Farm sign

For a few days we had computer problems. We tried to fix it ourselves, but seemed to lack the necessary skills, so we had to take it into town. But it is working again. A few things were added and changed and it will take a while for me to catch on to it all. We always have liked the wooden farm signs made by Brenda at www.brenwoodsigns.com.About 15 years ago, when she had not been in business too long, we decided to let her make a sign for our farm. It had to include the farm name and an old John Deere tractor. The 60 on the sign was the first antique tractor my husband bought. At that time I made wheat weavings, using our own wheat, so a few stalks were added. We made room for some scrubs and for quite a few years it looked very good. Slowly the scrubs took over and the sign faded, so last year we took it down. While Brenda repainted the sign we took all the scrubs out with tractor and loader and added some topsoil.Last fall I planted lots of daffodils and transplanted hosta's from around the house. This will be the year for them to show their stuff. If not up to snuf they will come out. Friend of ours, www.floralandhardy.ca, live close by. They have thousands of hosta's in all shapes and sizes for sale and it is almost too easy to go and get some. With all this nice weather it seems that quilting is on the back burner for the time being. I'm working on a pieced bed quilt,but there is not enough done to show you.

Summer

It must be summer. On my daily walk with the dog we met a tractor with a load of fresly baled hay.For me that is the smell of summer. What I do not miss is the work involved.Now that the dairy cows are gone, there is no more mowing, raking, baling and slugging the bales into the haymow. It always seemed to be very hot. What I do miss is the smell of the hay though! Last fall I gave 2 workshops at the guild in Sarnia.While there I was asked if I would consider judging their challenge at a later date. 3 weeks ago a carload of ladies dropped the quilts of and last week they were picked up again. The job was not easy, because ther were a lot of good quilts. 2 of the ladies brought their finished wall hangings along.It is always exciting for me to see. Here Norma Garder is showing her master piece. I do not have many roses. They are too much work and I'm not very succesfull with them. Now scrub roses. That's different. I have 3 varieties of the Explorer Series. All are hardy for our zone 5. And they have gone through some very cold winters. I neve bother to cut them back. Somethimes the rabbits do that for me, but they bloom regardless. Loraine Shaw and her sunflower wallhanging. Both ladies made their own border design. Keep up the good work. This row started with one small rosebush.It seems that a branch will bend down and eventually root. I keep digging these small bushes up and re-plant them .Right now I have another one in a pot ready to find a new home at Jeanette's.

Cows in the meadow

A few months ago I spotted an interesting piece of fabric with cows and chickens in one of my workshops. The owner gave me a small piece and she asked me to try and use it in a small landscape.This small scrap had been on my design wall for a while and yesterday I had the time to play with it.I found enough other fabrics that blended in and this is the result. The oval is 6 by 9 inches.The border is a fabric that goes from light to dark across. By cutting selectively I got the look I wanted. The border is dark at the bottom and lighter at the top. It is not finished yet. I like to applique a piece of old fence on the right and embroider a few stalks of sunflowers behind it. But that will have to wait till a rainy day. I will finish it with some machine quilting and a dark binding.

Mennonite Relief

On Friday evening my husband and I went to the New Hamburg arena to see the quilts. For quite a few years, that was all that there was to do, but more people came out each year, so more activities were added over the last few years. First we had some of each of the 4 food groups, sausage on a bun, French fries, pie and icecream. Duly fortified we walked to the arena.The quilts are hanging on racks, covered with plastic. As you can see, that was necessary. A lot of people could not help themselves and had to touch the different fabrics in the quilt.Right before the quilt is sold, the plastic will come of. The pictures I took inside the arena did not turn out very well. My digital camera is just not good enough.Our quilt A Bird's Eye View is ready to be sold. 2 mattresses have been bolted on a revolving frame and the quilts are displayed on one of the mattresses. While one is sold, a new one is draped over the other side.This was the time we had waited for. Would it all be worthwhile? It was! The quilt, this year's feature, sold for the top price of $11.100 to Carl Hiebert. It were Carl's aerial photographes we had interpreted on the quilt. What an ending of a great project. Right after the sale Carl left for Vancouver. As I enter this he is driving on an old tractor across Canada, stopping along the way to take pictures and to talk to Canadian farmers.He plans to put it all in his new book. A view of the narrow rows with the plastic covered quilts.In total 286 quilts were sold, from crib quilts to king size quilts.Those quils totalled $187.245. If you combine this with the food, craft, other auctions and plant sale, the event raised more than $380.000. This is the highest over the 40 years. Finally I leave you with another picture of the sale. Behind the quilt to be auctioned, you can see the quilt made for the 35th anniversary. A group of local businessmen bought this quilt and donated it back to the committee.Since that time this quilt is hung behind the platform during the sale.

