Pictures from Quilt Club

Hope you enjoy the pictures from our May Quilt Club at the Cloth Castle.

Now wasn't that fun, hope you enjoyed the pictures, we have some real creative gals in our neck of the woods!

Always carry an extra needle

Yes, always carry an extra needle because they can break while you are least expecting it.  This is what I learnt while on a road trip to Langdale last Sunday.  Knowing it would be a long day of driving and ferry rides I eagerly brought along my paper piecing project of hexies.

These were basted on our trip to and from Lloydminster, SK three weeks ago.  Though I didn't work on them all the time they certainly did help pass the long highway hours.  Driving to SK, with the ferry ride is a 17 hr trip one way and we only stop for gas so this bladder has learnt to behave itself  ( I'm careful with the liquid intake let me tell you ).  I prefer to do the drive in 2 days which is much more civilized to say the least!

Alas I could not add to this Hexies pile last Sunday on our way to Langdale because I broke my needle right from the get go and of course I never thought to bring an extra one, so the count remains at 221.

But it was a great day none-the-less as we seen new country and it was my first time on Lions gate bridge in Vancouver.  Really didn't like it though, kinda high you know, guess that's why I never had any interest in skiing either.

This is leaving Horseshoe Bay on our way to Langdale and the scenery was breathtaking and if I could bottle the air I could make a small fortune.  Nothing was more pure or heavenly.

We actually got a front row seat on the ferry and here is a picture of my husband sitting inside, what a pansy, now myself I had to experience that rush of cold air, actually it was the best medicine for my hot flashes, will they ever end!

And this is the view from the front of the ferry and you can't see me but I had my arms outstretched wide and that DiCaprio fellow was behind me, a girl can dream right.

Though there was no quilting done this day for me my hubby did buy himself another project, a 1926 Cadillac Limo.

 The smile on his face when he bought this treasure is just like the one I have on my face when I carry out an armful of quilt fabric from my favourite quilt shops here in Victoria.  So after the 12hr road trip I know what he'll be doing next winter when I am busy with my piles of fabric and quilt patterns.  

Happy Heart

I attended my Granddaughter's Kata and Sparing tournament, last Saturday when we visited them for a couple of weeks.  This was the first tournament held for quite awhile in the area so there was many participants from Saskatchewan and Alberta.  What a sight to see and the best part is both girls placed in their respective groups.  As this is their first year in Karate they are both white belts and with only being 1 1/2 years apart in age they are in the same class.  In the tournament they are put into groups by size thank goodness as the youngest, Brooke was the second smallest in the whole tournament.  Brooke (5 yrs old) finished with a Bronze and Maddie (7 yrs old) scored a silver.  There were many cheers from the MacKie clan when they received their medals I'll tell you.  We all left with Happy hearts and proud as any family could be.

Hopefully they'll earn their yellow belts and by the by they did beat out the boys in their local club, just saying!

So the Anniversary quilt is now waiting it's turn on the Gammil in Vermillion and what a relief that it is, so close to being done and I guess I do work well under pressure.  This is it before I put on the dark purple flange and for the life of me I can't find a picture of the pieced top.  Gad I hope I took a picture but it wouldn't surprise me if I didn't.  Too late now I guess but it was really pretty, really!

My newest toy is the early gift I received for Mother's day and if it wasn't for my Daughter-in-law, Teri I wouldn't have gotten it.  This how the story goes, when having coffee one morning sitting with my sons I said that because you both always say you don't know what to get me for Mother's Day I would love to have a Keurig coffee machine.  Talk about a blank look on two faces, first I had to explain what it was and it doesn't help that the oldest doesn't even drink coffee.  There I sat waiting for the wahoo, now we know what to get you, dead silence.  I even said they were on sale right now at Walmart, still nothing.  So, the day before we left I decided to just buy one myself and Teri saves the day and said that she is buying it and will extract the money from those deadbeat son's of mine.  Bless you Teri!  So this is my new non-quilting toy and I can't get enough of it, hence swimming in coffee and loving it.  Yes, I still love those son's of mine, they just suck at gift giving, for me anyways!

Hope you all have a quilty day because I can't wait to get back into my sewing room after being away for 2 weeks, gonna start that Bernina and watch out for flying thread!

