The Opposite of Hot Chocolate...

Is not cold chocolate. Rather, it is the act of tramping through muddy ditches and over gravel roads during the chilly Northern Alberta autumn. This is what our Saturday morning consisted of. Brrrr....

But why would we brave this (who am I kidding - we all know it's about to get a lot worse...)? Let me show you.

A mischevious look so typical of my daughter.

And another one from her brother...

My wonderful parents....

Beautiful pics all worth depriving myself of a few moments of warmth.

I am privileged to call this marvellous photographer a close friend of mine. You should really, really check her work out. Really. I'm serious. For real. Did you?? You should!

More pics in a few months (can you wait that long?), after another session with her.

Guilt free fabric

I buy most of my fabric online. There are pitfalls to that; such as not being able to feel the fabric first or see if it is the exact color that I'm looking for. But..... then this is sitting in my mailbox.....

And I forget all about the inconveniences of this method of shopping. Is there anything more exciting than a package in the mail? Well, perhaps... but this is pretty good. Plus, any guilt I feel over purchasing more fabric has already dissipated by the time the package arrives. That's a definite pro. It's frosty out today, so the fabric is delightfully cold as I lift it from it's bag. Ahhhhh....

Here is what arrived today. Amy Butler Love spots in two colorways, Echino Bird & Berry (Fall 2009??), and the grey and citron Michael Miller Huevos that I was so excited about. I think it was all on sale, so, yay again! I ordered these all from Pink Panda Fabrics; supporting a Canadian company is another bonus.

Now to introduce them to the rest of my stash...

A young quilt designer...

The kids are all tucked in. My favorite person to hang out with in the evening (aka my husband) is working late. It's a perfect time to do some quilting.

I walk into my sewing room and see this spread out on the floor...

It's the design floor for my 5 year old son. I gave him permission to play with the scraps, and this is what he came up with. I kinda dig it. It almost makes me want to sneak into his room and wake him up by smothering him with kisses.

Almost... but not quite....

The kisses will wait 'til morning...

Catching up...

Wow! It's Wednesday already. My weeks are flying by, Christmas is going to be here too quickly!

I know I promised to be around here more often after our vacation, but there was so much that had to get done to get back into life. I don't even know what it all was, but it took up a lot of time :) My tan is fading... that makes me sad.

My goal is a quilt a week from now 'til Christmas. If I can keep that schedule, then I will fulfill all the holiday orders and have time to sew my own Christmas cozies. We shall see.....

I didn't do any sewing this past weekend, but I had a perfectly wonderful excuse...

A special anniversary supper. Excuse the dimly lit, badly taken picture; but this was homemade Caesar salad (everything made from scratch!!), and we were hurrying to take the picture then eat before the lettuce went soggy.

Nathan and I celebrated 11 years together, and since that's not such a huge hallmark number, we farmed the kids out to Grandma and Grandpa's, then spent a pleasant evening together at home. We picked up dessert from the farmer's market, a tenderloin from a local butcher, then brought it home and together whipped up chateaubriand, roasted potatoes, asparagus, and the above mentioned salad. It was all delightful....

Now, however... this week... I've been putting my machine and my back (and wrist, arms, and shoulders) through the paces as I race against the calendar to finish quilts. I'm STILL working on the red-haired princess quilts, but I finally feel like I'm in the groove and quilts will be completed quickly now.

I took a quick pic of one of the quilts to show you the quilting that I've been doing on it... lots and lots and lots of straight lines (excuse the loose threads and wrinkly quilt - I just wanted to show you without taking a whole lot of time). Most of this quilt is quilted with straightlines 1/2 - 3/4" apart, mostly running vertically, but some horizontally. But see that light pink strip? There I quilted 1/4" or closer togther. The effect is gorgeous and would be stunning done all over on a quilt, but I think the tear stains on the quilt might not be worth trying that particular effect. Hmmmm.....

Well, three little munchkins must be picked up from school. I'm off!! Happy Wednesday!

In progess...

More work on the princess quilt(s) today - lots of straight lines being quilted.

Mmmhmmm. I'm having a few issues with the fabric pulling - just like I always do when I straight line quilt. It usually all works out fine in the end, but is frustrating during the process. You can see I'm not using my walking foot. I hate that thing. It does an even worse job than my regular foot. I think I've figured out the issue, though - my foot applies too much pressure on the quilt and shifts the top as I'm quilting along (I know, I know, the walking foot is supposed to solve this, but it doesn't on my machine...hmmm). I've spent a good amount of time trying to find a way to have the foot apply less pressure, but have not found the solution yet. I pinned this one like crazy, too (the pins have mostly all been removed in the above pics). Any advice?

Inspiration walls are popular in the quilting world. I have one, too. This is what's on it:

A message from my six year old, and a picture of a bird nest from my three year old. Man, I love those kids.

I'll be back soon!!

Compatible evening activities

Dara....spoiler alert!!!

