Sneaking in just under the year!!!

I can't believe it's been just about an entire year since posting.  Shame on me, certainly didn't intend it to be this long between posts, I guess life just gets in the way. Then at some point, posting was done via Facebook, just because its quicker. But not all my friends are on FB.

Baby Quilt

Every now and again I'll try experimenting with some high-key photography, since the sun here provides the perfect back-light. It's an interest concept in photography.  Will apologize in advance some of the pictures used in this blog are repeated from FB.

It has been a very busy year since last posting.  When we got back from Yuma last Spring longarm quilting was top on my list for myself as well as others.  Even had a lady who lives in the South Pacific, Vanuatu, send me a baby quilt that she had hand-embroidered - it was so cute, not to mention well done.  I guess this calls for some clarification, she was visiting her daughter who lives in the Fort St John area and had brought the quilt top with her to be quilted.  Asked her why she brought the quilt top all that way, apparently nobody on the island does long arm quilting plus there isn't power as we know it, many of the people who live there still use treadle machines.  Pretty amazing.

Talavera With Border

If my memory serves me right, I was working on the Fiesta Talavera applique quilt and waiting to get home to do the border.  There were over 320 pieces to put down and stitch.  Good news - it did get completed, but not before my sciatic nerve decided to attack with a vengeance.

Wall Hanging for a client

 It took the majority of the summer into early fall before the sciatic nerve started to play nice.  Then there was another attack right after arriving in Yuma.

Before Paul or I knew it - it was time to return to south.  We left towards the end of October and we were about 2 days ahead of the storm that has never left the north county.  Must say it has been one of the nastier winters in and around the Edmonton area for that matter Alberta and eastward.  It came with a full compliment of snow/ice/snow/freezing temp/snow and more snow. So grateful we missed it. Did mention how much it snowed??

Sandie & Keith

My daughter and husband were down just before the end of the year, and spent a few days. Keith got to golf, so he was happy. Unfortunately their stay was not nearly long enough, they had to return to their jobs and the cold.  Did I mention snow? They were in LasVegas before coming and got married.  They have been together forever, at least 11 or 12 years and decided to tie the knot.  Do hope that they at a future time will put Yuma back on their vacation agenda again and stay longer.


At the moment of this writing, Yuma is very warm.  The warmer weather has arrived about 2-3 weeks ahead of schedule.  Wondering just how warm it will get before we leave in another 6 weeks or so.  We had such a beautiful sunset last night.  It was pretty amazing.  All the neighbours were out with cameras in hand, snapping off pictures like crazy.

Eric Brice @ Tucson

This winter,clogging has been high on the list of activity - even made it to the Nationals in Orlando, Florida held last November, US Thanksgiving week; then in January of this year headed over to Tucson for a 2-day workshop. The beginning of February it was Mesa (Gold Canyon area) for a one-day workshop. It has been pretty busy.

Mills & Welsh @ Gold Canyon

There are several ladies from the Yuma Feet on Fire clogging group that went so it was fun attending these workshops.  All in all must say pretty good stuff.  There is one more workshop to attend on the 21st of February, which is not so far away.  Feel so fortunate to be healthy and able to participate.  Pictures are of the featured instructors at the Tucson and Gold Canyon workshops.

Paul and I joined a local golf group.  It's been great, gives Paul and I together time plus mingling with some the neighbours and getting to know others that live out in the Foothills.

Last Latte Quilt Made 2007

Center Medallion for new LQ

This winter one of my undertakings has been a embroidery quilt...what else is new.  I've made this quilt a couple of times already first one in 2005 and the other 2007; gave both quilts away to family.  It has to be one of the prettier embroidery quilt that I've done, I have such a soft spot for this quilt, it is so beautiful.  It's without a doubt a ton of work - takes a minimum of 150+ hours before it is all said and done, guess that is pretty much standard for these types of quilts, even the Talavera was minimum of that time, then another 3 weeks just to do the quilting. The fabric used in the Latte was bridal satin that was left over from the last Latte Quilt, the fabric had been special order and there was a minimum yardage that had to be order.

laying down 3rd row of stitching

Parasol Block

The 16 blocks and center medallion of the quilt are done. Woohoo!  Of the 16,  four corner blocks are the same - Parasol Block, then the remaining blocks are in pairs.

