look forward to hearing from these ladies so that they can claim their prizes. Hazel will get to pick first and so on down the line.

Watch out in late January when I participate in OWOH - I will be giving away one bracelet or maybe even two that I have made. Lisa from Whimsical Bohemian is the webmaster for that terrific blog hop. I have met wonderful bloggers from different parts of the globe.

There is a blog tour that started today on Spun Sugar quilts Vickie is the host and she is and some of her blog friends are holding a Valentine Hop. Today she made some very cute valentine hearts. There are some nice prizes and projects to view.

Another giveaway you might want to check out is my friend Oz Jane. You can find her blog here: Jane is giving away some lovely things - a nice apron, a beautiful storage bag for quilty things and a book done by Australian Homespun. Don't they all sound lovely. Do check it out...
The last one I will tell you about is from Vicki from the pickledish patch is giving away one of her stitchery patterns. It is part of a larger one among the gumtree designers blog group who are giving away all the patterns for the fresh hope foundation quilt. It is a lovely prize Vicki...
In the meantime, I am not looking forward to morning. It has been snowing here in Edmonton since early Friday afternoon. My husband has shoveled snow and dug out cars. We are not sure how many students will make it to school tomorrow. We don't have snow days here- so off to work I will go! Stay warm...
I'll be back in a few days to post..
Warmest regards,
Anna

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

Going back....

Do you have a favorite pattern that you use when you quilt? There are a few giveaways going on in blogland and sometimes the blogger will pose a question.
One of the giveaways that I entered tonight, asked me if I had a favorite pattern.
I guess I am a traditionalist at heart- I love patterns like Lone Star, Log Cabin and Double Wedding Ring- the designs are simple designs with lots of color. The quilt in the photograph was made a number of years ago(rising 10 years) and it belonged to my inlaws. I believe it is a Double Irish Chain and, even though we have taken a number of photos of it, the colors just do not come out correctly on the computer or photograph. The red is a rich cranberry/ burgundy red and gold and green are quite luscious in person. However, I like to post at least one quilt this post. Here is one to kick out the Festive Season.
My spouse and I share a great love of flowers. Bruce found some lovely peach colored roses with alstroemeria. They are such a pretty flower and last quite awhile- They certainly brighten a winter's day.
Winter arrived last week with a bang. The first seriously cold day was on the 22nd which also just happened to be my birthday. It is not unusual to have snow on my birthday, but one hopes not to get hit with a real cold spell at the beginning. This one lasted for only a couple of days,thank goodness! Too many cold days in a row can make for some serious cases of cabin fever in kindergarten.
Since I last wrote - all the most important writing has been completed at school. I have met with my families and we now are preparing for the annual Christmas concert. The children are getting excited for the upcoming arrival of Santa.

You already know that I love creating and making things with my hands.One of my other interests is family history or genealogy. When I was about 16, I began to research my father's family. Like a disease spreading, other family members got hooked into looking at things from the past. M This weekend Bruce and I went to visit my folks in Red Deer(it is about a two hour drive).My mother has developed a serious bug and collected information from 8 different lines that radiate out from my grandparents. Imagine my pleasure when my mother handed me a pamphlet from the local museum, with a photograph of my grandfather's family. The photo was taken in 1912 when my grandfather was 2. He is the little boy in the doorway dressed in white. (I think you could click on the photos and make them larger.)The curator, Michael, was someone with whom I went to school. He gave a lecture Sunday afternoon which we were invited to attend. It was a wonderful hour spent learning more about the settlement of the area and some of the trials,tribulations and challenges that the families experienced when they arrived in this New land.

This dapper fellow holding the violin was my mother's great uncle John. The photographs were all taken on glass negatives and have been well preserved.
Here is my mother Dolores(the fair haired one) and her cousin Lavila taken on either side of the family photo. Lavila's father was born a year later than this photograph.
My great grandparents were Swedish and came around the turn of the 20th century. Like others, my great grandfather came ahead and his wife followed awhile later. Their journey was long and arduous. They came to land that was not yet developed and worked hard to establish a new life. The exhibit is called "Nya Bachen" which refers to "New Land".

Here is a photo of my mom and I with the family photograph.

This past weekend was quite hectic- my friend Val and I went to a local bead show of hand made beads.(I hope to show you them in a different post). There were some really lovely ones and,of course,I bought some to use to make Christmas gifts. Bruce and I left to spend the rest of the weekend with my folks.
Some family friends of my parents came in to have " American Thanksgiving Dinner" on Saturday evening. They are transplanted Americans. We had a pleasant evening and enjoyed chicken dinner with all the trimmings.

Sunday was even busier- In the morning, Mom and I made gingerbread playdough for my students. I have some gingerbread cookie dough chilling in the fridge compliments of my mother. One evening this week, I will roll out the dough and make gingerbread cookies for my school kids. After lunch, we went off to the museum and returned to watch the Grey Cup (our national football championship). Some family members were disappointed because our Western team - the Saskatchewan Roughriders lost to the Montreal Alouettes.
Our journey home from Red Deer was later than usual as the road was covered in ground fog for the first half of the trip. It felt good to fall into bed on Sunday night.

If you are still with me, I want to share a few giveaways that are happening in Blogland.
Rebecca is having a lovely giveaway of some gorgeous fat quarters.
Elaine is having a birthday giveaway- She is a big fan of civil war fabrics and has lovely blog - do go and check out her blog.
Charlie is celebrating having 500 followers. He along with the Fat Quarter Shop, are having a nice giveaway with a 50 dollar gift certificate and a baby quilt that Charlie has created. He is giving away the fabrics to make a chenille baby blanket.
Oz Jane has a very nice giveaway going on just now. She often shares her adventures with Moggie the cat and life in the land down under.
Heather of "Trends and Traditions" is part of a group of designers who are hosting a blog hop with 17 other designers for the first 7 days of December. It is The Henry Glass Parade with a free project and a mystery word to collect. At the end you could be the winner of some great prizes. Do check it out from Heather's post.
December is soon here. May you enjoy some wonderful family times during this hectic season.
Until next time, I hope you spend some happy time creating.
Warmest regards,
Anna

November Ramblings...

