Appliquéd Angel Puppy Quilt Top

Thought I’d better pop in here and let you know I’m still alive.  My Mum has been in hospital for the last couple of months so my life seems to be on hold.

Things aren’t going to get any better, so I need to learn to deal with it – enough said.

I did finish the top of my embroidered puppy angel quilt and I’ll share the pictures, since I don’t have anything else to show you.  I don’t think there is much going around in my brain either that you’d want to hear, so it’s going to be lots of pictures for this post.

I like my colour and fabric choices more in some of these than others.  I’m not sure what I’m going to do with it and I don’t have a clue how I’m going to quilt it, so it will probably have to age for a bit while I ponder that.

It’s August??????

Bon Jovi was absolutely amazing – best concert I’ve ever been to.  Kid Rock opened for him and then Bon Jovi played for 2 1/2 hours straight. We were on our feet from the minute he came on stage until he left.  When Jon smiles, my heart just melts – he’s so damned cute!

I made this quilted panel for my friend Onalee for her birthday.  An unusual gift to give in July, but at least this way she will have it for the Christmas season.  She loves little cartoon mice so when I saw this, it had her name written all over it.

I quilted it with metallic thread and I must admit I was nervous as I’ve never used metallics before.  Tilly handled it like a dream and I had absolutely no problems.  Onalee loves a bit of bling, so I embellished it with crystals.

I’ve been working on these appliquéd embroidered blocks.

I have 11 of them done – just one more to go then I think I will alternate them with some 9 patch blocks and make a little quilt out of them.

I don’t know how people have their embroidery machine going on one table and manage to get anything done at another.  These little guys had about 30 thread changes each so they seemed to demand my full attention.

This & That

I’ve been really busy lately, but nothing much blog worthy has been going on.

Sandra and I went to see Miss Saigon on Saturday at the Four Seasons Centre in Toronto.  We’ve both seen Miss Saigon before but I’m not sure where my head was the first time I saw it, but I enjoyed it much more this time.  I didn’t remember much about it, except the helicopter, and I also didn’t remember it being so sad.

After the theatre, we went for dinner at Tundra.  Some high end Toronto restaurants participate in what is called Summerlicious where there is a prix fixe menu so us poor folk can enjoy some of the finer dining available.  The food and service was excellent! 

Leo has gone fishing this weekend so Ben, Molly & I have been holding down the fort. 

I got my Birthday Presents top put together and it’s now in the pile to be quilted.

I also got this very old UFO finished and I’ve just embroidered a label for it.

The floral fabric in this is one of the first fabrics I ever bought for my stash.  Contrary to popular belief, it didn’t come from the 70s.

I’m not sure how much quilting is going to be done in the next couple of weeks as I have lots of other fun things planned and I also have a date with Bon Jovi next Tuesday – I can hardly wait!!!!

It Must be Monday

Life threw me another curve ball this week.  My Mum is in hospital with cellulites in both legs and a rash all over her body which they believe is an allergic reaction to a pain patch she was on.  Her legs are so sore and of course the infection has increased her dementia. 

I did take my bag class on Friday anyway, and came home with this:

I didn’t put a whole lot of thought into the fabric I used as I just threw it together late on Thursday night.  I’m really pleased with it though.  It’s fully lined and stands up beautifully on it’s own.

Now I’m working on a quilt called Birthday Presents by Atkinson Designs.  I’m really liking how this is going together.

Pictures are wonderful – I now see that I need to change the first block on the second row – there isn’t enough contrast in the two fabrics.  This isn’t the final layout – I have 42 blocks to make so they are just going on my design wall as I finish them.

A certain little someone had her first birthday on Saturday.  Happy Birthday Molly!

First Day of Summer

It’s a beautiful day here and Ben and I just got back from our daily walk in the park and around the neighbourhood.

Speaking of Ben (nice segway) he was complaining that he hadn’t been in my blog for quite some time, so I need to rectify that.  Here’s my baby.

Now, I can’t put in a picture of one baby without the other, so here’s Molly.

The reason her nose looks so funny is she was sniffing some lillies in a flower arrangement and got the stamen dust all over her nose!  Silly girl!

Not much to show this week in the quilting department.  I did get my McKenna Ryan piece finished and put some crystals on the light bulbs and the bows around their necks.  They don’t show up very well in this picture.  This is another of those pieces that I liked a whole lot more when I bought it than I do now. 

I forgot to tell you the best news of all.  My Mum’s house sold a few weeks ago with a closing at the end of July, so that will be another load off my mind.

Lee & I are taking a class this week to make this bag.  I’m sure we could have figured it out on our own, but the class was only $10 so it should be a fun day out.