Shout out for those who do giveaways

Yes, many thanks to those who do giveaways.  Some of us don't have sponsors and the onus is on us personally to put together a worthwhile giveaway and then there is the cost of postage.  I was a winner of a giveaway by Tanesha, Crafty Garden Mom which was the book Cozy Modern Quilts.  Thanks so much Tanesha, it's a cool and very doable quilting book.

It cost just under $13.00 US to mail this so it certainly adds to the cost of the giveaway.  Tanesha also has a great Podcast that I listen to called the Crafty Garden Mom on I-Tunes so check her out.  There are also other great Podcaster's out there so give them a listen too as I find they are not only great inspirations but you feel like you have a friend in the room with you when you listen to them.
I've been working on my Red and White quilt this last while and it is coming along pretty good, but no pictures until after the show, gotta keep it top secret you know.   I've worked on some of my wool applique too but still not sure I'm on the right track but I'll let Sweet P take a look and she can say yeah or nay.

Hubby and I took in the local Ukrainian  Cultural Centre's Easter celebration this past Sunday.

 Painted Easter Eggs for sale, ohh so pretty.

 Pottery and other artifacts.

 Beautiful crosstitch on a tablecloth.

 Bread scultpures

 More cross stitch.

Painting Ukrainian Easter eggs, time consuming and they can be very intricate.
Well, Survivor is on so time to make a bee line to see who wins immunity tonight.
Keep on quilting or doing what you love to do.

Sharon Pederson and her trunk show

A week ago the Victoria Quilt Guild welcomed Sharon Pederson as their guest speaker and what a great morning it was.  Her humor, her enthusiasm, her stories along with her trunk show made for a great meeting.  She just welcomed us into her life and had us hooked from hello!  We've had some pretty awful weather for quite awhile here and her story began with about how she just about didn't make it for her presentation.  With a tree literally falling on her car and glass covering her suitcase of quilts, then another brush with bad weather causing damage to the other vehicle well lets just say we were lucky she even made it at all.  I'm sure glad she did because she didn't disappoint and we are so proud to say she is from Vancouver Island.  And to top it off I have a picture of her signing her book for little ole me.

I hope some day my quilting skills improve enough for me to this book justice.  Until then I 'll just keep taking a peek at her signature to give me the inspiration to work towards that day.  So I'll quit the gabbing and show some of the photos from her trunk show (my camera phone is not the best) and please no drooling, it's not ladylike.

 If you would like to know more about Sharon go here http://www.sharonpederson.com/ and grab a cuppa joe and enjoy yourself.
On the quilting front I've been working on my Red and White quilt challenge and actually enjoying it so you know I'm due for a catastrophe soon because that's just the way I'm wired.  Hope you have a quilty day as I know I'll end up in front of my sewing machine sometime today but to keep my hubby happy I think we are going to look around for a couple of bookcases and probably stop at Four Mile House for wings for him and goat cheese and pear salad for me, yum, yum!

I came, I saw, I conquered

Spent this past Friday at The Creative Stitches and Craft show here in Victoria, BC.  I think it was far superior to the last show and good for me that it was within walking distance from where I live.  I was able to get everything on my list and then some, of course and here is what I happily brought home with me.

So looks like I did quite well doesn't it and well I sure felt like I needed to treat myself after the past week of only having Wednesday off from seeing the Chiropractor for two of the days and two different Specialists the other days.  Felt like the week would never end.  Comforting to know that we have some extremely great Professionals in our city though.

Our son from Vancouver spent the weekend with us and I'm always happy when he comes because he always cleans up our computer.  Gad, I don't know how I manage to create such chaos on here but he's a gem and quietly sets things right.  He also set up a Master Password for the computer too.  Hubby hates and I mean hates change so he is in a funk with this because he  struggles with the computer even worse than I do so I'll be happy when he feels more comfortable with this.

I created a little something today though, a mug mat for the Easter exchange and this is what I came up with.

I fussy cut the Easter eggs and did a blanket stitch around them with a rayon thread.  With another mug mat to make in exchange for some nuts (you had to be there) I emptied a drawer out looking for something to get the creative juices going.  Can you believe this all came from one little drawer.

 I found some great stuff in there but that will be tomorrows adventure.  Victoria Quilters Guild meeting   in the morning and we are supposed to have a great speaker so if all turns out I'll blog a bit about this incredible lady.  Happy quilting everyone.