I've started .....

It is windy and raining outside today. We have already completed the first week of my summer break. I don't have much to show for my week. I have spent my time searching the magazines,patterns and books for a quilt pattern to make a quilt. After much deliberation and scouring stacks of patterns I checked out this book off my book shelf:
This book was a gift from my brother in law a few years ago. I love looking at Kaffe's books just so that I can drool over all the beautiful fabrics. Inside I found this pattern called ""Mossy Radiation and thought it work quite well with my group of fabrics:
Earlier today I started pressing all the fabrics that I have, that were music related fabrics. It took awhile but if a girl wants to accurately cut the fabrics then one better press the fabrics. Some of the these fabrics came together in a bundle that I bought when Carolyn and I went to the guild show recently. They had a nice little market mall with the show. (Check out Carolyn's blog if you want to see some of the things she found when we went to the Guild garage sale. After a bit of playing and auditioning fabrics, I made the center block followed by a bold musical print for a border.( I wish I had a little more of those bright musical notes)

Next step was for me to cut many strips and lay them out in a sequence. Now I have to decide whether I want to add red and blue strips or to use just the neutral prints and only have the bright colors in the borders....

You can see that there are lots of black, grey, cream and white combinations in the strips and only a couple with colored backgrounds. In the original design Kaffe Fassett used gradations of color but added a couple of zingers in it..What would you do? add color or just go with neutrals and then have more colorful borders ?

I do have a bit of color to add to it but I haven't decided whether it the bright print will only appear on the back or if it will put in an appearance on the front.

In the meantime, I have been trying to stay dry as the rain has pelleted down today. The weatherman is predicting more rain this weekend. In between times, it has been very hot and unfortunately very buggy ( swarms of mosquitoes- you need bug spray just to get to and from your car) Bruce and I went out to a local restaurant with some friends last night but decided not sit on the patio because of them) The mosquitoes do like to exact a donation of blood - biting little critters that they are...

I have read a couple of books this past week- "The 19th wife" and " The Sky is Everywhere " by Jandy Nelson. I just got " A Vintage Affair " as well as Sarah's Key from the Library. I also got a few books from Amazon but they are mostly professional books with the exception of a book called "The Help". I highly recommend reading it, if you haven't already. The movie is suppose to come out next month. Kathryn Stockett is the author of the book " The Help."

On Tuesday, my friend Lou(no blog) came in from her cottage on the lake. Off we went on a local shop hop. I found a few things but mostly we enjoyed some time catching up with one another. Don't you love spending time with good friends - its one of life's special gifts!
In blogland, some blogging friends are off to Sisters Oregon to see the annual quilt show. What fun those quilters will have seeing the Gee Bend quilters and viewing some great quilts from around the US. Watch for posts about the show - Valori Wells will share her photos from the Sister's show that she and her mother Jean have worked together to put on for many years now. Perhaps some day I will get there- They bring in such wonderful quilters to share their passion for quilting.. It would be a great place to find inspiration..

Do you dream about attending an internationally known show or festival like the one's held in Paducah, Houston or Sister's? What makes a great show for you?

Happy quilting,
Warmest regards,
Anna

The Tooth , Magazine Therapy, A Package, and some quilt process..

Part one a Tooth Saga..
Recently, Bruce and I stopped to buy some groceries and a few things for the prize box for my little ones at school. While we were there, I saw on the shelf, one of my favorite candies " Edinburgh Toffee". It had been quite awhile since I had sampled its sticky goodness so I bought a bag as a treat. Mint,chocolate, licorice and vanilla flavors are some of my favorite toffees. Someone ought to have reminded me that middle aged teeth do not always like chewy candies, and while enjoying one, I suddenly found myself with a large chunk out of a wisdom tooth.. Yikes.... Fortunately, it did not hurt, but unfortunately, it was rather a large hole where there once was a tooth. Yesterday, I phoned the dentist's office and, today after class, I was able to arrange a visit my dentist... To say, that it made me anxious would be an understatement, but I was more fearful of how much of a pain the holey took could become if I didn't take care of it. It didn't take long after my arrival at the dentist- fifteen minutes later with a frozen mouth, I found myself chomping down on a piece of gauze and minus a wisdom tooth. My dentist also sent me home with some instructions to prevent a dry socket(not a fun condition that my husband experienced) and a prescription for antibiotic and Tylenol 3.. It is now a few hours later and other than the residual freezing, it is feeling not too bad- even without the Tylenol, perhaps I may need one before bed but so far, so good)

