The (not so) Sunshine Coast

There were a few moments of the warm, sunny variety, but mostly overcast skies. That's okay - last weekend's getaway was all about family, not weather. Plus, it was great for photography. I do find it a challenge to take good photos in glaring sunshine.

The cottage we stayed in was right on the beach, had a gorgeous western view out front and a hot tub out back. The kids were thrilled. There were many games of Bananagrams, Set, ScrabbleSlam and one game of the 'real Scrabble'. There was even cable TV, so we snuck in some early morning World Cup Soccer (yay Holland!!). We managed a hike to Skookumchuck Narrows, skimboarding, a beach campfire complete with Jiffy Pop and S'mores, a trip to town for dinner one night and some magazine indulgence.

I was able to finish the third book of the Stieg Larsson (The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo) series. This was supposed to be my summer reading, but I plowed through all three books over the past 3 weeks and was all done the day after school ended. Although I'm sad the story of Mikael and Lisbeth is over, it is exciting that I have the whole summer available for more reading!! I also did a wee bit of redwork embroidery for a little table-topper I've been wanting to do for my kitchen (no photos of that yet, sorry).

Here is a little photo essay from the weekend.

Love our purple west coast starfish

Collecting nectar from beach side wild roses

We managed a very short canoe ride, but it was too windy & wavy for my comfort level.

A sweet bakery in the woods, Egmont, B.C.

Hiking in to Skookumchuck Narrows

Teensy salal blooms on the forest floor

A post-hike car nap

The makings of a yummy S'more!

Campfire Jiffy Pop

It's Canada Day tomorrow, so we'll be off at the parade with my sister and her family who are visiting from PEI, no doubt all decked out in our red and white with maple leaves painted on our cheeks. I love Canada Day. Happy Holiday!!!

Winding down....

Our school year is almost at a close. Only 3 full days left and then an hour next Tuesday to receive report cards (why do they do this to us???).

The kids' school has the best sports day every year. Last Friday, the students (and a good number of parents & siblings) came dressed in their house colours. Every member of the same family is in the same colour house. Our family is green. The kids go crazy with coloured hair spray, face paint, hats, wigs, sunglasses...you name it! This year's theme was Hawaiian, so there were plenty of grass skirts and leis on hand as well. House teams spend the morning in friendly competition that starts off with the cheer (Green team rocked it!!), grade relays, parent relays, then group games and finally the grade-level tug of war. This year they had a parents tug of war. The red team seemed to have an unusually high number of beefy firefighter-dads: they won.

I have never witnessed such a display of flexibility from T before!

D is a circus acrobat - the limbo is made for her.

The mass hulahoop stamina contest is a popular one every year, too.

I feel the need to point out that these shorty-shorts were on loan from a fellow green-team cheerleader...they have been returned!

Green team finished the day second overall, narrowly missing the big win that was taken by Yellow for the first time in recent memory! Yay Yellow Team! (we practice good sportsmanship).

This is my favourite shirt of the day, worn by one of our student teachers:

Things will be a little quiet here on the blog over the next week or so. T's elementary grad is tomorrow night, then we are heading up the coast for some R&R with B's sister and on Tuesday, my sister and her family arrive for a week's visit!!! Some long time readers may remember that my sister lives Far, Far Away (not in the land of Heather Ross, but the land of Anne of Green Gables! Yes, she lives on PEI, clear on the other side of Canada!). We are anxiously awaiting their arrival. And cleaning the house. A lot.

It's a good thing my Pfaff is in for it's annual check-up. I needed a little sewing pause to re-charge my creative batteries and focus on some other things that I've let slide....like the vacuuming.

Back soon!

Sidelined

Gasp. Gasp.

