Back to the mystery-not a mystery anymore.

So all the steps of the mystery are out and it is gorgeous although at this point I don't know if I like my version. I have been working on one project(only) for a month. This is very rare and I have to finish it because we all know what happens if I put it away. I'm not sure what I am going to do with it. I originally thought it might be for my son and it still may be but the red has turned out to be much more prominent than I thought it would. The blocks are gorgeous but this will be enough small pieces for awhile, I think I need to make something with really big pieces next although I know I really need to get back to finishing UFO's. On Bonnie Hunter's blog she also shows the back of her quilt which is fabulous-she used a lot of orphan blocks from prev Christmas projects and just kept adding pieces until it got big enough. It is like a totally reversible quilt.

Here are pictures of the 2 blocks that make up the finished quilt - I took pictures because that gives me some distance and I may decide I like it after all.

Christmas is almost here

Just the same as every year, Christmas seems to sneak up and BAM it's here. I don't know why; as it is the same time every year but it seems like it is so far away and then suddenly it isn't. I took a break from the mystery quilt to shop, wrap presents and bake. Don't these cookies look yummy.

Scott arrived in Vancouver yesterday on the train then took the bus to the ferry. Victoria picked him up downtown after she finished work and they will be here after lunch today. He will stay for a week so that should be fun. Vicky and I are going to see the local production of "Nutcracker in a Nutshell" this afternoon so that should be fun. Hope everyone is having a great holiday season.

Step 5 - Finally making some blocks

So step 5 is out and I couldn't resist peeking and making a few to see how they look in my colors. I am really pleased so far. It will be another week until the next step comes out with the layout so I'll keep working and see how many I can get done. I needed to look for inspiration to keep going but I love these blocks and the layout should be interesting.

Step 4

More 2 1/2" half square triangles and then sew them to the extra squares that were cut in step 3. This step seems fairly easy but still takes time. I have made a few and here they are.

Mystery quilt - step 3 completed

Here is a picture of what was made with some of those squares and rectangles.
These are not all completed as I am doing some of each step to see how this will turn out. So far its very interesting. Also doing something I haven't done before - as I sew the squares on the rectangles I am sewing 3/8" away from center line and then when you trim you have made 'bonus' half square triangles. I usually toss these cut-off pieces as they go into the cat/dog pillows I make so they are not garbage. This was a proposed idea in the mystery quilt so I thought I would try it for once - they are cute but small. I will have to use them in another quilt but of course Bonnie has some quilts on her site that will use them or they would be great in potholders,etc

Mystery quilt -Step 3

As if I didn't already know I was insane for step 3 you need to cut 592 - 2 1/2" background squares but then she tells you some of these are for step 4 but might as well do them all at once. Then cut 192 - 2 1/2" x 4 1/2" red rectangles. Its surprising with stacking strips this didn't actually take to long. This makes an interesting picture. Now to get back to sewing.......

Mystery quilt update

I should know better than to start a Bonnie Hunter mystery quilt. She uses mostly scraps with a lot of pieces but I'm sure it will turn out great.

Here is how it has gone so far : Step 1 - Cut and piece - 192 2 1/2" x 4 1/2" twosies from blue & tan - no problem

Now make 104 green/tan half square triangles using the easy angle ruler - OK

Step 2 - Cut 208 more tan triangles to add the prev made half square triangles - WHAT

and then add 104 green triangles cut from 4 1/2" strips - OK I know I'm insane and this is only step 2

Done!!

Here is the blue fabric back in the tub......Now to sew for a little while before Victoria & Andrew get here for the Grey Cup party that Dave told them we were having all by ourselves. They felt sorry for us and decided they should bring Freddy to play with Bailey.

Thought I better include a picture of the Fred & Bailey......

My Blue Fabric

Doesn't this look like fun!!!!!

No Surprise; I have no willpower

Bonnie Hunter on Quiltville is doing a new mystery. I told myself I was not going to do this one but concentrate on finishing things. Started sorting and cutting up more scraps to clean things up after retreat and craft sale and realized how many 2 1/2" strips I have.

Guess what?? the new mystery uses mostly scrappy 2 1/2" strips so here I go again. Step one half done and then I need more blues so into the blue bin and as I cut a few strips I realize the fabric in the blue bin has not been washed. I have been trying to wash everything(one bin at a time) as I have discovered my allergies act up when I use new unwashed materials.

So I'm sure Sunday has unlimited time---- while cutting and sewing for mystery quilt I am washing a load of blue fabric; how insane is that?

Now , after quite a lot of rain the sun has come out and I probably should be outside but I have a large pile of blue fabric (I can't even guess how many meters) that needs to be refolded and put away and then back to some sewing.

