Great Weekend!

My trip to the big city was a fun-filled weekend!

I should have taken pictures of our little pile of "giveaway" items on the curb Saturday morning, but we (my daughter and I) were wanting to hit the streets to see what was on offer in other areas. This was Winnipeg's first Giveaway Weekend and you can read a report at this blog. It was fun to tour around the different areas of the City . . . we didn't find anything that we were wanting, but were able to get rid of stuff that we no longer wanted! We did find a Church rummage sale that I made a wonderful purchase at, but I haven't had a chance to take any photos just yet - later this week. I still need to get someone to help me get it out of my trunk . . . maybe when I see it in proper daylight I'll be asking myself "what were you thinkin'?" Let's hope not!

12:00 Noon brought the opening of the Show Homes for the Parade of Homes in some of the new developments in the City. All I can say about them is WOW!!! I could have spent the entire two days doing just that . . . the doors, the flooring, the kitchens, the new products . . . WOW! We started with the least expensive home listed at $209,000 and decided we better stop when we went through the $700,000++ home.

I thought that this was a very unique display wall - empty frames painted a crisp white and then any item could be hung within the frame. That particular grey on the wall seemed to be appearing in a lot of the show homes . . . must be an "in" color this year - the white frames certainly popped off the wall at you!

And here's me with my bathtub color "sample card" on a new line of arborite counter top - I've never seen that striated design before and the color was pretty close to the paint chip - there is going to be a large vessel sink set on top of the countertop so not too much of the design will show anyway - this seemed fairly light and unassuming. Now I need to have someone research what line this is and where to find it.

This was a shot of some of the 12,500 people that packed the MTS Centre on Saturday night. The Keith Urban tickets were my Mother’s Day present and Candace has had this marked on her calendar right from the first moment the announcement was made that he was coming to Winnipeg. I’m not a big fan of large crowds, but I must say that the folks in our row stayed put the entire show and didn’t do that up and down and “let-me-out” “let-me-in” thing all night long.

Lady Antebellum was the opening act and they were quite good – not a big fan of the “lady” part but who am I to say – carries a tune better than me I suppose! Quite a few recognizable songs that have hit the radio recently.

Ah! And then there was Keith!

Seemed like a really awesome down-to-earth kind of guy and came across as very sincere. Made sure that all the fans, in just about every section (except ours!) of the MTS Centre had the opportunity to have an up close performance. Not only did he have the front stage, he also had a mid-floor stage and even went into the crowd on the side opposite ours. Certainly worth the price of the ticket – not that I was paying, though!

Excellent voice, awesome guitar playing and wonderful extra large screens to see the whole thing. Picture taking was a huge challenge with all the different lighting and long-distance focusing headaches, but I was able to get a few good shots and I’m happy that I had the opportunity to go. Thank you Candace!

I’ll be back in a few days with photos of my recent antique purchase and maybe I can squeeze in some sewing to share with you also.

‘til next time,

M.

Just dropping in . . .

for a minute . . .

to let you know that I got all the blocks done . . .

and the quilt top is complete!

 

This was a tutorial over at the Moda Bake Shop by Rachel Griffith and something about it just begged me to make it.  Mine is quite a bit bigger than the featured quilt – I used 12 fat quarters cut into 5” squares, so I think when all is said and done it should measure around 68”x68” – a nice size snuggle quilt.  When I was looking for a quick, easy project to work on last Saturday (something that didn’t require too much thought!), this is what I pulled out of the stack.  I like it . . . the white sets off the deeper, country colors.

This quilt, when completed, is a planned Christmas present for someone – I now have three months to finish it – three months exactly now that I look at the calendar.  Are you ready for Christmas?

You also need to pop over to Paulette's to enter her really cool giveaway – I love that pattern and the fabrics look delicious!

Well I’m off to the big City this weekend – Keith Urban is calling my name – we’ll see how that goes!

Have a great weekend everyone.

‘til next time,

M.

A Little Quilting, A Little Destruction, A Little Weird . . .

Saturday was a quilting day!

Ten of us got together and sewed for the whole day.  Everything was perfect . . . good company, good laughs, good projects – the only thing that was missing was the AIR CONDITIONING!  Of course Saturday turned out to be one of our hottest days of the year and there we were slaving over hot irons.  I even saw a special flannel project being worked on . . . I think we’ll check the forecast before starting another one of those next time.

I shouldn’t have, but I did – started a new project.  It’s going together really quick so it shouldn’t be a problem – right?  I have until December 25th to finish it, so I should be OK.  Famous last words!

 

 

Sunday was destruction day.  New windows arrived on Thursday and we wanted to get them in as soon as we could.  I wish I had taken a before picture before the siding had come off – this picture looks like the house should be condemned!  Honest though it didn’t look like this before we started – it had two nice windows there without a door – we had that boarded over a few years ago when we re-did the kitchen.

 

By the end of the day we were able to get everything tidied up and the new windows in place.  The upstairs windows will be tackled later this week and then the new siding will soon follow.  There are also rumors of shutters, window boxes and new landscaping, but we’ll have to wait and see what year that all materializes.  Right now I’m just happy with new, fancy windows.

This is a new little idea that I came up with this morning . . . weird, right?

That morning brain kicks out some interesting stuff!  Stay tuned to see if it morphs into anything worthwhile . . .

‘til next time,

M.

Evening Stroll

Since I didn't have any photos in yesterday's post, I thought it was only fair to get a few in for today.

