Fibre Friday

I'm excited...I FINALLY figured out how to create a banner for my blog.  We limit the amount of technology in our home so this is like learning a new language.  I know CAD...an old version of CAD for Architectural drafting but that is about it.  I am on a learning curve here so for this day...I'm a Genius!!  Pull out the party balloons and streamers!

Heading out to pick up some Christmas gifts...we are very last minute this year.  Praying our parcel gets to BC on time.  Then home to get the printer working (I found the cable) to print off some Inklingo and give it a try.  I'm very excited about this!  Will keep you posted on how it goes.

I managed to do some spinning yesterday.  It was great sitting behind my wheel and just relaxing.

Do you like all our snow?  Please send some our way.

I love this skein.  I know..it's a barber pole but it can be very effective knit up. 

Description:  50/25/25 Angora/Wool/Silk 2-Ply Orthogenous Skein.  The angora gives the yarn a beautiful halo.  The hand of the yarn is so soft (like a little kitten).

40 metres 

16 WPI (wraps per inch)

Fine

Recommended Needle Size 3-5

The wool/silk blend was a "scrap" in my fibre bin that I wanted to use up.  The white Angora I purchased from Jan and Peg at Friends in Fiber (the bunny that donated to this spinning project was Snezhinka).  If you need beautiful, clean angora fibre this is definitely my "go to" place. The customer service is fantastic and they are extremely helpful.  They rushed off parcels of angora fibre for me on very short notice to help me cover a fibre shortage that I experienced with my OHS spinning project that I undertook this summer. I even got some wonderful New Hampshire holidaying tips for our next trip through that area.

Here are a couple of other projects that Snezhinka contributed to.  These were my sample projects that I submitted for my OHS design challenge.

Blueface Leicester blended with angora

The projects were inspired by patterns found in my daughter's knitting book.  I'm not sure where she has put it but once she gets home I will post the title.  It is one of the best books I have found for teaching children how to knit and full of lots of fun projects.

100% Angora

Sorry to my quilting non-spinner friends for all the fibre lingo.  The munchkin in the photo above was reading over my shoulder the other night and told me how much she loves me because I "love string and thread" and when I talk quilter and spinner language.  We do have our own language that can baffle others...WPI, HST, QST, PIB.  I hadn't really thought of it until she mentioned it.

Before I head off I just wanted to share something beautiful that took place last night.  On the news it isn't often that we hear good.  This warmed my heart beyond words.  If you have been following along you know that we were blindsided last week and it affected everyone but more so my oldest daughter.  I'm not going to go into the details...what mattered was that she was crushed, sad, hurt, disappointed, and broken.  On top of it she learned some difficult news about someone that she really cares about.  It was a lot to handle, even for an adult.  Last night, this wonderful couple took the time to reach out to our daughter through their own pain and challenges to elevate her, make her feel loved, special, and to show her how much she matters to others.  

They were our angels.  I am so grateful to them for the gift that they gave our daughter.  

A small token that meant the world to her.

O Christmas Tree

This was my view last night.  The kids did a great job!

I pulled out my spinning wheel with the intention of relaxing and unwinding.  I guess it was effective...I curled up on the couch and was fast asleep for the evening.  

I didn't realize how tired I was.

Today I need to tidy up.  Next Thursday I am going to have 8 girls crashed out on this tiny floor space to celebrate my daughter's 12th birthday (a Dec 23rd baby) AND the last day of school!  Friday starts the beginning of Christmas holidays so who knows when they will go home...we didn't set an end time.  My plan is to needle felt Christmas ornaments with them or make some Stars like the ones that Cathy at the Blueberry Patch made.  

I love this time of year.

My breaks from tidying up include:

Relaxing at my spinning wheel ~ I am spinning up a bit of 50/50 wool/silk that I found in my stash.  I plan on plying it with 100% angora that I spun up for my OHS spinning project this summer.

Learning about Inklingo ~ how come my brain starts shutting down when I start reading about computer programs?  I have been following Cathi at Quilt Obsession and I have become intrigued and obsessed with how she makes her quilts!  I will get through my computer issues to figure this out...and if not I will be messaging Cathi and Linda...a LOT! I'm determined to get this to work for me...I'm envisioning lots of hand sewing at dance and music lessons.  If you want to check it out you can go to the Inklingo website and download a free Shape Collection (this is the link to the one I have downloaded...Diamond, Triangle, Stars...thanks Cathi for telling me about this!)

