Back to the Fair

There were so many wonderful items on display, it was hard to get pictures of all of them, and even harder to decide which ones to share with you.

I used to do a lot of work like this – back before arthritis was in my daily vocabulary. 

There were rows and rows of jams, jellies, spreads, dips, pickles, etc.

Down in the corner of this next picture is a Santa tablerunner the same as the one I actually finished this year.

This next picture was one of my favourites from the exhibit.  The whole thing was no more than 12” tall and the detail was amazing.

I loved the little kitty playing outside the door.  Here is a close up of inside the store.

Check out these shoes – where do people come up with these ideas!!!

This little quilt was so nostalgic.

Next we’re off to see all the animals.

I’m Speechless……Almost

We had the most wonderful trip and since I haven’t had this much good blog fodder for months, I’m going to drag it out for all it’s worth.

After arriving in Dallas almost 2 hours late, Ann picked us up and we sat up until the wee hours of the morning talking, laughing and admiring all her quilts.  The next morning we were up bright and early and headed off to Dallas Thread where we managed to do some damage for thread for our longarms.  Then we headed off to P & B Textiles and while they wouldn’t sell to me because they have a Canadian distributor, they did let us take a copy of all their current patterns and we got to see all the new fabric lines.

Then Ann took us to Sonny Bryan’s for the best BBQ in Dallas (maybe even all of Texas). 

As soon as we walked in, I recognized the place from a program I’d seen on the Food Network.  It isn’t fancy, but the food was delicious.

After lunch, we headed off to the Texas State Fair. 

Now, I know everything in Texas is bigger, and these swans were no exception!  The grounds were beautifully maintained and while there was a light drizzle when we arrived, the skies soon cleared and it turned into a beautiful afternoon.

This is part of the butter exhibit which replicated a saloon scene.

We spent a lot of time in the Arts & Crafts Building and  I’ll share some of the beautiful work we saw.

Bear in mind when you are looking at these, that they were all hung from the ceiling and were about 5 feet above my head.

I took a smocking class when Sandra was a baby – I think I still have the unfinished project in a box somewhere!

We think this one was crocheted – it was absolutely gorgeous!

I really liked the simplicity of this piece:

This one just spoke to me:

Stay tuned as I’ll continue in the next couple of days – right now, I have laundry calling my name and I feel like I could sleep for a week. 

Only One More Sleep….

To say I’m getting excited about my trip would be an understatement.  I am so looking forward to visiting with Ann and seeing all the sites in Dallas, then what could be better than heading of to ‘the’ Quilt Show of all quilt shows!

I hauled out another Christmas panel that I bought eons ago. I liked it when I bought it, but I would never have bought it today – our tastes change which is why they tell you when you buy something you should make it right away.  Sure, like that’s ever going to happen.

Anyway, I found the panel and what I assumed was the backing but only enough for a narrow border, so I started merrily cutting away, then realized I had more of the border fabric and I could have cut the borders wider.  Oh, well, what will be will be.

It’s just stuck on my design wall, although it is already quilted.  I think it’s a good wallhanging size, but I’m going to embellish it with some crystals and I have some decorative button birds that I think will jazz those trees up a bit. 

Sandra and Darren came over yesterday and we had a bit of a photo shoot.  They brought a tiny little witches hat and of course, both Molly and Ben were forced to wear it for their photo op.

Poor Ben, it kept slipping down his face and ended up looking like a big pointed nose on him.

I’ve been trying to keep myself occupied so decided I’d embroider some Halloween towels for Sandra.  I’m planning to do 4, but they are really stitch intensive and they have over 30 thread changes, so I’ve only got 2 1/2 done so far.  Here are the two that are finished.

I hope to have lots of great pictures to post when I get back, although I don’t think I’m taking my camera to the Quilt Show.  I think you can spend so much time trying to get a good shot and waiting for people to get out of the way, that it takes a lot of the pleasure of viewing the quilts away.  Hopefully they will sell a CD of the quilts and I can look at them that way.

Happy Thanksgiving to all my Canadian friends and Hi Y’All to all my friends in Texas – see you soon!

Don’t Fall Off Your Chair

But I actually quilted something this week.  I got the Christmas panel quilted yesterday and here is my little quilt inspector giving it the once over.

I used Happy Times on this, but the quilting actually shows up better on the back.

I’ve also been working on this hideous ‘thing’.