That's me, coming up for air. What a month June has been so far and we still have a week and a half to go! The quilt show was a biggie in terms of time, energy and excitement. As soon as it was over, I parked myself in front of the monitor to finish design and layout of the Grade 7 grad yearbook for T's class. That is now all safely at the printer's. Then, there was my fall magazine pattern and sample to complete for Heather, a two-day field hockey tournament, teacher gifts to buy on behalf of the class, the first meeting of the Vancouver Modern Quilt Guild, school Sports Day, D's year end Cirkids performance and a rather feeble attempt at Father's Day yesterday. I don't often lose my mojo, but I'm getting pretty close here! I even took a nap on Saturday!

I know I still owe you a photo of my blooming 9-patch from the show. The weather has either been brilliant sunshine, or rain, so I still don't have a decent one to put up here.

Instead, I'm going to show you this amazing dress that I spied on the sidelines of D's final field hockey game of the season on Saturday. Meet Kirsten:

Her niece plays on D's team. She is a video game producer and is about to launch a new venture: a gaming company run by women, that creates apps and games just for women! Gaming is not my thing though, so we stuck to embroidery and crewelwork. Kirsten created this masterpiece during many plane trips for work....

I was sure to let her know about the next local Swap-o-rama-rama happening this Saturday at the Vancouver Museum. She's gotta wear this dress!

This may be my favourite part...a mini dress-on-a-dress complete with peace medallion.

Oh, and the field hockey game was the BEST!! D scored a blistering goal on a sweep shot from the right wing and assisted on a couple of others. It was smokin' hot for those girls out on the turf, but they all played their best game ever and won 5-0.

The rest of this week is full of driving for end-of-year field trips, T's band concert, T's graduation party, teacher present presentations....all culminating in a family trip up the coast on Friday for a couple of nights of R&R in a beach cottage. Phew.

I may try to squeeze in a nap or two. Is June this insane for everyone?

Autumn Dyes

Here is the first of my two quilts that were in my guild show last weekend. The show was incredible. We had about 250 quilts, more than 1500 visitors and heaps of compliments from all sides. It was a ton of work, but so incredibly gratifying to see people enjoying our quilts.

I first saw a photo in Quilter's World Magazine of this wallhanging by Ellen Stuckey (I believe she's from Indiana, but I can't find a blog or website for her). I hung on to a colour photocopy of it for several years and finally found the perfect fabric.

My friend Kathy had hand-dyed many yards of fabric and sold FQ's at another guild show a few years ago...for only $2.50 each! I gathered up as many as I could and saved them until last November when I finally, finally found the time to devote to making this free-cut, curved-piecing leafy number.

Fall is such a beautiful time of year here in Canada. My favourite part of it is the smell. I adore the smell of a freshly raked pile of leaves.

Most of the quilting was done with my IDT on (that's the built-in Pfaff walking foot) except for inside the leaves, which was free-motion. I used the quilting lines to define some extra leaves, for balance.

I used several different colours of thread and a couple of variegated ones, all Mettler 40 wt. Due to the oddly shaped top and bottom of the panel, I chose to face the quilt instead of bind it. I did this same finishing method on this mini quilt. I'm sorry that once again I forgot to photograph the steps involved...I promise to do a tutorial on this with another quilt soon.

I look forward to hanging this on my office door come September. It got great response at the show, which is always nice! I enjoyed the process of constructing this quilt, but I've gotta say, free-cutting with scissors and building oddly shaped blocks to be trimmed down later sure wastes a lot of fabric.

I'll be back soon with Tuscan Nightfall, my huge blooming 9-patch quilt.

HEADLINE: Doll Quilts Inspire Ooohs and Aaaahs!

Just in case my DQS9 partner is stalking me (howdi pardner!), I created this lovely collection of quilties that I ♥ big time.

