A 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.

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..

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?

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.

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.

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 fiancée 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.

  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.

One Hundred Widows Exhibit - Latitude 53

Check out the link if you are interested in reading more of the one hundred widow stories

http://onehundredwidows.tumblr.com/

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..
One of my blogging friends Victoria from Bumblebee quilts is having a giveaway of her terrific book time to Play. Victoria Finlay Wolfe of Bumblebee quilts ( 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...
 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
 Have you done some Christmas shopping? baking? decorating? Perhaps we will put up the Christmas village while our boy is here...
'Til next time, have fun creating and planning for the upcoming festive season...
Warmest regards,
Anna

August 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.

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 Quilts for Calgary ,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.

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.

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.

 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.

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.

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...

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..

 

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

 It is funny how the different angles change the way this quilt looks. 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. 

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.

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.

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..

Thanks for stopping by to check out my quilting journey.

Warmest regards,

Anna

Some quilting influences., inspiration ... and Life...

Its the middle of March and today is Pi day- so I thought you might want to enjoy a yummy piece of pie while you stopped by to visit. Mathematical equations and patterns are a particular interest of my husband's- So here is to a little PI today!

The middle of March always makes me stop and remember some loved ones who have passed from this life. Today would have been my grandfather's 101 birthday(it is also our nephew's birthday). My grandfather was born to Swedish immigrants in 1910. He saw many changes over his lifetime. I miss my grandfather's dry sense of humor, his deep voice that I am reminded of when I hear the character,Eeyore speak in the stories of Winnie the Pooh, and his love of farm, music and family. Most of all, I miss his stories..


Tomorrow is the Ides of March and a day of remembrance for my husband and his siblings. Their beloved brother David was taken from them in 1975 in a car accident. He was just 22 years old. I made this photo quilt for my in laws around 2003 to celebrate their 60th wedding anniversary and wanted to include David as part of the photo grouping. He is in the middle at the top of the wall hanging. I know that my in- laws loved that quilt and were glad that all their children were in it, including David. ( Mars the cat is sitting on our pictures).

I know that it has been awhile since I posted - Life at home has been busy. Our son, Kevin, his girlfriend Rose and their cats have been getting set up in our basement. They have made some wonderful changes to the space and everyone is getting used to our new arrangement. The main floor of the house still needs some work to find spaces for some things and the tossing of other things. I was remarking to a friend that my life has been full of de-junking spaces both at home and at school( last year with our school renovation). This is not without stress for me, as,I am by nature, a collector of things. However,one lesson that I have learned is to stop and think before I add more stuff to my spaces( except for fabric and childrens' books LOL) Now if I could only be more organized- I am working on it but it does not come naturally..

March is also the time of year when I complete the second term report cards and updating of my at risk kids programming. So now you know why I have disappeared from my blog writing for a short time...

I don't have much new quilty to show you. I did give away the other BQ quilt to a special lady - she has had some health issues and I wanted her to have a quilt to wrap herself in -just like a warm hug on the days she was feeling under the weather.

I also made some cafe type curtains for the basement windows. I have one more of them to make to complete the ones for the downstair's space, but I may make one for the laundry area and my husband's little office area too.

Did I tell you that we went to the art gallery to the opening of the Emily Carr and Haida show? The opening was so packed (there must have been over 1000 people)that we did not try to get into her exhibit but we are going back this week to hear a lecture about Haida art. We will go and look at her exhibit then as well. My dear friend Val and I went to see Carr's work in Calgary a few Christmases ago. It was fantastic and I am thrilled to get an opportunity to see some her works again.

A friend from work brought me a gift from a quilt store she had been in Jasper. It was a lovely bag with one of Ricky Tims Rhapsody quilts on it. I am a big fan of his work and did a week course one summer a few years ago that used his designs.
I have really enjoyed exploring his Convergence patterns and have made a number of them as throw quilts. The beginning convergence quilt I made was just a small wall hanging and I wondered why I couldn't turn it into a throw size quilt. As you can see from the photos below, that is exactly what I did.
I do like the way the colors meshed in this convergence- the owner is a big fan of green and purple and the fabrics are all batiks....


This " Kool Kaleidoscope pattern is now a book by Ricky. It is fairly large wall hanging or table topper and easier than some other Kaleidoscope designs. His book is well done and has some good visuals should you want to make one of your own Kaleidoscope quilts.

This Chantelle flower is a free form flower that was easy to do. We played with the borders to make it asymmetrical. I am not an art quilter - that is, I like making functional pieces for using in day to day life. Sometimes its fun just to play with the fabric- perhaps one day I will do something with some of the crazy quilting strips I have created. Or another snippet? or another Kaleidoscope?

Two other convergences for you - one that is red and white and black all over..

This one is more subtle- I don't think that the photo does this quilt justice- I loved the soothing color combination - Did you know that red can be soothing???

So who are your influences- do you like particular designers ? Kaffe Fassett? Valori Wells? Ricky Tims? Freddy Moran and Gwen Marston? The women of Gee Bend? These are a few of mine.. I am inspired by their use of color and lines...What inspires you???

And now for some blogging friends who are having giveaways:

Sherri of'A quilting Life" has a great book called Art Quilt Collection by Linda Seward. It is a very nice book and great to look at for inspiration..
the material girls are giving away some great fabric- go quickly they will draw on the 16th.
Liz of Quilterie is giving away a Kaffe Fassett book called Quilt Romance- Its a very nice book indeed.

Carolyn of Veggie Hunter- she's a local quilter that I am looking forward to meeting sometime soon) has a few more giveaways for you to check out as well as one of her own.

Susan
in Texas is having a wonderful fabric giveaway for her 3rd blog anniversary. She has a very nice blog that I am going to add to my blog list. So many blogs not enough time...

Thanks for staying with me ... I hope you will go and check out Tanya of Taniwa blog. She is a terrific lady(a fantastic quilter too) who lives in Nikko Japan. Her story is reflective and she shares what it is like living in Japan just now.. My heart goes out to all those areas who are struggling with the after effects of floods and earthquakes.

We have had a couple of beautiful days here in Alberta- Do I dare say that maybe we might have spring....

Thanks for stopping by- I promise to come back sooner. I hope you will too.
Regards,
Anna