Color wash and remembering.....

One of our favorite flowers is alstroemeria- As a cut flower, the blossoms take a little while to open up in bloom. Once open they last for quite awhile. These beautiful purple ones, have been sitting on our table for the past two weeks. In the center is a statice like flower whose name I have forgotten.

Here in Alberta,the September weather has been mostly hot and warm outside for the past two weeks- It has made the classroom quite warm, but manageable. My students and I are settling in together. I have 27, four and five year olds, who keep my days full. It takes some time to get the classroom routines established, but we are working hard at getting those routines in place. This week we will have our annual corn roast to kick off the school year. Meanwhile, we are playing games to learn each other's names and enjoying painting, reading stories and being active in the gym.

At home, our kitchen window has some beautiful cacti and a solo blooming pink violet plant. People keep telling me that violets bloom better in pairs but this pink seems to be unaware of that particular rule of nature. The sunflower containers were a gift from our very talented family friend Sherry. Pretty aren't they? I plan to keep coffee and tea in them.

This posts edition of From my Quilt Vault:

One of the techniques that I have explored on my quilt journey, is making quilts using the colorwash technique. I saw this churndash quilt in a magazine and really loved the graduated color. I really like the churndash block. Do you have a favorite block? The quilt is a nice sized wall hanging and our cat, Mars, thinks its a lovely place to sleep in the sun. I made it around 2001.

This quilt's name is Gran's Garden and it was made to celebrate my grandmother's 85th year of life. It was made from a McCall's quilt magazine pattern. The central medallion has 30 X 40- 2 inch squares that were laid on a large iron on grid fabric. The outer border addition came from an Australian patchwork and quilting magazine in 2002. I have done very little applique in my quilts but I liked how the flowers worked out. Perhaps some day I will design my own quilt completely. This quilt comes the closest to being my own design. I combined elements from a couple of different sources. I know that my gran loved her quilt. It was returned to me after she passed away in 2003.

Our niece posted this very cute photo of her little one. It makes me smile just looking at these sweet eyes peeking through.. She will be a year at the end of this month... Where has this year gone?

My blog friend Michele recently had a blog contest for a quilt album program where I was her lucky winner. Michele wrote this lovely piece about all the things that one can do with the album. I was very touched by all her kind words too. The quilt album is very cool tool and I feel really fortunate to be her winner.

Do you keep photos of your quilts? Do you journal about them. I have a couple of quilt journals. I am looking forward to using this great tool. Do check out Michele's blog. She is an amazing lady who creates beautiful quilts to raise money for Alzheimer's research. She has lots of links to explore and some great free patterns too.

Do you have a favorite color? Another blogging friend Pam had a giveaway to celebrate her 200th post where she gave away some beautiful fabrics. She loves purple(so do I) but her blog is called passionate purple quilter. I had the good fortune to be one of her winners. Do go and visit her blog and see her wonderful quilts.


There is a Moda county fairblog hop going on right now Sandy from pieces from my heart blog was the first of a number of designers who are offering free patterns and some prizes through out the month of September. They are creating some fun little projects for the hop. It is always fun to see what the designers are making... Do go and visit the links and catch up

I want to leave you with a link that another blogger,Melinda posted about 9/11. It is a four part link on You tube. You can find the link here:

Melinda has written a beautiful post for 9/11. Like so many others, I do remember that tragic day. It was a day like many others, where I began teaching my little ones... One where a colleague found a link to CNN news and we watched in bits and pieces, the tragedy unfold... In the days following, I remember thinking how quiet our skies were because of the grounding of the planes even in a city that was 4000 miles from NYC. As a society, we were forever changed- less innocent and trusting and marked by the tragic events ten years ago..We pause to remember those people who perished in that senseless tragedy....