Craft Sale done

Well it only took a few days to recover but the All Sooke Arts & Crafts Sale last weekend went well. It was Fri, Sat & Sun and well attended despite rainy weather. I would like to thank my daughter Victoria and my sister Ruth for keeping me company at various times during the sale.

The hot pads with funny sayings and the cell phone bags were the hot sellers as expected although I did sell 1 set of placemats and two lap quilts as well as a few smaller items. Overall it was a success and I have some ideas for next year. As it is all local I think people want to be sure you are indeed local so I will probably go to a few of the Farmers Markets next summer and see how that goes. I may also go to the Art in the Park sale which is in August-I went to see what it was like this year and seemed to be quite busy although it greatly depends on the weather.

For now I am happy to get back to finishing some of my own projects and will wait until the new year to start anything that is specifically for sale.

Finished!!! - Items for sale are done

Last night felt very productive, most of these items didn't need much but they are finished and ready to take to the craft sale tomorrow. Wish me luck (I hope someone will buy something). Above I have added the pictures of the cell phone bags; earring hangers; hot pads & newest place mat set. I have one more place mat set almost completed - may finish this afternoon. I have to go help set up tables tonight and set up my table tomorrow morning. The sale runs Fri 12-8; Sat & Sun 10-5 and it seems to have been very well advertised. Vicky has made some herbal teas and some photo cards which I will also have for sale for her. Better get back to work :)

Mystery Quilt - Christmas

Here is a picture of the last mystery I've done. Mine is on the left and Linda's is on the right. I finished putting it together at the retreat - Linda's was just needing the rest of binding sewn down. This is another pattern designed by Bonnie Hunter; it was offered in 3 parts in the Quiltmaker magazine. I'm not sure if I am putting borders on - I need to try it on my table as it may become a Christmas tablecloth just the way it is. If you have any border suggestions please let me know.

Craft Sale items

Here are some pictures of things I am trying to complete for the craft sale that is coming up this weekend:

sm boys quilt with matching pillowcase - *This is done*

Hot pads with sayings - I have 9 of these completed; thats all I will do for now. Set of 4 placemats - 1 set is done the other set is a maybe as I have lots of placemats which hopefully will sell.

Hopefully someone out there wants quilted gift items for Christmas - I will let you know how it goes.

Retreat pictures

I am attaching some pictures from the retreat:

The first is the mystery quilt we made.

The next 2 pictures are of the Strip Twist quilt which can be downloaded for FREE at Quiltville.com. This site is run by Bonnie Hunter who provides a lot of great scrap quilts and ways to cut and store scraps so that they are easy to use.

Linda and I also made a quick and easy disappearing nine patch which started when we found a 'deal' :) on 7" blue batik squares this summer. We traded 7" yellow squares and this is the result. It may get a border but I haven't decided yet.

packing for craft sale

I spent this morning sorting finished quilted items and making sure everything was priced etc. It is amazing how much you can accumulate. I was wondering how I was going to get everything I wanted to make finished but I am not going to stress out as I now know I have 3 large tubs of items already finished. Everything from here on that I finish is icing on the cake.

On that note I completed the binding on a batik table topper and a stack n whack teddy bear tablerunner tonite so feeling quite proud of myself.

I needed that as I am having major problems with my desktop computer, I opened something I shouldn't have and now have some kind of virus that I'm having trouble getting rid of. I have to talk to my computer expert son tomorrow as to what the next step is. May have to start over from scratch but I hope not.

back to quilting

Got busy this evening and quilted a small boy's quilt. Should fit a tot size bed or just be a nice size for a cuddle quilt. Its a cute old fashioned train print reminiscent of Dick and Jane, I just added a border around a large centre as it was too cute to cut up. I will post picture tomorrow(when I find camera) of quilt and matching pillowcase. Now back to binding on previously quilted table topper.

Back in BC

As always time flies when you are having fun (or just busy :) ) I am back in BC ; we left an hour after I arrived home from another successful quilting retreat. As soon as I get a chance I will post some pictures of the retreat and what I got accomplished.

Stopped to visit my Mom on the way here and she is doing great, seems to keep as busy as she wants to be with a great group of friends.

Looking forward to seeing my daughter in the next few days as well as Dave's sister and husband who are out here for a few weeks.

Now to concentrate on getting a number of projects finished as I have a table for a 3 day craft sale here in Sooke Nov 21-23. Never a lack of things to do and no reason to get bored.

Habitat for Humanity

Next Thursday I will be helping to put siding on a house for Habitat for Humanity. That should be interesting. The office I work for in Red Deer is sending a team to volunteer for the day and they have told us they plan to be siding that day. The choice was to work regular that day or volunteer so why not? Hopefully the weather is still decent then.

Some pictures of what I've been doing

Finally here are a few pictures of what I've been working on lately.