Quick Update:  Cleaning is not happening.  I've left the Inklingo Guided Tour and jumped in to the Shape Collection that I have downloaded and I have to say...I'm really impressed!  It is very user-friendly, great tips and samples, no special ink required or programs to download (my nemesis).  I'm off to get my printer running so I can give this a try!  Woohoo....those 20,000 hexies that I need aren't looking so daunting now! 

Lost and Found

I seriously didn't know that I had a lost and found bin in my house but I guess I did.  Last night my youngest wanted company in the basement while she practiced her piano.  As I stood there I eyeballed the last of the bins that have yet to be unpacked.  They are my nemesis!!  Most look like the movers just picked up drawers and dumped the stuff in.  For two and a half years I haven't had the energy to even touch them.  Last night I sucked up the courage and opened the first bin....it looked mostly like a junk drawer on steroids.  I reached for the garbage bag and removed the first layer...hey there is my power bars...and then what to my wondering eye did appear...

THIS...

I was wondering what had happened to the rest of my Halloween stash, batiks, sample blocks, Christmas panels, and kids prints.  Welcome to my lost and found bin.

This junk box was brought to you by the packers that used my antique quilts to wrap toiletries and cleaning supplies.

Jelly Roll Chopping and Inspiration

Yesterday was heavenly. I sat behind my sewing machine for the whole afternoon completely uninterrupted....ahhhhhhhh! That is pretty rare around here. I had decided that I was going to do a baby size jelly roll race quilt. I cut my pieces and loved what I had chosen. I sewed it all together...and didn't like the end result. All my greens had lumped together; matching fabrics sat on top of each other...all the light fabrics at the top and dark at the bottom with a big white strip through the centre like a little target. I ripped seams out to break up the chunks of matching fabrics and still didn't like it. After ripping and sewing and ripping and resewing again, this is what I had....

This is the blurry folded in half version

Eventually I lost my patience with it and pulled out the rotary cutter and began chopping it up! This is not like me. I am a pattern follower...a rule follower.  Normally doing something as radical as cutting up my quilt top would have had me one step away from a nervous breakdown, however, after last it was rather therapeutic. It was very liberating to just say forget it and cut away without any regrets! Then my girls came home and gave their opinions...they pretty much were in agreement with the chopping of the quilt top.  

After cutting the strips I rotated every other strip. I didn't plan it at all and didn't really notice but the second row from the top and bottom is exactly the same. I'm quite happy with that turned out.

This is where I finished off last night...

I have been thinking about putting a stripe of green in the border but I just love how fresh and clean this looks so I think I will quit now before I have to chop up another top. It reminds me of springtime and fresh cut grass. I think now I will just pluck up the courage to quilt it...thinking straight lines to keep with the minimalism of the design. So now you know...when you lose the Jelly Roll Race, make Chinese Coins!

I'm now hanging out in my basement staring at my fibre and considering possibilities.  I just had an inspiring conversation with Joanne at Merry Poppins. (She is making cake pops for my daughter's 12th birthday. I can hardly wait to pick them up.  Her work is beautiful. You can find her on Facebook too at Merry Poppins.)

Anyway, when creative people get on the phone together there is no telling where the conversation may go. We went from cakes to quilting then spinning to felting. My mind is now running through the possibilities of where I could take Twistfully Yours and the idea of teaching workshops. Feeling more inspired than overwhelmed...that's a good sign! This isn't a new thought but the unknown keeps halting me in my tracks...

• how to start a cottage business
• how to price my work
• farmer's markets
• booking keeping and tracking inventory...eek
• how to take a decent photo 

I would love to hear your thoughts on some of these questions.  Wishing you an inspired week!

(PS there are only 118 classroom days left of the school year...

I am completely pumped about summer holidays now! lol)

Welcome Home Little Laptop....Come see what I have been working on....

