It's Been Busy . . .

. . . way too busy!

As many of you already know, I work for a municipality which includes the wonderful job of tax collection.  This always falls with a deadline of October 31st and is one of the busiest days of the year.

This year, because of the weather I think, the whole past week has been extremely busy.  So I must apologize for being MIA for quite some time!

This little lady is another reason.  Two weeks ago she showed up at our house and decided she really liked it here.  We tried to ignore her, and not feed her (that's a really hard thing to do!) . . . . and she still wouldn't leave. 

She is the friendliest, purriest, happy little kittie that we've seen in quite some time . . . unfortunately it was the wrong time and place for a new pet in our lives.

I put up posters at the office and asked everyone who came in - "Do you need a cat?"  I have now heard just about every cat story that is out there . . . everyone has a cat tale to tell!

Eventually someone did say that they would take her as a farm cat and she was delivered yesterday afternoon to the farm.  Not my first choice of homes, by any means, but an absolute necessity for our life.  So if you live in the Brandon area and would like to save her from "the farm" please send me an email . . . I'm convinced that she would make an amazing house cat and would dote on all the attention you could give her - then maybe my daughter would quit crying!

Remember these two old girls - the one of the left is 18 and the one of the right is 19?  Not very accepting of anything new in their yard and territory - just a little crotchety in their old age - but aren't we all?!?!  Things haven't been running too smoothly for the past two weeks on our home front!  Today is the first day of peace that we've had . . . these two can once again go out and sun tan and monitor the yard perimeters without fear of meeting someone new.  Ah . . . peace!!

Last week I won a giveaway!  Just when I thought I would never win anything again . . . I get the email announcing that my name had been drawn.   Myra and Cori over at Blue Meadow Designs recently held their Fall retreat and had a couple of goodie bags left over and they generously put them up as a giveaway on their blog.  Look at all these great quilting items . . . three charms packs, a sketch book (I can't wait to play in this!), crayons, a Spring 2010 stash (that will be great with my EQ7 which has so far hardly even been used), and a 2008 issue of Quilt Sampler - it doesn't matter what year is on these magazines . . . I constantly refer to them for so many different reasons! and a couple of really nice labels that will come in very handy.  I love my goodie bag and would like to dive into it right away to start something new, but it is unfortunately a ways down the list right now . . . other things are stuck at the forefront right now.

Unfortunately it is not this lovely stack of "Bliss" that arrived earlier in the month.  It is all pressed and sitting on my sewing table looking so adorable . . . but not touchable at this point in time.  Look at that white thread stuck on that beautiful red fabric . . . doesn't that just make you want to come and clean my sewing room?  Those little things drive me nuts - lucky I can ignore the big things though!!!!

Today is birthday day once again for me - another year gone by and another one to eagerly look forward to!  I can't wait to see everything that another 365 days bring - I hope it's all creative and colorful and really, really fantastically fun!  Happy Halloween everyone - I hope you're having a great day too.



As The Crow Flies . . .

Quilting Workshops, (the name we selected for our new venture) was so excited last Friday and Saturday to welcome Shelley and Jeanne from The Quilt Patch in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan.

Sheila and I have been planning this for almost five months and once the day arrived it was everything that we had hoped it would be!  One of the gals that was helping us out had this perfect crow quilt to bring along to drape at the front of the room – thanks Gail!

What a great bunch of ladies to all converge on Brandon for the opportunity to learn and visit with others who are as passionate about quilting as we are.

Of course there was a bit of shopping to be done at the Trunk Show on Friday night . . . what a wonderful selection of fabric and kits.  I've already shown some of my goodies in a previous post and still have them sitting out so that I can look at them - plus I'm running out of room to store all my "stuff".

      

Jeanne and Shelley brought some wonderful quilts to show to the 115 attendees at the trunk show.  Some were from their book of course and others of of some of their Fall/Winter patterns and classes that they will be holding.  It was interesting to hear their story in how the book came to be and the processes behind the whole undertaking.

 

Flakey Friends is the name of this one and it's one of my favorites!  I’m pretty sure it is available on their website or give them a call and they'll know which one you're talking about.

  

  Here is a shot of everyone working really, really hard on Saturday at the workshop.  We had the most wonderful gym to work in with nice bright lighting and lots and lots of room for the 58 registrants.

 

There were seasoned quilters and really new quilters in the room that worked together to learn new things and pass on tips and tricks from previous projects.

Everyone’s version of the project was just a bit different from the next . . . some people used felted wool, some people used different colors for each stocking and someone even had blue trees for a more modern look to the whole project.  It was so much fun to see the different interpretations of the same project.  Unfortunately we did not get a photo of the whole group together . . . I’m not sure if I could have grouped 58 people all together and get them all in one shot!

