Quilt ladder, mail goodies and painting

With all the quilts that I’ve made and more to come, storage is starting to become an issue.

Painting our home is still on-going and our living room is getting re-arranged. Bonus - there will be room for a quilt ladder.

Now, I didn’t want something fancy …. actually, more cottage looking. DH came to the rescue and made this ladder for me. As we speak, it is being painted white and soon will be put to use.

Last week, goodies in the mail came from Jane. Jane was having a giveaway and I was the bonus winner. Jane actually had only two items for her draw, but her DD2 was determined that the last name in the basket would have chocolate. My name was last, and I got chocolate and fabric. Thank you, Jane and DD2! :o)

Painting with kitties has been an interesting venture. Hank has already gotten a tail full of paint from brushing up against some door frames. This is what we have to do to keep the kitties away from fresh paint. We finally got the paint off her tail, but it took two of us to do the job. Luckily, she stayed away from furniture, etc. while we were trying to quietly catch her.

Have a great day!

My Quilting Time Line

In my last post, some of you might be wondering how long I have been quilting. Not forever, as it seems. My first quilt was made in 1979 …. yikes… but I haven’t done a lot of quilts during those early years. Here is what I’ve done over the years: 

Included in this count of what I consider to be quilts is anything from bed size, to wall quilts to table runners. Tote bags and jackets are not included in these numbers. 

Since my retirement, the quilt numbers have increased. More time on my hands and better to keep them busy quilting rather than eating. 

How do I know what has been accomplished over the years? I started a quilting journal a few years ago but had photos of the quilts that were made. The notations on the back of the photos made it easy to complete the journal page for each quilt. 

The in-between periods, I sewed clothes for myself, did crochet and knitting. Now that the quilting bug has bit me, all those other crafts have taken a back seat. 

What is a post without some eye candy? Here is another block. Thank you, Miss Ashes for holding down my quilt. BTW, these blocks are hand embroidered with beading here and there. Have a great day!

Baby Quilts – way back when

Here are a smattering of my first baby quilts that I made eons ago. I have to smile when I look at these photos …. lots of memories there. The furnishings, the hair, the wallpaper, etc. Yes, way back in the 70’s.

Well, how did I do these? Colouring books were used for the various images and all these were done using needle turn applique (which I really hate doing now). The eyes, etc. were embroidered on. All these are hand quilted. Back then (over 30 yrs. ago) there wasn’t much in the way of patterns and cottons were hard to come by; so there is a lot of poly-cotton used in these quilts.

Yes, those were the days! :o)

Trying to Quilt

It is going to be a long haul ….. everytime I sit down to quilt, one of the kitties has to visit me. Hank has to make sure that the tension in my hoop is just right as well as giving my hands a lick down.
Once she goes away, Ashes comes around to make sure that what I’ve quilted is snuggle quality. Yep …. it is going to be a long haul trying to get this UFO finished before New Year’s Eve.
On the other hand, here is another block done. At least something got accomplished.

Have a great day!

Another block

Still painting our home .... so not much quilting going on. The older I get, the less energy I have for getting things done. The house is a mess with everything all over the place. As one area gets finished, the next area things are moved into there and the mess starts all over again.

So, for the next few weeks, there will not be much to look at on my blog. During my breaks, I will be plugging along with these blocks as well as doing some hand quilting on my huge UFO.

Have a great day!

Thanks giving

Here is another block .... done. Since the weather has been nice lately, we are taking advantage of it and doing some painting around our home. Hence, there will not be a lot of quilting getting done over the next week or so.

Today, it is our Thanksgiving holiday here in Canada and we all have so much to be 'thankful' for. So, Canada ..... Happy Thanksgiving .... eh!

Top assembled & Sun Kissed

For the longest time, I have been thinking of doing something with embroidered flowers and wondered ‘what if’ with this block. Well …. here is what my new project looks like. Not blue work, but that would have been a good option to do. There will be different colours of embroidery and bead work here and there. I’m embroidering with the batting behind my top. I don’t know how it will turn out and if there will be a problem with the piece being out of square. We will see in time. Some people are using stabilizers and Weaveline, but I don’t have any, so this will have to do for now. An outer border has yet to be added and I will need to add some more batting to one side as my piece just wasn’t big enough. That will not be a problem to do later on as it is very easy to piece batting. So, KDL …. have I put a smile on your face? 

On another topic, Julieta from Romania left a comment on my Sun Kissed post: I love sun flowers. May-I have a pattern for it?All your works are beautiful. Thank you Julieta (your email address is no-reply, so I’m replying to your question here) for your comments. Back in July of this year, I had a giveaway for the pattern for Sun Kissed and it was won by another blogger. Sorry. 

Have a great day!

Siggies and quilt shows

I have started on the adventure of collecting siggies. My first block arrived last week from The Netherlands and my first block in return is being mailed today. As well, I am making an extra block and will be doing something with them a long way down the road from now.

It is ironic, but when I first saw the siggies going around, I had decided there was no interest there for me …. and here I am today participating in these exchanges. I find my tastes changing all the time and that pleases me.

Now, for photos of 3 quilt shows (Barrie, Scarborough and Ingersoll), please stop by Debra’s blog to see photos. I made it to 2 of the shows and the quilts were wonderful. Debra is so organized with her photos and there are a lot of them.

While at the quilt show in Barrie, we ran across this couple. It was their jackets that caught our attention and when we commented about the jackets, the gentleman heard us and he opened his jacket and said that the lining was by Jenny Beyer. Now, how about that ….. he is definitely into his wife’s quilting. They were so kind to pose for us. It turns out that the lady is from my hometown of North Bay and she won an award in Houston for her husband’s jacket. It is made out of recycled ties and she used leather in the yolks, cuffs collar and hem. Her jacket is an African theme with applique pieces on top of the background diamonds/triangles. Talk about walking art .... both jackets are wonderful!

Have a great day!

Bags Down Under

Here is my bag that Lynda sent to me. I was at lunch when my DH called me on my cell to tell me that a parcel from Australia had arrived. As I was lunching with others, I couldn’t just gulp down my food, say my goodbye’s and run home to open my parcel. Darn, darn, darn.

Anyway, the wait was well deserved. Lynda made me the perfect bag and will be used for keeping my hand piecing projects in. I love it ….. there are pockets galore with this bag …. perfect for storing all kinds of stuff in.Lynda, your embroidery is superb and I love the design you did on the front pocket.
And inside, there are still more pockets and some FQ’s that Lynda included in my parcel. I’ve been trying to figure out how she made this bag. Very different , very intriguing is all that I can say. Thank you, Lynda for my bag!

Now, on another note, the bag I made has found its’ home with Vickie. Scroll down to my Sept. 11 post to see how I have displayed her bag and then hop on over to Humpty Doo, Australia to see how Vickie displayed her bag. Great minds think alike!

Finally, a big ‘Thank you’ to lovely Linda, for hosting this bag/bucket swap. It was fun and we all have great bags/buckets to show off.

Have a great day!