Summer time and the lost blogger returns???

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. 

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..

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.

One of the people that I had always wanted to meet as a quilter was Ricky Tims. In April I got to cross that wish off my bucket list. I loved hearing his stories, listening to his music and be inspired by his quilts. One of the other participants kindly took these photos of me with him. This was my version of his kaleidoscope pattern. It was a wonderful day and I was so happy that I was able to go and enjoy his workshop. He had come to Calgary a few years ago and I figured I missed my chance but life sometimes gives one second chances and this time I made sure that I was there to see him and his beautiful quilts.

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..

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..

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.

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..

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 Elaine Quehl. 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.

  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 elaine's website or at her blog 

I really enjoyed seeing the work and wished I would have had time to take in her course too.

 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...
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..

Wishing everyone a happy healthy fun filled summer doing the things that you enjoy the most.

Warmest regards,
Anna

Five Quilts on One September day...what a day that was..

Aren't these gorgeous!!!! Recently a friend left the flowers on my desk at school for me- Just because-- I was so touched by her thoughtfulness and they have made me smile all weekend long . I love the colors- they would make a beautiful quilt- pink and purple with a bit of green are some of my favorite colors together. The pinky red leaves are quite splendid too . I really am blessed with some terrific friends.

 

Have you ever decided that you wanted to do something for loved ones, and you weren't sure if you could pull it off or not? Earlier in the summer, I realized that September and early October were going to be two very full months of events. I discovered the Sideline pattern, and decided that it might be the perfect pattern to make for some special people in our lives. My goal was to make 4 couch sized/ twin bedsized quilts, as well as two baby wraps for the new babies, that were arriving in our family. It was a fairly lofty goal considering that I was going back to work in late August and September, and school is often very hectic at the beginning of the year - well and for the rest of the school year but the fall is usually more so. Never the less, I was determined to see if I could pull it off ... Well I am happy to report that I was indeed successful in completing the quilts- the biggest one( the Sunset pattern) I had completed earlier in the summer, but the rest of the bed sized quilts I had not started until early August. I have three more that are tops( shown in a previous post) that are waiting to be quilted and bound. I hope to get back to that before Christmas, but it will depend on how well I can balance working and playing... LOL
Here is the first of the Sideline quilts that Bruce delivered in Victoria. Bruce recently went to celebrate his mother's 90th birthday there.  Here is my mother in law's quilt on her bed. The quilt above the bed is a wall quilt of family photos. The colors are not the most accurate in this photo, but you will get the idea of the design.

 Here, Mum is studying the knubbly back of it- Her quilt is the only one that I used minkee on the back.On all the others, I used cotton backings. The minkee was just the perfect width for this quilt. Mum always loved earth colors, so it was easy to choose these fabrics for her. Happy 90th birthday Mum- May it keep you warm and give you a big hug each and every day.. In the photo below, you  can see the richer colors of the batiks.

In my last post I shared the story of my great grandfather, Nels Linneberg who was given the task of  building the one room school in his community. On September 23rd,they had a grand celebration at the school to honor the 100th anniversary of his contribution to the community of New Hill. Here is the rock and plaque that was unveiled at the party. My mother and her cousin participated in the ceremony and together removed the covering from the stone. A cousin and one of my uncles, who also attended this one room school, had earlier attached the plaque to the rock.  

In this photo, you can see that the school still stands. It is used for local community events. The people in this photo had all attended school at New Hill. The school closed its doors as a school in 1956, but it still is part of the community fabric. The school is in pretty good shape, considering that it has been moved from the original field stone base and placed on a different foundation. Many of the people in the front rows are cousins on my mother's side of the family.

This was quilt #2 that was delivered a couple of weekend's ago, when we attended a special 50th wedding anniversary. This quilt was given to my aunt and uncle, to belatedly celebrate their 40th wedding anniversary. The pattern is called Sunset- the original design had a light background. There are many scraps from my other quilts in this quilt- some bits left from my mother's, sister's and grandmother's quilts. I know that my aunt will especially enjoy looking at all the bits from the different quilts. It is a double/queen sized quilt and has a dark chocolate background.

 Here is James with his parents- he is so sweet and has such long fingers. His mother has those same long fingers.

All new babies need a baby wrap( I am sure I have made at least 100 of them since 1982 when I made the first one) . His mom, Sarah, is showing off his wrap with all those cute little dogs on it.