Whew, it is a good feeling to know that it has advanced this far.  The next step is the sashings and borders, unfortunately I may not have quite enough fabric, so an improvisation maybe required. At the end of the day I'll be the only one that knows.  LOL Once that task is completed the quilting will be started and this time; will be the first that a longarm quilting machine will be used.  Before the quilting was done on my domestic machine. Talk about a hassle. The completed size is somewhere around 90x90 inches.  So at the moment there are many ideas rolling through my mind.  Purposely, I have left more than the usual open space on this quilt just so I can fill it up with super special quilting!!

Started the project once the thread arrived in early December.  Was a bit disappointed with the color of the one thread - didn't look that dark online.  As time progressed and more blocks were completed it worked well. Here are a few pictures of the other blocks. If you look at the completed quilt it will give an idea as to what all the completed blocks look like.


Got a really cool attachment for my sewing machine, instead of sewing a design it paints the design.  Rather fun to do.  Have done one top it is has been washed few times, and the ink is staying well.  So guess that is my "que"  for the go ahead to do more, which in all honesty doesn't take much to prompt me to play!! LOL

Two of Paul's sister will be coming down to Yuma soon.  Sonya and Wilf  towards the end of the first week of March for a few day, then will head off to lovely Tucson to do some fun stuff.  I love Tucson, its a beautiful city, so metropolitan, great shopping not at all like Yuma.  Then Penny and Gary will be arriving in Yuma at the beginning of March and will staying for a few weeks. I do hope we all can get together at some point.

Who's the fairest of all? Not You!

Must post one more picture of a woodpecker that was pecking like crazy all yesterday morning on the chrome of our cargo trailer.  It actually made dents. At first it sounded like someone pounding nails into a board, the noise just went on and on. Guess I should have looked earlier.  It must of thought there was another bird on the other side...not too smart!!

Will close off now....so until next time.  Take care and be safe.

Guess Who's Two Today!!

5 Weeks

Emma

My goodness it is difficult for me to believe that my two little darlin's in fur coats are a whole 2 years old today.  It only seems like yesterday when I first set eyes on them, they were so tiny, only 9 days old. Their little eyes hadn't even open completely yet and their noses were pink instead of the liver brown they are today.  I had to wait until they were 2 months old before they could come to their new home.  I even baked a human cake for the human folk to celebrate this event!! The girl's cake will be a piece of pot roast in their dinner. LOL I'm sure that is just like cake for them!!  Their hair looked better this morning.  It tough playing all day and remain looking spiffy at the end of day.

Bella

We have been home from our other home for about 6 weeks.  The first few weeks were dismal to the point of depressing.  The weather is nice now, mosquitoes are out (sure sign of spring); the leaves are coming out on the trees, grass has turned green and everyone has moved into high gear preparing the flower beds and filling with a vast array of beautiful blooms brimming with brillant colors. The stores are packed with people piling their shopping carts high with gardening paraphernalia, bedding plants, bricks, shovels etc. It closer to a frenzy, these folks are on a mission.  Will wait a few more days and let the hordes of people get down to a more doable number.  Our Peony bushes have finally made an appearance, along with the other perennials that are in the back flower bed.  This is the third year for them and they should be amazing this year.  Their blooms impressed me last year.  I wished I was more inclined to having a green thumb, but it's not to be...sigh.

Waiting for border.

Since getting home I've been very busy with my quilting, especially with the latest and great effort, this is a continuation of last blog's entry regarding the Fiesta de Talervera.  With what seemed like hundreds of hours (minor exaggeration, but not much) all the pieces were cut, put into place, sewn and blocks were finally assembled.  All that is left is to make the borders, I believe there is over 300 pieces that need to be cut and sewn - truly not for the faint of heart.  After everything is said and done then the quilting will begin.  I have approached a professional quilter to give me some ideas as to how to quilt it when it is ready for that stage.  She does amazing work not to mention, I have the utmost confidence she'll be able to guide me in the right direction.  There's a thought in my head about entering it into competition, but we'll see how well my quilting skills can enhance the quilt.  At this point, it's nice to just have gotten this far.

