A new venture!

I attended my first every Saskatoon Modern Quilt Guild meeting yesterday!  They gave me free fabric, so I am hooked! Seriously though, a member had a box of Batik material and was giving it away so I walked away with a stack of lovely, yummy batiks... The way to my heart these days...

Otherwise, I am working on this fun, scrappy String quilt at the moment. I don't get many moments to sew between the dogs and the cats (and I promise a post updating life with them next!) but when I do, this is sewing up fast and furious and I don't think it'll be long before it's done.  I am not sure I want to write a tutorial on how to make these as there are lots of great posts out there, but if you are thinking about it, do your homework (read a blog post or two to learn how!) and jump in! It's my first attempt at working with paper foundations and it's fun!

Ryder was helping me show off my blocks!

Here's what I have so far. I need MORE obviously, then I need to sew them together!  So far to go until it's a completed quilt but it's coming along!

Quilting

I've been quilting... and I love it! I've become quite fascinated by colour and fabric and how it all works together to create something functional, useful and lovely.  I've worked on MANY projects over the summer, but I thought I would share one with you now...

This is made from Tula Pink's Shoreline pattern.  I couldn't get her original fabrics that were used when she created it. But, I do like what I ended up with.

Ryder cat helped me work on sandwiching the quilt. Let me tell you, it's not easy pinning a quilt when you have cats lying on it. 

Anyway, I am in process of free motion quilting this- my first attempt. It's going SLOWLY and I am not that confident with it yet. But, it's coming.  I love this quilt- it will be used on my bed I believe.

I've missed this old blog and it's good to be back! 

We're BACK!!!!

Hey all!

We are back.  My apologies from the unexpected hiatus in my blogging world; I had no intentions of taking a break but I guess I needed it.  After Mango passed, then another dog blog friend (one of the very first I made!), Sophie Brador also crossed the bridge, I kinda felt like I lost my desire to blog.  So, I stopped.

I think it's time to come back; I have to admit this is an intensely crazy, busy time in my life but I am thinking I would like to get back to this old blog and to the friends I have made along the way.  I've missed you all!  And, unfortunately, I deprived you all of cute baby Reason pics along the way, too!

Anyway, there's no sense rattling through my busy, but mundane last few months.  Instead, I'll show you what the dogs and I have been keeping busy doing the last few days.  We were hit by a HUGE blizzard on March 20, the first day of Spring and I had a quilt started that I thought deserved to be finished over the evenings when we couldn't go out and do much. Too much snow.  I'll show you pictures soon of my front yard. It isn't pretty!

Alright, back to it... the quilt.  And, the dogs, enjoying the quilting time. :)

Sophie and Murphy, curled up on top of the quilt, in progress along with my fabric bin of scraps.  It can't possibly by comfortable, but they stayed there for a long time.

Spike.

Sophie, in the midst of chaos created by Reason. My house WAS clean, really... one loose puppy in the house and all mess breaks loose, ha!

The whole clan, in their usual spots.  Murphy and Reason, balanced on the back of the couch.  Sophie and Spike, always the more sensible, lying on the pillow and blankie.  I do manage to squish in there between Spike and Soph. It's the perfect spot for Rease to nap with her head on my shoulder. 

The new Rag Quilt- it hasn't been washed yet, and I haven't notched all the seams yet so they fray, but it's all sewn up at least!

All in all, it's a good way to spend a Blizzard- hunkered down with some movies, a quilt to make and my favourite dogs in the world.  Life is good.

Happy Birthday Sophie!

I can't believe my Sophie-Bug is 5 today.... where does time go??

This was Sophie, at maybe 6 months of age?? 

It seems like yesterday I brought my little pup-pup home!!  I have no idea where time goes- or why I haven't blogged in FOREVER... sorry everyone!  I know that I am hoping to be back to blogging as soon as my newest family member comes home.  She's going to grow fast and it's great to have a record of that.

Anyway, it has bee a busy, BUSY few weeks.  Daydreaming about Eromit's Here For A Reason coming home (tentative registered name).  Getting report cards done. Entering into the final homestretch of work for the year, which is always a nightmare busy time for a regular teacher, much less a Special Ed. teacher (PAPERWORK, here I come!), cleaning the house and on and on...

But, in the meantime, we are celebrating Sophie's big birthday today with bones for everyone...

Yum Yum!  Beef bones!

Spikey gets one too...

Chomp, chomp! Sophie has hoarded at least 2 more bones over there, beside herself.  She's in heaven while I ma meanwhile spring cleaning my house...

Murphy is forced to hide under a chair to avoid loosing her bone to a big, black dog.

In other news, it's 2 weeks until Rease (I think that's her official name!) is coming home... Can't wait. They have hit that adorable, roly-poly 6 week puppy mark. I should find out in the next week or so which girl is mine too. Exciting!

And, I've been quilting again. This time, a baby quilt for a colleague. I think it turned out adorable...

The gal already knows she is having a boy, but she likes green and is using loads of green in the baby room.  So, my EA's and I went together on this quilt- they bought the materials and I finished sewing it last night.  I love it!

I have a new sewing machine that does many, MANY quilting stitches so each of the blocks ended up with it's own heirloom stitch... I love that little detail that makes the blanket seem even more special to me.

Other than that life around here is pretty normal. Except, I am thinking the rats may just have to find new homes. Murphy is starting to discover her true terrier nature and I am struggling to keep her out of the rat room, keep her sane and not torture the poor things. :(  Any suggestions of what to do with a brood of adorable, SWEET ratties??

The Third Annual Christmas Quilt

Two posts in one day, WOW! I have some catching up to do, that's for sure!!

Anyway, as seems to be my December tradition, I made my third quilt this December.  Of course, I have to show you the journey.

Yes, it's a rag quilt. They are easy and relatively quick. Plus, I had tons of old jeans to use up.  Here's the intial laying out of the patterns.  Bu the way, you can see my foot in that pic- you can see my lovely new Alpaca slippers. They were a pricey Christmas present to myself, but I have a new found fondness for Alpaca fibre and I had a moment of weakness at a Christmas Craft Sale. So comfy!

I made it in 9 patch blocks, each with one pattern and jeans. Then, I stitched the blocks into 5 blocks by 5 blocks. I had 4 cozy flannels, yes again in pink. This one is for my couch and the size ended up smaller than the last two, but perfect for a TV watching blanket.

The dogs overseeing the process. Maggie was still here then. :)

Hmmm, comfy! Sophie as always HAS to lie on the quilt, mid process.

Anyway, the finished product, all washed and ready to go. It frayed up lovely and I am very pleased with the results!

I won't be waiting another year to make another quilt, I can tell you that. There's going to be some heavy duty sewing in my near future. :)