Actually I felt kinda guilty that I had a whole post without a single photo in it, so I took the camera outside last night and wandered around. I actually thought maybe it was too late to be taking any photos, but snapped away at a few interesting things. The little pathway lights had already come on and cast some very interesting shadows and detail.

Look at the background in this one . . . I can't decide whether I want to focus on the background or on the details.

Seems like everything has some kind of berry on it right now, and I couldn't resist getting a shot of these two snuggle berries.

OK! Next time I'll have something quilt related . . . I promise!

'til next time,

M.

Mid-Week Blahs . . .

Seems like a long week already and here we’re only sitting at Wednesday!

I attended the Peace by Piece quilt group meeting on Monday night in Brandon and had a wonderful time hearing what everyone had been up to over the summer months. They are in the process of planning their Quilt Bonanza show on the 26th . . . not too many days left before the big day.

I won’t be attending the quilt show – but my quilts will be! My daughter gave me a ticket to the Keith Urban concert for Mother’s Day and it is also on the 26th – I can’t be in two places at once – DARN!

If you have some time today, stop over at this new blog . . . very interesting! Gum Tree Designers are a group of Australian ladies who have started this blog to give, that’s right, give away some of their designs for free – starting October 5th. But if you stop over there in the next while, you can enter for some wonderful giveaways by visiting each designer’s site . . . and the prizes look pretty darn nice!

The only thing I’ve been REALLY working on these past few days is trying to figure out Wordpress – does anyone out there use it and if you do, what do you think of it?

I do have a quilting weekend planned (at least on Saturday) and I can’t wait! . . . which project(s) should I take? . . . oh these darn decisions!

‘til next time,’

M

I Won!

What a wonderful, happy day!  The sun was shining and the mailman woman was very generous!

A week or two ago I won a giveaway over at BJ's  blog, and now I have some of her new line of fabric called SOHO from StudioE Fabrics in my hot little hands! BJ Lantz is a very talented illustrator and designer and I’ve been stalking following her for a while now . . . I’m so jealous that she has all these talents and can express them so well!   In my next lifetime I’ll come back with the ability to channel my creativity more constructively!  Thank you so much BJ for inspiring me with these wonderful prints. Of course this has started another mind-whirling design episode and I have narrowed it down to two designs that I would like to try with this fabric.  Now I’m just looking for that elusive free day that just doesn’t seem to materialize.Yellow has always been my favorite color (as if I’ve never mentioned that before!) and this just so happens to be one of the favorite prints in the selections that BJ sent to me – I think this is a perfect print. 

And this morning while I was waiting for the internet man to call to help fix my internet problems (which he didn’t) – I fused and cut my little pieces for the September Bunny Hill BOM.  My Scottie dog is just a bit on the “mature” side as you will notice a little bit of grey mixed in with his darker undertones . . . I think he is very distinguished.  How’s your Scottie dog coming along?

‘til next time,

M.

Progress . . .

I LOVE yo-yo’s and I really love them in this new design that I’ve been working on.

One of my little chores over the weekend was to finish the hand-quilting on this quilt and I even progressed to starting sewing the binding down.  Makes me a happy camper . . . those yo-yo’s will get sewn down sooner than I thought!

The little bug waited for me and we had a great time together finishing off this block.  Looks a little blank so far, but once the buttons get stitched on at the end I think it will all pull together.  Maybe even sew on some bead sprinkles just to see how delicious that would look.

My little sheep turned Canadian and went with the July 1st theme with the maple leaf centre.  Once again it looks a little blank, but I’m thinking about a bit more embroidery maybe and of course some buttons.  I’m glad I waited for the wool to come for the little sheep – he looks soooooo warm!

I finished sewing on the binding for my second completed Loonie Blooms quilt.  This one is for my own wall and for a sample for a class I will be teaching.

I have also posted the link to the tutorial and also the link for downloading the templates in my sidebar.  So make sure and get your copy and give this a try . . . lots of fun without a huge time-commitment or fabric requirement.  Please send me photos if you make one – I’d love to see different color combos.  If anyone is having trouble with the downloading of the templates, please let me know.

 

I was also able to do some computer work over the weekend and am getting very close to sending the instructions off to my pattern tester for this little cutie.

 

One more proofread and a little cover design will get this one moving out the door.

I did manage to get my shapes traced out for the September Bunny Hill BOM.

But that happened this morning at 6:30 so that is as far as I’ve gotten . . . maybe tonight I’ll get a little further.

 

This is what one of the views of the harvest season looked like on Friday on my way home.  Canola has been swathed and some combines were out working on other crops.  The weekend weather was beautiful so I’m sure there was progress made by most farmers.

 

This was another scene on the landscape on Friday afternoon . . . new pipelines are going through our area and they have been enjoying the nicer weather also.  This particular crew had the Canadian flag waving as they worked away . . . first time I’ve seen that in the two years they’ve been in and around the area.  It kinda caught my eye . . . something different than all the big machinery and piles of dirt that I was getting used to seeing.

What’s happening in your part of the world?  What did you do this weekend?

 

‘til next time,

M.

Weekend Plans . . .

I have a little bug waiting . . .

plus, a little sheep . . .

and a little bit of binding, and . . .

 

some hand quilting.

What are your plans for the weekend?

Are you all ready for the next Bunny Hill block tomorrow?

I certainly hope to be!

‘til next time,

M.