My friend was able to "fix" my laptop....okay, the battery is completely dead and my A/C connection is loose...the DVD/CD drive is toast BUT I can access my OHS spinning thesis and photos that I hadn't already uploaded...or is that downloaded...over to the external hard drive.  I'm a happy person! that is starting to shop around for a new source of technology.

Last week we were completely blindsided and any creative cell in my brain disappeared.  (Everyone is healthy...that is always the first thought on bad news). It was one of those moments where you are left speechless and you feel all the connections in your brain snapping as you try to make sense of what you are hearing. I woke up with this morning with the resolve to keep moving forward and to stop second guessing myself.  I wasn't called in to work today so I have headed downstairs to tidy the sewing room.  Then it dawned on me that I have yet to get something for my new little nephew for Christmas.  We are sending the parcel out west tomorrow. Typically we each draw a name and make just one gift for the person whose name that we picked.  This little guy wasn't around when names were picked and being his favourite only aunt on this side of the family, I had better step up to the plate and do something.  I have yet to make him anything with the hectic summer and fall that we have had so rather than tidying I have pulled fabric out.

But first...what have I been up to?

• Finished my dad's Christmas gift...sorry...no photos (just in case he decides he should actually read my blog...highly unlikely but you never know).
• I have been helping my husband and daughter's with their gifts...mostly teaching them how to sew, etc....again no pics until after Christmas.
• I started adding colour to my thread painted portrait of my youngest daughter when she was 3.  I am using Prismacolour pencil crayons.  The photo doesn't do it justice (goal for 2013...learn how to take better photos)

• Our guild had a request for approx 40 placemats to donate to Meals on Wheels.  They deliver the placemats to recipients of Christmas meals to make the holidays a little more special.  As a presidency, we challenged the members to make 80.  At our Christmas potluck last week, there were 96 beautiful placemats turned in.  I wish I had my camera...there were so many creative ones.  My wonderful husband made my potluck contribution so that I could actually find time to make a couple of placemats.

These are really simple but very effective for a quick and easy project (again my photos don't do justice....or maybe it is the horrible yellow light fixtures in this house.  I may have to do something about those too.)  I am going to make up some miniature ones for a little one who just loves tea parties with daddy.

Pattern source:  Pink Penguin (this links to the tutorial but definitely check out the rest of her blog...lots of wonderful inspiration!!)

• At the beginning of the month I attended a spin-in with the Atlantic Spinners and Handweavers.  I went to spin however they had a hands on day.  I wish my laptop was working so that I could have downloaded the instructions for these.  I have made some before but not as intricate as some of the ones that I saw at the workshop.  Inspiration came from the book Temari Traditions: More Techniques for Japanese Thread Balls (this is on my list to Santa)and a variety of other sources.

Here is a little eye candy that the workshop coordinator brought along

Some of the workshop projects in progress....

  

I should get back to sewing and the mess in the sewing room...I'm thinking a little Jelly Roll project.  This is what I pulled from my stash. Now to get cutting and sewing like there is no tomorrow (because really...it has to go in the mail tomorrow...why do we do these things to ourselves??)

PS....Hop over to the Quilting Gallery.  Michele is having a Blog Hop Party to Celebrate the Quilting Gallery's 5th Birthday.  I was hoping to get in on it but the computer issues killed that thought but there are lots of other blogs that are linked up with tons of inspiration AND give-aways.  Happy surfing and good luck!

December 1st!!!!...errrr....ummm...2nd!

The question of the day for Reverb'12 is was How are you starting this last month of December?