Until next time,
Regards,
Anna

Fall is coming

Life has been a bit of a blur in the later part of August. My father is a wonderful gardener and on our last visit home I took this photo of his front flower garden. He has some beautiful verbena,phlox, snapdragons, portulaca and petunias growing in the front flower bed. This years flowers are particularly lovely. Recently I scanned some of my older quilts into my computer. In the coming weeks, I plan to share some of them. This golden leaves is one of my favorite quilts that I have made on my 15 year old quilting journey. The pattern was taken from an older issue of the Australian Patchwork and Quilting magazine. I made it in 2002. It is made with template pieces and it can be found gracing our living room in the autumn.

It is a large quilt- queensized and has a maple leaf border that I added to the original design. The photograph below was taken in my grandmother's house- she has since passed away- It will be 8 years that she has been gone on the 10 of September. How she loved my quilts... and how I loved her...

The prairies are a beautiful place to live- One of the most striking characteristics is the huge big sky- On a clear day you can see for miles. The crops are starting to turn golden and they are a stunning contrast against the blue.Those large bales weigh about 1500lbs.

Over the summer, a friend's daughter gave birth to this beautiful baby boy, Sam. He sure looks cosy in this baby wrap.I loved the Golden Books fabric and thought it would be a great choice for the wrap.

One of the things every quilt should have is a label- Here is the one that is on the back of my father's nature quilt. I named it " Over the hills and through the woods". The fabric was the perfect backdrop for a label.

And finally this quilt graces a bed in my parent's house. I was very pleased the way the quilt quilted up. It is more densely quilted than some of my quilts. I tried to outline all the animals as well as adding clouds and waves in the background.

Just a bit closer look at the animals in the wild..

School has begun and this weekend I have been doing some school work and projects related to school. I sewed up 4 clothing bags for my students. A few years ago I made 25 cloth sacks for my students to store their belongings neatly on the coat hooks. I have more than 25 students right now( 27) so I needed some bags repaired as well as a few additional ones. I just have to add the cording around the top and we will have enough bags to start off the year.

This upcoming week my quilting group begins again. I would like to finish the top of the tesselation quilt tomorrow(see previous post for a look at the tesselation quilt). Monday is a holiday here in Canada called Labour Day. My current plan for the holiday is to do a little school work in the morning and then get quilting. The weather is pleasant and September will be full. One has to take the time to quilt when one can.

Wishing one and all some good quilting time,
Regards,
Anna

August has flown by...

This summer has been one full summer ..The end of July was so hectic with our travels to British Columbia followed by our son and his girlfriend getting moved across country. Once they were on their way, I was sure things would slow down but that has not been true at all.
I went to visit my parents for a week and we had a busy time together. When I returned, Bruce brought home these red gladiolis. They are such an interesting flower and start opening from the lower part of the stem. We had some white with pink tipped ones earlier- They often are available in August and September and you grow them from a bulb. One of the things that I got accomplished while at my parents, was to square up these blocks that are a tesselating block.More about that later...
During my visit to my parents,my mother, a good friend named Sherry, and myself, went off to a little town in central Alberta called Olds.

This quilt pattern came from a general store called "Craigs". It reminded me of the old Kresge's or Fields Store, with a little bit of this and that, including fabric and patterns. I really liked this quilt pattern - especially because it has directions for more than one bed size in it. Craigs had the whole line of the Stonehenge fabrics that have recently come out. Stonehenge fabrics would look lovely made up into this quilt. However, I would like to make it out of batiks.

Olds also has a lovely quilt store called "The Quilting Bee". The staff were warm and welcoming. They had some lovely fabrics too. It is one of those places, that if you lived in the area, you would frequent it often.

I rarely buy pre cut fabrics, but I loved the color combo of these Tonga coffee cake. I have an idea in mind for them and found the two of them for a good price, on line early in the summer.I had hoped to use the star pattern but found that the strips are not large enough(they are jelly roll width) so I will have to find a different pattern to use with them.
You may remember seeing the 10 minute block pattern-( if not google it and there is a great "you tube" video produced by Missouri Star Quilt Co)
I thought I might try this multicolored batik fabric with the different batik layer cake squares. I am not sure if I am going to like the 10 inch squares, or would be happier using 5 inch charm squares with it. As I have yardage of the black multicolored fabric, I have only cut a few black squares to test it out. This is not my usual way- more often, I just start cutting blocks and then sew stacks of blocks together....

