Going crazy

Another pair of socks finished! The yarn is Koygu and I found the pattern on the web. The pattern is called fruitloops and it works up quickly. I'm still banned from gardening and it is getting madning. The weather has been very warm with lots of rain, so everything is growing like crazy. That also means, that there are lots of weeds. One of these days I will be able to pull them all. I did get a few more shrubs planted. On our way back from meeting Jeanette and Tony for brunch on Father's Day we stopped at Terra's. This is not on Laurence's list of favorite places, but after a good meal he was more then willing to endure it this time. We did get another corkscrew hazel. There is one on the home place, but I needed one here. The branches are very usefull for flower arrangements. And I got 2 highbush cranberries. I hope we will see lots of berries in the fall and winter. They were planted just before another rain. Right now I'm working on the border for my crazy quilt blocks. They are foundation pieced on a piece of muslin. Once all the seams have some kind of treatment I will cut the piece out and sew it on a piece of black velour. Right now my plan is to make a 1/2 inch wide strip of dark blue mottled fabric , cut on the bias and sewn double. Sew a strip on each side of the border. Arrange this on the velour and then sew it down on the other side of the strip. I'm looking for about 8 meters of 1/2 inch wide lace, either white or off white to sew then over the dark strip. Then I will cut a hole in the center of the velour for the 4 blocks. It will be a very heavy quilt and it will need extra fabric sewn down on the back. There are 160 pieces in the border and after 60 seams it is getting harder to come up with new ideas.

Back again

It has been a long time, but surgery took more out of me than I expected. And besides that I got a little bit lazy from all that sitting around. And since I'm expected to take it easy there is not much to talk about. But I'm on the mend and in a few weeks I should be ready to tackle all the jobs that stare me in my face. But I have done some knitting and managed to get these socks done. The pattern is out the the book Sock innovation by Cookie A, my favorite knitting book. The patterns are challenging and fun to figure out. The yarn is by Socks That Rock and the socks are modelled by Jeanette. Next week I should have another pair finished. We have had a lot of rain and some hot weather, so everything is growing fast, including the weeds. Not being able to do any gardening is frustrating. The roses are doing great, despite my lack of care. Last year this climber did not even have one rose. I pruned it back in the spring that time. This year I let it be and there are roses galore. Besides knitting I have been doing a lot of reading. I love reading, but I'm getting to the point, where I a little less would be fine. And as you can see I did not forget about quilting. With all this extra time on my hands I decided, that it was finally time to finish my crazy block quilt. I had been making one block a year and have just finished the last block. Since all my "stuff" is all over anyway, I started with the border. I should have pictures next week. I wanted to have a border of black velvet and found just what I needed in Hamilton. I have set myself a daily quota and hope to have the whole quilt done by the end of the summer. I'm getting itchy to start a new landscape. Tomorrow we have our last quilt meeting of the eyar. It is our yearly business meeting, followed by a short program.The 3 members of our guild, who went to Japan will show pictures and our "stash" My part will be the pictures.

Quick update

First the good news. Riley is back. She ran of during a thunderstorm and was found a few days later. This family looked after her for a few days, then called the dog catcher. He picked her up last Thursday. Since Riley was due for her rabies shot the Vet. Clinic phoned yesterday. I told what had happened here. She mentioned then, that a dog had been found, similar to ours and gave me a phone number. And yes, it was Riley. It really taught us a few lessons.First put all the up to date tags on the dog. Since she never left the place anyway, we just dropped the tags on the desk and then forgot about it. Right now she is wearing her latest tags!!! Second we should have phoned around more and to the right places. But it all ended well. I do not know, when I will post again. I will be out of comission for a week or two. Then I will show you my new socks and crazy quilt block.

