Back at it again

Wow! Has it really been over a month since my last post?  Not a lot of crafting was completed during that time, but a lot was done.  Big D started school, and at this point only has a week left.  He passed his road test first try and is now fully licensed to drive a big rig.  He'll be off to work on March 4th which I know he is both excited and apprehensive about.

I am taking one step further to solidifying my title as crazy crafting CAT lady.  Big D's Grandma is moving into an assisted living complex and cannot bring her fur babies with her.  We can't take both of them, but we have agreed to take Monte who used to belong to Big D.  He is a 7 year old maine coon and has a lovely disposition.  I know Meeko will get along with him, but Kokanee may be another story.  We'll see how it plays out with two people and three cats in our apartment. (Big D used to have a cat named Chevy, this is Monte and Meeko's middle name is Carlo...do we see a pattern here?)

Our new fur baby, Monte

I finally used my Fabricland gift card from Christmas and happened to go on a day with some killer deals!  They had cotton prints on buy one meter get TWO free.  For once, I didn't go wild for quilting fabric but instead bought enough to make a new outfit for the MLHS. (okay, you got me, it's in preparation for Mississinewa this year!)  I've also started working on the embroidery for my reticule to match my spencer jacket I made a couple months ago.  It's coming along nicely, although I think it's lacking a little something.  If  any of you Regency experts have suggestions, I'd be happy to hear them.

OOOH!!! Fabric!!

Embroidery on the reticule

I have done more work on the 9 patch quilt, but nothing really worth mentioning or showing other than its coming along well.

Keeping with the title of my post, I am back at it on a knitting project from 2006-2007 and earlier than that.  My Grandma started a cardigan sweater for my Grandpa back in 1956.  She was the queen of UFO's, so of course the back piece was finished and no more.  Some of the yarn was used years later for socks and now there isn't enough of the original red to complete it.  Her and I had discussed how to go about finishing it with what we had left.  We decided that a sweater vest with a contrasting colour for the front would be the best option and came up with a nice little design.  I haven't worked on it since she passed away.  I pulled out my very neglected yarn bin today while teaching a friend to knit, and decided it was time to get back at it.  I managed to complete 10 rows (two block strips) today and I feel really great about it!

Me and my Grandma back in 2000

The progress so far on the front of the vest.  Please excuse my laptop and over sized sweat pants! lol

Going through my stash, and knowing how many projects I have on the go at any one times makes me wonder, how many UFO's do you have?  

More Nine Patch Progress!

Tea has always been a staple in my life. When I lived at home, I don't believe there was a day when a pot of tea was not made in the house. I make it all the time at work but usually forget to at home. Tonight I broke out the loose leaf tea, put on one of my audiobooks, and went to town on the nine patch quilt. It was the most enjoyable evening I've had in a while!

I finished off the blue squares, although they still need to be pressed. I also did one pink square as my guide for the rest. I'm super pleased with how these are turning out! I do need some more purple fabric as I only have 6 varieties instead of the 8 I need. Perhaps I'll pick up some on Saturday when my mom and I turn in our quilt block for the month.

Before the sewing went down, I made dinner and dessert for Big D and me. I used the apron my mom made me for Christmas. I took a shot in the bathroom mirror, a very unflattering one, but the apron is so darn cute! Retro fabric complete with ric rac, and it can be worn with the bib or folded down into a half apron. Best Christmas gift EVER!!

Nine Patch Progress

Rule number one of quilting: measure twice and count to make sure you have the right amount of pieces needed.

No, I have not wasted precious fabric, I have once again bitten off more than I can chew. Seeing as how the Pinterest quilt did not come with instructions, I improvised. Those of you who have known me personally for years can commence shaking your heads now! Either I got a little too cut happy with my new Olfa cutter, or I just wasn't thinking and I have cut enough squares for roughly 6 queen sized quilts. Oops.

Despite that, last night at the sewing night and an hour or so tonight has resulted in nearly 30 completed blocks! I decided to work one colour scheme at a time and speedily put together the rows for each block. I'm guessing about an hour of sewing and pressing tomorrow night will finish off the "blue" blocks. After that, I'm moving onto the pink. With all the surplus blocks, and some good company from an old friend last night, I believe her daughter is in for a treat! Here are a few pictures for you then it's off to bed!

Block a Month Quilt

My parents had a New Years Day shindig at their place today and all of our friends that are taking part in the Block a Month quilt a long were there.  We were instructed to bring our quilt squares so we could compare and I managed to snap some shots of the products so far.  Everyone picked a different colour scheme so it was really neat to see how everyone's are coming together.