 

Of course there was lots and lots of food for the trunk show and then for the workshop.  We had a wonderful quilter who catered the whole thing and everything was scrumptious.  The Saturday morning muffins and coffee were prepared by four very special quilters and I think that got the day off to a wonderful start for everyone.

 

This is my version of the quilt that was taught at the Saturday workshop – I’m sure you’ll remember seeing little snippets of it in previous posts.

 

This is another version of the same quilt, but I used some other appliqué patterns from out of their book ‘Tis the Season to make the top half of the quilt.  I call this one "Prancing With The Stars".

I love them both and I’m not sure if I’ll be able to part with them at Christmas as was the original plan.

And here we are: Sheila is down on the right end there, then Jeanne, Shelley and myself.  This was taken right at the end of the day and we’re still smiling so that is, as Martha would say: “A really good thing”.  We’re already planning for the Spring of 2011 and can’t wait to see what materializes for that one!

Have a great weekend everyone.  I’m going to be catching up on a few things that have been left undone for a little bit too long . . . wish me luck!!!

Housekeeping . . .

Sipiweske Quilts door prize donation for The Quilt Patch trunk show October 15, 2010.

Kerri m. was the lucky winner of a couple of my patterns last week and as soon as I posted her name she was in contact with me.  So sorry folks, there will not be a re-draw on that one! Kerri chose Prairie Pine Burrs and Shadow Stars and I threw an extra one in there for her as well just because I didn't have to pay for any postage.  Turns out that Kerri lives only about an hour away from here and she made the trek to The Quilt Patch trunk show in Brandon last Friday night.  It was so great to meet her in person and be able to hand over the goods - if I remember correctly I think Kerri even won one of the door prizes - I don't think it was my Halloween Tablerunner though.

Sipiweske Quilts door prize donation for The Quilt Patch trunk show.

Over at Pastimes Online (Val's Quilting), where she did such a wonderful job on putting together an e-interview for Sipiweske Quilts, another drawing was made for two patterns on Friday the 15th.  The lucky winner was Kim Benner in Alberta.  Kim also chose Prairie Pine Burrs and her second choice was the Simple Stitches Needlecase.  Kim these will get mailed out today.

The Halloween tabletopper shown above is the the free Moda Bakeshop project that I had posted a while back - this version uses bats instead of the daisies.  You'll need to find some bats to trace out or make your own - they are quite easy to do.  Click on the "Free Projects" tab at the top of the page and look for the link to Moda Bakeshop.  Please send me photos if you get one made - I'd love to see it.

I'll be back soon with photos from the weekend.

Monday, Monday . . .

Oh how hard it is to get moving on Monday mornings!

I have so many pictures to show you from our quilting weekend but they are on my other computer and will just have to wait for another day.

On Friday night we had a wonderful trunk show with Jeanne and Shelley from The Quilt Patch in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan.  The turn out was amazing and the shopping was just too darn difficult to resist.

Here is my stack of goodies that was purchased over the weekend.  That stack of red fat quarter flannels just needs to be used . . . and I hope soon – it is gorgeous!  And then there is the red and green felted wool and the Santa’s Mitten kit that is the cutest thing I’ve seen in a while – I hope to get one of those made up and hung on my front door very soon.

Then there are some charm packs and a few orange toned fat quarters as well as a couple of pumpkin themed patterns that I just couldn’t resist either.

And that was only the trunk show loot – you’ll have to wait until I get my next post together with all the details on the trunk show and workshop shenanigans.

So Sunday was a day of rest and relaxing in a bit of sunshine. 

Of course these two old sweeties just love to soak up a few rays every now and then.

Shadow is on the left and she is about 18 years old and Mysty is on the right and she is about 19 years old.

They didn’t get to these ripe old ages without figuring out what cameras are all about and have it down pretty much pat as to how to ignore one.

Hope you have a sunny week wherever you are!

Happy Saturday Giveaways!

I have two wonderful jobs to do today – one is making the draw for the winner of two of my patterns and the other is to let you know that there is another giveaway for two more of my patterns coming up.

The first giveaway is here on my blog and goes back to this post  where everyone was asked to guess how many women were at the mock emergency exercise.

Unfortunately Enbridge does seem to be a very male dominated world and on that particular day, I was the only female present.  Fortunate for me there were never any lineups at  the ladies washroom and everyone was on their best behavior – although I got the feeling that this is just the way these guys operate.

kerri m is the lucky winner – BUT I don’t have any contact information for you Kerri!  Please get in touch with me before next Friday the 15th with your mailing information and tell me which two patterns you have chosen.  If I don’t hear from you by then I will have to make another draw.