I don't know what your evenings look like, but here's mine.... Our four wonderful kids are still young enough to be in bed by 8:00ish. Some of them read in bed for awhile, but after 8:00, my husband and I are pretty much free of parental responsibility. Then.... we watch tv. It's sad. But we really enjoy hanging out on the sofa together; so for now, at this point in our lives - it works. While we were on vacation, we set up our cable to record all of our favorite shows (it was season premier week!!!) so we could catch up when we got home. And catching up is what we have been doing. I'm sure we came home to at least 30 hours of shows recorded for our viewing pleasure. Last night I really needed to get a quilt basted. And, as long as I am crawling around on my knees, I'm not blocking the tv for Nathan (so considerate, I know). So, here is what I accomplished last night during two episodes of "Blue Bloods".

This is one of the "Red-haired Princess" quilts, and a twin size certainly seems large when laid out on the floor with 200 pins in it.

I cannot wait to start quilting this one. Lots and lots of straight lines coming it's way....

I had a bit of an issue with the backing for these two quilts. I have a thing for Kona Snow; an obsession perhaps? I used every last bit of my Kona Snow up on the first back, and had none left for the second back. After panicking, then phoning around town and finding out nobody stocked it in town, then realizing I didn't have enough time to order it in; I had to get creative. The backs are pieced with leftover pieces from the front, Kona Snow, and Kona Medium Grey. I love it, and I hope my very visual, very talented friend concurs. I'll show you a pic of it sometime when it's not taped to the floor.

Soon...

Giveaway Winner....

I'm not smart enough. It's true. On other blogs, they use the cool random number generator and show the result just as they saw it. I used the random number generator, and when I tried to copy the results to the blog I got this:

Random Integer Generator
Here are your random numbers:121
Timestamp: 2010-10-13 16:01:55 UTC

Not what I was looking for, but it works. Here's the deal. As of last night, I had 124 facebook followers. There were 12 comments that were eligible for entry into the giveaway (posted before the deadline and not doubles). So that is 136 entries altogether. The comments are numbered in order received. I'm thinking that I need to make this simpler next time I do a giveaway - my head hurts :)

So, entries 1 - 124 are facebook followers, then 125 - 136 are the blog commenters. Number 121 is.....drum roll please.... Jeremy & Brittany Koleba!!! Congratulations!!! You have a cozy Christmas quilt to cuddle.

I have never met the Koleba's, but the rest of my family is good friends with them. How exciting!

Thanks to all of you for entering the giveaway. Now I'm off to get some serious quilting done....

Confession Time....

Now for the real reason why things have been pretty slow around here of late.

My family has spent a delicious two weeks in the wonderful Puerto Vallarta and area.

It was absolutely lovely. The kids got to spend so much time with their daddy (his hard work allows us to steal away and do this occasionally - what a wonderful man). I got to spend so much time in the sun by the pool.

Our trip included: one broken transfer case (in Canada still, on the way to the airport), three rental vehicles, numerous long taxi rides, two braided heads of hair, many pizzas (our kids get tired of Mexican food), one jellyfish sting (chosen cure? vinegar, not urine), one pirate ship, two pirate friends, six inflatable tubes, two crocodile waterslides, 16 hours of flight time, 65 small toys to bring back to classmates, 3 sand castles, one jar of Nutella (special treat for vacation), $50+ spent on movies on the plane, one Thanksgiving supper, 30 or more scoops of ice cream, one lost pair of sunglasses (note to self, sunglasses should not be brought into the ocean) - all this and more packed into two weeks of hot, hot weather. Oh, bliss....

Thank you for being patient. The giveaway is now closed, and the winner will be announced later today. I'm so excited to see who it is!!

edited: The giveaway will stay open until midnight tonite. I found out that my facebook followers hadn't been notified as I thought, and that's just not fair! You've got a few more hours... best of luck!! I'll announce the winner tomorrow morning.

I came home to three packages of fabric and one LARGE bundle of batting, so now the quilting will start in earnest! Finished projects by the armful will hopefully be available for you eyes to see very soon.

Stay tuned...

A tale of two pillows

Last in my series of upcoming projects is this fabric stack for two throw cushions. I think this might be one of my favorite color/fabric combinations. Aren't these fabrics gorgeous together? Perhaps a quilt is in order down the road, but for now, two cushions will suffice.

That's it for the giveaway posts. Comment away on these 'til midnight of October 11, and the winner will be announced on October 12. Yay!!!

Soon...

A quilt for everyone, even me!!

I have not yet kept a quilt for myself. I have made one for each of my children, but there is none that I can cuddle with when the nights get cold (as they are already). This is it. My new Christmas quilt. Well, not quite yet, but it will be.....

Aqua and red

Apparently, 'tis the season for aqua. I'm noticing a theme here.... This is going to be a throw at the end of a king size bed. I'm aiming for twin size (thank you Colleen for not making me do a king size, although I'm sure it could be done!!). Isn't this going to look sharp?

Aqua and pink

What an absolutely delightful combination!!! There are going to be two of these quilts as well. I love it when sisters have matching quilts. So sweet.

More aqua is in order, though, to complete this look. The bottom fabric will provide more inspiration yet.