We live in a city that has a great number of festivals over the summer.
There are a variety of music festivals including a terrific folk festival.
For the past 10 days the 30th annual Fringe theatre festival was happening. This year, they had the best attendance ever. We had not been to Fringe for a number of years, but we saw a review of an Emily Carr one woman play and decided to take it in.

Part of the festival grounds, has a number of local artisans selling their work. I bought this beautiful bracelet from a young woman who happens to be a teacher as well. She makes all her own glass beads and uses pewter, silver and crystals between them. This one has gorgeous neutrals in it and it was a special treat for me. It is always nice to be able to support local artisans.

Here a couple of play bills of the shows that we attended. We enjoyed both of the plays- the weather was warm and the venues inviting- There is lots of outdoor shows that pass the hat after the performance. We saw a guy get himself in and out of a straight jacket and chains..

So here you can see what the tesselating block looks like put together- I made exactly 72 blocks and arranged it 8X9.Once together, I went looking for border fabrics. My first instinct was to use a plain black, but I didn't like how I looked.

I have not yet added this border but I think this will be the border fabrics for the quilt.
Bruce and I have had a number of opportunities to get out together. We went to a professional soccer game and had lunch out with my aunt and uncle last week. On Sunday, we visited the art gallery to see the closing of a large Andy Warhol exhibit. The exhibit had many of warhol's film clips as well as some of his famous hair pieces. I particularly liked the screen print images of Jacqueline Kennedy. He is not my favorite artist, but it was fun to broaden my horizons too. One of my quilting friends Carolyn joined us, and we were pleased to have her with us.
This last week of holidays, I have a few social engagements as well as some time at school. Today was spent beginning to set up the classroom for September. A big Thank you goes to my partner in the classroom, Peggy, for all her assistance today. Tomorrow some time with my dear friend Lou- we will try not to get into too much trouble in the quilt shops.
Wednesday I am off to see "The Help" with another good friend Val.(I loved the book so I am looking forward to seeing the movie.) Thursday I have an all day seminar and Friday is another opportunity to connect with a friend at lunch followed by visiting a new baby. Life is full and rich.... It is not always easy to get quilting/ blogging done but this summer I have done both while enjoying some great times with family and friends.
Next week I return to the classroom...I best start changing my bedtime ..
Hope you are enjoying the last days of summer..
Regards,
Anna

Where has our summer gone- well let's see...

Perhaps you may already know that I love flowers- This is a bit of color that is growing in a flower bed around our house. They are a root of my grandmother's day lilies and somehow I have managed to keep it growing- it must be a testament to my grandmother's hearty plants rather than my gardening skills
If you follow my blog,you might be wondering where I have been this past month- This week I am enjoying some time visiting my parents in my home town which is 100 miles from where I live. This past month has been a blur- full of travels and events mixed in with some changes on the home front.
Here is my father's quilt which I have since quilted as well as completing the final step- the label. My dad's quilt was the last of four large queensized quilts that I have completed since the spring.Dusty the dog has come along to test out the quilt- usually it is Mars but it appears that Dusty does not want to be left out of the quilt process.
Dusty is usually so keen to participate in my quilting adventures but this time she decided to help me with the binding process after I had finished quilting the quilt. I am not sure having her weight on the quilt is of great assistance but she is certainly doesn't care.

This family photograph was taken the morning our son and his girlfriend completed their move to Charlottetown PEI. Charlottetown is on the eastern seaboard of Canada and we live in Western Alberta-about 4000 miles between the two places. Kevin will be going to school in Charlottetown. We sure are going to miss him and Roseanne and know that it was a difficult decision for him to make. My husband and I have truly become empty nesters with our cat and dog to keep us entertained.