Quilt Festival

For the last week we have had visitors from out west. My mother-in-law will turn 85 later this year and this was the time it suited everybody to come home. It was a busy, but enjoyable time. It is from Hilda Mae that I learned about quilts and over the years she has been a big help.This is also the week of the Waterloo County Quilt Fest and I managed yesterday to see the shows at the RIM Park in Waterloo. This is the first year that most of the shows are under one roof and it will be interesting to see how it will work. One small exhibit was of some of the quilts that Bruce Menary from the Len's Mils Stores has bought over the years at the Mennonite Relief Sale. I organized 2 of the quilts. Both quilts were made by members of the Waterloo Couty Quilters Guild and the Listowel Mennonite Church. The "big" one was sold in 2000 (after getting and honorable mention in the group category in Houston) and brought up $16.000. This is the "little" sister and it was sold in 1999. It was also the top selling quilt and brought $7500. Both quilts have been exibited over the years and still look very good. One of the special exibits was a group of quilts from the province of Alberta. Each year a different province is highlighted. There were some beautiful quilts in the group. Another highlight was the exibit by a group of 10 male quilters. In total there were over 30 quilts. This picture shows the intrance to the group of quilts by Jim Willard. Tomorrow will be the 40th Mennonite Relief Sale in New Hamburg. Between 250 and 300 quilt will be auctioned of, from small crib quilts to extra large bed quilts. The sale starts around 8 and the quilts are only part of the day. There will be a lot of good food and lots of other things to do. The feature quilt, A Bird's Eye View, will be auctioned at 12.30. Later more on this quilt.

Quilt Festival

For the last week we have had visitors from out west. My mother-in-law will turn 85 later this year and this was the time it suited everybody to come home. It was a busy, but enjoyable time. It is from Hilda Mae that I learned about quilts and over the years she has been a big help.This is also the week of the Waterloo County Quilt Fest and I managed yesterday to see the shows at the RIM Park in Waterloo. This is the first year that most of the shows are under one roof and it will be interesting to see how it will work. One small exhibit was of some of the quilts that Bruce Menary from the Len's Mils Stores has bought over the years at the Mennonite Relief Sale. I organized 2 of the quilts. Both quilts were made by members of the Waterloo Couty Quilters Guild and the Listowel Mennonite Church. The "big" one was sold in 2000 (after getting and honorable mention in the group category in Houston) and brought up $16.000. This is the "little" sister and it was sold in 1999. It was also the top selling quilt and brought $7500. Both quilts have been exibited over the years and still look very good. One of the special exibits was a group of quilts from the province of Alberta. Each year a different province is highlighted. There were some beautiful quilts in the group. Another highlight was the exibit by a group of 10 male quilters. In total there were over 30 quilts. This picture shows the intrance to the group of quilts by Jim Willard. Tomorrow will be the 40th Mennonite Relief Sale in New Hamburg. Between 250 and 300 quilt will be auctioned of, from small crib quilts to extra large bed quilts. The sale starts around 8 and the quilts are only part of the day. There will be a lot of good food and lots of other things to do. The feature quilt, A Bird's Eye View, will be auctioned at 12.30. Later more on this quilt.

Cranes

After a day of shopping and a guild meeting I did not have the energy last evening to update this. And besides the weather was beautiful ,so who wants to sit in the house. Today was a different story. Rain all day!. But this meant, that I could work on my applique.This picture shows what was left of my fabric after all 12 cranes were finished. These fabrics were used for the beaks,top of the heads and the legs.The grey was used for the pins in the tailfeathers. And this is the last and biggest crane, still in its working clothes. I will have to add embroidery to set the dark areas off against the dark background. Behind the bird I will applique green weeds, outlined with sashiko. In total I used only 5 different fabrics for all the cranes. This was the main fabric and as you can see I used almost 1 meter. It was the perfect fabric, white with mottled blue and brown areas. By selective cutting the parts I could get the desired effect. But I think 12 cranes will be enough. Time to make another landscape.

Spring on the farm

It has been a very busy week for us on the farm. The weather co-operated and all the corn has been planted and most of the soybeans are in the ground. Now, after one week of sun, we have received some badly needed rain. So today is the time to catch up on things that did not get done. It is not that I have to be out in the field all the time, but I have to be available . That means staying around the phone, so I can bring the needed item, being a tractor or seed or what not to the designated spot at the right time.Last week I went for a walk to the back of our farm to take some pictures, but the batteries on my camera gave up. This week I went again and my favorite, the Jack-in-the-pulpit, was in full bloom. Most years we have lots of trilliums with a few Jack-in-the-pulpits thrown in for good measure. This year was different.Not many trilliums, but lots of "Jack's". Even a very lonely red trillium. Even with all this dry weather the marsh marrigold are blooming profusely. A few months ago I had signed up for Ricky Tim's seminar in Ailsa Craig.If things were too busy here I would stay home and try to find somebody to take my place. But that was not necessary. Things were caught up, so off to Ailsa Craig it was. And I was very happy I did. This was something new for me.Instead of a hands-on workshop it was done in college style. I had my doubts, but it worked. The hand-out was excellent and his way of explaining techniques was very good. And of course he brought his fabulous quilts. To bad I won't have the time to try all these new ideas out. But there is always next winter!

