Three quilts and three machines... Happy New Year too..

At the beginning of January these lovely tulips graced our table. There is something special about tulips- maybe its that in the dead of winter I long for spring. This winter seems like it has been around for a long time. We have had a fair amount of snow and cold. I miss the grass and the flowers so tulips always make me feel better- that spring may return soon- even if it is only indoors.

 

While school returned this week- I did not after the first day- felled by illness that has kept me away from the classroom for a few days. I am feeling much better and will be ready to go again on Monday but it has been a rather strange week. Since my energy was minimal, I took some time to read blogs and one of my Aussie blogging friends posted about the beautiful forest in her neck of the woods. Here is a photo of my husband standing inside a tree in the Cathedral forest on Vancouver Island. My husband is tall( just over 6 feet and he disappears in the base of  these massive trees. It is protected and is a park of sorts that is about a two hour drive north of Victoria.

When I wrote last time, I shared the quilts that I delivered during the festive season. Here is my brother and his beautiful wife receiving their belated anniversary quilt.

And a view of it spread out on a bed - if it appears lumpy it is because Mars was hiding underneath as she sometimes likes to do..

This lovely lady and her husband were the recipients of the pansy sidelines quilt. We are checking out all the luscious pansy fabrics together.

I thought some might be interested in seeing this gorgeous pansy backing. It turns added so much to this quilt. It is such a stunning piece of fabric. Thanks again to my friend Linda(no blog)who generously shared this piece of fabric.

Mars was not too impressed when we interrupted her sleep to take photos of this quilt. Here is a frontal view of the quilt..

My friend, Sherry brought a piece of quilted clothing to show me- it is gorgeous and is made by another friend of my parents. Mrs. P. used an old sweater as a foundation to handquilt all these pieces to the front and back bodices of this sweater. Her stitching is beautiful- very neat and even - I have never hand pieced any thing so I marvel at Mrs. P's wonderful intricate work.

I mentioned last time that I received a lovely package of bags in the mail from Sue. I finally got a photo of the these terrific fabric bags- Aren't they pretty? I am sure that they will be filled with treasures next Christmas. Thank You,Sue If you click on her name you can check out her blog- it is a fun place to visit..
When we came back from my folks I finished the third quilt in the holiday. It graces our loveseat in our living room. It is hard to get a good photo of the colors as the quilt is quite red. I quilted around the individual poinsettia flowers in the border.

My husband found this lovely scarf at the Alberta Craft Council. It is silk and has a grain elevator on it- I love it. I am a prairie girl through and through and these elevators remind me of my childhood when the prairies I call home were speckled with them. They are all but disappeared these days. Bruce knows how much I love handmade things and this one is particularly gorgeous.

If you have visited before, you will know that I am a big rock fan. This beautiful piece was given to me as an anniversary gift from my husband. It is a piece of lapis luzuli and is a gorgeous deep bluey purple color. I love the antique like shape of the pendant with the lovely scroll work - sorry about the fuzzy photo of it..

The last thing I did in my sewing area last weekend was tidy up the many boxes of fabric scattered hither and yon around the small space. On Christmas Eve I worked on my three different sewing machines. Here is my babylock quilting machine( I can see I need to fix my bulletin board behind my table-LOL) It is a good quilting machine and I have quilted a king sized quilt with it without any difficulty at all. I put the pedal to the metal and can really motor with it. I hope to get back upstairs quilting one day soon so that I can get some more quilts finished.

Here is the other extreme - my little featherweight (vintage Singer 1947)I recently took it to the shop because it had a short in the wiring and gave off a good spark. I have it back at home and it is now working like a charm. Mars certainly likes to come and check it out no matter what machine I am using..

I have used this little gem the longest. It is nice little Elna 6003 that I was given around 2000 and still does the job. On Christmas Eve it was my finishing machine. I was able to blind hem the binding of the two quilts at the top. Three machines and three completed quilts over the holiday. I completed two of them in one day. Not bad for one long day's work - though I don't think I will try that again any time soon..

Are you still with me- if so- you can see how the beautifully the tulips opened and then drooped. They were glorious bits of spring for a few days..

And for a change of pace - some orchids- very interesting color - almost tan in color but quite pretty too..

As we begin a new year I wish you and yours time to create and find Joy in the daily bits of life. Live ,laugh and love joyfully in 2013. Until next time- be well if you can, Warmest regards, Anna

More than a month of news... flowers, people and quilts..