Left to right the blocks belong to Diana, my mom, mine, Marcia and Krista.  I tried to do a few panoramic pictures but they didn't turn out too well.  This is the best one, despite everyone's hands in there.  Everyone was ogling the quilt squares, even the menfolk! It will be really neat to see how everyone decides to finish their quilt with sashing and borders.

I cut up the 15 fat quarters, some fabric from my stash, plus some of my fabric from my trip for the nine patch quilt I saw on Pinterest.  A few of the girls from MLHS are getting together for a sewing night.  I've already packed up my sewing machine to head on over and start assembling this bad boy.  I laid out three different colour combinations to hopefully try and recreate the picture.  Here's what I have so far.

I have a ton more squares than I thought I would, so I might see if I have enough for colour themed quilts.  We will see what happens during this creative process!

Happy 2013 to everyone and keep on crafting!

Belated Merry Christmas and a Happy 2013

Well, we survived the end of the world yet again. I don't remember so much hype about a doomsday prophesy since the Y2K thing. I have to admit, I was a little disappointed to wake up and NOT find zombies but I suppose life as we know it is a better option!

I have been absent for some time due to Christmas preparations and working with Big D and his new career move. He is going to be a long haul trucker! We got his Class 1 license, have him enrolled in school for the new year and even found him a job for when school is done. I think this is going to be the best career move for us both as we will be able to afford to buy me more fabric pay off debt and buy a house!

On the quilting side of things, I have done absolutely no more work on my museum quilt, including picking a winner for the name contest. I did, however, finish a quilt for my brothers girlfriend. She was the recipient of the Jump Rope quilt. Her condo is decorated with blue and she has a blue couch too so it seemed fortuitous. I snapped a picture of the two of them snuggling under it on Christmas morning!.

I also got some fabric from Tiny T and Big R. 15 fat quarters of quilting goodness!! Tiny T said she picked the packs at random but they actually work well together and with some of the fabric from my trip.  I even found a wonderful pattern on Pinterest.  The colours are similar to what I have so I thought it would be a neat idea.  Simple yet fun!  You can see a picture of what I hope to accomplish here.

Tiny T's mom got me a new Olfa rotary cutter which is super fancy shmancy! Most of my other Christmas stuff was history or quilting related. Mom and Dad even got me a new ironing board pad and cover so I no longer have to display my hideous one!! Yay!!

The old, ugly ironing board cover...blech!

TA DA!!! New pretty goodness!

My new super heavy duty iron!

The fabric from Big R and Tiny T

 

Same as above but with stash additions to make a new quilt

And now I'm off to work on the museum quilt while we still have the table out. Big D wanted to put it away after our Christmas party but I managed to convince him to leave it out for a while so I could do some sewing! Yay!!!

It's Blogathon Day!!

A warm welcome on this blustery November day to all of you visiting via the blogathon!  For all my returning readers, I am being featured, along with other quilting bloggers from my province, for Canadian Quilters Connect Blogathon Canada hosted by Sew SistersQuilt Shop.  Our host blogger, Heather of Church Avenue Quilts, has some amazing quilts.  Her work is beautiful and often features her four legged helpers.  You all know I have a soft spot for them. I am the Crazy Crafting CAT Lady after all!

For those just joining, here is a little bit about me.  you can view my post here talking about how I got into quilting and some of my inspirations.  Basically, my skills were taught to me by my mom and my grandma. Everything past that has been self taught from various sources.  Now I just run wild with different projects I find and create.

So, on to the projects and the quilting happenings of my life!! (A.K.A. the fun stuff!)

A week ago today, now that I think about it, I went out to Stonewall to turn in my quilt block for the block of the month quilt.  I didn’t get to see the quilt shop before because my mom’s friend signed us up and my mom turned in my first block for me while I was in Mississinewa.  This place was heaven!  I picked up some double sided interfacing for the un-named quilt and a cute little mini stocking quilt project.  Here are our blocks for month two!

 My block

 My Mom's block

The block for this month features even more HST’s but my mom and I are feeling more confident about them.  I am in love with how the second block turned out.  I like it a lot more than month one.  

Now, on to the un-named quilt!  I had a lot of fun playing with the iron on transfers and it was a lot easier than I thought it would be.  I started some of the detail stitching, although I'm still not the greatest at it.  I was using all my lovely coloured threads I picked up at Joann's in the states.  I used an almost identical blue on the birds for the smaller blocks.  When Big D saw it, he said it was good but not very visible and seemed like a lot of work for nothing.  Seeing as how these are the border pieces, I left them as is.  I picked a darker blue for the center bird and here's what I have so far.

