The olden days...

Is this not the most gorgeous set of old irons? I just fell in love with these beauties lined up all tickety-boo in the window sill. A few weekends ago, B and I ventured to B.C.'s south interior, to wine country, to celebrate our 15th wedding anniversary. Between the wine tasting, we rode our mountain bikes on a section of the Kettle Valley Railway. After a couple of hours of climbing out of Naramata, we came upon the Chute Lake Lodge. Now, this is definitely the Lodge That Time Forgot. Collections of antiques and curiosities were everywhere!

In this day and age of Rowenta Power Steam Pressing Systems, it is always nice to look back and reflect on the tools that were available to our grandmothers and great-grandmothers as they created their quilts from worn-out family clothing and linens. I'm thinking our foremothers must have had rather large biceps...those irons are H E A V Y! Those are the times I think of as the olden days. My kids, however, occasionally ask me questions about my olden days, "you know, like when you were in high school, Mom." Jeesh.

I'm off on a shopping trip this morning, looking for my mystery quilt fabrics. I need three fabrics (a light, medium and dark) of my main colour - pink - and the same of it's complimentary colour - green. While I am amassing quite a stash of too-small and worn out stripey cotton shirts, recycled clothing just doesn't provide the yardage I need for this project. Therefore, I will go the modern route and buy it. Brand new. Crisp. Delicious fabric.

I'll be back soon to show you my mystery quilt collection!

Gathered Threads

On most Fridays, a lively, lovely, talented group of friends gather to stitch. The gatherings, referred to as "stitch" and comprised of friends, referred to as "Gathered Threads", take place in our homes on a rotating basis. The entire group is 9, but sometimes we're only 3, or 4, or 5 depending on other commitments. There is usually lots of LIVELY conversation. A small sampling of today's topics: quilts for Canadian soldiers returned from Afghanistan, the B.C. wine controversy, anniversary weekend escapades (more later) and the importance of having a will (better get on that). Best of all, we support each other, we are free to express opinions (yay, because we all have'em!) and all of us love fabric, needle and thread.


I've been missing these gals all summer - it was just too difficult to pull myself away from swimming pools, the beach, bike rides, backyard badminton and other holiday adventures to attend Stitch. Now that T & D are back in school, I'm back at Stitch. Yippee!



Today it was an embroidery project for me (Crabapple Hill #411).



These hands were busy with binding.



And these ones, applique.



But these little puppy-paws had to wait patiently on the porch!

Happy weekend!

Mystery Machine

Are you thinkin' Shaggy & Scooby? Velma, Daphnie & Fred? Well, under normal circumstances I would be too, however this mystery is quilting-related and I don't think those kids had enough time off from hunting down Swamp Creatures and Snow Monsters to pick up needle and thread.

Last night at our guild meeting my fabulous friend Dianne introduced us to this year's program. It's a mystery quilt project! Dianne is a rare person; one who actually owns a copy of EQ6 and isn't afraid to use it. She spent her summer (in part) designing a lap-sized quilt with month by month instructions for us to make it. For $10 you could choose a sealed paper bag from her overflowing basket. At every guild meeting up to May 2010, we'll receive another page of instructions, each one taking us closer to solving the mystery. It is really fun at the end of the year to see how different and amazing all the quilts are. Plus, you have an entire month to complete each step - surely I can do that. Yes, I can.

Later in the meeting, we were instructed to open our bags and take a look at the first set of instructions. Along with the instructions, everyone got one of these:

I'm so happy mine wasn't brown. I mean, I can work with brown, but just not as my main-inspiration-sort-of-fabric. It's just too......brown. I have lots of favourite pink fabric, and pink does go with brown, so you never know. The instructions for the first month explain that we should use one of these:

...to find a complimentary colour for our gumball in several different values. I have owned a colour wheel for years, but rarely pull it out when putting fabric together for a project. I mostly just 'wing it' and go with what looks right to me. As a result, Results Have Varied.

Stay tuned as I'll post on my progress each month.

I'm off to find my mini-skirt and go-go boots so I can start solving this mystery!

La Tour Eiffel

Bonjour mes amis! Today for you, un petit projet adorable (oh, how I wish I was bilingual). My niece who lives waaaaaaay far away on Prince Edward Island (not Paris, France) will soon celebrate her 8th birthday. In her second year of French Immersion, said niece is loving the French language, and like many young girls, harbours romantic visions of life in Paris a la Madeleine (without the unfortunate orphan part). Me, I dream of warm baguettes and brie, a delicious cafe au lait and a Hermes scarf tied artfully around my neck.....ah, c'est la vie!


My ultra-creative sister has a plan to transform her home into the neighbourhoods of Paris for the birthday party. Luckily, I just so happened to have an Eiffel Tower stitchery on hand (pattern from Australian Country Threads mag) and was able to transform it into a quilted pillow cover that I will soon send on it's way....waaaaaaay across the country (almost 5000 km!).






Oh, how I wish we all lived closer together. Or that our national airline provided flights between sisters in the same country at a rate reasonable for annual visits.

Imagine, we could actually rendez-vous in Paris for much less. Quelle bonne idee!



Bonne fete Mademoiselle Fiona!

What's in a Name?

When my children were in Montessori pre-school, one of our favourite teachers was Donna D. One day we invited Donna over for tea in the garden. When she saw all of our giant poppy seed pods towering over all of the other leaves (and let's face it, weeds), she asked if we'd ever tried using them as stampers. Pre-schoolers don't need much more encouragement than that, when it comes to inkpads, paper and something to stamp out over and over and over!

When I saw the amazing symmetry and lines in the stamped images, I knew right away I had found my 'logo', my 'company name' and something to look forward to. One day, I might even sell something I'd made, and this would be me: Poppyprint.

I mean, just look at these gorgeous images! Nature is astounding in her perfection, especially when it comes to the garden. I'm a 'plant it and hope it lives' gardener. These poppies have thrived under my negligence and really taken over. I can only hope my 'at home' creating will be equally prolific with just a little bit more care and nurturing...

The velvety bits are perfectly suited to stamping - they soak up the ink and transfer it back to paper beautifully. The trick is to not let the pods dry out too much, because then the velvet dries up and gets too hard. Every image is slightly different from the next, and all of them are lovely. I'm going to try stamping on fabric with next year's crop!

Thank you Donna D.!

Trying it out

Can I do it? Can I actually start a blog this easily?Lets find out.

Here's my MuMu Bijoux quilt. My favourite! I made it after learning free-form paper doll piecing at a workshop. There are hidden sea creatures in the actual quilting...I put them there as a fun eye-spy game for my kids. The sea waves are quilted with a 9wt pearl cotton hand-dyed by Ellen Noble (purchased at APNQ several years ago). I wound the skein onto a bobbin, then used it through a size 90 topstitching needle.

The girls and their dresses were inspired by my late mother-in-law and her love of the muumuu. She would purchase fabric in Maui every time she visited, then return home and make herself a comfy muumuu to wear around the house. I like to think of it as a real-life reflection of what women look like on the beach - all colours, all sizes, all fabulous!