Tuesday, July 31, 2012

Garden Challenge



I found it. I started this for the Edmonton Quilter`s Guild Challenge. It was due to be handed in back in May but I could see I was not going to get the quilting and binding done to hand in. Is off to the side it went. I was going to show it in June after the other challenge quilts were reviled but I could not find it. I found it. I made it with my hand dyed fabric. It is to look like a row of roses. I am not sure I was getting the look I wanted.

The Challenge was to make a garden themed quilt that measured 6 by 12 inches. A very odd size. There were some great little quilts. My camera batteries were dead at the dinner and I did not get any photos.
I am not sure I will finish it now. I may make it in to a 12 by 12 block and use it some were else.

I have linked this up with Quilting by the River Tuesday Linky Party.


I found this photo. It is me a the CQA Dinner in Calgary 2010. I was just starting to work on the leaves I showed yesterday.

Monday, July 30, 2012

Design Wall Monday July 30


I have been working on my Forester`s wife (Farmer`s wife is what many of you know them as) Blocks this past week and it was time to see what they look like together. I was doing a sew-a-long but I am so far behind and they are taking a break for July. I also have had fun playing with my own block designs. I did the Blue blocks this Friday and Saturday for my Rainbow Scrap Challenge. These blocks are only 6 inches so I will need so many more before I am done.


Last week I showed you my Spider Web quilt on the design wall. Well I did good and got the first 4 rows (out of 9) all sewn together. Here in the box below, are the next 5 rows. I guess they will be next up on the design wall. I would like this quilt for our new king size bed we got this past month.


To see what else is happening in the sewing studios of the world go check out Patchwork Times

Sunday, July 29, 2012

Sunday Stiching


I have the very long term project. I started the first block back in June of 2010 when I was at Quilt Canada in Calgary (correction on the place). I have it stuffed in a Purdy`s Chocolate bag to take with me. I do not work on it very often. With summer days and visiting friends and family I have been working on it again. With the Olympics  on I might get working on this again at home.


Another Kathy has a Slow Sunday Linky Party that I have added this post to. Here is a close up of the stitches I am doing. All the fabric and thread is hand dyed by me. 


This is a block in progress. I piece the stem by machine and then arrange the leaves and pin then in place. Then it is ready to take along for the hand stitching.


This is the book I got the leaves from. I had to get this book by Piece of Cake Designs. My mom and I love their books and have most of them. We have done two of their patterns as mother and daughter quilts. 


Here is the thread I dye. I have been selling it at the quilt shows and to my friends. I sometimes think of setting up an on line store but it sound like work.

Saturday, July 28, 2012

Blue Scrap Saturday


I have been working on Blue scraps this month for the Rainbow Scrap Challenge over at Soscrappy. There are other Blue projects the other quilters have been working on.


I have done some more blocks for my Forester`s Wife ( also known as Farmer`s wife blocks). I started to work on the blocks from a sew- a- long but they are taking July most off. I started last so I have many blocks to catch up on.

 

I have been loving the little triangles the best. These blocks are 6 inches square so the triangles finish at 1 1/2 inches. Yesterday I just kept making the little triangles without thinking how many I needed. Then today I made my blocks I can up with some that were not apart of the sew-a-long.


I also mixed in some purple into this block because I had a few left from last months purples.



Five blocks this month. I may have to work on this quilt next year also. They are so small and to not make up much of a quilt yet.


I did a boob boob. Can you believe I did it twice. I ripped and sewed wrong a second time.


This is some of the poverty piecing I did was a leaders and enders project. I think most of these end bits came from the log cabins and the large rainbow blocks I did earlier in the month. I just kept the little pile of clippings next to my machine and in no time, they were little rows.


I have a lilly flowering again after Monday`s storm. It is not perfect with a few buries and holes. But it is some colour to my garden.

Next today is Pie making. Blueberry Raspberry and Peach. Hope to watch more Olympics well I make Pie.

Friday, July 27, 2012

Berries = cake


Just before dust I got back from picking raspberries at my dad's garden. It did not take long and I had close to a full bucket. I will have to pick more on Saturday. I had more but the boys all had a bowl full before I got a photo. My parents yard did not get the wind damage as bad as my yard did on Monday night. Some raspberry plants were a little mangled by the wind but the berries were only starting to ripen and did not get damaged. 

Well I need to use them up. So I am making Raspberry Shortcake. I have a recipe for Strawberry Shortcake but Adam and I can not eat strawberries, we get skin troubles.


My batter all whipped up. I am making it in a 10" spring form pan.


Before you bake it you add a layer of berries and top with a little sugar. We are now watching '310 to Yuma' as the cake bakes and should have a piece shortly. 


Not much of my own patchwork done this week. Maybe I can finish my blue blocks on Saturday.  I have been busy with customers quilts and some family fun. Yesterday we went to Capital Ex, the fair. The bumper cars were on my list of rides we had to do. I was a very good Canadian and had my very first serving of Poutine. What is Poutine - French fries with cheese curds and covered in gravy. It was good but I can live life without it.

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Customer's Bright Quilt


I finished quilting this very bright quilt for one of my customers. It is her first quilt and her daughter had picked out the colours. They were going for a happy bright quilt. She used a pattern called split rail fence. Then when she had nine blocks together she added the orange sashing. My husband was surprised to hear it was her first quilt. It was sewn together so well, he could see it.


I did a large feather heart near the centre. I used a bright varrigated thread but you can still hardly see the stitches.