Part Two.. A visit to Chapters
One of my vices( besides sticky chewy candies LOL) is a love of quilt magazines and books. The book store is literally on the next corner from the dentist's office. I figured I had earned a little diversion after my dental experience, so I checked out the current quilt magazines. I picked up a collection of ten or twelve magazines, and after some perusal, I narrowed it down to these three that came home with me..
Over the summer, I discovered Quilt Life magazine. I really enjoyed reading the inaugural issue and was very pleased to see a copy of it on the Canadian newsstand. Chapters carries a pretty large selection of magazines- that include a number of US and International magazines. There is now a Canadian magazine too - so many choices- which ones would you pick? What makes you choose to buy a magazine or book? For a number of years, I subscribed to Quilters Newsletter (still do), and the Australian Patchwork and Quilting ( still like it a lot but no longer subscribe to it). Currently, I usually buy Fons and Porter..."For the Love of Quilting" and, once in awhile, still buy the Australian Patchwork magazine. I pick and choose more than I used to - each one runs about 7 or 8 Canadian dollars. It quickly adds up not to mention that the piles of magazines get taller and taller.. This time I chose based on what patterns were in the magazines that really might be added to my bucket list of quilts to make.

Part Three_ A Package in the Mail
Armed with some new reading material, some fresh bread and medication we returned home to find a lovely package of fabrics and rotary cutting blades that I ordered from a company called Sew Sisters in Toronto.. I was so pleased to see it had safely arrived and everything that I ordered came too Woo Hoo....
The first one is a backing for a nature quilt that I am thinking about making for a special someone. Usually I work from my stash but this project has involved collecting panels and other fabrics... The design is still in my head... but it is coming along. I also ordered the large rotary cutting blades- they are the best price I can find here in Canada so I was thrilled to get them for even less on this one day sale.( about 20 dollars Canada for 5 blades)
Sew Sisters also had some of Kaffe Fassett fabrics on sale - I was a bit surprised how large one of the designs was ( the orange petal shaped piece is very big) but they are all lovely. I am so looking forward to seeing Kaffe speak here at a local museum in early October. I wonder which quilts and needlework he will bring to show us?

This collection includes a very cute Raggedy Ann and Andy fabric for a baby wrap- and a piece of Valori Wells Sole fabric line.

Recently some bloggers have begun to write about their process while quilting. Here is the beginning squares to my latest convergence. They are wrinkly here but I did press them, before they were cut up into the strips.VBG
And Voila... Here is the newest completed quilt of this year. It is amazing what a difference quilting, binding, not to mention pressing, make to the look of the quilt. I got it bound last week and it is ready for some special people- It just needs a label on it..


I also completed the body of another of the wonky rail ties (8X9)rows so it will be a queen sized version of the blue/green rail ties. There is still 20 more blocks that I can use to make a small couch quilt... I did get rather carried away when I was making those blocks!

Recently I was visiting a fellow blogger,Elaine wrote about a very cool technique that uses square in a square blocks by Jody Barrows. Elaine is having a little trouble with blogger just now, but do check it out( I just clicked the 2nd link), if you are curious about ways to cut up a Square in a Square design. It reminds me of the techniques used to make the disappearing 4 and 9 patch blocks. Quilters do create such amazing designs... I checked on Amazon for Jody's book, but so far, I have not had any luck finding it..

We are beginning to get healthier in our house ( wisdom tooth not withstanding) and getting settled into the fall routines. The trees are turning, the moon is full and Fall has definitely arrived here in Alberta...

Hope this finds you healthy and having fun creating, in whatever medium feeds your creative soul..

Warmest regards,
Anna