What!!?? No wifi??..... And, Merry Christmas!

We have been thoroughly enjoying summer this last week. The days have been warm and long, time has been spent with family and friends, the kids have gotten filthy - all together wonderful. I was so smart and brought along my laptop and sewing machine in our trailer so I could stay up to date on life (and keep you current, too). The sewing machine got used (more on that later...), but the lack of wifi put a pause on blogging. But I'm back now!! Wanna see what I do when I have fun?

Part of our time was spent camping at my parents' place. The kids love the freedom that country living gives them. For some reason, I don't let the kids play with fire in town like they are allowed to do in the country. Hmmmm, wonder why?


These two little girls (one mine, one my sister's) have so much fun together. Running, giggling, fighting over the favorite princess dress.... also, a shared penchant for socks pulled too high when it really is barefoot weather.

My wonderful husband demonstrating a game he used to play when young - lawn darts. My parents have the safer version (equipped with the sandbag instead of the dart), but in the "old" days, a group of kids stands around in a circle and throws a lawn dart as high as possible. Then they play chicken with the lawn dart as it falls back to earth. Sometimes I wonder how he survived....

My parents' friend brought his chopper over for rides. Isn't that the coolest? I had never been in a helicopter before. My daughter and I were able to go up together. So great - I think I need one.

The reason we were camped at my parents' even though we live 15 minutes away was our "3rd Annual Christmas in July". We have two Christmases each year - just for the fun of it! We do a gift exchange, do a chicken on the bbq, and use the excuse to hang out with eachother. Here, Grandma and Grandpa are doling out the grandkids' gifts.

We did a little bit of Christmas decorating - this is my kids' fave, Mr. Snowman.

Shovelling in every last bit of dessert....

Now, finally, my first ever quilt made in my trailer! The pics are awful - I didn't really have room to spread out to take them - but at least you can get an idea. It's a quick strip quilt thrown together with some Kona solids, Monaluna dots, and Far Far Away II. This is when it's basted, but I already have the quilting done, and I am just waiting for my new tags to come in and then I can finish the binding.

Close up of the Far Far Away II pieces.

The quilting adds so much texture - I can't wait to show it to you. Soon, I promise!!

Now I'm off to enjoy this weekend - camping again!

Sidetracked...again

Now, seriously, I have every intent of this being a quilting blog. But life does tend to get in the way. Sometimes I find that the best time to finish up some odds and ends is when I have a quilt burning in my head - I am so anxious to start it that I quickly finish the small jobs that I've been putting off, although often haphazardly. We are heading out camping this afternoon (gonna bring my sewing machine along - we'll see how that goes...), so the first item on the agenda was yard work. Green thumb I am not... see my paltry supply of rhubarb? This is the first pick of the season. Sad. The mint, however, is doing well. I'm thinking a few mojitos are on the menu for this weekend. Mmmmmm.


We are supposed to get hot weather this weekend (hot for northern Canada, at least), so a quick water of my flowers was in order. Again, these are not growing the way I would love. Apparently, poor dirt and infrequent watering does not a dream garden make. However, by the way my lilies and hosta are behaving, they may be rewarded more of their kind for company. Good flowers, sit, stay.



My poppies are gung-ho too, and may eventually take over the whole front garden.



Now, on to something a little more relevant. One of my boys (I'm not allowed to mention which one because of the sensitive nature of this topic), is growing too fast and needed some big boy underwear. I find boxer briefs of this size difficult to find in our town, and expensive if I do find them, so I grabbed this Jalie pattern and quickly whipped out six pairs of underwear for him. I got it down to two pairs in 45 minutes. Not too shabby. They turned out really well - due to the patterns. If you haven't used Jalie patterns before, you should check them out. Each step has an accompanying diagram which makes it very easy to understand some of the trickier components. I have found I get very professional looking results with not a lot of hair-pulling out (also not much holding a cup of coffee, glaring at the pattern), and I like that.

One more thing, just to show I am in earnest when I say this is a quilting blog (Rissa, if you're reading, beware of spoiler. Stop reading now if you want to remain completely in the dark about your quilt!!). Here is the fabric for that burning-in-my-head quilt.

I don't know how the colors are showing for you - they tended to look a little bluer to me on the picture than in real life. Purples, greens, and grey. Can't wait to start! Maybe this afternoon....

Now I must go pack the camper. Enjoy your day!

Orders from Headquarters

After finishing the Fractured quilt last week, I was informed by my almost 8 year old (not 7 - almost 8), that there were no more quilts being made until I had sewn the summer dresses that I had promised to have done for summer. Secretly, I had been hoping that these dresses would be forgotten, since I much prefer to quilt, and had offered up my seamstress abilities on a whim. Sadly, almost 8 year olds have good memories....