Much of the rest of the quilting is hearts and loops.

Tuesday, July 24, 2012

Dog in the Garden


Yesterday the sun was behind a cloud and the flowers were at their best. I took over 60 photos. The softer light was good. Lex, my Chesapeake Bay Retriever gave me some great poses. I think these first two photos are my favourite ever of him. He walked by the flowers and I told him to stay, and he stood for a number of photos. He got looking at the horses in the field below so his ears are showing great interest.


The bad news, yesterday a storm hit after supper. With the wind and hail, all my flowers and veggies are gone. I might still get potatoes and carrots but the rest is a mess. Plants snapped off at the tops and middle trunks. It is a mess. I am not going to take any photos. It is too sad. We had 14 trees down in the driveway, away from the house. Every thing else is fine. No hail damage to the house, small enough ice pellets. I have never seen hail driving sideways so hard, good thing it was pea size and not larger.


Pink lilies that were just starting to look so good.


Yellow and orange lilies


Here is Lex doing his doggy sniff. This is how he normally patrols his yard. Checking out the boundaries to see who may have entered his yard. Down the hill is the dugout and horse field. 


To get an idea how big some of my flowers were, I got Lex to sit in the pathway.  Sadly it is a tangled mess and mostly blown down now.

I had two humming birds and a hawk fly just feet away from us. I took some photos but they were not good.

Monday, July 23, 2012

Design Wall Monday July23


I started this quilt some time last year and then put it away in two boxes. The design wall was empty so I got it out again.  I really like building blocks but kind of dislike sewing the blocks into rows and making it large and unruly to handle. So in the box it went. I think is was last sept when I got all the blocks built. This is just the first four rows. I have five more rows in the other box. I got this quilt out because I would like a new quilt for our new bed and this one would be big enough.


I was very good to mark all the blocks with a piece of paper to show what block it was. I mark rows and columns with numbers and alphabets. It looks like it works well for me.  I know I took many of the blocks to a guild UFO sewing day, so I needed to transport them. I used 12" papers and stacked the block parts.


The other five rows in the box. I have these plastic boxes I got at Michael's crafts that were sold for scrap book papers and pages. I love them for quilt blocks. They fit a 12 1/2" block so very nicely. This quilt has 72 blocks so I needed two boxes for it. If you want to see more about this quilt please check This out. I guess I need to get it done now.

I have added this to Design Wall Monday at Patchwork Times and Sew Happy Geek's Manic Monday

Sunday, July 22, 2012

Blackfoot Trail Ride


Honey and Adam getting ready to ride. We have had a week of family fun while staying at home. On Friday we packed up and went to the Blackfoot Nature Park for a trail ride. We are four with a four horse trailer so we each rode. My dad did not come with us, but I used his horse.


This is Tonto, my dad's horse that I rode. I still ride in my English saddle. I did not pack my saddle bags this day as it did not look like rain. My lunch went in my husbands saddle bags.  Last year I had many D rings added to my saddle and got some saddle bags I can use. It carries as much as the big western saddle bags.


Here is Socks, my husbands horse. He is sporting a new saddle. My husband just loves his new saddle. If I was to move to a western saddle I may have to get myself one like it. I hate riding with a horn and like the low profile of my English saddle.


Here is Wyatt and Scotty the horse. Wyatt is a teenager and hates his picture taken. This is the best I got of him.


My Husband and Socks. My husband took one photo of me but it is my face with the sun behind me and you can not see me much with my hat on. It is not worth showing.


Even Adam was trying to not have his photo taken. Before lunch we had a moose in the bush. So a little spooky for the horses. Then on the way back we meet a runner on the trail. That was even more of a jump. The two horses leading and the runner all jumped pretty good.


The boys at our lunch break. 'No' the camera is out.


At lunch we got to the Running Dog Shelter area. They have hitching post to tie your horses to. The ponies all look happy to have a rest.


I kind of like this photo of Tonto. Other actives we have done this week are, the new Batman movie, dinner out, and more riding but around home.

Saturday, July 21, 2012

Blue Scrappy Saturday


The third Blue Scrappy Saturday this month and I did more rainbow blocks. I have linked this post up with Soscrappy. For these two blocks I tried to use more of the turquoise Blues and kept out the ultramarine and navy blues. It was harder to get some contrast. I think next to work on for my blue scraps, I should work on my farmer's wife blocks. It feels like forever since I did any of them. 

This week I have not done much sewing. My husband has had the week off and we have been doing a bunch of family stuff, including riding the horses. The house has still felt warm and I have been dreading plugging in the iron and getting to warm. Maybe later today I will sew. 



Tuesday, July 17, 2012

Gardening


We have had some real heat in the past 10 days or so. Once in a while we have had some gentle rain. Tuesday just north of us there was some heavy rain and hail that distorted some gardens and flooded basements and streets. We did not get that storm. But it made me think I should get outside and take some photos of my flowers in case we get a hail storm. So late on Saturday I got clicking away, I planned to make a post Sunday but our internet was down all day. Today I finally get to show off my flowers.


My Giant Blue Delphinium are about 6 and half feet tall now. They are about a foot taller then me. I have at least six different colours in the flower bed next to the deck.



The roses will soon come to an end. They are fully open in this heat.


Day lilies are starting to bloom. This orange one is a big old plant I got from the yard (house) my Brother once had. 


Here is the pond. It has a few tall plant next to it. I have four fish enjoying their summer home. I bring them in for the winter. In the far back of the photo is my Veggy garden.