For those reading that have no idea why I'm writing in secret code, it's like this: I have once again signed up for one of the most amazing swaps running on Flickr. It's a blind swap (we don't know who is sewing for us, only who we have to sew for). To make things fun, or a wee bit stressful depending on your personality, participants are encouraged to make an inspiration mosaic to help their partner get to know their tastes, preferences and quirky obsessions. This is supposed to help my partner figure out what to make for me:

1. Full view of DQS7 quilt, 2. DQS7--Ready to GO!, 3. dollpumpkin 004, 4. Doll Quilt Swap 7, 5. dqs7 received from flossybossy, 6. DQS7-closeup, 7. DQS8 progress, 8. Mini Lone Star, 9. DQS 8, 10. DQS8 finished, 11. it's mine!, 12. Doll Quilt Swap 8, 13. DQS8, 14. Heart/h: fuller view, 15. Sherri's Block---February, 16. up close top 1/2, 17. Shoo Fly Quilt - DQS8, 18. Alphabet Quilt, finished, 19. Finished Doll Quilt, 20. dqs6 - finished!, 21. DQS7 Sneak Peek 2, 22. Doll Quilt Swap 7 SENT, 23. Abstract #5 Mini Embroidered Art Quilt, 24. Dresden progress, 25. dqs8

But here's the deal...for some people this can be extremely daunting. So, I'm here to say this to my partner: Don't panic. Enjoy yourself. I like A LOT of things when it comes to quilting (exceptions being cats, brown and Thimbleberries fabric). In fact, I am allergic to two of those things.

Making a mosaic of favourite quilts can be really revealing. For instance, it showed me that I am drawn to quilts that have a definite positive/negative thing going on with a clearly defined background (in most cases, white, grey or natural linen). I like graphic designs. Wonky piecing pleases me. Embroidery for embellishment or quilting also makes my heart flutter a little (I've had it checked out, nothing to worry about). Triangles, crosses and X's seem to show up a lot, don't they?

I think I'm pretty easy to please actually. One final note, I do appreciate a nicely finished binding.

So partner, snoop away, scroll through some of my blog posts, make yourself at home, get to know me a little if you don't already. I can't wait to see what you come up with!

Nature's Gift to me this week...

What have you received?

Making Memories

I've been working feverishly preparing more items to sell in the guild members boutique at our show this Friday and Saturday. I am so excited...the show is always tons of fun and a great way to connect with all of the 170 guild members, other quilters from out of town and the quilt-adoring public. I just love it!

I've been making memories....memory games, actually.

Using a 2.5" square ruler, I fussy cut pairs of fabric motifs, then fuse them to one side of double-sided fusible Peltex (or Timtex). I fuse recycled wool (from skirts and blazers) onto the other side and zigzag stitch around the edges. Then, everything goes into a simple tie bag.

This one is a 'rainy day' version with 9 pairs of umbrellas. I wish I had more of this fabric as this is the perfect Vancouver set!

I'll be back with my own little mini photo-essay of the poppy life-cycle tomorrow.

Pardon me now while I sew a sleeve on the back of my queen-sized show quilt. Next week I'll post photos of my two show quilts...wouldn't want to spoil the surprise!

Art For People

We had a great weekend! Lots of things were going on but I managed to squeeze in quite a bit of sewing, which makes me very happy.

Saturday morning was an early field hockey game down by the ocean for D, so I took the opportunity to go for an enjoyable jog/walk on the seawall before the game started. Afterwards, we came home so she could get busy with homework and I could make this little number in preparation for an afternoon visit with a friend:

My friend Martine and her husband Andy, the amazing couple behind Art for People were in town showing their art and selling it to benefit Nepal House and their Art for People foundation. I don't get to see the fabulous Martine very often, so I wanted to bring a little gift along.

I had some scraps of Amy Butler home-dec weight cotton I was able to use in this one.

Their show was held in a local artist work/live loft that is used as an art therapy practice (both Andy and Martine are art therapists). Here we are on the balcony together.

B and I really wanted to support our friends and acquire a piece of their original art. It was tough to decide. Martine had done a series of horses and elephants (my choices) and Andy had done a bicycle series (B's choice). Plus, there were quilt-ish houses - ooooh, tough decision!

