Rising from the Sea of Papers and Boxes...

Life has been quite full since I last posted- Where have I been you may be wondering- I wish I could say it has been a grand adventure and, perhaps, it has been, if you call cleaning out and sorting the wheat from the chaff in our basement. This project began innocently enough- We decided to bring in a dumpster bin to clean out some trees and remove some old fencing from our yard- we had some space left in it so we thought we might as well get rid of some of the extra junk/ stuff that has built up over the last number of years in our basement.
Well it was a Pandora's box I can tell you... There is floor space now where there had been many boxes but it has taken many hours of sorting and hauling things out. We are almost done for now- we will send the bin away on Monday-
Will it be completely cleaned out - No but it will much better than it has been for a long time.. It has been quite a process and remains one..

One of the benefits of the cleaning has been turning up a few old treasures. We found the usual letters and photographs and other memorabila that we have enjoyed looking through and remembering. There are still boxes of papers to go through but I got rid of lots of old craft things that were no longer useful and dated. In amongst the damaged things, I did find some fabric pieces that I think I can put to good use. I have some prequilted fabrics that I once used to make into bags. I think I have figured out a way to use the pre quilted fabrics and turn them into baby wraps. They may not be quite as nice as the ones with minkee fabrics inside but it will be one way to use the fabric up rather than just getting rid of it. I am going to try it out anyway and see how they work out. The baby wraps are so useful and I hope these will be nice too.

Some other news...To add excitement to the cleaning project, it has been report card writing time at school and we have battled some illness- my husband particularly. He has had some flu and cold and been under the weather for about 10 days. Life is does pose some interesting challenges sometimes...
On the quilting front, I have been working on the quilt that is pictured here. This beauty was done by a friend in the class that we took together. You might notice the date - 2004. My friend Carol is a fantastic quilter and she did a wonderful job on her version of the Hollow Cubes. I have about 50 blocks made and I need nearly a hundred so I am making progress - very slowly. While my friend chose a limited palette, I have chosen to use a rainbow of batiks for my quilt. I want to frame it in black as well. It is hard to get the rhythm of a quilt when I have worked on it so intermittently. I have a large number of triangles and flags to sew together yet. Still, I am making progress- slowly but surely....
One of the things I found among the photographs was a few quilt pictures ,which was great, because my computer woes continue and I have had to reset my computer yet again. This quilt is a variation of a spiderweb- It was made for one of my nieces for her wedding in 2005. I do love the scrappy quilts with all their different colors.

Quilt Sue of Quilt times posed an interesting question about what kind of quilts one prefers to make- What is your favorite quilt to make? Do you have a favorite design to make?

I have friends who love making scrap quilts and others who love Log cabin and other traditional designs. I don't know if I have a favorite design but I do love bargello quilts and medallion quilts. I prefer quilts that have an over all design as opposed to blocky looking designs. Mostly I love colorful quilts.

Barb from Bejeweled quilts has created a ginger jar quilt for her niece Jennifer's new on line fabric shop. You can find a link to her new shop here Inchworm Fabrics. Do drop by and enter both giveaways. You will be glad that you did...

Hawthorne Threads is also having a lovely giveaway- Go quickly as the draw is on Monday November 16.

While I haven't done much blog reading lately, I did recently win a giveaway from
Cotton Cocktails. It is a lovely Handmade bag. Thank you, Hazel, for picking me as one of your lucky winners. I am one fortunate lady these days. Do stop and visit her blog - she is a wonderful woman who writes a lovely blog.

Carole at Giraffe Dreams is having a giveaway to celebrate her 700th post. She is doing something really special and going to make a donation to a special cause as part of her giveaway. Please drop by and celebrate such a wonderful accomplishment.

My blog friend Kim also wrote about giving and receiving in her newest post. Which one- giving or receiving do you think is the most important? I know lots of generous quilters out there, who give quilts and materials to support people in various ways.
These two ladies do indeed have very generous hearts.

Before long, Christmas will be here. We are beginning to prepare our students for the Christmas concert. The fall has flown by- where did all the time go?

Hope you are all keeping well and taking care of yourselves.
Wishing you good health and time to quilt or feed your creative spirit in whatever way you enjoy doing.

Warmest regards,
Anna

Sunflowers and Spiderwebs

I do love Sunflowers- to me, they are such happy flowers. They raise their faces to the sun and seem to smile at the world.

My blog friend Pam sent me a surprise last week in the mail. She sent me two beautiful pieces of Sunflower fabric from her collection and a package of Sunflower seeds to grow in my garden. Thank you Pam, for your very thoughtful package.It made my day.

The quilted Sunflower Wallhanging (our son is holding it up in the photo) was made for my sister in law C., and brother in Law E., in Newfoundland. They are big fans of Van Gogh and this was my Ode to Vincent. I posted it previously, but can you ever have too many sunflowers? The technique is called Snippets. Cindy Walters has written a few books about this technique. It is great for landscapes and still life pictures. You use a material called Steam a Seam II for fusing all the little snippets to a background. I enjoyed playing with my fabric bits- perhaps you will too.

I have collected sunflower fabrics for sometime now. Like I said, they make me feel happy I used some of my sunflower fabrics to make a Disappearing Nine Patch quilt- It is indeed a sea of sunflowers. I will try and post a photo of it soon too.

As for Pam's seeds, I will have to dig a row to plant them so I best get it done tomorrow or it may be too late. We have had a very cool spring this year. However this weekend is a hot one with temperatures that are in the high twenties Celsius. Bruce has brought up a floor fan to cool off our living space. It sure does help.

Spider Web Quilts make such interesting secondary designs- This queen sized scrap quilt is bold and full of lots of vivid colors. I found it tricky to find the right sashing. It is quite a bold yellow with purple throughout. The background is purple and was a challenge to find some sashing to go with it.
Do you ever get the blocks together and then try and figure out how you are going to sash it? Or rethink whether putting sashing in between the blocks is going to add to the quilt? Sometimes you need to add sashing to make the quilt bigger. I tend to create as I go- I am not good at pre planning all the parts of my quilts. I have been known to change parts of the quilt a few times over until I am satisfied that the fabrics work together. Usually, I just audition with the yardage and let the quilt speak to me. This is not always my process but is my most common practise. Do you let your quilt speak to you ?
Or do you have all the parts chosen first?

The spiderweb quilt also belongs to E. and C. I am truly lucky because I have terrific siblings and siblings in law.Unfortunately, We do not see each other often as Newfoundland is over 4000 miles from where I call home, but E and C.are a great couple. When we do get together, a good time is had by all.
While I was reading some blogs, I discovered this lovely blog written by Tonya.
Tonya is having a giveaway on her blog. It is a lovely giveaway - you may want to check it out. She is celebrating her 100th post.

Tomorrow Bruce and I are off to see the Local guild's quilt show. We may even go for Brunch too. It is my reward for today's work- I have spent the day finishing up some paper work for school. I woke up early and I worked the day away but tomorrow there will be time to play.

It is quite fun to get the snail mail these days. My friend, Loulee, sent me a lovely piece of pansy fabric(she had some stabilizer she was giving away to whoever was interested). I said yes and another lady said yes so she sent something to both us. Loulee sent me a bright multi colored pansy fabric and a wonderful tea towel from her home - The Isle of Mann. I told her that I loved so many colors so she found the perfect piece of fabric for me. It was such a kind thing to do, Loulee- Thank you so much..

Perhaps I will write again this weekend if I manage to take some photos at the Guild show. I am not sure if they will let us or not. For now, I am feeling serious eye fatigue - the pillow is beckoning again.
Happy quilting,
Warmest Regards,
Anna