Lumber Yard Quilted

Finished quilting two quilts that I pieced while in Yuma this past winter.  Of course, after a six month hiatus from the quilting machine it's always like learning all over again.  Trust me when I say, my learning curve was pretty steep this go around.  Was actually hoping that I would be able to pick up where I left off last fall, unfortunately that wasn't going to be the case.  There is absolutely no point in bolstering my confidence now is there.  Silly me to think that would happen!

close up of chocolate leaves design

The quilt  called the lumberyard and is made with 2x4" rectangles.  I saw an edge to edge quilt design called "chocolate leaves" and felt that this would be great for this type of design for it is so open and free flowing.

No Name

The quilt named 'No Name' for it was just made up by me.  Finally got off the frame yesterday. Definitely a love/hate moment.  About a week ago I was having a multitude of issues with tension, thread breaking, top and bottom it was just plain UGLY, no other word for it, but UGLY.  Did a lot of picking out stitches, quilters call it 'frogging', not sure why, maybe its because it is so UGLY!!  My desperation was growing exponentially - at one point all I wanted to do was rip it off the frame and throw it into a corner and stomp on it with my clogging shoes on!!  Now I was really miffed.  After consulting with a Prostitcher group on Yahoo, I got all kinds of great feedback by which time my mood kind of simmered down from my original thought of throwing the blinkin' thing into the corner.

The top thread was the problem, and I should have clued into this fact sooner, for I knew with years of embroidery work behind me that black thread can be very troublesome due to the fact that it is so over dyed/processed.  Once this thread was replaced with another thread everything went well, that is really hard to imagine when this 'troublesome' spool of thread cost $32. One always thinks nothing but the best for your work, obviously the best wasn't working.  Very seriously thinking about sending the thread back to the manufacturer.  Usually this thread is wonderful and looks so nice on the quilt.  I like the back of the quilt, it really show cases the quilting.  I think overall this makes a nice 'masculine' type of quilt.  Next step is binding.  WooHoo!!

Until next time.....'dance like nobody is watching'!!

Do we really have to leave?!

Who's out there!!!

It is hard to believe that we will be leaving for the north country in a couple of weeks.  We keep asking ourselves where has the time gone, has it really been over 5 months?? Well guess it has for in another couple of weeks we'll be leaving.  What is really bad - snow is still falling in Edmonton as I type this little blog, and there's plenty on the ground. It has been a bad year for snow. It is rather depressing if one thinks about it too long.  It's been pretty much a given that we will be dealing with another six weeks of winter once we return....ugh!!  Our little girls with fur coats will lose their freedom to run about the yard with reckless abandon, barking at everything they see and don't see.  The neighbours will be happy to see the patrol dogs "gone".   The picture that you see on the left is a picture that a lady painted for me.  I thought she did a wonderful job.  The points of interest in the picture itself are locally around Yuma, which give it significance.  I'm hoping that next fall when we are down she'll be able to do a couple more pictures.

Sonya and Wilf

Paul has a couple of sisters that have come down to Yuma.  Sonya and Wilf was here for a couple of days.  It was great to see them, today they were heading over to Tucson and then on up to Phoenix area.  His other sister, Penny and husband Gary are staying in a RV Park not too far away.  I'm hoping to get a picture of them before they leave.  In the next day or two, Penny's son Curtis and wife Karen will be arriving, it will be good to see them.  It is always good to see family.

Frilly Scarves

It would definitely take a while to catch up the blog as to what has been happening this past winter.  Meant to write 2 or 3 blogs while being here, but it just never happened.  Paul has been busy with golf, and he went into Phoenix a few times for hockey games and a car show.  We've only been to Mexico once this year.  We usually go at least twice, unfortunately not this year.  We have thoroughly enjoyed our "new" to us home.  Especially since this winter was much cooler than we've ever experienced in the evening and mornings and a house certainly is much warmer to live in than an RV.