Riley

Not quite 13 years ago we were without a dog. We had lost our dog due to old age.Our neighbours knew that and phoned one day to let us know, that they had just the right puppy for us. I was a little hesitant, but once we had seen the pup it was love at first sight. She was a mixed breed, part golden retriever, part Australian cattle dog.We took her home with us and it has been a faithfull dog on the farm ever since. Right from day one I would take her with me for a walk. First on the sideroad with no traffic so she could run as much as she wanted. She was never much of an inside dog, maybe on the coldest day of the year, but then only for halve an hour or so.She loved to get wet and dirty. Once we moved closer to a very busy road, she had to walk on a leash, but no problem. She never left the property unless I had the leash in my hand. I figured we walked 3km x 5 days x50 weeks is 750 km per year. Do that for at least 12 year and the total is about 9000 km. That's a lot of steps in all kinds of weather. The one thing she was scared of was thunder and lightning. She would try to get as close to the door to the house as possible. On Friday there was a heavy thunderstorm with a lot of rain. When Laurence came home from doing the chores she was in the garage. We usually leave the garage door partially open, so she can come and go as she likes. When I checked on her at bedtime....there was no dog. I called and walked around the house in the rain, but she was nowhere to be found. The next morning we went to the neighbours, but no sign of her.And she has not returned. We have not given up hope completely, but it does not look good. And going for a walk just is not the same by yourself. While working in the back flowerbed I noticed a very upset killdeer. Both mom and pop tried the wounded wing thing and then I saw it. Right on the path, in a little dip were 4 eggs. Since then I have kept an eye out and they are still there. Now that we know the eggs are there, we try to stay away as much as possible. Next week some quiltery things again. The weather has been cold and wet. From a very early year it has turned into a not so early year with no soybeans in the grounds yet.

Back home again

I'm back home again after a good visit out west. It started with a visit to Shawn and Emily and it turned out to be the right time. Not too nice, so Shawn would be busy in the fields, but also no snow yet. That would come later. On Sunday they dropped me of at my sister-in-law Anne in Calgary. On Monday we visited the Glen Bow museum. I really enjoyed it and will be back. There is way to much to see in one day. Tuesday morning I was dropped of at the Hyatt and in the afternoon I attended the annual meeting of the Canadian Quilt Association, which was short and sweet. The teachers were taken out for supper at a nearby Chinese restaurant after which the show awards for the National Jureid Show were announced. And I'm happty to tell you that both quilts won an honorable mention. "Plain and Fancy", the quilt made and quilted by members of the Waterloo County Quilters Guild and friends won in the bed size category. This one meant a lot to me. To have co-ordinated a quilt with around 100 different quilters from beginners to advanced and then get an award at the National Show is fantastic. This quilt will now go to the quilt committee for the Relief Sale and it will be sold next year. "Oriental Treasures" won in the traditional wallhanging category. Once the awards were handed out, we could go and see the quilts. There were a lot of beatiful quilts, more than in other years. Then my work started. I taught for 4 days, 2 one day and 1 two day workshops. It is always a lot of work to get ready, but in the end it is worth the time and effort. I had great groups,coming from all over the country. And there was a lot of picture taking. Here is my "helper" being very helpful in holding up the sample. Evenings were busy with dinners and entertainment. In between I found time to go to the merchant's mall and I came home with more ribbons and beads. I promised myself to finish the crazy quilt blocks, put a border around it and have it ready for next year's show in London, Ontario. But that will have to wait a few more days. I came home on Sunday and that night we had a good shower. Everything looked so green here.And with all the warm weather the weeds grew like crazy. Beside mowing lawn and weeding the flower beds I will have to start putting my pots together. Maybe later today. We have another nice shower, so no more outside work for today.

Calgary, here I come

Tomorrow it will be blast-of time. First I will go to Shawn and Emily in Olds for a few days , then to my sister-in-law Anne in Calgary and she will drop me of at Quilt Canada on Tuesday morning. In the afternoon there will be the annual meeting and that evening the official opening of the show. Then I will be teaching from Wednesday till Saturday and on Sunday I come this way again. All my teaching things are packed , now it is a trip to town to make sure, that there is enough here at home for hubby to eat. His aim was to get all the corn planted before I had to leave and he will accomplish that today. Most years we would not have started even. But everything is growing, including these daffodils. This small wallhanging I made a few years ago, using some of my dyed fabrics. It is fused and machine quilted. The crazy patch block is finally finished. Once I decided it had to be done , it did not take that much work. This is number 3, the last one will have to wait till this fall. Then it will be on to the border. As soon as the block was done I cleaned up the room and now I can find most things again. It also means ,that there is nothing on my design wall to be done. I did find some small pieces of vintage Japanese fabric and decided to use them to make a few simple cards. I always seem to need more and even those small scraps are too precious to throw away. But not even one scrap is left over. Yesterday was a very busy day, first with farm stuff and then later a trip to Waterloo. It was our monthly guild meeting and as a guest we had Sylvia Naylor, a fibre artist from Cambridge (www.sylvianaylor.com) Her thread painting is fantastic. I have tried it on a small basis, so I know how much work it is, but to do it on a much larger scale, is incredible. Before I would give it a try, I would have to invest in threads and more threads in all kinds of colors and varieties. I did bring my sewing machine to the dealer to get serviced. I have done a lot, at least for me, of machine work lately and this way the machine will be all tuned up for my next project.