I am sure that James is going to love dogs because his mama does- the back of it is bright orange and is also minkee. I like how soft the minkee fabric is for baby wraps.

 

allWe have another new grand niece named Sydney Reece ,who was born to my brother's daughter, and her husband on October 2nd. She has a big sister named Whitley and we are pleased to add Sydney to our clan. I did make Sydney a baby wrap too- it has Paddington bear fabrics on it- It was not yet know whether Sydney was a boy or  girl when I made  the baby wrap to give to our niece, so I tried to choose fabrics that could be used for either a girl or a boy. Sydney is a sweet little girl. I hope she will love Paddington bear.

And now for the second Sideline quilt- This one  has a prairie theme for a man from the Prairies. It was made for my mom's brother Moe and has Cowboy hats, field grass, and wheat fields. The outer border is a nostalgic piece of fabrics with red wagons, dogs and other old toys. It is a pretty fun quilt and I hope that Uncle Moe will enjoy cuddling under it on a cold winter's night. He lives in the mountains now but still has those farm roots.

 

Here is the final quilt of the day-it is the last of the three Sideline quilts- it has Asian flavored fabrics that have butterflies on it. The back is a gold stripe, which seemed appropriate for a Golden Wedding Anniversary Couple. I really liked this combination and I hope that the Golden Couple will know what a golden pair they are...May they enjoy some time cuddling together under The Golden Ways.

So  there it is - on a Sunday two weeks ago- I gave away 5 quilts- 3 bigger ones and 2 baby wraps- an event not to be repeated any time soon. I am now in the throes of school work, so it will be awhile before I have any new work to show you. I have a couple of quilts on the back burner for now..

I haven't  had too much time to read many blogs lately, but I was very lucky, and did win a copy of Jennifer Chiaverini's new book "The Giving Quilt". I have read all of the other books in her Elm Creek Quilters Series. I have enjoyed all of the stories very much and particularly liked the Aloha Quilt. If you have not read any of the series do check her out- I am confident you will enjoy her stories.

We celebrated Canadian Thanksgiving last weekend with a turkey for two. We have been enjoying the leftovers ever since...-a small turkey goes a long way with just the two of us, to eat it.

Yesterday my beloved celebrated his birthday- I took him out for dinner (we thought it was delicious) and then we went to a house concert, to see two musicians Dale Ladouceur and Nathan Aswell, who both played an instrument called a Stick. Dale plays a Chapman Stick and Nathan plays an (Ned Steinburger) N/S Stick. For those of you who are fans of Peter Gabriel's music - you will be familiar with Tony Levin playing the Stick. It is a string instrument that has roots with a bass guitar, but one taps the 10 strings. It has a great sound-and it was a very nice evening.

September was a full month and we are half way through October already- Life is indeed busy these days.
 Happy creating dear friends- Thanks for stopping by-  do leave a comment- I always enjoy hearing from by blogging friends and reading the comments from you all.
Warmest regards,
Anna

Dear Santa

Dear Santa,
You know that I have tried to be a pretty good girl this year. I know that I should have written my Christmas list before this but somehow December has flown by and I haven't got around to thinking about anything that should go on the list. Well maybe one thing that I am dreaming about...
My friend Carolyn and I visited a local sewing shop a couple of weeks ago and I got to drive a Handi Sweet Sixteen quilting machine.. Oh my my.... if you were a little richer Santa, I would be adding this cool machine with the drop leaf table to the top of the list. It was one sweet machine to work on with a table set at the right height and the needle facing directly in front on me... I don't think it would fit under my little tree(shown in the photo here) I guess I will have to keep on dreaming about it...( In truth, I don't have anything on my Christmas list.. I feel fortunate to have so much when others are struggling to meet their daily needs.)
One of the things I did this past week was to take E.'s quilt to school to spray baste it. It sure makes it easier to quilt without having pins every few inches..