Based on my post title I think you can pretty much guess.  December 1st started with me going to bed around 2:10 am after a night of exploding marshmallows...long story...and preparing stuff for my daughter's dance comp team's bake sale table today.  There was so much food I could have shown up with nothing.  We got to the bake sale a few minutes late then my daughter headed off to assist her teacher with the pre-ballet dance classes.  A couple of hours later she was back to the bake sale to get me and was ready to go home for a quick lunch and a little R&R before I headed out with her and her sister to go back to clean up from the bake sale then pick up one of their "orphan" friends that they met in the musical (they had a play date with her yesterday).  Off we went to Ms Hannigan's house for an Orphan Cast Party.  Dad and I came back home so he could rest (he's been feeling yucky since last night) and I could work on my Dad's Christmas gift...it is almost done...I just need to sew up the opening in the seam where I turned it out.  I'm realizing I am not a fan of fusible interfacing...either I am using crappy stuff or I'm not doing something correctly as it does not want to stick.  I'm so used to hand sewing interfacing...I may revert back to doing that.  After losing track of time, we raced out the door to pick all the girls up a few hours later taking note that my girls had wet hair!  How is this possible?  They jumped in the hot tub in their clothes!  I should have expected that!! lol  As soon as we got home, I jumped back in to sewing while the family curled up to watch The Polar Express.  I have one placemat just about done...it just needs binding...and one to quilt and bind.  They are for Monday's guild meeting.  Somewhere in all of that I raced in to town to pick up a parcel from the post office and find a gift for the guild Secret Santa exchange.  I did manage to find time to take a hot relaxing bath before starting the placemats.  I needed a break!  It is now December 2nd and I am sitting here at 12:56 am wondering what happened to December 1st and my “be kind to yourself” mantra for the month!!!!!  As much as my goal for today was to finish the placemats to the point of needing binding, I am going to have to call it quits.  I am starting to get that "too tired" shaking feeling...must get sleep!

One More Day Until December

Is it possible?  We have arrived at December and I still feel like I am catching up from June!  Eek!
My dining room table (the only one we have) is covered with bits and pieces of my dad's Christmas gift that has to get done and in the mail.  My thread painting project of my daughter and my pencil crayons are spread out....and somewhere in there is my Certificate of Achievement for passing  acing my Uncontracted Braille course.  My living room is littered with TV trays....this is where we will be eating until the table is clear. I'm so glad my family loves me!

My to do list for today includes:

• FINISH dad's gift!
• Clean off table
• Shop for baking supplies
• Drop girls off for play date and lunch with a girl they met in the musical they were in
• Bake like there is no tomorrow (it all has to be ready for tomorrow for a bake sale for dance)
• Find a quick pattern and make two place mats that can be done for Monday (I totally lost track of time....our guild is making them for Meals on Wheels to be distributed with meals at Christmas)
• Make the Block of the Month for Monday
• Make something to take to our Christmas potluck on Monday
• Write my CQA bit for our guild to get in the newsletter  DONE!!
• LAUNDRY
• First....I guess I should get dressed

To get me going in December (while still praying that the experiment taking place on my Laptop works...I'm starting to worry...especially with comments like "bring back to factory standards" (meaning everything on there will be wiped out....this is not a good thing).....
I have joined Kat over at I Saw You Dancing for Reverb'12 (she has described it as a "gentle" blog challenge with December being so busy).  Pop on over and join with me.  Wishing you a kind and "gentle" December.  Remember to be kind to yourself as you continue to bless others.

Laptop Update

Well...there's power.  That's good news!  But....he can't get past the initial start up screen yet....not great news.  There is hope that involves a little reprogramming and then I will be back in business!!  Until then I still can only periodically jump on our old computer...it is soooooo slooooooowwwwwww... to read comments and reply.  No picture posts for now.

On Saturday I went to Fibre Day with ASH (Atlantic Spinners and Handweavers).  It was nice to sit, spin, and relax.  Other members worked on creating Temari Balls.  BEAUTIFUL!  I've made some before but nothing like what the woman demonstrating had made.  I have photos...will post soon hopefully!

After a cleaning spree yesterday, I was able to put up some Christmas decorations and clear an area for the Christmas tree.  We pick that up on Sunday.  The girls were so excited to come home after a long day at school to see decorations up.  Holidays are difficult without any family around (my husbands are in Ottawa; mine are in BC) so we are working on creating our own family traditions that don't involve the traditional trip to grandparents for dinners and gatherings.

Today, the sewing machine is coming up to my kitchen table (I definitely need to ask Santa for a space heater for my sewing room) and I am making my dad his Christmas gift and hopefully finishing the borders on the Lone Star.

Hoping everyone out there is doing well.  Enjoy this beautiful day!

