Strange Week . . .

Just a bit more weirdness in my yard . . . maybe I’m living under a mushroom also!

There are certainly days where I wonder if that is not really the case . . .

This mushroom has a very interesting design on top . . . wonder how that happens . . . air flow, light, . . . I wonder?  Thank goodness the sun has been shining all week so far and these mushrooms will disappear as quick as they came – I’m not used to seeing these popping up in the strangest places!

On Tuesday I attended a district meeting for my organization and it was held out in the country.  Look at the Prairie view!

This is where the meeting was held . . . an historical Church that has been converted into a restaurant/meeting place and also a bed and breakfast.  It is called Cafe Bru and is located about 3 1/2 miles from Cypress River, Manitoba.  You have to drive around on some gravel country roads and then you climb a steep hill and once you get to the top – there it is . . . the Church steeple can be seen for miles!

 

The architecture, antiques and the meal they served was fantastic and is certainly worth a second visit.

  

As far as I could tell all of the stained glass windows were still intact and were breathtaking . . . the details and colors were awesome!

And this was the side yard of the Church looking towards the owner’s house . . . very picturesque spot indeed!

I have been quilting this week in the evenings but of course most of the stuff I can’t show anyway so scenery it is!

I’ve had an interesting work week and I’ll be back hopefully tomorrow to show you what I was up to on Wednesday.  Something else that was just a little “outside-the-box”!

Workin’, workin’ in an Autumn Wonderland

Well this project is the one thing doesn’t fit in with the rest of this post – figured it better go first and get it out of the way!

The colors in this little flower are geared towards Spring and Summer but this is definitely a project that I’ve been working away at this past week.  Lots more buttons to come . . . I’ll keep you posted as to when the big reveal will be.

It’s been so cloudy, gloomy and rainy around here that taking photos (at least for me!) is almost impossible.  Having a bit of fog roll in certainly doesn’t help the brightness factor.

  

Look at all the beautiful leaves though . . . it’s really too bad that they eventually will all need to be raked up.

That gold color is gorgeous and should really be used in a quilt, don’t you think?

Maybe we should throw a little bit of red and green in there as well.

All of these nice earthy colors have ended up in the quilt that I’ve just finished quilting.  Might be a Christmas present but I’m not sure about that just yet.  Sure looks really, really good on my sofa right now.  In three weeks I’ll be showing you the finished quilt . . . hope I can find time to do the binding before then!

And this brings me to showing you the weird, weird things that are growing on our lawn.  Well I suppose these aren’t quite that weird, but these . . .

   

are just kinda gross – fungi heaven, I guess – let’s pretend they are little bubbles or something cute.

There’s a little bit of prancin’ going on in the sewing room lately also.  This one is just about ready to be layered up and quilted and then ready for show and tell in three weeks.  No deadlines in my life right now!

   

I just hope those leaves can stay on the trees until AFTER all my deadlines have been reached.  Sure would hate to take time out to go and rake.

Anyone out there looking for a great outdoor job?  Payment would have to be in quilts though!

Have a great week everyone.

Where Are My Pins?!?!?

The place is a mess!

It’s no wonder I can’t locate my little tiny appliqué pins . . . they could be hiding just about anywhere.

Are they on this end of the table or that end of the table.  I know that I had seen them just the other day – how far could they have really gotten?  I really need them so that I can move on with my new recipe – what’s a good recipe without all the ingredients?

  

I checked in the fish bowl with the thread and they weren’t there.  I also looked in some of those bins of UFOs – they weren’t in there either.

 

I stood back and took a little broader look to see if something would jog my memory.

And it did!  Not sure what it was, but I remembered I had put them here - 

 

so that I wouldn’t lose them.  How handy and organized was that?  Such a safe little place to tuck away the little tools we use.

Next time I’ll start in the “safe” places and then branch out.

Do you think maybe I should finish some projects soon and do a clean up?

Shopping Trip - Complete

I can now carry on with all of my projects . . . which one should I choose – there seems to be so many piled around the room right now.

I’ve been noticing on some of the blogs out there in blog land that the new Quilt Sampler magazine came out recently.  I always have to wait another week or more before I see it here in any of my local stores – Wal-Mart pulled through today and it was sitting there just waiting for me.