First there are bags for 5 sewing caddies; now I need to make the pincushion base.

Next is a table runner which was from a kit I bought from Connecting threads, it went together really fast and I did the applique with machine blanket stitch in a variegated Sulky thread which I am very pleased with. I then decided to use the same variegated thread on the Welcome wall hanging and also like the way it turned out. I have one more similar wall hanging in opposite colors which I am doing the blanket stitch by hand so it will be interesting to see the 2 side by side when I get them finished.

So Hot today

It was sooo hot here today. Not complaining but it is very unusual to be 33 Celsius on Sep 23. It is usually only about 16 at this time of year but it is allowing the farmers to get their crops off in good time. I finished a table runner top the other day that was made from a kit I purchased from connecting threads. I have to get my camera going-the battery is charging and get some pictures posted. Not too much sewing the last couple of days as I have been cutting kits for the mystery quilt that we are doing at my retreat the end of October. It will be good to have those done and packed away ready to go.

I can't seem to concentrate lately and have started a number of small projects when I have a few big ones that need to be finished but at least the small ones are getting done. I need them for a craft sale that I have a booth at in November. I have made a few market bags, kleenex cases, 2 WELCOME wall hangings(just the top), and part of six sewing caddies. I will try to post pictures in the next few days.

My team came in 2nd!!!!

Golfing yesterday was fun and my team came in 2nd with 1 over par...woohoo! Not thanks much to me although when the other balls disappeared in the trees we could always find mine cause it didn't go to far and it went straight down the fairway. When we started out it was so windy we were wishing it would go away but we soon discovered if you got out of the wind it was too hot. 26 above I think which is not usual for Sept here but it was a great day.

Then on to the bbq at Ken's house which was great. My prize for coming in 2nd was a package of 3 small LED flashlights-they will be very useful. Now I just have to buy the batteries for them.....

Golfing

Today should be interesting as I head off to our company 'fun' golf game. I have never golfed much and not for a few years, I love mini-golf as I can putt really well but driving???? I was once told if I could get any distance I would be a great golfer because it usually goes straight down the middle of the fairway although I'm lucky if it makes 20' usually it rolls about 6' so it should be interesting. The only good thing is that most of the other people also never golf so it should be fun. Tomorrow I will have to get busy making applesauce as our two trees produced really well and there are a lot of apples to deal with.

Then back to sewing; I finished a strip twist top the other day(when I get a minute I will post a picture) and I've been busy cutting for some sewing caddies I want to get finished for the fall sale I have a table at in November as well as dreaming up a million more ideas for things I would like to make. Never enough time but at least I will never have an excuse to be bored.

Where did summer go?

It was a great summer and still supposed to be very warm over the next few days so I guess it is still summer but it seems like things change once it is September. Spent most of the weekend canning. Did peaches, plums, crabapples and there are more to do. Started a black and white strip twist I want to have completed as a sample for my fall retreat - got a bunch of strips sewn together so they are ready to cut into blocks. It is such a fun pattern. Will post pictures when I get the top done. Meanwhile back to work at the office all day today, tomorrow and prob most of Weds so not much sewing for a few days.

Victoria(DD) starts working on her BSC in phytotherapy tomorrow. It is a four year program and she is very excited.

What have I been doing?

I can't believe it has been two weeks since I last posted. Didn't think I was busier than usual but time flies. Starting to pack things up to head back to Alberta for Fall harvest. I did manage to finish a flannel quilt for a friend in Innisfail, it still needs the binding but I can take it with me to finish.

The guys have been fishing quite a bit and I finally went the other day. Here is a picture of the 20 lb salmon Andrew caught. We also caught two smaller pinks.

We have one of the strangest sunflowers I have ever seen. It has about 10 flowers on one stalk and here is a picture of one of the flowers. I don't know if you can tell but it is a double-headed flower, the two heads are attached back to back.

On a final note I also finally quilted a horse wallhanging I made for my husband at our fall retreat last year. I gave him the top for his Christmas present and he got the quilted/bound FINISHED wallhanging about a week after his birthday.

Fishing & Quilting - Life is good

Dave and Andrew went fishing again yesterday; it was a bit windy once in awhile but overall they had a good time. Caught one of their biggest salmon yet - an 18 lb. Also caught a 9 lb and 4 nice small pinks. While they were gone I added binding to a couple of quilted items and got backs ready for 2 more ready to be quilted so quite a successful day. Off to see what I can get quilted today. Will post more pictures tomorrow (hopefully).

Fishing

Dave, Andrew and Butch went fishing while Vicky and I went to the art show. They had a shortened day due to the wind came up and made things quite rough. Before the winds got out of hand they caught 3 more salmon. They also saw a huge pod a whales and some sea lions. I would love to be out there when they see the animals but definitely would not like it when the water gets rough. All around ; everybody had a great day.

