First Snow of Winter

We finally got our first so called "snow storm" of winter and in reality it's not much of a storm here in Toronto.  We have had an incredibly mild winter so far and most of the precipitation has been in the form of rain including a major soaking yesterday.  The latest system was actually 2 systems that crossed paths over the great lakes and were suppose to bring our first real taste of winter.  There was a Texas Low coming up from the south full of moisture followed by an Arctic Low bringing the cold temperatures needed to make snow.  Yesterday with the bulk of the precipitation the Arctic Low hadn't quite made its way to our area and now that it is here most of the moisture is to the east of us where they are expecting significant snow falls.  We will likely see an inch of snow when it's all done but this morning things got pretty messy when the wet roads from all the rain froze.

Here are a couple of pictures from my balcony of the first snow of the winter, it really doesn't look all that spcetacular because it's not the big fluffy kind that sticks to trees and creates those beautiful post card images.  These are the very fine flakes that don't really stick to much.

Hope everyone is keeping warm and safe today.  Have a great weekend and hope you find some time for your quilting projects.

2012 New Years Goals

I hope everyone has had a pleasant New Years Day.  I went out with friends last night to a lovely French restaurant to ring in the New Year.  It was a great time catching up with good friends and a most enjoyable meal.  Today has been a quiet laid back kind of day.

I've done my review of projects that I would like to get done this year, and here is the list. As always it will be interesting to see what gets completed, what doesn't and what new projects come along.

I also listed my UFOs that have no commitments at this time for completion and this list I only added one new project from 2011 so that's not too bad. I think as quilters it seems that everyone has the never ending supply of UFOs.

Jan: Finish quilting the 2 wall hangings from Gloria Loughman’s workshops
Jan: Develop my design for the reverse applique quilt "Sea Turtles"
Feb: Create the "Sea Turtles" quilt top
Mar: Finish the quilt top "In full Bloom - Poppy" from Elaine Quehl's workshop
Apr: Design and create the quilt top for the shoe wall hanging called "Stiletto Heels"
May: I'm signed up for Hollis Chatelain's workshop "Quilt Line as the Third Design Element" and need to bring in 3 quilt tops for discusion and quilt design creation. My plan is to take the "Sea Turtles", "In Full Bloom - Poppy" and "Stiletto Heels" quilt tops.
Jun: Finish quilting "In full Bloom - Poppy" so it is ready to give to my mom for her 90th birthday in August
Jul: Attend Ricky Tim's Super Quilt seminar being held in Rochester NY. I enjoyed this so much when I went to Cape Cod back in 2010, that when I saw it being held so close to home, I figured it would be worth while to attend a second time and hopefully several of the gals from my small quilt group will also come.
Jul - Aug: Finish quilting "Sea Turtles"
Sep: Finish quilting "Stiletto Heels"
Oct: Finish Falling Splendor quilt
Christmas charity quilt: Using blocks from the Friday Block Party 2009

Any time:
1: One block wonder quilt ( I already have the fabric and am curious as to how this will turn out)
2: Start my own unique design of a Rhapsody quilt based on Ricky Tims techniques – the plan here is to have a completed design ready to start a quilt the following year, this in my books is a major project
3: Create a landscape quilt based on the Picture Piecing techniques of Cynthia England

UFOs that are outstanding: I wonder if any of these will come off the plate this year
Hawaiian orchid pillow – hand quilting
Kaffe Fassett – colour in design diamond quilt
BOM: Drunkard’s Path Variations
Tranquil Moments quilt – quilting left to do
Small Wall Hanging (that was to go into a silent auction) – quilting done, need to finish beading and sew binding

So there's my list for 2012. It will be interesting to see what new things will come in to tempt me and change priorities along the way.

Happy New Year everyone.

2011 New Years Goals - Final Review

Another year is coming to an end. So it's time to take a look at what I had set out as my goals for this year, what was I able to accomplish, what didn't happen and what else came along. First is a list of my original goals and what happened with each one.

Feb: Tammy's Secret Garden – this is a 50th birthday present for a dear friend of mine that I have known for many years – completed
Feb: Signed up for the "In Full Bloom" workshop with Elaine Quehl which is a flower wall hanging and I will be doing a poppy – poppy completed, still need to finish background and then the quilting
Feb: Also signed up for a second workshop called "Surface Design Techniques" with Elaine Quehl – completed (note: this was just a workshop exploring techniques with no actual project to complete)
Mar: Finish Falling Splendor quilt – never started
Spring: Create a Kaleidoscope quilt based on Ricky Tims techniques from his quilt seminar that I attended last fall  – cancelled this project
Spring - Summer: Create a landscape quilt based on the Picture Piecing techniques of Cynthia England – never started
Jul: Another birthday quilt present for a friend – completed
Aug: Create a small quilt for the silent auction for the York Heritage Quilt Guild 2011 Show in Nov – started but never completed
Sep - Oct: Create a quilt to enter into the York Heritage Quilt Guild 2011 Show in Nov: this became the Wild Mustang quilt – completed
Christmas charity quilt: Using blocks from the Friday Block Party 2009 – never started

Any time:
One block wonder quilt ( I already have the fabric and am curious as to how this will turn out) – never started
Start my own unique design of a Rhapsody quilt based on Ricky Tims techniques – the plan here is to have a completed design ready to start a quilt the following year, this in my books is a major project – never started

UFOs that are outstanding:  – all are still outstanding but I have the 2 wall hangings from Gloria's workshop sandwiched and ready for quilting
Hawaiian orchid pillow – hand quilting
2 wall hangings from Gloria Loughman’s workshop – colour is magic and layer by layer
Kaffe Fassett – colour in design diamond quilt
BOM: Drunkard’s Path Variations
Tranquil Moments quilt – quilting left to do
So from this list I completed 3 projects, 4 are partially finished, 1 I decided not to go forward with, and the rest will be moved to next year to be done or become UFOs but hopefully sometime in the future will get done.