Rhinestone Art

For myself, clogging and my crafts have certainly kept me busy.  This winter has probably been one of the more "crafty" type of winters that I've had, completed two quilt tops, knitted 10 frilly scarves, made  2 table runners, cool placemats, gadget bags, rhinestone art on tee shirts (that is fun!), card making and a project in progress which will be the focus of my attention for the next several months and will be the main topic for the remainder of this blog.

Screen Shot of shapes in software

At the moment I've been working on an applique quilt, Fiesta de Talavera, designed by J. Michelle Watts.  This quilt is a stunning piece of art.  Saw the pattern and became totally smitten by it's beauty.  The challenge of this quilt, of course, is that it is applique which quite often is done by hand, but for me I had to think of another way that it could be done and still look beautiful. I can't imagine anyone doing the hand applique technique, it would take absolutely forever!! So, this is where the Silhouette Cameo (die cutting machine) has been put into good use which by the way is doing an excellent job of cutting out the shapes, making all the shapes exactly the same.  With the aid of a scanner, the layout of the pieces have been make into a .jpg file which is then brought into the Silhouette software and by using the drawing tools I've been able to make the templates of the designs on the block and save the designs as cut files.

Fabric ready to be cut out

pieces cut out

 These files are then sent to the Silhouette Cameo via the computer. Pieces of fabric which has been bonded with 'Steam a Seam' sheets are laid onto the Silhouette cutting mat which is then placed into the Silhouette Cameo to be cut out. This process is repeated until all the shapes are cut out for the block.

Block 2 - all pieces laid out.

Block 2 - First stages

Once all the pieces are cut out, they are arranged as indicated by the block template layout that is provided in the pattern.  Each block finished size is 20 inches square and has anywhere between 90 to 130 applique pieces.  It is addictive as you begin placing the pieces creating this little master piece.  Once you are satisfied with placement and it looks good, then you take a hot iron and begin fusing the pieces to the block fabric, being very careful not to disturb the layout.  Once the fusing is completed, then the fun really begins.  Each piece must be sewn down.  Most machine applique consist of a small zig-zag stitch, being careful not to have the stitches too close together which would create a satin stitch appearance.  A bit of planning needs to be done as to where the stitching will begin, requiring the background pieces of each of the design components to be stitched first and the top design pieces to be stitched last, not entirely sure if that makes sense.

Block 1- completed

Block 1 is completed with the stitching, it does take a bit of time, i.e. a couple of evenings.  A decision has been made to take the blocks home and do the stitching on my 830, it has a huge throat space the machine can be dropped so the work surface is flat.  There will be nine blocks in total that need to be done along with a border is very ornate and it will take a while to do. The quilt itself finished will be 72"x72".  In the past, have done some pretty time intensive quilts but I do believe this will be the most demanding of any.  I will keep posting the blocks as they are completed.


Just one last little picture of a bug that was crawling around on a Oleander bloom the other day.  Really quite weird looking.  After I snapped a few pictures I think he got fed up and left.  Was kind of wondering if he was of preying mantis family.  Probably not, huh.

It is time to run along, so until next time...here is a sweet little pansy face from our flower garden.

Mostly about quilts and stuff...

Emma checking things out!