Things Happen in 3's

I was excited about the number of people that visited my blog and that got me excited about posting more regularly.  It's hard to get motivated when you think only your mom reads your posts (Thanks Mom!).  If you haven't checked out the hosts bloggers or their linked blogs, you really have too. Sew Sisters has put together a wonderful list.  There is so much creativity happening across Canada! 

The host blogs!

Sunday, November 18	Kick-off!	Michele	Quilting Gallery
Monday, November 19	BC	Felicity	Felicity Quilts
Monday, November 19	BC	Cathy	Blueberry Patch
Tuesday, November 20	NS	Jeanette	STAMP * STITCH * CREATE
Tuesday, November 20	NB	Holly	Through My Window
Wednesday, November 21	AB	Shena	Apple Pie Patchwork
Wednesday, November 21	SK	Patti	Retired to Quilt
Thursday, November 22	QC	Marika	Live, Laugh, Love... Sew
Thursday, November 22	MB	Heather	Church Avenue Quilts
Friday, November 23	YT	Vivian	Quilting Under the Midnight Sun
Friday, November 23	YT	Janet	Caribou Crossing Chronicles
Saturday, November 24	ON	Cathi	Quilt Obsession
Saturday, November 24	ON	Cara	Cara Quilts
Saturday, November 24	ON	Kaye	Miss Print

I must have put too much positive energy out in to the universe about everything I wanted to accomplish this week because it has very quickly brought me back to reality! lol

This is how the past 24 hrs has looked....

I sat down to start a post Yesterday morning, my daughter bumped the power cord on my laptop and the screen went black.  I hit the power button and there was enough "umph" to light up the button and shut off.  It hasn't started since.  I have a Braille assignment due that is on there, my daughter has an assignment due on there, the photos that I haven't transferred to my external hard drive.  A friend is going to look at it today...please say a little prayer for it.  It sounds silly but the most important purpose of my laptop is keeping connected with my family.  I live in NS; my whole immediate family lives in BC...thank you Skype!  We can't get skype working on this old clunker. 

Then....I took a "quick" drive to the Valley via Truro!!!  I was thinking about my laptop, the budget, thinking about family and wishing for a mini holiday...perhaps a short trip to PEI.  Deep down I must have really wanted to go to PEI because it did not dawn on me that I was on the wrong HWY until I saw the sign for the PEI ferry or Amherst! and still it didn't really connect that I was in Truro and not Avonport until I took the Amherst exit! lol It then turned in to a cross country trip to get over to the valley getting me to my destination about 2 hrs later (total 3hrs for a 55 min trip).  The good part was that I didn't have time to browse the fabrics at leisure...I had to get home for my children!  I walked in the door minutes before my children walked in.  My husband thought it was hilarious and that it supported his claim that I have absolutely no sense of direction or time.  

My plan for today was to go out to pick up a couple of Christmas gifts and to go check out the 50% off  sale at Fabricville.  I want to fill in some of those holes in my stash with some bright WOW! colours at a relatively affordable price and I need some batting for my poppy.  After tearing my house apart all morning I realized that my husband was the last person to have my keys. My keys are downtown Halifax.  The bus service out here is horrible and my girls have dance after school.  Grateful for a friend from dance that is zipping in to pick the girls up.  My husband has figured out a bus route that gets him close to home and leaves him with an hour plus walk home (in the dark, up and over lots of hills) so that he can go pick them up.  Again...another shot at browsing fabric gone! lol  Is there a conspiracy?

I'm hoping this is the end of my 3's and my laptop is fixable

...fingers crossed.

Welcome to NS

Sew Sisters Quilt Shop is hosting a Blog-a-thon.  Each day between now and Nov 24th, bloggers across Canada are participating.  Yesterday we visited BC; today we are in the Maritimes.  If you are like me and still relatively a baby in the blogging world and would like to meet fellow Canadian Blogging Quilters or are simply in need of some awesome inspiration, then you should definitely check out these posts.  The host blogger lists other blogs from their home province in their post. Visit Sew Sisters at the link provided to see their list of host bloggers (pssstttt...there are also give-aways).

If you are stopping by for the first time via the Blog-a-thon then welcome to my relatively new blog.  I in definitely in learning mode!  Stop by frequently as I add and update.  