Just prior to Kevin and Rose's departure, Bruce and I headed to Victoria, British Columbia to attend a family wedding. We decided to make the drive to the West Coast. Over the four day trip we travelled about 2600 kms. It is a beautiful drive through the mountains but it meant two long days of driving. At journey's end on the Friday, we stayed with a friend of mine from high school in Vancouver. It was lovely to spend time with Eileen. I had not seen her for probably 5 years, but it was like time had stopped and we picked up where we left off. Thank you, Eileen, for your warm and generous hospitality!
The next morning we enjoyed a delicious breakfast( thanks Ron) and then headed off to the ferry to Vancouver island. It is a lovely boat ride - complete with views of the US shores and Mount Baker. The two days on the island were full of visits to see Bruce's mother, as well as connecting with his siblings, his uncle, and nieces and nephews. Of course the primary event was the wedding, but it was so nice to see so many of our family members.


After a hectic two days on the island we headed back across the ocean on the last ferry. Night time on the ferry is very different and quite beautiful in its own way.


I managed to complete the music quilt in time for the happy wedding couple. Both ladies love music and the quilt is entitled "Love is the Music of the Heart". It is always satisfying to see a quilt go to a home where it will be enjoyed and loved.
In this photograph I am spray basting the music quilt. It was a bit of a challenge to get it to lay flat. This Kaffe Fassett pattern is not complex but it is made with a number of pieces with bias edges.I found it tricky to get the right measurements for the last set of large triangles. I wasn't certain how it would quilt up but it quilted up beautifully- no tucks to be found.

Mars always has to check out my quilts. At one point in July, our living room was quite full of the kid's things waiting to be transported to PEI. Mars loves boxes and this pile was just too hard for her to resist.

I thought you might enjoy a close up view of some of the music fabrics- I hesitated to use the red binding but it seemed like the perfect balance to finish off the quilt.

On Sunday prior to the wedding ceremony( it was held in the couple's backyard and was officiated by my husband's uncle) we took a drive around Victoria. Victoria is a beautiful city- everywhere is lush and green with gorgeous vistas and views of the sea. We found a little park that was a few blocks from the house and took a quick walk through the flowers. Victoria is the home of Butchart Gardens which is an extraordinary place. Unfortunately we did not have more time in Victoria to take in some of the lovely places to walk on this trip.
There were beautiful birds as well- even the lowly seagull looks majestic on the island. We did not see any herons or eagles that are often present there.


My last summer quilt was a queen sized quilt that we took to give to Bruce's brother Earle. The Wonky rail ties pattern is available on Mary Johnson's website "Making quilts from the stash". My brother in law lives in Newfoundland and it was a belated birthday present.



This summer has passed so quickly and I have been away from my computer for chunks of time.
There are a couple of giveaways going on that you may want to check out- one is for a Go Baby on the loveaffair with my brother blog. I keep trying to win one of those nifty machines but so far no luck. Perhaps you will get lucky, if don't!
The other giveaway is Kim who has written a wonderful post about Moms and is sharing a gorgeous heart shaped necklace with the word "quilts" in it. The jewelery designer has created some wonderful pendants with beautiful words in them.

As for me well the summer has passed by so very quickly. I would like to get some more quilting done, but we shall have to see whether I can get my new projects up and going. I plan to spend a bit of time at my school next week, in order to get the classroom set up. I know that the painters have finally come and painted my book shelves so I will be able to get the books back into the shelves. Wahoo is all I can say about that...
Thanks for dropping by - I promise to post a little sooner..
Warmest regards,
Anna

What makes Life Awesome?

Some little vignettes of things that were Awesome in our life this past week.
Pink and White Snapdragons
Snapdragons do have a delicious fragrance- Their smell was the first thing that I noticed when Bruce found this bouquet at the grocery store. A funny story about the price of them: You could buy one bundle for 7.99 or get two bundles for 7.98 It truly was cheaper by one cent to buy two bundles rather than one. LOL
A Sleeping baby in a quilt:
Our niece sent us this photograph of Anni all wrapped up in her baby wrap. Doesn't she look cozy in it? The wrap design does work well in a stroller and a car seat.