This has been one of my FAVORITE magazines for quite a number of years now (only published twice per year).  I have every issue that has ever been printed and as my daughter loves to say lately – they form part of my hoarding collection.  I refer back to these issues every chance I get and love to throw a couple of the old issues in to the car when we go on a road trip – I love them!

So . . . today I love them just a little bit more :).

Look up there in the upper right hand corner – way up there.

They didn’t tell me it was going to be in Quilt Sampler!

I knew it was in another magazine (that shall remain un-named), but I never dreamt it would be in this wonderful issue.

I love quilting and I LOVE magazines!

(And I am really not a hoarder – don’t listen to my daughter!)

I’m Baking Again . . .

Oh – the colors of these ingredients are just so scrumptious!!!

This looks more like a Spring recipe than a Fall one.

Maybe we’ll call it “Dreaming of Spring” or “Spring Dreams”.

Then again maybe we’ll just see how the quilt turns out first and then give it a name.  What color of thread do I need for this one?  More things to add to the shopping list.

Happy sewing . . .

Works in Progress . . .

Oh . . . I was so close!  I ran out of thread with only this much left to quilt.  The shopping list has started now.

Another little WIP that has had to be put aside . . . I don’t have that shade of orange – it goes on the list also.

  

I cannot show this whole quilt until October sometime.  It was basted together over the weekend and then guess what?  No thread!  Sure I could use a light beige, but I have my heart set on a butterscotch color that will blend better.  Plus the back is a nice chocolate brown and I think the butterscotch will look much better.

Since I was on a roll with my plaids and Christmas prints all pulled out and laying around, I decided to have a go at another quick Christmas quilt.  This one also can’t be shown until after the middle of October.  I’m ready to move onto the appliqué parts of this one today so I better get cracking!

Umm . . . wonder what color of thread I need for this one?

Have a great week everyone . . .

Apes and Muffins . . .

I know!  I am such a bad blogger and a bad quilter too!

The extent of my “sewing” this past week has been to repair this wonderful character . . . a golf-club cover of all things!

Good news is that he is all set for his Fall appearance on the golf courses.  Sure glad that repairing things is not something most quilters need to do – but people always assume that because we know how to quilt that we will love fixing anything with a needle and thread.  Boy are they wrong!!!

I did manage to squeeze in some baking with my new ‘muffin top’ pans – pumpkin spice muffins even . . . wow the smell in the house was awesome.

A person needs to bake these every day of the week - trouble is someone would also need to eat that many in a week . . . not around here.  We’re not really '”sweet” eaters, so baking is a rare occurrence in this house.  Maybe I just need to bake them when I know that company is coming over :)

We also made some mini carrot cupcakes – obviously some were minier (is that a word!) than others.

K – enough with the food stuff, I’m off to do some machine quilting.  Have a great weekend everyone!

It’s Starting . . .

to feel a bit like Christmas!

 

I’m having so much fun working with all of these colors and prints.  Everything is getting pulled out and decided on for the quilt on the front cover of this book.

What do you think - plaids work for you??

I had a question from Donna (set to no-reply) asking which book this wall hanging by Nancy Halvorsen was in.

It is in the “I Believe” book by Art to Heart and this is the first of a few patterns that I want to make for this year.  There are also some wonderful Christmas card designs and that great card holder on the front cover.

Please grant me more time at my sewing machine . . .

A Short Stroll Down . . .

Academy Road!

This is one of my favorite streets in Winnipeg . . . there’s a little bit of this and that for shops – always worth a little bit of a stroll.

I remember a few years ago when I was taking an entrepreneur workshop that the owner of this shop gave a short talk . . . not sure if she is still there today or whether it’s been sold to someone else since.  She gave a wonderful talk on starting her business and some of her retail experiences.

There’s lots of outdoor furniture, gardening supplies, candles, and other outdoor living accessories.  Always worth a little look – my backyard would never look like some of these displays though – it would take me hours to carry it all out and get it set up just right and by the time I was done, it would be time to take everything back inside and find a place to store it.  It’s always fun to look and dream though! 