A little about me...I moved to NS almost 2 1/2 yrs ago from Ottawa.  My two kids (very soon to be 10 & 12) have forgiven me for all the Ottawa and area shop hops that I regularly took them out on and now willingly head to the Annapolis Valley with me to purchase fabric and fibre.  They have caught their own little bug...they have become avid knitters and love fabric.  I started quilting in '93 then took a break to go back to school, get married and started up again when I had my children.  After another brief hiatus I am happily picking up my needle again!  When I don't have fabric in my hand I can be found behind my spinning wheel....or waiting, waiting, waiting at various activities with my drop spindle.

What's new in  my little corner of the world???  We survived Annie weekend.  Both my girls performed in the musical Annie.  It was a blast; it was a lot of work...it is over.  Now we are all trying to re-energize and get back in to routine.  I had big plans for yesterday!  Lots of the list involved catching up on laundry, cleaning, tidying another corner in the sewing room and SEWING!!!!!  Reality...I curled up on the couch, read a book, and slept!

Today....trying again.  I went down and sat in my sewing room for inspiration.  My goal is to not start anything new until I weed through my pile of UFOs.  However, this little stack of fabric keeps calling me...

My 9 yr old aspiring quilter (she has a little tutorial here showing how she designed and made a pillow for her cousin a couple of Christmases ago)picked these bundles up for me at CQA in Halifax.  We arrived just moments before the vendors mall closed.  She ran in and surveyed the shelves and came back with these treats.  The bundle on the left was from Mad About Patchwork.  Their booth was stunning and deliciously colourful.  There is no way you could walk past without your eyes pulling you back in! The star shaped bundle and larger piece was from The Running Stitch.  It was so wonderful to see them there.  I frequented The Running Stitch when we lived in Ottawa.  We spent our last milliseconds in their stall wishing we had more time to check out all their lovely fabrics.  I have a Christmas gift to make for my father (and am still mentally stuck on what to do) but I have a couple other little ones that I adore and if there is time they might just get a little something using these fabrics.  Too many thoughts....so little time!!!

I was also perusing my fabric stash now that it is all tidied up and pretty much unpacked.

It is pretty small compared to other stashes that I have seen.  I gave away A LOT of fabric prior to our move to groups making quilts for charity.  I didn't relish the idea of slugging everything from Ontario to Nova Scotia.  My cousin in Saskatchewan warned me that I would regret it and...well...I do in a way but then I don't.  Looking at this photo I see a lot of earth tones...that is where my head used to be.  Then I had children and things got a bit more colourful but now all I can think about is bright, vibrant, and WOW!  I have colour holes that need to be filled.  I really must discuss this with Santa.  He has often been such a great enabler of my habit...fabric, thread, notions, etc...He knows it brings me joy and when I have joy then the whole family is happy!

I would LOVE to meet fellow quilters in NS!  It would definitely make it feel a little more like home for me.  Let me know if there is a quilt show (or shop) in your area, what craft shows are going on or what you are working on.  Is there a Modern Quilt Guild in the area?  Come along for the ride and follow me. 

Waiting For...

These days I wait...a lot!

I wait for daughters to dance...6 hours per week.

I wait for daughters at music lessons...1 hour per week.

I waited at musical rehearsals ranging from 4 hours to recently 12/18 hours per week.

....some weeks that is 25 hours of sitting and waiting!  And I love it!  I love watching my girls do what they love most.  To make it even better I decided I should spend the time doing what I love most.

Meet my best friend to wait with....

My spindle and Shetland fleece are becoming quite recognizable at the recreation centre and at rehearsals.  It sparks a lot of questions and conversation AND best of all...because of my spindle, I met a fellow spinner.  As I sat with my spindle at dress rehearsals this weekend, one of the cast approached me.  She spins and weaves...since moving to NS; she is my first spinner that I have met.  I have met a few that have spinning wheels but don't spin or want to learn how to spin "when there is more time" but definitely my first spinner.  I have since been contacted by the Spinning and Weaving Guild and invited to join them at their fibre day on the 24th and to join the Guild.  