Some quilt progress:
The music quilt continues to progress- albeit slowly. I am to the next border and not sure what fabric to use- Unfortunately, I do not have any more of the dark black multicolored musical notes left- I can find the same fabric line in lots of other colors (pink, blue, green and yellow but not black- I am going to make one last stab at it tomorrow, and see if I can find it at one of the quilt stores- if not, I am going to use one of the ones shown and hope for the best..

Lots of musical fabrics:
Of my current choices, I think I may use the black one with the gold musical notes or the black and red one- One thing that crossed my mind was to take the strips apart to use the one black fabric with the instruments but that would not be my first choice.

Having two beautiful god daughters who are like daughters to me:
My god daughters, A. and E. came along with their wonderful parents to have a barbecue the other evening. We were celebrating a few of their family birthdays.

A just because kind of gift:
E is showing off a bracelet that I made earlier this summer. This was the one she chose- She is partial to the color green and it looks lovely on her wrist. Before school was out, I made about 15 bracelets out of glass beads, stones and silver. E's bracelet is lentil shaped beads with gold foil in them combined with square black beads. Playing with beads is fun and a good alternative to times not spent quilting..


A silver locket:
On another note entirely,this lovely young woman is my other god daughter A. She just had a special birthday and I was thrilled to be able to gift her this vintage silver locket found on Ebay. It was the first time I had ever bought anything off e-bay and I was very pleased with the result.(It was kind of exciting to win the bid VBG) My parents gave me a heart shaped silver locket for that same age birthday and I still have it - though, mine is a little less shiny than this lovely one. I thought it was a nice tradition to start with these special girls in my life.


Buying something that contributes to a worthy cause:


Isn't this a beautiful piece of quilting? It is a piece that I bought from a local quilt store. It could hang on the wall or be used on our sideboard this fall. It is a batik applique and the money that I paid for it, will all go to the Alberta chapter of the Canadian Cancer Society. I do not do much applique quilting. I love pieces that have leaves and fall themes. One hopes that these charities, through their fundraising efforts, will help provide the monies necessary for the researchers to find better treatments for all forms of cancer.
A friend's memorial celebration:
We attended a friend's memorial celebration on Friday afternoon. Our lovely friend Sue was 51 years old and lost her battle to a rare and aggressive form of breast cancer. Each time I go to a memorial celebration, I am reminded of the importance of making the time to spend with our friends and loved ones.
Memorial thoughts:
Some thoughts: Let the important people in your life know how much you love them. These events act as a reminder to treasure one's relationships and the special gifts that each one of us brings to the world around them. At the celebration, we saw friends that we hadn't seen for a long time. I sometimes, wonder where all our time goes. How is it that we only find time to go celebrate someone's life after the fact, rather than celebrating the person's life when they are still with us? Our friend Sue, was a quiet gentle person who contributed much to the lives of people with whom she crossed paths. May we all leave such a legacy. My last thought that afternoon was that life does seem especially fleeting and much too short...

Some final this and that:
Summer is moving right along- I am slowly finding my form and getting a few things done. I have met for coffee with two lovely quilt friends this past week, besides co- hosting a barbecue. It was so much fun talking about fabric,learning of new techniques but, more importantly, getting to know some new friends that have a passion for creating things. I never cease to be awed by the many talents that people are blessed with, and all the different crafts that one can explore if one has the time.
Summer reading:
I have been reading a few books- This weeks offerings are " Sarah's Key" and " The Postmistress." They are both a good read and take place during the second World War. Sarah's Key goes between the Second world war and current time. The other book that I discovered is" The Book of Awesome". I am not a big fan of short stories, but these little vignettes help one reflect on one's daily blessings, and celebrate the little joys of life. There is now a second book by the same author that is entitled something like "even more Awesome". If you need something to uplift you, you may enjoy these little readings.

I hope you have some " Awesomeness " in your life 'til we meet again.

Warmest regards,
Anna

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