2020 Almost Done

Two Santas - Machine paper pieced, beading and hand quilted. Pattern by Regina Grewe

Rudolph Waiting… Foundation paper pieced, machine quilted, beading. Pattern by Regina Grewe

Two of my finishes for this Christmas. I had seen a photo online of a Christmas stocking that had the “Two Santas” on the stockings, I didn’t need to make any stockings so I added the tree and made it all a little bit bigger and volia, a wallhanging! That led me to look up more patterns by Regina Grewe and I just loved the reindeer! It is only about 11” square. I surprosed myself by how much I enjoyed doing the foundation paper piecing.

Hello Friend - pattern by Berene Campbell, foundation paper pieced, machine quilted. A Christmas gift for my daughter, the border dark blue is cotton velveteen. I loved making this!

The Avenue - Pattern by Louise Pappas, machine pieced, hand applique, machine pieced by Heather Stewart. I loved making this quilt and I am thrilled with Heather’s quilting. I am now working on another of Louise’s patterns called Champagne Christmas. I am just waiting on Canada Post to deliver the thread I need to quilt it.

Flocks by Night- Pattern by Wendy Williams, hand embroidered, hand applique, machine pieced and machine quilted by Heather Stewart. Another favourite I really enjoyed making.

As I say every year, I am going to try and do better to write and post more often…promise.

Time Flies!

Yes, time flies when you are having fun! Except this past year has had more challenges than fun. I just didn’t feel like writing about it all. Yes, there were good times and great moments but somehow I let the difficult times and sad moments take over. The last thing I wanted was to sound like I was saying “oh, poor me”. Life just moves along so here I am back and determined to use this space, share my quilting and the grand adventures we will have. In a nutshell my brother Don (my only sibling), my “big brother” was diagnosed with esophageal cancer. He fought it like a trooper for more than a year, he was doing well but then the cancer came back and he died October 30. I still can’t believe he is gone. I have been nursing a very arthritic knee for the last 6 years or so, finally 2 years ago the orthopedic doctor put me on “the list” with a promise that I would get my new knee in 18 months to 2 years. Finally in November almost to the 2 year mark I had my surgery and I am now 7 weeks with my new knee! Physio is going well and I am finally having a decent night’s sleep!

Flocks By Night, my most recent finish in time for Christmas. The pattern is by Wendy Williams from Australia. I loved making this wallhanging. The houses, trees and sheep are wool applique and hand embroidered, the stars are machine pieced and it was machine quilted by Heather Stewart. I really wanted to hand quilt this one but was afraid of damaging the wool when I put it in the Q-Snap frame to quilt it. Heather did a super job!

Falling Charms, a story quilt (each print square is different) for great nephew Drew. Machine pieced and machine quilted by Anne Morrell Robinson.

Merry & Bright , a pattern by Corey Yoder, she called the quilt Persimmon, but since I used all Christmas fabrics I changed the name! All the fabrics were from my stash, it is machine pieced and machine quilted by Lynn Jones.

That sort of brings me up to date! I am looking forward to getting back to some hand quilting and more hand piecing. Slowing down is good for the soul!

The year 2019 is a year of change for our family as our son and his family move south from Calgary to Grand Cayman Island! In a week they will be there! We are looking forward to a visit in the near future once they get settled. The organizing of this move has been a huge job and it all happened so fast.

One more picture, a house somewhere near Beach Meadow with a wonderful message! Wishing everyone much JOY in 2019!

O Christmas Tree 2014

It is that time of the year again, how did December get here so fast? I am behind as usual, my blog is suffering! Kate did a little update and Squarespace has a new format so it has been a steep learning curve just when I was used to the "old" way! I hope this will work ok, we had to change my website address for a bit, but we are back now with the old one, I hope all the glitches are worked out.

So many to chose from...

We are getting there with Christmas fast approaching. The boxes have been mailed off to our wild west family in hopes that they will arrive in time. Next on the list was the hunt for the perfect Christmas tree. Off we went at the crack of dawn last Sunday to walk the paths high up on the hill at Mike Falkenham's tree farm in Lunenburg County "The Christmas Tree Capital of North America"! We have been having this adventure for a good 35 years or so and we have never been disappointed. Every year we see truck load after truck load of Christmas trees headed south or we read about Mike's trees going in refigerated containers to the Caribbean and we wonder, "will there be one left for us?". We our kids were little we sometimes went in the summer to find and tag our tree, then the fun came in Decemebr to try and find it!

If you ever need help finding the right tree bring along a 7 and 9 year old! Every tree was the right one and it didn't take long to find it along with some mud to play in and some logs to climb on. The great outdoors has so much to offer!

Both trees got loaded on to the top of the car for the slow drive down the hill to the baler.

They go in nice and ful and come out like a sausage!

Everyone helps Mike to bale the trees.

A days work done and it isn't even 9:30! Now to get the tree home and decorated!