Much of their work is painted on recycled doors, wood and fabric. There were several multi-media collages using paper, corrugated cardboard and paint. On pre-approval from my SIL, we bought her an elephant painting and then chose this one for ourselves.

I am so happy. Blue Horse & Red Flower II looks perfect in our dining room. Thanks Martine & Andy for a great visit and your beautiful art.

You can see more of their art posted on the Art for People website - go take a look!

Why yes, Quilter's Connection will make it....

to the States. At least, this copy will! The handy dandy random number generator suggested #68 (out of 73 comments!) and here it is:

Tiffany said...

Oh my goodness, how exciting for you to be published. Congratulations on your article and best wishes for the continued success of Quilter's Connection magazine. I'd love to get my hands on your new mag, it looks beautiful. Do you know, will QC make it to the states?

Well Tiffany, this copy will definitely make it, along with some other goodies!

There's another fun part to this win - turns out Tiffany is my partner in the Fancy Pin Cushion Pass that Amy is running over at During Quiet Time. How excellent!! Tiffany and I just met this week. Yet another fine example of quilter's karma that I just love.

I'm sorry I can't send a copy of the magazine to all of you, but instead I will leave you with some delectable eye candy (call it Sunday Stash a couple of days early). This arrived yesterday.

After the other posts I've done this week, I can almost see your eyes popping out....wha? who sent her that? Don't worry, I actually paid for this stuff, it wasn't sent by yet another generous friend (well, Jackie is generous, but she is running a business after all. And, I couldn't resist her Memorial Day special of 20% off). Yummmmm.

Check out Canton Village Quiltworks. You will find gorgeous fabrics, FQ bundles like my new roman glass/paperweight treasure, Essex cotton/linen blend like that beautiful lime green solid on top of the yardage stack up there, and plenty of Kona solids (I ordered crocus, eggplant, glacier & charcoal). What I didn't show you in the picture is my new KONA colour card!!! Yippee! No more guessing, now I can choose just the right solid for my projects, out of a possible 221 colours. The cards are only $16....who wouldn't want their very own?

Wooly (Mammoth) Gift

That's what Paulette sent me! A mammoth collection of her gorgeous hand-dyed, recycled wool! What I thought was a joke on her blog last week was actually a little contest with a big prize...all I had to do was guess who Paulette's dinner guest was going to be. Easy, peasy for a regular reader like me (plus, I totally get Paulette's humour, so I just knew the answer would be the "Shower Lurker").

At the risk of all of you thinking I am way too spoiled by my blogging buddies, I have to show you what arrived today:

I couldn't believe it when I opened this treasure chest of wool. Then, when I pulled it all out, it seemed to grow to be even MORE wool....see?

Thank you so much for sharing your beautiful wool stash Paulette. I look forward to using it up in some great projects!!

A Cow's Point

The incredibly talented, prolific, funny, generous and all-around lovely Nina-Lise of Mrs. Moen sent me this wonderful mini quilt! I'm so lucky!

You can read all about the inspiration for this cow series here, but I can tell you it originated with a quote by Phoebe (or was it Joey?) on the TV series Friends. She kindly sent me Moo Point V. Nina-Lise often works in a series which is a great way to perfect techniques and challenge yourself to try new things. If you've never visited her blog, please treat yourself soon! There is no shortage of inspiration there. You'll find clearly written and photographed tutorials, fun and unique quilts, new and exciting techniques for writing on quilts and lots of good humour.

Thank you for sharing your work with me Nina-Lise - you are a great friend. I love my Moo Point!!

Speaking of great friends, another blogging pal of mine Carol of mamacjt recently made my day, too. I bought a copy of her fabulous Christmas tree skirt pattern and was whinging about not being able to find any clear reds and greens locally. So, what did she do? She sent me some strips right from her stash! How nice is that?!

AND a brand new mag that was not yet on newstands in Canada. It's gorgeous!

I have such lovely friends. Thank you!!!