We had our Christmas concert on Wednesday. One of the students wore this beautiful medallion necklace- Just look at that great design - all those seed beads to wire into place...It was a very beautiful to look at and would have taken a long time to make....
A friend gave me this gorgeous Christmas poinsettia. I love Poinsettias because they were my wedding flowers. It is my husband and my wedding anniversary on Boxing Day(it is sort of a holiday here in Canada) I had silk poinsettias in my bouquet and we had poinsettias and white mums on our tables.
I think I mentioned in my last post that I would celebrate a birthday in a couple of days after the writing. I received this lovely wordle in a frame. It says such kind things about me - I was really touched by her gift.
A couple of friends had babies so I managed to get the binding on these two baby wraps. I loved the wild jungle print of the first one.
The second one was such a sweet looking fabric- I loved the pale green and with the pink minkee inside.
For most of this month we have had poinsettias sitting on our table. Can you see the beautiful Riley Blake jelly roll here in the photo. I won it from Kiera of Its sew Kiki..It is a pretty jelly roll and I am sure it will make something beautiful. Thank you so much Keira!
It has been a bit of struggle getting into the Christmas spirit this year but I did get this cute little handmade felted reindeer- He has such a handsome face and I love his ivy harness too
One of the things I have put up every year is our Christmas village. It is old fashioned looking, with houses of day's gone by, a church, some local stores and even a bus and a car stuck in the snow. It is quite pretty all lit up!

Today was the last day of school before the break. We made some Christmas decorations and had a popcorn and movie party in the afternoon. This past week was a busy one at school with many Christmas concert rehearsal and the busyness that comes with the final days before the break. My students were so excited when Santa came to visit. we have enjoyed lots of special events that deviated from the regular routine so it will be nice to return to the regular schedule in January.
I am not much of a baker- my mom and sister are much better bakers than I. I had not done any baking, so this evening I made a couple of squares and made some nuts and bolts. I will make a ham spread dip and one more square tomorrow before we head to our family gathering.
We will go to visit my parents and take some treats to share.. I still have some wrapping to do ... Christmas has kind of snuck up on us...
Wishing you and yours a wonderful festive season. Take time to enjoy the colors and sights of the season.
Warmest regards,
Anna

Spring has sprung - the dandelions doth rise...

Our grass is growing and so are the dandelions right now- they are a bloody nuisance that I will be very happy to be rid of... Dandelions do have a pretty yellow flower - not as gorgeous as these yellow sunflowers that are currently residing on my table. My school children often like to bring in bundles of them from the school field. Perhaps I should bring them to my house as field trip and we can pick my backyard clean..

June is just around the corner and I am trying to keep up with things at home and school.. At present I feel just a little overwhelmed by it all..Good thing that I have some nice sunflowers to admire- they do make me smile...


Recently, I made a list of school things to do and then started to feel my blood pressure grow- I stopped to take a deep breath.... Does that ever happen to you- everything is happening at once and your not sure where to begin or what is the most important thing to get done first...
However, this weekend I tackled two kinds of reports that needed to be completed so that feels like progress...

This lovely collection of things come from a blogging friend's giveaway that I won last month. Terry of Aviya Glass sent me this gorgeous handmade pendant along with this collection of beading pieces ( two black hearts, a double glass heart pendant and some more toggles to bead with)It was a treasure trove of lovely things. Thank you ever so much Terry- you do beautiful work!


A couple of weekends ago I went to a quilt retreat and started working on this quilt. It is now a queen sized body (121 blocks worth) and I have the borders fabrics chosen. Ideally I would like to get it spray basted and quilted in the next couple of weeks but I am not too hopeful. I wish that I had magical powers to do it all, but right now the report cards have to come before my quilts.. The pattern of this quilt" Twisted Strips" is from Bonnie Hunter's website. She has a number of free patterns on her site. As well, she has published three books. Do check out quiltville if you are not familiar with her website- She has a great blog- hers was one of the first blogs I ever read. She spends a lot of her time these days traveling the United States, to share her talents and love of quilting with others.

You may remember me talking about making some baby wraps. Here are two that I have completed. The one above was given to one of my colleagues at work who had a beautiful little boy in late February. We had the baby shower last Thursday.

These two beauties are our niece Beth and her daughter Anni. They were here visiting a couple of weeks ago and I was able to see Anni all wrapped up in it.

There is lots going on in blogland these days -Quilters do have big hearts and are busy trying to help all those who find themselves affected by the natural disaster in Joplin.
Judy Laquidara of Patchwork times is raffling a quilt for donations to the Red Cross for the Joplin Tornado victims. Mary is also having her own raffle quilt to raise money for Joplin folk. Do check out these ladies sites and help out if you can.
In my home province of Alberta, there were some terrible wild fires at Slave Lake which decimated the area. Over 400 people lost their homes. The Red Cross is accepting donations to help these families. One of our local quilt stores Sew Divine accepted quilts as well, but I do not know if they are still accepting them or not.

