Book Club

I belong to the best book club. We are quite the varied group, we are 20 if everyone comes (rarely) and we range in age from mid 40's to almost 97! Some live in rural areas, some on small farms, some live in towns and villages. We come together for the better part of a day to talk books but we always manage time to catch up on our lives and happenings. We are artists and craftspeople, writers and "hobby" farmers, a couple are involved in local wineries and a couple are involved in film. We are such an interesting group! The best thing though is our book talk, we read what we want to and we share our books. It is like having our own livingroom talking library!

Last week we drove inland to Uta's, it was a beautiful fall day and the leaves were pretty wonderful. We drove through farmland and came across a farm and a pumpkin field with a herd of cows thoroughly enjoying a feed of leftover pumpkins. They were still at it when we drove back almost 5 hours later!

The cows enjoying a feast at DeLong's farm. It was a big field and there were a lot more cows, this one was quite intrigued that we had stopped to take pictures!

Part of the welcoming committee.

Mr. Watson, the indoor welcoming committee!

Some of Uta's lovely pottery collection.

Love the polka dots!

A stunning Bird of Paradise with a stunning view!

My books this month were the last in Gil McNeil's series "The Beach St Knitting Society and Yarn Club" and Leslie Crewe's "Chloe Sparrow" Both I enjoyed so much. At Uta's request we are all going to try and read something about World War 1 since the 100th anniversary is coming up. I am going to start with Anne Perry's "No Graves As Yet". 

Fabric Travels & the Kitchen Reno Adventure

Last year when I was in Calgary, I visited all my favourite quilt stores. Each one is very different. At Sewing Sensation, I spotted a bolt of fabric that had just arrived, it wasn't even on the shelf yet. I had to have some. I loved the whimsy and the colours. I brought it home and added it to my stash, knowing it would be useful one day.

Then a few months ago, a baby was born prematurely, she is the niece of a dear friend of my daughter's who lives in Tasmania. Olivia was very tiny and had to spend many weeks in the hospital. Memories of Liam flooded back when I saw the pictures of this tiny baby. Had Olivia been born here in Halifax, Nova Scotia she would have received a preemie quilt, a gift from the quilters of several local quilt guilds. I decided to make her a quilt and send it to Tasmania. I decided to use that fabric I had bought in Calgary.

As I started to cut and sew I cut off the selvedge to add to my stash of selvedges. The name of the fabric is "Mind Your P's and Q's" and the designer of the fabric is "Keiki", it was made in Japan. Although Moda has information about their fabric designers, I couldn't find out anything about "Keiki". I began to think of the journey the fabric had taken, It was designed and made in Japan. Who knows where the cotton came from, it could have been anywhere cotton is grown in the world. Moda is an American fabric company that began almost 30 years ago. So the fabric would have come from Japan to the US then shipped in my case to Calgary where I bought it and brought it back to Nova Scotia. After cutting and sewing, then quilting it the quilt made it's way to Tasmania about as far away as possible from Nova Scotia. I have no idea how many miles that fabric has travelled but it must be alot!

Olivia snug and warm for a Tasmanian winter!

Thanks to my friend Phyllis who took the quilt with her to Tasmania when she went to visit her daughter. More pictures of Olivia's quilt are on my Flickr page here. Thanks Alison for the wonderful pictures!

In other news, our kitchen is almost done! Just the exhaust fan for the stove to go in, some tiling to do and a grate for the cold air return. It has been a great experience working with our kitchen/floor guys at Woodshapers and Brady and Clayton our electrician and plumber. It was a bit of a challenging space with 7 doors! We are now down to 5 doors and it is going to work just fine. I love the butcher block that was handmade using local NS wood (maple, yellow birch and white birch).

The new and the old! The floors are spruce, some of the boards are 14" wide, the are well worn with lots of character.

Beauty!

Crisp and bright, more pictures to come soon. The dining room floor will be sanded and refinished next (it is the same wood as the kitchen) then painting, new windows...the list goes on and on!

Quilt Mafia - January 2014

The view from the kitchen window, an exciting location!

The weather cooperated (except for the fog!) and about 14 of us gathered at Linda's house for the day. A wonderful day of sharing, stitching, talking and eating (and great coffee!). We are such a varied group with interests wide ranging in the fibre arts/quilting field. We all do something with a needle and thread and we all love to share. And if you need advice, this is a great group for that.

The Mummers - Margi Hennen

It is always an inspiration, always wonderful to see what everyone has accomplished no matter how big or small. It is all important. It seemed like everyone had something in their hands whether it was knitting needles or sewing needles, we were a busy lot!

We come from all over though we missed our Valley girls this time, Deb did make it from Tatamagouche as well as quite a few from the South Shore and cities.

We talked about having a bit of a "retreat", going somewhere where we can stay overnight for a few days and let someone else do the cooking. Should be fun. Plans are in the works.

Uta's beautiful sari but I love the colours that come from her socks, the basket and her scarf! Great for a foggy day.

Laureen's stitching on cheesecloth.

Our "show and tell" was inspiring from Margi's dolls to Laureen's delicate stitching to Uta's sari. And there were quilts too. I forgot to take a picture of Polly's latest "Tumbler" quilt in beautiful shades of pinks, burgundys and browns, very traditional yet very contemporary. 

Jamie shared her collection of fibre art postcards that she has collected. This one is one I gave her for her birthday, since loves loves all things Japanese it was made using contemporary Japanese fabrics.