Quite a few years ago at one of the local Shop Hops, I won this pre-cut quilt kit.  While I like scrappy, this one just doesn’t do it for me – there is no pattern and the way the strips were cut, I tried a lot of different combinations but just couldn’t get anything I remotely liked.  I was going to put borders on it, but decided I’d rather not invest any more time in it as borders aren’t suddenly going to make me like it.  It will get backed and quilted and donated!

I am starting to get really excited about my upcoming trip to Texas.  My friend Lee and I are flying to Dallas next Monday to stay with another dear friend Ann, who I met several years ago on the About.com Quilting Forum.  Some of you may remember her on-line name as “Pepsi”.  I met her briefly ‘in the flesh’ in 2005 at Houston, but we talk pretty much daily on the phone.  She is going to give us the royal tour of Dallas – including the largest quilt store in Texas, the Kennedy assassination site, the Texas State Fair, Dallas Threads and the new Cowboys Stadium.

After that whirlwind tour, we are driving to Houston with Ann for the Quilt Show, then Lee & I will fly home from Houston the following Monday.

I am really looking forward to this trip and especially to seeing Ann again as she has been through a lot since we last met.  She is also the proud owner of a new APQS Millie and she is anxious to pick my brain.  I’m not sure what she’ll find in there, but we’ll see….

Where Can I Find Some Time?

I’ve finally figured out why I never get anything done around here – I’m never home!

On Friday, Lee and I paid a visit to Michael & Kay of Circle Lord fame.  We had a lovely afternoon at their home in the country and they were kind enough to go over all the templates again with us.  They will be introducing a new ‘up front’ system within the month and it is very exciting!  Now all the templates will be able to be done from the front of the machine if you want.

Saturday, Sandra & I shuffled off to Buffalo as I wanted to get some flannel backing for the Christmas panel I showed you last week.  Seems crazy to drive all that way for cheap fabric, but we managed to pick up some other goodies too ;-)

Yesterday, we celebrated my Aunt’s 82nd birthday with a family dinner.

I think she looks great for her age and she is such a happy and positive person, despite a lot of major health issues.  Too bad my Mother (her sister) wasn’t more like her.

Today has been spent catching up on laundry and sorting through some clothes.  Children’s Wish come around every 8 weeks or so to pick up any clothing donations and I am usually able to provide them with a garbage bag of stuff we no longer wear.  I am starting to get brutal – no more keeping clothes that are a size 0 (I wish).  Even if some of this stuff fit, which it doesn’t, I wouldn’t wear it anyway so it’s going!

Ben had a great day yesterday as all his favourite people in the world were here.

Molly had a great time too as Darren brought a laser pointer with him and she had a ball with it.

Tomorrow is my Stitch n Chat but maybe, just maybe, tomorrow afternoon I’ll get some sewing done before I go bowling tomorrow night.

I really need to retire – if I didn’t have to work those 2 darned days every week I just KNOW I’d get so much more accomplished!!!

Can You Believe It?

I actually SEWED something!  My Aunt’s birthday is coming up this week and I’ve been working on this tablerunner for what seems like forever.  I’m not happy with the quilting, but I did learn something from it, so it’s not all bad.

I did some feathered wreaths in the centre which I thought turned out quite nice.

Problem is, you can’t see them on the overall finish.  After I had done these wreaths, I didn’t have a clue what to do with the rest of the background, so I ‘kind of’ echoed the outside of the feathers – and not very well either.

See all those little paw prints on my table?  Here is the culprit.

She looks so innocent, doesn’t she – don’t let that look fool you, she’s full of mischief.  However, all is forgiven as she likes to sew and curls up on any fabric that happens to be lying on my table.

Yesterday a friend and I did a shop hop of 3 Niagara area quilt stores.  The give-away at each store was extremely generous and we had a nice day. 

I’m proud to report I only bought one – yes, one – kit and when another girlfriend came over today for a sew day, I actually got the top finished.

I could let you think I am a sewing whiz, but it was a flannel panel and I only had to add the two borders. 

It’s one of the nicer panels I’ve seen lately and a nice size.  I find so many of them are long and narrow and just don’t look right.

Leo is away fishing this weekend so I don’t have any meals to cook.  I should, however, tackle the mound of laundry that seems to reproduce at almost the same rate as my fabric stash!

No Quilting Content Here

Hard to believe, I know, but there still isn’t any quilting going on around here.  I seem to always be busy, but I’m not sure what I’m busy doing.

I did get a new camera and I’m really pleased so far.  I bought a Nikon D3000  and have been having fun playing with it.  The store suggested I use it for a few weeks then come back and they’ll spend an hour or so with me telling me how to use the various features.  Right now I’m just using auto for everything which suits me just fine.