There is even a small sewing centre located on Academy Road where I found a few fat 1/4’s to add to my stash.  I’ve always seen the signs, but it is such a tricky little spot to get at, and we always seemed to be in a rush to go somewhere else, that we just never stopped.

The shop is called Carellan Sewing and they are moving off of Academy Road on September 1st  over to Corydon in the 1600 block.  I think it’s going to be easier to get at and they assure me that they will be carrying more quilting cottons – yippee!

I’m starting on my Christmas gift sewing list and this is the first of at least three.  I love this layout of Nancy Halvorsen’s – this is going to make a great wall hanging!  Look at all the different prints a person can use from their stash . . . time to do some widdling down :)

Also getting started on the latest Bunny Hill Snowbound block – machine appliquéing the two projects at the same time cuts down on the number of times I have to change thread colors – black’s done, moving on to blue . . .

How’s your week going?  Getting lots done?

Summer Vacation

   I’ve been gone – just here and there – a little south of here and a little east of here.

Last weekend hubby and I headed to Minot, North Dakota to celebrate our 11th wedding anniversary and to see some country that neither of us have seen for well over 25+ years.

Of course one of the first stops was at the Prairie Rose Quilt Shop where there was such a vast array of quilting cottons that I never even thought to pull out my camera until we were driving away.  There was everything from Whimsicals to Moda 3 Sisters and patterns and books everywhere.  This is the kind of shop that I will need to go back to without hubby in tow.

I really had no “shopping list” for fabric, so I was just winging it.  I fell in love with this package of 3 Sisters prints and the green floral and the green check were “just because”.  The bundle of white Kona cotton I found at Hobby Lobby for 30% off and you can never have enough white cotton!

Those were the two stores that everyone told me that I needed to stop and see and since we were on a limited time allotted to “my” shopping, I think I did not too bad.  It was VERY hot and humid when we were there and it didn’t seem fair to drag someone around to these kind of shops when he really didn’t want to.  Don’t get me wrong – there was no complaining – just the occasional eye roll.

 

We hit for the Zoo on Saturday morning before it got too hot outside.  Mall shopping is not one of our favorite things to do so we look for alternatives and one of those is strolling through zoos.  Every advertisement I saw indicated that there would be giraffes there and sure enough . . .

 

I found my giraffe!  I don’t know how many zoos we’ve been to and there was never a giraffe.  I love these animals . . . they are amazing.

 

Don’t you just love the giraffe door?  This female really didn’t want to be outside and she kept heading over to the door – must have been on one of her “off” days.

 

Penguins are another favorite of mine.  How come every time they do a statue or an advertisement using a penguin they always make them look way bigger than they really are?  These guys had a beautiful pool to bathe in for the day – what a way to keep cool.

I just had to include this Aussie-type photo – the gal that I work with is from Australia and I thought this one would either make her miss home or be glad she’s not there in the heat.  I’m not sure whether she would think the mosquitoes in Canada are more irritating or the kangaroos in Australia – I’m thinking it’s probably the mosquitoes – don’t you?

Have a great week,

This & That . . .

I’ve been working on a little quilt using a layer cake of the Rural Jardin line of fabric by Moda.  This is one of those designs that didn’t turn out like I wanted it to and now I’m in the process of trying to save it and move on.  I’ll have to see how that works out – it may end up in the bag of UFOs to be dealt with years from now.

Still working on HST, Snowbound appliqué and some other curly q’s.  There always seems to be something in multiples sitting beside the sewing machine lately.

I’m anxiously awaiting the delivery of this book into my mailbox.  This book is the first from the owners of  The Quilt Patch in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan and I’m so looking forward to getting my hands on it.

There is a workshop planned for October 16, 2010 in Brandon, Manitoba and the quilt on the front cover is going to be the project of the day.  I understand that there is only a few spaces left in the workshop so if anyone who is planning on being in the Brandon area on October 16th, please drop me an email and I’ll get the details out to you.  There is also a trunk show of Jeanne and Shelley’s quilts scheduled for the Friday night, October 15th, and I’m looking forward to seeing all the projects from the book as well as some of their new Fall designs.

I’ll be able to mark one Christmas present off my list once I get this quilt done – some lucky family member is going to find this under the tree with their name on it!