Holiday Monday

Had a great day, the guys went fishing and Vicky decided to hang out with me for the day. We decided that we should go to the Sooke Fine Arts show which had been on for a week at Seaparc. It was fantastic!!; I had no idea of the artistic talent in the local area. There was such a range of techniques in this juried art show that it is hard to know where to start. There was a large variety of paintings, sculpture, woodwork, fibreart, blown glass, ceramics, photography and varied mixed media items. The display was very professionally done with nice wide aisles and superb lighting. There were definitely some great objects I would buy if I won the lottery, I don't think they were overpriced for the work that went into them but definitely out of my price range. Well worth going to and I will definitely go next year.

We then went to the fairly new restaurant in town called Nut Pop Thai and it was great. The food, service and atmosphere was great and we had more than enough food so brouhgt the rest home. What I had left from mine was enough for both of us for lunch today as well.

Carrot cake and mystery quilt

I made carrot cake this morning, made one last week and it was soooo good I decided to make another. We have so many carrots in the garden we are going to turn orange soon. While it was cooking I finished the mystery quilt top I am planning for my retreat group. For awhile it was quite a mystery to me but the top is all together now, looks very interesting. Now I have to calculate how much fabric I used so I can send out fabric requiremetns and pre-cutting instructions. Then I have to write the instructions, this should keep my brain working. Hope everyone is having a great long weekend.

Where does time go?

I can't believe its been 2 weeks since I last posted. The weather has been fantastic so spending quite a lot of time outside. The guys have been fishing 3 weekends in a row and caught fish everytime. There is nothing better than fresh salmon but I think you could get tired of eating the leftovers. The bunch they caught Saturday they are going to get smoked so that should be great. It was Dave's birthday Saturday and they had a great time fishing. Made carrot cake(from scratch) with cream cheese frosting.

Finally getting binding sewn on some of the completed quilts and I quilted another table topper yesterday. Will post picture soon.

Cherry Jam

TA DA!!! - almost 4 jars

Boiling Madly

Pitted and in bowl

Cherries waiting

I had to take a break from quilting and use some of the cherries from our trees. From start to finish it took about 2 hours but it is so delicious it was worth it and otherwise I don't think we can eat them all. I will probably make another batch this evening or tomorrow evening as a few more ripen. We picked them all and are letting them ripen inside so the raccoons and birds didn't steal them all. Very enjoyable.

2 more quilts ready to bind

I seem to be on a roll now if I can just keep it going. I have finished quilting 2 more quilts. One is a snowman flannel for me and the other is a batik table topper that was made as a mystery quilt in a class held at the store a few years ago. I am really pleased with the quilting, now I have to get busy and get the binding on........

Raccoon in the cherry tree

A bit of excitement this morning as there was a raccoon in our cherry tree so using the water hose to spray him he left rather unhappily. We thought with the dog here the raccoons would not bother but they have obviously figured out she is inside overnite. Last year when our daughter came to check out the cherries as we were away at the time there was a mom & 2 baby raccoons in the tree so we knew they were around. I think raccoons are such a cute animal but I do not want to share my cherries with them. If we can leave them a few more days to finish ripening it would be great.

Gorgeous weather-everything is growing

Spent all day outside today pulling ivy and other weeds. Andrew & Victoria were here working in the garden and planting sunflowers and tomatoes they started in their greenhouse. We ate some delicious fresh carrots and the cherries will be ready soon. The roses are doing great, most of them are pink but had to include the picture of the red one; it smells as good as it looks. Finished quilting on a flannel quilt (for me!) so now I have 2 to bind. Trying to quilt 4 or 5 at a time while I'm in the mood and then bind them all so we will see how that goes. I don't think I have any more that have the backs ready but that usually doesn't take long to do. Enjoy the pictures.

Baby Quilt quilted-what color binding?

So in between pulling a few weeds and various other running around I have finished quilting this quilt. It is stippled all-over with flowers in the center 4 patches(doesn't show up well in picture). I have purple and green left as well as the peach backing I used or I have scraps from the quilt and I can't decide which to use for binding. Any opinions welcome.

Happy Canada Day

Hope everyone has a great July 1 holiday. I hope to get some quilting done today but it is gorgeous outside and there are lots of weeds that need pulling so I may have to alternate back & forth. Hope everyone get to do something they enjoy today.

I found my own flower stone!!!!!

Just returned from a walk on the beach and I found a flower stone. The picture of the single one is the one I just found. Vicky , Andrew and Dave find them quite regularly but I usually don't. Dave said we will have to build a special shelf for mine :). I have also attached a picture of some of the other ones we have found, they vary so much.