Wednesday, October 25, 2006

I still don't get it !

On Saturday I gave a talk at the fall meeting for the Mennonite Women of Ontario at First Mennonite in Kitchener. They had some very good frames for hanging my quilts up. This was the first time I have seen 4 of my appliqued quilts hanging beside each other. And guess what..... MY CAMERA WAS AT HOME, so no pictures.Today I send another small wallhanging to my mother in Holland. She has now one for each season. And after I had send it in the mail I realized that I had forgotten to take a picture. When will I learn, that my canera should always be handy.So today a "boring" picture of my latest project to finish. It is a large bedquilt that I pieced. The machine quilting has been done by Creative Sisters in Kitchener and now all that is left for me to do is the binding. I'm not used to such a large quilt, so it will take me a while. But I have the time. The weather is still not cooperating, but we are combining corn. There is lots of mud and the combine has been stuck once.Right now they are flying right along. This means, that I have to stick around in case something comes up, like moving wagons, giving rides to the next field or going for parts. And of course there has to be food at mealtimes either in the house or taken to the field. I hope by next week I can say, we are finished for another year, but I have my doubts. .

I still don't get it !

On Saturday I gave a talk at the fall meeting for the Mennonite Women of Ontario at First Mennonite in Kitchener. They had some very good frames for hanging my quilts up. This was the first time I have seen 4 of my appliqued quilts hanging beside each other. And guess what..... MY CAMERA WAS AT HOME, so no pictures.Today I send another small wallhanging to my mother in Holland. She has now one for each season. And after I had send it in the mail I realized that I had forgotten to take a picture. When will I learn, that my canera should always be handy.So today a "boring" picture of my latest project to finish. It is a large bedquilt that I pieced. The machine quilting has been done by Creative Sisters in Kitchener and now all that is left for me to do is the binding. I'm not used to such a large quilt, so it will take me a while. But I have the time. The weather is still not cooperating, but we are combining corn. There is lots of mud and the combine has been stuck once.Right now they are flying right along. This means, that I have to stick around in case something comes up, like moving wagons, giving rides to the next field or going for parts. And of course there has to be food at mealtimes either in the house or taken to the field. I hope by next week I can say, we are finished for another year, but I have my doubts. .

Wednesday, October 18, 2006

Orchid

In 2 years Quilt Canada will be in New Foundland. Since I have never been that far east I would love to go. When I received a letter from the people on the workshop committee I got busy and made a list of my workshops. I only had one 2 day workshop, so I came up with another one.This quilt is about 25 by 27 inches and consist of hand applique and hand sashiko.I took a picture of one of my orchids and drew up a pattern. The pot is cut out of a piece of Japanese fabric I had. The twigs, leaves and flowers are hand appliqued. The "moss" is hand embroidered with the turkey stitch on an extra piece of fabic and sewn down later. The oval consists of 3 rounds of sashiko. The border was done last.The border pattern fits into a 3 inch square and I was very lucky that it all worked out in the end. I should know by now that it is much better to design a pattern before you start the work, than to do it as you go. I have run into these kinds of problems before, but have not learned my lesson yet. With all the other things going on, it took a while to finish it. If we could just get some nice weather now. After rain, sleet and snow we are in need of sunshine. There is still a lot of harvesting to do. It is of to my guild meeting now. I have an idea for another quilt for the Mennonite Relief Sale and I have to find out if there is any enthousiasm for my idea.

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

Harvest time

What a beautiful week it has been. After a lot of rain we finally have been able to combine the soybeans and started to plant winter wheat. Not that I'm doing much of the field work, but I'm busy keeping things going at home and I have to be ready to help out where ever necessary.This all makes it hard to get any quilt related work done. I do teach some workshops and this picture was taken in Mount Forest, a very easy 20 minute drive from here.The lazy one with nothing to show is moi! I taught the "Small Landscape" workshop there a week and a half ago and had a great group. And I will be back again on the first of November with the same workshop for another group. Things should settle down soon. My mother-in-law moved last week to a retirement place in Listowel. Everybody pitched in with cleaning the house and getting ready for the auction yesterday. The weather was perfect ,so everything could be put outside on the lawn. When it started at 11 it seemd that there were lots of people willing to spend their money. This was very good for grandma, but I think it was hard on her to see so many menories go. I was fortunate to be able to buy all the things I had my eye on, though at times for considerable more then I had figured on. By 3.30 it was all over and by 6 everything was cleared out and we could lock the house up. Not the end of the day though. Since it was so nice, it was back to combining and emptying wagons, so the day was not over till after 10. Next week I should have my new workshop done. All it needs is some sashiko around the outside. And then it is time to start on the wall hanging of my home farm in Friesland. I have decided to do it all with hand applique, even if it will take me al very long time. In the end I will be happier.