The tail on one of the smaller birdies

Detail on the wing.

Detail on the center bird.  I want to do some more stitching to him as he is the focal point.

The original inspiration for the quilt.

I still have to do the applique stitching on the greenery.  When I quilt the entire thing, I might do some more detail on the little birds, but I want to see how it comes together first.  With any luck, I'll get the last of the applique stitching done tonight.  I have the place to myself for 4 days because Big D went hunting with his dad again.  Hopefully he can get one more deer to fill his tag and we are set for meat for the winter!!

Seeing as how this quilt is still un-named, aside from my unofficial "Museum Quilt" title when referencing it to friends and here, I'm offering a contest.  Comment below with suggestions for names, and the winner will receive a free copy of the pattern once I have it finished.  This will be my first full sized design of my own making and I can't wait to have it up for sale in my shop.  So let the naming begin!!

Keep warm and cozy everyone and Happy Thanksgiving to all my American friends and readers!

The still untitled quilt

Welcome back everyone!

A little while back, I talked about a painting I had seen on a wall in one of our local museums.  I found fabric on my trip to make a quilt inspired by this and I have finally come up with a design.  Right now its just a sketch on graph paper and a few squares of fabric sewn together, but in my head it is AMAZING!!

 The design.  The blocks are plain except for the few that are applique.  I want the fabric to be the focus in this quilt, and any detail put in to the quilting.and applique

The quilt so far.  I have the middle applique block, border around it and side panels. Also, my edges are not that wonky, the iPhone jumps a bit when taking panoramic pictures

I want to applique the birds and leaves onto the quilt, which will require some super awesome iron on interfacing.  I didn’t use any with “Home at Last” and some of the houses are coming away from the quilt.  I’ve heard great things about a product called Steam a Seam and I really want to try some.  If any of you Manitoba quilters know where it can be purchased locally, or a similar product, I would love to hear from you. 

My brain subconsciously altered the design with a miscalculation in number of pieces I had cut, so the border around the center design changed just slightly.  I’m not sad at all about this change.  Nothing was set in stone, I had lots of fabric to play with and I like the outcome anyway!

I’m hoping I can get the two top rows done tonight, and maybe even cut out the birds and leaves.  I want to pin them in place and get a feel for the whole thing.

Our snow storm from this past weekend seems to be that brought the snow that’s going to stay.  I’m not entirely sad, it’s perfect sewing weather!!  It will be cold this weekend though when Big D and I head back out to the farm for riffle season.  He still needs to fill his tag, and is determined to get a bigger buck than last time.  I think his feelings and bragging rights took a bit of a hit with that deer.

Keep warm and have fun with your winter craft projects!

Scottish Symphony: A Selkirk Settlers Celebration

I had an absolutely WONDERFUL evening out last night with the MLHS at the symphony.  They were premiering a new work by Sid Robinovitch called "Red River" which was commissioned by the Seven Oaks Historical Society to commemorate the Selkirk Settlers bicentennial.  MLHS was invited to hand out programs in costume and be general ambiance.  Myself and three other ladies were present and we received free tickets to the symphony.  Not only did we get to experience the world premier of this beautiful work, but two other pieces.  Concerto No. 1 for Piano and Orchestra in C major by Beethoven and Symphony No. 3 in A minor by Mendelssohn.
 

 

I took this photo during Beethoven's Concerto.  The pianist, Beatrice Rana, was phenomenal.  She couldn't have been more than 22 and played all three movements from memory with intense passion.  When I played piano, many years ago and never this good, Beethoven was one of my favourites to play.  He didn't show up very often in my curriculum, but when he did I would endeavor to play his pieces.  I even sought out a few to learn for fun and played "Moonlight Sonata" for my high school production of Dracula.  Anyway, Beatrice's performance was amazing beyond words.  I would go again to the symphony, if only to hear her play.

I finished my spencer jacket just in time to wear it to this event.  I managed to trim the cuffs with fur but not the collar.  We all had so much fun going to the symphony in costume.  We were looking for someone to take a photo of us all when two ladies came up and asked to have their picture taken with us.  We agreed if they would take one of us.  It worked out to be a good trade.

L-R Myself, Kira-Lyn, Zaley and Debbie

Debbie took a few poses, but I like this one.  She asked me to "look off into the distance remembering your homeland".  She's such a riot!!

  
I had parked underground, not wanting to ruin my dress anymore.  It had been snowing all day and we were supposed to get this horrible winter storm.  When I left the concert hall last night, it looks like it had kicked in full swing.  We were promised 20-30cm (8-12 inches) of snow.  This is what it looked like as I drove past the concert hall, which is actually on the same street my work is!

