My Pink Bracelet

Today is Friday. Almost the weekend. I have finished a glass bead bracelet for myself. I did a few of these a few years ago. I had one that was pinks but it was looking dirty, some of the seed beads I used were silver lined and have now gone grey. I needed a new one with out the silver lined beads. I have plans for another turquoise one next. I will add this post to Crazy Mom Finish it up Friday.

I think they look best on, as the centre stem lays closer to my wrist and the beads sit up more.

I got this button in Victoria over spring break at a very nice button store down town.  I wanted to take home all the buttons. The very large flower beads in here are very special. When I bought them I was getting some of the last of what they had and I was told they never excepted to get them again. They are glass beads that were made from antique German moulds.  They were not cheep.

This is the bracelet I did for the Edmonton Guild Endowment fund raiser. I packaged it up nice this week and handed it in at the meeting Wednesday night. I hope it helps them bring in lots of money. I take a guess but I spend close to $100 in beads for each of these bracelets.

This week I also got these next two necklaces fixed for a very good friend. I did not make them. She bought them this past year and decided she needed them shortened.

Look at the hand work on these beads. I could make this my next hobby. I did look into the classes and the tools some time back. I would love to learn. But I might have to give up some other hobby first. Live is too short.

Here is the second necklace. 

My studio is a very big mess. I am packing to go to the Pamela Allen workshop this weekend. I have signed up for the two day class. I will be taking lots of my hand dyed thread, some hand dyed dollies, and a few baskets of fabric, some of it hand dyed. The place looks like a bomb went off and when I get home I have to put it all back again.

Thanks for taking a look. I love comments.

Living Colour Auction Quilt

Photo by Mark Frey

I few years ago I was invited to make a donation quilt for the Living Colour Show  hosted by the Association of Pacific West Quilters. They are auctioning this and a few other great quilts on May 10 to 22, 2012 on line. There is a second group of quilts auctioned off in June also. To find out more about the auction go check it out on the APWQ site. If you have every wanted to own one of my quilts this is your chance.

I named it Evaluation of Colour.

Artist Statement
I had leftover triangles, which led to an idea for making lightning out of them. I thought about lightning bringing life to color, color to life. The triangles didn’t work the way I had in mind, so I decided to go with free-form cut shapes instead and threw out the triangles. I was influenced in part by a class taken with Jane Sassaman.

Techniques & Materials
A curve pieced background and fused lighting and amoebas. The fabrics used are all my own hand dyes.

Tonight is the Edmonton Guild Meeting. I am handing in my Spring Bracelet for the guild endowment fundraiser. We also have a very good speaker Pamela Allen. Then Saturday and Sunday is the class I am in. I have not thought about what I will make or what fabric I will take with me.

Design Wall Monday

It is Design Wall Monday check out the others over at Patchwork Times. I was planning to do about 40 DW Mondays this year but I think I am falling behind and can not make 40 weeks now. I think it is because I post on Saturday about my Rainbow Scrap Challenge and often do not get anything new done by Monday. Well On Saturday night I was going to sew more on my 3D blocks for the neutral scraps, but the big iron surface was messy. I decided not to start by cleaning. I wanted to work on blocks and not on rows or a whole quilt top. So out came the Hawaii fabric. I got five more blocks done. The five on the right are the new blocks.

I just love some of these mini prints that still have the Hawaii theme to them.  I am starting to think about how I will put my blocks together. Not sure. I am not a big fan of sashing but that might be what is needed. I thought white sashing but then I used some white already in two of the first blocks. Maybe I will replace that white with another colour and then the white could be used for sashing. What do you think?

Lots going on this week. The Edmonton Guild meeting is on Wednesday night and then on the weekend is a two day class with Pamela Allen. I was the one how asked that we bring her in to teach. I have lots of machine quilting to do this week too. I keep forgetting to ask my customers if I can post photos of their quilts so I can not show you. I think it is very important to ask them first before I post photos.

We got through the big sleep over party. Most of the kids did not look too tried when it was time to go home. I think they got about 6 hour sleep.

Scrappy Saturday #2 Neutrals

Today is Happy Scrappy Saturday over at SoScrappy. I just love this Rainbow Challenge. The month of April is Neutrals and there is a lack of colour for me this month. I have decided to work on these left over colourful strips sets and add the Neutrals to them. I have added in a couple of good grey Batiks fabrics and some Kona white. I got 25 blocks out of my leftovers. I do not think I have enough to do another row or a boarder. I do have an idea for a pieced boarder but will see how it works first.

See how nice the fabrics are. I just had to do something with my leftovers. I have the rows sewn together but need ironing and the cross sashing added. Then on to the boarder idea.  I think I will be sewing tonight as we have a Birthday Party going on and they all want to play games. The noise level in my house is unreal. My kids play so quite compared to other kids. We are having the big sleep over party. We will see if anyone gets any sleep. 

Here is the Chocolate Cake with Chocolate Fudge Icing. Our family favourite. I have done fancy looking cakes but this is the best tasting one.

Here is Lex retrieving a face cloth. Lex and I had a workshop for Agility earlier today and have another class again Sunday morning. Boy do we ever need to work on our toys and other non agility behaviour.

White Scarf

I got another scarf done after I lost my pretty Turquoise scarf. This one is a white scarf and will go with my new White Hat I made in March.  I have left the locks so that it show on this scarf. It has so much texture. I know why am I making felted hats and scarf and winter is over. Well I live the in Canada were it can snow almost any month of the year. This week the wind was so cold I put my hat on for feeding the horses in the morning.  Then in the afternoon I only needed a very light coat. It is raining hard here but at least it is not snowing like it is in Calgary or should I say no snow yet.