I can't believe it is almost time to leave for our southern home.   The warm summer we had is now handing over the gauntlet to Fall, the cool autumn winds are blowing with leaves turning yellow that are falling to the ground.  Many of the trees are bare now, then others are barely yellow.  All in all it is our signal that it is time to go. So many things to attend to before we leave, medical appointments, dental, forwarding mail; ensuring passports are up-to-date, travel insurance, and last but not least, making a list of things to take.  Which each year seems to be a little less. Mostly because we are leaving more stuff south.  This year we will not be taking the motorhome so packing will be different. This next week will be busy filling the cargo trailer.  The girls are good little travellers and adjust quickly, their main concern is just being close to us.

center 

Finished up the last project that had been on the "to-do" list.  When first starting the blocks, way back in Yuma this past spring, it seemed like a really cool idea.  Then it must of came to me in a dream, maybe too, after a glass or two of wine, had helped.  The vision or thought was a center block with applique would be the "backdrop" leaving lots of empty space so it could be filled up with skilled quilting. Now doesn't that sound wonderful!!! That always looks beautiful on other quilts, but for what ever reason it wasn't really grabbing me like I had hoped.  All the colors were coordinated and blended well enough, unfortunately my "vision" was diminishing at an exponential pace. Realizing there was no pattern to follow it was pretty much a "crap shoot' as to what it would look like when finished.  May I be the first to admit that piecing is not my 'fav', love the longarm quilting!  Regardless of how it looks, it's pretty much done.  The binding needs to be put on and it can be put away in the quilt stash and along with the pillow shams that were made to go with it.

pillow sham

Winhouse Quilt - front

A good analogy for longarm quilting - it's  like having a huge art canvas which is the quilt top to paint or doodle on with thread. Doodling has always been a favorite pass time activity. It has been a while doing the hand guided quilting, since getting the Prostitcher (was on a mission to learn how to use the program), so the confidence initially wasn't there, finally everything kicked in - along with the thought "that I'm the artist and this is the way it was planned".

Winhouse Quilt - back

Over this past month did another for charity quilt.  The backing on the Winhouse Quilt really showcases the edge to edge design.  As I have come to realize that the less patterned the fabric is as well as being lighter in color the the more it will showcase the quilt stitching. Which over the years has come to be as important as the piecing itself. The one downfall is the margin of error has to be minimal or it will scream at you with a loud and unforgiving voice, that you screwed up!!

Jocelyn's Quilt

Had the opportunity to do some real custom work on a quilt that my son's girlfriend had pieced.  She did a beautiful job piecing so it was easy for me to visualize designs that complimented the fabric theme and quilt blocks.  It's actually a tablecloth, so hopefully she doesn't mind me putting it on the bed so an over view picture of the completed project. She was very happy with the results.  Of course it goes without saying, if she's happy - so is yours truly!!!  It is kind of a nerve wracking experience in a way, because another person is entrusting you with something they have spent oodles of time, cutting, sewing the pieces together, not mentioning the copious amounts of money on quality quilting fabrics. Then they turn around and pay to have it quilted, so all in all it's not a cheap hobby.  Definitely not like grandma's day when flour sacks were used or pieces of clothing that no longer served a purpose.

Jewelry wraps

Here's pic of a another project that I have done quite a few since this past spring.  They are jewelry wraps.  They are relatively easy and quick to make and make such great little gifts.  Gave one to my cousin, MJ for her cruise in another week. Lucky gal!!  When she showed it to one of her friends, they asked if they could have some made up for gifts.  Wow...paying customers!!!

Back in mid-September, my dear husband celebrated his 72nd birthday.  His daughters, Bonnie and Julie invited us out to lunch.  It was great to see them, and what Paul didn't know was that he would also get to see his latest granddaughter, Calladora, born August 12, and meet her mommy, Tanya. He was thrilled to pieces.  In the picture on the left, from left to right is Tanya, Julie, Paul and Calladora, Bonnie.  The baby was so good she just slept the entire time.  Doesn't she look like an angel.

Calladora

We had Thanksgiving on Saturday, and my daughter and family were down from Cold Lake, and my son was able to make it before heading off to Fort St John.  It will be the last time I'll see them until next spring.  Seems like that is so far down the road, but knowing the way time flys by Spring will be here and we'll all be another year older! sigh...

My son, Rob has made rumblings that he and Jocelyn might come, no promises, just depends on work.  They both may decide on more exotic venues, Yuma is warm, but not exotic.

So until next time....

"There are only two ways to live your life.  One is as though nothing is a miracle.  The other is as though everything is a miracle."  Albert Einstein