I was sure glad Big D had put the winter tires on the car!  The plows have been out now, but not when I was traveling home last night.  It was so slow going I didn't even get out of first gear, but other than that it was fine.  When I talked to my mom this morning, she said their property looks like a winter wonderland.  I told her to take some pictures so maybe I will get to show you what a beautiful place my parents have.

Hope all of you caught in this storm are keeping warm and safe and everyone have a great day!

Canadian Quilters Connect: Blogathon Canada

I have some exciting news to share with all of you!  I'm going to be featured, along with other quilt/craft bloggers from my province, in a Blogathon hosted by Sew Sisters Quilt Shop who are based out of Toronto, Ontario.  On Thursday November 22, another quilt blogger from my area, Heather of Church Avenue Quilts, will be posting all about her craft, linking to other blogs (including mine) from our province and hosting a few give a ways from the Sew Sisters Quilt Shop.

If you're interested in free crafting stuff, check out all the host blogs each day from November 19 until November 24.  There will be two give a ways a day and the last day will have three give a ways!  Even if you don't win, connecting with other crafters from across the country and seeing their work may inspire you to finish what you've got or start something new an amazing.  I'm very excited to read about everyone and how we all came to be in the same place.

Also, check out the Sew Sisters Quilt Shop and Blog! Click on the picture below to check our their site.  Hope to see you all on November 22nd! (if not sooner of course)

While poking around at a few different quilting blogs, I found this.  Quilting Blogger's, another site I am featured on, is doing a quilt block drive for those affected by hurricane Sandy.  If you are a quilter, or know a quilter who can help, please take the time to make a few blocks and send them off.  Click on the picture below to link up to the quilt block drive.  We're getting close to the holiday season, so lets start giving!!

Keep well everyone and have a great day!!  I will post progress pictures of my spencer jacket tonight or tomorrow.

I GOT ONE!!!

It's been a few days but rather busy ones.  I have great news!!

Panaramic shot of where we were sitting! Gotta love iOS 6!!

Sunday morning, Big D and i went back to the same spot in the south end of the third field where all the action was.  We got there early, thanks to the time change, and sat and waited.  Big D was getting discouraged and thought that maybe we weren't going to see anything as the deer were "late" from the last two mornings.  No sooner had he expressed this, one lonely buck moseyed out into the field.  He was snacking on winter wheat and making his way south down the field.  We watched with baited breath, fearful that he would turn east into the bush.  Big D tried his buck call several times but the deer didn't even twitch an ear to it.  He turned and started slowly towards us.  I had my muzzle loader cocked and ready to fire, all I had to do was lift my gun, aim and fire.

He was about 90-100 yards away and then it hit me, buck fever.  My heart started pounding so loud I was certain that the deer was going to hear it and run.  My arms were shaking as I raised my gun and Big D whisper yelled at me to shoot.  A tense split second that felt like several years and BOOM!  I fired but I was so focused on the deer through my scope I didn't even hear my shot, feel the recoil of the gun or notice him stumble.  He didn't run at all or drop, he simply started doing a quick walk past us.  Big D whistled to get him to stop and fired another shot.  I heard the shot hit but again he didn't drop and he didn't run, he just kept going on his way.  We both reloaded as fast as we could and Big D jumped out of the bush where we were sitting, saw the deer down the field on the bush line and fired a third time.  Big D's dad was sitting  in his tree stand and said he never heard an impact from the third shot, so the deer just walked into the bush.

We did some tracking but couldn't find any evidence of him having been hit.  Thankfully, Mr E came out to the farm to help us track it and after two hours of bush walking, we found him!!  He was about 2-3 years old, about 200lbs on the hoof and I believe 4 points.  Given that not everyone is a fan of seeing icky things, click here to see a picture of Big D and I with our harvest.  We decided to share the glory because there were two impact points, both from each of our first shots.

He's now packaged up in our freezer and hopefully we can fill the other tag during riffle season.  If we do, then we're set for the year!

On the sewing side of things, JM came over tonight to help me lay out the pattern for my spencer jacket.  I need it for an event Saturday night.  There was a symphony composed in honour of the Selkirk Settler Bicentennial and the MLHS has been asked to be present in costume.  I'm going to wear my peach day dress, as its the only fancy one I have right now.  The jacket is going to be chocolate brown velvet with a brown silk lining.  I have an old fur coat that i'm going to remove the collar from to put on the spencer, as well as trim the cuffs with fur.  It's going to be super fancy and I hope I get some nice pictures of me in it.