Workshop

On Saturday I had antoher workshop in Guelph. As has happened more this year the weather did not look good outside, but neither radio nor Internet showed any road closures in the area, so I set out.Once I was halfway I discovered that the barricades were up,going the other way, so officially the road was closed, but it was too late than. And....the road was fine, slippery but the visability was good . The students for the workshop were all from the area, so no problems there. Here Lida is hard at work on her small landscape. This is an easy pattern and is for all levels. It always amazes me to see the difference at the end of the day. Some use bright, summery colors, others go for the cool winter colors. Here is the group at the end of the day with their work. I think we all had a good time. 2 days ago I received the April Issue of Quilters Newsletter Magazine. I knew that the Critter Quilt would be in it. Friends had let me know that they had seen it already, but because of bad weather we did not get our mail on Friday. But it was worth the wait. It gives me a good feeling to see something I made in a magazine of that calibre.

Orchid

I was all ready to take some more pictures of finished projects, but my digital camera refuses to co-operate.This after I had it along to the guild meeting this afternoon and went right past the store. So it will mean an extra trip into town. So instead a close-up of part of a wallhanging that I made last year. A few years ago I got introduced to orchids on one of my trips to California. Here at home it was right in the middle of the winter and there orchids bloomed outside. For me it was incredible. Once home I received one as a gift and right now it is blooming for the third time. I'm up to 3 by now, since that is all the room I have in the "perfect" window, but they give me a lot of pleasure. The flowers are hand appliqued with some added embroidery. There were a lot of fiddly little pieces and I was glad when they were done. Stil trying out my machine quilting, but it is still not good enough to show here. Maybe next week I will have something to show, with pictures.

More of the same

A few weeks ago Jeanette, our daughter, asked if I could make some drawstring bags for health kits.She would buy the neccessary items, but she knew that she would not have the time to sew the bags. I bought 3 meters of a sturdy fabric and had enough to make 15 bags.Each bag will have a towel, bar of soap, toothbrush , toothpaste and a nail clipper.They will go to the Mennonite Central Committee and from there they will be distributed wherever there is a need. More information you can find at www.mcc.org. It did not take me very long to sew up the bags. 8 will be filled right away ,the rest we will put away for now What a week it has been. A big snow storm dumped over 20 inches of heavy snow over the week-end. We were lucky not to loose hydro for more than a few minutes. Wit the roads being closed, it was good to be inside, where it was warm. I worked on my applique and finished 2 cranes. Each is about 6 inches tall and has from 65 to 85 pieces. 6 more to go. I hope to have them all done by the end of March. It seems that if I set myself a goal I get things done. I use only 2 different fabrics for all the cranes. One is a variegated white with blue and brown marbled blotches, the other a black with dark grey batik. I have one meter of the white and I hope it will do all of the cranes.The beak is a orangy red and the legs I cut from a multi colored striped batik.

Chinese garden path

This small wall hanging was made for the mother of our son-in-law. It was funny how it all happened.Our son-in-law is from Chinese decent. Our daughter decided to wear a Chinese dress for the wedding reception last year. So...of to the Pacific Mall near Toronto with the couple and parents. We ended up in a very small dress makers store, where there were lots of dresses and fabrics to choose from. I could not understand what Helen and the lady in the store talked about, but out came a large bag of scraps. I was encouraged to take as much as I wanted. So, here I was, sitting on the floor in the middle of this small store, sorting through the scraps. Once home again I had to decide what to make. The book "Quilting with Japanese Fabric" by Kitty Pippen" was a good source forgetting ideas. Once I started working with the silk I found out, that it frays very easily. The pieces were first hand basted on a paper pattern and after that appliqued to the back ground. The red piece in the center is from our daughter's dress. I filled it up with some sashiko and quilted it on the machine. Then I gave it as a gift to Helen and discovered later, that I did not take a picture. Last Saturday we were invited to celebrate Chinese New Year with the family, so I had the opportunity to finally take that picture. Still working on my cranes and I should have a few finished by next week.