Of course, you know who my favourite subject is!

Here’s his little sister in her cat cube which she loves.

Since I don’t have any quilts to show you, here are some shots of Leo’s dahlias and roses.

We have had the best weather of the summer for the last two weeks.  It’s been sunny, warm but not humid and best of all, no rain.  I hope it continues until at least Christmas.

Good Golly Miss Molly

On Sunday, we welcomed this little one into our family.

We thought long and hard about this decision as we didn’t want to do anything to put Ben’s nose out of joint, but encouraged by his relationship with Abby, we took him to the Humane Society on Saturday to get his reaction to adopting a baby sister. There are so many homeless animals right now and we certainly have enough love and the wherewithal to give one a good home.

So far Ben & Molly have been just fine together and we have been giving him some extra attention.

I don’t have very many good pictures as my camera has been acting up. Initially I thought it was just me as all my pictures were fuzzy, but Sandra & Darren came over and took lots of pictures and they were all fuzzy too, so it’s definitely the camera. I had decided to get an SLR – Nikon D60 but I just found out they are releasing a new model D3000 in a couple of weeks, so I’m going to hold off and get one of those.

I’m in a bit of a quilting slump lately. Do you ever feel guilty when you aren’t producing? Although this is a hobby and I don’t do it as a business and have no deadlines to meet, I always feel guilty if I’m not working on something. It’s silly, I know, but I can’t help it.

I also feel the need to find something interesting to blog about and this summer, there have been pretty slim pickings. I think we all go through these phases, but I hope I get over this one quickly as I’m much happier when I’m absorbed in a project.

Since I can’t show any favouritism, here is a picture of my baby – who will always be my baby.

Let’s Go To The Ex!

I haven’t fallen off the face of the earth, I’ve just been very busy.  I had to work full time last week and I thought I would spare you the moaning that I do when that happens.

Last weekend my girlfriends Ursula, Chris and I went to the Canadian National Exhibition – fondly known as ‘The Ex’.  I haven’t been there for 27 years – Sandra was in a stroller the last time we visited so I wasn’t quite sure what to expect.

We had a ball!  In fact, Ursula (on the right) spent so much she ended up buying a cart on wheels as her arms were killing her carrying it all.

We saw sand sculptures, rock sculptures, flowers and lots and lots of vendors.

These looked like a type of African Violet but none of them had any blooms and I don’t they they ever bloom.

We watched demos on Sham Wows, saw more mops than you could ever use in a lifetime, we had our jewelry cleaned, had a mini-makeover, had our feet massaged and tried hot pads to ease the pain in our shoulders.  We came to the conclusion that we are pushovers when it comes to a good sell – hence the reason for the shopping cart.

There has been absolutely nothing quilty going on, except in my dreams.

How About That – A Finished Quilt!

Tillie and I spent some quality time yesterday and I got this quilt finished.

The quilting shows up better on the back.  I used Frisky Feathers.

I hand stitched the binding last night, so it’s finished!  I love the feeling of finishing a project, especially one that’s been waiting a while.  It was also good to spend some time with Tillie – I’ve missed her and she is such a wonderful machine. 

Stinkin’ Santa

There still hasn’t been much going on around here on the quilting front but I did manage to finish what has become known as the Stinkin’ Santa.

I bought this kit after Christmas last year for half price – I should have known why there were some left!  While it wasn’t difficult, it was a real PITA as it was done on a fusible grid with 1 3/8” squares.

I loaded this top on Tillie a couple of weeks ago, but I haven’t started it yet. 

What was it Annie sang?  Tomorrow, tomorrow, I’ll do it tomorrow…..

Sunday Again? Already? So Soon?

I seem to only be posting once a week lately and even then I’m often at a loss for something new to post.  I can’t blame it on the heat of the summer – all we’ve had is rain and no high temperatures at all. 

I got my Boxed Squares quilted and bound yesterday.

 

This was made with one package of Bali Pops and surprise, surprise, I used my favourite Swirls template to quilt it.

Earlier in the week I embroidered a couple more fingertip towels for Sandra since she liked the other ones so much.

I’ve been searching all over for more towels and finally found some for sale on EBay from a seller willing to ship to Canada – trust me, that isn’t always easy!

Sandra sent me these pictures of my grandkitty Miles this morning.  He was helping clean up after Darren had made a dessert yesterday.

Looks like he’s enjoying it!