So how is life everyone..... Are you getting ready for Christmas? Is it getting cooler and the snow arriving in your neck of the woods(for my Northern Hemisphere blogging friends)? Here in Edmonton, we had one snowfall that has melted away but this weekend has been cool and grey. The sky looks threatening- I guess I will have to put away my open toed shoes soon. LOL

One of the things my husband Bruce often does, is bring home flowers when he goes grocery shopping- The newest flowers were red carnationa and a stem of orchids - The orchids are actually white and deep red purple, and have graced the table that I have been working on, for most of the past couple of weekends.

For me it is that time again where I worked on report cards for school. The flowers looked beautiful and gave me something to enjoy viewing when I needed some time to reflect on the writing.

Once I had completed some of the report writing, I thought about other things that I have on my plate to do before the Christmas season is upon us. One of them is a small quilting project. I went looking in the stash of fabric for some pansy fabrics. A quilting friend very kindly had given me some pieces for this particular project. I am very grateful for her generous gift, because as I dug through the boxes of beautiful fabric, I found many beautiful pieces of batiks, tone on tone, stars and other floral fabrics but very little pansy fabric.

I have read a few blogs lately that showed some new fabrics that others had added to their stash. I am trying to use my stash when I can, rather than buy new fabric. There are many beautiful pieces up there just waiting to be made into quilts. Do you collect lots of the same kind of fabrics and not much of other kinds? How is it that I can have boxes of one type and only a half a dozen pieces of another?

Choosing a pattern was also a bit of a challenge as I usually make bed quilts. I found the pattern for these bargello placemats in this older issue of Quilter's World.
Here you can see the original pattern called Land and Sea bargello placemats.
I do love the color combo that they used. I am not sure how well it will work with the pansy fabrics, but we will soon find out.

You can see the strips laid out on the table. I am still trying to figure out if this is the sequence that I want to use for the place mats. I can't decide if I want to include the bright yellow strip or not- I am wondering if it is going to be too jarring to the eye?


A friend at work asked me if I would make her some bracelets for her to give as Christmas gifts. These were today's creations- If you are wondering why they still have loose wire, it is because I want to check and see if they all fit, before I cut the wire and finish them. She will not want all of them, so I have a start on some Christmas gifts as well.

The one bracelet on the left that has bigger beads, is for me- I bought some Christmas beads and got them strung in time to wear for this Christmas season. Wahoo..

In between report card writing, we had the opportunity to take in some great music by some local musicians who participated in an event called "Homefest". The purpose of the event is to raise awareness of Homelessness in our area. We have attended before (3 other times). Each time we have enjoyed the music and been moved by the stories shared by the people willing to share their challenging circumstances. Affordable housing is a difficult issue for many people in the current economic times. It is particularly daunting in our winter climate.

Later last week, Bruce and I went to hear a lecture at the local Art Gallery about the work of Henri Matisse. I found it interesting to see this week,that Hancocks of Paducah was advertising a new line of fabrics " Vie en Rose" by Alexander Henry that use Henri Matisse works as inspiration for the line.

I am still wanting to finish reading all the quilt stories from Amy's blogging festival. The icon at the top of my blog can take you to Amy's festival where you should be able to view the quilts. There were 649 quilts in the show- so many magnificent pieces...

This next week there is still some paperwork to be completed for school. Hopefully next weekend I will take out the winter village to decorate the sideboard. The days seem to fly by at this time of year, with lots to do and not enough time...Christmas is coming...

Hope you all are well and getting some time to create and enjoy life.

Warmest regards,
Anna

Amy's Blogger Festival _ Fall 2010

This week is Amy's Blogger Festival that coincides with the big Houston Quilt Festival and Market. The quilt that I have chosen to share is a quilt that I made for our niece and nephew as a Wedding Quilt. The pattern is called Paperweight from Aardvark Patterns, Kansas.


I loved making this quilt- there are so many fabric scraps that brought back wonderful memories of other quilts that I have made, as I made the wheel like hexagons. I knew that Beth loved blue but I prefer to make quilts with many colors. It is always a dilemma when you are making a gift for someone- what colors to choose - a few or many. My hope is that the owners will use their quilt and feel the warmth and love that is sewn in with every stitch. I know that the couple loved their quilt. The quilt owners will have their first baby in the spring so it will be time for another kind of quilt.

On the technical side,I learned an easier way after I finished making the quilt so if I were to make it again it would have been less difficult to join the hexagons together. I pinned each edge of the hexagon with the joining blocks. It would have worked much better if I had sewn them in half wheels and sewed them in strips.

It is a queen sized quilt and unlike almost all of my other quilts has no additional borders. The outer edge has half hexagon wheels to square it. I am not sure how many pieces there are in it but there are a few hundred pieces.

Thank you Amy for hosting this wonderful quilt festival. This is the third time that I have participated and I am looking forward to seeing all the different quilts. There are many beauties already hanging there on the main link. To see them just click on the icon and it will take you to the quilts. Amy has added a photo of each quilt which makes it look even more like a show. I know I am going to enjoy visiting the posts and reading their stories - I am sure you will too..

Thanks for stopping by. I hope you will stop by again.
Regards from a Western Canadian quilter.
Anna