Deck the Halls...

My latest obsession has been spending  w a y too much time on Pinterest.  I get so inspired looking at projects made by very clever people! Now that I am on holiday, I have been following through with my own versions of  some of the quilting and decorating ideas that I have seen on Pinterest...

Chevron Stocking

Spending way too much time on Pinterest these days, I have noticed a lot of zig-zag or chevron patterns in quilting and wanted to play around with this idea.  Here is what it looked like:

Now I want to do more!

I'm back...

                                                    Even though my quilting supplies are still in boxes,
                                                      a friend had a baby, and what else could I do...

                                                                    but start a quilt!

We moved!

After talking about it for over a year, we moved to Bowen Island just a little over two weeks ago.  We are pretty settled in most areas of the house and get to enjoy this view from the deck...

We now have wall space to display more quilts...

         I have run out of steam with the unpacking and this is how my quilting/craft 'stuff' looks...

   

    I have to come up with some

    organization systems before I can

    resume quilting

 In the meantime, this is much more appealing...

The Big Day!

       Our eldest daughter got married on July 8 and she and I worked together, using our sewing skills ....

                          We decided to make luggage tags as 'take-away' name cards for the tables.

                    Robyn chose two colours of vinyl, as well as some clear plastic to form the 'window':

It was a very small wedding with less than 50 people but  many of the guests arrived from destinations such as Colombia, Switzerland, Australia, China, as well as from several spots within Canada (Halifax, Toronto, Nanaimo and Parksville).



The Hungry Caterpillar

This time of the school year we have caterpillars in our Kindergarten classroom.  We have the opportunity to watch teeny tiny caterpillars turn into BIG FAT caterpillars and then go through metamorphosis, right before our very eyes! 

Because of this connection with caterpillars and reading The Very Hungry Caterpillar daily, I   love  the Eric Carle collection of fabrics!  I couldn't wait to get my hands on the fabric and had a lot of fun making this quilt for a very dear friend's baby

After completing this quilt I had some left-overs to play with

so I made this table topper

and then I had my kindergarten class use fabric crayons to colour in these butterflies and then I transferred them to fabric to make this quilt for our "Roots of Empathy" baby.

Happy Easter!

                             This guy is sitting at our front door, but only for a couple more days!

                         As we are not having our Easter dinner until tomorrow, I was able to turn our
                               kitchen into a quilting studio (again) and enjoy working on this...

                                          What fun to work on such a quick and easy project! 
                                   Now I can make a sandwich and get busy with the hand quilting.

free time to blog again!

Since my last posting, we listed and sold our home of 24 years!  We had been preparing for this event for quite some time but it was still both incredibly exciting and nerve-racking.

Not having to worry about "Open Houses" anymore, I can now have all of my sewing 'stuff' back out in plain sight and get on with the fun:

                                      I sent this quilt to my daughter in Halifax and she then sent the
                                       following photo, showing that the quilt meets Cali's approval!

                                                                              

 

I also had a chance to get back to this project and almost complete it.

(I still plan to embroider a 'wire' under the birds' legs)

Memory Lane

After 24 years of living in the same house we have decided to move!  And boy do we have a lot of stuff!!! Twenty-four years of just 'putting it away' in the attic (hoarding)... It is not pretty!

 Most of the stuff we pull out of the attic I question why it ever went in there!!#!#@!! But tonight we came across some gems and I just have to share. . .

                                    This is where I got my start! 

I remember getting this miniature sewing machine for Christmas when I was either in grade 1 or 2 (the mid- sixties) from my Aunt Mollie.  I even have the accessories in a bag that I must have made out of the leg from a pair of my Dad's pyjama pants! 

How cute it that?

Does it look familiar to anyone else?

In like a lion...

                                                                     How true today!

but I am looking forward to the lamb part!

birds

I love checking out clever quilting blogs and then I get so inspired that I have to leave the computer and immediately go to my sewing machine and make something, like this:

 The idea and the pattern for this cute little bird is from Kajsa, a very generous and talented artist in Finland.

As I was trying to get a photo of all of my birds, wouldn't you know that a breeze would come up and they tried their best to fly!

Blue sky

                                                     It was such a beautiful day for a walk ...

 all of that blue sky got me thinking...

and look at those bare branches!  Something is missing...

I was inspired and set to work

to be continued!

commuting

                                   Luckily I had my camera with me on my commute home..........

because the sky was so odd...

clouds, sun, and new snow, all in one!

sure beats grid-lock!

More hearts...

I got kind of carried away with making the felt hearts, and then used some nontraditional

colour combinations to send to our daughters living in Quebec and Nova Scotia...

                                         ... and then there is the table runner that is Valentine "ish"