Hopefully, I’ll have the finished project to show you by next week.

Busy Times Around Here

I’ve had another productive week on the quilting front.  I made a couple more curved appliqué pieces.

I intend to donated these to our local Humane Society and if they like them, I’ll make some more as I really enjoy doing them.  I have LOTS of dog and cat fabric and this is a cute way of using some of it up.  They are time consuming but what in quilting isn’t!

I’ve also had this small panel in my stash for ages, so thought it might like to see the light of day.

I have no idea how I’m going to quilt this so I’m open to any and all suggestions.

Yesterday we attended the wedding of Kim’s son.  I’ve worked with Kim for the past 15 years and watched her boys grow up.  Here are the proud mother & father of the groom.

Kim’s dress was absolutely stunning and fit her like a glove.  Since everyone loves to look at a bride, here are the happy couple – Jeff & Mary.

Leo & I decided we’d try and take one of those ‘hold out your arm and take a picture’ of the two of us.  Sandra & Darren do it all the time.  Here’s our first try:

So we tried again:

Leo kept telling me it was because I was too short – yea, right – just because there’s almost a foot between us!  So, after about 10 of these attempts, we tried it this way:

Today is my Mum’s 88th birthday and we’re all going to meet at the residence and help her celebrate.  Let’s just hope she knows who we are today.

Some Finishes

I feel like I have my life back.  I’ve been semi-productive and it’s nice to have some time to myself again.

Here is my bright simple quilt done with my favourite Circle Lord Swirls. 

While Ben managed to stay out of this picture, I noticed his tuggy didn’t!

I love striped bias binding and decided to put stripes on the back too.

The colours look way off on the stripes, but you get the idea.  Here’s a close-up of the binding.

On Saturday I took a workshop on circular appliqué and I’m really pleased with my results.

It’s about 16” x 16” and you quilt it as you appliqué – with a straight stitch.

I really enjoyed doing this and can see more of them in my future.  We also got the pattern for a miniature Wedding Ring so that’s what I’m trying next.

I’m off tomorrow to a Shop Hop in the Niagara Peninsula.  There are only three stores, but they usually have nice patterns as a give-a-way. 

I Must Be Sick

I pre-ordered an iPad ages ago as I was totally convinced I HAD to have one. Then, on Wednesday night, I cancelled my order. Cleaning out my Mother’s house has affected me more than I realized but I started thinking that all this wonderful device would do was help me spend even more time on a computer. I have a desktop, I have a laptop – why do I need another one? I must admit my decision was also influenced by the fact that I couldn’t load EQ into it, nor could I run my embroidery software from it. Oh, well, I may change my mind, but for today I’m happy with my decision.

This is what I accomplished this week.

It’s McKenna Ryan’s Berry Christmoose. This has been sitting in a drawer for at least 4 years - I'm sure it's glad to see the light of day. I haven’t quilted it yet and I intend to add some bling with crystals on the tree lights and star.

I also got my simple bright quilt quilted – here’s a preview but I’m working on the binding now so I’ll post a picture of the whole quilt when it’s finished.

We’ve had record breaking temperatures this week and our air conditioner decided to die on us last weekend. We had a new one installed yesterday so last night was the first night it’s been bearable in this house all week.

I didn’t sleep much though – I’m excited about picking up my new car today!!!!

My Trail is Over

Here it is, the completed Trail Mix.

I put a flange on by the binding. I’d done one on the inner border before, but never one by the binding. I like the look it gives the finished border and since you apply it after the top is quilted, it doesn't get in the way of the quilting, like one on the inner border does.

I used the panto Vibrance to quilt this but I had trouble getting a good shot showing the quilting.

I attended a baby shower last Sunday and I knitted this blanket for the baby.

The baby’s Grandma is a quilter, so I knew she would be making a quilt for the baby, so I thought something knitted would be welcome too – in case you’re wondering about my colour choice – they know it’s a girl!

I haven’t decided what to start working on next. Heaven knows I have enough things to pick and choose from. I’m also sitting on my hands trying not to order this:

I swear when it’s slow at work it costs me money! It’s been VERY slow lately, so I’ve had nothing but time to surf Ebay, Etsy, all the Quilting Forums and blogs. Someone on the APQS forum just posted this. It’s called Lovebird Lane and it’s a Block of the Month. I need another Block of the Month like I need more fabric, but I’m very tempted to order it.

I almost forgot to tell you my BIG news! I won the most improved bowler at our bowling banquet last Saturday. My average improved by 22.6 pins over last year and I won $125. Every member of our team won $157 each for our placement in the league (and we were in the middle – I’d like to know what the top place teams won). That would more than pay for this little quilt – right?