I have added this to Crazy Mom Quilts and Can I Get Whoop Whoop at Confessions of a Fabric Addict.

Have a good weekend. Think of me and the bunch of kids coming over for the big birthday party sleepover.

Agility Dog of Canada

Cathy Lex and Judge Matt Bonner

On Saturday my dog Lex and I had another agility trial and got our first ever Title - Agility Dog of Canada. I try to keep this blog for my quilting, art work, and all the things I make, but once in while I have something big I must tell you. To get your ADC you have to pass three standard started agility courses (with two different judges), sounds easy doesn't it. I have been so close so many times. I got the first two runs but then I have had at least three other runs were we were over the time by less then one sec. My dog likes to visit the people and judges which has eaten up our time. Saturday he was so good. The run we passed he was also first out of five dogs in our class with others that passed.

Lex, being a Chesapeake Bay Retriever, loves to carry stuff in his month. I let him carry the ribbon out of the ring. He was so happy. He knew I was pleased with him. He had been a very good dog all day. Not just our runs but other little things too. He did not visit anyone on course. He only dropped his nose once to sniffing but stopped when asked. He did not run out of the ring after our last jump but came to me when called and sat for his collar to be put back on. There was very little pulling me around as we pass other dogs. He was not crazy on the first run.

Lex outside in the very bright sunshine.

We had three runs on Saturday with only one pass but that is OK. I have yet to pass two in one day. Our first run was Gamblers. He did well and did what I asked. We did not get all of the final part where the dog is to do more remote work. He got two out of four remote jumps when the buzzer went. Our last run he got a rail but it was very nice and we had a good time.

Easter Scrappy Saturday

I have been working on the Rainbow Scrap Challenge some more but this time it is the start of another new quilt. The month of April is neutral scraps. While I used so much on my heart quilt and came up with a different idea.

I have this shoe box of scrapes mostly left over from making Bad to the Bone. Lots of fabric is sewn together and is then cut ends from a strip set. Some strips too. It is a shame to not do something with it all. So I have added lots of neutral but they are not really scrapes because I wanted bigger pieces.

Lots of plain white and then these batiks are added to the shoe box of scraps. I am wondering if I can get 25 blocks out of my shoe box. If I can get enough out of the shoe box I may have to make some kind of boarder too.

I have added this to Soscrappy's Easter Saturday post. Go check out what the other bloggers have been working for this challenge.

I got this far before Saturday as I was at a Dog Agility Trial today. I have to unpack my camera and do some downloading, before I make a post. I am feeling more like bed at this point.

Good Friday Finish - Spring Bracelet

I got this Spring Glass Bead Bracelet done while I was on holidays this past week. I have a large collection of glass beads and took a bag full with me. I am going to donate this bracelet to the Edmonton and District Quilters' Guild Endowment Fund. In June there is a year end dinner and many draws for Button and Bead creations, all donations made by the members. I have been asked in the past to make these to sell and turned it down because there is so much time involved and the cost of the beads so so large. I first saw these bracelets in Aloha Beads on Maui, they had a pattern and kits for over $100 US. I just bought the beads and came home to made my own. I have a few made for myself and I have made two for my mom. The Black and Gold bracelet with earrings is on the blog Here

The button is antique glass with gold on it. There is a loop at the other end to do up.

I have added this to Crazy Mom Quilts Finish it up Friday and The Magic Onions: Friday's Naturals Table and Nap Time Crafter - Friday Link Party
There are lots of ideas to check out on your Good Friday.

Tin Box Exchange Round #5

Tonight is the Leduc Quilt Guild meeting and my block for the tin box exchange is due. I started it at 4 pm today. I am just getting it done in time. Any later and I would have to add $5 to the box.

This box had a theme of Special Occasions  and the fabric has balloons on it. I forgot to take a photo of the fabric. I thought Special Occasions needed a bow. I made my unit 1" and made the block 8 1/2" square. I only had a photo of a bow block and it is made mostly with triangles and squares. So easy peasy, Just silly to do all those little pieces with about 1 hour to do it in.

Here are the group of blocks done so far. There should be five by now but I guess the group is short one person. We may end up only having 5 blocks in our boxes.

I have to be honest,  I almost forgot about the block today. I had to get back to the weekly routine after holidays. Must go to meeting NOW!

I am home

Did you miss me. I was away for the week of Spring Break. I went with my kids to Victoria BC. My parents spent sometime there this winter and I have some relatives to visit. They have flowers in Victoria now and we have a chance of snow still. 

My parents sitting in the sun. It was a warm sunny day, the day we went to see my cousin. We spent the time outside moving around the yard in the sun.

Just loved this moss covered toad stool ornament. Very naturally distressed by the outdoors.  This just come with the yard.

My oldest son. He is very camera shy but I got a nice smile here. He had so much fun playing with the all the dogs. There were about 8 dogs around and they all loved chasing down a ball or sticks. There was a mud hole that he just could not keep out of. He kept those dogs good and wet all day long. 

I got some new fabric. Washing it up now. I hope to do some sewing for myself this weekend. I am busy quilting for my costumers as some of my snow bird ladies left quilts with me this winter and they will start to return home soon. Spring must be coming here soon.