Summer is coming and there will be time for other things. In the meantime, I best get back to the reports and the dandelions- not sure which are causing me the most stress right now.....
Warmest regards,
Anna

Where to begin.....

Gran of Knotty Embroidery lady sent me this fantastic giveaway prize in the mail that arrived last Friday. In it, was this beautiful Sunflower fall panel( and as you all know by now, I am crazy about Sunflowers)
Gran also posted some pictures of her lovely giveaway prize on a recent blog post. You can check it out by clicking on her name. Thank you Gran for choosing me- How lucky can a lady be...

For all you fans of GoTO the squirrel, friend Rosa sent me this very funny post of another squirrel. It is very funny-- and the squirrel is amazingly adorable!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8108297.stm

My mailbox has continued to have other lovely things that included this pattern from Kellie of " Don't Look Now" is the brilliant designer of these patterns from Australia. I also received this lovely pattern from of Toni of the Red Boot Co. Isn't it a great children's quilt pattern. She also is a pattern designer from the land down under. A very big Thank You goes out to both of these talented ladies. If you click on their names you will be able to visit their wonderful blogs too.

Last weekend, my friend Lou and I got a chance to go out together. We often go east of our city but this time we decided to head west to one of our surrounding communities called Stony Plain. They have two quilt stores in their little town- I bought a few bits and pieces to add to the stash. As always, I enjoyed a pleasant afternoon with a very dear friend.

At one of the shops,though, there was a set of tables like a flea market. I came home with some great thrift finds- some beautiful floral tiles, some dishes like ones my gran had that are carnival glass, a ruler box, a set of 5 fabric sunflowers in a reproduction can, a gorgeous primitive doll in her chair an and a great green club chair...
I love floral tiles and these ones have a space so that one can hang them as a set of four on the wall.
Isn't the doll beautiful? Don't you love her hankerchief dress? I love her primitive face!

I remember having the reproduction tins in our kitchen at home - they were the blue version of this particular can which she also had, but had just sold it before I chose the sunflowers container that I wanted. The ladies' prices were very reasonable and I came home with things that brought back a flood of memories of my childhood. As for the chair, it looks great in our living room.

On the quilty front, I have a baby wrap waiting to be quilted..
I have made many many of these baby wraps - this one is for a friend of my son's who has just had a baby... Hopefully this weekend, I will get to it- When I first made this design I tied them, but now I machine quilt them and use minkee or fleece on the inside. They work great inside car seats or when babies are first playing on the floor.

Some of you were wondering about some of the patterns that I mentioned in my previous blog. Here are the two patterns that other people chose to make in this fall's class.

However here is my project: I will continue to make more flags and form half hexagons
to form the diamonds. VBS Hopefully, I will figure out how this design works.

Pat at Silver Thimble Talk is having a giveaway- go quickly and check it out..
She posed the question of "When did you begin quilting?"

I thought I had a clear answer to her question but when I thought about it, I have been quilting for a lot longer than I realized. My quilting experiences first began when I was about 18 and I met a friend whose grandmother taught her to quilt. We made "Dresden Plate" pieces with cardboard templates and used scissors to cut them out. After that, I made baby wraps, panel vests and bags with quilted fabrics. I took a few classes to learn how to seminole piece and make "Cathedral Windows" Christmas ornaments. In 1987, I made my first big quilt - a" Log Cabin Quilt in a Day"Pattern by Eleanor Burns. It took me about a year to complete- I used a double layer of polyester batting and wrestled its queen sized bulkiness in my regular domestic machine. That quilt still exists though it is quite tattered now.
I recently bought a new book " Not your grandmother's Log Cabin" by Sara Nephew and Marci Baker. It is a lovely book with lots of gorgeous stars by making a diamond log cabin block.



My current passion for quilting began in 1996 when I started to quilted regularly. I have made over 50 bed sized quilts since that time- I continue to enjoy exploring different techniques and designs. What about your quilting journey? When did you begin to quilt?

Fall has been warm here in Alberta and the leaves are starting to turn.. My little ones continue to keep me busy and life is a bit hectic these days.

Hope all is well with you and yours.

Be well,
Warmest regards,

Anna