It has been awhile since I last posted- longer than I intended to leave my blog- Somehow these last weeks have flown by...At times, I could not sit down to write- my heart was aching for the tragic events that happened in Newtown Connecticut.I have spent many years working with young children. I still can not describe the sadness and grief that took hold of me in mid December as the story of those children and teachers came over the media. We hugged our students and said our prayers and wrote words of condolence to somehow come to terms with the senseless loss of those beautiful little ones and dedicated teachers. Sometimes there are no words... I have been finishing projects and was very busy at school as well as fighting a cold and cough that often arrives just before Christmas break. These beautiful orchids were sent to Bruce and I from my school staff in remembrance of Bruce's mother. They were a stunning arrangement that graced our table for days. We appreciated the thoughtful cards sent by others that were of comfort after her passing.

Bruce brought home these gorgeous red roses with some babies breath for my birthday. It was a quiet birthday but as always, it was marked with a dinner out and something special. This year we went to see a concert - a band called Blackie and the Rodeo Kings. They had some guests with them that included Murray McLauchlan, Matt Anderson, Janiva Magness and Amy Helm( Levon Helm's daughter). It was a great concert - my favorite was Matt Anderson- His voice reminds of the lead singer of the Committments band. He has a great album called Coal Miner's Blues..

A recent photo in Christmas red that my mom took...

And some poinsettia plants that grace our table each Christmas season. We decorated our wedding reception with poinsettia plants as we were married on Boxing Day(December 26) I also received a beautiful plant arrangement that has a poinsettia plant in the middle of it.

My students wrote letters to Santa in late November and one day just before Christmas break, Santa arrived at school with some special presents for each of my students. It is a wonderful afternoon that reminds one of the specialness of the holiday season. There is nothing like the magical experience of Santa Claus as seen through young children's eyes.

Dusty the dog likes to be close by us all the time. Recentl, she got a little too close to one of the roller chairs and ended up with a sore paw. We took her off to the vet to make sure that her foot was alright- which is was but her ears were not so we got some ear medication for her.

Mars didn't want to be left out- she is a senior cat who was having her own health problems. Off we went with her to the vet and came home with some antibiotics for her too.

Here they are sleeping peacefully together- it is a rare occurrance these days. They both a bit of a diva, so it is hard to convince them that they both are equal pets. My money is on Mars- she really does own the house(even if Dusty disagrees with the concept). LOL

Our son Kevin celebrated his 25th birthday in December. This photo was taken awhile back- we often Skype him and I love this photo of him laughing at something that he was sharing with his dad. Happy Birthday Son- We are so proud of you and love you very much.

We spent the first part of this holiday season with my parents. It was lovely to have a few days with them. I hadn't been to see my folks since September so that is quite a long time between visits. It is nice that they have a computer so we can Skype with them too.

Bruce and I celebrated our 32nd wedding anniversary on December 26th. We had a lovely time in the mountains in the summer where this photo was taken. If you get a chance to visit the Canadian Rockies do- it really is a beautiful spot and very majestic. On this day, the temperature was cool and gray. The sun on the rocks is particularly spectacular!

Last year my brother and his wife celebrated their 25th wedding anniversary. I thought it was about time for another quilt for them. It took me longer than I would have liked but I was pleased with the finished product. I spent Christmas Eve day quilting and binding the cream and blue quilt as well as the pink pansy quilt below. I don't recommend marathon quilting. A dozen hours later I finished the two quilts. However, I was thrilled to have completed these two quilts.

I will show you the back of this quilt and the labels next time...  The  back is a wonderful pansy fabric that a friend had in her stash. It really makes this quilt. It was a gift for a friend who celebrated a special birthday. Her favorite flowers are pansies and she was thrilled with it. A big Thank You to my friend Linda for being so generous with her stash. It worked perfectly for this quilt.  As you can see, Mars approved of the quilt too.

Today I spent the afternoon quilting- I have now quilted this poinsettia quilt. I hope to trim it and bind it in the next couple of days. It has been a productive holiday and I am not finished yet. I have another quilt that I want to get quilted and I need to make a couple of block of the month blocks. I also need to get some baby quilts made up and there is always some school work to do. I am glad to have these days off to get caught up to myself...LOL I would love to sort some fabric upstairs so that the fabric was better organized. There are too many piles of unsorted fabrics and it makes finding fabric a challenge- a fun one but never the less still a challenge.

I got a package of wonderful fabric bags from Sue that I won in her blog hop giveaway. We use fabric bags for our Christmas stockings at my folks so I know that my mom will love them. Thank you Sue- it was a special prize. Today is the last day of 2012. I hope that 2013 is filled with many good things for you and your loved ones. I would like to wish everyone a year of good health, happiness and prosperity in 2013. Warmest regards, Anna,