It is official...spring has started

For Laurence spring starts when the first corn goes in the ground. And this is the day. After lunch he started the first field, almost 2 weeks earlier than ever before. But the ground is ready. We have some rented fields, that have no tile drainage and they can be very hard to get planted, so whenever it is dry, you better be out there and get the job done. This also means that our busy time has started. Out in the flowerbed, the daffodils are blooming. What you cannot see is the lack of crocusses ( see a few weeks ago). Still makes me mad. I have not seen a squirel since. Last year I noticed these small violas. They had taken over the flowerbed and I had a heck of a job to pull most of them out. What I did not realize is, that they will bloom from early spring till the first frost. Now I will keep patches of these flowers around, since they brighten up the whole bed. I just have to make sure to pull the extra's. This last week-end Shawn and Emily came to Ontario. All kinds of activities were planned for the upcoming wedding of Emily's sister. They did come over here on Sunday afternoon and all of us went to see Jeanette and Tony. We had a good visit. I noticed her 2 orchids, a white and a yellow one, in full bloom. Now she barely waters them and forget about fertilizer, but still she is getting these beautiful sprays of flowers. It used to make me jealous.Finally I have one. This orchid was left on the farm when we moved 11/2 years ago. There is sat on the counter in the cold house with no water for over a month. When we had people move in, I took it along home, since it had been my first orchid. All this time it was in a back corner of the office and to my surprise it got a flower spike and look at it now!!! Shows you to never give up and maybe I should back of with the watering and fertilizer. Last Thursday evening I gave a trunk show for the London Friendship Quilters Guild. The next day I did a workshop. They took a lot of pictures and if you like to see me in action you can go to www.lfqg.blogspot.com Not much quilting has been going on. In just over 1 week I will be leaving for Calgary and my time was spend getting everything ready. As of now the kits are organized and the patterns done.I'm getting close with the crazy patch block, but no sigar yet. Only 3 more patches to embroider, but my mind is black right now, so I put it away for a few days. Wait for some new inspiration.

Busy,busy, busy

The next few weeks will be very busy. In 2 weeks I will be going to Calgary, first to visit Shawn and Emily and then it is on the Quilt Canada. The 2 entries in the NJS have been shipped, so that is one less worry. Now it is on to getting the kits and patterns ready. Yesterday I spend time in Elmira to make all my copies and the next step will be to put it all together. This morning I had to get ready for my trip to the London Friendship Quilters Guild, where I will be giving a trunk show tonight and a workshop, small landscapes, tomorrow. Laurence just took the big suitcase down and put it in the back of the car, so everything is in place. I have a list and as I put things in the car, I tick them of. By the time all the ticks are in place, everything should be in the car. Up to now it has worked. I am still working on my crazy patch. I am getting mighty tired of it, but the end is in sight. By this time the table is a big mess. I love to clean it all up, but just 3 more patches to go! Block number 4 will have to wait till the fall. We have had fantastic weather over Easter, warm enough to sit outside. Neighbour Harold, who is in his eighties, loves to tell you about the time ,he was able to seed grain in March. Laurence always thought it would be special to be able to do that. Well, this would have been the year. It was too bad, that the tractor was at the dealers and did not make it back till April. He did seed some spring wheat, but he was 2 days late. Now it is back to cooler and rainy weather. The daffodils are in full bloom and the pansies look great out in the flowerbed. I realize, that we might get some snow yet, but they can handle that. Below you can see my re-blooming Christmas cactus. I bougth it last fall as a very tiny plant. Right now it is in bloom and there are lots of buds. Now it is backto getting kits ready!

Is spring here to stay?