Friday, October 15th is also the day for another draw.  A few weeks ago I was tickled pinker than pink to be asked by Valerie over at Pastimes Online to do an e-interview with her.

Valerie has done a fantastic job of laying out this interview - so pop on over and take a read – I’m not the most fascinating person to read about but I know it’s always interesting to see how people get started – at least I like reading about other people.  Check it out!

So back to the giveaways . . . also on October 15th Valerie will be doing a draw for two more of my patterns – winners choice.  So be sure and stop over and leave her a comment.

While you are over at Pastimes Online make sure you check out the online shop – where else in Canada can you find such gorgeous fabrics for $8.75 a metre and fat quarters for $2.75?!?!?!  These fabrics are amazing!  Plus there are rulers, threads, patterns, dupioni silks and lots of other notions as well.

Have a great weekend everyone!

Halloween and Christmas . . .

are colliding at my house!

I’m busy finishing off a little Halloween table runner and having a blast!

 

Halloween fabrics are so much fun to work with . . .

   

and then of course it is even more fun to put on those little appliqué details.  I love the beady little eyes – they make the bat!

 

We’re also down to the last few details for the upcoming Trunk Show and Quilt Workshop next weekend in Brandon – what a lot of planning these things take!  We’ve got lists on top of lists right now, but things are slowly getting marked off and the plan is to be ready by 7:00 p.m. next Friday.

The Quilt Patch girls are going to be showing us all how to make the cover quilt from their new book ‘Tis The Season.  We are soooooooooo looking forward to seeing everyone come out for this and I sure hope to have lots of time to take pictures of the whole event so that everyone that can’t be here will at least be able to see what we were up to!

Also just a reminder that if you want your name in for the pattern giveaway, you have to leave a comment on my last post by 6:00 p.m. tonight.

Have a great weekend everyone!

 

Mock Emergency . . .

I know . . . this is a quilting blog, but really there is more to life -unfortunately!

Honest – I would really rather be quilting.

So just to briefly explain – my day job as an administrator also includes many other hats that need to be thrown on at a moments notice.  This includes things like election officer, development officer, cleaning lady, weed inspector, financial officer, etc., etc.  I think you get the picture!  It also includes the duties as the emergency contact person (EMO officer) for the municipality.

As the EMO contact (I even have a certificate for this!) . . . I was contacted regarding an Enbridge Pipelines mock disaster exercise that was being held on Wednesday.

 

So I figured that I could leave the 2009 financial statements, that are still not done, and head out of the office for the second day in a row this week.

If, at some point during my administration, any type of emergency was to happen, it would certainly be beneficial to see how the pros deal with a situation.  The safety procedures that these guys used were amazing!

I must say that Enbridge (maybe due to some of their recent situations), seems to really have the situation under control if and when something was to happen in this particular area.

The exercise started around 9:30 a.m. and for the next 1 1/2 hours, everything was an indoors course of what types of safety concerns the participants might encounter, the procedure and work lists for the various points which included site containment, implementation and use of the apparatus that was needed; deployment of the boom vane and the set up of the skimmer.

It was very interesting to be part of the “viewing” group that had each step explained as it was happening . . . usually only see this kind of thing on a news cast and never see it happening “for real”.

Every guy on the scene knew what their particular job was and everything appeared to be implemented like a well-greased wheel.

Once everything was in the water and the peat moss was released (to simulate oil), everyone had a bit of a debriefing on site as to how the deployment of the boom vane and the orange collection tubes had unfolded.

 

Of course, some fella’s jobs didn’t look as exciting as others, but were just as important in the whole exercise as the ones that were down there getting their feet wet.

 

The river water is pumped into this collection centre and the oil is skimmed off and pumped into a collection truck . . . skimmed water is sent back into the river and will eventually be re-skimmed a number of times before the job is done.

(Disclaimer:  I had other people talking in my ear at the same time, and this is my understanding of the whole procedure – I certainly hope I don’t have it too mixed up!)

Enbridge Pipelines provided an excellent lunch and educational morning.  Even though it wasn’t quilting – it was certainly worth knowing and learning about.

Any guesses how many women were there?

Give me your guess by Friday the 8th at 6:00 p.m. and I’ll have two Sipiweske patterns for the winner!

This is also my 300th post and I certainly hadn’t planned on it being about skimmers and vanes and such . . . but what the hey! – 300 is still 300.  Hope to stick around for another 300 – have a great week and good luck with the guesses.

I’m curious to see how many people actually make it to the end of this post to give a guess – good on ‘ya if you made it this far!