I have another quilt in my head already, and I can't wait to see it realized in fabric, so I scoured the web for a quick summer dress. I have tons of patterns at home, but I didn't even want to dig the tissue pieces out of the envelopes - never mind laying out a million pieces, cutting out the fabric, slowly stitching it all together....this called for something fast. Habitual.wordpress.com had what I was looking for. It's basically the pillowcase dress, but done up with pretty pictures and great instructions. Check it out!

Here is what I started with this morning


Just some pieces from my stash.

And here is what I ended up with this afternoon!




Yup, three dresses in three hours. Who doesn't like that!? Lest you think I have a tiny, tiny baby, those dresses are for (from left to right) my 3 year old, my almost 8 year old's favorite doll, and, of course, the almost 8 year old. There are no live models right now since it is summer and my children are all dirty little urchins, cavorting around the neighbourhood in their swimsuits. I'm that mom.

Now I'm off to go soak in the sun and delight in the sounds of joy of those dirty little urchins!

Again, soon!!

Fractured

Here is what I wish I was doing today.... but instead I will iron for an hour...


A few months ago, I whipped out this baby quilt in two days. It went together so quickly and looked so vivid and sharp, I was so impressed. Just 3" diagonal strips pieced together.....



Then quilted 1/4" from each seam.


I made this quilt during the time when I was all gung-ho about using up all the random scraps of fabric that I had lying around my sewing room. I love how black and white can go with almost any color and make it pop! A friend of mine happened to see the quilt and fell in love with it, so when it was time to make one for her wedding, I decided to use the same technique in a different palette. Two days for a quilt, why not?

After meticulously cutting and carefully lying out all my fabric strips (this time Denyse Schmidt, Joel Dewberry, Amy Butler, Monaluna, and a few other randoms), I started sewing them together. Enter calamity..... I started sewing them together at the wrong angle and didn't notice 'til I was a third done. Aaaargh! Random info about me - I HATE seam ripping. I will do almost anything to not rip out seams; including scrapping the whole project. But this was not an option for this quilt. I was using GOOD fabric this time, and I was on a tight timeline. So after a good cup of coffee, drank while glaring at the quilt (how dare it do this to me?), inspiration struck! I took the remaining fabric strips and lay them at odd angles to the piece I had already completed. A thin line of white sashing to separate the different angles gave me this.....


a new quilt pattern that I call "Fractured" (I wanted to call it "Fractured Serendipity", but my husband said that was cheesy). It is a brand new favorite and will be made again. In fact, if I had had more time, I would have kept it for myself and whipped out another one for the wedding gift. I love it when a discouraging mistake turns out so beautifully. Even the one blue corner (see it on the bottom left) adds so much, but is only there because I ran out of the Joel Dewberry fabric I was using for the binding.

A view of the back, where you can see the small pieced section I did, and all the stitching lines from quilting 1/4" from each seam. LOVE it!!

Now I'm off to tackle that mountain of ironing, then I will attempt a few more mistakes :)

pieced by...kendra

Hello Blogworld!

Here I am, embarking on my first adventure with blogging. I am a mom to four beautiful, active kids, and it often seems that I can work all day and have nothing to show for it. Enter quilting - suddenly I can show that I am able to accomplish something! Yay! Well, on second thought, I don't actually have anything to show but pictures since I can't seem to keep any of these quilts for myself - something I am hoping to remedy soon. Mostly I just support my habit - selling just enough quilts so I can buy fabric for more. So sad.....

Let me show you some of what I do:

This is a checkerboard quilt that I made for a friend's baby boy. I almost always use too much white in my quilts, which I always feel guilty about when the quilt is intended for a child. Like, seriously, how is that supposed to stay clean? Oh well, they are all washable....

One of my favorite quilts - one I made for my youngest daughter. It was inspired by the Mulka Dubrawksy's Strips and Bricks Quilt, featured in Sew Hip (April 2009). I love this design so much that I've used it a couple times already with more to come, I'm sure. A pic of where it is supposed to reside and a pic of it used as a tent. Isn't that perfect? These quilts are made to be dragged around, although I still have a "not outside" rule. The white and pink one above is my first ever quilt that I made for my oldest daughter - and you will NOT get a close up shot of it. SO many mistakes!! But we all gotta start somewhere...

Tommorrow I want to show you a quilt that I just finished last week - one that started out with a huge mistake that was apparently completely serendipitous. Thanks for stopping by - swing by again soon!