We have had some gorgeous days and there are more in the forecast. By Saturday we can expect temperatures above 20C.And with the warm weather and the sun I get the urge to get my hands dirty. My begonia's and caladiums are doing fine, but it is way to early for them to be out. And the chance of it staying this nice is close to zero. Today I had my weekly rounds to make to the bank, grocery store, butcher and my favorite Amish place to get the best birdfeed.I stopped at the greenhouse near St. Jacobs , where I have been getting my pansies. And I was lucky. They were open for business and I could buy my usual flat of 48 pansies. On my way home I picked up a big bag/bale of growing medium and I was in business. I'm not scared to set pansies out this early. They can stand some frost and they are close to the house. The wheel barrow came out of storage and the pots were cleaned and I was ready to plant. I planted 3 pots for in my urns and they should be colorfull come Sunday. The rest I will plant in front of the house, but I will wait a few days till they have hardened some. I started to dig in the flowerbed and oh boy, can I feel it! I did finish the top I started in the workshop with Elaine Quehl. I want to machine quilt it, but it will have to wait till after I come back from the National Show in Calgary. That is coming up. I'm getting the 2 quilts that have been accepted, ready for the National Juried Show. They will be send next week. Most of the supplies for my workshops are here, but I have to get busy and put it all together. Still working on the crazy quilt block. It should be finished this time next week. Then I can clean up the table and get ready for my trip to Calgary Last week we had our monthly horticultural meeting. I enjoy going there and meet neighbours and friends. And over the years I have learned a lot. I miss more meetings then I like, but it seems that a lot of guilds have their meetings also on Tuesdays

This time there was a small competition. We were to make an arrangement using one flower. I came up with this one. I cut one of the flowers of my orchids and the rest I found outside.

I love to use corkscrew hazel and red dogwood.

And it still looks as good as when I made it.

Workshop

Usually I'm giving a workshop, but last Saturday I was able to take a workshop from Elaine Quehl from Ottawa. On Wednesday we had seen her trunk show at the guild and I was looking forward to her workshop.I have made a few wallhanging with fused fabrics, but I wanted to lean more. It was a full house with 20 students The Community Center in Mannheim is bright and airy, just what you need for workshops. I had made up a design before( jack-in-the-pulpits), but once I saw samples and got some more ideas I changed my mind. I wanted something, that would not take too long. Here you see my attempt at making poppies.Elaine is on the right. The top was not quite finished, but as of this morning it has all been fused and now I will have to find the time to quilt it. All in all, a great workshop! I'm trying out some new thread for some of my sashiko workshops. I received 3 different thicknesses of pearl cotton in different colors. I like to make use of my time, so decided to try them out making cards. All 3 have the same cherry blossom pattern. The top one is a #5 pearl cotton and it proved to be too thick. The middle one is a #8 and was just right. The outside is a single strand, the inside a double strand. Both work well. The bottom one is a #12 pearl cotton. To my surprise it worked very well with a double thread. The compay, Valdani Threads, is sending me now a few different colors to try out. They should be here by the beginning of next week. I will keep you updated. There will be some more postcards in the making. For the top 2 cards I used Japanese Doby cloth, for the bottom a piece of silk from a vintage kimono. I'm still working on the crazy patch block, but I realize, that I like to do that in smaller doses. I seem to run out of ideas, but I will persevere.My aim is to have the 4 blocks and a border finished by this time next year.And there is no room to make anything else. All my "stuff" is out and covers the whole table. It also does not help ,that we have had sunny weather. The squirel seems to have caused enough trouble and we have not seen him/her for a while. There are even a few crocusses, that have survived. I planted my begonia's and today the caladium bulbs I bought at Canada Blooms. Both are in pots in front of a sunny window.

Sure sign of spring

This week I have been working on some of the embellishings. I find it the easiest to start in the center. The blocks are smaller( and won't take as much time) As I work out, I do not have to hold as much of the finished blocks in my hand and they don't get as crumpled. As with the other blocks I did not find the first ones that hard. Lots of ideas, but slowly the ideas will be used up and then it gets harder to come up with new stitches and "stuff" In the meantime I cannot do anything else, since the table is covered completely. Now there will be a break for a few days. Tomorrow there is our guild meeting and then the next day bright and early I will be leaving for Canada Blooms in Toronto. I'm planning on taking my camera along and I hope to find inspiration looking at all the floral arrangments.Then on Saturday I will be taking a workshop with Elaine Quehl. I'm looking forward to it. Remember last week, that picture of the innocent squirel? I did move the bird feeder and did not see the squirel on the deck again. Now, today I found out the reason why. Last fall I planted lots of daffodils and crocusses. When I had a look around this morning I found lots of daffodils sticking up. But in front of the bed I saw a few bulbs and a few green sprigs. Looking closer I saw neat little mounds of bulbs, all with the leaves eaten up. Now I have been gardening for a long time. I have had groundhogs eaten my peas, herds of cows running through my corn or eating my flowers, dogs digging up bulbs,but I never have had problems with a squirel......until now. And all of a sudden she/he/it does't look as cute anymore. I have not decided what the next step will be. I wonder if I stick the bulbs back in the ground, if they would survive till next year. I planted around 10 bulbs together and would't you know, that's how many I find in a heap. Grrrrrrr!