I tried contacting the guild when we first moved here without any luck...and then life got busy and there just wasn't time but I miss the companionship of fellow spinners as much as I did quilters.  That commonality...that thread that ties us together...people that completely understand the stray threads and bits of fluff on your clothes (your kid's clothes, your husband's clothes) and don't look at you oddly when you pull out a stick thingy and a ball of fluff; people that understand the amount of time that you spend creating something for the pure joy of it.

I love my spindle...I need to start looking through the stash to blend something wonderful to spin at fibre day. 

Poppies and Playing

I absolutely love poppies!  They are my favourite flower.  When I saw this wall hanging a few years ago, I just had to get it.  Unfortunately they didn't have any kits left so last year I thought about it again and called the shop up.  They shipped it off to me and it went on my shelf.  

Recently I discovered that there was a large light table at my husband's workplace so after getting permission to use it, he signed me in and I spent a day happily tracing out the pieces.  Not a soul noticed me there until I was getting ready to leave then all my patterns and fusible web sparked a few questions....apparently no one has used the light table in years!  Then I had to use my homemade milk crate light table that I made when I was 15 to piece everything together.  My back and knees were killing me! lol  I would love to have the workplace light table in my basement!

Fusing pieces using my pressing mat and my milk crate light table.

The key phrase for a few days was "watch the iron...it's hot!" and "Mom, where can we walk/sit?"

Fusing to background

Ready to layer and quilt

I am not a confident free motion quilter. I love the process of MAKING a quilt but get completely stumped with the actual quilting.  I think it was all those beginner quilting classes that ended with the dreaded phrase of "Quilt as Desired"!  Seriously...how do you desire when you have never quilted anything before or been taught anything about quilting design, thread, etc?  Eventually, Quilt as Desired meant...send to my friend Pat!  Pat always knows what to do!  Now I live in NS and Pat lives in ON and I'm thinking I should actually learn something about quilting design and improve my new free motion skills that I learned when I made the sunflower!

On Wednesday, my husband and kids sent me to my sewing room to take a break from life while they prepared supper.  I have been watching a Thread Art workshop on Craftsy by Lola Jennings so thought I would give it a try.  I traced out an enlarged photo on some scrap muslin, threaded my machine with some charcoal thread and set to work without worrying about mistakes.  It is very liberating to just play!! I'm not quite finished...still some detail in the background to do and the post of the play structure.  It turned out much better than I expected (and now wishing I had grabbed better fabric!)

I Thought It Was Tuesday

Today was one of those days where you are running in circles and feeling like you aren't accomplishing anything.  Then suddenly it comes to a crashing halt!  That's what happened while I was at the Pet Store picking up food and hay for Cocoa and Vanilla...our resident gerbils.  The world started to spin and get a little darker and my legs grew weaker.  Fortunately I did not hit the floor.  I was able to lean against a display until the feelings of passing out...well...passed!  After that for the rest of the I felt lousy with a capital "L"!  I'm hoping that I'm not coming down with something.  I'm wondering if there was something in the pet store that I might be sensitive to because I seem to recall this happening the last time I went on a gerbil food run.  So, after resting a bit, I got up and helped my daughter with the finishing touches on her project and then it hit me...Today is not Tuesday...It's Wednesday!...and that means that I missed my CSA food pickup.  <insert frustration here>  I don't shop at the grocery store.  The only food we eat is the food that is delivered in our trusty box and whatever I make.  I have never missed a pick up before.  Can I have a restart on this day?

UFO #1 Lone Star Update

Phew!  I actually found sewing time last night and today.  It is really a miracle some days, weeks, month, years... 

Last night Early this morning before heading to bed, this is what the Lone Star was looking like.

This afternoon, after wandering around the house feeling absolutely discombobulated (I love that word!)for most of the day, I finally found my way to my sewing room.  Giving up all hope on doing any housework, I started sewing again.  My goal was to have the rest of  the star pieced and the small inside border on before my girls got home.  I finished the last of the borders just as my oldest came downstairs proclaiming hunger.  If all goes well their dad will take them to rehearsal tonight so that I can add the pieced border.  I am really loving this and so glad that I didn't add the appliqued flower baskets in the corner squares.  I took a poll of the family and none of them cared for them either.

Hoping to post the next stage later tonight!