Vacation!

I'm heading out to my summer cabin for July. No electricity, plumbing or cell phone service. I'll take along an appliqué project, some knitting, crocheting and lots of books. When I get back to civilization, I'll be refreshed and will have a million new ideas for creating projects. Sadly, I'll be back to work and there won't be time to work on my ideas. Oh well, that's the way life goes. Once I'm retired there'll be lots of hours for sewing, crafting and art projects.

Throwback Thursday; Hand Marbled Fabric

In the late 90s, our guild was invited to the home of one of our members to do a hand marbled fabric workshop. We all brought bagged lunches and enjoyed a fun day. I still find a smidgen or two of these fabrics in my hoard and incorporate them into scrap quilts.

When It's Time to Admit Defeat

I wanted to finish this quilt by the end of June, but it doesn't look like it's going to happen. Too many things are happening right now, working two jobs doesn't help either.  Oh well, I can finish this one for next summer. I had been free motion quilting for a few hours each evening for the past week, but still no closer to being finished. Finally, I admitted defeat. I'll take a different quilt to use in my summer cabin, there are plenty of them to choose from.

Throwback Thursday; Picket Fence

I posted a picture of this quilt in 2010, but I found a different photo that shows the colours better. My old film camera didn't do justice to anything- or was it the operator? :) The pattern for this quilt came from the book "Yes You Can Make Stunning Quilts From Simple Patterns", by Judy Martin. It's called "Picket Fence". I made it for a person from work, sometime between mid to late 1990s.

DRiFT Creative Apparel on Etsy

Since I like to encourage creativity, I'd like to give a shout out to a new Etsy store my friends have created. They have launched a line of clothing, DRiFT Creative Apparel. I wish them great success in their endeavour.

Throwback Thursday; 1987 Summer Series Class at Red Deer College

In 1987, my mom and I took a Summer Series class at the Red Deer College. The class was "Fabric Manipulation" by Judy Vilette. (I hope I spelled her last name correctly). We learned about Seminole Patchwork and how to put different block units together. I was expecting my first and only child at the time, hence the garish yellow outfit. My project was the green runner and Mom's was blue. In the group photo, she is the one in the flowered top and white pants- or "slacks" as she called them. :)

Goal For the End of June

I've been working on this Sister's Choice quilt since last year, I want to get it finished so I can use it in my summer cabin. I made the blocks, using a free pattern from Bonnie Hunter's Quiltville blog. I started quilting it last June, but then was sidetracked with several different projects. I'll try to work on it as much as possible now so I can get it finished. I decided to throw caution to the wind and try a funky quilting design on a traditional pattern. Since the quilt is for myself, I don't have to worry if anybody else likes it or not. I'm sure the quilt police will frown on my idea. :) Anyway, I thought the pebbles and bubbles reminded me of the waves Of Tagish Lake crashing onto the beach, my favourite place in the world.

California Beach, Tagish Lake, Yukon

Tropical Breeze by Linda H.

Linda H made this queen size quilt, named "Tropical Breeze" for her daughter. The pattern came from McCalls Quilts online free patterns. The front is made with batiks, the back is made from hand dyed or similar type fabrics. The blocks on the back are huge, they measure twenty inches each. Good way to use up odds and ends of fabric.

Throwback Thursday; When Our Raffle Quilt Was Stolen

In 1995, our guild's raffle quilt was stolen, it was displayed in the front window of a local newspaper office. I sent an article about it to the Canadian Quilters Association publication and they printed it. The name of our guild is "Mountain Magic Quilters' Guild" but the editor of the magazine changed it to "Magic Mountain" for some reason. We never had a clue where the quilt ended up even after all these years. I made a scrapbook that told the story of the stolen quilt and how we had to make a new one to offer as a prize in the raffle. I don't know where the scrapbook is, maybe it's being stored at a guild member's house with the rest of the photo albums. Ever since that theft, we've been very careful to always guard our quilts. The quilt pattern was from a series that Quilters Newsletter Magazine had many years ago.