Another project finished

Last evening I tried to blog, but I could not get anywhere, so let's try again. The quilt for the Mennonite Relief Sale this year is done. Size: 60 by 60 inches. Hand appliqued by members of the Waterloo County Quilters Guild and hand quilted by members of the Listowel Mennonite Church. The "big sister" is going to Quilt Canada and will be auctioned of next year. The whole project lasted from October 2008, when I asked if members of the guild would be interested in this project, till now. Around 100 different ladies have worked on the the quilts.And I would say, that it's the average time it took for the quilts I have coordinated. It never has been a speedy process. Now it is on to another longtime project. For 2 winters I have made a crazy quilt block for my "horsy" quilt. This winter there had not been the time up to now. I got all my fabrics out and sewed one block, putting the different laces and sigar silks in as necessary. It went so well, that I also sewed the fourth and last block.( My first plan was to make 12 blocks. After one was finished it was changed to six. After the second block it was down to 4)All 4 have a photo transfer with horses in the center. The fabric has been put away and now there is another mess on the table with buttons, laces, ribbons and you name it. It will be a long time project. Tomorrow and Saturday I will be teaching in Guelph (both workshops are full). Next week Wednesday there will be our Guild meeting, followed the next day by a trip to Toronto for Canada Blooms. I'm looking forward to the day and will take my camera along. I hope to get some ideas for another flower related wall hanging. How about some of my fancy Japanese fabrics with ikebana style flower arrangements? I have another workshop coming up on Saturday March 27th It will be at Quilters Dream in Waterdown ((905-689-3434) and we will be making the pansies. We have had a few beautiful days. Everybody seems to be in a good mood. When I walked this morning with Riley, I got a lot of waves from the passing cars. I cannot see any of the 200 daffodils, we planted last fall yet. What I can see is the mess on the lawn. When we put the geothermal heating system in during December it had started to snow and up to now the ground always was covered by snow. Now the bare ground is visible and it is clear there is a lot of fixing up to do. But I realize that will have to wait till after the planting seeding and spraying .

Side tracked

This should have been the week to make my next crazy quilt block. But it has not happened. When all the cut-of triangles from last week's post were finished I had some leftover vintage Japanese fabric, too good to throw out. And since I have a few birthdays coming up I decided to make cards with the left overs. And it seems to take just a little longer to make multiple than one, so here are the 6 cards. I put Wonder Under on the back of the scraps and ironed them on a piece of Peltex. Next I made the cherry blossom with sashiko(center,left).The circle with the cherry blossom was machine appliqued over the collage.After that I put another piece of fabric, also with Wonder Under, on the back. The final step was to go around the card with a zigzag stitch.I have enough small pieces to make one more like that.For the others I tried to match the sashiko with the flowers on the fabric. Those circles are hand appliqued to the back fabric and then I stitched the sashiko. Next the fabric is attached to the Peltex. On Sunday I received the quilted "small sister" to the big papercut quilt ,that was quilted here last fall. The large quilt will go to the NJS and will be sold at the Relief Sale next year, but this smaller one will be sold this year. The applique was done by ladies from the Waterloo County Quilters Guild and the quilting by members of the Listowel Mennonite Church. Now it is my turn to put the sleeve, binding and label on. Right now it is laying on the floor in the hall. It has to be squared of and the first step was to wet the borders. The borders can be manipulated somewhat and I hope that by the time everything is dry the mitered corners will be straight. The final size will be about 60 inches. There was a question about the cut-of triangles I talked about last week. For each triangle I sewed the pieces together by machine and then basted the turned over edges by hand. Whatever I had in mind to do with them did not work. I will have to go back to the drawing board. When I have decided they will have to be sewn together by hand also, either on another piece of fabric or all together with little set-in triangles. No matter what it will be a lot of work.