Riley

We have had a beautiful week of warm weather.The lawn is raked and next the flowerbeds will need some attention. The first tulips are blooming and most of the daffodils are finished. Wit this weather I cannot sit inside, so no quilting pictures this week. That will have to wait till a rainy day. Earlier this afternoon I went for a walk to the "bush" at the back of the farm. I noticed that the trees are getting green and the winterwheat is getting taller. On most days our overly friendly dog, Riley, and I go for a walk. Riley is an eight year old mixed breed, who will greet everybody coming on the farm as if it was her long lost friend.She loves our walks and if I'm not out by 2 in the afternoon I will hear scratching at the back door. A few years ago I planted some violas and since that time we can find them all over in the flowerbeds in all kinds of pretty colors.Often they will be the first to bloom and some will last till late fall, somethimes we even will find a few straglers in the snow. Now it is back outside for more weeding.Maybe it might be time to start thinking about filling planters and boxes, though they will need to stay in the garage for a few weeks.

Yard work

This should have been the week to clean up the yard, but up to now the weather did not cooperate. Last year we put up a building with a diesel generator for back-up power to the buildings and at the same time dug in hyro and water lines. During the winter the ground settled and now the time has come to clean and level everything before we can put new grass seed down. One hour of working outside today made me realize, that I need more excercise! Back to quilting.Before Jeanette made her paper pieced quilts she took one workshop. She came with me to Greenwood Quiltery in Guelph and there she saw the work of Loreen Roy. She loved it and I was told, that if ever there was a possibility to take a workshop from her, she would go with me. So when the opportunity arose, we both took her workshop. This small blue wallhanging with a tree is Jeanette's result. I wanted to try and make something with flowers coming out of some rocky outcrops. This was a completely new way of doing things for me, but it was a lot of fun. I must have been too enthousiastic, because it ended up too thick to quilt. I forget how many needles of all kind I broke during the quilting. But it did get done, finally. Since I could not work outside I had time to finish the borders on Jeanette's quilt. Only the back has to be sewn and it can be taken to the machine quilter. http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.photo.gif Add Image

Busy,busy, busy

It has been a very busy week. On Friday Jeanette and her husband Tony, with cat and dog in tow, came for the week-end.Saturday morning we spend putting her second quilt together. Last year Jeanette was asked to be a bridesmaid for her friend Cindy's wedding. She decided to make a small quilt. This was her first try at paper piecing and she ended up with a queen size quilt. I helped her with putting the blocks together and it was machine quilted.I forgot to take a good picture before it left, but here Shawn and Jeanette are showing it to their grandmother. She decided that she wanted a quilt for herself and so she made 168 paper pieced blocks. Saturday was the day to put it all together. While she pinned, I sewed and Tony ripped the paper pieces,the quilt took shape. Early afternoon the center was finished. Now a 2 inch wide dark blue batik border and a 10 inch wide multi colored border and it will be ready for quilting. On Monday I gave a trunkshow at the Dufferin Quilter's guild and a lively group it was! We had a lot of fun and I will be back in the fall for some workshops. Yesterday was guild meeting and as usual there was a fabulous show-and-tell and a good speaker. Now I'm getting ready for a 31/2 hour drive to Windsor, where I will give 2 workshops on Friday and Saturday. Next week....it will be clean-up outside and other yard work.

More cranes

Another crane finished. That is 9 done, 3 more to go. The next one is halve finished.One is a lot bigger. It is standing in water and I will have to come up with some reeds or other greenery to make it less "dull" I want to incorporate more sashiko, but I have not decided yet if that will be done before the quilting or will be part of the quilting itself. Last month Canada Post came out with a series of 4 stamps, commemorating the 100 year anniversary of the Ontario Horticultural Society. I'm a member of the local society. I thought it might be fun to make postcards of each stamp. The trillium was the first one. This flower is very familiar to me, as we have lots of them growing in our tree lot at the back of the farm.In another month they should be out in bloom. After I made the card, all done on the machine, I glued the stamp on and had it hand cancelled at the local post office

Spring.......finally

What a beautiful day. Finally it is warm enough to be outside without coat or jacket. The daffodils and early tulips are up and any day now we will have the first blooming crocusses. But now that the snow is gone I can see all the damage to the lawn, so next week I will be raking and cleaning up, at least if this weather holds up. It seems that as soon as it gets nice outside I rather be outside than work inside anyway,but less applique will get done. I did manage to make this small wall hanging (24 by 24")of the life cycle of a tulip. I used some of my dyed fabrics and batiks.It is time for warm weather, so I can try to dye some more fabric. I have not much experience with this, so it is always a gamble what the end result will be. All the fabric was fused first.I made up a pattern using pictures I took of my red tulips. Everything, except some embroidery, was done on the machine. Machine quilting seems to get a little easier. Yesterday I received my Quilters Newsletter Magazine and it showed one of my quilts. This time it was the " Springtime in Ontario" It is always neat to see one of your quilts published. Right now that quilt is one of 32 Canadian quilts hanging in the Quilt Museum in Paducah. This show" Canada Uncovered" will be at the museum for the next few months.