In addition the following new projects happened in 2011:
Nov: Quilted 2 oriental wall hangings for a friend – completed
Dec: Quilted an additional 2 oriental wall hangings for a friend – completed

So in addition to the 3 completed projects from the original list I did another 4 partial projects (quilting only) in 2011. I have to admit that this hasn't been as successful a year for my quilting as previous years but I have had some medical issues that I have been dealing with. One of which has been severe iron deficiency anemia which left me very fatigued and at times I barely had enough energy to get through the basics of a given day. I have had this condition for almost 3 years, have been through the gamut of tests and basically no one was able to find a definitive cause for it.  I was finally switched from iron supplements which actually stopped working this spring and spent 3 months going for weekly iron infusion treatments at the local hospital.  I have to say that my system has responded well to the treatments and it looks like at this time I just need to go about every 3 months for a top up treatment to keep my levels in the normal range.

So next I'm going to review what my goals are going to be for 2012 and then will post them hopefully on New Year's Day.

I wish everyone a very happy, healthy and prosperous New Year,
Vicki

UFOs

Well there's not much time till the end of the year and I knew that if I started a new project that there was no chance of it getting done before 2012. So I looked through my list of UFOs from my post at the beginning of the year titled "2011 New Years Goals". There I also listed what UFOs I had at the beginning of the year.  I noticed that I had 2 wall hangings from a class that I took from Gloria Loughman back in Dec 2008.  I think it is about time I got these finished.

I got the one sewn together since it was still in pieces, and then the borders attached to both of the wall hangings.

I now have to cut fabric for the backings, cut batting and make the quilt sandwiches.  That should get done in the next day or so.  I likely won't get the quilting done until sometime between Christmas and New Years eve, but the plan is to get these two finished before New Year's Day.

Helping Out A Friend - Kimono Wall Hangings part 2

Well it's been awhile since I have posted. It's been that time of year getting things ready for the holidays along with the usual colds that happen and slow things down at times.  The only quilting that I have done was to finish the remaining 2 kimono wall hangings for my friend.  Here are pictures of the last 2.

We had our Christmas dinner and get together with friends yesterday and had a lovely time.  The friend who I was helping out on these kimono wall hangings was finally able to give her gifts to our friends and they loved them.  I did get credit for the quilting and they loved the details that I included like the koi fish and the Japanese maples.

So what else have I been doing, Christmas baking.  So what did I make I make this year? A cherry streusel bar.

Ginger spice cookies and chocolate orange macaroons.

Maple pecan squares.

Nanaimo bars.

So what is your favorite Christmas treat?

Wild Mustang - Part 12 Final Touches

I ended up doing one more thing to the Wild Mustang quilt.  Several weeks ago I came across a web site called Sedona Flame where they sell both jewellery and beads in the southwest style. 
http://www.sedonaflame.com/fetish.htm The beads looked great and I thought they would add another dimension to the Wild Mustang quilt.  The perfect place for them was in the small brown inner border and I wanted to stick with stones in the brown tones. I initially looked at the horses but there wasn't enough quantity in the various brown toned stones.  I checked the Zuni bears and there I was able to get the quantity that I needed and the price was actually better than what it would have cost me for the horses.  I ended up getting 10 each of the tiger eye, oyster opal agate, picture jasper and leopardskin jasper beads. I was hoping to get the silverleaf but it wasn't available. 

The stones arrived last week and they were perfect in terms of colour, size and shape. I just finished sewing the last of the beads onto the quilt today and it is ready to be delivered tomorrow to the guild to get ready for the show which starts on Friday.  Here's the overall picture of the quilt with the beads on it.  Basically the beads just circle around the quilt going from left to right, following the same direction as the quilted horses heads in the border.

Here is a close up of the beads.

So for those of you who live in the Toronto area or are visiting this weekend don't forget to come out and see the show.  For details you can check the show's web site at:
http://www.yhqg.org/Celebration/quiltshow2011/celebrationXI.html

Bloggers Quilt Festival - Fall 2011

Amy's Creative Side is sponsoring the Fall 2011 Bloggers Quilt Festival.  You can check out some wonderful quilts, enter your quilt in the show as well as sign up for some wonderful giveaways at: http://amyscreativeside.com/2011/10/28/bloggers-quilt-festival-fall-2011/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+amyscreativeside+%28Amy%27s+Creative+Side%29

A special quilt that I made was back in 2009 and it was called Dragon Odyssey.

I made it for a close friend of mine. She had asked for a quilt with dragons but most of the fabric with dragons on it was geared more to kids. I eventually saw a wall hanging that used a batik dragon panel and I thought that this was a much better idea.  I was able to source a batik dragon and made this quilt for my friend's birthday. Her favourite colours are purple and turquoise so those were the main colours that I used for this quilt.  She loved the quilt and to this day it hangs in her living room.