Machine work

Not much got done this week! I ended up with a bad cold and a sore throat,but today I finally feel like doing something again. What I did finish, slowly over the last few days, was this quilt for my son. Last fall he let me know, that the quilt I made for him to take to college was in tatters and he would not mind another one to replace it. I decided to make do with what I had on hand and try something different.Try the "quilt as you go" method. This quilt is 93 by 93 inches and there is not one hand stitch in it.With fabrics I had on hand I made the 121/2 inch blocks. 4 were sewn together with strips. These bigger blocks were machine quilted,after which these bigger blocks also were put together using fabric strips. The border pieces were also quilted before they were sewn to the quilt with narrow strips. I learned a lot making this quilt, mostly things that did not work. But what is the most important after all this......he likes it and will take it home after supper. Now it will be back to some hand applique.Four more cranes are waiting to be appliqued and I think I'm ready for them now.

Spring has sprung....or has it?

These tulips were potted up last fall and spend the winter in the 'cool' workshop. Once up I took them in the house and put them in a sunny spot. These are the first tulips to bloom. I took some pictures and hope to make a wallhanging of tulips in different stages. After a few nice days, with most of the snow gone, I found these little snowflakes against the shed.It made me think of spring. But it was too soon. Yesterday winter came back with a vengeance. And wouldn't you know, I had another trunkshow. This one was in Mount Forest, only 35 km from here. At 6 I received a phone call. Conditions were not good around there, but since most of the members were in town, they would have a meeting even if I decided to cancel. My husband looked at me and said: Just ask me if you want me to take you. He took me, all the way down complaining to me that I could have easlily done it myself. But things got worse around town and the trip back was not nice at all. I was glad he came along. Because of the weather the turn-out was low, but we had a good time. Today was our monthly guild meeting.The winds were still howling and there was some drifting snow, but while hubby took a tractor to the Farm Protest in Teviotdale, I set out for Waterloo. And I'm glad I went. Sharon Pederson (www.sharonquilts.com)talked about reversable quilts and machine sashiko. Great program and as usual a very good "show and tell" Right now the wind is still howling outside, but inside I have a little bit of spring right in front of me. http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.photo.gif Add Image

Postcard

This small wallhanging was made for my mother in Holland.I cannot visit with her often, although we talk on the phone weekly. She loves plants and flowers and I hope that these tulips will cheer her up on some of those rainy Dutch days. A few months ago I saw an article in the Quilters Newsletter Magazine that showed how you could make your own postcard. Since I had some extra fused fabric around I decided to make a card ( 4 by 6 inches)and see if it would work. I took a picture of an orchid and made a pattern.The pieces were fused to the bat and machine quilted. I decided to send this card to myself, just to see if it would come back. With Micron pen I wrote the address and signed with my middle name.I glued a stamp, also with an orchid on the back and it was ready for the post office. I had no trouble. The lady in the post office was very interested and hand stamped the card. Three days later it was in our mailbox. So now I like to make a few more and send one to my mother in Holland once in a while. Today I received some good news. Another one of my quilts will be in Quilters Newsletter Magazine. That will be the second one in 2 months.Who would have ever thought, that this might happen!!!

Fun and fast

This coming Sunday I will have all the relatives in driving distance here for dinner. From the 16 there are 8 with a birthday in the second part of February or the first part of March, so I was in need of a few presents. Since my fingers were sore from applique anyway,I decided to make a few quick projects. Since I have not done much fusing, I read Frieda Anderson's book " Fun and Fast Fusies" first. Then with a roll of Wonderunder, batiks and some left over dyed fabric I went to work. This was a big change for me. Instead of working on something for weeks or months it took only hours. The 2 small wallhangings are fused and then machine quilted. The only thing I did by hand is the back of the binding. A 3nd, slightly bigger one, has to be quilted yet. And at last I made a very small ,4 by 6 inches, postcard. I addressed it to myself and this morning I took it into a bigger town( not our own post office),and had it hand cancelled. My husband did not think that something so weird would be allowed, but the lady was very interested and did not ask any questions.Now we wait and see what will happen. I will take a picture once it has arrived "home" again. http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.photo.gif Add Image

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.